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~ Mrs. Steve Harrington ~ It be like that sometimes.
Who knew that making a tincture was this easy and interesting? Aryan actually was regretting not paying more close attention to his dad when the man was making tinctures, or brewing Potions. It was then that he made up his mind to change that over the upcoming holidays. Just think of all the stuff he could learn!
But it was time to move on.
Er…
Which finger specifically? A combination like the thumb and the pinky? The index and the pinky? Two index fingers? Two thumbs? There were so many possibilites and each would give different variations of the alcohol level. Arriving at that conclusion, Ary stuck a hand in the air. “Professor? Which finger would you recommend to use as measurement?” He shifted uncomfortably then prodded a few leaves on the plant he had selected earlier. “Sorry. Don’t mean to be so complicated.” The Slytherin just wanted to do things perfectly.
Rhibear ~ Madam Solo ~ Dark Brooding Girl ~ Accio Jedi ~ Gryffinclaw ~ Just a doll
SPOILER!!: mini activity catch-up
Ohhh, so that’s how planetary rulers affected plants! Desiree was glad she’d stayed quiet, as all of her guesses had been way off! She listened with rapt attention, taking diligent notes on everything the professor said. It was all fascinating - and potentially useful knowledge for when she became a healer someday. Something else potentially useful? The tincture Professor Devries described. She couldn’t wait to get started on hers!
She was well familiar with Diffindo, so much so that she didn’t feel the need to practice its incantation and wand movement separately first. She would, however, practice it nonverbally after her first successful verbal cast. Making the wave shape with her wand, she aimed it at the lavender flowers and said, “Diffindo!” A second later, a neat little bunch of lavender flowers fell onto her desk. She made the wave movement again, a look of intense concentration on her face. Diffindo, she thought. Soon another few flowers joined the ones already on her desk.
Desiree kept practicing Diffindo nonverbally until she felt she had enough flowers for her tincture. Tergeo Exaresco was a spell with which she was less familiar; that one she did practice the incantation first. “TUR-gee-oh Ex-uh-RESK-oh,” she said quietly. “TUR-gee-oh Ex-uh-RESK-oh, Tergeo Exaresco, Tergeo Exaresco…” Okay, that was enough practice. Time to do it for real! She pointed her wand at the pile of lavender flowers on her desk. “Tergeo Exaresco!” she cast, moving her wand over the pile as the professor instructed. The flowers dried out before her eyes.
Desiree focused her attention on Professor Devries as he spoke again, writing down the ingredients and instructions on the board in case she should ever want to make her own tincture later. She went to the cabinet to retrieve her equipment, setting it neatly on her desk. First step: grind the lavender flowers into fine powder. She picked up her mortar and pestle and set to work grinding, grinding, grinding. This was oddly calming, like squeezing a stress ball.
When she had a nice fine-textured powder, she set the mortar and pestle aside and picked up her mason jar. After casting a quick Scourgify, she was ready to move on to the next step. She carefully poured the contents of her mortar into the mason jar, measuring the powder in the bottom with her ruler. ½ cm, to be exact!
Desiree finished the first few steps just as Professor Devries put the next steps on the board. She took a quick break to copy the information on the board into her notes, then resumed her work by pouring the ethanol into the jar, stopping every so often to measure its depth. When the mixture measured two fingers, she put the vial of ethanol aside and picked up the spell-o-wrap. Oh, she was definitely going to double layer it! Better safe than sorry!
She wrapped the spell-o-wrap over the top of the jar opening once, then twice. Only when she was sure the jar was wrapped securely did she put the lid on and seal it tight. Next step: tinfoil. She wrapped the tinfoil around the sealed jar until not a sliver of it was visible beneath the foil. If that wasn’t enough to keep out the light, she didn’t know what was!
As Desiree reached for the silk cloth, a thought occurred to her. Did the color of the silk cloth affect the tincture? If she recalled correctly, green was associated with mercury, which Professor Devries said was the planetary ruler for all of today’s plants, so would this particular tincture work better when wrapped in green silk? She raised her hand and asked, “Professor, does it matter what color silk is used when wrapping a tincture?”
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Old voices I had thought long since dead whisper of another life I might have led If I could take that second chance, If I could make my life anew, If only dreams came true...
This was like, totally the best potions lesson ever! Why? Because there weren't that many steps! Pheebs poured two fingers of alcohol into the mason jar, or at least as close as she could approximate it. Next, she wrapped spell-o-wrap around not just the lid, but the whole entirety of the jar for good measure. Next, the lid, bizarre amounts of tin foil, and the silk cloth. Done! Hopefully.
Phoebe still had lots of questions, though. "What does our tincture do, professor? Why can't it touch metal? Why can't it touch 'energies'? What are 'energies'?" She hesitated awkwardly. "Sorry if I'm asking too many questions." She didn't want to be annoying, she just wanted to know things. But she was little bit worried that probably the professor was going to be annoyed.
Now is when some genuine panic was starting to set in. It was time for them to add in liquid; the alcohol. The panic arose from this was the part where if an accident occurred, say too much alcohol was poured into the mason jar, it would be pretty much past the point of no return. Only pretty much though, because while more of the powder could be made in theory, there still was a limited supply in which they could make. This was given by however much of the lavender, marjoram, or mint they were able to gather up. While there was still enough of the buds to probably whip up another batch if push came to shove, Archie still wanted to try to avoid this to the best of his abilities. Though, now was certainly a good time to at least make mention of it in a question to the Professor, so he'd ask "What happens if we mess up and don't have enough of the herb to make some more?" With that being out of the way though.
He'd take a deep breath to try and ground himself in the moment. Sometimes it was best to just rip off the band-aid and go. Now was certainly one of those times. Immediately to try and get the initial pour right, he'd place his index and middle finger flat on the desk, lying next to the outer bottom rim of the jar. With the bottle of ethanol in his other hand, the clear viscous substance would be slowly poured in. It would be done so at a snail's pace. Going in tiny bits where the bottle would start pouring, then stop. Starting, then stopping. And it just went in that same process until he was able to eye about two fingers. from the bottom. It was possibly a fraction too little, but it was so menial Archie didn't think it would matter too much.
With the hard part now out of the way, making sure the tincture wouldn't be touching any metal, he'd complete the other steps of wrapping the jar up. First, the spell-o-wrap would be placed over the top and sealed tightly against the glass. For extra measure, the Slytherin would place another spell-o-wrap over top of the first one to double seal it like how it was written they could if they wanted to. Next was placing the lid on top, with the careful addition that some of the covering was peaking underneath its edges. An extra precaution that was being made to keep the metal definitively away from the tincture. Then, the aluminum foil was wrapped around it. As written, a mental note and an actual note in his binder were put down that this step kept it out of any source of light. Followed by the final step, further covering it all in silk. The silk that was being used for the O'Brien youngster's tincture was, surprise surprise, a purple one.
Tapio was pleased to see that by now almost all the students were making good progress on the lesson--Maxine, Archie were doing well on their own, as was Mona (once she'd stopped daydreaming about whatever had been distracting her from class). Drake had had a bit of trouble with the dryin charm at first, but Tapio saw he got the hang of it on his own and so didn't interfere. Phoebe, too, with Archie's help, had managed to dry her herbs. But, as usual, she was full of questions...
Quote:
Originally Posted by astrocat
"What will we do with the tinctures? Will we drink them?" Phoebe was curious.
"No, definitely not. I don't want to see anyone drinking this alcohol," Tapio said a touch sternly, looking around the room. "And we'll discuss what you'll do with them toward the end of class."
Quote:
Originally Posted by astrocat
Phoebe still had lots of questions, though. "What does our tincture do, professor? Why can't it touch metal? Why can't it touch 'energies'? What are 'energies'?" She hesitated awkwardly. "Sorry if I'm asking too many questions." She didn't want to be annoying, she just wanted to know things. But she was little bit worried that probably the professor was going to be annoyed.
"Tinctures can do lots of things," Tapio said, "but they are most often used for healing. And they're very potent, so you never drink a tincture straight out of the flask, you always mix it with a certain amount ot other liquid, like water, I'll talk more about this at the end of class. As for your other questions--the tincture should not touch metal, because that would interfere with the magic, another word for "energies", it contains. For now, the alcohol is absorbing the properties of the herb you're soaking in it, and you don't want it absorbing anything else until it's finished."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lottiepot
“I’ll make sure I leave a few to regrow” she nodded gratefully at Professor DeVries. Did that mean that the plants could come back to their dorms with them?
Ah, still concerned for her plant. Tapio quite understood this, although, sad as it was, it was a truth of nature that eventually even the most long-lived plants stopped growing and began to die. Tapio had not planned to have the students take the plants back to their rooms, but if anyone had asked, he might be persuaded to allow it; he had a soft-spot for plant-lovers. And now--Tapio noticed that [#0198E1]Mitsuki seemed to be fetching equipment for her lab-mate--the surprises just kept coming today with that one.
And Tapio was pleased to see Ary take the trouble to Scourgify his mason jar. Tapio had not mentioned that, because he's already cleaned all the jars before class, but it was good not to assume when doing this sort of thing. "Good thinking to Scourgify your jar first, Mr. Atreyu-Rehman," he said. "It's good to do that as a precaution, although please be assured that all the jars were already Scourgified before class, so all your tinctures should be fine in that regard."
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19
Arriving at that conclusion, Ary stuck a hand in the air. “Professor? Which finger would you recommend to use as measurement?” He shifted uncomfortably then prodded a few leaves on the plant he had selected earlier. “Sorry. Don’t mean to be so complicated.” The Slytherin just wanted to do things perfectly.
Oh dear, there were always those that needed an exact measurement. "Might I suggest your index and middle fingers, Mr. Atreyu-Rehman," Tapio answered.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy
She raised her hand and asked, “Professor, does it matter what color silk is used when wrapping a tincture?”
"No, not in this case, Miss Marchand," Tapio responded. "But if you want, you could use yellow or orange, some of the colors associated with Mercury in classical magical philosophy." Whew, everyone had a lot of questions today--although that meant they were actually paying attention, which was all to the good. "Good work, everyone, you still have some time to finish up, but don't dawdle."
[OOC: By 'some time,' we mean about 24 more hours.]
Time to move onto the next steps (and hopefully last seeing as this was starting to feel like a potion lesson and everyone in Hogwarts knew how much Maxine hated potions). She added the alcohol to what she felt like was the appropriate amount maybe a hair under nope no second guessing it was the RIGHT amount. Putting a double layer of wrap around the lid - no chance she was gonna risk that one. Wrapping in tin foil and finally silk to complete the process. She smiled at her handy work - felt good to be done with that task. Maxine took a look around the room to see if there was anyone students close by that needed help.
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Honey!
~ Mrs. Steve Harrington ~ It be like that sometimes.
Ary grinned sheepishly up at DeVries. “It’s a habit, professor, from watching my dad brew his potions and from all the Potions lessons I’ve been to. But thank you.” It was always nice when professors took such initiative to make things easy for their students. He then nodded as the answer to his question was given. Back to work he went.
With a better understanding of the amount of alcohol to pour into the jar, Ary followed that step of the instruction. To be on the safe side, a double layer of spell-o-wrap was placed between the jar and the lid {which was replaced after the wrap was added}. Next came the tin foil which Ary had a ton of fun while meticulously wrapping the jar in. Last but not least, the jar became encased in silk; orange silk as the Slytherin happened to have overheard the professor’s response to Desiree.
And now he was wondering if the students had to visit the Greenhouse each day for two weeks to give their tinctures a shake.
Moving on with the rest of the glass, Drake put one finger alongside his jar with his crushed mint before beginning to slooooowly pour in the alcohol over it to the desired level. He might have been off a hair or so in one direction, but he was hoping that wouldn't mess up his own tincture TOO terribly. With that portion completed, he grabbed the spello-tape he'd obtained earlier and wrapped once over the top of the jar - his lid still off to the side. He could see out of the corner of his eye Ary had opted to do it twice, and considering how wise his friend was - he decided to follow his footsteps and added another for good measure. There! That portion was completed!
Grabbing his lid, Drake then caaaaarefully screwed it on over the spello-tape before it was time to grab for tinfoil. Which admittedly, was such a weird thing he thought to be using in herbology of all places! Wasn't this particular material bad for the earth and it's ecosystems?? A question for another day. Drake focused on task at hand and carefully wrapped a layer of the foil - making sure all light was blocked for the tincture - before locating a blue silk that he then used to wrap on top of that.
Once he was all finished, he smiled, pleased to have caught up, before setting it in front of him and looking over towards Professor DeVries before raising his hand. "Sir? Do we need to shake the tincture once now as well? I see it says every day for the next two weeks but does that start today or tomorrow?"
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Let them point and laugh at who we are, it's you and me here dancing from the start
Rhibear ~ Madam Solo ~ Dark Brooding Girl ~ Accio Jedi ~ Gryffinclaw ~ Just a doll
Ooh, interesting! Desiree listened, taking notes on Professor Devries’s answer to her question. She took special notice of the colors associated with Mercury, which she would add to later with the colors associated with the other planets in magical philosophy… just in case she should ever want to make a tincture with a plant that wasn’t associated with Mercury.
Speaking of tinctures, she turned her attention back to the one she was making. There was only one step left. She carefully wrapped her tinfoil-covered jar in the silk cloth - yellow because it was associated with Mercury, and she was a Hufflepuff after all! She tucked the cloth edges in to make absolutely sure the jar wouldn’t come unwrapped and set the fully wrapped jar on her desk, awaiting further instructions.
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Old voices I had thought long since dead whisper of another life I might have led If I could take that second chance, If I could make my life anew, If only dreams came true...
Once he was all finished, he smiled, pleased to have caught up, before setting it in front of him and looking over towards Professor DeVries before raising his hand. "Sir? Do we need to shake the tincture once now as well? I see it says every day for the next two weeks but does that start today or tomorrow?"
Tapio had been expecting this, and to be honest, he'd not quite made up his mind the best way to do it. Asking all the students to come down to the greenhouses every day for two weeks was asking a lot and might interfere with their other scheduled activities. On the other hand, having everyone take the tincture-in-the-making with them to their dorms introduced the possibility of accidents, as well as the fact that not everyone wanted an herbology experiment in their room (though Tapio himself had a number of such things in his cabin). In the end, he hit upon what he thought was a fair solution.
"That's a good question, Mr. Beery. You should give the jar a shake now before you leave class. As for the next steps, I will give leave the decision up to each of you. If you like, you can take your tincture (or rather, pre-tincture) with you for the two weeks. You'll need to find a dark, fairly warm place to keep it--I would suggest your school trunk, if you have room) and bring it back here to Greenhouse Five exactly two weeks from today. If you don't want to keep it in your room and don't mind the daily walk, you can leave it here in Greenhouse Five--I'll label all the jars and store them in this cabinet over here, which I'll leave unlocked. In both cases, you'll have to remember to shake the jar once a day.
At the end of two weeks, this assignment will be done and those of you who took your jars will need to bring them back, labelled with your names, so I can grade them.
Now, I will be teaching an Alchemy Seminar later in the semester, in which we'll work with this tincture. Anyone who intends to participate in that may collect their tincture from me at that class. Ordinarily, we would go on with this work exactly two weeks after beginning it, during a waning moon. But due to class scheduling, we won't be able to do the second part until later. Fortunately, there is a magical stasis spell that will hold the tinctures in a sort of suspended state until the next class.
You should be done now, or nearly so, so try to wrap things up, clean up your work area, and bring me your tincture if you intend to leave it here. That's the end of class!"
There! That was that. Tapio felt exhausted today; he'd not been sleeping well, due to worrying about his younger son. Also, he'd spent a lot of energy watching the class to make sure no one decided to drink the alcohol instead of putting it in their tincture (yes, this happened sometimes). Tapio was counting himself lucky that this hadn't happened this time, though he was not going to relax his guard until everyone was out of the greenhouse.
[OOC: That's the class, ya'll! I'll leave the thread open until tomorrow to give people time to deal with their jars and rp leaving. I"ll try to keep an eye on it in case there are last minutes questions or incidents, but there won't be any further activities. And by the way, there really WILL be an Alchemy Class later in the IC year.]
While Drake seemed to have gotten some credit for thinking to ask that far in advance regarding what were the steps following class... he honestly had not been thinking of that. He'd simply been thinking about if he needed to give a little shakity shake to his covered tincture now - which considering he did he picked it up and did a little dance to make sure the contents were well mixed. As for the rest of the days? He didn't need to consider what he wanted to do. While he came to the greenhouses often, he didn't want to do it because he had to. Plus, it might be fun to raise a little tincture in their dorm!
With the shaking done, he turned to Ary. "Do you want to take ours up to the dorm? Then we could remind each other to take care of them and everything! I think I might even name mine." It'd be like a little pet ... whatever a tincture actually was. "I think I'll call it Tenzin." Tenzin the tincture.
With the official dismissal of class, Drake gathered his belongings and shoved them into his tote - before picking up the silk covered mason jar and stuffing it under his jumper so it could get a proper dark ride back to the Slytherin dorms. With a smile to Professor DeVries, he gave a polite "G'Day, sir." Before starting towards the greenhouse entrance. He only then paused at the doorway so that Ary or any of their other housemates could travel with him if they had also decided to keep theirs with them.
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Let them point and laugh at who we are, it's you and me here dancing from the start
~ Mrs. Steve Harrington ~ It be like that sometimes.
Ary eyed Drake. Had his friend read his mind? Either way, Ary now had his answer to his unasked question, he busied himself by giving the mason jar a hearty shake. He set it down after a minute, mulling over the decision he had to make about housing the jar. It didn’t take him long to arrive at one: this mason jar would be going with him! Hopefully he remembered to shake it everyday; but at least he had a plant enthusiast bestie who would no doubt assist him in remembering! “Take thems to the dorm, Duck. Some days we mights be too tired to comes all the way to the Greenhouse.” Why was Ary not surprise that the other boy had named his tincture? “I like its. Wanna names mine?”
As for an Alchemy lesson, the second year was already super interested. His work area was tidied, his bag repacked and then shouldered. “Shalls we?” he asked Bry and Drake as he grabbed the jar. Was Pheebs going to head back to the Castle too? Or did she have other plans?
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