2 - Harvesting (part 2)
 

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...otionsClas.jpg

Hecate had just unfrozen all the plimpies in the classroom... She'd even cast a deodorizing spell to cover the smell. Her classroom was ready, and hopefully no one else would need the hospital wing.

One could hope anyway...



Highlights
Opening Classroom
Greetings
Inside a Plimpie
Removing heart and spine
Removing Gills
Harvesting Slime
Peal Skin
Harvest Mouth and Meat
A baby fainted
Homework
Closing Classroom



ooc: This class is a continuation of Part 1, and will stay open for at least 72 hours (probably more.) Also thanks to Antarctica! for taking the picture of the Potions Classroom for me at the WWoHP, and to Ameh for makin it into a pretty graphic!

Chelle entered the Potions classroom, again. The room was pleasant smelling, and as she had been dreading, there were unfrozen pimplies on the loose. She wouldn't admit to anybody, but it had taken a lot of Ravenclaw spirit to come back here after the first lesson. Magical creatures were not her cup of tea, and she had come to realise that over the past few months.

But here I am, again.

Chelle took a deep breath and walked up to her place. She had survived Potion-making the first time around. She was sure she could do it again. All it needed was a stronger heart. And lots and lots of patience.

Oichi was s bit shocked when she saw the memo on the message board that potions class was to resume even after all the craziness of the last class. She reluctantly made her way down at the posted time and entered the classroom. All looked as it did before minus frozen students and she hoped it would remain that way. She passed the professor and said, "Good day professor, glad you decided to resume class", the moment she said that she wondered why she had? Her nerves were really getting the best of her. She quickly took a seat and tried to calm down a bit.

Alyssa returned to the Potions class and greeted the Professor. "Hello Professor. I'm glad to see that we're going to finish harvesting the Plimpies"Alyssa told the Professor
before heading to her workdesk, taking out her potions journal and writing materials and opened her journal and turned to the page where she had written the last steps that they had completed.



Then she sat back and waited for further instructions.

Ugh.

For the first time, Nora really didn't want to show up at the Potions lesson. Were they going to do what they didn't get the chance to do during the previous class? Torture those... dead plimpies? It was DISGUSTING. She was glad, though, that professor Lafay seemed to have used something to cover the awful smell.

"Hello, professor," the girl said with a rather grumpy look on her face as she wordlessly sat down where she sat all the time. Already regretting bothering to come to the lesson.

Nigel walked into potions ready to finish whatever they were doing with the plimpies last time.

He hoped nobody else freezes in class today, because then maybe the Headmaster would have to close Hogwarts and nobody wanted that.

"Hello, Professor", Nigel said as he went to sit down where he did last time.

Here we goooooo...

So, the frozen students were okay now, apparently. Finally. They were kind of interrupting everybody else's learning there. But they were back. Theodore dragged himself to the potions classroom, ready to continue getting mucky with his plimpy.

"Hi, professor Lafay." He said, taking the same seat that he took last lesson.

Merlin knows how many times the Ravenclaw doubled back and forth along the corridors and the stairs towards this class, not really wanting to continue what he feels is desecrating a corpse, and also still incredibly paranoid that the contagion was still hanging in the air and clinging to the walls of the Potions classroom. Had he been a little less studious and a lot more stubborn, he wouldnt find himself crossing the threshold of the dungeons once again.

He entered the clasroom with his lips pressed tightly together and gave a curt but still respectful nod at the Potions Mistress. No he wasnt being rude... more like, he was trying not to breathe too much of the air down here.

He made his way to his last seat and may have quickly scourgified every conceivable surface area of where his body will make contact. Finally he sat himself down, lips still pressed together, tense blue eyes trained elsewhere other than the splayed stiff on the table...

Ella entered the potions classroom a bit nervously. So things were back to normal now, right? That meant that no one would be unexpectedly freezing or anything...hopefully. She gave the professor a small smile as she headed to find her seat. "Hi Professor."

Sitting down, the second year pulled out her notes, some fresh parchment, and a quill. She was ready to finish this disgusting interesting lesson.

Aurora walked into the potions classroom feeling... different. Usually she'd be excited about potions but... well... considering what had happened over Christmas she wasn't exactly looking forward to being back in proximity of any sort of cauldron.

"Good day, Professor." she greeted, sitting in her usual seat. So they'd be finishing the plimpy harvesting... that was alright she supposed. At least it wasn't brewing... It hurt that she couldn't enjoy potions at the moment...

Alyssa turned and smiled over at Nate. "Hi Nate. Good to see that what happened last time didn't scare you away."

Why did it strangely feel as if she'd missed several classes in between this class and the last Potions class? Sierra usually had quite a few classes scheduled in between Potions, but for some reason, she didn't remember attending any of them.

Strange...

...but at least this classroom, and the professor, were both very familiar. "Hello," Sierra said, trying to smile despite how odd it felt to address this woman so formally. She took the seat front and center, right where Lafay usually stood. Normally Sierra wouldn't be so close to any of the professors. She liked to sit in the middle, where it was not too close but not so far that she looked like a slacker. For Lafay, though, she'd make an exception.

She cracked open her Potions textbook and decided to read a little while she waited for the class to start.

Minerva walked in quietly and smiled at the Professor, "Hello Professor Lafay, hope you are well." She looked around and found an empty seat in the front. She was feeling a bit better about sitting in the front. She made it through well at least part of a lesson without having any issues so hopefully the professor was over everything and this lesson would go just as smooth as her other classes usually are.

Hm... that felt... strange. Almost scary... maybe. Sophie entered the room and looked around anxiously. "Hello, professor." She greeted with a small nod.

She felt like sitting with someone she knew today. Quickly spotting her best friend evaaaa, Sophie rushed in her direction and sat down next to Ella. "Hey there." She whispered as she placed her bag under her seat.

Not wanting to aggravate professor Lafay, she decided to just stay quiet and look straight ahead. Who knew how the Head of Slytherin House was feeling today...

I am just assuming this is post us waking up...
 

Making her way to the Potions classroom, Kurumi had simply gawked at the calendar in the common room when she had seen it. Why were so many days missing from her memory and why had she woken up in the hospital wing? Nothing made sense and the Gryffindor was beyond confused, but the best thing was to try and get back into a normal routine, right?

Erm...hopefully...

Memories of the previous Potions lesson still rather clear in her head, for the most part, Kurumi entered the room and found her usual seat. The one that was usually next to Jonathan...only she had the suspicion that perhaps he wouldn't be sitting next to her this time...

And she really needed to speak with him. Actually speak with him.

"Good day....Professor," Kurumi said nervously. She still wasn't entirely convinced that the woman hadn't hexed her into the hospital wing, but managed to keep her expression neutral.

Silvia made her way down to the Potions classroom. She wasn't looking forward to more plimpy dissection, though this time, maybe, hopefully, they would get it finished so they didn't have to do it again. Hopefully this class wouldn't be as crazy as it was last time; they didn't need any more freezing students and unfinished lessons.

"Hello Professor," she said as she entered the room. Silvia took her usual seat and looked around. Was that the Slytherin Prefect, and the Gryffindor prefect as well? The ones who just sort of froze up last class? It was. Good. Hopefully the Healer fixed whatever was wrong with them and things could get back to normal... once they finished with the plimpies that was.

Oakey entered the class ready for a fresh start. Today he was NOT going to sit behind Sierra, today he was going to sit as far away from her as possible. looked around for a seat and saw that Minerva was sitting in the front with an empty desk beside her. As he moved to this spot he gave Professor Lafay a nice enough smile and sat down. Heya Minerva, long time no see.
Oakey greeted his Hufflepuff friend as he removed a parchment that had notes from the previous potions class.

Minerva smiled at Oakey, "Hey I'm good how are you?" she whispered back at him. She liked when her friend was around, but then she thought of something, would the two sitting next to each other set Lafay off. Would it remind her of the day at the sanctuary. She shrugged it off and kept getting her things prepared for class.

"Miss Adams, I understand you are a first year, and you don't know how I work." She said glaring at the girl, "but you should always greet the owner of the room you enter. It's politeness." Vindictus just didn't teach his kids manners.

"Hello Miss Paulidine," she said and nodded her head.

"Yeah yeah yeah... I'm sure you do, Miss Potter." She said glaring at the girl.

"Hello Miss Reed," she said in greeting.

"Master Barrington," she said greeting the boy.

"Hello Master Kinsley," She said and nodded to him.

She nodded back to the Ravenclaw.

"Hello Miss Lecium," she said.

"Hello Miss Bishop," she returned.

"Miss Stewart-Quinn, Good day to you." She said.

"Hello Master Jones." She told the boy.

"Good day, Prefect Gert." She said to the boy.

She smiled at the girl, "Welcome back to potions, Prefect Greingoth..."

"Hello Miss Gardiner," she replied to her.

"Hello Miss Wheatborn, and yes I am." She said.

"Hello Miss Campbell," she said with a nod.

"Nice to see you back, Hollingberry." She said with a nod.

"Hello Miss Talbot." She said to the Ravenclaw.

She glared at the boy.

"Alright... you have removed the fins and the legs." She said levitating her plimpy up to the board. "Now the next step is to cut from the bottom of the tail, down the stomach, all around the top, slicing it in half." She said and butterflied it open. "Go ahead... you do it."

Minerva looked down and cringed. She picked up her knife and began to cut the thing from the bottom of the tail, then she moved down the stomach, and around the top until it was in half. She looked around to make sure she was doing it correctly. It looked like she had done it correctly so she took a deep breath and looked at her work. Feeling a bit queasy, but satisfied that she had done what she was suppose to.

Ella smiled as Sophie sat down next to her but didn't dare speak as she wasn't sure when the lesson was going to begin. Instead, she wiggled her finger at her friend in greeting. Yup, finger wiggling was the new "Hi"...

And then they were getting started. Woah. No wasting time in this lesson...Ella looked down at the plimpy in front of her, then at Soph, then back at the plimpy. This was going to be gross. She just knew it. Picking up her wand, she cleaned the knife, knowing how Professor Lafay felt about clean instruments. She set the wand down once again when she was finished, picking up the knife now. *GULP*

Pressing down as hard as she dared, the second year began cutting up the plimpy, starting at the base of the tail and moving up the stomach. She did her best to pretend she was a doctor...that this was like a life or death emergency and she was doing this to save a patient. It was actually kind of helping...kind of.

When she got up towards the top, Ella cut all around as Lafay had showed them to, letting out a small gasp as the plimpy flopped open in front of her. YUCK. But at least she'd cut it correctly...bright side? Placing the knife back down, she looked anywhere but at the plimpy that was lying open in front of her. She was so ready to get the next step over with...

Nigel was happy to finally get back to a normal potions clas like it was last time before everybody started freezing.

Nigel wanted to follow Professor Lafay's example perfectly. He picked up his clean knife and started. He cut from the bottom of the tail, down the stomach, all around the top, slicing it in half. He even butterflied it open like she did.

Once Nigel finished he waited to hear the next set of instructions.

It felt strange being back as if nothing ever happened. Kennedy suited up with dragonhide gloves and a scalpel on his right hand, and briefly allowed his eyes to take a look around. Everything seemed fine, but just in case, he had chosen a seat close to Sierra. Which he had to admit was distracting, but if that Puffer kid tried any gooey intentions with her, then he'd be there.

He returned his attention back to Lafay, whom was already directing them what to do. With his scalpel, Kennedy cut from the bottom of the tail, down the stomach and around the top as instructed. He felt like a surgeon, except his patient was dead...and a Plimpy.

Hearing her name, Sierra glanced up and nodded. It was always good to come back to Potions class, even though she wasn't sure she was as good at the subject as her mother and sister were. She put away the textbook she'd been flipping through and focused instead on the plimpy in front of her.

Retrieving her scalpel and her wand, Sierra first cast "Scourgio" on the scalpel. Knowing it was clean of anything that might alter the plimpy in a way she didn't, she began to cut from the bottom of the tail, down the stomach, and all around the top. There now. It was sliced in half.

She amused herself by looking around for those grossed out by the task at hand. Wimps, that's what they were.

Alyssa watched as the Professor demonstrated the next steps for dissecting the poor Plimpy and then picked up her quill to quickly add them down in her journal.



Alyssa grimaced even more when she read what they had to do. Seeing it was one thing, doing it was another.

Picking up her scalpel, she cleaned it by picking up her wand and saying "Scourgify" and then gently picked up the dead carcass and slowly made the incision first starting from the bottom of the tail, down the stomach, all around the top until she had sliced the Plimpy's body in half.

The body flayed open in half in front of her. Alyssa took a big gulp and turned away for a second just to calm her queasy stomach.

Jory watched what Professor Lafay did and hoped he'd have no problem doing just that.

He grabbed his scalpel and cleaned it, "Scourgify!" he said. Reaching for the plimpy's tail, Jory began to cut its tail from the bottom. It reminded him a lot of autopsies from those shows he watched. He reached the stomach and continued cutting all the way to the top so that the plimpy was now cut in half.

The Badger was beginning to feel sick. Is this what his dad had to deal with everyday, being a detective and all being around dead humans?

Once Kurumi had shown up to the lesson as well, Stella's idea that maybe the weirdness that had been happening at Hogwarts was abating took on more certainty. If two of the frozen students were back to normal, odds were that meant everyone else would be too. Or at least they'd be back to normal soon enough, since maybe the longer one was frozen, the longer it would take to unfreeze. Either way, she needed to focus on Professor Lafay, as the woman started the lesson. Although she felt a bit proud that she'd managed to help prove that Ravenclaws could be polite, as she'd heard a younger Eagle get reprimanded for not greeting the professor. To the point where it almost sounded like the Slytherin head of house was about to insult Professor Vindictus, which only made Stella happier that it seemed like all the other Ravenclaws who had ventured down for this lesson had in fact been polite, including herself.

Back to the poor unfortunate dead plimpies, though, who looked even more pathetic now that they were missing their fins and legs,and she managed to not flinch as they'd been told the next step was to split the creature open. Now it seems even more like we're performing a plimpy dissection, she thought, making note of every movement the professor had made during the demonstration and then adding it to the notes she'd started in the previous portion of the lesson.

Text Cut: Stella's Potions journal

Plimpy harvesting

Step 1: Untangle the plimpy's legs. (They commonly get tied together by merpeople to keep them from being able to damage their property.)

Step 2: Remember to put gloves on.

Step 3: Clean scalpel.

Step 4: Make an incision under the scales near the plimpy's fins, then carefully remove the fins and place them in the collection tray.

Step 5: Rotate legs widely one at a time until the joint pops out, audibly.

Step 6: Carefully cut at the loose skin around the dislocated joint, removing the leg and placing it into the collection tray as well.

Step 7: Cut the plimpy open/in half, starting at the tail and running scalpel straight up around the stomach to the head

Once that was finished, however, the only thing left she had was to actually butterfly her own plimpy, and she found herself taking a deep breath before picking the scalpel up again. "Scourgify," she cast, flicking her wand out of its holster long enough to cast the spell to clean the tool, then making sur eit was safely back home as she slipped her gloves on. She didn't want to deal with plimpy juice on her hands, not after the panic from before. Once her gloves wer securely on her hands, she took the scalpel and carefully inserted it at the base of the plimpy's tail and moved upward to loop over the stomach and toward the head. Trying not to think of the plimpy as a real creature, if only to keep herself from the litany of apologies in her head that had started the process last time, and she only gave it the briefest of glances as it splayed open like the demonstration plimpy. The less she had to stare at it, the better.

And now they were back to... harvesting.

Sad eyes finally look down at the dissecting tray. Poor plimpy looked a little dried out but it was just as he left it. Giving a little silent thought for the repose of the noble creature he pressed his gloves tightly around his fingers, pulling them snugly up his arms and making sure he was nice and covered by his robes. He then took to the scalpel and started slicing the creature with great care, from the tail, then up the stomach until he had a clean cut all the way to the top of the creature. Using the edge of the scalpel he lifted the skins and folded them to each side. He found himself staring at the internal organs of the creature. Sad it was, but he cant deny appreciating about how these things connected so neatly together.

BNLEEEEEH.

Theodore was trying to keep an open mind about this lesson, because potions was cool and he couldn't wait to get brewing, but SLICING open a lil animal was soo gross. He pulled his gloves on tightly and hesitated, before beginning with his scalpel at the tail.

Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, slimy, ewww, gross.

Slicing his way up the plimpy's body, he dropped the scalpel immediately when it sliced in half.

This was gory stuff.

Chelle turned a bright pink as Professor Lafay scolded her. "Um, sorry, Professor. G-good morning?" she attempted, meekly. What was with her these days? She hadn't greeted the Professor! Stupid, silly Ravenclaw. This might cost her a few housepoints. And it was Lafay. She had to be extra careful. She's got a horrible glare.

Muttering under her breath, Chelle turned to look at her plimpy. There it was, sitting right in front of her, without its fins and legs. Now they had to... slice it in half? Chelle gulped. Right. This'll be fun. Glancing around the room, she saw others doing exactly what they were supposed to. And most of them didn't seem to have any problem with it! She grabbed her scalpel and held the creature in position. Then she sliced it all the way from the bottom, cutting it in half along its length.

It was slimy stuff. Chelle felt sick.

This is so gross," she commented, and sincerely hoped that Professor didn't hear her.

I've been here... *shifty*
 

Kurumi bowed her head again shyly when Professor Lafay returned her greeting. It was awkward seeing people sort of stare at her like they were now, almost like she had come back from the dead or something.

Sinking into her seat a little, Kurumi tucked a strand of hair behind her ear just in time to catch Jonathan entering the classroom and find a different seat. She had sort of expected this, after what had happened last lesson. Who would want to sit next to the girl who froze randomly, right? Keeping her eyes ahead on the plimpy in front of her - the one that was looking less and less like a plimpy with each cut - Kurumi slipped on her gloves and listened to the next set of instructions.

Oh, erm...this was going to be...not so good.

Kurumi could already feel her stomach churning at the mere thought of what they were about to do, so she attempted to focus her thoughts on something else. Only it was proving to be rather difficult. After Scourgify-ing her scalpel, the Gryffindor timidly inserted the blade at the base of the creature's tail and slowly made her way up it's front until she had made a clean cut all the way around. Rather reluctantly, Kurumi removed the blade and shut her eyes tight. She really didn't want to see the creature actually sliced in half.

Louisa watched Lafay get down to work, and she simply just listened to her as her eyes skimmed the students... trying to spot out all the previously frozen ones. But when the cutting seemed to get more detailed, the Ravenclaw turned her attention back to the professor.



The Ravenclaw waved her wand at the scalpel before she started the procedure. There was no question about the grossiness of this job, she was aware to lift her hair into a nice pony tail and not keep it awesome loose like last time. She still had some auburn strands to it too, from that.. err... incident with Joao and the Odessa girl. But whatever.. she could always say she did this on purpose. Heh.

Piercing the skin at a spot at the bottom of the tail, the scalpel started making its way down the stomach.. all the way arooooound... till it reached the top. Louisa stopped then and folded the skin outward.

Tucking away his notes, he got hold of his scalpel and cleaned it with the cleaning spell and looked at his Plimpy. The last time their Potion’s class was cut short, Mordred’s mood got really gloomy. He was truly excited about opening up the creature...any creature actually and harvest the parts that can be useful in making a potion and it had to be suspended because of the freezing drama.

Psh.

Mordred’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration and pressed the plimpy gently and started to slice it off starting from the tail, down the stomach and around the sides and gently opened the plimpy. He stared at it for a moment and looked up at the professor awaiting her next instruction.

Ah, another Potions. Another gross activity. She listened intently to her Professor's instructions. They needed to cut the thing in half. Eeew, eeew, eeew!

Though, she had learned to like Lafay throughout her years in Hogwarts, she still couldn't get used to this kind of stuffs. Saying 'hi' at her Plimpy again and with a nod, Erin pulled out her wand and Scourgified everything she would use, even the slightest dirt wouldn't passed to Lafay. She put on her gloves after returning back her wand to its holster. Using the scalpel, Erin cut the Plimpy from the middle of its tail up to its stomach and finally, the head. Eeeeek! With the Plimpy cut in half, Erin held the sides and opened it up. There were its internals.

been here all along..
 

Sarah looked at her plimpy, so innocent... She took out her scalpel and set to work, cutting from the bottom of the tail and headed down the stomach and around the top. There - it was in two halves.

Annabelle heard the next set of directions after she removed her final leg. She next got her knift ready to cut from the bottom of the tail up. "Alright Belle, it is okay, you can do this, it won't be that bad." she told herself. She made the incision to cut the tail and went down all the way to the stomach and around the top. She saw the she sliced the plimpy in half! At least she did it right. She felt a little squeamish but it subsided after she took deep breaths.

Oh, no. OH, NO!

As professor Lafay finished giving them the instructions, Nora felt sick. Actually, she didn't even need to listen to feel that way, only looking at the poor plimpies. Poor, poor things.

With the gloves on, and one hand covering her mouth, to prevent her from mumbling something she might regret later, and also to... you know, try and NOT feel sick. She barely even looked as she cut from the bottom of the tail, down the stomach and so on, just as they were told.

SHIVERS ran down her spine and on the back of her neck.

Messer watched as Professor Lafay demonstrated the next steps to the class. Then he went to work after the Potion Mistress said so. After he made sure that his scalpel was clean enough, he sliced the plimpy from the bottom of the tail then down to the stomach till reached the top.

That's gross!

She watched everyone as they opened their plimpies.

"As a reminder, please note the buckets in the back of the classroom. Please don't get it on the plimpies, they won't keep with throw up on them." She said.

"Alright let's take a look at what's inside a plimpy." She engorgioed the creature floating in front of her so everyone could see. She charmed the board to write what everything was in the areas it was on the plimpy.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...ntAnPlimpy.jpg

"Notice the eye, it rotated inwardly as we opened the plimpy. Just take your thumbs and poke them out... they will pop right out of the socket." And as she did a disgusting, wet popping noise came from the area. "Then place them in your harvesting tray." She did so and moved a hair from her forehead with the back of her wrist. "We have yet to wash and clean the items we placed in there. Because the fins, the legs and the eyes come out fairly. These other organs will need some cleaning." She went to the box of tools, and pulled out a dish and filled it with a aguamenti charm. "Take a dish and fill it with water and now we'll go for the heart. Use your hands, not a scalpel. Easier to feel, to get it all out. Well..." She looked at the kids, "go on."

Al

As Oichi watched the professor cut her plimpie clear in half she felt her stomach turn. Soon the professor gave the instruction to results peat what she did and Oichi slowly picked up her scapal. She dug into the rear of her plimpie just above the tail. She cringed but then kept going shaking as she slowly cut through the body and within 5 minutes she finally finished. The insides looked aweful. She turned away in efforts not to up chuck before the next instructions.

Daichi looked at his plimpy on the desk and thought it was a poor little fella before he looked back up to see the Professor levitating her own plimpy. That was a poor little thing as well...

But back to business. The Slytherin grabbed his knife and scourgified it with his wand. He then pressed it on the top of the creature and sliced it down towards the tail.


He looked at the eye of his own plimpy when Lafay told them that it rotated inwardly. The disgusting popping sound reached the Slytherin's ears and looked in between fascination and repulsion.

He used his own thumbs to pop the eye out, his stomach turned at the action before he placed it in the harvesting tray.

The Aguamenti charm.... Daichi's eyes went to Kurumi for a second. The last time he had used this spell was to wake her up during class and it hadn't went so well either..hehe. "Aguamenti!" he said as he pointed his wand at the dish. Luckily no STREAM OF DOOM came out like what had happened during care of magical creatures.

Use hands, no scalpel. Daichi's mouth dropped slightly. As much as he was fascinated by this...this next step grossed him out. He digged his fingers in to the cut open plimpy and made a face. With the squelching sound and the slimy stuff around his fingers, Daichi couldn't help it anymore. He gagged and made a cough/puke noise and in a second he had ran to the other end of the classroom. Where the buckets were and hunched over. His face red with his coughing though he did not puke or anything.

It was merely the thought that his fingers were in that creature, searching for the heart that made him gag. And it was better to run for the buckets and have a false alarm than not going and puke all over the plimpy.

Watching the enlarged Plimpy, the Ravenclaw couldn't help but make a face at what Lafay was doing. She didn't mind that she was going to do those exact steps in a few but.. watching them enlarged like this.. ekh.



Louisa looked down at the Plimpy in front of her, she put her quill away and flexed her hands getting ready to harvest... stuff from it. First she started working on the first eyes, grabbing it with her fingers until it made that sickly gross popping slimey sound and came out in her hand. Louisa discarded it into the tray and did the same for the other eye.

She then used her wand to fill a bowl with water by casting Aguamenti. Then she took a grab of the Plimpy's little heart... it was still warm somehow. Louisa swallowed and looked up at Lafay waiting for more instructions. Quickly before she actually felt something as her hand was still touching the heart.

Mordred looked from his Head of House to the buckets at the back of the classroom. He smirked as he eyed his classmates who most of them were all about to throw up. He wondered why they were so grossed out about the Plimpy? Most if not all of the Potions ingredients somehow came from magical creatures anyway, and they didn’t show signs of throwing up...or yes, fainting.

He got his notebook again and quickly drew the Plimpy and its parts, and how to harvest the eye and heart. After writing everything down, he closed his notebook and rubbed his hands together. Now, for the eyes, he used his right thumb and placed it over the eye and pushed it. A small popping sound was heard, and the Plimpy eye came out. He got hold of it using his thumb and index finger and placed it on his other work tray. Came next was the heart. He got his dish from the tool box and cleaned it first. Nothing beats clean tools and all that—ingredients must come in pure form around here. No contamination whatsoever. He got his wand out once more and tapped the dish and muttered “scourgify.” Inspecting that it was clean, he tapped it again, and muttered “aguamenti”. He waited until the dish was half filled with water and lifted the spell. He turned his attention back to his Plimpy and eyed the heart. He placed his index finger and thumb and got hold of the heart. Slimy stuff surrounded it and Mordred must admit that it was a bit hard to get it. A few moments later, he successfully got it and held it up and examined it. “A tiny part can do so many wonders...” he thought to himself and his thoughts were broken when someone dashed to the back of the room. He saw that it was his house mate gagging, and it made Mordred chuckle.

He turned his attention back to the professor still holding the Plimpy’s heart. She didn’t say to put it on the dish, yet and he guessed that the water needs another ingredient perhaps to clean the heart?

Alyssa couldn't believe her eyes and ears when she heard the Professor tell them they now needed to remove the internal organs for real. She watched as the Professor demonstrated and took another gulp wanting to close her eyes when she saw the Professor dig in with her thumbs and remove the Plimpy's eyes. Then her eyes opened wide when the Professor told them that there were going to be removing the heart as well. ''Oh Merlin, I'm glad that I didn't eat much today.' Alyssa thought to herself, rubbing her head where her headache was starting to develop again.

Once the Professor was done with the demonstration, Alyssa quickly picked up her quill and wrote down the next steps in her potions journal. Scratching off what she had already completed.



She then put down her quill and took another deep breath before reaching out with her hands and inserted her thumbs into the socket. The moment she felt the softness of the eyes, she felt queasy again and immediately pulled her thumbs out. Alyssa waited for another minute or two before she reached back into the eye sockets and this time with determination, poked her thumbs into plimpy's eye sockets and dug in poking the eyes out. She gently picked them up and placed them in the harvesting tray.

Then she picked up the tray, tried to clean off the gunk off one hand by wiping it against her robes before picking up her wand and cleaning the tray by using the "Scourgify" spell. Then she inspected the tray to make sure that it was clean before she pointed her wand inside it and said, "Aguamenti" filling up the tray with water. Once it was filled, she ended the spell by saying, "FINITE".

'Now for the yuckiest part so far.' Alyssa thought to herself. She first looked at the chart that Professor Lafay had shown them, located where the heart was and then reached into the Plimpy's chest with both her hands. She felt around for the heart, tracing the Plimpy's veins and arteries back to where it lay. Once she located the heart, she held it in her hands. Now what were they supposed to do next? The Professor hadn't told them.

So Alyssa looked around and when she saw that some of the other students were removing the heart and placing in the tray, she lifted up the heart and pulled it out using as much strength as she could to separate it from the blood vessels while being careful not to damage the organ.

Once she had the heart safely in her hands, she gently placed it in the tray filled with water. Then she sat back and waited for further instructions.

Buckets? Don't get what on the plimpies...oh...

Kurumi wrinkled her nose and covered her mouth for a moment. Hearing the word was almost enough to make her want to do it, but she was somehow able to keep it all down.

Did the woman really have to enlarge the creature? Couldn't they have just used a diagram or something instead of a larger than life size sliced in half plimpy? Kurumi definitely kept her hand over her mouth as Professor Lafay continued with her explanation.

Just take your thumbs? Kurumi swallowed hard and tugged on her gloves for a moment to sort of make sure that they were still on properly and then bit down on her lip as she slowly pushed her thumb under the plimpy's eye and... *POP*

Okay, that was sort of gross.

Repeating this with the second eye, Kurumi quickly placed both of them on the tray without giving them a second glance. But...wait...wash the items?! Hadn't some of them vanished earlier after being placed on the trays? Well, that had been last lesson so perhaps that didn't matter? But then she went on to explain about the organs requiring the cleaning. Well, that made sense and, surprisingly, Kurumi wasn't entirely freaked out by this. She had helped her mother clean fish before and this really wasn't all that different...ish.

Grabbing a dish, Kurumi caught the glance from Daichi and gave him a small but encouraging smile before casting Aguamenti herself and filling her dish with water. Again, Kurumi checked her gloves before pulling aside the skin over the chest cavity and swallowed again. Okay, never mind, this was nothing like cleaning a fish. With her left hand Kurumi moved things aside until she found the heart. Swallowing nervously yet again, Kurumi reached timidly with her right hand until she had it cupped in the palm of it and sort of tested its weight absently before giving it a small tug. She was rather surprised at how easily it came out and Kurumi gently set it in the water-filled dish.

Sierra smirked when Lafay warned them about throwing up. Was someone really sick? Or looking like they might be? Wimps...

She turned her attention to the enlarged plimpy in the front of the room. Her eyes flickered from the plimpy in the front to her own plimpy, as she studied the eyes. She smirked again when Lafay instructed them to pop the eyes out of the sockets. Poor Puffers. They were probably like fish out of water in this lesson. Ha.

She pressed her thumbs against the plimpy's eyes and popped them out. She dropped them into the harvesting tray then filled a dish with water. With that done, she cleaned her hands then reached in and grabbed a hold of the heart. She twisted it one way and then the other, trying to pry it loose yet not shred it to pieces at the same time. Finally, it popped out.

Oh, hey, look. A whole heart. Interesting.

Jory took a deep breath.Sure, he was feeling a bit sick but he was sure he won't need the bucket. He studied the diagram of the plimpy and listened to what Professor Lafay said.

"Poke the eyes out with our thumbs?'' he thought. "No instruments?'' He shrugged and did as was instructed. With a squelching sound they were soon out and he placed them on the harvesting tray.

The badger then found a dish and filled it with water, "Aguamenti!''.

"Now for the heart,'' he thought. Jory got his hand into the plimpy and began to feel around until he located the heart. Carefully, he pulled it out. "Fascinating.''

Erin would never throw up. She was a big girl now and a strong, clever and a brave Ravenclaw, Alice herself told her that. And those buckets should be kept away from Erin and any other students who would throw up. She would never stand seeing someone throw up. With food. Eeeeew!

Erin gave her full attention to Professor Lafay as she discussed what they would be doing next. The eyes. Erin held the Plimpy's opened head and poke its eyeballs out. She deposited her harvests to the tray. She then took a dish and filled it with water using the Aguamenti spell. She riveted her attention back to the Plimpy, cleaned her hands and used it to get the creature's heart. Slowly and carefully, she removed it from the Plimpy's opened body.

Well, getting sick by looking at the innards of the poor Plimpy wasnt something this Ravenclaw would have to worry about, its when other people getting sick and him seeing them getting sick thats the problem.

So yeah, dont nobody get sick near Vickers now ya hear?

Studying the innards up on the board wasnt so bad, it gave his mind something to focus on instead of wallowing on what the Plimpy's spiriti might be thinking. Adding a few more on his parchment, he sketched the anatomy and its labels as best he could.

But then his lips pressed to an even thinner line when the Potions Mistress mentioned about POPPING the eyeball out. He wasnt even sure if his gloved pinky finger would even fit the socket for popping. So instead he used the tip of the handle of the scalpel to assist with said popping, trying to remain focused on the task at hand, and keeping his sympathies for the creature in check.

After getting both eyeballs out he set them aside in the tray where the fins and the legs where. But his head turned sharply when the Professor said that they will be taking the heart next. There was like a death knell that went off in his head. Yes he knew the Plimpy was already very dead, but taking the heart out of the body gave some kind of finality to what he sees was already a very sad procedure. He waited until most people got their bowls before standing up to get his own, making a real slow process of going back to his table and filling the bowl up. When he has finally done so he sighed deeply as he stared at the innards of his own Plimpy once again. Wouldnt they need to take the organs away first before getting to the heart nestled within? He tried to gently push the organs aside, careful as not to tear or pierce them as he reached in for the delicate, grape-ish organ. Guh feeling soooo bad now. With a few tugs he managed to pull it out, but with these delicate fan-like structure coming along. He winced and gulped before raising a gloved hand "Uhm Professor.... should we leave the gills behind?"

So far, so good. Stella hadn't lost her focus as the plimpy had fallen open in front of herself, although she was still trying not to look at it as much as possible. It was highly possible that was the only thing keeping her from gagging, but then, as Professor Lafay actually pointed out that she'd prefer they keep the vomiting to the buckets in the back as opposed to on the plimpies, she became even more determined to show that she could handle this. Besides, oddly enough, this wasn't the worst thing she'd had to survive when it came to Potions classes here at Hogwarts, not in the least. She still made sure to copy the new steps down in her notes before dealing with even more plimpy goop on her hands, however. Avoiding actual physical evidence in her notes seemed like the best idea for not having problems later on, and seeing as they were being told to use their hands for the next few steps meant notes first.

Text Cut: Stella's Potions journal

Plimpy harvesting

Step 1: Untangle the plimpy's legs. (They commonly get tied together by merpeople to keep them from being able to damage their property.)

Step 2: Remember to put gloves on.

Step 3: Clean scalpel.

Step 4: Make an incision under the scales near the plimpy's fins, then carefully remove the fins and place them in the collection tray.

Step 5: Rotate legs widely one at a time until the joint pops out, audibly.

Step 6: Carefully cut at the loose skin around the dislocated joint, removing the leg and placing it into the collection tray as well.

Step 7: Cut the plimpy open/in half, starting at the tail and running scalpel straight up around the stomach to the head.

Step 8:Once the plimpy is opened, use thumbs to carefully pop the eyes out of their sockets, placing them in collection tray.

Step 9:Clean a separate dish carefully, and fill with water using Aguamenti, to clean the organs in

Step 10:Still using hands, carefully locate and remove the heart, cleaning it before placing in collection tray.

Once that was caught up, she took another deep breath as she risked a glance at her plimpy, luckily not staring at her as the professor was right in saying the eyes had turned inward. Actually, it looked rather pathetic, and she almost apologized to the plimpy again before reaching out to hesitantly press down on the eye socket. She shut her eyes as she heard the popping noise, even as she shifted her free hand to catch the now loose eyeball so she could place it in the tray as directed. Then she repeated the process on the other eye, just using her sense of touch to locate it and remove it with the same disgusting noise. Her eyes didn't open until both eyes were safely in the collection tray, at which point she glanced at her notes to double-check on the next step.

More hands-on steps, of course, but first she located the dish in the tools supplied to her and set it down by her notes carefully. Peeling a glove off, she flicked her wand into her hand and Scourgified both her gloves and the dish before casting Aguamenti to fill the now-clean dish with water. Returning her wand to its holster, she pulled her other glove back on then turned to the plimpy. Time to go for the heart, which brought on another silent apology, both for removing the organ and for unceremoniously sticking her hands into the body. It felt wrong, somehow, even if she understood that they needed to organs for potions ingredients, and after another moment she gently shifted another organ or two aside to locate the tiny little heart. Cupping a gloved hand around it, she gently pulled, making sure that she didn't make the same mistake it seemed Vickers had done and taken the gills at the same time by holding them aside with her free hand. Once the heart was free, she just looked at it in the palm of her hand for a second, before delicately placing it in the dish to get cleaned. She was going to assume that was the next step, at least until they got other instructions.

POP ,went the eyes as Sarah groped them. She had handled fish before, when her brothers got back from the stream during the summer after fishing, so plimpies were similar. Yet back home there was no need to pop out the eyes, as her brothers liked eating them, never mind that they fought over them... She placed the yes on the harvesting tray.
Aguamenti she casted on the dish and water jetted out out of her wand. Once the dih was fill, Sarah started with the heart. She felt for Peter the Plimpy's heart, which had not beaten since before the previous lesson. SHould she put it in the water or not?

They had buckets to...

Blehhhh. Even more shivers ran down Nora's spine only at the thought of it. No, she wasn't going to show her weak side... which happened to be very weak. She was going to be a good Slytherin and -

SHE SAID WHAT?! TAKE THE EYES OUT WITH THEIR FINGERS?! :whaa:

Now, Nora really felt sick. Like... not about to... blehhh, but about to faint. She didn't know it, but every bit of colour drained from her face as she stared blankly at her now opened plimpy. But... she could do. She NEEDED to.

With her eyes closed, she did as she was told and took the eyes out and put them into the harvesting tray after cleaning them. When that was done, the girl took a dish and pointed her wand at it, mumbling "Aguamenti," and now... the heart. Hmmm. Maybe this wasn't as disgusting as popping the eyes out, so... with her hands, she gently held it and took it out to be cleaned as well.

Please, class, please end soon.

Ketchup :p
 

Seeing as the class was starting right of the bat, Oakey reached into his bag and slipped on his gloves.
Oakey picked up his scalpel and looked down at the creature that caused him a lot of trouble last class. He had a small smile on his face, to him this was partial revenge for slapping slime on the previously frozen Sierra. He turned his head to make sure she was still behind him in case anything else should occur that she'd blame him on.

He placed the scalpel into the bottom of his plimpy and cut upwards towards it's stomach. As he finished he placed his scalpel down and lifted the plimpy so that he could see it's organs. He wasn't going to get sick from it but it was still immensely gross and he stuck his tongue out at the sight of it's innards.

Scourgifying his scalpel he placed it down beside him and looked at the plimpy's eyes. It was disturbing looking at a dead creatures eyes. They were lifeless but it seemed like they were staring right back at him. placing his fingers into the plimpy he gently plucked out the eyes and placed them into the harvesting tray.

Taking a dish from one of the cupboards he set it down beside him and cast the water charm into it until it was partially full. Now for the heart, Oakey sneaked his hands through some of the other organs until his fingers rested on what he believed was the heart. The diagram said it was, so with a quick tug he picked the heart right out of the plimpy.

Ahhh! Sorry for my lateness.
 

Isla quickly got to work taking the heart out of her plimpy. She was still taken aback by the fact that she had just popped the eyes out of the creature but she digressed. She quickly extracted the spongy heart from the plimpy and placed it to the side. Even being placed down with the smallest force the heart still make a squelching sound. "Yuck!" she said quietly to herself. She then quickly cleaned her hands with a quick spell and waited for the Professor to give the class then next instruction.

"If the gills stay attached to the heart, go ahead and pull them off. Drop them in the water." she said to the boy.

"Drop the heart in the water. This will allow it to wash off the blood and the plimpy slime." She dropped her plimpy heart in the water. "Now you should proceed to removing the gills. This should be quite easy now that the heart is out. Once they are out, drop them into the water as well. Take the clean heart and place it in your harvesting tray... and it will disappear." She demonstrated.

"Once that's done, remove the spine... all the other organs should be attached to it, and easy to remove."

Sarah placed the heart in the water dish to clean it off and wash off blood and slime. Next she removed the gills and dropped them too in the water. She then picked up the now clean heart from the water and placed it on a tray, where it immidiately disappeared from. She then reached for the spine and all its paraphernalia (the other organs).

Still examining the little heart, Mordred looked down to see where the gills were and back to the professor. Mordred nodded and placed the heart in the dish with water and turned it over and over with his fingers to make sure that the excess blood and slime were removed. The dish with water turned into a shade of pink fast as he cleaned the heart. He got the heart out of the water and examined it again to see if he got all the blood and slime off before he placed it on the other work tray.

Poof.

Now that he was done with the heart, he proceeded to take out the gills. It was surprising that that part was easy to take out because it seems that it was anchored to the heart. He raised it up again and examined it making sure that he didn’t leave anything behind. Satisfied, he placed it again in the water and removed the excess slime. Convinced that he cleaned it well, he placed it again in his now empty work tray and that too vanished.

He now turned his attention to the spine. Everything should come off now, she said. Thinking that this was the crucial stage, he rolled up his sleeves with his clean fingers as he examined the structure of the creature. With eyebrows furrowed, he slipped both his index and middle finger underneath the spine and clipped it with his thumbs. Slowly, he pulled it out of the Plimpy halfway, making sure that every organ was attached to it.

Alyssa watched and listened as the Professor demonstrated the next steps. Then she picked up her quill and entered those steps into her journal.



Alyssa finishing writing and then put down her quill. Since she had already placed the heart in the tray filled with water, she leaned over the plimpy's body and slowly but gently pulled on the gills with her hands until they separated from the body. She laid them in the tray and removed the heart that had been soaking in the tray and placed it in the harvesting tray. She watched as it disappeared in front of her eyes.

Finally for the spine. Alyssa reached inside with both hands and felt inside until she found a longish organ. 'That has to be the spine.' Alyssa thought to herself. With both hands, she held on to the spine and pulled on it lifting it out of the carcass. As she slowly lifted it out, she noticed that the other remaining organs were attached to it.

Nigel was ready, so right after Lafay said it, He took his thumbs and poke the plimpies eyes out. Then he placed them in his harvesting tray. He then used Aguamenti to fill a bowl with water. Then he grabbed of the plimpies heart.

The gills were still attached to the heart, so Nigel pulled them off an dropped them in the water. Next he dropped the heart in the water. Then Nigel took the clean heart and placed it in your harvesting tray. It was still amazing to Nigel that it disappeared.

Nigel then removed the spine and all the other organs attached to it. Nigel now waited for more instruction

Ok so it wasnt that bad of a mistake-- he was nervous, and he didnt really want to do this, who can blame him. He nodded his head at the Professor then proceeded to gently pull the heart out of the body, cradling with it the delicate gill structure then dropping them into the water, swirling the bowl a bit to make sure it gets as much of the blood and other body fluids out. After a while Vickers started to fish the heart-gill structure out of the water and held it over the darkened water for a while, allowing the rest of the liquid to drip out. He then lay them onto the organ tray and vanished as soon as it hit the surface.

He gulped-winced on the next step. The spine?.... just the spine? Not the skull too? This was going to be as bad as the legs extraction, maybe even worse.

He started to lift the tail and saw the spine rise along with it, bending somewhat as it neared the remaining organs still attached. Carefully he slipped his gloved fingers at the base of the Plimpy's head and bent his fingers upward-- there was a barely audible snapping of spine separating from skull.

He felt like someone just separated his own spine from his skull.

Slouching visibly he cradled the spine and the organs into his palm. His eyes fell momentarily at the Plimpy and a nearly let out a strangled yelp-- the Plimpy... doesnt look like a Plimpy anymore. It looked totally gutted and ready to be tossed into some boiling pot of broth and veggies....

... Oy seriously, he did NOT just think about food.

After putting her gloves on, Silvia picked up her scalpel and cleaned it with a scourgify. Alright, it was time for the disgusting part. Slowly and carefully, she pressed the scalpel to the icky fish plimpy and cut into it from the bottom to the top. Ewww, fishy insides. She set the scalpel aside after casting the cleaning charm on it once more.



Popping out the eyes? Those creepy looking, always staring, eyes that all fish had? That did not sound fun at all. But at least they were getting rid of them first so that she didn't have to look at them any longer; they were probably the parts of fish she couldn't stand the most. Making sure not to lean too close over the dead plimpy, she reached her hand over it and slowly plucked the eyes out with her thumbs. Couldn't they use tweezers or some other tool to do this rather than having to touch them directly? She dropped them into the harvesting tray.

Then she retrieved a dish and used the aguamenti charm to fill it, setting the dish next to the harvesting tray. Then once again reaching for the plimpy, she shifted a few of the icky insides slightly aside with one hand, and used the other to grasp the heart carefully. Silvia gave it a few tugs until it finally came out. She quickly placed it in the water-filled dish.



Silvia removed the gills and then placed them into the dish next to the heart. Then she picked up the heart again and set it in the harvesting tray, glad when it disappeared and became one less thing she had to touch. Next was the spine, which she slowly extracted. Hopefully they didn't have much left to do before she could clean up and leave the plimpy behind for good.

Catching up!
 

Ella's eyes did travel to the buckets at the back of the room as her mouth began to water uncomfortably. The sensation one usually gets right before they are about to vomit. She closed her eyes for a moment, willing her stomach to calm down, before charging onward. She was not going to be known as the potions puker...she just wouldn't. Nope.

Copying down the diagram of the internal structure of the plimpy, Ella gagged at the side the eyeballs made as Professor Lafay poked them out. YUCK. Like seriously, YUCK. At least they weren't really messy though, that was a plus. Apparently the rest of the harvesting wouldn't be quite so...clean. *GULP*. Alright, now to focus.

Ella used her thumbs to pop out the eyes and gagged once again when the made that noise. ICK! She then placed them on the harvesting tray as instructed. Next she reached for the bowl, pulling it towards her before pointing her wand at it. "Aguamenti!" Once the bowl was filled, Ella placed her wand back to the side and looked down at the plimpy, locating the heart. Oh no. Okay...here we go...and Ella plunged her hands into the disgusting plimpy's insides and removed the heart, trying desperately not to throw up.


Luckily for Ella, no gills stayed attached to the heart so she didn't have to worry about pulling them off. With a sigh of relief, she dropped the heart carefully in the water, wrinkling her nose as she looked at her hands. Blood and plimpy goo...gross!

Next Ella did her best to remove the gills. It was actually quite easy work as Lafay had said it would be. Plus the gills weren't as gross...luckily. The second year dropped the gills into the water to join the heart and nodded her head, satisfied with her work. After a moment, she picked up the now clean heart and placed it in the tray, watching with a small smile as it disappeared. That really was cool.

Now for the spine...this shouldn't be hard or anything...nope. *Gulp*. Leaning forward to examine the inners of the plimpy more closely, Ella located the spine and used her hands to get under it, wanting to get a good grip on it so she could get it out easily and without damaging anything. Then she slowly and very carefully began to lift the spine up and out of the body...continuing to make sure that the other organs were attached. She was doing it! ...even though it was horrible. AND she wasn't puking. Score one for Ms. Ella Bishop.

Nessie cringed as she popped the eye out of the pimply making a terrible squelch. As she turned the slimy eye she couldn't help but to think that this whole lesson went against what her mother had taught her.

'Treat animals with respect Nessie,'

'Animals deserve the right to live just as much as you.' Her mother's voice floated about her head making her feel that much more guilty. She shuddered slightly and set the eye down on her tray.

Pushing the tray aside she filled her dish using a aguamenti charm and reached into the plimpy carefully taking out its heart and putting it into the water to wash off all the blood and slime. Nessie's face was considerably paler than the beginning of the lesson. She took the clean heart out and put it on the tray and took the gills out and put that in the water that was previously occupied by the heart.

With wide eyes Nessie located the spine. She wiggled her hands under it and scooped out the rest of the plimpy's innards. She held onto it with both hands waiting for the next directions.

Playing Catch-up! Sorry i was working ><""
 

Annabelle noticed the eye was rotated inward, she took her thumb and put it into the plimpy's eye socket. It felt gross but the eye popped out. It made the wet popping noise and it made her shiver. She placed them in the harvesting tray that she was provided. Then she got another bowl like the professor did and used the charm "Aquamenti!" and the bowl filled with water. She started cleaning up the other organs such as the legs, fins and eyes. She saw all the residue floating at the top. It was very revolting. But she needed the get the job done. She put the clean organs onto the harvesting tray and was ready for the next set of instructions.

Annabelle heard the next set of instructions from the Professor. She felt for the heart in her plimpy and did not use her scalpel. She found it and took it out and put in into the water. Then she found the gills and removed them and put them into the water as well. She took the clean heart out of the water and put it into the harvesting tray. Then she found the spine and saw all the other organs are attached and it was easy. She knew she was following the instructions right.

Kurumi watched the heart sort of bob in the water and tried not to wrinkle her nose too much. It wasn't like she hadn't seen an animal heart before, she had actually eaten chicken heart before and not known that was what it was until AFTER so this really wasn't that different. Perhaps it was the physical act of removing it from the creature that was making her feel....guilty?

Tugging on her gloves again nervously, Kurumi carefully removed the gills and set them in the water beside the heart. She tried not to linger there for too long since...the water was certainly not clear anymore and had taken on a very obvious red hue.

She was not going to faint in this lesson. NOT going to happen.

Closing her eyes as she reached into the dish for the heart, Kurumi felt around for a few moments until she found it and then held it over the harvesting tray and peek out ever so slightly from behind her still partly closed eyelids. Oh good, she had grabbed the heart and not the gills. Setting it down, and not waiting to see it disappear, Kurumi returned her attention to the chest cavity of the plimpy and tried not to look too freaked out by the next step.

The spine. The whole spine.

Between all the squishing and snapping that was going on as she removed the spine, Kurumi honestly was surprised that she hadn't fainted...or used one of the buckets...or had more of a reaction to all this...stuff. Once she felt the spine break free from everything, she slowly removed it and tried not to look at it for too long.

Ew. Just ew....

Sierra glanced down at her plimpy and studied it carefully. Or, actually, what was left of the plimpy, she could say. The gills were still attached, she noted. Turning back to the heart she'd just pulled out, Sierra dropped it into the water to wash it of any impurities. With that done, she placed the heart into the harvesting tray, and within an instant, it had disappeared.

Funny how that worked. Sierra wondered if the spell worked on other items, like galleons for example. It'd be neat if she could cast a galleon to reappear into her pocket after someone lied it down. Not that she needed the money. It'd just be amusing to watch.

Then she carefully removed the gills, dropping them into water, as well. Finally, she grabbed a hold of the spine and began to remove it from the plimpy's body. Harvesting ingredients, Sierra had to admit, was actually pretty cool.

That's right. The buckets. Thanks for pointing it out, Professor, Chelle thought. I'm going to need one of those very soon.

Back to the lesson. Chelle watched as Lafay easily took out the plimpy's eye. She tried to do it on her own. Her hands shook as she tried to poke its eye out. She winced at the pop sound. She put the eye on her tray along with the other parts.

As Lafay told them to have a look inside the body, Chelle peered inside. There they were- all the organs. She gulped. This was going to be hard to do. She looked around. Some people didn't seem to mind. That Greingoth girl actually looked like she was having fun!

How on earth am I supposed to take out its heart?!

She took a dish. "Aguamenti!" she muttered, and filled it up with water. Then she turned back to her fish. They were supposed to feel it up and get theheart out. With their hands. Right. I can do this. She squeezed her eyes shut and put her fingers in the inside of the plimpy. She wiggled her fingers and tried to feel the heart. When she caught something roundish and solid, she pulled it out and dumped it into her water dish.

I hope that was the heart. It sure did feel like it.

Chelle took a deep breath. Class, please get over quickly.

Apparently accidental removal of the gills with the heart wasn't a disaster. Honestly, Stella hadn't seen why it would have been, but after Professor Lafay had already gone after other Ravenclaws for random rudeness, she hadn't known if Vickers' mistake would have been taken badly. Either way, it seemed the only instruction was that the gills were to be removed next, and she eyed her plimpy for a moment. It still looked pathetic, but it was oddly easier to not see it as a real plimpy now that the heart was removed. Almost like it was a plimpy doll just used for practice, although it was still slimy and disgusting. Pretending it wasn't a real dead creature was going to keep her from losing control of her gag reflex, though, and it would be much easier than keeping her eyes closed the rest of the lesson.

Especially when it came to copying down the next steps in the process down in her notes, but she made the decision to actually accomplish the steps first. It seemed like too much work to deal with removing a glove again, cleaning them, and then putting it back on just to write in her journal. She just took a mental note of the next few steps before she steeled herself to reach into the plimpy cavity again. Gently grasping the gills she'd held out of the way before, she removed them and placed them into the water-filled dish next to the heart. swishing her fingertips in the water for a moment, she grasped the heart gently held it up, letting the last droplets fall back into the dish before the organ was placed into the collection dish. They hadn't been instructed to move the gills again as well, so once the heart was moved, she went back to the plimpy. Now it was time for the really creepy part.

Running her fingers up the length of the spine delicately, she located where it was connected to the skull and wrapped her fingers around that joint securely, closing her eyes again as she twisted to snap it loose. If only she could have plugged her ears as well, but she just stayed still for a second or two once it was separated to gather her determination again. They had to be almost finished, if this step was basically removing everything other than the skull and brain. Therefore, after that moment, she re-opened her eyes and carefully lifted the spine from the plimpy, cradling the organs in one hand as she moved the entire structure to the water. It was another assumption, but she figured it didn't hurt since they'd been told all the organs needed washing a few steps ago. And once that was complete, she took another moment to remove her gloves to clean them again, and copy the steps she'd just done into her journal before they moved on.

Text Cut: Stella's Potions journal

Plimpy harvesting

Step 1: Untangle the plimpy's legs. (They commonly get tied together by merpeople to keep them from being able to damage their property.)

Step 2: Remember to put gloves on.

Step 3: Clean scalpel.

Step 4: Make an incision under the scales near the plimpy's fins, then carefully remove the fins and place them in the collection tray.

Step 5: Rotate legs widely one at a time until the joint pops out, audibly.

Step 6: Carefully cut at the loose skin around the dislocated joint, removing the leg and placing it into the collection tray as well.

Step 7: Cut the plimpy open/in half, starting at the tail and running scalpel straight up around the stomach to the head.

Step 8: Once the plimpy is opened, use thumbs to carefully pop the eyes out of their sockets, placing them in collection tray.

Step 9: Clean a separate dish carefully, and fill with water using Aguamenti, to clean the organs in

Step 10: Still using hands, carefully locate and remove the heart, cleaning it before placing in collection tray.

Step 11: Remove gills next, placing in the water for cleaning as well before moving to the collection tray.

Step 12: Remove spine, taking all remaining organs with it.

Drop the heart in the water. Right.

Glad that that awful part was over, Nora stared as the water got all rosey and then red from the plimpy blood. As much as she hated it, she couldn't really take her eyes off it, and she was sure she'd have nightmares the next few days... weeks... months.

Finally paying attention to professor Lafay's instructions, the girl started removing the gills and dropped them into the water, probably to get a little cleaned as well. Taking the heart for one last time, she placed it in the harvesting tray and watched it disappear. Thank goodness!

... weren't they done yet?

After placing the heart in the water, Jory watched as the blood and slime washed away. Then, he continued with the work at hand, removing the gills and when this was out he placed it into the water also.

The Badger now took out the clean plimpy's heart and placed it onto the Harvesting tray. And then it had vanished.

Jory reached back into the creature and pulled out it's spine and removed the other organs.

Louisa's hand was still around the heart as the professor started talking again. Slowly, the girl lifted the heart, pushing aside the gills still attached to it, and then dropped it in the bowl of water. Back to the corpse at hand, Louisa started taking out all the gills, slowly and carefully since the Plimpy's body was small and fragile.. she dropped them all in the bowl of water as well, making a face as the slime started to move upward in the bowl. Ekh. She waited for a few seconds before taking the heart and gills out and dropping them into the harvesting tray, and they vanished.

The Ravenclaw then started taking out the spine, releasing all the organs from around it. Slowly and without damaging anything on her way.

"Alright... you know how you pluck grapes from its cluster? Same concept. Pluck each of the organs by hand and place them in the water. Now take the cleaned gills and place them into the harvesting tray." And as she demonstrated the gills disappeared into it. "Can anyone tell me why we harvest ingredients with our hands and use tools sparingly?"

Ella held the spine and organs in her hands, frowning down at them. She just would never be cut out to do this sort of thing, it wasn't her cup of tea. At least she hadn't thrown up though! That was something. Her Granddad would be proud of her for that.

Wait, had Professor Lafay really just compared this to plucking grapes? Nawwww. This was most definitely not like plucking grapes. Sure maybe the motions were the same, but plucking grapes was much less...disturbing. But hey, this was class and Ella was here to learn so she was going to do her best to finish the lesson without fainting or something.

Alright, here goes. Ella began disconnecting the organs from the spine one by one and placing them into the water. Many came off easily, much to Ella's delight. The kidneys though, those were posing a bit of a problem for the second year. She just couldn't seem to get them off. "Come" tug "on" tug "you silly" tug "kidneys" twist "you need" tug "to take" twist "a bath." Like seriously? Was anyone else having trouble like this?

With a defeated sigh. The second year eyed the kidneys once more and gave them a nice long glare. "Alright kidneys, you listen to me. I'm in charge of this little show and you're gonna do what I say, got it? And I say you" Tug "Are coming" TUG "OFF." TWIST. PLOP. THANK MERLIN! Ella grinned! She did it! She had removed the organs from the spine. Bahahaha! She was SO good at this. "See, it wasn't that difficult was it?" She said to the kidneys as she placed them into the water. And now it was time to remove the gills from the water, yeah?

Removing the gills from the water and placing them on the tray, Ella watched as they disappeared. And then a question. Why use their hands instead of tools? "Professor, I believe we use our hands because we want to cause as little damage to the organs as possible. Hands are probably gentler than tools on them."

Jory removed each organ one by one carefully from the spine. He was getting used to the grossness by now. He removed what looked liked the spleen and dropped it into the water.

The puff removed the gills and placed them on the harvesting tray.

Jory raised a bloody hand a bit up in the air careful not to get any blood anywhere. "We use our hands because we have to be gentle with the organs, and tools can damage them.''

Catching up!
 

Elise cringed as she cleaned her scapel carefully. And she had actually thought she could have skipped the dissection. Looking upwards as if a prayer, she closed her eyes briefly before setting the blade to the tail and cutting as instructed.

Gross.

Elise nodded dumbly, trying not to throw up as she looked at the eyeball. She scourgified her hands about three times over before reaching for the fish's eye. Poking it with her thumb, she cringed at the disgusting pop it made. Placing it into her harvesting tray, she moved on to the next eye.

Then, it was time to clean the other organs. Pulling a dish from under her table, she pulled her wand from its holster to cast an "aguamenti" just enough to fill it halfway. Putting her wand back in its holster, she turned back to her plimpy. The heart.

Carefully, she pried the delicate organ from the fats surrounding it.

...and dropped it not quite gracefully into the dish of water. Rubbing it a little, she rid it of the fat that protected it and the blood before moving on to the next step. Pulling the gills gently, she allowed them to separate easily from the rest of the body. Then taking the cleaned heart, she placed it onto the tray before dropping the gills into the water.

Then, she reached for the spine. Cradling the delicate structure between her fingers, she pulled gently and the quiet snap brought sourness up her throat. Swallowing, she waited for further instruction.

Plucking grapes? She was kidding, right? Grape plucking was so much less disgusting! Sure, they were the same motions and... She'd better just get on with it unless she wants points docked.

Placing the cleaned gills on the tray, she changed the water in her dish. There was no way that she would reuse it, what with all the blood in it. One by one, she pulled the organs from the spine, trying her hardest not to throw up as she dropped them into the water.

Once she was done, she cleaned her hands again before answering the question. "It could be because we have more control over our hands than the tools and can be gentler and more precise with the harvesting," she suggested before turning to her organs in the water.

Disgusting.

Louisa smiled at the analogy Lafay provided. Simply because she never really plucked grapes from its cluster. With her hand, she started plucking organs out and dumping them into the bowl of water. She moved the gills over to the harvesting tray at one point while giving her thought about using hands, "I was thinking because we don't want to damage anything while we take the organs out? Maybe one of the organs will be pricked while we take the organ next to it out? It's safer with hands, more controllable." Or maybe Louisa was just clumsy with tools.

Mordred looked at his dish and got the gills out of the water and placed it on his harvest tray. He quickly shifted his attention back to the spine whilst his ears were absorbing Lafay’s instructions. He plucked each of the organs gently starting from the stomach, liver, and intestine up to the kidney. Each was carefully cleaned in the dish with his fingers and decided to leave it for a few minutes to be thoroughly cleaned.

Mordred raised his right hand and answered the Lafay’s question. “We use tools sparingly because the chance of getting the organs damaged is higher than if we use our bare hands.” Because if they did, then they just wasted their time. “Besides, having damaged parts won’t give us satisfactory results when we use it for a potion.” He said as he put his hand down and turned his attention to his other hand where he was still holding the spine. “Professor, do we dump this too in the dish?” he said as he raised it in the air. He wasn’t sure though if it had any use. Probably in its powdered form?

Sorry for my lateness.......Again
 

Professor
 

Alyssa watched again as the Professor demonstrated how to remove the organs from the spine before picking up her quill and adding those steps in her potions journal.



Once she was done writing, she put down her quill and raised her bloodied hand. "Professor are we're using our hands more and using less of the instruments because we don't want to accidentally damage the organs by knicking them with the scalpel?"

"If we use our hands, we can actually detach them more carefully and leave most parts if not all of the organ completely attached and less traumatized."

Alyssa then started working on removing the organs from the spine, slowly detaching them one at a time and placing them into the tray filled with water.

She then gently removed the gills from that tray and placed them on the harvesting tray and watch as that too disappeared.

Oh, this was class was so amusing. Sierra was smirking at the thought of how much the grapes analogy likely grossed out a few Puffers and Lions. She didn't know for sure, as she was studying her plimpy and not her classmates, but it was still amusing to think about.

Anyway...back to plucking grapes. Err, ...organs. First, Sierra placed the cleaned gills onto the harvesting tray and watched them disappear. Then, as she started on the task of plucking organs, she raised her hand and looked up at Lafay. "...because we can control our actions a little better when we're using our hands. We can make sure what we're doing isn't hurting the plimpy, like a tool possibly could," she said. It wasn't foolproof, but it was better than a big scalpel carving through the plimpy's body.

Out popped the first of the organs, and Sierra immediately placed it into the water. She quietly continued the process, actually enjoying what she was doing.

Isla raised her hand."We have better control with our hands and we have less chance of damaging the organs." She answered hoping show that she was listening.

Silvia took a deep breath and began to reach in and tug out the rest of the organs, diverting her eyes from the plimpy as much as possible. Whatever the professor said, these were a bit more difficult than plucking grapes, she thought as she gave a tug. Not to mention grapes were tasty, but these were not for eating. Silvia wasn't at all feeling sick, but she HATED anything that even resembled a fish. To her, they were the creepiest creatures in existence. After successfully pulling out one of the organs, she placed it into the dish, then removed the gills from the water and placed them in the harvesting tray.

Taking a moments pause before moving to the next organ, she raised a slimy gloved hand. "Is it because tools are more likely to damage the organs?"

Sarah placed the gills in the water. Like plucking grapes, she plucked out all the other organs and plonked them in the water. She then removed the cleaned gills from the water and placed them on the trey. Now next the question. Sarah raised her gloved hand: "In order to keep the plimpy hydrated with our natural oils" said Sarah.

Pluck grapes from its cluster?

Errr...

Just as they were told, Nora plucked each organ by hand and placed it in the water, doing it without even looking. Well, barely even looking, because she didn't want... no, she didn't NEED to see all those disgusting things. So, when she was done doing that, the girl took the now cleany clean gills and placed them into the harvesting tray as well to disappear.

As for her question, she raised her hand. "It's easier to get them without damaging them, I think."

Pluck grapes?....

Trying to chase away thoughts of the Plimpy stew with its organs as the desert course, the majorly-wincing Ravenclaw separated the organs from the spine with the utmost care then deposited them onto the already murky water. He looked up again when the Professor posed a question. To make us feel this cruelty even more? Oh if he can only put that forward. Instead this is what he said as he raised his hand "Our hands are our best tools-- the have the strength to handle many difficult and heavy load yet are so dextrous and sensitive for even the most delicate of tasks... like this."

Nessie picked each organ off of the spine one by one. One by one the organs dropped into with a plop. She pulled the gills out and put them on the tray. After that was done Nessie raised her hand to answer Professor Lafay's question.

"With our hands we can get a feel of how to handle it properly without hurting the organ, unlike with tools where we don't know how much pressure we're putting on the material that could potentially puncture a organ." Nessie said looking down at the organs in the water dish.

Plucking grapes? Kurumi had a really hard time comparing grapes to organs but didn't say anything on the matter and instead turned her attention to the task at hand. Her hands were shaking a bit as she carefully removed each organ, dropping them into the water as she did, and could already see why they were not using another tool to accomplish this. Kurumi would have turned the poor creature into sashimi by now.

Enough of her classmates had answered with essentially the same thoughts that the Gryffindor didn't feel the need to voice her own thoughts on the matter and instead continued to remove organ after organ until the plimpy was...empty.

A cold shiver ran down her spine as she looked inside the creature, pulling the skin back to make sure she hadn't missed anything. It was...almost depressing to see how vacant the space had become.