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Class Roster

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Rowena Knight

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Michael Labell

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Ted Lupin

Lillia Devlin

Lucy Matthews

Alexandra McGee

Noah Pratt

Dione Sayer

Gwenna Trevelyan§

+1

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Marlon Kaminski

Emile Lawson

Mercedes Posada

Dessa Share

Yadira Sparrowhawk

Rico Posada

Blossom Rose

"Come now!  Stay together!  No.  No, I wouldn't touch that."  Deaglan waved a hand absently at the first year, just as the lad started reaching for the seemingly dormant stem.  The young man was bound to learn his lesson, one way or the other.  Either he'd listen or, despite appearing unassuming for the season, the nettle would teach the lad to listen. 

"You all remembered your notes, yes?"

Since the start of the term, the class had been focusing on their local, regional flora.  Those (relatively) low risk plants, fungi and herbs that could be found both inside the greenhouses and out on the lawns and in the forests.  The first couple weeks they'd concentrated on the book knowledge of the care of these plants: watering instructions, thinning and weeding recommendations and harvesting protocols. 

Today, they were off on a scavenger hunt.  With leaves and roots dormant for the winter, it was an optimal time to find specimens for transplanting into the greenhouses. 

"Don't forget those notes on pests.  These are not clean, pristine little plants that have known nothing but glass ceilings and consistent temperatures.  Their wild.  Remember!  If just one of you sneaks a larvae-laying fanged aphid in on their transplant, all of your new leafy friends will be mere sticks by midterm!" 

Deaglan came to a stop and surveyed his collection of charges.  Bergin, the lurcher, stopped a short distance from the group and flopped against the base of a tree, seemingly uninterested in the whole affair.  "Now, first on the list.  With your partner, find a thistle.  Remember, it won't have it's characteristic spikey leaves.  Keep an eye out for the old, dried flower bulb.  Once you find it, use your trowels to dig around it until you've freed the whole root ball.  Then, bring your specimen back for your next assignment."

He smirked at the group.  "Did I mention, there's a prize for the pair that gets through the list first?  Without mangled roots!"     

As far as classes went, Herbology was far from Gwenna's favorite.  When held up in comparison to Charms (Spells! Magic!), Defense Against the Dark Arts (Curses! Hexes! Bad guys!), or even History of Magic (Goblin wars!), talking about something as boring as plants just couldn't compare, even when Professor McDonough swore up and down that they could be as dangerous and deadly as anything else that they might encounter in the forest. 

Gwenna had yet to meet a plant that terrified her.  Subsequently, she spent most Herbology classes doodling pictures of monsters trying to convince her brother Artie to eat his vegetables (the only time she had ever seen plants make someone cry).  The only saving graces were the fact that the course was taught by Professor McDonough, who reminded her of a kindly grandfather, and that they usually had it with Slytherin, which meant that she could surreptitiously watch Lillia Devlin, with whom she was not-so-secretly fascinated, from across the room.

Today, though, it didn't seem that they'd only be learning from books.  Gwenna had perked up the moment that Professor McDonough had led them outside.  The plants themselves might not be any more exciting than they had seemed when she'd had to dully had to take notes on them in her textbook, but the idea of it being a contest meant that it was a suddenly million times more exciting.

"Noah!  Come on!"  In her hurry to begin, Gwenna inadvertently threw an elbow as she launched herself towards the lawn.  She had every intention of winning Professor McDonough's contest, but she hoped that in the process, she would find a fanged aphid.  Bugs that looked like vampires were way more interesting than boring plants, and she and Noah could always sneak it back into the castle to study later.

This was the best sort of herbology class! Hogwarts had all sorts of plants and lands and things. Much more than the little garden at home or even the land her grandparents had. And plants were important for potions, so it wasn't all hard to to find them interesting. Especially the strange, prickly kinds.

She clutched her notes, all wrinkled up and worn from reading, in her hand. They'd be really important, and even with the reward, she wanted to be careful more than fast.  She didn't need anything, not even potion supplies.

Some of the other students had partners already, but Sophia wasn't here and so Rowena had no idea who to ask. So she just turned, gave some of the other students an encouraging grin, and then headed out onto the lawn to look. There were so many plants out there, some of that had to be thistles. And the other ones might be interesting anyway.

For once, an Herbology class that didn't involve them taking notes in the greenhouse. This time, they were tasked to find certain plants. The Gryffindors were paired with the Slytherins for this task. Professor McDonough even promised a reward for the group that finished first, without completely ruining their plants. That was probably the most important part out of all of it.

Holding his slightly wrinkled notes in his hands, Michael looked around at his fellow classmates. Some of them were quick and eager to pair up and find the first plant together. The first plant was apparently to find a thistle, which was observable based on its flower bulb. The remainder would probably be told to them after they found that first plant.

While he was debating in his mind how he was going to start looking for the thistle that they were supposed to find, Mike noticed Rowena already starting off alone. Having a plan was always essential, but having a partner made the work seem less daunting. Usually.

"Hey, Rowena," he started, as he came up from behind his housemate. Before he could fully ask her to be his partner, he thought that he saw a set of leaves on the ground that looked familiar. Lowering himself to the ground to get a closer inspection, the leaves did look like those in his notes! "Oh, a thistle!" he announced, after scraping away a few dead leaves with a gloved hand.

Deaglan followed behind the group of Slytherins and Gryffindors as they spread out across the grounds, wondering briefly if he hadn't made a mistake by pairing the two houses.  Hufflepuffs were, generally, fun loving and easy going.  Ravenclaws' forward momentum could generally be controlled by their need to obsess over details.  Both Gryffindors and Slytherins tended to be driven.  Deaglan McDonough was still rather spry for one who was less than a year away from 95, but this group of students could sure move fast. 

"And, a fine thistle at that," Deaglan remarked, catching up with Knight and Labell.  Despite the extra work out, Deaglan did enjoy the opportunity to work alongside those of his house.  "It looks like it was late to flower last season.  See how the flower didn't quite open up all the way?  You may find it'll need a little more care after transplant." 

Deaglan nodded, encouragingly, to the two youngsters before approaching young Trevelyan.  "How is the hunt going?" he asked the young lady.  "Found anything exciting, yet?"

Oh, Michael! He'd been very nice and proper at the Yule Ball, and he'd found a thistle already. Rowena knelt down beside him, smudging dirt and leaves onto her skirt, and peered at the thistle.

It looked like a very nice thistle, and she'd just started to scrape the dirt away from it when the Professor came up behind them. "I'll take extra care of it."

Before she could ask why it might have flowered late Professor McDonough was off again, and so she returned to cleaning around the thistle, trying to get a good idea of the roots underneath it. "Can you see any bugs? We'd better be extra careful with it."

She might not have been as good at school things as Sophia, but she was still going to try.

As Rowena joined him on the ground by the thistle, Mike was already considering how to extract the plant from the ground without damaging it. That was the whole point of this scavenger hunt after all.

Before he could say anything to Rowena, Professor McDonough was already peering at the thistle. He nodded as the Professor spoke. The plant was a late bloomer last season, which meant the flower didn't open all the way. It would need more care after it was transplanted. Despite that meaning that more work would be done at that time, at least that didn't mean there was extra trouble in extracting the plant. For that matter, it wasn't as if they had to run off to find a new one either.

As quickly as the Professor came up to them, he was gone already after Rowena promised to take extra care of the plant. "Bugs.." he repeated, as he tried to have a better look at the thistle. "I don't see any at this angle. But, we won't know until it is out of the ground I guess."

Taking out a trowel, Mike proceeded to carefully dig the plant out of the ground. He attempted to take extra care to not harm the root ball.