bottle fame, brew glory, stopper death [raina]

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One more month. Roxy had one more month at Hogwarts before NEWTs and graduation, and she needed to spend all of her time studying, and she needed to spend all her time practicing Quidditch, and she needed to spend all her time soaking in everything. And as Time Turners were no longer a thing, she was having a bit of trouble fitting it all in.

And she was doing none of that, exactly. She'd been asked for some potions help, and Roxy had been happy enough to oblige. They said that one of the best ways to learn something was to teach it, so it counted as studying, right?
And she wasn't afraid of a few explosions - and she'd be warned there might be a few.

She'd grabbed one of the dungeon rooms, and brought down her ingredients, books, and cauldron, and was waiting for Raina to arrive.

@raina

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The end of the year was fast approaching, and for Raina - it was a little different this year. Sure - she had OWLs this year, and that was becoming a bit more stress on her - she wanted to do well on them, just like everyone else did. For most of her classes this didn't really feel like too much of a problem, she did fairly well in her classes. Well all except for one... potions. Now that was her main problem, while her other classes weren't so worrisome - it was her potions that was the big issue. 

The youngest Krum quickly gave a sigh, cringing at the though of her last potions class. It hadn't ended up so well - she had followed all of the instructions but still somehow it didn't end up the way it was meant to. Instead her potion had literally blown up in her face and ruined her shirt - she was still trying to get that shirt clean, but it seemed that might be better of thrown out. And then there was her poor Cauldron... which now had a whole right through the bottom of it. Her professor even seemed a little puzzled at what she could have done to cause that reaction. 

She really did need some help to at least hopefully get a pass in her Potions OWLs, luckily however she did find someone willing to help even if it was so close to OWLs and NEWTs. On one hand she could have asked her sister - Irina was good at Potions after all. But at the same time.. Raina wanted to try and get through this on her own. The reminder of NEWTs coming up reminded her that this would be it.. after they were over - Irina was Graduating this year, next year her oldest sister wouldn't be at Hogwarts. It was a hard time for Raina right now.

With a shake of her head she glanced down at her watch, Brown eyes widening as she gave a small gasp. She was late. Right now she was meant to be meeting up with Roxanne Weasley who had so kindly agreed to help her out with her Potions. She barely paused to grab her things before hurrying off down the Corridor and towards the Dungeons. In so much of a rush that by the time she reached the room she was slightly breathless, her cheeks flushed as she gave a small smile - still breathing hard as she carefully placed her things down.

"Hi." Raina took another deep breath, pushing her hair back from her face, "Thank you so much - again. I can't thank you enough." It was a reminder though, she really did want to do something to properly thank the older girl - with her sister also working towards her NEWTs she knew how busy the older girl must be.

@roxanne

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Roxy didn't mind that Raina was a few minutes late - it had given her a chance to formulate a plan. She smiled at the other girl, and reassured her. "It's not a problem at all. It's good practice."

"I thought maybe we could start with the same potion I had to do for my OWL. That way it'll be the same difficulty as the exam." She grinned. "Who knows, it might even be the same one!"

It was a good exam potion - not too likely to explode, lots of ingredient prep to test the breadth of skills, not too tight timing-wise, and a good balance of at the upper end of the skills they'd learned while not being too difficult for people who couldn't do potions to pass at.

She flipped her textbook around to show Raina the recipe for Invigoration Draught. "Where do you start?" It was an odd way to ask the question, but she wanted to see Raina's process, because that would transfer over to more than just one potion.

@raina

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Seeing the older girl wasn't upset or annoyed that she was late - it was only a couple minutes after all - Raina let out a sigh of relief, allowing her smile to brighten as she settled herself down, fingers tracing over the cover of the book as she listened. Finally nodding slowly, although still a little unsure - she really hoped nothing blew up again, "That sounds like a good idea - it could help, and if nothing else, its the right skill level." Her mind worked quickly, tossing the idea around before nodding, besides if Roxanne suggested it, it must be a good enough potion for her to practice with.

Her fingers tapped gently against the table, brown eyes watching as the older girl looked at the book. Raina was still nervous however, and it showed when she leaned over to look at the recipe - taking note of what potion it was, Invigoration Draught, a small frown formed on her lips as the younger girl looked back up - a little confused by the question, "Where do I start?" The question was strange, or at least the phrasing was a little odd. "I read it first... then, gather what ingredients I need... right?" Now she wasn't sure - that was what she was taught to do, was that wrong?


@roxanne

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Raina agreed to Roxy's planned potion, and looked at the recipe for a moment before answering her question. And it was a good answer, albeit not the best one.

"Close. Read it first, absolutely. But before you gather the ingredients, set up your work station. Give it a good scourgify to get rid of contaminents, and make sure you have the equipment you need." It wouldn't do to use, say, a silver knife for a step that required iron, or a wooden mortar and pestle when the instructions called for marble. She smiled though, because Raina had the right idea. "Then you collect all the ingredients you need."

"If you start clean, there's a lower chance of something going in that'll cause a bad reaction." Raina wanted to avoid an explosion on exam day, she knew, and every other student would be grateful if she did as well. That was Roxy's goal for tutoring - no explosions on exam day. She'd run through everything that might cause them and make sure Raina knew how to avoid them. The second goal was getting Raina to pass, which was why she shrugged and added, "plus it looks good for the examiners, and that can make a grade difference if you're close." Sympathy marks were still marks, at the end of the day.

"Start with that, then we'll run the ingredient prep."

@raina

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Raina nodded slowly, taking in what the older girl said with full attention. It made sense, she was good at following what made sense - why hadn't she thought of doing something so simple before? Cleaning her work space was such a basic thing. She shook her head at herself before moving carefully, eagerly following what Roxy had told her as she carefully moves her wand, murmuring the spell, " Scourgify " before carefully reading the directions once again and making sure she had the correct equipment and ingredients. That done she gave a small smile back to the Gryffindor girl and nodded.

"That now looks better - right?" the question was a little unsure, but she was doing the right thing so far - wasn't she? Her lip catches between her teeth, taking a deep breath as she lets her eyes go over everything - she had all she needed, things were set up - all she had to do now was follow the instructions and actually make the potion... without any mishaps. But then.. for Raina that was the harder part in potions, even if she was careful - there was still a risk of something somehow going on. She was sure that maybe she must just be cursed when it came to this subject.

Closing her eyes she takes another quick yet deep breath before opening her eyes and nodding to Roxy, a hesitant smile on her lips, "So - now I have to prep the ingredients." There was the silent question, that was the next step - she knew it was but. She was so unsure about herself when it came to potions. It was almost funny - compared to her oldest sister - Irina thrived with Potions, and Raina ... she just sunk with Potions.

@roxanne

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Raina took the suggestion to clean her workstation to heart, and re-read the instructions and gather her things. She did it all perfectly well, but Roxanne could tell Raina wasn't feeling very comfortable with it. "You're doing great," she reassured her, and nodded when she asked if the next step was prepping the ingredients.

Of course it was, but Roxanne kept her snark to herself. "That's right. Work your way down the list top to bottom. In an exam you'll have to manage your time more strictly and multitask, but we don't have to, so let's do them all upfront. When you've got them prepped, put each into clean glass bowls - I'll conjure up a few if you need them." She smiled. "I'll let you know if I see any problems. Just remember to clean between each ingredient." There was a school of thought that said that too much magical cleaning could ruin a potion, but at OWL level it was more likely that you'd cause an early reaction on your chopping board. Roxy'd play the odds on this one.

@raina

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She was trying hard, being careful to listen to what Roxanne was telling her to do and focusing as carefully as she could to follow things as closely as possible. It wasn't all that different to what she usually did and that rarely ended up without an incident or two - but no, she had to think positively and not think about bad things happening. Her shoulders relaxed a little at the gentle reassurance and she gave a small smile before moving to prepare the ingredients. Once again she followed what she was told, carefully working her way down the list - for now she was taking her time and making sure it was going well - even as the gentle reminder that in the exam she'd have to work a little faster and multitask.

The idea of multi tasking was a bit of a worrying one, while she was more than capable of doing so - in a potions exam it was a lot harder for her to do so without things going very much in the wrong direction. She paused and took a deep breath, glancing at what she had so far. She had followed things to the tee and had listened carefully to what she was told and.. things looked okay. It brought a smile to her lips as she glanced at Roxanne, quietly asking what was next - and then soon enough it was time to actually begin to make the potion. She felt her worrying begin to creep up on her once again. This was where things usually shifted.

She was placing each ingredient into the cauldron and following directions, she was trying ever so carefully to make sure things went okay, "I'm not doing too bad.." she murmured mostly to herself, she was glad that Roxy was being patient and even when she asked rather obvious questions - she answered them calmly. Things weren't going bad though and it helped her confidence as she gently stired as was required. She had followed things almost to utter perfection - so when she glanced up to Roxy as the cauldron was bubbling strangely she was confused.

"is it supposed to do that..?" she asked with a little concern before brown eyes widened and she dropped what she was doing to grab onto Roxy, "Duck!" she dived down to hide beneath the bench - gently tugging Roxy with her as the cauldron bubbled over and then - a familiar event occured as a rocking 'boom' sounded in the room. Raina cringing as a faint groan escapes her, even  with ducking for cover it hadn't completely missed her as her hair was now covered in the potion-y goop. She had messed up some how.

@roxanne [Hope its okay.. and so so so sorry I didn't notice this earlier!]

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Honestly? Roxy didn't know what Raina's potion-brewing problem was. She prepared the ingredients well. She followed directions, asked good questions, and when she said she wasn't doing too bad, Roxy smiled. "You're doing great," she reassured her.

Unfortunately, it was only moments later that things started to go wrong. There was a strange bubbling, more than should be expected, and the bubbles didn't pop at the surface, just sat on top and piled up. It was too thick, but -

She didn't finish her thought before Raina called 'duck' and pulled her under the bench with her. The cauldron bubbled over, and then there was a boom that she really hadn't expected to hear. Thankfully Invigoration Draught was a potion that only took effect when drunk, because she and Raina were both well-speckled with it.

Roxy pulled herself up and considered the mess, Vanishing away the splotches and considering the remains in the potion. It took her a moment before she declared "it's got to be your stirring technique. It's not the ingredients because they were textbook perfect, and even if your timing could be sharper, it's not bad. The temperatures all looked about right. That's the only thing that makes sense."

Stirring techniques, thank Merlin, could be practiced in a cauldron of water, and once they were solid in water, could be practiced in oil and honey and other totally stable ingredients the house elves could easily provide. "I'm going to give you the name of a book that has some exercises. Don't practice them in potions, not until you get someone to check your angles and speed. Water's fine. Make sure you can handle the written and it should be enough to get you through." She found a dry piece of parchment and scrawled out the title and author, and passed it over. "And now I really need to go shower."

@raina
[wrap it up in your next post!]

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Really, she wasn't too bad with potions - for Raina the fact that things always seemed to somehow go wrong - well, it had hit her confidence in her potion making abilities. It constantly made her nervous that she was going to mess up somehow, even as she repeatably would check over the recipe or how she took careful looks at each ingredient - making sure it was the right measurement or cut the right way and size. Somehow she always messed up and it always led to her disappointing not only herself but her professor. It was really only potions that she struggled like this with.

As the bubbling grew worse - she felt that familiar dread and did the only thing she knew she had to do in that moment. Make sure both her and Roxy got out of the way as much as possible. Even with doing so though - it still ended up over them both and Raina shook her head, giving a faint laugh was the only thing she could manage as her own disappointment flooded over her. She had been doing so good - and then it went wrong.

She remained half hidden under the table as Roxy moved to vanish the mess from the room, but when she spoke again, Raina popped her head out, peering at her curiously. Her stirring technique? Well.. that was something she hadn't thought about. She certainly hadn't practiced if she was stirring something perfectly. The ingredients and measurements - even her timing on adding ingredients - she had worked on improving each of those and following them to an exact science. But not her stirring. She hadn't really even thought there were other ways to stir a potion differently.

Raina nodded eagerly, her smile appearing once more even as she got to her feet, "Of course." her smile grew as Roxy handed her the parchment, Raina carefully tucked it away somewhere dry and safe before reaching out and hugging the older girl quickly - they were both already a mess anyways. "Thank you so so much. And I am sorry it ended that way but - I promise to practice the exercises just as you said. We could both use some cleaning up now though." She gave a small laugh, clearly back to her usual bubbly self again as she waved and then darted off as quickly as she could. She'd shower and then go and practice with water just as Roxy had told her.


@roxanne
[END THREAD!]