Jake gave Bunbury a well-natured smile before the professor stalked away from him, and he made no attempt to argue with the way she was acting or anything. Leaving his wand on the desk, Jake turned on his stool to watch the woman, and raised his hand.

"Ppppplants that suh-sem to hhhhave a muhhh-muh-mind of their own?" the boy asked, in a voice that was kind of... between squeaky and deepening. He cleared his throat and continued swinging his feet back and forth, pulling down hard on his tie; a bad habit he was getting into.

Lucille's head shot up from it's resting place on the desk. Plants with personality? Oh no.

Oh yes.

Why couldn't the stupid things just lie limp and still in a mound of mud like they were supposed too? Why did they have to...move?

She tried to answer.

"Er, do they do human things?" her brow furrowed. "Do they speak?" she tilted her head to one side, inadvertedly shifting her legs further behind the desk in case any more leg locking spells came her way again.

Animated..what? plants? huh?
This right here is why Lyra didn't like this subject. Because she was bad at it. She just never got it, not in her first year and seriously also not in her second one. Lyra looked from left to right as students began to give answers. How do they know that?! Why hadn't she just called in sick today? pretending to lay in bed and wandering around the castle was much more fun than this.

Still, Lyra tried to interact with the class and raised her hand up in the air. "err...Plants that can talk?!" she said and immediately thought how big of a fail her anwser was but still she started to smile at the thought of a talking plant. If they really excisted she would buy one and call him/her/it...Planty-plant!

Torin raised his hand. "Plants that can move and have feelings and um use some sorta of language?" He honestly had no idea here.

Lucy raised her hand and said, "Um, maybe plants that have a mind of their own? Or maybe they have the ability to move and maybe communicate with others?"
It was rather far-fetched, but that was the best Lucy could do--Herbology definitely was not one of her strongest subjects.

Already, Kiri wasn't really sure she had anything else to contribute. Most of her classmates had been quicker, apparently, and just rehashing what they'd said? No. This was going to be... metaphysical. She raised her hand.

"Well, if you merely mean that plants are move, then that's true of all plants, not just, er, Devil's Snare or other magical ones. A tree grows, a flower responds to the light of the sun, but they're just too slow for us to notice. If you record them with a Muggle camera though and speed the, er, footage up, then plants sort of look just like animals."
She gave a small shrug. "Of course, some of the more magical plants certainly look as if they're more... self-aware."

Uhm. That was an interesting question there. Livvy thought for a moment and looked around at the other students as they answered the question that Professor Bunbury asked. Taking a few moments, Livvy then raised her hand to answer the queer question. OHWEE. Alliteration.

...

"When I think of animated plants, I usually think of the personality of the plant. Such as plants with a humor to them or plants that are high spirited," she said, nodding her head. YEAH. She wasn't sure. ANYONE ELSE? MHM?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luna Laufghudd

Animated plants? With like...animation? Animated...anime...animity...
"Miss," Miranda looked everywhere but at the Professor as she had her hand raised, "Do you maybe mean, that they could somehow be seen as ALIVE...like a living thing?" Like a cartoon or something? "Perhaps, animated could be that they have lots of life in them?" Maybe? Errr...

"Well, Miranda," Bunbury blinked several... several times at the girl. "Aren't all plants alive? And living things?"

Surely this was a concept even Muggles taught their children....? Perhaps she just wasn't understanding the girl.

"Yes, though, I was referring to particularly vibrant plants with lots of life. Lots of energy. Lots of interaction with their ah, caretakers."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

"Plants you can interact with!" LouAnn exclaimed, her hand raised high in the air. "Like...the ones that won't just sit there and do nothing when you come around. I think animated plants are plants such as....a Venus Fly Trap or a Devil's Snare," she explained. "What do you think of when I say animated plant, Professor B? Hmm?" Well, she had said let's discuss, right? So LouAnn could...question her, as well? Right?

"Like that precisely, Miss P," Bunbury turned and nodded. Why was she asking her what she thought? Hmmkay. "Naturally, when you say animated plant, my mind jumps to the ones we've learned about.... flutterbies, flitterbloom, devil's snare... and the big one we'll cover today...."

Quote:

Originally Posted by individual

"Fun?" Yes, plants with personality could be fun. Hmm, would the snare plant be considered to have personality? Imagining another person, an enemy, become stuck in the plant and then be eaten...yes. Plants could be fun. Snapping out of her thoughts, 'What am I saying? Fun? Pfft...', she looked over to the professor again. "Lots of hard work. Painful. Creepy...amusing." hehe, Evelyn went off to dreamland again.

Fun was... a bit of a surprising answer, coming from Evelyn as far as Bunbury was concerned. BUT GOOD FOR HER if she thought---

ohhhnevermind. The professor had been about to open her mouth and agree with the girl, of course, but then she continued her answer and Bunz had to just scowl.

Just a small scowl.

"Hard work pays off in the end," quoth the Hufflepuff. "And there is no such thing as a creepy plant." Not even Devil's Snare.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danny Boy

Barry raised his hand reluctantly. Hey he had to catch up on points. He`d been slacking.
"Well, it like a plant that does something. Something we can see happening not just growing. Like maybe Devils Snare it moves around its victim and you can see that. Thats what an animated plant is" answered Barry. That was a lame answer he thought

"Very good answer, Barry," Bunbury nodded at the boy. "You can most definitely see things 'happening' around Devil's Snare," she chuckled darkly, "and around flutterby bushes and such. Yes."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoerawrr

Jake gave Bunbury a well-natured smile before the professor stalked away from him, and he made no attempt to argue with the way she was acting or anything. Leaving his wand on the desk, Jake turned on his stool to watch the woman, and raised his hand.

"Ppppplants that suh-sem to hhhhave a muhhh-muh-mind of their own?" the boy asked, in a voice that was kind of... between squeaky and deepening. He cleared his throat and continued swinging his feet back and forth, pulling down hard on his tie; a bad habit he was getting into.

Upstead smiling couldn't be a good thing but Anastasia was not going to be put down by it. Besides.... "Also a good answer," she nodded at the boy. "The subject of today's lesson most certainly has a mind of its own, as some of you are already aware."

Mwahaha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by firenjen

Lucille's head shot up from it's resting place on the desk. Plants with personality? Oh no.

Oh yes.

Why couldn't the stupid things just lie limp and still in a mound of mud like they were supposed too? Why did they have to...move?

She tried to answer.

"Er, do they do human things?" her brow furrowed. "Do they speak?" she tilted her head to one side, inadvertedly shifting her legs further behind the desk in case any more leg locking spells came her way again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by moony-chaz

Animated..what? plants? huh?
This right here is why Lyra didn't like this subject. Because she was bad at it. She just never got it, not in her first year and seriously also not in her second one. Lyra looked from left to right as students began to give answers. How do they know that?! Why hadn't she just called in sick today? pretending to lay in bed and wandering around the castle was much more fun than this.

Still, Lyra tried to interact with the class and raised her hand up in the air. "err...Plants that can talk?!" she said and immediately thought how big of a fail her anwser was but still she started to smile at the thought of a talking plant. If they really excisted she would buy one and call him/her/it...Planty-plant!

"Not... really?" Bunbury tilted her head in a weird mirror-like image of Lucille as she looked from the Hufflepuff to the Slytherin. "Plants that speak are... well they really aren't naturally occurring." Duh? "I'm not sure what you two are thinking of... can you give me an example of a plant you know that speaks?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitterz

Torin raised his hand. "Plants that can move and have feelings and um use some sorta of language?" He honestly had no idea here.

"Yes to the first two and er... not really to the second..." Bunbury started to say.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iluvharrypotter7

Lucy raised her hand and said, "Um, maybe plants that have a mind of their own? Or maybe they have the ability to move and maybe communicate with others?"
It was rather far-fetched, but that was the best Lucy could do--Herbology definitely was not one of her strongest subjects.

Aha but Lucy had a good answer that expanded from Torin's. "Something like that, yes, that is what I mean when I say animated plants. They do move their branches or petals or whatnot in what seems to be an effort to communicate with us. Good."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antarctica!

Already, Kiri wasn't really sure she had anything else to contribute. Most of her classmates had been quicker, apparently, and just rehashing what they'd said? No. This was going to be... metaphysical. She raised her hand.

"Well, if you merely mean that plants are move, then that's true of all plants, not just, er, Devil's Snare or other magical ones. A tree grows, a flower responds to the light of the sun, but they're just too slow for us to notice. If you record them with a Muggle camera though and speed the, er, footage up, then plants sort of look just like animals."
She gave a small shrug. "Of course, some of the more magical plants certainly look as if they're more... self-aware."

"I mean more than just plants that move, Kiri," Bunbury stared down the girl a little. "Can you give me an example of a self-aware plant? Perhaps a famous one in particular that we have here on our grounds?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daffy.Potter

Uhm. That was an interesting question there. Livvy thought for a moment and looked around at the other students as they answered the question that Professor Bunbury asked. Taking a few moments, Livvy then raised her hand to answer the queer question. OHWEE. Alliteration.

...

"When I think of animated plants, I usually think of the personality of the plant. Such as plants with a humor to them or plants that are high spirited," she said, nodding her head. YEAH. She wasn't sure. ANYONE ELSE? MHM?

"Very good, Livvy, plants with personality." Obviously Bunz liked that answer. "All plants have something of a personality to them, from my experience, but some are more... antagonistic than others? Some are more protective of their seeds and leaves and such... which brings me to my next question...


"Let's say you come across a plant you aren't familiar with, perhaps it has been magically modified or seems very animated with lots of personality, but you need something from it or you must somehow get past it without hurting it or it hurting you. How would you approach such a plant or.... tree?"

A treeeeeeeeee? Was she referring to the famous Whomping Willow when she said that? He knew that the professor hadn't been too pleased when she found out that a few students had been harassing it during that one lesson she held with Morgan...but he had specifically NOT tried to get anything from that tree because he didn't know HOW to approach it. Now he had to answer that question? First poop, now this. Lovely.

"Would the Impediment Jinx hurt the plant?" he asked, raising his hand. "If you could slow it down without hurting it, you might be able to get whatever you need without causing too much damage to yourself, and hopefully without causing ANY harm to the plant."

"Oh merlin, are we learning about the whomping willow today?" The whole talk on a plant having a mind of it's own, something about a 'big one', and just the last emphasis on tree... She reaaallly didn't want to go near that tree if that's what they were doing. Considering what happened last time she went to the tree. Maybe they weren't going to go near it though. That would be good. Leaning forward on the desk and sighing, she held her head up by the palm of her hand and thought of an answer. Hmm, well if you need something from it... "Well you could offer it something useful."

The Whomping Willow.

"Bbbbeing n-nice and pppuh-puh-polite... llllike the Whuh-whomping Willow..." Jake pointed out, hand raised. "Wh-when we were getting ssstuff from him... or hhhher... it hhhhelped if you duh-did something ffffor... the Willow."

Or just stole the leaf from somewhere else.

Brushing his blond hair out of his now rather dull blue eyes (as though someone had taken away his wiiiiild side), Jake tugged again on the end of his tie, and muttered a silent, "hah," to himself, as if to say, Well whadya know? You CAN be civil.

He raised his hand. "You could try appealing to its better nature? Like be nice around it and um maybe it will let you pass it or whatever if it sees that you're not a threat.

He really was lost today. Oh well.

Herminny raised her hand and said, "Erm, I'd say approach it with caution and make no sudden movements that might scare the plant. Be gentle so you let the animated plant know you mean it know harm that way it would be less prone to attack you due to fear.".

"Erm, the... Whomping Willow certainly seems self-aware," Kiri said uncertainly, although in the tree's case, it was more like being aware of everything in its vicinity and trying to club it into the ground.

She pondered the professor's next question for a few moments. It certainly seemed like they were talking about the 'Willow here. She vaguely remembered having read something about it in a History of Magic book once, but the memory wouldn't hold. "Maybe self-aware plants and, er, trees need something special to placate them. Hmm..." Another thought occurred to her. "Could you cast a Disillusionment charm on yourself and get past it that way? Or would such a plant or tree still somehow know you're there?" she wondered aloud.

Lyddia tried her best to answer this question, but ended up asking another one in return. "Don't different types of animated plants have different ways to...tame them?" Although, Lyddia did know which specific plant the Professor was talking about, and she only hoped that they wouldn't have to go over to the Willow tree.

Cela raised her hand. "Professor? First of all you should approach them with respect, but that goes for whether or not they are animated plants. If we are talking about the Whomping Willow, then you can, if you are good enough at the charm, use the Immobulus spell so that you can approach it. Or there is this little knothole, if you can hit that it makes the tree dormant."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miss Lissy Lou

A treeeeeeeeee? Was she referring to the famous Whomping Willow when she said that? He knew that the professor hadn't been too pleased when she found out that a few students had been harassing it during that one lesson she held with Morgan...but he had specifically NOT tried to get anything from that tree because he didn't know HOW to approach it. Now he had to answer that question? First poop, now this. Lovely.

"Would the Impediment Jinx hurt the plant?" he asked, raising his hand. "If you could slow it down without hurting it, you might be able to get whatever you need without causing too much damage to yourself, and hopefully without causing ANY harm to the plant."

Ah Bunz should have been more specific, she knew she should have been. She should have specified NO WANDS like last lesson.

"Welllllll that would work, certainly," she answered Jack, "or some sort of petrification spell, of course, but I always advocate working with the plant instead of against it."

Now the opposite applied to people, see. It was all fine and dandy to use magic on other humans but not on lovely, innocent plants.

Quote:

Originally Posted by individual

"Oh merlin, are we learning about the whomping willow today?" The whole talk on a plant having a mind of it's own, something about a 'big one', and just the last emphasis on tree... She reaaallly didn't want to go near that tree if that's what they were doing. Considering what happened last time she went to the tree. Maybe they weren't going to go near it though. That would be good. Leaning forward on the desk and sighing, she held her head up by the palm of her hand and thought of an answer. Hmm, well if you need something from it... "Well you could offer it something useful."

"Maybe," Bunbury quickly whipped her head around to give Evelyn a Look. "And you have precisely the answer I'm looking for..."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoerawrr

The Whomping Willow.

"Bbbbeing n-nice and pppuh-puh-polite... llllike the Whuh-whomping Willow..." Jake pointed out, hand raised. "Wh-when we were getting ssstuff from him... or hhhher... it hhhhelped if you duh-did something ffffor... the Willow."

Or just stole the leaf from somewhere else.

Brushing his blond hair out of his now rather dull blue eyes (as though someone had taken away his wiiiiild side), Jake tugged again on the end of his tie, and muttered a silent, "hah," to himself, as if to say, Well whadya know? You CAN be civil.

"Give the tree - er, plant - something in return or pay it back with a service. Yes. Very good." Whoa wait what was this, Bunz complimenting an Upstead answer. It was clearly backwards day. Or had the boy taken his calming draught for the day? Hmhmhmm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitterz

He raised his hand. "You could try appealing to its better nature? Like be nice around it and um maybe it will let you pass it or whatever if it sees that you're not a threat.

He really was lost today. Oh well.

"I like that answer, Torin, good!" Bunbury praised the smart Puff. "That is more what I am looking for instead of just... jumping to conclusions and magicking the plant."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herminny

Herminny raised her hand and said, "Erm, I'd say approach it with caution and make no sudden movements that might scare the plant. Be gentle so you let the animated plant know you mean it know harm that way it would be less prone to attack you due to fear.".

"Also an excellent answer, and that policy should work around some allegedly 'dangerous' creatures too. Thank you, Herminny."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antarctica!

"Erm, the... Whomping Willow certainly seems self-aware," Kiri said uncertainly, although in the tree's case, it was more like being aware of everything in its vicinity and trying to club it into the ground.

She pondered the professor's next question for a few moments. It certainly seemed like they were talking about the 'Willow here. She vaguely remembered having read something about it in a History of Magic book once, but the memory wouldn't hold. "Maybe self-aware plants and, er, trees need something special to placate them. Hmm..." Another thought occurred to her. "Could you cast a Disillusionment charm on yourself and get past it that way? Or would such a plant or tree still somehow know you're there?" she wondered aloud.

"Precisely," Bunz nodded. Kiri was on top of the game today. "A disillusionment charm may work for a rather simple plant or tree... but a better policy is to be straightforward and placate the plant with something special. Excellent answer."

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexandraRamos

Lyddia tried her best to answer this question, but ended up asking another one in return. "Don't different types of animated plants have different ways to...tame them?" Although, Lyddia did know which specific plant the Professor was talking about, and she only hoped that they wouldn't have to go over to the Willow tree.

"Probably," she nodded at the Slytherin. "And that's just something you have to find through trial and error. Devil's Snare, most varieties, won't completely devour you if you don't panic. Flitterbloom and Flutterbies really require nothing extra...."

Quote:

Cela raised her hand. "Professor? First of all you should approach them with respect, but that goes for whether or not they are animated plants. If we are talking about the Whomping Willow, then you can, if you are good enough at the charm, use the Immobulus spell so that you can approach it. Or there is this little knothole, if you can hit that it makes the tree dormant."

"I agree, Celandine, thank you." Immobulus, right, that was... the spell.... sigh... if only she still had a wand.

But. Time to move on. With a glance at the lovely May weather outside, Bunbury resigned herself to marching back to the collection of mooncalf mason jars. Ugh. Stinky.

"Before we go see today's.... animated plant...." Bunbury should really come up with a better term than that, "why don't you all share with me what you learned about mooncalf dung." She smirked sweetly. "Apparently it is so very, very valuable that I had to have jars upon jars delivered right to me...."

"Why, th-thuuhhh-thank you, Professor," Jake replied, smiling widely at the complimenty thing. Seemed like if HE was nice, SHE would be all nice back to him.

And then.

Ugh.

Stupid poo.

Raising his hand, Jake scrunched his nose and wore his first displeased expression of the lesson. "Sssstinks, it d-d-does..."

Well it DID.

And it was... "... shiny."

SILVAH!

Blink. Could they like... not? Livvy wasn't too fond of the Mooncalf dung. There were many experiences and encounters with it that Livvy would rather not like to re-encounter once again. Per say... the Cam incident. And gathering up Mooncalf poo and stuffing it up in a jar and wrapping it up like a gift. That was definitely another thing that Livvy would like NOT to do... again. Please?

Animated plant... tree... was Professor Bunbury trying to send them signs? Livvy had an idea what this lesson was. And since she had oh-so-amazing memory, she remembered what a certain Ravenclaw before had said and Bunbury responded saying it would be a future lesson. Oh ho hoooo.... Snazzehh.

BLECH. Livvy raised her hand up into the air to share with what she had 'learned' about the oh-so-pretty mooncalf poo. "I learned that if you collect the poo before sunrise, then it is capable to cause any magical plant to grow niiiiice and strong... and fast."

Gahhh. More questions about the poop. Jack raised his hand.

"Well, obviously mooncalf dung comes from a mooncalf...so if you're looking to harvest some, you'd probably need to know where a mooncalf IS so you can collect the poop before sunrise," he said. "Also, it SMELLS really bad but it's a great fertilzer."

And Cam Karsten liked to fling it around. Let's not forget that.

Herminny chuckled as she raised her hand remembering the COMC teacher had requested the students to bring her mooncalf dung, "What I've learned about mooncalf dung is that is an especially good fertilizer for you're magical plants and it's best if picked up at sunrise which is when we did in Care of Magical Creatures.".

Oh. Ohohoho.

Mooncalf dung? That homework project? LET it be known that HEEE was probably the first to have the idea of donating poop to Bunzz. Yes, she needed poop. Mm'course.

"They're awweeesooome fertilizers. So awesome that they're all silveryyyy and alll. I think they're even better than dragon dung."

Yeah. 'cause Mooncalf Poop > any other kinda poop.

Evelyn sat up straight when the Professor looked at her. 'What was that look for?' she thought, raising a brow slightly. Shrugging her shoulders, at least she had gotten the answer right.

Glancing at Destiny and giving her friend a quick smile, she turned her attention back to the Professor when she started to speak about the mooncalf dung. Probably not a good topic to be on buuuut... Smirking, and turning her head so the Professor couldn't see it, she gave a little response. "It's apparently great for plants, Professor."

Plymouth could hardly get past Jack's answer. Really? REALLY?? Professor Bunz was just being nice to him, surely, because who uses their WAND against a plant?!? Violent boy.

He completely missed his opportunity to answer the first question due to the glaring/gaping.


Slowly, he raised his hand, "It IS valuable. It's like... chocolate versus regular milk. When you get up in the morning and your mom has made you chocolate milk with breakfast don't just you have a much better, productive day? Mooncalf dung is the equivalent to plants." And Plymouth LOOOOOOVEd his plants!

Fred smirked as the Herbology teacher commented on the mooncalf dung, he was not one who sent his, after what he saw of this professor she didn't deserve anything in his mind. The only reason he attended class was because he had to and since he knew about mooncalf dung he might as well try to gain same points he thought. HE raised his hand and said, "Mooncalf dung is a good fertilizer for magical plants that is best if collected at sunrise.".