Herbology Lesson I

[kayquilz]

Paul was feeling silly. He had decided to order a costume in the post, and he supposed he should have specified. There had clearly been some sort of mixup...because….

This was NOT THE CYCLOPS PAUL HAD BEEN TALKING ABOUT.

He had no IDEA who this hooligan was, and why he looked like a robot. But the name on the package had been CYCLOPS and it had been too damn late to order a new one. He had rummaged EVERYWHERE for something to look like a cyclops...he even had a special charm to make his face look like it had one big eyeball. But….he had THIS COSTUME.

...and so he squeezed himself into it, glad it had fake padded abs, and cursed muggle costume companies. CURSED THEM. ABSOLUTELY. Milton had gotten the package (since muggle post didn’t come to Hogwarts, obviously) and had send the package over with a few ?????? scrawled on the note.

Merlin.

But class had started, and students were arriving. “Come on in, guys! Have a seat…” he winked, but remember none of them could see his FACE so it was pointless. The thing about having a seat today, though, was that Paul had been very creative with how to teach about this plant, and so….¾ of the room was taken up by three giant versions of the lotus flower.. Literally, just enlarged. “Have a seat on any of the petals, on the ground, ANYWHERE!” he grinned and gave a thumbs up since his eyes couldn’t be seen for added facial expression.

“The plan for today is to talk about the famous LOTUS FLOWER from Homer’s ODYSSEY. As you can see, I…..well, some of you might know what the heck this is, but I THOUGHT I was ordering a cyclops costume...but they sent me this ROBOT costume instead.” Rude. He was still OUTRAGED by it, okay? “But we will start in just a feeeeeew minutes. You may study the giant lotus flowers up close until then if you like. Sketch ‘em out if you want,” he said, giving ANOTHER thumbs up.

That ¼ of the room not covered by the giant flowers was taken up by a regular sized lotus tree that had the flowers on and the fruits. HMMMMM.



OOC: Hi guys! Your characters are allowed to dress as their favorite characters from Greek Mythology for this lesson, but it isn't a requirement! We'll be moving on in at least 24 hours, but it will honestly probably be more than that! Plenty of time to have your little guys show up!

SPOILER!!: Lesson Progression

• The stories of the lotus
• The affect! + learning a spell!
• Putting the spell into USE
• Class Dismissed

[NifflerFan]

Owww... Emmeline sat up kinda slowly and shook her head a little bit to clear it. She frowned as she streeetched to rub her back where she'd hit the ground the hardest. Well, that would be the last time she tried running inside the greenhouses with loads of bouncy flowers all over the place, mhm. The second year climbed awkwardly to her feet, but she wasn't hurt that bad. Probably not even bruising. She immediately looked around to see where Stasya and Derf had gone off to -- had Miss Etta stopped the killer tree? -- and FROZE in shock as she saw Derf eating the magic fruits from the basket!!!!

In typical Hogwarts adult fashion, neither Professor Myers nor the older witch seemed to have noticed that a student was currently dooming himself to addiction and awfulness. The professor was just yelling at Derf to calm down about the trees not eating him.

Emmeline hadn't been worried about that so much as the tree running her friend over or attacking him with strong roots or something. But never mind the tree; she had to come up with a plan FAST. The second year scanned the greenhouse desperately for inspiration before her eyes landed on the nearest moving lotus tree. Maybe she could... Yup, that was definitely the start of a plan taking shape in the twelve-year-old's mind.

She power-walked over to the tree, barely stopping herself from running flat out and jumped up to pluck a random fruit off its branches. Hastily moving away from the moving tree by a few steps, the Gryffindor pulled her wand back out, flicked it in the fruit's direction and said very, VERY firmly: "Naturaba Revelio!" To her great relief, the fruit didn't glow or sparkle or anything weird. A normal fruit was essential to her Plan working.

The second year turned on her heel and moved carefully over to Derf's side, reaching out and trying to tug gently on his arm (the one holding the fruit) a bit. Taking a biiig gulp, she called his name more loudly than normal: "DERF!!!" She didn't expect that to work at ALL but she had to at least try something before she implemented her plan.

Waiting only a few seconds to see if he'd look away from the fruit, Emmeline moved her wand in a well-practiced swish and flick movement -- directed right at the basket full of the dangerous, evil fruits and cast: "Wingardium Leviosa!" As soon as she had levitated the basket out of Derf's reach, she spun back towards him -- being careful to keep at least half her focus on maintaining the spell -- and prepared to shove the totally normal fruit into his hands as soon as he finished the current one and went looking for more. They looked, felt, and smelled exactly the same so she thought her plan was likely to work out. See, if he started eating the normal fruit, that was less of the evil fruit in his system and stuff, which would hopefully help the antidote work faster.

Speaking of the antidote, Emmeline blindly called: "PROFESSOR!!! DERF ATE THE MAGIC FRUIT!!!" at the top of her lungs. She didn't particularly care if she lost points for yelling if it saved her friend, 'cause she wasn't moving from his side 'till he got the antidote. Her eyes kept flicking from the evil fruit basket to Derf's face and back. She hoped Stasya would join her soon, in case they needed to help the professor with the antidote.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Sorry, professor. Were you talking to him?

BECAUSE THIS THIRD YEAR COULDN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF HOW DELICIOUS THIS SECOND FRUIT HE WAS CURRENTLY EATING WAS!

Well...HAD been eating..because now it was done too. Which meant he needed to nab another on---"OI!" he barked bright blue eyes narrowing on Emmeline as she levitated the basket of heaven out of his reach. NO MATTER! There were several trees walking around just WAITING to be picked from. Which was precisely what the Hufflepuff was not taking off to do. Sprinting over towards the nearest tree, Derf began jumping up and down like a jacalope with outstretched arms and eager hands trying to grasp some of the fruit hanging from the branches. "Heeeeere fruity fruity," he grinned, practically salivating with his hands wrapped around a fruit.

YEEEEEEEEEES PRECIOUS YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES.

Pulling and tugging, Derf freed the fruit free of the tree and clutched it to his chest. Glancing around like a rabid animal for a moment, the third year quickly dug in...while still running around...in case someone wanted to take his precious from him before he had finished eating it.

[Lady of Light]

Okay, well.. there was Emmeline who seemed to be freaking out about the trees too. Oh, goodness. She eyed the younger girl for a moment before quickly pulling up to her feet and out of the way of a tree that seemed to be scuttling towards her. “They aren’t going to hurt you, Emmeline.” The girl repeated, her eyes drifting towards Derf. Yeah, no. He was fine as well. Or so, she thought. “You guys stay close to me, okay? I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” She added, kindly. The prefect made her way to another tree close-by, continuing with the activity.

Aiming towards a particular fruit, with a quick flick of her wand, she casted the spell Naturaba Revelio. Ooooh, just her luck. She watched the fruit glow faintly before returning to its normal colour. Excitedly, she reached for the fruit and dropped it into her basket. “Hey De—”

WAIT. OH GOODNESS.

She stared at him, completely oblivious to Emmeline calling out to the professor for help. Was he EATING THE FRUIT?!? The girl practically ran towards where he was, grabbed the fruit from his hand before he could react and threw it away, hoping against hope this hadn’t done some permanent damage to the younger Hufflepuff. Firmly holding on to his arm, she waited for the professor to join them, a worried expression on her face. “What were you THINKING?!” She finally asked, a hint of irritation in her voice.

[siriusblackliveson]

Patrick had successfully pulled three fruits, none of them being magical. Disappointment was seeping in as he went to harvest his last fruit. Deep down he hoped it would be a magical fruit so he c old experience whatever sparkel glow Proffessor M had mentioned. Shrugging his shoulders he quickly went about stating "Naturaba Revelio". This time it glowed, he finally, finally, finally found a fruit that was magical.

He quickly set the fruit where the Professor had told him to set it before backing off to try and gather another one out in hopes that it would be magical. He was distracted by a guy eating the fruit. He did a double take, he was eating the fruit. They weren't supposed to eat the fruit. Entranced by what they were doing, Patrick couldn't look away from the boy.

[Holmesian Feline]

So there were magical and mundane fruit all on one plant. How very complicated! At least there was a way to tell them apart apparently, Cassie listening carefully as Professor Myers explained to them the spell they would be using. Natura Revelio…like speRevelio as the man had mentioned. Now for the practice so she was ready to use it for whatever else the lesson was going to entail. She certainly wouldn’t want mundane fruits when she was supposed to have magical ones and vice versa because that wouldn’t do.

“Natura Revelio…NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO…NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO… Natura Revelio” she practiced over and over again trying to get the incantation right. When Cass was satisfied that what she produced was close to what had been demonstrated, she absently flicked while thinking the incantation as she didn’t want to use them together until they were supposed to.

Like now.

Collecting four magical fruits. It didn’t seem like too much but it all depended on how one’s luck held out with which ones were which on the trees. And then there was the fact that Myers had made them move. Oh joy. With there nothing that she could really do about it, Cassie took to the task, moving up from her seat and heading to grab ahold of the first one. “Natura Revelio,” she cast at it with the requisite flick. There was a reaction, but much like with the one the professor had demonstrated on, it wasn’t the desired effect. The Ravenclaw stashed it in her pocket for safe keeping. And then she was onto the next. “Natura Revelio.” This time there was a distingtive glow and the Ravenclaw added it to one of the baskets.

[lazykitty]

Excuse him, but he'd been distracted. First by the whole supposed massacre that was impossible, since these trees didn't move that way. And now by the Hufflepuff currently running around the room EATING THE FRUIT?!?! And they said that Gryffindors were the reckless ones. Heh.

But since Ronan couldn't foresee a time when he'd need to use this spell, since he usually stuck to muggle foods brought from muggle stores (unless there was something the school wasn't telling them), instead of practicing the spell.......

"GO PUFF, GO PUFF, GO PUFF!" ....yep, he was cheering the little guy on. Professor Myers had said there was a potion for that, right? And the fruit wasn't poisonous or anything, so it wasn't like any harm would come to him. So, Ronan didn't see the problem with this situation at all.

[NifflerFan]

Her plan had failed epically, so Emmeline was forced to throw the totally normal fruit away and lower the basket of magical fruit back down into place. She was now sort of worried that Derf would hurt himself running alll around the room and trying to get the fruits off the moving trees, though she still didn't like the idea of having so much of the magic fruit so easily accessible. Still, she needed to be helpful and stuff and clearly levitating the basket hadn't done much to even slow Derf's efforts down. Miss Etta had followed him and Emmeline hurried after the two Hufflepuffs, planting herself next to Derf once again.

She frowned as she heard Mr. Ronan chanting in encouragement, but she was too busy worrying about Derf to really say anything to him. She looked around frantically for any more inspiration, but couldn't come up with any new bright ideas. Soo, the second year scurried around the small area near Derf, scooping up each fruit that had fallen to the ground -- and was therefore wayyy too close to Derf -- and holding it up for testing. She discarded the normal fruits as soon as they failed the test, rolling them sneakily in the Hufflepuff boy's direction. Hopefully he'd pick one of them up next instead of an actually magical one. After testing four fruits and finding them alll to be normal, Emmeline held up the fifth fruit she'd found on the floor, flicked her wand in its direction and cast, "Naturaba Revelio!" once again. Only this time, the fruit turned all shiny and stuff; eyes super wide, Emmeline slipped the fruit into her robe pocket quickly to get it out of Derf's line of sight. She made a beeline for the magical fruits basket that was back in position on the floor and deposited the magical fruit into the basket before hurrying back to Derf's side. The four normal fruit that she'd rolled in his direction were now scattered on the floor near his shoes, and Emmeline breathed a little easier for now. She shot Miss Etta a look that was half-grateful for her help, and half-panicked 'cause Derf had eaten the EVIL fruit, as she waited super impatiently for their professor to notice that something was WRONG.

[Watson]

Vi had collected two more fruits when she cast, "Naturaba revelio" and flicked her wand at the fruit in front of her. It glistened and thus Olivia reached for the fruit. She was pulling it off the tree when she heard Emmeline and then Etta cry out. The fruit dropped from her hands and she turned her gaze, not moving a muscle, towards her housemate and bestie. What were you THINKING! She gasped, taking note that Derf had eaten the fruit.

O.o

Oh Merlin. That wasn't good, was it? Def. not. Not good AT all. She frowned but... Professor Myers could do something, right? RIGHT?!? Internal panic set in. Her panicking paused when she heard a remark made by her own housemate. Okay.. so it wasn't a remark. It was more like cheering. Ronan was cheering the young Hufflepuff on.

Vi didn't know how to react. She picked up her fruit and froze.

[RachieRu]

Oh.

Well. Things had developed. Vanessa raised an eyebrow as she watched what as happening. She was pretty sure that Paul had not thought that this was going to happen. She frowned a little, feeling tempted to interfere. But then again she wanted to see what Paul would do, and how he would handle this situation.

So. She sat back, and just watched.

For now anyway. She could only hold back for so long

Hattie quite liked this. It was fun trying to find difference magic and mundane fruits. Though she was having a hard job of actually getting any of the fruit that was magical. And it was not making her happy. She frowned, spotting her next fruit, and saying "Naturaba revelio" and nothing. Nada. It was just normal.

Normal sucked.

She was going to find herself a new fruit, when she heard some stuff going on. The blonde looked up, and frowned. Derf had eaten the fruit? And some guy was cheering him on. The blonde shook her head. "Don't do that!" She muttered, rolling her eyes at Ronan. Thankfully Etta though. "Uh Professor... I think we need you over here...."

[kayquilz]

Emmeline's voice rang out. DERF ATE THE MAGIC FRUIT! Paul's head had never whipped around so fast in his LIFE, and one look at the young Hufflepuff, and he was definitely under the fruit's spell. Paul had an internal groan, because of COURSE Derfael had managed to eat a fruit SOMEHOW. Even though he had EXPLICIT instructions NOT TO. HAD THE BOY NOT BEEN LISTENING?

Fighting irritation with genuine worry, he quickly gave his wand a SHARP wave, rotting the trees back in the front where they were SUPPOSED to be, and have his wand ANOTHER rap, and the vial of antidote was summoned from his bag. "DERFAEL!" he called out. He could see Emmeline attempting to make the situation better by giving him REGULAR fruit, but Paul had said he had a antidote, so he didn't quite see why she wouldn't have just asked for the antidote O___O

Ronan was CHEERING HIM ON? "CLASS DISMISSED!" Paul called out, loudly for everyone to hear. "If you're in the middle of something - STOP AND DROP IT." His voice was gruff, the irritation seeeeeeeping through his words. "Ronan, cut it out!" he snapped, raising an eyebrow in the boy's direction. "You won't be cheering him on when he's vomiting on your shoes. Shoo." He was dooooone with the lesson. All ideas of teaching them the proper ways to clean fruit were gone.

Because, the facts remained, if he didn't stop Derf from eating more fruit, he WOULD be sick.

He flicked the stopper off the top of the vial and rushed over to the boy, grabbing the back of his head gently, but firmly, pulling his head back. "This...is for your own good, m'boy," Paul said. There was no time for tricks. He tipped the potion into the boy's mouth without another word.

The affect, as long as Derf had swallowed it, would take affect shortly. He eyed the lotus trees bitterly.



OOC: Okay! We had other things planned but...CLASS DISMISSED. You gotta' roll with the punches sometimes! I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson, though, guys! This was fun, LETS DO IT AGAIN lol.

I'll be leaving this open for another day for those of you who wish to wrap things up with the fruit. Anyone involved with the Derf stuff can continue to post (we'll probably move to another thread at some point if needed).

[PhoenixRising]

But all thoughts about bouncing on the flower vanished as her attention was drawn instead to the loud exclamation of 'Derfael' from the Professor. Skylar's eyes widened as she found the blond boy who was indulging in the lotus fruit?! HUH!? When had Professor Myers said they could eat the fruit?? Wait, he hadn't but oh no... oh no...

He was affected by its spell. Curse? Would the same thing have happened to her by bouncing on the lotus flower? Make her want to keep bouncing?

And yet no opportunity to find out, because class was dismissed and honestly, while Skylar was finally getting into the swing of things, with finding her lone one magical fruit in the basket, the fifth year didn't need to be told twice about Herbology class ending.

"Thanks Professor." She picked up her bag, and was halfway to the exit of the greenhouse when she realized she still had the basket in her hand. "Oh wait, here."

[siriusblackliveson]

Still staring at the guy eating the fruit, Patrick watched the Professor start walking toward him after yelling class was dismissed. Uh-oh someone didn't do as they were told. He quickly cleaned up his area and looked at what kind of trouble he may have gotten himself into before walking toward the door. He had no intention of ever getting yelled at in Herbology. Astronomy maybe, Herbology, no. "Thanks Professor. Lovely lesson, still liked the costume!" He shouted as he left the room.

[NifflerFan]

Professor Myers had FINALLY noticed that Derf had eaten the fruits. Emmeline bounced nervously on the balls of her feet as she hovered next to Derf and watched the professor pour the antidote down his throat. It wasn't until the greenhouse started spinning and she'd stumbled back a step that the Gryffindor realized she'd been holding her breath, oooops. The second year took a deep breath and scanned the Hufflepuff's face, looking for any sort of change in his eyes or his expression.

She glanced nervously at Professor Myers after maybe 30 seconds and asked in a strained, forced-calm sort of tone: "Is he gonna be okay, Professor?" Not that she entirely trusted him, of course. She'd feel better after Mr. Healer said that Derf was okay, but... Professor Myers probably knew more about the evil fruits than Mr. Healer did, especially if he'd been lying about them being used in potions.

Derf was in Hufflepuff, though. Professor Myers would want to make sure that his own students weren't hurt forever, right? 'Cause surely the Head of House would be in loads and loads of trouble if Derf didn't get better, since he was all responsible for Hufflepuffs and stuff. She hoped that that would work in Derf's favor anyway...

[lazykitty]

"GO PUFF-hm? Don't do what? I'm not the one eating the fruit." was his response to his fellow fifth year (Harriet). Of course, he saw all the frowns and looks he was getting, but he still didn't really see the problem here. One, there was an antidote to make the little guy not be obsessed with the fruit anymore. Two, it wasn't poisonous, so he wouldn't die or anything. Three, sometimes it was nice to see people not exactly following directions (as long as said direction unfollowers didn't talk or almost talk the class out of a fun activity and into an essay). So, as far as he was concerned, no problem.

Oh, there's the problem. The potential that Derfael (as Ronan now knew the little puff's name to be) would eat so much that he would vomit. Which would send Ronan a vomiting right after. Then no, he wouldn't be cheering then.

Still, he had wanted to stay and see how this all played out, but considering Professor Myers' tone, he didn't think that was the best idea. So, he quickly gathered up his stuff and hurried out the door.

[SarcasticStrawberry]

As funny as the question seemed to others it was a need to know for her. Some people probably thought that it was a stupid question. There was never a stupid question unless you got a stupid answer. The Ravenclaw watched as Professor Myers performed the flick. The right flick was important obviously. Since there was many many different kinds of flicks, She nodded and raised her wand and flicked it. ”Thank you Professor.” She smiled at him and flicked her wand a few more times. She was sure she had it now.

So…now they were going to put all the practicing the spells to good use. Mmmm that was interesting, the lotus would bounce you back up. That was pretty cool. She was totally just going to have to try that out. When the others got up so did she. Moving closer to one of the lotus flowers she fell back into the flower. Just like that she bounced right back off of and was back standing up right. That was fun. Could she take one of these lotus flowers with her?

NOW to harvest these babies. Juni found a tree that was abundant with the fruit. She stepped closer to the tree and with a flick of her wand "Naturaba Revelio." at one of the fruits. Ah look… NOTHING. Fruitful tree didn’t mean magically fruitful or something. She tried again and again.

Noda each time. Tossing each persimmon over her head in frustration. She was about to give up on this tree or simply give up and bounce on the lotus flowers for her entertainment.

"Naturaba Revelio." Flicking her wand at the fruit once again. This time it sparkled. Finally she was having some luck with it. She moved to another fruit, ready to go again.

Derf are the fruit? She turned around to see where the hufflepuff boy was. And Ronan was cheering him on. Geez. At that moment everything was happening so fast. She was sure that Derf was going to died right then and there. When was that boy going to learn.

What class dismissed? Ahhhh no fair. They were just getting to the good part. Juni held back the urge to ask if the reason why the class dismissed early was because Derf had died.

Packing up her things. She really had to ask a serious question to the professor though. ”Professor Myers can I have one of the lotus flowers to bounce on?” Also she really was worried about Derf but bouncy flowers were cool. She had faith that he would pull though. Given that Professor Myers had given him a potion.

[sweetpinkpixie]

He wasn't sure what had come over him, but the third year soon found himself HISSING at the prefect when she snatched the fruit from his grasp. "I was thinking how DELICIOUS that fruit was," he sneered, eyes wild and glazed over. And her HAND on him was NOT appreciated. Honestly, he could BITE her right now...but then the thought of anything other than that gorgeous orange skin and liquid from HEAVEN passing through his puckered 13-year-old lips seemed absolutely appalling

The cheers of encouragement from the older Gryffindor mostly fell on deaf ears. He was a little too preoccupied with trying to wiggle free from his prefect's hold. As were really any and all comments and looks through his way.

Save for one.

And that was only because Professor Myers had been LOUD.

"That means you too!" he hissed again at Etta - because she was holding him and stuff so SHE needed to let go and let him get back to ---

"OOW!" he howled, mostly in surprise, as the professor forced him to drink whatever it was in that vial. Swallowing reluctantly, that glassy look that had been over the third year's eyes lessened somewhat and his features went a little pale. Well...a LOT pale...even a little greenish.

"Eeeeer...I don't feel so ... " he mumbled as he stumbled and swayed a bit and, well, all the fruit he had just ingested was officially no longer in his stomach. Throat burning and eyes watering, Derf's baby blues refocused on the professor's shoes and, er, he really did NOT need to see that.

"UuuuuUUUUUuuuUUUUUUUUuuuuuUUUG..."

[kayquilz]

He was glad someone appreciated his wrong costume. He was NOT the right Cyclops and Derfeal had eaten the fruit and now VOMITED.

SIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

He glanced briefly at Juniper. "No...you can't. Because they don't bounce normally----Juniper---just go" he said in an exasperated way. Merlin. He rubbed his face, attempting to NOT gag at the throw-up now on his shoes. "Yes, Emmeline...he will be fine...." He did his best to shoot a sharp stream of water at his shoes to WASH THEM OFF and then used his show to...scuffle some dirt around and bury the vomit. Because it would be good fertilizer. Ahem.

"Derf. What...in the world...WOULD POSESS YOU TO EAT A LOTUS FRUIT?"

He allowed Emmeline to stay because she was Serf's friend, and honestly...just...he was tired.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Holy flaming salamanders...the man was still yelling. At him.

This was his worst nightmare.

"Uuuuuuh..." was really all the Hufflepuff could manage at the moment, the burning sensation in this throat and the horrible Bertie Bott's worthy aftertaste of the fruit coming back up and lingering in his dry mouth was kinda distracting his thoughts. "I-I-I...didn't...don't remember..." Because he really didn't remember eating it despite the evidence. "I was just...standing...and holding one...and I kinda...squeezed it...so...um...juice got on my fingers...and then I licked it because that's how you clean your fingers and..."

Hole? Meet Derf. He didn't even need a shovel to dig.