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.

 

[Sayuri Edogawa]

Sayuri walked into the greenhouse, taking a spot next to Rose immediately. When the professor introduced the lesson, she eyed the patches of soil skeptically. She wasn’t really looking forward to the prospect of digging into the dirt, but she couldn’t deny that finding galleons was quite tempting. She wasn’t all that familiar with the tools in front of her and she kind of regret not asking Eli about them since he’d taken the class last semester.

When they begun, Sayuri picked up one tool and began sifting through the soil. It was annoying, getting bits of dirt in her hand and under her fingernails. Felt as if the dust was clinging to her. She didn’t care much for it but she supposed it wasn’t all too bad. Annoying but something she could live with. She tried to be careful as she dug, rotating between each tool to find a system that worked best and that she was comfortable with. Eventually, her hard work paid off when she uncovered a knut. She continued to work a little while more before her spade hit resistance that was much larger than a coin. Carefully, she moved the soil around to uncover an egg. Satisfied, she presented it to the professor when it was nearly time for them to leave.​

 

[William Potter-Cade]

After the first lesson William was hoping to actually do something in his second lesson. Herbology wasn’t a subject he was particularly excited about but when so many of his other subjects were still theory based, he would take any chance to do something practical. William stood by one of the pallets and listened to Professor Carter as he explained what they would be doing during the lesson, they would be learning about the variety of tools that were available to them in herbology so it wasn’t anything too complicated. In the pallet in front of him was several different types of soils, Professor Carter explained the differences and what each was good for and that buried in the pallets were knuts, sickles and eggs and they were to use the tools they had to retrieve as much as they could. William got to work, gently working his through the soil. When time expired he had managed to find a handful of kunts, three sickles and one unbroken egg, which he didn’t think was too bad. He took what he had found to the professor then left the classroom.

 

[Sybil St. James]

Sybil made sure to get to class with plenty of time to spare and was surprise to see the classroom set up with pallets of dirt and full of tools. She hovered off to the side and waited for an explanation from the professor. Once Professor Carter gave them their assignment she was eager to get started and put on her gloves before starting to dig. She was careful as she went in case she ran into any eggs. She found a few coins as she went but it wasn’t until she was in the sandbox that she found an egg and was able to gently dig it out. When the lesson was over she made sure turn in her findings for the reward before cleaning up and leaving.

 

[Esme Styx-Cade]

Esme wasn’t someone who liked getting her hands dirty so the prospect of digging around a pallet, even with tools, to find coins and eggs was not something that appealed to her. Unfortunately for her she had little choice in the matter. She stood next to one of the pallets and looked at the tools that were laid out for her to use and listened as Professor Carter explained them all. Once he was done explaining Esme got to work excavating the soil, careful to use each tool on the particular kind of dirt they were for. She did however get a little too heavy handed with her spade and crushed one of the eggs hidden in the pallet. Over the course of the lesson however she successfully managed to dig out three knuts and one sickle. She knew others had done better but she didn’t care, she was happy with what she had done.