So now they were to continue brewing their potion by themselves. It's not like Professor Lafay was helping them, except for calling instructions…or it's more likely snapping instructions. Well, despite Professor's Lafay not-so-nice voice, Cassia was enjoying the sound. Now there're gonna have to work SILENTLY! The first year glanced at her professor at the corner of her. That was your plan all along right professor! She thought as she pouted her lips.

Anyway, back to the potion thing. The young Slytherin checked the parchment, She stared at the ingredients and kinda got dizzy. She covered the names showing only what's next, "Five Ailhosty leaves," She murmured. Well, If they were to brew the potion individually might as well she speaks with herself. That can't be prohibited ,or could it? Who knows their Potion master might consider it an act of…..disturbing! Then she'll speak in a low tone making sure she won't disturb anyone. Because if she didn't speak she might explode! It's not something she does, staying calm.

After adding the five leaves, Cassia revealed the next ingredient by sliding down her finger, MAKING sure not to look at all the ingredients directly. That could cause serious damage to her. "And five Lovage Leaves….Whatever that means," She starched out her hand and reached for them ,"Three..Four..aaand five." She counted dropping the last leaf into the cauldron. You know brewing potions alone can be bearable. But still it was killing the first year having to only work without chatting.

She wished that she could hum to herself or maybe to the students around her as well. But that could probably be fatal. Checking the list for what to add next, "Five drops of blood," She muttered. Cassia wondered what a reem is? She held the bottle up to her nose and smelled it….Oh boy! That was disgusting! The curious girl regretted ever holding the bottle close to her face. She clenched the counter and closed her eyes for a couple of second trying to make the awful smell and awkward feeling that was caused by smelling this liquid, go. She of course knew better of asking the Professor what to do. Then what… Lafay would probably let her drink it as a punishment!


Nope she'll recover on her own. In fact the weird sensation was already subsiding. Not totally gone but enough for her to continue. She held the parchment up and squinted her eyes to see the next ingredient, "Five Bursting Mushrooms.." Why did her voice sounded hoarse like that?! Nah..it's fine..probably her ears made her hear it like that. Oh brilliant, it's either her throat is damged or her ears! And she's still a first year. How did the older students survive those potion lessons without losing some of their senses!


After adding that mushrooms, she glanced at the list, Five inches of asphodel root. She didn't speak out loud now. She's just getting paranoid. And if her voice is really awkward then better not to make Lafay hear it. She might let her sing!


Cassia searched for something to measure this five inches root. She needs to be accurate . once done she added it. And sighed closing her eyes. Let's take a couple of minutes as a break. Hopefully ,the awkward feeling will evaporate.

SPOILER!!: Elliot

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayquilz

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.

"Yep, go ahead. I am more than willing to help," the Hufflepuff responded, completely oblivious to the Ravenclaw's sarcasm. Man, he was so good people actually were looking to help him out.

SPOILER!!: Prof. Knows-Elijah-is-ALWAYS-correctFACE

Quote:

Originally Posted by Droo

"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.)

Hm? Lafay say what now? Brew the potion themselves? But she had given them no instructions... He supposed he could use that book thing that he had to buy for this class, but that involved effort. However, this was their final, so perhaps he should try a little, eh?

He opened up the textbook, trying to find the potion. He flicked page after page and after about ten pages with no luck he got bored. Well, he did trrryy he thought as he shut over the book. He could just wing it. How hard could it be?

Peering over at some Gryffindor's list next to him, he could see that the next ingredient to be added after his water, which was now boiling quite nicely, was the ailhosty leaves. Five, to be precise. Now, Elijah didn't know MUCH about potions, but he was certain that you always had to DO something with ingredients. Turning the leaves over in his hands, he wasn't sure exactly how to prepare this particular ingredient for the potion. Hm.

So, he just popped them in his mouth.

Yep. Just like that. In his mouth and he chewed them a little. When he felt as if they had been mushed up satisfactorily, he spat the remains into the water. "There," he smiled, pleased that he had used his initiative.

"Hehehehe."

Oh gosh, why did he just giggle there? He gave a small burp and put it down to that. RIGHT! What was next? "Loooovvvaaaage leaves," he read from over a Ravie's shoulder this time. "Lovvvvvvvaaageeeee. Hehehehehehehehe" How funny. LOOOOVVVAGGGGGEEEEE.

These particular leaves didn't look as appetising to him as the ailhosty ones, so he just quickly tore them all up into little pieces and flung them into the cauldron as one might do with herbs to a soup.

"HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE"

Something was extremely funny. Like that Ravenclaw's ugly face. "BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Face. Ugly. So funny. Me. HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE"

Through the tears now streaming down his face from all his laughter he tried to focus, holding in his laughter with great difficulty. Reem's blood was next.

"Reeeeeem, bleeeeeeeem, spleeeeeeeeen," he said as he just shoved in a dollop of the stuff, not taking much care in regards to exactly how many drops it was.

"OH! SPLEEN!" he shouted remembering, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Who was it," snort, "That answered rat spleen before? SPLEEN rhymes with REEEEEEM, HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE."

He sat down on his stool, clutching his side. Oh BOYYY! That was SOOO funny. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA."

"Andd... andddd... anddd..." he paused in between each word, trying to breathe from all his laughter, "You got SPLEEEEN wrong, anyway! HAHAHAHAHA! But not me! WATER was right! YEP! HAHAHAHA. WATER rhymes with.... um, OTTER. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."

Who knew potion brewing could be so... um, funny?

Ella watched Professor Lafay as she announced that they were doing good. It was always reassuring to hear her say something positive, at least the second year thought so. Something about the sudden smirk that appeared on her face next though, it made Ella feel nervous. Why the smirk? Oh no....they weren't gonna have to like...harvest anything else, were they?! O__O Please Merlin no. NO.NO.NO. The second year's stomach simply could not handle any such thing, especially during a final. Luckily, she didn't have to worry for too long. Professor Lafay went on to explain that they would be brewing their potions now...WAIT! On their own? Like...she wasn't going to offer them any kind of guidance? Well besides the part about following the ingredient order. EEP! This was going to be erm...interesting. Mhm. Definitely interesting...

The second year pulled her list towards her and eyeballed it carefully. Alright, she had already added the water so she thought it best that she cross that off right away, so as not to add any more by accident. That's all she needed. Right. So now that that was completed she needed to add...Ailhotsy leaves! Five Ailhotsy leaves to be exact. Heh. Ailhotsy was a funny word, yeah? Ailhotsy...Ailhotsy...Ailhotsy! Teehee. That just sounded plain weird! It was suiting for a plant that was also referred to as the Hyena Tree, though. The name alone was giggle inducing! Hehehehe. Pulling the leaves towards her, Ella counted out five. But wait, how were they meant to be added? Were they supposed to be whole? Well probably, right? I mean it didn't say powdered or crushed or anything next to it. She took a deep breath, brow furrowed, and decided she'd just go for it. "1...2..." She counted as she added each leaf to make sure she had put in the proper amount. "3..." Wait...was that someone laughing? Oh Merlin's beard! It was that Elijah dude! Had he...tasted some of the leaves?! FROWN. That wasn't in the instructions! Now she would have to listen to him cracking up for the ENTIRE final? Gah! How was she meant to concentrate? The second year wondered if there was any Glumbumble treacle around. That would help. She couldn't be bothered though, she had a potion to brew. GLARE. "4...5." There. That was good. Now to cross the Ailhotsy leaves off the list. Done!

Okay...now on to the Lovage leaves. She needed five of those as well. Hm. Seemed five was the lucky number today, yeah? The second year counted out five of the leaves and placed them in front of her, double checking the amount once more. Funny that she was brewing Essence of Insanity since she felt kind of insane herself at the moment. What with the stress of a final AND the cackling Hufflepuff who WOULD NOT STOP LAUGHING. GLARE. Shake it off, Ells. You've gotta kick this finals butt. Mhm! "1...2...3..." And in went the leaves, as Ella tried to ignore the loud laughing. "4...5." Right. Now to cross that off the list too. Okay. So far so good.

Sarah read from her notes.
Ailhotsy leaves was the first real ingriediant. Where they not from the Hyena tree or the kind that makes a person go hysterical with laughter. Someone was already sporting symptoms of eating one...

Sarah soon set to work, the gurgling of the water boiling urging her on. Five leaves from the hyena tree were added, each with a ceremonious plop. Them came the five leaves that smelt rather anti-septic. Then came the little droplets of re'em blood, looking like scarlet wine. Another 5 bursting mushrooms (what did they eat anyway) and cut off 5 inches from an asphodel root. She sprinkled the 5tbsp of chopped voice box of the Fwooper as well. Probably LaFay did it with morbid enthusiasm. Sarah was still recovering from the homework assignment. Just thinking of it made her stomach feel awful.

FIVE flowers of brugmesia were the next item to be ticked off the list. Snake fangs joined the brew - hopefully they werent poisonous. By now she was fived out, all she needed was for someone to ask her for a high-five,shewould high five their faceFianlly she added the wormwood-Sarah had to make sure she was was seeing alright- as there were no fives! She added the wormwood and the last ingrediant- sneezewort petals.

Selina was exhausted to say the least. She had not said a single thing the entire class because she was trying hard to right down everything that Lafay was saying- that and after she had sort of spoken down to Selina and Kurumi earlier the redhead did not want to risk even speaking. So she had sat beside Kurumi the entire period watching as Lafay indifferently taught the class about the final potion they would be brewing. Honestly, Selina was confused... anyone else? No? Okay, just her.

Then she said that they could begin to brew the potion.

Selina wanted to hurl. Potions always made her so nervous. SO with a pale face, she turned to Kurumi and she stuttered, "Look... I-I know you said that you didn't want to work together... b-but I d-don't know if I can do this alone. At least without throwing up... or passing out." And that was the truth.

It was going to make Selina pass out... even perhaps WITH her best friend's help.

Jory checked the the list of ingredients. He added the five ailhotsy leaves followed by five lovage leaves. "Five seems to be today's number,'' he thought as he now added five drops of reem blood.

The boy now looked around for the bursting mushrooms and he added five of those. He looked around when he heard loud laughter and wasn't surprised to see it was coming from Elijah. Jory shook his head. He won't be surprised now if Professor Lafay docked points off Hufflepuff for disrupting the class.

Jory turned his attention back to his potion. Next up was five inches of asphodel root which he added followed by the five table spoons of chopped fwooper voice box. "And there he goes again,'' Jory thought as he glared at Elijah.

The Puff added five flowers of brugmansia and the five snake fangs. To finish off the list of ingredients Jory added five ounces of wormwood and the five Sneezewort petals.

Looking down at her ingredients list, Ella frowned. Sheesh! She still had quite a lot to do! The second year was a bit freaked out by this, especially because a certain giggling Hufflepuff man kept stealing her attention with his hyena laughter. If it wasn't a final, she would have attempted to help her fellow badger, even if he was the most annoying human being on the planet. Unfortunately for him and for her, it was a final. Meaning Ella just had to make the best of it and continue on. Besides, she couldn't exactly ask Professor Lafay to help! What if she like...tried to EAT Ella or something! MEEP! That would be horrifying! OR WORSE...she could take away house points! O___O THAT WOULD BE THE WORST! Nope. She was going to keep her mouth shut and concentrate. She could TOTALLY do this. Mhm!

Quill in hand, Ella underlined the next ingredient she needed to add which was...blood. EWWW! FLAIL. WHY did it have to be blood? The second year gagged a bit as she unstoppered the container and began to carefully add it to the potion. Five drops, yeah? Five drops of blood...CRINGE...no big deal. GAG. Nope. "1...2...this is horrible...3" Yup. Just adding some blood. BLOOD. Frown. "4...What am I, a vampire or something?...5." And then she was done with the BLOOD. Thank Merlin! And she placed the stopper back on before placing it to the side.

After crossing off the blood, Ella moved her quill down and found that next she'd be adding the...5 BURSTING mushrooms? Bursting, really? Who came up with this stuff, anyway? Everything they were using was pretty much disgusting or harmful in some way...well at least before it had been erm...disarmed. Save a few, of course. Like water...that stuff was just plain awesome! Mhm. And beneficial! And Professor Lafay had disarmed them, right? Wait. Of course she had! Ella had brought them back to the table without a problem. ...PHEW. As she began adding them, the second year couldn't help but imagine what would happen if one just like EXPLODED in your face. "1....2..." You're just walking a long in the forest one day, minding your own business when BAMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! O___O You've been attacked...BY A MUSHROOM. "3...4..." Imagine! And then you'd be all HORRIBLY disfigured and people would ask what happened and it wouldn't even be a remotely awesome story...like if a bear attacked you or something! Nope...you'd have to admit that you'd been taking out by a MUSHROOM. A full on fungi attack. Bahahah! It was ridiculous! "5." Crazy exploding mushrooms!

Right. Crossing out the crazy mushrooms and moving on...Next was Asphodel root. Hm. 5 inches to be precise. Double checking her measurement with her fingers, the second year was pretty satisfied. Besides, asphodel root could only help this INSANE Essence of Insanity potion anyway, yeah? Yeah. And in it went. "Voila!" Lovely. And the Asphodel root was crossssed off.

Looking down, Ella felt her stomach do a serious flip-flop. Oh no! No.No.No. She didn't want to add this particular ingredient AT ALL. It was like...SO yucky. Like...eep! The ONLY place a voice box belonged was in the throat! Mhm! Using ....bits of it was just...ewwwwwie! Gag. And Ella had to see these erm...parts... 5 times? O_o Oh Merlin help her. She grabbed the spoon and cleaned it before...GAG...scooping out the first spoonful. "I'm sorry that your erm..voice box is perfect for this potion, dead fwooper." She whispered as she added the first tablespoon. "Please don't like erm...haunt me or anything because I'm taking part in this...inhumane practice..." And two more spoonfuls were added. "I um...I'm sorry you are no longer around to erm...drive people insane with your erm...song." One more spoonful was added. "I um...well just feel good knowing that your voice box...well bits of it...carry on your work while you rest...in pieces. Literally." And in went the last spoonful. 5...gag...fwooper voice box bits in all. Ick.

The five flowers of brugmansia went in without too much fuss. Ella simply added them while counting aloud, still feeling pretty upset about the whole...voice box bits thing. "1...2...3..4..5" And another item crossed off the list.

Right. 5 snake fangs came next. Ella could do this part without much trouble. Mhm. Fangs were just like...really sharp teeth. Mhm! She was practically being a snake dentist right now. Besides, wasn't using these fangs a form of recycling! It totally was! BEAM. "1..2..3...4...5." In went the fangs. Bing.Bang.Boom. And then on to the oz of wormwood...heh. Not the WIZARD OF OZ, though! BAHAHHAHA!

"Okay you erm...wormwood. In you go..." And in went the wormwood, carefully added of course. And now only one thing left to add! FLAILS!

5 sneezewort petals. That was the only thing standing in the way of Ella and a finished potion. Heh. Not even a laughing Elijah could stop her now! MWAHAHAH! Anyway, the second year counted out five petals and added them one by one. "1...2...3.." Wait. WHY was her nose starting to feel quite itchy? "4..." Oh no...Not in the potion! No. "AAAAAA...." NOOO. "CHOOOO!" Ick. And right on her last petal, too. Um...maybe germs would just like...enhance the potion? Squirm. Here's hoping.

And she was done! She had finished! HOORAY! Flail! And now she really needed to clean while she waited for any other possible instructions. And so the badger took out her wand and began to clean the surface of like...everything. Especially her hands...which she'd just sneezed ALL over...EEP. SO disgusting!...but NOT as disgusting as Fwooper voice box bits...just saying.

Spike looked at his clean cauldron and water simmering, and then to his work bench, scratching his head. Quite how had he managed to not collect his ingredients? Oops. He quickly went to retrieve them, and set about putting them fairly orderly on his desk. Just in time too, since Lafay was now giving them the next instructions.

Blink. Blink.

As soon as she smirked he'd known things were going downhill - but seriously, no recipe? Had the woman taken some kind of insanity potion of her own? Spike had a feeling this was where everything started going terribly wrong.

Oh, it'd be insane alright. Whether it would be quite the essence of insanity Lafay was after, however, was a completely different story.


Spike looked between his ingredients list and vials on his desk, checking everything was there, and trying to get an idea for what he might have to do with them. He assumed it wasn't as simple as dumping everything in and leave it be.

He was just about to start on the ailhosty leaves, when he heard a small burp by his ear. Apparently a pesky Hufflepuff was trying to read his notes. Quite why, Spike wasn't sure - he wasn't exactly well known for his potion skills, except for happily handling even the grossest of ingredients. Squelch and slim? He loved it. Anything else potion wise? He was average. Why someone would choose to copy him out of the whole class was anyone's guess. Spike moved the book away from the Hufflepuff's gaze, with a curt "excuse me" and roll of his eyes.

It didn't end there though. Giggling ensued. What was the guy on? 'Lovage' wasn't that funny, mate.

Okay, no, seriously, what was the Huffie on?

...it sounded like he was calling the Ravenclaw Prefect ugly - so it was probably a good thing that Spike was on the whole fairly forgiving, and hadn't started the stressful process of a potion-without-a-recipe-final. Shaking his head, he simply turned to the Huffie. "I think you should watch what you're saying," he said quietly but with the firm tone he'd recently developed as a Prefect. "I wouldn't want you to get into trouble..."

With that, he turned back to his ailhosty leaves. Counting out five, he scrunched them in his hands to release the juices, before dropping them into the cauldron. And then add some 'insanity' he stirred them into the water in a sort of crazy figure of eight motion. Step one done.

Now for the lovage that Huffie had been so obsessed by. It was a herb, Spike knew, and them probably meant it should be chopped. He carefully took his silver knife from his potions kit, and swiftly chopped it in all directions until it was fine. Or, as fine as he could get it. That got dropped in the cauldron too, with some more random stirring. The water started to tingle a pale green colour - was that a good sign?

Hopefully they wouldn't have to test it...

Alyssa sat up and listened as the Professor gave them their instructions and then she gasped. They were supposed to brew the potion without any directions from her??Alyssa studied the ingredients in front of her. Were they supposed to be chopped up? Grounded up? How many times to stir? Counter clockwise or clockwise? How long to let each ingredient simmer? All those thoughts were running through her brain that it felt like it was about to explode.

Explode? Alyssa had to first protect herself just in case, her potion misfired and its contents melted the cauldron or worse yet, it exploded all over the classroom and her classmates!! She quickly looked into her backback and dug out her safety goggles, fire retardant apron and dragon hide gloves from it. She tied the apron around her waist and then studied the ingredients again. Alyssa decided that she would first write down the steps she would be taking to brew her Essence of Insanity Potion. She still couldn't believe it. She knew that the Professor was capable of anything, but insanity was not one of them. Then she wondered whether maybe the Professor had sampled some of her own Essence of Insanity Potion.

But back to the task at hand. Alyssa began writing down the steps on how she was going to brew her potion. Reviewing her potions journal and the ingredients she had written in them, she picked up her quill and started writing them down.



Now that she had written down the steps that hopefully would help her make the Essence of Insanity potion, Alyssa made sure that she had the ingredients ready in the order that they were going to be used. Once she had done that, she then cleaned the utensils that she would be using. Taking out her mortar and pestle, a knife, a cutting board and a wooden spoon, Alyssa placed them on the work desk in front of her and pointing her wand at each of them, said, "Scourgify". She then holstered her wand and inspected them to make sure that they were clean and ready to be used.

Alyssa was now ready to prepare the potion. Putting on her safety goggles and dragon hide gloves, Alyssa reviewed her journal again before reaching for the knob of the burner and lowering the fire so that the water was just simmering in the cauldron. She then picked up the 5 pieces of Ailhotsy leaves and dropped them in one at a time into the simmering water. One...Two...Three...Four...Five. Then she let the leaves stew in the potion for about 20 minutes as she kept watch over it. Once the last minute hand hit 20, Alyssa picked up her wooden spoon and scooped up all traces of the leaves from the water before placing them on her work desk. Then she turned up the heat on the burner until the water began to boil again.

Next she added the 5 lovage leaves into the water and began to stir clockwise until the water began to change color. When it did so, Alyssa then turned the knob of the burner down again, until the water was at simmering temperature. She did this because the next ingredient she was going to add was Re'em's blood and she knew how volatile it could get. Picking up the vial of Re'em's blood and slowly dripped it into the mixture. "One..Two...Three...Four...Five"Alyssa counted as each drop was added in. She made very sure not to stir the mixture just yet. While she let the mixture simmer, Alyssa placed the 5 bursting mushrooms on a cutting board, picked up the knife and slowly sliced them up into little pieces. Then she picked up the cutting board, placed it over the cauldron and scraped the bits into it adding them into the mixture. She watched as the mushroom bits sank and blended in with the mixture. Now to add the 5 inches of asphodel root.

Alyssa placed the 5 inches of asphodel root into her mortar and picking up her pestle, pressed down hard on it, grinding it down and breaking up the root into pieces. She continued to grind until she had ground all the pieces down to powdered form. She then poured the powdered Asphodel root into the cauldron, adding it into the mixture. Turning up the heat on the burner again until the water began to boil, Alyssa picked up her wooden spoon and began stirring the mixture counter clockwise 5 times. "One...Two...Three...Four...Five." When she had finished stirring, she put down the wooden spoon and added the 5 tablespoons of chooped Fwooper voice box into the mixture. Next she picked up the 5 Flowers of Brungmasia, and shredded them over the cauldron, adding the bits into the simmering mixture. Picking up her wooden spoon again, Alyssa stirred the mixture clockwise 5 times this time. "One...Two...Three...Four...Five"

Next she had to crush the snake fangs. Dropping the 5 Snake Fangs into her mortar, Alyssa picked up the pestle again and adding pressure to it, broke the Snake Fangs into bits, and then started grinding it down until it turned into powder. Alyssa then slowly poured the powdered Snake Fangs into the cauldron adding it to the mixture. Picking up her wooden spoon again, she stirred the mixture first 2 times counter clockwise and then she switched direction and stirred it clockwise 3 times.

Alyssa then added the 5 ounces of wormwood and as she started to drop them in, she continued to stir the mixture in a clockwise direction until the 5 ounces of wormwood were thoroughly mixed into the potion mixture. Now for the last ingredient. Alyssa picked up the 5 sneezewort petals, and as she did so, she started to sneeze. "Ahchoo...Aaaahchoo...Aaaahchoo" It was then she realized that she had forgotten to hold her breath while picking up the sneezewort. She belatedly remember that one of the side effects of getting too close to that specific flower, sneezing uncontrollably. Alyssa quickly dropped the flowers into the cauldron and as they sank into the mixture, her sneezing stopped. She rubbed her nose with her robe sleeve before picking up her wooden spoon and stirred the boiling mixture counter clockwise 5 times. "One...Two...Three...Four...Five" Alyssa counted them off.

Then picking up her wand, she concentrated on what she wanted the spell to do and tapping it once over the cauldron, said,"Essentia Furor". Her potion was done...or least she hoped it was. Only time would tell. But for now, Alyssa reviewed the steps in her journal to make sure that she had followed them as accurately as possible and at the same time checked off her list of ingredients.



All she had to do now was to turn down the burner and let the potion simmer in the cauldron until the Professor made her appearance. As she kept watch, Alyssa decided that she would start clearing up her workstation. Cleaning up the utensils she had used, she waved her wand over them and said, "Scourgify".

Picking up the remnants of the Ailhosty leaves with a piece of tissue, she walked over to the trash bin and dropped it in, before walking back to her workstation and sitting down. She then kept watch over her brewing potion.

So…they were going to do this on their own? This class was getting weirder by the minute. First, it was his Head of House not being herself, and even asked to throw her questions about anything related to Potions. This time, she told the class to start brewing their final potion. And how fitting was it to have it named “Essence of Insanity”? Mordred briefly looked at Lafay who returned to her seat and watched her class. Was she just going to sit there and not give out instructions? Had she been brewing this potion lately and has caused her to be a tad insane? She better not blame them for blowing up her classroom—although on second thought, she might.



Having that theory up in his head, he opened his Potions book and looked at the potion that they were about to brew. And would you look at that? The book just mentioned the potion and that was that. He looked at Lafay again with uncertainty on his face and went back to his book. “Ooookay. Looks like I’m on my own.” He murmured to himself and gripped the sides of his work table, looked around his desk and contemplated on what he should do next. Since the book was slightly of no help, he got his journal and quill out and copied the ingredients off his book and cross checked it with Lafay’s notes on the board.





He looked at his notes once more and got his book again. Since he was working on his own, he figured that he must reference every single ingredient to get an idea on how to harvest its essences. Mordred started off with the first ingredient which was Alihotsy Leaves. It said on the book that such leaves cause Hysteria. He wrote it down again and pondered whether it should be chopped, crushed or to boil it with water. He wrote down his three methods of harvesting its juices and decided to have it chopped then crushed before adding it to the water by encircling the chosen words. Next was Lovage leaves. This particular leaf is said to inflame the brain. Mordred nodded and decided that it too should be chopped and crushed finely to get the effect. He eyed each and every ingredient on the list and checked it over and over in his books scribbling notes beside each item, occasionally crossing out processes that he thinks are not necessary. He had a hard time researching for the other ingredients, either it’s because it wasn’t in the book or it had vague descriptions. He placed his quill down and went over his made up steps while trying his very best to ignore his classmates…well, weird behavior.







Cracking his knuckles, he looked and studied his process over and over again, and started with the first step. He took the cauldron, cleaned it with a cleaning spell and placed it over the burner and filled it with water half way. He took his wand and murmured “Incendio” and went back to his list. While waiting for the water to boil, he took the mortar and pestle that was on his desk, and also a small knife to aid him with the chopping. Mordred cleaned his “kitchen” utensils with a cleaning spell and started to chop both the Alihotsy and Lovage leaves making sure that they don’t mix. He placed the first mound into the mortar and pounded it with the pestle. A strange smell came off it and he wrinkled his nose as the vapor reached his nose. He fought the urge to giggle since it would be weird to be laughing while doing the potion…or maybe not? His cauldron made a bubbling sound which prompted him that the water was already boiling. He looked at his instruction again and lowered the flame. He dumped the crushed Alihotsy leaves and its juice and added the chopped and pounded Lovage leaves. It made a hissing sound as he added the juice and a thick vapor came out of the cauldron. He debated with himself if it was a good or bad thing—but really, he wouldn’t know since this was his first time to brew such potion.



The next step came easy, which was the Re’em’s Blood. He added 5 drops to the solution, “1,2,3,4…5.” And went back to his list. Next was Bursting Mushroom. Before hand, Mordred knew that this was going to be tricky. How in Merlin’s underpants will he be able to slice the mushroom if it said ‘bursting’? He reached for the box of Bursting Mushroom and the ingredient started to move. Mordred opened the lid and the mushroom started to move violently. The ingredient started to swell and it prompted Mordred to stand up, grab his wand and pointed it to the box. “Merlin, it’s going to EXPLODE!” he heard his panicked voice inside his head, and waved his wand to cast a Freezing Charm. “IMMOBULUS!” The mushroom remained in its swelled state but it did stop moving. “That…was a close one.” He muttered to himself and got back to his list. He placed a note beside the ingredient and scribbled: Cast a Freezing Charm to BURSTING Mushroom.



He tossed his quill to the side and got five of the frozen mushrooms and sliced it thinly diagonally and tossed those in the cauldron. It made bubbling sounds again as the mushrooms hit the bottom of the cauldron. Mordred didn’t hear it though since he was too busy placing the rest of the Bursting Mushrooms back on the supply tray. He looked at his modified instruction and started to mix the solution counter-clockwise five times with a ladle and moved on to the next step.



He took a piece of Asphodel Root, and made sure it was 5 inches long. He got his knife and sliced the excess length of the root and placed it inside the cauldron. He wiped the knife with a cloth and started to chop the Fwooper’s voice box. As he chopped the ingredient, weird tiny sounds came out of it filling his head with unusual thoughts. He stopped chopping the voice box and the sound that came from it stopped too making his train of thought go back to normal. He easily figured out what just happened and looked around him if he could find a pair of earmuffs. For obvious reasons he didn’t find any and decided to do the next best thing to chop the rest of the voice box. He hummed loudly as he chopped the ingredient to counter-act its effect. At this point, he didn’t care if he gets weird stares. This was after all, making the Essence of Insanity. Relieved, he scooped 5 tablespoons of chopped Fwooper Voice Box and dumped it inside the cauldron. He wiped his hands with the cloth he found on his table and immediately let go of it as the “cooking” voice box started to “sing” in the weirdest voice. Mordred immediately stuck both of his index fingers in his ears to prevent himself from hearing the sound.



“LALALALALALALA” he said loudly as the voice box continued to make sounds. It gradually toned down and left Mordred sitting there with his fingers stuck in his ear looking stupid. Deeming it was safe to remove his make-shift earmuffs; he got his parchment again and took down notes.



Their classroom was starting to heat up and the boy unbuttoned his sleeves and rolled it up just above his elbows. While rolling his other sleeve he took a peek at his instructions and pressed his lips together. Next was Brugmansia. According to Lafay, this flower is used in Divination. Mordred picked up the flower and studied it. As he brought it closer to his face, he was able to catch the scent of the flower, which actually smelled nice. He sniffed it again wondering whether he should slice it up or steep. As he debated again with himself, he felt woozy and dropped the flower on his desk. He felt weird, but in a nice way. He looked around him and caught sight of their Head of House.



Mordred, for some reason stared at her. “She is looking mighty fiiiiine.” Clearly his thoughts were messing up with him that he caught himself gawking at Lafay with a weird grin and dreamy eyes. It was a good thing that there was still enough oxygen in the room to balance out the effect of the flower. The boy snapped back to reality and hoped that Lafay didn’t catch him. He came to his conclusion that he’d rather steep the flower than slice it up. He guessed that if he wanted a stronger essence, then slicing it would be the best option. He grabbed the sides of his table once more and hung his head to calm his mind. “This potion should never be underestimated.” Simply because it toys with the brewer’s mind. He got his parchment again and scribbled down some notes about not sniffing the flower…or ANYTHING for that matter. He tossed his quill to the side once more and dumped one flower in to the cauldron. Strong vapors came out of it once more and Mordred inhaled a fair amount of it. The same sensation came to him and he looked at the front of the classroom where Lafay was seated. Mordred pictured her to be flaunting and flipping her hair and shaking her head to make her hair fall into place, and then pouting her lips…all in slow motion. “What is happening…?” Confusion came and the boy shook his head violently trying his best to forget what he saw.



That flower was going to be the death of him. He covered his nose with his arm and eyed the remaining flowers on his desk and his cauldron. He can’t take much of what he just saw and thought of a way to accomplish this step. He turned his back against his desk, loosened his green tie and took deep breaths. “Okay, I need a charm to block off the scent…” he thought to himself as he tried his best to forget his previous visions. He came up with another solution and that is to cast a Bubble Head Charm on himself to prevent him from inhaling the vapor, which he did. He faced his desk again with a bubble covering his nose and mouth supplying him with fresh oxygen as he dumped the remaining flowers in to the cauldron. He watched the fumes go up from his cauldron and cringed at the thought of inhaling it. He took his parchment and quill again and scribbled another important note. "Evil flowers."



Inhaling deeply, he eyed the next step and his note. Snake Fangs; crushed but not powdery. He cleaned his mortar and pestle again and dropped five snake fangs in it and started to crush it. “That should do…” he placed the mortar over the cauldron and added the crushed snake fangs in it making hissing sounds once more. He got the Wormwood next and added 5 ounces to the solution then picked 5 petals off the Sneezewort and added it too to the solution. He stood up from his seat and mixed the solution 5 times counter-clockwise and grimaced at the sight of the Brugmansia. He looked down at his instruction, and turned down the burner’s flame to lowest and waited for his solution to settle. He was happy that the solution came out okay..no explosions whatsoever—but the hallucinations were...well, overwhelming. As he waited for the 5 minutes to be over, Mordred re-wrote his own instruction with the important notes and tucked away his writing materials and notebook as soon as he was done.









Standing up again, he got himself a tray and a pair of tongs and started to pick on the Brugmansia flower. He got them off the solution and placed them on the tray. Once he got all five out of the potion, he completely turned off the flame and sat back on his chair. He cleaned all of his tools and placed them back where he found them and did a staring game with the sad looking flowers on his tray.



Angel’s trumpet, huh? Right.



He got hold of his wand and muttered “Evanesco” pointing at the flowers, and it was gone. Simultaneously he muttered “Scourgify” to the tray and placed it back to the side of his work table. He wondered though if he should remove his “gas mask” since he was done with the potion, but thought that it was a best not to take off the charm since he had classmates who are far more reckless than he is. So he just sat there and watched the innocent steam come off from his cauldron.

Elliot, staring at the puffer with complete distaste, snapped her attention back to Professor Lafay as she began to speak.

No. Instructions.

Okay..well...at least they had the ingredients, right? Elliot was fair at potions...maybe she could get by..maybe...

As others began, Elliot, too, began. She already had the water down..so next thing were the ailhotsy leaves. Five of them...hmm, there were five of everything? That was weird, yes. But Elliot wasn't question, nope. She added the leaves, and watched it for a second. Hmm. And what was it with everyone counting aloud today? She heard quite a few people doing it...seriously, couldn't they count in their heads, like NORMAL HUMANS?! Apparently not. Glaring around at the lot of them, she scowled. But she needed to get back to her potion....

Lovage leaves next, then, which the puffer kid seemed to find very amusing. Elliot didn't. She wanted to smack him across the face...but she didn't. She added the leaves, counting QUIETLY to herself. Yes, it IS possible to count iN YOUR HEAD. Elliot watched the potion bubble, wondering vaguely whether she was even doing this right. Whatever. Not like this was important or anything...SIKE. FInal. Of course it was IMPORTANT.

Now came the blood. Ew! Elliot took the dropper and sucked some up from the container...she wasn't much a fan of blood. She even coughed a bit, but tried not to be too obnoxious. Okay...one drop, two drops...three drops....four...five... she did it slowly, her brain had begun to feel fuzzy. Was all the fumes in the air? The potion had a weird smell...which worried Elliot. Was it supposed to...had she done something wrong!

NO. SHE COULDNT FAIL POTIONS! She just COULDNT! The blonde quickly took a deep breath and tried to clear her head...stop being all fuzzy! She added the five bursting mushrooms. Hmm. Elliot wondered if they tasted good. Buuuursting. That didn't sound yummy, though...

QUIT IT! she shouted at herself. She shook her head, but it still felt fuzzy. IT didn't matter, though, she needed to continue! Onward! She dropped in the asphodel roots...the potion glooped as the roots hit the surface of the potion. Elliot winced at the sound...blegh. It just sounded GROSS. Next was the fwoober box...crushed. That was gross, too! Merlin, Potions had a lot of gross stuff to it...Elliot didn't LIKE IT. She poured it in, jumping back a bit as some of the potion splashed. It was probably hot...and she didn't want burns. No. She was too pretty for that.

Five flowers...oooh, pretty! she thought as she dropped them into the potion...her brain's fuzziness intensified, and she found herself thinking if flowers were alive...and if they were, she just KILLED FIVE. WHAAA? No! Elliot wasn't a murderer! She ALMOST panicked, but the potion bubbling brought her back to her senses...okay...okay...let's go... gotta' keep on trucking.

She didn't want to drop the snake fangs in separately..no, she dropped them all in at once. The quicker the better, right? YES. Elliot didn't feel right and she wanted this to be over with! She glanced around the room...some others seemed to be acting strange, too. The puffer was being even weirder, and that Slytherin kid Mordred was acting all funny. Hmmph. WEIRD.

Elliot measure 5 ounces of wormwood and dumped it into the gurgling potion. ALMOST THERE. She just needed to add the last thing...the pretty petals...pretty white petals..

The scooped them up in her hands and lifted them to her nose. They smelled...interesting. She peered into her potion and wondered what color it should be...? She obviously didn't know off the top of her head...she dropped the petals in, and watched the potion sizzle. Was it supposed to do that?

She stirred it a little bit, clockwise, and tried to determine whether this was right...or wrong.

She hoped the latter.

Nerida did not like the way Professor just smirked bad things happened when she smirked. Yeap bad things happened like making a potion with no directions! Looking at the water inside the cauldron it had boiled already. She lowered the temperature so that the water would be simmering

She picked up the five aihotsy leaves and looked around as a puffer started going hysterical why was he laughing! Shaking it off she tore the leaves one by one and placed them into the cauldron, some of the tiny leaves remaining on her hands. Now for those lovage leaves. Five of them again... This time she set them in the cauldron whole. She picked up her spoon and gave it a good stir counterclockwise.

Reem's blood. What was a reem? It sounded familiar. She put the vile up to her nose and suddenly wishes she hadn't it smelt awful and it made her head hurt! Quickly she poured in five drops of blood. She never had a problem with blood! Never! Shaking her head she had to focus she had to pass potions! Touching the spoon before deciding not to stir and would do that later.

Reading the next ingredient Nerida stopped suddenly why were they called bursting mushrooms?? She picked up the box of the mushrooms and pulled them up and set them on the cutting board. This time she would cut them... Picking up her knife she saw that they were growing in side and it didn't look good. "Eep! There going to blast me! What had she done with her wand? "How am I supposed to disarm a mushroom!?!!" Hearing the older Snake kid freaking out too and than he yelled out a spell. "THANKS! Immobulus!" Woo, she did not die! She chuckled and shook it all off. She picked up one of the mushrooms noting it had gotten quite large and probablly would have blasted her any second!

She didn't want to cut them for fear that they might explode when her knife touched them, but she had a feeling that she had too. She slowly cut one and stepped back fast. "Did it explode?" she asked quietly. Looking around just in case anyone had heard the THOUGHT that was supposed to be said in her head and not aloud. She pierced her lips and continued cutting the deadly mushrooms. She than carefully added tham to the potion.

She grabbed the asphodel root and measured out five inches of it, cutting the unneeded amount off and set that to the side. She was about to drop the root into the cauldron when her eyes fell onto the mortar. She set the roots into the mortar and began crushing the roots into a powder. She added it to the potion. She hadn't stirred in a while...Her hand resting on the spoon..."Nope not yet, after the voice box!"

She picked up the fwooper voice box bowl. Happy it had already been chopped! She took her tablespoon and measured out one tablespoon and added it to the potion and repeated the measurement four more times. This time she picked up her spoon and turned it clockwise. Since she hadn't stirred in a while, Nerida decided to stir the potion ten times!

She picked up the five flowers of brugmansia. It was such a pretty white flower! But what was brugmansia? Hmm not wanting to risk smelling it or eating it she quickly set a flower into the mortar and pressed it and pounded it a couple times with the pestle. Than she added the juice from the mortar but not the rest of it. Taking it out she placed the left over flower onto the cutting board and cut the rest into small pieces and whipped them into the cauldron. Feeling it was time for the heat to go up she turned it up to where it could boil. Before it began to boil Nerida stirred the potion ten times counterclockwise.

For the snake fangs, Nerida decided to crush them as well. Setting them all into the mortar. Nerida picked up the pestle again and added enough pressure to where it broke the Snake Fangs into bits, and then she began to grind them down until it turned into a powder. She picked up the mortar and poured the contents into the cauldron. Picking up the spoon she stirred it twice clockwise and than twice counterclockwise. She than let the potion sit for ten minutes.

After the ten minutes had passed Nerida took the five ounces of wormwood she poured it into the potion and quickly began stirring it into the potion. She did not stop stirring clockwise until she had made sure all of the wormwood had been stirred in. Picking up the last five ingredients, Nerida wondered if the smell was still on the petals. Putting one of the petals against her nose it was at that moment that Nerida remembered they were sneezewort petals! "Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!" Rubbing her nose she quickly added the sneezewort petals one at a time until they were all in there. Than she stirred four times counter clockwise. After the potion was finished she lowered down the heat too a simmer.

She collected all the tools she had used and pointed her wand at them and cleaned them, "Scourgify!" After the tools had been cleaned she set them to the side and waited for the Professor to speak. While she was waiting Nerida began to giggle uncontrollably which than turned to hysterical laughter. "Hehe...Hehe...Hehe.Hehe.Hehe!! Had she gotten a hold of one of those aihotsy leaves?

So after focusing on breathing for a couple of minutes. Cassia regained her sense and got rid of the weird feeling that was caused by smelling the awful Reem's blood. Mental note; never smell Reem's blood.


The first year approached her cauldron again and peered at it. Was it brewed correctly until now? She wondered. Glancing at Professor Lafay, was the woman watching their progress? Probably yes for the potion master wouldn't want anyone to get themselves injuried…..maybe not because of this but she probably didn't want mess to be caused. The Slythrin shrugged and reached for her parchment.

Again covering it with her hand she only revealed what to add next. "Five table spoonful of chopped fwooper voice box,," She winced at the thought of it. Let's just add it and think much..she thought. She stared at the ingredients positioned next to her cauldron, "Mmmm…here it is, "She said stretching her arm to get it. As she added the five spoonful. She looked at the substance on her pot, she couldn't remember was its color changing or it was like that from the beginning. She shrugged, most potions and maybe all of them involved the change of color.
Checking the list again, "Now the flowers," She was so eager to smell those, considering they were flowers! They ought to have good smell. But she thought better of it and reached for them without getting them close to her nose, "Three..Four.." she counted adding them as she noticed the change of color a biiit.

Cassia glanced around her checking how her classmates are doing. All was busy with brewing the potion. Well, there was nothing else to do ,was there? She turned back on her cauldron. Well, it hasn’t let out any funny smell ,fume or fireworks! So that means she was doing well.

She slid her finger down showing the next ingredient, "Snake fangs.." she smiled at the mention of Snake. Somehow at the mention of serpents she always smiles..as an act of proud of her house….It made perfect sense to her. She added the fangs one by one keeping her face away from the surface of cauldron making sure if anything occurred her face was safe. Fortunately nothing happened.

Not much left she thought as she glanced at the parchment. Oz of worm wood! Weird..she thought. How the most bizarre things she encounters in this lesson. Moving on..she measured five oz and added them carefully to the cauldron. Cassia wiped her forehead as a layer of sweat formed. Probably because of the heat.

And the last thing to be added is "Five sneezworts petals..Eh" she wrinkled her nose ,"Now that is the weirdest.."She giggled. She reached for the last and added it slowly, she didn't want to mess up after finally finishing. She looked at the parchment and made sure she hadn’t forgot any of the ingredients. Nodding at herself, she glanced at the cauldron. What now, does something have to happen ? Sparks maybe..she giggled silently. Professor Lafay would've never chosen this potion had it contained sparks and childish stuff.

Cassia stepped away from the cauldron and crossed her arms over her chest. Now she shall wait until the master of potions gives the word.

Kurumi wanted to make a comment about Selina not adding anything outside of the listed ingredients when she saw the color of her best friend's face, but decided against saying anything and instead nodded her head. "I didn't say I didn't want to work with you," Kurumi corrected as she wiggled her finger in the air back and forth. "I just said that I wasn't going to test your potion." See, there was a big difference. "So, together it is...and just to be safe...let's use my cauldron, okay?"

Just because Selina really was not looking too good right now.

Eyes back on her cauldron, Kurumi pulled some of the ingredients forward and handed the Ailhotsy and Lovage leaves to Selina. "You should crush those into almost a fine powder with a mortar and pestle," Kurumi instructed. Crushing things was something Selina was good at, you know, since she had that Beater's bat and all.

Kurumi then grabbed the asphodel root and a wood grater. Pointing her wand at one end of the root, Kurumi cast Diffindo on the tip to remove the end and then quickly banished the small fragment before she began to grate the root down into a paste...which was going to take a little while. Putting as much elbow grease into it as she could, Kurumi continued to make small circles over the wood with the root.

"Se-li-na," Kurumi panted as she came close to finishing. "Do-you-want-me-to-deal-with-the-mushrooms-and-you-mix-these?" Which would mean that if Selina wanted to deal with the mushrooms that she would have to administer Glacius to them to make sure they didn't explode.

Selina knew that, right?

O___O

WHAT? THEY WERE DOING THIS ALL ON THEIR OWN?

All Nessie could do was stare into the space before her. She was utter;y shocked, how were they supposed to do this whole thing on their own. Did Lafay want them to blow up the school or something? Because this seemed almost like a impossible thing to do. Did Lafay not realize that not everybody was a potion expert like her. Meh she probably did know that and probably did not really care about the kids health either.

With a sigh, Ness eyed her ingredients. She wasn’t even sure where to begin, but she was hoping that the next ingredient on the list, after water would be a good start. It was some sort of leaves, ones that Ness had never remembered working with before. The red head eyed all the leaves before her. Good thing she had put them all in order, or she would have immediately forgotten which went where.

Taking five leaves she chopped them and then crushed them using the front and back of her knife. It wasn't crushed enough and so she took a pestle and crushed her leaves even more, untill they were almost like powder. She tried to think of this whole thing as a cooking lesson, and tried to think of the most logical way to do everything. She took the leaves all crushed and added them to her cauldron. She then did the same with the lovage leaves, hoping both leaves were supposed to be dealt with in the same way.

Next step! Five drops of reem’s blood. Eww! And what even was a reem? Who kne, she did not. Ness looked around her table and took a small bottle that was filled with a purpleish liquid. She hoped it was the right thing, even though logically in her mind she thought the liquid was supposed to be red and not purple. But meh! Purple was a pretty color and why not make the potion at least look pretty. She added five drops and then read what was next.

Mushrooms yummy…or not. These ones didn’t look to taste,. With a pout on her face, Nessie couldn’t decide whether she wanted to chop the mushrooms up or leave them as they were.

What would Professor Lafay do? She thought to herself, pretending to act all professional.

At the end she decided on chopping the mushrooms, but not too thick. She did cut them with a little bit of force, still pretending to be the usually moody Lafay. There that was good! She chucked that too into her cauldron and realized she had forgotten to do one of the most important things, which was stirring!

Stir, stir, stir, stir, and stir.

She at once took out a wooden spoon and stirred her mixture three times clock wise, and then once anti clockwise. After the stirring she looked into her cauldron. It was a purpley, colour and it was sort of pretty, excepting for the odd smoke that was coming out of it. Ness took a sniff and almost chocked herself to death. Merlin that think stank! It must have been the blood or the leaves causing the smell. Sis! She blocked her nose and continued to work, breathing through her mouth.

More ingredients of course. Ness looked around to have a break from her work, only to see that everybody was doing different things. At least her potion wasn’t on fire or anything like that yet, and thinking of fire. Ness adjusted her burner just to make it a little bit hotter, maybe that’s what her potion needed. She wasn’t too sure.

The five inch root was next. Ness examined it and not sure what to do with it, she stared at it for quite some time. She then took her knife and scrapped the root letting the pieces fall into the purple mixture. It would possibly dissolve quicker like that, than if it was put in all at once.

Now onto the fwooper box, trying not to barf at the smell, Ness took the fwooper voice box, with her gloves on. She wanted to try do something to it, but staring at it made her feel really nauseous. So she just took it and just like everything else chucked it into the pot.

This did not have a very good effect on the potion though. Before Ness could even begin stirring the mixture again. The whole thing started bubbling, but it was bubbling badly maybe a bit like a volcano.

Oh Gosh! What was the real cause of these volcanic-like bubbles and how was she supposed to stop them? Renesmee stared at the mixture in shock as she began to think of some sort of solution.

Selina let out a dry laugh at Kurumi's attempt to lighten the air that was so thick with worry, Selina's worry. The redhead honestly did not register much of anything her best friend had said. Instead, she was repeating the mantra in her head don't throw up, don't throw up, don't throw up, etc. Everything else Kurumi said just sort of went in one ear and out the other. So when she nodded at Kurumi she wasn't even really paying attention to her friend's words. All she did do was autopilot.

Her small hands reached forward and put the Ailhotsy leaves and Lovage leaves in the mortar and flattened them all out so they fit inside the mortar. Then she started to crush the ingredients with the pestle and crushed them in a slow, even pattern. It was as if she was trying not to break the bowl because she had done so several times over the years. But Kurumi had been helping her prepare for her Potions OWL over the past few weeks and her little rhyme had for done the trick- you'll break the bowl if you crush in a haste, but if you crush them softly the bowl won't go to waste. And those were rules to live by.

Once she was done she looked in the bowl to see the leaves were indeed powder! Success!!!!!! Ugh, she deserved a metal or something for her supreme crushing skills! Maybe some cookies... Hint hint.

As soon as the leves were all crushed she set it aside and tried her hardest to listen to Kurumi's instructions. If she messed up any part of the brewing process it would not work and Selina was used to T's in potions, but Kurumi was not. She did not want to bring her friend's grades down this term because of one final.

But when Kurumi asked which of the following parts of the brewing she would like to do, Selina opted for the mixing of the paste and powder. The mushrooms sounded hard- and dangerous. Mostly dangerous. "I'll, Erm do the mixing if you don't mind?"

Taking the paste from Kurumi she then proceeded to add her own powder to the paste in the mixing bowl. Then she started to mix the combination of things before she asked, "What color is it supposed to be...?" Because it was looking all kinds of funky.

What would Lafay do? Yes she was asking herself this question again, and no she didn’t know how to answer it. Hmmmm…The red head looked up and eyed the Slytherin Professor. She pouted a little and then looked back at her potion only to notice something, it was turning black and oddly the bubbling had stopped.

Maybe that was supposed to happen after all. It was a potion for insanity and maybe it made you insane, whilst you were making it. It sure seemed like that to Nessie.

The young Dixon, shook her head and tried to focus on what was next. She still had a few more things left on her table to add. She took the flowers of brugmansia and because they were plants like the leaves, she took them and powdered them too. She took the powder and sprinkled all of it into her potion that was getting blacker and blacker, by the second.

Eww! Snake fangs! Why did this subject have to be so repulsive at times. Did nobody realize that some people were clean freaks and were not used to all these gooey things. Cringing, Ness took the snake fangs and used the motar and pestle to powder them too. It wasn’t like she could chop them up, and she didn’t think putting them whole in the potion would work so. Yes powdering was what she felt was the best option when in doubt.

Stir! The Hufflepuff did so with her spoon, hoping it would maybe lighten the potions colour, but it did nothing. The wormwood, was another thing Ness wass clueless about and so she just chucked it in, not doing anything to it first. Potions was clearly not a subject she would take for her OWLs next year.

With a small smile, Ness eyed the last ingredient. It too was a plant. And what did she do with plants? She powdered them! Yep! She did so to the last five sneezewort petals and added them to the pot. She then went of with stirring again…but maybe stirred a little too much

As she continued to stir, the bubbles came back again and this time only grew. Renesmee just looked at the bubbles and pouted, pretending not to be afraid of them , nor to be afraid of how black her potion was. Stir Stir…..

And then BOOF!

The whole potion erupted like a volcano going all over Nessie’s face and hair. Oh. Em, Gee! This was just too much.

"EWWWW!"she screamed about, deciding this was not a subject to do without a teacher and deciding she needed to pay more attention in future classes.

Finishing the grating of the root, Kurumi passed the paste over to Selina to mix when she was ready for it. Hopefully Selina wouldn't crush the mixing bowl this time...sometimes the red head really didn't know her own strength and Kurumi was pretty sure that bits of porcelain were not going to be a very good addition to this potion.

Keeping an eye on Selina out of the corner of her eyes, Kurumi set to working on the mushrooms. Picking up one in her hand just a little too firmly than she had intended. Oops. The mushroom began to bubble and expand in her hand to the point where it looked as though it were about to burst as the red color of the cap intensified and swelled to the size of a tennis ball. Squeaking loudly, Kurumi removed her wand from its holster and promptly pointed it at the about-to-explode mushroom. "Glacius!" Just in time too.

Slouching into her chair, Kurumi repeated the spell on the remaining mushrooms and then carefully twisted the caps off and set them to the side. After cleaning her silver knife, Kurumi began to slice up the mushrooms stalks thinly 5 vertical strips each. Setting those to the side as well, Kurumi turned her attention to Selina when she asked about the color.

"Um...that looks good," she nodded. Truth be told she didn't know what color it was supposed to be NOW...only once it had been in the cauldron along with several other ingredients. Then it was supposed to be purple. So she flashed her best friend a confident smile - or one that somewhat resembled confidence because, ahem, Kurumi wasn't entirely sure. Ahem.

Reaching for the brugmansia next, Kurumi grabbed a silver spoon and scooped one spoonful of the paste and stuffed the flower with it, making sure that the paste was all the way at the bottom of the flower. Kurumi then set it on the table and rolled the flower upwards and used one of the mushroom stalk strips to tie it closed. Just one wouldn't be enough to hold it together, so Kurumi reached for another few and tied several firm knots around the rolled flower. There. That looked good. Kurumi set that one to the side and began the process over again with her second flower.

"Once you finish rolling and stuffing your flowers we need to add them to the cauldron," Kurumi nodded as she finished up stuffed flower number two. "Once they dissolve the liquid should be a purple color." Which would be Kurumi's signal to add the mushroom caps.

The fifth year watched Kurumi as she set to work on the mushrooms as she awaited her answer about the color of the mixed ingredients. For a moment, everything was fine but then she saw the mushroom start to look agitated and red. THAT could not be good. "It's gonna blow!" she said a little louder than she had anticipated. But the worst part of the entire display the redhead was putting on was when she ducked and covered underneath the table. She was not going to die in a potions lab. Nope, no way.

But when nothing happened. No explosion or big bang or screams the redhead popped her head out from underneath the table like a groundhog. They were alive? How was that bleeding possible? The mushroom looked like it was gonna cause an atomic bomb. And everyone was fine? How?!?!

Her question was answered when she saw the sixth year prefect sitting calmly at her desk working on the mushrooms like nothing was wrong. Kurumi had fixed the mushrooms? What a relief. Although she was curious as to how her best friend was so calm. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Selina usually blew things out of proportion and Kurumi was used to that. Huh, that would be it.

Pulling herself back up in her seat, she straitened her hair and cleared her throat. False alarm.

When Kurumi addressed that the color looked fine, the fifth year nodded. That was good. So while Kurumi continued on her work, Selina flippe through all of the instructions that were set down on the table. What could she do? Well, she could do the blood part. Being that it would take five minutes to soak anyway. It would spare them the time. So she took the Sneekewort and the reem's blood. Then she soaked Sneezewort petals in reem's blood. Now to wait for 5 minutes.

Finally, Kurumi did address Selina about the flower bit. So she joined in to help her friend get that part done.

So she stuffed the brugmansia with 1 inch of the goop at the bottom of the flower. Then she rolled it upwards. It seemed that it looked about right? So she repeated the process with a few more flowers and then she used the mushroom stalks to tie it all shut.

Now what?

Right...now to get down to brewing.

Gideon looked over the list of ingrediants once more and did his best in remembering how best to brew it all together. There was a rhyme and a reason to everything and it was just a matter of doing it right. First the ailhosty leaves, five to be exact, crushed before being added. "Scourgify," Gideon cast on his mortar and pestle, setting the leaves within when he was sure they were both clean. He then proceeded to lightly crush the leaves until they were more of a paste. When at the right consistance, Gideon added them to the warming cauldron, careful of using every last bit that had been in the mortar.

Then there was the lovage leaves simply added once the temperature of the water was just about right. The sixth year had been careful of the point it would reach, a nice rolling boil and then the light dropping of the leaves. The potion in response turning the proper yellow color. So far so go it seemed at least.

Then with dropper in one hand and stiring rod in the other, Gideon squeezed the dropped in the re'em blood to fill it up halfway, just enough to get the drops out. Then one drop...counterclockwise stir...one drop...counterclockwise stir and on and one until 5 drops were in and he had completed his last counterclockwise turn of the stirring rod.

Now for a more volitial ingrediant...the bursting mushroom.

They had obviously been kept under some sort of containment spell while being stored hence why they weren't currently dangerous and had been retrievable inside a container. However there was no proof that that would remain the case when Gideon took one out to prepare it for the potion. he would need to be extra cautious. "Scourgify," he cast on his knife in preparation, the mushrooms needing to be sliced before added. The prefect then exchanged his knife for the mushrooms, taking out a couple at a time.

As particly expected, the two bursting mushrooms reacted to the presence of humans and started to swell and contract as if warming up for the ultimate explosion. "Immobulus..." Gideon cast trying out that spell and its effects on the mushroom. It was the first thing that had come to mind and to his surprise it seemed to work. The sixth year quickly went about slicing them up, moving onto the other three. With a couple more casts of the freezing charm, they were immobulzed as well and he finished up his slicing of the mushrooms, adding them all when he was finished.

Now onto the rest of the ingrediants.

Thankfully the rest seemed to be pretty calm in the swing of things. Asphodel root was the next thing on the list. He had cut the 5 inches needed for the potion when he had retrieved his supplies so now all he had to do with it was shave it into his work. Gideon took out his grater and after making sure it was extra clean as well as he had the other tools, he went to work grating it into the brewing liquid.

That done, he switched onto the next. "Scourgify," he cast on his knife once more before taking up the voice box that formerly belonged to a fwooper. Gideon then went about chopping it into manageable pieces, slowly adding them into the potion when he was done, carefully not to splash. Giving it one clockwise stirs, he awaited a reaction to show all was well, soon enough noticing the appropriate blue-green tinge.

Seven ingrediants down...four more to go.

Quote:

1. Water
2. 5 Ailhotsy leaves
3. 5 Lovage leaves
4. 5 Drops of reem's blood
5. 5 Bursting mushrooms
6. 5 Inches of asphodel root
7. 5 Tbsp of chopped fwooper voice box
8. 5 Flowers of brugmansia
9. 5 Snake fangs
10. Oz of wormwood
11. Sneezewort petals

Oh boy...... they would do it with NO instructions!! No nothing??? What if they blew up the dungeons??? That would be REALLY BAD!!! And Lafay would surely HATE and try to kill them all or something....

But well, it was her choice anyway! Sigh. Onto work then...

Sophie stared at the ingredients for a while. She would have to... create a way of.... brewing this potion.... that sounded, well, insane! Heh, how fitting. Maybe that was professor Lafay's intention.

She'd better get it over with as soon as possible. She looked up at the blackboard, then got all five ailhotsy leaves, placing them in the mortar, along with the five lovage leaves. The second year used the pestle to crush it into powder. Crush. Crush. Crush. Crush. Crush. Eek! Those 10 leaves took a while to turn into powder... toooo many leeeaves! Crush. Crush. Crush. Crush. Crush.

There. Holding the mortar above the cauldron, Sophie let all of the powder fall into the boiling water, using her hands to make sure there wasn't anything left. After checking the blackboard again, the badger carefully held the vial with reem's blood also above the cauldron. This part made her nervous because some people in the classroom had started to act weird and she was afraid that it would distract her, or even startle her. What if she dropped more than five drops in the cauldron? Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!

One....... two........ three........ four...... five! She quickly placed the vial down on the desk and stared at the boiling solution. Maybe.... she'd wait a little while for it to... simmer or something.

It didn't help that Sophie knew nothing about cooking either. And a very funny smoke was coming out from her cauldron now. She sniffed it and blinked. It smelled quite nice!

Oh! Bursting mushrooms now! Sophie really liked looking at mushrooms. They were really cool looking! She used her wand to clean the knife she'd use and started chopping one of the mushrooms. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop Chop. Chop. Chop. And there were four more mushrooms to chop! Oh wow! Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop Chop. Chop. Chop. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh! Her arm hurt! Ohwait. Wasn't there a spell she could use???

Hmmmmmmmm........... she couldn't remember it now. Maybe there wasn't such a spell... what? Of course there was, she was being silly. But she had no time to ponder about this, she needed to finish chopping the mushrooms! Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chooooooooop.

What was happening to people around her??? That was... weird... Sophie was feeling nervous with this final. And strangely happy as well.

The dungeon was smelling funnyyyyyyyyyyy!!

Whatever. Sophie put all the little slices of all five bursting mushrooms in her cauldron and decided she would mix it a little bit. She held the wooden spoon and scourgified it. Placing it in the cauldron, she didn't move it for a few seconds. How many times and which waaay should she mix? Aaaaaargh, that was so scary! If the potion was to blow up....

COUNTER-CLOCKWISE! Because that sounded weirder than clockwise. She would just stir and see what happened then.... one.... two...... three..... four...... five........ six...... seven..... eight..... nine...........

There. Maybe nine was enough. It was an odd number and everyone would expect it to have one more turn, but.... it didn't. That was logical enough for Sophie.

Flksgldfngdlfgnldkfngldkfngdlf

Asphodel root now. Sophie measured the root with her fingers and decided that the piece she had in her hands was 5 inches long. Yeah, just like that. She tossed it in the cauldron and waited five minutes.

AAAHH!! The water was still boiling!!! She lowered the fire underneath it and watched her potion stop making bubbles.

Next instruction! 5 Tbsp of chopped fwooper voice box. What? That was WEIRD! Just like this smell... which was also funny. The dungeons..... was funny. Being all dark and all.... teehee.

Fwooper was also a funny thing. Funny word, that is. And the birdy was nice as well. Fluffy and pretty. And colourful. Sophie got a hold of the voice box and stared at it. That was a funny, nice nice voice box! The Hufflepuff smiled at it before pointing her wand at it. "Diffindo!" THAT WAS IT! THE SPELL!! Hahaha! Yeah. The Charms Queen strikes again. Oh! OH! There was that other one... "Flipsntinwtwit pfffffffffffffffffhahahahahahahahahahaha!" That spell was FUNNY!! That was why Sophie busted out laughing! Yeeeaaaahhhhhh...!

The mushrooms seemed alright.... all funkily sliced. Sophie threw all of them into the solution and chuckled as some of it splashed around aand as it went blublublublublublub. Hehehehehehehehehe!

And now... FLOWERS! Flowers were ALWAYS PRETTY! Ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Those looked especially beautiful! They looked like bells! Look at theeem! Sophie simply tossed the whole into the cauldron, turned the fire up again and watched the pretty flowers melt away. Twas prettyyyyy!!

The snake fangs were added to the mortar and crushed with the pestle also. Sophie shook the mortar really hard above her cauldron and kept shaking it even when all the powder had already fallen in the solution. She swept the mortar with her hand and placed it on her desk again.

Lalalalalalalalalalalala! That was FUN!

Kurumi flashed Selina one of those nothing-to-worry-about looks when it came to the almost exploding mushrooms. Kurumi had performed the spell in time, so there wasn't anything to worry about, right? Erm...Selina wasn't going to freak out with what came next? Was she?

First things first though. Those rolled flowers needed to be added to the cauldron, so in they went. "Now to wait for those to dissolve." NO stirring yet. It really didn't take too long since the liquid had been boiling for quite some time now and was bubbling and brewing all over the place piping hot!. Leaning over the cauldron a bit, Kurumi nodded when she saw the rich purple color it had turned. Good good. They were on track still.

Without warning or further explanation, Kurumi picked up her goggles and slipped them on her head before thrusting Selina's in her direction. With precise movements, Kurumi picked up one of the mushroom caps and dropped it into the cauldron.

*POOF*

Turquoise smoke suddenly errupted from the cauldron and billowed in the two girls' faces with a soft popping noise. Kurumi remained unphased by this and continued to drop the other four caps into the cauldron one after the other to soften them up and remove their exploding properties before dicing them.

*POOF* *POOF* *POOF* *POOF*

After three minutes had passed, Kurumi used a ladle and removed the mushrooms from the cauldron and set them on the chopping board where she immediately took a clean silver knife to them and diced them up quickly before returning them to the cauldron to dissolve.

Kurumi then passed the snake fangs to Selina to be crushed in the mortar and pestle - since the redhead was really good at such things - and again was not phased by the exploding puffs of smoke that had just bellowed in their faces. Although...the smoke DID cause the Gryffindor to explode into fits of laughter. "HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE." Wasn't that cheese grater just the most RIDICULOUS looking thing ever?! Just LOOK at it! It was full of holes and used to grate cheese! "HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE *snort* HEHEHEHEHEHE."

Holding the grate over the cauldron - and after Selina had added the crushed snake fangs - Kurumi began grate the wormwood over it, never lingering too long in one place but instead covering the entire sureface of the liquid as one would with parmesan cheese over pasta.

"Ooooooookay HEHEHEEHE Seliiiiiiiiiiiiiiina HEHEHE Time for the Sneezeword *ACHOO* petals and blood to go in," she instructed as she bounced in her seat a bit. Probably should have put on masks too...TOO LATE NOW! HEHEHE.

Finally, once Selina had added the petals and blood, Kurumi added the chopped fwooper voice box.

"ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORK!!"

A loud and earrenching voice erupted from the cauldron and echoed throughout the classroom causing Kurumi's ears to ring and for her to topple against Selina while her head began to spin and everything sort of turned BRIGHT yellow for a few moments. Bright yellow with pink polka dots to be exact. Once the colors had faded, Kurumi blinked a few times and then looked back at the cauldron, grabbing a silver spoon and cleaning it with a silent Scourgify. "I'll do the first 15 seconds and you the next?" Kurumi asked, already inserting the spoon into the liquid and beginning to stir the potion in a figure 8 pattern.

And they were done!

Gideon looked through his gathered supplies for the brugmansia. "Flowers...flowers...where are ye?" he questioned quietly to himself before finally finding what he was looking for. Taking out five of them, he crushed them within his fingers and then adding it to the potion. Hmm...certainly seemed like there were a lot of ingrediants that were the same amount.

5 of this...5 of that...5 inches of this, 5 drops of that.

The prefect hadn't noticed that fact before and it was certainly and interesting fact. He made a mental note to check out if there was a purpose for that other then the fact that potioners had learned that was the best amount. Numbers in the wizarding world were often seen as important after all. Moving on to the snake fangs, Gideon took possession of his mortar and pestle once more knowing he needed to crush them. "Scourgify," he cast, recleaning the items in ensure there was no mixing of ingrediants before their addition into the potion.

Crush...crush...crush...crush...crush.

When the 5 snake fangs were crushed into a nice powder, it was time to add them into the potion as well. Once it was all in, Gideon reached for his wand again. "Incendio," he cast, bringing the fire a little bit higher to increase the temperature as he was supposed to. When the color changed again, more blue this time, he released the spell and added the wormwood. With another two slow, deliberate counter-clockwise stirs and then two slow deliberate clockwise stirs the potion was ready for the next and final ingrediant...the sneezewort petals. Gideon rolled them within his palms for a minute or two before wiping his hands into the cauldron.

Did it work...was the potion complete and correct?

And answer of a pearlescant liquid within his cauldron was a good enough answer, Gideon sighing softly with relief. He was done.

Quote:

1. Water
2. 5 Ailhotsy leaves
3. 5 Lovage leaves
4. 5 Drops of reem's blood
5. 5 Bursting mushrooms
6. 5 Inches of asphodel root
7. 5 Tbsp of chopped fwooper voice box
8. 5 Flowers of brugmansia
9. 5 Snake fangs
10. Oz of wormwood
11. Sneezewort petals

Righty right then! Mehehehehehe!

She was almost dooonee!! Eyeing the blackboard. Five oz of wormwood.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFHAHA! Oz. Oooooozzzzzzzzzzz.

Sophie used her really cool and shiny scale to measure the wormwood thing. Five ounces. NO! Five ooozzzzz. Pshhhhhhhhhhhhhehehehehe! "Iiiiiiiiiiin you goooooooooo!!" She said happily as she put it aaaaaaall in her cauldron.

THIS POTION COULD USE MORE MIXING!!

Counter-clockwise again, because yeah. One......... two........ three....... four........ There, enough!

The last ingredient was.... OMG HOW PRETTY!!! "This is so pretty!!" Sophie said in shock, lifting up the Sneezewort petals and showing them to the people next to her. "Like, REALLY pretty! Merlin, this is..... beauty itself!" She added with her eyebrows raised and wide eyes.

Could she keep those??

Probably not... she placed 2 little petals on the mortar and crushed them, putting the powder in the cauldron. The other 3 petals she gently dropped on the solution and watched as they floated. They were beaaautiful..........

Leaving it to simmer or something for five minutes, Sophie kicked her legs and played with her fingers. When the time was up, she turned off the fire and BEAMED!

She was DONE!

And this potion was like... the COOLEST EVAAA!!!