Just don't think about the b-word, Trent. Just don't think about it.

Ever wondered why people usually have their own mantras in overcoming their fears? It actually works! ...A little bit. The Ravenclaw swallowed hard and closed his fists, breathing deeply. Just don't think about the b-word. There were ways he could go around this, yea? He could ask help from his peers. ....Yeah, no.

Just don't think about the b-word.
Just don't think about the b-word.
Just don't think about the b-word.

He just needed to get himself together. He can do this. No need for passing out.

All right. He was doing this.

Trying very hard not to think about the b-word, Trent scourgified his cauldron then added 2 litres of water into it via wand. Still not thinking about the b-word, he proceeded to add the unicorn tails. First unicorn tail. Just don't think about the b-word. Second unicorn tail.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarShine

"I hope you've all cleaned your cauldrons," he said as he EYED them, "because dragons don't like dirt." Clear? Clear.

"Alright, light a fire and turn it to high. Then, measure the dragon heart," he moved to open the box while he talked, because it was sealed with magic, "and add it."

Once the box was opened, he moved behind his desk and sat down to oversee how they measured it.

Somehow, he managed to do the first step without passing out. And he also had the initiative to clean his cauldron before doing anything. Those were good things. Maybe he could actually make it through this class without outing to everyone how he had a phobia of the b-word.

More deep breaths. The Professor was now giving them the next set of instructions. Light the fire. Of course, of course. "Incendio." Trent murmured, flicking his wand as he did so. He stepped back, eyeing the board for the next step and froze. They were adding the dragon heart now?

Hearts have b-word.....hearts.....b-word.....b-word.....b....don't they?

Standing frigidly, he didn't dare move until he could see that the dragon heart was in fact free of the b-word. Relieved sigh. It was time to mobilize. So Trent stepped in line and when it was his turn to measure 2 kg of dragon heart, he did by cutting out a chunk of the main heart, weighed it on the scale, cut and quantified it until he was certain he had 2 kg. When he was finished, he carried the 2 kg of dragon heart back to his workplace and added it carefully into the already boiling concoction.

So far so good. Not that she was surprised that things were going so smoothly. She had managed to not drop, knock over or spill anything yet. Oh look they were moving on to the next step. She wrote down the next step. Goodie.

Or not.

Now there's not a lot of things that gross this girl out. But unfortunately a dragons heart maybe on her gross out list. So she told herself that she could do it. "Incendio." and turned the heat all the way up.

All she had to do now was just put the dragon heart in the potion. She went up to the front of the room and came back. Ready it put the heart in her potion. 1...2... 3... She very carefully dropped the dragon heart into the potion. Well that wasn't too bad now was it.

Next step, please?

*Fallowing all the steps so far that the potions professor had shown them so far Romulus turned to his clean cauldron and section area. Right now to turn the heat to high... done. When he was sure that the heat was perfect he went to get the dragon heart. Making sure that he got the proper proportions he added it into the mix. He wrinkled his nose a little.*
"Not the best of smells..."
*He said more to himself then anyone in particular.*

Mo nodded very slowly as the professor answered, taking in how he felt and measuring it against that moral compass he'd been working on over the past seven years. It didn't sound cruel, and it was better than letting parts go to waste.

Yes. Okay. He could proceed with the potion. "Thank you, Professor. I appreciate your willingness to share those details." Especially since Mo had been slapped down last time he'd asked.

Light the fire... and turn it up to high. Mo leaned down to peer beneath his cauldron before carefully fitting his wand beneath it and non-verbally lighting the fire. That was a life skill that could be attributed to his time in Peru, thanks. Anyone else need a fire lit non-verbally? No?

"Want me to light your fire?" Mo gave Cat a cheeky look and waved his wand at her. Please?

He was delaying the inevitable moment that he'd have to go handle that dragon heart. There was something about the death of a majestic creature like a dragon that really got him down, and Mo couldn't help but slump a bit as he made his way to the professor's desk where he carefully double-triple-quadruple checked his measurement of dragon heart. Two kg was quite a lot, and he wasn't about to waste even an ounce.

"Thank you, sir," Mo managed before traipsing back to his desk and giving Cat mournful looks. The dragon heart went into his cauldron, and Mo had to force himself to watch it slide beneath the surface. Ugh, it STILL hurt a bit.

Melek glared at the professor. Mel was totally not in a good mood. She kept her mouth shut and glanced at the blackboard. Heat to high then add the heart... Melek turned the heat up, making sure that it was on high as instructed then glanced at the heart. Mel was tempted to poke it with her wand but she just simply measured it out. She placed it in the cauldron and waited for the next step to come as she just glanced around bored. Potions was suppose to be fun but last year ruined it for her.

Cleaning her cauldron had been hard enough. The older, experienced students did it with ease, but not first year Marisol. She did what everyone else did, muttering "scurjifi", no... "scorgifie"...whatever that word meant, making ludicrous wand motions. Amazingly, it worked. On the twenty-seventh try.

That could have been the whole lesson and Mari still would have though it hard, but no. They were making a strength potion. Weak excuse for that boastful photo, the eleven year-old thought. She plopped the white hair stuff into her newly added water, then she turned up the heat.

The cauldron hissed at Marisol, so she hissed back, getting odd looks from her classmates. Nothing new there. The Spaniard really would not like to touch the dragon heart. Although she was primarily a carnivore, it was creeping her out. She pinched it with her fingernails and dropped it quickly. Gross!

You see, eavesdropping is good.

So that’s where the dragon’s heart came from! Well, of course it came from a dragon, but it was important to know that the beast’s internal parts were being put to good use. Like…giving them super human strength! Still, he will be needing to owl Mordred after this. He just…well, needs a little bit of consolation. Two kilograms of dragon heart just for one bottle of super strength? Wowzers.

Now onto the second step.

Ethan got his wand, made the correct wand movement and casted “Incendio!” as he pointed at the bottom of his cauldron. Nice, the fire was. “Faaaiiiaaaahhh.” He turned the heat to high, then stepped up to the front with his knife, tray and wand as he eyed the huge chunk of dragon heart. The young Slytherin mused as to how Mordred would have handled the situation if he was there. “He’d probably cry…” Ethan cleaned the scales in front of him, as well as his knife and tray before proceeding. As soon as he was done scouring those, he placed the brass weights on the other side of the scale and mentally added each weight until it reached 2000 grams. Once he was done, he started to cut up the heart one piece at a time and placed it on the other plate of the scale until the needle in the middle told him that it was already balanced. Smiling to himself, he carefully placed the cut up dragon heart on his tray, and placed all the brass weights back to its proper place. Oh, and of course. “Scourgify!” he said as he pointed at the used scale. “Clean as I go!” he smiled to Professor Culloden and hurried back to his seat.

Noooooow.

He peeked inside his cauldron and carefully placed the pieces of dragon heart inside it. “You will be missed, dragon sir.” Sniff.

Add a fire. Okay, this potion was getting to be annoyingly easy. The redhead was glad that she actually had a chance to make potions in school again, but so far the steps were easy. Add two liters of water, add unicorn hair and light a fire. But whatever. The first potions of the year were always a little easy, as she had said before. It made way for the harder ones later. And, tucking her red shoulder length hair behind her ear, Caelen remembered how she messed up the potion really badly in the middle of the year last year. Well, she wouldn't do that now. She was a second year. And second years knew what they were doing. Okay, not exactly, but the short girls mom always said to fake it till you make it, and that would happen if necessary.

Turning the heat to high and checking to make sure the cauldron was clean again, the Ravenclaw looked at the dragon heart. Cool. Like from a real dragon? Before last year, such creatures barely existed beside old fairy tales. And she never actually seen the heart from.... anything. Was that weird? Because if anything, it seemed almost normal. Anyway, the twelve year old had to measure and add the heart now.

Picking it up and grimacing slightly --it WAS a heart, after all -- the girl scanned the heart at first to REALLY see what it looked like. Was that what the human heart looked like? Because there was no way they were that big. Especially for a five foot two human like her. There was no way that she had the heart of a dragon. Although people did call her feisty. But the smart girl meant like literally. Measuring the thing felt disturbingly like measuring fruit at the grocery store. Yeah, chalk that up to something Caelen was never doing again.

Putting it gently in the potion, the blue eyed girl awaited the next instruction, playing with the cloth of her robe. If she could no longer play with the braid, her hands had to fiddle with something, and the robe was the next choice. Which meant that she was now playing with the cloth on her tummy, clenching the sides and unclenching it in her hands. Something to do, she supposed, while she waited with excitement over getting superhuman strength. Because that was going to be AWESOME!

Abel was nervous, so nervous he wasn't even sure what to do. These other kids just seem to know what they are doing for this class while the fourteen year old boy stared around the room. He had never been in one place with so many other kids. HIS school was just him and his mom, this is much different. It's probably better to stay silent, watch everyone else first before he decides to speak.

He had his cauldron sitting before him and tried his best at looking normal like everyone else. After adding water to his cauldron Abel took his unicorn hair and carefully split the individual hairs from the rest. Next, was adding to the cauldron, easy enough. However once this brown eyed boy picked up his dragon heart, he could not help but make a grossed out face. It felt all squishy and unpleasant. Another grimace before the heart was plopped into the beginning brew.

Once the small ingredients brush fire had been put out, Ezra put his slightly singed flip-flop back on his foot and double checked his flame.

OH LOOK SOMEONE HAD WATCHED HIM! He looked up at the older Hufflepuff girl (Elodie) giving him a thumbs up and he smiled sheepishly before practically jamming his face into his notes. So now he looked LAME.

SPOILER!!: Ezra's Notes

Name: Ezra Earnest
House: Gryffindor
Year: First

Ingredients
• 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.
2.Turn the heat to high and add the dragon heart

Time for the dragon heart. Two kilograms of it. Hmmm.

The Professor was walking around with the scales and heart so when he approached Ezra's table he stopped him. "I'm ready for the...um, heart sir." He looked at the thing. It was really big actually and gross and kinda neat. He grabbed a bit of wax paper that came in his potions set and then the small silver knife. The first year cut slowly, looking at the Professor every back and forth motion, hoping he did it right. "Sorry Professor I just don't know how to cut with my wand yet and you said the heart was like very expensive and stuff. My mom and dad can't send another one because we don't have any dragons at home." Yeah. Did anyone here have a dragon though?

Once the little section was cut, the Gryffindor grabbed it gently with the wax paper and then laid it on the scales with the two kilograms on the other side. It became very close to being level so he'd cut just about the right amount.

He plopped it into the cauldron of hot water with and unicorn hair before beaming at the Professor. He hadn't seen the little fire had he?

Had the Hufflepuff girl seen that??

Okay, it was time to admit she needed help. All of the words on the board were swimming and Gwen was giving herself a headache trying to read them. It wasn't as bad when she was holding a book and she could trace her finger under the letters, but with the words all the way up on the board? Either she needed to get closer and read like she did a book, or she needed someone to read them to her.

She raised her hand tentatively. The second step was up there and she had no idea what it said, but if dragon heart was as valuable as the professor had said, she didn't want to waste any of it because she didn't want to ask for help.

Well, ignoring those trouble makers and how much he hated them, he turned to the class again as he tapped his wand on the board and new instruction appeared.

"Waiting and adding the pomegranate without any process, easy enough," he called to them - if anyone messed this step up, they would find themselves out of the classroom.

Such a beautiful day turned bad with a few silly students.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

3. Wait until it boils and add pomegranate

Now that Culloden was over here, Gwen didn't want to ask the question. He was going to think she was stupid. She had to ask, otherwise she wouldn't be able to keep going with her potion. "Um, I can't read the words," she said in nearly a whisper. "I was wondering if I could go up to the board so I can trace my fingers under it and read it better."

She had expected to feel better once the words were out, but she didn't. She was almost holding her breath, waiting to see how he would respond to finding out he had a twelve year old student whose brain didn't see letters in quite the same way as everyone elses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarShine

The professor had OF COURSE seen it, and if the boy hadn't acted fast, he would have found himself in trouble. But, lucky for him, he was wise enough to how to fix the problem he had caused by himself, so he was good.

Except, he also apparently talked too much, and Cosgrach didn't like that type while brewing a potion. Could the kid tell the Professor wasn't impressed by him?

"No one has a dragon at home," he said simply, EYEEEED the amount of heart he took, and turned away to catch the next trouble maker.


Well, ignoring those trouble makers and how much he hated them, he turned to the class again as he tapped his wand on the board and new instruction appeared.

"Waiting and adding the pomegranate without any process, easy enough," he called to them - if anyone messed this step up, they would find themselves out of the classroom.

Such a beautiful day turned bad with a few silly students.

No one, seriously? Was the Professor SUUUURE about that?? NO ONE, in the WORLD?

Ezra bet he wasn't.

He nodded just the same though and watched as he shouted at some girl who threw up and then another who had dumped the rest of the heart into her cauldron. He just stared at her as the Professor yelled. This was SUCH A GOOD FIRST LESSON!

While the Slytherin got in trouble, Ezra went ahead and did the next easy step now that his water had started to boil. "One pomegranate."

'Plop'. Added.

Dec added the third step to his notes and then proceeded to rest his chin on his palm. Now, he had to wait for the darn thing to boil. He lifted his head to slightly peer into the cauldron.

Was it boiling yet?...No.

How about now?...No.

Now?...No.

Can they like converse with neighboring classmates or something? 'Cos ugggggggggghh this was taking forever.

After a couple of EXCRUCIATING loooong minutes, the liquid in the cauldron began to boil. FINALLY. He let out a dramatic sigh of relief and added the pomegranate.

Did...anyone else see how fast Professor Culloden moved? For a man of his age it impressed the fourth year Slytherin. Was he breathing fire?

Returning her attention to her parchment, she copied down what appeared next on the board. Step three was easy-peasy. No one, not even first years could mess it up, yeah? Well, lets hope and hope that no explosions happened near her or she'd turn into a dragon and breath fire on them. ^__^

After watching the water in her cauldron bubble a bit, signs that it was boiling, Beverly added the pomegranate. Her wand was in her hand just in case she needed to cast the Shield Charm. Class was already crazy.

Well, it was good to know Adrienne had been doing it right so far. And at least she hadn't puked in her potion! Merlin, that had to be embarrassing. And gross. And a total waste of dragon heart! She hid a snigger behind her hand and then turned back to her own cauldron, which was heating up infuriatingly slowly. She'd definitely heard Maman say something along the lines of "A watched cauldron never boils," before, but what was she supposed to do other than watch it? Watch her classmates looking smug as they finished before her and a terrified-looking second year whisper a question that she absolutely didn't care about?

Adrienne must have peered into her cauldron seven or eight times before she finally saw small bubbles rising to the surface.

Finally! She picked up the pomegranate and... was she just supposed to drop it in there? Should she peel it or slice it or...? She looked around and, noting that none of her other classmates seemed to be doing anything special, she just dropped it into the water with a slight plop. Done! Next?

Next step coming up. Cris picked up his quill and began jotting down the instructions in his journal.



With that done, he kept a close watch over his cauldron. Waiting until water boils meant that he had to see the water bubbling and possibly some steam rising. Wait was that a bubble?...and another bubble? Steam...a little steam. The water was boiling.

It was time to add the pomegranate. Cris picked up the fruit and slowly dropped it into his cauldron of boiling mixture. Plop!!. He watched as it slowly sank, then he picked up his quill and updated his journal.



As he placed his quill down he heard a tiny heard a tiny voice whisper that she needed help. He turned to where he thought he heard the voice coming from and noticed a shy looking young Ravenclaw working at a nearby workstation. He was about to walk over to help her but noticed that Professor Cullodeen had gone to her rescue. Smiling encouragingly at her, Cris turned back to watch over his cauldron.

OH the Professor was coming and- he stopped? Kyroh's hand dropped slowly as he looked at the man's half back-half turned body. What? Did he do something wrong?

What if....he didn't like him?....

Kyroh's shoulder's drooped as he tried to make himself as small as he could be Which was pretty easy considering he was already small as it was. "But you don't know me Sir. I'm sure you'd like me if you got to know me?" The boy said quietly, the words coming out no louder than a whisper. Maybe? WHY WOULDN'T HE LIKE HIM? Kyroh reached up and tugged on the back of his hair out of habit.

"I-I'll listen more carefully sorry." Yes. He had to. He'd try his hardest. "But I don't think it dying of natural causes makes a difference." Kyroh mumbled his eyes looking at the cauldron and NOT at the Professor who was going to send a letter home to his parents? "It's like if you died of natural causes and someone cut you open for you heart. That's pretty mean. That's a mean thing to do. The dragon should be able to rest in peace." NOT rest in pieces.

Free to leave the class? Did that mean he was kicked out? The FACES that the Professor was giving him made it seem that way. Was he kicked out of Hogwarts already? IT WAS JUST HIS FIRST CLASS! Kyroh looked over at the people beside him. Was he suppose to leave now? He was about to ask but the Cupboardbin had already turned around and-Culloden? Ohhh. That's what it was. Yeah that actually sounded right.

Shifting on the chair so he was no longer on his knees Kyroh lowered his head and began taking notes. He didn't say he HAD to leave...but he also didn't say he HAD to make the potion so Kyroh was just going to make notes. Yes.

Plus the Professor had bigger problems than remembering if he had kicked him out or not. Like the fact that someone had thrown up in heir cauldron and the whooooole rest of dragon heart was now in one persons cauldron.

The only thing on the ingredients list that really gave Sophie the creeps was the dragon heart. Totally weird. She wasn't entirely psyched about it, but she'd cross that bridge when it came to it. For now, Sophie finished up scourgifying every last tool she could find while Culloden gave his intro and tied her hair up in a ponytail to get it out of the way. Totally smart of her, right? She was also eyeing all sorts of weird students, mostly new faces of first years, who were all fidgety and... to not be trusted, surely. She'd make sure she kept an eye on them.

Upon getting instructions, the Ravenclaw measured out two litres of water with Aguamenti, dumped it into her spotless cauldron, and moved to shuffle through her potions kit for unicorn hair with gloved hands. She pushed past the snake fangs, which made her stop, eye them, then look up at the blackboard again - ah, yes. She would need those later, so for now, she laid out a tissue on the clean tabletop and set her two snake fangs aside so she wouldn't need to dig for them again later.

Eyeing Culloden now, Sophie slipped her gloves off, scooped up her wand, and cleaned her gloves again. No cross-contaminating of any sort, she knew better. Her gloves back on, she dug through her potions kit once more, only to find the unicorn tail hair nicely stashed in a bottom-most compartment. Figured it'd be in the last place she looked. She held one hair over the cauldron, dropped it in, then let the other fall down into the water, too. Peering over the brim of the cauldron down at the clear concoction below, Sophie Brown took a moment to just smile because... Merlin, it was good to be back and making a potion under Culloden's direction. She could've done without the silly picture of him hoisting the car still burned in her head, but this classroom, despite its funny smell, felt like home.

Not having to travel far to the dragon's heart at the professor's desk, Sophie had a question before she moved onto the next part and figured there wasn't a better time to ask it than before they got too far into the potion-making process. Just for clarification purposes, she raised a lazy hand and inquired, "Sir, quick question - I'm just wondering," she stressed with a grin, already anticipating the teasing face of oh boy here she goes with a question already from him, if his mood wasn't entirely ruined by idiots who couldn't follow directions. "What kind of dragon heart is this? And... does it matter which breed it is? I mean, I know for wands, a dragon heartstring from one breed of dragon might interact differently with a wand wood than another breed's heartstring might," thanks for the knowledge, Ira Banner, "so I wondered... if the heartstrings might have some variance as a wand core, would the effects of the potion be any different if it was a Hungarian Horntail heart versus, say, a Chinese Fireball?" And if so, what might those be, hm?

..... anyway... West continued on with the task at hand, successfully ignoring all the dramatic little tiny kids being all dramatic and whatever. His cauldron began to bubble and since apparently they didn't need to cut the pomegranate in anyway, he carefully lowered it in.

.... he didn't much fancy the idea of drinking this.

Ethan was used to all the shouting and the reprimanding!adult tone Professor Culloden was giving to a select few; given that it had been more harsh back in his old school. As he waited for the next instruction, he watched the potions master go about each and everyone’s progress, taking down notes from his classmates’ mistakes. He was just glad it wasn’t him.

That other Slytherin kid though. He looked familiar. Too familiar, that they might be sharing the same face.

Alas, the doppelganger screwed up.

Then more people screwed up. Merlin, it’s a dragon’s heart! Don’t they have any idea at how raaaaaaare the ingredient was? It’s not like everyday a dragon would die for them just so they could brew potions.

Ethan wore a goofy-slash-disappointed face as he faced the front of the class and took down notes. “Nope, I will not put your death in vain, Dragon sir. I shan't mess up!” And so, he added one pomegranate to his boiling concoction.

Waiting and waiting and waiting. Leah yawned. She should have brought something to play with if there was waiting time during potions - no. The potion started boiling. Cool, no, hot, eh, now what again?

Oh yeah, adding pomegranate. Leah added the ingredient in and waited for the next instruction.

Fire? They need to light a fire. Okay. That's more tricky than the water spell.

Candice noticed that an older Slytherin boy (Grayson) was giving the boat boy (Dima) a demonstration how to cast the fire spell. Spying people was a really good idea."Incendio!" Yes. Okay. "Incendio...Incendio..Incendio.." She repeated the incantation over and over until she's sure that she said it right.

Deep breath.

"Incendio!"

LOOK FIREEEEEE..!!!

Professor said that they need to turn the heat to high so she did just that. Now, the Dragon Heart. The eleven year old made her way towards the front of the class to get the Dragon Heart. And yes she brought her scale and she already cleaned it with magic so no need to worry Dragon Heart, her stuff were clean. No dirt.

Once she had measured the right amount of the heart, two kilograms, Candice went back to her work table. Now she could tell her brother that she already saw a Dragon Heart. Hah! Take that Willy.

She added two kilograms of dragon heart to her cauldron.

Candice attention went back to Professor Culloden as he explained the next steps. It seem easy enough. She eyed her cauldron several times before she finally saw the water in her cauldron bubble a bit. She picked the pomegranate and the Professor didn't say that they need to slice or do something with the pomegranate, he just said they need to add it after the water boiled.

Plop.

There goes her pomegranate.

Vinnie just eyed the students around her. Some where too dumb to even put on a fire...how did that happen?! With some others the brunette would have to be careful not to slip on their slime, trying to gain extra points with the professor....and some just...no words.

She could easily write a story about just this lesson and its students. But she had to pay attention. Sigh. What about freedom.

Oh oh oh. Step three...okay what now?! Wait....they just waited and put the pomegranate in? Where was the action...Boring. Oh well then...the Slytherin watched her water as it started to boil and plopped her pomegranate into it without paying a lot of attention to it. Done.

That fruit looked so juicy...why did they have to waste it?" Professor? Do you have a spare pomegranate for me? I am slightly hungry." Eating it would definitely be a much better choice.