First Year Potions 101 Closed

Marcus looked up from his book and smiled toward Vera "Hello there, My name is Marcus, Heir to the De Wynter House, pleasure to meet you Miss" He stated with a nod "Seems we'll be potions partners for awhile, I hope you have some idea about potions" He teased her lightly then chuckled as he looked at the board "Pepper-up Potion?" He mumbled "Surprising they would do this one as the first potion we make" He added then shrugs and went to gather the ingredients, getting up from his seat and moving over to the cabinets as he skims over what he needs, looking behind him to Vera "Do you want to Dice the Ingredients or stir?" He asked as he finishes gathering the ingredients and moving back to their table.

Taking a glance around the classroom, he sees people partnering up with Slytherins 'surprising people are actually willing to work with my house' he thought with another soft chuckle, then went back to checking the ingredients he collected "Everything seems fresh enough that it won't cause an issue with the potion" He told Vera as he starts up the cauldron and proceeds to begin dicing the harder ingredients where needed.

Caitlin read and reread the instructions before even turning on the flame under her cauldron. A Pepper-up Potion... This would be no big deal. She had watched her father make it a hundred times over and she knew the steps by heart. However, the ingredients that were listed on the board made no sense. They would clash with each other and would weaken the potion. She really didn't want to mess with what the teacher had told them to do but her morals that had been drilled into her soul by her father wouldn't let her follow the instructions. Without a word to her partner she quickly gathered what she needed and went to work. After 15 minutes the potion needed to sit for another 4 minutes by its self so she glanced around the classroom. Her eye caught on a young man not to far from her workstation.  He certainly wasn't hard on the eyes she would give him that, their eyes caught for a moment before she quickly advertised her gaze. Oh would you look at that! Time for the next step! Caitlin tried to distract herself from the boy by bussing herself with her work but couldn't help stealing glances here and there with a blush on her cheeks every time.

Her eyebrow quirked as he introduced himself with such modesty. She'd certainly never heard of the De Wynter family or fortune, but how fancy-schmancy that their progeny claimed to be 'heirs'. "Mhm," she replied with a nod of acknowledgement as he finished exchanging the pleasantries. She didn't try to hold back a snort as he implied she might know about potions. "Nope, not really," she answered, shrugging, "But I can read a recipe, I s'pose." Her eyes darted around to the other stations, taking note on how some students seemed completely at ease and others, like herself, were more or less lost. She was grateful the boy stepped up and offered her one of the two jobs. "Uhh, I'll take th' dicin'. I'm not the best at minding the number of stirs." she nodded, peering back down at the book and picking up the paring knife. "Two teaspoons diced ginger. Alright." She started chopping away, moving from one ingredient to the next. Her hands eventually got tired, and she was happy he'd taken over on the tougher ingredients like snail shells. 

Vera's focus wore off though as she took up stirring: once... four times... 

She checked in with Sir Fancy Pants. "How many times am I supposed to stir this stuff? Is it supposed to be turning green, y'think?" she asked, "Because it's not changing color. I thought pepper-up potions were red." Her green hues fell on a dark haired gryffindor girl across the room who seemed to know her stuff as she was just sitting there. "Think you got a secret admirer, De Wynter," she teased him, smirking. 

Marcus checked the cauldron when she asked "Hmm..three more stirs, after the next stir I'll add what I need to add" He said his partner then glanced behind him to the Gryffindor girl and smiled with a nod of greetings to her, after that he went back to the cauldron adding in his ingredients slowly making sure not to just dump them in which would make the ingredients splash onto them "Okay two more stirs now, then we let it sit for a few more minutes, it should be red once it finishes, hopefully a darker red so we can get bonus points" he said with a chuckle then looked around at everyone's potions "Someone's potion is sickly green..I would suggest avoiding that person's cauldron" He mumbled resuming alternating to checking the cauldron and checking to avoid sabotage "Can't be to careful" He mumbled to Vera encase she notices him being cautious "So..Where are you from Vera?" He asked curiously "All I know so far is you are in Hufflepuff house, a first year and your name is Vera" He said with a chuckle glancing over to her as he waits for her to respond to his question "Since we are going to be potions partners it would help if we got to know each other more."

((She was. But She doesn't have to be if you don't want to be.))

"Now we just wait for a few more minutes with a clockwise turn every 15 seconds and we will be done!" Caitlin said as she smiles at her partner. She could tell that they didn't trust their sickly green potion that was bubbling every so often. Everything was going grand as she cleaned up the workstation around them with a hip swing every so often and a tune on her lips. She would be lying if she didn't say that she probably looked ridiculous. But Caitlin was raised to never be scared of what people think and that the best you is the true you. She made sure to keep an eye on the potion that was now slowly turning a dark red colour and bubbling less often. Caitlin tucked her unruly hair behind her ear for the thousandth time that class before returning the ingredients to the shelves at the front of the class. Her hips turned in small circles as she reached to put the last jar of Bat Spleens on the very top shelf, but only being 5' 2" made it hard and she couldn't quite reach it.  

Marcus put the finishing touches on the potion after he finishes he nods toward Vera "Just keep it simmering for now then we can see if the Potion is good enough." He said and smiles then looks to the one girl from earlier seeing her struggle with reaching for an ingredient, he shrugs and gets up to walk over to her and assist her by reaching for the Ingredient then handing it to her with a nod and a smile "There you go, wouldn't want you to tip the cabinet over, that wouldn't end very well" he chuckles softly then walks back over to Vera "So back to my questions." he teased her with a chuckle.

Marcus laid back in his seat keeping his eyes on the other students encase for sabotage "I'm so tempted to just take a quick nap.." He said with a slight frown as he yawns softly "Ugh...Least next class is Charms, that's always fun" he mumbled in addition as he takes out a book on rare potions and reads the first few pages as he waits patiently for the class to be either over or for something to happen to one of the students whichever comes first.

Her eyes go wide for a second as Marcus helps her with the jar before blushing the same colour red as her potion. "T-Thank you!" She stammers out as he walks back to his seat. 'Oh my god! I almost made a fool of myself!' While Caitlin was so caught up in her thoughts she almost missed a soft crackling to her left. Her head turned in alarm to look at a group of students who's potion was a dangerous yellow colour. "Get back!" She yells as she shoves both of them out of the way just before the whole cauldron exploded, sending potion all over her cloak and cauldron scrap everywhere. Caitlin let out a loud curse as she yanked off her cloak and threw it against the wall as the cloak basically disintegrated before everyone's eyes. "Is everyone okay?!" She yelled as she checked the students she had shoved out of the way over. It had seemed that she had taken all of the backlashes from the potion gone wrong. Caitlin ran her hands through her hair with a sigh and went to walk back to her partner when a stabbing pain went up her left leg. She fell to the ground in a cry of pain.

Vera stirred, pausing for Marcus to add his ingredients as he had said. Finishing it out with the two stirs per his instructions, the redhaired youth nodded and flipped a small hourglass that would count the seconds back from one minute. She smiled at his suggestion to avoid the bright green contents of a neighboring student’s cauldron. “Yes, good idea…,” she agreed before thoughtfully adding, “I really hope they don’t want us to test these potions out on ourselves… I’m not very up to seeing what that one would do to them.”

Vera was pleasantly surprised at how conversational the Slytherin boy was: given house reputation, she hadn’t really expected it. She opened her mouth to answer his question, but at that moment, he was off being quite the social butterfly and assisting his admirer. She nodded and smirked, reducing the heat on the cauldron so it would simmer. When he returned, she finally answered, “ I’m from Ireland. Just outside a’ Galway. Mum works for Mungo’s, Dad for the Ministry. Yourself? Any fancy potioneering in your background? You seem quite at home in ‘eer.” Vera’s green hues caught a glance at the rare book he produced, unfamiliar with its title, though it looked old and worn. “Where’d you get that?” she inquired, flipping over the hourglass again. Their potion bubbled, a soft pink hue penetrating it before it deepened to a crimson shade. Vera’s delighted grin toward Marcus faded at the shouted warning from the other end of the classroom. Her hand reached out, snagging his green and silver tie and tugged downward as Vera ducked below the desks and attempted to bring him to safety as well, narrowly avoiding a flying tin cauldron handle.

Realizing her rather handsy approach, Vera mumbled a sheepish, “Sorry,” and released Marcus’s tie easily enough, slowly peeking back up from beneath the desk to witness the room in a state of confusion. It seemed, for a moment that everything was alright… until the dark haired Gryffindor girl collapsed in pain. Vera felt badly for her. “We’re okay… but it seems you aren’t,” Vera frowned, her tone rather pitiful. “What’s wrong? Could one of us take you to the infirmary?” She asked Caitlin, but her gaze was trained on Marcus. She nudged him. “If you want to take her, I can turn the potion in and clean up … We’ll have more classes together.”

Caitlin's usual smile was replaced with a pain-filled grimace as she sat up. "It's just a small burn. I'll be right as rain if one of you could bring me some Aloe, some cottonmouth venom and a vile of the liquid sun." She pulled herself to a standing and leaned heavily on one of the desks. "But first everyone move away from that spill and any debris that came from that cauldron. I could have potion residue on it and you all saw what happend to my cloak." Her voice was filled with authority as she pulled her wand from her boot and used it to move an empty cauldron next to her along with a stool. She muttered to herself as she sat down, "Never sit down while you are brewing Caitlin, you won't be able to get away if something goes wrong." Her mouth twisted into a frown as she filled the cauldron with water and started to boil it. With a flip of her hair, she looked around the room. "Anyone who even think they could have any of that potion on them come over here while this boils." She flashed a grin at the first person to walk up. "I don't bite unless you beg darling. So don't be too scared of me."