Term 6, Lesson 1, Year 3

Lucia walked into the classroom, ready to start off a new year. Her second year as a teacher of Potions. She really loved tho job, as much had been proven last year with her students. Now she would be teaching the third years their first potion of the term. She looked around the room, checking to see if everything was in the right order, and that the cabinet holding the potions was untouched and sorted. She was pleased to see that it was. She then waved her wand and the chalk danced across the blackboard.

Blackboard:

She had decided to show them a slightly easy potion to make, though not very easy, as people could very well need it along the year, given the fact that the cold weather that always came in the winter might leave them with the beginning of a flu. Of course, they wouldn't be allowed to make this potion on their own without having asked Lucia of permission, in case they made it incorrectly and winded up with something much worse than a flu. She sat down behind her desk and looked at the door, anxious to start the lesson.

Darcy walked into the classroom, hoping she'd be all right during this lesson in Potions. She had managed to make her potions almost completely right, but today, she wanted the full scale of it. She wanted to make it perfect to earn Gryffindor some points.

She was really glad to be back at Hogwarts, and seeing professor Henley again was another good thing. So she sat down near the front, ready to make a pepperup potion. She wondered what it would be like to brew. Probably really interesting. She knew that it was a potion to help against the flu and stuff, so it might be a really good thing to know how to brew.

Lucia turned to see who entered as she heard footsteps. She smiled as she saw the bright smile of miss Wilde. "Hello, miss Wilde," she greeted friendly. And then the bell struck. She sighed, wondering briefly where her other students were. She shrugged it off and turned her attention to miss Wilde.

"As you can see, we're going to brew a potion called 'pepperup potion' today. Do you know the effects of this potion, miss Wilde?" she asked softly, looking at the one student that had showed up. Lucia hoped the rest would, but she wouldn't be awfully shocked if she was proved wrong.

Evan walked in the classroom aware of being late. He glanced at the blackboard and find today's topic, Pepperup Potion. Kynan's delay once costed Griffindor five points, so Evan decided to try to redeem his fault immediately somehow. Instant question answering! "Hello professor Henley," Evan told her, thinking what questions she might have asked. "Pepperup Potion. Hm. One of ingredients is Mandrake root, the potion makes steam coming out of person's ears." Instant question answering complete! "Is this the answers you were waiting for, professor? Maybe no points deduction for me today?"

Evan looked around. Darcy was the only student in the class now. Maybe he wasn't that late after all? Maybe there was going to be no points deduction and bonus for the right brilliant instant answers?

Darcy was just about to reply when Evan came in through the doors and answered the question that he haven't even heard. She raised an eyebrow slightly, but she didn't get annoyed at him. She would simply have liked to answer the question herself. But she smiled at Evan and was glad to see him; she really hadn't wanted to spend a potion lesson on her own...

But she raised her hand either way and said: "And it also helps you recover from a flu or simply a runny nose." She had read about it somewhere.

Evan was really glad Darcy had something to add to his answer. And this something was probably the most important part, because
a) Darcy heard the question
b) Darcy was obviously better at potions than Evan

Evan gave her a warm smile and was looking forward to joining her in an actual potion brewing. But first he should have got a response from the professor: know how many points he lost, how many he got (if any), and listen to a reprimand.

Lucia looked up as the doors to the classroom opened and mr. Evans walked inside. She raised half an eyebrow when he blurted out an answer to some of her question, and seemed hopeful that he wouldn't be deducted any points. Lucia had to smile slightly, and the damage to his bursting in and taking the question away from ms. Wilde was averted when the girl managed to come up with another thing to add.

"Mr. Evans, you would have been deducted five points for being late, but since this clearly hasn't come on strongly, I will refrain from taking them. You are awarded five points for answering the question, though. However, your way of replying was rather insolent and, not only being late, you disrupted the class, however small it might be at the moment. But I am pleased to see that you have knowledge on this potion," she said, smiling to him as she spoke, wanting him to know that she wasn't at all that mad.

"Now, to continue, five points to you, ms. Wilde for answering the question correctly. The Pepperup potion's main effect is to help people recover from the flu or runny noses. However, it does also cause smoke to rise from the ears, and the main ingredients are Bicorn horn and Mandrake root. And this is how to brew it," Lucia said, and turned to the blackboard, wiping off the word that was already there and waved her wand, getting the chalk to dance over the board, writing the way of it down.

Blackboard:

"All right! Then it's just to get to it," Lucia said with a smile and leaned against her desk, looking at her two students.

Deirdre rushed into the classroom, it was her first lesson and she was already late. There were two students in the room so far, she gratefully noted, and they appeared to be making a potion at the time she'd walked in. Professor Henley looked at her, eyebrow raised in question. The girl quickly apologized and found a seat, knowing that she'd probably get points deducted from her house for being late.

She looked at the blackboard, and trying not get draw attention to herself anymore, gathered her ingredients and got to work, following the steps.

After getting his points (Yay! Evan got some despite he was late!) Evan took his seat and got all his things from the bag. The writings appeared on the blackboard, so he could start the practical part now.

Evan took the ingredients from the cupboard and started brewing. He followed all instructions and hoped that this time his potion would be fine. He managed to doodle a little during the 15 minutes waiting, and now he was doodling during the 10 minutes one. From time to time he glanced at his potion, waiting for it to become brownish red.

Darcy quickly got to work and finished the first part easily enough. She cut up the mandrake root in neat pieces and put the four pieces in when the fifteen minutes were up and started stirring the cauldron. She was efficient and added the last three pieces of mandrake to the potion. She stirred for the last time and watched it closely as it turned to a brownish red. However, it looked a bit more red than brownish red. She hoped it was correct...

She turned off the temperature and took a sample. She then walked up to the professor with the sample. "Here you go," she said softly and walked back to her spot, sitting down to find out what to do next.

Maya slipped in behind the dark haired Hufflepuff girl, glad that she was there to take the attention from herself.  Unusual to have two late students Maya thought to herself.  Truth be told, somehow Maya had forgotten that she was even taking Potions this year.  She had missed a few classes in second year and was surprised she had even managed to pass.

Maya trudged on past Deirdre as she was apologizing and chose to remain silent, trying to revert any extra attention from herself.  She took her seat quickly placing the required items on her desk.  She squinted up at the board, trying to make out what potion they were making.  She looked around and smiled at the other two students, Darcy and Evan, and just decided to follow the instructions that were on the board. What's the worst that could go wrong?

She got out her ingredients and tried to look enthusiastic even though she had no clue as to what potion she was trying to concoct.  The surrounding students seemed too busy in their own potions that she felt interrupting them would be rude.  Maya began crushing her bicorn horn, which was harder than she anticipated.  She had to use the flat side of her blade and put all her weight into it, the end result was not very satisfactory as the bicorn horn could have been more crushed.  Maya shrugged and decided that it was time to move on as she was already lagging behind and heated her cauldron.

The room soon filled with steam as people's cauldrons began to simmer and what not and Maya began to find it very hard to make out the instructions on the board and just hoped that she was following them correctly.  She proceeded to cut up the mandrake, into what she prayed was supposed to be seven pieces and added some to the cauldron after it had simmered for 15 minutes.  After stirring the potion some more and adding more mandrake and bicorn horn Maya was in the process of stirring the potion seven times clockwise when she lost count. Oh no. Maya was finding it really hard to concentrate since she had shown up late and felt rushed to complete the potion, she just decided to stir the potion once more for luck and sat down nervously watching her potion as the ten minutes passed by slowly with anticipation.  As she was sitting down looking about the room for a distraction, which had cleared of the steam, she felt more relaxed and made out the name of the potion they were making.  Pepperup potion Maya gratefully knew of it as it was very popular in the hospital wing around flu season and thought it would be very handy to be able to make batches of for herself.

After the ten minutes had passed Maya looked over the brim of her cauldron and was thankful that her potion was nearly completely brown. It was actually quite similar to the rest of the other students she noted as she placed a vial of it on Professor Henley's desk next to the others.

After 10 more minutes passed, Evan's potion became brown. That wasn't the perfect color for it, but was still pretty close in Evan's opinion. His last year potion was much worse.

Evan came to professor's desk an left his potion there. "Mine is finished, Professor Henley!" he said. "This time it should be better." Then he returned to his seat, ready for some more waiting and drawing.

Deirdre smiled at Maya when they sat down after arriving late. She hadn't seen her for a long time. 

The Hufflepuff crushed her ingredients as carefully as such an activity could be done, and then put them into her cauldron. She waited for about fifteen minutes, letting them simmer, cutting the mandrake root while doing so. After the time had passed, she added four pieces of it to her potion. She then started stirring.

Deirdre put the rest of her ingredients in, continuing her stirring, clock-wise. She then waited again, for approximately ten minutes. her potion had turned brownish, so she took a sample from it and turned off the temperature.

She went up to the Professor, leaving the potion there. " Here you go.", she said quietly, not knowing whether she'd done nicely or not.

Points for brewing:

Evan Williams: 15 points
Maya Winchester: 15 points
Deirdre Seamore: 15 points
Darcy Wilde: 15 points