|
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. SPOILER!!: Notes |
SPOILER!!: Steps 1-3 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 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. |
Text Cut: Zahra, Rowan, Kyroh, Toby 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:
|
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. SPOILER!!: Cilla's Potions Notes |
SPOILER!!: Parchment 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. |
steps 1-6 O.o 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 |
Quote:
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... |
Quote:
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. |
messing up sorry. Quote:
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 |
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. |
Quote:
|
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. |
Catch up SPOILER!!: steps 1-3 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. SPOILER!!: steps 4-6 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. SPOILER!!: Notes |
Catch-up, sorry! 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. SPOILER!!: Notes |
SPOILER!!: Toby He was about to give his cauldron one last good squeeze before a poke pulled him out of his hugging trance. His Toby. Yes. Hi! The fourth year beamed at the older boy. Tucking a few loose strains of hair behind his ear he nodded. "I don't need brides! I'm going to start. S'not a difficult Potion." Did Toby know that he had spent the rest of summer, apart of Quidditch Camp working a potions apprentice??? Probably not. Because he hadn't told him. But he would! ...Once he caught up. Opening his notebook, the fourth year quickly began to write. SPOILER!!: Kyroh's Notes Putting down his quill, he took out his wand. Scourgifying both his hands he pointed his wand inside his cauldron. "Scourgify!". Glancing inside he nodded with approval before starting on the first step. With his wand still in his cauldron, Kyroh's mouth opened again. "Aguamenti" As the water began to fill, brown eyes watched patently for the moment when the it reached exactly halfway. Ending the spell, Kyroh gazed down at his notes at the next step. New spell, right. Apto pressura. Slowly his mouth formed the words."Ap-toh press-soo-rah. Apto pressura." He repeated the word quietly until his mouth had gone dry. "Apto pressura!" Making a straight vertical line downward Kyroh then pointed to the bottom of his cauldron. ""Incendio!". Grabbing his thermometer he scourgifyed it and stuck it in the water. It was line he was in some sort of trance. Not a hug trance. But potion making one. Kyroh's attention was 150% on the task at hand. He probably wouldn't even notice if a troll entered the room that very instant. Which had happened before...... So it could happen again..... Taking out his favourite knife and cutting board, Kyroh cleaned them both (just to make sure) before resting the lovage onto the board. The severing charm worked well enough, but he found that when it came to potions it wasn't as exact as using an actual knife. Quickly he began to chop the lovage while still keeping note of the thermometer. 80˚C. 85˚C. One sprig was cut up finely. 90˚C. The second sprig was done and- 100˚C. Yup. It was stuck there, too. Sticking his tongue out Kyroh dumped the cut lovage into the cauldron. Waiting EXACTLY five seconds he added in the four mistletoe berries. Sighing gently, he turned to Toby and grinned. "All caught up, see!" |
steps 1-6 Zander Adair had been in class and paying attention the ENTIRE time. He was just leaving the question answering to some of the others. ‘Cause they’d have better answers anyways. Especially Sophie Brown. She was basically a potions master herself, so no need to block that sort of genius from happening. His responses would just be background noise anyways. But let it be known that Zander actually DID PASS his Potion’s OWL. Incase anyone was wondering. IT IS LEGITIMATE. He DID it. It was an actual thing. And he was very proud of himself thankyouverymuch. Although, the theoretical portion wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. Which is why Zander was incredibly glad to finally start this potion business. Thank Merlin for brewing, right? Anyways. First thing first. Water. WAIT. That is NOT the first thing. The first thing is a clean workspace and a clean cauldron. See, he did absorb SOME information. ”Scourgify!” And now that all that was taken care of. NOW he could do the first step. ”Aguamenti!! he filled the cauldron to the halfway mark and stopped the flow of water just as it got there. Then he carefully lowered his wand down in a straight line. For the practice round, y’know? Wand movement was EASY. The spell was a bit wordy though… Ap-toh press-soo-rah. Was that right? ”Ap-toh press-soo-rah! Ap-toh press-soo-rah!” He practiced a couple of times along with the rest of the class. Before lifting his wand once more to draw it down, as a straight line. ”Apto pressura,” he watched his cauldron curiously for a few moments before OH. He had to light it. Duuuuh. ”Incendio!” he watched his CLEAN thermometer as the temperature started rising. Good, good. Very good. You know what? Zander DID clean ALL of his things before hand thankyouverymuch. For once in his life he was doing something the right way the FIRST time. It was GREAT. Anyways, time to chop the lovage- which was a very funny name for a potions ingredient if you ask him. And he waited exactly five seconds. One. Two. Three. Four. FIVE. Before adding the berries in. Four mistletoe berries, to be exact. |
Steps 1-6 He beamed at the professor when he was told he was correct. His eyes drifted to the board as the instructions appeared and immediately made sure his cauldron was clean and ready for brewing the potion. Even though he kept it clean at all times, his mum always said you couldn't be too careful. He smirked when he heard the professor ask a few older students if their cauldrons were clean and finished with his cauldron before setting it back up. Text Cut: Instructions He followed the professor with what he was told to do and moved to fill his cauldron halfway with water. He really needed to learn the spell for filling it with his wand...hmm maybe he could find Lux later and have her show him. She'd seemed nice when he'd met her in aunt Kat's shop! Sighing he just filled his cauldron and set it back again. Listening as the professor explained the spell 'Apto Pressura' he set his wand down and said the words over and over. Please....for once just work! Astronomy had been a disaster, he didn't want a repeat of that! He was sure he was saying it just like the professor had, and picked up his wand muttering 'Apto Pressura' again finally he did the wand movement of a vertical line and said "Apto Pressura". Okay, so what was supposed to happen?? He didn't know so he just moved on to the next part. Heat to 100 degrees celsius. Okay. So then he moved to put the temperature at 100 exactly. Text Cut: steps 4-6 He watched the professor move on to step four and moved to get the 2 sprigs of lovage and all the ingredients he didn't have. Then started chopping up the lovage. He chopped it til it all look perfect and even and added it to the cauldron. Counting to 5 he added the 4 mistletoe berries. |
SPOILER!!: Steps 4-6 Ethan wore a smug grin on his face as he reached out for his bunch of lovage. He knew that most of his classmates would forget about cleaning their stuff. Well, not for him. How many times did Mordred point his wand at him just to give that reminder? Clean everything first if you don’t want to mess up. Well, let’s just say that his older cousin’s way of threatening him from time to time paid off. Getting two sprigs of lovage from the bunch, cleaned his knife, and chopped the green stuff finely. Once done, he scooped it up and added it to the water. The Slytherin then reached for four mistletoe berries, and after five seconds, added it to the brewing solution. As he waited for the next set of instructions, he busied himself by writing down some more notes on his parchment. |
Her thermometer crept right up to 100 degrees as the professor gave their next list of instructions. How was she meant to keep it at 100 degrees when there were all these OTHER things to do? She only had two hands and two eyes and one brain. Her knife was already cleaned, so Dot set to work chopping up her lovage. Chopping with two hands and only one eyeball, since the other eyeball was still watching the temperature. And almost chopping with nine fingers instead of ten. WHOOPs. Watch the knife there, Dottie. She adjusted the flame down a bit before dropping all the chopped lovage into the cauldron. Now she had to count to five, watch the temperature, and grab the berries. "I don't have octopus arms," she grumbled quietly as she dropped the mistletoe berries into the cauldron RIGHT at five. Another adjustment to the flame, and she was still at 100 degrees. |
It was time to move on to the next set of steps and Janelle copied down the directions before continuing. Once her notes were up to date, she gathered her sprigs of lovage. Then taking her clean knife, Janelle began to finely chop the lovage. When she felt that they were adequately chopped, she put down the knife. Janelle retrieved her mistletoe berries and set them nearby. They had to be ready for her to add to the potion when the time was right. Before adding anything, Janelle took her thermometer that she had cleaned before starting and placed it into her cauldron water. A little worried, she took a deep breath, and held it. Fortunately, the thermometer read 100 degrees celcius. The spell had worked.....so far. Relieved, she let out her breath. It was time to get cooking. Janelle checked her watch and added the lovage to her water. Looking down at the watch, she noted the time, grabbed her berrries and counted off five seconds. When the seconds had passed, Janelle dropped the berries into her cauldron. Now she just had to wait for the next instructions. While she waited, Janelle cleaned off her knife and thermometer. Then she watched her potion and waited. |
Of COURSE he'd cleaned his utensils before using them. Second nature and all that. Besides, which idiot wouldn't clean their utensils first? Who wanted to use dirty utensils in the first place? It made no sense, man. Some people needed brains or whatever. Next steps? Seemed simple enough. Grabbing his silver knife, Grayson magically cleaned it before pulling the lovage closer. Chop chop went the knife before he added it to his potion. There. One step down. Five........ ...... four.......... ......... three ........... ............ two................ ................ one ................ DONE! In went the berries as quickly as he could. Text Cut: Journal |
Welp I guess they were getting down to business. He didn't even know if his answer was right but I guess Professor C was going with it. Now onto practicing a new spell? He knew they were making an Emotional Change Potion. This shall be interesting. He copied down the spell into his notebook first. He got his quill out first and began to copy it, SPOILER!!: Notebook He used the steps in his notebook. He needed to fill his cauldron with halfway full of water. He needed to clean out his cauldron first. "Scourgify!" and then it was clean. Then he used his wand to fill it with, "Aquamenti!" and then stopped halfway with "Finite!" Once he did that he needed to practice the spell. He began to mutter, "Ap-toh press-soo-rah......Ap-toh press-soo-rah......Ap-toh press-soo-rah......Ap-toh press-soo-rah.......Ap-toh press-soo-rah....Ap-toh press-soo-rah." Then he did the wand movement which was slowly lower his wand as if you're drawing a straight, vertical line. He did it a couple of times and felt confident. He took a deep breath and concentrated and then said the spell, "Apto pressure!!" and did the wand movement which was slowly lowering his wand like a straight vertical line. He hoped it worked. Then he heat his water to only 100 and it stayed that way. Hmm perfect. Now he needed to chop two sprigs of lovage. He used his knife but realized it was dirty. He needed to clean it though. He used his wand and said, "Scourgify!" and then it was sparkly clean. Now onto chopping. He began to chop his sprigs well and then added it. He waited five seconds and looked at the clock and counted. Then he added the four mistletoe berries and then waited for more directions. |
Keep the heat to 100 degrees. AT ALL TIMES. OKAY, GOSH. Easier said than done, to be honest. It required Toby to watch his cauldron thermometre CONSTANTLY and tweak the heat if it looked like the temperature was about to get too high or low. BUT if it DID go higher or lower, then... well... the potion would already be wrecked, wouldn't it? So... yeah. Had to be ON THAT. But Toby managed, at least it seemed so. No reason not to believe it. AND the water wasn't boiling, sooooo it looked like the pressure spell had worked. He looked up at Kyroh again at this point and saw that he HAD finished his hugging of everything that was in arms reach. That was GOOD. He wasn't sure if things were the same for Kyroh, but Toby had a lot of experience with getting all distracted at the start of class and stuff, so maybe he was just MINDFUL of making sure to help Ky avoid such a trap. Maybe. "Cool stuff," he said to the Ravenclaw, nodding over and over again like one of those muggle car decorations even as he moved on with his own potion. Lovage, right, okay. Took Toby just a feeeeeew moments to find that from the ingredients he'd already lined up, and he set it up ready for chopping. A quick 'scourgify' on the knife and he was off, CHOPCHOPCHOPCHOPCHOP. He wanted to say that he managed the entire process with no injuries, but this was Tobias. Sure, he could brew a potion, and well, but not without a little collateral damage. Usually nicked fingers or bruised knuckles from overzealous chopping with the knife. STILL... the lovage was chopped, and Toby added it to his cauldron, checking up on the temperature once again. His four mistletoe berries were all ready to go, as he'd known it would be very soon after the lovage that they needed to go on, and at this point all he needed to do was levitate them across. Which is exactly what Toby DID. Waited five seconds, starting right after the lovage went in, then used his wand to levitate the berries into the potion. Before they moved on, Toby repeated the scourgify charm on his potions equipment and chopping boards and everything, then once again looked at Kyroh. "I do see, Ky," he replied, giving a grin to match the Ravenclaws. "You've turned into a real pro, haven't you? You're putting me to shame." That last part was just him kidding around kinda, but it WAS otherwise true. Kyroh had come so far in this class, hadn't he? It was weird to think about. But in a POSITIVE way, of course. SPOILER!!: Notes |
Catching Up Onto the brewing. Benny supposed he shouldn't still be concerned each time given the fact he managed to ace his potions OWL. But it wasn't like he wanted to be full of himself and mess up in the process. That surely wouldn't do any good. So he was going to both try to be relaxed about it while still paying close enough attention to what was going on everywhere. Which could certainly be a lot given the potion could work for several emotions. Emotion Changing Potion. The Gryffindor just hoped it didn't get too out of hand. What with a half-dark potion. Copying down all that appeared on the board into his notes, the sixth year prepped himself to start as he listened to Professor Culloden. "Scourgify," he cast, cleaning out his cauldron first and foremost. Good a place as any to begin. Then with an "Aquamenti" Benny filled said cauldron up with pure water to the half mark and ended the stream with a quiet "finite." He then cleaned his thermometer and stuck it in. Placing his wand down, the Gryffindor began practing the new spell in the mix...always something to be concerned over. "Apto pressure - Ap-toh press-soo-rah - Apto pressure." When he was satisfied, Benny switched to trying out the wand movement. One straight vertical line drawn from top to bottom. Another vertical line from top to bottom...and another. Finally he felt ready to do it all together. "Apto pressure," the Gryffindor cast with the corresponding wand movement, repeating it a second time to get it to work. Ben watched as the temperature rose but thankfully stayed at 100 without boiling. Now to keep a watchful eye that it stayed that way. Another "Scourgify" and his knife was clean, the sixth year proceeding to chop the lovage with it. He hoped it was well when he finished it, adding it into his cauldron. Then a countdown of seconds...1...2...3...4...5. The berries went in. A check at the thermometer and he was still good. Phew! |
Note taking was going on here. Her quill flew across her parchment as she copied the ingredients and the first couple of steps down. "Scourgify," Leah said after giving her hand a short rest, waving her wand around her cauldron and thermometer. What else did she have to clean? Nothing else for now, but she would need a lot more scouring in future steps. Placing her wand back into her pocket, she looked up at the blackboard and took it out again. Of course, the first step would be to fill water. "Aguamenti." A jet of clear water shot out from the tip of her wand. She waited and waited until the water was filled halfway. This was SLOW, you know? Finally, when she thought it was about time, she used Finite to stop the water. Next step: Apto pressura. As always, she began with the pronounciation. "Ap-toh press-soo-rah. Ap-toh press-soo-rah," the Hufflepuff whispered, "Ap-toh press-soo-rah. Apto pressura. Apto pressura." That sounded about right. Leah then followed the Professor's demonstration at the wand movement. She slooowly drew an imaginary straight, vertical line with her wand. Nope, that was not smooth enough. Again, she lowered her wand, this time staring at her wand movement to make sure it was good. Some more tries made it even better. Time to put the two TOGETHER. "Apto pressura!" she said with the wand movement that she practiced. Did it work? Leah waited for any special effects. Jets of light even. But no, she had to actually heat the cauldron to find out. "Incendio." With that, she produced fire at the bottom of her cauldron. She did not forget to stick her thermometer into the water as it started to heat. This waiting thing again. She eyed the thermometer as the temperature rised... to a hundred. And stopped there. Yay! She bent over her desk to copy down more steps that appeared on the board. These sounded pretty easy. Except uh, where was her lovage? The Fifth Year frowned, but soon found it hiding behind her cauldron. Baaad ingredient. She picked it up and was ready to get chopping when oops. "Scourgify," she cleaned her knife because hygiene was an important issue. And chopping she did. She almost cut her finger once but it missed. Thank Merlin. When both sprigs were cut well, she added them into her really hot water. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0. She had looked for the berries during her five seconds of waiting. They went straaaight into the cauldron. Plop! |
SPOILER!!: Professor, made her day. Ilia was very happy that her train of thought, was indeed correct. She always felt very pleased with herself when she got something right, but potions was one of those classes in which she was even a little bit happier about it. She smiled softly and nodded back at the professor, silently thanking him. She listened to him intently as she noted every detail that he covered. Her happy note taking came to a pause however when she heard her name spring forward from his lips. Not just her first name, the first one down on paper that pretty much every teacher / adult used. He didn't call her Freya......he ACTUALLY called her by the name that she identified with. He called her Ilia. She felt a soft pink shade flow to her cheeks as she shyly smiled and immediately looked back down at her parchment quickly and happily noting what he said. She had a feeling that she would really enjoy this class. SPOILER!!: Instructions If Ilia wasn't such a quiet person.....she probably would be making some sort of happy girly sounds, elated to get to work on making this potion. She double checked all of her ingredients and made sure that they were where she wanted them, ready to use. She double checked everything that she had written down and nodded to herself. SPOILER!!: Notes She could practically start humming as she, "Scourgify." cleaned her already clean cauldron and every utensil before touching any of her ingredients. Once she was satisfied that it was all squeaky clean and sterile. Step one."Aguamenti." She carefully filled her cauldron, perfectly halfway. Alright, now was the part she was less confident with..... she whispered the spell to herself a few times "Ap....toh.....press...soo...rah.......Apto pressure." and it was time to give it a go. Step two. Holding her wand ready, she gracefully made the vertical motion while confidently incanting, "Apto Pressure." Hopefully it would all go well. Now, on to the next step. Step three."Incendio." She lit a flame underneath her cauldron and held a temperature gauge at the ready. She watched as the temperature rose and slowly dimmed her fire just a little. Going....rising....and 100. She kept her eye on the temperature in case she needed to adjust her flame as she worked. Considering it had not started to boil, she was fairly certain that she had succeeded in using the spell. Step four & five. Now it was time for lovage! She placed both of her sprigs upon her small cutting board and meticulously chopped them up. She gently added them to her cauldron and immediately "Scourgify." cleansed everything she had just used while counting down EXACTELY five seconds. 5.....4....3...2...1... Step six. She added the mistletoe berries with a pleased smile, watching her potion brew. |
playing catch up Ha! She was right. Not that this really came as a shock to her. Hehe. Okay, maybe her OWLs scores in potions had gone to her head. That was very possible. She now had the mindset that she was some kind potion goddess or something like that. Now all she had to do was live up to that O she had gotten. So she pulled out of her bag a quill and parchment to take notes. People who made O's on their OWLs took notes in class, right? Scribble, scribble. Scribble, scribble. SPOILER!!: Notes lalala. She set up her work station cauldron and all. She gave everything a good dose of "Scourgify." Before filling her Cauldron halfway with water. And now she got to do her favorite thing. Draw. Well kind of drawing with her wand. So drawing a Straight, vertical line, the gryffindor said "Apto pressura!" Now she had to turn up the heat. Lighting the flame under her cauldron. Giving the thermometer a quick clean she stuck it down in her cauldron and waited until her water heated up to 100 degrees. Once she was confident that the water would stay at 100 degrees. She took her knife and also gave it a good clean before using it to chop the next ingredent. She grabbed up the lovage. Chop, chop, Chop. Chop, chop, chop. She picked out the choppped up lovage and tossed it into the cauldron. Now she waited five seconds. 1...2...3...4...5... Next she added in the Mistletoe berries in after the five seconds were up. There now she was all caught up. |
Text Cut: Rowan, Adi&Angel, Natalia Well, hadn't HIS students come a looooong way? NO mistakes and all of them seemed to be cleaning properly! Cue a VERY happy professor. "Cut the fluxweed leaves - and only the leaves, you can throw away the rest of it - in three pieces and add them. Then, with a clean wooden stick, stir once clockwise, once counter clockwise and alternate like that for 7 times. The total number of stirs should be 14. If you've done all correctly, it should be muddy but not smelly." Quote:
|
Quote:
SPOILER!!: notes Right... RIGHT. She should start actually DOING this and try to catch up. So.... She needed to clean her cauldron first. Sure, it was still fairly new and so it was a NEW kind of clean, but she should do it anyway, right? She used the washbasin for that, since she hadn't mastered the cleaning spell yet. BUT she HAD been practicing Aguamenti LOTS! So she felt pretty confident with that, and pointed her wand into the cauldron. "Aquamenti!" Maybe it was because she was confident now, but a stream of clear water came easily from the tip of her wand. She half filled the cauldron, then ticked off step one on her list. Okay, now for a new spell. New spells were always tricky, but she was getting better with them. She used the tip of her finger first, without her wand, and mimicked the wand movement she'd seen everybody doing, "Ap-toh press-soo-rah. Apto pressuuura. Apto pressura." She kept repeating the words to herself as she pretended to do the wand movement with her fingers, and then practiced it silently using her wand. Right. Good to go. Let's try this. Deep breath, Rusty. Aaaand... "Apto Pressura." She drew a line down onto her cauldron like she'd seen everyone else do and inspected it. She wasn't sure if it had worked, but nothing had gone drastically wrong like the last time she'd failed a spell so she figured it must be okay. She ticked off step two. ....Heat up the cauldron. She still wasn't great on the fire spell... in fact... she'd barely made enough fire to light a candle the last time she tried it. She attempted it anyway, "Incendio. Incendio. Incendio." But all she was getting was a tiny puff of smoke and a couple of sparks. Hm. She pursed her lips to the side in annoyance, but then decided to let it go and just ask someone. "Hey... can somebody help me with this??" she asked, looking around the room hopefully... and quickly would be good too, cause she was still behind here. |
When the next few instructions came, Natalia was ready to chop her ingredients like a fruit ninja pro. The eager fourth year grabbed out her four measures of fluxweed and laid them across her cutting board. With the knife in her hand, she began to chop (quite aggressively) the leaves into three pieces, just as the professor had instructed. Natalia was starting to think that she was actually really good at this! After sprinkling the scrapes of leaves, Natalia proceeded with the next preparation. Use a wooden stick... where was her wooden stick? The Lioness looked under her bags and behind some containers in search of the wooden stick that she had seen only a few seconds ago! If only she was a little more cautious with her belongings, and perhaps learned to organize her materials, she would have less troubles with finding what she needed! Natalia was considering borrowing a classmate's when the stirring stick appeared in front of her, just beside her boiling cauldron. "There you are, you little devil!" You can't run away from me now! Clockwise, counter clockwise, clockwise, counter clockwise... The repetitive movements were starting to put Natalia into sleep. Yawning, tears were streaming out of her eyes as signs of her fatigue. She found it difficult to keep up with counting the number of times she had stirred the pot... thirteen... fourteen... fifteen? FIFTEEN?! Natalia quickly lifted her stick out of the cauldron upon sudden realization. WHEW. At least it wasn't like she stirred TWENTY more than she should have. One more stir shouldn't have much of a dramatic effect on the overall result, right? RIGHT. Time for the checkpoint! Despite all the little mistakes that Natalia had made along the way, the concoction fitted the description of the professor's checkpoint quite accurately. The potion was muddy in color, and texture too. Yet, because Natalia was constantly wearing that face mask, she had not notice the faint odor arising from her cauldron... SPOILER!!: Notes |
Well now that it was out there, Zander actually had come a loooooong way thankyouverymuch. Especially a long way since the very beginning when he screwed up his potion almost every go. And he didn't even have Kevin to help him out now, but still he was improving. And THAT was saying something... Right? Right. He'd take it. Any improvement was better than none. Anyways, the next few steps appeared on the blackboard, which meant time to continue brewing. And also time to stop thinking. Well actually... No, he'd still need to think. Uh, this was harder than he thought. Ahem. He began cutting the fluxweed leaves with a CLEAN knife, making sure to unly cut the leaves and throw out the rest of the plant. Then with his CLEAN wooden stick (merlin bless the scourgify, right?) he stirred once clockwise. Once counter clockwise. Then clockwise. Then Counter. Then clockwise. Then counter. Until he hit seven times for each at a grand total of fourteen. Boom. And huh. Actually, it was muddy. Job well done. |
Once the berries were in, it was time for the next few steps. Zhenya quickly scribbled them down onto her parchment and ticked off the steps she had already performed. Next was the fluxweed leaves. She got her four measures of fluxweed, cleaned her board and knife, and removed the leaves, discarding the rest. She had to cut them into three pieces, which she proceeded to do, then added them to her potion. Next was more counting. Counting the stirs. She reached out for her wooden stirrer, cleaned it, and put it into her cauldron. Once clockwise, once counterclockwise. She repeated carefully. Once clockwise, once counterclockwise. She did this seven times. Two stirs each count, which meant she had stirred it fourteen times. Seven turns each. She looked carefully into her cauldron and was pleased that it was looking a bit muddy. She took a gently smell, and was more pleased that it wasn't smelly. SPOILER!!: Parchment |
The constant adjustment of the flame was extremely tedious, but Dot wasn't willing to screw up now and have to start all over again. She huffed quietly as she worked, just to let herself know that she was displeased. So long as someone knew, even if that someone was just herself. Up next, the fluxweed leaves. Dot gave her knife a quick Scourgify before turning the blade to the leaves. Gotta keep everything clean, even if it was all going to the same place. Once they were carefully cut into three even pieces, Dot let all the pieces float down into the water. What about the stir stick? She'd already cleaned that, right? Dot wracked her brain for a moment before figuring that it didn't hurt to clean it again. Clean was clean, after all. Dot cleaned it again before plunking it into the cauldron. No, wait! Not plunking... carefully placing. Definitely never plunking. No plunking here. Now once clockwise. Once counter. Once clockwise. Once counter. Back and forth, with Dot keeping track so she didn't get out of order or stir too much. Or too little. Riiiiiight at 7 (the fourteenth TOTAL stir, yup), Dot pulled the stick clear and gave it a second (or third?) cleaning. She peeked into the cauldron to check the color. Muddy? Yeah, but more dirty than muddy. Was that okay? |
*got you, Alice!* SPOILER!!: This! Gabe had spent more than the allotted time practicing this water manipulation charm...but it only took one slip up on the spell to ruin this potion, apparently. Starting over didn't seem like the best course during this lesson, either. Of course, if he failed, it would simply be a lesson learned...but as he'd taken up enough of his time with practicing...There just wasn't any space for a do-over. As Gabe practiced, of course his mind wandered. It was interesting to consider the six basic emotions. If this worked, which would he decide on? How would he pick? Who would he test it on? A Gryffindor, surely...They were the brave sort. Seemed the most logical choice. Feeling somewhat confident in his Apto pressura, he went about pulling his ingredients, setting up his cauldron, scourgifying said cauldron and his utensils...It wasn't as time-consuming getting started. So, he breezed through these preliminary steps, minding his own business. After making sure the cauldron was completely dust free, Gabe used Aguamenti! to fill it with water. Halfway, yes? Double checking the instructions, the Ravenclaw seen that was right and nodded. To himself, obviously. There wasn't anyone speaking to him... Now...this spell... Taking several calming breaths, mainly to ensure his wand hand didn't shake, Gabe drew a downward vertical line. Slowly...and painstakingly careful. This wasn't as difficult to achieve as he was being left to himself and not bothered by surrounding peers...Of course, there was no way of knowing if it'd worked. Not yet... "Incendio!".....Now, it was just a waiting game. Oh, and the thermometer. His earned itself a Scourgify! before being slipped into the water. . . ...and Rowan. She was easy enough to hear...and due to Quill things, Gabriel felt an obligation to assist her. Not because of Prefect things...but you know? Did you know? Did anyone know? "Do you still need help?" |
Quote:
... Jeez, Rusty decided to learn more about dragons. Oh! But then not-an-angel Gabriel asked if she needed help. "Yes please!" she said, offering him a huge 'thanks' smile. |
Quote:
. Gabe had to remind himself that Rowan was JUST a little girl and had no evil intentions with said smile....What was his headspace with these sorts of thoughts? "How are you performing the spell?" What? He was going to try and help her do it herself. Otherwise, nothing was learned. |
Quote:
"Like this." She took a breath, then jabbed her wand under her cauldron. "Incendio!" A little puff of black smoke came from the end of her wand, but nothing else... |
Ultimate level of concentration was going on here. The boy had pretty much tuned out most of the class and what was going on apart from Culloden's voice. This meant that while he wanted to do the best he could at this subject, dude was gonna miss anything interesting going on in the class. MAN. That sucked big time. Just don't do anything interesting, mkay? Cool. Next step? Chopping up the fluxweed leaves into three equal parts. The Slytherin furrowed his eyebrows as he concentrated on cutting the leaves up -- using a clean knife, yo -- making sure to place the rest off to one side. That can go in the rubbish later cause he was too lazy to get up from his seat to go to the bin. The chopped up leaves were immeeeeeeediately added into the cauldron. BOOM! clean wooden stick. Got it. Cleaning the wooden stick, Grayson proceeded to place it into the cauldron and start with the stirring process. One clockwise, one counter clockwise, another one clockwise, another one counter clockwise.......... Stir stir stir........... Anddddddd fourteen stirs! Jeez, that had been confusing, man. He was sure he was gonna mess up somewhere in the middle but noooooope! No messing up for him because he was a freaking great guy, if he may say so himself. Muddy? Yeah, that was right, wasn't it? It certainly looked muddy enough and certainly something he didn't want on his face. No thank you. Text Cut: Journal |
Quote:
. Gabe offered a smile. A SMALL ONE, THOUGH. So small, it might've been missed by the naked eye. He thought Rowan to be a very peculiar girl...and he could identify with that...being peculiar himself. His was much more extreme than hers, of course. So... "Your wand motion is off." His tone wasn't chastising, but objective. "It's akin to the top of a flame." Gesturing for her to watch, he demonstrated with his own wand; tracing the curve up into a peak, and then descending on the opposing side. "Was that sufficient?....Are you comfortable with trying again?" |
Quote:
"Oh... like this?" She tried to copy him, forming a wobbly version of the flame shape. She hadn't noticed it was slightly off though, so she just decided to try it. ... Okay... flame shape... sorta... then... "Incendio." Oh! A little flame! It was only a small amount of fire, but it was enough to start heating the cauldron!! She poked it a bit with her wand until it got a little bigger. "Thanks, Gabriel! You should totally help me with scourgificate some time cause I can only ever get like one layer of dirt off with it." she said, cleaning her thermometer the muggle way and placing it into the cauldron. |
Quote:
. His smile got a little wider. Just a little, however. "Practice will help with how consistent and potent your spells are...but I wouldn't mind that." The small Gryffindor seemed to find him at random times, anyway...So, there wasn't any harm in it. Gabe was just....going to go back to his own potion now. |
Norah took a second to scratch her nose with the back end of her quill before recording the next steps on her notes. Ta da! Now time to DO STUFF. She shot a grin at Professor Culloden, unsure if he'd seen it or not but that didn't really matter. What DID matter was that there was smiling going on, which meant this potion wasn't really turning out to be a ginormous failure. It was nice when that happened. She picked up her wand and cast "Scourgify!" on her knife again, just in case the lovage guts weren't supposed to touch the fluxweed leaf guts because with potions you could never be sure. Or at least SHE could never be sure. The fourth year smiled at the little choppy sound her knife made as she cut the fluxweed into three pieces. She was about to add them when a closer look at her notes showed her that ALERT ALERT something was WRONG. Well, wrong-ish. APPARENTLY choppy noises were so distracting that it was hard to remember that she only needed the leaves for this one. With a scrunch of her nose she leaned over and cut the stem bits off the leaves and then added just the three leaf parts to her cauldron. Good? Good. Nobody even had to know. She double and triple checked that everything was correct before picking up her wand for the millionth time and casting "Scourgify!" on the wooden stir stick. Glancing at the clock just to make extra sure she didn't get the stirring backwards, she put the clean wooden stick in and stirred once clockwise, then back the other way. Aaaaaand once clockwise, then back the other way. And over and over and over again for what seemed like FOREVER until all fourteen stirs were finished. BOOYAH. |
As Lux listened to the next set of instructions, she cleaned her knife. Even if she was using it again right away, it was important to keep her equipment clean between uses. Taking the fluxweed out of her kit, she proceeded to cut the leaves into three pieces and banished the rest. The leaves were added to the cauldron, and she cleaned the knife once more before picking up her wooden stick. One stir clockwise... one stir counter clockwise... Counting in her head, Lux stirred the 14 times, alternating the direction each time. Okay, her potion was muddy and not stinky so things were going awesomesauce so far. Smiling, she cleaned the stick. SPOILER!!: Lux's Notes |
Quote:
Okay... let's get on with the potion... what was next? SPOILER!!: notes Rusty started chopping up the lovage as her cauldron heated up. Chop chop chopity chop. It was like preparing things for food back home, super easy. She liked doing the chopping bit, but it was a little strange not having an adult keeping a very-close-eye on her. But she was being careful, so no fingers were lost. She also arranged the berries just next to her cauldron so she could pick them up and drop them in when she needed to. ........ After waiting a couple of minutes, Rowan's cauldron had FINALLY reached 100 degrees.... wait... no... 102. She prodded the fire with her wand again and it shrunk the tiiiiniest bit... until the temperature dropped to 100 degrees again... and stayed there. Then she added in the lovage. 1 elephant... 2 elephant... 3 elephant... 4 elephant... 5 elephant... After five carefully counted Next... fluxweed. Okay.. Rowan cleaned the knife she had used to chop the lovage, then very carefully cut the fluxweed leaves into three pieces. She almost added it all into the cauldron, but remembered to remove the non-leaf bits at the last second so they didn't go into the mixture. Okay. Tick for step seven. Now for the stirring. Rusty grabbed her wooden stick, remembering to make sure it was properly clean, then placed it into the cauldron. Stir clockwise, anti-clockwise "one..." clockwise... anti-clockwise "two..." clockwise... anti-clockwise "three..." and so on, until she had done that seven times. That was fourteen stirs in total, and her potion was actually looking like it was supposed to!! Yay! She ticked off step seven with a flourish, and smiled widely at her potion. Look how well this was going! And she wasn't going to have to use aaaany animal bits. Well, not ones they still needed, anyway. |
Berries all in now. Cinna kept her eye on the temperature of the water. Knowing that it had to stay right at 100 degrees,made her nervous very nervous. She kept eye on the temperature. She scribbled down the next two steps down in her notes. SPOILER!!: Notes So she cleaned her knife again. Grabbed up the fluxseed leaves. She cut them into the three even pieces. She tossed them into the cauldron. Next she took the wooden stick, gave it a good clean. As directed she stirred once clockwise 1... and once counter clockwise 2... Clockwise stir 3... Counter clockwise 4... She kept this up until she had made seven clockwise stirs and seven counter clockwise stirs. Fourteen altogether. Her arm was tired and that took foooooreverrrrrr. Oh and it was muddy! GOOD |
SPOILER!!: Le Professor! Kace breathed a sigh of relief when Professor C didn't catch him making any mistakes. That was progress right there! He remembered he made a mistake once and he needed to redo his WHOLE potion. Thankfully it wasn't one of those times. Right onto the next set of steps to add to his notebook. SPOILER!!: Kace's Notes Right now he needed to cut his fluxweed leaves into three pieces. He got out his knife and noticed it was dirty. Welp time to clean it. He waved his wand and said, "Scourgify!" and then it was presto clean! He smiled and then sliced the leaves three times. Slice.......slice........slice...... Once he was done with that, he looked at his next set of directions and realized he didn't need to add it in yet. Hmm....interesting. He looked around and noticed other people throwing them in. He threw them in and cleaned his wooden stick really quickly and stirred once clockwise and then once counterclockwise. Now he needed to do that for fourteen stirs alternating. He shrugged and began.... One stir clockwise........one stir counterclockwise..... One stir clockwise........one stir counterclockwise..... One stir clockwise........one stir counterclockwise..... Then he repeated that till he got a total of fourteen stirs. After that he noticed his potion was getting muddy. Checkpoint reached. |
playing catchup here if that's okay? :3 steps 1-3/4 Potion brewing wasn't terrible challenging; Tia just compared it to cooking with her mum back home only the effects of the products varied slightly more than with cooking, which generally left the consumers feeling full and satisfied. Though she had to question Culloden slightly on his choice of potion brewing this lesson; emotional change with TEENAGERS? Really, did he not know Amused at the irony with the potion, the fifth year pointed her wand at her cauldron, first performing a quick cleaning spell on it, before murmuring the basic aguamenti, as a stream of water filled up, casting finite once there was enough water. "Ap-toh press-soo-rah" Tia recited a few times in effort to get the pronunciation down before actually casting it. Because last thing she needed was over-boiling her potion - even if no doubts she would feel anger without a potion. She then practiced the wand movement, as the Potions Master had specified. And putting it all together, picking up her wand again, she slowly lowered it straight down, "Apto pressura." Now time to heat up her cauldron and wait. 100 degrees. Might as well chop the lovage up whilst waiting for the water to heat up. The fifth year peered at the water and the thermometer periodically to check on it, as she chopped the two sprigs up .. |
They were moving on and thankfully Benny was ready. He took just the fluxweed leaves as instructed and cut them into three pieces like the next step said. The rest set off to the side for future disposal as the cut leaves were added into the brewing potion. Too intent was he on his own work to make sure he did things right that he hadn't noticed what was up with Angel and Adi nearby. "Scourgify," he cast on his wooden stirer before dipping the tip carefully into the liquid. Now was the tricky part....doing the right number of stirs...in the right directions...at the right times. Benny was keeping his gaze directly between the notes on the blackboard and his cauldron. One stir clockwise...one stir counter. And back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until all seventeen stirs were complete. It certainly looked muddy. |
And finally! The water tempterature was right so time to add her freshly chopped lovage. One Ravenclaw ... Two Ravenclaw .. Three Ravenclaw ... Four Ravenclaw ... Five Ravenclaw, Tia mentally counted out her five seconds adding an extra word to ensure she waited a full second. Glancing at her notes, she held the book open with one elbow as she plopped four of the berries into her cauldron using her other hand. And another waiting of five seconds. After another cleaning of her knife, she used it to carefully slice the fluxweed leaves into three even slices before sliding them into her cauldron gently. When did they add the ingredient that determined what emotion? Had she missed that part? Hopefully not. Picking up the wooden stick, she cleaned that off as well, as she jabbed it into her potion and completed one clockwise stir, one counter ... repeating the motions. Which if her mental counting was correct, then she was done with another step! Peering at her potion in observation, Tia was pleased to note NO odor. Just a lovely brown mud colour. What she really wanted to know is if she touched it if it would FEEL like mud too, but she was not about to risk the burns so she would just have to imagine it. Now time to wait and consider more over what emotion she wanted her potion to simulate. |
Cilla was happy with how her potion was progressing. She grabbed her wand and waved it in an "S" motion over the equipment she was using next while saying, "Scourgify." Now her knife, gloves and wooden stick were clean, she could continue. She picked up her knife and cut her fluxweed leaves into three even pieces and added them to her cauldron. She grabbed her wooden stick and stirred the potion once clockwise and then once counter clockwise. She then alternated the stirring direction until she had stirred her potion a total of fourteen times. When that was done, Cilla looked at the potion. It was looking quite muddy but it didn't smell. She then did the usual clean of her knife, gloves and wooden stick. SPOILER!!: Cilla's Potions Notes |
"You need to focus,'' Adi chided Angel. Did she NOT know how meticulous the process of brewing a potion was? "I don't see any difference in your potion though,'' he continued, leaving his workstation and peering into the younger girl's cauldron. Still... when it came to potions, Adi did not play around even if it wasn't his potion. "Professor!'' When in doubt, call on the most knowledgeable guy in the field of the subject. He raised his hand slightly to get the man's attention. "Is the effect of the potion going to be highly disrupted if the berries were added after more than five seconds?" If it did, the Puffer hoped there was a solution because Angel may have to start all over. .................... Fluxweed leaves, fluxweed leaves! They needed chopping! "Scourgify!'' Adi picked up the freshly cleaned knife and began cutting up the leaves, placing the remainder of it to the side of his workstation to be thrown out later. Into the cauldron went the three pieces of cut fluxweed. "Scourgify!'' Wooden stirrer in hand, Adi began the stirring process. Clockwise... ONCE. Counter clockwise... ONCE. REPEAT for a total of fourteen stirs! YEAH! Adi had this! ..................... Clockwise... SEVEN TIMES. Counter clockwise... SEVEN TIMES! DONE! Was the mixture muddy? YEP! Was it smelly? Adi took a great sniff. NOPE! |
Being at the back of the classroom wasn't as strategic as she'd thought it would be. No. It turned out this was a very, very bad thing, for Sophie Brown only wanted to watch Tobes and Zander to see what they were doing once they'd all gotten started. She wasn't interested in how they were brewing their potion, but rather what they were doing and how they were doing it. Were they frustrated? Were they excited? Distressed? Bored? She liked the way both of them looked when they concentrated hard - it was a very attractive look for both of them - and before long, she realized Dot was hard at work beside her, as was the rest of the class, and she hadn't even started yet. And Culloden didn't even notice, it seemed, as she WAS in the back and he really didn't seem to look at anyone back there at all. They were invisible, the back row was, and... Well, really, that was good information to have stored away. For reasons. But she would just... casually get started then, okay? She'd already written her notes down during her people-watching, so she was really all ready to go and didn't have to worry about note-taking as much. She gotten Apto pressura down, too, before she got distracted by the boys, so she went ahead to cast "Aguamenti!" into her cauldron, watching the flow of water carefully, and ceasing the conjuration of water when the cauldron was at the halfway point. "Ap-toh press-soo-rah," she confidently cast at the water next, drawing her wand in a straight vertical line, then peeked over the brim of the cauldron to see how it looked. No different for now, which was probably good, so she went ahead and cast, "Incendio," to light the flame under her cauldron. And then... she waited. She watched her wristwatch to count the time after she inserted her clean thermometer - she knew about how long it took to heat the water in her cauldron to various temperatures, so she played a little game with herself by trying to keep from looking at the thermometer till she thought it was around 100 degrees Celsius, without it going over. Kept things interesting, while she stole glances back up toward Zander and Tobes, but eventually, she thought it was going to be close enough, and peeked at the thermometer - 87 degrees. Drat. She was disappointed in herself for not holding out longer and taking a bigger risk, but for now, she just watched as the heat climbed higher and higher... and when it reached 100 degrees, she smiled in relief. That was good, but... really. How were they supposed to maintain that EXACT degree the whole time? The water wasn't boiling, though, which was good, but... she was going to have to watch this VERY closely and keep an eye on the flame and the thermometer. That complicated things quite a bit for the duration of this brewing process. She had to alternate lowering the flame and raising it again to keep it there, but it was okay. She could multitask. Keeping an eye on her notes to stay on task, Sophie gathered her two sprigs of lovage with clean-gloved hands and began to chop them as well as she could with her clean cutting knife. She was ANNOYED with that rule about the temperature and how closely she had to watch the thermometer, so she chopped as quickly and finely as she could before she had to slip her glove off, pick her wand back up, and work at adjusting the temperature to keep it at 100 - not 99 or 101 degrees. 100. At. All. Times. With her gloved hand, Sophie counted out four mistletoe berries to set aside, then added the chopped lovage to her cauldron and watched her wristwatch - five seconds passed fairly quickly, and she gently plunked the berries into the cauldron when those five seconds were up. She had to tinker with the flame again, too, because the temperature was trying to change on her again, and she was pretty frustrated. It was just annoying, wasn't it? There was no room to BREATHE. Merlin. This was one she was glad she hadn't had to do her OWL on. The attention to detail it required would've made the exam far too stressful. At this point, Sophie snatched up her wand again and cast, "Scourgify," on her gloves and her cutting knife, then the tabletop and surface she'd been cutting on, too, just to keep things spotless. When she was finished cleaning all of her things, Sophie went ahead to put her gloves back on and extracted four measures of fluxweed from her potions kit, then cut JUST the leaves in three pieces. Just three. It was easy enough, so Soph went ahead and added them to her cauldron - and the temperature had snuck up to 101 degrees on her, so she had to quickly drop her glove, snatch up her wand, and readjust the flame accordingly until it dropped back to 100, and kept it steady. Wasn't there some sort of spell Culloden could've taught them to keep a a liquid at an exact temperature? This was exhausting. Having the temperature stabilized for the time being, Sophie picked up her clean wooden stirring stick and, after peeking at the blackboard, went ahead to stir once clockwise... then once counter-clockwise... and then did that alternation six more times, counting aloud to herself quietly as the concoction gradually grew thicker and thicker, until she reached the fourteenth total stir, at which point she removed the wooden stick and set it aside. The Ravenclaw peeked over the brim, admiring the muddy substance in her cauldron, and gave it a nod of approval. So far so good, right? She took the opportunity since she was finally caught up to the rest of the class to readjust her flame again to keep the temperature at 100 degrees Celsius, jot some more notes down, then vanished her leftover fluxweed parts and set to re-cleaning her tools and work station. As she did so, she kept an eye out for anyone around who might need help, but... everyone seemed to be okay, didn't they? Bummer. |
Playing catch-up (Steps 4 to 6) Okay, his arm was sore. He was pretty sure that if he stopped stirring, it wouldn't actually go higher than a hundred degrees, but he wasn't going to risk it. No, actually, you know what? He was. Ceasing the motions, Brian put a wooden peg on the thermometer and stood it against the side of the cauldron so that it didn't touch the bottom or the sides. Very important, see? Then, he got to work. Chopping the lovage Sighing wistfully at his unevenly chopped lovage, he shook his head. That was as good as it was going to get. Checking the temperature, he saw it starting to creep upwards and immediately stirred again, lowering it back down to a hundred before dropping the lovage in. One dragon sleeping, two dragons sleeping -OH MERLIN HE HAD TO GET THE BERRIES! In a mad scramble, he took a handful of mistletoe berries and counted them out, dumping them all into the cauldron a few milliseconds after the seventh second. Of course, Brian was pretty sure he'd done it in five, so it was all good. It was supposed to be this disgusting shade of green, right? |
There was something incredibly soooooooothing about potions. So long as you could follow directions it was just SO easy. Or well... it was USUALLY easy, granted there were some steps that had the potential to be quite tricky. This recipe though, was easy enough to keep up with and follow. Noting down the next directions, Zeke followed through as instructed. Taking the fluxed leaves and a clean blade, Zeke cut them into three pieces as instructed and added them to his cauldron. Next he cleaned his wooden stirring stick and stirred the contents of his cauldron once clockwise, then once counter-clockwise and continued to do this alternately until he reached fourteen stirs in total, seven each way. Bracing himself, Zeke chanced a look at the consistency of his potion. It DID look muddy, which made him grin. In addition to this, he couldn't smell anything and thus assumed he had ACED it so far. |
Steps 7 to 8 Brian was trying, okay? It wasn't easy making potions and the dungeons were stuffy and dark and he knew that Professor Culloden was trying and he'd painted it and all but he still wasn't all that fond of it. It smelled of damp and there was no sunlight and it just made him feel even less productive. Hearing the dull scratch of people scrambling to do the next step, Brian snapped out of his daydream to find more instructions on the board. Fluxweed leaves. He was about to cut them when he realised that Professor Culloden had said only leaves. So he went about the painstaking task of removing the leaves from the stem and he was just about to cut them up when he realised that there were three more measures of it to do. Three more measures. With a stifled groan, he continued his miserable task, picking the leaves off until he was done with all four measures. Clean knife. Taking out his wand, he scourgified the excess lovage from the knife and made sure it was super clean before he decided to move on. Then, gathering the fluxweed leaves into a few decent looking piles, he sliced cleanly through each pile three times. HEY, THEY WERE CLEAN SLICES! Brian did a small jig as he added them to the potion until he realised that he was in class. And people were staring. Brian flushed a little, cleaning his stirring rod before he stuck it into the potion. Clockwise, counter-clockwise. Clockwise, counter-clockwise. Clockwise, counter-clockwise. Rinse and repeat another four times and he was done for the moment. Peering at his potion, he tried to ascertain whether it looked muddy yet. He frowned. It looked murky, but not muddy. Maybe that's what he meant? Well, at least the potion didn't smell. That was a good thing, right? Right. Totally. Brian was killing the whole potion-brewing thing. |
Text Cut: People No explosions yet was always a good thing, so Cosgrach walked back to the blackboard. "Alright everyone," he said, "Add boomslang skin and wait for 5 minutes. Then, add the larvae. If all has gone well, it should be completely clear like clean water." Any questions? It was fairly easy, wasn't it? Once they were done, they would be finished with the base. Then, he walked to where the vegan girl (JustAlice) was sitting and talked in a low voice not to disturb the whole class. "Uh, Rowan?" That was her name, right? "Add cocoon until the potion turns clear. I don't know how many it might take." He didn't even know if it would WORK. Quote:
|
Seeing as they were almost out of their ingredients, Zeke was confident that their work was almost complete, of course, they would still need to individualise their brews with the emotion they wanted to induce. FUN! Taking the two measures of boomslang skin, Zeke admired it for a moment before adding it to his cauldron, then after the five minutes signalled on his timer, he counted out the ten newt larvae. These were fascinating too. Once they were counted out, he popped them into his cauldron too, and excitedly peered over to examine his potion. It looked very different to how it was only moments ago, and after a few seconds passed he registered that it was intact clear as clean water - almost as if he hadn't even been through the process after adding the water. Awesome. |
A few people seemed to be making mistakes, but that was nothing surprising, really. Potions was a very precise subject, and it could be quite difficult at times. But that was part of why she loved it so much - the challenge it presented. What WAS surprising, however, was Adi's question. He...hadn't messed up, had he??? That would have been rather shocking as her fellow Hufflepuff was good at potions. So what was going on here? Not having a chance to ask him since Professor Culloden was speaking, Lux shrugged it off and figured she'd find out soon anyway. Two measures of boomslang skin was added to her cauldron before she looked at the clock. Okay, five minutes. That wasn't too bad. Lux decided to do a little bit of doodling while she waited, and began filling in the margin of the page with a drawing of Ariel. When the time was up, she added the ten newt larvae. Her potion was clear like water, so that meant she had done good. BEAM. SPOILER!!: Lux's Notes |
Cilla carefully added the boomslang skin to her potion. She waited for five minutes, no more, no less, before she added the newt larvae. "1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10," Cilla counted in her head. She peered at her potion and saw that it had the appearance of clear water. Cilla then gave her gloves and scales a quick clean thanks to a wand wave and, "Scourgify." SPOILER!!: Cilla's Potions Notes |
Some interesting things seemed to be going on in the classroom, but Zhenya didn't want to break her concentration to look around. Nope. She didn't want her potion to turn into rubbish. So once she had successfully stirred it enough times, she was glad to see more instructions on the board, so she wrote those down quickly, and listened to what the Professor was saying. SPOILER!!: Parchment Two easy steps, it seemed, but she didn't want to be thinking it was easy. That was when mistakes were made. Lots of mistakes could be made in Potions. She reached for the boomslang skin and measured 2 precise measures, and added them to the cauldron, immediately starting her timer. She tidied up her work bench, re-re-cleaned everything and sat there to watch the potion for the remainder of the five minutes, until - YAY - it had completed. Next, she added the 10 newt larvae to the potion and watched as her potion turned from looking like a cauldron of mud, to a cauldron of clear water. Incredible. |
catch up steps 7-10 After adding lovage and berries, Jackson grabbed his knife and chopping board again to cut the fluxweed leaves in three pieces and then he added them to the cauldron. With a clean wooden spoon, he stirred it clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, counter-clockwise.... DONE! What's next? Then he checked the color of his potion. It was muddy but there's no smell in this. Good? Next, boomslang skin. Right. He added the boomslang skin to the cauldron and waited until five minutes. After five minutes, he added the larvae. Now he's gonna watch his potion if it's gonna be clear or not... Yay! It's clear like a water. Hehehe. |
Quote:
SPOILER!!: Notes Rowan was inspecting her muddy potion, wondering why they had to make something that was such a gross colour. Wouldn't a gross colour potion do gross things? ... She supposed the meaner emotions were gross, so that could work. But then Professor Culloden said the next step should make it clear, so the muddy colour didn't matter... right? Okay to be honest, Rusty was still struggling a little with the concept of potions, but she was trying REALLY hard to make it make sense to her. Maybe if she could complete one that worked it would be easier... "Oh, okay, thanks professor." she said as he addressed her, and went to grab a bunch of silkworm cocoons, taking a quick second to check there was nobody inside any of them. Didn't wanna ruin anyone's day by dumping them in a potion. Okay... step nine, boomslang skin. She looked up at the clock and added the skin, careful to note the exact time so that she could put the cocoons in after five minutes. ... She still felt sorta bad using the snake skin and the cocoons and stuff, but she just kept telling herself it was like when she used found feathers on her masks and charms and stuff, and she could just be extra kind to the world later in thanks. ... She watched the clock closely, thinking about whether she could make a ton of other potions without animal bits and if it would work or not. Maybe someone had looked into it... or maybe it was something she could do when she was older. After all, if you could make perfectly good meringue without eggs, then surely you could do anything without animal products if you just found the right replacement. Okay. Five minutes had passed, so Rowan started by adding ten cocoons to the potion...... It wasn't clear. It was a little less muddy, but it was certainly not clear as water. Hm... She tried adding another five, keeping track of the amount she was putting in on the corner of her parchment. .... Still nope... Another five..? OOH OOH that was MUCH better! Not totally clear yet, but it was more like dirty water than mud. So she started adding the cocoons one by one, counting under her breath as she did so... one... two... three... four... OH.. OOOH!! IT HAD GONE CLEAR!! She made a note next to her ingredients list that it had taken twenty four of the cocoons to make the potion clear, then set down her quill and watched the potion in the cauldron, checking that it was still heated to 100 degrees. Yep! Goodness this was so EXCITING! |
catch up but stopping before these steps Professor and Adi. Angel felt like she was going to cry... Adi was telling her off, which in her case was right though she had been distracted but it was the Professor fault... why had he smiled like he had at the beginning of the class, she was so pre-occupied with that she started to cut the fluxweed up, she cut it into three pieces and then added it into the cauldron, she then stirred clockwise and counter clockwise 7 times each. O_________________________________________o Angel looked at the potion, this didn't look muddy at all, it actually looked weird it was like brown goo or something similar to that. Angel thought about continuing but then decided it probably was best to get the Professor to take a look at it. So she raised her hand. |
Just when Leah thought she was going to have a bit of rest before the next few steps came, the instructions appeared on the Blackboard. This happened EVERY SINGLE LESSON. Ugh. She cleaned her cutting board and knife again, then placed her four fluxweed onto the board. Chopping she did, with the parts OTHER than the leaves banished to the big, grey trash bin by the door. There, they were in three pieces now. She added these into her cauldron. Step 7 done! Wooden stick. If the fifteen-year-old faced difficulty in finding basic ingredients, she spent AGES searching for her stick. Hmmm, where could it BE - oh, there it was! On her... classmate's desk? Straaange. "Scourgify, scourgify, scourgify." You never know what others might have done to her supplies. Now for the fun part - stiiirrrrring. Clockwise, counter clockwise, clockwise, counter clockwise, ten, eleven, thirteen, fourteen, STOP! She stopped herself just in time. Although she knew stirring one more time would not cause serious damage, but she wanted this to be PERFECT. ... Ewww. Muddiness. That one was for sure. As for the smell - Leah leaned in just a tiny bit and sniffed. Nope, it just smelled hot. Y'know. It was not as difficult to find her ingredients afterwards as there weren't much left to grab. Leah took her two measures of boomslang skin and added - WAIT. Timer ready? Ready. Okay, NOW you can go into the cauldron. As soon as they were safe in the water, she started the timer and waited. People watching going on here. Nothing unusual in a Potions lesson. Time's up! She hurriedly poured all ten newt larvae in, slowing down when she realized that she was not very behind after all. As the steam cleared, she gasped to see clear water. Only a couple of minutes ago she was ewwwing at its somewhat dirty color. MAGIC. |
Steps 7-10 They were moving on and AJ was on the same page as the rest of the class. That sure was a good feeling. She listened closely to the next batch of instructions because one little mishap and your potion would be vanished. That had not happened to her, and she wasn't planning on that happening to her now. Nope. Fluxweed leaves were up. AJ cut them into three pieces and added them into her cauldron. The lion picked up her wooden stick and cleaned it with a quick "Scourgify." Man, that spell came in handy. Checking the board a few times to make sure she would be stirring in the correct direction, she dipped her spoon into the mix. Clockwise, then counter clockwise. It was hard to get her arm to keep up with that motion because her brain was working against her. Apparently it wanted to go the easy route, but that was wrong, brain! Once she got to fourteen stirs she stopped and eyed her potion. It definitely looked muddy. Please don't smell. Please don't smell. A quick whiff eased her mind. No smelly potion here. Boomslang skin was added into her potion, and the next thing she had to do was the waiting game. This time she had to wait five whole minutes. Ugh. Patience was not her thing. Five seconds was okay, but five minutes. AJ checked the time and tapped her foot while her hand held up her head. When the minutes FINALLY passed by she added the larvae. Just like magic her muddy potion was clean and clear. Wicked. If one didn't know anybody it could pass as water. It never ceased to amaze her how cool potions could be. |
You know what? He liked checkpoints. They were a good way of seeing whether he was on the right path and, more importantly, they were good at boosting his ego when he realised that he was on the right path. Ego boosting was always nice. Always. In went the two measures of Boomslang skin and then Grayson glanced down at his watch. One...... two...... three....... four....... five! Bingo! And then in went the larvae. Simple couple of steps, wasn't it? In fact, this whole potion wasn't exactly hard to begin with. Good. If a potion like this came up for the NEWTs, he was gonna be dead chuffed. A glance at his notes told him that they were nearly done. Neaaaaarly. Did they get to pick their own emotion to go with or what? Text Cut: Journal |
Catching Up! 1-10 SPOILER!!: Henric’s Response To llia SPOILER!!: Henric’s notes: Henric followed what llia did which was to clean the cauldron. His cauldron was mighty dirty, he realised it now after not touching it for months. He shrugged and cast the spell, "Scourgify.". Hmm…better now. Step one was to fill it halfway with water. "Aquamenti!" but water started to gush so fast into the cauldron, it almost splattered him. Henric grinned sheepishly at llia who was doing well so far. Alright done…what was the next step again? Right, the spell…which was what agai? Henric glanced at his notes,”Oh…Apto Pressure,”he read. At a count of three, he would say the spell while pointing straight at his cauldron. One…two… three…”Apto Pressure!” Third step…heat the cauldron to 100 degrees…that was easy. He pointed his wand beneath his cauldron and recited the spell that could make fire,”Incendio…” Nice...Henric wasn’t the most patient of types so he let it heat fast by raising his wand a little higher before slowly drawing away his wand. His brew was brewing…that was for sure. Look at all those bubbly clusters forming on top! Forth Step...chopped some lovage sprigs and he did. Henric was pretty sure he chopped in such a way that most of the sizes were uneven and chunky. Note to self: Learnt how to chop from chef dad. Ehh…it would do for now and he added them in and watched them sink in the boiling hot mess. Fifth Step, he needed to wait for 5 seconds so he could add the mistletoe berries. Finally! It was done! Henric wiped the sweat from his forehead, fuu…it was like cooking in a very heated kitchen back at his parent’s restaurant. He waited for a moment before continuing with the rest of the steps. SPOILER!!: Henric’s notes: Sixth Step...time to chop up some leaves! Cut...cut..cut...alright, pour them into the mixture. Henric quickly picked up his wooden spoon and stirred exactly what his notebook instruct him to do. Why did it remind him of spaghetti sauce while he was stirring like this? His stomach grumbling again... Concentrate Henric...it was not lunch time yet. Once done stirring,he moved on to the ninth step which was to put the boomslang skin in. Those things were nasty...urgh. He waited for another 5 minutes before heading towards the larvae cacoons. Poor little guys...he felt it wasn't right to add them in...but he had to because he would fail potion making if he hadn't. "Sorry guys...see you in the next life..."Henric whispered, before reluctantly adding them in. The next thing he knew, his potion had become clear as water! Amazing! Success! Hope he wasn't lagging behind though... |
SPOILER!!: Steps 7-10 Tossing his notes aside, Ethan reached out for the fluxweed leaves, cleaned his silver knife once more and sliced those in three equal parts. The rest was neatly placed on an empty tray, which he will have to vanish after he’s done with the potion. Scooping up the leaves, he carefully placed the ingredient inside his cauldron. Forcing himself to tune out all the noise around him, the Slytherin furrowed his eyebrows in concentration as he got his wooden stick and wand at the same time. Ethan pointed his wand at the wooden stick to clean it, only to realize that he was actually holding the wooden stick, and trying to clean his wand with it. Well, too much concentration? Probably. Switching both sticks, Ethan scourgified the wooden stick with his wand this time. Shaking his head, he consulted the blackboard once more and absorbed the eighth step. Should be easy. He’s been doing the stirring business since he was a first year in Durmstrang, so no worries. Carefully dipping his wooden stick into the cauldron, Ethan stirred the contents clockwise once, then counter-clockwise once. Stir clockwise, stir counter-wise. 11...12...13...14. Aaaaaaaaand? Checkpoint? Muddy consistency? Yeup. All good here. Two measures of boomslang skin were gathered, and those were also added after Ethan was satisfied with the muddy consistency of his potion. The Slytherin eyed his new watch from his father, and waited for five minutes. Tick...tock...tick...tock. Ten newt larvae were added exactly at 00:05:00, and the Slytherin was happy to see his potion turn into...clear water. Well, if it were muggles, they’d think that the Professor was just trolling them. They started off with clear water, and they ended up with it as if nothing happened. As for Ethan though, he knew his base potion’s a success, so there’s that. |
SPOILER!!: Professor Ilia added to her notes as she listened. SPOILER!!: Notes Step 7. Ilia took the fluxweed and cut away everything but the leaves, then cut the leaves into three exactly equal pieces and added them. Bloop, into the pot Step 8. Taking up her wooden spoon that she had cleansed before starting, she gently stirred her potion. Clockwise 1, counter clockwise 2, clockwise 3, counterclockwise 4, clockwise 5, counter clockwise 6, clockwise 7, counter clockwise 8, clockwise 9, counter clockwise 10, clockwise 11, counter clockwise 12, clockwise 13, counter clockwise 14. With her stirring complete, she examined the potion. Muddy as the bottom of a pond, but not foul of odor.....not like her last divination class. She cringed silently at the thought. Step 9. Now time for the measures of Boomslang skin. She delicately lowered them into the cauldron. Double double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble. She hummed to herself quietly as she timed the five minute wait. She took the wait time as clean time and"Scourgify" cleaned everything that she had just used. Step 10. It was now time to add the larvae, the point that she wasn't terribly fond of. Ilia could empathize with the girl who asked what else she could use. She wasn't fond of it either, but she knew it was part of potion craft and that sometimes there wasn't an alternative that would produce proper results. She comforted herself in the thoughts that other animals would eat them and that the professor probably treated them very nicely. She took a breath and added them , counting carefully. Upon the last one, the brew became as clear as before she added anything to it. ------------ She knew prodding Henric earlier had made him happier and that made her feel a little better. She kept her eye on him throughout class, to make sure he wasn't stumbling or having trouble. Though she did poke him just lightly as he stared into his now clear potion. Good job, she mouthed the words and nodded to him. Encouragement couldn't hurt right? She decided when it came choosing time that she was making a happiness potion, as she thought of him. |
Majorly Major Catch Up 1-10 Time to Get Started on this Potion and hopefully if Merlin will willing. Dante will not mess this up. There is always a chance. But you know. He wanted to succeed. So he cleaned out his cauldron with magic. Which was awesome to watch every time and then he filled it with water. Which he did start learning last year with help and now was okay at it. So yeah. Next step. He slowly lowered his wand, drawing a straight, vertical line, and bam "Apto pressure" Than he had it way hotter in his still space than it should be 100 degrees Cecilius is just to hot. But Professor C said so, so Dante did it. And kept it there. Chop Chop the lovage sprigs. Keep on chopping until he did it as well as he could. And than bam into the cauldron they go. Next he waited for EXACTLY 5 minutes. Don't ask how he did it. He just did. Then he added the mistletoe berries. Weird things. Do you kiss if they hang in the air. Or is that some other type of mistletoe. Onto the cutting of fluxweed leaves. Fluxweed. Such a cool name for a thing. HE cut them into three pieces and added them .Okay so far. Hopefully no explosions so far. Stirred clockwise and counter clockwise alernatively for fourteen times. Which was jut weird to do. He would rather just go one way. It was easier. And bam he added the boomslang skin and waited exactly five minutes again and added the next larvae. So had he messed up he had no idea. He would know at the end. Merlin potions was hard. |
Poor Angelfish. Adi felt a little... no, a whole lot sorry for her even though he had been struggling with some stuff about her. Not the time to focus on that. "Don't worry,'' he whispered to her. "We'll get it fixed.'' Adi looked back towards Culloden. Uh oh. "Professor, I think Angel's potion needs fixing. Or she needs to start all over because she added the berries after the five seconds.'' Angel's potion certainly didn'tquite have the texture like his had. .................... Boomslang skin, where art thou? Oh, THERE you are. The Hufflepuff snagged the ingredient and added it to the cauldron. He counted the minutes out on his watch, shifting his eyes to Angel occasionally. She wasn't going to cry, was she? He might have to ask Benny to come over and comfort the girl. Anywayyy. Larvae! That came next and since the five minutes were up, in went the ten newt larvae! HEY! His potion was CLEAR as crystal. WOOOOT! |
Hugh was not behind. He was just taking his sweet time getting all of his work done, yo. Could not rush potions. He had seen what happened when people did. Besides, he was only half-way paying attention to everything that was happening as he was lost in his own (and in his opinion) far superior thoughts. He was doing what he was supposed to be, though, which had to count for SOMETHING. First, he doubly checked that it was 100 degrees Celsius. CHECK. Then he cut the fluxweed super slowly into three pieces and added it. With his wooden stick he stirred it clockwise then counter clockwise and back and forth and back and forth seven times. Fourteen times all together. Next he reached for the boomslang skin and added it. The next part was the waiting game for five minutes. Five long minutes where he thought about the universe and cheese. BEFORE HE, last minute, ADDED THE LARVAE. Everything turned to look like clear water. |
Norah checked to see that her thermometer still read 100 degrees before eyeing the potion in her cauldron. Helloooo muddy looking thing. Nice to see you too. She grinned at it, because mud was FUN even if her mum always made her clean it up. But apparently it was supposed to turn clear later which was much more boring, and as she recorded the next steps she found herself secretly hoping that it'd stay muddy. It was a secret though, 'cause if it did stay muddy Culloden would vanish her potion into a bunch of nothing and THEN there'd be nothing at all. That'd be even boring-ER. "What's a boomslang?" she asked nobody in particular as she levitated two measures of the thing's skin into her cauldron. It just wasn't glove kind of day, but she couldn't just add it with her hands or else something bad would happen, probably. What if it went BOOM? Professor Culloden would DEFINITELY be unhappy about that, but it had boom in the name and everything so it wouldn't be her fault, right? She stared at the clock as she waited the five minutes, remembering to check the thermometer every now and then but not really looking so by the time she noticed any change it'd already dropped to 98 degrees. Whoooopsies. She poked the burner with her wand and gave a satisfied nod when she saw it was back up to 100, then back to waiting waiting waiting. Norah, who had been reduced to humming softly under her breath to keep herself entertained, straightened up and levitated all ten of her little larvaes into the cauldron. Hehehe. Wingardium Leviosa made her feel so FANCY. She grinned down at her cauldron as the potion went from muddy to clear, looking up at Professor Culloden to see if he NOTICED how perfect it was. She thought it was perfect, anyways. |
"Professor," Toby interjected, raising his hand into the air for long enough that it would be noticed by Culloden and grab his attention. "Is there no, sort of... Stasis Charm we can use to keep the temperature at the same level while we brew the potion?" Even as he spoke, Toby was checking the cauldron thermometre again, 'cause that was the hardest part of the entire potion, keeping it LEVEL. "Or would that somehow make it vary by too many degrees, like not specific enough? Or perhaps would one of those only work if you're not actively making changes and adding to the potion?" As soon as he'd said his original question, all his own follow-up ones had occured to him as well. Even as he thought about it, Toby was working on cutting up the fluxweed leaves into three pieces with his CLEAN knife on their CLEAN surface. "That is, if one exists at all. But I think they should. And if they don't, someone should get on that." For long-term potions brewing, see? Anyway, the longer he spoke, the more time was spent not making his own potion, because Toby was no multi-tasker. In fact, that was why he'd asked the question about the charm, because he was having to really overwork his brain by doing the brewing AND checking the temperature. A few times it had already gone a little over or under what it needed to be, probably ruining the effects of the potion, though considering the nature of the potion itself, that might not be such a bad thing. Using his wand again, Toby levitated the cut up fluxweed leaves over and into his cauldron, finding that in the case of potions, using magic instead of the muggle method was usually the way to a better result. He went for his wooden stirrer then, and cleaned it with 'scourgify', before using it to stir the potion. And narrowly avoiding a potential disaster, because at FIRST, he'd went to stick his wand into the cauldron, and only realised what he was doing a fraction of a second before it connected with the surface. WHEW, OKAY. So yes, he stirred it with the STIRRER, not his wand, clockwise, then anti-clockwise, then clockwise, and anti-clockwise, over and over, until it had been stirred fourteen times in total. Toby withdrew the stirrer and automatically cleaned it, before hurriedly checking the temperature again. It had occurred to him in the middle of stirring that it had probably crept back up again. Aaaand yep. Toby couldn't tell for SURE, because the dungeons were always a little dingy what with the lack of windows, but it looked like it had gone up by about two degrees. Muttering a couple of harsh, self-deprecating comments to himself under his breath, Toby quickly adjusted the temperature and then checked the potion. ... It didn't smell, and it could definitely pass as muddy. Sure. Not perfect, but then he'd struggled with the temperature thing multiple times. This potion wasn't going so well for Toby, but he'd struggle through it anyway. And hopefully not have to start over; he didn't think his brain would cope with having to concentrate on all that aaaaall over again. He already had a headache and he was falling behind as it was. No. Positive thoughts, Toby. C'mon. You can doooo eeeet. SPOILER!!: Notes |
Steps 7-10 Janelle added the next steps to her notes and then prepared to continue her potion. She retrieved a wooden stick from her supplies and proceeded to Scourgify it. Then she took her clean knife and grabbed her fluxweed. Checking her notes first, Janelle then cut the fluxweed leaves into three pieces. She moved the remnants to the side so she could dispose of them later. Janelle added her fluxweed leaves to her potion and picked up her wooden stick. She had to be very careful. One little lapse in concentration could ruin her whole potion and she had no intention of doing that today. Janelle dipped her stick into the cauldron and began to stir. One clockwise, one counterclockwise. Two clockwise, two counterclockwise. Three clockwise, three counterclockwise. Four clockwise, four counterclockwise. Five clockwise, five counterclockwise. Six clockwise, six counterclockwise. Seven clockwise, seven counterclockwise. Janelle was almost afraid to look closely, but she did. With extreme relief, she saw that her potion was indeed muddy. Taking a quick whiff, she smelled nothing stinky so, that was good. Janelle was ready for the next step so she checked her notes again. She picked up her boomslang skin and added it to the mixture. Then she checked her watch and began to time. What could she do in five minutes? First, she took her leftover fluxweed parts and threw them away. Then she got her wooden stick and knife. Taking her wand, Janelle said, "Scourgify". Now that she was up to date with her cleaning, Janelle looked at her watch. Just in time. Four fifty seven, fifty eight, fifty nine and.....time. Reaching for the newt larvae, she picked them up (barely supressing an "ewwwww") and added them to the potion. If Janelle wanted to be good at potions, she would have to deal with the ickiness of the ingredients. With her fingers crossed, she looked into he cauldron. Fortunately, the muddy potion began to get lighter. Finally the brown color disappeared and the potion became clear. "Whew", Janelle said to herself. "So far, so good." |
Now onto the next set of steps that Professor C put up. He squinted his eyes through the smoke and realized there wasn't too much to do. After he finished stirring his potion, he copied down the notes. He used his quill and scribbled... SPOILER!!: Kace's Potions Notes So after his potion looked muddy according to his notes, he needed to add the boomslang skin and wait five minutes. He reached for the boomslang skin and added the two measures. After that he watched the clock and waited five minutes. After he saw on the clock the five minutes were up, he added the larvae which looked kind of disgusting. Errgghhh. He added in the ten newt larvae. 1...splosshh.....2...splooosshh...3..splooosshh... ..4...splooosshh....5....splooosshh... Once he was done with that and his potion looked like clean water, he beamed and waited for the next set of directions. |
So far so good it seemed. Nothing needed to be fixed as it appeared to Benny that his work was the right consistency. AND no explosions had happened or been threatening to happen which was always doubly good. Putting the last steps into his notes, the Gryffindor listened carefully as they moved on for two more steps and another supposed change in the appearance of the potion. He gingerly added the boomslang skin into the muddy liquid before glancing at his watch. A five minute wait was needed per the instructions and Benny wasn't one to risk more than a second or two off. One minute went by...than another...and finally all five had passed and he could continue. The larvae was added next and the sixth year watched and waited with baited breath for the change from muddy to clear. Come on....come on. |
Add boomslang skin... Natalia daintily picked up the boomslang skin, trying her best to have the least area of her skin in contact with the snake skin. Snakes were cute... the live ones, at least. But the fourth year was not extremely comfortable with making physical contact with the scaly membrane of a dead creature. Didn't the Slytherins adorn their common room with snake skins? No? Was that just a rumor? *BLOOP* The Lioness dropped the snake skin into the boiling water when it was still a foot away from the liquid's surface. The deep plunge induced a large splash of water, allowing droplets of the boiling liquid to jump onto her skin. "OWWW." Natalia quickly leapt away from her cauldron, clutching her right hand in discomfort. It was only a small patch of redness, nothing to fuss about. She better be careful next time. Wait five minutes. Natalia made sure to pay attention to her watch this time. Not a second more, not a second less. Exactly after five minutes, Natalia added ten newt larvae into her concoction. To the Lioness, it was such an unprecedented ACHIEVEMENT! According to the professor's next checkpoint, the potion should appear as clean as crystal water. Pushing her face mask closer to her face, Natalia leaned over to her cauldron and examined her solution. Hmm...it appeared clear... just with a tinge of faded green... OH WELL. c: |
Still keeping an eye out for people who needed help, Sophie went ahead to extract two measures of boomslang skin from her potions kit with a gloved hand, then, while watching her wristwatch, she added them to the cauldron. T-minus 5 minutes till larvae time. For now, Sophie went ahead to re-clean her glove, then put it back on to count out ten newt larvae, and set them on her clean countertop. This only took about a minute for her to prepare for the next step, so... she had some minutes to spare. Text Cut: Norah Good thing she did, too, because Norah was seeking clarification on something, and Sophie Brown was happy to help. Giving her watch one last check for the time to gauge when she needed to move on and making sure the temperature was right where it needed to be, she slipped from her seat to stand near Norah's desk. No need to shout across the room. "Boomslang is a kinda African snake, so we're using the skin the snake has shed. The skin's usually green for males, and brown for females. They're venomous 'n their venom is highly poisonous, so if y'ever go to Africa... stay away from those," she grinned, not expecting Norah to be trekking to Africa anytime soon. "They're pretty tiny, though, so I'd think y'could outrun it." In case she DID go to Africa. No reason to scare the sweet girl. Sophie's intentions had been pure all along in talking to Norah, because she adored the Hufflepuff, but... now she caught sight of Culloden, and she wanted to show off. Oops. Norah wouldn't mind her elaborating some more, would she? "So I think... in a potion, it's supposed to represent 'n act as the properties of like... shedding one thing, like a trait or whatever, which in this case would probably be like... shedding of the drinker's current emotions, and taking upon the emotion that the potion is geared toward, y'know? Make sense?" The Ravenclaw peeked at her watch - she still had a minute and a half till she needed to add the larvae. No real hurry. "Your potion looks good, by the way." Nice and clear. What a champion. |
Steps 7-10, professor? Quote:
Quote:
He'd done it precisely! He knew he did! He also had made sure to thoroughly clean it! |
Steps 7&8 Marigold's hair was getting all frizzy, so she accioed a hair tie from her bag and slipped it around her wrist before pulling her hair into an impromptu bun. A few wayward curls slipped out in front of her eyes, and she impatiently swept them to the side. She rummaged and took out the fluxweed leaves. She cut them into three semi-equal sized pieces and pushed the rest away, then added the leaves to the cauldron. "Scourgify!" to clean the wooden stick, and then it was stirring. One clockwise, one counterclockwise, one clockwise, one counterclockwise, one clockwise, one counterclockwise, one clockwise, one counterclockwise, one clockwise, one counterclockwise, one clockwise, one counterclockwise, one clockwise, one counterclockwise, and then she brought her nose semi-close and sniffed. …it definitely smelled like something, dirt, perhaps? Not bad. |
Zander felt pretty good about his potion thus far. Nothing seemed to smell funny or look strange. So that was always a good sign, right? Plus, he had tried to follow the instructions as exact as he could. Didn't seem to be too difficult either. All the stirring got a bit confusing, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The stirring was always the most confusing part after all. Then came the bloomslang skin. One of the weirdest names for a potion's ingredient. 'Cause like, what even was a bloomslang? Zander had absolutely zero idea. But he wasn't gonna question it. So in it went into the cauldron. And checking the time. So that approximately five minutes later he could get to the next bit. The next bit being the larvae, of course. He added all of it into the potion as well and watched as... Oooh COLOR CHANGE. Potion clear. Huh. Always got him kinda excited to see something happen. Meant the magic was working. |
SPOILER!!: Sophie <3 She opened her mouth to ask another question 'cause she was sure Sophie Brown'd know the answer to anything she could come up with, but was reduced to beaming and WIGGLING in excitement 'cause guess WHAT. She said Norah's potion looked good! She really did! She put both hands on her cheeks with a soft PLOP sound and squished her cheeks together, 'cause how else were you supposed to respond when the best potion-maker in the history of the entire UNIVERSE probably complimented you? That's right, she really didn't know either. "Thank you thank you thaaaaank you," she said, but it came out sort of muffled 'cause apparently that happened when you were squishing you cheeks. She removed them in the interest of some more grinning. "Yours does too! I bet. Probably. You look good. I like your watch. And YOU, obviously, 'cause you're the coolest." Maybe complimenting people wasn't her number one talent either, but who was counting anyways. |
As the next set of instructions appeared up on the board Hady quickly took her quill and parchment and wrote down each step clearly before setting it aside. With a simple 'Scorgify' she once more cleaned her cutting knife as well as the chopping board and the wooden stick she was to use next. before carefully cutting the fluxweed leaves into three parts and adding them into her cauldron, the rest of the fluxweed leaves set aside to be thrown out. Using her just cleaned wooden stick she started with a clockwise stir and then went to a counter clockwise stir. Hady repeated this process over and over until she had stirred the potion both clockwise and counter clockwise seven times apiece for a total of fourteen complete stirs. With that step finished she once more used the cleaning spell on the wooden stick and set it aside. Peering into her cauldron she noticed it did look muddy and didn't smell at all! So far so good. Now she needed to add in the boomslang skin. Taking the two measures worth she carefully added that into the potion. Now to play the waiting game. Five whole minutes. That was enough time to add these steps into her notes. Once more taking her quill in hand she wrote down steps nine and ten. Since that didn't take long Hady hummed very quietly to herself to pass the last two of so minutes by. Another fast glance at the clock told her she had about twenty seconds left. Using that time she quickly counted the ten newt larvae for the next time. And five minutes were up! Adding the ten newt larvae into the potion she watched as the contents went from a disgusting muddy color to a nice clear water color a grin spreading over her face as it did. Perfect! |
Dot was trying to take sneaky sniffs of her cauldron to make sure it didn't stink, but was only succeeding in making herself a little dizzy. It didn't smell, she finally decided, and Dot slid back down to the floor just as the professor gave the next instructions. Boomslang skin. Booooooooomslaaaaang. She dropped the skin carefully into the cauldron and watched the potion absorb it, all the while mentally counting off the five minutes. Maybe she ought to invest in a stopwatch next. Or one of those little eggtimers. At the five minute mark, she dropped the newt larvae into the cauldron and went back up on her tiptoes to see if she could mark any changes to the contents. Muddy... muddy... lil bit better... and... clear! Yes! |
And the nerd bagel tries to play catch up *steps one to like three because lazy* Okay, it was time to potion. Yes potion was a verb now. Ophelia had made it so. Before she started the potion, out of habit, the thirteen year old tried to tie back her blonde hair before realizing that it was too short for such things. Which was a good thing, because the third year always had a fear of the ponytail getting caught up in her potion and getting her curly hair incinerated off in class. Could the Healer help with that? Was that a thing? Did that ever happen in the history of Hogwarts ever? That would be interesting to look up. The Ravenclaw filled her cauldron with pure water and smiled at already having the first step done. This potion may have been easier than she thought! Maybe the short girl was starting to adsorb some of Austin and his super potion powers! Maybe soon she would be an awesome potion maker and be able to handle every problem with a few ingredients and a flick of her wand. Or not. Her mother always taught her to do things by hand, and even though the teenager was incredibly lazy --in her defense, what teenager WASN'T-- it might be hard to break that habit. And besides, Ophelia still had issues reading her textbooks. The blonde tried really hard, but things just got a bit mixed up. It took her a little bit of work, but that didn't mean that she didn't try. That was another thing that her mother taught her. Try and try and try. And then try some more. Which Ophelia always found tiring, but she supposed it worked. That was the only way she got out of the woods when she go lost and the only way she ended up forging a new path that helped her get around the river twice as fast. Anyway, more on the potion. Because that was what they were doing in potions. Not discussing reading textbooks and paths around the woods. That would be an interesting conversation and 'Ophie could get completely into it, but that's not what was happening. No. No. Potion time. Using her wand, Ophelia made the vertical line and finished it on her cauldron, completing the second step. Easy enough. Two steps completed. She would be manipulating people's emotions in no time. That was a sentence Ophelia thought she would never say in her entire actual life. Unless the Professor planned on doing something EVIIIIIILLLLL to them. Or, unless he planned on storing them to use at another time. Or never use, since they were manipulative potions. And no matter what the Professor said, Ophelia still thought of those as full dark. Okay, this step seemed SUPER IMPORTANT, which made the third year kind of scared, as the whole thought of messing it up loomed in the back of her Ravenclaw brain. Heat the cauldron to 100 degrees Celsius and only that number. No more no less. ONLY 100. Merlin help her if she heated it to 101 or 102! Just 100! Okay, now that that was out of the way *cough cough* |
Okay, right. POSITIVE THOUGHTS WERE HAPPENING. Where was his boomslang skin... AHA. Right where he'd left it, funny that. Toby added two measures of the stuff to his potion, wrinkling his nose a little bit as he did, then just sort of... sat around... waiting. For five whole minutes. Merlin. This had never been easy for Toby. Waiting around and doing nothing while the potion did its thing. He liked to get up and wander around and do STUFF, but also knew he got carried away and distracted very easily. Sooooo... he stayed put, and recleaned all his available potions ingredients and the surface, and put away the ingredient phials he'd no longer be needing, but that only took up like a couple of minutes. So he sat there, fiddly and fidgety and looking like he was about five seconds away from getting into mischief. At one point he began twirling his wand, but abruptly stopped that once he lost control of it and it almost ended up in the potion for the second time that lesson. Sooooo... he put that down. And sat and waited out the rest of the time. NEEDLESS TO SAY, it meant Toby was READY and ON THE BALL when the time finally did tick down, and the second that five minutes was over, Toby levitated the ten newt larvae into the potion. And pretended he hadn't just been making it fly around the space above his desk like a stunt plane. Sure. Okay. So was the potion CLEAR? That was the million galleon question. SPOILER!!: Notes |
Text Cut: Cutiepie Norah Could Norah be any cuter? Sophie sure didn't think so. The sixth year nodded her encouragement at the girl's belief that she COULD outrun the boomslang. "I think so too. Y'seem like you'd be a quick one." Too bad Sophie didn't know the girl liked running, for she'd invite her along to go running with her at dawn every morning. The more the merrier for that kind of thing, really. The squishing of her cheeks? Adorable. Soph even giggled in good humor along with the girl before giving her a nice sideways hug. "M'not as cool as you. I voted for you for Ms. Hogwarts last term. Betcha ten galleons you'll get it before y'graduate, 'cause that's how cool you ARE. And if y'don't get it before then, we'll find a way to edit all the yearbooks and we'll put you in my place from two terms ago, 'kay? THAT's how cool you are and how much y'deserve it." She checked her watch just then, and... OOP. LESS THAN TWENTY SECONDS TILL SHE NEEDED TO ADD HER LARVAE. "Larvae time. Gotta jet. Sorry." Soph hurried back over to her workstation, slid her gloves back onto her hands, and looked at her watch... just when the five minutes were up, so she added the ten newt larvae to her cauldron. And... the concoction was clear as glass. Like purified water, even. Beautiful. Sophie tinkered with the flame again to ensure that the temperature stayed at 100 degrees Celsius, then gave a thumbs up to Norah up ahead in case she was worried that Soph had messed up her potion while talking. NOPE. ALL WAS GOOD. |
steps 7-10 There hadn’t been any criticism yet, of her potion or anyone else’s really, which kind of set Brooklyn on edge. Not that she expected criticism of her skills. She knew quite well she was capable of brewing a potion, but the fact nobody really had seemed to mess up spectacularly yet just made her wonder when it would happen. It always happened, and she always tried to make sure she was as far away from it as possible. In the meantime, the instructions had continued, so she wrote them down in her potions journal after what she’d already done. Everything just as it had been written down on the blackboard, so she wouldn’t miss a step. She certainly wasn’t going to be the one to mess up now. Sliding her knife back over to herself, she Scourgified it again before using it to slice the fluxweed into three pieces before she scooped them up and added them to her potion. That was simple enough, as was cleaning a wooden stick to stir with. Lowering it into the potion once it was properly Scourgified, she stirred once clockwise, then once counter-clockwise. One. Two. Now she had to repeat that seven more times. Once clockwise, once the opposite direction, seven more times until she was at fourteen stirs. She did so deliberately, just so she knew she didn’t miss any circles, then she glanced back at her notes. Her potion definitely looked muddy. Kind of disgusting, really, but that wasn’t going to last. Locating the boomslang skin, she added two to the potion before looking at the clock. Okay. Five minutes, she thought, settling back into her seat before she decided to count out her larvae. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Unfortunately that hardly took up a minute, so she ended up doodling on a spare piece of parchment for the remaining time. Soon enough, though, five minutes was up, and she sat up again to add the larvae. One at a time, since there hadn’t been any specific instruction not to. Besides, that made it a lot easier to watch the color of her potion as it gradually lightened with each larva. By the time she got to ten, it was nearly clear, but she kept watching it for a few seconds later just in case. Yep, she thought with a grin. It was definitely clear now. Now all she had to do was decide what she wanted it to do. That and wait for the instructions as to if she was supposed to actually pick an emotion yet or not. SPOILER!!: notes |
| All times are GMT. The time now is 01:29 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2026, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
LinkBacks Enabled by vBSEO 3.3.2 © 2009, Crawlability, Inc.
Site designed by Richard Harris Design