Professor Newton was saying that he was okay, but Esme was not going to completely back off. "Okay, but if something bad happens I am getting her." Just so that he knew. If he faceplanted into the desk all bets were off and she was getting Healer Murdoch.

For the moment, however, she was going to focus on the lesson and the Aging Potion that they were being asked to brew. How interesting. Esme wondered what sort of things she could do while 'older'. Obviously some of the thoughts that came to her head were illegal but it didn't hurt to think about things even if she would never do them. Would it be so bad to get a tattoo? If you asked her mother the answer would be YES. Kind of funny since she had some tattoos herself... Clearly it was an 'adult thing'. Best to wait until she was of age then.

Biting her lip slightly, she set about jotting down the recipe. Would it be better to work on her own or with someone who was better at Potions? Honestly she would rather do it all herself. Even after trying to get more into group work last term Esme wanted to do everything by herself. If she needed assistance she could ask Rat Man. Not like he wasn't up at the front anyway. Let's see how well she could do with an advanced potion by herself.

After cleaning her work area and cauldron she made sure that her lab coat was done up properly and donned her drangonhide gloves. Once the ingredients were all gathered and her equipment was cleaned she was ready to get started.

SPOILER!!: Esme's Notes

AGING POTION

Ingredients
100ml Red Wine
10ml Prune Juice
2g Hairy fungus, mashed
2g Tortoise Shell, powdered
5g Caterpillar, sliced
1 Bat Tongue, diced

Instructions
Prepare all ingredients as listed in the ingredients list, weighing and measuring each carefully.
Slowly heat the red wine and prune juice and begin stirring clockwise until you can just see bubbles starting to form. (The mixture will be dark purple/brown)
Immediately add the Hairy Fungus and continue to stir clockwise for ten minutes. (The mixture will slowly fade to a lighter purple/brown)
Continuing to stir clockwise, add the tortoise shell. (The mixture will be a creamy color)
After eight minutes, remove the cauldron from the heat and add the caterpillar and bat tongue, making sure to continue to stir the solution in a clockwise motion for five minutes, until it changes to a creamy green colour.
As the potion cools, it will turn emerald green. Once it is completely cooled (about fifteen to twenty minutes), you may cease dispense the potion into appropriate vials for storage.

Characteristics: Emerald Green
Level: Advanced
Information: The effects are dosage based; the more ingested, the older one will age

By the time the tortoise shell resembled anything remotely powder-like, Hadley arm felt like re-fried rubber bands. She looked pleadingly at Mossy, but knew even before the girl answered that it wasn't good enough. She switched the pestle into her other hand, because she her main hand was just practically dead.

Finally it was nice and powdery-ish. It went on a plate as well. And oh thank Merlin. No more crushing or mashing. She'd need her right hand for that though.

Hadley gave herself a break, letting the feeling return to her dominant hand. Three minutes later, she was ready. Swapping out the 2 gram weight for a 5 gram weight, Hadley measured the caterpillar to make sure it was basically 5 grams. It was.

And now--she glanced at her notes--sliced into thin pieces but not too thin...

...

Ambiguous instructions were ambiguous.

At least she had Mossy helping. Hadley made the first slice, and then positioned the knife to slice again. "Mossy, is this thin enough, to thin, what?" It was best to check before making the slice.

So they wouldn't be having whatever he was having. Optimal idea, Professor, especially if he actually wanted them getting this potion done. Glancing over the instructions on the board, Blaise felt a lot more confident even with the fact this potion was 'advanced' for the fact that it required no magic. So long as the wand that was currently up in his dorm was not needed, there was really nothing he had to worry about. He could measure just as well as an older student, he could also check times, clean equipment and do whatever else was necessary. Consequently, the boy did no seek out an older student to partner with but instead went to the cupboard to grab the ingredients he would need.

Once back at his desk, the boy took the time to copy the instructions from the board. Sure, his quill had done the same just now but he had learned that with a subject so precise as Potions....taking the embellished words of a quill would not be in his best interest. Didn't take too long in any case and the boy was ready to begin.

First thing's first was piling everything he planned to use into his cauldron then heading for the sinks at the back of the classroom. There he meticulously scoured everything with the running tap, being sure not to miss even a spot or an inch. Cleanliness was one of the 5 C's and the boy was always careful to remember it, even with his reluctance to magically clean. It didn't bother him doing it the mundane way, in fact he preferred it.

Blaise set all his things on his desk once more, laying them out so he could have a look at everything he was working with. The hairy fungus would be the first to be taken care of, simply because it was the first thing the Professor had given instructions on. The ingredient was placed in the mortar and thoroughly mashed with the pestle. He didn't stop crushing until it LOOKED like he'd achieved some uniformed consistency--but really he could have just as easily been wrong. Whatever the case he was ready to move to the tortoise shell--which, by the way, the Professor wasn't kidding when he said it would take some extra work. Merlin's beard, this was too much for a kid that was barely managing to stay awake. He simply didn't have the energy for this and if he'd known it would be THIS bad, he'd have saved some of the energy he used to mash the fungus just now.

Circe.

Finally. He thought his arm would fall off. Now then, the boy grabbed the small knife from the end of the table. The caterpillar would need to be thinly sliced but not too thinly. He might have asked how one would KNOW when they'd cut too thinly but he figured 'enough to keep your sl-slices from falling apart' was a good enough indication so that was how thinly they were cut. He did a test run on the first to make sure it COULD in fact stand on it's own before proceeding to cut anymore with that width.

Thankfully, the bat tongue didn't seem like it was gonna require that much thought or resistance. It was easily cut down the middle before he began dicing it, his quill dutifully floating next to him, recording him as the master potioneer he was not.

Good stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notes

Aging Potion
Ingredients

• 100ml Red Wine
• 10ml Prune Juice
• 2g Hairy fungus, mashed
• 2g Tortoise Shell, powdered
• 5g Caterpillar, sliced
• 1 Bat Tongue, diced

Instructions

• Prepare all ingredients as listed in the ingredients list, weighing and measuring each carefully.
• Slowly heat the red wine and prune juice and begin stirring clockwise until you can just see bubbles starting to form. (The mixture will be dark purple/brown)
• Immediately add the Hairy Fungus and continue to stir clockwise for ten minutes. (The mixture will slowly fade to a lighter purple/brown)
• Continuing to stir clockwise, add the tortoise shell. (The mixture will be a creamy color)
• After eight minutes, remove the cauldron from the heat and add the caterpillar and bat tongue, making sure to continue to stir the solution in a clockwise motion for five minutes, until it changes to a creamy green colour.
• As the potion cools, it will turn emerald green. Once it is completely cooled (about fifteen to twenty minutes), you may cease dispense the potion into appropriate vials for storage.

Characteristics: Emerald Green
Level: Advanced
Information: The effects are dosage based; the more ingested, the older one will age

Jace placed his book down, and stood up to collect his ingredients. As he got each of the potion’s components, he ticked off the item in his head and went back to his workstation. He was thankful that they were allowed to work alone, because Jace was in his best form whenever he did things himself especially in potion making. “Less talk, more focus on the task at hand.” That’s what his mama always told him whenever he got the chance to watch her brew simple to complex potions.

After he checked and crosschecked his ingredients, he went forth with cleaning his cauldron, knives, mortar and pestle, and stirrers. “Scourgify.” With all of his ingredients, and tools in place, he slipped his hand inside his bag, and got his trusty hachimaki, and tied it around his head. This half-Japanese kid meant serious business!

Drumming his fingers against the surface of his workstation, Jace reviewed the steps, and carefully analyzed each step. As he did so, questions came to him, and he diligently took note of it. He’d raise the important queries later on, once he’s done with the potion. With a nod of understanding, he got himself two clean beakers, and filled each with 100ml of red wine…and 10ml of prune juice. As he prepared the latter, Jace scrunched up his nose in disgust because it reminded him of his grandparents drinking it whenever they can’t do the number two.

Setting those aside, he measured two grams of hairy fungus on his scale, and tossed those in his mortar and pestle with a spoon. There is no way he’d touch any of his ingredients with his bare hands. Nope. With enough force, he went on to mash the hairy stuff until it looked like mashed potato…with nose hairs in it. Next, he got another clean set of mortar and pestle, measured two grams of tortoise shell, and tossed those in the empty mortar with a pair of tongs. Breathing in, he began to crush the shell carefully, and added more force when the shell was broken into finer pieces. Crush, crush, cruuuushhh! Good thing he wore his hachimaki on, because he was sure his sweat would drip onto the mixture, and he’d be in big trouble! Jace shuddered a bit, imagining the disappointed face of his mama. Nope, that’s not going to happen!

Pushing the second pestle with the powdered tortoise aside, the Ravenclaw got his cutting board, and his new knife, which was bought, for him by his grandpa in Japan. It was silver, and the handle was exquisitely made of Mahogany. His blade looked a lot like a miniature katana- the weapon of the samurais. Turning the handle in his hand, he grinned as he read his name engraved on it in Japanese characters. He liked receiving such special, and useful going-away gifts from his grandparents. It made him miss them even more. Sighing, he measured 5 grams of caterpillar on his scale, and transferred he hairy ingredient on his cutting board with his tongs. One by one, he sliced the ingredient neatly, and almost in the same width, all thanks to his new sharp katana-like knife. The little samurai in the making was very pleased.

And what about the tough bat tongue? Jace was sure his knife could handle it. Picking the ingredient from his supply tray with his tongs, the Ravenclaw began to dice up the bat tongue as uniformly as possible. He didn’t have a hard time chopping it up because his knife sliced through it like it was just like fresh salmon.

Done with the preparation work, Jace cleaned his knife first and carefully placed it back in its case and slipped it inside his bag. He followed up by cleaning his scale, scooping spoons, and tongs.

Clearing the table, he got his Bunsen burner, and cauldron stand, and placed his cauldron on top of the set up. Checking his notes and book once more, Jace stopped and considered raising his first question now. He wanted to be as detailed as possible with the next step!

“Newton-sensei?” he called out to the professor, his hand in the air. “What should we use to stir the potion? The metal, glass, or wooden stirrer?” he asked, waving all three stirrers in the air.

Her cauldron and equipment was already cleaned as well as all of her supplies…it was going to be easy to get everything ready right? Yeah, this potion wasn’t going to be challenging in the least bit.

Taking her scales out and cleaning them for good measure, Mel headed to collect the supplies she didn’t have access to…really, that was a shame because wine wasn’t something she’d want to drink…she’d just want to make it for the potions it was a part of. Returning to her workstation the second year liongirl placed her allotted 100 milliliters of red wine next to her 10 milliliters of prude juice. Reaching into her supply kit she took out two grams of the hairy fungus and mashed it with her mortar and pestle before moving them into a separate empty jar. “Scourgify” she cast cleaning the mortar and again she cast it on the pestle.

This whole potion was going swimmingly right? She hadn’t started brewing it yet but getting the supplies ready wasn’t any more difficult than the few potions she had made in this class before right? Taking out her powdered tortoise shell she carefully weighed it out making sure to only have two grams available. She repeated the process again with the five grams of caterpillar and the singular bats tongue. Still, with both of those she moved on and sliced and diced them accordingly before she put them sliced and diced ingredients into their own little jars to be added to the solution later.

With all of the ingredients ready she moved on and pointed her wand at the base of her cauldron before setting the flame and heating it at a low heat. Adding the prune juice and red wine she slowly raised the temperature just a breath as it would had taken days at the low heat she had originally chosen. Lowering her stirrer into the solution the Gryffindor began to slowly stir the solution in a clockwise motion. The solution didn’t take too long to change as soon there were bubbles forming in the dark purple-brown liquid.

Looking back at the instructions she tried to see what she was supposed to add next. Ah, Hairy fungus she noted and quickly grabbed the little jar of mashed hairy fungus and added it to the solution. Setting her little egg timer for ten minutes she proceeded to sit, wait, and stir the solution. With no one really to talk to as she wanted to keep her mind clear of distractions and focus on making a good potion, she just began to think, to imagine, to paint the world with different imaginary scenes…in her imagination she could do anything, in her mind she had the same abilities that Amelia had…there was more, in her mind they were still there. They hadn’t left her all those years ago. In her mind, she wasn’t alone, she still knew what her mother looked like even though that was clearly a lie. In her mind the world was sunshine and rainbows and no one ever got hurt, no one ever died, but that was a lie and even she knew that.

The ding of the egg-timer was what saved her from the cynical thoughts souring her little not-fully-happy…but almost happy space. Taking the stirrer out she quickly cleaned it as she looked down at the now faded lighter purple-brown solution before adding in the tortoise shell to the solution. Lowering her stirrer back into the solution she continued stirring the solution clockwise for what felt like forever. Her arms, they felt like they were made of lead. The solution was now a creamy color as she continued stirring the solution adding in the caterpillar and bats tongue to the solution she continued again to stir the solution in a clockwise motion for another five minutes. “My arm is tired,” she muttered to herself more than to anyone else as she looked down at her now light creamy green potion. Taking her stirrer from the solution she turned off the flames and continued to clean out all of the jars and things that she had used before cleaning her stirrer once again.

Grabbing her vials from her potions kit she set up a few of them next to her cauldron with her ladles, pipets, and other potion transferring kits. She was ready…and well, India had really helped her with her potions kits. Stretching out she finished cleaning her work station, walked to the sink and washed her hands before returning to the station once more. Setting up her egg timer the Gryffindor took out a book and opened it what! Napoleon is a jerk! She thought to herself as she glared down at her book and continued to read.

SPOILER!!: notes

Ingredients:
100ml Red Wine
10ml Prune Juice
2g Hairy Fungus, mashed
2g Tortoise Shell, powdered
5g Caterpillar, sliced
1 Bat Tongue, diced

Instruction:
[i]Clean every tool in potions kit (clean again after each tool is used)
Prepare all Ingredients as listed in the ingredient list – weigh & measure carefully
Slowly heat the red wine and prune juice and begin stirring clockwise until you can see bubbles starting to form (The mixture will be dark purple/brown)
Immediately add the hairy fungus and continue to stir clockwise for ten minutes (the mixture will slowly fade to a lighter purple/brown)
Continuing to stir clockwise, ad the tortoise shell (the mixture will be a creamy color)
After eight minutes, remove the cauldron from the heat and add the caterpillar and bat tongue, making sure to stir the solution in a clockwise motion for five minutes, until it changes to a creamy green colour,
As the potion cools, it will turn emerald green. Once it is completely cooled (about 15-20 minutes), you may cease dispence potion into appropriate vials for storage.

Characteristics: Emerald Green
Level: Advanced
Information: The effects are dosage based; the more ingested, the older one will age.

So it was just an aging potion? Oh. Daxton slumped a little at his workstation and took a few moments to look around the room. Just brewing potions was boring, though, and they could do all this on their own with textbooks. Daxton would know; he spent the majority of his time skipping his lessons under the guise of claiming he was unwell, and working on spells and potions in his own time, as well as the more interesting stuff. Interesting stuff like finding out what happened when he substituted various ingredients, measurements, number of stirs, directions of stirs, and anything of the sort. Interesting stuff like trying to predict, using scientific methods, what might happen if he combined two potion recipes in one way or another. Interesting stuff like studying each potion ingredient or component in excessive detail, and whether it might have other uses, or researching the mathematics and science of why the precise amount of stirs was so important. Interesting stuff like creating whole new potions using all that in depth information.

That was the kind of thing Daxton liked to focus on in his private study time, but he supposed that actively attempting to brew a pre-established potion could have its uses. Still, he was half-tempted to brew an exploding potion instead, and liven things up a bit. The only thing that stopped him was that he quite wanted to steer clear from chaos today. So... he decided to give brewing the planned potion a real attempt.

And... maybe he would tweak the ingredients here and there. For science.

After washing his hands and potions equipment (including his obscenely old and very pre-owned cauldron) (all in the non-magical way, for reasons), Daxton opened up his notebook and pushed the pen out of the binding to write down what was on the board. He did not necessarily need to take any notes, nor did he think it that important to do so, but if he was going to make any adjustments, it would help to have something to refer to or do some working out on.

SPOILER!!: Notebook

Aging Potion
Ingredients
- 100ml Red Wine
- 10ml Prune Juice
- 2g Hairy fungus, mashed
- 2g Tortoise Shell, powdered
- 5g Caterpillar, sliced
- 1 Bat Tongue, diced

Instructions
1. Prepare all ingredients as listed in the ingredients list, weighing and measuring each carefully.
2. Slowly heat the red wine and prune juice and begin stirring clockwise until you can just see bubbles starting to form. (The mixture will be dark purple/brown)
3. Immediately add the Hairy Fungus and continue to stir clockwise for ten minutes. (The mixture will slowly fade to a lighter purple/brown)
4. Continuing to stir clockwise, add the tortoise shell. (The mixture will be a creamy color)
5. After eight minutes, remove the cauldron from the heat and add the caterpillar and bat tongue, making sure to continue to stir the solution in a clockwise motion for five minutes, until it changes to a creamy green colour.
6. As the potion cools, it will turn emerald green. Once it is completely cooled (about fifteen to twenty minutes), you may cease dispense the potion into appropriate vials for storage.

Characteristics: Emerald Green
Level: Advanced
Information: The effects are dosage based; the more ingested, the older one will age

He started, naturally, with collecting the ingredients. A quick rifle through his almost totally depleted potions kit told Daxton two things. One, that the only ingredient he himself owned that went into this potion was the bat tongue, and two, he would need to acquire replacement ingredients soon, one way or another. Taking out the vial with the one remaining bat tongue, Daxton kept it in hand to make sure nobody else could take it, and went to collect the rest of his ingredients. A little extra of each component, too, including one more bat tongue, for reasons.

First, he prepped the bat tongue, dicing it as per the instructions, and leaving the extra one untouched. Daxton was tempted to slice the second and add that instead, but he had still not gotten around to researching the implications of slicing versus dicing, and so decided against it. He washed his knife - non-magically, again - and returned to slice up the next ingredient: five grams of caterpillar. Lining them up on his chopping board he sliced them up meticulously, spending an excessive amount of time ensuring that each slice was exactly the same thickness as the last - that was, almost impossibly thin, and as sliced as they could get.

Without washing the potions knife, he turned it over in his hand to hold by the blade, and focused his attention now to the hairy fungus. Using the handle of the knife, he mashed up the fungus inside of its container, relentless and unforgiving, until it was nothing but a disgusting sludgy mush. The red wine and prune juice had been measured into 100ml and 10ml respectively when Daxton had collected them.

Next, the shell. Daxton retrieved his clean mortar and pestle, and set them down on the workstation. He had deliberately avoided using them for the fungus, knowing he would need to re-use the equipment for smashing up the shell. Seeing as he could not cast the Scouring Charm, it would mean a lot of work and wasted time to clean both mortar and pestle to be re-used, and Daxton was willing to bet that the fungus spores would cling to both far too firmly. It was easier and quicker this way, given his drawbacks.

Placing two grams worth of tortoise shell into the mortal, Daxton gave it a few good hard whacks with the pestle, and set to work crushing it into the finest powder he could manage.

Now that all her supplies were gathered, cleaned, and ready to be used, all that was left for Brooklyn was to start. Especially since it seemed like they had to prepare everything before actually beginning to brew, which was different from nearly every other potion they had done so far. Even counting those she’d made before Professor Newton had actually been teaching here. Usually they were able to prep things while the potion was brewing, waiting for things to boil and whatnot. This was almost annoying how backwards it all seemed.

However, she gathered up the hairy fungus, after putting on her gloves simply to avoid actually having to touch fungus of any kind. If anyone asked, it was to avoid contamination. She didn’t even want to imagine what effect errant skin cells or body oil could have if the potion was in fact as difficult as they’d been told. Dropping the hairy fungus into her mortar, she began mashing it up into a paste, noting that there hadn’t really been an exact description of how mashed it needed to be. She contented herself with a paste, measuring an exact two grams out before cleaning the rest out of the mortar with another Scourgify. She wasn’t about to contaminate the tortoise shell, which she added to the mortar next and ground into a fine powder, measuring out another two grams right afterward. Once again, she had been left to her own devices as to how fine the powder needed to be, but she figured the finer the better. At least, it wouldn’t be grainy.

Slicing and dicing seemed much more straightforward, instruction-wise. Setting out the caterpillars on a clean cutting board, she set about slicing them up delicately, taking care to make sure all the pieces were as close to the same as possible. Once again, difficult potion meant she needed to try to be perfect. Once that was done, she measured out the required five grams and set the rest aside. Maybe the professor could use that later or something. She doubted it would stay fresh for long, but she didn’t need it right now. She Scourgified the cutting board and the knife yet again, then dicing the bat tongue before she could think about how disgusting all the ingredients really were. All she had to remind herself was that they weren’t required to actually drink it. That made it all marginally easier.

SPOILER!!: notes

Aging Potion
Characteristics: Emerald Green
Level: Advanced
Information: The effects are dosage based; the more ingested, the older one will age

Ingredients
100ml Red Wine
10ml Prune Juice
2g Hairy fungus, mashed
2g Tortoise Shell, powdered
5g Caterpillar, sliced
1 Bat Tongue, diced

1. Prepare all ingredients as listed in the ingredients list, weighing and measuring each carefully.
2. Slowly heat the red wine and prune juice and begin stirring clockwise until you can just see bubbles starting to form. (The mixture will be dark purple/brown)
3. Immediately add the Hairy Fungus and continue to stir clockwise for ten minutes. (The mixture will slowly fade to a lighter purple/brown)
4. Continuing to stir clockwise, add the tortoise shell. (The mixture will be a creamy color)
5. After eight minutes, remove the cauldron from the heat and add the caterpillar and bat tongue, making sure to continue to stir the solution in a clockwise motion for five minutes, until it changes to a creamy green colour.
6. As the potion cools, it will turn emerald green. Once it is completely cooled (about fifteen to twenty minutes), you may cease dispense the potion into appropriate vials for storage.

Precisely, Mossy didn't kid, so she just looked back at Haddie with a pleasant expression. Googles first, lining up your ingredients second. She wasn't really expecting Haddie to accept so easily, though, so when the girl put on the gloves, she was surprised. It was quite nice to be listened to. Katherine could like Haddie for once, for the duration of this lesson, so long as the girl behaved. Maybe, just maybe... she did want to impress Katherine, although Katherine didn't even know -

Haddie wasn't going to mess up on purpose and then throw the contents on Katherine, was she?

Trying to push such obsessive thoughts away, she smiled back at the girl. "Now, you can't mess up the order, at least." Unless she was truly thick (or was going to mess up on purpose and murder Katherine).

Anyway, she checked that 2 grams was still on one handle of the scale, then she seperated a piece of tortoise shell from the bigger part, and did the same of getting 2 grams as precisely as she could. Once she was satisfied, she added it into the cleaned mortar and began crushing. Her muscles cried out, but she was the type who ignored all physical problems once she was focused on a goal hard enough; so she didn't even wince once. She was going to do this PLUS Haddie's potion. Speaking of which, she looked at the mashed fungus and was pleased with it, so she didn't comment. She was too focused on her own powdering to really check the scale of Haddie, though so she missed that it wasn't exactly 2 grams. Oh well... it wasn't HER potion in the end, anyway, it was just a bonus.

Crush, crush, crush...

WHAT had Haddie just done!?

Katherine watched with big eyes - not the part where her piece of shell flew out of the mortar, but since the part when she added it BACK. It was all contaminated now! Was she even serious!?

"You're not going to use it, are you?" she asked with real fear in her voice. NOT under her supervision, thank you! She didn't even care if Haddie had to re-crush it, did she even realise she could like, die if she ingested a contaminated potion?

You're welcome, Haddie, that you'll live longer.

Katherine put away her thoroughly powdered tortoise shell too, and placed 5 grams on a handle, but then realised that to slice, she would have to cut it by its length. And to do that, the caterpillar had to be intact. So she put on her gloves and grabbed the caterpiller, uncut, first to measure how much it weighed. Then she measured its length, did a simple ratio calculation, found out the length that should be 5 grams and cut the animal accordingly. She measured again, but with 5 grams now, and was pleased to see that it was so.

5 points to Ravenclaw for simply being SO VERY careful and CLEVER...

Ahem, anyway, she grabbed her knife, but was asked a question by Haddie. She dropped it to look at her working station, and examined the slice.

"It looks fine to me," she said and smiled. "You should also wear gloves for your own protection." She didn't really need to say that touching a dead caterpillar was gross.

She could definitely get used to this Haddie.

Back to the work, she sliced her caterpillar and cleaned all the scales, knife and her gloves. She then began dicing the bat tongue as instructed (one lengthwise cut and then dicing). Then, she measured wine - 100 ml, put it in the cauldron; cleaned the measuring tube and added prune juice until it was 10 ml. She added that to the cauldron as well, and started a medium flame. Then, she grabbed a wooden stirrer (the professor hadn't really specified and she remembered reading that they were to use wooden stirrer in such cases). She started stirring slowly clockwise bubbles appeared.

Zeke just grinned in response to his desk partner. He was sure Janelle could handle it, like, she was a Ravenclaw and all... and she was.... cleaning everything THOROUGHLY, which was indication enough that she could handle it. If anyone could clean their things as well as his dad then they would be fine.

Nevertheless, he had his own work to get started on. After listening to the Professor give his feedback to those that guessed, and informed them about what they would be doing, Zeke started by taking down notes regarding the ingredients list and the method.

This would be easy as cake, right? Sure it would.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Ingredients
100ml Red Wine
10ml Prune Juice
2g Hairy fungus, mashed
2g Tortoise Shell, powdered
5g Caterpillar, sliced
1 Bat Tongue, diced

Instructions

1. Prepare all ingredients as listed in the ingredients list, weighing and measuring each carefully.
2. Slowly heat the red wine and prune juice and begin stirring clockwise until you can just see bubbles starting to form. (The mixture will be dark purple/brown)
3. Immediately add the Hairy Fungus and continue to stir clockwise for ten minutes. (The mixture will slowly fade to a lighter purple/brown)
4. Continuing to stir clockwise, add the tortoise shell. (The mixture will be a creamy color)
5. After eight minutes, remove the cauldron from the heat and add the caterpillar and bat tongue, making sure to continue to stir the solution in a clockwise motion for five minutes, until it changes to a creamy green colour.
6. As the potion cools, it will turn emerald green. Once it is completely cooled (about fifteen to twenty minutes), you may cease dispense the potion into appropriate vials for storage.

Characteristics: Emerald Green
Level: Advanced
Information: The effects are dosage based; the more ingested, the older one will age

With his notes complete, Zeke took his measuring utensils to the front to collect his ingredients, making sure that he had also thoroughly scourgified them beforehand. They were as clean as clean could be. NO pollutant contaminants here!

Once he had the samples of the things he needed (roughly measured out) Zeke returned them to his workspace where it would be easier to make sure they were accurate measures. Using his scales (and cleaning between each use) Zeke measured out the quantities for the dry ingredients first before then using his other tools to measure out the liquids.

His cauldron was already set up, and cleaned before the lesson begun, so he took another look at it before adding the 100ml of red wine and the 10 ml of prune juice. Zeke adjusted the medium flame and brought it down a little so that it would be heated through more slowly. He did this while stirring clockwise with his other hand. Waiting... waiting for the bubbles to form. The colour of his brew was indeed a dark shade of purple/brown. Note to self though, wine and prune juice did NOT look appetising.

With her cauldron now clean Hady focused her attention on casting well aimed 'scourgifys' on everything else she was going to be using. All her ingredients and utensils were now ready to go.

Before even beginning on the potion itself she was going to get everything ready. She carefully measured out 100ml of Red Wine and set it aside before measuring out 10ml of Prune Juice and setting that aside as well. Putting 2g of the Hairy fungus into the mortar she then began to mash it up with the pestle. It wasn't to hard to do and only took a few moments.

Now the Tortoise Shell was a pain to get into a powder. It took some real muscle power to do but in the end Hady managed it and set the 2g worth off to the side and out of the way. She then took the caterpillar (poor little thing luckily it was long dead or so would've freaked) and began to slowly and carefully cut it into tiny strips. That finished she moved it to the side with everything else before moving on to the last ingredient. The Bat Tongue was sliced down the middle and then several times across making it into small diced up cubes. And she was finished with the preparing and ready to really get down to work.

The sixth year cast a nice cleaning charm on her dirty utensils before moving on. Slowly pouring the 100ml of red wine into the cauldron and then the 10ml of prune juice followed. A small flame was started up beneath the cauldron to get the mixture heated up as she grabbed her stirrer. Slowly stirring in a clockwise motion she kept her eyes on the potion waiting for bubbles. This took a while and some stirring had to happen but sure enough the color was there in all it's yucky dark purplish/brown color along with the bubbles that had formed. So far so good.

Five second rule. Which had been scientifically proven, FYI. So, sorry Moss, but Hadley wasn't about to waste another shell for no reason. However, she could see how important it was to Mossy...

So waiting for Mossy to have her attention on something else, Hads pretended to swap the old "contaminated" shell for a new one. Problem(s) solved.

"Gloves, right." She set down the knife and grabbed her gloves. Ugh. Gloves. They made it harder in her opinion. Like trying to handle things without being able to touch them. Picking up the knife again in her now gloved hands, Hadley made the slice where she thought she had the knife previously. In reality, the slices were a bit bigger than what she had confirmed with Mossy.

Once she was done, she scraped the caterpillar slices onto a plate and scourgified her knife and cutting board. Time for the bat tongue. Hadley was a bit confused on this part, so she waited to watch how Mossy did it and then copied the girl. Once lengthwise, and then dicing it all up. Dicing. That was something Hadley could actually do right in the kitchen.

The only thing she could do right in the kitchen.

Once finished, the tongue was plated, and she scourgified her knife and cutting board again. Mom had been a stickler about cleaning the board and knife between uses.

The ingredient prep was done! Haddie grinned, appreciatively and excitedly, at Mossy and flashed her helper two thumbs up. "Thanks, Moss."

Now it was time for the brewing.

Blaise took a moment to look at his handiwork thus far. Everything was prepared as instructed by the Professor and he could now begin the actual potion making process. Easy enough. The Third Year slipped on his gloves and goggles, feeling all the more productive for doing so.

By now, the next set of instructions didn't bother him. Fire? No problem. The boy reached into his school bag for a piece of parchment, rolled it into the form of a pole then walked right over to an older student who already had their cauldron boiling. S'cuse him, coming through, don't mind him.

Blaise dipped the parchment into the flames and when it caught fire, moved back to his own cauldron to light it as well. There. Fire. Boom. Never let it be said that one Blaise Bellaire was not resourceful and could not get the job done as efficiently as those who'd opted to use magic. By the looks of it, he seemed to be on just about the same wavelength as most and that was a satisfying feeling in itself. He was not falling behind, but keeping up quite nicely.

With the moisture from the earlier washing finally evaporated (every drop because the Professor said no water in this potion), Blaise added the 100ml of Red Wine followed by the 10ml Prune Juice.

He grabbed the wooden mixing spoon, ploinking it into the liquid and began a steady stir in a clockwise motion. It wasn't the most exciting thing in the world, and if he wasn't careful he would fall asleep on his feet forgetting all about the mixing but somehow the boy managed to keep at it long enough to see what might have been the beginning of bubbles. Of course he had to be completely sure and so kept stirring even after it had turned dark purple with very noticeable bubbles but that was the sacrifice for precision. He was going to prove to the Professor that he didn't NEED him assigning any older students to help him, thanks.

Oh wait, didn't the next step require immediacy?

What WAS the next step?

Right the fungus! Blaise grabbed it from the table and threw it into the mixture figuring he was in an imaginary race against the clock that would have proven detrimental to his potion.

Eyes fixed on the clock in the room, the boy went on stirring. It would be a great miracle if he still had the use of his arm after this was all done but he'd worry about that later. For now, mind numbing stirring, because THIS was definitely gonna keep him awake. Not.

If you asked him, he deserved a long break when this was all done and now he prayed Astronomy wasn't next because he couldn't very well skip that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notes

Aging Potion
Ingredients

• 100ml Red Wine
• 10ml Prune Juice
• 2g Hairy fungus, mashed
• 2g Tortoise Shell, powdered
• 5g Caterpillar, sliced
• 1 Bat Tongue, diced

Instructions

• Prepare all ingredients as listed in the ingredients list, weighing and measuring each carefully.
• Slowly heat the red wine and prune juice and begin stirring clockwise until you can just see bubbles starting to form. (The mixture will be dark purple/brown)
• Immediately add the Hairy Fungus and continue to stir clockwise for ten minutes. (The mixture will slowly fade to a lighter purple/brown)
• Continuing to stir clockwise, add the tortoise shell. (The mixture will be a creamy color)
• After eight minutes, remove the cauldron from the heat and add the caterpillar and bat tongue, making sure to continue to stir the solution in a clockwise motion for five minutes, until it changes to a creamy green colour.
• As the potion cools, it will turn emerald green. Once it is completely cooled (about fifteen to twenty minutes), you may cease dispense the potion into appropriate vials for storage.

Characteristics: Emerald Green
Level: Advanced
Information: The effects are dosage based; the more ingested, the older one will age

Wine! Haddie grinned excitedly. Oh, she hoped Dad found out about this. She could just imagine his face! Grinning, like an idiot, Hadley measured out almost exactly 100ml of Red wine--it might have been closer to 101ml--and poured it into her cauldron. She scourgified the measuring glass and then measured out 10ml of prune juice. Again it wasn't exact exact, but close enough. It was added to the cauldron too, and once more the measuring cup was cleaned.

She was feeling good about this potion. With Mossy's help on top of the help of her Mom and Professor Newton, she just might be deserving of the top potioneers list this year.

"Ince--" Hadley caught herself, remembering last year when spells like that tended to come out more powerful than intended. And not in front of Mossy. Clearing her throat, "Incendio!" The flame that came out of her wand wasn't that strong, but it was enough to light the burner.

Which stirrer...? Hadley glanced over at Mossy. Wooden stirrer. She grabbed the stirrer and began stirring. Once. Twice. Thrice. Realized she was stirring counter-clockwise and quickly reversed the direction. No one saw that. No. One.

It didn't effect anything, luckily, as the potion lightened into a purplish-brown, maroon color and started bubbling. Perfect. In went the hairy fungus, which was mashed beyond the somewhat uniform consistency. She picked up her ten minute hourglass and flipped it over as she continued to stir.

By the end of the ten minutes, Hadley's arm, which still hadn't fully recovered from the crushing of the shell, was starting to burn.In went the powdery tortoise shell, which may or may not have been powdery enough--it probably, maybe was. For this, she grabbed the five minute hourglass and the minute hourglass.

She switched arms before the five minutes was up and then when it was up quickly turned over the minute glass. Two more flips of the minute glass and it was time for the caterpillar and bat tongue. Hadley added them, flipped over the five minute glass.

And then remembered she was supposed to extinguish the flame. It was only a second or two late. Won't mess anything up...right? Hadley turned the burner off and checked the potion, then her notes. The cream color was already starting to turn green. So, it would seem like her potion was as it should be.

When the five minutes were up, Hads took out the stirrer, took off the googles and gloves, set the ten minute glass and sat back. Both arms where tired now. As the ten minute glass ran out the first time and Hadley flipped it over, she checked on her potion. It wasn't quite emerald green but getting there.

Yeah, she felt good about this one. She was in a great mood. "Thanks, Mossy. For everything."

Ding!!!

The ten minute timer finally went off and Azura peered into the Cauldron, the color had lightened just like the professor said. She breathed a sigh of relief, so far.. everything was going well. She just needed to stay focused and everything would be okay..

Just concentrate on the potion.. Nothing else..

Next step.. what was the next step. Azura looked up at the blackboard and then down at her notes and she carefully tipped her powdered tortoise shell into the cauldron.. Stirring clockwise of course..

The tiny girls arm was getting tired, but she kept at it. She set her timer for eight minutes like it said in the instructions and kept stirring it.. After a few minutes.. It started to turn a cream color and Azura's heart nearly swelled.. She could do this... She HAD to do this.. She wanted to be a healer like her mother.. to make her proud.. and this was a step..

Are you here with me mom?" Azura asked as she closed her eyes for a moment.. Are you proud of me? She thought as she opened her eyes and kept stirring, watching the timer closely..

"Thank you M-Miss Tyler," Art said to the young Ravenclaw who had closed the door for him in his time of need.

And he just had to chuckle at Miss Darcy's words. He nodded "Okay w-well I'll-I'll let you know if I'm f-feeling a little off and-and you can fetch her for me, Miss Darcy." How lovely!


Art was back at his desk looking over at the students. And his eyes paused on one Miss Stevens. He watched in curiosity as she dumped the contents of her bag out, pointed her wand at it, put the shell in and then... stomped on it! He blinked. Great Scott! He watched her work and was eager to see what the result was. He was just as glad as she was when it turned out her method had WORKED. He sent a little clap her way for being so resourceful. Some of those little elbows couldn't quite get the strength to crush the shells, but it hadn't stopped her. Or, so he thought was the reason, anyway.


Art chuckled at Miss Phillips' reply, and then Mr Meriwether's. "Well we'll... j-just hope that you don't turn out as-as old as THIS old fart," he said, indicating himself with another chuckle. No, Mr SOLO, apparently. Well, he didn't mind being referred to as 'not lame'. And he was even happier to see them pair up, although... hmm. He'd keep a bit of a closer eye on those two, as much as he WAS looking forward to the potions they were to brew together.


Miss Moss was there instructing Miss Denaker on how to prepare the ingredients. The young lady was surely a little potioneer! He made a mental note to add her to the list of his students he was keeping an eye on, for any groundbreaking Potion discovery moments. He even let out a little laugh as Miss Denaker's piece of tortoise shell went PLOP by his feet. He was most thankful the young lady was able to get it herself, as it would have taken a long time for Art to manage. And gloves!


Art was watching Miss Atwater work, and was concerned for her a moment there when she appeared to have missed a step, or perhaps done something out of the instructions? But she seemed to recover okay. He even chuckled at the comment she made. "Well it wasn't err... pleasant," he said.


He heard Miss Valentine asking about more red wine. "Oh th-that's okay," he said. Spills were a part of potions. "There's p-p-plenty more up here, Miss Valentine, h-help yourself." He assumed she'd be okay to clean it up, either with a cloth or a spell.


"M-Miss Summers is ev-everything alright?" Art asked the Lioness.


Another glance around the classroom managed to catch Art's eye. Something flying through the air, towards Mr Winchester. Art watched as the young man donned a pair of GLOVES! "Most ingenious Mr Winchester," Art commented towards him with a thumbs up. Well, mostly a thumbs up. He couldn't lift his arm or his thumb too high at the moment. He also wasn't the only one with gloved. Art's eyes caught another pair, being donned by Miss Andrews, who also got a thumbs up and a "Good thought there."


More throat clearing, more doing ANYTHING he possibly could to get away from this young lady, who... didn't seem to notice the man's DISCOMFORT. He looked around the ceiling. "Err w-we-well Mi-Miss Ket-Kettleburn as.. as... as a..a...a woman err ge-gets a b-bit ol-older she might err... well..." he swallowed uncomfortably. Oh look, there was a speck of dust floating around. He focused on it, his eyes moving around. "Err... her-her body might uhhh... m-might just develop." Throat clear. "S-so y-yes err it-it uhhh it m-might do uhhh some... some uhh... growth in p-particular AREAS, yes," GREAT SCOTT WAS THIS CONVERSATION OVER YET?


Muggle ways were always optimised by Art, and he was very pleased to see one student using the muggle methods. "I like your style young man," he said to Mr Bellaire. And he wasn't the only one! Mr Prince there also cleaned it the old muggle way. He also got a "Good job there," from Art. He even watched, very impressed, as the young man went about preparing his ingredients with great care.


Miss Johanson seemed to be off with the fairies, a place Art often frequented himself. He chuckled at what he thought he heard. Something about heavy arms. Yes, lots of stirring! He was even more pleased when she pulled out a book! What a good way to pass the time. Even Miss Kennedy there looked away with her thoughts, and Art felt a pang of sadness for the young lady.


Newton-sensei would only be said by one student! Expectedly, Art looked up to see Mr Reed with his hand raised. He lifted his eyebrows as he listened to the question and then nodded. He should have said! "You may use wh-whichever you like, Mr Reed, but-but good question!" This one was DILIGENT.

Whaaaat was professor Newt talking about?? "But THAT's how old I want to turn!" REALLY OLD! Matt wondered how that FELT like. It probably hurt, since old people were always complaining about pains and stuff. Huh. Matt was still curious, though. "I'll have to drink LOADS of the Potion then." Could he do it?? ........Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!



Right, ONTO THE POTION.

Matt took his time being entertained with the ingredients they were supposed to prepare. Caterpillar-moustache. "Yo." He said as he held one of the creatures under his nose and turned to Liv. Almost immediately he dropped it and got the bat tongues, since the girl mentioned it. "YEAH!! They are AWESOME!" He added as he wiggled the both tongues in front of his mouth as if they were his own TINY little tongues. Two of them. "Diced." Matt said simply as he put them on the desk in front of him aaaaaand he started to dice them both. Liv didn't mind him dicing hers, right? He didn't ask, but he assumed it. Matt was good at assuming things. Was he accidentaly going to mix both tongues up and give her MORE than just one of them? Or LESS? WAS HE??? Who knew? NOT MATT.

Dice, dice, dice, dice, dice, dice, dice, diiiciiiinnnggggg.

Did she do okay? "Yeah, of course!!!" The Gryffindor reassured her even though he had no idea what she was talking about. She was a girl and girls did things more carefully and correctly, didn't they? Or was that just in Matt's head? Anyway, he was sure she had got it right, whatever it was.

"THEN WHAT?" The boy yelled asked as he looked up at the board again. "SMASH THE HAIRY FUNGUS!!" AWESOME! Well. 'Mash' it. Technicalities, technicalities. Matt grabbed a handful of the stuff and showed it to Liv. "Look how GROSS this is!!" MAAAN. That was cool. He put it all into his mortar and started to SMASH it. Or mash it. Wotevah.

Abby went and got some more red wine from where the professor pointed it and said "Sorry about that again and I will clean it up right away" Abby made her way back to her work station and grabbed a cloth and cleaned up the spillage of red wine before she measured out 100ml again and saw that she had measured out too much prune juice so she made sure that it was 10ml and looked at her notes to figure out what was next to do for her potion she knew deep down in her mind that this probably wouldn't be the first accident that she would have today

While the last ten minutes counted down, Hadley flipped through her book until she found the section on aging potions. She wanted to make she knew how to use the potion to get to twenty and not fifty or ninety.

Twenty. That was the goal.

The book stated that one drop is equal to one year. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezey.

And the just like that the sand ran out of the ten minute hourglass for the second time. It was done. She scooped some into a vial, labelled it and held it up to the light. She wouldn't have described the color as emerald green. It was more a forest green, if anything. But it was an easy mistake for some, especially boys, to make. Still, it was done.

"Here you go, Professor Newton." Hadley put her labeled vial on his desk and looked squarely at Madame Curie, shaking a finger in warning. "Don't drink any of it!" Ah, how easily she amused herself.

She flashed Professor Newton a confident, excited grin and made her way back to her workstation. Hadley had just successfully brew a potion for the first time. She knew it. After filling up a couple more vials to keep, Hadley grabbed her eyedropper, and sucked a bit of the remaining potion into it.

It was time to test it. Haddie held the dropper above her mouth, and gently squeezed. One drop. Two, three, four. Five. Six. And seven! How long did it take to kick in? The book hadn't said, so while she waited, Hads began cleaning up her workstation, making sure her everything was scourgified and--the world was spinning.

Was this a normal part of it? Hadley was about to ask Newton, since he had already taken one when she lost her balance and fell backwards. The Haddie that landed on the ground, however, was no longer thirteen.

She was seven.

Crunch! Crush! Kst! Crnuch! Teeekstak! Kitty crushed away at her turtle shell happily, now humming "Brave" as she did so. And then...

"Huh?" Kitty looked up as Professor Art told her to help herself to more red whine. "Okay, I'll get more." As she approached the counter to get more whine; she wondered if he had mixed her up with someone else. Her red whine was doing just fine, in fact it was already heated to the right temperature and she had just finished stirring it. "I think this is enough," she told him as she gathered more and then went back to her cauldron. Then she added that whine to her other whine and began stirring again.

Art chortled. "You WANT to be this old?" he asked Mr Solo. And more chortles, of course. "W-well if.. if you WANT to take th-that much then..." oh no, he wasn't going to get up. "F-fetch me the bottle of-of creamy p-pink po-potion would you?" he asked, pointing over to the potion cabinet just near him. He wanted to have the antidote ready just in case.


Art waved his hand in Miss Valentine's direction. "N-not to worry Miss Valentine, I'm-I'm not concerned with spills, an-and neither should you be." It was all part of the fun, wasn't it?


Well, Miss Denaker was finished! Art kept the vial where she placed it, not wanting to start his assessment of it just yet. He liked to do that without the students around. But he watched as Madame Curie's tail stiffened and she turned around and ran up his arm. He let out a little laugh as she nuzzled into his neck. "S-sudden movements frighten the poor thing," he commented. Shaking fingers and all. "There there my love, she didn't mean to frighten you. Now, come on, you're being silly," he said to his ratbaby.

He watched as Miss Denaker took the potion. He was going to laugh if she turned into a grey haired, wrinkly version of herself.

But no.

There she went, falling backwards!

Art JUMPED to his feet, which was a very bad idea as he was now experiencing SHIN SPLINTS! "Oww," he muttered to himself, as he groped around for his walking stick and slowly hobbled over towards his student. Dear, what had happened? Last year there was a poisoning, and this year a concussion or something?

NO.

He stopped, absolutely STUNNED.

Right there on the ground was... a little girl. "Who are you?" he asked. Was this some sort of SWITCHING trick?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goblinfrog

Crunch! Crush! Kst! Crnuch! Teeekstak! Kitty crushed away at her turtle shell happily, now humming "Brave" as she did so. And then...

"Huh?" Kitty looked up as Professor Art told her to help herself to more red whine. "Okay, I'll get more." As she approached the counter to get more whine; she wondered if he had mixed her up with someone else. Her red whine was doing just fine, in fact it was already heated to the right temperature and she had just finished stirring it. "I think this is enough," she told him as she gathered more and then went back to her cauldron. Then she added that whine to her other whine and began stirring again.

Art looked up as another young student collected more wine. His eyebrows were raised in question, and then it dawned on him. "OHH!" he said, "N-no, I-I meant the OTHER Miss Valentine." He let out a little laugh. "Sorry, I-I didn't... well there's two of you here! Y-you're doing wonderfully." How confusing for them.

The seven year old gasped and sat upright in a jolt. Then she stretched and yawned and rubbed her eyes like she was just waking.

The first thing she saw when her eyes focused again was an old man and his rat staring down at her. "NAAAAAAAHHHH!" She scooted back in a start for a moment, then seemed to realize that she wasn't anywhere she recognized. And there were a lot of older kids and teens all standing around at desks or something.

And they all had the worst fashion sense!

"Haddie," the girl answered, still distracted by everything around her. It certainly sounded like Haddie's voice, only a bit higher and squeakier. "Uh...where am I?" An idea struck her and her entire face lit up with hyperactive excitement. She was bouncing a little on the dungeon floor. "Is this a castle!?" But before any answer could be given, the child looked down and caught for the first time the robes and uniform that she was swimming in. "What am I WEARING!?"

Still clutching the bottle of red wine and the bat tongue in his hands, Dalton's brow furred even more at the Professors answer. "Is that stored in a specific way, or does it last that long in the body, too?" If he drank it, would he age for six months, and then have to drink some more? Or would it wear off after a few hours? Although he did - well, he wouldn't use the word 'enjoy', exactly, but potions was one of the better lessons, he found the theory side of it fascinating and confusing.

And he was sure that helping Aled to revise Muggle cell biology didn't help. Did the potion cause the actual cells of the boy to age, or was it just an illusion on them?

Abby was doing very well in making potion and she saw that it was Emerald Green colour which was what it was meant to be she put some in a vial and corked it and as she put the vial with the potion in it she knocked her cauldron over which meant that the rest of the potion in her cauldron went all over herself and she didn't know how long it would take for the potion to take effect but she knew it was working and all of a sudden she was like Professor Newton but older and she couldn't stand properly without hunching over and said "Eh help me please sir" Abby knew that Professor Newton already had an issue with seven year old Haddie and Abby knew it would be bad for him to deal with this as well

Mason gave the Professor a wide grin and a little curtsy when he applauded her bag-stomping. See? GENIUS! So, with a boost in her Potion-confidence, she finally started with the brewing of her potion.

She believed that she had been smart as well with the pre-heating of her cauldron, since now her wine and prune juice (both measured PERFECTLY) would take as long to start bubbling. . . hopefully.

The wine made a little splash-sound when it hit the heated bottom of the cauldron. The icky-prune juice came next, this one in a way smaller dosage than the wine, since duh. Nobody wanted to go to bathroom right after taking the potion, since ew.

And now for ze stirring. With the very-large, erm, spoon. . . sure let's make it spoon. She didn't have to dig for her giant-spoon, since it was obviously big enough to spot under all her junk (which she really needed to clean up). Mason stuck said-spoon into her little old-person drink and started stirring clockwise, waiting impatiently for the bubbles to start forming. . .

Insert bored-whistling here. . .

And after what felt like AN HOUR (just like 2 minutes), the bubbles started forming! YASSSSS! She gave a small squeal of delight when the mixture started turning purple, first as a lavender shade and then gradually it turned darker. Mason felt like dancing, since YASSS! her potion was going AWESOME thus far.

Okay, next step wassss. . . putting in her beautiful head-piece aka. the Fungus. She remembered that this was the most tedious part, but the Queen of Laziness had another trick up her sleeve. . .

She dropped the Fungus into he concoction, watching as the gross-hairs seeped into her pretty potion. Le sigghhhh, it was gonna start getting smelly here.

And now for the 10 minutes of stirring and her super-awesome master-plan. Mason let go of the lorge-spoon and took up her wand again. She was a witch after all, so she wasn't about to do all these peasantry stirs. . .

So she raised her wand to the spoon and made the movement, "Locomotor!" the spoon lifted a few inches into the air, out of the cauldron. Mason moved her wand in a downwards motion, plopping the now animated spoon back into potion. She began flicking her wrist in a clockwise-turning motion, making the spoon go in that exact direction and stirring her potion for her. Now all she had to do was sit back for ten minutes and keep turning her wrist. GENIUS!

Rooney laughed at his Professor still having some sense of humour despite whatever was wrong with him and waited long enough to hand out the ingredients to his peers as he was asked to before taking a seat again and listening to the instructions given to them, accompanying his ear-work with writing up his notes. He was about to offer to work with Miss Olivia, but someone else got there and he was too busy writing up, listening AND trying to catch Miss Charlotte’s eye about seeing her after class. He needed to give her something soon before it died and he had to buy another…again. Fish died way too easy if you went to camp and forgot about them for a few days.

Bad boyfriend material.

The second fish would correct all of this problem. If he just got her aside and had the courage to give it to her. It was all a big thing for him. He knew what he was going to say.. It just had to FEEL right. First girlfriend asking needed to be on par with the best day of his life.

He had work to do, though. Cleaning out his cauldron with a quick ”scourgify”, Roo lined up the things he knew he would need for now and began to sort out all of his ingredients before he did anything. But only after he span his arms a few times, starting with the wrists then the elbows and then the shoulders. All in preparation for the large amounts of stirring that was required. Arm workouts and cleaning. Potions was all the rage right now. All the rage and all the effort.

Because he’d wrote down the order that Professor Newton had explained preparing the ingredients and followed that. Using his mortar and pestle, Rooney worked at the hair fungus with force. Mash mash mash. Mash mash mash. Maaaash. MASHY MASHY MASH MASH. Was it done yet? His wrist was starting to hurt.. Probably shouldn’t have done that pre-potioning workout. Roo kept at it for a few minutes actually, keeping himself aware of anything happening in the classroom around him. Prefect duties? He felt obliged to keep an eye out with the situation their Professor was in right now. Rooney moved on to the harrowing task that was getting the tortoise shell into a powder. It took him well over ten minutes with only a few breaks to sniff at the prune juice. Pruney. He continued on to do exactly what he needed to with the caterpillar and the bat tongue. Just as the Professor had explained. And it had all been pretty hard work.

Why wasn’t this all prepared first? He wasn’t a butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker. He was a fourteen year old without much upper arm strength. Unless you counted his ability to hold his sister above his head for a near thirty seconds.