Satine shot her hand into the air, "Professor, didn't they go through some kind of maze that had been grown on the Quidditch Pitch? It had all kinds of crazy creatures like sphinxes and such and vines of some sort that would grab you." she thought that's what A History of Harry Potter had said.

Plymouth took his turn with the plant - and of course, he spent a good time just nuzzling it and telling the gillyweed that it looked pretty today. It stuck to his face a little, but Plymouth didn't mind clingy. He liked hugs, even from plants.

But then... Natka... GASP! "Oh no! Say it isn't SOO! I love Puffies! I don't want any Puffies to die!! Ever!" Plymouth passed the gillyweed to the next person and started searching out Puffies to hug soon.

Karma took the gillyweed that Plymouth had been passing around and giggled at his reaction. She knew that face, the one where he was going to hug someone soon. VERYYYYY soon. Oh noes.

"Plymmmm," she said. "It's okay now. No... 'Puffies' will be leaving us any time soon." Except for the graduating ones. Don't even mention that. "Promiseeee."

At least he seemed to be acting a little better, and she felt bad she hadn't said anything to him much this semester. But he had been sulking, and didn't want to interrupt moody boy problems.

Wait, he remembered the story about the Huffflepuff that had died, but it hadn't been in the maze itself, had it? Why was she asking about the maze, from what he had heard it had been filled with all sorts of dangers. he looked at Bunbury an expression of utter horror on his face. What if... no she wouldn't, would she? "the maze was huge." he said, his eyes going wide, "Full of creatures and spells you had to get through, it's a wonder they managed to do it, especially Harry. He must have been on amazing wizard." he said in a rush as he imagined what it must have been like.

Kazimeriz nodded to Professor Bunbury, watching the students queue up. He decided to stay for a while, at least; this could be entertaining. He got up to follow the other students into the other chamber.


O_O!

Professor Kazimeriz was downright shocked by this sudden display of huggage. He opened his mouth to snap at the boy -- to chastise him, or lecture him on appropriate behavior -- when the boy grinned and rushed away.

Hippy. He would take the boy to task later; here in Professor Bunbury's class was hardly the time for an etiquette lesson, however.

He quietly followed the group into the next chamber to observe the rest of Bunbury's lesson.

Silent and watching for most of the class, Diane was observing the coscuta closely. How pink. You could almost be unable to tell the plant from the synthetic pink. For now, Diane gloved her hands and stood to watch or wait for her turn either way. It would be an educative lessons, she had never hand-picked gillyweed. (Her eyes moved to the Potions professor for a moment.) Though she wondered if they should be using up their gillyweed supplies right now.

Malfalda opened her book.She hadn't opened the whole lesson,mainly because she listening to a very loud boy scream something about Hufflepuffs."Did you something about a boy who died in a maze?Wasn't his name Cedric something?"she asked.She noticed a girl who looked pretty lonely."Hi,I'm Malfalda.Malfalda Marlowe.Is this your first year here too?"she asked the girl

As she continued to stand in line, Anna watched the two types of plants Professor Bunbury was showing them. The first one actually looked quite pretty, but the second...there was just something about the whole 'detached from its host it will start squirming and thirsting for something new to latch onto' idea that just creeped her out. She glanced carefully at both plants, then checked the pockets of her robe to make sure she'd stuffed her dragon hide gloves inside. Yup. She was good to go.

Raising her hand, she said, "In the third task, Harry and the other Champions had to enter an enormous maze of hedges. This maze was filled with lots of dangerous obstacles, and the goal of the Champions was to overcome all those obstacles and reach the center of the maze." She thought some more, then added, "Oh, there was a sphinx in the center of the maze protecting the Triwizard Cup they were meant to reach and touch, too."

As it became Miles' turn, he took the gillyweed in his hands and gringed a little. "Euurgh. Tis a tad yuckie." - such an understatement, but he wasn't here to pull faces and act like a squirmy litle girl. The gillyweed's .. weeds kept clinging to his finger like a baby would do when it first meet's it's mum and dad. "N'aaaaw." It's personality was obviously much prettier than it's appearance. As Miles past the lil' gillyweed to the next person, he wiped his icky hand on his trouser leg, probably not a good idea, and raised his other hand. "He went into a maze where there was a talking Sphinx, amongst other things. Where the Tri-wizard cup was in the middle. OOH! And the roots of the hedges draaaagged you in." Creepy. Miles thought.

The person in front of her turned around and passed Kiri the gillyweed. Kiri pulled a face. It looked like a ball of long, greyish fingers, all intertwined. She put on her gloves quickly, then took hold of the gillyweed. As soon as she began probing into the plant, it began wriggling and squirming. The moisture in-between the "fingers" made a squishing noise that was vaguely nauseating. She finished her examination as quickly as possible, then turned around and handed the gillyweed over to the person who was next in line behind her.

Abby puts on her dragonhide gloves and takes the piece of alfalfa. She is amazed how the Cuscuta europaea twines itself around the stalk. The flowers are small but pretty. The plant is not the bright green she usually associates with a plant. The color is more of a lime green. I guess since the Cuscuta europaea doesn't rely on photosythesis for its food, it doesn't have the amount of clorohyll the average plant has. Abby hands the Cuscuta euroaea to the next student. She raises her hand. "The Triwizard Tournament Cup inside the maze had been turned into a portkey by Barty Crouch, Jr. It took Harry and Cedric Diggory to the cemetary where Voldemort would be ressurected." Abby then takes the plant that has the gillweed wrapped around it. Immediately she sees the differences in the color of the plant. Abby squeezes the stalk. It is squishier than the Cuscetia europaea. She takes a piece of the stalk and starts to untwine it from the host. The piece immediately starts to curl around her index finger. Abby would love to be able to remove the whole piece of gillyweed and hold it in her hand, but she hands the plant to the next student instead.

Aww and Bunbury had to go and crush her dreams by saying they'd all get a chance to participate...but just because they had a chance didn't mean she had to.

Melanie frowned slightly, regretting that she hadn't read up on Harry Potter before the class so she could answer the Professor's questions...She hadn't heard about the task in the tournament, but it sounded pretty interesting, anyway. However as one of the first people who answered, a girl who looked around her age, saying a Hufflepuff had died in the maze thing-a-magig they were all talking about, she couldn't help but doubt just how much she'd enjoy the story if she did read up on it. Maybe she shouldn't read it after all...Horror story's we're really her thing. And neither were dead badgers. Hmpf. Poor Kid. She couldn't help but nod slightly in agreement with the boy who seemed to be throwing a fit over the news.

Melanie slipped back toward her desk, pulling a pair of dragon hide gloves from her school bag so her hands didn't get sticky from the gillyweed when it got passed on to her. She watched the progress of the plants as they were passed down the line, cringing at the sight of the gillyweed and cucuta clinging to the other plant like the parasite it was. Ewwwwww! As the two plants were passed down the line to her she took the cucuta first. It was...actually sorta pretty, beside being pink-ish ness and all, it looked kinda like a flower. Melanie passed it on to the next person, a bit regretfully, as it meant next she had to take the gillyweed. And so she did, holding the plant gingerly in her hands. She couldn't help but be repulsed as it squirmed about in her hands a few of it's long, finger-like gray ends wriggling about in the air as if searching for something to cling onto. Before it could grasp onto her fingers she passed it on to the next student in the line.

Natka turned around when she heard Plymouth gasp after she'd finished talking. What had she said wrong?

"Um... is everything OK?" she asked, tentatively touching his shoulder. he had a... strange expression on his face.

And why would any Puffies be dying anytime soon?

Oh right, Cedric Diggory. Poor Puff and the terrible story of his death - probably wasn't the wisest thing to bring up in front of a class containing Hufflepuffs. And no Puffies were going to die today if she had anything to say about it.

"You're all correct," Bunbury started, "about the maze and the magical creatures and so on and so forth, as we all know how this story ends." Obviously that was based on the assumption that they had done some reading or they were paying attention to the History of Magic professor. "Today won't prove to be nearly as....ah...fatal, hopefully."

She pushed the door of the other greenhouse open wider and continued. "What I have set up in here is a labyrinth of sorts, only of a different kind than the hedges Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory faced. Inside this greenhouse are numerous shrubs, bushes, trees, flowers, weeds.... all sorts of vegetation invaded by either a species cuscuta or gillyweed. Your job is to de-tangle a pathway through the maze to the end of the greenhouse where you'll come to pond built right into the greenhouse floor.

"As you go through the maze, you'll want to collect a bit of gillyweed from some of the lower-lying bushes. And by 'collect' I mean GENTLY separate it from the host plant with your gloves. Remember what gillyweed looks like, how it behaves, and the Mediterranean climate it is used to; that will help you identify it and its host plants and know that you're picking the right stuff. Because when you get to the pond, the only way out of the greenhouse is to consume A SMALL SECTION of gillyweed - just enough to last you the length of the pond - and swim across."

Bunbury smirked just a litttttle bit evilly, and then added in a quieter tone, "Or, for those of you who are afraid of getting wet, there are a few spaced out Victoria amazonica plants you can use to hop across. Now then, if there are no questions, you may enter the maze one at a time. I'll be on the other side watching your progress."

ooc: So, weave your way through the tangle-ly jungle, pick the gillyweed, and get through or across the pond. This should take you 4-5 posts at the least. You don't have to wait for one person to get through before you begin, just act like they started and then you get the signal to go or whatever. And have fun! =D

Chris Potter smiled at the challenge. He couldn't wait to go through that maze thing. He made sure his gloves were on tight and then walked into the tangled mess of plants that was the maze.

'Ok first off, I have to move around in all these plants, and find the Gillyweed.' he thought to himself. Everywhere he looked there were plants in his face so he drop to the ground and semi walked-crawled along the floor. Hey Gillyweed was on the towards the bottom was it not, and he searched.

When the signal came, Kiri pushed open the door leading to the next greenhouse and stepped inside. It had a very different look from last time. Where there had been rough wooden tables and neatly arranged rows of magical or mundane plants, there was now just one thick mass of plants and bushes and shrubbery. It looked completely unnavigable.

The moment she stepped over the threshold, the door slammed shut behind her, and the sounds of her classmates chatting idly died down. The greenhouse was very quiet, all she could hear was a faint rustle of plants (although what would make them move without wind, she did not know) and a low drumming as the winter storm outside threw snowflakes and dead leaves against the greenhouse's roof.

After a few hesitant steps forward, Kiri was surrounded by fauna. When she turned around, the door was almost completely obscured by plants already. The air was humid. She breathed in deeply. Alright... So she had to find some gillyweed. How exactly she was supposed to do that in this... jungle, she did not know. Not yet. She raised her hands to ward off some of the more insistent plant leaves that were hanging into her face, and slowly moved in deeper into the maze.

Natka put on her gloves and entered the, um, maze with a determined expression on her face. She could do this. As long as there weren't too many bugs crawling around... she could do this.

She walked slowly, very slowly, her eyes trained on the ground in search of the greyish, slimy, unpleasant plant she was looking for. But the gillyweed wasn't half as easy to find as she thought at the beginning.

Aha! she thought, spotting something grey reflecting the sunlight somehwre in the vicinity of her foot. Bending down to examine the greyish tangle further, Natka determined that it was in fact gillyweed. Gingerly reaching out, she hooked her fingers around the gillyweed, in between it and the plant it was growing around - she couldn't tell what it was, though. She tried to move her fingers delicately (which was no easy feat considering the bulky, thick gloves) to easy the gillyweed off the greener plant.

"urgh, finally," Natka muttered, getting to her feet and stretching her legs, her knees hurting her from being bent for all that time it took her to loosen the gillyweed which was currently clutched in her gloved hand. Eww.

Moving on, Natka once more began looking carefully at the ground she walked on. The meagre handful she had was not going to last her long enough to get across the lake, that was for sure - she was a weak swimmer. Besides, better safe than sorry.

After listening to the instructions, Torin placed hs gloves on his hands and entered the 'maze'. First off, he would have to find the gillyweed.

He slowly walked, constantly searching for the gross looking plant that he remembered from Bunbury's office. And those thoughts made him shudder. He would have to suppress them if he wanted to find that plant.

Then his foot brushed against something squishy. Looking down, he saw that he almost stepped on a gillyweed plant. That could have been bad. Moving away from it slightly, he bent over and gently loosened some of the plant off. As much as he figured that he would need. Hopefully it was enough.

Then he continued on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meh Reh

Karma took the gillyweed that Plymouth had been passing around and giggled at his reaction. She knew that face, the one where he was going to hug someone soon. VERYYYYY soon. Oh noes.

"Plymmmm," she said. "It's okay now. No... 'Puffies' will be leaving us any time soon." Except for the graduating ones. Don't even mention that. "Promiseeee."

At least he seemed to be acting a little better, and she felt bad she hadn't said anything to him much this semester. But he had been sulking, and didn't want to interrupt moody boy problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paintbrush

Natka turned around when she heard Plymouth gasp after she'd finished talking. What had she said wrong?

"Um... is everything OK?" she asked, tentatively touching his shoulder. he had a... strange expression on his face.

And why would any Puffies be dying anytime soon?

"Lets just keep the Puffies close. I sure do like Puffies..." Plymouth gave each of the girls a grin and let them go ahead of him in line.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitterz

After listening to the instructions, Torin placed hs gloves on his hands and entered the 'maze'. First off, he would have to find the gillyweed.

He slowly walked, constantly searching for the gross looking plant that he remembered from Bunbury's office. And those thoughts made him shudder. He would have to suppress them if he wanted to find that plant.

Then his foot brushed against something squishy. Looking down, he saw that he almost stepped on a gillyweed plant. That could have been bad. Moving away from it slightly, he bent over and gently loosened some of the plant off. As much as he figured that he would need. Hopefully it was enough.

Then he continued on.

Plymouth's mission was clear: Seek and love gillyweed out of the Bunnz's maze. He set out behind a Hufflepuff boy - then HUGGED HIM tight from behind. "Just in case... hehe... you be careful...little Puffy" Plymouth gave the boy a pat and skipped off to find his own gillyweed.

"Ohhh gillyweeeeeed! Come to Plymmy!" he stalked around unsuccessfully since Plymouth had to stop and touch every plant on the way.

M--maze?!

What if someone got losttt and NEVAH ever came back?! Well that wasn't so possible but what if someone got DEVOURED by plants, ehh? But well... they were plants so he KINDA trusted them not to do anything to him because he was very well knew they were alive--literally, like they roamed around the greenhouses everyday. People just didn't notice, 'cept HIM and a feww othahs!

As they were passing it around, he looked at the... odd-looking plant--it looked like worms and all... worms were bloody scary. Er... glovessss?? He brought gloves, right? Cam went out of the line and got back to his seat... ooh yes. Good he brought it... or else something would've gone WRONGGG.

Cam quickly went back to the line and when it was finally his turn, took a breath and entered the greenhouse of plants and well... PLANTSS. I'maaa readehh, I'maa readyyyy!

Wait, what? They had to get from here to there? Like... by doing work? Wasn't that a bit... complicated. I mean, Varius didn't know what Gillyweed looked like or its optimum climate conditions -- he had been too busy drawing masterpieces of art, hadn't he? Oh boy. This was gonna be hard.

When he was signaled to start his trek along the maze of plants he slowly creeped into the greenhouse, eyeing all the GREEN suspiciously. Varius had a theory about plants and that consisted of plants attempting to take over the world. They all had eyes, but you couldn't see them and it was to trick you into a false sense of security, but Varius knew what was up! He was onto them.

He slowly stalked passed some blood red plants, turning this way and that, ensuring he wouldn't be sneak-attacked by some of these BARBARIAN flowers. "AHHHHHHHHH!!!!" He screamed as a leaf of a plant brushed along his leg.

He ran. Fell. Scrambled. "OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" He had cut himself of a nearby plant of the thorny sort. "MERLIN DAMMIT! GRRRR." He hatedddddd this task. He liked Herbology lessons when he could play with SHOES not when he was about to be brutally murdered. "I WANT OUT," he sobbed, lost in the maze. He was pretty sure Bunbury was purposefully doing this because he bit her last lesson.

He removed his picture from his pocket and used a simple sticking charm to attach it to the glass of the green house. Carefully, he wrapped his fingers around the stem of part of the thorn plant and broke it off. He took aim and FIREDDD! Right in the pink teeth. "Take that Mini!Bunface," he muttered... she couldn't see him right? RIGGHHTTTTT? She might have said something along those lines.

MERLIN DAMMIT TIMES TWO.

He quickly scurried to his now, ripped, picture and shoved it back into his pocket, attempting to pretend its existence was questionable. "What am I supposed to be looking for again?" he said to himself, picking up a pretty small, yellow flower and sniffing it... "OWWWWWWWWWWW! IT BIT ME ON THE NOSE!!!!"

Sob. Sob. Sob.

"That's it," he removed the picture again. Some anger management was necessary!!!

He almost jumped when suddenly he felt arms wrapping around him. What the hell was going on here?!?! Then he heard the voice of one of the crazy boys in the class.

He sighed in relief and said, "you be careful to, Plymouth." That was his name, right?

He shook his head as he watched the boy skip off. He really was insane. He continued on his way, wondering when he would be done this thing.

...and they were off! Well, maybe everyone except Anna. She wasn't aware if this was indeed a race or not, but she knew she wanted to take her time and make sure she went about this the right way. She stepped foot into the maze and stopped to take a good, long look around. If she were to de-tangle a pathway through the maze, she imagined starting right here in the beginning wouldn't be too bright of an idea. With that thought in mind, she maneuvered her way through a few lines of bushes, coming to a stop only when she reached a dead end. Time to detangle. Making sure her gloves were indeed securely on her hands, Anna bent down and carefully started to detangle the bushes in front of her. As she worked, she checked the lower parts of the bushes, looking for any sign of gillyweed.

Ten minutes into her detangling, she finally spotted some. It had attached itself onto a lower section of the bush she was currently working her way through. She froze for a few seconds, then looked at the plant in disgust. It really did resemble a whole bunch of rattails squirming around down there. The thought alone made her stomach churn, but hey, at least she had her gloves on. She bent down and ever-so-carefully started to pull the pieces of the gillyweed away from the host plant. That host part still creeped her out. Another five minutes later, and she had pulled all of the gillyweed away from the plant. It wasn't enough, though. This teeny tiny amount wouldn't even sprout the first webbed hand. Sighing a little, she stood and pushed her way through the little section she'd worked her way through. At least she'd made it a good ways in.

Okay so cool...A maze, she could deal with that. It even sounded kinda fun. A corn maze, but covered with green things and stuff. and she diudn't even need to use the gillyweed, instead she could just hop on the Victoria Amazonica plants to get to the end. That part DID scare her, and very very much, but she could worry when she got there right? It didn't sound scary as the labyrinth thingy that the Potter boy had to go through and Bunbury had even said that it hopefully wouldn't be fatal as fatal as the labyrinth.

She had to admit hopefully didn't sound like a very promising word though...In fact hopefully didn't sound very reliable at all. Whatever though...Plants can't kill people or anything.

Or that what she thought before, she heard screams of fear echoing up from maze, as if someone was being brutally abused by the plants in there. The second years eyes immediately widened as she heard them, taking a step back in the line, and trying o get the very end. She was pretty sure she recognized that voice....it sounded like a Hufflepuff, but she didn't know who...

OHMYGOSH. All plant mazes wanted to kill Hufflepuffs!! And Bunbury was sending them all to their demise inside the maze, possibly without even knowing it. There was some boy being attacked in there!! And all the Hufflepuff's were gonna diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie including her!!

Brrrrrrreath Melanie, Brrrrrrrreath...

Nooooooooo!! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOO! She didn't NOT want to be killed by a Badger hating plant, she was too young to be killed by anything!! Melanie felt like running the other way when it was her turn to go inside, but instead she took a step inside the maze-y thing, beginning to slowly inch her way in. After all, she definitely would pick a fight with some angry plants rather than an upset Bunbury.

Sooooo, walk slowly through the maze, don't draw attention to yourself, stay low and act harmless, maybe even close your eyes and the killer plants won't think your alive...Because if I can't see them than they may not see me...Ermmm maybe? And so began her 1MPH trek through the maze of plants. This could take a while...

After crawling through the mess of plants for a little bit, the Gryffindor Prefect found what he had been searching for. Just at the bottom of a rather tangled plant, a small bunch of the water-breathing ability plant was there. Gillyweed. He reached his gloved hand intot the tangle and worked and worked until, finally it came free from the roots of the larger plant. He had a good enough piece it looked like to get across the pond.