| Chizpurfle
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SPOILER!!: ”Derf, Stasya and the flitterbys” Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie 
Although...Derf's quill did still when he read over flitterby moths in the ingredient list and his hand went straaaaaaight up. "LIVE flitterby moths?" he asked, scanning down his potions textbook and...yeah. Derf knew all about the food chain and was not SO dramatic that he would flip a flamingo over crushing up moths for a potion, not anymore at least, buuuut...there were always questions regarding the humane means and treatment of their potions ingredients and such...along with a struggle - which either result in him not brewing the potion at all or asking someone else to do the deed for him - of killing any living thing for the sake of a potion. Quote:
Originally Posted by SilverTiger
Just in time for the lesson to start, apparently, and her grey-green eyes had gone back to the front in time to be able to totally tell that the professor intended on keeping an eye on her. At least she wasn’t verbally complaining. She wasn’t causing a scene, and she was waiting until she found out if she actually had a reason to refuse to brew the potion. Not that there were too many potions that she didn’t feel obligated to refuse to brew, even if there had been instances she was able to rationalize that she wasn’t actually hurting anyone in the brewing.
In any case, she started by making sure to copy down the information given about the potion they were going to be working on. The pumpkins definitely made sense now, and she hadn’t actually thought about the moths until she heard Derf ask about them. Were they having to kill live moths for the potion? She’d turned wide eyes, maybe even panicked ones, in the Hufflepuff prefect’s direction, but then the professor hadn’t even bothered to respond. She felt like that was kind of rude.
Ah, there’d been a question, hadn’t there? Noble ran his gaze over the room, trying to trigger his memory as to who it’d been. Ah, yes! Derfael. Who’d apparently looked ahead on the ingredient list and was asking about flitterby moths.
“No, Derfael. Dried moths.” Whole ones, but definitely not live ones. What chaos that would be. His gaze moved over to Stasya briefly, before back to the Hufflepuff Prefect. “They should be in your standard potion kit.”
ooc: I’m sorry, somehow I missed this yesterday -__- Forgive me?
“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” Noble answered as Bel responded to Maxton’s question. “Transfiguration is bloody hard. Especially when brains are involved.” Lots of important synapse connections that it’s really not a good idea to mess up. “And yes, it requires you’re there in the room. A potion, however…well, you can put that in someone’s drink anytime you like...” As long as it was within the period of the potion’s stability, but that wasn’t a particular worry here. The pompion potion had a decent shelf life.
...oh, had he forgot to mention that if he deemed that they'd brewed the potion properly, they'd be able to take some away?
SPOILER!!: ”Water questions” Quote:
Originally Posted by debpetrisor Daehyun was beyond flustered when he'd heard Diffindo here and there, wondering if he'd been the only one in the room who couldn't cast it himself, but then someone to his side had helped him, and his eyes widened in wonder as if he'd just witnessed a miracle. "Will do," he promised to practice the spell, wondering if he could find a dummy to try it on later. "Thank you!"
Having watched the girl closely, he pointed his wand towards the little bit that she'd left uncut, and uttered a light "Diffindo," as if saying it louder would make the pumpkin explode.
... he needed to relax and breathe more often.
Holding his breath in anticipation, he moved his wand along the line the girl had traced to close off the circle - not as nice and even as she had, but he was beaming by the time he'd finished it off. He proceeded to take the lid off, and that was when he remembered the professor's words. Given the time of year... was he using them to have pumpkins ready to be carved at the end of the lesson? Psh.
Picking up a tablespoon, he started scooping out the icky insides of the pumpkin, and set to diligently sort out each seed, sighing lightly when the pumpkin he'd chosen seemed to have particularly many. Once done with that task, he walked up to the professor's desk to grab a splint, not trusting himself to cast Incendio just yet, making a mental note to practice the basic charms more.
Satisfied with the heat level, he was ready to measure two cups of seedless pulp, when suddenly he frowned at his cauldron, before his hand hesitantly went up once again, wondering if he'd soon get on the professor's nerves with his silly questions. "Do we add just the pulp to heat up?" ... no water to boil it in? Nothing else?
A question about the water. The water which he hadn't told anyone to add, but apparently at least half the class had because they were following the recipe, and not him. He didn’t know to be reassured that they’d read the recipe carefully, or peeved that they’d decided to skip ahead.
Apparently they hadn't noticed the contents of Jessa’s cauldron by vanished. Alas.
He supposed he could vanish everyone's that had decided to not listen carefully, but unfortunately that would mean over-running into morning break. HIS morning break. So, instead, with a grumble and a grunt, he raised his voice.
“If you haven’t already added the water, you should do that now.”
SPOILER!!: Ronan Quote:
Originally Posted by lazykitty Man up? Man up? Over something that could be lethal to him? Also, the stick banging really wasn't necessary, it wasn't that loud in here. Honestly, was Hogwarts' reputation so tarnished that this guy was the only one they could get as potions professor? And why would someone who so clearly hated children want to teach a school full them? Why so serious about a potion that was basically pointless anyway?
So many questions were swirling around in the Gryffindor's head. But, to the most pressing point of the moment. "I will 'man up,'" air quotes included "once you stop being très awful." Ronan's butt remained planted in his seat.
The Gryffindoring was starting already. Goody. Was anyone keeping record of how quickly he could lose points in a lesson? Because there might be a new number one.
If the boy didn’t want to get up and put any protective equipment on, then…well, it wasn’t exactly his fault as Professor, was it? Especially with the amount of pumpkin goop that was getting flicked around.
“I accept English and Latin responses in my class only,” Noble replied. This was Hogwarts, not Beauxbatons…no need to be sarcastic in French at him. “And 5 points from Gryffindor for your cheek.”
Now hopefully he’d get on with the lesson and maybe, just maybe, shut up.
SPOILER!!: Ace Quote:
Originally Posted by Steelsheen Would he like to share it? Sure he would, Ace is a sharing-is-caring kind of guy after all. But should he share said joke is another matter altogether, and if getting older has taught him anything, is to learn how to reel in the Gryffindoring for the sake of the non-Gryffindors. You know like right now.
He did try to wipe that smirk off his face though, and for a brief moment Ace sorta did "Perhaps another time Professor--" oops a snerk almost escaped there "-- Noble." Bites lips, puts on a face of all scowly seriousness. All three seconds of it.
Noble’s eyes narrowed at the Tenacius, a snarl on his lips. The Head Boy. The one who was meant to set a good example. No, the best of examples. “If your lip as much as twitches upwards again this lesson, Mister Head Boy, I will see to it that you’ll share the joke with me in detention. Understood?”
SPOILER!!: ”Derf and Amanda” Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie Uh oh...Derf's eyes instantly flew to Abey trrrrrrrrrrrying to make eye contact with him about his first EVER point loss. He figured his best mate would spiral, think the world was coming to an end, but he had only lost three and that was an easily made up deficit. Derf himself had lost 30 in his second year....and it was totally worth it. The Hufflepuff, even knowing the outcome, would act the exact same way all over again. Maybe...he could scribble Abey a note and toss it to him?
Derf was already ripping a piece off his notes to do just that when Zoryn got all excited about his casual comment. "Well...you do have okay reflexes...and kinda instincts," he chuckled, working on a doodle to toss to Abey as his station partner got to cutting her pumpkin - his own lid was sitting beside his notes on the table presently.
Okay...but...so...um....sooooooo...was that a yes or a no to the LIVE flitterby moths? Though it seemed the professor was a little too preoccupied in vanishing Jessa's potion - which left the Hufflepuff with his jaw haaaaaanging open and a eyes wide wondering just which way his best friend could react. Storming out with a bit of Ravenclaw flair among the possible outcomes. And then Maxton's question caught his attention...for Transfiguration reasons. Derf did not even want to think what sort of terrible results trying that spell out with his fwooper core wand could possible produce.
Each more gruesome than the next.
No, the fourth year was quite grateful this was brewing. He was at least semi decent at it. Managed polyjuice last term - with some help from dad, at least.
But Bel had covered his thoughts almost to a T so he found himself grinning at his friend before resuming his work.
Derf was almost done with his sphinx sketch when all of a sudden there were pumpkin innards being shoved into his face. "WOAH!" he gasped, giving a bit of a jump and rocking back on his stool while neeearly toppling over. But he didn't. Thankfully. "Oi, Zoryn. I can't see my work." Which had absolutely nothing to do with his potion brewing at the moment and everything to do with his doodle and personal rendition of the riddle of the sphinx. Still, he picked up his own metal spoon and used it to playfully duel his friend's pumpkin covered one away.
Rather than use the spoon to start, Derf dug his free hand into the pumpkin and pulled out fist full upon fist full of the pumpkin guts. And, for a bit of playful revenge, he wiggled one of those fist fulls in front of Zoryn's face. "Yummy yuuuuuuuuuummy," he cackled in a haunted house ghost sort of voice. It was during these antics that his bright blues fell upon Amanda with her hand in the air. Did she need help with the Severing Charm? Because he could TOTALLY do that since he had basically emptied his own pumpkin now.
"Finish scooping out my pumpkin for me? I'll owe you...whatever you want for it," he said a bit hurriedly as he set his spoon across the open top of his pumpkin. Giving Zoryn a quick BE RIGHT BACK sort of look, the fourth year hopped off his stool and walked over to where Amanda was working with Emmalyn and was juuuuuust about to offer himself to help with Incendio (which he was decent with) but Daisy beat him to it. So he offered her an appreciative grin and shifted his attention back to Amanda when she mentioned something about...er...well he had no idea what that was (muggle medicine?) but he DID see her discomfort. "You alright?" he asked, concern knitted into his brow as he rested a hand on her shoulder. "Reckon we ought to go wash your hands real good......come on," he added with a soft smile, nodding his way over towards the sink.
That dealt with, for now at least, Noble turned his attention to the rest of the classroom. Only to hear about another student, Amanda, with an possible allergy. Seriously? Since when had pumpkin, pumpkin, been so prevalent as an allergen? Gah. Noble rubbed his temples, and in the meantime Derfael went to help. Noble nodded to the Hufflepuff Prefect.
SPOILER!!: Mara Quote:
Originally Posted by Flipper The girl nodded slightly listening to Professor Noble. She took an immediate dislike to him. It wasn't necessarily how he had addressed her... but the expression "miserably lot" certainly did not help her feelings of displacement, aggravated by the fact that the teacher kept looking over to the girl sitting next to her. She observed the girl with a look of amazement. What did she do...? She wondered, curiously.
She let out a loud relieved sigh upon reading the instructions. She knew diffindo, of course, Leonor used it all the time on her sewing endeavors. She had never seen anyone use it on a fruit, though... Without a second thought, and a terrible fear of failure, she wrote down the instructions on a small piece of parchment, as she didn't trust herself to memorize the recipe. Afterwards, hurriedly, Mara pointed her wand at the pumpkin and spoke clearly "Diffindo!"
Happy with the result, Mara scooped out the inside of the pumpkin and pulled out the seeds, which she placed on the cauldron. She repeated the process until she had the necessary amount of seeds.
She looked around at her classmates to see how everybody was doing. She was worried she would fall behind... The girl grabbed a cup of water and added it to the seeds, into the cauldron. Now she would only have to heat it up...
Was she...? Noble watched the Hufflepuff for a few moments longer. Yes…she was. She was putting the seeds in the cauldron, and the pumpkin innards that were meant to be in there were still decidedly in the pumpkin. Apparently she’d decided things elsewhere in the classroom were more important than his demonstration.
“Start again, Mara,” he said, vanishing the seeds from her cauldron. Hopefully she’d have enough left in the pumpkin for the final step of the recipe. “Pumpkin pulp and water only in the cauldron so far.”
SPOILER!!: ”All those keeping on keeping on” Quote:
Originally Posted by Watson Stern. That's what Professor Noble was and Vi was almost ninety five percent sure that Ace's reaction to the Professor was def not going to go over well. Merlin be kind..... Vi watched as her boyfriend struggle to keep the case of the giggles in. And then the Professor asked him to share the joke. Oh Merlin here we go... she thought. Though she knew Ace would reel it in. He'd be collected. Well somewhat collected. Later on, she'd have to ask him about what exactly was so funny. She leaned over a little and gave his arm a nudge with an elbow to try to grab his attention as Professor Noble began the class.
Alright.
Nevermind. Class time.
Eyeing the pumpkin, Vi remained quiet and simply listened to what they would have to do. Once the first few steps had been given, she jotted down the steps and then turned to her work station. Okay first she was going to ignite the burner so that it could get to an acceptable level of heat. Incendio, she thought with her wand by her side, and she watched the burner ignite. Perfect.
Now what was next? Ah the actual steps.
With her wand, she cast a non-verbal Diffindo at the top of the pumpkin just enough to give her a good area to scoop out the innards. Casting a quick cleaning spell on the metal spoon, Vi examined it once more to make sure that it was truly clean before picking it up to use it. Alright. She proceeded to scoop out the innards, carefully pulling out the seeds and separating innards and seeds on the wooden cutting board. After checking that they were separated properly, she scooped up the innards (without the seeds) and placed them into the cauldron. Picking up a one cup measurement, she cast Augmenti, and then placed the cauldron on the heat. Quote:
Originally Posted by Poolicious Huh? She already got her pumpkin. Didn't the Professor see her carrying it? It's very hard to miss. "Already got it, Sir." She pointed to her not-that-small-pumpkin.
The fifth year put the pumpkin on her table. There, Professor.
@_______@
She could feel her head about to explode after taking all that information.
Miserable lot? Did the Professor just.....??? Yup, he did. But hey considering the circumstances she's in, she's definitely miserable. Back to the potion, she didn't want to stay over during her morning break making potion with the-ever-cheerful Professor Noble.
You can do this!
Alyce quickly ties her hair into a ponytail, she didn't want her hair get in her way. The fifth year made sure to write the instruction Professor Noble gave them, before she move on to cut open the pumpkin. She made tons of Jack-o-lantern so this going to be a piece of cake, right? She just need to focus. She took out her wand and..."Diffindo!" She slowly began to trace around the top of the pumpkin. It looked perfect. Well, there's some jagged edges but nobody perfect, right? Hopefully this will do.
She picked up her metal spoon and scooped out the innards. Eeewwwww....!! Eeeeewwww...!!! Next she need to pull the seed out, unfortunately for her she picked the wrong pumpkin. Her pumpkin has many seed. Too many. With a sigh, Alyce started to pull of the seed one by one until there's no more seed. She checked one more time for seeds before she move on to the next step. Once she's sure there's no more seeds left, Alyce put two densely packed cups of pumpkin guts into her cauldron with a cup of water. She lighted her burner with Incendio and set it to medium heat. Quote:
Originally Posted by Dokimoto
Finally. After double checking, triple checking, and a hard glare into the pumpkin, Kye was convinced that she had done all that she could do. It was as empty as she could make it, and there were definitely no seeds left behind. Time to pack the pumpkin stuffing into her measuring cup which waaas there. Phew. She definitely didn't have the eye to guesstimate a cup. The image of pumpkin pieces flying everywhere entered her mind. She didn't mind the smell, but it was very clear that others did. Of all the smells to come out of Hogwarts... and in Potions no less... Did they not like pumpkin juice either?? There was way worse, children...
After dumping both cups into the cauldron, Kye took a moment to go to the sink and wash off her hands. A, because she didn't need to have slimy souvenirs in her bag, and B, because she needed a cup of water anyway.
She checked her notes, marking what she had done and used so far. Assuring herself that everything was going smoothly, Kye took her wand to get the burner going.
"Incendio," she said. She adjusted the flame to a nice medium-y level and went back to her pumpkin guts now sitting together with the water. They weren't mixing... Were they supposed to? Hmm...
She consulted her notes, but saw nothing about what it should look like at this point. Frustrating. She supposed by now she shouldn't need a play by play but it would be nice!
Assuring herself that everything was correct up to this point, Kye set her cauldron over the heat and sat back in her seat. Well, now she just had to wait a minute for the next instructions. She looked around, seeing if any of the younger kids needed help with anything/how everyone else was coming along.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bazinga Soon it wasn't just Juni and Zita at the workstation and she gave Slate a finger wiggle and Juni got an eyebrow wiggle. There was something going on with these two even if they weren't admitting it and Zita was in the know with gossip so she would keep an eye on them, yes bestie she would. Slate would be on the no snogging list too, which was a shame because his lips looked totally snogable.
Anyway, speaking of lips her eyes went to where a certain Hufflepuff was sitting and she didn't mean to stare but she was staring. Not cool for the image at all Zita, come on! As she watched him go retrieve his pumpkin she couldn't help but smile more when Gryffindor got points taken away. Maybe Abey was staring at Derf too and wasn't paying attention, which Zita felt was totes reasonable because look at Derf who couldn't do that?
As the professor started talking she couldn't help but put a scrunch in her face and she did not like to scrunch it caused wrinkles, but he was not being very nice and so he deserved the scrunched look. Pulling out her wand she cleaned her cauldron and started the heat with a quick incendio. Now that was done she moved her pumpkin in front of her and pointed her wand, "Diffindo" cutting a circle around the top and setting down the stem the blonde looking into the pumpkin. She didn't mind touching the innards of a pumpkin and thought it was great fun.
Scooping with a metal spoon Zita put all the guts into a bowl she had pulled from her bag and separated the seeds to leave to one side. With the seeds gone she placed the two cups of pulp into the cauldron. "Wouldn't it be fun if we got to make jack o lanterns out of the rest of it if we don't have to cut it all up?" It was the season to decorate for Halloween and it was one of Zita's favorite holidays. Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan Jace continued his preparation, only to be distracted by the exchange of words between their professor and some of his classmates. At some point, he inwardly cringed at the conversation wondering where the hostility is coming from. Sass for sass. And what about them being a miserable lot? Surely, his words are enough to start a rebellion. The annoying clack-clack sound of the wooden stick against the board was enough for Jace to sit ramrod straight, sparing a glance at Jessa. The Ravenclaw prefect did speak out her mind, but the silence that followed after made her suspicious. That silence was dangerous. A brilliant mind mixed with silent fury was a very dangerous combination. He would know. A Ravenclaw would know.
Jace clenched his jaw tight, and proceeded carefully by jotting down notes in Japanese; a strange habit of his, while his eyes watched the professor demonstrate the first steps. It was easy enough to follow, considering it as a First Year level potion, however, his mind began to sift through the pros and cons of learning this particular potion. What was it used for aside from a prank? How could it benefit him in the future? Was it possible to manipulate its chemical composition and give him a more desirable result? Ideas...he got them, and those too were written down in his native language.
Once they were given the go signal, the seventh year began with his potion. After making sure that all of his tools are clean and ready to use, he went on to clean his pumpkin with a non-verbal spell, tilted the fruit towards him and carved a hole around the stem. “Diffindo.” A few twist and turn of the stem, he then pulled the top out, and scooped the innards of the fruit with a metal spoon, putting the contents on a clean tray. With that step done, Jace donned his dragon-hide gloves and lightly mashed the strands with his hands to better extract the seeds, pulling them one by one and placed them in a clear beaker.
Procuring a clean standard-sized cup, Jace began to pack it—making sure there were no air pockets inside, and dumped two servings into the bottom of his cauldron and added a cup of water after so as not to make a messy splash. Lighting his burner with a spell, “Incendio,” Jace turned the knob, setting the heat to medium. Quote:
Originally Posted by ChanceCoeur Paying attention in class was something that was hard for Farah to do. She was forever wanting to get up and move, try something different, and do all the things. The only time she paid attention was if she really was interested in the topic, or ... if Jessa was teaching her something new. She'd gone to a library and interviewed her dad regarding HARD questions this summer because of a project she was interested in with Jessa. Her concentration abilities were limited though.
But Professor Potions aka Professor Noble (the name didn't seem to fit him very well in Farah's opinion) was.. strict. Three points from a student already? And did you seeeee what he did to Jessa?? Did he not realize the brilliance of Jessa's brain and that she didn't run on the same line as everyone else? She was ahead of her time. Brilliant that one. Farah wrinkled her nose, watching the interaction between the professor and Jessa. She wasn't going to say anything though. She tried catching Cam's eye and give a little wave of hello since class had now started.
Luckily, Jun-bug and Zita weren't too far away from her in class. She could ask them any questions if need be...which might be the case.
First things first... Notes.
Farah jotted down the notes while watching Professor Potions. It was good to lead by example at least. She'd give him points for that. Diffindo was a spell that Farah had been doing since her second year. So she pulled her wand out and cast the spell easily, taking the top off the pumpkin.
There was no way she was going to start taking the insides of this pumpkin out without her hair up. It was her pride and joy besides her eyebrows (the windows to her soul). Pulling it up in a messy, curly bun, Farah made sure her rings were off before grabbing a spoon and digging in. Squishy. She didn't even realize she had started humming as she worked to get the ick and seeds out of the pumpkin. Catchy little hum too. Getting the seeds and insides out took some time and halfway through, she didn't even realize she had somehow gotten seeds and slime in her hair.
Once her pumpkin was mostly free from the seeds and insides, Farah separated the seeds from... whatever that stuff was. She put the seeds in a beaker before looking at her notes again.
Okay.
Grabbing her measuring cup, Farah took the insides of the pumpkin and pushed the ick into the cup and put it into the cauldron. She measured out another cup before emptying that into the cauldron as well. Now for a cup of water. She pulled her wand out casting Aguamenti to fill her cup up and then put it in the cauldron too, all the while still humming.
Once that was done, she grabbed her wand again and set it towards the burner, turning the knob and casting incendio to start the fire. Then she turned the knob down until it was on medium heat.
DONE!
Farah raised both her hands in the air triumphantly..... which caused some of the strings of .. whatever to fall across her face and into her hair. Her triumphant smile turned to ick quickly as she pulled it off and went to wash her hands. Seeds and slime in her precious hair. And.... WERE HER EYEBROWS OKAY?? Quote:
Originally Posted by Kolyander Rylee smiled at her fellow Gryffindor as the girl joined her at her workstation. "Hey, Amara!" Early? Was she? The ginger glanced around to see if she really was. "I'm not that early," she laughed shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know yet. Maybe?" Potions wasn't easy. It was so easy to mess up badly, quickly.
There wasn't time to say much else as the lesson was starting. First and second years were told to get a copper cauldron. That would be her. The list had said pewter therefore that's what she had. Slipping from her seat she made her way to the cupboard to collect herself one along with all the other younger students. Grabbing the first one she spotted, Ry made her way back to her workstation moving her cauldron from the tripod and setting the copper one on it.
HOLY CANARIES that was a lot of info!
Blinking several times, Rylee snapped herself to attention and quickly grabbed her quill dipping it into the purple ink. Right away she got to taking down her notes glancing back and forth between her parchment and Professor Noble as he not only explained what all needed to be done but showed them.
Removing the top of her pumpkin was step one. This meant using a spell! With a little wiggle Rylee moved to sit up on her knees to make herself taller thereby making it easier to see what she was doing. She pulled out her wand and aimed it at the top of her wand. "Diffindo!" she cast moving her wand in a circular motion around the top of the pumpkin. Nothing. Well okay than. Clearing her throat she tried again. "Diffindo!," she spoke clearly directing her wand in a circle around the top of the pumpkin. There was a small giggle of excitement when she realized it had worked, reaching out and pulling the lid from the pumpkin and setting it aside, returning her wand to it's holster.
Grabbing the metal spoon she began to scoop out the innards from her pumpkin. Scoop. Scoop. Pulp. Scoop. Carving pumpkins was something she did every year at home so the smell and mess didn't at all bother her. Nor did the fact that she was getting pumpkin guts on her sleeves. Oops. A mess was inevitable anyhow. Small fingers moved through the pumpkin guts pulling out the seeds and setting them aside. It was a stringy mess that clung to her fingers but she didn't care. Shifting through it all more than once to make sure she had gotten all the seeds out. She may have played with the goo for just a bit longer than necessary but it wasn't her fault, it was so squishy!
Onto the next steps. Reaching for her cup she began to pack the innards into it...densely? Um... Okay. Into the cauldron one cup went and than she repeated the packing process once more adding that into the cauldron as well. There. After cleaning her hands and her cup she added a cupful of water into her cauldron. Now to light the burner. Uh...
Rylee glanced around and rather than raise her hand and ask for help decided to do this herself. It wasn't hard. Rising from her seat she made her way to the front. Carefully she used the professors burner to light a splint. With the lite splint in hand she very slowly walked back to her seat giving out a gentle warning anytime anyone came close to her. Reaching her workstation she carefully lite her burner with the help of the already burning splint, which she promptly put out once her own was lit. Setting it to medium heat she slid back into her seat.
There. Done. For now at least. With any luck she hadn't messed this up. Quote:
Originally Posted by RandomRaven Talking about pumpkin, sometimes she didn't understand about why British people (especially the wizards and witches) were so obsessed with it. Sure it was good but it seemed like they overused pumpkin in every snacks and stuffs, just like how Southeast Asian people got crazy about durian. But at least pumpkin was not as gross and smelly as that stinky fruit so she was fine here.
Making a potion to turn someone's head into a pumpkin? Well, this was funny. Although Diandra knew there was a spell for that but perhaps this one was made for prank purpose. The badger wrote the steps and ingredients before going to work it the potions. Cooper cauldron, check. All the ingredients, check. Hair was tied in a ponytail, check. Okay, now she's ready to work. Using her wand, she carefully cast the severing charm around the stalk to open up the pumpkin. Oh, maybe after this class they're going to use the pumpkin for Halloween decorations. This probably sounded weird but Diandra had never celebrated Halloween because it wasn't really a huge thing back in Japan and her hometown.
Once it's done, the badger picked a spoon and cleaned it before using it to scoop out the innards. She also pulled out the seeds and putting them aside. They probably would use them later, she didn't know. She then used the clean cup to measure her pumpkin innards, Okay, two cups of pumpkin were ready and now it's time to.... Hold on, the cauldron itself needed to be cleaned first. "Scourgify." Diandra cast the scouring charm first then added the pumpkin and water next. She remembered how her potion master in Mahoutokoro always reminded her to clean the cauldron before brewing the potions. Moving on to the next step, she lit the fire and set it onto medium heat.
Cool, so far she had followed the first steps and hopefully everything went alright. Diandra just hated if she missed a step or something.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Optimist.Prime Picking up the de-seeded pumpkin innards do not puke Melbourne, do not puke the thought rolled through her mind slowly but surely. It wasn’t something she could help, the texture that texture had always made her skin crawl. The stringy sticky and all together oozy mess had never been something she was the least bit fond of…heck, there was a time she had retched into her pumpkin while carving it as a kid and then somehow managed to set her hair on fire that same day.
Those scents together, those were horrid.
It was like someone had created a repellent for all things, all things.
Carefully she put the innards into her pumpkin and proceeded to clean her hands on one of her towels…damn there was innard still on it. Flicking her hand she managed to lop the tiny speck of innard across the room…the little fleck of orange fiber was almost impossible to see but when it appeared on someone’s robes…well, that was when she noticed it.
Nope. She was just going to don her innocent as pie face and pretend she didn’t just do that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by siriusblackliveson
Patrick listened to Professor Nobel, he was very intense, and very intimidating. How in the world was he supposed to get better at Potions if he was scared out of his shorts every time he came in the classroom. He took the notes of the steps that they would have for the first part of class. He had seen many of the other students use diffindo to cut the pumpkin. He would have preferred to just use a knife like when he was carving pumpkins back home with his friends. His parents weren't for using much magic at home.
He gathered the pumpkin and brought it back to his station, quickly grabbing his wand and readying it before taking a deep breath. "Diffindo," he moved his wand in the circular motion that Professor Nobel had done and was surprised with his success. He took the top off and began to scoop the insides out with the metal spoon as instructed because he did not want to have the professor deducting house points for him.
Next, Patrick set the seeds off to the sides and then took the two cups of packed pumpkin innards and took his wand, "oh no, almost forgot the water." He quickly added a cup of water before stating, "Incendio" and letting the cauldron sit over medium heat. Patrick waited calmly for the next instructions hoping that he would not upset the professor. Quote:
Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin Now time to scoop out all of the pumpkin seeds. This was going to be a gooey task. Wait she needed some gloves. Zae went up to the front and got her supply of gloves and put them on. Then she saw she had a metal spoon. Hmm she would use it for the harder stuff. Once set, she reached into her large pumpkin and began to feel the pumpkin guts. She felt the tiny flimsy pumpkin seeds along with them. She gently began to pull them out. Man there were a lot of seeds attached to the pumpkin strings. She laid it out on her counter and began to pick apart some of the seeds and put it into her mortar cup because it was the only cup conveniently right next to her. If she had to change it, she did no big deal. After all she could collect with her hands, she reached for her metal spoon and scooped all the seeds she can.
After separating the seeds, she needed to light her cauldron. She took her gloves off and tossed it into the trash. She grabbed her new cauldron and placed it over the burner. It looked somewhat dirty so she shrugged and said, "Scourgify!" and the cauldron was sparkling clean. Now onto the fire spell, "Incendio!" she pointed her wand at the burner and it roared to life. She set it for medium heat with the dial and now to add the two scoops of pumpkin guts. She got her measuring cup and measured one cup and added the pumpkin guts into the cauldron. Then another cup and she filled the cup with water and waited for further instructions. Quote:
Originally Posted by Holmesian Feline Cass caught the look as she looked up ready. What? She wasn’t bothering him, even with a greeting, so why was he glaring at her? Oh well. Not her problem unless he made it that way. Her problem was getting through the lesson and getting everything right. Which wasn’t helped by a slamming of a wooden rod on a desk. Not that she had herself needed the call for attention so it was just a loud annoying noise to her not the surprise it appeared to be for some of her classmates.
Pompion Potion…got it.
The Ravenclaw labeled her fresh parchment with the name to start her notes. She didn’t know why someone would want to turn heads into pumpkins but there were some weird ideas for potions out there. The fifty minute brewing time was added to her paper before she exchanged quill for her wand, slicing through the top with a careful “Diffindo.” The hat of the pumpkin now separate, Cassie set it aside and went to work with scooping out all the insides. First with a nice clean spoon and then with her hands really getting in there and making sure everything was out and the seeds weren’t in the pulp. When she was finished, she scourgified her measuring tool and measured out two cups of the loose orange pumpkin.
Pack…pack…pack.
One.
Two.
In they went to the cauldron after she had scourgified it as well. When it was all inside, Cass set it on medium heat as instructed before adding the directions to her notes for later reference. Now was there anyone needing help as she was an older student available…The seventh year looking around for hands. Quote:
Originally Posted by ArianaBlack While Derf was trying to give Abey some sort of look, Zoryn was trying to flash the guy TWO THUMBS UP. ‘Cause honestly, that was iconic. Welcome to the point loser’s club, Abe! Zoryn had lost a grand total of 45 last term and honestly, she was slackin’ right now. It was the Gryffindor thing to do, y’know? Bless the world for Gryffindoring. Truly a fine art.
Anyways, where was she? Right, right. PUMPKIN GUTS.
Zoryn let out a loud GIGGLE at Derf’s dramatic reaction (((she knew he wouldn’t disappoint))). Though she wasn’t exactly sure why he needed his work when the potion stuff was all on the board. Man, Derf really did take his notes seriously (thankfully, ‘cause one of them had to and it wasn’t about to be Zoryn Spinnet). She held her metal spoon strong and valiantly against Derf’s attempts to deflect it with his own, though some guts did splatter over the countertop. This was about to be a real messy class. Professor Noble should’ve known. Did he really trust them with pumpkin guts? Rookie mistake.
“Eewwwwww grooOOOOooooss,” she crinkled her nose, turning her face away from the fistful of guts. Pumpkin smelled awful. Derf’s way of getting the guts out also looked like WAY more fun than the spoon method, but Zoryn didn’t wanna get her hands all messy yet, so she didn’t dare drop hers and switch. Before she could take another scoop full of pumpkin guts out for revenge, Derf’s had hopped out of his seat. “You owe me BIG time!” She gave her friend a playful look, but shooed him away as it looked like he was about to do something helpful and prefect-y.
In the meanwhile, however, she finished off scooping her own pumpkin guts slowly (but surely) and then pulled Derf’s pumpkin over to finish scooping out his. The grossest part of this whole process had to be sorting the pumpkin innards out. Disgusting, really. Again, Zoryn began sorting out her own… Pulling out the seeds one by one with her hands (which was a lot more time consuming than you’d think). Finally she was able to separate out all of the seeds in her own pumpkin gut pile, which meant she had some time to work on Derf’s too.
He definitely owed her big time. Quote:
Originally Posted by MysteriesOfFate June had been intently watching the professor as he demonstrated using Diffindo to cut open the pumpkin. She had never used the spell before but she most certainly was NOT going to ask someone she didn't know how to do it in front of EVERYONE! It wasn't about pride more than just sheer terror at asking someone.
Before proceeding, however, she marked down the instructions on her roll of parchment.
She picked up her wand and held it as the professor had, she stood on her tip-toes to get a good angle over her pumpkin, and making the same circular motion said "Diffindo!" And (thankfully) the pumpkin lid was cut open. June breathed a sigh of relief but she knew that she wouldn't always bee so lucky and she would EVENTUALLY have to talk to someone out loud of all things.
Before scooping out the pumpkin innards she had an idea and grabbed a roll of older tattered, but unused, parchment and laid it out on her desk. As she scooped out the seed with her tablespoon she laid our the pumpkin innards on the parchment and picked out the seeds one at a time and put them into a small side bowl. She secretly hoped the professor would let them take the seeds they didn't use today back with them. They were quite delicious with cinnamon and sugar, or she could dry them to use for planting next year (ah, the curse of an herbology geek).
June was relieved that she had at least used incendio before, so she lit under her cauldron with ease (or as much ease as an awkward 11-year-old could) and she put in the cup of water before she began to measure out her two cups of pumpkin guts.
June took a deep breath in through her nose, she loved the smell of fresh pumpkin. The earthy smell it gave before sugar or spices were added was just pure delight to her, where it might turn others off.
She scooped in her second packed cup on pumpkin guts and began to clean her workstation as she waited for the next instructions, rolling up the used parchment and placing it on the side.
Lots of students seemed to be progressing…he wasn’t sure he’d say well, persay, but at least not terribly. So that was…something. Yes. Nods and appreciative grunts happened.
Yes, grunts could be appreciative.
And the older students had really picked up the gauntlet when it came to helping. Let’s see…there was Daisy helping Emmalyn light her burner…Finn working with Hanna…Miranda had stepped in to help Josephine…Skylar was demonstrating to Jessi…Junia was getting Abraham back on track…and Harriet was fixing Dorian’s cauldron.
Hang on, what? No. That wasn’t right! Grumble grumble. “Thank you for helping, Harriet,” Noble said, from the front of the class. “But I’d suggest you use one from the cupboard for today, Dorian.” Cracks were weaknesses, and he had enough to get through without an exploding cauldron in the mix. “See me after class, and I’ll have a look at fixing it.”
He wasn’t unreasonable, okay?
And since they all seemed to be done with the pumpkin pulp, Ignatius clapped his hands together. “Okay then...whilst we’re waiting for the cauldron to get up to a simmer, we need to prepare our dried moths.” He held up a beaker of them so they could see what they looked like. “Put three in your mortar, and grind them to a fine powder.” He counted three out, before giving them a good (and loud) pounding with the pestle. “If you think you’re done, I recommend you go back and pound some more.” He meant a super fine powder.
“You can also start chopping your bouncing bulb. These are fresh and not part of your standard kit, so please fetch one from the front.” He gestured to the lidded crate on the desk. “A bouncing bulb does just as its name suggests...bounces. Please do not start to prepare it until you have stunned it!” He did NOT want to have to be sending people to the Healer. “So first, a Stupefy,” which he demonstrated, “and then we’re going to peel off that outer purple layer and chop it finely with a silver knife.” Again, he did this using a peeler from his potions kit, before placing the bulb on his chopping board. “Good chopping is all about technique. Curl your fingers under and into a claw like this, and use your knuckles as a guide for the side of the knife. Push down smoothly with the blade for a safe clean cut.”
He really hoped they were paying attention. Some of their cutting skills had been woefully poor in previous lessons. His cat could probably do it better, honestly.
"You need 100g of bouncing bulb. Weigh it out ready, but don't add it or the moths just yet."
ooc note: I'm loving all of your responses so far! <3 This is just a preparation step, no need to add anything to the cauldron. If you missed the last step, you're welcome to either a) proceed as if you were here and had completed it, or b) catch up. Please keep any catching up to a single post if possible so as not to confuse the general order of things.
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Last edited by hermygirl; 01-11-2018 at 03:08 AM.
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