Kyle snickered hard enough that he had to pretend that he had stubbed his toe and was actually hurt. Once attention was diverted from him again Kyle set back to working on the potion. He was impatiently watching it as it simmered. He tried to come up with a way to shorten the time. It was supposed to be on a low simmer for the 45-60 minutes until it was the right color. How could he get it to be the right color? He already had his mistletoe ready to add. He glanced at his watch, 38 minutes of simmering past. He raised the heat just a little. Begged Merlin's beard that it wouldn't blow up in his face and waited. 

The color changed at exactly 40 minutes and 48 seconds. Kyle dropped the heat down, and tossed in the mistletoe. He stirred the potion and waved his wand. Without giving the concoction time to cool even slightly he ladled some into his vial and put the stopper in. He was at the front desk putting the carefully labeled potion on Slughorn's desk when the bell rang.

"It's in on time McCarthy." Slughorn gave an impressed nod. The color of the potion was nervewrackingly off by a couple of shades, Kyle just hopped it would correct as it cooled. He headed back to his desk to clean up.