Daisy had decided on a butterfly for her design. She didn't want the typical scary design that she saw on pretty much every pumpkin. She grabbed her wand and carefully carved her pumpkin using Diffindo. She raised her hand at Professor Noble's question about substitutions. "Maybe turnips could be used but they might need an Enlargement Charm placed on them."

In the middle of carving her pumpkin, Hanna had a think about what Professor Noble was asking them. Why would someone use potions over transfiguration?

DOII, it was so hard!

She lifted her hand and suggested "Is it safer? I mean, Potions isn't always easy, and you could go horribly wrong with a potion, but a bad potion compared to a bad transfiguring spell... yeah, maybe it's safer." Maybe not. Hanna would rather trial and error with Potions than Transfiguration. Merlin, the stories she'd heard.

As for his other questions... she raised her hand again. "Bouncing bulbs are animated, so maybe their movement transfers to the potion to then animate the pumpkin?" When it... turns into a head. Rather than just being a plain ol' pumpkin head. "And moths... I don't know a loooooot about moths but umm maybe..." she was buying time... "Mmmmmmaybe because they are a PEST and eat things in the garden, they will... like... invade into the pumpkin to do something." She looked at Professor Noble with a very straight face, blinking a few times.

She needed to study the ingredients. That's what she needed to do. Her textbook,
and even her Herbology textbook should be help.

She was glad that the younger girl didn't mind the jagged edges and the weird looking badger head. "I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time. You just need more practice." If Emmalyn need someone to help her with the spell she'd gladly help help her out. "Okay." Alyce nodded her head and started working on the I using Diffindo. It's not as hard as the badger. She just need to make a straight line. The I carving look much better than the badger. It still had jagged edges. Well, nobody perfect.

The Slytherin moved to carve the heart shape next as she heard Emmalyn offered some answers to Professor Noble question. She's a bit surprise that the younger Hufflepuff knew the answer to the question. That's pretty impressive. Alyce went back to carve the pumpkin. She kept following the heart pattern until she carved out the entire design. Alyce pushed on the heart section from the inside and removed the cut section. "Here you go, your pumpkin." She pushed the pumpkin toward the middle of Emmalyn's workstation. She's pretty pleased with the heart carving. It looked really good.

Vivian took a moment to consider the possible designs she could make in carving her pumpkin. She thought of just going with the usual scary pumpkin face, but no. That was too ordinary. Maybe a person riding a broom? The blond thought of it, but realised that she wasn't artistically-inclined in handiwork and it wouldn't do justice to such a nice concept. Too bad. Instead, she settled for a cat design in honour of her Kneazle, Marshmallow. It seemed more feasible.

First, she started with the outline of the cat. Carefully, she sent a Severing Charm to do the trick. She hadn't been able to continue with the other details before Professor Noble raised a question for them to ponder on. "Perhaps it's a lesser chance of getting caught that you were the one who made the potion, Sir. As compared to using transfiguration, people would find out what your recent spell was with the Reverse Spell." Not that Vivian was encouraging the students, of course. She didn't want her idea to switch on even more ideas for the pranksters in this school. Just... no.

As for substitutes for the pumpkin, Vivian couldn't help but smile a little at how ridiculous some people would look with a large fruit or vegetable as a head. "Maybe a watermelon, Professor?" Still, even that suggestion was funny. Slightly immature Fairfield.

Harriet actually preferred this bit of the lesson to the actual brewing. Of course she loved brewing. She was good at it, so of course she'd like it. But creativity ran through her veins, and so she loved the chance to do something arty related in class. She decided that she was going to carve a few stars into her pumpkin. That was cool. She hoped it would look pretty good too, and different than just a random face. That was not original and she liked to be original. She picked up her pencil, and began to sketch a few stars onto her pumpkin, so that she at least had a guide to go on. That would make it so much easier. She made her pumpkin look like a night sky, even adding a moon. It looked good. Now she just hoped that it would look good when she actually carved it.

She did pause though, to ponder over a few of the questions that the professor had asked. The blonde nodded as she listened to other people's answers. "I suppose either could be equally as dangerous. Too little or too much of an ingredient could cause the potion to not work, or maybe turn someone's head into a pumpkin permanently. That would not be good" which would be why she wouldn't be using the potion.

With a smile, the blonde then turned back to her pumpkin, picked up the knife and began to carve it. She went with the knife, for it gave her more precision over what she was doing.

Shera was feeling pretty comfortable with where she was at. She had been keeping up with the Professor's instructions, she had not hurt herself by cutting and she had not had her potion vanished, or melted her cauldron away. And, she even had all the notes and instructions written down.

Then it was time for her to add the things she had just prepared into her potion and she found herself feeling a little bit nervous again.

Adding her crushed moths to the mix she began to stir her potion clockwise, making sure to follow the edge of the cauldron. After four circles her potion was starting to show signs of turning green, but it definitely wasn't the colour that the professor had described. Sighing she continued to stir, reaching five and two thirds of full stirs to actually get the colour she wanted. She didn't know how that was possible considering how long she had spent grinding down her moths.

Then it was time to add the bouncing bulb to the mixture she had already managed to get together. She already knew it was going to take a lot longer for the bouncing bulb to incorporate into the potion, but hey. At least once it had she would be able to sit back, relax and start carving her pumpkin!

The young Ravenclaw hadn't bothered to count the number of stirs it took to incorporate the bouncing bulbs. But it was done! And that meant that it was time to simmer the potion CARVE THE PUMPKIN!

"Diffindo," she said comfortably, beginning to carve out her pumpkin while vaguely listening to what the Professor was saying. There was only one question that she thought that she might have an answer to that wasn't completely wrong. "Potions don't require a wand, so a squib could get use out of the potion while they can't do transfiguration by themselves?"

This lesson was moving along rather smoothly for which
Miranda was thankful.. It seemed that maybe .. Just maybe she was starting to get the hang of this whole potion brewing thing.. Perhaps it was the new Potion's Master?.. Or maybe all the extra time in the practice lab was finally paying off!

She looked up again at the sound of Professor Noble's stern voice as he saw that the clumsy went to staunch their wounds with the bandages he was so kind as to have available right there in his classroom. He was giving them the next step of instructions and adding them to the chalkboard. Quickly she jotted them down and went about checking her copper cauldron to see if her pumpkin guts had come to a simmer... WOO!.. They were and she found herself adding the pulverized and super finely powdered Flitterby moths..Stirring spoon in hand she stirred the concoction slowly clockwise.. First once.. It turned greyish.. Twice, Now bruise yellowish-green.. Okay she had to admit, this was a nasty looking color. thank Merlin she didn't have to stop on that colour. the third rotation around her cauldron she saw it darker green, but green.. Once more she spooned the mix and there it was!..
Grass green!

" Holy Merlin's monkey... I did it.. It's the right colour!", she exclaimed in the loudest of whispers to herself.. Though others around her were likely to hear her self praise accompanied by an excited and very proud wiggle.

Kye paused from her carving to listen to the questions the Professor had posed. Uhh... why would you choose a potion over a spell?

Listening to Vivian's answer, Kye responded to the room at large.
"Well I agree with Priori Incantatem being an easy way to find a culprit... but someone not careful could also leave evidence with their potion... " She felt a little like she was playing Devil's Advocate here, but she was just curious on what the Professor's response would be. Potions required a lot more precision and time, so you really had to want to turn that person's head into a pumpkin!

At Shera's response, Kye turned back to the Professor. "Wait, Squibs can do potions and stuff still? Like, can a Squib be an alchemist?"
This was news to her, and now she was really curious as to how much magic a Squib could do this way.

Yes yes he kneeeew Zoryn. Why did she think he was being so extra meticulous with his notes? Though he knew that wouldn't entirely make up for her having to clean two pumpkins and, well, whatever other potion prep she was working while he helped out the first year - Zoryn could not be appeased with pure academia and anyone who thought otherwise did not understand the Gryffindor - he figured it was a start. Hopefully she wouldn't ask for anything, er, awkward in addition with this owing thing.

But he also needed to take a moment to point out the RELIEF he felt when the professor mentioned DRIED moths...but he still had follow up questions to that. Them being a part of his standard potions kit did not, you know, guarantee collection processes and such...but he would let that rest for now. Particularly since his thoughts were currently occupied elsewhere.

And it was a PARTICULARLY good thing he happened to not hear what the professor said about slipping something unknowingly into another's drink. The words of the likes of Levi Kenning and Dora Umbridge ringing LOUDLY in the fourth year's mind.

Just as one situation was handled and Derf turned from the sink to return to his seat and get back to his own potion brewing instead of leaving it all to Zoryn, something ELSE happened and suddenly Ronan was on the floor - bleeding - and it was like he was that 11-year-old standing in that cold, dead, corridor all over again hearing that Abey and Simon had been taken by the Monster. Derf did not know how long he was standing there for and it wasn't until the distinct voice of the Healer that he came to, somewhat. His blue eyes instantly darted around the room for the ONE thing that could pull him from his spiral - Abey. Alive and (arguably) well. With Junia.

And then the Hufflepuff took a much needed breath - kinda loudly so he sorta GASPED in the middle of the classroom with oxygen rushing back to his head and making him dizzy enough that HE could have passed out - and took several shaky steps back to his station.

"Back," he said exhaustedly, offering Zoryn a tiiiiired smile before surveying what all she had done. "Thanks...for all...you know," he murmured as he waved his hand over all the stuff she had done.

He did not even hear the professor's question, his eyes trained between the Healer and Ronan and...well...trying to figure out where he needed to pick up on his own instructions to complete his potion with some level of diligence. But in all honesty, this was not going to end well. It was not easy to pull himself out of that particular spiral and his features were looking a bit more pale than usual as he distractedly added the powdered flitterby moths to his cauldron and picked up his spoon to stir - counterclockwise and certainly more than four times since his eyes were locked in on what was happening with Ronan. Grass green? Naaaaaaaah...looked a whole lot more like split pea soup.

He still needed to tend to his bulb...but presently the fourth year was too busy stirring...and staring...staring and stirring.

SPOILER!!: notes

Pompion Potion
turns the drinker's head into pumpkin; brewing time of 50 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin. ✔
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.✔
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat. ✔ thanks Zoryn
4. Whilst waiting for the cauldron to come to a light simmer, grind 3 dried flitterby moths to a fine powder in your pestle and mortar. ✔ thanks Zoryn
5. Add these to the cauldron and stir clockwise until the contents turns grass green (4 complete stirs should do the trick).✔
6. Stun your bouncing bulb. Peel off the purple skin, and chop finely with a silver knife. Weigh out 100g. Add to your cauldron and stir enough to incorporate.
7. Let your potion simmer for 30 minutes. You may carve your pumpkin whilst you wait.

Questions were being asked but Rylee was focused on her pumpkin carving. Well more so on NOT cutting herself than anything else. This little knife from her potions hit was sharp, man! So she wasn't ignoring the Professor or anything when she kept quiet. Truth was.. she really didn't know the answer. All she could do was guess. Guess and risk repeating all that was already being said.

Setting down her knife she gave her answer. "Potions are just easier to slip to someone rather than having to be close enough to them for Transfiguration. Like if you wanted to play a prank on someone... you usually don't want them to be aware of what's going to happen." Potions could be given to anyone, sent anywhere by owls even. She had always been warned by her parents and especially her big sister to never consume anything unless she knew what it was and where it came from.

As for the other question she chewed her lip in thought for several moments. She wasn't really sure what the ingredients did in each potion but she did know that without them the potion clearly wouldn't work. She was just going to think about this question some more while continuing to carve out the unicorn shape into her pumpkin.

"Variety." Oh, there was the Healer. Jessa spared the faintest glance in Ronan's general direction before continuing her point. "Spells are usually a first option if they're available. Sometimes you wanna be able to mix things up. That way you also get to run a comparative study with the varying similarities and differences presented between both forms of magic. The simple fact of the matter is, if you only try the one, you'll never know about the other." So that's why she'd give a potion a chance when there was a spell that could just as well have done the work.

Contrary to what several of her classmates had said or alluded to, Jessa didn't find transfiguration spells difficult. It was her best subject and she spent a lot of time developing the art.

"I'm also gonna assume anything from the same genus would be equally effective in a potion like this." Similar properties tended to yield similar results.

"I suspect some would opt for the potion just so they don't have to worry about brain damage or otherwise permanently impairing whoever they may have been casting on. No need to worry about all the intricate stuff when the potion was doing it for you." It had it's goal in mind. Your job was done once you brewed it right....."if" being the operative word here.

"Can we try the spell anyway?" Y'know, so they could have both.

As freakouts went, this was not a particularly bad one. In a way, that was good, because it was the sort of thing where, had Abra been thinking straight he would have been relieved that all his panic and emotions were being kept inside him, shut in and not allowed to come out. But, for someone who was generally terrible at keeping a lid on anything, it would have worried him to realise that he was suddenly on emotional lockdown.

Something about seeing people look like they were dead, or could be dead, it sort of brought back images of bones and memories of general mortal peril, not to mention a sudden reminder of the events from last year. It was why he didn't like people playing dead, and why seeing people faint or anything like that was particularly frightening, even when rationally he knew that they were fine, or would be fine eventually. It was a bit of a setback, it drew out memories he didn't want to think about, but at least it wasn't a total disaster. Well, not for him, at least.

Junia was talking to him, but Abra didn't quite manage to look away from the sixth year on the floor until his cousin specifically told him to do so. That dragged him out of the weird half-buzzing, half-nothing headspace just a little bit, and he turned back to look at her, sort of focusing on her face, sort of not. Feeling her hand on his shoulder helped to ground him a bit, but mostly he just stayed quiet and stayed close beside her.

It took him a moment or two to register what Junia was doing with the moths; that being, of course, grinding more up to replace his own, which Abra finally realised had met some sort of sad fate. He took a steadying breath, and tried to gather his thoughts. It was hard, because he felt as though he had too many thoughts but also, at the same time, no thoughts at all. Eventually, he half-whispered, half-murmured a "Thank you."

Abra didn't really want to be here anymore. His mind wasn't at all on the potion, his emotions had completely disappeared, and he doubted he would be able to focus on school for the rest of the day, but it didn't really occur to him to do anything about it. What could he do? He wasn't even worried that almost a sure thing that he'd not finish his potion today, and that Noble would be unimpressed, because he suddenly didn't care.

Slowly, he reached out, ready to take the mortar and pestle from Junia and resume from where he had left off. Auto-Abra could get him through this lesson while regular Abra was still a little out of sorts.

Answering questions though? No. Forget about it.

Yes, thirty minutes. Which was a long time, and that meant they had some more time to work on those cutting skills. No point having them all sitting there twiddling their thumbs. He appreciated some would want to make notes, but he didn’t expect them to write down everything when it was in their textbook. Writing up a full report would be their homework.

He raised his voice over the sound of bubbling cauldrons. “You may start to carve your pumpkin if you wish. I suggest using either a carefully controlled diffindo, or a small knife from your potions kit.” Up to them how fancy they wanted to make the design.

SPOILER!!: Juniper’s Notes

Pompion Potion

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Whilst waiting for the cauldron to come to a light simmer, grind 3 dried flitterby moths to a fine powder in your pestle and mortar. Add these to the cauldron and stir clockwise until the contents turns grass green (4 complete stirs should do the trick).
5. Stun your bouncing bulb. Peel off the purple skin, and chop finely with a silver knife. Weigh out 100g. Add to your cauldron and stir enough to incorporate.
6. Let your potion simmer for 30 minutes. You may carve your pumpkin whilst you wait.

Yep that was a simmer, a light simmer not so much yet. She went ahead grabbed the crushed moths in the mortar. By the time she had gotten that in her hand and ready to add to her cauldron. The contents of the cauldron were now at a light simmer. Or at least what she thought was a light simmer. How does one really know these things? She added the powdery substance to the cauldron. And with a clean stirrer. Stirring it clockwise until the potion turned grass green.

Why grass green why not… sea green?

Stir enough to incorporate, now that was vague. Either way she added the chopped
bouncing bulbs. The whole 100g of it. She added it the cauldron and started stirring it… until it was all incorporated.

To her surprise Professor Noble was going to let them carve their pumpkins. Zita was right he was going to let them carve them. Probably to keep them busy for the thirty minutes they had to wait for the potion to brew. Though with the cuts and the allergic reaction, she wasn’t sure what was the safer option was. Hogwarts kid using knives and severing charms or leaving them to their own devices for thirty minutes. Which one would be the less dangerous?

Right so this was going to be good. She went ahead and took her knife and cut out two big X’s and a small “W” Under the cut out X’s. She raised her hand. Kind of answering a question but asking one of her own and kind answered it too. ”My question is Why would you want to do turn someone’s head into a pumpkin? Besides say like in a duel or as prank. If you are using it in a duel then you would have to use the Jinx. I mean you don’t bring potions to a duel.” That would be cheating right? Unfair advantage? Anyway she went back to working on her pumpkin carving. Now to cut out the mouth this time she took her wand to cut out a small mouth on her pumpkin. She had a little bit of the pulp left and scooted it in front of the pumpkin. Gross, This pumpkin needed to be excused from class now.

If he had been conscious and could talk, Ronan would've been caught between thanking Jessa for the bandageing, insisting he was okay, and telling Harriet to wipe that judgemental look from her face (everyone did stupid stuff sometimes, it didn't make them idiots). So, it was probably a good thing was unconscious, because he was most definitely not okay and probably shouldn't be talking even if he could, which he couldn't. So, why were people trying to talk to him?

Honestly, he wished the professor hadn't used Rennervate. Because now he could feel everything. His closed up throat, the panic from not being able to breathe, the pain from his head cracking on the floor, the blood and weakness from the blood loss.....

Oh good, Healer Macmillan. He let out a strangled grunt and a wheeze. Please knock him out again so he didn't have to feel all this.

"I wouldn't really know if it's hard to invent spells and potions, never having done it before. Ask Jessa. Or a professor." But he would imagine that yes, it would be wicked hard. Then she was talking about cooking. "I like to cook with my mum. I think it helped, since I didn't have anyone magical in my family to teach me potions at all. Baking is super precise and requires some chemistry, and potions is similar like that."


Well, he was glad the Healer had showed up. Ronan clearly needed attention, and no offense to Noble, but Finn trusted the Healer to know what to do a bit better.

And as far the first question. Finn raised his hand. "Well, I think the potion option definitely opens up this particular piece of magic to more people. Some people probably aren't very confident in the transfiguration skills." Like himself. "And I know we don't really even begin human transfiguration until sixth year, so this lets younger students be able to do this as well."


Woah! For a first year, she was really confident! And frankly, she had come up with a better answer than he had himself. Cue another round of flagging confidence. "Nice one!" he said encouragingly.

Oh the Healer was here. Great relief was apparent on his face as the woman tended to his fellow Gryffindor. Also that rhino patronus did not escape his notice Potions man, this boy has learned to generate a corporeal patronus and he's always keen to find out what everybody else's is.

But right he should probably get carving, as his potion was pretty much done after the simmering period. Ace has carved pumpkins yearly, but because of that he knows that the best way to get a really nice pumpkin carving with his skill level (which is fairly decent, but no where near pro-level) is to keep them simple.

Just as he was doing the outline for the face, discussion points were brought up. Hmmm.... "I think spells delivered via potions have a more consistent output Sir, you can specify how long it will last or how strong the effect can be, with the ability to adjust it depending on who it will be applied to. Wandwork spells rely largely on the caster's skill level for its efficacy and duration." at least from what he's observed of magic anyway.

As for the other questions, he wasnt quite sure what the bulbs or the moths do other than flavorings or extra protein source. But as for pumpkin substitutes "Would any other type of gourd do Sir?"

With her potion simmering, Vi had dropped her carving tool when she saw Ronan fall to the ground. She quickly bent down to pick it back up as she watched the Professor call for the Healer. Merlin.... Please be alright. She turned her eyes towards the door, ignoring the simmering potion momentarily, and focusing on the door as she waited for a familiar Healer to walk through the door. The dark haired one accompanied by two big Newfoundlands.... The doors opened and a woman appeared, causing her heart to sink. She knew he was gone but still.... She turned away, diverting her gaze back to her potion.

The Nurse would make sure that he was okay. Thank MERLIN she was here.

Vi picked up her carving tool and began to carve the virgo constellation into her pumpkin. Then she paused when Professor Noble offered a question about substitutes and what the bulbs or moths would do to the potion. Hmm... She had no clue. But if brewed incorrectly, Olivia believed that both the potion and the transfiguration could be equally dangerous....

SPOILER!!: Ronan and Healer Macmillan

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

If he had been conscious and could talk, Ronan would've been caught between thanking Jessa for the bandageing, insisting he was okay, and telling Harriet to wipe that judgemental look from her face (everyone did stupid stuff sometimes, it didn't make them idiots). So, it was probably a good thing was unconscious, because he was most definitely not okay and probably shouldn't be talking even if he could, which he couldn't. So, why were people trying to talk to him?

Honestly, he wished the professor hadn't used Rennervate. Because now he could feel everything. His closed up throat, the panic from not being able to breathe, the pain from his head cracking on the floor, the blood and weakness from the blood loss.....

Oh good, Healer Macmillan. He let out a strangled grunt and a wheeze. Please knock him out again so he didn't have to feel all this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penelope Macmillan

Penny had been in the Healers wing as usual, going over supplies and wishing that she had a helper, with a school as big as this one, an assistant would be nice, thankfully the wing had been quiet so far and she was able to get a lot of organizing done.

That is until a rhino charged into the supply room and told her she was needed in the potions classroom.

The little healer had placed what she had been holding down, a vial of calming potion, carefully and then had rushed down here as quick as possible! She slid to a stop just outside the classroom and after taking a breath and fixing her hair, walked in calmly.

“I got here as fast as I could, what seems to be the trouble?” She addressed Professor Noble as she looked around to see a boy on the floor! “Merciful heavens!” She exclaimed as she moved towards Ronan, “What in Merlin’s name happened to him?” The healer asked as she bent down next to the fallen boy.

As he heard the wheezing, Noble quickly administered the small vial of potion for the anaphylactic shock. Maybe he should have done them in the other order, but he was a Potions Master, not a Healer. At least he’d had one of the potions to hand, and hadn’t to rummage through the boy’s bag…assuming he carried even carried a vial, that was. And now he’d done that, the Healer had appeared.

If Noble was relieved to see her arrival, he didn’t show it. His cheek barely twitched at the Healer’s exclaimation. “Pumpkin allergy,” he grunted. “Quite a severe one…don’t think he even touched the stuff.” Although he hadn’t made any move to put protective gear on either, the Potions Professor might add. Now he came to think about it, it was actually quite the concern if he went down from just inhaling the smell, given the prevalence of pumpkin juice at mealtimes. Maybe he should mention banning it from the Gryffindor table to the Headmistress just in case. “His skull didn’t take kindly to the stone floor on the way down.”

Anyways, now that the Healer was there, he could return to his lesson, yes?

Good.

SPOILER!!: Bel

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Oh, her name. Bel looked up from her not-as-yet-carved-and-still-unplanned pumpkin and tipped her head to one side consideringly. Well, she had suggested it was hard, she supposed. Bloody hard, in fact. Specifically. And she definitely stood by that assessment.

As for the rest. The things to think about. The already added ingredients, Bel eyed her cauldron thoughtfully. She had NO clue what the flitterby moths or bouncing bulbs did or how they would have effected all of what was going on in her cauldron right now, but as for the pumpkin..... she stuck her hand up. "Maybe a different kind of squash? Or..... or! What if you use a different vege entirely, would your head turn into that instead? Like..... Swede? Or Sweet potato? Or Carrot? And if you did that," She added, looking up at the ingredients list, "Would you still have to add pumpkin seeds as well, or would it be the seeds of the different vege?" Anyway anyway anyway, she still wasn't convinced about the purpose of this potion. It sort of seemed like it could only be used for pranks. Or if you didn't have a scarecrow for your field and needed to take emergency measures against a crow infestation.

And she STILL didn't know what to carve. Creativity fail?

Walking back to the blackboard, Noble nodded at Bel. “Yes, another squash would be a straightforward substitution indeed.” A bit harder to scoop out perhaps, depending on the variety, but a good idea for a swap. “And yes, for other vegetables you would want to swap the seeds too.” The downside with things like potatoes and carrots was that the seeds would be in the flower, and thus would need to be obtained separately. Still, it showed that she was thinking about the recipe as a whole, and that made for a promising potioneer.

SPOILER!!: Maxton

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waterloo

Maxton thought he was positively done for when be heard Professor Noble say his name. That was it, he was going to get kicked out of class for having a yellow potion.

Or not.

Luck was apparently on his side and the Professor was simply revisiting his query from earlier on. Any other ideas why a potion would be used instead of transfiguring? Max pondered for a moment before raising his hand slowly. He didn't really want to bring attention to himself and his potion but maybe he could redeem himself with a good answer.

"Sir, is it possible that using a potion is ... less permanent than a transfigured pumpkin head? Like, the effects wear off eventually by themselves?"

He assumed that if you transfigured someone's head into a pumpkin, someone would have to be around to reverse the spell.

Maxton had done some thinking over the course of the lesson, it seemed. Maybe Noble could teach these kiddos something yet. “There are a few exceptions, but in general the effects of a potion will wear off over time, yes, even without an antidote or reversal spell. How fast depends on the concentration of potion you ingested.”

SPOILER!!: Patrick

Quote:

Originally Posted by siriusblackliveson

Text Cut: notes

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use Diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Place three dried flitterby moths in a mortar and with a pestle grind into a very fine powder. Do not add to cauldron yet
5. Peel the outer layer of a stunned bouncing bulb via a peeler then chop 100g worth of bulb (use scales to measure) using a silver knife. Keep cuts smooth. Do not add to cauldron yet
6. Once simmered, ad moth powder. Stir clockwise until turns grass green (should be four turns)
7. add 100g of bouncing bulb stir just enough to incorporate (like cake)
8. Turn down heat and set timer for 30 minutes

Patrick was pretty nervous about adding his moth powder to the potion. It wasn't every day that you had a professor who looked so disappointed in your work. He added the moths. Moving his wrist around the pot to the right, going clockwise he spun, once.

two. three. four.

Eyes peering over the cauldron a small sigh escaped his mouth he hadn't ground the moths enough. He spun around his cauldron one more time and it turned grass green. "huzzah" he mumbled under his breath. Now onto the harder part. incorporating the bouncing bulbs just enough so that it is in there. He poured out the bouncing bulbs and began to stir. it didn't take long.

Lowering the heat he set the timer for thirty minutes and looked around. He wondered what other students were going to carve into their pumpkins. Still unsure he heard Professor ask what other things about the ingredients could change the characteristics of the potion.

Bel had a point, "I think I'm with her, other vegetables or fruits even, wouldn't it just be like any substitution?" he ducked his head and began to think about how he would carve his pumpkin. Ah, the classic. He began to carve triangles for eyes and a jagged smile just like he did at home around halloween.

He’d thought for an unfortunate moment that Patrick was going to stop his stirring a little too short. However, the Slytherin completed the final required stir not a moment too soon, and the potion was saved. ”Somewhat, yes. Too small a fruit or vegetable is not ideal though, nor are ones easily bruised or squished. Can you imagine a head the size of a grape? ”

SPOILER!!: Alyce and Emmalyn

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poolicious

Yes, she cold see that the younger girl already did some drawing. Cut herself? Almost lost her finger? "You should be more careful next time." Well, at least the girl didn't lost her finger. That would be unfortunate. Alyce took a better look at Emmalyn's pumpkin. "Badger? Okay." It look like one.

Here we go.

Alyce took out her wand and pointed to Emmalyn's pumpkin "Diffindo!" She began to trace the drawing pattern the younger girl made with her wand, very carefully. She tried so hard to follow the drawing but her wand went outside the lines a few times. Her cut wasn't all that neat but she could definitely see a badger. "I'm sorry it's not perfect." Yeah, the badger head look a bit big to her. And it's not a very smooth cut. Yikes. Well done, Alyce, you just messed up Emmalyn's pumpkin. "Do you want me to crave the I and the heart too?" That look easier to crave than the badger.

The Slytherin heard Professor Noble asked the some question about substitutions of the pumpkin and other questions she didn't know the answer to, so Alyce just kept her mouth shut and let the others answer the questions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Birchwoodmom

She watched intently as Alyce carved the pumpkin for her. She was quite impressed with her skill using diffindo and thought she might even ask the older Slytherin to help her practice the spell. “Not perfect? It’s fantastic! You should have seen what I did to my poor notebook when I tried using diffindo earlier.” After she finished the badger, which Emmalyn really did think turned out great, Alyce inquired about the lettering above. “Yes, please do finish the I and the heart. That would be great.” Emmalyn’s favorite part was Alyce put a bit of her own creativity in the carving.


While Alyce was finishing up with her pumpkin, Emmalyn started thinking about the questions Professor Noble asked. “Sir, a potion would be perfect to slip to someone without them knowing. You wouldn’t even need to be in the same building when they took it. That way they wouldn’t know who did it to them.” Yes, that seemed like a good answer.

As for other ingredients and other uses, she wasn’t as sure. Emmalyn opened her book and began searching the pages for clues. “Oh! Professor, will we be adding foxglove to our mixture?” She may or may not be onto something, but it was worth a try.

“I believe I said carve your pumpkin, Alyce and Emmalyn.” There was a disapproving look on Noble’s face, almost as if he had a rancid smell under his nose. ”The main exercise was to practice your knife and/or wand skills.” Which clearly Emmalyn had just failed to do, by fobbing it off on an older student. [b]“I suggest you do some more carving of your own, now, or I’ll only have you practising your chopping next lesson.” [/b[

As for Emmalyn’s answer? “Yes, I believe I already said that.” Earlier in the lesson, when the question was first raised. Hadn’t she been paying attention? “And yes, we will.” As per the ingredients list…but they hadn’t got there yet.

SPOILER!!: Daehyun

Quote:

Originally Posted by debpetrisor

... it was beyond disturbing that the class still went on when someone had passed out, but Daehyun was glad he was sitting in the front row and could try to be oblivious to what went on behind him, though-

Nope, he couldn't. He couldn't help but worry for the boy while absently carving his pumpkin, slowly and carefully to avoid chopping a finger off in the process, every once in a while glancing at his potion to make sure nothing went wrong with it. From the corner of his eyes, he'd spotted a glimpse of what he thought was professor Noble's patronus, but it was gone before he made out its shape and, soon enough, the Healer was there, so he could finally let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. She would know what to do, right?

Putting the small knife he'd used to carve down, he glanced up when he heard the professor's questions, his hand hesitantly going up at the first one. "Does the potion turn heads into pumpkins, or only encases them?" Or was he confusing it for the jinx? "Because if it only encases the head in a pumpkin, it would be far less dangerous." The way he saw it, if the head was encased in a pumpkin, the person would only have to break that pumpkin to get out. But if it turned a head into a pumpkin, and if that pumpkin got crushed... he shuddered at the thought.

As for the ingredients, he did not know. Instead, he took a new piece of parchment and scribbled down the mentioned ingredients, awaiting answers that he would jot down right away.

That…was a particularly astute question, actually. “You’re thinking of melofors,” Noble answered. “Which does in fact encase the head in a pumpkin in a form a conjuring transfiguration. This is slightly different. Less…claustrophobic.” They were welcome to test the difference if they so desired. And had brewed the potion properly.

SPOILER!!: Daisy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ginevra

Daisy had decided on a butterfly for her design. She didn't want the typical scary design that she saw on pretty much every pumpkin. She grabbed her wand and carefully carved her pumpkin using Diffindo. She raised her hand at Professor Noble's question about substitutions. "Maybe turnips could be used but they might need an Enlargement Charm placed on them."

Not only did Noble see some decently controlled wandwork there, but Daisy’s answer was appropriate too. “No to the enlargement charm, as that would cause the magic of the potion to be off. But the turnip, yes. They were traditionally carved before pumpkins became more popular.”

SPOILER!!: Hanna

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessiqua

In the middle of carving her pumpkin, Hanna had a think about what Professor Noble was asking them. Why would someone use potions over transfiguration?

DOII, it was so hard!

She lifted her hand and suggested "Is it safer? I mean, Potions isn't always easy, and you could go horribly wrong with a potion, but a bad potion compared to a bad transfiguring spell... yeah, maybe it's safer." Maybe not. Hanna would rather trial and error with Potions than Transfiguration. Merlin, the stories she'd heard.

As for his other questions... she raised her hand again. "Bouncing bulbs are animated, so maybe their movement transfers to the potion to then animate the pumpkin?" When it... turns into a head. Rather than just being a plain ol' pumpkin head. "And moths... I don't know a loooooot about moths but umm maybe..." she was buying time... "Mmmmmmaybe because they are a PEST and eat things in the garden, they will... like... invade into the pumpkin to do something." She looked at Professor Noble with a very straight face, blinking a few times.

She needed to study the ingredients. That's what she needed to do. Her textbook,
and even her Herbology textbook should be help.

Honestly…most of her answer was complete trash. Like…what was all that about moths and pests and invading pumpkins? Noble’s forehead furrowed into a grimace. ”It’s not the movement of the bulbs so much, but you’re partway there.” Kinda. Maybe.

SPOILER!!: Vivian

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kimothy

Vivian took a moment to consider the possible designs she could make in carving her pumpkin. She thought of just going with the usual scary pumpkin face, but no. That was too ordinary. Maybe a person riding a broom? The blond thought of it, but realised that she wasn't artistically-inclined in handiwork and it wouldn't do justice to such a nice concept. Too bad. Instead, she settled for a cat design in honour of her Kneazle, Marshmallow. It seemed more feasible.

First, she started with the outline of the cat. Carefully, she sent a Severing Charm to do the trick. She hadn't been able to continue with the other details before Professor Noble raised a question for them to ponder on. "Perhaps it's a lesser chance of getting caught that you were the one who made the potion, Sir. As compared to using transfiguration, people would find out what your recent spell was with the Reverse Spell." Not that Vivian was encouraging the students, of course. She didn't want her idea to switch on even more ideas for the pranksters in this school. Just... no.

As for substitutes for the pumpkin, Vivian couldn't help but smile a little at how ridiculous some people would look with a large fruit or vegetable as a head. "Maybe a watermelon, Professor?" Still, even that suggestion was funny. Slightly immature Fairfield.

A lesser chance of getting caught, yes. But for the reason she gave? Noble grunted. “If you were stupid enough not to follow it up with another spell, sure.” Her suggestion for a substitute got a nod though. “Yes, a watermelon would be a decent switch.”

SPOILER!!: Hattie

Quote:

Originally Posted by RachieRu

Harriet actually preferred this bit of the lesson to the actual brewing. Of course she loved brewing. She was good at it, so of course she'd like it. But creativity ran through her veins, and so she loved the chance to do something arty related in class. She decided that she was going to carve a few stars into her pumpkin. That was cool. She hoped it would look pretty good too, and different than just a random face. That was not original and she liked to be original. She picked up her pencil, and began to sketch a few stars onto her pumpkin, so that she at least had a guide to go on. That would make it so much easier. She made her pumpkin look like a night sky, even adding a moon. It looked good. Now she just hoped that it would look good when she actually carved it.

She did pause though, to ponder over a few of the questions that the professor had asked. The blonde nodded as she listened to other people's answers. "I suppose either could be equally as dangerous. Too little or too much of an ingredient could cause the potion to not work, or maybe turn someone's head into a pumpkin permanently. That would not be good" which would be why she wouldn't be using the potion.

With a smile, the blonde then turned back to her pumpkin, picked up the knife and began to carve it. She went with the knife, for it gave her more precision over what she was doing.

Where were the Ravenclaws at? Apparently the Hufflepuffs were the ones with their thinking caps on this morning. ”Nice point, Harriet. A potion can be messed up just as easily as wandwork. Perhaps moreso, given the puny length of some of your attention spans.” He’d be surprised if he let half of these potions out of the classroom for them to keep right now.

SPOILER!!: Shera

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pucki

Shera was feeling pretty comfortable with where she was at. She had been keeping up with the Professor's instructions, she had not hurt herself by cutting and she had not had her potion vanished, or melted her cauldron away. And, she even had all the notes and instructions written down.

Then it was time for her to add the things she had just prepared into her potion and she found herself feeling a little bit nervous again.

Adding her crushed moths to the mix she began to stir her potion clockwise, making sure to follow the edge of the cauldron. After four circles her potion was starting to show signs of turning green, but it definitely wasn't the colour that the professor had described. Sighing she continued to stir, reaching five and two thirds of full stirs to actually get the colour she wanted. She didn't know how that was possible considering how long she had spent grinding down her moths.

Then it was time to add the bouncing bulb to the mixture she had already managed to get together. She already knew it was going to take a lot longer for the bouncing bulb to incorporate into the potion, but hey. At least once it had she would be able to sit back, relax and start carving her pumpkin!

The young Ravenclaw hadn't bothered to count the number of stirs it took to incorporate the bouncing bulbs. But it was done! And that meant that it was time to simmer the potion CARVE THE PUMPKIN!

"Diffindo," she said comfortably, beginning to carve out her pumpkin while vaguely listening to what the Professor was saying. There was only one question that she thought that she might have an answer to that wasn't completely wrong. "Potions don't require a wand, so a squib could get use out of the potion while they can't do transfiguration by themselves?"

And see, this was why he wanted them to practice their chopping skills. Already Shera’s diffindo was looking much more confident. Shame her answer needed a little more… clarification. “A lot of potions do require a wand to make…or at least, are better brewed with one nearby. But yes, a squib could use the potion, whilst transfiguration would be completely out of the question.”

SPOILER!!: Miranda

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devina Wellheart

This lesson was moving along rather smoothly for which
Miranda was thankful.. It seemed that maybe .. Just maybe she was starting to get the hang of this whole potion brewing thing.. Perhaps it was the new Potion's Master?.. Or maybe all the extra time in the practice lab was finally paying off!

She looked up again at the sound of Professor Noble's stern voice as he saw that the clumsy went to staunch their wounds with the bandages he was so kind as to have available right there in his classroom. He was giving them the next step of instructions and adding them to the chalkboard. Quickly she jotted them down and went about checking her copper cauldron to see if her pumpkin guts had come to a simmer... WOO!.. They were and she found herself adding the pulverized and super finely powdered Flitterby moths..Stirring spoon in hand she stirred the concoction slowly clockwise.. First once.. It turned greyish.. Twice, Now bruise yellowish-green.. Okay she had to admit, this was a nasty looking color. thank Merlin she didn't have to stop on that colour. the third rotation around her cauldron she saw it darker green, but green.. Once more she spooned the mix and there it was!..
Grass green!

" Holy Merlin's monkey... I did it.. It's the right colour!", she exclaimed in the loudest of whispers to herself.. Though others around her were likely to hear her self praise accompanied by an excited and very proud wiggle.

It was indeed the right colour…though why she felt the need to share it with the whole class, he didn’t have a clue. “Perhaps now you’ll consider the questions?” he asked pointedly.

SPOILER!!: Kye

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dokimoto

Kye paused from her carving to listen to the questions the Professor had posed. Uhh... why would you choose a potion over a spell?

Listening to Vivian's answer, Kye responded to the room at large.
"Well I agree with Priori Incantatem being an easy way to find a culprit... but someone not careful could also leave evidence with their potion... " She felt a little like she was playing Devil's Advocate here, but she was just curious on what the Professor's response would be. Potions required a lot more precision and time, so you really had to want to turn that person's head into a pumpkin!

At Shera's response, Kye turned back to the Professor. "Wait, Squibs can do potions and stuff still? Like, can a Squib be an alchemist?"
This was news to her, and now she was really curious as to how much magic a Squib could do this way.

“On the contrary, Valkyrie,” Noble said, with a tut. “Priori Incantatem would require finding a sister wand, which might be quite difficult indeed.” Sure, there were records…but then you still had to find the owner of said wand, and it be in good enough repair to actually use. “I think you mean Priori Incantato.” As for the question, his answer to Shera stood. ”It depends on the potion, but they might find they got unpredictable if not mundane results.”

SPOILER!!: Derf

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Yes yes he kneeeew Zoryn. Why did she think he was being so extra meticulous with his notes? Though he knew that wouldn't entirely make up for her having to clean two pumpkins and, well, whatever other potion prep she was working while he helped out the first year - Zoryn could not be appeased with pure academia and anyone who thought otherwise did not understand the Gryffindor - he figured it was a start. Hopefully she wouldn't ask for anything, er, awkward in addition with this owing thing.

But he also needed to take a moment to point out the RELIEF he felt when the professor mentioned DRIED moths...but he still had follow up questions to that. Them being a part of his standard potions kit did not, you know, guarantee collection processes and such...but he would let that rest for now. Particularly since his thoughts were currently occupied elsewhere.

And it was a PARTICULARLY good thing he happened to not hear what the professor said about slipping something unknowingly into another's drink. The words of the likes of Levi Kenning and Dora Umbridge ringing LOUDLY in the fourth year's mind.

Just as one situation was handled and Derf turned from the sink to return to his seat and get back to his own potion brewing instead of leaving it all to Zoryn, something ELSE happened and suddenly Ronan was on the floor - bleeding - and it was like he was that 11-year-old standing in that cold, dead, corridor all over again hearing that Abey and Simon had been taken by the Monster. Derf did not know how long he was standing there for and it wasn't until the distinct voice of the Healer that he came to, somewhat. His blue eyes instantly darted around the room for the ONE thing that could pull him from his spiral - Abey. Alive and (arguably) well. With Junia.

And then the Hufflepuff took a much needed breath - kinda loudly so he sorta GASPED in the middle of the classroom with oxygen rushing back to his head and making him dizzy enough that HE could have passed out - and took several shaky steps back to his station.

"Back," he said exhaustedly, offering Zoryn a tiiiiired smile before surveying what all she had done. "Thanks...for all...you know," he murmured as he waved his hand over all the stuff she had done.

He did not even hear the professor's question, his eyes trained between the Healer and Ronan and...well...trying to figure out where he needed to pick up on his own instructions to complete his potion with some level of diligence. But in all honesty, this was not going to end well. It was not easy to pull himself out of that particular spiral and his features were looking a bit more pale than usual as he distractedly added the powdered flitterby moths to his cauldron and picked up his spoon to stir - counterclockwise and certainly more than four times since his eyes were locked in on what was happening with Ronan. Grass green? Naaaaaaaah...looked a whole lot more like split pea soup.

He still needed to tend to his bulb...but presently the fourth year was too busy stirring...and staring...staring and stirring.

SPOILER!!: notes

Pompion Potion
turns the drinker's head into pumpkin; brewing time of 50 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin. ✔
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.✔
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat. ✔ thanks Zoryn
4. Whilst waiting for the cauldron to come to a light simmer, grind 3 dried flitterby moths to a fine powder in your pestle and mortar. ✔ thanks Zoryn
5. Add these to the cauldron and stir clockwise until the contents turns grass green (4 complete stirs should do the trick).✔
6. Stun your bouncing bulb. Peel off the purple skin, and chop finely with a silver knife. Weigh out 100g. Add to your cauldron and stir enough to incorporate.
7. Let your potion simmer for 30 minutes. You may carve your pumpkin whilst you wait.

As he moved his gaze across the classroom to the next raised hand, Noble audibly groaned. There was always one. ”I said CLOCKWISE, Derfael!” he bellowed across the room. As he’d predicted at the start of class…concentration issues. And by this time, he’d stirred so much that there wasn’t going to be any undoing it. ”I hope you have enough remaining pulp to start again.” Because with a sweep of his wand, the contents of Derf’s cauldron had been vanished.

So much for his breaktime and a sit down in the staff room.

SPOILER!!: Rylee

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kolyander

Questions were being asked but Rylee was focused on her pumpkin carving. Well more so on NOT cutting herself than anything else. This little knife from her potions hit was sharp, man! So she wasn't ignoring the Professor or anything when she kept quiet. Truth was.. she really didn't know the answer. All she could do was guess. Guess and risk repeating all that was already being said.

Setting down her knife she gave her answer. "Potions are just easier to slip to someone rather than having to be close enough to them for Transfiguration. Like if you wanted to play a prank on someone... you usually don't want them to be aware of what's going to happen." Potions could be given to anyone, sent anywhere by owls even. She had always been warned by her parents and especially her big sister to never consume anything unless she knew what it was and where it came from.

As for the other question she chewed her lip in thought for several moments. She wasn't really sure what the ingredients did in each potion but she did know that without them the potion clearly wouldn't work. She was just going to think about this question some more while continuing to carve out the unicorn shape into her pumpkin.

What she was carving, he didn’t have the foggiest. But at least she seemed to be focused on the task at hand. “Yes, yes, you can slip them to someone more discreetly.”

SPOILER!!: Jessa

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

"Variety." Oh, there was the Healer. Jessa spared the faintest glance in Ronan's general direction before continuing her point. "Spells are usually a first option if they're available. Sometimes you wanna be able to mix things up. That way you also get to run a comparative study with the varying similarities and differences presented between both forms of magic. The simple fact of the matter is, if you only try the one, you'll never know about the other." So that's why she'd give a potion a chance when there was a spell that could just as well have done the work.

Contrary to what several of her classmates had said or alluded to, Jessa didn't find transfiguration spells difficult. It was her best subject and she spent a lot of time developing the art.

"I'm also gonna assume anything from the same genus would be equally effective in a potion like this." Similar properties tended to yield similar results.

"I suspect some would opt for the potion just so they don't have to worry about brain damage or otherwise permanently impairing whoever they may have been casting on. No need to worry about all the intricate stuff when the potion was doing it for you." It had it's goal in mind. Your job was done once you brewed it right....."if" being the operative word here.

"Can we try the spell anyway?" Y'know, so they could have both.

Cutting through the waffle, he assumed she was talking about experimenting. “We might want to compare results directly.” He nodded. “And yes…a potion requires a different sort of focus to a spell, which might be advantageous.” As for her answer to the other part of the question? “Not, everything, no. But most gourds would be suitable as long as their mature size isn’t too small.”

SPOILER!!: Abra

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

As freakouts went, this was not a particularly bad one. In a way, that was good, because it was the sort of thing where, had Abra been thinking straight he would have been relieved that all his panic and emotions were being kept inside him, shut in and not allowed to come out. But, for someone who was generally terrible at keeping a lid on anything, it would have worried him to realise that he was suddenly on emotional lockdown.

Something about seeing people look like they were dead, or could be dead, it sort of brought back images of bones and memories of general mortal peril, not to mention a sudden reminder of the events from last year. It was why he didn't like people playing dead, and why seeing people faint or anything like that was particularly frightening, even when rationally he knew that they were fine, or would be fine eventually. It was a bit of a setback, it drew out memories he didn't want to think about, but at least it wasn't a total disaster. Well, not for him, at least.

Junia was talking to him, but Abra didn't quite manage to look away from the sixth year on the floor until his cousin specifically told him to do so. That dragged him out of the weird half-buzzing, half-nothing headspace just a little bit, and he turned back to look at her, sort of focusing on her face, sort of not. Feeling her hand on his shoulder helped to ground him a bit, but mostly he just stayed quiet and stayed close beside her.

It took him a moment or two to register what Junia was doing with the moths; that being, of course, grinding more up to replace his own, which Abra finally realised had met some sort of sad fate. He took a steadying breath, and tried to gather his thoughts. It was hard, because he felt as though he had too many thoughts but also, at the same time, no thoughts at all. Eventually, he half-whispered, half-murmured a "Thank you."

Abra didn't really want to be here anymore. His mind wasn't at all on the potion, his emotions had completely disappeared, and he doubted he would be able to focus on school for the rest of the day, but it didn't really occur to him to do anything about it. What could he do? He wasn't even worried that almost a sure thing that he'd not finish his potion today, and that Noble would be unimpressed, because he suddenly didn't care.

Slowly, he reached out, ready to take the mortar and pestle from Junia and resume from where he had left off. Auto-Abra could get him through this lesson while regular Abra was still a little out of sorts.

Answering questions though? No. Forget about it.

He glanced momentarily at the Gryffindor, before moving on. He would have questioned the boy, but really…there was no need to delay his work even further. He was already lagging woefully behind.

SPOILER!!: Juniper

Quote:

Originally Posted by SarcasticStrawberry

SPOILER!!: Juniper’s Notes

Pompion Potion

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Whilst waiting for the cauldron to come to a light simmer, grind 3 dried flitterby moths to a fine powder in your pestle and mortar. Add these to the cauldron and stir clockwise until the contents turns grass green (4 complete stirs should do the trick).
5. Stun your bouncing bulb. Peel off the purple skin, and chop finely with a silver knife. Weigh out 100g. Add to your cauldron and stir enough to incorporate.
6. Let your potion simmer for 30 minutes. You may carve your pumpkin whilst you wait.

Yep that was a simmer, a light simmer not so much yet. She went ahead grabbed the crushed moths in the mortar. By the time she had gotten that in her hand and ready to add to her cauldron. The contents of the cauldron were now at a light simmer. Or at least what she thought was a light simmer. How does one really know these things? She added the powdery substance to the cauldron. And with a clean stirrer. Stirring it clockwise until the potion turned grass green.

Why grass green why not… sea green?

Stir enough to incorporate, now that was vague. Either way she added the chopped
bouncing bulbs. The whole 100g of it. She added it the cauldron and started stirring it… until it was all incorporated.

To her surprise Professor Noble was going to let them carve their pumpkins. Zita was right he was going to let them carve them. Probably to keep them busy for the thirty minutes they had to wait for the potion to brew. Though with the cuts and the allergic reaction, she wasn’t sure what was the safer option was. Hogwarts kid using knives and severing charms or leaving them to their own devices for thirty minutes. Which one would be the less dangerous?

Right so this was going to be good. She went ahead and took her knife and cut out two big X’s and a small “W” Under the cut out X’s. She raised her hand. Kind of answering a question but asking one of her own and kind answered it too. ”My question is Why would you want to do turn someone’s head into a pumpkin? Besides say like in a duel or as prank. If you are using it in a duel then you would have to use the Jinx. I mean you don’t bring potions to a duel.” That would be cheating right? Unfair advantage? Anyway she went back to working on her pumpkin carving. Now to cut out the mouth this time she took her wand to cut out a small mouth on her pumpkin. She had a little bit of the pulp left and scooted it in front of the pumpkin. Gross, This pumpkin needed to be excused from class now.

“Why are any spells or potions created?” Noble replied with a question of his own. Half a choice, and he probably wouldn’t be teaching it. But it was on the syllabus, and it was nearly Halloween, so here he was.

SPOILER!!: Finn

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpluvr037

"I wouldn't really know if it's hard to invent spells and potions, never having done it before. Ask Jessa. Or a professor." But he would imagine that yes, it would be wicked hard. Then she was talking about cooking. "I like to cook with my mum. I think it helped, since I didn't have anyone magical in my family to teach me potions at all. Baking is super precise and requires some chemistry, and potions is similar like that."


Well, he was glad the Healer had showed up. Ronan clearly needed attention, and no offense to Noble, but Finn trusted the Healer to know what to do a bit better.

And as far the first question. Finn raised his hand. "Well, I think the potion option definitely opens up this particular piece of magic to more people. Some people probably aren't very confident in the transfiguration skills." Like himself. "And I know we don't really even begin human transfiguration until sixth year, so this lets younger students be able to do this as well."


Woah! For a first year, she was really confident! And frankly, she had come up with a better answer than he had himself. Cue another round of flagging confidence. "Nice one!" he said encouragingly.

Over the course of the lesson, Noble had been rather impressed by Finn’s work…and his guidance of the younger Ravenclaw. “Yes, indeed. As many have now touched upon, potions can be the more accessible of the two disciplines.” The intent came in the recipe, rather than in the casting of a particular spell at a particular time.

SPOILER!!: Tenacius

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

Oh the Healer was here. Great relief was apparent on his face as the woman tended to his fellow Gryffindor. Also that rhino patronus did not escape his notice Potions man, this boy has learned to generate a corporeal patronus and he's always keen to find out what everybody else's is.

But right he should probably get carving, as his potion was pretty much done after the simmering period. Ace has carved pumpkins yearly, but because of that he knows that the best way to get a really nice pumpkin carving with his skill level (which is fairly decent, but no where near pro-level) is to keep them simple.

Just as he was doing the outline for the face, discussion points were brought up. Hmmm.... "I think spells delivered via potions have a more consistent output Sir, you can specify how long it will last or how strong the effect can be, with the ability to adjust it depending on who it will be applied to. Wandwork spells rely largely on the caster's skill level for its efficacy and duration." at least from what he's observed of magic anyway.

As for the other questions, he wasnt quite sure what the bulbs or the moths do other than flavorings or extra protein source. But as for pumpkin substitutes "Would any other type of gourd do Sir?"

It was somewhat disappointing to see the Head Boy managing to keep a straight face at last. He’d had some good thoughts go through his mind for a detention topic. “Consistency…that’s a good word. If you have a batch of potion, you know every vial from it will have the same effect.” Whether it was right effect was a different matter…but it’d be the same each time.

SPOILER!!: Vi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watson

With her potion simmering, Vi had dropped her carving tool when she saw Ronan fall to the ground. She quickly bent down to pick it back up as she watched the Professor call for the Healer. Merlin.... Please be alright. She turned her eyes towards the door, ignoring the simmering potion momentarily, and focusing on the door as she waited for a familiar Healer to walk through the door. The dark haired one accompanied by two big Newfoundlands.... The doors opened and a woman appeared, causing her heart to sink. She knew he was gone but still.... She turned away, diverting her gaze back to her potion.

The Nurse would make sure that he was okay. Thank MERLIN she was here.

Vi picked up her carving tool and began to carve the virgo constellation into her pumpkin. Then she paused when Professor Noble offered a question about substitutes and what the bulbs or moths would do to the potion. Hmm... She had no clue. But if brewed incorrectly, Olivia believed that both the potion and the transfiguration could be equally dangerous....

…and a quiet one. Well then, he guessed that was his cue for moving on. His timer was nearly at the 30 minutes mark anyways.

“If you’ve looked ahead in the ingredients list,” which he knew several already had, going by their questions, “you’ll notice it says fresh foxglove flowers. To that end, you’ll need to come pick some from the plants here.” He gestured towards the potted plants on the front desk, covered in purple flowers. No, they weren’t just there for decoration. “You’ll be needing 4 grams of the petals only, which should be a couple of the medium size ones, or one big and one small.” He picked a couple from the middle of the stem and held them up so they could see what he meant. No need for waste, nor killing the plant.

“Now you need to pluck your petals away from the green sepal, and once you have 4 grams, crush them gently with your fingers.” Once he’d plucked the petals, he discarded the green stuff and held them up to show his technique for crushing them. Not too different from screwing up a ball of paper, just on a much smaller and more delicate scale. “Finally give them a rough chop before adding to your cauldron and stirring counter-clockwise until it turns a deep purple.” For his rough chop, he rocked his knife back and forth over the petals a couple of times, much like a chef might chop some herbs, and then he lifted up the chopping board and used the knife to slide them all in. Three counter-clockwise stirs, and the contents had turned a dark purple.

“Foxglove can be toxic, so please wash your hands once you’re done handling it.” No need for the Healer to have any more attendees to the Hospital Wing from this class.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Recipe so far...

Pompion Potion

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Whilst waiting for the cauldron to come to a light simmer, grind 3 dried flitterby moths to a fine powder in your pestle and mortar. Add these to the cauldron and stir clockwise until the contents turns grass green (4 complete stirs should do the trick).
5. Stun your bouncing bulb. Peel off the purple skin, and chop finely with a silver knife. Weigh out 100g. Add to your cauldron and stir enough to incorporate.
6. Let your potion simmer for 30 minutes. You may carve your pumpkin whilst you wait.
7. Pluck the petals from the foxgloves, and weigh out 4g. Crush to release the juices and chop roughly. Add to the cauldron, and stir until potion changes to a dark purple. Wash hands after handling the foxglove - it is toxic if consumed alone.

Yes, fresh floxglove flowers were needed for this potion. Vi had looked ahead indeed and had been wondering when they would be adding said ingredient to the mix. 4 grams of petals only. They were a lovely purple colour. Rich indeed. After the Professor had given the instructions, Vi got to her feet and then brought her small scale over to the table that had the foxgloves. Olivia placed her bowl on the scale, zeroed it out, and then began her inspection of the leaves. She carefully plucked a few leaves and placed them in the bowl until she had reached four grams worth of the foxglove. Good. That was done. Now time to return to her work station.

Vi then gently picked up the petals in her fingers and then scrunched them up as if she was scrunching up a piece of paper into a ball. She squished and squeezed them firmly before picking up her knife. Then she rocked the knife back and forth, holding onto it gently as she chopped up the petals into smaller and smaller petals. With the petals coarsely chopped up, she placed them into the simmering concoction and then picked up her wooden spoon and performed three counterclockwise stirs. One. Two. Three.

With each stir, the concoction became a mid- purple and then a deep purple and then finally a nice dark purple. Perfect. She admired her work and then proceeded to the nearest sink to scrub her hands until they were clean and hopefully rid of any toxicity from the foxgloves.

Emmalyn’s face immediately flushed. She wasn’t sure if it was more from embarrassment or from anger. ‘I believe you said we could start to carve our pumpkins if we wished. ‘ she nastily said in her head. What did he expect her to do? She had already cut herself and cut her notebook in half. It seemed like a very bad idea for her to be ramming a knife into the flesh of a pumpkin so soon.

Plus, she was having a horrible time paying attention with all of the bleeding and passed out students around her. That, on top of the sickenly sweet pumpkin aroma filling the room, her best hope was to make it out of class before her breakfast came back to visit on the floor. After taking a deep breath to calm herself and deter her from saying something to Professor Noble that she really shouldn’t say, she turned to Alyce. “Sorry I got you in trouble. I do appreciate the help you gave me.”

To further make things worse, he wanted them to do more chopping. Oh how she was ready for class to be over. Very reluctantly, Emmalyn made her way to the foxglove plant. She carefully selected two medium sized petals, delicately removed them, then headed back to her station. With great care, she plucked the petals away from the green sepal, measured out four grams and gently crushed them between her fingers.

Now the chopping. She wasn’t sure if Professor Noble really expected her to try her hand at chopping again. The sour look on his face didn’t inspire her to ask, so she grabbed the blade of terror and placed her foxglove petals on the workspace before her. Deciding her fingers were worth more to her than looking silly, she grabbed the pestle to hold down the edge of the petals, keeping her hand out of danger, and roughly chopped.

She picked up her cutting board and scraped off the chopped petals into her cauldron, then began stirring in a counterclockwise motion until a deep purple color formed. Once finished, she scoured her hands, cleaned up her work area and patiently waited for the next set of instructions.

It was a BIT hard to concentrate fully with everything going on. People had cut themselves (though Bel didn't understand how since even if you weren't all that good at chopping things, it just made sense to keep your fingers out of the way didn't it), and of course poor Ronan, that older Gryffindor, was not having a good day. She was sympathetic but trying really hard to stay on task. Anyway, all the distractions, followed by the questions, and the interesting answers some of the other kids gave, meant Bel hadn't done any actual carving.

But they were moving on now anyway so that was okay. And also she was now wondering why they added the seeds last if it all went in there anyways and the same if it was a different vegetable. Bel rubbed at her face again (leaving another smear of pumpkin guts) and looked at the Foxglove plant as Professor Noble talked. Fresh flowers. Toxic. One big one small or two medium? She could do that. Bel got up and went to the plant, picking a small flower, and then a bigger one like the professor had demonstrated. Easy enough! She gave the professor a cheery smile and went back to her seat again.

She weighed her petals to check and then rolled them up between her fingers into little balls. Then she cut them up like she was cutting parsley. Was that okay? She looked around to double check, then slid the petals into her cauldron and stirred it three times anti-clockwise, watching with interest for the colour change.

That was a good idea. She thought Jessa was really cool, and pretty approachable. Perhaps she'd do that... yes... she briefly wondered why Jessa would know. If she was super talented at charms, or potions, or something. She WAS Prefect after all, so perhaps she was. Finn was muggle born? "Was that really hard for you to adjust here?" She'd met a girl who was muggle-born, before getting on the train, and she seemed really upset. "Oh yeah, like when you don't add enough egg and get a brownie that crumbles in your hands." Hanna was pretty upset when that happened. She'd been really looking forward to the brownie.

Hanna felt herself blush at Finn's encouragement. But his own answer was wicked! Hanna wasn't sure how she'd go with transfiguration, but of course she'd heard it was very difficult.


Hanna jotted down a few of the answers Professor Noble agreed with, and felt encouraged that he thought she was on the right path. She totally ignored the grimace, of course. Following the writing of some of the answers, Hanna continued with the instructions for the Potion. Foxglove flowers...

She opted, this time, to let Finn get his own flowers. Not being rude, but just in case there was some secret here too. Surely there wouldn't be, though. 4 grams of petals was hardly anything. She went up to the top of the room to collect a small, and a large leaf. Should be 4 grams, or thereabouts.

Back to her desk, she started copying the Professor and pulling the petal away from the green sepal. She did it very carefully, just in case she ended up being short of 4 grams by some minuscule amount. But weighing it out, she was slightly over. She plucked away a tiny bit more until it was exactly 4 grams.

It was a good thing that she was focused almost entirely on her own potion, now that it had been verified that nobody was killing the moths just for the potion. Stasya still was rationalizing that part, just so she didn’t feel like she had to protest and probably deal with the professor watching her even more intently than he had been before now. The attention was making her uncomfortable, and she felt almost guilty when people had seemed to be getting hurt right and left elsewhere in the classroom and definitely taking the attention off of her. Even all the people cutting themselves wasn’t as bad as what happened to Ronan, seeing as she’d heard the crack of his head hitting the floor just as much as everyone else had. She just wasn’t going to look. She didn’t want to see whatever was happening.

Instead, she’d carefully added her moth flour, since that was totally what she was thinking of it as, to her cauldron as instructed, scourgifying her stirrer before using it to stir her potion. Counting the stirs silently in her head as she finished each clockwise circle. One…two…three… She checked the potion. Not green yet, but the color definitely looked different. Four…Hmm Now it looked almost grass green. Grass could be a lot of different green colors anyway. Grass here at Hogwarts looked different than grass at home in Cornwall, and that grass looked different than the grass at her grandparents’ house in Iceland, and that looked different than grass in Yakutsk. At least, she thought it would.

Therefore, she decided to keep going, and added her 100 grams of bouncing bulb to the potion and stirred again until it was mixed in before taking her stirrer out to let the potion simmer. Setting her timer for 30 minutes just to make sure she didn’t make the professor think she wasn’t paying attention again. Or that she was protesting. No, she was just thinking about how she wanted to carve her pumpkin, and she’d begun carefully using her wand to cut out little eyes and a long thin tongue by the time the healer had arrived. A pumpkin puffskein. The shape was kind of accurate, anyway, although she’d moved on to trying to see if he could carve out little fur shapes just to make it better by the time the timer went off and they were moving on. She wasn’t ignoring the questions. She was pondering them silently.

She hadn’t needed the reminder that foxglove was poisonous, either. She was going to wear her gloves for this part, and maybe still make sure to wash her hands afterward. Going up to the plants, she plucked a couple of medium sized flowers and returned to her seat, keeping her eyes on her pumpkin puffskein while she pulled the petals off the flowers gently and piled them onto her scale to make sure it was 4 grams. She’d survived the moths, so she wasn’t going to let flower petals hurt her. Picking each one off the scale, she crushed them like had been demonstrated before using her knife to chop them up like herbs. Really dangerous herbs, and she wasn’t entirely sure that the potion was going to be safe even if he’d said they were only poisonous if they were eaten by themselves. She still added the chopped petals to her potion, stirring it again until it looked kind of like eggplant in color. That was dark purple anyway, so she quickly went over to wash her hands just in case the gloves hadn’t protected her completely.

SPOILER!!: notes

Pompion Potion
Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Prepare dried moths by crushing into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle, making sure a fine powder is made. Add to cauldron once the pumpkin is simmering lightly. Stir clockwise until potion turns grass green. (4 complete stirs should be okay)
5. Stupefy a fresh bouncing bulb before peeling away the outer purple layer and chopping the inside finely with a silver knife until 100 grams is collected. Exact measurements. Add to cauldron and stir to incorporate.
6. Let the potion simmer for 30 minutes.
7. Pluck the petals from the foxgloves, and weigh out 4g. Crush to release the juices and chop roughly. Add to the cauldron, and stir until potion changes to a dark purple. Wash hands after handling the foxglove - it is toxic if consumed alone.
Notes:
Turns the drinker’s head into a pumpkin
Brewing time is around 50 minutes

To be honest she was kind of trying to blur out whatever else was happening around her. That was so she could concentrate on what she was supposed to be doing. She didn't want to go all through this, and then ruin her potion right at the end. She didn't want to do anything that would cause Professor Noble to vanish her potion. That wouldn't be good. So she was trying to blur out everything that was going on around her. She was pretty happy when she seemed to have answered well. That was good. She liked getting the answers right. It confirmed that she was doing well, and that she wasn't on the wrong track with her thinking.

And ooh. It was time to move on with her potion, and she was glad. Waiting around was a little boring, and it was why she sometimes hated doing potions. But time to go now! The blonde got up, and carefully walked up, and plucked one big and one small foxglove petals. She figured it was easier that way. And then she headed back to her bench. She carefully weighed the petals , to make sure she had 4g. And then she crushed the petals, before carefully chopping them. She made sure that she kept her fingers out of the way, so that she didn't cut herself. That would not be good.

The sixth year, then carefully added the chopped up foxglove petals into her cauldron, picked up her stirrer, and then began to stir counter-clockwise, stirring until her potion went dark purple. Hmm. She wondered how long this would take, but she was careful to watch, so that she didn't over stir her potion.

Well apparently Kye had gotten that all wrong, but hey, now she knew right?
She was still proud of herself for saying anything at all. She listened to Professor Noble's response, and made a note for herself to look up the differences between the two spells.

When he finished explaining the next course of action, Kye headed for the front desk. He had been clear that they only needed a few, so Kye tried to go by his reference. With furrowed brow, Kye examined here and there, and picked out three small to medium sized ones. She didn't want to have extra!

She measured them out as 4, but realized she had forgotten to take off the green stuff. Ah, 3.7g. So it was time to head back up to the table to find the smaller petals. She took one that looked small near the bottom, took off the green, and measured out at 4.03g. She took a tiny bit off the top until it had pushed the number back down to a solid 4. Unsure what to do with the rest, she offered to the class at large, "I have an extra .03 if anyone needs just a little more..."

She put it off to the side in case anyone wanted to claim it. She took her 4 g and started crushing, trying to follow Professor Noble's instruction. After a bit of this, Kye chopped her little clump, added it to her cauldron, and began stirring... (what did he say? Oh!) counter clockwise. She waited for the proper looking purple to appear and stopped. Oh goodie, thank you for leaving out the part that they were dealing with toxic items until now, Sir... Couldn't they have worn gloves or something?

Kye dared not even mutter this under her breath, as she went to the sink to wash her hands... vigorously. Yes, no thank you to going to the Hospital Wing.

SPOILER!!: Kye's Notes

Pompion Potion

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (sorted so no seeds)
3 flitterby moths
100g fresh bouncing bulb, stunned if necessary
4g fresh foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers, petals only
10 fresh pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1.Use diffindo to cut open the pumpkin.
2. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the innards, pulling out the seeds and putting to one side.
3. Put two densely packed cups of pumpkin innards in the bottom your cauldron with a cup of water. Set over medium heat.
4. Whilst waiting for the cauldron to come to a light simmer, grind 3 dried flitterby moths to a fine powder in your pestle and mortar. Add these to the cauldron and stir clockwise until the contents turns grass green (4 complete stirs should do the trick).
5. Stun your bouncing bulb. Peel off the purple skin, and chop finely with a silver knife. Weigh out 100g. Add to your cauldron and stir enough to incorporate.
6. Let your potion simmer for 30 minutes. You may carve your pumpkin whilst you wait.
7. Pluck the petals from the foxgloves, and weigh out 4g. Crush to release the juices and chop roughly. Add to the cauldron, and stir until potion changes to a dark purple. Wash hands after handling the foxglove - it is toxic if consumed alone.


*Look up later: Difference with Priori Incantatem/Incantato