"We need a few more. 5 each." Char reminded him, and then she peeked into the bucket again to be sure they had enough as Derf added the fireseeds - five pieces each? And then a few extras in case anyone else needed some and hadn't got enough. Did pieces mean pieces of seeds, or 5 seeds total? And did the size of the seeds matter? It wasn't the most PRECISE of measurements, was it? OH WELL!

"Its okay, I'm STRONG." She even put the bucket down for a second and flexed at him, despite the fact that her robes meant that it didn't really show anything except that she had arms in the first place. She hoisted the bucket up again.

"I'll carry it. Lets go get the next ones. You remember what they were?" Because she had forgotten, honestly, having not written it down and subsequently getting completely distracted by the fireseed part of this adventure. Uhh... but she did remember it was 5 each of some kind of leaves and 32grams each of whatever the other thing was. Stars? Something with stars.

She was the most helpful seventh year ever. ONWARD!

...........yeah, that.

Cameron nodded, not sure whether she was looking for him to explain why. Not that he would have right here. Honestly, he hated the fact that it had become more than just a mere inconvenience here at Hogwarts. And he wondered if maybe there was a way to get over his fear. Then again, it would probably involve DEALING with fire which didn't sound too appealing.

"Thank you." He said softly, keeping his eyes on her to make sure he could at least help her if anything went wrong. But of course, Junia knew how to take care of herself so there was really nothing for him to do other than stay where he was and watch her. Eventually she'd collected enough for both of them, however, and Cameron was already nodding vigorously before she could even finish her sentence. "Yes, of course." He quickly picked up the bucket and waited for her to be ready to head back.

"Thank you. Again."

Oh, so it was a bigger fear than just being uncomfortable with the task. Junia nodded, her expression softening when he thanked her again. Somehow she didn't feel like prying anymore.

"What are partners for, hm?" And as far as partners went, he certainly wasn't the worst she could've picked. Nudging him gently, she motioned her head and lead them out.

"Why, thank you." Charms was one of her strongest subjects and yet, she still had a lot to learn. Maybe she could spend more time this year working on things she wasn't good at.. she could even ask a couple of professors to help. But now wasn't the time to ponder over her academic situation. They had a potions activity to complete.

She watched with a smile as Vivi successfully gathered a few of the fireseeds.. more than they needed, actually. Not that it mattered. Maybe they'd need all those seeds. Who knew? "Good job, Vivian! I'm impressed. How many do we have, exactly?" .. but now that they were done with this, could they get a move on? To the other couple of ingredients?

With that, Vivian honestly considered maybe asking Miss Etta for some help with OWLs. Since she was older, had already finished those exams, AND was a Hogwarts champion last term, it felt like a perfect fit for a tutor. But perhaps not now, as they both were in the 'ingredients hunting' mood. All the OWLs talk would probably occur some other time, if this blond didn't forget to bring it up. Hopefully the Hufflepuff wouldn't mind, yeah?

The Slytherin still kept wiggling one of the seeds in her hand and then looked to check how many she had collected. One... two... three... eh, there were a lot. "Fifteen, I think?" She double-checked the seeds again to be sure. Yes, fifteen! "We only needed five each, right? We can save the extra five in case something goes wrong, or if someone else needs it." Accidents were prone to happen. It was Potions class, after all! "But I think we have these covered. Shall we go find the next two ingredients?" To be honest, she didn't know that there was an indoor garden in here. How could she not know?!

Luci smiled and thanked for such collaboration on this. She wouldn't have pulled it through the fire so well. "Yes... I assume. Fifteen." Luci nodded, while holding the warm container with her hands as she watched her teammates drop in the fireseeds in it.

"We're set now. Let's go back..." Because...time was actually running out now.

"Of course, that makes sense. We can just help someone out if they are running short on fireseeds." Etta waited for Vivi to drop the seeds into the bucket since they needed to stay warm. Now, what were the other two ingredients that they had to collect again? Betony leaves and stargrass?

"I guess we need to leave, yeah? Collect the other few ingredients?" Surely, they didn't have much time left? Eeeeek! "The garden, yeah? Come on!" You know, just to be sure. She started to walk towards the exit once again, making sure Vivi was keeping pace with her. She was really enjoying the activity, really.

Kyle watched as Matthew levitated seeds out of the fireplace and put them into his own bucket. Well, that was one way to do it. But being the budding herbologist that he was, Kyle wanted to get his hands dirty. Well, his gloves, at least. He went over to the fireplace once it was his turn and picked out five good-looking fireseeds. Well, they were all pretty good looking, but Kyle hoped the ones he got were actually the best. Nevermind they all pretty much looked identical.

Once he had collected all his fireseeds, he looked and saw that Matthew had collected his already, and the two headed back to the Potions classroom.

Okay, she could do this. Patrick had charmed the bucket, now she had to do her part and grab some seeds. 10 of them, she was assuming. 5 each. Made sense. They were brewing the potions separately , as far as she could tell, so it was better to get too many just in case, than not enough. Right? Right. "Let's do this!"

As Patrick came up behind her, Dahlia tightened her glove on her hand and reached into the fire, plucking out some seeds and immediately placing them into the bucket. All of them. Good. "I'm doing okay actually. I thought I'd miss home more than I am. But the more time I spend here, the more I'm enjoying it. How about you?"

She grinned again and removed her gloves. "Actually we can talk while we run downstairs. Because I was thinking about the leaves. Maybe the Healers garden? It's in the hospital wing. Good a place as any to look, right? Let's go!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Seeing more people from potions class here made Skylar realize that they were in definitely in the right place. Or everyone was wrong. But then, hearing Cassandra's explanation of Jackpot! Oh, so they were all right, then? Wait, no pails? "I beg to differ." She might not have been the critical thinker that her Ravenclaw counterparts were, but she was excessively organized. Or well, the sixth year had another idea which was to use a sample jar and transfigure it. That worked too. But she did have a pail in her supply bag, to which she removed...

"Chaudensis," She casted on the other pail. And then donned her gloves to prepare to reach in pluck fireseeds. Only, she froze up as her gloved fingers were inches from the flames, recalling the burns two years ago. Why was she able to so effortlessly conjure fires, but when it came to sticking her hands in fire, she couldn't do it?

"I ... I can't..." Skylar whispered.

At least her partner had seemed to have remembered the needing of pails for collecting fire seeds gaining a smile from Cassie so they needn’t transfigure two. Speaking of which, her pail seemed to be warm enough and Skylar had charmed her own so it wouldn’t be far behind. Gloves securely in place, the Ravenclaw picked out a seed to aim for, positioning her hands near it as if sizing it up for a few moments. It shouldn’t be too hard as they’d done it before. Then taking a deep breath, Cass quickly moved in for the grab, taking hold of it as securely as she could in her speed and reaction to the heat and the pulling back to deposit it in her heated pail.

One down…four to go.

After grabbing her second and dropping it to join its brother, Cassie looked to Skylar to see how she was fairing. The younger girl seemed frozen, staring at the fire and mumbling something. “What is it?” she asked concerned. “Is it the fire?” That seemed like the most logical. Surely the Slytherin had also done the Herbology class fire seed gathering had been in seeing as they were close in age AND she remembered the pail and incantation. “It’ll be okay…” Cass tried to assure her partner with an encouraging smile. “It’s best to act like you’re pulling off a bandage…brace yourself and then just grab. Don’t overthink it too much and don’t hesitate. Before you know it, you’ll have what you need.”

Hopefully it would help the other girl.

As she moved to collect her other three pieces of fire seed, the Ravenclaw kept an eye on Skylar in case she still needed encouragement. And for good measure, she added a couple extra in case the fifth year really felt she couldn’t do it. They were in it together after all. She wasn’t leaving her partner behind.

Watching Cassie a moment after she asked if it was the fire, Skylar merely nodded, trying to succumb some sense of bravery. This is why she was totally not a Gryffindor; she had no sense of bravery or chivalrous behaviors. She wanted to learn about things to help her succeed, but when it came to actually doing something terrifying? She froze. But for the love of Merlin, what if she had to harvest fireseeds on her OWL exam in June....

She was going to fail. That was it, there was no way around it.

Listening though to the older girl's words seemed to give her SOME level of confidence, as did watching her pluck the seeds. She could do this, right? And even if she DID get burned again, at least the teacher happened to be the healer, so it was convenient?

Once Cassie was done, Skylar swallowed, took a deep breath, focused.... and just reached a gloved hand. One seed. She did it! "I got one..." She grinned, excited. And then reached back in and grabbed another.... and another ... until she had the five she needed. Good, see, it wasn't so bad? "Thank you!" Swiftly, hugging the older girl, before they headed back to the dungeons, ingredients in hand. Perhaps all she needed was words of confidence from someone she DIDN'T know well, once in awhile.

Miss Kitty's hint about the library had been sooo right. Emmeline figured that since the Head Girl was in Ravenclaw, Miss Kitty probably spent a loooooot of time in the library. Plus, seventh years had evil NEWTs to study for. She knew even the seventh years in her own House had been doing LOADS of studying so far this term already, so it was kinda reasonable to guess that most of them had spent a lot of time here. So Mr. Henry probably already knew that these were here, too.

'Cause right in the middle of the fireplace was a BUSH that totally had fireseeds alllll over it, mhm. The twelve-year-old grinned at first as she spotted them, happily carrying their metal bucket over to the fire place and setting it down. But...how were they gonna get them? She knew better than to think that it would be as easy as pulling them off the plant, even with her dragon hide gloves on, 'cause Potions and Herbology were NEVER that easy. She turned tentatively to Stasya and Mr. Henry and asked both of them: "These are definitely the fireseeds, right? How do we get 'em out?" She was super sure that Mr. Henry would know how to do it, and there was a chance that maybe Derf had told Stasya how to do it too? She wasn't super sure how Derf had gotten a hold of his own fireseeds in the first place...

Henry had first thought about the fireplace in the kitchens to look for the fireseeds in the scavenger hunt, but apparently Kitty had mentioned about the library to the younger girls and they had wanted to head there. Did the library even have a fireplace though? He didn't spend all that much time there to even be able to picture one there, but he was game to go and see if that happened to be where they could find the fireseeds.

And what do you know. There actually was a fireplace in the library. And not only that, there was a fireseed bush right in the middle of it. "Good thinking, girls," he said with a grin upon seeing it. Harvesting them, he definitely knew how to do that. "Mm, yeah, we actually went into the Forbidden Forest a couple years ago and harvested some with Professor Paul." Was it before they were here? Yeah, Henry thought it might have been that long ago. Well, good thing he was here with them then.

"It's not that hard actually, just make sure you have your gloves on." He pulled his own on as he said so. "Do you know the heating charm? That needs to be cast on the bucket." He could do it, but he thought he'd let the younger girls try it out first to make sure that they could.