Ariel had enjoyed this subject a great deal last year, so she hoped it'd continue to live up to her expectations. She found that the professor was interesting, and very on point. She liked that. She preferred walking into a classroom, get instructions and just brew the potion, instead of listening to all kinds of gibberish about why the potion was useful. Of course, that was interesting as well, but a potioneer would understand why it was useful based on the ingredients used in the potion and the blend. The properties of the ingredients on their own was important, but also the way they mixed with other ingredients, and unless people knew this, Ariel didn't see why they'd even take this course. Of course, with the potion subject that was obligatory for all the students with professor Holmes, she completely understood why it was explained, as not all of the students majored in potioneering.
She entered the classroom, seeing one more student and sat down, waiting for the class to fill up, skimming through her new books on different potions that she really enjoyed; she'd never really thought she'd enjoyed reading about potions the way she loved reading about good ideas for pranks and the like, but the more she studied, the more she loved the fine art that was potionbrewing. She looked up when professor Ritter started speaking with a small smile and listened to his instructions, happy to realize he was just as effective as always, even if he had seemed somewhat distracted.
The water had just started boiling, and she was crushing the leg and eyes together when one of her fellow students spoke up, and she realized surprised that she'd missed that part with the miscount. She looked to the professor and, receiving the right amount, she continued on and boiled the eggs for five minutes, casting a spell on them that she'd learned at the apothecary that would tell her if they were perfectly hardboiled without at all contaminating their effects. She lowered the temperature and put in the three sprigs of peppermint before peeling the eggs. It was about that point that she realized she'd been humming. Ariel blinked, looked around, and then shook her head with a small smile; her boss always told her she'd hum when she was focused.
She continued by putting the shells in the mix before cutting the eggs into 8 equal pieces each, putting the first 8 in with a sprig of peppermint, and then repeating that. She turned up the heat to medium and took the mortar mix and put it into the cauldron with the last sprig of peppermint. She smiled a bit to herself, happy that she'd managed to brew this potion without any missteps and stirred counter-clockwise, taking cautious note of when she'd started and just when the five minutes were up. On the dot, she stopped stirring, knowing exactly how precise potions needed to be; it had turned out really bad sometimes in the apothecary's backroom. She put the lid on and timed her watch so it would ring when 40 minutes passed. She looked up at the teacher. "Professor, is there anything we should do while we're letting the potion boil?" she asked softly, not wanting to disturb anyone who were still brewing, and not leaving her cauldron, because she wasn't sure if this was the kind of potion that needed constant surveillance. In some cases, it was very important to keep a close eye.
