Potions (4th-6th)

"Hey, do you wanna be my partner?"

She looked up to the Ravenclaw who had spoken to her and smiled politely "Sure, thanks," she said "Sorry, I don't think we've met before, I'm Lucy," she introduced herself "So, what potion did you want to make?" she inquired. She really didn't have anything in mind to make for the moment, and was hoping that she (Stacy) had some ideas.

James looked at his student quietly for a moment, sizing him up with a raised eyebrow. Years ago, he knew, he would have shrunk from the threat, even from a much younger boy that he was in charge of. But he'd faced far worse in his life than Joshua Murray.

"If you managed to catch me and if you managed to survive the attempt," James told him calmly. He allowed the a slightly manic smile to creep onto his face as he leaned over the younger boy to get in his face. "But you wouldn't get that chance because I have defeated more dangerous opponents than one jumped-up 6th year who thinks that just because he comes from an old family, he knows all there is to know. You may come from a powerful family, Joshua Murray, but you have no power over me. Oh, I'm sure you could ruin my life if you wanted to, through your connections. But I would decimate you in a battle, the only place where it means anything. Playing with your pawns takes skill, but no tenacity. All it makes you is a coward." He straightened up, pulling his temper under quiet control again. "And 10 points from Slytherin, for threats of bodily harm to a professor. Keep yourself in check unless you wish to find yourself in detention."

As though nothing had happened, James turned to Louise, though he kept an eye on Josh in his peripheral vision. This was no time to let the impetuous young man get the drop on him through a show of dismissal. He was sure he'd just made a powerful enemy, but he'd deal with that when it became a problem. He nodded as Louise explained her idea, grinning at her obvious passion for the subject, thinking of a solution for a problem most students wouldn't even consider. "No, Miss Grey, the nettles would not interfere with the potion and would, in fact, improve it. Five points to Slytherin for innovation. Perhaps you can help Mr. Murray regain what he has lost for your House." He nodded to the pair of them before moving to check the other students.

Feeling somewhat trapped while her fiancée and her Professor locked horns was unpleasant and she wasn't sure with whom she was standing. Right up until Professor Reonalds called Josh a coward. That she knew he was not and glared at the boy teacher.

She felt slightly squeamish once he'd said her idea had merit, she moved tot he ingredients cupboard to collect the nettle juice and brought back a small vile of it. She hoped that a small amount would do for a potion of this size, assuming if she added it carefully she could see it take an effect then stop there to add the lacewings.

Back at the desk she looked up at Josh with a questioning look, wondering what he was thinking. She knew he was alright, nothing was ever wrong with him. She put her focus on the potion and checked her watch and slowly adding the measure of nettle juice to it and watched it change hue. It looked like how the book described the next stage to be in the book. "Should I add the flies now or wait...two more minutes?" She asked her partner, trying to pull his attention away from their professor.

"Hey, do you want to be partners on this?"

"Yeah, of course," she grinned up at the girl "What potion did you want to do? I'm not that familiar with many potions. Also, just so you know, I'm sort of rubbish at potions. But I'll try." she said. She didn't want to bring down Alyson's grades because of her incompetence with the subject.

Louise added the flies one by one and added a clockwise stir after each fly broke the surface of the potion, being extremely careful not to do too much or too little. She checked the book and then brought the heat up under the cauldron and checked her watch noting when she should take it off the heat to cool leaving them with ten minutes to kill while they waited. "I hope this works, not sure how we're going to test it's effectiveness though." She looked up at Josh. "Do you think the body bind curse could be reversed by this?"

When Cassidy asked what potion she wanted to do, the blonde got to thinking. The blonde didn't want to do a difficult potion but she didn't want to do a hard one either. "Well we could always do the aging potion. I know there are some side effects but it could be a good enough potion to do" Alyson suggested to her. She didn't know why she wanted to give that potion a shot but she did.

When Brooke accepted his offer, he saw that she was a little bit hesitant and he couldn't help but chuckle but it was also kind of embarrassing. "I'm Bryson... remember" he wanted to see if it would ring a bell that they had bumped... well he bumped into her during the summer. "As for that potion, that sounds good. We can do that" it saved him the trouble of going through his potions book to try and find a good potion.

"Well we could always do the aging potion. I know there are some side effects but it could be a good enough potion to do"

"Okay," she smiled "Ageing potion it is," she flicked through her book to find how to make it "Right, I'll get the ingredients," she stood up and took her book with her to look through the cabinets to get the things needed for the potion before returning back to her.

Alyson watched as Cassidy agreed and was glad the two could agree on something. When her fellow Gryffindor said how she would be right back, Alyson nodded. "Okay" Alyson flipped through the pages in her book until she found the aging potion ingredients. Alyson looked at the requirements for everything and when Cassidy came back to their table, Alyson looked to Cassidy. "Okay, so do you want to split this up in half. You do the first half and I'll do the second half?" She asked. "Or I can do the first half and you do the second?"

"Hmm." Louise thought on that for a moment and noticed the cooling time was over and began bottling the potion into a couple of vials and vanished the rest and made a quick note of the change in her work book, marking the page number and the stages in which to add the nettle juice before examining the potion inside the glass tubes. "It looks stable at least, and nothing's too poisonous in it I should hope. Worst case scenario you'll be sick, but it wont kill you or even incapacitate you for however long it takes to expel it out of your system. What grade do you think we'll get for this?" She asked, smiling up at Josh, clearly quite happy with the results.

"Or I can do the first half and you do the second?"

"Um, I can prepare the first part and you can do the second part," she said. She looked onto the page and began to add the ingredients to the cauldron, stirring when needed to and making sure, as best she can, to keep the temperature correct. She didn't want to stuff it up, because she knew that if she did, it'd affect Alyson's grade too.

"If we don't get an Outstanding, you'll know about it."

"Sorry I asked." She smiled, not really feeling too irritated. She collected the vials she'd filled and carefully brought them to the front desk, making sure she'd labelled all of them before placing them down ready for grading and then heading back to her seat beside Josh.
She took a look around to see what other people were doing but soon grew bored of watching and began scribbling into a small notepad she had begun carrying around with her everywhere, holding all her ideas for sweets and chocolates. She'd started guarding it with a notice me not charm and to make the pages look like regular notes for classes.

It was a better late arrival than not at all. She wasn't sure how much she missed that day, but she wandered in anyway and took a seat by herself. She had a stick of gum in her mouth and stuck it under the desk. Upon the setting down of her books, she saw one more empty desk ment for two. "Hey, guess we're all pairing off. Right then." She stood and walked to the table, sitting up on the desk with the chair under her feet. In a loud fashion she addressed the whole class. "Excuse me! Who wants to be my partner! Come on! Easy peasy. I could do this with my eyes closed. Gaurenteed good mark! Anyone want to take me up on this?" She looked around the room at the students and assistant teacher, she was pretty sure someone would tell her to remove her feet from the chair and place her bum in it instead.

Alyson nodded when Cassidy said she would do the first part. "Okay, shoot" Alyson sat back and watched as Cassidy began to start on the potion. Alyson looked over the potions book to see what she would be doing. The aging potion didn't look too difficult so she could do this without having any problems. She didn't want to screw up because she wasn't the only one apart of this, Cassidy was as well.

Thana watched the class with a bored expression on her face, as per usual she didn't have a partner. She was busy daydreaming when a latecomer arrived, a Slytherin. And a loud, noisy... Fun one at that. Excuse me! Who wants to be my partner! Come on! Easy peasy. I could do this with my eyes closed. Gaurenteed good mark! Anyone want to take me up on this?" The Slytherin called out,

Thana didn't really know how to respond, but since practically everyone else had partners.. She didn't really have a choice, she picked up her bag and walked over to the girl. We couldn't recall seeing her around before. But hey what other people got up to was their business . " I need a partner" she said to the Slytherin, wondering what she would say next.

He had supplied his name, much to her relief, and she smiled at him. "Oh, that's right!" she said. After he agreed with her choice, she nodded. "I'll prepare the ingredients and you can make the potion," she said before leaving the desk and walking over to the cupboards. Checking the list of ingredients, she took Shrivelfig, Porcupine quills, Peppermint sprigs, Sopophorous beans and Wormwood.

When she finally recognized who he was, he nodded. "Yeah, that's me" he replied. When she said how he'd make the potion and she'd get the ingredients, he nodded. "Okay, that works with me" Bryson loved making potions so this wasn't bad for him. When Brooke came back with all of the ingredients, he looked at his book and began to make the potion with ease. Putting in the right amount of ingredients, stirring when needed to, it was easy.