He said no more but clearly he didn't need to as every group split into roles they clearly had practiced before.
"You want to get the ingredients while we set up the cauldron?" Mike asked and I nodded.
I followed the others who were going for the stored ingredients and watched them choosing theirs. I grimaced at how downright careless they were about it as they clearly didn't understand or know what was ideal for each ingredient. For example the snake fangs needed to be carefully chosen by coloration and visible damage.-
Cracks in the fangs meant they could have gone bad and any discoloration from the pale milky yellow of normal was an extra variable to account for during brewing. Porcupine quills were similar as you wanted to avoid cracked ones. I didn't say anything about this though as I waited for my turn to collect my own ingredients. Snape watched with a cold critical eye as the others grabbed their ingredients no doubt noting each and every mistake. When my turn came he even seemed to pay extra attention as I carefully collected the most perfect ingredients I could. When I discovered there wasn't enough fangs of good quality i grabbed the jar of briar thorns instead.-
"Mr. Drake." his voice filled the air making everyone pause to watch. "Can you explain why you have grabbed briar thorns when the recipe does not call for them?" he demanded with a sharp but not disapproving tone.
"The remaining stock of snake fangs possess various flaws that would effect the final quality of my potion. Briar thorns are a substitutional ingredient if such a situation occurs though the quantity of snake fangs must remain at least sixty percent more than the thorns for this to work." I said calmly.
"Very good Mr. Drake, three points to Ravenclaw. " he said with a hint of approval before turning to glare at everyone else "Well what are you waiting for, write that down!" he snapped and everyone hurried to do so.
I didn't have to make any other substitutions thankfully as the rest of the ingredients had no clearly visible flaws. Once I had everything I brought it back to the table to process.
"I think that's the first time I've ever seen Snape give points to another house! How'd you know about that little trick anyways?" Terry asked with an excited whisper as I began to prepare the ingredients.
"Check my book on the table there, page twenty six on the margins." I said without looking up from my work.
Both of them hurried flipped through the book to the page I mentioned and quickly found the messy scrawl there mentioning this knowledge.
"Merlins beard Alex!" Mike whispered in awe as he started looking at the rest of the book to see other notes. "You have to let us borrow this thing! These notes are incredible!" he said eagerly.
"Later, focus on the task at hand for now." I said as I carefully ground the fangs down to a fine consistency in a mortar.
They both snapped out of it and got to work as well. Terry controlled the flames under the cauldron to keep the water within it at a hot but not boiling temperature. Mike blanched the horned slugs for a brief moment before setting them aside and adding the first real ingredient to the hot cauldron of water, ginger root. A tough plant that had to be cooked to soften up and was thus the first ingredient. -
Next was the Flobberworm mucus that was an unpleasant thick green slime that the aforementioned creature secreted when aggravated, a bit like a hagfish with it's slime. The content of the cauldron was then vigorously stirred in a clockwise direction seven times before stirred a single time slowly counterclockwise. Once done the Pungous onions, coarse chopped, were added and the potion brought to a low boil. These onions were a magical larger than normal variety that took the tear creating properties of normal onions to a much greater degree. When chopping them the pungent aroma was very likely to make you weep furiously even if you remained calm.-
Additionally you never wanted to touch the chopped product with your skin or the juices would stick and you'd cause suffering to everyone around you for the next day at least if it wasn't thoroughly cleaned off. If the potion brewing was going well the potion would turn a dark yellow color at this point which ours did. You then had to leave the potion to slowly boil until a slightly bitter yellow scent began to rise from it. Then you slowly started to sprinkle in the thorn/fang mixture while slowly stirring the potion.-
You waited till the potion began to lighten in color before dropping in the Shrake spines. Shrakes were an artificial magical species of fish with a large body covered in grey spikes that they used to rip apart muggle fishing nets. They regularly shed their spikes that then wash ashore. Interestingly enough the species was created to prevent overfishing as muggles cared little for preserving the local fish populations at the time and these fish were designed to keep things in line. Anyways the spikes were added and the potion was slowly stirred until it began to take on a green color.-
Stirring too fast overexcited the spikes which for obvious reasons was not a good thing. The slugs were added one after another after that and the potion was taken off the fire to cool slightly as it was stirred before the porcupine quills were added. Once the potion turned a deep dark green it was put back on the fire and the heat cranked up to a roaring boil as the dried nettles were finally added and the whole mixture was stirred carefully in rhythmic slow turns until a faint earthy scented smoke rose from it.-
Snape walked over at the instant the potion was completed and I shut off the flames to let the brew cool naturally.
"Steady coloration, strong scent and no lumps. An acceptable result. Two points to Ravenclaw." he said sternly before walking away to go berate Harry for mistiming his slug drop.