Second Years, Lesson Four

Landon paced the Greenhouse patiently for his students to arrive. He leaned against the desk with his Mandrake in front of him, and once everyone arrived he began his lesson straight away. "Hey guys! Settle down and we'll check on our Mandrakes." The professor waved his wand and the doors shut. "Retrieve your journal and writing utensils." After his eyes saw every quill, ink, and journal out, he continued, "Your Mandrake is in their shortest stage - Childhood. They tend to giggle more and play games in this stage. They require greater amounts of water, food, and a bit more sun. Now, look at the leaves. They are becoming more flamboyant in not only colour, but texture. They now have more of a velvety texture. Be sure to touch them gently if you wish." Landon's fingers softly traced the leaves of his root. The Mandrake giggled, as expected.

"Now then, I will give you some time to play with your mandrakes. When you are done, remember to give them food and water. Remember how we fed them last lesson to make sure they can reach the food. Once they are full, put them into sunlight so they can soak up some rays. I'll be walking around, looking at your progress, if you have any questions. Once you are finished, you may be dismissed." Landon finished explaining as he started walking around the greenhouse. He surveyed all of his students as they started their recordings and helped a couple of people that needed it, whether it be with finding them a place to keep their mandrake for the night or giving them ideas of what to write in their journals. He rather enjoyed helping his students and smiled and waved goodbye to them at the end of his lesson, glad that the lesson was pretty successful.

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Assignment: RP the lesson. Feel free to RP Landon going around and helping your character as well. Don't forget to write your next journal entry too as this is a requirement for full marks.

 

[Primrose Kaster]

Prim looked at Eury to confirm she was still needed to help her with her work and guided them over to the table with their mandrakes. She hoped that these days Eury was starting to consider her a friend, she really wanted to be Eury’s friend after all, and they would be sharing a dorm for the rest of their school lives after all, it seemed like a good thing to have someone she was close to. She wanted to get to know Kairi and Susie better too, but she was working on them one at a time. She retrieved her journal and flipped it open, making notes about what she was doing with Grumble today and hoping he wasn’t taking anything too personally. He probably was, because he always seemed to. His leaves were far more colourful now than when they had started and she hesitantly brushed a finger against them. He let out a high-pitched giggle which made her flinch in surprise. “Creepy,” she muttered, but didn’t really mind all that much. She watered him, and made sure Eury was okay before she moved his pot into the sunlight, grinning at him. She didn’t completely mind the giggling menace really.
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Diary Entry #3

Mandrake Name: Grumble
Stage: Childhood
Care Notes: Grumble giggled today. Almost threw him across the greenhouse. Fed him, watered him, and put him in the sun. He seems… content? Still weird.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan didn't mind looking after his mandrake too much, but it was still a pain that he had to come outside so often. Perhaps it wasn't a good time in his life to consider getting a dog, either. As he took some notes on his mandrakes growth and behaviors, the Ravenclaw wondered whether anyone else's seem quite so.. sober. He was quite sure that his little mandrake hadn't cried since the day he'd taken it out its first pot, and even though it was meant to be giggling, he seemed almost sleepy. Was it too cold? Was it unwell? He considered telling the professor and letting him look it over, but that would mean admitting defeat that he couldn't even look after a plant.

Name: A
Stage: Childhood
Notes: He doesn't seem as energetic at the other mandrakes. He's also looking a little grey. Has he not been getting enough food or sunlight? I'm going to put him in a new spot by the window today, and hopefully by next week he'll be looking a little better.

 

[Susie Lagowski]

Susie grinned at Professor Carter as she swaggered in. She had entered that stage of adolescence where lifting her feet as she walked suddenly looked uncool, although arguably so did tripping over an uneven tile on the way to her desk. By dint of grabbing onto @Primrose Kaster 's arm she narrowly managed to avoid a second date with the edge of the tabletop, but the inertia of the fall sent the contents of her bag spilling all over the floor. No! Not Mr. Toad! She snatched up the grubby plushie and stuffed him back in, hopefully before anybody noticed. Sheesh - any other god want to take a swing while she was down?

She appeared to recover, but she was oddly quiet for the rest of the lesson, only speaking when spoken to. Not even playing with her mandrake made her feel better. She tickled its leaves for a while, gave it some food, and sat down to do her weekly journal.

Freddie is a child now which means he's giggly. He's got a really mischievous laugh. I think he might be plotting something, like a mandrake uprising. I've got my eye on you Freddie.

 

[Elijah Edogawa]

ELi pulled out his notebook to keep his details on his mandrake as he walked over to Thorn’s pot. He was already squirming, the mandrake, twitching in anticipation of… well, Eli didn’t know really because despite their class being on these little gremlin plants, he didn’t know a lot about them, except for how to care for one, sort of. He supposed. “Alright, let’s get this done,” he said, bruching his fingers over Thorn’s velvety leaves, he let out a high pitched giggle and Eli moved on quickly, because the thing was creepy. He really didn’t think he would be going into Herbology when he graduated. He quickly game Thorn his food and water, poking the pellets into the soil so it wouldn’t lose its mind in being upset with him, and made sure the soil was damp, because apparently Thorn was picky and it could only be damp in one spot the rest he liked dry on top, the amount of time Eli had to change out the soil because his mandrake was precious was not funny. He moved the pot to a sunnier spot and then moved onto his journal entry.​

Diary Entry #3

Mandrake Name: Thorn (still living up to the name)
Stage: Childhood
Care Notes: Apparently, Thorn finds everything hilarious now. His leaves are softer, which is weird, but whatever. Fed him, watered him, and gave him some sun. He’s still wiggling around like an overexcited puppy. No idea if that’s a good sign or not, but at least he’s not screaming.

 

[Vikram Bakshi]

And on, and on, and on the semester went. Vikram was content with it, but it did seem to drag on from time to time. After what felt like an age from his last classes, he was gathering his things to finally head back to class again. Perhaps he was just bored. He took his place in class. Caring for madrakes was definitely something else. He fed it, put it in the sun, got it some water. Scribbled out a few notes. He was pleased with his work, thinking the tiny thing was actually startig to get to be a decent size. He slipped a few extra food pellets in the soil just in case. Vikram stretched as he left, biting back a yawn. Maybe a bit of sleep would set his head right again.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

As the Herbology lesson began Lilith stared at her Mandrake, still wondering about the ulterior motive of them growing their own Mandrakes. Surely there was some bone buried here. She played with her mandrake and touched its leaves gently. They felt soft and were quite beautiful. The root itself giggled making the Ravenclaw smile slightly. "Such a happy fella today Morso." She whispered to her mandrake ash they kept playing around and it giggled loads. It wasn't perhaps the best giggle she had ever heard but it was better than that god awful screeching. After their playtime was over Lilith made sure to feed and water the root well before placing it into the sun and then getting to her notes.

Name: Morso
Stage: Childhood
Notes: Morso was a giggly little thing, seemed quite happy and playful. I much prefer her giggle to the screeching and screaming. She is cute, what are you going to have us do with them?