Anna raised her hand. "Maybe it helps how fast or how slow potions will heat up or come to a boil. If you need something really hot or boiling, you can use that motion to turn it to the temperature you need. If it's too hot or boiling too much and you need it cooler, you can turn it the opposite way to turn down the heat."

Allie raised he hand again.
"Doesn't the tempature of the flame matter when you brewing a potion? If you have the fire too big, it could ruin the whole potion, and likewise if the fire is too low."

"well if the temperature is to big the potion will boil too fast, and as we all know some potions need 10 minutes boiling and others 15 etc. So with this spell we will control the temperature and the speed of boiling itself" answered Oya after raising her and.

"Very true very true. Some potions are more sensitive to temperature than others. And some ingredients are more sensitive than others as well. Some cannot come in contact with heat at all or the explode. KABOOM!" Melita replied, very dramatically, as if she were reading a children's story. "Others need to be brewed at high temperatures or they're nothing more than soup.

"For those potions which are especially fickle with regards to temperature, can you think of any techniques you might use with regards to your flame when brewing them, other than just making sure you get the right height and intensity, of course?"

Alice raised a hand. “Maybe what you’re burning?” She suggested. “If you’re not using a magic flame that is.” The answer seemed a little strange, but she decided it was better than nothing. “Like, wood, gas, or paper?”

Alexis thought for a moment. She had no idea what the answer would be but she raised her hand anyways. "Urmm....maybe different stages need different intensity ..soo you have to make sure you change it at the right time...or something." She said unsure.

Evangeline pondered for a moment, before raising her hand, definitely not sure of the answer. "Maybe, for those potions who need a higher temperature, we can place the cauldron closer to the fire.." She said, crinkling her nose. Eh. "And those potions who don't need that much heat, we ought to place the cauldron far away from the flame?"

Astrid raised her hand. “Maybe you can just change the height of your cauldron?” she said. “Like when you're baking and you need to place your dish on the top or middle shelf.” Astrid had no idea if this was what the professor was looking for, but she decided it was better than nothing. "Does the direction and speed of stirring have anything to do with the answer you're looking for?"

Via nodded with the others answer, "Perhaps adjusting the cauldron, professor."

She raised her hands again, "Using a different sort of cauldron like a cast iron or a pewter. Then different cauldron thickness. Some potions require a double boiler as they can not come into contact with the flames at all." She explained.

"Using different kinds and/ or thickness of caulderons Professor" Steelsheen suggested raising her hand.

Allie raised her hand.
"Using a different cauldren. One that ay be thicker, or mad out of something different."

"Well, you could manipulate the distance of the cauldron from the flame," Gwen suggested.

Could she hope for an almost normal class? At least until they were supposed to sing, of course.

Monica furiously jotted down her notes.

Rhiannon sat at her desk, taking notes and listening to class going on around her, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. This was just too weird. Class was too normal. Not that she had a problem with that, but she was expecting something to happen.

Amelia sat there listening to Professor Melita chatter on about fire and the effect of heat on potions. This was actually quite odd having a somewhat normal class, considering Melita was one of the Ministry Professors. Writing down a few comments as notes, she listened to her classmates answer the current question, before formulating her own response.

Raising her hand, the seventh year suggested casually, "Perhaps use a muggle thermometer if you have one available... or well, different types of fire provide different heat waves... so knowing that would also be helpful. And of course, appearance of the potion itself; once you gather enough experience than you'll know just by looking if the flame is too high or low."

"Using different cauldrons can be a bit tricky" argued Oya "But adjusting the hight of he cauldron can prevent from ruining the potion" she explained

"Those are all super fabulous, general techniques used and of course everyone will get points for their answers. However, I was looking for techniques that would be specific to those potions very touchy about correct temperature. And while all of the techniques you mentioned are lovely for achieving the correct temperature none of you mentioned how you would go about making sure the potion would be set at that temperature right off. You cannot always fiddle about with the temperature whilst your potion is brewing. You need to brew it at that exact temperature at that specific moment. How would this be achieved?"

"well maybe you can put a charm on it so it changes its temperature at the right time. Or put a heat proof charm on the cauldron. That way the cauldron will get the needed temperature." tried Oya

Allie raised her hand.
"You could use a thermometer like the muggles do, and adjust the tempature from there." Allie guessed.

Amelia frowned trying to think of how to brew a potion at that exact temperature at a specific moment and keep it constant. Ugh; she totally should have known this after several years of potion brewing. Then an idea struck her; what better way to test something out and know if it's set correctly than to use the most basic of solutions?!

Raising her hand almost instantaneously as the idea struck her, she spoke quite hurriedly. "If you need to brew something at a specific temperature, then you could first check the temperature with a simple solution such as water. Once you are assured that the temperature is right with water, then you may begin brewing the actual potion, keeping all the settings the same."

Tomasina sat and thought about it for a minute, that was a very good question.She put her hand down to really think about the answer, she honestly had no idea how you would do that. "Would the type of flame used do that trick. I know some potions require a blue flame while others require red flames." She said with her hand raised. She was totally shooting in the dark on that one. She had no clue what the right answer was on this one.

"BINGO!" Melita cried and hurried forward to stick a big gold star on the Hufflepuff's lapel. "That is exactly the answer I was looking for. Five points for you and two for everyone else who had wonderful ideas which are also useful in general.

"Now... Before we start practicing we should go over safety. Let's list off the rules."

"Like to handle fire?" asked ALlie after she raised her hand. "Well, you should keep your hair tied up, to make sure it dosn't catch, and roll your sleeves up if you are wearing long sleeves. And make sure that you hold you wand away from you, because if you light it too close your clothes might catch on fire." said Allie, listing out the rules she learned in Girls Scouts about campfire safety, before she found out she was a witch.

Jillian was impressed by the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain. Who knew the answer could be as simple as that?

She replaced her wand with a quill in hand and began scribbling the simple facts that they've covered so far about using fire in potion-making.

She raised her hand. "One rule is to never point your wand at yourself or anyone else when doing the Incendio spell."