First Years, Lesson Two

After reading carefully through the introductory quiz he gave his students on the first day, Professor Landon Carter was feeling very confident that he would have a good year this year. Many of the students seemed eager to learn which lifted Landon's spirits up. The man was at the front of his classroom lining up each and every tool that they would be using throughout their time in the course on the table at the front of the room. He knew that going through each and every tool individually would be boring and time consuming and so he wanted to make it fun. To do this, Landon had set up a game for the students to play. A great section of the Greenhouse had been cleared of plant rows in favour of wooden pallets that were filled with many different kind of dirt and sand. There were six in all, each measuring two by two meters. If the children did not find this fun, he would not know what else to do.

When everyone started filing in group by group, Landon greeted them all with a smile. "Please stand next to a pallet each." he told them as they made their way inside. Once he was sure that everyone was there, he began his lesson. "Today we are going to be learning about each and every tool in Herbology. With me here I have a spade, a mattock, a spading fork, a draw hoe, a rake, pruning shears and a few little wheelbarrows." Landon pointed to each one as he said them, making sure that the students knew which ones were which. "In each pallet in front of you there are different kinds of dirt. Every different kind of soil has nutrients and densities perfect for the plants that grow native in them. Sandy soil is better for shrivelfigs, heavy and clay-like for Mandrakes, light and dry for bouncing bulbs and so on. We're going to get to know the soil and the tools we use for Herbology by going on a little treasure hunt." Looking around the room, the man could see some of the student's faces light up, and he just smiled at them all, glad that they were already liking the sound of the day's lesson.

There were no rules as such, but there were some interesting prizes and results. Buried beneath the pallets were a mixture of knuts and sickles, the latter being further down in the piles and harder to reach. Also in the soil, however, were twelve raw eggs spread between the six pallets. Professor Carter instructed the students to attempt to retrieve as many knuts and sickles as they pleased using the tools. Successfully rescuing an egg from the dirt and returning it to him would grant the lucky student/s one galleon. There was a catch; each witch and wizard could only touch the dirt with the tools. By experimenting with each set with each soil and finding out which worked best, everyone had a chance of winning the knuts, sickles and perhaps a galleon or two. Landon encouraged the students to rotate around the pallets to work with different tools and soils. By the end of the lesson there were many grubby, sweaty and happy students.

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Assignment: Roleplay the lesson, and have fun! The first five people who take the time to have their character find an egg will receive extra points in lieu of actual money.

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

She's decided, after everything, to write Professor Potter a letter - she supposes at this point she can just call the woman Lyra. She wants to talk to her dad about it first, but he's not really around and she doesn;t know how to deal with that first. She didn't see him at all over the holidays and after finding out that he was about to be a dad again - and he didn't even tell her, she's still a little hurt over it. It's almost like no one really wants to talk about how that's supposed to make her feel with everything. She needs advice and she has no one to ask. She doesn't like to ask her mum about her dad, because it feels weird, maybe she could ask Rory about him but he doesn't know much about her dad either, they have different dads, not that it's ever caused any problems between them.

Tori grins as she takes her place by one the pallets, her fingers itching to get started. The game sounds like a lot of fun and she's eager to see how she would fare against her classmates. She grabs the spading fork and pokes it into the loose soil, satisfied as it digs deep. Shoveling through the dirt, she keeps her eyes peeled for a glint of silver or bronze, hoping for the sickle, but happy to find a knut just the same. When she finally unearths the small coin, she holds it up gladly, pride welling at her ability to do it.As she moves to a new pallet, she's determined to find an egg next - her competitive spirit kicking in. She can see her classmates enjoying themselves and it's fun to think they they are all in this together, rooting around for treasure like a little team of adventurous garden gnomes.​

 

[Winnie Calida]

Winnie wasn’t sure about whether or not to go to the valentines day dance, she knew that if Vikram asked ehr, she’d feel like she had to say yes, but she also really wanted to keep focused on her work, and such a night out wasn’t going to help that. It was just too early in the semester - though really for Winnie anything other than right at the end of the semester was too early for a night off. She was sure that others would disagree, wouldn’t be thinking this over this much, but she was. She finished getting herself together and then headed out of the room.

Winnie headed into the herbology classroom and immediately did not love what they were about to have to do. She wasn;t one to love getting her hands physically dirty, she could just about manage to get them a little dirty. She listened as the professor told them about the different items they had to use on the various patches of dirt, and then explained what they were to do, which to her was worse than most other things. She got to work when she needed to, making sure that she didn’t miss anything, and making sure that she found a few things using the tools but didn’t overly do it. Winnie was very pleased when the lesson was brought to an end and she was able to pack up her things and leave the room.