<s>Advanced</s> CATS Prep Herbology on Herbology

Nathan Xavier

March 18, 2017 7:25 PM

<s>Advanced</s> CATS Prep Herbology by Nathan Xavier

Advanced Herbology at Sonora still did not resemble what Advanced Herbology should look like, however it was beginning to look a lot closer compared to last year. They were now solidly past the beginner topics and he planned to have everyone fifth year and older take their CATS at the end of this year so next year, Advanced classes could actually begin to cover RATS level material.

It was a relatively small class, too, which would help propel them through the remaining intermediate topics that he had not yet covered with them. "Hello," he greeted them as they arrived in Greenhouse Two, the smaller of his two greenhouses. The tropical plants that had filled it last semester were no longer in evidence, but some more dangerous and magical plants had begun to fill the Advanced classroom. "Please take a seat out of reach of the Devil's Snare, please," he advised.

Once everyone had arrived, he addressed them as a group. "Welcome to what your class schedule calls Advanced Herbology. In the interest of accuracy, I'm going to call it CATS Prep Herbology instead." He started handing out syllabi with that title. "Our goal this year is to get all of you ready to pass your CATS. You will have all had three years of Herbology by the end of this year, and we have been covering the material at an accelerated rate, so I think you all will be in a good position for the test by then, so I have high hopes for all of you."

He opted not to mention the seventh years who took it last year with far less preparation, as neither had managed to pass, but he was still was pretty proud of both of them for trying. He was sure both Clark Dill and Chaslyn Brockert had both received the lowest grades they had ever seen in their lives, but Nathan was downright impressed with them, given the short time frame they'd had to learn five years worth of material all while keeping up with heavy loads of RATS courses, clubs, captaining a Quidditch team, and performing the duties of Head Girl, prefect and library Head Monitors. They'd done very well under their circumstances, but he didn't really think hearing that Clark Dill and Chaslyn Brockert had only gotten Ps and Ds would encourage anybody present about their own exams.

"We should finish up the new topics by March, and after that we will start taking practice tests to see which areas we need more review in. So with that in mind, we're going to dive right into the carnivorous plant unit."

He clapped his hands together cheerfully, pleased to have finally reached some interesting plants to cover. "You can start by working together to compile a list of all the carnivorous plants you can think of. These can be as simple as ordinary non magical plants that trap and digest insects, right up the the magical trees that can swallow small dragons whole. This isn't going to be graded, I just want to know how much you already collectively know."

"We'll discuss everything you come up with as a class in fifteen minutes, but in the meantime, break into pairs to think about it together and jog your memories."

OOC: Welcome back to another year of classes! You all know the drill by now. Just give a shout if the Devil's Snare grabs you.

1 Nathan Xavier <s>Advanced</s> CATS Prep Herbology 28 Nathan Xavier 1 5

John Umland, Aladren

March 21, 2017 7:31 PM

Making my contribution. by John Umland, Aladren

John was a tad nervous about going to the first meeting of Herbology, and this feeling had nothing to do with the presence of Devil’s Snare in the Advanced greenhouse. Instead, it was because of the teacher, a sentiment John would have rated Xavier the teacher least likely to inspire in him before the first day of school. On that day, John had nearly gotten into a fistfight with one of Xavier’s Teppenpaws and had then not succeeding in completely talking said Teppenpaw’s way out of trouble, and Julian and Joe had both occasionally given him the impression that their House was a slightly cult-like den of close-knit pleasantness. Of course, they had both agreed, in happier times, that being an Aladren sounded like being in the Illuminati, but that was just teasing. Teppenpaws were genuinely, he was increasingly convinced, a little scary as a rule. He had initially chalked Joe up to Joe being, after all, his biological brother on top of everything else, but Julian had gone out of her way to make it clear to him over the summer that there really was no telling what lay behind those placid smiles. Xavier could very well be planning to punish him slowly, over the course of a year, in ways the headmaster’s toy collection never could, if only for being the root cause of the inconvenience Xavier had no doubt experienced because of Joe’s temper tantrum.

If Xavier had such plans on the boil, though, he didn’t indicate it as he passed out syllabi and made remarks, which John’s brain skimmed and then rejected as irrelevant data he did not need to remember, about CATS. Unfortunately, these remarks were then followed by a less agreeable combination of words: working together.

There were two people in this room who, in theory, John wished to speak with. One was Sammy Meeks, to inquire where his roommate and roommate’s sister were. The other was Aislinn, who was his friend to talk to about interesting things now that Clark was gone and Joe was shunning him. He had no objection to Ginger Pierce, either – she was an opponent, sure, but they had no direct interactions on the Pitch and were therefore, as far as he knew, okay with each other. In theory, this was a good thing – they were all presumably at least somewhat interested in the subject (unless, of course, Ginger or Sammy was the creep who’d written the creepy note of creepiness last year, but he…doubted this, somehow), which meant talking as a group about it could be fun. Now that he was ordered to do so, though, he found his throat attempting to close with some unspecified but violently unwelcome emotion and he wanted to be left alone.

Since that wasn’t an option, though, he cleared his throat roughly. “There’s Venomous Tentacula,” he said. There. He’d made a contribution. Someone else was sure to mention Venus Flytraps, the only mundane carnivorous plant he could think of offhand, and while he had read a few interesting tidbits on the margins of his Poland project last year, he had officially made his contribution and could now indulge his desire not to talk to people and just take notes over what everyone else said.

16 John Umland, Aladren Making my contribution. 285 John Umland, Aladren 0 5