Forrest arrived at the potions classroom after breakfast on Saturday after class with a book that probably weighed more than him, to find the classroom...

...empty. Completely. Not even a fly in here.

He'd hoped, prayed, that there would be people in here. OLDER people too, preferably, who might have helped him a little with his choice of ingredients. But it was only him and himself in there, and his disappointment and panic was obvious on his face.

Setting the book down on the closest table, he finally noticed the flying paper and took a look at it, his disappointment turning into fear, panic and anger.

"'If you fail, that is alright.'" he repeated angrily in a woman's voice. The Professor wouln't hear that, right?! "You'll get a zero, but that's fine!" He didn't even know what a 'bezoar' was, and all his enthusiasm to find out had flown away. In fact, he just wanted to sit down there and cry and whine and call for his mother who was 5300 kilometres away in Riyadh. His annoyance wasn't about the 'testing' part though, because with a piece of simple grass, dead stick, dirty lake water and a wild daisy, nothing would happen. The 'failing' part annoyed him, and the size of expectation. He was a bloody muggleborn first year, and he was expected to find GOOD ingredients then brew a bloody WORKING potion with them, only for it to be SOLD for the bloody Hogwarts.

Crying there seemed like the wisest thing he'd ever do in his life, but with a last effort that was for his mother and father only, he lifted the book again and found his table. It stood out perfectly from the others that had fancy ingredients on them. Dropping the book on it, since he didn't quite care whether anything fell, he just plopped himself down and fonded his hand on the book to lie his head over them.

Maybe if he looked miserable enough, professor would pity him and excuse him or something.

Blehhh. Do homework in Potions? For Lafay? The woman wouldn't probably care.

But anyway, Zeke dropped by the classroom to check up on things and see who were planning to brew up some who-knows-what potion. Entering the place, the Gryffindor was half-surprised to find the room almost isolated...except for one kid.

Oh cool. It was the itching guy from the train. Hmm, wonder if he'd resolved his allergies or whatever he had. "Hey kiddo." He grinned at the ickle firstie then eyed his badge. Hufflepuff, eh?

"Erm, you okay?" No, Zeke. He absolutely did not look okay at all. Problem with potions? That wasn't new.

Hey kiddo.

That wasn't a way a professor would greet a student. Forrest lifted his head grudgingly. He remembered the boy from the train. He was the one so keen on calling him a kiddo. Zeke. Gryffindor. Pretty old too, though Forrest didn't know his grade. Maybe he knew something. Maybe he had better ingredients. Who knew? All in all, he wasn't a professor, and Forrest was past hoping he could brew something that would work. He just wanted his CLEAN and FREE home with good meals and his family.

His lip trembled, so it took him some time to answer the boy. As if it wasn't obvious. He was ANGRY at him too for showing up in there. Now, even if the professor came, she wouldn't think he was miserable enough, because he looked like he was working with an older student.

"I'm not," he answered at last in a thick voice, looking at him grudgingly still. His grudge wasn't directed at him really, but he was the first living thing that seemed to be worried for him and he just had to bear it or leave.

Straightening up, he didn't even let the boy answer.

"How can she expect me to collect the right ingredients? I'm a first year and a muggleborn--the worst combination ever! And she also expects me to brew the correct potion--I don't even count the 'discovering' part of it in two little weeks--as if I don't have eight-something other classes already, as if nothing truly would happen if my potion didn't work..." He trailed off as his lower lip started to tremble more strongly.

Tears had started to form in his eyes, and he would be crying if he uttered one more word.

So he wasn't okay, which was quite obvious if the seventeen year old had been paying more attention. Before he could even ask what's wrong, the Hufflepuff beat him to it.

............oh. Listening to Forrest shoot out words one after the other, Zeke bit his lip. Whoah. He'd forgotten how much the firsties cared a lot about their grades and homework. Well, I guess Zeke will be doing his homework in Potions after all.

"Hey, hey," panic. WHAT TO DO WHEN A SMALL GUY IS ON THE VERGE ON TEARS IN FRONT OF YOU. Uhhh. His hands began to flail a bit, not knowing what to do. "Uh, erm. D-don't cry."

Gulp. "L-let's see here, hm? Uhm what kinds of stuff did you gather around? I could help you, I guess." His eyes wandered off to the table. This kid did gather ingredients, didn't he?

'Don't cry'? 'Don't cry'?! If he wasn't on the verge of tears, or if he was a third person watching the scene, Forrest would have laughed with all his being. Now, though, he did quite the opposite--he started crying. His face got all ugly and red as tears fell down his cheeks. He did try to hold it back though--only, he FAILED in that TOO like he failed in magic.

He sobbed dramatically, oblivious to the boy's panic as he was overwhelmed with his. He hoped momentarily that maybe the boy was potions-champion or something, but he killed the hope before it got too strong. There was nobody that could help him now, except maybe his mother to calm him down and teach the Professor a lesson, and she was 5300 kilometres away. So he just sat there and sobbed for a while, until he could breathe properly.

"I got nothin'," he replied despite a bunch of dried grass, a bottle of lake water, a wild daisy and a dead stick on his table. Because honestly, who would count them as ingredients?

"I'll get a zero and--" he sobbed, giving in to tears fully.

Oh crap. Shoot, shoot. This was not good. NOT GOOD AT ALL.

Nothing? At all? He wanted to ask this but again he couldn't. What to do when a firstie cries in front of you? Ugh, they were always so energetic and bouncy and all that. "Ey, erm, uh...." WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT? "You won't get a zero. Don't give up that easily."

No wait. This was not a Gryffindor so he can't exactly say "giving up is not what lions do." Err, say "giving up is not what badgers do?" Replace lions with badgers. "I've got some ingredients....maybe I could help you find new ones as well?" unless the badger wanted to go "find another person's ingredients where they left them" His eyes lingered on the bunch of stuff Forrest gathered. Normal stuff, it appeared to the seventh year. "Or I'll give you mine." That would same him the job of doing his homework that he did not intend to do at all.

"Just stop crying, please."

Tucker expected more people in the potions classroom, but was pleased when he found that there really weren't TOO many people there and it was nice and open for him to work. He walked past a pair who were already working--was that dude CRYING? Whaaa--and went to his workstation. He'd been pretty quiet during class but he'd been able to come up with a few ingredients that he thought would make a pretty decent anti-acne potion.

He pulled out his ingredients - flitterbloom, dittany, mint and rat spleen. He'd done some research and it seemed like THIS potion was probably the only thing he could make with this hodgepodge of ingredients.

Well, time to get to work!

Jory entered the room where they were supposed to make their Potion. There were only a few students there but he didn't mind. It would be less crowded and less fumes. And less chances of sustaining any injury.

The Puffer had a jar containing three caterpillars, five daisies and three eagle owl feathers in his bag. And also his book containing the instructions he and Annabeth had worked on earlier. He hoped he had packed everything they would need because he thought he was going to be late for meeting Anna and had hurried out from the dorm.

Jory bag down on one of the tables and unpacked the necessary materials. "Better wait for Anna,'' he thought. To pass the time, he studied the potion recipe they came up with.

Yeah yeah, if he had SOMETHING, he wouldn't have given up. But he had nothing at all and the professor would know if he cheated. He didn't know how, but they always knew.

"She said we should work with our ingredients only," he answered as he was calmed down a little, though his face was all swollen and his voice was still trembling. He wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeves as two more people came in. Zeke could see him crying, but these two couldn't.

"You can't." In regards to his offer of giving his material to him. "She'll know." So Forrest was in fact ready to take them, if only she wouldn't know. He wasn't crying anymore though, he was just breathing heavily and he was pretty tired from all the stress and crying. He just missed his home. He didn't want to be a wizard, he could be as well happy being an engineer or something. In fact, if being a wizard meant cleaning and earning easy money, he might as well give up on his ability.

"I'll--work something out by myself." He finally met his gaze, his eyes looking beaten. It wasn't out of pride or anything, he just didn't want to take him down with himself as he was the best Hufflepuff the Sorting Hat had ever sorted. Being helpful and all.

Riiight. Again, Hufflepuff: rule followers. Sigh.

Oh well. If the kid says he doesn't need help, though indirectly meant, then better leave him off to himself. With a deep breath, Zeke stood up reluctantly. "Okay then, if you say so," he said softly then frowned. GAH, this feeling. He hated this. He really wished he could have at least done something to help Forrest.

In general, he seemed like a nice kid and the seventh year felt really bad for leaving him alone. Maybe someone else would come along and help the boy? Guilty feels. But really it seems like there was nothing Zeke could contribute at all. Unless he was some kind of transfiguration expert.

....TRANSFIGURATION! Why didn't he think of it before? Wait, that was possible right? Ehhhh. Zeke had doubts. Okay nevermind, just walk away now mister. Walk away. He mumbled a quick "Sorry," and began to head for the door.

Daichi was pretty much excited about this homework. It was finally something that did not involve any stupid cleaning so the Slytherin had entered the open classroom with a good feeling.

With his school bag over his shoulders he found a desk and placed the bag down on top of it. He zipped the bag open and took out four vials, the ingredients he had found during the lesson.

Placing the vials to the side, the Prefect placed his bag on the ground and looked around. He didn't see his partner, Sonea anywhere in the room so he quickly checked his watch and saw that he was a little bit early.

He sat down on the chair and waited for the younger Slytherin

"Hi, everybody!" Grinning, Annabeth greeted the other students while discretely was scanning the room, looking for his new hero friend: Jori.

She found him studying their potion,she noticed that he had already chosen a table for their homework, it was filled with his ingredients: she was late. Better to run to the table.
"Hi, Jori. Sorry for my delay... I was trying to filter the flobberworm mucus and I was so entertained that I delayed... But it's clean, I got it! Look!" she said her eyes shining, and she took out the bottle from her rucksack. The green goo was translucid and it didn't show any traces of dried leaves or clods. She had a big smile in her face: "I think it'll work. The others ingredients are here: horned slug, sprigs of lavender and fresh nettles." She said unpacking the ingredients that she had wrapped carefully in a yellow paper. "I'm so excited!! It's my first potion!" She clapped her hands happily. She was confident that with the help of the seventh year student, she would reach that goal.

When the Potions Mistress gave homework like the one she gave, it was always good to work with a Ravenclaw, no questions asked. They were the ones who'd be able to work their way around ingredients that had nothing to do with each other and she would be the one providing motivation and moral support--she didn't mind being the tester too. That in itself would be an adventure.

This being the case she was working with Mo. Yup. Mo. Even if he wasn't meant to be talking to her, she didn't plan to go through this without someone who might have actually known what they were doing.

As a last resort she was prepared to have him communicate with her through parchment writing.

Mhm, she was well prepared. After finding the table that had her ingredients, she fixed them along the table and put the parchment and quill to the side. But again, that was a last resort. Now to wait...Ravenclaws were usually early, yeah?

Mika ran her hands through her hair as she set up her cauldron and placed them on the table in front of her. She just bit her lip. She pulled her unicorn hair closer to her and sighed. Unicorn hair, flobberworm mucus, peppermint, and aloe vera.

She bit her lip and organized her ingredients again. Just staring at them, wondering how on earth she was going to put them together. She needed help and fast. She quickly pulled the other ingredient she had snagged on the trip and placed it on the table next to the unicorn hair...unicorn dung, that was more unique right? So she put the hairs back into the bag and frowned.

"Scourgify" she cleaned the cauldron and just stared at it. She didn't know what to do first.

It was sort of an act of rebellion, wasn't it? Like... West had called Mo a liar about being friends with Lex (which he wasn't) and had stopped being his friend... so was there really any reason now not to be nice to the little Gryffindor? Other than the occasional bouts of being crazy-making? It wasn't like West cared what he did anymore anyway.

So here he was partnering with her in Potions. "I hope you know that I'm sort of brilliant at Potions, or at least I'm very very passable, and I won't be exploding anything on purpose or on accident today," Mo bossed her in a general way as he entered the room and took up a spot near Lex.

"Also, hi. So let's pool our ingredients and see what we have. I have magical horse hair. Unicorn and Abraxan, although I thought I had thestral... Also, I have dandelions, cockroaches that are still alive, and moke skin. What about you?"

So she was feeling a little doubtful about her potion making ability. Not her potion making ability as in, general following directions and getting things done correctly, cause she was good at doing that. More in the way that her ingredients might not make anything at all when put together.

She spread them out on her table and stared at them. She flipped open her Potions book and desperately tried to find something that used all of her ingredients. What if we can make a potion with only SOME of our ingredients? Is that okay? She wasn't sure.

She pulled out her notes from class as a reference for the properties of her ingredients.

SPOILER!!: Ingredients

Daisy - Used in the Shrinking Solution, so it must have shrinking or compacting qualities.

Leech - Used in Polyjuice Potion and Shrinking Solution - They absorb things, namely blood, but would presumably soak up other things in a potion.

Spotted Owl Feather - Couldn't find anything for, but an Eagle Owl Feather is used in dragon tonic and must be a healing agent because it heals sick dragons.

Salt - Has healing properties. Can be used to treat scale rot, common in dragons. Used in medicines.

She looked around the Potions classroom, hoping someone might want to partner up with her. Maybe they would have things to use that could be mutually beneficial for a potion?

"That's slightly disappointing." She commented lightly, now being joined by her potion buddy--YES, Potion Buddy, whether he accepted that title or not because they were now sharing the same cauldron. NOD. "I'll just have to find my own explosion somewhere else once this is all over." That wouldn't have been so hard.

And there was the delayed hi to which she responded with an almost loud, "HAI." She did a mental run over of everything he'd said before casting her gaze on the ingredients before her. "I've got ginger roots, chicken feathers, black pepper and water--oh I have parchment too but that was for a different reason and I won't be needing it anymore." Really it wasn't worth mentioning but it would have been rude to introduce everything but it. It might have felt excluded.

"So now we get started on not making things blow up." SIGH. "First things first. What are we making?" She looked over her ingredients and Mo's. "I don't think I know of a potion that has this combination. Any ideas?"

Always ask the Ravenclaw; it was like a rule, didn't you know that???

Now it was time to start working on her potion. She already knew what she wanted to do (thanks to an annoying mosquito bite on her arm). So now all she needed was her ingredients. But before she could look, she was smacked in the head by a flying piece of parchment. That contained the instructions. Thanks, Professor Lafay. But the fact that she wasn't making them get out and sell the potions. And it made sense that the money made would go to Hogwarts, as much as she hated it. Blegh. The school was turning them into their own personal little moneymakers.

Anywho, Sky find her ingredients right where she'd left them, just like the flying note had said she would. She grabbed a cauldron and cast a Scourgify on it. Then her handwritten instructions came out of her pocket. "Aguamenti." Once the cauldron was a third of the way full, she canceled the charm. Then she lit a fire underneath. Come on now, boil!

Clement wasn't exactly sure whether his ingredients were going to actually work anything. He'd brought his potions book with him, because he wanted to have a better look at the ingredients. Walking into he room, he was nearly knocked in the face by flying instructions. He reached out, grabbing the parchment. Perfect. He read them quickly, before wandering over to one of the benches, and sitting down. He placed the instructions down, before placing his bag onto the table. He pulled his potions text book out, followed by his four ingredients. As he was unsure of if they were going to go together, he just wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to blow the potions lab up.

Clement sat down, flicking through the text book, and spending the next 5 minutes reading. Hmm. That wasn't too bad. Fertilizer. It looked like it would make a fertilizer. Well they could work. Although he wasn't too good at herbology, he would make do with a fertilizer. Good thing that he'd brought the book, because he'd use the instructions in the book to do his potion.

Okay. The first thing he needed to do was clean his cauldron. Pointing his wand into the cauldron he muttered "scourgify" and it was nice and clean. Perfect. Now to add water. Pointing his wand again he murmured "Aguamenti." And waited until the cauldron was half filled, as the instructions said. Placing his wand down, he turned the flame on underneath. Now he just needed to wait for it to boil. He turned to look at the instructions, and whilst he waited for the water to boil, he began cutting up the nettle leaves and the kelp in turn. At least then it would be ready to add in.

Beezus Castell's dark brown eyes immediately looked around for her younger Ravenclaw, Mika, as soon as she stepped into the classroom. She wasn't able to find the girl quickly, however, because her field of vision was then blocked by a note flying about. She snagged it irritably and was about to crumple it down had it not been for the content it withheld.

It had the set of instructions Professor Lafay had left for their assignment. Surely, she was out of her mind if she tried messing with that note. Nope. She wasn't exactly stupid. Being burned by their Potions Mistress or sent to detention wasn't in her sixth year bucket list.

She read over the instructions carefully before releasing the paper back into air. It was the only one around, it seemed.

Following what was written, she moved with enthusiasm and trudged over to the table she had been occupying for almost six years now. She'd always used that workstation. She was comfortable with it so she didn't want to change that. Unless....irreversible circumstances presented itself. In a matter of a few minutes, she had gathered her ingredients: unicorn tail hair, jobberknoll feathers, gillyweed and bubotuber pus. Then she made her way towards her waiting chickadee who was now cleaning her cauldron.

"Mika..." She nudged the girl as she settled her ingredients next to hers. If she wasn't wrong, the girl also had unicorn dung, aloe vera, peppermint and flobberworm mucus. Of course, she knew. They've planned out to work together on this one and Beezus had taken the liberty to asking what ingredients she had so she could do a research ahead of things. "So, I've looked up stuff. And I think I know what kind of potion we're going to brew." She nodded and gave the girl an encouraging smile.

She wasn't 100% sure but at least, she got the gist of things. Researching was a huge help, really.

Jory looked up from his book as he heard a familiar voice. "Hello, Anna,' he greeted to first year with a smile. "It's no problem. I'm just going over out potion.'' He thought they had done a really good job with this and didn't mind if they failed in brewing it. At least they had tried something.

The Puffer grinned. "Yes, yes,'' he told the excited girl. "I know your ingredients.'' He lined hers up next to his then glanced back at his book. "So, you all set, Anna?'' He heard her say something about this being her first potion. He remembered when he made his first potion too. He had been just as excited as she was. "Do you think we should make any changes to the recipe?''



If everything was alright, they could start preparing the ingredients.

Cut. Cut. Cut. Clement kept a careful eye on his water as he cut the kelp up carefully. He didn't want it to over boil, because that would make his potion redundant. Pausing, once he'd cut all of the kelp, he glanced into the cauldron, and noted that the water was boiling. Perfect. He glanced at the instructions from his text book again. "Put cut kelp into boiling water...stir clockwise 5 times, the anti-clockwise another 5 times. Okay." He nodded, before placing his knife on the bench. Carefully, he picked up the cut bit of kelp, and placed them into the cauldron, being careful not to splash too much. He really did not want to get burned, that would not be cool. After placing the kelp into the cauldron, he picked up his wand, and with the use of a spell, turned the water 5 times clockwise, and then 5 times anti-clockwise. Well that had gone fine so far. He glanced over, looking at the potion, which had gone a pale greeny sort of colour once he had placed the kelp in, and stirred.

He frowned, not too sure if that was correct, and looked back to his text book. Ahh. It was the correct color. Perfect. Now he had to leave that to boil or brew or whatever for 5 minutes. Okay. That seemed simple. Clement placed his wand back down, in the spine of the book, so he wouldn't lose it, and began reading the next set of instructions, so he would know what he had to do next.

'Jori is really nice, careful and thoughtful. It'd be wonderful if my brother were like Jori', Annabeth thought, before replying, looking into Jori's eyes:

"Nope... I think it's already amazing. We worked so hard studying all the ingredients carefully, their effects, the order they should be added... I don't know anything about the stirring, nor the heating nor the timing, but I trust in your knowledge. I'm confident: it'll work."

She took a deep breath: "what can I do know? I thought I could chop the caterpillars. May I?" She asked and took a small and shiny knife from her rucksack.

"Oh, Jori, when I'm excited I often talk and talk and talk nonstop... If I'm driving you crazy, please, just let me know and I'll be quiet." She said imitating with her left hand the gesture of closing her mouth with a zipper, her eyes wide open and holding a smile.

Kace decided to do the potions homework. He might as well get it started. Once got down to the homework room, he noticed other students working on their potions as well. Well at least he wasn't alone.

He checked his ingredients to see what potion he could do but he was stuck, he really had no idea what potion to do.

SPOILER!!: Kace's parchment

*Valerian Root- the roots are used for ingredients in potions such as the Draught of the Living death and Draught of peace.
*Aconite-Its flowers are useful in potion-making, but its leaves are very toxic. aconite is most commonly known as an ingredient of Wolfsbane Potion.
*Water- water has a number of applications, such as its use in Potions, the preferred form being standard potioning water. It can be produced at will using magic.
*Eagle Owl Feather-They are used in the Dragon Tonic.

Maybe he could work with an older student and they together could come up with an idea for an potion. He was looking through the textbook for ideas in the meantime.