They were nearly done, and Dot's potion was right on track. This basically made her a gifted potioneer. Like Sophie and Culloden, which was probably why they were all such great friends. Geniuses and besties, lalala. Dot hummed under her breath as she cleaned her metal stirrer.

Seven stirs. Always with the seven. It probably meant something, and Dot opened her mouth to ask Sophie before deciding she wasn't going to ask anything else until AFTER class. No sense getting the Ravenclaw even more points.

Once the potion was stirred, Dot removed the stirrer and set it to the side before tossing in the last of the lion fur. Boom. Done. Potion = awesome. She hoped.

Bleu jotted down the next two steps. Another seven stirs clockwise for the potion. She thoroughly cleaned off her metal stirrer before putting it back into the cauldron. She then started stirring in a clockwise motion, counting each stir.
"1...2...3...4...5...6...7."

She then grabbed the rest of the lion fur and gently dropped it into the cauldron. When all of it was completely gone, she sat and waited for the next steps. So far so good. Hopefully she wasn't going to have another mishap...especially at this point in the potion.

Norah wrote down the next two steps that had appeared on the chalkboard with a flourish. How did Professors all get words to just appear there? Heheh what if they actually but the WRONG word up there and it said something HILARIOUS like instead of 'STIR' it said something different like 'BLOW YOUR NOSE.' Hehehe 'blow your nose clockwise seven times with a metal stirrer' hehhehe. Ahem. What was she doing again? Right. Potion stuff.

Picking up her wand, she quickly cast "scourgify!" on on her metal stirrer before positioning it in her cauldron. One...Two...Three...Four...Five...Six...Seven Clockwise stirs DONE. Next step wooh. The third year picked up the remaining fur with a gloved hand and moved it into the cauldron. Awesome.

"Clear!" Beverly announced, not even realizing she'd just said it. Probably had to do that her dad was just as demanding when it came to brewing that she passed it as something normal.

Still unaware, she took her metal stirrer, casting Scourgify on it, remembering that anything could hinder her potion--even a small speck of dirt. And since she took potions as serious as brushing her teeth, the Prefect made sure to cast the cleansing charm before anything she used. That and she knew how Professor Culloden worked.

Dipping the metal stirrer into the cauldron, she stirred seven times, clockwise. One...two...three...four...five...six...seven! Now for the four minutes of wait since she had a copper cauldron. Of course she had a timer, it was an important accessory as a potions mistress, and you could be a hundred Galleons she was. She set that next to her cauldron timing it for four minutes.

While that brewed she switched over to mix the sheep wool and fox fur with salamander blood. All of which she added to a clean bowl. Keeping an eye on her solution, she stopped once time was over and added four teaspoons of mixture.



Spell time!

Jotting it down quickly, she repeated after Culloden. "Doh-mee-nen-tur." Simple enough, yes? "Dominentur," she repeated to herself just to make sure. It rolled swiftly off her tongue and with that, she proceeded to cast on her cauldron with a wave of her wand. "Dominentur."

Nothing changed much, or at really, until she added the rest of the mixture. It darkened and darkened until it was black. Success? So far, yes.



It appeared several students were already having issues with this potion. Glancing at them as Professor Culloden requested the start over, her lips pursed when they landed on her housemates. Well then...at least points weren't taken off.

"I can help," she managed to mumble to Finn without disrupting her neighboring potioneers. Beverly was only being nice because he seemed upset about it and... he was her friend now.

With a barely visible grin, she turned back to her cauldron.

What was next?

Right, she had to stir seven more times. Taking the same metal stirrer she cleaned it again before using it. Maybe her housemates hadn't cleaned something properly causing their potion to malfunction? They had to be glad it at least didn't explode and wipe out their eyebrows.

After stirring seven time counter clockwise, the Prefect took the rest of the lion fur and added it to the mixture, making sure not to leave a single strand behind.

Alright, now he had to stir it clockwise seven times again, with a NEW, clean stirrer. Caleb got another one out of his potion supply kit and plopped it in his potion. One, two, three...seven times yet again. Nice and easy.

Caleb then took the rest of his lion fur and plopped it in. He was all caught up once more!

"Doh-meen-nen-tur. Domin-en-tour." Cutty tried it out, but occasionally veering off into other Latin-based languages. "Doh-mee-nen-tur." But faster. "Dohmee-nentur. Dominentur."

He took his wand over to the potion and gave it a wave. "Dominentur." He said, speaking the incantation and watching for effect before reaching for the rest of the soppy mixture. He slid it from it's bowl into the potion and kept an eye out for what that would do. The colour began to darken before it turned to a pitchy shade of black.

He put his wand away.

Cilla used the cleaning spell on her metal stirrer and gloves before commencing the next two steps. She used the stirrer to stir the potion clockwise seven times and then added the other half of the lion fur to the potion. Things seemed to be working out quite favourably.

So far, so good right? Right. The potion looked black, there was only a bit more to do, and Zander still had all his hair on his head. So yeah, reckon that everything was going alright then. He did feel bad for the poor souls that had to redo their entire potions though... Don't worry poor souls, Zander knew the feeling. And look at him now!! He was doing alright for himself. Had a wee lil' badge to prove it, even. Though... Uh. Yeah.

Anyways.

Next step, was to do some more stirring with a CLEAN metal stirrer. That's what Professor C, said anyways. But of course Zander checked the board incase because he REALLY needed this potion to work out. Possibly more than he ever in his life. Which granted, he didn't really need potions to work all all too often, but erm... Pointing his wand in the direction of his metal stirrer he cast a quick, "scourgify!" before making sure to stir exactly 7 times. No more. And no less.

Then he added the very last of the fur and voila!

...ONLY to it out immediately again as he didn't remember whether or not he'd sanitized the metal stirrer. Holding it out to the side of his potion Cutty used scourgify to get it clean, then wrapping the end in a cloth he used a heating spell to make it hot and kill off microbial life. "Scourgify!" He hit it one last time and stuck the instrument right into his cauldron. 1..., 2...,3...,4..., 5..., 6..., and 7 stirs in the same direction as before: Clockwise.

This was followed by the addition of the other half of the lion fur.

Woop woooooop.

Zeke looked up from his cauldron as the next instructions were given, and he grinned. Clean. Yep, HE UNDERSTOOD!!!... Heheh.

So without any hesitation, Zeke took his metal stirrer and gave it a good once over with "Scourgify," then with that done, he went ahead and started stirring in a clockwise motion.

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

DONE!

Taking the remaining lion fur hair stuff, Zeke added the last handful of it into his brew and then peered over to check the contents of his cauldron. He was SUPER excited about this potion. He needed it. He KNEW he needed it.

You know what was even better than potions class? Watching Cinna make a potion. It wasn't exactly gracefully but Kevin couldn't keep watching her from afar. Did she like potions too? Maybe he sbould ask her to make one together someday.

He grabbed the metal stirrer, cleaned it and stirred the potion while he kept glancing towards the older Gryffindor girl. He calculated his chances about them doing something together that when he had reached stirring 6 times, he took out the stirrer thinking he had stirred 7 times.

Completely unaware of this mistake, the fourth year cleaned the stirrer with magic and then added the rest of the lion fur. He then sat back on his chair and went back to watching Cinna making the potion.

Next, the brunette girl grabbed the metal stirrer, scourgified it, and stirred the mixture seven times clockwise exactly. While she was waiting for 5 minutes (since her cauldron was made from brass), Bianca grabbed a bowl and cleaned it. "Scourgify." Then Bianca put fox tail fur, sheep wool and salamander blood into the bowl then mixed them. After waiting for five minutes, she added four spoons mixture into the cauldron.

Next, she waved her wand "Dominentur" And watch her potion became black. If not, it meant that she's failed and Bianca didn't want to be failed.

IT'S BLACK! THE POTION BECAME BLACK! THANK GOODNESS!

Okay okay, she's not finished. Then she grabbed the metal stirrer which had been cleaned before then stirred the potion seven times clockwise. EXACTLY seven times. Next, she added the rest of lion fur. Since the ingredient that hadn't been added was only the peppermint.. Did it mean that they're almost finished?

He walked to the blackboard and tapped his wand twice to reveal the next set of steps.

Quote:

11. Wait for 15 minutes for pewter cauldrons, 11 for brass and 3 for copper. The colour should gradually become grey
12. Add the chopped peppermint

"Now we wait for... 15 minutes if the cauldron is pewter, 11 for brass and only 3 for copper. In the meantime, if your peppermint isn't chopped, please chop it and once the time's up, add the chopped peppermint." They were ALMOST done. "Note the gradual colour change towards grey."

This time he did get startled when he heard a tap near the blackboard and as he looked away from Cinna and towards the front, he raised an eyebrow. Since when had the Professor been standing there? He had been at the back right? Usually he noticed these kinds of things… Oh well it didn’t matter. He watched as the blackboard got updated and tried not to roll his eyes at the waiting part. He knew he had to buy a new cauldron, one that required less waiting.

Standing back up because it was easier to work that way, Kevin did not see the potion in his cauldron slowly rising and went to work by chopping the peppermint. He set his watch to fifteen minutes and then cleaned his knife and chopped up the sprig of peppermint. Of course, this didn’t take fifteen minutes so the Gryffindor worked slowly while occasionally glancing towards Cinna. Before he knew it, time was up and he was startled out of his daydream yet again when his watch beeped loudly. He groaned as he added the chopped sprig of peppermint and it was then that he realised that something was off.

Why was his potion rising? He looked around to see the cauldrons of the other students and frowned some more when he realised that he was the only one so far he could see. Had he made a mistake? But what!? He had done everything right! He was sure of that! Calling the Professor was out of the question though, he had already told him he wanted to become the greatest potioneer ever, if he saw this mistake…whatever it was… he would be doubted! But he didn’t know what else to do as well so while his outside expression was really calm, his mind was freaking out and he stirred the potion with the metal stirrer once in an attempt to make things right….whatever he had done wrong!

PLEASE WOOOORK! T___T

Angel looked around for her metal stirrer and when she spotted it she used her wand and smiled. "Scourgify!" Angel smiled when she realised that the woodern stirrer was now clean.

Angel picked it up and then she stirred her potion seven times clockwise, she then added the rest of the lion fur into the cauldron. She was totally enjoying this... it was amazing and she couldn't wait to try the potion when it was done.

Angel then heard the next instructions and whilst waiting for the 15 minutes to be up, she chopped up the peppermint with clean equipment. Angel then waited until the 15 minutes were fully up before adding the chopped up peppermint.

Angel then noticed the gradual colour change towards grey, this was awesome and she waited for the next instructions.

The last step, finally! Bianca then cleaned the chopping board and knife to chop her peppermint. Once it done, shewas about to add the peppermint, the brunette girl realized that there's still the mixture of blood, fur and wool on her workspace.

.
.
.

OH NO!!!

Did she forget to add the rest of the mixture? Why in the world she forgot to do that? WHY, BIANCA RUSH? What on earth that stuck on your mind, girl? Damn it, should she start over or just add the mixture? Err.. think, Bianca Rush! THINK! QUICKLY!

Sigh...

Well, okay....

She decided to add the rest of the mixture then stirred it again seven times clockwise. After that, she waited for eleven minutes, her potion gradually changed the color became grey then she added the peppermint. Now she just watched and bit her nail, hoping that her potion would be doing okay.

Cilla cleaned her gloves, stirrer and knife using "Scourgify" whilst waiting for the potion to brew. In the three minutes that it had taken for the potion to brew, Cilla had chopped the sprig of peppermint and cleaned the knife using the Cleaning Spell.

Cilla kept looking at the potion every thirty seconds. Gradually the colour became greyer. When the three minutes was up, Cilla added the chopped peppermint.

Uh oh. Margo was crying. Abandoning his potion, Adi scurried over to her. No, no, no, little sister. No need to cry. Adi still couldn't figure out why it was that Potions was so difficult to some persons. Why was he wondering that? Ancient Runes gave him a difficult times periodically. "Margo, don't cry. Just focus on the instructions and what you're doing. Shall I tell you something?" Time for a trip down memory lane! "When I was in second year, I hadn't been paying attention to what I was doing. I think I forgot to clean one of my equipment or something. Anyway, Professor Culloden had to vanish my potion so I had to start over. Trust me, it wasn't that bad and it made me focus on all the other potions every time I brewed one.'' He hoped that encouraged her. Annnnd there were more instructions from the Professor.

"Remember I'm right over there if you need help.'' Back at his workstation, Adi continued with the potion brewing process by waiting patiently for fifteen minutes to elapse. He kept an eye on his watch as the minutes ticked by and hovered by to watch the colour change.

It took some time but like Culloden said it was a gradual change but finally his potion was grey. Yeeees! When there was one minute left, Adi was all set to drop in the already chopped peppermint. Once the minute had gone by, he did just that.

Quote:

"Please stir seven times clockwise with a CLEAN metal stirrer." Was the 'clean' part clear enough? "Then, add the rest of the lion fur."

Quote:

"Now we wait for... 15 minutes if the cauldron is pewter, 11 for brass and only 3 for copper. In the meantime, if your peppermint isn't chopped, please chop it and once the time's up, add the chopped peppermint." They were ALMOST done. "Note the gradual colour change towards grey."

More notes? Sighing quietly she took her quill and began to write down the next steps she'd need to preform for her potions success. Thankfully it didn't appear to be all that hard. Then again she'd messed up on the first step so yeah...

Finding the metal stirred on her table she used a quick 'Scourgify' on it before dipping it into her cauldron and stirring the potion in a clockwise motion seven times counting in her head. Cleaning the stirrer once done she set it aside. Now for the lion fur. Collecting what was left from earlier she carefully added it into the cauldron.

Now came the boring part. Waiting a full fifteen minutes! Groaning quietly she glanced at the clock...this was gonna seem like forever. Luckily she could chop up the peppermint while she waited. Gathering up her chopping board, knife and peppermint she used a simple cleaning spell once more. Once it was all clean she began to chop up the peppermint as instructed, glancing into the potion every minute or so. It took some time but slowly the potion changed from the deep black to a gray.

After a long boring wait the fifteen minutes was finally up and her potion was gray just as it should be. With a small grin Hady carefully added all the chopped peppermint into the cauldron.

What? She didn't have to start over? Janelle was so relieved, she didn't know what to do. Looking up at the Professor gratefully, she said, "Thank you". She even managed to return his smile. Taking a deep breath to calm her frazzled nerves, Janelle got back to work. She was behind now, but she would be careful not to make any more mistakes. Next time she might not be so lucky.

First Janelle updated her notes. Then she added the rest of the mixture to her cauldron. She needed to clean her metal stirrer so she picked it up and and grabbed her wand with her other hand. Making an S shaped movement, Janelle said, "Scourgify". She had gotten rather good at the cleaning spell, if she did say so herself.

Now that her stirrer was clean, Janelle put it into the cauldron and began to stir. She counted to herself as she moved the stirrer in a clockwise direction. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Checking her notes, she saw what she had to do next. Janelle picked up her remaining lion fur and added it to the potion.

It was time to wait again........eleven minutes for Janelle's brass cauldron. She checked the time on her watch and began the countdown. In the meantime, there was peppermint to chop. She had already cleaned her knife so she was fine on that count. However, she would need something to lay her peppermint on so she cleaned her chopping board before proceeding. Then she laid her peppermint on the board and began to chop away. It reminded her of cooking at home with her mother.......just with crazier ingredients. Taking a moment to peek at her potion, Jasmine was happy to see the color lightening.

At last, the wait was over. The eleven minutes had passed and Janelle added her freshly chopped peppermint to the potion. It had turned gray and she hoped that it was the right color gray. Letting out a deep breath, Janelle stepped back from her potion. She said a silent "thank Merlin" that she hadn't had to start over. She decided to clean her dirty equipment while she waited.

Fifteen minutes was a long time. Or well, it was AND it wasn't. But with all things considered, fifteen minutes to watch his brew turn grey was definitely a long time. It was a good thing he could exercise some patience where potions was concerned. It was... calming. Yeah. Calming.

Using the time to inspect his peppermint, Zeke selected the BEST looking sprig and took his potions knife into his hand. First thing first, he cleaned them. Cleaned them thoroughly since both the peppermint and the knife had been exposed to other elements. There was no way he was going to ruin his potion now when they were so close to the end. He was even very particular with chopping the peppermint sprig. It still had to look neat and tidy, and as perfect as he could get it. He did have time to kill after all.

After that task was completed, he still waited a few more minutes for his brew to ... well... to be right. He would reconsider bringing his pewter cauldron to class now, it took longer.

His black potion had indeed lightened gradually to a shade of grey. Was it still too dark? Or was it too light? He wasn't sure, but his gut told him it was fine... and he trusted his gut. As time was up, he added the chopped peppermint and returned his gaze to Professor Culloden.

Margo, peeked up at the Professor. She got impression he wasn't a fan of her crying, but she couldn't help it! This class just got to her. She hated it! Ugh. But then Adi had come over, and Margo smiled at him. "Thanks Adi" She said giving him a quick side hug before he went back to his own table.

Sighing, at least her potion was slightly black. Margo looked at the clock she had 10 minuets left to wait. But she had forgotten to cut up the peppermint earlier so Margo did that now. After her allotted 15 minuet time Margo added the peppermint and watched as her potion began to lighten up. She breathed a sigh of relief. Can this class just be over with yet?

MORE waiting. This was definitely the hardest part of the whole potions thing, because Caleb had basically zero patience. At least he only had to wait 11 minutes, because of his brass cauldron.

He had to chop his peppermint while he waited, so he got to work on that, glancing at the clock every minute or so to see if time had gone by. He finished chopping his peppermint pretty early, and after a few more minutes...it was time to add it in.

Before he plopped it in, he checked his potion to make sure it was all gray like he said. It was pretty gray...but HOW gray was it supposed to be? His was a light slate gray...was that good?

Ah well. Who cared. He plopped the peppermint in and waited for the next instructions.

Of course Dante cleaned his metal stirrer thing. He was trying at least and actually listening to instruction. So..yeah. Dante stirred seven times clockwise with his clean thing.

One...Two...Three...Four....Five...Six....Seven

Looks at those awesome counting skills. Then he added the rest of the lion fur. There you go. Not that hard yet.

Keyword word being Yet.

Yeah then the most boring part happened. Dante just pondered something things until the required time for his colored potion. Man this was boring with a capital B. But was gradually turning gray. So success right here. So far. Chopped peppermint added.

So far. so good.

Right, time for her to do some waiting. This part always sucked, but Lux supposed she could use the time to be constructive.

After recording the next two steps in her notes, she began chopping up some more peppermint. Somehow her supply of chopped peppermint had run out and she had forgotten to cut some more up, but that didn't matter really since she had loads of time. As she worked, she hummed a tune under her breath and occasionally glanced at the clock.

Setting the peppermint to the side, she had some time to watch her potion gradually turn grey and once the 11 minutes were up, she added it to the cauldron.

SPOILER!!: Lux's Notes

TRUST ME-SELF

• 7 ground scarab beetles
• a handful of lion's neck fur
• two handfuls of fox tail fur
• two tea spoons of salamander blood
• 300 grams of sheep wool
• a sprig of chopped peppermint

1. Fill the cauldron with water and light a fire at maximum
2. Add the scarab beetles carefully without plopping them down
3. Add half of the lion fur
4. Stir clockwise seven times with a metal stirrer.
5. Wait for 7 minutes for pewter cauldrons, 5 for brass and 4 for copper. In the meantime, mix sheep wool and fox fur with salamander blood in another bowl. Make sure it's mixed well.
6. Once the time is up, add 4 tea spoons of the mixture
7. Wave your wand while saying "Dominentur"
8. Add the rest of the mixture. The colour should turn black
9. Stir clockwise seven times with a metal stirrer
10. Add the rest of the lion fur
11. Wait for 15 minutes for pewter cauldrons, 11 for brass and 3 for copper. The colour should gradually become grey (Note: chop the peppermint if it isn't already)
12. Add the chopped peppermint