And then, and angel came from nowhere to save the day. Jessi was saved. She looked up at the older girl with eyes full of gratefulness. She watched carefully as her savior demonstrated how to do the spell. Jessi made a mental note of everything and planned to write it down in her notes as soon as she could. “Thank you so much”, she said to her helper. 50 cool points for the Slytherin quidditch captain. “I’m going to give it a try.” The first year took out her wand rehearsed the steps in her head. Turning back, she added, “I’m Jessi by the way.” “What’s your name?” After all she had to know who would be receiving her coveted points.

Now though, it was time to try the spell. Trying her best to imitate her instructor, Jessi pointed her wand at her pumpkin. She made sure to direct it at the spot where the cutting ended. “Diffindo”, she said, while moving her wand and hoping to continue the cut. Well, it wasn’t a total failure. She had made a teeny weeny slit alongside the cut that was already there. At least she did something, but she would have to try again. With a sheepish smile, Jessi said, “Well, that’s a start......I guess.” She tried the spell several more times, each time making a small cut. It certainly wasn’t easy and pretty like the Slytherin’s but, she was determined to finish the job. Finally, the top of the pumpkin was completely severed. Jessi looked proudly, sort of, at her angel. “I did it. Thank you again for helping me.” She would definitely have to keep practicing that one.

Jessi took the top off of her pumpkin and put it to the side. Then she got two bowls, her measuring cup and metal spoon. It was time for the fun part. The first year took her spoon and scooped the innards out of the pumpkin. She dumped each spoonful into her bowl. She tried to scoop the seeds separately and put them away from her pumpkin goo. Jessi realized that she was going to have to get messy, to make sure that no seeds made it into her potion. So......her hands went into the bowl and began to squish the pumpkin mash. Squish, squish, squash. Her hand felt carefully for seeds and there were several. One by one she removed the seeds from her pumpkin stuff and put them into her little bowl. When Jessi was convinced that she hadn’t let any seeds escape, she stopped. Her hands were very messy, so she took a moment to clean them.

Jessi took her spoon and scooped her de-seeded pumpkin into her measuring cup. She packed it in as tightly as she could and then poured it into her cauldron. Once that was done, she repeated the process with her second cup of pumpkin. Her cauldron was ready and the pumpkin was inside. It was time to light the fire, the muggle way. Jessi guessed that the professor didn’t want the first years burning down the castle with botched Incendio spells. She was very glad of that. Jessi got a splint and went over to the professor’s burner. She placed it into the fire and lit it. Then the task was getting it back to burner without the flame going out. Shielding the flame with her hand, but trying to move quickly, she went back to her work station. Jessi successfully lit her fire and turned the heat to medium.

There was one thing that Jessi was confused about. The directions said to add a cup of water to the pumpkin. However, she had heard the professor fuss at the prefect for doing just that. If she didn’t add water, her pumpkin was probably going to burn very soon. Jessi spent a moment wondering what she should do. She looked around to see what the other students were doing. No help there. Some were adding water, some were not. She decided to hold off.......for a minute and see if she got any additional direction. In the meantime, she would have her water ready, just in case. Thank Merlin, this was one spell that Jessi knew how to do. She cleaned her measuring cup, pointed her wand at it and said, “Aguamenti”. She soon had one cup of water and put it near the cauldron, ready to pour it in quickly. Jessi then jotted down the instructions that she had been given for the Diffindo spell.

Cass caught the look as she looked up ready. What? She wasn’t bothering him, even with a greeting, so why was he glaring at her? Oh well. Not her problem unless he made it that way. Her problem was getting through the lesson and getting everything right. Which wasn’t helped by a slamming of a wooden rod on a desk. Not that she had herself needed the call for attention so it was just a loud annoying noise to her not the surprise it appeared to be for some of her classmates.

Pompion Potion…got it.

The Ravenclaw labeled her fresh parchment with the name to start her notes. She didn’t know why someone would want to turn heads into pumpkins but there were some weird ideas for potions out there. The fifty minute brewing time was added to her paper before she exchanged quill for her wand, slicing through the top with a careful “Diffindo.” The hat of the pumpkin now separate, Cassie set it aside and went to work with scooping out all the insides. First with a nice clean spoon and then with her hands really getting in there and making sure everything was out and the seeds weren’t in the pulp. When she was finished, she scourgified her measuring tool and measured out two cups of the loose orange pumpkin.

Pack…pack…pack.

One.
Two.

In they went to the cauldron after she had scourgified it as well. When it was all inside, Cass set it on medium heat as instructed before adding the directions to her notes for later reference. Now was there anyone needing help as she was an older student available…The seventh year looking around for hands.

Emmalyn's eyes lit up when she saw Daisy headed her way to help. "Thank you, Daisy." She gave a little wave with her pumpkin gut covered hand as she watched Daisy return to her station. "Now to add the water and place the cauldron on top to heat." She read the instructions out loud to make sure she didn't miss any steps before carefully measuring out exactly one cup of water to her two cups of packed pumpkin pulp. She carefully sat her cup of water on the desk and raised her hand "Are we supposed to add the water now, or wait?"

He was really proud of his little first year Claw pal. He highly doubted if she'd ever tried casting a severing charm before, but when she did, it worked pretty well! "Nice one, Hanna," he grinned, indicating her freshly de-topped pumpkin.

Actually, it was both fun and intimidating having Hanna next to him. Fun because he was living out her discovering of potion brewing for the first time and it was slightly nostalgic. But intimidating because he knew she was always watching him out of the corner of her eye, and so he had better not screw up even a tiny bit. Therefore, he found himself checking the instructions once more as he waited for the go-ahead to continue from Noble.

And he didn't mind that she wasn't trying to create flames herself. He didn't fancy being next to a first year attempting to light a fire for the first time, not gonna lie. "Um... I think that looks right at medium, yes." It was just about the same size as his, at least.

Now... he was off to wash his hands at the spigot. Pumpkin guts were gross.

While Derf was trying to give Abey some sort of look, Zoryn was trying to flash the guy TWO THUMBS UP. ‘Cause honestly, that was iconic. Welcome to the point loser’s club, Abe! Zoryn had lost a grand total of 45 last term and honestly, she was slackin’ right now. It was the Gryffindor thing to do, y’know? Bless the world for Gryffindoring. Truly a fine art.

Anyways, where was she? Right, right. PUMPKIN GUTS.

Zoryn let out a loud GIGGLE at Derf’s dramatic reaction (((she knew he wouldn’t disappoint))). Though she wasn’t exactly sure why he needed his work when the potion stuff was all on the board. Man, Derf really did take his notes seriously (thankfully, ‘cause one of them had to and it wasn’t about to be Zoryn Spinnet). She held her metal spoon strong and valiantly against Derf’s attempts to deflect it with his own, though some guts did splatter over the countertop. This was about to be a real messy class. Professor Noble should’ve known. Did he really trust them with pumpkin guts? Rookie mistake.

“Eewwwwww grooOOOOooooss,” she crinkled her nose, turning her face away from the fistful of guts. Pumpkin smelled awful. Derf’s way of getting the guts out also looked like WAY more fun than the spoon method, but Zoryn didn’t wanna get her hands all messy yet, so she didn’t dare drop hers and switch. Before she could take another scoop full of pumpkin guts out for revenge, Derf’s had hopped out of his seat. “You owe me BIG time!” She gave her friend a playful look, but shooed him away as it looked like he was about to do something helpful and prefect-y.

In the meanwhile, however, she finished off scooping her own pumpkin guts slowly (but surely) and then pulled Derf’s pumpkin over to finish scooping out his. The grossest part of this whole process had to be sorting the pumpkin innards out. Disgusting, really. Again, Zoryn began sorting out her own… Pulling out the seeds one by one with her hands (which was a lot more time consuming than you’d think). Finally she was able to separate out all of the seeds in her own pumpkin gut pile, which meant she had some time to work on Derf’s too.

He definitely owed her big time.

" Well, It's nice to finally to know your name..
I see you're in hufflepuff as well..how do you like it so far? Did you enjoy your first year?", Randa asked the younger girl as she set everything back up and restarted to brew with a quick flick of her wand and the Incendio charm her copper cauldron and it's contents were slowly heating up.

" So tell me.. what spell do you need help with?.. Lighting your burner or
cutting the top out of your pumpkin?", she asked as she looked to see where in the process of preparing her ingredients.

June had been intently watching the professor as he demonstrated using Diffindo to cut open the pumpkin. She had never used the spell before but she most certainly was NOT going to ask someone she didn't know how to do it in front of EVERYONE! It wasn't about pride more than just sheer terror at asking someone.

Before proceeding, however, she marked down the instructions on her roll of parchment.



She picked up her wand and held it as the professor had, she stood on her tip-toes to get a good angle over her pumpkin, and making the same circular motion said "Diffindo!" And (thankfully) the pumpkin lid was cut open. June breathed a sigh of relief but she knew that she wouldn't always bee so lucky and she would EVENTUALLY have to talk to someone out loud of all things.

Before scooping out the pumpkin innards she had an idea and grabbed a roll of older tattered, but unused, parchment and laid it out on her desk. As she scooped out the seed with her tablespoon she laid our the pumpkin innards on the parchment and picked out the seeds one at a time and put them into a small side bowl. She secretly hoped the professor would let them take the seeds they didn't use today back with them. They were quite delicious with cinnamon and sugar, or she could dry them to use for planting next year (ah, the curse of an herbology geek).

June was relieved that she had at least used incendio before, so she lit under her cauldron with ease (or as much ease as an awkward 11-year-old could) and she put in the cup of water before she began to measure out her two cups of pumpkin guts.

June took a deep breath in through her nose, she loved the smell of fresh pumpkin. The earthy smell it gave before sugar or spices were added was just pure delight to her, where it might turn others off.

She scooped in her second packed cup on pumpkin guts and began to clean her workstation as she waited for the next instructions, rolling up the used parchment and placing it on the side.

Okay, so he wasn't being asked to leave. This told Junia a lot about the new potions professor and the sixth year felt the tension leave her body almost immediately. It was just going to be a small point loss. Tiny. Minuscule. That wasn't so bad, right? Abey didn't look too upset over it and that was all she could hope for at the moment so she simply gave him a little nudge and a small smile of encouragement. He was okay. This was okay.

She allowed herself to focus on the man in charge once the lesson started, wanting to be sure her notes were both thorough and accurate as he explained what they'd be doing. This was for many reasons, one being that she could go over them with Abey later to make sure he had the information he needed for upcoming tests he'd face in the future. Maybe it was in the back of her mind because it was Sam's last term, but she couldn't help but want to fully prepare him for a time when she wouldn't be around and it was...giving her a weird feeling. It was.

"Diffindo!" It was easy enough to carve out the lid of the pumpkin and soon Junia was removing it and setting it to the side, recalling times when she was small and couldn't wait to plunge her hands into the pulpy insides. It was a moment before she'd noticed that Abey had stopped what he was doing and she cast a sideways glance at him, knowing exactly what he needed without having to ask. Cleaning the tablespoon first, the sixth year started scooping out the insides of the pumpkin, keeping the seeds in a separate little pile to the side. "Need to be sure all the seeds are out. It's important, so be sure before adding the pulp." Then she cleaned her measuring cup and made sure she had 2 cups worth of pulp for her potion. She casually turned the measuring cup so he could see exactly how much she had before focusing on heating her cauldron. Medium, yes? "Incendio." Once heated, she added the pulp, one cup of water, and cleaned the instruments she'd been using.

There, first part done.

Daisy walked to where Em was. "I lit my burner to medium heat, measured the two cups of pumpkin pulp, added that to the cauldron and then added the one cup of water. I hope that helps."


She smiled at Em's dirty glove. "Just remember to keep your workstation tidy whilst working. Would you like for me to clean your gloves for you?"

SPOILER!!: ”Derf, Stasya and the flitterbys”

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Although...Derf's quill did still when he read over flitterby moths in the ingredient list and his hand went straaaaaaight up. "LIVE flitterby moths?" he asked, scanning down his potions textbook and...yeah. Derf knew all about the food chain and was not SO dramatic that he would flip a flamingo over crushing up moths for a potion, not anymore at least, buuuut...there were always questions regarding the humane means and treatment of their potions ingredients and such...along with a struggle - which either result in him not brewing the potion at all or asking someone else to do the deed for him - of killing any living thing for the sake of a potion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilverTiger

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.

Ah, there’d been a question, hadn’t there? Noble ran his gaze over the room, trying to trigger his memory as to who it’d been. Ah, yes! Derfael. Who’d apparently looked ahead on the ingredient list and was asking about flitterby moths.

“No, Derfael. Dried moths.” Whole ones, but definitely not live ones. What chaos that would be. His gaze moved over to Stasya briefly, before back to the Hufflepuff Prefect. “They should be in your standard potion kit.”

ooc: I’m sorry, somehow I missed this yesterday -__- Forgive me?

SPOILER!!: ”Bel and Maxton’s question”

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![/QUOTE]

“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” Noble answered as Bel responded to Maxton’s question. “Transfiguration is bloody hard. Especially when brains are involved.” Lots of important synapse connections that it’s really not a good idea to mess up. “And yes, it requires you’re there in the room. A potion, however…well, you can put that in someone’s drink anytime you like...” As long as it was within the period of the potion’s stability, but that wasn’t a particular worry here. The pompion potion had a decent shelf life.

...oh, had he forgot to mention that if he deemed that they'd brewed the potion properly, they'd be able to take some away?

SPOILER!!: ”Water questions”

Quote:

Originally Posted by debpetrisor

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?

A question about the water. The water which he hadn't told anyone to add, but apparently at least half the class had because they were following the recipe, and not him. He didn’t know to be reassured that they’d read the recipe carefully, or peeved that they’d decided to skip ahead.

Apparently they hadn't noticed the contents of Jessa’s cauldron by vanished. Alas.

He supposed he could vanish everyone's that had decided to not listen carefully, but unfortunately that would mean over-running into morning break. HIS morning break. So, instead, with a grumble and a grunt, he raised his voice.

“If you haven’t already added the water, you should do that now.”

SPOILER!!: Ronan

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

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.

If the boy didn’t want to get up and put any protective equipment on, then…well, it wasn’t exactly his fault as Professor, was it? Especially with the amount of pumpkin goop that was getting flicked around.

“I accept English and Latin responses in my class only,” Noble replied. This was Hogwarts, not Beauxbatons…no need to be sarcastic in French at him. “And 5 points from Gryffindor for your cheek.”

Now hopefully he’d get on with the lesson and maybe, just maybe, shut up.

SPOILER!!: Ace

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

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.

Noble’s eyes narrowed at the Tenacius, a snarl on his lips. The Head Boy. The one who was meant to set a good example. No, the best of examples. “If your lip as much as twitches upwards again this lesson, Mister Head Boy, I will see to it that you’ll share the joke with me in detention. Understood?”

SPOILER!!: ”Derf and Amanda”

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Uh oh...Derf's eyes instantly flew to Abey trrrrrrrrrrrying to make eye contact with him about his first EVER point loss. He figured his best mate would spiral, think the world was coming to an end, but he had only lost three and that was an easily made up deficit. Derf himself had lost 30 in his second year....and it was totally worth it. The Hufflepuff, even knowing the outcome, would act the exact same way all over again. Maybe...he could scribble Abey a note and toss it to him?

Derf was already ripping a piece off his notes to do just that when Zoryn got all excited about his casual comment. "Well...you do have okay reflexes...and kinda instincts," he chuckled, working on a doodle to toss to Abey as his station partner got to cutting her pumpkin - his own lid was sitting beside his notes on the table presently.

Okay...but...so...um....sooooooo...was that a yes or a no to the LIVE flitterby moths? Though it seemed the professor was a little too preoccupied in vanishing Jessa's potion - which left the Hufflepuff with his jaw haaaaaanging open and a eyes wide wondering just which way his best friend could react. Storming out with a bit of Ravenclaw flair among the possible outcomes. And then Maxton's question caught his attention...for Transfiguration reasons. Derf did not even want to think what sort of terrible results trying that spell out with his fwooper core wand could possible produce.

Each more gruesome than the next.

No, the fourth year was quite grateful this was brewing. He was at least semi decent at it. Managed polyjuice last term - with some help from dad, at least.

But Bel had covered his thoughts almost to a T so he found himself grinning at his friend before resuming his work.

Derf was almost done with his sphinx sketch when all of a sudden there were pumpkin innards being shoved into his face. "WOAH!" he gasped, giving a bit of a jump and rocking back on his stool while neeearly toppling over. But he didn't. Thankfully. "Oi, Zoryn. I can't see my work." Which had absolutely nothing to do with his potion brewing at the moment and everything to do with his doodle and personal rendition of the riddle of the sphinx. Still, he picked up his own metal spoon and used it to playfully duel his friend's pumpkin covered one away.

Rather than use the spoon to start, Derf dug his free hand into the pumpkin and pulled out fist full upon fist full of the pumpkin guts. And, for a bit of playful revenge, he wiggled one of those fist fulls in front of Zoryn's face. "Yummy yuuuuuuuuuummy," he cackled in a haunted house ghost sort of voice. It was during these antics that his bright blues fell upon Amanda with her hand in the air. Did she need help with the Severing Charm? Because he could TOTALLY do that since he had basically emptied his own pumpkin now.

"Finish scooping out my pumpkin for me? I'll owe you...whatever you want for it," he said a bit hurriedly as he set his spoon across the open top of his pumpkin. Giving Zoryn a quick BE RIGHT BACK sort of look, the fourth year hopped off his stool and walked over to where Amanda was working with Emmalyn and was juuuuuust about to offer himself to help with Incendio (which he was decent with) but Daisy beat him to it. So he offered her an appreciative grin and shifted his attention back to Amanda when she mentioned something about...er...well he had no idea what that was (muggle medicine?) but he DID see her discomfort. "You alright?" he asked, concern knitted into his brow as he rested a hand on her shoulder. "Reckon we ought to go wash your hands real good......come on," he added with a soft smile, nodding his way over towards the sink.

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.

That dealt with, for now at least, Noble turned his attention to the rest of the classroom. Only to hear about another student, Amanda, with an possible allergy. Seriously? Since when had pumpkin, pumpkin, been so prevalent as an allergen? Gah. Noble rubbed his temples, and in the meantime Derfael went to help. Noble nodded to the Hufflepuff Prefect.

SPOILER!!: Mara

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flipper

The girl nodded slightly listening to Professor Noble. She took an immediate dislike to him. It wasn't necessarily how he had addressed her... but the expression "miserably lot" certainly did not help her feelings of displacement, aggravated by the fact that the teacher kept looking over to the girl sitting next to her. She observed the girl with a look of amazement. What did she do...? She wondered, curiously.

She let out a loud relieved sigh upon reading the instructions. She knew diffindo, of course, Leonor used it all the time on her sewing endeavors. She had never seen anyone use it on a fruit, though... Without a second thought, and a terrible fear of failure, she wrote down the instructions on a small piece of parchment, as she didn't trust herself to memorize the recipe. Afterwards, hurriedly, Mara pointed her wand at the pumpkin and spoke clearly "Diffindo!"

Happy with the result, Mara scooped out the inside of the pumpkin and pulled out the seeds, which she placed on the cauldron. She repeated the process until she had the necessary amount of seeds.

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.

She looked around at her classmates to see how everybody was doing. She was worried she would fall behind... The girl grabbed a cup of water and added it to the seeds, into the cauldron. Now she would only have to heat it up...

Was she...? Noble watched the Hufflepuff for a few moments longer. Yes…she was. She was putting the seeds in the cauldron, and the pumpkin innards that were meant to be in there were still decidedly in the pumpkin. Apparently she’d decided things elsewhere in the classroom were more important than his demonstration.

“Start again, Mara,” he said, vanishing the seeds from her cauldron. Hopefully she’d have enough left in the pumpkin for the final step of the recipe. “Pumpkin pulp and water only in the cauldron so far.”

SPOILER!!: ”All those keeping on keeping on”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watson

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poolicious

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dokimoto

Finally. After double checking, triple checking, and a hard glare into the pumpkin, Kye was convinced that she had done all that she could do. It was as empty as she could make it, and there were definitely no seeds left behind. Time to pack the pumpkin stuffing into her measuring cup which waaas there. Phew. She definitely didn't have the eye to guesstimate a cup. The image of pumpkin pieces flying everywhere entered her mind. She didn't mind the smell, but it was very clear that others did. Of all the smells to come out of Hogwarts... and in Potions no less... Did they not like pumpkin juice either?? There was way worse, children...

After dumping both cups into the cauldron, Kye took a moment to go to the sink and wash off her hands. A, because she didn't need to have slimy souvenirs in her bag, and B, because she needed a cup of water anyway.

She checked her notes, marking what she had done and used so far. Assuring herself that everything was going smoothly, Kye took her wand to get the burner going.

"Incendio," she said. She adjusted the flame to a nice medium-y level and went back to her pumpkin guts now sitting together with the water. They weren't mixing... Were they supposed to? Hmm...

She consulted her notes, but saw nothing about what it should look like at this point. Frustrating. She supposed by now she shouldn't need a play by play but it would be nice!

Assuring herself that everything was correct up to this point, Kye set her cauldron over the heat and sat back in her seat. Well, now she just had to wait a minute for the next instructions. She looked around, seeing if any of the younger kids needed help with anything/how everyone else was coming along.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Pompion Potion
~50 minute brew time
-for all those times you wish you could turn someone's head into a pumpkin...

Ingredients:
2 cups pumpkin innards, densely packed (NO SEEDS!!)
1 cup of water
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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

Soon it wasn't just Juni and Zita at the workstation and she gave Slate a finger wiggle and Juni got an eyebrow wiggle. There was something going on with these two even if they weren't admitting it and Zita was in the know with gossip so she would keep an eye on them, yes bestie she would. Slate would be on the no snogging list too, which was a shame because his lips looked totally snogable.

Anyway, speaking of lips her eyes went to where a certain Hufflepuff was sitting and she didn't mean to stare but she was staring. Not cool for the image at all Zita, come on! As she watched him go retrieve his pumpkin she couldn't help but smile more when Gryffindor got points taken away. Maybe Abey was staring at Derf too and wasn't paying attention, which Zita felt was totes reasonable because look at Derf who couldn't do that?


As the professor started talking she couldn't help but put a scrunch in her face and she did not like to scrunch it caused wrinkles, but he was not being very nice and so he deserved the scrunched look. Pulling out her wand she cleaned her cauldron and started the heat with a quick incendio. Now that was done she moved her pumpkin in front of her and pointed her wand, "Diffindo" cutting a circle around the top and setting down the stem the blonde looking into the pumpkin. She didn't mind touching the innards of a pumpkin and thought it was great fun.

Scooping with a metal spoon Zita put all the guts into a bowl she had pulled from her bag and separated the seeds to leave to one side. With the seeds gone she placed the two cups of pulp into the cauldron. "Wouldn't it be fun if we got to make jack o lanterns out of the rest of it if we don't have to cut it all up?" It was the season to decorate for Halloween and it was one of Zita's favorite holidays.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stefan

Jace continued his preparation, only to be distracted by the exchange of words between their professor and some of his classmates. At some point, he inwardly cringed at the conversation wondering where the hostility is coming from. Sass for sass. And what about them being a miserable lot? Surely, his words are enough to start a rebellion. The annoying clack-clack sound of the wooden stick against the board was enough for Jace to sit ramrod straight, sparing a glance at Jessa. The Ravenclaw prefect did speak out her mind, but the silence that followed after made her suspicious. That silence was dangerous. A brilliant mind mixed with silent fury was a very dangerous combination. He would know. A Ravenclaw would know.

Jace clenched his jaw tight, and proceeded carefully by jotting down notes in Japanese; a strange habit of his, while his eyes watched the professor demonstrate the first steps. It was easy enough to follow, considering it as a First Year level potion, however, his mind began to sift through the pros and cons of learning this particular potion. What was it used for aside from a prank? How could it benefit him in the future? Was it possible to manipulate its chemical composition and give him a more desirable result? Ideas...he got them, and those too were written down in his native language.

Once they were given the go signal, the seventh year began with his potion. After making sure that all of his tools are clean and ready to use, he went on to clean his pumpkin with a non-verbal spell, tilted the fruit towards him and carved a hole around the stem. “Diffindo.” A few twist and turn of the stem, he then pulled the top out, and scooped the innards of the fruit with a metal spoon, putting the contents on a clean tray. With that step done, Jace donned his dragon-hide gloves and lightly mashed the strands with his hands to better extract the seeds, pulling them one by one and placed them in a clear beaker.

Procuring a clean standard-sized cup, Jace began to pack it—making sure there were no air pockets inside, and dumped two servings into the bottom of his cauldron and added a cup of water after so as not to make a messy splash. Lighting his burner with a spell, “Incendio,” Jace turned the knob, setting the heat to medium.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChanceCoeur

Paying attention in class was something that was hard for Farah to do. She was forever wanting to get up and move, try something different, and do all the things. The only time she paid attention was if she really was interested in the topic, or ... if Jessa was teaching her something new. She'd gone to a library and interviewed her dad regarding HARD questions this summer because of a project she was interested in with Jessa. Her concentration abilities were limited though.

But Professor Potions aka Professor Noble (the name didn't seem to fit him very well in Farah's opinion) was.. strict. Three points from a student already? And did you seeeee what he did to Jessa?? Did he not realize the brilliance of Jessa's brain and that she didn't run on the same line as everyone else? She was ahead of her time. Brilliant that one. Farah wrinkled her nose, watching the interaction between the professor and Jessa. She wasn't going to say anything though. She tried catching Cam's eye and give a little wave of hello since class had now started.

Luckily, Jun-bug and Zita weren't too far away from her in class. She could ask them any questions if need be...which might be the case.

First things first... Notes.

SPOILER!!: Notes for Class

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.

Farah jotted down the notes while watching Professor Potions. It was good to lead by example at least. She'd give him points for that. Diffindo was a spell that Farah had been doing since her second year. So she pulled her wand out and cast the spell easily, taking the top off the pumpkin.

There was no way she was going to start taking the insides of this pumpkin out without her hair up. It was her pride and joy besides her eyebrows (the windows to her soul). Pulling it up in a messy, curly bun, Farah made sure her rings were off before grabbing a spoon and digging in. Squishy. She didn't even realize she had started humming as she worked to get the ick and seeds out of the pumpkin. Catchy little hum too. Getting the seeds and insides out took some time and halfway through, she didn't even realize she had somehow gotten seeds and slime in her hair.

Once her pumpkin was mostly free from the seeds and insides, Farah separated the seeds from... whatever that stuff was. She put the seeds in a beaker before looking at her notes again.


Okay.

Grabbing her measuring cup, Farah took the insides of the pumpkin and pushed the ick into the cup and put it into the cauldron. She measured out another cup before emptying that into the cauldron as well. Now for a cup of water. She pulled her wand out casting Aguamenti to fill her cup up and then put it in the cauldron too, all the while still humming.

Once that was done, she grabbed her wand again and set it towards the burner, turning the knob and casting incendio to start the fire. Then she turned the knob down until it was on medium heat.

DONE!

Farah raised both her hands in the air triumphantly..... which caused some of the strings of .. whatever to fall across her face and into her hair. Her triumphant smile turned to ick quickly as she pulled it off and went to wash her hands. Seeds and slime in her precious hair. And.... WERE HER EYEBROWS OKAY??

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kolyander

Rylee smiled at her fellow Gryffindor as the girl joined her at her workstation. "Hey, Amara!" Early? Was she? The ginger glanced around to see if she really was. "I'm not that early," she laughed shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know yet. Maybe?" Potions wasn't easy. It was so easy to mess up badly, quickly.

There wasn't time to say much else as the lesson was starting. First and second years were told to get a copper cauldron. That would be her. The list had said pewter therefore that's what she had. Slipping from her seat she made her way to the cupboard to collect herself one along with all the other younger students. Grabbing the first one she spotted, Ry made her way back to her workstation moving her cauldron from the tripod and setting the copper one on it.

HOLY CANARIES that was a lot of info!

Blinking several times, Rylee snapped herself to attention and quickly grabbed her quill dipping it into the purple ink. Right away she got to taking down her notes glancing back and forth between her parchment and Professor Noble as he not only explained what all needed to be done but showed them.

Removing the top of her pumpkin was step one. This meant using a spell! With a little wiggle Rylee moved to sit up on her knees to make herself taller thereby making it easier to see what she was doing. She pulled out her wand and aimed it at the top of her wand. "Diffindo!" she cast moving her wand in a circular motion around the top of the pumpkin. Nothing. Well okay than. Clearing her throat she tried again. "Diffindo!," she spoke clearly directing her wand in a circle around the top of the pumpkin. There was a small giggle of excitement when she realized it had worked, reaching out and pulling the lid from the pumpkin and setting it aside, returning her wand to it's holster.

Grabbing the metal spoon she began to scoop out the innards from her pumpkin. Scoop. Scoop. Pulp. Scoop. Carving pumpkins was something she did every year at home so the smell and mess didn't at all bother her. Nor did the fact that she was getting pumpkin guts on her sleeves. Oops. A mess was inevitable anyhow. Small fingers moved through the pumpkin guts pulling out the seeds and setting them aside. It was a stringy mess that clung to her fingers but she didn't care. Shifting through it all more than once to make sure she had gotten all the seeds out. She may have played with the goo for just a bit longer than necessary but it wasn't her fault, it was so squishy!

Onto the next steps. Reaching for her cup she began to pack the innards into it...densely? Um... Okay. Into the cauldron one cup went and than she repeated the packing process once more adding that into the cauldron as well. There. After cleaning her hands and her cup she added a cupful of water into her cauldron. Now to light the burner. Uh...

Rylee glanced around and rather than raise her hand and ask for help decided to do this herself. It wasn't hard. Rising from her seat she made her way to the front. Carefully she used the professors burner to light a splint. With the lite splint in hand she very slowly walked back to her seat giving out a gentle warning anytime anyone came close to her. Reaching her workstation she carefully lite her burner with the help of the already burning splint, which she promptly put out once her own was lit. Setting it to medium heat she slid back into her seat.

There. Done. For now at least. With any luck she hadn't messed this up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

Talking about pumpkin, sometimes she didn't understand about why British people (especially the wizards and witches) were so obsessed with it. Sure it was good but it seemed like they overused pumpkin in every snacks and stuffs, just like how Southeast Asian people got crazy about durian. But at least pumpkin was not as gross and smelly as that stinky fruit so she was fine here.

Making a potion to turn someone's head into a pumpkin? Well, this was funny. Although Diandra knew there was a spell for that but perhaps this one was made for prank purpose. The badger wrote the steps and ingredients before going to work it the potions. Cooper cauldron, check. All the ingredients, check. Hair was tied in a ponytail, check. Okay, now she's ready to work. Using her wand, she carefully cast the severing charm around the stalk to open up the pumpkin. Oh, maybe after this class they're going to use the pumpkin for Halloween decorations. This probably sounded weird but Diandra had never celebrated Halloween because it wasn't really a huge thing back in Japan and her hometown.

Once it's done, the badger picked a spoon and cleaned it before using it to scoop out the innards. She also pulled out the seeds and putting them aside. They probably would use them later, she didn't know. She then used the clean cup to measure her pumpkin innards, Okay, two cups of pumpkin were ready and now it's time to.... Hold on, the cauldron itself needed to be cleaned first. "Scourgify." Diandra cast the scouring charm first then added the pumpkin and water next. She remembered how her potion master in Mahoutokoro always reminded her to clean the cauldron before brewing the potions. Moving on to the next step, she lit the fire and set it onto medium heat.

Cool, so far she had followed the first steps and hopefully everything went alright. Diandra just hated if she missed a step or something.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Optimist.Prime

Picking up the de-seeded pumpkin innards do not puke Melbourne, do not puke the thought rolled through her mind slowly but surely. It wasn’t something she could help, the texture that texture had always made her skin crawl. The stringy sticky and all together oozy mess had never been something she was the least bit fond of…heck, there was a time she had retched into her pumpkin while carving it as a kid and then somehow managed to set her hair on fire that same day.

Those scents together, those were horrid.

It was like someone had created a repellent for all things, all things.

Carefully she put the innards into her pumpkin and proceeded to clean her hands on one of her towels…damn there was innard still on it. Flicking her hand she managed to lop the tiny speck of innard across the room…the little fleck of orange fiber was almost impossible to see but when it appeared on someone’s robes…well, that was when she noticed it.

Nope. She was just going to don her innocent as pie face and pretend she didn’t just do that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by siriusblackliveson

Text Cut: 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.

Patrick listened to Professor Nobel, he was very intense, and very intimidating. How in the world was he supposed to get better at Potions if he was scared out of his shorts every time he came in the classroom. He took the notes of the steps that they would have for the first part of class. He had seen many of the other students use diffindo to cut the pumpkin. He would have preferred to just use a knife like when he was carving pumpkins back home with his friends. His parents weren't for using much magic at home.

He gathered the pumpkin and brought it back to his station, quickly grabbing his wand and readying it before taking a deep breath. "Diffindo," he moved his wand in the circular motion that Professor Nobel had done and was surprised with his success. He took the top off and began to scoop the insides out with the metal spoon as instructed because he did not want to have the professor deducting house points for him.

Next, Patrick set the seeds off to the sides and then took the two cups of packed pumpkin innards and took his wand, "oh no, almost forgot the water." He quickly added a cup of water before stating, "Incendio" and letting the cauldron sit over medium heat. Patrick waited calmly for the next instructions hoping that he would not upset the professor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

Now time to scoop out all of the pumpkin seeds. This was going to be a gooey task. Wait she needed some gloves. Zae went up to the front and got her supply of gloves and put them on. Then she saw she had a metal spoon. Hmm she would use it for the harder stuff. Once set, she reached into her large pumpkin and began to feel the pumpkin guts. She felt the tiny flimsy pumpkin seeds along with them. She gently began to pull them out. Man there were a lot of seeds attached to the pumpkin strings. She laid it out on her counter and began to pick apart some of the seeds and put it into her mortar cup because it was the only cup conveniently right next to her. If she had to change it, she did no big deal. After all she could collect with her hands, she reached for her metal spoon and scooped all the seeds she can.

After separating the seeds, she needed to light her cauldron. She took her gloves off and tossed it into the trash. She grabbed her new cauldron and placed it over the burner. It looked somewhat dirty so she shrugged and said, "Scourgify!" and the cauldron was sparkling clean. Now onto the fire spell, "Incendio!" she pointed her wand at the burner and it roared to life. She set it for medium heat with the dial and now to add the two scoops of pumpkin guts. She got her measuring cup and measured one cup and added the pumpkin guts into the cauldron. Then another cup and she filled the cup with water and waited for further instructions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holmesian Feline

Cass caught the look as she looked up ready. What? She wasn’t bothering him, even with a greeting, so why was he glaring at her? Oh well. Not her problem unless he made it that way. Her problem was getting through the lesson and getting everything right. Which wasn’t helped by a slamming of a wooden rod on a desk. Not that she had herself needed the call for attention so it was just a loud annoying noise to her not the surprise it appeared to be for some of her classmates.

Pompion Potion…got it.

The Ravenclaw labeled her fresh parchment with the name to start her notes. She didn’t know why someone would want to turn heads into pumpkins but there were some weird ideas for potions out there. The fifty minute brewing time was added to her paper before she exchanged quill for her wand, slicing through the top with a careful “Diffindo.” The hat of the pumpkin now separate, Cassie set it aside and went to work with scooping out all the insides. First with a nice clean spoon and then with her hands really getting in there and making sure everything was out and the seeds weren’t in the pulp. When she was finished, she scourgified her measuring tool and measured out two cups of the loose orange pumpkin.

Pack…pack…pack.

One.
Two.

In they went to the cauldron after she had scourgified it as well. When it was all inside, Cass set it on medium heat as instructed before adding the directions to her notes for later reference. Now was there anyone needing help as she was an older student available…The seventh year looking around for hands.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

While Derf was trying to give Abey some sort of look, Zoryn was trying to flash the guy TWO THUMBS UP. ‘Cause honestly, that was iconic. Welcome to the point loser’s club, Abe! Zoryn had lost a grand total of 45 last term and honestly, she was slackin’ right now. It was the Gryffindor thing to do, y’know? Bless the world for Gryffindoring. Truly a fine art.

Anyways, where was she? Right, right. PUMPKIN GUTS.

Zoryn let out a loud GIGGLE at Derf’s dramatic reaction (((she knew he wouldn’t disappoint))). Though she wasn’t exactly sure why he needed his work when the potion stuff was all on the board. Man, Derf really did take his notes seriously (thankfully, ‘cause one of them had to and it wasn’t about to be Zoryn Spinnet). She held her metal spoon strong and valiantly against Derf’s attempts to deflect it with his own, though some guts did splatter over the countertop. This was about to be a real messy class. Professor Noble should’ve known. Did he really trust them with pumpkin guts? Rookie mistake.

“Eewwwwww grooOOOOooooss,” she crinkled her nose, turning her face away from the fistful of guts. Pumpkin smelled awful. Derf’s way of getting the guts out also looked like WAY more fun than the spoon method, but Zoryn didn’t wanna get her hands all messy yet, so she didn’t dare drop hers and switch. Before she could take another scoop full of pumpkin guts out for revenge, Derf’s had hopped out of his seat. “You owe me BIG time!” She gave her friend a playful look, but shooed him away as it looked like he was about to do something helpful and prefect-y.

In the meanwhile, however, she finished off scooping her own pumpkin guts slowly (but surely) and then pulled Derf’s pumpkin over to finish scooping out his. The grossest part of this whole process had to be sorting the pumpkin innards out. Disgusting, really. Again, Zoryn began sorting out her own… Pulling out the seeds one by one with her hands (which was a lot more time consuming than you’d think). Finally she was able to separate out all of the seeds in her own pumpkin gut pile, which meant she had some time to work on Derf’s too.

He definitely owed her big time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MysteriesOfFate

June had been intently watching the professor as he demonstrated using Diffindo to cut open the pumpkin. She had never used the spell before but she most certainly was NOT going to ask someone she didn't know how to do it in front of EVERYONE! It wasn't about pride more than just sheer terror at asking someone.

Before proceeding, however, she marked down the instructions on her roll of parchment.

SPOILER!!: June's Parchment

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.

She picked up her wand and held it as the professor had, she stood on her tip-toes to get a good angle over her pumpkin, and making the same circular motion said "Diffindo!" And (thankfully) the pumpkin lid was cut open. June breathed a sigh of relief but she knew that she wouldn't always bee so lucky and she would EVENTUALLY have to talk to someone out loud of all things.

Before scooping out the pumpkin innards she had an idea and grabbed a roll of older tattered, but unused, parchment and laid it out on her desk. As she scooped out the seed with her tablespoon she laid our the pumpkin innards on the parchment and picked out the seeds one at a time and put them into a small side bowl. She secretly hoped the professor would let them take the seeds they didn't use today back with them. They were quite delicious with cinnamon and sugar, or she could dry them to use for planting next year (ah, the curse of an herbology geek).

June was relieved that she had at least used incendio before, so she lit under her cauldron with ease (or as much ease as an awkward 11-year-old could) and she put in the cup of water before she began to measure out her two cups of pumpkin guts.

June took a deep breath in through her nose, she loved the smell of fresh pumpkin. The earthy smell it gave before sugar or spices were added was just pure delight to her, where it might turn others off.

She scooped in her second packed cup on pumpkin guts and began to clean her workstation as she waited for the next instructions, rolling up the used parchment and placing it on the side.

Lots of students seemed to be progressing…he wasn’t sure he’d say well, persay, but at least not terribly. So that was…something. Yes. Nods and appreciative grunts happened.

Yes, grunts could be appreciative.

And the older students had really picked up the gauntlet when it came to helping. Let’s see…there was Daisy helping Emmalyn light her burner…Finn working with Hanna…Miranda had stepped in to help Josephine…Skylar was demonstrating to Jessi…Junia was getting Abraham back on track…and Harriet was fixing Dorian’s cauldron.

Hang on, what? No. That wasn’t right! Grumble grumble. “Thank you for helping, Harriet,” Noble said, from the front of the class. “But I’d suggest you use one from the cupboard for today, Dorian.” Cracks were weaknesses, and he had enough to get through without an exploding cauldron in the mix. “See me after class, and I’ll have a look at fixing it.”

He wasn’t unreasonable, okay?




And since they all seemed to be done with the pumpkin pulp, Ignatius clapped his hands together. “Okay then...whilst we’re waiting for the cauldron to get up to a simmer, we need to prepare our dried moths.” He held up a beaker of them so they could see what they looked like. “Put three in your mortar, and grind them to a fine powder.” He counted three out, before giving them a good (and loud) pounding with the pestle. “If you think you’re done, I recommend you go back and pound some more.” He meant a super fine powder.

“You can also start chopping your bouncing bulb. These are fresh and not part of your standard kit, so please fetch one from the front.” He gestured to the lidded crate on the desk. “A bouncing bulb does just as its name suggests...bounces. Please do not start to prepare it until you have stunned it!” He did NOT want to have to be sending people to the Healer. “So first, a Stupefy,” which he demonstrated, “and then we’re going to peel off that outer purple layer and chop it finely with a silver knife.” Again, he did this using a peeler from his potions kit, before placing the bulb on his chopping board. “Good chopping is all about technique. Curl your fingers under and into a claw like this, and use your knuckles as a guide for the side of the knife. Push down smoothly with the blade for a safe clean cut.”

He really hoped they were paying attention. Some of their cutting skills had been woefully poor in previous lessons. His cat could probably do it better, honestly.

"You need 100g of bouncing bulb. Weigh it out ready, but don't add it or the moths just yet."



ooc note: I'm loving all of your responses so far! <3 This is just a preparation step, no need to add anything to the cauldron. If you missed the last step, you're welcome to either a) proceed as if you were here and had completed it, or b) catch up. Please keep any catching up to a single post if possible so as not to confuse the general order of things.

So apparently following the directions and putting the water in, even though Noble hadn't explicitly stated it, was still acceptable. Good, cuz really he trusted the recipe over the man's memory. Finn scribbled some notes about the next step into his notebook and then wrote a big 'DO NOT ADD ANYTHING TO YOUR CAULDRON YET' for emphasis.

Finn decided to tackle the moths first, though he couldn't see that any particular order of advance preparation was really important. "You have moths, Hanna?" He was pretty sure he'd seen some in her stores, but it didn't hurt to ask.

The Claw found three from his own supplies and put them into his mortar. Then he got to work. It's not like he had no muscles, he wasn't a total weakling, but yikes. Grind, grind, grind. Then some more grinding. "This." Grind. "Is." Grind "Not." Grind. "Fun." Grind. He stopped flex his hand out and catch a breather while he checked his powder. Fine, but not super fine. So more tedious grinding.

"Oh shoot, my flame looks a little low!" Although taking a break from the pestle wasn't unwelcome. He fiddled with the flame until it looked back to medium before going back to the pestle work. After another minute, the moth powder finally looked ready and he set it aside.

Now onto the bouncing bulbs.

So apparently the professor was a stickler that they stay with him, even when the next step was obvious, as was evidenced by the missing contents of poor Jessa's cauldron. Katy took note to follow the professor directly, since she didn't relish starting over.

She checked her flame, and then her packed pumpkin went into the cauldron, followed by water. Then the copper cauldron went onto the flame, and she could turn her attention to preparing the next ingredients. Finely ground moths and diced bouncing bulbs. One definitely more suitable for a vegetarian potion than the other - not that she was worrying about that today, but Katy let her mind consider moth alternatives as she added the moths to her mortar and ground away.

And that... wasn't nearly fine enough. Keep on it, Toussaint.

Daisy made sure her mortar and pestle were clean before using a clean pair of tweezers to select three dried moths from her supplies and added them to the mortar. She then started to grind the insects with her pestle. This was getting quite tiring and there were still bits of moth in her mortar so Daisy decided to take a break and focus on the bouncing bulbs. She fetched her scales, chopping board, silver knife and peeler and quickly cast a non-verbal Scourgify on her equipment.

Daisy then headed to the crate where the bulbs were and aimed her wand at one of the bulbs and said, "Stupefy." She then headed back to her station carrying the stunned bulb. Daisy picked up her peeler and concentrated hard as she carefully peeled the outside layer. It was a good thing that Daisy liked to cook at home and sometimes did it the Muggle way as this reminded her of peeling onions. Once the outer layer was removed, Daisy placed the peeled bulb on her chopping board and grabbed her silver knife.

Professor Noble's instructions about how to handle a knife safely were great but not entirely relevant to her since her Muggle father had taught her to cook which included the proper knife technique. She cut her bulb just as Professor Noble instructed and carefully weighed 100g of bulb via her scales. She left the bulb on the scales as she cleaned her knife.

It was time to resume her moth powder preparation. She picked up her pestle which had been lying in the mortar and began to firmly yet carefully crush the insects. After what seemed like forever, Daisy had crushed the moths to a very fine powder. She updated her notes.

Patrick looked at his notes, he was terrified cause he had added the water right before the professor had said to add water. But it said in the first few steps to add the water and set over the heat, why wouldn’t he have that written differently. Rather than dwell on it Patrick went on to the next step.

Three dried Flitterby Moths. He gathered the three, dropping, one, two, three into the mortar. He had seen people make guacamole in something similar, he didn’t figure this would be as easy as guacamole. He started pounding but felt like he was getting absolutely nowhere.

A few minutes later it seemed he had finally gotten the moths ground. He looked in and it didn’t seem as if it was fine enough so he continued to grind, especially since Professor had said to keep going once you thought it was done. Setting the mortar aside Patrick grabbed his wand and walked to the front of the room. He reaped himself for stunning the bouncing bulb. Deep breath, “stupefy”

Grabbing his stunned bouncing bulb patrick began to peel the purple layer with a peeler, doing exactly as Professor Nobel had done. He didn’t want to chance anything further. Setting aside the peeler, he laid the purple layer on the table. Grabbing his silver knife Patrick made a claw and held the knife in his hands.

His tongue stuck out on the left side as he began to slice through the purple layer in the same manner Professor Nobel had, only way slower. “I hope these are uniform enough.” he stated looking down at the cuts he had made. He hadn’t wanted to do something wrong and mess up the potion. Now to just weigh the bouncing bulb. He took a pinch here and there until he got to 100g looking around the room to ensure that he was cutting it the same way others were, but really he did exactly as Professor Nobel he should be fine.

Melbourne looked up at Professor Noble every time she heard the stern man utter even the simplest of words. If they had to use live flitterby moths she was sure that the vegans and animal activists at Hogwarts would have a conniption fit. That is murder she could practically hear her classmates voices cry out in abject horror.

Wait….did Professor Noble just say bloody? No, do not smirk or laugh Mel thought to herself as she raised her hand toward her face and carefully scratched the edge of her nose. Then….she heard it the unthinkable demand that Tenacius was given.

Giving him a quick wide-eyed look as if trying to implore him to be careful she then glanced over to Olivia and shrugged her shoulder. ”I like how you separated your seeds” Mel then let her voice drop to nearly a whisper so that her friend and classmate could hear and hopefully Professor Noble wouldn’t, ”he’s done for” she shrugged as she picked up her mortar and pestle and inspected the cleanliness of it before quickly scourgifying both of them. Taking out three flitterby moths from her potions kit she placed them into the mortar before crushing them with the pestle.

crush

crush

crush

crush

with each press and twist of her pestle she ground the moths into fine powder.

There.

She had done it….or well she was still doing it.

SPOILER!!: notes

Quote:

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. Place three dried flitterby moths in a mortar and with a pestle grind into a very fine powder. Do not add to cauldron
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. Proper knife technique is key. Do not add to cauldron

Taking her quill in hand again she scratched down the newest set of instructions. Looking up she glanced around the room, ”does anyone need any help? she asked as got ready to deal with the bouncing bulbs. Wand in hand she looked at the bouncing bulbs….ugh so much bouncing.

Cleaning her knives with a quick scourgify she moved and pointed her finger at the bulb. Stupify she watched as mid-bounce the bulb fell still….ah great. Reaching her hand out she picked up the stunned bulb and peeled the outer layer of skin off of it. Curling her fingers around the hilt of her knife she first tested the weight before giving the bulb one cut. Moving on she began to go more quickly chopping her blace down and slicing through the meat of the bulb in a swift clean fashion.

A slight smile grew on her lips as she looked at the clean slices. With ever slice she moved a section onto her scale adding each one by one until she weighed out 100 grams.

Scarlett's suspicions of this man being a big old GRUMP were confirmed when he started off by addressing them as 'you miserable lot'. Why did people even become professors if they hated kids? And working? And just life in general? Ah well, she was not here to examine the psyche of her potions professor. She took out her wand and aimed it at the top of her pumpkin, nonverbally casting Diffindo and carving a lid into the pumpkin. OOOH, she'd never thought of doing this before - she would need to actually do this when Halloween came around next month!

She then took her spoon and began to scoop out the inside of the pumpkin - thankfully they weren't using full sized pumpkins, so it didn't take her all that long to get it cleaned. She picked out the seeds - which took a little longer than she wanted, to be honest, but she knew it was vital to get them all out - and then took the pulp, packing it into the cup to measure it out. She took two of those and then plopped them into her cauldron, pointing her wand at the bottom of the cauldron and turned the heat to medium with Incendio.

Alright, that was simmering, so she took the moths as instructed and added them to her mortar. She began to crush them - she always hated grinding down dead insects, it just felt so weird - and on she went. She kept going, because he HAD made it VERY clear that he expected this to be a very fine powder. VERY fine - and that was what she was going to give him.

She set that aside after she was done and walked up front with her wand. She waited for the perfect moment, then picked a bouncing bulb out of the bunch and cast a silent Stupefy at it. It stopped moving and she grinned, grabbing it and bringing it back to her station. She took the peeler out of her potions kit and peeled off the layer, taking it off and setting it aside so she could focus on the bulb itself. She took out her knife and began chopping it finely, using the technique the professor had shown them. Huh. Even after 7 years, this really was a better technique. Just in time for her to prepare for NEWTs...

Once she had her bulb chopped up, she placed it on her scale and continued to add chopped bulb until she had 100g of it. She pushed it aside then, waiting for the next direction.

Well, if it looked about right to Finn, who was now in his fifth year of Potions, Hanna decided it was right. She kept the heat at the level it was, and waited until it was time to move on. Which, it was now, apparently.

Hanna simultaneously watched Professor Noble up the front, and copied Finn, starting to write more on her parchment. She tried to pick up on everything he was saying, so as not to miss anything. She envisioned a folder with all of these notes in order of when they were brewed. Or perhaps alphabetically, she hadn't decided.

Hanna peeked over the top of her cauldron, and saw that nothing had happened yet. Not a bubble in sight. But Professor Noble did mention waiting for it to simmer, and of course things heated over a flame weren't instantly simmering. She sat back down just as Finn asked about moths. "Uh..." she looked through her potions ingredients and found them. "Yes, here." She REALLY appreciated him helping her. She pulled close her own mortar, BRAND NEW, never used before! And put three of the moths in it. She jumped a little as the Professor's pestle made the first bang in the mortar. By his words, this step wasn't going to be as easy as scooping out pumpkin guts. She added her pestle to the mortar, with more care than Professor Noble, and started to grind away at the moths. At first they seemed to SQUISH pretty quickly, but then the texture remained that way. Right, so she WAS going to have to put some muscle into it. Finn didn't seem to be having the best of times either. Standing up to put more weight onto the pestle, in hopes it would grind it into a nice fine powder, she said "D-does it usually... require this... much... work?" Getting a little breathless, because she didn't do muscle workouts, she stopped. But wasn't entirely happy with her powder. PLUS Professor Noble had said to pound it some more. Copying Finn, necessarily, she shook her own hand out. "Are you ambidexterous?" she asked. She wasn't, unfortunately. She went back using her sore hand.

After what felt like YEARS of grinding these moths, Hanna compared her powder to that which the Professor showed them, and Finn (such copying) and decided it was good.

Hanna had seen bouncing bulbs before, in her Gruncle's lab, but had never used one. They were all in jars and things, so she'd never SEEN one bounce. And, to prevent being in trouble, she wouldn't be tempting it today. Unless it just happened to occur. Hanna went off to the front to get TWO bouncing bulbs. "Here you go," she said, putting one in front of Finn, because he'd helped her SO much already. That was just a little thanks. But she wasn't about to attempt a stunning charm until she'd watched the fifth-year.

“Thank you, Daisy, I’ll add the water now and get my cauldron heated up.” She smiled at her housemate, then looked around at her not so tidy work area. “I guess I did make a bit of a mess. I’ll get it cleaned up right away.” Cleaning up was one thing she could figure out, at least she thought she could.


Emmalyn grabbed her mortar and pestle and placed them directly in front of her. She grabbed three dried flitterby moths and placed them inside and started grinding. It felt as if many minutes had passed before she started to see more of a fine powder forming. She continued to grind until her hand began to cramp. After shaking out her cramped hand and switching to her right, she continued to grind. She figured if she ground the flitterby moths double as long as they appeared to need, they should be just right. When the desired powder was achieved, she placed the mortar off to the side so she wouldn’t accidentally knock it off the work station.

Then it was time for step two. Emmalyn reluctantly advanced to the front of the room. She stood, simply staring, next to the lidded crate on the desk. If she were to get one of the bulbs, she would need to stun it. That would mean she would need to use her wand again and she wasn’t particularly interested in messing up another spell in front of the professor.

She watched several other students come and go from the crate at the front before working up the nerve to give the spell a try. She held up her wand, chose her target, and let out a nearly inaudible “Stupefy.” Much to her surprise, one of the bulbs stopped moving and she grabbed it before it came back to life.

Once back to her work area, Emmalyn carefully peeled off the outer purple layer, sat it on the table, and pulled out a little silver knife. “Keep my fingers like a claw.” she murmured as she lifted the silver knife over the edge of the bulb in preparation to chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. Slice…”Oh, ouch” She caught the edge of her finger with the knife as it slid into the bulb. A tiny bead of blood was welling to the surface of her skin from the tiniest of tiny cuts. She dropped her knife on the table and put her now ever so lightly bleeding hand in the air. “I think I need a bandage.”

Night was very grateful to Emmalyn for offering to take the pumpkin seeds off her hands, but the other first year looked like she was having trouble too. And she was bleeding. Well, Night just happened to have a band-aid in her pocket.

"Here, Emmalyn, use this. Thanks for getting my pumpkin guts, by the way. I can cut the rest of that for you if you want." She hadn't gotten much beyond step three yet, but fair was fair, and there was no better way to repay her fellow badger than to reciprocate by helping with something she needed.

Man how come pumpkins had SO many seeds. Was that REALLY necessary!?!? If you only needed one seed to grow a whole new baby pumpkin, what was the point of making so many??? Pumpkins were SO inefficient and they were testing Zoryn’s patience (which was a very low amount to even begin with). Honestly, Derf’s pumpkin must’ve had a million and seventeen of these stupid seeds! Someone please remind this child to never carve a pumpkin ever again. It was way too much work. Zoryn had officially decided she was over it. Fortunately for Derf though, she kept working on deseeding his pumpkin guts. Only ‘cause he always shared his notes with her. And for the fact that he was a friend. Man, Zoryn was SUCH a good person.

Doing twice the work, however, meant that she was quickly falling behind the rest of the class. SOS. The Gryffindor RUSHED to deseed the rest of the innards, working very sloppily and getting orange guts all over the workspace, hopefully Derf wouldn’t mind too much. And once all of that was finished (FINALLY), she pushed the seeds to the side and tried to pack the seeds all nice and tightly in a measuring cup. While she remembered to use precision in making measurements, she hadn’t exactly remembered to clean anything out… But you win some, you lose some. Right?

Anyways, she dropped two densely packed ups of guts into her cauldron and then two more in Derf’s before taking her wand out (ew her hand was getting slime ALL over it). “Incendio!” It was one of the spells she could actually get working. Lighting TWO flames and dialing them down to a medium heat, she placed the cauldrons over top and looked up to find the next set of instructions (that she had definitely missed because she had fallen behind).

Now for the fun part, MOTHS. Tbh it was probably a good thing that Derf wasn’t around for this one. Even though they were all dried up, she still assumed he would’ve fainted or something. Or at least would’ve probably made Zoryn crush them up either way. The Gryffindor was actually happy to do this part for him, so it wouldn’t have mattered either way. Zor took her own mortar and added three of the dried moths into from her kit, before GRIND, GRIND, GRINDING!!!

Man this was more work than it looked like it’d be. Good thing her arms were so used to doing some hard work #thanksQuidditch. It took a solid amount of time until she was able to get a fine(ish) looking powder, which meant she was ready to do the same thing to Derf’s moths. You’re welcome Derf!!!! La la la la aaaa, just crushin’ up some moths, what are you doing with your life? La la la la just another casual day at magic school. Y’know.

While still keeping her hand up in the air, Emmalyn graciously took the band-aid from Night, unwrapped it, and placed it on her finger without taking a look. "I really don't like blood. Even if it's just a tiny bit." She shook her head as she spoke. "Thanks for the band-aid. I should keep some in my bag."

Emmalyn slid her mostly chopped bulb over for Night to finish. It was probably best she didn't pick up the knife again. "I'm happy to start grinding your moths while you chop." She reached over and started grinding away. That was the part that took forever and she didn't need to worry about chopping off any body parts while doing it.

Well, someone definitely got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. It seem the Professor's mood keep getting worse and worse. She's just gonna focus on her potion and finish it on time.

Alyce listened to the Professor carefully as the man explained to them what they need to do next. Grind the moths? Eeeeww.. She grabbed three moths and put them in her mortar and start grind them with her pestle.

Grind. Grind. Grind

She's glad that she has some muscles for this particular activity. It's not that hard as she thought it'd be. She looked at her moths and it look like a powder but not fine enough, so the fifth year keep on going. More grinding. Once it's a fine powder, she it aside and moved to the bouncing bulb. She walked to the front to fetch her bouncing bulb with her wand on her hand of course. "Stupefy!" It missed. WHAAAATTT???!! She tried again. And again. And again. But the bulb keep bouncing. "STUPEFY!" She finally managed to stun one. About time! She took her stunned bouncing bulb to her station and began to peel off it's outer purple layer with a cleaned peeler. Alyce cleaned her silver knife with scouring charm first before she chopped it the same way Professor Noble showed them. Then she placed her chopped bulb on her scale and keep adding slice by slice until she got 100 g.

Vi continued looking down at her work as she tried to check things. However, as she looked down, she did listen to the conversation, ESPECIALLY Ronan's one. Oh Merlin... Well to be fair. Ronan did have a point. Telling someone to man up certainly wasn't appropriate. Minus fifty points from Professor Noble. He ought to know better being a Professor and all...... But nevertheless, Ronan provided a cheeky response which earned negative five points from Gryffindor. Usually Vi would be upset by a points loss; however, in this case, she was more upset at the Professor than at her fellow housemate. Gryffindors got to stick together, y'know?

Speaking of Gryffindors.... Vi blinked. Had the Professor just threatened Ace with the prospect of detention? Seriously? Vi was shocked and she hoped to Merlin that he wouldn't say anything else. Blue eyes flickered to Mel and found her friend giving Ace a warning expression. She nodded her head in agreement and silently prayed that the Professor and Ace's interaction would stop there. The Professor was a grumpy man indeed. She was about to try to catch Ace's eye when Mel leaned over to compliment how she separated her seeds. "Yeah, you just do it like this," she explained as she mimed what she had done previously. To Mel's whisper, she simply nodded and whispered. "It's utterly ridiculous." She paused and then brought up her volume a little in order to "explain" what she had done. She placed the dried moths in her mortar as she nodded her head a few times and then worked on crushing them with her pestle. Crush. Crush. Crush. Crush. Cruuuush. Crush. Crush. As she continued grinding them, she continued, "It's perhaps a ridiculous method and a bit too much prep but I think it works well at getting the seeds out." With that Vi shrugged her shoulders too.

Once the moths had become a powder, she continued to crush them just in case Professor Noble was upset with how coarse they had turned out to be. She continued crushing them until the powder was as fine as icing powder. Done.

She left her workstation and then headed up towards the front of the classroom to collect a bouncing bulb. Please do not prepare it until you have stunned it. Ahh so you stunned the bulb in order to stop it from bouncing around like crazy and potentially injuring a student or knocking a cauldron or two over. Stupefy she spoke in her mind, not even bothering to pick up her wand, to stun the bulb. Yep. Done. Sufficiently stunned. Then she piked up her silver knife and carefully peeled the outer layer as if she was peeling an apple or a potato with a knife in the kitchen. Once it was peeled, she carefully grasped the knife and then started to chop it finely. Vi made sure to curl her fingers under and into a claw just as the Professor had said. She didn't want to cut off any of her fingers or have an unfortunate accident because she wasn't safe.

And then the bulb was chopped finely. Next she had to weigh it. 100 g was it?

She proceeded to weigh her chopped up bulb. Once that was done, she put it to the side and cleaned her tools.

Still feeling like the lack of an answer over the moth situation was rudeness on the professor’s part, along with his being unfair to those of them who maybe weren’t okay with the idea of using live creatures in their potions, it had taken Stasya a moment to not only realize that Professor Noble had in fact finally decided to clarify that point and chosen that moment to look over at her as if he’d expected a reaction, but also that her partner for the lesson hadn’t been following instructions right and there had been yet another vanishing incident like had happened to Jessa earlier. Although, once the words ‘dried moths’ had registered in her ears she’d let out the softest of breaths. At least that meant she could try and rationalize the ingredient like she’d had with wings and such in lessons the previous terms. Maybe the moths had died of natural circumstances and then been dried. Maybe there wasn’t moth homicide going on in the castle. Maybe.

That and they were finally allowed to add their cup of water to their cauldrons, so she’d carefully used Aguamenti to fill a measuring cup to exactly one cup, adding it to the pumpkin pulp in her cauldron before glancing over at Mara. She figured she had plenty of seeds from her own pumpkin that it wouldn’t be a problem. “You can have some of my seeds if you aren’t going to have enough at the end,” she said softly, even as she took three dried moths and added them to her mortar almost without looking. That and she started crushing without really looking, until the moths were enough of a powder that they didn’t resemble their original forms at all. At that point, she could focus on making the powder as fine as possible, pretending it was just like crushing nuts or cinnamon or anything else she used in baking. Like she was making flour by hand.

Once that was done and she’d made sure nothing would happen to her powder, she got up to claim a bouncing bulb. Returning to her seat, she took her wand out and pointed it at the bulb, holding it down onto her worktable with one hand and focusing on stunning the bulb and not her own hand. Luckily, enough of the bulb had been free of her hand that it hadn’t been too difficult, even if she’d had to cast Stupefy a few times before it worked perfectly. Stunned bulb in hand, she switched to Scourgifying her peeler and carefully peeling the outer layer off the plant. More cooking references, although she still preferred cookies over anything that involved peeling things. At least she felt like she knew how to chop, Scourgifying her silver knife before following the instructions to chop the bulb up into fine pieces. All that was left was to measure out 100 grams, weighing it with every little addition until it was exactly the right weight. As far as she could tell. The scale said 100 grams anyway.

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
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.

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

So many notes!

Shera began scribbling down the next two steps. Grind the moths, grind it more if you think you're done, and start chopping up the bouncing bulb (after stunning). With everything the professor had said written down she nodded to herself. Although... stupefy was a fourth year spell and that was one she had not practiced with her parents at home...

That was something to think about later. Now it was back to focussing on the moths. Her fingers pinched the dried moths, counting out three and placing them into the mortar. And she was pounding it into a fine dust.

And more pounding of the dust....

And more....

And her arm was starting to hurt. Was she done yet? Looking into her mortar of what remained of the dried moths, she sighed, definitely not close to what Professor Noble had said it was meant to look like. There were still chunks of it in the dust. She let out a sigh, back to grinding she better go.