Intermediate Herbology: The Pegasus Bush on Herbology

Professor Xavier

July 07, 2017 1:04 PM

Intermediate Herbology: The Pegasus Bush by Professor Xavier

Nathan Xavier stood before his intermediate class and smiled. There was nothing unusual in this. Nathan started every class with a smile for his students. This smile, however, had less to do with cheerful greetings and more to do with excited anticipation. It wasn't hard to tell the difference. "Good news, everyone," he announced in lieu of his normal daily welcome. He had said hello to everyone as they arrived and got back their last homework assignment, so the class greeting was deemed redundant and not worth the extra seconds it would take on this occasion.

"The pegasus bush foaled last night!" he exclaimed happily, unable to keep it in any longer. They had been studying the pegasus bush for the last couple of weeks, watching the bud form, develop, and grow attached to its parent bush.

Now the bud was planted in the dirt beside its parent, entirely independent. It stood on its own four roots, a tiny little miniature of its fully grown relative, though its leaves were a brighter lighter green than the duller grey-green of the mature bush. It already closely resembled the winged horses that gave the bush its name, and it tossed its leafy mane and whinnied rather adorably as Nathan revealed the pair to the class, removing the blanket that had been protecting them from the beginner class during the last period.

"You may take a few minutes to study the foal. You may touch it if you like, but be gentle. The parent bush will swat at you if it thinks you are hurting its offspring."

Nathan hovered nearby as each student got to take a close look at the baby pegasus bush and gently touch it if they so chose. Once everyone had a turn, he handed out worksheets for everyone to fill out.

"You may work together, if you like, but I want each of you to turn in your own copy," he instructed. "You have fifteen minutes, then we'll go over the last bit of the Pegasus Bush chapter. There will be a chapter quiz at the beginning of next class, so you can start your review now if you finish your worksheet early."

OOC: The worksheet has questions like "What color are the leaves of a juvenile pegasus bush?" and "True/False: A pegasus bush can fly." (It can't, it is actually a bush with roots that hold it to the Earth.) You may make up additional questions and fun facts about this entirely fictional plant that I made up, but the basics are that it looks like a pegasus, it can toss its head and flap its wings and whinny in equine fashion but it is, essentially, just an animated topiary bush that reproduces asexually by budding.

Subthreads:

The Awakening by Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw

1 Professor Xavier Intermediate Herbology: The Pegasus Bush 28 Professor Xavier 1 5

Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw

July 22, 2017 3:07 AM

The Awakening by Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw

When Juniper had been a first year, she'd really resented Herbology because the time had been split between it and Care of Magical Creatures. The Teppenpaw had not wanted to give up a second of her favorite class! It was the only time she could ever relax and forget about the fact that she was surrounded by other people. People who could judge her harshly, judge every potential mistake she'd make. Juniper got so self conscious and tried to remain in the back so people wouldn't notice her.

Of course, on the other hand, there....was one person whose attention the shy third year wanted and that was her best friend Finn. He was the one person outside of some of her family she wanted to be around, that she wasn't afraid of and that meant he was special . In fact, Juniper was less afraid of him than some of her family such as her mother-Mother was the family member she was most scared of really, since Juniper often felt like she was such a disappointment to her-and some of the very distant cousins she didn't know, Arianna Tate in particular since she was in Juniper's class but really all of them.

Recently though, Juniper had taken to dressing nicer when not in uniform and doing her hair as well as adding jewelry that cost more than some poor families would see in their lifetime, as Brockert girls just didn't own cheap jewlery. All of this seemed terribly impractical in class, but she'd been taught her whole life it was important to look presentable and especially to dress for dinner.

The purpose of this was two fold. First off all, it was like a form of armor. Protecting her from the potential arrows in the form of vicious taunts of the Ariannas-even though there was only one named Arianna now, that's how Juniper thought of them. True, they hadn't come down on her yet but it could happen. It would happen. True, it was possible that they might be more appalled by Lily's general....lack of femininity or Georgia's weight.

Juniper hoped the latter wouldn't happen. Her roommate had had a rough year with Farrah leaving and Juniper felt bad for her. She couldn't imagine how she'd feel if that had been Finn who was gone. Well, actually, she could. She'd consider begging to be homeschooled in that situation-except that the third year knew that would be futile considering she'd already tried it back before she'd come to Sonora in the first place.

And well....Finn was the other reason. She wanted to look nice for him. She wanted him to think she was pretty and she'd been taught that the way to do this was to...embelish herself though not to the Party Level. Even though it all made her feel awkward. Like she wasn't being herself, the same way as at parties. But hopefully Finn liked it. That was what mattered. Juniper didn't want him to prefer the Ariannas or Gwen Fintoc or any of the other pretty second year girls.

Now though, she was in Herbology, a class she no longer resented as it had seperated from COMC. In fact, today, the Teppenpaw was quite excited for it. Excited enough to forget how ridiculous she felt dressed up like this. How she didn't feel like herself. Not enough to forget Finn though of course.

However, Professor Xavier's announcement of the Pegasus Bush foaling made everything else go away in her mind. Well, okay, Finn was still there but faded into the back for now. She forgot everyone else though and stared at the wonder of the little foal. It wasn't quite as wonderful as a real horse of course but it was still amazing. In fact, it had just enough power to make her not worry about the Ariannas seeing her and laughing. Juniper really wanted to see that foal, almost as much as she would a real one.

She approached it gently, the way she was told to, the way she would a real one. If there was one thing Juniper knew, that she felt comfortable with, it was horses and this qualified. "Hi there." She patted it gently. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you." Juniper gazed over it. "You are sooo cute!"

That's when she felt someone at her elbow and her face turned bright red. She doubted it would pass for blush. "Um, sorry." The third year apologized to the other person. "I'll get out of your way so you can look at the foal too." While Juniper could easily stay by it all day, the presence of another person made her self-conscious, made her want to run back to her room where she at least had stuffed horses and figurines and pictures of Butterscotch.

11 Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw The Awakening 345 Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5