Beginners: Hedge Trimming on Herbology

Professor Nathan Xavier

May 22, 2018 4:15 PM

Beginners: Hedge Trimming by Professor Nathan Xavier

Nathan followed the last student into Greenhouse One, his stack of graded papers depleted. “Overall, I was pleased with the results from your climate exam,” he told the class as he reach the central spot between the two long central work tables where he usually gave his lectures. “Now we’ll move into the pruning unit. Pruning serves several purposes, both aesthetic and functional. When you prune, you cut away dead and overgrown stems or branches, which makes it look nicer, and helps the plant grow better and sometimes increases it’s fruitfulness if it produces flowers or fruit.”

“We’ll be learning a trimming charm today for this, which uses the incantation ‘Redigo’. It is a close cousin of the severing charm, Diffindo, which you may have learned already with Professor Wright, but this helps protect the cut parts of the plant from infection as well as cutting it. It also has the added protection that it works best on plants, so the chances of you accidentally cutting yourself are much lower. A direct hit with the trimming charm will still sting you and give you a little cut, so you should still be careful, but the damage will be much less than if you did the same with the severing charm. Otherwise the two charms work much the same way, allowing you to move your wand to direct where you’re cutting.”

It was a beautiful spring day out, and he was glad the curriculum allowed them a chance to get out and enjoy it. “Today, we’ll be practicing on the hedges outside, so everyone get up and head on out. You can leave your bags here, but please remember your wands. ” He made gestures to indicate that yes, he meant right now, and followed them outside.

Once everyone was congregated on the Labyrinth path right in front of the greenhouse, he continued, “Hedges are very forgiving about how they’re cut, so you don’t need to know the finer details of pruning that we’ll get into over the next few classes. Just practice the spell, and try not to cut any of the hedges back too much, all right? Go on, spread out, and practice the spell by cutting off any dead spots or trimming back any overgrown branches that you see. I’ll be walking around to see how you’re doing, but send up sparks if you run into any trouble or start feeling ill and I’ll come find you as fast as I can.”

OOC: As always, posts will be marked on length, relevance, creativity and realism. If your character is doing anything that would draw Nathan’s attention, just tag me in the subject line. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Trimming can be meditative or distracting by Parker, Pecari

Requesting a private audience (tag Jehan) by Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw with Jehan Callahan, Aladren

1 Professor Nathan Xavier Beginners: Hedge Trimming 28 Professor Nathan Xavier 1 5

Parker, Pecari

May 25, 2018 2:14 PM

Trimming can be meditative or distracting by Parker, Pecari

Greenhouse One seemed welcoming again. Now that he was once again talking with Cleo, and understood why she had been so distant, the idea of going to Herbology and seeing Professor X didn't make his stomach ache in a dull way anymore.

And it was just in time too. The sun was again coming out and the warm weather meant Parker wanted to be outside more than ever. It was with the blissful smile on his face that he made his way into Greenhouse One and immediately froze as Professor X handed him a paper. He'd forgotten that they had had an exam not long ago and as always, a piece of him was a bit anxious as to the grade.

Lately Parker had found he seemed to be rather good at Herbology, especially when compared to other classes like Transfig or DADA, but that didn't mean he was the best student. Being good at an academic felt good. He felt like he was doing something right, especially since Quidditch didn't seem to be happening this year.

He held his breath as he walked slowly into the greenhouse and turned over the paper. Parker audibly let out a sigh upon turning over the exam. It wasn't a perfect score, but it was decent. Especially for someone who still couldn't sit still to study for any time longer than 30 minutes.

He put the paper into his bag thinking he'd take it out later in the day to read over the notes. Or not. Depended on where he found himself outside today, and if he was with someone. It'd be rude for him to pull out a test and read it over if there was someone right there to talk to after all.

As Professor X talked about the unit Parker smiled. He remembered this from last year, and the work the Gardening Club, really just Cleo and himself, had done afterwards. He remembered the stinging sensation he'd felt when he'd accidentally cut himself while trimming last year, and was glad they had learned the safer version.

Parker sat listening to Professor X and wondered if people ever pruned themselves. Did they ever cut away dead or overgrown parts of themselves so that they could grow better or be better?

At Professor X's indication Parker reached into his bag for his wand and left the rest there as he once again emerged into the warm spring day. He closed his eyes and looked up, letting the sun hit his face as a smile spread across it. This is where he loved to be the most. Outside, in the sun. He needed to figure out how to do this more.

Parker walked to an untaken hedge and smiled at his neighbor as he started prunning. He looked for any pieces that had died over the winter, and as he did so he turned a bit of his thoughts inward.

What, if any pieces of him had died? Was there anything that he could cut out or cut off? Besides certain classes. But that'd happen eventually anyways. Maybe he was more like a young bush that you just let grow. But no, even then you wanted to prune a bit here and there to make sure that the bush was strong. Parker decided that he'd needed to spend this time figuring out what, if anything he should cut off in his life.

Just as his mind made that decision, his wand moved a little too much to the left and he felt that familiar sting and pulled his hand back.

"DAaaahh," Parker said shaking his hand back and forth as if he'd burned it, "Every time..." He trailed off and turned towards the student to his right.

"Sorry about that. Hope I didn't startle you."

41 Parker, Pecari Trimming can be meditative or distracting 1402 Parker, Pecari 0 5

Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw

June 18, 2018 6:45 AM

Requesting a private audience (tag Jehan) by Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw

Pruning. It was a strange word. When Dorian had received his syllabus for the term, he had of course looked up all the unfamiliar words, and so he knew that ‘(to) prune (v)’ was a form of cutting that one did to plants - tailler, in French. ‘Prune (n)’ was un pruneau. He was not sure why English felt there was a logical connection between these two words, other than the ever present reason of English is strange.

He tried to take careful notes of what Professor Xavier was saying. On the one hand it seemed simple enough - they were using the more gentle severing charm. But even this small and straightforward lecture gave him plenty to chew over. At the bottom of his notes from class, he wrote out the words ‘trim’ ‘prune’ ‘cut’ and ‘severe.’ The last one was giving him the most trouble and he wondered if it was right, because it looked awfully like sévère which… was nothing to do with cutting. Headmaster Brockert was sévère. And he thought it might be a word in English too, although if they had this new ‘severe’ meaning cut, maybe they didn’t have the other type? He was still jotting these down as the class filed out, and he finished adding ‘sévère??’ next to the bothersome word whilst he walked. As they had been instructed to leave their bags, he tucked his quill behind his ear when he was done with it. This wasn’t unusual, as whenever teachers instructed them to leave their bags, he still brought quill and parchment alongside his wand, because words that needed looking up later could crop up at any time.

He had been sitting next to Jehan, and so found himself walking out with him. His mind was still slightly on the subtle differences between all of the cutting words but he had the presence of mind to steer Jehan slightly away from everyone else.

“We can go over there to trim?” he suggested, consulting his word list. “To trim… which means similar or the same as prune? But is more gentle than sever? Not so sévère as sever… You do have that meaning or not in English?” he clarified.

He inspected the hedge for a moment, twisting a few different leaves in his fingers, pretending to search for a good spot to work on. The ball was getting closer. And in some ways, he was ready. He had something to wear. He didn’t really have to think about his appearance much beyond that. And his reading sessions with the librarian were going well. Ish. He hoped. He wasn’t perfect at the poem yet and he really felt he had to be. And until he was, it was hard not to be critical of himself. He just wanted to get it right. But he had thought of another difficulty about the poem, beyond just his own ability to get it right, and that was why he needed to talk to Jehan…

“Je?” he glanced up from his plant inspection to check whether he had his friend’s attention, “About the ball… I know, I know actually at the ball we kind of have to be with everyone else,” it was what they had agreed, after all. And he couldn’t really see how he could pay attention to just one friend when all his friends were there. The ball was for dancing and socialising, not for sitting together over a book. “I mean… I want to see them all too. And it will be nice,” he added, lest he sounded ungrateful for his friends, “But… they don’t always understand about everything… everything we like. It’s… it’s… Being us is different with other people there too,” he tried to explain. He knew Jehan knew that too which helped… But it was hard. He wanted the poem itself to be a surprise, but he needed to get Jehan to agree to them going off by themselves, and what if he wouldn’t without a good reason? Dorian just had to hope that this counted as a good enough reason without having to get any more specific. “So, can we spend some time just you and me? Maybe before the ball… we can… I don’t know, get ready together?” he asked. As they were guys the ‘getting ready’ they had to do was pretty minimal, and he figured Jehan would somewhat see through that and understand that this was more a bid for some MARS time than anything else. Dorian was fine with him realising that, he just wanted the actual poem to be a surprise. “I would say maybe we can go for a walk when it’s the ball, but I think that might be rude to everyone else, and that maybe the teachers won’t let us be leaving the hall. It’d just… be nice. Before summer.”

13 Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw Requesting a private audience (tag Jehan) 1401 Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw 0 5

Jehan Callahan, Aladren

July 16, 2018 1:37 PM

Between a rock and a hard place by Jehan Callahan, Aladren

After all the drama surrounding the ball run-up, Jehan had resigned himself to going with a group of friends. After being turned down by Luke, his courage had deserted him. He’d asked no-one else, and told himself that going with friends would be great fun. Which it would, really. He didn’t need the excitement and the romance that he’d hoped for at the ball, not yet at least. The main silver lining of all this was that Victor would be happy, which was a positive side-effect of the double-rejection that Jehan had suffered. Really, he could be considered a martyr. He’d rather have a date, though. Martyrdom lost its appeal when compared to the thought of dancing.

Nevertheless, Jehan was putting his Brave Face on and forgetting that he was probably going to be forever alone, if recent events were anything to go by. Which is why he cursed the small flicker of hope at Dorian’s words “About the ball…”, a flicker of hope that was almost immediately crushed, and almost replaced with resentment and a hint of annoyance. Almost.

Jehan wasn’t a mean person. He liked to assume the best of people, and for those he cared about to be happy. It was for this reason that Dorian’s words seemed like a rather low blow. Of course the two boys didn’t have to be with everyone else at the ball, despite what Dorian now claimed. Jehan had suggested an alternative, which Dorian had then blown out of the water. It seemed almost callous of his friend to sit there, going on about how others didn’t understand them, and how Dorian wanted to be with just Jehan. But Jehan reminded himself that, back in the MARS room, Dorian hadn’t seemed to understand Jehan’s perception of what had been discussed. Dorian didn’t know about Jehan’s heartbreak, didn’t know that he was now suggesting all the things that Jehan had wanted. Just not quite in the same way.

As previously mentioned, Jehan liked all his friends to be happy. It was for this reason that the young boy pasted a smile on, and tried to see if he could worm his way out of his friend’s suggestion without hurting Dorian's feelings. It wasn’t that Jehan disliked the idea of spending more time with Dorian, but to be so near yet so far from what he had wanted, and on the night of the ball itself, would be unbearable.

“But Dorian, we can’t get ready in the MARS room, other people could be there! And I thought you wanted to spend time with the others, like at the bonfire?” Jehan’s first excuse was, he thought, very valid. He didn’t want people walking in on him getting changed! As for the second part: he felt that restricting his retort to only a very very slightly pointed comment was impressive, given the further mess that Dorian was unwittingly attempting to make of his feelings.

9 Jehan Callahan, Aladren Between a rock and a hard place 1398 Jehan Callahan, Aladren 0 5