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Ishane let the large bucket of general potting soil down with a soft thunk, and set a large scoop on top. She nudged the bucket back up against the wall with her foot. It sat next to two other nearly identical buckets containing pebbles and larger river stones, each neatly labeled with what the bucket contained on the side. A large table dominated the opposite wall, covered in neat piles of labeled materials that the students would be needing for the class.

She dusted her hands off and smiled at the chatter of the first years as they filed in and surrounded the large  table that had been placed in the middle Greenhouse 1. Spaced evenly around the table were several large glass bowls on metal stands, with a small trowel off to the side of each. The bowl at the head of the table was filled with dirt and plant life - the small blue flowers inside were moving subtly, seeming to look at certain students.  Ishane stripped off her jacket, laying it on an old chair stuffed into the corner, and stood at the table's head in front of the finished terrarium, and a few of the blue flowers tilted up to look at her. She watched as the children filed in, and jocked for position with a small smile.

When the students settled down, she shut the greenhouse door with a wave of her wand. "I am Professor Blair, Professor Bombay's permanent replacement. No doubt most of you have guessed already that he was no longer coming back. The reasons why he is no longer your teacher are, to be honest, unimportant right now. But if you're curious, I'm sure that Hogwarts' prolific grapevine will fill you in later." She and Tapendra and the others had certainly had a ball guessing just a few weeks before, though she suspected the real reason was far more mundane than their beer-aided guesswork.

"Professor Bombay has been teaching you about various plants and their usage this past year. Now's the time to put that all to the test, but in a fun way." She tapped on the sides of the bowl in front of her, which caused the flowers to twitch, "We're going to be making terrariums. You'll select a group of plants that have a common theme. This theme can range from very general, such as the plants all being used for food, to very specific, such as plants used for a specific potion."

She gestered to the side table, which was covered with small pots of plants and seedlings, each labled with a small wooden stick. "The plants you'll use are over there. There are enough of each type for all of you, and they're all labled so there shouldn't be any mix ups. I want you to to use different five plants for your theme, though you can use more than one of any. You can use more plants, and the additional plants don't have to match the theme, but you must use at least five." She smirked, "And be prepaired to defend your choices if need be."

"You'll be using the glass bowls in front of you. They have been charmed to be unbreakable, so don't worry about that. The soil and rocks that you'll be using are in the buckets next to the table. The large rocks and pebbles will make the base of your terrarium."

She leaned over and tapped on the glass next to each layer in her example pot, "As you can see here, the bottom layer will be large stones. For the middle layer you'll want the small pebbles, and then the potting soil. This arrangement is best to allow exess water to drain from the soil, and mimics the actual soil and bedrock arrangement found outside. Beyond this, feel free to go wild with your designs. You're pretty much getting free reign over what plants you want to use, and how you want your terrarium to look."

She leaned back on her heels. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If not - get to it."

No more Bombay. Charles was conflicted about if that was a good thing or not. This lesson wuld likely tell, although it made him wonder if the curse legend said was on the DADA position had somehow spread to the other positions. Were there any teachers save the Headmistress left from the beginning of the year? Regardless, he grabbed a container for his terranium and got to work, first putting in as layer of large rocks and pebbles, then a layer of smaller pebbles, then the actual soil. Then he started thinking about what theme he should have.

Though Eirene beamed at the new professor and tried to look as attentive as possible, she wasn't sure how she felt about Professor Bombay leaving. He'd been the Ravenclaw Head of House, and he'd just started to like her, Eirene thought, and she understood his grouchy attitude now.

She studied the new professor with frank curiosity and a little bit of criticism, noting that she looked young and pretty, like Professor Vaillancourt, but smiled more and already seemed casual and comfortable in the greenhouse.

Eirene wanted to like her. But she was dressed like a muggle. A Professor! In class! Wearing jeans! Eirene was suddenly reminded of Professor Trishna with his bare feet and odd t-shirts.

Listening to the assignment, Eirene glanced around, already picking out which plants and things she wanted to do for the terrarium. Her excitement for the project outweighed any nervousness or skepticism about the new professor, and as soon as Professor Blair told them they could go forth and collect their materials, she bounced straight to it. 

Eirene walked as fast as she could to the rocks and pebbles, in a funny power-walk-but-I'm-not-quite-running way. She had a frantic look about her that suggested she'd imbibed too much sugar, but she was really just anxious to get started. Eirene had to pick out the perfect rocks! The best soil! The right ingredients! And do it all before anyone else could!

But some slowpoke was in her way! He was standing right in front of the rocks, and he was going to pick out the best ones before she could if she didn't do something about it.

"Erik Collins!" She whispered, frowning at him. Eirene always seemed to address him by both his first and last name, in a tone that meant he was in trouble, or would be very soon.

"Please move over," Eirene put her hands on her hips. At home during the spring holiday, her mother had talked to her about etiquette and remembering her manners at school, even with the children that Eirene didn't like. So yes, Eirene said please. Of course, her tone was still snooty and she was about ready to brush past him in two seconds if he didn't listen, but she'd said please, so that counted, didn't it?

New pretty professors to nuisance, new class projects--same 'ole Eirene.

• "Erik Collins!"

Somehow Erik's world kept spinning and he continued his mundane task of painstakingly collecting pebbles in a corner of the Herbology greenhouse and dropping them into a cup.

• "Please move over,"

The little brunnette Gryffindor ceased his pebble picking and raised his head, wondering if he heard correctly. Please? From little Miss Eirene? Although the 'move over' really just kept Erik glued to his position in front of his pile of rocks.

"Sorry," he turned his head to the side to glance at Eirene curiously, with his nose playfully turned up, "I'm busy collecting rocks, for my plant-fishbowl." He turned back and started plopping pebbles into his cup with less speed than before, "you will have to wait a few more minutes," the glee tickling the back of his voice was nearly uncontainable, and threatening to turn into laughing. He didn't know why Eirene was at this corner of the greenhouse, but he sure wasn't going to start off the class letting her get her way.

Eirene's eyes bugged out of her head. She'd said please, and this awful little Gryffindor seemed to be moving slower than before!

"It's called a terrarium. Weren't you listening?" Eirene shook her head, continuing on without giving him a chance to answer that.

"You're supposed to move over! I need to pick out the right pebbles! You can't hog them all!"

Eirene put one foot closer to the rocks, and tried using her hip to nudge him over. She didn't even consider that she could simply collect the soil or the plants first, avoiding Erik altogether.

The new teacher was certainly a visual improvement over Bombay, that was for sure. Even if that oddly cut shirt didn't seem practical around the greenhouse. Wouldn't she get dirt down her...well, down her?

And why were they gardening in a pot, exactly? What was it for, Fairies? Well, whatever, he could just shove a bunch of plants in there. Maybe she had some plants that'd fight each other; that'd be cool. They could place bets on the fights, see who won.

With that theme in mind he joined the crowd around the table, listening to Eirene's squeals at Erik. Erik was in the way, admittedly; thankfully Tynan had a much better way of getting to the pebbles than Eirene.

"Move," he said gruffly, and shouldered Erik aside to get past him, ignoring Eirene. He grabbed a cup of pebbles, holding Erik aside with one arm before he released him and shoved his way to the larger rocks and soil.

 In the confusion of nudging and pushing aside between Eirene and Tynan, Erik felt like his personal space was being invaded upon. It was one thing if Tynan had simply asked Erik to scoot over, he was more obliging to his Gryffindor counterparts than he was to little miss Bossy, but another thing to be manhandled.

 "Hey!" as Tynan pushed him aside, Erik did a very 12-year-old boy thing and retaliated; his foot immediately slammed towards Tynan's shin, a great target (Erik learned from his small height,)  on any person, regardless of size, or who was the better brawler (which was Tynan.)

Then he finished filling his cup of pebbles and stood up, but he didn't tell Eirene that, and turned on her, "I'm not hogging anything, you're just being impatient," he added as snootily and Erienely as he could manage, "Waiting is a virtue," and something Erik himself was usually incapable of doing.

Ishane rubbed the bridge of her nose in irritation, 'Tappy had said they're a good, high spirited bunch. But that's Tappy; Ryan will be happy to know that his translation was completely accurate. Looks like I am going to have to bring in that set of cones in.'

"Miss Antonopoulos, if some one is already using the item you want, I expect you to wait patiently for them to finish. That goes for you as well, Mister MacFusty. And Mister Collins, you should gather your materials and move out of the way quickly as there are many others that need to gather their own pebbles, not just those you dislike."

'Maybe pointing out that he's causing problems for those that he does care about will make him more inclined to play nice,' Ishane mused. 'Were we this bad with Professor Sprout? I don't think so. At least, she amended, 'we were when we were first years.'

"Oh, and Mister Collins," Ishane gave the boy a half smile, "the correct phrase you're looking for is 'patience is a virtue'. If you are trying to school someone it might help if you use the correct wording." Her smile morphed into a full on smirk, "Less opportunity for it to backfire on you, no?"

"But I am done," he shook his cup of pebbles with a modest smile as he stepped aside to the next bucket. Really the teacher was like two feet taller than him, (or something,) she could see his cup was filled couldn't she?

Then the teacher proceeded to comment on some idiom he said. Apparently waiting and patience were different enough words to backfire on him... Erik's eyebrows popped up and he let out a flat, "Huh?" Was this teacher snobby or something? Waiting or patience were the same things to the Gryffindor; one was jut a noun and the other was a verb, who cares if he got it right. This wasn't english class, this was herbology. So Erik turned to scoop up a cup of dirt from the next bucket, looking at Eirene while casually continuing on,  "What difference does it make? Eirene was still being mean."

Eirene stood there, mouth hanging open, when Tynan simply shouldered Erik aside and picked out the pebbles before she could. No, no, no! That was not fair!

She was just about to tattle loudly on both of them for the shoving and the kicking, when Erik called her impatient and the teacher stepped in.

Her eyes widened at the professor's mild scolding. "I'm sorry, Professor Blair!" Eirene told her, refusing to grant the same courtesy towards the other students unless asked specifically to do so.

She planted herself (no pun intended) in front of the pebbles, picking out each one with painstaking care, and frowning at Erik when he claimed she was being mean.

"I am not! You're the one who didn't listen to me when I asked you very nicely to move!" Eirene shook her head and let out a huff, glancing at the professor to see if she was paying attention and what her opinion was.

Ishane raised an eyebrow, clearly not fooled by Erik's protests of innocence, "If you were done then why were you blocking everyone from being able to get to the pebbles?" Her question remained unanswered as Erik and Eirene started accusing the other as being the one in the wrong. She quickly cut off the pending argument, "At this point it doesn't matter who started it. Both of you are in the wrong in this case on top of the two of you behaving like brats."

She loomed over the two of them, her frown morphing into a very shark like smile, "And if the two of  you continue with this behavior, measures will be taken to correct it. And I assure you that this is not something to take lightly. If you are curious, I'm sure that Cyhirae  or Professor Trishna could tell you a few war stories about what will happen if you choose to ignore my warning."

Ishane turned to the rest of the class considering the matter closed, but kept an eye on the two of them, mentally cataloging their behavior to what she had already been told by the other teachers. Eirene, she had been informed, was a bit of a snob and very much a brown noser. Her threat should keep the girl in line, no matter how Eirene might feel about her classmates. Erik, however, was a prankster and most likely would take a much more obivous show of force to reign him in. At the very least, having him run a few suicide sprints as a punishment would leave him too exhasted to get into mischief.

Now Erik didn't like this teacher anymore. Not only was he completely clueless as to what she was arguing about anymore, or what he even did, she was being even more snooty, and just lost him in the conversation. It was a bunch of stupid rocks and he had barely stood in front of the bucket for two seconds before Miss snob of the first years told him to move, "Who the hell cares? It's a bunch of rocks," he said with an irritated look on his face, "no one else was bothered by my standing in front of the bucket for five seconds."

The first time he honestly didn't do anything and a teacher got onto his case about it? All the war stories and detentions in the world wouldn't change his mind about that--jf there were two things that Erik never learned from it was being punished or threatened: it was about as effective as a lesson as Eirene asking him to move.

Erik, instead, shot Eirene a nasty look and scooped up the rest of the materials from the other buckets before taking it over to his glass bowl to look for plants.

Eirene wilted, hurt when the professor called her a brat. She opened her mouth, confused by the harsh reaction, but then focused on doing what she was told. Eirene shook her head when Erik talked back, expecting the professor to follow through on her threat.

What in the world had Professor Blair done to Cyhirae and Professor Trishna to make her talk of war stories? She didn't know they all knew each other, and could only assume the Herbology professor had taken over the Astronomy tower or something. Eirene collected the last of the pebbles and started to move on to another station, risking a worried glance at the professor as she passed by. Maybe she had Professor Storm and Professor Austerlitz hidden in her hair. Two craggy faces right on the back of her head. It would explain a lot!

Heliotrope waited in the back of the line for pebbles and the ensuing scuffle. As some pebbles scattered she bent to pick them up. She knew what she would pick for her theme. Underwater plants, which she'd known about her whole life. In fact...

...she had extra lake-weed from her project over the weekend. Skipping the line for pebbles she returned to her bowl and began to line it with the green tendrils.

"Who the hell cares? It's a bunch of rocks," he said with an irritated look on his face, "no one else was bothered by my standing in front of the bucket for five seconds."

'Is he that oblivious, or just in denial about his actions? Ishane's eyebrow twitched, Whatever. If he continues with this he's gone.' She didn't even turn to look at Erik as she addressed him. "So glad you feel that way Mister Collins," Ishane said crisply, her voice thick with sarcasm. "Five points from Gryffindor for your language, and if you continue to push this matter there will be further punishment. Consider yourself warned for the final time."

At least she had judged correctly about how Eirene would react. As the girl walked past and glanced at her, Ishane nodded her head and gave her a small (and hopefully encouraging) smile. Ishane didn't want Eirene to loose her enthusiasm, but Ishane needed the girl to know that her snobbery towards her classmates wouldn't be tolerated.

Speaking of classmates, Ishane watched as one of them, Heliotrope LeJean, filled her bowl with with some sort of plant she didn't recognize. Curiosity getting the best of her, Ishane walked closer. The plant Heliotrope was using was some sort of freshwater species, and, given how fresh it was, it probably was from the lake. "Where did you get these Miss LeJean? They are not one of the plants I provided."