Oh dear, all things pink and glittery. There was Davie saying hi to her. Now that he knew she had a crush on him, it was difficult for Rachel to actually talk to him without blushing. “Hi, David.’’ Her freckled face was light pink as she smiled at him. The smile faltered somewhat when she saw Haddie come in. Rachel flinched at the glare she and Davie received but made up her mind to try to speak to her best friend yet again after the class. It would be useless now that Haddie had moved to the opposite side of the room. Instead, she turned her attention to Olivia. “Hello, Olivia. How are you?’’ She smiled even more as Henric handed her a flower. “Hello, Henric. Thank you. No, I don’t think she does.’’ She looked at him with adoration. Apart from Tia, he was the other student leader she idolised. “Hello, Azura, Kitty.’’ She giggled as the bubble popped itself on Azura’s nose. The bubbles seemed to like their noses. Hello, Esme. Rachel smiled and waved back to her Hufflepuff friend. She happened to look back at Haddie after she heard her talking loudly, inviting some others to join her. The dark haired girl sighed softly and dejectedly. She and Haddie would never be friends again, it seemed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rachel held Olivia's hand as well as the person's who was on her other side to follow Professor Myer's instructions. What good had happened to her that week? Nothing. She was miserable without her friend who wouldn't utter a word to her. Even with her eyes closed she could feel the tears stinging her eyes (she couldn't help it if she was a softie at heart). Sorry, Professor but she couldn't follow your meditation instructions this time around.

She went to take a seat, taking out her books and gloves. The talk of the field trip cheered her up, however. How exciting! She couldn't wait for this to happen. Then the topic of the lesson was revealed.

Grafting! Excellent! Rachel had never put this into practice but she had done a tad reading on it. This reading came in handy. She raised her hand. "There is Whip grafting whereby the scion- or the young shoot or twig of a plant- and stalk are cut in a slanting direction prior to being joint. I read this is the most difficult form of grafting.'' But her daddy could do it! Yes, he could. She had watched him do this type of grafting before.

When Professor Myers started the meditation in earnest, Olivia closed her eyes once more and did as he directed. Breathing in...breathing out. Breathing in...breathing out. Her arms loose at her sides and shoulders lower than normally held. As for the image of something good from her week, she thought of a nice day and walk she had had outside, a minor break in the fall briskness but still enjoyable. The first year dwelling on the memory and letting it relax and make her happy as she continued to breathe in and out in rhythm.

All too soon it was over and the Ravenclaw opened her eyes and moved to take an empty seat after grabbing her bookbag. Preparation for the fieldtrip...she had almost forgotten about that. Olivia smiled again in earnest. Listening to Myers as he started in on the topic at hand, she began wondering what the field trip would be. She had to drag her attention back to focus fully on grafting.

How cool!

"A root graft?" Olivia offered after raising her hand in amongst the other answers being given.

Azura smiled over at Haddie and Kitty as they ushered her over and she made it to the other two girls, right before they started to meditate..

Sadly, she didn't have many good thoughts coming to her mind. She was still worried about Jazzy, and some random feelings for Colt? Ugh..what was wrong with her, he was older! There was NO WAY he could like her.. None.. Nope, Nope, Nope.. So why even bother.. Could someone turn her thoughts and emotions off?

Dang Fwoopers.

Oh well, she came out of the meditation and made it to a seat..

Only to feel even more awful.. She knew NOTHING about grafting! She was a Ravenclaw, she was supposed to know things, ALL of the things.. and yet..

Nothing.. She didn't even bother to raise her hand.. and she bit her lip and sunk lower in her seat..

Sad Ravenclaw.. party of one!

Oh great, now she had to hold hands with the Grump next to her. She should've thought of that when she first joined the circle. Timidly, she held her hand out to the older boy. It was up to him if he wanted to take it. But he better take it. It was part of the meditation! And Lucy would not be happy if her zen was spoiled because this boy didn't connect the circle.

As Professor Myers instructed, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and relaaaaxed. Think of something good that happened? Lucy thought of the chocolate cheesecake served for dessert the night before last. Mmmmmmmmm.

When Professor Myers dismissed them from the circle, she skipped off to her seat and hurriedly took out her book, paper, and pen. And no! She hadn't heard of the field trip, but that was exciting news! Lucy always enjoyed them in her last school. Maybe her parents could chaperon! Even if they weren't magic....

Grafting. Lucy had never heard of the word, but that's what she titled her notes and underneath, she copied what she could manage from Professor Myers' definition. Not knowing what it was, though, she didn't feel she could participate. But she listed her classmates' answers, given Professor Myers agreed that it was correct. If he didn't, she'd cross it out. At the same time, she flipped through her textbook to see if she could find the chapter on it, but she mostly got distracted by random pictures that caught her eye.

Of course the bubbles were necessary why did he even ask and made it worse by having a large bubble blown in his face and wait did he just breach on the subject of death because that is what it sounds like to him

"Just don't let your bubble pop early Professor"


Oh look a little hufflepuff (Lucy) was next to him. Well was she going to circle with him or not. He would rather not. But not like he would say no. AND HE WAS NOT A GRUMP. He had wanted to say he was not going to turn her into a capybara. But all he did was smile.

KAYCEE WHY WHY

Why would you do that. While it would have been amusing. Professor Paul knew the girl he liked and was dating.Sigh. This was just great now he had to see Professor Paul after class. Just what he wanted to do. And thank you for the rose. It is exactly what he wanted to make this situation better. But he can even be mad at Kaycee. Even though he would have to talk to Eureka. Sigh.

"Thanks Kaycee and i have done NOTHING Professor.....But i will see you after class"

Finally class was starting. THANK MERLIN.

"Are we talking the plant equivalent of skin grafting because i know what that is"

You should burn victims before they have their skin grafted. It is disgusting and fantastically morbid.

Angel was totally happy to be back to her usually bubbly self, unfortunately she couldn't remember what had happened but she did know that the past few months had been some of the worst of her life and it had started really well, she had gotten 8 Owls but that was where things went downhill and they went downhill really fast after that.

Angel looked at herself outside the greenhouse, uniform... check... wand... check... everything else... check.

Angel smiled she was really excited about going to her first lesson of the term, she had been preparing her entry for ages and had tried to get here early, unfortunately for her, she was still a bit warn out and had fallen asleep but anyway she was still in time for the lesson right?

Angel opened the door

"HONEY, I'm Ba..........."

Angel suddenly stopped, no this wasn't right, she could feel her cheeks starting to turn red as she saw that the Professor was there and seemed to be talking.

"EH, am I late Professor?" Angel couldn't figure out how that would be, she had been very eager to get there early and actually get to see some of her friends. "This is awkward Professor." Angel hung her head trying to hide the colour her face had gone and trying not to look into the Professors eyes.

Whaaaaat? They were cutting bits off one plant and attaching it to another? That seemed sort of... unnatural? Like how would she feel if someone attached Dima's arms to her body?

She wouldn't like it. That's how she'd feel.

Dot puzzled over the moral implications for a moment longer, although she perked up at the thought that grafting sounded dirt-free. "Professor, are you making plant mutants here? How do you know that you're grafting together plants that can flourish as one plant?"

Elliot had been listening intently to the other students' but when the professor asked about grafting, he blinked a little. He had never been any good at herbology. That was his sister's forte. He frowned a little, suddenly wishing he'd paid more attention to his older sister when he was younger before mumbling quietly, "I don't have the faintest idea, professor."

There was a thing about adults that Julia was recently coming to understand, and that was that when they were attempting to explain a word she didn't know, they often used other words that she didn’t know. Grafting uses hybriding. Well. And just what was hybriding?

She supposed it was slightly more helpful when he talked about stitching pieces of trees together with other trees, but all she could picture in her head was a tree quilt and why would anyone want one of those?

In short, she had no idea what grafting was, but Jay certainly did, and she gave him a supportive bump with her shoulder and beamed at him. Whip grafting. Who knew?

She eyed some of the other students, who obviously didn’t know—and some of them were way older than her or Jay—and decided that Jay needed some special recognition. So she got up, in a trying-to-be-inconspicuous-but-sort-of-failing way, and went to the flower basket. A cursory rummage didn’t reveal any whippy-looking flowers, so she just picked the closest she could find and returned to present it to Jay with a flourish.

Meditation time. Janelle took the hands of the classmates next to her and closed her eyes. Then she began to take deep, relaxing breaths. They were supposed to think of something good that happened to them recently. A happy memory popped into Janelle's head and she began to smile. She immediately began to feel more relaxed and was determined to hold onto the happy thoughts.

Before she knew it, it was time to sit down and class officially began. The topic of the day was grafting. Janelle had done some reading about it in her textbook, but she was far from an expert on the subject. When Professor Myers asked for different types of grafting, she raised her hand. "Awl grafting. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it, but I know it takes less time than other forms of grafting. I also know that it is best that someone with experience performs this type of grafting. You have to be very precise when you do it."

Boring, boring, boring. That's what meditation was. That's all Olly was thinking. Was that the point of meditation? No probably not. Had anyone told professor Myers that meditation was boring. Olly stepped forward and backward in tiny increments as he was supposed to be meditating.

FINALLY THEY WERE DONE! Olly gladly took his seat and listened to what professor Myers was saying. He hoped it was more interesting than the meditation. And he was not disappointed. There was mention of a field trip. This was the first he'd heard of that and it was very exciting. Field trips were always exciting. Last year they'd gone to a muggle observatory and it had been cool. This year the trip would be a combination between three classes which meant it was going to be three times more amazing.

Oh, trees were cool too. He only half listened to that. He had been distracted by the idea of the field trip. Where would they be going? Those ideas were much more entertaining. His attention was caught by Dot's mention of mutant trees. That would be cool. They could create super trees that could do anything. Like fight people. Like the Whomping Willow. He glanced at Jaemin, because Olly knew he knew a lot about plants. Olly didn't know what was going on, though, so he didn't have an answer. He was distracted anyway, thinking about mutant trees.

Kitty-Cat? Kitty repeated the nickname Haddie had just given her in her mind. She liked it. It felt cool to have a nickname and she hoped it stuck.


She smiled at Azura (who had just joined her and Haddie) and then focused on her meditation. Happy thoughts. How about all the friends she had made in her second term at Hogwarts? Julia, Haddie, Garreth, Mason, and Hady were just a few. She thought of the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. That had been fun. And how about talking with Augustus Flume in History of Magic? And stealing balls in Astronomy? And learning to turn invisible with her friends! They were all happy memories and Kitty focused on them.


Then it was question time. Honestly, Kitty had never heard of grafting before, and after hearing the answers of the other students she realized she was not the only one. Even after hearing the Professor explain it she had trouble understanding what he was talking about.


"I haven't heard of it before Professor" Kitty replied earnestly. "Is it kind of like genetically engineering?"

The meditation was.... unique but not unwelcomed, as always. Dima headed to his seat with the other students, remaining mostly attentive through Paul's little monologue. The field trip was still curious and had him wondering about things, but the Herbology professor was giving them new stuff to consider now.

Uh... grafting? Yeah, he knew what that was.... but not anything specific about it. Rather awkward, considering he's achieved an 'O' in this particular subject on his OWLs. Apparently, sixth year was so lax that the Ravenclaw was already rusty.

He opted to remain quiet and listen to the other answers rather than offering up some codswallop. You're welcome, class. Saving a few brain cells here.

Jaemin hadn't even looked to see who was sitting next to him, but the shoulder-bump brought his attention right around to her. Juuuuuulia. His favourite hedgehog-holder! He grinned and gave her a gentle nudge back, because he hadn't gotten to see her in what felt like foooooooorever - though it was probably the same forever that it felt like he'd lived through for this class to come around - and wiggled happily in his seat. Good. She could be his partner for whatever exercise the professor would have them doing today! He was smart, and she was smart. This would work out brilliantly.

He blinked when she stood up and slinked off though, watching her intently. She was going to the flower basket? He'd seen a few people do it in other classes, but Jaemin himself hadn't really had the opportunity yet. Maybe someday soon, he would.

It was even more surprising when Julia came back and gave the flower to him, though. He tilted his head, a bit confused, before reaching for it. He liked flowers, and he liked them even more for the reason Professor Myers had them give them to each other. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and he whispered a quiet 'thank you' with a smile to Julia before tucking the flower behind his ear. There. Nice and safe.

Meditating wasn’t new to the boy. He’d do it before and after Kendo practice, but the holding hands part? Jace awkwardly held on to two hands, closed his eyes and started to breathe in and out slowly. Happy memory that happened that week? Was the professor kidding? Jace had a rough week, and the Hag was the highlight. The Ravenclaw didn’t want to be pulled further into frustration, so instead of thinking about his week, he thought of the last time he went out with his family during a festival in Japan. The memory of him eating cherry flavoured ice made him smile. He was just getting started to feel warm and fuzzy when the professor snapped them all back to reality. The first year Ravenclaw opened his eyes, and slowly released the hands of the other students. Surprisingly though, he felt better compared to seconds ago. He really can’t go wrong with a little bit of meditation.

Jace turned, quickly grabbed a seat and pulled out his textbook, notebook, and mechanical pencil. He scribbled down a few quick notes about Grafting, making sure he got the gist of what the professor said, and paused when Professor Myers told them about the field trip. What field trip? Jace wasn’t aware. He took note of it too, and made a mental note to check out the announcement after class.

Now...grafting. Jace briefly read that chapter a few weeks back, and still, he couldn’t remember the word for the most basic methods of grafting. He did raise his hand to answer though. “Natural grafting, professor. Or...uh,” Jace paused and finally consulted his book. He ought to memorize that term before class ends, “Inosculation.” Jace looked up and grinned at the moment. Look, he didn’t mess up the word!

Paul let his feet swing, casually, back and forth, since he was sitting on a table. One of his sneakers’ shoelaces had come untied. It wasn’t bothering him just yet. “Very good, Mason!” he smiled. “That is..almost the type of grafting I wanted to go with today!”

The chalk began to write the word BUDDING underneath the word GRAFTING on the blackboard.



That was an interesting answer. “Oh...well...yes, Amur. You’re right, of course. However, I was more looking for...some specific types...but absolutely, yes, grafting with plants has to do with gene modification...much like they do with humans and animals.” Blegh, human grafting. The thought made him shiver.


He smiled warmly at Miss Lupin because she didn’t seem to know the answer..but that was okay. He didn’t want her to feel bad about not knowing the answer!



Paul nodded at her. “YES YES, Miss Johanson, the bridge is a type of grafting! I will go over it in more detail in just a minute!” He smiled because YAY.



He smiled and nodded at Miss Lynch, too. “Yes! Cleft grafting--a very interesting one, too.”



He winked at Jay when he spoke. “Ahh..the WHIP grafting, ehh?” Hehe. “And yes, it has a high survival rating, even if it IS very difficult.” He could tell the boy had a parent who was a Herbologist, for sure.



...No? Just no? Paul moved around to stand right in front of her spot at her table. “You don’t know anything about grafting, my dear?” he asked. “At the end of class, I will ask you again...if you know anything about grafting...and we shall see if you have learned anyone.” He smiled a bit slyly, actually, and Paul Myers strode back to the front of the room. He wish he had an apple, to be honest.



Ewww, skin grafts. BLEGH. Paul shivered, but nodded. “Grafts on plants are not quite as...gross.” Blegh.



Splice! He hadn’t heard that term in a while--of course the textbook would mention it, though. “Yes, however, the more common term for it is WHIP grafting. Very good, Ariadne!” he smiled.



“Yes yes, Esme! Bud grafting! Sure sounds...like it’s friendly!” he winked and chuckled with his hands on his belly. GEDDIT? BUD? FRIENDS? HEHEHEHE.



Was it just him...or did Rachel seem off today? Hmm. He would speak with her after class, maybe, to check.

“Whip grafting! Yes, very good, Rachel!” he smiled broadly at her and nodded….and sent some bubbles her way with his wand.



Paul was pleased most of them were at least saying the names they knew. This question had sort of been...straight forward, as far as thinking processes went. “Very good, Olivia! Yes, indeed. Keep in mind, though, that that is a form of natural grafting..while we’re wil be looking at..” He didn’t want to say UNNATURAL…”Not as organic grafting.”



Was Azura okay? Merlin, sad students today! He moved past her chair and patted her head gently. No need to answer every time, dear!



Another quiet one who got a gentle smile from the professor.



...LIKELY STORY, DANTE.

Ahem.

Paul just raised an eyebrow. “Do you? Well..it’s not QUITE the same but..similar in theory, not in practice.”

Hmph.



……….a late student.

A student was late.

LATE.

The normally easy-going man stared at her as if she had hands for eyes as she SAUNTERED into his classroom. Sayind WORDS. He cleared his throat. On the one hand, he didn’t want to embarass the girl too much.

On the other hand...she was late.

So...he decided to grin slightly...head for her table, and lean onto the table top casually. “Oh, is it awkward, Miss Valentine?” he asked, with a slight tone...but only slight. Still smirking. “I will let you choose, then. Five points from Gryffindor or…” he cleared his throat. “You can stand in front of the class and recite your alphabet...backwards.” HAH! That was funny. And not too bad. No, Paul didn’t feel bad.

He was also curious to see what she would pick. Personally, Paul would have done the ABCs...but he was an outgoing fellow.



AHA! Dot had a wonderful question! He grinned. “Plant mutants? Depends on your definition of mutants, m’dear.” Hmm. “...you don’t. Some plants cannot be grafted together at all...it has to do with a lot of science and genus talk that I don’t want to plunge the class into--” that was like..some NEWT heavy stuff, anyways. “But...for the most part, you never know if your grafted plant will take. Sometime they don’t...and they die.”



This one was much more polite about his ignorance on this topic, so he merely got a smile.



Another quiet one, but she was getting a flower! HOW CUTE! He BEAMED in her direction.



“Ahhh, yes...this one is rarely used because it is just...so difficult to maneuver...quick, but difficult. Very good, Miss Guidry!”

Also, when had Janelle become a fourth year? Merlin, he thought she was so much younger. Hmph.



No answer from Oliver, which honestly didn’t surprise Paul all that much! The boy got an encouraging smile.



She hadn’t heard of grafting! That was okay! Many people hadn’t! Paul grinned a little. “It IS genetically engineering--just in a VERY specific way, as we’ll see in a fewwwwww minutes!”



Paul enjoyed Dima’s aura. Such a relaxed Ravenclaw, kind of reminded him of himself...except not as OBNOXIOUS as Paul could be. But they were chill, man.

He got a smile and a nod from Myers.



Oooh another natural grafting person! Paul smiled. “Well..that is..not quite what we are looking at--inosculation happens without human interference, typically, not that we can’t plant two trees and HOPE that happens--but we will be doing something much more assertive with the trees today. But very interesting answer, Mr. Reed!”


Paul began to make his way back to the front of the greenhouse. The chalk was waiting, poised at the ready! “Okay everyone--great answers, great answers! You all covered most of what I wanted to cover--basically, I will go over the grafting that you guys mentioned--BRIEFLY--because today we are focusing very heavily on WHIP GRAFTING as some of you mentioned!”

The chalk began to write the words as such:

Paul cleared his throat. “While the other types of grafting are important--and you should probably learn them by the end of this term, today we will be focusing on WHIP grafting!” he chuckled. “So shall we...WHIP UP some herbological fun, then?!” He cackled at his cleverness. Really, he thought himself just so hilarious! WHIPPING UP FUN! Geddit? WHIP GRAFTING.

Ahem, ANYWAYS.

“Two more important terms--legumes and anti-pollutants. They’re not too difficult, here.” The chalk had begun to scribble on the board again. “Legumes are trees that can give nitrogen back into soil...giving it off, really. Anti-pollutants are pretty self explanatory--they give nice things off into the air to help with...well, pollution problems.” He paused to make sure everyone was following that! It was a lot of info!

“And...I’ll get to WHAT exactly whip grafting is in JUST a minute--a few of you touched on it--but in the back of the classroom...there are two types of legumes and two types of anti-pollutants to choose from. When I say so, go to the back and pick one of each. So that means, one legume and ONE anti-pollutant. Everyone got it?” He paused, again, to make sure they were following along.

“Now...as for whip grafting--it is when we take the top parts of a tree...and connect them to bottom of another tree. So there is a root of one type of tree with the branches of another type of tree. Does that make sense to everyone?” he asked.

He had more ...vocabulary to go over, but he was terrified of bombarding them with SO much info at once, Merlin. So he’d explain about scions and the rootstock in just a minute. “The two legumes to choose from are honey-locust trees and Persion silk trees. The two types of anti-pollutants are mahogany trees and dadap red trees.” All very pretty once they were fully grown. “REMEMBER. Only pick ONE legume and ONE anti-pollutant. GOT IT?”

Everyone got it?

“ONE last thing--while you gather your trees, I want you to think about my question to you...and when you sit down, I would like to hear thoughts from EVERYONE. Now...we’ve said that we are...taking the bottoms of trees that give nitrogen to soil...and the tops of trees that help air pollution...tell me, WHY do you think we would make such a tree? What could be the reasons? Where do you all think these trees could be planted?” He took a deep breath.

“....and with that----GO GET THOSE TREES.”

He smiled and...hoped no one had zoned out too much. He was trying to get the hands-on stuff..it just required some slight info beforehand.


OOC: WOAH okay. Sorry Paul talks so much. It’s hard to condense down explanations and whatnot, though. If this is confusing in any way or if anyone needs any sort of clarification, shoot me a PM! please don't hate me for all that talking Paul does omg

I would like 2 POSTS for credit for this part of the lesson.

-Picking your two trees [Legume: Honey locust OR Persian Silk. Anti-Pollutant: Mahogany or Dadap].
-Answering one/both/zero of Paul’s questions. Be creative! <3

I am going Mardi Gras parading tomorrow, not sure when I’ll be back and in a state to continue the lesson so...LOL I am thinking at least 24 hours from now, dears. <3

Jace nodded, fully understanding what the professor had to say about his answer. But then, he’s got a question! The Ravenclaw raised his hand as soon as the man was done talking. “Professor? Probably, for natural grafting to be organic, it should be solely nature’s work, right? But then...why was it even categorized as grafting when it’s obviously a man-made intervention?” Jace’s brows furrowed in a bit of confusion.

---

Leaving his question behind for a moment, the Ravenclaw picked up his quill, and wrote down notes about Whip Grafting furiously. There was so much information being spewed out, and he hoped he didn’t miss anything. When he was done, he stood up, got his gloves on and went on to pick the Persian Silk Tree, and the Mahongany Tree.

Carefully, he placed both parts on his desk, and thought about his answer to the Professor’s question.

Hmm.

Okay so she might have felt a little smug at the fact that she had gotten one of the grafting types down. Heh, that was great….but that little smirk faded as about as quickly as Professor Myers’ pun popped out. Dear Merlin that was a lot of whipping….too much whipping if you asked her but well, she’d have to whip some more with this grafting right?

“I cant wait…well, actually I can wait and will…but I’m excited to hear about it Professor Myers” Melbourne grinned and listened to the Professor’s instructions before hopping up off of her stool and looking around at the trees. Okay.

This was going to be fun.

Raising her hand Mel grinned at the Professor. “Well…considering we are doing a field trip with Professor Flamsteed and our first class was basically about terraforming and…well, Mars?” Mel beamed and practically bounced where she stood. “I think we could plant these trees somewhere that needs loads of nitrogen in order to balance its environment and has a lot of pollution maybe from the sun?” she paused for a moment “so I think we’d make a tree like this to improve the nitrogen conent of soil which nitrogen is baaassically the stuff of life right?” She paused for a bit and nearly squealed again. “I think we’re going to plant these on mars.”

Yep.

She’d done it.

Right before running off and grabbing her giant Honey locust tree…this was going to smell so pretty right?

The meditation had been about what she’d expected. Namely, Brooklyn hadn’t gotten much from it, aside from the relief that the bubble wand had stopped. That really had been irritating, but she’d cleared her mind and done everything else, as she’d always done. Then she’d headed for a seat, listening to the discussion. Grafting. It sounded like something people did when they wanted to make a name for themselves. Either that, or like had been mentioned, a mutant situation. As long as it wasn’t mutant spiders or other disgusting things, she could tolerate it. Just as she did most everything else.

“Strength,” she said, raising her hand. “A tree that gets the most nitrogen from the soil and clears the area of air pollution would have to be stronger than those that only do one thing or another.” And strength meant power. Now she just had to choose her trees, and she went another route for that. At least theoretically, since she had yet to actually go collect them. The Persian silk tree and the mahogany tree sounded rich. It sounded elegant. It sounded like her, at least in some ways. She wasn’t exactly wealthy, but she could always pretend.

Carl thought he understood what Grafting was. He was silently writing down notes previously because he had no idea how to answer the question. Now at least, he had a general idea of what they were dealing with today.

Reading over the notes he had jotted down - there was a lot of information - the Hufflepuff stood up and went to the back of the classroom where the legumes and anti-pollutants were. He picked a honey-locust tree and a mahogany, which he carried carefully to his desk.

So, what were the Professor's questions, again?

Poor girl was so glad that she had taken out her parchment and self inking quill the moment she had taken her seat. The very second Professor Myers had began speaking Hady knew she would have to take down notes. Lots of notes. The man didn't let her down with this as he continued to talk and talk and talk. Luckily for her she was used to this already and had no trouble at all keeping up.

As the talking stopped and Hady finished taking down the last bit of her notes she set her quill down. Rising to her feet the brunette made her way to the back of the room quietly observing all four of the different tree types there. She only needed two. one from each group. It really shouldn't be a very hard task at all but Hady was content with taking a few moments to 'listen' to the trees and choose the two that spoke to her.

After a few silent minutes Hady selected her two trees and returned to her seat with them in tow. Her Legume tree was the Persian Silk and for her Anti-Pollutant tree she had chosen the Dadap Red tree.

Herbology wasn't really her strongest subject. But it seemed like most of her family became very skilled in this lesson, take her sister as the example, and Uncle Archer too. Not to mention her father was great in Herbology too. So Ava just stay quiet and listened to the Professor Myers talking about grafting.

And now they're gonna do the whip grafting. Great. First thing that she had to do is picking the trees. Hmmm....... The young lioness decided to choose Honey locust and Mahogany tree because 1) Mahogany seemed like a big strong trees and 2) So did honey locust. Well, did they really need a particular reason why they had to choose them? No, right?

Where could they possibly plant a hybrid tree such as the one they are about to graft? Jace spaced out as soon as he tried to look for a possible, and logical answer. He did hear what Mel had to say...but thought it impossible for them to travel to Mars. Sure, they are magical and all, but then...travelling to another planet via magical means is still quite...a farfetched idea, isn’t it? Not impossible though, but just like muggle inventions and developments, it would take the wizarding experts to come up with such...innovation.

Jace blinked, and tapped the tip of his quill against his not quite empty parchment. “Fumō.” He muttered the Japanese word for deserted under his breath, and grinned at the professor. He raised his hand to offer his answer. “As an element, Nitrogen can be transformed into a mineral, which, I suppose will make the soil rich. Over time, it can revitalise the rest of the land, making it fertile so people can use it to plant more trees, and maybe crops." Muggle science, really. "The anti-pollutant tree will obviously clean the air, so I was thinking...maybe we can plant the trees somewhere that is barren? A wasteland perhaps?”Jace said putting his hand down, eager to know what the professor has in store for them, besides grafting.

Obviously Rachel had no idea what was cooking up in Professor Myers's head but she did smile at him and his bubbles. She actually giggled slightly when said bubbles came close to her face. She remained still to let them burst on her nose as she discovered she liked when they popped there.

Whip grafting? Rachel was delighted! She had never attempted this type of grafting before but had always wanted to. Now she had her opportunity! She giggled again but this time at Myers's joke. Yes, she got it, Professor.

The Claw listened to the explanations, noting the emphasis placed on the type of trees they were to get. With the question in mind, she set off to get herself the trees. She had already decided to select Honey locust and Mahagony.

Honestly, he wasn't really sure what to make of the whole 'grafting' thing... but he wasn't going to complain, or resist. He was here to get good marks, and get good marks he would. Fortunately he'd already formed theories regarding the answers to Professor Myers' questions.

Still, better yet, they were onto practical stuff already. Good. Cause theory wasn't very inspiring.

Upon receiving the go-ahead, Zeke followed his peers to retrieve one of each type of plant. The first he decided would be the Persian Silk, and the second the Mahogany. Why? Because they both sounded prestigious and better than the others, and it was only the best for him.

Mmhhmm.

He took the two back to his work station and contemplated how best to form words regarding the things they were supposed to be giving some thought.