Potions Class

[Deleted]

((Open to Professor Frost and all 2nd Year Gryffindors))

Lucy made her way down to the dungeons for yet another potions class. She hated being down here, it was aways cold and clammy and Professor Frost sometimes creeped her out but he did know what he was talking, but he would never be one of her favourite professors.

At least it was the last class of the day she thought as she made her way into the room. Today was just the Grffindors which Lucy always liked for it nothing else it just meant a smaller class, therefore making sure each student got more attention. It was the only time they got it to themselves, on the other days they had to share the time with Slytherin.

At least she was not the first one to arrive, she noticed. Sally was already sitting in the back row. Lucy smiled at her then took her customary seat in the front row in the hopes of sitting in the front would help her.

For potions was Lucy's weakest class. It was the one class she did not always find easy and most times she could never get the potion right. Yet she had learned all her ingredients which was one thing. All she had to do was figure out how they came together in a potion.

She took out her 2nd grade potion book and started going through it. Maybe a head start reading would help she thought. Memorise the recipe before she even started.

[Deleted]

Eddie came scurring into the potions class thinking he was running late and he knew how much Professor Frost hated it when he was late, but as it turned out he was a tad early for a change. Only Sally and Lucy were here but Harry was right behind him and nearly bumped into him as he came through the doorway.

"Hey Lucy" he smiled at her, but he did not take the stool next to her, rather he decided to sit right behind her. He had not seen her around the dorms or in the castle since that day down at the lake and he knew she had been avoiding him. But one place she could never avoid him and that was in class and he delighted in teasing her when he could get away with it.

Harry had taken a seat down the back with Sally but not next to her. The benches were set up two to each and two across so 4 could sit in each row. But there was only 12 of them today even so Harry and Sally had taken the fourth row. He bet anything Professor Frost would make them move up.

"You did well in Charms today " Eddie said to her as he leaned forward on his elbows. "Shame you have to spoil it by potions" he said and laughed for one thing Eddie loved about Potions was the fact that in at least one class he knew he could do better than her.

[Liam Grace]

It was the last class of the day and Liam would have preferred to skip it all together and maybe go and get his broom and fly instead but Potions was not his best class and he did need to take it. He casually entered the dungeon room and was surprised that Professor Frost was not there as yet. He didn’t know what to make of the Professor there was just something about him that Liam found a little unsettling. He did however think that his name suited him.

He looked around the damp room and saw Harry and Sally in the back row though not sitting next to each and not at the same desk. Harry was sitting in the seat closest to the door on the right hand side and he passed him they slapped hands and grinned at each other. He nodded a greeting to Sally before taking his usual seat next to Eddie.

Eddie was talking with Lucy which was not surprising but Liam ignored her as he still had not forgiven her for running away during the lake incident. She was not in trouble after all and it was such un-Gryffindor thing to do to abandon your friends like that.

He looked around the room wondering where the others were and where the Professor was. He looked over his shoulder just a Christa, Ella and Jake entered the room. Christa and Ella joined Sally at her table while Jake sat next to Harry. Liam nodded at Jake who nodded back and he winked at the two girls who giggled a little bit.

He turned to Eddie and gave him a grin before saying, “I wonder where Professor Frost is. He’s usually not late.”

[Deleted]

Lucy lloked up as someone said hello to her but it was only Eddie. She chose to ignore him and his smile as she di dmost lessons. Seriously she had no time for him or his friends after what had happened down at the lake last month. She gave an inward groan as Eddie too the seat behind her and taunted her with his words.

Shoud she bite she wondered. Not worth it she told herself. So what if he could always beat her in potions, at least she always got him in all the other lessons. Others were arriving and then Liam wandered in ignoring her completely which did not bother her. Seriously wht he done had got them all into trouble and she had never forgiven him for it. Eddie she just blamed by association for staying and not leaving with her. Seriously what was wrong with boys she wondered and where was Professor Frost. He was usually here before any of them and she wondered what was keeping him today. Though there was still 5 minutes before the class actually started.

[Reagan Frost]

Reagan had just stepped out of his office when he saw the large and familiar eagle owl standing on a bust of a wizard that Reagan had no interest in what so ever. The owl eyed him sharply and then hooted at him commandingly and held out his leg which contained a small package and note.

Taking off the package and the note he watched the eagle owl hooted again before taking off and Reagan headed back into his office and read the small scroll of parchment. All it said was “As discussed.” He unwrapped the package pulling out the small vile enclosed. So Joe had come through and Reagan’s amber eyes glinted at the potential of what this highly illegal item could create.

Reagan’s sat in his office a little while longer considering the possibilities. He placed the small bottle within the pocket of his robes not wanting to leave it in his office before getting up and heading out of his office and into the classroom where his 2nd year class of Gryffindors awaited him. He didn’t explain his tardiness to his students as he didn’t believe that he had to.

Stepping into the classroom the room went suddenly silent and he made his way to the front of the desk and eyed them off one by one.

"Listen closely class" Reagan said a little more bite to his voice than he usually did. Teaching Gryffindors was his least favourite thing to do. He had found that they were alternately brilliant or hopeless never in the middle. Wether they were brilliant or hopeless they were usually rash. His gaze landed on Lucy Powell who was the screw-up of this class. "I hate repeating myself so I will say this only once. Today we are preparing the shrinking potion. At the end of the lesson I will be asking you to test it on a frog at the end of a lesson. If you have prepared the potions correctly the frog should just shrink to a smaller size. If you have not, the frog will revert back to a tadpole.”

Turning round Reagan bent down and picked up a pail that contained the frogs in questions. They croaked and jumped around the pail on top of each other but luckily none of them were able to jump out of the pail. Walking amongst the students as he placed a frog in front of each student

"You will need for this potion some chopped daisy roots, some skinned shrivelfig, a sliced caterpillar, one rat spleen and a dash of leech juice. This juice will make your frog smaller but be careful not to administer too much as it can also make them younger. Today we are only wanting smaller. Now make sure you chop the daisy roots evenly and be sure not to add too much leech juice or rat spleens as this will turn your potion a horrid orange colour. What we are looking for...." he stopped in front of Miss Powells to stress the next bit, "is a bright acid green colour. "

Lucy was the last student so he moved back to his desk. As he outlined the lesson the ingredients and method had appeared on the blackboard. When he reached his desk Reagan turned to look over the class a small a stern look on his face. Placing the bucket on the table Reagan took out his wand and it vanished

"I do stress students to be careful, just like with any potion, making one little error can make it poisonous and I would prefer to have smaller frogs than dead ones," he said his gaze landing on Lucy once more.

"You are lucky today that we have a double lesson so you have 2 hours, begin...." he finished he said sitting down in his chair. He reached into his pocket to make sure that small vial had not fallen out as he had made his way around the classroom. It was still there and smiled a secret smile to him self as he considered the possibilities.

[Deleted]

Lucy looked up again as the Professor finally made his way in. He got straight into the lesson and he seemed to be in a bad mood. Lucy cringed, this was her worst class and Professor Frost never helped in the way he always looked down on her and just to prove she was right he stopped right in front of her to stress the instructions as he dropped a frog before her.

She Looked at the potion book before her and turned to page that dealt with the Shrinking Solution. Her frog tried to hop away but she caught him just in time before he hopped off the edge of the table. She grabbed a bowl and place it over him so she would not lose him as she read over the same instructions the Potions Master had just given them.

As she was as the front of the class, she was one of the first to get up and make it to the ingredients cupboard to get the ingredients. Taking a dish , she grabbed the daisy roots and extracted a handful, then gingerly reached into a tub to grab a caterpillar. It was slimey and she did not like it. What else did she need. Skinned Shrielfig, ah yes down on the bottom shelf. And a rat spleen, another slimey ingredient and she dumped that in the same dish with the rest. Anything else she wondered and thought not and was about to head back to her desk when she noticed sally reaching for the Leech Juice.

She would need a vial for that, so Lucy wandered back to her bench to get one, dumping the dish with the other ingredients as she did. She had to wait until Christa was done then she edged her way in and filled the vial. Back to her bench she went, once again she being the only one at the bench, no one ever seemed to want to do potions with her for some reason. Not all her potions had been a failure. Though she could still remember the day her swelling solution had gone terribly wrong and had sent Harry to the infirmary. Maybe that was why she thought, though she really did not mind, she could spread out a bit when she was on her own.

She tapped the bowl that the frog was under, but he seemed to be resigned to the fact he could not hop away and he sat blinking his big eyes at her. Now to start she thought digging the daisy roots from the dish. She best aught get the cauldron started first and making her way to the sink, gather a little water to start the proceedings. With that done she pulled out her chopping board and got to cutting the roots. It was cold down here and her hands keep slipping so they were not as even as they aught to be. She dumped them into the cauldron and gave it a stir then looked at the book to see what was next.

The Shrivelfig. Was she meant to chop that too, the instructions did not say, so she just threw it in and started slicing the caterpillar. She did this quickly and dumped them into the cauldron, giving it another stir for good luck. OK she had to let it stew for 30 minutes before adding the rat spleen and leech juice. While she waited she sliced the rat spleen and measured out a small amount of the leech juice. A dash, the professor had said so maybe she had too much. What was a dash anyway, she wondered as she gave the potion another stir. At the moment it was light brown . Maybe that changed with the last two ingredients she thought, well hoped.

With a few minutes before she had to add them, she cleaned up a bit. The frog sat looking at her and she felt sorry for trapping it so lifted the bowl to let him hop around a bit. He seemed content though and even with his prison one, he sat watching her. She gave a laugh, he was quite cute and she gave him a little pat on the head.

Time to add the leech juice. . . A Dash . . ok she thought and tipped the small amount she had measured off in another vial. The potion turned instant to green, but not the bright acid green the Professor had mentioned. What had she done wrong she wondered as she peered in then she remembered the rat spleen. Forgetting the professor had said not to add too much she dumped the whole spleen in. The colour brightened up a bit but it was still not he bright acid green colour he had mentioned.

Maybe as it continued to stew it would get there, Lucy thought as she gave it one last stir and proceeded to let it stew while she finished her cleaning up.

[Liam Grace]

Professor Frost entered his classroom and immediately got into the potions of the day without explaining his own tardiness. Liam knew that technically Frost didn’t need to explain himself to the class but Liam knew that if he had been late then he could have to and it would be polite and respectful if the Potions Master offered the same courtesy.

Today’s potion was the shrinking potion and they were meant to shrink a frog so that it just got smaller but not go as far as turning it back into a tadpole. As Frost moved around the room and eventually placed a frog in front of him Liam thought that he would like to see his frog change into a tadpole and he stared and the greyish green frog in front of him. The frog looked back at him and croaked but did not make an effort to bound a way like some of the other frogs had.

He looked up at the board in front of him and then down at the book hoping that there was a discrepancy between Frosts instructions and the book but alas there was not and he made his way to the cupboard where Harry, Jake and Sally were already getting the ingredients. Jake and Harry were jostling as they bumped shoulders in a playful way while Sally who was getting her stuff would every now and again throw dirty looks at them over her shoulder.

He gathered up the ingredients: daisy roots, rat spleen, shrivelfig, caterpillars and leech juice. He personally found the leech juice gross but the dead caterpillars and rat spleen quite amusing. Before getting water for his cauldron he played around with the dead caterpillars and poked the spleen a bit. He could hear Christa and Ella who where at the table behind him giggling at his antics and he grinned to himself before going to get the water.

Once he was sure he had enough water and it was heating up nicely he started to cut up the daisy roots. Usually he was not one to take care when cutting up ingredients, he was a hacker usually but Professor Frost specifically mentioned that the roots had to be cut evenly and so he took his time and made sure that the same size, or there abouts. He really couldn’t see why it was important to have them that way but it had to be important to the potion for Frost to mention it.

He looked around at what the others were doing and noticed that Lucy had thrown in the shrivelfig without chopping it and looking at the board and book again it didn’t mention anything about cutting it and it wasn’t an overly big item so he could understand why she just threw it in. Liam didn’t really like doing the same thing as Lucy though and decided to cut his before adding it to his cauldron. He decided to dice his caterpillars before adding them.

The book said that the ingredients needed to stew for 30 minutes before adding the rat’s spleen and while he waited he poked and prodded the spleen and rolled it across the desk. Just before the spleen was going into the potion he cut it also as once again the instructions didn’t say not to. He looked into his cauldron and it was a yellowy colour and he figured that that was a good sign. He looked around the room once more and once again noticed Lucy who had just dumped in the rat spleen. He sniggered a little and wondered if Lucy was going to cause another explosion.

Turning his attention back to his own potion he put in about three quarters of the spleen figuring that if he needed more he could add more and it was too much then there was nothing that he could do about it. He the picked up the leech juice and dribbled a little into the cauldron. He had no idea what a dash was, he was a boy after all, but he figured it wasn’t a lot. It was odd that it wasn’t more precise as the smallest mistake could make any concoction poisonous at the least and volatile at the most.

After adding the juice the potion turned green but not what he would call acid green though it was close and maybe with a little time it might just get there. He stirred his cauldron and looked down at the frog.

“I hope you don’t mind shrinking a bit,’ he said to the frog. “You are not that big to begin with. Well you are not as big as Jake’s anyway.”

The frog just looked back at him and croaked.

[Deleted]

So Lucy was going to ignore him Eddie thought as Liam wandered in and commented on the fact that the Professor was running late. Eddie gave a shrug and got out his things in readiness. "Wonder what we will be making to day" he said to Liam but at that point the Professor walked in. It was plainly clear he was not in a good mood as he snapped at them about the day's lesson. A Shrinking potion and Eddie hurriedly turned to the right page as Professor Frost went through some of the finer points of the potion.

He knew the Professor had put the ingredients and the method up on the board, but Eddie preferred to read it form his book and he ran his fingers down the list to see what he needed. After his frog had been deposited. Eddie followed Liam up and waited while his friend got what he needed then Eddie followed suit and got exactly the items. He took them back to the bench and dumped them all next to his cauldron. Liam was playing with the dead caterpillars and the rat spleens and Eddie gave a laugh as went to get his water. Seems Christa and Ella had also been amused.

Taking his water back to the bench he measured out the right amount and dumped it in before lighting the fire under his cauldron. He checked the book, cut the roots evenly and grabbed his knife and set to the task. Best to get everything ready before he threw anything in and he got started on the other ingredients.

All too soon everything was sliced or crushed and Eddie was ready to start. He tested the water and found it to be just the right temperature and smiling added the first ingredient. One thing bout Eddie was once he was set on a mission he never once looked around to see what anyone else was doing, so was his concentration on getting this potion right.

Every now and then the frog would croak at him but in the whole time it never moved. As if it knew what its fate was and had accepted it. He was very careful with each ingredient he added, if he was not sure of the amount then it was a just a little , adding small amounts a t time until he was happy with the way it was going.

By the time had added the last ingredient he turned the heat down to let it simmer for a bit. It had turned a lovely shade of acid green and he knew once again he had succeeded. He had no doubt at all that this would work and he set about cleaning up. By the time he was done there was just 10 minutes to go, so he turned off the heat and dipped a vial in to scoop out a bit. He tapped his wand on the vial to cool it down , then sat it in holder. He grabbed an eyedropper in one hand and the frog in the other, then dipped the eyedropper into the vial and extracted the liquid.

"Hold still" he said to the frog who seemed intent on escaping his hand. Eddie forced open his mouth and popped the eyedropper in and squeezed the juice into his mouth. The frog gave a croak and Eddie popped him on the bench and waited. Withing seconds the frog started to shrink and to his delight, stayed a frog and did not turn into a tadpole. "Cool" he smiled turning to Liam for the first time since starting the potion.

[Reagan Frost]

[Sorry for the late response]

Still sitting at the desk Reagan took the vial out and inspected it through the glass. It looked like quicksilver in its glass casing and seemed to swirl even its small confines. He did not want to open the vial and check it’s viability as he had never used it before and he was not even sure what to look for as it was considered to be a Non-Tradeable item and he wondered what Joe had to do get it.

Placing the vial back into his robes he got off his chair and scanned the room. It seemed that the students had followed the instructions though Jake’s cauldron seemed to be emitting darker steam than the rest of the class. Moving around his desk he made his way over to the back of the room stopping to looking into Lucy’s cauldron. He was surprised that for once she was able to follow the directions. Her potion was not what he would classify as bright acid green but it was close enough and it should work. He gave her a grim smile before moving on.

He looked in on Liam’s and Eddie’s cauldrons as well and he was not at all surprised that Eddie’s was right. Liam’s like Lucy’s was almost right and he nodded at both boys before heading over to the back of the room where dark gray smoke was still billowing out of the cauldron of Jake Singleton’s cauldron. He looked into the cauldron and frowned and pulled out his wand and made the contents disappear.

“For once it seems that it is not Lucy that has mucked up that honour goes to Mr Singleton here. Dark stream generally means that your daisy roots were not cut correctly and you added to little leach juice. You also did not seem to have enough water in your cauldron to begin with. There was nothing that could be done to salvage that mess. I am going to take 10 points from Gryffindor for not following the instructions.”

He looked in on the other cauldrons and they all seemed to be right on the button or close enough. He was rather surprised that this class was able to pull off this potion. He headed back to his desk to stand in front of it.

“Now they all should be ready so I want you take a small amount and feed it to your frog. If you had done it right then your frog should shrink.”

The boy Eddie was the first to test his potion and it worked though Reagan had no doubt that it would. His was the best potion, colour wise, out of the whole class. Liam came next though admittedly it was hard to tell if the potion worked on the frog as it was already on the small size but considering that it did not change into a tadpole and it was still alive it either worked or had no affect.

The rest of the class’s frogs seemed to shrink and Christa fed a little too much to hers and it reverted back to a tadpole state. Heading over to the desk he gave the frog the growth potion and it grew back to its normal size. Walking back to the front of the class and with a raised eyebrow he looked down at Lucy and waited for her to feed her frog.

[Liam used with permission]

[Deleted]

Lucy started reading the instructions once again as the potion bubbled away. She rather thought she was on the right track every now and then she would pop her head up to check the potion and give it a stir. She sat again and flipped the page to the next potion. So absorbed she was in it she lost track of the time and had not noticed that the Professor had started wandering around the room to check everyones potion.

In fact she had no idea until she felt a the professor standing in front of her and she looked up to se him raising an eyebrow at her and everyone else in the class looking at her. "oh" she said shutting the book and going bright red. She hastily scooped some into a small dish and then quickly grabbed a stopper. In her haste she caught the dish and spilled most of it onto the desk. Lucy went a brighter shade a red as someone down the back smirked.

She did manage thought to suck some up in her stopper and grabbing her frog, forced it into his mouth. The frog gave a hiccup and stared up at her. Then he started to get smaller and for a moment Lucy thought she had for the first time managed to get a potion right. But then the frog stopped, it was only half the size it used to be and looking over at Eddied saw his was tiny. Hers was far from tiny and she sucked up a little of the potion that had spilled onto the desk and forced it once again down the frogs throat. The frog looked at her again and gave a croak then seemed to expand.

Lucy had no idea what was happening why was the frog expanding, it was not even getting bigger, it was just expanding and then the inevitable happed. A loud pop was heard and the frog exploded all over her. Lucy looked up at the professor blinking furiously. . now she was in for it.

[Reagan Frost]

Reagan smirked as he watched the girl fluster with the potion. He liked the thought that he made her nervous. He watched as she scooped some of her mixture into a dished and in process spilled the majority of the potion on her desk. Reagan frowned at the mixture on the table a sense of impending disaster approaching. Turning his attention back to the girl and the frog he watched as she filled her syringe up with the potion and force fed the frog the mixture.

The frog started to get smaller and Reagan was relieved that she had
gotten the potion right. Lucy however did not seem as satisfied with her
achievement after looking at Eddie's frog which was considerably smaller
than hers. Using the syringe once again she scooped up the potion that had been spilt and to Reagan's horror fed the contaminated mixture to the frog.

Reagan had no idea what would happen next and watched as the frog
expanded and continued to expand. He took a few steps back from the desk
as the amphibian continued to swell and eventually exploded splattering frog all over the girl. Laughter burst out from the other students.

"Quiet," he yelled before taking out his wand and with a quick wave the remains of the frog disappeared.

"I think this a great lesson for you all. The moment that the potion came in contact with the desk and as such a non-sterilised item the elements within the potion changed. So when Miss Powell the fed the potion to the frog the result was the as we saw
here."

He looked down at the girl and shook his head.

"You should not have given anymore potion to the frog.
I was pleased with your initial effort as the frog had shrunk enough for my liking. I could take points off you but I don't think that it would matter at all so instead you will be serving a detention with me."