As soon as Professor Dodson said they could stop, Freeman threw his now-violet blood petal into the appropriate waste receptacle, clucking to himself that there was no 'hazardous waste' bin marked openly. He peeled off one layer of gloves so that he wouldn't spread any more microscopic bird-blood. Not that it mattered. As soon as he got back to the common room, he was going to submerge himself in disinfectant and then burn this entire outfit.

Freeman perched carefully on a stool and watched Selena approach the professor. A lie-detecting flower, was it? Well now that was slightly more interesting. This was a plant with psychological powers. He wondered if the plant was going to simply turn colors, or suddenly start screaming "LIAR! LIAAARR!". But--wait just a darn minute.

He raised a hand. "Professor," Freeman said suspiciously. "If this plant works as easily as you imply, then why would anyone go through all the trouble to make Veritaserum, which takes a whole lunar cycle and has a high failure rate?"

Ha. Answer that, if you will.

Heh. Smarty-pants Ravenclaw.

Yes, that's what he was thinking, but the Professor's expression didn't show that. As usual, he was smiling.. that ink splodge still on the end of his nose. "Understandable question, young man," he said with a slight bow of his head, "but unlike Veritaserum this flower doesn't have the power to make someone speak the truth, it simply identifies a lie." That was quite a notable difference he thought. "This flower cannot make someone confess their innermost secrets like the serum can. Do you wish to give it a go?"

Somehow he doubted it.

Fine. Tell a lie and get splattered, or drink some nasty stuff and spill your worst secrets.

Freeman supposed he could tolerate the former.

He stood up, placed a large piece of parchment in front of his face, and spoke clearly and loudly. "I thoroughly enjoy Herbology in all its fine forms!"

The flower that had gradually returned to it's white form quickly resumed the blackness when Freeman spoke up. Just like before, the inky liquid erupted and Sage who hadn't been smart enough to cover his own face got splattered once more.

"Not a Herbology fan, I see." The Professor muttered, slightly perturbed as he wiped his face.

The little puff had found a good amount of blood with her petal, and everytime that she did she would hold the petal up to the light and inspect her blood sample, watching the color change with amusement. Her petal was covered in blood by the time that Dodson had pulled out another plant that looked beautiful.

Hopping on her stool, she placed the petal on the table and scribbled down a few more noted before watching as two of her classmates helped to demonstrate how the plant works. The black ink spluttering out brought a small grin to her face. The twins would love to play with that plant. When the last boy went up, she swung her feet and waited for the next part of the lesson.

Not a magic detector...yet...still, a very useful flower, this flubler...whatever.
I soooooooo want to try it.

Kate stood up and tried to catch the Professor's attention "Prof., Can I try the plant?"

*smile smile*

"I would love to!!!" Nymphy said after raising his hand. Hmmmmmm, what to lie about. "I am a forty foot tall Abraxan with purple hair, a mullet, and the tail of a flobberworm!" he said exentrically. He watched as the platn turned an (if even possible) darker form of midnight black and exuted a particularly large amount of liquid. It was quite a bog lie.....


What the?!?!?!?!? How RUDE!!!!! Nymphy wondered why the professor didn't immeduatly take off 20 points! This kid was not only arrogant and selfish (which Nymphy could stand), but also rude and even.....puposefully hurtful! Nastiness and hatred were two things he could not stand..........

"If you don't mind me saying Professor.....Herblogy is one of my favorite subjects and I always give it my fullest attention and respect. Anyone who doesn't should really not publically vocalize it, as it is.......rude!!!!" he finished, trying and failing to not look at the kid. Where was the Ravenclaw prefect to keep him under control...?

Celandine had used all her petals, gently rubbing them against one surface or another until they'd all turned violet, though sliiiightly different shades. She wasn't sure whether the question had been asked, because she'd been so wrapped up in looking for blood samples, but once she had returned to her seat, Celandine put her hand up. "Professor, forgive me if this has been answered already, but is the colour change to the blood petals permanent? Also, I was wondering, would the blood petals be used for other things, like maybe quality control of blood pops and to test if runes have been anointed correctly? That is to say, with blood?"

She had the petals lined up in front of her and she glanced down at them curiously.


Celandine listened carefully and nodded, head tipped to one side. She had a thought.

"Professor," Celandine smiled at the cutie pie little Ravie at his question and subsequent lie. Well not everyone liked everything, that was allowed. Maybe he'd change his mind eventually? "Professor, if it works like a lie detector," Cela's hand flicked up. "It could be fooled right? It wouldn't be completely foolproof? I mean, an Occulmens for starters could easily lie in its presence, and if you were careful with what you said, and didn't quite lie about something or kept your comments general or ambiguous, it might not react then either, right?"

Hand still up, Celandine added to her question thoughtfully, "What I mean to say is, muggle lie detectors can, by those who know how to, and very rarely over all, be fooled. So what is it reacting to? Blood pressure? Heart rate? Breathing? Body language? A magical combination of those? Potions to slow down your metabolism, or calm you down would help you limit those responses, but I guess the Aurors would test for known techniques of fooling the plant first? Also I was wondering, does it work on all humans? Muggles too? And what about non-humans? If it is based on physiology, it should even have some sort of reaction to Goblins, Elves and Centaurs, shouldn't it?"

Woah, lots of questions. Celandine smiled apologetically, quill ready to jot all this down.

Wow that's a really useful flower. Zane grabbed his quill and began to jot down notes, and he couldn't resist, "The Ravenclaw kid that's a germophobe is really cool!" he shouted, trying to turn the petals black. He won't ruin Zane's new favorite class. He would probably regret it, and lose some points, but he would earn them back he swore to himself. Zane raised his hand to add his own question, "Like the girl just asked" he nodded to Celadine "there has to be a way to beat it, even if it's just a flower that's worn as a decoration, right? I mean, if there's a flower that is a lie detector, there has to be a plant that can nullify it's effects, right?". He grabbed his quill and added his own question to his notes, getting ready to jot down the answer.

"It is not so much a matter of fan-hood, Professor," Freeman said matter-of-factly, lowering the parchment and looking over the top. "It is merely I find that Herbology has a distinct lack of application to my personal academic plans. Nothing personal to you, Professor," he added. "I am sure you must--love it." The last few words came out kind of forced.

Freeman turned and stared, lips pressed into a tight line. "I didn't realize it was against the law to express one's opinion," he said coolly to the two boys behind him. "If it is, perhaps you've just broken the rule yourself."

He settled himself back on his stool and sat rather stiffly for the next part of the lesson.

Patroclus was amazed as the white blossom turned black, and sprayed ink, as the girl told her lie.
"That is incredible" Patroclus let slip, his mind began to tick over with all the applications of the plant. The most Humorous one he could think of, was using them to see if someone liked a gift they had been given
"Wow thanks....I love it" SQUIRT! Mwa hahahahaha

However now that the students knew of the flowers existence, they would all have to watch their tongues, in case a Fluffletuff was lurking nearby.

Ellie wrinkled her nose and giggled. "No! I just don't want it to touch my hands..." Haz-Mat suit?! This kid was WEIRD!

"Also," Ellie began, "People can fight off veritaserum, just as they can fight off the imperius curse, so you can never rely solely on that to tell the truth. Veritaserum works best when the victim of it is not in his or her right state, or surprised. But using this, you could tell without a doubt whether they said a lie. But, as you said, with this.. Fluffltuff Bloom you won't be able to force someone to talk." Yup. "Unless, as Cela said, there is a way to fool it.."

She would be much more talkative now. Now that they weren't 'searching' for blood.

Alex bit back a laugh beyond amused. This class was most certainly interesting she thought quickly writting everything down in her notes. She personally agreed with the idea of something being able to cancel the plant out.

Right. Gold nodded pretty cheerfully, though her face fell when Professor Dodson explained where the blood came from. Poor rooster! Propping her quill against a bottle of pink ink, the sixth year gently picked up a blood petal - she was obviously already wearing gloves. That was a really elementary precaution, something that had been drilled into her, in her first few years of school - and straightened up.

She found a few spots of blood, gently wiping a petal across each. They all turned purplish, some a deeper shade than the others. Gold watched the last petal she had grabbed a bit earlier turn a bright violet, and the lined her petals, taking them in with interest. Pretty!

Gold raised a hand. "Oh, and people can protect themselves from Veritaserum," she said. "If you fear you may be slipped some Veritaserum, there are ways you can safeguard yourself against it, in advance." She looked back at her blood petals, before raising her hand again.

"I would like to try, sir."

She wondered what sort of lie she could possibly tell, and once again succeeding in not chewing on her lower lip.

Dianna drooped the violet petal on the table as she wiped of some black ink from her blouse. Well she'd rather experiment on this one than to do the blood plant thing ever again.
"Professor may I try too?" she said as she raised her hand.

Noir tried hard to hide her gigle.."Wow..this class is so much fun..best class of the day" she thought..Noir raised her hand "Umm..Professor, does this flower is easy to find or plant?" she said

"Of course you may," Sage said, using commonsense this time and relocating the Fluffletuff Bloom onto the girl's desk. He was messy enough thank you very much. "Just tell a lie."


It wasn't really neccessary but Sage bowed his head in gratitude when Nymphy confessed his love for Herbology. He was only saying it because of what the Ravenclaw had said.. but it was a nice gesture all the same. He decided against saying anything else on the matter.

While speaking, the Head Girl had asked a lot of questions and to be honest, Sage had forgotten most of them. It wasn't his fault.. she just talked a lot! That was good though, that she was showing an interest and thinking things through. He appreciated it.

"It is indeed possible to fool the Fluffletuff," Professor Dodson nodded in confirmation, "the bloom works due to a magical fusion of body language and scent." Yes, he was saying that the flower had a sense of smell. "The flower responds to electro-dermal activity.. the electrical properties of our skin change when under stress or anxiety.. when we lie." he explained to the class.

"Due to this, the Fluffletuff works on ALL humans, magical, muggle and were.. and also verbal magical creatures," he confirmed. And just some more info incase they were curious, "the working of the flower also depends on how close you are to it.. the volume of your voice."


And to confirm his last statement..

Because Zane had shouted his 'lie' the flower reacted. Just as before the flowers turned black and the liquid erupted from the center.. he was glad he'd moved the Fluffletuff now.

"Now now," Sage said, one dark eyebrow raising, "let's keep the lies impersonal." He couldn't deny though, it HAD been funny. And to answer the question.. "a flower that can cancel the response of the Fluffletuff has yet to be discovered, but that doesn't mean there isn't one out there. But just as there are means to fool the muggle lie dectectors, you can fool the Fluffletuff. It's not very common, but it is possible."

Sage just chose to ..... ignore this kid for now. Hm.




After the bad reception the Blood Petals had received, Sage wasn't expecting quite so many people willing to try to the Fluffletuff. Good thing he'd been keeping a few in the storeroom.

The Professor returned with two more of the flowers and HOPED noone would choose to yell a lie right now. That would be messy. "As Miss Toussaint said, there are certain potions that can be used to change the reactions of the body.. this would confuse the Fluffletuff," he explained as he set one of the flowers infront of Gold. He hoped she was ready to get splurted on. "That can make the plant malfunction though.. which isn't a nice experience." Imagine it exploding every three seconds. Yeah..

The third Fluffletuff was placed infront of Dianna, and Sage quickly took a step back. "Off you go, tell a lie and see what happens."

He'd been waiting for this question..

"The Fluffletuff Bloom is difficult to grow, and it is unable to respond to lies until it has fully matured. It's not easy to find in the wild either," he said, "it tends to grow in the more deserted, arid environments."

Well that was useful to know, even though mostly Cela's thoughts about the plant were confirmed. Confirmation of facts was better than pure speculation after all. She took down plenty of notes.

She'd be more interested in trying to fool the plant, than having it identify a straight lie.

Dianna took a deep breath and started.
"I have blonde hair." Yes it was simple and obvious but she wanted to see the squirting action!
Looking back at the flower from pure white it suddenly turned into midnight black and one.two.three... SQUIRT!!!

You can?! Ooh. Ellie would like to try this... She wanted to fool it. Maybe after class...? She contented herself to take some notes for now. No way was she getting all messy for a lie. She knew she could lie. She didn't need a flower to prove it to her.

"Have there been any famous incidents where wizards have fooled it?"

"Oh,what a cool flower!" Pam thought. She thought that the 'quarrel' between the ravenclaw student and two others was funny, but she didn't laugh out anyway. Their 'quarrel' died down after a little while. She had seen other students try telling a lie and the ink squirting out from the middle of the flower. She thought that that was unusual. She raised up her hand to ask a question, "Professor, can we use the ink-like liquid, that squirts out from a Fluffletuff Bloom when a person tells a lie, for other uses?"

Zane smiled since the professor didn't take house points from him. Zane jotted down everything that Professor Dodson had said, looking to see if he found Zane's joke amusing. "Professor, what about if you pluck a flower from the plant? Does it still hold the properties and can you grow your own plant from it?"

Sage chuckled as the flower did it's thing and SQUIRTED.


"None that I can think of off the top of my head, no," Sage said thoughtfully, "they're rarely used in interrogation these days. Not now we have Veritaserum which is clearly the superior."

"The liquid is pretty useless," the Professor revealed, wiping more of the black stuff from a cheek. "As far as I'm aware it's only use is to make a mess."


"The Fluffletuff will only work if the flower is attatched to it's stem," he answered, "as soon as it's plucked from the plant, the flower is useless so I'm afraid you can't grow another from it." If it were that easy, these flowers wouldn't be quite so rare.

Alex started to write this down as well, it was interesting to her. She wondered what the actual class was about though. Perhaps something similiar.

Fallon was lost as usual. She had been taking notes and missed some things. She was definately going to have to talk to the Professor or get someone to help her with this class. The rate at which she was falling behind was just ridiculous. Fallon let out a sigh and resumed taking notes. She was going to try and catch up with what was going on before she participated.