Capillum lotion sounded very interesting, and it was the first time Zhenya had actually thought about how to protect her DNA from other people. This way, they wouldn't be able to get a hand on her DNA through her hair. What about some flecks of dry skin? Or some stray hairs on the back of her robes? Zhenya looked at the white liquid, hoping she would never have reason to brew such a thing.

Zhenya had a think about what spell she could use for extra safety, but came up blank. HEr brain had just turned to mush and she couldn't think. She yawned and wrote the dot points down from what the others were saying. They were all good ideas, but Zhenya still couldn't think of any suggestions.

There were some very graphic mental pictures happening, and Dot screwed up her face in response to so much of it. Taking body parts? Like an arm? She'd totally notice if someone was trying to sneak off with her ARM, professor.

Hair was a different story.

"I suppose you could be bald, yeah, or you could always wear your hair tied back. But that's just so someone doesn't take something without you knowing. Pretty sure if they tried to take much more than that, I'd notice." She paused. "My mum used to banish the hair she cleaned out of our hairbrushes, and she did that to old toothbrushes too. Zipped it away so no one could steal it. She's sometimes a little paranoid about weird stuff."

As for his second question... Dot considered it with a head tilt before raising her hand. "Oh, professor!" Best friend. "Could we use a shield spell so we don't have to keep CLEANING everything? Keeps stuff from splashing and burning us too."

Was that a smile? It was because of the unicorn charm wasn't it? AJ could tell. Plus, she was pretty sure he was just playing it off. He didn't want to seem TOO happy about it, so he acted like it was nothing at first. Look at him now. So cute. AJ beamed at him, and gave him a knowing wink.

For her next question she actually had no idea. Everybody had taken her answers, and since he was looking for spell answers, she had nothing. Instead she listened to her classmates, and took mental notes. Her favorite kind of notes.

As if potions wasn't already hard enough to keep up with.

Zander was lost. Well not completely lost. He had some stuff written down. Like a bunch of doodles... And something about going bald... And something about avoiding poisons at all costs. Just a lot of somethings... It was really hard trying to take notes while everyone was answering questions and throwing out there own.

Also, Zander had no idea how to answer any of these. He had never really been all too good at this theory stuff. For any class, really. That's why he like Herbology and CoMC. 'Cause as far as those two lessons were concerned, it was all mostly practical stuff in the first place. And that's what potions was supposed to be too. So hopefully this last question thing meant they were going to start brewing soon.

He'd have to ask Sophie Brown for her notes later. Because his were an absolute nightmare. Ahem.

Angel looked at the Professor as he said you couldn't ask them nicely, what if she gave them her best puppy dog eyes maybe that would work and if not then she'd just get her boyfriend to protect her, seeing as she wouldn't be going anywhere without him.

Angel raised her hand and smiled as she looked at the Professor. She was going to try and make him smile, come on Professor you could smile if you wanted to. She knew that for a fact after that weird smile he had given her the first lesson. "How about wingardium leviosa for if there is something wrong with the fire, you can save you potion whilst someone else sorts out the fire that went wrong and then you don't have to restart your potion from scratch."

Benny was paying attention...he swore it. He just wasn't having the best answers come to mind or at least faster then those speaking up before them. The latest question had him thinking though he was distracted as he heard Adi's question. Why did he have that feeling there was a connection to him there in that inquiry? Not that he had exploded anything lately though he had feared the Flamsteed-ruined potion was going to go in that direction.

"How about an extinguishing spell to put out said fires," he suggested going off Angel's suggestion. Teamwork for the win. So what if they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

.

.

At first, Gabriel wasn't sure he'd understood the question. See, he'd ducked his head down at the recognition from his previous answer, busying himself with the customary note-taking. Purely logical...and Dima[/B] earned a small smile after his assist with the hair-loss curse. That was more efficient, for sure, than buzz-cutting your own hair...and less painful than drinking a foul potion. Ingredients pending.

...but then, others were offering up answers...and the following question made a bit more sense. Gabe-brain was a strange thing.

"A bubble-head charm? To protect oneself against noxious odors." If someone was experimenting, then accidents were expected to occur. And a potion-gone-wrong could give off some pretty deadly fumes...aaaaaand if the bubble-head charm could keep someone breathing safely underwater for an extended period of time, then it could protect under these circumstances.

^^

Nailed it.

All Caleb could think of when it came to protective measures was...well, the protective clothing that Culloden had already described. Ugh. This required THINKING outside the box.

Finally after a few minutes of deliberation, he was pretty sure he had a good answer and he raised his hand. "Could you use the bubble head charm to protect yourself from fumes? Or others around you?" he suggested.

Nearly everything from shield charms and other protections to what to do afterward had been suggested in the name of stopping harmful things that could sometimes happen when experimenting. He had some experience experimenting with magic. It was one of the things that helped to keep him focused, although that wasn't why he did it. And depending on the dosage of Whimaway he'd taken that day or how far away from a dosage he was he might not use much precaution at all. However on one or two occasions before he had done the thing he was going to suggest.

Hand went up and the following words ensued. "Before yew even begin puttin' things in yer cauldron, yew can use a revealing charm to sus out the quality of the ingredients yew'll be usin'. Make sure it's definitely what it appears to be and that no other enchantments have been placed upon it." Or you could also use a scale, of the type that tell you the properties of the item being weighed. Like they do with wands. Cutty couldn't remember what the market name for those was at the moment, though and Culloden did say he wanted something in the way of spells.

He... didn't... agree?

Well, then, he was wrong.

Sophie simply shrugged at Culloden's dismissal of what she had to say, and replied back, "I just think the principle of it doesn't make sense. Like, if someone's gonna try to take a hair from you, you're not gonna know about it ahead of time, right? So how can you prepare for something like that... without just living your life paranoid that someone's gonna do that to you? Y'know what I mean? I mean, I guess if you wanna go throughout life completely free of hair to prevent someone from MAYBE deciding they want to use one of your hairs for malicious purposes... then..." she shrugged, "more power to you, I guess. But that just sounds overly cautious to me, and worrying about what might or might not happen so extensively like that just sounds... exhausting. I think it says a whole lot more about a person the way they respond and react to facing that kinda problem when it arises more than living a life of fear for what could or could not happen. That's all I'm sayin'."

The Capillum lotion was cool enough in itself, though, and Soph made avid notes about the potion and its general properties as described by Culloden. A full day of that sounded mega useful, but she still didn't see the practical application of it. And plenty of people offered up safety precautions, but she was still reeling over the fact that he DISAGREED WITH HER. So she kept silent, disgesting this curious turn of events.

Cosgrach liked the answers he was hearing and it showed on his face: he didn't mind the cobwebs so much now, and looked happy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

Safety charms while experimenting

• Impervius Charm
• Shield Charm
• Vanishing Charm
• Tergeo
• Containment Charm
• Extinguishing Spell
• Bubble-head Charm
• Scarpin's Revelaspell

Cosgrach looked at the blackboard and nodded to himself.

"The list is almost complete," he said, "I'd like to draw your attention to the bubble-head charm before teaching you a few more new things. While experimenting, we always use it, clear? Always." He paused for them to note bubble-head charm, then began talking again.

"The cardinal rule of experimenting is, of course, knowing. Know your ingredients and potions theory. Have an idea about amounts and opposite materials. Learn. Without having a good knowledge of potions theory and ingredients, none of these spells would save you."

All clear? He didn't expect all of them to become inventors, of course. However, he did want them to have an idea, and he knew a few of them would follow that path.

"Second, learn these spells and the few I'm going to teach in a moment. Third, wear the right clothing etc - the standard procedures. Fourth, use bubble-head charm. Then, do not panic. Panic only adds to the chaos. If you suspect mixing two - or more, the number doesn't matter - ingredients might be dangerous, mix them in another bowl first with small amounts and observe. Proceed with adding them to the main potion only after you're sure they're not dangerous. A good way to ensure that is using lugal again. It cures the effects of most of the magical poisons when eaten, and it changes to green when it contacts with poisonous liquids. Of course, before lugal was rediscovered, you'd use the revelaspell and a few more things, but now the humankind is saved!" Dramatic? No, not according to a potions enthusiast as Cosgrach Culloden.

Quote:

• KNOW what you are doing
• Mix suspicious ingredients in another bowl and test with lugal (changes to green if the liquid is poisonous)
• Aresto momentum liquor: Same wand movement as the 'aresto momentum' (waving wand). Stops a flowing potion. Requires stronger intent.
• Excito animans: Controls inanimate objects, almost as though it were a puppet. Wand movement is pointing wand at whatever object someone wants to bring to life, and concentrate on that object hard and imagine the object doing what is desired. This is used when you don't want to touch the ingredients. Not necessary, but recommended spell throughout the whole experimenting to avoid contamination.
• Vitare crepitus: Stops small scale explosions. Cast at the beginning of the every experimentation session. Wand movement is a wide circle around the cauldron.
• Congregrabit: Vacuums and concentrates poisonous gas in one place to be vanished. Wand movement is drawing an S in the air while pointing the wand at the said vapour. It can also be used to clear the air after an explosion.

He looked at the blackboard, then back at the students.

"You must be familiar with excito animans and aresto momentum itself," he said, either in transfiguration or in charms, he wasn't sure but SOMEWHERE, "so I'll skip those - unless you are really uncomfortable with it." Were they? The younger students maybe? He paused to hopefully see those who could do with some more practice. "Now, let's work on 'vitare crepitus' incantation without wands first. It's vee-tar-ey cré-pee-toos. Vitare crepitus." He gestured at them to repeat it and listened intently to them. Was there a mistake there?.. Hopefully not.

"Now, the wand movement..." He didn't have a cauldron in front of him, but he pretended that there was, and drew a circle over it.

"Now, combine both if you are comfortable with it... you'll see a small flash of white light when cast correctly." THAT was how they would understand.

"And Congregrabit without wands first... it's 'cong-reh-grab-eet'. Congregrabit." He listened to them again. None stood out... "And now the wand movement..." He drew an S at an imaginary vapour, then observed the class.

"Now, here, coloured vapour for you to practise this spell." He shot a good amount of green vapour from his wand. It wasn't poisonous or anything, of course. It was just for them to see if they managed to cast 'congregrabit' correctly. "I'll give you..." He checked his watch, "fifteen minutes to practise every spell you see on the blackboard now. At the end of the fifteen minutes, we'll move onto the main activity which will be an imitation of an experiment. You can use the tap over there for 'aresto momentum liquor'. Older students may help the younger ones and all that." They knew what to do, he bet this wasn't the first time they were practising spells. He sat down on his chair to observe them.

OOC:

• Practise the spells in this last 'Blackboard' quote.
• One post is enough. There is no maximum amount, but please have mercy on my eyes.
• You can work in pairs or alone.
• The spells that your characters must practise are 'Vitare crepitus' and 'Congregrabit'. They are welcome to practise the others, but it won't earn you any extra credit.
• You have about 22-24 hours to finish this part - practically, until I post again and I can't give an exact time for that, so don't worry about the time much. You can also catch up later (for a little less credit).

Janelle's quill was flying, as she tried to keep up with Professor Culloden's lecture. There was so much information to be written and it was all very important stuff. Janelle tried to make sure that her notes were up to date, but as soon as she caught up, more information was presented.

Janelle looked at all of the spells on the board. She did not know all of them, but she would practice the new ones first and then the ones she was familiar with. Those others.........well, she would have to search out a friendly older student for that.

First she would try Vitare Crepitus. If there was a way to stop explosions, Janelle was all for it. As always, the incantations would be practiced first. Janelle said the words slowly at first. "Vee-tar-ey cré-pee-toos, Vee-tar-ey cré-pee-toos, Vee-tar-ey cré-pee-toos." Once she got the feel of the incantation, she said it faster. "Vitare crepitus, Vitare crepitus, Vitare crepitus." The wand movement seemed much easier. Janelle made a circle around her imaginary cauldron. That part was a piece of cake.

Now it was time to put everything together. Janelle made a circle with her wand and said, "Vitare crepitus". She hadn't really expected to get it right on the first try, but a flash of white light told her that she had done it. Just to be safe, Janelle gave the spell a try again.......just to make sure the first time wasn't a fluke. Fortunately it was not.

Checking her notes, Janelle went on to try the other new spell. Repeating her pattern, she said the incantation. "Cong-reh-grab-eet, Cong-reh-grab-eet, Cong-reh, grab,eet, Congregrabit." "Got it", Janelle thought to her self. With her wand still in hand she practiced the wand movement. She made the S movement several times and when she felt comfortable, Janelle was ready to try the spell for real.

Since Professor Culloden had created a colored vapor for them, Janelle focused her attention on it. Raising her wand, she made and S in the direction of the vapor. Then she carefully said, "Congregrabit." Janelle watched as the vapor kinda sorta flowed into a stream. It wasn't as concentrated as she had hoped and if it was toxic, kinda sorta was not going to cut it. Janelle concentrated and tried it again. "Congregrabit" And the S was made with her wand. This time though, the vapor all came together much better. She decided to kill two birds with one stone and practice the vanishing charm on her vapor. "Evanesco", she said and beamed as the green smoke disappeared.

Janelle checked her watch. She was running out of time for practicing spells. Which one should she try next though? Making her decision, she went over to the faucet and turned on the water. She gave her wand a wave in front of the running water and said, "Aresto momentum liquor" The water stopped, just as Janelle had hoped. It was a good thing that she had practiced Aresto momentum the regular way. That must have made it easier to get the liquor spell right. Now, she just needed someone to help her with the spells she did not know. Janelle looked around for for an older helper.

Oh, spells for EXPLOSIONS? That made loads more sense than some willy nilly use of a Shield Spell? Why did best friend Culloden even put up with her dumb answers sometimes? Dot eagerly picked up her wand, which she generally didn't need this often in the class period, to practice the spells.

She ought to focus on those ones she didn't know, just in case there wasn't enough time to practice everything. Vitare crepitus? Vit... ary creepypants? That didn't seem right, and Dot glanced back at the professor for clarification. "Vit-ar-ay crep-i-tus. Vitare crepitus. Vitare crepitus."

Over and over, Dot tried out the spell until it rolled easily off her tongue, and it wasn't until she was an expert did Dot try out the wand motion. Circle around her cauldron, and again and again. Merlin, Potions was kind of easy when there was Charmswork involved. She tried them together, the motion and the incantation, "Vitare crepitus," and there was a flash of light. Oooo, pretty.

Now for the second one. Congregrabit, which seemed like it should be easier to learn to say. "Con-gre-grab-it. Congre-grabit. Congregrabit." Easy as pie. Or... pie was actually pretty hard, so maybe easy as pudding. Pudding was both easy and delicious. The motion was just an S, facing her, rather than a backwards S facing the professor.

Her wand sliced through the air in a snakey sort of S-shape. This spell would make that vapor disappear? Or would it just clear a little hole? She ought to try it out and see what happened. "Congregrabit," she spoke the incantation and made the S-shape. The vapor immediately in her vicinity was sucked up into the wand, leaving the air clear and her vision unhindered. Whew!

INFORMATION OVERLOAD.

Kate was a Ravenclaw, and by default, she was supposed to be good at these kinds of things. However, she got lost somewhere in the super long discussion and as a result, she lost all the information about knowledge and the spells she needed to know. She did pick up on a few that she absolutely had to practice, though. She'd start there, since she was certain of that.

"Vitare Crepitus," she said. "Vitare Crepitus." Vee-tar-ey Cré-pee-toos. "Vitare Crepitus." Okay, she had that incantation down pat. Now, what was the wand movement? All the facts were getting mixed up with one another now, but she was sure she remembered this one. The S? No, no, no. That was the other one, the one she would practice next. The circle! That was it! Kate drew her wand and moved it in a circle, as if she was circling a cauldron.

Now there was another one he'd demonstrated, which Kate needed to practice next. "Congregrabit," she said, grinning at the sound of the incantation. It was kind of like that flipnsnipwitit incantation. It just seemed kind of made up to the point where she couldn't help but smile. Cong-reh-grab-eet. "Congregrabit," she said again. She'd just reminded herself of the wand movement, which was the one that made the shape of the letter S. She drew her wand again and made the shape of the letter S over an imaginary cauldron.

Now, he'd given them a vapor to practice on, so Kate turned her attention to it. She kind of thought she was ready to really try the spell instead of just practicing the incantation and wand movement separately. She aimed her wand at the vapor then made the shape of the letter S. "Congregrabit," she exclaimed. Nothing happened, which didn't surprise Kate. It was only her first try with the spell, so she hadn't expected immediate success. Nevertheless, Kate decided to try again. "Congregrabit," she exclaimed again. She made the shape of the letter S with her wand, also focusing deeply on the vapor and it condensing into one place to be vanished.

Was it just her imagination, or did the vapor really seem to start to do what she intended it to do? She really thought it had!

More notes on Adi's part. He wasn't missing a single thing. Nuh uh. Especially when he was going to be inventing more potions in the future along with Lux and Ilia probably. Always used the Bubble Head Charm, huh? He wrote that down and underlined 'always' twice. And yesh, he also knew this cardinal rule from all the research he had to do last term for the potion he had invented. Gosh, the HOURS and HOURS of research that went into that! But it all all been worth it.

On with the notes! Adi's personal favourite by far was not panicking. This was something he was good at... unless it involved someone he cared about being hurt. Anyway... gosh! What a ton of notes! The Hufflepuff's left hand was practically speeding along his parchment as he tried to write everything. Who knows but a few years from now he could be referring to them.

But it was time for practice! "Vitare Crepitus, Vitare Crepitus, Vitare Crepitus, Vitare Crepitus.'' Not so bad. Adi took a minute or two longer to ensure he got the incantation right. And the wand movement was a circle? "Vitare Crepitus!'' Circleeeee with the wand! HEYO! A flash of white light! AWESOMEEE!

One spell DOWN!

"Congregrabit, Congregrabit, Congregrabit.'' This took a whole lot longer because Adi has a bit of difficulty with the incantation's pronunciation but soon, he got over that. He pointed his wand at the vapour. "Congregrabit!'' Cue the S shaped movement! And there went the vapour Culloden had produced! It was all going in one place.

Next up, the Puffer practiced the list of spells on the board. It didn't take him long because he was familiar with practically all of them so it was like a brush up for him. He did follow Janelle over to the tap to practice that particular spell, though. "Heya, Janelle. Need any help?'' he asked as he took his turn. The always-so-helpful Adi was hereeee!

Brian had a real talent for zoning out when there was important information being presented, and then wondering what on earth he had missed and whether or not the material had been taught when he was answering exams. This was one of those times when his talent was extremely polished. The Hufflepuff was off in his own head, nodding off and waking up every time his head dropped. Whoops.

He'd come back to the land of the living just soon enough to hear something about stopping explosions. Hmm, sounded useful considering Brian's general inability to do things right. Anyway, if he wanted to avoid explosions, this would be a good time to tune back in, which he did. And they were practicing incantations. That was always his favourite part, because he knew pretty much immediately when he got it wrong. Everything else just had a tendency to not tell him what he was doing wrong and just not work.

"Vitare Creepytus," he said, testing out the incantation. "Vitare Crapitus. Vee-tar-ey cré-pee-toos." There. Third time's the charm! "Vitare Crepitus." Now that he'd kinda gotten it, it was time for the wand movement. WIIIDE CIRCLE. He could draw circles but he was really never sure whether drawing something somewhat oblong would take away from the success of the charm. And he was overthinking it again. Magic was supposed to just work. He wasn't supposed to have so many questions. That was for Ravenclaws. For now, he'd just draw wide circles.

And now it was time to put them together. "Vitare Crepitus," he said, focused super duper hard and drawing a circle around his cauldron. And there wasn't a burst of white light or a flash of it like there was with people around him but Brian was pretty sure he'd seen a flicker. A FLICKER. It wasn't his imagination, right? It kinda worked! He was getting better at the whole magicking thing.

Ah, the bubble head charm. Very nice. That was something that AJ would love to master. It just sounded cool, didn't it? And she liked the fact that the professor was okay with them experimenting as long as they took some precautions. Normally AJ want the precaution type, but she wasn't in the mood to sprout an extra ear or something. Sounded like more drama than she was willing to deal with.

Now, this sounded like she needed to take a little more than mental notes. The lion actually put forth the effort to make notes. This was some stuff that she definitely wouldn't remember days from now. Okay... let's be honest. A few hours from now it would be long gone.

Vitare crepitus. It wasn't exactly a flowing sort of spell. She was going to need to break this down. "vee-tar-ey cré-pee-toos" Pee was there. Hahahaha. Sorry, she was really a child at heart. "VEE tar ey cre PEEEEEE toos." Hehehehe. Get it together, Valentine. "Vitare crepitus" She drew a circle with her wand. WOOT. It worked. Did everybody SEE?

Congregrabit. What's up with the spells being hard to say? It was like they wanted them to fail. She was halfway done though. Better get on it. "cong-reh-grab-eet" Not too bad. Not bad at all really. "Cong reh grab EET." Practice time was over. "Congregrabit" She had an S shape with her wand and was super amazed to see that she had confined the vapor to one area.

Victory was hers. Now, did anybody need any help because AJ would be totes helpful.

Angel now had to practice a couple of spells, did this have anything to do with the homework that they had been given last lesson, were they going to finish of the potion and if so surely that would mean that they were going to make a right potion, but they wouldn't be allowed to use it, or need it so why were they making it. She was very confused about that.

"'Vital crepitus!" Angel decided to practice the wand movement. "'Vital crepitus!" Angel was totally finding this very hard to say and she was looking around for Benny maybe he'd know more about this spell because she had never heard of it. "'Vital crepitus!" Angel sighed this was just not her day today.

Angel practiced the wand movement making sure that she was doing it right, it was an circle, she drew three circles making sure that she had this down right.

Angel then looked at the next spell on the list. "Congregrabit!" Angel smiled this sounded much easier to say. "Congregrabit!" Angel was sure she could do this spell better than the other spell that she was practicing.

Angel then did the wand movement an imaginary S in the sky. she wondered why the incantations couldn't be as easy as the wand movement, she wished that they were because it would make it easier for you to be magical.

Angel know had to put them together. ""Congregrabit!" Angel did the S shape wand movement at the vapour and smiled as she realised that it had worked now for the harder spell she was struggling with.

Angel know took a couple of deep breaths and tried to concentrate. "'Vital crepitus!" Angel then did the wand movement, but nothing happen, She shook her head trying to figure out what was going wrong.

Alright, alright, bubble head charm when experimenting. Tick tick tick. Zhenya wrote down the dot points onto her piece of parchment. There were certainly a lot of spells they could use for extra protection, besides general protective clothing. Zhenya underlined the part about the bubble head charm. This was all vital information for Zhenya, who wanted to continue studying potions. Would. WOULD continue to study potions. It was just what she was going to do; potions. Healing, specifically. By the end of writing everything down, Zhenya's wrist was starting to ache, and she was almost at the bottom of her piece of parchment. Excito animans and aresto momentum, yes, Zhenya knew those spells well.

But now they needed to practice a different spell; vitare crepitus. Zhenya didn't have her wand in her hands, so she commenced with practicing the incantation. "Vee-tar-ey cré-pee-toos," she said a few times, getting a feel of the spell. Once she felt comfortable enough with that spell, it was time to practice the wand movement. She retrieved her wand from her robes, and 'drew' a circle with it, over a 'cauldron', just as Professor Culloden had. And voila, there was a flash of white. So, that spell was to be cast at the beginning of an experiment, to prevent small explosions.

Next spell was Congregrabit. "Cong-reh-grab-eet," Zhenya said a few times, just as Professor Culloden had demonstrated. It took about four times for her to feel confident with the incantation, before she picked up her wand and practiced the 's' shape movement, over pretend vapour. This spell was used for poisonous gasses. Zhenya smiled as Professor Culloden conjured some green vapour for them to practice on. That was cool! "Congregrabit," she said, pointing her wand at a patch of green vapour, doing the 's' shaped wand movement. It seemed to thin out around the area Zhenya was pointing to, but one area became more concentrated. So... that was good. There was an area of high concentrated 'poisonous' vapour, but it was contained.

Once she felt comfortable with those two spells, she went on to revise over the other ones on the board, working from top to bottom. "Anyone need any help?" she asked, to no one in particular. The offer was there if anyone needed it.

Janelle's eyes scanned the room from left to right. She was hoping to find an older student who didn't look too busy. Just as she was about to give up hope on practicing more charms, Adi came to her rescue. Smiling gratefully, she said, "I need some help with the bubble head charm. "Thanks so much for helping me."

Since the Professor said that this charm was always used when experimenting, Janelle knew that it was important to get it right. She turned to Adi and gave him her full attention. She could use all the help she could get.

Awhh, Janelle DID need help and help was what Adi was going to do. He had promised Jasmine to look out for her sister. So far, he would like to think he had done a good job.

The Bubble Head charm? This was one that Adi was reallllly familiar with, having gotten used to it on the last summer's field trip. "Here's what you need to do, Janelle,'' he told he cheerfully. "Move your wand in a counter clockwise direction over the area you want to cover which would be literally your entire face. The incantation is 'Viseo Ebullio'.'' How about a demonstration?

Adi did exactly as he had told Janelle so that a moment later there was a bubble surrounding his big head, covering from his chin to his hair. He grinned at her from under the thing. She could still hear him loud and clear, which was a pretty cool trick of the bubble. "It's not that hard to do. When you want to get rid of it, just tap it and say 'Finite'.'' Again Adi demonstrated and with a POP! the bubble was gone. "Your turn, Janelle.'' He nodded encouragingly.

Janelle listened as Adi explained about the incantation and wand movement for the bubble head charm. She made sure to add the information to her notes, then she watched he gave her a demonstration. It looked so easy when Adi did it, but Janelle was pretty sure that the charm was not that simple.

"OK, I'll give it a try", she replied. Janelle gave the incantation a whirl first, just to make sure she had the words right. "Vee-say-oh E-boo-lee-oh, Vee-say-oh E-boo-lee-oh, Viseo Ebullio" That part wasn't too bad.....by itself anyway. She had kind of gotten used to the crazy, tongue twister words used in incantations. Now Janelle took her wand and made a counter clockwise movement around her face. If she could just put the two parts together, maybe she could make this bubble head happen.

Janelle concentrated on the bubble that she wanted to make around her head. Then she made the counter clockwise circle around her face and head. "Viseo Ebullio", she said with as much authority as she could muster. Before Janelle knew it, there was a bubble surrounding her head. It didn't look quite as good as Adi's, but it was a start.

"I did it! Thanks Adi. You're a great teacher. Now I just need to keep practicing until my bubble looks as good as yours." Figuring she needed to go over the charm again, she pointed the wand at her bubble and said, "Finite"

Such a Ravenclaw Janelle was! Adi approved of her taking down notes. Those were bound to come in useful for later on. Also, her paying attention to him was very encouraging for him too for it actually made him feel useful.

He waited patiently as she practiced the incantation, nodding at intervals. Yep, Janelle had this down! Adi was sure of that! "You can do it.'' Now he would just shut up and let the second year concentrate. Go, go, go, Janelle!

And went, went, went she did! Sort of. Hehe. The point was, she now had a bubble over her face! WOOOOT! "Awesome job, Janelle! You're a lot better at spell work than I was when I was a second year.'' This was true. Awwh, don't make his head swell. "It was nothing but you're welcome.'' It was great to hear he was a good teacher because this was part of what he wanted to do for his career. "I think you've got a pretty good looking bubble.'' He grinned. "If you need help with anything else, I'm right around here.''

Culloden was talking a lot, but at least he was no longer basically insisting that there were bad people going around poisoning everyone. Toby counted that as a win for himself in THIS discussion. Huzzah.

In any case, Toby WAS getting all this down, because regardless of how he felt about all his professors being super paranoid, he still loooooooooooved potions, and the theory about experimenting was super exciting, and WOULD THEY BE EXPERIMENTING TODAY???

Well. Not yet, obviously, because apparently they would be doing an IMITATION experiment and that was enough for Toby. He quickly scribbled down the spells and notes from the board, ready to get started. As soon as Toby put his quill down, the wand came out and he was ready to practice. Hopefully the fact that he had the Impervius Charm on him wasn't cheating or anything. OKAY, SO... green smoke stuff was a GO, so there was no time like the present.

Bubblehead charm first, of course, because Culloden was on about how important that one was earlier, and Toby had learnt how to cast it recently, and somewhat perfected the spell during his NEWT studying.

"Viseo Ebullio," Toby said, drawing his wand in a counter-clockwise circle around his entire face, protecting his eyes, mouth, and nose. The result was amusing, as always, and Toby felt like he'd just stuck his face inside one of those muggle blowing bubbles, except super big.

"AaaaaAAAAaahHHHHHH," the Hufflepuff intoned, trying to see if it would make a weird echo-y noise, before remembering his ears were still outside the bubble, so he didn't get the full effect. WELP. Next time he'd bubble up his entire head. Nevertheless, the green vapour was kept away by the bubble, so the spell totally did its job. Nice.

That done, Toby pressed the tip of his wand into the bubble, hoping to pop it, forgetting that it never actually worked that way. "Finite," he said instead, and the bubble POPPED, and his face was free.

Next up, one of the newer spells. There was no explosion to practice on, or poisonous gas, but OBVIOUSLY he was going to practice them. Because... that's what they'd been told to do.

"Vitare Crepitus, Vitare Crepitus," Toby muttered to himself, checking his notes to make sure he was getting the pronunciation right. And circling his wand over an imaginary cauldron, right? Okay. Here goes, then. "Vitare Crepitus."

...................... There was... a very long pause. Long enough that Toby reasonably figured that the spell hadn't actually worked. He was just opening his mouth to say the incantation again when small but BRIGHT flash of white light happened. HEY! SUCCESS! Well... kinda. Toby knew that in an actual situation with an exploding potion, that delay would be significant enough that the spell may as well not work. It needed to be instantaneous. BUT. BRIGHT SIDE. IT HAD WORKED.

He'd get back to that one in a minute, and try to get it so the spell happened a little quicker, but for now Toby would try the other new spell. How did it go again?

"Cong-reh-...grab-eet..." he said, again reading from his notes before speeding up the incantation until it was at normal talking speed. "Cong-reh-grab-eet... Congregrabiiiiiit. Congregrabit." Now he had that down, Toby drew an S in the air at the green vapour, sans incantation at the moment. Yeeee, that wand movement was simple enough. Altogether then.

"Congregrabit!" Toby made an S shape in the air, and then dramatically brandished his wand at the vapours around him, unable to stop himself from making 'VVVRRRRMMMMMMM' vaccuum noises at the same time. This time, the spell worked instantaneously, and kept working right up until a few seconds later when Toby lost concentration. COOL. Now he should... probably work on those other spells.

Alright so some of the questions had been accepted, though his appeared to have fallen short because Professor Culloden had seemingly ignored it. Oh well, he was still learning this subject after all. Benny copied the latest addition to the list down into his notes before paying attention to what was being said on the bubble-head charm. The Gryffindor remembered that spell from the field trip over the summer, the older students like himself having cast it on themselves so they could swim underwater.

Then there was the cardinal rules of experimenting and Benny was sure to write them down all as well. Who knew if they would be lucky to have even if one wasn't experimenting? Especially with his experiences in brewing. Knowing...learning...right clothing...bubble-head charm. They seemed pretty straight-forward and the sixth year absently nodded as he understood what was being talked about.

When they moved on to more spells, he couldn't help but wonder of this was going to be the entent of their lesson and final. All these questions and practicing spells. "Vitare crepitus," Benny said aloud, his wand still secure in his pocket as he tried to get the incantation right. "Vitare crepitus...ee-tar-ey cré-pee-toos... Vitare crepitus," That was the small explosion spell stopper...right? A quick glance at his notes confirmed it and the sixth year deemed this the potentially more important spell of the two.

"Vitare crepitus."

Now he had to do a circle over the open space. Oh wait...this was potions...and they had done circular motions over cauldrons before. He slipped his wand out of his pocket to see if he could get it to work. "Vitare crepitus," he cast again, this time moving his wand in a circular motion up over his cauldron.

White flash.