It felt like Maggie LIVED in the Potions Laboratory lately. Along with a few others. Which didn't really make it any better. How DUMB was this? Babysitting a fire basically. All she did was check in regularly to make sure the fire under her cauldron hadn't gone out. But somehow she didn't really trust anyone else to keep it alive. And then all that work on her potion would have been for nothing. So naturally she came by every day.

For seven days.

Finally, the last day had come.

If all these cobwebs and general grossness of the castle had taught them something it was that everyone probably EXCELLED at performing the cleaning spell now. So not even focusing properly, Maggie successfully used Scourgify on her desk and gloves before putting the latter on. Okay. Now. It was TIME. To add the knobberknoll feathers. Wait. Only seven?

OH. This was a joke right? It had to be!

She had to do the WHOLE THING AGAIN???? The whole checking in every day. Seriously? SERIOUSLY???????? For a moment she was so tempted to have Zander do it for her. Like. To have that be the thing he owed her. But after a moment of just glaring at her cauldron, Maggie sighed and simply added the seven knobberknoll feathers. One by one. There was definitely something better to have Zander do than check on her fire every day.

Seeing as she'd already noted the time seven days ago, Maggie simply wrote down the date. Alright. Seven more days of checking in on her fire. SIIIIIIIIIIIGH!


......and that's what she did. Every day. For seven days. Making sure her fire hadn't gone out.

Great way to spend her time. Awesome really. But eventually the seventh day had come and this time she KNEW it was the last time she would have to do the babysitting thing. This time she'd checked the rest of the instructions. Phew. Okay. She'd completed the worst part. So on the seventh day Maggie came back, about half hour before she would have to add the rest of the feathers. So she had enough time to clean her desk and all her tools.

This was going to take a while.

It was almost time to add the feathers but Maggie STILL hadn't found a teaspoon for one of the next steps. REALLY??? Looking around the room, she finally spotted someone from her own house (Cutty)and after a moment of contemplation made her way over to him. "Hey." They hadn't really interacted much but he better know who she was. "Do youuuuu maybeee have a teaspoon I could borrow?" What would also be really cool was if he could just add the bile for her too.

Like. That would be awesome. Ahem.

Angel was confused, she was very annoyed, she didn't like waiting, she really had few things to do whilst she waited for the seven days to happen, she hoped the person who found this potion actually went crazy.

Angel looked at her potion, why did everything have to be seven, she used to like the number seven but at the minute she hated the number and the person who made this potion.

Angel added in seven of the Jobberknolls into the potion and then realised that it meant more waiting, this was going to drive her crazy, well more crazier than she was at the minute. She just hoped that everything would get done and dusted without anymore waiting after this time.

Like clockwork, every day for the last seven days, AJ had come to the potions lab just to check on her complicated little diva of a potion. There wasn't anything major to do. She just came and made sure the flame didn't go out. Luckily for her all was well each day. To add a bit of spice, she would sing to it or whisper sweet nothings into its bubbly little ear. Well, you know... if her potion had ears.

Finally the day had come for her to move on. Something exciting this way comes. At least she hoped so. If she only got to add one ingredient and then had to wait a week again she was... she was... she would just have to take it. She wouldn't be happy about it though. Nope. Couldn't make her that.

Coming in with clean hands, she slipped them into equally clean gloves. Now. What to do? AJ looked over her notes a few times because SO much was invested into this. She eyed her watch. Exactly the right time.

Okay. First things first, she needed more feathers. Sweet baby unicorns, how many feathers did one potion really need? This one in particular needed seven more. Bloop, bloop, bloop they went until all seven of them were in the potion. AJ put the burner on medium heat.

So far, so good.

Everything seemed like it was going okay so far... Though, uh... It was the hardest potion every (basically) so Zander wasn't all too confident. Which definitely meant his potion wasn't going to turn out perfectly. A boy could dream though, y'know?

Ahem.

Anyways, he checked again to make sure that his flame was at a medium level (which, HEY it was), before reading the next few steps. Armadillo bile. Got it. The Prefect reached over the counter for his next ingredient, taking out a teaspoon to help with measurements. So uh, he was supposed to put all this stuff in... Right? Right. Or well, he'd assume it was right. Heh. Wolfsbane. More like Whatapain, right? HA HA he cracked himself up.

Speaking of which (or not really) Armadillo bile. In it went, one tea spoon at a time just like the instructions asked for (even though some of it managed to spill out of the teaspoon as he went to pour). Also, Armadillo bile sounded pretty vile. Was Zander the only one who thought so? Because blegh.

After all of that was taken care of, he pulled out his metal stirrer (NOT the wooden one) and gave it a quick scourgify before dipping it into the cauldron. He payed special attention to the instructions here (because apparently if you stir the wrong way bad things happen and you may end up with a cheering potion instead of a wolfsbane one... or something like that). Seven counter clockwise. Right he could do that.

One..... Counter clockwise.... Three.... Counter clockwise.... A few counter clockwise in between... Six.... SEVEN. Good. That was easy.

Next was that Runespoor egg, right? Merlin... Where did he put that?

It had been two weeks since she had started on the wolfsbane potion. Two extremely long weeks. And she had been battling a cold or something for the past few days. She came by and checked on the flame everyday for the last seven days.

So unlike last time, she wasn't running. No. Nope running. She wasn't in a rush this time. In fact she started out early heading down to the potions lab. Watery eyes and a sore throat wasn't stopping her from finishing her homework.

Aaaaaacccchhhoooooo.

Ughhhh.

She headed into the potions lab. Finding her cauldron she was glad to see that the flame was still going and where it needed to be. She had enough time to blow her nose. She washed her hands and went back to her work station. Getting the other seven jobberknoll feathers. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7.

Cough. Cough cough.

She turned her head not wanting to cough into her cauldron. Merlin knows what kind of mess that would cause. She would probably really fail. Not like she was probably going to fail anyway. So did it even matter?

Turning back to the instructions she read the next step to turn the heat on medium heat. She wiped her watery eyes. No she wasn't crying. Yet. Turning flame to medium heat.

The sixth year looked back down at her notes and instructions. It was hard to read these went she was feeling as bad as she did. She cleaned the tea spoon measuring spoon and scooped up one tea spoon of the Armadillo bile and added it to the cauldron.

HE WAS MISSING THE RUNESPOOR EGGS.

Someone dial the emergency hotline! Call the wizard cops! Don't just stand there, DO SOMETHING!!!

Oh wait. They were sitting on Culloden's desk, weren't they? Uhum. Right. He knew that all along. That's a relief. Zander was totally close to having a meltdown. It's a good thing he remained so calm and didn't jump to any conclusions whatsoever. Thank Merlin he isn't at all dramatic. It pays off to have a calm kid around. 'Cause that's definitely Zander Adair. Cool, calm, and collected. Always. His very own 3 C's of potion making.

.... Right.

Getting up from his workstation, the Gryffindor walked over to get the Runespoor egg concoction thing before walking back to his cauldron and dropping it in there. So that was step fourteen down... Which meant he had to wait seven minutes. Which would take a while so he was gonna just not stare at the clock and instead whi out the last few ingredients for the potion just to make sure everything was ready. Sevenish minutes later (and not seven seconds later because oops?), Zander looked into his cauldron once more. So uh, it looked like a potion? That was a good sign. But he didn't know anything else. How were they supposed to know how much progress they had made. Or if it was right?

They wouldn't.

Or at least Zander didn't think he could tell. So moving on. "Recordo," he practiced the incantation slowly, "Ré-core-DOH". There. "Recordo! Alright. And what was the wand movement again...? Uh. He really had to dig deep to remember this one. It had something to do with the moon, right? WAIT YES. Exactly. A full moon. It was a circle! He was READY. "Recordo!" he drew a circle over the potion and everything. HEH.

.... Except he was missing the most important part and he just now remembered. There was a memory involved. A really strong one. Which meant it had to have tons of emotional value. Which meant... Sad or really happy. Which meant, y'know. He was gonna use the same memory he had used with his failed patronus attempt. Maybe it wasn't strong enough for his patronus, but it could be strong enough for the potion? Who knew. Not Zander. That's who.

So this time, he held his wand up for real. Trying to think about his happy memory as hard as he could before, "Recordo!" Drawing the circle carefully and everything. That seemed to do it... Maybe? He wasn't actually sure. Uh. Moving on.

For his last bit: the aconite roots. In they went. One by one. Every last one of 'em. Until he had gotten rid of all seven.

Now uh, he was done right?

Aaaaaaaaaccccccchhhhhhoooooooo.

The sixth year sneezed into the inner part of her elbow. She quickly grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. She casted scourgify. Or was that a thing? Life's many questions. And while she was at it she quickly casted
scourgify on the spoon she just used as well as the stirrer that she was going to use next to stir the potion. To be on the safe side she scourgified her whole work area. STUPID COLD!!!!

Cinna took the stirrer and stirred the potion. 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... You know there was a lot of sevens in this potions. 7 days another 7 days. 7 stirs. Seven seven seven SEVEN. How about seven steps because this potion took wayyyy to long to make. She was going to need seven YEARS of sleep after this. Between this and her being sick 7 years of sleep sounded pretty good.

Runespoor egg, whisked. Hmm where what that? Oh. She seen it and zombied her sick self over to collect it. Good thing it was all already whisked. She wouldn't have to worry about sneezing in it the eggs or anything.

She looked down at the instructions to see the next step. Wait seven minutes and seven seconds. AGAIN what was up with all the sevens. Anyway, seven minutes and seven seconds. That sounded like a perfect time to take a quick nap. She sat her timer to seven minutes and sat her wand in front of her. So she's be ready when the timer went off. Seven seconds to grab her wand and cast the charm. Cinna laid her head down and closed her eyes.

Riiiiiiiinnnnng she jumped up and grabbed her wand. Man those seven minutes went by way to fast. She counted the seven seconds and casted "Recordo." Over the cauldron. Adding the aconite roots one by one. Of course there was seven of those. No surprise there. 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7. Now there should be faint blueish color smoke anytime now.

Come on faint blue smoke, or she might faint.

Armadillo bile. Now THAT sounded interesting. A curious girl such as AJ just couldn't help but to take a few sniffs. What would that hurt? Nothing. Nothing at all. Her nose was totes clean, and it wasn't like she was going to touch it with anything other than her gloves. What could go wrong? Seven was the lucky number especially for this potion.

With a clean teaspoon, AJ poured the bile in it. Sniiiiif. Hmm. Not bad. She was expecting an eye watering, stomach turning sensation, but it actually wasn't that bad. She didn't want to wear it as perfume or anything, but it was all right.

One. Sniff. Two. Sniff, sniff. Three all the way to seven. There! Seven teaspoons of armadillo bile. A smirk played across her face as she thought about somebody actually having to drink this. Hehehehe... Potions was so much fun.

Guess how many times she had to stir the potion? Did you guess seven? Because that was right. Ding. Ding. Ding. Tell them what they've won. Her mind was wandering again. She was so close to the end that she couldn't mess up. Not now. "Scougirfy!" AJ couldn't remember if she had cleaned the metal stirrer earlier or not, but now she was sure it was safe to use.

Stir, Stir, Stir.

Seven times counter clockwise she went. Next, she needed the egg. A Runespoor egg to be exact. They were off on the desk. AJ walked over and grabbed her one. Sniff. Nothing to write home about. The egg was dropped into the liquid.

According to her notes, she now had to wait seven minutes and seven seconds. HAHAHAHA. This was too much. For a minute she wondered is Cosgrach was pulling their legs. Prank potion? It was just TOO funny to her. Waiting however was NOT funny. She hated it. She hated it with a passion.

The first few minutes passed with her drumming her fingers on her workstation. She added a little head bang and rocked out to a song that nobody else could hear. Looking at her watch, she noticed that it had been seven minutes.

One mississippi... two mississippi...

Ready! "Recordo!" The circular motion with her wand was made. Aconite roots were the last thing that needed to be added. One by one they went until all....

seven of them were in there. Was the suspense killing you yet? AJ scanned her notes one last time. She was done. WOOT! Taco time.

She had managed to escape from Silver and Valentina. She appreciated her friends, she did, but when they (mostly Silver) worried over her it made Beverly squirm. She was okay. Relationships had their ups and downs and hers was currently...somewhere. She didn't even know.

Glad to move away from that topic, the Prefect found herself in the Potions Lab, seven Jobberknoll feathers in her hand. She added them in carefully. There was no room for mistakes. When that was done she checked the time and jotted it down, and decided to stay and watch the potion brew for a moment. This was nice. Clarity.

Maybe she'll come in here for just that. To clear her mind.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Beverly did just that. Every day until the seven days were up. Checking over the flame to make sure it didn't go down or completely out. The potion also seemed to stay as it was. No thick bubbling or anything of the kind.

Good good.

Taking and counting seven feathers in her hand, she dropped them in, following the instructions about timing. That was important. No need for sticky goo coming alive in her cauldron.

The best thing about this Wolfsbane Potion brewing? Since some steps had to be done after EXACTLY seven days, down to the minutes and seconds, it could totally get him out of other classes. After all, Professors weren't allowed to interfere in his homework with their teaching.

Hehe. Scooooore.

Potions notebook in hand, Dima entered the laboratory. Where was Norah? As far as he knew, her potion was supposed to be seven days past today, too. He would have waited for her to perform his own steps, but the deadline for his concoction was fast approaching. In a MINUTE, actually.

Rushing over to where he'd left his cauldron and breathing out a bit in relief when he saw the flame still burning, the fourth year opened his notebook to the dog-eared page. His eyes scoured the notes for the last step he'd checked off, and... there! Right below the dog fur step was the waiting instruction. Happily ticking it off, Dima took out his potions kit. Seven Jobberknoll feathers in hand, and he glanced at the clock again. As the minute hand moved again, the feathers floated into his cauldron, and Dima began packing up after checking the flame once more.

Huh. Maybe he'd see Norah back here in a week? But he REALLY needed to get back to glass, or that professor would have his head. He rushed out.

Next was the Runespoor egg. Leaving his potion for a minute, Caleb walked up to the front and got himself 7 grams of whipped egg from the front desk where it sat prepared for them. He then went back to his potion and looked up at the clock. He waited until it was at the top of the minute, and then added the egg.

Now to wait 7 minutes, and 7 seconds...Caleb did not stop watching the clock once during that time. He wanted to be sure he got it RIGHT on the dot and not a second more. This potion was seriously starting to open his eyes to how TOUGH his mum's job had been back in the day. He had no idea how she did it. She must have been like SUPER smart.

Alright, it was time! He took his wand and pointed at the cauldron, shouting "Recordo!" as he did so. Now...the roots, and he was DONE.

At least, he hoped it was done. If it wasn't...he'd learn in a moment, wouldn't he?

He took the first root and added it with a PLOP in the potion. Then another. And another...finally, all seven were added one by one. Now, to wait and see if it let out blue smoke...

Norah held her bag close to her chest as she raaaaaaced to the potions laboratory. COMIN' THROUGH, FOLKS. IMPORTANT BUSINESS. The important business was kind of potions related ISH, because the potion needed to be timed exactly right and all that, but mostly it was Dima related because you couldn't just leave a friend waiting. That was probably the worst idea ever. And also mean. And lame. So pretty much, no.

When she was finally through the door of the laboratory, she blew a curly strand of hair from in front of her eyes. Had that been a Dima shaped blur that'd she'd just ran past? How was she supposed to KNOW if it was just a blur? Blurs were hard to make out, alright? Even when she had her glasses on, which she didn't, so it was especially unfair. That bit was her fault if you really thought about it, but it wasn't exactly the type of thing she wasted time on pondering when there was important running business to attend to. The fourth year tried to picture the dima!blur as she walked over to her cauldron that was still over a flickering flame. THANK MERLIN. Ahem. She knew it would work out. She pulled her crumpled parchment of notes from her bag and smoothed it on the table, along with her potions kit. Aaaaand another glance at the door. Was he still on his way or something? Stupid blur. It ruined everything. Squinting at the list of steps, she located the next one on the list. Jobberknoll feathers. COOL BEANS.

She dropped 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 feathers into the liquid, then checked the doorway and her notes one more time. Still no Dima. Aw, man. The blur probably HAD been him and she hadn't even said hi to him or anything. But on the bright side she had a whole entire week before she had to come back again and do the whole brewing thing. With another glance at the door, clock, and flame, Norah packed her bag right back up again and walked out. It was only then that she realized she hadn't put on gloves before the entire thing. EH, her hands were probably clean....ish...right? Right.

SPOILER!!: Notes!

Wolfsbane Potion.
For werewolves and stuff. RAWR. Drink an entire gobletful every day for an entire week before the full moon and the whole thing will hurt less and the werewolf can keep thinking like a person. Apparently it's really hard. Or something.
Ingredients
• 1 glass regular cow milk
• 1 measure fluxweed, full-moon-picked
• 1 handful tame dog's neck fur
• 14 Jobberknoll feathers
• 7 teaspoons armadillo bile
• 7 grams Runespoor egg, well-whisked
• 7 aconite roots

Procedure
• clean BRASS cauldron
• fill cauldron fully with water
• separately heat milk for three minutes on medium flame
• add milk to cauldron once heated
• set burner to low flame
• clean knife
• chop fluxweed and add to cauldron
• clean metal stirrer
• stir seven times clockwise
• sprinkle dog fur evenly (should take approx. 10 seconds)
• wait exactly seven days without letting flame go out
• add seven Jobberknoll feathers
• wait another seven days without letting flame go out
• add remaining Jobberknoll feathers
• set burner to medium heat
• add armadillo bile one teaspoon at a time
• clean metal stirrer
• stir seven times counterclockwise
• add whisked Runespoor egg to potion
• wait seven minutes and seven seconds
• cast Recordo spell
• add aconite roots one by one
note: potion should exude a faint blue smoke

He WAS the Dima blur that had passed Norah, but Dima had been in such a rush to get to class that he hadn't even bothered to say hi (which he felt really bad about). Still, he was SURE he'd see Norah next week, because there were a lot more steps to do that time.

When he arrived, he set up camp by his brass cauldron again. The clock was watched very closely until it was time for him to dump in more feathers with clean hands, and then in they went. All of them. After that, he set his burner to medium heat, per the carefully transcribed instructions in his notebook. He'd let it heat up a bit and get the heat into the potion before moving on.

PLUS, he was sorta waiting for Norah, ya know.

So. Potions homework.

Toby was starting off at a disadvantage, he knew, because over that whole disastrous P.A.D. lesson he'd ended up just zoning out and not even trying at all. Which, yes, filled him with a LOOOOOOOOT of guilt, but he had a PLAN now. And after speaking with Culloden (and apologising profusely, as was his way), Toby was ready to put it into action. It was a good job his plan meant not waiting exactly seven days to the minute, because he'd not even written that down. Honestly, how that lesson had turned out like that, Toby had no idea. But he tried not to think about it much, and in return, his brain made all the memories of it completely fuzzy.

Upon reaching the potions lab, the first thing Toby did was to find his slapdash 'attempt' at the wolfsbane potion, take one look at it, and vanished the lot with 'evanesco'. Yep. Starting over, because there was no way that the last lot was at all salvageable; Toby thought Culloden probably agreed with him, hence letting him start over.

"Scourgify... scourgify..." Toby cast at the brass cauldron, making extra sure it was clean before he started. Yep. Going to totally make up for things, right here, right now. He got out his notes from the potion (not his notes from class, but ones he'd written up when he'd looked into the potion in his own time), and set up his potions kit, the ingredients, and the glass for the milk, his knife, and the metal stirrer (all of which got cleaned with 'scourgify' as well).

He was extra careful this time, found it much easier to be attentive for REASONS. It helped that he was determined to get it all totally right.

First up, the milk. From a cow (#moo). Toby liked that part. He measured out a full glass of cows milk into the nice sparkly CLEAN glass and set it up over a burner, before using his wand to light a flame which he set on medium. While that did its thing, he pointed his wand into the cauldron and said, "Aguamenti."

It took only a short while for the cauldron to fill with water, though it never took very long for Toby to get antsy. He looked between the cauldron and the glass of milk while he waited for it to fill, and bounced a little on the balls of his feet. But he would not get distracted. NOPE. Would not.

When the cauldron was full, Toby set his wand down and picked up the glass of milk, it was very warm to the touch, but nothing he couldn't handle. He added the milk to the cauldron of water, picked up his wand again to turn the flame from medium to low, then caaaaarefully moved the cauldron so it was over the flame.

Now Toby turned his attention to the fluxweed. His knife was already clean, but he scourgified it again, before laying it out on his chopping board and making quick but mildly clumsy work of chopping it up. He supposed that seeing as it needed to be chopped WELL, it didn't matter SO much about how neat and even it was, but he still tried to make it so nevertheless. He tried. There was an attempt. Once it was as well chopped as he could get it without turning it into a weird mush, Toby picked up his wand again.

"Wingardium Leviosa." And into the cauldron it went. Next, stirring. Toby grabbed the clean metal stirrer and side-stepped a little so he had better access to the cauldron, then lowered the stirrer into the liquid and stirred one... two... three... four... five... six... seven times, all of them clockwise. Just ONE more ingredient and he'd have caught up and could actually START the homework. Well. In seven days.

Sprinkling the dog fur would be difficult with the Levitating Charm, and Toby considered things for a moment before finally going into his bag to look for his dragonhide gloves. Mainly he wanted to avoid touching as many of the ingredients with his bare hands as he could, no matter how clean his hands were, for CONTAMINATION reasons (of course it couldn't be helped when you had to cut up the ingredients, because touching was bound to happen, but STILL). In the end, he only found one glove. But that was all he needed.

After pulling the glove onto his hand, Toby took up the handful of dog hair and sprinkled it over the surface of the potion, trying hard not to get it anywhere but inside the cauldron. Difficult with one hand, but not impossible. And then... HUZZAH! There it was. Now he just had to wait for EXACTLY seven days. Easy.

Toby checked the time on his watch, pulled off his glove, and made a note of the exact minute, hour and day in his notes, so he would get it perfect (and even tapped his wand to the ink, to make it RED and NOTICEABLE). After updating the rest of his notes, Toby packed all his stuff away and double-checked his potion to see how it looked. Not that he knew how it was MEANT to look, but... it was definitely better than the sludge that had been his last attempt.

"Alright. See you in seven days."

And with that, he saluted the potion, and left.

One entire week later, here she was. Again. It was kind of a miracle she'd even remembered but once again there was Dima business to attend to so really Norah did have a reason for showing up. Well, Professor Culloden was a reason too, 'cause he was cool and that meant she did her homework like a good person 'n all that. But friends came first. Don't tell him she said that, he might yell like that time with the puberty. Heheheh. Ahem. The MISSION. RIIIIGHT.

The fourth year was wearing her glasses this time, so it only took a quick scan upon entering the room to find Dima and wiggle into position behind her own brass cauldron. "Hiya, Dima." She BEAMED at him as she took out her potions kit and put on a pair of clean gloves. SHOW TIIIIIME. She dropped the last seven jobberknoll feathers into the cauldron, then fiddled with the burner to bring the flame to a medium heat. She shot the Ravenclaw a grin before leaning over to cross those steps off in her notes. He was good at this stuff, right? Ravenclaws were good at everything, it was practically a rule. Norah wrinkled her nose as she measured out seven teaspoons of armadillo bile, adding them one at a time with a flourish of her hand because potions was far more exciting when she had an AUDIENCE. Well, not really an audience, but a Dima that was more than just a Dima!blur totally counted for something.

She chanced a peek into Dima's cauldron just to check if she was doing it right, then picked up her wand to cast "Scourgify!" on a wooden stir stick. She dipped the stick into the potion and squinted down at her notes once she'd completed one counterclockwise stir. How many stirs was it, again? Wait. WAIT. Clean METAL stirrer? Norah suddenly began to hum much louder than was necessary as she switched out the wooden stir stick with a metal one which she cleaned with a hurried, "Scourgify!" in a sing-song voice. La la la NOTHING TO SEE HERE. Just a TRAGEDY. She would NOT let her cheeks go all red in front of Dima, no no no. Nothing had happened. Obviously. OBVIOUSLY. She stirred the potion six times counterclockwise with the metal stick, then added one more just in case that first one with the wooden stick hadn't counted. Nothing had exploded yet. That was good, right? Maybe nobody would even know.

SPOILER!!: notes

Wolfsbane Potion.
For werewolves and stuff. RAWR. Drink an entire gobletful every day for an entire week before the full moon and the whole thing will hurt less and the werewolf can keep thinking like a person. Apparently it's really hard. Or something.
Ingredients
• 1 glass regular cow milk
• 1 measure fluxweed, full-moon-picked
• 1 handful tame dog's neck fur
• 14 Jobberknoll feathers
• 7 teaspoons armadillo bile
• 7 grams Runespoor egg, well-whisked
• 7 aconite roots

Procedure
• clean BRASS cauldron
• fill cauldron fully with water
• separately heat milk for three minutes on medium flame
• add milk to cauldron once heated
• set burner to low flame
• clean knife
• chop fluxweed and add to cauldron
• clean metal stirrer
• stir seven times clockwise
• sprinkle dog fur evenly (should take approx. 10 seconds)
• wait exactly seven days without letting flame go out
• add seven Jobberknoll feathers
• wait another seven days without letting flame go out
• add remaining Jobberknoll feathers
• set burner to medium heat
• add armadillo bile one teaspoon at a time
• clean metal stirrer
• stir seven times counterclockwise
• add whisked Runespoor egg to potion
• wait seven minutes and seven seconds
• cast Recordo spell
• add aconite roots one by one
note: potion should exude a faint blue smoke. I don't know what exude means, but I guess I'll find out.

And there she was! "Hi, Norah!" Now he had a buddy to keep him company during.... this.

With a new spring in his figurative step, Dima measured out seven teaspoons of armadillo bile from his potions kit. He split it up into sevenths again, so each teaspoon of the bile was isolated, then added them one by one to the cauldron. After casting a quick Scouring Charm on his metal stirrer, he lowered it into the cauldron and began stirring. One, two, three.... SEVEN times counterclockwise! Ta-da! He pulled out the stirrer and set it on a waiting napkin beside his cauldron.

And.... was Norah using WOOD? O_O

It looked like she realized her mistake after one stir, but was that going to affect the potion? "Uh... I think, back in our first year, Culloden told us that stirring the other way with the same stirrer, like, canceled out that stir. Negated it or something. Maybe?" He really wasn't sure at ALL. "D'you think that one stir will change it?"

If not, he'd just pour half his potion into an empty cauldron and let Norah say it was hers and that they both spilled some, which could explain why their quantity was less. But that was only assuming HE could brew it right, which....... was not likely. Dima wasn't the brightest 'claw in the next, okay?

Oh. He HAD noticed, then. Whoooops. Norah grinned sheepishly at the Ravenclaw and gave a half shrug, as if it didn't really matter as opposed to the reality that her whole entire PLAN to impress Culloden was RUINED. Well, she hadn't had a plan before right then but now that it was ruined it seemed that she'd grown rather attached to it. It was strange how that happened sometimes. Maybe if she blamed it on...PUBERTY...Culloden would understand. Apparently he was an expert on that stuff. Heh. FOCUS, KITTREDGE. "Oooooh, I'll try that." She didn't even try to cover up the fact that she was completely in awe of Dima's GENIUS, and the fact that he'd remembered something all the way from first year because she could barely even remember what she'd learned in class two days before. There were just too many subjects, it really wasn't her fault. Picking up the wooden stir stick again, she did a clockwise stir with it, then set it down on the table. TA DA! "I guess we won't know if it worked till the end. I'll cross my fingers and toes." It kind of stunk that she couldn't actually cross anything and make a potion at the same time, but Culloden would be even less happy if she knocked the cauldron over or something.

The fourth year headed to the desk next, and retrieved seven grams of the whisked egg stuff for herself, and another seven grams for Dima. "There you go," she said, grinning as she set his portion down on the desk. She owed him something for helping her out, right? That tip was probably the smartest idea she'd ever heard. Or something like that, anyways. She added the seven grams of egg, then checked her notes again. Seven minutes and seven seconds? But how many seconds had it taken between the time she'd added the egg and finished reading the next line? And how many seconds had she been trying to figure out how many seconds it had been? Uh. UHH. Why hadn't anybody thought this through?? Bad planning, that's what this was. Uhhhh. 15 SECONDS. That was her guess. It had been 15 seconds. That was her age so maybe it was lucky or something, who really knew. She watched the seconds tick by until the 6 minutes and 52 seconds (ish???) had passed, then cast "Recordo!" as she moved her wand in a circle. Phew. That had been a close one, but there was still no explosion so maybe her guess had been right after all. She crossed off allllll the steps until she was just left with the very last one. Norah used a gloved hand to add each root one by one with a very satisfying plop! until all seven of them were gone. TA DA! Was it going to EXUDE stuff? She had that in her notes but had absolutely no idea what it meant. Sooooo she'd just pack up now, yes okay.

"What does exude even mean?" Y'know, sometimes it was just hard to keep questions to yourself. Plus, he had already proven that he was practically a genius. Maybe he talked to Sophie Brown a lot and it was CONTAGIOUS.

Next was the setting the burner on medium heat, which she did, making sure the flame didn't spaz out. How terrible would it be if there were sudden technical difficulties? She'd hex someone from pure frustration, she would.

The Armadillo bile followed after. Having grown close to nature, making mud pies and playing with worms, Beverly had no trouble working with gooey things. So when it came to adding the bile, Beverly measured a tea spoon, no less, no more, and added it in. Simple as that.

She was no Snake in distress over some slimy thing.

Cleansing her metal stirrer with a silent Scourgify, she dipped into the solution and stirred seven times counter clockwise.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7...

Not too fast, not to slow. She was doing her best to keep a balance. Seeing as there was no indication of strange smoke or anything else, Beverly checked her notes. The Runespoor egg was next. Wiping her brows with the back of her hand, she left her desk to retrieve said egg, and when she returned, in it went into the cauldron. She watched eagerly for any changes in the solution...

The sound of Toby's hurried footsteps preceded him into the potions lab, and when the Hufflepuff himself arrived it was with a CRASH right into the laboratory door. He... really should learn to master the art of stopping, but it was so much easier to just slam into things rather than slow down. Eh... maybe something to work on.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAANYWAY, Toby was RUSHING because he had - in pure Toby-style - totally forgotten that he needed to come and continue brewing his potion today. It had been a stroke of luck, really, that Toby had noticed Professor Culloden in the Great Hall on the way to get some lunch, and idly wondered about his potion in the dungeons. There had been a brief moment of panic where he thought he might have already gone over the time they needed to wait, but after stopping dead right in the middle of the Hall and emptying his back onto the floor and finding his potions notes, he realised that NO... there was STILL TIME. Fifteen minutes, to be exact. Because today was Wednesday, seven days since he'd started to re-brew the potion.

So Toby had then decided to sprint all the way down to the dungeons, with all his books and notes and homeworks gathered in his arms like his firstborn child (there had been no time to repack his back, which now flopped uselessly at his side as he ran). But still, he MADE it. And LUCKILY for him, Toby had a habit of carrying ALL his school supplies with him, on account of how frequently he forgot which subjects he had (or homeworks he needed to finish, like today), so he had his potions kit out and Jobberknoll feathers levitated over the potion MOMENTS to spare.

... four... three... two... one...

As the seconds ticked over to mark 12:14pm, Toby cancelled the charm and dropped all seven feathers into his potion, and... that was it. That was the only step he'd needed to do. The reason he'd sprinted all the way here. Merlin, that had been close.

Toby noted the time on his parchment (even though he didn't really have to write the time when it was already there) and adjusted the rest of his notes accordingly. Then, finally, he stepped back from the potion and took a breather, because that sudden sprint had been exhilarating. When he was all recovered and stuff, Toby repacked his bag, shoving everything back in so haphazardly that it would have made his dad twitch. Heheh.

Okay. Right.

"Bye, Potion. See you in another week." And off he went.

Having set her timer, Beverly waited exactly seven minutes and seven seconds. It was half way through that she scolded herself for having had too much liquids before coming to the potions lab. She doubted she could leave and come back in time.

Potions or bodily needs?

Grrr. Potions won, of course. She was almost done, she could FEEL it. And she's worked so hard on this that there was no way she was going to step away knowing it would get ruined. No.

Beverly balanced from one foot to another until the time was over. Casting time! Taking her wand and clearing her mind, she cast, "Recordo." There were no signs of explosions, so she went ahead and added the aconite roots one by one, and waited for the results...

HURRY.

Kate had been counting the days and knew it was time to check on her Wolfsbane Potion and finish brewing it. She entered the potions lab with a bag full of supplies tossed across her shoulder. She bee-lined for her potion and began emptying the contents of her bag. Her potion should be safe and sound. Kate had made sure of that. She'd done everything she needed to do right up until the eighth step. She'd checked on her potion, and the flame had been steadily going just as it was supposed to.

...and now it was time to finish.

As Kate was cleaning the supplies she would use, she glanced over and saw Angel, a girl she knew from classes. "Hey, Angel. What step are you on?" she asked. With everything now cleaned and ready to use, Kate glanced over her notes as she listened for Angel to reply.

Add the seven Jobberknoll feathers. Kate collected the feathers then began counting them. She had the required seven, and so she dropped them in one right after the other. "Oh, you're on the same step I'm on," she told Angel, jotting down the time as she spoke. "You want to come back in seven days and work with me?"

Oh... oh no. Was Norah LISTENING to him?! What if he messed her up more? Dima could be... completely wrong, Merlin. He probably WAS. What if her potion turned out all wrong because of him? He... he would have to leave a note for Culloden or something. Yeah. Yeaaah.

And now Norah was being NICE and getting Runespoor eggs for him and stuff! But that wasn't RIGHT, because he might have screwed her over. He was going to stress about this forever, okay? Breathe. Deep breaths, Toussaint. "Thanks." For the eggs, that was. They looked pretty well-whisked, so Dima went ahead and added them to the potion at the same time Norah did. He didn't bother timing his potion, only waited for Norah's mark, since they had performed the last step at the same time. Once she raised her wand, Dima lifted his own. He moved it in a circle over his motion while muttering the incantation, "Recordo," and... ta-da. Done?

He would have left it right there if he hadn't noticed the Hufflepuff beside him adding aconite roots to her concoction. Right. Right, THOSE. Dima added them one by one, following Norah's example, until all seven were soaking in the cauldron. And... now what?

"Uh... exude means to... give off, I think? Maybe. Blue smoke should come out of it." At least, that was what Dima got from it. But he really didn't want to stick around to see if that worked.

"Wanna go do something else?" Like... NOT sitting her? Without waiting for an answer, Dima grabbed his stuff and tugged Norah out of the lab by her hand. Culloden could check their potions himself, because he was SO DONE.

Angel smiled as she heard a girl from class speak. "I'd love too." Angel then headed out of the room.

**********************

For the next seven days, she checked up on the potion ever so often just to make sure that the flame didn't go out, she waited for Kate to come, and whilst doing that she decided to get both the equipment that they would be using ready, she thought it would save Kate a job and she hoped that her fellow classmate wouldn't mind her doing it.

Kate came back to check on her potion often, making double sure her flame was still going and hadn't gone out. It'd be terrible to have to start over. Especially on a potion like this one. She had high hopes for it! When it was time to start on the next step, Kate headed back to the lab to meet up with Angel. She double-checked her parchment to make sure she would be starting at the exact time she needed to. Smiling, she realized she was right on track.

She wasn't surprised to see the Angel already there, but she was pleasantly surprised to see that she'd already gotten their materials ready. "Hey, Angel," she said. "Thanks for getting everything ready."

Kate cleaned her materials, as she knew better by now than to start without doing that. "So, let's see. We're on step ten, which means we need to add the other Jobberknoll feathers," she said. Kate collected seven feathers then turned to her own potion, adding them in one at a time. "I'm really crossing my fingers for mine to work out, what with this being a really difficult potion to brew." It's be really awesome to be only a second year and have this work out!

Kate turned her burner on medium heat then collected the armadillo bile and a clean teaspoon. She began to measure out the seven teaspoons, one at a time, and added them to the brew. "Only six more steps," she said aloud to herself.

Angel smiled at Kate as she cleaned her own equipment. "Your welcome, I thought it would save time, since this potion seems to have to be so precise." Angel giggled. "I'm still trying to figure out who would wait Seven days before doing a step and then another seven days before finishing it. I know I would have thrown it out long before now. I would just have assumed the potion didn't work." Angel giggled as she finished cleaning her equipment.

Angel then realised it had been exactly Seven days since she did the last step, so she added in the other Seven Jobberknoll feathers and then she set the burned onto medium heat, this was going good at least the cauldron hadn't exploded and it seemed like everything was coming along nicely.

Angel then added the Armadillo bile in one tea spoon at a time counting to seven... seven? Angel snickered as she thought about something and then she looked at her partner and giggled. "Who ever created this potion loved the number seven. I'm surprised they didn't come up with a way of getting this done in seven steps." Angel looked at her potion it looked okay. "At least there doesn't seem to be any more waiting for a long period of time." Angel smiled as she heard Kate say they only had six more steps to go.