Which am I to do? on Herbology

Professor Xavier

December 16, 2016 10:42 AM

Beginner Herbology: Young fertile minds by Professor Xavier

Of his three classes, Nathan was most comfortable with his beginners students. It wasn't the material they were learning, exactly, because truthfully all three were at a beginner level still, as this was still on the second year Herbology was offered at the school, but because the beginners were where they were supposed to be. It was the one class that felt like Herbology was supposed to feel. Intermediates felt rushed, trying to cram in too much information too quickly in order for the current to be able to take the CATS next year. Five years of lessons crammed into three. Advanced was just a mishmash of unorganized chaos, as he just tried to get the seventh years a basic understanding of the entire discipline in just one year. Next year, the advanced class would also have the option to take some belated CATS, so he was trying to prep the sixth years for that, too.

The beginners though, the blessed beginners could go through their curriculum at the calm, leisurely, and thorough pace a subject like Herbology was meant to be taught. They had no exams immediately upon their horizons and both the first and second years had been able to start at the beginning in their first year, so everyone here was precisely where they should be, and he loved them all for that.

"Hello, and welcome back from your break," he greeted them, smiling, as they all arrived and sat themselves down around the work tables in the center of the larger of the two greenhouses. There were fewer of them, too, than there were intermediates, and that helped him like them more, too.

He'd returned their midterm exam to each student as they walked in with either a congratulatory "good job!" or an informational "my office hours are on Wednesdays; you can stop in anytime if you have questions," as was appropriate given their results. Overall, he was pretty pleased with them. "You should have all gotten your test back. There does seem to be some confusion about the difference between the two uses of the word fertilization in Herbology, so we are going to start by going over that hopefully a bit more clearly. We fertilize our soil by using nutrient rich organic materials, for example dung or compost, so the plants have all the chemical building blocks they need to grow strong and healthy. This is a very different process from the fertilization that occurs during a plant's reproductive cycle, which exchanges genetic material from one plant to another - or sometimes just from one part of the same plant to another part, to create a genetically different child plant."

He wheeled over a cart heaped high with the compost he had harvested yesterday from the piles where the elves threw Sonora's kitchen scraps. It probably stank to the students, and it was decomposed enough that they might not easily be able to tell from sight and smell along that he'd gone the compost route rather than the dung route for them today, but Nathan had gone nose blind to it a while ago. "Here we have some fertilizer. And on the tables in front of each of you are some potted flowering plants at various stages of life." Some were barely poking out of the soil, some were little more than dried dead husks, while still others were closed buds or in full bloom.

"In groups of two, I want you to identify and fertilize a plant that is ready to reproduce. For homework tonight, I would like a half foot essay about how other creatures like insects, birds, and mammals can play key parts in a plant's reproduction, which you can start work on after your selected plant is fertilized. You have twenty minutes for this task, then we'll start our next unit on Fruits."

He started to step back to wander about, oversee, and offer advice as the students worked, but then remembered and added as a hurried afterthought, "I recommend wearing your gloves for this."

OOC: Hello and welcome back to classes. Standard rules apply. Feel free to tag Professor X if your student has questions or problems. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Which am I to do? by Farrah Welsh, Aladren with Emerald Brockert,Aladren

If it were done, it were well if it were done quickly. by Simon Mordue with Victor Callahan

P.U. (Tag Luke) by Natalie Atwater, Pecari with Luke Powell

Undecided... by Madeleine Dautin, Aladren with Sawyer Matheson, Teppenpaw

It could be worse. by Kit Reid, Aladren with Georgia Kirkly

This is so beneath me by Arianna Tate, Crotalus

1 Professor Xavier Beginner Herbology: Young fertile minds 28 Professor Xavier 1 5

Farrah Welsh, Aladren

December 18, 2016 7:43 PM

Which am I to do? by Farrah Welsh, Aladren

Farrah found herself really enjoying Herbology in a way that she hadn’t thought that she would. She hated having to pull the weeds from the garden back home. Her parents said that it would teach her discipline and to respect the beauty of a garden. Or something like that. It was her least favorite chore to have to do though. Weeding was something that was never ending and it was always on the hottest days of summer and took forever for Farrah to do.

She thought Herbology would be a lot like weeding, but so far she was learning quite a bit about plants and what they needed for growth and things like that. Farrah had never really considered how much went into growing a plant but the more involved she was with it, the more appreciation she had about it. She still didn’t like weeding, but she could at least understand why her parents felt she needed to do it.

She smiled as she took her exam from him, happy to hear that her hours of studying had paid off with a high remark on her exam. Her grades were important to her (which probably helped her get into Aladren to begin with) and she worked very hard on maintaining them. It helped that Professor Xavier was probably one of the nicest Professors and she felt more relaxed during his class than she did with just about any of the others, save for Care of Magical Creatures (but with her dad as a Veterinarian, it shouldn’t be a surprise that she enjoyed the class that taught about them). Whenever she was more comfortable during class and at ease with the professor, Farrah had an easier time understanding the material.

Farrah took a seat and pulled out her notebook (marked Herbology) and pen. She was a bit surprised by the topic as she thought that the two fertilizations were quite different and something that she didn’t think people would confuse, but she supposed if they didn’t have to weed as a chore, they might not also have to deal with helping plant gardens either. She gagged when the smell hit her before she saw the wheelbarrow full of something quite possibly dead. She quickly threw up a hand to pinch her nose and tried to breathe from her mouth. Her parents manure never smelled this bad. Mr. Beyar’s barn didn’t smell this bad either.

She tried to listen to what the lesson was but the smell was a little overbearing, so when they were set to work in pairs, Farrah turned to the person beside her, “Are we fertilizing the plants with that stuff or are we being asked to like pollinate the plants that are ready for that?” She asked, not quite sure what she was supposed to do and hoping that her partner did.

6 Farrah Welsh, Aladren Which am I to do? 344 Farrah Welsh, Aladren 0 5

Simon Mordue

December 19, 2016 9:22 PM

If it were done, it were well if it were done quickly. by Simon Mordue

Simon held himself still as Professor Xavier looked for, identified, and handed back his last exam in the doorway and was pleased to note that it was easier to do so than it had often been in the first half of the year. He still felt a knot of nerves in the bottom of his stomach, but it was not as bad as the ones he’d had when the first few exams he’d taken at school had come back to him. He never felt he was doing truly good work, explaining things quite thoroughly enough, somehow, but his grades indicated he was doing work which was good enough. Neither his teachers nor his parents, anyway, had expressed any displeasure with them so far, and that was enough to make him happy.

Sure enough, the paper congratulated him on a good job, and he sat up just a little bit straighter when Professor Xavier mentioned what the common error on a lot of papers had been. Simon wasn’t sure why the two different processes were both called fertilization (in fact, the discrepancy was part of why he thought he’d remembered it), but he had not gotten them confused on his paper. Any sense of self-satisfaction, however, was quickly obscured by disgust as Professor Xavier wheeled something absolutely vile-smelling out into the classroom.

Simon swallowed hard and rubbed his nose before he thought. Herbology and Potions could both involve foul odors, and a gentleman was just supposed to do what he needed to do in those classes while pretending he didn’t notice them. He lowered his hand and tried to set his mouth naturally, assuring himself he would stop smelling it in a few minutes. Smells faded after a while, like when his aunt lit too many candles and he sneezed when he first arrived at her house but later stopped noticing how there were too many smells going on. It worked in Potions, too, so there was no reason to assume it wouldn’t work here. He just had to look as though he didn’t notice until he really didn’t. Surely knowing he really wouldn’t soon would help him pretend for now….

He was already putting on his gloves when Professor Xavier mentioned that they should probably wear them. Simon couldn’t imagine anyone not just knowing that, but was glad for his own sake that the professor said it. If some person with no sense or decent raising stuck his or her hands into the filth bare, he or she might transfer said filth to Simon’s robes or belongings if they ran into each other later. His hands safely covered, he looked over the plants and then to his neighbor.

“Would you like to work together?” he asked. The task had to be done, so there was no point in standing around looking at it and dreading it. The sooner they started, the sooner they would no longer have to think about sticking their hands, even gloved, into…whatever organic substance that was.

16 Simon Mordue If it were done, it were well if it were done quickly. 369 Simon Mordue 0 5

Victor Callahan

December 22, 2016 4:45 PM

Screw your courage to the sticking place! by Victor Callahan

Herbology was fun and, whilst it wasn’t as cool as some other classes (specifically, DADA – no offense to Professor Xavier, but you didn’t get to duel people in Herbology!), it was often outside, or at least in a greenhouse, which was a big point in its favour. One of the things he missed about home was the outdoors. Victor loved the wildness of the mountainous areas of Idaho, and much of his childhood had been (and still was) spent in the Great Outdoors, exploring and having many adventures. Herbology was a way to get back to the outdoors, in part, and was also a good chance to get a bit muddy and to hopefully deal with poisonous plants. He was still waiting for the lesson when Professor Xavier would let them loose in a greenhouse full of Devil’s Snares, and then Victor could perform some heroics and it would just be the best. Sadly, that hadn’t happened yet, but if he stuck with Herbology it was bound to happen sooner or later. Right?

However, Victor’s enthusiasm was slightly lessened by Professor Xavier mentioning his office hours. Okay, maybe his midterm exam result hadn’t been the best it could have, but he was only a first year! He didn’t even have any proper exams for ages, so it really didn’t matter what he got. His father probably wouldn’t entirely agree with him, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, what was it Mother had said? Oh yes, that there was more to Sonora than academic opportunities. There were so many people here: so many fellow purebloods, and pretty girls, and Victor was having too good a time to worry about his grades. There were plenty of years ahead of him for improvement in that regard.

Fertilization? Victor hadn’t particularly picked up on the differences between the two uses of the word, so that must have been what went wrong with his exam. It was nice to hear that the lesson was going to solve his problem, without him having to put any extra effort in. Then his eyes went a little wide as the professor started his explanation, and he tried to suppress the part of his brain that was finding this highly amusing. They were going to be studying plant reproduction? He glanced around the class, trying to subtly see if anyone was thinking similarly immature thoughts, then suddenly remembered that there were girls in the class. This could get awkward, and quickly. What if Ayla or someone similar wanted to work with him?

The smell as Professor Xavier brought over the wheelbarrow was rather ripe, and Victor found himself wrinkling his nose and grinning at the smell. He wasn’t particularly bothered by it, more enjoying the reactions of his fellow classmates, and taking advantage of the slight distraction to edge his way over towards Simon. Simon wasn’t a girl, and was his roommate, so hopefully they could have a non-awkward session of looking for reproducing plants together. Call it roommate bonding, or something like that.

The Plan worked, as Simon suggested working together. “Sure,” he nodded enthusiastically. “Shall we go find a plant first, instead of wandering around with muck in our hands?” As fun as it might be to wave fertilizer in the direction of some more timid members of the class, Victor knew that probably wouldn’t go down particularly well, so it was better to reduce the temptation.

The professor’s glove advice was a good reminder to Victor, who had left his gloves in his bag. Hastily he retrieved them, and pulled them on. “Ready to go!” he informed Simon cheerily.

9 Victor Callahan Screw your courage to the sticking place! 368 Victor Callahan 0 5

Natalie Atwater, Pecari

December 27, 2016 1:37 PM

P.U. (Tag Luke) by Natalie Atwater, Pecari

Midterm had been awful. Okay, some aspects were nice like the presents and the break from school but for the most part, things had rather been rotten. First of all, Kelsey was being more insufferable than usual. She had entered what Natalie had unofficially dubbed "the betrothal circuit" and she was being exceedingly smug about the attention she recieved from male suitors-and rather rude about Kira and Scarlett especially the latter. This didn't really sit well with the first year at all.

Not to mention her parents and paternal family weren't much better. They were less than excited about Natalie's sorting though Grandmother and Grandfather Brockert didn't seem to be bothered. There weren't many Pecaris in the Brockert family overall but Arabella, Scarlett and Fabian had all been sorted there, as had Uncle Seth, so it wasn't any big deal. She had to say she overall preferred her mother's side of the family. They might have been more important but they were generally less snobby. Maybe they were more secure in themselves as important though the Atwaters were just as old a lineage.

Plus the fact that not only had she been sorted into the dreaded Pecari house, but her sister was prefect. A perfect prefect. Natalie would have just rolled her eyes and been done with it except that there was the constant refrain of "Why can't you be more like your sister?' Not that it wasn't something she hadn't heard before. Never mind that technically Natalie could be a prefect someday and she probably wouldn't be like Kelsey. She assumed that being a Pecari prefect wasn't as impressive in their eyes as being a Crotalus one.

Not only that but because of the whole finding suitors thing, Mother was always fussing over Kelsey and her clothing and making sure she looked amazing to impress them. Natalie didn't mind that her sister got more attention than she did, but it made the fifth year even more insufferable. And her insufferable-ness was already seemingly at it's peak. Or at least Natalie hoped it was because if it got worse, Kelsey might be approaching Carrie levels. The Pecari didn't really know her cousin but everyone else said she was awful and Ryan didn't like to talk about her or his mother at all.

She wished she could go swimming now. It always made her feel good and though Natalie had been a few times-like every single day-it was like washing away her troubles. Not that she had many other than an annoying bossy smug and way too perfectly proper older sister that she would never measure up to. Oh and that Natalie seemed to be officially becoming the black sheep of the Atwater family. Still, she just couldn't force herself into that mold and trying wasn't worth it. All it would do was make her miserable.

Unfortunately, she had to be in Herbology and she'd been running late as it was. Fortunately, she got there on time albeit with few minutes to spare. She took the closest seat available which turned out to be next to her fellow Pecari, Luke. Natalie didn't know him well, but that was okay. Maybe she'd get to know him better.

When the lesson was announced and the fertilizer brought out, she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose. She might not have been as proper or prissy as Kelsey, but that didn't mean it didn't smell terribly. Once they were released she turned to Luke and said "Stinks, doesn't it?"

11 Natalie Atwater, Pecari P.U. (Tag Luke) 371 Natalie Atwater, Pecari 0 5

Emerald Brockert,Aladren

December 31, 2016 4:01 PM

Fertilize by Emerald Brockert,Aladren

After about five minutes of Midterm, Emerald longed to be back at school. True, she had her own room at home which was nice but her siblings were definitely much more annoying than her roommates. At least though, she hadn't heard the announcement she'd been both expecting and dreading. Her and her siblings were all two years apart and Amethyst had just turned two so she'd kind of figured Mother was pregnant again. Except that she wasn't, thank Merlin. At least not now. Emerald rather hoped it stayed that way.

The nicest thing was getting to see Ruby again. As much as Emerald disliked having so many siblings, her sister who was the next to oldest was her best friend despite their radically different temperments. Ruby had a rather sweet disposition whereas Emerald admittedly could be a bit caustic. Maybe that was why. Or because Ruby was her main playmate as a child what with Topaz being generally awful and creepy and everyone else being too young.

Anyway, she was back at school as she preferred to be. She was probably in the minority on this but most people weren't Aladrens with too many younger siblings. Emerald liked to learn a whole lot more than she liked noisy young children. Here, while she might have been one of the older ones in the first year class, she was still a first year.

As for classes, there wasn't a single one she didn't like, save for flying as it was pointless and uninteresting. Emerald understood that she might not use everything she learned in some classes like COMC or Herbology but that didn't make them any less interesting to her. She didn't even care too much when Professor Xavier brought out the ultra-stinky fertilizer though it did smell foul. Emerald didn't think gardening was her thing but this had to have some educational value even if she didn't see it right off the bat.

They were released to do their work and Farrah Welch, whom she was sitting next to turned to her and spoke.

“Are we fertilizing the plants with that stuff or are we being asked to like pollinate the plants that are ready for that?”

"I think we're just supposed to fertilize." Emerald replied as she put her gloves on.

11 Emerald Brockert,Aladren Fertilize 358 Emerald Brockert,Aladren 0 5

Farrah

January 01, 2017 7:46 PM

I'd rather pollinate. by Farrah

Farrah found herself talking to Emerald Brockert. She didn’t know her at all other than the fact that they shared a common room. Farrah did like her roommate, Amelia, having worked with her in Potions, so she didn’t think she’d have any trouble with Emerald. Aladrens typically seemed to get on fairly well. She had heard about some things happening between the older boys where rooms had to be switched but she didn’t know what or why, but other than that and her cold disposition with her own roommate, she thought everyone got on just fine.

Of course, Emerald was one of those societal types that Farrah was always weary about and also somehow related to the Headmaster (or, at least, they shared a last name, so Farrah assumed that meant they were related, but she might be wrong with that assessment). Not that being related to the Headmaster actually meant anything bad, but from experience, those who were related to people of power tended to be the worst kind of people because they could get away with it.

Farrah made a face when Emerald confirmed that they were meant to fertilize the plants with the foul smelling compost that professor had wheeled in. She pulled out her own pair of dragon-hide gloves (Farrah had never really given leather much thought since she never wore it in general, but now that she had to wear gloves made out of dragon, she was really starting to think about becoming a Vegetarian or possibly a Vegan because the use of all these magical creatures in things was really starting to bother her) and looked around.

Since she had already broken the ice between her and Emerald, Farrah gave her a polite smile. “Would you like to work on this with me?” She asked the younger Aladren girl. If she didn’t, that would be okay too as Farrah was sure that Emerald probably had her own friends that she would have preferred to work with. Farrah could find Georgia or Kellen to see if they wanted to work with her if Emerald didn’t want to. “I was thinking of identifying the plants that need to be fertilized first before having to go over there and deal with that nasty garbage.” Farrah explained. Her parents just used manure. The local farmers created their own and sold it in the local market, so it was organic, but her parents weren’t hippy enough to start their own compost. Now that she was looking and smelling one, she was very glad for that.

6 Farrah I'd rather pollinate. 344 Farrah 0 5

Simon

January 04, 2017 2:05 PM

Blow, wind, come, wrack! by Simon

As people, Simon thought he mostly liked his roommates. Sometimes he silently cursed Winston, as it was all Winston’s fault that Simon had had to join the Quidditch team and at least partially Winston’s fault that Simon was in a Fair team, but he actually thought he might be more comfortable with the Pierce heir than anyone else he had yet encountered at school. Winston’s family had enough scandals in it that Simon felt sure of his social footing with him, but other than that, they were in similar positions and Simon thought they were similar in temperament, too – a theory he would have considered supported by the fact they were both in Crotalus if not for the fact that Victor was also in Crotalus. Victor was either genuinely much more energetic and outgoing than Simon or else he was very good at faking it; he was the kind of person Simon had to concentrate not to become tongue-tied and decidedly Un-Heirish around. Simon liked him, but was also a bit intimidated by him and always had to remember to hide it.

This worked against Victor as a person to work with. So did the fact that Simon didn’t much care for working with either of his roommates in class, lest any mistakes follow him back to the dormitory. At the moment, though, Victor had his advantages: this was a class it was going to be hard to be very dignified in, what with rummaging around in Merlin knew what in the professor’s wheelbarrow, and since Victor was quite energetic, it might be possible to keep the majority of the dung, or whatever, on his gloves instead of Simon’s.

“Identifying the plant we need to fertilize before we stick our hands in – whatever that is – sounds like a good idea,” he agreed, nodding as Victor put on his gloves. Simon wondered if he could attach a note to his own later asking the elves to boil them before returning them to him or if that would damage them somehow. He looked over the plants the professor had put out before them all. “I think we can rule out most of the ones that are just barely there,” he said, pointing to one that was only just sticking out of the soil it was in, “but the others…I know – “ it was more of a thought, but he knew he was supposed to be confident when he spoke – “that some plants reproduce when they wither and their…parts…” the proper terms slipped out of his head like water through his hands; stupid proper terms – “blow away in the wind, so it could be those or the flowering ones,” he said. “Depending on the plant.” He paused to give Victor time to say something.

16 Simon Blow, wind, come, wrack! 369 Simon 0 5

Victor

January 09, 2017 10:08 AM

Soon it may be 'out, damned spot'... by Victor

“I’m full of good ideas,” replied Victor confidently, winking at Simon to show that he was (sort of) joking. He nodded in agreement with Simon’s first assessment, happy to rule out some of the plants for whatever reason as he had no better ideas. His roommate seemed to know what he was on about, which was good. Simon had probably got the test question right, and Victor was not at all bothered by that fact. He was just glad that his partner had more of an idea what to do than he did. It would be a sad and unproductive day when someone had to rely solely on Victor for academic stuff.

He managed to restrain a snigger at the word ‘parts’, and kept enough of a straight face to pretend to be knowledgeable. “Withering sounds like dying,” he pointed out, following on from Simon’s train of thought as best he could. “Reproducing is, er, kinda the opposite of dying, what with all the ‘new life’ stuff. Well, unless you’re a salmon or something…” he trailed off, realising that talking about dead salmon wasn’t exactly relevant to plants, even if the whole mass salmon death thing was pretty cool. Suffice it to say Victor wouldn’t be becoming a vegetarian any time soon.

“I reckon we go for the flowering ones, they look the coolest anyway.” This wasn’t perhaps the most scientific of thought processes, but Victor was all for quick results rather than logical reasoning. He thought he’d made a decent deduction based on the information Simon had given him, and he wanted to get on with the task.

“Shall we go get some fertilizer, then?” he asked, wiggling his fingers at Simon in a vaguely menacing way. Dealing with fertilizer was bound to be more fun than working out what plants looked like when they wanted to reproduce. And once he got his hands on some fertilizer, who knew where it would end up? Sadly, he didn’t think Professor Xavier – or even Simon, for that matter – would take kindly to a mud fight, but he couldn’t be held responsible for accidentally dropping any down someone’s neck. Fertilizer was slippery stuff, and Victor could be easily distracted…

9 Victor Soon it may be 'out, damned spot'... 368 Victor 0 5

Madeleine Dautin, Aladren

January 10, 2017 1:58 AM

Undecided... by Madeleine Dautin, Aladren

Madeleine wasn't sure if she liked herbology or not. On one hand, it was kind of fun to mash around in the dirt and look at nice illustrations and diagrams of plants in her book. The bouquinistes in Paris always had such lovely drawings for sale and so sketched plant life had always caught Madeleine's attention. However on the other hand, her hands always left smelling truly awful and she had to scrub and scrub until her skin was raw and in desperate need of lotion (thankfully Myrtille had gifted her a gift set of nice smelling pocket lotions pour Noël).

Today seemed to be one of those days where she would leave the room with bad smelling hands and she patted one of the pockets in her leather school bag where she kept her lotion. Today she had orange flowers, her favourite of the Marie Antoinette lotion set which also contained rose, jasmine, and tuberose. "Well," she said to the student seated next to her. "Shall we?"

Even though she didn't want to do the assignment, a Dautin never showed weakness, especially not to an American and so Madeleine was dead set on putting on a brave face and plowing ahead without letting it slip that actually she did not want to do this class at all.

She daintily pulled on her dragon-hide gloves, thinking that perhaps it just the smell that lingered in her nose because there was no logical way the smell of fertiliser could permeate such a high quality item, and pulled a potted plant towards them that seemed to fit Professor Xavier's requirements. She took the plant and moved it between herself and her partner and began to carefully remove the plant from it's pot.

Adding composted or dung fertilizer to potted plants was admittedly harder than spraying them with whatever soluble fertilizer could be brewed in a cauldron or purchased from a shelf, but it was weirdly soothing to shake a plant free from dirt and to thoroughly mix the fertiliser in before re-potting the plant.

"What do you think about all this?" she asked her partner, curious to see if she was the only one who found gardening relaxing.

10 Madeleine Dautin, Aladren Undecided... 340 Madeleine Dautin, Aladren 0 5

Kit Reid, Aladren

January 10, 2017 11:45 PM

It could be worse. by Kit Reid, Aladren

Kit grinned when she got her midterm back and saw that she had done well. This was actually her worst class. By no means did she have what was called a green thumb so she had to keep her grade up in other ways. She was glad that she had put in the extra studying and had know the difference between the two uses of fertilization. If she hadn’t, she could have been looking at a lower grade, but so far, she was holding on to a high E/low O. If she was able to keep on track, she might scrape by with an O. In any other House, an E may have been more than acceptable, but she was in Aladren, which had now left her feeling a sense of pressure to achieve perfection in academics. She thought it would have been more freeing to her intelligence, but it was almost the opposite. Thankfully, the high grade was a boost to her confidence for the class.

Now, only if she could skip the actual plant part. She grimaced looking at the various potted plants. There was a good chance that instead of fertilizing the plant properly, she would probably end up killing it and thus, ending any chance it had at fertilization. She breathed a sigh knowing that there was no actual way she was going to get out of trying and figured her best options would be to either pick one of the plants that looked like dried dead husks since she didn’t think she could do anything actually damaging or look for someone that was good at Herbology or at the very least didn’t kill every plant that they came in contact with. Maybe it was just that she was too impatient with the plants or maybe she just didn’t pay enough attention to them. It was also why she would never ever own a fish or a Pygmy puff. She had no doubt they would meet a similar fate.

Kit pulled on her gloves, as recommended. She had a rather lovely pair of lavender ones. She took her time too making sure that each gloved finger was snug around her own and that they were pulled up correctly. After enough dawdling, it seemed as if a fair number of other students had chosen plants. Now, all she had to do was find one of them to pair with. Spotting someone that seemed to know what they were doing or gave the appearance of doing so, she made her way over. “Hi, do you have a partner yet?” She just hoped that they hadn’t noticed her working with plants too much or they might be scared away.

0 Kit Reid, Aladren It could be worse. 363 Kit Reid, Aladren 0 5

Sawyer Matheson, Teppenpaw

January 11, 2017 11:14 PM

That's Okay! by Sawyer Matheson, Teppenpaw

Sawyer was glad to be back at school and even more so for classes like Herbology. He was doing well in the class and was pleased with the results of his midterm test. It wasn’t top marks, but it was quite a bit higher than average. He had been one of the ones to misunderstand the difference in fertilizations, so he listened carefully to the explanation. One was for repotting plants, which made sense cause of fertilizer. But he hadn’t realized the other definition. It had to do with reproduction. He tried to keep them sorted in his head. He thought the actual thought of compost would probably help.

Plus, it was what they were working on today. Sawyer actually enjoyed working with plants. Not as much as he liked music or animals, but he still enjoyed it. There was something very calming about working with the earth. He would even go so far as to say satisfying. He was even going to get to work on his uncle’s farm this coming summer. He couldn’t wait. He was going to get to help out with the animals and help grow crops. Though, he supposed if he were going to be helping out with all of that stuff, he had better get to work so that he could be better with plants. He wanted to make sure that he could help out as much as he could.

Sawyer wasn’t sure what plant to choose since they were so many to pick from and was glad when the girl, Madeleine Dautin, decided for them. Like her, he pulled on his gloves to help get the next pot ready for the plant. He figured once they got it moved over they would be able to better identify it. Some plants were only identifiable by the roots. He was working on making the hole in the new pot when Madeleine asked him what he thought about this. “Oh, uh, it’s kinda…nice actually,” Sawyer replied. “I like working with nature and this is one of my favorite classes.”

0 Sawyer Matheson, Teppenpaw That's Okay! 365 Sawyer Matheson, Teppenpaw 0 5

Georgia Kirkly

January 15, 2017 3:24 AM

It's actually going pretty well by Georgia Kirkly

Herbology was a weird subject. It was part gardening, part science lesson, part yet another heads up on stuff in the wizarding world that might want them dead. Georgia didn’t hate the class… It was sometimes pretty easy - stick this plant in this pot was a lot simpler than the steps for a correct potion or trying to coax her wand into performing a Transfiguration. But equally, she didn’t have a lot of experience caring for plants, and so the parts that weren’t a straightforward instruction to carry out a particular part of plant maintenance tended to trip her up, or at the very least make her a little worried about whether or not she was doing the right thing - on the whole, she usually was, she just hadn’t been doing it long enough to feel confident. She’d got an OK grade on her paper though. She had known there were two types of ‘fertilisation’ because that was just remembering lists of fairly simple facts, a task she could do when she put sufficient effort into it, rather than asking her to explain or argue about a particular point, which she found a lot harder.

Now though, they were being asked to apply that knowledge. Not that Georgia readily made the connection… There was one type of ‘fertilise’ that was glaringly obvious from the smell at the front of the classroom. She tried to breathe through her sleeve to block it out. All she took from Professor Xavier’s speech was that they had to find a plant that wanted to reproduce and to heap that foul smelling garbage on it. Whilst wearing gloves.

She eyed the selection of plants. Obviously a dead plant was dead, so that wasn’t a good choice. A plant that was barely growing wasn’t ready for anything. Of the fuller, more planty plants, she was pretty sure that a flowering one was a good bet. She remembered reading about bees pollinating flowers, which they couldn’t do if the flowers were still closed. Plus it was like… the most stereotypical plant-like one. It looked ready, cos it was being a plant, whereas the others were either busy still becoming plants or had already ceased to be them. Professor Xavier seemed like quite a straight forward, not-a-trick question kind of teacher too, so Georgia felt more confident that her gut instinct, backed up by vaguely remembered facts, was a good thing to go with than she might have in other classes.

She took her plant back to her bench, and was taking her time assembling the necessary tools (which basically amounted to finding a trowel) to put off going near the sludge bucket for as long as possible. Whilst she was doing this, a first year came up to join her. She was pretty sure she’d been just ahead of her when they came into class, and that Professor Xavier had also given this girl positive feedback for her paper.

“I don’t yet, but I did already get a plant. I chose one that’s already flowering, because I seem to remember reading that bees pollinate flowers to help them reproduce, and that’d only work on an actual open flower. Agree?” she asked, under the assumption from the girl’s high grade that she knew what she was doing in this class. She avoided mentioning her gut instinct because that didn’t seem like a very good reason, and a quick glance at the girl’s robes told her that she was an Aladren, who probably wouldn’t approve of such flimsy reasons for making decisions in class.

13 Georgia Kirkly It's actually going pretty well 346 Georgia Kirkly 0 5

Arianna Tate, Crotalus

January 17, 2017 9:53 PM

This is so beneath me by Arianna Tate, Crotalus

Arianna didn't care for Herbology much. Okay, yes, flowers were pretty enough and certainly there were plants needed for both food and potions, things that had curative or edible properties. However, getting down in the dirt was so not for her. The Crotalus was a proper pureblood young lady from a good family. Her mother had been a Brockert . This whole thing was just beneath her.

Okay, so she could see herself maybe enjoying the theoretical parts of Herbology. Learning about different plants and how they interacted. What was poisonous, what could be used to harm and to help. To affect people's minds Combined with potions, this could all be put to good use.

Of course, Arianna never allowed anyone to see that she was interested in such things lest she appear nerdy or creepy. She maintained a veneer of propriety at all time, keeping some of her less...appropriate interests a secret.

However, the moment Professor Xavier brought out that awful fertilizer, Arianna struggled to maintain her usual poker face. That stuff was just the worst thing she'd ever smelled, including Beau's diapers when he was a baby-well, at least she assumed they smelled bad, they were full of baby droppings though she surely never got too close to them.

How could a professor expose them to this? Arianna had always classified Professor Xavier as a rather pathetic nerdy sort, harmless and weak. He was head of Teppenpaw for Merlin's sake! And now he was doing something possibly Flatt-worthy, Flatt being the teacher that Mother and her friends got fired back in school.

And did he expect them to touch it even with gloves on? Ewwwwww! Did Professor Xavier not know who she was? Who some of the others were? There were two Brockerts, a Carey and a New Hampshire Pierce in this class! And did he not know who her mother was and what she'd done back when she'd been at Sonora?

Arianna suppressed a sigh. She knew she wasn't getting out of this so she looked around for an acceptable partner. Approaching such a person, she asked "Would you like to work together?"

11 Arianna Tate, Crotalus This is so beneath me 353 Arianna Tate, Crotalus 0 5

Luke Powell

January 19, 2017 6:33 PM

I'm so late I've forgotten what that means. by Luke Powell

Sonora was cool because they got to do magic and stuff but at the end of the day it was still school. By definition school kinda sucked. But at least the teachers here didn’t seem so uptight as those who had taught him in elementary school, or maybe that’s because there weren’t as many people to mess around with here that would get him into trouble.

Not getting into trouble was a good thing, of course, because he knew that it upset his mom and that was never something he wanted. But after seeing his rowdier mates at home over the midterm break, who had made new friends he didn’t know, Luke found himself missing some of those good old times and wishing that he had a crew at Sonora that he could have a real laugh with.

His marks in class had not differed all that much, despite the dramatic change in curriculum, and Luke just managed not to roll his eyes when Professor X invited him to come and see him outside of class time. What questions did he have to ask about stupid plants? Although some of the practical Herbology lessons were decent enough, he supposed, compared to sitting in a classroom with a thick, boring textbook.

He was sat next to Natalie today, one of the girls from his house. She turned and spoke to him, but made no mention of working together, so he wasn’t sure whether she was making an assumption or not.

“Yeah,” Luke nodded in agreement to her comment on the smell. “Is that your way of asking to pair up?” He smiled. He didn’t know why he said that. He knew that Natalie was one of those sorts like Joella (but not with such a cool father) and she might not appreciate the light teasing the same way the girls did back in Malibu.

Natalie was not the ideal partner for this task. They were studying the plant equivalent of sex - what a weird concept - so doing that with a girl could be kind of awkward. But who was he and what had he done with Luke Powell if he was considering turning down the opportunity to work with a pretty housemate.

“You know much about this?” Luke asked, hoping that she was something of a know-it-all so he could look a bit better to Professor X after his test result failure. “Or we could just fertilize them all and see what happens?” He suggested with a grin, in case she disapproved of being such a cop out and he could pass it off as a joke.

8 Luke Powell I'm so late I've forgotten what that means. 374 Luke Powell 0 5

Luke Powell, Pecari

January 19, 2017 6:34 PM

OOC: Sorry forgot to put the house. (nm) by Luke Powell, Pecari

8 Luke Powell, Pecari OOC: Sorry forgot to put the house. (nm) 374 Luke Powell, Pecari 0 5