Patroclus was sooo excited, not only had his patch been complimented by the Professor, it was now about to be filled with food.

Food he could eat!!

With his spade, Patroclus followed the specifications sent down by the Professor, and made three holes, 10 deep and 20 apart!!

Literally jumping from his knees to his feet, the boy hurried over to the seed collection, and was instantly stumped by the plethora of choices. The grain seeds were easy! Wheat for the win, that way he could make bread! A vegetable was all easy, Carrots! Fingers of Orange heaven! it was the fruit that trumped him.

After a lenghty deliberation, Patroclus decided on Rockmelon! Another great orange colour ball of heaven!

Returning to his patch, Patroclus placed his seeds into his holes. Rockmelon, check! Carrot, check! Wheat, Check! With a hand the boy pushed the displaced dirty back into the holes, and with his wand cried "Aguamenti!"

However the boy was two impatient! "Sir, how long will this take!" Hunger and excitement, Professor Dodson, had a crazy Patroclus on his hands!

Okay. Well, seriously now, tomatoes were scientifically fruits. But traditionally, that is cooking-wise, they were vegetables. So what was the harm in asking? It all depended on whether or not she was going to go scientifically or traditionally.

Abby picked up some carrot seeds. Tomatoes would be fruits for her today. She pressed a small mark with her finger into the patch of dirt in the places where she would plant her seeds, making sure they were the correct distance apart. Then, she dug a small narrow hole at the first mark and sprinkled the tomato seeds in.

"You'd have to ask Professor Carlton about that.." Sage said unsurely, tilting his head to one side. Chams wasn't his stongest of subjects.. "but for now, a rough guess will be fine."

"There's a lot of confuson over that, isn't there?" The Professor grinned, "scientists will tell you it's a fruit due to the seeds inside it, but chefs use them like vegetables." He noted that Abby was using the tomato as her fruit and nodded, "and Herbologists would have to agree with the scientists. Fruit it is."


"You're quite right, Gold," he confirmed, impressed at her worm knowledge. She either read a lot, or she liked worms a whole lot...? "Their castings make fertilizer and they can increase the amount of air and water the roots of the plant get. So they might look ugly, but they're very beneficial in gardens." So no pulverizing!!

"Nice sowing," Sage commented as he passed Patroclus who apparently had a question. It was a question he'd been waiting for actually.. surely they were all wondering how long the growing process was going to take, because NORMALLY it was a fair while.

It wouldn't be today though.

"Normally, it would take a good few weeks for us to see any progress with our crops," the Professor explained as he paced around, checking on their work.. making sure everything had been watered and patted down just right. They were all naturals, it seemed.

"There is however, a growing spell that we can use to speed up the process.. and many wizarding farmers will use this on their real farms. It's cheating, but it does the trick." His farming parents preferred to do things the old fashioned way.. but this way the students could see all the things they'd grown!

"So, has everyone done with their sowing? Or do you have any questions?"

So they were gonna make plants grow faster with magic. Would'nt that possibly cause some sort of harm. Theres always something wrong a cheater must face for cheating. In this case what would that be. But some times nothing happens so maybe the best course of action is to ask. "Professor, will the plant or it's produce be effected negatively in any way my making it grow much faster then it normally would", Herminny asked with her hand raised high.

"That's a good question," Sage nodded at Herminny, "and if you were using this spell on magical plants, then it would have a negative effect. Take the Fourfoil we looked at previous lesson for example.. if this growing spell was used on it, it would be unable to develop it's magic and would simply grow to be mundane herb." He hoped that made sense. "But today, we're going to use the spell on simple mundane plants, so it'll be fine."

Gold beamed. Gardening was one of her favourite pastimes. Sometimes, she wished she had a fancier one, like her friends had. You know, knitting or painting. But knitting sound SOOOO boring, and as for painting, the last time she had picked up a brush, she had made ended up with paint in her shoes. Oh, and in her socks, too.

So yes, she would like to stick to her garden, thank you.

Ten centimeters deep, twenty centimeters apart. Her approximations were obviously rough, but Gold was sure they would do. Pretty fine, in fact, that was the kind of thing she was good at.

She sprinkled a few seeds inside each hole, using the trowel to cover it, and gloved hands to pat the mud down. It didn't take very long, to be honest. It was simple charm-work after that, a case of Aguamenti, and she had watered each little mound of mud, each little mound that wasn't actually a mound at all, now that she had made the mud settle down.

"I'm done, Professor," she said, cheerfully.

Negative effects?

"Does that mean that the magic in the Fourfoil is linked with nature or matures with time, sir?" she asked, thoughtfully. "Or does that mean that experimental magic can alter or nullify natural magic?" Gold found it something to ponder over, no doubt.

Kneeling down next to the three holes she created, Evelyn placed the seeds into each of them before gently patting the dirt of the holes to cover them up. Awesomeness!

Rubbing her hands together to get any dirt or the such off of them, she picked up her wand to cast the water charm when Rae had spoken up. Mostly to Destiny though, but she couldn't help but overhear. One of the moments she wished she were rich?

Raising a brow, the Slytherin sat up straight and looked towards the older girl, before realizing what the problem was. "Jeans are washable aren't they?" she asked, not really knowing for certain herself. All her clothes were made for her. They could be different and jeans really weren't washable! But this meant, no more clothes that fit just right! No more handmade shoes for her... or things for her room...

Because she didn't have a room! Felix was probably already messing it up. Pffft.

Shaking her head and falling silent once more, Evelyn raised her wand and pointed it at the three little piles of seeds. "Aguamenti." she muttered, letting the water sprinkle over the seeds for a moment before stopping.

Amy finished with the, um sowing and then stood up, waiting for the actual spell

"That's exactly right, Gold!" Sage exclaimed quite excitedly when the Gryffindor managed to sum up his point quite nicely. "The magic in magical plants usually matures with the plant. So a very young seedling will have little to no magical properties.. but the magic within matures with time."

It seemed just about everyone had done with their planting now, so Sage drew his wand ready for the next step.

"But like I said, we're using the spell on mundane plants, so it'll be alright." The Professor perched himself near his soil patch and looked up at the students. "Now, about a half hour before class started, I planted some corn seeds right here," he pointed his wand at the damp soil. "Under normal circumstances it could take anywhere between fifty and a hundred days before this would be ready for harvesting. With a little help though, we're able to speed things up."

He gave his wand a little twirl between his fingers.. which turned out to be a bad move as he clumsily dropped it onto the muddy ground. Eh.

"The incantation we're going to be using is Cretum Accelaratus." He hastily retrieved his wand, gave it a wipe on his robes before repointing at the ground. "All you do, is concentrate on your crops growing.. point your wand at the spot they're planted and Cretum Accelaratus!"

The earth his was kneeling beside shook just a little.. the top of the soil loosening and making way for the stalks that gradually shot up until they stood at roughly four foot. And right there on each of the stalks were a few pds of sweetcorn. With a smile, the professor picked one of these and held it up for all to see, "and there we have it. Why don't you all give it a try? It may take a few times to get it right, but the result will be worth it I'm sure!"

Alex almost rolled her eyes before doing as the Professor said, it was a lot like Transfiguration something she was great at after all. "Cretum Accelaratus!" Alex chanted pointing her wand at the patch, directly at the plants growing in it, concentrating on the plants growing watching as the plants.. and tree grew slowly the apples growing and gaining color.. and the carrots along with rice.. interesting. "Well.. that's interesting." Alex muttered looking at the tree.. and other things she grew. She waited for the Professor to tell them what to do next.

Zane looked down and smiled. "I love magic" he muttered, grabbing his wand after wiping his hands on his robes. "Cretum Accelaratus" he said, pointing his wand down at his seeds. Slowly, very slowly, he saw the shoot's pierce the ground and they grew to mature plants.

Okay. Everything was done. And he was still waiting for the Professor to....ooooh, he was now talking. Yay!

Treyen nodded and watched the Professor twirling the wand around his fingers, then dropping, then the incantation. Okay, sounds good.

While he was certain that this sort of thing won't result in his plant growing so easily (because this was the first time he'd use the spell, and he was only a second year), the boy was up for the challenge, it should be fun to watch something grow so easily.

But he had one question, "Professor, do we also drop the wand like you did?" he asked, because truth be told, he didn't see any other movement for the incantation.

And there he was thinking they might need a few tries to master the spell properly! Sage's eyebrows raised slightly as he observed both Alex and Zane's wandwork. "Have either of you used this spell before?" If they hadn't they were clearly naturals!


And then he heard a question that made his ears turn a BRIGHT red.

"Uhm... no.. no Mister Lockhart." He'd been hoping noone would notice that, let alone mention it! "No dropping necessary. Just point, concentrate and say the incantation."

With a timid smile and ears still burning, he hurried off to check on the others.

Cheeky little...

Alex grinned at the Professor, "Well, No, but it's a lot like Transfiguration, you just concentrate and focus on the plants like you would in Transfiguration when changing something from one thing into another." Alex knew she probably didn't explain it well enough but that was what she felt like thinking of Herbology and another form of magic to help you get something done wasn't wrong after all, if it helped her that was a good thing.

Zane looked up, "Yes professor, I came across it in a Herbology book in the library. I've used it recently, but it took me about ten tries and a few different rose bushes before I got it right."

Oh. It wasn't necessary. Good.

The boy nodded, he only needed to point and...yes, the concentration part would be slightly difficult, starting with the fact that he didn't know which plant to grow first...perhaps...the radishes? Yes! The radishes, because they were small. Compared to the cherry tree, that is.

So, we're back to growing the radishes first. "Cretum Accelaratus!" point, point, point....and...blink. Yeah, just a couple leaves, but that's not it, those didn't belong with the radishes...

Uh-Oh. Those were not the radishes! That was the rice! Oh, well, it was still sort of growing...and that made Treyen happy. No one was hurt, because the seeds weren't getting into anyone's way, so, it's all good.

Rice. It took Treyen around five times to get a decent grow on that plant, but he wasn't sure if that's all they grew. He, of course, decided to move onto what he thought were the radishes this time.

Emmy tried not to giggle when the boy asked Professor Dodson about dropping their wands, but it still came out, rather like a small sneeze... She hoped no-one - particularly the professor - would notice.
Concentrating very hard on where she had sown her raspberry seeds, she imagined them growing into fine, bushy shrubs, with long, fruit-laden branches, and intoned, "Cretum acceleratus!" for a moment, nothing happened. Then the earth began to tremble, and all of a sudden, there appeared several massive plants - with potatoes on the ends of their branches!
Ah. Not quite what I was aiming for, but never mind...
She tried to conjure the same picture into her head, pointing at the raspberries, and repeated the charm.
This time, they sprung up, absolutely smothered in fruits. Emmy smiled, delighted with her efforts thus far, and moved on to the corn. She imagined it growing high above everyone else's, with fat, juicy yellow cobs on the top of the stems - she could almost touch them - "Cretum acceleratus!" she said firmly, and waited.
Her corn grew - about eighteen inches high. There were one or two cobs, but not really big enough to harvest, sadly.
Oh well, at least my raspberries worked out well... she thought, trying to make the best of it.

SPOILER!!: The man with the green thumb ^_^

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waterloo

"But like I said, we're using the spell on mundane plants, so it'll be alright." The Professor perched himself near his soil patch and looked up at the students. "Now, about a half hour before class started, I planted some corn seeds right here," he pointed his wand at the damp soil. "Under normal circumstances it could take anywhere between fifty and a hundred days before this would be ready for harvesting. With a little help though, we're able to speed things up."

He gave his wand a little twirl between his fingers.. which turned out to be a bad move as he clumsily dropped it onto the muddy ground. Eh.

"The incantation we're going to be using is Cretum Accelaratus." He hastily retrieved his wand, gave it a wipe on his robes before repointing at the ground. "All you do, is concentrate on your crops growing.. point your wand at the spot they're planted and Cretum Accelaratus!"

The earth his was kneeling beside shook just a little.. the top of the soil loosening and making way for the stalks that gradually shot up until they stood at roughly four foot. And right there on each of the stalks were a few pds of sweetcorn. With a smile, the professor picked one of these and held it up for all to see, "and there we have it. Why don't you all give it a try? It may take a few times to get it right, but the result will be worth it I'm sure!"

Patroclus was now really excited! Sped up crops! Gah!

Watching the demonstration, Patroclus was in awe of the fast growing crops, "Sir that is incredible!". For the first time Patroclus realised there really was a spell for everything!

Taking out his wand again Patrolus cleared his throat then spoke, "Cretum Accelaratus!"
With his wand tip, the young lion, pointed at each of the three mounds.

Nothing

"Profes-" before the word left his mouth, Patroclus watched mindblown, as the soil began to quiver, like water on a pond, and then parted as green shots shoot there way out.
From the frist one a grean vine began to coil its way out of the soil, like an angered snake. Leaves shot out from the central vines, and then flowers as well. The came the rockmelon, it swelled before his very eyes, and caused Patroclus to lick his lips.

Next to the melon, several green sprouts appeared, Pop Pop Pop! the boy knew below the soil, would be three lovely carrots! The wheat was a wonder to watch, moving slower than the other two, it unfolded like the wings of a bird.

They were all fully grown. "Never Mind"

Oh no!

Rae had gotten dirty once again. Destiny was glad that she wasn't the cause of it this time, instead she could point the finger at the Professor. It was HIS fault! "You can just 'Scourgify' them again." she whispered. Or they could get the house elves to do it!

Mwaha!

Blinking at Rae's question, Destiny glanced at her little garden. Rae..didn't know what it was? What was the girl doing, living under a rock while the Professor talked!? Chuckling at the thought of Rae actually living under a rock, she turned her head back to face her, "This is a GARDEN! We are planting things!" Fun stuff!

"If you need help, I'll help you."

......

Oh yay!

'Twas time to grow these vegetables! Listening to the Professor, Destiny nodded her head. She could SO do this! Pulling out her wand, she first pointed it towards her pineapple crops. "Cretum Accelaratus!" she said, concentrating on the fruit to grow. When nothing happened, she frowned and gave her wand a little shake. WORK, DARN YOU! "Cretum Accelaratus!" she said, once again pointing her wand.

Feeling the ground underneath her start to rumble, Destiny jumped to her feet, and ran next to Evelyn, "I think the worms are angry!"

They must not like to share their soil with pineapples.

Staring at where she planted the seeds, Evelyn suddenly glanced from Destiny to Rae...and then to the Professor. Good! They can continue now.

Watching what the Professor did, hoping to Merlin that they weren't supposed to drop the wand like he did since she did not favor dirt being on her wand, Evelyn repeated the spell in her mind over and over again before going to try it herself. This was like a...Transfiguration spell. And, well that was her second to worst subject. Pffft. Fantastic.

Alrighty then. Settling herself into a more comfortable position, Evelyn pointed her wand at the seeds the watermelon seeds that she had planted before saying in as much confidence as she could while imagining the fruit growing, "Cretum Accelaratus."

...

.....

Well that didn't work. Frowning, she was just about to try again, when she felt the ground start to rumble. OMG WHAT DID SHE DO!? Glancing to Destiny when she mentioned worms, the Slytherin shook her head in confusion before glancing to where Destiny had planted her own seeds. Was that coming from Destiny's stuf-

GASP! A LEAF THING!

Dropping down to her stomach, she stared at the small leaf like thing that popped out of the ground from where she planted her watermelon seeds. WOOOOT! Work in progress!!

Shhhhh! Treyen was trying hard to concentrate on growing radishes, girl!

Wait...worms? What worms? He'd seen none of those in his patch, what it they decided to move over from the girl's patch to his! Or one of those worms got hit by this spell and grew way too much!

He was...concerned.

And couldn't focus on the radishes.

Thank you, Slytherin girl.

"Professor, this spell works only on seeds and plants, right?" he asked, after raising his dirty hand up in the air, perhaps getting dirt on someone else, but he didn't notice that. And he didn't care. He cared about the radishes because the rice was all grown up, and now...worms.

Perhaps later he'll care about the cherry tree.

Eeeep!

Destiny wouldn't know WHAT to do if millions of worms starting flowing out of her dirt pile. She didn't want to be attacked by feral worms! What if they BIT her? She didn't want to go to the Hospital Wing, she wanted to, at least, grow her rutabagas.

As the ground rumbled a little more, Destiny too dropped down on her stomach like Evelyn. Too bad they didn't have a table to hide under at the moment..the people on the muggle box always hid under a table when there was trouble. "Evelynnnnn!" she whined and covered her eyes. "The worms are gunna get meeee!" And by the way the ground was rumbling, there must have been at least seven gazillion of them. Peeking out through her hands, she looked at her dirt pile, expecting to see these rabid, wiggly creatures..

But there were NO worms. The only thing visible was the GREEN of the pineapple top. She removed her hands and her eyes widened as the pineapple grew, and grew, and grew, and grew! Sweet Merlin, was it ever going to end!? "Evelyn?" her voice trembled, as she poked her friends shoulder. After getting Evelyn's attention, she pointed to the ever-growing pineapple, and lent in closer to her friend to whisper, "I think I did something wrong."

Ya think!?

"Whaaaaat?" she whined back, continuing to stare at the extremely slow growing leaf that was supposedly her watermelon. C'mon little fella! You can do it! Just a...few more moments!

However, her attention was suddenly diverted to something else poking out of the ground. Destiny's, whatever it was, was finally growing. Leaves! What was with food and leaves hmm? However, the odd thing about Destiny's was, it was growing. And NOT stopping!

O________O

"What did you do?" she asked in in slight awe and horror as she moved from her stomach to scoot away from the ever growing plant thing. No doubt getting a lot of dirt on her clothes, her hand slipped for a moment on a pile of rocks someone had created, causing her to pause where she was.

Ouch...

But, who cares about the teeny tiny cut. The, thing was finally revealing itself! Watching the now noticeable Pineapple grow from the ground, Evelyn's eyes and mouth were as wide and large as any pixies would be. Holy Merlin...

"What...did you...do?" she repeated slowly, staring up at the giant fruit. That could feed the whole great hall!! DANGIT! Why wasn't it a watermelon that Destiny could've done this to!

Speaking of watermelons, Evelyn's gaze quickly flicked over to where her fruit was, making sure it wasn't crushed by her friend's mutated fruit. Wait! IT WAS DONE GROWING! HER WATERMELON WAS-

Retarded. Obviously, Destiny's mutated pineapple made her watermelon grow all wonky...

Okay, so it was time to see how good her planting skill were. Glancing at her hand, Mina tried to get as much of the dirt off her hands. Yeah, she should have put on the gloves. Her nails seriously looked terrible and that was just not really that acceptable to her. Wait, was she really concerned about that. Oh no! She must be turning into her sisters.

Blinking, she shook her head and looked to the plot before her. Working with her hands really hadn't been all that terrible. She was just having a moment, but it was passing. Giving her hands one last shake, she reached back for her wand and cast Cretum Accelaratus.

Nothing. Yeah, nothing was happening at all. She planted and watered. It should have worked. Yet, nothing happened. Looking at her wand, she shook her head. Was it like broken or something now? It worked before though. Giving it another shake, she pointed again and cast.

Again nothing! Okay, this was starting to annoy her a bit. There was no way her wand was broken. She planted them correctly and she gave them enough water. Seriously, it would have worked! Pouting to herself, she stared at her little plot. Plant, water, concentrate.....

Wait, she wasn't really focusing, was she? Maybe that was why nothing was happening. Envisioning her plot full of strawberries and eggplants, she tried again. Lifting her wand, she took aim and cast Cretum Accelaratus.

Slowly, something began to spout from her plot. Okay, it wasn't like it was growing fast or anything, but it was growing at least.

Rubbing the dirt from her hands on her shirt, Dianna got out her wand and pointed it towards her soil.

She was kind of nervous and her hands were shaking and so decided to watch the others first. No good, it just made her more nervous.

Pointing her shaky hand towards the soil (yet again) she concentrated and then muttered.
"Cretum Accelaratus" she said. Something moved from the soil she swore she saw something but she guessed she had to try again.