Cass stiffled a giggle from under her palm and turned back towards the board when Professor Zookara finally decided to start the lesson.


Apple? What Apple? Cass didn't know they were supposed to bring an apple today...but she knew she packed an apple in her bag before she left for class... in case she got hungry

So, seeing that they needed it for class, she took the said apple from her bag and placed it on the table. Wondering what the apple was for and still wondering what the strange corpse-like shape on the table was....

Dangers to eating an apple? He's kidding right?

"Well...you can choke on it.." Cass said uncertainly, she still didn't know where this discussion was going and it was getting weird "or you can accidentally break your tooth while eating, or there could be a worm in your apple, or you could accidentally eat a rotten one.."

Wow, come to think about it...THE APPLE WAS DANGEROUS!!!

Cass glanced warily at the ripe, juicy-looking, apple on the table and wondered how something so delicious can be so dangerous.

Kyle looked up as Apples were suddenly brought up. She reached into her bag which seemed to be convulsing on the floor. Ooops she forgot to put her box of bouncy balls away. Still she took the apple out of the bag and magicalled tied her bag to the desk until she next needed it. That way, the balls wouldn't go flying and bouncing round the room.

Dangers of eating an apple - hmm...she thought what had her uncle always said.

"Worms!" She exclaimed happily as she remembered it, "Ugh, what I mean is that you could find a worm in the apple - and they aren't exactly the healthiest thing to eat." She explained, turning her apple around in her hand, bringining it up to her nose she sniffed it smelled sweet, fresh, but there were loads of brown marks on it. She glared at them, and placed the apple back down on the table. She hated soft spots - they never tasted good.

Apples... for inspiration.

But... Helena didn't like apples. Buuuut she took one with her anyway, thinking it would have something to do with the lesson.

Her hand shot in the air. "Well, if the apple is rotten or poisoned or something... it could be a danger." And this was just sooo stupid to say... wasn't it? "But if the apple is okay, you'll just eat a lot of vitamins." Hehe. Helena surely didn't like apples. Not at all.

Dangers??? Apples???

Emily raised her hand to participate.
"Well muggles use chemicals called pesticides to protect their crop from disease and insects, but it can be harmful which is why muggles need to remember to wash anything before they eat it. Also somehting about the seeds can be poisonous as well, but only in large doses. The ammount in a single apple cannot harm anyone."

Whaaat?! Dangers? Because of an apple?!

Treyen stared at Zookara and was oh-so-glad he DIDN'T bring one. What if the dangers involved touching one! Oh, Ducks was in danger! He was holding one himself!

But, er, Chandler ate plenty of apples and there was nothing wrong with the fellow Hufflepuff, that he knows of, so, perhaps, there isn't any real danger, right? Well, he had no idea.

Adriane raised an eyebrow. Ah, the upside of being silent. No one ever knew you were there. Inspiration? Uh...okay then. She pulled out the dark green apple she had. She thought for a long time.

Adriane raised her hand. "Well, I live on a wildlife preserve, so...alot of animals climb trees. The dangers could be bacteria from animal paws. And rotten spots, or choking." The girl nodded, her hair falling over her face, shining bright blue as it hit the light. She raised her hand again. "Can we eat them? I didn't eat anything for breakfast..." She giggled. Oops on her part.

OH!

Jake's hand went up again. "My grandfather always told me that apples were really acid-y... and if you ate too many or fell asleep with apple in your mouth, it would like... erode your teeth."

He nodded seriously.

Well... they'd told him things like that because Jake had a thing about falling asleep with food in his mouth.

... Shuddup.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sierra saw yet another student come and join the already growing Badger Brigade. What was it with these Hufflepuffs?! Were they multiplying, or something?! Annoyed over the fact that yet another Puffer had decided to surround her, Sierra took a quick glance to the side...

...and smiled widely when she saw that it was Evelyn--not another Puffer Child--who'd decided to sit by her. Oh, yeah--take that, Puffers! We Snakes can multiply, too! Mwah haha!



Something else--whatever it was--now caught Sierra's attention, and she turned back to her desk to see a little paper frog hopping across it. Any other time, she might have been amused by it, but right now, the Puffers had her in a pretty foul mood, and she reached out and grabbed the frog by its paper tongue, raised her hand above it, and...



...quickly paused when she noticed that the professor had caught on to whatever it was going on between her and the Puffers. She quickly tossed the paper frog into her bag, made a grab for the apple that she'd brought along, and then zipped up her bag.



Hmm...

How could eating an apple be dangerous? Just about everyone had already suggesting everything that came to Sierra's mind, but one answer pretty much stood out above all the others--poisonous apples. Lafay had just taught a class on poisons, and so the idea was fresh on Sierra's mind. She raised her hand into the air. "Right--poisonous apples," she agreed. "Poison can be injected into common foods and drinks--like an apple, so that it's not so easy to tell that it's a poison."

Lucy quickly looked in her bag to see if she had an apple. Pheww! i have. She took her apple and kept it at the table so that th professor could see that she had one.

Lucy was shocked to hear professors question, she thought what was wrong with the professor, i meant, what can happen if we eat an apple? thinking hard to what professor meant by that question, she thought about the seeds, hmm, eating many apple seeds can be harmful. She raised her hand and said "Professor, if we eat many apple seeds, it can be harmful and you could die. As they contain cyanogenic acids, you would absorb a minimal amount of the toxic compounds. Chewing the seeds makes them much more hazardous to your health." she said and brought her hand down.

As Zooky-Dooks got the lesson underway, Patroclus couldn't help but look at his reflection in the apple that sat on his desk.

The closer and further away he moved to it;s position the bigger or smaller his head got....It was HIlarious!

Fat head...

Pin Head....

Fat Head

Pin head!

Noticing that he was laughing....out loud, the boy stopped and answered the man's question, "I was told that an Apple a day keeps St Mungos Away........however I also agree with Mia! The seeds are known to contain cyanogenic acids, however swallow a few is OK, it's more worrying if a lot are swallowed over a long period of time...."

Fat head

Pin head

Fat head......

So funny!

All the people responding to the question of why any apple could be harmful made a lots of sense but in most cases it would not be all that harmful unless you took things to any extreme with that apple or apples. But if you intended not to eat the apple, "If you throw any apple at someone it could nbe quite dangerous cause any apple, is a rather hard piece of fruit.".

Cass raises his hand to answer, "Well you can choke on a piece if you are not careful. Also sometimes when an apple goes bad it can be poisonous or just make you sick." He stops and tries to think if there is anything else that is dangerous about apples... "Ah, yes as has been mentioned the pesticides that muggles use can be harmful if you somehow ingest a large amount of them."

Cass then goes quiet again to take notes and see what else happens.

Belle remembered to get an apple for the class, she pulled out a green granny smith apple from her backpack, one of her favorites apples for the class. She was tempted to eat it


Annabelle raised her hand, "Professor, i think there is a danger of getting the apple skin caught in ur throat or seeds making you choke. You cut the core, so it can danger ur teeth. But it is all healthyy for your body, besides the granny smiths which are more sugared and can cause cavities."

Savannah stared blankly at her green apple. A could any stupid person poison an apple and put someone in danger in that really stupid way? Trying not to look bored but interested, she raised her hand in the air. "Poison?" she guess, "You'll never know." Savannah was pleased with her clever answer. She thought that everyone were stupid enough to think about choking! Ha! Savannah thought as she held her laughter. "Oh! And also, I think that you could be allergic to apples." she said as she nodded intensely. But she still couldn't see the point of this class.

Kyle looked over to see Patroclus moving the apple up to and away from his head - he seemed to be having fun...and then the comment about some acid.

"What exactly is cyanogenic acid do?" She said aloud, unaware of its abilities - or its toxicity levels. She didn't like the sound of it the sound of cyanogenic acid - it sounded, sounded bad.

"I have to say you could always use it to break peoples teeth out..." she shrugged, knowing her tooth fell out of her mouth when biting one as a kid. Ow.

Audrey raised her hand, her other hand on a perfectly round golden delicious apple. "I've always heard swallowing the seeds of an apple are bad for you, only if you swallow many over the course of a long time. Of course as with any food there is a choking hazard, and if the apple has pesticides on it, it could become poisonous."

Kyle looked up, odd statement on the way - very very odd.
"My cousin Correy - he's a squib, put an apple seed in his ear and needed surgery to get it out." She nodded, "Maybe thats a way they are dangerous" she thought looking at the apple in front of her.

It would be bitter, sweet, and tangy. Oooh a perfect dream - she loved the not-so-shiny and rough texture of Fiji Apples.

Why were apples dangerous?

Elle stared at the apple in front of her. She never knew it was harmful! She loved apples.

But then a thought came into her head and immediately raised her hand to answer.

"Professor, I once read about apples and their negative side. Apple orchards these days have many bugs. If apples are prone to bug-attacks specifically mites, they have to be sprayed with fungicides. And because of those chemicals, apples become poisonous and not the usual healthy snack we are used to. And another fact I read, Professor. If you overeat on apples, you... uh.. do the call of nature too many times. You know, the unnatural way. Yeah, it is good to do that activity everyday, but excessive excreting is not healthy. You loose too much water in your body, causing you to be dehydrated, faint, or get dizzy easily and more often, leading to other diseases or illnesses worse than lack of water," Elle put her hand down and blushed. She felt embarrassed for talking about pooping in front of everyone including a guy Professor. But this was class, wasn't it? You have to share what you know with others.

Fee listened to the teacher and smiled.What bad things could happen with an apple? Not much this lesson seemed to get on easy.Hopefully it was at at least. Taking out the asked apple the blonde nodded to herself.Bright green and looking yummy.The perfect apple."What are we going to do with it?",the girl asked raising her hand.There were apples in muggle and wizarding world,so what was going on? Or did muggle do difernt things with it? Oh ym god that would be weird.

Helen was wondering - could apples be as dangerous as everyone thought
Maybe, she never thought about the negatives of an apple so she put up her hand and said "I think that the only danger we have of apples are pesticides and acids inside but none of the dangers we all think are actually relatively dangerous to peoples health."

Jeremy nodded slowly, tossing the apple from one hand to the other, listening to all the suggestions...with a slightly amused smile playing around his lips. He had to keep in mind not to put apple seeds into his ear because THAT was apparently really dangerous. Good to know. Snort.

Waiting for another few moments for any last-minutes answers he finally got off the desk and pointed his apple at Elektra who had been first to give the right answer. "Actually, like Elektra - among others - here suggested, I was hoping that somebody would mention the Muggle fairytale Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." He should have brought a dwarf-hat.

"Now, for those of you who are not familiar with the fairy tale, the most important thing for now is that there is an evil witch involved who tries to kill Snow White." At this he reached over and pulled the blanket off the thing on his desk...which was a plastic dummy which looked quite a lot like Snow White. "Some of you mentioned choking on a piece of apple as one of the dangers and this is partly what happened to Snow White in the fairytale. The evil witch poisoned an apple and tricked her to take a bite and she choked on the piece." At this he moved his eyes away from the figure on his desk and back to the class. "Can anybody tell me how the fairytale ends? And I'd prefer the...er...Disney version of it, not the original." It was more...magical.

"The dwarfs place her body in a glass coffin where she waits until her prince comes...then...true love's kiss wakes her up," Kurumi blushed as she searched for her textbook to burry her ace in.

Emily grinned.
During the many years she lived with her muggle Godparents she had been immersed in the wonderful world of Disney. Oh yes, muggle fairytales were brilliant.

Emily raised her hand.
"Professor... the seven dwarves held a ceremony for her, and then a handsome young prince came riding in on his white horse. He kissed her and she woke up, then he took her away and they lived happily ever after."

Sigh....

Yes, what girl wouldn't want a prince charming all for themselves.

Now Patroclus knew the original story and it was just as Grimm as the brother's last name suggested.

"Professor in the Real story the end isn't as sweet as Disney would have us suggest." he began, "Yes the Prince came along, but he didn't kiss her, instead he had his servants take her glass coffin to his castle, but on the way one stumbled and shoke the coffin, which dis-lodged the poisoned apple from Snow White's throat and she woke up....." he didn't want to suck the romance out of it, he just wanted to give the proper facts.....

Then there was the witch.....and he didn't think the young one would deal with her being forced to dance till she died....

Adriane's head hit her desk with a dull thud. DUH! Snow White was so obvious. She raised her hand. "Yes. After Snow White supposedly 'died,' the dwarves created a glass casket and stayed until her prince charming came." Ad nodded.

If only her prince charming was single, and noticed her.