It wasn't that Tia was completely useless at Herbology, but it wasn't necessarily one of her strong subjects either. So she figured in terms of her examination preparation it was time to start now with the basics and she would work her way up to greenhouse three plants. Helping out in the greenhouses was a sure way to enhance her horticulture knowledge, no doubt.

So first on the list: mundane flowers and bouncing bulbs. Which admitedly, she wasn't sure there was a lot to be aware of with those first two except learning what the leaves look like and trimming back the weeds. And foremost of importance: gloves, which the fifth year donned after pulling them from her backpack.

Next up - pruning shears.

Despite not wanting to begin studying for O.W.L.s until - well, until it was time, Leah knew that was not going to happen because she wanted to do well. And doing well meant a lot of preparation.

She trotted down to the grounds for a much needed Herbology practice. After a short pause, the Hufflepuff decided to start at greenhouse one to review the basics first. Upon entering, she immediately saw her Ravenclaw friend who seemed to be thinking along the same line as her. "Hi, Tia!" she smiled as she reached her and the not-so-mundane mundane flowers. "How are you at Herbology?" Leah was not that bad at it, but when she was stuck at something, she was stuck.

Oh right, protective gloves. She pulled her pair out of her bag and put them on. Then she wiggled her fingers to make sure that they were comfy inside.

This independent study thing was difficult. Perhaps she should have gotten an older student to work with her. Like what if she was studying the wrong thing? Then wouldn't this practice all be in vain? But if she studies everything, then it wouldn't be. Lost in thought, she didn't even notice when the greenhouse door opened. It wasn't until the person greeted her that Tia turned around in shock, dropping her pruning shears in the process. "Oh, hey Leah," she smiled, bending down to pick up her shears. "I'm ... okay. Neither expert nor novice," she shrugged. "But if I want a passing grade, I think going through all our lessons for some independent practice would be helpful."

"So I think with mundane flowers, the main concern is just pruning back the weeds." Tia stated, propping her text open and holding the page with her elbow. "I'm not sure what else we really need to know. The tricky part for Herbology will probably be when it comes to repotting plants, but that's not on my agenda for a few more weeks."

Great job, Leah. You managed to surprise somebody unintentionally again. "Sorreh," she maintained a distance between in case Tia did not want to be disturbed, but her smile said that it was okay to join her. She approached her, close enough so that she could peek at her textbook. "Me too. I just really don't understand some concepts." She nodded at the mention of independent practice. After all, the other girl was the Ravenclaw aka the expert at studying. It was best to listen to what she says.

"Uh huh. We have to know WHEN to do the pruning too because some plants can benefit further if you cut them back at specific times of the year," she added. SO MUCH WORK. "There is also uhhh keeping an eye on the soil and watering the flowers." Leah considered them to be easier than pruning, so it could be a waste of time to practice that at the moment. However, it seemed as if some of the flowers here needed caring to. Hmmm, maybe she might water them just for the sake of it. She shook her head laughing while she bent down to observe a leaf. "Oh gosh repotting. Those ARE quite hard." It was like transplanting organs in the human body. Or wasn't it?

Even though Lux had done well on her Herbology OWL, it never hurt to get some more practice in. This was one of the more important subjects when it came to potion brewing, and NEWTs were coming up next term. Besides, she wouldn't pass up a chance to help the Professor Headmistress because plants could be hard work and the woman must be awfully busy with a school to run and class to teach.

Stepping into the greenhouse, she was pleased to see Tia and Leah. It seemed like they were wanting to get some practice in for exams. That had been her last year so she totally sympathized. Fifth Year had been full of studying. "Hey, guys. Starting with the basics?" Nothing wrong with that! Her practical had been on Bouncing Bulbs and they were one of the plants housed here.

Setting her bag down by the girls, she removed her gloves and put them on. Always important to wear gloves when working with plants or potions!!

Noticing the girl take a step away, Tia gave a small smile. Okay good; she didn't understand some concepts either which meant they could use each other to work through it so they could both ace their OWLs! "In ten months we'll hopefully be NOT saying that," Tia laughed.

Yup. Those notes totally made sense. Don't prune ALL the time - only certain times a year. "Quite right. But I think most plants need pruning in the Fall before the cold weather sets in but also again in the Spring, clean up the dead parts so they don't kill the rest of the plant." Like this one she was working on now... only it was Fall, so that meant Tia had to clip it back just right as the overgrowth could affect its health for the winter as well. Falling silent for a minute or two, the fifteen year old focused her attention on the plant before.

That was until the greenhouse door slid open again, revealing a NOT fifth year this time. "Oh hey Lux," Tia smiled at the older girl. "Yea... we figured we should get a head start so we're not cramming for everything the day before the exam. Got any pointers for us?" She asked genuinely, glancing up...

TEN months? O.W.L.s were that close? Leah grinned nervously. She could do this! Studying with Tia would definitely get her prepared for the upcoming tests. She had to try her very best though. Ugh.

"Yeah, that makes sense." She said, nodding. It was pretty logical - pruning in the Fall and Spring seasons. The plant in front of them looked like it would overgrow by winter. Which means that the cold would come and pretty much kill it. That was BAD. "Do you want to work on this one?" The Puff pulled off a glove to search for her pruning shears in her bag. It should be here somewhere...

Then another student entered the greenhouse. "Heyyy," Leah smiled at Lux. She nodded as the Ravenclaw spoke, then joined in at the mention of pointers. "Yep, we need them." Or SHE did, anyway. The Sixth Year Badger surely must have done amazing on her Herbology O.W.L.s.

First things first, Lux was going to start with the mundane flowers. They might not be as exciting as carnivorous ones, but they were still pretty and deserving of love and TLC.

First things first, she carefully expected them. Some looked great, but others clearly needed help. That part done, she began to carefully remove the dead stems and leaves with her wand. These herbology spells could be very useful at times. Now that they were looking pretty and green, she gave them some water and moved them to get a little more sunlight.

There, that was better.

And what advice could she give? Hmm.. that was a good question. "I would definitely focus on the more hands on stuff because of the practical. Also make sure to cover as much as you can, even the less exciting plants because you never know what might come up." Was this in the least bit helpful? Lux had no idea, but she hoped so!

Greenhouse five ALWAYS amused him with its pink windows. Adi paused in front of it, not for the first and last time wondering if he could convince his Professor Headmistress to take a peek inside. Hmmm... Anywhooo, had work to be done so he trudged towards Greenhouse three for the zillionth time that term to check on his mandrake.

It was still fairly young given that only a few weeks had passed since the class had re-potted the ugly plants. He pushed the door open, earmuffs in place as a precaution. When it involved mandrakes one can never be too careful, okay? Adi found his mandrake without issue as usual. "Hello, hello,'' he told the plant as he shifted it into some sunlight. Heh. His voice sounded a whole lot louder since his ears were covered up.

"What's up, mandrake?'' Of course the mandrake couldn't actually reply and even if it could, how was he going to hear? Ahhh, the dilemma! Soooo, sunlight? CHECK! Next up, a drizzle of water. "Aguamenti!'' The Puffer focused on this charms so that he could control the amount that flowed from the wand. Yep, just a trickle. "Finite!''

Now, Adi checked the soil properly to ensure there were no weeds taking over the pot but yet he need not worry about that for he had done the checking just the day before yesterday. So, he had a weed- free pot. WOOT! He eyed the mandrakes leaves. They were bright and not at all brown. Adi smiled to himself. He was VERY pleased about the way things were going so far.

Time for the writing/ theoretical part of things. From his pocket, the Badger got his pencil and parchment where he proceeded to as best as he could, sketch the mandrake. Ehh, Truebridge would probably laugh at his art skills. Or lack of. Meh. But at least she couldn't laugh about his notes for the journal. Right now, he just jotted down points about the mandrake and later, he would write more in details.

Adi patted the mandrake leaves when he was done. You light up my life and make me haaaaappy!'' he burst out randomly in a singsong voice. Hehe. Yes, he sang to the mandrake sometimes. "Thanks for your time. I'll catch you later, okay? Next time I'll sing you an entire song.'' With that, he exited the Greenhouse, pausing only to cautiously trim away dead leaves from some Flesh Eating Firs.

Norah beamed at nobody in particular as she flounced into the greenhouse, not even trying to hide her excitement even if it made her seem baby-ish. That was a big deal, okay? Seeming baby-ish was all sorts of tragic for a TOTALLY old teenager like her, but there were more important things to think about like her own little baby mandrake. She'd considered bringing him a present and everything, considering it'd been entire days since she'd last visited, but she didn't think the little thing would really like having her chocolate frog cards and she didn't have much else to offer.

She headed straight to her mandrake's pot and put on a pair of fluffy pink earmuffs just in case a disaster happened, because fainting didn't sound like a whole lot of fun. Neither did dying, but that bit was kind of obvious, right? PLUS pink and fluffy things were the best. The fourth year gave the soft earmuffs a little pat, then gave a pat to the mandrakes leaves, before shifting the pot a little more into the sun. "There you go, little guy. Now you're all nice and waaarm," she said in a sing-song voice. That was another great thing about earmuffs-she didn't even have to hear herself sing! She could pretend to be a a fabulous opera singer in these things. If almost-fourteen year olds played pretend. Which they didn't. Ahem. Right. She kept up some soft humming until her wand was out, when she cast a soft "Aguamenti!" which might have actually been loud but who cared. Not her, that's who. She watched as the water trickled from the end of her wand until she got bored was satisfied. "Finite!" TA DA!

Norah resumed her humming as she positioned herself to draw the mandrake, letting a few rogue curls fall in front of her face. She gently removed a little weed sneaking its way out of the side of the pot, then bent over to sketch an outline of the mandrake's leaves. By the time she was finished she'd run out of songs to hum and had switched to whistling because even if she couldn't really hear, the idea of a quiet room was just awful. It looked a bit more like there were surfboards and bananas coming out of a vaguely pot-shaped thing instead of leaves. Oops? She tried to fight the urge to add a little stick figure surfing to one of the leaves, turning her attention to jotting down notes on how fabulously it was doing, but of course she failed. The urge to doodle could never ever be fought, probably. It was like a superhero or something. The Hufflepuff added a teeny weeny surfer dude on one of her leaves, hoping the Headmistress just wouldn't notice, before packing up her parchment. That was all done, yeah? "I promise I'll come back to visit you really really soon!" She gave the leaves a soft pat. "You're the best mandrake in the whole entire world. Don't tell the other ones I said that, okay?" Eyeing it for a moment, her face split into another grin. "Bye bye, little dude."

She slipped the earmuffs off her head and skipped at top speed out of the greenhouse, complete with bag-swinging because it was just that type of day. The best kind of day, really.

Zander liked Herbology, he really did. And he didn't dislike the Headmistress, per say. Well... He didn't dislike her any more than he hated that Wicked Walton guy, so she was alright. Except for the fact that Zander was pretty much convinced that Truebridge wanted to see him die. So clearly it was her fault that he happened to get stuck with one of the MOST unruly little mandrakes that probably ever existed. He was convinced. Truebridge had this planned all along.

Clearly.

So anyways, he was sort of grumbling as he made his way into the greenhouse because although he actually liked this subject he a) HATED homework and b) HATED his mandrake. Man. Zander Adair was just full of hatred today, apparently. This didn't happen often. People should take pictures to commemorate or something. Maybe he'd even make it into the yearbook.

Anyways, he looked around the greenhouse to find his labeled--AHA! Wait. Not that he was glad to see it. Because really he was still grumbling. Which probably didn't help because his mandrake looked very offended. Aheeem. Sorry. But YOU try dealing with a prepubescent mandrake that thinks it can do everything by itself and doesn't listen to anyone. Merlin. He was starting to sound like his mother. Weird. This was all too weird. Truebridge definitely had intentions with this assignment.

The Prefect tugged on his earmuffs at the sound of more annoying wailing and watched as the mandrake tried to move around in it's pot. Oh no you don't. Now, uh, for the messy bits. It looked like it was getting enough sunlight, so that wouldn't be much of a problem. But it would need some more water so maybe that was the part he would get to next? Yeah. Definitely. "Aguamenti," he held his wand out and pointed at the pot, watching as water spilled out of the end. He was careful not to give it too much water, however, and muttered a quiet "Finite," to finish it off.

So there were a few things left to do here. Sketch the plant. Write a journal entry. And--OI WILL YOU QUIT MOVING SO MUCH???? Zander literally didn't even understand. It was buried in dirt. How the heck did it still manage to move like that?

Forget the missing pet rocks and the random rogue animals. THIS was the real Hogwarts mystery of the year. Had this sixth year convinced. Which would also mean there would be no way of magically solving the mystery by the end of the term like usual because this mandrake wasn't about to give any answers and Zander was pretty sure that the whole 'happily ever after thing' wouldn't work with it either. And also for the first time he was also pretty sure there weren't any Cold Ones involved only 'cause Romanos wasn't at Hogwarts anymore ahem. So mystery. Not solved. Ever. The end.

As a result of the stupid mandrake's unruly behavior, Zander had to scribble a sketch as fast as he could so he could get done with this as soon as possible. Which meant that his sketch was utterly terrible. It looked more like a crying rock to be honest... Ahem. And his journal entry... Well the content was fine... Maybe... But the writing was atrocious. #sorryTruebridge. Technically it was her fault for landing him the bad Mandrake though. So #SorryNotSorryTruebridge. And a few finishing touches...

AND THAT'S RIGHT. ZANDER ADAIR OUT, YO.

Why did the professors insist on making them check on things DAILY for homework? It was cold, she was hungry, and it was a super long walk to the greenhouses. Did they think of that? No. It's always me, me, me. AJ had half a nerve to not even check on her mandrake just to prove a point. How would Truebridge even know? Unless the mandrake kicked the bucket or something, but even that couldn't be pinned on her. Natural causes, man. Orrrr maybe he got a little too big for his britches, and tried to hop pots. Not all of the mandrakes had a happy ending when they did that nonsense. Did they know?

Still, the point was that this was STUPID with a capital S. Okay. AJ had on her cranky pants today, but that was because she was hangry, and the last thing she wanted to do was come to the greenhouse AGAIN. Should of had a taco before coming. She was going to turn that frown upside down though, because she really loved her little mandrake, and Herbology was legit fun. And once she got something in her belly she would be a totally different person. How did mandrakes taste? Hmm..

No. That would be frowned upon. The lion might be able to get away with not taking care of her mandrake and easing its way into the plant after life, but she seriously doubted Truebridge wouldn't notice a chunk missing out of one of the plants. You know what... she always had a snack in a pocket or something. AJ rummaged around and her hand hit something hard. An oreo. Jackpot.

Nomnomnomnom.

Better. "Hiiiiii, mandrakes. What a beautiful day it is today." Multiple personalities? Perhaps. One thing was for certain and that was that she was in a much better mood. Finding the pot with her name on it, she walked over to it. Oh, she needed earmuffs, yeah? AJ grabbed her a pair, put them firmly on her ears and then walked back over to Pete. Is was a boy mandrake, okay? "Looks like you need some water." Her handy dandy wand was in her back pocket. "Aguamenti." Once he had his fill, she ended the spell with a quite finite.

Digging in her bag, she pulled out a sketch pad. It was time for her creative juices to flow. She stuck out her tongue and bit down on it as she eyed the mandrake. Scribble, doodle, and it was perfection. High five, self.

"You know what, Pete? I don't think you are getting enough sunlight." AJ picked the pot up and moved it to a better location. "There. I want you to be the biggest and bestest mandrake ever." Yeah, she said bestest. What of it?

With all the mad sketching she had just done, the last thing she wanted to do was write in her journal. AJ made some mental notes, and vowed to write an entry when she got back to her common room. She needed more food if anymore energy was going to be exerted.

"Catch ya on the flipside, Peter." HAHA. Did he like how she went all mom on him there?

So another homework assignment with checking on something, first there was the potion homework where she had to check on this potion forever, she still wanted to know who in their right mind would wait so many days to get the potion right or did they just accidently seen it and found it and now she had to figure things out.

Angel dragged herself towards the Herbology greenhouse, seriously if she got anymore homework that involved her coming and checking on something she would scream in front of the professor or headmistress who gave it. She wanted to spend her free time with her boyfriend, her friends, her sisters. She didn't want to spend it checking on crazy things, though she was happy it was a plant since she loved them and she had her own garden at home where she had different muggle plants.

Angel suddenly realised she was running out of food so she would ask her mother to send some from where she works at. She now had to figure out what she was going to do with her mandrake, she entered the greenhouse and then she suddenly saw her mandrake which was totally growing up and she decided that she would make sure that her journal was up to date, she wanted to make sure it was awesome and she wanted the Professor to enjoy what was in the journal.

Angel looked at the mandrake that was in the pot and she decided to check on it she pot on her gloves and took out her wand, she decided that it needed more water in the pot. "Aguamenti!" Angel did the wand movement and then watched as the plant got watered, she stopped the spell when she was satisfied and looked at the plant. "I think your getting a bit too much sun here." Angel giggled as she realised that the sun was coming down hard on this part of the greenhouse.

Angel moved the plant a little further away. "I'm sure that will make you feel better." Angel giggled as she took off her gloves and smiled at the plant "Hope you have a great day." Angel said as she left the greenhouse, she couldn't believe how much the plant was growing and how fast the time was going, this time next year she would be doing her OWL exams, okay she was scared now.

So they had repotted their mandrakes during the class and now they had to take care if them. Benny was fine with that as long as he didn't have to worry about their screaming and wrestling again. That had been bad enough to deal with the first time even with the earmuffs to muffle the sound and keep them all from falling unconscious in result. Now to was the more usual caring and keeping of a plant. Albeit one whose roots looked like ugly human babies in a lot of ways.

Benny shook himself from that image as he made his way down to the greenhouses, ready for the latest visit to his plant charge. As a precaution, the Gryffindor paused and put on a pair of earmuffs since they had to careful if his or anyone elses had freed their pseudo-mouths from the dirt. He slipped into the appropriate one, Greenhouse 3 this time, where they had been stored and walked over to the pot marked with his name, his gloves slipped on as he neared. There didn't seem to be too much trouble around today and his appeared okay.

'Shall we keep that the case?" he absently mused aloud as he double-checked it before slipping oout his wand. "Aquamenti!" he cast, starting a stream of water to give his change a drink, ending it with a silent finite when the sixth year thought it suitable. The plant in turn squirmed a little in response to the water but not enough to struggle from its dirt home as Benny cautiously kept alert of that possibility.

"Just helping there mandrake..." he commented in hopes to sooth the plant. It seemed to work and the Gryffindor boy was able to switch activities, getting rid of a few small little weeds that had taken their chances around the mandrake since the last time he had checked on it. There, the plant seemed to be doing better already and not in the need for more care at the moment. So he took his leave and headed back out of the greenhouse.

He was done...for now.

Eden had been diligently tending to her mandrake as Bunz had requested of them. Her was coming along quite nicely. Eden had named her Hippolanta. It was a combination of Hippocrates, the Greek dude with the awesome medical reputation, and Atalanta, a Greek mythological character...that Eden had recently read about. Strong, independent WOMAN right there.

She didn't know why she had named the mandrake after them. There was no reason. In fact, the name sounded flippin' ridiculous when Eden said it aloud. It actually made her SNORT in laughter, too. Maybe that was why she named her that.

Hippomanta.

It sounded like an awesome crossbreed name, though.

Anyways, Eden had noticed she was...being so MOODY lately, and she wanted to make sure the dear was getting enough sun. She'd set the pot near the sun yesterday, but maybe..hmm. Maybe that was TOO MUCH sun.

The Ravenclaw grabbed the earmuffs and put them on, securely, before finding Hippomanta's pot and pulling it close to her. "Come on, H--" she patted the side of the pot affectionately. "Thassss' a good mandrake. You probably need some more water--" she pointed her wand at the pot and tried to do this....NONVERBALLY. Seventh year and all, she should probably start get crack-a-lacking on that, eh?

AGUAMENTI!.....AQUAMENTI. AQUAMENTI. Well FRICK. Eden huffed in annoyanced and waved her wand haphazardly, "AGUAMENTI!" and water streamed steadily out of her wand and...into the pot(for the MOST part). "There. Happy?" she asked. Hippomanta squirmed around in her post, and Eden could tell the mandrake was struggling to get out. "Trust me, you don't want to get out, okay?"

Time for sketching, though. Eden pulled out her notebook where she was doing the journal entries and hummed to herself as she draw the pot, and then the...leaves poking out through the dirt. She wished she could charm her picture to move, because boy, Hippolanta was moving around a LOT. And making a lot of awful noises, too. HMPH.

"Hey....LOOK--being out here blows sometimes, all right? Trust me, you're much better off in there, dear." She said in a frustrated way. "I'll make sure you're juuuuuust fine--" she patted the side of the pot again before finishing her sketch. She moved the pot to a less sunny patch, because the leaves were looking rather...dry? and stroked one of the leaves softly. "I'll sing you a song before I go, okay?"

The plant continued to move...hmm. HMM. Eden would try to sing the darling lullaby.

Ahem.

"Hush little mandrake don't say a wooooord-" Was she singing on CUE? "I'll make sure you have good fertilizer! And if that fertilizer doesn't do the trick, I'll make sure you have the nicest of twigs--and if those twigs are just too much, I'll make sure you've got a clean pot--" ahem, Eden was making this up as she went along? Wasn't it terrible? She swayed to her own song.

"And if your clean pot gets real dirty, I'll make sure--" and BIG FINISH--"I'LL LOOOOOOVE YOU FOREVEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" Eden didn't think every song had to rhyme, how..conformist was that? And look at that! Hippolanta had stopped moving, and Eden knew it was her fabulous song and singing, clearly.

"I'll see you tomorrow!"

She had to jet. She had other homework. AND HIPPOLANTA WAS HAPPY.....maybe.

Kate made her way into the greenhouse, a bag of supplies tossed over her shoulder. She planned to make another regular visit to check on her mandrake, see how things were going, and take some notes for her homework assignment. She bee-lined to the pot labeled with her name and gave the mandrake a quick look-over as she took out her materials.

Wow. It was really growing, wasn't it? Kate patted her ears to make sure her earmuffs were on, which she knew they were. She'd made sure of that just because she didn't want to take any chances with the mandrakes. With her note-taking materials laid out before her, Kate jotted down the date before drawing her wand. "Aguamenti!" she said, giving her plant a bit of water to drink.

...and that's when things got interesting.

The mandrake thanked her by throwing a childlike temper tantrum, as if it'd been awoken from sleep. It's little mouth opened wide, and the sound of a crying baby came out. The only difference was the sound made it seem like the baby was only an inch long, a super tiny little thing that could make a terrible noise but a noise that seemed so faint it barely made a difference. Even still, the mandrake was putting up a pretty good fight. Kate dodged one of the branches that honestly looked like it was trying to throw a punch at her. She doubted it was, but that's exactly what it looked like. "Ehh, grow up," she told it. "No, really. Grow up. That shower of water I gave you will help with that, too."

She had a feeling the mandrake didn't appreciate the humor the way Kate did. She smirked at it and unless she was imagining things, it scowled at her before calming down and enjoying its refreshing drink of water. Kate spent the next ten or so minutes observing the plant and taking as many notes as she could. When she was done, she made sure everything was picked up and put away and the area was just as she'd left it. She tried to check on her mandrake once again, but it pouted and crossed one branch over the other, just like a child who only wanted his way or the highway. "Fine then," she said. "I'll be back soon. No wild parties when you become a teenager, though, mmkay?" Unless she was imagining things, her mandrake turned and looked the other way, wanting nothing else to do with visitors today. Moody, much?

She'd be back to check on this little guy soon.

Mandrakes; Greenhouse Three.

Zhenya had been checking on her Mandrake every day to make sure it was in a good location, with enough water and sunlight. In the past few weeks, it had grown quite significantly. That was good. Before she went to her Mandrake, she fastened a pair of earmuffs over her eats, so as not to take any risks, and put her dragonhide gloves on. Can't be too careful. Add a protective apron on and she was set.

Zhenya found her Mandrake where she had left it the previous day, but the sun had moved. It required slight repositioning. Zhenya put her hands on either side of the Mandrake pot and lifted it up, making sure she squatted to protect her back. She lifted it and placed it carefully in the path of the beam of sunlight.

Having a quick look at the soil, she saw that whilst it wasn't dry, it wasn't moist enough. She pulled her wand from her robe pocket and pointed it at the Mandrake. "Aguamenti," she said, probably super loud. How would she know? These earmuffs were magnificent! She swirled her wand and a light jet of water came out, and aimed towards the plant. Once a slight amount had moistened the plant, she cast "Finite," to stop the spell. It had been watered enough, she thought.

Zhenya fished a piece of parchment and her quill from her bag and sat down in front of her Mandrake to draw it. She drew the pot first, working up and drawing the large, flat leaves, and the flowers. She would colour the sketch in later. Once the sketch was complete, she rolled the parchment up again and put it back in her bag. Now was time to to another journal entry. She pulled out her journal, wrote the date in and wrote about her observations. She had a few pages of journal entries and was almost finished. The following lesson was only a few days away, so this might have been the last entry she had done. She flicked back through her journal on the pages back from its early days, to its acne, and feistiness and then trying to move into another pot. She laughed at the memory of that particular day. What was she supposed to do? Ground the Mandrake for being naughty? Nah, she couldn't do that. LOL.

With her journal entry and her sketch complete, she stood up, put her bag back on, and removed her earmuffs and dragonhide gloves at the door and left.

As far as Caleb was concerned, mandrakes were just the WORST. Plants in general were super boring, but add the hormonal teenage nonsense on top of that and it was just...blegh. NO. If anything, it just made him NOT want to have any kids ever. If mandrakes were this bad, how would REAL CHILDREN be? He didn't even want to think about it!

The current problem he was facing with his mandrake, whom he had lovingly named Sophie, was acne. Yup. Lots of acne. And it was not happy about it. It cried and scratched at it's face trying to get rid of the acne all day and it was awful. So he was going to bring some acne cream with him today. Hopefully that would take care of it.

Preparing himself by putting on his earmuffs nice and snug and pulling his dragonhide gloves over his hands, he pulled the cream out of his bag and approached Sophie, who immediately started crying upon seeing him. "Good to see you too," he grumbled before popping open the cap of the cream, taking it and putting a dollop on his finger, and reaching forward to try and apply it to the mandrake's face.

First, it thought it was getting food and tried to bite his finger. "No! Bad Sophie, this is for your FACE, not food," he told him. Silly plant. He ended up having to take the plant in his hand and holding the head still so he could put it on. The mandrake cried a bit but seemed to know this was going to help with the current breakout on it's face and stopped after a few moments. FINALLY. Ungrateful thing.

Then, he gave the mandrake some fresh fertilizer, which would hopefully help Sophie grow big and strong and get past this teenage phase it seemed to be stuck in. Then, he watered the plant, to once again help with the growth. "Aguamenti," he said softly as the water started to sprinkle over the plant. Sophie didn't seem to like that and sniffled a bit, but really, did Sophie like ANYTHING?

Thankfully, the crying seemed to have worn the plant out and it decided it was time for a nap. As it snoozed, Caleb took out his journal and quickly made an entry about his visit today. He was almost done with this project - and hopefully with mandrakes FOREVER.

The one thing Toby always fretted about when he came to Greenhouse Three to visit his mandrake was whether or not anyone else was present at the time. Not because he wanted to work alone, but because if he needed to take Mandy (his mandrake) out of the soil, that plant was gonna scream. And if there were innocent bystanders in the greenhouse who didn't have any reason to don earmuffs, or someone else walked in at that moment to check their own mandrake, and they caught an earful of THAT... well... Toby simply didn't want to inflict that on anyone.

So he'd ended up coming down here waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay early in the mornings, before even going off and doing his morning run. Toby would simply leave his school bag in here before leaving, then duck back in to get it on the way back. It was a system that had worked for him so far. Most kids, he'd noticed, never seemed to be about so early.

Toby entered the greenhouse now, closing the door firmly behind him in case of sound... escapage. It didn't take him very long to find his potted mandrake, because it was, of course, exactly where he'd left it. The plant was reaching what Toby thought must be the sort of... 'recalcitrant little kid' stage, which was... uh... interesting. He made sure to don his earmuffs before pulling the pot towards him, noting that a lot of the soil had 'mysteriously' been pushed or kicked out of the pot. He gave a Piers-worthy sigh.

Mandy seemed to suddenly realise Toby was there, either from the sigh or the sudden movement of the pot, and immediately began WRIGGLING and FLAILING.

Temper tantrum. Merlin.

"Mandy... Mandy, stop th-... Mand-... MANDY PLEASE!" Toby maaaaaaaaaay have yelled a little TOO loud, but he was pretty certain that the mandrake was putting on an impressive display of its own, screaming those little lungs out. Well... maybe not lungs... plant-lungs. Plungs. IN ANY CASE, Toby could tell when he rotated the pot a little that yes, it was screaming, a furious expression on its little mandrake face as the leaves flailed like limbs. Clearly it had managed to push the soil out, like a child who was passive-aggressively responding to not wanting to go to bed, and it's plant mouth (plouth) was free to holler and yell. Thankfully it hadn't started up until Toby's earmuffs were on.

Tobias had been planning to sketch the mandrake this morning, as it was a monday and he liked to document its growth every week. And he was STILL going to do that, but Mandy needed more soil and Toby needed to ascertain if something was really wrong or if this was just... mandrake rage (mandrage).

He retrieved his dragonhide gloves before doing anything else, and went over to get a bag of new soil. Mandy was still thrashing about in a fit of pure temper and Toby couldn't really think of much else to do other than hold the plant still with one hand and pile soil in with the other. No doubt this soil wouldn't last very long, but he was optimistic that the mandrake would calm. There was NO way he WASN'T putting more soil in; he didn't want Mandy to end up like that, uhh... not-alive mandrake that Truebridge had shown them before. Soooooooooo he took hold of the mandrake, ignoring how it thrashed and gently but firmly holding it still while using his free hand to pile in some new soil. By the time he was done, Mandy had miraculously quietened down, perhaps soothed by the comforting pressure of the soil.

For now.

Toby let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, and set about cleaning up the old soil that had been pushed out, and returning the bag to where he'd found it. Returning back to the mandrake, he got his wand out and pointed it into the pot, uttering an "Aguamenti," to give Mandy what was probably a much needed drink.

The Hufflepuff checked his watch. That had taken longer than he'd expected, and he still wanted to have a nice long run to expend some of dat energy before starting the day, but there was still the matter of sketching the mandrake. Toby hurriedly pulled off his gloves and grabbed his journal from his bag, along with a normal muggle pencil. He actually had a Herbology journal he'd written up in his free time, full of sketches and descriptions of plants and all that, so this was something he was well practiced in, despite a lack of regular art skills.

He sketched out the mandrake, not taking as much time as he'd have liked, on account of running low on time. As a result, the sketch wasn't perfect, and Toby found himself deciding he would come back later in the day to try again if he had the time, though he did his best to make this one as accurate as possible. Every time his mandrake shook its leaves, Toby froze and eyed it, waiting for another blow-up... but none came.

Eventually, FINALLY, the sketch was done, and Toby stowed his journal, pencil, and gloves in his schoolbag. The written entry would have to be done before breakfast. Or during breakfast. Just... soon. For NOW, Toby headed back to the door of the greenhouse, stowing his bag off to one side, nice and out of the way, and returned his earmuffs to where he'd found them, before heading back outside and setting off on his run around the grounds.

Cutty entered the greenhouse with his wand tucked into his Herbology journal, using the precious aspen to mark a page in the rapidly filling volume. He had a brisk sort of walk which slowed until it eventually stopped directly in front of his recently repotted mandrake. The cloudy overcast day saw him first stick a hand out and hover it over the foliage of the mandrake. He took note of whatever that gesture meant. 4000 footcandles. A little less than the average amount he was trying to get for her.

This was where the wand came in handy. Cutty hit the potted plant with a levitating charm and carried her over toward another spot which was getting more sun at the time. He did the hand hovering gesture once more and with a more satisfied smile wrote down the newly adjusted footcandle measurement of light. She had grown some. His plant had and that was good, it was what he had been trying to do. In fact, he was trying to grown an exceptionally large plant. A veritable godzilla of teen angst and perpetual Leave me ALOONE! For the simple 'virtues' of chaos and entertainment.

He was applying a weakly weekly method of feeding as he didn't want to burn the roots of the plant and yet wanted her to get as much of the fertilizer blend as was possible for her to use in order to grow steadily bigger and bigger. He actually didn't know how possible it was or if it was just plant genetics or something else entirely. And when he tried to research the largest mandrake on record it wasn't in any of the Timley's Guide to the Wonderous Records of the Wizarding World he'd checked out. He figured he might as well be the first.

Cutty plucked the coloured self feeder from her soil and filled it with water before twisting it and digging it into the pot for the plant to get water as needed. He didn't want her to go completely dry and felt confident about her drainage. Afterall he'd done it himself. He then grabbed the measuring tape from his pocket and pinched the tip of her largest and quite resistant leaf and measured it down to the baseline. Yes. She had grown. It was all going according to plan.

The last thing Cutty did before leaving the greenhouses was drop a small ball into her soil. "Intonio Revelio." He said tapping the ball twice and filling the immediate area of the Greenhouse with the sounds of the Agromantula. He used the butt-end of his wand to bury the enchanted ball and watched as the foliage began to rock out. Yes. The beast was satiated it seemed.

Even though Tia should have been familiar with the Greenhouses since she'd been coming down here with Leah (and Lux on occasion), the thought of returning for homework purposes for three months was truly exhausting. She didn't like being forced to do something, but rather because she wanted to do it. For her grades. For her future. And sure homework could be argued to be for her future, but it was different.

Her herbology journal tucked in her bag, the fifth year was ready for her mandrake growing to be over. Like routine, she walked over and slipped earmuffs over her ears and patted them twice before finding the mandrake with her name on the side of the pot. "Heya Drake. Morning, you're looking lively today." Well as lively as a plant could look.

Something was still in the back of her mind that Adi had mentioned a few months back and even though she was just a fifth year, she'd been reading up and itching to try nonverbal spells and now just seemed like the right moment to attempt them. No one else around, except her and plants so pure focus which was one of the key components.

Wand in hand, because she was sure she needed that to channel her energy and magic, Tia closed her eyes and focused on the ultimate goal of what she wanted. The water spell. It was an easy enough charm to do, so surely she could manage it, right? Except even Adi who was like BRILLIANT had trouble with nonverbals, but Tia was unperturbed.

Aguamenti, she thought fearlessly. Aguamenti, Aguamenti. A poke of her wand, but nothing. Glancing at her wristwatch, she realized she didn't have much time to waste so she would just have to concede to being unsuccessful for now. "Aguamenti," she cast, a stream of water flowing out onto the mandrake.

Now time to sketch its new growth, which mostly just entailed Tia jotting down a few key features and then she would finalize the drawing later in the evening with more details.

It had been sixty-three days since he'd initially taken over care of his very own Mandrake. That was...two months, give or take a few day...and Gabe was learning a lot from this plant. For example, harvesting them must've been gratifying...because they were rather annoying. Very, very annoying. In fact, Gabe imagined they were much like human babies. Needy and whiny.

...and this just solidified him never wanting any offspring, thank you very much. No little Banners for him. His eight siblings could take care of that well enough. Yes, they could.

...but for the sake of his grade, he'd come out to Greenhouse Three every other day for these past two months; double checking that his mandrake hadn't miraculously shriveled up and perished like the one that had been displayed in their very first Herbology lesson. His mandrake hadn't, of course. He'd painstakingly watered, fertilized, and even repotted fifty-one days in. Apparently, they were more human-like than even Gabe had realized. The more it grew, the fussier it got. He'd come in to check one day; noting that dirt and soil had been slung everywhere outside of the pot. The mandrake had had a hissy fit. Apparently.

In fact, he hadn't named his mandrake until after that incident...but it had set the precedent. Hissy fits? Attitude? The answer was obvious.

Carbunculus. The latin translation of Ruby.

Entering Greenhouse Three on the sixty-third day, Gabe was RELIEVED to see that his mandrake was still in its own pot. For the past week, it had been starting to get curious; he could tell...But also, it made him wonder...Did these plants simulate more of human life in other ways? Were there strange hormones involved? Could these types of plants....have hormones, even? Or was it some type of chemical in their genetic makeup?

Noting that the leaves were looking slightly withered, Gabe dug into his bag for his earmuffs and slipped them on. He didn't want to repot again...but he wasn't ruling it out either.

"Let's take a look." He was muttering to himself, also slipping his gloves into place. Then he reached into the pot and brushed the soil around. It didn't look dry...and the smell didn't seem off to him. Or any different to how it normally smelled, to clarify. "Surely, you don't need me to repot you? Again?" Gabe's tone was mildly questioning...even if the mandrake couldn't properly respond...but then he seen something odd. Something had gotten a hold of his mandrake...as in, there looked to be bite marks on the mandrakes epidermis. "What....."

As he'd been trying to move the soil around, Carb started grabbing and biting at his hands. Not that this made much of a difference. Gabe was wearing his gloves, but still. "Will you STOP that already?" He continued rooting around, looking for the plants assailant. He had an idea...but...Oh, well...He didn't SEE anything in its soil. Odd.

"Something's been chewing on you...So, we're going to change your soil out." He'd thought perhaps flesh-eating slugs had gotten in somehow...Eh, maybe just to be safe, he'd ask the Headmistress if she had any repellent lying around. He could bring that tomorrow...and proceed from there. Hopefully, he wasn't going to get points deducted for repotting this mandrake so many times. It was completely out of his control. He couldn't watch it every moment of the day.

Finding a new pot, he took the top layer of soil from the pre-existing one and sprinkled it down into it. Transferring the mandrake over wasn't the difficult part. Not by a long shot. It was keeping it in there, now that they were nearing adulthood. Yes, it was probably just a week or so off. Or maybe, it was already there. Gabe didn't rightfully know. He wouldn't pretend to.

"Stay still!......Please." He was moving pretty quick on this job, fumbling here and there to keep the thing contained. It wasn't interested in cooperating...but EVENTUALLY, it seen reason....and Gabe might've immobilized it. Ahem. JUST FOR A MOMENT. No one needed to know about that, though. AHEM. It would wear off, anyway. All would be well. He wasn't being cruel.

After getting it situated with new soil, fertilizer, water, etc...Gabe placed it directly in the sun's rays. In fact, he even watered it some more. There.

No, he wasn't an awesome Herbologist in the making...but...well. There.