Inside the darkroom, Nem took a moment to let their eyes adjust to the dim red glow, and gave the place a cursory look. For the record, they could still hear the music, but it was a little more muffled in here behind the curtains, not that it made it any more palatable.

After setting the cauldron down, Nem turned their attention back to the camera, turning it over in their hands until they again found the way to get to the film inside. They took the negative, and headed for what could only be the enlarging machine, going by process of elimination. Negative in... and... they looked around for-... yes, photo paper. Nem grabbed a sheet, put that in beneath the negative, found the button on the side, and clicked it.

All they knew about this process was what Varma had explained - plus a little educated guessing and logic - so all that was really to be done was to follow the instructions. Very different to the actual potion brewing, where they had more scope for experimenting based on what they knew and had discovered worked better for them. After the light had gone out again, Nem took both the negative and the photo paper, balancing it by its very edges between their spread out fingers, returned to the cauldron, and submerged the paper in the potion.

This gave them a couple of minutes of nothing, which Nem used to mess with the camera further, this time opening up every movable piece and squinting inside of it, playing with every dial and button once again, but not finding real answers. Not expecting to either. They spent the rest of the time looking around the entirety of the makeshift darkroom, briefly re-explored the enlarging machine, and then returned to the cauldron to retrieve their picture. Nem pulled it out with a pair of print tongs they'd discovered set to one side, rinsed the potion off in a tray of water, and hung it up to dry. Here they paused, just long enough to note that their little matchstick Whomping Willow had been reproduced in photo form, failing matchstick branches and slamming into the desk-ground around it, and otherwise swaying in a non-existent breeze.

That was the thing. The matchsticks had no personality to capture, they were just enchanted, but human behaviour was captured just as well as enchanted-object behaviour. Unless there was just enough of a person in their magic to capture it during the photography process. That still didn't explain where the magic came in to detect it, and parallel future events and attitudes, or how much was unreadable, if it was just surface level, or how deep it could go.

Nem didn't know the answer, and they didn't like not knowing. They did like difficult problems, and finding things out, but this was one they wanted answers for sooner rather than later. Maybe they ought to speak to some of the portraits.

Whatever. They'd get there. For now, Nem picked up their cauldron again, and went to go clean up their workstation, ready for the end of the lesson.

Heath beamed at the praise from the professor, but there was little time to dwell on his success before things moved on. He listened closely to the next set of directions, and he had to stifle a smile at Professor Varma’s dramatic posing. As he picked up a camera, he wondered what picture he might take. It was a shame they weren’t allowed to leave the classroom! He wished he could take a picture of Rey doing something silly or one of the creatures in the barn. Or all of the creatures in the barn! Then he could compile all the creature pictures into a scrapbook to surprise someone for Christmas. Maybe Professor Varma would let him borrow one of the cameras later so he could do just that?

For now, he needed to focus on possible photo ops inside the classroom. As his dark eyes darted about the room, he noticed the snow forest background, and it strangely reminded him of a scene from Star Wars. Merlin, he wished he had his lightsaber with him (and preferably a Kylo Ren costume) so he could reenact it! The thought crossed his mind to try anyway, but he decided against it. It wouldn’t look right, and besides, he didn’t have a partner who could take the picture and he didn’t know how to work the camera to take a picture of himself. Then his eyes landed on the decorations… the flickering flames of the enchanted candles and the lights in the garland. An idea came to him. He’d try to capture both in the same shot! But the candles and garland alone seemed a bit… unoriginal. What could he add to it?

Inspiration struck, and Heath pulled out a scrap of parchment. He wrote, Happy Christmas! and added a crudely drawn Christmas tree, a reminder of the one that he and Claudine decorated at the Chrsitmas Eve sleepover three terms ago, at the bottom. Aiming his wand at the parchment, he used one charm to make the letters flash different colors, and another animated the sign, making the letters bounce and the Christmas tree twirl. Satisfied with his sign, he took it to an area of the room that had both garland and candles and propped it up, taking care not to get it too close to the candles. He took his time framing the shot, making sure he had the sign, candles, and garland in focus at the same time. Click!

After taking a couple more pictures, just in case the first one didn’t turn out, Heath returned to his seat to swap his sign out for the paper containing the photo development instructions and his cauldron. He steadily made his way to the darkroom, taking care not to spill a single drop of potion as he went. Whoa, weird! He thought as he entered, his eyes blinking several times until they adjusted to the red lighting. This lighting reminded him of something out of a horror movie! Setting his cauldron down, he consulted the directions. First thing to do was… put the negative in the enlarging machine.

As Heath worked to extract the negative from the camera, he couldn’t help but marvel at the machinery involved, and he had to resist the urge to take the camera apart to examine it. Lesson now, examination later, he reminded himself. With the negative in hand, he moved to the enlarging machine. He carefully placed it inside and a piece of photo paper below the machine. Was he supposed to line up the paper a certain way? Would the picture come out crooked if it wasn’t aligned exactly with the negative? He wasn’t sure, but just in case, he adjusted the paper a little bit before pushing the button on the machine. The light came on, and he counted to himself until it went out. One… two… three… four… five.

When the five seconds were up, Heath took the photo from beneath the machine and placed it in the developing solution. Now what? He checked the instructions again. Leave it for two minutes. Darn, he should’ve brought his timer with him! Oh well, he could try to time it manually instead. He began mentally counting again. One… two… After he’d counted 120 seconds to himself, he removed the photo and rinsed it in a tray of water. As he hung it up to dry, he could already see the image of two flickering candles, twinkling lights in a pine garland, and a flashing Happy Christmas sign. Wow, that picture turned out better than he’d expected! Pleased with his progress so far, he went to repeat the process for the other shots he’d taken.

Apollo had been fairly quiet throughout the potions lesson thus far. It wasn't really anything against Professor Varma; she seemed nice, except weirdly enough he still wasn't entirely sure which professors could be trusted. It wasn't her fault, but well, his first year at Hogwarts, his head of house had been an imposter and a cult leader with extremist views. While he knew he could speak without repercussions this year, he still felt traumatized by the experience enough to be listening more than speaking. Which was something ironically enough his teachers prior to Hogwarts would have LOVED for him to do.

Moving pictures!!! OKAY, this was definitely points to Professor Varma because moving pictures were WAY COOL. So brewing the potion... a task that Apollo actually didn't struggle too poorly with. Sure he wasn't his cousin when it came to potion brewing, but he wasn't half bad when he focused on it, which was something he had grown into a lot more. Using aguamenti, the second year filled his cauldron with water and cast incendio to light the flame under his cauldron. So far, so good. Two cups of elf-made vinegar... hopefully no elves harmed in the making of the vinegar? While that was simmering, he took his three dransul leaves and made a note on his parchment to research more information about what exactly Dransul leaves were and where did they come from, anyway, he proceeded to crush them up until they were liquidy??? Weird, but okay. Taking a dropper, he added three drops of the now liquid dransul leaves to his cauldron and stirred .... to his left three times. He drew a circle in the air with his finger to remind himself which way was counter-clockwise.

Three billywig stingers later and the potion darkened to burgundy color. Pointing his wand at the potion, he moved it in a spiral, "Agitarium" Not realizing he'd mispronounced it. And one snargaluff pod and a glacius to extinguish the flame. So he guessed he was done ... the color seemed okay, but it didn't seem to be moving?? He frowned, jostling his cauldron slightly and sure enough the liquid moved within which wasn't do any spells... but hey, it was moving. Just not without an exterior force, but hopefully it was okay????

While his potion was thickening, Apollo grabbed one of the film camera and considered his options. He grabbed a feather boa and a party hat and a mustache on a stick, donning the hat and boa, holding the mustache up and snapped a selfie, hoping it would be something completely silly and fun. Where was Isabella? He wanted a picture with her too, but maybe later. For now just the one picture would work. He took his camera and cauldron into the darkroom, placing the film negative from his camera into the enlarging machine thing and pressed the button. Waiting for it and then seconds later he had a photo paper. He placed it into his developing solution and waited ... trying his best to count off to 120 seconds but may have been longer... or shorter... counting was hard!!!! Once it seemed to be long enough, Apollo rinsed his photo paper in water and hung it out to dry. He could see an image forming .... but it didn't seem to be moving. Maybe that would come?? Or maybe the mispronounced incantation had affected his photos ability to move? Could it be corrected after the fact?? Or did he have to start the whole process over?

Violet was still panting from her run up the endless stairs that led to the Owlery and back down again to the Potions Classroom. She had gotten the idea from the last time she was here for a class--she thought a shot at an upward angle of owls wheeling in a circle in the sky on their way into or out of the castle would make a great picture. She had just hoped that there would be some owls moving today.

And of course, given her luck, there weren't. So she spent what seemed a long time talking to some of them, trying to encourage them to take to the air. She was never sure whether the owls wizards used were magical creature or not, or whether they understood her, but whether they did or they were just bothered by her presence, at last about five of them took off through a window and began wheeling rather spectacularly around in the sky. So Violet got a great picture by leaning a little way out of the window (and scaring herself quite a bit when she seemed to lose her balance at one point)_.

But it had taken quite a while, so Violet had run rather fast to get back to class in time to develop her picture. She ran into the room, hurried by her potions station, and picked up her cauldron in her free hand, then headed to the darkroom as soon as it was available. She had to pause a moment for her eyes to adjust to the reddish-looking darkness. Finally she managed to stumble her way over to the enlarging machine (hard to do when you had a camera in one hand and a cauldron full of potion in the other).

It took her a while to get her camera open and get the film negative out, and she didn't want to tear it or anything. Finally she got it into the machine and found the button (she hoped it was the right one) to activate the light. She counted in her head five seconds, making sure she didn't rush, and then picked up the photo paper and put it into the pan where she'd poured her developing solution potion.

Oops, she'd left her negative in the enlarger! She turned to take it out, and by the time she turned back, the images of owls circling in the sky with the tilted edge of the owlery tower were forming on the paper. When she thought it looked dark and clear enough, she took it out and rinsed it with water that she conjured with her wand, and then hung it up to dry.

She continued looking at it as it hung there. Were those owls moving? Yes, they were! Violet had seen and even owned a few photos, but never taken one herself, much less developed it, and she was feeling pretty pleased with herself.

SPOILER!!: Replies & Observations

Something about photography was just so inspiring...and Shreya was certainly feeling the creativity as she observed the students' working. In fact, she was just about to head into the darkroom to see some of the results before a student asked to take her picture. She beamed. "Of course! But only if you promise to take one with me, too," she replied to Daniel, giving the first year a wink before striking a pose. With one hand on her hip, she swished the other with her wand, sending a gentle, slow-moving stream of purple sparks into the air. Firecrackers? Not exactly safe for a classroom setting. But some purple accents could most definitely be arranged. "Now come stand with me. And grab a prop. Let's take a selfie," she said with a grin, grabbing her own camera from the workstation.

Once that picture was taken, Shreya headed toward the darkroom to check on the students' progress. Nem seemed to be very engrossed in something—whether it was simply concentration toward arranging their matchsticks for a picture or a completely different train of thought, Shreya was (as usual) unsure. (Though Shreya often pondered the magic behind moving photographs. Like the Slytherin, she often wondered what type of magic preserved movement—particularly in nonsentient objects. It was, unfortunately, one of those questions that never quite led to a definitive answer.)

Atlas seemed to be making some progress. Shreya was about to speak some words of encouragement...but then the poof happened. Oh dear. And he had been so close to finishing it, too. The poor kid couldn't catch a break. She headed to the cupboards and pulled out a clean handkerchief, handing it to the Gryffindor as she passed by his workstation. She spoke quietly, so as to not draw too much attention to the situation. Merlin only knew how embarrassed Atlas felt. "Don't fret. Practice is what helps us grow....the result doesn't matter." With that, she gently vanished the cauldron. "You'll have plenty more time to get that one right. If you want to see how the potion works, Ms. Fox has some extra solution that she seems to be doling out."

Her eyes took a few moments to adjust as she entered the darkroom, but as soon as they did, she noticed Fiona hanging up her picture. And Shreya nearly gasped in surprise. "Why thank you, Ms. Jenovick," she said to the Slytherin, placing her hand over her heart. It was beyond heartwarming that a student had captured a memory of her. "Shall we take one together, too? I hear that they call it a selfie." She chuckled.

"It depends on the strength of the brew, and the strength of the Agitatum spell. There are also certain ingredients you can add to prolong the shelf life. But technically, once the potion stops moving around, it will no longer work as effectively." She peered into Claudine's cauldron. "But by the looks of it, yours will last for quite a while. Well done." The Slytherin could certainly take the rest of her solution with her to use on other photographs later this term. And to answer Lisa's question as well? "This photo paper is bleed resistant, so the temperature should not have an effect." The benefits of magic photo paper, right?

Heath and Violet had produced breathtaking photos as well. "Wonderful work. These are beautiful." Both students received encouraging smiles. Apollo looked to be on the right track—Shreya very much appreciated his goofy picture and the use of the props. But only one thing. The picture wasn't moving. "Well, everything else in the potion must have been correct, because the photo itself developed beautifully. I'd just work on your pronunciation for next time," she said encouragingly. It was still an accomplished feat for a second year to brew the potion at all.

While Shreya wanted to mosey around the darkroom for ages taking in the beautiful artwork, unfortunately, the clock was not on her side. Before long, it was time to end the lesson. She called the class to order by fading out the holiday music. "I very much appreciated your hard work and creativity today," she said earnestly, giving the class a satisfied nod. "While the Developing Solution may seem like a silly potion to learn, it's a wonderful tool for preserving memories and reflecting on life's happiest....and perhaps not so happiest....moments. I hope you will find it useful."

She made her way back up to the front of the room, flicking off the umbrella lights. "You are free to take your cameras home over the holiday break and capture as many memories as you wish. Just be sure to bottle up the rest of your solutions. They'll be here for you to use when you get back if you'd like to develop any of your photographs. Have a lovely holiday! Class dismissed."

OOC: Thank you SO much for coming to the lesson! I had so much fun, and I hope you did, too. Feel free to post your charrie wrapping up any loose threads or catching up if you wish. I'll close this thread in a couple of hours.