| Chizpurfle
Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: underwater
Posts: 10,319
 x9
|  Stuck inside with Sirius | *Splish-Splash* | bamBAM | ☁ Spooktacular ☁
SPOILER!!: Jackson Quote:
Originally Posted by Dokimoto 
Ah, well if it removed polish then yes… it definitely made sense to test it on the material first. Not that he had any plans to conduct any experiments, but whatever. He wrote down the instructions, deciding he might as well get to work. He was pretty quickly able to measure out the 100g of beeswax, cutting it up a little sloppily because… well, Professor Noble HAD said that it didn’t matter. Into the cauldron it went. Next up was flobberworm mucus… Because why wouldn’t they be using a disgusting ingredient? This was why Potions was one of his least favorite subjects. Moody moody moody moody moody.
Next up was the addition of oil. Jackson added two tablespoons of the walnut oil because… well, no particular reason. It seemed fairly popular though. Once that was added, Jackson bent to look at the flame. He was doing his best to adjust it, but for whatever reason he was having a hard time getting the flame to be right where he wanted it. He would get there, and the flame would burn out. He could feel his right eye twitch with frustration, and his jaw starting to clench. This wasn’t going well for him. Nothing to have ruined his potion as of yet, but any second now… At this point, he was lucky to overhear the professor speak to Max about the flame and Jackson listened right on in. Jackson did his best to follow this direction, and moved on. The flame seemed fine… although it was actually probably a little too high. He was still messing with his flame when Professor Noble spoke to them all again.
Noble squinted a little at Jackson’s flame from where he stood at the front of the class. “I said straight orange flame, Jackson.” And at the top, his was showing hints of blue. That was, too hot. “We want our wax to slowly melt, not start smouldering.”
And burnt flobberworm mucus smelt gross.
SPOILER!!: Daisy Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginevra When Professor Noble magically wrote the rest of the instructions on the blackboard, Daisy grabbed her quill and wrote on her parchment.
After consulting her instructions, Daisy grabbed what was required in terms of ingredients and equipment, including a few round tin containers for storing the shoe polish. With a quick and non-verbal, "Scourgify," the equipment was clean and ready for use.
The wax mixture had reached its' transparency so Daisy carefully sprinkled a teaspoon of the charcoal powder across the surface of the liquid that was in her cauldron before stirring her potion/polish anti-clockwise two times with her wooden spoon.
She quickly cleaned her teaspoon before grabbing her dropper and the ammoniacum. As she placed one drop of the ammoniacum into her cauldron, Daisy stirred the liquid twice in a clockwise direction. She repeated this process until all five drops of ammoniacum had been added and there had been ten stirs in total, just as instructed.
Daisy took her wooden spoon out and cleaned it. After ten minutes of leaving the potion/polish on the low heat, Daisy noticed that the potion/polish now had a slight glisten to it so she turned off her burner and grabbed her wand. "Luceo," Daisy cast firmly and clearly as she moved her wand in a rippling motion, ensuring her wrist was loose.
Once that was done, Daisy grabbed her shoe polish containers and ladle and carefully ladled the liquid into her containers before setting them aside for the polish to cool. Daisy cleaned any equipment that needed cleaning at the moment and awaited any further instructions. Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginevra Daisy had suddenly realised that she hadn't labelled her containers which caused her some embarrassment. She decided to label them all and within moments the containers now had "Daisy Swann. Fifth Year Hufflepuff" written on them. Hopefully, things were now sorted.
Jackson hopefully now back on track, Noble found himself looking at where his Hufflepuff Prefect was working diligently away. Daisy, that was. Not the ever distracted Derfael. “Looking good there Daisy,” he said with a slight smile. He especially appreciated her choice of container and the fact that she had cleaned them before use. “Make sure your notes are all up to date whilst you’re waiting…we’ll be moving on shortly.”
SPOILER!!: Max Quote:
Originally Posted by Waterloo "Right, of course. Yes, Sir." Max nodded at Professor Noble's advice and quickly moved to readjust his burner slightly. He certainly didn't want to get soot everywhere, so he nudged the airhole open just a little bit more and was happy to note that his flame was now a more translucent orange.
Fingers crossed the rest of the potion went just as smoothly.
The wax mixture was looking nice and melted and transparent so Max went ahead and added one teaspoon of the charcoal powder. He squinted at the blackboard for the next set of instructions and then searched his supply kit and equipment.
Uhhhhh.
Wooden spoon, wooden spoon.
"Professor?" He raised his hand in the air for a question. "What'll happen if we use a metal spoon or stirrer? Does it matter?"
And does anyone have a spare wooden spoon......?
Noble looked over at Max as he called for his attention, wondering whether he should be worried what the Slytherin had managed to do in the time since he’d adjusted the flame. He was perhaps relieved to know there were no exploding cauldrons eminent, but the question still caused his eye to twitch. Apparently the sixth-year had hit a slight nerve. “It’s a good question, Maxton…and for this particular potion, not much. I personally would favour a metal spoon, but the Ministry appointed textbook writer, in his infinite wisdom, doubts the ability of second-year students – at whom this potion is aimed – to appropriately handle a conductor such as metal, and apparently believes in the virtue of students struggling to clean their utensils afterwards.” And since he had suspicion that simple potions such as this one might appear in OWLs or NEWTs this term, he was teaching to the book. As evidenced by the fact he was running it as a practical at all.
SPOILER!!: Anna Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey Ju 'I think you mean that having polished shoes puts forward a good impression and shows attention to detail, Anna.'
The girl smirked and suppressed a scoff. "Yep, that's what I mean." She said before chuckling, amused. All the Gryffindor did when Zoryn gave her answer and sent Anna a very specific look was to roll her eyes and shake her head. Acting childish even in class? Honestly, Zoryn needed to grow up.
Anna couldn't help but feel smug when the former Captain lost points for being an idiotic child, and carried on organising her equipment with a smirk on her face and without looking at the older Gryffindor. It was great when the people who loved nagging got themselves into trouble without Anna having to do anything. Hah.
The fourth year then zoned out and didn't listen to a word that was being said either by the professor or by her classmates, because not only Potions was boring on its own accord, the Potion they were brewing that day didn't interest her one bit. But then again, none ever did anyway.
What?
She eventually looked up and her green eyes scanned the board with the instructions. Looking around, she noticed her classmates had already started working, so she did too. Chopping the beeswax candle, she weighed the bits and was happy enough when it all weighed 112 grams. Close enough. Into her cauldron it went!
She then added the two tablespoons of flobberworm mucus and olive oil before looking at the board again as new instructions appeared. Then she sprinkled the charcoal powder and stirred the mixture anticlockwise once. Oh wait, it had to be twice. One more time the stirrer went around in her mixture.
Right, what was next? Five drops of ammoniacum. In they went. One, two, three, four, five. Cool, next? 'Stir it twice clockwise after each drop.'
Oh. Woops.
'Leave it on low heat for another 10 minutes.' Wait, what!? Her burner wasn't even on. When had she-- oh. Step one. Oooooooops.
Anna casually switched on her burner and carried on as if she hadn't just done it all wrong. Nothing to see here.
No need to say her Potion was a right disaster now as this very thick looking mixture started bubbling.
Welp. Whatever. "Luceo." She cast on it anyway, not even hoping for the best because pshhh, she wasn't THAT optimistic. The girl wasn't surprised when the mixture pretty much dried completely and had now become this dark, gross-looking, ridiculously thick paste.
Shrug.
Anna had a hard time ladling the thing into a wide opening container because of the Potion's texture, but she still kept a casual expression on her face as if she had done nothing wrong.
Because really, she hadn't. Not her fault her Potions never worked as they should only it kinda was, but shhh.
Having probably over-answered Max’s question, Noble’s gaze moved across the room to…well, the black sludge that Anna was now trying to put into a container. Her face might have been neutral, but Noble’s beady gaze had still noticed. He looked at his watch to check the time, before raising his wand. The black tar she was decanting disappeared. “Start again, Anna. With the temperature on low this time.” How she had messed up a basic potion with only 5 ingredients and the same number of instructions, he would never know.
SPOILER!!: Hanna Quote:
Originally Posted by Jessiqua Cheaper, longer-lasting, and recycling were good points to the thirteen-year-old. Not that she worried about money, but she didn't really have any. Her parents had the money, and would definitely buy her essentials like shoe polish if she needed it, but with yet another baby on the way it seemed important to start saving money. The verity of the situation was that five children, life might start getting expensive.
She dipped her quill into the ink and started writing down what was written on the board and then got started. First by cleaning all of her equipment. That step was always at the top.
First step was measuring 100 grams of the burnt out beeswax. She placed it in her scales until it was the exact quantity, and then chopped it up to add to her cauldron. With that step done, she looked through her potions supply kit for her flobberworm mucous, carefully measured out 2 tablespoons, and added that to the cauldron. She decided to use almond oil, so she went to get enough of that to add. Casting a quick scourgify at her tablespoon measure to rid it of the flobberworm mucous residue. Two tablespoons of almond oil were added to the cauldron.
With those ingredients added, it was time to turn the heat on. With her wand, she shaped the fire-like wand motion and cast "Incendio," and turned the flame down low, to a translucent orange, before placing her cauldron on top.
Well, it seemed they weren't using octopus ink but they were giving it a black colour with charcoal powder. That was probably better, charcoal would be much easier and surely cheaper to get, and Hanna even had some in her kit. She looked into her cauldron to see the ingredients transparent and melted, then measured out one teaspoon with a clean spoon, and added it in. Then, with her wooden stirring spoon, she lowered it down and gave it two anti-clockwise stirs.
The next step included ammoniacum. Measuring out more than enough into her dropper, she carefully added one drop with her left hand, and gave her mixture two stirs with her right hand, clockwise this time. She added another drop, stirred twice, and another until there were five drops of ammoniacum, and ten clockwise stirs. She removed the spoon, placed it down onto her board, and set her timer for ten minutes.
Whilst waiting, she finished off her notes, packed away the ingredients that she had removed from her kit, and cleaned all of her equipment. After a while she looked into her cauldron and watched as a slight sheen formed on the top. Her timer went off just at that moment, and she turned off the heat.
She watched Professor Noble carefully, taking in the spell. "Luceo," she repeated a few times, and practiced the ripple-like motion, before adding them together. Pointing her wand towards the cauldron, she said "luceo," again, and moved her wrist in a ripple-like motion, keeping it fluid as suggested.
With that finished, it was time to bottle up her shoe polish. Fishing out the right type of container, she added some to one of them, which she labelled 'Hanna Newton, 3rd Year Ravenclaw' to hand up, and then added the remaining polish into another container for her to keep and use.
Whilst waiting for Anna to get re-started, Noble caught sight of Hanna. Another diligent and promising student, he watched her practice the incantation a few times before feeling confident enough to do it on her own potion. He really appreciated those who took control of their own learning, and when he caught her eye afterwards, he gave her a nod. “Good casting there, Hanna.” He expected her polish to be pretty potent. Which when it came to this version, tended to mean less elbow grease required.
He clapped his hands now, to bring everyone’s attention back to him. “Hopefully you all have some molten polish decanted into a container or two by now.” Anna excepted, that was. “Usually we’d just wait for it to cool, but in the interests of time, we can use glacius today. Aim it around the bottom of your pot on your desk, and only use it long enough for the polish to solidify. It should only take a couple of minutes.” He did that on his own container of polish to demonstrate, although not for the full amount of time since his had been decanted longer than theirs.
“Our final task is to apply it to our shoes.” No point making a shoe polish and not knowing how to apply it properly. He picked up a rag from his desk, and one of his daughters very well scuffed up boots. “Take a small amount on your rag…” He wrapped the rag over three fingers, and rubbed it around in the pot, “And then apply to the shoe in round, circular motions. Go over the whole shoe once, let it absorb for a couple of minutes, and then use a clean bit of rag to buff the surface to a shine. The more potent your polish, the less buffing you’ll need to do.” He demonstrated the application as he spoke, before moving to a clean part of the rag and going back to buff and bring the boot back to a shine. “I expect everyone to be leaving class today with perfectly shined shoes…both those on your feet, and the spare pair I asked you to bring. Raise your hand if you have any questions, but otherwise, I suggest you get polishing!”
Thank you all for sticking with me, I really appreciate it! This is the last part of the lesson now - polishing the shoes! Have fun with it, I do so love reading all your replies 
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