Fifth Years: Lesson One

Leaning against one of the benches, Angel looked up as his first new fifth years began arriving, pushing his sleeves up and giving them a casual wave as they entered. “Howdy, folks,” he said with a grin, “Welcome to fifth year herbology, I’m Professor Castillo. Hope you got a good rest over the holiday break, it’s gonna be a long year,” Angel said brightly. With several OWL years under his belt now, Angel had found most of his students were more than prepared to tackle these lessons without much prep than him. He'd never been that organized as a student, that was for sure.

“As you're no doubt aware, this is your OWL year, and I’ll do my best to teach you everything you need to know, though it’s important you remember to revise everything else you’ve learnt so far, because funnily enough that is important,” Angel said, resting his palm over his heart to impart how sincere he was. Though if they’d already forgotten their previous four years of classes, there wasn’t much he could do for them at this point. But confidence was key, he didn’t need any OWL related breakdowns in his class yet.

“This year, we’ll be covering how to plant, grow, and cultivate a number of plants like bouncing bulb and puffapods. These handy plants are pretty essential to the Herbology community, Potions, and all the wizarding kind. A lot of are quite pretty, too,” Angel said, twirling his hand as he spoke, looking over his notes. “But let's take advantage of this first week and ease into things and keep things short,” Angel said, hoping to avoid setting himself any grading this semester until he absolutely had to. “Just remember you need at least an A to make it into sixth year classes and you're free to go,” Angel said, dismissing the class with a wave.

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[Fraser Fergusson]

Fraser had enjoyed going home, though now being back at school, and he had so many things to do, and he couldn’t let any of them go wrong. He didn’t want to let anyone down. He couldn’t let anyone down. It was vital that he do well, that he actually manage it. He needed to. Fraser was getting himself ready for the day, he had set some time aside in the mornings to train for quidditch and time in the afternoon to get things set up for accio. He grabbed the last few things he had to and then quickly headed out of the room.

Fraser walked into the herbology greenhouse, a little curious about what exactly they would be doing in this semester of the class. Herbology was interesting and he thought it could get more interesting the more senior a student he was. Fraser took his notes and books out as the professor began telling them what they’d be doing, but it wasn’t a very long lecture. They got a little information and then the professor wrapped things up and dismissed them.

O​

 

[June Davenport]

The break was over again and June knew this second semester of her fifth year was very important. She had been staying at Hogwarts like she usually did. She just wanted to be prepared and it was amazing to have an library almost for herself sometimes when it was quiet. Misha let her do her thing and that was why June decided to be adopted by him for one of the reason, other than him being a professor here. This semester she would get him as her professor and she wondered how he would teach. Also Castillo would be her professor and she couldn't wait, perhaps she was gonna like Herbology after this semester after all. It would be better for sure since she didn't had to face Landon everytime at least.

The blonde made her way to the greenhouse with an big smile on her face, which was not normal back a few years when she arrived in this place. Perhaps her smile would fade, but she would fake to like this class out of her toes, since her head of house teached this. She was certain that he would do better than Landon. And smiled as he started speaking listening to every word he had to say. She made some quick notes of the plants he mentioned, which she already knew since she prepared every class. But it wasn't much information to write down. It was only an introduction and that June didn't mind. Touching the very first plant and dirt again would not make her happy. But thankfully she had her wand and hopefully her skill in magic would work well. After the class she went for an quick chat with her head of house and left afterwards.

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O​

Angel knew his first few lessons with a new round of fifth years would always involve a bit of each sizing each other up but if he had to bet on something, it was that he wasn't going to have any of that sort of issue with June. He was pleased to see that already seemed the case with her as the lesson finished, glad for some reprieve from first week back headaches to have a chat with her before she headed back to the castle.

 

[Bailey Walden-Cade]

For the most part, Bailey had liked Professor Carter so she wasn’t too pleased about having to get a new professor, especially not the Slytherin head of house whom she had never got the best vibe from. She settled into her seat and the man quickly set about reminding them that they were in their O.W.L year. Bailey really didn’t see the point of being reminded, it was the second semester they had had professors doing this since the start of the year, Professor Castillo was telling them things they all already knew. Bailey took a few notes as Professor Castillo informed them what they would be studying during the semester which was how to plant, grow and cultivate certain plants, she assumed he would tell them what plants in subsequent lessons. Once the lesson was over Bailey packed up her notes and made her way out of the classroom.

O​

 

[Hinata Edogawa]

Despite having multiple new professors this year, Hina doesn't think she'll get used to this change. It was weird entering the greenhouse and seeing the Slytherin Head of House instead of her own. Like most of the classes this year, the professor had taken to mentioning the OWLs, which only continued to rub at Hina's already frayed nerves at the thought of the exams. How her cousin had been keeping calm about all of it, she has absolutely no clue. It was apparently going to be a very short lesson. Nevertheless, Hina carefully noted down bouncing bulbs and puffapods to remember to look them up. She was pretty sure she'd done pretty well in the first semester, so she was quite determined to keep it up. As Professor Castillo ended the lesson, she quickly packed her stuff as she mentally reviewed what she'd need to look up in the library or ask Elio about. There would be no use asking Mikael about plants.​

O​

 

[Mikael Nightray]

Mikael entered the Herbology greenhouse with a slight nod to his Head of House. It was going to be weird having the man as his actual professor. His eyes roamed the greenhouse as he went to sit with his cousin, his gaze catching the area housing the screechsnaps, making him glare at the things. His boyfriend, @Elio Boneheart, had told him all about the screechsnap he named Mikael. He considered for a moment if his Head of House would notice one missing plant - never mind that he didn't actually know which one it was. He was finally snapped out of his one-sided glaring competition when the lesson started. Herbology wasn't really Mikael's favorite class, nor will it ever be, but he did acknowledge that it was quite useful to at least know. He didn't know how useful knowing how to cultivate and care for plants would be for him, but a basic knowledge of Herbology until NEWTs could prove to at least be useful. When the professor dismissed them, he headed out with his cousin before going to search for his boyfriend, who would probably be coming out of his own class soon.​

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O​

Between teaching 15-18 year olds for several years and making it through raising two very opinionated tweens, Angel had all but perfected the eyes the back of his head approach to keeping an eye on the class. As such, it was easy enough to catch Mikael staring down the screechsnaps currently snoozing nearby as he addressed the class and smirking to himself.

"Yeah, they're not my favourite plant either," he said in passing as the lesson wrapped up, keeping his voice light enough for any plausible deniability should said plants happen to hear him.