First Years, Lesson Five

"Hello all! I am sure that everyone enjoyed your pumpkins from last lesson." Trina smiled around at them all, knowing that she had enjoyed them herself last night with some potato mash. "We are going into the Forbidden Forest and gathering our next project. We will be supplying mistletoe." Mistletoe had many magical properties that Trina did not know about until reading up on it. Despite this, it was the closest thing to muggle plants that he would be teaching about and was excited for it nonetheless. "It is for the Yule Ball, so we will have plenty of it.

"Whether or not you all are accustomed to this weather, we should get going." Trina put her gloves on. "Grab your gloves, pruning shears, and a bag." Trina handed each student a small burlap tote bag and walked outside, hoping the others would follow. She wondered whether or not they would see a creature, however, they weren't going far into the forest anyway and it wasn't like they were in any danger.

SHe stopped at the path. "You'll notice along this path the many bushes and trees. Mistletoe is parasitic, believe it or not. Birds carry their seeds and they grow on bushes and trees. Perceive the clump of mistletoe around us. What you will do is put on your gloves, and get out your pruning shears and clip off the sprigs so they'll fit your bags." Trina demonstrated, and soon after they started, they had full bags.

The professor led them back out of the forest and to the greenhouse. She set her bag down on the trestle table. "Now, we shall take the strips we've acquired and snip off the mistletoe with their leaves. See how the berries grow in groups together, with the leaves surrounding them. Cut them like this." SHe verified, where the berries and leaves were all still connected. "And there you have it," SHe waved her hand and the sprig hovered a bit in the air, "a sprig of mistletoe. Get started, and you should have them all done by the end of class. I expect you to throw your scraps into that barrel for the compost heap. Then place your mistletoe in that large trough over there, where I'll cure it and add something else to it. They'll soak there until the ball, when they'll be ready to be hung up. You may leave."

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Assignment: RP lesson, it doesn't matter what you do. You may godmod me (to a certain extent and to where I would still sound like myself). Include a picture of mistletoe for extra credit.[/FONT][/B]

 

[Henri Fontaine]

Henri walked into the herbology classroom, he had been skipping herbology a lot, it was just boring. He had been brought to the class by his sister and walked in with a rll of his eyes, but this seemed to be a good lesson to join for as they were heading into the forest, and he liked that idea a lot. Henri followed the rest of the class into the woods, and then to where they were to pick mistletoe, but Henri couldn’t claim that he paid much attention to that, he snipped off some, but he spent more of the time looking at the various little creatures that he could. They were all so cool. He was so disappointed when the professor brought them back to the school.

 

[Daisuke Kaster]

Even though it was the same professor as last time, Daisuke wondered if she'd ever introduce herself to them. He would have to admit though that he didn't quite trust her considering she was bringing them to the Forbidden Forest. The place was supposed to be forbidden, and he wasn't quite sure he was comfortable with the idea of going there even with a professor. Well, especially since it was only just one professor. And one they didn't even really know at that. He couldn't help but feel on edge even as he accepted the tools they would be using today. Following the professor into the forest, Daisuke stuck close to the group, listening for any unusual sounds. His heart skipped a beat when he thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, but it turned out to be just a bird. As they stopped along the path, he paid close attention to the demonstration. The clusters of mistletoe were easier to spot than he had expected, so it was easy to start snipping a sprig of mistletoe to put into his bag. He was careful to stick closely with the group and not stray too far, and every now and then he'd get distracted by some noise or the other. Even so, by the time the professor called them to head back, his bag was more than half-full and Daisuke was perfectly happy with that.​

 

[Julian Nightray]

Julian entered the Greenhouse, looking in interest as the same woman was present for today's class. He was curious about the day's activity. They'd been told that going to the Forbidden Forest was... well... forbidden. But apparently it was allowed for classes? That was certainly interesting. Especially since they were going to the Forest for something as mundane as mistletoe for the upcoming Yule Ball. One that Julian wasn't really particularly planning to attend. Still, he followed the rest of the class as they made it to the Forest, tools in hand for harvesting mistletoe. When they stopped, he listened closely to the professor's instructions before wandering off to find one he could harvest. The area was brimming with them so it was easy enough to locate a clump on a low-hanging branch. It was easy to get into the rhythm of work - clipping and gathering - that by the time they were told they needed to go back, Julian had a nearly full bag of mistletoe. Well, that was certainly an interesting lesson.​

 

[Angelo Dela Cruz]

Angelo could not believe how cool the substitute teacher was. In his old school, they would never be allowed to go to places that they weren't allowed to go to. But this teacher could take them into the Forbidden Forest! Which was awesome. He'd never been before because they said it was forbidden but it they were going there for a class then how bad could it be? Besides, he heard that they had centaurs there! And well, the tikbalang in his country were scary but the one in the forest wouldn't be a tikbalang, instead, it'd be the total opposite! So it was definitely going to be awesome. Hopefully, they get to see one. It was hard to focus on the class with all the excitement but at least he'd managed to grab everything he needed and stay with the group instead of wandering around to explore. It was very tempting, but he supposed they still had school activities to do. He could always go back to the Forest at a different time now that he knew it wasn't really forbidden. He wondered if someone named Forbidden discovered the forest. That would explain everything really. After the professor explained and demonstrated how to gather mistletoe, it was now time for Angelo to gather his own so he could try exploring. It hadn't really crossed his mind to just grab mistletoe from low-hanging branches so he'd scaled a couple of trees, carefully climbing them to grab mistletoe from higher branches before climbing down. It really was no different to climbing trees to pick fruit. Not that he managed to do it much, but he'd done it enough. The most awkward really had been using the pruning shears since he still wasn't quite used to using the proper tools, but he eventually started getting the hang of it. He was just about to climb another tree when the professor called that it was time to return and Angelo groaned since he hadn't been able to explore the outskirts of where they were, but at least he seemed to have collected enough. It was fine, he could explore the Forest later or tomorrow when he didn't have class.​

 

[Carolina Morales]

Last week's herbology lesson had been fun, as they all were, but involved a bit less herbology than Carolina would have liked, so she was relieved when she arrived to her lesson that day to learn they would actually be gardening, or more so harvesting mistletoe from around the forbidden forest. It was surprising for Carolina to learn they would be allowed in the forbidden forest given it was forbidden but she was hardly about to complain as she had always wanted to see what the forest was like. She retrieved her gear and with the tote bag the professor gave her, she followed the rest of the class to the forbidden forest. She watched on as the professor demonstrated how to cut the different clumps of mistletoe, and tried her best to cut them properly when she was left to walk on her own. When she had a full tote bag she followed the professor and the rest of the class back to the greenhouse where they began to prepare the sprigs properly for the yule ball. Carolina tried to cut the mistletoe with the berries and leaves the way the professor had shown them, making sure she neatly separated the cut sprigs with the leftovers she knew she was supposed to place in the compost bin. When the lesson was over, Carolina placed her sprigs in the trough and the scraps in the barrel, wondering if she would be able to spot any of the sprigs she had cut when it was time for her to attend the ball.​