Paul was in front of Fiyero’s desk in a jiffy! The daffodil was still honking, it seemed, after he fertilized AND watered it. Hmm. Paul pet the little guy on the top petals and examined the whole body. “Did you crush any of its leaves?” he asked quickly, but he couldn’t see anything right now. Hmm. “Set him to side--I’ll see about him later, okay?” He felt bad but..he had to move on, and he could devote more time to seeing what was wrong later.

He strode to the front of the room, grabbed a screechsnap and placed the pot gently on his table. “Screechsnaps are similar to honking daffodils in that they both make noises. Screechsnaps are very interesting because...they can feel things, like pain and pleasure. Sometimes, older ones even pick a word or two to repeat, but this in very rare. Possible, but rare.” Paul had only ever worked with ONE screechsnap who had learned a word, and the word had been ‘SUN.’ How fitting and CUTE. “Their sound is more a shriek than a honk, though.” Just..a little tidbit, though they could probably hear it.

“The next little activity we’re doing--no, we won’t be repotting these,” he smiled mischievously. “We’re going to PRUNING the screechsnaps.” They were very unhealthy, still, from the stuff in the beginning of the year. Paul had to constantly care for them and make sure they were up to top health and whatnot. “Now, before any of you asks--it does not hurt them since pruning is cutting off DEAD leaves and small branches. It will hurt, however, if you cut the wrong thing, or cut too far.” It was important they know that. “That’s why we won’t be silencing them. If you hurt them, you will KNOW.” The shrieking would be...terrble. “Very advanced Herbologists can prune their screechsnaps while they are silenced because we know what we’re doing--but you all are still a little new!” He smiled. “Which is VERY much fine! Just..it’s good to know if you’ve cut somehting you shouldn’t have. Very easy to fix, but it does hurt them, so you must be careful.” Eeeeeeeee it was a little scary, letting the screechsnaps loose to his students.

“These guys like to get out of their pot when you’re fooling with them too much so...that might be a problem.” Yeah……….it would MOST likely be a problem for MOST of them. “But first, you wanna’ locate all of the dead leaves and branches on the plant. Those will be a brown instead of a nice, lush green. And then...just like we did with the daffodils, grab the very main stem of the flower under the bloom. He will wriggle. And he might try to escape--but don’t let that happen! Once everyone has their flower in their grasp, we’ll move on!”

Paul’s screechsnap, while he was talking, he dug himself out of the soil and climbed right out of the pot, making a run for it across the table. “AY AY!” Paul quickly snatched it up, giving it a light glare before petting its bloom.

Ahem.


OOC: YAY I was waiting for this part because screechsnaps are so fun! They wiggle and TRY TO ESCAPE THE POTS SO HARD so please have fun with this. I know there isn't too much action in this post besides looking for dead leaves and then keeping the screechsnap still, but it's okay! I'll probably move us on in 15 or so hours! Feel free to catch up if you need to! Mwah!

...

Was Professor Myers joking?

They had to PRUNE these things??? Okay... on second glance Esme could see that hers seemed to be in sad shape, but still. She didn't want to cut incorrectly and accidentally hurt it; that would make her feel AWFUL. Hurting plants PERIOD was bad enough, but getting a reaction to the pain would make her feel even worse. It was like if she hurt another person. Right, she was just going to have to be as careful as possible, especially because her screechsnap wouldn't be silenced. The reasoning for that was logical but that didn't mean she had to enjoy it.

Making note of the fact that she most likely would have to deal with a runaway screechsnap like Professor Myers had (haha!), Esme surveyed her plant carefully, making note of any brown leaves and branches. Once she was satisfied that she had found them all, she grabbed the stem as they had been told to. Nope, she was NOT letting go no matter how much the screechsnap struggled to get free.

This wasn't a difficult task for him. Jaemin had helped his dad re-pot things before, and had helped his mom too, but hers were all mundane and not wiggly at all. The small boy wrapped his fingers very gently around the daffodil stem, careful not to squish it, and dipped his other hand into the dirt to scoop some into the new, waiting pot. Needed to make it super hospitable for the flower baby!

He did his best to get a good amount of the dirt out, pausing when his fingertips found a root. No more, then? That was fine. He hummed to himself and mixed up the dirt in the waiting pot with his fingers, kneading it absently as he looked up at the steps again. It wasn't anything that he didn't know to do, not really. So when he was finished mixing the dirt up and making it nice and comfortable for the daffodil, he very carefully lifted it up. The roots came out easily, thank Merlin, so the poor little thing wouldn't get really upset with him; he held a hand under the clump of dirt and plant legs, carefully supporting it as he moved it to the new pot.

Gooooood daffodil.

There was enough dirt in there already that it had a nice, soft base to take to. Jaemin pressed the back of his hand into the soil as he lowered the daffodil into the pot, making a nice indent so it would stay upright until he managed to cover the roots up with dirt again. Didn't want it to fall over! The dirt from the old pot would hopefully be enough to cover it, because if it wasn't that meant he had to go get more dirt... not that he minded. The small Slytherin picked up the pot and tipped it carefully, doing his best to use one hand to both scoop the dirt into the pot and shield the daffodil from getting all full of dirt. It wouldn't be very happy to have dirt all up in its flowerface.

It seemed to be enough. He lightly patted the dirt to disperse it around the pot, then leaned in to nuzzle his nose against the daffodil bloom. One nice little cuddle before he unsilenced it; the spell came easily enough, and the little flower burst back to life, sound-wise. Not nearly as loud, but it still needed his attention for other stuff. The boy pointed his wand at the dirt, and mumbled a soft 'Aguamenti' to sprinkle some nice, refreshing water into it.

Happy daffodil. Good daffodil. He patted it and gave it a grin before putting a small emojiface sticker on the front of the pot and picking it up to take it to the back. SCREECHSNAP TIME.

Alright, pruning didn't sound so hard. But it might be just a bit difficult to focus with this thing screeching so dang much. Did they also get quieter when they were happier? He thought that would probably make sense, and he really hoped it was true. For now though he just had to locate the dead leaves. That was easy! They were brown while the other leaves were green so it was pretty easy to tell them apart. Olly glanced over his screechsnap and noted all the dead leaves. Prune those ones and not any of the other ones. Of course. Got it.

No pruning yet, he just had to hold it still until it was time to move on. How hard could that be? He grabbed the stem like he had with the daffodil, but it was not really as easy as he'd thought. The plant was wiggling! Why? No, stop! He gripped harder so it wouldn't wiggle completely out of his grasp. The only problem was that he must have gripped too hard because the screechsnap started screaming even louder! Not too much but still, it wasn't pleasant.

"Shhhh," he said. "I'm trying to prune you! It'll feel good. Just hold still so we can do this." He tried to relax his grip as much as he could while still keeping control of the plant. Could they move on soon?

Juno smiled at her little honking daffodil, "Alright little one, lets get your noise back. Finite!" She said while pointing her wand at the little flower. It immediately started honking loudly. She looked at its dirt, and new exactly what it would need.

"Here lets get you some water. Aguementi!" She said with a flick of her wrist and out came some water. Quickly the little flower stopped honking and seemed quiet content. So she stopped the flow of water. "Ok, little one, time to go back with the rest of the flowers. I'll see you real soon!" She smiled and took the little flower back with the others.

She went over to the other plants. "This is not going to be fun." She grabbed a medium sized Screechsnap, that was absolutely the loudest thing ever, and walked back to her seat to listen to the instructions.

OH, joy. Pruning. She really didn't want to hurt this plant, because it was loud. Juno looked over her Screechsnap. It actually didn't have too many dead leaves or branches on it. Looked like maybe 4 or 5.

Now came the hard part. She gently put her hand around the stem of the Screechsnap, and the plant went crazy in her hands. It was wriggling around so much she couldn't keep her arm still. "UH, PROFESSOR...." she called out. Her arm was shaking so violently, but she didn't let go of the plant.

...but maybe she should let go of it?

Reversing the Silencing charm on her daffodil hadn’t been difficult for Brooklyn at all, although she might have made sure that her earplugs were back in her ears before she risked it. She trusted her own daffodil, but not the others. Plus, there were still the screechsnaps to deal with. She hadn’t forgotten about them. First came ending the charm on her daffodil completely, although the honking was still barely noticeable. Yet now she couldn’t tell if it was just because it was afraid of angering her or if it was honestly content.

Just in case, she pointed her wand at the soil underneath the flower. “Aguamenti,” she cast quietly, letting a gentle stream of water flow onto the soil until it was damp. The honking had quieted even more, so she took that as a sign that fertilizer wasn’t necessary. Instead, she carefully picked up the pot and moved it to the back of the greenhouse with the others, lightly stroking the blossom before returning to pick up one of the dreaded screechsnaps.

Thankfully, they weren’t having to repot those, although as the one Professor Myers had been using to demonstrate tried to make a run for it she wondered if they weren’t going to have to repot them by default. She preferred not having to chase after plants. Pruning something that could tell her if she made a wrong move was bad enough. She was half tempted to try a body bind on the screechsnap, but held back. That would be the last resort, even if there was the risk of the professor being upset at her. She was not going to chase after it.

It was simple enough to locate the dead branches and leaves. She could tell brown from green after all, and the dead parts were brittle as well. Easy. She gave the screechsnap her best glare before she grasped it under the blossom as they had been instructed, too, ignoring any little squirm it tried to make. If it could react to sensations, she figured it could understand expressions also. She was going to make sure her screechsnap cooperated, no matter what.

"Finite!" Kitty tapped her wand against the pots edge smartly as she uttered the spell word. Immediately the daffodil started honking again, though not as loudly as before. "I think you need water, and I'm only guessing because I also need water," Kitty guessed, pulling out her wand. "Aguamenti!" A steady trickle of water poured out from he wand and into the pot. The daffodil stopped honking.

"I knew you were thirsty. Unfortunately I'm going to have to wait before drinking water because I don't have a cup. Well that's okay. Let's take you back with the others now." She picked up her daffodil in his pot and set it down with the other flowers.

Then she grabbed a small Screechsnap and hurried over to the second group pf plants.

They were going to prune some plants now? Yay. That was cool. Hattie hadn't really done that before, so she was looking forward to it. They'd get to prune magical plants too, which made it all the more interesting. She just hoped that it wouldn't be a difficult plant, because that would not make it fun at all. She listened to the professor, making some brief notes. She liked making notes, so that she could remember everything that they had gotten taught. She didn't want to forget anything!

She hummed, quietly, as she began work, looking for the dead leaves. That was quite simple. She was just looking for the dead looking ones, and not the ones that were nice and green. Though it was simple, it was made harder by the fact that the screechsnap kept moving around. "Don't be scared... I'm just gonna prune you" She murmured, shaking her head, as she located the dead leaves.

There weren't too many actually. Now she had to hold onto the stem. Smiling, she grabbed the plant underneath it's flower. "Eep." Now she just had to try and hold it still until the professor told them what to do next.

Azura was thinking of a name for her Screechsnap when Professor Meyer started speaking and she looked up at him, her purple eyes wide.. They were going to do WHAT NOW??

Prune them??

AND THEY COULD FEEL PAIN!!!

EEKKKKKKK!! The small teen swallowed hard as she looked down at her Screechsnap and bit her lip.. "I'm so sorry Little Snappy.." Yeah that was it's nickname now.. She groaned softly as she looked at her flower and sighed..

This was awful! They felt pain! Well.. now she was going to be extra careful, she didn't want to hurt poor little snappy.. Azura turned back to her task and tried to locate some of the things she might need to prune when her ScreechSnap tried to get out of it's Pot!

"Hey now! Snappy.. Come on.. get back in here." She reached out and gently got her flower and held onto it.. Grasping the main stem, right under the bloom.. carefully..

Perhaps a little TOO carefully.. Cause Snappy was wiggling like crazy and was trying to slip out of her grip! "Snappy, come on! Work with me here." She panted as she tried to carefully wrestle with the flower. She wasn't a very strong person, wresting was not her forte yeah? She bit her lip as she finally managed to get Snappy back into the pot.. But uhh.. she was bracing herself.. her feet planted as best as she could... Her face a little red and flustered now as she tried to reason with her flower.. "Snappy...Chill." She panted out..

Flower wrestling..She could cross that off her bucket list..

Kitty couldn't help but giggle when Professor Myer's Screechsnap escaped from its pot and started running. Hopefully her wouldn't do that, but she had to admit that it was cute and kind of awesome.

Now it was their turn. Immediately her Screechsnap started wriggling. "Hold still please," Kitty said in exasperation, even though she knew there was no way her Screechsnap could understand her. She grabbed it in the stem (gently) just as she had been told and located all its dead leaves. There were eight in all, scattered around the plant at different parts. Four of them were clustered together near the top, two more near the bottom, and the last two in different parts in the middle.

But just then her Screechsnap started climbing out of its pot! "GAA!!" In her surprise Kitty accidentally let go, and that allowed it to climb even more out. Within seconds though Kitty had grabbed on to it again and was gently but surely moving it back into its pot. "I wonder if my mom would like to have a plant like you in her garden," Kitty wondered seriously as it gave up and allowed her to place it back inside its pot.

All right, then! Time to move on! Paul heard Juno’s small panic and quickly went over to her. “Don’t squeeze him so hard, m’dear. Loosen your grip,” he said, tapping her hand lightly before going back to the front of the room to his own screechsnap--who, once again tried to escape off the table--Paul quickly grabbed it once more and set it back in its pot, where it began to shriek violently. Sigh.

“SO--” he began over the screechsnap. “Using EITHER YOUR WAND or a shear--located in containers up front--we’re going to cut off the dead or browning branches first! The trick to this is to cut at an ANGLE. You never wanna’ cut straight across--cut right below where they start turning brown.” Paul demonstrated on his own screechsnap, who was trying so hard to wriggle from his grasp that Paul had to move sort of swiftly. “Some of them will not like this--but it’s for their own good and they’ll be MUCH less cranky afterwards!” he beamed and cut another small little brown branch off, his screechsnap huffing slightly at this iNJUSTICE.

“After you cut off the dead branches--cut off the dead LEAVES,” he continued. “Make sure not the cut them where the leaf part attaches to the stem part--cut right above that, AGAIN at an angle, not a straight cut!” Paul tried to make the directions as simple as possible and cut off the dead leaf of his own screechsnap. His screechsnap, who before had been SHRIEKING ITS HEAD OFF suddenly quieted and seemed almost peaceful in his pot. “See? He’s all better now! Even if he did fight with me the whole time--so get to it, kids!” Paul winked. “I’ll walk around to assist anyone with their little sassy flowers.”

But he sure the children could handle walking flowers, right?



OOC: Have fun with this, guys! Screechsnaps, especially these, are FEISTAAAAY. <3 I'll post sometime tomorrow. Y'all have tons of time, and are welcome to catch up. XOXO

Professor was giving instructions, half of which this Curly Top could barely hear. How could he when his screechsnap was nagging his ears off? He tried to keep the plant still by holding the pot down-- and that was a great struggle in itself. Ok so apparently they can also hold this via the stem just like the Honking Daffodils, and without hesitation he clasped the screechsnap by its main stem. Did that offer him more control? Yes. Did that lessen the shrieking? Oh hell no, now its making like a muggle alarm clock with its repeated shrieking.

What was that? Professor said they CANT use the silencing charm on these plants?? Just when Tenacius was well ready and needing to use it too. "Shhhhh! Calm down..." he repeated onto the tantrum-throwing plant. "Oww!" Did this plant just slap his hand? Rude! "I'm not even holding you down that hard." he retorted back. "I aint crimpin your style, nuthin!" Just holding it by the stem see? But now the leonine lad tightened his grip and held the plant down even stronger. You aint seen the full strength yet Screechy.

So apparently they were supposed to be pruning. Seriously cant they just put these plants to sleep or something? He held his wand with one hand and just looked at the hysterical plant held down by the other. If the instructions were to cut off the bloom-- which was the largest part of this plant-- he still wouldn’t be able to get it right. How were they supposed to cut off SMALL DEAD leaves and branches on this super squirmy screecher?

"I am trying to help you..." he crooned at the plant, trying to see if a firm hand but a kind voice would get it to behave somewhat "Look, lemme cut this part off see--" he said as he diffindo'd off a brown leaf, the largest thing he could take off that wasn’t alive. Did that help? Well the hysterics didn’t get worse. He'll take that as a win.

But it seems like the screechsnap was trying to contort its way off his grip, and as it bent its stem it afforded him a clear view of a dead branch. Snip goes that dead branch. Snip goes the other, and another and another, Tenacius matching his pruning and movement to the curve and clearance the contorting afforded him. Suddenly the screechsnap righted itself up and just stared at him. Or was that glaring? Who cares it was STILL and somewhat quiet for once. Snip snip snip he worked quickly, taking off some more brown stems and leaves.

Now the only thing left are those few bits that had green leaves with brownish ends. The screechsnap did calm down considerably, being less wriggly and screechy than before, but it still prattled away at him. If this thing had lips he'd call it a motormouth. "See what did I tell ya? I'm helping you right? Feeling better now arentcha?" he caressed the bloom for a moment. Positive reinforcement yeah? Whatever works man.

Aaaaand angle-snipping that brown part off the leaf. He tried it a bit more on the other two. There was still some brownish slivers but.... nah. He'll leave those as is. Last thing he wanted was to have the hysterics kick up again because he sliced off some green. Yep nope.

Also his ears could use a break.

Hattie really did not like all of this screeching. Who on earth would like a plant like this? Honking she could deal with, but screeching. Nope. She did not like it at all. Maybe she would just need to become a really good Herbologist and then she would be able to silence the plant. It would save her ears, which were really hurting right now. Hopefully they would get this part of the lesson over and done with soon and her ears could recover.

Aah. The next instructions. Yay! Okay. So she'd found her dead leaves, and now was holding the stem. Next instruction. Cut off the dead branches. Picking up her pruning sheers, she located the dead branches, and carefully cut them off at an angle. It seemed easy, or the instructions made it seem easy, but it wasn't, because the screechsnap kept trying to get out of her grip. "Stop it.... you're making this hard." She grumbled, shaking her head.

She did not like that this plant moved so fast. She frowned, moving a little, so that she could grip the stem a little better. Then she could continue cutting the dead branches off. "That's better" She muttered, but she shook her head, and kept cutting the branches off.

Azura watched Professor Meyers as he demonstrated how to cut off the branches.. Ugh.. She wasn't looking forward to this.. especially not with Snappy shrieking its head off and trying to get out of the pot..

She opted to use her wand for this task, last time she used the shears she ended up cutting herself and she really needed all of her digits to complete this task.. so.. Wand it was!

She picked up her wand in her right hand, while the left still held onto Snappy as he shrieked at her.. "I know Snappy, I wouldn't want anyone to cut off my branches either, But this is really for your own good." She explained as she located a dead branch and then pointed her wand at it.. ACK!! So much wiggling.. "Snappy, C'mon little flower.. let's just chill for a bit. while I cut this branch off.. Can you do that for me?" She tried to talk to her flower soothingly, but sweet Fwoopers it was wiggling so much.. She tried to match her wand to it's movement, and when it finally settled down for a second, she said "Diffindo." and managed to cut off the dead branch at an angle..

She bit her lip as she eyed Snappy.. The plant didn't seem more upset than usual, so she assumed she hadn't hurt him.. "See Snappy, that wasn't so awful was it?" She asked before groaning as he tried to get out of the pot again and while shrieking at her..

"Snapppyyyyyy.." She eyed it as she set it back down in it's pot and sighed as she gently petted it's leaves.. "We have one more branch all right? And then the leaves.. so.. just a little.. longer." Azura was struggling with Snappy, and her hair was coming out of it's bun! She was panting a little, but she was determined to make this plant feel better..

She found the other dead branch and with a quick "Diffindo." She had cut it off at an angle as well..

Whew.. Now onto the leaves..

Fwoopers help her..

Fiyero felt terrible, Had he really crushed one of the daffodil's leaves? He thought he was being so careful! "Sorry about that," he apologized to the plant, though he still had no idea what he did wrong. "Please stop honking now." He gave the flower a little pat on its petals before setting it aside and going to pick up a screechsnap.

The honking had been funny, but the noise this plant was making was just plan annoying! It sounded a lot like those old opera records his grandparents listened to. He tried to block out the sound as he grabbed hold of its stem. This time he was determined to do it right! The screechsnap shrieked even louder, frantically slapping his hand with its leaves the moment he touched it. It wriggled, fighting to get away, and his grip tightened a bit. Well, this is going to be fun, he thought sarcastically.

"Calm down, feisty-pants!" he said to the screechsnap. Or should he say feisty-plants? For some reason, that reminded him of a scene from one of the girly princess movies his little sister watched. "I'm gonna call you Anna, okay?" He assumed the plant must like that name, as it was being quieter and less wiggly than it had been. Maybe this wan't going to be as hard as he thought!

Fiyero opted for his wand over the pruning shears; he'd probably be less clumsy that way. But the relative calm didn't last long... The moment he drew his wand, the plant let out a deafening screech... right in his ear. He yelped in surprise, accidentally losing his grip on the stem. The screechsnap took advantage of the opportunity to climb out of its pot. Thankfully, Fiyero saw it out of the corner of his eye and managed to grab it before it could get far. "Oh, no you don't!" he said, placing the plant back in its pot as gently as he could.

Keeping one hand wrapped firmly around the screechsnap's stem, he pointed his wand at a dead branch. "Diffendo!" There, that worked! He moved on to the other dead branches- thankfully there weren't very many of them - as the plant continued to shriek bloody murder the whole time. Was he hurting it? He cut at an angle, exactly as Professor Myers said. By the time he started to remove the dead leaves, the plant had calmed down a little (but not much!)l he thought that was probably a good sign. "See, this isn't so horrible!" he said as he amputated a leaf, taking extra care not to cut where it attatched. One...more.. leaf... And DONE!

Glad that's over, Fiyero thought as he looked up at Professor Myers, awaiting farther instruction.

Pruning wasn't hard at all. Jaemin had spent a good part of his summer helping his mom and dad out with stuff like this, and had spent massive quantities of time before that doing it as well. His parents were sorta blessed to have a child that found something considered 'work' to be fun. He watched his screechsnap as it yelled and squirmed about, wrinkling his nose and tilting his head. It would be harder, but... it couldn't be that much harder. Right? It was still a plant, just a bit more spirited.

Jaemin wrapped his fingers around the stem under the bloom, and the screechsnap immediately started to fight. This was not anything he'd ever had to deal with before, and the small Slytherin immediately made a rather disconcerted noise and held on a bit tighter, so it wouldn't escape. The poor thing! It was so upset about its dead branches and leaves... Jaemin gently stroked the bloom with his other hand, trying to calm it while he eyeballed the spots that would need his attention.

And then it got over the edge of the pot.

The plant did its best to scuttle away from Jaemin, pulling at his arm as he blinked in surprise. STRONG. STRONG PLANT. STAY STILL. He picked it back up, watching as it flailed violently in the air to get away again, and deposited it back in the pot. "Don't make me immobilize you," he threatened softly, stroking the bloom some more. He didn't want to do that. He wanted to get through this without casting mean spells at his plants.

"I'm gonna trim off your icky bits, okay? Just... be patient. I promise it'll be okay," he murmured, picking up his wand again. The plant was squirming still, back and forth, pushing to get up out of the pot, but he did his best to hold it still. "Stooooooop. I don't want to hurt you."

He cast a soft 'Flipnsnipwitit' at a dead leaf, careful to cut it on an angle as both the professor and his parents had always told him to do. It fell away, but that didn't calm the screechsnap one single bit, and Jaemin frowned some more. Poor little guy was SO UPSET. SO VERY UPSET. He didn't like it at all.

"I know, I know," he whispered, moving his wand to a browning offshoot and casting again. It fell away easily, as did the other one he made to sever, and another few leaves. The plant kept wriggling about, pushing itself over the edge of the pot again and trying to make a break for it despite his hand firmly around it. He carefully pulled it right back in, doing his best not to bend any branches or roots. Didn't need it screaming even louder... "Shhh, you're gonna be okay, see? You'll be nice and healthy in juuuuuust a minute..."

There were a more leaves, and he 'Flipnsnipwitit'd them off one after the next. The screechsnap was getting ever so slightly more complacent with each one now... thank Merlin. He snipped off the last little browning offshoot, and the plant went nice and still. Cautiously, ever so cautiously, Jaemin uncurled his fingers from the stem he'd been gripping onto.

"Now you can grow new branches and leaves and they'll be all healthy and green," he murmured, gently petting the screechsnap. "Isn't that much better?"

Unlike most of the others, Kitty actually felt a little more confident with shears instead of a wand (only for this task of course, usually she felt better with a wand) and so she hurried over to get a pair of shears. Kitty didn't like physical labor, but she didn't have much practice with the cutting spell and she was afraid she might mess it up and hurt her Screechsnap. Besides, back at home Kitty had used shears before when she was helping her mom weed the garden.

She quickly got the shears and returned to her Screechsnap.

"I really don't like the sound of this cutting at an angle business," Kitty fretted as she got her hands around her Screechsnap and tried to position the shear at an angle. The disadvantage of having shears was that now she had to use more effort with both her hands, but it was still better than taking a chance with a spell she didn't know.

Snap! Only four more dead branches to go.

Not if her Screechsnap had anything to say about it! The dried branch had just barely hit the bottom of the pot when the Screechsnap began thrashing back and forth and screeching at the top of its lungs. "UGH!" Kitty wanted to cover her ears but to do that she would have to let go of the plant and drop the shears. As it was, she was just barely holding on.

Azura was trying to calm Snappy down as she saw at least three leaves that needed to be trimmed..."Come on Snappy, just three more and it will be all done, I promise you." She tried to cajole the little plat to stop screeching and calm down a little bit.. but Alas..

Nothing..

Still as wiggly as ever and screeching up a storm..

*cue annoyed face*

"All right Snappy." Azura held onto her plant gently, but still with enough pressure to keep it in place as she blew her bangs out of her sweaty face and took a breath.. "First one Snappy." She said as she diffindo'd a leaf off of the plant at an angle..

The shrieks didn't get any louder.. so she assumed she wasn't hurting it..

"All right.. Two more snappy.. just bear with me." She told her flower as she tried to match her movements to its. It wasn't easy, but no one said this would be easy yeah? She managed to get the brown leaf cut off with another diffindo.. At an angle.. Always..

Okay. One more.." The teen's arm was getting tired and this plant was strong.. ugh.. so sleepy.. She could go for a nap right about now.. One more leaf.. cut at an angle by Diffindo.. and there!!!

Done!!

The purple eyed girl nearly sunk into her chair in relief as her plant calmed down and she gave it a look.. "Happy now?"

The Honking Daffodils were SO loud it was almost too hard to hear Professor Myers talking. He was yelling, but still, these plants were loud ones. Ah yes, a silence spell was a good idea. "Silencio," Niomi yelled. The daffodils then became silent. It sounded sooo nice! Niomi could finally hear again. Which was good because now Professor Myers was getting to the most important part, the repotting. Grabbing her gloves, she put them on to start transferring this plant.

Once the new pots arrived and the instructions were given, Niomi started to fill the big pot up, halfway, with dirt. Once the dirt was inside the pot, Niomi listened for the next instructions.

-----

Now, to transfer some dirty. Luckily, Professor Myers said why added the old dirt in was important, otherwise Niomi won't have done it, honestly. If she could skip steps, she would. This was something she needed to stop doing. She has been working on that pet peeve, and today was not the day to turn back on continuing that. Picking the daffodil by the main stem, she started to grab oil dirt, from the old pot, and place it into the new pot.

Once that was done, it was time for a dirty part. Taking her other hand, she stuck it into the dirt and searched for the root of the daffodil plant. Niomi continued to search for it, normally this would be easy, but not today. How hard could this be!? Finally, She got it. Must be a big root?

Remembering to gently hand the plant, Niomi pulled it up slowly, out of the current pot. Dirt went allllll over the table in front of her. Oops! She'll have to clean that up later, she had a plant to worry about in her hands. Quickly, BUT gently, she moved the daffodil to the new pot. Now, to finished, Niomi needed to add more dirt to plant the daffodil.

After the daffodil was planted, Niomi had to use a spell to un-silence it. "Finite," Niomi cast. The daffodil was no longer nosey, thank goodness! Lastly, was to water the little guy. Taking a watering can, she sprinkled the daffodil with water.

All done. Taking the pot, Niomi walked to the back of the classroom and placed the pot down. Before she went back to her seat, she walked to the front of the class to grab a screechsnap.

Cut. Cut. Cut.

Okay. This was kind of boring. She enjoyed Herbology, but this was kind of boring. Maybe she didn't want to be a super herbologist, because maybe then it would be boring. She would have to have a think about. But for now she needed to keep cutting. She wanted to make sure that she got all of the dead branches off. If she didn't her plant to not be able to grow properly. So it needed all of it's branches off.

And. She had done all of the branches. She beamed. Now she had to move on. It was time to cut of the dead leaves now. That should be pretty simple. Although the screechsnap was still moving around, so maybe it wouldn't be too easier. But she had managed to cut the dead branches off, so she was sure she could get the dead leaves off too.

Smiling, she made sure she was gripping the stem correctly, so that she could carefully cut the dead leaves off. Hattie was careful to make sure she didn't cut too close to the lush green parts of the plant. She didn't want to hurt it.

Snip. Cut. Snip. Cut.

And she was done. Putting her sheers down, she looked around the plant, making sure she'd gotten all of the dead leaves and branches. "Perfect" The first year murmured with a beam. She was happy. And now she just needed to wait to see what they would do now.

Paul had a happy little screechsnap, now, and he smiled as he watched others. Some of their flowers were behaving, and others were...feisty, yes. He was glad no one had managed to behead one of the screechsnaps, though.

How traumatic would THAT be?

"Something for us to discuss while some of you finish up--the ethics behind dealing with plants with feelings. There are are some out there that thing we should care for the plants like any other plants--regardless of the fact that they can feel pain. If we accidentally cut off a branch--of pull off a leaf--and the plant is hurting, is this wrong? Or does it not matter so much...these plants are only semi-sentient. They don't have brain capabilities, not even as much as animals do. Should there exist...laws against plant cruelty? For plants like mandrakes, screechsnaps, honking daffodils, venomous tentaculas? What do you all think?" He could guess what Daxton Prince would think, even if the child thank Merlin wasn't here.


OOC: Wrapping up the lesson! I'm gonna' leave it open another day or so, feel free to discuss what Paul is talking about above! Thanks for the interesting posts, guys! Lovely job everyone, woohoo!

Now that his screechsnap was nice and content and seemed to be happy to sit still in its pot, Jaemin could look around to see what the others were doing. He gently stroked the screechsnap bloom as he did so, humming to himself, half-listening for Myers to move on to the next part of class. The screaming screechsnap, however, drew his attention, and with a hesitant look at the professor, he picked up his screechsnap pot and did his best to move over to Kitty's desk as quick and sneakily as possible.

Setting his down next to hers, he looked at her screechsnap, and how it was thrashing about, before reaching out and gently petting the bloom to try and hopefully calm it a little. "Want help? I can hold him while you prune him, if you want."

It was probably an activity that was easier for two, when the two were generally young and small. He turned his head slightly, distracted as Professor Myers posed a morality question to them, but chose not to answer that just yet. He'd help Kitty if she wanted, and then he'd offer up all his thoughts on plant morality. Yes.

Oh interesting question Professor Plantman. Should there be laws against plant cruelty? "Well Professor......aint there laws against deforestation? I guess that can be counted as a law against plant cruelty. I guess we have to really define what is covered by laws, like is it only plants that we can hear and see moving? Also what exactly defines 'cruelty'? I mean what about farmers? They harvest vegetables and fruits and grains...." he didn’t like to think that his maternal gramps and granny were guilty of cruelty.

NEXXT. NEEEEXT. The rumbling continued before those nearest could see the gnomies join in. Looking so precious.

There were lots of studensies here to deliver. But learning was good for studesies so they had to be quick! QUICK! QUICK!

Quote:

Originally Posted by RachieRu

Cut. Cut. Cut.

Okay. This was kind of boring. She enjoyed Herbology, but this was kind of boring. Maybe she didn't want to be a super herbologist, because maybe then it would be boring. She would have to have a think about. But for now she needed to keep cutting. She wanted to make sure that she got all of the dead branches off. If she didn't her plant to not be able to grow properly. So it needed all of it's branches off.

And. She had done all of the branches. She beamed. Now she had to move on. It was time to cut of the dead leaves now. That should be pretty simple. Although the screechsnap was still moving around, so maybe it wouldn't be too easier. But she had managed to cut the dead branches off, so she was sure she could get the dead leaves off too.

Smiling, she made sure she was gripping the stem correctly, so that she could carefully cut the dead leaves off. Hattie was careful to make sure she didn't cut too close to the lush green parts of the plant. She didn't want to hurt it.

Snip. Cut. Snip. Cut.

And she was done. Putting her sheers down, she looked around the plant, making sure she'd gotten all of the dead leaves and branches. "Perfect" The first year murmured with a beam. She was happy. And now she just needed to wait to see what they would do now.

The first studensie they saw had TWO sets of deliveries. The Gnomies ciRCLED around the child and began to dance. Before throwing a box of honeydukes and a single rose for her during the rain of confetti.

tuneeee



Heeeeeeeeey Hattie!
Even though you are yellow and I am green,
you're my best friend forever so let us PREEEEEN!

From SKY!

Stop. Throwing another box at the child the Gnomies began to bellow out-

Here's to your first Valentine's at Hogwarts, sis! Don't eat the chocolates all at once.

Your biiig BROOOOOOOOOOO

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

Oh interesting question Professor Plantman. Should there be laws against plant cruelty? "Well Professor......aint there laws against deforestation? I guess that can be counted as a law against plant cruelty. I guess we have to really define what is covered by laws, like is it only plants that we can hear and see moving? Also what exactly defines 'cruelty'? I mean what about farmers? They harvest vegetables and fruits and grains...." he didn’t like to think that his maternal gramps and granny were guilty of cruelty.

tHIS studensie had lots of goodies for him. One by one the Gnupids threw a box of sweets with fizzing whizzbees, chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, Cauldron Cakes, and more. Candy Floosss TOO.

tuneee

You're fun
You're adventurous
You've great hair
and I like you.

Congrats, you have an admirer.
Can you figure out who?
Your only clue is Red goes good with Blue.

From a secret admirara-heeeeeeeeerrrr

letting the shower of confetti rain on before leaving.

Giggle, giggle

Oh no. These screechsnaps are loud too. Hopefully, they won't give Niomi a hard time. To make sure she knew what she was doing, she listened carefully to Professor Myers.

Find the dead leaves? Niomi looked down at the screechsnap in front of her. She could see a lot of dead leaves on it. Once Professor Myers was finished giving his first instructions, Niomi went to grab the screechsnap at the base. Like the Professor said, this was a little difficult. The screechsnap, Niomi had a hold of, was wiggling around, trying to escape. Then, the screechsnap got a little loose out of Niomi's grip. "No! Come back here," She yelled at it, before grabbing it firmly. This caused a little less wiggling from the screechsnap.

Now, to search for the dead branches. Taking her wand out, Niomi searched the plant. She found a few dead branches, and at an angle she cut the branches off. The screechsnap became a little less bothered being handled like this. ONLY a little though. There were many more dead leaves than branches.

Thinking it was finished, the screechsnap pushed out of Niomi's hand and tried to get away. "Ah!" she screeched. Niomi didn't expect it to get away so easily. Pulling her arm out, she successfully grabbed the screechsnap, "Stop getting away. We will be finished soon." Once, the screechsnap stopped wiggling once again, she moved on to cutting the dead leaves off.

Finally, Niomi was finished cutting off the dead leaves. She gathered them in a pile and set them aside. Now, the screechsnap was calm. It seemed happier for having the dead weight off of it.