After Belle was done adding the garlic bulb and sliced it in half, she looked at the next step.

Quote:

5) Add 3-4 whole dreid lacewing flies and a small (yes, thick) drizzle/plop of bubotuber pus.

She looked for her dried lacewing flies. Once she found it, she added 3-4 dried lacewing flies to her pot. It all seemed to come together. Then she added a small thick drizzle of bubotuber pus.

EWWW...it looked and smelled so gross when she added the bubotuber pus. But as long as it worked in the pot, that was all that mattered.

After flailing both of her hands for a long two minutes ,though only one of them had touched the garlic, but Cassia felt that this was better for balance or something. She sighed feeling that hopefully the scent of garlic hadn't affected her much. Though she was going straight to the bathroom after class to clean up. Gloves or not garlic's scent stuck.it always did!

She reached for the parchment and her jaw dropped open seeing the next step. Lacewing flies!! Ewwww. And then pus. Cassia glanced towards Professor Benltey. She gave her a look that said What did we do to you! . She really wondered that silently and would have gone to the woman asking her that hadn't she been speechless. She looked at the things she had gathered. And looked for the flies and unfortunately found them. Actually when she checked the ingredients she did it absent-mindedly and that's why she was having the shocks now. More attention she should've paid.

Cassia looked from the flies to the pot measuring the distance she needed to touch the insects. She bit on her lower lip and took four of them holding the with tips of her fingers. And added them FAST to the solution. Now the pus! This was liquid so she didn't have to touch it, just the container. But it had a strong smell. Cassia held her breath and drizzled some into the pot. She waved her hand before her face trying to get rid of the smell of this pus. It smelt like oil or something.

Eww again. Why did they have to use insects! This subject is just so weird.

Hand still on Laura's shoulder, Kurumi lead the Hufflepuff away from Professor Bentley and towards the work station next to hers so the Gryffindor could more easily help Laura with spells when the time came. Checking Laura's pot for cracks and what not, before performing the Chaudensis Charm and then Aguamenti. "There you go, Laura," Kurumi smiled softly as she nodded towards the pot. "You won't need any spellwork for a bit, but when you do just give me a nudge."

Offering the Hufflepuff one more glance, Kurumi returned to her own pot and checked the contents to make sure things were still on track. Seeing that they were, the seventh year reached for her garlic and held it in the palm of her hand while she readied her wand and cast a silent Diffindo at it to slice it in half. Carefully, she pulled the two bits apart and dropped them into the cauldron.

Great...first an overpowering vinegar smell and now she was getting smacked in the face with garlic. EEEEEEEEEEW.

Her water was a bit behind her classmates, what with the spilling and reheating required, and Vivi was sorely tempted to heat the pot again to speed it along. It seemed sound enough, but with her current streak of luck, she'd end up blowing up the entire thing in her haste to catch up. Best to just keep at it slow and steady and keep her eyebrows intact.

Soon enough, the water began to boil, and Vivi had her chrysanthemum and nettle tea leaves ready. Almost as soon as they hit the water, she could smell the heavy, distinctive aroma in the steam. That was almost pretty. Like a potpourri or a really fancy cup of tea. She almost wanted to drink it.

Almost.

SPOILER!!: Instructions

1) Once your pot of water has begun to boil, start by adding the chrysanthemum and nettle tea leaves. Stir occasionally.

2) As the colour of the water turns amber, add two generous pinches of cayenne pepper, a generous drizzle of neem oil and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Stir occasionally.

3) As the colour darkens, take a handful of fluxweed and knotgrass, then stir.

4) Take a whole garlic bulb, slice it in half (diffindo) then drop it into the solution.

5) Add 3-4 whole dreid lacewing flies and a small (yes, thick) drizzle/plop of bubotuber pus.

6) Simmer, stir and leave to cool for about half an hour (in which time you clean up your work space and return any unused items to the stores cupboard.)

7) Once your Minsecticide has cooled, strain it into a spray bottle.

Cora looked at Ethan skeptically. Something was surely troubling him, but Cora accepted the fact that he wouldn't say it. She squinted her eyes slightly, before smiling and saying, "Okay. Just thought you looked a bit down." If you need to talk, you can talk to me. Pausing for a moment longer, Cora wondered what it could possibly be. If there was any hope that he would have mentioned it, it was lost after this pause. With one last "hope you don't stay in this mood forever" glance, Cora returned to her pot.

SPOILER!!: Step 2

2) As the colour of the water turns amber, add two generous pinches of cayenne pepper, a generous drizzle of neem oil and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Stir occasionally.

Cora pondered over what a "generous pinch" would entail. Hmmm. A pinch was truly a very vague measurement, and while she had been told the measurements weren't important, they were. They ALWAYS were. WHAT WAS IT WITH ALL THESE VAGUE MEASUREMENTS?! DRIZZLE? SPLASH? PINCH?! Cora was frustrated, and decided to accurately measure everything.

It had to be perfect, there was no guessing. Cora didn't just guess with things like this. Measuring half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, two tablespoons of neem oil, and one tablespoon of vinegar, Cora hesitantly added them to the pot, looking over to Eliza.

Concerned, Cora spoke up. "Professor, are you sure you couldn't give us exact measurements? I know you mentioned it shouldn't matter, but, well, it still does to me. I'm having trouble deciding how much to put in." Cora smiled sweetly, hoping the professor could give her exact numbers. It was like her sister and cooking. While her sister would just throw things in, Cora had to measure out every single ingredient, to the grain of salt.

Ethan looked up from his pot of water. " "I'm fine.. really, Cora," he said, giving her a small smile in return. The way she looked at him told him that she was skeptical of his answer, but talking was not an option right now. He gave her another smile, trying to make it seem a bit more cheerful as he noticed her glance linger, before turning back to his work.

Stirring once again, Ethan vaguely watched the boiling water in his pot. As it slowly turned amber, he glanced up at the board again for the next step. Generous? Splash? What kind of measurements were those? The boy frowned again and pulled out his journal, jotting down more precise measurements. He looked around his workstation and found some measuring spoons. A generous pinch was probably about a teaspoon-full, he figured, so the boy dumped two of those of the cayenne pepper in the pot of water. Generous drizzle.. he figured that was about two tablespoons so he measured out the neem oil and dumped that in as well. Sigh. Next was a splash. Was that about a tablespoon? He would try that much. Ethan measured out the vinegar and poured it into the pot. He gave the mixture a stir, then jotted down the measurements he used.

Minerva looked back at her notes. She then looked around the room and her eyes fell upon a certain person doing his own work. He didn't seem happy, and she felt she knew why. Shaking her head feeling stupid again she turned back to her notes:

After reading the next part of her notes, she picked up her wand. Ewww garlic, she wrinkled her nose. It was going to stink in here once everyone cut it open. At least no vampires would be coming around. She put the garlic on the work table and pointed her wand, "Diffindo" and she moved her wand cutting the garlic in half. Picking it up, the smell went in her nose and she cringed. Dropping the garlic into the pot as quickly as possible, Minerva stirred the mixture. She then hoped there was no other smelly ingredients to use.

After Belle was finished with her previous step. Belle checked her notebook for the last remaining steps.

Quote:

6) Simmer, stir and leave to cool for about half an hour (in which time you clean up your work space and return any unused items to the stores cupboard.)

Ahhh finally an easy step that Belle can just relax in. She let her pot simmer over the heat. She cleaned up her workspace. She wasn't going to use her wand near the pot. She cleaned things up with her hand and used a rag to clean up some spilled juices she left lying on her counter.

Belle went back to the store cupboard and returned the ingredients she did not use. Then when she came back, she got out her journal and drew some doodles. She had an half an hour to kill so why not draw to be productive?

Step 3...the color started to darken and then Jen looked up at the instruction board. She took a handfull of fluxweed and knotgrass, then started to stir the pot...the pot started turning a weird color and smelt weird

... Merlin that girl... she had... she knew...

"Yes... good... thank you."

Now, she needed to breathe. Strangling a Hufflepuff with her hands or a plant was not going to look very good.

An apology! ... at least she didn't have to play mind games with the girl, it was the last thing she wanted to do. "Apology accepted, but perhaps think twice before raising your voice at a Professor." It was a beyond foolish thing to do.

"Laura, do you know how many students I have? On top of that, do you know how many plants I have? What my responsibilities are? ... I cannot be held accountable for remembering little details. Besides, I asked if anybody was missing anything... you need to hold yourself accountable for your learning, because we, as Professors, can only do so much. Next time be proactive and speak up sooner, in detail! ..." Merlin. "Now go on, you have catching up to do."


Ugh...

Now... she needed to walk around, keep the blood pumping, she needed to breathe.

...

Stopping breifly at Cora's work station, Seren smiled. "Of course I'm certain," she mused.

"The minsecticide isn't something you can get wrong with inaccurate measurements, which makes the act of measuring redundant."
Taking the girls vinegar, she emptied a portion of the contents into the pot making a little splash. "There. See that's not so hard."






... Some students seemed to be motoring through the activity.

"Once you've completed the task, I want you to hold onto your spray bottles, you'll need it for the task force mission... if, you're not a member of the task force, then I suggest pitching in anyway and trying out your minsecticide in the garden, greenhouses or on a pot plat in the castle..." if they even had any. Surely the did.

"Once you're done you may be dismissed..."


OOC: The lesson will remain open for another 20 hours.

It was like watching tea steep, that lovely slow spill of color seeping from the leaves and petals and imbuing the water in a creeping cloud of amber. Vivi watched the shapes that seemed to form in the water, loathe to stir and ruin the effect. She was already moving slowly, however, and she finally gave in with a sigh and gave the pot a clockwise stir.

The water was pale, really... too pale to be called amber, and she continued to watch color seep from the leaves and darken the shade of her mixture. Finally, she felt it was dark enough to qualify, and Vivi added her pinch of cayenne. Spicy, and the scent made her eyes water.

Generous and splash? Those were entirely unsatisfactory measurements, and the daughter-of-a-Potions-Master assigned a value to those terms. Neem oil... that was an interesting new ingredient, and Vivi studied her phial before pouring out an exact amount. Apple cider vinegar was more familiar, although from cooking and not from potions. Vivi gave it a sniff before adding just a bit to her bubbling pot.

Still smelled fairly pleasant, although the cayenne was apparent and made her nose crinkle. Vivi gave the pot another stir.

SPOILER!!: Instructions

1) Once your pot of water has begun to boil, start by adding the chrysanthemum and nettle tea leaves. Stir occasionally.

2) As the colour of the water turns amber, add two generous pinches of cayenne pepper, a generous drizzle of neem oil and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Stir occasionally.

3) As the colour darkens, take a handful of fluxweed and knotgrass, then stir.

4) Take a whole garlic bulb, slice it in half (diffindo) then drop it into the solution.

5) Add 3-4 whole dreid lacewing flies and a small (yes, thick) drizzle/plop of bubotuber pus.

6) Simmer, stir and leave to cool for about half an hour (in which time you clean up your work space and return any unused items to the stores cupboard.)

7) Once your Minsecticide has cooled, strain it into a spray bottle.

After checking his ingredients and equipment, Dylan slipped on his gloves before continuing on with heating up the pot. Casting the chaudensis charm as Professor Bentley had instructed, the Slytherin paused a tick and then touched the rim of the pot. Even with his gloves in place, the Captain could feel a faint heat...Smirk. Success.

An Aguamenti later, he was pausing again, waiting for his pot to fill halfway. Once done, Dylan muttered Finite. All he had to do now was give the water a few minutes and then...it'd be time to get started.

She'd said this wasn't like a Potion...but the setup and preparation was. As a Slytherin with THE Potions Mistress as his Head of House, he liked to think he thrived in that area. Surely today would be no different...

About ten minutes later....

Once the water was boiling as the Professor had instructed, Dylan referred back to the list of instructions jotted down...

1) Once your pot of water has begun to boil, start by adding the chrysanthemum and nettle tea leaves. Stir occasionally.

Running a careful eye over his ingredients, he spied the two different types of tea leaves and carefully picked them up. They were added to the boiling water moments later....

This particular step also mentioned something about stirring...yet he seen no spoon...and if she'd mentioned something about that, he'd missed it. Shrugging, he fished into his bag pulling out one of his spare crystal stirring rods. Scourgifying it a few times, just in case, he dipped it down into the water...beginning to stir...occasionally.

*stir stir* *PAUSE* *stir stir*

The steam coming from the pot was starting to smell a little funky.... if the cider vinegar was meant to keep away certain pests by its sheer smell it was already working. Wrinkling his nose he glanced at his parchment for the next items to drop in...

He reached out for the knotgrass and the fluxweed, breaking them up a bit with his fingers before dropping them into the hot mixture. With this being only halfway done the Ravenclaw thought another few minutes in a rolling boil would probably help the ingredients mix better together, so he picked up his wand again and with another circular turn of this wrist uttered the heating spell "Chaudensis..." There, water now hot and bubbly again.

Okay... not so sweet smelling now. With one hand over her mouth and nose, Vivi continued to stir with the other, occasionally checking the color of the mixture. It was hard to tell with those frothy white bubbles on top, but it appeared to be getting quite dark now.

She was still frustrated by the imprecision of the measurements. Handful? What was a handful? It needed to be quantifiable, or they might as well just chuck all the supplies in the pot and call it soup. She'd go with... 36. Eighteen each of the knotgrass and fluxweed, which was 2+0+7+9. Seemed good luck for the upcoming new year, right? That was sort of quantifiable.

Vivi carefully counted out her 'handful' before dropping the fluxweed and knotgrass into her pot. And stiiiiiir.

SPOILER!!: Instructions

1) Once your pot of water has begun to boil, start by adding the chrysanthemum and nettle tea leaves. Stir occasionally.

2) As the colour of the water turns amber, add two generous pinches of cayenne pepper, a generous drizzle of neem oil and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Stir occasionally.

3) As the colour darkens, take a handful of fluxweed and knotgrass, then stir.

4) Take a whole garlic bulb, slice it in half (diffindo) then drop it into the solution.

5) Add 3-4 whole dreid lacewing flies and a small (yes, thick) drizzle/plop of bubotuber pus.

6) Simmer, stir and leave to cool for about half an hour (in which time you clean up your work space and return any unused items to the stores cupboard.)

7) Once your Minsecticide has cooled, strain it into a spray bottle.

Jen looked up at the black board and saw step 4. She took a whole garlic clove, pointed her wand.
"Diffindo" she muttered and it sliced in half and dropped it into the solution. Huh...finally somethin that is going right...so far Jen taps on the wooden table. Don't wanna jinx anything no pun intended.

Stirrer in hand Vickers mixed the floating, funky concoction in the pot, trying to get them all to mix together before adding in the next item.... which happens to be garlic.

He knew friend or roasted garlic smelled awesome, but will it be enough to counteract the vinegar?

Taking that garlic bulb he set it against a blank parchment before taking careful aim with his wand "Diffindo...." he uttered as he made a slicing motion right at the center of the bulb, exposing the curving cloves within.

He may have mashed those cloves just a bit to release more of its juice before dropping them into the bubbling mixture, then gave it another stir.

Let's see, half way there. With no bad stuff happening! Yay!

Anyways, Jen looked at the board, step 5.
She added 3 lacewing flys...ew...and a small drizzle of bubotuber pus.
drizzzzzzzzzz is what the sound made.

With garlic now added into the mix and the pot given another heating spell to get the mixture to boil it was starting to smell like a camping cookout for this Ravenclaw. The aroma from the pot was good enough to almost take a sample of it....

One of the few times he can thank his OCD as it steered him away from any such possibility.

Looking down at his parchment for the next step he winced unconsciously. Yeeeep definitely not gonna imagine taking a sip of this concoction after this.

He tapped off the vial of lacewings flies until he had about three if them in his hand. Didnt lacewings flies take long to properly stew? He remembered that was specified for a potion. Furrowing his brows thoughtfully he dropped the flies into the mixture, gave it another stir before raising his hand "Professor.... doesnt lacewing flies take a long time to stew to be effective? Polyjuice potion procedures specified that lacewing flies are to be stewed for 21 days."

Cardigan watched the pot waiting to see when it would start boiling up. That's what she had to do next, anyways: put in the chrysanthemum and the nettle tea leves once it started to boil. Judging by how warm the pot felt not too long ago, it shouldn't take long at all to bubble up.

That, ladies and gentlemen, was EXACTLY correct!

The water in the pot began to bubble up soon after, leaving her to do the rest. She picked up the chrysanthemum and dropped it in gently, landing softly on the water, and slowly sinking. Great! Now, as for the tea leaves: she took them into her hand, and proceeded to drop them in one by one, until her palm was empty. She then began to stir the mixture, doing that every now and then.

Stir, stir, stir.

Cora sighed. So she wouldn't get any exact measurements. Well, oh well. Cora would just have to make the most of it. At least the professor was being nice about it.

SPOILER!!: Step 3

3) As the colour darkens, take a handful of fluxweed and knotgrass, then stir.

Cora waited for the color to darken as the instructions said. The next step stopped Cora in her tracks, though. "A handful of fluxweed and knotgrass"?? Does that mean one handful of fluxweed and one handful of knotgrass? Or a handful of a mixture between the two? This was NOT just about being difficult.

This misunderstanding could MOST CERTAINLY cause a drastic difference. So before she could leave, Cora continued. "Oh and Professor? Is step 3 referring to one handful each of fluxweed and knotgrass? Or one handful of a mixture of the two?" Cora was NOT trying to be difficult. She rather enjoyed Herbology. She was just being thorough.

Seren was highly amused now.. which was a good thing. It was, relaxing. It was such a typical Ravenclaw trait to get caught up on details and measurements... but where was the fun in that? Wasn't it more fun to be adventurous? To explore the possibilities?... after all, it wasn't as if the solution would blow up or anything.

"Whichever you prefer," she replied grinning. "Remember, you can't go wrong." Besides, you learnt more from making mistakes... not that making a mistake was possible.

Of course, the Ravenclaw drama didn't stop there, and this was simply too much fun.

"It depends on its purpose. Now I'm not an expert on potions, but I'm assuming the benefits of lacewing flies in a Polyjuice potion come from deeper than the surface of the insect, which is really all that we require... the bacteria and loose cells from its surface is all we require to boost our minsecticide." The art was in potency, and of course, to an extent, efficiency.

Step 6 required simerring and stirring. Jen turned the heat down...and stirred the pot. She left the pot to cool as she put the tools away where they belonged. Wow, actually something done right.

He nodded his head at the Herbologist's response. So just a bit goes a long way apparently, even if its not a lengthy stewing. In any case adding the flies, no matter how effective they were for other things, pretty much killed any appetite and curiosity he had for the concoction's taste.

Now it was time to add the last item.... which was bubotuber pus. Yet another wince-worthy ingredient, and he could almost imagine that any appealing aroma coming out of his pot now would certainly get wiped off by adding the last bit in.

He tipped the vial containing bubotuber pus and allowed the thick glob to pour out slooowly before sharply pulling it up and replacing the cap. He peered into the pot and watched the thick blob melt away into the steaming mixture. A few more turns of the stirrer got the pungent petrol-like smell to hit him full in the face. Ick. Must be close to ready yeah?

Jory past the remaining of the half an hour looking at the other students as they worked and listening to the questions some asked and Professor Bentley's response. After he checked his watch, he checked on the minsecticide's temperature. It was still a bit warm so he left it for another ten minutes or so before carefully straining it into the bottle.

Annnd... he was done!

The last step! Yay!
Jen strained the pot into the spray bottle and cleaned up the pot and stuff and set the spray bottle on the table.
"I'm done now Professor." Jen said. Yes, sticking to her self does pay off. Wonder if the professor even knew she was here at all? Well, besides saying Good day professor., Jen had been quietly doing her work that she got wrapped up in it and was barely paying attention around her.