Ivy had continued her silent note-taking through the second question as well, and then came the potion instructions as expected. Despite the discomfort with the topic, at least this wasn't an overly difficult lesson. Her dad had taught her how to make the developing solution before, and helped with the spells in particular since she wasn't old enough to use magic outside of school. And thinking of him now did make her feel a little more at ease. She couldn't wait to see him over the holidays.

But for now...it was time to focus on actually making it. She felt like she could recite the instructions and make the whole thing in her sleep, but potions could be finicky, so best not to tempt fate, yeah?

She pulled out her wand to clean her cauldron with a good Scourgify and then added two cups of Aguamenti'd water into the cauldron and - why was she suddenly getting sprayed with water? As if it had rained, so it couldn't have been her spell, but-

Oh Merlin, Atlas!

This was the perfect distraction to delay making the potion.

And, er, also she was concerned too, yeah.

Ivy stepped away from her workstation to check on him. "You okay?"

Making the photo developing solution wasn't as interesting as getting to take photos, but Kinsay suuupppooooossseeeeddd she could be patient. She'd at least try to be because Professor Varma was always so patient with them. So despite how badly she wanted to jump ahead and do the other stuff, she adjusted her cauldron and got to work.

Pointing her wand directly into her cauldron, she started things off with "aguamenti." Measuring out the water to an exact two cups was so tedious, so Kinsay just spit-balled and filled her cauldron with what seemed like enough water. It had taken her a few minutes to get started and everyone else already looked to be so far ahead. She had to make up for lost time. Plus, the faster she brewed her potion, the quicker she could get to the FUN part of the lesson (which was, decidedly, not this).

Once the water was all taken care of she managed to light the bottom of her cauldron with another point of her wand. "Incendio." Well, nearly. It flickered for a second, at least. "Incendio." And still nothing.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to think of everything Nemesis had taught her when it came to spellwork. It wasn't that she didn't remember this stuff, it was just harder to perform magic in front of other people. Everyone was looking at her and they knew she was bad it. She was sure they did. With her voice a little lower this time, she tried again.

"Incendio."

And this time she managed a flame!

......................... Or not.

No sooner had she lit a (weak) flame that Atlas sprayed water all over her workstation, putting out the light in the process. Kinsay refrained from glaring at him, but she was proper upset. AND extra (read: a negligible amount of) water probably got into her cauldron too, which meant the whole balance of her (not) 2 cups of water was messed up.

Not wanting to start all over, she huffed and pointed her wand again, "Incendio." It was fine. The water probably didn't matter anyway. Once that was figured out again, she dialed down the heat to low, peering over at Evan's work to see how far he had gotten so far. Newsflash: a lot farther than she had. Which meant Kinsay hurried through the next step of adding in the elf vinegar. Could she have been more careful in measuring things out exactly? Yes. Could she have waited for the water to reach a gentle simmer before adding in the next liquid? Also yes. But she was on a time crunch so.

Oh well.

Time to brew, which meant it was also time for Shreya to make the rounds. Not that she particularly liked to intervene—one of her pet peeves as a student was professors that breathed over her shoulder. But she simply enjoyed observing her students' methods. That, and she felt it was only her staff duty to at least try to prevent explosive disasters.

Violet and Fiona both received an enthusiastic thumbs-up as she passed by. Two talented potioneers, those Slytherins. "Wonderful job, Ms. Jenovick. It looks fantastic so far," she said as she noticed the burgundy liquid in the cauldron.

Shreya stopped briefly at Ashley's workstation as the Ravenclaw raised her hand with a question. "I'm not going to make you do anything," Shreya said plainly, shrugging her shoulders. It was never her philosophy to force students to use (particularly, ingest) certain potions. But that didn't stop her from encouraging them to try. "But you don't have to use a photograph of yourself. You can use your artistic freedom!" In other words, the third year could take a picture of whatever she wanted later in the lesson, even if it was just a moving staircase.

As Shreya scanned her eyes around the room to check on the rest of the students' progress, Claudine had an interesting question about spellwork. Quite wise of the sixth year to be thinking of such things. Often, students assumed that Potions simply had to do with measuring out ingredients and stirring a cauldron. But it really was a complex subject that involved several branches of magic. "Wonderful question. It depends on the result of the magic. Oftentimes, an unsuccessful spell cast results in nothing occurring at all. In that case, your potion will be unaffected. But if a haywire spell changed the essence of your brew, you would need to take steps to remedy that." Namely, explosions. "By the way, very good precision, Claudine," Shreya mentioned as she passed by the talented Slytherin, who received a genuine nod of encouragement.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Kinsay, who the professor couldn't help but notice was pouring water into her cauldron by using the eyeball method. Admittedly, it was a useful tactic when cooking, but brewing potions was a different story. "Class, please remember that we have measuring tools for a reason!" She made the announcement to no one in particular, not wanting to embarrass the Gryffindor. But it was a useful reminder for everyone.

Her eyes brightened significantly at the question from Evan—there was nothing Shreya loved more than curiosity. "You should see the first significant color change after step 3, once you add the billywig stingers. Then, the potion should turn black during step 5 as the mixture cools." Always good to be thinking ahead. Especially if the point was to avoid explosions.

The professor was just about to return to her own cauldron when her back was doused with a rather chilly stream of water. Flinching a bit on contact, she spun around, only to see an empty workstation. Only when Daniel laughed did Shreya's eyes glance to the floor to see Atlas, splayed out on his back. "Oh, dear, Atlas, are you alright?" Shreya made quick work of performing the hot air charm on the large puddle on the ground, not wanting anyone to slip. Then, she knelt down next to the boy. "It's okay. It happens. Although, try to clear your mind and recenter. Charms can be tricky like that." It wasn't exactly her area of expertise, but she knew enough from university studies that the result (and intensity) of the water-making spell often had a lot to do with the temperament and level of concentration from the caster. As she stood up, Shreya directed her attention toward the Hufflepuff, speaking quietly, so as to not draw everyone's attention. She didn't want to embarrass the poor Gryffindor. "Mr. Yoon, perhaps you could give your classmate a hand?" Not that Atlas was incapable of getting up on his own. But if it were her splayed out on the ground, she would appreciate a helping hand. At least Ivy was also willing to help. The Ravenclaw got a nod of appreciation from Shreya at her compassion.

OOC: Amazing job so far, guys! I'm loving reading these responses! We'll move on in about 20 hours or so.

She didn’t even hear or see Atlas’ muttering or flinch. If she had, Lisa Nam would have been as deep of a red shade as Atlas’ Gryffindor tie! Fortunately, she was not paying too too much attention at this moment so she didn’t even think her pronunciation of the word was incorrect.

Lisa nodded, listening to the Professor’s instructions as she half wrote down the instructions and half doodled around it. She started doodling flowers and badgers AFTER the students were asking questions. Placing her quill down, she eyed the instructions and went to work at her station or so she thought she was getting started before she felt a few droplets of water on her head. She didn’t pay much attention to it but as she turned to face her cauldron, she DID notice Daniel chuckling and then saw Ivy interacting with someone who was on the ground.

She blinked. When had Atlas fallen over?!? And was he okay?! Fortunately the Professor was over there so Lisa turned back to her work, wondering why Daniel looked all smug like. She sighed, practiced the water spell’s pronunciation thrice and cast, “Augmenti.” She poured the water out, ensuring that the cauldron was clean before starting to fill it once more. This time she used a measuring two cups to ensure that her potion would be precise and perfect.

Ah next…. She needed to boil the water. Incendio would be the spell. She practiced the wand movement and the incantation a handful of times before feeling confident in herself to cast it. “Incendio.” Then she went on to measure two cups of elf-made wine vinegar as she waited for the water to warm up.

Once the water was brought to a nice simmer, she added the vinegar and then took her next ingredient. Soon enough, she had found a rhythm and she was liking being in her own little world as she watched. Who knew potion making could be so therapeutic? Lisa continued to crush the Dransul leaves until she started to see a liquid (which she presumed) was an acid. “Professor … how strong is this acid? Should we be using gloves?” she asked curiously as she paused her work…

Of course Kinsay was well aware that they had measuring tools for a reason. But it just took soooooo long to measure things out exactly and potions was like baking, wasn't it? Not an exact art. Something like that, surely. If her potion didn't turn out good, she could probably ask Evan to share some of his. Maybe. She didn't think he'd mind too much. Evan was nice like that. He didn't seem the type to make a big deal out of these things.

With all the liquid ingredients added into her cauldron, Kizzy turned her attention to the Dransul leaves. She wasn't suuuper sure how to crush them, so she just picked up a knife and pressed down on them super hard, directly on her messy workstation. Once she got them to be all liquidy, she used her dropper and tried to collect as much of the acid as she could from the countertop and added three drops into her cauldron, not thinking anything of the possible contamination. With her stirrer (a metal one because that was closest), she stirred three times quickly in the counterclockwise direction.

One, two, THREE!

After adding the snargaluff pod, the potion turned a strange murky looking color. It was more of a bright red than it was dark burgundy, but sometimes people perceive colors differently, so it was probably fine!

What Ash heard from the professor was that she didn't have to use the potion. Good. She didn't want to use it on a photo of anybody else either. Or anything at all. So she decided that continuing with the potion was okay.

She practiced the spell agitatum. Then she cast it on her potion. She added the snargaluff pods. She extinguished the flame. She had no problems with her spellwork (she had lots of problems, but magic wasn't one). Unlike Atlas, who had just pointed his wand at his own face and knocked himself over with a water blast. Having inconsistent magic was nothing to laugh at, but Ash thought Atlas was stuck-up and made too many moral judgements about her. He was very self-righteous. So. She didn't laugh, but she was in no hurry to help him up or sympathize.

As Ash let the potion sit, her mind wandered. It wandered to that day in potions class last year. She noted that Daniel was sitting in the same seat as Minjae had. And they were talking about memories. Unsettling. Her mind wandered again. Memories. A door slammed. A mirror shattered. A very little boy cried in a young girl's arms. There was the sound of being underwater. There was fire, and there was pain. A girl saved a boy from drowning. A forest was burning. A wand was at her throat. Her hair was being pulled. Every nerve was on fire. On her face, it spelled liar. Her nerves burned at she slumped to the floor unconscious. There was nothing, and she was in a dark place. She was huddled on the floor next to Claudine, talking about how she was going to have markers one day. Bread was being thrown at her. There was a healer, a healer who Ash could not trust. She punched through the mirrors in the house. Someone was hugging her. Someone was belittling her in CoMC. There was crying. She was in a professor's office, wondering about her future, but she couldn't tell which professor it was. She smashed the tech lounge. She blew up fake muggles. She rounded up the real muggles. She asked Theodore to be her boyfriend. She released dragons and she simulated burning a muggle house to the ground. A broom exploded. Someone looked at her worriedly... could have been anyone. She stayed up all night in the common room. She was staring into a mirror. She missed her birthday. She was hanging out with Quinn in the music room. She hung out with Sammy in the music room. Cambridge shoved her...

Ash snapped back to reality. It was never good to go too deep into memories, especially when more than half of the important ones were painful. Focus on the potion. Right. The potion. The cause of all this. Moving pictures... Ash never wanted one in her possession ever. She was still waiting for the potion to be finished. Sigh.

No one had any idea of the anxiety Claudine was feeling about casting the spell, failing and ruining her so far perfect potion. What a tragedy that would be. Varma, of course, was quick to put her at ease. The girl processed the information, and nodded as it all sank in. Alright then, she didn’t need to have a full blown anxiety attack. Her mood rose, however, when Varma complimented her. Claudine hadn’t been expecting it. “Thank you, professor.” Did the woman see how happy she was? That smile on her face said it all.

The Snakette refocused her attention. "Agitatum." Wand pointed at the potion and moved in a spiral motion while casting the incantation? Check. And look! She had done it on the first try for the potion was moving! This meant that the snargaluff pod could be added, and it was. Claudine opted to turn off the burner to let the cauldron’s contents begin cooling. She watched it move about in the cauldron and as it turned black. Excellent. It just needed to thicken now. She’d keep an eye on those thirty minutes.

Nem had retrieved the matchstick with a quick non-verbal Accio and returned it to their pocket, deep in thought. There was a question they would have liked answered, and they supposed now was the time to ask it, but still they didn't speak up. It was easiest to just ask, and sometimes, like now, the easiest route was the best one. Difficulty was welcome only in making things interesting and fending off boredom, ease was the correct option when they wanted to be sure of maintaining control. It was in the interests of the latter, however, that Nem decided to keep the question unspoken, a carefully weighed-up decision.

Magical photographs; they'd never even considered it. Were there unidentified obstacles lurking elsewhere too? Seemed likely, at this point.

It went without saying that Nem was not going to be the subject of a photograph today, not until they figured this out, but brewing and developing was fine. They looked up at Varma, and then at the instructions on the board, before giving their cauldron a cursory clean with Tergeo and Scourgify, setting it over a low flame, and filling one cup and then another using Aguamenti, to provide the water. Speaking of, they were a decent enough distance away from the Flamsteed Clone that Nem had the opportunity to casually send up a charm to shield their workstation from wayward water spray while they considered the other ingredients, sorting through them and maybe doing a little bit of tinkering and testing in a few spare phials while their water was being brought to a simmer.

Nem picked up the bottle of elf-made wine vinegar, unstoppered it, poured out one cup of the stuff, and then another few drops in a separate phial. This seemed the most likely contender, given it was elf-made, and elves had their own brand of magic. For a little longer, Nem played around with the spare components using spells and interactions with other ingredients entirely, and otherwise just sitting and staring. They had to pause when the water in the cauldron reached a gentle simmer, and turned back to pour the cup of vinegar into it, before adding another.

Dransul leaves, for movement, and yet not widely used outside of this particular potion. Maybe not just for movement then, especially when used in tandem with these other ingredients. Because of course it was all about the combination, but every ingredient introduced a certain kind of effect and interaction. It could even be the water, though Nem seriously doubted it. There could be something in every component, that resulted in this effect only in this very specific combination. Nem doubted that too.

They began crushing the Dransul leaves down with a mortar and pestle, scrutinising their extra ingredients even as they did so. Being in class was limiting; it would probably be something to revisit later in the day.

Finally Violet's potion had cooled enough to start turning black, right on schedule. Now she just had to let it sit for 30 minutes. She stood looking curiously in the cauldron as the stuff grew blacker and blacker and continued to move on its own, even after she'd stopped her wand movements. It was wild!

This was why Violet loved potions--if you used the right ingredients, prepared correctly, and brewed them correctly in the right order, it always turned out the same, as expected. Unlike people, which were much more complicated. Or life.

Heath was pleased that his answer was well received, despite his lack of knowledge about how instant cameras worked. Oh, and there were wizard versions of instant cameras too? That got his curiosity piqued. He wondered if his brother had one of those. Maybe that could be a Christmas gift idea… but now wasn’t the time to think about that. Mentally filing that idea away for another time, he focused all his attention on Professor Varma as she spoke. His dark eyes darted toward the cauldron at the front of the room, watching it with interest. What caused the potion to move around like that? And did the movement of the potion in the cauldron somehow affect the movement of the pictures it would eventually be used on?

The instructions appearing on the chalkboard simultaneously answered his questions and raised another. Was the spell Agitatum responsible for the potion’s movement in its own right, or did the ingredients play a part too? Never mind, he was overthinking. He could always research the answer in the library later. Now he needed to focus on the potion. He neatly laid out his cauldron, measuring cup, mortar, pestle, and dropper, cleaning each one with a quick Scourgify.

Once his materials were clean, he aimed his wand into the measuring cup and cast Augamenti, carefully eyeing the water level all the while. When it reached the 1 cup line, he stopped the spell and dumped the contents into his cauldron. Then he repeated the process for the second cup of water. With the 2 cups of water now in his cauldron, he ignited a low flame in the burner using Incendio. He watched the cauldron closely, and when the contents began to simmer, he measured out the elf-made vinegar and added that as well. One cup, two cups.

Heath counted out three dransul leaves and placed them in his mortar. As he picked up his pestle to begin crushing, he overheard Lisa’s question about the acid. Although he couldn’t stop in the middle of the task, he did move his hand closer to the top of the pestle to avoid accidental skin contact. Was it weird that he found the crushing process calming? It was like he was crushing all the things that troubled him. Soon, liquid oozed from the crushed leaves, and he set the pestle down, trading it for his dropper. Still taking care not to accidentally touch the acid, he filled up his dropper and dropped one, two, three drops into the cauldron. Then he made three counter-clockwise stirs.

Heath retrieved three billywig stingers from his potion kit and added those to the cauldron as well, watching intently as the potion’s color changed from clear to burgundy. He liked that color! After a quick pause to make sure the color transition had stopped, he picked up his wand for the spellwork portion. Merlin, he hoped his did this right! A look of intense concentration crossed his face as he aimed his wand at the potion and made a spiral motion. “Agitatum!” he cast clearly and firmly. Did it work? He peered into the cauldron to find the contents sloshing about. He did it! He took the sloshing potion as his cue to add the snargaluff pod.

Fortunately, Heath was much more confident about the next spell, having done this one before. He aimed a nonverbal Glacius at the flame, making sure it went all the way out before turning his attention back to the cauldron. As he watched the color darken and turn from burgundy to black, he smiled a little to himself. For some reason, he associated burgundy and black as Sith colors! With the color transformation complete and the potion still moving about in his cauldron, he set his timer for thirty minutes and used the cooling time to clean his instruments. As he finished cleaning, he looked to the front, awaiting further instructions.

Nem had momentarily abandoned the crushing of the three Dransul leaves in favour of checking in on the phial of elf-made wine vinegar, into which they had dropped a fourth leaf that had been rolled and squashed between their fingertips until they had started to tingle, and the leaf had become soft and droopy. They peered into the phial, then through the glass, then gave it a sniff. After a moment, Nem set it back down again, evidently uninterested, and returned to the leaves they had been crushing. The rest of the room may as well not have existed for all the attention they appeared to be paying it.

The Dransul leaves in the mortar had been stewing in their own acid for the minute or so that Nem had left them, and now there was enough to be sucked up into the dropper. This they did, and added three drops to the simmering liquid in the cauldron before making three ultra-precise anti-clockwise stirs, barely a millimetre's difference between the stop/start point. Nem added the billywig stings one at a time, using the tweezers from their potions kit, watching the liquid steadily darken until it became unmistakably burgundy after sting number two, and then even darker with the third.

They flicked their wand from their holster again, and aimed it at the potion. Agitatum. The spiral movement sent the liquid into motion, and Nem reholstered their wand and grabbed the snargaluff pod set aside for this purpose. Rather than add it straight away, however, they held it between their hands and applied pressure here and there, until it was pulsating and seemed almost ready to burst - at this point, they lowered it into the moving liquid, carefully, so it wouldn't splash half its contents all over the place, or explode when it hit the bottom. Call it a discovery or just personal preference, but Nem found that, in the context of expediting the brewing process, provoking the snargaluff pod in such a way sped things up exponentially, but it took a lot of practice to do so without things ending in an inconvenient mess. Trial and error. They'd been through it all.

Cancelling the flame below the cauldron with the subtlest of flicks, Nem left the potion to cool and returned their attention again to their little side project. It was yielding answers, but not to the questions they were asking. Given it was almost certainly time to start moving on soon, they started clearing things away, vanishing some mixtures and ingredients, and stoppering others to see what an extra few hours would reveal. Not to get derailed or anything, but this had opened up entirely new lines of thought, though Nem would have to wait just a little longer to explore them freely.

To their right, their roiling potion had cooled its way to an inky black hue.

There was certain phenomenon Shreya liked to call the Potion Zone. It occurred when one was so absorbed in the brewing process that all other thoughts floated away...a moment of potion-making zen. And by the looks of it, a few of her students (namely Lisa) had achieved it. It was too early to tell, but Shreya found herself wondering if the young Ravenclaw had a knack for the subject. The first year did remind Shreya quite a bit of herself at that age, after all. "Because we are only using three leaves, and since you don't need to touch the acid directly, gloves should not be necessary," she responded to the girl's question. Now, if they were crushing a whole bundle, that would be a different story. "However, if you'd feel more comfortable with them, you're welcome to pull a pair on." She gestured to one of the cupboards on the side of the classroom, where she typically stored extra brewing supplies like vials, scales and dragonhide gloves.

Kinsay seemed to be making...some progress. Although her potion looked a bit more like Atlas's cheeks than a rich burgundy. Shreya hadn't been keeping a close enough eye on her methodology for the last few steps though, so she wasn't sure what had gone wrong. Shreya could vanish her cauldron and have her start over. But there was a certain sense of achievement and learning that occurred when you saw a task through to the end—even if you missed a step. Ashley, on the other hand, looked like she had just seen a ghost. Shreya had picked up on a bit of hesitation when the girl requested to not partake in today's photography activity. But the look on her face was troubling. Perhaps she should check on the girl after class.

A sight that Shreya was quite excited to see? Nemesis experimenting with ingredients as they waited. The marks of a talented potioneer were creativity and curiosity in the laboratory. After all, it was how new potions were invented. Shreya didn't make a mention of it as to not embarrass the poor Slytherin, but she was thrilled at their initiative. Speaking of initiative, Heath was making great progress on his potion. "Wonderful work, Mr. Jones. The level of agitation is perfect," Shreya said as she passed by his cauldron. Agitatum was an easy spell to overdo—too much force, and the potion could slosh out of the cauldron. Too little energy, and it wouldn't perform its job. Violet and Claudine seemed to be moving along just fine as well.

Once the students were starting to wrap up their brews, Shreya called the class back to order with a flourish of her red robes. "Excellent brewing, class. If you've performed the steps correctly, you should have a swirling ebony mixture on your hands. If you have any other color than that...well, you might want to give it another shot," she said with a chuckle. Or they could still use it anyway. But it may have some adverse effects on the photographs.

"While your potions are thickening, we're going to have some photo fun!" Shreya tried not to overdo the excitement, but Merlin, was she looking forward to this part of the lesson. Turning toward the elaborate photo backdrop at the front of the room, she gave a flick of her wand. From behind the backdrop floated a box of film cameras.

"Grab a camera and let your creativity run wild. You can take a picture of anything around the castle." She headed over in front of the backdrop, where she struck a dramatic pose under the umbrella lights. "Use the studio in our lab if you want some fancy backgrounds, props, and very flattering lighting, if I may say." At that, she flicked her wand again, and a box of photo props (consisting of feather boas, sunglasses, mustaches on sticks, and party hats) appeared. "Or, simply take a picture of the scenery in the classroom. My only requirement is that you capture something that moves, whether that be yourself, a friend, the twinkly lights on the garland, or even the potion sloshing around in your cauldron."

She then gestured toward the black curtains in the back of the laboratory. "When you've taken your image, you're going to develop your picture in our very own darkroom. You're going to want to bring your cauldron with you." With a flick of her wand at the cupboard, a flurry of papers flew out. "These papers are enchanted with red glowing text, so you'll be able to read them in the dark. They contain instructions for how to develop your picture. Simply place your film negative into the enlarging machine, put a piece of photo paper below it, and click the button on the side. The light will come on for approximately 5 seconds—enough to expose your photo." Typically, enlargers were much more finicky—you had to manually focus and center them. But these machines had been charmed for simplicity's sake.

"Then, submerge your paper in your developing solution for approximately 2 minutes to activate the movement. When you're done, rinse your photo with the tray of water and hang it to dry...and so that we can all admire your talented work!" It was a lot of instructions, yes. But it wasn't too tricky once you got the hang of it. She tapped her wand on the chalkboard again, and the instructions appeared. "Have at it! Let's make some memories!"

SPOILER!!: Instructions

1. Use a film camera to take a picture of something that moves.
2. Take your camera (and your cauldron) into the darkroom.
3. Place the film negative from your camera into the enlarging machine. Press the button to activate the light for 5 seconds onto a piece of photo paper.
4. Put your photo paper into your developing solution.
5. Rinse with water and hang to dry.

OOC: Yay, time for the main activity! (Though catching up is always allowed if you didn't get a chance to finish your potion or if you're just joining us!) To get full points, please RP your charrie taking a photo and developing their film. You can do this in as many or as little posts as you like. Just make sure that you describe your moving photo in detail in one of your posts. You have about 72 hours to complete the activity. Shreya will be around for questions and commentary!

Ash thought (hopefully/stupidly) that it might be okay to take a picture- perhaps it would distract her from her bitter-tasting thoughts- she could tear it up after it had developed. It couldn't be that bad. So she took one of herself, leaning on the table, head in her hand, blank expression. Taking one of somebody else would be wrong. She didn't want anyone else to having a moving photo of her, and she would feel incredibly guilty about having one of anyone else. She went into the room. She put the negative into the machine. She pressed the button and waited for a few seconds. She went to go put the photo paper in the cauldron, but then she didn't. She never got the chance. The photo paper slipped from her hands and fell to the floor. She couldn't bring herself to try again. And the more she thought about it, the more she knew that she really didn't want to have this developed. She didn't want to see the picture at all. So she picked it up with one shaky hand, and... and... in a couple of swift movements, Ash tore the paper up. She put the pieces in her pocket, looking for a later time to dispose of them. Then she walked back to her spot and stayed there. Quietly. Unobtrusively. As if she had already completed the activity. Which she hadn't. The torn shreds in her pocket were proof enough of that.

Thirty minutes were not almost up but when Varma and her pretty robes were ready to move on, Claudine was quite ready to try the potion out. This was why she had no time wasted in grabbing a camera. But what photo should she take? Momentarily undecided, Claudine paused with the camera as she gazed around the room. She eliminated taking any photos of her friends or of Heath. If she screwed up with the potion or developing the photo, she’d be too disheartened if she spoilt their picture.So, she’d settle for something else.

The lights in the garland!

They were beyond beautiful. When she had a place of her own, she’d be sure to over decorate it with garlands and colourful lights. Flash! The picture was taken. Now it would be onto the next step.

Lisa tilted her head to the side as she listened to Professor Varma speak about the leaves’ acidity and the acid brewed was not harmful at the concentration that they were using. She shook her head at the suggestion. “Thank you but if we’re fine I should be good. I was just curious,” she admitted with a smile before refocusing on the potion. Resuming her work, she finished crushing the leaves until there was enough acid. She picked up her pipette and added one drop, two drops, three drops. Lisa noticed the three precise stirs Nem had made and followed suit cause she figured he was highly capable. So three stirs in a counterclockwise direction were done.

She added three billywig stingers to the potion, watching it turn a beautiful burgundy colour. Wow! So pretty. She blinked, admiring the colour before checking the instructions that she had written for herself. Ah cast the spel. She pronounced the incantation and waited until she was ready to cast it. Straightening up her shoulders, Lisa pointed her wand at the potion and confidently pronounced, “Agitatum!” And the potion began self-stirring. Huh. How neat. Wasn’t magic the bestest?!?

As the potion moved, she eyed the snargaluff pod. It was interesting. Absolutely interesting. Oh right! She had to add it. Lisa added the snargaluff pod to the concoction. What was next? Ah another spell. She asked an older student for some help with the pronunciation before turning back to the potion. She tilted her head to the side, bopping it, as she worked. She was very much in the Potion Zone. “Glacius,” she spoke. She quirked an eyebrow when that didn’t work so she ended up extinguishing said fire manually. She’d have to practice said spell at another time. She now had to wait for her potion to cool.

Lisa turned back to the Professor and the front of the class to learn about their next activity. They had to take pictures!! Ooh okay. She jumped out of her seat and headed towards the props. She did see Claudine eying the garland. Ooh that would make a pretty photo. She grabbed the camera and some twinkly heights before coming back to her seat. She took a couple of her books and created a ledge and then lined up the shot so she could get a picture of her cauldron with the twinkly lights above it.

Aright.

One. Two. Threeeeee! Snap!!

Picture acquired. Scooping up her camera and cauldron, she headed to the dark room to start developing said photo.

Atlas might be amused by just how much he lived in the head of Daniel Yoon rent free. Though, at the moment he was a little too preoccupied looking like a partially drowned rat. The Aguamenstrosity was bad enough, but toppling over his stool and to the floor just...well...it was the cherry on top that he did not want. Cherries had pits and he did not like those very much.

Maybe no one had noti----oh, nope. "Yeah...I'm...wet...FINE. I'm fine," he stuttered when Ivy came over to check on him. His face felt a little hot and he chalked that up to sheer embarrassment. Said heated cheeks puffed out a bit TOO when he heard the insufferable laughter of Daniel (speaking of living in one's head rent free, Atlas was now positive that that laugh would hang out in his mind for a while...especially with the first year managing the spell). "...I'll just go fill it up in the sink," he grumbled under his breath despite Professor Varma's words of encouragement. "...wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone." And that included you, Yoon. Stay where you were.

Starting OVER put him many steps behind his peers...which wasn't all that unusual and he would take damp robes over singed ones any day.

Only two cups of water and two cups of elf-made vinegar in, the Gryffindor was still over his cauldron stirring it as most everyone else went about the next part of the lesson. He would just...be over here crushing his Dransul leaves.

Ash looked up from where she was sitting. Nobody seemed to have noticed her. That was good. Anything else happening? Atlas was... very far from finished. Jeez. Had messing up the spell set him back that far? Bruhhh. She nonchalantly walked over to him, out of pity or boredom. Nothing suspicious going on here. "If you want to still do the photo thing, you can use my potion. It hasn't been used yet." Maybe Atlas would like her after this??? Nah, too much to ask for. But more importantly, she could do something with her potion that she was never going to use. And... it would show everyone how well it worked and how she should be allowed to skip the activity when her potion was this good.

Claudine took two extra pictures from different angles. When she was done, she took a moment to admire the actual lights. Yes, she'd definitely be having lots of garlands and lights when she got her own place. Anyway. There was work to be done. The girl made her way to the darkroom, cauldron levitating ahead of her. When she got there, it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the light there. Claudine stood blinking for a bit while at the same time attempting to take a good look around. It was kind of a bad idea, nevertheless she was able to have a satisfactory view.

Claudine selected the nearest station and went about beginning the task. After reading the instructions, the negatives were placed into the enlarging machine along with the photo paper below. Button...button… oh, there it was. It was pressed and the sixth year watched with fascination as the machine did its thing.

The only thing that was missing from this photo-taking party was music—so Shreya hauled out the old record player from her storage room. She swished her wand toward it, and holiday tunes started to play. The professor swayed a bit to the jazzy rendition of "Let It Snow" as she made another pass around the classroom.

Claudine and Lisa seemed to be getting along nicely, as did Atlas, though he was a few steps behind. Ashley, on the other hand, was a bit concerning. She seemed exceptionally dreary—not to mention that she really didn't want to use her potion. Shreya wondered what it was all about as she stopped to adjust the umbrella lights. To be perfectly honest, she was a bit surprised that no one was taking her up on the built-in photo studio. Did they not see all the fun props?!

Shreya grabbed one of the feather boas and wrapped it around her neck. Might as well get some use out of the costumes. And perhaps she could take some photographic memories of her own later on. She always wanted to build up a memory wall with pictures of her and her students

OOC: You have a little more than 48 hours to finish up! Feel free to take pictures of each other too....or of Shreya! Thanks for participating so far!

Given they weren't really watching the rest of the room very closely, Nem had no reason to believe Varma had noticed what it was that they were doing, except maybe a vague sense she had eyes on them at one point, and the fact that she didn't stop by them or make any comments. A lot of professors largely left Nem alone, one or two outright ignored them, but a couple were in the watchful category, for all kinds of reasons. Nem knew they'd sparked a certain curiosity in Varma, figured it was unlikely she'd give them any less of her notice than she did anyone else in the room, understood that she sometimes noticed more than she might let on. They had that in common.

Point was, they had an idea that she'd taken note of their small-scale experiments, and that wasn't an issue. Nothing untoward here, of course; they were unlikely to do that mid-lesson, just a handful of innocent investigations. The professor might even have been intrigued to learn what else they'd explored in the past, potions-wise, but that was a conversation for another day. Maybe.

After having packed away the last of the ingredients, and cleared and cleaned up their workstation, Nem looked up just as Varma was reaching the instructions pertaining to developing the photos, though they'd listened to every other word so far as well. Their eyes flicked towards the backdrop and the box of... props... and then back to the professor. No, they already knew what they'd be photographing; they had something close at hand. Once the activity was underway, they silently Summoned a camera from the front of the room, plucking it out of the air when it reached them at the back.

Nem reached into their pocket again, and pulled out the full handful of metal matchsticks. Even as they started forming into a shape, Nem poured them out of their hand and onto the surface of the workstation; for a moment, they sat in a pile, then started rearranging themselves again.

There was the possibility that the camera was the crux of the issue - camera plus magic (plus potion(?)). Before moving on, Nem studied it closely, pulling open shutters and pushing or twisting anything that could move or open, stopping short of exposing the film inside. They shook it by their ear, waved their wand over it a couple of times, looked through the viewfinder, inspected ever millimetre of it before finally pointing it at the matchsticks, which had now taken on the form of a small moving tree with an uncanny resemblance to the Whomping Willow... in both appearance and behaviour. Every now and then it would flail its 'branches' or slam into the surface of the desk with a tiny metal-on-wood crash. Nem snapped a picture of it, bothering only to make sure it was well-lit enough to be seen in a photograph.

And then, suddenly, nails on a chalkboard. Or, rather, music. Holiday music, in particular. It all amounted to the same thing.

At first, Nem only stared, their distaste not exactly evident, but certainly present. A moment later they were up out of their seat, scooping up their matchsticks with unnecessary force, so that they scraped harshly against the surface of the desk. They shoved them back into their pocket, and picked up their cauldron by the handle to bring it back to the darkroom with them. Nem didn't bother to grab the page of instructions; hearing them once was enough, and they were more interested in finding out if this darkroom shut out sound as much as it did light.

Fiona was contemplating what the subject of her photo would be when she saw Professor Varma wrap a feather boa around her neck. As if suddenly inspired, Fiona quickly took a photo, hoping that she had captured the gleeful spirit on the Potions teacher's face.

Fiona then used a silent Levitating Charm to carry her cauldron to the darkroom. With due care, the Snakette removed the film negative from her camera and placed it in the enlarging machine. She then placed a piece of photographic paper underneath and pressed the button on the side of the machine. Fiona silently prayed as the light appeared for five seconds. Had she properly exposed her photo? Only time would tell.

Fiona then carefully submerged the paper in her developing solution for a couple of minutes before rinsing her photograph in a tray of water and hanging the completed photograph to dry.

Stepping back to look at her photo, Fiona watched as Professor Varma glamorously and gleefully wrapped her feather boa around her neck. It seemed Fiona had succeeded in her efforts.

While he stirred counter-clockwise making sure he did it three times because he did not want to mess this potion up after laughing at Atlas, Daniel was momentarily sidetracked as Professor Varma asked him to help Atlas out. "I guess he doesn't want help" he said, gazing at the year older Gryffindor. The first year had not laughed because Atlas wasn't capable of performing the water charm but because he was simple-minded enough to look at the tip of his wand. A weapon. He had looked straight at a weapon. He supposed his sorting had been correct.

Ignoring him for the time being, Daniel went back to work on his potion. After stirring he reached for the billywig stingers and added two...no wait three! to the cauldron and watched as the potion inside of his cauldron turned a dark burgundy colour. Smiling to himself that he had been successful so far, Daniel took out his wand from his wrist holster and pointed it at the potion. While moving it in a spiral he cast a "Agitatum" and reached for the snargaluff pod to join it to the cauldron but then noticed that.....nothing happened. the potion stayed simmering in place instead of moving about.

No no no no no! He couldn't mess this up now! "Agitatum" he repeated using the same wand motion and this time it had worked. He extinguished the flames manually and after putting his wand back he reached inside of his pocket to grab his watch. He set it for thirty minutes.

As the box of cameras appeared, the Hufflepuff took one and began to look it over for a minute or two to get familiar with it. It was an older film camera than what he had at home. Once he figured out how it worked he looked around. Of what should he make a photo? The potion in the cauldron? too basic. The decorations around the classroom? hmm no, he was sure he had seen Claudine take a picture of the garlands and lights earlier.

!!! He could take a photo of Nemesis! They were PERFECT as a model! They had the jawline for it anyway. He spun around, ready to take a picture because he knew where the older Slytherin had been seated earlier but as he was about to snap a photo they were already entering the darkroom. Of course...

What or who else could he photograph?! Maybe Atlas would do something idiotic again. If only he had the camera earlier, he could have captured the water accident earlier. It was also at this moment that he had noticed the box of props as the Professor grabbed a feathered boa and wrapped it around herself. "Professor!" he called and left his workstation to walk closer to her. "Can I take a picture of you wearing that?" he asked. "Maybe ...maybe.. OH i know! Can you also shoot purple firecrackers?" it would be EPIC.

With the enlarging machine finishing its business, Claudine carefully removed the paper. With that same care, it was transferred to her Developing Solution. The moment it was submerged, she began timing that two minutes. She was taking her time so that these images could come out perfectly. As she waited, another question occurred to her. The sixth year looked around for Varma, waving her hand slightly to get Varma’s attention. “Sorry to be a bother, Professor, but um… is there a timeframe for which this Solution goes bad? I mean, is there a specific amount of pictures that can be submerged before the magic wears off, if it does wear off?’’ Goodness, she sounded like a Ravenclaw, didn’t she? Maybe she was channeling Heath. Probably that’s what one got for having a Ravenclaw boyfriend.

Anyway.

Time!

Two minutes were up. The picture was retrieved from the Solution then dunked into the tray of water. Claudine let the excess water drip off then hung it out to dry. If there was still time, she’d work on the other two pictures because this first one turned out to be perfection.

The thing with having overcooked spaghetti arms was that when it came to mortar and pestle work...things took a lot longer than they should. Atlas had considered trying to enchant the pieces to do it for him, because that would be much more time efficient, but he should try on feathers and pillows first before starting on hard solid objects. He was getting there though, he sort of had...a paste going on and slowly but surely there was liquid oozing out. Just not...quite enough to fill the requirements. But another couple of minutes later and he was FINALLY able to suck up enough in his eyedropper for those precious three drops.

...though one glance at the clock made him wonder why he was even bothering because there was no way he was going to get this finished before time was called, let alone use it.

Signing, Atlas started the dripping process one...two...uh...that looked like maybe only half a drop on the third...so...one more...yes. Perfect. Grabbing his billywig stingers, the Gryffindor plopped them into his cauldron and then stirred counterclockwise three times. The liquid during a dark purply color which he assumed was what burgundy looked like. Colors weren't really his thing either.

Wand out and swooshing around in the air above his cauldron, Atlas cleared his throat before speaking the incantation. "Agitatum!"

His brew did swirl around a bit and, at first, he thought he had actually done it correctly...until it was obvious that he had not. The swirling of his concoction formed a sort of tornado in his cauldron and then there was a loud burping noise that accompanied a thick POOF of dark DARK purple smoke that then coated his face as though he had just shoved his face in a pile of deep dark purple ash.

Now levitating the cauldron was much smarter and thus Lisa stared at Claudine in awe as she did that. She’d approach her with the BIGGEST cruppy eyes after class and ask her all the questions.

Now in the dark room, she had to use the enlarging machine. She took her canera over to it and used the negative film. She was VERY careful to limit the amount of fingerprints she got on it so she held the negative by its edges (surely she would have made her cousin Cora happy and proud for doing that). She pressed the button on the machine and waited. As she waited, she bounced from foot to foot vibing to the jazzy Christmas music. Lisa wondered if they could make requests because if she could she’d def recommend a Mr.Bubbles next.

One Mississippi. Two Mississippi’s. Threeeeee Mississippi’s. Bust a move. Four Mississippi. And fiiiiiive..

The Christmas music was getting to her and she was feeling bolder so she asked. “Professor, can we make song requests too? Could you put on some Michael Bublé please? If you have it.”

AH that question bought her the right amount of time she needed. She wanted to wait an extra second JUST to be sure she hadn’t rushed it or been impatient which surely she knew she would. Lisa HATED waiting for something to be done. She much preferred to set herself up with multiple tasks. For instance, if she was doing laundry with Eomma, then she was also dancing around the room putting on an elaborate and emotional performance for only her trusty chameleon, Pascal, to witness.

Lisa picked up the photo paper by its edges before putting it down to rip off a piece of parchment from her notebook. She went back to her original workstation picked it up with her wand. She wanted no scratches on her photo… None at all and she figured transporting it on a piece of parchment would be far more suitable. “Spongify,” she said pointing her wand at the parchment making it softer and a better mode of transportation for her photo. Then she returned to her new work station in the dark room, gently fished out the photo paper by its edges, and placed it on the spongy, soft parchment paper.

She smiled to herself and then brought it over to her developing solution. Placing it in the solution, Lisa set a timer and then waited. As she waited, she did bop to the music again. And hum. She had heard Claudine’s question and was also rather curious about what the outcome could be.

And it was time! Lisa fished her photo out of the solution and then brought it over to a sink to rinse it. “Professor! Does the water have to be at a particular temperature when you rinse it?” she asked with a slight head tilt. She wondered if warmer temperatures made the ink bleed.