1300 hours, Potions Dungeons
   Lesson #4, Medicinal Brews (cont'd)


The second week of term was drawing to its end and it was already obvious to Professor Naceri that her elder students, far from being inept, were skilled at this trade of choice. You did not enter into a NEWT lesson without being so.[1]

As the sixth and seventh years came dwindling in after their lunch hour, Leyla faced her back to them- she held a large cerulean tome in the crook of her willowy arm and nursed a wand in her free hand. Clumps of chalk went scratching at the blackboard, listing ingredients and their respective characteristics.

The NEWT students had been working without labelled ingredients this entire week, a more difficult task than the one-off she had set for the younger years before. They did not have the excuse of inexperience.

When there were enough students in the room - plenty, considering the addition of visiting schools - the potions mistress finally turned to face her class. Her robes were plain and black; accidents for this particular lesson were likely to ruin untreated clothing.

---

"Settle down, two to a cauldron. Three if you must." Leyla watched them shuffle seats to correspond. "We continue our chapter on Medicinal brews today by brewing new batches of a Blood-Replenishing Potion for the Hospital Hut, as Healer Nagde informs me that she is running low in supplies. There is little room for mistakes."

As had become habit, ingredients necessary to their brewing had been prepared for collection on the main oval table at the front of the room.

"Directions may be found in your texts," she gestured to her own volume. "Follow them to the letter or you may find yourself in need of the very concoction we make today."

This wasn't a threat but a literal warning: at its early stages, the blood-replenishing potion could be highly explosive.[2]

Lesson Objective

1. Ingredients have not been labelled or processed.
2. Students are to work in pairs or in groups of three.
3. Complete brewing the Blood-Replenishing Potion by the end of the lesson hour.
4. Incomplete or ruined brews will be marked down but may be made up with a later assignment.
5. Exercise caution- if your brew erupts, you will be dismissed and points will be taken off.

1.	For reference, this is the NEWTs class roster.
2.	Ingredients and Instructions will be listed in the post below.

Gigi liked explosions, but that didn't mean she trusted her classmates with them. With this sort of potion, she half-expected that someone would make a boom accidentally-on-purpose. Fig, probably, she didn't expect he'd learned caution yet even after his CoMC antics.

Really made her want to not wind up in the hospital hut for the next month, too. Didn't want blood that turned to lemonade in her veins or something.

"Yo, Raine? Want to help me not explode a cauldron?" The Gryffindor wasn't too far away, so Gigi wasn't too loud-just enough of a sharp whisper to make it easy to hear. Erumpent horn was the sort of thing that should be reserved for grenades, not potions, in her opinion.

Mysti rather enjoyed potions. And of course it was pretty necessary to be good at potions if she was to be a healer.  Which is why this was one of the classes she made sure to do her best at. And once they’d started using unlabeled ingredients, Mysti started studying more closely to the descriptions of each ingredient, so not to mix any up.  That would be disastrous. Especially with what they were doing today when that could lead to explosions.

The Hufflepuff girl sat down at a table and started retrieving the ingredients and tools necessary.  She’d made this potion quite a few times, but not yet with the unlabeled ingredients. Mysti sat and waited for whomever decided to sit next to her, and started reading and re-reading the instructions.

Crocodile hearts, divine.

Speaking of reptiles. Raine glanced to her left, a seat away, at Georgiana's beckoning. " Want to help me not explode a cauldron?" the Slytherin asked and she smirked, grasping her classmate's meaning quickly. Of course if Professor Naceri could not trust a group of sixth and seventh years not to explode their cauldrons, who could she? Raine wasn't one to take chances on this.

"I don't see why not," she gestured for one of the other sixth years to move and slid into the seat next to Gigi with a quick glance at the textbook left open on their table. "Doesn't look too bad."

Short of it going off in their faces, the worst that could happen was that their resident Healer would be lacking a small measure of replenishing potion this week.

"I'll fetch the ingredients," Raine offered with fleeting smile. "You can purée the crocodile heart."

Annie was liking potions class so far this term. It was challenging, but with the old comfort of lists upon lists – lists of steps, lists of materials, lists of ingredients, the works. She had a distinct interest in healing magic, too, having always harbored a slight fascination with medicine, especially of the veterinary variety. This was one of those rare classes in which she felt confident, which always made it a nice addition to the afternoon. She was relaxed, having just come from lunch, but ready to work. Her hair was tied back in a neat plait, as it always ways on Potions days, and she had preemptively rolled up the sleeves of her violet colored cardigan so she'd have her hands free.

 There was a comforting routine involved, not only in waking up and preparing for a Thursday at school, but in the process of preparing a potion. In addition to all of the lists, there were guidelines, and a clear final product. Annie loved preparing the ingredients, and getting to be in charge of just how fine her finely chopping specimens were cut, or making sure a measurement was perfectly, undeniably level. She'd been wearing that rather elusive feeling of confidence on her sheepishly grinning face when she'd walked in the room, and it had been smacked right off again the moment Professor Naceri said two to a cauldron. Partners?! Ugh. There was nothing worse than having your perfectionist tendencies challenged by having to share the work with someone. The only thing worse would be having two partners, which was apparently also an option. At this point the only option that seemed plausible was taking the erumpent horn and blowing herself up out of the gate to put herself out of her misery!

Luckily for Annie's face, she was not one to intentionally fail. If the directions were to work with a partner then she would, but she didn't have to be happy about it. Maybe she could find someone who'd let her do the whole thing by herself? Or, better yet, someone she knew to be thorough and competent who'd actually split the work evenly, without jumping on any of her designated tasks? It seemed like a pipe dream. She stood  at center of the room, glancing around and trying to make a decision... without actually committing to anything. There was one girl – a Hufflepuff, if she recalled correctly – who looked half competent. She seemed to have her priorities straight, anyway, given that she was actually reading the instructions before she started. That was worth a gold star, Annie thought. Maybe she'd underestimated the fitness of the available potions partners in the room. She approached the girl's desk slowly and a tad awkwardly and paused about a foot away, not wanting to force herself on the unsuspecting hufflepuff. “Do you, um... would you mind if I was your partner for this?” she asked, her eyes beginning to plead before she'd even gotten the whole question out of her mouth. 

With more than a few hasty pardon’s and an eloquent whoops, Gracie dashed through the halls, neatly sidestepping some and (unrepentantly) shouldering those she couldn’t, her footsteps an almost a graceful show of evasion; she wove through crowds, dodged the stragglers, and - most importantly - sailed under the radar of the keener prefects and professors, slowing into a walk (or ducking behind a larger body) when she had to. For most of lunch she’d been hiding out in one of the empty classrooms, staring at a lone, green- and silver-striped tie she’d hung around the neck of a vase, hands lifted and wand at the ready, and—well—time flew by when you tried to make new spells.

But, she had done it—succeeded, that is. She hadn’t stopped when the hourglass had nearly emptied itself, and so by the time it had she’d been rewarded with a vase in her grip, buzzing with adrenaline and floor littered with the shattered remains of previous attempts. Feck yeah she was good.

However, there was still Potions. And she… still had another flight of stairs to go, crap.

“Wotcher!” she grinned cheekily, body-checking an unlucky Gryffindor on the way to the classroom. Pink-cheeked and panting, Gracie slowed into a walk when she reached the door, taking a moment to pause—imperiously toss bark brown hair over a shoulder—and survey her present classmates, eyes jumping from head to head.

Target sighted, Gracie smirked and homed in, hands clawed and theatrically raised until-

Her arms wrapped themselves around Alex Carstairs’ poor, unsuspecting head, making do like an octopus and holding on tight.[1] “Carstairs,” Gracie cooed lovingly into dark hair, blindly stroking a pale cheek with equal adoration. “How I missed you so. Did you miss me too? Please say you did, or I shall cry.”

1.	With Hazel's permission!

"Well, I am good at heart-crushing." Gigi grinned more than she should have and pulled her potions book out, then set it on her desk with a thump. Yep, these were the sorts of ingredients better suited to making explosives. Much better to review them while Raine got the stuff.

"Though...." Her voice slipped up a little, teasing. "Just don't ask me to weigh hearts against feathers or anything. Bad sign, that." Couldn't say that she expected to come off well from it, either.

She licked her lips as she bent down over the recipe. "Makes me want lemonade. Might have to go hunt some down later." If she got it direct from the kitchens she could get them to not put too much sugar in it. "And don't get chomped by that cabbage, neither. Better ways to check what you've got."

The worst part of NEWT potions for Nicholas was finding out the ingredients of some of the potions he'd had to take at one point or another.  And unfortunately he'd taken a small bit of blood-replenishing potion once in his second year.  And while it certainly wasn't the worst combination of ingredients in a potion, pureed crocodile heart and salamander blood were not things he was particularly interested in ingesting, even if he was bleeding out.  At least there weren't any cockroaches in it, or questionable bug parts.

He moved to the front gathering a few ingredients before moving back to one of the cauldrons, passing Georgiana and Raine, "It says pureed heart, not crushed, Trishna."  He said as he sat the stuff he'd gathered down, and looked around for a partner.

Mysti had just finished reading through the directions for the second time when the other girl approached her.  She wasn’t sure if they’d talked before, but the other did look familiar.  When she spoke, Mysti realized she was one of the Salem Institute students.  Trying to remember the girl’s name, she ran through names in her head. Luckily, as it started with an A, she didn’t have to go through long. Annie, that was it! She’d seemed like a rather good student, so when Annie asked to partner up with Mysti, she smiled.

“Of course. I mean, I wouldn’t mind at all. You’re Annie, right? I’m Mysti, not sure if we’ve met officially yet.” She smiled at the girl again. “I’ve already got most everything set up. I was just going over the directions again.”
She motioned for Annie to sit down, and then pulled out the Erumpant horn. Next, she put the Crocodile Heart, Salpeter, and Bulbadox juice next to each other.

“So, would you rather ground the horn, or puree the heart, salpetr, and bulbadox juice? And then once that's simmered, there’s the matter of not getting chomped by the cabbage in order to shred it. Though, I’ve gotten pretty good at that, if you’d like me to.”

Annie sighed with relief as soon as her potential partner made it clear that she wasn't rejecting her, smiling brightly with the knowledge that her reputation for being, well, Annie, hasn't preceded her in this case. No matter what anybody said, she was a decent fledgling potioneer, and she was thrilled that she might get the chance to show it for a change! The potion at hand was suitably challenging, which meant that making it correctly would feel like an accomplishment, right in the middle of the day! Frankly, she needed that. Running a hand over her neatly plaited hair, she settled into the open chair, settling her things beneath it.

”You’re Annie, right? I’m Mysti, not sure if we’ve met officially yet.”

“Yeah, hi, that's... that's me,” Annie replied with a shrug and a nervous smile as she surveyed the materials as they were set  upon the desk, subtly checking the other girl's work without letting on that it was what she was up to. It wasn't that she didn't trust her – it was that she didn't trust anyone, including herself. The ingredient list was fairly straight forward this time around, though, and the materials that Mysti had gathered looked fine, which was a relief – and another gold star for the hufflepuff. It was probably a good thing Mysti had been so quick to jump on material collecting, too, because left to her own devices Annie would have stood agonizing over everything for half the class, checking everything for flaws. While that kind of meticulousness could lead to the brewing of a high quality potion, it was only really helpful if you had six spare hours in your day – and Annie didn't even have six spare hours in her week.

“I'll, um... I'll start with the horn, I guess,” Annie decided with a series of firm nods, still critically looking over the materials  as she sealed her decision. “We don't need much, and I'm usually pretty careful, so... so I think that will be fine. And then, um...” she spoke, looking down at her partner's open book to double check the steps. “Well, why don't you do the puree? Is that okay? And then if you want to start the cabbage... or... or we can just see who finishes first? And that way... well, we'll be using our time wisely. And then you can add it, and in the meantime I'll measure out the, um,” she paused, consulting the book, “The um, the salamander blood and the scurvy shavings, so that will be ready for us when you're done. Does that seem okay?” she asked, her forehead scrunched as she looked to the other girl for affirmation. Yes, she was getting a little bit ahead of herself, but she always liked to know what was coming next. The best part about potions was that, if you were meticulous, you could anticipate every single step from a mile away. Could you really blame her for being eager? For wanting to be prepared? For wanting to have complete and total control over every aspect of how things went? For being out of her fool mind?

Phillip instinctively went for Carstairs' cauldron without even having time ta actually process it. And for whatever bloody reason, upon seeing Slant tentacled around Alex, he just huffed and threw his bag on a table with unnecessary force and took advantage of their scare to insinuate himself between them. Without sparing either of 'em a look he set to rolling his sleeves upwards and prepping the table. "Don' want no cocknobber as me partner" he grumbled as explanation for his behavior. "Plus, ye two harpies are lucky ta have me" he added with a grin before he turned to look at the woman in front. He hoped she wasn't incompetent, this was his future here and Potions was the most relevant subject to said future.

"Right, Slant go grab the ingredients, I'll prep the tools and—" he suddenly stopped to look at the wall, before he cleared his throat, willing the blush away. far away. As bloody far away as possible. But, no siree. "Carstairs, ehrm, get that flame going" he mumbled before setting himself to the task ahead. "This one's stupid easy, wha' are we supposed ta do the rest of the class? We'll have this done in a jiffy..." he grumbled to himself as he set the chopping board in front of him. "Uhmm, 'Fessor? If we finish early, can we leave?" he asked, suddenly gasping for a fag, feeling his hands grow clammy from just being near her. This was growing out of proportions. Dicky mint, this crush business.

While punctual, Alex nevertheless arrived after the majority of her classmates, leaving her to dart for a desk as quickly as possible in order to avoid having to sit near the front of the class. Claiming a table just ahead of a fellow Ravenclaw, who gave her a disgruntled look but moved on, she was left to sag against the table before shunting her bag underneath it, flipping through her textbook to the appropriate page.

Listening inattentively to Professor Naceri, Alex’s apathy towards the imminent task evaporated when she read the most promising word possible in a potions lesson – explosions. And, from what was said, they were positively anticipated, which was borderline inviting her to cause one. Not that she would, of course, because she would be helping the Hospital by making her potion, and she would be marked down if she did cause one, deliberately or not. Mouth twisting ruefully, Alex ignored the instruction to find a partner, instead finishing reading the information. The sudden obstruction to her vision made her stiffen, then relax when it became apparent that while inconvenient, the attack wasn’t malicious. Well, probably not, it was always a little hard to tell where Gracie was concerned.

“It’s a wonder my heart didn’t fail, such were its pangs,” she drawled, attempting to pry Gracie’s limbs off her with little success, “You cruelly abandoned me, Slant, I feel used.” Her ramblings stopped abruptly when Phillip turned up, insinuating himself between them in what was beginning to look like a pattern. Glaring at him, she turned away the moment he looked up, hoping that her blush didn’t extend to the back of her neck and attempting to look busy.

“To explode, perhaps,” she muttered, which was definitely not a good thing, especially not if Phillip was going to be working anywhere in the near vicinity. Potions did seem to be the lesson he did best in, but from general experience he was better at causing explosions. “You’re making the puree,” she insisted instead, busying herself with lighting the fire, much as it galled her to do as he’d ordered.

“You cruelly abandoned me, Slant, I feel used.”


“Like a tissue,” Gracie happily replied, giving Alex’s head a brief squeeze—and suppressed an ungainly noise of displeasure when, once again, Phillip fecking Kinsey schmoozed his fat self between them, obvious blighter that he was. Eyes narrowing as she folded her arms, she watched him rattle off directions and rolled her eyes; both Alex and herself were perfectly competent at Potions, thankyouverymuch.

Even if they were, admittedly, more interested in improvisation than was healthy. Or safe. Illicit dates at bathrooms to hold sketchy experiments were testament to that.

“I’m going to pluck every eyelash of yours in the most painful way possible, Kinsey,” Gracie drawled pleasantly, as – heart racing still a little (that arse!) – she set out to do as he’d instructed. But before she walked away, she leaned in close, lips peeled back in a marginally less pleasant smile. “In the meantime, you should try to be a little less obvious if that’s what you’re aiming for, yeah?” she murmured, just low enough for the two to hear. “I know Gryffindors aren’t known for their subtlety–” Raine Almasy was probably the one exception, “–but this is sad, even for you.”

And coincidences were for chumps and hopefuls—who were merely a more pitiable brand of chumps, her granddad had taught her. Smirking devilishly, the Slytherin picked off an invisible piece of lint and flicked it off to the side, quickly dancing out of reach and looking pleased as punch as she went to the shelves.

She returned a little while later, her hair twisted into a messy bun and ingredients gathered up in her arms. Earlier was apparently forgotten, if the way she set them on the table was anything to go by. “I’ll do parts four and five,” she informed them as she grouped the ingredients by directions, in that calm way that said anyone who decided otherwise would soon experience swift retribution, i.e. inguinal cramps. But just in case Phillip decided to assert himself again, she kept the roots and lemon juice close to her, that just in case emphasized by a placid smile and her steady grip on the knife. “You two decide who does the rest. Someone get that base started, yeah?”

To Mysti, Annie did seem a little nervous. Then again, it probably had something to do with being in a different school with some different people.  And Mysti couldn’t imagine it’d be that easy to keep classes as well as doing the tournament. Plus this may have been the first partnered exercise she’d done. But at least she did seem fairly competent. And was definitely better than some of the other people she could have ended up with.

“That sounds good.” Mysti said with a smile.

 Then, she started measuring out the saltpeter and bulbadox juice. Taking the crocodile heart, she started to puree the ingredients together.  This was the weird part, working with such parts of animals.  But this being her 6th year doing potions, the use of animal parts ceased to freak her out as much as it used to. Hearts were probably one of the worst at first, but now it barely phased her. So long as it wasn’t still beating, that was fine.

“All right, these have all been pureed.” Mysti said, setting the mixture by Annie. “If you want to add and simmer those, I’m going to start on the cabbage.”

Trusting Annie, she took to the cabbage, using caution.  Shredding it wasn’t too difficult of a job.  She just made sure the sliver chalice was in place for use of ladling into the cauldron when it was time. 

“That’s shredded. So whenever the potion turns black, then I can start to add the cabbage.” Mysti nodded. “And you can get that salamander blood and scurvy grass. It needs to be added quickly once it bubbles.”