Now it was time to collect all of the seeds. Simple enough, right? Right.

Jayden carefully collected all of the seeds that she had extracted and placed them gingerly into the bags. She then quickly lifted the stem, removed the remainder of the membrane, and placed it into the compost heap.

Finally. Now it was just time for cleanup!

"Almost done!" She smiled to herself proudly, dusting off her hands with a satisfied 'clap!' as she skipped back over to her table and scratched off step number four on her list.

Now for the task at hand, the opening up the pod. Looking to where he had unloaded all the items from beneath his workstation, Gideon found what he was looking for. The scalpel...an item sharp enough to cut through the thinning membrane of the shell of the plant so he could get inside to harvest. Carefully holding the metal instrument as Professor Bentley had in her demonstration, the Gryffindor slowly worked on scoring and piercing the puffapod seed pod. The incision eventally growing from the top end to the bottom end of the pod.

Cleanup time! "This should be easy!" Jayden muttered to herself, eying her workspace. It wasn't too much of a mess, nothing a good 'scourgify' couldn't handle.

"Scourgify!" She said softly, pointing her wand in the goopy areas and wiping off the rest with a rag and some plant safe cleaner she had purchased over vacation just for this purpose.

All done!

"Any further instructions, Professor?" She asked politely, smiling at the woman.

Oakey walked over to where the Valentine's Day Pods were, He chose One that was either a dark pink or a bright red,

Oakey was sure what it's color was but that didn't really matter. He brought it back to his station and set it down while holding it down with one hand sitting it upright. Oakey picked up his Scalpel and made the deep incision into his Pod from the top down to the bottom. Taking his scalpel out he looked at the jelly that had laid itself on the tool. Flicking the scalpel in his hand the goo came right off.

Using her non-gooey hand, Kurumi searched under her station until she found her bag and... SQUEAK!SNEEZE. Ug...as much as she hated to admit it, she really did need to go speak with Professor Lafay about receiving some of that potion. Kurumi didn't want to, but if she was going to be able to keep up with Herbology there really was no other way around it.

Picking up the bag, Kurumi stood up - misjudging how far under the table she was and whacking the back of her head against the bottom of it. Her puffapod trembled a bit, falling forward ever so slightly and pouring some of its placenta!GOO over her head. "...eeeek..." Butt she was just going to have to deal with that later. Chances were she was going to get more of this stuff on her before the day was out.

Placing the bag on the table, Kurumi picked up the seeds one by one and placed them in the bag with her gooey-gloved-hand. Once those were safely in it, Kurumi set it to the side and looked at the mild disaster that was her work place. Before tackling the goo, Kurumi returned her attention momentarily to the membrane, Collect the seeds into the bags provided, remove the remaining membrane and pulled it off the stem before walking over to the compost heap and tossing it on top.

Now...to clean up not only her station but herself.

Ella looked at the seeds on the table. What was I supposed to do next again? Glancing down at her notes, she traced the next step with her finger as she read. Ahhh yes, bag the little guys. She picked up the little bag and opened it up, looking down at the seeds. She picked them up carefully, not wanting to drop any on the floor and placed them securely in the bag. "That was easy enough." She said aloud, smiling as she placed the bag back on the table away from the pile of jelly that was currently in front of her. She frowned at it, thinking that it looked quite gross on the table like that. Shaking her head, she looked back at her notes...wondering what the next step was.

"OK", Alex thought. "This is going to be really nasty". She reached under the work station and got her supplies. After placing them on the table, Alex put her apron on and tied it securely. She did not want to take the chance of getting any pod goo on herself. Then she put on her gloves and tried to mentally prepare herself for the next step. "This shouldn't be too bad", she told herself. "I can do this, no problem." She checked her notes just o be sure.

Next Justin went and got his Puffpod and returned to his spot. He picked up his scalpel and made an incision down the length of his pod. As he took out the scalpel it was clung with jelly. He looked at it with a scruntched face and wiped it on his apron.

Ella looked down at her notes, realizing she was almost done with the activity. Next she had to remove the remaining membrane from the plant by simply pulling it off the stem and place it in the compost heap. She pulled the membrane gingerly, making sure she removed it entirely. Then she walked over to the compost heap and tossed it on top. For a second she thought it wasn't going to land on the pile and a look of horror crossed her face. By some miracle, the membrane flopped but didn't slide to the floor. "Thank Merlin!" Ella said quietly as she returned to her seat. "Now to clean up this mess..." She said as she wiped her gloves on her apron again.

Glad that he hadn't shown up as late as some of the other students had, Auggie listened to Professor Bentley as she talked about the Puffapod plants and gestured to all of the pink-ish pods that were now growing off of them.

So all they had to do today was some harvesting? That didn't seem too hard. Oh, that wasn't all it seemed. Oh well, it still shouldn't be too hard. He quickly took down all the notes and then set his notebook aside.

With a small smirk, he took the apron and stuck his head through the loop at the top and slowly tied the two strings around his waist. He hadn't really ever worn an apron before but his mom did when she cooked--hence the smirk. The Gryffindor then snapped on the latex gloves and went to go find the right Puffapod membrane. evil scientist

Kacie was a little disappointed that they wouldn't be tossing the puffapods, like she did when she was little and make all the flowers explode out of them. Instead they would only be harvesting the seeds, which was alright, but playing with them would have been a lot more fun. When the notes appeared on the board Kacie pulled out her notebook and quickly wrote everything down, careful not to miss any steps.



Once she was finished with that, Kacie turned her attention back to the professor and watched her demostrate what they would be doing. It seemed simple enough. She didn't mind getting a little messy so the slimy part didn't bother her. Following the first step she reached under her work station and pulled out her equipment. She set the scalpel and calico bag to the side, before putting up her apron and gloves.

Alex went over to the Puffapods. Since pink was her favorite color, she chose a light pink one. "I wonder what color the seeds will be", she thought. Cradling the pod carefully, she returned to her work station. Taking her scalpel from the table, she pierced the "skin" of the pod. Alex then made a long incision down the side of the pod, from top to bottom. She tried to do it just like the instructions said, but somehow it seemed easier when the Professor did it.

Silvia made sure that all five seeds were in the bag and that the bag was secured so that they didn't fall out. She pushed the bag slightly to the side so that she could concentrate on the next step: removing the membrane. She placed both of her thumbs just inside the incision, one on each side, and pulled at the membrane. It slowly started to peel off the stem. When the entire membrane had detached itself, Silvia carried it around the table and placed it in the compost heap, then returned to her table. The only thing left was to clean up.

Walking over to the side of the Greenhouse that was home to the matured Puffapod plants wasn't too hard of a task in the crowded classroom setting, for most of the people were still getting their protective gear on. After a few seconds of looking the plants over, August found a nice, big, pink Puffapod membrane sitting next to a stalk not too far from him.

Quickly the boy snatched it up in his gloved hands and, using his scapel, slowly sliced an incision down it's side. Ew...now to just harvest the seeds or beans, whichever they are.

Logan jotted everything down in his journal quickly in his scribbly handwriting:
He then looked at the first step. He was pretty sure he would not mess this up, 100% sure. He put on the protective gear, ah, easy enough! He smiled happily.

Ella looked down at her work space, noting all the goop that had piled up in front of her. She decided she'd better take off her gloves so she wouldn't get the jelly substance on her wand or in her bag. She removed the gloves with a disgusted look. They were pretty nasty at this point and Ella was happy to be rid of them. She usually liked messy stuff but this jelly was not her favorite. She reached into her bag and found her wand. She then pointed it at the work space in front of her. "Scourgify." Noticing the scalpel, Ella picked it up and pointed her wand at the tool, repeating the spell. She placed it down on the newly clean work space and wondered what she was supposed to do with the gloves. They seemed disposable but Ella wasn't sure so with a shrug, she cleaned those too. Better safe than sorry. She didn't know what to do about the apron situation but figured she'd keep it on for the moment. They might be doing something else requiring a mess. She sat back with a happy sigh, waiting for further instructions.

setting down the scalpel, he reached for each of his sleeves and rolled them up. With his left handed he poked his index finger into the Pod. It was like reaching into a jar of extremely soft jello. Taking his finger out he looked at some more of the goo that lay on his finger. He wiped his finger on the table. and slowly began reaching his hand into the Pod...

His hand touched one of the first seeds, gripping around it he plucked it from the inside of the pod. some of the goo squirted from the cut he had made and sprayed itself onto his school shirt. Taking his other hand he tried wiping it from his shirt but it only spread. He pulled his hand out of the pod holding one of the seeds. There we go. he told the seed, now to get four more of your friends

Reaching back in he felt around until he nabbed another one. He pulled out slower than the last time. Goo still spilling out of the pod onto the work station Holding his second seed.

He repeated this three more times getting the last of the seeds. The final one had a line of goo trail behind it out of the pod. Taking his right hand he swiped at it and the goo came loose from the seed.

Right. They were working with sharp pointy stuff. Was the professor sure this was safe? Because let's say a psychopath ran in here and gained possession of these scalpels. He could easily perform surgery on them. That was what scalpel was used for, right? Selena looked at the puffapod, scalpel in her latex gloved hand and poked the thing with her free hand. Wrinkling her nose slightly, because of the fluff, Selena pulled her hand away and looked at her notes.

So they were making cuts along the puffapod. Selena was going to name her puffapod... Puffy. She was definitely original, yup. Selena took the scalpel and carefully made an incision down the side of the pod, starting at the top and ending at the bottom. She wondered what would happen if she did it the other way... bottom to top. It probably wouldn't work or something. But one thing was sure.

Her Puffy was dying.

It did have a cut after all. Selena was pretty sure plants didn't like to have cuts. Because SELENA didn't like cuts. Nope. They hurt. She was also quite grateful these weren't mandrakes... because then it would start to CRY when it had the cut. And Selena didn't like crying, shrieking plants.



Selena picked up her quill and put an X over the two, trying to make sure her notes didn't get dirty.

Elise closed her eyes for moment, breathing deeply. This. Would. Be. Disgusting. Opening one eye, she eased her right hand into the inscision down the side of the puffapod. It was slimy... And really really cold.

Shuddering, she moved her hand around in the goo. Feeling her fingers bump against something hard, she smiled. Seed number one. Pulling it out, she put it down next to her. Seeds #2 and #3 came out easily enough, but she couldn't seem to find #4.

Pulling her hand out, she wiped off the goo onto off her hand and onto the apron. Disgusting, almost. It was purple, and just an insult to one of her favorite colors. Eww...

Plunging her hand in again, she tried to ignore the slimy cold substance that seemed to be seeping in through her gloves. Finding seed #4, she set it down before feeling around for some more. Nada. How many were they supposed to get, again? Four to Five? Well, El had four. It was good enough.

Alex tried to peek inside the pod. She did not like the idea of blindly sticking her hand inside, but she guessed she had no choice. Taking a deep breath, Alex put her hand in the pod and......EEEW. It felt like a bowl of jello that hadn't had time to set completely. She felt around in the goo and finally found four seeds. They turned out to be bright orange. Alex tried to scrape the gel off of the seeds as best she could and placed them on the table.

Selena looked at her notes. Then she looked at Puffy. Then she looked at her notes. Then she looked at Puffy again. Then the scalpel. Then back to her notes. So... she supposed she wouldn't need the scalpel anymore. Selena put the tool down and looked at the puffapod. She wondered what it was feeling riiiiight now. With a cut and everything. She imagined it to be completely terrified. Puffy ought to be though.

Selena stuck her hand into the incision, trying not to cringe. Not because it was disgusting. No. BECAUSE. She felt bad for Puffy. Poor Puffy the Puffapod. Selena pulled out one pretty purple seed. The puffapod seeds kinda reminded Selena of Kent. She was a bit grateful the pygmy puff wasn't here or else he'd probably be mistaken as a mutant puffapod bean-seed thingy. Selena hummed a little tune to herself as she wiped off the icky jelly covering the purple seed and set the seed on the table. Selena pulled out four more from the plant's cut and cleaned them the way she had with the first one - gingerly and NICELY. Because that's what she did. Yup.

She looked at Puffy. "Sorry Puffy," Selena said, frowning slightly and patting the plant's injury. It was all for the better anyways. Now Puffy had kids who could GROW. Selena was sure the puffapod liked that.

Taking her quill, Selena put an X over the number three, leaving membrane streaks on her paper as she did so.

Picking up his five seeds he collected from the Pod he carefully placed them in the bag he had previously placed by his side.

He looked down at his school shirt somewhat covered in the jelly from the Pod. Holding the stem he placed his hand the bottom of the Membrane and plucked it off the stem. Where he had made the incision earlier a spurt of jelly squirted right out of it and all over Oakey's already messy school shirt! GAH! Really! he dumped the Membrane into the Compost heap with the rest of them.

Alex continued to try to clean off her seeds. After scraping them gently, she reluctantly wiped them on her apron and then placed them into her calico bag. "Well, I guess the worst part is over", she said to herself.

She grabbed what was left of the pod and tried to pull it from the stem. The pod was not trying to cooperate and seemed to be putting up a fight. Alex was really ready to be finished with this part of her lesson. She took the scalpel and cut the remaining piece of membrane from the stem. "At last", she said with relief. She walked over to the compost heap and deposited the pod remains there.

After setting the last puffapod seed down on the soil next to the 'mommaplant', she patted them a little. "Stay there for a moment, kay?" she smiled, walking away towards her table. Reaching for the box underneath it, she pulled out the calico bag and slung it over her shoulder.

Hurrying back to her seeds, she picked up her little baby seeds and brushed the dirt off before putting it gently into the bag. Verycarefully putting them in so that they didn't crack open prematurely, she set the bag down next to her. Now, to get the rest of the membrane off the 'mommaplant'.

Pulling off her gloves, she put her hands on the bottom of the pod. Shuddering, she pulled the rest of the membrane off with a jerk. But she misjudged the force required to pull the membrane off and all the goo splattered all over her apron and got some onto her robes. Disgusting.

Putting the membrane into the compost heap, she glared at her uniform. Now she'd have to clean herself up too.

Now here came the gross part.The disgusting part.'The kid no one wants to hang out with at recess'.Being extra cautious of being clean,Cardigan pulled up her gloves up farther for good measure.No here it is,the moment you have all NOT been waiting for.She Inserted her hand in the plant's incision and felt around for seeds.Almost in an instant,she had found a clump of seeds!Cardigan feverishly pulled them out and stared at them in confusion.Four and a half?Oh well, she thought with a shrug as she held the seeds in her left palm and prepared for step 4.