Potions: Lesson 1 (Years 1-4)

Summer had been a blast for Sophie. She'd earned first place in the most prestigious and biggest show jumping competition in the world for juniors. It wasn't long after that that sponsors came flooding in, each one wanting her for something or other, but she declined them all. She didn't do any of what she did for fame or fortune, but because she loved what she did. True, the press and attention gave her the opportunity to raise awareness about ways to train a horse, and speaking in their language - which she did in an interview, talking about how she'd worked with Phoenix and gotten him to respond to her without the need for violence - but she didn't chase the spotlight.

She'd received letters from equestrians, asking about certain problems they were having with their horses and patiently answered each one with as much detail as she could provide. The questions were still coming in even though school had already started, which gave Sophie an idea to start an online blog where she could upload videos showing how she worked with Phoenix. The more people who understood the language of horses, the better.

On a high from the holidays, Sophie entered the classroom with a smile, greeting the professor and the other girls already present, taking a seat behind the trio. Potions was a class that Sophie liked. It wasn't her favourite - that place belonged to CoMC and Herbology - but she loved creating things that had spectacular effects. It wasn't unlike the concoctions she'd come up with on her own for Phoenix or horses with behavioural problems.

Class started soon enough and Sophie paid attention, letting the younger girls answer the questions instead of jumping in with more in-depth answers. She stood up as Professor Holmes began with the practical work. The potion was an easy one to brew and something that Sophie had done before, but she didn't mine getting more practice in.

Absently listening to the sound of the professor's voice, she followed his instructions, taking the clar phial and putting in the base before turning on her cauldron to medium heat and dropping in two drops of Lethe River Water.

She counted down the seconds, eyes on the clock then added the Valerian sprigs, leaving out the stem. Once the sprig was in, she stirred the liquid clockwise three times and waved her wand in a circular motion before lowering the heat. She noted the time and waited out the thirty minutes.

The moment thirty minutes was up, she began on the second part, adding two measures of Standard Ingredient and four mistle toe berries to the mortar. Picking up the pestle, she began grinding the two things together carefully, making sure that it all stayed within the mortar and nothing spilled over. Judging that the powder could be considered medium-fine, she put the pestle down, picked up the mortar and moved to the cauldron, adding in two pinches of the powder to the liquid. She then stirred it counter clockwise five times and waved her wand.

With her potion finished, she took some out and put it in a clean phial, labeling it with her name, year, and house. She wasn't sure if Professor Holmes required her to pass it up, but it didn't hurt to have it in advance.

[[OOC: Sorry Sophie joined in late, Ang. She just got resorted.]]

The volley of instruction sent Mimosa in a panicked tizzy, but only for a moment. For as soon as the child realized that not only was the chalk behind Professor Holmes writing out the instructions but also drawing out detailed visuals on each step, she let out a sigh of relief. She could follow instructions... At least she thought she could.

Dia seemed to be very good at this sort of thing. By the time Mimosa had collected herself and was trying to commit the first two steps to memory, the Gryffindor already had her potion going. Mimosa quickly imitated the girl, turning on her fire to the same temperature as Dia's and pouring the clear liquid for a base. The child ran into her first hurdle when it came time to measure out the two drops of Lethe water.

Never having used any kind of lab equipment before, the child didn't know the first thing about measuring out drops. Still, she supposed it couldn't be hard. Reaching for a syringe, the little witch sucked in a generous amount before bringing it to her base. The other students were waiting for the base to boil before adding the water but Mimosa was not gifted with their patience, nor their accurate sense of measurement.

She tipped the injection over the cauldron as carefully as she could and pressed down. Immediately, five fat droplets fell into the solution in quick succession. Dropping the injection on the table, the child waited to see if anyone had noticed. Fortunately, everyone was too busy with their own work, even if she could feel Squid Boy's eyes boring holes into the back of her robes.

Still, more Lethe Water could only mean a better forgetful potion right? The child continued on, hopefully not finding the rest of the instructions too hard thanks in part to the easy visuals and looking around her to see what others were doing. Her Valerian sprigs in, or rather, the sprigs Bushrah had finely cut up for her gotten from the witch while they were both collecting ingredients in, Mimosa began the careful stirring, counting under her breath as she mixed the tincture clockwise the way Professor Holmes had shown them.

Now she just had to wait the half an hour. The timer was set and once it rang, she would finish the rest of her potion.

Now it was time for Dominique to make her potion. Shew knew that it was in her blood, hoping that she was just as good. Even though she did get five points for her house. Now she had her cauldron out. Now she was hoping that she was paying attention. And knew that she was going to have to make sure that she was doing everything right. As she knew that there was going to be a lot of measuring. And she would have to make sure that she was stirring it right. Since it said anti- clockwise. So that meant that it was going to be counter clockwise.

But she was going to do her best to help Mim out. But as could tell that she was having problems. As Dominique started her potion. She was actually getting the hang of it. Maybe it was right that she had potion making was in her blood. Now she was making sure to get Mim on the right track so that she could finish it.

Today had not been the best of days for the young Ravenclaw however he tried not to allow that to interfere with his studies or thought processes. He'd come to class in more of an antisocial mood than usual. Sliding into a seat near the back rather than the front or the middle Gaspard had did his utmost to not draw attention. Rather than opting to try and answer a question which he knew he'd have been able to answer easily, he'd kept his mouth shut and allowed the others to answer.

Aside from other personal reasons for being moody, there was a fellow student in this class that he would like to not have attention from. Unfortunately it didn't seem as if he'd be able to just keep silent or avoid the girl any longer when he glanced out of the corner of his eye that she'd made a mistake in her potion. While he wouldn't have cared since he was quite sure that at this stage it would be quite hard to have a potion blow up or cause any kind of collateral damage on the students, Gaspard sighed. Normally, he wouldn't have bothered, but the girl was an acquaintance and really, she had this way that made you want to intercede whether you wanted to or not.

When he got to the part where he could relax as the timer was set, Gaspard glanced at the professor to be sure he wasn't watching then tried to discretely go to Mimosa and drop in the extra amount of Valerian leaves that he'd calculated to drop into the potion hoping that that would help rather than make it worse. He wasn't quite sure what the reaction would be with the lower heat with the addition rather than the higher temperature, but it wasn't like it could get any worse. And as long as the girl just added the correct amount of surplus ingredients into the cauldron, she should be fine. The potion might not come out perfect, but it had to have been better than what it was before. Or so the boy hoped.

((ooc: Sorry, I've been away due to family matters))

Mercy was not a fan of potions. It was too precise, and there was way too much waiting. She hated waiting. And since she wasn't actually interested in potions, she never really took the time to learn about them outside of coming to class. She recognized that they could be useful--her Wolfsbane Potion kept her sane, after all--but she much preferred having someone else make them for her. As such, she figured she probably wouldn't know the answer any of the questions, so she let her classmates figure it out.

Of course, when the answer to what a Forgetfulness Potion did was simply "making people forget stuff," she nearly scoffed. She could've answered that. But at least Dia got points for it, and they were in the same house, so it didn't really matter. She flashed a smile at Dia from the other side of Mimosa.

She was impressed by Mimosa's knowledge of the River Lethe. She had no idea what the river actually was, just that her Mam sold Lethe water in her apothecary and always told her not to touch it. Of course, she wasn't supposed to touch a lot of the things in the apothecary, which was one of the reasons she didn't like it very much.

When they finally started brewing, she tried to pay attention. She copied what the professor did as carefully as she could. The first part wasn't so hard. Well, she held her breath as she measured two drops of the Lethe water, but she managed to only let two slip out, so she was proud of herself. She ripped the leaves off of the stems of the valerian sprigs, sprinkling them in after...well, about twenty seconds. She'd counted to twenty anyway, she just got a little impatient around ten and sped up a bit. Then she stirred the potion, imagining a clock in her mind so she wouldn't get confused, and waved her wand.

She set the timer for thirty minutes and sighed, turning to Mimosa to pass the time. She found Gaspard there, reaching over Mimosa's shoulder. "Hey, Gaspard! I didn't see you come in. How's Ravenclaw?"

Having gone to collect the rest of the ingredients, Mimosa was completely unaware of her potion being tampered with for the better. At the storage cupboard, she ran into Squid Boy who glared balefully at her for sticking him with Bushrah. Mimosa only giggled before asking if he knew what ingredients were needed.

As it turned out, he and Ji Hyun were dividing tasks and Squid Boy was to get ingredients chopped and prepped for both of them. Smiling gleefully, the little girl took the already prepped portion from him with a hurried thanks and skipped back to her station, leaving him glaring behind her.

But just as Squid Boy opened his mouth to say something, Professor Holmes' annoyed voice rang through the class, reminding them not to chat or waste their time. A victorious grin on her face, the girl settled back between Dia and Mercy. By now, her potion looked almost the same as it did in the textbook, she must be really good at potion making.

Since Squid Boy had already mixed and crushed everything, Mimosa only had to add it all carefully into her cauldron and look frequently to the visual guide. No measurements were required since her unwilling helper had taken care of that and finally, all the ingredients were in. Reaching for a stirrer, the girl remembered to stir five times anti clockwise this time. She remembered it as the other way from the first time she had mixed the concoction.

Finally, the little girl reached for her wand, waving is smugly over the slowly lightning potion. The mistletoe berries had made it red but it was slowly becoming orange like the textbook picture said it should be. She had made her very first potion all by herself! And it had turned out pretty great even if she thought so herself. Maybe she could help Gaspard with his next time? Seated a few stations behind her, the boy looked like he was mad at his own potion judging by the dark look on his face.

Oh well, not everyone was as great at everything as she was.

Gaspard had given the Gryffindor a tight smile and a shrug before going back to his seat. He knew that they weren't allowed to talk in class and appreciated the professor's no nonsense attitude towards people who disobeyed that rule. The boy knew that it was important to focus on your work and Potions was one where the utmost concentration was needed. That was one of the reasons he was sure that he would like this class. Of course he had also hoped that there would be no explosions.

Glancing at the board, he gathered what he needed and double checked before the timer went off. The boy felt his eye twitch and tried to suppress it. He'd always had to ask his mother what exactly she meant what she'd say a 'dash' or a 'pinch' when she was cooking. Imprecise instructions always drove him to irritation. It almost caused his hand to shoot up in the air to ask a question but he stomped down on that impulse as well.

He followed the instructions and took pleasure in grating the mistletoe berries into dust. A frown adorned his face as he stared at it wondering if it was fine enough. Deciding that it was as fine as he could make it, Gaspard felt his eye twitch as he sighed (away from the powder so he didn't lose any) in annoyance. Muttering under his breath about potion authors not thinking about size difference of people's fingers which could throw off the whole potion. Stirring to the left the required times then waving his wand to complete it he stared at it critically to see if it matched to what the book said it should be.