Lesson Two - 2nd Years

Hristo walked into the classroom and noticed the caldrons were not placed on the work benches as he'd asked the caretaker to do, Hristo let out a small grunt and rolled his eyes. He then walked over to cupboards on the left hand side of the room and opened to them, seeing all the caldrons stacked neatly together

Hristo pulled out his wand then tapped the caldrons, they instanly began floating onto the work benches. Hristo closed the cupboard door then took a seat at his desk and stared into open space strumming his fingers on the desk waiting for the students to arrive

Faye slipped quietly into the potions room. If there had been more people there her enterance probably wouldn't have been noticed at all, however seeing as she was the only student in the room as of yet, she would indeed have been hard to miss.

Shyly, she walked up to one of the couldrens and nodded a quiet greeting to the professor.

Roman paced into the classroom and set his things down onto one of the desks. He then methodically began to take his things out of his bag, carefully setting the ingredients down that he thought he might need, and arranging them by their different degrees of usefulness. In contrast to the thoughts of all his family and friends, Roman didn't think of himself as an unusually neat person. Having order just helped him clear his head. He made sure that the cauldron on his desk was free of any dust, then took out his textbook.

Two students had entered the classroom, the Slushtel girl greeted him respectufully, most probably becuase he was her Head of House, Hristo then notice the Hrabrost boy unpacking this equipment neatly and orderly

Hristo then began more surprized when he began pulling out ingridrents, Wow he brought his own ingridents, but how does he know what potion we're making Hristo thought to hiomself, he found the behaviour most odd. He stared at the boy with a confused look before grabbing a piece of chalk and wrote " Drink of Despair" on the board

He then turned to his students, "So we'll be learning to to brew the Drink of Despair potion, if you want to do some pre reading before the rest of the class arrives you will find it on page 148 in your Magical Drafts and Potions textbook"

Hristo then sat back down in his seat and waited for the rest of the class to arrive

Victoria walked in wearing a smirk on her face. She dumped her back violently on the floor and took no notice of the other students or the professor. She leant on the desk, biting her nails and waiting for the class to begin.

Roman looked up from his things to see the teacher staring at him with a confused expression. He smiled sheepishly, "So maybe I'm a little over-prepared." He wasn't ashamed of it. Roman came from a well-off family, and was going to take advantage of that, and not just coast by in school. Drink of Despair, he thought to himself. Russian was more comfortable to him than English, but it still made concepts difficult to grasp. Still, a Russian school is better than none at all.

A girl entered noisily into the classroom, shocking Roman out of his state of contemplation. He hoped that his surprise didn't show. He was always getting made fun of for being jumpy. Roman, however, liked to think of it as fast reflexes and not nervousness.

Faye was pawing through her bag for her text book when another girl came in and dumped her bag noisily on the floor making the young Slushatel jump so violent she ramped her leg noisily against the desk.

She bit back a groan as she continued pulling out her book, and began reading it, her cheeks heating up with embarrassment as she attempted to pretend that had never happened.

Kendera all but ran along the corridor, brown hair streaming behind her as she hurried to class. She entered as quietly as she could, head bowed.

"I apologize for my tardiness, professor," the girl stated quietly. She promptly took the empty seat beside the only boy in the class, cursing almost inaudibly to herself in German as she pulled out her potions kit and textbook. At least there was one good thing about her favorite professor no longer teaching this class: no one else was likely to turn her into potions ingredients for being late.

Noting the writing on the board, Kendera took the required ingredients from her kit and began to set them out.

Another two students entered the classroom, the Slushatel girl apologized for her lateness, but Hristo was impressed she took a seat and began reading the textbook

Hristo looked at his class list and noticed they were only missing one student; Sophie Wellsjo
Well i have to start, she will simply have to recieve a detention when she arrives Hristo thought to himself, he then got up from his seat and stood in front of his desk

" Class today we will be learning how to brew the Drink of Despair, its quite a challenging potion to brew however I feel its best you learn how to master it, also keep in mind I will be grading your potion so you will be requried to hand in a sample at the end of the lesson"

Hristo glanced around at his class to make sure they all heard and understood what he's just said " So who here is familiar or least knows about the drink of despair?" Hristo asked

Dommi rushed into the classroom. "Ohmygod!" she shrieked. "I am so sorry, Professor, for like, being late!" She ran to the cauldron next to the girl in her house and stood there, barely saying a word.

Hristo looked up and noticed a Slushatel student enter she apolozied for her lateness " Miss Cartwright, the lesson has started so I will have to give you a detention, see me in my office after dinner tonight"

Hristo then looked back at the rest of the class, waiting for a reply to his question

Faye stuck her hand up tentitivly, "Well... I believe Professor that it can cause fear, and... oh, extreme thirst to the drinker."

She bit her lip and thought about it for a moment before adding even softer, almost to herself.

"It's a rather nasty little potion really."

" Ah very well done Miss Hansoff" Hristo then looked at the rest of the class " As Miss Hansoff said this potion quite dark, but i believe its important for you to learn both light and dark potions if you want to call yourself a potioneer"

Hristo then walked over to the board and began writing;

Ingidents
- 1 cup of ground Dragon teeth
- 6 crushed petals of Belladona
- 3 pints of Basilisk blood
- 1 chopped mandrake root
- 8 flubberworms
- 4 diced leeches

Method
- Place Mandrake root and leeches into caldron and stew for 10mins
- Add flubberworms SLOWLY!
- The potion should now be a dark purple colour, now add 2 pints of Basilisk blood
- Combine the ground Dragon teeth and last pint of Basilisk blood until it makes a paste
- Add paste to potion, a low wailing noise should be heard when added
- Simmer on high heat until a dark meerky colour, do not allow to burn

Hristo then turned around and faced the class " There you go, follow those instructions I will be walking around checking on you. If you have any problems or questions do ask" Hristo then began walking around the classroom as the students began with the potion

" Keep in mind I will be grading you, though seeming this is quite a difficult potion I don't expect many of you to achieve high marks, so once your done place a sample of my desk and I will mark it straight away" Hristo then continued to walk around

Faye followed the instructions with great care. It was the one thing she loved about potions, it was easy for her to just get into her own little headspace and get to work. No worrying about magic or other people.

Just her, the instructions and ingreediates.

The Professor wasn't lying, it was a very tricky potion with lots of little bits and peices that she had to do.

Finally after a long time she figured she was done and it was as good as it was going to get.

Putting it in a vial she placed it on the professors desk and then went back to her own and began to clean up.

Hristo looked over at his desk as he saw a Slushatel girl place a sample on his desk, he walked up to the front and picked up the sample and turned around tot he girl " Ah thank you Miss Hansoff I will just go to my office now and grade it"

Hristo then walked to the far left corner of the room and went through an old wooden door to his office. He then opened the vial and took a sip of the potion, he felt a tight knot in his stomach and and mild thirst, he decided to take another sip the pain got strong though it was still bearable, he then decided to take a final gulp. This time he felt the pain a lot stronger, and he became quite thirsty

Hristo then reached into his draw and pulled out an antidote, and took a few sips. He then looked down at the Criteria sheet to see what he would grade her;

O - Outstanding
E - Exceeds Expectations
A - Acceptable
P - Poor
D - Dreadful
T - Troll

Hristo was hovering over an E or A he wasn't quite sure, he thought for a moment as he analysed the potion and its effects in his head. Well it did take until the third sip, and it could have been stronger Hristo thought to himself. But finally he made his decision and walked back into the class and walked up to the Slushatel girl

"Well Miss Hansoff you did quite well at this potion considering its high level of difficulty, you were so close to an E if only it had have been abit stronger, so I would say when you were simmering it the heat wasn't quite high enough, but nevertheless you received an A, a very impressive grade for this potion"

Hristo then continued walking around inspecting the progress of the other students

Roman immediately began working once the teacher began writing on the board. He followed the instructions carefully, being as specific as possible.

Roman was upset about what happened over break, and doing something so attention consuming as potion-making helped him relieve some of that leftover stress. To him, the worst part was waiting for the potion while it was being heated, and he didn't really know what to do with himself.

Even though doing things meticulously was a hobby with him, Roman had trouble with it every once and awhile, since there were so many different ways one could make the potion while still following the directions, but he tried to follow his instincts.

Finally, when he had checked the instructions once ovar again, he poured his potion into a vial, cleaned up, and gave it to Professor Belby.

Hristo looked up at the boy who had handed him a sample and gave a small smile " Ah thank you Mr Ritter" Hristo then picked up the vial and walked towards his office

He opened the vial and a generous sip of the potion, Hristo then suddenly fell to his knees in pain, his throat became try and and sore to swollow, he reached his hand up on the desk to get the anitdote as he did he felt immense pain. Once Hristo took the anitdote stood up, he was quite impressed

Hristo wrote down the boy's grade then walked up into the classroom and walked up to the boy " Well Mr Ritter you certainly know your potions don't you that was quite impressive, you received and O for the potion well done"

Hristo then walked back to his desk and sat down and waitd for the rest of the class to give him their samples