Toby wasn't sure he liked the sound of that half dark potion. He had basically less than zero control over his emotions anyway, something he never liked to admit, in fact he preferred for everyone to believe he was YES 100% IN CONTROL. But he wasn't. But not the point.

So he added all this into his notes somewhat reluctantly, but dutifully. You had to learn about all the potions that were taught, not just pick and choose. Before even getting started, he copied the ingredients and instructions that were already written there on his parchment too, and then set up all the ingredients required that he had in his potions kit.

"Ap-toh press-soo-rah," Toby repeated under his breath, even as he got everything ready. "Ap-TOH press-soo-raaaaaaah. Ap-toh press-soo-rah. Apto pressure." Yeah, okay. Nailed it. He took his wand out, too, to practice the movement. A single vertical line. Yep. Nailed it again.

He'd just pointed his wand at the empty cauldron and cleaned it again, before filling it halfway up with a simple 'Aguamenti' charm, when he noticed that Kyroh, sat beside him as usual, still hadn't gotten started. Toby blinked, waited a few more moments to see if something would happen, before eventually leeeeeeaning over and giving him a gentle poke. Or two. Or three.

"Kyyyyyroh. This is your Toby speaking." That... was probably obvious. "You gonna get started, bud?" ... "Culloden might eat you if not." It was funny, see? 'Cause they both knew it wouldn't happen. That Culloden was a big squishy teddy bear, not a big scary dragon like he'd have you believe. "I can offer bribes if necessary, but most of them involve hugs."

Though he was pretty sure those would work.

FOR NOW THOUGH, Toby turned back to his cauldron to try that spell on the water. Seemed... pretty integral to get it correct. Like, more integral than usual, judging by Culloden's... conviction about getting it right.

"Apto pressure." Vertical line going down, yep. Nailed it yet again. Well, maybe. They'd see in a minute, if the water didn't start boiling when he got it to the right temperature. Speaking of which...

"Incendio." A fire was lit under the cauldron, and he raised the heat, keeping watch to get the water to 100 degrees. It would be keeping it there that would be difficult.

And, as always, Toby kept on looking over to Kyroh. Just LOOKING OUT for him, y'know.

Ethan was too busy sorting Culloden’s voice out from everyone else. Again, the potion was his invention so he made the extra effort to write down details as the man went along his lecture. The use, emotions, incantation and ingredients were written down carefully on his parchment. Nope nope nope, he will not mess this one up. The potion, he knew, was novelty, and that he should pay extra attention to how it is going to be brewed. Setting his notes aside, Ethan collected all the tools and utensils needed, and began to clean them one by one, “Scourgify.” Non-verbally of course. The moment he got his exam results during the summer, he had read self-help books in doing non-verbals for beginners. As soon as he stepped in Hogwarts back in September, he practised various cleaning spells and vanishing spells non-verbally to get a good head start.

With his cauldron and thermometer clean, he went on to fill his black vessel with water. Ethan concentrated on that step because it required them to have purified water. And to get it, he needed to have the right intent. “Aguamenti.” Clean, odourless, purified water came out of it, and lifted the charm with a “Finite” as soon as it reached half of his cauldron. Ethan carefully dipped the thermometer inside his cauldron and practised the spell. “Ap-toh press-soo-rah...ap-toh press-soo-rah...” Vertical wand movement, “Apto Pressure...Apto Pressure.” Turning towards his cauldron this time, Ethan raised his wand and slowly lowered his wand vertically while saying the incantation. “Apto Pressure.” Time to see if it worked, hm? The Slytherin then pointed his wand on the burner and ignited it. “Incendio.” FIIYAAAHH. Ethan watched his thermometer patiently, and was delighted to see that the spell worked. 100 degrees Celsius through and through.

Norah had to scribble to keep up with all of Professor Culloden's talking. Maaaaan, he knew a lot about potions. It made sense, obviously, 'cause potions professor 'n all that but he could sure talk a whole lot too. That was cool. Coolness points for you, professor. Once she'd finished recording the ingredients and first few steps, she pushed the parchment to the edge of her desk and picked up her wand. Potion time, aw yeah.

"Scourgify!" Aaaand clean cauldron. As she peered down at her notes to make sure she was getting it all right, she whispered "Apto pressura. Ap-toh press-soo-rha. Ap-toh-press-soooooooo-rah" over and over because this potion had to be perfect. Y'know why? It wasn't because the fourth year really really wanted to be good at something, or even because Professor Culloden was all sorts of cool, or because effort was always a good thing apparently. Nope. It was REALLY because if she got it wrong what if she messed up somebody's emotions for ever and ever and EVER? That'd be a ginormous disaster. Even more ginormous than being bad at everything or Culloden getting mad, and those were pretty disastrous too. Ahem. WATER. Awesome. "Aguamenti!" She watched as the water left her wand until the cauldron was half full. Or what looked like half full. Same difference, really.

"Apto pressura apto pressura apto pressura" No problem, right? Right. Norah said "Apto pressura" again, louder this time, and traced a vertical line with her wand. She stared at the cauldron. Was she supposed to be seeing something happening oooooooor what? She spent another moment looking before directing her attention to the thermometer on her desk and casting "Scourgify!" again. Leaning over to check her notes one more time, she put the thermometer into the water and eyed it. Yeeeah no. It wasn't anywhere near 100, as she probably should have expected but y'know being sure isn't ever bad. She turned up the burner and watched and watched and watched for a hundred million years until the thermometer finally read 100 degrees. VICTORY.

Scribble, scribble, scribble! Because notes were SUPER important, yo! There was SO MUCH to write but Adi was too excited to get started on actually making the potion. He shot a look at Nats. Wasn't she excited for this class? Her and her mask? LOL.

Oh looky! The steps and ingredients were up on the board. That meant... BREWING CAME SOON! WOOT! Adi quickly but carefully jotted these down, double checking that he had written everything correctly. One had to be careful when it came to potions. Yep.

Right! Time to get a move on! First step? "Clean the cauldron!'' Adi said to himself. "Scourgify!'' That done, he half filled the cauldron with a quick, "Aguamenti!'' What was next? Oh, yeah. That spell... "Ap-toh press-soo-rah, Ap-toh press-soo-rah, Apto pressure, Apto pressure.'' Yeaaaah, he got that. The wand movement was then practiced a few times before the boy was satisfied that he had everything in order.

''Apto pressure!'' With his focus now on the cauldron, he slooooowly lowered his wand in a straight, vertical direction while saying the incantation. Now for the fire! "Incendio!'' He had his cleaned thermometer ready to check the heat. Checking, checking, checking... 97, 98, 99, 100!

Awesomeee! The temperature was stuck there!

There was a lot of nodding involved as Brian listened to Professor Culloden explaining why it was half-dark and not full-dark, why it wasn't actually all that evil because it only controlled emotions and not thoughts or actions, et cetera. Well, it was mostly going in and Brian was writing like a madman, his already awful writing growing even more illegible as he scrambled to write down everything on his piece of spare patrchment to be copied into his book later. He should really consider getting a Quick Quotes Quill.

Soon enough, it was time to get on with the practical section and Brian was finding his hand just a little bit sore. Ouch. Anyway, time to fill his cauldron with water. He'd unfortunately never been good at this, but it's okay. He'd work on it later. It just was never a real priority when you could always get water from a tap but Brian was NOT moving. Too much effort involved and the dungeons tended to make him just a little bit drowsy. Instead, he scourgified it quickly and then cast an aguamenti. None of them silent like he could see people doing, but he wasn't all that good at charms yet. He'd get there, though.

Then, there was the new spell. They weren't even two steps in and there was a spell? Wasn't potions supposed to have minimal spells or something? Shaking it off, Brian tested out the incantation on his tongue. "Apto pressura," he said, and then again so that it rolled off without the hindrance of an accent. "Apto Pressura." The wand movement was simple enough: a vertical line straight down. A good incantation and wand movement for a useful charm. Quite unlike the few he'd learnt this term that served very little purpose. "Apto pressura," he said quietly but very firmly, drawing the line with his wand straight above his cauldron. It hopefully worked.

Next it was time to heat the thing. Bugger. He'd never really gotten the hang of incendio. Oh, right. He had a matchbox in his potions kit! Taking that out, he lit a match and started the fire beneath his cauldron, sticking the thermometer in to measure the temperature. He made sure the bulb of the thermometer didn't touch the cauldron, leaving it well enough alone until the temperature hit 95 degrees. That seemed to take an absurd amount of time. Probably had something to do with the fact that water had a high heat capability? No, heat capacity. Anyway, once it hit 95, Brian started stirring to slow down the heating until it hit 100, when he started stirring a lot faster so that the temperature didn't go up.

Could the professor say something now? It was really painful and his arm was going to fall off any moment now. Oh, and why wasn't the water boiling? It was 100 degrees. It should be boiling, especially since it's pure water. Strange.

Benzi had kept quiet during the dark/half dark debate, mainly because by the time he'd forced his brain to stop thinking of all the possibilities implications of this potion, most of the answers had already been said. So, he'd said nothing and waited for Professor Culloden to move the lesson along.

Because this potion was very clearly 67.5% dark. Yes. He'd calculated it.

"Apto pressura," he mumbled to himself as he copied down the potion onto his parchment, along with some side notes about the dark debate. Who knows, that might be a bonus question in a test later on.

"Scourgify.... scourgify!" because twice was better than once, always. Nothing can be TOO clean, after all. Or, well, his room could. His room could definitely be too clean, but other than his room nothing. Least of all cauldrons. The cleaner the better! Inspecting his cauldron to make sure that it indeed was sparkling as if he'd only just bought it, he went on to clean his utensils meticulously until everything was deemed workable.

"Aguamenti," he cast, and frowned when nothing happened. GUH. This spell would never just happen on the first try now would it? "AguaMENTI!" he tried again, putting more emphasis on the word this time and watched with satisfaction as water flowed out of his wand, ending the spell when the cauldron was half full. Also, "Incendio!"

Yes good. Now. "Ap-to pre-ssu-rah," he repeated it over to get the feel of it, then did the vertical line wand motion the professor had demonstrated. When he was satisfied that he could get it right, Benzi pointed at the potion, dragged his wand downwards and cast, "Apto Pressura!"

................ and now we wait.

Cosgrach saw no problems that needed his attention, so he didn't get up from his chair and tapped his wand on the blackboard to reveal more steps.

"I hope you've all cleaned your cauldrons and thermometers before adding water," he said, "and will continue to clean all the utensils before and after using." Did they even need a reminder at this point? He thought not, but he didn't want disasters.

"Now, chop the lovage well and add it, wait for 5 seconds and add the berries immediately."

It sounded easy, right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

4. Chop the lovage well and add it
5. Wait for 5 seconds
6. Add the berries right after 5 seconds

Cilla cleaned her gloves and knife by waving her wand in an "S" formation as she uttered the word, "Scourgify". She grabbed the two sprigs of lovage and began to carefully chop. When that was done she added it to her cauldron and waited for five seconds. When the five seconds were up, she immediately added the four mistletoe berries to the mixture. She then cleaned her gloves and knife. Cilla always liked to keep her gloves clean to avoid cross-contamination.

With her cauldron steadily at a not-boiling temperature of 100 degrees, it was time for the next steps. Zhenya copied the next three instructions carefully onto her parchment and continued with the potion. She had her two sprigs of lovage, which she put on her cutting board and picked up her knife. "Scourgify," she said, cleaning it. She chopped the lovage up nicely and made sure her 4 mistletoe berries were right near her hand. She put the chopped up lovage sprigs into the water, counted five seconds, and added the berries.

She hadn’t really gotten any response to her suggestions, but then Brooklyn had noticed that for the most part Professor Culloden hadn’t singled anyone out. Therefore it wasn’t a direct slight, so she could deal with that. Except she still wanted to know if she’d gotten any points for giving an answer in the first place. Apparently that would have to wait, as he’d started discussing the actual potion they’d be working on today and she’d slid her potions journal over to start writing down the notes as they’d appeared on the blackboard. Her cauldron was already set up for whenever they got to the point of lighting a flame underneath, but before she got to practicing the spell they’d been introduced to, she took her wand out and made sure to Scourgify the cauldron. Everything else she could clean as she needed it, but she wasn’t going to have to start over for having a dirty cauldron.

Once that was done, she set her wand down to practice. “Apto Pressura. Ap-to Pres-su-ra,” she repeated a few times, tracing a vertical line in the air with a finger like they’d been instructed. Once she felt she had the incantation down, she moved on to practicing the wand movement for real. A straight, vertical line over her cauldron, minus any water or flame or anything. Minus the incantation too, but they’d get put together soon enough. First she had to actually get to the need for the spell, and she Scourgified her cauldron once more for good measure before using her wand to fill it with water halfway. At least she didn’t have to do that the Muggle way, or light the burner under her cauldron. A quick Incendio took care of that. After the spell. “Apto pressure,” she repeated once more, tracing out the vertical line over her half-filled cauldron, then switching to light the flame.

Now it had to get to 100 degrees, but that didn’t seem to take very long. That just needed the thermometer she rarely used, which needed another Scourgify. She still managed that before the water got to 100 degrees, which was a small victory she’d expected. Once that was done, she’d Scourgified her knife and slid the lovage over to chop it into fine pieces. Once it seemed chopped well enough, she gathered it up and added it to the water, waiting five seconds exactly before she dropped the four berries into the water as well. Carefully. She wasn’t planning on splashing herself with hot water any time soon, but then she was left waiting for the next steps.

SPOILER!!: notes

Emotion Change Potion
A half-dark potion that makes the drinker feel one of these emotions: Happiness, sadness, excitement, fear, tenderness, anger.
base:
Two sprigs of lovage
4 mistletoe berries
4 measures of fluxweed
2 measures of boomslang skin
Ten newt larvae
for emotions:
Happiness: 3 Alihotsy leaves
Sadness: A teaspoon of glumbumble treacle
Excitement: Half a handful of ferret fur
Fear: A scoop of black flies
Tenderness: 2 teaspoons of dog saliva
Anger: 7 hippogriff feathers

1. Fill halfway with pure water
2. Slowly lower your wand as if you're drawing a straight, vertical line with your wand and say Apto pressura (wand movement: straight, vertical line onto the cauldron)
3. Heat to 100 degree celcius and keep the heat at 100 and ONLY 100 AT ALL TIMES
4. Chop the lovage well and add it
5. Wait for 5 seconds
6. Add the berries right after 5 seconds

extra notes:
It's a base potion, which can be stored for a year
The emotion to be decided after the creation of the base

............The knot in Rusty's stomach tightened a little... was she really going to have to miss out on this? "But... sir... I don't even eat honey because it comes from animals... I can't do this..." she said, still sorta staring at the blackboard.

It wasn't that she was trying to be difficult - she really did want to be able to brew potions - but there was no way on Earth she would ever be able to forgive herself if she used poor innocent animals for her own means...

Right. While he waited for the water to hit 100 degrees, Benzi went ahead and cleaned all of his ingredients as well, doubly inspecting them to make sure he hadn't missed a spot. He was good at potions, and could't remember the last time he'd botched one up. Today was not the day he'd break that streak of success.

He chopped up the lovage, put it at the side of his cutting board and prepared the berries in a separate container so that they'd be ready for him to put inside the potion. He leaned on his elbows as he eyed the thermometer and grinned when it FINALLY hit one hundred, without the water boiling. Fantastic.

He neatly dropped the lovage into his potion, then counted. "1 hippogriff, 2 hippogriffs, 3 hippogriffs, 4 hippogriffs, 5 hippogriffs," aaaaaand PLOP went the berries as they were also dropped into the very hot water.

NEEEEEEEEEEEEXT.

Angel was still trying to figure out what the big smile was about and so she had missed the first three steps, see Professor this is what goes on when one smiles to bring and the fact she hadn't seen Benny around was worrying her.

Angel took out her wand. "Scourgify!" Angel did the S shape wand movement and that watched as her cauldron became clean, she then added the water. "Aguamenti!" Angel was still thinking about everything and was worried about where Benny was, seriously it was unlike him to miss a potions lesson.

Angel stopped at the half way mark and then she did step 2 making sure she did the correct wand movement and making sure she said what the Professor had told her to. "Apto pressure!"

Angel then heated her cauldron up and made sure it stayed at 100 degree's she didn't want anything going wrong with the cauldron or anything like that.

Angel chopped the lovage up and then added that to the cauldron but because she was still thinking about things and she was still trying to work out what was going on, she accidently forgot to count to five and it must have been around 40 seconds before she realised and added the berries, she wondered if that would make a difference.

Taking his blade in hand - after having that cleaned too, Zeke gathered his two sprigs of lovage and gave them a good chop as per the instructions. Once he added this he timed the five seconds out....

1...... 2...... 3...... 4......5

.... and immediately added the four mistletoe berries.

Done done done... he amended his notes as he went, ticking them off in his head.

Flame lit under her cauldron, Lux placed her thermometer in the water (yes, it was clean). The temperature needed to reach 100˚C and stay there, so it was VERY important for her to watch carefully. As she stared at the thermometer, the temperature increased. 92˚C... 95˚C... 98˚C... and then finally 100˚C. Perfect.

Two sprigs of lovage were taken from her potions kit and chopped with her clean knife. Chop. Chop. Chop. Once she felt she had reached the correct consistency, it was added to the cauldron. Lux counted 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... seconds in her head before immediately adding the four mistletoe berries.

Okay, so what next?

SPOILER!!: Lux's Notes

EMOTIONAL CHANGE POTION

Ingredients:

• Two sprigs of lovage
• 4 mistletoe berries
• 4 measures of fluxweed
• 2 measures of boomslang skin
• Ten newt larvae
  
  
• Happiness: 3 Alihotsy leaves
  Sadness: A teaspoon of glumbumble treacle
  Excitement: Half a handful of ferret fur
  Fear: A scoop of black flies
  Tenderness: 2 teaspoons of dog saliva
  Anger: 7 hippogrif feathers

Steps:

1. Fill halfway with pure water
2. Slowly lower your wand as if you're drawing a straight, vertical line with your wand and say Apto pressura.
3. Heat to 100 degree celcius and keep the heat at 100 and ONLY 100 AT ALL TIMES
4. Chop the lovage well and add it
5. Wait for 5 seconds
6. Add the berries right after 5 seconds

Serotonin, right.

Quickly he scribbled down the ingredients and then the Korean boy grabbed his cauldron, cleaned it, filled halfway of the cauldron with water, then put the clean thermometer inside.... Okay, now he had to practice the spell. "Ap-toh press-soo-rah." He muttered multiple times. Then he lowered his wand slowly, making a vertical straight line movement repeatedly. After he felt sure that it was good enough, Jackson cast the spell "Ap-toh press-soo-rah." He said as he lowered his wand and made vertical straight line movement.

Next, the flame! "Incendio." He lightened the fire and watched the thermometer. 100 degrees Celcius! Good, what's next? Jackson then cleaned up the knife and chopping board. After he chopped the lovage, then he added them to the cauldron, five seconds later he added the berries.

Had they cleaned the thermometer? Oh, yeah! Adi had done that. He certainly had learned over the years he had been here to clean EVERYTHING when making potions. See? He was using the Scouring Charm to clean his knife which he would now use to chop his lovage.

Chop, chop, CHOP!

That was added to the cauldron. Now to wait for one, two, three, four, five seconds then in went the berries. WOOT! So far so good! For him at least because he noticed Angelfish had still not added her berries. Wait... she should have, right? Oh there she went, adding them! "Pssst. Angel. Did you add those after FIVE seconds?'' If not, she would need to ask Culloden how to fix that.

Angel blushed when she suddenly heard Adi speaking, she had a funny feeling that he knew that it had been over five seconds. "Eh!!! Eh!! I actually don't know how long it was." Angel lied, she knew it had been way over 5 seconds but she didn't have to tell Adi that right. "I'm not sure... I think it might have been over 5 seconds." Angel thought she'd try and bluff, it wasn't her fault she was still trying to figure out what the big smile was about and where on earth Benny was hiding.

The lesson had only just began and it already seemed to be moving along much faster then usual. Was it only just her whom thought this? A quick glance around the room showed her that it was probably so. Pulling her parchment towards her and grabbing up her quill she quickly began to write down the potions name, ingredients and all the proper steps as listed on the board. Setting those aside she started things off with quietly repeating the incantation to herself.

"Ap-toh press-soo-rah. Ap-toh press-soo-rah." She whispered feeling out the words before putting it together correctly a few more times. "Apto pressure." When she was done practicing the words she made the movement of a vertical straight line with her finger a few times.

Once she was sure she had it right she moved on. Using her wand she cleaned her hands and her cauldron as well as the thermometer with a nice 'Scourgify'. That only took a moment since she had the spell down from her last few terms. Keeping hold of her wand she then cast a simple 'Aguamenti' into her cauldron filling it half way with water.

Now it was time for the spell. Wand in hand she made a nice vertical line over the cauldron speaking clearly, "Apto pressure." Prefect. Now a quick 'Incendio' and the fire was lite. Setting the thermometer into the water she watched closely as it rose to 100 degrees C like told.

Using 'Scorgify' on her knife and chopping board she then began to chop up the two sprigs of lovage before adding it into the cauldron.

1..2..3..4..5.. seconds later exactly she added the four mistletoe berries carefully. All caught up she began to clean the things she'd used once more while she waited on the next set of instructions.

The professor believed her with the vitamin C and stress thing. He probably believed in her more than she believed in herself because well, she kind of just pulled that out of thin air, and wasn't even sure if that was a thing. It sounded good though.

Moving on.

They were learning a new spell. Great. AJ was just SO good at learning new spells. Ha. No. That was the wrong attitude to have. She was going to have so much luck with this. Was that better? First things first. AJ cleaned her cauldron and her thermometer with the scourgify charm. That was one step that would mess up your whole potion brewing thing, and she did not want to have to start over.

Now it was time to practice this spell or the clean cauldron would have been pointless. "Ap-toh press-soo-rah...Ap-toh press-soo-rah...Ap-toh press-soo-rah." AJ felt fairly confident with it. The lion then picked up her wand and practiced making a straight vertical line. Got it. Time to put the two together.

Water was added to her cauldron, and a fire was going. "Apto pressure!" A vertical line was drawn with her wand and boom. Let's hope this works. The fourth year added the thermometer and was pleased to see that it stayed at 100 degree celcius. So much success.



Clean knife was how she needed to start out. Clean, clean, clean. She was freaking Cinderella in this class. Chop, chop, chop. Once it looked nicely chopped, she added the lovage into the cauldron.

Next she had to play the waiting game, and AJ HATED waiting. This time it was only for five seconds so it really wasn't that bad. She tapped her foot five time and paused in between each tap to make sure it counted as a full second. Thorough, she was.

When the five seconds had passed she added the berries. Done!

Hugh just did what he was told. Nothing more, nothing less.

His mind was too preoccupied with a world of more interesting things to even consider speaking up. Which worked just fine for him.

When the actual brewing began, Hugh scourgified it (squeaky clean) and then filled the cauldron up with pure water. Following directions. He was doing that.

Next he pulled out his wand and cut it down saying, Apto pressura." Hugh wasn't sure what it was supposed to do but he didn't bother caring. So long as he did his job.

After, he turned the heat up. Perfectly to 100 Celcius and then kept it constant. Occasionally he would check the temperature to make sure, doubly sure.

Finally he chopped the lovage, added it. THEN waited five seconds and tossed in the berries.

WAIT WAIT WAIT. STOP STOP STOP.

Natalia had always been a slowpoke; she hadn't even cleaned her cauldron when the professor announced the next steps. Natalia had been too busy learning the new incantation!

This was why she was never as successful in potions; what takes others a minute to do, it takes Natalia ten.

*SIGH*

"Scourgify!" That was the spell for cleaning the cauldron, right? After a summer with no practice, her memory was starting to grow a little fuzzy.

Alright, now that the cauldron was glimmering to show off its cleanness, it was time to add water. "Aquamenti!" Natalia definitely remembered that one; it was too commonly-used. Seeing that the water had filled the cauldron just a little bit more than it should have, Natalia simply... ignored it. It was just a teeeeeny-weeeeny more. It shouldn't have much of an effect, right?

"Apto Pressura!" Natalia applied the newly-learnt spell with few troubles.

"Incendio!" A little spark ignited at the bottom of the cauldron. The process was slow, allowing Natalia to hop up and down in her spot impatiently before she had to pay attention to the thermometer. 85 degrees... 90 degrees... come on YOU'RE SLOWER THAN MY GRANDMA... 100 degrees... HOORAY!...

Natalia beamed proudly (not that anyone could see it, of course) as if she just had battled victory over a large troll.

Pushing her face mask closer to her nose, Natalia was ready to proceed with the next few steps.

Marigold wrote her notes carefully, with her tongue between her teeth, as she didn't want them to smudge. She would probably have to take NEWTs with these notes….

Oh Merlin. NEWTs were at the end of this year. Eh, whatever. She didn't need NEWTs, did she? [/denial]

She filled her cauldron up with pure water after scourgifying everything, including her hands and her desk. Rotating her wand between her hands, she drew a line leading into the water and said clearly, "Apto pressura." She had to repeat it a few times for it to work, but her wand movement was good. She turned the heat to 100 celsius…and kept it there…because he had emphasized that importance.

She chopped the lovage, then grabbed the berries so that the transition would be quick. She plopped the lovage into her cauldron, then "One…two…three..four..five" seconds later, she added the berries.

Norah watched Professor Culloden with wide eyes until he added more steps to the board, waiting for him to come tell her she'd done something horribly wrong, but guess what? He DIDN'T. Which meant it was going alright so THERE. Picking up her quill, she recorded the next few steps before turning her attention back to her wand. She HAD been cleaning stuff the whole entire time, but now there was even more stuff to clean hooray! She was good at the cleaning part. "Scourgify!" aaaand clean knife.

She used the freshly scourgify-ed knife to chop her lovage into perfectly even pieces. Okay fine, they were ALMOST perfectly even but it was the best she could do. She added the bits slowly to her cauldron so they wouldn't make a splash, then immediately began counting. One....two.... WHERE'D THE BERRIES GET OFF TO? three...four.. OKAY there they were. She picked up the four berries and plopped them in right when she got to five. Phew. How EXHILARATING.

Natalia could feel herself perspiring due to the heat of the flames dancing under her cauldron. Nonetheless, a victorious smile crept on her face as she was nearing the end of the steps; she was catching on!

Chop the lovage well. How well was well?

Oh well!

The Lioness grabbed two sprigs of lovage and set it in front of her. Taking a knife, she began chopping the lovage in all random directions before sprinkling the messily-chopped pieces in the boiling water. That was quite well, right?

Wait five seconds.

One. Two. Three. FOUR. FIVE.

Now what? Oh right! Add the berries.

After what was around two seconds after the five seconds of purposeful waiting, Natalia finally found the four mistletoe berries concealed under her bag of fluxweed. She gently dropped these round berries in the bubbling water as well.

Great! Natalia had done everything that the professor had instructed them to. She had caught up for once!

While she was waiting for the next instructions, Natalia began to feel her skin perspiring under her face mask. Not wanting to take them off, instead, she grabbed a nearby potions textbook and fanned herself lazily.