| Chizpurfle
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SPOILER!!: slooooow ones Quote:
Originally Posted by Waterloo  Despite Potions not normally working out for him, so far things seemed to be going smoothly. Probably because so far it had involved more cleaning than actual potion work. He busied himself at his workstation at the back of the classroom, first scrubbing down his bench with the ethanol and then scourgify-ing and sterilising the inside of his cauldron.
Being the clean-freak he was, he spent maybe a liiiiiiiiittle too long on the whole process and quickly realised his neighbours had already moved onto the next steps. He was behind already.
Oooops.
What was next? Max readjusted his glasses and squinted at the blackboard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey Ju Woooooooooow, Anna really wasn't up for this class at all. She did place her quill on the parchment and stared at the professor with the blankest expression she could muster just so she wouldn't give him a defiant look for telling her what to do with her quill. Really? They were being micromanaged now on quill holding? Mer-lin.
The third year decided not to take any notes because all of that information was bound to be in their textbook anyway not that she was going to read it unless she really had to, but still.
It wasn't like she was making a point or anything, but the Gryffindor was going about slower than normal because this was Potions... it only lost to History of Magic in the boring class rating. And the whole cleanliness thing... that was getting ooold.
Her hair was already up in a ponytail, so she only had to roll up her sleeves and wash her hands. And... wipe her bench with ethanol while looking bored out of her brains. The lesson had barely started and she was already wishing she was outside doing ANYTHING but this. Merlin help her.
Again, she didn't take any notes about the ingredients because she trusted it was all in the textbook. So as soon as her workstation was clean, Anna went to put away the ethanol bottle and collect the necessary ingredients. Bringing them over to where she was working, she nearly missed the next instructions, but managed to Scourgify and use Incendio Tria in her cauldron ONLY because Incendio was actually one of her favourite types of spells.
The other set of instructions felt really Muggle to her, which wasn't really a problem as she was used to all things Muggle. But it did feel strange doing all of those things at Hogwarts. Anna wasn't going to complain or even say anything about it because she didn't want to deal with any fuss at the moment. She just wanted the lesson to be oveeeeeeer so she could enjoy herself. If only the lesson would speed up if she brewed everything quicker, but alas.
Maybe for that very reason Anna chose to continue in her slightly-slower-than-everyone-else pace, because eh. The 500ml of water was added, as was the 500ml of horklump juice and she was about to toss the larvae when she saw some classmates heating up their cauldrons first. She doubled checked the instructions and let out a "Oh" before starting the fire underneath her own cauldron and waiting for it all to boil.
One... two... three... She finally started adding the larvae once the whole thing was bubbling. Anna being Anna and also being super bored right now, she was adding them by slightly tossing them in the air and watching them plop into the mix. HOWEVER, she knew professor Noble enough to not make a massive scene of this and the tossing in the air was simply from below the rim level from the outer side of the cauldron and up and over the rim itself. Then plop! into the mix they went. NOT CAUSING ANY SPLASH, CHILL EVERYONE! Not that she thought people were going to freak out or anything, but who knew.
It was only then that she realised she had forgotten the flobberworm mucus. Welp. Without looking up or giving anyone any kind of acknowledgement or letting anything suspicious give her away, she simply added the 5 drops of flobberworm mucus there and then.
As she sterilised the other equipment on the fire, Anna's thoughts were fixed on the fire she was watching. Beautiful, beautiful fire. It was amazing how it sterilised things like that, but the most fascinating thing about it was that it could both do good and harm. So interesting! She probably spent a lot longer than she needed moving her knife and stirrer on the fire, and she totally missed what professor Noble had said about how to proceed with the next set of instructions. All she could do now was to read what he had written on the board and hope for the best.
She had dealt with rosemary before, though, and she knew how to pull the leaves out without watching the demonstration. She was about to add them to her cauldron, her hand holding the leaves right above it when her gaze went back to the board and she read the rosemary leaves had to be finely chopped. "Oops!" She exclaimed, pulling her hand back and watching a tiny leaf or two dive into the Potion. Nothing to see here! The Gryffindor chopped the rosemary leaves somewhat finely and put them on a tablespoon before finally dropping the ingredient into the mix as a whole. Sprinkle who? Never mind!
Anna stirred the Potion once clockwise and THEN she realised it was TWICE, so she did a second clockwise stir. Merlin, she did need to focus a bit more, even she was aware of that. But eh, effort.
To be honest, at this point she was slightly behind everyone and had to keep reading the instructions to know what to do next. But that wasn't a problem, the instructions should be good enough to guide her.
She sliced the murtlap tentacles lengthways and stared at the instructions board for a few seconds wondering what on earth the next bit meant. Shrugging, Anna sprinkled the 10 drops of honeywater all over the tentacles and added them to her cauldron. That was probably what they were meant to do anyway.
The 5 drops of tea tree oil were added effortlessly, as it seemed to be one of the easiest steps so far.
If Noble was honest with himself, it was almost reassuring that at least two of his students were now lagging behind schedule. Things had perhaps been going a bit too well, and slow-pokes were better than an exploding cauldron. Anna’s potion was looking less than healthy, which wasn’t exactly unexpected given her general air of being less-than-enthused and more often than not, distracted. [b] “Focus, Anna.”[b] There was a warning tone in Noble’s voice. Although the potions professor didn’t take further action for now, since he’d noticed that the Maxton’s cauldron was somehow still empty. “Water and horklump juice, Maxton,” came Noble’s stern voice from the front. “Chop chop, or you’ll be spending your lunchtime here too.” And he, at least, would rather that didn’t happen. He’d heard rumours of proper fish and chips being on the menu, and soggy leftover chips were no laughing matter indeed. If, of course, Noble ever could laugh.
Seeing as everyone else seemed to be keeping up okay, albeit with some grossed out faces – here’s looking at you, Chloe – Noble finished the steps he’d just gone over for his own potion, before moving on. “Sterilise your stirring rod again, and then stir your potion once clockwise, followed by once counter-clockwise. It should be a murky green in colour.” It didn’t really look like it should become a healing ointment at all. But give it patience, precision and persistence, it’d get there soon enough. Well, for a handful of the students, anyways.
“Then you need to crush three dried leeches with your pestle and mortar. They don’t need to be too fine, but there shouldn’t be any large lumps.” He dropped three leeches in his mortar, and used a twisting motion of his wrist with the pestle. “Sprinkle that in, and then you need to be well prepared for the next step. Shred your dittany finely…” He ran his knife through the flame, rolled the dittany leaves together to make them easier to hold, and started shredding it as he spoke. “Before you add it though, grate your Wiggentree bark. You’ll need three inches, so measure that out first and mark it with a small nick on the side with your knife. Don’t cut this off…use the rest of the bark as a handle so you don’t have to worry about grating your knuckles when you get near the end.” No need for added blood in this potion; that would contaminate it for sure. He measured out his three inches, and made a small niche with the knife. He then proceeded to grate up to that point; his hands kept well out of the way on the unneeded extra bark. Clever little tip, huh? “Now you can add the dittany, immediately followed by the Wiggentree bark.” Extra emphasis on the immediately.
There were only a few steps left now, and although he disliked to overload the students knowing how absent-minded they could be, he also needed to power through for those who did stand half a chance of brewing it correctly by the end of the lesson. “Measure out 250ml salamander blood, if you haven’t already, and pour it in slowly in a figure of eight motion. If you pour it unevenly and have some left, keep going back over the line you already traced. It’ll stay on the surface for you to see where you’ve been.” The dark red just kind of lingered there, rather than dissolving or dissipating into the surrounding liquid. “Add ¼ teaspoon of silver powder to the crossroad part at the middle of the eight, and then stir the potion three times following the figure of eight shape of the salamander blood. The colour should fade to a pale silvery grey.” Which his, of course, did. “Turn off your heat, and finally add your boom berry juice…stir clockwise until the potion is thick and white. Like a face cream. “The active brewing is now complete, but the potion needs to be left for 24 hours at room temperature before it is safe to use. You have 20 minutes in which to get finished if you want to go to lunch on time.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackboard
Ingredients
500 ml of water
500 ml of horklump juice
5 drops flobberworm mucus
10 blue-bottle fly larvae
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
100g pickled murtlap tentacles
10 drops of honeywater
5 drops tea tree oil
3 leeches
2 cups of shredded dittany
3 inches of Wiggentree bark, grated
250 ml salamander blood
¼ teaspoon powdered silver
250 ml boom berry juice
Recipe
Remember to work with aseptic techniques throughout.
1. Clean your cauldron with Scourgify, and then sterilise it using Incendio Tria
2. Add 500ml water and 500ml horklump juice and bring to a rolling boil
3. Add 5 drops of flobberworm mucus
4. Drop in the larvae one at a time
5. Strip the leaves off the rosemary (leaving the woody stalk behind), chop finely, and sprinkle into the potion. Stir twice clockwise.
6. Slice the murtlap tentacles lengthways, toss with the honeywater, and add to the cauldron.
7. Add 5 drops of tea tree oil.
8. Stir once clockwise, once counter-clockwise.
9. Crush the three dried leeches in your pestle and mortar and sprinkle it in.
10. Add two cups of finely shredded dittany, and immediately add in the grated Wiggentree bark.
11. Slowly pour in the salamander blood in a figure of eight motion.
12. Add ¼ teaspoon of powdered silver and stir three times following the figure of 8 shape you made with the salamander blood. The potion’s colour should fade to pale grey.
13. Turn of the heat. Add the boom berry juice, and stir clockwise until the potion resembles a thick white ointment. It now needs to be left for 24 hours at room temperature before it’s safe to use.
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