As she waited for her question to be answered, Esme decided to proceed with the next steps. There was a potential ethical dilemma here, but at the moment Rachel's health trumped that. If the Unicorns were harmed, she would feel bad about it and then refuse to use their ingredients in any other potion; they were sacred beings.

Picking up her clean spoon, she stirred the potion 1... 2... times clockwise before plunking in two mistletoe berries. Fortunately they didn't cause a splash because the possibility hadn't occurred to her until they had both fallen in. Would it even have mattered if they had? She had no idea... Shrugging it off, she continued with the last two steps.

Anti-clockwise was the same thing as counter-clockwise - something that she had learned a few terms ago from Professor Culloden - so that phrasing didn't confuse her in the least bit. Esme stirred 1... 2... times in the opposite direction of what she had done last time. Now she just needed to wait for at least two minutes and everything would be finished. Assuming that it was better to wait for longer, she left it for a total of FIVE.

"Okay, I think it's ready!" she said at last. Now they just needed to wait for rat man to give the say so and Rachel could drink it.

SPOILER!!: Esme's Notes

ANTIDOTE TO COMMON POISONS

Ingredients:
1 Bezoar
2 measures of Standard Ingredient
1 pinch of unicorn horn
2 mistletoe berries
2 cups of water

Method:
Add 1 Bezoar to the mortar
Crush into a very fine powder using the pestle
Add 4 measures of the crushed Bezoar to your cauldron
Add 2 measures of Standard Ingredient to your cauldron
Add 2 cups of water to your cauldton
Heat to a medium temperature for 5 seconds
Leave to brew for 5 minutes
Add 1 pinch of Unicorn Horns to your cauldron
Stir 2 times, clockwise
Add 2 Mistletoe Berries to your cauldron
Stir 2 times, anti-clockwise
Leave to sit for at least 2 minutes before using

"Thank you!"Kitty croaked, and she drank the water in the bowl in two large sips. Thankfully the bowl refilled right away, and she continued to drink and drink until her thirst went away.

Then the dizziness increased. It seemed as if the entire room was shaking - at moments it appeared as if she were hanging upside down. "WOAH!" Kitty screamed and fell sideway out of her chair, landing with a thump on the floor. "I'm okay" she groaned, holding on to the desk to steady herself.

While he was waiting for the cauldron to simmer, Tenacius gingerly got his pre-measured unicorn horn powder. This was super expensive ingredient, that much he knew. Saffron aint got nuthin' on this.

But he did hear one student ask where the Unicorn powder was from. Valid question. This is why he wants to do the shopping for his ingredients at its source. Cruelty free is a thing for them culinary types. This unicorn had better given its horn willingly because aint it some kind of curse to take anything from them by force? Trading poison for a curse? He don’t think so nope.

He looked at the Professor then at the delirious Haddie. Oh there goes the 5 minutes for the simmering. TIME PRESSURE. Is he gonna use this powder or not?

..........
.......
....

..... In goes that pinch of unicorn horn powder. Oohh and already he can see and smell the effects of it in the brew. Gotta stir that right quickly so he took the stirrer in his hand and dipped it into the broth, stirring it clockwise. One. Two. And out goes the stirrer.

Staring at her watch, Ava realized that it had been five minutes. So now it's time to continue working. She tried not to be very concerned with Colt's condition and mentioned that he needed aspirin (that she clearly had NO IDEA what was that) to cure his headache. Just hang in there, bud!

Next, she added one pinch of unicorn horns to her cauldron and stirred the mix with her stirrer two times in clockwise direction. So far she had done good. After adding the horns, the young lioness looked at the blackboard again. Mistletoe berries... Yup. Taking two berries, Ava added them to her cauldron and then stirred her potions again two times, in anti-clockwise direction. Now she had to waited again for two minutes until the potion is fully brewed and ready to be used.

And now it was time for the berries. He rolled out two silvery white orbs, making sure they were clear of any other parts of the plant. Hey the instructions said just berries and nothing else from it right? Because poisoned schoolmate don’t need any more poison.

He plopped the berries into the brew. Taking hold of the stirrer aagain, he stirred the potion counter clockwise this time. One again and two again. And another simmer for 2 minutes.

He looked at Haddie and murmured gently "Hang on Haddie, almost there." Probably gonna be the longest 2 minutes in their life thus far.

Amur saw it. She saw it. That little smile that the Professor gave. How could she NOT see it? The man was trying to posion them all! Just like the hag tried to eat them. If she survived this, there would be words. Great, loud, words.

Amur Neverwinter was not impressed.

That didn't mean she really had much of a choice though. With a sigh, a gulp of air and an attempt to claw at courage and hold it to her, she turned the vial this way and that. It glinted and gleamed at her. If a bottle could laugh, it was surely doing so right now.

Okay. She needed a count-down. For herself and for Bastien to get brewing.

"....On my mark." Steady. "One." It couldn't be that bad right? "Two." Surely not. Everyone was just vomitting and keeling over and looking green. "Three!"

Goodness her whole life flashed before her eyes. And the liquid went down. Down the hatch. Down her throat. Down down down. Down and right into her stomach.

The liquid sat there. It just...hung like a bad after-taste. For a moment, Amur wondered exactly what was going to happen. She looked at the vial, turning it about, sniffing at it and even peering into it. Nothing was happening. It was just sitting in her gut....

"Don't think we need to worry......I think I got a dud."

Ok he had stirred in the unicorn horns now he needed mistletoe berries. Elliot looked around for a second, momentarily in a panic. Merlin's beard where had he put the berries. "Aha! Found them." Elliot quickly dropped in two of the berries and double-checked the direction he was supposed to stir. Once, twice, two times anti-clockwise. Now all he had to do was wait a bit longer.

Pain in her head followed the dizziness and Olivia was glad that she didn’t have to do anything while under the effects of the poison-like liquid. She didn’t think she could have concentrated enough on her work. David and the rest of the partners brewing had the task of making the antidotes for their companions. Even with a brief glance around the classroom, it was easy to see who had taken the elixir for they were all feeling the effects. Rachel and Haddie had both done so it seemed. What was with first year Ravenclaws being a glutton for punishment?

Oooohhh.

She shouldn’t try and focus too hard, groaning as she registered this. It only made her head hurt which in turn was starting to turn her stomach. “How…how is it…coming?” Olivia absently questioned her partner beside her. The younger Ravenclaw vaguely registering the professor had moved onto the latest step in the brewing process with the class.

There was a weird tingling creeping up his spine. Jaemin was watching his hand still, blinking slowly at it as his fingers curled in and out; it seemed to get blurrier with every blink, and he was slowly beginning to feel like he was looking at it through a fish-eye lens. The perspective seemed... skewed. The small boy drew a shaky breath. Why did it seem like there was very little air in this room?

Something suddenly felt very, very wrong, and it wasn't the whole 'poison' thing. He was sure of it. It felt like there had been some sort of cosmic shift in the universe and everything was suddenly very unsettled. Which made him feel unsettled. Which meant he could no longer just sit here in his seat.

In the immortal words of Kel Mitchell, whom Jaemin had never heard of... awwww, here it goes.

"I need to... I gotta go," he said suddenly, pushing his hands along the tabletop to make himself sit upright again. The words ran into each other haphazardly as they came out of his mouth, and he made a quiet noise in his throat when the room seemed to sway. It needed to stop doing that. He had to get up, and moving rooms made that very hard. The small boy's hands were shaking a bit, but he pressed them against the table to push himself up to his feet. "I gotta... go..."

He didn't know where, but he had to go somewhere. He clumsily pushed his chair away and turned to step away from the table; everything was still in slow motion, which made moving around extremely difficult, and the little Slytherin's knees sort of gave way after one step, dropping him behind the table and leaving only one of his arms visible from the front of the room as he clung to the edge of the work station.

"Uh oh."

Glancing at the clock and seeing she had only about twenty or so seconds left before the five minutes was up Hady checked her parchment once again making sure of the next step.

Five. Four. Three. Two...and one!

Counting down the last few seconds in her head Hady took just one pinch of Unicorn Horns and add it into her cauldron. Then using a clean stirrer went ahead to stir the contents of the antidote. Once. Twice in a clockwise motion.

Now to add two Mistletoe Berries. Picking out just two she dropped them into the cauldron. Now more. No less.

Casting another glance at Brooklyn just to assess how the girl was coping so far and to let her know how the brewing was coming along. "Almost done. Just two more steps to go and then it's finished."

Hugo continued standing up with his eyes closed but he could feel the vomit coming up and he didn't wanted to open his eyes. He took a deep breath. Maybe talking to Janelle would help. "So, how's the brewing going?" and yeah he was with eyes closed. For some odd reason he felt he wasn't going to throw up if he had them closed.

But he couldn't remained like this forever so he opened them. Nothing happened but he was having a major headache. The light in here wasn't that strong but it hurted his eyes. "You know the meaning of life? I asked Professor Myers that question and we had a very cool, deep conversation" and probably should go and tell him what he find out about it, but why was he telling Janelle this? He didn't have a clue. "Do you like someone?" he was feeling sleepy but sick.

Again he felt the vomit coming up, he quickly covered his mouth with his hand. Where was the bucket?

Grabbing up her quill Hady ticked off the last few steps she had just completed. According to her parchment all she had to do was complete the last two incredibly simple steps.

Casting a quick 'scourgify' on her stirrer with the use of her wand she was ready again. This time however she stirred twice in an anti-clockwise direction unlike earlier. Setting the stirrer aside Hady quickly cleaned everything she had used before her hazel eyes moved onto her partner. "Finished. All we have to do is wait two minutes now," she informed Brooklyn wondering if it was helping at all that she was being kept up to date with how things were going. Probably not but she felt like it was something she should be doing and that she would want to know.

Now all that was left was to wait. Two minutes. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Rachel continued to glare at Esme for a little longer, her eyes going out of focus during that time. What was the Hufflepuff saying to her? The Eagle hadn't the faintest idea all she knew was that she slumped back forwards so that her head rested on her hands once again. For the love of Pocahontas's respect for Grandmother Willow, let this lesson end!

She was vaguely away of Esme saying something. What's that? Something was done? What was? Rachel was very confused. Could she just be at home instead right now? With her parents and them taking care of the greenhouse together?

Haddie was nodding, or whatever the equivalent of a nod would be when your head feels way too heavy to move. "You do rock worlds. Yep. Big ol' boulder with hair..." Her voice trailed off as if in her delirium she couldn't quite figure out if that had been a great compliment or very, very lame.

After a minute she shrugged and took to just watching Tenacius. Not what he was doing, just him. Such great hair. Haddie nodded in agreement. And such a great face. Yep. And such great eyes. "Dreamy eyes," she agreed.

It took her longer than a minute to realize that had been out loud and when she did her eyes grew so wide it was a miracle they stayed in her sockets at all. "What? I didn't say anything." Nailed it. Maybe. Did he buy that?

Haddie pulled her hands away from the mortar so fast it spun and wobbled and almost tipped over completely. "Have you seen Kira?" Distract him before he can figure out that maybe she did say something, that was the plan.

Too fast. She was moving too fast and the room didn't seem to like that because now it was swaying and spinning a lot more than it had been. Haddie was swaying with it. Isn't it great!!?? NO! And you're horrible! And I want a new brain! Awwww...

"Kira..." The poor Californian closed her eyes in an attempt to steady herself. And then giggled. When she finally opened them again, she nearly tumbled out of her chair. "She's... she's my wand...see?" Haddie pulled out her wand once she was sure she wasn't falling, or about to fall, and showed it to the great haired lion. "Heh." Great haired lion. The wand was jet black with a silver inlaid design of tiny eagles that spiraled up from the base and became silver and gold inlaid streaks around the middle that spiraled up toward the tip. "She got pretty for Christmas." That made sense right? "Present," she added. There now it made sense.

Was he sufficiently distracted that he won't notice she said... that thing she said? Haddie thought about it for a moment and then nodded. Yeah, he's totally distracted.

Funny?

He looked funny?

Under normal circumstances he might have been offended by a statement like that, but considering the girl had consumed a substance that mimicked poison... yeah, he probably did look funny. "Does it look like I have antlers growing out of my head or something?" he asked, unable to wipe the look of amusement off his face.

But also, the swaying. "Be careful on that thing, yeah? I don't want to be held responsible for you falling and smashing your head open." Like, it'd be inconvenient though he was sure it wouldn't affect his potions MARK per se.

But back to it.

With the timer signalling the five minutes to be complete, Zeke took his pinch of unicorn horn and sprinkled it into his potion. Then using the stirer, he completed two precise stirs in a clockwise direction. An eye on his potion, Zeke then turned his attention to his notes, one hand already reaching for the mistletoe berries. Two of them. One.... and two... into the cauldron!

"Like...what?" she asked Matt, forgetting for a moment what he might be referring to. Was he...okay? She was a little jittery with all these people around her digesting poison like it was apple juice. She raised her eyebrows when he announced he could feel it working. "What does it feel like?" she asked, remembering she had to taste it next. She kind of nodded slowly when he said he was good, but then when he grabbed his head, she went shifted to a raised-eyebrow expression. Okay, she REALLY didn't want to take that poison.

Ahem.

Back to the brewing. Ariadne collected two measures of the Standard Ingredient and added it, too, to the cauldron. It looked like it was really coming along now! When that was in, she measured two cups of water and added it in the cauldron, too. Checking the instructions, she saw where there was a five minute wait period coming up. Ariadne changed the temperature to a medium heat, waited five seconds, and then started the five minute wait.

"It feeels... weeeeeirddddddddddd." His heeeeeeaddddddddddddd was going round and round and round and round and round like that Beatles song. Matt folded his arms on the table and rested his head on them face down. "Deeeeeeeear Prudence..." He started to sing in a muffled voice. "...won't you come out to plaaaay...?" The Gryffindor tilted his head so his voice could be heard a little better. "Deeeeeeeeeeear Prudennncee... greet the brand new daa-aa-a-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY..."

Dum de dum. The first year might or might not have fully realised what he was doing and carried on singing le song as he slowly lifted his head when he was able to hear the guitar playing in his head. It WAS playing in his head, alright!

"Won't you open up your eeeyessss? .......Look around, round, round, round, round..." Matt was now standing back up twirling his fingers in the air as he started to sloowly spin around himself. "Round, round, round, round, round... Round, round, round, round, round... Look arAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAA-AAAAOOOOOOOOOound..."

That sure didn't help his dizziness.

WELP. He would survive. What was the Slytherin girl doing now? "Deeeeear... Ariadneee. Watchu doin' thee-ee-ee-EEEEEEEEEEEEERE??" He changed the lyrics but maintained the melody he had been singing previously as he looked back in her general direction and leaned over to take a GOOD LOOK at what was inside the cauldron. "Heyo, hallo cauldron."

Mun, his head hurt.

Mel sat there wondering what exactly the effects would be. “This…” she muttered “I don’t know if I’m feeling anything” she was whispering though, and to her the world was loud and exploding in colors….and yes there may have been a delirious feeling as she thought there was a giant bunny sitting in the corner.

Sliding off of her stool she proceeded to try and slowly crawl toward Kitty. “are you…okay?” she asked and simply sat on the floor near the other girl. [size=1]”does it seem kind of warm in here to you?” she asked quietly as she sat there on the floor attempting to cool herself off.

"Oh dear..." Madge muttered seeing Mel go off her rocker. "I'm ALMOST done Mel, hang on!"

She Grabbed the two mistletoe berries and tossed them into her cauldron, stirred twice Widdershins, and then just let it be. Two minutes on the clock! Madge twisted her timer and let it ticktickticktock away.

Maybe it was just her determination, but so far Brooklyn felt like she was staying together. The world was still spinning, and as she’d lifted her head to peek up at Hady as she’d asked about water, the other girl still looked like there was a mist in front of her. Things were still blurry, but she wasn’t vomiting. Of course, she would have choked it down even if she’d felt like she was going to. It only was another weakness she didn’t want to show, and seeing as that couldn’t have been hidden by her curled up position, it meant that she would have to try her hardest not to let it happen. The smells starting to waft around the room definitely didn’t help, though.

No water. She shook her head the tiniest bit before hiding it in her knees again to slow the spinning, still listening as Hady had continued giving her updates. Even that felt like there was a fog over it, the sounds were muffled. She just stayed in her position, waiting until it was time to take the antidote. She wasn’t going to even entertain the idea that Hady would fail, just as she’d never entertain the idea that she’d fail. She wouldn’t have chosen her if she didn’t trust her, and that trust was what kept her there. It was what kept her from letting herself fall victim to the symptoms of the poison. It was what kept her determination up, along with her ego.

Okay, now this was getting kind of funny. Sorry, Matt. Ariadne grinned at him then gave a light laugh. "I'll be all through with the brewing soon," she said, "and then once the professor says so, you can take the antidote." Oh, Merlin! Now he was singing. Ariadne really laughed out loud then. "I'm sorry, Matt. It's not you..." Well, yes it was. It really was! Heh. He would understand once she took the poison, too.

While she waited for the rest of the five minutes to pass, Ariadne started getting the next step ready to go. She gathered the unicorn horn and moved it closer to her, so that when the five minutes was up, she'd be ready to go. One minute to go! She turned her attention back to Matt. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she said, trying to stop him from getting TOO dizzy. "Why don't you just sit right here," she said, gesturing to chair, "and I'll have your antidote ready soon."

On that note, the five minutes were up, so Ariadne grabbed a pinch of the unicorn horn and sprinkled it into the cauldron. "Only four more steps to go, and I'll be all done," she said to Matt.

Dot had to keep a level eye on Kaycee as she brewed, but since the girl didn't seem to be suffering any additional ill effects (yet), she just watched. For now. Nothing she could really do until the antidote was ready, and this was something she didn't want to rush.

After the bezoar dust, Dot added two measures of Standard Ingredient, followed by the water. Was it supposed to be a certain color or consistency or... something? Granted, she hadn't done anything magical to it yet, but... how was she meant to know she was doing it right? Dot squinted into her cauldron, and then squinted at Kaycee again.

So far... so good.

Hugo said he was ok, but Janelle knew better. He was looking a little swoony again. That was not good. Besides feeling sick, falling down could lead to injury. Janelle was afraid that he was going to throw up. Everyone else was. He had that look about him. "The brewing's going great. I'm going as fast as I can, but I want to make sure to get this right."

Checking her watch, Janelle realized that her five minutes was almost up. She picked up one pinch of Unicorn Horns and waited for the exact moment. When five minutes had passed, Janelle sprinkled the Unicorn Horns into the cauldron. Picking up her stirrer, she gave the potion one clockwise stir and then a second one. Janelle was about to add her next ingredient, when Hugo started talking crazy. She turned to look at him. Oh this was bad. The meaning of life? "Wow. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself. I'd love to hear what you two came up with. Tell me about your conversation." Keep him talking. Maybe it would keep his mind off of how sick he felt.

Then the conversation took a random turn. Janelle was not following that segue. "Um........no, there isn't really anyone that I like right now. What about you?" Yeah, just toss that question right back to Hugo. Janelle really needed to wrap this up because Hugo was de-lerious.........and oh no was he about to spew? Faster Janelle, faster.

For some reason, the professor wasn't using a magical fire under his potion, and that threw the ginger Slytherin for long enough that she nearly missed the next step. Like... what... why? WHY? It was so much easier to use magic. Better. Cleaner.

But those were questions for later. Dot lit a fire under her cauldron and kept it burning as she counted off the five seconds. Was it supposed to do... something? Anything? No? Hopefully, at the end of the five minutes of brewing, she'd see some physical change to her potion.

"Is it supposed to be a certain color, sir? Also... why aren't you using magic?" He wasn't a Squib, was he? Did he need a hug?

No sooner were the words 'don't' and 'dud' out of her mouth, than Amur felt it. Truth be told, she wasn't entirely sure what she felt to begin with, but she knew that was the moment when she felt it.

What happened between that moment and the slow climb down from her chair to her knees, she wasn't sure. In fact, she sort of blanked on it. She knew it was a few minutes because people had moved, and were at different places and doing different things and.......

Giggle.

.....And just doing other things. It wasn't like she'd passed out or anything either, because she could still feel all her limbs. Nothing hurt, nothing stung. There was just this weird tingling sensation. As if all her muscles were made of clouds. Yes, that was it. Clouds.....

Giggle-snort.

Annnnnd cue blank stare into starry starry space. She just sort of, sat there. Half on her heels, with her chin resting against the edge of the desk. Clouds. Her body was made of clouds. It felt so light, so free, so..........

Turning her head slightly, Amur peered at her arm as she moved it up and down. It looked like a jelly arm, with the world around it starting to twist this way and that. What was even better? It felt like cloud-spaghetti!

GIGGLE.

She was made of cloud-puff. While Flammy man was made of Star Dust. She should tell him. Most definitely and truly.