Beginner Potions Lesson 1

Liz hesitated for a moment but, upon seeing how exhausted her partner looked, sprung into action and stood to gather the supplies. She read through the list five times to make sure she got it right before running to the cabinet, grabbing 4 Daisy Roots, 1 Shrivelfig, 1 Caterpillar, 1 Rat Spleen, and 1 Vile of Leech Juice (she was shaking when she picked up the last one). She dragged them all back to the table, nudged Kyra to wake her up, and began to skin the Shrivel fig. "Want to start?" she suggested to her friend.

Lavender stood quickly, wanting to get what they needed before the rush.

"I'll get what we need," She smiled before hurrying over to the supply cabinet. Lavender grabbed 4 daisy roots, 1 shrivelfig, 1 caterpillar, 1 rat spleen, and 1 small vile of Leech Juice. Some of these making her want to gag, but instead she just pulled a face, holding the ingredients away from her as she took them back to the table. "I'll chop the roots, do you want to skin the shrivelfig?" Lavender asked before grabbing a knife and the first root.

"Yeah, I'll do that," said Hester, picking up another knife and what she believed to be the shrivelfig. Unless it was a rat spleen. No, it was definitely a shrivelfig; that was the rat's spleen.

She smiled at Lavender and then began to skin the strange thing in her hands.

The thing was harder to skin than she had thought it would be. It wiggled out of her hands and managed to bounce all across the desk despite being an inanimate object. Hester sighed resignedly, picked it up and began again. It reminded her of wrestling with the owls in the owlery.

Eventually she finished. The mangled mess before her would have to do.

"Are you done with those roots?" she asked Lavender. There were more roots than shrivelfigs. "Do you want me to do that icky caterpillar?"

Lavender smiled back at Hester, watching her fight with the shrivelfigs. Cutting the roots was pretty easy so when she was finished and Hester asked if she was done she smiled again.

"Yep done," Hester then asked about the caterpillar. "Sure," She nodded. "I'll get the cauldron ready," Lavender pushed the roots aside and turned to the cauldron. It was meant to go on high, she put the water in and set it on high. Waited for it to begin to heat up, an eye on Hester still.

Pierre stood, glancing at the list of ingredients as he entered the cupboard, retrieving the ingredients and returning to his seat, setting them on the table. "I'll do the Shrivelfig and you can do the caterpillar and roots." Skinning the fig would take about the same time as the others to be sliced.

Getting his knife, Pierre carefully began to skin the Shrivelfig, eying the hard light brown plant warily as it refused to skin easily. "Where are house elves when you need them..." he muttered lowly.

Leighton watched Lachlan as she practically talked to herself. Lachlan was an odd child for sure. That, or Lachlan was attempting to get on Leigh's nerves. Whatever her motives were, she was quite funny to watch. Leighton and Lachlan were polar opposites and them interacting with each other was like a movie. Humorous beyond belief.
When Lachlan came back with the supplies, Leighton smirked at her cousin. "Do my thing?" Leighton repeated, laughing slightly. "You mean, do all the work for you?" Leighton rolled her eyes at her cousin. While Lachlan knew her way around a broom, she was hopeless when it came to school.
Passing the caterpillars over to Lachlan, Leigh grinned. "You slice these. This should be easy enough for you."
Grabbing the Shrivelfig, Leighton scowled at the plant. She knew that it refused to skin. Leighton had helped her mother make this potion once, so she felt confident she knew how to prepare it.
She held it down with one hand, while she began to skin it with the other. It struggled against her hold, but she made sure her grip was tight. Once Leigh had successfully skinned the Shrivelfig, she set it to the side. Leighton then turned toward Lachlan and waited for her to be finished.

Hester sliced the caterpillar as Lavender sorted out the cauldron. She had been right when she had described it; it was nothing short of icky.

Her slices were a little uneven, but they weren't bad for a try. They were better than the mess she had made with the shrivelfig at least.

As the cauldron came to boil she scooped the roots and the caterpillar into it.

She looked at Lavender.

"What now?" she asked.

Lavender checked the instructions before answering Hester.

"We've got to turn it down to low," She lent over and set the cauldron to low before looking back the instructions. "Now we stir for 5," Lavender began to stir, though paying more attentin to the red head than what she was doing. But she had everything under control, it was fine. "Do you want to add the rat spleen when its ready?" Lavender wasn't so keen on this idea. "If you don't want to I will," She added.

Jenn stood up to retrieve the ingredients they needed for the potion. Four Daisy roots, she counted, one shrivelfig, one caterpillar, one rat spleen, and a small vile of leech juice. Then, she began to chop the daisy roots evenly, careful not to slice a finger in the process. After the roots were chopped, she skinned the shrivelfig, and then evenly sliced the caterpillar.

After six minutes had gone by Hester realised with a jolt that she was supposed to have added the rat's spleen. She grabbed it (another icky ingredient) and dropped it in quickly.

The potion hissed and turned a slightly darker green than it should have.

"Sorry," mouthed Hester. "Keep stirring! Oh hang on. Stir clockwise!"

She decided to keep a much closer eye on the clock this time.

Lavender stood aside as Hester hurriedly added the rat splee, cringing slightly.

"It's fine, I should have kept an eye on the clock," She pushed Hester's apology aside, it wasn't the red heads fault at all. Lavender had been too busy staring at Hester, she should have been concentrating but preferred to watch the red head. "Oh, right. Clockwise," She changed the direction of her stirring swiftly before turning her eyes to the clock. Must concentrate.

Alli looked around as everyone around them hopped to it and got to work on the potion. It made her feel a little bit sick how eager some of them were to do this. She loved potions but she wasn't going to be overexcited about doing it.

She nudged James with her foot. "Go get the stuff, I'll stay here and get ready," she told him in a voice that made it clear that she wasn't going to actually do anything to get ready at all, unless you counted sitting in place and tapping her fingernails on the table.

James smiled as Alli pointed out the fact that Sami didn't have a partner, and then stifled a laugh as Hamilton placed her in a group of three. Priceless.

He nodded and stood up to go and grab the ingridents for a Potion that he was sure he'd never have to use in his life. Well.. Unless he wanted to make himself younger sometime in the future.

He piled up the stock in his arms and walked back to the table where Alli was at. She looked bored so he plonked them down in front of her.

"Here we are," James stated, picking up the Shrivelfig to give it a sniff. He pulled back hastily. "Awful smelling, that is. Shot gun not skinning that."

The look on James' face was enough to tell Alli that she did not want to be the one to skin the Shrivelfig. She grabbed it and set it in front of him. No chance was she going to do that.

She took the knife and started to chop the daisy roots into painstakingly even pieces, taking as much time as she could. "You can do the caterpillars, too, if you want," she said in a mockingly sweet voice, as if she was doing him a favor by letting him do more work than her.

Terry nodded, taking out her own knife and carefully dicing up the roots and the insect, which she managed to cut without touching.

"I agree vith that." she told her cousin, smiling.

When she finished, Terry started up the cauldron, putting in water and waiting for it to begin to boil. As bubbles began to appear, the thirteen year old dumped in the roots and caterpillar, wincing as the slightly slimy insect touched her flesh.

"Ick."

Hester checked the clock carefully this time, and fifteen minutes later she turned the heat up under the cauldron.

"It's up to a medium heat now. Well, I think that's medium," she said to Lavender. "Can I stir now? You could do the shrivelfig."

She took the stirrer(?) from Lavender and began the ten clockwise stirs.

Lavender offered the stirrer willingly before grabbing the shrivelfig, cringing. If she was honest she still hadn't been focused on the time, she'd managed to get to ten minutes at least.

"These aren't the nicest things I've ever touched," Lavender muttered. Once she finished skinning the last of the skrivelfig she began to add it into the cauldron slowly.

When Terry forgot to stir the water, Pierre hurriedly got one of his mixer sticks and stirred clockwise, then allowing his cousin to put in the ingredients. He turned the cauldron down to low and Pierre began to stir counterclockwise, his cousin telling him when the five minutes was up. Placing the rat spleen in the mixture, the water slowly turned pale green.

"You can do the next few steps, Liza." Pierre told Terry, wiping his hands on his robe. "This is really gross."

Liz sighed when Kyra did nothing and, when finished with skinning the shrivelfig, chopped and sliced the daisy roots and caterpillars as evenly as she could. She turned on the heat of her potion, beginning to stir clockwise before looking at the Hufflepuff. "Watch the clock and tell me when to add them," she suggested, poking the girl out of her exhausted stupor. "I'm not going to be the only one working just because I'm a Ravenclaw." She was partly teasing the girl, but at the same time she was utterly serious; she didn't want to be the only one of the pair doing anything.

Terry nodded in agreement, taking the mixer and stirring continuously for 15 minutes.

"Iv, my arm is getting really sore." she complained after ten minutes. She held out for five more minutes, sighing in relief when she put it back down. She turned down the heat, adding the leech juice immediately. Watching in surprise as the color shifted to a bright acidic green, Terry returned the remaining leech juice to the cupboard as it stewed.

Gwen was out of a partner.
And the other two she didnt know so she had no clue where they were. She went and gathered ingredients and wrote down the instructions and started working waiting for her partner. Partners.

Pierre rolled his eyes as Terry rubbed her arm. "From all of that Quidditch you play, I'm surprised you can't stir for fifteen minutes."

Reaching into a sectioned off area of his bag, Pierre fished out the sleeping Puff and set him on his lap, and with Terry keeping time, they cooed over him.

When Ri had extinguished the flames, Pierre smirked, placing his pet on the desk while he got a measuring spoon and spooned a bit of the potion after it had cooled. "Watch this,"

He tipped the potion down his pet's throat, both of them laughing quietly as the Puffskein shrunk slightly in size.

Lachlan was passed the caterpillars from her cousin. "Thanks Leigh, for giving me the easy task." Lachlan sneered, but there was a friendly smile on her face. Lachlan was thankful for Leighton doing most of the work. Lachlan was clueless.

After cutting the caterpillars, Lachlan began cutting the daisy roots. She was good with plants. She could cut them evenly. They were actually cut very evenly. Lachlan was proud of herself. It was one thing that Lachlan felt she could do. But, the rest Leighton could do.

Lachlan glanced up at Leighton when she was done. "What can I do now?"

Hester had finished her clockwise stirs and now stirred aniticlockwise ten times. When the ten minutes were up and Lavender had added all of the shrivelfig Hester turned the heat down to low. Then, because it said to do it immediately, she added the leech juice. The potion changed colour to a bright green. Their potion wasn't as bright as some of the others, probably from the earlier mistake.

"Now we let it simmer, don't we?" Hester said to Lavender. She began timing the twenty minutes.

Lavender let Hester take control, she was the older of the two after all and she seemed keen.

"Think so," She nodded when Hester asked if it should simmer, though she was sure the red head would have gone ahead anyway. Even without her reassurance. Lavender turned her attention to the instructions, trying to figure out where abouts they were. "What's next?" She muttered, perhaps more to herself, though an answer from Hester would have been helpful.