Javier nodded at Anna's answer to the question. "Yes, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes does carry love potions, which are - thankfully - very watered down. They often don't last more than a day or two," he explained. Although depending on who was wielding it, they could be just as dangerous as a professionally made one...

Charlie was right on the money with his answer and Javier nodded in agreement. "Yes, Amortentia is definitely one of the strongest and most well known potions out there," he confirmed. "If brewed correctly, the effects can be very long lasting..." he added.

Auden and Maxine both brought up good points as well. "Yes, these days you can find love potions at many apothecaries, but they're not regulated in many instances. Especially if you head into Knockturn Alley. Which brings me to my next point...what should you be cautious about when it comes to love potions? Both as a user and as a brewer?" he asked.

For the record, he was NOT advocating anyone use love potions on any of them!

OOC: Moving on once again in 24 hours!

Charlie scribbled his notes. He was thinking particularly about the strength of Love Potions which he had come across during his studies for his fifth year exams at Durmstrang. He was also thinking about the Potion being forbidden at certain places, and knew that it was banned here at Hogwarts. Despite that, it was still smuggled in by students. Not by him, obviously; no, Charlie had no use for this potion.

“The strength of the potion strengthens overtime,’’ Char said, his hand in the air. “The longer the potion is left, the stronger the effects can be on the drinker when they eventually consume it.” That was not a good fact, was it? What if the drinker became obsessed with the person they fell for?

Auden mulled over the question. The witty side of her wanted to answer that you should just be cautious with them in general. But she tried to think objectively…what should you be cautious about as a user or brewer?


”Maybe cross contamination?” the little Ravenclaw suggested with a hesitant smile. It was a phrase she’d heard her father say before, granted it had been about muggle chemistry equipment but maybe it could be applicable in a potions sense as well. ” It’d probably be important to be careful of what your potion comes in contact with and is exposed to so that it’s not affected by external conditions and whatnot. Same with your equipment I guess. You never know what could increase its potency or stability and inadvertently make it more unsafe than it already is.”

Because it went without saying that even though at her young age she didn’t really understand love outside of familial attachments yet, she totally understood the real danger a love potion could be.

So...to be completely honest, Anna wasn't sure what she felt when it came to love potions. She kind of wanted to try one herself to see what would happen. Would she feel any different considering she loved everyone? IF it made you realize what you loved the most...what would that turn out to be for her? Would it be what she thought it was or would it be something totally unexpected? There were a lot of questions that may require some experimentation...and she would need to pick the right people to test with. Maybe Aurora...or Solomon...or Reuben...or Brandon...or Nadia...or...well...she had options, she supposed. And since love potions were easy enough to come by it should be a pretty easy thing to test...especially with Daniel helping her grow her rainbow empire and saving her galleons.

Which meant she was a liiiiiiiiiittle distracted while the professor was speaking and also meant that she was veering a little off target when she raised her hand to speak.

"Have you ever fallen under the influence of a love potion, professor?" she inquired with wide curious eyes. "Is it hard to know when some has been added to food? I mean...good love potions sometimes smell like nice things...but does that stick around when its been added to chocolate or something else? How do you know when its been added to something you're about to eat?"

"Well didn't the great Alistor Moody tell everyone Constant Vigilence" Maxine swore she had read that in history book. "Meaning becare what you are drinking or pay attnetion if anyone creepy is about or looks like something was added to your food or drink" Great .. now she wasn't sure she ever wanted to eat in the great hall again.

Desiree was not at all surprised to learn that her thoughts about illegal love potions in Knockturn Alley were on the right track. Not that there was any need to worry about that. She wasn’t interested in using any love potions, especially not the illegal or unregulated ones!

She considered the next question. “They’d eventually wear off and have to be readministered if the giver wants to keep the drinker’s infatuation,” she said after raising her hand. Notice she didn’t say the drinker’s love because that was not real love! “Most love potions last 24 hours, but it varies based on the drinker’s weight and the giver’s attractiveness.” Attractiveness seemed a highly subjective term though, which made her think of something. “Speaking of which, not that I’d ever do this but just out of curiosity, would the efficacy of a love potion change if the giver used magic to make themself look more physically attractive?” She really hoped that wasn’t a dumb question!

Of course.

Nadia should have guess that a Valentine’s Day potions lesson could possibly use love potions as a topic of choice. Perhaps that was one of the reasons Professor Hernandez wasn’t looking the greatest. They were a tricky subject what with the split opinions of the morals of losing love potions and such. It was something that influences your brain and actions which could be complicated.

“Not to abuse them for sure.” That was definitely her answer. She supposed a temporary weak infatuation for an hour or two could be amusing. But longer seemed a bit rude to her. Especially if you were using it without the other's knowledge.

Hope was aghast at the professor's warning. People might try to slip you love potions without your knowing it? Jupiter, the grownup world was full of dangers and obstacles! Hope knew nothing about these potions, and next to nothing about love--well, other than your family and that sort of thing. But she always like to venture a guess--she felt obligated, after being sorted into Ravenclaw, to try to justify being put in the "brainy House."

"Um--well, there's a legend that the juice of a flower--"Love in Idleness," they call it--that's supposed to make a person fall in love with the next person they see. But that's put on the eyes, not eaten or drunk. And it seems pretty risky to me," she went on, gaining confidence when no on laughed (at least, not too loudly), "because not only would you have to find an opportunity to put it on their eyes, but you'd have to make sure they saw the right person when they opened them again. And there's a lot of things that could go wrong."

Perhaps if Aurora has stopped using her quill to tickle her nose she might’ve stopped sneezing but that would require pre-thought and the second year was not in that frame of mind today. It wasn’t until Professor Hernandez spoke to her that she set the quill back down. “Thank you” she giggled sniffling one more time.

OOOOOOH!

The banging nose was Anna which would explain why she hadn’t turned up to the lesson. She was just late which meant no cuddles were required.. unless she wanted them? This lesson seemed to be all about love after all. The Hufflepuff received a huuuuuge grin as she joined her as she leaned across to whisper (well whisper in an Aurora fashion which was more of a theatrical stage whisper) to her best friend. “I thought you’d got lost or were sick or maybe you’d been kidnapped.” Which would absolutely be a ridiculous assumption but you never knew when it came to Hogwarts and Anna was a Pirate Princess or something after all and therefore could be more likely to be stolen.

Back to the lesson which unfortunately Aurora hadn’t been paying too much attention to since the arrival of Anna. Her immediate thought to the question of where to buy a love potion was ‘in a shop’ but the other students were offering actual names of shops so she kept her mouth shut. The next question was a little harder although she could think of plenty of issues associated with giving people love potions, especially little second years who didn’t want to fall in love just yet. “What if two people drink love potions and think they’re in love but one of them already have a partner and then they break up because the partner thinks they don’t love them anymore and that would be sad and the person that gave the love potions should feel really guilty about it!” Was that what the Professor meant?

"That certainly can happen...and if the potion is TOO potent, the drinker could get very sick," Javier said in response to Charlie's answer. "Which also means you have to brew the potion correctly - if you mess it up, the person you're trying to bewitch could instead need a trip to the hospital, and then you're opening yourself up to all sorts of questions," he added, nodding at Auden who brought up the point about cross contamination. Thankfully he'd never gotten to THAT point when he'd been under the curse of a love potion, but it was important to keep in mind that that COULD happen...

"Unfortunately...yes," Javier said, tensing as he answered Anna's question. He wouldn't go into details for obvious reasons - not to mention the memory was still raw and painful despite being almost a decade ago now. "It's a strange thing when your food is laced with a love potion, it's like...you smell the food as you normally would, but it evokes the same emotions the other smells do in your brain, if that makes sense," he explained. He couldn't think of any other way of describing it.

Javier cracked a small smile at Maxine and nodded. "Yes, always be careful about what you're ingesting - that goes for ALL potions," he added. As for Desiree's question, he shook his head. "No, physical appearance has nothing to do with it. It's all based on the potion and who brews it," he explained.

Nadia brought up the fact that you could easily abuse them, which led to Hope bringing up a good point as well, and Javier nodded, glad that the girls had brought up the dangerous nature of these potions and how they could impact relationships AFTER the fact. "Correct - you're essentially deceiving someone with a love potion. Most people aren't too thrilled about that when they realize what is going on, so some desperate people - such as Merope Gaunt, if you all remember the tale of how Voldemort's parents met - continue to spike food with love potions to keep the facade alive," he explained. Sometimes people were so heartbroken after the whole thing that they ended up fleeing to Brazil. Some people. Not him. Never. Ahem.

"That would certainly be a devastating consequence of the potion, Miss Ackerly," Javier replied to her hypothetical situation with a nod. "Love potions can hurt people who aren't even under the influence of the potion! It's certainly happened before."

"So to sum up - love potions cannot only cause havoc on people's lives, but they can also be dangerous if not brewed correctly or if too much of it is administered. That is why it's important to know how to brew the antidote - it's never a bad idea to have some antidote on hand. Just in case!" he turned and waved his wand so that the recipe showed up on the blackboard behind him. He then turned to the side table and waved his wand again, and individual trays stocked with the ingredients, already counted out for each student, appeared ready for the students to come claim.

Quote:

*INGREDIENTS LIST*
14 Wiggentree twigs
1 vial of castor oil
2 tablespoons Gurdyroot extract

Begin with 1 liter of water in your cauldron, room temperature
Add four Wiggentree twigs, or until the potion turns green.
Stir until the potion turns orange.
Add castor oil until the potion turns blue. This will vary depending on how potent your Wiggentree twigs were (but should not exceed the amount in the 10mL vial of castor oil provided)
Stir clockwise until the potion turns purple.
Add 1 tablespoon of extract of Gurdyroot until the potion turns red.
Add 3 more Wiggentree twigs and stir counterclockwise for 2 minutes
Add 1/2 tablespoon of extract of Gurdyroot until the potion turns purple.
Light your fire under the cauldron. Leave the potion to simmer on low heat till it turns red.
Add the remainder of the gurdyroot extract till it turns green.
Stir clockwise till it turns orange.
Add seven Wiggentree twigs.
Allow to simmer on high heat till it turns pink

"Now, this potion is intended to counter the effects of the majority of love potions - but if you're under the influence of a particularly strong potion, it might not cancel it out completely," he warned them. He doubted any of them would come into contact with a potion that strong any time soon. "It will, at least, dampen the potion and help you become a bit more level headed," he assured them. It wasn't COMPLETELY negated if it came into contact with a powerful potion.

"You all have the rest of the lesson to work on your antidote," he told them with a soft smile. "If you have any questions, let me know. I'll be here," he walked around to the side of his desk and sat down, gesturing for them to head over to the side table and gather their things so they could begin.

OOC: And now it's time to brew! You have at least 72 hours to finish up here. As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Right then.

This potion was going to be one of those that required extra attention. Charlie continued to make his notes, jotting everything down from the need for careful brewing to devastating consequences. Then came the time to be brewing the antidote. Charlie surveyed the list of ingredients, noting that not much was required in that department, though the brewing process was an entirely different story. Um, not even water? Were they just supposed to add four Wiggenweld twigs into their empty cauldron and wait for them to turn green?

“Professor, just confirming but we don’t need to add water or other base along with the Wiggenweld twigs?” Forgive him but this sounded sort of weird. Or maybe it was the heat that would make the twigs turn green? But looking at that second step, it would mean that they would be stirring plain twigs in their cauldron. So please help a guy out here.

Auden picked up her tray from the side table and returned to her desk. Quill in hand once more, she took her time writing out the ingredients and directions in neat print in her potions journal. Hmm… Her eyebrows scrunched in thought as she flipped to notes from previous potion classes. Most seemed to start with a standard 500ml of water…was it safe to assume that was the case this time? Should she add that first?

The young girl cast a subtle glance at her classmates trying not to be too obvious until she heard another student pose the question. Yup, what he said.

Hope cleared off her desk and then obediently tripped up to collect her tray of ingredients. She was nearly back to her place before a thought struck her. Setting down her tray on her workspace, she turned and raised her hand with a question. "Professor--you mentioned that we should keep antidote on hand and that taking it would dampen the effects of most love potions. But if you had actually taken a love potion, would you know it? I mean, it seems likely that the potion would cloud your mind so that you might be acting strangely and not even realize it. Maybe it's a good idea to give some antidote to a friend or relative to give you if they noticed you acting a bit mad." Hope wondered who at school she could even rely on to do such a thing for her. Though it really seemed unlikely that anyone would want to try to get her to fall in love with them, now she thought on it. Shrugging, she started organizing her ingredients on her table while waiting for an answer.

Javier blinked and looked at the board and realized - whoops! Yup, he'd forgotten to add in how much water to add. "Oh, good catch!" he chuckled at Charlie and turned to the board to fix the recipe. "Go ahead and start with 1 liter of water."

He turned to Hope and nodded at her question. "Good point, and good question. It depends on the potion. You're right, generally you do NOT realize you have been under the influence of a potion, but sometimes if it isn't brewed properly you might be able to break through the haze. However, as you pointed out it is usually best to inform others that you have the antidote, so if they need to, THEY can be the ones to administer it," he explained.

OOC: eep! Sorry about the water bit guys. HP wiki is often super bland when it comes to potion ingredients and recipes so I generally add extra steps and stuff to add a little ~spice~ and forgot water in this instance HAHA. I'll keep the lesson open another day or two to allow catch up due to this!

Setting up her station, with all her ingredients within arms reach, Auden began the potion making portion of the lesson. At least she started to and then paused…did she need to light her cauldron first? It didn’t say to but then again maybe it was assumed and she, a first year, was over thinking this. She still needed to practice adjusting the temp on her Incendio charm after all and this was the best place to do that.

The young witch spared a moment to push back the sleeves of her robes before bringing out her wand and directing it at the bottom of her cauldron stand.
”Incendio.” she said with intent trying to be careful to imagine a small manageable flame like that on a stove and not a careless dumpster fire.

Adjusting the flame with a slow painstaking lowering of her wrist, the girl examined her flame. Well it certainly wasn’t too large but hopefully it was hot enough for whatever the spell called for. Next, the Ravenclaw carefully poured in the appropriate amount of water in her cauldron. Once that was done, she grabbed a Wiggentree twig and dropped it in, her eyes watching for any hint of greenness. Nothing yet, here goes another… she said to herself as she grabbed two more from her pile and added them in. Her third twig was a bit heftier than the other two so she wasn’t too surprised when she ended up not needing a fourth twig.

The liquid water contents of the potion turned green upon the addition of that third twig ( which was more of a stick really) and so Auden grabbed her mixing spoon and started to stir.

Casting a quick glance to the instructions, the Ravenclaw paused for a moment as she contemplated whether to stir clockwise or counterclockwise. The directions didn’t specify so she had to assume it didn’t matter and the mixing at this stage was just to incorporate the twigs into the water. It only took a few stirs until the leafy green of the water morphed into a tangerine color.

Now onto the next step, castor oil. Grabbing a dropper she hovered over her cauldron and started adding the oil one drop at a time. The better to be able to stop immediately the second the green evolved into a bluish color like the instructions said.

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.

Water it was then.

Charlie gave Hernandez an understanding smile; really, this sort of thing could happen to anyone. Now that the situation was sorted, the needed equipment was magically cleaned. Then off he went with the brewing! “Aguamenti.” One litre of room temperature water was measured and added to the cauldron. He added four Wiggentree Twigs. A fifth was just about to be added but the potion turned green at the moment the fifth was about to be released.

Um, did the stirring occur clockwise or counterclockwise? Charlie was having misgivings about this potion and was already sure that it was being brewed incorrectly on his part. He chose the former, stirring and stirring until the contents turned orange. Castor oil was slowly added, the full 10 ML apparently {probably the potion was deformed in some way and couldn’t take less of the oil}. More stirring ensued, with Charlie taking his time in doing so. Another thing his strong Beater arms came in useful for since he had energy for as long as this activity took. Which was actually a few minutes. With the potion purple, the first tablespoon of Gurdyroot extract was poured; Char watched as it turned red.

Three more Wiggentree twigs were added before stirring happened for two minutes. Half tablespoon Gurdyroot extract joined the mix. With the contents now purple again, the burner was lit. “Incendio.” The burner was quickly adjusted to low and while Char waited for the potion to change back to red, he tidied up the workstation.

Once the potion was red, the last of the Gurdyroot extract joined the cauldron where it all turned green. Clockwise stirring saw to it that the next shade was orange. Lastly, seven Wiggentree twigs were added. This meant that the simmering needed to happen. The burner was adjusted to high heat and while Char cleaned his stirrer, the potion turned that pink colour.

Not such a deformed potion after all.

The second year couldn’t help grinning whenever her answer was praised by a Professor even if it wasn’t in the exact direction that they were hoping for. Her Ma had said that Rora was good at ‘thinking outside of the box’, very far out of the box sometimes. Giving a normal mundane answer was boring anyway and it was the type that every other student would say.

Aurora wasn’t the best at potions, probably because there were so many steps to brewing and she usually got so over-excited about the next step that she’d miss something out or stir it the wrong way or just get distracted by the prettiest of colours the liquids made as they bubbles within her cauldron. The same was applying today as the older students were getting on with their potions and creating pretty swirls and the twelve year old couldn’t help but peek into the other cauldrons as she practically dragged Anna by the hand over to the trays of ingredients. Professor Hernandez hadn’t expressly said they couldn’t work in pairs and the Ravenclaw thought she always did her best when she had a companion spurring her on. Back to her desk she went carefully carrying the tray so as to not drop everything and make an absolute mess like she and Anna had made in the kitchens with their attempts at making ice cream sundaes.

“Hmm..” she pondered mostly to herself. Now what was the first instruction?

Aurora was just the sweetest and it was simply impossible to not give her friend a squishy hug when she showed such concern. "Nothing as exciting as all that...though cornish pixies did try a couple of times," she lamented with pseudo dramatics. "...I kind of just forgot Potions was on my schedule and the notes on my arms got all smudged and I misread them." Then there was the whole thing now of having her robes all soaked with ink which meant her inkwell was emptyish now too - a fact she was not entirely aware of but would be soon enough once she started writing down the recipe. But before all that, Anna let out a very LOUD and VERY audible gasp when the professor shared that he had been under the influence of a love potion. A curious mix of horror (because of what Aurora had asked) and curiosity (because she was just innately a very curious fun sized being). Professor Hernandez had just unlocked a TON of follow up questions...but alas, there was apparently no time for that now.

Unfortunately, it only increased her curiosity about love potions and...well...wasn't one way of having a good defense knowing precisely what you were up against and how it felt? Someone had mentioned Hogsmeade so...maybe...now that she had Daniel's guidance with her rainbow business...she could...well...she could put off purchasing her school books just a tad longer. Like...until fourth year?

And you know what was only encouraging her to stay on the train of thought she was currently riding and maybe hit up the food trolley for additional treats? The fact that they were learning how to brew the antidote!

"Aurora!" Anna hissed excitedly in her own stage whisper. "I have a brilliant idea...but I'll tell you after class so spies don't hear it. We just have to make sure we brew our antidotes perfectly." MUCH easier said than done considering it was Anna doing the brewing but maybe with this new focus she be able to accomplish the task at last.

Invigorated with possibility, Anna began adding water to her cauldron with Aguamenti...only her enthusiasm made it JET out so there was water spraying everywhere for a couple of seconds and sufficiently soaked her front and possibly others. BUT, the important thing was that she HAD accomplished the spell and had, probably, enough water in her cauldron now. Humming to herself, Anna added her twigs as conversation turned again to KNOWING or not about the influence of a love potion...which was more good information for her brilliant idea and she already had a work around with her failsafe.

This would be AWESOME!

Desiree wasn’t blind to the fact that her answer to the last question was the only one that got a no. Merlin’s beard! Was anything she said in this lesson correct?! What if she made mistakes like that on the OWL? She was getting frustrated - and confused! If love potions’ efficacy depended on the attractiveness of the giver, and said attractiveness wasn’t measured by appearance, how was it measured?!

Never mind, she’d try to find out in the library later. Better that than risk saying the wrong thing in this class again! Okay, Des, no more mistakes today! She told herself as the love potion antidote directions appeared on the board. She retrieved her tray of ingredients, carefully carrying it back to her station. Wasting no time, she set to work cleaning her cauldron and equipment with a quick Scourgify.

Glancing at the board, she did a double take. Did she miss how much water she was supposed to add? She was mildly relieved to overhear Charlie’s question. Apparently she wasn’t seeing things after all! Okay, 1L of water, got it! Brandishing her wand, she cast, “Aguamenti!” She carefully measured out 1L of water and added it to her cauldron. Then came the Wiggentree twigs. She dropped the four twigs into her cauldron one at a time, watching the mixture all the while. As she added the final twig, the potion started to change color, turning a nice shade of green. So far, so good. What next?

Desiree checked the board for the next step: stir until the potion turns orange, Okay, she could do that. Stir, stir, stir, stir… She stirred the contents of her cauldron, looking at the mixture every so often. After a couple of minutes, the potion gradually turned a bright orange. Next step was adding the castor oil. She opened her vial and used her dropper to add the contents to her potion bit by bit. With each drop, she paused to check for any sign of color change. When she’d added about ⅔ of the contents of her vial, the mixture changed from orange to blue. Now what? More stirring… okay then.

Desiree stirred clockwise until the potion turned purple. Ooh, such a pretty color! Could it stay that color, please? She looked to the board for the next step. Okay, apparently not. Picking up her measuring spoons, she measured out 1 tbsp of Gurdyroot extract and added it to her cauldron. She observed the color change. Red was a pretty color too, just not as pretty as purple! Then came more Wiggentree twigs and more stirring. She added the three twigs to the cauldron and set her timer for two minutes, stirring the mixture in a counterclockwise direction until the timer went off.

When she finished stirring, she looked at the board again. Another ½ tbsp of Gurdyroot extract was the next step. She measured out the correct amount and added it to her cauldron, watching as the mixture changed color. Yay, the pretty purple was back! She aimed her wand at the base of her burner and cast, “Incendio!” Her spell produced a low flame, just as she’d intended. Thank Merlin she was better at spellwork than she was at potions!

Desiree watched the simmering potion until the pretty purple had morphed into a shade of red. When the color change had taken place, she added the rest of her Gurdyroot extract. Another color change occurred, this time from red to green. What was next? She looked at the board. Even more stirring, clockwise this time. Stir, stir, stir… Desiree kept stirring until the potion turned orange again. Now… blink, blink. More Wiggentree twigs? Goodness! She counted seven twigs and added them to the cauldron one at a time. When she was finished with that, she watched her simmering potion for the final color change to pink. Any minute now…

Wait.. what?!

What did Anna mean Cornish Pixies tried to kidnap her? Aurora had never even seen a Pixie let alone be subjected to being stolen by one which quite frankly sounded horrifying. That being said Rora had a similar sort of relationship with gnomes. “Why are tiny magical creatures so obsessed with stealing children? Last year a GNOME tried to EAT me.” It was ever so traumatic and had others not come to her rescue Aurora might have ended up in the hospital wing with the absolute tiniest of bites. But Anna didn’t have to know it was literally the smallest gnome that targeted her and had it succeeded it would’ve probably inflicted no damage at all. “I’m glad you remembered! Professor Hernandez didn’t punish you tooooo much.” Although he might if the pair didn’t stop talking.

Back to the lesson, the gathered ingredients sat on the tray in front of her which the Ravenclaw went to prepare when Anna leaned over to talk to her again. “OH!” she grinned excitedly. Aurora loved secrets but unfortunately her over-excitedness often meant she’d run her mouth prematurely. “Okay but I’m not very good at potions. I’ll try my hardest to though.” Pinky swear!

Turning back to her own cauldron, the second year was suddenly soaked by the back splash of Anna’s attempted spell which Aurora attempted to clean up by holding out her measuring cup and collecting the excess water. Once satisfied that there was about a litre of water she poured it into her cauldron. In went the Wiggentree twigs which she counted in. “One.. two.. three.. four!” Not that counting was hard but it was good to make sure. She watched in trepidation as the water turned green and then again as the potion morphed into orange as she gave it a good but perhaps overly-enthusiastic stir causing the potion to splosh about a bit and drip over the edge.

Oops.

That didn’t matter too much, right?

Plop. Plop. Plop. Went the castor oil as she dropped it into the liquid a little at a time until the potion turned Ravenclaw blue. By this time the girls tongue was fully poking out in a face of pure concentration.

The enthusiastic clockwise stirring came back as even more potion dropped over the side and onto the stone floor of the classroom only this time it was a beautiful shade of purple. If anyone had seen the state of the kitchens after she had been in there they’d understand why there was such a mess being left behind.

Oh goody…they would be brewing an antidote to love potions instead of one of the love potions themselves. Nadia definitely relaxed at that fact, much preferring NOT to have a hand in any such potion herself. The Gryffindor got to setting up her workspace, making sure everything was clean and copying the ingredients into her notes to start after having gathered them. And then there was the older Huffepuff catching into the mistake causing her to be sure to add the water too.

Good call.

“Aquamenti,” she cast, letting the water flow as she measured it out as 1 liter before stopping the spell, pouring the clear liquid into her cauldron. Then in went the wiggenweld twigs that she grabbed. One…two…three…four…it taking all of them to turn the liquid green but at least it did. In went her stirring rod as she begun to stir as instructed, watching carefully to see the color of her brew to change once more. Once it turned her Daddy’s favorite color, she moved on, adding the castor oil into the mix, stopping as it turned her Papa’s favorite color. The vial capped back up securing the remaining liquid within.

More stirring…her hand and thus rod moving clockwise as the instructions instructed, her eyes keeping track to see just when it turned purple. This sure was a colorful potion for sure. Nadia couldn’t help but wonder if it would hit all the colors of the rainbow by the time they were done. Now went in half the Gurdyroot extract, her work turning an almost blood red color after which she added three more wiggenweld twigs before she stirred some more. This time counterclockwise for two minutes.

After a few more drops, the potion had finally acquired a blue color although Auden had to admit maybe it could be bluer but she was hesitant to add more.
It did look more teal than cerulean so maybe one more drop? Adding one more tiny little drop, the young witch bit her lip as she stared with bated breath at the liquid in her potion. Phew. In one big gust, she let out all the air in her lungs as she saw it now looked a true blue color. Thank Merlin!

Time to grab up her spoon again. Stirring clockwise, Auden stopped once she saw the blue deepen to purple. And such a pretty purple it was. Shame it couldn’t stay that color long. Eyes squinting at the tiny notches of writing on her measuring spoons, she singled out the tablespoon and used it to measure out her extract of Gurdyroot. The back of another spoon worked to level off the amount so it was hopefully a more precise measurement. Now, she carefully held it over the cauldron, giving it small little shakes to add a small amount at a time until the potion turned red.

Things were going pretty good! the first year thought to herself as she moved on to the next step. More Wiggentree twigs and two minutes of counterclockwise stirring. Bobbing her head side to side as she counted in her head, she wondered if there was some sort of charm or magical device that worked like a muggle timer did. Something a bit more sophisticated than a bulky hourglass…maybe a magical hourglass? That you could magically modify the amount of sand in?

Her runaway thoughts almost made her lose her count. Almost.
Adding another half tablespoon of Gurdyroot extract she was happy to see the purple color from before return. Then it was time for the potion to simmer for a bit at low heat. Keeping a watchful eye for the red color that would indicate it was time for the next step, Auden tidied up her measuring utensils while she waited.

In no time at all, the moment came to add her remaining Gurdyroot and stir some more. This time clockwise as the potion changed from green to orange. Now for the piece de resistance! 7 more Wiggentree twigs. Dropping them in slowly so as not to splash over the edge, the young Ravenclaw added all seven and then brought out her wand once more to add a little more Incendio to the flame for the high heat it needed.

Hmm…wasn’t it supposed to turn pink? How long until that happened? Maybe it needed to simmer some more…

Auden cast a dubious glance at the bright orange concoction in her cauldron who’s sheen didn’t seem to be changing at all. Maybe she’d done something wrong?

Rereading the directions, the first year’s eyes widened under her bangs. OH POOPSICLES! Room temp water! She’d cast Incendio at the very beginning! No wonder her potion didn’t look like it was supposed to!

Raising her hand, she waved the Professor over before her embarrassment got the better of her and made her stay quiet. ”Professor Hernandez, I’m sorry but I think I messed up.” Gesturing to her very not pink potion that was actually now more of a noxious orange and bubbling alarmingly, she dropped her shoulders in defeat. ”No…I know I did. I lit a fire under my cauldron from the very beginning instead of after the Gurdyroot extract. I’m sorry. ” Eyes downcast to hide how she was fighting tears, she bit her lip. She’d had such aspirations for being the best in her year at potions and now well she was decidedly not.