At home in the Potions classroom, Bran first pulled on a pair of thick gloves, one of his dad’s rules when dealing with any toxic ingredient and Doxycide had several. Bran then gathered the ingredients he would need and returned to his seat to brew the potion.

The first order of business was to crush the Bundimun in order to release the acid. Bran took care of that and added the required three measures to his cauldron. Next, after cleaning his mortar and pestle, ("Ingredients are to be mixed in the cauldron, Brandon, not the mortar unless so stated" he could hear his dad saying) he ground three Streeler shells, forming a paste from the venom in them. Adding the paste to the Bundimun, Bran then stirred the mixture clockwise five times before heating it at a low temperature for fifteen seconds. He was very careful with both the temperature and the time as he’d botched quite a few potions when he was younger by not paying close enough attention to one or the other, if not both things, and subsequently had it drilled into his head by his dad that one had to pay attention and not daydream in a potions room.

Swiftly chopping up the dragon liver, Bran added one measure of it to the cauldron and vigorously stirred the mixture ten times, making certain to go counter-clockwise. He waved his wand over the cauldron and allowed it to brew for two minutes. During that time, he readied the next set of ingredients: the poisonous Hemlock and Cowbane Essence as well as the less toxic Tormentil Tincture. As the two minutes came to an end, Bran waved his wand over the cauldron again before adding three measures of the Hemlock essence and stirring four times in a clockwise direction. By now the ‘wonderful’ aroma was starting to not only fill the room from the other students’ potions, but also the smell was wafting up from his own cauldron. Though Bran wrinkled his nose, at least he didn’t gag or run for the nose plugs like he’d done as a kid…or like others in the room seemed to be doing. Having a Potioneer as a dad made a person learn to deal with all sorts of odors, those pleasant and those that were just vile.

Next in the potion came five measures of Cowbane Essence then he added the Tormentil Tincture and slowly stirred anti-clockwise nine times. As he was stirring Bran couldn’t help but grin at the fact that they had very precise measured directions, unlike the ‘dash’ or ‘glug’ that Zygmunt Budge favored. Of course more experienced potion makers such as Budge and his dad could use such measurements and have no adverse consequences, but Bran was exceedingly glad for the ‘easy’ version!

He heated his mixture for sixteen seconds on high temperature and then waved his wand over the cauldron. Leaving the potion to brew, Bran went to the back table and retrieved a spray bottle. By the time he came back the required two minutes was nearly up. He observed the black mixture in the cauldron as he mentally counted out the last few seconds and then waved his wand over the cauldron a final time to complete the potion. Pouring the foul smelling liquid into the bottle, he carried it to Professor Crabtree and then returned to clean up his work area, another thing instilled in him by his dad’s strict rules in his potions lab. Once the chore was complete, Bran looked around, more than ready to talk to some of his friends.