Oh. Hey. Yeah. A pumpkin would probably be helpful. Good call, Professor. He quickly went to grab one like he had one the whooooole time. Heh.

He knocked on it a few times out of habit before using diffindo to carve off the top. It felt weird doing this with a wand. He'd only ever carved pumpkins by hand. He could say for sure that he did prefer to do it by hand and not with his wand.

In fact, he felt like it was lazy to do so much with magic.

Anyway, he put the top off to the side, as instructed and grabbed a spoon. He separated pumpkin guts into a measuring cup with the seeds in a pile. He occasionally pressed down on the innards to make sure that it was tightly packed. When he had both two cups of innards and a pile of now more than 10 seeds, he stopped with the pumpkin cleaning. He dumped the two cups into the cauldron and lit it with a quick incendio.

He was careful to pause there after what happened to Jessa.

He added a cup of water once instructed.

Now to the not-so-fun part of potions. He hated how everyone said potions was just like cooking. No, people. That was an insult. Who cooked with moths? Gross.

He made a face as he pressed down hard with his mortar and pestle. This part he wouldn't mind doing with magic. Grinding down bugs was not his idea of a good time.

As he was grinding, he caught a glimpse of . . . Zita being her normal ridiculous self. He shot a raised eyebrow look at Juni. Did she just see that?

Bel looked at her arm where it got poked and then followed the pokey hand up to Cam's face meeting his look just as he told her she had something on HER face. Oh? Her brow furrowed and she touched her face where he indicated and pulled her fingers away, sure enough there was some pumpkin gunk. Bel's reaction was to laugh. Honestly it was possible she'd get much grosser by the time the lesson was done. It was hard to focus on keeping clean when focusing on actually doing the potion took so much effort. "Thanks." Not that it had all been got. Smeared a bit maybe, but not all got.

She realised all of a sudden that she hadn't put her burner on to heat, so hurriedly did that, setting it to about mediumish. And now her chopped up bulb needed measuring. She weighed it out on her scales to 100g and then put the remaining bits aside.

That done, she returned her attention to her face, and used her sleeve to give it a wipe. Did she get it all that time?

Why there was any need to turn someone's head into a pumpkin was beyond Isabel, but it DID sound like a pretty interesting potion and it was practically Halloween, so she was more than excited to get to work.

First things first she made sure that she had on all the required gear for potion brewing. Then it was time for the next part. Once she had cleaned her cauldron and all of her equipment, she set about recording notes on the potion, its ingredients, and the first steps. The boring things that needed to be out of the way before she could begin on the fun stuff... Well, if gutting pumpkins could be considered fun. Shrugging, she set about cutting the thing open using her wand. "Diffindo!" There. That was much easier and quicker than using a knife. Now came the grosser part, though... the scooping out of the innards.

Picking up her small metal spoon, she began taking out allllll the pumpkin guts. While it wasn't the nastiest thing that she had dealt with while working on a potion by any means, Isabel still did not like the texture; years of carving pumpkins for Halloween had done nothing to lessen the cringiness of the entire ordeal. Oh well. Instead of focusing on that, she worked on separating the seeds from the guts and put those off to the side; they would come into play a bit later. Two densely packed cups of the innards were added to the bottom of her cauldron, followed by a cup of water. The water was only added AFTER the go ahead because apparently the professor was really adamant about when people put it in. Made no sense to her, but WHATEVER; he was the expert here.

"Incendio!" Isabel turned the dial to medium.

That out of the way, she added onto the next bit of her notes before cleaning the measuring cup and spoon. She knew how important it was to keep everything clean and the last thing she wanted right now was for the professor to come over and call her out on something and vanish away all of her progress. She did not have time for that. Nor the patience.

One, two, three dried moths were placed into her mortar, and Isabel put all of her strength into griiiiiiiinding them into a super duper fine powder. Fine enough that she was sure that there would be no issues. And just to be sure of that, she ground the moths even FURTHER. It was a good thing that she had a lot of strength in her body from dance, because otherwise she might start getting tired out from all the effort; as it was, she was ready for MORE work.

With a good old "Stupefy!" Isabel managed to stun one of the provided bouncing bulbs and brought it back to her work station so that she could begin peeling and chopping. Furrowing her brows slightly in concentration, she peeled off the outer purple layer of the bulb before cleaning the peeler. Then she picked up her silver knife. Having a lot of experience with them over the years, she was pretty well-versed when it came to knife techniques, so she was not in the least bit worried about messing this part up. Nope. She was completely confident as she set about chopping. And yes, she was making sure that it was done FINELY. Didn't want to get into trouble for making any mistakes.

Placing the pieces of bulb onto her scale, she saw that she was slightly off in amount and worked on chopping more until she had reached exactly 100 g worth.

What next?

SPOILER!!: Isabel's Notes

Quote:

Pompion Potion - Turns drinker's head into a pumpkin

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Add three dried moths to your mortar and grind them to a SUPER fine powder.
5. Use a peeler to remove the outer layer of the (stunned) bouncing bulb. Finely chop 100 g of bulb (measure with scales) using a silver knife and proper technique. DO NOT add to cauldron.

So there WAS usually this much effort? Hanna needed to step up her arm exercises. Doing some, anything, would be a start. "It really would. I mean, I've never heard of a spell or potion like that. Have you?" He'd know more about the spells that were invented. How were spells invented, anyway? These were the thoughts that got her through the grinding of the moths, because it was BORING.

"WHOA!" She yelped, jumping back from her spot. And removing her hand from her own bulb. He was RAVISHING his wand around, what was he about to do? Oh right. Stun them... well... that was one way to get it done. Hanna's mouth was hanging open, her eyes almost bulging from their sockets. It just happened so fast, she didn't even have time to observe what he was doing. "I... I... I di-didn't realise it would be so... b-bouncing," she admitted, sheepishly. Her face felt BOILING hot. She gulped a few times, trying to re-moisturise her throat. That had been an ordeal. Looking back at her parchment, she underscored the part about stunning them. BEFORE even trying to handle them, not merely just before preparing them. Well. "Er... s-sorry," she said. Oops. Yes, big oops.

After another few moments, she took the few steps back towards the desk. Her hands were feeling sweaty, so she wiped those down her robes as she peered over her cauldron and saw, in the midst of everything that had just happened, there were little bubbles. "Is yours like this too?" she asked.

Hanna peeled her bouncing bulb in the same way Professor Noble had. Soon enough, her bouncing bulb was removed of its skin. She put her peeler aside and got her silver knife, also brand new and unused until this very moment. She looked closely at how Professor Noble was chopping it, and then how Finn was, and tried to copy their actions as much as possible. Hanna appreciated Finn reiterating what Professor Noble had said, and she found herself more conscious of her finger position, holding the bulb.

"What's the motion of the ocean?" Hanna asked. Was it his mantra? A song? Was she being TERRIBLY nosy? She had a pile of chopped bulb, which she weighed to exactly 100g, and kept it aside. Not going to add it.

Thank Merlin for Jessa's help. Shera beamed at the prefect as the bouncing bulb was suddenly rendered motionless which was even more cool because of the non-verbal spell!.

"Woooowwww.... do you do all of your spells non-verbal?" cause that was impressive. But then again, the Ravenclaw was terrifyingly impressive when it came to being way ahead of her studies. That girl right there was Shera's goals, but to be honest she was unlikely to put that much effort into her studies. Being two years ahead of schedule wasn't on her priority list.

Peeling the outer layer off of the bouncing bulb worked well enough, as she went back to following Professor Noble's instructions. It was just... well the cutting where it went wrong for Shera.

Curling her hand and using her knuckles to guide the knife just felt wrong. Wrong. Weird. Impossible.

So naturally she reverted back to just cutting it in a way that she could do without needing to think about every single movement the entire time. Because like, cutting technique didn't impact the potion as long as it was still prepared to the right size, right?

When she finished cutting everything, to more or less the specification given by Professor Noble, she finally weighed it. A sigh of relief escaped her when she realised she did indeed have more than 100g and didn't need to cut any more. That in mind she carefully ensured that she only had 100g on the scales and then sat back to wait for the next step....

It seemed that everyone was moving forward, or helping others. She would have if she had noticed anyone, but she must have missed the opportunity. Oops. Thumb twiddling time.

Uhhh… why did he sound like he was upset about the water thing? …Hmm solid note. Don’t get ahead of his words,even though he wrote the instructions. o_o

Okay. Time for the next step! She continued her notes, and watched as Professor Noble continued. Definitely wanted to wait til he was done to get started, right?

Three dried moths in the mortar, ground to a fine powder. Okay, she could do that. They wouldn't look like moths for long, and then she could forget about the fact that she was crushing these insects. She didn't like them alive, but she liked them no better this way...
Blech.

Crush crush crush... crushcrushcrushcrushcrushcrushcrush

Oy vey, this was tiresome. Was it done yet? No. Not yet.

Crush crush crush crush crush

Finally, Kye headed to the front feeling confident in her moth powder, and grabbed a bulb. Oh, got itstun needed. That made sense. She had the urge to see just how good the bounce in this bulb was first, but she settled for passing it from hand to hand back to her seat. Okay, stun the bulb. Chop the bulb. Got it.

Settling back in her chair, she lay the bulb on her desk and made sure (Hey come back here) it was situated. Don't you dare move.

"Stupefy."

There. Okay time to peel this purple layer. Hmm... curl your fingers in a claw, huh? Rawr.

Okay, use the knuckles as a guide, and push down smoothly with the blade. Okay. Uhm... like this? Err... okay, that was ...similar? Whatever, it was probably fine.

Kye re-organized her station, took her silver knife in hand, and began chopping. Chop chop chop chop chop chop chop.

Time to weigh it out!

Ha! 100g. Got it.

So far... she did well. Following the exact instructions was the key and Diandra could say that she was really good in that. As the potion master explained more steps on this potion brewing, she quickly wrote the instructions on her journal before continued brewing. Then she took three dried moths and put them into her mortar, and she used the pestle to grind them until became a super fine powder after grinding them for like... a quite long time. This wasn't as easy as it looked, to be honest.

And the next part would be the bouncing bulb. The badger grabbed one from the front and pointed her wand at the bulb to stun it. "Stupefy!" But... it missed, clearly this wasn't the easiest part of this lesson because the bulb was so bouncy! Well, if it's not bouncing perhaps it should be called steady bulb instead. "Stupefy!" The second time Diandra performed the stunning charm and finally it worked. Following the instruction, she started peeling off the outer purple layer very carefully with a clean silver knife. Once it'd done, she started chopping the bulb just like how Professor Noble had shown them but... Ouch. Yes, she just cut her finger. It was just a small cut but still hurt and bled out a little. "Uh... Professor? Could I get a bandage?" And perhaps dittany/murtlap/antiseptic/anything to heal the wound?

June wrote down what the professor said on her parchment before continuin on witht he recipe:



June set to making the fine powder with the flitterby moths, and that meant she needed to stand on her tip-toes and pound furiously for several minutes. Finally, she reached a fine powder.

Then she looked at her next step and her face sank. She didn't know how to stupefy.

She looked around helplessly around her unsure what to do and too scared to speak out loud.

"Huh?" was his response to the Head Boy, deftly ducking the flying seed. The pumpkin smell was already having an adverse effect on him, no need to add seeds into the mix.

"Wasn't totally in French, s'not stupid," he slurred back at the professor. Was it just him, or was everything getting blurry in here? And, like, super hard to breathe? Okay, who let the humidity in? Because that had to be what was making it hard to breathe. Ronan started taking deep breaths, hoping everything would return back to normal soon. Unfortunately, this just made everything worse. He could feel his throat closing up.

"Professor, I think I'm gonna-" was all he got out before he was falling sideways off his chair and cracking his head open on the stone floor in the process. Was that blood coming from his head? Why yes, yes it was.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pucki

Thank Merlin for Jessa's help. Shera beamed at the prefect as the bouncing bulb was suddenly rendered motionless which was even more cool because of the non-verbal spell!.

"Woooowwww.... do you do all of your spells non-verbal?" cause that was impressive. But then again, the Ravenclaw was terrifyingly impressive when it came to being way ahead of her studies. That girl right there was Shera's goals, but to be honest she was unlikely to put that much effort into her studies. Being two years ahead of schedule wasn't on her priority list.

It was the proximity to Shera even after returning to her seat that gave the Ravenclaw the idea it was alright to continue the discussion beyond a simple "we'll talk after class". From here...it wasn't technically cross classroom talk and was less likely to be distracting to those around her--most of who were already getting on with their own potions and coming to the point they needed to wait too.

That being the case, Jessa nodded but was sure not to speak too loudly. "Yeah. while and a whole lot of determination." Not to mention all the botched classes while she was learning--good thing she was so ahead, yeah?--but it finally happened. "A friend of mine promised me a new curse if I could get my non-verbals to be flawless so I went cold turkey. No verbal spells until I could cast them non-verbally." A project a year in the making. Some were still a little shakier than others but with all the experimenting she did up in her lab ANYWAY, the more common used spells she could now cast non-verbally in her sleep.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MysteriesOfFate

June wrote down what the professor said on her parchment before continuin on witht he recipe:

SPOILER!!: June's Parchment

Pompion Potion

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Put 3 Flitterby moths into your mortar and pounds with a pestle into a very fine powder.
5.Stupefy your bouncing bulb.
6. Peel off the outer purple layer of the bouncing bulb.
7. Chop the bouncing bulb finely with a silver knife.

June set to making the fine powder with the flitterby moths, and that meant she needed to stand on her tip-toes and pound furiously for several minutes. Finally, she reached a fine powder.

Then she looked at her next step and her face sank. She didn't know how to stupefy.

She looked around helplessly around her unsure what to do and too scared to speak out loud.

It was while speaking with her own First Year housemate that she noticed another one looking around like a lost puppy. A quick look at the girl's work station told her the next thing she was missing was a bouncing bulb. The helpless look told her the girl likely didn't know how she'd get it done.

It was funny, y'know? Four full years of magic, and a fifth ahead, you sometimes forgot how daunting everything was back in First Year where you knew basically nothing when it came to spells and couldn't always get your wand to work.

It was an interesting time to be sure.

Rather than draw attention to herself by moving to the front for another bouncing bulb, Jessa followed Cam's lead silently accio-ing one over to her table and casting a non-verbal stupefy to render it immobile as she'd done with her own and Shera's. The Prefect flicked and swished her wand, levitating it over to the Hufflepuff effortlessly--as the levitation charm was something of a superstar up in her lab. Why walk when everything could be levitated over, y'know? "Here you go." Best get chopping before the Professor had a heart attack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

"Huh?" was his response to the Head Boy, deftly ducking the flying seed. The pumpkin smell was already having an adverse effect on him, no need to add seeds into the mix.

"Wasn't totally in French, s'not stupid," he slurred back at the professor. Was it just him, or was everything getting blurry in here? And, like, super hard to breathe? Okay, who let the humidity in? Because that had to be what was making it hard to breathe. Ronan started taking deep breaths, hoping everything would return back to normal soon. Unfortunately, this just made everything worse. He could feel his throat closing up.

"Professor, I think I'm gonna-" was all he got out before he was falling sideways off his chair and cracking his head open on the stone floor in the process. Was that blood coming from his head? Why yes, yes it was.

And then Ronan happened....though to be strictly fair, the boy probably hadn't toppled over onto the floor and cracked his head open on purpos--wait what?

Jessa leaned over her table to get a better look at the boy because it DID look like he was slowly trying to change the colour of the cobblestone floor beneath them. Yikes, must've been a hard hit for something like that to happen. "Pretty sure he's unconscious." She passed along albeit a little offhandedly. A fall like that, blood pooling, yeah he'd have to be unconscious.

"Will someone see if the cupboard's got smelling salt?" She asked aloud a moment before moving around the table to kneel next to him. Didn't look TOO bad, especially not with a fall from that height so she didn't suspect he was dead or brain damaged--unless the boy had a softer skull than he was letting on to.

She wasn't a Healer, nor would she pretend to be, but a few of her experiments did drift over to this sort of thing so she had a working idea, made concrete by the Healer Sessions they sometimes had. Jessa reached up onto her table, grabbing her piece of parchment as it was the closest thing on hand then transfigured it into more of a gauze. RIP her notes. Wasn't too hard to figure where the bleeding was coming from. The Ravenclaw reached under the boy's head gently lifting it just enough to place the gauze and apply some pressure.

First step: stop the bleeding, done. Now to wait for the Professor and that smelling salt.

Onto preparing moths. Like the moths in the beaker the professor was holding up. Got it. “Scourgify,” Cassie cast on her mortar and pestle to ensure its cleanliness before selecting three of the dried moths and set them inside. One collection of fine dried moth powder coming up. Crush…crush…crush. Crush…crush…crush. Crush…crush…crush. Then an inspection of the results in the bowl of the instrument. Yeah, not fine enough, not the way the man was emphasizing the need for more pounding and grinding of the bugs.

Crush…crush…crush…crush….crush…crush…crush.

Finally she figured she had done all she could with it and felt safe to move on to the next step. The bouncing bulb. Well maybe not the safest step. Cass headed to the front and approached the crate of the bulbs. “Stupefy” she cast, stunning it before returning to her seats to prepare what she needed. One hand peeling off the purple layer as the other retrieved her silver knife. “Scourgify,” she cast again cleaning it off before cutting into it. Chop…chop…chop. Chop…chop…chop. Chop…chop…chop. This was going the way of the grinding.

At least it wasn’t to be as small. When she was satisfied, she weighed it out. There…one hundred grams of bouncing bulb. And something else it seemed.

One sixth year down.

Uh oh.

One day very, very soon, Abra was going to go through all of the ingredients in his potions kit and relabel them with little symbols or drawings according to the contents of each vial, so that he no longer had to deal with these cursed labels in cursed cursive. After far too long, he finally located the vial that contained dried flitterby moths, by which time it would have been easier to just swallow his pride and ask to borrow some from Junia's supply.

Looking around the room, Abra saw instantly that the main thing he had achieved in his endeavour was falling further behind, and he immediately cursed his own stubbornness. His frustrations - having already been at a sort of simmering point for the last few minutes - mounted exponentially, and so he was perhaps a little more heavy-handed than he needed to be once he had the moths in the mortar and the pestle in his left hand.

What Abra lacked in physical strength, he made up for in EMOTION, and that was what helped him grind the moths down into a powder as quickly as he did. It reached a point where the powder was at a consistency that it was probably just about acceptable for the potion, but Abra continued, not wanting to give up his outlet just yet.

Then, a clatter, a thud, a sickly crack.

Instinctively Abra turned around to look for the source, realising practically in the same moment that this was a very, very bad idea. His eyes quickly found an older Gryffindor - he couldn't remember his name - lying there on the floor. Also, blood.

Abra didn't have a particular issue with blood, but he did have a (very well-documented) (number of) issue(s) with other things.

At the sight of the older boy on the floor and the situation he was in, Abra froze, dropping his mortar and pestle and spilling its contents, and went very pale. He didn't burst into tears, which might have happened in the past, but actually also he did nothing at all. Didn't move, didn't speak, didn't breathe.

Oh good, so the small girl with Gryffindor robes seemed appreciative and Skylar just nodded. Because of course she'd help; charms were sort of her specialty. Charms and Transfiguration. "Perfect." Grateful that the girl was willing to give it a try, because you couldn't get better at magic without practicing. "Nice to meet you, Jessi. I'm Skylar." And she watched as Jessi concentrated on the spell, but only a tiny slit was made. She nodded encouragingly though, because it was better than nothing and she had to keep going. "It'll only get easier," Skylar informed, quite proud of the young girl for her efforts. Because really, that was the honest truth.

And now that the girl seemed alright, it was back to her own potion, because they were continuing on, to which she gave a brief nod at the girl, before peering into her own cauldron to check on it. Not simmering yet, which meant time to prepare the ingredients. Dried moths; it sounded rather gross, but at least they were dead, right? Tapping three into her mortar, Skylar carefully pounded at them with the pestle. It looked to be a fine powder, but wait, he said to go back and grind some more? Okay then; with that, the captain did as instructed, because surely this noble potions master knew what he was talking about, right? So super fine powdered moths here they were.

Bouncing bulb next, which oh wow, they really did bounce! Eyes were wide open as some of her peers worked to get it stunned, something she noticed Vivian did effortless. Go wifey. Heading to the lidded crate, she slid it open just enough for one to bounce right out and it bounced low across the floor. "Stupefy!" she cast, before it got to far, a stunning spell that worked as effortlessly as some of the other sixth year and seventh year students, as it should. She glanced over at her new first year friend and wondered if Jessi would need help with the stunning spell too? That was a little more challenging than just diffindo. First things first though, once back at her seat, she peeled off the outer purple layer. And placed the bulb on her chopping board, as Noble had demonstrated.

Chop, chop, chop.

It was like chopping an onion, if she was being honest. Once she chopped a fair amount, she used the blade edge to put some on her scale and weight it out... 90 grams... a little more.... 95 ... 96 ... 97...

101... wait, what?

Tad off the top, and 100. Perfect. Now to wait until it was good to add to the cauldron. She was still curious as to what Pompion potion was used for, which she may have started to brainstorm a little on her notes, while she waited.

A spell to make someone ambidextrous? Hmmm... that would be nice. "Nope, haven't heard of one. But if you invent it someday, let me know!" Maybe he could actually not embarrass himself when he attempted to play sports with his cousin.

So his heart was still pounding a bit from the unexpected gift of an un-Stunned bouncing bulb. Times two. "Well, yeah, they do bounce quite a bit if you disturb them." And grabbing them, transporting them, then plunking them on a table seemed to count as disturbing. "Just... promise me you won't bring me anymore if they haven't been Stunned yet, alright?" Least she could do, really. "And stop apologizing, it's not a big deal. Look, no one got hurt, and nothing bad happened to our potions, see?" Both of them had started to simmer now. "Yeah, mine is doing that as well."

It was his turn to blush a tiny bit. "Well, my mum taught me how to chop onions, and I figure this is probably pretty close. The rocking motion... she said to picture the waves in the ocean and mimic that circular curl they make." It had helped him, at least.


What the what?! He heard a thud, saw Ronan on the floor, and then noticed blood beginning to pool. "Not good!" he said, leaping into action. He didn't know where the professor was in the room, but blood coming from the head meant no time to waste. By the time he made it over there, Jessa had obviously been thinking the same thing and was now calling to check for smelling salts. "ON IT!" he called over the din of what would be sure to be a din of panicking people.

He hurried over to the cupboard and began searching without really seeing. "Slow down and see, Finn." Okay. Bezoars, murtlap essence... "Smelling salts!" He grabbed them and made his way back as quickly as possible. "Got 'em!" he said, urgent. Should they maybe wait to see if Professor Noble thought they should use them? Would it be bad to do it without his permission?

SPOILER!!: The bleeders

Quote:

Originally Posted by Birchwoodmom

Once back to her work area, Emmalyn carefully peeled off the outer purple layer, sat it on the table, and pulled out a little silver knife. “Keep my fingers like a claw.” she murmured as she lifted the silver knife over the edge of the bulb in preparation to chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Slice…”Oh, ouch” She caught the edge of her finger with the knife as it slid into the bulb. A tiny bead of blood was welling to the surface of her skin from the tiniest of tiny cuts. She dropped her knife on the table and put her now ever so lightly bleeding hand in the air. “I think I need a bandage.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by debpetrisor

... but then he remembered he sat at the very front, so the only possible victim would be the professor, and not even Merlin would be able to help him if that ever happened.

Pushing those thoughts to the very back of his head, he focused solely on the bouncing bulb, repeating a mantra of You can do it, you can do it, you can do it in mind. Pointing his wand and aiming for the bulb, he said, "Stupefy!" and thankfully, the bulb was no longer bouncing, but laid lifelessly in front of him. Good.

Let the gruesome peeling begin. Pursing his lips and his eyebrows nearly meeting in concentration, Daehyun followed professor Noble's movements. He carefully peeled off the purple layer in small and hesitant movements, and then mirrored the man's chopping technique, a lot clumsier though, because he found it more difficult than it had first seemed. He was nearly done chopping using the odd technique, when-

... it was going to happen. He knew it would. He should've known better.

Muttering a soft "Aish," he stuck his freshly cut pinkie finger in his mouth, silently praying that the professor hadn't noticed him. He wasn't going to bleed to death, so no need to make a fuss over it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

So far... she did well. Following the exact instructions was the key and Diandra could say that she was really good in that. As the potion master explained more steps on this potion brewing, she quickly wrote the instructions on her journal before continued brewing. Then she took three dried moths and put them into her mortar, and she used the pestle to grind them until became a super fine powder after grinding them for like... a quite long time. This wasn't as easy as it looked, to be honest.

And the next part would be the bouncing bulb. The badger grabbed one from the front and pointed her wand at the bulb to stun it. "Stupefy!" But... it missed, clearly this wasn't the easiest part of this lesson because the bulb was so bouncy! Well, if it's not bouncing perhaps it should be called steady bulb instead. "Stupefy!" The second time Diandra performed the stunning charm and finally it worked. Following the instruction, she started peeling off the outer purple layer very carefully with a clean silver knife. Once it'd done, she started chopping the bulb just like how Professor Noble had shown them but... Ouch. Yes, she just cut her finger. It was just a small cut but still hurt and bled out a little. "Uh... Professor? Could I get a bandage?" And perhaps dittany/murtlap/antiseptic/anything to heal the wound?

Noble finished writing the next steps up on the board and turned back to face the classroom, only a couple of students with hands up for attention for cuts. And another one not asking for attention, but with the same problem. Yes, he saw you there Daehyun.

How, just how, had they cut fingers after so carefully showing them the technique to hide their fingers well out of the way of the blade?

Grumble grumble.

He headed to one of the cupboard down the side wall, and pulled out the first aid kit he kept in the classroom. “There,” he replied gruffly, pulling out some bandages and a couple of vials of murtlap and dittany. “Sort yourselves out.”

He felt no need to baby them. There was a Healer for that.

And since most people looked like they had their ingredients prepared, it was time to move on. He raised his voice to address the whole class.

“When your pumpkin has reached a simmer, go ahead and add your moth powder. Stir clockwise until your powder turns grass green...which should be four complete rotations, if you’ve got it fine enough.” Into his cauldron went the moths, and sure enough...within 4 stirs the potion had changed colour. He held up the spoon to show them. “Then add 100 grams of your bouncing bulb and stir just enough to incorporate it. Turn down the heat, and set your timer for thirty minutes.”

Yes, thirty minutes. Which was a long time, and that meant they had some more time to work on those cutting skills. No point having them all sitting there twiddling their thumbs. He appreciated some would want to make notes, but he didn’t expect them to write down everything when it was in their textbook. Writing up a full report would be their homework.

He raised his voice over the sound of bubbling cauldrons. “You may start to carve your pumpkin if you wish. I suggest using either a carefully controlled diffindo, or a small knife from your potions kit.” Up to them how fancy they wanted to make the design.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Recipe so far...

Pompion Potion

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Whilst waiting for the cauldron to come to a light simmer, grind 3 dried flitterby moths to a fine powder in your pestle and mortar. Add these to the cauldron and stir clockwise until the contents turns grass green (4 complete stirs should do the trick).
5. Stun your bouncing bulb. Peel off the purple skin, and chop finely with a silver knife. Weigh out 100g. Add to your cauldron and stir enough to incorporate.
6. Let your potion simmer for 30 minutes. You may carve your pumpkin whilst you wait.

SPOILER!!: Ronan, Jessa and Finn

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

"Huh?" was his response to the Head Boy, deftly ducking the flying seed. The pumpkin smell was already having an adverse effect on him, no need to add seeds into the mix.

"Wasn't totally in French, s'not stupid," he slurred back at the professor. Was it just him, or was everything getting blurry in here? And, like, super hard to breathe? Okay, who let the humidity in? Because that had to be what was making it hard to breathe. Ronan started taking deep breaths, hoping everything would return back to normal soon. Unfortunately, this just made everything worse. He could feel his throat closing up.

"Professor, I think I'm gonna-" was all he got out before he was falling sideways off his chair and cracking his head open on the stone floor in the process. Was that blood coming from his head? Why yes, yes it was.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

And then Ronan happened....though to be strictly fair, the boy probably hadn't toppled over onto the floor and cracked his head open on purpos--wait what?

Jessa leaned over her table to get a better look at the boy because it DID look like he was slowly trying to change the colour of the cobblestone floor beneath them. Yikes, must've been a hard hit for something like that to happen. "Pretty sure he's unconscious." She passed along albeit a little offhandedly. A fall like that, blood pooling, yeah he'd have to be unconscious.

"Will someone see if the cupboard's got smelling salt?" She asked aloud a moment before moving around the table to kneel next to him. Didn't look TOO bad, especially not with a fall from that height so she didn't suspect he was dead or brain damaged--unless the boy had a softer skull than he was letting on to.

She wasn't a Healer, nor would she pretend to be, but a few of her experiments did drift over to this sort of thing so she had a working idea, made concrete by the Healer Sessions they sometimes had. Jessa reached up onto her table, grabbing her piece of parchment as it was the closest thing on hand then transfigured it into more of a gauze. RIP her notes. Wasn't too hard to figure where the bleeding was coming from. The Ravenclaw reached under the boy's head gently lifting it just enough to place the gauze and apply some pressure.

First step: stop the bleeding, done. Now to wait for the Professor and that smelling salt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finn

What the what?! He heard a thud, saw Ronan on the floor, and then noticed blood beginning to pool. "Not good!" he said, leaping into action. He didn't know where the professor was in the room, but blood coming from the head meant no time to waste. By the time he made it over there, Jessa had obviously been thinking the same thing and was now calling to check for smelling salts. "ON IT!" he called over the din of what would be sure to be a din of panicking people.

He hurried over to the cupboard and began searching without really seeing. "Slow down and see, Finn." Okay. Bezoars, murtlap essence... "Smelling salts!" He grabbed them and made his way back as quickly as possible. "Got 'em!" he said, urgent. Should they maybe wait to see if Professor Noble thought they should use them? Would it be bad to do it without his permission?

And he’d just finished that when he heard a thud. His gaze first lingered on the Ravenclaw Prefect, and then the workstation beside her, when a certain annoyance of a Gryffindor had been sitting. Had been the important word, since he was now...on the floor.

If Jessa had thought that taking her badge off would change anything, anything, then she was wrong. Noble didn’t give a griffin’s claws that she had a badge, it was more her continuing to ignore what he’d demonstrated and doing it her way. Clearly the girl thought she had nothing to learn and that her way - the lazy way, might he add - was best.

Which is why he very nearly swept the girl aside when she got to Ronan first and asked about smelling salts. The girl who apparently had to use magic for everything was suggesting a 13th century solution the Gryffindor wouldn’t actually be able to breathe in. She had dealt with the blood though, so he’d give her that.

Strewth.

Apparently the boy hadn’t been exaggerating about his pumpkin allergy. As far as Noble could see, he still hadn’t even started a brew. This was exactly what he DIDN’T need right now. Pulling his wand from his robes, he levitated over a small container containing the magical equivalent of an EpiPen as he squatted down on the stone floor. Catching it in his right hand, he now used his wand. “Rennervate.”

So, no, Finn, he wasn't planning to use the smelling salts for the moment.

There was... a lot going on. Bel looked around wide-eyed, especially when Jessa got up from their table and started to help. Bel made no move to play hero though, since she was pretty sure she'd just get in the way. And sure enough the professor had it well in hand. She watched warily for a bit and then tried to turn her attention back to her brew. And the potion was starting to bubble and simmer.

She got her stirrer and added in the powdered moth, expression hopeful as she started the stirring process. Stir.... stir.... stir..... stir.... st.... there! A tiny bit more than four stirs to change colour, but that was definitely grass green. Who knew pumpkin + moth dust equaled green? That was crazy that being a magic person could make those two things change like that. Bel dumped her 100 grams of bouncing bulb in and stirred a bit more then left it alone to simmer.

..... and GREAT NEWS.

PUMPKIN CARVING!??!!!

She didn't even know where to START.

He finally had the smelling salts back. And fortunately, Noble was now on the case. Oh, rennervate. Yeah, that would definitely be a better solution than smelling salts. Because come to think of it, hadn't Ronan been mentioning something about an allergy? Finn had been busy trying not to make Noble mad and making his potion, but he remembered hearing that now. "I'll hold onto these just in case, then.." he muttered, his voice trailing away feebly. He decided it would be better to just back away and let the professor handle things now. Plus, when Ronan did come to, he didn't need to be crowded.


Well, despite being gone from his station for a bit, his pumpkin water seemed to still be simmering alright. So he scraped up his moth powder and dumped it into his cauldron. Oh, have to finish getting this into my notebook. His head was still with Ronan.

Notes completed, he grabbed his stirring rod. "Four clockwise stirs," he read. To Hanna, he said, "I always start each rotation in front of me every single potion I brew. That way I don't forget where I began." His own personal safeguard. Stir, stir, stir, stir. By three and a half it was starting to be green. After four, it still didn't look like grass. So, he gave it an extra quarter stir and, sure enough, grass. "Wow, my powder still wasn't fine enough even after that much work?" Ridiculous.

Quote:

"Finish scooping out my pumpkin for me? I'll owe you...whatever you want for it," he said a bit hurriedly as he set his spoon across the open top of his pumpkin. Giving Zoryn a quick BE RIGHT BACK sort of look, the fourth year hopped off his stool and walked over to where Amanda was working with Emmalyn and was juuuuuust about to offer himself to help with Incendio (which he was decent with) but Daisy beat him to it. So he offered her an appreciative grin and shifted his attention back to Amanda when she mentioned something about...er...well he had no idea what that was (muggle medicine?) but he DID see her discomfort. "You alright?" he asked, concern knitted into his brow as he rested a hand on her shoulder. "Reckon we ought to go wash your hands real good......come on," he added with a soft smile, nodding his way over towards the sink.

Night thanked Derf for helping her deal with the pumpkin allergy. Of course nobody would know what Benedryl was, but Night was grateful for the help she did get.

Quote:

While still keeping her hand up in the air, Emmalyn graciously took the band-aid from Night, unwrapped it, and placed it on her finger without taking a look. "I really don't like blood. Even if it's just a tiny bit." She shook her head as she spoke. "Thanks for the band-aid. I should keep some in my bag."

Emmalyn slid her mostly chopped bulb over for Night to finish. It was probably best she didn't pick up the knife again. "I'm happy to start grinding your moths while you chop." She reached over and started grinding away. That was the part that took forever and she didn't need to worry about chopping off any body parts while doing it.

Pumpkins, moths, blood....if Night had known potions was going to be so gross and allergy-inducing, she wouldn't have taken the class. At least Emmalyn was starting on her moths. She liked the reciprocal relationship she had with her fellow Hufflepuff.

But she was stuck here now. "Jerk," she muttered under her breath, not intending for the professor to hear, because she really didn't want to face drama, but not altogether shy of making her voice heard either.

She thought about that kid Ronan, the one who had the lethal pumpkin allergy. If she had had so much trouble, what would his process have been like? She made her way over to him, impressed by his snarky response. "Hey. I'm Night. I'm allergic to the pumpkin too, or at least I think I am. And those dragon hide gloves didn't do much for me, either. I'm sorry about the way Noble treated you."

But he had just recovered from a faint, and she felt bad. Her allergy must not have been as severe as his, or she caught it in time. She was honestly pretty mad about his situation, and the teacher who hadn't believed him when he used the key word "lethal."

Sweet, he had the smelling salt. Jessa held her hand out with an audible "Thanks." Looking almost too keen to get on with this but of course that's when the Professor decided to show up. Of course. Of course. Jessa glanced up at the man, not at all impressed with his timing.

She'd already seen the effects of the rennervate charm. She'd studied it, the response time, the general after feeling, the works. What she wanted was a comparison with smelling salt. Differences both general and specific. When was the next time she'd get her hands on an unconscious, human test subject? What was a girl to do? Make herself unconscious?--She'd need someone as stand in. They'd need to know what to do.

Hm.

Er.........not that...that was why she was helping Ronan...mainly....mostly.....probably.....he was a good opportunity until the Professor showed up. Jessa scowled, conjuring a loose bit of fabric to tie the gauze in place before rising to her feet. There was no mistaking the look of disappointment at the wasted opportunity but the girl knew better than to protest. She hadn't heard anything about his allergy and therefore couldn't factor in how well he'd have been able to breathe it in--but that'd have made for an equally interesting experiment had it not been intercepted. Now where would she find an unconscious test subject suffering from an allergic reaction???

Herself, again, maybe. Merlin this'd have been easier if she'd have been able to use the already available one.

The Ravenclaw spared Ronan a final look before moving back to her section of the table and taking her seat again with a silent huff.

By comparison, pumpkin carving was pretty....eh.

Daisy used a quick cleaning charm to clean her spoon. She peered into her cauldron and saw that the pumpkin had reached a nice simmer. She carefully added her moth powder and with her spoon, stirred the potion four times in a clockwise direction. Within moments it had turned into a nice shade of green that looked like the colour of grass.

Daisy then added her 100g of her bouncing bulb and stirred just a bit so that it was incorporated into the mixture. She turned the heat down and set her timer for thirty minutes.

Daisy cleaned her mortar and pestle, scales and spoon. She wrote down her notes before bringing her pumpkin towards her.

Daisy was thinking of a design. Did it have to be the usual "face"?

“Thanks again for the band-aid, Night” She said in a whisper to her fellow Hufflepuff. She sat herself back upright and checked to see if her pumpkin and water mixture had reached a simmer. Peeking in the cauldron, she saw a pumpkin gutty watery glob. It looked more like something her cat would throw up than anything else. It was, however, starting to simmer. Little bubbles begin to burst through the surface of the goo and steam rose furthering the pumpkineness of the room.

Emmalyn checked her notes to make sure to follow the instructions exactly as stated. She picked up the mortar filled with finely ground moth powder and dumped it into the cauldron. Glancing around, she quickly located a spoon long enough to stir without her being burned. She put the spoon in the mixture and stirred, in a clockwise motion, for exactly four complete rotations. Much to her surprise, the mixture turned grass green. “It worked!” she exclaimed, a little too excited about succeeding in the task at hand.

Emmalyn quickly got herself calmed back down. It was Noble’s class after all, and she wasn’t sure what would happen if he saw someone happy. Next, she measured out 100g of bouncing bulb, so kindly chopped by Night, and added it to the now grass green mixture. She gave it a slight stir, turned down the temprature and set her timer for 30 minutes.

Then it was time for pumpkin carving. She hadn’t had the best luck with her knife during class, so she wasn’t too keen on the idea of using it to carve her pumpkin. She also botched diffindo, so that option was out as well. She decided her best course of action would be to simply draw her pattern on the pumpkin then ask an older student to do the cutting.

She pulled out her quill and got to work drawing a slightly deformed badger towards the bottom center of the pumpkin. Just above the badger was an ‘I’ followed a heart shape. “Would someone please help me carve my pumpkin? I’ve already cut myself once this class and I’m not any good at diffindo.”

They were moving along and Isabel was pleased to see that she had been doing things perfectly up to this point. Or at least well enough for her to not have messed things up royally. Hopefully this streak would continue, but this wasn't exactly the most complicated potion and she had practice with ones that were a lot worse even if she was far from an expert. This was all for fun and she was now looking forward to what it would feel like to have a pumpkin for a head.

Smiling to herself, she recorded the next bit of instructions. The pumpkin was simmering by now, so she immediately added the powder. One... two... three... four clockwise stirs had it a grass green colour and Isabel gave a sigh of relief knowing that another step had been performed correctly. SHE HAD THIS. The 100 g of bouncing bulb was added immediately after and stirred until it had become incorporated. The heat was turned down and her timer was set for 30 minutes.

Time to play the waiting game.

Before starting to carve her pumpkin, Isabel set about cleaning all the equipment that she had recently used. Now she was on top of things again and could move on to the next fun bit. The only question was what did she want to carve into her pumpkin?

SPOILER!!: Isabel's Notes

Quote:

Pompion Potion - Turns drinker's head into a pumpkin

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Add three dried moths to your mortar and grind them to a SUPER fine powder.
5. Use a peeler to remove the outer layer of the (stunned) bouncing bulb. Finely chop 100 g of bulb (measure with scales) using a silver knife and proper technique. DO NOT add to cauldron.
6. Once the pumpkin has reached a light simmer, add the ground moth powder and stir clockwise until powder turns grass green (four rotations if done right).
7. Add the bouncing bulb and stir until it is incorporated.
8. Turn down heat and set timer for 30 minutes. During this time you can carve the pumpkin.

Did the Professor just threatened him with detention? Tenacius Salander, the boy who can brighten a room with a smile that can rival the sun itself, being told that so much as a smirk would WIN him an opportunity to hang out with the Master of Mean himself?

Oooohhh so tempting oh so tempting, specially the fact that the boy would like nothing else but to find out the story behind The Name. Everybody has a story behind their names. Tenacius sure had one. And someone with a name like IGnatius NOBLE, thats a story worth a Wizarding Wireless pitch innit?

But he caught his girlfriend's look, and then his bestie a little ways away, both had the expression that gave him pause. He is astounded why nobody around here-- well except for Matt over yonder it seems-- finds the Potions Master as amusing as he does. But now is neither the time or the place to gol all Ace reporter, and goodness knows that his actions nowadays are seen as Head Boy and not so GryffindorAce, he decided to pull up those acting muscles and give the Professor a small nod and the 'ol Queen's Sentry's deadpan stare.


Alright he has got to get focusing back on his work. His pumpkin pulp now devoid of any seed, he began packing those babies in in the measuring cup and placing them at the bottom of his copper, self-stirring cauldron (top o' the line, spared no expense) then intro'd the water on the Professor's say so. Incedio'd a flame to a medium heat (like he's done dozens of times before; gosh this feels like he's making pumpkin soup yum).

Then those dried moth things that looks like a misshapen peppercorns. Scourgified the mortar and pestle and grind grind grind-- did the Professor say it has to be super fine? The Curly Top thought that the best way that can be achieved is through magic, he's done making oat floor from scratch, magic was always the way to go. He glanced up and was about to ask this very question when he could feel a chuckle coming just by looking at the Potions man and thought-- yeah nevermind. He knew well enough that if he opened his mouth a peal of laughter like bells in an echo chamber will come out instead.

So in goes the flitterby powder, and he commanded his pot to stir clockwise four times. While it did that he went to get that bouncing bulb, stunned one (or a few) while still in its crate (you're welcome kiddos who cant stun too well). When he got back to his station, the pot has stopped stirring and the mixture has indeed turned to the shade of green that grass would blush upon. Snap snap finger guns "Nailed it."

So now for the bulb that would bounce no more-- he peeled off the skin and sliced it up like the chef in training that he is, cleaning out the weighing scale and started dropping the bulb slices a few clumps at a time until he reached a hundred Gs, then commanded his pot to start stirring when he slid in the bulb slices.

Alas theres more than just those bulbs that went a-sliding, by the shade of one spicy Gryffindor, the Curly Top stood and leaned towards the unconscious Ronan. Is this fer real? Should he have kept a closer eye on him whenever they would have pumpkin soup for dinner? Because those aroma gets everywhere when the soup lid goes up.

Also would now be a good time to ask the Professor if they could use an unconscious Ronan to make the Headless Horseman and see if they could animate a pumpkin on his head?

Oh boy, he'd been spotted.

Unable to meet the professor's eyes, a very flustered Daehyun walked to the first aid kit that the man had pointed at and, rubbing some murtlap essence over his cut, he sealed it with a bandage loosely tied over it, and he was good to go. He was used to getting such small cuts, so he probably would've ignored it completely, but he didn't want it to get in the way of potion making or, even worse, allow even the smallest drop of blood fall into his cauldron and mess everything up.

Measuring the 100 grams of the bouncing bulb he'd chopped, he set them aside and proceeded to add the moth powder to his cauldron, and stirred four times clockwise, watching it turn into the green professor Noble had mentioned. The 100 grams of bouncing bulb went in next, and he stirred a little longer until they got mixed into the potion. Next, he turned down the heat and set his timer for thirty minutes.

Carve the pumpkins?

Daehyun was unsure of what to do, since he'd already cut his finger once, and he was feeling even more insecure using Diffindo, though he still had more confidence with a knife, so he settled for that. He'd begun carving the most basic eyes and mouth for his pumpkin, taking his sweet time with each movement, hoping time would pass before he had to turn it into a masterpiece.

... because he wasn't feeling artistic at all.

Alyce noticed that her pumpkin started to simmer. She added her moth powder and used her cleaned stirrer and stirred clockwise. Stir. Stir. Stir. Stir. Her potion starting to turn green like the Professor said. This mean she didn't have to spend her morning break with Professor Noble. Yup. Yup.

Next steps, she added the 100 grams of bouncing bulb and stirred it a few times before she turned down the heat, and set her timer for thirty minutes like the Professor instructed.

Carve her pumpkin? Yeah. No. She rather sit here and watch her potion, thank you very much.

The Slytherin was minding her own business when she heard a' Thud' sounds not far from her work station. She turned around and saw Jessa said something about someone was unconscious. Was that the Gryffindor with pumpkin allergy? Poor guy. Then she noticed the Professor came to the rescue. Well, crisis avoided. Hopefully the guy is okay.



Alyce was back to watch her potion when a younger student asked for help to crave her pumpkin. She walked toward her workstation. "I could help." She told the girl. It looked like the younger girl already draw a pattern on her pumpkin, so she just need to use Diffindo and follow the pattern.