Daniel raised his hand and said, "Professor, there are these bubotuber that has properties to treat acne, and nettles that can cure boils." he said and then smiled at the Professor.

"That is right," Sage smiled. "Dittany is common in a fair few potions, but if this plant is used correctly, it makes skin stretch neatly over a wound and leave considerable less scarring than might've been." He was no Healer.. or Potioneer, but he sure knew his plants.

"Both good answers," he said, still smiling. These kids were gooood. "Nice example that both magical AND mundane plants are used for healing, yes!"


"The mandrake root has a lot of magical powers, but you're quite right. One of those powers is indeed to unpetrify people." He didn't much like mandrakes personally.

"Sure that would be healing." The girl looked a little unsure about her answer and so Sage gave her a warm smile of encouragement. "Mint grows like a weed, and so many tend to think it's useless when in fact, it can help with digestion!"

This one didn't look plenty happy to be discussing healing plants though, and one dark eyebrow quirked upwards. Not only that, but she went on to answer SAGE. His name!

For some reason, the tips of his ears burned.

"That's right, Destiny. Sage has many medicinal uses. The oils in it contain antiseptic properties and so it's a cure for a lot of sores and ulcers too. It makes a good cup of tea!"

Another mandrake answer. Sage simply gave her a nod, letting her know her answer was correct.


Here was one ray of sunshine. Sage eyed Miss Happy who had another very good answer. Chamomile. That also made good tea. "Another herb with lots of medicinal properties, yep."


"The name is kind of suggestive, isn't it?" Sage grinned and nodded. "Good answer, Abby!"

Aaahh. Yes. "I always thought there was something satisfying about draining Bubotubers," Sage admitted.. then wishing he hadn't. He didn't want the class to think he was a freak after all. "The pus is very good cure for acne."

And moving on.

"A few of you mentioned aloe vera," Sage carried on, leaning back to retrieve a wicker basket from his desk. "It's the gel inside the leaf itself that has the medicinal properties," he explained, taking a leaf for himself before putting the basket on the table directly infront of him, "if each of you would take a leaf and pass the basket on, we'll go ahead and extract the gel.

"And while you're doing that, who can tell me any more facts about aloe vera?"

Ericks took his leaf and passed it on. Ericks said" I only knew it had healing powers...
OOC:Ericks is not a her.

Hmm, no dangerous plants trying to attack his arms just yet. All right, maybe this aloe vera stuff wouldn't be too dangerous either. Fletcher cautiously plucked a leaf out of the basket and then passed it on. He held the leaf up to his eye to examine it more closely and then raised his hand for the professor's question.

"Aloe vera originates from Northern Africa, and uh, there's written records of it dating back to....." he squinted as he tried to recall the date, "3500 BC, I believe."

Alooooe! Well that was just a wonderful reminder of the lovely potions class Abby had recently had. Bleh.

Shaking away thoughts of said horrible potions class, Abby took a fleshy leaf from the basket before passing it on. She softly pressed a nail into one end of the leaf. Some sort of greenish yellow sap oozed out in response. She raised her hand. "Professor, aloe vera actually has two types of liquid in it. There's the gel, of course, but then there's another sort of sappy liquid that actually does the opposite that the gel does. It's an irritant," she said, wiping her fingernail on her bag.

Cadence raised her hands, once again surprised that she had learned something in potions. "Professor, it is used in burn-healing unctions," she said with a smile as she took a leaf and passed them on.

Arya was sitting on her stool intertwining her own legs around the stool's. After all that time she had spent with Ivory's house working with magical plants, one would have thought that some of the information would have stuck. And yet here she was sitting with not a clue in the world as to what the answer could be. So insteed the Hufflepuff took notes and daydreamed while chewing on a piece of gum.

Hm...aloe vera. Vashti was quite certain she'd heard of that before, but where was it? After taking a leaf from the basket when it was passed to her, she finally remembered - or thought she did anywy. She raised her hand and answered, "Isn't aloe vera used to help heal sunburns?" Or was that something else? Hm...

Victoria glanced at Vashti before accepting the leaf from the basket.

Keeley grinned as she recieved the basket. Aloe was sooo soothing to the skin. Aaand, it smelled super duper good! At least in her opinion. Brushing a lock of indigo hair aside, she wracked her brain for some aloe fun facts. Hmm... she got one! Raising her hand, the girl said, "The cool gel stuff inside the leaf contains over 75 different nutritional stuff like minerals, vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, and other good stuff." Dude, if that answer didn't get her points, then nothing would.

Jacob took one of the aloe leaves. Her turned it in his hand then passed on the basket. What were they going to do with it? He raised his free hand and first said his name then his answer "I'm Jacob Blunt, and well they store water cause they grow in arid climates" he looked back down at the plant

As the basket of aloe was passed around, Destiny picked up a piece for herself and examined it. Hmm..well, the obvious thing about the aloe was it is GREEN! And it also had these little teethy things on it.

Not as scary as Devil's Snare, though.

Passing the basket along, she raised her hand, "The aloe plant is resistant to most insects."

No bug would be onmoming this plant.

What? People mentioned aloe vera? Evelyn must have...purposely blocked those answers out. Taking the basket, she looked at the leaves in there, just...staring. That is, before quickly taking a leaf and dropping it on the table as if it had a disease, and practically forcing the basket away from her and to the next person. She had to remind herself that they were not in potions, and the teacher would not be setting them on fire...

...Right?

"The aloe plant is usually found in dry climates." she said after slowly raising her hand, and...slowly lowering it. Eh. Aloe plant. Vera. Whatever.

Aloe vera? To Ced, they were indeed such interesting plants. He picked one for himself as the basket reached his seat and he gently passed the basket, which contained the aloes, to his seatmate.

And then he listened to Professor Dodson carefully and pondered for a moment before answering and a moment later, he raised his hand. "Aloe Vera extracts could be used in the process of healing wounds and burns and it has been proven that they could be really useful in healing wounds and burns since the said plant contains compounds such as polysaccharides, mannans, anthraquinones and lectins."

Leilani took a leaf and passed the basket on to the next person. Aloe, aloe, aloe..... Ummmm???

"Well, it soothes skin. Like with sunburn and stuff." yeaaaah, that was about all she knew. That, and you could buy something similair to it (which probobly contained aloe).

Jackie grabs a leaf. "Doesn't it help for poison ivy?" she asks.

"Right you are, Mister..?" He didn't know this kid's name. But he was right. "It's been used for it's medicinal uses for thousands of years." So it had to be good, didnt it?

"An irritant, that's correct." He noticed the way Abby wiped her finger and smiled. "It's quite harmless really, just don't put your fingers in your mouth after touching it." He made sure everyone heard that. But surely they weren't silly enough to do that anyway.

"Yes, aloe vera can soothe burns dramatically, and evidence also shows that it quickens the healing process!" Despite being a mundane plant, he found it quite magical. "It can help soothe all sorts of burns. Burns caused by direct contact with fire or hot surfaces or .."



"Sunburns, yes!" He carried on, giving the leaf he had hold of a little wave. "Lot's of sunburn cosmetic care contains aloe vera for this very reason."


Sage grinned back when the girl called the gel 'cool.' He agreed, it was pretty cool. "You're right too! It contains loads of good stuff. "And all that good stuff added together.. well, that's why aloe vera's so nifty!"


"Another good fact," Sage approved. He gave his leaf a little squeeze in demonstration. "Feel how squishy and fleshy the leaf is? Very succulent. It stores it's water just beneath the surface."


"Yes, they're quite easy to maintain as it's able to resist most pests," Sage nodded at Destiny's answer. "There are some bugs and aphid that can harm it's health slightly though."

"Thank you, Evelyn." Sage smiled politely as she participated in the little discussion with a fact. "Hence the reason it needs to keep a store of water."

"Nice work everyone, now we're going to get a closer look at the gel inside the leaf. The gel with all the 'healing powers.'" Sage moved to the table infront of him again, laying the leaf flat on the surface. "This process is often known as 'milking aloe vera,' the professor explained as he carefully retrieved his wand.

"For this we'll be using the severing charm, like so." Muttering the incantation 'diffindo,' Sage directed his wand first up either side of the leaf, neatly trimming off the slightly spiny sides. "By cutting off the edges, we're making the gel easier accessible."

He then moved his wand to cut vertically lengthwise through the center of the leaf, cutting it neatly into two pieces which he proceeded to hold up. "After slicing down the middle, you can see the gel is encased inside."

He ran his index finger inside, collecting a goopful of the thick, clear gel-like substance. "Go ahead and 'milk your aloe vera,'" he said to the class, "if anyone needs help with their severing charm ask me or one of your peers."

Rae took the basket from the person next to her and took a leaf then passing it on again. Medicinal purposes, like they didn't do enough on medicinal purposes in potions... Ugh. Oh well, this class was bound to be better than potions anyways. She started to "milk" her leaf when she got this odd feeling about it, "Sir? Am I doing this right?" She actually had no idea what she was doing.

Cadence watched as the professor sliced up the Aloe leaf. This was going to be no big deal, as she had just correctly had to cut five of them for her unction in potions (which had turned out perfectly). Taking out her wand, she cut the leaf as instructed using diffindo, and then promptly began "milking" the gel out of the inside of the leaf without a problem.

Selena took an aloe leaf and placed it on the table. "Diffindo," Selena said as she cut off the sides. She moved her wand down the middle like the professor had shown and sure enough, there was the gel right in the middle. Selena wrote down her observations, for future references, and cringed. Did she really have to take all that out? "Professor, where do we put the gel?" Selena asked.

Teehee. Keeley giggled. This professor guy had said nifty! She now officially liked him. Buuut... now they had to do severing charms. She wasn't so great at those, but that was really stupid Neptune's fault. She needed to watch where she pointed that sparkly wand of hers, and maybe they wouldn't have ended up with cut arms. But as the premises were cheerleader free, the colorful Ravenclaw felt that she was probably up for the task. She straightened her scarlet Japanese style jacket and pointed her wand at the super duper squishy leaf. "Diffindo!" Sweet! She had cut off the edges! It was a bit messy, but whatever! She hadn't even severed a finger. Biiiig smile!

Upon listening to their professor's further instructions, Cedric briskly took his wand out and was now about to perform the severing charm. He had learned that charm before so didn't need to ask for help about it at all. Trimming the aloe's a wee bit thorny sides was just like cutting a paper with a pair of scissors; it wouldn't really be that hard doing it.

He muttered 'diffindo' as he aimed his want directly at the plant and he started cutting its edges. Later on, he finally finished cutting its edges and was now slicing it in the middle. He carefully started 'milking' his own Aloe but he was a bit wondering where would they place its extract. Hmm.

Evelyn may have...involuntarily shivered and maybe gagged a little when the professor scooped out the gel from the plant leaf with his bare hand. That was disgusting. Were they able to use gloves for this? She didn't really want to ruin her own though with this stuff. Maybe she could use Destiny's or something..

But no. Her friend would know she was up to something if she asked for them. However, Evelyn could always lie and say she forgot hers. Eh, best just figure that out for later. Taking out her dark ash wand, it felt like deja vu or something as she prepared to cut the aloe leaf. Darn potions class.

"Diffindo." she muttered, slicing one of the spiky sides of the aloe leaf off with a nice clean cut before doing the same to the other side. And now...for the moment of...just whatever. "Diffindo." she repeated, cutting through the middle-center of the leaf so it was now two separate and clean cut leaves.

Peeling both of the apart, she moved her wand away with her wrist so it didn't get messy before looking at the inside of the plant. Gooey...and gross. The only gross thing that was acceptable to be on her hands was dirt, and this was not dirt. It was sticky and... not dirt. Where in the world did they put this stuff? It was oozing onto her fingers! EWW!

Kellen didn't have too much of a problem severing his aloe vera, but when the goo started running out he wrinkled his nose. Herbology... he couldn't tell if he liked it or not. His upbringing was telling him that this was something best left to those who had a genuine interest, but his inner boy... wanted to grab his aloe vera leaf and rub the interior over one of his friends' faces. Mature and lovin' it?

So it wasn't harmful. At least not if you didn't ingest it. Heh.

Abby grinned sheepishly back at Professor Dodson before turning her attention to the aloe vera leaf sitting in front of her. Unholstering her wand, she aimed it at the leaf's edge and murmured, "Diffindo!" The spines were cut neatly and Abby moved the leaf around into a different angle so she could repeat the process vertically down its center. The slashed two pieces fell to either side, revealing the gel-like substance inside. She scooped a bit out with her fingers. It felt... cool. Not at all sticky or gooey. Smiling, Abby placed her wand on the table and looked back up at the professor, ready for any further instructions.