... he was going to DIE of a BROKEN HEART if this kept up. SHE WAS SICCCKKK!!! HE HAD TO HELP HER!!!..............

Of course, Kace was sick looking too, so essentially, two birds, one stone? But ULTIMATELY one bird that he very much wanted to get to know. He still had no idea what the beaaauuutttifffuulll girls name was. He was sure it was going to be amazing, angelic and perfect in EVERY way.

Betweeen googly!lovey eyes in her direction, quick peaks at his partner, and distracted flipping of pages of his textbook, he reached the following conclusions.

1. She was sick.
2. He had to help her so that they could spend the rest of their lives toegther.
3. He had to brew an antidote for this potions class whatever it was it barely mattered anymore.
4. She was sick.
5. He had to fix it alllllll.

It was obvious, even by the ramblings of his inner thoughts, that he was going to assume responsibility of poisoned Kace in addition to his primary goal which was healing his BELOVED!

She looked, not well. She had thrown up in her cauldron. It was bad.

According to his notes and things, it seemed as though she was likely suffering from a common poison, which MIGHT - if he was lucky enough - be what Kace too was suffering from.

The first thing he did, was set up his pewter cauldron, cleaning it first, "Scourgify," and then adding a liquid base from which to work with, "Aguamenti". The recipe in his book didn't state of what or how much, so he estimated with what he thought was sound judgement. He'd brewed enough potions to know how much water made a base, right? RIGHT!

"Do you think she'll marry me if I heal her?" he asked Kace absentmindedly. And yet a better question, could she transfer to Gryffindor to be with him? Or he'd happily go to Slytherin... HECK! He'd fly to the moon and back for HER.

.... "And I'm still not sick, I think I got a dud," Zeke mused, realising that he wasn't being ailed by anything. Lucky hiiiiiim.

There he went asking questions even though life would have been a grander place if he didn't. He liked doing that, didn't he? That whole asking questions thing when she just needed him to do? Alexa gave a small, unperturbed shrug. "I dunno. Reckon we'll find out in a minute." She said, just about done draining the last of the contents in her vial. It wouldn't take more than a minute to take effect so for once, Dima would get answers.

Lex leaned against her table, lightly tapping at the surface while she waited --and prayed she wouldn't be in love within the next few seconds. So far so good...then suddenly the Gryffindor began feeling nauseous. Naturally, having just taken a potion of sorts this didn't surprise her too much but she made a face as she tried thinking what it could be.

Within the same minute there was the makings of a headache, stemming from somewhere in the back of her head and vibrating its way to the front. Mild at first but then....bothersome. Kinda like the headaches she got when she interacted with idiots.

"Well?" How was he doing?

Waiting and waiting and waiting.

That was what Adi was doing as he waited for the required forty minutes to pass. He kept shooting looks of daggers at AJ and Ian. Wait until he got his strength back...Ian was in for it. Or was he? "It's not his fault,'' that voice in his head said. "Shut it, you,'' Adi snapped, smothering another yawn.

Then... O__O

Someone was hugging him. And saying he was beautiful. Adi looked down to see a little firstie. Obviously she had taken a potion that made her haaaaapy. Now why couldn't he have gotten that potion? But then, everyone would think nothing was wrong with him since he was always soooooo happppy. "Thank youuu but you're the beautiful one and I'm the handsome one.'' Hehe. Adi gave the girl a weak one arm hug before she skipped off.

He eyed his watch. Five minutes more.

He wanted....her to.... stir?!?!? ZAHRA ALWAYS MESSED UP THE STIRRING. Even MAD IN LOVE, Zahra knew better than to mess up GABRIEL BANNER'S potion. What if he cried again? Or passed out? HOW COULD ZAHRA LIVE WITH HERSELF IF SHE DID EITHER OF THOSE THINGS?

O__________O

She gave him a hug. The thought of living without him... too much... never... NEVER.... on her honor as a Gryffindor...

Oh hey. Did he know how AMAZING he smelled? It was faintly like Ruby, which was comforting, but also kind of like the library, her brother, and ...just something very Gabe. Mmmmm... Gabe....

With one hand, 'cause suddenly SHE JUST NEEDED TO BE TOUCHING HIM ALWAYS, Zahra ground up the scales for Gabe and added them. But she handed him the stirrer. She would mess that up and her world would end for disappointing him. "You do the honor. What kind of pizza do you like? I like you. Hehe. Gabey. hehe." La la la!

He had turned back to the blackboard to reread the directions when the first headache hit him. What.... was going on? Was he having some reaction to the stuff he drank? Dima rubbed his head idly, wincing a little due to the migraine. Only a bit of time passed before his hands started quivering, and he had to sit on his hands to make them stop.

There was also the feeling of needing to upchuck plaguing his stomach. That too.

"What did I drink?" he asked again, a bit more awake and weak this time.

Jasmine was going to concentrate on her potion. Maybe that would help take her mind off of her broken heart and the ultimate betrayal by that heartbreaker Kevin. With a sniffle, she wiped her eyes on her robe. Then her partner was giving her a hug. "Thank you Zhenya", Jasmine said returning her squeeze. "I'm going to get this potion going right away so you will feel better." What a considerate partner she had. It was nice to know that someone cared about your well being.



Jasmine decided that she'd better wash her hands again before starting to brew and so she did. Once that was taken care of, she headed to the cupboard taking great care not to walk by Kevin to get everything that she needed for the potion. Donning her gloves, which she had already cleaned, she was ready to begin.

Taking her mortar, Jasmine place one bezoar in it. Then she picked up the pestle and began to pound, crush and basically annihilate the bezoar. As she pounded she said under breath, "How could he dump me for another girl?" Pound, pound, crush. "He doesn't know what he's missing." Pound "Why do I still love him so?" Taking out her frustration on the bezoar was strangely therapeutic and it was pulverized into a fine powder in no time.

Jasmine glanced at her book, to check for the next step in the process. Then she added four measures of her bezoar powder to her cauldron. Her mind was starting to wander back to thoughts of Kevin and Jasmine had to fight to keep her focus. She started to cry again, which really was not productive. Looking over at poor, sick Zhenya gave her the strength to continue when all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball on the floor.

Jasmine added two measures of Standard Ingredient to her cauldron. Now she had to heat the cauldron for five seconds. Taking out her wand again, she directed it beneath the cauldron and said, "Incendio". She set the heat to medium and then checked her watch for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 seconds. Giving her wand a wave, Jasmine set the timer on her watch for thirty four minutes. That was a loooong time to wait when you had love on your mind.

Ian noticed that Caleb seemed to get very, very happy. That meant he'd have to start working on an antidote that would take away that effusive joy.
Ian noticed that Adi was still glaring at him, but there really wasn't anything that Ian could do that would be beneficial at this point. He realized that AJ was under the influence of the potion and he couldn't stop that. Then he saw Adi get thrown on the floor by accident and Ian felt really bad. This wasn't really supposed to happen, was it?

And then he STILL had to deal with AJ. AJ. I know that right now, it feels like that. But it's not like that at all. I want to do what's best for you and that would be to give you some space so that you can sort out your feelings.

Ian grabbed a vial and swallowed it quickly. It was a sort of quick swallow and he didn't notice any ill effects at the moment because of AJ trying to hold onto him. As he was about to speak again, a wave of nausea took him by surprise and he used his 'free' hand to cover his mouth. His head started to hurt a little as he tried his best to swallow the bile that threatened to expel itself from his belly. The pain of swallowing caused a burning in his throat and he needed to sit down. And he remembered he would have to fight it to make an antidote for Caleb. SO MUCH GOING ON!

OOC Note
More than half of the class time has passed, so this means that while the symptoms won't wear off until they take an antidote, they should get weaker and your characters should have a clearer mind to brew an antidote.

Norah giggled madly as Zahra accepted her high five. Hooray! Hooray for luuuurve! She twirled away, picking up pace, and didn't notice any threatening looks from Zahra. Life was too BEEYOOTEEFUL for dirty looks!

HAIII BROOKLYN! Her giggling increased in volume until it was bordering on manic as her partner hugged her back. "Never ruin the fun! Neverrrr!" Seized by sudden inspiration, she flailed her arms to get Brooklyn's attention, bouncing up and down on the tips of her toes so her hair flopped into her face. Hiiii hair. Hehehe. She grabbed a strand of hair and pulled it, letting it spring back with a delighted grin stretched across her face. "Oooh bouncy!" she exclaimed, grabbing another curl and letting it bounce back and hit her nose. HEHEHEHHEE. Norah began to jump around her table, giggling madly and yelling "BOOOIING!" every time her curl bounced back. Hehehehhe. What had she been doing again?

"Broookylyyyyyn!" Riiight. That has been it. Brooklyn. "Brooky brooky Brooklyn!" She called in a sing song voice, flailing her arms around her face once more. "B-R-U-K-L-I-N!!" hehehhehe. Spelling was FUNNY. The second year leaned over to her partner and began to shout excitedly in her ear. "We should go to Neverland so this never wears off!" Uh huh uh huhhhh. She knew that places like Neverland only existed in stories, but life was only this BEAUTIFUL in stories too, so it had to be real. She succeeded in dropping her voice a little lower, and continued, "But we have to get out of this beautiful place though, 'cause there are even beautifuler places!" Imagine that, a more beautiful place! Noowwww. What did they have to do to get out of here?

"Maybe if we make a potion like everyone else we can get out! 'Cause we'll look like everyone else even though we are so much SPECIALER." She looked at the book on her desk and flipped it to a random page, sounding out the title. "CALMING DRAUGHT." Calm was FUNNY WORD. The L was THERE but it WASN'T THERE. "Brooky brooky Brooyklynnn! Let's make the CALLLM ONE. BUT WE CAN'T DRINK IT, OKAY?" That has been LOUD. She lowered her voice to a shouted whisper and tried again. "Calllm callllm okay?" And with that she stuck her nose in the potions book and began to read.

Ian began to frantically search for a place to sit down as the nausea threatened to overcome him. The lights began to bother him and AJ being so close, smelling like a girl made him even more sick. This was not a good feeling. Ian didn't remember feeling like this even when he had the flu. This could end very, very badly.

As Ian was looking around, he felt more than saw someone else close by. He looked up and saw the professor stick something under AJ's nose. As he did (and because of Ian's 'forced' proximity) Ian caught a whiff of the odor and that was it. There would be no swallowing. He felt the vomit rise and he tried to lift his hand but he wasn't quick enough. Because he was mostly facing AJ trying to push her away, the vomit expelled itself toward AJ and hit her just above the neckline of her robe and as he doubled over in pain, the vomit followed down the front of AJ's clothing. It was not pretty and because he'd eaten a colorful berry salad with orange juice to chase it, his vomit came out a lovely shade of violet. At least it sort of matched the dark robes.

The love was overflowing and AJ felt like screaming from the mountain tops, dancing, singing or all of the above. She was just about to jump on a desk and proclaim her love for all of Hogwarts to hear when more distractions came. Why was the professor humoring Adi? AJ didn't love him. Her love was all for Ian, and there was no sense in babying him. Finally Adi picked himself up and went back to his desk to work. Thank goodness because jealousy was an ugly thing. "Now that we are alone..." Well, not really alone, but Adi had finally left them to bask in their love so it was good enough.

Wait a minute. Something was off with Ian. "Are you okay buttercup?" AJ really hoped that he wasn't coming down with something. She clung to his arm even harder. "Do you need some water or..." Without warning the professor shoved something horrible smelling up her nose. "What are you doing?" That was rude. "Ian, I...I...I..." What was she going to say? A weird sensation was coming over her now. It was as if her love for Ian lessen a little bit. How odd.

AJ dropped Ian's arm and looked up at him with concern in her eyes. "You really don't look so go--" He blew chunks. They were coming straight for her and there wasn't any time to dodge them. She was covered in Ian vomit. Under normal circumstances she would have punched him or something, but all she felt was love. "Oh no. Let me help you." Her man was sick and she was going to hold his hand through this. "You take a seat. I'll just brew my potion over here with you." Now that she had some of her brain back she was able to see that Angel was clearly under the spell of a love potion as well. That much was clear when it came to how she was acting with Benny. Of course it wasn't much of a difference to how she used to act.

AJ just waved away Ian's responses. She knew that she was in love with him, and nothing he could say would make her change her mind. NOTHING.

Ian expected to have been waking up on the floor after AJ knocked him out, but apparently that love potion was pretty potent. She was trying to lead him to a chair and he gratefully took that help. When he got to a seated position, he put his head on his arms folded before him. He was hoping that a little dark and little rest would help the initial wave of poison reaction lessen. He wanted to be over this. He started to take deep breaths and waved at AJ to let her know to leave him alone. He didn't need to be loved on. Right now, all he wanted was his mum. She always made him feel better when he was under the weather. A nice bowl of fish stock and hot tea while he was bundled up in the bed under his bright yellow blankets would be just the ticket. He thought to himself PLEASE! Oh, MERLIN PLEASE LET THIS SICKNESS LEAVE MY BODY!. Potions final was practical and challenging.

Angel was still too busy just staring at Benny... she had totally forgot she had to do an antidote for AJ... "Hey handsome... you and me together forever right?" Angel gave her best puppy dog eyes. "Please... you know it makes sense... Were both Gryffindor... Were both nice.... and were both awesome looking." Angel continued to stare into Benny's eyes as she watched him work. "Plus your work is amazing... just the way you work makes me want to be with you forever." Angel smiled at him.

O__O

Why was the Professor laughing? Adi could hear the man's laughter even though it seemed he was laughing to himself. Had Adi said something funny? Pressing a hand over his mouth as another yawn forced itself out of him, he tried to remember.

The word 'Dad' resounded in his head and suddenly Adi's eyes widened. Oh Merlin! He had called Culloden dad. He was shocked but the man obviously found it funny. Hehe. The man was indeed Professor Cool.
.............................

Five minutes left...and it seemed to be taking an ETERNITY to be over! Adi decided he would just rest his eyes for that five minutes so he plopped back down on his comfy chair, rested his head on his open Potions text and closed his eyes.

Funny thing was he suddenly did not seem so tired. Huh? Sure, he still felt weak but not so much as before. His eyelids weren't so heavy either. Adi pushed himself to his feet. His feet felt okay...ish. He hadn't taken an antidote so it was safe to say the poison was wearing off, yes?

With renewed strength, Adi looked at his watch. The five minutes were almost up. Time to get back to making that antidote. The second all of the five minutes had elapsed, he added one pinch of the Unicorn horn to the cauldron before Scourgifying the wooden spoon and stirring twice, both in a clockwise direction.

Next, he added two mistletoe berries, Scourgified the spoon again for good measure then stirred twice, this time in an anticlockwise direction. Wand in hand, the Puffer waved it.

And he was done!

Thornton just griiiiinned as she sang, clapping his hands. He didn't know this song either, but she was just so happy and it made him happy and he thought his lips might just fall off if he kept smiling so much.

"Ok. Ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok," he said leaning on the work station. "WE gotta brewwww antidotes or we're going to get bad graaaades," he said in a sing-songy voice. Maybe they wouldn't have to take it though. Cause being this happy was good good good good. He'd almost forgotten all about the letter from home.

"I am going to start on the base and then we can figure out what else to add." Ok. Cauldron was clean clean and he needed waaaaatter. Purified water? Ehhhhhhh, was water from the wand pure?

"Aguamenti!" he shouted, gesturing dramatically with his wand, it pointed straight into the air. As the water rained down, Thornton burst into a fit of giggles and fell off his seat.

This time it was Norah's yelling which woke her up.

What in the world? Blinking, Lux saw that she was standing in front of her cauldron with a wooden spoon in her hand. When she peered inside there were four twigs. What on earth was she doing. Letting go of the spoon so that it fell in the cauldron too, she rubbed her eyes. That last nap must of helped some because she was not as tired and foggy headed as earlier...but she was still sleepy.

Removing the twigs and spoon from her cauldron she gave it another magical cleaning before also cleaning her gloves and the spoon.

YAAAAAAAAAWN.

This was slow work and she was still tired but she had a job to do. Looking back at her notes she saw that she needed to add a LIQUID first. SNORT. She really could be an idiot when she was tired. Fortunately she was a little more awake now.

Taking a clean measuring cup, she used Aguamenti to get three ounces of water that she poured into the cauldron. THEN she added the four Wiggentree twigs.

YAAAAAWN.

What next?

Ian felt awful. It was a feeling of really bad, bad flu. He felt like he wanted to throw up some more, but there didn't seem to be anything left in his stomach. Ian retched a couple more times and decided he was just going to have to soldier through this. He grabbed the closest potions book and tried to find a potion that would help someone who was exuberantly happy. He didn't find really what he was looking for, but he did find a calming potion. He looked through the list of ingredients and then to Caleb. I'll be back as soon as I can.

He got up, wobbly and told AJ Stay here. I have to go make a potion.

He then stumbled over to his station with the book he had acquired and looked through the ingredients list and began gathering them. He grabbed fluxweed oil, bloodroot stems and valerian root, calendula pollen and skullcap roots, powdered root of asphodel, a hyacinth flower, frog belly slime, peppermint and finally glumbumble fluid. With every step he took, Ian felt like he was going to hurl, but he fought it back. He'd already emptied the contents of his stomach over AJ (he looked around to see if she had followed him again).

He began to follow potion instructions after laying everything out. Cauldron, check, flame, check, cauldron stand, check, wand, check, mortar and pistle, check and small knife, check. He was ready he thought.

He placed the cauldron on the stand and said, scourgify! to clean it out. Next he added water using a beaker he had nearby. He let the water come to a boil while he sliced the bloodroot stem. When the water was warm enough, he added six drops of the fluxweed oil. After he'd sliced the stems, he cleaned out his mortar and scraped the innards of the bloodroot into the mortar where he began smooshing them until he had a nice paste. He then added the paste to the liquid and picked up his metal stirrer (making sure to clean it) and began to stir both clock and counterclock wise.

Well the nausea had stopped of which Benny was grateful. It made it just a little bit easier to try and continue on with what he was really supposed to be doing. Helping Adi get back his normal level of energy. And maybe help Angel if AJ's head didn't clear enough to assist her sister and vice versa.

Hey Handsome...

Speaking of Angel, his girlfriend continued to be madly in love him him. Her expressions of loving emotions even stronger that they had been normally which was already tough to top in all honesty. "Yes...Angel," he agreed with her, the sentiment only half faked. Benny was nowhere near in the right frame of mind to commit to forever with the younger Gryffindor. And the puppy dog eyes made it hard for him to deny even a little bit of her affections.

"Not...actually...working....yet," Benny admitted with a sigh though he had finally managed to steady his hands enough to grasp his text book. The fourth year tentatively opening it and flipping through the pages to try and find the antidote for Adi. Was it a fatigue potion? That seemed to fit what his friend was showing...maybe. And maybe he had the source of assistance in his headache-pained work.

"Angel...could you help me?" he questioned slowly turning to her. "We need to make Adi better. I think he's fatigued." She maybe be love sick but maybe her mind was a bit more freer to track down what they needed for the antidote.

Consulting her notes, Lux was that she needed to stir now. Actually there seemed to be a lot of stirring in this potion. And colour changes. Those should be really pretty, but but stirring didn't sound too nice. Could she not sleep instead? Just because she was more awake now didn't mean that she wasn't still sleepy.

With her spoon she stirred the potion until it turned orange. Phew that had been slow work. She gave another yawn because the effort of stirring was very taxing on her right now. After rubbing her eyes again she searched for the castor oil which she poured into the cauldron until it reached a blue colour. Now could it just stay that way because blue was her favourite color? Probably not. Giving a sigh, she began stirring again while yawning the whole time. This was like exercise to her. Really slow, exhausting exercise.

Once the potion was purple, Lux added the extract of Gurdyroot until it reached a nice red colour. Oooh, it was like the colours of the rainbow. That thought made the sleepy girl giggle. In went more Wiggentree twigs until the potion was green then more essence of Gurdyroot until it was purple again. Wow, it was difficult for her to keep track of these steps.

Now she needed to light the burner and let the potion simmer so she did that. Maybe she could have a nap while she waited for it to turn red. Smiling to herself she sat down and rested her head against the table.

SPOILER!!: Lux's Notes

POTIONS FINAL

Lux Carrington
Fourth Year
Hufflepuff

Partner: Kevin Hirase
Potion: Love Potion
Antidote: Love Potion Antidote

Love Potion Antidote

Ingredients:
Wiggentree twigs
Castor oil
Extract of Gurdyroot

Recipe:
1. Add four Wiggentree twigs, or until the potion turns green.
2. Stir until the potion turns orange.
3. Add castor oil until the potion turns blue.
4. Stir until the potion turns purple.
5. Add extract of Gurdyroot until the potion turns red.
6. Add Wiggentree twigs until the potion turns green.
7. Add Extract of Gurdyroot until the potion turns purple.
8. Leave the potion to simmer till it turns red.
9. Add more gurdyroot extract till it turns green.
10. Stir till it turns orange.
11. Add seven Wiggentree twigs.
12. Allow to simmer till it turns pink.

While Ian was waiting for the steam to rise, he glanced down at his notes. He read the line about maintaining his calm during the drafting of the potion. He wondered how he would remain calm with his stomach feeling like it wanted to jump completely out of his belly...and the slighty, throbby pain in his head. He wished he had a nice, cool glass of pumpkin juice or even better, his mum's hot peppermint tea.

Okayyyy Cinna needed to hit this book and get serious abut this. Yep. No crazy guy on love potion was going to distract her from this. Okay now Maddie had sone serious fatiguing going on right now. She flipped through her book. She just wanted to make sure she was doing it right.

So Maddie knew what she needed to make for her antidote. Good lets get to it. "Yeah, good you can make it right?" Pleaseeeeee. Make it for her.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Maddie no sleeping. No sleeping. Potion making, yes. Do it. Cinna didn't like being this happy. Happy, ummm normal happy was fine. This grinning and giggling all the time. No just no.

Ahhhh she had it. She had it. She bounced around HAPPY that she found what she was was making as a antidote for Maddie.

"Maddie?" Shaking her slightly to wake her up. "Maddie? Wake up. I found it. I FOUND IT. You need a Girding Potion." She needed some stamina. And girding potions increased stamina and endurance. This had to be it. She was going it go with her gut on out this one. She flipped to a new page in her notebook. She wrote down the info for the girding potion.

Now that she had that written down she could get to work. Now if Maddie would wake up and get to work that would be great. "Scourgify." Yep she had to clean her cauldron. Cleaning made her happy. Very happy. And now for the big show. She read the first instructions. Fill the cauldron with water. She rolled up her sleeves and started filling her cauldron with water. "Aguamenti!" Man did she love potions it was just so awesome and it was just a happy time.

Sophie was feeling really good about her potion so far, even though her body still ached and protested against her every movement, so when she saw that the next ingredient on the list was something she did NOT have in her potions kit, she groaned. Calendula pollen, who even thought of putting that in a potion? Someone rude, she thought at this moment, because now she was going to have to go get UP and get some from Culloden's supply. She was far too prideful to ask Dot or someone else to get it for her, of course.

Dot was hugging her first, though, and the Ravenclaw lightly hugged her back. Tobes wasn't actually her BOYFRIEND anymore, but Soph wasn't going to correct the girl. "I like to look at his face, too. I'll take good care of him so you won't have to feel sad about not having that kind of cake." When she was certain that Dot wasn't going to hug her again, Soph started to stand up, but the moment she did, her body protested severely. No... nope, no getting up today. WELL. She was a witch, wasn't she? "Accio Calendula," she pointed her wand toward Culloden's stores and JUMPED when something went CRASH! - the drawer or container or whatever it was being kept in, she assumed, oops - but one Calendula flower came flying her way, and she caught it.

...Hey, Culloden. Heyyyy. She gave him a big ol' grin and would have innocently waved a hand at him, but had no energy to do so. "I swear I'll clean that up later." Hehehehehe. Then he was coming OVER to them, though, but it was for Dot purposes, so Soph casually avoided the man's gaze and worked on extracting the pollen and gathering a drachm of it before adding it to her cauldron. With shaky arms, she stirred those three times clockwise that she needed to, but even though she looked as though she was intensely concentrating on her potion, she was absolutely listening to what Dot was going to say to Culloden. Heheheh.

She took the time to clean her materials, casting a quick, "Scourgify," on everything necessary before her next step, since she especially needed a clean knife to shred the three skullcap leaves. She gathered them with her clean gloves and shredded them lengthwise, just as the textbook called for, and slowly added them one by one to her cauldron. Using her wand, she raised the flame under the cauldron, then stirred clockwise slowly - which she was grateful the instructions called for, as it was still just about all she could do right now with the poison working against her body - and kept an eye out for the steam that should be rising.

"Those all sound like really good things. Except for Dima being mad. He and I got paired up for like a mentor/mentee thing - m'supposed to be his mentor. Should I tell him to stop being mad at you? I probably have that kind of authority over him or something." She didn't, and she WOULDN'T interfere with their friendship, but she thought it would make Dot happy to know someone was offering to make things better for her.

The steam was rising, which was good, and even BETTER was that her potion was the light blue-green color it should have been, and she stopped her stirring as soon as she knew it was okay to do so because her arm was killing her. Merlin. She needed to figure out how to charm a stirrer to stir itself. It was HARD to be calm when things were so frustrating, but for the sake of the success of her potion, she tried to be as calm as she could as she measured out her half a drachm of powdered root of asphodel with clean materials, then added it to her cauldron and she JUMPED when it flashed a bright blue color. She hadn't read ahead and seen that it would do that, so it scared the snot out of her. Not literally this time, luckily.

She DID actually have a hyacinth flower in her kit, and she used her clean gloves to pluck it out and add it to her cauldron whole. It was disappointing that the cool bright blue glow was gone the moment it sunk into the concoction, but she was just excited to be making progress and to almost be done soon. That meant DOT would almost be done soon and they would get to turn in their work and she would get an ANTIDOTE.

She couldn't wait.

Text Cut: Textbook

Calming Draught

Use/Effect:
To calm and soothe the drinker

Ingredients:

• 1 pint water
• 6 drops fluxweed oil
• Inner membrane and fluid from 3 bloodroot stems
• 1 Valerian root, minced
• 1 drachm calendula pollen
• 3 skullcap leaves
• 1/2 drachm powdered root of asphodel (scant)
• 1 Hyacinth flower, whole
• 1 ounce slime from the belly of a sprightly frog
• 1 sprig of peppermint
• 4 drop glumbumble fluid (take care not to overuse!)

Instructions:

**STAGE 1**

• Add 6 drops fluxweed oil to warm water.
• Split the bloodroot stems lengthwise with your knives and scrape out all fluid and fibrous material from inside the stems. Crush with mortar and pestle into a fine paste and add to the cauldron.
• Stir slowly until a light steam rises from the cauldron, alternating clockwise and counterclockwise stirring.

**STAGE 2**

• Mince the Valerian root and add it to the potion.
• Add calendula pollen, stirring three times clockwise.
• Shred the skullcap lengthwise, and slowly add it to the potion
• Bring the temperature back up until the steam is rising again, stirring clockwise slowly. It should be a light blue-green at this stage.
• Professor's note: Remember your intent-- concentrate on being calm and infusing your work with a calm, deliberate result.
• Add asphodel -- you should see a bright blue flash of light in your cauldron
• Add the Hyacinth flower; the potion should stop glowing
• Allow the potion to steep while you collect the frog slime. For best results, do not harvest the frog slime until this time!
• Add the slime and a sprig of peppermint and bring to boiling, stirring in alternating clockwise and counterclockwise stirs once again.
• When the potion thickens and turns deep indigo, add the glumbumble fluid.
• Continue stirring in a clockwise motion until the solid ingredients have all disintegrated and the potion is a thick, syrupy indigo fluid that smells of lavender, warm sugar and sweet mint. There should be a light purple-pink sheen in the steam that rises from the potion.
• Take a sample of your potion and bottle it into a phial.

The idea for the next nap was genius, but for some reason Lux couldn't sleep no matter how tired she was. Probably something subconscious telling her that if she slept she would miss when the potion turned red and leave it for too long in effect ruining it. So straightening up in her chair, the redhead rubbed her eyes and set about playing the waiting game with droopy eyes.

It seemed to take forever, but finally her potion was back to being red again. Perfect. Picking up the extract of Gurdyroot, she added more until it changed from red to green. Then using her wooden spoon again she stirred it until it was back to orange. Thankfully that was the last of the stirring because she didn't think she could take anymore. After yawning, she added seven more Wiggentree twigs before leaving the potion to simmer some more.

Propping her arm up on the table she rested her head in her hand and waited for it to turn pink before getting a vial and pouring some of the potion inside. Now it was time to check her work with Professor Culloden so he could see if it was okay for Kevin to drink.

Giving another yawn, she got up and headed over to the man. "Professor, I brewed the love potion antidote for Kevin." Holding the vial of pink potion out, she hoped that she had done okay. Maybe then she could actually nap for more than a few minutes at a time.

Couldn't the Professor see how sleepy she was?

SPOILER!!: Lux's Notes

POTIONS FINAL

Lux Carrington
Fourth Year
Hufflepuff

Partner: Kevin Hirase
Potion: Love Potion
Antidote: Love Potion Antidote

Love Potion Antidote

Ingredients:
Wiggentree twigs
Castor oil
Extract of Gurdyroot

Recipe:
1. Add four Wiggentree twigs, or until the potion turns green.
2. Stir until the potion turns orange.
3. Add castor oil until the potion turns blue.
4. Stir until the potion turns purple.
5. Add extract of Gurdyroot until the potion turns red.
6. Add Wiggentree twigs until the potion turns green.
7. Add Extract of Gurdyroot until the potion turns purple.
8. Leave the potion to simmer till it turns red.
9. Add more gurdyroot extract till it turns green.
10. Stir till it turns orange.
11. Add seven Wiggentree twigs.
12. Allow to simmer till it turns pink.

Alexa squinted at Dima, trying to figure what was wrong with him since he obviously wouldn't be of much help. Gosh, you ask how a kid felt and he repeated the question of what he drank. Did 'I don't know' mean nothing to him the first time? Because she guaranteed the meaning wouldn't change the second time around.

What was that thing he was doing with his hands? Sitting on the,? But why? It didn't take very long after the thought to feel a tremor in her hands only she wouldn't be sitting on hers though.

Thinking through a headache was harder than it looked. Every time a thought tried forming the ache would just intensify. It was then that the nauseous would rise full force, kinda like they were all working together--which is what she and Dima were meant to be doing to get this thing taken care of. Having nicked vials from the same section, she was willing to bet that whatever was wrong with her was affecting him as well. No wonder his thinking was so extra impaired.

She flopped in her seat, needing a moment to catch herself. This could very well have been poison, in fact, she was almost sure it was.

Feebly she shoved her text toward Dima. "Find us an antidote for poison, common poison most like because we haven't dropped dead...yet." So maybe that answered his question. It was poison Toussaint.

Potion time! Potion tiiiime! Norah pulled out her wand and cried "Scourgify!" to clean out her cauldron. Hehehehhhe. Scourgify was a funny word. She pointed her wand at the cauldron again and said, "Auguamenti!" so it filled with a pint of water. Putting her face close to the warmish water, she inspected it. Hiii water. OOOH! A BUBBLE! She put on her gloves hurriedly and poked the bubble so it popped. WOAH. That was TOTALLY WICKED. The second year squinted at the instructions, and felt her grin stretch even wider when she saw she was ready to start the first step. "I'M ALMOST THERE, FOLKS." WOOOT! She spun around and struck a pose before picking up her quill and crossing off step one with a flourish. Wait. She hadn't done step one yet. Whoooops. This was SO FUN. SOOOSOOOSOO FUN. Maybe she could ask Professor Culloden if she could LIVE down here and then she could make potions all the time and they could be bestest friends! That would be FANTABULOUS.

TIME TO DO STEP ONE. HOORAY! Norah let her fingers dance over her ingredients until she found the fluxweed oil. She held the dropper over the water and let it drippity drop into the cauldron. "One, twooo, threee, fouuur, fiiiive, six! Six drippity drops!" She picked up her quill and crossed out step one a SECOND time, because crossing stuff out was just SO fun. "Wheee! Time for step three!" WOAH. THAT RHYMED. CRAZYYY.

Norah found a red root and held it up to the light. Looked pretty bloody to her, so she scourgified (heheheh) and then picked up her knife in a gloved hand and split the stem lengthwise with its tip. Once she had finished with the knife, she held it up to her face and said "Ooooh, shiny!" before using it to scrape out the fibery stuff into the smushy bowl thing. Shiny stuff was the bestest, even better than BUBBLES! She looked hopefully at the cauldron to see if any more bubbles had formed, but they hadn't. Poop. Picking up the poundy thing that went with the smushy bowl, Norah proceeded to pound the fibery stuff until it was all pasty and cool. As she pounded, she sang "Smush, smush, smushity smush!" semi-loudly to the rest of the room. Hooray for free entertainment! Maybe now they could be as happy as she was! Dumping the paste into the cauldron, the thirteen-year-old brandished her quill excitedly and crossed step two off. SHE WAS MAKING PROGRESS, PEOPLE.

And now she got to stir stuff! YEAH! She picked up her wand and pointed it at the stir stick, singing "Scourgify!" so it would be squeaky clean, and then put it into the cauldron and began to stir, starting with a stir clockwise....and then counterclockwise...and then clockwise again. YAYAY stirring! Norah swayed back and forth with the rhythm of her stirring and began to hum a happy working song under her breath. Steeeam, where are you? Jumping excitedly at the sight of steam, she cried "Hi steam! Hiiii!" and stuck her face close to it, but not close enough to get hurt, 'cause that was a GRAND way to ruin happiness. And who'd want to do that?