Seventh Years: Lesson Two

Today’s plant was already sitting innocently on the bench as the class began to arrive, rather at odds with other floral, festive Valentine's decorations about the greenhouse today. Angel was grateful for the distraction, turning away from the plant. It looked not unlike a grey cactus, only with boils instead of spines to greet the class. The whole thing looked quite sickly and frankly unnerved him.

“Afternoon, kids, got something special for you today,” he said, motioning to the plant and having the class gather round once everyone had arrived. Unnerving or not, the plant had been hard to come by and Angel was excited to show it off.

“So,” Angel said once the class was gathered and quiet, “Any volunteers to touch it? I promise it won’t harm you,” Angel said, before nodding to one particularly bold student who’d volunteered. Stepping preemptively out of what was effectively the splash zone, Angel smiled glumly as the student touched the plant, resulting in it releasing a stream of vile stinksap. “And this is why we don’t touch anything when we don’t know what it is,” he said, trying not to breathe in too much before vanishing the stinksap as quickly as he could with a flick of his wand. “Ah well, nothing risked, nothing gained, 5 points for your trouble, Happy Valentine's,” he said to his poor volunteer, patting them gamely on the shoulder.

“For those of you who don’t know, this is a Mimbulus Mimbletonia, bit of a mouthful that, a rare plant from Assyria. It’s a member of the cactaceae family, so from the spine plants family, related to the muggle cactus. It’s most notable for its unique defensive mechanism, which is quite potent as we just witnessed. When prodded-” Angel smiled at his poor volunteer once again, “-It will spray out Stinksap from it’s boils here, which as you might recall, smells not unlike rancid manure. Stinksap, while I don’t recommend touching it if you can help it, is non-poisonous and usually dark green in color. If you need a reminder we could prod it again,” he offered, relenting with a laugh after a few vocal protests from the students.

“Native to arid climate, Mimbulus need dry soil and sunlight to really thrive. Supposedly a well cared for and calm Mimbulus make this cute little crooning sound, though it's arguable if the plant is actually sentient or it that's just an autonomous reaction to ideal conditions,” Angel hadn't heard this one coo yet, but they had been poking it a fair bit. Feeling the class had been subjected to enough of the mimbulus, Angel checked his pocket watch, deciding to wrap up the lesson there. “That’s all for today unless anyone needs another round with the stinksap. Go, be free,” he said, shooing the class away and out of the greenhouse.

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RP the lesson. First poster can volunteer for some extra house points.

 

[Emmanuel Okoye]

Emmanuel had been pretty grateful that the yuleball had gone as well as it had, and was determined to make sure that the valentines day stuff did too. He just wanted to get this right, wanted to do right by Kyon in all of the ways that he just hadn’t been able to yet. The ravenclaw was getting himself together for the day, putting aside some of his thoughts on the valentines stuff and focused more on getting his notes and books together, making sure that he grabbed his homework and everything else and then headed out of the dorm and to class.

Emmanuel walked into the herbology classroom and took his usual spot in the room. He glanced at the professor as the man got started on what they would be doing. He looked at the plant that the professor was asking them to touch it, and Emmanuel stepped forward to do so, it immediately, obviously went terribly, but Emmanuel didn’t really mind. He smiled at the professor and then moved back to his seat. He took his quill and began writing down what the professor then told them about it. The lecture wasn’t too much longer and then he was able to pack up his things and head out of the room.

O+5​

 

[Penelope Marshall]

Penelope was really looking forward to the Valentine's Dance. She knew she would have another lovely evening with Todd and she was looking forward to it. She was also curious if Holden would take the same girl he had taken to the yule ball, though she hadn't asked him about it because she knew he would get defensive. She hoped he would stay out of trouble for the rest of the year.

She took her usual seat in the Herbology classroom. She didn't raise her hand to touch the plant, as it looked like it might bite her. She was glad about it when the person who did got covered in stink sap, though she felt like the professor could have warned them about it. She started taking notes on the Mimbulus Mimbletonia, which was a weird little plant. She took notes until the professor finished talking, then left the classroom once they were dismissed.

O​

 

[Rory Styx]

Rory didn’t enjoy still being referred to as a kid by Professor Castillo when he was well into his seventh year, but his focus was on the miserable looking grey cactus that sat on his desk when he walked into the greenhouse and took his seat for Herbology. Rory kept quiet when Professor Castillo asked for volunteers to touch the plant and wasn’t surprised when the student who did put themself forward was sprayed with stinksap. Rory had learned a long time ago not to touch things if he didn’t know what they were, he wasn’t about to forgo that rule just because he was in a classroom.

After the demonstration Professor Castillo went into more detail about the Mimbulus Mimbletonia and Rory started to take notes. There was nothing practical required so it ended up being a straight forward lesson. Once it was over Rory packed away his notes and when they’d been dismissed he made his way out of the greenhouse.

O​

 

[Chaos Zhefarovich II]

It was heading deeper into the term, and Chaos Zhefarovich the Second was looking forward to graduating so that he could do something with his life. Something more meaningful. Going to school, doing essays, none of it seemed to be worth much of anything. Chaos doubted that this would end up high up on the list of things needed for a resume for work. The Gryffindor prefect gathered up what he needed to head to class, and knew that at this time, he would end up a little early. So, he could take his time and just enjoy the walk. He did not need to saunter too much. He eventually entered the classroom, and settled in. He was on time, and right on time too. Punctuality was part of his attributes.

Chaos walked in the greenhouse and settled down in his seat, and his eyes immediately landed on the plant before them. That was dangerous? Maybe if someone touched the boils, but he did not see any danger to it. He was not about to volunteer, but immediately covered his nose once the poor student was soaked in stinksap. At least it was vanished so the smell was not as potent. It did look like a cactus, so he could see how they were related. He wrote down a few notes over the plant and then left since he did not want to go a round with the stinksap. Once was more than enough for the Gryffindor prefect.​

O​

 

[Ethan Alexander]

Ethan made his way out to the herbology greenhouse and took his time, enjoying the sunny weather as he went. When he took his seat he almost forgot he was there to actually learn something. He raised an eyebrow when the professor said he had something special and when he asked for volunteers Ethan got suspicious. He knew enough after taking care of some of Olivia’s plants to hold back on that offer. And when the volunteer got covered in stinksap he knew that was the right call. Instead he took notes as the professor lectured until they were dismissed.

O​