Is it possible to get a partner and still be invisible? on Herbology

Nathan Xavier

June 11, 2023 4:29 PM

Intermediates: Scavenger Review by Nathan Xavier

It was the first Intermediate Herbology class of the year, which meant Greenhouse One was unbearably hot inside, and Nathan was meeting his students outside and inviting them to take a seat on one of the logs he had set up as benches in the cleaning in front of the greenhouse. It was quite warm outside, too, but at least there was a nice breeze, and there were spots of cool shade.

"Hello, and welcome back to Herbology class," he greeted them once he was pretty sure he had most of the intermediate class present. "For the third years, welcome to Intermediates. The difference between Intermediate class and Beginners is obviously the size of the class," he gestured around at the set of third, fourth, and fifth years that was both taller and more numerous than the group of first and second years he'd had earlier in the day, "and that the plants we work with become a bit more difficult to care for, either by the complexity of what they require to thrive, or because they are a little more dangerous to handle. The truly dangerous plants, however, will not be covered until Advanced lessons, so you need not worry too much about your safety as long as you follow the suggested precautions in wearing your gloves or whatever specialized protective gear might be called for with a particular species, such as ear protection for mandrakes."

"What hasn't changed is that we are not going into the greenhouse for the first couple of weeks because I don't want anyone passing out from heat stroke. I also continue to consider the school robes to be optional for this class. If anyone wants to take those off, you may do so."

He waited a moment for those who wished to free themselves of another layer of clothing to do so. He himself was wearing just a pair of khakis and a short sleeved polo shirt (with a cooling charm on it so he didn't get sweaty armpits just walking in and out of the greenhouse to get things) and had forgone his normal teaching robes today.

"For your lesson today, we're going to do our review of your past lessons in the form of a scavenger hunt." It was how he started the Intermediate class every year, so the fourth and fifth years shouldn't be surprised by this development. "Each year group will have a different set of things to find, and not every item is on every sheet, even within the year groups." He'd found that having different lists cut down on the amount of copying the students might do. "Fifth years will have some of the rarer and harder to find plants that we've covered in the last two years, third years will mostly have plants we covered in beginners or broader categories of plants. There will also be some tools and specific soil types that you may be asked to identify and locate. Your papers are enchanted to recognize the items you need to find, so just touch it to what you've identified, and it will checked that item as found. You'll be wandering through the labyrinth, so please go in pairs or trios. If you run into trouble use your wand to send up sparks and I'll find you. Return here when you're done, and I'll mark you as complete. If I'm not here for some reason, you can put your name on it and stick it under the greenhouse door. If you don't finish by the end of the period, bring back your paper and I will grade you based on what you did find. Your papers will start to blink when you're running out of time, so you should start to head back at that point. If you reach a point where you get stuck, you can ask your classmates for help, or you can come back to me to ask for hints. If you do finish before the end of the class, you can leave early."

"Are there any questions?" He pointed at one student who had their hand raised, then answered their question, "No, there are not any penalties for tapping your paper against items that are not on your list, but if you do that more than ten times, you won't get the bonus points for accuracy. The fewer wrong answers you get, the more accuracy points you get." He'd started adding those when he realized some students just dragged their papers around on the ground everywhere they went, hoping they'd touch something on the list.

When there were no further questions, he handed out the scavenger hunt lists, and waved them out toward the Labyrinth paths. "Go forth and good luck."

OOC: Items on the list may be as specific as 'Fanged Geranium' or as general as 'a plant that needs full sun'. There will not be anything especially dangerous on the sheets like a whomping willow or devil's snare, as those would be kept in restricted areas of the Gardens. Feel free to chose what plants you want for this as there will be variation between the sheets.

Subthreads:

Is it possible to get a partner and still be invisible? by Yaniel Ayala Velez with Fortune Ardovini

Looking for a partner by Lenny Pierce

1 Nathan Xavier Intermediates: Scavenger Review 28 1 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

June 15, 2023 2:11 AM

Is it possible to get a partner and still be invisible? by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Being back at Sonora was… complicated. Probably because complication followed him around like a dark cloud wherever he went. It was a different kind of complicated to home. At Sonora, he was the subject of far less intense scrutiny, and with that came some breathing room. No one here was going to force him to wear a dress or paint his nails. But no one here loved him. The laser beam focus that happened at home, whilst it could be uncomfortable, came from being loved and wanted. School was more anonymous, but lonelier.

And even being alone didn’t help with certain problems. Sometimes, the lack of distraction made it worse. Being alone with his thoughts and his body was sometimes just as bad as being in a crowd with his body. Much like complication following him everywhere, part of the problem was that his body did too.

Herbology started with a dilemma… To ditch the school robes or not. He preferred his own clothes to the school robes, and it would be more comfortable not to wear the robes, but… It was another of those interesting contradictions that had taken root in his brain; nothing he could wear could make a difference, but to shed it was leaving him more exposed. He slid them off tentatively, but didn’t leave them behind, balling them instead in front of him like surrounding himself with enough swathes of fabric could render his body invisible. As usual for school, he was in baggy shorts and a slightly oversized baseball jersey under his uniform—the biggest he’d been able to persuade his mom to get on the arguments of growing room and liking things loose.

At least walking around, away from most people, was a bit of a break from being seen. Even though Sonora’s focus on him was less sharp than his parents’, it was wider.

He took a worksheet, giving it a brief glance over, reassured by the fact that most of the plants seemed familiar, or the descriptions seemed intelligible. He was more concerned about who to partner up with. At least, if he ended up in a two, he’d be unlikely to be referred to in the third person. It would be ‘you’ this and ‘you’ that. His preference was for Cole, but he couldn’t cling to him like a limpet in all situations.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez Is it possible to get a partner and still be invisible? 1554 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

June 15, 2023 8:29 PM

Nope. by Fortune Ardovini

Fortune was not long in ditching his robes after he was allowed to do so. He didn't mind them most of the time, but it was hot out here and the less layers the better. Professor Xavier was a great and terrific person at times like this. Not going into the greenhouses also sounded like an excellent plan. As for the task for today's class? It could be worse, wandering around the gardens looking for plants wasn't super exciting, but it also wasn't super difficult either. He'd take it. Next was just to find one or two people to wander about with.

His eyes roamed over his classmates and they stopped on Yarielis. They had paired up at the end of last year for the scavenger hunt at the museum, why not try their luck again together here in the gardens? His decision made, he wandered over to the Crotalus with a smile. "Hi! We made a decent scavenger hunt team at the museum last year, want to try our luck again here?"

A thought then occurred to the boy. There was going to be a ball at the end of the year and he should have a date for that. Yarielis was a friend, and he really couldn't at the moment think of any of the other girls that he'd rather take... assuming Yarielis hadn't already agreed to go with someone else. He knew Cole was another close friend, and probably a closer one. But really, what was the harm in asking? Assuming he could work up the never to ask her.

2 Fortune Ardovini Nope. 1549 0 5

Lenny Pierce

June 15, 2023 10:07 PM

Looking for a partner by Lenny Pierce

The Headmaster had ended his speech - if it could even be called that - at the Welcoming Feast with the announcement that it was a ball year. It was Lenny's first and only ball, and he was both very excited for it because it meant he could go all out on dressing up, and also very nervous because he did not know what to do about a date for it.

Should he hope a boy asked him? Should he ask a girl? If the later, should he ask as a date-date, or as a friend-date? And who? Both Piper and Leviosa would probably be great friend-dates, but he wasn't sure that he was romantically attracted to either of them. They were both great people and he cared for them very much, but definitely more like close cousins than girlfriends. He was sure he'd have a great time with either of them, but he was also pretty sure all three of them would rather have a date-date than a friend-date for their only Sonora Ball.

Unfortunately, date-dates were going to be harder to come by. Coming up on his fifteenth birthday, Lenny did want to try that out, but he was a bit hampered by the fact that anyone who wanted to date Lenny was probably going to have to be at least a little bit queer: either a girl who didn't mind looking like she was dancing with another girl, or a boy who didn't mind that the apparent girl he was dancing with wasn't one underneath.

Also, there was the additional complication that most of his classmates were maturing while . . . he was not. He'd been on pubery blockers for over a year now, so the changes the boys were going through were as foreign to him as the changes the girls were going through. He definitely looked and sounded more feminine than any other boy in their year, even in his school robes, if only because his voice hadn't changed, and his face wasn't masculinizing, but neither did he have the curves the girls were developing and that was starting to be noticeable. Some of the girls clothes aimed at his age group and size had more of a bust to them than he could fill.

Having assumed Professor Xavier wouldn't make him wear his robes, as that had been the precedent set the previous year, he'd dumped the awful things off in his room before coming out to the Gardens, and he was glad of the chance to actually show off one of the pretty outfits he had found this summer that he thought was quite flattering. It was a nice pink v-neck blouse with ruffles, and a knee length periwinkle blue skirt with pink flowers on it that matched the top very nicely. The skirt flared out very satisfyingly when he spun. Having also anticipated that the class would be outdoors, he'd opted for a set of lacey white socks and his purple sneakers. He'd charmed the laces pink, to also match his shirt, and bring the outfit together.

He glanced over the sheet with his assignment on it briefly, then took a more studied look around at his classmates, trying to decide who might be a good date. Walking about in the gardens was a pretty date-like activity, he thought, so this could be a good trial run. But who to go with?

Definitely not Cole. He love Cole like a brother, and they were even distantly related in truth, and that put him entirely out of the running for a date option. Not Yarielis. He'd made the Crotalus cry and that was a bad place to start a relationship from. Not Christopher. He'd shared a tent with Christopher last spring and the Aladren had just treated him like any other guy, so he was clearly not interested in Lenny like that.

Probably not Piper and Leviosa. He was pretty sure he was not their type, and mostly sure they weren't his.

Probably not Nausicaa. Or Olaf.

But anyone else? Was maybe an option. So he approached one of them, and smiled in a way that was a little more obviously flirty than he'd tried on Christopher, and asked, "Would you like to walk along the Garden paths with me?"

1 Lenny Pierce Looking for a partner 1547 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

June 16, 2023 3:08 AM

Oh no by Yaniel Ayala Velez

It was Fortune, rather than Cole, that he ended up with. That was probably a pretty good second option… They had been Quidditch bros together, and then Fortune had reached out during the museum trip last year and they’d had a decent time. There was a possibility that the two of them were now kinda friends, even though Yaniel had quit the team. Fortune coming over in class sort of confirmed that.

“Yeah, sure.” He nodded and smiled as Fortune referenced their previous trip. “That’ll be fun.”

And he meant it. He and Fortune were good at having a good time together. It didn’t make it any less hot or uncomfortable, and it didn’t solve the problem that Fortune probably looked at him and saw a girl but that was going to be true of everyone. At least he probably saw a girl he was friends with, and maybe even a girl who was kind of one of the guys?

“Are there any of these you don’t think you’d recognise?” he asked, glancing over the sheet. “I might get knotgrass mixed up with a few other things, but I’m sure I’d get it eventually.” He was beginning to see why there were bonus points for accuracy. He would never have thought of cheating, but he did anticipate hitting the wrong Anonymous Green Leafy Thing against the box a few times if he wasn’t extra careful. Fortunately, as a Crotalus, being extra careful was one of his strengths.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez Oh no 1554 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

June 17, 2023 11:26 PM

It's not so bad by Fortune Ardovini

Excellent, partner for class acquired. Step one was complete, next step was to do the class stuff. This was necessary because, if for whatever reason, Yarielis said no to the ball then the rest of the class period might be really weirdly awkward. So he figured that waiting until they'd finished the assignment would be for the best. Then they could just part ways afterwards and it wouldn't get weird. Also, maybe by then Yarielis might give some sort of indication one way or the other on the subject that might influence how he might go about asking or not asking the question.

The worksheet looked simple enough as he examined it with his partner. "I think I'll recognize the knotgrass," He commented. "Mom uses it on occasion and had tried to grow some a while back." As for the other question, he considered the list. "I think I'll recognize most of them," he said a bit slowly before pointing at one of the items on the list. "But.. I'm not sure if I remember the deactivation charm to approach the bursting mushrooms." He remembered those things could pack a whollop if you didn't get the charm right.

"I think I saw some scurvy grass over this way earlier," Fortune indicated a direction into the gardens. "Do you know where any of these other ones are growing?" He began to move in the direction he'd indicated, the sooner they got started on this assignment, the sooner they'd have it done. And it had sounded like if they got it done before the end of class, they could cut out early. That also sounded good to him.

2 Fortune Ardovini It's not so bad 1549 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

June 19, 2023 3:05 AM

It depends by Yaniel Ayala Velez

“I can cover us for that,” Yaniel assured Fortune, reminding him also of the spell word for deactivating the mushrooms. He hoped their classmates would remember it too, and not just assume that a burst mushroom would work just as well. It probably would but that seemed awfully wasterful for the sake of completing a worksheet. “Crotalus caution for the win—spells like that tend to stick.” Oh crud, that didn’t sound like he was calling Fortune careless, did it? He should probably not open his mouth beyond the basic necessities. It rarely went well…

“I’d guess the bursting mushrooms are a little out of the way, so that they don’t activate by accident. Though that could under any sufficiently damp piece of hedgerow. For ‘flowering plants active in spring,’ I’m sure there’s something in the gardening club’s garden.”

There was a beat of silence as they searched out Fortune’s patch of scurvy grass.

“So, how was your summer?” Yaniel asked, and then grimaced. “Sorry, cliché question, I know. But with yours I do actually want to know.” It probably also meant he’d have to talk about his, but lying that it had been great and awesome and wonderful was one he was used to spinning, even if the added complications of this summer had been new.

Fortune had been right about the scurvy grass, which they came to a moment later.

“After you,” he said, letting Fortune go first as it was his discovery.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez It depends 1554 0 5