Lesson 2 - N.E.W.T. Level

Amelia’s potion had come along more slowly than that of her classmates, but she had never been one to rush her potion-making. Amelia was methodical in all that she did, and potions was no exception. Despite the lag in her start time due to her meticulous preparation of the ingredients, Amelia was now at a similar point as many of her classmates, and had far surpassed a few of them, including one student who now seemed to have a ball of tar stuck to the end of his stirring rod.

The blue steam which emitted from Amelia’s own cauldron proved that she was on the right track, but she had yet to achieve the “clear as water” color described by the textbook as being the desirable shade. Her potion had gone from deep purple to a lighter shade that was somewhat closer to lilac, but it was stubbornly remaining at the latter stage, refusing to move forward to where Amelia knew it ought to be.

Consulting the textbook again, Amelia found no further instructions on how to rectify the situation she was currently stuck in, and looking around, very few others seemed to have gotten to this same point. Jack, however, seemed to be losing patience and was having what looked like a spastic fit over at her cauldron. Amelia was tempted to smirk at this display, but before the corners of her lips could turn upward, she noticed that Jack’s potions was significantly lighter than her own.

Frowning slightly, Amelia looked from her own cauldron and then back to Jack’s, which was across the room, but still in sight. The comparison only made Amelia’s frown deepen and her forehead wrinkle in concentration as she struggled to think of anything she might have missed. Encountering nothing, Amelia continued to obstinately stir her own potion in a clockwise direction, staring forcefully at it as though this would make it obey her wishes.

''Well, it does seem you are working, which is quite pleasant to see. I can't say you are succeeding, but you are on the right track. Stirring the potion won't do much good... you have to recheck your ingredients. Once you have done that and seen that you have to add a teaspoon of some of them, you can continue stirring and you should get water that you can give your friends instead of normal water and then take them out with your own masterpiece'', he commented on seeing how the students work.

Jack looked up at the professor's words, scrunching her eyebrows together. Stop stirring and check her ingredients, eh? Jack had never been overly meticulous when preparing her ingredients and she had probably not put enough of something in there. She paused, allowing her stirring rod to rest against the side of the cauldron.

She peered over her ingredients. She knew she had put enough of her Sopophorous beans and valerian roots since it was numbered rather than measured. She realized she had been a little too frugal with the wormwood. She carefully added just a bit more and returned to her stirring, stirring counter-clockwise for as long as she could before stirring the other way for awhile. The addition helped. The potion went paler than it had been before, almost now at the shade of pale she was sure it had to be. She glanced around. Hmm... Maybe being impatient worked sometimes.

Amelia’s stirring had done a whole lot of nothing, but when the headmaster gave his suggestion on how to improve their potions, the girl nearly scoffed out loud. She was absolutely certain she had added exactly the ingredients that had been listed in the textbook, but still, it would have looked pretentious of her not to at least check what the professor suggested.

Expecting to find nothing, Amelia let her potion sit idle for a moment while she checked the book again. She ran a pale finger down the list of ingredients, mentally ticking off one after another as having been added in just the right proportion to her cauldron. As she reached the bottom of the page, Amelia grabbed the corner of the page and threw the sheet aside in frustration. She had not been anticipating anything on the following page, but as it fell in line with the other pages, Amelia saw a few lines of text on the top of the page, the only words on an otherwise blank sheet:

Three leaves Chinese Chomping Cabbage may aid in maturation of the potion.

Well isn’t that perfect,Amelia thought sarcastically to herself, throwing the page back to where it had started and launching herself into her potions kit to find the leaves she needed. Isn’t there someone responsible for formatting textbooks so these kind of things don’t happen?

But there was nothing to be gained in silently fuming at her textbook, so Amelia quickly added the leaves to her potion and watched as it changed from the stubborn purple color to pink, and after a few stirs, the potion took on the transparent state that was suggested in the text. It had maintained some its coloration – closer to rose water than pure water – which Amelia guessed was due to the late addition of that last and critical ingredient, but she continued to stir it vigorously, still cursing the editor of the textbook for what she was terming “utter stupidity.”

''And that was good, both of you still giving a crap about this class. I have told you to re-check your ingredients, hence, it was completely obvious that you have added to little of some of them. Of course, it wasn't obvious to you, but to someone as experienced as myself... it was. Now, you should be finished very soon, do finish brewing and we shall then check its effects... but more on that later. Good job you two'', he said.