Why in the name of heaven was Culloden teaching them to brew a love potion was beyond Tia's mental capacity? Sure it wasn't a difficult potion to brew, but in a room FULL of teenagers with the raging hormones already out of control, was it really wise to add more confusion to the palate? Or was this part of some master plan to make them all dislike one another after?

Sighing, she set to work on preparing the necessary ingredients. Flower heads of sneezewort, separating the petals carefully into a small bowl. With another bowl, she chopped 8 Alihotsy leaves. And lastly measured out eight teaspoons of powdered moonstone.

Nothing difficult so far, as she had three separate bowls of prepared ingredients. "Aguamenti!" she cast, filling her cauldron up with water, and then added the sneezewort petals. Time to light a fire and get going, or she'd never finish her potion on time. "Incendio!"

Fire lit. Now just add ingredients. She was kind of curious as to what amortentia might smell like to her, since it was different for everyone.

Still oblivious to anyone's attention on her besides Culloden's, Sophie faltered slightly when Culloden did not, in fact, reassure her that she was doing a good job, and instead used the whole... concerned, pitying, I'm-sad-for-you and I'll-give-you-special-treatment tone.

A sure way to nearly get her to crack, Culloden.

"I am fantastic," she replied, not at all keeping her voice down so everyone KNEW she was fine and there was nothing to worry about over here. The Head Girl had it under control. Just another day, being a good role model and not letting people down and setting a good example for all her peers!!!!!!!

...Then, after a brief moment, her eyes flickered back up to meet his, and she very, very subtly shook her head and mouthed, No. No, she wasn't okay, and no, she didn't want to go out. She WAS fine. She wasn't going to skip potions, her favorite class of all. But surely he understood that, right?

And, as if to prove her point, she tapped her watch, letting him know her eight minutes were finishing up, so she had to get back to work. With a non-verbal casting of the levitation charm, Soph added the eight egg parts to her cauldron, plucked her clean metal stick from her kit, and stirred clockwise as quickly as she could and as evenly as she could so the potion wouldn't come shooting up over the sides until, low and behold, her potion turned a lovely shade of purple.

After a quick cleaning of her metal stick, Soph put on her clean gloves and measured out eight teaspoons of moonstone and the thorns of eight roses into separate containers. With that ready, she picked up her container of moonstone with one hand and sprinkled the contents into the cauldron, watching carefully as the powder dissolved into the liquid below. Once it was all added, she quickly scooped up the container of rose thorns with her other gloved hand and added them to the cauldron. Relieved to be keeping up well considering outside factors, Soph took the dropper and sucked up the salamander blood with it, then held the dropper over the cauldron to very carefully and meticulously let one drop fall inside... two... three... all the way up to seven... and, on the last drop into the cauldron, with a smile on her face as the mother-of-pearl sheen was present, the entire dropper squeezed out from between her fingers and plunged down into the cauldron below.

.........................Wibble. WIBBLE.

SHE WAS NOT OKAY.

It was time to move on and there was one more thing that Janelle needed to clean. In anticipation of the next steps, she took a moment to clean her dropper. "Scourgify", she said, while directing her wand toward the as yet uncleaned piece of equipment. When that job was done, she felt ready to continue. First though, Janelle updated her instructions.

Now she was really ready. Janelle took her moontone, held it over the middle of the cauldron and began to sprinkle. When the sprinkling was done, she quickly, but carefully grabbed the thorns and tossed them into the potion. Always curious, Janelle wondered why the thorns had to be added quickly. What would happen to the potion, if they weren't added immediately. Another question to file away for later.

Checking her notes, Janelle then picked up her eye dropper and gave the bulb a squeeze. She dipped the tip into the salamander blood and let go of the rubber bulb, allowing the liquid to be drawn into the dropper. Finally, she added single drops of blood to the potion, counting as she went along. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Janelle was extremely careful, making sure not to let extra blood escape from the dropper prematurely. She kinda hated these moments of truth. The few seconds of waiting, before a potion was supposed to change in some way. Fortunately, her potion did change properly. Inside of the cauldron was a nice mother of pearl colored potion. Whew. That was a big relief to Janelle, who now wondered what else they would have to do.

Moving on.

Miss Hady was ready to keep going as more instructions were added onto the board. From what she read this part seemed fairly easy enough. All she had to do was sprinkle the moonstone into the middle of her cauldron. Check.

Then quickly but carefully followed it up by adding in the thorns. So far so good. No trouble yet. Now she needed to add the salamander blood. Eight drops exactly. No more and no less. Getting a clean dropper she filled it with the salamander blood and carefully counted out each drop that was added into the cauldron one by one until she reached eight. As she was doing this she made sure to keep a close eye on it's color until it had indeed turned that nice mother-of- pearl sheen it was supposed to. With a satisfied grin Hady then cleaned the items she had used and set them aside. Everything always had to be clean when potion making.

Merlin.

At least Sophie seemed to be... less of whatever she was being before. The talking bit was calming down, so hopefully that meant she was feeling a little better... Though, if Zander had to guess he'd say it probably meant things were worse.

He'd run to catch up to her after class. But unfortunately for the moment being, he couldn't really leave his own work station seeing as his potion was still in works. And so far everything looked fantastic!! Well... It didn't look wrong yet... Uh. Considering he hadn't exactly done everything properly on account of distractions, but hey! If it didn't look right that meant it was alright... Right?

Er.

Maybe.

But he was willing to take the risk. Taking the moonstone whatever, the Gryffindor went to sprinkle that into the middle of his potion. Then not-so-quickly added in the thorns. And lastly, taking a dropper he added not one, not two, not three... But EIGHT drops of the salamander blood.

Text Cut: Notes

Love Potions

• cause an infatuation/obsession for the brewer or the first person seen.
• Amortentia = most powerful
• Duration varies on: weight of the drinker, attractiveness the brewer, etc.
• Effects wear off naturally over time, but can be renewed by more doses
• There is no overdose
• Effect = instantaneous
• Drinker appears "pale and sickly" and becomes obsessed with the brewer or the first person seen; excited or dangerously unstable towards others
• A hate potion can cancel out love potions and vice versa. There is also a proper antidote.
• Brewer doesn't have to be present for the effect
• Drinker does not forget what he or she did while under its influence
• Love potions mature over time; the longer they're kept, the stronger they will be
• Characteristics: distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen + spiral steams; aroma is different for everyone and reminds each person of the things that they find most attractive
• Smell of Amortentia can change as you see new things and people

Potion Ingredients

• 8 flower heads of sneezewort (separate the petals beforehand)
• 8 berries of atropa belladonna
• 8 chopped leaves of alihotsy (prepared beforehand)
• One frozen ashwinder egg broken in 8
• 8 teaspoons of powdered moonstone
• All the thorns of 8 roses
• 8 drops of salamander blood
• 8 tablespoons of peppermint

Brewing Instructions

1. Prepare the sneezewort, alihotsy and moonstone.
2. Fill the cauldron with purified water and add the sneezewort petals.
3. Light a fire under the cauldron and set it to maximum.
4. Add the heads of the sneezewort.
5. Stir 8 times clockwise with a metal stick.
6. Add the berries of atropa bellandonna one by one.
7. Sprinkle alihotsy leaves in a clockwise circle.
8. Wave your wand. The color should turn to dark red.
9. Wait for 25 minutes for pewter cauldrons, 13 for brass, and 8 for copper.
10. In the meantime, break the egg into 8. If you break it into more pieces accidentally, get another egg.
11. When the time is up, add the egg parts.
12. Stir vigorously clockwise with a metal stick until the color is purple.
13. Sprinkle the moonstone in the middle of the cauldron.
14. Throw all the thorns in quickly.
15. Add the drops of salamander blood one by one; with each drop, observe that the potion turns to its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen.

MOAR steps? Would this potion never end?! Davie diligently stopped stirring as soon as his potion turned purple, and set his stirrer off to the side. He gathered up his prepared moonstone and dumped it in the center of the cauldron, then quickly grabbed his measured out thorns and tossed those in too.

Now he had to gently add the salamander blood, eight drops of it exactly, one at a time. He waited as the potion lightened after each drop, until it turned mother-of-pearl, quite pretty, after the eighth drop. So they only had one more step then, lovely. Pun intended.

Benny was inwardly relieved that all seemed well with his work. No explosions like his recent cure for boils work and the professor nor Adi and noticed anything off. A love potion wasn't exactly one of those things that you wanted to go wrong, not with belladonna contained within it especially. Copying down the next set of notes, the Gryffindor started on them. He found the moonstone and sprinkled the collected eight teaspoons into the middle of his cauldron as directed by both Culloden and the notes from the blackboard.

Then there was the quick addition of the rose thorns into the mix. Was it fast enough for the man? And finally was the salmander blood. This action was done slow in contrast because Benny didn't want to add too much at one time or loose track of his count
which was easy to do with a dropper. Plus it gave him a chance to check the sheen.

One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...ei ght.

Mother of pearl all the way.

With the next steps already on the board, Zeke continued to follow through with his work. Taking his powdered moonstone, he measured out the eight tea spoons and then sprinkled them into the centre of his cauldron, watching at it met the contents and melted away. Moonstone was pretty neat, he had to admit he liked working with the ingredient.

That was quickly followed by the 8 rose thorns, throwing them in casually before setting on the last part of this phase... the salamander blood.

With the dropper he added eight, to his brew. 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... each time the colour changing slightly, almost as if a metallic film was being placed on top. With the last drop, there was no denying that his potion was definitely pearly. Gavin would be so proud, he knew it.

Once Professor Culloden was finished with his announcement, Norah cast "Scourgify!" on her little set of measuring spoons. Ta da! Nice and shiny. Not that they hadn't been shiny before, but y'know. Maybe they FELT a lot shinier. That was what mattered most, after all. She used her little spoon to added eight teaspoons of the moonstone powder into the middle of her cauldron, right into the purple potion. She set the spoons down and consulted her notes again, when she noticed she was supposed to be being quick and threw on her gloves as fast as she could to add all the thorns. Each addition made a little splash, but that had to be acceptable, right? She couldn't just be fast AND not splash at the same time. That sounded like something only Sophie Brown could be capable of.

Next came eight drops of salamander blood (just like the color of the blood of her enemies! Salamanders were far too cute to be anybody's enemy, though.) The potions turned a lovely color, but she had no idea what 'mother of pearl sheen' meant so she couldn't exactly identify if it was the RIGHT lovely color. Nonetheless, it was pretty enough to hold her attention for long enough to stop wondering what on earth a 'sheen' was.

They were almost done with the ingredient list which meant that there wasn't too much left to do. Paulina was rather pleased about that though she honestly didn't mind this lesson. So far things had been pretty simple and hopefully this streak would continue.

The moonstone was sprinkled in the middle of her cauldron then the thorns were quickly added. After that followed 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8... drops of salamander blood. All Paulina could say is that the animals better not have been hurt in the process or she would not be a happy camper.

The mother-of-pearl sheen she observed after each drop was added meant that she was still on track. Excellent.

SPOILER!!: Paulina's Notes

AMORTENTIA

Ingredients

• 8 flower heads of sneezewort (seperate the petals beforehand)
• 8 berries of atropa belladonna
• 8 chopped leaves of Alihotsy (prepared beforehand)
• One frozen ashwinder egg broken in 8
• 8 tea spoons of powdered moonstone
• All the thorns of 8 roses
• 8 drops of salamander blood
• 8 table spoons of peppermint

Instructions

1. Prepare the sneezewort, alihotsy, and moonstone.
2. Fill the cauldron with purified water and add the sneezewort petals
3. Light a fire under the cauldron and set it to maximum
4. Add the heads of the sneezewort
5. Stir 8 times clockwise with a metal stick
6. Add the berries of atropa bellandonna one by one
7. Sprinkle Alihotsy in a circle motion in clockwise direction
8. Wave your wand. The colour should turn to dark red
9. Wait for 25 minutes for pewter cauldrons, 13 for brass and 8 for copper
10. In the meantime, break the egg into 8. If you break it into more pieces accidentally, get another egg.
11. When the time is up, add the egg parts
12. Stir vigorously clockwise with a metal stick until the colour is purple
13. Sprinkle the moonstone in the middle of the cauldron
14. Throw all the thorns in quickly
15. Add the drops of salamander blood one by one: with each drop, observe that the potion turns to its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen.
    

Munching on the peppermint treat she’d snagged earlier, Brooklyn had simply been waiting, occasionally checking on her purple potion, as she heard Professor Culloden give the next steps. Well that made things easier on her, although not so much for the people with the other types of cauldrons who had to wait longer before they could add their eggs. Not that she cared. She only cared about her potion, and that nobody exploded their cauldron near her. She really didn’t want to find out what might happen if she got unfinished love potion on her, even though she’d had her gloves on for almost the whole lesson. She’d put them back on after she finished her treat, anyhow.

Anyway, it seemed like they were already nearly done. There weren’t many more ingredients to worry about, not after the steps that were just revealed. She didn’t add them to her notes just yet, though. She could just refer to the blackboard for now, especially since there wasn’t any more chopping or knife work that she could see. Just a lot of sprinkling and throwing and dropping, which could get awfully messy given the students in the class. She was half tempted to cast an Impervius spell on herself first, but so far nothing had happened. She could avoid disaster. Collecting her eight tablespoons of powdered moonstone in a little bowl that she Scourgified first, she stood back up to sprinkle it into the middle of her cauldron. This was so different than the leaves earlier, but almost easier. There wasn’t any direction to worry about. Just sprinkling, like it was sugar, and then she quickly leaned down to gather up the thorns and throw them into the potion as well. There was a bit of splashing with that, but it stayed contained in the cauldron.

Sitting back down long enough to use her eyedropper, also carefully Scourgified before she used it, to gather up some salamander blood. She was hardly bothered by the use of the blood, or the sight of it. It wasn’t as if this was the first potion ever to use blood, although she was curious how it turned the potion to the mother-of-pearl sheen. She would have thought it would make the potion red, or at least a reddish cast. That was magic. Standing back up, she gently let a single drop fall into her potion. One. “Two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight,” she counted out softly to herself, as she let the eight drops fall into her potion, watching it intently as it slowly lightened until it looked like the inside of a seashell. It was almost iridescent.

SPOILER!!: notes

Amortentia/Love Potion
Love potions cause infatuation or obsession for the brewer or the first person seen. Amortentia is the most powerful of them.
The duration of the effects (usually up to 24 hours) vary depending on factors such as the weight of the person drinking the potion and the attractiveness of the person with whom the potion is supposed to make the drinker obsessed. The effects wear off naturally over time, but can be renewed by administering further doses of potion. Therefore, there is no overdose.
The effect is near instantaneous: the drinker appears "pale and sickly" and becomes obsessed with the brewer or the first person seen and excited or dangerously unstable towards others.
A hate potion can cancel out love potions and vice versa. There is also a proper antidote.
The brewer doesn't have to be present for the effect if it's that sort of love potion.
The drinker does not forget what he or she did while under its influence.
Love potions mature over time; so the longer it is kept, the stronger it will be.
Amortentia's characteristics are a distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen and spiral steams. Its aroma is different for everyone and reminds each person of the things that they find most attractive, even if they don't acknowledge or are unaware of their fondness themselves.
The smell of Amortentia can change as you see new things and people.

8 flower heads of sneezewort (separate the petals beforehand)
8 berries of atropa belladonna
8 chopped leaves of Alihotsy (prepared beforehand)
One frozen ashwinder egg broken in 8
8 tea spoons of powdered moonstone
All the thorns of 8 roses
8 drops of salamander blood
8 table spoons of peppermint

1. Prepare the sneezewort, alihotsy and moonstone.
2. Fill the cauldron with purified water and add the sneezewort petals
3. Light a fire under the cauldron and set it to maximum
4. Add the heads of the sneezewort
5. Stir 8 times clockwise with a metal stick
6. Add the berries of atropa bellandonna one by one
7. Sprinkle Alihotsy in a circle motion in clockwise direction
8. Wave your wand. The colour should turn to dark red
9. Wait for 25 minutes for pewter cauldrons, 13 for brass and 8 for copper
10. In the meantime, break the egg into 8. If you break it into more pieces accidentally, get another egg.
11. When the time is up, add the egg parts
12. Stir vigorously clockwise with a metal stick until the colour is purple
13. Sprinkle the moonstone in the middle of the cauldron
14. Throw all the thorns in quickly
15. Add the drops of salamander blood one by one: with each drop, observe that the potion turns to its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen

LAST STEPS. They could DO THIS!

"Add the peppermint spoon by spoon and stir it slowly in the clockwise direction until it dissolves. Use a metal stick. Wave your wand again and put out the fire when you see the spiral steams and smell its aroma." They could also pat themselves on the shoulder for doing an advanced potion so successfully. Hehe.

"You can leave when you are done. Leave me a sample to grade. Do not take any for yourselves. Love potions are still forbidden in Hogwarts. If I catch you trying to take a vial with you, you'll be in trouble." He EYED them. Just because he taught it didn't mean they could.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

16. Add the peppermint spoon by spoon. Stir clockwise with a metal stick slowly until it dissolves.
17. Wave your wand again
18. Put out the fire when you see the spiral steams and smell its aroma

OOC:

• These are the last steps! You have until November 13th, 23.59 GMT/18.59 EST to catch up and finish, about 34 hours.
• I can't lock the thread right away then, but I won't grade posts after that.
• Thank you for your participation!
• As always, your character can stay behind to ask something etc.
• I'll post the HW soon.

Maybe Adi was a bad Prefect but he had abandoned looking over the younger Hufflepuffs for a moment while he had been focusing on Benny's potion. Oops. Thankfully none of the said Puffs had caused any mayhem. Good! He gave another nod at the boyfriend. Nice job, Dragon!

Now to move on!

The peppermint was added with a clean spoon to the cauldron. The metal stick was Scourgified again then the stirring began. Stir, stir, stir slooowly and in a clockwise direction until the peppermint was all gone! Adi swapped the stick for his wand to wave the magic stick. Where were those spiral steam and aromas?

Oh, look! Spiral steam! Adi sniffed deeply. The first one that hit him was a sharp, tangy lemon scent. He smirked, knowing why this was one of the scents he was attracted to. Because of Benny, duuuh. His boyfriend's love for sour stuff... the next scent was chocolate chip cookies. Of course there had to be something sweet in there Hehe. The other thing he noticed was the all too familiar odor of Hogwarts's barnyard/ stables. Something creature related! Nice!

Adi didn't care that they couldn't take any for themselves. He didn't need a potion to get 'love' as he had the real thing. He busied himself in setting aside a sample for Culloden and observing Benny again after he had updated his notes. "Whenever you ready to leave,'' he said to the Lion after he had finished labelling his sample. The remainder of the potion was vanished and his workstation cleaned before he headed to place his vial in Culloden's desk.

All done! Oh yeaah... "Do you need help with anything, Professor?''

Almost finished. The last few steps were now on the board and Hady paused for a brief moment to read them. Very simple steps really.

Using a nicely cleaned spoon Hady carefully added the peppermint into the cauldron. One spoonful at a time until there was once again eight counted out in total. Setting the peppermint and spoon aside she cleaned the metal stick and very slowly stirred the contents of the potion. Each stir was done in a clockwise motion until the peppermint had completely disappeared from sight.

Setting the stick down she grabbed her wand and gave it a nice wave over the cauldron. Instantly she saw the spiral steam rise up from her cauldron and she grinned inhaling the aroma deeply even as she put off the fire. The scent was intoxicating and she wouldn't mind standing there all day taking deep breaths. A strong outdoorsy scent is what got to her first...the kind when you're out in the forest surrounded by trees and water. Then there was the unmistakable scent of green apples her most favorite flavor of candy. What she couldn't figure out was the third scent. It sort of smelled of soap and shampoo or maybe it was a type of cologne or perfume? She knew she had smelt it before but she just couldn't place where.

Hady stood there for a few moments longer then she probably needed to before she got her thoughts together and stepped away to get herself a vial and filled it with her potion. Labeling it properly she set it down and then began cleaning up her work station and all her things as well as vanishing the rest of the potion. Slinging her bag of her shoulder she made her way to Culloden's desk setting down her labeled vial. "Thanks Professor, this was an interesting lesson." She gave a slight smile and a little wave before heading out the door the aroma of her own potion still strong in her mind.

Add the peppermint leaves....

And she just realized that this was the last ingredient that they're gonna add. So it meant that this would be the last step? Woooot!! Like the instructions said, Ava added the peppermint leaves spoon by spoon. 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8.. then she used her metal stick and stirred it in clockwise direction slooooooooowly until the leaves dissolved. And moving on to the next step, she grabbed her wand and waved it.

They couldn't take a sample? Boo... This would be fun to prank someone with this potions. The young lioness then waited until she noticed spiral steam coming out from her cauldron. Sniffing it, the first scent that she smelled was like... the smells of the wet grass after the rain, reminds her of the football field where she used to play football. The second scent that she smelled was... her mom's homemade brownies. And the third one smelled like her father's study. She missed her parents now.

Ava then poured some potions to the vial and handed it to Professor Culloden. "Bye, Professor! It's good to be in your class."

Janelle cleaned the equipment she had dirtied, just in time to see the final set of instructions. She copied them down into her notebook and prepared to finish up her potion.

Janelle grabbed her spoon and carefully measured one tablespoon of peppermint. She poured the contents into the cauldron and proceeded to measure seven more tablespoons of the peppermint one by one. After adding each tablespoon, she was ready for the next step. Janelle picked up her metal stick and began to stir the potion in a clockwise direction. Peering into the cauldeon, she watched as the peppermint slowly began to dissolve into her potion. When the last traces had disappeared, Janelle took out her wand. She waved it once more and hoped for the best. It was time to wait again. Fortunately, she did not have to wait very long because spiral puffs of steam began to rise from the cauldron. Leaning forward a little more, Janelle sniffed slowly and took in the aroma that the potion was sending forth.

With a smile, Janelle recognized the scent of sugar cookies. She made those every year with her mother and sister at Christmastime. Before she could get lost in the thought of her family at Christmas, Janelle began to smell something different. She breathed in again and took in the wonderful aroma of her favorite place in the world.....the beach. it was a complicated smell. A combination of salty sea air and suntan lotion reached her nostrils. It was almost as if she was there. The smell was so real. And then it was gone, replaced by something new. This time, it was a scent that Janelle did not immediately recognize. It was familiar, but she had trouble identifying it. This puzzled Janelle. If Amortentia smells were supposed to reflect thing that were most attactive to the person smelling it, shouldn't she know what it was? Suddenly she realized that she had been so wrapped up in analyzing the smells, she hadn't turned off the fire yet. Janelle immediately put out the fire and went back to smelling her potion.

Not being able to figure out her third smell was driving Janelle crazy. It was like having something right on the tip of your tongue, and not being able to remember it. Still thinking about it, Janelle grabbed a clean vial and filled it with some of her potion. Putting the stopper on, she set it down and began to clean the last of her supplies. Once the cleaning was done, she took one more sniff of her potion. With a sigh, Janelle walked up to Professor Culloden's desk and left the vial there. "Thanks Professor, I enjoyed the lesson", she said with a smile. Too bad she couldn't keep some of the potion. Not to give to anyone of course, but so she could keep trying to figure out that smell. Somewhat frustrated, Janelle headed for the door.

Cleaning his gloves just in case, Yoongi grabbed some of the moonstone he had crushed earlier and sprinkled some in the middle of the cauldron. Next, he snapped off all the thorns from the 8 roses and added them to the cauldron as well. So far so good, no explosions, no weird bubbling. He was on FIYAH you know?

Quite pleased with his work, Yoongi read the next step for the potion and his smile vanished slightly when he read salamander blood. Ewww… Using the dropper, the Gryffindor made sure to put 8 drops in the cauldron and then observed the potion until it turned “mother of pearl color” or whatever that meant. It looked okay to him.

And then Sophie Brown happened again. Her tone was just odd, not like how she usually talked and Yoongi looked at her in concern. They weren’t friends or anything but …well, she had helped him last year by fighting beside him during the acromantula attack. He was definitely cornering Zander now, he needed information.

Looking away from the Ravenclaw and towards the blackboard as the next few steps appeared, Yoongi sighed as he added the peppermint spoon by spoon in the cauldron before grabbing the metal stick again and stirred it clockwise after cleaning it until the peppermint dissolved. Then he waved his wand and put the fire off, seeing a spiral steam and a very pleasant smell coming from the cauldrons. What was that? Flowers?

When he was done, the Gryffindor cleaned his working station and poured a sample of his love potion in to a vial and wrote his name on it. “Thanks for the lesson, Sir” he said as he hang his bag over his shoulder. “I didn’t explode anything today, I’m a miracle” yes him, not it. Ahem… Spinning around, with his red hair bouncing slightly, Yoongi walked towards Norah. “’Sup?” ….sup? for real? “You want to get something to eat at the Great Hall?” cause he was hungry but didn’t want to eat alone.

Her eyes swimming with tears, Sophie tried to blink them away to no avail as she turned her gaze up to meet the professor's own. Through blurred vision, she shook her head, and took a moment to swallow back the choking feeling in her throat before speaking, "My dropper."

There was hesitation, as if she wasn't going to say anything more, but then she nodded her head toward the cauldron, her gaze falling back down to it as her lip wibbled and a few tears overflowed. "It fell in. It was clean so it didn't contaminate anything 'n I was usin' gloves while I was handlin' it b-but is it gonna... did I ruin it? Is it ruined? It's gotta be vanished, doesn't it? It's an ingredient that shouldn't have been added. S'just glass 'n rubber but that doesn't matter. It's ruined."

For the first time ever, Sophie Brown had messed up a potion in class.

Then, quite dramatically, she buried her head in her arms on the table and out came a muffled, "I quit."

She quit amortentia, she quit potions, she quit life.

They were in the home stretch!

Grabbing a clean spoon, Paulina added the peppermint to her cauldron. That done, she cleaned her metal stick and proceeded to stir the potion slowly in a clockwise direction until it had dissolved. Picking up her wand she waved it once more. She didn't get the point of this stuff, but there had to be a reason.

There was the spiral steam she was looking for! And the distinct smell of a greenhouse. Pleased, Paulina put out the fire. She was done!

Carefully Paulina poured out a sample for Professor Culloden before banishing the rest of her potion. Once a label was placed on it, she set it on his desk. Using Scourgify she cleaned up her work area and equipment before packing everything up. "Thanks for the lesson, Professor! Have a good day."

And she was off.

SPOILER!!: Paulina's Notes

AMORTENTIA

Ingredients

• 8 flower heads of sneezewort (seperate the petals beforehand)
• 8 berries of atropa belladonna
• 8 chopped leaves of Alihotsy (prepared beforehand)
• One frozen ashwinder egg broken in 8
• 8 tea spoons of powdered moonstone
• All the thorns of 8 roses
• 8 drops of salamander blood
• 8 table spoons of peppermint

Instructions

1. Prepare the sneezewort, alihotsy, and moonstone.
2. Fill the cauldron with purified water and add the sneezewort petals
3. Light a fire under the cauldron and set it to maximum
4. Add the heads of the sneezewort
5. Stir 8 times clockwise with a metal stick
6. Add the berries of atropa bellandonna one by one
7. Sprinkle Alihotsy in a circle motion in clockwise direction
8. Wave your wand. The colour should turn to dark red
9. Wait for 25 minutes for pewter cauldrons, 13 for brass and 8 for copper
10. In the meantime, break the egg into 8. If you break it into more pieces accidentally, get another egg.
11. When the time is up, add the egg parts
12. Stir vigorously clockwise with a metal stick until the colour is purple
13. Sprinkle the moonstone in the middle of the cauldron
14. Throw all the thorns in quickly
15. Add the drops of salamander blood one by one: with each drop, observe that the potion turns to its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen.
16. Add the peppermint spoon by spoon. Stir clockwise with a metal stick slowly until it dissolves.
17. Wave your wand again
18. Put off the fire when you see the spiral steams and smell its aroma
    

Given the list of ingredients they had been given at the start of the lesson, and what they had already done in their brewing, there couldn't be much more to be done. Unless of course most of the following were all random steps that didn't involve ingredients. However the former was proven to be true as Professor Culloden moved them on, dictating the last four, the final one being collecting a vial of the finished potion for grading. So they would be lucky not to actually test it out. Fine by him...they had already had a class that involved love potion mishaps.

Benny cleaned both spoon and metal stick before beginning. First the peppermint was added, each tablespoon done individually. One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...ei ght. Then slow deliberate stirs with the rod clockwise over and over again until he was satisfied that it had all dissolved. He switched his grip on the stirer for his wand and waved it over the cauldron once more before waiting on the tell-tale signs it was complete. It took a few moments but suddenly he was smelling something coming from the cauldron and his eyes picked up the spirals of steam.

He pulled the cauldron off the fire and leaned close to decipher the smells. Dragon dung was the strongest as there was no missing it. His connection to the creatures it came from was no secret. And then there was an underlying sweeter smell and as Adi spoke to him breaking the silence between them for a moment, it hit him. CHOCOLATE! An aroma he very much associated with his boyfriend beside him.

"Uh huh..." Benny responded absently before shaking his head to clear it. "Um...just about done."

No love sick feelings please.

The Gryffindor spooned some of his potion into a clean vial and corked it. Writing up a label, that was added to the glass before his work was vanished and cleaned up as well. He gathered his belongings and moved to follow Adi to Culloden, handing off his finished sample and awaited the man's answer to the Hufflepuff's question.

Text Cut: Notes

Love Potions

• cause an infatuation/obsession for the brewer or the first person seen.
• Amortentia = most powerful
• Duration varies on: weight of the drinker, attractiveness the brewer, etc.
• Effects wear off naturally over time, but can be renewed by more doses
• There is no overdose
• Effect = instantaneous
• Drinker appears "pale and sickly" and becomes obsessed with the brewer or the first person seen; excited or dangerously unstable towards others
• A hate potion can cancel out love potions and vice versa. There is also a proper antidote.
• Brewer doesn't have to be present for the effect
• Drinker does not forget what he or she did while under its influence
• Love potions mature over time; the longer they're kept, the stronger they will be
• Characteristics: distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen + spiral steams; aroma is different for everyone and reminds each person of the things that they find most attractive
• Smell of Amortentia can change as you see new things and people

Potion Ingredients

• 8 flower heads of sneezewort (separate the petals beforehand)
• 8 berries of atropa belladonna
• 8 chopped leaves of alihotsy (prepared beforehand)
• One frozen ashwinder egg broken in 8
• 8 teaspoons of powdered moonstone
• All the thorns of 8 roses
• 8 drops of salamander blood
• 8 tablespoons of peppermint

Brewing Instructions

1. Prepare the sneezewort, alihotsy and moonstone.
2. Fill the cauldron with purified water and add the sneezewort petals.
3. Light a fire under the cauldron and set it to maximum.
4. Add the heads of the sneezewort.
5. Stir 8 times clockwise with a metal stick.
6. Add the berries of atropa bellandonna one by one.
7. Sprinkle alihotsy leaves in a clockwise circle.
8. Wave your wand. The color should turn to dark red.
9. Wait for 25 minutes for pewter cauldrons, 13 for brass, and 8 for copper.
10. In the meantime, break the egg into 8. If you break it into more pieces accidentally, get another egg.
11. When the time is up, add the egg parts.
12. Stir vigorously clockwise with a metal stick until the color is purple.
13. Sprinkle the moonstone in the middle of the cauldron.
14. Throw all the thorns in quickly.
15. Add the drops of salamander blood one by one; with each drop, observe that the potion turns to its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen.
16. Add the peppermint spoon by spoon. Stir clockwise with a metal stick slowly until it dissolves.
17. Wave your wand again.
18. Turn off the fire when you see the spiral steams and smell its aroma.

So they WEREN'T going to have to test it today? Oh what a relief! Whew! Davie appeared visibly relieved by this, and suddenly much more cheerful as he got a burst of energy to finish out the potion. He was curious about what his would smell like, having never brewed anything so complicated before. So onto the peppermint!

Carefully measuring out just one tablespoon full, Davie gently sprinkled it into the potion and gave it a clockwise stir with his metal stick, waiting until it dissolved before he added the next tablespoon. He repeated this for a total of eight tablespoons, which he had measured out beforehand so he knew when he'd be out of it, and waved his wand confidently over the potion. There it was. The most complicated potion he had brewed yet, AND not messed it up at all. Davie waited until the pretty potion started producing spirally strands of steam, and then used his wand to turn off the fire. Fascinating. It really was pretty to watch, wasn't it? Smelling like parchment and soap and chocolate frogs packages and a little hint of somebody's familiar shampoo/conditioner..... wait........

Blushing at the thought of who that potion reminded him of, Davie quickly cleaned up his station and left a sample of his potion for the professor, labeled with his name. No, he did NOT want a sample of that to take with him, NO THANKS. Love was for dummies. And seventh years. Grumbling to himself, the first year packed up all his things, mumbled, "Bye Professor," and headed out to do some homework or something to take his mind off of LOVE. DUMB LOVE.

After doing his previous steps it was time to get down to business. He saw Professor Culloden but up new ones and he began to add the berries one by one. He added them in till he was finished. Then he sprinkled alihotsy in a circle motion in a clockwise direction and then once he was finished and patted his hands down, he got his wand out of his robes and waved it over his cauldron. He waited a few seconds and saw his potion turn red. He grinned and was pleased this potion was going well. Now he needed to wait 25 minutes? He shrugged and heard the new task. He broke his frozen eggs into 8 and then added them into his cauldron and stirred vigorously with a metal stick until the colour is purple. He saw the purple and was relieved.

Now onto the next set of steps. He sprinkled the moonstone in the middle of the cauldron. Like smack dab in the middle. Then he got his thorns but wait a minute! Before he reached them he got his gloves and put them on and grabbed his horns and put them in. Then he got his salamander blood and dropped in one by one. Man the color was looking SO cool.

Now onto the last few steps. PHEW! Thank the lord. He got his spoon and cleaned it and then added the peppermint in spoon by spoon. Then he stirred the metal rod clockwise slowly until he saw it dissolve. He got his wand out and waved it over his potion and then he put his fire out with, "FINITE!" and then he smelled the aroma. Mission accomplished.

She thought making love potion was easy but apparently making love potion was taking FOREVER.

Okay. Back to the potion. Next step was she need to sprinkle the moonstone in the middle of the cauldron. She could do that. Easy peasy. The Fifth year reached for the moonstone and sprinkled it in the middle of her cauldron like the instruction said. There. After that was done she carefully and quickly added the thorns. The next step was the one she's not looking forward to. Salamander blood. Its not that she's afraid of blood, its blood. Enough said. Candice added the Salamander blood one by one. And as she added the last drop of the blood, her potion changed color into the mother-of-pearl sheen. That mean she's doing okay. Good.

Now the blood part was done, she was moving on to the next steps. Using her cleaned spoon, Candice added the peppermint into the cauldron. Spoon by spoon till she reached eight. She set her spoon aside and reached for her metal stick before she started to stir her potion clockwise until the peppermint gone from her sight. When that was finished, she set the metal stick aside and grabbed her wand and waved it over her cauldron. Wave...Wave...

First she saw the spiral steams and second she could smelled petrichor (the smell of rain on dry earth), freshly-baked bread and peppermint? That's a weird combination. But the Gryffindor just shrugged it off and put off the fire. After she filled her empty vial with her love potion, Candice cleaned her work station. There all clean.

She walked up to the Potion Master's desk and handed him her potion sample. "Thank you for the lesson, Sir. Good day." She said before she left the potion classroom.

He saw Yoongi looking over again. Sweet Merlin, what!? If this was about Soph, yeah Zander noticed too. He knew why she was acting the way she was… But he was really worried, okay? Sophie Brown was normally really good about hiding how not okay she was. Well, she was really good at doing it around everyone else. Always knew how to put on a show. But clearly, everyone else knew something was up too. Which meant she was definitely broken.

He was hardly even paying attention to his own potion now, adding in the peppermint very lazily. Once the peppermint was all in, he grabbed his metal stick (not cleaning it from the last time it was used) and began stirring slowly. Was he stirring clockwise or counterclockwise?? Did it really even matter anymore?

Again he waved his wand. And lastly, he put out the fire.

And Sophie’s head was down. Something had gone terribly wrong, hadn’t it?

Er…. Assuming his potion went terribly wrong too because this smelled absolutely vile. Uh.

He wanted to ask Culloden, but seeing as he was with Soph, Zander decided to wait. This would also give him a good excuse to stick around and grab Sophie after class. Solid.

So uh, maybe a love potion gone terribly wrong was actually a good thing? Eh.

Next...

Zeke added the peppermint, one table spoon at a time and stirred slowly with his metal stirrer in the clockwise direction as instructed, until it dissolved in his cauldron. That had been easy enough, though, every step was easy enough on its own. It was making sure you got them in the right order and didn't contaminate anything that really mattered.

Larch wand in hand, Zeke gave it a wave over his potion and watched for the signature spiralling steam. And there it was... and the aroma too. Wow. There was a delightful sweetness, like milk and honey mingled with the smell of freshly cut grass... and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on. Extinguishing the flames beneath his cauldron, Zeke continued to sniff the steam that wafted from his potion. It was delicious.

Filling two vials and labelling it with his name, house and year, Zeke regrettably vanished the rest of it - which was VERY disheartening.

"Professor?" he asked, approaching the Potions Master. "Could you please send this to my dad? I think he'd really love it," he asked, smiling casually at his pun. He held up the two labeled vials - one for submission and the other hopefully to be sent to Gavin. Please? Help a kid impress his potioneer dad?