"Less talking with each other, more concentrating on the potion!" Hecate said to nearly everyone.

Anya grinned when she saw she was almost done with her assignment. She added in the three flying seahorses to her potion as per the next line of instructions. Which, was kind of sad to her. They looked like would be fun to see alive.

Alright. Now to heat it the final time.

"Incendio." And let there be fire! And watched her cauldron waiting for the green color change. And when it turned green, she quickly turned off the fire with a finite.

She then looked around to see what they were supposed to do next. Oh good. Mo was already asking about that. Good Ravenclaw. Anya would just use this time to update her parchment and write down what she thinks will happen with her extra ingredient.

...and here she was--at the end!

Sierra's potion was, technically, finished. However, she'd collected this ginger, and it would now be the finishing touch. She reached for the ginger and eyed it as is. She was trying to decide which would be better--to just dump it in or to cut it up. Slicing it was an option, too.

In the end, she went with neither of those. She crushed it using her mortal and pestle. She crushed it until it was similar to a fine powder then she began pouring it into the brew. Once it was in the cauldron, she took her wooden spoon and stirred it, just to make sure everything was mixed in properly.

...and with that, she was DONE.

The seventh year was falling behind, which is to be expected since she was working meticulously slow. This was the very last potion's class she would ever attend it all four years at school. The last thing she needed was another mishap following her onslaught of mishaps over the past seven years. If she could just get through this class, just one class, she would count all of the screw ups in previous years mute. At least that was what she would tell herself.

So as soon as the potion turned turquoise, which was an awesome accomplishment, self five, she looked down at her next set of directions. Details, Selina. All of the work in this class was in the details. If she remembered that MAYBE she wouldn't blow things up. Merlin, some other idiot had already done that for her so perhaps she was as good as golden.

Scratching off the last thing she had done from her list, she grabbed three doxy eggs. Okay, eggs were gross. The only time she really liked them was when they were chopped up and thrown all into some cheesy goodness. Ugh, speaking of which missing breakfast was not the best idea.

Putting all of this aside, she added one measure of doxy eggs, gross, and then drew out her wand to heat up the potion. Keep an eye on it. No extreme changes. Remember to pay attention. All good tips. All things she had to keep in common.

After a few moments it turned a horribly pinky shade of pink. After the prefect event she had never wanted to see this horrible color ever again. No such luck. But this was the color it was supposed to be so she was happy about that. Maybe, just maybe, she could do this. Not WELL, but she could do it. Kind of crudely!

Silver lining.

Then she went to adding in, ONE AT A TIME BECAUSE SHE WAS BEING GOOD AND FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS, toasted dragonfly thoraxes. She didn't ask. She just added. And one by one they went in. And one by one they got progressively darker in color. Until, by the twentieth, it was a brilliant shade of red.

Awesome! This was working out somewhat well. Hopefully it lasted.

Dylan wasn't answering her questions, so Alice went to go and fetch her scarab beetles. After finding them, she brought them back to her work station and ground them into bits. Did she just sprinkle the bug bits in now? And could she take it off the flame or was it suppised to change colour again? She dropped her final ingredient and then leaned away from the potion, waiting for it to do.. SOMETHING.

Or for further instructions. Or for Dylan to say anything.

Okay, they were running out of time and she had to really get a move on. The problem was that she thought if she did, you know, rush things. Stuff would go BA BOOM. Merlin, it had happened enough in the past. What would stop it from happening this time?

Anyway, she was just going to have to do what she could in the amount of time that she was given. And the rest of the chips would fall as they may. Or was that saying wrong? Eh, whatever.

So, she heated the potion until it turned blue, which took longer than most times before this. Everything else was almost instantaneous. But once it did, she scribbled out that part and went to work on the next part- adding MORE dragonfly thoraxes, whatever they were. Weird name, but then again, it was a weird looking ingredient.

She added them one at a time slowly to make sure that there were no problems. This time it only took nineteen of them before it turned silver.

Then she picked up her wand and started to heat the potion in small incraments. No need to upset it by moving too quickly. After a few moments it turned red. Not as a deep red as the last time, but it would have to do. It was crunch time.

Hearing Professor Lafay commenting on all the talking, Dylan zipped his lips and decided it was best not to say anything else. No need to upset his Head of House...Not when it was their final lesson with her this term.

ANYWAY...back to preparing his lobalug venom.

When figuring out how much to use, he went with a measurement they usually exercised in these situations. A cup....Everything always seemed to be 'a cup of'....So, that's what Dylan had decided upon. A cup of lobalug venom...He'd had to think fast for something when he'd seen they'd be adding their own special ingredient...And he'd been completely legit when he'd explained to Alice the reasons.

Female frenzy was a scary thing...and Dylan had had more than his fair share in his young life.

Having it measured out and ready, the Captain tipped the cup into the cauldron, allowing the venom to pour out and mix with the contents. Breaking out one of his handy-dandy spoons, he scourgified it, obviously, before dunking it down into the potion and stirring it some. A lot of things had been added to this one. He felt compelled to mix it really good.

Pulling it back out, he cleaned it and put it away quickly.

He was done. DONE. SUCCESS!

Cool, so pretty much everyone else was doing what they needed to RIGHT on time. Selina was not. Her slow pace had her dragging in an almost inspiring manner. No one moved this slow. Neither did she. Usually, she was bouncing off of the walls and being way too distracted for everyone's liking, except hers. But right now she had to have her game face on. Let's go.

Scribbling out the next set of her directions, she moved onto the next step.

Then one by one she added the eggs, which would have been used MUCH better if they had been in a omelet or something. But WHATEVER, she wasn't the teacher. And if she wanted to waste eggs on a potion that was her perogative. She just personally thought it was silly.

So one by one she added them in until all nine of them were in there. Cool, cool.

What was next?

Alyssa looked at her potion. Should she or shouldn't she? She had been wanting to do it right from the beginning when she had dropped her first ingredients in. Every time her fingers inched towards it, she had to force herself to pull them away.

But Alyssa couldn't resist any longer. She took out her wand, pointed it at her wooden spoon and said,"Scourgify". Once her spoon was clean she stuck it in her cauldron, stirring her potion a couple of times, helping all the ingredients to blend in properly.

Okay...she had finally done it. She had finally given in to temptation. But now she could finally say that she had completed brewing her potion.

Kendall had gotten so used to having to wait for her potion to change color after every step that she’d had to check her notes more than once after counting out the remaining nine doxy eggs that needed to be added. The instructions hadn’t changed any, though. It still only said to add the eggs, and the next color change wasn’t supposed to happen until after the untoasted dragonfly thoraxes had been added. Apparently it was supposed to stay red for a while. Either way, she couldn’t pause for too long, not when Professor Lafay had told them to focus more on their potions and less on distractions. Of course, she hadn’t been talking, but she figured other distractions counted as well. Therefore, she quickly switched back into potion-brewing mode and added the doxy eggs in groups of three. They’d had to add the first measure in a group of three, so she figured it didn’t hurt to stay consistent.

However, then she quickly switched back to her dragonfly thoraxes, making sure to separate the extra toasted one to the side so she didn’t accidentally add it with the untoasted ones. She decided to go back to adding each thorax one at a time, however, even though there was no need to really count them to make sure of how many she’d added. She already knew she had twenty, and there wasn’t a color change to watch for yet. She just had to get the thoraxes in, and then it was time to wait. Soon enough, she’d dropped the twentieth in, and then it was time for more heating. Heating and waiting, as she kept watch for when the potion turned blue again. First, there was that odd plum color, of course, but soon enough, she saw the familiar shade of blue that she remembered from earlier. Almost done. She had a blue potion, and only two ingredients left, so if she wasn’t almost done, there was something wrong.

SPOILER!!: Potions journal

Girding Potion
use: to increase stamina and endurance

Ingredients:
Enough water to fill cauldron
50 dragonfly thoraxes (40 toasted and 10 untoasted)
1 set of fairy wings (2 wings)
3 flying seahorses
12 doxy eggs (4 measures of 3 eggs each)
another ingredient of my choice (1 tablespoon of chopped ginger)

Steps:
1. Scourgify cauldron
2. Fill cauldron with water
3. Add the set of fairy wings, then heat until the potion turns turquoise
4. Add one measure of doxy eggs (3 eggs), then heat until the potion turns pink
5. Add 20 toasted dragonfly thoraxes until potion turns red (might not take all 20)
6. Heat until the potion turns blue
7. Add the remaining 20 toasted dragonfly thoraxes until the potion turns silver (might not take all 20)
8. Heat until the potions turns red again
9. Add the remaining 3 measures of doxy eggs (9 eggs)
10. Add the 10 untoasted dragonfly thoraxes, then heat until the potion turns blue again
11. Add 3 flying seahorses, then heat until the potion turns green
12. Add the remaining ingredient (ginger)

Next step: adding the other 20 toasted dragonfly thoraxes.

The sixth year started looking around the workspace in order to find those particular ingredients. Her eyes continued to scan the place, until eventually managing to spot the thoraxes. Finally, Gwen thought and picked up twenty of the toasted dragonfly thoraxes, starting to add them one by one to the cauldron.

…1…

…2…

…3…

The colour was the same when she added the eighteenth one. Hmm. Well… no need to panic yet. There were still two more to go.

…19…

The potion was STILL blue. Hopefully she hadn’t messed anything up. Gwendolyn grabbed the last thorax and tossed it in the cauldron, eyeing the content carefully.

…20…

There! Silver.

‘Incendio’, she pointed her wand at the cauldron. Heating up the potion once again, it started changing its colour from silver to red, just like it was supposed to. ‘Finite’ So everything is going fine, Gwen assured herself before drawing her attention back to the piece of parchment on which she had written the instructions. Blah blah…potion… red… Her eyes scanned the words on the page rapidly, until she found the next step. The doxy eggs, she read and then placed the piece of parchment back. Brushing the hair out of her eyes, Gwendolyn searched the remaining nine doxy eggs.

Abandoning her search for the painkilling potion in her book bag, Elise checked on her cauldron again. Thank goodness she did, as it shifted from red to a medium-saturated purple and then to a bright blue. Satisfied with the colour it had become, Elise extinguished the flame again. Then, she picked up her next measure of dragonfly thoraxes and dropped them one by one into the cauldron.

One.

Two.

Three.

After about fifteen, the potion began to lighten and Elise simply added more of the thoraxes until she reached nineteen. Then, the potion stopped changing colour and turned a rather pure silver. She was proud.

And yet again, Elise lit the flame under her cauldron with her wand. And now, it was time to wait.

"It depends on the ingredient, Master Branxton, though that IS a very good question." She said

"Time's up. Your potions should be finished now, if you do not have them finished you can finish them for your homework, and send it it to me." She said and then added. "Those of you who finished, bottle and turn in your potion but keep a vial for your homework."

"Homework. One week from today. 20 points. Write to me what your new potion will do and use it... Let me know where and what happened." She smirked and said "If nothing happens other than what the potion is supposed to do, then tell me what you did wrong, and what you could have added to make it right," She clapped her hands twice "Dismissed."

ooc: No other potions posts will be accepted after this. You can just say your potion was finished and do your homework as normal.

Ella carefully grabbed a bottle and a vial and cleaned them both before spooning the potion into both carefully. When she finished, the blonde cleaned up her area and the cauldron and double checked that everything was back in its rightful place.

Pulling her bag on to her shoulder, the fifteen year old headed towards the door, stopping to place the bottle of potion she'd brewed on to Professor Lafay's desk. "Thank you for the lesson, Professor." And with a small smile, Ella headed out the door with her vial in hand.

Alyssa took a vial and a bottle out of her Potions Kit. Pointing her wand inside each of them, she cleaned them using the Scouring spell. Next she picked up her wooden spoon and slowly scooped some of the potion into her vial before closing it with a stopper. Now that she had her vial, Alyssa slowly spooned out the remaining potion mixture into a bottle and covered it up with a lid.

Taking a marker pen, she wrote her name on the label.

Placing both the vial and the bottle into her backpack for safekeeping, she then proceeded to clean up her cauldron, her wooden spoon and her workstation. Pointing her wand inside her cauldron she said, "Scourgify". Once her cauldron was cleaned, she proceeded to repeat the spell on both her wooden spoon and finally her workstation.

Packing everything up into her potions kit, Alyssa then took out the bottle filled with her potion, slung her backpack over her shoulder and made her way to Professor Lafay. She placed her bottle on the desk before saying goodbye to the Professor.

"Goodbye Professor Lafay. Thank you for the lesson." Alyssa told her before leaving the Potions classroom for the final time this term.

Mika carefully bottled her potion into one of her small glass vials and capping it she put her name on the little vial. Amelia Kaikoura Johanson, Ravenclaw Third year and that crazy girl who used fang in her potion just humphed a bit and ran her hand through her hair before taking her wand and using it to scour all of the dirt and filth and remaining potion from her cauldron.

She was a little confused lately.

A little more confused than she would let on and she wasn't going to tell anyone about it - except maybe a friend. So she took the notes on her homework and cleaned her station before turning to Professor Lafay and smiling.

"Thanks for a rather fun class Professor Lafay" she smiled softly.

Jory carefully ladled some of the potion into a bottle and some in a vial. After capping them, he labelled the bottle.

He then cleaned up his workstation and headed towards Professor Lafay. "Here you go, Professor,'' he said and placed the bottle on the desk. "Great lesson.'' The Pufferleft the room and went off to the Common Room.

Okay so they were done now. Kat was sort of relieved she finished before the others did. Some weren't even halfway through their potion when Lafay called the time out. Just as always when the class ended, Kat filled a vial with potion and slipped it inside her sling bag before she poured the remaining potion into a bottle. She capped the bottle before giving it to Lafay.

She labelled her bottle just in case Lafay mistakened her work for a failed potion. Kat did not like to be mistakened for a lot of things so she thought it was best to label it before handing it over. "Thanks for the lesson, Professor," Kat bid her goodbye and went out of the classroom with her sling bag. Alright, maybe a quick grab of food from the Great Hall would do... before proceeding to the next class that is.

Sierra bottled her potion and turned in one of her vials. She put the other safely in her bag. She was in the middle of packing when she suddenly paused and just...looked down at her bag. She slowly put her book in her bag. She looked up, and her eyes traveled around the room until they fell on her mom. She swallowed hard, looked for another second, and then quickly looked away.

She mentally scolded herself for getting emotional over this. She was a Greingoth, and Greingoths just didn't get emotional.

She cleaned her equipment then put it away, as well. She followed that by a slooooow clean of her work area. Looking around, she realized there was absolutely nothing else she could do to slow this down any further. Swinging her book bag over her shoulder, she swallowed again then headed for the door.

...but she paused before she could ever walk through it.

With a soft sign, she turned around to face her mom and realized they were the only two left. Or, at least, she didn't see anyone else. She walked over and plopped her book bag down on a table. "Mom?" she asked. She looked around. "Don't get frustrated. There's nobody left in here." Sierra had always been told to separate home life from school life, and that included being treated just like any other student.

"I just... I don't know what I want to tell you, but I know there's something. I'm not really good at this," she said. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "...and we're not very emotional people anyway." She laughed a nervous laugh.

"I just wanted to say thank you. You and I," she said, looking around, "we started here, in this very room. I walked in as your student, and now, I'm leaving as your daughter. You took me as your own when you didn't even have to, and I love you for that. The good thing is that even though I'm graduating, you and I will always be together. I'm not leaving you, but...this is just the closing of one chapter in our lives. I've learned so much from you these past seven years, and only a small part of it was Potions-related."

She sighed again and smiled. "I love you, Mom. Thank you for being the best Potions professor and Head of House I could ever have," she said. "Above all, though, thank you for being the best mother, too. My only regret in leaving is that all these other students won't know you as I do--the loving and caring mom who'd do anything for her children." Then she smirked. "...but I don't think you'd want them to, would you?"

Hecate listened as Sierra spoke. Her lips quivered a bit and she held her tears as her daughter was so honest with her. "No," she said with a breathy chuckle... "I do not. Miss Grein- Sierra, you are acting as if this will be the last time you will see me. It isn't. You know it. I know it. You will not get rid of me so easily."

Sierra saw that little quiver, and although she smiled, she wouldn't say a thing about it. They were both on unfamiliar water right now. Neither one of them were very emotional people, after all. "Oh, I know it's not the last time I'll see you. You're my mom. I'll see you all the time for the rest of my life," she pointed out. "This school is where I met you for the first time, though. I found my mom here. You've done a lot of special things for me, and I just wanted to take this change to thank you."

Then she paused.

"...and because--I just might be a little nervous about graduating," she admitted. "I don't know where I'm going from here or what I'm going to do. It was easy coming here, where deep down I knew my mom was here if anything went wrong. It won't always be so easy, you know."

"Stop," She said turning away, "you are going to make me cry... and you know how I detest that... you need to go now. Go on." She said keeping her face hidden. Ughhhhh.... "I love you, Sierra."

As her mother turned to face the other direction, Sierra smirked to herself. A second later, she dropped her bag and came up behind her mother and hugged her. "I won't say anymore," she promised. "Only that I love you, too." Seeing them so close reminded her of something she'd noticed not too long ago. "Funny how we're the same height now. You grew me up."

She backed away, and then, knowing she'd said enough or now, picked up her book bag and headed for the door.

"So one last time from student to professor--Thank you for everything, Professor Lafay," she said. She sighed, realizing her days as a Hogwarts student were quickly coming to an end. "See you later, Mom." ...because from here on out, that'd be the only title Sierra would use for her--Mom.

Then with that, she stepped out the door and closed it behind her.

"See you later." She said, summoning a tissue and using it.

When she gathered herself up she locked the door to the classroom and returned to her office.