Term 5, Year 4, Lesson 1

Lucia walked into the storage room of the dungeons and looked around, finding the necessary ingredients to the potion the fourth years would make today. She smiled, waved her wand and maneuvered the ingredients onto her desk. She sat down behind the desk, waving her wand again, but this time at the blackboard which quickly wrote down her name and the name of the class, as well as the potion they would make.

Blackboard:

She leaned back in her chair, waiting for the students to assemble in a soft silence, very patiently.

Auden walked into the potions classroom very excited. She loved potions and learning. Auden noticed that there were no other students so she just plopped her self down.

Ryland hurried to the Potions classroom, feeling a bit nervous about this subject. Potions had never been his best asset so he had been trying to improve over the summer yet he hadn't been lucky. Most of the things Phoenix had tried to teach him ended up exploding or simply leaving the kitchen smelling terrible.

He walked in with a gloomy mood about the subject, already predicting his failure. "Hey Aylee. Hey Auden." he greeted the two girls already in the room before taking a sit next to Aylee at the back of the room. Crossing his arms on top of the desk, he rested his head.

Auden turned her head when Ryland said hello. "Hey Ryland. Hi Aylee, I didn't even notice you where here! Sometimes I space out so much." Auden said with a smile.

Lucia checked her clock and smiled at the three students that had assembled. She straightened up a bit and cleared her throat. "Hello, I'm Lucia Henley and I shall be your professor of Potions this year," she said kindly, happy to declare it herself.

"Let's get straight to business, shall we? Who here knows what the Wit Sharpening potion is, and what three key ingredients is necessary to make it?" she asked, wondering if any of them would know.

(OOC: Sorry for short post... Too tired to do any more than this)

Lucia smiled when Ms. Walters raised her hand and replied to the question. Considering the fact that Lucia got off on the wrong foot with Ms. Walters, she was really happy about this. "Quite correct, Ms. Walters. Five points to Ravenclaw," Lucia said happily. She briefly looked over the two others, noting that one of them was another Ravenclaw and only one was a Gryffindor. Her old house. She frowned. No favoring one student over the other now! She laughed internally at herself and then returned to the matter at hand; probably not a good idea to fall into a daydream now.

"All right then. Turn you textbooks to page 37, and you will find the ingredients necessary for the potion, as well as the instructions. As you can see, I have a very varied set of ingredients up here. It is your job to choose the right ones and take them to your seats. When you have, you may start to brew the potion. You will quickly discover if you've chosen the wrong ingredients. Don't worry, this is just a brief test. No grades or point-withdrawals," she said softly.

Page 37:

"All right, you may begin. You have thirty minutes," Lucia instructed, well prepared with both antidotes and her wand. Not to mention her phoenix not so far off.

Ryland gave a sigh of relief as Professor Henley announced it was only a practice activity and wouldn't count as a grade. Potions was the Gryffindor's worst nightmare. He read the description of the potion slowly, taking his time, and then read over the ingredients necessary.

He walked over to the cupboard with his book in hand, making sure to not get the textbook dirty or to knock something down. The first ingredient he found was the scarab beetle. He lifted the dead insect and placed it on his book, following the labels on the other bottles and boxes to find the next two ingredients.

He saw Aylee's reaction when she found the beetle, and he let out a soft chuckle. The next thing he found was the ginger root, which he had found rather quickly because it seemed to be a very common ingredient. The last one was the armadillo bile. He quickly turned back to his table and began to work on the potion.

He dumped the ginger root into the liquid it turned into a soft shade of green. As far as he knew, he was on the right path. He then mixed in the armadillo bile and watched the liquid turn from green to blue, though it was a faint tint. Frowning, Ryland began to feel self conscious about his work. And it's only the second step! He decided to add the beetle either way and the liquid soon turned into a blood red shade.

Slightly worried, Ryland dumped more armadillo bile until the liquid became yellow. Okay. It's not dark green. It's not dark green... He thought. With the addition of more ginger root, Ryland half expected it to turn black and explode, but instead it turned into an ugly green. Still, he added in the armadillo bile he had left and watched it turn into a deep, almost blue, shade of purple. Ryland realized his palms were sweating, but he figured that if it was to explode it might as well be now.

He left the potion alone finally, glancing at the others' work. They seemed much less worried than he was. The ten minutes passed painfully slow but he managed to remember that the time had been up about two minutes ago. He added the ginger root again and watched the liquid turn red. RED. It was a deep, wine-colored type of red.

Ryland groaned and imagined himself throwing the cauldron's liquid out the window.

Lucia looked at the two hard workers and smiled softly. She had given them a difficult potion, but she had faith that they would do their best and not just give up. At least, that was the test. They both seemed very tired as the potion simmered for ten minutes. She rose from her desk as they started up again and cleared her throat. "Time's up," she said softly and walked over to Ms. Walters and Mr. Marcotte Malfoy

"You've done a really good job, Ms. Walters, however, you both seem to have been putting in too much at a time, so you were unable to see which color came next before putting in something new again, destroying it. Your potions are useless, but you've both proven that you take this seriously and that you don't give up easily. This is a hard potion because it can be lengthy, but you've both done a good job. So, ten points to each of you for perseverance," she said softly and smiled.

"Now, the class is dismissed and have a good holiday everyone. I'll be looking forward to seeing you again," she said with a smile, walking back up to her desk, watching them pack and leave.