Annabelle heard the professor's directions, she chose to stay and use the creatures body parts. She wasn't squeamish about using dead body parts. It takes a lot more than that. Annabelle poked it to make sure it wouldn't jump at her or it was alive. "It is dead." she told herself. She began to unite it's legs just like untying a knot very gently.

Elijah liked the wording of his Potion partners question. Hopefully the Professor took the hint and decided that instead they would help GROW the plimpies and make them big and strong. Surely plimpies could use a healthy diet of vitamins and other such things to help bulk them up and make them true survivors of the OCEAN!

Or not, because...



"Dead!?" Elijah's hand went straight to his mouth before he ended up barfing everywhere. He was staring at a DEAD thing. A corpse! He was staring at an actual real life, without the life part, CORPSE! He was too gorgeous to be a pathologist of any kind or a necromancer for that matter!

This woman's MIND was also highly unattractive, it seemed. He watched her untie the knots binding the plimpy's legs and with each movement she made, Elijah was certain SOMETHING was kicking the insides of his stomach willing him to vomit all over his very own plimpy...

And then the thought of him vomiting on a dead plimpy entered his mind and it all became WAY too much for his gorgeous lil' head to cope with. He turned to Vickers hoping for some moral bro support but...




"Vickers!?" he seethed as he saw the boy practically UNDER the table. "You cannot not leave a bro up here by himself like this with two dead ickle fishes! It. Is. Not. Cool." When the boy stood straight once more behind their workbench, Elijah couldn't deny that it helped relax him a little. There was something about Vickers that set him at ease about this whole task. Perhaps it was because the boy seemed to have similar thoughts as him in regards to this lessons task.

Elijah was in the process of putting on his own gloves and working out in his gorgeous mind how would be best to get Vickers to untie his plimpy as well as his own. The train of thought was interrupted when he noticed Vickers PATTING the dead creature and the onset of nausea was back. "Vickers! Don't pat it! It's dead. What if it's guts start oozing out of it's eyeballs if you pat too hard, huh?"

This whole ordeal was proving way too traumatic. If things got much worse he had a feeling his hair would start to fall out and how could he POSSIBLY remain unbelievably good looking if he lost his enviable, luscious locks?

Vickers set to work on his own plimpy, untying the knot just like the Professor had showed them, whilst Elijah just STARED at his. It was such an ugly creature. Elijah was all for getting rid of unattractiveness from the world, but he didn't want to be the one behind cutting it open. At least the untying part wouldn't be too bad. He could do that himself surely, right? Then when it got to the actually cutting open part he could try and get Elijah to do his work for him. He'd be sure to use Vickers previous wimping out to his advantage.

Reaching for the knot, Elijah began untying it. However, in the process he tugged maybe slightly too hard which caused the creature itself to move slightly. "MERLIN!!!! IT'S ALIVE! MY SPIMPY IS ALIVE! IT MOVED! IT BLOOMIN' MOVED! VICKERS! KILL IT!" and now it was time for Elijah to be hiding under the table.

Nate was minding his own buisness. When he was about ready to take off his knot he heard someone scream. So he simply said "It's not alive. You just moved it a bit when you were trying to take off the knot." He couldn't help but giggle a little. After he was done with that he went back to his own plimpy. He was untying it bit by bit until he finally had it fully off. He put the rope to the side, and waited for furthe instruction.

Alyssa listened as the Professor explained how the Merpeople caught them and then how these plimpys ended up on her work desk right now. She watched as the Professor demonstrated how they were supposed to untangle their legs and now it was their turn to do the same...and then they were going to cut them open? Alyssa didn't feel too comfortable about doing that but having done that to a fish when she went fishing with her grandfather, she knew that if she had to do it, she'd do it, but with much regret.

Alyssa leaned over the Plimpy and felt sadness overcome her. She knew that every creature in the universe had a purpose but she still felt sad everytime she saw one of them die. Taking a deep breath, which she quickly realized was a big mistake, Alyssa moved a little to get closer to the Plimpy's legs. They were indeed tied in a knot.

She first studied how the legs were tied together before she reached out and gently untangled its legs until they were both separated again. Then Alyssa sat back, sighed again before waiting for further instructions.

It was a plimpy...that was simple enough to see that and he remembered the potions mention when the Slytherin...Sierra talked about it and Lafay agreed to the mention. Gideon took down a few notes as he listened to the professor explain about the creatures and how they are dealt with by merfolk and house elves. The woman demonstrated their first task and it seemed simple enough as long as one was careful and took their time. The prefect went about gingerly handling his own plimpy's legs, the long, thin lombs soon free of each other.

And then Lafay explained what they would be doing for the lesson.

Gideon of course would be staying. There were plenty of other things that had been in the name of potions he'd already completed so why should this one be any different. Can't truly enjoy the art if one was particularly squimish, he was sure their professor and his father would agree with that.

Lewis had started doodling on his notebook, only half paying attention to what Professor Lafay was talking about. Yes, Plimpies were considered a pest by the Merpeople and something told him Kurumi would need Jonathan's help working with the creature. And in Potions in general. So maybe he should have just taken the seat next to Jonathan and he hadn't known that the house elves were the ones catching the Plimpies from the lake here at Hogwarts.

But he guessed that was an efficient way to do it. At least they didn't kill them.

This time actually fully paying attention to the professor's instruction, Lewis nodded his head slowly and turned around in his seat once more to look at Kurumi. Something told him that she might just be one of the ones to not actively participate in the working-with-the-creature part. But he had to work on the Plimpy on his desk now so he didn't have that much time, staring at her AND JONATHAN!. Right. Back to the plimpy. And untying the knot which held its legs together.

It was only now that Lewis actually looked at who he had sat down next to...and literally jumped in his seat a little. "Oh...hi!" It was Louisa. Oops for not noticing her earlier. AHEM! Right, after a short moment of just looking at the Ravenclaw, he reached for the Plimpy on their desk and slowly started untangling its legs carefully. Phew. There, done. Without damaging the Plimpy at least. He wasn't quite sure what he would have done if he'd harmed the creature right now. Maybe throw it at Jonathan.

But he hadn't, so good.

Forcing a small smile for Louisa while leaning back in his seat again, Lewis' attention was caught by another boy across the room yelling something and hiding under his desk. His eyes briefly flicked to the Plimpy on the boy - and Vickers' - desk...which was very obviously dead. Completely. Dead as a doornail, so to say. "It's Plimpy not Spimpy." The Hufflepuff corrected him with a small - slightly irritated - sigh, turning slightly in his seat. Nooooo, he was not in a bad mood or anything, noooo.

Vickers, still in mournful mode, turned his head as he could feel sudden movements beside him. The Hufflepuff didnt look all too pleased to say the least, the Ravenclaw mistaking the mouth clamping to be Elijah's way of stifling the mournful cry he himself wanted to make. But just as he has gone back to respectfully straightening out his own Pliimpy Elijah started yelling and hiding under the table.

Wait.... did he say it was alive?

"Its alive???" the Ravenclaw scampered over to his partner's tray, peering ever so hopefully that indeed they had a SURVIVOR, one that would not go quietly into the night.

But as he stood and stared it was increasingly obvious that the Plimpy was doing anything but move. Guh after getting his hopes up, he sat dejectedly back onto his seat, wanting to wibble some moarrrr. But no no not in front of the currently cowering awesome Hufflepuff "Its not alive Elijah " he mumbled sadly "Its moved on to a happier place where Plimpies can swim and not have to worry about being tied in knots and used for parts." Sighs for life!

At least it is a dead plimpy Nigel thought. He most certainly would not want to dissect a live one. He started by copying Professor Lafay's actions to untangle the legs.

It seemed to be working and Nigel continued being as gentle as he could.

He finished and waited for the next set of directions

Angelina was too great with stuff like this, but she could make past how she felt. She really wanted to go through this lesson, so she would suck it up. She came here in the first place to do this lesson, and here she would.

Taking the plimpy's legs Angelina began to work on the knot like Professor Lafay did. She was a bit worried about making bruises, but once she was done and looked over the legs there seemed to be no bruises. Her worries were gone. Placing the legs down, she relaxed and waited for Lafay to say what to do next.

Louisa did see Lewis sitting next to her, and she had noticed that he just stared off somewhere but feeling quite happy and intent these couple of days, she didn't mind him ignor-

Oops. Someone was jumpy today. Louisa lifted her eyebrows at him as he jumped and was about to say something when Lafay started talking. The girl turned her attention back to the professor. Plimpies, pests for merepeople, house-elves fish them out of water. Bo-ring.

But the next part wasn't. They were going to... open it up? Wasn't that the same as dissect? Louisa didn't mind using creatures for experiments and killing them in the name of science. It was all for the good of humanity. Completely justified.

The gross part was what concerned her, though. Good thing she brought her gloves. Louisa slipped them on and was about to give Lewis a smile when she caught him looking at something other than his Plimpy. She followed his gaze, squinting her eyes slightly and expecting him to be staring at Kurumi.

Which he was. Only she wasn't alone. GASP! She was sitting with--"Jonathan?" Louisa had to say the name to make it look real. Wow. They weren't really doing anything, nor showing any signs of acknowledging each other but it was really... awkward. The boyfriend sitting here next to her and the ex sitting next to the girl. Louisa chuckled quietly before shaking her head and focusing on her Plimpy.

Her hands, a bit clumsily due to the gloves, fumbled with the creature's legs for a few moments unsuccessfully. She had to hunch her back a bit as her face got closer to the the mission at hand and just as her hair was threatening to TOUCH the Plimpy, Louisa had untied the legs and straightened up with a slight whip of her hair. "That was close," to her right she glanced at Joao... to find him looking at her already.

....

She gave an uncertain smile before quickly looking away at Lewis. Who wasn't himself at all today... so his snap to that Hufflepuff boy under the table said. Louisa looked at the ex-couple and sighed. She really didn't like seeing this whole thing making one of her friends this cranky. It was like a jinx! Either Jonathan or Lewis got to feel the crakyness.

Another sigh.

So it is a Plimpy?

Daichi looked down at the frog like fish and made a recognation gasp. He knew that! And he had been pretty close with his answer as well. He nodded to the Professor after she had corrected him and stared towards the front.

Because he was listening to the little These-plimpy's-come-from-this-lake story , he didn't make any notes about it but continued to listen with a little twinkle in his eyes.

He watched as Lafay untangled the legs from the Plimpy and the Slytherin proceeded to do the same. He took hold of one leg and carefully tried to untangle them. Slowly, because he didn't want to mess this up he managed to untangle it without bruising the legs. A small smile formed on his lips as he sat back down proudly.

"WHAT?!" Daichi's eyes widened and he quickly covered his hand over his mouth after his little out burst. Still with his hand over his mouth he looked down at the Plimpy. They were going to cut these things open...FOR REAL?

That was so....

"Awesome!" The Slytherin exclaimed and the shocked expression turned in to ..curiousity. What? the creature was already dead so it wasn't like he was hurting it. Beside , this was going to be a new thing he would be learning instead of the usual potion making stuff.

Kurumi lifted her gaze slightly when Professor Lafay continued the lesson, her eyes glacing at the plimpy on the table every once in awhile as if checking to make sure that it really was dead. She felt just a little better that the creature was already dead and that they would not have to make the final blow - like they had with leeches several terms back. Kurumi had cried then, over leeches. There was no telling how she would react if they had to slay a plimpy.

Kurumi exhaled sharply when they were told they had to make the choice now and Kurumi felt rather sick to her stomach suddenly. Her eyes wanted to wander around the classroom, find something to take her focus away from the dead plimpy and the task they were facing, but she just couldn't. Kurumi chewed on her lip, but remained in her seat. She wasn't going to leave the classroom. Maybe she could convince herself that this would help her towards her dream of becoming a magizoologist?

Those thoughts were clouded by something else, however, and that was who she was going to have to maybe literally lean on for support - Jonathan.

Slowly Kurumi's mouth moved to form words. She couldn't do the first steps, she didn't think, but she didn't intend on just sitting and watching either. "...please," she whispered in a pleading tone to Jonathan to do the first step in untying it's legs.

Derrick sat in his chair staring att he ugly thing at the frornt of the room.He listened to what Professor Lafay said.After she had finished speaking he looked at her.They were what?

He hated Doing things like this but he didn't want to seem a wuss and he wanted to get Gryffindor as many points as possible so he stayed.

So this was going to be different....

Lily sat quietly as the professor seemed to be very... well, calm...and not mad...and definitely not her normal self. But once class continued, Lily was paying attention. A plimpy huh... The second year kinda stared at the creature, unsure of how to react to it. She definitely wasn't going to leave because of it. She was going to stay and work with this thing to get the maximum number of points for Ravenclaw. Last she had checked, the claws and the puffs had been really close in house points, so every point counted. So when they were told to do so, Lily carefully started to untie the feet. Carefully and slowly...

Ahh... Zhenya realised what they were now. Of course, everyone was saying Plimpy, but she realised she had heard about them before. She just remembered laughing when her brother told her they used to tie their legs in a knot. She looked down at her.. plimpy and saw how its legs were tied in a knot. AND she got to untie it? Wicked.

Did... did she want to stay or leave? Of course she wanted to stay! She didn't want to miss out on something as gross as this. She was sure it would be gross, handling Plimpy insides and all. But she refused to leave. And not participate? Merlin, no, she would definitely be participating. She was going to stay!

She carefully copied what Professor Lafay did when she untied the legs and was relieved when her Plimpy's legs didn't come off, or turn colour, or cut open.

Elise gulped and looked at Professor Lafay, a little terrified. But harvesting was an essential part of potioneering. Ingredients didn't just harvest themselves. Listening intently to Lafay's story about the plimpies in the lake and such, she prodded the creature once with her wand, just to make sure it was dead.

Dead as a doornail.

"I'm sorry, plimpy," she whispered before pulling gently on one of its legs. Sloooowly, she undid the knot. It was just so disgusting. They'd be dissecting it. For its organs.

Oichi really did not like anything of what the professor was saying about working with the creepy dead creature. However this was class and class is not always enjoyable. She took a deep breathe and turned back to the dead plimpy creature. She slowly inched her hands toward the ropes binding the creatures legs and then carefully untied the legs. If actually felt good stepping out of her comfort zone and up to this point felt okay to continue when the next instructions are given.

EWWW! They were going to be dissecting these things?!? But before Emmanuelle could get too terribly worked up, she heard the professor say they could either leave or stand and watch. At the cost of points, of course. Em didn't want to be THAT student though. The one that lost her house points that would keep them in the lead. Choices, choices. Ugh. She finally chose to just suck it up. After all, it couldn't be much worse than dissecting a starfish or a frog and she'd managed to do that.

Slipping on her gloves, she took a deep breath. She reached out and carefully untangled the plimpy's legs. There, that hadn't been so hard. Hopefully she could make it through the rest of the lesson...

Plimpy, disgusting and dead plimpy. So today they were going to sort of have an experiment with this? Open it and see it's inside. As much as he wanted to oppose on this activity, well let's face it, he could never. It's Potions after all and it's not like it's his first time to see odd ingredients for this subject, no. In fact, there had been countless of times that they have to deal with horrible ingredients. But that was the absolute beauty of Potions, right? Which is why Jonathan is not going to really complain in the whole process. What could possibly be found inside this plimpy? It's as probably as disgusting as the insides of a person. Still, the thought of it would make people gag.

Jonathan opened up his journal, it's where he writes all of their lectures in Potions. And placed his quill on top of it, just so if ever the professor decides to write something on the board or when he decides to put down some notes. Well, for now, there is not much to put since the professor was just asking them to open the creature.

Hearing his name on the other side, didn't go unnoticed to Jonathan. It has been a familiar voice to him already and when his head turned to look at the person, he was right... it is Louisa that called him. Only this time, she looked a bit puzzled? Confused, perhaps? Why on earth was he and Kurumi partners this time. Well, technically Kurumi and Jonathan have been Potions partners from before. Guess, they still are. Glancing to Louisa's side, Jonathan's eyes darted at the one person he has recently loathe, Lewis. So they both didn't decide to be partners? Jonathan didn't even see him come in.

He seems to be looking at Kurumi, his face... Jonathan wasn't sure what face he was making and he's not really going to stare at him for a long time too. But he did give Lewis a smirk. Yes, it's one of those 'awww-you-are-not-partners-with-your-girlfriend smirk'. Suck it up, Rasting. It's payback time.

Jonathan faced the plimpy once more when he heard Kurumi pleading. Jonathan knew she's scared with the whole dissecting thing and well, she did mention countless time to him before that Potions wasn't her strongest subjects. Jonathan didn't look at her but for Lewis' sake *snort*, he scooted his seat closer to hers. It would be better for them to work this way, right? He then wore the pair of gloves before untangling the plimpy, just as the Professor had suggested. Then he took another pair and offered them to Kurumi. His eyes flickered as he stared at her and then back at the plimpy. She should wear them, it'll be easier and less dirtier.

And now, to untangle... Jonathan saw the Professor's demonstration and careful untangled the legs, slowly, not damaging it. There. So far, so good. Jonathan smiled as he completed the first step.

Kurumi was almost ready to assume that Jonathan wasn't going to do her any favors. That he was just going to continue right on ignoring her even through this lesson...which is why she was surprised, enough to gasp softly, when he scooted his chair closer to hers. Her eyes fell on the legs of his seat, sort of just staring there for a few moments not sure what to make of this. It was because her eyes were there that Kurumi did not see the sort of nonverbal communication going on between Jonathan and Lewis. For Kurumi's sake, this was a very good thing, because it would only make her feel more uncomfortable and awkward.

She did lift her gaze towards his hands when he offered her a pair of gloves. Pausing for a moment, Kurumi swallowed and then timidly accepted them. Her fingers may have accidentally brushed his when she did, which was only naturally when taking something from someone else, but it made her retract her hand quickly. She did catch his eyes flicking to hers, causing her to bite her lip nervously.

Kurumi slipped her gloves on while Jonathan tended to the legs. She needed to get over her fear of touching the dead plimpy, especially since she WAS planning on taking on a somewhat active role in the...harvesting. So, taking another small but deep breath, Kurumi reached her hand forwards and touched one of it's feat, lifting it slightly in the palm of her hand to simply look at it.

There. See. She had touched it. Baby steps.

Kurumi then looked back up at the professor, her heart pounding in her chest with anticipation for the next step...the one that was probably going to be the hardest...

It was still a fish with weird legs in her mind, despite what Lafay and everyone else said. Well - it was dead. Good. She wouldn't be able to end it's life. Dissecting... muggle schools did this, right? With rats and frogs and all the jazz. They kind of had half of a frog here. Heh.

Glenn slipped on her gloves. She didn't want dead fish/frog goo on her hands. As she peered at this fish/frog, she noticed that she'd seen it before. They were pests. When they'd gone to a lake near her home she'd seen one once. She prodded the plimpy. Satisfied that it really was dead, Glenn proceeded to untangled it's legs. No mental breakdown for her, it was just a plimpy. Not a human being.

Dead plimpies! West had no trouble with this and watched with great interest as the professor demonstrated how to untangle the legs. Heeee wasn't leaving. They were already dead, it'd be a waste not to use them up for good things, right? He leaned forward and sniffed it speculatively.

Seemed legit.

West untangled the legs with surprising gentleness, and then lay them out neatly, gently crossed at the little plimpy ankles, resisting the urge to make them do a little can-can.

He was being so good today.

Well, Silvia wasn't going to leave. She may not have liked this subject all that much, but she wasn't going to skip it because of that. Glad that she had her gloves, she reached into her bag for them and slipped them on. At least the first step seemed simple enough. Carefully she untangled the legs and laid them straight. There, that part was easy. Silvia didn't worry about hurting the plimpy since it was already dead and wouldn't feel anything. Though that didn't make what they were about to do any less disgusting, so it was a good thing that she never was very squeamish over these kind of things.

They were going to... HARVEST ingredients from the poor plimpies?! And they were DEAD?! Well, of course, Nora noticed they didn't really move, but what if they were only asleep? And still, untangling their legs was alright, even though they looked full of... slime, or whatever it was... but OPENING UP THE CREATURES?!

...

Nora felt sick. Almost, at least.

Now, what should she do? Just leave? It was obvious she couldn't, although professor Lafay had told them that they were free to leave... but it was the Slytherin pride that told her to stay. So... staring at the DEAD plimpy, Nora untangled its legs slowly and carefully, so she wouldn't damage them. Poor, poor thing.

After listening to Professor Lafay, Jory decided he would stay for the harvest. It reminded him a lot of Biology. The Puff put on his gloves, then studied the plimpy's legs. As the class were told, the legs were indeed knotted.

"Here we go,'' he said. Gently, Jory untangled the legs. "Poor creature,'' he thought as he worked, trying not to damage anything.

A few minute, he was all done and he say back down and waited for the next set of instructions.