... It wasn't Dogbreath? Astrid blinked at her notes and then looked up at the Professor. "I'm sorry. My mistake, Professor," she said and sort of made that 'oops' smile before making the necessary corrections. Once that was done, she looked up again so she could know what was next to come.

Yep, she cleaned her Potion with a Scourgify. No big deal. She didn't forget that little part, by the way. So now, they were going to add the powdered goose feather. Astrid added the ingredient into her potion and took the wooden stick/ladle, cleaned it with a "Scourgify" as well before she stirred her potion. She peeked inside and waited for it to look homogenous. Merlin, such deep words. When she felt like her potion was homogenous enough, she finally turned the heater on. RIGHT. She wasn't forgetting the "clean your mortar and pestle" part. "Scourgify," she said. There you go. Clean mortar. Astrid took her gloves from her bag and put them on, then placed the fungi into her morter (eww, why was this necessary?) carefully. Parasite. Skin. EWEWEWEWEWEW.

Taking the pestle, Astrid crushed the fungi thing for 30 seconds. Yes, she totally counted it just to be exact. She didn't want her potion to turn out badly. She added a bit of water with a "Scourgify" and sort of shook her mortar. Uhm... yeah. It looked mixed now. Good. She added the mixture now to her cauldron calmly, as Professor Culloden emphasized.



Stir. Okay sure. Astrid took her wooden ladle again and stirred the potion seven times counter clockwise. She turned off her heater after that to allow it to cool until no vapor was seen. At all. Hmm... okay, then. She'd just have to follow the Professor, even if it meant testing her patience which, by the way, isn't something she was good at. She wasn't patient... at all, but she just had to... yeah. For five minutes, though. If it lasted for more than five minutes, she'd had to repeat everything.

... Merlin, please don't let THAT happen.

Checking her watch, Astrid waited and continued to stare at her watch. Yes. Stare. Right after five minutes passed, she looked up at the cauldron. No. Vapor. She didn't see any sign of vapor. YES YES YES SHE GOT IT RIGHT WOOOOOOH NO NEED TO REPEAT EVERYTHING. She couldn't help but grin and all.

The next bit of instructions was kinda difficult, confusing, and 'huh'. She blinked a few times. Don't add the fire crab shell? Metal spoon? UHM. UHM WELL OKAY. Astrid took her fire crab shell and held it with a metal spoon, which she cleaned with once again another "Scourgify", lowered the spoon into the potion inside the surface and CAREFUL NOT TO SPLASH. Gulp. She took her stirrer again and stirred the potion clockwise once for 10 seconds, counter clockwise once for another 10 seconds... and then until she made a total of 12 stirs.

OKAY DONE. She took the fire crab shell out and got a few tissues and placed it there. So yeah. Done with that. She was ready for the next set of steps. Maybe.

Looking up from her cauldron, Lana listened closely as she reached for her wooden stirring rod that she had set a top the cauldron before. Giving it a close look, she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with it but gave it a quick cleaning anyways. She didn't want to have to start all over again with the potions and if that meant cleaning a bit more, she was willing to do that.

Once the stirring rod was clean, she began her counter clockwise stirs.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7...

With the last stir, she extinguished the fire beneath her cauldron and glanced inside. She would have to wait for the vapours to stop and the potion to cool now.

Removing the stirring rod, she brought it over to her other supplies and began to clean them thoroughly as she waited the needed five minutes. Cleanliness was definitely on her mind at the moment and the fear of possible having to start all over again.

With all her unused supplies cleaned and ready for use, she set a side a freshly cleaned spoon and tissue. She wanted to be prepared for what was going to happen next.

When the time was up, she peered into the cauldron and nodded. There were no vapours seen and she took that as a very sign as she reached for the freshly cleaned spoon and her fire crab shell. Setting the shell on the spoon, she slowly lowered it into the cauldron until it was nicely settled just inside the surface without it splashing any of the potion.

With very careful and gentle hand, she began her twelve needed stirs process counting the seconds of each stir to herself.

Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10.. Counter Clockwise 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10..

Slowly and carefully, she removed the shell from the potion and rested it a top the tissues she had set a side earlier. Once she was sure that the shell was safe where is was, she turned to her workstation and cleaned up as much as she could before returning to her journal to write down everything she had just done.

SPOILER!!: Potions Journal of Lana K. Hyde: Seventh Year, Ravenclaw 2082-2083

Lana Kalen Hyde
Ravenclaw 7th Year
Potions Lesson #1 Fall 2082

Fire Potions

• Used in holy rituals to honour the dragons

Five C's of Potion Making:

1. Color
2. Content
3. Concentration
4. Cleanliness
5. Care

Fire Potion

• 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)

Preparation
▲ Check for cleanlinesses of the workstation
▲ Check cauldron - clean; using Scourgify
▲ Set up cauldron and workstation
▲ Gather ingredients

Steps

1. Fill cauldron 1/3 of water ; using Aguamenti
2. Add powdered goose feather. Stir clockwise until it looks homogenous
3. Light cauldron, using Incendio
4. Using pestle and mortar, crush parasites for 30 seconds. WEAR GLOVES: Can leave permanent white stains on skin.
5. Fill mortar with water, shake to allow it to mix fully
6. Calmly add to potion
7. Stir counter clockwise seven times
8. Remove from heat.
9. Allow to cool. No vapour seen Should take five minutes. If still not cooled after six minutes. Vanish potion and begin again.
10. Using a CLEAN metal spoon, slowly and nicely lower fire crab shell inside the surface. DO NOT ALLOW TO SPLASH WATER
11. Stir 12 times total; clockwise and then counter clockwise, each stir should approximately take ten seconds to spread thoroughly.
12. Remove fire crab shell. Place in a clean place atop tissues.

So Kace got all the steps down pact. He made the potion notes in his notebook.



He checked the next set of steps he copied down. He already added the fungi to the mortar. That was checked off. And now he needed to stir it seven times counter clockwise. He checked the clock first for the motion and did it opposite.

1...2....3...4...5....6...7.....

Alright that is done. Then he had to turn off his heater. He pointed to the fire and said, "Finite!" and it was done heating up. He let it cool down a bit till he needed to see vapor. He was waiting for a little bit like 5 minutes the prof said and then he saw vapor rise up. It was hard to see but it was there.

Now to get the fire crab shell, he went up to the room to get it. Once he returned to his seat, he put the shell on his spoon and VERY carefully put it into the potion. He did not splash it. Now he needed to stir quickly. He check the list and it said he needed to stir clockwise for ten seconds. Alright.....

1...2..3..4...5...6...7..8..9..10.. seconds of clockwise stirs

Now onto the counter clockwise stirs....for 10 seconds. He did those back and forth till he had a total of 12 stirs for each stir. He then wiped off the sweat from his forehead to hear more instructions.

His potion was good?

At least it hadn't blown up nor drawn the attention of the professor so Ben thought he might be okay. So far. Woops...what was the man saying about AFTER crushing? The part related to the professor vanishing two students' potions? The second year offered a quiet scourgify to clean his mortar and pestle once more. He then picked up the handle of the wooden stir rod once more and gave it seven counter-clockwise stirs as the professor directed.

One...two...three...four...five...six...seven.

Seventh stir complete, Benjamin turned off the heat as directed. He then settled a little more in his chair and glanced at his watch to time out the five minutes. All the while murmering to himself hoping he had done everything right and it would indeed be ready when the time was up.

Ian waited for about 4 and a half minutes before checking his cauldron again. It was cool enough where there were only a few wisps of steam. He hoped that it would stop at the right time. 25..26...27...28.....29....five minutes. He looked at his cauldron and the steam had stopped.

He cleaned the spoon and carefully placed the fire crab shell on it. He was shaking a bit as he lowered the spoon to the cauldron. This was kind of tough. He didn't want to splash anything. He stopped, set the spoon to the side and took some breaths to calm himself.

After he had steadied his nerves some, he attempted it again. He was still a bit nervous but was able to follow the directions to lower the firecrab shell into the mixture where he stirred it. Slowly he moved the spoon clockwise, counting as he did. He did the first rotation a little fast and so on the clockwise motion, he tried to slow it down a little. This time was a little better, but still not quite proper. He moved it once more clockwise...and this time he made it ten seconds for the rotation. He went counterclockwise once more. He took a deep breath. This was tedious. He sure hoped the next steps were a bit more exciting.

He was going to let him drink the potion that was so cool! “I can do that.” He couldn’t wait were they close to be done, oh wait they had just started. Right.. anyway he snickered as his planned worked, looked as if book boy was getting to try the potion as well. Heh! He glanced in front of him and chuckled quietly. Oh speaking of did the boy get a lot of water on him not that Bart cared, “Maybe you knocked my cauldron over and I didn’t spill it.” He was looking the other way how would he know. Looking back at the professor, “I’m Bart Sir.”

Now to get back to the potion, because if the potion wasn’t done he wasn’t getting to breath fire or drink the stuff. Yeah.. yeah clean cauldron got it even if he did it after filling the water the first time. So he grabbed the powdered feather and added it into his cauldron. Making sure to clean his wooden spoon first Bart stirred clock wise, but when would it be homogenous? He wasn’t sure what that even meant. Listening as others talked about it he watched in his cauldron. When it started looking different he figured it was homogenous. Pointing his wand, “Incendio”

Once the flame was high he pulled his gloves on. Good thing his mum made him bring them he guessed. He really didn’t want his hands to smell. He smelled bad most days as it was went he let air out. Cleaning the mortar he placed the fungus and started crushing them. Crush.. crush crush… Easy as can be, but calmly? How did you do things calmly? Being over dramatic Bart made big slow gestures to his cauldron before dumbing the fungus in. Was that calm enough?

He then stirred the potion seven times. Not six, not eight, but seven times counter clock wise with his clean spoon. One, two, three, four, five, six , SEVEN. Turning off the flame he watched the vapors. Nah he was going to play with the vapors. Putting his hand over it he moved it through the vapors and through again. Until finally they were gone. Had it been five minutes already he really hadn’t even paid attention.

All of the sudden book boy was being nosy, "I'm doing just fine now mind your own business." He shot him a glare before moving on.

Now it was time for the fire crab. Going to the front he took one and made his way back to his seat. He placed it on the metal soon and put it down inside the surface, but just as he did..

SPLASH

He looked at the cauldron for a few minutes before fishing it out with his spoon. “Professor what happens if it fall into the potion, like I mean splash all the way in?” because that just happened.

Tora had barely finished the second and third steps before the professor gave them two more. Luckily she had finished and was able to take notes on the two. Stir counter clockwise for seven turns... couldn't be too hard. She grasped her stirring stick and swooop, swooop, swooop, swooop, swooopp, "siiixxxx, seeeveeeen," she finished her counting aloud and red the rest of the line of instruction in her notes. She flicked off the heater, but now she had to wait. What to do? What to do? Five whole minutes to waste now. She couldn't doodle, because she didn't like it really and she wasn't any good. She couldn't just walk around the room like she wanted because she figured that the professor wouldn't appreciate it. She couldn't just sit there though. She decided to practice some simple levitation spells instead. Not on any of the potions supplies of course (that could be dangerous!) but on her bag. "Wingardium Leviosa," the third year said quietly. She shwooshed and flicked her wand at the bag and it rose and hovered off the ground a couple inches before she let it back down. It was an incredibly simple spell, but she couldn't just do nothing and she dared not try anything more fun. She glanced over at her cauldron. No luck there it was still vapor-ing. What to pass the time with? Her hand brushed against the bulge in her pocket. Of course! She could play with her Astreglobe! The astronomer's device was her most prized possession. It magically showed all the stars in a dome above a compass-like surface with a needle that pointed not to North, but to the direction she was facing, in regards to North, South, East, or West and what stars and constellations and other celestial bodies would be in front of her. She was happily occupied with that for several minutes, changing the views from planets only to summer constellations to zodiac symbols to whatever she could think of with a tap from her wand. When she looked back over at her cauldron, it had cooled and she realized it was time to move onto the next step. She sadly tucked away the Astreglobe and once again focused on her potion.

The firecrab shell went onto a metal spoon just as the instructions stated, and she very, very, very gently lowered it into the cauldron. She was known to be clumsy like this, and she didn't particularly want to find out what would happen if it splashed. Now for more stirring. Boring. She stirred once counter clockwise, then once clockwise, then once counter-wise, once clock-wise,counter-wise, clockwise, counterwise, clock, counter, clock, counter and finally clock. She counted each counter clockwise and then clockwise turn as one and so finished with six on each side. That was when she realized that she had stirred the wrong way first. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid! But there was nothing she could do about it now... She gently removed the shell and put it on a tissue before raising her hand. She should ask if it was still safe to put in her mouth. "Sorry, Professor? I think I made a small mistake," she said.

Fern’s confident smile fell flat when the professor told her ‘no,’ and she hunched over in her seat, face red with embarrassment, hoping no one had been paying enough attention to hear what she had said or what Professor Culloden had answered. She especially hoped Ella hadn’t been listening, but Fern realized that was wishful thinking on her part; of course Ella had been listening. She was head girl, quidditch player, Hufflepuff, AND a teenager… the best Fern could hope for was that Ella would quickly forget about it.

In her humiliation, the Hufflepuff only heard half of what the professor said, but she recognized a list of ingredients when she saw one, so as everyone moved to gather their ingredients, Fern did as well.

Back at her station, Fern put on her gloves and goggles, then cleaned and filled her cauldron with the proper amount of water with “Scourgify,” “Aguamenti,” and “Finite.”

…her goggles were so blah. She seriously needed to bedazzle them or something, because right now Fern just knew she looked like a total loser.


By ‘and stuff’ did the professor mean the stirring rod too? Still hunched over, Fern turned slightly in her chair to see if Adi was cleaning his wooden stick, but before she could find him, she saw Head Boy Alec scourgifying his. And Alec knew what he was doing so, “Scourgify.” There. Clean rod.

Carefully, the second year added the powdered feather to her cauldron and, after taking a moment to remember which direction was clock wise, began to stir. But what in Merlin’s beard did homogenous mean? Fern’s question was answered by an older looking Hufflepuff, and she looked at him and gave her best knowing and mature nod, pretending as if she had known what the word meant all along and was simply confirming his definition. Fern stopped stirring when the feathery bits were well mixed, and she gave another knowing and mature nod at her potions. Oh yes. Fern was so great at this class.

After making sure her heater was giving off the maximum amount of heat possible, Fern turned to the fungus. First, clean the motor and pestle. Check. Second, add the fungus. Check. Third, crush the fungus. Fern smiled because crushing was her favorite part of potions, and she counted very slowly to thirty so she could crush the fungus for as long as possible. Check!

Then, pointing her wand to the motor, she very quickly cast, “Aguamentifinite,” before swishing the crushed fungus with the small amount of water she had added. And into the cauldron it went!

Fern worked on cleaning her motor and pestle while she waited for the next set of directions.

After re-cleaning her stirring rod just to be safe (Fern did not want her potion vanished like those other students), the Hufflepuff stirred the mixture 7 times, then, turning off her heater with a ‘Finite,’ waited for her potion to cool.

Waiting was her least favorite part of potions. Fern spent the time thinking up ways to sound intelligent and mature so she could get house points for Hufflepuff too.

By the end of the six-minutes, the steam had vanished, and Fern had yet to come up with any great ideas. She turned her attention back to the potion and, making sure to first clean her metal spoon, very VERY carefully dipped the fire crab shell just below the surface. Then, nose wrinkled in intense concentration, with her wooden rod re-cleaned, she very VERY carefully stirred. When she had just finished her 12th stir, spoon, shell, and stirring rod still in the cauldron, she heard a splash and turned around to see Bart trying to retrieve his fire crab shell.

Fern let out a laugh.

SPLASH.

Her metal spoon and the fire crab shell in it hit the bottom of the cauldron.

Oh no oh no oh no ohnoohnoohnoohnohno

“Ella! Ella!” Fern whispered to the older Hufflepuff, forgetting all about being cool. “Help me please!” She couldn’t start over. She COULDN’T!!!

Her blurting out useful information earned her five points. It eased her embarrassment. She focused back on the task at hand, though she did feel proud of herself. Tutors normally didn't award points because...well...is had been a class of one.

Continuing, Beverly stirred seven times, counter clockwise. When that was done she went ahead and turned off the heater. She might of have been raised surrounded by potion masters and mistresses, but it was always nerve wrecking when something was expected to do something when it could go good, or bad or really REALLY bad. Like explosions. This wasn't an exception. If the vapor didn't vanish in five minutes she'd have to restart and live in shame.

Thankfully, there was no more vapor just before it struck five minutes. With a sigh of relief she took the crab shell, holding it with the metal spoon, and mimicked the professor's instructions. Gently. No plash here.

Time for the stirring. While she did the one clockwise, then one counter clockwise, Bev felt as if she was on autopilot. One this way, one the other. At the struck of twelve, she placed the crab shell on a tissue, making sure not to drip on the table. She had a feeling Professor Culloden wouldn't appreciate a mess. He looked like one of those overly organized and clean older men her father has business with.

She carefully checked off the steps that she had just completed. Glancing at the board and two her notes once more she realized what she had to do now. Stirring.

Brilliant.

Her gloves still on she carefully stirred the concoction clockwise.

1….gosh she really didn’t want to stir anymore…2 it wasn’t like it was the beginning of the stirring or anything, 3 – really, she just didn’t like stirring. 4 she’d totally charm the stirrer to do it for her, but…she didn’t trust it. Trust was key. 5 ugh no more please. 6…she couldn’t help but frown. 7 she was done.

OH JOY! Oh RAPTURE She was done! Well not entirely, just no more of the stupid clockwising. Well, that was a lie she noticed as she saw how many time she had to stir after the next ingredient was added.

What would Professor makes-you-stir-too-much do if I threw the finished potion on him? She wondered and felt herself smile.

Taking the cauldron and potion off of the heat she waited…and waited and waited until the concoction within stopped releasing any sign of heat. It had only taken about five and half minutes of staring at the darn thing for it to cool.

Taking her clean metal spoon she carefully lowered the firecrab shell into the potion. She was going so slowly and carefully with it that the potion barely shifted as the shell dropped below the surface.

Yeah she was glaring again…this time in the this potion will end up in your soup-way.

She stirred the potion once…and counted ten seconds in her head. “Would this potion combust if say…thrown on someone?” She asked and acted as if she was just curious. Curious as to what it would do and if it was useful at all…really, firebreathing. She might want to firebreath someone into flames, then that’d be useful.

As she spoke she continued to spin and count and spin and count until all twelve of the little stirs were finished.

SPOILER!!: fiyaaaah

Fire Potions
• Used in holy rituals to honour the dragons
Five C's of Potion Making:
1. Color
2. Content
3. Concentration
4. Cleanliness
5. Care

Fire Potion

• 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)

Preparation
▲ Check for cleanlinesses of the workstation
▲ Check cauldron - clean; using Scourgify
▲ Set up cauldron and workstation
▲ Gather ingredients

Steps
1. Fill cauldron 1/3 of water ; using Aguamenti
2. Add powdered goose feather. Stir clockwise until it looks homogenous
3. Light cauldron, using Incendio
4. Using pestle and mortar, crush parasites for 30 seconds. WEAR GLOVES: Can leave permanent white stains on skin.
5. Fill mortar with water, shake to allow it to mix fully
6. Calmly add to potion
7. Stir counter clockwise seven times
8. Remove from heat.
9. Allow to cool. No vapour seen Should take five minutes. If still not cooled after six minutes. Vanish potion and begin again.
10. Using a CLEAN metal spoon, slowly and nicely lower fire crab shell inside the surface. DO NOT ALLOW TO SPLASH WATER
11. Stir 12 times total; clockwise and then counter clockwise, each stir should approximately take ten seconds to spread thoroughly.
12. Remove fire crab shell. Place in a clean place atop tissues.

Adrienne had to pause for a moment and figure out which way was counterclockwise - if a clock goes to the right then she had to stir to the left, yeah? - and then got out her stirring stick and slowly stirred the liquid inside her cauldron. "...five, six, seven," she muttered, as she finished up that step. And then, what, they were just supposed to do nothing for five minutes? She shrugged and turned off the heat, flopping back into her comfortable chair to just enjoy existence for a short while. Her mind wandered and within seconds she was fantasizing about being a dragon. Five minutes passed quickly, and then she was left wondering how she was supposed to tell if her potion was cool.

Her instinct was to stick a finger in it, but she'd learned that that was likely a bad idea when working with potions that were potentially dangerous, or really any at all, because you could easily mess something up with what felt like the tiniest of changes. Frowning, Adrienne hovered a hand a few inches above the top of her cauldron. It didn't seem like it was radiating any heat, so she figured it was close enough and thought to the next step.

Like the conscientious, responsible person she was (hah!), she "Scourgify!"-ed everything again, just in case. No such thing as too clean, right? She then grabbed a few tissues and laid them out by her cauldron, so that she wouldn't have to deal with that when she was holding a fire crab shell dripping with potion. Adrienne made her way to the front of the classroom and came back with a shell, balancing it on a recently cleaned metal spoon and slowly, s l o w l y lowering it into her cauldron. She then began to stir, first to the right, then the left, then the right... it was incredibly slow going, trying to make each stir last a full ten seconds, but she was just about sure she had the right amount of stirs. Well, sort of sure. She'd done either twelve or fourteen, as she'd lost count about halfway through, when she started feeling dizzy because of going around and around and around. Either way, she was done now, so she fished out her shell and placed it gently on the tissues beside her. All done!

Kevin was having fun. Not that he would admit it because HE teached this class but he was. There was something about potions class that he liked though he did not know what. Maybe it was the structure and the precise work they had to do? NAAAH! He hated that kind of thing. But what if....? He shook his head and listened to the next steps of instructions. More stirring.

Well, that was easy. He scourgified the wooden spoon and began to stir. 1..2..3...4..5...6..7..8..9...WAIT! Nonononono he had not meant that! Panicking silently inside his mind, the first year rotated the other way 2 times as if it would go back in time. The potion began to bubble and he quickly turned off the heat, waited...and nothing.

NO ONE HAD SEEN THAT RIGHT?! He glanced around and was relieved that the potion was back to "normal" He sat back down and set the timer on 4 minutes and 57 seconds because it had taken him at least three seconds to set the timer. He waited as he looked at his cauldron. So far so good. Nothing dramatic happened . He checked his watch, 2 minutes left. A slow , bubbling sound came from the cauldron again and Kevin snapped his head up. It was coming from his cauldron! The bubbling became stronger and instead no vapour lingering in the air there was thick really thick smoke hovering above the cauldron.

BUT HE HAD GONE BACK IN TIME RIGHT?! Or did stirring backwards not work that way?! The timer went off and thinking the SMOKE would clear away after he had added the firecrab shell he quickly grabbed it with a wooden spoon in his panic. He did however placed the shell carefully as possible in the cauldron and waited again. Nothing changed. Maybe...maybe stirring? yes! yes stirring. He squinted at his notes and was unaware that his hair was starting to poof in all directions.

He began to stir while counting , using the right amount of stirs correctly this time but despite this his potion only got worse. It was starting to get to the brim of the cauldron, not yet overflowing but soon....

BEEHIVES GIRL WHERE WERE YOUUU?! T_______T

Well, at least they learnt to clean. That was promising.

He walked to the in front again and clapped his hands two times, because this step was the most important.

"This is the most important step," he announced to make sure he got everyone's attention, "So listen carefully. You should wait for another minute and just cut the slug vertically in the meantime in two." So it should be two thin and long pieces instead of two short and fat ones. Then add the pieces but stay away from the cauldron as far as you can. If you’ve done everything correctly, the surface should explode harmlessly and start burning. Put it out with your breath ONLY, so you’d better hurry before the fire spreads to the whole surface." Got it? Breath and staying as far as possible and everything?

OOC: The class will continue 7 hours later.

Sarah watched the other boy out of the corner of her eye... she would help him if need be.. wait, was the professor talking to her? SEVEN POINTS! That was awesome.. she had never gotten so many points before randomly. She never even thought she would get points for that... wasn't it expected to help those in need? In fact she like doing it. She liked to give. She gave a big smile.

Now onto the next instructions. Add powdered feather. First she had to clean off her wooden spoon, so she casted a cleaning spell on it. It had not been cleaned since OWLs. She then added the feathers adn began to stir clockwise, until you could no longer diffeerenciate between it and the rest of the mixture.
Now it was time to light. "Professor, what was the reason why we added the feathers before heating up our caudron?" she asked.
Now time to light. Sarah took out her wand and made the shape of a flame as her wand movement "incendio" she casted, then she turned up the flame.
Next, Sarah took out her mortor and pestle and cleaned them too. Putting on her gloves she reached for the fungus and put it in the mortor.She picked up her pestle, crush,crush, she kept an eye on her watch and she kept on crushing unitil the second hand was on the oppositeside of the watch to where it started. THirty seconds had passed. Sarah took the glove on her wand hand, enabling her to reach for heer wand and cast the water spell into the mortar. "finite" she said when she was done. She put bakc on the glove. Time to mix, shake shake, was she calm enough? She was always tense in potions, she was so used to it though. She tried to calmly add the contents of the mortor into the cauldron. Next.


Should she take off her gloves? Sarah did not know. Meanwhile she reached for her spoon and began to stir in a clockwise direction..1...2..3..4..5..6..7
Sarah took off her gloves now. They were hindering her progress. She turned off hte heater and began to watch the vapour. Would it work? Had she done it right? She hoped so
Five minutes passed... and the vapour was gone. She had done well. Hopefully she would continue to do okay. Sarah took her wand out and cleaned the metal spoon and placed the fire crab shell on it. Slowly and gently Sarah began to lower it into the water. She did it so slowly there was not a splash. Time to stir.
To the right..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
to the left ..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
To the right..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
to the left ..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
To the right..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
to the left ..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
To the right..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
to the left ..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
To the right..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
to the left ..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
To the right..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10
to the left ..1...2..3...4..5...6...7...8..9..10

Done? Sarah reached for a tise and placed it on it. What was next? Time to scribble in note:




Two claps made Sarah jump, well sort of. It was good thing she was not in the midst of something dangerous. Cut the slug in two. Sarah took her wand again and used another charm to cut it down the middle. She than added the two pieces and backed away.
It was funny that she was actually waiting for it to explode, which could harm... but she wanted to do things right.
BANG! gulp. Fire..
Keep calm. Sarah began to blow. huff..blow..blow.. Was the fire spreading? She hoped not. Blow blow. She was so calm but still had the adreniline. She was not panicing.. blow blow...

Ian turned around. Don't know what you're chuckling about. I think after you end up in pain, he won't make me drink it. You volunteered, not me!

As he watched Gryffie boy work his potion, he grinned as he seemed to get under the boy's skin. This could be fun. He certainly seemed to get a little joy out of it and that was a new feeling for Ian. He seemed to be experiencing growth at the expense of this other boy.

Ian blushed as he was chastised by the professor. He mumbled a quick Yes sir and scurried back to his seat. Ok. Remember not to wander in classIan filed this little tidbit into his brain file.

Just as he got back to his seat, Ian heard the splash behind him and heard Bart ask his question. Good, maybe Gryffie boy would have to start all over. Ian was disappointed when the professor responded that not only did Gryffie boy NOT have to start over, but he only had to stir 6 rotations. Ian turned around and shot the Gryffie boy a dirty look.

Robin listened closely to the professor and wrote down the steps so she could do them when she finished with the fire crab. She was right before about her being behind, but a lot of people were having some problems so she didn't feel as guilty.

She still had two minutes left and had already cleaned her metal spoon. Already the vapor was thinning which she took as a good sign. While she waited she reviewed the next steps until she had them memorized. She recited them out loud in the last minute

"Okay next is lowering the firecrab in gently, then stir 12 times clockwise- then counterclockwise 10 seconds each, right?"
She peeked at her notes "Right okay, breath Robin"
At 5 minutes there was no vapor coming from her cauldron ~thank goodness~ so she moved on to the firecrab. She lowered it on her spoon until it was just beyond the surface and began stirring really slowly making sure they were 10 seconds each.
"Right, left, right, left..." She made sure she was counting in her head. When she got to twelve she got it out and placed it on her tissues. What would happen if it got on the table? Would it burn a hole through it? Set it on fire? All of a sudden she was much more careful putting it on the tissues.
Next was waiting a minute and cutting the slug.
Halfway through cutting the slug (after apologizing to it though, poor thing didn't want to be in a potion) her knife slid from the middle of the slug to the bottom left corner, making one half of the slug a lot bigger than the other half. She fretted, was this fixable?She raised her hand.

"Professor how do I fix this?"

Oh. OH!

Now this potion brewing thing was getting exciting. Explosions! And fire! Rhodes couldn't help but let a small grin appear on her face, and not wanting to waste anymore time, because fires and explosions, she quickly cleaned off her cutting knife and grabbed the slug she was needed to cut. She figured, since she had one minute to spare, she could take her time cutting it. And after about ten of those seconds, she decided she didn't want to take her time.

Cutting a slug.. was gross. Actually, slugs in general were just gross and she couldn't believe she actually had to touch the thing.

Her face was all scrunched up by the time she had finished cutting it vertically into two, and after grabbing each slug slice, she backed away as far as she could before dropping them into her cauldron. She waited. And waited. And just when it seemed like she would have to be waiting forever, the most GLORIOUS of surface explosions happened and then there was the fire.

Rhodes let out a quiet, evil sort of laugh, that she tried to cover up with a cough, and moving back to her cauldron, she began to bloooooow on the fire to put it out.

How many people were going to forget that last step?

OHHHH! NOW Abbi got it all.

The second year peeked inside her cauldron and wore a smile. It looked all the same and well mixed inside. So she could catch up along with the next few steps. She did exactly so. First she put the heater on to high and then she placed her gloves on her hands cause WHY would she want stinky hands that smelled like cooties.

After the gloves were on she added that cootie-fungus looking thing whatever it was called to her mortar. Then she began with the crushing. Squaaashh. Crussshh. Water was then added and lastly the mortar was shaked. Shake shake shake shake and shake it.

Carefully, because the Professor had said so Abbi put the mortar's occupants inside the cauldron. More stirring. Wheeee. Cept the air above the pot was a lil hot so her gloves were kept on.

Stir one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Five minutes later when there was no more of that vapour the Gryffindor moved on once more. She placed her fire crab shell on the metal spoon and SLOWLY, like she was told, neared it towards the water. She then began with the stirring. Twelve stirs. Each took ten seconds to spread and each was swapped, one clockwise and one anti-clockwise.

SEE! So easy, just like baking. Abbi was good at this.

The fire crab was placed on a tissue even though Abbi didn't see the point of being neat there, but whatever the Professor said...for now. The sixth step then. WAIT they were cutting the slug into two? Poor slug! Even if it was slimy, it looked COOL slimy anyways. POOR thing! But hey it was already non-living.

With a knife she cut the creature in half and took a step back. Time for some mini basketball! She literally through the first piece in, but not harshly, and did the same with the other.

OOOOOH! Explosion. *____* COOL STUFF!!!!

"POOOOOFFF!" She blew at the thing so it would go out. "PROFESSOR!" It was an excited shout, cause she was that excited okay? "Can I taste the potion now?"

So he had already retrieved it with his spoon good thing that was what he was supposed to do. No need for blowing up the potions lab on his first class day. He had least made it through a full term almost before blowing up the last one. “Got it sir.. six times not twelve” Placing the spoon in he did one clockwise, counterclockwise, clockwise, counterclockwise, clockwise, counterclockwise. Alright that was easy and look he didn’t even have to do the full work that everyone else had done. Score for him less stirring.

Brown eyes snapped up at book boy with an evil grin plastered on his face, “Scared of a little pain are we? Well if you would take the troll boogies out of your ears you would have heard he asked for your name which you didn’t give him and he said you were drinking it too. Seems to me you are being a little rude not doing what a professor asks.” Just as he said these words he hear the professor tell him to stay in his seat and watched as the boy hurried along. [b] “Such a wimp scared of all the professors.” He muttered before turning back to his cauldron.

“EXPLODE” oops he didn’t mean to say it so loud, but it was going to explode that was AWESOME! Aright no class was topping this one in Bart’s eyes right now. They were allowed to let something explode and they were going to breathe fire. BEST DAY EVER! He took his slug and cut it vertically with his clean knife. Making sure it was in two pieces. Now it was time to see the explosion, but how was he going to see it if he had to stay back. Thinking this over he decided he’d actually stay back because chances were he’d end up in trouble and not allowed to breathe fire. No way was he going to miss that. So he dropped the pieces in and stood as tall as he could on his tip toes to watch from a clear distance.

Boom.. pop

He watched as the explosion happened and then it was burning. Gosh how he really wanted to watch it burn more, but knew he had to blow it out so he blew towards it until it was out. Looking back up was it time to drink it and breathe fire yet?

So, the next set of instructions were given. Adi listened carefully. Cut slug vertically during the minute. No problem. He grabbed his knife, cast the Cleaning Charm and sliced the slug vertically in half. Poor Slug.

Explode? Oh gosh! Adi hope his potion was brewed properly. He took a deep breath, stayed as far away from his cauldron as his outstretched hand would allow and dropped the slug pieces in. Sure enough, his potion's surface exploded a few seconds later and started to burn. And he was safe! That meant he had brewed his potion right so far! Quickly as he could, he took big breaths and blew out the fire.

There! That was successfully done. Adi scribbled the instructions down.

Oooooooh. Whenever the professor said "most important step" or "crucial part of the potion" or any phrase related to those words, it usually made Astrid giddy. It was exciting, but she knew she had to be careful. Mess this part up, or any part of the potion, and she would have to repeat the process which was really tiring. Merlin, who would want to repeat everything he or she did just because of one tiny mistake done? Nobody, of course. The sixth year didn't know anyone who would want that to happen anyway, at least.

Another one minute? Okay, sure. Astrid could manage that. At least it wasn't an HOUR because Merlin. Nope. That wasn't going to happen. Never leave a lady waiting, okay? It should be one of the many rules to be enforced in this place. Or any place even. Come on. A little bit of girl power here. Anyway... Astrid took the fire slug and eyed it for a second. Weird. So weird. And squishy. AHEM. She cut her slug vertically and... added the pieces in to her cauldron... AND THEN DUCKED.

WOWOWOWOW. EXPLOSION. FIRE. That's what I'M talking about! Astrid stayed as far as she could from her cauldron to avoid any burns or damages to her face. The face was a crucial part of the body, did they know? The brunette started blowing the flame away with all her might so that it didn't spread because, you know... yeah. BLOW BLOW HUFF HUFF.

Once the fire was finally put out, she took a deeeeeeeep breath. She needed air. Time to catch a breath. Merlin, that was a lot of effort.

You know what? As interesting as all this stuff was, Lex was more eager to actually start the fire breathing aspect of this whole thing. Professor Collarbin talked a lot more than Professor Lafay...not very promising when you considered her attention span that only seemed to shrink with each new sentence. She got that information was important but that was all details to her, the unnecessary kind at that. The Gryffindor slumped over onto her table and watched the questions rolling out and the others answering. With all those responses there was really no need for her to give much input so....ignoring and moving right along.

To ingredients! Okay! That she could do. It meant they were moving on. Moving past the long talks and extra knowledge that she'd probably never need to know for her OWLs anyway...because she was totally doing that...disregarding anything excessive and reassuring herself they aren't important. She found it helped her save on brain cells.

Lex copied down the ingredients onto her parchment then got up to gather them with everyone else.



Once back at her cauldron she raised her wand. "Scourgify." Followed by, "Aguamenti. 1/3 the cauldron, basic stuff. What she found odd was not lighting the fire just yet but she wouldn't question it so no Collarbin, no questions from us.



Alexa looked around at the others, but wouldn't be paying too much attention to them. She never did, not in Potions class anyway where she had to be completely focused. Every Potion had the potential to be useful to her, therefore, she needed them to be perfect.

She reached for the powdered feather and added it as instructed then got to stirring clockwise. How often was she stirring this exactly? He didn't say--oh...until homogenous. Because she SO knew what THAT looked like. Lex did stir though while glancing over at Mo's cauldron. He was a Ravenclaw and a Branxton, therefore, he'd know. After he'd stopped she looked again then looked to hers. Yup, this was it. Nice and homogenous. Add the high heat. Good good.

Next was the mycosis fungus. She was about to grab some and throw it into her mortar...until he said that. Parasites were cool, epic even, but not under her skin. Let's not get it twisted. Lex threw herself on the floor and went rummaging through her bag for her gloves. Aha!

The Gryffindor hopped up, slapped on her gloves, cleaned her mortar then added the fungus and began her crushing while counting out the 30 seconds. She added the water after, gave it a good shake then CALMLY (because that was a thing now) added it to cauldron.



By the sounds of it, they were stirring seven times now. She took her wooden stirrer then did just that, again counting it out. Hearing helped sometimes with her focus. Now to wait and pray to Merlin that it didn't take more than five minutes to cool. Let's all be honest here, she wasn't starting over, she never did and never planned to, no matter who was teaching her. To start over would make the first one a waste and if there was one thing she did NOT do, it was waste.

After a quick time check, she reassured herself she'd gotten the potion right so far and gave a small sigh of relief.

Adding the firecrab shell? Really? "Professor? Do we plan to give these back to the firecrabs all nice and shined afterwards?" They weren't adding it, just stirring and taking it out, yeah? "And the firecrabs didn't mind sharing?" She had a Firecrab her first year, Kevin, and she couldn't see her offering up her shell to research....

Quite gingerly, she took up the shell and placed it on the metal spoon as instructed. 1 time clockwise, 1 time counter-clockwise and going to the count of 12. Got it. These were some slow stirs though.

With that done she removed the shell and placed it on a loose piece of parchment.It WOULD be shined and returned.



That though...THAT caught her attention. Most important step indeed. Alexa was nearly bouncing at the prospect of having an explosion in her cauldron, one that was actually meant to do that, harmless or not.

While waiting on that other minute to glide by, she grabbed the slug, made a face at it for trying to give her pathetic looks, then got to slicing until she had two halves of a whole slug, long and thin. Once the minute was up, Lex stood a distance from the cauldron (but not TOO far because she figured the warning was because of the explosion which quite appealed to her actually) then lowered the slug halves.

BOOM!

The Gryffindor's eyes widened as a grin spread across her face. So. Beautiful. So loud. So EVERYTHING!!!!!!

The explosion almost made her forget completely about the fire she was meant to be putting out...though hadn't this already been said that the fire was harmless? Or was she just hearing things while purposefully tunning the Professor out? Possible. Very possible. In any case she moved toward her cauldron again and began blowing.

Sander paid attention when the Potions Master started speaking again. He watched the demonstration and then picked up his quill and quickly scribbled down the steps into his journal.



Now for the delicate task of putting the slug into the cauldron without setting fire to the entire Potions classroom. He allowed the potion to sit for one minute and while he waited he quickly cleaned his knife with the Scouring Charm before cutting the slug vertically into two equal pieces.

His minute was up!! Sander picked up the pieces and dropped it into the cauldron and then quickly stepped as far away from his cauldron as he could.

"Fire in the hole," he called out a warning to the rest of his fellow classmates, and then he waited.

"WHOOOOOOSSSSHHHHH, BOOOM" was all he heard, and then his potion was on fire. Sander rushed back to his cauldron and began blowing out the flames with his breath.

"Blow....blow....breathe....blow....blow....blow... .breathe....blow...blow..." Sander kept blowing at the flames and was glad to see that it was working. Soon the flames died down.

"Wow now that was an amazing piece of special effects." Sander thought to himself as he picked up his quill and updated his journal.

It was gonna BLOW UP? COOOOOOOOL! Caleb grinned and went to work, grabbing the slug and cutting it into two just the professor had instructed. Once he had two vertical pieces, he stepped back as far as he could, put his arm out so it was just above the potion, and dropped it.

At first nothing happened, but after a few seconds, the potion EXPLODED! WOOOOOT! That was so cool! Could he do it again?!

Oh wait. Yeah. He had to blow out the fire. He hurried up and blew out the fire, exhaling until his face turned red and the fire was out.

Marigold listened to the Professor's instructions carefully. A slug? Marigold took the knife out and lined it up vertically with the slug. EEEEWWWW. A grossed-out look on her face, she stuck the knife in and sawed the poor gooey old slug in half. When she was done she took the knife out with a SQUELCH. EWWWWWWWWWW.

She was glad she didn't need to be close to the cauldron for this next bit. Standing farrr (not SO far) away from the cauldron, she tossed the sluggy pieces in. GRROSS.

BOOOOOM.

And thaaat was the surface exploding. Marigold ran forward and blew on it, and blew on it, and blew some more.

Okay, no more fire. Phew.