Now they were going to make plants grow, and that sounded awfully difficult. Looks like AJ needed to get to practicing. Herbivicus was the incantation. "Herbivicus...Herbivicus...Herbivicus...Her-bi-vi-cus." Ahem. AJ predicted her tongue getting tied on that one.

Time to make some mountains. She practiced making three small mountains over and over. She was ready to make magic happen. Ahem. Her throat was cleared, and she was totally focusing.

"Herbivicus." Mountains were made, and it didn't look like her tree had grown any. "Herbivicus." Still the same height. AJ pressed her nose to the plant. Why won't you grow?

Could he practice on another plant? Adi was tempted to but was distracted by AJ's voice. Leaning forward once more, he eyed her across Benny. Aw. Her teeny plant wasn't growing. And just look at her, with her nose against the plant. Cute.

"Giving up already, AJ?'' Adi whispered to her. "Here. The master made his plant grow on the first try.'' He pointed to his grown up plant. Smirk. Go on, AJ. Take the bait again.

The cleared throat got his attention, bringing Benny back from his mind's wanderings after he had gotten the successful cut. He bit the inside of his cheek in an attempt to keep himself on target and listen up. A new spell, the Herbivicus Charm, was now on the table and the fourth year went to copy it down in his notes. Well go in search of some parchment from his bag. Unfortunately all he found was the teapot and cup causing him to frown. He'd just have to get the notes from Adi later he supposed, not about to interrupt his friend to ask for assistance now. Not when he was teasing and helping his own girlfriend.

"Herbivicus...Herbivicus...Her-biv-i-cuss...Her-biv-i-cuss...Herbivicus..." Ben practiced the incantation over and over again. It was a mouthful but doable he supposed. And the wand movement...three small mountains. The Gryffindor tried his hand at that, not quite an m or rather a small pointed m with an extra hump.

So now they could get started on this activity. After whatever that was, was over then, or well kind of. But everyone or almost every was acting weird lately. Anyway she was going to start practicing the incantation. Even though she already knew the spell. "Her-biv-i-cuss. Herbivicus."

"Her-biv-i-cuss... Her-biv-i-cuss... Her-biv-i-cuss." Well three times was charm right? Yeah. Well in this case four times. It was kind of fun to say. "Herbivicus!"

Now the wand movements. Three little mountains. She move her hand without her wand in it. Tracing three little mountains. One... two... Three. There three mountains. Now she could get this plant growing.
.
"Her-biv-i-cuss... Her-biv-i-cuss... Her-biv-i-cuss. Herbivicus."

Right, okay, duly noted. Toby nodded as Professor Walton answered his question, figuring that totally made sense. And he'd use Diffindo today, of course, because that was all part of the lesson. Tobias nodded once more, in thanks, and quickly jotted that little bit of information in his notes.

Ooooh, NEW SPELL. Toby checked out the little plant he had in front of him for just a second, before retrieving his wand. He'd not cast on it JUST yet, of course, that always had the potential to end badly. So practice, then casting.

"Her-biv-i-cuss... Her-biv-i-cus... Herbivicus..." Yep, nailed it. "Herbivicus."

Next, he tried out that wand movement, the three little mountains thing. And he made sure to try it a good few times, pointing his wand at nothing in particular. Alriiiiiight, time to put it together then?

Toby pulled his teeny tiny potted plant towards him and cleared his throat and pointed his wand at it.

"Herbivicus!" he said, clearly and confidently, whilst doing that 'three mountains' wand movement. Just as had happened with Walton, there was a flash of green light and then... nothing. Yep, for a second, nothing happened at all, but Toby was nothing if not patient. And for good reason, because next thing he knew, the plant before him had begun to growwwww. Nice. It always seemed that the spells Toby learnt in Herbology were the ones he managed to get right first try. Natural ability with plants (and animals) and all that.

So they were CHEATING then, yeah? The Professor was teaching them how to cheat? What was the point in learning how to take care of a plant if you couldn't get the satisfaction of it growing on it's own? Maybe that's just what the king of grump did to all his plants?

....Wait could the spell work on people?! He WOULD ask but he didn't like the Professor so nope.

He'd just try it on his baby when it was born, and he could grow IT up and they could play with him! It would be cheating. But if the Professor cheated at his job...

"Herbivicus." The boy mumbled quietly. "Her-biv-cus. Her-biv-i-cuss. Her-biv-i-cuss. Herbivicus." Raising his hand lazily he began to draw the three mountains.

Herbivicus? Lux was pretty sure that she had heard of that spell before, though she had never learned it. Watching the little plant grow a little each time Professor Walton used the spell, she had to admit that it seemed pretty interesting to her even if it was cheating nature somewhat. Though she had had to admit it was definitely a spell that had its uses.

First things first she would practice the incantation. "Her-biv-i-cuss... Her-biv-i-cuss... Her-biv-i-cuss... Herbivicus." Not too hard, so not a lot of practice was needed there. The wand movement was also simple, she thought as she waved her wand around in front of her, making the three little mountains over and over again until she felt ready to try it out on her seedling.

"Herbivicus!" At first nothing happened, but then her baby plant started to grow.

BEAM.

Samantha carefully watched as Professor Walton demonstrated the Herbivicus Charm, taking in the correct wand movement and incantation. She muttered three times under her breath, "Her-biv-i-cuss." She then grabbed her wand and waved it in front of her, creating the wand movement of three mountains just like the professor had demonstrated.

Sam then looked at her seedling and aimed her wand at it and performed the spell by doing the tri-mountains wand movement and saying, "Herbivicus!" After a few seconds of nothing, the plants began to grow.

Samantha nodded a satisfied nod to herself. "Good!" she thought

The Severing Charm would be fairly easy to practice and perform, seeing as that was a spell Dima already knew well enough. Still, the kid got out his wand to practice and clearly said the incantation a few times, just to make sure it rolled off his tongue right. Enunciation was IMPORTANT stuff.

After making sure he had that bit down pat, the second year moved on to the wand movement. The incomplete 'W' shape was as easy as the incantation to practice, if not simpler, and Dima was ready to cast after just a few traces in the air. He chose a medium-sized piece of wood, not wanting to over (or under) estimate his strength. And it seemed like a good choice too, because when he cast, it split neatly down the middle.

"Diffindo!" He drew the shape in the air, and... nice and even, mhm.

Spells spells spelllssss... THIS is the stuff he liked. All the knowing how to keep things alive and stuff was good, but SPELLS he could actually USE. Like, beyond the lesson. Beyond the year. Beyond Hogwarts... he could, you know, be all sorts of smart with it.

Zeke had watched with great anticipation as Professor Walton demonstrated the task.

At first, the plant grew a little... IT GREW A LITTTLEEE! And then, to make things even better, it grew a little MORE! IT GREW A LITTLE MORE! This was all sorts of cool. Did it work on things like tomatoes and pumpkins too? To like... make them larger??? DID IT?

Once the demonstration was over, Zeke collected for himself, one of the seedling things. But of course, that question was still at the forefront of his mind.

"Professor Walton?" he questioned, his hand half raised as his mind processed how to best put his question into words. "Can herbivitus," wait, no, that wasn't right. How did it go again? "Or is it Herbivocous? No no! Herbivicus! Erm, can it make food really big? Like... tomatoes?" Could it make them GRROOOOWWWWW??? Important question if he was to ever to produce giant produce.

He could practice the spell in a moment, but important questions needed important answers from important professors. Mmhhmm.

Next was the more difficult spell, but Dima had cast it before while making his Bonsai tree. That meant it wasn't COMPLETELY new, which would definitely make the casting of the spell less difficult on the baby Toussaint. Still, he went through the incantation a few times as he had with the previous charm. "Her-biv-i-cuss." Herbivicus. "Herrr-biiiv-iii-cussssss." That flowed pretty nicely, yeah?

And the movement. The clean mountain-like movements were easy for his wand to form, so Dima had no trouble with that portion of the practice.

Then came the actual doing.

Tugging his itty bitty potted plant towards himself, the Ravenclaw stepped back and pointed his wand at it. "Herbivicus!" His voice was clear and strong, and the 'three mountain' movement was quite sharp as well. A flash of green light burst from his want... and then... growing. Growing?

Growing! Aw, yeah! Dima pumped a triumphant fist in the air.

But yes yes yesss... time to HARNESS this skill.

After examining his seedling, at eye level, Zeke took a small step back so he had wand waving room. Herbivicus... HER-BI-VI-CUS... herbivicus. That was easy enough now that he remembered it. And the wand movement too was easy. He practiced that as well.

The three mountains thing... was like an upside down W. And despite w's only forming two mountains - traditionally - his didn't, he had THREE mountains, so yes, upside down W FTW!!!!

Confident in his abilities, Zeke puffed out his chest, took a deep breath in and moved to perform the spell. Only..

...

His wand arm moved to trace the upside down extended W... but his words never escaped his lips. What was it? "Herbivicus?" Yess!!! he could do this now. HE COULD.

And so he tried again. Upside down extended W and "Herbvicus!"

Nothing happened.

It didn't grow.

He had failed.

Zeke bent forward at the waist so he could STARE at his seedling again. Why didn't it GRRROOOWWW?! Ugh.

"Herbivicus!" he repeated, in syn with the wand movement. This time a green light shot from his wand and connected with the plant, making it grow a mere inch.

IT GREEEEWWW!!!

"Herbivicus!" And and... IT GREW AGAIN!

Zeke marveled first at the green light, which to him was POWER, and then at the seedling which had looked like nothing but a stringy bean and which now resembled a small leafy plant thing. IT HAD SMALL LEAVES!

Now they apparently were learning how to make plants grow. Brooklyn couldn’t quite figure out how this related to the discussion about sick plants, or even learning how to cut leaves and stuff off of them. It was like two completely different lessons, as far as she was concerned, but when it meant they got to actually do things instead of just sit there and take notes the whole time she was fine with it. Not to mention she’d sort of side-eyed the plant as it had appeared in front of her. Had that been there all long but just invisible? How’d she not hit it with the wood or anything else if it had been? Those were important questions, yet she also knew Professor Walton probably wouldn’t answer them. Nobody else seemed to question their appearance either, which annoyed her a little. But then, it also made her unique again, which was okay. She liked being special.

Either way, she was supposed to practice the new spell, and she found it rather suspicious that the wand movement was almost the reverse of the Severing charm they’d just learned. Except it had three points instead of two. That made it easy to remember, like the movement had grown a point. Three little upward points in the air, upside down Vs. Her wand silently traced those out a few times, as she let her mind wander. She returned to the lesson soon enough, and lowered her hand. Time for the incantation, but not the spell yet. “Her-biv-i-cus,” she sounded out softly, before repeating it louder. “Herbivicus. Herbivicus, herbivicus, herbivicus.” There. That sounded right.

Her eyes went back to the baby plant in front of her as her wand raised again. Time to grow. “Herbivicus,” she said again, tracing the three little upside-down V shapes into the air in front of the plant. After that was done, she just started watching it. It wasn’t growing fast enough, but she thought it looked a little bigger. She’d poked at it with the tip of her wand once to make sure. It better be growing. She knew how to chop it into little pieces if it wasn’t.

Another spell? Alright then she could do this. "Herbivicus"? This was supposed to make her seedling grow? At least that was kinda cool if it worked.

"Her-biv-i-cuss...Her-biv-i-cuss...Her-biv-i-cuss" Hady repeated a few times getting a good feel for the word. Still having her wand in her hand from the last spell she began tracing the pattern into the air. Three small mountains. A bit weird really but if that was the wand movement that's what she'd do.

Peering into the pot she checked on the seedling which was hardly there. This little one was going to grow! Aiming her wand in front of the pot she focused clearly on making the movement of three mountains. "Herbivicus!" Hady stated clearly looking into the pot. Nothing.

Frowning and lifting her wand again to cast the spell once more she spotted something. A tiny hint of green! Look everyone she'd done it! Lowering her wand she watched as the seedling began to grow. It wasn't huge or very fast but it was something and it was green!

Now they got to try an actual spell on an actual plant. Jasmine listened as the spell was presented and demonstrated. She thought she was ready to give it a try so she started with the incantation. "Her-biv-i-cuss, Her-biv-i-cuss, Her-biv-i-cuss", she repeated. That wasn't too bad, once you got a feel for it. Finally she put the word together and said it faster. "Herbivicus". Now that she was feeling pretty comfortable with the incantation, Jasmine moved on to the wand movement.

Jasmine made three little mountains with her wand and repeated the movement several times, until she was satisfied with her execution. Then she got a little plant to work with and placed it in front of her. Jasmine looked at the cute little sprout and it reminded her of the bean plant she grew back in muggle school. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you", she said to the plant.

Jasmine took a moment to get her thoughts in order and concentrate on the task at hand. She pictured the plant growing and then thought she was ready to begin. Raising her wand, she pointed it at the plant. Then she made her triple mountain motion and said, "Herbivicus". Mentally crossing her fingers, Jasmine watched as the plant began to get larger. Smiling at the plant, she said, "See, I told you it would be fine.".

Practice done, Maddie turned her attention to the baby plant in front of her and pointed her wand. Then she thought about what she'd be doing. Was it really fair to force a plant into growing up before it was ready? Parents who did that to their kids USUALLY ended up messing them up in ONE way or another and the brunette wondered what kind of lasting impact THIS act might have on the sprout. Did plants GO to therapy? Questions, she had them. She also had to do this so that the professor didn't think she wasn't capable.

Sigh.

"Herbivicus." Three small mountains were drawn and there was light, though not as strong a light as she'd hoped for. The sprout remained that, a sprout, and Maddie wrinkled her nose. Thinking too much about things had messed this one up for her, obviously.

Shaking off the failed attempt, she cleared her mind and focused again. She could DO this. She was a VERY capable woman, DUH. "Herbivicus." And three little mountain-shaped movements later, Maddie had watched as the light from her wand emerged and then then the plant got bigger. It DID. She'd done it. Grin!

Angel was totally happy she was using a spell she had been taught before so she knew how to do it... she quickly looked at her wand and then at the baby tree. "This won't hurt a bit." Angel promised to the little plant. "We want you to grow big and strong don't we."

Angel looked at the small poor thing on her desk. "Don't worry it won't be long now until you are like the rest of your kind." Angel concentrated really hard. "Herbivicus!" Angel did the wand movement that was like drawing three little mountains.

Nothing happened at first and Angel was a bit concerned until it started to grow this was awesome and she wondered if she could use the spell on her sister to make her grow.

Grayson tilted his head at the demonstration. The Herbivicus spell sounded like it was dead useful and it kinda made him wonder whether people used it a lot to make their crops grow to unusual sizes for fame and money and whatnot. Because anyone who can grow a crop the size of a freaking house would get quite a bit of publicity. Money making schemes. Some people were good at that.

But was too much of the spell even good for the plant? HMMMM?

Dude had questions, man.

Leaving them for later, the Slytherin turned to the small plant that was sitting in front of him. Make this grow? Sounded easy enough. Practice came first, though, so the weird chanting and pronunciation technique he usually did started happening here too. "Herbivicus....... herbivicus......... heeeeeeerbiviiiiiiiiiicus........." Elongate those letters. Elongate them all. Let it roll off his tongue. "Herbivicus......... heeeeerbiiiiviiiiicuuuuuus....... herbivicus.........."

Wand movement seemed simple enough. Three small mountains. When he was done practising how to pronounce the spell, Grayson took hold of his wand and started practising the wand movement itself. Simple, this was. When he'd done enough practice of the small mountain-shape wand movement, the boy cleared his throat and turned to his plant. "Herbivicus!" he called, moving his wand in three small mountain-like shapes.

And the result? Nothing.

Scowl. Freaking ridiculous.

"Herbivicus!" Again, nothing. Nothing but some glowing from the end of his wand. Did it even want to grow or was it just being plain stubborn? Because that was rude. "Herbivicus!" he called, with a little more emphasis on the pronunciation. The light flew out of his wand and surrounded the plant and...........

............. FREAKING YES. Look at it growing. About TIME.

Time to practice the charm! He was quite excited to try this. The professor said the plant was just a seed and the charm would help it grow. Sounds logical enough. Kace got his wand from his robes and placed it on the desk. He copied the charm in his notebook. "Herbivicus." He even copied the way you pronounce it just incase yeah? "Her-biv-i-cuss"

Now onto practicing the charm, well saying it out loud. "Her-biv-i-cuss.....Her-biv-i-cuss....Her-biv-i-cuss.....Her-biv-i-cuss......Her-biv-i-cuss..." There he seemed confident enough. He observed the professor just waved his wand for the wand movement. Apparently there was a flash of light if you have done it right when he looked over to Grayson completing his charm. He could do this. Time to put it all together.

He held his wand and said the charm..."Herbicus!" and then nothing happened. Woops he must of said the charm wrong. He grinned to himself sheepishly and then practiced again, "Herbivicus!!" and then nothing happened. Hmm....maybe he needed to put emphasis on his charm. That could help right?

He pointed his wand and waved it and said, "HERBIVICUS!" and then he saw the flash of light and his plant grew! He saw the plant stand tall with one leaf. He was quite proud of himself.

Eden was enjoying this class. And NO. Not ONLY because Profesor Walton's face was nice---she had OTHER factors, too. Like...how COOL the plants were and how they were learning COOOL things and COOL spells. She honestly had never heard of this next one, and she was actually excited but of course anxious to try it! So it made an 'M' motion but with an extra hump--okay--HEH.

She eyed the little bud in front of her. IT WAS SO FREAKIN' CUTE. It deserved a name as well..hmmm. He didn't look like a Fred, no--plus her fairy for CoMC had been named that. HMPH. What about...

SEYMOUR.

That was that plant's name in that weird film, right? Little Shop of Horrors? So yes..her plant was named SEYMOUR. Hehehhee. He was adorable. She would have hugged him if you could hug plants. And if Professor Walton wouldn't have blasted her from the greenhouse.

Before she tried on her plant, though, she did the wand motion a few times to get a feel for it, and then set her wand down to practice the WORDS. Heh. "All right so...Herbivicus. Her-Bi-vi-cus." She said softly. It was kind of a mouthful, and if she wasn't careful she'd...she'd say it wrong and probably do something horrible to a plant or something. IIIIIKE. She then picked her wand and glanced around...okay...so...some people were already getting started! Eden should keep up-

"Herbivicus!" she cried, suddenly, and she waited for the light to appear like it had on Walton's--but nothing. And then she realized she had only done TWO mountains on the wand motion. Ugh. She siiiighed and took a deep breath before going again. "Heeeerbivicus!" she cried, doing THREEE humps in the motion, and the light shot from the tip of her wand to Seymour, and she beamed as it grew slightly...well. LOOK AT THAT. She was all beamy at herself.

Being a pro and all at BOTH of these Herbo charms, Zahra took it upon herself to roam around the greenhouse and watch everyone else. You know,she was BASICALLY Professor W's sidekick. She was also like Dima's aunt or something (not really) and focused in on him. Z was determined he not turn into one of those AWFUL kinds of Ravenclaws. He needed to stay the cool sort.

"Nice GOING, Dimer Beaner!" she ruffled his hair and kneed him in the butt as a congrats. "First try, too!"

Okay time to make this plant grow.

Cinna drew a few more mountains with her hand. She could do this. She got her wand and said "Herbicus!" Nothing. Oh oh she totally forgot about the wand movement. That would be a huge help wouldn't it?

Now she was totally ready to do this. She pointed her wand at the plant and made the three mountains wand movement and said "Herbicus!" At first she didn't think that anything was going to happen but she watched and little longer and see the plant start to grow. Yes, she did it!

Caleb felt like he had learned this spell before...but then again, they learned so many spells and had to read about so many of them, it was hard to keep track. Caleb cleared his throat and took out his wand. He wasn't going to actually point it at anything - just practice time.

"Herbivicus!" he exclaimed, making the three tiny mountains with his wand as he did so.

Another question. Good. The kids were actually thinking about what he was thinking rather than just being a copy cat. Good to know. Andrew's attention was now diverted on the Gryffindor with the question. He waited patiently with a blank face until the boy got the pronunciation correctly without thinking to correct him. Why would he? The kid was more than capable of doing that himself which he eventually proved to be true.

Not really the kind of question that would have cheered up the man, but was there even such thing?

"It certainly can," He nodded. Pause. "Though, it will have to performed before the tomatoes are picked. Like on the plant and not the fruit," Did that make sense. He stared at the boy trying to read his facial expression.

He'd been watching everyone practicing and casting the spell. Some weren't doing it accurately but most caught up with their mistakes and were working on it. He saw no one who absolutely messed it up. So all was good. And it seemed about time he introduced them to the real and final activity. All this had been build up. He preferred taking his time preparing them for whatever the final task was. He trusted they were now capable of handling it.

"Alright, that will be enough practicing," He announced then fell silence for a moment or two until everyone dropped what they were doing. "I trust now that you have enough information on how to deal with sick plants, the types we talked about of course," Assuming they were listening and writing notes down. Or you know, looking at the blackboard that had everything on it. He'd not covered everything on the topic but that would take much more time and he intended to focus on the basics today.

With one final wave of his wand many pots of plants appeared just when they usually were. The Greenhouse looked the same with the plants back except for one fact. ALL the plants were NOT healthy. He'd obviously hidden them before because he did not want to deal with students being like 'oh professor! This plant looks weird!' all lesson long. Eh. He'd rather not deal with reactions and all the dramatic reactions. "As you will notice," He spoke up again after giving them time to look around. "Those plants are sick and need to be treated, " Duh. "There are plants with yellow or holed leaves, or droopy, weak posture. Everything that we just talked about," He motioned around. "Some might look healthy but are really small which means they have been stuck like that for a while and need a boost," Cue the spell he just taught them.

"What you have to do is, treat as many plants as you can like we just learned. If you find that you do not know what is wrong with a plant just leave it and look for another. Do not take risks," He did not want to lose plants when he could treat them all. But he supposed a practical practice for the kids would be good for the future. For them at least, he was not sure about the plants. HE was taking a risk, or so he believed. "Whenever you treat a plant, I want you to grab a nametag, from the cupboard, write your name on it and stick it to the pot of the plant you just treated. Do not treat a plant with a name tag already on it. And do NOT write someone else's name." He was going to be watching ALL of them. "In addition to that, grab a parchment write your name, house and year on it and log all the plants that you treated," Was that too hard for them to do ? Hopefully not. He wanted to keep track of everything and avoid any situations where hooligans might want to set someone up for something.

Was there anything else? Oh, yeah. "In the cupboard you will find pesticides for the diseased plants and fertilizers for the weak ones." He'd only provided one type of both that would be suitable for the plants to make it easier. He of course diagnosed them before and eliminated the hard to treat ones. "One final note, it is possible that you will find dead plants that can no longer be treated," A moment of silence for the deceased ones.

..

Done.

"Off you go," Showtime .

.

ooc: This is the final activity. You will need three posts to get full credit on this. You are more than welcome to make more. What you have to do is simple, just have your charrie walk around and treat plants. They could be in need of trimming, a pesticide, fertilizer, more sunlight, watering...etc. Your charrie must treat at least two plants. More is certainly okay. Do not set anything on fire, not unless you want to see a very angry Andy! he's been nice so far. believe it or not I hope everything is clear, if not please ask me! =) You have about 48 hours to complete this. Andrew and I will be around. HAVE FUN!

This activity would be fun! At least Eden thought so. And it was..interesting because it would test their..ideas and stuff. Might be challenging, but in a GOOD way, of course! HEH. She nodded as the professor said the instructions and jotted down what they had to do in case she forgot..since..she DID tend to do that.

She stood up and went 'round to try to spot a plant that looked...INTERESTING. hmph. She saw one plant that looked like a ROBERT so she took that one and squiiiinted at it. "Okay, Robert, what IS wrong with you, buddy?" she asked, getting on 'eye' level with the plant and examining it closely. His leaves were a little...shriveled...poor THING. But his stem was nice and green and he looked fine otherwise---

SHE WOULD GET TO USE A SPEEELLL. The one they just practiced, Diffindo! Hehehe. She whipped her wand out of her robe's pocket--almost taking out a few of the plants next to her, OOOPS--and saw that there were only two or three leaves on the plant that were brownish. So she just had to cleanly cut those off was all. She eyed the leaves...before..."Diffindo!" she cried, and one of the leaves came right now. DONE. Wheeeew. She hadn't majorly chopped the plant up--Good. Eden was calling him ROBERT in her head and naming something made the stakes HIGHER because you couldn't KILL something with a name without feeling bad! SUPER bad.

She did the spell twice more and got the leaves off--so now he was looking SPICK AND SPAN. Snazzy. "There ya' go, Robert. Try not to impress the ladies TOO much, now--" she winked at the plant and moved on to find a new one.