 catching up on main activity Rhibear ~ Madam Solo ~ Dark Brooding Girl ~ Accio Jedi ~ Gryffinclaw ~ Just a doll
Well, this lesson didn't go in the direction Tina was expecting...not that she was complaining. She preferred the slow, certain work of mixing potions to getting her hands dirty in the greenhouses any day! Plants, especially magical ones, could be unpredictable; potions,on the other hand, had little room for error as long as one followed the directions to the letter. Tina copied down the steps for the essence of dittany potion as the professor named each one, her pen scratching rapidly against the parchment. She even took down the incantation and wand movement, despite already knowing the natatraho spell. Better safe than sorry, right?
After giving her notes the once over to make sure her handwriting was legible (because sloppy mistakes in notes led to sloppy mistakes in class!), Tina pulled on her gloves and went to gather some dittany leaves. It was only when she approached the plant that she realized she had no idea how many leaves she needed! Did she zone out and forget to copy that in her notes, or had Professor Wishart neglected to mention it? Apparently great minds think alike because the professor answered that very question before Tina had the chance to ask. Okay, five leaves it is! She looked at the plant. Did the size of the leave matter? Some of them looked a bit bigger than others...
Tina picked five leaves that looked to be about the same size and took them back to her table. She picked up one of the leaves and carefully positioned it at an angle to control the flow of the extract. "Natatraho," she cast, moving her wand in a careful, deliberate fishing motion. Liquid dripped from the leaf into the open vial of potion. When it was done, Tina picked up another leaf and repeated the process until she'd extracted the oils from the other four leaves.
Now what was next? Tina consulted her notes. 1 oz blended dittany extract, got it! She picked up the nearest bottle of blended dittany extract and measured out 1 oz. When - and only when - she was sure she had the measurement exact did she add it to her potion. She waited, and... nothing happened. Why wasn't it turning yellow? Had she somehow added too much or too little of something? The dark-haired Ravenclaw was really starting to panic when slowly but surely, her potion began to change color.... though she couldn't help but notice hers was a slightly more golden shade of yellow than her classmates'. Would the shade make much difference?
Tina was almost done. All she had left to do was the stirring and the wand movement. She grabbed her wand and used it to stir in slow, even anti-clockwise rotations. One... two... three... four... five... six... seven. Tina examined her potion with a critical eye. It had turned brown, but was it the right shade of brown? She supposed it would have to do. With a wave of her wand, she was done.
__________________ Old voices I had thought long since dead whisper of another life I might have led
If I could take that second chance, If I could make my life anew, If only dreams came true... |