Text Cut: Noble
Quote:
Originally Posted by
hermygirl 
And now, finally, it was time for the final step. For such a simple potion, this morning’s class had dragged; he blamed their needless incompetence. Regardless, Noble clapped his hands together to gain the students’ attention once more. “And now…our last ingredient. Ten seeds. I suggest you count them out in advance.” Since the limit of many of their attention spans seemed to be not more than ten seconds, not alone ten stirs. “You need to alternate dropping a seed into the centre of the cauldron, and stirring once counter-clockwise. Drop a seed, stir counterclockwise.” He demonstrated every last one, counting as he did so. “If you’ve done everything correctly, then your potion should now be bright orange.” Pumpkin orange, even. He swapped his stirring rod (glass, if anyone was taking notes) for a ladle, scooping up some of the liquid so they could see properly. So very bright orange.
“Once you’re done, turn off the heat. I expect a medium sized vial of whatever you’ve produced to be turned in for marking.” Which...going by some of them, might be little more than air. That or slightly adulterated, lukewarm pumpkin. And of course it went without saying that said vial should be clearly labelled with their name and house, as they should know to be standard by now. “If you think you have done a good enough job, and would like to take a second vial away for testing…you should bring it to me to be assessed first.” He wouldn’t let any potions out of the classroom without having been checked, and yes…he would know. “Otherwise, you can then clean up your workstations ready to be dismissed.”
Alright, that last part sounded tedious, but it wasn't really hard. He had already counted out his ten seeds, but he still checked again anyways.
Eight... nine... ten! And then two explosions were heard across the room and potion was everywhere. "
And that's why you always double check the instructions before you do anything in your cauldron, Hanna," he said sagely.
So with his stirring rod in one hand and one seed in the other, he began to alternate. Seed in the center, then stir counterclockwise. Pick up a seed, plop it in, and stir. Lather, rinse, repeat, as it were. Finally, the potion began to change color; by the tenth stir, it was pumpkin orange. "
Nice!" Finn extinguished the flame as instructed.
He filled a vial and labeled it. Finnlay Muir, 5th year Ravenclaw. The boy delivered it to Noble's desk, but he had no need for a second vial. He could not think of a single reason he would want anyone's head to be a pumpkin, even for a laugh. Since he'd been cleaning his station along the way, there wasn't much left for him to do except a few random pieces of debris that needed removing.
"
Have a good rest of your morning, Professor. Thank you!" he said. Then, after checking his station, he headed out the door as quickly as possible - but not too fast, wouldn't want a tongue-lashing after making it this far.