Zoryn was WAY proud of Derf for getting the potion started. Except why was their workstation all wet? Huh. She didn't think about it too hard though 'cause Derf was doing the fire now!!! She BEAMED at him, not even slightly worried that the flames were too big. But Derf seemed to think so 'cause he began adjusting their size. Oh. Maybe that was a good idea. WOW. He really was an expert at this.

"Your wet," she offered, trying to be helpful. Did he know?

"Okaaaaay, so now we... Uuuuuuuuh," she returned her focus back to the textbook, running her finger down the page to help guide her eyes as they waited for the water to reach a slow boil. "Chop and add the sage? I can do that!!!" Um. Chopping. Right. The cutting spell!!! That was a thing, right? "Deef-IN-doe," she tried, aiming her wand at the sage and only slightly creating a dent in it. "Diffindo!" she tried again, still not severing it as she had hoped. Man. She hoped that Derf didn't notice all her struggling.

Zoryn looked around the classroom to see where other people were at with their potions, which was totally a mistake. 'Cause it was then that she decided they'd fall behind if they couldn't move on faster. So instead of struggling more with the charm, she decided to manually chop up the sage with her hands. It was more tearing it apart than it was chopping, buuuuuut like it wouldn't be a big deal, right?

THERE!

?

"And sage," she nodded pridefully, throwing the handful into their boiling water.

This next step was to be expected. Once you found a problem, you had to fix it. In her case it was this dummy who'd somehow managed to lose bones he shouldn't have had in the first place. Ironic experiments were among her favourites.

Jessa took a moment to find the potion in her text before rising from her seat to grab the ingredients over by the cupboards. Based on these, she bet Derf was glad his dummy still had bones. The young girl didn't wanna think of her bestfriend's reaction if he were to see things such as the vipertooth marrow and the freshly cut newt tail....which.....didn't that mean she'd have to cut it NOW? If she got one from the cupboard, how fresh could it really have been?

Dear Merlin now she was worried--and she hadn't even gotten into the potion yet. Could she go find a newt and cut its tail off? Were there any on the grounds?? WHAT IF THIS DIDN'T TURN OUT RIGHT BECAUSE IT WASN'T FRESH ENOUGH???? Was she the only one freaking out about this???????

More than a little skeptical, Jessa moved back to her seat, ready to explain to the Professor once she was done that the results may very well have been skewed. Really, they should keep live newts in here for harvesting. This could go potentially horribly.

Good thing it was a dummy....? She didn't think she'd try this on herself at this rate. Not a chance.

"Scourgify." Systematically, the Ravenclaw went through her equipment getting them all clean. It was the first step toward a proper potion--even if she was sure this one was now doomed from the start. With that done, she placed the gallon of Buffalo Milk Cottage Cheese into the cauldron and got a fire started (burning low so the cheese could melt without burning or sticking to the bottom). With it simmering, she began preparing her other ingredients. A few of them needed additional steps before they were ready to be added and she didn't want to waste any time.

The bran cereal she folded in with the 2 tbsp salt with the use of the wooden spoon she'd cleaned earlier. In it went. She used her wand to carefully chop the asphodel leaf. For as much as she could, she got the leaf's pieces nice and even. Once she was satisfied with how they'd been cut, she mixed them in with two tsps of the Vipertooth's marrow.

She would need to wait for it to swell so in the meantime Jessa took the 4 tbsp of unicorn horn powder and began mixing it with the pack of jell-O.

Oh the marrow swelled! Into the cauldron it went, followed shortly by the powder-jell-O combo she'd just gotten mixing. Jess watched the ingredients in the cauldron for a few minutes, giving them a chance to melt down. When they didn't completely, she added just a bit of water to help the process and gave it another wait. In this wait, she crushed the sopophorous beans.

Peering back into her cauldron, she saw everything now nicely melted. That's when she added the newt tail and sprinkled the sopophorous beans she'd just crushed. Last but probably not least, the liquid marshmallow. That was squeezed into the cauldron as well which left her with nothing but a 20 minute wait in which she went on fiddling with the dummy's floppy arm. Would her own feel this way if she removed the bones? How would she even go about doing that without making it permanent?

Hmm....

Jessa thought it over while she went to retrieve two vials. Her name, year and house were added to each then it was back to watching the cauldron bubble. At the end of the 20 minutes, she poured some into each.

There. Done. What was next?

SPOILER!!: Notes

Jessa Cambridge
Ravenclaw
Third Year

Bone Regenerating Potion

Use/Effect: Causes the drinker to regrow a bone that was lost to him.

Ingredients :

• 1 gallon of Buffalo Milk Cottage Cheese
• 1/2 cup of bran cereal
• 2 tbls of Salt
• 1 chopped asphodel leaf
• 2 tsp of dragon (Peruvian Vipertooth) marrow
• 4 tbls unicorn horn powder
• A packet of muggle Jell-o gelatin
• 1 Freshly cut newt (warty newt) tail
• 2 Crushed sopophorous beans
• 5 squeezes of Liquid Marshmellow

Instructions:

1. Add one gallon Buffalo Milk Cottage Cheese into cauldron
2. Fold in bran cereal and 2 tbsp salt using wooden spoon
3. Chop asphodel leaf and mix into two tsps dragon marrow.
4. Once marrow has swelled, add it in
5. Mix together unicorn horn powder and 1 packet of Jell-O then add it in
6. Add a little water if ingredients do not melt down.
7. Drop in the tail
8. Crush the sopophorous beans and sprinkle it in.
9. Squeeze the marshmallow on the top
10. Let simmer for 20 minutes

Okay. So. The professor wanted them to make a potion that would help the dummy. Seeing as the dummy was not... well.. alive... this should be a potion that Noelle could handle.

Looking through her book, Noelle was able to find the Bone Regenerating Potion. Some of the ingredients made her nose wrinkle. She put the book on her stand so she can read it properly while she worked. Then she grabbed her cauldron and cleaned it. Potions 101.

Looking at her book, she went over the potion again.
Once she had the ingredients in her mind, she grabbed her basket and headed for the closet. She grabbed the ingredients, and even had to make another trip because she'd forgotten one or two things. (Always bring the list of ingredients with you).

Then she set them in an order that she would use them.

After that was done, she gave another look to the book and started on the first couple of steps. She added the gallon of Buffalo Milk Cottage Cheese into the cauldron. The smell and look itself was disgusting looking. She had to pinch her nose. Ugh. Gross.

Next, Noelle used her wooden spoon to fold in the measured bran cereal. The look was disgusting. And ... she hoped she was 'folding in' correctly. Setting aside a small bone, she chopped the asphodel leaf and mixed into two teaspoons of dragon marrow. Poor dragon. Once the marrow swelled, she took the bowl and added it into the cauldron.

It looked a chunky mess to be honest. Plus the smell was disgusting. "EW" Noelle managed to let slip.

What was next??

Good thing Katherine had already found the page - now she could start brewing. She first began with cleaning out her work space - every utensil was thoroughly cleaned with magic. Then, she put on her gloves and prepared the ingredients: she measured every necessary ingredient not to waste time with that during the actual brewing, and placed them all in small cups.

1 gallon of buffalo milk cheese... 1/2 cup of bran cereal... 2 table spoons of salt... ... ...

All of this took some time (about 15 minutes), of course; and this way she didn't rush to measure things while brewing. It was time to finally brew it. She lit fire beneath the cauldron and added the adequate cheese carefully and slowly. Then, she picked her already clean wooden spoon and folded in the bran cereal and salt. Then, she added the already chopped asphodel leaf to the cup of dragon marrow - and mixed them. It didn't take the marrow long to swell, and she added that mixture to the cauldron. Afterwards came the unicorn horn powder and Jell-O (talk about weird ingredient here). She mixed them in one cup thoroughly, and added it as well. Then, she got up to look into her cauldron better - verrrrrrry careful for her hair not to fall into her cauldron, and saw with satisfaction (or less boredom, let's say, since she was too tired to actually feel satisfied) that her ingredients melted down. Which meant, it was time to add the tail. She watched the thing idly for a moment, then sprinkled the already crushed beans. It was kind of hard to do that with gloves, but she managed. Last two steps, ugh. She squeezed the marshmallow (another weird ingredient) and... finally, set her alarm clock to twenty minutes.

Time to watch people now.

Under the sheet was a dead body?! Okay, no, that was not quite correct. It was a dummy that had a mock injury that they had to heal. That was very reasonably and actually made for a really cool lesson. Olly studied the dummy in front of him to see what was wrong. There, on the dummy's right arm, it looked like a patch was burned. That seemed easy enough. Olly flipped open his textbook and found a page titled Burn Healing Paste. That seemed perfect.

He made sure to clean all of his supplies and then went to gather the ingredients. Corn oil, mallow leaves and stems, aloe, chickweed, and slug juice. There weren't too many ingredients and it seemed like a fairly simple potion. He'd never made it before but it didn't look like there would be any problems. Olly measured out 200 mL of the corn oil and poured it into his cauldron. Then he added 10 mallow leaves and stems to the corn oil. He was supposed to leave that for 30 minutes so he read ahead to see what he could prepare in the meantime.

Right, she had to find the potion she needed to brew for her fake patient with the burn. Cassie flipped through the pages of the textbook until she found the Brann Gnister Unction as added by a Professor Lafay into it’s pages. Heals minor burns it said so it was perfect. The Ravenclaw propped open the book so it was easy to read as she worked before moving to retrieve the ingredients she needed for her brewing. Marigolds and witch hazel. Lavender oil and aloe. Plantain leaves and Essence of Murtlap. And finally Vitamin E liquid, brown sugar and baking soda.

Now to get started.

She put on her protective gloves and goggles, the latter she dug out of her bag since they weren’t always used when brewing. “Scourgify!” Cassie then cast to double-check the cleanliness of her cauldron, mortar and pestle before adding the seven marigolds into the mortar and crushing them with the pestle. Ground…ground…ground…ground. There, finally there was moisture in the bottom making everything wet. She then poured the witch hazel into her clean cauldron, setting the heat to get the liquid to simmer before adding the marigold into it.

"Uh...yeah..." he nodded while ruffling his hair. Did she know how to do a Heating Charm? He still didn't...but given his day-to-say existence he probably should. He was always getting wet because of one thing or another, you know? "Kinda reminds-s-s you of when we fell out of the boat, yeah?"

But aaaaanyway.

Honestly, the second year was impressed Zoryn could do the spell at ALL and with any sort of precision. He was...somewhat hopeless with this charm too. Maybe because he overthought the whole CUTTING aspect for whatever reason. "GREAT!" he grinned as the Gryffindor added the sage and he checked on the fire to make sure that it wasn't too big. Without giving things much thought, he tossed in the aloe vera and then pulled the calendulas towards him. "Uuuuuuuuh...did you s-see what time I put those in?" Because he hadn't. Oops.

Not sure how to crush them exactly, but smash and crush were pretty much synonymous, right? So it was he placed one of the flowers in front of him and grabbed his mortar and pestle. Pestle aside, he took the mortar and began WHACKING the flower with it against the table.

*THWACK THWACK THWACK*

Quote:

Use/Effect:
Burst nasty boils

Ingredients:
One gallon of water
A handful of sage
A stalk of aloe vera
Calendulas (enough to make 3 tbs)

Instructions:
Fill Cauldron with water
Bring it to a boil
Chop and add the handful of sage
Add the stalk of aloe vera to your cauldrons and steep them for 10 minutes
Crush the calendula and add three teaspoons of it
Stir thirteen times clockwise
Turn up the heat and simmer the potion til it thickens and turns brown
Cool it to room temperature

As Skylar was flipping through her textbook, she overheard Professor Canterbury telling them they had to do just that. Despite her having looked through twice, there was nothing for pepperup. Was that a top secret potion that only healers knew? Whatever, she was wasting time trying to find a potion that was clearly not school-aged appropriate to be brewing.

Instead, the fourth year wracked her brain to try to find something else. There was Vaxifloo, except reading it over, that just vaccinated against strains of the flu, which meant it was preventative. It wouldn't help if someone already had the strain contracted. There was just a plain fever reducing potion, except her dummy might have had more than just a fever and she wasn't sure that the potion would help against general flu symptoms or if it only helped with fever.

Ah, there, she found it.

Fire-Breathing Potion

At first glance, Skylar must have skimmed it over like five times, but reading more carefully, it actually made sense. Cures the breather from small illnesses like flu and fever. Okay, well, she didn't agree that the flu was a small illness, but it blatantly said it right there in its effect, which was good enough for the fourth year.

First things first, read the procedure. And read it again. And then she was ready to get her ingredients.

Text Cut: Fire Breathing Potion

Fire-Breathing Potion

Use/Effect: Tickles and warms up the person you've breathed on pleasantly, cures the breather from small illnesses like flu and fever

Ingredients
3 goose feathers (chopped WELL that they look like powder)
5 centimetre square of parasites (mycosis fungus)
Roughly 2 centimetre square fire-crab shell (prepared)
One fire slug
8 drops of salamander blood
Some flobberworm mucus (depends on how much rigidity one wants—no more than a tablespoon)

Instructions
Fill your cauldron 1/3 with water.
Add powdered goose feather.
Stir clock-wise until it looks homogenous.
Turn the heater to high.
Get your pestle and mortar, crush the parasites, fill the mortar halfway with water and add it slowly to the potion.
Stir counter clock-wise for 7 times and turn off the heater.
Let it cool until no vapour is seen. This should take about 5 minutes.
Do not add the fire crab shell! Hold it with a metal spoon, lower it nicely into the potion just inside the surface—make sure it doesn’t splash water AT ALL—then start stirring 1 time clockwise, 1 time counter clockwise for 12 times in total. Each stir should take about ten seconds for it to spread thoroughly. Once done with stirring, get it out and put it away.
Wait for another minute, then add the slugs—stay away from the cauldron as far as you can. If you’ve done everything correctly, the surface should explode harmlessly and start burning. Put it out with your breath ONLY.
Add 8 drops of salamander blood.
Alternate between two stirs counter-clock wise, two stirs clock-wise. Take two seconds’ break between each group of stirs. Repeat for four times. (So you should stir 16 times in total.)
Add flobberworm’s mucus to keep it in your mouth better (no more than a tablespoon)
Enjoy.

Well, that was to be expected. Etta flipped through the pages of her textbook until she found the potion she was looking for. She quickly read through the instructions before standing up and heading over to the cupboard to retrieve the ingredients. What were they again? Bubertuber pus-- what was that exactly? She was going to have to ask the professor later... toothpaste, honey, cinnamon powder, garlic... salt, lemon zest.. and snake fangs.. gross. Some of the potions really needed the weirdest ingredients.

She returned to her workstation and dropped them all on the table. Using her wand, she cleaned all the equipments neatly. Now, what was the first step again? She read through the instructions quickly. Right. The girl filled her cauldron with water using aguamenti. She stopped once it had reached the required amount of water before placing the cauldron on the burner. She turned on the flame but made sure it was high, just the textbook instructed. Moving on..

She pulled on her gloves and trying not to pull a face, she carefully opened the vial of bubertuber pus. Using a teaspoon, she added five drops of the pus into the cauldron. Hm. It looked too.. weird. She closed the lid and set the vial aside. Picking up a wooden stirrer from the table, she gently stirred the contents of the cauldron counter-clockwise. Six times, yes? ... five and six. Okay, done. She referred to the textbook once again. Oh, toothpaste. She squeezed some toothpaste onto a metal spoon until it was an entire spoonful before stirring it in. Three tablespoons of honey, right. Using a metal spoon once again, Etta gently dripped it into the cauldron.

Well, this was an unpleasant task. But, you had to do what you had to do.. yes? She dropped four snake fangs into the mortal and started to crush them with a pestle until they'd formed a fine powder. Using her gloved hand, she sprinkled them into the potion little by little. Um, what was the next thing to do? Her eyes darted towards her open textbook for a minute. She grated the cinnamon stick into a cup before adding a tablespoon of the powder into the cauldron, which was simple enough. Next, she chopped up the entire clove of garlic, which took way more time than necessary, before crushing the garlic and adding it into the cauldron as well.

Lemon zest. The girl used a grater to fill the entire cup and added it to the contents of the cauldron before she resumed grating again. It took some time but soon enough, she added another other cup of lemon zest as well. Phew. Again, textbook. Now, she just had to let the potion simmer for about fifteen minutes. Etta waited and spent the time cleaning her rather messy workstation, occasionally looking at her classmates, who seemed busy preparing their potions as well. Once that was done, she concentrated on the wand movement that was required. What was the incantation again? Enodis - movement looks like you're skimming the top of the cauldron. She said the incantation aloud a few times and practiced the wand movement as well. Hm.

Once the fifteen minutes was up, she looked into the cauldron and casted the spell. "Enodis." She accompanied it with the appropriate wand movement which looked like she was skimming the top of the cauldron, from left to right. She added a pinch of salt to the potion before repeating the spell again but the movement was in the opposite direction this time, from right to left. .. was she DONE? Finally?

SPOILER!!: the potion

Craterotomy Potion

Use/Effect:
Cures acne

Ingredients:
Water
5 drops of bubertuber pus
1 tbsp Toothpaste
3 tbsp. honey
4 Snake fangs
1 tbsp. cinnamon powder
1 clove of garlic
2 cups of lemon zest
Pinch of salt

Instructions:
Fill cauldron with water
Light burner and make sure there is an intense & high fire
Wearing dragonhide gloves, use a spoon and add 5 drops of Bubertuber pus
Stir counter clockwise six times
Using a metal spoon, stir in a spoonful of toothpaste
Using a metal spoon, slowly drip in honey one tablespoon at a time (hold it about 6-8 inches away)
Crush four snake fangs into a fine powder using mortar and pestle
Sprinkle powder into potion
Grate cinnamon stick into cauldron
Chop up the whole clove of garlic & crush it with the flat of the blade.
Add garlic to cauldron
Grate two cups worth of lemon zest using same grater (no need to clean)
Let simmer for 15 minutes
Cast Enodis - movement looks like you are skimming the top of the cauldron
Add salt to cauldron
Cast Enodis again - movement in the opposite direction

SPOILER!!: Derf!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"Uh...yeah..." he nodded while ruffling his hair. Did she know how to do a Heating Charm? He still didn't...but given his day-to-say existence he probably should. He was always getting wet because of one thing or another, you know? "Kinda reminds-s-s you of when we fell out of the boat, yeah?"

But aaaaanyway.

Honestly, the second year was impressed Zoryn could do the spell at ALL and with any sort of precision. He was...somewhat hopeless with this charm too. Maybe because he overthought the whole CUTTING aspect for whatever reason. "GREAT!" he grinned as the Gryffindor added the sage and he checked on the fire to make sure that it wasn't too big. Without giving things much thought, he tossed in the aloe vera and then pulled the calendulas towards him. "Uuuuuuuuh...did you s-see what time I put those in?" Because he hadn't. Oops.

Not sure how to crush them exactly, but smash and crush were pretty much synonymous, right? So it was he placed one of the flowers in front of him and grabbed his mortar and pestle. Pestle aside, he took the mortar and began WHACKING the flower with it against the table.

*THWACK THWACK THWACK*

"Ahhhhh those were the DAAAAAYS," the second year giggled at the memory. They should totally do it again. Falling in was SO much fun. Maybe they could try hijacking the first year boats next year? As long as they didn't get caught, which they wouldn't because Dora was teaching Zoryn ALL about stealth, it'd be TOTALLY AWESOME. 'Sides, they were little enough to look like first years for now. What could possibly go wrong?

She only snapped back into focus when Derf asked her about the time. Uh. Oops?.... "Uuuuuuuuum," she shook her head. "Couldn't have been that long ago," she looked back at the clock for the current time. Maybe like one minute ago? Maybe five? Potions were an art of approximation... Right? There was no way everyone was being suuuuuuper accurate. Nah. They were doing just fine!

"Good work, Derf!" she praised her friend, taking a look at all the smushed flowers. "I bet it's been ten minutes," she shrugged, using a measuring spoon to scoop in one table spoon... Two table spoons.... THREE tablespoons! She tipped the remaining bits of the flower into their cauldron, before going back to hover over Derf's textbook. Again she scanned the page with the help of her finger, following the recipe to the last step they preformed.

"Yooooo, this part is SO easy! We're almost there!!! She BEAMED at her friend before reaching over the table to grab... Uh... A wooden stirrer? A metal stirrer? UM did it matter? Her hand hovered over the wooden one for a few seconds, before moving to the metal one, before moving back to the wooden one, before moving back to the metal one, before HER HEAD WAS STARTING TO HURT.

"Maybe we should use both?" Since it didn't specify. That way, if they were supposed to use the wooden one then they'd still be using it for half of the potion, or vice versa. It was a fail-safe method. Zoryn was SURE. Sort of. She handed Derf the metal stirrer, and kept the wooden one for herself. Giving it one.... two.... three....... "Four.... Five.... SIX," stirs in the counterclockwise direction, before taking the stirrer out and moving to the side.

"Your turn!" as she waited for Derf to begin, she set her own stirrer down on the table-top and began counting down with her fingers. "Thirteen minus six... That's SEVEN!" So Derf had seven stirs and THEN all they really had to do was turn up the heat and WAIT for the magic to happen!!!!

OKay... So Noelle was about halfway done with her potion. It looked and smelled disgusting. But she figured the worse the smell of the potion, the better it worked.

Looking over her next steps, Noelle frowned when she picked up the unicorn horn powder. She remembered the unicorn she saw when she was in arthimacy. She couldn't imagine taking the horn from one of them. Such pure creatures. She pushed the thought from her mind at the moment though and added the unicorn horn with the packet of jello. Then she added it into the potion.

Her ingredients were not melting down all the way!! Did she do something wrong??? Looking back over the instructions, she murmured over the steps out loud. Yeah. She had! Oh.... the next step...

Noelle casually added a little bit of water to her potion and watched it melt down.
Perfect!

Picking up the warty newt tail carefully, she added it into the potions with an almost gag. Nasty thing that was. She wiped her hands and then used her blade to crush the beans and then sprinkled them in.

She looked over the instructions again and then came to the marshmallow. She didn't even know there was anything called liquid marshmallow. Taking it, she squeezed it over the top. The ingredients seemed random.

Now to let simmer. And her potion was done!

Typical. Of course, they were supposed to brew the potion to cure their dummy's sickness. She flipped through her textbook for the right potion to save her dummy from the inevitable teenage disease called acne, and found the Craterotomy Potion in less than a minute. Yup, this was definitely the right one. She was somehow positive that her Healer parents have never brewed this one, because why would they? Her parents were a little too busy to deal with bumps on anyone's face. Taking her textbook with her, Vivian kicked herself up her seat and skipped to retrieve the necessary ingredients. She took the first four ingredients with her back to her seat before going back to gather the next half. Her arms were too short to carry all eight.

Time for pre-brewing essentials! Vivian took her wand out to clean her cauldron and her equipment. Her mum liked to point out the golden C's in potion-making, and one of them was definitely cleanliness. "Scourgify!" The Slytherin said, and for better measure... "Tergeo!" Yup, Mama Fairfield was particular about that stuff. No wonder she became a big bad Healer!

So now she could finally start the actual brewing. Vivian sent a jet of water into her cauldron with a "Aguamenti!" and a "Finite!" once it filled the container up. First step done! It was easy, but well... she wasn't going to keep her hope too high. The Slytherin herself knew it wasn't easy to brew the right potion. One wrong move and you could be sending the entire cauldron in flames or, worst, making it explode. Yikes! None of which appealed to Vivian, so she just wanted to get this right and save her dummy friend. "We'll remove those pesty acne things in no time," she said to the lifeless dummy in front of her. Err... if it could hear, at least.

"Incendio!" Vivian said, while pointing her wand and lighting up the burner. She adjusted it to match the intense fire, which was stated on her textbook. Phew! It was going to get hot in here sooner or later. Too many heating and boiling cauldrons in one room! With that step done, she glanced at her textbook again (and then once in a while after each step) and wore her dragonhide gloves to protect her hands from the bubertuber pus she was about to handle. She knew better than to deal with those with naked hands. She took a spoon, scooped a spoonful of the ingredient, and tilted it a little over her cauldron to control the flow. One... two... three... four... five drops! That was all it needed. Vivian dropped the excess bubertuber pus back into its container and sealed it shut with the cover.

Next was the toothpaste, which was oddly the funniest ingredient for the Slytherin. She still needed to see the logic about this one. Why use something for teeth on someone's acne-infested face? Perhaps there was a good explanation for this, but still quite weird for her. Taking out a metal spoon, she squeezed out just enough of the toothpaste for a spoonful and then stirred it into her unfinished potion. Yup, that was right. "Scourgify! Tergeo!" She cleaned the metal spoon for the next ingredient, which was honey. Vivian was rather tempted to just nom on it because she liked sweet things, but she knew better than to do that. Maybe next time, when she wasn't busy trying not to mess her potion up. She poured a spoonful of the honey and then dripped in about seven inches, to be sure since it was between six and eight, over her cauldron. She did the same process for the next two spoonful of the sticky sugary liquid.

Honey was great, despite the messiness. Bees deserved some appreciation!

Setting the spoon aside, Vivian took the mortar and pestle then cleaned them with yet another "Scourgify! Tergeo!" to be safe. She took out four snake fangs and tossed them into the mortar and began crushing them. Crush crush crush crush crush. This part required a little patience, and so Vivian sort of SNIFFED AIR to keep her sanity in place. Honestly, she couldn't wait to go back to her dormitory, take a nice shower, and flop on her bed to cuddle with Marshmallow. This served as her motivation to get on with it! Once it was fine and powdery, Vivian sighed because FINALLY and then sprinkled it into the cauldron.

Merlin's beard, she was half way done! Internal sobbing. YAY.

Olly had to prepare the aloe. So he grabbed a container and squeezed the aloe into it. He made sure to count how many drops he had until there were 20. Using the same bowl, he squeezed two slugs to add their juice to the mixture. There was a lot of squeezing and juicing of things involved with this potion. It was kind of gross but Olly didn't mind. He just washed his hands and added a handful of chickweed to the juicy mixture. By that time the 30 minutes were up so he dumped the contents of that bowl into his cauldron. Then he turned the heat up.

Olly stirred the potion as it heated up. It took a few minutes for it to reach a boil and his hand was starting to hurt but he did not stop stirring. As soon as it started boiling he stopped stirring. Now he just had to wait 20 minutes. The potion was almost done now. Olly looked around the room at what his classmates were doing as he waited. He noticed that some of them were working in pairs and wished he'd thought of that and worked with Noelle. But oh well, it was too late now. And his 20 minutes were up so he turned off the heat and stirred again. The potion got 20 counterclockwise stirs and then he was done. It was weird, all thick and pasty. Was it time to use it yet?

Kane flipped through his textbook and found the potion to cure acne relatively quickly. It didn't seem too complicated - although Kane never really thought potions was all that difficult. It was like cooking - you just followed the instructions!

He dog-eared the page so he would lose it and began to look at the ingredients. He then went and gathered everything up and took the dragonhide gloves out his bag as well. Since he was working with bubertuber pus he was NOT going to be messing around...

SPOILER!!: Notes

Craterotomy Potion

Use/Effect:
Cures acne

Ingredients:
Water
5 drops of bubertuber pus
1 tbsp Toothpaste
3 tbsp. honey
4 Snake fangs
1 tbsp. cinnamon powder
1 clove of garlic
2 cups of lemon zest
Pinch of salt

Instructions:
Fill cauldron with water
Light burner and make sure there is an intense & high fire
Wearing dragonhide gloves, use a spoon and add 5 drops of Bubertuber pus
Stir counter clockwise six times
Using a metal spoon, stir in a spoonful of toothpaste
Using a metal spoon, slowly drip in honey one tablespoon at a time (hold it about 6-8 inches away)
Crush four snake fangs into a fine powder using mortar and pestle
Sprinkle powder into potion
Grate cinnamon stick into cauldron
Chop up the whole clove of garlic & crush it with the flat of the blade.
Add garlic to cauldron
Grate two cups worth of lemon zest using same grater (no need to clean)
Let simmer for 15 minutes
Cast Enodis - movement looks like you are skimming the top of the cauldron
Add salt to cauldron
Cast Enodis again - movement in the opposite direction

First he had to fill the cauldron with water. He raised his wand and muttered "Aguamenti!" and filled it up about three-quarters of the way. It didn't specify how much water sooooo he was just winging it. He then pointed his wand at the base of his cauldron and muttered "Incendio!" watching as the fire began to burn bright. He made sure it was nice and hot, since he needed a strong flame according to the notes. Not so hard so far...

He then took his spoon and put his dragonhide gloves on, taking the bubertuber pus bottle and pouring some in to the spoon. Then, he raised it over his cauldron and tipped the spoon so a single drop fell in - he did this four more times, for a total of five drops. He then took his gloves off and took his stirrer, stirring his potion six times counter clockwise as instructed.

Honestly, Cameron was lost.

It hadn't been too hard to figure out their dummy didn't have any ailments such as acne or anything else you'd be able to SEE. So it had to be fever. Or a cold or flu or something. Yes. Okay. He, too, flipped through the pages of his Potions book, looking for something he could make to help.

Or they? Were they supposed to work together? He briefly glanced at Skylar but the older girl seemed to be engrossed in finding the right potion too. Hmm. He'd always thought he wasn't bad at Potions but in this case he couldn't find the right one. Did that mean their dummy would DIE?! Looking at Skylar again, he noticed that she'd stopped on a specific page. If only he could-

...or he could just ask.

That was an option too. He was old enough. Clearing his throat, Cam leaned over a little bit to get the girl's attention. "What do you think?" Because by now his only idea was to dump a bucket of ice water on the dummy.

Just as Skylar was about stand up with her list of ingredients needed for the potion, her thoughts were broken by the sound of someone's voice. A quick glance over told her it was a housemate, whom she recognized as Cameron. But uh, what did she think? Of what? Glancing between the second year and the dummy and the potion recipe her book was opened to, she frowned. Was he talking about what to brew for the ailment? Did he want to help her? Eh, she guessed it would be okay, considering he was younger, and potions could be complicated especially since most of the class was brewing different unctions.

"I think," she paused, reflecting. "I think the fire breathing potion is the best shot we have. It looks simple enough to brew and won't take too long." Which was good, because time was of essence here.

"You want to get the ingredients we need? Chop some goose feathers and I'll clean the cauldron and fill it with water?"

And before waiting, she cast 'scorgify' on her cauldron, followed by an 'aquamenti', filling the cauldron until it was about a third filled, before casting finite.

Oooooooh. She was so clever!

Opening his own textbook to the page of that potion, Cameron read over the effects and nodded. "Can we do it together?" Teamwork? He wasn't as bad as he might seem right now. Apparently Skylar was thinking something along the same lines when she suggested he get the ingredients while she got started on the cauldron. "Okay!" And with that he skipped off.

Okay, WALKED. Cameron didn't skip.

Usually.

After a few moments he returned to their table, setting down the ingredients."Okay, the goose feathers first." He'd washed his hands on his way back and stood a little closer to Skyler. Good, the cauldron looked good so far. He got started on chopping up the goose feathers, leaving the parasites to her. Teamwork yes?? Yes. Now, how chopped was powder-kind of chopped?

Skylar had this feeling that Cameron and Carlton got along great in their dorm, judging from how easygoing Cameron seemed. Plus they had the C thing going with their names and they were both pretty adorable. Could she like adopt them both? Also, when did she start collecting ickles? Wasn't it like yesterday that she was Hady's ickle?

Distracted with thoughts of ickles, it took a moment for Skylar to realize the second year had returned with the ingredients. Good kid, this one was. She was going to keep him. Ugh, no, she had to stop. She was only fourteen! Having ickles was for those who were like seventh years, right?

"Perfect. Now we add them and stir clockwise until it's blended in." He got that right? The heating up too. In the meantime, she reached for her mortar and pestle and the square of parasites. They were dead, right? Delicately picking them up, she dropped them into the mortar to work on crushing them, while Cameron stirred. He knew how to cast incendio, right? Also, that crushing of the parasites, didn't sound all too pleasant. All in the name of potion brewing though, right?

This was...powdery, yeah?

Yeah.

Cameron smiled at her, then nodded, stopping his chopping of the feathers once he'd decided they looked like they were supposed to. He then added them to the cauldron and started stirring. Clockwise. What would happen if he stirred it counter-clockwise? Maybe he should try that some time. Not now though. He didn't want to mess this potion up after all. No way. Maybe he could come back after the lesson though to try the counter-clockwise stirring.

Okay, he was getting a little off-track there.

Reaching for his wand, he focused VERY HARD and cast Incendio to turn up the heat. Would you look at that?! That hadn't been so bad. The fire was small enough not to freak him out but big enough for the cauldron. His private training was definitely working it seemed. Alright, now he should probably stop staring at the fire and get back to working on their potion.

He was totally fine.

Cameron pocketed his wand again and looked over to see if Skylar had prepared the parasites. "Ready?" He didn't really wait for an answer but poured some water into her mortar until it was about halfway full. Now to add that. Not that he was in a hurry. Okay. A little maybe. He liked that next step. The one where you had to turn OFF the heater. But first he was going to stir again. Yes. Counter clockwise this time.

Seriously he was going to have to ask what would happen if he did the opposite...

Sooooo.....they were going to be doing healing potions today. Well, that was both practical and useful. So, Olivia was obviously game. With a small grin, she turned her attention to Nicky, trying to gauge his response to this news. Honestly, she'd been freaked out about potions before, too, but after putting in the work and learning about the ingredients, it really hasn't as difficult as people made it out to be. It just....required a lot of time and effort. SHE WOULD MAKE A POTIONEER OF NICHOLAS TATE, YET!

Hmm...

"I think....since the last time we worked on something together I ruined it, we should probably do two separate dummies." Not because she thought he might mess up her grade or anything, but because...Okay, so maybe that was the reason, but Olivia wouldn't dare say that out loud. Lest it hurt his feelings. "Come on...We'll work side by side and I'll help you as we go." Because that's what good friends did. And it made the blonde feel loads better devoting her time to a friend-in-need. And buddy, if Nicky didn't fit that bill...

Leading him towards the front, she selected two of the dummies at random, gaze shifting to her friend to make sure he had no issues with her taking charge. Obviously, if he saw a problem, he could pick his own dummy. They all looked...dreadfully normal at first glance, anyway. The one she'd laid eyes on first...was fitting given her history with burns and scars. There seemed to be a few red, blistered patches on the arms...and neck, upon getting a closer look. Huh... So, clearly a burn paste? They didn't appear to be third degree burns, or anything. You know, the ones that discolors the skin yellow with nasty scabs and pus. "What do you think?" Liv gestured to the burns. "Simple enough."

Hm.

Nicholas Tate was NOT a healer-in-the-making. Actually, the farthest from it that it was possible to be. So when Liv suggested they work on two individual dummies, he immediately panicked. "What? No! No. I... err... I mean, I trust you not to mess it up this time."

Read: Liv ruined his DADA project, so she could definitely put up with him ruining her Potions grade. Okay? They were in this together.

He shoved the second dummy back into the pile, because they were partners and all, and turned back to his friend's chosen one. Were those minor burns? The Hufflepuff honestly wasn't sure about what was before him, and Liv hadn't explicitly stated the ailment by name, so he just... nodded. Yes. Totally simple. Certainly.

Merlin, he'd be riding on her coattails today.

Would you look at that!?! Cameron cast incendio and it worked!!! He was doing so well and she was just so proud she could hug him. Except they were in the middle of brewing a potion for their fake person.

And then the heat was off. One minute ... two minute ... five minutes and the vapour was gone, finally it was cool enough. Also, that meant it was time to add the fire crab which was going to be tricky because she couldn't just plop it in. Placing the fire crab on the metal spoon, she held her breath as the crab slowly was inserted into the water mixture. And then one stir clockwise and one stir counter clockwise. Focus, focus... you're working with someone, you have to set an example about the importance of focus.

Another moment later, she added the one fire slug and on sync, called, "Get back!" Just then the potion made a small explosion and there was a small fire. Ohhhh ... oh... now came the breathing part. Breathing out onto the fire, she kept it up which took way more effort than she thought it would, "you can help breath it out," she nodded at the second year. And then it was extinguished.

Finally, which meant time to add 8 drops of salamander blood and then two stirs counter clockwise, two stirs clockwise, which Skylar had to count aloud to herself to keep the counts straight. Once she reached the sixteenth stir, she added the flobberworm mucus' and then they were done.

"Care to do the honours and pour a little into its mouth?" Would it even work on something that wasn't living in the first place?

Blinking at Nicky's sudden enthusiasm to work together, Olivia's smile slowly turned itself upside down. As far as ruining the work went, she could give him small tasks that were more technical by design, so it wouldn't be too awful, but...Well, also, the Gryffindor concerned herself with his confidence. Personally, she always felt leagues better about herself when she'd accomplished someone in lessons. So, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility to want that experience for him, as well. "Are you sure?....I would coach you... I wouldn't let you fail." Nope, she'd dubbed herself an academic wingwoman. To a degree.

WITH CERTAIN SUBJECTS, gosh.

"Alright..." Well, partners! That was okay. "I think there might be two potions that work for this, as the burns aren't too severe. So, the standard Burn-Healing paste...and Brann Gnister Unction should do the trick. We'll make both." Because it made all the sense to her brain in the space of making sure they had enough work to do between the two of them...and meaning they would guarantee a cure for their dummy. So...they'd get an 'O'! She looooved getting 'O's.

Already moving back to their workstation, she pulled the textbook, looking to jot down the ingredients for both potions. For their own reference. She'd forgotten the number of ingredients in the second. Noting the list was longer than for the standard paste...and bit at her lip. If they worked quickly, it wouldn't be an issue. So, doable. "We'll need both our cauldrons." Liv had already pulled her own, looking at her Puffer friend to give up his, as well.

Come on! Time was money...

"Oh, no. Partners is fine. Really." Reaaaally. He followed her dutifully back to their workstation, seating himself again; Nicky's torso was certainly long enough for him to have no trouble seeing and stirring as he brewed. But... wait. Both their cauldrons?

She wanted to brew TWO unctions?

Um. "No, that's quite all right." Helpfully, the fifth year plucked her fingers from the page marking the Brann Gnister Unction and flipped back to the Burn-Healing Paste steps. "I think just one is fine. Uh, my cauldron is, like... leaking anyway."

It honestly was. If she wanted proof...

Well, he could drop it really quickly.

The blonde squinted. "Okay, we can just borrow one of Professor Cantebury's. I'm sure she has plenty of extras." Why hadn't he purchased a new one if his was leaking? THAT was why he was so bleeding terrible at this subject. Damaged equipment. BUT....it was no harm, no foul. There were no problems. Only solutions.

Another new mantra of hers.

Taking both ingredient listings, Liv toddled off towards storage, since many of the materials weren't things found in a student's standard kit. Corn oil? Mallow leaves?...Plantain leaves? Nope, never to be found in her personal supply, anyway. She'd brought her empty cauldron along with her to tote things back. Two arms weren't enough to transport all the things at once, so...she thought she'd be preemptive. And clever... Hopefully, Nicky wouldn't kill her due to all the extra work she wanted to do...

After several moments of carefully slipping things into her cauldron, all the things one might need to make both potions, the blonde returned; offering a genuinely apologetic look at her friend. "Don't hate me. We'll get through this." And then she grinned EXTRA wide at him, just so he understood she meant it. Or perhaps it would've come off as scary, but it was hard to say as she wasn't him. Who knew what he thought? "Trust me."

Right... So... second cauldron.. Moving to retrieve one, also from storage, she placed it carefully on the second burner before removing all the things she'd packed into the first. You know, when Olivia got this way, all determined and RAWR, it was best to just let her have her way. Mhm. There was no fighting it. Nope... "Okay, if you'd like, you could go ahead and start preparing some of the ingredients. Just make sure to keep them separate by potion." Obviously, Liv was good...but when it came down to things being outside of their packaging and without labels, things got slightly more tricky. "Please." Another big grin for you. As for her, she quickly whipped out her wand and set about cleaning both cauldrons, preparing them for the first steps...which was corn oil and ten of the mallows for the first cauldron. Measuring out the oil first, she poured it; chasing it with the mallows second. That was meant to steep (like TEA!!!) for thirty minutes, so it obviously allowed plenty of time for her to help Nicholas get other things ready.

Yup. Placing a timer for that, just in case...

Second cauldron... The directions for preparing the first few ingredients were tricky, so she took those for herself. Liv had gotten super awesome at using a morter and pestle, so Nicky didn't need to trouble himself with all that. Besides, apparently, the fumes were noxious moving forward and she just...didn't want him getting sick on her watch. No sick friendsies allowed. So, taking her time with the marigolds, she eventually put them aside, slipping on a pair of gloves and the aforementioned protective goggles. They were not attractive accessories, but... Well, who did she have to look good for, anyway?

Placing the witch hazel into the second cauldron, she ignited the burner with a spell, allowing the metal to heat. As she had with the other. And after several moments, the seven crushed marigolds were added. Wooden spoon...wooden spoon... Right, there it was. Cleaning it, she pushed it down into the cauldron, stirring three times in the appropriate direction. Clockwise...and then once counterclockwise. The latter was so stupid, but alas...here they were. The directions said to repeat it trice....so.... done, and done.

"Nicky....have you seen the lavender oil?" Olivia could've sworn she'd had it right beside the cauldron.