Alyssa quickly sat up when Professor Lafay started speaking, confirming what some of the ingredients that were used in the Essense of Insanity Potion. Then as the blackboard displayed the rest, Alyssa picked up her quill and started copying them down in her journal.



Once they were given the go ahead to go gather their ingredients, Alyssa went over to the Potions Ingredient Cabinet and started removing what she needed, checking her journal ever so often to make sure that she had the right amounts. Once she had everything that she needed, she returned to her work desk and placed them on the table next to her.

Next step she had to clean her cauldron. Placing her cauldron on the table, Alyssa took out her wand, waved it over the cauldron and said, "Scourgify". Once the spell was cast, she slowly examined the cauldron to make sure that it was clean and that there was no cracks anywhere to be seen. Confident that her cauldron was clean and ready to be used, Alyssa placed it on the burner.

Now to add the water. Alyssa pointed her wand inside the cauldron and said,"Aguamenti". Water flowed from her wand filling the cauldron and once it was filled, Alyssa ended the spell by saying,"Finite". Then Alyssa lit the burner under her cauldron, by pointing her wand at it and saying, "Incendio". Adjusting the knob on the burner until she had the desired temperature, Alyssa sat back and waitedfor further instructions.

Shrug. Oh well. They had used stranger things in potions than fried food - bread mold still stood out to the Gryffindor. Quill back to her parchment, Kurumi copied down the list of ingredients and then brought that with her to the supply cabinet as she summoned things from on higher shelves with her wand and carried everything back to her table and began to arrange things in the order they had appeared on the list.

Once this was accomplished, Kurumi waved her wand over her cauldron to cast Scourgify before pointing it inside her cauldron and casting Aguamenti to fill it. Once this was done, Kurumi cast a silent Incendio on the burner and adjusted the heat before setting her cauldron on it and waiting.

Taylor nodded at the professor. Of course... it would kill you... I should of thought about that... Tay grimaced at her own stupidty and was kinda of shocked that Professor Lafay didnt glare or snap at her for her stupidty. Tay wrote down the ingrediants.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Ingredients

Water
5 Ailhotsy leaves
5 Lovage leaves
5 Drops of reem's blood
5 Bursting mushrooms
5 Inches of asphodel root
5 Tbsp of chopped fwooper voice box
5 Flowers of brugmansia
5 Snake fangs
5 Oz of wormwood
5 Sneezewort petals

She then got up and got the ingredients as she was told to. Tay made sure her cauldron was cleaned as she filled it with water. Taylor lit her burner then glazed up at the professor, seeing her sit down. She wondered if the professor was feeling okay but didnt ask because she knew that would be a glare, a snap, and/ or points deduction... Tay waited for the professor to continue.

After making a not of the ingredients, Jory began to collect them. Next, he cleaned the cauldron. "Scourgify!''. Wand still aimed at the cauldron, he began to fill it water. "Aguamenti,'' the badger said and water began to pour from the wand tip. "Finite.''

"Incendio," Jory said to light the burner under the cauldron. He waited patiently for the next set of instructions.

There was something odd about how Professor Lafay had started off the lesson, and it was something the Ravenclaw couldn't put a name on. Because of being too engrossed with entertaining her curiosity, she completely missed the first question asked by the Professor. She wasn't really at a loss though since she haven't been feeling participative in any of the lessons she had attended these past few weeks.

Hearing the first set of instructions, she quickly and silently took her place. She pulled out a spare parchment from her bag and jotted down the ingredients and procedure for the Potion they were making.

Okaaaaay...get ingredients. Beezus, carrying a small tray carefully selected the necessary ingredients from where the various component of concoction were placed. She returned to her table, scourgified her cauldron first before filling it in with water, then lighted the burner with an incendio spell using her wand. Next was to wait for Professor Lafay's next instructions.

Was something wrong with Professor Lafay? Silvia was tempted to ask if she was alright, but she didn't. This was Professor Lafay after all; she'd probably end up taking points away from her for not staying on-topic and minding her own business. And besides, a moment later she seemed fine again, so Silvia just psat quietly and took notes.

Once she had written down the list of ingredients, she got up to retrieve what she needed from the cupboard and then returned to her seat. Pulling out her wand, she pointed it at the cauldron in front of her and said "Scourgify," followed moments later by an "Aguamenti." Once it was filled with water, she placed it on the burner and lit it. Now that the preparations were finished, Silvia picked her quill up, ready to write down the first step.

Nerida hadn't tried guessing on weather an ingredient was used or wasn't used and was a bit happy about not guessing. Since the Professor wasn't in the best of spirits. Quill back to her parchment, Nerida began to copy down the list of ingredients that was now on the board. Standing up she walked over to the supply cabinet with her list and gathered the ingredients. After collecting all the ingredients, she than carried everything back to her table.

Once Nerida had set her ingredients onto the table, Nerida went to collect her cauldron. Placing her cauldron onto its cleaning spot, Nerida waved her wand over her cauldron to cast Scourgify so it could be cleaned before adding the water. "Scourgify," After the cauldron had been cleaned she pointed her wand inside her cauldron and casted Aguamenti to fill it up. "Aguamenti!" Once it had been filled Nerida said "Finite,". Than Nerida casted "Incendio." onto the burner and adjusted the heat before setting her cauldron on it and waited for further instructions.

Stella had remained quiet ever since her original greeting to Professor Lafay, both due to trying to figure out why it was that something seemed off in the room and the simple fact she hadn't had any Potions questions to ask. Not to mention once they'd been informed that they were going to be brewing Essence of Insanity in the lesson, she'd just lapse dinto silence out of fear that the next thing they'd be told was that they'd be testing it on themselves or others. So far it was just the normal discussion over possible ingredients, but she still had just kept quiet and then started taking notes in her journal. She really didn't want to need to have the instructions for this potion written down for posterity, but at least it was going to have to be the last potion she dealt with.

Text Cut: Potions journal

Essence of Insanity

Ingredients:
Water
5 Alihotsy leaves
5 Lovage leaves
5 Drops of re'em blood
5 Bursting mushrooms
5 Inches of asphodel root
5 Tbsp of chopped fwooper voice box
5 Flowers of brugmansia
5 Snake fangs
5 oz. of wormwood
5 Sneezewort petals

Procedure[LIST][*]Make sure your cauldron is clean and in good condition, using Scourgify to ensure it is absolutely spotless.[*]Fill cauldron with water, then set over flame.

Once she'd finished noting down the ingredients and the first couple of steps, she applied her attention to her cauldron. After just glancing over her cauldron carefully, she took her wand out to cast Scourgify. Just to be safe, in case there was any nearly invisible dust inside that might cause her to fail in brewing the potion, before she then used her wand to cast Aguamenti, filling the cauldron with water as instructed. Glancing up again to notice that the professor had gone back to sitting behind her desk. Not roaming as usual to catch people off guard, which was another little note of strangeness. Either way, Stella was going to try to pay attention to her potion, not the rest of the class, so she turnedback to point her wand at the burner underneath her cauldron. Casting Incendio, and adjusting the flame so it wasn't too hot. They hadn't exactly been told how high it had to be yet, so she was going to start off being cautious.

Amelia listened to the other students thoughts on what could be in the potion before writing down the ingredients when Lafay told them too.
Once that was done she pulled out her wand and cast "Aguamenti" to fill her cauldron with water. She assumed that there wasn't any dust that she couldn't see in the cauldron, otherwise she would have scourgified it first. Amelia then cast incendio and adjusted it to a low heat, waiting to be told how high it needed to be before she could make a mistake that might not be able to be corrected. That done she looked back up and at Lafay, waiting to see what would be next.

Dylan couldn't help himself as the grin stretched out over his face. There was just something about being called 'Captain' that he really liked. Yep, he was getting use to it just fine.

Settling back in his seat, he continued to listen to the Professor's responses...wondering if some of these people were sorted into the right houses. Human parts? Really, Ravenclaw...? If anyone went missing...he was totally blaming it on this guy. Ugh...It didn't help that he automatically thought about the fact that the dude shared a common room with Bee...and Indy.

Dylan would be watching that one...

Suddenly, his attention was grabbed by Lafay, seeing her sway on the spot. The Slytherin went to stand immediately, having every intention on helping the lady if she needed it...but she'd righted herself and had continued talking. Her strength had to be admired...

But...Well...It was time to BREW!

Dylan wasn't too adept at Potions. He'd go ahead and put that out there...but he did follow directions well...and as long as there were directions, he'd be okay. At least, he hoped so...

FIRST...Ingredients!

Wandering over to the cabinets, he collected the right amounts of everything he needed. There were a good many items and to insure he wouldn't drop anything, he grabbed a tray to transport them back to his station. Better safe than sorry...and he was absolutely convinced that if he dropped and wasted anything, Lafay would have a fit.

That wasn't good for anyone...

Once back to his work area, he carefully laid the tray down before pulling his cauldron out. Setting it up on the burner, the Slytherin eyed the inside of it. Really...it was caked with dust because they hadn't brewed anything at all this term...and he wasn't too ambitious with creating new potions. So, with a murmured "Scourgify", he went about cleaning it. After all the cobwebs and flecks of lint were cleared away, he then switched to "Aguamenti!" allowing the bottom of the cauldron to fill with water.

How much had they been meant to put in it? Was it supposed to be all the way full? Dylan didn't know really...So, he filled it. That's what everyone else was doing...

He would have asked Professor Lafay...but she seemed out of sorts and Dylan didn't really want to anger the woman. So, he finished filling the cauldron, and with a "Finite!" he was pointing his wand at the base, casting another spell right after the first. "Incendio!" brought fire to life under the cauldron and had Dylan stepping back just slightly. Not from fear, though!

He had just been standing too close...Yea, too close to the fire.

As an after thought, he withdrew his notebook and wrote a few things down. Better safe than sorry with notes-taking, too...

Elise nodded. Asphodel, right. The name of the plant itself had slipped her mind, but at least Professor Lafay recognized it by its nickname. Thank Merlin for an at least skilled Potions professor. It almost made up for her meanness. Almost.

Picking up her plastic containers that she brought for potions classes, she made her way to the cupboard and put the ingredients in the separated sections. Using her own droppers for the liquid ingredients, she placed those in separately before making her way back to the workstation.

Setting the container down, she pulled her wand out of its holster. Noticing the wear on its strap and the leather itself, Elise made a note to herself to buy a new one this summer. The holster, not the wand. Five C's start with cleanliness.

"Scourgify," she muttered, pointing her wand inside the cauldron and making tiny sweeping movements. Casting the spell one more time for good measure, she looked up at Professor Lafay. Water and fire, as usual. "Aguamenti," she mumbled, watching the jet of water fill up the cauldron quickly. Once it was just over half-full, she stopped the flow. "Finite."

With a small wrist movement, she muttered the next spell. "Incendio." Putting her wand back into its holster, Elise began scribbling the instructions in her journal.

Well at least he got one of 'em. And he even looked up when the Professor acknowledge Elijah's answer. Of course, as simple as it was, nothing starts without a base.

He added a few more to his notes before setting them aside to prepare his Potions materials, going through the motions of checking for any cracks or dents before setting his cauldron over the burner. With a murmur he uttered the Aguamenti spell and filled it with water, then shifted the wand tip below the pot and set the burner alight with the Incendio spell. While that heated up he walked over to the supply tables and collected the ingredients they would be using today.

Seeing as Lafay waved his wand, Jonathan automatically took out his journal and quill. Ready to copy those notes on the board like the way he always does during Potions class. Interesting because he has heard of this potion before but has not really read further details into it. Looking at the board right now while copying, Jonathan surely wished that he had just read through the whole chapter about this potion. It would have been such great help.

After finishing copying the notes, Jonathan quickly placed his cauldron on top of the table and put all the ingredients into his table and made sure they are as tidy. Taking out his wand he placed the tip on top of the cauldron and uttered "Scourgify" cleaning it as the first procedure as always.

With the tip of his wand still placed on top of the cauldron he then uttered "Aguamenti" and watched it as water filled into the cauldron into a certain point. And lastly, is to light those burners. Placing his wand on top of the burner just below the cauldron "Incendio" he once again uttered out.

Seeing as he is done with the first few steps, he sat comfortably into his chair and waited for Professor Lafay to give out more instructions. Hurry up people!

Cassia nodded at what Professor Lafay said and copied down the ingredients on the parchment. She then went to get the ingredients and had her cauldron on the table.

She took her wand out and checked her list. Water first, she thought. Glancing around her she remembered that they're supposed to clean the cauldron first. Fortunately she remembered before starting with water. "Scourgify.." She spoke cleaning the pot.

Then she pointed at the wand at the cauldron and uttered ,"Aguaminty," And water was filling the cauldron. She grinned at herself. Now they had to heat it.

The first year stared at the burners..How do we light exactly?! She wrinkled her nose. Oh right..magic! She closed her eyes for a split second recalling the incantation then, "Incendio.." She spoke as fire appeared beneath the pot.

All done, for now she thought. So she stood watching the water heating while waiting for Professor's next instruction.

Ella was glad that she hadn't been wrong about the Fwooper bits but she wasn't too sure about which parts exactly would be used in such a potion so she merely shrugged. It was probably something to do with their throat, yeah? Isn't that what drove people crazy...their voices? Plus, the second year was a little worried about Professor Lafay. She didn't look so good. Not nearly as scary as she usually did and slightly sickly. She wasn't going to throw up or anything, was she? O__O The small blonde sincerely hoped not because that would be...gross!

The second year listened as the Professor then gave them their instructions. Right... Ingredients, water, burner. She could totally handle that. Oh! And she wasn't wrong about the Fwooper's throat idea! They would be using a bit of its voice box. Well that was...disgusting. But also kinda cool! Wait!...Cool? Who was Ella turning into? Blink.Blink.



Getting up from her seat, she went and gathered what she would need, bringing it back to her space and organizing it in front of her. Then, she picked up her wand and pointed it at her cauldron. "Scourgify." Couldn't make a new potion in a dirty cauldron, could she? Alright, so next came the water. Pointing her wand again at the cauldron, Ella cleared her throat and called, "Aguamenti." She watched as the water filled her cauldron, making sure she had enough. When she was finished she smiled and said, "Finite." The water stopped and Ella checked the amount once more, just to be sure. So now all she had to do was heat the cauldron, yeah? Raising her wand at the bottom of the cauldron, she lit it. "Incendio." There. Now she was ready for whatever they would be doing next.

Man, Nigel was at least expecting some sort of human ingredient instead of hair. But at least she did not get angry with his wrong answer. That was a plus and if Nigel was not wrong it appeared from Lafay's tone of voice she had used human parts. Well at least Nigel knows that you can use them but it might be illegal or seriously frowned upon.

Well it looked we will be making some Nigel thought as he saw the ingredients on the board. Nigel copied down the exact ingredients, not wanted Lafay to yell at him because he missed a step on a ingredient. Once Nigel finished copying them down. Nigel got up and went to were he could get the ingredients and got the exact amount he needed.

Once he got back to his cauldron. He place the ingredients next to it and now had to fill the cauldron up with water. But first he should clean it. He pointed his wand insider the cauldron and said "Scourgify". He inspected his cauldron and was happy with how clean it was. Next he had to fill it with water. He pointed his wand again inside the cauldron and said "Aguamenti". He watched the water go into the cauldron and when he had enough water. He said "Finite". Now all he had to do was light my burner. He pointed his wand at the bottom of the cauldron and said "Incendio".

He watched it being lit and was happy with his work so far. Now Nigel waited to see what Lafay wanted them to do next.

Pretending she never heard the snide remark from the professor she let it bounce off her and went on. Sarah quickly wrote down some notes:

She then proceeded to get her ingreidiants together, gathered them in her arms and went over to a couldron. She then cleaned her couldron with the Scourgify spell. AIt would not hurtr after all.

In order to fill up her coulldron with water, "Aguamenti" she said as the water poured in, filling her couldron with water, When it reached the right amount she said 'finite' and the water ceased. This was great using magic, she was still getting the hang of it - occasionally doing thingss the muggle way out of habit.

In order to heat up her couldron with "incendio" and the fire cackled beneath it. The caskling flames looked like everyone elses -Hopefully she is doing it right.

Sophie didn't know the answer to professor Lafay's question, so she just sat there, quietly as the others responded. She didn't want to make guesses in that class. She always had this odd feeling that Lafay would go crazy and start... doing... something crazy.

But good! It was time to brew a potion! That was fun!

Sophie put her cauldron in front of her and pulled out her wand. "Scourgify!" She said pointing it to the inside of the cauldron. Tadah! Sparkling clean! "Aguamenti." And the badger watched as water filled her cauldron. Wait... how much water?? As the liquid came out of her wand, Sophie quickly glanced around to see what the others were doing and stopped pretty much like everyone else.

Okaaay... She looked underneath the cauldron this time, pointing her wand at the burner. "Incendio!" The second year really liked this spell for some reason... fire was a pretty thing!

She grabbed a quill and parchment, quickly scribbling the first instruction and the ingredients.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. That was essentially what was coming out Lafay's mouth more than not. She had even told Kurumi that she was wrong. HA! He didn't think he had ever seen Kurumi wrong, or Vickers for that matter who, whilst he got some right, had given some wrong answers also. He sniggered slightly at the thought until she got to his answer...

Correct? He was correct. WHAT?

Never, in a million years had Elijah expected THAT to happen. He got an answer correct whilst the others struggled? He hadn't even been trying. "Did you just HEAR her?" he said, rather loudly to the people nearby, "I'm correct."

Looking around for Vickers he said to the 'Claw, "Vee, I hope you are listening to me. I'm a genius. Make sure to note down my correct answer beside yours."

To say he was chuffed was putting it lightly.

Turning to a random Slytherin he offered, "Hey, it seems i'm amazing at potions. Did you hear my correct answer? Look, buddy, if you need any help just let me know. I'm your guy."

He decided against noting down all the ingredients, because why would he when he could just copy off his neighbour? He gathered the ingredients and filled his cauldron with water like the rest of his classmates. "Yes, filling it with water," he said aloud for anyone who cared to listen, "That was my suggestion."

He lit his burner and waited for further instructions. He secretly had a feeling his success in this class was going to be short-lived, so he may as well boast whilst he could. He could get used to this being smart AND extremely attractive thing, though.

Elliot merely made note of what everyone was saying that Lafay confirmed was correct. She wrote neatly, precisely, and faaancily because she loved to write notes. Yep. History of Magic was pretty awesome for that...although, last class hadn't really been a note-taking class.

She set her quill down on her notebook and went to go get all the ingredients. Should be a fun potion to make, or rather, an interesting one. Elliot enjoyed potions, she really did, she just wasn't naturally good at it like Transfiguration. She pointed her wand at her cauldron and quickly cleaned it out. It had been a bit dusty...where in the world did all this dust come from, anyways? It was gross. Then she placed on top of the burner and filled it with water...so far so good, right? She gently lit the fire underneath and wait...

Further instructions were needed. Elliot sure didn't know what to do next...

She eyed the Puffer guy pompously self proclaiming brilliance in potions. And it didn't help that she was sitting quite near him...

"If I have any problems, I will be sure to ask you," she told him sarcastically...but he seemed so thick he probably wouldn't catch the sarcasm...which made the blonde smirk maliciously. Heehee.

Spike had been sitting quietly...and somewhat out of character, had been taking notes. Good, useful notes. He bit the side of his lip in concentration as the quill scratched the surface of his parchment in his scrawl of handwriting.

...there wasn't even a doodle in sight.

The whole 'final class' thing had made his stomach sink as he realised the big 'E' word (exams) loomed in the way too close future. And he actually thought he could do okay on his potions O-word (OWLs), if he tried.

So he was trying.

He peered inside his cauldron, and given it had some remains of something green and squelchy in it, scourgified it until he was satisfied. Professor Lafay probably wouldn't appreciate him blowing something up, and it wouldn't do much for confidence before his O-word. "Aquamenti!" he cast, and watched a slow drizzle of water come from his wand. Not the fastest way to fill up the cauldron - but caution was always a good thing, right? Easier to add than take away...even if it took forever (or, at least, twice as long as most of his classmates). With that done, he pointed his wand at the burner underneath the cauldron.

"Incendio!" Fire? Now that he could do.

So maybe Essence of Dittany wasn’t anything alike this Essence of Insanity, but still it wasn’t too much of a bad guess and at least Professor Lafay wasn’t being so Lafay on her today.

The Hufflepuff pouted and then took out her quill and parchment. She then began writing the ingredients. It only took her a few moments to do so, and then once done she got up and fetched all the ingredients she had written down. It took her a few trips to do so, but after around her third trip she had gotten everything she needed.

Now she was ready! Renesmee looked inside her cauldron for a few moments and then sneezed at the smell of it. It stank! And it needed to be cleaned, which was the first step of course anyways. “Scourgify” she said as she pointed her wand at the cauldron before her and watched as immediately it became sparkly clean. That was so quick, and much better than doing it by hand. Magic was so lovely sometimes…

Next tem. The water. Raising her hand a little higher, Nessie pointed her wand towards the inside of her cauldron. “Augumenti,” She said as water began to pour out her wand. She waited a few moments for her cauldron to fill and then said “Finite.” Once she was happy.

All there was left to do now, was to turn on her burner. “Incendio,” she said and then watched as her burner lit up. She was all ready now, for whatever was next.

Sierra blinked, realizing she'd allowed herself to go into some sort of mechanical version of her true self, horrified by what she'd seen and imagined. "No," she was quick. "No, Professor. I'm sorry." She glanced down in an effort to get herself together without catching the possible watchful eyes of her classmates. Attention when she'd failed just wasn't her thing.

She finally focused on setting up and getting her ingredients. She started, of course, by cleaning her materials. It'd become a habit by now. Tightening the grip on her wand, Sierra pointed it into the cauldron and said, "Aguamenti!" The cauldron began to fill with water, and when it was full enough, she ended the spell. Now all she needed was the fire, so with another point of her wand, she added, "Incendio!"

"Good." She said watching the children. She then smirked and said "You may now start your brewing process. This is your final. Be careful of the order you put the ingredients in, do not deviate from the ingredients."

ooc: The person with the most interesting/fun way to brew this potion gets an additional 5 points to their creativity. You may work on it alone or with a partner, you much have it brewed in 3 or LESS posts. A one poster is perfectly acceptable. You have 72 hours from right now (see the post time and date.)

Essense of Insanity. The Dragon Lady wasn't going to test it on them, would she?

The blonde bent over her work, scribbling in her notes for the final Potions lesson. It was all in plain black ink, this side of her journal that contained her Potions notes was pretty much all scribbles anyway. Another couple of scribbles and doodles weren't going to hurt anything.



She vaguely doodled a star in the corner of her journal before getting up to get the ingredients. It took her several trips, but when she was done she dumped them with as much grace as was needed so that the jars wouldn't smash open.

She pointed her wand at her cauldron, "Scourgify." She muttered, watching the dust disappear... like it always did. She raised her wand and said the second spell, "Aguamenti." This time, the cauldron didn't overflow like it normally did and filled with the right amount of water. She blew a stray piece of hair from her eyes and put her wand down again. Now Incendio... she couldn't do that spell. She'd probably light half the class on fire if she tried. She reached into her pocket and drew a simple muggle lighter, she held it till the fire caught and then placed it back inside her pocket again. There. Perfect.

Glenn decides to leave her potion for a bit and walks up to the front of the class where Lafay is standing in a loud voice she says, "Professor Lafay, just want you to know that I LOVE you." The words taste false in her mouth, probably because they are false. It wasn't like she was going to back down, stick up for Hufflepuff, have some bravery and not back out of this. The thought of detention crossed her mind, hmm. She'd work that out when Lafay replied to her.