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.

 

[Juniper Veritas]

Juniper walked to her second lesson of Herbology, it was a lesson she felt comfortable in so far. She took a place and listened to the Professor telling them what today's lesson would be about. Taking a look at the tools the Hufflepuff smiled softly to herself, the lesson sounded like fun. It may not have been everyone's cup of tea but she would like digging around the soil. As they were given the go ahead she started digging, at first very very carefully but slowly she grew more confident in it. Juniper made sure to use each of the given tools, to get a good feel of each. Feeling her mattock hit something hard her eyes widened and she slowly pulled out an egg. She looked at it with her wide eyes, slipping it ever so carefully into the pockets of her robes before continuing digging for a bit longer. At the end of the lesson Juniper walked to the Professor with her egg. "I found this one, I don't know what to do with it? Is there a chicken in there?" She said awkwardly while handing the egg to the man.

 

[Freddie Lagowski]

Freddie felt quite at home in the Herbology greenhouse. None of his lessons had been bad so far, but this one was particularly enjoyable; the professor was cool, the room was always cosy and smelled of damp soil and leaves, and Freddie didn't have to do much sitting at a desk. Growing up on a farm hadn't given him as much of a headstart as he'd hoped, but that was probably his own fault. He'd always done his very best to get out of his garden chores.

Spotting Juniper, he went to stand at the pallet beside her. Was that a knut poking out of the soil? Freddie extracted it, blowing the dirt off. What was it doing in there? Had someone dropped it? He held onto it while he listened, and soon Professor Carter explained everything. So, it was a treasure hunt - and eggs were worth a galleon each, if Freddie could find one. The Ravenclaw wasted no time picking up a mattock and sifting through the soil. He found four more knuts and a sickle in the first pallet, but no eggs. In the second, he found no money, but he did hear a crunch as he swung his mattock a bit too enthusiastically into a lump of dirt. Something yellow and sticky bubbled to the surface. "Oh," he said. "Someone broke an egg." Moving swiftly on to the next pallet, he found another knut - and a piece of eggshell, but that probably wasn't worth anything. He slipped the last coin into his pocket with the rest. They were allowed to keep them, right? His conscience said he should probably ask, but he quickly hushed it. Nobody ever made money by being honest.

 

[Marina Vortalis]

Herbology was definitely not her favourtie subject, she’d learned that from the first class, but she wasn’t going to not show up just because plants weren’t her thing. She approached the pallet with determination, even if she wasn’t entirely sure about any of this and looked at the spading fork in her hands. She listened to the instructions, not wanting to risk getting something wrong and then psyched herself up a little to dig in, effectively. She used the tools she had available to dig through the pallet and unearthed a knut, then two sickles, before feeling something distinctly fragile beneath the packed dirt. “Ha!” she realised she had found the egg and quickly freed it from the dirt before cradling it in her robes as she presented it to the professor. “Found one,” she said, propping it up for him to see as the class came to its end.​

 

[Priyanka Bakshi]

The week flew by quickly, and it was time for herbology class. Priyanka went to the greenhouse with mixed feelings about what would happen today and what new things she would learn. She settled in the greenhouse closer to the professor, so that she could hear everything better and, if she had a question, she could ask it more easily, and not shout all over the greenhouse. It didn't take long for the class to start, Priya opened her notes, writing down everything about the tools, the soil suitable for each plant. She tried to capture and write down every word the professor said. And here they were given the task of finding treasures in the soil. Like a treasure hunt. It was really interesting, so she took the necessary tool to move through the soil. At first she thought she wouldn't find anything, but then she found a raw egg in the soil and then another pot with a raw egg. It seemed like she wouldn't find anything good, when she was lucky enough to find one galleon in the third pot. "Found!" she said loudly, then managed to find a few more galleons and sickles by the end of the lesson. She took the pots of raw eggs to the professor, just in case they could be used to fertilize the soil. She said goodbye to the professor, then left the greenhouse and headed towards the castle.

 

[Jun Nakamura]

Jun didn't fancy getting dirty and working with dirt but apparently herbology had a lot to do with that. He listened to the professor explain everything, feeling like it was somewhat boring and a waste but deciding to engage anyway. Using the different tools, he poked and prodded and tried not to get any dirt on him (to the detriment of his findings). He didn't find an egg but he found some coins. That wasn't too difficult. He didn't really enjoy the process but he was glad he at least found something. Once everything was over, he decided it was a good time for a shower and left to go back to Ravenclaw tower.

 

[Eloise Flynn]

It was the second week of lessons of the semester, and so far, Eloise had been enjoying her time here at Hogwarts. She reckoned she had managed to make a few friends and so far had been enjoying the classes she was taking. The Hufflepuff quickly got dressed and ready, looking at her collection of earrings, before deciding to go with her hot chocolate earrings, and happily skipping to the herbology greenhouse for her herbology lesson. Once she arrived, she noticed that there were pallets out and they were told to stand by one, which intrigued Eloise a little, and she decided to stand by one.

Eloise moved her attention towards the professor as the professor started off the lesson. She listened closely to what the professor had to say and what the instructions were. It looked like they were going on some sort of treasure hunt, which Eloise was quite keen on. It wasn't long before they were able to dig around using the tools provide,d and Eloise quickly got to work. Throughout the digging, she managed to find a few knuts before she dug deep into the pallet and eventually found an egg, which Eloise was quite pleased about.

It wasn't long until he lesson had come to an end and they were dismissed. Eloise made sure to hand in her findings to the professor, grinning at her professor, quite proud of her findings. The Hufflepuff made sure to put her things away, putting them in the correct area as well as tidying up her area. She then says a quick and appreciative thanks and goodbye to the professor before heading out of the greenhouse with her friends and the rest of her classmates.