Twelve to fourteen hours? Sweet! But there was still some questions she had. Like if the strength was controllable. Like, if you lifted a car off of a baby and then went to hug your wife or husband or whatever, would you crush them? Did it Hulk you out or was it just extra strength when you needed it? And would you leave giant gaping holes in the ground when you stepped, or was it like strength given with energy? There was a lot of variables here that were making the redhead nervous. Although, she could possibly life Spencer up with one hand with this potion, which was always fun. Lift him and carry him around like his older brother did to her a couple of times. It wasn't HER fault she was short, darn it! But it was okay. The freckled faced girl wasn't bitter. At all. No sarcasm intended there, but put on whatever goggles you wanted.

But still, questions. Professor Culloden seemed to be in an annoyed mood, so the girl really hoped that she wasn't going to be annoying with her tons of questions she was placing on him. The kid was curious by nature is all. And if it wasn't from him, it was going to be from a book later or her interpretation of the activity that they did. So... this was better. The logic was a little off, but you just needed to trust her on this. This was there was no room for misinformation. The second year's skinny arm shot up in the air again.

"Is the strength controllable. Like if you go to hug somebody when you have the strength potion in you, will you crush them? Or is it activated by something. Because if it's not controllable, then you'd have to hide away from people to make sure you don't dislocate someone's shoulder when you high five them." Accurate description was accurate. And that actually sounded kind of sad, to be honest. Hiding away like that so you didn't hurt people. Wasn't that what Batman did? The redhead wasn't sure about that. She was more of a Superman fan herself. What? She liked old literature and movies. The Ravenclaw was one of those "stuck in the wrong generation" kids everyone's always making fun of.

Anyway, potion time. Turn the heat to medium. Check. Now here came the possibly tricky part. Yay! This was her favorite part. Mostly because with a little bit of thought the short haired girl could work her way through it. And that path was always fun. Caelen was an intellectual at heart. Hell-oh. That's probably why she was a Ravenclaw. Mix the Re'em and the salamander blood in a bowl. Okay check. Stir five times clock wise and counter clockwise. Then came the part she hated. Crushing things. Seriously, the kid was only five foot two. That wasn't her forte. But, it was for a class. So she crushed the Griffin claw best the skinny girl could do. No magic for this made it harder. And so did the waiting. Non-patience did that to you.

Did she have to say the words? Gwenhwyfar's face turned bright red. "Ihavedyslexia," she whispered as fast as she could. Of course, her mom told her that it didn't mean anything except that her brain worked differently from everyone elses, but Gwen knew different. She knew that she could never be as smart as the book-loving Ravenclaws who were probably all looking at her and hoping her stupidity didn't lose them points right now.

She should explain. "It's just that it's easier to keep the letters in order if I can run my finger under them as I read." So her brain was forced to watch the actual progression of them, not whatever jumbled mess it wanted to give her. Or someone could just read them out loud to her. That would work just as well.

Right so there had been some more yelling at students and kids giving the Professor a scared look but Ezra had been ignoring them because he was brewing an ACTUAL POTION!

Soon Culloden gave them the next step telling them what to do. The Gryffindor used his wand to lower the heat to medium which took a bit of coaxing but finally worked. Once it was doing that he had five minutes to do the next bit. He looked around for someone with a watch and found one on the wrist of an older boy sitting nearby to check the start time.

Now for the...BLOOD? Woah. SO MUCH BLOOD. Ezra was sure to roll up the sleeves of his robes before attempting to do anything with blood. The site of the stuff didn't make him sick but he wouldn't want to have it all over his robes all day that was for sure. But first he must clean. He pointed his wand at the bowl, spoon, and cup and muttered the cleaning spell he'd learned. "Scourgify." Now that each item was clean, he emptied the salamander blood into the bowl and then carefully walked up with it to the Professor's desk. He sloooooooowly poured the Re'em blood into the cup. Once he was back at his desk he mixed the two by using his spoon to stir five times clockwise:

one, two, three, four, five...

And then Ezra stirred five times counter-clockwise:

one, two, three, four five...

By the time that was finished he had about two minutes left according to the other boy's watch so he grabbed the bit of gyffin claw, which was IRONIC because he was a Gryffin-DOR, and placed it into the crushy-bowl thingy. He started to smash it with the little tool until it was all broken up. The five minutes was just about up so he turned to look for the Professor.

HELLLOOOOO he was ready!

SPOILER!!: Ezra's Notes

Ezra Earnest
Gryffindor

Strength Potion

• 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
3. Wait until it boils and add pomegranate
4. Turn the heater to medium and wait for five minutes. In the meantime, mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise and crush griffin claw.

*A part of Rom wanted to help the other students that needed help but he didn't want to mess up his own work that needed to be done. Reading and rereading the next step he started to get to work.
4.Turn the heater to medium and wait for five minutes. In the meantime, mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise and crush griffin claw (doesn't have to be a perfect powder - just crush as well as you can withOUT magic).
Once he had finished this step he started cleaning. Rom learned early on that if you cleaned while you worked then there would be less mess once you were done.*

Mo frowned a bit as some of his classmates made a fuss. He understood, though. The fuss. Or at least the inclination to make one. After rubbing the clammy feeling off his hands, Mo grabbed up his pomegranate and tossed it from hand to hand. All chill here. No dragon heart-related stress.

Did the pomegranate need to be cleaned? It probably had dirt or pesticides or whatever on it, and better safer than not. Mo tossed the fruit again before setting it on the table and pointing his wand at it. "Scourgify."

And now that was settled... Mo scooped up the pomegranate and slid it carefully into the now-boiling cauldron with minimal splashback.

Luckily, Mo had his pocketwatch, and he set it on the work station between himself and Cat. She could use it too, mmk? He squeezed her arm back, mostly to let her know that he appreciated her help and also to let her know that she could use the pocketwatch too. And because she was cute, y'know?

Only then did Mo lower the heat and set the watch to keep time for them both. And... that was a lot of instructions at once. Mo swallowed hard and tried to remember them all. Clean... well, nearly everything. Take re'em blood and mix it with the salamander blood in the bowl. Stir it up. Crush a claw (of the non-Raven kind). And... that was plenty.

Hurriedly, Mo used Scourgify to clean out his cup, bowl, and spoon before setting all but the cup to one side. He took measured steps up to the professor's desk and filled his cup to the brim... which required him to take very careful steps back to his work station. Somehow, he managed not to spill a drop before pouring it into the bowl of salamander blood. Now for the tricky part... Mo had to read the board over and over to make sure he got this part exactly right. Mix counter-clockwise. Mix clock-wise. Five times each.

And. Done. Now... where was that griffin claw?

And there was that kid again. Mo eyed him bothering Tobias before hissing at the back of his little impertinent head. "Ky-roh. I'll touch dragon heart for you." FYI.

The sudden turn of events had Zander completely taken aback. OOPS. He looked up at his Professor with wide eyes. He sunk his head near his shoulder as the Professor starting yelling at him. It was a simple mistake SHEESH. It's not like he blew the cauldron up... yet. "Oops? Sorry Professor... I-uh- I didn't mean to cause any trouble... Sir, Professor Sir." Really he was only trying to make sure the water didn't over flow. But like always he seemed to start on the wrong foot. He literally felt his whole body tense through the whole debacle and noticed that his knees were shaking from underneath the table.

And to make it worse he could FEEL Professor Culloden glaring at him throughout his next set of instructions. Oops. He really did screw things up didn't he. Hopefully it wouldn't destroy the turnout of his potion, or his house points. Okay so now lower the heat? Why hadn't he just SAID that in the first place. There really was NO need to yell. Zander would've gotten the message either way. Setting his timer for five minutes (EXACTLY FIVE, HAPPY PROFESSOR?), he then took out his wand and cleaned the rest of his materials. Then taking the proper ingredients he mixed them into the bowl. Now which was first, clockwise? or Counter?

Oh yeah. Clockwise comes first. After stirring this stuff EXACTLY the right amount. He went for the claw thing. Crush, Crush, Crush. You know the usual stuff? Okay well as tempting as it was to add the crushed claw stuff to the bowl HE DIDN'T. Because THE PROFESSOR DIDN'T SAY TO. Are YOU happy now Professor? Zander looked up at his not-so-friendly Potions Professor, who apparently attended a university (which was also apparently a BIG deal). And then he beamed at him. Seeeee SEEE seeeee he's trying???

Erm, ok, lots of stuff thrown at them at once. Caleb had to focus. First things first - the heat. He took his wand and lowered the flame under his cauldron so it was medium sized, so it wasn't as hot as it had been, but not SUPER cool either. Now he had to go get the blood - yuck. Not too thrilled about that bit.

Still, he got the correct measurements of the re'em blood from Culloden's desk and went back to his seat, adding it to the bowl of salamander blood as he had instructed. Now time to stir...

One, two, three, four, five times clockwise, just as he said. Now to do the same thing but the other way...one, two...five more times and bam! That was all done. Now he just had to crush the claw and he'd be back on track. He took his mortar and pestel and began to smash it into the bowl. It was a LOT tougher than it looked, and his arm was starting to get tired after just a few minutes.

But finally, after about 3 minutes of crushing, it was as crushed as he thought he could get it without magic. Plus his arm hurt a LOT and he really didn't want to do it anymore. It should be enough though, right?

With a slight twisting motion of her wand, Adrienne turned the heat of the fire down to a more medium burn, and then looked around frantically. She didn't have a watch or anything... With a start she remembered the enchanted hourglass she'd 'accidentally' pocketed at her grandparents' this summer and immediately dove into her bag to get it. Fantastic! She should really use this more often, as it was incredibly handy. She moved the dial on the top to read five minutes, and then flipped it upside down, watching the sand slowly pour into the bottom bulb.

She'd already cleaned everything, of course, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to cast another sweeping "Scourgify!" over her bowl, cup, and spoon, pouring the salamander blood in moments later. See, Adrienne was being efficient, and not just staring at the sand in her hourglass, which is what she was tempted to do.

Moving up to the front of the room, she got a single cup of re'em blood, which looked to be more water than blood, in her opinion. "Sir, how do you know how much to dilute it? Since you said before that it would be super expensive otherwise."



Adrienne wasn't sure what was going on with Gwen, or why she looked so flustered, but if she was having difficulty reading for some reason, her new, kind self was happy to help instead of making fun! The temptation was strong, sure, but she was trying to make new friends, right? And even though she already knew this girl pretty well, she still wanted to do her best to stay on her good side. Besides, if she remembered correctly, Culloden sometimes gave points for people who helped out, and she would definitely not say no to some extra points.

"Hey, Gwen," she said, walking over to the girl on her right (and conveniently away from the firstie who'd thrown up in her potion, which was still grossing Adrienne out). "If you don't want to walk all the way up there you can just use my notes, or I can read them aloud to you if that's easier."

COOL! He was remembered! Kyroh smiled at the boy. A GIANT smile. SEE PROFESSOR! He could chill with him. The boy said so!

He would protect him? Against the Professor? Kyroh had definitely picked the right person to come to. Maybe not ALL of the older kids were serious and quiet and sort of scary.

Huh? Someone calling his name? Sounded like his name. Turning his head away from the Huffepuff, Kyroh just stared at the older boy who he did not know. Buuuut he knew his name? "Kyroh. That's me." He nodded and everything. "Who are you?" Wait a second he'd help him!?! "You will??"

That was a GOOD thing right? He wouldn't have to touch the dragon's heart?

But still....poor dragon. Sigh. "I was just going to watch Mr. Protector-" He POINTED at the Hufflepuff beside him. "-But okay i'll be right back!" Placing his notebook on the table next to the Hufflepuff, Kyroh ran back over to where he was sitting before. He paused stopping dead in his tracts before running back to the Ravenclaw. "Oh, and thank you!!" Turning Kyroh ran back again. Lifting the cauldron up from the table he wobbled back over to the Hufflepuff and the boy who knew his name, and managed to place the cauldron on the burner without spilling too much water. Making one more trip to get his kit he returned. He was behind! But he could catch up! Just.... "How do I make fire?" That was important...yeah?

Merlin. This kid. It was like watching a very energetic puppy chase his own tail around the room. Mo had never been that young, had he?

He lit the fire under the boy's cauldron with a non-verbal Incendio... and then felt bad about it. Mo had been SO proud of doing it before, and now he was feeling terrible over not teaching the kid and doing his work for him. Good feelings were lagging, here.

"The incantation for lighting a fire is Incendio, and you can control how high the heat goes with your wand. I'm Mo, by the way. Marcus Branxton, but people call me Mo." So now they were introduced properly.

Mo eyed his pocketwatch briefly before turning his attention away from the boy and back on the griffin claw. He talked as he worked, not overtly talking to Kyroh but definitely talking AT him. "You have to clean everything before you use it, and I like to clean it after I use it. The incantation is Scourgify, and you might want to try it on your tools, if you haven't already."

Mo cleaned out his mortar as he spoke and then dropped the griffin claw into it. Using the cleaned pestle, Mo ground the claw into little bits, all while keeping one eye on the watch, and the other on the boy. He needed more eyeballs here, clearly!

Now then... griffin claw ground up, and Mo went off to retrieve some heart for Kyroh. Again, he measured out two kilograms with clammy hands and a sick taste in his mouth, but when he brought back the heart, he smiled at the younger boy. "Turn up the heat, and I'll drop in the heart."

So many things to do in so little time! Jeremiah jotted down the steps so he'd have them handy and wouldn't have to keep looking up at the board a million times, that'd be the worst. Glancing over at Beverly he simply smirked as he raised his heat down to a minimum and she set the stop watch between them. Smart Beverly was Smart, ok.

Going up to the professors desk with his already cleaned bowl cause clean before potion making and all he got his bowl o' re'em and brought it back to his desk where he poured the Salamander blood into it.... ew.. that looked funny. Stirring it five times clockwise, one, two three four five." any change in how it looked? nope. and five times counter clockwise. one, to,three,four,five." .......... still looked funny.
He looked over at his cauldron and checked that it's heat was still good, which it was. He also glanced down at the time.. three minutes to spare.
He grabbed his griffin claw and tossed it in the mortar after cleaning it with a simple cleaning spell. 'crush, crush, crush.' poor Griffin.

OHAI WEST! A nod and a smile went to him when he sat next to her, but her attention went to Culloden when the man started to speak. The /real/ Culloden, not the one in that blackboard.

She wanted to question why people lifted things instead of just levitating them, but whatever. This wasn't History of Magic, technically.

Also, dragon heart. Brilliant.

First off! She scribbled down the ingredients on her notebook and then got those that she'd need, minus the dragon heart, for reasons. With Lafay, they all pretty much learned to clean all equipment, so that's what she did after writing down her notes. For Lafay. Then she added the 2 litres of water and two unicorn tail hairs, one at a time of course, as the instructions said.

See? She could follow instructions and respect authority, Vinteren.

Okay. A fire was started soon enough and then she supposed she ought to measure the heart. She wouldn't break it, so Marcus Branxton couldn't say anything about this. Also, it's part of the potion, so there's that. Lotus did have a smirk on her face as she measured 2 kg, her mind clearly elsewhere but the measurement was done right, so she returned to her seat and added some dragon heart into the mix. 2 kg of it, to be precise.

More notes added, too. Any possible troublemakers ignored.

And all she did was wait for the will-be-potion to boil before adding the pomegranate. She was suddenly hungry, was that weird? So many things she could be questioning right now, especially with this potion, but all she could ask was: Didn't she just had breakfast? Why was she suddenly hungry, then?

Interesting. Why were some people raising their voices? Her eyes turned to West for a moment and then back at Culloden and the board. If he had issues with having to teach so early, then he should change it, because Lottie could be hanging out at Airey's office right about now instead of hearing Culloden raise his voice a bit.

For nowww... she turned the heat to medium, took her bowl (cleaned it first, of course), a cup and that metal spoon (cleaned everything, too) and went straight to collect the blood. 1 cup of it. Got it. Once on her seat she emptied the contents of that cup into the bowl, and then the salamander's (mature one) blood as well. Re'em and salamander's blood were now in the bowl, Lotus mixed them even more when the stirring started. Five times clockwise, five times counter-clockwise. Done.

Griffin claw, however, was gonna be annoying, because NO MAGIC, remember? Who could forget? But she did her best and kept on crushing it while being reminded of Airey's planet activity last term. That brought a smile to her face and made this crushing activity so much better. Well, that was close to powder. It seemed perfect to her, anyway. She left the mortar and pestle on the table (yes, the powdered griffin claw still there), and eyed the time...

Five minutes would be up in... 10... 9...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notes

4. Turn the heater to medium and wait for five minutes. mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise and crush griffin claw.

Dec added another step to his parchment and then focused his attention turning the heater to medium and on the blood and the bowl. He poured the cup of re'em blood and the salamander blood in the bowl together, stirring it clockwise 5 times. Then it dawned on him, HE HAD TO DRINK THIS. Shuddering, he turned it counter clockwise 5 times. After, he used his 'manly' strength to crush the griffin claw and waited for the next instructions.

Marigold copied the notes down quickly. She had forgotten how fast potions classes were. But at least dragon-heart-getting was over with, yeah? Hehehehe. Nervous laughter. She went back to watching her water to see when it would boil. She tapped her fingers on the table and looked around, humming some Dead Kneazles song.

Speaking of her favorite band ever, there was West. She made googly-eyes at him for a second, then looked back at her bubbling water. Boiling! Boiling water! That meant step!!!

She took the pomegranate, which was such a lovely color, and added it carefully to her cauldron. Not carefully enough, apparently, because the water splashed on her hand and MERLIN WAS THAT HOT OW OW OW. She quickly grabbed her wand with her left hand and hissed in pain. "Aguamenti," she said hurriedly, but she was a lot less precise with her non-dominant hand. She winced in pain and tried again, this time hitting her hand with the cold water. She sighed in relief, then waved her notebook a few times for it to dry.

She turned the heater back to medium where it WOULDN'T HARM CHILDREN. She took the different bloods - EWWWW - and poured them both into her bowl. She mixed 'em, five times each way, till they were mixed. Go figure. And griffin claw. Now that didn't gross her out. She took her mortar and pestle and crushed it for about a minute. Yay, griffinpowder.

Things really seemed like they were going downhill. Not with Lily’s potion, that she could tell, but it seemed as if Professor Culloden was nearing a breaking point and she honestly would rather be far away when that happened. For now, though, she was holding out the hope that nobody would make such a drastic mistake that would set him off. She definitely wasn’t planning on doing so, even if she still couldn’t quite tell if her potion was doing what it should. As long as it hadn’t gotten vanished like several others’ had, she was going to assume she’d been doing everything right. She had at least been making sure she’d done every step carefully, and to the letter of what had been asked of her. It really was a lot like cooking, following a recipe. It wasn’t the subject’s fault they were being told to use slightly less appetizing ingredients than sugar, chocolate, and everything else that made baking fun.

She had glanced up as the professor had taken those obvious calming breaths, before he had gone on to explain what they were supposed to do next. Back to actual work, and definitely unappetizing ingredients. She’d noted the step down in her journal prior to applying her attention to the heat under her cauldron, anyway, just so she wouldn’t feel rushed when she was being timed. Five minutes could seem like a long time or the opposite, depending on the mood in the room, and right now, there was tension.

Once she’d finished the notation, she lowered the flame under her cauldron to medium and glanced at her watch. Five minutes starting now, she thought, pulling a bowl, metal spoon, and her measuring cup out of her kit. A quick Scourgify later, and she stood up to retrieve her re’em blood. Bringing her cup to the desk, she carefully poured a cup and returned to her workstation, making sure not to spill a drop. At least she wouldn’t have quite as much difficulty with the salamander blood, which was added to the re’em blood in the bowl. Checking her watch again, she slipped the metal spoon into the blood and stirred, five times clockwise and then five times the opposite direction. Still a couple more minutes left, so she Scourgified her mortar and pestle before placing a griffin claw into the former. Time for some crushing, but she double checked her time first again. At least they weren’t instructed to make sure the claw was dust. She wasn’t sure she could accomplish that in a minute, but she kept working for the entire time. She wasn’t going to give any reason for the professor to get angry with her, and when the five minutes were up, she had a reasonably crushed griffin claw, along with the mixed blood waiting on her station for the next instructions. Seeing as they hadn’t been told to add either to their potions quite yet.

SPOILER!!: potions journal

Strength Potion – helps with anaemia and getting large tasks completed (like building things t hat involve large heavy items)
• 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
3. Wait until it boils and add pomegranate
4. Turn the heat to medium and wait for five minutes. In the meantime, mix re’em and salamander blood in a bowl and stir them five times clockwise and five times counter clockwise and crush griffin claw (doesn't have to be a perfect powder - just crush as well as you can without magic).

Hehe. Terry the baby face.

Theo enjoyed watching people go wrong in potions, because it made him feel so awesome about being, well, awesome at it. Five minutes only. That was okay, because he did have a watch. None of this interacting with other people's watches nonsense. And no, he wasn't going to share his either. The Slytherin turned the heat down as instructed, watched the potion for a second, then went to the front to collect the blood and a bowl. Once he was seated again, he poured the re'em blood into the bowl, followed by the salamander blood. Spoooooooon, where was his spoon?!

AH - there.

He stirred it carefully, five times both ways, then pushed the bowl away. "Scourgify." For his spoon and stuff. Aaaaaand onto the griffin claw. Lol, griffin claw. Sounded like some sort of blue/red house hybrid. He crushed it until it was powdered-ish, then set it aside as well. Now back to peeking at his simmering potion.

Professor Culloden looked pretty mad by some troublemakers. Leah could not help but feel sad for him. All he had tried to do was teach, after all. She took out her wand and lowered the heat a bit so that it was medium. "Hey, does anyone have a watch that I can share with?" she said out loud. Man how inconvenient this was.

Fast. This class was really fast. She was just about to take a breath when she heard Professor Culloden gave them the next instruction.

Eek!

Turn the heat to medium. Check. Now, she need to wait for five minutes, thank Merlin she had her watch with her so no need to find someone with a watch. She got it cover over here. Culloden said they need to clean stuffs while waiting, yes?

Bowl. Clean. Cup. Clean. Metal Spoon. Clean. All clean here. Now she was good to get a cup of re'em blood from the container on the Professor's desk. Candice went back to her work table and poured the re'em and salamander blood into the bowl. She took her metal spoon and slipped it into the bowl and stirred it.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Clockwise.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Counter Clockwise.

She checked her watched and she still a few more minutes left . Enough time to crush the griffin claw. But first, she cleaned her mortar and pestle with the Cleaning Spell. Time to crush some Griffin claw.

Crush....Crush.....Crush....

Griffinpowder. TADA! Well, its not exactly powdered but its close.

Kevin rolled his eyes when the Professor looked up at the ceiling. Obviously ignoring him. Whatever. He had better things to do like make this potion so he turned his attention to his cauldron and lowered the heat. Ugh, waiting again? The Gryffindor was about to groan in annoyance but then heard they had to crush some ingredients in the meantime.

He looked at the time of his watch that he ALWAYS wore because he knew sudden subjects needed a watch and he didn't want to work with someone else. So after checking the time, the second year grabbed a bowl before pointing his wand at it. "Scourgify!" he said and waited till the bowl was clean. Next was the cup which was also cleaned and the metal spoon.

Checking his watch to see the time he realised he still had at least four minutes left. So he grabbed the cup and with it in his hand he walked back to the front of the class. Seriously why did they had to walk so much? Couldn't the man give them all some re'em blood in cups at their desks? As he stood in front of the desk , he poured some of the blood in his cup and walked back.

When he was back he poured it in the clean bowl and began to stir clockwise five times and then changed the direction and stirred five time counter clockwise. Once he was done he placed the bowl at the other side of his working space and began to the crush the Griffin Claw. Without magic...kinda boring but whatever. While he crushed the ingrediënt, he also checked his watch and noted that the time was almost over.

Adi was just finishing up on updating his notes when he heard the familiar voice of Leah asking about a watch. She was working just a few workstations away from him so he decided to volunteer his watch.

"Hey, Leah!'' he said, going over to her. "Oh look. We're talking and it's not at the Feast.'' Adi winked and held out his right hand. "Here, I'm all done with that step so you can borrow the watch.'' Did she rather he kept his hand stuck out or he left the watch with her? He didn't really mind which.

Lucy said to herself:"Come on Lucy,do your best!"
She turned the heater to medium and waited for five minutes..
She cleaned her mortar and she took the different bloods..Lucy dropped them both in her bowl, stirring five times clockwise.."Done!"
Finally she turned it counter five time clockwise..
With a firm hand she crushed the griffin claw and finally she waited..

Angel was really confused now, she had lost the Professor ages ago but had decided not to tell her because she felt ashamed that she had no idea what she was doing, in her old school she had always been near the top and now here she was struggling with a simple potion, this was just no good, no good at all.

...Okay... she still thought it was weird that they just had to add the pomegranate without prepping it at all but there you go. Potions were weird. Ingredients were weird. Everything about this was weird. Okay, right, turn heat down to medium....... check.

Derry checked her watch and noted the time on the corner of her parchment so she didn't forget, then got on with the rest of the instruction.

Re'em blood, yet another ridiculously expensive thing. Seriously... who wanted to be strong so desperately? Anyway, didn't matter. Derry cleaned all of her equipment again, just to be safe, then measured out the re'em blood, added it to the dish with the salamander blood, and stirred.

Clockwise... stir stir stir stir stir

Anti-clockwise... stir stir stir stir stir

...........

Now crush the griffin claw. Derry checked her watch again to make sure she still had time, and added the claw to her newly cleaned mortar and pestle. Hopefully she'd be able to get it crushed enough in the time she had left.

Crush crush crush...

...

And now that song was in her head.

.....Ack! So many instructions in one go was making Cat's brain go weird. It was a darn good thing the professor kept them on the board or she would have been quite possibly failing. She took a short moment to repeat them to herself carefully inside her own brain. Lower heat. Wait. Clean things. Get blood. Mix blood. Crush stuff. Got it, right? Sure.

She lowered the heat to medium, as told, because she totally remembered that part, yes. Then she glanced over at Mo and smiled at him because he was sharing his watch with her and that was sweet. Five minutes exactly. Right. Keeping mindful of the time, Cat set forth to cleaning what she needed to use next. Cleaning everything. Wasn't that even the first rule of Potions? CLEAN ALL THE THINGS. So that was what she did. Scourgify the cup! Scourgify the bowl! Scourgify the spoon! It was a good thing, Cat pondered while she moved up to the professor's desk to fetch a cup of blood, that she wasn't squeamish because they were certainly using a lot of blood today. Between that and the dragon heart, Cat wasn't sure she wanted to try this potion at all. Eugh. Carefully, she spooned the blood into her cup and took it back to her station, eyeing the watch before she added the acquired blood into the bowl with the salamander blood. Now... what was the next part? Stirring. Stirring.... she looked over the note... five times clockwise and five times the other direction. Five and five. Easy enough to remember.

She stirred carefully, counting in her mind and then smiling triumphantly at the little victory. Cat threw another quick glance at the time, glad to see there was some to spare. Good. Firstly cleaning the mortar and pestle that had probably been collecting dust all summer, she selected the griffin claw and started working on crushing it. With no magic. Well, they couldn't depend on magic for every single thing, right? She was sure there was a good lesson here. She crushed and crushed at the claw until... well... it wasn't entirely perfect, but it looked very nice all things considered. And there was still time, just a little, to spare!

Five minutes? Yeah. She could try get that done in five minutes. Sure she could. Amazing human right here. Elodie checked her watch and waited until the next minute started before turning the heat down to medium. She had to keep looking up at the board with 'fessors instructions on, because she didn't want to waste time updating her own notes when she had important things to be doing. Like making bloods be friends and crushing the hell out of a clawwwwwwww.

She cleaned the things she needed to twice, just out of habit with bowls and spoons and anything that resembled something the twins liked to use at home for mud pies and whatever other grossness kids did. Once that was done and she had checked the time once more, she went to fill her cup with re'em blood from 'fessor Culloden's desk. Yeah. blood. Awesome. Didn't even bother her anymore. Take THAT, eleven year old self who used to cry over everything blood related. Once back at her equipment, the seventh year added both the re'em blood and salamander blood to a bowl and stirred it five times each way like she was supposed to.

Stirring was probably her least favourite thing to do. She had a lot of least favourite things.

Now to crush the griffin claw. Which gave her things to grin about and maybe giggle, but she didn't. She'd just include that in her next letter to boyf. So much to say. So much to write and tell him. She gave herself another time check at that point and nodded, noting that she had a little bit of time left before getting on with crushing the griffin claw. La la la. It wasn't perfect like it would be if she'd been able to use magic. But it was good enough.

She roughly had 30 seconds left of her five minutes, and used that to start updating her notes and waiting for the next thing to be doing.

Text Cut: Notes

STRENGTH POTION
- Useful to hold cars above your head (?)
- Used to carry heavy stuff in building work
- Helpful with anaemia if you're lazy and don't want the usual potion
- Blood, blood and heart (a butchers delight?)
- Poor pomegranate
- FAST? WHY IS THE PROFESSOR SPEEDY GONZALES?
- ^ He obviously has a rocket in places. Not a potion effect.

Ingredients
2 kilograms of dragon heart (a little ↑ or ↓ is ok)
1 pomegranate
A cup of re’em blood
One mature salamander’s blood
2 unicorn tail hairs
Powdered griffin claw
2 snake fangs

Instructions
: Clean. Everything.

1. Add 2 litres of water and the unicorn tail hairs one by one
2. Turn the heat up high (↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑)
3. Add 2 kilograms of dragon heart
4. Wait for the water to boil (hot hot hot!)
5. Put in the pomegranate (RIP Pom!)
6. Lower the heat to medium (↓ ↓ ↓), wait FIVE minutes
(During the next FIVE minutes) :
7. Clean a bowl, spoon and cup.
8. Add a cup of re'em blood to a bowl with salamander blood
9. Stir FIVE times clockwise, FIVE times counter clockwise (5 ↺, 5 ↻)
10. Crush griffin claw, NO magic.