Oh good. The other half wasn't around. That meant free seating near the Potioneer's daughter. That's you, Sophie Newell! Wearing that ...ugh! UGH!...snotty, haughty little face that he sometimes often did, Cutty took a seat beside the she-twin. He looked her up and down in his subtly shrinking robes. No, no, his robes weren't shrinking, he was growing. WTH?!

He seemed unperturbed by it as he had other things on his mind. How was he going to say it? WHEN was he going to say it?

He began to study his own hands and finding them too dirty for potions class, he took out his wand and cleansed them one by one. He held one of them out and refocused his sight to the image behind it. Was that Cosgrach Culloden lifting an automobile and ...?!


It was.


Oh, this was gonna be goooooood.

.... there was literally nothing about that picture that West understood. That was a car, he knew that much obviously, but what the heck was the professor doing?

He eyed it for a moment and then looked at the professor himself and nodded a greeting. "Hello, sir."

And he wasn't going to ask about the man's Summer.

Instead he went to find a seat. He'd have sat next to Mo but Cat had already claimed him, causing West to wrinkle his nose a little. Not at them though, more like at the memory of how rarely Alice chose to sit with him unless he'd been harassing her about it. Sigh. He didn't need these thoughts today.

He slipped into the seat next to Lottie instead. Sup Lottie.

It was early. Why were mornings so early? Donny yawned loudly just before looking up at the professor. "Hi, pr'fessor!
What was that picture? Why? Donny sniggered, whatever it was, it was funny. Were they going to be making super strength potions???? Donny skipped over to an empty chair and imagined how cool it'd be to be super super super strong. He'd have to tell Mr Oliver! Oliver would be impressed, right? He should be, they could be the superheroes like they said!

Donnacha sat down in one of the chairs and stifled a yawn, where could you get one of these chairs? He needed one of these!

.....Lessons.

Derry had been so focused on how crappy this year was already that she'd forgotten they actually had lessons to take. So this... this was just an additional thing to worry about now. Eh.

...

At least it wasn't that bad in here. Derry walked into the classroom and took a seat somewhere in the back, sinking into the cushion. "Hi Professor." she said. Why was he lifting a car over his head in that picture? ... Strength potion? Weird.

But she liked the cushions. This was dangerous though. She hadn't slept properly in about a week...

Potions class. Kevin loved this subject..disliked the Professor who teached it. See the problem?

The writing of the appointment of his duel with Professor Flamsteed was still written with bold black letters on his forehead as he walked through the dungeon and towards the classroom. Seeing the man standing at the door, greeting the students he rolled his eyes before walking up as well. He had tried hiding the writing on his forehead but eventually he decided against it. "Hello..." he said and as he walked in to the classroom he whispered a "Or whatever..."

The moment he had entered the classroom he kind of relaxed at the sight of the calming blue...but when his eyes found the picture of ..a car..he knew that was a car...and ..the Professor ...lifting it up in the air and..doing weird...things...made him stop dead in his track of finding a seat. He cocked his head to the side and made a face. Really? He turned his attention back to the real Professor at the door to give him a look. "Show-off" he muttered under his breath as he sat on a seat.

As usual, it didn’t take much for the term to officially begin. Lily actually found it rather refreshing, in a slightly irritating way. It hadn’t hurt that she still hadn’t entirely gotten back into the habit of sleeping late after the trip to Peru, either, as that meant she wasn’t half as tired as most of the other students that had gotten to the Potions classroom ahead of her looked. At least, she was able to pretend easier, especially as she knew that it wasn’t very advisable falling asleep in this class. Not when that could lead to explosions and who knew what else. It was easier to just make sure she stayed awake, and she had given the professor a smile as she’d passed him upon entry into the classroom. “Good morning Professor Culloden,” she said, glancing at the blackboard just to see if there was anything on it to give a clue what they would be brewing today. Even rules or advice would have been nice.

Instead, her green gaze had landed on an almost ridiculous picture, both in size and subject matter, and she resisted an eye roll as she found a seat near the middle of the room. That told her absolutely nothing that could help figure out the lesson, unless they were going to be creating a strength potion, or a stamina potion. I hope it isn’t a potion to make us do completely silly things. I’m not testing it if we are, she found herself thinking, taking out her supplies and silently Scourgifying them so they’d be ready when the lesson started.

Abby was nervous as she entered the potions lab for her first lesson she saw that several of her classmates were there and noted the washbasin and knew that it would be probably be best to wash her hands before lesson started after drying her hands she took a seat and waited for the lesson to begin

Lucy looked around in the classroom and she greeted the professor:"Good morning, Professor Collarbin!". "I'm Lucy Petersfield! First year Gryffindor!"
Then she found a free seat..
When she turned her eyes to the blackboard, she saw the magical picture.
"Why the Professor Culloden was lifting a Muggle car? This was very peculiar!"
Lucy could not hold back a smile...

It was a brand new year...and Vesper was a brand new person. Sorta.

See, the Ravenclaw had made a decision about her academics going into this final year; a rather important one, too. She was going to REALLY try. Unlike last year...and the year before that....when she'd allowed distractions. Okay, there would probably still be distractions...BUT Ves was going to try harder.

So, bright and early, mhm. She was here.

...and already doodling the board!art onto her notebook page. Looked like the Professor's face, too...but she didn't care too much. Her mind was in other places, despite her vow to do better. Sometimes her hands just had a mind of their own. This was what this was...if anyone asked.

He closed the door once Vesper'd entered and turned to the class. He was stading at the right side of the picture not to block their sight, and grinned at them.

"Welcome to the first class of this term," he said, "I'm Cosgrach Culloden, for those who don't know me, and this is my second term teaching." So, NO 'Collarbin, Dima and Lucy, see? C-U-L-L-O-D-E-N. His eyes were on Alexa, though, and his teeth were clenched momentarily before he relaxed himself. Today was a beautiful day, and it would be even better when he and she had a chat at his office.

"Today, we'll brew a strength potion that will enable you to," he took a deep breath not to laugh, "lift a car like I'm doing in this picture. Not just for entertainment, though. It was used to carry all kinds of material in the past, beginning from ancient times, for building and stuff," yeah yeah, he didn't know why else people moved stuff and they shouldn't question that, that wasn't the point, "so we see some of those historical buildings thanks to it." He grinned proudly. They could tell it was one of his favourite potions. "It is very easy to brew, and it is good for anaemia, lack of red blood cells in the blood. It makes you dizzy and causes lack of strength, so if you don't want to bother with a proper health potion," or lack the ability to do it, "I suggest you brew this. It's also good for lack of iron, so let's start brewing!"

He didn't want to fold his amazing picture, but the kids should also learn this potion, so he tapped his wand at it and it folded itself to open the blackboard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

• 2 kilograms of dragon heart (a few grams more/less doesn’t matter)
• 1 pomegranate
• A cup of re’em blood
• One mature salamander’s blood
• 2 unicorn tail hairs
• Powdered griffin claw
• 2 snake fangs

1. Add 2 litres of water and the unicorn tail hairs one by one

"As dragon heart is actually expensive, and rare," he eyed them all for it to sink, "you have to use it carefully. One heart should be enough for all the class, and uh," he glanced at his empty table, "I'll bring it and the scale while you do the first step." No one sight problems, he hoped? He didn't need to read it out himself, right?

Right.

With that, he quickly opened the door of store room and entered to get them.

OOC: The class has started, so please do not post your characters arriving late. Just act as if they have been there all along.

The class will continue about 11 hours later.

He didn't know her name..? Did he not GO to the matches last term..? ... Actually, no, strike that, hopefully he'd missed at least the last one... "It's Ferrier, sir. Derry Ferrier." she reminded him, taking out her quill and getting ready to, y'know, start the lesson.

Strength potion. Totally called it... not that it was exactly hard to figure out... you didn't have to be a Ravenclaw to notice.

That was quite interesting though. Was that how the pyramids had been built? She'd always wondered if magic had been involved... since nobody in the muggle world really knew how they'd moved all those huge rocks. .... Anaemia and lack of iron were almost exactly the same thing... he did know that, right? That's why they gave iron tablets to people who were anaemic... Eh, she wasn't going to point it out. She was too... meh.

...

Wait... two kilograms of dragon heart?! ... Jeez. Derry copied down the instructions from the board then took out her wand and cleaned her cauldron. Professor Lafay had always reminded them to do that... But she hadn't given them such comfortable seats so... pros and cons really.

Okay... ingredients. Derry stood up and collected all the ingredients - except the dragon's heart because... seriously... what?

She measured two litres of water and poured it into her cauldron, then carefully added the unicorn tail hairs... and it struck her that it was probably cheaper just to buy a health potion... or steroids.

Toby was trying to be happy. He honestly was. But ever since the cancellation of Quidditch was mentioned, it had been sort of... difficult. And he couldn't even fly to deal with this whole situation, because that was apparently just as dangerous.

But he understood. He understood why it had been cancelled, and why this was a safety thing, but that didn't make Toby any less upset about it.

Still, it wasn't right to let all that interfere with lessons. Not if he could help it. Though... that was easier said than done.

Okay, so... strength potion, right. Toby got out his wand and pointed it at his cauldron. He muttered 'scourgify' and 'tergeo' at the inside of it, effectively cleaning it. Then, using a beaker from his potions kit (which he also cleaned with magic), Toby measured out one litre of water to add the the cauldron... and then another. Once he had the required two litres, Toby added both unicorn tail hairs, one at a time.

Glancing around him, Toby couldn't help but catch sight of the the first years nearest him, and he addressed his next comment to them.

"Does anyone need help with any cleaning charms?" he asked them. "You're gonna need them a whole lot in this class."

Abby took down her notes and looked at the hufflepuff boy who was offering help with cleaning charms and said "I would like help with cleaning charms" Abby felt a bit helpless being from a muggle background she didn't know many spells yet

Did the Professor just laugh at him? HE DID LAUGH AT HIM!

Kevin sent a intense GLARE in the Professor's direction. How dared he laugh at him! ...Why was he even laughing at him? Probably about the writing on his forehead, how childish!

But apart from the glare, he didn't go in to it and turned his attention to listen. Strenght Potion, lifting cars blah blah blah... Setting up his cauldron, the second year Gryffindor cleaned the object with "scourgify" before pointing his wand inside of it. "Aguamenti" he said and watched as a sloooooow stream of water filled the cauldron. Two Litres...this was gonna take some time. And it did, and the whole time Kevin kept trying to GLARE at the Professor while the cauldron got filled with water.

When it was done, Kevin ended the spell and looked at the instruction again. 2 Unicorn tail hairs. The Gryffindor looked around and found the hairs the instruction was talking about and added them in to the cauldron one by one.

And what was the frown for? West gave the professor a surprised look but shrugged it off. Maybe Culloden had gas.

.... or maybe he'd been drinking blood by the bucketful? West eyed the ingredients list dubiously. You wouldn't want to get it wrong since then you'd apparently just be drinking meaty blood with pomegranate to taste. But as long as you did it right and the potion's magical effects took hold correctly then you wouldn't technically be drinking blood, you'd be drinking a Strength potion. Different.

Morally he had no problem but he did glance toward Mo, wondering if his friend might take exception. Not that the creatures involved were alive or anything....

He cleaned his cauldron quickly and effectively with the usual spells, then set up all the ingredients that he'd need aside from the measure of heart.

He measured the 2 litres of water into the cauldron then dropped the two unicorn tail hairs in one at a time.

First step completed.... and not that he was exactly going to pull a Toby and offer to help people, but West figured if someone asked... or rather, if a Slytherin asked, then he'd probably help. For now though he just sat quietly and waited to get through the task.

The girl who answered him was near enough that it wasn't awkward for him to try and help her. Toby slid from his stool and moseyed over to the girl's workstation, recognising her as one of the first year Ravenclaws he'd seen when sitting at the table on the night of the Start of Term Feast.

"Okay," he said, reaching the girl and giving her a little smile. He kept his voice loud enough that those nearby would be able to hear him if they wanted to know too. "Most people use 'scourgify' to clean their cauldrons. That's the scouring charm. Just move your wand like this and say 'Scourgify'."

As he said this, Toby pointed his wand at a simple potions stirrer he'd bought over with him. "If it's really gross, you can use 'tergeo' too, that's what I do." He pointed his wand at the stirrer again. "Tergeo."

Very clean potions stirrer in his hand, see? Hopefully, after a few tries, the girl could clean her cauldron and stuff.

"You need to clean your cauldron right before you brew any potion, and also all the mixing and measuring instruments. Cleanliness is super important in Potions." That was... somewhere in the textbook. "Does that help?"

He smiled, not leaving yet, just in case.

“Hmm?” Ethan kept his eyes on the board, and didn’t exactly catch what Professor Culloden said…or asked. The drawing was too distracting. He snapped out of it though when the door behind them closed and the Potions Master introduced himself to the class. Ethan underlined Culloden’s name on his notebook, noting that it was clever of him to take down all of the professor’s names before he got to their respective classes; all thanks to their Head Girl for posting the important information in their Common Room.

Ethan watched as the potions master explained the “Strength Potion” that they will be doing, and took down notes.

Scribble-dee-doo.

Two kilograms of Dragon Heart. “Whoa.” Ethan whispered to himself and bit his knuckles. “Mordred will be mortified.” He thought and continued to write down the rest of the ingredients and the first instruction. Powdered Griffin Claw…Unicorn Tail Hairs. Well, it was a good thing Dragon Boy was no longer in Hogwarts. He’d probably protest and walk out of this class if he was still there.

The third year Snake got his cauldron, and was about to fill it with water, but paused when another boy called out if anybody needed help in performing the Cleaning Charm. “Of course!” Didn’t his Uncle Max told him to always, always clean his stuff before and after using them? Ethan nodded and casted the cleaning spell on his cauldron…and practically all of his stuff just to make sure that he won’t screw up his first potion.

Once he was done cleaning, he filled his cauldron with two litres of water, then added the Unicorn tail hair one by one.

One…and two.

Hello, boy? Well... he was a boy. And how could a professor EVER remember all the students' names? There were like.. a lot of them. At least he seemed happy, happy people were the best!


Super strength. Knew it. Donny grinned to himself and started his notes off by quickly doodling a strongman. His gran should drink super strength stuff, that would be funny.
Could you lift a whale? Never mind the whole finding a whale part.
Oh, right! Donny told himself to pay attention, he'd be getting good grades this year, hopefully. Maybe. This stuff could come in handy one day, you know, when he had to lift a car.

Text Cut: Donny's Notes

Strength Potion
Helps with ana blood stuff, turns you into Popeye. Good for lack of iron.

• 2 kilograms of dragon heart poor dragon
• 1 pomegranate
• A cup of re’em blood
• One mature salamander’s blood
• 2 unicorn tail hairs
• Powdered griffin claw
• 2 snake fangs

1. Add 2 litres of water and the unicorn tail hairs one by one

Poor dragon...

Two kilograms was a lot, wasn't it? How big was a dragons heart?! Whales had big hearts, you could swim through it's arteries. Or so they said. Had anyone actually tried?

He'd never seen a real dragon, but they looked cool in pictures. Donny doodled a little dragon next to his notes and told himself that it'd be pretty cool to be used for a potion once you were.. well.. not alive and stuff. Actually.. it was kinda cool, you'd be part dragon. Sort of..!
Looking around the classroom he saw that people were cleaning their cauldrons. Of course! Once he'd finished writing his notes, Donny did the same and then measured out 2 litres of water. He hummed to himself and added the unicorn hairs. Yup, doing great Donny.

Cris immediately sat up when Professor Cullodeen first introduced himself and then proceeded to inform everyone what potion they would be making today.

BINGO!! A Strength Potion. He had been spot on guessing which potion they would be brewing today.

When the words appeared on the blackboard, Cris immediately picked up his quill, opened up his journal, flipped to a blank page and began writing down the instructions.



Once he had everything copied down, Cris put down his quill and then pulled out his wand. He pulled out his cauldron and a measuring cup from his Potions Kit. Pointing his wand inside first the cauldron and then the measuring cup, Cris cast the Scouring charm on both of them, saying the words to the incantation, "Scourgify". He then ended the spell before inspecting both the cauldron and the measuring cup for any dirt or cracks.

Once both passed the inspection test, Cris placed the cauldron the burner. Pointing his wand inside the measuring cup, Cris said,"Aguamenti and began filling up the cup with water. When the water reached the two liter mark, Cris ended the spell.

He poured the water into the cauldron and then proceeded to add the unicorn tail hairs into the cauldron.

One...two...

Once he was done, he sat back and waited for further instructions.

"Channing-Sands." And why did it feel like the professor was eyeing her a little? It wasn't her fault that she hadn’t adjusted to the time change yet.

And apparently, they were going to just jump right in. With a strength potion. Now, why on Earth would she want to be able to lift a car over her head and potentially damage it? It would be completely useless if, say, you were to bend an axle or something of the sort. But that second use, that sounded great, if, you know, it was already brewed. Because she'd heard of anemia before and from what she'd heard, it made you weak enough to not even be able to stand for long periods of time.

She jotted down the ingredients list and first step into her Potions journal, and gathered her ingredients. The very first step she did, however, wasn't even on the board. She gave her cauldron and tools a good "Scourgify!" because a dirty cauldron was never a good idea. Speaking of not good ideas.........

*YAWN*

Anyway, she added her two litres of water, managing not to confuse this measuring system with the metric. And the unicorns tail hair followed suit.

Trent's brown eyes kept on fleeting from the large picture to the Professor's face who was standing next to it. The man was grinning. Trent was not amused by this. He was....inwardly cringing. This was his very first class at Hogwarts and already he was doubting his father's wishes.

Once the Professor announced what they will be brewing for today however, Trent almost came to a half-smile. Something to increase one's strength. Now that was most definitely interesting. Maybe he would be learning something valuable after all and maybe he would actually be fond of this Professor. He was even intently listening to him talk. "....very easy to brew, and it is good for anaemia, lack of red blood cells in the blood....."

...Hold on. What?

Did he just?...Yep. The man just spoke the B-word. Bells momentarily made a ringing ruckus inside the Ravenclaw's head. Deeeeeeep breath.

Darn it. He needed to shake off the B-word from his system so Trent quickly took note of the ingredients.

STARE.

BLINK.

BLINK.

FREEZE.

Dragon's heart? Hearts have the B-word, right? ...Re'em B-word? .....Salamander's B-word? HOLY.....What was this class, a b-word bank?

Trent was now aware of how his knees were turning jelly, how sweat was accumulating on his hairline, his hands were even starting to get cold and clammy. DAMN. HELL. Damn it to hell.

Strengthening potion huh? Sounds like it could be fun. He could show off to Z at the very least.

Michael listened to the Professor's instructions before writing down the ingredients and the first set of instructions. One he had done that, he gave his cauldron a quick clean before slipping of his chair and going over to the wash basin to wash his hands. His dad always told him that it was essential to have clean hands when handling potion ingredients because it could effect the outcome of the potion you were making.

When he had done all that, he headed back to his bench and filled his cauldron with two litres of water and then he carefully added the unicorn tail hair one after the other.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarShine

"Welcome, Benny!" Hope he didn't mind being called 'Benny'? Naaaah, even if he did, he probably was too sweet to decline a professor as cool as Cosgrach.

Hehehe.

BENNY?!

The Professor was calling him Benny now? The third year inwardly groaned and hung his head. It was bad enough Adi used it but a professor?! Someone he likely couldn't get to stop. Sigh. This was gonna be a long term.

Quote:

He closed the door once Vesper'd entered and turned to the class. He was stading at the right side of the picture not to block their sight, and grinned at them.

"Welcome to the first class of this term," he said, "I'm Cosgrach Culloden, for those who don't know me, and this is my second term teaching." So, NO 'Collarbin, Dima and Lucy, see? C-U-L-L-O-D-E-N. His eyes were on Alexa, though, and his teeth were clenched momentarily before he relaxed himself. Today was a beautiful day, and it would be even better when he and she had a chat at his office.

"Today, we'll brew a strength potion that will enable you to," he took a deep breath not to laugh, "lift a car like I'm doing in this picture. Not just for entertainment, though. It was used to carry all kinds of material in the past, beginning from ancient times, for building and stuff," yeah yeah, he didn't know why else people moved stuff and they shouldn't question that, that wasn't the point, "so we see some of those historical buildings thanks to it." He grinned proudly. They could tell it was one of his favourite potions. "It is very easy to brew, and it is good for anaemia, lack of red blood cells in the blood. It makes you dizzy and causes lack of strength, so if you don't want to bother with a proper health potion," or lack the ability to do it, "I suggest you brew this. It's also good for lack of iron, so let's start brewing!"

He didn't want to fold his amazing picture, but the kids should also learn this potion, so he tapped his wand at it and it folded itself to open the blackboard.


"As dragon heart is actually expensive, and rare," he eyed them all for it to sink, "you have to use it carefully. One heart should be enough for all the class, and uh," he glanced at his empty table, "I'll bring it and the scale while you do the first step." No one sight problems, he hoped? He didn't need to read it out himself, right?

Right.

With that, he quickly opened the door of store room and entered to get them.

He finally lifted his head and gaze once more as Professor Culloden finally started class. Might as well get it over with now that his mood had dropped a little. Strength potion...so that's the magic in the picture. As the ingredients appeared on the board, Ben carefully wrote them down before starting as the professor instructed.

"Scourgify..." he cast on his cauldron for absolute cleanliness. "Aguamenti..." for adding the water. Finally the two unicorn hairs one by one.

One...two.

So far so good.

Apparently the stereotype of a snarky, unapproachable potions master wasn't true after all. Nicholas was a little taken aback by the professor's friendly welcome (how could anyone be so friendly before noon, he'd like to know?), but had greeted the man in turn and moved to wash his hands before he found a ridiculously comfortable chair in which to sit. He hoped no one spilled potion on these nice seats.

After jotting down the ingredients list, more from habit than thinking the professor would wipe them from the board, he set about cleaning his cauldron, filling it with water, and adding the unicorn hairs. Potions was never a subject that held much interest during his homeschooling, mostly because it had been entirely theoretical: his father's distaste for magic and its affiliates meant that the foot of power had come down against purchasing magical ingredients, even if it was for his son's education.

So yes, Nicholas was pretty excited to be working with the real thing.

A strength potion wasn't something that really appealed to Theo, since he liked to think he had enough of it to cope without using magic. His ears propped up when the professor said it would allow you to lift a car, though! DANG, he needed some of that in his life!! He sat up straight, pulled out his wand and prepared himself for the first step of the potion. "Scourgify." The cauldron cleaned itself straight away, soooo... "Aguamenti!" His favourite spell. Water filled the base of the cauldron and Theo stopped it once it was up to 2 litres.

After fetching the unicorn tail hairs, Theo squinted his eyes and leaned closer to the table. He picked up one and gently dropped it into his potion, and then he repeated for the next hair. There.