Lina's Potions Mixing, 9/7

Lina felt a little bit pressured into doing Potion B over Potion A because she felt that Professor Sladen expected her to do so. She didn't want to pretend that she was better than her own abilities, but she didn't want to let her coven head down. After doing a quick "coin flip," she chose to do Potion B.

Lina wrote the ingredients down as well as the instructions and went to grab the ingredients. She lined the ingredints up on her desk, have the scale to the left of her cauldron, and a beaker to the right. Taking in a deep breath, she started to work.

Lina took Liquid 1 measured out .5 liters of it in the beaker, poured it into the cauldron, and repeated the action with Liquid 2. She allowed the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes until the mixture produced a foam substance that was a nice blue color. Her stone expression gave no evidence that she was pleased that something good happened.

She moved the scale closer to her and messured out 200 grams of Herb 3 and added that to her cauldron as she slowly stirred it in. She kept looking into cauldron to see the actual color of the mix.

Evangelina Cromwell carried out 1 launched of one (D100.) :

13

When the mix didn't turn a bluish- green color, Lina got worried. She wanted to start over and do Potion A instead, but she figured that if she did that, Professor Sladen would have said something along the lines of 'you've wasted Liquid 1, Liquid 2, and Herb 3' and that was something Lina wanted to avoid. It's ok, I'm sure I could still save it.

Lina brought the scale closer to her once again and measured out 250 grams of Replacement Herb 4 and put it in a separate bowl, then measured out 200 grams of Replacement Herb 5. She put the RH5 in with the same bowl as RH4, mixed the two together with her finger, put the mixed herbs into a mortar, and began to crush it with a pestle. So far, this seems ok.

Lina brought the concoction to a boil and added in the powder of herbs into it. When her potion didn't produce a white smoke, but a beige color smoke instead, she was slightly more worried, but she didn't think much about it. All that matters is how it turns out in the end, she thought. She didn't give any expression on her face, other than giving a quick tense of her jaw.

She reduce the heat as she continued to mix the potion back to a simmer. About 10 minutes into waiting for the potion to turn a light green color, next to her was a huge explosion. Turning next to her to she if Keith was ok, she stopped stirring and faced in his general area.

Evangelina Cromwell carried out 1 launched of one (D100.) :

94

When Professor Sladen told the boy that he was done for the day, Lina focused back on her potion only to realize that it did, indeed, turn into a light green color. Pleased with the current outcome of her brew, she continued to pour .125 liters of Liquid 6 into a beaker, then poured it into the cauldron. She removed the mix from heat and waited until the mix was room temp.

As she waited, she thought back at home, I wonder if Mom and Dad had to do something like this their first time in Potions? Lina then realized that her parents didn't talk about their time in school, which she thought was a bit strange, but I guess they don't want to talk about it because it was during the Second Wizarding War.

Evangelina Cromwell carried out 1 launched of one (D100.) :

22

Lina cringed her jaw once again when she saw that her mixture, although the same color, became a thick, chunky substance. I don't think that this is supposed to be like that, she thought as she gave it a quick stir. The concoction was very thick and green that it kind of reminded her of almost ready jello. Still on the hope that she was still able to fix it, Lina continued to brew as if everything was still good.

She picked up the beaker once again and poured .25 liters Added Liquid 7 to the mix, which helped liquify it, and stirred it for a little bit, before letting it sit for 5 minutes.

Lina didn't give so much of a hint that her potion might be bad, but she still had a slight hope that everything was still ok. Professor Sladen said that we wont know until we're finished, so there's nothing to worry about...I hope.

Lina looked at her paper again a froze. 6. Sprinkle flakes of Herb 8 to the mixture and stir, mixing thoroughly. She didn't know how much of the Herb 8 to put in, and Professor Sladen was busy looking at another girl's potion, so she couldn't ask her. What do I do now?

Doing another quick "coin flip," Lina decided, against her better judgement, to speculate how much Herb 8 to add. Picking up some of the herb, she started to sprinkle some of it in slowly as she mixed the potion together. She added in another pinch and looked over to see if anything happened.

Evangelina Cromwell carried out 1 launched of one (D100.) :

94

Feeling that she added enough Herb 8 into the mix, she put her cauldron back on a flame and waited until the mix was back at a boil. Lina, for the final time, picked up her beaker, measured out .125 liters of Liquid 9, and poured it into the cauldron.

She kept her potion boiling for 10 minutes, then she removed it from the heat to cool it down to room temperature. She would stir the mix every few minutes, as she thought more and more about her parents. It is kind of weird that they didn't tell me a lot about what they did in school; I wonder what kind of students they were like.

Evangelina Cromwell carried out 1 launched of one (D100.) :

9

After about 20 minutes, LIna looked at her potion. Her potion was, at least, a liquid, but the coloring was completely off. Instead of being an emerald green color, it was peridot color. I should have brewed Potion A instead.

Unlike her last few times her potion went wrong, you could see the disappointment on her face as she rose her hand to get the Professor's attention. "Professor Sladen? I'm done." she said quietly. Lina wanted to ask the professor if she could try again, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to make another potion in time for Herbology. Instead, she remained silent and waited for the Professor to critic her.

Erywin wandered over to Lina, noticing... what was that? Just a touch of disappointment? Erywin had been watching her out of the corner of her eye for the last 30 minutes, and sure enough: she saw Lina look in her direction a couple of times, looking as if she wanted to ask something, but at the last moment she didn't. Hum, the sakura blossom doesn't fall far from the cherry tree, does it?

She examined the potion, and it didn't take her long to reach a verdict. "Well, my dear... I'd say this is a wee bit buggered, would you?"

Lina didn't say a word to the Professor; instead she nodded ever so slightly. She had to admit, the potion wasn't they way it was supposed to be, and knew that whatever this potion was, it wasn't going to work. It was completely trashed and there was nothing she could do to save it.

After several moments of silence, Lina finally gave in and, in an almost whisper, said, "I'll try harder next time."

Putting her arm around her coven mate Erywin gave her a hug and said, "Well, love, it was suppose to be tough. And I didn't expect everyone to get it--" She leaned in and lowered her voice to a calm whisper, "Not even good students from our coven, hum?"

As she hugged the girl again Ewryin was thinking back to some moments almost 20 years before, being in a similar situation. Oh, yes, I best get ready for a lot of repressed self-flagellation, she thought. Openly she said, "Do you want to give it a try? Or you just want to clean up and grab a nosh before heading off to afternoon class?"

Lina wasn't sure if she wanted it to try it or not. She could try it just to see what she could improve on, but there was no guarantee that it was going to work. Deciding against it, she shook her head and bluntly said, "No, I know it's not going to work."

Erywin nodded. "Okay, love. Get cleaned up and hurry off for lunch." She gave the girl's hair a quick tussle. "There's still the 5 points today--it all helps, you know." She gave Lina a wink. "Don't fret; next week we'll do something more along the lines of what you should be doing." She mumbled as she began to turn away, "Put the blame on my utterly mad friends--"