Kurumi watched the heart sort of bob in the water and tried not to wrinkle her nose too much. It wasn't like she hadn't seen an animal heart before, she had actually eaten chicken heart before and not known that was what it was until AFTER so this really wasn't that different. Perhaps it was the physical act of removing it from the creature that was making her feel....guilty?

Tugging on her gloves again nervously, Kurumi carefully removed the gills and set them in the water beside the heart. She tried not to linger there for too long since...the water was certainly not clear anymore and had taken on a very obvious red hue.

She was not going to faint in this lesson. NOT going to happen.

Closing her eyes as she reached into the dish for the heart, Kurumi felt around for a few moments until she found it and then held it over the harvesting tray and peek out ever so slightly from behind her still partly closed eyelids. Oh good, she had grabbed the heart and not the gills. Setting it down, and not waiting to see it disappear, Kurumi returned her attention to the chest cavity of the plimpy and tried not to look too freaked out by the next step.

The spine. The whole spine.

Between all the squishing and snapping that was going on as she removed the spine, Kurumi honestly was surprised that she hadn't fainted...or used one of the buckets...or had more of a reaction to all this...stuff. Once she felt the spine break free from everything, she slowly removed it and tried not to look at it for too long.

Ew. Just ew....

Sierra glanced down at her plimpy and studied it carefully. Or, actually, what was left of the plimpy, she could say. The gills were still attached, she noted. Turning back to the heart she'd just pulled out, Sierra dropped it into the water to wash it of any impurities. With that done, she placed the heart into the harvesting tray, and within an instant, it had disappeared.

Funny how that worked. Sierra wondered if the spell worked on other items, like galleons for example. It'd be neat if she could cast a galleon to reappear into her pocket after someone lied it down. Not that she needed the money. It'd just be amusing to watch.

Then she carefully removed the gills, dropping them into water, as well. Finally, she grabbed a hold of the spine and began to remove it from the plimpy's body. Harvesting ingredients, Sierra had to admit, was actually pretty cool.

That's right. The buckets. Thanks for pointing it out, Professor, Chelle thought. I'm going to need one of those very soon.

Back to the lesson. Chelle watched as Lafay easily took out the plimpy's eye. She tried to do it on her own. Her hands shook as she tried to poke its eye out. She winced at the pop sound. She put the eye on her tray along with the other parts.

As Lafay told them to have a look inside the body, Chelle peered inside. There they were- all the organs. She gulped. This was going to be hard to do. She looked around. Some people didn't seem to mind. That Greingoth girl actually looked like she was having fun!

How on earth am I supposed to take out its heart?!

She took a dish. "Aguamenti!" she muttered, and filled it up with water. Then she turned back to her fish. They were supposed to feel it up and get theheart out. With their hands. Right. I can do this. She squeezed her eyes shut and put her fingers in the inside of the plimpy. She wiggled her fingers and tried to feel the heart. When she caught something roundish and solid, she pulled it out and dumped it into her water dish.

I hope that was the heart. It sure did feel like it.

Chelle took a deep breath. Class, please get over quickly.

Apparently accidental removal of the gills with the heart wasn't a disaster. Honestly, Stella hadn't seen why it would have been, but after Professor Lafay had already gone after other Ravenclaws for random rudeness, she hadn't known if Vickers' mistake would have been taken badly. Either way, it seemed the only instruction was that the gills were to be removed next, and she eyed her plimpy for a moment. It still looked pathetic, but it was oddly easier to not see it as a real plimpy now that the heart was removed. Almost like it was a plimpy doll just used for practice, although it was still slimy and disgusting. Pretending it wasn't a real dead creature was going to keep her from losing control of her gag reflex, though, and it would be much easier than keeping her eyes closed the rest of the lesson.

Especially when it came to copying down the next steps in the process down in her notes, but she made the decision to actually accomplish the steps first. It seemed like too much work to deal with removing a glove again, cleaning them, and then putting it back on just to write in her journal. She just took a mental note of the next few steps before she steeled herself to reach into the plimpy cavity again. Gently grasping the gills she'd held out of the way before, she removed them and placed them into the water-filled dish next to the heart. swishing her fingertips in the water for a moment, she grasped the heart gently held it up, letting the last droplets fall back into the dish before the organ was placed into the collection dish. They hadn't been instructed to move the gills again as well, so once the heart was moved, she went back to the plimpy. Now it was time for the really creepy part.

Running her fingers up the length of the spine delicately, she located where it was connected to the skull and wrapped her fingers around that joint securely, closing her eyes again as she twisted to snap it loose. If only she could have plugged her ears as well, but she just stayed still for a second or two once it was separated to gather her determination again. They had to be almost finished, if this step was basically removing everything other than the skull and brain. Therefore, after that moment, she re-opened her eyes and carefully lifted the spine from the plimpy, cradling the organs in one hand as she moved the entire structure to the water. It was another assumption, but she figured it didn't hurt since they'd been told all the organs needed washing a few steps ago. And once that was complete, she took another moment to remove her gloves to clean them again, and copy the steps she'd just done into her journal before they moved on.

Text Cut: Stella's Potions journal

Plimpy harvesting

Step 1: Untangle the plimpy's legs. (They commonly get tied together by merpeople to keep them from being able to damage their property.)

Step 2: Remember to put gloves on.

Step 3: Clean scalpel.

Step 4: Make an incision under the scales near the plimpy's fins, then carefully remove the fins and place them in the collection tray.

Step 5: Rotate legs widely one at a time until the joint pops out, audibly.

Step 6: Carefully cut at the loose skin around the dislocated joint, removing the leg and placing it into the collection tray as well.

Step 7: Cut the plimpy open/in half, starting at the tail and running scalpel straight up around the stomach to the head.

Step 8: Once the plimpy is opened, use thumbs to carefully pop the eyes out of their sockets, placing them in collection tray.

Step 9: Clean a separate dish carefully, and fill with water using Aguamenti, to clean the organs in

Step 10: Still using hands, carefully locate and remove the heart, cleaning it before placing in collection tray.

Step 11: Remove gills next, placing in the water for cleaning as well before moving to the collection tray.

Step 12: Remove spine, taking all remaining organs with it.

Well this was turning out to be kinda gross.Pulling out Spines,Hearts and Gills wasn't Derrick's thing but he had to be brave.No matter what.He slowly took away the Gills and put them into the Shallow water.

Once he had done that job he Looked at the poor Plimpy and muttered ''You poor thing.''Couldn't hear him anyway.Derrick slowly but carefully located the Heart and removed the heart.He looked at it.He popped it in the tray makin a small splash.He turned around,gasping for breath.It wasn't the best smell.Not handling it well he made small fake vomiting motions.He calmed himslef and turned back around.He was almost finished just afew more bits.He put his hand into the body and pulled out all the remaining gills and spine.

Drop the heart in the water. Right.

Glad that that awful part was over, Nora stared as the water got all rosey and then red from the plimpy blood. As much as she hated it, she couldn't really take her eyes off it, and she was sure she'd have nightmares the next few days... weeks... months.

Finally paying attention to professor Lafay's instructions, the girl started removing the gills and dropped them into the water, probably to get a little cleaned as well. Taking the heart for one last time, she placed it in the harvesting tray and watched it disappear. Thank goodness!

... weren't they done yet?

Jonathan looked at the heart, holding it. It was slimy and looked really unappealing. Well, nothing about this cutting and incising activity is appealing anyway. So Jonathan placed the heart into the water as suggested by the professor. He watched it float a bit in place.

His gaze was interrupted when the professor continued with her instructions. This time, they're going to take the gills off. Jonathan removed the gills the same way that Lafay demonstrated to them and placed them as well into the water. His upper lip twitched a bit as he can already smell the foul odor mixed in blood odor. Ack!

Then Jonathan took out the heart from the bowl and placed them into the harvesting tray. He saw them disappear after awhile. Now, all he has to do is to take out the spine. Looking at his plimpy on the table, Jonathan took a deep breath before pulling the spine from the plimpy's body. After doing so, the rest of the organs attached with it were also removed, like Lafay had explained earlier.

Nice.

After placing the heart in the water, Jory watched as the blood and slime washed away. Then, he continued with the work at hand, removing the gills and when this was out he placed it into the water also.

The Badger now took out the clean plimpy's heart and placed it onto the Harvesting tray. And then it had vanished.

Jory reached back into the creature and pulled out it's spine and removed the other organs.

Louisa's hand was still around the heart as the professor started talking again. Slowly, the girl lifted the heart, pushing aside the gills still attached to it, and then dropped it in the bowl of water. Back to the corpse at hand, Louisa started taking out all the gills, slowly and carefully since the Plimpy's body was small and fragile.. she dropped them all in the bowl of water as well, making a face as the slime started to move upward in the bowl. Ekh. She waited for a few seconds before taking the heart and gills out and dropping them into the harvesting tray, and they vanished.

The Ravenclaw then started taking out the spine, releasing all the organs from around it. Slowly and without damaging anything on her way.

"Alright... you know how you pluck grapes from its cluster? Same concept. Pluck each of the organs by hand and place them in the water. Now take the cleaned gills and place them into the harvesting tray." And as she demonstrated the gills disappeared into it. "Can anyone tell me why we harvest ingredients with our hands and use tools sparingly?"

Ella held the spine and organs in her hands, frowning down at them. She just would never be cut out to do this sort of thing, it wasn't her cup of tea. At least she hadn't thrown up though! That was something. Her Granddad would be proud of her for that.

Wait, had Professor Lafay really just compared this to plucking grapes? Nawwww. This was most definitely not like plucking grapes. Sure maybe the motions were the same, but plucking grapes was much less...disturbing. But hey, this was class and Ella was here to learn so she was going to do her best to finish the lesson without fainting or something.

Alright, here goes. Ella began disconnecting the organs from the spine one by one and placing them into the water. Many came off easily, much to Ella's delight. The kidneys though, those were posing a bit of a problem for the second year. She just couldn't seem to get them off. "Come" tug "on" tug "you silly" tug "kidneys" twist "you need" tug "to take" twist "a bath." Like seriously? Was anyone else having trouble like this?

With a defeated sigh. The second year eyed the kidneys once more and gave them a nice long glare. "Alright kidneys, you listen to me. I'm in charge of this little show and you're gonna do what I say, got it? And I say you" Tug "Are coming" TUG "OFF." TWIST. PLOP. THANK MERLIN! Ella grinned! She did it! She had removed the organs from the spine. Bahahaha! She was SO good at this. "See, it wasn't that difficult was it?" She said to the kidneys as she placed them into the water. And now it was time to remove the gills from the water, yeah?

Removing the gills from the water and placing them on the tray, Ella watched as they disappeared. And then a question. Why use their hands instead of tools? "Professor, I believe we use our hands because we want to cause as little damage to the organs as possible. Hands are probably gentler than tools on them."

Jory removed each organ one by one carefully from the spine. He was getting used to the grossness by now. He removed what looked liked the spleen and dropped it into the water.

The puff removed the gills and placed them on the harvesting tray.

Jory raised a bloody hand a bit up in the air careful not to get any blood anywhere. "We use our hands because we have to be gentle with the organs, and tools can damage them.''

Elise cringed as she cleaned her scapel carefully. And she had actually thought she could have skipped the dissection. Looking upwards as if a prayer, she closed her eyes briefly before setting the blade to the tail and cutting as instructed.

Gross.

Elise nodded dumbly, trying not to throw up as she looked at the eyeball. She scourgified her hands about three times over before reaching for the fish's eye. Poking it with her thumb, she cringed at the disgusting pop it made. Placing it into her harvesting tray, she moved on to the next eye.

Then, it was time to clean the other organs. Pulling a dish from under her table, she pulled her wand from its holster to cast an "aguamenti" just enough to fill it halfway. Putting her wand back in its holster, she turned back to her plimpy. The heart.

Carefully, she pried the delicate organ from the fats surrounding it.

...and dropped it not quite gracefully into the dish of water. Rubbing it a little, she rid it of the fat that protected it and the blood before moving on to the next step. Pulling the gills gently, she allowed them to separate easily from the rest of the body. Then taking the cleaned heart, she placed it onto the tray before dropping the gills into the water.

Then, she reached for the spine. Cradling the delicate structure between her fingers, she pulled gently and the quiet snap brought sourness up her throat. Swallowing, she waited for further instruction.

Plucking grapes? She was kidding, right? Grape plucking was so much less disgusting! Sure, they were the same motions and... She'd better just get on with it unless she wants points docked.

Placing the cleaned gills on the tray, she changed the water in her dish. There was no way that she would reuse it, what with all the blood in it. One by one, she pulled the organs from the spine, trying her hardest not to throw up as she dropped them into the water.

Once she was done, she cleaned her hands again before answering the question. "It could be because we have more control over our hands than the tools and can be gentler and more precise with the harvesting," she suggested before turning to her organs in the water.

Disgusting.

Louisa smiled at the analogy Lafay provided. Simply because she never really plucked grapes from its cluster. With her hand, she started plucking organs out and dumping them into the bowl of water. She moved the gills over to the harvesting tray at one point while giving her thought about using hands, "I was thinking because we don't want to damage anything while we take the organs out? Maybe one of the organs will be pricked while we take the organ next to it out? It's safer with hands, more controllable." Or maybe Louisa was just clumsy with tools.

Mordred looked at his dish and got the gills out of the water and placed it on his harvest tray. He quickly shifted his attention back to the spine whilst his ears were absorbing Lafay’s instructions. He plucked each of the organs gently starting from the stomach, liver, and intestine up to the kidney. Each was carefully cleaned in the dish with his fingers and decided to leave it for a few minutes to be thoroughly cleaned.

Mordred raised his right hand and answered the Lafay’s question. “We use tools sparingly because the chance of getting the organs damaged is higher than if we use our bare hands.” Because if they did, then they just wasted their time. “Besides, having damaged parts won’t give us satisfactory results when we use it for a potion.” He said as he put his hand down and turned his attention to his other hand where he was still holding the spine. “Professor, do we dump this too in the dish?” he said as he raised it in the air. He wasn’t sure though if it had any use. Probably in its powdered form?

Nate did as told by removing the gills from the plimpy with his hands. After he was done taking off all the gills he dropped them into the water, and put the heart on the tray. He also removed the spine with the organs on it.

After he heard the next instruction to pluck off the organs he did so. One by one he picked off the organs from the spine. After he plucked each one he put them into to the water. Once he was done doing that he put the scales on the tray, and watched as they disappeared.

Nate then heard the question that was asked by the professor. Nate had no idea, and he didn't want to take a guess. Or else the teacher would mos likely yell, and Nate witnessed enough of her yelling last class. So he didn't answer the question.

Alyssa watched again as the Professor demonstrated how to remove the organs from the spine before picking up her quill and adding those steps in her potions journal.



Once she was done writing, she put down her quill and raised her bloodied hand. "Professor are we're using our hands more and using less of the instruments because we don't want to accidentally damage the organs by knicking them with the scalpel?"

"If we use our hands, we can actually detach them more carefully and leave most parts if not all of the organ completely attached and less traumatized."

Alyssa then started working on removing the organs from the spine, slowly detaching them one at a time and placing them into the tray filled with water.

She then gently removed the gills from that tray and placed them on the harvesting tray and watch as that too disappeared.

Oh, this was class was so amusing. Sierra was smirking at the thought of how much the grapes analogy likely grossed out a few Puffers and Lions. She didn't know for sure, as she was studying her plimpy and not her classmates, but it was still amusing to think about.

Anyway...back to plucking grapes. Err, ...organs. First, Sierra placed the cleaned gills onto the harvesting tray and watched them disappear. Then, as she started on the task of plucking organs, she raised her hand and looked up at Lafay. "...because we can control our actions a little better when we're using our hands. We can make sure what we're doing isn't hurting the plimpy, like a tool possibly could," she said. It wasn't foolproof, but it was better than a big scalpel carving through the plimpy's body.

Out popped the first of the organs, and Sierra immediately placed it into the water. She quietly continued the process, actually enjoying what she was doing.

Isla raised her hand."We have better control with our hands and we have less chance of damaging the organs." She answered hoping show that she was listening.

Silvia took a deep breath and began to reach in and tug out the rest of the organs, diverting her eyes from the plimpy as much as possible. Whatever the professor said, these were a bit more difficult than plucking grapes, she thought as she gave a tug. Not to mention grapes were tasty, but these were not for eating. Silvia wasn't at all feeling sick, but she HATED anything that even resembled a fish. To her, they were the creepiest creatures in existence. After successfully pulling out one of the organs, she placed it into the dish, then removed the gills from the water and placed them in the harvesting tray.

Taking a moments pause before moving to the next organ, she raised a slimy gloved hand. "Is it because tools are more likely to damage the organs?"

Sarah placed the gills in the water. Like plucking grapes, she plucked out all the other organs and plonked them in the water. She then removed the cleaned gills from the water and placed them on the trey. Now next the question. Sarah raised her gloved hand: "In order to keep the plimpy hydrated with our natural oils" said Sarah.

Pluck grapes from its cluster?

Errr...

Just as they were told, Nora plucked each organ by hand and placed it in the water, doing it without even looking. Well, barely even looking, because she didn't want... no, she didn't NEED to see all those disgusting things. So, when she was done doing that, the girl took the now cleany clean gills and placed them into the harvesting tray as well to disappear.

As for her question, she raised her hand. "It's easier to get them without damaging them, I think."

Pluck grapes?....

Trying to chase away thoughts of the Plimpy stew with its organs as the desert course, the majorly-wincing Ravenclaw separated the organs from the spine with the utmost care then deposited them onto the already murky water. He looked up again when the Professor posed a question. To make us feel this cruelty even more? Oh if he can only put that forward. Instead this is what he said as he raised his hand "Our hands are our best tools-- the have the strength to handle many difficult and heavy load yet are so dextrous and sensitive for even the most delicate of tasks... like this."

Nessie picked each organ off of the spine one by one. One by one the organs dropped into with a plop. She pulled the gills out and put them on the tray. After that was done Nessie raised her hand to answer Professor Lafay's question.

"With our hands we can get a feel of how to handle it properly without hurting the organ, unlike with tools where we don't know how much pressure we're putting on the material that could potentially puncture a organ." Nessie said looking down at the organs in the water dish.

Plucking grapes? Kurumi had a really hard time comparing grapes to organs but didn't say anything on the matter and instead turned her attention to the task at hand. Her hands were shaking a bit as she carefully removed each organ, dropping them into the water as she did, and could already see why they were not using another tool to accomplish this. Kurumi would have turned the poor creature into sashimi by now.

Enough of her classmates had answered with essentially the same thoughts that the Gryffindor didn't feel the need to voice her own thoughts on the matter and instead continued to remove organ after organ until the plimpy was...empty.

A cold shiver ran down her spine as she looked inside the creature, pulling the skin back to make sure she hadn't missed anything. It was...almost depressing to see how vacant the space had become.