Nathan Xavier
April 14, 2021 6:19 PM
Intermediate Herbology: Leaping Toadstools by Nathan Xavier
Nathan Xavier stood before the Intermediate Class in Greenhouse One, the larger of Sonora's two greenhouses, and the one that didn't contain plants that might try to kill a wizard. Greenhouse Two was strictly for Advanced students, and occasionally just the fifth years of this class, though none of these fifth years had been given that opportunity yet. Soon though, if he could convince himself Anya Delachene wouldn't end up climbing a magic beanstalk, disappearing into giant territory, and getting both Sonora Academy as well as his own self personally sued for losing a student.Not that Greenhouse Two currently had a magic beanstalk, but his nightmares didn't seem willing to acknowledge that reality.
Greenhouse One, on the other hand, had a variety of plant life on its shelves that were much less likely to cause injury, death, or disappearance, as this was where both Beginners and Intermediates were taught, and even the mildly to moderately harmful plants that were studied in intermediates were generally not stored here when they were not under direct observation by the class.
He had already handed back their quizzes from last week when they arrived - the ones that had scored well got rewarded with happy drawings by Dora next to their grade: smiling suns, colorful flowers, bright stars, or (when he hadn't been paying enough attention to what she was using as art supplies) glittery fireworks (his entire office currently glimmered in ways not even cleaning charms could fix and all of the other quiz papers had been contaminated as well). The ones that didn't score quite so well had corrections and words of encouragement (and rogue glitter).
Now, he was clearing his throat to get their attention. Intermediates seemed to be the hardest class to do that with, probably because they were the largest class, though their age probably played a role in it as well. Once he had enough people quiet and looking his way, he started talking, and hoped the rest would follow suit. "Most of you should remember the Leaping Toadstood seeds we planted at the beginning of the term. They've now sprouted, just in time for our unit on Mobile Plants."
He pointed his wand at one of the racks of planting trays and started distributing them amongst the students. "It doesn't matter if you get your original tray or not," he added, in case there was concern when students recognized their own tray in front of somebody else. "The important part is that you have mature toadstools to study in front of you." Everyone had done quite well in the 'seed planting review' their first day back, and all of the trays had resulted in good crops.
"We're going to spend the first fifteen minutes with hands on examination of the mushrooms, then we'll have a class discussion about what we've observed and what purposes these toadstools can have for wizards. So go ahead and spend some time taking some notes about the toadstools. You may touch, measure, even pull them out of the dirt - that's when you'll best see how they got their name." He smiled, anticipating some surprised shrieks when the mushrooms tried to leap away and replant themselves when someone attempted to pick it. "Feel free to talk amongst yourselves, just try to keep it mostly about Leaping Toadstools."
Subthreads: I will take leaping toadstools over lizards anyday. by Valentine Duell with Gabriel Wilson
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Nathan Xavier
Intermediate Herbology: Leaping Toadstools
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Valentine Duell
April 17, 2021 1:07 PM
I will take leaping toadstools over lizards anyday. by Valentine Duell
Valentine greeted Professor Xavier cheerfully as usual upon entering the greenhouse and accepted her quiz. Upon examining it, she was delighted to see that he had awarded her excellence with glitter! There were also some adorable doodles that she assumed were from Dora. There were also a few minor corrections noted, but not to many this time. She was doing okay in this class so far, which was good because she really didn't want to disappoint her head of house... or really anyone else for that matter. She wondered if anyone else had gotten glitter in celebration of their academic achievements.Val tucked the quiz away as the professor began class. In a moment she had a toadstool tray in front of her that she was pretty sure wasn't the one she had planted. The professor said that didn't matter, but she'd kinda like to see how hers was doing. She'd sung quietly to it when she had 'put it to bed' in the tray and now wondered if that had helped it grow big and mushroomy. She wasn't convinced this one had been sung to, it looked a little... sad? It was drooping a bit to the one side.
"It's okay little toadstool," she whispered to it, "Sometimes we don't have the best of days, but things can get better." Val smiled, "I'll try to take good care of you." Then she turned back to her neighbor. "How does your toadstool look? Also, did you get exciting glitter on your quiz?"
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Valentine Duell
I will take leaping toadstools over lizards anyday.
1490
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Gabriel Wilson
May 06, 2021 5:17 PM
I don't know, lizards are cool by Gabriel Wilson
Gabriel was pleased to see that he had gotten a perfect score on his quiz as he often did, considering his excessive knowledge of trivia that could actually be practically applied in such situations. While certainly some people probably thought his tendencies towards trivia spiels were,well, irritating, it certainly served him well when it came to grades. Of course, for the most part the Aladren was completely, blissfully unaware that anyone thought he was annoying because of his way of spouting off trivia at the drop of a hat. It would never occur to him that someone might not be interested in facts that were so interesting to him.He also noted that not only was there a bright star next to his perfect score, surely courtesy of Dora Xavier, there was also some random glitter sprinkled here and there, probably also courtesy of the child. Of course, the star made him think of stars generally speaking, which was far more interesting to him. Like that there were 9096 stars that were visible to the naked eye and only two thousand stars were visible at any given time under the best conditions.
Professor Xavier began the lesson and Gabriel put his paper away. As he got a tray and the professor mentioned that they weren't necessarily getting back their own, the natural question in his mind was that he wondered just exactly whose tray he'd gotten. The fourth year, of course, had done everything completely by the book because he was certain that was the right way to get the best results. And better results meant better grades, not to mention more effective potions resulting from better ingredients. Although, the first potion that came to mind that used Leaping Toadstools was Barffulio's Brain Elixer, which Gabriel didn't see being made in potions class any time soon. He was sure that Professor Brooding-Hawthorne probably thought it was unethical or something and he wasn't sure he agreed. After all, he didn't think most potions or spells-the Unforgivables were an example of an exception- were unethical in themselves, they could just be used in that way by unethical people.
However, Gabriel didn't really have time to think about ethics-which was fine with him, as he generally preferred facts, given that they were more straightforward and less open to interpretation and therefore, less likely to cause an argument-when Val asked him a question.He peered down at his toadstool. It looked....big. Bigger than what was a standard size for Leaping Toadstools. Like obviously bigger. "I think someone overfed mine or gave it the wrong kind of food." Gabriel replied. "It'll make more potions, I guess, but I mean, it's also discolored so I'm not sure how good they'd be. It seems like it's unhealthy. And yea." He added. "There were some stray bits of it."
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Gabriel Wilson
I don't know, lizards are cool
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Valentine Duell
May 09, 2021 10:48 AM
I suppose.... by Valentine Duell
Valentine was pleased to see Gabriel next to her. She always liked sitting with gaming club people, or Art club people, or... any club people... or even non-club people. As he talked, as usual she could not find fault with his logic. So, she nodded along as he examined his mushroom. It was awful big, and the coloring did look a little different from the book. "I must not be to bad though," She commented in reply. "Professor Xavier probably wouldn't have given it to you if was a lost cause. Maybe we can figure out how to fix it's color." She smiled at him which she thought clearly conveyed the meaning that he could probably figure it out, and she would help however she could and encourage him on if necessary. "Mine just looks a little sad.""Oh", she exclaimed quietly as her mind whirled about semi-randomly, "What are you thinking with the whole gaming club thing? Are you going to submit an application for club president for next year?" Gabriel would probably make a good president, he knew a lot of stuff and was really good with details. "It's going to be weird not having Ness and Evelyn around next year..." Her voice drifted off, she'd tried to not think about that to much. She was going to miss them.
She looked over her mushroom again, best to do some class things, she didn't want Professor Xavier to think she was slacking off. "The coloring on mine seems okay..." she ran her finger along the mushroom. They were supposed to pull them out, so she did so, or at least tried. She let out a small shriek as the mushroom tore away from her grasp and landed back into the pot.
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Valentine Duell
I suppose....
1490
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5