The Greenhouses: Herbology Lesson Two
 

Theo was feeling annoyed today. Things were getting on his nerves anyway, so the fact that he had to pay 6 sickles for a class that he didn't even like reeeally tipped him over the edge. He stepped into the greenhouse and sighed heavily to see that he was the first to arrive. That's so embarrassingggggggg...

He gave the professor an awkward smile. "Hi, Professor Bentley." He stood way away from the front and just watched the basket in front of him. And the door. Someone arrive.

IT felt odd having to make certain you had money before you went to a lesson. For all she knew she was paying to get eaten or something. Life ironic. Though Cassia was feeling slightly at east since the previous lesson wasn't bad. They had tea. Lots of it. She had bolted to the bathroom and had to wait in a line too. Yeah. Doesn't always happen.

The fifth-year paid and made her way into the greenhouse, her eyes flickering around cautiously. It was quite, no sound of chattering or anything. DID EVERYONE DIE!? She was about turn around and get the heck out of here just before she saw Theo. HAI! And he was the first to arrive. Well, look who was being punctual. Prefect, huh? Although it meant she was SECOND to arrive. In here. She so was going to be late next time.

"Good day, Professor," She greeted the woman before walking over to her friend and sliding in the seat next to him.

"Why hello,Theodore" She gave him a lopsided grin as she dropped her bag next to her.

There was a basket. Why was there a basket? Cassia eyed the thing curiously.

If the turnstiles were not gone before the end of next year, Charlie was going to require some form of scholarship, she thought, as she entered the greenhouse. "Morning, Professor," was offered, with a nod, as she looked around for a seat. Which wasn't hard, considering how she was pretty early for the class.

But there were baskets in front of the seats.

Charlie placed her bag down and sat, wondering if they were going to have a picnic.

She liked picnics.

Mack entered the greenhouse smiling, she really enjoyed Professor Bentley's lessons. "Good Morning Professor!" the blonde gave the woman a little wave before walking around a few of the tables to the left hand side of the greenhouse. She didn't know why but she loved this side.. maybe because there wasn't a glare on the board while the professor was teaching.

She took a seat and realized that there was a basket.. hmmm wonder what this is for For a brief moment she thought about peeking but didn't want to upset Professor Bentley so for now she settled with staring intently at the basket waiting on it to do something.

Adi happily made his way to the Greenhouse. He was sure there would be no more tea but one could hope, right? "Hi, Professor Bentley!'' he greeted as he approached the woman. He thought she was dressed rather smartly today. He scanned the greenhouse. No teacups as far as he could see but there was a basket at each seat.

Wondering what they would be using those for, the first year took a seat, curiously eyeing the basket.

By this point in the school year, Sophie was pretty confident about her spell casting ability. She was starting to feel less like a confused firstie and more like a confident almost-second-year. She still wasn't sure how she managed to get through that first Herbology Task Force assignment all by herself either, but she'd done it.

So she walked with a bit more confidence into the greenhouse. She first took note of the professors robes. Ohh, pretty green robes! "Hello, Professor," she said, and then she bee-lined for a seat. A basket? Hmm. Nothing inside, so who knew what that was for. There weren't many people in class yet, so she took her seat and just quietly sat waiting for things to start happening.

Alright, so the next class was going to be Herbology. Sure, not a problem. What other lessons would they be having this time, hmm? Kat just hoped they weren't drinking tea again. She felt like she had taken enough tea for a lifetime after that lesson. Four different teas with different flavours. Nope, it wasn't good. Hopefully they'd do something with a bit more... action. And fun. Tea was great, just saying, but too much of it was a stomach ache.

"Hello, Professor Bentley," Kat greeted the older woman with a smile before taking a seat. They'd start filling in later so yeah, waiting. That meant more waiting. And the tiny basket got some stares. Well......... it was better than seeing a collection of tea bags, am I right? Right.

*flops next to Cassia*
 

After the competition, Alexa found that she had a new appreciation for Herbology or more accurately put, the more flesh-eating side of Herbology. It only made her realize that they never had classes in Greenhouse 8. The plants in there must be SO lonely. She could keep them company, she could bring snacks too.

"HAI Professor!!" Lex greeted the woman with a wide grin. She noted the baskets on the seats and instantly found her curiosity peaked. "Are we harvesting seeds today?" Like say...snargaluff seeds?

Yes? No?

Looking around the Greenhouse she spotted a certain snake bestfriend. Lex walked over and flopped right next to her and gave her a nudge. "Hiiiiiiiii." Said in something like a whisper. No need to disturb the peace for the plants. "Good to know you haven't completely given up on this subject as yet." Company was always nice to have in this class.

Sarah hated the payment part. Why couldn't the lesson be in the student garden or something... this was too much for Sarah's deep pockets. Everytime she spent money it was emotionally draining and that is why she enetered this lesson \less happy as usual. Her eyes were not shining and she merely sat down at the table. She knew it was rude not to greet the professor, yet she could not help feeling so glum. She was scared that if she opened her mouth just a bit all her emotions would fly out.
She took her things out of her satchel. "hello professor" she said in a low voice. "is there no where else this lesson could take place?"

Herbology! Because the grounds were so cold, Mo was happy to enter the warmer greenhouse and breathe in the aromatic damp air. It was sort of eternal summer in here... although not quite, and Mo appreciated being in out of the cold. Even if he had to pay to attend this particular class.

He nodded to the professor in greeting before taking a seat at one of the work stations. The basket caught his interest, and Mo spent a few moments examining it before putting all the things from his pockets into it one at a time and then removing them. Y'know... just testing it.

Herbology.

Ella was a fan. Mostly because she wasn't the best at it and found that she was challenged by lots of the things they were asked to do. Plus Gran loved hearing stories about this class in particular given her love of gardening. It was always nice to have something interesting to write home about.

"Hello, Professor." She greeted cheerfully on her way by Bentley. The blonde then wandered over to the nearest empty work station. After she'd placed her bag down, she turned her attention to the basket. Hm. It made her want to have a picnic, y'know?

Making her way into the greenhouse, Bethany was greeted with the familiar scent of different types of magical plants. "Good morning, professor." She greeted politely. Bethany had noticed Professor Bentley's interesting robes, she chose not to really comment though. She was still trying to recover from her annoyance at the turnstiles, and wasn't in the mood to give compliments at the moment.

She walked towards one of the empty seats near the back of the room and sat down. Picking up the small basket in front of her, she studied it cautiously. It reminded her of the many baskets at her grandfather's orchard.

Are we picking fruit or something..? She thought, and set the basket back down.

Oh well, guess she'd find out soon.

Minerva headed for the greenhouse. Pulling her robes tightly on the walk outside the castle. So cold, but the minute she walked into the greenhouse she felt a little warmer. That was always welcomed. Glancing around she wondered what they would be working on for the days lesson. Since last lesson was tea she wondered if it could be herbs, which after last lesson she had become more interested in. Trying to be aware of the teas she was using and how they benefited her health.

Min smiled at Professor Bentley, "Good morning professor, doing well this morning?" She seemed to be at least. Turning towards the tables she walked over to her usual area and set her things down. Pulling out her parchment, gloves and a quill. Now to doodle until class began.

It was time for another Herbology lesson. He was excited to go and learn more about plants. Plus the teacher was pretty cool. He liked her. He was learning a lot in this class. As he made his way into the greenhouse, he noticed fellow students were here. He smiled to them and noticed the professor was there. He waved and said, "Good morning Professor! Hope you are doing well."

Then he went to look for a seat. He found one near the window and sat down. He took out his parchment and doodled. He was actually getting quite good at drawing little creatures. He was working on his hippogriff.

Annabeth entered the Greenhouse Four bringing a pot with tiny cotton daisies she had made. She was very happy as she loved Herbology lessons. Anna noticed the round tables were still there and there were baskets at the seats. UM... Interesting. She approached the teacher and handed her the pot.

"Good morning, Professor Bentley. I made it for you. Each one of these flowers represents one of us, students of your class. They are charmed to have a sweet fragrance of flowers. I hope you like it!" The girl grinned. She placed the pot on the teacher's table. "It's a nice day to learn Herbology! And I did my best practicing the hot-air charm, I'm looking forward to see how we'll use it." She grinned once again and looked for a place to sit nearby.

Needless to say, she wasn't surprised someone would be earlier than necessary, but she hadn't expected it to be Theo.
"Morning," she greeted with a nod, noting the boys facial expression, "I trust everything's alright?" Yes? No? Would it be impacting him in class today?



And so the Slytherin's were the early birds today, an interesting trend indeed - thus far at least.
"Hello Cassia," she greeted her warmly.



"Morning dear," Seren greeted as the Ravenclaw joined them. She seemed a little preoccupied.



"Good morning Mackenzie," she greeted her lion cub. It seemed as though the other students weren't the only ones curious about the baskets.



"Morning Aditya, settling in well?" she asked the Hufflepuff.



It wasn't long until the Snakes had the numbers again, and their fortitude came in the form of a particularly bright first year no less.
"Good morning Sophie," she greeted with a nod and a warm smile. This one was cute.



And then there was this one. "Morning Ascanius, thank you," she greeted, "and you look rather chipper, good start to the day?"
She still wasn't sure what to make of this one, but he was harmless.



"Hello Katrina, well done on the task, you performed so well," Seren greeted the Head Girl... who also seemed to take an interest in the baskets. Hehe. They were in for a teeaaa-reat!



Aha! And here was her star pupil... or at least one of them... perhaps the most significant one for the term. Ahem.
"Alexa, it's good to see you.. and I never got the chance before, but wellllll done!" she was thrilled with the outcome, ecstatic even. It was a team effort of course, but herbologically, Lex was all over it.

"Mmmm.. sort of, maybe.. you'll see." It'll all make sense in the end, they always did.



"Morning Marigold," such a prettttyyy name, "I'm well, and yourself?" she asked.



Seeing the lion cub walk in and plop herself down was disheartening... super disheartening. All she wanted to do in this moment was to go and hug the girl tight, but that would be somewhat inappropriate, and for all she knew the girl may not like it. "Morning... dear," she greeted softly, a small smile on her lips.

The source of the girls troubles were soon revealed, and she instantly felt a little guilty. "Well, considering the weather... not really." They had far more options for the task in here than they did out there.



"Good morning Caleb!" Seren greeted brightly, perhaps too brightly... but that couldn't be helped.



Whatever his reasons for the nod was, Seren thought it amusing. She offered the Quidditch Captain a nod in return. Either it was a too cold thing, or a too tired thing... or simply a 'cool' thing. She could be 'cool' too, yearh?



And so another of her cubs arrived. Good. Or else there would be letters of concern home. "Good morning Blair," she greeted the lion with a griiiin. "Thank you... I thought it appropriate." Weather, festivities... it was that time of year.



"Morning Ella," Seren greeted with a nod. She was curious to know what the girl thought of the baskets.. they were allllll curious about the baskets. Was it not obvious?



"Good morning dear," she greeted another one of her lions..

...

it seemed she could get the lesson started shortly..

Seren did a quick head count. Perhaps she'd wait a few more moments.



"Morning Minerva," she smiled brightly, "always do... and yourself?"



Instinctively, Seren returned the wave, "Morning, Kace," she greeted. "Most certainly am!"



"Morning...." Seren replied... curious about the Ravenclaw. She looked almost paranoid. Bad dreams?



She had been about the check her pendent watch to see the time, when she was confronted by a Hufflepuff with a pot of... flower things that weren't really flowers. Interesting. She took it, smiling brightly as she examined it, occasionally looking up to meet Annabeth's glance.
"Ooooohhh thaaaannk you," she cooed, it was adorable, "that's really sweet of you, thank you."

It was also good to hear the girl had completed her homework... she simply winked. No giving away things just yet.

Placing the gift on the spare table nearest her, Seren then checked the time. Yep, time to get rolling....




"Good morning everyone! I trust you've been enjoying the competition so far..." she paused to give Katrina and Alexa a knowing smile. She was SO proud. Soooo proud. But they were all wonderful, yes.
"Now, at the end of our last lesson, you should have formed a list of tea attributes as they relate to their house blends... could you please take your notes out and compare them to mine..." there was a reason for this, primarily because she was sure some people didn't quite understand the term properties and weren't really sure how to link them to the house attributes.

"Now is your opportunity to correct or add to your notes..." she mused, "before we move on to our next task."

OOC: The lesson has officially started, no late arrivals unless you want to lose points. The lesson will continue in approx 22 hours.

Task...? It took Kat one whole second to figure out what 'task' Professor Bentley meant. So, it was that quiz bowl thing, right? What other task would it be anyway? "Thank you, Professor," she grinned at Bentley just because. It was nice to know that she and Lex had been acknowledged. And yes, they totally handled that snargaluff and managed to stay alive. That was even better right? Teamwork and the best one yet was that they saved the poor house elf.

And, of course. Kat saw that smile. She even returned it back, just because. She had to admit, they did well. Like, really... it was challenging and consumed a lot of time, but they finished it. It also made her wonder... was Professor Lafay there too? Kat actually hoped that her head of house had watched her because she totally bossed that deflating draft.

Oh... okay. So they were supposed to compare their notes with the ones Professor Bentley had. The Head Girl took her parchment from her bag and unrolled it. Hmmmm... she got some of them right. That was a good sign. Some of them weren't on Professor Bentley's list, but that could still count. Kat missed some points there too, but that was mainly because she got tired of writing way too much notes. But yeah, that was pretty much it. She took out her quill and inkwell and added more notes to her parchment, just in case.

"Yes, Professor,'' Adi replied. His Housemates had been really helpful and any thoughts that he might have gotten homesick had vanished. "Thanks for asking.'' Grin.

..........

So, compare their notes? Okay. Adi retrieved his notes from the first class and began the comparison. Meh. So he had to made lots of changes here and there but at least he still got a good set correct. Dipping, his quill into the bottle of ink before him, he started to cross off those that were incorrect and scribble in the right answers.

"I'm doing great professor" She gave Bentley one final smile before class had began. When Bentley started talking. Competition, she felt her stomach turn in notes she wasn't even sure when the next round was coming, but the whole thing was exciting and nerve wracking all at once. The group in round one did amazing, she wished she could have seen better, but she was sitting by some great company so all in all it was great. So yes she was enjoying the competition so far. She had to admit a few of the foreign students were a bi different but most seemed nice.

So they were talking about herb and that tea again. A smile crossed the prefects face as she pulled out the notes from last class. This was interesting to her and anything in Herbology that was interesting to her she would take. She thought about the healing side of the herbs and how this could really help her next fall at Uni.

Once they were told to look at the board Min looked at her notes and then back at the board, so she had missed a few of the properties, well that would need fixed. She went through and scribbled down fixing and changing some of her notes.

Alexa was now positively BEAMING. "Thanks Professor!! And thanks for letting me use the other Greenhouse, I'd have never known it was a Snargaluff or how to handle it otherwise." There was actually a lot she had to thank her for, like talking her into it, believing she could pull it off, choosing her for the job instead of someone else but class was hardly the place to get into all of that. The new found excitement on her face would have to do for now.

She looked to the notes as the Professor spoke. Those...were different from the ones she'd had. Not to say she was wrong, nah, she liked her own notes but these would probably come in handy too so she dipped into her bag and fished out a parchment and quill. It wouldn't hurt to take these down for later.

Lex still didn't completely know what they were doing with the baskets considering the Professor wouldn't really say but she'd be patient about it...kinda...did bouncing in your seat classify as patient?

Maybe it would if it didn't make it so hard for her to write.

Blair smiled "I agree Professor, very festive."
Following the Professor's instructions, Blair pulled out last lessons notes. Comparing those on the board to those in front of her she noticed she had a few amendments to make. Grabbing her quill she got to work at once, determined to jot them all down before this lesson began.

She couldn't help but wonder what the task would be, but for now she focused on going over her notes and comparing them to the professors. Her notes seemed to be pretty spot on. She looked to see what was on the Hufflepuff part and smirked to herself. It definitely wasn't the words that she would have choosen, but whatever.

She made corrections to what was needed and added on some notes here and there. She was glad that she didn't have much to correct. She was a Slytherin and she usually got it right the first time. She didn't usually like doing certain things the first time and she wasn't going to do the same thing twice if she could help it.

Kace was glad the professor was doing well. He smiled warmly when she responded. Then they had another task to do today? He wondered what it could be....

But before he could even think of an idea, he saw that the professor pointed towards the blackboard. He squinted to see the board. He might need glasses soon if this continues or sit up closer. Yeah that could be an option. He compared his notes and he had a few missing key points.

He scribbled....scribbled....scribbled....scribbled.. ..scribbled........

Then he saw his notes and it looked perfect. He even saw his doodles he made on the page the previous class and he chuckled at them. He drew a vicious plant eating a textbook. He would used something else but he wanted to keep it innocent.

Mack looked over her parchment from the last lesson, rereading what was on the board at the end of each line.. making sure that her notes were identical to what Professor Bentley had.

And as she thought they would be, they were an exact match. Mackenzie took pride in her notes, and often recopied them after lessons and she was glad to see she hadn't transcribed something wrong.

Compare notes?

Ella flipped open to the notes she'd taken during the previous lesson and glanced from those to the board, noting the differences. It wouldn't hurt to add in the things she'd left out, yeah? Yeah.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.

And there were lots of differences. Professor Bentley was also much better at paraphrasing things and having them sound correct, it seemed. The blonde quickly worked to add in or cross-out things she'd discovered and then set her quill down when she'd finished.

Notes all set. Bring on the practical stuff.

Correct or add on to?! :whaa:

You mean...her brilliance wasn't enough last lesson? BAH. Sophie turned her attention away from the professor long enough to dig into her book bag and pull out her notes from the last lesson. They were a bit wrinkled here and there, but they were still good notes. Very good notes...

...that apparently needing correcting.



She began to read through them, her eyes darting back and forth between her version and the professor's version.

Ohhhkay. So she was sort of on the right track. Sort of. She began with Gryffindor, since that was what the professor had listed first, and continued comparing her notes to the professors. A few scratches and additions here and there, and she was on her way to what was hopefully a better accepted set of notes.

Mo twitched in his seat, eager to move on from the prep time to the practical, but he still obediently pulled out his assignment from last time and reviewed the notes he'd made. Most of the ideas he'd captured, although his theory about the Grey Lady was laughable in retrospect.

Mo raised his hand once he finished. "Professor, did you prepare these blends yourself, or did you buy them? I was just wondering if they were available for purchase, 'cause the tea we have in Divi is often terrible..." And this might be a good alternative to bring along to class.

What competition was the professor talking about? It was probably that quiz bowl thing going on, a lot of people were talking about it. She didn't care for it very much to be honest.

She then turned her attention to the task at hand.

Pulling out the notes she took previously, Bethany jotted down any corrections onto the parchment in front of her and compared her notes with Professor Bentley's. There weren't many things to fix and she was quite proud of herself because of that. She'd never really been the best at herbology...

Goooood. Students were writing, which meant they missed stuff... which meant it was a good thing she was going over it again!

Seeing the Eagle Captain raise his hand, Seren gave him her full attention and indicated to him to speak his words with a small nod.

Ahhhhh! Good question, indeed.

"Excellent question Mister Branxton," she mused, "Unfortunately, I can't take credit for the blends, they're the creation of Worts and Cunning Apothecary," some alumnus no doubt. Secretly, Seren wished she had scrawled out their seal from the boxes and replaced it with one of her own.. but she could never do such a thing.



So.. were they done yet?

Yes?

No?

It didn't matter, if they were still writing they could do so while she talked some more.
"Today, we will begin creating our own blend of tea," she started, emphasisng the work creating in a fun sing-song voice. This was exciting stuff, to her at least. "There are three outcomes you will be tested on. Firstly, being able to identify the properties of herbs, secondly, to utilise said herbs and tea... and lastly, the skill in drying herbs and tea for consumption." So there should be no questions of what is the point in making tea?!

"For this task... you will need to select a group or an individual on whose attributes you will be basing your blend on..." was that clear enough? probably not, so for the sake of clarification... "just as we had analysed the House tea blends, you may choose to plan and produce a blend representing the attributes or qualities of a ... quidditch team? your professors? a profession? a group of friends? your family members or as I said, an individual of your choosing."

"You will represent your individual or group by using herb properties which best equate to their attributes... if you need assistance with this, you're welcome to soundboard them off myself or a peer." They could discuss and interact yes? Of course. Not that they did last lesson.. which was eerie in itself.

"I'll list some examples on the board, start by brainstorming or making a selection and then identifying their attributes or qualities."

On the right hand side of the board, not taken up with previous notes, Seren formed a list of ideas and thoughts.

OOC: Start brainstorming/choosing and thinking about their attributes/qualities... the lesson will continue in approx 23 hours.

Oh... well, the lesson was related to tea then. Okay. Kat couldn't really complain about that. At least they weren't going to drink another batch of tea, right? The Head Girl definitely did not want to have a stomach ache anymore. Or another trip to the bathroom after this class. They'd be creating their own tea though. That was good right? It was also good that Elise had taught her how to make tea during the Christmas break. Prior to that, Kat wouldn't have known what to do or even how to make her own cup of tea. How much more making your OWN tea?

So.......... it gave Kat a thought. Why not make a tea for Elise? After all, it was her bestie who helped her with the tea stuff. She'd appreciate it right? Plus it was very thoughtful of Kat to think of her bestie, who was probably practicing every single Quidditch strategy day and night. Maybe even at this moment, Elise was sweating it out.

Taking out a piece of parchment, her textbook, a quill and inkwell, Kat started to think of some attributes and qualities her bestie had. Hmmmm... smart. Of course, Elise was a Ravenclaw. Ever found a dumb Ravenclaw before? The answer was a straight no. Kat glanced at her textbook a few times and examined the different herbs listed, plus their uses and characteristics or whatever. She could use the ones in the Ravenclaw tea from the last lesson, yeah? Cool. Elise also was... uhmm... an animal lover. Yeah, that. She had a bunny named Puppy. The irony. Successful in relationships? Sure, she had Chris Stylinson, didn't she? Quidditch player too. Liked most subjects, except Divination apparently.

Kat could definitely go on and on and on about what her bestie was like.

Mo had a really good point about the tea used for divination. She'd much rather have something like what they'd tried in here. Much more tasty. Mhm.

And they were going to create their own blend of tea? WHAT? This was going to be awesome! Ella grinned and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, listening carefully to what Bentley was saying. So this particular blend was going to be based off of a person or group of people? Well Ella already knew who she was going to pick, yeah? Professor Botros. He was the first person that had come to mind and she couldn't think of anyone more deserving of their own tea. Professor Botros was the best.

Pulling some fresh parchment towards her, the seventeen year old carefully began scribbling down some of the qualities that the Runes professor had.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.

There were so many more, obviously, but Ella set her quill down and eyed her list carefully. These were definitely good places to start.

They were going to make their own blend? Awesomeeee! Adi was excited! He listened as Professor Bentley spoke, wishing she would hurry so he could get started. He was impatient. How very unPuffer like. And it was because of the activity. This was going to be a fun lesson!

Oh. They had to select a person who they wanted to base their blend on? Adi instantly glanced at Sophie Newell. Brilliant, friendly.... noooo! Then everyone would know he had a crush on her! No. He would base his blend off of his best friend. The firstie began to write:

Although her notes from the previous lesson were pretty accurate, comparing them to the Professors made Charlie realise that she'd missed some out. Whch meant that she was glad they were going over it. What if the one thing that came up in their exam was one of the few that she'd forgotten?

That would not have been good.

As the Professor spoke again, Charlie raised her head from her now hopefully completed and one hundred per cent accurate list, and chewed on the end of her quill.

Own blend of tea. Huh. Charlie hoped it would be NICE tea, but then again, Herbology was not her strongest subject, so the chances of that were slim. And all this stuff they needed to do... Was Lex around? She could totally use her right now. And her exceptional Herbology skills.

And who on earth would she base her tea on? As the Professor talked, Charlie scribbled down a few ideas with her suggestions.



And her list was done, because of all the people that she could do it on, she was pretty sure she would settle on either her mum or her sister, or Elodie and Cat.

Now it was only to think of their qualities, and stuff. Um, cooking? Food? Either of them count?

Another lesson about tea but this time they would be making their own blend, awesome. Blair thought long and hard about who she could base her tea on. Having not yet met many people at Hogwarts Blair decided she would base it around someone from back home. But who? Her family and herself? She grabbed another bit of parchment and began scribbling some notes.



On second thoughts she decided she'd probably not make a tea based on her mother. She didn't need everyone here to know about their strained relationship. Were they allowed to make a blend based on their own personality? If not, her best bet was probably her father.

She almost felt the need to stand and applaud or whoop when it was obvious that they were going to work on something like the previous lesson. In other words, no dangerous plants. Phew. She could let her guard down now. Also, Lex sat next to her which was good. Who else would be able to defend her and save her life other than the one who was chosen to compete in that tournament. Luck was on Cassia's side today!

The fifth-year pulled out her notebook and started comparing her notes and scribbling down other notes. So they were going to choose a group of people and relate herbs and stuffs. Hmmm..

She grabbed a quill and tapped it lightly against her notebook thinking of options.

Sarah binked. Was her sadness that visible. Her father would not be happy, he was always telling her to stop wearing her heart on her sleeve as her face was public property and by her being sad faced she was ruining the day of all around her. She forced on a smile and checked her notes with the tteachers. It was a pity about the use of the greenhouse, yet as she already paied, she might as well enjoy iit.


Now the smile on Sarah's face turned to a real one! THIS WAS GOING TO BE EPIC. She listened carefully and then examined the list on the board. It was going to be epic!

Minerva listened as the professor answered Mo. She would really like to have that Hufflepuff tea again, maybe she would have to see about mixing the herbs together make her own version of it. That might be fun. This in Min's eyes had to be on the top of her favorite Herbology lessons. All this herb and tea talk the last two classes had been so interesting and her wanting to be a healer liked knowing more about the properties of the herbs.

Oh they had to pick someone to do a tea for, her face couldn't hide the grin that went across her lips. Of course she knew exactly in a split second who she was doing the properties of. Every single person that knew her was probably going to know who she was doing the tea on. Maybe she should try someone else, but nope not going to happen. She would certainly be doing it on Ethan. Maybe once she had the tea down she could send it to him and surprise him. That would be fun.

Pulling out her quill she wrote on her parchment:

Giggling to herself, how many were they suppose to use, because she could have kept going really she could.

Annabeth had edited her notes about the Hogwarts Houses' teas. She refused to erase her notes, she thought she had learned too much in her research that if they weren't entirely correct, at least they had her impressions about the ingredients. So, she only copied from the blackboard,underlining the added notes.

When she was finishing copying, the teacher had invited them to create their own blend of tea. It was exciting!!! She could do a hommage to someone special... Of course, the first person who appeared in her mind was Professor Lafay, but she thought professor Bentley could not like it... Then she reminded her good friend Jory Stonewall, he had sent her an owl telling he was hired to work at the Ministry of Magic, as he wanted to. She was very proud of her friend and thought a tea named Stonewall could be a nice tribute. Anna wrote:

She reread her notes. It was perfect. As Jory was. Then, she added "perfect".

She looked at the blackboard... Professor Bentley had suggested "family"... She thought about her family, her awful father, her mean mother, her cruel brother and sisters. Glasswall family tea... How would it taste? A boggart-like taste? Nightmare-like taste? Merlin's-dirty-pants taste? Dragon-dung taste? The girl reread her friend's name. Jory. Jory's tea would be sweet. She would make it and send some for him. It would be nice.

There was a right answer to all of this? Really? Cutty opened up his school bag and pulled out his parchment from his last Herbology class which caused a disproving sneer when he noticed he didn't spell resemblance or antioxidants correctly. He'd also gotten a great deal incorrect when it came to the houses, though he seemed to know Ravenclaw house the best if his answers were any indication.





Cutty took out a blank sheet of parchment and on it he wrote down the name of the only person he cared to fashion a tea blend after.




He then began to think back on his first History of Magic lesson and all the things he'd learned about the historical figure with the INCREDIBLY sad hair. (c) Ash

OOOHHHH they were making tea! That would explain all the concentrating on herb properties and such. Were they allowed to model tea after themselves or would that be considered a conceited act? Not that she cared. Lex did what she wanted, and it wouldn't be anyone else's concern.

Outside of herself she would need to think very carefully about this. She could make a tea about Lottie...merlin knew the girl liked that stuff enough...or Cassia despite the girl's dislike of anything that grew in the ground. Aidan? Nah, too hard to think of exactly the right blend to get him right. Hmmmmmm....her father? Then she could brag about making a tea that had him in mind? Or even one for Amanda but it'd have to end up tasting bloody awful. She couldn't appreciate that considering they might have to be the one to taste it themselves. Drinking something fashioned after her step-mum? How about no?

This was going to be harder than she thought.

Lex looked to the board again. What if...what if she made one representing the Gryffindor Quidditch team? There was lots of nice herbs she could think of for them?

Ugh. This was getting her nowhere. Maybe she would just make herself a tea. Think Lex.

So. Tea with the traits of someone in particular. Mo pulled faces as he jerked out parchment and started drafting a short list of who he knew well enough to make into a tea blend. In some ways, the list was pretty obvious, which was why he avoided putting down any family members. His father and mother both drank home blends, often using flowers and plants from their own garden. There was a whole list of plants that would remind Mo of them, or of his older sisters.

So maybe a friend. He scribbled down West's name and then immediately crossed it out. Was there an herb that seemed pleasing in the mouth but ate a hole in your stomach when you swallowed it? Alice was out too, more because he didn't want to dwell on her too long when West was already mad at him, and Mo rejected Dora and Nigel as too complicated, and therefore somehow uninspiring.

Cat was a good option, but she didn't seem like a tea to him. She was a fizzy drink. So that left... no one. Mo scribbled more names on his parchment, a scattershot of ideas that didn't really strike him as right. Ravenclaw House, Ravenclaw Quidditch Team, Professor Botros, Headmistress GingerLady, his aunt Anj, his cousin Colby, his sorta-sister Alena, people with green eyes, the country of Canada, yetis in Tibet, pretty girls in general...

Pretty girls. Mo sat up straight and wrote in big letters across the middle of his parchment:

Hehe.

not quoting, but peeps in theeerrrre.
 

Seren was wandering around, sneaking peaks at parchments and making faces of approval or knitting her eyebrows together in thought. Most were on the right track, some were... lagging. Nevertheless, they had plenty of time for the task. No drama.
"Sarah, start penning your thought please," she prompted gently.



"Once you've mapped out the qualities of the person or group you're intending to create a blend for... you'll need to get out your textbooks and make a list of as many herbs as you can find that complement those qualities or characteristics." She paused here, making sure they were listening and not looking thoroughly confused.

"Then... you can start thinking about flavours, do they compliment each other? could you substitute one herb for another if it doesn't quite work?" she asked rhetorically. "Think about these as you plan... I'll give you about ten to fifteen minutes to start on this, and then I'll give you your next instructions." Though, they could probably guess what those ones were.




"How are you going Lex?" she asked, noticing the Gryffindor was having some trouble.

In the same moment, she had peered behind her and looked over the Marcus' shoulder. He too seemed to need some direction. Professor Pretty... that was something she expected from Ascanius, not Marcus. Interesting.
"How would you describe... Professor Pretty?" she asked, prompting the Ravenclaw to think about her qualities, "Prettiness aside, that is."

OOC: The lesson will continue in approx 19 hours. Use the Herbology textbook and the internet to search up herbs to use in yo tea.

Tested on?! This was a TEST?!

OH, MY MERLIN!

Sophie hadn't even been taught the basics of Herbology yet, though! What was she supposed to do--wild guess her way through this? She sort of slumped down a little until she realized that no, she was not supposed to wild guess her way through this. She was supposed to research. Well, just BAHHH.

She adjusted her textbook in front of her and was just about to flip through it, when she remembered that she hadn't even chosen a person or group to create a blend about. Hmm...

Harry Potter.

That guy just wasn't mentioned enough these days. He pretty much saved the world, and the most they could focus on is Quidditch. So Harry Potter it was.

Sophie thought it might be easier to list the qualities of the herbs first and THEN scratch out the ones that didn't belong to Potter. But then...she'd have to pretty much research EVERY herb out there, wouldn't she? FORGET THAT.

So instead, she took out a piece of parchment and began making a list of words to describe Potter.

Kace was wondering who he could make the tea for. He could pick Adi, Marigold, Belle, his mum or dad. He really thought about it and then he thought of Belle. She really could use the tea for her college studies or maybe even calm her anxieties.

He copied down in his notebook,
He smiled and hoped his sister liked this. Then he heard the professor move on and say they needed to get the herbs to fit the qualities. He reached over for his textbook and started to research it.

Okay, they were moving on. Ella flipped open her text book and began to scan through the different herbs, looking for those that would compliment Botros and his personality. There were tons to choose from so she took her time, not wanting to pick just any old thing because it was familiar. She wanted this tea to be great, just like the person she was making it for is.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.



Glancing at the list she'd made, Ella tapped her chin thoughtfully. She liked the herbs she'd associated with the professor but wasn't sure that the tastes would be compatible. She wished they could do some taste testing before they made their final decisions.

Sarah had been so wrapped up in her thoughts about what to use that she nearly got a fright when the professor spoke to her. "sorry professor.. gt lost in thought" then she quickly added, "not that it is unfamiliar territory of course" she ended with a grin.

Now what should she choose? She decided to chose it by random and she looked at the one her finger has pointed at
There was too much to list about her family

Sarah had a lot more to add, yet she stopped and began to dream about other things

Okay. Next set of instructions. Adi flipped open his text book and began focusing on the herbs that went with Kace's qualities. Man, were there loads of herbs! Hoping tis wasn't going to take forever, he began to scribble:
It was only logical that Adi rewrite the properties of Hufflepuff since Kace belonged to that House and had those traits. Satisfied with his work, he waited for Professor Bentley to continue.

Lex blinked, now focusing on the Professor who was...checking in on her? Truthfully, she was having the hardest time making a decision but the Professor had bigger things to worry about besides indecisive Fourth Years so she simply shrugged, allowing an easy grin to slip onto her face. "I'm just trying to pick the perfect subject for my tea. Think I have it." No, no she didn't but again, no need to worry the woman.

She looked to her parchment again, her brows creasing in concentration and a scowl setting in. This wasn't something she'd be able to spend the entire day thinking about.

THINK!

Eventually she was able to make a decision. Mhm. See Professor? Nothing to worry about here. She was fine. Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.



Would she need to add more to this??

BOO.

Now came the hard part. Making a quick list of traits she knew about Harry Potter had been easy. Finding an herb to match them all was not so easy. Or, at least, she imagined it wouldn't be.

Then a thought came to mind.

Could she get rich off this?! She could just attach Potter's name to the tea bags, make all kinds of wild promises, and then BAM! She'd be raking in the galleons.

AWESOME.

Oh. Herbology class. Right. Sophie began to edit her list with a few herbs she thought would match Potter.

First, she looked through her list and chose a good half of the qualities that she'd like to include in her tea. She made those choices darker than the others and then scratched through the ones she wouldn't use. Then she searched through her book and found some good herbs to match those traits.

In the end, she decided to cut the Slytherin traits out, because those traits weren't really big Potter traits anyway.

Minerva listened to Bentley as she walked around and looked at everyone's choices. She blushed as the professor came near her knowing she saw who she was doing her tea on, even though it shouldn't be such a big surprise, really. When she heard the person Mo was doing she couldn't help but giggle a bit. She had a few guesses who the professor was he was talking about, but she bit her lip and tried not to show that she heard and muffled her giggles.

Going back to her own work she had to figure out the herb now for her Ethan tea. She liked the sound of that. So opening her book she started searching, it was different searching for a property first instead of the herb. Now which should she start with. Possibly the loving part, it was one of her favorite parts about him.

Flip.. flip.. she flipped through the pages. Why was this harder than she thought it would be. She was feeling dumber and dumber the more she was struggling.



Well they were at least things she felt went with him or made her think of how he makes her feel at least. Now which ones would go good together that was the harder part. Trial and error maybe.

Question for the professor :)
 

There was still more time to work, apparently, so Sophie glanced back over her list. She thought she'd done a pretty good job, but there was one thing she wasn't sure of. When the professor did the example with the Hogwarts houses, she only had about four herbs per blend. With all the Gryffindor herbs added in, Sophie had seven herbs for Harry Potter.

She raised her hand. "Professor? Is there a limit to how many herbs you can put in one blend? Would it maybe make it too strong to have too many?" she asked. She pointed to her parchment. "I've got seven, so for the Gryffindor traits, should I just limit to one main herb I want to focus on?"

Mo glanced up at the professor and only JUST managed not to cover the paper with his hands. It wasn't a secret. Not really. "It's a real person, Professor, but I'm protecting her privacy." And his, obviously.

Mo turned back to his paper, doodling along the margin as he tried to come up with a list of traits. Real ones, too, not just the imagined traits that smitten boys assigned to the girls they fancied. Not that he was smitten. He was just... impressed by her in general.

So then traits.

So that was sorted. Sort of. It wasn't as if Mo felt he'd really captured the professor in question (a bit obvious now, but whatever), but he'd captured SOME of her personality. With that done, Mo pulled out his textbook and began to search for plants that suited the traits he'd find. It was possible he'd have to throw some off the list, but he'd try to find one for each for now.

He set down his quill and peeked around to see if the Herbology Professor was still stalking him.

She'd been waiting to see how long it took for someone to ask this questions, and as it was, it took longer than she expected, much longer.
"Good question," she mused to begin with, "there's no real limit, but you do want to keep in mind that for people to drink it, it needs to have a balance, not be too overpowering... and make sure that your traits or properties, are equally represented."



Yess... thinking could sometimes take a while, especially when there were options. Seren simply nodded, acknowledging that Alexa was getting on track... and she lingered a little behind the girl until she did start writing. Good. No need for her to continue intervening at this point.



Seren returned the lions grin. "You'll get there," she agreed, encouraging her to plough through her thoughts.



Real person? Privacy?

...

Leave it to a Ravenclaw to be cryptic. "Ok then," she smiled, respecting the Captain's need for... privacy.. ??? He could do what he wanted, so long as he was doing it properly.. and she would be checking.

She had eyes... everywhere in here.


Again, wandering around, Seren scoped out how the students were managing, and for the most part, they were doing rather well. "Don't feel as though you're restricted to the herbs we've looked at in the House blends... there are other alternatives," she announced to the class, having noticed that some students were repeating them. Originality was one of the best things about making tea.

But seeing as some students were more or less finished with their planning now...
"The practical portion of class today, will lead into your homework task... it will be producing your tea." Simple enough, no?

"In a moment, I'll let you all leave your seats and collect the herbs you require from the greenhouse, use the baskets in front of you..." because it was more practical than stuffing the herbs in their pockets, and nobody wanted tea that's been in somebody elses pants... that was just, gross.
"Once you have collected what you can from here, use the hot-air charm to dry them out .. depending on the herb this may take some time. Do it periodically throughout the day if need be."

And yes. That was a sign that this would take more than a lessons work.

"Drying the herbs is only the first step which you will start this lesson.... you will be notified of the addition two steps at the end of class..." Fairly straight forward. "If you require a herb that is not found in this greenhouse, it'd be best to collect it on your way out so that you don't incur any additional fees... so unless anybody has any questions, feel free to get started!"

OOC: Small simple activity of collecting the herbs you need for your tea. Pick them off with your hands, slice them with your wand, whatever works best for you whilst NOT killing the plant. Minimum of 2 posts collecting herbs and minimum of 3 posts drying them (total of 5 posts to be eligible for full marks). The lesson will be open for another 48 hours. I will post in 24 hours to dismiss anyone that's finished.

Catching up: finding herbs and post 1
 

Post 1: Finding Dill, Pennyroyal, Borage and asking for Pine
 

Post 1 - Ingredients Picking
 

Cutty kept his newly corrected notes on the last class nearby for easy reference. If you could potentially chose the wrong herbs and plants for this project it was a good idea to have those notes and his book open. Alright, on to his hero now.

While he was thinking of what to add to the tea, Cutty absent-mindedly darkened Crouch's name on his parchment. He thought about remixing from his reworked list of house blends, but when Professor Bentley said they could move beyond that, it sounded more up his alley. Should he try adding mallow root for it's flavour? No. He had found that it had very little to do with the traits he had listed for Crouch and that one of his later ingredients might help balance out the flavours in any case.



Was this drinkable? Cutty thought so. In fact if he'd done it right it ought to make a sweetly dessert tea. He'd drink it anyway. Coming out of his dazed thoughts, Cutty glanced at his empty basket for a moment before taking it up and with his wand carried it over to a nearby tree, which he began poking around, trying to find vanilla planifolia. While looking about the floor near other species of orchids, something lightly tapped his forehead. Cutty swatted at the offender before he realized what they were. The little green pods which contained the vanilla beans. He smiled and pulled them closer-perhaps still a bit too rough in his handling of the plants-and flicked his wand using the charm Tobias had shown him.

"Flipnsnipwitit!" He swished his wand and uttered the incantation. Then hunted for the other ingredients.

Catch up post before I start with the activity portion
 

After Kat had finished making a list of traits and attributes that Elise had, she examined the page of her textbook that had a list of different herbs that could be used in making tea. Thinking of Elise just made the Head Girl miss her bestie even more. Their final year in Hogwarts and they just had to be separated. She hasn't even seen Bee or Erin lately. What happened to three of her favourite Ravenclaws? Of course, she'd seen Kendall. The Slytherin pretty much enjoyed talking with her. Their topics usually ranged from K1's cat, Accio, and chocolate. It was really random, but interesting at the same time.

But anyway, Kat shifted her attention back to her notes on her parchment. First on her list of Elise!attributes was 'smart'. That was cool because Kat could base it from the notes she took about the Ravenclaw tea, yeah? Ginko was the herb, right? But then she found another herb on the textbook that Elise might be able to benefit from. Horehound... for clearing minds and quick thinking. That would be helpful cos Elise needed things sorted out since she was a Quidditch player, yeah? The blonde scribbled that on her parchment beside the attribute it represented. The Slytherin added more herbs into her list until she felt like it was good enough. She didn't want to have too much herbs in her tea anyway because then that would mean more herbs to work with and effort.


Okay, so that was all good now? Time to prepare the herbs then! Kat stood up and went to look at the plants. Just so, you know, she didn't pick the wrong herb.

Post 2 - Ingredients Picking
 

After taking a clip or two (one in case he messed up) of vanilla, Cutty began his hunt for the sassafras, while he was in a warmer zone. Oddly and perhaps very much like an animal he expected that the plant would have a distinct smell to it and decided on using his olfactory senses. Not that he knew yet by heart what exactly sassafras should look like, or planned on reading every solitary label of each plant, thus he figured it a better strategy to try and sniff it out. The moisture levels in Greenhouse 4 made that a great deal easier as it amplified the sweet sent of the sassafras albidum, although it was hard to miss with his dark bark and large footprint-like leaves.

Cutty took out his wand and again applied the trimming charm to a visible piece of root. "Carpe Retractum!" He used the spell they'd learned in their second charms class to grasp and pull back the little pieces of bark from the floor, then quickly moved from the spot, hoping that if he'd just done damage to the tree it would not be immediately noticeable.

Onto the blueberries, which were easy enough to find owing to their familiarity. Cutty rushed over to the bushes and knelt down, placing his basket near him and began to pick furiously with his hands liking the way they felt. He wasn't sure how many of them it would take for his tea or even how small they could shrink once dried, but better to have more than you need in case of mistakes.

When he was satisfied with the amount in his basket that only left the barbed skullcap to find. Cutty was expecting something thorny and hat-like. Maybe like a foxglove or something, but smaller. He shut his eyes for a minute trying to envision it, trying to remember if he'd seen it in his book. After a moment, he went back over to his desk and took out his Herbology book flipping through it searching for skullcap. FOUND IT! Oh, it was small. And not quite thorny, though there were indeed little pointy parts of it sticking out on opposite ends of the small blossoms. Cutty ran off with his book and basket towards the lavender, feeling intuitively that he just might find it there. Did they have a similar soil preference, perhaps? He circumnavigated around the beds until he froze right in front of the plant which up close, Cutty thought resembled the books picture of bluebells. Not wasting another moment, the boy took his wand and applied the trimming charm to it, cutting a sprig of it and tossing it into his basket then headed back to his seat.

post 1
 

Annabeth added to her notes the ingredients which seemed to fit with Jory's new job and personality. And his great heart. Anna knew her friend had a girlfriend. She found in an ancient book four herbs to complete the tea's blend. She wanted to find seven ingredients, as she believed on the power of the number seven. She had chosen three herbs from the Hogwarts blends. Now she need just four lovely ingredients to her nice friend have a good tea for sip at the Ministry.



Anna wrote down a little summary of the magical properties of the ingredients she had chosen to the blend:


Now, all she had to do was to pick up the herbs, put them into the basket and dry them. Nice.
The first ingredient was inside her bag: an apple. She took the apple and cut it in fine slices, put them on the table and cast the spell to dry them:
"Siccus Aerous!" She said, pointing her wand towards the slices and makind the circular movement required.
"Nice!" She said, grinning. She took the slices and put them into purple cotton bag, and said to the sliced and dried apple "now you must wait a little while aunt Anna is going to pick up your friends... soon we will make a tea party!" She grinned once again. She didn't have talked this way with "things" since Jory had left the school. She felt good.

post 1
 

Sarah was happy that the professor smiled back. She was happy that her sour mood upon her entrance did not affect the others. More thinking... She wrote some more before the professor gave her the next instructions. Okay, they had to collect from teh herbs.
That was when Sarah had a plan, less planning and more doing. She would use her textbook and take herbs as she went along. She first came across the bay plant. Bay was used for protctions and her family made her feel protected. She was about to take a leave or two off, when she remembered about the basket. She went back and grabbed a basket.

Now back to the plant. She just plucked off a few leaves and added it. She then started a new note about the tea. Speaking of courage, Burdock was also good. Another pluck Borage was spotted next. Her family was that. Another pluck and there were more things in the basket. Oh,there was dill, Sarah took out her wand this time and deftly casted the diffindo spell and added the dill to the mix... Her family was soo special. which reminded her that she had so much that if there were such a thing as an evil eye, she would need protection. Figwort was found and added. What was that.. honeysuckle? She HAD to add that. She took out her wand and with a quick movement she had another thing in her collection.
Then she spotted.. "OLIVES. I did not know you had them here!" she exclaimed and she got some things from the plant. She made sure no one was looking before slipping off ripe olive and rubbing it clean on her clothes before plopping it into her mouth. She looked around. Everyone else was busy with their collecting they did not notice it. She took the oppurtnity to write so more notes

Post 1
 

Kace heard what the professor was saying. So he wasn't restricted to just the house blends. That was good because some of the herbs from the other houses described his sister pretty well. He listed the possible herbs he would need for Belle's tea.



His list seemed to be in order and he nodded and closed his notebook. He went to go get his basket and wondered what first ingredient he would get. Hmm...well he saw dandelion leaves right there so he went over and grabbed one. He was gentle with it to get the leaves. One he picked them off, he put them into the basket and he looked on his list and thought he might try to get the caraway seeds.

He wondered where they could be....possibly in the greenhouse storage room? Yeah that was logical. He went over to the cupboard and started to look.

Post 1- Gathering herbs
 

So Adi had his list herbs which surprisingly did not take him forever to compile. And now they were moving on! Pick the herbs and dry them! That's what the baskets were for and the spell that he had needed to practice. Okay! Time to get moving. Adi scooped up his basket and list and set off.

He hummed as he wandered around the Greenhouse. The first herb he came across was the Chickweed, which he carefully picked from the plant with his hands. And not long afterward, he was doing the same for the Passiflora.

Caraway
Chickweed
Licorice
Hawthorn
Borage
Passiflora

Post 1: Collecting Herbs
 

She wasn't quite done with the herbs yet so Ella listened carefully to Bentley's instructions before adding a few more things to her list. She wanted to have options to work with, yeah? Many options.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.



Okay, time to pick some leaves. Ella set down her quill and grabbed for the basket, eyeing her list of herbs again. The first one she'd go for was Hawthorn, then Chamomile while she was up. She'd even decided to pick them by hand because she thought it'd be more of an experience than using her wand. Sometimes it was nice to do things without magic. Especially gardening things. It made her think of her Gran and good thoughts this time. She needed to hold on to those for reasons.

The hawthorn leaves were shiny, yeah? Ella eyed them curiously as she knelt in front of the shrub, basket sitting on the ground beside her. It was a bit thorny too. That meant she'd need her gloves. The seventeen year old summoned them and placed them on before she started to pick at the leaves, working very carefully so as not to damage the plant. When she'd finished, the blonde placed the leaves inside the basket and moved on.

Chamomile. Daisy-like plant, yeah? Ella wandered around the greenhouse in search of it and smiled a little when she recognized the herb. She then set to work gathering leaves that she could dry. She even hummed a little as she worked because it was good for the plants, yeah? Maybe it'd put them at ease while she was picking from them. Maybe.

Post 1
 

Mo settled back for a few minutes to consider his list of ingredients. He wasn't actually sure how they'd work together, particularly because chamomile was pretty distinctive and turmeric had a little kick to it. It was a nontraditional combination, but he supposed that sort of went well with the lady in question. And if it was really terrible, then no one would ever drink it but Mo.

And now it was time to pick out his herbs. Mo made his way carefully through the potted trays of plays, noting some of the ones he'd helped plant, plus loads of those he'd pruned and weeded and watered. It was nice to be able to be part of the full circle for these plants - the planting, the caring for, and now the use.

Mo meandered through several of the rows, making a point to stop off and pluck the flowers from the chamomile plant - no stems or leaves, please. Even though he had the bag provided by Bentley, Mo carried the open flowers in his hand so he could take in the heady scent as he worked.

Next, he spotted the rosemary, with its spiky needle-leaves. Mo took some of those as well, swirling them around in his hand with the chamomile flowers to see how they seemed to balance with each other. The rosemary was sharper, but they smelled pleasant together.

Post 1
 

The Professor began talking about them not limiting themselves to the herbs from the other lesson. Good because she had two more herbs that she felt should have been added. Bay for it's protection, like her Daddy and Honeysuckle because it dealt a lot with the mind and her father was plenty smart. He probably knew everything. It was like a fact.

She glanced down at her list again. This wouldn't take too long. All she had to do was find them and pluck them off then add them to her basket. Thanks to the competition she was a lot more familiar with herbs now which should cut her time in half...in theory. There was still the matter of her being easily distracted. Something to work on for this lesson.

At the Professor's go ahead she hopped off her stool and began walking around the greenhouse searching for the leaves she would need. The first thing she ran into was the licorice herb. She plucked a few leaves off it before continuing her walk. So many herbs along this wall but none that she wanted. Turning she ran right into the lavender that she'd also need and plucked it as well. Just a few. The plant wouldn't mind.

Next to the lavender she spotted the honeysuckle. Good good.

Post 2: Collecting Herbs
 

Lemon balm. Ella leaned a bit closer and sniffed the leaves, smiling at the faint lemon scent. She loved that smell. Clean and calming and lovely. The blonde was careful as she picked several leaves, knowing how fragile they were. She didn't want to damage them before drying them, that was for sure. After placing them in her basket, she hurried on. She'd read that you wanted to harvest these particular leaves in good time.

Licorice next. Ella worked carefully and as she harvested she thought about the scent and sweet taste. She'd never been a big fan but her Granddad was immensely fond of black licorice. Funny how Botros reminded her a lot of him.

Peppermint. There was no shortage of that, it seemed. The smell was lovely. Ella picked numerous leaves this time, knowing that peppermint was the type of plant that didn't exactly have a shortage of them. They came back year after year, yeah? And they grew pretty abundantly too.

Rosemary came last. Ella recognized the needle-y leaves as well as the smell. Would this be weird when mixed with the others? The blonde wasn't too sure. It'd be worth a try, though. The seventeen gathered the leaves carefully, plucking them by hand. She then added them to the basket, surprised by the mixture of aromas coming from it. She wasn't sure if it was a good mixture of not.

Time to do some drying.

Post 2
 

Mo spilled the chamomile flowers and rosemary leaves into his bag before moving on in search of ginkgo. Ginkgo trees could grow to be quite large, and Mo kinda thought it would be awesome to have one somewhere on the grounds. Not just to harvest nuts and leaves, but because they were, according to one textbook, 'living fossils'. Mo might not be top notch at History of Plants like he was with History of Magic, but he thought that was pretty impressive.

He did find a small tree, and Mo plucked a few healthy leaves from one of the branches. He crushed one of the leaves between his fingers to release the scent, and it mingled with the lingering chamomile on his fingers. Mild. Definitely not going to be overpowering, and probably needed the chamomile and rosemary for interest. He gently added the leaves into the bag.

What should he look for next? Mo spotted the turmeric, which looked a lot like ginger. If he remembered correctly from his text, the part of the turmeric plant that was most useful was the rhizome. The roots. And if Mo wasn't supposed to kill the plants, would the professor mind terribly if he went digging out the root system? He gave Bentley a cautious look, before carefully digging around the thick rhizome at the bottom of the first turmeric. It didn't seem like it would be bad for the plant if he cut off one of the thick knobbly bits, considering that was how new plants were potted.

"Diffindo," Mo carefully sliced off one of the roots and dusted dirt from it before placing it in his bag too. Just... gonna over up the rest of that root with dirt so it looked normal again.

Post 2- Gathering herbs
 

Adi continued on his hunt for the herbs. So far, he had collected four of the six and what remained were Hawthorn and Borage. He had stacked the collected herbs in neat piles in the basket.

Still humming, the first year continued his search and finally came across the Borage. He hand picked the herb, careful not to cause any damage before continuing on again. Minutes later he collected the final herb- Hawthorn.

Time for some drying then. Adi couldn't wait to use the spell.

Post 1
 

The first to collect on Kat's list of herbs for the Elise!tea was horehound. Well, she didn't know how that looked like but, thanks to her textbook, she knew now. Kat went closer to the plant, double checked her textbook just in case her eyes were deceiving her, and nodded. Yeah, that was definitely it. If the book was lying to her, then she'd have to complain. Textbook were, after all, supposed to be free of errors. But anyway, the Slytherin picked a leaf.... and four more. She got five of them in total because she didn't exactly know how much of each herb she needed, but five was enough for her.

Moving on, Kat went to search for jasmine. Now that was a herb she knew because her grandmother had them, and grandma sure loved tea. And the textbook was vivid about it so yeah, plus points. But back to the jasmine, she needed the flower right? Shame. She didn't want to hurt the flowers, and that was out of her Slytherheart.

This time, Kat took her wand out of her pocket. She would rather slice it off using her wand than picking it, apparently. "Diffindo," Kat said and caught the flower with her free hand. And she did the same with another flower, so that she had two in total. Yes, that was the most she could do... and no, she didn't want to cut more.

So...... Peppermint was next.

post 2 and question for professor
 

Then she spotted a pretty plant.. in her favourite colour.. it had to be Rehmannia. Sarah confirmed that using her textbook. BY now her olive was finished and all she had left was the pip, and not wanting to mess up the greenhouse and having no other place to discard it, Sarah simply swallowed it. Now the Rehmannia. What could that represent? Oh, memories. Her family had unforgettable memories so they had to remember them. Sarah made her way over to the Rehmannia plant and bent down next to it and began to make her way around the area with surgical precision, with only the least bit of soil excavated, until she got to the root system. She used her wand to get a bit of the root before closing off the soil again. She hoped that she had not killed the plant. She added the root to her basket.... what else.

She eyed her collection in the basket. "professor" she said, "I have a very diverse and arge collection, I don't know how they will blend. My pickings are rather sentimental"

Ooohhhhhh this was so exciting, Seren could hardly wait to see their tea's! And taste them toooooo.



Steering herself toward Sarah as the girls hand darted up, Seren listened and nodded her understanding. That, would always be an issue... or well, in most cases at least. "Let's take a look," she smiled, peering at the girls parchment. She uuum'd and aaahh'd as she read, and then pursed her lips in consideration before responding.
"Well..." she started, "you have three which more or less represent protection, you could, eliminate two that you think are particularly disharmonious in terms of flavour.. without compromising the blends meaning."

Sentimental or not... it wasn't always going to be easy. "What you don't put in, is just as important as what you do..." she added, a few words for inspiration perhaps.





And speaking of... students were still rather busy. Good. They could stay that way for some time then.

OOC: I've decided to hold off on dismissal, so if you finish, don't leave just yet. I will post/update in approx 12 hours.

post 3.. drying
 

Sarah was eager for the input. She listened and nodded, absorbing it all. She then cocked her head from side to side, thinking it through. Especially the teacher's last words... BUT...She wanted to use it all! "ehh.. thanks for the advice, " she said. She took her basket back to her workplace. She placed it front of her and rested her head in her palm, deep in thought. She then looked at her basket then back at her list and then back at the basket. She could not part with any of them.. she wanted them all in her tea. That was what made her family so unique, there was unity but not uniformity. So in the end she decided to stick with them all. With that being said, she thought it was time to stop with the collecting and work on the tea, she would note the others herbs she wanted to add later.

She took the figwort out first and placed it in front of her. She then took out her wand again and did the two clockwise circles and then moved her wand up and down on the length of the herb, "Siccus Aerous" she said. She then felt it... not bad

Post #1
 

Hmm... okay then. That was pretty much what Sophie figured. In the end, she decided to do some limiting, because some of the traits listed with the Gryffindor tea were also traits she'd listed in her own list for Potter.

Herbs for Potter

1. Dittany, because it's commonly used as a restorative. I think this fits in perfectly with the way Harry was able to go to battle so many times yet make it through and become restored in the end. There were times when most people just wouldn't make it through, yet Harry did.
2. Mandrake, because it's used to help people who have been hurt and feel pain. As I said before, Harry went to battle and basically had to defend himself time after time after time. This put him in a lot of emotional and physical pain.
3. Refer to Gryffindor qualities and herbs in original list. (dandelion, borage, basil, and sarsaparilla) I'm only keeping dandelion and basil, because the other two are really already represented in my own list.
4. Refer to Slytherin qualities/herbs in original list.
5. Nettle, because it's commonly used for healing, and not only was Harry healed many times in his battles with Voldemort, we also read in history books where he's been known to heal other people, too. He once was able to think fast and give his friend a bezoar when he was poisoned.

So on that note, Sophie reached for a basket in front of her and began to make her way around in search of the herbs she needed. She wasn't really sure what she could or couldn't find right here in the greenhouse, but looking over her list, she decided that her ingredients were pretty basic and shouldn't be too hard to find.

After a while, she looked around and noticed most people finishing up. UGH. She hadn't even found the first ingredient yet! She picked up her pace but tried to be as thorough as possible. Within the next ten minutes, she'd found mandrake, dandelion, and basil, which meant she only had two ingredients left to find. After that, all she had to do was dry them out, and she'd be done. Now she knew what all that practicing for homework had been about...

Post 2
 

It took only another turn for Lex to realize that she would have to get back to walking around the greenhouse. Not much else she would need over here. Let's see...what was next? Just across from her she could see a few potted lemonbalm herbs. Weeeeelll....she was gonna head for the nettles across the room but seeing as these were right here...convenience would be the order of the day. No way was she going all the way over there to go back over here.

And here they said she wasn't smart. Pfft.

Alexa walked around to the pots she would need and contemplated plucking them off as well. The simple tug she'd been using wasn't working. In fact she gave a few tugs, nearly pulling the pot right off the table before immediately letting go and clearing her throat.

Ahem. "Diffindo!" Just a couple leaves just like with the others. Later she'd decide which would be put in in what amount.

Off to the nettles. Lex cut off a few of these as well and with luck turned right into a table of Bay. How did they know she wanted them right THERE?? Such smart plants. Mhm. Just needed the Earl Grey now and she'd be through. To her surprize they were actually close to the table she'd been sitting at. She grabbed some and threw into her basket then plopped down in her seat again. Drying. She could do this.

Post #2
 

Sophie glanced into her basket and adjusted the mandrake, dandelion, and basil so that none of it would get crushed. She was already behind, so all she needed now was to get even further behind, and she could hang up this Herbology grade. She looked around, wondering where Caleb was and if he'd found all the stuff he needed. Maybe she could enlist his help...

He was nowhere, though. At least, nowhere she could see. BAH, brother! You're supposed to be here when I need you!

She frowned but turned her attention back to the search for...what did she need again? Oh. Right. Dittany and nettle. It took her another ten or so minutes, but she finally found what she needed and had it all packed into her basket. She sat the basket down and withdrew her wand. So what was that wand movement and incantation again?

Two little clockwise circles, an up and down motion, and then Siccus Aerous, right? Right.

post 4
 

Sarah put the now dried herb aside and turned her attention back to the basket... hmm. what next. She picked up the bay leaves and spread them out before her,"Siccus Aerous" she said again, repeating the wand movement. She did it again on each leaf. She would probably not need them all, yet it was good to come prepared.

Sage was next... also a good one. Sarah dried three of the sage leaves and added it to the pile of things already dried. Feelling 'leaved' out, Sarah got the honeysuckle flower ready to do next. She hoped she was doing the right thing. "Siccus Aerous" she casted again. hmm.. more honeysuckle was needed so another flower was dried. This was a match easier way to dry flower petals for weddings and stuff.

What should she do next?

Post #3
 

So with all her ingredients gathered and the spell to dry them fresh on her mind, it was time to finish up. Sophie plucked the first ingredient out of her basket. Dittany. She held it up then raised her wand toward it. With two little clockwise circles and an up and down motion along the length of the dittany, she said, "Siccus Aerous!" She repeated that until the dittany was dried.

She placed it off to the side then plucked the dandelion from the basket. She repeated the same spell she'd done before. She moved her wand in two little clockwise circles then moved up and down along the length of the dandelion. "Siccus Aerous!" she said. "Siccus Aerous!" She placed the dried dandelion off to the side with the dittany.

She continued in this way until all five of her ingredients were dried: dittany, mandrake, dandelion, basil, and nettle.

Post 1 - Collecting herbs.
 

Blair settled on creating a blend that reflected upon her father's best characteristics. Now the difficult part : deciding which herbs would best represent them whilst also complimenting each other's flavours. She made a quick list of what she would require.



Blair set her quill down, it was time to start collecting some herbs. She picked up her basket and list and went to work. Bay first, she wandered round the greenhouse in search of it. Ah ha, she gave the leaf a quick smell before picking a couple of and placing them in her basket.

Blair consulted her list once again, borage next. Spotting the blue star shaped flowers that marked the borage plant she collected a few of these too. The leaves felt a bit fuzzy, she didn't like the texture of them much.

What next? Ginger.

Post 2
 

Alright so now he got the dandelion all set, now he needed to find more herbs on his list. He checked it just to be sure. He was checking in the greenhouse storage space and he managed to find the caraway seeds. He smiled and put them into the basket to keep safe. He hoped they wouldn't get crushed.



Now he was going to look for the chickweed and passiflora plant. He needed to use a spell to get the leaves off. He wondered and then it popped into his brain. It was..."Diffindo!" he said and the leaves came off the plants. He caught the chickweed plants leaves and put them into his basket and then he got the passiflora leaves into his basket as well. Now all he needed was three more ingredients!

Post 2 - Collecting herbs.
 

Post 2: Finding a bunch of plants and wanting Professor attention
 

Post 1
 

Minerva looked at her paper, was that all the herbs and which should she get rid of. She knew she shouldn't use all of them, but which to actually pick she wasn't sure. Hearing Bentley she looked up oh they were going to collect the herbs now. She chewed on her lower lip and looked at her list again. Now this is when she needed a certain claw here still. Did she even know exactly what these looked like. She grabbed her book for reference and got up from her work area.




Walking over with the rest of the group she blinked at the plants. They all looked about the same to her really. She sighed afraid she might not be able to figure these out when she spotted probably the easiest on the list, Lavender. She walked over to it and pulled out her wand "Diffindo" just some pieces should do the trick.

Now she wasn't sure of the next one so she opened her book. Looking through it she glanced back at the plants. That one seemed to look like the Turmeric with it's leaves. She walked over to it and looked closer. Hmm she just wasn't so sure. Glancing at a few others she decided it wasn't he right one and went for another one. Now this one seemed like the Turmeric. Using her wand she took a leaves from the herb and moved along to the next one.

Post 3
 

After returning to her seat and organizing the herbs on the work space in front of her, Ella was ready to begin the drying process. She'd had plenty of practice with the spell seeing as she'd had to help Tobias down by the lake after he'd fallen in. She was practically a pro after that. Mhm! Picking up her wand, the seventeen year old set her sights on the Hawthorn first.

Siccus Aerous, yeah? The blonde nodded to herself in confirmation and focused on the hawthorn leaves in front of her. She could totally handle this. "Siccus Aerous!" Circle. Circle. Uppp. Dowwwn. Hm. Ella ran a hand over the leaves gently and tilted her head, noting that they could probably use a bit more drying. "Siccus Aerous!" Circle. Circle. Uppp. Dowwwn. Much better this time around. The definitely looked tea ready.

Next up was Chamomile. Ella scooted down a bit so that she was seated closer to what she'd gathered and concentrated again, wanting to get the spell correct. "Siccus Aerous!" Circle. Circle. Uppp. Dowwwn. Grin! See? She could totally do this.

Too early to think about a career in tea?