Xana's cheeks flushed pink. He remembered her. Thank Merlin.


Xana bit her lip at Claudian's suggestion, and she looked as though someone had just sucked all the fun out of the room.

Asking the professor was top on her list of 'things not to do.' Past experience with professors at other schools always got her in trouble. Her zeal would trump her diplomacy, and she'd either end up in trouble or worse... unable to proceed.

"Well, if I brought in my own ingredients, he'd have no reason to object..." she thought, trying to find a way around actually approaching the professor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlytherinSistah

He's quite good at potion invention himself. You weren't here for what would've been our fifth term, but he introduced us to 'The Dresden Draught' that year. You should ask him. What are you planning on making?

"Deepest Albania. Pleasure." she smiled and nodded at the girls politely.

She brightened a bit up to hear that the professor was an innovator, too. Unlike her last potions master... at least that was a relief. "Well, I have several things I want to experiment with... starting with that shrinking solution, for example. I want to try some deviations... " Her eyes sparkled with a glint of fervor as she started to explain her passion. "I personally take umbrage at the wizarding world's blithe use of parts from sentient beings in potions, and I believe I know a better way. We can use ingredients from compounds that will hurt no creature and I believe actually improve the efficacy of the solution in the process. I've been researching it and I believe I've found the way... I just want the freedom to... explore every possibility." She smiled dangerously at the concept, and then her eyes touched Claudian's green eyes and she realized who she was talking to... and she suddenly looked mortified.

'Oh, Merlin, Xana-- he's going to think you're mad! SHUT UP ALREADY!' she thought.

She gave him a feeble smile, blushing more furiously than ever. She tucked a loose tendril of hair behind her ear.

Patrick walked into the lab with a purposeful stride, he was going to practice his potion-making. His favourite type of magic. He dumped his bag onto a free seat and drew up a cauldron. He saw Pauline vaguely out the corner of his eye but was too busy extracting his Potions text from his bag full of mangled school-related objects. He glanced at the board.

Sounds simple enough. he thought to himself. "Okay, let's go," he said to himself as he read the first line of instructions. He looked bewildered for a moment. Fourteen litres was a lot of water. Then he began gradually to fill his cauldron. One litre...two litres...three litres...four litres..five litres...six litres...seven litres...eight litres...nine litres...ten litres...eleven litres...twelve litres...thirteen litres...fourteen litres! He sighed and re-read the first line. Then glanced ahead at the second line, to be prepared. Daisy roots and stirring. Then he bent over the cauldron's base and lit the fire. Then he straightened up again and began to chop the daisy roots while keeping half an eye on the water's surface. He carefully chopped the fibres into more or less equal pieces. He read the next line. Salt. And the next line. Shrivelfig.

He looked at his cauldron again. No bubbles yet. He began to skin the shrivelfig. It was slippery and resisted skinning. He gritted his teeth and pulled the skin off with the sharp knife. He was runnig short of time because he was starting to feel heat radiating off the cauldron. He finally managed to get the skin off the shrivelfig just as the first bubbles erupted from the water's surface. He refocussed on his roots and tipped them into the cauldron. Then he used his spoon to stir them into the hydrogen-oxygen compound. Once, twice, thrice until the water had swirled around the bulb of the pot fifteen times in a counter-clockwise direction. Then he pinched some salt between his fingers and tossed it into the disturbed mixture. Then, taking care to throw softly so that none of his boiling potion would slop out, he threw the shrivelfig over his left shoulder. Then he stirred four times anti-clockwise.

He picked up the knife again and began to slice a caterpillar and when that was done he moved onto a rat spleen. When that was done he picked up the pieces of caterpillar and spleen with his left hand and held the spoon with his right. He began to stir, rapidly, anti-clockwise whilst dropping the spleen and caterpillar gradually into the cauldron. "Thirteen...fourteen," he said dropping the final bit of caterpillar into the cauldron with a flourish. Then he added a dash of leech juice and bent down to put out the fire. It went out with a final puff of smoke. He stood up and went over to the basins on the side of the room. After handling his ingredients his hands were covered in various juices and residue. He ran them under the icy spray that ran from the taps, gently rubbing to remove the grime from his palms. After his hands were clean again he returned to his cauldron which had cooled somewhat so that the colour of the concoction could be seen. It was a light green. Patrick smiled a very self-satisfied smile. "One Shrinking Solution," he said as he cleared away the excess ingredients from the desk.

Claudian raised an eyebrow for a wee second as she mentioned 'Deepest Albania' as where she transfered from, he wasn't quite sure how that'd go over with the ladies. His expression soon changed to one more bright and serene at her creativity. He wondered if it were truly possible. The cynic in him, which for the most part ran the show, could not believe it so. But, he liked that she showed such ambition.
He noticed she looked ...upset when she looked at him. He made her uncomfortable, so he took a small step back. Nothing dramatic, just to give her more personal space.

"You've got something..." He began, but couldn't finish telling her she was blushing. Maybe she wasn't blushing. Was she getting sick? "Nevermind." He went back to the subject of making other potions. "I suppose it also matters what you'd like to make. I would ask him nonetheless,...it is his potions lab."

"I don't think I could really go talk to the professor about this, though..." she said, looking absolutely terrorized at the prospect. "I just... can't... but I appreciate the suggestion. I'm sorry to interrupt your work... Thank you, though." She smiled again, still more feebly. " So nice to meet you." she said to the girls.

She looked back up at Claudian. 'Merlin, help me...' she thought desperately. "Thank you for your advice..." she said softly, smiling gently. Then she returned to her workspace.

She stared at her journal of scribbled notes sitting on the lab table next to her equipment. She glanced around the incredible potions room at the handful of students engrossed in their own work, and glanced back at where Claudian stood with his lab partners.

"Primum nil nocere," she muttered to herself. 'First, do no harm.' She contemplated the words and thought about what Claudian had said. And she knew he was right... but still, talking to professors always landed her trouble.

Well... what *would* be the harm? A few extra ingredients, most of which were already on her lab table anyway... with errors and sloppy work, some of the other students were *wasting* more than she'd need to use in all. And she wasn't going to blow up the lab, she was diligent in her research on the compounds and was cognizant of safety....

'The professor is an academic-- and that's what this lab is here for, right? It's all about the magickal science... ' she thought wryly, and dashed over to the supply shelves, gathering a few key ingredients and two extra cauldrons. She returned to her table and set up three separate work areas... she began to relax, humming a little to herself... Discovery; doing the magickal science! She grew elated at the prospect as she began the experiments.

"Not a problem." He said, watching her go back to her workspace. She would do what she wanted anyway. How like her house.

He turned back to Natalie and Pauline. And was mindful of elbows and eyes.

Xana worked diligently with complete focus, referring back to her notes constantly.

"Step two..." she read to herself, "Evenly chop 9 Daisy Roots and add them to cauldron, stirring 15 times counterclockwise. --

Deviation One:substitute oil of 9 fresh crushed Hamamelis seeds, instead, increases potency to potion compared to daisy root due to inherent anti-inflammatory properties. Effect on overall efficacy???? "

Skin a shrivelfig and throw it over your left shoulder into the solution. (Soak in 1 oz warm water to loosen skin; discard water).

Note: info found in Acc. Elem. Encycl. Magical Herbs and Fungi, Vol 3- 'over the shoulder' may not be necessary step with hamamelis seed substitution, as this step is used to properly displace daisy materials. Investigate.

6. Slice a caterpillar -- crush with mortar/pestle for fullest yield??? -- and a rat spleen -- note: dissect rat spleen and harvest out cholesterol only, same quantity by weight. contains stronger concentrations per unit measure of the corticosteroidal compounds necessary in this potion, resulting in higher efficacy of potion per unit measure.

Alternative Deviation: Equal quantities Capsaicin and Salix alba (white willow bark) sap can substitute, test for potential ototosim in some individuals may arise from willow???, omit leech juice??? "

Working methodically, she continued to make notes as she noticed the changes in the various potions' properties that were occuring from her deviations. Soon, she was done... the moment of truth.

She took out three flowers and with bated breath tried her potion samples on each, watching the results carefully and keeping an eye on her original sample as a control subject.

She gasped in delight as the third potion-- the one she'd pinned her hopes on, the one with no creature-based material whatsoever in it -- proved to be successful, shrinking her flower as much as the original potion had, perhaps more, but she wasn't sure, that could be wishful thinking... to be fair she hadn't measured any of the flowers precisely before she started. 'Xana, you idiot!' she thought venomously. 'MEASURE your controls. Always. Hmmm... maybe more Hamamelis...'

The other two variations were not as successful, however. One completely failed. 'Maybe the left shoulder business IS needed,' she thought. The second... well, it shrank the flower somewhat, but not effectively-- the flower had somehow inverted in its structure grotesquely, as though the only parts that shrank were the parts in direct contact with the potion, not the inner structures. However that was the one with pure rat cholesterol in it....

In consternation, she started to review her notes.

"Nah, I got it," Natalie replied. "Well, actually I'm going with the motto 'You learn from your mistakes'," she admitted.

Claudian watched as Xana went off to work on her innovative potions for a second before turning back to Natalie and Pauline.


"Famous last words?" And then Slughorn followed up with some un-placeable danger-alluding tune he hummed. He seemed oddly determined to die.

Ariana nodded, "I will professor, thank you." She replied, glad that he at least didn't call her out for her slightly runny potion. She had to admit she was a bit afriad of Dresden, he semed the type of person to snap out at any given time, do things he normallly wouldn't, or shouldn't do. Very mysterious she thought walking back towards her area to clean up and get working on the next project.

Quote:

Potion #2: Skele-Gro

Use the potions textbooks on the back wall to generate a list of potential ingredients for use in a potion to regrow bones. Check your list with Professor Dresden and he'll provide you with an outline for creating the potion from the ingredients you selected.

Deciding she should get the Skel Gro ingredients out of the way before attempting her cleaning solution, Ari grabbed up her textbook and began looking up ingredients. It didn't take her long however, with her humming a Muggle song and tapping her boot to the beat. "Hmm, yes that could work." she muttered to herself twenty minues later drawing up her final ingredient list for the professor.

Quote:

List of Ingredients for Skel - Gro Potion

Peppermint - for that minty taste. It also has a minimal amount of Vitamins, C, A, calcium and Iron.
Comfrey - Used for treating all sorts of ailments. Can be used in Potions but it's not good to drink vrery much of it since it can cause serious illness in the ptient.
Mucus of a Flobberworm - To thicken the potion.
Whole Milk - Has a high calcium rate which is good for growing bones.
Willow Bark - Has been known to keep inflamation down durnig healing after sugery (Muggle version) It can also help heal broken bones.

She looked over her ingredients, frowning slightly, but noddng in the end. "Yes, that seems about right. But I need more wizarding ingredients." she murmured, her green eyes roaming over to the cupboard where the ingredients were.

With her list completed, she set about creating her Cleaning Solution digging in her old Potions notebook for the pages she needed. She knew they were in there, she had been just studying them before hand, hoping to get some extra practise in. Pulling out a fresh new piece of prachment, she rolled up her sleeve and began writing.

Xana finally finished adding to her notes, then stretched and rubbed her eyes. She was exhausted.

She quickly cleaned up her workspace, remembering to save the labelled vials of all four of her potions including the original one, and after a moment's consideration, she sealed the four flowers she had tested her potions on into small containers as well. She stuffed these into her overladen duffel with her personal equipment, picked up her belongings and hurried out of the lab.

Diabolica sauntered into the lab, taking place at the back of the room. She took out her book she got from home and started making a sleeping draught infused with absinthe--her book said that mixed correctly, it could produce prophetic dreams--she was quite curious. The author of the book, of course, never really wrote anything that worked, but she was bored and wanted something to try.

Xana burst into the potions lab, dashing to an empty workstation and frantically setting up her eqiupment.

She ran to the storage cabinet and fished out an armful of ingredients, nearly dropping a jar of rat spleens in her haste. She ran back to her workstation and set the ingredients down, opening her notebook and setting her water up to boil.

"Professor Dresden?!" she asked urgently, forgetting her phobia of speaking to professors entirely. "In the shrinking solution, which ingredients are responsible for the rate of absorption and which affect potency?"

Diabolica was starting to head over to the supplies cabinet when she noticed Claudian was in the room--her face went stoney and she stopped in her tracks. Claudian had been giving her the silent treatment ever since she had turned Cassandra into a german cockroach. She furiously grabbed the letter from her pocket and tapped it with her wand to change some of the words. Strutting over there, she tapped it again with her wand and sealed it in an envelope.

"Oi. Claudian." she said softly, but forcefully. She really didn't expect him to answer. "I'm sorry." Her voice was almost at a whisper when she put the letter on his books. It read;

She lowered her eyes to the floor, a solemn expression on her face.

ooc--Hm. Deja Vu...

Claudian tried to hide an annoyed expression at the sound of Diabolica's voice calling him.
"Excuse me, ladies." He said to Natalie and Pauline, as he turned around to face Diabolica. "Yes?" He said tersely.
When she said she was sorry his expression softened, but was not completely turned 360, or even 180. She merely had his attention. He was willing to listen, but necessarily to forgive. He wondered if she even knew what for as he relieved her of the letter. He took a fleeting glance at it before his eyes went back to the person who had handed him the letter.
"Diabolica?" He calmly took her a little further away from earshot of everyone else in the lab. "I'm not going to read this letter now. I will read it later, at a time when I'm less distracted than I am now so as to give it my full attention. I will send you an owl if I have anything to say that I think you might actually value. But right now..." he spoke in a gentle tone. 'I don't want to see you.' "It's not the time."

'Harsh...' Diabolica bowed her head. "I understand." she bit her lip worriedly. She knew this was going to be hard to wait for...Claudian was one of her best friends...

"Diabolica?" A twinge of guilt for being 'that guy' running through him. "As soon as I'm done in the lab, I'll read it up in my dorm." He said taking the letter and folding it once to put it inside his pocket.
With that, he left her side to return back to Natalie and Pauline to finish up his potions.

Xana watched Claudian and Diabolica's interaction out of the corner of her eye, trying to keep her mind on her work and careful not to openly stare. She couldn't hear them, but knew too well what the situation was. It was clear from Diabolica's body language that things weren't going well, and her heart broke a little for her best friend as she watched the boy dismiss her.

She tried to return to her work, but her concentration was broken... this lab session was just not working out; if something didn't happen to improve the situation soon, she was going to call it a day and head up to the tower rooftops.

Diabolica gave him a very somber half-smile, sighing inwardly. "Ok." she nodded and parted ways with him, heading back over to where her potions things were, and decided to take a trip to the lake.

Xana cleaned up her workstation... this lab session was a bust, and she knew it. She couldn't keep her mind on her work at all. Merlin, she thought, annoyed. if only I had a private lab, free from... distractions. She shoved her books into her duffel and and walked over to the door, passing a somber Diabolica. "Hey.." she whispered empathetically. "I'll be in the common room. If you need to talk."

As she passed Claudian's table, she interrupted the lab partners. "Pleasure to meet you..." she said to the girls with a smile... her smile dropped and she gave Claudian a cool nod, a wounded look in her eyes. She left the room.