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

Kyroh M. Scabior - 4th Year

Potion: Emotional Change Potion
Explanation: Allows the drinker to change their emotion based on the ingredients in the potion. Semi-Dark Potion.
Level of Difficulty: Undetermined as of yet.

Ingredients
Two sprigs of lovage
4 mistletoe berries
4 measures of fluxweed
2 measures of boomslang skin
Ten newt larvae

**Extra Ingredient: Important to Note:
Happiness: 3 Alihotsy leaves
Sadness: A teaspoon of glumbumble treacle
Excitement: Half a handful of ferret fur
Fear: A scoop of black flies
Tenderness: 2 teaspoons of dog saliva
Anger: 7 hippogrif feathers

** Extra Things to Note
- It's a base potion, which can be stored for a year
- The emotion to be decided after the creation of the base

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

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!"

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.

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.



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.



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.

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

Emotion changing Potion
Grayson D. Whitlock

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

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

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,



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.

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!

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.



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

Emotional Change Potion

Base Ingredients
- Two sprigs of lovage
- 4 mistletoe berries
- 4 measures of fluxweed
- 2 measures of boomslang skin
- Ten newt larvae

(Can be kept for up to one year)

Emotion Inducing Ingredients

- Happiness: 3 Alihotsy leaves
- Sadness: A teaspoon of glumbumble treacle
- Excitement: Half a handful of ferret fur
- Fear: A scoop of black flies
- Tenderness: 2 teaspoons of dog saliva
- Anger: 7 hippogriff feathers

Instructions
1. Fill cauldron halfway with pure water
2. Slowly lower wand, drawing a straight, vertical line, incant 'Apto pressure'
3. Heat to 100 degrees celcius and keep heat there constantly
4. Chop lovage sprigs well, add
5. Wait for exactly 5 seconds
6. Add mistletoe berries

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.

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.



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.

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:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

7. Cut the fluxweed leaves in three pieces and add
8. With a wooden stick, stir once clockwise, once counter clockwise and alternate like that for 7 times: so the total number of stirs is 14
Checkpoint: It should be muddy, but not smelly.

So, Rowan was not really on board with using any sort of animal by-product, but at least if it was just the cocoon then the worm would be done with it, right? So it would be kind of like picking up feathers that birds had dropped, and she was okay with that. It was the same with the boomslang skin right? Cause they shed it when they were done needing it, so that was alright? After thinking it over for a second, she nodded at the professor. "Okay, I could do that. Thanks for understanding, professor." She gave him a big smile, and then started scribbling down notes furiously so she could catch up.



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...

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.

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?

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?"

Rowan had been trying and trying with the incendio thing, but getting terrible results. It was like someone had put out a dragon, and she was getting the smoky coughs coming from the end of her wand. That was possible, right? You could put out a dragon? She hoped nobody ever did, cause that would be mean, but was it possible?

...

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.

.

.

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.

"Well I'm sorta not, that's the problem." she said, tapping her chin with her wand, but then her brain caught up with the rest of her... "Oh!" Yeah, she wasn't stupid, just... yeah.

"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

Emotion changing Potion
Grayson D. Whitlock

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

Steps:
1) Fill halfway with pure water
2) Slowly lower your wand as if you're drawing a straight, vertical line with your wand and say Apto pressura.
3) Heat to 100 degree celcius and keep the heat at 100 and ONLY 100 AT ALL TIMES
4) Chop lovage well and add it
5) Wait five seconds
6) Add berries immediately
7) Chops fluxweed leaves into three parts and add
8) Stir once clockwise, once counter clockwise and so on. Total number of stirs: 14

Checkpint: Potion should look muddy but not smelly

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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?"