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Post by gatsoldier on Sept 3, 2007 15:23:59 GMT -5
At seeing the new rules he gasped. 'Be On time for Every class, tardiness is not tolerated.' and 'Do not Eat, or Drink in the class unless otherwise instructed!' He was late for pretty much every class. He was lucky he had gotten there early this time. He had been late to every other class that day and his house points were on negative. Which was mostly his fault, so he decided that he would earn them back. He also had hidden a muggle packet of chips under his desk and was slowly eating them. He quickly stuffed them in his pocket.
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Post by Keaira O'Connell on Sept 3, 2007 20:26:22 GMT -5
Keaira smiled at the professor knowing that she could give satisfactory answers. She had quite a bit of knowledge in both chemistry and in cooking, so she felt that she could help others who were not so lucky to know, understand. She prepared herself for a mouthful, there were a lot of rules and therefore she would take a few minuets to explain them all.
“Well firstly these rules all help to establish order in the class room this way there are less distractions. Eating and drinking in this class are a hazard because you could accidentally mix your food with the potion, and cause a bad reaction. Likewise, if you’re not sure about something and you do it any way you could end up blowing the class up because you mixed things that shouldn’t be mixed. When potions are made they tend to bubble and certain ingredients can have bad reactions when they come in contact with your skin so gloves and goggles are almost always a must. When potions are left unattended they tend to overflow, and spill, which depending on the stage the potion is in could be very harmful. Which leads me to cleaning up spills. The ingredients that are used are often dangerous, and when mixed will form dangerous potions. Some are even very acidic, and others if you try to banish them will just multiply. It all really depends on the properties of the solution. So you should always make sure. Right?”
Every little bit she paused in her explanation to allow herself to breathe or other wise gather her thoughts. There was so much to be said, and she had hoped she had covered it all, but if she had not she would soon know. She smiled hopefully at the finish hoping that maybe she would have earned 5 points or so for her class.
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Susan Matthews
Gryffindor
[red]5th Year Gryffindor[/red] Shadow Warrior of Earth
goddess, nymph, divine.
Posts: 505
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Post by Susan Matthews on Sept 4, 2007 18:45:52 GMT -5
Susan had been taken by surprise when the Ravenclaw had burst in. She had dropped her quill in a tizz which resulted in messy ink blots on her parchment. Although, she wanted to see what was happening to the boy, and she wanted to answer a few of the questions asked, she thought it might be a good idea to copy down the rules that were marked on the board. Hurrying to catch up with everyone, Susan fished a new sheet of parchment out of her messenger bag and began to copy the rules down again from number one.
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Post by Dylan Cooper on Sept 6, 2007 7:41:13 GMT -5
Dylan's red cheeks now had a new reason to shine. Instead of him being out of breath, he was now thoroughly embarassed as the professor snapped at him. He stammered slightly, which was highly unusual for him, and bit his lip, his thread-like hair dangling in front of his eyes. Noting that the first thing she said was directed at him, he decided to answer her effective immediately. "Yes, Ma'am. Sorry, Ma'am. Be on time for every class, tardiness is not tolerated." he began, fulfilling the demands of the first part of her angry speech. "Uh.. this rule is important so that we can use the full class time to our advantage, not wasting the seconds and minutes that can be extremely valuable in potion making. It allows us to start the lesson as soon as possible, without waiting for late students who disrupt the flow of the lesson." he said, practically all in one breath, his mind working furiously. "I'm so sorry I was late.. I was held up by an angry ghost on the third floor. He locked the door that I needed to go through because I wouldn't stop and talk to him. I'm so sorry, Professor."
He stopped, attempting to regain his breath once more. He remained standing, wondering what she'd do with him, and desperately hoping she wouldn't remove points from Ravenclaw this early in the school year. He really, really didn't want to be the first one to lose ten points for his house, but supposed that someone had to have that honour. Waiting, he bowed his head once more.
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Post by Evelyn Sparrow on Sept 6, 2007 19:59:11 GMT -5
Evelyn waited patiently for the boy to gather his thoughts. He stammered out the rule and his reason behind his tardiness. As she let the words wash over her, she frowned. Although he had given a great reason for the rule, it had not been entirely what she had been hoping for. She glanced to the class and noticed how many of the students eyes were on the pair of them, and then she looked back at Dylan.
“You see Dylan when students come to a class late they distract the others in the class, notice how many of your class mates are currently looking your way right now.” She turned to address the class, “As you can see some of them have forgotten all about what they were doing. Talking stopped, and they all stared to see who was in trouble. Now if they were working on a potion, what do you think would have happened? They would have been paying more attention to you, than their work. This kind of distraction is not tolerated, because potion making is a very serious and dangerous task. Too many things can go wrong in this class, and I plan on allowing none of them happen. Take your seat, and I will take 5 points for a reminder that you need to be on time.”
With her punishment for the boy out of the way she turned to Miss O’Connell, “Good job, Miss O’Connell, take 5 points. As you all should know by now potion making is very hazardous. And if you do not follow the rules you will receive the consequences. Now with all the distractions out of the way let’s move on. As Mister Darko has pointed out for us, Shrinking Solutions are used to transform things to a smaller size, and a younger age. I want every one to pull out their supplies and get started. The directions are on the board.”
As she said the word ‘board’ a list of supplies and directions appeared on the board.
Abyssinian Shrivelfig(skinned) Caterpillars (10 chopped) Leeches (juiced) 1 cup Rat Spleen (1) Daisy Roots (shredded in to even pieces) Crocodile Heart (drained and pressed)
Begin by simmering 3 cups of water, when you reach a boil add in skinned Abyssinian Shrivelfig, this will turn the water a dirty brown, and cause a lot of bubbling. Stir clockwise 5 times and then slowly add in your chopped caterpillars. At this point you need to increase the heat, for 8 minutes. Allowing it to reach a nice boil before you add 1 cup of juiced leeches. Adding too much juice will cause your potion to turn orange. After your solution has had a chance to breathe, you need to carefully add one rat spleen to the mixture. This will cause the potion to have the right type of bite in the end.
Next you need to take your evenly sliced daisy roots, and while stirring counterclockwise, add them slowly. Adding them too quickly will cause the potion to mature too fast, and then you will end up not getting the proper results when finished.Reduce heat, and stir, alternating directions. The potion needs to simmer for 7 minuets, before you mix in the Crocodile Heart, at this point your potion should have turn nice shade of acid green. Be careful with this because it will cause the potion to turn a forest green, if added too soon, and a smoky, whitish green if added to late.
“You will have 45 minuets to prepare your potion. The end result should be an acid green solution; each student will fill a vial of their potion, and bring it to me at the end of this class. Please limit your talking, as it can be very distracting. Today’s lesson should not result in anything volatile, but just to be cautious when ever adding ingredients, or stirring potions please use goggles.”
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Susan Matthews
Gryffindor
[red]5th Year Gryffindor[/red] Shadow Warrior of Earth
goddess, nymph, divine.
Posts: 505
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Post by Susan Matthews on Sept 7, 2007 5:17:17 GMT -5
Eager to get started, Susan finished copying down the rules and began to work on her Shrinking Solutions. Just like cooking, Susan got out all of her materials before hand, and preheated he cauldron. She had all of the ingredients except for the Crocodile Heart, which she had to borrow from the Student Supply Cupboard. The rest of the class was advancing on the directions. Susan, however, took her time to read through the directions. She measured out three cups of water and poured them into her cauldron. While she waited for the water to boil, she began to skin her Abyssinian Shrivelfig. Susan looked around to see the majority of the class doing the same. Relieved, Susan continued happily. The best part about potions, Susan thought, was that it was quite impossible to keep your work private.
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Post by gatsoldier on Sept 7, 2007 18:33:47 GMT -5
Gat, as always, started by gathering the ingredients before him. He started to slowly and carefully skin his Abyssinian Shrivelfig. After he had done that he slowly shredded the daisy roots to completely even peices. He was always a perfectionist when it came to potions. When he made a mistake, he would always start again. Then he started to chop his caterpillars, one by one. Then he slowly juiced his leeches. Last was his crocodile heart. He carefully drained and pressed it as he thought it was the most vital part to the solution. When this was finished, he poured the carfully measured three cups of water into the cauldron to simmer.
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Susan Matthews
Gryffindor
[red]5th Year Gryffindor[/red] Shadow Warrior of Earth
goddess, nymph, divine.
Posts: 505
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Post by Susan Matthews on Sept 7, 2007 19:22:31 GMT -5
Susan peeked carefully around at the steaming cauldrons around her. Seeing that hers matched the others close enough, she confidently added her shrivelfig and commenced stirring clockwise five times before adding her cut up caterpillars to her solution as well. She increased the temperature and allowed her potion to boil and then she included her juiced leeches. Her potion turned a pale orange. It wasn't as dark as she liked, but she continued with the instructions anyway.
While her potion "breathed" Susan prepared her rat spleen and began to slice her daisy roots carefully. After a moment, the spleen was added and she began to stir counter clockwise as she add her roots slowly, only a few at a time. It took a good fifteen minutes to get them all in, but soon they were all in. Ready for the next step, Susan reduced the heat and began stirring. First clockwise, and then counter, and clockwise again, for several minutes. Then, while her solution simmered, she drained and carefully pressed her borrowed crocodile heart. Eager to finish on time, Susan added the heart a little soon. Her potion turned a crayola green. Not quite the disastrous Forest green mentioned in the directions, but not quite the desired acid green either. Susan was satisfied, it was the best she could do.
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Post by Keaira O'Connell on Sept 7, 2007 20:26:04 GMT -5
Keaira looked up at the clock. She had forty four minutes to make this potion the best it could be made. As she glanced to the directions she pulled out a measuring cup, and using the aguimenti spell filled her cauldron with three cups of water. She then lit the fire using incendio and got to work skinning her Shrivelfig.
With a look to the directions as she was skinning her Shrivelfig she did a quick bit of math. 7 minuets to boil, 5 minuets for caterpillars, 8 minuets for the water to boil before the leaches, 5 minuets at least for it to breathe, at least 5 minuets to add the daisy roots, and 8 minuets for the crocodile heart, with all of these steps accounted for she would need at least 38 minuets for it to be effective… 45 minuets was pushing it relatively close.
She focused on her Shrivelfig and shook her head, hopefully nothing would go wrong. When she had finished with her skinning, she set it aside and began to chop her caterpillars in to small strips. As her water began to boil she retrieved two pairs of goggles, better safe, than in trouble. She glanced over at Alessandro who was about to add his Shrivelfig, and she stopped him, handing him the goggles first. “Don’t forget these; we all saw what happened when some one was late.”
She smiled at him as he took the goggles and put them on, and then they both carefully put in their Shrivelfig, and began the clockwise stirring 5 times. When she had finished that she carefully added her caterpillars to the solution, making sure that she let them mix in well before adding more. Once that was done, she took note of the time, and increased the temperature of the fire, allowing the boiling process to begin.
Her next step was to juice her leeches. Although, some students had actually used leech juice, she felt that you got better results when you used real leeches and juiced them fresh. So as the potion was boiling, she keep a close eye on the time, and juiced her own leeches. Ending p with one cup, by the time 5 of the 8 minuets had passed. She looked up at the time again, when she had finished, and put the leech juice to the side, and instead pulled her daisy roots forward and began systematically slicing them in to thin, even strips. It was time to add the leech juice before she finished striping the daisy roots, so she carefully added the juice causing it to turn a yellowish orange. Then it was time to let it breathe, so she had some time to allow her to finish up her slicing.
After 5 minuets of breathing the potions color had evened out a bit more, giving it a better orange look. So She decided that it was time to continue. She added the one rat spleen, and then began to slowly stir counterclockwise, this way she could slowly add her perfectly chopped daisy roots to the mixture. She was very careful to make sure that the roots weren’t just dumped in to the water all together, but slowly added, making sure that each root had its chance to simmer a few seconds before she continued. When she was done, she began to stir clockwise, followed by counterclockwise, alternating the direction with every turn, she continued this for two minuets before she reduced the heat and let it simmer.
With only 5 minuets before she was supposed to add the crocodile heart, she immediately began to drain, and press the thing. Hoping that she would be done before her time was up. She glanced at Alessandro and saw that he was attempting to do the same thing, but his potion didn’t have as clear a look to it as hers. With her eyes firmly on the clock she wasn’t sure if she had pressed her crocodile heart efficiently, but she couldn’t wait to add it any longer. So hoping that it would do, she gently added it to the potion. Once it was fully emerged the potion turned a lime green. Almost like the color of a green apple. It wasn’t nearly as acid looking as the teachers, potion, but it was green none the less.
She glanced over to Alessandro as he finished up. Hoping that he had done as good as she had.
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Post by Dylan Cooper on Sept 8, 2007 6:28:59 GMT -5
Hoping to make up for the mistake of being late, Dylan quickly sat himself down after being administered his punishment. Choosing the nearest empty bench, he dropped his backpack onto the cold stone floor and set up his ageing pewter cauldron, producing his wand from his black robes immediately after. Reading the instructions on the blackboard carefully, he deployed approximately three cups of water into his cauldron and lit a small fire underneath. Re-reading to check that was right, he moved to set up all of his ingredients in front of him, a habit he'd developed throughout his life. Pulling an Abyssinian shrivelfig, caterpillars, leeches, a rat spleen and daisy roots from his own stores, he placed them neatly on the bench in the order he would need to use them. Checking that the water was coming along, he walked over to the student stores cupboard and began searching for a crocodile heart. Finding it quickly on a lower shelf, he strolled back to his bench and placed it where it should be according to his system.
Skinning his shrivelfig he leant against his work bench and surveyed the classroom, seeing where everyone else was up to. Most seemed ahead of him but he was determined not to rush; a badly made potion with time to spare was far worse than a more correct potion barely finished. He chopped up his caterpillars next, making sure to clean his knife first, and then to cut them as evenly as possible. Re-checking the board, he completed the assigned ten and pushed them aside for the moment, noticing that the water had just come to the boil. Reading the rules carefully before doing anything, he sighed with relief that he had thought to do so, as he'd nearly begun without protective glasses. He went and grabbed the nearest pair to him and when he got back to his station he breathed deeply.
He took up his well-skinned shrivelfig and placed it into the boiling water. Noting what it should do and what it was doing, he was rather pleased that all went according to plan. The solution took on a brown tinge and began bubbling furiously. He stirred clockwise five times and then added his finely-diced caterpillars slowly, following the instructions given exactly. Increasing the heat of the flame underneath, he checked the clock on the wall and recording the time in his head, he noted when eight minutes would be up. Now juicing the leeches himself, he let the products drain into a small container that was sitting on the bench, filling it to the 'one cup' mark, and making sure it was as accurate as possible by crouching and being eye-level with the measuring jug. Setting the leeches aside into a waste pile, his eyes flicked up to the clock and noted that already twenty minutes had passed.
With forty left, he ever-so-carefully shredded his daisy roots, taking as much time as he needed so as to make sure that they were as even as could be. Putting them aside for the moment, he saw that just over eight minutes had elapsed and he quickly paid attention to his potion, which was now boiling nicely, he retrieved his cup of leech juice and added it slowly, making sure the solution didn't become the orange colour warned of on the board. Letting it 'breath' for a minute or two, he then added his rat spleen to the mixture. Checking the board for about the tenth time, he retrieved his daisy roots off the bench, which weren't perfect, but relatively even-looking, and stirred counter-clockwise as he slowly added them, bit by bit. Looking around nervously for a second, he noticed everyone getting on with the task at hand, and a few doing the same as him and checking everyone was on the same level.
Only being in his fifth year at the wizarding school, he thought that he'd be behind in all of his classes. Even though it was just the first day, he thought he wasn't doing too badly, but maybe being in Ravenclaw helped a wee bit. Worrying for a moment over the five points already lost, he then shook his head, telling himself sternly that he needed to concentrate. That was his biggest problem in Potions. He tended to daydream quite a bit, and that wasn't exactly the most desired trait for this class.
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Post by Evelyn Sparrow on Sept 13, 2007 0:18:36 GMT -5
((waiting on one or two more people before i close this up...))
Evelyn had made a shrinking solution to perfection on many occasions, this was no different. She followed all of her own instructions, and all of her own rules, Goggles, gloves. As she had been prepared for the potion, all of her ingredients were properly cup, shredded, juiced, skinned, and ready. As her potion reached each stage it was the exact color mentioned in the directions. With out needing to prepare her ingredients like the students, she was able to keep an eye on their progress, and fix them if they went way off course. She took her time, making sure that each student was following the proper steps and nothing volatile resulted.
As she approached the finishing steps to her potion she noted that each of the students had achieved results, whether they would work was another thing entirely. She bottled a large portion of her potion, intending to use most of it as the comparison for the students work, and the rest for her privet stores.
“Alright everyone, times about up, and you should be finishing up now.” She looked over her entire class, each of them, with their varying solutions, wondering who among the class the best was.
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Post by karinachan08 on Oct 1, 2007 0:18:21 GMT -5
Ariana was late for potions class. It was one of her favorite class and she was late. She had been talking to Professor Serlaen after class. she had lost track of time and was now walking by the kitchen. She didn't like to run in the halls and had just made it to the class room. The door was closed and she open it slowly before walking in quietly before closing the door Slowly and quietly. She looked around and saw that everyone was working on their potions. She took a Sit near the back hoping that she didn't disrupted class. She had already done that to day as it is. She Pulled her mothers potions out of her bag along with Paper and Quill. She Wrote down what the rules were then opened her mothers potions book. After finding a Blank Page in the back she wrought down the list of supplies and directions before begin.
She begin her by getting the Supplies she would need out of her bag then putting on Gloves and goggles. She then skinned the Abyssinian Shrivelfig, chopped 10 Caterpillars, and juiced 1 cup of Leeches. She Set this stuff to the Side out of the way. She shredded Daisy Roots in to even pieces then drained and pressed Crocodile Heart before getting the Rat Spleen out of the container it was in.
She put Three cups of water into the preheated cauldron and waited for it to Boil at this point she added the skinned Abyssinian Shrivelfig. The water turned a dirty brown, and caused a lot of bubbling. She stirred it clockwise Five times and then slowly added in the chopped Caterpillars. Increase the heat she let it come to a Boil after Eight minutes then added the cup of leech juice. Her potion didn't turn an orange Color so she was happy so far. She let it rest for 4 minutes then Slowly and carefully add the Rat spleen to her potion. Stirring counterclockwise she Slowly added the evenly sliced daisy roots. She Reduce the heat and keeped Stirring while alternating directions every now and then.She let it simmer for 7 minuets before added the Crocodile Heart. Her potion wasn't acid green but it wasn't forest green or a smoky, whitish green either. It was kind of between Acid Green and Forest green.
She turned the heat off and Raised her hand for help. She didn't under stand why it was this color and She really didn't need her cauldron Blowing up. She waited to be called on when Professor Sparrow Said, “Alright everyone, times about up, and you should be finishing up now.”
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Post by Alessandro Darko on Oct 1, 2007 2:13:07 GMT -5
As they were asked to commence their potion making, Alessandro closed his eyes for a moment and silently prayed that he would turn out something halfway decent for a passing grade. When he opened his eyes, he noticed Susan was skinning her Abyssinian Shrivelfig.
Better start now... He thought as he began to pour in the water into his cauldron. He set it aflame and began to separate his ingredients. He set his Shrivelfig on the table next to the cauldron on hi cutting board, he then placed a jar of leech juice next to it. He brought out a bag of daisies, and a small black box and set them down. The next items he placed onto his desk were the rat spleen and the crocodile heart, which was wrapped tightly in wax paper bound with twine string.
He began skinning his shrivelfig and just as he was about to drop it into his cauldron, Keaira handed him a set of goggles warning him on what the professor had informed them of earlier when Dylan burst into the classroom. He nodded to her and put them on and then dropped in the shrivelfig. Immediately the water turned a murky brown and began to bubble furiously. He quickly began to stir it rapidly clockwise and counted to five as he completed each full stir. After he had increased the heat, he began chopping up his caterpillars. Gross... he thought as they still wriggled and writhed after being segmented. He found that he was one caterpillar short but it was time to add them to the potion, so he pretended there were ten chopped up and plopped them in. The water came to a boil and it was now time to add the leech juice. He failed to really measure the amount, because he lacked a measuring cup and didn't think to ask Keaira who obviously was prepared. He just added what he thought was a cup (but in reality was more like 3/4 cup).
"Potion to breathe.....rat spleen.....the right bite..." He murmured as he read over the direction stirring his potion. He raised his eyebrow at the potion. "I feel like I should be cackling..." He remarked as he began to add the daisy roots as he reversed his the direction he was stirring. He reduced the heat and began to stirr alternating the direction from counter to clockwise and then realized he had yet to drain and press his crocodile heart.
He let go of the ladle and unwrapped the heart quickly and proceeded to squeeze the blood out of the heart. Finally pressing the heart he tossed it in the cauldron as he was running out of time. "Oh bother....I think I royally messed this up..." He said dolefully as he peered into his cauldron. The color was a mossy green, a darker mossy green.
The professor told everyone to wrap it up and so he did. He pulled out a vial and ladled in a small amount of his potion and put a stopper in it. He then labeled his vial: A. Darko, R5 (for Ravenclaw, 5th year) and then submitted it to the professor for evaluation.
He cleared his workstation and eagerly awaited the end of class so he could move as far away from his self-presumed failure as possible.
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Post by Dylan Cooper on Oct 4, 2007 19:54:51 GMT -5
Dylan re-checked the board before continuing, and reduced the heat of his flame accordingly, using his other hand to hold his stirring implement and alternate directions within the concoction. Noting the time, he observed what the time would be in seven minutes and took the time to give his station a bit of a clean. Flicking his wand, the semi-large pile of waste products that had developed on the bench disappeared, along with any excess juices that had trailed out of them.
Leaning against his bench, he regarded his classmates and noticed a small Slytherin girl who must have arrived after him. Feeling affronted that she, too, had not received a points deduction or been embarassed in front of the entire class, he turned back around huffily and saw that six minutes had passed. Focusing solely on his watch now, he picked up the nearby crocodile heart and prepared to place it in. As the longest hand hit twelve, he immediately desposited the heart into his potion, mixing it in as instructed.
To his slight surprise, the mixture turned a good shade of acid green and he smiled brightly. He was good at Potions, he knew that, but it was still a bit of a struggle for him personally. He was always so anxious about his timing, amounts and the chopping of ingredients that he could never fully relax until it was over. Hearing the teacher call that they should be nearly done, he smiled at his excellent timing.
Collecting a small glass container from the main bench, he scooped some of his Shrinking Solution into it and replaced the stopper. Grabbing a felt pen, he labelled it with his name, year and house and put it in the holding tray on the professor's desk.
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