Katy wasn't being particularly sullen, but rather focused, and thus quiet as she unpacked her bag and set up her copper cauldron. In spite of having cleaned everything before she left her dorm, the seventh year Slytherin gave her cauldron and equipment another quick cleansing with a flick of her wand. NEWT prep had begun, and Katy had every intention of getting as much out of this year as possible. It was sort of nice having a new professor this year, since it meant she had one last expert to glean knowledge from prior to graduation.

At the professor's instruction, Katy lit the fire under her cauldron and began working on her pumpkin. Strange to be cutting it like this, taking off the top and scooping rather than just cutting it down the middle, but there was surely a method to this particular madness. She carefully sliced out the stem with a Diffindo, and then began separating seeds and pulp.

And then was distracted by the lad off to one side. Poor baby ickles. It was hard to work a slicing spell when you hadnt learned it properly. "I can help, but you should practice the spell because it's dead useful. Diffindo," Katy cast at the top of his pumpkin, slicing neatly 3/4 of the way around the stem. "You do the rest. You can't ruin it. Just be careful and point where you want to cut."

Maxton scribbled the instructions down in his notebook, just to make sure he didn't miss anything important. Potions took all of his concentration and he really didn't want to mess up, The method seemed pretty straight forward so far. Cut open the top and scoop out all the goop inside. Easy peasy!

"Diffindo!"

He moved his wand in the circular motion that the Professor had demonstrated and ta-da!

Now to get out the goop. But first, he had a question.

"Excuse me, Sir..." the fourth year thrust a hand in the air to get the attention of the Professor. "Why is a potion necessary for this? Wouldn't it be quicker and easier to transfigure a head into a pumpkin?"

Right?

Shera looked over at Daehyun for a moment and was going to help him, because he was her friend after all, but another older student had already demonstrated how to cast diffindo. That was good.

Then she shifted her attention back to what she needed to do. Using her spoon she started scraping out the innards of the pumpkin. That wasn't too hard and actually she managed to finish that step quite quickly, just holding her pumpkin up in the light so she could check there were no more seeds left inside it.

While she was certain that she had gotten them all out, she raised her hand for the professor anyway. "Um, sir, you said it's vital to get all the seeds out. What would happen if we didn't manage to?"

Cause she needed to add that to her notes.

But she also quickly went back to sorting out the seeds from the rest of the innards of her pumpkin. That took her a bit longer than just pulling the innards out of her pumpkin, cause because she needed to check a bit closer to make sure she had in fact gotten all of them.

Step two completed. Go Shera.

Ok well he didnt choose his name and he was too young to change it but he liked it it was different from regular Theodore which some people still call him even though he hates it.

But whatever he was lucky he didn't have to run back all the way to the common room like Sylvie did just to get the right cauldron talk about a trip or well lose points for not remembering like poor Hair Bro Abra (Abey).

FeelsBadMan.

"Im impressed you ran all the way back. I would of just kept the wrong cauldron"

Théo said to Sylvie. He was lazy when he wanted to be.

Ok time for this miserable lot to listen and well try and well Pompion was a fun word to say Pompion and the effect was fun too. Just not the brew time. Nothing he could do about that other than just try. Pumpkin all set and here we go. "Diffindo" Théo cast it carefully on the pumpkin making a circular opening on top. Around the stalk just like Professor Grumpy...Noble says. Perfect. Now, where was his metal spoon? Of course, it was right in front of his face and he could see it. He grabbed his spoon and started taking seeds out but in the end he knew he missed a couple even after using his finger and double checking.

Two Cups densely packed. Well, that took Théo a few tries put those got their way into his cauldron and maybe some seeds with it and finally with a cup of water. The cup of water was the easiest thing yet. He cast incendio to light his burner and set it to medium heat or as close to it as he could.

SPOILER!!: Jessa

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

"Found this book up in the Ravenclaw library." To answer Cam's question. Her gaze shot momentarily to the book before resting on him again. "I wanna change the texture of the dolls I'm working on." Because why NOT go all out with an experiment when you had the means? Just as she'd altered the undead birds to be more like normal, she wanted something aesthetic to work on her new subjects of focus. "There's a chapter on skin textures, how to brew them, the pros, the co--"

The sound of the book slamming shut was enough to draw her attention from her friend.

A deep scowl set itself on her face at the Professor's words. Prefect Eagle? "Jessa Cambridge." Her tone was even, laced with an air of calm that she was not at all feeling. Bad enough she got reminded about this badge WITHOUT people replacing her name entirely with just the title and the animal her house was associated with. "You can keep the "Prefect" if you'd like but I'd appreciate being referred to by at least one of those."

Never having been a particularly willful child, Jessa turned and dropped the book into her bag without another word. Miserable lot was right, and he was the biggest one.

The same look of detached indifference she'd held since the first Potions lesson in which she learned the man's temperament could be seen now as she turned to scourgify her cauldron. A cup of water was then added before she turned to her pumpkin again.

Non-verbally--as she'd done the cleaning charm--Jessa cast diffindo, cutting the pumpkin open at the top with the precision of someone who'd been cutting things open since their Second Year. It was always interesting to note the varying textures in the things she cut open. This pumpkin wouldn't be making any top 10 lists but it presented very little challenge.

That done, she waved her wand over the opening, animating the innards to hop out; yet another spell she used all too often and would be making more use of this term. Always good to get practice where she could. Once the last of it had evacuated, the Ravenclaw leaned over to peer inside, just making sure nothing got left in there. So far so good. Jessa scourgified the cup too before filling it twice with the pumpkin pulp and adding it to her cauldron.

Non-verbal incendio to set the flame aaaaannnddd......set to medium......done.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Potions
Ravenclaw
Fifth Year

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.

He'd been on his way to help the firstie with his spell work, when Perfect Eagle caught his attention for the wrong reasons again. Firstly, he didn't remember asking them to use magic to scoop out the innards. It was unnecessary, fundamentally lazy AND could taint the potion in unanticipated ways. But it was her addition to the cauldron that made him once again reach for him wand.

"I don't believe I told you to add the water yet, Prefect Eagle," Ignatius said, his tone scathing.

With that, he non-verbally vanished the contents of her cauldron, AND her pumpkin. Good job there were one or two left...although they weren't in the best of shape.

A flourish of robes, and he was back to his original purpose.

SPOILER!!: Daehyun and Katy

Quote:

Originally Posted by debpetrisor

Since he'd been staring at his empty notebook while others had been filling the classroom, Daehyun jumped in his seat when the professor banged his pointing stick against his desk, his attention immediately averting to the scary man.

Miserable lot? He wasn't sure what to make of that, but soon it was all forgotten when he'd told them what they would be doing... turn heads into pumpkins? Whose heads?

... could he disappear?

Trying to push the horrifying thoughts away for now, he focused on the professor's instructions, scribbling down everything he was saying, making sure he wasn't missing any details to make that task even more difficult later on. Then came the moment of carving out the top lid of the pumpkin, and he stared nervously at his wand, wondering if he could pull it off by himself, having never cast Diffindo before, although he'd read about it.

Hesitantly putting his hand in the air, he asked, "P-professor? Could you-could you please help me cut this?" Better ask the scary man than severe someone's limbs off on his first try.

It seemed in the meantime though, Katy had beat him to it. He gave the slightest of nods to the Slytherin.

SPOILER!!: Maxton

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waterloo

Maxton scribbled the instructions down in his notebook, just to make sure he didn't miss anything important. Potions took all of his concentration and he really didn't want to mess up, The method seemed pretty straight forward so far. Cut open the top and scoop out all the goop inside. Easy peasy!

"Diffindo!"

He moved his wand in the circular motion that the Professor had demonstrated and ta-da!

Now to get out the goop. But first, he had a question.

"Excuse me, Sir..." the fourth year thrust a hand in the air to get the attention of the Professor. "Why is a potion necessary for this? Wouldn't it be quicker and easier to transfigure a head into a pumpkin?"

Right?

His head span round towards the voice, a smirk curled on the very farthest edge of his lips. Ah, a good question indeed. And one he'd been planning to get to, in good time. "Ponder on it a while, and we'll open it up to the rest of the class."

SPOILER!!: Shera

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pucki

Shera looked over at Daehyun for a moment and was going to help him, because he was her friend after all, but another older student had already demonstrated how to cast diffindo. That was good.

Then she shifted her attention back to what she needed to do. Using her spoon she started scraping out the innards of the pumpkin. That wasn't too hard and actually she managed to finish that step quite quickly, just holding her pumpkin up in the light so she could check there were no more seeds left inside it.

While she was certain that she had gotten them all out, she raised her hand for the professor anyway. "Um, sir, you said it's vital to get all the seeds out. What would happen if we didn't manage to?"

Cause she needed to add that to her notes.

But she also quickly went back to sorting out the seeds from the rest of the innards of her pumpkin. That took her a bit longer than just pulling the innards out of her pumpkin, cause because she needed to check a bit closer to make sure she had in fact gotten all of them.

Step two completed. Go Shera.

He'd been making his way back to the front of the class when another hand went up.

Yes, he had indeed said that.

"Look at the end of our ingredients list," he said, stepping on to the dais at the front of the classroom and pointing to the instructions he'd written so far on the board. "10 seeds. Leaving one in your pulp now will offset the balance of the whole potion."

Huh? Turn a page in— Oh. Whatever Halloween was still kiiiiiiiind of far away. Like a good week or so at least. And anyway, she still didn’t sound as dumb as Juniper did when the girl asked about pie. Now THAT was just plain dumb. Why the heck would they bake pie in Potions? Maybe make pumpkin juice or something, but pie?? Definitely not. Anyway, she was trying to focus on finding flobberworms in her pumpkin for Derf. Oh the things you do for friends.

Though now class was starting and she had to somewhat look like she was paying attention…when really all she wanted to do was cut open her pumpkin. Leaning over to Derf, the Gryffindor whispered, “well that was rude,” Re-centering herself, the Gryffindor looked over the list of ingredients and didn’t write them down (like usual), instead hoping Professor Noble would stop talking so much!!! Zoryn had absolutely no motivation to stay focused, ‘specially after poor Abey got points taken away. It was his first time, yeah? Welcome to the club, young Abraham!!! Maybe next they could all get detention or something together. Y’know, to really drive the point home! It was the Gryffindor way.

Zoryn was once again drawn back to the moment by Derfael, when he loudly exclaimed his surprise over the live month thing. This, of course, didn’t bother Zoryn. If he wanted to, she’d gladly crush his moths for him if that’s what the instructions called for. She wasn’t as squirmy as Derf was, though that probably wasn’t saying much seeing as most people fit that bill too.

“That never happens!” She was usually behind the curve, like WAY behind. Heh. She wore a proud smile, going into the next part of class…. Which was…. Actually doing stuff!!! Finally. “Diffindo!” Her cut wasn’t all that neat, but it was almost a circle? A wobbly, wavy circle? Y’know what, it was ovular and that’s what mattered.

Zoryn glanced over at the board (for the first time) to figure out what she was meant to do next, but upon reading the top a question came to mind. Some other kid had already sorta touched on it, but really transfiguration and potions... whatever. Why was any of it needed in the first place!? “Professor Noble, why would anyone want a pumpkin head?” In other words: This potion was kind of dumb. When would they actually use it in the REAL WORLD???? Shouldn’t they be learning useful stuff? Like how to do math or something? Just sayin’.

Picking up her metal spoon, the Gryffindor began pulling some of the pumpkin innards out of the gourd. Upon pulling out the messy orange gunk, she pushed it close to Derf’s face and CRINKLED HER NOSE so he could know that she thought it was all suuuuuuuuper gross.

Shera's eyes widened as the Professor just vanished Jessa's work so far... wow, she really didn't want to get on his bad side. 'Remember to add water Shera, remember to add water,' she mentally repeated in her head over and over again.

"Um... and offsetting the balance of the potion would make it not work? Or would it lead to worse results?" she questioned, wondering about what it would actually do. Although, she was kind of regretting asking. She wasn't sure if he would actually respond with an answer to the question, or expect her to just know... but she was just a first year and she was trying to learn.

Checking her pumpkin innards one more time, just to make sure there weren't seeds in it even though she still didn't know what off balance meant. Then she let her hands move to pack the innards inside of her cup and added it to the cauldron. She repeated it again, getting to the 2 cups of densely packed pumpkin innards, before adding a cup of water.

She didn't forget the water. Good start. Now to set it over medium heat.

Incendio was a spell that she knew... but she did need to practice it and didn't want to set her entire table on fire. So she slowly pushed herself up, moving over to light a split so that she could use that to light her burner instead. Once she was satisfied that it was on medium heat she set her cauldron on that.

Please don't find any mistakes?

A potion that would turn their heads into pumpkins? On the first day? Night had honestly thought they'd be doing something like taking notes for the first lesson.

And in fact, she didn't even recall reading about this potion. It was no where in her copy of the class textbook, nor was it something many of the other students seemed comfortable with. Was this even safe???

She was going to mess this up, and she was going to fail in front of everyone. At least she had the sense to buy and bring three cauldrons, no matter what the professor seemed to think (although maybe she should look at the notice board next time anyway to see what she needed).

She put up her hand to ask someone to do the Diffindo charm for her, seeing as she was only a first year, and after the professor came by, she set to her work. Why did the season matter for which way you cut the pumpkin, anyway? She decided not to ask in case she came off smart alecky. Or worse, stupidly. Was this something she was supposed to know in general?

Maxton dropped his hand when the Professor acknowledged him. Acknowledged him but didn't exactly answer his question. The Slytherin pondered like he was told to as he scooped out pumpkin innards with his spoon. His pondering didn't really get him anywhere though. It really didn't make sense to spend fifty minutes brewing a potion when a spell would take two seconds.

Unless the point was to be inconspicuous. Hmmm, maybe that was it.

Daehyun was beyond flustered when he'd heard Diffindo here and there, wondering if he'd been the only one in the room who couldn't cast it himself, but then someone to his side had helped him, and his eyes widened in wonder as if he'd just witnessed a miracle. "Will do," he promised to practice the spell, wondering if he could find a dummy to try it on later. "Thank you!"

Having watched the girl closely, he pointed his wand towards the little bit that she'd left uncut, and uttered a light "Diffindo," as if saying it louder would make the pumpkin explode.

... he needed to relax and breathe more often.

Holding his breath in anticipation, he moved his wand along the line the girl had traced to close off the circle - not as nice and even as she had, but he was beaming by the time he'd finished it off. He proceeded to take the lid off, and that was when he remembered the professor's words. Given the time of year... was he using them to have pumpkins ready to be carved at the end of the lesson? Psh.

Picking up a tablespoon, he started scooping out the icky insides of the pumpkin, and set to diligently sort out each seed, sighing lightly when the pumpkin he'd chosen seemed to have particularly many. Once done with that task, he walked up to the professor's desk to grab a splint, not trusting himself to cast Incendio just yet, making a mental note to practice the basic charms more.

Satisfied with the heat level, he was ready to measure two cups of seedless pulp, when suddenly he frowned at his cauldron, before his hand hesitantly went up once again, wondering if he'd soon get on the professor's nerves with his silly questions. "Do we add just the pulp to heat up?" ... no water to boil it in? Nothing else?

...

.....

WHAT?!

Jessa sat silent and motionless for several long moments after the man vanished not only the contents of her potion but the bloody pumpkin that she'd be needing...for.........doing the next step in the potion brewing process that was going to get done ANYWAY.

Not a word, just a sort of blinking stare at Professor Noble's retreating figure. Forget that he'd ignored her request to be called by her own name (a basic human right, mind you). Redoing all the steps, being out a crucial ingredient, being set back for not technically doing anything wrong. Inside she was seething but it did nothing to crack her passive exterior. For what felt like another eternity, Jessa did nothing. A brief glance to the side revealed only two pumpkins and they both had spots and signs they'd begun to break down. Either would compromise her potion to be sure but like hell would she ask the Professor. He'd find further snark to throw at her and she'd hit her cap for the day with him.

Decision made, Jessa finally twisted back in her seat, this time facing Cameron's pumpkin. Hoping he wouldn't mind, since it wouldn't compromise the genetic makeup of his own pumpkin, Jessa duplicated her friend's vegetable, taking the duplicated one for herself. HIS was fit and in good condition. She'd take her chances here.

Besides....she'd be lying if she said she wasn't now curious to see the differences a potion made with a duplicated item would make when compared to one made with the real deal. Maybe Cam would let her test his against hers. So many possibilities that despite the Professor's earlier....tantrum (what else could it have been?), Jessa was now looking forward to the brew--if only to test the results.

Now then, time to cut this sucker up.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Potions
Ravenclaw
Fifth Year

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.

Did she see a smile? Bel wasn't SURE but it was good enough for her. Hopefully Professor Noble would have a nice day ahead of him too. She already knew hers would be good. It was only a tiny bit through the morning and she'd already spent time with three of her friends, if you counted sitting with Cam in class right now.

Which she did.

And oh... hard luck, Abra (making the switch from Abey to Abra wasn't hard for Bel one bit. She'd done a switch of her own from her fuddy-duddy full name to the much preferable Bel when she was around 8 and hadn't looked back). She shot him a little commiserating look but also? Wasn't it great that the professor had spare copper cauldrons right there? Really thoughtful of him.

The banging was hardly necessary for Bel, as she was watching inquisitively already, after the professor had spoke to Abra. And now with the instructions coming thick and fast with a bunch of things that kept her attention. This was a hands on class! And you know she'd never actually carved a pumpkin, since it wasn't a thing back home, so she was kind of hoping, just maybe, she could do that after scooping out its guts?

(miserable? Astonishing, who was miserable?)

(No WAY did she want to stay through break!)

(Oh cool it was gonna be hands on, she was about THAT life)

She shot an excited smile at Cam and then got her wand out, stopping for a moment to watch how quickly and efficiently Jessa got into the task at hand. She was kind of impressive, Bel thought. The professor apparently didn't agree though. Whoops.

"Diffindo!" Bel cast the spell easily enough, and moved the tip around the stalk of the pumpkin in a circle. Was that it? Like that? She looked around to see how everyone else was doing.



Which was when she overheard that one boy's question, and Professor Noble's response to do some pondering. Bel thought about it and blurted before she could catch her mouth.

"Transfiguring is bloody hard though. Maybe you could use a potion if you didn't want to have to be there when someone's head's being pumpkinned." And then she covered her mouth with both hands, the stalk and the cut out pumpkin top clasped between the fingers of one of her hands and now leaving a tiny pumpkin residue on her cheek. "Oops. Sorry professor, I didn't mean to speak out of turn!" She smiled sheepishly, hopeful that she wouldn't get in trouble.

Oh and she better start scooping, she didn't want to be stuck here too long and miss break!

Daisy was very intrigued about this potion and set out to make sure she was going to make this potion perfectly. After she wrote down her notes, Daisy removed her wand from her bag and made sure her surface area including her copper cauldron was clean.

Her attention was then turned towards the pumpkin sitting on her desk and aimed her wand at the vegetable, moving her wand in a circular motion and non-verbally saying "Diffindo." The top of the pumpkin was now cut open so Daisy could scoop out the pumpkin flesh.

Man up? Man up? Over something that could be lethal to him? Also, the stick banging really wasn't necessary, it wasn't that loud in here. Honestly, was Hogwarts' reputation so tarnished that this guy was the only one they could get as potions professor? And why would someone who so clearly hated children want to teach a school full them? Why so serious about a potion that was basically pointless anyway?

So many questions were swirling around in the Gryffindor's head. But, to the most pressing point of the moment. "I will 'man up,'" air quotes included "once you stop being très awful." Ronan's butt remained planted in his seat.

The Gryffindoring was starting already. Goody. Was anyone keeping record of how quickly he could lose points in a lesson? Because there might be a new number one.

Too...many...pumpkin seeds! Night's hands were starting to itch, and she wished she had thought to bring rubber gloves. She grabbed some dragon hide gloves from the back and continued. But honestly, how could such a small pumpkin have SO MANY SEEDS???

Okay, seriously. These were dragon hide gloves. Why was this irritating her skin so much?

Night had been nervous to talk, but now she addressed the whole class. "Does anyone have any Benadryl? Or know a spell to reduce allergy symptoms?" She wasn't allergic, but she certainly wasn't enjoying herself either.

Emmalyn didn't care much for the tone in the professor's voice. It was down right scary with a twist of evil. She had no idea if he was actually a scary person, but he sure did sound and look like one.

At the instruction for the first and second years to go and retrieve a copper cauldron, Emmalyn studied the one she had. She really had no idea if hers was made of copper or not. Glancing around the room, then to Night's cauldron next to her, she quickly realized that she did not have a copper cauldron. "Oh, I need one, don't I?" She quietly said to Night. Hoping that she wouldn't lose any points for her house, like the unfortunate gryffindor, Emmalyn quickly moved to the cupboard, grabbed the correct cauldron, and returned to her station.

After carefully listening and watching all of the instructions given, she pulled out her wand, crossed the fingers of her non wand hand, and firmly said "Diffindo!" Sadly, she hadn't pointed her wand end correctly and now had two notebooks where one had originally sat. "Ugh. That's not good." She quickly pushed the notebook under another piece of parchment, hoping it wouldn't be seen. Her face blushed full crimson at the mistake. Emmalyn glanced around, hoping that no one had noticed. Wand in hand again, this time being extra careful where it was pointed, she commanded “Diffindo!” Eureka! She slowly moved her hand in a circular motion to cut a rather large and not so perfect circle out of the top of her pumpkin.

Looking around, and hoping that what she had just accomplish was seen, Emmalyn saw that she was not the only first year to successfully remove the pumpkin top. She began the next step by taking the spoon and she gently scraped out the innards and separated the seeds from the goo. After filing the proper amount, she placed all of the two packed cups of pumpkin goo, minus seeds, into her cauldron.

Then she was faced with a delima. She could either risk starting the fire herself or she could risk walking across the room to light a splint from the fire at the front. Both options were risky in her mind. She glanced around to see if there was an older student willing to help. “Excuse me, I know there is a lit fire up front to light my bunsen burner from, but I’m afraid to cross with room with a lit object. Would someone please light mine for me?

"I'd be happy to take your seeds out for you. I like how slippery they feel." Emmalyn smiled kindly at her friend and held out her already pumpkin gut covered hands to help.

Daisy grabbed the metal tablespoon and aimed her wand at it, performing a quick non-verbal cleaning charm on it. She then set about removing the innards of the pumpkin. She carefully used the spoon to remove the flesh and after performing a non-verbal cleaning charm on her dragon-hide gloves, Daisy used her fingers to remove the seeds making sure that all had been set aside and cleaning her gloves and the spoon before moving to the next stage.

Would he like to share it? Sure he would, Ace is a sharing-is-caring kind of guy after all. But should he share said joke is another matter altogether, and if getting older has taught him anything, is to learn how to reel in the Gryffindoring for the sake of the non-Gryffindors. You know like right now.

He did try to wipe that smirk off his face though, and for a brief moment Ace sorta did "Perhaps another time Professor--" oops a snerk almost escaped there "-- Noble." Bites lips, puts on a face of all scowly seriousness. All three seconds of it.



Ok so they were apparently gonna create something that would be handy in a cosplay, perfect for when Halloween comes around. Heck this is the kind of thing where these kids would be smiling about had the new Potions Prof not be so... ignoble about them. Ahem ahem trying to swallow the chuckle there ahem.

And carving up pumpkins, he was an old hand with that. Deftly he diffindo'd the top off and started scooping out the innards with the spatula-- which were always pristine by the way because this boy knows how to handle food to be ingested by humans-- setting them down onto a plate and started pick-flicking away the seeds with the tongs.


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

Of course it had only now occurred to him that maybe he should hold a seminar on how to manage said Gryffindoring, both the boosting and the reeling in of it. Ace was still trying to figure out why the heck Abey got docked points but then the familiar Ronan rant rang through the air. Uhoh. That sinking 200+ points loss feeling that cost them the House Cup last term (wouldve been an easy double win too) started to churn in his gut "Ronan--" he started to whisper at the sixth year mid-seed flicking when he ACCIDENTALLY flicked too strongly and sent a seed zooming past the guy's head. Please oh please dont let it land in his hair. #SympathyfortheCurls

Stern. That's what Professor Noble was and Vi was almost ninety five percent sure that Ace's reaction to the Professor was def not going to go over well. Merlin be kind..... Vi watched as her boyfriend struggle to keep the case of the giggles in. And then the Professor asked him to share the joke. Oh Merlin here we go... she thought. Though she knew Ace would reel it in. He'd be collected. Well somewhat collected. Later on, she'd have to ask him about what exactly was so funny. She leaned over a little and gave his arm a nudge with an elbow to try to grab his attention as Professor Noble began the class.

Alright.

Nevermind. Class time.

Eyeing the pumpkin, Vi remained quiet and simply listened to what they would have to do. Once the first few steps had been given, she jotted down the steps and then turned to her work station. Okay first she was going to ignite the burner so that it could get to an acceptable level of heat. Incendio, she thought with her wand by her side, and she watched the burner ignite. Perfect.

Now what was next? Ah the actual steps.

With her wand, she cast a non-verbal Diffindo at the top of the pumpkin just enough to give her a good area to scoop out the innards. Casting a quick cleaning spell on the metal spoon, Vi examined it once more to make sure that it was truly clean before picking it up to use it. Alright. She proceeded to scoop out the innards, carefully pulling out the seeds and separating innards and seeds on the wooden cutting board. After checking that they were separated properly, she scooped up the innards (without the seeds) and placed them into the cauldron. Picking up a one cup measurement, she cast Augmenti, and then placed the cauldron on the heat.

Melbourne had been mostly silent since introductions. Her quill, the only real flourish of sound for nearly the entire lesson…still, the whole idea of the pumpkinhead potion was…well, comical to her.

It made her miss him though.

Stupid Pumpkinhead…where was he now then? When the steps were revealed – well, some of them at least she quickly got to work.

SPOILER!!: 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.

Wand in hand she took to cleaning her utensils as was her habit and collecting the needed ingredients. Then pointing her wand at her burner she quickly lit it incendio the silent spellwork made a flicker of a grin flit across her face. Diffindo she tried – this time the spellwork didn’t happen.

Nothing.

Taking a steadying breath she tried again and cast a non-verbal diffindo at the top of her pumpkin. Letting the spell and her wand move with ease as she cut into the top of her pumpkin in order to scoop its insides out. Ah, pumpkin gutting. Maybe this class could be fun?

Maybe.

Taking a moment to put on a pair of sturdy rubber gloves so that she could remain clean she began to scoop the innards out of her pumpkin placing them into a large wooden bowl.

Now the painstaking part.

Carefully she began separating the stringy fibers of the pumpkin innards so that she could pluck the seeds from their grasp. With the innards de-seeded and the seeds now in their own bowl and cleaned off with a paper towel she moved on to the next part.

“Aquamenti” she cast, not even trying for a non-verbal spell at this point. Putting the cauldron to heat she began cleaning her utensils again, gloves included.

Huh? She already got her pumpkin. Didn't the Professor see her carrying it? It's very hard to miss. "Already got it, Sir." She pointed to her not-that-small-pumpkin.

The fifth year put the pumpkin on her table. There, Professor.



@_______@

She could feel her head about to explode after taking all that information.
Miserable lot? Did the Professor just.....??? Yup, he did. But hey considering the circumstances she's in, she's definitely miserable. Back to the potion, she didn't want to stay over during her morning break making potion with the-ever-cheerful Professor Noble.

You can do this!

Alyce quickly ties her hair into a ponytail, she didn't want her hair get in her way. The fifth year made sure to write the instruction Professor Noble gave them, before she move on to cut open the pumpkin. She made tons of Jack-o-lantern so this going to be a piece of cake, right? She just need to focus. She took out her wand and..."Diffindo!" She slowly began to trace around the top of the pumpkin. It looked perfect. Well, there's some jagged edges but nobody perfect, right? Hopefully this will do.

She picked up her metal spoon and scooped out the innards. Eeewwwww....!! Eeeeewwww...!!! Next she need to pull the seed out, unfortunately for her she picked the wrong pumpkin. Her pumpkin has many seed. Too many. With a sigh, Alyce started to pull of the seed one by one until there's no more seed. She checked one more time for seeds before she move on to the next step. Once she's sure there's no more seeds left, Alyce put two densely packed cups of pumpkin guts into her cauldron with a cup of water. She lighted her burner with Incendio and set it to medium heat.

Text Cut: Mara/before the lesson officially began

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flipper

Of course Mara had gotten lost trying to find her way to Potions class. She entered the classroom with a relieved sigh and looked at the overwhelming amount of students. She recognized the boy from the train, Patrick but didn't say a thing, sure he would not recall her. It was only then she realized most students had... a pumpkin?
She found herself randomly craving pumpkin soup and made a quick mental note to stop by the kitchens afterwards.

"Good morning, Professor... Sir." She muttered, realizing she could not remember the teacher's name. Carefully, trying not to disturb anyone, she picked her own pumpkin looked around for an empty seat, dragging her cauldron as she walked. She stared for a few seconds at a girl who had addressed the Professor as well, wondering about the best way to grab her attention. Finally, with a deep breath, she put down the pumpkin on the table and addressed her:
"Sorry to bother you... Can I sit here? Is the seat taken?" she asked with a smile, trying to convince herself she was confident enough to survive her first Potions lesson.

A couple things had happened since she had gotten into the classroom, however unwilling she had been over attending the lesson. Or any Potions lesson, but she also wasn’t going to back down from the challenge of an entirely too unhappy professor. If anything, Stasya wanted to know just why Professor Noble was so disagreeable, although she had yet to figure out exactly how she could find that out besides seeing if some of the other professors could find out for her. In any case, and seeing as most of her friends had already found seats with someone else, she had nearly become resigned to holding her possible protest all by herself. Until she heard a voice coming from right next to her and turned to see a firstie Hufflepuff. “of course you can sit here,” she whispered, moving her things aside so the smaller girl could get settled.

Text Cut: why so serious, professor?

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermygirl

But now it was time to start. Ignatius flicked his wand in the direction of the door to shut it and block out the chatter of students headed to and from the Slytherin Common room outside. Rounding the front desk to the blackboard, he picked up his wooden pointing stick, and banged it LOUDLY on the desk to get everyone’s attention. “Right then you miserable lot...today we will be making the Pompion Potion, as some of you might have guessed from the pumpkins Professor Myers provided.” He doubted it though. He wrote the title on the blackboard as he spoke, underlining it with a flourish of chalk. “Turns head into pumpkin, and has a brewing time of around 50 minutes, so I suggest we hop to it unless you want to stay over morning break.”

And he certainly didn’t.

“Usually, we’d just chop the pumpkin any which way and scoop it out, but given the time of year…please carefully use diffindo to make a circle around the stalk like so.” Holding up his pumpkin and wand so they could see, he demonstrated what he meant. “Diffindo!” he cast, before directing his wand in a circle around the top of the pumpkin. If any of them had carved Jack-o-lanterns before, it would look like he was cutting out a lid. Because that’s exactly what he was doing. Even if he felt no need to get them all excited just yet and confirm they’d get to carve their pumpkins before the end of the lesson.

Returning the wand to his holster, he lifted up the small circle to show them the result. “Once you’ve got this off, put it to one side. We don’t need it just yet.” He did so, and picked up a tablespoon. “We need to scoop out the insides. Put the seeds to one side, and add two densely packed cups of pulp into your cauldron over a medium heat.” Fortunately the pumpkin he was using didn’t have too many seeds, and before long he’d got it prepped, measured and in the cauldron. He hoped they were paying attention; he liked to teach by showing, not just telling.

“It’s vital you get all the seeds out, so check thoroughly...using your fingers if necessary. You may use incendio to light your burner, or carefully come light a splint from my bunsen at the front. If you haven’t used diffindo before, put up your hand and I or one of the older students will help.”
Hint hint, older students.

And with that, he started writing the first steps of the recipe on the board for reference.

Just in time for the lesson to start, apparently, and her grey-green eyes had gone back to the front in time to be able to totally tell that the professor intended on keeping an eye on her. At least she wasn’t verbally complaining. She wasn’t causing a scene, and she was waiting until she found out if she actually had a reason to refuse to brew the potion. Not that there were too many potions that she didn’t feel obligated to refuse to brew, even if there had been instances she was able to rationalize that she wasn’t actually hurting anyone in the brewing.

In any case, she started by making sure to copy down the information given about the potion they were going to be working on. The pumpkins definitely made sense now, and she hadn’t actually thought about the moths until she heard Derf ask about them. Were they having to kill live moths for the potion? She’d turned wide eyes, maybe even panicked ones, in the Hufflepuff prefect’s direction, but then the professor hadn’t even bothered to respond. She felt like that was kind of rude.

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.

Notes:
Turns the drinker’s head into a pumpkin
Brewing time is around 50 minutes

Notes didn’t hurt anyone. Neither did pumpkin carving, because pumpkins didn’t look like people like mandrakes did, so it hadn’t bothered her one bit to slide her pumpkin closer to her and to point her wand at the top of it. Standing up to get the right angle, she traced a circle around the stem as she cast the severing charm. “Diffindo.” If anything, at least maybe she could make an awesome jack o’lantern by the time the lesson was over, because there still hadn’t been that answer about the moths. Setting the newly created lid off to the side carefully, she retrieved a metal spoon from her kit and quickly Scourgified it before using it to scoop out the stuff inside the pumpkin, making sure to get everything out just in case they actually were going to make jack o’lanterns later on. Or sooner, if she did end up having to stick to her principles and refuse to kill moths.

Delicately separating the seeds from the pulp, she set those aside before measuring out two cups of the pulp into a Scourgified measuring cup and dumping that into her, of course Scourgified, copper cauldron. Picking up her wand again, she cast Incendio on the burner, silently glad she’d been working on fire charms since first year as she adjusted the heat to medium, moments before she had to look up again. The instructions had said to add a cup of water, not that she’d done so yet, but it was there. So he’d told them to do that, and his telling Jessa otherwise was just contradictory. And confusing.

Skin textures, dolls...Cameron was clearly behind on Jessa‘s experiments. Probably because he’d been too caught up in the Quidditch tryouts and everything surrounding that. He would have to come see her about them soon. “That‘s-“ Whatever it was he thought ‚that‘ was, they would never know.

Because it was right then that Professor Noble slammed Jessa‘s book shut.

What?

A little wide-eyed, Cam glanced at the professor then at Bel and finally back to Jessa. Who was politely standing her ground. So much for not having any issues with the Potions professor. Not that this had anything to do with Cameron per se but...it was an issue by proxy somehow. Vicariously through Jessa. Not that he was going to say anything. For now. Jessa really didn‘t need any help there.

Quietly taking notes, Cameron wrote down both the potion‘s name and the first few steps they were supposed to be doing. Right. Okay. Drawing his wand, he carefully cleaned the outside of the pumpkin for now. He didn‘t want any potential pieces of dirt to fall in when he cut off the top. Right. Now onto-

Apparently the disagreement between the professor and Jessa wasn‘t quite over yet. What WAS his problem with the Ravenclaw anyway? SOMEHOW Cam managed not to look completely disgusted, instead disguising it as a frown as he looked over to his friend again. Who was...oh, okay. That works. He waited until she was done duplicating his pumpkin before giving her a quick smile. Now, onto cutting off the top of his own pumpkin. „Diffindo.“ He cut a careful circle around the top, then lifted it off and set it down next to him on the table.

Daisy heard Em's voice. She walked over to her workstation and smiled. "Here, let me help you," Daisy said as she aimed her wand at Em's burner and said, "Incendio!" Once the burner was lit, Daisy returned to her own workstation.

Daisy lit her burner via Incendio. She then Scourgified her cauldron and measuring cup. Daisy carefully measured two cups of her pumpkin innards and placed them in the cauldron. Daisy then Scourgified the measuring cup and used the Aquamenti spell to fill up the cup with water which she placed in the cauldron. She looked at her notes and awaited the next step.

After a while, the class had become quite full and at Professor Noble’s say-so, the little ones went to grab the appropriate cauldron. Then bang bang! And Kye was sitting straight up in her chair.

…Well! ‘Miserable lot??’ Jeez, who set his pants aflame? Kye thought this was quite unnecessary a comment, as the year had just started and really, no one had done anything to warrant that. Was this how the whole year would be?... Maybe she’d rethink some more about taking Potions next year… I guess we’ll see! the sixth year though to herself.

Hmm the Pompion Potion, huh? Interesting choice.. Like… why? Kye had the itch to get started as the professor spoke, but she felt that he was the kind who would let them know when it was okay to begin. She sat there, arms tingling with anticipation wanting to get started. Since it seemed to be taking a while to actually get the job done, Kye took this time to write down the instructions word for word.

She had done this whole thing a couple of times before with her cousin. It was a Halloween thing, and they had made a face on the outside! Her older cousin had cheated, making a masterpiece sort of picture using magic instead of doing it manually. He had entered it into a fair for a cash prize… Cheater. Not that Kye could really argue with the outcome for him.
Given the time of year? What did that matter when it came to their po… WAIT. Were they going to be carving them?? She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but she didn’t know what else his statement could have meant! Hmmm what would she carve? Edie? Eh, maybe. Carving a cat for Halloween seemed a little too expected. Well she had time to decide… if they were even doing that.

Oh, was he done? Okay, yay! Finally time to get to work! This was not nearly as bad as she thought it’d be. She held her wand up, clearly muttered (was that a thing?) ”Diffindo”, and made her circle in the air. Not a perfect circle, but actually not bad! Kye took the top of her pumpkin and set it off to the side, out of her way. She located a scooping spoon and went for it. It was an easy and tough job, getting the ‘innards’ out. There was just so much of it! And separating the seeds? She was getting her arm workout for the day, that’s for sure. She had enough seeds to make her own pumpkin patch!

For a second, she spied Jessa who had almost instantly gotten her stuffing out, using magic. Well that was tempting!... Up until her pumpkin had gotten confiscated!! She was half surprised she wasn’t just sent out at that point. Oh but wait, she was being allowed to start again. Well that was nice of Noble… She would’ve cried of frustration if she had been sent away. Well, back to the task at hand…