Hi everyone! I was away from home yesterday but Mary was kind enough to smail me the last number and symptom for the task. I'll be adding notes and ideas here in this first post so that you can all see where things are heading. Please do feel free to jump in and lend your aid!
Potions are one of Lenore's worst subjects so this could get interesting. She will have to be creative in her methods and extremely careful of the brewing process. She just recently failed miserably in Professor Crabtree's class. I have confidence that she can be more successful in this task!
Volunteer
Symptoms:
I'll start with a simple outline to keep timing right and go from there. Post again soon!
Question for Mary
: Is there any chance for some clarification as to what might constitute helping the champions too much? For example, would the following scenarios be allowed?
Scenario A: Student suggest to Champion: 'I read on Pottermore that [ingredient X] has antimicrobial properties. That could help with the rash part of the ailment.'
Scenario B: Student suggest to Champion: 'I found ten different potion ingredients that would affect the ailments of your volunteer. You could combine them like this. [proceeds to list full ingredients and brewing instructions for entire self-made potion]
Thanks Mary!
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I think it means someone else can't write the whole thing and then you post it as your own. We can brainstorm ideas, but ultimately you would have to write the RP answer (and then we could all read/proof/make suggestions from there). c:

Keliora has the right of it. You all can brainstorm what ingredients might help, etc. But you have to be the one to write the roleplay!
Thank you both! :D
- I figured you would make a thread of your own since we're dealing with different ailments. I can't wait to see what you have! :D
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I just received my number with symptoms, so I have to work it out and post it so we can all contribute. I will most likely need help checking the grammar since my first language is not English but I'll do my best. XD
I'll read yours later and see what I can think of. :3
I'm sure you'll have lots of help, we have a great team! I didn't know that English wasn't your first language. You write really well in it. What's your first?
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My first language is Spanish - I know I tend to write the verb tense wrong so I prefer if my entries get checked before posting them. :D
In terms of existing potions, these ailments are rather tricky.
Perhaps you can invent a variation of Hiccoughing Solution - take similar principles but mix it with Pepperup Potion to make it anti-sneezing instead of hiccups?
And when I say mix, I'm not sure I mean literally - but you could take elements from each and hope they combine into something that works?
I'm a little stumped on the rash one - best I can think of is Cure for Boils?
[edit]
Unrelated fun fact - I subscribed to the topic and the event came up under its own heading instead of under Forums like topic subscriptions normally do!


that makes sense! I'm going to have mine checked too. I never know just what I'll miss lol. Verb tenses can be a pain. I'm working on French right now and that's my biggest struggle. I'm impressed that you know two languages, that takes a lot of work. :)
A version of the Pepperup Potion came to my mind as well. Colds apparently can't be cured with spells and since the symptoms in the task can't be either, perhaps they have similar properties?
Since the ingredients for both the Pepperup and Hiccoughing Solution are unknown I could always choose a few ingredients with the needed characteristics to switch out. And one of your links mentions that every potions is finished with a spell. That can be useful too.
Hmmm, a purple rash. I wonder what might cause that? Figuring out the cause first could lead to a solution. That might be a fun way to go. And the Cure for Boils actually cures more than just boils. I'll have to research it's ingredients since those are known. Bubotuber pus might be helpful too. Wasn't it used on acne when diluted?
I love that the topic got it's own heading! 😆
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I was looking through some existing potions related to skin care and thought maybe you can use some of the ingredients in them to make your own potion for the rash. These are the links I found useful or that at least list some ingredient.
Cure For Boils Blemish Blitzer
For the sneezing I found that maybe the Pepperup Potion may give you a start or idea, it only lists two ingredients but it may help.
Thanks Merlin! I'll go through those as well as a full list of ingredients later on. If I see anything that may help with your swelling nose or foot hair I'll pass it along.
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thank you. ^__^
[Edit] I found that Peppermint helped reduce side effects of nose tweaking so maybe it could be a good ingredient for your potion?
Thanks you! I'll check that out.
I'm going through a complete list of potions and ingredients now and will have something posted soon. I'll be busy all day Saturday so I want to have this finished and ready to post by Friday :)
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Best of lucks - it took me a while to research and write the draft. I would like to post soon too.
I've determined the potions:
Sneezing Potion (variation on Hiccoughing Potion - ingredients unknown)
23 fl oz. Standard Potion Water Bicorn Horn - finely powdered Mandrake Root - shredded Sneezewort - dried crushed leaves Sal Ammoniac - powdered Murtlap Tentacle - stewed (will add steps) Finish with counterhex for sneezing hex Steleus
Altered Cure for Boils
Add 6 snake fangs to the mortar. Crush into a fine powder using the pestle. Add 4 measures of the crushed fangs to your cauldron. Heat the mixture to 250 for 10 seconds. Wave your wand. Leave to brew and return in 33-45 minutes. Add 1 small vial Murtlap Essence to your cauldron. Add dash of Flobberworm Mucus to your cauldron. Take the cauldron off the fire before adding the next ingredient.[1] Add 3 drops of Jewelweed Extract to your cauldron. Stir 5 times, clockwise. Cast counterjinx to Furnunculus complete the potion.
Original Cure for Boils
Add 6 snake fangs to the mortar.
Crush into a fine powder using the pestle.
Add 4 measures of the crushed fangs to your cauldron.
Heat the mixture to 250 for 10 seconds.
Wave your wand.
Leave to brew and return in 33-45 minutes.
Add 4 horned slugs to your cauldron.
Take the cauldron off the fire before adding the next ingredient.[1]
Add 2 porcupine quills to your cauldron.
Stir 5 times, clockwise.
Wave your wand to complete the potion.
Changes include exchanging the horned slugs for murtlap essence (cured the boil side effect of the Weasley twin's Fever Fudge) and flobberworm mucus (known for curing acne when diluted), and exchanging the porcupine quills for jewelweed extract (an anti-fungal). The counterjinx is used against the jinx that causes pimples/boils.
Feel free to post any ideas for changes or any flaws that you notice. Thanks!
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I like what you have! I would definitely recommend having your thought process about the changes incorporated into the narrative because it shows off your creative/logical thinking. :D
The only part I'm fuzzy about is finishing the potion with a spell. Is that standard? I think you're ok rule-wise because you're not trying to cure the ailment directly with a spell, but I just wasn't sure if that was a thing (admittedly not an expert!).

The ingredients list look good so far, I have seen a few spells that end with an incantation so maybe it can be used since it's not directly healing the volunteer with it, still you can ask Mary to be sure.
I would recommend starting with the cure for boils if it needs such a long brewing time - since we have two hours to finish the potions if I remember correctly. That way you can start working on the other potion while that brewing time ends. Just an idea or lower the brewing time a bit.
From what I read, all potions are finished with either a wand wave or a full incantation. I'll go and ask just in case though.
Starting the cure for boils first is a good idea. That will take at least an hour to brew so I'll have to be sure it's done on time.
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You could build narrative suspense if you end up making it second (a will she or won't she make it kind of thing), but I definitely understand not wanting to write in something that could be perceived as weakness in a champion challenge. Although could be more fun to write!
But yeah, as long as combined your two potions (and general scrambling for ingredients/set-up, etc.) don't take longer than two hours I think you're ok.

I might go that route for the suspense. Lenore is already established at being terrible with potions so I have to keep that character. She'll be successful but it won't be an easy success.
The cures have to be potions but spellwork is allowed for surrounding events. That's Lenore's greatest talent, so I'll be using that to my advantage. She'll need to make things quieter for herself to think. She also has trouble recognizing ingredients so will likely use the summoning charm to retrieve the ones she needs.
Here's what I have so far. I'll let you guys look over it for corrections while I keep writing. Thanks!
Beginning - 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.
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