Potions, Lesson 2: (Years 1-4)

Mycroft walked through the halls of the castle, a small smile on his face. He had missed the castle, but his family business came first. Now being the head of the Holmes family brought a new level of prestige to his role of Headmaster and professor position in general. With his father forcefully retired, he now took both roles, his father's old position, and his Headmaster position at Hogwarts. But at the end of the day, he went back to his desired position as potions master, one in both Salem and Hogwarts.

Looking at the room, he sighed seeing how it was not up to his expectations and remodeled everything back to it's clean and pristine look. Nodding to himself he walked back to his desk, and sat against it, sighing in relief at how great it looked.

Looking at the board, he waved his hand writing popping up saying the lesson of the day: Black Fire Potion

If someone asked her which one of her classes she liked the most, Gillian would have to debate between charms and potions. Potions getting a bit more weight tipping the scale because it was such a logical subject, you didn't really have to trust in your unknown abilities but your intelligence and following the instructions, besides, it was so close to her common room which made it easier to get there without rush.

As soon as she entered the classroom, and saw that prof. Mycroft was leaning on the desk, everything else disappeared, she didn't even noticed that the girl from Wormwood was there. Gillian had been a bit disappointed during the first class of the year when someone else had been there to replace prof. Mycroft, and now that he was back, potions was again her favourite class.

With a gleam in her eyes and a toothy smile, she greeted the professor "Prof. Mycroft!" she said a bit more enthusiastically than she originally pretended, and blushing because of that. Gillian toned down her smile and shyly added "is really good to have you back" she said while she walked to her usual spot at the second line of desks to the right and sat down.

Jaden then walked into potions. She was glad Professor Holmes was back and it was because he was a good teacher even if he was a little strict. She knew Sadie liked him and Jaden liked him too. potions was something she would need if she wanted to be Head Healer and she knew Sadie had learned it too. Jaden then took a seat in the front so she could learn better. She then wonder if Brayden will take this class.

Ares liked potions sometimes and he had heard that the real potion's Professor was back and ready to teach again. The young Wormwood walked into potions and saw familiar faces but none were his sister or Brayden amoung the class. Ares took a empty seat and waited for the Professor to begin his class. Ares grabbed his book out of his bag and waited patiently.

Seeing the younger years enter, Mycroft forced himself to smile friendly knowing that some weren't used to his too strict teaching method in which he treated the older years in. As students entered, he noticed Victoria greeted him as usual; always the first one.

"Good morning, Professor Holmes. I hope you had a nice break, I missed you the first lesson."

Mycroft smiled at Victoria seeing that while she was getting older, she was cheerier than ever and he chuckled.

"I'm glad to be back Miss Newbury, you might be one of the first to gladly have me back"

He had finished his statement, when he noticed another student enter. The Nightshade entered and he turned to nod at her greeting only to see her blush. He was confused but nonetheless thanked her. As more students entered, he figured it was safe enough to start, and those students that came late could risk losing points.

"Welcome to potions, I'm sorry that you're graced with my face rather than your substitute, but let's face it, we're back to normal and I don't take mediocre potions. Can any of you tell me what the Black Fire potion does?"

Mycroft bit back a grin at the fact that Victoria was the first one to answer. That was how every lesson went, and it was clear that not much had changed while he was gone. He nodded her way signaling that as usual she was right.

"Very good Miss Newbury, five points to Wormwood" he said, "Miss Newbury had a lot of good points, first of all, it is a helpful potions to cross Black fire, and good for Aurors. I used to do it when I was still active and I can tell you it's useful. Can someone else tell me, what is so dangerous about Black fire?"

Not only the annoying girl got to the classroom first, and answered first, but on top of that, she also got a huge beautiful and dazzling smile from the potions professor, did that girl feel the need to have everything?.

Sighing, Gillian wrote down what the annoying girl said and listened intently as the man in front of her told them about his time with the aurors, and waited to see if he would tell more about himself. When he didn't and instead asked a question about the black fire, Gillian raised her hand; "The problem with black fire, is that it can't be fought with regular methods of fire fighting, like water, sand or foam, so it has to be dealt with, with magical means" she said, wondering if her answer was good enough. There wasn't that much literature about black fire, so she had to make a few assumptions.

As another girl spoke up, Mycroft looked over at her and looked at her attempting to answer. While not the most eloquent answer, he wasn't expecting perfection, and nodded at her response. She seemed a bit on the quiet side, but many were at this age.

"The problem with black fire, is that it can't be fought with regular methods of fire fighting, like water, sand or foam, so it has to be dealt with, with magical means"

At her unsureness, he smiled trying to comfort her, wanting her to speak up more. It looked like she waited for approval and he chuckled.

"Very good Miss Arkanian...is it? Five points to Nightshade for a creative answer." he said nodding. "Now black fire is believed to be the second hottest enchanted fire second to Fiendfyre. But yes, today we will be working on this potion and I ask you to work on your own."


1. Slice bursting mushrooms with knife, add to cauldron and stir clockwise until potion turns blue.
2. Add salamander blood to cauldron, stir anti-clockwise until potion turns green.
3. Crush Wartcap powder in pestle, add to cauldron and stir clockwise until potion turns red.

"The challenge is...that the ingredients do not say the portion, and you must rely on your books to figure it out. Usually I would ask you to do it without it and rely on memory, but I want to see just how well you know your potions book. You may begin"

Ares thought the potion was quite tricky and he looked at his book and it was already opened to the potion they were learning. Ares really needed to be careful on this or he was going to screw it up and he would get into trouble for not being responsible with this class. This class took a lot of concentration and hardwork, there was no goofing around because this was potions and it could be dangerous. Ares grabbed mushrooms and began to slice his mushrooms before adding the right amount into the cauldron. He stirred clockwise until his potion turned blue.

When it did turn blue he went to the next step and added Salamander blood to his cauldron and stirred it anti-clockwise and watched as it went from blue to green. He loved green so it was pretty cool how it just changed. Ares grabbed his pestle and added wartcap powder and began to crush it up. When that was completed he added the freshly crushed wartcap powder to the cauldron and stirred it into his potion clockwise until the potion turned red. When it was red, he looked at the Professor.

"I think I did this correct."