Hmmm, even thought she didn't particularly enjoy this task, even if it was better than harvesting bubotuber plants, she still wanted everything to be perfect. Meaning...this clay had to be exactly 30 centimeters! OR ELSE!

Or else it'd bug her for the rest of the day.

Satisfied that it was finally, and making sure it all looked perfect because it HAD to be or else that would bug her as well, she leaned over the tank so she could get a better view and started to mold the cutting of the purple coral into the clay, making sure not to damage it. Could it be damaged? Could she stop thinking of questions in her head!? GAH!

At least it was better to ask useless questions than to think of other things. Like Mariaed. Or...Josh. No. No thinking of Josh. Or Mariaed. Or...or both of them...together-

GOOD ENOUGH! The coral was deep enough in the clay. There. Fine. Good.

Simon was sat there bored, he had finished his work and now he just had too see what the crazy Professor lady had to say to him, well he didn't care, he smiled as he thought about feeding her to the lake people or better still so he didn't get into trouble could she have some sort of accident so he could laugh without being told off. "Professor what do we do now?" Simon asked. "Am I allowed to play exploding snap or something whilst waiting?"

Now that she had her cut piece of coral Marie put it on her desk then went to retrieve the other items she needed, like the tank and clay... for now.She would leave that crapdung until the very last. She didn't want that sitting on her desk any longer than it had to.

Once she had 30 cm of clay in her tank she carried it over to her desk and placed it next to the coral.

Now what was it she needed to to next?

Read the instructions on the board again... obviously.

Standing up with a huff, the hazel eyed girl looked back to the front board, peering at the instructions once more. Sea water next.

Moving over to the sea water, she stood there for a moment, before looking around for Josh. Wait, no, she wasn't looking for Josh. Adverting her gaze back to the blackboard, Evelyn took a deep breath and once again...scanned the instructions. Three liters of sea water. Fine.

Measuring out a liter first, she went over and poured that into the tank before going back two more times, each time carefully measuring out one more liter of the sea water to pour into the tank. With the sea water out of the way, the only thing that was left to do was the mooncalf dung step. They had to do that entire step...for ONE drop of the solution?

Fun. Pffft.

Seren smiled shaking her head at the boy. "Your listening skills could do with some work too. I was merely stating that you should take greater care in your work. Following instructions to a T is paramount when working with some plants, and had you been a centimetre under the requirement then it would have impacted on your corals growth within a matter of weeks. A centemetre over isn't an issue for this activity... just be more careful in future."

What? What was this?.... a student was leaving.

"Class hasn't been dismissed yet Miss Hopkins", she called out... but it appeared as though she was too late. No matter. The lesson was pretty much over... she'd only miss out on the coolest part of the lesson!... in her opinion.

Ahh at long last a student has noticed!... Seren offered Kurumi a smile.She couldn't wait to see the Gryffindor's reaction. Well provided the girl didn't freak out... she didn't think it was freak-out worthy... but who knew. Vindictus had frightened a lot of them with a mere snargaluff after all.
"A surprise!" she said grinning more broadly now. She was having difficulty with controling her excitement now. "A very very special treat," she added, as if this would make the girl feel better.

And she wasn't fibbing... or exaggerating. It was incredibly special.. more so than the Stuby Purple Coral.

Time to stop the students, she thought.

Moving to the front of the class she began her concluding speech... because with Seren it was always going to be a speech. Partially nerves but mostly excitement led her to ramble ecessively.
"Ok class, I'm afraid we've come to the end of the lesson, so for those of you that have completed the task, well done and thank you... for those that havn't, you have one minute to quickly finish up anything."

She paused briefly to catch her breath- and give the students enough time to process what she had said.

"Please make sure you have your tanks- labelled and your attendence cards sitting on top of your desks."
This was very important.

"Now you may be dismissed, however I have one last thing to show you before you go," she said taking a few calculated steps towards the larger tubular tank- still covered.
"First of all, know that you are all safe... the specimen I have here is deceased and is enclosed in unbreakable glass.. it is completely secure... it cannot harm you."
She made eye contact with a few students... offering them a small smile. No matter what she brought into the classroom she would always make sure the students safety came first.

Gripping the sheet covering the tank Seren gave it a hearty tug, letting the fabric fall away, unveiling one of the most glorious plants she had ever seen... and one of the most deadly. This specimen was submerged in a preserving liquid of light amber... and unlike the other specimens it was just floating lifelessly in the tank, its roots exposed.
The lacey fragile leaves almost appeared to be fluttering lightly in the liquid, bobbing up and down, all the while staying transfixed in the same place. A magical sight. The two foot tall specimen with three stalks and brilliant lacey flowers- not unlike the hybiscus glowed with an errie mix of vibrant colours. Shades of gold and silver flecked the leaves and stalks, tones of red and blue and green painted this stunning plant. Indeed all the colours of the rainbow reflected from its surface.
"May I introduce to you... one of the deadliest plants known to wizardkind," she began as if introducing an old friend, ".. the Prayer Flower."

"Feel free to come up and have a look. If you have any questions regarding the lesson, now would be the time to ask."

Oh and on a side note.
"Please keep your eyes out for the homework announcement on your commonroom notice boards, and also the herbology noticeboard....
Thank you... and I hope you all ejoyed todays lesson", she noticed that some of the students weren't shivering anymore.. that was a good sign.
"We'll be indoors for the next lesson", she added with a smile.



OOC: If you haven't finished RPing the activity you may finish doing so but only in one post, so instead of breaking up the activity into 5 posts you will need to finish it in 1 regardless of how many you have left- hope this makes sense. Also if you have any questions or want to go up and see the Prayer flower you may do so. Otherwise if you wish to leave you may also do so.

Homework will be up tomorrow.

Simon looked at the Professor. "So what your saying is that you have to be spot on?" Simon didn't believe her she was trying to make him feel bad, and he didn't want to for one minute, this Professor didn't know him at all did she maybe he could talk to her later.

Simon went to the Professor. "Sorry about talking in your class, but Treyen deserved everything I said, he's been mean to me for some reason lately and we used to be good friends." Simon sighed maybe that was why he was feeling rebelious at the moment.

Suddenly Simon looked at the Plant. "Professor I don't believe a word you are saying if it was deadly you wouldn't have been able to bring it into class and you wouldn't have been able to get it into the tank." Simon thought for a moment he was a wizard and they could move things without touching them. "Though if you are telling the truth what would happen if you touched it?" Simon wondered what would happen if say the Professor touched it.

Jamie always felt a buzz of excitement when a lesson was over, despite if it was interesting or not. He looked to his desk, checking everything was there, and it certainly was. His tank, his name tag for the tank, and his attendance card. Yup. He slung his bag over his shoulder and was about to walk out, until the professor made two more announcements. One about homework - GROOOOOAN - and the other about a different plant. Yawn. However, when she said that it was one of the 'deadliest plants known', a spark of attention went through the Slytherin.

He slowly approached it with his eyes glued open, as if it would grow a mouth and massive teeth to eat him with. Plants couldn't do that, though... right? Finally at the front, Jamie stared at the plant with an intrigued expression. The Prayer Flower. "Cool." He muttered. Plants! COOL? Jamie's mind had been corrupted by this somewhat good lesson. He had no questions about it, because he had no intelligence.

Snapping out of that, the third year turned to the professor and smiled. "Thanks for the lesson, professor. See ya." Really, he had to stop talking to professors like they were his pals. Swiftly, he exited the ship and now his next step of the day would probably be... Karate?

Cleaning her gloves with a quick scourgify, Evelyn levitated the tank back to her desk, snatching the parchment of instructions off from the top first before setting it gently down.

Making sure her gloves were on tight, she measured the 1/4 of an ounce of mooncalf dung, and the 700 ml of water before quickly mixing them together. The faster she got this step done, the faster she could go back to the castle and thoroughly clean her gloves, and possibly take a three hour long shower herself. Just being near this stuff made her feel like she had crawled through mud for the last few days. Extracting one little drop of the mixed solution, she added it into the tank. How in the world that tiny drop would do any good, she had no idea.

Cleaning up her desk, especially if she had gotten any of the mooncalf solution stuff on it, she tore off her gloves and searched her bag for a quill and ink. However, she was momentarily distracted with the prayer flower. Wow, that was...beautiful. Blinking after a moment or so of intense staring at the deadly plant, the Slytherin girl shook her head and scribbled her name on the tag and slapping placing it quickly on the tank.

Normally she didn't put anything for her middle name when asked to actually write her name out, but, she wasn't really thinking at the moment. Right now, she was quickly packing up her things as fast as she wrote her name. With classed being dismissed, and the rest of the class more than likely wanting to get a good look at he deadly yet extremely beautiful prayer flower, she found this to be a good opportunity to leave.

With her bag slung over her shoulder, gloves being held out to the side since she really didn't want whatever was still on them (IF there was anything on them) to contaminate the rest of the items in her bag, Evelyn made a beeline to get out of there, gaze on the floor or any desk that she passed, forgetting to give the professor a farewell as she did so. Eh, she had to get out of this mess first!

Brielle gazed at the strange plant submerged in the last tank. She had never expected that to be inside. She had encountered the name of the plant before, but now, she just couldn't remember from where. Before anyone else did, she stood up and walked carefully to the tank, but stayed a few feet away from it, fearing the Professor's description of it. After all, it wasn't everyday you would hear a plant being called deadly.

The closed up sight of the plant confused Brielle even more. How could something that looked so magical cause harm? Her mouth opened to ask, but something pushed it back shut. She had been afraid to talk to professors, something about their commanding attitude always managed to hold her back. Not this time, though. "Professor, in what way can this plant be deadly?" she asked, her curiosity overcoming her fear. Smiling to herself, she awaited the answer.

Tayla surveyed the room to see how her classmates were doing then turned back to the instructions on the board. She went to the back of the room as instructed and took a small tank and clay. She filled the bottom with the clay as well as she could. "30 centimeters...that should be about it..."

Now that she had the clay just right in her tank Marie picked up the coral and started to mold it into the clay about 5cm deep. Once that was done she looked up at the board again.
-------------
Time to add some water. Three liters of sea water to be exact. Going to the back again... which wasn't very far for her since she was already at the back, she got the water then took it back to her desk. Very carefully and slowly she poured that water into the tank. She didn't want to pour it too fast taking the chance that the coral would work its way out of the clay. No, that wouldn't be good. She needed it to stay just where it was.
-------------
Once all the water was in the tank she looked at the board to see what she needed to do next. Oh gross, it was time to play with the poo.

Putting her gloves on she once again went to the back to get more water and the mooncalf poo.

Disgusting!

Sitting back at her desk she slowly (so it didn't splash on her) mixed the poo and water until it was all dissolved. Now to add it to the tank. Looking up at the board she frowned when she seen it was only one drop they had to add.

After adding the ONE drop she glared up at the professor. Why couldn't one person have made the solution? What the heck was she supposed to do with this crappy water that she had left? Well, she had a few ideas what she could do with it but that would require taking it with her and she did NOT want to carry that around with her. Instead she would just leave it there on her desk, with the tank and newly re-planted piece or coral.
-------------
She was about to leave... to get away from the stench of the crap in the room when she seen the tag on her desk. Looking over at Ev... who was already leaving, she quickly glanced at her tag to see what they were supposed to write on it. Oh right, her name.

Grabbing her quill she quickly jotted her name on the tag then placed it on the tank using a sticking charm.

After making sure everything was back in her bag (except the gloves, those she would just leave behind. She had more so she really didn't need those anyway) she quickly made her way out of the room. Not before looking over at Jimmy and giving him a little smile as she passed him. Maybe she would look him up later after the homework was assigned and ask him to help her. Right now though she wanted to go back to the castle and get cleaned up and into some different clothes. She didn't want to risk smelling like dung when she met Matty for lunch.

Salander was clenching and relaxing his fists, looking out portside again, and thinking about the meals he could ask the elves for. It was then that he felt a piece of paper flutter next to his arm, then glanced up as the Professor gave instructions. Right, tag'em and bag'em.

He stuck the tag at the side of the tank then quickly collected his things. His eye caught the ethereal looking plant, and although he heard the Professor say it was dead, to him it looked merely asleep, a decoy to thinking that it was already harmless. With a huff to banish away that mooncalf stench still riding up his nostrils, he jerked his head up at the Professor "See ya'round Ma'am" he said as he drew near the gangplank, waited for his Lexi before stepping off the ship.

"It's better to be safe than sorry... take potions for example... too much or too little of a particular substance could be dangerous... same goes for plants. A clear example of that is the mooncalf solution we used today... more than a drop and it would have been too toxic for the Coral to survive. Just the right ammount ad it will highly increase its chances of survival."
Clearly the boy had a lot to learn about magic in general...

Ahh an appology... so nice of him. Seren was starting to think he might be alright after all... just woke up on the wrong side of bed.
"That's alright dear... and I hope things get better for you. If he continues to give you grief then perhaps have a word with your Head of House."

Oh as for the plant, he had a decent question.
"Ahh I'm glad you asked. During my time abroad I met a number of witches and wizards who were studying the plants movements... Occasionally when the tide is right an ill, or in this case deceased specimen, is uprooted, then its simply a matter of trapping it- from a safe distance."
If only she could be credited with the capture, but she wasn't.
"But unless you're an expert in the field I wouldn't recommend trying it."


"You welcome", replied Seren brightly, eyes still traansfixed to the plant.

"Very good question... though its hard to imagine, the Prayer Flower is ferociously omnivorous... it will feed on any flesh it has access to. Human, animal, plant... they're ravenous things. ou'd have to pray hard if you ever come across one... it's how it got its name- dark humour."
Very dark humour indeed... there certainly wasn't anything funny about coming across one in the wild.

"See you later", said Seren brightly as the Slytherin went to disembark.

Simon looked at the Professor and smiled. "Thank you for the advice." Simon smiled maybe this Professor wasn't as bad as he thought she was but he would decide after the next lesson, hopefully it would be a lot more fun that this one like touching the plant she was showing them now.

Simon looked at the plant. "Professor how is the plant deadly, like what would a dark wizard have to do to get it to kill someone like Laf.." Simon stopped and refrazed the question hopefully the Professor wouldn't ask to much questions. "I ment Professor if you were a dark wizard and wanted to kill someone would would they have to do?" Simon smiled nerviously at the Professor hopefully he could talk to the Professor in her office about this plant it seemed cool.

Post 2...Take one of the small tanks and fill the bottom with 30 cm of clay.

Penny went to the back of the class and selected a tank and filled the bottom of the tank with 30cm of clay, measuring it with her ruler...

Post 3...Using your fingers mould the bottom end of the cutting into a small whole in the clay, about five cm deep.

Carrying her tank and cutting back to her desk, she measured the circumference of the Stubby Purple Coral and made a hole wide enough for the cutting to fit in nicely....also measuring 5cm deep..
Gently she inserted the cutting into the hole and closed the clay around it..

Post 4...Add 3 Ltrs of sea water

Making sure her tank was secure on her desk, she made her way to the back of the class room again - to collect sea water.... Carefully measuring 3ltrs into a jug, she went back down to her desk again.. slowly adding the sea water to the tank..

Post 5....Then finally add one drop of Mooncalf Solution.

Penny glanced up at the board again...She really didn't want to get this wrong..

Walking back up again she got 1/4 ounce of Mooncalf Dung and 700ml of water and stirred until it was completely dissolved..

Then added one drop of the Mooncalf Solution to the tank containing the Stubby Purple Coral...

Relieved that she hadn't messed up - at least she didn't think she did...

Penny checked that she had labelled her tank and that her attendance card was filled in properly, put her ruler, quill and parchment back in her bag with her dragon hide gloves...

She was about to leave the ship, but turned around and said.."Thanks for the lesson Professor Bentley"

Oh, even at the plant's deceased state, it was still beautiful. Heather approached the tank a bit so she could see well from the crowd. Her small figure was rather making it hard for her to have a look from the back.

and yes, she had some questions. She turned to the professor, once again tilting her head to her right like a curious child; it was a habit of hers. Most thought it was adorable. She'd say, what's so adorable about her asking? Naive.

"Uhm..Professor..." glad she wasn't stuttering as much anymore. "I was...wondering..." oh great, here comes the frequent pauses. Hope the professor's patient enough. "If it's...dead...is...is it still that deadly?...because...it's in an unbreakable glass....to keep everyone away from harm...uhm..also...uh...if someone touches it...do they die instantly...or...slowly...and how so?" ugh...so many questions...."a-and...why'd they call it the 'Prayer Flower'?" Ah, the origins of the name, fascinating backgrounds of such beautiful flowers, really.

Sierra could see that something exciting was going on in the front of the classroom, but she'd been feeling so terrible for the past hour that she honestly couldn't bare to stay here any longer. If they could be dismissed now, then she was leaving, exciting plant or not. She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a quill, and she used it to quickly scribble her name across the tag.

Sierra H. Greingoth
Slytherin 2nd year

...and then she fixed the tag onto her tank. As she stuffed her quill and other materials back into her bag, she felt her forehead one more time. She didn't think she had a fever. With a small sigh, she slung her book bag over her bag and headed off the ship.

SPOILER!!: Ariella's Notebook

*Take a cutting off the original specimen, 20 cm long.
*Take one of the small tanks and fill the bottom with 30 cm of clay.
*Using your fingers mould the bottom end of the cutting into a small whole in the clay, about five cm deep.
*Add 3 Ltrs of sea water.
*Then finally add one drop of Mooncalf Solution.
~~
Making Mooncalf Solution
~1/4 ounce Mooncalf Dung
~700 ml water
**Mix until dissolved.

One step left to go. Ariella made her mooncalf solution, measuring all of the ingredients carefully. She added exactly one drop and looked into her tank. It surprisingly looked okay. She stepped back and cleaned off her gloves and robes with a "Scourgify!". Then, she filled out her tag.

SPOILER!!: Tag

Ariella Adler

Was she finished? She supposed so. "Goodbye, Professor. Thank you for a great lesson!" she said as she took off her gloves.

William posted his already filled out card card on the tank.

Hand moving quickly across her journal page, Ivory took down the Practical Instructions to the letter. No short hand for this part. Or bare hands for that matter. Tugging on her gloves efficiently, the Ravenclaw prefect flexed her fingers inside the smooth hide glad for its suppleness as she made her way, wand and ruler in hand, to the back of the deck.

Eyes following their movements, she observed as her fellow students as they took their cutting of the original, wondering if it’d be safer for the corral if she waited her turn rather than barging in there to take a cutting of where any was available. Yeah, waiting would probably be best. Wouldn’t want to damage the original.

Fishing the small parchment out of her pocket where the instructions for making mooncalf solution written, she eyed the growing line before shrugging her shoulders and turning back to her desk, taking a small container and some Mooncalf dung with her. She’d work on the solution for now.

Back at her workstation, Ivory pinned the piece of parchment to her journal and casted a quick Fixate to hold it at eye level. The better to see the instructions you see. Measuring out the ¼ ounce of Mooncalf dung in grams, Ivory stirred in the resulting a little over 7 grams into the 700 ml of water, continuing her stirring until little chunks weren’t swimming around and the whole contents were dissolved. Satisified with her Mooncalf solution, the Ravenclaw prefect made quick work of casting a few cleaning charms on the equipment she used and her gloves before moving back to the now only semi-crowded tanks.

Muttering under her breath as she circled the enclosure, Ivory peered into the water looking for a section of. ”No, too thin….too thick…The base doesn’t look very sturdy….AHA perfect!” Until finally she found a small part where the corral was still upright and healthy enough for her to take a cutting of.

Carefully measuring out the 20 cm and making a mental note where to cut, Ivory unholstered her wand and aimed accordingly. ”Diffindo.” Concentrating her intent on only severing the appropriate section, she watched happily as the clean break was made. Success! And no accidents. That was a total plus.

AgH! But how was she to transport said cutting….
Turning her wand on her safety goggles that were hanging in misuse at her hip, the Ravenclaw prefect brightened up at an idea. Picturing an opened ball in her mind’s eye, Ivory cast the charm she’d learned the previous term concentrating on absorbing seawater. "Mizurus Boru!" The safety goggles appeared to compact for a second coming in together, morphing and expanding into a useful open ended water ball perfect for holding a piece of corral while she went about her merry way of setting up a tank for it.

Setting the new rounded vase like container on her desk for the moment, Ivory turned to the next task at hand: Filling a new tank with clay. With a little reassuring tug to make sure her gloves were in place, she dug into the mound of clay scooping it up and patting it down into the smaller tank.
Handful at a time, she spread out the clay making sure the corners weren’t showing any gaps but it wasn’t packed enough that the corral would have problems taking root. Ruler in one hand, the Ravenclaw moved around the tank watching the steady rising progess and making sure one side of the tank wasn’t more packed than the other. Gloved fingers kneading through the clay, it wasn’t long before it was just right.

Summoning her rounded container, Ivory carefully maneuvered her corral into the tank, using her fingers to make a small depression that she expanded carefully into a hole about 5 cm deep. She even checked it with her ruler to make sure. With patient hands, the Ravencalw prefect packed the clay around its base before stepping back to admire the progress. So far so good.
Exhaling a small breath of air that had her bangs flying out of her face, she moved onto the next step. Deciding to use a small ladle rather than magic to add the three liters of sea water to her tank, Ivory diligently poured the sea water. Sure it took her a while but better slowly so as not to disturb or erode the corral. Besides she could always trade arms if one got tired.

Sometime later, a little over 101 water filled ladles later, the tank was finally ready. Stretching out her arms as she walked over to her desk, Ivory retrieved her previously prepared mooncalf solution. Eyeing the instructions, she inserted one pipette into the murky dissolved mixture. With a small squeeze of the dropper, she watched the one lonely drop fall into her tank hopefully it was enough to allow the corral to flourish and help in recolonizing its species.

Writing her name on the tag provided, Ivory attached it to her tank making sure to center it on her desk. There all done.

Quote:

Ivory Erised; 5th year Ravenclaw

Taking a few moments to cast a few cleaning spells on her area and her gloves and cast Finite on her fixated journal, Ivory made her way to where everyone was crowded at the front. With a start, her eyes went wide and she resisted the urge to run forward and press her nose against the glass like a little kid.

It was so pretty! But no, also dangerous. Nodding her head with the others' questions, Ivory turned to the professor with a question of her own. "Professor, if the specimen is deceased does that mean that coming into contact with it is still fatal?" Even when it was dead?? Her curiosity peaked, the Ravenclaw prefect brought out her journal once again and began to sketch it. Not very well mind you, but just so she could research it later.

Seeing as Simon was all but done, he simply needed to add the tag to his specimen as directed by Professor Bentley. The Gryffindor slipping off his protective gloves to do so seeing as the bulky fabric wasn't too good with a quill.

Quote:

Simon Bennett

He scralled on a piece of parchment to rest besides the tank he had worked with for the practical part of the lesson. Hearing of the intended outcome of their work, he couldn't help but smile for it felt good to be able to help the environment if even in a small way. "Thanks for the lesson professor," he said as he cleaned up and gathered up his belongings to return to his school bag.

Oakey was pleased with his work. Wasn't quite sure what he did, but was pleased with it none-the-less. He took a label and filled it out

and placed the tag on his masterpiece. He made his way to the front of the class to see Professor Bentley. He avoided eye contact with the Prayer Plant Oakey wanted nothing to do with dangerous plants, dead or alive. Thank you for lesson today Proffesor Oakey smiled and look no harm came to me Oakey spread both his arms out wide to show her he wasn't hurt. Today is a lucky day for me He waved to the professor goodbye and set off for the ramp the lead of the boat.

Oakey took one step onto the gangplank and slipped

*Thud*

He landed on his butt and slide the rest of the way down until he hit the hard ground beneath him making another loud noise as he hit it.

He stood up and wiped the dirt from the back of his pants. Oakey turned to face the ship and gave and A.O.K sign with his index finger and thumb Hoping the Professor would not rush to his side.

Lexi grabbed up the little piece of parchment and scribbled out her name. Then securing it to the tank she gathered up her things... all of this at a rather glacial pace. <.<

Giving a weak smile to Jim she then headed off to meet Sal and have a quick look at the tank containing the Prayer Flower. Oooooh. Not as interesting as one would have thought. Not at all.

Meh. She could still smell Mooncalf Dung and was none too happy about this situation. Poking her bottom lip out a bit she took Sal's hand in her own and called out to Seren, "Good day, Professor."

"Come on, Sal. I cannot stand the smell of mooncalf dung..." POUT.

Ah! Lucas was running out of time! That's okay, he could finish up pretty quickly. Next step was getting a small tank and filling it with 30 cm of clay. Okay, he could do that. He went to the back of class where everything was located and followed the instructions. He was careful to get only 30 cm -- he'd heard the professor chiding another student for using too much.

He turned to the board, reading the instructions to see if he could go back to his desk or if he still needed something back here. Mold the bottom end of the cutting into a small hole in the clay about 5 cm deep. Alright, sounded easy enough. He carried the tank back to his desk to have somewhere sturdy to put it. He carefully poked a hole in the clay, estimating about 5 cm. Then he gingerly picked up the cutting and placed it in the hole. He molded the clay around the bottom to make sure it would stay. Alright, that step was cake. Next step?

Add 3 liters of sea water. Okey-dokey. He carried the tank back to the back of the class where the supplies were. He measured out the 3 liters and poured the sea water into the tank. Aw, the coral kinda looked happy. Yay!

Last step was making the mooncalf solution and putting it in. The instructions were on his desk, so he made the trip with the tank yet again. The solution sounded pretty easy. It was just made of dung and water. He could manage that. He left the tank on his desk this time, figuring these two things would be easy enough to carry back. He went to the back of the class again and took what he needed (while wishing that dung wasn't included in that list -- gross!). Once he was back at his desk, he mixed the dung and water together to make the solution. Once it was all uniform and dissolved, he looked to the board to see what the last step was after this.

Add one drop of mooncalf solution. Alright, that's fine. Lucas carefully held the solution over the tank and added one drop. That was the scariest part -- he was scared he would spill it or something, but everything turned out surprisingly well.

Aw, and look at the coral! It was so psyched to be repotted. Aww, yeah. Saving ecosystems? Yeah, Lucas could do that. He picked up the tag that had materialized on his desk and wrote his name on it quickly.

He figured he may as well add his house. Props to Gryffindor for saving endangered coral! Okay, okay, the other houses had helped, too. But still. He secured the tag to his tank, then gathered the rest of his stuff. He left the specimen on his desk as the professor had said to do. "Thanks, professor!" He waved and smiled as he left the ship. A lesson on a cool ship and singlehandedly (okay, not really singlehandedly) saving an entire species. Awesome.

...

Ok, THAT was cool. Prayer Flower - deadly omnivorous plant. Itching to get a closer look, Ryden made sure that everything was in order on her table, eyed the little plant she'd just saved and picked up her things. With a furtive look around the class, she kept to the edges as she crept closer to the dead yet remarkable plant.

Hmm. She'd have to remember to add a plants' encyclopedia to the list she was sending to her dad to buy her. Of course, his secretary would be the person buying and shipping the books and little presents, but the mailing address was still Father.

"Does the plant grow individually, spaced out, or does it dominate a large area of the sea bed? A field of prayer flowers, so to speak," she asked, making sure to be RIGHT BY the professor and kept her head well down. For once, being short was a good thing - the professor would have to almost kneel to be able to see her face right now.