Just as Shay was enjoying the dancing, the performance was abruptly over. The mooncalves had gone back to there home. Shay was disappointed. The cute little creatures had given her some ideas that for a dance that she was creating. It would be very different. That it would. In the meantime, it was time to move on to the next part of the activity.

Now they got to take a look at the crop circles. Shay stood up and walked toward the markings that her mooncalf had made. Since the moon was full, she was able to see the crop circle fairly well. Shay walked around and followed the pattern until she could get a sense of its size and shape. Every now and then, she had to sidestep some little silver pellets. Thank goodness it was bright. When she felt that she had seen enough, Shay went back to her seat.

The students took turns describing what they had seen. When it was her turn, Shay spoke up. "My crop circle looked like........well it sort of looked like an elongated circle with some wavy lines inside.". That was the best description she could give. It was a strange little pattern. Anyway, after Shay gave her contribution to the conversation, it was time to listen.

Aww, they were leaving! She didn't want them to leave. Natalie wondered if the professor would let her come visit them again sometime... Though, probably not at night. Did they sleep during the day? Maybe she could just watch them sleep?

"Come on," Natalie whispered to Derf, getting up and tugging him along with her to look at the patterns they made in the grass. She tread carefully around the designs they made and pointed at one. "Look, this one almost looks like a flower," she said, fascinated about a creature for the first time EVER.

Tristan listened and nodded with an appreciative smile at everyone's findings. The different patterns were indeed incredibly interesting and made you question what the meaning behind the patterns were. It was unfortunate they really would never truly know, other than the obvious mating ritual. "Very good everyone! I have been able to observe these crop circle patterns many times of the last year and a half here at Hogwarts, and the patterns are never the same. It is truly amazing to see, and you got to see it first hand!" He thought that was exciting. It was something not many people got to experience. Anyway, back to their final activity!

With a flick of his wand, about 15 Bluebell Flames sprung to life not to far from where they were sitting, lighting up 4 different large containers; One red for Gryffindor, one yellow for Hufflepuff, one blue for Ravenclaw, and one green for Syltherin. It also lit up several smaller buckets and hand shovels. "Alright! Now, I know cleaning up animal poop is not fun at all. I do it every single day." One of the many not so fun parts of his job, but he did it willingly. "So, I decided to make a game out of this instead. There is one container per house. The house with the most Mooncalf dung by the end of 20 minutes, will get a special prize. You will need a bucket, your gloves, and a hand shovel." He looked back at the field for a moment before continuing, "There were about 20 or so Mooncalves, and surprisingly they leave a lot of poop, so any house can be victorious over the others....if they are quick enough." He said with a grin. "At the end of the 20 minutes, we will have a special guest, Professor Myers, who will be coming to collect the dung so he can fertilize all of his magical plants before Sunrise." He paused to look at his watch. It was 20 minutes until 1 in the morning.

"Your time begins.....," He paused lengthening the suspense, "NOW!"




OOC: Sorry for not quoting everyone guys...I am really sick and just wanted to make sure I posted the new activity for you before crashing. Alright, so the activity is pretty easy to understand. I will decide which house wins the prize by which house has the most posts. You have until 11:59 pm EST on the 25th. Have fun with it!!! I need something funny to read while being sick! You may post as many times as you want! There is no limit, but be reasonable. It's going to take a little time to run from the field, fill your buckets, and run back to the containers. If anyone has a question or doesn't understand something about the task you can PM/VM me anytime or if your character has a question put "Professor" in the title of your post! Your time starts now!

Vi had walked over with the rest of the students, whispering quietly to Tenacius every now and then. She didn't wish to scare the mooncalves. With dragonhide gloves in hand, she made her way over to the field, wondering what kind of creatures these mooncalves were. Would they be friendly? Would they not be? She assumed friendly but then again... one could never be sure at such a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

And now she'd have to sit down because soon the mooncalves would be venturing out from their hiding places. As soon as she began to bend down to sit on the carpet, she noticed a creature and then quickly and quietly sat on the ground. With wide eyes, she watched the creatures in awe. What were they doing? Would they start dancing soon? She couldn't take her eyes away from the creatures for she was afraid of losing a moment of watching these majestic creatures.

Olivia now gaped. Okay. This was unfair. These creatures could dance more gracefully than she could. Even though they looked a little odd, there dance moves were a perfect mixture of grace and poise. Beautiful. She brushed a strand of wavy hair behind her ear as she watched the mooncalves pair up and return to their burrows for the rest of the night. A cute courtship? Perhaps so.

It took Vi a moment to realize that Professor Wayland had asked them about what shapes the creatures had made. Oh? Whoops. She had been distracted and wow-ed by the intricate dancing to pay much attention to the shapes that they were forming. She approached one of the designs and pursed her lips, trying to determine what this one looked like. No. She didn't see a flower like others or a elongated circle.... She saw.... a crescent moon? ... or was that just a banana? She blinked her eyes. Crescent shape moon sounded much better. "I see like a crescent moon-esque shape here," she said as she drew out the shape with her finger.

Now Professor Wayland had given them the next challenge. One that involved the houses. Alright. Come on Gryffindor. She was ready for whatever competition or game that Professor Wayland was about to say but she hadn't expected to hear him say that they were going to be cleaning up animal poo. She scrunched her nose. Ew. Not her idea of a fun competition but......

Before she could think of anything else, Professor Wayland had called the start of the competition and Vi slipped on her gloves and headed over to grab a bucket and a shovel. Alright. Where to begin.....?

SPOILER!!: naaaaaaaaaatalie :3

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahlooo

Suddenly, Natalie's hand was warm and she realized Derf had joined her. She held his hand with an excited squeeze and beamed at him before looking back at the little creatures. He would understand just how monumental Natalie finding a creature exciting was. It was a BIG DEAL. "They're so cuuuuuute," she responded in an awestruck whisper. CUTE. Fish were boring. Mooncalves were ADORABLE.

If they were supposed to have put their gloves on, Natalie missed it. She was too busy staring at the bug-eyed creatures. And besides, one of her hands was holding Derf's hand so she was clearly preoccupied. Derf was whispering to her about dung and beans and whatever, but she was too busy watching them. So cute and little with giant eyeballs - aaawwwwwww...

"Wait," she said, looking over at Derf, realizing what he said. "That's gross." Their poop was silver and it turned the BEANS silver? REAL beans? Edible beans? "You don't eat them, do you?" Perhaps this would also be a lesson where Natalie learned what fertilizer was.

Blinking, Derf was not making the connection Natalie was. "Sure you do. We use them in Potions!" he chirped excitedly. "Like...super magical beans...just not like the ones Jack got when he traded in his cow. Hey...that's kinda another connection, come to think of it...moonCALF...Sopophorous BEAN..." His imagination was getting the best of him again. As were his theories. "Wonder...if that's where that part of the muggle story came from..." Glancing back at Natalie, smiling plastered across his face, he quickly took note of her somewhat grossed out features. "The silver juice from the BEAN will remove the drinker's memory...but like...that's only if you drink it RIGHT from the bean...you know...loads of things are SILVER...mooncalf dung...Sopophorous bean juice...unicorn blood...kinda memories in pensives too...a patronus...huh... "

He WAS still watching the mooncalves as they performed their dance - it was hard NOT to watch, you know? Even if part of him kinda felt WEIRD watching something that was...you know...kinda intimate in a way. Just...really special, you know? Like...SUPER special. Which was sort of a subconscious trigger to his squeezing Natalie's hand while a couple of mooncalves performs something sorta like he had seen ballerina's do. Just not with the same sort of elegance that one would expect from unicorns were they able to do the same sort of thing.

SPOILER!!: professor & mooncalves

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suziella

The twenty or so Mooncalves danced their intricate dances for a good fifteen minutes. Though the sweet creatures might look a little funny, they were so incredibly graceful! He always enjoyed watching the unique movements they would make. Sometimes they even looked like they would make wonderful ballerinas! It was enchanting and so fascinating, he was sure even the most horrible person in the universe would still love these cute little guys. Soon enough, the Mooncalves set their front feet back on the ground, and went off in pairs back into the their burrow.

As soon as the last pair was no longer visible, Tristan stood and faced the group. "So how was that huh? Really interesting right?" He said with a grin. "Now lets go look at the shapes! Make a mental note of what you see in the shapes and come back and share when you are done investigating! After that we have one more activity to do! Do not touch the poop! It's easily visible as it is silver. So, please leave it alone." For now at least. He clapped his hands together once, "Off you go!" He shooed them.

OOC: Alright! You all are doing awesome! This is now stage 3 of the mini activity! So what you need to do is have your charrie go out into the hay field and check out the patterns or crop circles that the Mooncalves have left, and then come back and share what you saw with the group. Everyone's crop circles should be different. No two are alike, so make it as creative as you want it to be and post as much as you want! For those that want/need to catch up you may do so! You have until Tomorrow at midnight EST to get this part done before we move on to the final activity!

Interesting was an UNDERSTATEMENT, professor. Derf was nodding his head eagerly along with the man's words and his bright blues practically glowed like the full moon above them when he heard that they were able to go and take a closer look at the very SPOT all the mooncalves had been dancing on.

AWESOME!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahlooo

Aww, they were leaving! She didn't want them to leave. Natalie wondered if the professor would let her come visit them again sometime... Though, probably not at night. Did they sleep during the day? Maybe she could just watch them sleep?

"Come on," Natalie whispered to Derf, getting up and tugging him along with her to look at the patterns they made in the grass. She tread carefully around the designs they made and pointed at one. "Look, this one almost looks like a flower," she said, fascinated about a creature for the first time EVER.

She did NOT have to say that twice. Derf had already been practically hopping to his feet the moment the professor gave the signal, meeting Natalie half way. While she was careful, Derf was anything but. He just wanted to get into the mix of things and see EVERYTHING. Which sorta also meant that he wasn't entirely taking anything in, like design, and paused a moment to kneel down and pluck one of the bent pieces of hay to pocket as a keepsake for the evening.

"Huh?" he grunted, turning to look at where Natalie was pointing. "A flower?" He turned his head slightly to look at it...and then the other...and then around again. "I....guess it does...but they make more geometric patterns...not like....OBVIOUS shapes..." Which had him kinda confused on some of his classmates and such. Projecting meaning? Maybe. "But...if you kinda take a step back..." he nodded, tugging her along as he did and seeing that the one isolated 'flower' was repeated a few times. "It KINDA does look like that!" Natalie had been right. He had just been looking at part of it. "Maybe it's supposed to be a moonflower."

SPOILER!!: professor & mooncalves again :3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suziella

Tristan listened and nodded with an appreciative smile at everyone's findings. The different patterns were indeed incredibly interesting and made you question what the meaning behind the patterns were. It was unfortunate they really would never truly know, other than the obvious mating ritual. "Very good everyone! I have been able to observe these crop circle patterns many times of the last year and a half here at Hogwarts, and the patterns are never the same. It is truly amazing to see, and you got to see it first hand!" He thought that was exciting. It was something not many people got to experience. Anyway, back to their final activity!

With a flick of his wand, about 15 Bluebell Flames sprung to life not to far from where they were sitting, lighting up 4 different large containers; One red for Gryffindor, one yellow for Hufflepuff, one blue for Ravenclaw, and one green for Syltherin. It also lit up several smaller buckets and hand shovels. "Alright! Now, I know cleaning up animal poop is not fun at all. I do it every single day." One of the many not so fun parts of his job, but he did it willingly. "So, I decided to make a game out of this instead. There is one container per house. The house with the most Mooncalf dung by the end of 20 minutes, will get a special prize. You will need a bucket, your gloves, and a hand shovel." He looked back at the field for a moment before continuing, "There were about 20 or so Mooncalves, and surprisingly they leave a lot of poop, so any house can be victorious over the others....if they are quick enough." He said with a grin. "At the end of the 20 minutes, we will have a special guest, Professor Myers, who will be coming to collect the dung so he can fertilize all of his magical plants before Sunrise." He paused to look at his watch. It was 20 minutes until 1 in the morning.

"Your time begins.....," He paused lengthening the suspense, "NOW!"




OOC: Sorry for not quoting everyone guys...I am really sick and just wanted to make sure I posted the new activity for you before crashing. Alright, so the activity is pretty easy to understand. I will decide which house wins the prize by which house has the most posts. You have until midnight EST on the 25th. Have fun with it!!! I need something funny to read while being sick! You may post as many times as you want! There is no limit, but be reasonable. It's going to take a little time to run from the field, fill your buckets, and run back to the containers. If anyone has a question or doesn't understand something about the task you can PM/VM me anytime or if your character has a question put "Professor" in the title of your post! Your time starts now!

Hurrying back with Natalie to where the professor was standing, he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. They were going to collect mooncalf dung. Grinning as he turned his head to look at Natalie, he couldn't help the sense of irony about the whole thing. They had first met over exploding kneazle feces (his fault) and now Natalie had found an appreciation for creatures (his doing also) AND they were going to be collecting feces. Again.

"I'll get our buckets and stuff," he beamed, letting go of her hand to do just that and returning promptly - although only with one shovel for her. He was going to work with his hands mostly. It was the only way to take in the whole experience, you know? Plus he had his gloves still soooooooo.

"Let's go!" he chirped, grabbing her hand again and dragging her back towards the flower pattern area they had been earlier. He got that it was a competition but right now he was sorta more interested in sharing the whole experience with Natalie. It was like...a really REALLY big thing that she was all doe eyed over a creature, you know?

It was SUPER easy to spot the mooncalf dung given its reflective surface and all in the moonlight, so Derf was quickly bending over and scooping up some with his BARE hand to start and dropping it in his bucket. "That's interesting..." he mused, rubbing his fingers together to take in the texture of the dung between them.

Text Cut: Derf!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Blinking, Derf was not making the connection Natalie was. "Sure you do. We use them in Potions!" he chirped excitedly. "Like...super magical beans...just not like the ones Jack got when he traded in his cow. Hey...that's kinda another connection, come to think of it...moonCALF...Sopophorous BEAN..." His imagination was getting the best of him again. As were his theories. "Wonder...if that's where that part of the muggle story came from..." Glancing back at Natalie, smiling plastered across his face, he quickly took note of her somewhat grossed out features. "The silver juice from the BEAN will remove the drinker's memory...but like...that's only if you drink it RIGHT from the bean...you know...loads of things are SILVER...mooncalf dung...Sopophorous bean juice...unicorn blood...kinda memories in pensives too...a patronus...huh... "

He WAS still watching the mooncalves as they performed their dance - it was hard NOT to watch, you know? Even if part of him kinda felt WEIRD watching something that was...you know...kinda intimate in a way. Just...really special, you know? Like...SUPER special. Which was sort of a subconscious trigger to his squeezing Natalie's hand while a couple of mooncalves performs something sorta like he had seen ballerina's do. Just not with the same sort of elegance that one would expect from unicorns were they able to do the same sort of thing.

Interesting was an UNDERSTATEMENT, professor. Derf was nodding his head eagerly along with the man's words and his bright blues practically glowed like the full moon above them when he heard that they were able to go and take a closer look at the very SPOT all the mooncalves had been dancing on.

AWESOME!


She did NOT have to say that twice. Derf had already been practically hopping to his feet the moment the professor gave the signal, meeting Natalie half way. While she was careful, Derf was anything but. He just wanted to get into the mix of things and see EVERYTHING. Which sorta also meant that he wasn't entirely taking anything in, like design, and paused a moment to kneel down and pluck one of the bent pieces of hay to pocket as a keepsake for the evening.

"Huh?" he grunted, turning to look at where Natalie was pointing. "A flower?" He turned his head slightly to look at it...and then the other...and then around again. "I....guess it does...but they make more geometric patterns...not like....OBVIOUS shapes..." Which had him kinda confused on some of his classmates and such. Projecting meaning? Maybe. "But...if you kinda take a step back..." he nodded, tugging her along as he did and seeing that the one isolated 'flower' was repeated a few times. "It KINDA does look like that!" Natalie had been right. He had just been looking at part of it. "Maybe it's supposed to be a moonflower."


Hurrying back with Natalie to where the professor was standing, he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. They were going to collect mooncalf dung. Grinning as he turned his head to look at Natalie, he couldn't help the sense of irony about the whole thing. They had first met over exploding kneazle feces (his fault) and now Natalie had found an appreciation for creatures (his doing also) AND they were going to be collecting feces. Again.

"I'll get our buckets and stuff," he beamed, letting go of her hand to do just that and returning promptly - although only with one shovel for her. He was going to work with his hands mostly. It was the only way to take in the whole experience, you know? Plus he had his gloves still soooooooo.

"Let's go!" he chirped, grabbing her hand again and dragging her back towards the flower pattern area they had been earlier. He got that it was a competition but right now he was sorta more interested in sharing the whole experience with Natalie. It was like...a really REALLY big thing that she was all doe eyed over a creature, you know?

It was SUPER easy to spot the mooncalf dung given its reflective surface and all in the moonlight, so Derf was quickly bending over and scooping up some with his BARE hand to start and dropping it in his bucket. "That's interesting..." he mused, rubbing his fingers together to take in the texture of the dung between them.

Still on the discussion of the silver poop turning beans silver, Natalie listened to what Derf was explaining... She got lost when he started talking about some cow that got traded in by some bloke named Jack. Definitely lost. But she picked it back up when he started talking about more silver things. She supposed it was alright, then, if it was used in potions, but it was still a little FUNNY. "Well, as long as all the other silver things don't smell like poop..." Then she would be fine.

After looking at the patterns in the grass, Natalie listened to the instructions for the activity and couldn't help but laugh a little, also sensing the irony. Their friendship started with poop in their first year. Of course, she didn't WANT to be friends with him when he flung kneazle poop everywhere, but that changed eventually. And look at them now! Collecting mooncalf poop together!

"Thank you," Natalie said with a beaming smile as she took the shovel from Derf. She was not surprised at all that he was going to be doing the scooping with his hands. At least he was wearing gloves--

"Derf!" Natalie exclaimed suddenly. She was about to scoop some silver poo when she saw that he grabbed some with his BARE HANDS! "You're supposed to wear gloves!" That's why they BROUGHT THEM. And while poop was gross, she did find this rather funny, not taking the "race" very seriously just yet because she was still rather in fascination mode about this mooncalf business.

Okay, so this was all so very interesting, but why did they have to observe crop circle patterns when there was no interpretation for them? Just amazing to see?! More like pointless. If there was one thing she learned from Arithmancy and Divination studies over the last few years it was that shapes ALWAYS meant something.

But enough thoughts of that, because it seemed like they were moving onto another activity portion. Cleaning up poop! Quickly jotting down a mental note to consult her textbooks - or library books if necessary - about the meanings of the crop circles, the fifth year donned her glovers and picked up a smaller bucket and a hand shovel. Actually, Professor Wayland, cleaning up animal poop is quite exciting; number one on her bucket list of things do at half past midnight #sarcasmmaybe. But it wasn't half bad and at least it made it some worthwhile, since he had no interpretative meanings in regards to the crop circles.

Before she could start though, the fifth year heard an exclamation from her younger housemate and turned to look at where Natalie and Derf were working. Wait, what? WHY was Derf not wearing gloves and scooping it with his bare hands?! Did he not get the memo about what shovels were used for? Weird.

Shrugging it off, because Natalie had already called him out on it, Skylar went over to scoop poop into her bucket. Lots of poop, like until there was a mound piled above the rim. Yes, she probably didn't have to fill the pail that much, but it'd be a good arm workout and as a Quidditch Beater, it was perfectly necessary. Now to lug it over to the Slytherin container and do it all over again.

Patrick looked at Skylar and the other Slytherin's near him, he dramatically pulled his gloves on and grabbed his bucket and hand shovel. "Let's do this Slytherin!" he went forward and tried to grab some of the poop in his shovel. He couldn't believe how much poop these little creatures created.

"Man there is so much poop right now. Hope Professor Meyers is prepared." He mumbled under his breath as he shoveled the poop into the bucket. It wasn't as bad as some of the stalls he had mucked when his family lived in Kentucky. As the bucket piled up he would test the weight to ensure he would be able to get back to the Slytherin bucket without leaving a trail.

"One more scoop," he mumbled while sloping the last shovel full in the bucket. He grabbed the handle and quickly started walking toward the Slythering bucket at the other side of the field hoping that they would get the most amount of poop. "Wow, never thought I'd be running around worried about getting the most poop."

So they were going to collect poop now, which was completely predictable. But Olly didn’t mind. The poop had magical properties and would help plants grow. And Professor Myers was going to come? That was exciting. And since there was a competition Olly wa excited about that too because he was a very competitive person. And he wanted to win. He also kind of wanted the professor to answer the question he hadn’t really but kind of asked before. He knew the mooncalf dung helped magical plants grow, but still wasn’t sure if it also worked on muggle plants. He’d ask later. For now he had a competition to win.

Olly pulled on his gloves so he wouldn’t get poop on his hand. Because that would probably smell bad. He also grabbed a little bucket and a shovel to help collect easier. He ran out into the field and scooped some poop into the bucket. He brought that back to the Slytherin bucket and dumped it in.

“Nice job Patrick,” he encouraged the younger boy with a smile.

SPOILER!!: Natalie <33

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahlooo

Still on the discussion of the silver poop turning beans silver, Natalie listened to what Derf was explaining... She got lost when he started talking about some cow that got traded in by some bloke named Jack. Definitely lost. But she picked it back up when he started talking about more silver things. She supposed it was alright, then, if it was used in potions, but it was still a little FUNNY. "Well, as long as all the other silver things don't smell like poop..." Then she would be fine.

After looking at the patterns in the grass, Natalie listened to the instructions for the activity and couldn't help but laugh a little, also sensing the irony. Their friendship started with poop in their first year. Of course, she didn't WANT to be friends with him when he flung kneazle poop everywhere, but that changed eventually. And look at them now! Collecting mooncalf poop together!

"Thank you," Natalie said with a beaming smile as she took the shovel from Derf. She was not surprised at all that he was going to be doing the scooping with his hands. At least he was wearing gloves--

"Derf!" Natalie exclaimed suddenly. She was about to scoop some silver poo when she saw that he grabbed some with his BARE HANDS! "You're supposed to wear gloves!" That's why they BROUGHT THEM. And while poop was gross, she did find this rather funny, not taking the "race" very seriously just yet because she was still rather in fascination mode about this mooncalf business.

"I know," Derf nodded with a grin as he looked up and over at Natalie when she reminded him about the gloves. "But...I've never been up close with FRESH mooncalf dung before. Just always the stuff that comes in packages for gardening and stuff that mum buys...so this is kinda...you know...an OPPORTUNITY," he continued to explain while rubbing and smushing the dung between his fingers. "You know...for something silver in color...it isn't as smooth as you would think given the metallic color." Fascinating. Honestly.

Wiping his hand on his trousers, Derf NOW slipped on his gloves and continued filling his bucket with the dung.

"Did I tell you about how Peeves left hippogriff dung in all our beds start of term?" he asked nonchalantly as he filled his bucket all the way up to the brim. "He put them in baggies and stuff. Also SUPER good fertilizer...more expensive than mooncalf dung though...but not as neat looking."

Bending at the knees, Derf lifted his bucket and hugged it to his chest. Holy Scamander this was kinda heavy. "Ready to bring yours over?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at her as he started hobbling his way over to the containers...only he wasn't sure WHICH one was the yellow one for Hufflepuff so he stopped shot and balanced the bucket on his lifted leg so he could ruffle his hair.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer....

THERE WAS NO WAY HE WAS DOING THIS!!!


Eddie just looked at the man with complete disbelieve. Wait until his uncle heard about this. They were doing common ground keeper duties. If this school was too cheap to pay someone to be the groundskeeper anymore, that was their problem NOT HIS! Also, why was it that no one seemed to remember they had wands and magic, why were they doing it the muggle way? Why were people so in love with those weird groups?

"Professor why wouldn't we just use our wands to clean it up? Isn't there a spell that we could use to get it in the bucket or even better straight to the greenhouses?"
There had to be something they could do without going around doing some lame clean up.


.... though if he did help clean it up he could probably snatch some for himself. Hmm that might make it worth his time.

Mooncalves were mesmerizing, really. Emmeline hadn't had much occasion to use (or even think of) that word before, but it was definitely the best way to describe the graceful, intricate steps that the adorable mooncalves were taking right in front of them. The mooncalves themselves were realllly cute, with huge, bulging blue eyes and hair (not fur, right?) that seemed to shimmer a bit in the moonlight. They seemed like...bursting with magic to the twelve-year-old, like they embodied some sort of super special spell that entranced observers that only the mooncalves could control. Or like they danced to some secret music of their own that everyone else couldn't hear.

The second year's mouth turned down into a slight frown as the mooncalves began to leave; she wanted to watch them for ages and ages. She had just reluctantly turned her attention back to the professor in time to hear his next set of instructions; looking at patterns that the mooncalves had made sounded fairly interesting, so the Gryffindor lost no time in traipsing out to the area where the creatures had captivated her only a few minutes before. She was careful to dodge the silver dung, which was scattered around like land mines, until she stopped and crouched down by a pattern that caught her eye. The crop circle that she'd chosen looked like two crescent moons sort of forming a circle between them; they faced each other and touched at the tips. Emmeline wondered idly what the mooncalves thought about when they danced in strange patterns like this, or if their own special set of instincts and magic guided them completely.

And then came the next part of the assignment: collecting dung. Emmeline scrunched up her nose, 'cause dung was kinda gross and she preferred getting rid of it using cleaning spells and stuff. Cleaning up after Sirius over the summer holidays without magic had been bad enough, and she realllly wasn't looking forward to getting closer to the stinky messes when she could use magic and stuff. Still, the second year gamely donned her dragon-hive gloves, collected a shovel-like tool and a bucket, and set off into the minefield of dung. At least this time she was removing the "mines" instead of just trying to awkwardly dodge them. Plus, she did like helping Professor Wayland look after creatures in lessons and such, even if this wasn't the best-smelling way of doing it. The twelve-year-old was soon super grateful for the bluebell flames that the professor had cast all over the place, especially when she went to dump her first bucketful into the red Gryffindor bucket before trudging back out there...

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"I know," Derf nodded with a grin as he looked up and over at Natalie when she reminded him about the gloves. "But...I've never been up close with FRESH mooncalf dung before. Just always the stuff that comes in packages for gardening and stuff that mum buys...so this is kinda...you know...an OPPORTUNITY," he continued to explain while rubbing and smushing the dung between his fingers. "You know...for something silver in color...it isn't as smooth as you would think given the metallic color." Fascinating. Honestly.

Wiping his hand on his trousers, Derf NOW slipped on his gloves and continued filling his bucket with the dung.

"Did I tell you about how Peeves left hippogriff dung in all our beds start of term?" he asked nonchalantly as he filled his bucket all the way up to the brim. "He put them in baggies and stuff. Also SUPER good fertilizer...more expensive than mooncalf dung though...but not as neat looking."

Bending at the knees, Derf lifted his bucket and hugged it to his chest. Holy Scamander this was kinda heavy. "Ready to bring yours over?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at her as he started hobbling his way over to the containers...only he wasn't sure WHICH one was the yellow one for Hufflepuff so he stopped shot and balanced the bucket on his lifted leg so he could ruffle his hair.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer....

Oh, he was picking up poop with his bare hands intentionally. She really shouldn't have been surprised. Derf loved creatures too much, almost. It was amusing.. but also a little gross. And the scrunching up of her face showed that. Yeah, the fact that it was silver was interesting, but not THAT interesting. "Yeah... fascinating." Ish.

Digging the shovel into the poo piles, Natalie scooped up big piles of silver sludge and dumped it into the bucket she had. She found another pile and did the same. "Eeew, he did?" Peeves was ANNOYING, but that was just gross! "He just annoys us and steals our nighties." Rude, really.

After a few more shovel-fulls, Natalie's bucket was full of silver dung. "You know, it doesn't smell as bad as most poop does. Kneazle poop smells much worse." And she had a face full of that in the first year. Natalie looked up and saw Derf picking up his bucket. "Yup," she replied and picked up her bucket with a little grunt. Merlin, poop was heavy. As she started to heave the bucket back to the finish line, Natalie noticed Derf raising his hand for his signature hair-ruffle...

"DON'T GET POOP IN YOUR HAIR!" she squealed, trying to run with her bucket and subsequently sloshing poop out the side of her bucket and onto her robes.

... ew.

Tristan sighed and folded his arms across his chest. Of course Eddie didn't want to follow directions. He shouldn't be surprised by his reaction to the task at all.

With a small smile, and a patient tone Tristan turned to Eddie, "Of course there is a spell to clean it up, but we aren't cleaning it up. If we use that spell it would completely disappear and we don't want that." He said shaking his head. "We are harvesting it so that Professor Myers can use it before the sun comes up. I am sure you were paying attention all through out the lesson and heard not only myself, but your classmates say that Mooncalf dung is one of the best fertilizers for magical plants." Actually, he was pretty sure Eddie hadn't been listening. "It is highly sought after and rare fertilizer. So, we don't just want to get rid of it. Of course there are charms that can get it into the bucket as well, but some of your classmates may use those as a chance to fling it at each other, and that would be an extreme waste and would cause a lot of people to have detention." He said with a pointed look.

He continued with an even more patient tone, "Therefore, buckets and hand shovels it is. It's not like you have to pick it up with your bare hands. And seeing as I know you like to experiment on things, if you do the task, as I told Jessa, I may let you take some." Instead of being sneaky and stealing. Tristan wouldn't put it past the young man to do it. He watched him very carefully at the Salamander lesson. He had that gleam in his eye. "If you chose not to participate, however, and your house wins, you will not receive the prize." And of course, would lose participation points. But that was his choice. He wasn't going to force the young man to do anything he didn't want to do. He just wouldn't reap the benefits either.



Tristan moved closer to the containers so that he could see their progress. He folded his arms, and grinned watching everyone running around with buckets of poop. He hadn't noticed at all that Derfael had picked up the poop with his hands. The young man was kind of out of site at the moment. He did notice, however, that Natalie had just sloshed poo all down her front. "Scorgify, Natalie! Scorgify!" He called out, holding back a chuckle. Tristan looked down at his watch to check the time. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, "5 minutes have passed! You have 15 minutes!"


OOC: You all are doing great!! Keep it up! You have until the 25th at 11:59 pm EST! So a little shy of 48 hours!

Etta followed her classmates over to examine the crop circles. She missed the dancing mooncalves already but anywaaaay, she tried to focus. Hmm.. she squinted, tilting her head slightly, to figure out the shape. Once she kind of knew what she was looking at, the girl raised a hand. “It seems to be in the shape of the letter ‘s’.... I think? I’m not exactly sure.” At least, that’s what it looked like. The light wasn’t exactly sufficient for her to tell what it was anyway. And obviously, she wasn’t going to touch the poop. Not when she wasn’t wearing gloves. Heh.

... but they were to be cleaning poop. Great. And the professor made it into the a game of sorts, thankfully. The prefect enjoyed these kind of activities. They kind of made classes more fun, didn’t they? She quickly put on her gloves, grabbed a bucket and carefully started to scoop the mooncalf dung into the bucket.

She could hear someone complaining about having to collect dung and wondered who it was but the Hufflepuff was busy with her task. She wanted her house to win, after all. Heh. This was fun!

Well that was just gross and Eddie made a face.
Why would anyone want to throw it at anyone. He wasn't that sort of student that was for sure. He kept to himself and didn't tell anyone his plans so he had a very puzzled look when the professor made it out to know he experimented on things, but unless he was a mind reader he couldn't really have known that. There was the chance though that Professor were really going through their personal things and someone got ahold of his notebook.

Taking a quick reach into his robe he made sure it was stashed in it's usual spot and it was, so yeah he couldn't see how the professor would know anything about him really. The most he knew was Eddie didn't keep friends, didn't truly listen in class, and passed things by a point or so just to keep his mother and the other adults out of his business.

"I still think if there was a harvest spell that it would be easier for everyone and better for the dung to be placed right in the greenhouse than all these steps that could break it down or contaminate it." Though could you contaminate dung?

Professor man might have caught his attention with keeping it but again how would he even know Eddie wanted to keep it? The dung he had in his room he had gotten from Peeves and he rarely went near the stables. He knew when kidnapping animals to test on to grab random from the castle, not come and touch a barn full of animals.

Picking up the bucket and shovel he went to the field, though he might not come back with much of anything, because he still wasn't all about this.

Well, one bucket down. It was a bit odd to be shoveling poop up and trying to compete but if there was one thing Patrick hated, it was losing. With the poop from the first bucket gone he started back toward the poop. His feet slipped beneath him and for a second he thought he might go face first into the stuff. His arms flailed a bit before he corrected himself. "phew" he began to shovel the poop into the bucket looking up to see if his housemates had continued to work toward the goal of winning.

Did he know the prize? Absolutely not but why not win when there's a chance to be a winner? With the bucket full again, he set off toward the Slytherin bucket. He dumped the bucket and looked at the others around him gauging just how much poop they had actually cleaned up, "feels like were getting no where, maybe thats just cause I don't really know how much there was." he mumbled trying to encourage himself to go back in for a third bucket.

It didn't surprise Tristan that the young man was looking for the easy way out. Most Witches and Wizards that grew up in the Magical Community did. "Well, for this kind of harvesting there isn't, unfortunately." He said with a chuckle. His comment about the dung breaking down or being contaminated made him want to laugh a little more. "Seeing as it is used for fertilizer, it's going to be broken down anyway and...you can't really contaminate dung. But I appreciate your concern on the matter." He grinned and winked at the young man and watched as he walked off and made his way to the field, bucket and hand shovel in tow.

Tristan checked his watch again. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out "You have 10 minutes left!" He grinned watching everyone running around with buckets full of poop. At least they were motivated!




OOC: Alright you have 24 hours to get as many posts in as you can! Good luck!

Ravenclaw wouldn't win. Accepting that was the first step toward getting the dung cleaned off the field at a reasonable pace.

It didn't take a genius to know that the crisp night air, running and load carrying were the perfect way to set her asthma off. That being the case and despite whatever rush to come out on top might have been going on around her, Jessa simply took her bucket and headed for the field at a walk.

There was no urgency in her steps, rather, the young girl looked about as she walked, taking in the look of the grounds with the light of the full moon illuminating her path. It was nice, you know? How calm and peaceful it all sounded at this hour of the night, how even the castle back in the other direction seemed to be asleep. A part of her wanted to find the burrows the mooncalves had crawled back into...to follow behind them and find their lair but with Wayland being so jittery about letting them out onto the grounds at night without supervision and the like, Jessa was sure the man would have a proper heart attack if she suddenly disappeared.

Could she duplicate herself?

Nah...it wouldn't be able to ask questions or display enthusiasm. No thinking on its own. The Professor would see through it in no time.

Discarding the idea, Jessa turned her attention to dung on the floor as she approached. She didn't see the fuss the others were making. Yeah, it was dung...and thus dirty...but that was it. It was just dung.

Only a reallllly strong affection for CoMC and its professor could make Emmeline collect dung of any sort for more than five minutes. Her own creatures or pets weren't subject to that rule, of course, but that was kind of different and stuff. As much as she had loved the mooncalves LOADS, the second year would waaayyy rather let Professor Myers clean up after them if he wanted their dung that badly for his plants, mhm. The second year's hatred of all things Herbology might be costing her some perspective here, but at least she was still doing the activity. Even if she did groan under her breath a little when the professor announced that they still had 10 minutes left.

Gryffindor wasn't likely to win this competition unless her Housemates were working super hard. Emmeline was honestly more focused on the mechanical movements of scooping and dumping silver dung into her bucket thing to notice what most people were doing. She didn't even notice if they was crazy stuff going on with other students or ANYTHING. When faced with an unpleasant task that she still felt like she had to do, the twelve-year-old could attack the task with a fairly single-minded focus if she wanted to. And this time she did want to, 'cause she wanted this field to be allll done and to go check on Sirius in the baby barn before she made the long trek to the bathroom nearest Gryffindor Tower.

Emmeline made 3 more trips to the red bucket to dump all her dung out before plodding back into the field once again. She sort of wondered if levitating the dung would make this go any faster but... Probably not. All that swishing and flicking stuff would take up valuable dung-picking-up time and stuff. As the 10 minutes ticked away, she also half-wondered if she could maybe duck into the nearest barn before Professor Myers showed up. Ever since her detention ages ago, she'd been studiously avoiding the Herbology professor outside of play rehearsals and lessons; she didn't like being on a possible Dark wizard's bad side and stuff. Sighing, the Gryffindor made a 4th trip over to the red bucket and deposited loads of dung in it.

So the dung had to be used the same night it was collected in. Stasya thought that was kind of stupid, but she kept the thought to herself, seeing as the adorable little mooncalves had crept out of their burrows, or whatever their homes were called, to start their dance and she’d been understandably distracted. Actually, this was almost as magical as the appearance of the unicorns in the forest last term, and she’d silently adopted the adorably strange-looking creatures on the spot. It wasn’t weird at all, even if she knew she had way more of a chance at getting a winged horse than she was in actually adopting a mooncalf or a unicorn. That didn’t mean she couldn’t be invested in their wellbeing, and she wondered if they’d actually let her interact with them if she snuck out here on another full moon to watch them again. Maybe. The unicorns had understood she wouldn’t hurt them after all, so she didn’t see why the mooncalves wouldn’t.

The dancing had been over way too soon for the thirteen-year-old, and she’d sighed softly in disappointment as the creatures had returned to their burrow, only glancing over as they’d been instructed to inspect the resulting patterns in the field. She could do that. Definitely. She’d hopped to her feet as smoothly as her long limbs allowed and ventured out into the field with the others and finding her chosen pattern pretty quickly. Describing it proved more difficult, as the closest she’d been able to come to a description was a loopy version of Algiz. Smoother curves than the angular edges of the rune, but that was really what it reminded her of.

The bluebell flames had startled her a little, but she’d been less disappointed by the announcement that they’d be collecting the dung than a lot of the others had seemed to be. Except for the nagging reminder that it was going to be useless once the sun came up, and she hadn’t heard Professor Wayland say they were doing anything with it after they’d collected it. Okay, Professor Myers would be collecting it, but he’d still have to use it awfully quickly. It didn’t seem fair.

But that didn’t change the fact she’d collected a bucket and a shovel and gone back out into the field. She wasn’t going to let her House down, and she’d bent to scoop up the first pile of dung she’d seen. Several more piles later, she had a full bucket and she made her way carefully over to the red container and emptied her bucket. Returning to the field, she’d filled her bucket again and returned to the red container. It was actually kind of boring. Field, dung, container. Field, dung, container. As she’d kept going, filling her bucket for the fourth time, she let her mind wander back to her thoughts of if she could befriend the mooncalves. She still thought it was possible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahlooo

Oh, he was picking up poop with his bare hands intentionally. She really shouldn't have been surprised. Derf loved creatures too much, almost. It was amusing.. but also a little gross. And the scrunching up of her face showed that. Yeah, the fact that it was silver was interesting, but not THAT interesting. "Yeah... fascinating." Ish.

Digging the shovel into the poo piles, Natalie scooped up big piles of silver sludge and dumped it into the bucket she had. She found another pile and did the same. "Eeew, he did?" Peeves was ANNOYING, but that was just gross! "He just annoys us and steals our nighties." Rude, really.

After a few more shovel-fulls, Natalie's bucket was full of silver dung. "You know, it doesn't smell as bad as most poop does. Kneazle poop smells much worse." And she had a face full of that in the first year. Natalie looked up and saw Derf picking up his bucket. "Yup," she replied and picked up her bucket with a little grunt. Merlin, poop was heavy. As she started to heave the bucket back to the finish line, Natalie noticed Derf raising his hand for his signature hair-ruffle...

"DON'T GET POOP IN YOUR HAIR!" she squealed, trying to run with her bucket and subsequently sloshing poop out the side of her bucket and onto her robes.

... ew.

He was glad Natalie agreed. Yes, her reluctance and gentle sarcasm was entirely lost on him at the moment. Far too keen on what he was doing - which at the moment was adding oooooooooooh last scoop of poop to the top of the bucket. "He steals your nighties?" he questioned, blinking at her a few times. "Then what do you sleep in if he does that?"

Her comment about kneazle poop made him laugh and his ears even reddened slightly. "Especially when it explodes," he added sheepishly with a small smile in her direction as he struggled with his bucket a bit. The next thing he knew she was shouting at him about his hair and the Hufflepuff's eyes widened as he turned his head to look at her......and her messy robes. WASTED SECRETIONS!

No...no Derf. Not the comment you should be making at the moment.

"Want me to try?" he offered after hearing the professor's shouted suggestion, setting his bucket down and fishing his wand from his robes. "I'm better with Cleaning Charms now. Been practicing to help Simon...and since I can kinda see the mooncalf dung better." Since she had to look down and stuff. More likely to miss a spot.

Carefully lugging the pail over to the Slytherin container, Skylar was very appreciative of her quidditch training at that moment. It allowed to walk with a big heavy pail of dung without sloshing all over herself. She did take note of how AMAZING Patrick was being in his efforts. She shot him a smile as she dumped her pail number one into the Slytherin container, which was doing quite well.

Onto collect more. Squinting into the distance, it was definitely easy to run away from the containers, as there was no fear of sloshing poo out of the bucket. Squatting down by another pile, she sighed; mooncalves really did secrete a lot, didn't they? Of course, she wasn't sure exactly how many creatures there were, but well, she just hoped Professor Myers would be pleased with this dung.

Scooping it into her pail, again, nice heaving pile, she stood and headed back towards the containers, grateful for the bluebell flames in this dark night sky.

Watching the mooncalves had been fascinating, and rather than answer about the shapes she'd seen them leave during the ritual, Sam had taken a pencil from her robes and starting sketching them on her parchment. There was no way she could capture the size and complexity of the field of patterns left by the whole herd (was that the right term for a group of mooncalves?), but she tended to be a visual learner, so she wanted some sort of record before moving on.

...which they were now doing. And unsurprisingly, it involved collecting the dung the mooncalves had left behind. Sam couldn't help but think of Dora's Uncle Spike, and how much he'd probably love to receive a sample. He had big sacks of all sorts of different dung in his greenhouses, and given how short-lived the use of moon-calf dung was...yeah, she figured he'd be pretty excited by this activity. Not that he'd be awake to receive it even if she could send some on to him...so it was good to know that Myers would be putting it to good use instead. Although, it was going to be a lot of dung for the Herbology professor to use so quickly. Would he take volunteers?

Gloves on and grabbing a bucket and shovel on the way, Sam skipped out into the field. It wasn't even that smelly, although that might have been because it was fresh. Not that it really mattered; she wasn't squeamish about this sort of stuff. Growing up in squalor made everything else pale in comparison.

She stopped about halfway out - not too far to carry a heavy full pail back to the Ravenclaw pile, but far enough that there remained plenty of poop to be collected. And collect she did. Until the bucket was heaving and she barely trusted the handle for carrying it back. No need to take surplus trips, although she did now support underneath the bucket with her other hand. No need to drop it all over the floor before she got it home to be counted. She would have a dull arm ache in the morning though, most likely.

One bucketload safely deposited into the house container. Now to go get some more.

Leave it to Professor Wayland to make an activity out of cleaning up mooncalf poop. Shay had been afraid that there would be some poop gathering involved in the lesson. Her hunch was not wrong. Well, if there was any way to make it "fun", this was it. Being just a tad bit competitive, competition and prize were the only things that Shay needed to hear.

When the game was on, Shay quickly went over and grabbed a bucket and shovel. Then she put her gloves on and made sure that they were secure. Thinking to herself that this was all for the plants and the honor of Gryffindor house, made the task a bit easier to bear. All prepared, Shay ran over to the designated area. Once she reached the spot, she couldn't believe how much sparkly silver poo was in the area. How could those cute little guys have such an enormous amount of.......output? Shay realized that she was wasting time with her thoughts and got straight to work.

Thank goodness they had shovels to work with. Of course Shay had cleaned Coco's poop on a regular basis, but that was her baby. That was different. Bending down, she began to scoop the silver dung and deposit it in her bucket. Over and over she repeated the task, imagining how much it would take to fill the Gryffindor container. Bend and scoop, bend and scoop. This went on until Shay's bucket was full. She didn't want to run back to the bin, lest she lose some of her precious cargo. Instead, she race walked her way back, trying to keep her bucket from jiggling. Finally, Shay dumped her dung into the red container. Now she could run and she did, heading back for more dung.