Ishane scanned the greenhouse one last time, making sure that everything was in place before she stepped outside and closed the greenhouse doors behind her. She had spent a great deal of time setting things up for this class, and with good reason. This was the type of lesson that should be an easy one, but it did have the potential to go wrong quickly. The greenhouse's interior had been cleared off all furniture aside from the table at the front, near the entrance. The back of the greenhouse was covered from top to bottom with spiny vines - reminiscent of blackberry vines - that radiated towards the front of the greenhouse along the walls and ceiling. An odd lump here and there underneath the snarl indicated where plants that had been completely entangled were located. All of the buried plants were hardy, woody plants that can take the weight of the vines without breaking. Clusters of creamy pink flowers hung from the vines, perfuming the air with their sweet scent.

She leaned against the wall of greenhouse five, sipping her hot coffee while she waited for the third years to assemble. Ishane kept a mental headcount of the students and when the last person arrived, she set the tumbler down on the ground and stepped in front of the greehouse doors. "Good morning, everyone. I am Professor Blair, your new Herbology teacher. Professor Bombay has been teaching you techniques for cultivating plants this past year, and don't worry, I'll be continuing on that vein."

"As many of you have surmised, Herbology is a very hands on subject. There are many situations where using spells can cause issues with the plants you are trying to use, or can even be dangerous when used around the wrong type of plant. Many potion ingredients must be tended by hand, especially those used for healing potions, as other types of magic can taint the magic of the future potion."

Ishane smiled, "This, ladies and gentlemen," she thumbed at the closed greenhouse doors behind her, "is an example of where magic is not only the wrong solution, but choosing to use magic for this situation can also cause it to become a dangerous one. What we have here is an infestation of baybarb vines, and using magic spells near them will cause them to not only attack those nearby, but also experience a huge surge of growth, thus making the infestation worse. Therefore, you lot are forbidden from using your wands for this. Consider yourselves warned."

"There are five baybarb plants that have taken over the greenhouse. Your assignment today is to remove the infestation with as little damage as possible to yourself and the plants and greenhouse. I've got pruners, shears, loppers and a couple of saws and tree pruners for you inside to use for this."

As the students filed inside the greenhouse she called after them, "And remember, no magic."

---

Baybarb - Also known as Spiny Red
Baybarb is a perennial climbing plant whose vines resemble a blackberry's in appearance and common ivy in growth. It grows very rapidly and thrives best in moist, temperate areas with a long growing season. Bayberry is very volatile towards magic spells cast near it and will react by experiencing a large surge in growth and attack the source of magic, severely injuring people and animals in range and damaging any plants and buildings that are nearby. The plant is considered an invasive species in the northwestern area of North America.

It flowers in  pale pink clusters throughout spring and produces bunches of small burgundy colored berries in late summer. The berries are poisonous if eaten and are used to produce a potent red pigment. Cloth or objects colored with dyes made with bayberry pigment are far more durable than average to normal wear and tear, and is considered one of the better types of dyes for furniture.

Bilius now had two interesting facts to contend with; a, the new professor was certainly a visual improvement over Bombay, especially from the angle he was seeing her at. She was, however, far too tall for his tastes. Graham had been a good height - Bilius wouldn't have needed to stand on a chair to punch him in the eye.

He'd liked Bombay, honestly. He was short, grumpy and generally sour, which suited Bilius fine. He'd been an inspiration that you could get hired and keep a job even if you were cantankerous swill. So much for that role model.

But this new busty professor had handed him something sharp and told him to kill a bunch of plants. That worked for him; it was violent and simple. And no magic...hah. He was ready to put money on the fact that Pepper and Oliver would use magic, because of Murphy's Law or whatever it was.

He set off into the greenhouse, shears in hand, and set to work. Admittedly his first cut took a bit off the innocent plant underneath, but it'd grow back.

Great, another new professor. Naomi rolled her eyes during the lecture and wondered if Snark tried on new teachers like she would shoes, and then got rid of them when they got too beat in; and how this teacher made the drastic assumption that the bulk of Hogwarts Herbology was done with a wand.

Once the new professor was done speaking Naomi walked into the greenhouse and craned her braid woven head around to survey the creeping vines, and then set her green eyes on the table of tools before directing her attention towards Blake, "T''inks we couldn't pick a weed don't she?"

The Slytherin witch wrapped her gloved hands around the handle of a hand saw and turned it so she could eye the jagged blade, "Wish I coulda brought a machete from home--best way to hack at stubborn plants like 'dese," at least if you weren't an idiot and knew how to use one, but her ancestors has utilized them for fighting during the times of slavery and the tradition of wielding a machete hadn't lost momentum since.

 "Tried one out a time..."  a smiled formed on her lips as her hazel eyes mischievously settled on Blake, "Goblin silver."  That was a trip through Jamaica's Cockpit worth the trouble she got into.

She put the flat side of the blade in her palm as she looked around the greenhouse, missing the wild overgrowth of Jamaica and her own home as she spoke with a disappointed tinge,  "T'ink 'dis is as close I'll get?"

Standing near the back of the cluster of students Nikolas stifled a yawn. Why does this class need to be held so earliy in the freaking morning? At least there was something good about this morning, Professor Blair was hot. Way better than Bombay, he smirked.

But still, the class she taught was boring Herbology; the new professor's looks did little to offset his dislike of the subject. He picked up a purner and followed Billy into the snarl and began snipping away at the vines, throwing the cuttings into a pile behind him. "I wonder how long this new Professor will last?"

Billy grunted, his shears chopping at the base of the plants with mixed results. Some of the stalks were a bit thick for the shears, he was finding. Instinctively, he reached for his wand, and only remembered not to when his large wand was at his fingertips.

Right. Let Pepper and Oliver get attacked. Not him. He had enough detentions for now.

"Hmm?" He glanced at Niko as his much taller friend wandered up. "What? Oh. I don't know. A month or two?" He started snipping at the branches of the plant - hoping it was the right one, anyway. It was hard to tell. "Seems to be the average for them these days. Maybe one of them'll get killed sometime, though. That'd at least make having a substitute interestin'."

Winnie was actually a fan of herbology. It did not require as much magic as other classes, which made her less likely to botch things. It was mostly just studying and remembering what plant did what- and then playing in a garden. Yes, the Hufflepuff girl could stomach herbology just fine and didn't mind it so much. So she was a bit more bouncy than the rest of her classmates so early in the morning.

She was slightly surprised to see that Professor Bombay was gone. It seemed that this school year was full of new professors. But his replacement was noticeably less... well, less Bombayish- so that could only mean good things. Professor Bombay had never seemed to be very fond of her. Not that she could blame him. Winifred did have a tendency to get overexcited after all.

The assignment boiled down to pruning, using muggle means, and since the specific instruction was not to use magic Winifred was even more pleased. She would happily forgo magic to do an assignment. The third year filed in with the rest of her classmates, picked up some pruning tools, and made her way to a part of the greenhouse away from others. Especially away from Bilius Goblin-Nose Clogg-Spleen. She looked around for Ambrose or some other friend- hoping that someone she actually liked would join her neck of the woods.

Unfortunately for the rest of the third year class, not all of their peers understood how important it was not to use magic. Some were lazy, and this young student was particularly lazy. Instead of picking up hedgeclippers or other muggle-means of pruning, the boy decided to hell with it- he would use his wand anyway.

Finding a secluded corner, he looked around his shoulders, and then spouted off a few spells, aiming his wand at the plant in a few different places. The plant- in response- shivered wildly, and began to grow wildly. Tendrils shot out, reaching for any student that it could find- intending to stop the pain from the magic.

The young third year who had been wielding the wand to begin with was soon left dangling in the air, screeching. "Get it off me!" he yelled, and then another tendril reached out, taking the boy's wand, and snapped it in half.

Nikolas jumped back as the vines suddenly surged outward and reached for his wrist, "What the -" He suddenly found himself hanging upside down as one of the larger vines he and Billy had been working on wrapped around his legs and lifted himself in the air.

He grunted, attempting to lift himself so he could see if he could cut the vine so he could get down. After several attempts all he managed to do was scrape off a couple of thorns and cut a hole in his pant leg. Panting, he let himself hang, "Billy? Professor? A little help?"

"Get it off me!"

Ishane burst into fountain of swears as she ran towards the back corner of the greenhouse, grabbing her survival knife off of the table. She slid to a stop and began attacking the vines in the snarl that was holding the boy up. The boy screamed as he fell a foot or so when Ish hacked through one of the major support vines, leaving him suspended less than a foot or so off the ground.

"Billy? Professor? A little help?"

Ish glanced up from the vines around the boy's torso at the call, "Be there in a minute Mister Falkenrath." She sliced through the last of the vines sending the boy to the ground. She spotted the boy's broken wand on the floor off to the side of him. Frowning she picked up the wand, before irritatingly dropping the wand in the student's lap, "I assume this is yours. I'll deal with you and your absolute stupidity later."

She spun on her heel and dashed towards Nikolas. She grabbed his arm pulled him closer to the ground so she could get at the vine at his ankles. "Don't move Falkenrath, I don't want to accidentally cut you." He stared at her from his half slumped posture on the ground. He swallowed, "Yeah, no problem."