Potions: Lesson Three (All Years)

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James rubbed his temples as he sat in his chair. Circe was overdue now. Only by a few days, but Merlin if he thought she could be bitchy normally, it was nothing to having her moan at how it was his fault the baby was not here yet. How she was going to murder him, and a number of unladylike other ideas, for putting her through this.

James was quite glad to get away, truth be told, though of course he'd never admit it. At the moment, though, he got time to sit and read his Potions magazine, waiting for his students to arrive in his usual carefree manner. He hadn't even bothered to write the subject up today.

Nope, he had it in his head - Shrinking Solution - and he was going to wait until everyone turned up before he was going to share. Keep all the pesky kids on thier toes.

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Like Prim had promised herself and Max, she had dragged her friend with her to the Potion's classroom with a threat that she would tell his mother about him running off to the Dark Forest in February and staying there until the storm. It was an empty threat but it had worked and thus she was dragging Max along with her; no matter how crap he was at Potion's she was determined to get him to at least fucking try and make a working Potion.

"Come on Max!" She called behind her shoulder as she tugged her friend behind her, pushing the door open to the classroom where she smiled softly at the Professor. She knew how much Professor Balan hated having Max there but she at least wanted her friend to get an A on his OWL's next year.

"Hello Professor." She said demurely as she tugged Max towards the empty seats, taking one somewhere in the middle where she proceeded to put her book bag down on the floor beneath the table and pushed Max into the space next to her.

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Sophie made her way to the dungeons, a skip in her step and a grin on her face. She'd been up by five and had gone straight to see Phoenix. That, of course, led to trick riding. Standing on Phoenix's back felt like being at the top of the world where nothing and no one could touch her as the wind blew in her face and her body moved to the rhythm of the animal's hoofbeats. She'd wanted to try some reining but didn't have time before she had to get ready for class. There's always tomorrow.

In a good mood from the morning's workout, Sophie entered the classroom. Nothing, not even potions, could ruin the high she was in and she greeted the professor with a cheerful smile. As she walked to her seat, she nodded and smiled at the other Gryffindor who was already there. Sitting down, she leaned back in her chair as she waited for class to begin.

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Roxy loved Potions, very much so, but the Professor at least could be a bit more engaging with his students is what she thought on that very first lesson she had with him. It's not to say that the Professor wasn't a good one, on the contrary he was such a good Professor that she was surprised many people refused to attend Potion's past their fifth year.

As she strolled into the classroom, the Ravenclaw was fairly surprised at only seeing two students there, both Gryffindors one of them was a student in the year above her while the other was a firsty, if she remembered correctly. A surprise but not so much of a shock considering how Professor Balan refused to have anyone incompetent in the class thus many students have been banned from Potions after their very first lesson.

Roxy had thanked Merlin, Mordred and Morgana for her father's pre-emptive in getting her tutored early on so that she didn't fuck up at any time.

"Tränke sind sehr gefährlich Roxanne, also musst du vorsichtig sein, wenn du sie tust." Her father had once told her when he had taken some time off from his own duties to tutor her for a bit. "
Sie können anders reagieren, wenn verschiedene Zutaten eingelegt werden. Also musst du immer vorsichtig sein und beobachten, was du einsetzt."

She had understood straight off when her father pulled her behind a shield and threw ingredients at random, the explosions that occurred could have certainly injured her if not outright killed.

As she took her seat, the female nodded her head in greeting to the Professor but didn't dare saying anything; everyone knew that Professor Balan didn't actually like idle chitter-chatter.

Translations:

Guest

Potions wasn't too difficult. Follow a set of instructions. You'd end up with the potion you needed. You had the steps very clearly displayed to you, so the only way you could go wrong was if you deterred from the path given. That was how Dimitri viewed it, anyway, but throughout his school life, he'd never gotten higher than an Exceeds Expectations.

That, though, Dimitri was sure was because Professor Balan refused to give an Outstanding to anyone.

Heading down to the Potions class, Dimitri slipped in to the classroom and didn't bother to acknowledge the professor. Instead he moved to a free desk, took out his potions book, and sat waiting for the lesson to begin. Well, for them to be told to get the ingredients and begin, Professor Balan had never really been the teaching kind of professor, and everyone knew that.

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The threat of his mum being told that he'd ran off to the Forbidden Forest back in February in a (somewhat) childish fit of jealousy, Max had followed Primrose down to the dungeons sullenly. He didn't like Potions. He was rubbish at Potions. So this lesson was a complete waste of both his, and Professor Balan's time.

So, naturally, Max was dragging his feet, hoping Prim would somehow forget the fact he was walking with her to lessons, so that he could slink off and do something else.

"Come on Max!"

Cursing his luck, Max moved through the door with Primrose and smiled a little. "I'm here." Max told her, giving the professor a nod of acknowledgement as they moved to the desk Primrose chose. Being pushed down in to the seat, Max took out his Potions book and placed it on the table. "I still don't understand why you think this is necessary, though. I'm rubbish at Potions!" Max told her, a little disgruntled, though, really he knew Prim was just trying to make sure he did well.

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The class was relatively small, again, and to James' dismay, Max had had the audacity to show up to his class again. Not too fond of the boy and his obvious lack of talent for the job, James had not returned any of the greetings, simply waiting for the clock to strike the hour before he stood from his desk.

Merlin help anyone who did anything wrong this lesson, because James was most certainly not in the mood for things going wrong.

"Morning everyone." James greeted the class as a whole when the time was right to start. "Today, we will be studying the Shrinking Solution. So as to not waste any time on this, the Shrinking Solution does exactly as the name suggests. It makes things shrink, though not in the sense everyone thinks. It makes the drinker shrink to a younger form if brewed correctly." The professor explained.

"Therefore, we will be testing your capability by making each of you drink your own potion. If you succeed, you will shrink to a toddler. If not, I have enough Antidote to Common Poisons to keep you from the Hospital Wing.

"You will find the potion on page two hundred and seventy five." James explained, motioning for each of them to get on with it.

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Potion's was, by far, Roxanne's favourite subject despite the fact that the Professor was a right dick at times. And she didn't mean to be insulting but given the fact that the man was working with children she couldn't blame him. Potions were volatile and if not monitored correctly they tended to blow up in your face and/or your partners if you were working with you. They could do many things to a person which was the reason why her Father had started her on reading the 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi' which actually detailed all the ways that the ingredients could react to others in a Potion. The book had saved her more times than she could count and it had been a book that started her on a road to Potions'.

Listening to Professor Balan, Roxanne turned her book towards the required page scribbled on some parchment as to what ingredients she needed before she made her way towards the ingredient's cupboard and pulled out every ingredient that she would need.

Which wasn't a lot considering the fact that many Potion's had more than a handful of ingredients to them.

Taking them all with her to her desk, Roxanne got started on her Potion, making sure to look at her book once in a while as she went through all the motions of doing said Potion.

Juicing the Shrivelfigs, Roxanne carefully added the crystal ruby blood into the cauldron before she slowly stirred the Potion, making sure to keep an eye on how hot it was getting as to not over-boil it. There was no denying that Roxanne was doing fairly well and it could be seen in how carefully but quickly she did all her preparation's before adding them to the bubbling cauldron.

After that four, finely chopped daisy roots had been added to the mixture which was then followed by the caterpillars and then that was followed by the wormwood. The next step was to stir again though this time quite vigorously as to mix everything well together.

Her juiced leeches were the next to fall into the cauldron and with a careful eyed she slowly stirred the mixture and then added the rat spleen followed by the cowbane which was followed by even more stirring before she turned the heat up high and waited for the Potion to turn bright green, which it soon did and with a breath of relief Roxanne turned off the heat and then slowly she scooped the mixture into the phials that she had, all charmed to be unbreakable.

Finished with the Potion, she turned towards the front and carefully called out.

"Professor Balan, I'm done." She would wait for the man to give her the okay to try the Potion before actually even putting it anywhere near her lips.

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Anthony was late. This wasn't good at all. In all fairness, it was such a long walk from Ravenclaw Tower to the dungeons, but he should have left earlier. He knew that a long walk wouldn't do for Professor Balan- the man was strict and straight to the point. At least, that was how Anthony saw him. Hopefully, he might not get a detention, but he wasn't too sure.

By the time Anthony had reached the classroom, it looked as though the instructions had already been given as one girl had already started. He slipped through the door silently, so as not to disturb the class.

"Sorry professor," he murmured as he hurried to find a seat, next to another student as he'd realised that Professor Balan didn't write the potion on the board that they'd be completing. He decided on the Gryffindor boy, Max- he didn't seem too intimidating. Getting out his things, he murmured softly, hoping that Professor Balan wouldn't hear "Hey, um, what potion was it?"

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Prim liked Potions, not enough as she liked DADA, but she could do them well enough that she'd be able to pass. The fact that they were working alone again didn't bother the teenager but she did make a note to have Max follow her instructions again; hopefully, he'd be able to make a reasonably good Potion.

Blinking her eyes, Prim went to the store cupboard and got two sets of ingredients; one for her and the other for Max. She didn't' actually trust her boyfriend to not mess up on taking the ingredients. It would be too much of a hassle should be mess up; she knew he didn't like Potion's but he needed to do it at least until they had their OWLs and then he could drop it, which she knew he probably would.

"Here are the ingredients." She placed the tray on Max's desk. "Follow my lead but try and look at your book so Professor Balan thinks you're doing it from the book." She opened her own book to the page where the Potion was one and slowly she got started on it, making sure to be slow enough for Max to follow her directions.

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» Potions Lesson 2: Years 1-4
» Potions - Lesson Two (First to Fifth Years)
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