try us, if you dare!, MANDY/ARIEL<3

[Emric Bolstridge]

This was it! The moment of truth! The single, most important day of the cub's young life had come, and he was entirely determined to ensure that everything went as he planned. If not, he'd surely find himself in a horribly, horrible situation that would end with the most disastrous results. Peter Stonewall may have only been a second year to some people, but to a kid barely exceeding a height of four feet, as well as one who had hardly scratched the surface of his wizard training, the boy could be dangerous. About as dangerous as, perhaps, a wolf even? No doubt. Still, Emric was fairly confident that he wouldn't find himself at his untimely doom, considering he had a partner in crime that only boosted his success rate at least by a bazillion percent. Ariel Silvermoor, his recently discovered distant cousin, was going to be joining him very soon to help brew a potion that, hopefully, was going to teach that jerk of a Slytherin a lesson in social interaction! Not only had the second year gone and made Emric look like a stupid, whiny fool by stealing his present to Rose away, but the guy had even gone so far as shamelessly flirting with his own cousin a couple times. Now, that wouldn't have been a bad thing had the guy not also flirted with half of the other first year girls - at least one or two in the cub's own house! And who knows how many other girls the guy flirted with that weren't first years, because, evidently, the guy had no limits.

A kid like that needed to be taught a lesson though, which is precisely why Em was hanging out in the weird, plant infested room that was Classroom Eleven, just waiting for his cousin to arrive with her book of potions. Ariel and the first year were going to look through her book, find the most epically, horrible potion one could make and feed it to the second year snake. Were they being over dramatic? Acting like low-level, sleazeballs who should have just let the Slytherin be?

Pfft, of course not! Peter deserved anything the first years could come up with - Emric was certain of that. There were a number of things that could go wrong with their plan; for example, he could discover their plot before execution and beat them up, or, they could pull the prank fine but not without having their identities revealed, thus prompting the boy to, again, beat them up. Most scenarios led to them getting beaten up, and while Emric couldn't speak for Ariel, he at least knew that getting beaten up wasn't something that he wanted to be involved in. A weak sigh left his lips as he flung his body over a chair, then lifting his leg up and stretching it over a nearby desk. The first year was feeling anxious, pretty impatient as well, but more-so anxious and nervous than anything else. He just couldn't wait to being brewing. That was probably the best part of this all - the fact that he got to practice some potion brewing with his cousin. At the moment, Emric was enjoying potions a lot. He wasn't really sure why, but it was consistently at the top of his favorite class list at the end of every week. It was kind of an easy subject when you thought about. All you had to do was follow the instructions for whatever potion it was you were trying to make. If those were followed correctly, everything would go fine! Of course, Em wasn't sure how things went when you didn't have a recipe to follow, but, he hadn't gotten to a situation like that yet, so he figured he'd worry about it later. Some people complained about it being "hard" - like Rose, for example - but Emric pretty much considered those people to be a little more dense than was healthy. Because, really, it was sort of a like cooking, and while he wasn't a chef himself, the cub considered cooking to be something that people could pick up fairly easily. But, that went for anything, didn't it? As long as people tried hard enough and weren't stupid, they could pretty much do well in whatever it was they wanted to do well in. Of course, there were probably a bunch of people who were just hopeless and dumb. Those people probably would always suck at certain things... Whatever, Emric knew he wasn't one of those people who sucked, so he was pretty content with himself.

There, did, happen to be something that the boy wasn't particularly awesome at though. Whistling. That trick seemed to be something the boy struggled a little with... But it was okay. In moments like this - where he had to be patient and wait for people - Emric enjoyed puckering up his lips, folding his tongue and blowing air from out his lungs like a maniac. "Shwooooo" He managed to created from his efforts, feeling pretty content that it had sounded less airy than normal. As long as he had this to practice, the cub could manage to wait awhile before losing interest and wandering away. Of course, that did bring up the question of what he would do after he mastered the art of whistling...

Maybe he'd get a cat or something. Or, maybe he'd get into the habit of picking up the people he planned on meeting himself. Either way, it didn't really matter much at the moment. He was preoccupied now, and more than willing to spend a little more time waiting for his cousin. That's what family did for each other anyway; they made exceptions for things like this. It was like, an unwritten code or something. Still, the boy hoped the eaglet would arrive soon...

[Ariel Silvermoor]

Oh, Ariel was mad; not just minorly annoyed type mad, either. No, the little eaglette was positively furious. "Just where did that... that git get off calling her a thief of magic and worse," She fumed as she made her way to classroom eleven, her pewter cauldron hanging neatly from her arm by its handle, parcels of various basic potions ingredients and handy potions stirrer tucked inside of it for easy carrying, and a stack of potions texts, references and notes under her other arm. Her wand hung from its usual position in its holster on her belt. It had been a good thing for the snake in question that her hands had been to full of books and things to allow her to resent his speach with the afore mentioned item.

The foul temper the little brunette was in was all the fault of one Nathaniel Woodbane... a snake possibly a couple of years older than herself. The snake in question had bumped into her in the hallway on her way back up from the kitchens to her meeting to brew potions with her cousin, Emric Bolstridge of Gryffindor house. Their intent had been to use the potions they had to prank another Slytherin, Peter Stonewall. Why had Ariel been in the kitchens? She had been making a deal with the house elves, as a matter of fact... their aid and silence in administering any potions they made in exchange for a supply of Berty Bott's Everyflavor Beans. Ariel chuckled at exactly how simple the transaction had been made; for some reason or other, she just had a way with them. Considering the things she had learned from her sensei, she had begun to think that one day being a prefect herself might not be such a bad thing... for now though, she was content with her reputation as the riddler's shadow. Even these musings, however, did not take her mind off of her mood... a slight smirk curved the corners as she began to contemplate the ways she could get even with that pompous, stuck up serpent. Peter Stonewall and all of his behaviour was, for the moment, forgotten entirely. The little Ravenclaw didn't doubt that the combined powers of herself and Emric could find any number fo amusing ways to let the punishment fit the crime. Ariel wasn't bad at potions , by any means, but she had always had a bit more talent with wand based magic... it was Emric, it seemed, who truly excelled at potions making. There would be, she reflected, PLENTY of time left in the term to get Peter Stonewall and get him good... it seemed there were far too many Slytherins who needed to be taught a lesson in manners. Peter was a flirt, it was true, but some of the things the Woodbane boy had said.... Grrrrr.

Such were her thoughts as she entered the eerie, jungle like classroom eleven... her eyes blazing dangerously. She quickly spotted Emric slumped comfortably in one of the chairs, his feet propped up on the desk... a posture no teacher would have allowed had one been around to see it.

"Emric!" She called, a light of fierce mischief touched with anger shining in her eyes," I got the house elves to agree to help us, AND to promise not to reveal our identities. Let's see, here are my potions books," She added setting the stack on a nearby desk," especially this one," She added holding up a muggle spiral notebook, and brandishing with a grin." This one has some potions that are good for pranks in it... including," she added with a smirk," a few that you won't find in the others." Being the riddler's shadow, the eagle prefect's apprentice of prankery, had its advantages... for one, she was learning all kinds of interesting potions and interesting uses for them...

With that she set her cauldron down and began to unpack the various ingredients she had brought with her, carefully organizing them. They had ended up choosing this room because there was a wide range of plants in it, more than a few of which were useful in various potions. It was also, as an added benefit, not much used for actual classes anymore and so they were unlikely to be found. "Do you know a Nathaniel Woodbane?" She enquired, still busily looking through what she had brought with her... yes, very good, she thought examining a packet of dragon scales she had brought, setting then next to her bottle of distilled water. "I ran into him in the corridors on my way back upr from talking with the houselves," She continued,"And you wouldn't believe some of the things he said to me," she added with a hint of the anger she felt in her voice.

[Emric Bolstridge]

Emric nearly fell out of his chair as he heard the door to the room begin to open, not really expecting to hear it so suddenly. He pushed his legs off the desk and turned to find the eaglet with the eyes of a bull, ready to charge. He blinked a few times, not really sure if Ariel was awake or if she was in some sort of sleep-raging trance and had somehow made it all the way down the eagle tower there. People didn't sleep rage though, did they? The cub didn't really think they did, though he supposed it was possible. Even so, the second his cousin began talking let him know that she wasn't just asleep and was in fact, pretty pissed off. "What happened?" The first year asked, raising an eyebrow. He heard the words coming out of her mouth, but nothing she said seemed to be worthy of getting angry over. Unless... she didn't want to prank to Peter anymore and was now frustrated because she wanted out of the deal. That would have been a horrible blow to the first year's plan, because Ariel's mischievous ways were pretty much essential to the success of the prank. Em might have been able to pull one off on his own, but there wouldn't be a chance of his prank being as awesome as it would be if two pranksters worked on it. Plus, with only him, who would check to make sure he didn't make any mistakes? Because, while the Gryffindor thought he was pretty awesome, he couldn't ignore the good possibility that he would screw something up and get caught. The thought of Peter catching him mid-prank sent a shiver down the boy's spine - it just couldn't happen. Ariel needed to be in on this prank, if not because the stupid snake deserved to get pranked, but at least to ensure that her cousin didn't get beaten to a pulp.

She didn't look like she didn't want to be a part of the prank since the cub could see quite clearly how carefully and swiftly she unpacked everything. Of course, the wizard was beginning to notice that girl's were a bit stranger than he originally had thought. One second they were alright, then the next they were upset and yelling about this or that. And even after yelling and being upset, they could still go back to being decent people. Em assumed that every girl was a bit different though, so Ariel might have just been one of those girls who kept everything in and just looked kind of irritated on the outside. This was troubling, because Emric didn't want the eaglet to be upset, mostly because it would be detrimental to their plan, but also because he cared about her well being. He sighed softly, releasing some of the frustration he was getting on his own from just trying to read his cousin. If... Ariel really didn't want to do the prank anymore, the first year supposed he'd have to comply. It was a sucky idea, because he really wanted to get Peter back for being a jerk, but if his cousin didn't want to anymore... then he didn't have too much of a choice.

This horrible thought was lifted from the boy's mind as he heard the eaglet continue to talk, mentioning to him about some kid named Nathaniel. He shrugged at her question about whether he'd heard of the boy before. Emric didn't really pay attention to anyone outside of his best friend, Rose, and Ariel herself. He supposed Lucy was alright, though he didn't really concern himself with what she was up to. Still, he perked his ears up to listen to what his cousin had to say about the boy. After all, Ariel wouldn't have brought the boy up for no reason, as she was good at not wasting the first year's time. His brows furrowed at her words as he crossed his arms and walked up to her. "What did he say?"

By the way his cousin had finished her sentence, the first year could sort of tell that her encounter with the kid was a bit less than pleasant. This only angered the boy, as he didn't like the image of seeing the eaglet get picked on in his head. The news of this Nathaniel guy took place of the cub's old goal to get back at Peter, because while Em didn't appreciate some snake shamelessly flirting with Ariel as well as every other girl, he most definitely didn't like the idea that some kid had gone and upset her. That being said, the cub's instinct told him that whatever it was that this Nathaniel kid did, he couldn't live on unpunished. Whether the guy had merely stepped on his cousin's toe or just sneezed in her direction, Emric was prepared to proclaim war on the guy and do everything he could to make sure he not only apologized for whatever it was he did, but to also make sure that he never had the idea to hurt Ariel again.

Picking up the eaglet's potions book, the first year began flipping through the pages, only to find that just looking up textbook potions was boring. He then picked up the notebook she had brought with her, and began looking at the potions that apparently weren't in any textbook at school. He grinned as he found a few that sounded pretty cool, but the potion they needed to make needed to be super cool, not just pretty cool. "What should we do to him, Ariel? It's gotta be something really bad, otherwise there's no point in getting the jerk back at all!"

[Ariel Silvermoor]

Her cousin, who had nearly fallen out of his chair upon her entering the room, she had noted with a grin, didn't take long in coming over to see what she had brought... or in asking about exactly what had happened on her way down here involving the Woodbane boy. "He said that I must have gotten the magic some squib was supposed to have," She answered angrily," He basically called me a mistake... or worse, a thief and said that I had no business at Hogwart's and that I ought to go back home to my muggle mum and dad." she told the cub as she watched his eyes narrow with anger and interest at her news.

That was a good sign. Ariel would certainly like to get back at that jerk Nathaniel, but the, Peter deserved to be pranked too. Maybe.. maybe she could persuade Em that they could successfully prank both of the boys. They might even be able to make it look like the other was responsible for whatever it was they chose to do. The house elves certainly weren't going to rat on them.

The cub then began to look through the potions books she had brought while she continued to sort through her potions ingedients. Glancing up she noticed that he had homed in on the one with her 'extracurricular' potions notes in it. She grinned, as she happened to know there were a number of good ones in there.

Her Gryffindor partner in prankery wanted to know exactly what they ought to do... it had to be good or, as he pointed out, why bother with it at all. "Hmmmmm..." She muttered as she began to thumb through the notes, There was the wide-eyes potion, draught of night vision... what to do, what to do; the little Rabrunette wondered as she flicked passed any nymber of possibilities." Did you see any.... say, I have an idea. Supposing we try combining some of them?" She asked looking back eagerly at her cousin to see what the lion cub would think of this plan. It was a fact, though, that sometimes mixing potions had... unexpected results.

She carefully explained her other idea to the cub... that of making enough of whatever potion they made to dose the both of them with it. Why not? If they were going to enact vengeance, why not on more than one at a time, the eagle grinned as she continued to look through the potions manual... one ear open to hear any thoughts, ideas or suggestions the cub miht have.

[Emric Bolstridge]

Placing down the notebook he held, Emric turned his gaze to his cousin. She asked a good question. With so many potions to choose from, it could be hard to decide on what exactly was the right one. They could probably just decide on one, but... what if they picked one that didn't fully show their victim that messing with them - either of them - was a horrible idea? It almost felt as if this was their only chance to get the snake good. Er, either snake, since Emric wasn't entirely sure who they were going to be pranking anymore. He supposed they might be able to get both, but he wasn't really confident that it would work. They'd have to be super careful and clever, and while Emric was pretty sure Ariel could be both, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to do both. Normally, Emric felt he was a pretty smart kid, but pranking two Slytherins seemed a bit too ambitious for him. Alric would have said pranking anyone wasn't wise, or okay for that matter, but his brother always seemed to be against the fun things in life. Pranks were awesome; they made people laugh and, more importantly, they could definitely be used to get back at people who did you wrong. Because, really, what were he and Ariel supposed to do? Let Peter and Nathaniel step all over them and insult their family? That didn't seem fair. And, it was something that the first year couldn't accept. Those jerks didn't have a right to talk down to them, for any reason. Ariel being a muggleborn was cool, and Em felt that he wasn't some little over sensitive, little twerp. Both boys weren't allowed to judge them, no matter how high and mighty they felt.

With a slightly over chewed lip, the cub finally chirped, "Mixing two potions would be cool. We... probably have to be careful, 'cause we're not really supposed to mix potions together... but I think we can do it." Emric knew the rules of potions, and mixing things together definitely had the potential of going wrong. The results could end up disastrous, but, hopefully they'd end up that way after they fed their potion to their victims instead of before. Again though, as long as they were careful, they could probably come up with something that wouldn't explode in their faces. He almost wished they knew a time delaying spell, just in case their concoction would explode. At least with that, they could possibly time the explosion to be in the Slytherins faces.

Sighing softly, the cub went off and grabbed a chair to sit by Ariel, placing it down calmly and taking a seat in it. "Let's do that boil potion, and..." - the first year reached out and grabbed their text book - "Hmm... I dunno. Do we have anything that could make them go nuts? I can't remember going over anything like that in class..." To be honest, sometimes it felt like they didn't go over nearly enough in class. Emric usually found that they had more assignments geared towards ingredient properties and simple potions that would cure things. Those were pretty useful he supposed, but they weren't nearly as fun sounding as some of the things the boy found in more advanced potions books. Why did it seem like this was a reoccurring thing? Where it was the older students who got to learn all the really cool things? Didn't the professors realize that first years needed to learn as many hexes and jinxes as the older students did? It seemed to Emric that most of the older students at Hogwarts were either too busy making out with each other or drinking to even worry about feeding each other cool potions that made them throw up bugs, or casting incantations that made their arms turn to jelly, or... whatever other cool things they got to learn. Those were the kinds of things that a couple of first years like them could use in like, their everyday life! The young Gryffindor knew loads of people he wanted to cast spells like those to, he just couldn't do it because people were jerks and didn't teach him how to.

Whatever, though. He'd get there eventually, right? And when he finally learned all the cool potions and spells and stuff, Emric would definitely make sure to utilize them properly. It'd be stupid to just learn them and save them for 'defense' against jerks. Nah, the first year was positive that once he learned all the cool tricks of magic, he'd be off using them pretty much every chance he could get. Oh, somebody didn't like his shoes? BAM! He'd curse them to throw up every time he snapped his finger. Or, someone didn't think he was awesome? INSTANT EGO-BREAKER! He'd fed 'em a potion that gave them purple spots everywhere and make them smell super bad. Like, over heated garbage bad.

Yeah. It'd be awesome.

But, anyway, the cub began gathering the ingredients they needed to make the boil giving potion, carefully separating everything onto a table he placed by Ariel's cauldron. This was how you were supposed to do it - keep everything organized and prepared so you could just throw everything in when the time came. Speaking up as he worked, the boy said, "Hey, Ariel. Since we're making two potions, let’s get a vial or something and keep each potion in it before we mix them. That way we can mix like half of each into another vial, so if something goes wrong before we can give it to... uh. Whoever we're getting, we'll have a little bit of the safe ones to use!"

[Ariel Silvermoor]

The cub appeared to consider what the eaglette had said fora few moments before responding. Em seemed to think it would be doable... though they would need tobe careful; Ariel grinned as the cub suggested a boils potion and...he wasn't certain what else. This was a question that needed to be thought about carefully, now that she considered the matter. Whatever else they mixed with it would need to be something that could be safely mixed with the boilspotion,which,by itself wasn't that hard to make... both it and the boils cure potion were basic ones that pretty much every first-year learned... but still bothersome enough to make snakes think twice about ever messing with them again.

Ariel began to get the base for the boils potion ready and get it in the cauldron to boil as her cousin continued to chirp busily aboput exactly what they could do in addition to boils. When her cousin mentioned the fact that they hadn't gone over such and such a thing in potions class, the brunette chuckled and turned to face the cub. "Careful, Emric," The eaglette grinned mischievously...," that sounds dangerously like a Ravenclaw talking. You wouldn't want to turn into one, now would you?" Her eyes twinkled merrily as she teased her cousin." Incidentally, though..." I know what you mean ... there are a lot of things I would like to know how to do, but the teachers say I am not ready... or that it would lead to mischief. That is why it is nice to have a sensei to teach me all the things they won't," She concluded with a grin. It was a fact that there were things that they simply didn't teach to first-years... probably for fear that they would either hurt themselves trying it or else use it to create epic amounts of chaos. With the two first-years in question here, of course, they would most likely have the latter in mind; the little Raven grinned with some amusement.

Ariel flicked through her potions notebook, scanning various recipes and rejecting each before finally stopping at one with a grin..."Oooh, How about THIS one Em.... You know how Amortentia is supposed to smell like a person's favorite aromas?" She inquired, her eyes taking a fierce gleam that plainly said she had a plan," THIS potion does the opposite.... ti will make you smell like whoever is smelling it's three LEAST favorite smells."She chuckled," In other words... it makes you stink."

This would been enough to bring a snake down a peg or two... they would learn better than toever insult her family or her blood."Let's showthose snakes exactly what we can do."she grinned mischievously as she began tocarefully read the instructions for making the potion in question... which were rather complicated,but she thought that they could make them. The best part of all of this was there did not appear to be a counter to the smell, unlike with the boils. This way, even if they cured their boils,they would still smell like dragon dung, or whatever else stunk the worst to those around them. The riddler's shadow was going to exact revenge!

This was going to be hugely awsome.

The eaglette cautiously glanced back at her cousin before handing him her notebook with its pages opened to the recipe for the potion in question. "What do you think, Em? Could we make that?" She asked as she turned her attention back to the cauldron, which had begun bubble nicely... time to begin adding the ingredients to make the boils potion! She hummed softly as she began to carefully add the ingredients that Emric had prepared and set out all in neat and orderly fashion for her to use once they were ready. "It was then that her brain registered the last bit that the cub had said, for she had been absorbed in her work, "Yes," She replied, I think that is an excellent idea." Keeping them separate until they were ready to mix them was probably wise... that way, if something went wrong it could hopefully be directed at their intended target, or would that be targets, instead of getting the brunt of it themselves.

Her ears were attentive, though as she worked, in case her partner in crime had any better ideas or else thoughts on the matter.

[Emric Bolstridge]

Emric took the notebook his cousin handed to him and dissected the potion she had suggested they make. The ingredients were easy enough to prepare, and the instructions seemed to have a flow to them, ensuring the cub that this wasn’t just some fake recipe her “sensei” might have given her as a prank. “Yeah I think so. We just have to be careful with the heat and, uh…” He glanced over the recipe again, scanning it once more in his mind for good measure. “How long we keep it brewing.” That was easy enough. All they had to do was keep an eye on time. Placing the notebook down, the cub went off to grab a spare cauldron from the small cupboard that was still there from the potions lesson the instructor had taught there a few weeks ago. He carried it with him back to where Ariel had set hers, placing it what looked to be a safe distance from the other. Carelessness would end in horrible, horrible results, so Em wasn’t about to take any risks. “I’ll work on the smelly potion while you work on the boil one, okay? We could get more done that way, I think.”

Smiling to himself, the boy went and snatched the appropriate ingredients for the potion he was set on brewing, preparing each just as he had done earlier, sorting them into neat piles and arranging them in the order they would need to be mixed in. “Aguamenti,” he said with his wand pointed in the cauldron, doing his best to keep his hand steady as the water poured out of the tip of his wand. Underneath the cauldron, Emric lit a tiny flame, eyeing it for a bit before turning to the notebook again. As he began to hear the bubbling of the water, the first year went and carefully added the first ingredient – an oddly named, greenish leaf, ground up to make a rather bitter smelling sort of mesh that he had to scoop from out of its container. Gently he stirred the ingredient into the cauldron, watching as the tiny bits of leaves dissolved into the boiling water. The instructions said to leave the first ingredient to dissolve for at least three minutes, so, naturally, the cub would wait at least another minute longer. Now, sure, that didn’t make it sound like Emric knew what he was doing, but, well… shoot. And that was really a cushioned term that the little lion was using. Honestly, the first year knew that to be an ace at brewing potions, you had to follow the instructions to a tee. He knew this, really, he did. But the fact of the matter was, was that the eleven year old didn’t want to take risks with the potion, as it was completely new to him and he didn’t want to have to remake it. Maybe it was stupid of him to do, but he didn’t care. He’d find out soon enough if it was a harmless decision anyway.

Slouched back against the nearest desk, the cub began to practice his whistling, puckering his lips tightly and trying to force all the air out of his lungs. When all that came out from his efforts was a weird “pssffttthoo” sound, Em turned to face his cousin. “Ariel, can you whistle? ‘Cuz I can’t and I don’t know why.” It was dumb really. Or at least, right at the moment it was, because… seriously, there were so many people who could do it with ease. Was Em some sort of freak because he couldn’t? It would have sucked if that were true… The boy already had his changing voice to worry about without adding “unwhistler” to the list. Before the first year could speak up again, he noticed a strange smell in the air. It kind of smelt like burning fish, or… maybe burning oil? Whatever. The fact was that it smelt horrible, and—Crap! Emric jumped from his spot against the desk, sending it flying backwards as he lunged towards his cauldron. Inside he saw the murky liquid begin to spot in several areas, clear tails of smoke emitting from out of each blackened spot. Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot! What if the thing exploded? What if it splattered all over him and mutated his body?.... Okay, actually, that kind of sounded a little cool, but if that wasn’t what happened? What if instead of some cool reaction like that happening, the concoction killed him and cousin? His parents would’ve been pissed if he went and died, and he was pretty sure Ariel’s parents wouldn’t be happy with him either. But what was an eleven year old to do?...

No. No, no, no! That was the first mistake of “what the hell do I do with the overflowing potion?” scenario. Emric was NOT going to succumb to that – he was better than that. Instead of freaking out like some idiot, the cub calmly breathed, forcing himself to ignore his rapid heartbeat and anxiousness. Swiftly he went back to the recipe, locating quickly what the next ingredient to add was. He grabbed the yellow root, and whipped his wand out and pointed it at the flame underneath the cauldron. An Aguamenti later, and the tiny ember was out. Carefully the boy held the root over the still overheated, and still smoking, cauldron, breaking it in half as the instructions told him to do before quickly dropping it in. Aiming he wand at the cauldron again, Emric uttered yet another Aguamenti, this time angling it so that the water would gently slide over the sides of the cauldron. Dense puffs of steam flew off the sides of the cauldron as Emric’s water came in contact, cooling the thing slowly. A little while of doing that, and it seemed that the potion was back to normal. Kind of. There was still a lingering scent of something burnt, leaving a bitter taste in the cub’s mouth but… well at least the potion hadn’t blown up.

The boy slumped back into a chair, his eyes staring blankly at the seemingly safe cauldron again. Obviously, you really, really, really had to follow the instructions of a potion recipe. Like, really accurately. Really.

[Ariel Silvermoor]

Ariel nodded as Emric took the notebook and began to scan over the instructions for making the stench-ification potion. After a few moments time, her cousin declared that he believed it to be doable... a good thing as at least part of her had worried that Xav had given her a phony potion as a prank AND to teach her to read things carefully; although so far as she had been able to tell it had appeared to be a genuine recipe.

The cub declared that he thought he could make the potion in question... though he said care would need to be careful with the heat and how long it was allowed to brew; always a considerrations with ANY magic potion... and he bwent to the cupboard that the potions instructor had forgotten in their from a few weeks back, the cub found a cauldron for himself as well as a few of the 'harder-to-get' (which was to say, probably not TECHNICALLY allowed for first-years to have in their possession) ingredients that the potion called for.

Ariel, meanwhile, turned her attention back to her potion, which had come to a nice rolling boil in the meanwhile. It was now time to begin adding the ingredients... "Let's see, she thought to herself as she went over the things she would need one last time before adding them, "Let's see", she though to herself, as she mumbled the list of things the recipe in her notes said she must add to the distilled water once it had come to a boil.

Once the last bit of the ingredients had found its way into her cauldron was the first moment that the little Ravenclaw noticed something was amiss. Her keen nose noticed it first... a horrible stench, as if something foul were bruning. That wasn't good, not at ALL... the stinky potion that her Gryffindor counterpart was working on ought not to smell like anything, it didn't stink until after. IT was then that her head flitted over to the cauldron Em was using and happened to notice that it was boiling MUCH too hard.

"Em!" She called quickly hurrying over to look at the notes.... ah! there was the problem." You are supposed to turn down the heat after you add the newt's tounge," she reminded him, noticing now that with a few quick stirs the cub had tmanaged to get the situation under control... a good thing , because the little brunette did NOT want to go about for the next few days reaking thanks to an exploding stink potion... and she doubted that her roommates would appreciate it OR that sensei would EVER let her hear the end of it, either.

With the situation in hand she hurried back to her OWN potion and carefully added a few more of her ingredients, as the next step of the instructions said... but something wasn't right... the potion appeared to be much too thick. Perhaps it needed a bit of water added to to it?

"Hey, Em," She called to her cousin.... still focused on his own potion as she was on hers," Have you got any more Distilled water, I think I need to add a bit." She was, if the truth were told, a little irritated with herself for NOT make sure that she had a bit extra just in case.She glanced over before looking back to her potion, which she was carefully stirring, with a stirring stick and not her wand of course, so that the herb she had just thrown in did not burn, her ears listening all the while for the cubs response. Her wand, like many with hippogryph feathers in its core, reacted badly to being used for stirring potions... a thing she had learned the hard way, hence the need for something else for the purpose, she mused with some amusement as she waited.

[Emric Bolstridge]

"Yeah, I think so," the boy called back, eyes stuck onto watching his cauldron in case anything else went wrong. He eyed the thing carefully, looking around all sides before quickly looking to his supplies for more distilled water. With everything in order, the first year found the stuff easily, kept safe in a medium sized beaker off the side of his worktable. Swiftly he grabbed the container, turning on his heel then to hand it over to his cousin. At her side, the cub smirked sheepishly as he said, "That was almost a disaster. Pretty cool, huh? Imagine what we would have smelled like if I had ruined it?" They would have probably smelled like... super bad, or something equally as horrible. Or. Yeah. Was it only amusing to him? Sometimes it was hard for the boy to tell if he was alone in what he thought was funny, but that was just because people were weird and didn't like to be easygoing. It seemed like a lot of people liked to take the weirdest things too seriously, and that wasn't really cool. But Ariel was his cousin, though distantly related, so maybe she'd think it were funny too? At any rate, Emric thought smelling like the most horrible thing ever would have been a riot...

But he couldn't waste time--he had a potion that needed his attention. The last thing he needed was to have another mess to fix. Saving the day once in a day was good enough for him; he didn't need any more glory. Not till the next day, anyway. Hastily moving back to his workspace, the first year went back to the instructions, moving a finger down the list of ingredients as he added each new one in. When Emric was working on a potion--like, really working on it, not just the half-trying, kind of careless working that he had done earlier--he was entirely focused on it. Nothing could keep him from at least trying to brew one perfectly, and he did his absolute best to ignore everything around him. Distractions were practically everywhere if one weren't careful enough, and as already seen, even when one was trying to think ahead on something, there was always room for mistakes when brewing.

All his musings aside, the little wizard was nearly finished with his potion after a little while, prompting him to prepare his vials to place the concoction in them. "How's it going over there, Ariel? Almost done?" He questioned with his back turned to her, digging through a small box of glassware as he spoke. Light clanging of glass filled the room until he found two vials that were crack-free and that actually fit the stoppers he had found a few moments earlier. Turning back to his cauldron then, he carefully blew out the flame below it and began to lower one vial into it with a levitation spell. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The wizard recited, placing the stopper onto the half-filled vial once he was out of the cauldron. He repeated the action for the other vial, filling that one till it was full and placing it gently on his worktable to keep as a spare in the event something went wrong when he and the eaglet mixed their potions. Leaving both vials to dry, Emric began to clean up his area, peeking in from time to time at his cousin's cauldron to see where she was in her brewing. With everything clean and put away, the boy went off to Ariel's side, carrying in each hand a vial of his potion. "Ready to mix them?" He asked the girl, holding out the vial that they were going to experiment with.

[Ariel Silvermoor]

"Yep," Ariel called with a grin after carefully pouring in the water the cub had found for her, and killing the heat on her potion by stirring as she had seen in class and the cub had done before. Getting the potion into the vials the cub had found for he occupied a few minutes, but soon there were four vials of potion sitting neatly in a row... two doses of each. " Oh! I have an idea," she said and carefully pointed her wand at the vials... hopefully her wand did NOT choose that moment to act up... and cast a drying charm, such as she had seen some of the girls use in the dorms to dry their hair after washing it.

Fortunately this appeared to work as it was supposed to and in a few seconds the vials were nice and dry.

"NOW," the eaglette add with a grin,"Now comes the tricky part," Mixing them.' She carefully opened the potions text book to the page that discussed mixing potions with each other or into other substances... and it appeared that there were several ways to go about it, depending on the potion or potions involved.

"I think... I think we want to do this one," she told the cub indicating a diagram showing a method of doing so that involved simply pouring one potion into another... she glanced over to see if the vials the cub had chosen were large enough to use this... they appeared to be. The problem with this method is that it appeared to matter which you poured into which. If you poured potion A, for example into potion B, they would mixed together just fine... pour potion B into potion A though, and you might have an explosion on your hands." The trouble is which do we pour into which," She pondered this as she continued to study the instructions to see if they yielded any clues. The further trick being that they did NOT want to spill any of either potion on them if it could be helped.

Somehow, though... while smelling like something the cat had dragged in for the next three days might certainly be annoying it might almost be worth it to see the reactions... of course, having to sleep in the common rooms because ones roommates could not stand to have you in your own room with them wasn't an idea that she wanted to test, the eaglette thought with a grin.

[Emric Bolstridge]

Potion-making was an art--this much the boy had gathered from his time being at school. One couldn't simply be good at following directions and expect to be an expert at it. Instead, like with most other subjects, potion-making was something that required a person to be at their best state of mind, as well as required actual time to be spent practicing. For the life of him, Emric couldn't remember where he had heard this, but at some point he had learned that before you could call yourself an expert at anything, you had to spend at least five years practicing the subject like it was a full-time job. Forty hours a week, for the full five years. Despite being a pureblood, the cub couldn't say that he was anywhere near being an expert at potions. He hadn't been allowed to brew any at home, and he'd really only spent most of one year working on the subject like it was a part-time job; not a full one. So as the eaglet turned to a page with a diagram detailing how one could mix two different potions together, the wizard looked on with concern. Ariel might have been interested in seeing the results of testing out both procedures, but the first year was a bit more weary about it. He didn't want to push his luck again, feeling that he probably wouldn't make it out of that experiment smelling as fresh as he did. As his cousin went and did whatever it was she was doing, Em began to read the diagram closely, picking apart each step in his mind. From what he could see, there wasn't much the pair could use to say they definitely needed to pour one into the other first, or vice-versa. This meant that they'd just have to guess, which didn't sound all that appealing to the first year. At all, actually, but... well, there wasn't really any other way.

Still, Emric felt their best option in this situation was to at least try to make as a good a guess as possible. Sometimes, in potion brewing, there were ingredients that always had a certain order to them that, if was correctly followed, would ensure good results. If they were placed in a cauldron out of order? The results were sometimes disastrous. But that was in potion brewing. What he and Ariel had at the moment were two completed potions that they were intending to mix together, because the expected results of each sounded awesome. Would it have been a mistake, then, to assume that if one potion had an ingredient in it that normally went first in most concoctions, there was a high chance that that was the potion that the other needed to be poured into? The first year wasn't sure, wasn't even all that positive that his idea made very much sense, but it was all he could come up with at the moment. He flipped through the notebook, going back and forth between the instructions for each to examine the ingredients carefully. From the boy could gather, it looked like they needed to pour the boil potion into the reverse Amortentia one. "Careful, Ariel..." Emric said, motioning with his hands for the girl to step back a bit as he picked up both vials. If anyone was going to be hit first with the potion, if it went wrong, then the Gryffindor was fine with it being him. People usually said boys smelled bad anyway, so if the thing exploded on him and he had to smell like dirty diapers for weeks, then he supposed that just meant those people could just be right for however long he would smell like that. With trembling hands, the cub took in a breath, holding it within his lungs as he began to pour one potion into the other. Crackling sounds began to emerge from the vial, few bubbles forming within it as the color of it changed. The new potion looked to be about a dark shade brown, though after a few seconds, it began changing again. After about a minute, the potion appeared to stop bubbling, prompting the wizard to turn to his cousin and hold it out for her to see. "I think... it's done?" The boy said, sort of asking what the girl thought with his tone.