If you're Batman, am I Robin? on Herbology

Professor Xavier

October 28, 2016 11:20 AM

Intermediate Herbology: Leaping Lizards, Batman! by Professor Xavier

The intermediate class was taught in the larger of the two new greenhouses that the school had built last year. Logistically, the largest of Sonora's class groups just fit better in that one. In addition, though it wasn't an issue yet as the advanced class students were still beginners themselves, Nathan also eventually planned to grow some dangerous plants for the advanced class in the smaller greenhouse and, quite frankly, he didn't trust the intermediates not to get eaten.

So the intermediates and beginners both met here, in the larger greenhouse, which meant this was also the building Nathan considered his primary classroom. As such, the teacher's desk here was covered with papers and folders and surrounded by racks of planting trays students had turned in during previous lessons, and otherwise looked (accurately) like Nathan was settling in as a professor and was falling just a little bit behind in his grading. When he'd started, he stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning grading things, subconsciously fearing that not getting quizzes or homeworks back to the students the very next time he saw them would somehow put his entire curriculum back a month, but as weeks went by and he missed a few and nothing terrible happened, he relaxed a little, and usually got results back within a week if not always by the next class. He was sleeping better this way, too, and a well rested professor meant more coherent lessons and better learning for everyone.

The Herbology class schedule helped, too. The class only met on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which gave him Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, as well as weekends for grading and groundskeeping duties.

As the class arrived on this Tuesday afternoon - the last class of the day for both him and the students (unless they were taking Astronomy in the evening) - he stood near the door, handing back the quiz they took a week ago as they entered. He had started this practice as a way to learn names, but they were now almost two months into the year and he'd learned most of the intermediate names last year already, so now it was mostly habit and, he felt, a more friendly and personal way to get back graded papers. It gave him a chance to congratulate the students doing well and make sure the ones who might need a little extra help knew he held office hours pretty much all day on Wednesdays, so they could stop in whenever worked best for them.

"Good afternoon, everyone," he said, once his pile of quizzes had vanished, indicating he had full attendance today. "Glad to see you all again," he smiled amiably at the gathered group. "Today we are going to be revisiting the leaping toadstools you all planted at the beginning of the year."

He pointed his wand at one of the racks of planting trays and started distributing them amongst the students. "It doesn't matter if you get your original tray or not," he added, in case there was concern when students recognized their own tray in front of somebody else. "The important part is that you have a mature toadstool to study in front of you."

"We're going to spend the first fifteen minutes with hand on examination of the mushrooms, then we'll have a class discussion about what we've observed and what purposes these toadstools can have for wizards. So go ahead and spend some time taking some notes about the toadstools. You may touch, measure, even pull them out of the dirt - that's when you'll best see how they got their name." He grinned, anticipating some surprised shrieks when the mushrooms tried to leap away and replant themselves when someone attempted to pick it. "Feel free to talk amongst yourselves, just try to keep it mostly about Leaping Toadstools."

OOC: Hello and welcome to herbology. Standard posting rules apply. As the lessons are two hours long, you can assume most classes start with some hand-on activity like this, followed by a more formal class discussion, lesson, or quiz (or all three, some days).

Subthreads:

I do not know this Batman that you speak of. by Gia Donovan, Pecari with Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw

If you're Batman, am I Robin? by Nevaeh Reed, Aladren

1 Professor Xavier Intermediate Herbology: Leaping Lizards, Batman! 28 Professor Xavier 1 5

Gia Donovan, Pecari

November 02, 2016 5:38 PM

I do not know this Batman that you speak of. by Gia Donovan, Pecari

It was still rather strange for Gia to know that Professor Xavier was, well, Professor Xavier and not just Mr. Xavier. She thought it was really sort of fantastic that Professor Xavier had gone back and completed his education to become a professor. She thought that it should the students that they really could be anything that they wanted to be. Gia really wasn’t sure what she wanted to be after she left Sonora because life was so conflicting outside of school that she wasn’t entirely sure of her options. She knew that she would need to decide by the end of the year though as she would need to pick subjects to continue learning next year that would help her advance in her career of choice later on.

She didn’t want to think about any of that now though. She knew that she probably should because she was constantly reminded of her CATS, but Gia just didn’t have the time to dwell on any of that. She had too much to do with her limited time that thinking about what classes she would take for a future she may or may not have was just too much weight on her small shoulders. Taking a mental deep breath, Gia pulled out her note parchment for this class and her self-inking quill and waited patiently for the lesson to begin.

Gia was still on the fence about learning Herbology as a permanent fixture of her life. She had learned quite a bit about plants while studying Potions (mostly so that she could learn how to brew Wolfsbane on her own, but knowing potion ingredients in general was something she felt was important), but she supposed it wasn’t terrible for her to know how to care for those said plants. Was this a lesson she would carry on forever, probably not, but at least it wasn’t dueling other students or transfiguring animals into apples.

She looked at the toadstool that now sat in front of her. She didn’t like the idea of working on someone else’s simply because what if they had done it wrong and now the one in front of her was defective in some way? Gia didn’t have much choice however, so she simply did as she was told. Gia reviewed the mushroom in front of her suspiciously, writing down her observations as she observed. She marked the size, the shape, the color, and everything else that she could think of as she observed it. After she could find out all she could by just reviewing the plant in the pot, Gia put a glove on (safety first) and carefully did her best to pull the mushroom from its home without damaging it. Just as she managed to get it out of the dirt, she let out a tiny squeal as the mushroom wiggled from her loose grasp and fell back into the dirt to replant itself. Gia looked around to see if anyone else had noticed before turning to the person closest to her. “Did you know that they did that?” She asked, her uncertainty of the whole situation written on her face.

6 Gia Donovan, Pecari I do not know this Batman that you speak of. 308 Gia Donovan, Pecari 0 5

Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw

November 04, 2016 1:57 PM

I think he's a guy who dresses up like a bat. by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw

Ginger loved the new herbology class. Being a Teppenpaw, she adored Professor Xavier as a HoH, and he was a good teacher, too. She didn't even mind his quizzes because she knew they always meant a kind word when she got them back. She smiled today as she got her paper from last week back and felt warmed by the "Good job," she was offered with it.

With an extra bounce in her step, she looked around to see who she could sit with. She spotted a seat next to Gia, who she honestly didn't know all that well, but the Pecari was in her year and on her wagon, so Ginger felt kind of bad about that and settled in next to her. Really, they had a few clubs in common, too, so she couldn't entirely blame differing Houses as to why they hadn't interacted much before, though that was a contributing factor to why she usually spent most of the wagon rides with her roommate Lauren. Anyway, Gia had seemed nice the times they had spent time together before and Ginger hoped the other girl wouldn't mind Ginger's company.

At first, they just worked independently, taking measurements and notes about color and surface texture. Ginger was trying to make sure she had at least ten items listed on her paper before time was up so that when the discussion started, she should have at least one left by the time it got to her turn to talk.

She was finishing up a notation on how the mushroom was adorably speckled when Gia squeals and Ginger jumped, looking to see what had startled her neighbor, but just saw the Pecari's toadstool sitting in its dirt, though the soil did look a little dug up. "What?" she asked, curious and concerned, "What did it do?"

Gia's clear uncertainty made her nudge carefully at her own toadstool, to see it it would display any alarming behavior, but it just sat there.

1 Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw I think he's a guy who dresses up like a bat. 302 Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw 0 5

Gia

November 06, 2016 1:45 PM

What a silly thing to do. by Gia

Gia seemed momentarily surprised and slightly embarrassed to find that it was Ginger Pierce sitting beside her. She had heard her make a rather high pitched squeal when the toadstool jumped from her hand. Normally, Gia wasn’t as jumpy, but she really hadn’t realized that the Toadstool was so animated. She didn’t recall reading this in the text, but she had read the chapter a while ago, so she might have just forgotten about that small tidbit. Even so, Ginger was one of those girls who were rather pretty and sweet too and Gia didn’t like the idea of the Teppenpaw thinking that she was easily startled or anything negative like that.

It was a silly thought to have, and one that Gia acknowledged as such. She knew that Ginger was dating the Head Boy and, like most of the other females of the school, not into other females, but Gia had noticed her lately. Her and a couple others for that matter. It wasn’t like she was going to make a move on her or anything like that, Gia was not that sort, but it was easy to obtain an attraction to her classmates. Not just the girls, there were plenty of males whom Gia also found to be attractive. But she shouldn’t be thinking about that right now anyway. Gia tore her blue eyes away from the Teppenpaw and back to the Toadstool that was now sitting perfectly still in the dirt. Gia frowned. Was this thing playing with her now? She must have looked like such a fool to Ginger reacting like that when the mushroom clearly had other intentions.

“It removed itself from my hand and started to dig.” Gia explained, but even she was beginning to doubt herself at the idea that the mushroom had decided to replant itself. Gia reached down and lifted the toadstool up once more. It wiggled itself free again and fell back into the dirt to return back to its rightful place. “Oh, it did it again.” Gia said, less shocked now that she was anticipating it than the first time, but still rather put out by it. She knew that some plants had personalities, like a Mandrake, but it still felt so strange to her when she knew they used such things in their potions. She didn’t want to think about the morality of it though because that would just cause her more stress than she really wanted.

Gia sighed and wrote down the additional notes along with everything else that she had observed. “Are you enjoying our final Intermediates year, Ginger?” Gia asked, her accent still plaguing some of her words.

6 Gia What a silly thing to do. 308 Gia 0 5

Nevaeh Reed, Aladren

November 18, 2016 3:11 AM

If you're Batman, am I Robin? by Nevaeh Reed, Aladren

It was her third year at Sonora with Isis, her fourth year of knowing much of anything at all about the woman. Nevaeh had, as a child, never really expected to meet her birth parents, although she’d dreamed about it a thousand times. Now her mother (she was certain) had opportunity to hover quietly at a semi-respectable distance--since their connection was a secret, it did limit her capacity to pry--and get to know her, even if Nevaeh was hesitant. She knew her mother had been young and unprepared when she came along, and that giving her to the Reeds was easily the best for her. She also knew that Isis had always loved her. Still, it was hard not to be a little resentful. She did her best.

Spending these years in the company of her biological mother did, however, inspire more questions. Namely, why did no one ever really mention the other half of the Aladren’s lineage? She knew her biological father had died very young, and she had a name, but that was all. But she was growing more and more curious about who she was, where she came from, and how everything had gone so wrong.

She hoped class would sufficiently take her mind off of it. Herbology was easily her favorite of her courses, so Nevaeh was very relieved that it was the one she had next to sweep away her worries. She found a seat near the front of the class, always ready to devour information (perhaps her most Aladren-esque trait). While the class settled, she cast a read-aloud spell to tell her what grade she had received on the quiz Professor Xavier had handed back: a solid E. Not bad at all.

Nevaeh was eager for today’s assignment in particular as she had been idly wondering lately what had become of their toadstools. Perhaps it was the nature of Herbology and perhaps it was just Professor Xavier’s wonderful teaching style, but she absolutely adored their hands-on sections. It could be a bit isolating (and honestly, a bit boring, even for a nerd like her) to just sit and listen to lectures all the time, a charmed quill recording notes for her to later hear again or else convert to Braille. The thirteen year old loved to get her hands in the dirt and feel something.

She dug in happily, squeezing the toadstool gently beneath the dirt. It was a bit squishier than she expected but decidedly mushroom-shaped. Professor Xavier had mentioned that pulling them out would reveal the origin of their name, and so carefully, she slowly raised the toadstool out of the soil. When she felt it spring from her hands, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh my gosh,” she grinned in a neighbor’s direction. “Did you try picking it up yet? These little guys are awesome!”

12 Nevaeh Reed, Aladren If you're Batman, am I Robin? 325 Nevaeh Reed, Aladren 0 5