(sorry for the double-ping - it's actually ready now!)

It flows so smoothly and is written so well - I can't wait to read the rest!

I have a list of specific spots with issues (I took screenies of sections and highlighted stuff - they're uploaded below with corresponding notes in the spoiler, so just let me know if any of it doesn't make sense!).

A B C D

And I'm assuming Lenore is skilled at non-verbal spell-casting?

Thank you! I haven't done any proof-reading so that was very helpful. I'll make the changes soon and then post the next part.

I see what you're saying about the format. I like the idea of italicizing thoughts and using quotation marks around spoken words. Though I might italicize a single word in a spoken sentence for emphasis. After I edit that you can let me know if it looks right?

Thanks so much for your help! I need it lol

EDIT: Forgot to answer. Yes, Lenore's greatest strength is wandwork and she uses non-verbal spells most of the time. Summoning is a little trickier since she's trying to get a specific object without affecting the rest of the items around so she still does that one aloud. She also said 'Silencio' verbally so the boy would understand what she was doing to him. Though she didn't think of warning him first :/

Here's my full story. I haven't made any of the corrections yet but need to get to bed so I'll do that tomorrow. I think the ending might be a bit abrupt. I was getting tired lol. I can add to it later.

[spoiler=Full Story - Unedited Draft]

Lenore took a deep breath as she entered Ilvermorny’s Great Hall. As she walked, she closed her eyes and focused on continuing her slow, deliberate breaths, as was her habit when forced to walk toward something that peaked her anxiety. And if she had ever walked into anxiety-inducing territory, this large room was certainly it. She stopped just short of bumping into the back of the champion ahead of her, the tall dark-haired boy, Corvus. Her other senses had been guiding her sub-consciously.

"The time has finally come, champions! Your first task begins today," she heard Professor Fontaine say, her loud voice echoing from the front of the room. It seemed to bounce of of the walls, surrounding Lenore like some ominous charm. It was this that brought the realization that the rest of the crowd had gone silent. There was a pause that hung palpably in the air. Finally, Professor Fontaine continued, "As you can plainly see from the table behind me, your task will be involving your potion making skills.”

Lenore’s heart seemed impossibly to sink into her stomach and rise into her throat simultaneously. Potions were easily her worst subject. Swallowing deeply, she attempted to regain control of her throat an to coax some saliva back into her parchment-dry mouth. The desire to simply turn around and stride out of the Great Hall nearly overwhelmed her. This was not an unfamiliar thought to her as she had fled from many things in the past. But it was an uncomfortable one. This was not something that she could run from without consequence. This task involved not just herself, but the whole of Hogwarts and every student therein. Strangely this thought strengthened her rather than heightening her fear. She was needed. She alone could do what others were in no position to attempt. Her emotions receding, it was her logical mind that stepped in and took over. She breathed easier.

"One more thing to remember," Professor Persnickety said, "is that these ailments will not be able to be cured by spells. Only potions will work." Lenore’s attention returned to the front of the room where Professor Persnickety had taken over speaking. Lost in her thoughts, she had forgotten to pay attention to most of the instructions but the task seemed obvious anyway: brew potions to cure some sort of horrible ailments. Lenore’s assumption was confirmed when Professor Fontaine introduced the volunteers.

Six students had filed into the room, each one looking more disfigured and uncomfortable than the last. Moving around Corvus to get a better look, Lenore watched as the students took their seats. One girl could hardly move due to a large quantity of long dark hair that had sprouted from her feet. It dragged behind her swishing and tangling. A chorus of mingled awe and disgust could be heard from the mass of students gathered around the room. The silence that had reigned during the professors’ introduction had broken. All around, students were chattering, laughing and pointing, obviously enjoying the spectacle of their suffering classmates. Lenore had to admit that some of the ailments werecomical. One young girl’s nose had swollen up so badly that it looked more like a large fleshy squash than anything that belonged on a human face. Balancing the bulbous swelling in one hand, she seemed to be taking the change to her appearance in good spirits and gave a small wave to a group of her friends who were calling excitedly to her from the crowd. A few of the other students however, looked quite uncomfortable. The boy seated below the large number ‘6’ kept sneezing loudly. As he instinctively reached up to cover his mouth, Lenore could see that his hands were covered in a bright purple rash.

As the students against the walls continued their chatter, Professor Fontaine passed around a velvet bag full of numbers. Lenore glanced quickly at the volunteers and noted the number of the girl with the hairy feet. Shuddering, she uttered a small plea, “not number one.” When the velvet back was held out in from of her, Lenore squeezed her eyes shut and plunged her hand into it’s depths. She felt her touch fall onto a small piece of paper and seized it. Pulling it out she saw that it bore a single number ‘6.’ Sighing with relief at having avoided dealing with the foot hair, Lenore looked back to volunteer number six. The sneezing, purple-handed boy was now attempting to wipe the trickle of tears running from his eyes with his rash covered hand. This seemed to have the effect only of making the purple spread further up his wrist. She continued watching as the boy became intrigued by the spreading of his own rash, pulling up the sleeve of his robe for a better look. Suddenly she realized that one of the Professors was calling the start of the task. “Two hours!”

Wait! Now? She had been given no time to prepare. Thoughts began running through Lenore’s mind at a furious pace. Many were only half-formed before they were pushed out by new ones, each determined to take center attention. The noise of the students was ringing in her ears. She quickly trotted over to her volunteer and the sound of his sneezing added to the chaos attacking her concentration.

“Argh!” Lenore began to pace, frustrated. Her time was running and she couldn’t think!

”…these ailments will not be able to be cured by spells. Only potions will work.Professor Persnickety’s words echoed in Lenore’s mind. That’s it! Lenore pulled out her wand and pointed it directly at her volunteer. ”Silencio!” The boy jumped when he saw the wand in his face and toppled out of his seat, causing the crowd to erupt in laughter. Getting back to his feat and rubbing his backside, he gave Lenore a watery-eyed scowl and climbed back into his seat. He was still sneezing but completely silent. Without the benefit of sound, he now looked as though he was having some strange type of convulsions. Now for the rest of this noisy lot.Turning toward the crowd on one side, Lenore paused. She couldn’t silence them all without taking too much time. She also doubted that the judges would allow it. Instead she performed a quick charm to create an almost invisible bubble. As the bubble came out of her wand, small and then growing to engulf both herself and the boy on the stool, as well as her cauldron, it reflected the light of the room in soft, swirling colors. That’s better.

Time. Lenore pointed her wand into the air and long golden ribbons slithered from the tip, twisting themselves to form the time ‘1:55’ in the air. The ribbons would rearrange to count down the time, telling her exactly how many minutes she had left. She looked around her bubble. All she need now was…parchment! She needed to get precise instructions and she thought best on paper. She looked hopefully across the hall at the long tables and saw that there was no parchment there but there were plenty of other items. Thinking quickly she summoned what she needed. ”Accio porcupine quill! Accio squid ink!” The items flew to her and she caught them, quickly tearing the label off of the squid ink she turned it upside down to reveal a blank back. She picked up the porcupine quill and opened the now label-free bottle.

Water! she remembered. Sprinting to the two cauldrons that she had been provided (both gold), she quickly prodded the wood underneath with her wand and a fire began to burn brightly. She turned and began the sprint back, passing her still silent volunteer with a small, “back in a jiffy!”

Grabbing her ink and label, she plopped to the ground and began writing. She quickly printed ‘Sneezing’ at the top of the label and underlined it. Here she paused and tapped the top end of the quill on her pursed lips pensively, causing ink to fly off in little drops. She couldn’t remember a potion for sneezing being mentioned in class and she had an excellent memory. Unfortunately, she had never cared enough about potions to research anything further than her assignments required. Logically now, Lenore. she thought to herself. How could this have been caused? The tapping of her quill stopped and and an “Ah” escaped her lips. Forget the cause. The cause is irrelevant. The symptom is an involuntary reaction of the body. Involuntary reactions can be targeted by potions. Hiccoughs are an involuntary reaction. I can alter the Cure for Hiccoughs! This daisy-chain of thoughts ran through her head at high-speed as though carried along by a current. Quickly, she copied down the ingredients for the Cure for Hiccoughs from memory, crossing out items here and there and replacing them with new ones. As she wrote she whispered quickly to herself. Her eyes glinted with the excitement of exercising her mind and she began to take on the air of one possessed.

“Bicorn horn is used for altering the body which is why it is used in both physical remedies and the Polyjuice Potion.” She waved her wand toward the far table without bothering to look up, causing a mortar and pestle and one horn of bicorn to fly through the air and land neatly beside her. Another quick movement of the wand broke off a piece of the twisted horn and a third set the pestle to grinding by itself.

“Mandrake root is in nearly every healing potion and restores wellness to the body.” Again she pointed her wand and this time it was a small silver knife that accompanied her required ingredient. Setting the knife to thinly slicing the root she winced. This root still had a face on it.

“The Cure for Hiccoughs adds spiders here.” Lenore stopped and tapped her fingernails on the floor, thinking. “I don’t need to induce fear, I need to stop…sneezewort!” She wrote down the next ingredient and summoned the dry leaves from the table. These needed to be caused but that would come later when she added them to the water.

“Water!” Lenore yelped out loud. She sprang up and dashed to the cauldrons which were now bubbling furiously. Poking at the flames with her wand she succeeded in bringing the boil down to a simmer. She ran back toward her parchment and was stopped midway. The sneezing boy was grabbing furiously at her robes.

”What?” she shouted. She hated having her thoughts interrupted and was irritated at the pulling. Looking over she saw that boy pointing angrily at his arms which were now covered in purple dots. He lifted up his robes to reveal his chest which was equally afflicted.

“Oh.” she said apologetically. “Er, I’m working on that. Just…hold tight.” The boy opened his mouth and began to shout silently at her. Lenore had the feeling she could guess what he was saying.

Lenore glanced up at her ribbon clock which showed that she had just under an hour and a half left. She had to be faster. Dropping back to her parchment she decided to skip writing the rest. It was taking too much time and she only needed two more ingredients anyway. She waved her wand to stop the pestle and knife which fell to the floor with a clatter. Scooping up her now ready ingredients she ran back to the cauldron, skirting around the boy who continued to flail madly. I guess he’s been told no to leave his stool. Lenore though to herself and thanked the judges silently.

Once she was at her first cauldron she began talking herself through the steps.

“Add the powdered horn.” She sprinkled it carefully over the surface of the bubbling water so it wouldn’t clump.

“Stir three times clockwise then add the mandrake root while changing to a counter-clockwise motion.” She counted to three and dropped in the roots, changing direction. “How long do I keep sti…” She didn’t have time to finish her question before the potion gave off a short wailing sound, much like the cry of a mandrake from a great distance. "I guess that did it." She shrugged and continued on. "Now I need to let it boil for five minutes." She pointed her wand and another clock formed in the air. This one remained unmoved at five minutes, hovering overhead. She watched the potion carefully, prodding at the flames to strengthen them while her wand was pointed toward the clock. "And...now!" The cauldron began to boil and the clock began to move.

Lenore turned toward the table and summoned the last two items. A small crystal and a jar of green slime soared through the air and she caught them. Quickly she grabbed the crystal and began to crush it in the mortar. "Sal ammoniac, standard ingredient in healing potions and part of the original Cure for Hiccoughs." Knowing that her time was ticking, she ground furiously. As the last few seconds counted down Lenore felt as if her arm was on fire but the crystal had become a nice even powder. She stood up and watched the ribbon change, holding the powder above the cauldron. Five, four, three, two, one...She poured the powder into the cauldron and the until now colorless liquid turned a brilliant blue. Quickly she went to the next step, stirring the potion 17 times, alternating clockwise and counter-clockwise. She waved her wand twice over the cauldron and then picked up the dried sneezewort leaves and rubbed them between her hands, letting the broken pieces fall into the potion.

"Just one thing left." She smiled to herself. She was being exact and everything was working. Flicking her wand, she extinguished the fire. “Jellied murtlap tentacle, ugh." Grimacing, she looked at the jar. "One glob is required." She decided from memory. "What the heck is one glob? Gosh, this is why I hate potions. Can't the instructions make sense? An idea struck her. "No reason not to try." She muttered. "Accio murtlap tentacle glob!" To her grateful surprise, a small blob separates itself from the ooze in the jar and Lenore quickly flicks it into the cauldron with her wand. Passing her wand over the potion one last time, she utters the counter-curse for the sneezing hex. She watches as the bright blue turns steadily to the color of bogies. "Perfect!" She beamed. She picked up a golden goblet that had been provided for the task and ladled some of the potion into it. It had the consistency of snot and stretched as she pulled the ladle out, jiggling and finally letting go with a sloop. “Well, here goes nothing.” she said aloud as she turned toward the boy.

By this time the boy had given up on his attempts to communicate with Lenore. He sat with his shoulders slumped and his arms crossed over his chest. The look he gave her between his silent sneezes was scathing. I suppose I might have paid him more attention. Lenore thought but it was to late now and she really did have to get this task finished.

“This should fix that right up for you.” she said brightly. The boy returned her smile with a rather pointed gesture.

“Alright, I suppose I deserve that. But drink this just the same. And after you stop that sneezing I can take the silencing charm off you. Just don’t go yelling at me or I’ll put it right back on!” she warned. Handing over the cup, Lenore watched as the boy took a sip and nearly vomited. There was a long green string stretching shakily from his lips to the goblet. Lenore took it from him and set it down, getting squelchy goo on her finger. She reached for her robe then thought better of it and wiped her finger off on the boy’s robe instead. She felt a sharp

I think it's very well written, there was only like two spaces you had to correct. There is only one thing that came to mind while reading the part she summons a glop of Jellied murtlap tentacle. Well my only concern to this is that when you summon something you have to have a clear image of what it is in order to get it, if she has no idea what a glob is..then I'm not sure she can get it. Maybe I'm thinking too much lol

But I really liked it, even when it was quite long! I really like your writing style.

-All around, students were chattering, laughing and pointing, obviously enjoying the spectacle of their suffering classmates. Lenore had to admit that some of the ailments were comical. - were comical needs a space there.

-Only potions will work. Professor Persnickety’s- Another space between the . and the P

-Now for the rest of this noisy lot. Turning -another space between the . and T

I know those are tiny mistakes but it's all i found, grammar is not my forte anyway. hehe

Thank you both! I made the changes you listed.

I looked into the definitions of 'piqued' and 'peaked' and went with the latter as it means 'to reach the climax of.'

I cleared up the numbers and the italics as well. Hopefully it makes sense now :)

I have another problem though. There is a 6,000 character limit on posts and my entry is 24,341 characters long. I'll ask Mary if I can put it on a pet profile and link it.

Have you tried editing the entry itself? When I get error bc it's too long I post a part and then edit and it lets me add what was missing.

- Thanks you! Worked like a charm :)

[spoiler=Hopefully Final Draft]

Lenore took a deep breath as she entered Ilvermorny’s Great Hall. As she walked, she closed her eyes and focused on continuing her slow, deliberate breaths, as was her habit when forced to walk toward something that peaked her anxiety. And if she had ever walked into anxiety-inducing territory, this large room was certainly it. Somehow she stopped just short of bumping into the back of the champion ahead of her, the tall dark-haired boy, Corvus. Apparently, with her eyes closed, her other senses had been guiding her sub-consciously.

"The time has finally come, champions! Your first task begins today," she heard Professor Fontaine say, her loud voice echoing from the front of the room. It seemed to bounce off of the walls, surrounding Lenore like some ominous charm. It was this that brought to her the realization that the rest of the crowd had gone silent. There was a pause that hung palpably in the air. Lenore shifted from one foot to the other. Finally, Professor Fontaine continued, "As you can plainly see from the table behind me, your task will be involving your potion making skills.”

Lenore’s heart seemed impossibly to sink into her stomach and rise into her throat simultaneously. Potions were easily her worst subject. Swallowing deeply, she attempted to regain control of her throat which seemed to have shrunken to a pinhole, and to coax some saliva back into her parchment-dry mouth. The desire to simply turn around and stride out of the Great Hall nearly overwhelmed her. This was not an unfamiliar thought to her as she had fled from many things in the past. But it was an uncomfortable one. This was not something that she could run from without consequence. This task involved not just herself, but the whole of Hogwarts and every student therein. Strangely this thought strengthened her rather than heightened her fear. She was needed. She alone could do what others were in no position to attempt. Her emotions receding, it was her logical mind that stepped in and took over. She breathed easier.

"One more thing to remember," Professor Persnickety said, "is that these ailments will not be able to be cured by spells. Only potions will work." Lenore’s attention returned to the front of the room where Professor Persnickety had taken over speaking. Lost in her thoughts, she had forgotten to pay attention to most of the instructions but the task seemed obvious anyway: brew potions to cure some sort of horrible ailments. Lenore’s assumption was confirmed when Professor Fontaine introduced the volunteers.

Six students had filed into the room, each one looking more disfigured and uncomfortable than the last. Moving around Corvus to get a better look, Lenore watched as the students took their seats. One girl could hardly move due to a large quantity of long dark hair that had sprouted from her feet. It dragged behind her swishing and tangling. A chorus of mingled awe and disgust could be heard from the mass of students gathered around the room. The silence that had reigned during the professors’ introduction had broken. All around, students were chattering, laughing and pointing, obviously enjoying the spectacle of their suffering classmates. Lenore had to admit that some of the ailments were comical. The hairy-footed girl’s nose had swollen up so badly that it looked more like a large fleshy squash than anything that belonged on a human face. Balancing the bulbous swelling in one hand, she seemed to be taking the change to her appearance in good spirits and gave a small wave to a group of her friends who were calling excitedly to her from the crowd. A few of the other students, however, looked quite uncomfortable. The boy walking toward the seat that was placed below the large number ‘6’ kept sneezing loudly. As he instinctively reached up to cover his mouth, Lenore could see that his hands were covered in a bright purple rash.

As the students against the walls continued their chatter, Professor Fontaine passed around a velvet bag full of numbers. Lenore glanced quickly at the volunteers and noted the number of the girl with the hairy feet. Shuddering, she uttered a small plea, “not number one.” When the bag was held out in front of her, Lenore squeezed her eyes shut and plunged her hand into its depths. She felt her touch fall onto a small piece of paper and seized it. Pulling it out she saw that it bore a single number ‘6.’ Sighing with relief at having avoided dealing with the foot hair, Lenore looked back to volunteer number six. The sneezing, purple-handed boy was now attempting to wipe the trickle of tears running from his eyes with his rash-covered hand. This seemed to have the effect only of making the purple spread further up his wrist. She continued watching as the boy became intrigued by the spreading of his own rash, pulling up the sleeve of his robe for a better look. Suddenly she realized that one of the Professors was calling the start of the task. “Two hours!”

Wait! Now? She had been given no time to prepare. Thoughts began running through Lenore’s mind at a furious pace. Many were only half-formed before they were pushed out by new ones, each determined to take center attention. The noise of the students was ringing in her ears. She quickly trotted over to her volunteer and the sound of his sneezing added to the chaos attacking her concentration.

“Argh!” Lenore began to pace, frustrated. Her time was ticking and she couldn’t think!

”…these ailments will not be able to be cured by spells. Only potions will work." Professor Persnickety’s words echoed in Lenore’s mind. That’s it! Spells! Wandwork was where Lenore excelled and she quickly drew her wand and pointed it directly at her volunteer. ”Silencio!” The boy jumped when he saw the wand in his face and toppled out of his seat, causing the crowd to erupt in laughter. Getting back to his feet and rubbing his backside, he gave Lenore a watery-eyed scowl and climbed back into his seat. He was still sneezing but completely silent. Without the benefit of sound, he now looked as though he was having some strange type of convulsions. Now for the rest of this noisy lot. Turning toward the crowd on one side, Lenore paused. She couldn’t silence them all without taking too much time. She also doubted that the judges would allow it. Instead she performed a quick charm to create an almost invisible bubble. As the bubble came out of her wand, small and then growing to engulf both herself and the boy on the stool, as well as her cauldrons, it reflected the light of the room in soft, swirling colors, and completely blocked out the sounds of the hall. Though it covered a decent amount of floorspace, it wasn't quite big enough to cover her prep table, and the ingredients table was well out of reach. She would just have to deal without them. That’s better. she thought. She had taken care of the setting, now she could figure out…

Time. Lenore pointed her wand into the air and long golden ribbons slithered from the tip, twisting themselves to form numbers indicating one hour and fifty-five minutes in the air. The ribbons would rearrange to count down the time, telling her exactly how many minutes she had left. She looked around her bubble. All she needed now was parchment. She needed to get precise instructions and she thought best on paper. She looked hopefully across the hall at the long tables and saw that there was no parchment but there were plenty of other items. Thinking quickly, she summoned what she needed. ”Accio porcupine quill! Accio squid ink!” The items flew to her and she caught them. Quickly tearing the label off of the squid ink, she turned it upside down to reveal a blank back. She picked up the porcupine quill and opened the now label-free bottle.

Water! she remembered. Dropping her quill, she sprinted to the two cauldrons that she had been provided (both gold), and quickly prodded the wood underneath with her wand, causing two orange fires to burn brightly. She turned and began the sprint back, passing her still silent volunteer with a small, “Back in a jiffy!”

Grabbing her ink and label again, she plopped to the ground and began writing. She quickly printed ‘Sneezing’ at the top of the label and underlined it. Here she paused and tapped the top end of the quill on her pursed lips pensively, causing ink to fly off in little drops. She couldn’t remember a potion for sneezing being mentioned in class and she had an excellent memory. Unfortunately, she had never cared enough about potions to research anything further than her assignments required. Logically now, Lenore. she thought to herself. How could this have been caused? The tapping of her quill stopped and an “Ah” escaped her lips. Forget the cause. The cause is irrelevant. The symptom is an involuntary reaction of the body. Involuntary reactions can be targeted by potions. Hiccoughs are an involuntary reaction. I can alter the Cure for Hiccoughs! This daisy-chain of thoughts ran through her head at high-speed as though carried along by a current. Quickly, she copied down the ingredients for the Cure for Hiccoughs from memory, crossing out items here and there and replacing them with new ones. As she wrote she whispered quickly to herself. Her eyes glinted with the excitement of exercising her mind and she began to take on the air of one possessed.

“Bicorn horn is used for altering the body which is why it is used in both physical remedies and the Polyjuice Potion.” She waved her wand toward the far table without bothering to look up, causing a mortar and pestle and one horn of bicorn to fly through the air and land neatly beside her. Another quick movement of the wand broke off a piece of the twisted horn and a third set the pestle to grinding by itself.

“Mandrake root is in nearly every healing potion and restores wellness to the body.” Again she pointed her wand and this time it was a small silver knife that accompanied her required ingredient. Setting the knife to thinly slicing the root she winced. This root still had a face on it.

“The Cure for Hiccoughs adds spiders here.” Lenore stopped and tapped her fingernails on the floor, thinking. “I don’t need to induce fear, I need to stop…sneezewort!” She wrote down the next ingredient and summoned the dry leaves from the table. These needed to be crushed but that would come later when she added them to the water.

“Water!” Lenore yelped out loud. She had forgotten about the cauldrons. She sprang up and dashed to the cauldrons which were now bubbling furiously. Poking at the flames with her wand she succeeded in bringing the boil down to a simmer. She ran back toward her parchment and was stopped midway. The sneezing boy was grabbing furiously at her robes.

”What?” she shouted. She hated having her thoughts interrupted and was irritated at the pulling. Looking over she saw that the boy was pointing angrily at his arms which were now covered in purple dots. He lifted up his robes to reveal his chest which was equally afflicted.

“Oh.” she said apologetically. “Er, I’m working on that. Just…hold tight.” The boy opened his mouth and began to shout silently at her. Lenore had the feeling she could guess what he was saying.

Lenore glanced up at her ribbon clock which showed that she had just under an hour and a half left. She had to be faster. Dropping back to her parchment she decided to skip writing the rest. It was taking too much time and she only needed two more ingredients anyway. She waved her wand to stop the pestle and knife which fell to the floor with a clatter. Scooping up her now ready ingredients she ran back to the cauldron, skirting around the boy who continued to flail madly. I guess he’s been told not to leave his stool. Lenore though to herself and silently thanked the judges.

Once she was at her first cauldron she began talking herself through the steps.

“Add the powdered horn.” She sprinkled it carefully over the surface of the bubbling water so it wouldn’t clump.

“Stir three times clockwise then add the mandrake root while changing to a counter-clockwise motion.” She counted to three and dropped in the roots, changing direction. “How long do I keep sti…” She didn’t have time to finish her question before the potion gave off a short wailing sound, much like the cry of a mandrake from a great distance. "I guess that did it." She shrugged and continued on. "Now I need to let it boil for five minutes." She pointed her wand and another clock formed in the air. This one remained unmoved at five minutes, hovering overhead. She watched the potion carefully, prodding at the flames to strengthen them while her wand was pointed toward the clock. "And...now!" The cauldron began to boil and the clock began to move.

Lenore turned toward the table and summoned the last two items. A small crystal and a jar of green slime soared through the air and she caught them. Quickly she grabbed the crystal and began to crush it in the mortar. "Sal ammoniac, standard ingredient in healing potions and part of the original Cure for Hiccoughs." Knowing that her time was ticking, she ground furiously. As the last few seconds counted down Lenore felt as if her arm was on fire but the crystal had become a nice even powder. She stood up and watched the ribbon change, holding the powder above the cauldron. Five, four, three, two, one...She poured the powder into the cauldron and the until now colorless liquid turned a brilliant blue. Quickly she went to the next step, stirring the potion seventeen times, alternating clockwise and counter-clockwise. She waved her wand twice over the cauldron and then picked up the dried sneezewort leaves and rubbed them between her hands, letting the broken pieces fall into the potion.

"Just one thing left." She smiled to herself. She was being exact and everything was working. Flicking her wand, she extinguished the fire. “Jellied murtlap tentacle, ugh." Grimacing, she looked at the jar. "One glob is required." She recited from memory. "What the heck is one glob? Gosh, this is why I hate potions. Can't the instructions make sense? An idea struck her. "No reason not to try." She muttered. She closed her eyes and pictured as clearly as she could her Professor from Hogwarts scooping a glob of some gelatinous purple substance. Once she had visualized the size of the glob she said, “Accio murtlap tentacle glob!” To her grateful surprise, a small blob separated itself from the ooze in the jar and Lenore quickly flicked it into the cauldron with her wand. Passing her wand over the potion one last time, she uttered the counter-curse for the sneezing hex. She watched as the bright blue turned steadily to the color of bogies. "Perfect!" She beamed. She picked up a golden goblet that had been provided for the task and ladled some of the potion into it. It had the consistency of snot and stretched as she pulled the ladle out, jiggling and finally letting go with a sloop. “Well, here goes nothing.” she said aloud as she turned toward the boy.

By this time the boy had given up on his attempts to communicate with Lenore. He sat with his shoulders slumped and his arms crossed grumpily over his chest. The look he gave her between his silent sneezes was scathing. I suppose I might have paid him more attention. Lenore thought but it was too late now and she really did have to get this task finished.

“This should fix that right up for you.” she said brightly. The boy returned her smile with a rather pointed gesture.

“Alright, I suppose I deserve that. But drink this just the same. And after you stop that sneezing I can take the silencing charm off you. Just don’t go yelling at me or I’ll put it right back on!” she warned. Handing over the cup, Lenore watched as the boy took a sip and nearly vomited. There was a long green string stretching shakily from his lips to the goblet. Lenore took it from him and set it down, getting squelchy goo on her finger. She reached for her robe then thought better of it and wiped her finger off on the boy’s robe instead. She felt a sharp pain in her arm as the boy slapped it.

yeah! :3

Sorry I haven't looked at it yet - I don't want to be tired or rushed when I do and work has been bonkers.

Hopefully tonight after work I will be able to, but I understand if you need to post before then. I look forward to reading it either way (whether here and providing notes or as an entry!).

Thanks Keli! I'll hold off until tonight in case you get a chance to read through one last time. I'm usually awake until sometime after 3am Subeta time. I truly appreciate your help as well as yours, !

I'll try to re-read after I get home- I've been out most of the day

Posted so I can head off to bed. Thank you both so much! hugs

Sorry - I got home from work so late (such a long day) that I ended up basically eating and going straight to sleep. :c

I just took a read though on the board - such a good entry!!

Congratulations to both you and for doing Hogwarts proud!