That was a LOT of information, but it was ALL going onto a piece of parchment that Zhenya had set up in front of her. Even though she knew some of it already, and her classmates had said it all, it was still good hearing Professor Culloden speaking about all of it, clumped together, and it just made sense.

The ingredients appeared on the board, and Zhenya wrote them down onto a separate piece of parchment. If she didn't get this potion right this time, by Merlin, she was going to practice it.



Right - Zhenya wanted to get it right. She would aim to get it right. She went to wash her hands thoroughly before they started, what with the cookie particles and all, surely they contained sugar. Going back to her desk, she reached for her wand and cleaned her cauldron. "Scourgify," she said, swirling the S shaped charm into the cauldron. Well, best do that again. "Scourgify." Okay, clean cauldron. Now the next two steps they could do pretty simultaneously. She had to hear a class of milk for three minutes on a medium flame. There was the glass of milk, which she reached for, and she lit her flame. "Incendio," she said, twirling her wand to shape out a flame. There was a medium flame and Zhenya started her timer as she placed the milk near the flame to hear it. At the same time, she could fully fill her cauldron with water. "Aguamenti," she said, pointing her wand into the cauldron. She stopped when the cauldron was full, by which time there was still ages to wait for the milk to hear up.

After waiting, staring at her timer so that she could remove the flame as SOON as it hit 3 minutes, she quickly removed it and lowered the flame for the cauldron, which she moved on top of the flame. All set for the next steps, but knowing this was going to be a very difficult potion, she was starting to feel a bit flustered.

Angel smiled at the Potion Professor, but then the memory of the big smile came back into her head and she looked over at her head of house, maybe he could ask the Potion Professor for her, she had tried but he had gone from being so nice to snapping at her which she didn't like. Angel would corner them both later and ask for answer that was the best bet right. Angel then vanished the cream that had been piling nicely on the desk.

Angel had to borrow a cauldron since hers wasn't a brass one, "Scourgify! Angel cleaned out the cauldron and then she made sure her hands were clean, she then looked at the instructions.

"Aguamenti!" Angel did the wand movement and made sure the cauldron was filled up, they had to do that right? She wasn't so sure but decided to give it a go.

Angel heated the milk separately, on a medium flame for 3 minutes, she was very confused as to why she had to do this and she was sure she was already getting lost.

"Incendio!" Angel put the cauldron flame on a low flame, then she added the milk into the cauldron, was she doing this right?

Cosgrach studied them as they did the first 3 steps. He missed Toby's carelessness, as he wasn't going to count the 3 minutes with every single student. Sophie worried him more anyway, because she wasn't doing anything. He frowned to himself. This didn't look right. If she couldn't even handle a RIGHTFUL warning... he decided to give her a few more moments, because he didn't want to believe she was that sensitive...

And the next moment, she had filled her cauldron! Good. He was relaxed, and turned to update the blackboard.

Quote:

4. Chop the fluxweed well and add it
5. Stir 7 times clockwise with a metal stirrer
6. Sprinkle the dog fur evenly (in about 10 seconds)
7. Wait for exactly 7 days (note the hour and minute and do the next step at the exact time)

"Please chop the fluxweed and add it, then stir 7 times clockwise with a metal stirrer. Sprinkle the dog fur evenly in approximately ten seconds, but just for this step you don't have to be so precise about the time." But he expected excellence otherwise. "Once you're done sprinkling, please note the exact hour and minute, because you have to wait for 7 full days before moving on." He paused for them to finish these steps BEFORE he answered any possible questions...

...

After enough time had passed, the rest of the recipe appeared on the board.

Text Cut: Rest of the recipe

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

8. Add 7 of the Jobberknoll feathers
9. Wait for exactly 7 days again (note the hour and minute and do the next step at the exact time)
10. Add the other 7 of the feathers
11. Set the burner on medium heat
12. Add the Armadillo bile one tea spoon at a time
13. Stir 7 times counter clockwise with a metal stirrer
14. Add the Runespoor egg
15. Wait for 7 minutes and 7 seconds
16. Cast 'Recordo'
17. Add the aconite roots one by one
18. If done correctly, it will exude a faint blue smoke

"Don't worry about copying this all, let's just practise the spell 'Recordo' without your wands. Repeat after me: ré-core-DOH. Recordo." He listened to the class intently. Did anyone have a problem with the incantation? Hopefully not? "The wand movement is very straightforward: you draw a circle over the potion to symbolise the full moon." Easy to remember, yes? Still, he demonstrated it. "You can try too, without the incantation." To be honest, he didn't really look closely because it was a very easy movement and he expected everyone to get it right. "And lastly, before casting it, you have to come up with a strong memory, either sad or happy. It just have to be a vivid one you remember. Then, you combine all: you'll think of the memory, draw a circle over the potion and say the incantation. We won't do that today because we're not at that step yet." And obviously, they wouldn't be able to tell if they got it right or wrong without trying it on the potion. He just wanted them to hear and see.

"We're done with the potions part of this class." That had been quick AND EASY, HUH? All of them got it right, yes? "Completing the potion is your homework. I'll announce the details and the full recipe later, so don't try to copy it now. Just listen to Professor Dakest if you're done."

With that, he turned to sit down on his chair once again, unless someone stopped him with a question.

OOC:

• The potions part is done at the end of this post, so if your character has a problem and/or question, you can still RP it and we'll answer as if it's before Cosgrach finished his part.
• You can catch up as always!
• Thank you for participating!
• The class will continue when Tazenhani posts.

More instructions!



Oh this was getting tense. Literally, her eyes felt like they would snap. She had to put her glasses on, or she was going to get a roaring headache soon. She cleaned them and put them on, pushing them right up. Ahh. Much better.

Okay, so time for chopping. So far it was pretty easy, well... black and white, really. Heat the milk over a medium flame for 3 minutes. But now it was chopping, and no matter how good you were at chopping, there was never going to be a precise chop to ALL of the ingredients. You just had to do your best. So, Zhenya pulled her wooden chopping board and her knife. "Scourgify," she said to both of them, pointing her wand at them separately, cleaning them twice each. Now, she had to chop the fluxweed WELL. She gathered one measure of the fluxweed and put it on her chopping board. She took a few deep breaths in to steady her hands, and she began chopping it well. There, it looked pretty well chopped to her. Before she added it to her cauldron, she got her metal stirrer, "Scourgify," she said, cleaning it before it went anywhere near her potion. In the fluxweed went, and she counted seven careful stirs; clockwise. She even double checked with the clock that she was going in the right direction. Couldn't be too careful.

Next was the dog fur. One handful of a tame dog's neck fur. With her handful, she slowly-ish sprinked it in, adjusting the sprinkle speed to get it all into the potion in 10 seconds. Done. Success. HUZAH. As soon as the last fur was in, she looked at the time and wrote it down exactly, onto her parchment. And next... wait, 7 days?

Well, she couldn't do anymore. She looked at the rest of the instructions and was interested to see that it was all in lots of 7. Why was that, she wondered? She could ask later. But for now they were going to practice the spell. Right, not together of course, that would be silly. Not for another two weeks!

"ré-core-DOH," she said, slowly and carefully. "ré-core-DOH, ré-core-DOH, ré-core-DOH, ré-core-DOH, ré-core-DOH," she repeated, again and again to try and make it all click. Now she could practice the wand movement. She decided to do it without her wand for now, so picking up an invisible wand, she moved it in a circle; a full moon. Awesome stuff. She would try to come up with a memory, but she was fairly certain she knew which one she would use already. Very sad.

... Leah just stared at the Professor for a moment before she began taking notes. You wanna know something about a Joint Lesson? There was a LOT of information to take in. She quickly wrote down things about werewolves, their human memories and the main ingredient wolfsbane. Phew - now he had finished his explanation. Time to start brewing!

Yes, she had a brass cauldron. This WAS brass right? It definitely wasn't pewter… everybody else had a cauldron like hers, so yep she was on the right track. "Scourgify," she cleaned her BRASS cauldron and a glass cup. She filled the cup with regular cow milk. Then she heated the milk on medium flame with her watch set for 3 minutes. "Aguamenti!" she conjured a jet of water into the cauldron while this was happening. When the cauldron was full, she eyed her watch, counting the seconds until her 3 minutes were up. She added the warm milk into the water, frowning slightly as she knew what water + milk tasted like. Ewww. Leah changed the flame to low and set the cauldron over it.

Soon, the blackboard was updated. WHEEE chopping! Leah cleaned her knife and chopping she did. The fluxweed was well cut out before she knew it. It went straaaight into the cauldron. After cleaning her metal stirrer, she stirred 7 times clockwise with an eye on her watch for the next step. This almost made her stir one extra time, but she stopped herself just in time. The Hufflepuff then looked for her supply of dog's neck fur. Hopefully no dog died giving its fur because that would terrible. While she thought about animal cruelty, the ten seconds were up. Maaaybe a half second more but it did not matter much for this step. She sprinkled bits of the fur around the edge of the cauldron, then some in the middle and others at the side. Once she was done, she quickly bent down over a spare piece of parchment and wrote down the current hour and minute with a note Do the next step on January 24th! scribbled along the margins.

As Leah took a seat again and started copying down the rest of the recipe, the Professor instructed them to practice the spell they needed to cast in step 16. "Ré-core-DOH," she said, imitating Professor Culloden. "Ré-core-DOH. RécoreDOH. Recordo!" That sounded right. It was not a difficult incantation to remember. She stood up, looked at her cauldron's contents and practiced the wand movement. She opened her mouth to say the incantation along, but shut it immediately at the possibility of blowing up the cauldron. Didn't want that to happen, nope. A circle over the potion. She drew a circle with her wand. And another. And another. A circle was still a circle. Easy enough. The strong memory though… why did potions all need a memory of some sort? But this time it did not require an emotion. So the Fifth Year chose her first day at Hogwarts. It was a vivid memory and she could remember it as if it was yesterday - the train ride, the Sorting, the Start of Term Feast - everything.

And now they were switching to DADA. WEREWOLVES. She turned to Professor Dakest, wondering if she should clean her station right now.

Toby wasn't sure what it was that was pushing him on with this potion, even as careless about it as he was being. Some sort of weird, Hufflepuff need to keep on keeping on, perhaps? Being set on autopilot? His twitchy fidgety-ness needing some sort of outlet? Something to focus on? Perhaps all of the above? Whatever it was, the seventh year continued with the brewing process, though paying nowhere near as much attention as he should have been, and making no notes as he went but still doing it. Just... distracted. Or something.

The more time went on, the more fidgety Toby got (a mixture of anxiety about what might be coming at the end of the lesson and his overpowering energy), but the more faraway his expression would become. At the mention of fluxweed, he simply grabbed a handful and added that to the potion. He missed the stirring step completely, absentminded as he was, and by the time he'd thrown the dog fur in there too, Culloden had started saying all those words that weren't making much sense to Toby. It was a LOT of information, and his brain immediately rejected all the things. A THREE in one lesson on top of worrying about things was enough to make his brain basically implode. He was pretty sure it had already happened.

Without noting anything down, or practicing any spells, Toby lay his arms back down on the desk and brought his head down to join them, burying his face in the crook of his elbow. And, of course, his feet still jiggled and bounced and tapped incessantly under the desk. He was trying so, SO hard not to be too fidgety, to be quiet and still and blend into the background like he didn't even exist. But holding the energy in was taking all his concentration, and he felt fit to burst. He needed to get up and run away, but there he sat, because he'd been told in no uncertain terms that he was to stay.

Turned out, being scolded for something you blatantly DID do was about 45874683 times worse than when you didn't really deserve it, that's what Toby had come to realise. He felt so ashamed of himself (perhaps disproportionately so, though he wouldn't have agreed with that assessment), and so guilty. Somehow, he'd unleashed a barage of self-loathing thoughts that overpowered everything else. He knew he deserved the reprimand, though, and anything that was coming his way, and felt very much like he didn't deserve to be able to just shrug it off like he'd seen other kids do in the past. It had been selfish to mess about in Airey's lesson, after how awesome the professor usually was was him, and though Toby didn't know what had come over him in that ridiculous mood, it was no excuse. Airey was right to be furious with him. Toby was furious with himself.

Would anyone notice if he just... slid under his desk? And stayed there forever? Would that just make matters worse? Could things get worse? Toby was definitely considering it, depending on how things went from here, but it wasn't like he had a marvelous track record in DADA this term, either.

So. much. information.

The Korean guy just kept silent and listened to Culloden's explanation and now... brewing time! Quickly he wrote the ingredients and the steps.Since his cauldron was pewter, so Jackson decided to use the brass cauldron that the Potions master had provided. First, he needed to cleaned it. "Scourgify." Then he added the water into the cauldron. "Aguamenti." Then, what's next? He looked down at his note. Taking a glass of milk, he heated it separately for three minutes in medium flame. "Incendio." After the milk was heated, he added them into the cauldron and then set the low flame. "Incendio."

Whoaaaaa... Next steps were already written at the board. Quickly he copied down into his note and did them.

Grabbing the fluxweed, he chopped them with a clean silver knife that he had cleaned before. Chop chop chop. Then he added them into the cauldron. Then he grabbed a metal stirrer, cleaned it, and used it to stir his potion. He stirred them 7 times clockwise. After he had done with stirring, Jackson grabbed a handful of dog fur and sprinkled them evenly every ten seconds. And then... DONE? Nope, they had to wait for 7 days.

Now it's time to practice the incantation of the spell. "Recordo. ré-core-DOH. ré-core-DOH. ré-core-DOH." He repeated it multiple times. Then using his wand, he drew a circle over the potion. Now it's time to move on to DADA.

Ilia had to suppress a laugh as Henric stuffed a few more of her cookie bits into his mouth. When he nodded his acceptance of the cookies and she was certain that she no longer needed the 'chart' of the Merlin forsaken muggle sweets, she pushed them over to Henric. He could eat all of them because after snapping a few and poor AJ fresh in her mind, there was no way she was taking a bite. She was pretty sure if she had just vanished it away as the professor had suggested poor Henric might be sad. He really seemed to be enjoying these things.
-----------------------------------

Potions time, after giving her best friend the cookies she "Scourgify" cleaned her area and her own hands. If she got crumbles from those things in her potion she would be infuriated. Who knows what they could do to it? Especially since he said that it was a delicate potion. She doubted that Professor Culloden would be to thrilled with 'oreo' wolfsbane.

She took the milk and a smaller cauldron, incanting the heat on under it and adjusting it to medium. Since she had to wait for three minutes, she kept note of the time but set up her brass cauldron. Filling it with "Aguamenti" clear water until it was almost full. She needed to leave enough room for the heated milk. "Finite" She incanted the heat under this cauldron now and set the flame to low.

Now that it had been three minutes she added the milk into her water base. Okay, time for fluxweed. She "Scourgify" cleaned her cauldron that she had used for the milk and began chopping. Once it was well chopped, she added it in evenly and began to stir. Clockwise 1, clockwise 2, clockwise 3, clockwise 4, clockwise 5, clockwise 6, clockwise 7. Stirred and it seemed to be fine.

Okay.....dog fur. She wondered if any dogs had naked necks because of the amount that had been collected for all of the students. Maybe it was just from shaggy, shedding dogs and there weren't any naked necked dogs.....Who thought of this stuff....seriously Ilia. She took her handful of fur and sprinkled it evenly across the surface fairly swiftly but not all at once.

Wait seven days......well they weren't going to be in class that long even for a joint lesson so she presumed that they were done for now. Taking her notebook for potions, she marked down the precise time and date under her notes. Alright......what next she wondered.

Gabriel was fully invested in his Oreos by this point. Whatever else was going on around him, due to the vomiting episode, was being blatantly ignored. Especially after his own overreaction.

Of course, after allowing several moments to pass, Gabe realized they were firmly into the potions portion of the lesson; glancing around quickly, trying to gauge just how much he'd missed. Culloden must've just finished giving all the information...because people were cleaning their cauldrons and preparing to start brewing. How strange...He usually didn't space out like that.

.......and they were working with BRASS?!...That was different.

Not owning a brass cauldron himself, he would be using the one provided. And it wasn't that Gabe had anything against brass. He didn't. Not really...but there had never been a reason for him to use that particular material. But this was intriguing...and he tried to think about what this would mean for the utensils that needed to be used...and the nature of the ingredients. It did explain why milk was being implemented as a base. It didn't heat as fast as water....and brass couldn't withstand high heat.

Ahem, anyway...Gabe got his things into position; ingredients from his own kit and those provided for the lesson specifically. First things first, he took the time to clean the cauldron carefully, checking for weak spots. There weren't any, of course. Professor Culloden must've checked them all beforehand. He was a brilliant man. Completely...but it didn't hurt to be diligent in these matters. It could've been a test, you know? To see who was planning to take this seriously moving forward. And no one could say Gabe wasn't serious. In fact, he was TOO serious.

As he heated the milk separately, setting the alarm on his watch for three minutes, he got his notes in order. This was supposed to be a hard one...and he didn't want to fail too drastically. Even being as adept as he was...Gabe wasn't perfect. So...he had to really focus here.

When the milk finished heating, it was removed; the brass cauldron replacing the cup, and water being added. Filled to completion, as the instructions stated. Carefully pouring the milk in with the water, Gabe adjusted the heat to low. Then, it was time to update his notes.

Angel was totally enjoying this lesson and she was going to make sure she did this right, it seemed her first part of the potion had gone right and now she wanted to continue with doing the rest right. She grabbed a knife and them made sure that it was clean before she started to chop the fluxweed up, she then added them in one by one before she grabbed hold of the Metal Stirrer and she stirred the potion seven times clockwise.

Angel then got hold of the dog fur and started to sprinkle it over the potion making sure that it went it properly, she hoped that they wouldn't be testing these potions because well it was really hard to get right.

Angel looked at the Professor the next step would come now right. Wrong? They had to wait Seven days before they did it, okay she wasn't sure this potion was for her to make, she hated waiting and how come the person who invented it waited so long, if nothing happened after a few days she would have thrown the stupid potion out.

Angel then decided to practice the spell. "Recordo!!" Angel said, this sounded easy enough. "Recordo! Recordo! Recordo!" Angel then practiced her wand movement with her hand, that was easy enough, just tracing a circle over the potion.

Angel then waited to see what was going to happen with the DADA part of this lesson.

What next, what next?

Adi shifted from foot to foot, watching Culloden's every move. Come on! Let's get back to more instruction. Hehe. Super hyper, wasn't he? Then Culloden was turning to the board, adding more instructions. Excellent!

Time to re- focus! The Puff took a deep breath to calm himself. He needed every ounce of his concentration about him. He magically cleaned his knife before chopping the fluxweed and adding it to the cauldron. "Scourgify!'' With the metal stirrer cleaned, the stirring started. One... two... three... four... five... six... seven! All in a clockwise direction.

Next, the dog fur was grabbed. He ensured that it was all sprinkled in after ten seconds but less than about fifteen seconds. Adi mad sure it was all sprinkled in as evenly as he could get it. And now the waiting with the exact hour and minute. Gosh, it was like Felix Felicis. Hehe. The Puffer LOVED it! He was good with being precise.

Alright! Onto practicing this spell. "Ré-core-DOH... Recordo... Recordo...'' That was easy enough to practice. Now for the wand movement which was even easier- a circle over the potion. Done!

Adi listened to Culloden explain more stuff. A memory, huh? He had plenty of those. He involuntarily looked over at Benny, wondering how he was getting on and various memories of them hanging out going through his head. He turned away quickly, poking Ilia's gift again to distract him as he waited for Dakest to get started.

Zander was still concerned about Sophie Brown, but he had to turn his attention back the Culloden, so he didn't even notice that she hadn't done anything to her potion at all. He was too busy being COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED by all the new steps they had to do??? WHAT THE HECK.

Man. Zander HATED joint lessons. They always went by too fast. There was just so much to do. He wasn't prepared for this okay. No amount of Notice Board updates could keep him on his toes for this kind of thing. Man. This was the worst.

Quickly cleaning his knife, he went ahead and chopped the fluxweed before adding it into the cauldron. Then he took his clean metal stirrer and began stirring it clockwise. Clockwise and NOT counterclockwise. Apparently this kind of stuff was important. Zander knew. Been there. Done that. Never again. (Please). One.... Two..... Acouplenumbersinbetween... Six... SEVEN. Bingo. He then looked back up at the board, taking a deep breath as he did so 'cause there were still so many steps left!! Now the sprinkling stuff came next and man. SEVEN FULL DAYS?

They were going to have to sit here for SEVEN FULL DAYS?

Man. The notice board said nothing about this.

He did, however, glance over at his watch before jotting the time down on his parchment. And this was gonna be the perfect time to glance over at-- WHAT? Professor C was STILL GOING??? Sweet Merlin. "Re-core-DOH," he repeated. "Recordo." Recordo. Record. Recordo. Not bad. He wasn't even going to practice the wand movement because it was so simple. But he was going to sit here and think about what his memory would be. Uh. Zander had no clue. This would be very time consuming, he could already tell.

Oh wait, so they weren't going to sit here for seven days? Well that was a close one. Though... The mention of homework did make him feel slightly sick.

AJ took a second to clean all of the equipment that was needed before she moved on to the first step. The lion always loved making potions because it was easy to her. It was pretty much fail proof. Follow the directions and you wouldn't have any problems. Simple.

Chopping of the fluxweed happened. She added it to her cauldron. Her metal stirrer was already cleaned so she began to stir the contents of her potion in a clockwise motion. Seven stirs in, she was done with that part. See how easy this was? How could anybody mess this up?

Time to sprinkle some dog fur. AJ wondered why dog fur was used and not werewolf fur? She raised her hand. "Professor, is there dog fur in the potion because dogs are considered tame in comparison to a werewolf?" Was she making sense? "I mean I was wondering why werewolf fur wouldn't be used. It is because this potion is supposed to help with not turning into a rabid werewolf soooo a dog is like a metaphor sort of to a tame werewolf?" Wow, that was kind of deep. In a confusing kind of way.

After the ten seconds had passed, she began to sprinkle the fur evenly.

7 full days? That was SUCH a long time, and didn't these professors know that she wasn't the patient type? Still, it wasn't as if she could change the rules of the potions so she made note of the time and date on the corner of a spare piece of parchment.

Recordo. Easy enough to pronounce. "Recordo...REcordo...Recordo..." Got it. The wand movement was pretty cool considering the subject was on werewolves. Did the plan the full moon trace before the spell was invented orrrr was it mere coincidence? Either way it was bloody brilliant. Picking up her wand she gave the movement a few tries. Not that she really needed to practice that much. Easy peasy.

...There was a new cauldron in front of her, and her cauldron was being taken away. Sophie lifted her gaze from the point it had been fixated on in front of her to see Marigold's retreating back... and the Ravenclaw propped her head up on her chin, her elbow on her desk, and went back to staring at the new cauldron now.

Grateful, she was, that someone was looking out for her... but she didn't deserve it. And as class went along, she continued writing down the steps until all eighteen of them were in her notes... and then she processed what they said and what Culloden had said: they had to wait seven days. There were only a few steps they had to do today.

...Well. She could... probably... catch up, yeah? Maybe? Just get the first few steps done now? It wasn't like she had to brew the entire POTION now. Just a few steps. She... could muster up the will for that, couldn't she? Yeah... yeeeah. All right. Fine. She'd do it, but she wouldn't like it.

Visibly distressed as she did so, Sophie set the medium flame, heated the milk over it in a clean container, and checked her watch. Three minutes would fly by before she knew it, so she got her other things ready - cleaning her cutting knife, metal stirrer, and gloves with Scourgify, and then chopping the measure of fluxweed, too. The further into the three minutes it got, the more comfortable she felt - potion-making was kind of therapeutic, wasn't it?

When the three minutes were up, Sophie added the heated milk to her cauldron and used, "Incendio," to set her burner to a low flame, then added her already-chopped fluxweed with a clean-gloved hand. With her metal stirrer clean, too, she dipped it down into the cauldron, and hesitated to make sure she went in the right direction before stirring seven times clockwise. At the last stir, she lifted the stick from the cauldron and cast, "Scourgify," on it so the potion didn't drip all over her desk when she took it all the way out.

Then the dog fur. Still the weirdest part of the potion, she thought, and she re-cleaned her gloves again before taking a handful of the tame dog's fur - it had been about ten seconds anyway since she stopped stirring - and sprinkled the handful into the cauldron, trying to evenly coat the surface.

...Phew. She actually felt a little better now. Funny how productivity brightened the mood, wasn't it? She didn't feel like practicing the incantation like everyone else - instead, Sophie looked over at Marigold then and tried to catch her eye - and when she did, the sixth year gave the older girl a genuine smile and a thumbs-up.

Marigold breathed easier when she realized that the cauldron switch had gone unnoticed. GOOD. She went back to focusing on the potion - Sophie Brown would surely continue by herself.

She chopped the fluxweed for a while, then dropped it into the milky potion. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven" times clockwise (with a "Scourgify"-ed metal stirrer), then sprinkled the dog fur as evenly as she could. She wrote down the date, hour, and minute. Yay.

Kate cleaned her knife and stirrer then began chopping the fluxweed. Adding it the brew, she stirred seven times clockwise, making sure to keep count, so she couldn't stir too much or too little. After the seventh stir, Kate sprinkled the dog fur until the count of ten. She wasn't sure how precise she'd been on that one, but according to the professor, that didn't really matter anyway.

SEVEN DAYS?!

Dear Merlin. Kate noted the time, even writing it on top of her notes. She started copying the remainder of the instructions, but the professor wanted them to move on to practicing a spell instead. Mmkay. Kate held her on to her wand as she listened to the professor. "Recordo. Recordo!" she repeated. Not hard at all. Kate drew a circle with her wand without saying the incantation. Such an easy spell for such a difficult potion.

There was a memory added in to the steps, too, but they were closing out this part of the lesson. So that left the Defense part of the lesson before things wrapped up. Ready for you, Dakest.

Oh boy, Potions part. Well, here it goes.

Yoongi swallowed the last bits of the cookies as he grabbed a brass cauldron at the side of his desk. He placed it in front of him before taking out his wand. He checked the blackboard and saw that the WEREWOLVES that Professor Flamsteed had written was shrinking in size and the ingredients had appeared. Taking out his hand wipes to clean his hands without magic, he grabbed his wand and pointed it carefully at a pit. “Incendio” he said and when the fire was on a medium flame he placed the glass of cow milk down.

While that was boiling, he pointed his wand at the brass cauldron and with the aguamenti charm he filled it with water and set the flame to low under it. These parts of potions was easy because he had to use charms. And well, he was good at charms. And even he could add the milk to the cauldron after 3 mi---wait…HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?! Panicking, Yoongi threw the milk in to the cauldron and PRAYED it was added at the right time. Mweh he hated potions.

Carefully looking inside his cauldron, he was pleased that it hadn’t exploded yet. He grabbed a knife and cleaned it before chopping the fluxweed in to pieces before adding it.

Next he grabbed a metal stirrer, forgot to clean it, and immediately began to stir , 1, 2 3 4 5 6 7 times! Look at THAT! He had done i---THE WRONG WAY OF STIRRING. Physically facepalming himself, Yoongi looked at his getting worse potion. Well, it was too late to go back now. Perhaps he would invent a new potion! With new determination in his eyes, Yoongi set to work again. But that quickly died out when the Professor told them they had to wait for 7 days. Great. And why did he had the feeling he missed something?

Wait, spell work time? FINALLY! Yoongi repeated the word over and over until he got it right and then pointed his wand at the cauldron. He drew a circle over the potion while thinking about his family. Yeah yeah, it was cheesy, but they were his source of inspiration. “Recordo!” …done now? This was a disaster! But at least his potion didn’t explode. He just wondered how he was going to get away with this for seven days….

Waiting for the next set of steps, Gabe allowed his mind to wander a bit, thinking about things. Particular things. Very particular things. Happenings...

Cheeks tinged pink, he drew a small biohazard symbol in the corner of his parchment. Science all the things...and this potion seemed serious enough to warrant it. Though, it wasn't hazardous. Or so he thought.

Hmm? They were moving on.

Now, to chop the fluxweed...but how well was well? Moving the bundle so it lay directly in front of him, Gabe set about doing this with a clean stainless steel blade. There hadn't been anything specific about the type of metal that needed to be implemented. So, he assumed this was okay. After five minutes, he double checked the board and then added it in. Carefully. Just to make sure none of the pieces spilled out of his hands and fell to the floor. It was a crime to waste ingredient. ANY ingredient.

Now, for a metal stirrer.

Fishing one out of his case, Gabe paused only to cast a quick cleaning spell on it...and then dipped it down into the concoction. Clockwise stirring. Seven times. That...was it? It interested him that it was seven...but then marginally made sense as seven was the most magically adept number. Or so it was stated in every Arithmancy text he'd ever read. So, it had to be true...

After taking care of the seven clockwise-stirs, he removed the metal utensil and cleaned it. It wasn't needed again for this lesson. So, it was neatly placed back in his case. Also, there had been some reading ahead, and Gabe had seen that they would only be doing one more step for today. One that involved the dog hair. Merlin...it the smell was awful. He was mildly allergic...or had been as a small child...but he'd read somewhere that as a person got older, the things they were allergic to could changed. Every seven years...or something. His recollection was sketchy on the details.

Heh.

Taking a big step back, he held his hand out and began sprinkling; breath held. Instead, Gabe focused on silently counting to ten. The limit had been ten seconds, correct?

After finishing that up and updating his notes, he peered back towards Culloden....and yes, he'd went ahead and jotted down the following steps. It was only appropriate to have them all in one collective place.

It seemed that everyone had done the first few steps correctly since Professor Culloden hadn't called anyone out or vanished any potions. That was always a good thing because Lux didn't like to see anyone do badly.

With a clean knife, she began chopping the Fluxweed. She had no idea when it had been picked but hopefully it had been during a full moon. Once it had been added, she stirred the potion 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... times clockwise with a clean metal stirrer. The dog fur was added as evenly as possible while staying within the 10 second time-frame. Her focus turned immediately to the clock, and she made a note of the EXACT time for when she came back to the potion in a week.

Now onto the spell practice. "Recordo... Recordo... Recordo..." With her wand she drew a few circles over her cauldron. Pretty simple.

SPOILER!!: Lux's Notes

WOLFSBANE POTION

Ingredients:

• 1 glass of regular cow milk
• 1 measure of fluxweed (picked on full a moon)
• 1 handful of a tame dog's neck fur
• 14 Jobberknoll feathers
• 7 tea spoons of Armadillo bile
• 7 grams of a well-whisked Runespoor egg
• 7 aconites' roots

Procedure:

1. Heat a glass of milk for 3 minutes on medium flame (seperately)
2. Fill the cauldron fully with water and add the milk
3. Set the cauldron on low flame
4. Chop the fluxweed well and add it
5. Stir 7 times clockwise with a metal stirrer
6. Sprinkle the dog fur evenly (in about 10 seconds)
7. Wait for exactly 7 days (note the hour and minute and do the next step at the exact time)

Airey had been sitting, grumbling and muttering to himself, while staring out the window at the full moon while the Potions Master spoke to the class. He was doing his best not to make eye contact with either Mr. Toby or Miss Brown - which was a little more difficult now that they were almost both on either side of his peripheral vision and eye catching since he felt like a proper black hole.

Meaning, he felt like a fun sucker.

He had also noticed the way the Hufflepuff prefect had moved, without permission and then promptly sat on another student, but since Cosgrach was lecturing and didn't seem to mind...Airey just sat and stuffed the rest of his oreo cookies into his black hole of a mouth. Not a fun sucking one this time. Oreo cookie sucking one.

Anyway...

Once potion brewing began, the astronomer figured it was now safe to get up and walk around the room while still chewing on a mouthful of delectable chocolate and cream - different from the sort that students had been munching away on as they would find out soon enough, HEHE - paused in front of a student's workspace with a rather uncomfortable itch creeping up his nose. He tried to hold it in, really, but when one's eyes were watering and you felt a sneeze coming on, well...it was hard to hold back.

"ACFOOUUU!" he sneezed, bits of oreo cookie shooting out of his mouth and on to the desk and student in front of him...and perhaps a little bit also going into the cauldron. Purely on accident. Promise.

Oops?

The Astronomy professor rubbed his nose and glanced nervously over his shoulder. Professor Candy Cauldron hadn't seen that, right? He shot a sheepish look towards the student.

"Sorry!"

Holy BANANAS. One second she was eating a cookie and the next there were five hundred billion thousand steps on the board. He'd said this was going to be a hard potion, but he didn't say the entire thing was going to be over in 2.5 seconds of learning. Brushing a few curls behind her ears, Norah picked up her wand and cast "Scourgify!" on the brass cauldron, then again on the glass for the milk. With one more "Scourgify!" for each of her gloves, she deemed everything clean enough to start this whole shindig before she grew a beard or something. That'd already proven to take more than 14 entire years to happen. She set the clean glass of milk over a medium flame, glancing at the clock before bending over to record the notes Professor Culloden had put on the board. La la la steps, steps, and more steps. It took almost all of the three minutes to scribble down the information, and that was even in her bad handwriting....or worse handwriting. She cast "Incendio" to light a low flame on her burner, then "Aguamenti" in her clean cauldron, before pouring the warmed milk to the clear liquid. Good? Goooooood? Good.

The fourth year leaned over the notes she'd scribbled down. Fluxweed. Cool. She cast a quick "Scourgify!" on her knife before starting to cut her fluxweed into even pieces. Well...even-ISH pieces which were really the best you could expect from somebody who was rushing. Especially a Norah who was rushing. She added the pieces to the cauldron, then cast "Scourgify" again on her metal stirrer which she placed in her cauldron to stir the seven times. Clockwise. Not to bad, right? She picked up the handful of dog fur next, sprinkling it in as she counted to ten under her breath. Nextnextnext? Wait. What. Wait SEVEN days? That might as well have been an entire YEAR.

Norah squinted at her notes and then back at the board again. Was that really what it was supposed to say? SEVEN days? What a rip off. A whole entire hard potion and she had to do it in two parts. Man. She pulled off her gloves and left them on the desk as she repeated the new incantation with the rest of the class. "Recordo.....recordo....recordo." Circle-y movement bla bla bla. Was Professor Dakest going to talk yet?

No comments from Culloden?

That meant everyone had done it right, at least he hoped so. The next set of instructions was pasted on the board and Ben paid attention as Culloden explained them one by one. "Scourgify," he cast first, cleaning his knife before setting to work at chopping the fluxweed. He did it as well as he thought seemed right and added it into his cauldron before switching to stiring. Another cleaning spell was used on his stiring rod in preparation.

One...two...three...four...five...six...seven times clockwise.

It was clockwise...right?

Ben gave a sigh of relief when he glanced at the board and saw he was right. Direction was one of those things he always had to be concerned about getting wrong. The Gryffindor had mixed it up enough times over the years for his liking. Moving on, the sixth year grabbed the dog fur and was about to sprinkle it into his potion when Flamsteed let out a loud sneeze as he walked infront of his desk.

Both fur and cookie bits going everywhere...

...including in his cauldron.

"Oh no..."

Sophie was being so sadfaced, and Dot wished that she could do something to help the older girl. Chop her fluxweed or clean out her cauldron or SOMETHING. But Soph was better at Potions, and super quick too, leaving Dot with no way to express her empathetic sadness.

Dot was sad 'cause Soph was sad.

Her knife was already clean, but Dot still had to really really focus on her fluxweed chopping. Much as she'd like to pay attention to those around her, or to watch Flamsteed spit cookies in people's cauldrons, or whatever. Fluxweed into the cauldron, and then her stirrer went in for careful clockwise stirring. EXACTLY 7... was she more focused today just because she was trying not to be distracted? Weird.

And seven. Dog fur went in next, and Dot declumped the fur across her gloved palm before any sprinkling happened. It was hard to put fur in evenly, just like it was hard to put sprinkles on ice cream evenly. They just wanted to move together, y'know? She did a fair job of sprinkling the fur evenly, although it really WAS impossible without laying the fur out hair by mathematically calculated hair. And she only had the 10 seconds.

And now... SEVEN DAYS? Dot glanced at Culloden to see if he was JOKING or something, but he looked dead serious. Seven days. Okay. Sure, made sense, since you had to drink the potion for seven days too. "How many servings does this make, sir? Exactly seven?"

OHHHH. Duuuuuh. Marigold was wondering why she felt like she was forgetting something. "Recordo," she said hurriedly, waving her wand in a circle. Was it going to be ruined because she had forgotten that step? Well, it had been thirty seconds at most…but was that a different minute? Like, say it was at 40 seconds, 40 + 30 = 1 minute 10 seconds, would that record like a different minute? GAHH. She ruined her chances of PASSING THIS CLASS with ONE BAD MOVE. Garrrr.

It was truly amazing what happened when lights were dimmed, props were given and students started turning in circles. Vomit was summoned, Professors gained the vocal capacities of five year old girls, tickle-wars were instigated, points dropped like altitude from a ripped parachute, desks became safe places of cover and moods plummeted faster than the temperature in the arctic. The only sure thing that could be counted on, was the oozing excess of teenage emotions, angst and drama. It was nice to see that some things, at least, were predictable and constant. Albeit still concerning.

As the lights came back up, and it was revealed that all traces of vomit had been cleaned up, it was as good a time as any for Sabel to return to the desk. Those students with the concerning attitudes got an extra glance on his way, Brown and Fuller-Thompson especially, though Wojack-Gusey's less than enthusiastic mood got a second glance.

Once at the desk, the Defence Professor once again perched on its edge, taken to spinning his wand between his fingers as he listened to, and watched Culloden. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't fully keep the grimace from his expression as the Potions Professor delved right into the thick of Wolfsbane. It was all too clear a reminder as to why it was far from his favorite subject. So many specifics, based on so subjective of measurements. Who was to say everyone counted the same way? Or had the same size of pinches?

It made his head hurt just thinking about all the steps and little details. Each student in participation got his full admiration. In many ways, they had more courage than he did.

For him, his courage would extend to munching on the cookies, trying to remember and recreate the lunar cycle Flamsteed had just gone over. Needless to say, Oreos were distracting to any sort of intention regarding purpose other than consuming them. And consume he did.


While cookie munching didn't require much in the way of concentration, between Flamsteed's muttering and Culloden's mind-numbing instructions, there was some mental relief when the former decided to put his energy towards movement of more than just his lips. Sabel watched the man curiously as he made his rounds.

It took every effort to bite his tongue and swallow the laughter that threatened to bubble up at the man's sneeze and unfortunate look on the closest student's face. He absently wondered if he should grant Atreyu the ability to remove five points from the Professor, for unsantizing his sanitization. After all, weren't sneezes and vomiting one in the same of involuntary reactions?

Best to keep such thoughts to himself. And now was as good a time to delve into his part of the lesson as any.


Stuffing the last cookie in his mouth, Sabel gave Culloden an affable nod of acknowledgement and wordless thanks for the transition. A few chews gave students a few moments to catch up, yes?

Swallowing the last of his snack, Sabel caught his wand and rested it across his knees. The potions instructions were left on the board, for those slow of writing or memory imprint. "So, werewolves."

Should he flash another grin at those more skeptical students he had picked out? Perhaps later.

"Named so for similarities to their wolf brethren, but distinctly different. It is important to remember that werewolves retain distinctive features that are essential in identifying, tracking and trapping them successfully.

If you are ever in doubt, and have the time, you can identify a werewolf by its shorter muzzle, a tufted tail, distinctively human eyes and their unwavering desire to eat you. Unlike their wild cousins, they are not afraid of humans and will give no second thought to attack or consumption, regardless of prior relations or friendship. Hence, as Professor Culloden explained and some of you touched on, the need for the wolfsbane potion."

His eyes tracked over the students, all thought of joking around gone. "And the need for trapping those who, for one reason or another, were unable to receive the benefits of the potion. This, is a focus and priority within the ministry, both for the safety of the general community, and the individual infected themselves."

The wand got another spin, the class another once-over before he hopped off the edge of the desk. "So, what are some ways that the Ministry, or yourselves, could trap or retain a werewolf both safely and ensuring no harm to yourselves or the subject?"

------------------------------------------------
OOC: Howdy all! If your character decides to answer, please provide only ONE suggestion/method. Feel free to be creative with your answers! (The ministry could always use new suggestions )

Also, if you are still finishing up potions, please go right ahead! Sabel knows students are still working away

We will continue in approximately 20-24 hours. Possibly sooner depending on RL schedule and activity/response volume