Annabeth was amazed with that spell "scourgify", which had cleaned the cauldron in a blink of eye and she was gazing at Jory's movements with immense interest. For a moment she looked at her own wand and thought 'you won't wait the whole eternity to cast this kind of magic... I'll work hard to make you the most skilled wand of all the times'.

"Here", Annabeth said, handing him the cup. "Um, if you don't mind, I'll measure the 9 cups of water. I must just pour them into the cauldron, right? Or there's a kind of ritual or magical words or something that we must do before pouring them into the cauldron? I didn't read anything like that, but I'm used to doubt when the things seem to be easy... and the intructions of all the potions we've studied can be summed up as to cut, to add, to heat and stir... We only need to pay attention to the order, and control the heat, count the stir ... or am I underestimating the process?"

She was a bit anxious to know whether she was learning or not; at the same time she was fascinated with his knowledge. She sighed and muttered: "everything seems to be easy when you're doing..." She wished later she had never said anything and hoped that he hadn't listened to her.

What were they making? Hmm. Mo carefully lined up all eight ingredients in a row and perused them thoughtfully. Ginger was excellent for wit-sharpening, and the cockroaches were good for stamina and hardiness. The water was an excellent base, obviously, and it was clever of Lex to think of that. The Abraxan hair was useful in some girding and strengthening potions... but chicken feathers? He wasn't sure on that one, but he had some ideas.

"Are you willing to go with a gut feeling? Because if so, you go ahead and clean out the cauldron, and I'll start chopping the ginger and the dandelion roots." He picked up his potions knife and gave it a quick, "Scourgify."

Michael had all his ingredients lined up in a row and he sat on his stool with his chin resting on the workbench as he stared at those ingredients. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have his father's flare for potions.

While he knew what each ingredient was used for, he did not know what kind of potion he could make using them all together.

He prodded the Aswinder egg with his finger in the hopes that it might give him some sort of idea. He should have been quicker and partnered up with one of the older students, but they all seemed to have partners.

Hmm, maybe he could throw all the ingredients in together and see what happened.

First years had it ROUGH, Rhodes decided.

Not only did they not know anyone, well, in her case, the few people that she did know, she didn't like, but they also didn't know anything. How in the name of Merlin was she supposed to create a potion? A potion out of the lamest four ingredients a person could find? Perhaps if she would have known beforehand that she was going to have to make a potion out of the things she found, she wouldn't have went the easy way and found things that couldn't be found in her pocket. Ice Mice, really? How many potions used Ice Mice as an ingredient!?

She didn't know. Because she didn't know anything!

Sitting at her table, her four ingredients sitting right in front of her on top of it, Rhodes glanced around the Potion's room with her eyebrows furrowed. She.. wanted everyone else to mess up their potion. Because she knew she was going to mess up hers. At least, that was what she wanted until her eyes landed on one of the people she didn't like; Michael. She didn't even waste any time collecting her things, and making her way over to him, she sat in the empty seat beside him. She placed her phial of dirt, clump of cat hair, from her own cat, of course, balled up spiderwebs and ice mice down right next to his ingredients and just staaaared at him. Partners? Sounded good to her.

His question told her that he had no idea what they'd be making either. Okay, she could live with that. This was all one big experiment anyway, and who knew, maybe it would explode and she could be happy and the world would be a sun shiny place. Except for Mo maybe, because he didn't actually want anything blowing up. Ravenclaws.

"Pfft, I live on gut feelings." So yeah, she'd just get to the cleaning bit while he took care of the chopping. Better him than her. He was less likely to nearly lose a finger. Ahem. "Scourgify!" There, nice and clean for the potion that they still had no idea about.

"You want me to pour in the water and get it boiling while I wait for you to get through with that chopping business??"

That she could do too. Incendio was a fun spell but not one she got to use often. No real need outside of the potions classroom and threatening the portraits who seemed to think she was bluffing half the time. Meeeh.

Eliza was still staring into her book when she heard Min come up by her. "Oh thank Merlin you're here," she breathed out, "Yes, you as my partner sounds wonderful right now." She was clearly stumped and slumping in her chair.

She watched Minerva go over her ingredients, and she honestly didn't know what properties they had either. [B]"Do you know what some of their properties are? Maybe we can go from there. I have....let me see...a few daisies, which are used in the Shrinking Solution, so it must have shrinking or compacting qualities maybe? Then I have a leech, which is used in Polyjuice Potion and Shrinking Solution. I'm thinking they absorb things, naturally, but would presumably soak up other things in a potion if we needed them to?" She brushed her hair behind her ears, took another deep breath and continued. "Then I've got an owl feather which can be used for a dragon tonic, so it must have healing properties of some kind... And lastly, I have some salt. That salt is also used to treat sick dragons, with scale rot specifically. So...I've got two ingredients useful in shrinking solutions and two that are useful for healing dragons. Sound compatible with yours at all?" She was a little winded from that long, descriptive relay of information, but hopefully they could figure this out together.

She gave her friend a moment to get her information out about her ingredients and gave their work station a quick cleaning in the meantime. "Scourgify!" There. Now the table was nice and clean. It was a start at least.

So they were going to trust his gut, which was kind of nerve-wracking. Mo nodded a few times to himself as he watched Lex clean out their cauldron before he turned to the chopping task. She seemed to know what she was doing, and he wasn't about to micromanage a headstrong Gryffindor.

Instead, he focused on finely cutting first the ginger, then the dandelion, cleaning his knife between ingredients. "Yeah, you can set the fire and boil the water. We want a slow boil, though... so don't rush it. And don't burn yourself."

Okay, so that was a little patronizing. Maybe she didn't notice. He set the cut plants off to the side and waited for Lex to finish with the fire.

“I can do that” said Sonea slowly, she had practiced this spell over and over during the lessons and she had used also a few times during her cleaning club. Sonea looked a little suspicious at Daichi, why didn’t he it for himself? Was he lazy? He was much older than she was so he could do it more quickly than Sonea! But… She was a good girl for now and said nothing. She pointed her wand at the cauldron and spoke the spell calm and clear. “Scourgif” and the cauldron was clean! Sonea grinned, she was still every time when a spell worked happy about the result.

“Will it made a difference if we are cutting them or not?” Sonea looked at the ingredients who were all not the same size and she wondered if that was a problem or not. “Would the potion not become too strong or too weak if there is something more from one ingredient than the other?” If it made no difference than they could throw it all in the cauldron but she needed to know it for sure.

Just when he was about to start banging his head on the bench to kick his brain into gear, he felt someone sit beside him and his spirits immediately soared at the thought of having someone to partner him and maybe create a really good potion.

His spirits plummeted however when he turned his head to see that it was Rhodes sitting beside him. "Oh it's you." His gaze went from her annoying face to the stuff she had put on the bench and he raised his eyebrows.

"What are they supposed to be?" He asked, pointing at the mess she had put down. Michael stared at the stuff for a moment before returning his gaze to the Slytherin. "You've got to be kidding. That's your ingredients?"

Oh Merlin!!

This was going to be a disaster.

Oh, it was her.

Like anyone else would just decide to sit next to him and help him come up with a really good potion. Pfft. Rhodes rolled her eyes, right at Michael, before digging into her bag and pulling out all the things she was going to need to start their potion. She would have just used his, but she didn't trust the boy enough for that. His cauldron probably had cracks. And his wand was probably crooked. Nope. They would just use her things. They were all new.

She turned up her nose at his question about her ingredients and wasn't even going to grace him with an answer. They were good ingredients. A little different, sure. But she had been the one to pick them. They were good. "No, I am not kidding you. They are my ingredients." And if he didn't shut up about them, she would make him eat them. Or she would just push him off his stool. That would probably be easier.

"Your ingredients aren't even good. What do you have anyway?" Because she didn't want to look. Hmmmph.

Green? Red? Man, she was just watching the potion change colors faster than those muggle traffic signals. She watched as Laura frantically popped doxy eggs into them. Maybe she didn't like the color too. GIGGLE.

"That's..ew...weird" she concluded, looking at the bright red potion. Add something? Uhm...Amara dropped her eagle owl feathers into the so called potion. She didn't understand how it would qualify as a potion. It would....sooner or later. JUST WATCH.

She took the handle and stirred it. 4 clockwise turns and 2 anti-clockwise. That's what her father did with most of his potions. A few seconds later the potions glimmered. It turned.....pale gray. Somewhere between white and transparent. HUH?

And it looked quiet thicker. "Laura, I think we should add some more water to it.." she said as she examined it. The older girl would do the honors, right?

She could turn her nose up at him all she wants. Her ingredients were stupid and she obviously knew that, that's why she wasn't going to answer him. Michael let out a snort of laughter as he turned his attention back to his awesome ingredients.

"I knew you were dumb." She didn't even know what his ingredients were. Michael rolled his eyes and pointed at the first one. "That there is an Ashwinder egg." How she didn't know that, was behind him. They had just learned about them the other day in COMC. "Fluxweed, Glumbumble parts." Hehe. It never got old saying that. "And Murtlap essence."

See!! So much more awesome than what she had. Michael looked at her stuff again and wrinkled his nose. "Does ANY of them have any magical properties?"

What. Did. He. Just. Call. Her!?

Rhodes stopped unloading her bag, and he was so lucky that she had already put her cauldron down onto the table. She really had no problem with placing the thing right over his head and banging on the outside of it with a spoon. And if she got into trouble for it, it would have been worth it. Instead, though, since her cauldron was on the table already, and she didn't want to dirty it by having Michael's head inside of it, she balled up her fist and punched him, as hard as she could right on the arm. It probably wasn't even all that hard, but as long as it got her point across.. "I am not dumb." She wasn't! "Your ingredients are dumb."

Nothing even original. How many other people in the class had those same things? Probably everyone. Except herself, of course.

Nose up in the air again, Rhodes turned back towards her bag and finished unloading it. At his question, she was right back to facing him with one of the Ice Mice in her hand so he could see it. "This has magical properties. Because it makes your teeth chatter and squeak." Did he want to eat one? Because she would much rather listen to his teeth chatter instead of having to hear him talk.

The punch was a lot harder than he had expected. Which was pretty dumb not to expect something like that. He had seen his mother in action, so he knew very well girls could be pretty tough when they wanted to be. he just hadn't expected Rhodes to be that tough. There was nothing of her. And since he had a mother who could punch out a man's lights when she wanted to and having grown up with Zahra, Michael didn't fully get as yet that boys really should not be hitting girls.

So after Rhodes had given him that punch, Michael immediately retaliated with a swift kick to her shins under the table. He had no problems in showing her who was boss.

Chatter and squeak? Oh brother. "And what kind of potion could we make out of that?" Huh? Her ingredients were dumb. "Now my ingredients on the other hand will be able to cure something. Ashwinder eggs can be used to cure Ague. Which is a type of fever." In case she didn't know that which he doubted that she did. He hadn't known what it was either until he had looked it up in his text book.

"Glumbumble parts are a cure for hysteria and Murtlap essence is used to sooth and heal wounds." Was she writing this down? "I think Fluxweed is used for to make changes. Most likely physical changes."

Soooooooo what should they make?

Did she have any ideas?

Deep in thought, Ethan wandered into the open classroom, trying to figure out just what he was going to do with his ingredients. He sort of wished Lafay would have given them an inkling about the assignment, then maybe he would have chosen his ingredients more carefully, but he supposed that was the nature of the task - to be forced to think creatively and he could respect that.

He claimed an empty workstation and pulled out the ingredients form his bag - a tin full of leeches, a daisy including its root, a chocolate frog, and several leaves from an immature mandrake. Now what to do with them..? He pulled out his textbook and journal to get some sort of idea. He glanced up at the others in the room, remembering that Lafay said something about partnering and maybe that would help him out. He noticed Minerva and Eliza working together and he gave them a smile and little wave. And everyone else seemed paired up as well. Maybe he'd just work out what properties his ingredients held and get started.. then maybe someone else would come by in search of a partner.

Jory saw the wonder in Anna's eyes as he cast the Cleaning Charm. He grinned. "Don't worry you'll learn it soon enough. All you have to do is point your wand, say the incantation and concentrate.''

"I can fill the cup with the water and you can pour it in,'' Jory said. "And no, we don't have to do anything else. Just make sure the cauldron and cup are clean.'' He examined the cup. It was clean alright. He pointed his wand over it. "This charm is used when we need water,'' he told Anna. "This one is also simple. Just point your wand where you want the water to go and say Aguamenti.'' He demonstrated. "Aguamenti!'' Water flowed from his wand tip and into the cup. "Finite!'' There, the first cup. "Pour that into the cauldron, Anna.'' He watched her do so and then he continued to fill the cup again. "Would you like to try fulling the cup using the charm?''

The Puffer heard what Anna said and he went a bit red. "Well, I've been learning for years,'' he said. "Most of the credit goes to the Professors.''

Laura looked at the potion and dropped in the last of her doxy eggs, that she had left and stirred it 3 times clockwise and then looked at it, it was Very thick.

O__________________o

"I don't think it should be like this." Laura sighed as she looked at the potion. "I think you might be right." Laura took out her wand. "AH-gwə-MEN-tee!!" Laura then watches as some water went into the cauldron. "Okay then that's enough" Laura smiled. "Finite" Laura stirred the potion 4 times anti-clockwise and it went Green. "Okay then add your final ingredient and then we'll let it cool for a couple of minutes and then try it." Laura was going to try it and she hoped Amara would as well.

Laura

Putting on his gloves, Daichi began to open the vials one by one to place the ingredients on the table. He placed Sonea's ingredients to the left and his own, which were: Knotgrass, Sneezewort, Eagle owl feather(s) and a spider. He then watched the young Slytherin clean the cauldron with the spell and chuckled when he saw her grinning. "Be careful with the Sneezeworth plant because its poisonous" he hoped she had her gloves with her...

Of course, he could have cleaned the cauldron himself with ease but he wanted to let Sonea clean because she was a second year and still learning.

When she was done, the Prefect flicked his wrist and grabbed his wand. He pointed inside the cauldron and said "Aguamenti" Water burst out of the wand and Daichi had to keep an careful eye on the cauldron not to overflow it.

Stopping the spell, Daichi placed his wand away and listened to Sonea's question. He scratched his neck as he thought. It was a good question to be honest. "I think it does matter" he said. "You are right it will be dangerous if we throw in the ingredients as a whole" He really didn't want to have an explosion in the classroom...

"We can chop up the lavendal and nightshade first?" he asked and picked up his wand again. He took a deeeeeeep breath and said "Incendio" to put on the flames under the cauldron. He shivered visible at the sight and quickly turned his head away to grab a knife.

"Always clean your knife with scourgify before you use it" he smiled as he used the cleaning spell on his own knife. "You want to chop the lavendal or nightshade?" he asked.

When the young girl saw that Daichi had his gloves with him she suddenly remembered that she also had her gloves in her bag. “Wait, I need to put my own gloves also on!” said Sonea while she searched in her bag for her pink gloves, yes, she had pink gloves, she only wanted to have the best and… well… Pink was the best!

“What is a Sneezeworth?” Sonea frowned and looked questioningly at Daichi, did she hear him correctly or did he say something about… Sneezing? But when Daichi told her that that Sneeze-thing was dangerous she realized that he probably talked about the plant he had put on the table. She looked at the plant and was happy that she had her gloves with her, she only hoped that the plant was not dirty, she didn’t wanted to have her gloves dirty after this. But she did what Daichi had told her, she trusted that the older boy knew what he was doing, and if not… then she was happy that she had learned a few cleaning spells!

When Sonea was done and she saw that Daichi had filled the cauldron with water she just threw the two ingredients she just had been cutting IN the cauldron and without asking Daichi if it was okay. She just assumed that she did it right and grabbed the wooden spoon and started to stir. When the wooden spoon made contact with the cauldron she heard a funny sound and without thinking she knocked again against the cauldron. And just when Sonea had done this she saw that… she saw that there were now bubbles inside the cauldron! The bubbles were funny, they were pink, *what was a good color*, blue and yellow. But even now that Sonea found the colors funny, she still wondered if this was a good thing…

“Eh, Daichi? Is it normal that there are some colored bubbles inside our cauldron?”

On his word she got straight to pouring the water she'd gotten into the cauldron. Really, she could have just used the aguamenti spell but see, she'd walked all the way up to the bathroom from the dungeons so you see, she wasn't about to let it go to waste. Besides, this water was gotten with hard work and while ice-cream eating. It was special.

Now for the fun part. As should be expected, she made a face at Mo and his little statement. Pffft, she wasn't about to burn herself. There was nothing to it. "Incendio!" Seeeeee and she didn't get hurt. He should totally brag to Vivi about this, let her know she was better at spells and junk than when the girl had been coming here. "Does that fire work for you?"

Oh and he was done with the cutting! They'd just wait for it to start boiling then they could throw stuff in and hope it went BOOM it worked out perfectly and they could brag about being good potioneers.

Checking her instructions again, Sky Scourgify-ed her mortar and pestle again before adding the lavender flower. And mash, mash, mashing. Mashing flowers was easier than than mashing potatoes, of course, but it still wasn't that much fun. Still though, both were better than cleaning.

When the lavender was mashed completely, she added it to her potion. And began stirring again, this time counterclockwise. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10...11...12.. .13...14...15 That part was done. Next.

Annabeth heard Jory attentively: "So, all that I need is to point the wand" she grabbed her wand and pointing to anywhere added: "and say scourgify..." she felt something emerging from the tip of her wand and suddenly the work station beside them became clean and highly polished "Oops! It works", she said, blushing, and dropped her wand on the work station. At least there was nobody there.

She would ask him where there was water but Jory seemed to read her mind and showed a incantation that made water flow from his wand, filling the cup in front of her. She sighed and did what she was told to: poured it into the cauldron.

He said she could try do it too. "Oh, really? I'll try." She took her wand and pointed to the cup on the table: "aguamenti", she cast the spell exactly as he taught her, but forgeting to say the incantation to stop it and the cup overflowed. "Jory!" she shouted "what can we do now?" She waited for him to do something with the water that was falling on the floor and said "it'd better if you cast the spells and let me filling the cauldron. At least I know how to count. With this we already have 3 cups of water, I guess..."She said, embarrassed.

She noticed Jory had blushed when she said that he made things seem to be easier and said "Jory, the teacher could be the best teacher of all the world, but if the student doesn't want to study it'll do no good..." The she added "and you're a good teacher too. I learning a lot with you!" She grinned and changed the subject, whispering, while holded the cup filled with water: "Jory, why Professor Lafay didn't reply my questions? She simply acted as if I wasn't there. I'm a first year student! How does she expect I'll learn something this way?"

He needed a partner. Really.

Alec entered the classroom, clutching his ingredients in his hands. As soon as Lafay had mentioned something along the lines of possibly being able to work with someone else, Alec immediately felt a lot happier with the assignment. Because... he wasn't great at Potions. Not really. And he really didn't like the idea of being left alone to make a potion with the ingredients he had.

Especially daisies. That was his odd one out.

His grey-bue eyes cast around to everyone who were in the classroom already. And... well... most people already seemed to be paired up. Great. Maybe he should just... wait then. And then pounce wait for someone partner-less to come in and work with him on this assignment. Nodding, the boy started to head over towards an empty desk when...

... Oh?

"Ethan?" Pause. "Erm... do you have a partner, by any chance?" Or did he want one?

That should have been expected, it really should have.

It was Michael she was sitting next to after all, and it wasn't like it was the first time she had punched someone like that. Normally, though, the person on the opposite side of her fist would have been a girl, but Michael wasn't too far from one of those so she really should have expected it. Rhodes narrowed her eyes at the Gryffindor next to her and had to grit her teeth until the pain in her shin subsided. What was he wearing, boots!? She wanted to take a peek under the table to see, but she wasn't going to let on that he hurt her. "I will get you back for that."

And what better way to get him back by FORCING him to be the one who tasted their potion? Their potion that wasn't going to have the best ingredients in it. If something went wrong, then everything would be right with her.

"How am I supposed to know?" Wasn't that what they were supposed to do? Find out what their ingredients would make when put into a potion? She rolled her eyes once again and raised her hands so that she could cover her ears. Only when she was sure he was finished with his yabbering did she take her hands away. Like she cared what his ingredients did. His were better, he should have just been happy with that. No need for explanations. "We should just put all of our stuff together right into the cauldron and see what happens." Because.. what could possibly go wrong!?

Add purslane leaves. Okay then. Sky grabbed the purslane and peeled off the leaves. And dumped them into the potion. She brought the potion to a boil again and left it. Watching it, of course. Didn't want to mess it up now. Not when it was so far along and going so well. Once the leaves were finally dissolved, it was time to stir again. Clockwise.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10...11...12.. .13...14...15