Seventh Years: Lesson Three

Angel was considering today’s plant from a safe distance as the class began arriving, having posted himself casually against one of the greenhouse benches where he could easily see all of the plant’s appendages. He’d been assured repeatedly over the years that the school’s resident Venomous Tentacula, Hemneda, was tamed and harmless, but Angel still wasn’t too keen to get closer to the plant than necessary.

“Afternoon, all!” He greeted the class as they were settled, tearing his eyes away from Hamneda to address them. “Today, we’ll be looking at the Venomous Tentacula, a specimen of which we’ve been provided here,” he said, motioning to the plant in question. “Now rest assured that Hamneda here is quite harmless, but you should know of course wild venomous tentacula are quite dangerous.

“Venomous Tentacula are predatory plants, using their spikes and mobile vines to grab live prey,” he said, outlining Hamneda’s spines in the air with his wand, moving his hand back when the plant lifted a vine lazily. “The spikes are venomous, hence the name, as is the ‘bite’ from one. The tentacula expels venom from their vines as they reach for prey before attempting to strangle them. They’ll even go after humans, they’re not picky,” he said with a slight nervous laugh as Hamneda shifted again.

“Now, any thoughts on how you might defend yourself from such a plant? They’re sometimes used as a defensive measure,” Angel nodded to a student as they raised their hand, considering their answer. “Yep, a severing charm would work perfectly, stun the plant and then severs the tentacles neatly,” he said, making a slicing motion with his hand as he spoke. “Very good. 3 house points for quick thinking.”

Checking his pocket watch, Angel was relieved to see that it was time to wrap things up. “That’s all for today, make sure you have some notes down, I have it on good authority this’ll be on the NEWT,” he finished up, shooing the class out so he could hurry up and move Hamneda somewhere further away from his office as soon as possible.

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RP the lesson, first poster can answer the question for house points

 

[Elio Boneheart]

Seventh year was all about dealing with dangerous things, dangerous spells, dangerous creatures, and apparently, dangerous plants, if the venomous tentacular he was currently staring at was any indication. He was fascinated by it, as anyone who liked Herbology would have been, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t at least summarily aware of the risk they posed and the danger they were in, even with the professor present. When Castillo asked about defense against the plant, Elio’s hand shot up from where he was standing in the corner. “A Severing Charm should do the trick - stun first, then slice,” he said, confidently, watching the professor confirm what he said. He liked it when he got housepoints because they could really do with more. He wasn’t sure how Slytherin was in the lead. Surely they were cheating. “You could also try fire if you were desperate, but I wouldn’t recommend setting a greenhouse on fire just to escape a plant,” he added, grinning, because that probably woudln’t go over well and a controlled incendio could be difficult to manage sometimes, especially if you are desperate enough with a plant to risk using it. As the lesson wrapped up, he quickly headed out of the greenhouse, wondering just how many students might have been eaten, or even attacked by the tentacular over the years.​