 be curious, not judgmental
Sophie was unsurprised when her spell did reveal a presence in the back of the room, and Soph smiled over at Mari, who had copied her in thinking something could be amiss. Smart cookies they ended up being, too, because she would've hated to see what Truebridge would've said to them if no one had checked the room like that. Soph wagered that this would've turned into another defense class, if not just for the first few minutes of class. So... it was good that they could just move along.
Points were nice, too, and the prefect smiled gratefully at the Headmistress as she finally let her guard down and unpacked her class materials. Just doing her duty, ma'am.
The plant, then. Yes... a mundane mandrake seemed quite right, though she could see where Mari's guess of ginger came from. Any guess of a plant with tubers made sense, really, but it came down to the shapes of them, the leaves, and the flowers that gave away its true identity. Giving a quiet hum of thought, Sophie considered the mandrake before raising a hand, "I think it's interesting that our magical mandrakes can be used to make a Restorative Draught to undo the effects on someone who's been petrified, while a mundane one like that is commonly used an an anesthetic back in the old days to knock people out before surgeries - which the magical ones do, too, knock people out with their cries, but s'cool that different mandrakes in the Mandragora genus have properties that can harness kinda like... y'know, knocking people out and can bring them back under the right conditions." That's what was mega useful about magic, of course.
"But a mundane one like that... well, I don't think it'd work in a Restorative Draught 'cause it's not the mandrake plant of the magical variety... but that's not to say it wouldn't necessarily not be useful entirely, 'cause plenty of mundane plants are used in potions. S'just different, right? Maybe it'd be a different level of effectiveness?" Trying to make the comparison between the two and tie together magical versus mundane ended up being more difficult than she thought, and she was slightly anticipating a reprimand of, This isn't Potions class, Miss Brown.
But what was a kid to do? Everyone else had said all the really useful things anyway.
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