Hayden paled for a moment as the professor stopped to talk just to her. But, luckily, he was very nice. He did not get mad at her so much as help her. "Sorry professor," she said sincerely with a solemn nod. She would remember that for next time. Always clean the cauldron first, even if it didn't look dirty.



When her half unicorn horn was grated and waiting in a bowl for when she needed to use it, Hayden looked up at the board for further instructions. Heat the cauldron for a minute at medium heat. Seemed easy enough. Before she did that, Hayden took out three classes to put the water in. She decided she should have them ready to put in the cauldron before she began heating, so she didn't have to get them in a minute. She remembered to clean them, but she did so at the basin because she wasn't positive of the correct spell. When she was confident of their cleanliness, she filled the three glasses with the water from Professor Culloden's desk and brought it back to her spot.

Now to light a fire. Uh...Hayden noticed several people lighting fires under their cauldron with a spell. Wait, she remembered having to do that in the first lesson. She'd heard of the spell before, and she knew she could remember it if she thought hard enough. Maybe. Hayden wasn't positive what it was, and she didn't want to be casting spells at random. She raised her hand tentatively. "Professor, do you have any matches?" You know, to light a fire without magic. "Or could you tell me the incantation and wand movement to do it by magic?" And this time she would write it down for sure. But not practice it, because that would probably be dangerous. Hayden looked around at the other people using the spell, maybe one of them could even help her.

catching up 1st, 2nd and 3rd steps
 

Bay quickly wrote his notes down because things always crazy and now that he wasn't paying attention he had to play catch up with the other students, He needed to do the first three steps. Really wanting to hit his head against the desk he added the second and third steps so he could get on his way.


Time to clean everything he hand in front of him, taking out his wand he said "Scourgify" as he pointed it to his cauldron, stirring sticks, grater, measuring tools and anything he needed for this potion really. Getting up from his clean desk he made his way to wash his hands, nothing wrong with trying to keep your hands clean. Turning on the tap he rinsed them and then added some soap that was there and he waited sixty seconds for him to do his final rinse. Drying his hands with the towels provided he went back to his desk now ready to do the first three steps.

He picked up his half of unicorn horn and placed it to his grater as he started to grind that away. it took him a few minutes but he got through it. Once this was done he placed it to the side and turned the heat under his cauldron on which needed to be at a medium heat. waiting for it to get to that wonderful medium of heat Bay added his three glasses of purified water. Now that these were done he quickly scratched off his steps and hoped he hadn't fallen to far behind.

Step 2 and starting step 3
 

Catching up!
 

Connor was about to reply to Elodie but the class had begun and he didn't wanna lose any house points for talking. He'd catch up with her later! He listened intently on the history of the potion, taking notes and trying to jot it all down, names and dates and what not. He hoped he spelled everything right! Where was a computer with a spell-check when you needed one?

Okay, first thing was first he began to grate the horn. Only half, he kept re-reading the instructions, he didn't wanna mess up anything. Nope, that would be embarrassing. Okay, that was done. Time to listen again, he awaited further instructions. Though he was curious as to why they were learning such a dangerous thing, if it's use was illegal, why teach it? Hmm whatever, he wasn't the potions master.

Okay, he began heating his cauldron on medium per the instructions. Once he had it heated he pulled out his wand and cleared his throat a little, trying not to be too loud and distract others. "Aguamenti!" He muttered and watched the water flow, he did his best to make sure it was the right amount..but he felt like it might be a little much..

Sophie was still focused on her cauldron as she began heating it at medium heat. Uhh...purified water? She'd need to go collect that. She could produce water, but...how did she purify it? Her hand shot into the air, and a split second later, she glanced up to see the professor standing right next to her. Whoa. "You're really quick today, aren't you?" she asked, lowering her hand.

Gave her the potion... "Gave?" she asked. "I thought you were just teasing me." She looked down at the vial. It was really hers? To keep and use as she saw fit? This was AMAZING! However... She eyed the professor as he explained his reasons. Seriously? Somebody was just giving her power just like THAT? "Thank you...," she said, her voice sort of trailing off as she tried to process everything. "I'll be sure to use it wisely," she added, with a smile.

Her mind was already racing with possibilities, but she had to pass this class first. "Professor? How do we purify water we conjure?" she asked. "I know how to produce it, but purify it?" She'd collect the water afterwards.

Everyone was doing well, or so it seemed, and Cosgrach walked up to the blackboard once again. Time to move on!

"Add the hippogriff feathers one by one," he said, "and get ready for a hard step - I hope you are listening carefully and DO it carefully - because if you mess this step up, you might as well vanish the potion and start over again." It was one of those IRREVERSIBLE steps, see? They had to pay attention.

"Okay. Count to ten and stir the potion counter clockwise once. Count to twenty and stir it clockwise once. Count to thirty and stir counter clockwise once again. Is it clear? Use a wooden stirrer, and don't forget to clean it before using - but you don't have to clean it every time. Once, thoroughly, at the beginning is enough and necessary." Got it?

Good.

He leaned on his desk to have a better view of everyone and to vanish any potions that went wrong after updating the blackboard.

OOC: I will post again approximately 20 hours later, so you can catch up if you must. It can be in one big post or in several posts. :)

Well, that was rather an unpleasant story. The one about the church and the old usage of the manipulating potions. But of course, history was full of those and despite them not being nice she still liked knowing about them. And it was cool to see a glimpse of history, her favorite subject, in potions. She jotted down some notes for both her own knowledge and in case anything related was to come up in NEWTs. Might as well start preparing now.

She of course, cleaned her cauldron and set up what she needed to use. At the top of the page in her textbook she scribbled the title and started with the first steps.



The snake took her time grating the half of the unicorn horn but fortunately it didn't take forever and a good thing that some were addressing the professor while so, so she wasn't left behind. And on to the next step. Heating, easy. She reached for her wand and pointed it beneath the cauldron mattering the incantation. "Incendio," She waited for further instructions while also waiting for the cauldron to gain heat as needed.

And three glasses of water were needed next. "Aguamenti," She spoke thinking she wanted pure water which was really the normal state. Since she never thought of dirty or polluted water when casting this spell and she never got such results either. So it was good. Filling one she eyed it before adding it to the cauldron. She made sure to fill it to the full, everytime not just the first time. And with that she got three glasses of water added.

Hippogriff feathers were next! Cassia scribbled down the step and nudged her textbook further from the cauldron just in case. Holding the feathers in her left hand, she put one in her right hand and slowly added it to the cauldron. Then came the second and so on until no more feathers remained in her nor her left or right hand. Peering at the cauldron she supposed she was doing well. Although, she didn't know about how the mixture should exactly look like but it didn't make weird noises neither did the cauldron explode and that was a good sign.

When the professor next said that the upcoming step was a hard one, the seventh-year turned her undivided attention on him. She grabbed her quill and scribbled down his words. It wasn't practically a hard one but the odds of one making a mistake while counting were high. Any distraction could cause a mistake in the count. So she had to make sure she was concentrating one hundred percent on the stirring and counting. Reaching for her wooden stirrer, Cassia cleaned it first then she started counting not too slow and not fast. One...Two...three.......seven......ten. With that she stirred once clockwise.

Phew, now to count to twenty. With the same pace earlier she started counting again. One...two......five....eight...eleven...fifteen... ....Twenty.. Again she stirred and pulled the stirrer out of the cauldron. Two thirds of the step were successfully done, now she had to be careful with the last bit. She didn't want to mess up now. So to count to thirty. Taking a breath she started counting under her breath making some sound now because she believed that that would be easier and would not be as confusing as keeping count in her head.

"One. three....five.........ten....fifteen," she felt herself going a bit faster than when she the previous two times so she slowed down but too much as to not make the gaps between the numbers overall different. She logically thought it had to in proportion. ".......twenty-nine, twenty-eight, thirty!" And then she stirred once. PHEW! Done successfully without errors! Setting the wooden spoon aside, she blew air out of her cheeks and wiped a couple drops of sweat that apparently formed on her forehead.

Jasmine heard the next set of steps for the potion and wrote them in her notebook. Hearing the Professor say "hard step", she knew that she really needed to concentrate on what she was doing. Although she had already washed her wooden spoon, she cleaned it again, to be safe.

With complete focus, Jasmine dropped her Hippogriff feathers into the cauldron of water one by one. After all of the feathers had been added, Jasmine counted to ten. Picking up the wooden spoon, she gave the potion one counterclockwise stir. Next, she counted to twenty and stirred one time in a clockwise direction. Finally, Jasmine began to count one last time. When she reached thirty, she took the spoon and gave one counterclockwise stir to the potion.

Reviewing her notes, she believed that she had done everything correctly. If she hadn't, it was too late to do anything about it now. Jasmine held her breath, hoping that she would not have to see her potion vanish before her eyes. Deciding that she had done the best that she could do, Jasmine washed her spoon saying, "Scourgify"

Hayden was glad that Professor Culloden was so nice and willing to help. Not all professors would have been that willing to show her what to do. She was nervous that she'd do it wrong, but not so nervous any more that he might get mad at her. She just had to make sure not to mess up brewing the potion.

"Incendio," she repeated without the wand movement, getting a feel for the incantation on her tongue. Incendio. She committed the word to memory so she wouldn't mess up when actually casting the spell. At least, she hoped she wouldn't. The wand movement came next. Draw a flame? Hayden watched what Professor Culloden did, and then mirrored the movement with her own wand. It was sort of confusing. Hayden concentrated, but her movement was not very smooth. The fire she was supposed to be drawing felt too spiky. She practiced over and over again, relaxing her wrist so her movements were smoother and rounder. When she felt more confident, she put it all together.

"Incendio." She put the incantation and the wand movement together, drawing the best fire she could in the air. But her grip on her wand had gotten tighter, presumably because she'd gotten more nervous when it came time to actually cast the spell. Her movements were sharper than she'd meant for them to be and nothing happened. At least that was better than something really bad happening. "Incendio." She tried again, relaxing her grip a little, but not too much of course. Nothing again. "Incendio." The incantation was accompanied with concentration, and the determination to make fire, as well as a smoother - though not perfect - movement. At least she was getting better. This time, a few sparks shot out of her wand in the direction of the cauldron. She was getting closer. "Incendio." Her movement was tight, but still smooth enough to draw the curves of the fire in the air. She was surprised she'd actually gotten it so close to what she'd been trying to do. A small flame shot out of her wand. It wasn't much, but it was enough to create the proper heat under her cauldron. She'd have to keep practicing, and eventually it would get better than that.

"Thank you professor," she said gratefully. A smile lit up her face at the fact that she'd been able to cast the spell, even a little. She tried to contain her excitement, though, because she had to focus on the potion she was brewing. Hayden was already concentrating on counting to a minute in her head. She was ready to add the water as soon as it was time.

Now they had to HEAT up their cauldron, and Dima could do that all by himself! "Incendio!" He piped up with the incantation quite enthusiastically, tracing a decent flame shape in the air above his burner. And then there was FIRE. At medium heat or something, he hoped.

Did Grayson see? The kid waved at him. And then pointed at his fire.

He DID that.

Sixty was a really big number, and the little eagle wondered why there couldn't have been ten seconds in a minute instead. But he counted all the way up to the big ol' six-oh patiently, finding a glass while he did so. Cleaning seemed like a good way to pass the time, so Dima went ahead and showed off another spell he'd learned. "Scourgify!" Drawing the 'S' shape with his wand, he soon had a spotless cup before him.

And now water! This part had to be done away from the fire, but he performed the spell easily. "Aguamenti!" It had the same shape as the Scouring Charm except SIDEWAYS, he remembered! As soon as the glass was full with pure water from his wand and the minute was up, he dumped it in.

Then he filled it up again, and poured that water in too. One more glassful went into his cauldron, and he marked that step off his notes. Ta-da.

While he'd been following the last few directions, the class had already moved on. Dima was a bit too scatterbrained to go with them, but he at once began copying the new instructions down from the board. The first of them said to start adding in the Hippogriff feathers, so he carefully counted out ten and dropped them into his cauldron one by one. That didn't bother him since plucking feathers was pretty humane. Just annoying was all.

After that, he began to count to ten. As he recited numbers in his head, the first year performed another Scouring Charm on his wooden stick, all READY for STIRRING. Yeah! When the time was up, he dipped the stick in and gave his concoction a stir in a counterclockwise direction.

And then came MORE counting. Up to twenty now, and then his potion got a clockwise stir. Lastly, he counted all the way up to HALF of sixty. How come potion-making took so long? Thirty was so far away and it felt like ages before Dima got to give his mixture that last counterclockwise rotation.

Where they DONE yet? He was exhausted.

Not that they had practically all the ingredients left over. Never mind that.

Catch up :: Steps 2 & 3
 

After grating the half unicorn horn, Beverly wrote the ingredients list as it appeared on the board, as well as the steps. She'd be going over this potion in the future, that she was certain of. Setting her quill down, she glanced up to see two more steps appear.

"Scourgify." Sparkly clean cauldron, she turned the heat on to medium and grabbed her wand. When about a minute passed, the Slytherin used her wand to fill three glasses with purified water and carefully poured them into the cauldron. No need for spills, especially not when she was next to a certain Gryffindor. Beverly Wayne was no klutz, you see.

As Adi waited for the next steps, he added the previous ones into his notebook after which he stared around at the others as they worked. His eyes seemed to keep wanting to glance over at Benny but he managed to keep them away. He was grateful when Culloden spoke up again.

Hippogriff feathers. Right! Adi grabbed them. Such pretty feathers. They came from the world's most awesome creatures, after all. The Puffer still wish he had a Hippogriff of his own. Oh well. Maybe one day he would. He added the feathers one by one.

Next he cleaned his wooden stirrer, counted to ten and stirred once counter clockwise. He counted to twenty followed by one stir clockwise. Finally, Adi counted to thirty and stirred once counter clock wise again.

Phew! thank goodness he got that part right!

Catching Up
 

When Professor Culloden stepped forward and gave his next set of instructions, Cris quickly wrote them down in his journal.



Putting down his quill, he took out a glass from his potions kit and first magically cleaned it with his wand. Ending the Scouring spell, Cris then placed his cauldron on the burner. Pointing his wand at the burner, Cris said, "Incendio," and then ended the spell when the burner was lit. He adjusted the knob turning it down to medium, and waited for one minute to pass before he proceeded to fill his glass with purified water.

'Think purified water, Cris. Purified.' Cris thought to himself as he cast the water spell.

Pointing his wand inside the glass, he said, "Aguamenti." When the glass was full, he ended the spell and emptied the contents of the glass into the cauldron, before casting the water spell again two more times. Once he had emptied three glasses of purified water into the cauldron, Cris checked his notes to ensure that he had done everything correctly.

Then came the next steps which Cris quickly noted down in his journal.



Having remembered what Professor had told him between the difference of using a wooden and metal stirring spoon, Cris pulled out a metal stirring spoon from his Potions kit and cleaned it. Pointing his wand at the spoon, he said,"Scourgify" and once the spoon was cleaned, he ended the spell. Ensuring that it was thoroughly cleaned, Cris turned back to his notes, verifying each important step he was to carry out next.

Hippogriff feathers coming right up.

Cris extracted 10 Hippogriff feathers from his potions kit and then slowly lowered them one by one into his cauldron.

1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10

Now for the stirring.

Picking up his stirring spoon, he first counted to 10.

1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10

....then he dipped the spoon into the cauldron and stirred his mixture once counter clockwise. Lifting up his spoon, he then counted to twenty.

1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10..11..12..13..14..15. .16...17..18..19..20

....then he stirred his mixture clockwise once before stopping.

Next he counted down another thirty seconds.

1..2..3...4..5...6...7...8...9...10...11...12...13 ...14...15...16...17...18...19...20..21..22..23... 24...25...26...27...28...29..30

...once he reached the count of 30, he stirred his mixture once counter clockwise with his spoon, before stopping and removing it.

Placing his spoon down on a piece of clean tissue, Cris picked up his quill and updated his notes.



Then he sat back and kept watch over his cauldron while waiting for the Professor to speak again.

Steps 4 & 5
 

They were heading toward the more intricate part of the potion-making, Beverly's favorite. She liked challenges, especially in areas where she was good at. It made for a fun time. Even if it sometimes frustrated her, it was better than being bored.

Gathering the ingredients she'd be needing for the following steps, she splayed out all the feathers like a deck of cards in front of her. All ten black and silver hippogriff feathers, next to them the wooden stirrer for when it was time for use. Peering into her cauldron - to make sure no funny business was going on in there - she picked up the first feather daintily, as if she's had practice, and dropped it inside. She picked up a second in the same manner, then a third...a fourth...a fifth...a sixth...a seventh...an eighth...a ninth...and finally, the tenth feather.

Now for said tricky part. Casting a quick glance at her parchment, the Slytherin picked up the wooden stirrer, cast Scourgify on it, then counted to ten. She mouthed the numbers to herself, it was a sure way not to get confused. Even if it was a small count. When she reached ten, Beverly dipped the stirrer into the cauldron and stirred the solution once, counter clockwise.

Another glance at her parchment. Twenty. The girl patiently counted till. After, she stirred once, clockwise. Brows furrowed in concentration, she continued, counting to thirty, then stirring the potion counter clockwise once. That should do it for now, yeah?

Looking up, the youngest Wayne took a step back and wiped her forehead with the back of her arm. This was fun. What's next?

As soon as the minute was up, Hayden added the three glasses of pure water to her cauldron. So far so good. The next step didn't sound too bad either, just add ten Hippogriff feathers, one by one of course. But,Uh oh. They had to be very careful not to mess up the next step. That didn't sound good. It sounded like a lot of pressure. Hayden took a deep breath before continuing so as not to let herself become too freaked out and let her performance slip. She knew magic needed to be done with a clear mind, and she probably wouldn't be so good at brewing the potion if she was distracted or under too much pressure. Okay, ready.

She counted out ten Hippogriff feathers from her collection of ingredients and added one to the cauldron. Then another, and another...until she had added all ten of them. It looked good to her, how could she have done that wrong? As soon as she had added the tenth feather Hayden started counting: one, two, three, four five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. She whispered the numbers aloud as she counted in her head. As soon as she got to ten she stirred the potion once counterclockwise. So far so good.

One, two, three...She counted to twenty this time, and stirred clockwise. She didn't like that the direction of stirring changed, it required more concentration that way. What was next? She counted to thirty and glanced at the board when she got to 25. That way she didn't have to multitask too much and get messed up on her counting. As soon as she got to thirty, Hayden stirred her potion once counterclockwise. There, that wasn't too bad. She could follow directions well enough.