Class Roster
6th Years
►Almasy, Raine
►Bevans, Nicholas
►Doyle, Aaron √
►Flickwick, Sophie
►Harcroft, Joshua

►Ketteridge, Mystique
►Jeun, Ji-Hyun √ +15

►Beckett, Katherine √
►Canterbury, Ligeia
►Carstairs, Alexandra
►Carstairs, Rosamund √ +10
►Harris, Chloe
►Roth, Avalon
►Schlagenweit, Sasha √
►Wentworth, Peyton
►Whitman, Carys

►Bulstrode, Cadance
►Deres, Deus √ +2
►Dimbleby, Jordyn √ +2
►Hoult, Anthony √ -5
►Inkwood, Ezra
►Roh-Ballentyne, Waverly
►Slant, Gracie
►Tawse, Xavier
►Trishna, Georgiana
►Whitman, Theo √ +5

►Enright, Annie

7th Years
►Kinsey, Phillip √ +10

►Edwards, Elizabeth

►Steinback, Milton √
►Eisenberg, Magdalena
►Aliya Grumman
►Gaubert, Corey
►Lawrence, Eva
►Valjean, Jean-Paul
(D): detention; (Ø): zero mark; +/-: points

It was her fourth lesson with the NEWT students and Lucrezia had mixed opinions about the bunch. Some showed some promise, some were just filling space, some had made an appearance in detentions and some had already even had an encore in detention. They were a rowdy bunch nonetheless and cause for much headache.

Seated on top of her desk with legs crossed and the Prophet levitating at eye level, she was expecting the students to come pouring in any moment now. When the watch on her wrist struck exactly ten minutes after the hour, the door to the classroom closed with a bang and a swish of her wand. "Homework assignments on my desk" she patted the empty corner to her left as she finished reading the last line of some completely idiotic article with a scowl. "Well then, you know the drill"[1] she said in a mildly bored tone as she set her paper aside. "Assume your places, three or four to a cauldron, team brewing today—lah-di-dah-di-dah" she continued gesticulating with her hand and almost rolling her eyes, as she hopped off the desk.

"Today you're brewing Elixir to Induce Euphoria—" she paused, flicking her wand towards the board, as the instructions made themselves visible. "I believe I've been lenient enough so far, so today I'm giving you a little incentive" Ezia smiled tightly, a flicker of something rather disturbing in her eyes. "At the end of the class, two students from each table are to come to the front; you are to bottle one dose each from your brew in a standard crystal phial. You will be testing the efficacy of your potion by administering it to your classmate and vice versa" she said almost enthusiastically, as she clasped her gloved hands behind her back and started walking among the round tables scattered around the classroom.

"If your brew is 100% successful you will receive the corresponding mark and amount of house points, same with... less stellar examples" she nodded tightly. "If, however, your classmate shows signs of poisoning, you can expect an appropriate mark, loss of house points and detention." She'd have a bezoar and antidote on hand, obviously, but why should the students know that? Fear was an effective method of pushing limits.

"As usual, one student from each table will take possession of their scales and recipients and retrieve the ingredients from the storeroom[2]. However—" she paused emphatically "it has come to my attention that under Professor Naceri you have been brewing with unlabeled ingredients and as such, all labels have been removed. The only form of organization at the current moment is based on state of matter and storing requirements; cold, dark and damp at the back, light, dry and warm at the front." She was sure a few students would have the time of their lives rearranging the storeroom back to its normal state in detention. "Well, go on then" she quipped after a moment of silence, noticing nobody had stood up yet.

"I trust you've prepared in advance for the lesson" she eyed them skeptically. "So while your colleagues return and your base reaches boiling point, let's go over the Elixir and its ingredients, hmm?" she turned to walk lazily towards no table in particular. When she reached Mister Whitman's table, she inclined her head and offered a tight smile. That boy showed a lot of potential. She turned on the spot and moved her eyes swiftly from table to table, then continued on the way to her desk. "What can you tell me about Shrivelfigs?"

Elixir to Induce Euphoria

Ingredients
Water 250ml
Shrivelfigs 6, medium-sized
Porcupine Quills 3.5oz
Sopophorous Beans 3oz
Wormwood 1oz
A sprig of Peppermint

Preparation
1. Set your water-filled cauldron over the flame and leave to boil on medium flame.
2. Prepare your ingredients by julienning the Shrivelfigs and grinding the Wormwood to a fine paste.
3. When the water is boiling lower the flame to a minimum and add the sliced Shrivelfigs in one swoop.
4. Add Porcupine quills by sprinkling them over the cauldron in circular motions.
3. Stir four times anti-clockwise and leave to simmer for twenty minutes on medium flame.
4. Add a sprig of Peppermint to counteract side-effects.
5. Continue by adding the Sopophorous beans.
6. Add the Wormwood paste.
7. Stir six times anti-clockwise and leave to react. When your concoction has finished brewing, it should have a sunshine yellow color, emanate a sweet aromatic scent and emit a rainbow arc.

---

* Assume your character is on time and present. If the character has reasons for being late, please notify me via PM.
* If you are a new student or if your character is not on the roster, please go ahead with posting and notify me via PM to modify the roster.
* The potion instructions[3] have been adapted for realism.

1.	General information on how the class will be conducted under Lucrezia may be found here.
2.	The storeroom is monitored. Any attempt at taking other ingredients will be counted as theft and school property damage.
3.	As found on the Elixir to Induce Euphoria wiki page

Sasha could be considered many things - focused, unlucky and lacking in street smarts - but he was definitely not one to be counted amongst the rowdy bunch.  He was more likely to be counted amongst the bunch who sat to the side, doing their best to separate themselves from the rowdy bunch.  His record might be somewhat tarnished but he was very much hoping to rectify that.  After placing the week's assignment on the front desk, Sasha settled onto a stool at his usual work station and turned his attention to Professor Di Luca. 

How very far they'd come since Professor Gunnar.  And, not necessarily in terms of progress but rather metaphorical distance.  Professor Gunnar had never been Sasha's favorite.  At the time, for a professor the man had been far too unorthodox and ... whimsical for the Ravenclaw's tastes.  That had been back when all of Sasha's academic ducks had been in precise order and achieving twelve straight Os, being Head Boy and captain of the Quidditch team (in other words, personal achievement perfection) had been his only goal.  Now in retrospect, and with everything that had changed, Sasha sometimes found himself missing the man.  His lighthearted spontaneity would be a nice change from their recent streak of cold, difficult-to-impress witches. 

"We need bananas," Sasha muttered to himself as he tugged his dragonhide gloves from his bag.  He shook his head and sat up straight, turning his focus to the present.  I'll get them," Sasha told his partner[1] as he pushed off his stool and headed towards the stores. 

Sasha cast his partner a dubious glance as he crossed behind the table.  Given they'd be publicly demonstrating their success (or relative lack thereof) in a public taste testing,  Sasha could only hope the potion he'd be drinking would be close to properly brewed.  He wasn't looking forward to a potion-ly induced public state of euphoria but the alternative was probably worse. 

1.	Feel free to jump in, anyone!

Jordyn didn’t really want to be paired with Sasha.  In terms of people who were, at one point, set for equivalent paths as head students and ultimate achievers, it was pretty pathetic that both of them were just kind of… floundering and desiring to get their lives together.  Granted, Jordyn’s had fallen apart in a spectacularly smaller fashion with far less fanfare, but it didn’t make it that much different. 

They just had to do this project and get good marks because Jordyn did not want to fail.  She also needed to do spectacularly on her NEWTs because she had been researching and it seemed like healing was a career path she could take.  But she knew you couldn’t be a healer if she didn’t do well here, it would be over.  So when Sasha muttered about bananas, Jordyn’s eyes narrowed and she hissed, “What? Did you sleep last night?” she said, incredulous. 

Honestly, if he had no idea what he was doing he shouldn’t have offered.  But, she supposed he could drink the potion if he wanted to grab silly things like bananas.  Raising her hand, Jordyn raised her already gloved hand daintily, waiting to share about shrivelfigs.  She’d read about the potion, and its ingredients the evening before, and was happy to share out. 

“Superior shrivelfigs,” she started, “are found in Abyssinia.  The deciduous leaves have their own medicinal properties, and the fruit, when skinned, produces the purple liquid we use for potions.”  She glanced around the room, it was an obvious, recall answer, but she wanted points, and to be noticed.  It had been quite some time since she felt any sort of recognition and it was better now than later, when she figured whatever ridiculousness Sasha brought back would inevitably screw them up. 

There were a few classes that Katherine didn't have a care for at times - but Potions had never been one of them. She'd taken an immediate liking to the subject when she was a younger student and had carefully been perfecting techniques and her ability ever since. She was still hesitant when it came to handing in her assignments though. The Ravenclaw should have felt more confident about her thorough and well-organized paper, but she was always worried the professor would find it less-than-stellar. Especially their current professor, who had a way of striking fear into the hearts of her students.

Katherine knew she had nothing to worry about as she sat on her stool, heels crossed at the ankles as she awaited to go-ahead for today's lesson. The cauldron in front of her was prepped and ready from the moment she arrived. It was always important to have a proper set-up. Organization, especially in this class, was key.

She glanced at the board and took in the ingredient list one by one, and then it was memorized and stored away in her mind. Each ingredient rang bells, as they rightfully should. Six years of potions, by now almost all ingredients should be semi-identifiable even to her classmates who suffered from multiple detentions. "I'll retrieve the ingredients," she told the group at her table. It would take more time than usual without labels, but Katherine was confident that she could bring back what they needed. Pulling on her dragon hide gloves, she let a little tension seep from her shoulders as her engagement ring disappeared from view. She always had something covering it typically, and it was easier in the winter when gloves and mittens were deemed allowable accessories to have on your person at all times.

The storeroom was as promised - disheveled, disorganized, and hopelessly unlabeled. Anyone with neat-freak tendencies would go absolutely nuts just looking at it. In other words, Katherine winced at the sight of all the jars and various bottles missing labels; but she went ahead and dug through them to retrieve the proper ingredients. She listed them in the back of her mind, gathering each one and only stopping to look back at the board when she'd returned to her table with all of the ingredients. Perfect. She'd remembered them exactly.

Which made sense with her Eidetic memory, but she still doubted herself. Especially when the professor was not fond of handing out her approval, and seemed to favor punishing those who had messed up. Even in the slightest. She passed over the Shrivelfigs to her partner for julienning, and set on grinding the wormwood herself as Jordyn answered the question proposed by the teacher.

He had heard it. The sharp edge of the Professor Lucrezia Di Luca (it almost needed more foreign articles spoken in a Castilian accent) had just uttered 'lah-di-dah-di-dah' in the middle of an opening lecture. Mace wished he had gotten his tape-recorder to adapt to magic and that the fictitious device had been on his person recording this opportunity. It was nearly up there with one of his theory professors back in the early days at Salem's dancing through all the verses of The Chicken Dance.

It was sometimes surprising to his fellows that Mace was actually more than decent as potions, given his appearance that suggested he might partake of the back alley cauldron moonshine. He had an innate knack for developing his own approach to convoluted steps, so long as he wasn't thinking it and then choking under the pressure.

"Shrivelfigs are most commonly used in Shrinking Solutions," Mace said in reply to the question. "I heard that's what the Durmstrang team had to complete during their second task." As opposed to transfiguring their appendages into melee weapons after a prissy goblin had gotten tired of the Americans' shenanigans.

As Mace began his preparations he found himself short one potions glove with an oven mitt as a replacement, until he remembered some recent tinkering with his semi-animated scarecrow Cap'n Patches and thus the glove swapping. Oh well, not that there was a great need to transfer heated contents in this brew, but to that end he could have been stylishly prepared.

As he was at a table where Katherine Beckett had just returned with ingredients he struck up some topical chatter. "I would've figured the measurements would be all Imperial or all International in Britain. Though I guess that saves decimals in comparing ounces to kilograms."

"Fairly accurate, Miss Dimbleby" Lucrezia said in a decidedly bored voice, without even sparing her a glance, too busy frowning at a loose thread at the seams of one of her gloves "Two points for Slytherin. And may I remind you that engaging in side-conversation is forbidden?" this time, she raised her eyes to glare at the girl for a few seconds. "The next time I have to draw attention to this particular aspect of the class, points will start being deduced. If your conversation with your team mates does not pertain to your brewing efforts, you'd best expect repercussions" she addressed the rest of the class, walking around her desk to a massive cupboard.

She was bored, she might as well brew with the students. She knew for certain some learned better with visual aid. She extracted an old - yet well maintained - silver cauldron from the cupboard and placed it on the worktable next to her desk. Pointing her wand at it, first a steady stream of clear water filled the size 2 cauldron to half and secondly a medium flame sparked under the brewing stand. Just as she was turning to walk to her private laboratory through the door at the back of the classroom near her desk, and subsequently, the private storeroom connected to it, another student, this one male replied to the question.

"That is correct, Mister Steinback" she said, half-turned towards the classroom, hand moving towards the handle of the door. "And I commend you for your knowledge on the TetraWizard Tournament—" Ezia continued, pressing the handle, and taking a step forward, before adding "However irrelevant that singular bit of information may be in the current circumstances." She rolled her eyes but only after she had turned her head forward and opened the door widely. The second she had taken a step inside her laboratory, a gun-metal grey snake about 3 metres long, slithered between her legs and into the classroom. "Nice of you to make an appearance, Soma" Lucrezia said barely audible, as she disappeared into the laboratory.

The black mamba crawled atop of the desk and tangled itself into the tree-like sculpture that adorned one of the corners of the furniture. Once it was settled cozily on a branch it moved its head slowly from left to right as if inspecting the classroom, forked tongue slithering in and out of the black mouth. When Ezia returned with a basketful of ingredients, placing them on the worktable, Soma slithered its head under the professor's hand, and Lucrezia obliged giving it a loving pat on the head. "Can any of you tell me what sort of snake Soma is, what her venom contains and what potions could it be used in?" she asked the class with an intrigued look on her face. Setting to slice her shrivelfigs with mind-numbing speed and accuracy, the professor raised her eyes to the class and smirked tightly. "Ten points for whomever manages a complete, accurate answer."

Ji-Hyun had definitely liked Professor Naceri better. Professor di Luca was good too, but she was also intimidating, if not outright terrifying, and it made Ji-Hyun nervous, more so because she was aware that she was unlikely to meet the exacting standards of the new professor. It at least meant that she arrived to lessons punctually, but that was no good if she was doubly distracted during the lessons and ended up scoring nothing anyway. Not that, with the new scoring systlem, Ji-Hyun would have scored much anyway, but this lesson, she was determined to redeem herself.

The appearance of Theo Whitman at her table[1] was unexpected, and she stared at him uncertainly, wondering if they were allowed to talk in the brief period before the lesson began. “Um,” she tried, keeping her voice as low as possible in case they weren’t, “Hi Theo.” Although she tried to sound happy that he was at her table, which she was, she was also bewildered, “Are you here because you really like this table and would like me to go? Or do you mind if I stay?” Relieved that she hadn’t babbled as much as she might have, she smiled tentatively at him, hoping that he wouldn’t expect her to move all of her things to another table – and by now, there weren’t many spaces free, and those that were still unoccupied were mostly right next to the Professor’s desk.

While one of her table members went to collect the ingredients, Ji-Hyun read the instructions over. And then again, reciting the words to herself in the hope that this time, she wouldn’t miss a step or accidentally stir counter-clockwise instead of clockwise. It kept her occupied while Professor di Luca walked close to her table, but she still froze, worried that she had already done something wrong.

Although she didn’t scream when the snake appeared, it was a near thing, and she was so busy staring at it that she almost missed Professor di Luca’s question. Even though she knew that unless provoked, most snakes were more afraid of humans than humans were of them, this particular snake didn’t look afraid in the least. Still watching the snake, she lifted a hand, already speaking before it had lifted over her head, “A black mamba?” she tried, and at the lack of a rebuke, continued, “which is… Dendroaspis polylepis,” the Latin was said haltingly, but Latin didn’t have correct pronunciation so technically, she couldn’t be wrong. Reassured by this, the next piece of information came out at greater speed, almost unintelligible, “They’re exceptionally fast, and, um, their venom contains… mostly neurotoxins, but also dendrotoxins and cardiotoxins, and is very quick to act. It’s not widely used in potions because it’s so toxic, but it can be used as a muscle relaxant, or to calm people down. And it’s an analgesiac.” Finished, Ji-Hyun let out a deep breath of relief. Even if she messed up her potion, she’d still answered the question. Her hand falling to her side, she could see that it was shaking slightly.

1.	cleared with Sly!

Anthony Hoult was no stranger to detention.

Even when Klaus had still been at Hogwarts, and Tony had been but a wee babe of eleven, the first year had already began to make a name for himself as a chaotic child –smart, yes, but entirely disastrous and disrespectful. After an entire childhood of speaking his mind whenever he wished, it appeared there was no changing him now; as he grew, his amounts of detention grew to the point where it would be odd if he didn’t at least face it at least thrice a week, and even that was an underestimation. There’d been on particular week from hell in fifth year, when Tony had spent seven consecutive nights paying for his rebellious acts in seven different classes. And he was rather proud of the accomplishment, as a matter of fact. Lucrezia Di Luca, however, had taken it to a whole new level, and after three consecutive detentions in response to the same amount of classes, Tony had decided it would be outright war between himself and the new Potions Master.

Sitting with a cauldron before him, the sixteen year old barely paid attention to his partner –as a matter of fact, he spared so little as a glance, not even enough to know who he was working with. Instead, he tilted his chair back, folded his arms over his chest, and let his blue gaze settle on Di Luca’s face and follow her as she moved throughout the classroom.  His eyes were narrowed in sign of hatred, and his mind was half focused on deciding what hexes could best be used on the woman; he’d never yet went as far as using his wand on a teacher, for he was certain it would be cause for expulsion, but this woman made him feel ever more tempted every time he set eyes on her imperfect, ugly face –she’d actually been cute the first time he’d seen her, but after that first horrendous class in which Tony had grown bored enough to actually pull out a cigarette simply to gauge her reaction, she’d suddenly became as ugly as a troll.

When the black snake made its appearance, the Slytherin was rather certain Lucrezia had brought it out with the simple purpose of intimidation. Tony rolled his eyes before settling them back on the woman’s face, shrugging as he felt tempted to pull out a cigarette again simply for the hell of it. He raised a hand, a slight leer on his face. “I have no clue if Ji-Hyun is right,” He answered, before she could even have a chance to shut him up and give him detention simply for trying to participate –and he was certain she’d be capable of such an act. “But the snake and you certainly have a striking resemblance, Professor.” He tried to make his smirk as pleasant as possible, so perhaps he could get a fellow student to stand up for him and say Tony simply had the wrong idea of what a compliment was. “Second cousins, or something?”

Lucrezia merely raised an eyebrow as if to say 'Really?' at Miss Jeun's questioning reply. If there was anything that irritated the professor more than complete ignorance, it was lack of faith in one's skills and knowledge. The Hufflepuff could actually be a promising student if she wasn't such a complete nervous wreck and if her attention could be held for more than ten minutes at a time. While the deliverance of the answer had been almost horrible, there was no question of the accuracy of the answer. "That is correct, Miss Jeun. As promised, ten points for Hufflepuff" Lucrezia said, with obvious distaste at having to afford Hufflepuff that amount of points. "Perhaps next time you can arrange your thoughts with some sort of coherent form in mind before answering" she continued, not amused in the slightest.

Her attention was quickly brought to the one specimen that, in all truthfulness, actually made Lucrezia feel pity and some form of amusement, the confused Mister Hoult. To his opening line, Ezia merely thought a 'You wouldn't, would you...'. She took in a rather dramatic breath waiting to see just what else would come from the boy... She had no expectations, really. In order to be able to properly deal a psychological blow by means of verbal abuse, you actually needed intelligence. Which, Lucrezia was sure Mister Hoult was severely lacking.

She stared impassively at the boy for all of a few seconds, then slowly moved her gaze towards her pet and back at the boy. Eventually, she smiled genially at the student. "Why, thank you Mister Hoult" she beamed at the Slytherin. "I'm not sure I've yet reached Soma's greatness, however" she offered cryptically, seeing no reason to explain her mithridatism practices to this bunch. She knew, of course, that Hoult had intended to insult her, and yet, the boy hadn't even managed to offend her. She'd heard better from first years. Tut, tut... how sad.

"Alas, Mister Hoult, your interruption brought no insight into our conversation, so let's say five points from Slytherin for talking out of turn? Hmmm?" she asked smiling tightly at the boy. She took no pleasure taking points from her own past house, but hoped some of the brighter students would make it up by the end of the class. For a second she thought she'd been awfully lenient, then again Hoult would certainly do something to warrant a detention by the end of the class.

"Continue brewing in silence" she said, attention back to her own brewing. "You have about half an hour left. Tick tock" she said, hands moving around gracefully as she quickly finished the first steps of her brew, leaving it to simmer while she kept herself occupied with a book.

A slight, crooked smile dimpled one cheek as he loomed above her. It only broadened when Ji-Hyun gave her permission, and Theo moved to take the spot beside her. Oddly enough, the simple act wasn’t logical (they were in class) so much as territorial. “I don’t mind,” he said, reassuring.

It was easy to smile down at her. She was quite small in comparison.



Hardly ten minutes later, Theo was looking up at the ceiling, uninterested in looking at the sad, hopeless thing that was Anthony Hoult any longer. For someone apparently in charge of a merry little band such as the new Hogwarts ‘mafia’, Tony was surprisingly dim. And uninspired.

Although in hindsight, Theo supposed it didn’t take much to supervise such a thing; Bagnold was still the one running that show, after all.

Shaking his head slightly, the prefect swept the thought of them to the side. With a single, neat sweep of his hand, the sliced Shrivelfigs slipped into his cauldron, disturbing the water with quiet plopplopplop’s, and he waited for it to turn blue until adding the porcupine quills, gently stirring counterclockwise five times, and then twice as he did. Potionmaking was an exact art, but it was just that—an art. And that meant there was often, if not always, room for improvisation for the inclined mind. Stirring so would bring out the properties of the Shrivelfigs; layering them with the quills that would make the potion more potent.

He added the quills, sprinkling them over the potion in practiced motions. He had made an Elixir to Induce Euphoria a few times, once to put a cousin into a rather bad spot; his sudden, untimely happiness– instigated by a well-timed dose slipped into his tea –had cost him a particularly irritable aunt’s favor. She had then seen fit to transfer it onto Theo.

To this day, the boy was still reaping the benefits of it, specifically in the form of sweets, spending money and a good word with her connections. It meant enduring the occasional, odious kisses and pats on the cheek, but that was a negligible expense.

When Ji-Hyun hastened to cut the Shrivelfigs, Theo wordlessly stilled Ji-Hyun’s hand, keeping an eye on Professor Di Luca as he did; carefully he shifted it at the proper angle, until her knife was tilted the way he wanted. Don’t rush, he mouthed.

He did not look forward to being poisoned.

As had been usual for the past few lessons, Rosie had sat down at Phillip Kinsey's table. He was an odd fellow, rough exterior, playing foolish but rather a golden heart deep inside. And nobody could contest that he was one of the brightest minds in the school when it came to Potions. Despite being a little accident prone in his experiments. But never in class. "Eer yar, Ly" he said to her with an impudent little wink and a grin, when she took her seat next to him with a smile. "Glad to be working with you again, Phillip" she said warmly in response.

They set to work swiftly and efficiently on their assignment, hardly any words needed between them as they seemed to play the perfect duet, four hands just as easily counted as a single body. She'd let him procure the ingredients as he seemed to have a natural flair for quantities and identification without any use of instruments, as she prepared their table. They worked in silence tuning out the rest of the class, their sole common purpose at the moment being finishing their potion. She itched to respond one question or the other, but seeing Phillip's almost frightening concentration she decided not to break their focus.

Not ten minutes after Di Luca set them to work in silence, their cauldron turned a bright, warm yellow and started emitting a pleasant aromatic smell. With a bright grin from Rosie and a satisfied, smug nod from Phillip, the two waited a couple more seconds until the rainbow arc formed. When it had finally appeared, they looked seriously at each other, taking a steady breath and set to bottle two doses.

"'Fessor?" Phillip said a little unsure, but with a toothy grin. When the professor raised her eyes from her book, with an unreadable expression Rosie took a little gulp, but Phillip merely nodded seriously, stepping sideways, so she could see the rainbow floating from the cauldron. The Potions Mistress, closed her back and gestured for them to come at the front of the class.

She shouldn't be nervous, she knew their potions was perfect... If not for her skills, then certainly Phillip's. But Di Luca had this way of getting into your mind and filling it with doubt. With a last heavy inhale, she extended her hand and took the vial from Phillip, squeezing it tightly in her palm as they made their way to the desk. She, rather slowly and nervously and Phillip, casually and actually almost skipping. Lucrezia Di Luca was now standing next to her desk, arms crossed and a rather terrifying stone-cold expression on her face. The way she towered over her, made Rosie swallow thickly around a knot in her throat. She fumbled with her blazer as Phillip took the vial to the professor for inspection and prayed she would not be dying in front of the entire class. That would be mortifying

But when she turned to face forward, Phillip was there and his easy-going posture and grin made her relax a little. Phillip gestured at her vial and Rosie quickly uncorked hers with a nervous little smile. "Cheers" he said with a snort, as he touched his vial to hers and quickly threw it back. With a determined nod, she quickly followed him. When she emptied the vial, she finally released it from her lips and looking forward, Phillip had this absolutely ridiculous smile on his face and she could feel the giddiness raising to her head.

"Bloody hell, everything is so awesome. Dis be epic" Phillip drawled with an absolutely ecstatic expression and Rosie couldn't help but giggle and nod fervently, feeling like she could float on clouds. With a scowl and a little grunt, the professor turned to search for something in the drawer of her desk and Rosie wanted to ask who stole ate her bowl of sunshine that morning and maybe grab her hands and dance with her, but some nagging feeling at the back of her head kept her in place.

When Kinsey and Carstairs #2 announced themselves with a finished potion she was not actually surprised. As idiotic as the Gryffindor was, he had a knack for Potions that not many did, and the Ravenclaw, while bland and decidedly uninteresting, was certainly an intelligent girl. She noticed they tended to work well together, the sort of relationship most potioneers only got after years and years of brewing together, but surprisingly, despite their many differences, they seemed to be rather well tuned to each other.

After she gestured for them to approach, she got up on her feet and leaned her hip against the side of the desk, waiting for Carstairs to drag her tiny feet up to front with her arms crossed over her chest. She extended her hand to the seventh year, gesturing for the phial. When it was in her hand she quickly uncorked it and set to analyze it, first watching the spectral vapors, then inhaling the pleasant smell and finally pouring a drop on the back of her hand to check the consistency, only to eventually lick at the small spot. With an approving nod she handed it back and smiled at them both. "Well then, bottoms up, Mister Kinsey, Miss Carstairs."

Once the potion had been ingested she waited a couple of moments for the effects to kick in only to roll her eyes at Phillip's reaction. "Contain yourself, Kinsey" she said briskly, turning to grab a large bottle from the desk, and then handing two tablespoons to each of them. "Antidote. Now. Wouldn't want any display of exuberant happiness in the class, would we?" she smiled tightly and poured the liquid from the bottle into each tablespoon.

The potion was, indeed, without much fault, but she'd come to expect that from Kinsey, at least, if not actually both of them. "Ten points for Gryffindor, and another for Ravenclaw for a well brewed potion and for finishing first. Full marks for today's lesson. You may return to your seats" she gestured for their table and hopped on top of her desk, petting Soma absently. "Anyone else?" she inquired in a bored tone.

Julienning.

Deus scowled at the instructions--sideways, since his head was draped over sleeved arms in what had been his standard pose of general exhaustion since roughly December. He wasn't bad at Potions, but it certainly wasn't his strongest class. He tended to slightly-better-than-mediocre with occasional flashes of success. Usually when there was very little chopping involved. It was always so particular. Dicing. Shredding. Next time they'd probably be asked to pull off a bloody chiffonade (or whatever it was called).

Point was, way Deus saw it, there were three aspects--speed, uniformity, and amount of waste. You could only pick two of the three, and since Prof DL was such a stickler for finising on time, it usually meant tossing one or the other out the window, and that meant he tended to wind up with either not enough, or not as precise as the potions needed. His partner was out today, so he couldn't even bug them to do the chopping and get it right like he usually did, which meant this time... he glanced at his pile of...mostly...same-sized pieces and sighed. Luckily, the fellow's absence didn't hinder Deus's work too much--he'd been doing some...extracurricular research after Professor Maras's seminar, and many of the ingredients overlapped, so fetching them didn't take too much of his time.

Poof.

Rainbows appeared.

Except, Deus frowned faintly, they were going the wrong direction. Rather than arcing gracefully up out of the potion--which was, really, more of a banana-lemon/lime than a sunshine, but at least it was yellow--they surrounded it horizontally, for all the world resembling sun dogs. Deus frowned at them.

Oh well.

Close enough.

He scooped a generous portion into a crystal vial and didn't bother to raise his hand. "Profeeeessor," The boy purred, lazy tone laced with good humor and perennial slipperiness, and in the delightful shade of criss-crossing gray across the line of what was an appropriate way to address someone of rank and dignity. "Everyone at m'table's absent." The words positively dripped with the innocence of an earnest academic, greatly concerned, but he ruined it entirely by smiling, and no smile of Deus's ever truly managed the adjective.  His head slid onto one propped up arm and hand and he fluttered his eyelashes, other hand shaking the vial slightly so it sloshed ever so barely though the contents remained inside, like an offering, "Will ye do me the honors o' testin' m'work?"

"Wouldn't be proper, otherwise," He whispered, wide-eyed innocence returning as he addressed someone a table over, though it was clearly meant to be heard, "Someone havin' tae test more'n'one, or one that they weren't expecting tae test, on account of it nae bein' outlined in the rules and all."

The Potions Mistress turned her head slowly towards the source of the... voice with a rather amused expression. She arched an eyebrow at the way the appellation had been uttered, lips curling into a barely there smile. Of course it was Deres. There were times when she imagined putting both Deres and Kinsey into a tiny little cage with Soma, lock the door and return after a few days to see what that had resulted in. But frankly, despite his idiocy Kinsey actually had talent, Deres was mediocre at best, but amusing at times and while Soma could very well defend herself against most dangers, she was rather disinterested in doing so. Petulant, lazy snake, that one.

Her other eyebrow came to join the first one at his next ridiculously obvious deduction. She moved her hands from the edge of the desk to her lap and leaned forward, crossing her legs. "Yes, my sight still work perfectly fine" she commented in a dead-pan tone, blinking once. Was he actually getting somewhere with that? Or was it State The Obvious Day and she hadn't been informed? Well, his following smile was definitely suspicious, and she frowned a little in expectation of his point.

She listened to him with an unreadable expression, at one point propping her chin in her hand and staring in silence at him. That had been quite... Slytherin of him. On one hand, it was none of her business that he had no table partners, he could just wait for someone else to finish, and couple up with them. Especially since his cauldron did not show any promise. His blatant passive comments to the surrounding tables were also a bit of a concern. She made the rules, it was her class, and at no point had she mentioned that there were any rules or a set amount of rules...

But on the other hand, it could give reason for whining and protestations and she was nowhere near willing to deal with that. With a roll of her eyes she sighed exasperatedly and straightened her posture, leaning back, hands splayed over the desk. "Well? Do you expect me to come to you?" she arched an eyebrow, lips drawn in a little purse. As he made his way to he front, she accioed the antidote and a bezoar -just to be safe- and placed them at her side.

Taking the vial from him, she uncorked it and set to inspect it: the color was close, but not quite on mark, the rainbow arc was not an arc, so much as a horizontal ring and the consistency was thinner than mandated. Wonderful. Raising the vial to the Slytherin she gave him a little glare, but smiled tightly. "Cent' anni" she said in a flawless Sicilian accent, right as she touched the vial to her lips. She waited a couple of minutes for the feeling of bubbly, irrational happiness to appear, feeling her mouth unwillingly spread into a smile, but it wasn't near as powerful as it was supposed to be. Still, she felt like sighing dreamily and that was just ridiculous.

With barely contained enthusiasm, she curled her fingers around the antidote venom when a bout of nausea hit her full-power. Lovely. She took a sprig of the antidote without even bothering with a spoon and wiped her mouth, with the back of her glove turning to throw Deres a murderous glare as she felt the effect of the botched Elixir fade. "Well, that was unpleasant" she finally said, nose twitching as her stomach attempted to relax. "Inferior brew, undistinguished results, but, if anything, an effective emetic" she said a little disgustedly, hand over her stomach. "You tried. Two points for Slytherin" she held the vial to him, looking at it as if it had mortally offended her brewing skills.

Careful only to breathe through his mouth, Aaron dragged his feet to the storeroom, having left his partner[1] to grind the wormwood.  He had dropped two shrivelfigs beneath his desk, and figured something would go wrong if he used them dirty.  Something always went wrong in Potions for Aaron, whether it was a botched shrinking potion that instead of shrinking turned the recipient purple, or a cauldron springing a leak and setting the ground on fire (both situations had happened to him).  Thus far, however, he had managed to pass all of this year's assignments, and he didn't plan on screwing that up.

He rummaged through the rank supplies, fishing out what seemed to be the shrivelfigs, and plucked two from the jar.  He hesitated, then took another, just in case.

When he returned to his table, the water was ready for ingredients, and the wormwood was a perfect paste.  This kid isn't half bad, he thought to himself, looking his parter up tand down.

1.	I need a partner!