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The weather in November guaranteed today to have a breeze as the students walked towards the greenhouses. Luckily, today’s Herbology lesson was just after lunch so they had had ample time to get a warm drink down them before the short walk. As always, the water station is set up outside Greenhouse Five for students to grab a quick drink before class starts, but they are not permitted to enter the greenhouse with those drinks. So drink up, and get inside! Because it’s definitely warmer in here than it is out there.
Upon entering Greenhouse Five, you’ll notice that it has been cleared of most workstations, leaving one at the front (which Professor Rainwater is leaning against) and another at the back with four boxes upon it. Behind Professor Rainwater is a whiteboard with the opening instructions on, as is with all of his classes. Professor Rainwater hates blackboards, the dust from the chalk makes him sneeze and he much prefers the squeak of a board marker than the drag of chalk. Deal with it. Xo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiteboard Instructions
PUT YOUR BELONGINGS INTO THE CUBBY HOLES.
YOU DO NOT NEED ANY WRITING UTENSILS, LEAVE THEM IN YOUR BAGS.
WANDS, GLOVES AND GOGGLES ONLY.
THREE OF THE FOUR BOXES CONTAIN POISONOUS PLANTS.
ONE IS SAFE.
READ YOUR CLUES, CHOOSE A BOX, STAND IN FRONT. DO NOT TOUCH!!!!!!
The four boxes at the back are in the four Hogwarts house colours, each with a flag above. Professor Rainwater is watching (although, he is now currently with his tongue stuck out and trying desperately to pluck away whatever fuzzy had gotten onto it) for anyone to touch and there will be removal from the greenhouse should instructions not be followed. Each flag has a clue written on it in Gus’ uppercase handwriting, making it much easier for everyone to be able to read.
Above the green box: “SMELLS BAD!”
Above the yellow box: “YELLOW FLOWERS!”
Above the red box: “CLUSTERS OF LEAVES!”
Above the blue box: “THORNS!”
Make a choice, kids.
FOLLOW ALONG:
- 23rd January Arrivals and Question 1: Name one poisonous plant that you know
- 25th January Question 2: How could you spot a poisonous plant without magic?
- 26th January Mini-Activity: Introducing Venenum Hortus and practice casting
- 28th January Main Activity: Wheeled Pots and Non-Poisonous Hops
- 31st January Main Activity: Changing It Up!
RESOURCES:
-
OOC: HI. Welcome to the first OOC Herbology thing this term (woooo how exciting is this?!) - obviously this isn’t the first IC time your character will have interacted with Professor Rainwater in a classroom situation, so they should be well aware of the rules and expectations that he has.
Any questions, please feel free to contact me!
Class will begin roughly 36 hours from this post <3 Class has began, please jump in and act like your character has been here all along!
∞ 17 | RP entrepreneur | defies gravity | Miss George is flawless | blanket burrito lyfe
Gus’ mouth was too occupied with the tongue issue so he had taken to just waving with his non-plucky hand to each student that greeted him. The good, the bad… and the wary. Those that offered no such way of greeting still got a wave, because Gus was well aware of the struggles involved in being a teenager and how hard it was to say hello. He’d been in their shoes once. And then another few times when at university, but that was another story. Or well… another couple of stories. Many a degree. Many an educational establishment.
”AHA! Got the pesky blight!!!!” Thrusting a fist into the air, Gus wiggled the single cat hair that he had been trying to hunt down. Pushing himself up from the table he was against, he looked back at the board and marker that had began to tally the students choices of box. Good. It was on good behaviour today.
But… some of them weren’t thinking about their choices and that was evident.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie
This was a subject Eiji genuinely liked and did not mind sharing an interest in with his little sister. His adoration had only been intensified thanks to the techniques Professor Sissay had taught during her time at Hogwarts - still a sore subject for the sixth year that she was no longer at Hogwarts. What he was not entirely a fan of was Professor Rainwater. The Slytherin still was not sure what to make of the man and the only true consolation he had in juxtaposition to the man's colorful personality was that he knew his plants and what he was talking about.
Though his face did turn a bit sour a he stepped into the greenhouse and saw the set up of boxes with....clues. If one could even call those clues. At least these gave him something to mull over instead of watching the professor do...whatever it was he was tongue with his tongue. "........professor," he greeted warily as he moved inside.
Will just...leave the man to...that.
His things in the cubby hole as instructed and with his gloves shoved into the pocket of his robes, Eiji fussed over the four clues. While he was sure the aim was meant to be to fine the 'safe' option...Eiji found poisonous ones far more interesting...which was entirely where his mind went as he read over each clue. Yellow flowers? Bachelor's Downfall popped to mind, which was a recent read of his own and a different sort of poisonous plant in usage only. The sixth year was inclined to not think too hard about either and went over to stand beside the green box. The first foul smelling plant to come to mind being one with healing properties.
First Gryffindor to imply that Slytherins smelled bad would come to regret it.
The first student in was one that Gus expected questioning from, but was surprised to have exactly the opposite. He figured that the Slytherin was going over the options in his head and that was good enough for him. When he had settled on a box, Gus nodded in acknowledgement. ”Interesting choice. Are you sure though, Rasting?”
Definitely interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazykitty
Completely ignoring the water station in favor of warmth, Whitney entered Greenhouse Five ready for whatever was in store, as far as her uniform and such anyway. What she was not ready for, however, was the absence of workstations. Where were they supposed to, you know, work? She checked the markerboard for any possible explanation, only find herself getting more confused. They were supposed to choose the non-poisonous plant based on a set of clues? Without even seeing the plants?
She placed her bag in one of the cubbies, removing only her gloves and goggles before approaching the boxes and reading the clues. Which, by the way, weren't much to go on. Though, she did know that there were yellow flowers that were poisonous, so that box was a no. After considering the boxes for a good few minutes, she stood off to the side. It had to be a trick question, right?
Trick questions.. Ah. Not at all. Not his style of teaching unless there was a real requirement or something to learn from it. Gus tutted in the direction of the Ravenclaw and gestured towards the boxes. ”Choose one, please. Consider the information that you have, however little.” Yes, he knew that it was not a lot of information. He was trying to make a point here !!!!!
”You have a couple more minutes to decide on a box. But a decision is compulsory.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckyLinJi
Like each time he decided to show up entered the Herbology greenhouse for another lesson, Minjae wasn't looking excited. He did not want to learn about Herbology. He did not care for it and had the subject not been compulsory he would have dropped it a long time ago.
But it was and since he had already skipped a lesson last time to spend time at the Lake instead, he had no choice but to show up today. He placed his belongings in a cubby hole like instructed and took out his wand, gloves and goggles before turned to look at the professor. "Hello professor" he greeted with a nod before he looked over at the boxes. Was he supposed to stand behind the yellow color as he was in Hufflepuff? Well he was definitely not going to stand behind the "smells bad" box. Taking the safe route, Minjae stood behind the box labeled "yellow flowers"
These kids really needed to perk up around here. Gus didn’t think his lessons were boring or even remotely worth the glum faces that had came into the greenhouse this afternoon. ”Also interesting. Are you sure about that one, though?”
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lislchen
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh.
Why was she so early?
That meant that she couldn't rely on joining the largest group in front of the boxes?? There was literally only Eiji who was even standing in front of a box. That was no help at all. Siobhán eyed the clues one more time then briefly redirected her attention to their professor. "Good afternoon, Professor." If she smiled extra hard at him would he give her another hint?
After disposing of her things, Shivvy then walked over to the boxes. She didn't particularly want to work with plants that SMELLED BAD nor with ones that had THORNS so in the end she stood in front of the RED box. A cluster of leaves sounded fun right? Yes.
Ah, O’Shea. Now where was her partner in crime? Was Cora here yet? No? Probably avoiding him in case she got detention. Cora had always been an interesting one. But so was Siobhán. So it made sense that they were friends. It was nice that they were friends. Oh, Gus didn’t have time to get into the particulars, but he had a lot of feelings about friendships and people that were good for each other. A lot of feelings. A lot of thoughts. Just a lot of everything. He hoped his kids had people like that when they came to school.
”Consider your reasoning for your choice, Siobhán. What prompted it? Are you certain?”
Quote:
Originally Posted by love-for-HP
Now this seemed fun! Blake putting his back into a cubby, took a look at the clues and was trying to decide which box to take. Now the cluster of leaves ones, had to be poison ivy right?? Leaves of three let it be. He remember that from boy scouts as kid.
Smells bad?? That was a big nope then, yellow flowers??? Ummm..... and thorns ... roses had thorns ... maybe it was rose.
Making his choice Blake took a BLUE box and was ready to begin his lesson. Right or wrong on his choice he stuck with it.
This one always seemed like a bundle of joy. Had Gus ever seen him without a smile or an aura of eagerness in class? Probably not. What a joy. What a wonderful addition to the class. ”Think again, Blake. Think for a few moments more. If you still think the same, then stay. But… interesting.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by emjay
Gunnar was slightly curious about the classroom setup when he entered the greenhouse, pausing to note the lack of workstations and the two tables remaining. Hm.
"Good afternoon, Professor," he greeted the man, and grimaced slightly at whatever he was doing with his tongue before turning his eyes to the instructions on the whiteboard. Clues? Gunnar was very proficient in Herbology and figured that he could work anything out presented to him, so he put his things away, minus his gloves and... ugh, he hated wearing goggles, but grabbed those too. And he headed back to the boxes where a few people were already standing.
Oh, they couldn't even look at the plants? Gunnar liked this game much less than he thought he would, knowing he could identify many from sight. But he paused to read the clues, figuring he could use some of the knowledge he had about known poisonous plants to deduce some characteristics.
Smells bad. He glanced from the words on the box to Eiji standing next to it, then moved to the next one. While he knew of some plants with healing properties that did smell bad, he also knew of poisonous ones that did as well. Yellow flowers. Again, knew of some that were fine, knew of some that weren't. Ugh, next. Clusters of leaves. Most of the poisonous plants he knew had this characteristic, though he also knew of some that didn't. This really wasn't narrowing much down.
But in the end, Gunnar decided to stand next to the blue box marked Thorns, as he thought of wild raspberries, knowing that thorns provided a different purpose to the plant, rather than poison.
AH. Graced by the presence of the Head Boy. Oh, Gus felt some sort of privilege at that. It probably had very little to do with his teaching skills or his own affinity for the subject, but Gus was going to pretend it was and stick with it. He was the sole reason for Gunnar’s attendance today and every other Herbology lesson. The blue box though? Wasn’t Gunnar supposed to be good at this subject?
Gus tilted his head slightly and shrugged. ”I’d be interested in hearing the thought process behind that choice, Gunnar.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow
PLANTS!
Okay, Cecelia wasn’t the BEST at working with plants, but she STILL liked ‘em because they had LOADS of uses and some were REAL pretty and SOME did stuff you wouldn’t ever expect them to be able to do! With all this in mind, the second year strolled cheerfully into the greenhouse, storing her belongings save for the items she’d need for the lesson.
”Hi Professor,” She tilted her head as she eyed him, wondering what on earth he was doing to his tongue. He actually looked kind of silly and she cupped her hand over her mouth, stifling a giggle as she moved to pick a box.
Hmmmm...
OKAY. So Eiji was SUPER smart and seeing him standing by the green box made HER want to stand by it, too, even IF the plants were smelly. She moved on over to stand by his side, offering him a big smile. ”Wonder what these are,” She said thoughtfully, wrinkling her nose a bit because of the smell.
”Is it a summers day already?” hA. That was funny, wasn’t it? Did the whole class agree? Hello? FUNNY PROFESSOR OVER HERE. Whatever. He was wasted in education. Should have been doing stand up. ”It’s definitely not a correct choice kind of day. Think again, Cecelia.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom
Nettie was always so grateful for Herbology in the late fall/winter - it was so warm in the greenhouses compared to the rest of the castle. As she got older, she found she was getting cold all the time. Is this what happened when you were an adult? She WAS of age now, after all!
As soon as she entered, her eyes immediately fell on the board, where she read in the instructions. Her instinct, of course, was to go with the flower box. She stood in front of the yellow box, eyeing it curiously. One was safe - and chances were high that the flowers were a trap and whatever was in here was actually poison. BUT, she'd made a choice and she was sticking to it!
Well.. That had been a quick decision. One that Gus was concerned about, honestly. ”Miss Gladin… are you sure about that? Really?” How long had that taken? One second? Two? Possibly less time than even that.
Very interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Weasley174
Tom half looked forwards to these lessons and half didn't. He enjoyed flowers but magical one's well they could bite or worse hurt you. He had read up that there was a magical flower that could kill you if you listened to it's cries for too long.
Tom walked in, with his usual greeting. "Hello Professor, hope you are well." He then read what he had to do, now which box did he want to go stand behind, Yellow sounded good but then he was in Gryffindor and he loved the colour RED so that was going to be the box he stood next too.
Another quick choice. Gus had every thought that this one was a house based decision. And whilst he expected it… he was disappointed by it. ”The task is to choose the safe plant, not your house colour, Mr Simpson.” Nice to know that the information hadn’t been taken into consideration.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hjhm
The cold breeze of November is giving Jillian the chills and not the good kind. Contrary to her father, she never liked the cold season. It's the icy breeze that triggers her a bit plus it makes her extra lazy to wake up and go do anything. She was fine with Herbology since the class starts after lunch, she had plenty of time to get ready.... and she likes Herbology so she's quite thrilled to go to class.
The first thing she noticed when she stepped inside the greenhouse was the whiteboard with instructions written on it. Reading it in her head as she takes a few steps into the cubby holes and placed her bag inside it- as the instructions suggested. "Hello, Professor" she gave him a polite smile before she moved towards her classmates. Her eyes still glued on the board she sort of snorted with what was written above the green box.
Is this a clever way of somehow making that kind of sign so that students would not pick it? Because of the clue written - 'One is safe'.
With that in mind Jillian walked towards the green box line and joining Eiji and Cecilia who was already standing there.
Another to the growing group at the green box. Gus looked back at the board and the marker creating a tally chart and nodded in the direction of the Slytherin prefect. ”Again.. Interesting. Are you positive?”
Quote:
Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl
Bernadette was not good at following directions. She put her things away, fine, she grabbed her gloves and goggles, fine, but she didn't have a wand because the Headmaster had it and she hadn't yet turned in fifty inches of parchment on something something dumb about Godric Gryffindor. But those steps were all habit, y'see, and all she saw was the professor eyeballing them and also sticking his tongue out at them.
Right..... the second year morosely came to a stop beside Cece, and nudged her housemate. "Why're you standing by the green box, eh? Are we queued for a reason???" What had Bernie missed now?
He had a soft spot for the students that got themselves into bother at school, and Miss Grantham was one of them. But she definitely hadn’t made a box decision like instructed. And he’d hate to have to call her out on it in front of everyone. So he wandered between the students, voice low as he spoke to her. ”Read the clues. Find the safe box. Stand there.” Please!
Quote:
Originally Posted by hermionesclone
It was....... cold.
Which was why Lucas downed the cup of water as quickly as he could before heading into Greenhouse Five. It didn't take long for him to find the whiteboard, not since this wasn't his first lesson with Rainwater teaching. But it did make him just as surprised as he would've been if this had been his first lesson of the year. "Uh, hello, Professor." Why was he messing with his tongue? Should he be worried?
Approaching one of the empty cubby holes, the Gryffindor took out his gloves and his goggles and added them into one of the pockets of his robes. He couldn't help but wonder why they weren't allowed to bring out any writing equipment but this didn't seem like a good time to ask. His wand was, as always, already on the inside pocket of his robes so he didn't need to worry about that. Now he just needed to worry about not choosing a poisonous plant from these boxes.
It didn't take long for him to decide, not since there were two that sounded bad from the get go. So did he want to stand in front of the yellow flowers or the clusters of leaves? His eyes moved from one clue to the other and back again but eventually, he found himself walking towards the RED box and the clusters of leaves that were inside and standing next to Shivvy. "Hey!" he whispered, shooting her a smile, "Wonder what we're going to be doing today."
As he was wandering through the students, Gus overheard the whispered words from Lucas to Siobhán and chuckled. ”Yeah, kid. Me too. Professor’s a strange one, right?” He made no comment on the choice of box, but continued to move through the students as they made their choices.
Honestly… he was going into stand up. His jokes were lost on these kids, honestly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19
To help her combat the cold weather, Claudine had bundled herself in a coat, a pair of mittens and a green & silver scarf around her neck and half of her face. The hot chocolate that she had drunk only a few minutes ago already felt as though it was done warming her up; she was beginning to feel cold already. Mercifully, it was warm in Greenhouse Five. “Good day, Professor,’’ she said, her voice somewhat muffled from the scarf. Claudine wasn’t quite ready to remove it just yet; she just needed to thaw off a bit first. Her intense gaze moved to the whiteboard. Her only reaction was an eyebrow arching as she read the instructions.
After her bag was stored, and wand, gloves and goggles were in her pockets, Claudine studied the four coloured boxes, repeating the clues in her mind. Did Rainwater mean to imply that Slytherins smelled bad? Rude.
In the end, she settled for the blue box.
And yes, Blake, you were ignored as usual. Claudine made sure to stand a little away from him but within range of her chosen box.
Gus acknowledged nothing about this box choice, but folded his arms as he looked over at Claudine. ”Belongings include scarves, Miss Blaze. It goes in the cubby or it collects the rest of your belongings and yourself and leaves my class.” And that was her chance to make the right choice. Anything other than that and he had a zero tolerance for it, especially in his sacred greenhouses.
It wasn’t difficult to follow instructions, was it? Some of these kids made him consider whether he was the difficult one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SilverTiger
The breeze on the way to the greenhouses hadn’t bothered Carys too much. The pale green scarf she’d wrapped around her neck combated it fairly well, and besides, it wasn’t as if it was that different from what she’d have dealt with had Quidditch not been canceled for yet another term. She knew the inside of the greenhouse would be warm anyhow. It nearly always was, unless they were working with arctic plants or something like that. While that would have been fascinating, she didn’t expect that Professor Rainwater was the type to do that in November. He was distinctly different from Professor Beryl, yet she’d resolved to learn whatever she could from him as much as she’d done for the previous professor. Even if she kind of missed Professor Beryl at the same time.
“Good afternoon, Professor Rainwater,” she’d greeted the man with a smile and only the briefest of confused expression at whatever was going on with the man’s tongue, unwrapping the scarf from around her and stowing it into a cubby along with her other things, sans her gloves and goggles as her wand was secure in its holster already. Only then did she concern herself with the instructions on the whiteboard and the boxes the others were clustering around.
There were innocent examples of plants with those descriptions abound, but honestly, she was staying vigilant. Perceived innocence didn’t actually mean it was safe. Instead, she headed over toward the blue box, nodding at the Head Boy, Blake and Claudine as she joined them. Thorns weren’t always bad, after all.
”A thorny decision, Prefect Rose. Perhaps you should reconsider.” And he was glad she had stowed her scarf away in the cubby. Unlike oTHERS. !!!!!!!!!!!!! That was obviously the reason that she had been made prefect. Responsibility came from following instructions and putting belongings in cubbies when asked to !!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anna Banana
Herbology was one of the subjects Isla had found she like the most. Not the most, but maybe...fourth place or so. Either way, it was among the top few, which was why she was somewhat excited about class today. She shivered a little as she walked across the grounds and toward the greenhouse, passing up the water station. She'd just had lunch and wasn't really thirsty right now. Besides, it was cold, and she was ready to get inside.
"Hello, Professor Rainwater," she said, reminding herself of how cool his last name was for a Herbology professor. She said nothing else as she scanned the writing on the board. Ohhh, interesting. She stuffed her belongings into a cubby, save for the ones he'd asked them to keep, and stared at the boxes. Maybe she should just find a super smart older student and just follow their lead instead. As much as she loved Herbology, she didn't think she'd had enough classes to figure out which was which.
So were they supposed to identify a poisonous plant or a non-poisonous one? The directions hadn't been clear on that end, but Isla decided to go and stand by the green box. Green...Slytherin...smells bad. Was the professor trying to tell them something?
With a simple nod, Gus passed by Isla and considered how she had came to the decision to go with the green box. ”Is that a house influence, Miss Bellchant? Or a well considered one?” The students may not have realised it, but their Professor was learning more about them as individuals through the choices they were making already. And his findings were interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daydreamer11
Naya arrived at Greenhouse Five for Herbology class and she was ready. At least she thought she was ready. Entering the classroom, she noticed the instructions on the whiteboard. Naya went over to the cubbies and put her backpack inside. She took out her needed equipment and zipped up the bag.
“Hello Professor”, she said, as she passed by. She headed straight for the mystery boxes. Now which one was safe? That was a good question. Naya read the clues and looked at each box. The smelly box, that seemed like a trick. Of course, they were supposed to think that that was the poisonous one. Yellow flowers, again that seemed like a trick. No one would think that the pretty flowers were poisonous. Clusters of leaves sounded like poison ivy, so Naya wasn’t going to choose that one. Last but not least, there was the box with thorns. That made the Gryffindor think of roses and roses were good. Soooo, she was going to choose the blue box. Naya stood in front of the thorns box and hoped that she was right.
This one had definitely considered the information given!! Gus was impressed and was even certain that he had actually seen the cogs whirring in her brain as she thought about it. But.. oh. Thorns. ”Another of the thorny decisions. Interesting, Miss Lindsay.” This whole cohort was interesting. He was interested. So interested.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ArianaBlack
Nina was a fan of the subject itself, though her opinions on their Professor were not as certain. She enjoyed independent study far more than she did their lessons, and studying with Calyx would always beat out either option. While she didn't share her boyfriend's same enthusiasm for the subject matter, she did try to hurry her way to class.
She paused briefly by the door of the greenhouse to give Professor Rainwater a reserved, yet polite nod. She did not like him, but she still had manners. Obviously the first thing she noticed was a lack of workspace, but when she looked back to read the instructions on the whiteboard all she could see was Professor Rainwater touching his tongue. Nina made a face in absolute disgust (and judgment, tbh). His hands were likely properly dirty given all of the dung he worked with! It was so gross and so unsanitary and Nina was not impressed whatsoever.
Trying to forget about that, she quickly put her things in a cubby hole and moved to stand in front of the first box she saw: Green. Because a) she was literally so grossed out by Professor Rainwater and b) she honestly did not care enough about this game of his to give it any proper effort and c) Eiji was at green and she liked his company more than the company of most. She did shove her way past Cecelia and Bernadette to stand next to him though.
The feeling wasn’t mutual, Miss Castillo. He was none the wiser to her dislike of him, but Gus found her endearing and interesting and he had heard mutterings between students about her. Just in conversation… not rumours. He had unfortunately not heard any rumours. His favourite part about working with teenagers was the level of absurdity that came with their rumours. He was pretty sure when he was a teen that the wildest rumour had been about a house elf love affair with a centaur. At eleven, Gus hadn’t been too bothered by any of it. But the stories that came from it had been wild.
And his thoughts had disappeared from his classroom which was a negative.
”I’m disappointed, Nina. I expected a well thought decision.” And instead he’d thought about rumours and house elves!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin
Phoebe showed up at class already wearing her gloves and goggles and flaunting them like they were high fashion. "Hullo, Professor! Very nice day today." She stuck out her tongue in a return greeting.
Phoebe strutted toward the board and blinked blearily through the goggles until the words snapped into focus and made sense. Oh! Hello, yes, time to pick the non-poisonous plant.
The girl meandered between each box, gently shoving people out of the way with her hip so she could look at the boxes and their signs. Not much in the way of clues, and while Phoebe had grown up in the woods, it wasn't like she could assume that everything yellow was good or bad. So it was a bit of a trick.
She paused in front of the blue box and shoved her goggles up into her hair. "Hello, smartest humans alive. We're gonna live to see tomorrow."
Now, now.. Phoebe James was something else. She reminded Gus of his daughter and it was nice to experience, but it was also amusing. Because the goggles hadn’t needed to be worn yet. But…...he wasn’t going to say anything. It was just funny to see and Gus stifled a laugh as he walked past the little group near the blue box. ”Tomorrow is never guaranteed, Miss James. Nice to see that you’ve returned to normal eyes for the time being. But please.. reconsider.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felixir
Looking slightly windswept (which didn't help a great deal with the messy hair situation) and somehow even more haggard than usual, Kaiser entered Greenhouse Five for the afternoon's Herbology lesson. There was Professor Rainwater up at the front of the room, but Kaiser only nodded very slightly and looked past him to the instructions on the whiteboard, hardly even feeling guilty about not giving a verbal greeting. It was just the new normal; he barely ever wanted to talk, and his voice was starting to sound strange when he did speak, from how little he now used it.
Having read the instructions, Kaiser stowed everything bar what he needed safely out of the way, and then went to the boxes.
About which, he had not a single clue. Herbology - like most subjects - was not Kaiser's forte. Luckily(?), his mind was far too preoccupied with other things, so he also wasn't worried about getting this right. If there was a right answer, of course; could you safely identify a poisonous plant without actually seeing it? Maybe he could have made that point, but also... no thank you. He ultimately had no qualms about simply picking the characteristic he liked best and immediately going to stand in front of that box, without dithering.
Blue box. Thorns. Kaiser didn't even notice a certain other person who was already over here. Which was to say that he did notice him, but... well. Whether he was too tired to handle thinking about all that, or if it was just physically impossible for his brain to process everything that was trying to storm its way into his head, Kaiser felt strangely calm and empty about the situation. With everything he had to think about, a partial shutdown was actually sort of welcome.
KAISER!!!!!
Gus had the strongest urge to wave manically at the lad whenever he saw him, but knew that it was highly unprofessional. So… he shoved his hands into his pockets and nodded in greeting at him. Hello. Yes. Hello. Nice to see you here, stranger. Hello. (HELLO!!!!!!!) Subtly, Gus gave him a small smile as he passed by and said nothing. He figured that this choice was set in stone, no matter how wrong it was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GD2204
The weather might have felt cold to some but it wasn’t nearly as bad as you’d think. Ewan had experienced worse weather back home in Canada, what with the levels of snow falling at insane levels and the temperature being in the minuses, this was, at worst, a slight chill. Deciding against grabbing a drink of water, the tall Ravenclaw entered the classroom with a smile across his face, instantly giving out a few nods, smiles and waves to some of his Ravenclaw class mates (Nettie and Whitney) as well as to a few others he recognised (Nina, Carys and Jillian).
“Good morning Professor” he greeted the Professor as his eyes took in the instructions on the whiteboard. Quickly, he got out his wand, gloves and goggles and placed his belongings away before he finally started to read the clues, his mind focused. He really didn’t fancy being poisoned this early in the school year if he was being honest. Briefly, his mind noted that the four boxes were in the house colours, his mind trying to make links between the houses and if that might have something to do with that one being poisonous or not.
After reading the clues, a few times, trying to link them to the plants he knew, he decided to settle on the plant with the plant that smelt bad (Green box) in hope that he had recognised the plant correctly as Mimbulus mimbletonia, a plant that was known for its foul stink sap. Making his way over to the green box, he stood next to the other students who also had possibly deduced the same thing as he did (Eiji, Cecelia, Jillian, Bernadette, Nina and Isla), feeling a little more confident now as he noted the number of students who were also standing there. Sure, most of them most likely guessed or just stood by the one with the most pupils by it but still.
”It’s afternoon, Prefect Jones. You should have just eaten lunch.” And if he hadn’t, then that sounded like a him problem and not a Herbology problem. The door was still open if he intended on leaving to get food and not return. But if he stayed and his stomach grumbled… then Gus would probably turn it into some sort of skit. Sort of. Probably a bad one, but who really cared? ”Perhaps an empty stomach is clouding your judgement.” Perhaps a lot of things was clouding the judgement of everyone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy
Heath was on the fence about Herbology. He liked that there wasn't much wandwork for him to mess up, but some of the plants were a little… scary. As such, he had no idea what to expect as he made his way to greenhouse five for today's lesson. Blink, blink. His dark eyes widened at what could only be described as an odd scene in front of him. The first thing he noticed was that the workstations were gone. Instead, there were four colored boxes. What was with the boxes? And where were the workstations? Heath had an uneasy feeling.* Whatever this setup was, somebody please tell him it didn't involve group work!
Then there was the professor sticking his tongue out at everyone. Uhh… was he okay? Was there something wrong with his tongue? And more importantly, was it contagious? Maybe it was National Stick Your Tongue Out Day or something? Heath had no idea what that was about, but he still greeted the man politely, "Hello, Professor."
It was only when his initial confusion wore off that Heath noticed the instructions on the board. Okay, that explained the boxes at least. He stashed his bag in the nearest cubby after removing his gloves and goggles. Merlin, Heath hated wearing goggles! The strap always made a weird crimp in his hair that lasted all day, and he was funny-looking enough already. Still, better safe than sorry!
Gloves and goggles on, Heath went to get a better look at the boxes. Which one wasn't poison? Hmm… yellow flowers? He could think of several poisonous plants that had yellow flowers, so that ruled that out. Clustered leaves… again he knew of quite a few poisonous plants that this could apply to. Probably not that one either. And then there were two…
Heath's eyes darted from the green box to the blue one. He bit his lip, trying his hardest to riddle it out. Smells bad? That could be a bubotuber, which he knew had healing properties… but the professor hadn't said whether the plants were magical or mundane. It could also be a poisonous stink lily, for all he knew! That left the blue box: Thorns. If a plant had thorns, it didn't need to be poisonous, right? But then again, Heath could've sworn he read about at least one poisonous plant that did have thorns.
Honestly, he thought all of the plants in the boxes were poison! But the instructions clearly said pick one, and Heath didn't want to get kicked out of class for not following directions. After much careful deliberation, he stood behind the blue box, hoping he'd made the right choice.
With a smile, Gus passed by Heath before glancing back at the boxes. ”Did you read all of the information on all of the boxes, Jones?” Honestly. Had he? ”It would be wise to. Or to read through a second time. Perhaps a third.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by nicole black
the colors were the first thing Yolanda Luna noticed after she'd donned her gloves and her very big goggles. The warm yellow, the cool green, the vibrant blue, and hot red practically begged her to come over and touch, and apparently that was what they were supposed to be doing! Cool. Yoyo hopped over, her long braids dancing behind her.
"Hi, Professor! nice day to be in the greenhouses!" it was always balmy in here, and that was a nice refresher after the chilly November day. She peeked from one box to the other. the clues didn't interest her as much as the colors did- so! the 12-year-old picked based on shade alone. Beaming around, she stood by her classmates behind the greeeeeeeeeeen box.
Gus couldn’t help but grin in response to the comment about being in the greenhouses. ”It’s ALWAYS a nice day to be in the greenhouses, Miss Luna! My favourite times of the day involve being in here!” That was expected, right? The Herbology Professor liked being in the greenhouses? Liked plants? Enjoyed his time here? He was predictable, wasn’t he? N E V E R MIIiiiIND.
”It’s not a nice day to be in here when there are so many of you choosing the wrong box, though.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by pundantic
With a polite nod, Alessandro addressed Rainwater as he entered the greenhouse, "Hello Professor." And then he set off to follow the directions as they were scribbled on the whiteboard.
Alessandro tucked all of his things in the small cubby he selected. He switched out his standard leather gloves, the ones he wore every day, for his pair of Herbology gloves. The switch was made quickly, just next to his cubby, and Alessandro took extra care to conceal his hands from his peers.
With his goggles in his fist, he walked across the Greenhouse to the back, where all of the boxes stood. Inside most of the flagged boxes were poisonous plants. And, with Professor Rainwater, there was no use in guessing which label might amuse him the most to put the non-poisonous item.
So, he stood over by the box labelled thorns. For no particular reason.
Polite nod? Returned!
There was something about this one that Gus felt drawn to. Probably the quiet and the brood that seemed to follow him. It was interesting. He almost wanted to be a student just to see what these kids were like outside of classes. You know… how they acted when they were doing homework or catching up or hanging down or whatever the cool kids did. Alessandro seemed like one of the cool kids, yeah? Seemed it. Was it. Who knew? ”Thorny… Interesting, Toussaint.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bazinga
Herbology was one of her favorites, so of course, she bounced in like she was walking on clouds. She enjoyed being around familiar plants. Even on her worst days she could find some happiness in the greenhouse, so as she opened the door she beamed. "Hello professor"
As she walked a little further she noticed the directions and tried not to frown. She liked taking notes so not having the ability made the blonde a little anxious. Moving to the cubbies she was beaming again, "Hey Al" maybe she could work with him and Gunnar if they'd let her tag along, but first it seemed she had to pick a box.
But what box?
Reading each box she decided she'd go with the blue box, who said thorns had to be a bad thing?
Al? Was that what the cool kids called the other cool kid? Nicknames! Gus loved them. Went by one himself because honestly, who wanted to be called Gurgustius in conversation? It was embarrassing. Which was why he had never ever ever signed anything Gurgustius. HE WAS GUS.
Returning to the front of the class, Gus smiled at the attending students before closing the door to the greenhouse with a wave of his hand and ultimately starting the lesson. Anyone that arrived after now would find out how serious he was about the late rule. For their information, it was sErious. With a capital E because it was the letter no one suspected to CAPITALISE THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE SITUATION. ”Good afternoon, Hogwartians.” His usual way of beginning an afternoon class. Save the comments. He’d ignore them. ”I hope we’re all aware that it is indeed the afternoon,” he spared a look toward Ewan before cracking a wider smile, ”and are ready to learn!”
They should be. Because he was READY to teach. READY READY. (!!!!!)
”I’m not so sure we’ve all understood the starter activity, so I’ll give you a few more minutes to think about your choices and switch boxes if you see fit, and then I’ll let you know which of our plant pals are under the boxes.” He leaned back against the table at the front, gesturing with his hands back towards them and the boxes. ”There are four of them. Four boxes, four colours, four clues. Three of them do contain poisonous plants, and one does not. I’d like for you to read the clues, consider which is the plant that is not poisonous and stand in front of it. Read the clues. Think about the clues. That is your only information. Some of us made very quick decisions that… well, I am rather concerned about letting you continue in this lesson if things aren’t being taken seriously.” Honest. sErious. WITH A CAPITAL E.
”Feel free to move boxes. Don’t worry about the tally on the board. The marker will change your choices as you do. It’s clever, trust me.” He doubted they did. Did students at Hogwarts ever trust their Professors after the strange history they had? He wouldn’t have trusted any, no matter what he knew of them before their employment at the school. Obviously, he hoped some of the students trusted him because he’d been tutoring them at Stemp House for years now. But… kids. You know… teenagers. They were difficult.
”As I’m sure you’ve realised - we’ll be looking at poisonous plants today. SO… Tell me one plant that you know of with a poisonous element! What else, if anything, do you know about it? Which species does it poison? How does the poison present itself? Inform me!!!” Teach him. He had no idea about any of this stuff. Teach, teach, teach. ”Answer the rest of the questions for someone elses prompt! One, two, three……. go!” Pointing immediately to the first hand that went up, Gus listened eagerly for the answer.
OOC: Hi lovelies! Pretty simple first question (with a few supporting questions for collaborative answers!!!) - tell Gus the name of a poisonous plant! Your character may only know the name of one and not the answers to the rest of the info questions and that’s okay! Someone else can give those answers. Work together on answering - it’s Gus’ favourite teaching tactic, so they’d be used to this type of questioning for sure. He’s annoying, I know.
Feel free to have your characters move boxes if they’re reconsidering. Class has started so do not post your characters arriving now unless we're looking for rule breaking. Pretend your character has been here all along! <3
~ Mrs. Steve Harrington ~ It be like that sometimes.
Her scarf? Claudine blinked and automatically looked down. Rainater was right; her scarf was indeed still there. In truth, she had been preoccupied with deciding which box to choose that she had forgotten all about it. But if Rainwater wanted to believe that she kept it on purposefully, let him go ahead in thinking that; she had no desire to clear things up nor care about the fact that he seemed to be extra rude to her compared to everyone else.
Whatever.
Quickly, she stuffed the scarf into her bag then returned to her original spot. Claudine returned Carys’s nod and sent Phoebe a small smile. Then she arranged her face back into its signature serious look. Once the lesson started, her gaze kept sliding from box to box as Rainwater spoke to them about switching. No, thank you. She was fine where she was. Instead, she considered the questions.
Her hand went up after some time. “Venomous Tentacula. Its bites are so dangerous, the victim can be stunned or killed. Along with humans, it eats Doxies and chizpurfles.’’ That was as much as she cared to volunteer so she lowered her hand. Maybe someone else would provide more facts about the Tentacula.
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Ah. There was Rainwater, coming through with the instructions. She liked this professor, she did. She wasn't the best at Herbology, it was really more her mum's thing, but she was going to try to guess.... which plant WOULDN'T kill her??????!!
Bernie backed away from the green box, suddenly doubting EVERYTHING. She tried to watch and listen to what the professor was telling all the other kids, but it seemed like EVERYONE was wrong here????! How could that be? What if they were ALL poisonous?! UGH, NO. SHE WAS TOO YOUNG TO DIE TODAY. SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE IN A FIERY DUEL, NOT FROM EATING POISON!
Bernie hurried over to the blue box, deciding on a whim that thorns were pointy and could jab you but weren't really edible and therefore NOT POISON. Plus, wasn't poison usually like red berries or green leaves??? She smiled gently at Blake, who had ALSO chosen the blue box. He wouldn't pick poison, right? He liked safety and caution, always, and tried to talk her out of her more dangerous ideas. This should be fine, fine, just fine. Oh, and Claudine was there! Bernie felt like she'd hardly seen her this year so far. She nudged her friend with her elbow to say hi, hey, hello, look at this blue box??????!??? Weird, right?
As far as other poisonous plants go, well, Bernie was trying to think of one with bad red berries. "Holly?" she raised her hand to answer. "Well, holly berries are not good to eat, I think."
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Oh. Was it afternoon? Ewan knew that. Sure, he 100% knew that he hadn’t woken up late that morning, over slept and then ran to the class, missing breakfast and in so, not actually having anything to eat this morning. That didn’t happen. He was never that irresponsible. Prefects knew better. Playing it off as jokingly he just gave the Professor a small grin before replying “Is it? I mean, it’s so cold and dark out there I couldn’t have guessed”. Sure, it wasn’t exactly winter yet but it was getting pretty close and the looming clouds and increasingly cold weather were a testament to that.
As for the boxes, he clearly hadn’t been paying enough attention to the clues for each of the boxes. With a small sigh, he read over the clues again in an attempt to decipher something different to what he did earlier. Sure, he seemed pretty confident that the plant underneath the blue both had been mimbulus mimbletonia but there was more than just one plant that could smell. “Well, I just figured that this plant” gesturing towards the green box now “Could have been Mimbulus Mimbletonia seeing as the smell is just horrendous. But I guess, it could be something else” speaking out loud now rather than to anyone in particular. After a few moments, he walked slowly over to the red box. Thorns could be poisonous. Yellow flowers? Well, bright things often attracted pray and could well be poisonous and the smell…well, clearly, he’d been wrong, judging from the Professors comment so that left the leaves and the red box. Happy with his decision, he turned to the professor to answer the question at hand now. With Claudine coming up with most of the facts about the Venomous Tentacula, Ewan decided to focus on a different plant instead.
“How about Aconitum? I know that’s more of a subclass, because there are over 250 species, can be really poisonous. Aconite, one of the subclasses, though can be poisonous which kind of makes it all the more impressive that people actually found a good use for it”. He honestly couldn’t imagine being the first person to figure out that this would, along with many other ingredients would eventually lead to the Wolfsbane potion.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shanners
With a simple nod, Gus passed by Isla and considered how she had came to the decision to go with the green box. ”Is that a house influence, Miss Bellchant? Or a well considered one?” The students may not have realised it, but their Professor was learning more about them as individuals through the choices they were making already. And his findings were interesting.
The first year shook her head. "No, not at all. It's just--...," she began. She stared at the boxes as she considered each of them again. "None of the boxes really give me enough information to choose. I can think of a non-poisonous and poisonous plant that can smell bad, have yellow flowers, have a cluster of leaves, and have thorns." Was there something she was missing, because...nothing was standing out to her. "...but now I've decided against the green box, because sometimes a plant that's releasing toxins smells bad to keep things away from it."
Having said that, she was changing boxes. Now...which one should it be? In the end, she moved to the yellow box, because that one seemed less poisonous than the others. So, now she was a member of team yellow. Once she was there, she guessed she should throw in some input on the question he'd asked. "Stinging nettles," she said, her hand raised in the air, "have these little hairs on them that make you feel like you've been stung by bees."
Blake noticed Claudine had picked the same color box as his, he tried to smile at her but, she's been rather aloof all year. And then the Professor mentioned that he may have picked the wrong box ... but .... but ... roses did have thorns ... he really wanted it to be a rose. Looking back at the clues again ... but then again ... he had decided to stick with his choice. Blake also smiled at Bernadette. "Hey Bernadette" .. and of course the blush arrived shortly after.
"I don't know much about magical plants really ... but there is poison ivy in the muggle world." After a year of school in the wizard you would think that he would know about magical plants than he does.
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Last edited by love-for-HP; 01-24-2020 at 02:31 PM.
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Welp, now the professor had Phoebe feeling all kinds of ways about her very sure decision. Surely a plant with thorns didn't ALSO need to be poisonous, because that was just rude. Why be unpleasant in multiple ways? She crossed her arms and tried to glare through the box with x-ray vision.
She did not have x-ray vision.
"Professor, I don't think we have enough information to make a scientific decision. I wouldn't trust it enough to touch any of these plants without my gloves." She held up her gloved hands to show him that she hadn't taken them off yet. "But I trust you more than me, so I guess I'll go... somewhere else." She meandered over to stand in front of the yellow box. Hopefully it was a dandelion.
At the box, Phoebe turned to look at the professor, giving her goggles a pat-pat-pat for safety. "Deadly nightshade, sir?"
Avalon was usually not so indecisive. But Professor Rainwater was being oddly cryptic about these boxes. She did not want to pick the wrong one and humiliate herself in front of her classmates. Her first instinct was to stand by the yellow flowers clue, because yellow flowers were pretty. However, she figured that one might be a trick. After all, her mother used to tell her that the prettiest berries outside were always the most dangerous. The green box was probably out, too. A plant that smelled bad was most likely poisonous. And the thorns reminded her too much of venomous tentacula. Clusters of leaves was probably the least dangerous sounding of all the clues, so Avalon took a stand next to the red box.
While herbology wasn't Avalon's best subject, she knew a surprising amount about poisonous plants - mainly due to the fact that she studied them closely to avoid ever accidentally coming into contact with them. "Like Phoebe said, nightshade is also known as belladonna. The berries and leaves can cause really bad hallucinations," she said after raising her hand. "People used to call it the devil's plant." Wait. The leaves were poisonous. Did that mean she picked the wrong box? Maybe she should have gone with the green box. For one, stinksap smelled absolutely rancid, but it wasn't poisonous at all. It was probably too late to change her mind now though, so she stayed put in front of the red box.
Oh yes, Mr Professor Rainwater Gus Man, Kaiser certainly saw you.
He was also... pretty relieved not to be questioned about his choice in box, mostly because it meant he didn't have to say anything in response. Nothing personal, just... yeah.
Kaiser had started to suspect that there wasn't actually a safe box out of all of them; Rainwater said there was, but he could be lying to prove a point about how much to trust the information before you. Or, they could all be technically wrong on account of how you couldn't accurately predict what plant would be poisonous without much more information. Or they were all wrong because they were all poisonous for one organism, but all were safe for another. Maybe there was another box in the room and the whole thing was some kind of riddle. Or maybe there was a right answer and Rainwater was merely helpfully trying to make everyone doubt their instincts, just to throw them off the scent.
Normally, Kaiser might have been a little ticked off that he was essentially overthinking something that was being presented as a very simple activity. He was, in fact, starting to feel the beginnings of a headache coming on, and that wasn't a good sign. But... he didn't mind. Thinking about this was... better. Than other things. He would take this. Thank you.
He stuck with the blue box, mostly because it had been his instinct, and he rarely went against that, and because he wasn't bothered about being wrong. But also because he didn't have enough to go on to make another decision; if you could figure out a plant this way, he was nowhere near good enough at Herbology. Not like...
... anyway. Poisonous plant. Kaiser was tempted to stay quiet, but a sense of obligation got him half-raising his hand. "Mistletoe." Dare he even say such a word in a greenhouse full of Hogwarts kids? Merlin knew, nobody present needed any ideas. "Poisonous and extremely irritating." Most kids here... they'd understand his meaning.
As for the rest of the questions, Kaiser left those for someone else to pick up about his suggested plant. So generous.
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...........right.
"I'm certain, professor," he responded when Professor Rainwater questioned his decision. He was almost upset with himself for not outlining his thought process a bit more for the man...until he questioned literally everyone stepping into the classroom. Mind games. Right. No thanks.
This was so arbitrary and Eiji could not stand it. One or two words was not enough to go off of anything but WHATEVER.
His jaw did unset, a little, when Cecelia joined him beside the green box. Her effervescence somewhat demanded the change. "Your guess is as good as mine," replies with a wry smile. "Ever heard of a corpse flower?" Not the plant he had been thinking of initially but it had come to mind now. Which he probably should have kept to himself to not freak her out. "It's not an actual corpse. Just smells like one, hence the name."
Soon his line was joined by Bernadette and Julian, who he offered small nods in acknowledgement - primarily to Julian because he still was holding it over Bernadette's head what she had done ELSEWHERE but was also trying to be courteous per Rebecca's request - and then another first year he did not know the name of and did not entirely bother to greet because they were joined by Nina soon. He gave her one cursory glance and could just tell that they were sharing similar thoughts on this whole activity. "Oi, they're my sister's friends," he nodded curtly to the two girls she had shoved her way through. "Technically, Cecelia is more like family...so don't go shoving them."
For future reference.
Missa's co-prefect received a....speculative nod. Judge and jury out on this one, but right now he was mostly indifferent. And then there was another Hufflepuff who Rebecca had surely mentioned in passing once or twice but...he tended to zone out when she got to rambling about her housemates.
'I am rather concerned about letting you continue in this lesson if things aren’t being taken seriously'....
...this coming from the man who just said 'plant friends'. Riiiiiiight.
Anywaaaaaaaaay...poisonous plants. Eiji's forte, so to speak. Now it was more a matter of whether or not he felt inspired to actually raise his hand and speak. Though by now Professor Rainwater would have surely noticed he was particularly selective in how and what he spoke about.
"...some plants have pungent orders to attract pollinators as well," he mumbled under his breath in a somewhat off the cuff fashion to the first year who had taken the professor's bait and was switching groups. 'Dishonest flowers' were somewhat fascinating to him. Somewhat. Potions and alchemy purposes mostly.
Kaiser's answer earned a small chuckle from the sixth year. Irritating was an understatement. In solidarity, Eiji decided to build off the older Slytherin's answer. "Mistletoe is a parasitic plant," he added casually, NOT budging from his spot by the green box. "Meaning that it requires another plant to grow and survive. In it's case, typically oak and apple trees. This can sometimes lead to deformities in a tree's branches or other harm. Not the sort of poisonous connotations usually thought of when thinking of the plant, but still worth noting."
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As he was standing by the blue, thorns box, waiting for class to begin, it was interesting to see who else joined him, even if he didn't make that overtly apparent. He might have averted his eyes just for a moment at one point, but that was in favor of focusing his attention, and his eyes, on who else might have chosen the same box.
And then the professor questioned his choice. Gunnar paused a moment, second-guessing himself, as he glanced at the other boxes from his position at the blue one. But perhaps that was the point of the question as he seemed to have the same inquiry for everyone.
"Certainly, Professor," he began, considering the man's asking for clarification as permission to indeed tell him about his line of thinking. "Honestly, the clues aren't much to go by as I can think of a poisonous plant for each of these characteristics." Even that first year girl knew that. "But considering that, I also know that many plants that have thorns are not poisonous and they use their thorns in the same way that some poisonous plants use their toxins - to protect themselves from their predators. And in that case, I chose thorns because if they have a defense mechanism already, then they are least likely to be poisonous."
It was still possible that he was wrong though, and therefore he did not like this game. And even though Rainwater made him second guess himself, Gunnar was staying put in front of the blue box. He might be wrong, but he had rationalized his decision and was sticking with it.
And as for the question posed for the class? Gunnar raised his hand after hearing some of the answers from a few of his classmates. "Oleander is poisonous," he added to the discussion. And actually had none of the characteristics presented with these four boxes. "It's a beautiful flower, but all parts of the plant are toxic to humans. Even honey made by bees from the nectar is poisonous."
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Tom listened to the Professor, so was he sure he had picked the right box, well no he wasn't but all this was, was guess work. So he was going to stay here. The Professor wouldn't make them touch a poisons plant right, so what was the worst that could happen if he had picked the wrong box, unless it was a man eating plant, but then again where would the Professor pick one of those up from.
Tom raised his hand. "There's a plant called Angel's trumpet that I think is poisonous."
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Was he sure about choice?
Of course not. He hadn't been sure in the first place and now with the Professor's cryptic words he was starting to doubt his decision even more. But what if he was right and the Professor was trying to confuse him and see if he would be influenced by what others told him instead of going with his own guts.
"The clues are useless anyway" he said with a shrug of his shoulders. He had never been good with riddles. In fact, he disliked them. "I'm staying with the yellow box" he didn't care anyways. Maybe if he got poisoned he could leave class?
Minjae was only half listening to the other students as they provided their answers to the first question. He did not raise his hand to answer as well. Most of the plants he had thought about had already been answered and what was the point of repeating answers? So he stayed quiet and folded his arms over each other and checked his watch. ugh only 5 minutes had past?!
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Was he questioning her decision based on who else was in this area? She looked around seeing her brother and Al, but that couldn't be why he was saying it, right? Did he not know that her favorite subject was Herbology and for a very long time she wanted to be just like her father who was a herbologist. Did he not realize she was good with plants and had been around plants since she was a baby.
"With all due respect sir, I think I've made my choice. Thorns might look bad but there is good reason they are placed on a plant. As my brother stated that many plants with thorns are not poisonous, though they could be yes, it is in fact the best guess I thought I'd make and I made it quickly because of my love for plants and knowledge of them. Our father is a herbologist if you didn't know." Just so she was very clear, so she wasn't leaving her spot and her choice was not going to change.
As for his question she had her hand up again, "There is a poisonous North American herb that wouldn't seem harmful, but its little cluster of white flowers contains a toxin called termatol. This plant is called White Snakeroot, it is also interesting because people have died from this poison not because they ate it but a cow did and it was transferred through their milk. "
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Jillian's jaw sorta dropped in dismay rendering her completely speechless for the next 10 seconds when the professor questioned her. She wasn't shock mainly at his doubt- she clearly had them as well, but it was more of second guessing her already first guess. Then again, Professor Rainwater questioned the people before her so this is probably to trick them all to change their hunches.
U H H H H H H H H.....
She looked at the board and then carefully reconsidered the professor's suggestion. Will she move though? Hmm... perhaps not. "Certainly positive, professor" she nodded. A little bit concerned whether or not she gets the safe one amongst all the other choices. A Stinksap doesn't have the best smell HOWEVER it is used to tend ill creatures. Technically, in a way her gut is telling her that staying in the green box line is a correct decision.
Guess she will have to find out when the professor finally reveals the answer.
And as for the professor's first question, Jillian did raise her hand to answer "Poison Hemlock is toxic to both people and animals" she added to the list of answers. Obviously, the plant's name has poison on it. It does have a lot of names- depending from where you are from but it is mostly known as Hemlock or Conium maculatum. "This plant specifically blooms or grows in a more sunny environment. The dangerous part about this plant is that all of its part are poisonous- the leaves, stem, fruit and roots." which is why she completely don't understand why this plant hasn't been eradicated. Some people consider the hemlock as a garden plant. A GARDEN PLANT. She will never comprehend that.
Alessandro had a perfectly good reason for selecting the box labelled thorns. The reason had very little to do with the subject matter, though, and so the seventh year did not extrapolate on his choice. No matter how interesting Rainwater considered his decision.
With the first question out, Alessandro listened to his peers catalog poisonous plants. He knew a few himself. Uncle Robert had a garden filled to the brim with lots of beautiful plants that were deadly. It was worth noting how often those two things went together.
Al raised his hand and said, "Laurel, sir. It produces cyanide." Which, for those that did not know, kills.
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Me too?!
It was safe to say that Lucas jumped at the sudden sound of Rainwater talking directly to them about........ himself? He shot a glance over at Shivvy but decided to say nothing on the matter itself. This was just a joke, wasn't it? Maybe Rainwater was merely testing them from the get go? "I-I-I-" He cleared his throat. "I wouldn't say that?" Please save him. Please please please!
As for changing boxes, no. No no no. He didn't like the idea of moving boxes for one he was unsure about so he decided to stay precisely where he was. By the red box.
A poisonous plant? There were a few on that list and a few that were deadly by themselves but his brain was focusing on one plant in particular. A plant that had come up previously and was one of the poisonous category, he was sure of it. "What about Yew?" he asked, his hand up in the air, "The berries and leaves can cause sudden death without giving you a warning, which sounds pretty deadly as far as poisonous plants go."
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Heath was officially discouraged now. He hadn't been incredibly confident about his pick in the first place, but the professor's words made him doubt himself even more than ever. Blink, blink. Wow, that was… kind of harsh. Why did the professor think he hadn't read all the information? If that were true, it wouldn't have taken him as long as it did to decide! Heath was too shy to point out that fact, however, so he merely nodded in reply. He frowned, fixing his gaze on the ground as he allowed the professor’s voice to wash over him. Fine, if he’s so concerned about letting us continue this lesson, how about we don’t? He thought darkly. This nonsense made him miss herbology lessons with his mum last year. Was it too late to go back to being homeschooled?
Heath glanced from one box to the next, re-reading the clues for what seemed like the hundredth time. Smells bad… yellow flowers… clusters of leaves… thorns. He still didn’t think the red or yellow boxes were safe. There were too many examples of poisonous plants with either clusters of leaves or yellow flowers that he could think of to risk it, and if the professor’s reaction to his choice was anything to go by, the blue box was wrong too. So that left him with only one choice. Still keeping his eyes down, he shuffled over to the green box, trying to hide behind the taller students to avoid attracting the professor’s attention again.
Heath considered the question asked. A part of him wanted to list every poisonous plant he knew that fit the clues on the boxes, just to show how needlessly confusing this guessing game was! Poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac all had clusters of leaves. Wild parsnip, daffodil, and ragwort - one made people break out in a rash after exposure to the sun, while the other two were poisonous when ingested; all three had yellow flowers. The stink lily was poisonous and, just like it says on the tin, smelled like rotten meat when it bloomed, and the black locust had thorns and was poisonous to humans.
Had he been a more outspoken child, Heath would’ve pointed that out, but he was too afraid of losing points for not following the directions to name one plant. Then all his housemates would be angry at him! In fact, he didn’t want to talk at all, but then it would look like he wasn’t paying attention. So instead, he decided to go with a plant that didn’t fit any of the clues. A trembling hand went up, and Heath managed to squeak, “B-bittersweet. It has poisonous red f-friuts that look a bit like tomatoes.”
__________________
Old voices I had thought long since dead whisper of another life I might have led If I could take that second chance, If I could make my life anew, If only dreams came true...
It might seem we're one question behind, but she's just being stubborn, sorry x__x
Arts TRANSPONSTER!
Catherine had never really been very keen on this professor's weird demeanour (what with all of the exclamation marks in her homework marking, for Merlin's sake? And in those words above the boxes. Why write as if he was shouting at them? Why? What was the point?). She felt she could judge him because at least he wasn't her Head of House who was also a target of her fervent judgemental looks nonetheless, but today was proving to be difficult not to give him a frowny, confused look every time he spoke.
This Ravenclaw hated vagueness and there was plenty of that going around this lesson already, even though it had just started. The fact there was only a couple of words written above each box to help them decide which was not the poisonous one was far from being helpful, especially as there were both poisonous and non-poisonous plants in all of those categories. Surely their professor knew that, but what was the point in trying to test them by giving so little information? Catherine didn't see that as a challenge, because there was no way anyone could work it out correctly without more information. Of course, anyone could guess, but was that really what was required of students during a lesson? To guess? It sounded too much like what most kids did in exams anyway, and that was far from being the right thing to do to learn.
Catherine would have been looking less annoyed if she wasn't being 'forced' to stand by a random box after hazarding a pointless guess (for Merlin's sake). If she would've been allowed to stand on neutral ground, she wouldn't have been as bothered. Stupid rules. Pointless guessing. This first year hated being wrong, and there was a 75% change that she would be and just- ugh.
She would huff right now, but that could draw attention to herself and she knew for a fact professor Rainwater wouldn't make this easy on her because he was probably loving this little set up of his and wanted full engagement.
For Merlin's sake.
As usual, she didn't speak up when a question was asked. She did listen and mentally comment on most of her classmates' answers, mainly agreeing with those who pointed out that there was indeed both poisonous and non-poisonous plants in each of those categories. Birthwort was the first one that popped into her mind when asked about a specific type of poisonous plant. No particular reason why, because nothing in particular drew her to that plant per se. It was probably because her nana had been talking about it over the summer or something.
If Catherine had to pick a box to stand nearby (and she had, obviously), and it would all be based on guess work (eye roll), she would use the plant that had popped into her mind to help guide her (to a random box. Eye. Roll.). Birthwort had yellow flowers, so the yellow box was out. Some of them had a foul-smell. So the green box was out as well.
But then there was an issue. Thorn and cluster leaves were two things that Catherine didn't recall birthwort having. Ugh, this was ridiculous.
Whatever. Red box it was.
...Merlin's sake.
__________________
AT THE HOGWARTS YULE BALL, YOU'LL BE HANGING OUT WITH....__________________ Maybe you'll dance, scour the buffet, or end up gossiping talking amongst yourselves!
You're happy to go with the flow and see where the Yule Ball takes you!
Obviously, Jó was stood by the red box, but that was more due to a natural draw to the colour of his house than having read the clues. He'd smelled one of them when he walked passed and that was the only other indication he had bar colour. No reading for him.
Ready to learn. Blah, blah blahhhhh.
Now that Professor Rainwater was talking about the boxes, Jó was more tuned into what he was being asked and actually looked at the clues. But he didn't move. Partly because he was lazy, and partly because honestly, he didn't have the foggiest.
As for the question... Well, questions... tjis kid had no knowlegde of poisonous plants. Nada. Nothing. Józef was just going to listen and try to remember things and probably not succeed.
__________________
⇀ Standing now, calling all the people here to see the show_____________________________
Calling for my demons now to let me go ↽
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Naya was standing in front of the blue box when class began. The professor took a moment to clarify the instructions for choosing boxes. Then he said that they were free to change their choices. Naya thought about it for a moment and decided to stick with her original choice. She was not going to overthink this one and change her mind. It was usually when you doubted yourself that you ended up with the wrong answer.
Then they had a question to answer about poisonous plants. Naya had an idea, but before she could give her thoughts, someone beat her to the punch. Since her answer was already given, she decided to add some more information to the topic.
Naya raised her hand and began to speak. ”Poison ivy produces some oil that will cause a very itchy rash if you touch it. You don’t even have to touch the plant to get the rash. If the oil gets onto something else and you touch that object, it can cause a reaction.“
__________________
Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Salt!
It didn't take long for him to decide, not since there were two that sounded bad from the get go. So did he want to stand in front of the yellow flowers or the clusters of leaves? His eyes moved from one clue to the other and back again but eventually, he found himself walking towards the RED box and the clusters of leaves that were inside and standing next to Shivvy. "Hey!" he whispered, shooting her a smile, "Wonder what we're going to be doing today."
Shivvy smiled proudly when more and more people joined her over at the CORRECT box, i.e. the RED ONE. All those other students were so wrong. A cluster of leaves couldn't be poisonous, could they? Well, yes, of course they could be but in her eyes they were definitely the least menacing out of the four options.
Also Lucas was clever, right? And HE was standing by the red box too.
"Hey." She whispered back at the fellow Gryffindor. "I hope we'll get to jump into a cluster of dried leaves." FUNNY, wasn't she? She gave him a quick grin and was about to add something else when the professor suddenly addressed her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shanners
Ah, O’Shea. Now where was her partner in crime? Was Cora here yet? No? Probably avoiding him in case she got detention. Cora had always been an interesting one. But so was Siobhán. So it made sense that they were friends. It was nice that they were friends. Oh, Gus didn’t have time to get into the particulars, but he had a lot of feelings about friendships and people that were good for each other. A lot of feelings. A lot of thoughts. Just a lot of everything. He hoped his kids had people like that when they came to school.
”Consider your reasoning for your choice, Siobhán. What prompted it? Are you certain?”
CONSIDER her reasoning? What REASONING?
Did he know she was a Gryffindor?
"My choice was prompted by...the fact that...it sounded like the least dangerous. Leaves. They're fun. And I don't like yellow flowers." Pause. That probably wasn't a very academic reply, was it? "I think the fact that there are A LOT of leaves is already a kind of defense mechanism for the plant? So it might not need the extra poison, you know?" Good reason. Yes. Sounded good in her ears.
Text Cut: Professor Herbology
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shanners
Returning to the front of the class, Gus smiled at the attending students before closing the door to the greenhouse with a wave of his hand and ultimately starting the lesson. Anyone that arrived after now would find out how serious he was about the late rule. For their information, it was sErious. With a capital E because it was the letter no one suspected to CAPITALISE THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE SITUATION. ”Good afternoon, Hogwartians.” His usual way of beginning an afternoon class. Save the comments. He’d ignore them. ”I hope we’re all aware that it is indeed the afternoon,” he spared a look toward Ewan before cracking a wider smile, ”and are ready to learn!”
They should be. Because he was READY to teach. READY READY. (!!!!!)
”I’m not so sure we’ve all understood the starter activity, so I’ll give you a few more minutes to think about your choices and switch boxes if you see fit, and then I’ll let you know which of our plant pals are under the boxes.” He leaned back against the table at the front, gesturing with his hands back towards them and the boxes. ”There are four of them. Four boxes, four colours, four clues. Three of them do contain poisonous plants, and one does not. I’d like for you to read the clues, consider which is the plant that is not poisonous and stand in front of it. Read the clues. Think about the clues. That is your only information. Some of us made very quick decisions that… well, I am rather concerned about letting you continue in this lesson if things aren’t being taken seriously.” Honest. sErious. WITH A CAPITAL E.
”Feel free to move boxes. Don’t worry about the tally on the board. The marker will change your choices as you do. It’s clever, trust me.” He doubted they did. Did students at Hogwarts ever trust their Professors after the strange history they had? He wouldn’t have trusted any, no matter what he knew of them before their employment at the school. Obviously, he hoped some of the students trusted him because he’d been tutoring them at Stemp House for years now. But… kids. You know… teenagers. They were difficult.
”As I’m sure you’ve realised - we’ll be looking at poisonous plants today. SO… Tell me one plant that you know of with a poisonous element! What else, if anything, do you know about it? Which species does it poison? How does the poison present itself? Inform me!!!” Teach him. He had no idea about any of this stuff. Teach, teach, teach. ”Answer the rest of the questions for someone elses prompt! One, two, three……. go!” Pointing immediately to the first hand that went up, Gus listened eagerly for the answer.
OOC: Hi lovelies! Pretty simple first question (with a few supporting questions for collaborative answers!!!) - tell Gus the name of a poisonous plant! Your character may only know the name of one and not the answers to the rest of the info questions and that’s okay! Someone else can give those answers. Work together on answering - it’s Gus’ favourite teaching tactic, so they’d be used to this type of questioning for sure. He’s annoying, I know.
Feel free to have your characters move boxes if they’re reconsidering. Class has started so do not post your characters arriving now unless we're looking for rule breaking. Pretend your character has been here all along! <3
We’ll move on in roughly 24 hours.
....poisonous plants. That was kind of an obvious focus today, yeah.
She glanced back Lucas and moved a little closer to him, as well as the red box. No way was she changing boxes. They were standing by the CORRECT box after all. "Yes, and and and it's used for wands. To make wands. Some of the wands." Shivvy added onto Lucas' answer. They were allowed to do that right? Plus, he hadn't mentioned that and she KNEW things.
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SPOILER!!: Claudine
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19
Her scarf? Claudine blinked and automatically looked down. Rainater was right; her scarf was indeed still there. In truth, she had been preoccupied with deciding which box to choose that she had forgotten all about it. But if Rainwater wanted to believe that she kept it on purposefully, let him go ahead in thinking that; she had no desire to clear things up nor care about the fact that he seemed to be extra rude to her compared to everyone else.
Whatever.
Quickly, she stuffed the scarf into her bag then returned to her original spot. Claudine returned Carys’s nod and sent Phoebe a small smile. Then she arranged her face back into its signature serious look. Once the lesson started, her gaze kept sliding from box to box as Rainwater spoke to them about switching. No, thank you. She was fine where she was. Instead, she considered the questions.
Her hand went up after some time. “Venomous Tentacula. Its bites are so dangerous, the victim can be stunned or killed. Along with humans, it eats Doxies and chizpurfles.’’ That was as much as she cared to volunteer so she lowered her hand. Maybe someone else would provide more facts about the Tentacula.
The biggest thing that Gus had learned since being an educator at Hogwarts was that he in no way wanted his children to become teenagers. Because they got attitudes. And faces like the one that Claudine seemed to wear constantly. Although, he’d seen the small smile she had given to a peer, so he was assuming that maybe the grump act was saved for him. Not that he was bothered. She realised that he was being paid to teach them, right? He was literally paid to be here. And she wasn’t. But at least the scarf was gone.
”Excellent, excellent, Miss Blaze. A severing charm would come in handy if you were to encounter a Venemous Tentacula.” In case anyone cared to know. A quick glance behind him confirmed that the board marker was working between updating the tally chart and writing the answers of the students into a table. Perfect. Such great marker. He needed more.
SPOILER!!: Bernadette
Quote:
Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl
Ah. There was Rainwater, coming through with the instructions. She liked this professor, she did. She wasn't the best at Herbology, it was really more her mum's thing, but she was going to try to guess.... which plant WOULDN'T kill her??????!!
Bernie backed away from the green box, suddenly doubting EVERYTHING. She tried to watch and listen to what the professor was telling all the other kids, but it seemed like EVERYONE was wrong here????! How could that be? What if they were ALL poisonous?! UGH, NO. SHE WAS TOO YOUNG TO DIE TODAY. SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE IN A FIERY DUEL, NOT FROM EATING POISON!
Bernie hurried over to the blue box, deciding on a whim that thorns were pointy and could jab you but weren't really edible and therefore NOT POISON. Plus, wasn't poison usually like red berries or green leaves??? She smiled gently at Blake, who had ALSO chosen the blue box. He wouldn't pick poison, right? He liked safety and caution, always, and tried to talk her out of her more dangerous ideas. This should be fine, fine, just fine. Oh, and Claudine was there! Bernie felt like she'd hardly seen her this year so far. She nudged her friend with her elbow to say hi, hey, hello, look at this blue box??????!??? Weird, right?
As far as other poisonous plants go, well, Bernie was trying to think of one with bad red berries. "Holly?" she raised her hand to answer. "Well, holly berries are not good to eat, I think."
Gus was glad to see Bernadette choosing a box and smiled in her direction as she settled over there. He wasn’t sure how he felt that she was chummy with Miss Blaze, though. Maybe he could use herbology to steer her in a different way. She seemed too chirpy to be friends with sour sally over there. And Gurgustius needed to stop thinking such negative things about his students before it came back to bite him in the kneecaps. (Which, he knew from experience, was painful)
”Yes, yes! Holly berries CAN actually be deadly to humans and animals. Not always. But there is that possibility. Definitely an upset stomach and intestinal issues if you eat them. And that would be the least of your worries. Fabulous answer, Miss Grantham!”
SPOILER!!: Ewan
Quote:
Originally Posted by GD2204
Oh. Was it afternoon? Ewan knew that. Sure, he 100% knew that he hadn’t woken up late that morning, over slept and then ran to the class, missing breakfast and in so, not actually having anything to eat this morning. That didn’t happen. He was never that irresponsible. Prefects knew better. Playing it off as jokingly he just gave the Professor a small grin before replying “Is it? I mean, it’s so cold and dark out there I couldn’t have guessed”. Sure, it wasn’t exactly winter yet but it was getting pretty close and the looming clouds and increasingly cold weather were a testament to that.
As for the boxes, he clearly hadn’t been paying enough attention to the clues for each of the boxes. With a small sigh, he read over the clues again in an attempt to decipher something different to what he did earlier. Sure, he seemed pretty confident that the plant underneath the blue both had been mimbulus mimbletonia but there was more than just one plant that could smell. “Well, I just figured that this plant” gesturing towards the green box now “Could have been Mimbulus Mimbletonia seeing as the smell is just horrendous. But I guess, it could be something else” speaking out loud now rather than to anyone in particular. After a few moments, he walked slowly over to the red box. Thorns could be poisonous. Yellow flowers? Well, bright things often attracted pray and could well be poisonous and the smell…well, clearly, he’d been wrong, judging from the Professors comment so that left the leaves and the red box. Happy with his decision, he turned to the professor to answer the question at hand now. With Claudine coming up with most of the facts about the Venomous Tentacula, Ewan decided to focus on a different plant instead.
“How about Aconitum? I know that’s more of a subclass, because there are over 250 species, can be really poisonous. Aconite, one of the subclasses, though can be poisonous which kind of makes it all the more impressive that people actually found a good use for it”. He honestly couldn’t imagine being the first person to figure out that this would, along with many other ingredients would eventually lead to the Wolfsbane potion.
Gus’ face lit up with a fond smile as Ewan gave him a small explanation of his choice. None of them probably realised, but he actually wanted to hear how they came to their decisions. They weren’t bad things. Talking out your thought process was more insightful than people thought. You corrected yourself more. It was why he always suggested students proofread their essays out loud before submitting them. He had read way too many with a sentence ending that didn’t fit with the beginning. You know… subject wise. This is what happened when you rushed and when you wrote after midnight!!!!!!
He knew the marker had noted the Ravenclaw’s change of box choice and was adding his answer to the table of information they were building on poisonous plants. ”I went to university with someone that tried to grow some in his dorm for years. Obviously not the right location or environment. But we did call him Devil’s Helmet for a long time. You know… it’s… what aconitum is also known as. Not.. just… never mind. Great answer.”
HE QUIT !!!
SPOILER!!: Isla
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anna Banana
The first year shook her head. "No, not at all. It's just--...," she began. She stared at the boxes as she considered each of them again. "None of the boxes really give me enough information to choose. I can think of a non-poisonous and poisonous plant that can smell bad, have yellow flowers, have a cluster of leaves, and have thorns." Was there something she was missing, because...nothing was standing out to her. "...but now I've decided against the green box, because sometimes a plant that's releasing toxins smells bad to keep things away from it."
Having said that, she was changing boxes. Now...which one should it be? In the end, she moved to the yellow box, because that one seemed less poisonous than the others. So, now she was a member of team yellow. Once she was there, she guessed she should throw in some input on the question he'd asked. "Stinging nettles," she said, her hand raised in the air, "have these little hairs on them that make you feel like you've been stung by bees."
”There are poisonous and non poisonous plants that cover each of the clues, Isla. But which of the clues screams least likely to be poison to you immediately?” GUT INSTINCT, GUYS !!!!!!!!! She also received a smile when she moved boxes, mostly to calm any nerves that had came with his questioning. First years were delicate. Delicate minded, anyway. Why did eleven year olds think they were Billy Big Bloomers?
”Stinging nettles are a wonderful answer, thank you. And those hairs are what embed themselves into the skin, break away and release chemicals that cause that stinging feeling. Very often paired with a visible rash.”
SPOILER!!: Blake
Quote:
Originally Posted by love-for-HP
Blake noticed Claudine had picked the same color box as his, he tried to smile at her but, she's been rather aloof all year. And then the Professor mentioned that he may have picked the wrong box ... but .... but ... roses did have thorns ... he really wanted it to be a rose. Looking back at the clues again ... but then again ... he had decided to stick with his choice. Blake also smiled at Bernadette. "Hey Bernadette" .. and of course the blush arrived shortly after.
"I don't know much about magical plants really ... but there is poison ivy in the muggle world." After a year of school in the wizard you would think that he would know about magical plants than he does.
Loudly, Gus clapped at this answer. ”IVY! Yes! Excellent, fantastic, wonderful. Don’t talk yourself down, young man. You’re here to learn about magical plants. I don’t need you to know everything. How will I teach if you know everything?” Perhaps a reaction that wasn’t needed, but it may have done wonders for the confidence of this boy and that was more what Gus cared about.
SPOILER!!: Phoebe
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin
Welp, now the professor had Phoebe feeling all kinds of ways about her very sure decision. Surely a plant with thorns didn't ALSO need to be poisonous, because that was just rude. Why be unpleasant in multiple ways? She crossed her arms and tried to glare through the box with x-ray vision.
She did not have x-ray vision.
"Professor, I don't think we have enough information to make a scientific decision. I wouldn't trust it enough to touch any of these plants without my gloves." She held up her gloved hands to show him that she hadn't taken them off yet. "But I trust you more than me, so I guess I'll go... somewhere else." She meandered over to stand in front of the yellow box. Hopefully it was a dandelion.
At the box, Phoebe turned to look at the professor, giving her goggles a pat-pat-pat for safety. "Deadly nightshade, sir?"
Without acknowledging that comment about not having enough information, Gus nodded and smiled. ”You should always trust yourself, Phoebe. You have gut instinct for a reason. But I appreciate that you trust me. I would be concerned if you felt otherwise.” The marker noted her change over to the yellow box and then her plant answer.
”The clue is definitely in the name, yes. One of the most dangerous plants, actually. I’m glad the name gives it away, though. Some animals can eat the leaves without harm, though.”
SPOILER!!: Avalon
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireheart
Avalon was usually not so indecisive. But Professor Rainwater was being oddly cryptic about these boxes. She did not want to pick the wrong one and humiliate herself in front of her classmates. Her first instinct was to stand by the yellow flowers clue, because yellow flowers were pretty. However, she figured that one might be a trick. After all, her mother used to tell her that the prettiest berries outside were always the most dangerous. The green box was probably out, too. A plant that smelled bad was most likely poisonous. And the thorns reminded her too much of venomous tentacula. Clusters of leaves was probably the least dangerous sounding of all the clues, so Avalon took a stand next to the red box.
While herbology wasn't Avalon's best subject, she knew a surprising amount about poisonous plants - mainly due to the fact that she studied them closely to avoid ever accidentally coming into contact with them. "Like Phoebe said, nightshade is also known as belladonna. The berries and leaves can cause really bad hallucinations," she said after raising her hand. "People used to call it the devil's plant." Wait. The leaves were poisonous. Did that mean she picked the wrong box? Maybe she should have gone with the green box. For one, stinksap smelled absolutely rancid, but it wasn't poisonous at all. It was probably too late to change her mind now though, so she stayed put in front of the red box.
His first piggyback answer. LOVE HEARTS AROUND HEAD EMOJI.
GUS LOVED PIGGYBACK ANSWERING OKAY.
Could he give points for it? WHO CARED. HE WAS GONNA. ”Excellent continuation of Miss James’ answer, Miss Sinclair. Take a point for Ravenclaw.” He really really loved piggyback answering, okay? It warmed him. It was teamwork that didn’t require too much work. It was collaborative.
IT. WAS. EDUCATION.
Oh yeah, the marker added the extra information alongside Phoebe’s answer.
SPOILER!!: Kaiser
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felixir
Oh yes, Mr Professor Rainwater Gus Man, Kaiser certainly saw you.
He was also... pretty relieved not to be questioned about his choice in box, mostly because it meant he didn't have to say anything in response. Nothing personal, just... yeah.
Kaiser had started to suspect that there wasn't actually a safe box out of all of them; Rainwater said there was, but he could be lying to prove a point about how much to trust the information before you. Or, they could all be technically wrong on account of how you couldn't accurately predict what plant would be poisonous without much more information. Or they were all wrong because they were all poisonous for one organism, but all were safe for another. Maybe there was another box in the room and the whole thing was some kind of riddle. Or maybe there was a right answer and Rainwater was merely helpfully trying to make everyone doubt their instincts, just to throw them off the scent.
Normally, Kaiser might have been a little ticked off that he was essentially overthinking something that was being presented as a very simple activity. He was, in fact, starting to feel the beginnings of a headache coming on, and that wasn't a good sign. But... he didn't mind. Thinking about this was... better. Than other things. He would take this. Thank you.
He stuck with the blue box, mostly because it had been his instinct, and he rarely went against that, and because he wasn't bothered about being wrong. But also because he didn't have enough to go on to make another decision; if you could figure out a plant this way, he was nowhere near good enough at Herbology. Not like...
... anyway. Poisonous plant. Kaiser was tempted to stay quiet, but a sense of obligation got him half-raising his hand. "Mistletoe." Dare he even say such a word in a greenhouse full of Hogwarts kids? Merlin knew, nobody present needed any ideas. "Poisonous and extremely irritating." Most kids here... they'd understand his meaning.
As for the rest of the questions, Kaiser left those for someone else to pick up about his suggested plant. So generous.
Yeah, there was no expectation or even suggestion that Kaiser should change boxes. Gus knew better. But he was also sure that the boy was now overthinking the activity and it was best that they kept moving with it all. Onwards and no more of that prolonged thinking, please, Kaiser. Pretty please. It wasn’t worth the hours that would be wasted. Gus knew from experience.
”Definitely irritating.” He said, an amused smile growing. ”Almost the season for them.” And boy oh boy had he heard some stories about the mistletoe culture at this school.
SPOILER!!: Eiji
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie
...........right.
"I'm certain, professor," he responded when Professor Rainwater questioned his decision. He was almost upset with himself for not outlining his thought process a bit more for the man...until he questioned literally everyone stepping into the classroom. Mind games. Right. No thanks.
This was so arbitrary and Eiji could not stand it. One or two words was not enough to go off of anything but WHATEVER.
His jaw did unset, a little, when Cecelia joined him beside the green box. Her effervescence somewhat demanded the change. "Your guess is as good as mine," replies with a wry smile. "Ever heard of a corpse flower?" Not the plant he had been thinking of initially but it had come to mind now. Which he probably should have kept to himself to not freak her out. "It's not an actual corpse. Just smells like one, hence the name."
Soon his line was joined by Bernadette and Julian, who he offered small nods in acknowledgement - primarily to Julian because he still was holding it over Bernadette's head what she had done ELSEWHERE but was also trying to be courteous per Rebecca's request - and then another first year he did not know the name of and did not entirely bother to greet because they were joined by Nina soon. He gave her one cursory glance and could just tell that they were sharing similar thoughts on this whole activity. "Oi, they're my sister's friends," he nodded curtly to the two girls she had shoved her way through. "Technically, Cecelia is more like family...so don't go shoving them."
For future reference.
Missa's co-prefect received a....speculative nod. Judge and jury out on this one, but right now he was mostly indifferent. And then there was another Hufflepuff who Rebecca had surely mentioned in passing once or twice but...he tended to zone out when she got to rambling about her housemates.
'I am rather concerned about letting you continue in this lesson if things aren’t being taken seriously'....
...this coming from the man who just said 'plant friends'. Riiiiiiight.
Anywaaaaaaaaay...poisonous plants. Eiji's forte, so to speak. Now it was more a matter of whether or not he felt inspired to actually raise his hand and speak. Though by now Professor Rainwater would have surely noticed he was particularly selective in how and what he spoke about.
"...some plants have pungent orders to attract pollinators as well," he mumbled under his breath in a somewhat off the cuff fashion to the first year who had taken the professor's bait and was switching groups. 'Dishonest flowers' were somewhat fascinating to him. Somewhat. Potions and alchemy purposes mostly.
Kaiser's answer earned a small chuckle from the sixth year. Irritating was an understatement. In solidarity, Eiji decided to build off the older Slytherin's answer. "Mistletoe is a parasitic plant," he added casually, NOT budging from his spot by the green box. "Meaning that it requires another plant to grow and survive. In it's case, typically oak and apple trees. This can sometimes lead to deformities in a tree's branches or other harm. Not the sort of poisonous connotations usually thought of when thinking of the plant, but still worth noting."
ANOTHER COLLABORATION PROJECT.
OH. HOW WONDERFUL. Gus burst into a flurry of claps for Eiji and nodded. ”ONE POINT TO SLYTHERIN!!!!! Wonderful information, thank you.” And it was all being added to the board and if Gus had the time, he would go and add a heart next to the answer to show how wonderful he thought it was. But he didn’t have the time.
Because there were more students in this classroom than this one and more answers to accept.
SPOILER!!: Gunnar
Quote:
Originally Posted by emjay
As he was standing by the blue, thorns box, waiting for class to begin, it was interesting to see who else joined him, even if he didn't make that overtly apparent. He might have averted his eyes just for a moment at one point, but that was in favor of focusing his attention, and his eyes, on who else might have chosen the same box.
And then the professor questioned his choice. Gunnar paused a moment, second-guessing himself, as he glanced at the other boxes from his position at the blue one. But perhaps that was the point of the question as he seemed to have the same inquiry for everyone.
"Certainly, Professor," he began, considering the man's asking for clarification as permission to indeed tell him about his line of thinking. "Honestly, the clues aren't much to go by as I can think of a poisonous plant for each of these characteristics." Even that first year girl knew that. "But considering that, I also know that many plants that have thorns are not poisonous and they use their thorns in the same way that some poisonous plants use their toxins - to protect themselves from their predators. And in that case, I chose thorns because if they have a defense mechanism already, then they are least likely to be poisonous."
It was still possible that he was wrong though, and therefore he did not like this game. And even though Rainwater made him second guess himself, Gunnar was staying put in front of the blue box. He might be wrong, but he had rationalized his decision and was sticking with it.
And as for the question posed for the class? Gunnar raised his hand after hearing some of the answers from a few of his classmates. "Oleander is poisonous," he added to the discussion. And actually had none of the characteristics presented with these four boxes. "It's a beautiful flower, but all parts of the plant are toxic to humans. Even honey made by bees from the nectar is poisonous."
”Wonderful deliberation, Gunnar. I’m impressed. I’m not saying you’re correct, but a very rational ideology. Well done.” More of a well done because he’d stuck with his gut and not changed boxes.
”It really is a beautiful flower. I actually have some.. Somewhere in one of the greenhouses. Another great answer. I’m impressed, class.”
SPOILER!!: Tom
QUOTE=Weasley174;12442039]Tom listened to the Professor, so was he sure he had picked the right box, well no he wasn't but all this was, was guess work. So he was going to stay here. The Professor wouldn't make them touch a poisons plant right, so what was the worst that could happen if he had picked the wrong box, unless it was a man eating plant, but then again where would the Professor pick one of those up from.
Tom raised his hand. "There's a plant called Angel's trumpet that I think is poisonous."[/QUOTE]
Another burst of clapping from the Professor and also a grin for this first year. ”YES! Levels of fatalities after ingesting Angel’s trumpet are high. For both animals and humans. Although a beautiful addition to gardens, they are much more dangerous than people assume.”
SPOILER!!: Minjae
Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckyLinJi
Was he sure about choice?
Of course not. He hadn't been sure in the first place and now with the Professor's cryptic words he was starting to doubt his decision even more. But what if he was right and the Professor was trying to confuse him and see if he would be influenced by what others told him instead of going with his own guts.
"The clues are useless anyway" he said with a shrug of his shoulders. He had never been good with riddles. In fact, he disliked them. "I'm staying with the yellow box" he didn't care anyways. Maybe if he got poisoned he could leave class?
Minjae was only half listening to the other students as they provided their answers to the first question. He did not raise his hand to answer as well. Most of the plants he had thought about had already been answered and what was the point of repeating answers? So he stayed quiet and folded his arms over each other and checked his watch. ugh only 5 minutes had past?!
Useless. Well.. his teaching input had been called worse, but he wasn’t about to take it to heart. ”Perhaps it is your interpretation skills that are useless and not my clues.” But that didn’t matter, they were moving on and Gus wasn’t one to dwell on the opinion of a teenager. Well.. for now, anyway.
SPOILER!!: Chloe
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bazinga
I'M SORRY!!
Was he questioning her decision based on who else was in this area? She looked around seeing her brother and Al, but that couldn't be why he was saying it, right? Did he not know that her favorite subject was Herbology and for a very long time she wanted to be just like her father who was a herbologist. Did he not realize she was good with plants and had been around plants since she was a baby.
"With all due respect sir, I think I've made my choice. Thorns might look bad but there is good reason they are placed on a plant. As my brother stated that many plants with thorns are not poisonous, though they could be yes, it is in fact the best guess I thought I'd make and I made it quickly because of my love for plants and knowledge of them. Our father is a herbologist if you didn't know." Just so she was very clear, so she wasn't leaving her spot and her choice was not going to change.
As for his question she had her hand up again, "There is a poisonous North American herb that wouldn't seem harmful, but its little cluster of white flowers contains a toxin called termatol. This plant is called White Snakeroot, it is also interesting because people have died from this poison not because they ate it but a cow did and it was transferred through their milk. "
Thank you fun videos on her phone and the seven top deadliest plants in the world.
Not.. going to take it to heart. Not going to take it to heart.
Teenagers really did have attitude problems. Time to start raising his children without attitudes, or to try at least.
”Miss McCarthy, saying ‘with all due respect’ does not guarantee respect to the person you are speaking to. Familiarise yourself with my rules before you attend another of my classes. Your love and knowledge of plants is appreciated, but you are also here to learn and your knowledge to be perfected.” Taking a deep breath, Gus tucked his hands into his pockets. ”And, if you didn’t know, I attended school with your father when he was at Beauxbatons. I’m well acquainted with his herbology work post-graduation, also. He always responds to my owls. I’m sure we can discuss this more outside of class. You know where my office is.” And that was all that he would say on the topic, unless she wanted to find herself in detention for disrespect.
”Wonderful answer, though. Thank you.”
SPOILER!!: Jillian
Quote:
Originally Posted by hjhm
Jillian's jaw sorta dropped in dismay rendering her completely speechless for the next 10 seconds when the professor questioned her. She wasn't shock mainly at his doubt- she clearly had them as well, but it was more of second guessing her already first guess. Then again, Professor Rainwater questioned the people before her so this is probably to trick them all to change their hunches.
U H H H H H H H H.....
She looked at the board and then carefully reconsidered the professor's suggestion. Will she move though? Hmm... perhaps not. "Certainly positive, professor" she nodded. A little bit concerned whether or not she gets the safe one amongst all the other choices. A Stinksap doesn't have the best smell HOWEVER it is used to tend ill creatures. Technically, in a way her gut is telling her that staying in the green box line is a correct decision.
Guess she will have to find out when the professor finally reveals the answer.
And as for the professor's first question, Jillian did raise her hand to answer "Poison Hemlock is toxic to both people and animals" she added to the list of answers. Obviously, the plant's name has poison on it. It does have a lot of names- depending from where you are from but it is mostly known as Hemlock or Conium maculatum. "This plant specifically blooms or grows in a more sunny environment. The dangerous part about this plant is that all of its part are poisonous- the leaves, stem, fruit and roots." which is why she completely don't understand why this plant hasn't been eradicated. Some people consider the hemlock as a garden plant. A GARDEN PLANT. She will never comprehend that.
Another that didn’t change box. Gus admired the belief that came with sticking to your guns. Jillian received a smile for it. ”An excellent answer. Hemlock is definitely dangerous as it looks very similar to other garden plants. Easily mistaken.”
SPOILER!!: Alessandro
Quote:
Originally Posted by pundantic
Alessandro had a perfectly good reason for selecting the box labelled thorns. The reason had very little to do with the subject matter, though, and so the seventh year did not extrapolate on his choice. No matter how interesting Rainwater considered his decision.
With the first question out, Alessandro listened to his peers catalog poisonous plants. He knew a few himself. Uncle Robert had a garden filled to the brim with lots of beautiful plants that were deadly. It was worth noting how often those two things went together.
Al raised his hand and said, "Laurel, sir. It produces cyanide." Which, for those that did not know, kills.
He liked this one. The answers were almost as brooding as he looked. ”Yes, yes. Cherry Laurel can cause serious illness or death in hours if ingested. An excellent answer.” He expected high quality of answers, given the level of education here at Hogwarts, but he was still surprised at how high the actual level was. Impressed. All the good things.
SPOILER!!: Lucas
Quote:
Originally Posted by hermionesclone
Me too?!
It was safe to say that Lucas jumped at the sudden sound of Rainwater talking directly to them about........ himself? He shot a glance over at Shivvy but decided to say nothing on the matter itself. This was just a joke, wasn't it? Maybe Rainwater was merely testing them from the get go? "I-I-I-" He cleared his throat. "I wouldn't say that?" Please save him. Please please please!
As for changing boxes, no. No no no. He didn't like the idea of moving boxes for one he was unsure about so he decided to stay precisely where he was. By the red box.
A poisonous plant? There were a few on that list and a few that were deadly by themselves but his brain was focusing on one plant in particular. A plant that had come up previously and was one of the poisonous category, he was sure of it. "What about Yew?" he asked, his hand up in the air, "The berries and leaves can cause sudden death without giving you a warning, which sounds pretty deadly as far as poisonous plants go."
Smile?
Another of the students that Gus liked was Lucas. Winding him up was… a joy and Gus laughed softly at the response he got from the teen. ”It’s alright if you would say that, Lucas. No worries.” Why was it so easy to jostle these kids up? And why did he enjoy it so?
”Indeed, the seed inside the berry is highly toxic, however… it is rumoured that in the minutes before their deaths, those that have eaten the seed have said it tasted quite delicious. I’m not sure why the beautiful and delicious always have the most consequences. There’s something ironic about that, isn’t there?” Just like his ex. Wait, no, that was bitter… ”Great answer, Lucas. Thank you.”
SPOILER!!: Heathcliff
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy
Heath was officially discouraged now. He hadn't been incredibly confident about his pick in the first place, but the professor's words made him doubt himself even more than ever. Blink, blink. Wow, that was… kind of harsh. Why did the professor think he hadn't read all the information? If that were true, it wouldn't have taken him as long as it did to decide! Heath was too shy to point out that fact, however, so he merely nodded in reply. He frowned, fixing his gaze on the ground as he allowed the professor’s voice to wash over him. Fine, if he’s so concerned about letting us continue this lesson, how about we don’t? He thought darkly. This nonsense made him miss herbology lessons with his mum last year. Was it too late to go back to being homeschooled?
Heath glanced from one box to the next, re-reading the clues for what seemed like the hundredth time. Smells bad… yellow flowers… clusters of leaves… thorns. He still didn’t think the red or yellow boxes were safe. There were too many examples of poisonous plants with either clusters of leaves or yellow flowers that he could think of to risk it, and if the professor’s reaction to his choice was anything to go by, the blue box was wrong too. So that left him with only one choice. Still keeping his eyes down, he shuffled over to the green box, trying to hide behind the taller students to avoid attracting the professor’s attention again.
Heath considered the question asked. A part of him wanted to list every poisonous plant he knew that fit the clues on the boxes, just to show how needlessly confusing this guessing game was! Poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac all had clusters of leaves. Wild parsnip, daffodil, and ragwort - one made people break out in a rash after exposure to the sun, while the other two were poisonous when ingested; all three had yellow flowers. The stink lily was poisonous and, just like it says on the tin, smelled like rotten meat when it bloomed, and the black locust had thorns and was poisonous to humans.
Had he been a more outspoken child, Heath would’ve pointed that out, but he was too afraid of losing points for not following the directions to name one plant. Then all his housemates would be angry at him! In fact, he didn’t want to talk at all, but then it would look like he wasn’t paying attention. So instead, he decided to go with a plant that didn’t fit any of the clues. A trembling hand went up, and Heath managed to squeak, “B-bittersweet. It has poisonous red f-friuts that look a bit like tomatoes.”
Another box changer. Gus heard the squeak of his marker making that change on the tally and looked carefully back at the young Ravenclaw. He disregarded the shake in the raised hand and the stutter on some words and nodded. ”It’s quite poisonous to animals, too. Wonderful answer, thank you.”
And that was that with this one. Gus didn’t know what was going on with him and right now, he didn’t care to question it. But those shaky hands wouldn’t come in handy when they moved onto their practical activity. Best to control them now.
SPOILER!!: Catherine
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey Ju
Catherine had never really been very keen on this professor's weird demeanour (what with all of the exclamation marks in her homework marking, for Merlin's sake? And in those words above the boxes. Why write as if he was shouting at them? Why? What was the point?). She felt she could judge him because at least he wasn't her Head of House who was also a target of her fervent judgemental looks nonetheless, but today was proving to be difficult not to give him a frowny, confused look every time he spoke.
This Ravenclaw hated vagueness and there was plenty of that going around this lesson already, even though it had just started. The fact there was only a couple of words written above each box to help them decide which was not the poisonous one was far from being helpful, especially as there were both poisonous and non-poisonous plants in all of those categories. Surely their professor knew that, but what was the point in trying to test them by giving so little information? Catherine didn't see that as a challenge, because there was no way anyone could work it out correctly without more information. Of course, anyone could guess, but was that really what was required of students during a lesson? To guess? It sounded too much like what most kids did in exams anyway, and that was far from being the right thing to do to learn.
Catherine would have been looking less annoyed if she wasn't being 'forced' to stand by a random box after hazarding a pointless guess (for Merlin's sake). If she would've been allowed to stand on neutral ground, she wouldn't have been as bothered. Stupid rules. Pointless guessing. This first year hated being wrong, and there was a 75% change that she would be and just- ugh.
She would huff right now, but that could draw attention to herself and she knew for a fact professor Rainwater wouldn't make this easy on her because he was probably loving this little set up of his and wanted full engagement.
For Merlin's sake.
As usual, she didn't speak up when a question was asked. She did listen and mentally comment on most of her classmates' answers, mainly agreeing with those who pointed out that there was indeed both poisonous and non-poisonous plants in each of those categories. Birthwort was the first one that popped into her mind when asked about a specific type of poisonous plant. No particular reason why, because nothing in particular drew her to that plant per se. It was probably because her nana had been talking about it over the summer or something.
If Catherine had to pick a box to stand nearby (and she had, obviously), and it would all be based on guess work (eye roll), she would use the plant that had popped into her mind to help guide her (to a random box. Eye. Roll.). Birthwort had yellow flowers, so the yellow box was out. Some of them had a foul-smell. So the green box was out as well.
But then there was an issue. Thorn and cluster leaves were two things that Catherine didn't recall birthwort having. Ugh, this was ridiculous.
Whatever. Red box it was.
...Merlin's sake.
No answer to his question from this one, but at least she had chosen a box. And it seemed like she had at least considered some options and thought about it. Which was a positive.
SPOILER!!: Józef
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harron Peasley
Obviously, Jó was stood by the red box, but that was more due to a natural draw to the colour of his house than having read the clues. He'd smelled one of them when he walked passed and that was the only other indication he had bar colour. No reading for him.
Ready to learn. Blah, blah blahhhhh.
Now that Professor Rainwater was talking about the boxes, Jó was more tuned into what he was being asked and actually looked at the clues. But he didn't move. Partly because he was lazy, and partly because honestly, he didn't have the foggiest.
As for the question... Well, questions... tjis kid had no knowlegde of poisonous plants. Nada. Nothing. Józef was just going to listen and try to remember things and probably not succeed.
Ah. Another quiet one. No matter. Quiet only meant that their answer had been given or they didn’t have anything to add. Which was fine. He was here to teach. Not to confirm that everything the students knew was right already. He wanted his students to progress in his subject, under his tutorship. Not just a thumbs up and a tick mark here and there. Progress was essential, no matter how perfected teenagers thought their skill was.
There was always something new to learn. Always. Even for him.
SPOILER!!: Naya
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daydreamer11
Naya was standing in front of the blue box when class began. The professor took a moment to clarify the instructions for choosing boxes. Then he said that they were free to change their choices. Naya thought about it for a moment and decided to stick with her original choice. She was not going to overthink this one and change her mind. It was usually when you doubted yourself that you ended up with the wrong answer.
Then they had a question to answer about poisonous plants. Naya had an idea, but before she could give her thoughts, someone beat her to the punch. Since her answer was already given, she decided to add some more information to the topic.
Naya raised her hand and began to speak. ”Poison ivy produces some oil that will cause a very itchy rash if you touch it. You don’t even have to touch the plant to get the rash. If the oil gets onto something else and you touch that object, it can cause a reaction.“
Ohhhhhhh collaboration collaboration. A quick round of applause (a little circle of claps, honestly… theatre kid here) and ready to move on. ”Take a point for collaboration. Well done, Naya.”
SPOILER!!: Siobhán
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lislchen
Shivvy smiled proudly when more and more people joined her over at the CORRECT box, i.e. the RED ONE. All those other students were so wrong. A cluster of leaves couldn't be poisonous, could they? Well, yes, of course they could be but in her eyes they were definitely the least menacing out of the four options.
Also Lucas was clever, right? And HE was standing by the red box too.
"Hey." She whispered back at the fellow Gryffindor. "I hope we'll get to jump into a cluster of dried leaves." FUNNY, wasn't she? She gave him a quick grin and was about to add something else when the professor suddenly addressed her.
CONSIDER her reasoning? What REASONING?
Did he know she was a Gryffindor?
"My choice was prompted by...the fact that...it sounded like the least dangerous. Leaves. They're fun. And I don't like yellow flowers." Pause. That probably wasn't a very academic reply, was it? "I think the fact that there are A LOT of leaves is already a kind of defense mechanism for the plant? So it might not need the extra poison, you know?" Good reason. Yes. Sounded good in her ears.
....poisonous plants. That was kind of an obvious focus today, yeah.
She glanced back Lucas and moved a little closer to him, as well as the red box. No way was she changing boxes. They were standing by the CORRECT box after all. "Yes, and and and it's used for wands. To make wands. Some of the wands." Shivvy added onto Lucas' answer. They were allowed to do that right? Plus, he hadn't mentioned that and she KNEW things.
Sometimes.
Leaves being a defense mechanism and therefore a plant not needing extra poison? Well.. Gus hadn’t heard that answer before in any of his classes ever. He nodded slowly, almost having to come to terms with that answer. ”O….kay. Leaves. No need for poison. Okay.” Moving swiftly on from that assumption and leaving her at the box she was staying at. Goodness. Gryffindors.
”Take a point for adding onto another student’s answers. Excellent point.” And they were definitely moving on.
- - -
With a clap of his hands, all of the information (minus the tally) on the board transferred to just enough pieces of parchment for all of the students in the class before those very pieces of parchment flew one into each cubby. See, no need for note taking things. He had them all covered. Because now the board was clean and ready for them to move on.
”Excellent answers, class. I’m impressed. Your knowledge of poisonous plants is impressive. But you have much more to learn and I am here to teach you just that.” Gus lifted to stand from the desk and took a couple of steps towards the group of students near the boxes at the back. ”Some of you have stuck to your gut instinct and stayed with the boxes you chose at first and others of you took my bait into changing. Gut instinct exists for a reason. I will not always be with you to give you the rundown of every plant you come into contact with. You cannot be naive around plants, no matter your personal opinion of herbology.” If they hated the subject, then he couldn’t do much to help them. He wished he could have been there with them all of the time though because some of these students were of the jump before thinking kind. Apparently, that was a Gryffindor trait? It sounded more to him like stupidity. But also, he was sometimes like that himself. So he related.
Not that his students needed to know that.
”There are many ways to find out if a plant is poisonous. Magical and not. Without magic, how do you think you could spot a poisonous plant? Which of your five senses, do you think would be most helpful trying to deduce that?” A quick look behind him and the marker was ready to list answers under ‘Methods’ and ‘Senses’.
OOC: Sorry about the wait on this post, guys. Exhaustion hit last night and it wouldn’t have been fair on you guys to give a post that wasn’t helpful or made little sense. Here you go, though. All answers are wonderful answers. I’m loving reading the reactions to Gus. I know his responses between people can be erratic, soz lol.
This time he’s asking what attributes about plants may give them away to be poisonous (some of the clues from the boxes are answers here) or are there any ways your character knows of without using a wand to tell? And also which of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) could be most helpful when trying to figure this out.
~ Mrs. Steve Harrington ~ It be like that sometimes.
The moment that she had given her answer, her gaze had moved to the marker. It was such a fascinating thing and not for the last time did Claudine wonder if Rainwater had any to spare… or rather, if he had any that he was willing to part with. But back to focusing on the actual lesson. Severing Charm, yes. That was indeed a handy spell to use so she nodded to Rainwater. Sour Sally here was paying keen attention. There was such a range of answers that she was pleased that it all had gotten transferred to parchment for them all. Rainwater made this so easy for them.
Instinctively, Claudine glanced down at the box she had stubbornly chosen to remain with. Sometimes, when she made a choice and stuck with it, it was because she had thought much on the topic. This had happened with this little activity. Anyway, she thought that sight might be most useful but the girl really wanted to speak about olfactory senses. “Smell. I don’t think there’s always a way of knowing which plant would be poisonous that way though,’’ she mused out loud, the fingers of her raised hand wiggling slightly before it was lowered. “After all, even a wonderful aroma from a plant could be poisonous. Like oleander, I think?’’ There was a small frown now creasing between her brows. Was oleander the right example? How did oleander even smell?
dream until your • dreams come true ~ Human pygmy puff
Naya was pleased that her answer had gotten a good response from the professor. Now the questioning was moving on. How could you tell a poisonous plant without using magic? The fifth year thought about that for a moment. She raised her hand to join the conversation.
“Well I think using taste would be the worst choice. After all, if the plant was poisonous and you tasted it, you would be subjecting yourself to the poison.” That kind of went without saying, right. “I think using your sight would be a good way to determine a poisonous plant. Some plants have certain characteristics that you can see that would let you know they are dangerous,” Sticking with her previous answer of poison ivy, she added more. “For example, poison ivy is known to grow in leaves of three. That would help you identify it if you happened to come across it.” Leaves of three let them be, the saying goes.
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Salt!
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Herbology Lesson 1: Venenum Hortus 
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