Oy, Lafay was referencing him to the rest of the class? Mo grinned broadly as he scurried up to collect his ingredients. Was anyone else as impressed with him as he was currently? Because maybe he ought to do a victory dance for good measure.

No?

There were lots of animals parts in this particular potion, and Mo frowned thoughtfully as he collected the dragonfly bits, fairy wings, doxy eggs, and flying seahorses. How many animals had to die just so they could test a potion that they only used a bit of anyway? Maybe he oughta start protesting this class or sending letters to make it more humane or something.

Mo took his ingredients back to his work station and laid them out carefully in order before pulling his cauldron in closer to begin.

It was time to get started on the potion thingy. It sort of sounded epic, definitely useful but there was just something about this one...maybe it was that it didn't necessarily scream 'danger, don't leave around flighty children'...yeah...that was probably it...

She hopped off her seat and headed for the cupboards that held the ingredients.

Let's see...

Lex began fishing around inside for everything she would need. 50 Dragonfly thoraxes, one set of Fairy wings, 3 Flying Seahorses, 12 Doxy eggs...was there anything else she would need...? She looked to the board again...it looked like she'd gotten everything...her eyes fell to her hands that were just about full any way. Meh, it was just as well.

She got up slowly, so the things would topple over then used her foot to kick the door of the cupboard shut before heading back to her cauldron and work area.

........adding the rest of the doxy eggs. Okay, then. Sky dropped them into the potion one by one until all nine of them were added, using gloved hands, of course. Then she added the ten untoasted dragonfly thoraxes, also dropping them one by one. Still feeling sorry for them, too. Such pretty bugs. Anyway, then it was time to heat the potion to until it turned blue again. Which she did, 'ooo'ing slightly at the shade. Alright, next step....

Now to add the untoasted dragonfly thoraxes. Jory did so, counting as he went along. Just to make sure. "Right,'' he muttered as the last one went into the cauldron. "Ten untoasted dragonfly thoraxes.''

He now consulted the instructions in his book. "Heat the potion until it turns blue again,'' he read. He did just that- heating and waiting for the blue to appear. He looked around at the others while he waited. They all seemed to be getting along just as okay as he was.

Once his ingredients were set out across the table top and his cauldron was at hand, Mo set to cleaning out the cauldron with a hasty little "Scourgify". It wasn't like it looked dirty, and so it was hard to gauge when it was really clean. Probably was really clean now on account of there being bubbles. Bubbles couldn't happen in dirt. Sad truth.

Now that his cauldron was clean, Mo tipped his wand into the cauldron and murmured a clear, "Aguamenti." From the tip of his wand, clean water flowed into the cauldron, and Mo filled it up most of the way. Did it matter how full? Or how hot the flame should be? Or... or any of that? She'd tell them if it did, so Mo trusted that he had exactly as much water as he needed.

From the front of his work station, Mo grabbed the fairy wings and examined them closely. They were pretty, and it was a shame to just dunk 'em in the water, but... well, what would he do with fairy wings anyway? Mo dropped the wings into the water and then lit the flame beneath his cauldron.

Now that the potion had turned blue, Alyssa picked up the remaining twenty toasted dragonfly thoraxes. As she had done before, she separated 2 from the others before scooping up the 18 dragonfly thoraxes into her hand. She added them into her cauldron and peeked over to see whether the mixture had changed color from blue to silver. But nothing happened.

So Alyssa picked up one of the remaining toasted dragonfly thoraxes with her fingertips and dropped it into the mixture. She watched as the potion turned from blue to a light blue and then it stopped changing. 'Guess we're going to need the last one.' Alyssa told herself.

Picking up the last remaining toasted dragonfly thorax, Alyssa added it into her cauldron and smiled when she saw the mixture immediately get lighter and lighter in color until it was a perfect shade of silver. Now for the tricky part; to heat the potion until it turned back to red again. Alyssa allowed the potion to brew and continue to heat.

As the mixture swirled around in her cauldron, Alyssa watched as its silvery color slowly began to darken again. It darkened and darkened until what was now swirling around inside the cauldron was red in color.

Alyssa picked up her quill and updated her journal.

Adding the flying seahorses. Sky didn't even want to think about how they had become flying seahorses. Nope, she just dropped them one by one into the potion. Then heated it until it turned green. There, done. Now, what to add, what to add... She supposed she should've thought of that before she had started brewing, but what was done was done.

Now for the doxy eggs again. Alyssa picked up the remaining 9 eggs and dropped them into her cauldron. Then she scooped up the 10 non-toasted dragonfly thoraxes and added them into the mixture. Alyssa watched as both eggs and thoraxes submerged and mixed in with the potion.

She let the mixture brew and continue to heat and waited, as per the Professor's instructions, for the potion to change color once again. This time back to blue again. 'Brewing this potion definitely requires a lot of patience. All this waiting for the color changes. But I guess the benefits outweigh that.' Alyssa thought to herself as she watched the mixture begin to change color again as it swirled inside the cauldron. From red, it changed to purple and then to blue. Alyssa quickly reviewed her journal to make sure that it was the desired color at this stage in the brewing process and was glad to see that it was.

Now all she had to do was add in the flying seahorses and her secret ingredient and she would have successfully brewed her enhanced version of the Girding Potion.

Sky decided to add peppermint to her potion, not necessarily to make it more potent, but to make it taste better. Because who wanted to swallow a nasty tasting potion when they didn't have to? So, she added three sprigs of the breath freshening herb. Then she stirred. But she could not have predicted what happened next. The potion started sparking and sizzling. Uh oh. "Everybody DUCK!" she cried, diving under her own table just as....

*BOOM*

Her cauldron exploded, sending potion everywhere.

Now that she had all her ingredients and everything arranged on her workstation, all that was left was to actually start. Of course, that was the part that really scared Kendall, seeing as she really had no idea what she was doing. Aside from the first few steps, she was just hoping that her earlier idea that all that was required was to add things in the right order. If that wasn’t the case, she was probably going to end up messing something up at one time or another. She’d just have to hope that whatever happened wasn’t too bad. Like, that she wasn’t going to cause an explosion or anything. Oddly enough she was the most worried about when it came time to add her individual ingredient. Just the fact she didn’t know if there were certain ingredients that would create a bad reaction. Either way, she would find that out when the time came.

First she had to start everything, and at least that was easy enough. She took her wand out and pointed it at her cauldron. “Scourgify,” she cast, making sure to let the spell envelop every inch of the cauldron and clean it before she ended it. She wasn’t about to let it all go wrong before her potion even got started, after all. Once she’d determined that her cauldron was spotless, she shifted her wand again to point inside. “Aguamenti,” she cast. At least there weren’t any complicated spells to learn this time either. Just the simple ones, and soon enough, she’d filled her cauldron. So far, so good, but she still had to actually add all her ingredients. That was going to be the hard part, and the reason why she made sure she kept her notes available even when she wasn’t doing anything. Other than sliding her fairy wings closer to herself.

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)

She'd waited while everyone else got their ingredients before she'd gone to get hers, staying back to carefully decide on what extra ingredient she would use in her potion. Since a Girding Potion was meant to give them [i]physical[/s] endurance, it would make sense to make it something that would gird them against injury. Like a potion for Quidditch players!

Once that was done, she scribbled down what she would need into her Potions journal, followed by the steps. Then, picking up her containers, she filled them with the 50 Dragonfly thoraxes, one set of Fairy wings, three Flying Seahorses and the 12 Doxy eggs.

Counting out t10 dragonfly thoraxes once she'd set them aside, Elise toasted the rest of them in her cauldron. Then, she separated them into measures of 20 each, with the remaining 10 still separate and separated the doxy eggs into groups of three.

Then, she took an armourdillo scale from the potions cupboard. That would be her extra ingredient.

Consulting her notes, Ella saw that next she'd need to add one measure of doxy eggs. That meant 3, yeah? The blonde nodded to herself in confirmation and set out counting the three eggs, thinking all the while that doxy were nasty little creatures. She didn't fancy being bit by one of those, nope.

1...2...3... added.

Now for the hard part, the waiting. Ella held her breath and watched as the potion continued to heat up, waiting for the pink color to appear. Just as it was turning pink, the blonde heard someone announce that everyone needed to duck and for one odd second, she smiled. Alec loved ducks.

Blink!Flinch

O__O

WhatinMerlin'sbeard?

Alyssa reached over to pick up her ingredients, when she heard someone yell DUCK...and she instinctively ducked down....and thought of Daichi and what his reaction would be.

Even as she ducked, the bext thing Alyssa heard was a loud boom followed by bits of cauldron and potion mixture flying all over the place.

She slowly got up and looked to see what had happened. A Slytherin had accidentally blown up her cauldron. 'O_o the Professor is not going to like that. ' Alyssa thought to herself, even as she looked to see whether the girl was alright.

That explosion had clearly shaken her up because when she picked up the three flying seahorses, Alyssa found that her hand was shaking. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Alyssa proceeded to droppthem into her cauldron.

One...Two...Three...and watched as they slowly submerged and dissolved into the mixture. As she waited for the mixture to change color again, Alyssa picked up her quill and updated her journal.



Then she put down her quill and watched as the potion began to change color again. This time she could see tinges of yellow appearing in the mixture. It began to blend in slowly with the blue bit by bit...until her potion turned green.

'Yes I'm done making the Girding Potion according to Professor Lafay's instructions. Now to add my additional ingredient.'Alyssa thought to herself. A pinch of ginger.

She remembered reading about the former Potions Professor, Adam Dresden's, Dresden Draught. The draught helped keep the drinker awake but that wasn't why Alyssa had picked this specific ingredient. This ingredient was supposed to make the potion more powerful. She would let Professor know why when she was asked about it. Whether she had been right to add a pinch of ginger into this Potion, Alyssa didn't know. One thing she did know was that it would not take away from the benefits of the existing one.

So Alyssa added a pinch of ginger into her potion and she watched as it slowly dissolved into the mixture. She was now done brewing her potion. Quickly picking up her quill, Alyssa added in the final ingredient into her journal.



Then she put down her quill and kept watch over the potion in her cauldron, while waiting for Professor Lafay to resume speaking again.

Nell stood there for a few moments trying to decide what to do first. They were getting to brew this potion without a whole lot of guidance. Awesome! Even more amazing they got to pick an ingredient of their own to add to it. So the red head was torn between doing a little happy dance and getting started. Since the room was full she decided on the latter.

Walking up to the cabinets containing all the ingredients Nell grabbed everything she would need and a little something extra. Smiling she sauntered back to her work station and sorted everything out across the table. Using her wand she filled the cauldron with water and set it over the heat.

A small explosion across the room had her ducking behind her table.

o.o

She really didn't have patience for potions, and was tired of sitting and waiting for it to heat up enough to change colour. What colour was it supposed to be...silver? Oh...no it was silver, it was supposed to be red. Sighing she tapped her fingers on her worktop waiting as it heated.

FINALLY!

Taking the doxy eggs, she put the three groups of three eggs into the cauldron three at a time. No sooner had she put the the last of the doxy eggs in the potion she heard a boom and felt potion dripping off her hair and onto her robes. Pulling a face she looked behind her and saw the cauldron right behind her had exploded "EW!" she squealed disgustedly.

Lex laid out all the ingredients on her table, organizing them and everything because then it made her seem like she did more and she'd get that GREATER feeling of accomplishment in the end. It was the simple things that mattered, OKAY?

So after getting everything organized on the table she turned next to her cauldron. "Scourgify." One of the first things she'd learned was that potions and dirt didn't go well together and she didn't want any dirt ruining her hard work. Once it was nice and clean she got to filling it with a simple aguamenti; simple because she knew it now and she didn't forget the 'finite' at the end either.

After glancing down at the parchment to get an idea of what she was doing next, she took the pair of fairy wings--poor things, never had a chance--and added them to the cauldron.

"Incendio."

There was the fire for the heating. Yup. She so had this. Lex waited and watched and watched and waited until she could finally see it doing something--lookit, turquoise!

This meant she could add the next thing...which was....she peered down at the parchment again....the doxy eggs. A measure of them really so she grabbed three and added them as well...

...

Pink. Seriously. -__-

Endurance, strenght....yeah yeah. No doubt those were important. Of course, important and Richard believed he had plenty of both. Surely he had, that was how he was the performer of different sports including the fact that he was a part of the Slytherin Quidditch Team. And it never ended only with this; he exercised every morning. Yeah....instead of spending most of his morning sleeping like many liked to do, Rich preferred to go out in the first light and start his exercising. He had to add more to his good looks, of course, if that was possible. Not that he thought it was but it was always good to be in form and healthy which provided him the same thing this potion would do. Well...still, it would not be too bad if he had extra of them with this potion. It was a class after all and he had to brew it anyway. The good part about it was that he was allowed to add more of the ingredient of his choice. Good...maybe he could make this potion something more like what he wanted by adding more of a particular ingredient of his choice.

Walking to the shelves, the Slytherin collected the dragonfly thoraxes, fairy wings and flying sea horses and placed them all on his working station. Then he returned back to the shelves to get his doxy eggs. He wanted to be careful carrying his ingredients so if it needed taking two turns to the shelves, it was no problem for him. After putting the eggs which were 4 containers measuring three as was instructed, Richard unholstered his wand and cleaned his cauldron with Scourgify. Then he pointed the wand into the cauldron ''Aguamenti'' was the word and he started to fill the cauldron with water. Once he supposed there was enough of water, he pointed his wand to the burner and murmured ''Incendio'' to start the fire under it.

Peeking up from her table she made sure none of her things weren't damaged. Everything seemed in tact and unaffected which was good news. Unfortunately a first year hadn't been so lucky. Turning down the heat on her water so that it wouldn't over boil she walked over to the little Slytherin.

"Hold still for a sec..Scourgify." She waved her wand over the 11 year old and carefully removed the potion that had gotten all over her. When she was satisfied that she had gotten everything she smiled. "There you are. Right as rain. I'm Nell by the way." She point at the work station across the aisle. "I'll be over here if you need any help." She winked at the little Slytherin before returning to her own work.



Rubbing her hands together she looked over the instructions. Turning the heat back up on her water Nell added the fairy wings and then watched carefully. When the liquid turned turquoise she added 3 doxy eggs and then there was more waiting.

Pulling another face as more dripped down onto her robes and ran down her face, she looked up as an older student came over to help and stood still so she could help clean off the potion. "Thank you." she murmured. "I'm Zoe." she said nodding looking over to where she was pointing. "Okay."



Sighing as she turned back to her potion and looked down at it. O_________O it was like really dark red. Glancing towards the professor, she wondered if it was going to be bad now. Taking the ten non toasted dragonfly thoraxes she started plopping them into the cauldron one at a time.

Nell waved a hand at the girl...Zoe. She smiled. "No problem. That happens sometimes, just gotta clean yourself off and keep brewing." She could remember having a similar incident during her second year though the entire cauldron had exploded and ruined her robes. She had never sat next to Ian again after that. Giggling at the memory she checked her potion.

It was now a pretty pink color which meant it was time for the next step. Add 20 toasted dragonfly thoraxes....until it turns red. Her green eyes scanned the small text below that and nodded. Counting out 20 into her hand she started adding them slowly one by one. 16....17....the liquid swirled a dark pink color. 18....and then liquid turned a ruby red. Smiling she set the remained two down and waited yet again.

The 17 year old glance over at her small friend and noticed her frowning. "Everything okay?"

Chewing on her lip the potion was taking a long time to turn blue. "I think...I waited too long to put in the nontoasted dragonfly thoraxes. It's like a really dark red...." Peering down into the cauldron she pulled a face "And now it's brown." Looking at the instructions, "It's supposed to be blue not brown....Professor?"

Did she ruin it? She hoped not! It was all the exploding cauldron behind her's fault!

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 saw the potion turning pink she looked at the next set of instructions. She had the water still warm but the fire was not on and then she looked for the toasted dragonfly thoraxes. She got 10 each on either side of the cauldron. Belle plopped in one...two...three...four...five....then 10 into the cauldron. Then she took the other set of 10 and dropped them in carefully. She saw her potion turning red.

Then she heated up her cauldron..."Incendio!" and then she felt the heat. Then the potion turned blue in a couple seconds. Belle's eyes widened and then she said "Finite!" and it stopped. Belle waved the sweat off her brows. It was quite hot in the dungeon.

Nell peeked into Zoe's cauldron and frowned at the brownish color. Glancing at the instructions again and then looking over the ingredients the Slytherin had left her eyebrows went up into her hairline. "Did you remember to add a measure of doxy eggs before you added the untoasted dragonfly thoraxes?" That was the only thing she could think of.

Meanwhile at her own cauldron the liquid finally turned a bluish color though it was more sky blue then an actual blue. The Ravenclaw was afraid if she waited any longer though it would ruin. Counting out another 20 toasted dragonfly thoraxes into her hand she started adding them to the potion one by one. This time it took all 20 before the potion turned silver.

And then more heating and waiting.....how a potion that was a silvery color was supposed to turn red on it's own was beyond her. A stray strand of hair fell into her face and she blew it away. All the fires always made this room unbearably hot.

Since he had started the fire, it was the time to start the potion now. First of all, carefully, Richard put the ingredients in an order on his working station according to the exact order he was going to add them into the potion as instructed. When he was satisfied with the order, the Slytherin eyed them for a last check and grinned. This looked good. While brewing a potion one had to be very careful otherwise everything could go wrong so it was good to be well organized.

Acting with intense care, he put on his gloves before picking up the set of fairy wings. He dropped the two wings into the water in the cauldron and looked at the instructions. Hmm...it was not said there that he needed to stir after adding the fairy wings. So not bothering to stir at all, as it was not required, he just watched the wings dissolve into the water and left the potion to heating. He poked the burner a little so it could heat properly. He waited patiently until the liquid turned turquoise and the very moment he saw the colour, he poked the burner again making the fire smaller under the cauldron.

Watching the liquid slowly turn from a silver to a burnished red was an interesting thing. She had always found it fascintating how each little ingredient causes such a dramatic change in the potion. Her grandmother had called potion making a subtle art that took time and effort to perfect.

Nell double checked the instructions once again before going on to the next step. Adding in the three remaining measures of doxy eggs and then grabbing her 10 untoasted thoraxes. As soon as the untoasted thoraxes hit the solution it began to bubble and hiss. Frowning the Ravenclaw watched the liquid roll and bubble. Was it supposed to be doing that?

Glancing around Nell tried to see if anyone else's was having the same reaction. Nothing dangerous seemed to be happening but there was nothing in the instructions about spitting and hissing. She scratched her head and decided to wait a little bit to see what would happen.