Fifth Years: Lesson Two

The greenhouse was a riot of pink flowers today, which Angel felt was appropriate with all the Valentine’s cheer about the castle this week. He’d always enjoyed puffapods for what they were, which was mostly just pretty and fun over anything particularly challenging, but he hoped the students would at least be entertained by a new plant.

The puffapods were lined up along the benches, along with containers for seeds. Angel indicated for students to stand in front of the pots as they began to arrive.

“Alright guys, pick a plant to stand with, today we’ll be learning about and harvesting puffapods.” Angel indicated to the large pink seedpods near the center of the plants. “See these pods? We’ll be collecting their seeds today, like so,” Angel said, giving a pod from the plant in front of him a quick sharp twist, gratified when it came away from the stem easily so he could hold it up. With some pressure from his thumb, Angel broke the pod open, revealing the shiny seeds inside. "After that just scoop 'em out into your bucket and you're set.

“When I give the okay, you’ll start harvesting your own puffapod, but try to be gentle with the seeds, they’re a bit volatile. For example, if you would?” Angel said, walking around with his harvested seeds to show the class, and coming to stop in front of one of the students. “Go ahead and throw a few of these onto the table, would you?” He offered, eager for a fun demonstration. When the student dropped the seeds, they readily burst into large flowers. “It’s a lot of fun, but try to refrain from wasting too many if you can,” he said, nodding encouragingly to one of the students who reached out to investigate the newly flowered seeds.

“Alright, go ahead and get harvesting. Once your plant’s all harvested, bring me the seeds and you’re free to go I’ll give a few extra points to whomever thinks they’ve gotten the most, but you’re welcome to take any flowers you end up with as well. Happy Valentine's,” Angel said, putting away his remaining seeds and settling at the front of the class to observe.

-----
RP the lesson. Extra house points awarded to the first poster to claim they’ve harvested the most. First poster is also welcome to be the volunteer seed thrower.

 

[Savannah Walters]

Savannah was in two minds about the upcoming valentines dance. She knew that she wanted to go to it, that she wanted a night to have fun, to wear a pretty dress and feel good, but she also wanted to focus on her revision and knew that she didn’t feel attraction to people, so she got little out of going. The ravenclaw knew she had a little bit to decide what she was going to do, but not a lot of time. She didn’t want to leave it to last minute though, since she knew that would just end up with her not studying enough or being late and not feeling great at the dance. She grabbed the last bits and pieces she needed for the day and then headed out to class.

Savannah walked into the herbology greenhouse and took the same spot in the room as the week before. She glanced up at the professor and then to puffapod and the large pink seed. She rolled her eyes, sure that he’d pink because it was valentines day. Sure if it was halloween they’d be orange somehow. She watched as the professor demonstrated it and then showed them what happened when one was dropped. Savannah got started, not struggling too much with it, it wasn’t too hard to be slow and delicate, at least the professor wasn’t making them pair up to do it. She worked away, harvesting the seeds until she was done and able to bring them to the front. She didn’t have the most, but she didn’t have the least and she’d only dropped one.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory didn’t want to leave the dorm. The dorm was nice, warm and safe. He didn’t want to think about Snow, or Cassius or anyone else. His dorm-mates by in large left him alone and he just wanted to be left alone. He just wanted to be alone. The teen didn’t want to go to classes, he knew he was going to fail, so there was really so little merit in him going. The teen did eventually get up, and he did eventually get himself ready for class but at the pace he went he knew he was sure to be late, which would suck because if he was, everyone would look at him, and more so that being left alone, he needed to not be noticed.

Gregory headed into the herbology greenhouse and took a spot at the back of the greenhouse. He didn’t even notice the amount of pink about the place. He just looked at the desk in front of him, pillowing his head in his arms. He only briefly glanced up as the professor began speaking, and this was a mistake, as they were actually doing something. Gregory had missed the demonstration, and had to watch as others did it before he could try. He did his best, but Gregory did drop a good number. His fingers shook and he wasn’t able to get the right grip that everyone else was getting. He left the room at the end of the lesson, just glad it was over.

 

[Cassius Styx]

Cassius Styx strolled into the greenhouse, his eyes immediately narrowing at the sight of the pink puffapods. The riot of color clashed with his usual Slytherin green aesthetic, but he masked his distaste with a smirk as he scanned the setup. He picked a plant to stand by, not bothering to hide his lack of enthusiasm. Professor Castillo let them know that they were going over puffapods. That was ridiculous. They were stupid, but whatever. When the professor approached with his handful of seeds and asked a student to demonstrate, Cass suppressed a smirk. The seeds burst into large flowers upon impact with the table, and he raised an eyebrow.

That seemed lazy. As the class dispersed to start harvesting, Cass took his time, handling the pods with a practiced ease. With a precise twist, he extracted the seeds efficiently, depositing them into his bucket with a calculated flick of his wrist. Soon enough, he was finished, and turned in his seeds. He had dropped a few a couple of times, so there were a few big flowers around his station. Once they were free to go, he grabbed a couple of that had fallen to give to his girlfriend. It counted, right?​

 

[Ruto Vernier-Raison]

The first week back of classes weren’t really different to what Roo expected them to be, even with the added pressure of it being her OWL year. The professors kept reminding them that this year would be difficult, but truthfully Ruto did not believe them. The only thing that would make the year difficult was if they let the burden of classes and homework get to them. At the end of the day, Ruto knew that her grades weren’t going to reflect her future. She simply followed her classmates to wherever she had to be, keen for them to be over.

Roo entered the Herbology greenhouse, positioning herself in front of one of the puffapods as instructed. They would be harvesting its pods today. The teen watched as the professor demonstrated what would happen if one were to drop. She expected it to explode or something to go wrong, but instead it was a pleasant surprise. Roo thought the flowers were very pretty. She purposefully dropped almost every pod she harvested so that she could eventually make a bouquet of flowers for herself. This would be her only Valentine's gift. The teen happily thanked the professor at the end of the lesson before heading back to the castle.