Plants, got it. on Herbology

Nathan Xavier

December 23, 2022 6:37 PM

Beginners: Welcome to Herbology by Nathan Xavier

It was the first Herbology lesson of the school year, and Professor Nathan Xavier stood just outside Greenhouse One, to welcome the new first years and welcome back the returning second years, and also to prevent anyone from going inside the swelteringly hot greenhouse where they were nominally supposed to hold their class today.

Once it looked like he had the full class, he smiled at them and started with an introduction. "Hello, I am Professor Xavier, sometimes called Professor X," mostly that was Phil Carson, but he wasn't the first to make the X-Men reference and Nathan doubted he would be the last. He trusted nobody would confuse him with the fictional Charles, given Nathan still had a full head of hair, did not have a wheelchair, and didn't know any Legilimency. "And this is Herbology. Normally, we meet in there, which is Greenhouse One. Greenhouse Two is a little further down this path, you can just about see it over the hedge there," he pointed along the main path they would have continued to go down if they hadn't stopped when they saw him. "Greenhouse Two is for Advanced students, so until you pass your CATS, you'll primarily be meeting me right here." He gestured again at Greenhouse One.

"Unfortunately, it is very hot in there right now, so we generally have the first couple of lessons out in the Gardens here, where we have plenty of other plants to look at and learn about. For this first class of the year, I'm going to take you all on a tour of our labyrinth. Everyone, please take a handout," he waved his wand to distribute the day's assignment among the group. "What you should have just received is a hand out with the names of fifteen plants we have growing in our Labyrinth, and pictures of them to help you find them in the wild, as it were. Your job today is to find those fifteen plants as we walk around. Go ahead and call it out when you spot one, and you'll earn your House a point for each plant you identify before anyone else. But before we do that, let me just take attendance and make sure we have everyone." He would periodically need to do a headcount to make sure he hadn't lost anybody as they walked, and it would be good to have an accurate number to compare it to. "Say here when I say your name. Arcadius, Quillan!"

Once he had confirmed he had a list of everyone who was present, he stepped closer to the door of the Greenhouse, and opened it. "We're going to make a big circle through the Labyrinth and visit several of the larger landmarks in our Gardens. We should get back here in plenty of time for you to get to your next class. You may leave your bags and robes here in the Greenhouse, if you like, or you can take them with you."

After everyone who wanted to leave robes and bags behind had deposited them just inside the door, he started along the path toward Greenhouse Two. "Follow me please, and don't wander off or fall behind. You may talk amongst yourselves, but do remember to look for the plants, and listen when I'm talking."

He had already talked about Greenhouse Two, so he didn't say much for the first couple of minutes, but when a student spotted one of the plants on their list, he marked it off on his own copy and noted which student (or students, if there was a tie) had identified it and gave a little information about each of those plants. He also noted landmarks and when they reach a crossroad of paths, he described whether the routes they weren't taking would lead them deeper into the labyrinth or back toward the school, and some of the handy clues that would help them figure that out themselves if they got lost, such as that some paths leading toward the school had honking daffodils planted there to help draw attention to them, while fanged geraniums were often a warning that taking that path would lead you farther from the safety of the school.

It was a good day for a walk. Very warm, of course - this was still technically summer - but not horrendously so, though he had decided to leave his own robes in the Greenhouse, so that helped. He was wearing his wide brimmed wizard's hat to protect his eyes from the sun - which was very bright today, without a cloud in the sky - and wondered belatedly if he should have made that recommendation to the students as well.

He tried to set a pace that was easy for everyone to keep up with, and enjoyed eavesdropping on the conversations going on around him as he tried to get a sense of his newest students. He was also happy to answer any questions the students posed as they walked along.

OOC: Hello, and welcome to Sonora and to Herbology. This is a pretty loose lesson, so you can post about the walk, finding a plant, asking the professor questions, or just talking to your classmates.

Subthreads:

I feel very welcome! by Quillan Arcadius with Nausicaa Scapetello

If you chat with your neighbor, does that make this a walkie-talkie? by Lyla Holland with Charlotte O'Malley

Questions for the professor by Leo Lyons

Plants, got it. by Ida Stanford with Donovan Peters

1 Nathan Xavier Beginners: Welcome to Herbology 28 1 5

Quillan Arcadius

December 23, 2022 8:04 PM

I feel very welcome! by Quillan Arcadius

So far, Quillan was surviving his classes. It was early days yet, and there were probably several conversations he needed to have with Professor Wright to make sure things continued working out for him, but so far nothing that called an unpleasant amount of the wrong type of attention to him had happened.

As he listened to the introductory speech for their first herbology lesson, that trend looked set to continue. The day’s class sounded very practical, and that whatever little element of writing that was going to be involved could be forgiven for being done incredibly badly, given that they would be doing it on the go. It was one of Quillan’s go to defence mechanisms when he was required to write by hand in front of others to just make it as scrawling and illegible as possible so they wouldn’t see the spelling mistakes. Whilst poor handwriting was mildly scandalous in and of itself, it was a far lesser crime than being a poor speller. Besides, he had mastered the art of making his writing look calligraphic and impressive—on occasion, it had the nature of being impossible to read because it was so refined.

He opted to leave his bag and his robes. He suspected they wouldn’t be doing too much digging through rough patches, otherwise the Professor would have forewarned them, and thus he wouldn’t really need his robes to protect him. It was a pleasant day out, and much nicer to walk without the uniform weighing him down.

He stayed near the front of the group, both to better hear Professor Xavier, and also to increase his chances of being the first to spot something on their list. He made mental notes about the paths, but didn’t seem to need to do much more than tick off the plants when they reached them. He kept an eye on his neighbours and on Professor Xavier, making sure he made comparable notes as he didn’t want to look like a slacker, though he was fairly sure that retracing their steps through the garden would do more to jog his memory than any of his own written notes. It was a good way to learn, moving about, attaching the mental notes to a physical space… He didn’t suppose all their classes would be like this, but it was definitely a good start.

“Sir? There’s some knotgrass,” he pointed out, when they passed a patch of it growing around the base of a tree.

Once it had been marked off, he felt he could relax a little, having contributed to the class.

“It’s good to be outdoors for a bit,” he smiled at his neighbour.

13 Quillan Arcadius I feel very welcome! 1570 0 5

Lyla Holland

December 23, 2022 11:22 PM

If you chat with your neighbor, does that make this a walkie-talkie? by Lyla Holland

The gardens looked different when they weren't trying to kill you.

Admittedly, as a first year, there hadn't been anything in her path that would have seriously harmed her during the Challenges last year. It had felt like it at the time, though, her heart pounding with every step, peeking around each corner to see what sort of spells she would need to use, paranoid that she was going to get lost. Of course, she'd been lost the moment she'd stepped into the maze, so getting more lost was hardly the problem. She'd gotten through relatively unscathed- minus the bruise on her nose where she'd blundered into an age line.

The Labyrinth Garden had been returned to normal, and although Lyla knew there were dangerous things inside, she also knew the areas to avoid. Essentially, it was like the Professor had told them-honking good, fangs bad. She'd spent much of her free time last year exploring the gardens, familiarizing herself with its twists and turns. She had no intention of wandering on today's lesson, though.

"That's Dittany, sir!" Lyla called out to Professor Xavier, pointing to a batch of silvery-green leaves with delicate pink flowers. Herbology was one of her favorite subjects, and One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi was one of the only schoolbooks she read outside of studying.

A point for Crotalus was a bonus on top of the fun she was having. It was nice to get outside before the weather cooled off, and she was glad she'd dropped her robe and her bag off before they had started their tour. The sun was warm on her skin, and she knew it would have been stifling and sweaty if she had been wearing another layer. She checked Dittany off on her paper before moving aside to let the other students get a look.

"It's sort of a fun class today, isn't it?" she asked the student at her elbow, "It's like a treasure hunt."

64 Lyla Holland If you chat with your neighbor, does that make this a walkie-talkie? 1559 0 5

Leo Lyons

December 24, 2022 12:08 AM

Questions for the professor by Leo Lyons

Leo's first impression of Professor Xavier was that he was a cool kind of teacher that made X-Men references and was fine with kids not wearing their robes in not-quite-sweltering weather. He deposited his bag inside the greenhouse, which was indeed far too hot to work in, pulling out a notepad and a quill. Thinking again, he tucked a second notepad and quill in his pocket for when Donovan inevitably asked to borrow one. His friend was smart, but being prepared was not his modus operandi.

Striking out on the expedition with his class, Leo noticed that despite being in the middle of Arizona, the garden was lush and green. He heard a couple of students call out different plants that he wasn't familiar with. He marked them down on his paper, declining to take notes since he already had decent pictures of each plant.

Plants were interesting and all, but Leo had other questions, that he wasn't entirely certain that Professor Xavier could answer.

"Professor, how often does it rain here? Everything seems to be growing abnormally well for a desert. What sort of weather charms are there?"

He knew there had to be charms for the gardens to grow the way they were; his father had been doing something similar for their farming community pretty much since the Lyons' had moved in, ushering in a prosperous harvest after a couple of years of drought. Luckily for the Statute of Secrecy, nobody had put together that Herbert Lyons doing complicated spells was behind the boom in the soybean crops. Leo was curious if Sonora used the same spells as his father, and whether someone had to recast the charms on a regular basis, or if someone was just in charge of making it rain whenever they felt like it.

64 Leo Lyons Questions for the professor 1568 0 5

Nausicaa Scapetello

December 24, 2022 10:01 AM

That's lovely. by Nausicaa Scapetello

Nausicaa steeled herself against the impending nonsense that was 'herbology'. In her opinion, this was one of the most useless classes. It was also one of the dirtiest. The only redeeming aspect was that it was ridiculously easy and gave her more time to focus on the more proper and difficult classes without hurting her academic record.

The professor was waiting for them outside. Thank Merlin the man had at least that much sense. She didn't care to try and imagine how hot it must be inside the greenhouse. Fortunately she wasn't early so she did not need to wait around long before he started.

Nausicaa mostly ignored his opening introduction. She did her best to look bored and check her nails. Being in a class with first years was annoying. However, she did still need to recruit minions and that would be harder next year. When he finally got around to the day's lesson, she was terribly conflicted. A good part of her wanted to be insulted by the inane task of following him around the garden and pointing out plants they had studied all last year. The rest of her was delighted at the fact that she wouldn't need to touch dirt today, or find someone else to do it for her.

"Present," Nausicaa responded to the roll call without any enthusiasm. As if she would lower her standards to say something as colloquial as 'here'. Once everyone was accounted for, the professor's next statement raised him up in her opinion. Not much, but he could use all he could get. He was allowing them to shed the horrific school robes again! It wasn't the first time he had done so, but last year it had only been at the beginning and end of the year.

Nausicaa quickly removed her robe, and neatly placed her things inside where they shouldn't get more dirty than absolutely necessary. Then she took a moment to fix her poor dress that had been mercilessly smothered beneath that horrid green mass of fabric. It was a dark purple and cut in the latest fashion. The short, gauzy sleeves made it much better for this sort of weather than the school's required attire.

She would have preferred to stay in the back of the group, but she was a leader not a follower. The idea of taking notes on this subject matter was beyond absurd. They had learned this last year, did he assume she had just forgotten all of it over the summer? What sort of dunce would allow that to happen? She acknowledged that perhaps it was the first time some of the first years were hearing it, but then why not allow them to go on this 'nature walk' while those that didn't need it went to the library to do something useful? So to make it at least appear that she was participating, she had her notebook out and was writing in it whenever the professor stopped to talk about things she already knew about. A careful observer might notice that she was actually working on their charms assignment from earlier in the day.

At one point Nausicaa's ever alert and keen eye, which was only paying half-attention to the area around her, spotted one of the plants before anyone else and she felt the necessity of pointing it out. "There are some Puffapods." The walk was not entirely unpleasant, but it would have been nice to have been warned. Her long dark skirts were getting a bit warm and a nice wide brimmed hat for the sun would have been nice. She noticed that the professor had his. Apparently they were meant to suffer.

One of the first year boys had the audacity to speak to her, as if she were some commoner. "Quite." She replied back a bit stiffly. She knew that alienating a potential asset wasn't the smart move, so she forced a return smile. "You seem to have a good eye for these plants," she complimented blithely. Then moved on to more important matters, was he someone worthwhile? "I'm Nausicaa Scapetello of the Ravenna Scapetellos." He had been the first one called and to respond to the roll call, so she knew his name. But what else might he tell her about himself?

2 Nausicaa Scapetello That's lovely. 1561 0 5

Ida Stanford

December 24, 2022 10:23 AM

Plants, got it. by Ida Stanford

Ida had seen the Quidditch sign-up sheet at breakfast, and she was on the fence about joining the team. Well, at least trying out anyway. She was not a big Quidditch fan for the sake of the sport, but she also wasn't against sports in general to help get exercise and to stay in shape. One should always try to be in peak physical form, just in case it was needed at any moment. If there was one thing she had learned from her parent's jobs, it was that danger and evil lurked potentially anywhere. You needed to be ready to combat it all the time. She figured she may talk to some of her classmates and see what they thought of the sport.

There had been a few classes and a few opportunities to talk about it and she still hadn't entirely decided, but was leaning towards signing up. She showed up for Herbology and responded in a clear voice, "Here!" when her name was called, and collected the handout. The professor seemed like a nice man, but then he gave her a conflicting decision to make. To the best of her knowledge, the rule was to wear their school robes at classes. Yet here was a professor saying that they didn't have to. Was it a test of some sort? A quick glance around revealed that some of her classmates were taking his offer, and it was a tempting one. It was warm out and her light blouse and knee-length skirt would feel much better than the robe. Was it breaking a rule if the professor said it was okay?

With only moments to decide, she panicked and kept her robe. She knew this was okay, he had said they could keep it, and that was the school rule. Her bag she did stash in the greenhouse, mainly because that was also alright, she didn't want to carry that around the gardens, and she wanted a look into the greenhouse itself. It was really warm in there.

By the time she was done storing her bag after pulling her notebook and quill, she was at the back of the group. That was okay as well, she could still hear the professor. She probably wouldn't earn many points for her house by spotting things first, but it was possible that she'd see something everyone else missed.

After walking for a few minutes she was beginning to regret the decision to keep the robe. It was really quite warm out. Still, she would manage, it was fine. Ida took notes as they walked and even had a small map of the gardens in the works. "There are a lot of different kinds of plants here, aren't there?" She causally asked one of her classmates that happened to be near her. "What did he say that one was?" The professor had just started talking about another one and she'd missed it's name.

2 Ida Stanford Plants, got it. 1571 0 5

Donovan Peters

December 24, 2022 10:31 PM

Nailed it!...sort of. by Donovan Peters

Donovan was sweating before he even reached the greenhouse for Herbology lessons. He didn't think twice about leaving his robes behind, along with his bag. Looking over the list of plants, it seemed simple enough. Most of the examples looked differently from each other, so there probably wouldn't be too many mix-ups or wrong answers.

His class list was full of strange things that he'd never really thought about before. Defense Against the Dark Arts? Why were they teaching a bunch of kids defensive spells? Did wizardkind need to defend themselves on a regular basis? Herbology, which was sort of like farming- the kind Leo's family did, with the plants, not the kind Donovan's family did, with the dairy cows- combined with wilderness survival foraging, from what he'd seen so far. The comment about fanged geraniums did catch Donovan's attention, though, and he wondered whether wizardkind were supposed to be defending themselves against other wizards, or just highly aggressive plants?

As he thought, he drifted to the rear of the pack. Leo was up ahead, trying to talk to the professor as he was teaching. It occurred to Donovan, while scanning across the other students taking notes, that he'd forgotten a pen. Leo was too far up to ask, and besides, he didn't want to get the reputation in front of the professor as a kid who forgets things, so he turned to the girl at his side to see if she had a spare.

Before he could ask, she spoke first.

"Oh," he replied, "I guess so; I haven't seen any of these ones before." Donovan thought hard to remember the name of the plant that she was pointing to. It was a sort of tall plant with long bright green leaves.

"I'm Donovan, by the way. That's flaxseed...or flummoxweed...or something like that." He consulted his paper, matching the picture to the vegetation in question.

"Fluxweed," he said, pointing it out on the sheet, "Say, do you have an extra pen? I left mine in my bag."

64 Donovan Peters Nailed it!...sort of. 1569 0 5