Okay, brew on.

Junia meticulously laid out her instruments and set up her cauldron, taking the time to clean her hands, the surface she was placing them on, and each piece of equipment after that. It paid to be careful when it came to this, she knew. Hair already pulled back, the fifth year adjusted her lab coat and goggles before slipping her gloves on again. There, everything was clean and covered and ready to go. Healer Reed would surely see this as a satisfactory start, and yes, she was still so worried about what he thought of her. It was going to be in the back of her mind from now on. Impressing him. It mattered.

...As if she wasn't already putting too pressure on herself.

"Aguamenti." 50 ml of water was measured and added to her cauldron, Junia careful to not waste a drop. "Incendio." While the fire heated the cauldron and contents inside, the brunette turned her attention to the stargrass.

Her and Cameron had enough for the both of them and she used her scales to measure out her half, setting the 32 grams in front of her and grabbing the dagger for some serious chopping. "This part always reminds me of cooking," She offered quietly to the younger snake with a small smile. It did. Thoughts of cooking in the kitchen with her mama at the forefront of her mind, though she quickly pushed that aside. She couldn't afford to be distracted.

Oh, the water was boiling!

The stargrass was added, followed by the Boom Berry Juice added shortly after that. More cleaning happened, too, because she needed this potion to be perfect.

Taking up the clean glass stirrer, Junia glanced at the clock and then began stirring counter-clockwise. 3 minutes. Pause. 2 more minutes.

So far, so good.

Sam was confused as she made her notes. Like Healer Reed said that the amount of each ingredient equated to five because of the meaning of 5. She had no problem with that, but how did 14ml of antimony equal five? Or 32 grmas of stargrass.

And then she saw it. 1+4=5. 3+2=5. More arithmancy, duh. How had she missed that? Also, how interesting - she hadn't considered how the two subjects could be joined in such a way.

Adding that lightly in the margin of her parchment, Sam checked she'd copied all of the steps. Sat where she was near the back, she'd be referring to her parchment rather than the board most of the time. Satisfied she'd caught everything, she turned her attention to laying out her ingredients, checking if they needing preparing, and the equipment she'd need. Except...she couldn't see where the antimony was used. Huh. She was about to ask about it, when Ava beat her to it. Well, there was no way she was starting without being sure of when it was needed, so she'd just stick to the preparation stuff now. Cleaning and the like.

And for 'easy and basic' steps, there was a whole lot of it to be cleaned: the cauldron, all her measuring equipment, her silver dagger, a glass stirrer, the pipette, vials, box...not alone her gloves after wearing them all round the school on the ingredient scavenger hunt. Many Scourgifys were happening. She was not screwing this up in front of Dora's Aunt, no way. Especially not due to lack of cleanliness.

So stuff cleaned, and onto the measuring. She figured the 50ml of distilled water could be added to her cauldron, although she didn't light the fire just yet. If the antimony was meant to be added, she figured it would be between steps two and three, given the order of the ingredients list. Onto weighing and chopping the stargrass with her dagger instead.

OOC: Stefan knows about the query about the Antimony. He will be back as soon as possible to answer the question - SS is just playing up for him at the moment and with time zones, I think he is currently at work. <3

To say that Remy wasn’t incredibly interested in this potion, would be a lie… but then since he had actually decided what he wanted to do with his life and where he wanted to head in terms of a career, his ability to focus on potions and herbology had advanced exponentially… So he still wasn’t the best student, and most of his magic required work - but he was nothing if not dedicated and hardworking… and he was going to be a Healer. He was… So what if he hoped to specialise in Sports based injuries? That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t come across some poisons… wouldn’t be the first or last time a fan had gotten in too deep.

All of the ingredients were healing. The amounts equate five. Stir anti-clockwise to reverse the poison. How cool was that? Hmmm. Listening and note taking. Can be dreg or liquid - both with the staff pattern and incantation. Venenum Inverto…. Again, reversing the poison. Hmmm. How curious. He wondered if there were any poisons that it wouldn’t work on - or if the poisons would eventually adapt and change so that they held an immunity for the poison. How cool would that be? Hmmmm. Getting distracted. Right, listening.

Okay okay. The C’s and GO!

Well, considering he still had his lab coat on and his hair was no-where near long enough to tie back, he skipped those steps and started to scourgify his desk, cauldron and scales. Then he read down the procedure list, and took out and cleaned the items it listed; like the silver dagger, the measuring jug, the glass stirrer and since his gloves were already on the desk, he scourgified them too. He moved on, continuing the procedure for every item that he could possibly use - keeping an eye on Beau at the desk behind him -- just in case this little partner needed help.

Since they had only collected ingredients for one, he gave the ingredients to Beau with a smile, before moving to the desk that Healer Reed had set up; taking his share of Stargrass, fire seeds and betony leaves with a sigh. Why, oh why, hadn’t he confirmed the amounts before he had left the classroom? Oh well, no matter… He had the ingredients now and it didn’t look like Healer Reed was going to make too much of a fuss about the mix up. Hopefully… but he probably should apologise when he was with him next in the Hospital Wing…. It wasn’t a good step for his intern of sorts. Whoops indeed.

Anyway, now that he was back at his sparkling clean cauldron, Remy needed to put his full attention into the potion so that it didn’t explode in his face (or worse, Henry’s). Carefully, he used his measuring jug to measure out exactly 50mls of distilled water, before he poured it into his cauldron. ”Incendio”, the Seventh year said clearly, lighting the fire under his cauldron so that he could bring the liquid to a boil.

As he waited for the potion to come to a boil, he scourgified his measuring jug for the next time he would need it before moving his clean chopping board to the space in front of him. He then used his silver dagger to finely chop the stargrass, all the while keeping an eye on the water in his cauldron.

Now this stirring was exhausting. Five long never ending minutes. As he expected the colour of his potion was still mustard yellow. "Oh well," the Ravenclaw thought to himself, "at least it's not exploding."

A twitch of disappointment he felt inside, he thought that maybe for once he would brew a successful potion. Ahhh... well he had least another two years of brewing. It wasn't an encouraging thought.

Aymeric heard a question about the missing ingredient in the procedure - liquefied Antimony. Hmmm... curious. Probably the answer would come at the end of the brewing. Frankly, he was quite interested.

Five minutes of stirring have ended, Hurah!

One by one, he placed Wiggentree bark on the surface of the potion, individually he pushed each strip to the inner wall of the cauldron. What could he say, this was absoultley exhilarating. Impatience began running in his system, he wasn't used to this feeling - he most certainty did not enjoy it.

With his wand, the Ravenclaw turned the heat to medium. His right leg was beginning to bounce, waiting for the potion to boil seemed to take ages. Once the potion reached its' boiling stage, Aymeric crushed the five Betony leaves and added them to the potion. He let out once again a sigh.

Not only wasn't Aymeric enjoying himself, he was not pleased with the results. His potion wasn't Sapphire blue, it was just blue - one of the darker shades of blue. He bit his lip, and frowned knowing he had to stare into this blue potion for the next five minutes. Honestly, too much waiting.

The five minutes past uneventfully. He pointed his wand at the small fire beneath the cauldron and the flames went out. Now another fifteen minutes. His leg was bouncing, the goggles were pressing too hard against his face. He hated complaining, but since he was feeling impatient it was bound to happen. Remembering when the professor asked what were the benefits of poisons gradually made his mood worse and bitter.

The needed time past. The Ravenclaw with whatever remained of his concentration and focus, used a 'scourgified' Pasteur Pipette and filled up three glass phials of this 'not-sapphire-yet-murky-dark-blue' antidote. This wasn't failure but it was a slight disappointment. Aymeric wasn't a perfectionist but he thought he could do better than this. He labeled the phials with his full name, house and year.

He scraped the dreg, with whatever motivation the third year had left. He placed it in a tin box as needed. With his wand he drew the Asclepius Staff and mumbled, "Venenum Inverto". There he was DONE!

Aymeric stared at the clock, and waited. Waited for everyone to finish. Waited for this lesson to end.

In Rhea's opinion, this was one of the more important parts of the brewing process. It would indicate whether she'd been brewing the potion correctly or not. Arguably, each step was equally important…. If she did even one step wrong, it would likely ruin the whole potion.

One by one, she added the 15 pieces of pure rock salt to her solution and, after glancing at the clock and picking up a clean glass stirrer, started stirring it in a counter-clockwise direction. Five minutes. Five whole minutes. And it dragged. Those five minutes, by the time they’d elapsed, had felt like fortnight and her wrist was undeniably sore. There was a positive that came out of it, though. The solution in her cauldron had, indeed, turned “primrose” yellow. Well…. it was yellow, anyway. She hadn’t actually seen the shade “primrose” before, so she could only assume that the colour the solution had turned was the right one.

Moving on…

Rhea took five strips of Wiggentree bark and, as carefully as she could, placed them on the surface on the potion. She then took the glass stirrer and slowly pushed the strips, one by one, against the inner walls of the cauldron. How this affected the solution, she didn't know, and she wondered about it while she waited for the potion to boil. After turning the heat back up to medium, of course. Again, she consulted the instructions. The next step involved crushing Betony leaves in her hand and adding them to the solution.

But there were no signs of bubbles yet, so she waited...

He was sleeping still and even maybe drooling a little so when someone came to mark his face he wasn't aware for at least the first part. Moving his hand a bit feeling like a fly was on his face he swatted around before hitting it off the table and jerking up. "uh"
He looked around confused before realizing he was still in class and not in his dorm.

Shoot

Looking around he noticed a BOG member and the Baron. That's all he needed his mother and his head of house on his behind for sleeping in class. Rubbing his eyes he glanced at the professor and then the other students. What were they even doing?

A potion to help with an antidote for poison?


uuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


Why would anyone want that? He rolled his eyes and cleaned his cauldron very unaware that he had a cat face.

SPOILER!!: notes

Procedure:
Clean all equipment to be used: Cauldron, Scales, Stirrers, Phials, Etc.;
Bring 50 ml Distilled Water to a boil in medium heat;
Add finely chopped 32 grams of Stargrass. Use a silver dagger for this step;
Add 302 ml Boom Berry Juice and stir counter-clockwise for three minutes pause 5 seconds, and continue to stir the solution counter-clockwise for another two minutes. Use a glass stirrer for this step;
Remove the stirrer from the cauldron, and add 23 drops of Essence of Dittany into the solution;
Let 3 minutes pass, and then adjust the heat to low. Slowly add 5 fire seeds into the solution after 2 minutes. Use your dragon-hide gloves for this procedure;
Add 15 pieces of pure rock salt one by one, and stir the solution counter-clockwise for five minutes until the solution turns primrose yellow. This will indicate that the solution has been activated to counter the effect of poisoning;
Lay 5 strips of Wiggentree bark on the surface of the solution, and slowly push it one by one to the inner wall of your cauldron. Turn the heat back to medium and wait for the potion to boil;
Once bubbles appear, crush 5 fresh Betony Leaves with your hand, and add it to the boiling liquid. The potion should turn a shade of Sapphire Blue;
Wait five minutes, and then turn off the heat. Let the potion cool for 15 minutes, and then bottle it in glass phials using a clean Pasteur Pipette (dropper). Label your potions;
Scrape off the dreg at the bottom of the cauldron, and pack it in a tin box. Draw the Asclepius Staff with your wand, while saying the incantation: Venenum Inverto (nullify the poison).

As he cleaned all his things he thought maybe this could come in handy, then when he tested his poisons he could use it if the wrong person or creature got into the poison. If he had it this summer Charles could be still around, poor snake. Anyway, he cleaned his materials and then added the water using his wand. Once he had the 50 ml of water he moved his wand and started the boiling on medium heat. As he waited for it to fully boil Eddie bag chopping up the 32 grams of Stargrass, once finished he placed it in his cauldron. Taking the Boom Berry Juice he placed the exact amount in before stirring counter clockwise.

Since things were coming along smoothly, and Maddie's cauldron had yet to blow up, she decided to try the next step. Boomberry Juice...why did the name of the next ingredient remind her of an explosion? Hmm...should she even tempt this? Everybody else was, so why not? If she caused an explosion, there were a ton of other students AND a professor standing around. She eyed the boomberry juice and decided to go for it. She started by measuring out 302mL of the juice then adding it to the cauldron. Once it was in, she used her glass stirrer to stir the solution counter-clockwise for another two minutes.

Well...apparently BOOMberry juice didn't cause things to explode. She removed the stirrer from the cauldron then drew the Essence of Dittany into a dropper. "One...two...three," she said, counting aloud all twenty-three drops. She paused for three minutes, and in that time, she slipped on her dragonhide gloves. After the second minute had passed, she dropped in five of the seeds. She couldn't believe she was doing this! She was creating a whole potion all by HERSELF.

At the exact moment the third minute had passed, Katy already had her wand in position to lower the heat from medium to low. Those were the sort of things that made her crazy. Medium and low were general terms, especially when she was adjusting with her own wand, and she wanted precision. Fire size, heat, and height were important and should be part of the description. She allowed her mind to wander since the next bit wasn't as strict about the timing.

Even still, about two minutes later, Katy pulled on her gloves again in order to add the fire seeds. Slowly. Add over time. !?!?! More lacking in precision, but she'd make the best of it. It helped her to add careful notes to her own notebook regarding the specifics of what she was trying, and she could go back later and make small tweaks to see what worked better. Did it matter if they were all added over a minute versus five minutes? She was feeling impatient at the moment, and her slowly was rather less slow than it could be. Five seeds in, though, and she was moving on.

Katy left her gloves on to add the pure rock salt, again one by one, and she felt much better about the entire process when she plunked her stirring stick into the cauldron and began to stir. Stir until it turns primrose yellow... that was a clear direction, a way to check the goodness of her brewing mid-potion. After five minutes, the whole potion went yellow, although more canary than primrose. Hm. Still yellow, though.

That yellow was covered by the strips of wiggentree bark, which Katy floated along the surface of the cauldron. They drifted there until Katy used the stirring stick to poke each one of the five strips against the wall of the cauldron. One. Two. Threeeee. Four. Five. They were a little slippery, but eventually they all were in place. Fire back up, and she watched for a boil.

Patrick set out to begin by grabbing the ingredients that the professor set out for the students who had not grabbed enough during the mini activity earlier. Once he was back at his station he made sure that his caldron was clean, his eye wear was on, and his other safety features had been followed. He personally didn’t want to end up without an eye or something else strange; although he supposed the nurses and healers upstairs could fix him in a pinch.

He set his notes off to the side with his pen, why his friends used quills still was beyond him. He figured he should follow the notes he took pretty closely in order to not mess it up too bad. He glanced over at his notebook and saw that step one was clean everything. ”Step one complete.” he stated under his breath. That one wasn’t so hard. Glancing around the room he saw people using an incantation to get the water boiling. Patrick readied his wand before stating, ”Incendio,” flames began to crackle under the cauldron.

Patrick added the 50 ml of distilled water to the pot after setting the flames to the cauldron’s underside. ”This isn’t so bad,” his mumbles were becoming more frequent as he continued to read his notes to ensure that he was brewing the potion correctly. As the water slowly got to temperature, his time could be used for chopping the 32 grams of Stargrass. Checking to see his scales on the edge of his desk he finely chopped the Stargrass and weighed it, finally getting enough for 32 grams he used the silver dagger to scoop up the Stargrass and add it to the cauldron. ”Bam,” darting his eyes around he looked to see if anyone heard him, because it likely wasn’t a smart idea to make loud noises when many students would likely mess up during the class.

After the Stargrass was added he measured out the 302 ml of Boom Berry Juice. He glanced over at his notes seeing that it said to stir counter-clockwise for three minutes then pause for 5 seconds before stiring again for two minutes. Easy enough, he thought before adding he juice to the cauldron and beginning to stir. Now to patiently wait for the five minutes before he got a few seconds of rest.

This potion was taking forever to make. By the time she reached the fifth line of the instructions, Emmeline was all tired and sooo done with stirring. Which was good, 'cause it was time to take the stirrer out apparently. She removed her stirrer from her cauldron and set it down with a sigh of relief. The next part was easy too; Emmeline measured out and used a dropper to add 23 drops of Essence of Dittany into her almost-potion. She stared at the clock as she waited for the three minutes to be up from the next step in the directions, and then she fiddled with the heat settings beneath her cauldron until the fire was lower than it had been before. After another 2 minutes of waiting had passed, the Gryffindor pulled her dragon hide gloves back on and carefully dropped all 5 fireseeds into her cauldron. She grinned as they made plopping noises when they hit the liquid, just 'cause it sounded funny and she was sort of desperate for amusement. Eddie's having a cat face drawn on while he was asleep was still the highlight of this classroom part of the lesson. She kind of wanted to roam the castle again...

Emmeline shook her head a little bit to clear it; she had LOADS more directions to follow to finish this potion, and she was kinda determined to do that. Antidotes were super useful and all, and she couldn't help wondering if maybe Miss Olivia P. would've been allowed to come back to Hogwarts this year if someone had just had some of this potion lying around when she'd been poisoned. So the second year went back to the directions, and plopped 15 pieces of pure rock salt into her potion. She made sure to do this one at a time, though she might've, sort of lost count a couple of times in the middle. Then it was another five minutes of obediently stirring the potion in a counter-clockwise way until it had turned yellow. She wasn't super sure what primrose yellow looked like, but hers was a light-ish yellow.

The next line of instructions was super weird, but she laid 5 strips of Wiggentree bark on the top of her solution and then sloooowly pushed the pieces individually towards the inside wall of her cauldron. Then she messed with her heat thingy until it had gone back up to the medium level and sat back to wait for the potion to boil.

As soon as the bubbles appeared on the surface of her potion, Emmeline collected her 5 Betony leaves and crushed them suuuuper hard before dropping the pieces into her cauldron. Her potion was now kind of a blue color, though it didn't look too sapphire-y to her. Still, the second year obediently waited 5 minutes before turning off the heat completely. Then it was time to doodle creatures on the edges of her notebook for 15 looong minutes before the silly thing was finally almost done. Emmeline scooped up a glass phial, labelled it with her name and the potion's name, and then used a Pasteur pipette to sloooowly drop allll of the potion into her phial.

Okay, now for the realllly hard part. Emmeline set her potion-in-a-phial down carefully and pulled the tin box towards her. Scraping the stuff off of the bottom of her cauldron wasn't easy, either; it took her 10 whole minutes to manage it. Once she'd packed all the disgusting "dregs" she could get scraped off her cauldron into the tin box, Emmeline tentatively drew the Asclepius Staff on top of the box with her wand and muttered, "Venenum Inverto!" Errr...what was supposed to happen, exactly? She hadn't paid attention during ALL of Mr. Healer's talking earlier and she couldn't really remember what was supposed to happen when she cast the spell. Hopefully she'd done it right? The second year repeated the spell over the box juuuust in case it hadn't worked the first time, but nothing visibly happened to her box this time either. So she supposed she was allll done, yesss!!!!

Errr...they weren't gonna test these or anything, right??

Haw-Haw!

Ronan wanted to let one of those out right now, as the sleeping Slytherin had woken up without noticing he had cat-face. But that would give it away and besides, it wouldn't be very mature. So he just went back to focusing on the task at hand: brewing the potion.

He still had on his gear, having worn it to gather his ingredients, so he measured out 50ml of the provided distilled water and poured it into his cauldron. Next, he used Incendio to light the fire under his cauldron, making sure the heat was a medium-high one. While waiting for the water to boil, he chopped the stargrass, making sure the chop was fine and that none of his fingers got in the way by holding the silver dagger with fingers curled under, as one would do if one was chopping herbs in the kitchen (a little something he learned from watching t.v.).

Once that was done and the water was boiling, he tossed in the stargrass and added the boom berry juice, trying to keep his face as far from the heat as possible. Wouldn't do to get sweat in his potion, after all. Not that that was a possibility, since his shirtless status under his lab coat was working to help keep him cool. Hmm, maybe he wouldn't be getting his cousin back for this after all...

Anyway, no time to think about that, he had stirring to do. Grabbing the glass stirrer and plopping it into his cauldron, he stirred counter-clockwise for three minutes, paused for five seconds, then continued stirring in the same counter-clockwise direction for two more minutes. That done, he removed the stirrer from his cauldron.

What next?

Oh, the Essance of Dittany. He opened the bottle and, using the provided dropper, carefully added twenty-three drops to his potion. And now we wait.

After the last stir, she picked up a dropper and began adding drops one by one. All the way until 23. Well, until she thought she hit twenty three. It was a huge number, how the heck was she meant to count all the way that high without forgetting what number she was at? Unrealistic. Putting three minutes in the timer, she waited and kicked back in her stool. Straight up j chillin over here.

FINALLY after the LONGEST three minutes of her ENTIRE life, she was able to move on to the next steps. YES. First the Gryffindor adjusted the heat to low, then putting on her dragon hide gloves she took five fire seeds (aka SUNFLOWER SEEDS) and added them into her potion all at the same time!!!! Oops. Was she supposed to wait before adding them in? .... It wasn't a big deal, right? Nah. Probably not.

Next was rock salt. She added that in one by one until she had all fifteen pieces and then stirred the mixture clockwise.

Her potion, however, was not turning primrose yellow. Weird. Maybe her potion was just a late bloomer? YEAH. Zor was gonna go with that.

Five strips of wiggentree bark. OKAY! Zoryn counted out five pieces before carefully laying them on top of her solution. Using the stirrer from before, she pushed them to the inner wall before turning the heat back up and waiting for a boil. Man, she was SO good at this. Next, she grabbed her spinach leaves and crushed them all up and threw them into the potion too!!!!

Her potion was not Sapphire Blue.

Not even close.

Vivian looked back at the young Hufflepuff to see how she was doing. She wasn't so bad. The prefect even thought she was cute. Awww! "Of course! Just let me know when you need help, okay?" the blond replied with a soft smile. But for now, Vivian was going to continue with her potion and check up on the firstie once in a while to make sure she was on the right track with the 5 C's "I'm Vivian, by the way." You know, in case she needed help. The Slytherin much preferred being addressed with her name.

When her cauldron finally came to a boil and bubbles appeared, Vivian returned her attention to her potion. She took the five Betony leaves she had harvested earlier, sent a quick Scourgify for good measure, and squeezed her fist shut to crush the leaves with her hand. She then dropped the crushed leaves into her cauldron, eyeing it intently to check if the colour had turned into whatever that shade of blue was, according to her notes. And there it was! A blue colour, that of a sapphire. She double-checked her notes and smiled. She got it right!

But then what followed was a tiny frown because, again, she was supposed to wait another five minutes. Vivian waited, extending her patience a little bit more and starting to clean up her work station. She was almost done, after all, and she really hated having to deal with too much of a mess after brewing. The prefect took a moment to examine the first year Hufflepuff's potion just to make sure she was still on the right path. "Looks great," Vivian said with a beam. "Good job!" And she was firstie, okay? There was potential, she could sense it. After five minutes, she then turned the fire off and waited for yet another fifteen minutes for the potion to cool down. This... was... taking... forever.

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock tick tock.

Fifteen minutes passed and Vivian looked at her cauldron to check. Well, she was sure this was cool enough now. The blond took an empty glass phial, placed another Scouring Charm at it, then began filling it with her potion using a dropper. Aha! There it was! Her first ever antidote to uncommon poisons, most importantly of hospital grade. She knew her mum would be proud... duh. With that, she also labeled it with a huge and uppercased "VIVIAN FAIRFIELD, SLYTHERIN FIFTH YEAR". Now there was no reason for Healer Reed to not see her name on her potion.

As for the dreg at the bottom of the cauldron, Vivian sort of made a face at having to deal with them. Which was kinda gross, she thought, but it didn't seem like she had a choice because this was the last step for this potion. The last! The thought of finishing this up was her motivation to even stick her hand inside her cauldron, scraping off the dreg and packing it in a tin box. That done, the prefect took her wand out and drew that healing symbol with the staff and the snake. What was its name again? The staff of Asclepius? Yeah, that. "Venenum Inverto!" She said as she drew.

So was she done? YES. Thank Merlin she no longer had to wait!

Why was he saying fashion all weirdly like there was some kind of hidden meaning? Charlotte followed Healer Reed's gaze, over at her cousin Katy, and then looked back at him again. Oh! Well done! Yay! She beamed at him and sat forward a little when he moved the lesson on.

DETERMINED to... you know, keep well-doing.

Except......... this stuff was kind of a bore to listen to, didn't he realise? Blah blah structure. Blah blah number five. Blah blah anticlockwise. And taking notes was the worst. In all her years of school that wasn't something that she had ever developed a fondness for.... but she tried at least, making a few scribbles that were basically what he had said, with a few doodles around them just to make them slightly less boring. Asclepius Staff. Venenum Inverto... how do you draw a staff on someone's TONGUE though? That was funny. And weird. And she instantly wanted to try it out. Did it count if you just believed it was close enough to the actual staff? Or did your artistry (tongue artistry) (which actually brought other thoughts to the Gryffindor's mind) (...) (where was she?) (oh yeah!) Or did your artistry actually matter when it came to drawing the staff on someone's tongue? Also what if their tongue was gross? Also also, what if it was one of those weird short tongues that they could barely poke out so you'd have trouble using it as a canvas? Also ALSO also, what if they had a really bad gag reflex and vomited all over you???

OKAY everyone had started while she was daydreaming and wondering all these things, so Char hurried up, washed her hands, scourgified all of her equipment non-verbally, and got all the ingredients prepared. Measuring and weighing and cutting and everything necessary just so it was done and out of the way and she'd not have to think about that during the process itself.

... she still wanted to ask all those questions about the tongue painting though.

Alright, well, at least Professor Reed hadn't said he'd been completely wrong or anything.

It had been worth a try.

Now, onto the actual brewing of the antidote. After he'd carefully copied the list of ingredients as well as the procedure, Cameron put his notes and quill to the side so they would get in the way of his brewing but were still close enough for him to check and add comments if need be. After quickly getting up to wash his hands he then returned to his work station and pulled out his wand, meticulously cleaning every piece of equipment and ingredient he'd be using today. After that he set his wand down so he could put on his gloves.

Wand in hand again he leaned forward and pointed it into his beaker to measure out 50ml. "Aguamenti." He then lit the fire under his cauldron before poured the water into it, setting it to boil at medium heat as instructed. So far so good. Taking the other half of their stargrass, Cameron weighed it again (JUST IN CASE) but was satisfied with Junia taking exactly half of it. Okay. After finely chopping up the stargrass he added to the water, followed by the Boom Berry Juice. Now onto the boring part of brewing a potion:

Stirring. Three minutes was a long time.

Text Cut: Notes

Antidote to Uncommon Poisons No. 005

Ingredients:

• 50 ml Distilled Water
• 14 ml Liquefied Antimony
• 32 grams Stargrass
• 302 ml Boom Berry Juice
• 23 drops Essence of Dittany
• 5 pieces Fire Seeds
• 15 pieces Pure Rock Salt
• 5 strips Wiggentree Bark
• 5 pieces Fresh Betony Leaves

Procedure:

1. Clean all equipment to be used: Cauldron, Scales, Stirrers, Phials, Etc.;
2. Bring 50 ml Distilled Water to a boil in medium heat;
3. Add finely chopped 32 grams of Stargrass. Use a silver dagger for this step;
4. Add 302 ml Boom Berry Juice and stir counter-clockwise for three minutes pause 5 seconds, and continue to stir the solution counter-clockwise for another two minutes. Use a glass stirrer for this step;
5. Remove the stirrer from the cauldron, and add 23 drops of Essence of Dittany into the solution;
6. Let 3 minutes pass, and then adjust the heat to low. Slowly add 5 fire seeds into the solution after 2 minutes. Use your dragon-hide gloves for this procedure;
7. Add 15 pieces of pure rock salt one by one, and stir the solution counter-clockwise for five minutes until the solution turns primrose yellow. This will indicate that the solution has been activated to counter the effect of poisoning;
8. Lay 5 strips of Wiggentree bark on the surface of the solution, and slowly push it one by one to the inner wall of your cauldron. Turn the heat back to medium and wait for the potion to boil;
9. Once bubbles appear, crush 5 fresh Betony Leaves with your hand, and add it to the boiling liquid. The potion should turn a shade of Sapphire Blue;
10. Wait five minutes, and then turn off the heat. Let the potion cool for 15 minutes, and then bottle it in glass phials using a clean Pasteur Pipette (dropper). Label your potions;
11. Scrape off the dreg at the bottom of the cauldron, and pack it in a tin box. Draw the Asclepius Staff with your wand, while saying the incantation: Venenum Inverto (nullify the poison).

ANYWAY anyway, she needed to actually start with the brewing. Even the thought of it just underscored Char's resolution to not make her own potions in the future. She didn't need to really, she had Uncle Nico... and also now, Katy, who she could trust to brew everything and anything at all, following all the precise and boring details.

Including things like distilling water before using it? Like who even bothered with that? Aguamenti was so much easier. Thankfully Charlotte had fetched the distilled water and measured out the 50 required mls before starting because otherwise probably she would have just squirted some water in from her wand and eyeballed it and called it good. The 50 mls went in the cauldron and she put the heat on medium.

Which... that was the other dumb thing about potions, her mind. Why not just, like, boil it on high and just watch it carefully, and then turn it to low once it was already at boiling point? It would take far less time. And who had time for things that took time? Another reason for the list of why Charlotte wasn't a potioneer.

.... but she WAS still determined to do well for Healer Reed, as she had in the healer seminars, and because it would always be welcome to hear more nice things and compliments and stuff for doing a good job.

She didn't even have anything to do while she waited for the water to boil since she'd already used her silver dagger to chop up the measured out stargrass that she had collected with Derf earlier. 32 grams. Two steps of eleven done and she was already bored out of her mind. Char looked around at the other students while she waited and then back at her cauldron.

.......... looked boiled enough to her! She shoved in the stargrass. It was pretty finely chopped. Like..... good enough. Next step. She wasn't even bothered about how weird the 302ml thing looked, because yeah she got it it reduced to 5, arithmancy in potions and all of that, and she poured in the boom berry juice and started the stirring. Anti clockwise.

.......... three minutes.

It was going to be an eternity.

Setting his timer for three minutes, Cameron then stirred the potion counter-clockwise. Had he mentioned that that was the most boring part of the whole procedure? With a soft sigh he looked around while stirring, looked at Junia's potion, Junia herself, then at a few other students at random, that woman who was here for some reason, the professor...

Oh. Okay, now it was time to wait.

One...two...three...four...five.

He'd lightly tapped his glass stirrer against the side of his cauldron in time with his counting the seconds. Now, another two minutes of stirring. What WAS that woman doing here again? Had he missed her being introduced? Were they going to test their antidotes on her? Had she been poisoned?!



Cameron almost missed his two minute mark, too busy to wonder about that woman, but pulled out his stirrer just in time. Okay, 23 drops of Essence of Dittany. He focused on counting out the drops, making sure not to add one too many, actually ending up catching one with his gloved hand just in time so it wouldn't be twenty-four. That was close. Alright. What was next?

...oh, more waiting.

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

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

....................................followed by yet MORE waiting, after he'd adjusted the heat settings.

Text Cut: Notes

Antidote to Uncommon Poisons No. 005

Ingredients:

• 50 ml Distilled Water
• 14 ml Liquefied Antimony
• 32 grams Stargrass
• 302 ml Boom Berry Juice
• 23 drops Essence of Dittany
• 5 pieces Fire Seeds
• 15 pieces Pure Rock Salt
• 5 strips Wiggentree Bark
• 5 pieces Fresh Betony Leaves

Procedure:

1. Clean all equipment to be used: Cauldron, Scales, Stirrers, Phials, Etc.;
2. Bring 50 ml Distilled Water to a boil in medium heat;
3. Add finely chopped 32 grams of Stargrass. Use a silver dagger for this step;
4. Add 302 ml Boom Berry Juice and stir counter-clockwise for three minutes pause 5 seconds, and continue to stir the solution counter-clockwise for another two minutes. Use a glass stirrer for this step;
5. Remove the stirrer from the cauldron, and add 23 drops of Essence of Dittany into the solution;
6. Let 3 minutes pass, and then adjust the heat to low. Slowly add 5 fire seeds into the solution after 2 minutes. Use your dragon-hide gloves for this procedure;
7. Add 15 pieces of pure rock salt one by one, and stir the solution counter-clockwise for five minutes until the solution turns primrose yellow. This will indicate that the solution has been activated to counter the effect of poisoning;
8. Lay 5 strips of Wiggentree bark on the surface of the solution, and slowly push it one by one to the inner wall of your cauldron. Turn the heat back to medium and wait for the potion to boil;
9. Once bubbles appear, crush 5 fresh Betony Leaves with your hand, and add it to the boiling liquid. The potion should turn a shade of Sapphire Blue;
10. Wait five minutes, and then turn off the heat. Let the potion cool for 15 minutes, and then bottle it in glass phials using a clean Pasteur Pipette (dropper). Label your potions;
11. Scrape off the dreg at the bottom of the cauldron, and pack it in a tin box. Draw the Asclepius Staff with your wand, while saying the incantation: Venenum Inverto (nullify the poison).

Char was pretty good at forgetting exactly what step she was up to when it came to potions, honestly. The mind wandered far too much. For EXAMPLE the instructions had more than one lot of three minutes. Luckily this time she happened to know it was only the first one just because she was dreading yet another three minute eternity of waiting. Potioneering was basically an eternity filled with eternities. But she WAS trying.

YES THREE MINUTES UP! THREE MI...... oh. A five second pause? And then MORE stirring? TWO more minutes? Stupid fives.

The glass stirrer clattered a few times on the edges of the cauldron and Char sighhhed her way through the remaining two minutes. As soon as it was up she put the stirrer aside with another clatter that made it sound like it wanted to break (but it wouldn't, it was too good quality for that), and up ended the container that had the 23 drops of Essence of Dittany into the cauldron. Pre-measured, again. Which was totally the best idea, right?

Seemed like a LOT of dittany though!

.......... and yet again. THREE MORE MINUTES.

Sighing, she started drawing a border around her notes.

15 was a big number. But luckily Hattie managed to actually not get lost when she was adding the pure rock salt to her potion. That was good because she really didn't want things to go wrong. She had thought that she was doing pretty well so far. She was happy with what she had done so far. She was excited to be able to owl her mother later and let her know how well she had done. Her mother, as a healer, would totally understand how hard it was, and she was sure Mama Paton would be really proud. Hattie still didn't want to be a healer though. Brewing potions like this every day would be so complicated, and Hattie really didn't that kind of complicated on her daily life. She would be content with just doing her art.

But she needed to do this potion. Or at least carry on with it right now. She looked at the next set of instructions. Oh more Stirring. That was boring. It was for 5 minutes this time. Hattie knew her arm would ache after doing that. So she decided to charm her stirrer to stir in the counter-clockwise way for 5 minutes.

That freed her up to having a little gaze around the room to see how everyone else was getting on.

As soon as the three minutes were done (the second three minutes) (tedious) Char turned the heat down and pulled her dragonhide gloves back on. She reached into the heated bucket and then dropped the fireseeds in to the cauldron, transferring them one by one. Five. What did slowly mean anyway? It was all slow to her, so..... they were in and that was good enough in her mind.

And here was the pieces thing again. Fifteen pieces of rock salt. Charlotte had them already picked out of course but she couldn't help but wonder what would happen if you put in fifteen pieces the size of a fist. That would be more fun to try. Also more fun? Something that exploded. Like potions wise, not burning fire seed wise. Anyway, fifteen pieces of rock salt, from the stuff that had been made available to them.

She almost slid off her seat onto the ground out of the sheer disappointment for reading the next part. FIVE MORE MINUTES OF STIRRING? Anti clockwise stirring.

After a minute of grimly doing that.... Charlotte remembered she was a WITCH. And one who was really GOOD at spells.... so she charmed her stirrer to keep stirring on its own, being careful not to get the potion or cauldron in the spell or that would be messy.

There ya go, stirrer. Keep it up... we'll just go back to doodling....

While he was waiting for two minutes, Cameron took his time putting on his dragonhide gloves.

Veeeery sloooooooowly.

Right hand.

Left hand.

Oh there you go. Two minutes had past which meant he could take the fireseeds (thank you again, Junia, she got a quick smile) and drop them into his cauldron one by one. Once that was done, Cameron took off his gloves and quickly went to wash his hands again. The next few steps looked like they required him to use his hands directly. After he'd returned to his workstation he carefully dropped the 15 pieces of rock salt into his cauldron, one by one (wow that took forever too) before picking up his stirrer again and stirring the potion for another five minutes (wow).

...

........he wasn't entirely sure what PRIMROSE yellow looked like but it definitely looked yellow

Text Cut: Notes

Antidote to Uncommon Poisons No. 005

Ingredients:

• 50 ml Distilled Water
• 14 ml Liquefied Antimony
• 32 grams Stargrass
• 302 ml Boom Berry Juice
• 23 drops Essence of Dittany
• 5 pieces Fire Seeds
• 15 pieces Pure Rock Salt
• 5 strips Wiggentree Bark
• 5 pieces Fresh Betony Leaves

Procedure:

1. Clean all equipment to be used: Cauldron, Scales, Stirrers, Phials, Etc.;
2. Bring 50 ml Distilled Water to a boil in medium heat;
3. Add finely chopped 32 grams of Stargrass. Use a silver dagger for this step;
4. Add 302 ml Boom Berry Juice and stir counter-clockwise for three minutes pause 5 seconds, and continue to stir the solution counter-clockwise for another two minutes. Use a glass stirrer for this step;
5. Remove the stirrer from the cauldron, and add 23 drops of Essence of Dittany into the solution;
6. Let 3 minutes pass, and then adjust the heat to low. Slowly add 5 fire seeds into the solution after 2 minutes. Use your dragon-hide gloves for this procedure;
7. Add 15 pieces of pure rock salt one by one, and stir the solution counter-clockwise for five minutes until the solution turns primrose yellow. This will indicate that the solution has been activated to counter the effect of poisoning;
8. Lay 5 strips of Wiggentree bark on the surface of the solution, and slowly push it one by one to the inner wall of your cauldron. Turn the heat back to medium and wait for the potion to boil;
9. Once bubbles appear, crush 5 fresh Betony Leaves with your hand, and add it to the boiling liquid. The potion should turn a shade of Sapphire Blue;
10. Wait five minutes, and then turn off the heat. Let the potion cool for 15 minutes, and then bottle it in glass phials using a clean Pasteur Pipette (dropper). Label your potions;
11. Scrape off the dreg at the bottom of the cauldron, and pack it in a tin box. Draw the Asclepius Staff with your wand, while saying the incantation: Venenum Inverto (nullify the poison).

At least her doodles were looking good. So good in fact that you could barely make out any of her notes. But notes were tedious. Doodles at least weren't boring even if they were the product of boredom.

So much boredom.

Did Healer Reed know how painfully tedious and boring this was? DID he? Was it on purpose? He started things so FUN with a scavenger hunt and now....

Oh the time was up! Char sat up straight. This part, she could pretend she was launching rafts into the ocean. She lay the five pieces of bark on the surface of the now yellow potion and prodded them with her stirrer towards the walls. Ahoy matey. ARRR.

Yo ho, yo ho who cared if she was seventeen? She prodded the bits of bark around a bit and then pushed them at the wall, again not sure about what slow should mean. Anyways, those were done. She put the heat on medium and hoped fervently that the cauldron would boil quickly. While waiting for that she crushed up the betony leaves on her gloved hands and stared, waiting for bubbles.

...... there was ONE! AND ANOTHER! That counted. Boiled. Boom. She dumped the crumbled leaves in and watched it go blue..... she supposed it was like sapphire blue.... if you hadn't seen a real sapphire anyways.

........... aND MORE wAITing? This time, Charlotte shot an accusing look at Healer Reed. HONESTLY. Did he know how hard she was working to do good in his potions lessons? And how hard boring, tedious, waiting things,
made it to actually manage?

Five more minutes.

Five more eternitieeeees.

Five was the number for healing? Was this like an arithmetical thing or was this just a theory for the sake of potion brewing? Skylar made a note to check her arithmancy notes when she returned to her dorm, probably after this class since the Slytherin common room was RIGHT THERE and it wouldn't take too long to hopefully investigate this. Huh, was the dreg at the bottom of her cauldron more effective since it was concentrated sediment? Or was it about the same? These were all important questions, ones which Healer Reed sadly did not go into detail about, which meant what? She would have to research on her own no doubt.

For now though, she had a potion to brew, but she did take note of the incantation and the fact that Asclepius Staff reminded her a lot of a Snake wrapped around a wand. Curious, very curious indeed.

First step, clean all equipment, something Skylar was tempted to try scourgifying non-verbally, but at last thought decided against it. No, she wanted her first non-verbal spell to be something easy. The cleaning spell would be challenging, not to mention, if it DIDN'T work properly, she was dealing with something serious here. An antidote, which could be royally screwed up if her cauldron wasn't properly cleaned. So verbally, she cast "Scorgify" on her cauldron, stirrers, phials, scales... Good, everything cleaned in her work area.

Lighting a fire under cauldron, again verbal incantation because fire was SERIOUS BUSINESS and last thing she needed was to set fire to the whole classroom. On accident, of course. While the water was boiling, she sent to work on finely chopping the pre-measured stargrass from the garden. Also, if five was the magic healing number, why was it 32 grams or 302 milliliters? Neither of these numbers were divisible by five? Unless those two ingredients had no effect on the healing portion of the potion. Actually, that probably made sense, but then, what was their purpose? Stargrass had the mood effect, which was healing, was it not?

Shrugging, she made notes of these questions to ask or research as well, as she added the stargrass to her boiling water. And then the 302 milliliters of boom berry juice, which maybe, was just for flavor? Berries were good and it did have juice in the name? Counter-clockwise for three minutes, which when you were stirring constantly, those three minutes were A LOT longer. Another note: She was definitely mastering the spell to have it automatically stir for her, as she'd witnessed when others cook before. Because that five second break was not long enough for her arm before she had to continue stirring for another two minutes.

Removing the stirrer, she rested in on the countertop, adding the 23 drops of essence of dittany - more numbers that weren't divisible by five? - and dittany DEFINITELY had healing properties, didn't it?

And now just wait three minutes, which thankfully she didn't have to stir again for that amount of time.

How yellow was Junia's potion?

Cameron tried to peek into her cauldron but found it hard to really compare the two colors. Hmm. It should be fine though, yeah? He'd done everything right so far and it was definitely SOME nuance of yellow. It looked good to him. So after crossing out the steps he'd already done, he moved onto the next one. The wiggentree bark. He'd need his stirrer for that again, no? Otherwise how would he push it down. Not with his hands, surely. He had no interest in burning his hands.

Carefully placing the five pieces of wiggentree bark onto the surface, Cameron then used his stirrer to push them down one by one. Which SOUNDED a lot easier than it actually was. They really didn't want to be pushed and definitely not where he wanted them to go. Biting his lower lip in concentration, he FINALLY succeeded in moving the bark down to wall of the cauldron (mostly). Right. Now turning up the heat again.

Oh, and wait.

The moment he spotted the FIRST few bubbles Cameron started rubbing the Betony leaves between the palms of his hands and added them. Glancing at his notes, he frowned a little. SAPPHIRE blue? What was it with all those very very specific colors today? His potion was definitely blue. It looked nice. Did that mean it looked like a sapphire? Sapphires were nice, yeah?

......oh look, more waiting.

Text Cut: Notes

Antidote to Uncommon Poisons No. 005

Ingredients:

• 50 ml Distilled Water
• 14 ml Liquefied Antimony
• 32 grams Stargrass
• 302 ml Boom Berry Juice
• 23 drops Essence of Dittany
• 5 pieces Fire Seeds
• 15 pieces Pure Rock Salt
• 5 strips Wiggentree Bark
• 5 pieces Fresh Betony Leaves

Procedure:

1. Clean all equipment to be used: Cauldron, Scales, Stirrers, Phials, Etc.;
2. Bring 50 ml Distilled Water to a boil in medium heat;
3. Add finely chopped 32 grams of Stargrass. Use a silver dagger for this step;
4. Add 302 ml Boom Berry Juice and stir counter-clockwise for three minutes pause 5 seconds, and continue to stir the solution counter-clockwise for another two minutes. Use a glass stirrer for this step;
5. Remove the stirrer from the cauldron, and add 23 drops of Essence of Dittany into the solution;
6. Let 3 minutes pass, and then adjust the heat to low. Slowly add 5 fire seeds into the solution after 2 minutes. Use your dragon-hide gloves for this procedure;
7. Add 15 pieces of pure rock salt one by one, and stir the solution counter-clockwise for five minutes until the solution turns primrose yellow. This will indicate that the solution has been activated to counter the effect of poisoning;
8. Lay 5 strips of Wiggentree bark on the surface of the solution, and slowly push it one by one to the inner wall of your cauldron. Turn the heat back to medium and wait for the potion to boil;
9. Once bubbles appear, crush 5 fresh Betony Leaves with your hand, and add it to the boiling liquid. The potion should turn a shade of Sapphire Blue;
10. Wait five minutes, and then turn off the heat. Let the potion cool for 15 minutes, and then bottle it in glass phials using a clean Pasteur Pipette (dropper). Label your potions;
11. Scrape off the dreg at the bottom of the cauldron, and pack it in a tin box. Draw the Asclepius Staff with your wand, while saying the incantation: Venenum Inverto (nullify the poison).

Now that he was fully awake Eddie got into a zone that he could actually focus. He had paused for the five seconds and then went back to stirring counter-clockwise. Why did five minutes seem so long when you were stirring a potion? Did he truly matter how long you stirred? He felt professors did this just to make sure potion making went clear to the end, less work for them.

Taking the droplets he added all twenty-three and then waited again. Why was this potion so boring. While he waited for the three minutes to be up he slipped his gloves on and grabbed the fire seeds. Adding them one at a time he added all five fire seeds and then waited yet again. This potion better work.

Now it was time to put 15 pieces of pure rock into the cauldron. 1, 2, 3, 4... 15. Again it was time to stir and wait. So he started stirring counter-clockwise and watched the time slowly go by for five minutes. Soon it was becoming yellow so he figured it was working.