Studying and practicing for winter exams was all that Naomi felt like she was doing as of late, and, if Professor Vaillancourt followed suit with her previous exams, there would definitely be a practical portion. Luckily, rather than exhaust her own ingredients to practice for the exam, the professor opened up the dungeons and allowed them to use classroom resources to study with.[1]

Naomi arrived in the class and put her things off to the side and then set up her cauldron before she pulled out her potions book and began to flip through its pages. Rather than going through brewing a ton of different potions, which could take up most of her day, the Slytherin thought it would be easier to focus on one potion to tweak and play with. As Naomi thumbed through a section on gaseous mixtures she spotted the Invisibility Potion; she marked the page and then set the book down to go and retrieve the relevant ingredients.

The witch then picked out a few bulbs and tubes, and a glass container, and then she set those up on a low desk alongside her own cauldron, and began to start her brew, with her cherries, mortar, pestle, and other ingredients off to one side of her, her cauldron in the middle, and her glassware and a pipette off to her other side.

She finally got to a point where she had to wait for the mixture to settle when an odd stench filled the room, hopefully it was just part of a potion and nothing more sinister! Naomi looked around the room with an arched eyebrow, "If someone's making a dungbomb 'den find another room."

1.	Allowed with permission from Tor

Kelvin wasn't sure if he should practice by himself or in a room with others.  One the one hand, if he was by himself he wouldn't hurt anyone with what was bound to end up being another disastrous attempt at the antidote to uncommon poisons, on the other hand, if he was by himself he was likely to hurt himself with the damn antidote and have no one to help him.  In the end, he'd decided to stay in the dungeon with everyone else and hope for the best, and for their help.  At this point he'd lost track of how many times he'd attempted this antidote.  He still wasn't sure why they had to learn antidotes since he was pretty sure any healer wouldn't take too kindly to having to give an antidote for the original poison and an antidote for a bad antidote.

No matter how much he hated it, didn't matter, it was part of the class so he needed to learn it, even he was tempted to get a troll just to see if his mother would speak to him then.  No that wouldn't do.  He didn't want a troll on his records.  Especially since he was pretty sure his grades at slipped anyways.  Kelvin couldn't help that he was always distracted by certain male housemates in his year.  It wasn't totally his fault that he couldn't say no to certain people when they suggested putting off homework to do something more fun. 

Lost in thought, he wasn't paying attention as he stirred the chizpurfle carapaces in and then dumped the billywig stings in after.  It wasn't until Naomi said something about dungbombs that he realized his antidote was now emitting off bright purple bubbles that when popped let off a noxious smell somewhere between body odor and the smell of a trash heap.  "Damnit.  Sorry Naomi, I think this antidote is off."  Or in other words, he thought, I screwed up another potion.

Angie was working on a new potion that she hadn't tried before. The cough potion, which currently was bubbling a bright pinkish color, was supposed to help with coughing and general sniffling and such. She thought it would be a good idea to try it, because she herself was getting a cold and it would be handy to have a few cough potions on hand in the upcoming flu and general cold season. She was using a mortar and pestle to crush a few mint leaves when she started to smell the awful byproduct of Kelvin's antidote.

"Gosh," she laughed, "What are you brewing over there, Watkins?" She asked, absentmindedly taking a big handful ashwinder eggs out of a bowl near her station instead of the crushed mint leaves. The resulting reaction was a small explosion of pink goo, most of it splattering in Angie's hair on on her skin. She fell over with surprise, and landed with a squeak on the floor below.

"Sorry!" She said, brushing off her knees as she stood up, grinning sheepishly. "That was not supposed to happen." Angie picked her wand up off the desk and turned a nearby bowl of water into a reflecting surface so she could accurately clean off the pink goo from her face. It was harmless, and smelled like something between candy floss and lavender. She used a charm to rid the potion from her hair, and when she was content, she changed the reflecting surface back to its normal water state and turned back to her malfunctioning potion, which had turned a harsh blue color and was boiling violently. "Back to square one," she muttered.

Having checked Girding Potion off her list (and the potions stores having a low supply of flying seahorses) Gloria was looking to other health boosting and healing potions in finals study. They were commonly assigned as the students progressed through the grades.

As there was an open period to use a classroom for practice, Gloria concentrated on a brew that needed a high density of small brightly red berries to be crushed, though the juice could sting like if your hand touched fire if the juice was mishandled. Until the other ingredients stabilized it the potion had to be kept to low heat.

As general yet mild chaos erupted nearby it drew Gloria from her dislike of common healing potions. They all tasted so nasty and you couldn't add any flavor to them, something as innocent as a mint leaf or cinnamon stick could spoil a potion if it wasn't supposed to be there.

"Pew! Is a skunk juggling dead hamsters in here after eating then up chucking a rubbish bin?"

OOC: Feel free to carry on conversations that Juliette won't hear! She's here for helping anyone who needs it and preventing chaos.

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“Hello, everyone,” Juliette acknowledged with a curt nod and momentary smile. “I trust you are all studying hard.” She peered over the tables briefly, the cauldrons and other equipment already being put to good use. Most of her students knew by now that the potions professor's exams always included a practical portion-- midterms or not. That didn't mean that every student studied for them. Nevertheless, Juliette was pleased to discover how many of them were taking their exams seriously, and had opened the main laboratory and stores for their practice.

While she planned to give them their space, only intervene if chaos broke out, the professor knew better than to leave the fourth years entirely unattended. She had moved her notes and grade book to a niche near the back of the room for the day, so that she could check in with the students nearer the front. There was enough distance so that any student wishing to confess to his peers that he hadn't cracked open a book all semester might go unheard. (Juliette knew which students these were, even if they spoke in the hushed tones one might ordinarily employ in the Restricted Section or a prayer house.). She would still be close enough to supervise this slightly more lax session from a distance, her view uninstructed. She was prepared as ever with wand and antidotes. She would check on them regularly, remind them if they happened to stay past the allotted time.

“I’ll be in the back of the room if you need me.” Juliette moved past tables, intent on getting her own work done while things were still calm. She had made it to the last table when the fumes reached her. She turned around, moved back toward Foley and Watkins’ table whence came the overpowering scent. Juliette knew before her gaze scrutinized the purple bubbles that the billywig sting was burning, prematurely agitating the chizpurfle carapaces. She pointed her wand at the cauldron’s flame, swished it sharply to the left. The bubbles began to recede, the odor to disperse.

Before Juliette could address Kelvin, the burst of pink at the next table over stole her attention. She swept toward Angie Lemon, wand still out. Juliette was immediately relieved that the mess was just a mess-- and otherwise harmless. “You’re lucky it wasn’t something hazardous to the skin, Miss Lemon. Finish cleaning yourself and your station, and sanitize your gloves before you begin again.”

She turned back to Kelvin. “You added the Billywig sting too fast, Mr. Watkins. The chizpurfle carapaces in your cauldron weren’t dissolved enough, but the temperature was still too high for the stings. Next time wait until the chizpurfle have dissolved more, then lower the heat under your cauldron so the Billywig stings don’t burn.” She pointed to the line in his book, highlighting the description of properly dissolved chizpurfle and the temperature requirements. “Try again,” she encouraged. “Let me know if you need any assistance or have any questions about your brews,” she added, addressing the students at large again. “Remember, you may take whatever you need from the stores.” With that, she moved past them, settling into her makeshift desk to grade First Year essays.

"Is she gone?" Gloria wasn't whispering to anyone in particular but thinking aloud, if quietly, about the level of observation they had from the professor. Vaillancourt settled into the back of the room to other work. Nuts! Not enough for Gloria to crack open a package of Drooble's and get chewed out for chewing gum over her cauldron. A phrase as true as it was pun-tastic.

What Gloria really needed right now was a drink. At first she didn't think the potions store cupboards would have anything to help with that, most things being pickled and brined and all sorts of soured. Until the grin crept onto her face when thinking of Honeywater. And she would need Honeywater if she decided to brew Volubilis Potion[1] or something, it was used in so many things that an excuse would be easy to think of.

Humming with what she hoped was a fit piece for "I am being constructive and not up to anything else" Gloria went to the stores with ease of a student who would be going there anyways in the natural course of a study period. She took a bottle of the yellowed Honeywater and for authenticity some bits of Stewed Mandrake, Mint sprigs (also a potentially refreshing treat) and syrup of Hellebore (which even if it said "syrup" it would not be the kind making way onto her hotcakes any time soon) and then took the things back to her station.

Over the next few minutes she put good effort into the motions into cooling off her health potion and prepping a Volubilis one. When she was sure no one was watching she snuck a swig of the sweet amber liquid, occasionally complemented by a mint sprig.

1.	http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Volubilis_Potion

Kelvin's embarrassment at having his potion emit a smell to make a skunk envious, and purple-Merlin-forsaken-bubbles, lessened a bit when Angie's potion exploded.  He'd been so certain that his would be the one splattered all over himself, or the dungeon and everyone else.  The purple bubbles were now a victory.  The feeling was short lived as the professor turned from Angie to him.  He was mortified as she explained to him exactly what he did wrong.  "Yes, professor.  Thanks."  He said quietly with his head down.

It was bad enough being corrected on an actual assignment.  Now his study efforts were being corrected.  He might have been able to figure out what exactly he had done wrong.  He waved his wand at the cauldron, trying to vanish it.  He frowned when it didn't.  Okay, there was probably no way he would have figured out what he had done wrong.  Maybe Naomi or Gloria could have helped him figure it out. 

He would have had to ask though.  But no, Professor Vaillancourt had to step in and tell him exactly where he had messed up.  And now he couldn't even get the vanishing spell to work, even though he had managed it a few times the weekend before when he had been skipping ahead again in his Transfiguration books.  He set about cleaning up and starting over on the antidote.  Someone deserved to be poisoned if they took a potion Kelvin had made.