Truth be told, Gwendolyn was still sort of unsure about how this would work out. Despite of all the possibilities for this potion to go wrong, the fourth year made up her mind and decided she should at least give it a try. As soon as she entered the Potions Laboratory, her eyes started scanning the place. Good. No other students would be there to notice anything if she’d fail something. So… guess she could start brewing the potion?

She picked a random place and immediately started arranging the cauldron and gathering the ingredients she needed. Gwendolyn realized it only now, but she really missed this place. The laboratory was one of her favourite places at Hogwarts. Especially now, when things started getting hectic around, potions seemed to be the perfect thing to distract her. ‘Scourgify!’, the Ravenclaw pointed the wand at the cauldron. The ingredients now…, she told herself and her eyes started scanning the labeled phials and jars that she had already placed near the cauldron. Syrup of Hellebore … Powdered Moonstone… Daisy Roots … Good. Ready to start.

As the cauldron needed to be preheated, the fourth year cast an 'Incendio' on it and started waiting. 30 minutes. In the meantime, she grabbed the book she had brought with her and started reading about the potion. Her eyes just moved as she read the lines rapidly, but when coming across a sentence, she just stopped. ’If not done correctly and precisely, this potion will calm someone so much, that they will be put into an irreversible sleep.’ Well there you go- it was now clear how she didn’t think straight as she picked this. You can do it… You just need to be careful…, the fourth year kept telling herself as she glimpsed back at the cauldron for a moment, and then returned to her book.

As she only had a few more minutes to wait, the girl decided upon preparing the ingredients just like she was supposed to, before adding them to the cauldron. With quick moves, the Ravenclaw chopped a few daisy roots, which she then left close enough to the cauldron to be able to add them immediately after putting in the water.

However, as she added the roots, Gwendolyn stared blankly at the cauldron. Something was wrong. She added the wrong amount of daisy roots. Either that, or she forgot something else. But there was something wrong. Even if it may have been only her fear of screwing things up, the fourth year decided this was not the day to blow up Lafay’s lab. Instead of going on with the potion like she was definitely sure she had followed the steps correctly until now, the Ravenclaw emptied the cauldron, cleaned it for the second time and preheated it again.

She stopped for a second, placing her cold hands on her face. This was not going very well… Maybe giving this up was an alternative? Perhaps she should have picked something easier? Since when did she start worrying so much? It was POTIONS. If she couldn’t do this, she couldn’t do anything right. After the thirty minutes had passed, Gwendolyn added 3 cups of water to the cauldron, and then carefully chopped only two daisy roots, which she eventually dropped in the potion as well. So far so good.

The next step was stirring. Pfffft. This was what she found hardest about potions. She sometimes confused left with right. Paying extra attention to this, the fourth year stirred 2 times clockwise, then 5 times counter-clockwise. After doing this, she looked at the instructions listed in the book. Just to make sure she had memorized them correctly. 'Add 2 ounces of powdered moonstone.' As she did so, the fourth year tried to keep her hands steady.

…………….