Excuse him, the blanket fort was brilliant. And the dress she had worn was lovely.

"to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if this did count as romance for you" she teased a little, before retrieving a handkerchief to clean that stain off her robes, "I mean - surrounded by potions, the scent of all these ingredients - its the perfect environment to woo you at"maybe she should have attempted making a blanket fort in the potions classroom.

Back to the task at hand though, she watched as Eiji's granules began to work and soon after her own followed too. Phew. Wasting no time she began scooping up the swollen clumps too, "Okay, this isn't that bad"

By the time he’d finished writing out the instructions on the board, Noble had completely forgotten that he had also planned to demonstrate the granules use. Helpfully enough, he’d also forgotten to check his lesson plan until he saw the students just…getting on with it. Bernadette was already up and pulling on her protective equipment, whilst Cole and Jina were carrying their cauldrons of finished granules to the back and spreading them about.

Aboli got a confused look at her response, though Noble did rather like it when teenagers finally got their act together purely to prove an adult wrong. He was reminded briefly of a former Slytherin Prefect, and his heart fell a little as he thought of ruined holiday plans; the triplets’ presents were still in his office, and he hoped they wouldn’t have grown out of them by then. “Then I look forward to see those OWL results,” he commented. She had some work to do in the remainder of the year…and in this lesson, frankly.

Meanwhile, others were continuing to graft over at the back of the room, with Claudine, Phoebe and Heath scooping out their work to neutralise the grey sludge. “Use a nice thick layer,” Noble reminded them as he moved towards the back of the room to take a closer look. And he couldn’t help but be impressed by Islay’s work; the mess she’d been working on was now sparkling clean. “Good job,” he said to the Gryffindor with a nod. If she wanted to start on another area, he wouldn’t be opposed…though there needed to be enough mess left for the stragglers. Such as Nem, who was at risk for losing points for dawdling. Or had he already done that this lesson? Noble couldn’t remember. He also couldn’t remember when Vivienne arrived. Had she been here the whole time?

Moving on…Avalon was waiting for her granules to process, Isla was busy scraping up the granules, and Carsyn had the soap at the ready. The mess was definitely decreasing in size now…and a whole load faster than when Noble had done this for the rest of the classroom. “Just put it by the door for now,” he said to Naya as she passed him with a trash bag of the scooped up granules. The House Elves would come collect them later. And he really wasn’t surprised that Eiji had opted to work at salvaging the cauldron, nor that Missa was working alongside him. Perhaps, between the two of them, the vessels could be saved. Or, at least the metal could be repurposed. That could make quite for an interesting alchemy lesson, under different circumstances.

…and with the back of the classroom nearly resembling its former self, and the number of trash bags piling up, it was probably time to start wrapping up. “When you’ve cleaned your area, rinse your cloth out and hang it on the rack by the sink…and put any trash next to the bin by the door. Once that’s done, you’re dismissed.” As for homework? Well, he’d forgotten all about that.

ooc: Thanks for your patience, everyone! Work got the better of me this last week or so, so I didn't get to reply as much as I liked. It was so awesome getting back on to see all your replies though, and I'm so grateful for you all coming to play!

He had not entirely pieced it together at the moment, but this was one of the first times that his passion for potions and his passion for his girlfriend were not in direct conflict with one another. So many other times it had been one or the other, a lack of any real balance, and most of the time academia had won out. See the blanket fort as a prime example of this. "Is that what you're trying to do right now?" he asked casually while finishing emptying the cauldron of all the jelly-like clumps into the bag and then inspecting things to see to see what would need the most attention next to salvage the cauldron. Though he did allow for enough pause to lean over and whisper to only her. "...woo me?"

Was it working? Pretty much.

Applying a bit of elbow grease to the inside of the cauldron, Eiji's head shot up when he heard Professor Noble speak...and he did not entirely feel like leaving just yet. For once he felt like he was actually doing something productive and spoiled ingredients or not, it was...kind of nice to be around potions. In a way.

"...may I clean one more cauldron before I leave, professor?" he finds himself asking while wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

Heath was staring intently at the swelling granules on the desk in front of him when an unexpected voice distracted him. His dark head turned in the direction of the sound to find Islay smiling at him. “Thanks,” he said quietly, giving her a slight smile in return. When he looked at his potion again, it had turned to jelly. Had it been five minutes already? He’d lost track of time!

Heath retrieved a trash bag and began scooping up the mess. Once all of the jelly-like substance was gone, he neatly tied off the bag and set it aside. He applied a layer of soap to the area and picked up a cleaning rag, scrubbing vigorously. The area was already starting to smell a bit better! Was that clean enough? He eyed the patch in front of him. Good enough, he supposed.

Heath was busy toweling the now clean desk dry when Professor Noble dismissed the class. Scrambling to finish up, he gave the area one last pat down with the towel before heading to the sink to rinse out his cleaning cloth. After hanging it on the rack as instructed, he grabbed the trash bag and returned to his workstation to collect his school bag. He turned for the door with a respectful nod to the professor, depositing his trash bag beside the bin on his way out.

Naya heard the professor mention where the trash bags should go, so she took hers and left it by the door. Now she had the fun task of cleaning up her work area and equipment. Once that was finished, Naya rinsed her towel and hung it on the rack. She sure was missing magic right about now. When she didn’t know any better, cleaning was just something that she had to do. Now that she new the wonders of magic, well it was just a pain.

The Gryffindor double checked her work station. She was satisfied with its cleanliness, so she took off her gear, packed her things and headed for the door. “She you next time Professor”, she said on the way out.

Isla had been involved in some pretty disgusting lessons before (i.e. having to scoop poop after Care of Magical Creatures), but this lesson had pretty much taken the cake. At least with the poop scooping, she'd known what she was dealing with. This Potions mess, though? Who knew what she had just scrubbed off...

Once she was done with everything, she started cleaning up the area she'd been working in. Magic would be super helpful right now. Super, SUPER helpful. Regardless, she got everything cleaned up then rinsed out the cloth. Ewww. Once it was hung on the rack, she brought her trash to the bin, collected all her things, and then waved goodbye to the professor.

She was out of here. Goodbye, stench. Goodbye, nasty clothes and little granules. She needed a shower.