Now, onto the scooping part.

Was there a spell against smelling gross smells? Because he could use that right now. Maybe he could ask Jessa. After the lesson. He had no intentions of getting her into more trouble with the professor after all. So for now Cameron simply wrinkled his nose as he started using the spoon to scoop out the pumpkin‘s innards.

Which...looked a little easier than it actually was. Some of the pulp seemed to be stuck to the inside of the pumpkin walls. More than once he almost flicked some seeds by accident, fortunately for him they all landed on his own workstation, however. From then onward he took his time getting everything out of the pumpkin. No way did he want to be responsible for flicking pumpkin pulp into Professor Noble‘s hair after all. So...he was going to have to be careful.

Finally it looked as if he had enough for two cups so he set down the spoon and started handpicking out the seeds. Honestly, why weren‘t they allowed to use a spell like Jessa had done? That would be sooooo much easier and a whole lot less tedious. Was this a test of some sort? To test their patience? He couldn‘t wait to thoroughly wash his hands after this. It felt like the pulp was under his fingernails too. And the smell was quite...strong.

Once he had filled two cups without any seeds and had added them to his cauldron, Cameron stood up to wash his hands. No way was he going to touch his wand with pumpkin-y hands. After he’d returned to his workstation he filled a cup with water and added that too before casting Incendio and setting it to medium heat.

Alright. What now?

Well, time to get his hands dirty. Quite literally.

Finn set aside his cut-out top and mentally prepared for this part. Of course, it was hard to concentrate when he could hear his prefect being ridiculed and forced to start over. Rotten luck, Jessa. So he rolled up his sleeves, grabbed his spoon, and started digging. Could he do it faster with his hands? Yes. Put since Noble specified a spoon, there was no way he was doing it any other way. After a few squishy minutes, he had a lot of pulpy mess on the table. Yuck.

With painstaking attention, he sifted through the mess and took out all the seeds he could find, especially any broken bits. Once finished, he ran his hands through the mess just to make sure he hadn't missed anything. Satisfied, he spooned the pulp into the cup once, twice, and into the cauldron both times.

Taking his cup over to the water source, he filled it up, all the while thinking how the sixth and seventh years could just make water come out of their wands. Seems like a basic spell they should teach earlier, but whatever. He had access, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Water added, he muttered "Incendio," with his wand pointed under the cauldron. That doesn't look like medium heat. He replicated the process, this time more satisfied with the results. He was soooo tempted to stir the concoction, but Noble had not included that in the directions.

He glanced over at Hanna again. "Need anything?"

Miranda sat up straight in her chair at the snap their new potion's Master's pointer made against his desk.. Okay, it seemed they had managed to find the most strict and quite obviously offensive man and hired him on to torture them all for the entire term.. Joy.. In the most sarcastic of ways the blonde sixth year thought to herself as she listened and watched the professor explain the potion they were meant to brew today.

She looked at the medium sized pumpkin that sat on her desk in front of her and then up shot her hand. " Professor?.. I wouldn't mind helping one or two of the younger student with the Diffindo charm.", The sixth year said with a smile.. " Would anyone like a bit of help? ", Randa added as she looked to a few of the younger students.

Miranda did however know they were on a schedule and pulled out her wand and followed the instructions he had written up on the blackboard. "
Diffindo..", she said as she carefully traced a cap out of the top of her pumpkin and scooped out the guts , separating the meat from the seed and measuring it out. And into her copper cauldron. " Incendio.."..
Lighting her cauldron and adding that cup of water as well..

Whatever talking he did with his fellow classmates before thenclass officially started, he abruptly stopped and jumped in his seat when the Professor banged a wooden stick against his desk.

With a nervous feeling, something he had not felt before in this classroom as potions was one of his best subjects, Dorian sat more upright and placed his hands on his lap. The new Professor was too intimidating and he did not like him.

But what he did not like more was how they were all addressed to as 'Miserable lot' The Ravenclaw gave an annoyed look which he quickly hid by holding his head down and mumbled a "You're a miserable...lot" under his breath very quietly before he looked back up when the man was writing on the blackboard.

Ok Dorian. Just focus like always and everything will be fine. When the instructions were done, the second year shuffled towards the cupboard to grab a copper cauldron. Holding it against his chest as he walked back, the Ravenclaw noticed that there was a small crack on the inside and knowing from experience he knew how bad that could be. Aka exploding potion.

He sat down the cauldron for now on his workspace and grabbed his wand and pumpkin first. With a concentrated look on his face, Dorian carefully cut the pumpkin using Diffindo in a circular motion to cut off the top. Then with his hands he scooped out the seeds and placed them apart as he knew he needed them later.

He knew how to use the fire spell but the problem was his cauldron. How did the reparing spell work again? The boy thought for a moment but the longer he did the farther away his answer came. He knew it was Reparo. Everyone knew that. But how did the wand motion go?!

"Can anyone help me? I forgot how to repair this" he pointed at his cauldron as he looked at the older students and not the Professor cause what if he was sneered at for not knowing as a second year?

Hanna nodded. "Yup, and my mum wouldn't let me get a gold one." Not that she needed one AT ALL. They were just pretty. She relaxed a bit, even though the Professor seemed to be a bit of a grouch to her. She took note of what Finn was saying to her, mentally taking note of where other things would be. She nodded and pulled it out. "I always have it on me now." Partly because she thought, now that she was at Hogwarts and could use it, she should always have it on her. But it was also pretty.




AH! The issue was addressed immediately. The cauldrons were where Finn had pointed.

Hanna started to feel more excited about the lesson, until... Professor Grinch called them MISERABLE. Hanna's eyes widened in horror at the THOUGHT of being addressed to like that by a Professor, but what could SHE do about it? She was NOT miserable. Well, she was maybe starting to feel a little miserable at the thought of a whole year being called a 'Miserable lot' by a Professor. When he paused, she went, at Finn's nudge, to get a copper cauldron, where she set it up juuuuust like Finn's.

DIFFINDO! Hanna knew that spell. She'd never cast it, but she'd read it. Well, she had her wand and... hopefully she wouldn't blow it up. She saw Finn writing it all down, and took the hint. Dipping her quill into the ink, she jotted down everything Professor was saying. She was just finishing off her last sentence when Finn started speaking again. Putting down the quill she said "I've read about it but I haven't cast it," and she was VERY happy to watch him carve out his spell. She paid close attention to the way he SAID Diffindo, and how he traced his wand around the pumpkin to make a hole. "Okay," she breathed. But she knew she should probably practice first. "Diffindo...deef-IN-dow... Diffindo," she worded out.

Okay, she was ready. Licking her lips, she put the tip of her wand near the pumpkin and directede it around the top, just like the Professor and Finn did, whilst saying "Diffindo," and IN ABSOLUTE AMAZEMENT, she almost cried, she was able to lift the severed bit off the pumpkin. "I did it! I didn't blow it up!" she said, grinning VERY proudly.

Next they needed to carve it out. She'd done this plenty with her mum and dad, so she got right to it, only... with her spoon. The seedy, fleshy pulp was piled off to the side, and she checked inside to make sure it was empty of all seeds. Yup! Except, nope... they had to seperate the seeds out of the pulp. It wasn't such a difficult task, and it didn't take too long. She didn't mind getting messy with pumpkin innard flesh on her fingers. She was still watching Finn out the corner of her eye, and filled a cup, packing it, with pulp, and adding it to her cauldron, before repeating the step, then heading over to fill her cup with water with Finn.

Hanna wanted to try and do as much as possible by herself, but she didn't know Incendio, and REALLY didn't want to be practicing it right now. So, rather than ask Finn for help, she followed the Professor's offer and lit a splint from his cauldron to light her own bunsen burner.

When Finn asked if she needed anything, she asked "Do you know if this is medium heat?" She'd never really used a bunsen burner before.

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.

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.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Pompion Potion
~50 minute brew time
-for all those times you wish you could turn someone's head into a pumpkin...

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (NO SEEDS!!)
1 cup of water
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.

Ooh. Hattie actually really liked that Professor Noble taught them by actually showing them. She was a pretty visual learner, and sometimes struggled to learn when the professor's were just dictating to them what they had to do. So she appreciated this way of teaching a lot. The sixth year had her notebook out, and was making careful, colour-coded notes, as she watched carefully. She wanted to make sure she saw exactly what to do, before she began to do it. She smiled, because now it was there turn to go. Hopefully she could get this right!

She popped her pumpkin in front of her. Time to carve out the top. It was like she was going to make a jack-o-lantern. That was pretty cool. But she was going to concentrate hard. So that she could do this right. She pulled her wand out, and practised the movement she was going to do. She wanted to make sure that she made it perfect. Then she said "Diffindo" and carefully moved her wand around the top of the pumpkin to get the top of. She was very careful to make sure she didn't mess up.

After completing that, she carefully put the lid to the side, so it didn't get messed up, and she picked up her metal spoon. To begin working on getting all the innards out. She knew she could do this by using a spell, but it was pretty good to do it by hand. So she did.


Harriet looked up from her scooping when she heard a little voice that needed some help. She paused for a second, smiling as she went to help Dorian. "Hey" The blonde murmured with a nod. "The charm is called Reparo"" She told him, before she quickly said "Reparo" completed the wand movement, and fixing his cauldron. "Hope that's okay!" She smiled, before going back to her own work station, and continuing to get everything out of her pumpkin.

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.

SPOILER!!: notes

Pompion Potion
turns the drinker's head into pumpkin; brewing time of 50 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin. ✔
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.✔
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.

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.

Josie blinked watching her professor. Turn your head into a pumpkin? Why on earth would anyone want to do such a thing? It made no sense to her whatsoever... And they were cutting up pumpkins... The young girl felt her stomach church at the idea of having to touch the sticky mushy insides of the pumpkin.

The twelve year old certainly didn't care for the texture of it all and the idea of having to do it made her feel like she was turning slightly green. Her father had tried to get her to carve pumpkins with him when she was younger, but learned very quickly that that had been a terrible idea. like a lot of her father's ideas. She took a deep breath trying to calm herself and looked at the pumpkin poking the top of it, "Um... Could someone help me with that spell?" She certainly had never done it, and she didn't plan on learning today if she was as accident prone as her dad with spells.

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??

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.

She'd caught Cam's smile, what she assumed was his silent way of letting her know it was alright to make a twin for his pumpkin. He was good people, you know. Always willing to help and it was definitely helping that general agitation that had been steadily growing since she'd been instructed to put her book away.

Resolving to remain calm and somewhat optimistic in light of the new direction her brew had taken, Jessa once again took to carving out the top of her pumpkin with a non-verbal diffindo. It was fine, she told herself. Just extra non-verbal practice, she told herself. Look at it as a gain. It didn't make sense to allow herself to be so hung up on it when the Professor had all but tossed it from his mind already. She could discard unnecessary things too and she would.

Top removed, Jessa once again animated the pumpkin's contents from the inside and again checked to ensure she hadn't left anything in there afterwards. With that done, the Ravenclaw separated the seeds from the pulp with another animation charm that saw the pulp springing away from the seed. Pulp on both sides of her work station, only the seeds were left in the middle. That had to be the only way she knew to ensure she'd gotten all of them--save wading through it like the Professor had asked, but why bother? It was time consuming at best and less efficient. Besides, she was now keen to see the difference in a potion whose ingredients might have been laced with magic in comparison to one brewed the normal way. That had become far more important to her than simply brewing because it was a class requirement.

Jessa scooped up the seeds and placed them to once side, animating the pulp that had been there to join the other half on the other side of her work station. Had to keep everything organized. Ferreting in these small ways helped to keep her pleasantly distracted and organizing the work area was always good when brew too.

Rather than add the two scoops of pumpkin muck back to the cauldron. Jessa put out her fire and cast a cooling spell on the copper instrument. Starting completely from scratch. Again, the fire was lit and she waited a moment for it to regain its heat before dropping one then another scoop of the pumpkin pulp. No water this time despite the fact it was the VERY NEXT STEP.

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.

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...

YAY!.. Randa heard a little voice asking for help!..
She could do just that .. she looked around searching for it's owner and saw a younger Hufflepuff and gave her a wave.

"I could help you if you like..", she offered with a warm and friendly smile." Here.. Move your things over and I'll come over and join you...
We can work together this lesson.. alright?.. I'm Miranda..", Randa added as she gathered up her things quickly and levitated the rest to follow and set up her work space again.

Okay. This would totally have been easier with magic. But Harriet was sure that the potion master would have told them to use a spell if he'd wanted them too. So the blonde hufflepuff continued to scoop the innards out of the pumpkin. She was careful to ensure she put it into a neat pile on her work top. She didn't want to work in a messy manner. That would not make a good potion. She also didn't want to miss anything, or lose any of the pumpkin. If she didn't have enough it might impact upon her potion, and that would just not do at all. So it may have taken her a little longer, but as long as it meant she'd gotten anything, and her potion was good, then she didn't care. She hummed a little, quietly under her breath, as she did her work. It wasn't too bad. She was enjoying herself.

A few minutes later, and she had gotten all the innards out of the pumpkin. Perfect. She glanced up at the instructions again, making sure she didn't miss anything. She really didn't want to mess up. That would be terrible. She pushed the empty pumpkin carefully aside, along with the metal spoon, and she went about separating the pumpkin pulp and the seeds. She was very careful with this, separating the pulp onto the far side of her work station, with the seeds going to the other side. The sixth year was very careful to make sure that she didn't miss any. She didn't want to not have enough at the end. So she spent the next couple of moments sorting out the seeds. This may have also been easier if they could use magic, but she was okay with this. Although it was making her not want to make any pumpkin pie any time soon.

She carefully piled the pulp into one area, quickly making sure there were no seeds in there. Perfect. That was good. The blonde went back to the seeds, and carefully put them into a container. That way she wasn't going to lose anything. That made sense to her. She didn't want to get to the end and not have enough seeds left. That would be tragic. Now onto the actual brewing. She looked into her cauldron, making sure it was empty, before casting "Scourgify" to clean it. She knew that they had to clean it every time. So she didn't forget. That would be dreadful.

Hattie then reached for the cup, and carefully packed the pumpkin pulp into it, making to squeeze it down till it was densely packed. No need for mistakes here. She then put that cup into her cauldron, followed by a second cup full. She then quickly wiped her hands on her apron, so that they weren't too sticky. Next, after she had once again looked at the instructions, she added a cup of water into the cauldron, after completing the aguamenti charm. She was a little worried about that, since the professor had told Jessa off. But it was in the steps, so she figured that made it okay? Finally she cast incendio, and set head to medium.

Perfect. She was happy, and now awaited the next set of instructions.

The second year looked up and nodded, doing as the older girl asked, moving her things over, "That sounds good." Potions were not her strong suit anyways, so it would probably be better to have someone there to help guide her through it like her step mother did at home,
"I'm Josephine." She smiled up at the girl, realizing she forgot probably the more important part... to clean out her cauldron... Would be smart after all.

"Scourgify." At least she could do that one without error... For now at least, she had failed at it many times in the past. After that she turned back to Miranda with a small smile, "Thank you for helping... I really do appreciate it."

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.

Skylar felt slightly touched when Vi sat down next to her and almost was wondering if it was related to Tory things, but before she had the chance to nudge her about it, Mr Head Boy aka her boyfriend showed up on her other side. And to be honest, Skylar felt grateful because she didn't really want to talk about Tory because she still felt slightly guilty. Emotions were such a HARD thing to deal with!! How was one expected to deal with them in a responsible manner? She was only sixteen! But hey she was trying. On her other side, Aaron, his innocent first year self was enough to distract her from all things related to teenage emotions and hormones. And there was the wifey Vivian, whom she felt guilty for not plopping her bag onto the seat next to her but they could both help Aaron then? Could she just run away with Vivian and then they can avoid all the feelings?

The snideness on Professor Noble's features when he greeted her was enough to snap her away from all the feelings. At least for the duration of the lesson and she was one hundred and ten percent focused. Honest. She was a NEWT student now, which meant she couldn't let herself be distracted except within reason. She busied herself with her utensils, until the lesson was starting and Abraham Botros was called out for not having a copper cauldron. It was the way of the call out that Skylar was fully attentive and she did empathize with him. Because Junia's cousin and all. you miserable lot...? Really? She didn't mind sternness and strictness - she was here to learn! - but calling out his students as miserable? It just seemed wrong, for lack of better word.

On a fresh parchment, she neatly wrote the potion ingredients and instructions, so far, for her reference because it was always easier than to keep glancing on the board. Pompion potion, used for?? She didn't know, but she guessed they would find out soon? Also, she really wanted to ask about the possibility of roasting the pumpkin seeds later, but decided that Noble was probably not the kind of person to ask about that. He looked far too serious.

"Diffindo," she cast, carefully making a circle around the top of the pumpkin. Actually, she felt REALLY glad that he was allowing magic to complete that task because it made for a nice even cut as opposed in the past using mundane methods, it was always such a struggle driving the blade through the pumpkin and cutting around. Placing the lid to the side, she grabbed one of the metal spoons to scrape out the innards, figuring it would be easier to scrape them all out first and then pull the seeds out.

That was when she felt something hit her robe sleeve - ever so slightly - and glanced to see a fleck of innards on her robe. UH. She didn't think she'd been that messy?? Unless someone was trying to get her attention? Blue-gray eyes wandered around the room for a moment, curiously, but everyone seemed to be working, so she just shrugged it off, removing the seeds from the pulp and into its separate bowl. Squish, squish, she was going as the pulp was sorting between her fingers. Why had she not realized how stress-relieving this was, massaging pumpkin guts? Seriously, she could have used this last term. Smiling to herself, she finally felt confident that most of the seeds were out, except that her hands were so slimy. Vivian's robes would have been perfect to wipe on because that's what friends were for, but she wasn't about to do that to ickle Aaron, so she settled instead for grabbing a towel to wipe her hands on.

Good, so far so good. Now to use the metal spoon again to measure two cups of innards, packing it into her measuring cup, and gently scraping them back out into her copper cauldron. See, Mr Stern-Noble one, that outstanding in Potions wasn't in vain!

Jessi had gotten most of her things together when she heard someone call her name. She smiled when she saw her housemate/roomie. “Hey Amara”, she replied. Before she could follow up her greeting, the professor called the class to order. With an apologetic look for Amara, she turned her attention to the man in charge.

And then.......you miserable lot? Huh? With no hint of a wink, wink, nudge, nudge, Jessi found the greeting to be just a tad......harsh?......rude? Yeah, all of that. Anyway, she was not going to let the professor’s attitude ruin her fun. She listened as he went over what they would be doing for the day’s class. Jessi was cool with it until he mentioned that they would be using the Diffindo spell. Hello! Clueless first year here. I mean, she knew about the spell, but was in no way qualified to perform it. Thank goodness they had other options for lighting their fire because Incendio was also not in her repertoire.

Jessi copied the potion recipe from the board and then her hand went straight up into the air. While waving her hand slightly back and forth, she looked around for an older student who might want to get some cool points. Yeah, helping a pitiful firstie would definitely get you cool points in Jessi’s book. And she was keeping track.

At the professor's instruction, Skylar flicked her wand to cast incendio and lit her burner, adding a cup of water with the innards that were already in the cauldron. When she noticed a first year not too far off waving her hand slightly. And her desire to mother her peers was strong, as Skylar waved back at the girl, hopping off her stool for a brief moment. Her potion would be okay; the heat was low enough.

"Guessing you need help with the cutting charm? It's diffindo and it's quite simple." Flicking her wand, she cast, making a slit about halfway around. "Now, you try to finish? It's okay"

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.

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.