Oh. Ronan had collapsed. She did vaguely remember that he was allergic to pumpkin. Well. He was a little bit of an idiot for staying in the room where they were all using ingredients that he was allergic too. He was in her year. That meant he was 16. Surely by the age of 16 one should be able to know not to stay in a room where a thing you were allergic to was. Even if leaving meant she would have gotten into trouble she would not have stayed. There was no point staying, and being dead, rather than being in a little bit of trouble, and being alive. Luckily, Hattie didn't have the issue of being allergic to pumpkin. So really, she was fine. Though, she did still think that Ronan was an idiot, and needed to re-assess why he had even stayed in this lesson. He was clearly not learning much from lying on the floor.

But back to her potion making! She glanced at her potion, making sure that it was simmering nicely before she added her powdered dry moths to it. Carefully, she picked up her stirring rod, and stirred clockwise until it turned to the correct colour. One. Two. Three. Four complete turns and her potion had turned a nice grass green colour. That seemed good. It obviously signalled that she was at least doing something right in all of this. That made the sixth year very happy. And now to quickly look at the instructions to see what she had to do next.

Picking up the cut bouncing bulb, she added that to the potion, and began to carefully stir, just enough to ensure it was incorporated into her potion. Perfect. That looked good! Pointing her wand at the flame, she made sure it was turned down, and then set a timer for 30 minutes. The timer was her best friend, and she made sure she put it somewhere where she could keep an eye on it. She didn't want to ruin the potion by missing the timer going off! That would be dreadful.

And now they got to carve the pumpkin. So she quickly pulled her notebook closer to her, and sketched out a quick design, so that she knew what she was going to do before she carved. This would be fun!

Havoc had ensued in the dungeon and Maxton stayed at his workstation as he watched it unfold. Sure, he loved reading comic books about superheroes, but HE wasn't one. He wasn't going to run to anyone's rescue when he had a potion to keep an eye on. Besides, the Professor seemed to have things back under control for the moment.

His pumpkin pulp had reached a simmer so Maxton added his powdered moth to the concoction. Stir four times...

It wasn't going grass green. It was more of a mustard yellow.

Maxton looked around, trying to get a glimpse of everyone else's potions. Green, green, green... What was going on!?

The fourth year went ahead and added his chopped bulb, hoping that would fix the problem but as he stirred the potion stayed yellow. Max tugged anxiously at his hair and tried to think of a plan. Maybe he could start again? Was there time?

This was why he'd chosen a workstation at the back. Perhaps Professor Noble simply wouldn't notice. Maxton turned down the heat on his cauldron and set his timer for 30 minutes. He was just going to pretend everything was okay.

HA! She knew it! Hmm what to carve, what to carve?

Okay, okay, first things first! Kye added her demolished moths to the cauldron, and began to stir. Grass green... grass green... grass green... That felt slightly vague, since grass turned many colors. Well, it looked pretty green to her. Kind of a darker green, but wasn't healthy grass a little bit darker? Or was that astroturf... No, this was pretty good.

Whoops... was she not supposed to peel the bulb yet? ...Well Kye was sure that it was still fresh enough! It had only been like, a few minutes difference.

Kye added the 100g to her cauldron and probably overstirred it. Time to simmer!

OKAY time or pumpkin carving!

And duh, she was using Diffindo. Why would she do it the Muggle way? Might as well practice charms while she's at it.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...............
Edie? Jack o' Lantern? Hogwarts crest? Slytherin crest? Family crest? No definitely no crests.
Kye decided to go for the generic triangles and jagged smile. It wouldn't take too long, and with magic it would still be a little challenging.

"Diffindo."

SPOILER!!: Kye's Notes

Pompion Potion

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (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.
4. Whilst waiting for the cauldron to come to a light simmer, grind 3 dried flitterby moths to a fine powder in your pestle and mortar. Add these to the cauldron and stir clockwise until the contents turns grass green (4 complete stirs should do the trick).
5. Stun your bouncing bulb. Peel off the purple skin, and chop finely with a silver knife. Weigh out 100g. Add to your cauldron and stir enough to incorporate.
6. Let your potion simmer for 30 minutes. You may carve your pumpkin whilst you wait.

With all her own bouncing away bulb she hadn't really noticed all the students cutting themselves, but she did notice one
cute sixth-year head hit the floor and her hand went to her mouth and Z dramatically gasped. Wasn't he the one allergic? Was he dead? She stood there staring at the rest of them went to work on him. Soon the professor was giving more instructions and tending to the pumpkin victim.

So everything seemed alright to her and her eyes went back to the front where more instructions were there. They were getting to carve the pumpkins. She beamed towards Juni to show her excitement and that shew as right!

First thought she had some steps to be doing. She added her moths to the cauldron and picked up her stirrer and began moving it clockwise four times. As she did this she watched it start to change colors and become the grass green he has mentioned. She couldn't help but giggle at the change because potions were pretty easy and she loved doing them, plus who didn't love grass, so the grass color made her want warm weather.

Now taking her bulb choppings she added those to her cauldron and again stirred. Allowing that to sit she pulled her pumpkin close and thought about how she would carve it. Pointing her wand she began making it's eyes.

From where she was sat at her workstation, cleaning up her things, Rylee hadn't seen the older boy fall off his chair. Oh, no, she hadn't seen it... but she had heard it. The sound of his head hitting the floor was not one anyone had wanted to hear. The small girl turned around her eyes widening at the sight of one of her fellow Lions laying on the floor, what could only be blood pooling beneath his head. There was an audible gasp from her and her instincts to help him kicked in right away... but she also remembered her mummy telling her it was best not to crowd an injured person. Professor Noble, Jessa and Finn already there helping him it was probably best to remain where she was. She did however make a mental note to make him a card and give it to him later. Just because she didn't know him personally didn't mean anything... he was in her house after all.

Rylee let out a slow breath to regain her own thoughts and draw her focus back onto the task at hand. Turning back around on her seat she grabbed up her quill and scribbled down her notes neatly onto her parchment.

With her pumpkin shimmer gently in the cauldron it was time to add the dried moth powder from earlier. In that went. Time to stir it.. uh.. clockwise? Mhmm. Four complete stirs. "One.. two..three... four.." she counted out as she stirred. "Is a medium green color okay?" It was kinda like grass green but not exactly. 100g of bouncing bulb went right into the cauldron next and she gave it a good nice stir until it was all... incorporated? At least it appeared to be well mixed...

Turning the flame down she than set her little purple timer for 30 minutes. Timers were good. They were friends. She knew Rian used them all the time.

Now it was time for... PUMPKIN CARVING!

Giving a little wiggle in excitement, Ry picked up her quill and made some lines on her pumpkin that she was going to use while carving it. Using one of the small knives in her kit she got to work on carefully carving out the picture she had drawn. She was very clearly intent on making a Unicorn!

Ickles were adorable, did they know? The younger girl definitely got a grin from the prefect. But what made Vivian's heart melt a teeny tiny bit was how the firstie just called her 'Miss'. That was a sort of thing she did when she was younger kid, too, and the fact that people were addressing as part of the older kids group was surreal. "It takes a lot of practice. You'll get there one day," she said. In fact, it took her two years of it. Duelling Club truly helped her in that aspect. "You're welcome. Let me know if you need any more help, Miss Rylee." Vivian winked at the ickle Gryffindor before moving back to her work station just in time for the next set of steps.

... Not before she noticed her year mate, that Carter boy, fall to the ground. The healer in Vivian was awakened, like a snap of a finger brought it to life after dormancy, and she felt the urge to go and help the guy. Sometimes, it did rub off on her for having two healers as parents. But then Jessa looked like she knew what she was doing, and then Professor Noble came to the rescue too. If there was another thing she learned from her mum and dad, it was not overcrowd near the patient. So, as much as she wanted to help, the blond decided against it. Perhaps they'd get Healer Reed the new healer to help him. He could use some real help.

But for now, it was back to work. Vivian carefully checked her cauldron and saw that her pumpkin pulp had simmered already, so the Slytherin took her powdered moths and dumped them into the solution. Next, she took her wooden ladle and, with her free hand's fingers crossed, stirred the unfinished potion clockwise. One... two... three... GULP... four.... For a moment, Vivian's heart almost dropped when it didn't immediately turn green, but shut her eyes in relief when it did a few seconds later. Thank Merlin. It would have been a disgrace to think she even got a passing grade in this subject if this potion failed. After that, she added the chopped bouncing bulb into her cauldron and stirred it a little bit more again. With that done, she lowered the heat and reset the timer for thirty minutes to let her potion simmer.

PUMPKIN CARVING TIME! Vivian didn't even know what masterpiece she wanted to make. There were too many ideas in mind!

Well his potion was grass green now. So it was time for.. "Add the 100 grams of bouncing bulb." He double-checked the weight, then added it to his cauldron. "Hey Hanna, did the professor say which direction we stir the bouncing bulb?" He was pretty sure the answer was no, but he didn't want to miss anything. And actually, after glancing around the room, he saw stirring in both directions. "I think I'll do the same as before just in case." He rotated his stirrer clockwise slowly and methodically, but only a little bit to combine the bulb. "Heat is down!" Just like in cooking, reduce heat and simmer.

Finn rummaged through his things and found his timer. Thirty minutes all set! Then he gazed around. He was a bit behind given the time he spent trying to help Ronan, but according to the clock he should still have enough time to finish. The boy didn't really care to carve his pumpkin, so he set about the task of cleaning up his station a bit. All the last remains of pulp were cleaned off, plus he set aside the ten seeds he would need later and threw away all but 2 of the rest. Just in case, he thought. Better to be prepared in case I screw up somehow.

Not long after she asked for help, she noticed an older student headed towards her station. "Oh, thank you. I'd love the help." She smiled at her with her chocolate brown eyes. "I did the drawing, but I'm afraid to cut it myself. I almost lost a finger chopping the bulb." Emmalyn held up her finger wrapped with the tiniest of bandages. Sure, it was only a small cut, more of a scratch really, but it could have been bad. Then she slid her pumpkin closer to the edge of the table so Alyce could get a better look. "It's supposed to be a badger."

"Thank you, Professor." The badger mumbled and continued working with her potion once her finger was bandaged. Thankfully this wasn't a really deep cut and looked like the bandage could manage the bleed. She made a mental note to be more careful next time and also provide bandages by herself, in case this happened again or someone else needed it.

Okay, let's just get back to work. First, she needed to finish chopping the bulb and weighed it out 100 grams. Once it'd done, Diandra added the moth powder to her cauldron after her pumpkin mixture simmered and stirred it four times in clockwise motion. Watching her potion turned into grass green colored, she sighed in relief because it meant she did right and followed the correct instructions. Now she added the chopped bulb to the cauldron and stirred it again until it incorporated. Then she let the potion simmered for 30 minutes.

And now it's pumpkin carving time! After cutting her finger, Diandra decided to use the severing charm since it's easier and less harmless. Believe it or not, this was her first time carving the pumpkin. Hmmmm... This didn't look that difficult, did it? She aimed her wand to the pumpkin and attempted to make two circles as the eyes. "Diffindo." Oops... it seemed like the circle was quite bigger than she wanted to. Yeah, okay then.

So Skylar was her helper’s name. Good to know. Jessi smiled at the older girl as she went back to work on her own potion. She appreciated the encouragement she was given. Knowing that spellwork really would get easier with practice made her feel better.

When the professor began to give more instructions, Jessi listened carefully. She didn’t want to miss a single word. Fortunately, they were given permission to add water to their cauldrons and the pumpkin was not yet burned. Jessi took her cup of water and poured it in with her pumpkin innards. With a sigh of relief, she began to copy the next set of instructions into her notes.

Up next, dried moths. Jessi didn’t have time to think about the fact the moths were once un-dried and very much alive. She had a potion to brew. Taking out her mortar and pestle, she placed them nearby. Then she counted out three moths and added them to the mortar. The professor had made it quite clear that they really needed to grind these things, so she set to work. Picking up the pestle, Jessi began to mash, squish, grind and generally obliterate the flitterby moths. This was more work than she had imagined and it took several minutes until she considered the powder fine enough. There were definitely no bits and pieces to be seen. Just for good measure, Jessi gave the moths a few more mashes. Since they weren’t supposed to add the moths yet, she pushed them to the side.

Jessi checked her notes and saw that she had to get bouncing bulbs next. She went up to the front of the classroom to get a bulb. The professor wasn’t kidding, these things were true to their name. She had to time her grab just right to capture the one she had her eye on. Once Jessi had the bulb, she took it back to her work area. She watched as the professor stunned his bulb, then added the stunning spell information to her notes. This was going to be interesting. Jessi had never used Stupefy before and it was very important that she get it right. If she didn’t, she couldn’t complete her potion.

As the bulb bounced before her, Jessi tried her best to perform the spell just as the professor had done. Clearly she was going to have to work extra hard at this spell thing because the bulb was still bouncing as much as ever. She took a moment and concentrated as hard as she could. Make the correct wand movement, Jessi said, “Stupefy”. Nope. Nothing. She repeated the spell again and again, until finally, the bulbs bouncing was reduced to a little wiggle. Somewhat inspired, she gave it one more “Stupefy”. At last, the bulb was still. “Thank Merlin”, Jessi thought to herself.

Jessi got out her chopping board, peeler and knife. Now chopping was something she was pretty good at, so she was rather optimistic about the next few steps. Jessi took her peeler and made quick work of the purple outer layer of the bouncing bulb. Then it was time to chop. Taking the silver knife, the first year began to cut the bulb into smaller pieces. Then she began to chop those pieces into even smaller ones. The instructions said to finely chop, so that was what she was going to do. This part was fun. Jessi liked to cook and this was just like making a recipe at home. When she was satisfied that the bulb pieces were indeed finely chopped, she stopped. Jessi wiped her hands, got out her scale and weighed out 100g of chopped bulb. She put this aside with her flitterby moths.

She had finished just in the nick of time apparently because the professor began to give the next set of steps. Once again, Jessi copied down the information and prepared to move on. Then suddenly, she heard a big thump. Student down, student down. One of her classmates had passed out and was on the floor.......and there was blood. That could not be good. Jessi stood froze, concerned for the boy. Fortunately, help was on the way. Other students and the professor went to the rescue. It was hard to get focus back on her potion, but Jessi knew there was little she could do to help. Since he seemed to be in good hands, she tried to get back to work.

Jessi looked into her cauldron and saw that her “potion” was indeed simmering. It was time to add the good stuff. She poured her moth powder into the cauldron and grabbed her stirrer. One, two, three, four clockwise stirs and she was glad to see that everything had turned green. As instructed, Jessi added the bouncing bulb to the mix and stirred it until it was well mixed. Checking her notes, she turned down the heat and then set her timer for the required thirty minutes. And cool. Now they got to carve their pumpkins. Jessi would need a few minutes to think of how she wanted to do this.

Junia, jumping as Abey's mortar and pestle hit the hard surface and spilled over, immediately turned to her cousin to see what was wrong. Truthfully, she'd been so used to tuning out the chaos that was Hogwarts and its inhabitants that she hadn't even noticed what had happened to the Gryffindor until she followed her cousin's gaze. She frowned, wishing she could've noticed earlier and somehow prevented the Botros boy from seeing this because he didn't look well, Abey didn't. It was her fault.

"It's okay," She said softly, jumping into action. She took care of the small mess he'd made first, quickly and quietly vanishing his fallen powder and righting his mortar and pestle. "He's going to be okay. Professor Noble is helping him." He'd be fine. It was simply something to do with the ingredients, right? An easy fix. They weren't even working with anything harmful at the moment. "Abraham, look at me..." Junia rested a hand on his shoulder. "He's going to be okay. I'm okay. You're okay. This-it's just an accident, nothing more." She cleaned her hands and plucked three dried flitterby moths from her own stock, setting them in his mortar and pestle. Then she began grinding them down, trying to get him back on track before they moved on again. Her potion could wait a moment. This was more important.

"Mmmm," Hanna could just picture herself in glory. Inventing a spell! Or a Potion! "The Ambidextrous Elixir! The Ambidextrous Charm!" That would be pretty special. "But it would be pretty hard to create something, wouldn't it?" otherwise EVERYONE would be doing it. Did Finn know the process of creating a new potion or spell? She wanted to ask but he looked like he needed to concentrate. In fact, SHE needed to concentrate too. Potions needed concentration. She'd come back to that conversation later.

Still a bit shaken up, Hanna nodded. "Right. Noted," yup. DO NOT DISTURB bouncing bulbs. Having lived first hand through this, she'd remember. No problem. She was about to apologise again, for apologising, but clamped her mouth shut. Nope. All seemed to be going well with their potions, though. It was a good thing the bulbs hadn't bounced INTO the potions.

Why as he blushing? Hanna frowned, and then realised that she was SO bad at asking questions without thinking. What if it was totally personal? NEWTON! She said to herself... but it seemed okay because Finn told her anyway. "That's pretty cool. I like visualisations. Do you cook much too? Do you think it helps with potions?" Her great-uncle said it did, so they always cooked when they went to stay with him.

WHOA! Hanna looked around at CHAOS, as Finn stepped in to help. He was a good egg, she thought. She didn't touch any of his stuff, but she kept peeking over the top of his cauldron, just to make sure that 1) his wasn't turning black or going cold or anything, and 2) so that she knew hers was still doing okay.



And then it as time to move on, and the Professor's actions and words and instructions were scribbled onto her parchment again. At least Professor Noble took care of things, and didn't get TOO mad. Right, though. It was time to add the moth powder. Her pumpkin was simmering nicely, so it was time. She added it, and then picked up her stirring rod. So, 4 clockwise turns, approximately. Grass green. Hanna LOVED outside, so she knew what colour grass green was. At least the typical grass green. There were plenty of variations of colour depending on which type of grass it was, but also whether it was healthy or dying. Hanna was an inch away from plonking her rod into the potion when Finn told her about his little trick. "Oh, that's a good one," she said. And she decided she'd try it. So, she carefully placed it through the top of the pulpy liquid, close to her, and stirred four times. It was perhaps more of a pea green, and she VERY SLOWLY did one more turn, but before she completed it... it turned a lovely grass green. So, that was where she stopped. Removing her rod from the cauldron, she rinsed it off and laid it aside.

Hanna was about to add in her 100g of bouncing bulb, when Finn asked for some clarification. Hanna put down her bowl and looked back at her notes. She shook her head, "Nope, not that I wrote down." And she remembered writing everything down. She added her bouncing bulb and, trying to decide which was to stir, she once again mimicked Finn in repeating the same direction as last time. She put her rod in, close to her, and then stirred. Just enough to encorporate it. She couldn't completely tell. It wasn't like baking a cake, when you could see that the flour mixture was all mixed in with the wet ingredients. Everything was wet! And covered in this green liquid. It still amazed the child of two magical parents and a potioneer great-uncle how the colour could change so rapidly. She wondered if, at this point, if muggles had been doing it, whether it would still change colour. The heat went down, and she put her own timer on for 30 minutes. Mostly because of precision. Finn's timer might have been on for a whole 15 or so seconds before she put hers on. She didn't want to take any chances.


Hanna saw Finn clean up his work bench, but she was much more interested in carving her pumpkin. And to avoid gashing his head off or blowing it in halves, she took her small knife to use. She put in two eyes, carved out just enough skin to create a shadow of a nose, and did the same for the mouth. She made indents where the ears should be, and did a few shallow squiggly lines for hair.

Welp. That Gryffindor had just died.

Not really though of course. Just unconscious.

This was Hogwarts though, so naturally Cameron had seen so much worse in the past few years. There were people (Jessa included) looking after the Gryffindor now and even the professor was reviving him. So yeah, it would be fine, surely. There was nothing Cam could do anyhow.

So back to the cauldron his attention went.

The pumpkin innards seemed to be heated enough for him to add the moth dust. He stepped closer to be able to see into the cauldron while he stirred and sure enough after four (and a quarter) clockwise stirs his potion had started to look green. Good. Good. Good. Now the bulb and...more stirring. This was honestly the most boring part of Potions class. It was so...monotonous.

...............................................

R I G H T. Okay. Now he could sit down again and turn down the heat and set his timer. The next challenge was now that...he was a horrible drawer and generally not a very artsy person. So was he expected to make a nice pumpkin here? Eh? Using his wand he carefully started to cut out circles for eyes. That was a good start, yeah?

After the incident with the bulb and talking to Ronan, Night's potion was going along pretty smoothly. Maybe cutting Emmalyn's bulb had helped her gain control of her own? She smiled at her fellow Hufflepuff. "Of course. Any time."

Back to her own potion. She had done all the correct steps now, and she had to figure out what to carve her pumpkin into. She could do faces okay, but she was much better with ribbons, which she carved to represent breast cancer awareness month in the Muggle world. But would that work? Next to her, Emmalyn was attempting to do a badger, and Night thought her art was amazing.

"I love that, Emmalyn! You're such a good artist, and I love how you're representing our house."

Night figured they didn't just have to do faces, so she set to drawing and carving her ribbon.

Wait they were going to do dried moths? Umm ew? That did not sound pleasant. Yet again what is so pleasant about potions? Now she had to touch them? She scrunched her nose and put them into her mortar, then she got a hand on her pestle and began to smash them. It helped with stress relief definitely. She crushed them into a fine powder and once she was all set she heard the class needed bouncing bulbs? She raised her head and looked around her desk till she saw he had a barrel of them. She laughed at herself and walked up to the front and grabbed bulbs for her desk. Well duh professor of course they bounce but then again the first years wouldn't know that.

She snorted and they were going to skin it like a potato? Well if you insist. First she saw the bulb begin to bounce higher and higher and she got her wand out and said, "Stupefy!" and got a direct hit and it fell limp onto the table. Now she got her knife and began to peel the layer off like she would at home. Once she went around the onion and got the purple layer, she got her knife out and began to chop it finely with her silver. Zae was not going to rub her eyes because it would only make it worse. Once it was all chopped and she used the technique the teacher taught them and it made it easier, she waited for more instructions and cleaned off her knife and wand.

Right…the unconscious boy was being taken care of and the professor wasn’t letting up on the rest of them brewing their potions. He had said there was a time limit so there was that. Cassie pulled her attention from her classmates that were otherwise occupied to move on with her own work. She didn’t want to get on the man’s bad side any further. But it was a good thing anyway as her heated potion was starting to simmer which could get bad if left on taken care of. So as instructed, she added her finely ground moth powder into her cauldron, careful to get every last bit of it before beginning to stir.

One…two…three….four.

Yep, that was green. So at least that meant she was on the right track so far. Which meant the chopped bouncing bulb bits were fit to be added as well, which she did, making sure to get every piece of that in her cauldron and stiring to mix it in. Then Cass turned the heat down as the professor had said and proceeded to set the timer for thirty minutes which meant that she now had thirty minutes to wait and hope everything was alright. Oh and carve a pumpkin it seemed. The seventh year going to work with her knife, choosing to have more finer control on her work.

A glance back to her cauldron revealed her pumpkin had begun to simmer, giving her a welcomed reprieve from having to begin her pumpkin carving. That wouldn't take more than a couple minutes in what would ultimately turn into an half hour wait.


She reached over to grab the mortar, carefully spilling the moth powder into the waiting, simmering cauldron. The Ravenclaw knew she would have to pay extra attention but at the same time, she'd already been told how many stirs it would take. Still, she would be observant. Had to SEE when the solution turned grass green which by the look of it would be right....about......now. There. That was as grass green as she'd have liked it to be and didn't think it necessary to keep stirring after that point. Jessa retracted the spoon from the cauldron, having it at the ready for the next step.

Next, she reached for the 100g of bouncing bulb choppings and plopped that carefully into the cauldron as well. It didn't take too long for it to be incorporated.

Jessa lowered the flames as instructed before turning the timer on to the long half an hour stretch. Still not that enthused about carving a pumpkin, the girl began to re-write her notes. Her old notes were now soaking up and stopping Ronan's bleeding which left her without a set for herself.

Elbow resting against the table, jaw cupped by her cheek, her level of disinterest was evident as she once again copied down the recipe instructions. When she could no longer put it off, Jess turned once again to her pumpkin, truly at a loss for how she'd go about carving it. She started with a line, then another line, until it became clear the only thing she was doing was making lines.

So creative.

Quote:

Originally Posted by New Parchment

Potions
Fifth Year
Ravenclaw

Pompion Potion

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.
4. Whilst waiting for the cauldron to come to a light simmer, grind 3 dried flitterby moths to a fine powder in your pestle and mortar. Add these to the cauldron and stir clockwise until the contents turns grass green (4 complete stirs should do the trick).
5. Stun your bouncing bulb. Peel off the purple skin, and chop finely with a silver knife. Weigh out 100g. Add to your cauldron and stir enough to incorporate.
6. Let your potion simmer for 30 minutes. You may carve your pumpkin whilst you wait.

Frowning was happening, and a brief look of concern crossed Noble’s face as Jessa and Finn headed back to their work stations. A flick of his wand, and out charged a glistening rhino patronus. Properly, full on, head down, charging. If you blinked, you probably barely caught its tail disappear through the locked door and up to the Hospital Wing to the Healer. When the Gryffindor did come to, it was probably better she was here.

With an eye still on Ronan, Noble took a moment to stand up and glance around the class. It seemed like most had now added their moths and bouncing bulbs, although a few were still chopping. As for the pumpkin carving? Well he didn’t really care what they managed to draw, it was more about the knife or wand control as they did so. Up to them if they produced something that they actually wanted to keep and decorate their dorms with.

“Whilst you’re carving your pumpkin, I’d like you to think about Maxton’s question from earlier,” he started. It was probably a good thing that from here he couldn’t tell that the aformentioned Slytherin hadn’t stirred his cauldron anywhere near enough and it was a rather horrid yellow colour. Noble would have probably vanished it already if he could, but quickly scooping out the bulb and giving it some more stirs would probably do a decent job of rescuing it. “Maxton wanted to know why we might use a potion over transfiguration for turning a head into a pumpkin. Bel suggested that transfiguration is hard, and that you don’t need to be in the room with a potion. Does anyone have any other ideas?”

He knew it was a dangerous business, asking the class to use their brains and chop at the same time, but they needed to learn.

Oh, and something else to ponder over, since most of them had...what, another 25 minutes to wait? “I’d also like you to think about the ingredients we’ve already added. What might flitterby moths and bouncing bulbs do? Can you think of substitutions for the pumpkin?”


ooc: feel free to answer to answer as few or as many of Noble's questions as you want whilst you carve! Catching up is welcomed as usual...heads up that we'll be moving on with the potion brewing in about 24 hours or so.

Oh, her name. Bel looked up from her not-as-yet-carved-and-still-unplanned pumpkin and tipped her head to one side consideringly. Well, she had suggested it was hard, she supposed. Bloody hard, in fact. Specifically. And she definitely stood by that assessment.

As for the rest. The things to think about. The already added ingredients, Bel eyed her cauldron thoughtfully. She had NO clue what the flitterby moths or bouncing bulbs did or how they would have effected all of what was going on in her cauldron right now, but as for the pumpkin..... she stuck her hand up. "Maybe a different kind of squash? Or..... or! What if you use a different vege entirely, would your head turn into that instead? Like..... Swede? Or Sweet potato? Or Carrot? And if you did that," She added, looking up at the ingredients list, "Would you still have to add pumpkin seeds as well, or would it be the seeds of the different vege?" Anyway anyway anyway, she still wasn't convinced about the purpose of this potion. It sort of seemed like it could only be used for pranks. Or if you didn't have a scarecrow for your field and needed to take emergency measures against a crow infestation.


And she STILL didn't know what to carve. Creativity fail?

Maxton thought he was positively done for when be heard Professor Noble say his name. That was it, he was going to get kicked out of class for having a yellow potion.

Or not.

Luck was apparently on his side and the Professor was simply revisiting his query from earlier on. Any other ideas why a potion would be used instead of transfiguring? Max pondered for a moment before raising his hand slowly. He didn't really want to bring attention to himself and his potion but maybe he could redeem himself with a good answer.

"Sir, is it possible that using a potion is ... less permanent than a transfigured pumpkin head? Like, the effects wear off eventually by themselves?"

He assumed that if you transfigured someone's head into a pumpkin, someone would have to be around to reverse the spell.

Patrick was pretty nervous about adding his moth powder to the potion. It wasn't every day that you had a professor who looked so disappointed in your work. He added the moths. Moving his wrist around the pot to the right, going clockwise he spun, once.

two. three. four.

Eyes peering over the cauldron a small sigh escaped his mouth he hadn't ground the moths enough. He spun around his cauldron one more time and it turned grass green. "huzzah" he mumbled under his breath. Now onto the harder part. incorporating the bouncing bulbs just enough so that it is in there. He poured out the bouncing bulbs and began to stir. it didn't take long.

Lowering the heat he set the timer for thirty minutes and looked around. He wondered what other students were going to carve into their pumpkins. Still unsure he heard Professor ask what other things about the ingredients could change the characteristics of the potion.

Bel had a point, "I think I'm with her, other vegetables or fruits even, wouldn't it just be like any substitution?" he ducked his head and began to think about how he would carve his pumpkin. Ah, the classic. He began to carve triangles for eyes and a jagged smile just like he did at home around halloween.

Yes, she cold see that the younger girl already did some drawing. Cut herself? Almost lost her finger? "You should be more careful next time." Well, at least the girl didn't lost her finger. That would be unfortunate. Alyce took a better look at Emmalyn's pumpkin. "Badger? Okay." It look like one.

Here we go.

Alyce took out her wand and pointed to Emmalyn's pumpkin "Diffindo!" She began to trace the drawing pattern the younger girl made with her wand, very carefully. She tried so hard to follow the drawing but her wand went outside the lines a few times. Her cut wasn't all that neat but she could definitely see a badger. "I'm sorry it's not perfect." Yeah, the badger head look a bit big to her. And it's not a very smooth cut. Yikes. Well done, Alyce, you just messed up Emmalyn's pumpkin. "Do you want me to crave the I and the heart too?" That look easier to crave than the badger.

The Slytherin heard Professor Noble asked the some question about substitutions of the pumpkin and other questions she didn't know the answer to, so Alyce just kept her mouth shut and let the others answer the questions.

Penny had been in the Healers wing as usual, going over supplies and wishing that she had a helper, with a school as big as this one, an assistant would be nice, thankfully the wing had been quiet so far and she was able to get a lot of organizing done.

That is until a rhino charged into the supply room and told her she was needed in the potions classroom.

The little healer had placed what she had been holding down, a vial of calming potion, carefully and then had rushed down here as quick as possible! She slid to a stop just outside the classroom and after taking a breath and fixing her hair, walked in calmly.

“I got here as fast as I could, what seems to be the trouble?” She addressed Professor Noble as she looked around to see a boy on the floor! “Merciful heavens!” She exclaimed as she moved towards Ronan, “What in Merlin’s name happened to him?” The healer asked as she bent down next to the fallen boy.

... it was beyond disturbing that the class still went on when someone had passed out, but Daehyun was glad he was sitting in the front row and could try to be oblivious to what went on behind him, though-

Nope, he couldn't. He couldn't help but worry for the boy while absently carving his pumpkin, slowly and carefully to avoid chopping a finger off in the process, every once in a while glancing at his potion to make sure nothing went wrong with it. From the corner of his eyes, he'd spotted a glimpse of what he thought was professor Noble's patronus, but it was gone before he made out its shape and, soon enough, the Healer was there, so he could finally let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. She would know what to do, right?

Putting the small knife he'd used to carve down, he glanced up when he heard the professor's questions, his hand hesitantly going up at the first one. "Does the potion turn heads into pumpkins, or only encases them?" Or was he confusing it for the jinx? "Because if it only encases the head in a pumpkin, it would be far less dangerous." The way he saw it, if the head was encased in a pumpkin, the person would only have to break that pumpkin to get out. But if it turned a head into a pumpkin, and if that pumpkin got crushed... he shuddered at the thought.

As for the ingredients, he did not know. Instead, he took a new piece of parchment and scribbled down the mentioned ingredients, awaiting answers that he would jot down right away.

She watched intently as Alyce carved the pumpkin for her. She was quite impressed with her skill using diffindo and thought she might even ask the older Slytherin to help her practice the spell. “Not perfect? It’s fantastic! You should have seen what I did to my poor notebook when I tried using diffindo earlier.” After she finished the badger, which Emmalyn really did think turned out great, Alyce inquired about the lettering above. “Yes, please do finish the I and the heart. That would be great.” Emmalyn’s favorite part was Alyce put a bit of her own creativity in the carving.


While Alyce was finishing up with her pumpkin, Emmalyn started thinking about the questions Professor Noble asked. “Sir, a potion would be perfect to slip to someone without them knowing. You wouldn’t even need to be in the same building when they took it. That way they wouldn’t know who did it to them.” Yes, that seemed like a good answer.

As for other ingredients and other uses, she wasn’t as sure. Emmalyn opened her book and began searching the pages for clues. “Oh! Professor, will we be adding foxglove to our mixture?” She may or may not be onto something, but it was worth a try.