Elan watched as the professor went about in the room and scribbled aimlessly with his quill on the parchment. Oddly, many of his doodles favored a penguin or some kind of fish.

Jake raised his hand again, unsure whether he looked stupid or not.

"But," he began. "Though it may be fun to see what happens, you can't rely on a sense of adventure. Potions are like, precise. You may want to have fun, but it's not safe," Jake responded with a key word from earlier. "I wouldn't feel safe... no offense or anything, Professor. I just think it's practical to know first, as also in a real life situation you would know what you were brewing..."

"Okay... It looks like most people are opting for surprise. While you usually know what you're brewing, sometimes when you develop a new potion you can't be sure of the effects. Let me assure you that nothing serious will happen should you make a mistake in brewing this potion.

"So, the first thing you need to do is come up here and get 2 acorns and a pinch of billywig wings per person. These aren't standard in your potion ingredients so I'm supplying them. Once everyone is seated I'll go over the brewing instructions."

He grinned at the students and stepped back from his desk to reveal a basket of acorns and a glass jar full of wispy, translucent, billywig wings.

Allie walked up to teh desk and grabbed what she needed, then sat back down, and waited for more instructions.

Miranda hopped off her seat and hurried to the front. The sooner she started, the more time she'd have to complete the potion correctly! No explosions for her! She reached the Professor's desk and took the required acorns and wings, mumbled "Thank you" and scurried back to her seat.

Damian walked to the Professor and took the ingredients "thx" said he and walked back to his please.

"As long as I can pick on you right back," Mariel told Nathaniel returning his grin. At his next statement, she grabbed her hair and said, "What?" Quickly rifling through her schoolbag, she pulled out the small mirror that she always carried. Confirming that her appearance was perfectly presentable, she smacked Nathaniel on the arm with her mirror - not too hard though - before returning it to its place in her bag.

Then she wasn't sure what exactly was going on. Some sort of bickering between her friends, but she wasn't certain how it happened. "This just sounds like some sort of misunderstanding on both your ends," she told them gingerly. She really hated to see her friends argue, especially as she was sitting right between them.

Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, she noticed that nearly everyone wanted to have fun by being surprised by their potion. Sure, everything's fun and games till someone gets hurt. Then the Huffie boy she met in the library tried to be the voice of reason. As she looked up, Mariel also noticed Lasca sitting not too far away. Not having noticed her in the room before, she motioned for her to join them seeing as they hadn't officially lit the fire under their cauldron.

Wanting to add to the Huffie's statement, she said, "Potions can be dangerous. It's important to be accurate and precise when brewing potions in order to keep safe. Adding just a small amount of the wrong thing or just a little too much of the right thing can have potentially disatrous results. I think it's important to be prepared to avoid such a thing." After all, weren't they just discussing safety?

Walking to the front, the young Ravenclaw grabbed two acorns and a little billywing. Turning she made her way slowly back to her work area and placed both items gently down. Sighing she shifted from foot to foot. She was a tad nervous. Her Papa had said that potions was his most difficult subject although her mother had excelled at it.

That thought had her groaning inwardly. Would her Papa get angry if she was good at potions? Would he see it as another bad thing her mother had passed to her? With a grimace she shoved those thoughts firmly from her mind.

To distract herself she watched the exchange between Sarah and Nathaniel. She had to simpathize with Sarah in this, Nate seemed to brush everyone off but Mariel. He even ignores me most of the time he spends with us. Leaning over so that only Sarah could hear she whispered, "You are not the only one he seems to not favor." She gave her friend a small smile. "It is okay though, who needs boys anyway." Winking, she hoped to cheer her friend up.

"Oooh" The ingredients werent that special, but she was just letting her imagination go wild at the thought of them making a potion that they had no idea what it was.

Standing up from her desk, Miranda walked over to the professors desk and started to grab the acorn and billywig wings. She made a face at the last item, creepy crawlies - or flying insects made her shudder, even if they were no longer alive. How sad... the thought made her pout a bit, but the bustling around her woke her up and she walked back to her desk.

Jake looked over to... Mariel, was it?... and smiled. Someone shared his opinion, thank Merlin.

But alas, it would have to be a surprise. Letting out an audible sigh, Jake went to the front of the room to collect the two acorns and pinch of billywig wings. Wasn't there a member of staff on the grounds who was nuts about acorns? With that random thought over, Jake returned back to his seat and waited.

Chris walked up to the desk and grabbed the things he needed and said "Thanks." with a smile he returned to his seat.

Professor Bontecou moved over to the blackboard while the students gathered ingredients. He took out some chalk and in a very untidy, though still legible, scrawl, hand wrote the directions.

Quote:

Ingredients:

• water (500 mL)
• 2 acorns (meat only, crushed)
• billywig wings (a pinch)
• scurvy-grass (1 dram)

Instructions:

• boil water
• add ingredients & stir constantly for 5 minutes
• remove from flame & stir once a minute for 5 minutes
• allow to cool before pouring into vials or ingestion

When he was finished, he wiped his brow and left a white streak across his forehead from the chalk. He seemed oblivious to that fact as he turned to address the class. "Alright, get started and I'll be around if you need any help," he smiled.

Chris wrote down the instructions and then looked at the proessor with a smile. 'Professor you have something on your forehead." he smiled happily to him.

Miranda looked up from her acorn inspection and saw the ingredients on the blackboard. This seemed easy enough, she thought and started to prepare for the potionmaking.

As the professor turned around, Miranda squinted at him. Hmmm...
She got up from her desk and approached him, "Professor, you seem to have some chalk... right here," she whispered discreetely to him and indicated on her own forehead.

Smiling kindly, she turned and went to pick up another acorn, she had only taken one.

After Jim was finished gathering his ingredients he started to boil the water and stir the ingredients.While he was stirring he noticed a long streak of chalk on the professor's head.

Elan went and got his ingredients from the professor's desk and then returned to his desk while the professor scribbled on the board. He chuckled a bit at the white streaked forehead and then set to work, hoping he wouldn't cause much of a problem.

After the water was boiling, he took his crushed acorns and poured them into the water. The water turned a lovely brown color.

Next her took the billywig wings and with a bit of a pinch, dropped it in. A nice lovely rose color came up and then settled into a dark pink.

With the scurvy grass added the potion turned a ghastly green color and remained there. He stirred and removed the potion from the fire and let sit, stirring as required.

He then sat back and watched his cauldron cool (what an exciting task.)

Miranda's quill scratched as she copied the instructions. Moments later, she had water in her cauldron, and sat waiting for it to boil. Glancing up, she noticed the streak of chalk on the professors forehead and couldn't help but giggle before biting her lip.

Meat only?

"What?!" Jake exclaimed. "Acorns don't have meat... uh... right? I thought..." Jake stuck his hand up. "Professor what is the 'meat' of the acorn?"

Damian wrote everything first down and began to prepare the Ingredients. Then he puted the water in the cauldron and waits until the water boiled.

Then he putted the prepared ingredents in the water and stired constantly for 5 minutes.

after that Damian removed the cauldron from the flame & stired once a minute for 5 minutes.

*that simple thought he*

Lasca wrote out the instructions and then moved her things next to Sarah. She followed the instructions to a tee, now she was imply waiting for the water to boil. Glancing around to see where everyone else was with their potions, she noticed another Ravenclaw, one she hadn't met yet. When he spoke she detected a small accent but couldn't place it. She herself had a thick accent but no one seemed to know where it came from.

Smiling she leaned over toward the boy. "Hello. I am Lasca. How are you?" She marveled at herself, she would never have done such a thing before coming to school. She wasn't shy, she was just reserved. She prefered to know people at a distance, now however, it seemed she was taking a more active role. Interesting.

Spence went to get her ingridients and went back to her seat. She started to boil 500 mls of water then started to crush her acorn meat. When the water was done she put in the acorn, billwig wings and scurvy-grass, then stirred constantly for 5 minutes. Then removed and stirred once a minute.

Ana waited for the water to boil.... finnaly she thought. Then she added all the ingredients and start to sitir it.

Marina carefully followed the instructions she had just copied, completely immersed in her work. She read the last word of the instrctions again -wait ingestion? Did this mean she would have to drink the potion? She wondered what it would do and was not so sure any more that she did not want to know what the potion did before it was "tested".

Chris lit the fire under the cauldren and waited for it to boil. As he waited he started to space out the ingrediants and looking at all of them. After the water started to boil he added the ingrediants and started stirring.

Damian looked up the the girl who spoke to him "Hi. 'm Damian.How do you find potions?" asked he.