A very serious-looking Treyen Lockhart made his way to the Potions Lab, and noticed Professor Lafay as soon as he entered, "Good day, Professor," he said, with a nod and a small smile, as he took a seat in one of the stations.

He'd sent the owl, and he'd gotten the reply. All he was missing was a little Slytherin girl named Sierra to make an appearance in the Potions Laboratory, of course.But while he did so, the boy took out a worn notebook full of notes, Potions notes, of course, and placed his quill on the last written page. It was obvious he'd been given this a lot of thought. He also took out Melanie's book (a seventh year Potions textbook) and placed it on the table. It was only a matter of time before Sierra showed up, no?

The door to the Potions lab opened once again, and Sierra Greingoth made her way in. Her eyes scanned the area, looking for that Hufflepuff boy she'd made a date with--a work date, that is. She'd sworn off Puffer Boys, yet here she was, purposely meeting up with one. The fact remained that she had a point to prove, and this Treyen boy was probably the best person to help her achieve that.

Passing by the professor, Sierra glanced up and said, "Hello, Professor Lafay." She came to a stop beside where Treyen stood, and her eyes grew wide as she took in the sight of what he'd brought along. "Did--did you take all those notes?" she asked. Merlin, was she really that far behind? Treyen couldn't be too much older than her. Second or third year, most likely. Possibly a fourth year, but she definitely wouldn't give him any more than that.

"I mean--hey, Treyen," she greeted, realizing she hadn't even said hello. "So what do you have there?" She fished a quill and a few pieces of parchment out of her bag before dropping it to the ground by her feet.

His eyes followed the sound of the door, and it was the person he'd been expecting to see.

What? Did she have many more notes? But in reality..."Oh, these aren't the notes from class," they weren't, those were his personal notes on Potions for whenever he was bored. The notes from classes were still in his bag, no need to take those out since he'd written all possibilities in the notebook.

He smiled when she finally greeted him. Well, at least she had manners. He couldn't complain.

"Okay, so, I have a few ideas as to what ingredients this potion could have...," he wasn't certain that it could work, but still, "I also know that sneezewort, scurvy grass and lovage are not to be used. For this particular potion, that is." But surely she knew that, right?

He'll leave Baruffio's Brain Elixir out of this, because he didn't know what ingredients it contained. And they needed to work on fixing what was broken instead of increasing whatever was left of the brain connections. "As main ingredients I believe Jobberknoll feathers and Mandrake root will work," he continued, eying the notebook one more before looking back at Sierra, "Do you have something in mind?" if she needed reasons behind his choices, then she was free to ask. He had them.

Sierra narrowed her eyes at the boy. She was only eleven-years-old, for Merlin's sake! What did he expect her to have done--written a Potions textbook by now, or something?! She didn't respond to his first comment but just shrugged it off to focus on their next order of business.

"Right," she said, nodding in agreement to leaving off the sneezewort, scurvy grass, and lovage. "...not unless we want to help their illness progress even further." Which they didn't, of course. She jotted down jobberknoll feathers and mandrake roots then remained quiet for a few seconds as she scratched a few of her own notes on their parchment.

"Okay, I'm adding in ground scarab beetle, ginger root--cut up, and armadillo bile," she said, glancing up from her note-taking. Why were they acting so serious about this, anyway? Sure, they were discussing a possible cure to Alzheimer's here, but...she almost felt like cracking a joke just to remind the two of them that they were still just kids sitting in their school's potions lab.

He failed to notice that narrowing of the eyes she made. Good thing he did, or else he'll be narrowing his as well. Slytherins.

But since he didn't notice, then it was all fine. And she was agreeing with him. Well, of course she was agreeing with him, those were key ingredients for a Confusing Concoction, and they didn't want that, right? He...actually chuckled after she spoke and then shook his head, "I'm sorry, Alzheimer's not meant to be funny, but it sort of occurred to me...," he started to say, "...that perhaps, and this may be pushing it a little, those ingredients could have an opposite effect on those who are sort of confused already, I mean...the ones that are in the final stages of Alzheimer," the ones that had nothing to lose with any treatment. Nor loved ones to miss them.

"Wit-Sharpening," he said, after listening to her ingredients, yes, he had those too, "Yes, those too," and after nodding in agreement he added something else, "And, well, aconite helps with the dementia part in Wolfsbane Potion, so, perhaps that could be added at the last stages of the potion," to help people keep a more focused mind assuming the potion would work.

"We'll be needing something to deal with 'change', since the person's mind will be changing from one state to another," maybe fluxweed could help. But he always had problems with those ingredients.

"You said your sister is a Potions Mistress, right? Did you receive any tutoring by her?" he asked, with a smile, because for a first year she was very knowledgeable.

"Goodbye." She said watching the girl take her sleeping draught with her.

"Lockhart..." she said greeting him.

"Miss Greingoth..." She greeted... and then stopped and watched the two.

Oh Merlin... Sierra Greingoth working with a Hufflepuff? This wasn't going to end well. Hecate would need to watch these two carefully... Knowing little Sierra Greingoth (and her father,) Lockhart would be the guinea pig to her experiments and would most likely explode...

Add brown sugar and baking soda. Again turn three times clockwise then one counter clockwise, repeating until the mixure is a paste. She had added the Essense of Murtlap and the Vitamin E and now moved on to the final step. She cleaned out her measuring cup and added half a cup of brown sugar and two table spoons of baking soda. She thin stirred it three times clockwise and once counter clockwise. Three times clockwise and once counter clockwise. It was getting thick. By the fifth time she stirred it it was pasty enough. She took some of it and placed it into a class container so she could keep it just in case she were to burn herself again. She pointed her wand at the mess in front of her and said, "Scourgify." As all the mess was cleaned up she smiled at Professor Lafay and said, "Have a good day Professor."

"Good bye Miss Smithson." She said.

Although her head was still tilted down toward her parchment, Sierra glanced up at Lockhart, a sort of questioning expression on her face. "Which ingredients?" she asked, responding to whatever he was on about regarding opposite effects. "The ones that would progress things even further, or the ingredients to the Wit-Sharpening Potion?" It wasn't clear either way which ones he was talking about.

Hufflepuffs could be so confusing sometimes. Maybe it was Lockhart who'd taken a Confusing Concoction...

"Aconite," she said, scribbling down the ingredient. "Aren't its leave poisonous? It'd just be just the flowers then..." She was quiet for a few minutes as she jotted down a few additional notes.

"Alright, how about fluxweed for the changing, boom berries for the restoring, and billywig sting slime for the curing?" she finally asked, glancing up from her note-taking.

She nodded when he asked about her sister being a Potions Mistress. However, Sierra had never really been tutored by her. Not unless you counted just being around the house and witnessing her brewing firsthand. "No, not really. I mean, I've watched her brew before, but she's never really tutored me. I've just picked up on a lot from being around her," she answered. In other words, Sierra would likely not be able to come up with any stroke of brilliance anytime soon. Not unless she happened to think of somethinhg all on her own.

The sound of Lafay's voice drew Sierra's attention away from Treyen, and she glanced up at her Head-of-House with a small smile.

Helena was about to get the lobalugs, but fortunately, glanced once again at her notes. There was one more step she almost forgot.

She laid the fluxweed on the table, then sliced it diagonally in three with her silver knife. Next, with the flat part of the knife, scooped it up and dipped it into the mixture, stirring it with the knife.

Now... what was she going to do with the lobalugs? She looked at professor Lafay, then slightly raised her hand. "Professor? Can I" skip this part "take a small tank... or something for the lobalugs and the eel?" You know, they lived in water.

"Yes Miss Hopkins, you may," She waved her wand allowing a set of mermaid gloves appear. "Remember the lobalug won't let you take it unless you have those on." She told the child and eyed her.

... waste my ingredients little girl. See if I don't make your parents come in and pay for them.

She didn't forget about the mermaid gloves, but... "Thank you," Helena said in a slightly trembling voice. Professor Lafay was... terrifying. She could clearly notice that the woman wasn't quite pleased with... Helena's presence or something. She could stop brewing the potion... But that is probably going to annoy her even more.

Helena stood up and looked for a small tank for the lobalugs and for the eel. She used the hovering charm on it, just in case her clumsiness decided to show up. She didn't even want to think about thinking about breaking a tank, then the creatures could probably die, waste ingredients, yada yada yada.

She put on the mermaid gloves, and suddenly felt... a bit uncomfortable wearing them. But she didn't dare to complain. Helena glanced at the three lobalugs, who had to die. She couldn't do it again. But she had to. That's the reason she was in the Potions laboratory. Practicing. Getting better at potion brewing. Right?

The girl looked once again at the lobalugs, then took one out and let it spread its venom. Then... it stopped moving... And she put it into the cauldron. Two more to go. She took the second one and repeated the cruel procedure. The last one. Waiting for it to spread its venom... she gasped and dropped it back into the water.

Breathe.

After a few moments and a lot of deep breaths, Helena took the last lobalug, let it spread its venom, then dropped it in the cauldron, after it died. Okay, it's over now.

She took her gloves off and placed them on the table, then took the virus with the dropper and added five drops. The potion was slowly turning into a deep red. It was a good thing, according to her notes.

The last step. Helena took the dragon hide gloves, then took the eel and kept it in the cauldron until it got tired and stopped sparking. She quickly took it out and put it back into the tank. "At least you didn't die," she whispered, looking sadly at the eel.

Helena stood up again, then took the eel and the tank back to where she had gotten them. Once she was back to her potion, she looked hopefully at professor Lafay. "Is it... good?"

Oooooh. Lookit! Lafay had said his name. Ah, that was brilliant!

But, yes, Sierra, back to you. And the potion.

"Oh, yes, the ingredients that would progress it even further," because who knew if by given them what they were not supposed to take, then they got all better? If such a thing was to work out, then there was no real way of knowing whether that could work, or whether this potion could work.

See? He'd been right all along. It was a simple bliss to work with people that knew things, so he wouldn't have the necessity of explaining almost everything. Not that it had happened before. But yeah.

Treyen nodded and smiled, "Yes, they are, that's correct," another nod. Just the flowers. And then she added something he had not think of. Boom berries. "I had not considered Boom Berries until now," he said, but suddenly realized why, "Oh, right, I considered mandrakes instead, and I don't know how the berries will react with it," two of those restoratives could be dangerous, but they could make one potion in case mandrakes became hard to find. "As for the rest, I agree," he didn't write that down, he'd already memorized that.

Mmm...no tutoring? "Well, you seem to know quite a lot...for a first year," and he was supposed to continue saying something else about her sister...but then he remembered Lafay saying her name. Greingoth. "Are you Alex's sister?" by any chance? Probably?

Okay. So. It was time to make the final list of ingredients, and to talk about what part they needed to treat first. Restoration should come first.

Two restoratives? A bad thing? She didn't really think so. "Boom berries and mandrakes have been used together before," she pointed out, "in the Wiggenweld Potion. If there's going to be a negative effect, I don't think it'd be from those two reacting to each other. It'd be from the other ingredients." Nevertheless, she made a note of this on her parchment, just in case she wanted to check up on things sometime later.

With her head still tilted down to her parchment, she glanced up at him through her lashes, giving him a small smile in reply to his compliment. She wasn't really all that smart for a first year--she just used a lot of common sense and remembered things she'd read about or heard about. She wasn't going to tell him that, though, of course.

...and then her smile dropped when he asked if she was Alex's sister. She hated being known only by who her brother was. Then again, Treyen was a Puffer Boy, so it was really no wonder he knew who Alex was--he lived with him, pretty much! "Twin sister, actually," she answered, "but yes."

Hecate watched the two...

They seemed to be getting along... still... She walked to the board with the rules and added another:

• Do NOT, under any circumstance, test your potions on school mates... no matter which house they are from!

... better safe than sorry.

As she continued to jot down notes and plan a possible potion with Treyen, Sierra suddenly got the feeling that she was being watched. When she glanced up, she noticed that Lafay was definitely watching them, which was nothing out of the ordinary, she knew. After all, Lafay was the professor and was here to do just what she was doing now--observing and helping out, if need be.

Sierra started to return to her note-taking, when she noticed Lafay walk away and head toward the board. She was--adding notes? Taking them away?

No, no. Definitely adding. Hmm? Wonder what had caused that sudden addition to the rules? Had Treyen being planning on feeding Sierra the test potion?!

...because she had so been planning on feeding it to him. He didn't have Alzheimer's, of course, but she could at least feed it to him to see if there would be any unusual reactions. Nevermind that now.

She was...right. Then again, those two were good with the rest of the Wiggenweld Potion ingredients. There was no way to know how they'd react in this one, though, that was all a matter of trying, right?

"You're possibly right about that," or wrong, no one knows.

For some reason the girl didn't seem to react too well to...Alex? Treyen frowned for only a bit, they didn't look like twins, well, like identical ones, at least, but he knew twins didn't have to look so alike anyway. The boy merely nodded, he had no comments, really, he hadn't seen Alex in quite a while.

"Okay, we have the ingredients down...do you want to suggest some brewing instructions...or do we do that separately?" separately? Weren't they supposed to come up with this together? "Or I could start," he shrugged, and then his eyes went over to Professor Lafay, who had moved a little...



...to write something on the board.

He chuckled. He wasn't planning on doing that. Not even with a Slytherin. Besides, if it was supposed to be tested on someone, it would be an Alzheimer's patient, and Sierra wasn't. Really.

So, to sum up, no need to worry, Lafay.

Sierra wasn't exactly sure what to do next. She'd never gotten this far in the brewing process all by herself. She'd been confident in discussing the ingredients, because doing that didn't involve actual experimenting, actual brewing, and possible explosions due to the ingredients that didn't mix well with one another.

Actually testing all they'd discussed, though, now that was something else all together. Treyen was only suggesting brewing instructions, though, which was safe enough for now. Maybe they could show Lafay their brewing instructions list when they were done, though, and then if she approved it, then Sierra was sure it'd be alright.

Sierra read the ingredient list, in random order, out loud. "Did I get them all?" she asked. It looked sort of simple for a cure for Alzheimer's, but they'd done a thorough discussion... "We can do it together," she answered. She tried to sound nonchalant, but what she was really doing was admitting she wasn't quite confident enough to work alone. "We need to also work out amounts. How much of everything do we need? How much water?" Things like that.

Okay. Treyen took a peek into Sierra's parchment after she'd recited all the ingredients and then wrote down a list of a possible order based on what effects should the potion cause and, well, how the effects should take place if the potion actually worked.

Once that was written, he gave the piece of paper to Sierra, "This could be a possible order, based on what should happen first or what reactions or alterations we're looking for," he nodded, and then smiled, "The peppermint part is...a personal thing," he said, almost chuckling, "I like to use peppermint, it usually hurts no one, unless one's allergic, and the refreshing part of it could be a nice touch," as to 'refresh' memory, not the potion itself. "I do know we have fluxweed, but that's a more active ingredient than peppermint is," both belonged to the mint family, no? "You don't have to add it, if you don't want to," the peppermint, that is, but he'll be writing it with his ingredients.

He was actually getting hungry, when was the last time he'd eaten?

Okay. Now. Amounts. That was the tricky part, and that was the part that could take them forever, but let's make it easier. He went over a couple pages on his notebook and then looked back at Sierra, "Based into how many ingredients we have, I say we start with 500 ml of water," a liter may be too much, and why waste too many ingredients if it was all a test, right? Not that they were brewing anything soon. "Sixteen scruples are needed for a Polyjuice Potion," he said, eying Melanie's textbook, "And that's for a full body change, so, we'll need less than half of that, probably five," because five was the number for 'change' in Arithmancy.

Ginger was more of a proportionate amount to Fluxweed, so, "As far as Ginger root goes, then I'd say about a quarter of a spoon, half of it tops," nothing more, since they could be using 5 of Fluxweed. And the potion should turn green anytime after that, but not lime green, just a darker shade of that before adding Mandrake root.

"I don't know about Mandrake root, though," he said, flicking page after page, "It's very powerful, so a little amount of that will do, probably one," and maybe that was a bit too much, maybe more like three quarters of one.

He eyed his piece of paper, what was next? Well, he'd rather wait for Sierra to speak up about the order of the ingredients before continuing, so, he didn't comment anymore, but he was already writing something...

...1, 8 ml, 1, 1/2 spoon, 1 -flower, not leaf-, 10 ml -juice-, 2 leaves.

Yes, those were sort of the numbers to how much should be taken into consideration, but not the exact amounts of what should be used, that included ounces, pinches and sprigs, that will probably come up with the instructions.

Emily burst through the door to the Potions Laboratory, her hair flying back as she stormed through the dark room.
"Professor", she nodded by way of greeting as she continued walking passed Lafay to a spare work space.
Determined to take her mind off her....

She dumped her bag on the floor with a thud. Pausing for a moment she leant against the work bench to catch her breath. Her eyes were swolen, red and itchy from crying. Though the tears had long dried up.

Once she had composed herself, she set up one of the cauldrons from the shelf. She was about to engage herself with some serious potion making. She hastily withdrew her old, faded, dishevelled notebook from her bag and began to flick through it feverishly.The note she had just recieved from her mother fell out of her bag and onto the floor, though Emily didn't take any notice.

She needed something... with lots to do... she wasn't too concerned with what the potion was used for. It was merely a distraction for her.

She suddenly stopped on a page, it had a coffee cup ring stained onto the page, not that it mattered it was only her personal notes.
The ingredient list was reasonably long, which pleased her, and the instructions appeared to be just as lengthy. Emily turned her attention to the top of the page.
Elixer to Induce Euphoria.
Perfect that is just what she needed.

Emily took out her potions kit, and searched for all the ingredients, perhaps she would need to get some items form the potions storeroom.
Right so.... water and fluxweed oil she had....vervain root she had....bloodroot she had.
Mental note: stock up on blood root.
Calendula pollen she had..... asphodel root.... she didn't have. That was strange.
Mental note: stock up on asphodel root.
She would have to go to the storeroom for that.
Hyacinth flower, lovage leaf, check check.... bouncing bulb, check.
Sprig of peppermint.... she had some in her dorm, but none in her potions kit... hopefully the storeroom had some.
"A live frog?"... she murmered to herself. "I'll transfigure one"... she answered herself.
Billywig sting, check.... alihotsy leaf, check.... glumbumble fluid she would need from the storeroom, and lasty wahoo bark, check.

Suddenly motivated with a clear sense of purpose Emily jotted down the items she would need to retrieve before starting her potion. She liked to be organised.

As Sierra took a look at Treyen's paper, she started to realize that they'd reached the part of the process she was really uncertain about. Her eyes flickered away from her parchment and toward Lafay. She didn't want to mess up in front her--no way, no how. She especially didn't want to waste an ingredient and have Lafay charge her father for it. It wasn't a matter of coming up with the money--that he'd be able to do--she'd just end up letting him down, and she didn't want that at all. With her eyes back on the parchment, Sierra considered Treyen's brewing order for just a moment before handing his paper back to him.

"Peppermint isn't completely useless, you know," she said with a slight smile. "It's sometimes used to counter-balance side effects from a potion." Like in the Elixir to Induce Euphoria--apparently peppermint was used in the brew to counter-balance singing and nose-tweaking. "So as long as we don't accidentally counter-balance any of the effects we're actually looking for, I'm good with adding peppermint." Shrugging, she began hastily jotting down some of the amounts Treyen was throwing out there.

She paused when she realized that although he'd stopped talking (finally!), he was still writing--something. He looked to be much further along than she was, maybe even finished, and so she leaned over to try and get a good look at what he'd put down. "So what do you have there?" she finally asked. This part of the process was why she'd needed him as a partner in the first place. She wouldn't tell him that, though, of course.

He never said the word 'useless'. Peppermint had plenty of abilities, and mixed with hot chocolate was even better. Not for potions, of course. Can you imagine Lafay's face if he ever came up with such an idea? Though, he was certain that there were a couple potions that involved chocolate. Very much certain.

"I don't think it'll react badly with any of the ingredients, though," Peppermint was like the kid who got along with everyone, a kid he has yet to meet. Maybe Conan was that kid. And that was all Treyen said about the subject.

But he kept on writing before the ingredients the tentative amount, and then he was done.

Done in time for Sierra's question. He smiled. "Here, well, the rest of the ingredients, or their amounts, kind of." Treyen wasn't even sure it was all done, though. They were probably missing a couple more ingredients, and the quantities may be a bit off, but, really, he had no way of knowing.

"Perhaps we ought to show this to Professor Lafay," he encouraged Sierra to do so, because he was slightly nervous at having to do so himself.

Shrugging nonchalantly, Sierra said, "Adding peppermint is fine by me." ...and it was. She'd never really experienced using it in potions before, so using it now would give her a little more knowledge about its effects and reactions. Yet another reason why she needed Treyen Lockhart in order to succeed with this potion...

She hated needing a Hufflepuff. It completely blew her character. She took comfort, though, in knowing that she still hadn't come right out and admitted that to Treyen.

Again, she accepted his paper and read what he'd jotted down. Everything seemed to look alright, but really--what did a first and third year really know about inventing a potion? Her eyes traveled to Lafay again, and then she blinked and quickly turned her attention back to the paper. "Right," she agreed. "We should at least try and figure out if we're even on the right track."

It occurred to her that Treyen seemed to be encouraging her to be the one to approach Lafay. He'd given her the paper, after all, and he hadn't bothered to take it back upon suggesting that they ask the professor. Lafay herself didn't bother Sierra. She was just afraid to fail in front of her, but there was really no way to tell how she'd react unless Sierra actually went up there and showed her the paper. Besides, they needed answers, and Lafay was the best person for that.

"Professor Lafay?" she asked, Treyen's paper in her hand. "Could you take a look at our list, please? Give us your thoughts..."

Okay. Then they were adding Peppermint.

It seemed to him that Sierra was still feeling uncertain about something, but it surely didn't have to do with the potion, or she'd comment about it, after all, she did voice her opinions. And very well-thought out, for a first year.

Treyen was actually glad that he wouldn't have to be here for when Sierra was in her final year. Scary know-it-all she may become.

Nod. Nod. Yes, they should see what else they might need, of it the order of the ingredients is completely okay or if there was one that needed some tended to.

He didn't need to tell Sierra that she had been chosen to go up to Lafay, she'd figured it out on her own. Brilliant! Though, seriously, the best of the two was Sierra, since she was a Slytherin and all. The boy was still nervous, he was actually fearing what Lafay might say about their potion.

Hecate stalked close to the children... she eyed Treyen. He hadn't blown up yet... good sign. "Why are you using aconite, and scarab beetles?" She asked. Aconite wasn't horribly expensive, but in the wrong doses, it was deadly... Ground scarab beetles were harmless... but very expensive.