As he began to fill his bucket up he only filled it halfway. He needed to find more dirt with worms and maggots. He went to check another place since he mostly used this supply of worms and maggots. He grinned and and found another place and use his glove hand and began to pick them up and filled his bucket till it was full. Now it was time to lure some bowtruckles. Now THIS wasn't gonna be hard or anything right? He hoped not. He didn't want these buggers biting him or anything. He turned around and saw Zander. He seemed clueless and he tilted his head. "You okay Zander?" he asked. He seemed a bit lost.

Now onto going near the tree. He went by the Wiggentree and lured them out. "Herreeee little bowtruckless..." he cooed at them. They seemed to be interested in what he was holding in his hand. He shook the bucket and placed it down and wondered what they will do.

So Eden might have been..going overboard with collecting dirt and worms.....she also didn't much CARE because it was FUN and she felt like a little kid again. PLAYING IN MUD, YEAH? Hehehehehe. She filled her bucket up a goooood bit before wiping her forehead with the BACK of her hand, sighing.

Hard work that would HOPEFULLY pay off.

Now. For...BOWTRUCKLE LUUUUURING. WHEEEEE. Eden hummed to herself for....ten SECONDS before cutting that OUT because she didn't think it very conducive to luring bowtruckles. She approached one of the trees and crouched over....and.......SHOOOOOOK HER BUCKET UP so much. The noise was just hilarious to the sixth year, and she couldn't help the MAAAD giggling she was doing right now. "HEHEHEHEHEHEHHEEHEEEEE--"

But she wasn't getting aaaany bowtruckle movement. So. She might have to not laugh so much----shush. SUUUSSS. Clamping her mouth tightly shut, she moved to another tree and shook up her bucket, the dirt, worms and maggots and whatever ELSE bumping around in there. She kept her eyes peeeeeled for bowtruckles...hmm...

Look...there was a nice worm. Benny got it carefully between his fingers and gingerly snatched it up to avoid squishing before placing it in his bucket. One down, however many more creepy crawlies to go before trying to feed the bowtruckles. The thought reminded him of the dares done between him, Angel and Adi and the Gryffindor momentarily made a face at the memory. Bugs for the creatures to eat...not him.

Picking up a rock that he found along the way, he happened upon some maggots living beneath it. Apparently there was rot that had been covered up by the stone. They were soon scooped up by his gloved hand and added to the recepticle for their later use. A few more rummages in the dirt, as demonstrated by Professor Thompson, reeped several handfuls of worms and a few maggots over time. It appeared the scavenging for bowtruckle food could be deemed a success.

Onto a tree to try and lure some of the tricky creatures to their upcoming meal.

"Here Bowtruckles..." he mused quietly as he approached a tree that wasn't occupied already. The Gryffindor shaking his bucket enough to make the sound but not enough to lose any sloppily.

Uh. So now that he had gloves on and everything... Everyone else seemed to be searching for things in the dirt so uh, he'd do that too. Giving Kace a small nod to confirm that uh, he was getting it... Sort of. He turned his attention to the dirt. So erm, what exactly were they finding? Probably bugs right? For the Bowtruckles.

That sounded logical. See, didn't take a Ravenclaw to figure this stuff out. Zander knew what he was doing. Sometimes. Ahem. ANYWAYS, he'd figure it out maybe.

Getting on his knees, the Gryffindor began turning up piles of dirt in search of some little critters. And oh, that didn't take long at all. There weren't a whole ton of them, but he did manage to find a couple of worms wiggling their way around. Those would do for now. Wouldn't give up the search entirely though because there were still some more to be found. Ahem. He just scooped the few he had managed to find into his bucket for the time being before turning his attention back to the dirt and things. More. He was going to find more. It was like a nice distraction from reality. Could they do this stuff in every class?

Eden shook her bucket some more, and she then decided she'd.....plop down, watch the bucket and...yeah. Now she waited...and....as she peeeered over her bucket, she could SEE some...well, two to be exact, little bowtruckles peeking at the food.

Hehe.

Eden slooooowly grabbed her notebook she had brought out of her--just to take some quick notes for her OWN personal pleasure--and she smiled as the first bowtruckled began eyeing those TASTY lookin' worms. Such interesting CREATURES. She recorded as SOON as the bowtruckles began digging in...a feast for them, probably.

Not as cool as snakes. Not at all. But Eden APPRECIATED them a good bit. And she figured they'd be doing something with the trees soon. Glancing up at the trunk of the tree right in front of her, she wondered...they should probably have goggles on. Merlin. WHAT IF AN ACCIDENT HAPPENED AND SOMEONE'S EYES WERE GAUGED OUT? They didn't need eye gauging after.....recent events.

Okay so maaaaybe a few more would do the trick? Nothing like picking worms out of the dirt to get your mind off of terrible things. It's like the Professors KNEW or something. Maybe that's why they were Professors. 'Cause they knew stuff. Or maybe it's just because they didn't want to do anything else with their lives. That was the real mystery of Hogwarts.

Anyways. Scoopin worms. He was doing that. Scoop scoop scoop. Worms worms worms. Once he had lots in his bucket, he looked around at the rest of the group. Which part came next exactly? Oh. Eden. She looked like she knew what she was doing. Yes, Zander watched her. Man. Eden was SO nice.

And ooooh. She just sort of... Shook the bucket a bit? Okay. He could do that. Shake it until he got Bowtruckle attention. Okay yeah. That wasn't too hard. So he did that thing, the shaking thing. Until not one BUT TWO Bowtruckles peeped their heads out at him. Well, not really at him more like at the bucket of worms. But still.

No he'd just oh-so-casually drop the bucket and take like five steps back and... Watch. YEah. That wasn't too bad. Could they have ten points for Gryffindor ooooor?

Angel picked up a few more worms, she decided that she would rather be safe then sorry didn't want anything going wrong, she thought about holding a worm out to see if a Bowtruckle would come to her then she realised something about this.

They were territorial!!

Surely they wouldn't want her near them whilst they ate, she had no idea what to do now maybe throw the bucket and food somewhere but then the Professor might tell her off for not thinking.

Angel placed the bucket down near the trees and then took a few steps back this was the safest bet right.

"Come out!! Come out!!" Angel smiled. "I have some juicy worms for you." Angel watched as a couple of Bowtruckles peeped their heads out from behind the tree and within second were heading towards the worms, they looked a bit weird she thought but wouldn't say anything.

Archie watched with interest how the students lured the Bowtruckles away from the trees. It was pretty nice to see how another professor taught. Also took a bit of the pressure away from him! Once most of the students seemed to have dealt with their Bowtruckles, Archie stepped forwards to move onto the next activity. His activity. Which suddenly didn't feel as awesome as feeding lil creatures. "Right. Now...." He said loudly to the class. "One particular tree that the Bowtruckles were inhabiting today is this..." He gestured towards the large tree behind him. "It's a Wand Tree... which does exactly what is says on the tin, really." Or on the name. Ahem, anyway... "You were probably expecting a more dangerous plant to be dealing with today..." He paused. "... and don't worry, we'll be covering that next lesson." Unfortunately his initial trip to the Forbidden Forest had been cancelled for this lesson. Though, this tree could potentially be dangerous with the creatures around it. Thankfully the students had removed the danger.

"Wand Trees are somewhat rare to come upon. You will only find this one at Hogwarts, and we will all be working from the same tree today. They have a magical substance within the wood that are used by wandmakers all around the world. Important stuff." He nodded. "Today we are going to harvest the wood from this tree using a charm that is often used in Herbology. No doubt we will be using it in the future as well. The Severing Charm. Diffindo." They'd probably heard of it, right? Archie still wanted to teach it properly, though, as it had the potential to be dangerous to the students.

Archie whipped out his wand and raised it in the air to demonstrate the wand movement. "A simple up-down wand movement." He swished it up, then quickly back down. "Up, down. Up, down." Swish, snip, slice! "Alongside the incantation Diffindo. Deef-in-doe." Yep, there. Archie turned to the tree, "Diffindo." With a brisk up-down movement, one tiny twig sliced itself from the tree and landed on the ground. "Have a practice, have a go, and collect wood from this tree. Just the branches and twigs, though." It would be important to leave the trunk for regrowth.

OOC: Hi guys! This activity requires a minimum of three posts for full credit! Practice, perform, gather. You will have at least 24 hours for this activity.

Ethan stepped back as he heard Professor Archie talk. He’s done with the Bowtruckles...and it seems that the Bowtruckles are done with each other too, so he just walked away from the bucket and got closer to the Wand Tree. And oooh! Do they get to keep the twig??? He’d like to make an awesome gandr out of it some time...or maybe...you know, keep it as a souvenir?

The Slytherin watched Professor Archie perform the task, then looked briefly at Sophie Brown. He did use Diffindo on her when she was encased in case, all thanks to Cutty. He wondered briefly if they are now in good terms? He’d like to see his friends, be friends too you see.

Due to that incident, Ethan felt he no longer needs to practice the Severing Charm. Pssh. It’s such a basic spell, he can even do it while sleeping. Maybe...maybe he can do it non-verbally? He ought to practice that one soon, yes? Brandishing his own wand out, the Slytherin practiced the wand movement; just for the sake of showing the professors that he can follow instructions.

Up-Down, Up-Down, Fwoop-Slash.

Hady continued to watch the Bowtruckles eat the dirt buffet she'd made them. Until the Professor began speaking in which case her gaze shifted towards him to prove she was listening to what was being said.

Oh so they were collecting branches and twigs now? Why?

She was curious but figured sooner or later they'd find out why. Anyhow getting to her feet and wiping the dirt off her pants she pulled out her wand. Diffindo was from last year she remembered learning it back then. Anyhow she would practice just for the sake of doing so.

Wand out and firmly in her grasp she did the movements slowly. Up and down.

Up and down.

Yeah easy enough really....

Up. Down.

So, once Eden was done observing her little guys, she glanced up at....Professor Millard when he started talking. Wand trees. That was REALLY REALLY COOL. Though, this MAY have been a REALLY stupid question, Eden still had to asked it--she raised her hand timidly.

"Um--professor--I know this probably doesn't hurt the trees--but--still--DOES IT HURT THE TREES?" She waned HIS reassurance. BECAUSE IT WAS IMPORTANT. And she was already pretty okay with Diffindo, but she thought she'd practice the wand movement anyways. It didn't hurt.

It was fairly easy, though. Just a slashy-type thing. And the spell was easy to pronounce. WHEEEE. She would practice until.......she felt like she could do it in her SLEEP, though. Hadn't she practice this spell with Lux, too, in the arena? She thought she might have...hmm..that whole ordeal was kind of a blur right now to Eden.

Ah, yep. Talk of revision and studies. That seemed to be on the mind of every fifth and seventh year student. "So far I haven't lost my head,'' Adi replied. "Some days it feels like I will though because it can be so over whelming.'' Come on! It was five years of notes fifth years had to refresh their minds on. Adi looked at his own bucket. How was it that Ethan seemed to be finding a hoard of maggots. "I seem to be finding mostly worms here. I wonder why's that.''

"Thanks!'' The Puffer rubbed his forehead. Was their any dirt left there from Ethan's salute? Hehe.
....................

Adi's eyes moved from the Bowtruckles enjoying their feast to Professor Archie then to the Wand Tree the man was talking to them about. And there was going to be more dangerous plants for the next lesson? Awesomeee! Okay, so they were going to harvest wood from this Wand tree suing the Severing Charm. That shouldn't be anything too difficult. That Charm was one they used a lot but still, some practice wouldn't hurt.

Up, down, up, down. Seeee? Easy enough. "Diffindo, Diffindo.'' The incantation was down too. So, he could get started on the cutting of the branches and twigs, right? What fun! Off he went, moving his wand up and down still as he approached the tree.

Archie had expected this reaction from a few students. After all that fuss over silencing Talking Toadstools! He smiled reassuringly. "Of course not. This is what they are grown for. But that is why we are leaving the trunk and roots today... to allow the Wand Tree to regrow its branches for future use." To do exactly the same over again! He nodded and watched how the other students were getting on.

“Diffindo.” Up-Down. “Diffindo.” Up-Down. Done with the warm-up exercise, Ethan walked closer to the tree and pointed his wand at it. He did however stop when Eden had to ask that question. From what Ethan saw earlier...the tree didn’t react to the severing charm. The twig came off, and the tree didn’t mind. Well...should he prove a point here? Ethan focused himself on the task at hand, and did an attempt with his non-verbals.

Up-Down...Up-Down.

Erm...something’s wrong with his wand. Or maybe something’s wrong with him executing a non-verbal. Merlin, he needs more brain power! Gripping his wand tighter, he gave up on the idea of performing a non-verbal. “Diffindo!” And bravo, a nice piece of Wand Wood was cut off from the tree. And good news Eden! It did not hurt the tree at all.

Norah gave Eden a small smile, 'cause she'd been wondering the same thing about hurting bit. But it DIDN'T hurt them, so off she went, yeah? She walked slowly towards the tree, whispering "Diffindo" under her breath with each step. "Diffindo....diffindo...dee-fin-doe." She held up her wand and practiced the up-down bit a couple of times before standing in front of the tree and picking out a little twig to try on first.

"Diffindo!" UPDOWN. The twig stayed right in place. Oookay. "Diffindo!" UUUUPDOWN. The twig quivered slightly, as if to spite her or something which was mean of the twig. Excuse you, twig, she was trying her best okay. Norah imagined the twig coming clean off as she set herself up for a third try. "DIFFINDO!" UPDOWN. The twigwas separated from the tree save for a few splinters of wood from which it hung there, still attached. Dangit. She reached up and broke the splinters to pull the twig off so it landed on the ground. Nobody saw that, right?

Was that good enough? Cause one can only practice an up-down movement so many times...

Hady figured after trying the wand movement once more that she could move on. "Diffindo...Diffindo..Diffindo..." She murmured several times under her breath making sure she had the proper feel for the word again. It sounded good to her but one wouldn't know unless they tried.

Here goes nothing! The snakette made her way over to the Wand Wood tree were some of the branches were lower. Pointing her wand at a twig that was located lower on a branch she focused on what she was doing. "Diffindo!" She recited clearly preforming the up-down motion with her wand at the same time.

The twig she had just severed off the branch landed in the dirt near her feet. Awesome she had it on the first tree! Grinning at her success she picked up the twig placing it in her pocket for safekeepings until it was needed.

Adi practiced the up- down movement until he was riiiight in front of the tree. Seriously, he did though he had no idea why. LOL. Maybe he just found it entertaining to do so. Oh well. He ceased the action now as he surveyed the tree looking for branches and twigs.

Oh, looky! Twigs! Perfect! "Diffindo!'' Cue the up- down wand movement! Instantly, the targeted twig was severed from the tree and it fell away to the ground right in front of the Hufflepuff. Woot! Maybe he could work on a branch next? Yeah, one of those was good enough. Was there a particular amount of those and twigs they each needed to cut away though? Hmmm...

At first Agatha had enjoyed watching the bowtruckles, but it soon got boring, so she walked away from the bucket just in time to hear professor Millard taking the lead.

She liked him, so she listened closely to him as he explained things about the... wand tree? She had never ehard of those before. Weird. She wondered if all wands were made- well, she didn't think so, because eac wand was made with a different wood, so... how was that tree useful?

Oh, a magical substance within the tree. "Like what?" The Slytherin suddenly asked, looing from the tree to professor Millard.

Ughh, no! A spell. A stupid spell. Agatha frowned and was about to huff when she heard what spell it was. Oh!! She knew that one. She had even used it on Cutty once and was successful, so she totally had this.

The fifth year decided to practise anyway. Brisk up-down wand movement. "Diffindo." Good.

Looking for a branch, looking for a branch...

Aha! There! Right at Adi's leftie and not so far away from where he had cut the twig from. He edged a little closer, with the twig in hand, towards his new target but stayed away from being directly under it because, you know, if the branch should fall atop his head...

"Diffindo!'' UpDown movement of the wand! Annnnd the branch came tumbling doooown. Success! Happily, the Badger looked around for another twig to sever. A few more casts of the Charm and he soon had one branch and three twigs in total. Was there somewhere the Professors wanted the students to stack these things? He had gathered all of his in a nice, neat pile.

Okay, she got this. Agatha went up to the tree and did the up-down wand motion. "Diffindo." She said and hah, there the twig was.

Hah.

HAH.

Who had a learning disability now, HUH??? NOT HER.

Stupid school.

Getting her hair out of her face with an irritated hair flip, the ballerina did another brisk up-down movement of her wand while saying the incantation. "Diffindo." This time the twig was a bit bigger because she COULD DO THIS, SEE????

In your face.

As Professor Millard began talking to the class, Lux turned her attention from the Bowtruckles who were still pigging out on the feast she had provided them with.

Oooh, so they were going to collect wood from wand trees. That made a lot of sense, and would be an interesting experience for sure. Even though she had no desire to become a wandmaker, the whole process was rather fascinating and this lesson would be like her own contribution to the art. The prospect of working with a more dangerous plant in another lesson made her a little wary, however; she had heard about the murderous plant that ATE one of the former Astronomy Professors and didn't want another incident like that at Hogwarts.

Hoping to distract herself from that thought, Lux paid extra attention to the instructions. Diffindo was a spell she had experience with and then some since it had so many uses - and not just when it came to Herbology. Some practice never hurt though, and it wasn't as if it would take up a bunch of time. After saying the incantation a few times, she practiced the wand movement.

Up. Down. Up. Down.

As Kace saw the bowtruckles begin to come closer to the bucket, he was in awe in anticipation. He was relieved they were coming to his bucket and soon enough a swarm of them began to come to his bucket and they ate. Good thing he wasn't close to it because then he might have been eaten alive. He saw some of them pushing each other for the food. He chuckled and it was amazing just to observe them.

He wished he had his sketchbook to sketch the little critters. He shrugged and now waited for the second activity the professor's had in store.

Agatha carried on using the Severing Charm a few more times until she had a little pile of twigs. Oh and ONE bigger branch, because she tested to see if she could get a bigger one, and she COULD. There. Hmph.

The girl put her wand away and collected all of the twigs and branch she had diffindo'ed and went over to stand near professor Millard, because he was nice.

After the big puff successfully lured the bowtruckles to his bucket, he heard the Herbology professor tell them they needed to practice the Diffindo charm. Psshhh *snorts* he already knew how to do that because he gave an example in the defense against the dark arts class. He was somewhat of a pro. He decided why not practice for the fun of it? Couldn't hurt right?

He got his wand out of his pocket and did a slash movement up and down a couple of times just to get into the swings of things. He even muttered the incantation, "Diffindo....Diffindo....Diffindo....Diffindo. .." Once pleased he got the idea of it, he decided it was time to put this charm to the test.

It seemed to be working. For shortly after he had shaken the bucket in his grasp, and again for good measure, the bowtruckles were attentive. Seeing the attention the creatures were giving the captive food, Benny gingerly set down the bucket and tentatively moved away to see if they came out further. To see what was making the noise in the bucket and possibly smelling like food to them. Before long the bowtruckles were too busy eating the offering to notice Benny was even further away and paying attention to the professors once more as they moved on.

Wand trees...samples...using the severing charm.

Diffindo. Now that was a spell he already knew from another lesson somewhere down the line over the years. Up...down...up...down. Benny practiced it anyway to make sure he was getting it down pat. He certainly didn't want to harm the tree if he could help it, the living entity far more due respect then say the fabric they had used to make the lanterns in the ancient runes lesson.

Up...down...Up...down. His wand following the professor's earlier movements as he murmered the incantation over and over in his mind. Benny then focused on imagining making the slices into the tree as had been demonstrated for their benefit.