Marigold was liking the style of this new Professor more and more as each question was asked. Though she didn't quite get why someone would want to breathe fire like a dragon. Maybe to just act like a dragon? Or to heat up things?

"You could probably cook stuff," she said, shrugging. Though you would probably need a fire for the potion making anyway. She didn't have any idea, but was curious about the right answer.

Tora was busy jotting down notes and so missed answering Professor ... Professor.... Potionsmaster's question about the eyes. She wondered if there was a potion for those though. Maybe she should ask after class? She made a note of it next to the poor drawing of the eye at the top of her paper. But this next question, how would she come up with an answer that was different? She couldn't be the same as everyone else. It had to be something different and creative (hopefully). What if she wanted to light fireworks and make a show with it? Nah, that answer came too quickly into her mind. Melting snow was also overly banal so she cast that idea off as well. She had to challenge herself! She thought a bit more before finally raising her hand with the perfect answer.
"You could use it to bake clay pots and create all sorts of things," she said. "It doesn't have to be artwork, but you could make meals or you could burn away weeds in a fallow field and make really good ash-y soil." She thought she had heard or read somewhere that soil containing ash was really good for plants. Maybe Herbology? She wasn't very good at Herbology so she doubted it. It might have been from one of her Muggle books about geology. Though she always preferred the Astronomy ones...

She wanted to add in one last thought though, "Or you could make a fiery show of sorts," she smiled big. Could never resist a show.

Alex raised her hand to explain her theory about the fire breathing potion. "I think that the potion was used defensively as a means to frighten opponents. Even though the fire would not cause pain, who would want to come close enough to it to find that out? Everyone knows what the result of touching fire would be, dragon or otherwise. So the fire created by this potion would act as a deterrent to those you wanted to avoid."

*Hmmmm Romulus had to think about this one. It could be used for a number of things. He also wondered how painful it would be.*
"A potion like that could be used for people to do anything they normally do with fire. But I think that it would make a person warm inside and out. Like if a person ended up falling into a frozen lake for example they would just need to blow air onto themselves softly to warm their body back up."
*Some of the other students talked about muggle entertainers that used special tools and liquids to breath fire. It sounded very interesting, he had never seen anything like that. He would have to do so research.*

Penelope returned West's smile when he sat by her and would've said hi or something but then class started, so no point in saying it now. And the first question was about dragons? Not what she was expecting since this wasn't Care of Magical Creatures, but she did know answers and stuff. She didn't feel like answering though since most people had that covered, so she might've zoned out for a little bit there...and then tuned back in when the professor was saying a lot of stuff.

Breathing fire with blood? What?

She blinked and tried to focus on the rest of what he was saying to figure out what was going on and sorta managed to get back on the same page but still felt a bit confused. Maybe if she just listened from now on she'd be fine, especially once it got to the actual brewing part. And if not, she could ask West, yeah? Yeah. So she was staying silent on this question too.

Ian nodded as he listened. It certainly seemed as if they were going to brew a fire-breathing potion. He thought about the potion.

His answer was this If it's not offensive, I would think it would either be a defensive potion, used to frighten or in a survival situation

He was curious what would happen if one swallowed the potion. He raised his hand and asked, What type of reaction would one experience if the potion were swallowed? He certainly thought it might be fun to see that Gryffie boy squirm.

Mo was most definitely lost in his own thoughts about dragons. Being one, flying one, owning one, tending one, photographing one. Dragons. That was how to distract this particular Ravenclaw. He tried to listen to his classmates, but his thoughts had wings and a fiery breath and he was distracted.

He caught the last question, though, and Mo's brow furrowed as he considered the question. "Professor, I think it has to do with illusion. We can create fire, and our friends and enemies know that, so when we create the illusion of fire... it's just as powerful without having the same destructive force."

Jun arched an eyebrow at the lesson. There was something about a potion that let you breathe fire or something like that. Now the question was, why did people do this? And why would they need it if it wasn't for offensive purposes? Pondering, Jun thought of an answer. But it kind of made sense in his head.

"It would most likely to be used for survival? Like to light a fire and keep warm," But then again, wizards could use their wands for that. What if they didn't have one on them? Jun just made himself all confused again. "Or to light an emergency flare," There was that too.

Adrienne couldn't help but look a bit disappointed, but after a few moments she got over it. Sure, maybe she wasn't going to get to breathe real fire, but it was still a big improvement over no fire-breathing at all, right? Besides, it would be warm, and she'd get to taste salamander blood, which was certainly an experience she'd remember. She had to wonder if it tasted like human blood, which, at least in her experience, was generally salty and metallic. She scrunched up her nose at the next point, though. So they were... putting it in their mouths, but not drinking it? Or had she misunderstood something? She raised her hand quickly. "What could happen if you drank it?" Would it be satisfyingly gross if someone in the class messed up?

If it wasn't an offensive potion... "Well," Adrienne said, going with the first thing that came to mind, "it could easily be used to scare people off. How do they know that you're not breathing proper fire?" She was already plotting the use of this potion on several annoying 'friends' back home.

"I agree with those saying to use it was some kind of defense strategy, or entertainment purposes." Because he knew he would be scared if someone came at him while breathing fire. But there was something else nagging at the back of his brain. "Wouldn't make more sense and be less disgusting to use firewhiskey and a lighter or something like that?" Not exactly a fan of having anything with blood in it anywhere near his mouth, here. Even if it was just salamander.

Bleugh.

Caelen was furiously writing all over her notebook. There was sooo much going on right now that she could barely keep up. Okay, she had to stop and get her mind caught up.

So everyone keeps saying that you could use it as a deterrent? Could you use it to cook food? It would produce heat without hurting anything right? But then what did that 'hurt you too mean?' Could she die by trying to cook food by this? Seriously, someone needed to tell her before her cause of death became popcorn!

And... she was going to taste salamanders blood. It was starting to hit her and she was surprisngly not flipping out. She was currently bracing herself for the action. The eleven year old could not wait till she was getting this diary entry sent to her brother and Spencer.

And either way, she was going to BREATHE FIRE! The excitement of that was never goign to wear off. She swore by that.

The question was an interesting one and so were the answers that followed. Michael sat for ages thinking about it and listening to what the other students were saying before he put up his hand. "The only thing it could be used for is entertainment." He hesitated for a moment before continuing on.

"While it sounds awesome to use it in an offense move, realistically it just wouldn't work. Firstly you would need to have the potion on hand and by the time you actually took a mouthful, you'd probably be hexed."

West put his hand up, shot a smile at Loppy, and then gave his answer. "Stage show. Pyrotechnics. Wrock and roll." Good use yes? He thought so. Maybe The Dead Kneazles could incorporate it or something.

With OWLs out the way, Sarah had become a bit more dreamy during class.. bad habit. Sarah focussed her attention back the teacher... nod nod... scribble scribble. She raised her hand, "my cousin and his friends are muggles, yet they taught themselves all sots of tricks like sword balancing" gulp "and what they call fire eating. They do it to entertain others" not to mention the impress girls factor... "they can also blow it out. Though they doo coat their mouth before with something... and drink a lot of water...." Sarah said, "perhaps there is another alternative to Salamander blood. I don't fancy the idea of putting another creatures blood in my mouth... ugh."

So, many thought it was for show... Cosgrach looked thoughtful for a moment, then narrowed his eyes, pursed his lips flipped his hand several times to indicate it COULD be thought as 'show'. "You could say that... it was for show."

Protection? Hmm. It was the same reaction again, and in the end, he said "Not in the sense you are putting, but it was for protection, yes."

Cooking, though? "It is warm to the skin, so I don't think it is hot enough to cook something well. But it is good to warm yourself or someone on a cold winter day, although that wasn't its initial purpose."

Text Cut: You should read these too

Quote:

Originally Posted by feeheeheeny

In jest to lighten her own mood, the second year raised a hand and offered, "Maybe it was invented to be able to convey a realistic dragon when dressed in a dragon costume for a stage performance, like one at W.A.D.A. For entertainment purposes and stuff." That'd be fun.

"Mhmm, you thought that well." He smiled at the girl. He should ask her name. Would she be interested in working extra for potions?

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemon

"It could still be used for offense though, yeah, professor?" Just making sure, because that was what it sounded like. "I mean, I'm sure there are people who'd be alright with harming themselves with the goal of hurting others in mind."

Really dumb Gryffindors or something. Yeah. Alice knew her house had idiots in it.

"What happens if we drink it?"

Captain Alice KNEW things. "Yes, for attacking yourself." Come to think about it... "If you slipped it into someone's mug, you could attack them." He probably shouldn't have said that?

Ooops. Hehe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

"Hmm...maybe they wanted to get in touch with their inner dragon?" he suggested to the professor. "But i think the people who would use it would be the fire breathers you would see in like...circuses and such."

THIS! YES! Cosgrach pointed at him, then said "Inner dragon is correct." He grinned.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

"Perhaps people were just curious about what it might be like to breathe fire like a dragon would. I could see dragonologists being curious enough to try it for themselves."

Her, too! Cosgrach nodded enthusiastically. "Not dragonologists," he said, pronouncing the word sloooowly to get it right, "but the first people who invented it probably wanted that."

"Okay, so, it is unknown exactly when it was invented, but it's thought to be around 500 AD," he said as he was in front of the class once more to explain it better. "The first records of it are in ancient Persian libraries, but they are not the inventors. The tribe that invented it doesn't have a name or origin in the records, but Persians provide us with a logical and satisfying story.

"The potion is used by the tribe in the holy rituels to honour the dragons, because they were their gods. As I've already said, it has salamander blood in it that is an ingredient used to cure, but the tribe didn't know it then. They thought it was the holy dragon spirit that cured them, and the recipe was their most prized possession. Just imagine, the dragons are even more impossible to tame in those days, and a potion that enables them to breathe fire like them cures them, warms them up on cold winter days and because it is fire, scares off other animals. It is still a handy potion out in the wild, and for us modern people, the most important property is the 'curing'. It is easy to brew and you will recover from flu in less than a day. It is also good for scars and light illnesses like flu.

"As for what happens if you drink it, I saw some enthusiastic students among you to demonstrate." His eyes SHONE. "Why don't we give them a chance after we are done with brewing?"

He smirked again and tapped his wand at the board for the ingredients to appear.

• 3 goose feathers (chopped WELL that they look like powder)
• 5 centimetre square of parasites (mycosis fungus)
• Roughly 2 centimetre square fire-crab shell (prepared)
• One fire slug
• 8 drops of salamander blood
• Some flobberworm mucus (depends on how much rigidity one wants)

"The feathers and fire-crab shells are already prepared and are on my desk, where you can also get a culture of fungus." Mycosis fungus. Should he warn them, in case they didn't know what it was? During brewing, maybe. "The size of the shell depends on how much you want to brew. We don't want to spend all Hogwarts money, so we are keeping them small." He EYED them. No playing around with them, okay?

"Only the fire-crab shell part is modernised. They used to use a plant for that, but it is extinct now due to the wars that destroyed its habitat." He sighed dramatically. "But the effect is the same, so let's start brewing.

"Fill your cauldron 1/3 with water, please, and do not light a fire undernearth.

"Any questions, in the meantime?"

OOC: The class will continue 7 hours later.

Ian listened as the professor explained the purposes of the potion. He was quite surprised about the curative nature of the potion, but was pleased he'd gotten the answer partially correct.

He scribbled notes furiously to ensure he got this part right. He assumed at some point the information about the tribe and their rituals might end up on an examination. Soon, they would be brewing, he thought. He shivered at the thought of some of these students ingesting this potion. He really became unnerved when he noted the fungus on the list of potions.

After the professor put the recipe on the board, he began to gather his gear and his protective equipment. He certainly didn't desire to have an accident with this particular potion.

After having put water into his cauldron, Ian headed up to the gather the ingredients from the front. He carefully gathered the items (especially the fungus and crab shell) and placed them on the board he'd brought with him. He utilized a scraping tool, he'd brought with him from home. He had learned this from his mother when she didn't want to touch some of the recipe ingredients. It was shaped like a cake decorating knife.

He returned to his desk and checked his cauldron. Never could be too careful when that Gryffie boy was sitting behind him. He began to chop up the feathers using his knife.

He thought while he did about a question. Professor, you mentioned the potions use in religious rituals. Are there any modern societies that have dragons as their deity?

This looked complicated. Especially for a first year. James didn't think he liked potions but dutifully he scribble down the notes and began to collect the ingredients. James walked up to the teacher and got the feathers, culture of fungus and got the fire crab shell.
Now to begin. "can someone get some water for me? My mom usually gets it from her wand?" James asked. That was on the rare occasions that he saw his mom in the kitchen, usually the house elf did the the cooking.

Christmas looked as the professor put the instructions for the potion and noted down all the ingrediants that she needed and hoped that she could do this well she loved potions but sometimes she did struggle with it and this was one potion that she thought that she would struggle with and she made her way up to the professors desk and collected the ingrediants that she needed and looked about to see what her fellow classmates were doing

Bay got up from his desk and walked up to the professors desk to grab his ingredients. Trying not to make any eye contact his quickly grabbed them and went back to his desk. Sitting down he placed everything down carefully and he made sure that his fire was not lit.. He wanted to follow everything carefully, didnt want anything to go wrong.

Bay looked around and saw other students doing the same " atleast everyone else seems to be taking this seriously" he hoped no one would be crazy enough to mess around with this stuff.

[spoiler=ronpotter;11506673]
This looked complicated. Especially for a first year. James didn't think he liked potions but dutifully he scribble down the notes and began to collect the ingredients. James walked up to the teacher and got the feathers, culture of fungus and got the fire crab shell.
Now to begin. "can someone get some water for me? My mom usually gets it from her wand?" James asked. That was on the rare occasions that he saw his mom in the kitchen, usually the house elf did the the cooking.
[/QUOTE]
Sarah listened with interest... she loves history. Perhaps potions won't be so bad.. Although the idea of thinking dragons were gods was funny... Sarah did not laugh. Although she wou;d have. In the past people could be really stupid. She wrote down her notes. At least the professor did the culture and feathers for her. She got that first as well as the fircrab shell. It was a good thing Hogwarts was becoming more sensible. She got the other things and returned to her place. Then she heard a voice call out. Mother Sarah to the rescue.
"you probably want the water making spell.. you say Aguamenti Spell and the wand movement is a rotated S.. like this" Sarah showed him. "do you want me to do it for you or do you want to try it yourself?" she said. Then she looked into the cauldron. "usally a cleaning spell is casted before you start though. Watch me."
Sarah took out her wand "you say Scourgify and the wand movement is an S" she said before beginning. "Scourgify' she said, doing the S shape and casting the cleaning spell in her cauldron. "you should try it yourself" she encouraged...
"what is your name by the way?" she asked. "my name is Sarah Edwards"
"look, I am going to cast the water spell now. You say ;finite when you have enough water to make it stop"
"Aguamenti " she casted and she did the rotated S wand movement. A jet of water came out of her wand and began to fill her cauldron. "when I have enough, in this case one third, I will stop" she said. She waited. Finally she had enough. "finite" she casted.

Did Professor Culloden grin at her? HUH. Must be a first time for her. None of her professors at Beauxbatons ever did that. Most of them were strict. Astrid grinned right back at the Potions professor. See? Hogwarts wasn't that bad... so far. She should report that to Sir Tye soon. He'd believe her and stuff, right?

AND FIRE YESSS. Astrid liked this topic very, very much. She didn't know why she was so amazed with fire. Sometimes she'd find herself staring at a flame on the candle for a long time. Dunno, but it was entertaining and mesmerizing in that way. She raised her hand at the fire question. "Maaaaybe? With the right potion, maybe we could," she said. ASTRID WAS TOTALLY HINTING AND STUFF. Were they gonna brew a potion that could make them breathe FIRE?!?!?!!?!

ASDFGHJKL SO EXCITING.

Offensive? Merlin, NO. That was actually an AWESOME POTION. Super awesome. Anything related to FIRE is awesome. Why would people think of it that way?

"For entertainment purposes? I mean... I'd love to try and breathe fire at least once in my life." Just saying. Ahem. That was just Astrid's opinion, but she was sure that EVERYONE had the same as hers. Like... breathing fire? W-I-C-K-E-D.


Professor Culloden went on about history of the fire/Dogbreath potion and dragons and blablablabla. Astrid didn't care about that, but took notes anyway just in case these information came out in her exams and homework. What made her stop taking notes for a moment and look up at the Professor were the words "students" and "demonstrate". DID HE REALLY? Astrid was... so... excited. Merlin. She tried not to flail or anything. SHE WAS GOING TO BREATHE FIRE ISN'T THAT AWESOME? She was gonna be a dragon for a day. That's right, Tag Kildare, you better hide your unicorn mane from me.

AHEM. Anyway...

Astrid wrote the ingredients in her parchment and then went to gather the ingredients she didn't in brewing the potion. Once that was done, she looked up. Oh... okay. Fill the cauldron with water. 1/3, she reminded herself just in case she forgets. She took her wand out, cleaned her cauldron with a "Scourgify" and said, "Aguamenti." Once she felt like her cauldron was 1/3 full, she immediately stopped the flow of water with a "Finite."

AND SHE DIDN'T LIGHT UP THE FIRE YET. Good. See? So far, so great.

Robin mentally slapped her forehead. It was to honour the dragons, not to scare muggles! She was surprised at how old the potion actually was. She took careful notes and wrote down the ingredients and the first step before getting up to retrieve the the fire-crab, fungus, and feathers. She hoped that a fire-crab wasn't what it sounded like and was probably overly cautious returning to her seat. She filled her cauldron up via the sink (maybe others could produce water but not her yet)

"Professor, if the salamander blood is the ingredient that gives the user protection or healing, then is it used in a lot of medicines in the magical world, like non drinking medicines I suppose? Also, what's the difference between salamander blood and healing herbs in protective potions or medicines?"

She didn't want to seem like she didn't know anything about the magical world, but she didn't. And she was really curious- was there no plants that could do the same thing as salamander blood? And if she ever went to the nurses wing would they make her hold salamander blood in her mouth until she was better? Even though she was open to the idea of trying it- she didn't think she'd ever go that far to cure a common cold.

Thankfuly an older girl came to his rescue. "thank you.. I'll do it myself", James said confident of his abilities. "it seems to simple" James said scourgify together with the wand movement, nothing happenend. There was no difference to the cauldron... "sarah." he asked cautiously, "what did I do wrong?" he was nervuos about getting an the older student's bad side. "by the way me name is James Andrews, I am glad to meet a nice older student"

Adi scribbled some more. He found the story fascinating. After, he was done with the story, he jotted down the ingredients which sounded complicated to him with the way they had to be prepared. And what exactly is mycosis fungus? He headed to the Professor's desk, collected the first three ingredients, set them up on his workstation and turned to his cauldron, examining it. Had to make sure it was clean, you know. Those five Cs still stuck with him.

Having determined it was clean enough, Adi pointed his wand on the inside. "Aguamenti!'' When it was one- third filled, ''Finite!'' Now to wait for the next step.

It was nice to see a confident student.. perhaps over confident. Sarah vividly remembered her first year with all the hiccups she had with spells. She wanted to watch him try but that might give him too much preasure. Instead she looked ahead and watched out of the corner of her eye. Wait... had she told him enough? She probably didn't/
He tried... but failed.
"yes" she responded with a smile. "what did you do wrong? More like I did wrong... I forgot to tell you about the third component of a spell.. intent. When you cast a spell, have in mind what the spell is going to do So in this case think of the cleaning and in the case of the water spell think of the water jetting forth. It is hard at first but as you get more experienced it comes second nature" She gave another smile.
"welcome to Hogwarts James! I have a brother named James too, its a nice name.Thanks for the compliment. I do try to be nice..