Ah, the twenty toasted dragonfly thoraxes. Sky felt a little sorry for the creatures. After all, they were harmless to humans and their colors could be really pretty. Not to mention that they helped to pollinate plants, which in turn give humans food. So, really, they helped people out and the thanks they get is to be killed, their wings removed and their bodies toasted be used in potions. Blegh.

Anyway. She added the toasted thoraxes one by one until the potion turned red, using all twenty. Poor dragonflies.

Kendall had stayed quiet during the whole discussion of the potion. It hadn’t been that she had no clue what the potion was supposed to do, since she knew what the meaning of the word had been just as much as the next Claw even if she generally didn’t think she was the perfect one. She’d always just figured she was one of those people who fit into more than one house but something had made the Sorting Hat put her there. That wasn’t really important, though, and she went back to paying attention to the lesson as they were apparently instructed to begin brewing. That was a bit scary. It meant she was on her own. She couldn’t watch Professor Lafay demonstrate each step and follow it exactly to make sure she didn’t do anything wrong. However, as she looked at the steps listed on the board, she realized it was mostly just adding items and then heating until the potion turned certain colors. That seemed fairly simple, aside from the fact she was told to add something else entirely of her own selection. That was a bit scary, so she took a few moments to look through her notes and everything about every other potion they’d ever learned, along with some notes she’d borrowed from her brother at one time or another. Either way, it gave her an idea for the last ingredient.

First, she wanted to write everything down, in case the board went blank again during the lesson or she just was so focused on her cauldron that she forgot to look. Having it in her notes was better, especially since she wasn’t sure what she’d be tested on in exams, so she took a few more moments to scribble everything down in her journal. Including the ingredient she’d decided on, and then she stood up to go collect everything. It was much easier if she had everything ready at her workstation before she started. Therefore, she made sure to gather everything together, from the fairy wings to her final ingredient, from the storage cupboard, and then she returned to her workstation and started organizing everything. If she was on her own, she wanted to know the order everything had to be added and know it was all there.

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)

Oichi felt a bit nervous but also a bit excited about the direction this class was taking. Adding her own extra ingredient seemed positively babaricly awesome. She went to gather her ingredients and knowing the potion was to help with indurance she grabbed a pint Oichi good old muggle milk for her extra ingredient which she knew helped keep bones healthy and strong. She was curious how this would effect her potion but she felt fairly confident milk could not cause disastorous results. With that in mind she took her ingredients back to her table and started on her notes:

Hecate watched as the students seem to be confused as to the additional ingredient. "I want you to think about what you's like the potion to do. What you all said is correct, it enhances your endurance, stamina and strength... but what Master Branxton said is on the money, the potions reenforces what the drinker already has. Let's take Captain Montmorency... He's got a lot of endurance and strength already... the potion will double that. Where as, Miss Happenstance, who seems quite tired this morning..." she said eyeing the young first year, "would double her endurance and strength as well, but it would be no where near as to what Captain Montmorency would get out of it."

She looked around the room and sighed.

"So, if I were Miss Happenstance, I would chose an ingredient that would allow the potion to make me as strong as everyone in the class... If I were any of the quidditch players, and I was..." She said with a smirk. "I may chose an ingredient that would allow the potion to kick in while flying... not that you all could drink it for that purpose... Madam James would know and disqualify you..." and she looked at her Slytherin team because she KNEW it was what they were thinking.

"What I meant before was that I don't want you to tell me now what and why you chose that particular ingredient. That will be saved for later." Hopefully that clarified things...

ooc: I'm clarifying my earlier post, as last night I had a terrible migraine and this morning I realized I hadn't explained it well. This is the first time I don't lead the potion brewing. This doesn't mean I won't post every day. I will. But I am new at this... so I forgot to write when your potion should be finished by which is 3/16 at 11:59pm EST. (Three days and 15 and a half hours from this post.)

First Sarah had to collect all the ingreidients. She did not know what to add as the additional ingreidient yet, so she got the others instead.

She got fairy wings, doxy egs and dragon fly thoraxes. Then she was ready

First she said casted scourigfy on her cauldron. Then she used her wand again to cast argumenti. That was the thing for adding water. She wondered why water was on the ingreidients list if it could easily be supplied by a wand.

Jory listened to Professor Lafay as she explained about the ingredient they should choose while keeping an eye on his potion as it heated. "I'll exchange the fluxweed then,'' he thought. He took the ingredient and headed back to the cupboard, replaced it and grabbed another ingredient.

Back at the workstation, he noticed his potion was beginning to change colour and soon it was turquoise. Now the badger added three of the doxy eggs and let the potion heat up again.

Of course it was easy. Probably someone who did consult a dictionary (not only Ravenclaws could do that. COUGH.) would know what the potion could do and its effects and stuff. Also a little bit of common sense would help them too, if they started digging right inside their minds well. But this lesson... it seemed different. They were alone in making the potion and Lafay would just entertain them if they had questions.

It was different and fresh so that's good, right?

Kat jotted some notes on her parchment before taking her ingredients from the cupboard. She returned to her work stations afterwards to start brewing the potion. Wouldn't be that hard now, right? They've done more complicating potions and draughts and unctions in the past, so this was just kind of like a test now. Brilliant.

Alyssa studied her journal and realized that she had done one thing and written another on her journal. She didn't know why she had written lighting the burner after adding the fairy wings but was glad that she hadn't observed those steps. Picking up her quill, she quickly scratched out what she had originally written and rewrote the steps.



Now that she had that corrected her error, Alyssa resumed her potion brewing. Picking up the set of fairy wings she dropped them into the water and then watched as the potion slowly started to heat up. As she continued to watch and wait, Alyssa noticed that the water was getting less clear and slowly darken. She watched in awe as a tinge of color began to form in the water. From clear, it changed to white and then to a linge tinge of bluish green before settling down and becoming turquoise.

'Okay we've got turquoise. Now on to the next steps.' Alyssa thought to herself.

Jory watched at the potion now turned to pink. "So far so good,'' he thought as he began adding the toasted dragonfly thoraxes. "One, two, three...,'' the boy counted, keeping a keen eye on the colour of the potion and the amount of dragonflies he added. "Nineteen!'' The potion had now turned red.

Once again, he heated it and waited for it to change colour. Blue this time.

Then Sarah used a delicate pincer grip and picked up the fairy wings. It was funny how the fairies or what the muggles called fairies differed from the fairies In The magical world.

Sarah plopped the wings in and then reached for her wand again. "Incendio" she casted and the cauldron began to heat. She watched the brew like a hawk. When was it going to turn torquiose.

Watching a cauldron brew was like watching am lock, it seemed to take longer whe watching it.

The finally it turned turquoise

As he waited for the blue to appear, Jory re-read the instructions. He didn't want to screw up anything, then he'd have to start all over again. What a waste of his first attempt that would be.

Soon enough the potion turned blue. "Now to add more toasted dragonfly thoraxes,'' the Huffie said. And so he began counting again. "One, two, three...'' The potion turned silver now. "Only eighteen this time,'' he observed.

Now that she had the desired effect, Sarah turned down the flame.

She then took out her doxy eggs and divided them into four piles, that way she had three in each pile. She took one pile and added it to the brew.

Then she turned up the heat

SPOILER!!: ingredients

Girding Potion Ingredients
Water to fill the cauldron
50 Dragonfly thoraxes (40 toasted/10 unheated)
One set of Fairy wings (2)
3 Flying Seahorses
12 Doxy eggs (Divided in 4 measures of 3)

SPOILER!!: instructions

Add the set of fairy wings
Heat until the potion turns turquoise.
Add one measure of doxy eggs. (That's 3)
Heat until the potion turns pink.
Add 20 of the toasted dragonfly thoraxes or until the potion turns red (sometimes it takes only 18 or 19, but never more than 20)
Heat until the potion turns blue.
Add 20 of the toasted dragonfly thoraxes until the potion turns silver (sometimes it takes only 18 or 19, but never more than 20)
Heat the potion until it turns red again.
Add three measures of doxy eggs. (That's the remaining 9)
Add the 10 not-toaster dragonfly thoraxes.
Heat the potion until it turns blue again.
Add three flying seahorses.
Heat until the potion turns green.

As Belle was done filling her cauldron. She got her fair wings together. She added the fair wings to the cauldron. Then she said, "Incendio!" and heated up her cauldron. She saw it turning color and she then saw it turning turquoise. Belle said "Finite!" to stop the heating. Then she added the measure of doxy eggs, she plopped in one...two...three...then she said "Incendio!" again and then she heated it and saw the potion turning pink.

Jory waited for the potion to turn red as it was heated. He kept a watchful eye on it. Minutes later, he noticed the change. A very light colour...until it was fully red. Things were going along just fine.

Now he took the nine remaining doxy eggs and added them to the cauldron one at a time. "In you all go,'' he said as he placed them in.

Collecting her ingredients Zoe arranged each item so that they were within arms reach and that she could still have room to work. Cleaning out her cauldron thoroughly to start out with, Zoe proceeded to fill it with water and added two fairy wings. Turning up the heat she watched it until it turned turquoise. As she waited she divided the doxy eggs so they were in four groups of three.

Adding the first measure of 3 doxy eggs, she counted out 20 dragonfly thoraxes as she waited for the potion to turn the pink colour that was indicated after the fairy wings were added.

So they'd be brewing this all on their own? GULP! That was kind of scary. Mostly because if one thing went wrong it could be disastrous and you didn't have Professor Lafay demonstrating before you went ahead with each step. That meant you had to be particularly careful and pay particular attention to your notes, yeah? ...Yeah.

The blonde jotted down the list of ingredients and the instructions on her parchment as neatly as she could and then went to gather her ingredients, thinking all the while about what she might add to her potion. Hmm...



After she had brought all of the listed ingredients back to her work space and organized them, the blonde went to get her own secret added ingredient. Something that would be beneficial to her when taking this potion. After some thought, she smiled a little to herself and grabbed what she needed. Yup, this was going to be perfect. ...hopefully.

After setting the ingredient of her choice down with the rest, she quickly scribbled it down on her ingredient list.



Ella had always been fast but she wasn't exactly the strongest kid at Hogwarts. She could do with some added strength and so the ingredient she chose was one known to help with strengthening potions.

Reviewing her journal, Alysssa scratched out the steps she had completed and the ingredient she had used.



Once she was done updating her journal, Alyssa picked up the one measure of doxy eggs. Counting out the minute eggs, Alyssa slowly added them into her cauldron.

One...Two...Three....

When the third egg was added, Alyssa looked inside her cauldron and watched as the eggs slowly submerged into the mixture. 'Come on turn pink...turn pink.' She whispered to herself...and to the mixture brewing in her cauldron. Alyssa waited and watched and heaved a sigh of relief when she saw the mixture start to change color again as it swirled and heated up in her cauldron.

The turqouise color was slowly changing adding a reddish tinge to it. Soon her mixture was a nice pink....just like the color of pepto bismol. She had achieved her pinkness.

Now on to the next step.

Peering into the cauldron she saw the colour was a nice shade of pink and started adding the thoraxes one at a time counting them one 'one...two...three.......fifteen...sixteen...seven teen...eighteen....' Checking the cauldron watching for it to turn darker til it was red 'nineteen...' AHA red. Alright...

Putting the last thorax into the next pile, she started counting out twenty once again. Peering into the cauldron constantly waiting for the colour to change again.

Shaking off her sympathy for the dragonflies, Sky heated the potion until it reached a blue color the same one as a few of the dragonfly thoraxes. Then she reached for the rest of the toasted dragonfly thoraxes and dropped them in one by one, until the potion turned sliver. She had only used eighteen of them this time, so she sneaked the other two into her bag to give them a proper burial later. She felt that was the least she could do for the pretty little bugs that had given their lives for her potion.

Peering into the cauldron again when she saw the potion was now blue she again started counting out the toasted thoraxes. 'one...two...three......eighteen...' Peering over the side again she watched as plunked in another 'nineteen' nope.... 'twenty'. Almost instantly it turned a nice shade of silver. YAY!

Okay....now to wait once again. Going back to the instructions she glanced towards the cauldron again checking for it to be red. Alright....three more measures of doxy eggs was next.

Alright, time to start things off. Ella knew what to do first and this was a step she was always sure to complete. A clean cauldron is a happy cauldron, yeah? ...Or something like that. Picking up her wand, the blonde pointed it at the cauldron and, "Scourgify!" Nicely done, Badger.

Next the blonde proceeded to fill the cauldron with water using the water-making spell and when she was done, she lit the burner. Breathe. Now she was ready for the ingredients.

First up was the set of fairy wings. Ella frowned a little, wondering how one obtained the fairy wings in the first place. There wasn't like a fairy catcher going around with a net and catching fairies, was there? And he didn't go around plucking fairy wings from them cruelly, did he? Shudder. Some things were better left mysteries. Handling them delicately, the blonde carefully added the two wings to her cauldron and let them heat.

...

She watched and watched and watched, waiting for the potion to change color. The fifteen year old hummed extremely quietly while she waited, hoping she'd done everything right so far. Just when she was starting to get worried she'd messed up, a hint of turquoise turned into a full-on turquoise looking mixture.

Grin!

So far so good.

Now that her mixture had turned into a shade of pink, Alyssa reviewed her journal to make sure that she had the right amount of ingredients...but most important of all...the correct ingredient. When collecting her ingredients, she had to pick toasted, as well as, non-toasted dragon fly thoraxes.

Alyssa looked down at her ingredients and carefully separated the toasted from its other variety. Counting out 20 toasted dragonfly thoraxes, Alyssa then separated 2 from the 20. The Professor had said that sometimes 18 or 19 would be enough, and so Alyssa decided that she would slowly add them in until her potion turned red.

She scooped up the larger pile into the palm of her hand and slowly carried it over to her cauldron. She allowed the dragonfly thoraxes to drop from her palm and into the cauldron and watched as they sank into the mixture. Alyssa then watched and waited to see whether there was any color change, but her potion still remained pink, even though it was a darker shade now.

Alyssa picked up a single toasted dragonfly thorax with her fingertips and added that into her cauldron....and waited. The shade of pink grew even darker but still not red. So Alyssa picked up the last one and added that in. All 20 dragonfly thoraxes were now in her cauldron. She breathed a sigh of relief when the mixture finally darkened and turned a solid red.

Alyssa continued to keep watch, as the mixture continued to brew and heat, Alyssa waited for the color of her potion to now change from red to blue. She watched as the mixture began to change shades from red, to light purple, to dark purple and then finally blue. The desired color at this stage of the potion brewing.

Alyssa smiled to herself. 'So far so good.' she thought to herself before picking up her quill and updating her journal.



Alyssa then put down her quill and reached for the next ingredient.

Looking at her notebook, Sky read the next instruction. Heat until the potion turns red. Okay, she could do that. It was hard to keep from stirring it the entire time, though. After all, that's what you did when you were cooking. Though, she didn't say this outloud. She had a feeling that Professor Lafay wouldn't take her comparing potions brewing to cooking very well. At all.

Anyway, the potion had turned red. She checked her notebook to see what the next instruction was......

"Good..." She said as she walked around the classroom. No one seemed to have questions so she continued observing.

Alright. Making something stronger potion. Anya could totally do this.

Text Cut: Anya's Parchment

Ingredients:

• Water to fill the cauldron
• 50 Dragonfly thoraxes (40 toasted/10 unheated)
• One set of Fairy wings (2)
• 3 Flying Seahorses
• 12 Doxy eggs (Divided in 4 measures of 3)
• SECRET INGREDIENT

Instructions:

• Add the set of fairy wings
• Heat until the potion turns turquoise.
• Add one measure of doxy eggs. (That's 3)
• Heat until the potion turns pink.
• Add 20 of the toasted dragonfly thoraxes or until the potion turns red (sometimes it takes only 18 or 19, but never more than 20)
• Heat until the potion turns blue.
• Add 20 of the toasted dragonfly thoraxes until the potion turns silver (sometimes it takes only 18 or 19, but never more than 20)
• Heat the potion until it turns red again.
• Add three measures of doxy eggs. (That's the remaining 9)
• Add the 10 not-toaster dragonfly thoraxes.
• Heat the potion until it turns blue again.
• Add three flying seahorses.
• Heat until the potion turns green.

She wrote down the ingredient list and went to go gather the materials. She then wrote down her instructions. After that she "Scourgify"ed her cauldron. And then once it looked nice and clean... she filled it up with water using "Aguamenti."

Alright. Now that that was done... she turned her attention to her instructions to get started.