Sarah made notes on what the others and the professor had said. Yeah, anything coul dbe used for tea.. it was like soup in a way. Just add water. Sarah wondered why tea was so expensive in the past, when one could have made a different kind of tea out of more available produce.

Sarah looked at the tea set. It was quite cute. It owuld be very cool though if the Gryffindor one was tougher than the others, just to make it more house themed.

Sarah picked up the lion cup and brought it closer to her. She knew it was probably clean but just in case she casted the cleaning charm.

This tea smelled really good. Ella had her hand resting lightly on the side of the tea cup as it warmed just to make sure she'd done the spell right and she smiled a little when the steam started to rise. This meant it was time to sip, yeah? Yeah.

Siiiiiip.

Interesting mix of flavors. The blonde raised an eyebrow as she tried to distinguish between spices, deciding she'd need another sip to help manage that.

Siiiiiip. Mmm. So good.

It was probably time to take some notes too, considering there was lots of tea to try. The blonde set her tea cup down gently and pulled her parchment closer, eyeing the Hufflepuff box for the list of ingredients used.
First up was Caraway.



Perhaps Caraway was one of the reasons the tea smelled so nice, then? Ella took another sip and smiled a little before returning to her note taking. Next up was chickweed.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.

Making himself a cup of Slytherin tea, Ascanius looked over the label and read it over twice. Yeah, he liked lemon in tea, so no doubt this was the Slytherin one. Look, he was a snake it was catered to his likes. Snake tea.

Was that the kind of interpretation that she was looking for? Pfft. Probably not.

So he took out some parchment and a quill. All the while he stirred his tea and waited for it to cool down. No burns needed here, thank you.

He took his first sip of the tea and tried to read if he could really, genuinely taste each of the flavours. Horsetail...eh maybe? Nettles? Yep. Lemon balm, absolutely. Hibiscus...um...sure?

What did this have to do with his house? He'd have to figure that out.

That should do it Blair thought. She lifted the tea cup and gave it's contents a quick swirl before smelling it. It certainly smelled herby. Well here goes nothing she thought as she took a sip...

It wasn't so bad, actually she would go as far as to say she liked it. Blair took another sip before setting the tea cup back on her desk. The herbs blended together created an interesting flavour, she struggled however to decide what this was.

I suppose I'd better take some notes she thought. Blair took another sip before writing another heading on her parchment :

Gryffindor Tea

Right, what have we got? Dandelion leaf. Blair picked up her textbook and flicked through to the herb section and began reading.

She was actually right in thinking this would turn into a tea drinking class? Well that was a first. She should make guesses more often. The Gryffindor was somewhat disappointed that they wouldn't be harvesting anything from the flesh-eaters but then she had to remember this was Bentley they were talking about. The woman who watched the Umbrella Vinora kidnap Milton and stressed that no harm should come to the plant in all their rescue efforts. In her mind she'd probably be more worried about hurting the plant than getting the Ravenclaw girl eaten.

Such a strange Head of House she had but Lex approved.

Alexa helped herself to a cup and some Gryffindor!tea. "Aguamenti!" Just following along with what everyone else was doing. So far they were adding water. Uh-huh, check. What else...?

Sarah hadn't even added water yet, no use looking to her for the answer. Across from her Cassia was casting a second spell. Oh. Right. She knew that. It wasn't a spell she'd used before. Lex paused, wand raised at the cup and tried to follow the wand movement of the next person to cast it. From the looks of it, it wasn't that hard.

Ahem. "Chaudensis!" So we're clear, the steam thing is meant to be happening, yes?

Now add water, Sarah took out her wand. But first she needed to get the tea bag She reached forward and got the Gryffindor box. Making note of the contents she selected one. Thankfully this was Bently, or else Sarah would never accept tea or any potion from anyone. Too dangerous

She placed the teabag in the cup. What was the teapot htere for? Couldn't they pour water into the cup directly? Why a tea pot? She was about to to the water directly into the cup when she felt bad for the tea pot. She reached for that and opened it . She held her wand over the mouth.. "aguamenti" she casted and the water began to flow. She watched teh level rise with a watchful gaze. Finally she said "finite" to stop the water.

Now the warming up part. Should she first pour the tea pot into her cup and then warm up her cup, or should she warm up only the water in her tea cup?

The easiest part of the assignment would be happening now. All she had to do was enjoy the tea while making notes. At first she wondered if the Professor actually wanted them doing something along the lines of 'guess that flavour' but see...she wasn't that well acquainted with the taste of different leaves and probably would have simply kept writing 'leaf' beside each house's tea for her notes. Technically she'd never be wrong considering they were leaves, with the exception of the grass here and there but that all wouldn't be necessary. The packet had the ingredients on it. She would literally just be taking notes and commenting on the properties and their connection to the houses.

Easily done.

Lex reached for a sheet of parchment and a quill from her bag and began scribbling off the ingredients while she sipped at the tea. The writing was a bit hard to make out but she could see.



She'd go through her text and make her deductions after she'd tasted them all, for now she would finish this cup and make herself a cup of...hm...which tea would she have next?

Sarah decided to add the water as is into her cup. She could warm it up later. Making sure her teabag was in the centre of the cup, Sarah poured the water contents of the teapot over it. Now she had to do the warming up spell. She had done that one plenty of times before, and thus it was not new to her.

"chaudensis" she casted on her cup as she watched the water boil. Good. good. She needed a spoon and sugar usually when she drank the tea.. a spoon to mix it in and remove the tea bag and sugar well... because a spoonful of sugar always is nice. But Sarah did not think that was the point.. like most of the times she added sugar to her tea and as a result she did not even know the what the initial flavour of the tea was.

So now she had to drink it. Despite it being Bently and all, Sarah decided to be 'constantly vigilant' and looked around, incase other students were having side affects already. Just like she expected, nothing yet. The tea seemed fine. Now it was time to drink

Kace was busy scribbling down notes into his notebook. He couldn't believe how many notes he took. He decided to give his wrist a break till he heard the professor move on.

Oh so it was tea time?

He noticed the professor was brining out the tea cups and each tea bag specific to their house. This was going to be an interesting lesson. He got up out of his seat and went to get his hufflepuff teacup.

What else did he need in this cup?? Oh of course...Water! He smacked himself on the head. He got out his wand from his robes and said.."Aquamenti!" and then his tea cup filled with water.

Then he needed to make it hot....what spell was used again? He heard his other students say it! It was.."Chaudensis." and then his cup steamed. It did feel good against his nose. His nose did feel quite stuffy.

Scribbling the last of his notes, he perked up when he heard they were going to have to taste the tea! Awesomeeeee! They were doing it as part of an activity, but still. Tea was tea!

He reached for a tea cup and put some of the assigned Badger tea leaves into the cup. Water came next. "Aguamenti!'' After the cup was filled- "Finite!'' Great! So far so good! What next? Oh yes! Heat it.

Errrrm.

"Excuse me! Can someone show me how to heat the tea? Please?''

Lex didn't drain everything from her teacup. She didn't like the things that swirled around in the bottom so when she'd gotten enough tea out of the cup she simply scourgify-ed the rest of it and got right back into it the task of tea tasting. This time she reached across for a packet of blue tea Ravenclaw tea added it to the cup then used the spell to get in some water. Once again she used the Chaudenss spell to get it nice and steamy then sat back for a bit watching the words she'd written while she gave it some time to get less hot.

No use thinking too hard about the ingredients for now. That would all come afterwards...probably after she'd had a potty break because...well...four cups of tea in one sitting. A bladder could only do so much, you know?

Lex put the tip of her finger to the tea's surface, deciding it wasn't worth scalding her tongue over. It wasn't all that hot anymore so she got right back into it.

Hmm...peppermint...she was very much sure there was at least a hint of peppermint in her. Lex reached for the pocket and idly scanned the ingredients while she sipped away at the tea. Just as she thought. There WAS peppermint present. She took her quill and got to scribbling ingredients again.



She was thrilled to know that at the moment, the hardest part of the lesson was choosing what tea to drink. Everything else would come later.

Alright now onto tasting the tea. He took the hufflepuff tea from the box the professor gave them. He put it into the hot water and once it was in...it smelt....SO GOOD. He wafted it in and loved the smell. He smiled and was about to take a sip but he wanted it to cool down. He blew over the top of the teacup and waited a few seconds.

Then he brought the rim of the teacup to his lips and tasted it.

Yuuuummmmmm he smiled and sipped some more.

He liked it even more. But the teacher said he needed to take notes on what was in the tea of their house. He took out his notebook from his bag and took notes. What ingredients were in the tea? He copied them down.

So they were drinking tea in class today? It wasn't quite... what he expected, considering he had to pay to get into class, but the tea was free, Bentley was pretty now that she stopped being fat with baby, and he had some of the people he liked most in the area. He'd live.

He'd complain to his mother, but he'd live.

Mo retrieved a cup and the Ravenclaw tea blend before returning to his work station. Might as well get started right off... if he was lucky, he would get to all of the teas. Surely that was the whole idea. As he passed one of the younger Hufflepuffs, he heard the kid asking for help heating his water.

And look... none of his mates were going to assist? That was rotten.

"I've got you. Look... the incantation is Chaudensis. Do you want to give it a try, or just have me do it?" Mo set down his cup on Adi's workbench and added the Ravenclaw tea. "Aguamenti."

Let's see. What tea...what tea? She only had two options left, you think she'd be able to promptly come to a decision but that was proving to not be the case. Lex liked the first two she'd had to drink...maybe she'd look at the ingredients before making the next selection but that kinda took away from the surprize that came with the tasting...didn't it? Like, she'd already have an idea of what to expect and if she didn't it would be because she didn't know what the plant in question was. Normally...she wasn't very fond of tasting herbs she didn't know...but that was only if she saw the name and couldn't tell what it was. If it was simply a case of not seeing...it wasn't that bad...in theory. It just made tea drinking a whole new adventure.

She squinted at the two remaining packets.

Mmm...

...

Slytherin it was! She got that into the cup and brewed a fresh cup of tea--after once again scourgify-ing, that was like the most important part, next to the drinking and note taking. After letting the tea get a bit cooler she took the first few sips. It wasn't half bad. Different but not bad. This one could use a chocolate frog dipping but then would she have to explain the chocolate too since it was added? Yes? No? To be on the safe side she didn't because effort and she was making good time with this.

She began scribbling the ingredients again.



Siiiiip.

Adi figured the others were busy and was just about to try and imitate what they were doing when he heard a voice, so he looked around. It was Marcus aka Mo. He knew because he heard others call him that. Adi grinned gratefully. "I'd like to try but can you show me how exactly it's done again, please?'' The wand movement he meant. Just wanted to be sure he got it right.

While Mo added his tea to the cup, Adi practiced. ''Chaudensis, Chaudensis, Chaudensis, Chaudensis...'' At least he had made progress!

Oh, they were tasting tea! This was so exciting! Caleb loved tea and coffee, and this was turning out to be a much more interesting than he'd thought it would be. He hurried up to the supplies and got himself a teapot before returning back to his desk.

"Aguamenti," he muttered, watching as he filled up his pot with tea. Cool, he'd never done that spell before! He smiled happily with pride until it was full, then he waved his wand and muttered "Chaudensis," and watched as the pot began to form steam on the outside. Awesome!

"I'll show you on my cup, and then you can try on yours," Mo suggested, pointing his wand at his cup and repeating the spell. "Chaudensis." The water heated immediately, and the brewing tea released the spicy scent of peppermint in a puff of steam.

So peppermint was one. He'd have to write that down on his parchment when he got back to his work station. "Now you give it a try." He made encouraging eyebrow wiggles at the younger boy.

Annabeth was feeling so ashamed for having been reprimanded for talking too much, that she had decided to keep her mouth shut for the rest of the term. She thought it was an injustice, she couldn't know she was speaking too loud that the teacher could listen to her. Keeping her head down and trying to disguise her sobs which jiggled her body, she opened her bag and took her parchment and quill. She placed them over the round table and wasted some time organizing the quill and the parchment, switching their positions as if it could make difference. At last, she placed the quill to the right and looked at it nodding her head. It's fine, she concluded. The girl took a deep breath and took a cup and a tea bag.

Her eyes were still watering when she grabbed her wand and pointed it to the cup, "Aguamenti". Quickly the cup was filled with fresh water, then she said "Finite".

Her friend Adi was asking for help. Oh, poor thing, he didn't know how to heat the tea. She had learned it during the Summer, with Professor Hecate.

Annabeth put the teabag into the cup and then waved her wand while she said the incantation, "Chaudensis!" A steam could be seen leaving the cup.

That was one cool spell! Adi watched in amazement as Mo's cup began to steam. "Alright then,'' he said. He couldn't wait to try this! He pointed his wand at his cup. "Chaudensis!'' The cup heated up immediately. "It worked! Thanks a ton, Mo!''

Adi inhaled deeply. He good a good whiff of lots of nice smelling scents. But he'd have to taste it to regconise whatever was in there. And finally, he'd have tea! Just what he wanted! Adi sipped.

Now that she had her book out Minerva started flipping through the pages. Continuing to sip her tea she looked for the Caraway. Since that was the first thing on the package. She continued to enjoy her tea as she finally found Caraway. Reading it she scribbled some notes:

Sip.. sip.

Well that was interesting. She sat reading some more. Stomach complaints was a good health thing, but did that really go along with being a badger. No Minerva didn't feel like it did. Something else had to pop out at her.

"Perfect," Mo ruffled Adi's hair, careful not to spill the boy's cup of tea as he scooped up his own cup and returned to his work station. Once there, he pulled out his parchment and quill and took his first sip of the Ravenclaw tea. Definitely peppermint right away. What else was he tasting?

Lavender and... gingko. Mo reached for his Herbology book and flipped through the pages, trying to figure out why these particular herbs were being associated with Ravenclaw.

It was rather good, actually.

Obviously, Caleb was going to taste the Slytherin tea first. He would be able to identify that one the easiest, he was sure of it. Plus he would feel like a bad snake if he didn't. He went and got the Slytherin tea leaves and added them to the bottom of one of his tea cups, and then poured some of the hot water on top of it. He let them seep in the water for a few moments before tasting it. OUCH HOT!

Smacking his lips and blowing on the tea to cool it, he gave it another try. Hmm, definitely something lemony in there...

She waited for the tea to warm then reached for the cup and brought it to her mouth sipping slowly. Ouch, ouch. She burnt her tongue. Stupid tea, she must have let it warm too much. The snake sucked on her tongue until the burning feeling subsided and BLEW on the tea. Should she use Glacius now? Ice tea? No? Probably.

Letting the tea cool for a bit she watched people around her for no reason. She wasn't going to sit and stare at the cup. Nope. Watching others was more fun! But it had to end, eh? She turned her gaze back at the cup, eyed it for a bit then sipped slowly. Tongue was safe.

Cassia paused trying to tell what exactly did she taste. Hmmm. nettles? Yuuup. She flipped open her textbook and skimmed the pages until she found what she wanted and scribbled down notes.

Was he meant to drink his ENTIRE cup of Ravenclaw tea? Because good as it was, Mo wasn't really interested in drinking four full cups of tea today... especially because he'd have to pay to get back in if he made a run for the nearest loo. He drank about half of the cup before setting it to one side and heading back up to get another cup and another tea sample.

Which one this time, though? Hmm... Hufflepuff. Might as well. That tea smelled strong enough he wasn't even sure he'd need to brew it. Anise. He smelled anise.

Mo headed back to his seat and added some of the Hufflepuff tea to the bottom of his new cup. "[i]Aguamenti[/]," he tilted his wand into the cup, letting it fill more than halfway before heating the water with another, "Chaudensis." Whew... smell that brewing tea.

Not anise, then... what was it?

As Caleb took his sips of tea, he started to recognize a few more of the flavors. There was DEFINITELY lemon in there, and something kind of...tree-ish. He had to take out his textbook and start looking through the chapter on herbs and such to try and figure out what exactly it was he was tasting. In fact, he had to go back and make himself another cup of tea, because he'd drunk the whole thing trying to figure out what was in there!

Finally, he had a good idea of what he was tasting, thanks to his hand textbook, and he scribbled some notes onto his parchment.

Quote:

Slytherin:

Lemon - rejuvenating and zesty
Nettles - very good for you and helps with prevent health problems

The Slytherin tea represents this house because it is tart and strong, which represents the persistance and unwavering dedication that Slytherin's have to succeed in their goals.