Second Years, Lesson Two

As far as Landon knew, the first lesson with his second years had been a good success. He just hoped that the batch were as sensible as they made out to be considering the dangerous workload that they had this semester. Today's lesson was going to be their first lesson with an actual mandrake and he was probably more nervous than he had ever been. Before his students arrived, Landon was busy making sure each workstation was set with large clay pots, potting tools, watering cans and small pots of Mandrakes. Nothing was to go wrong that lesson and he was sure of it.

When each student was situated next to a workstation, Landon quickly began the lesson. "I hope you all have your earmuffs today because, as you can see, we are going to get started with handling mandrakes. The mandrake you are standing in front of now will be your pet for the rest of the semester. You will look after them and you'll be writing a journal all about it. For now, your first step is to repot them and place them comfortably into a new home." Landon couldn't help but be nervous for the students and what they were about to do. He had only ever seen the majority of them once before and now he was trusting them to do what they were told when dire circumstances were involved. "One thing you must understand before you even begin touching your mandrake is that you may not cause your mandrake any harm. Anyone who is found to do that will get an automatic fail for this course this year which I'm sure none of you would like." He continued, with a sarcastic smile. "Mandrakes fancy damp soil, shade to sunlight, and occasional food. Remember to take proper care of them."

After a good overview of the rules, Landon was a bit more confident with them all. He was never a stickler for rules but going through them would hopefully ensure that all of the twelve and thirteen year olds were safe. On the bright side, the students would never have to hear Landon go through them again as he was sure they'd all be mature enough to remember each and every one. Professor Carter walked over to his desk and leaned against it to observe all the students. He instructed, "Put on your Dragonhide gloves and your work robes and we shall begin." Landon put on his gloves also. "I will demonstrate for you. However, before I demonstrate, I will verbally tell you what we are about to do. First, you will grasp the leaves of your Mandrake gently, yet firm. Then tug them upwards. Your Mandrake will come out of the small pot, and then you will transfer them into the large pot already filled with dirt, put them in, plant the dirt around them and give them some water. And that’s it. Watch me. Put your earmuffs on." He waited patiently for everyone to put them on and gave a few of the ones who had forgotten them one of the spare pairs of earmuffs from the box. "Their cry is pretty strident. So, make sure you have them on correctly."

Landon put his on and made sure it was in place. He did everything he had ordered them to do and eventually, the Mandrake rested comfortably in the large pot, dozing off. His Mandrake was rather small but vociferous. Landon took off his gloves and went to sit behind the desk, watching as the students began to work on their mandrakes.

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Assignment: RP today's lesson AND write a short diary entry about your mandrake for full marks. For extra credit, you may draw a picture of your mandrake if you wish.

 

[Primrose Kaster]

Prim tightened her earmuffs a little over her ears as she headed into Herbology class. Realising last lesson that Eury hadn’t been happy about working with Mandrakes, she’d decided to sit with her, and help her out if she needed it. Honestly Prim was quite happy to do all of the work, as long as Eury wrote her own diary entry. Her mandrake seemed happily nestled in it’s pot and she felt a little bad that they were going to wake it up and upset it. She couldn’t help but feel a little excited—she had read about them before, but handling one herself was an entirely different experience. She followed the professor’s instructions and carefully grasped the head of the mandrake, the leaves and tugged it free. There was a bit of resistance, and she could definitely tell it was wailing loudly just by how it tried to break free of her grasp even with the earmuffs on. She was as gentle as she could possibly be as she shifted it into the secondary pot, pressing the damp soil around it to make it all snug before splashing it with some water, which seemed to calm it down a little. It stopped eventually and she sighed in relief before removing her gloves and moving on to her diary entry. She discussed with Eury what needed to be done with her mandrake too, before helping her to it when Professor Carter was looking (and then doing it entirely when he wasn’t).​

@Eurydice Nightray

Diary Entry #1

Mandrake Name: Grumble (coz it's grumbly)
Stage: Seedling
Care Notes: Successfully repotted Grumble today. He screamed the entire time and wiggled like he wanted to escape, but he’s finally settled. Gave him water and packed the soil snugly. Hopefully, he forgives me—grumpy little root.

 

[Elijah Edogawa]

Eli clinched his earmuffs over his ears and once again sat away from everyone, but left enough room for Jonah if he wanted to sit again. He hoped Jonah would recognise that was what he was offering, but maybe he would decide to sit somewhere else today. He pulled on his dragonhide gloves and eyes the small potted mandrake in front of him. He could tell just by looking at it that it was probably going to be a pain in the butt. He was hardly thrilled about taking care of a baby, even if it was a sentient root, well maybe not quite sentient, or what they did to it by the end would be tantamount to murder he supposed. Which was illegal, so he had to assume they weren't actually sentient, but he'd never looked into it incase there was an answer he didn't like. Following the professor's instructions, Eli grasped the mandrakes leaves and carefully pulled it up and out of the pot, the squealing thing flailing and wailing about in protest. Yep, a pain. He quickly lowered it back into the larger pot, patting the wet soil down around it so it would stop screaming and then when it finally did, he watered it, watching the wiggling slow to a stop. He sighed in relief before taking off his gloves. This was indeed going to be a very long semester.​

@Jonah Edogawa

Diary Entry #1

Mandrake Name: Thorn (because it’s a pain)
Stage: Seedling
Care Notes: Repotted Thorn today, though he did not appreciate it. He screeched loud enough to rattle my bones and flailed like he was trying to escape a horrible fate. Managed to get him into the bigger pot without dropping him (a success, I’d say). Packed the soil firmly and gave him some water. He’s still sulking, but at least he’s not screaming anymore. Hopefully, he doesn’t hold a grudge. If he does, I'll rename him Sayuri.

 

[Eurydice Nightray]

After lamenting to her brother just how disgusting the earmuffs in Herbology were, Eurydice got a brand new set of panda earmuffs that were just the cutest things. While it didn't make her like Herbology any more than she already did, it at least made her happy wearing such a cute thing in class. And then the mandrakes happened and all Eury wanted to do was leave. If it weren't for Prim doing the mandrake-y things for her, she would have most definitely already left. Still, all she had to do when Professor Carter was looking in their direction was poke the leaves of the mandrake with her gloved-covered hand and pretend she was doing sh*t. Well, she was writing, she supposed. She knew mandrakes in theory. Caring for and touching them was a whole different story. She couldn't believe there was going to be a whole semester of this.​

@Tiziano Edogawa @Primrose Kaster

Diary Entry #1

Mandrake Name: Wail
Stage: Seedling
Care Notes: He was put in a pot with soil and watered. He's unpleasant.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan had grimaced when he found out they'd be keeping the mandrake as a pet for the rest of the year. They had to keep it alive, well and watered, and truthfully if Eoghan had wanted a pet then he would have gotten one over the holidays. He was glad Kuu was in their lives now, but that was enough for the time being. Having tucked his earmuffs tightly over his ears, Eoghan got to work repotting his own mandrake, hesitantly pulling it up by its leaves before placing it into a bigger plant pot. He was quite sure at one point his ear muffs weren't on properly when he started to feel a little queasy, but maybe that was just because he was spending so much time looking at the ugly things face. Tucking in his mandrake and making some notes, he hoped it would live a long and healthy life, even if it wasn't his dream to take care of it.​

Name: Aurinko
Stage: Seedling
Notes: Aurinko was put in his new home today, although I can't tell if he likes it since he doesn't seem to be happy wherever I put him. How are you supposed to stop a mandrake from crying? Is it like a baby, where you should check to see if it's hungry / hot / cold / needs changing? What happens when he's grown up? I don't exactly want to keep him in my dorm room.

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

Sitting next to Elijah, Jonah could admit at least to himself that he didn't have much expectations about how it was going to be working with mandrakes. He'd never done that before. And unlike the Nightrays, the Edogawas didn't have a greenhouse - if they did, Jonah had never been or noticed it, and his parents didn't exactly seem like the type to keep one. A garden, maybe they could manage. A greenhouse. Nope. And so, Jonah, while knowing that mandrakes were looking like mutated babies, still didn't expect that they would be crying like actual babies. The creature thrashed in Jonah's grip when it was pulled out of the pot, and he knew they weren't hands, but his mandrake was flailing wildly. Even through the thick earmuffs, Jonah could see its mouth stretched open in a soundless wail and he felt his stomach churning. Was... was he hurting the mandrake? He would have dropped it if he didn't thought it would distress it more. Trying to put it down gently in a pot was difficult because it was flailing and throwing soil about which was distressing Jonah. Putting in soil didn't seem to calm it down so it just felt like Jonah was burying something alive and he could feel the tears in his eyes as the mandrake continued to shake, its little face all scrunched up even as Jonah tried to put dirt around them until the shaking stopped. And then he had to pour water. And his mandrake was not moving, did he just kill his baby mandrake? He touched its leaves gently as if coaxing it and released a breath he didn't know he was holding when the leaves trembled slightly. He wiped the tears with his arms. Merlin, he hated Herbology.

@Elijah Edogawa ​

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith arrived to the Herbology lesson not sure whether she was looking forward to it or not. However she was glad to get yet another pet, she'd take good care of her little mandrake. She already had a cat what was one more pet right? As they were told what to do she followed the instructions, putting her earmuffs on and following the demonstration before doing her own repotting. "Now now, I know it's uncomfortable. You'll be back in soil soon enough." She spoke gently to screaming plant, Merlin why did plants scream. The plant wasn't the cutest but it wasn't the ugliest either. It was somewhere in between perhaps. As the plant was safely repotted she began writing her diary entry.

Name: Morso (because it kind of looks like this old puppet from a Finnish show...(OOC: this is the reference! TW!!! MARGA SCREAMED it's a bit creepy) )
Stage: Seedling
Notes: Well Morso was taken out of her bed and I suppose we would all be quite upset if we were ripped out of bed by our hair. However I did pick her up and put her into some new soil, I tried to gently speak to her but well she was busy screaming her soul out. She is now resting comfortably in her new home and will be well taken care of.

Spoiler: Lilith's mandrake

 

[Susie Lagowski]

Susie launched her bag under the table as she approached it, rolling up her sleeves. Today’s lesson was going to be great fun; they were re-potting baby mandrakes. Wasting no time, she donned her earmuffs and a thick pair of gloves and tugged her new pet out of its terracotta pot. It was even uglier than she’d expected, a wrinkly, wriggly thing with stubby limbs and a scrunched up face. The poor thing was screaming its head off. Carefully she lowered it into its new pot, filled the gaps with soil, and poured in some water. Easy peasy.

Opening her book, she wrote:

My Mandrake is called Freddie (that’s my brother’s name and he whinges a lot). I don’t think he was very happy about being moved pots but at least he’s got lots of room now to grow. It’s really hot in here now I wonder when I can take my earmuffs off.

She looked around. Most people had finished re-potting and were scribbling in their journals like Susie. There were only one or two mandrakes still uncovered and crying. How bad could the noise be, really? And when else would she get the chance to find out what a mandrake’s cry really sounded like? Probably not for years and years. You couldn’t pass up that sort of experience.

Slowly, carefully, she lifted one earmuff away from her head.

It was like somebody ramming a hot poker down her ear canal. There was a sharp thud as her forehead hit the edge of the desk on her way down.

@Professor Landon Carter

 

[Professor Landon Carter]

When Landon heard the thud through his earmuffs, he immediately raced over to his student who had fallen to the floor. It was Susie, and it seemed as though her earmuffs had fallen off for a moment, as the mandrake's cries had made her pass out. The man bent down and lifted her gently into his arms. He was admittedly a little stressed, but it was definitely nothing that the hospital wing hadn't dealt with before. He just had to immediately get her there. "Just... finish repotting your mandrakes and then you're free to go." he told the class as he carried Susie through the greenhouse and to the castle.

@Susie Lagowski