There was a right answer to all of this? Really? Cutty opened up his school bag and pulled out his parchment from his last Herbology class which caused a disproving sneer when he noticed he didn't spell resemblance or antioxidants correctly. He'd also gotten a great deal incorrect when it came to the houses, though he seemed to know Ravenclaw house the best if his answers were any indication.





Cutty took out a blank sheet of parchment and on it he wrote down the name of the only person he cared to fashion a tea blend after.




He then began to think back on his first History of Magic lesson and all the things he'd learned about the historical figure with the INCREDIBLY sad hair. (c) Ash

OOOHHHH they were making tea! That would explain all the concentrating on herb properties and such. Were they allowed to model tea after themselves or would that be considered a conceited act? Not that she cared. Lex did what she wanted, and it wouldn't be anyone else's concern.

Outside of herself she would need to think very carefully about this. She could make a tea about Lottie...merlin knew the girl liked that stuff enough...or Cassia despite the girl's dislike of anything that grew in the ground. Aidan? Nah, too hard to think of exactly the right blend to get him right. Hmmmmmm....her father? Then she could brag about making a tea that had him in mind? Or even one for Amanda but it'd have to end up tasting bloody awful. She couldn't appreciate that considering they might have to be the one to taste it themselves. Drinking something fashioned after her step-mum? How about no?

This was going to be harder than she thought.

Lex looked to the board again. What if...what if she made one representing the Gryffindor Quidditch team? There was lots of nice herbs she could think of for them?

Ugh. This was getting her nowhere. Maybe she would just make herself a tea. Think Lex.

So. Tea with the traits of someone in particular. Mo pulled faces as he jerked out parchment and started drafting a short list of who he knew well enough to make into a tea blend. In some ways, the list was pretty obvious, which was why he avoided putting down any family members. His father and mother both drank home blends, often using flowers and plants from their own garden. There was a whole list of plants that would remind Mo of them, or of his older sisters.

So maybe a friend. He scribbled down West's name and then immediately crossed it out. Was there an herb that seemed pleasing in the mouth but ate a hole in your stomach when you swallowed it? Alice was out too, more because he didn't want to dwell on her too long when West was already mad at him, and Mo rejected Dora and Nigel as too complicated, and therefore somehow uninspiring.

Cat was a good option, but she didn't seem like a tea to him. She was a fizzy drink. So that left... no one. Mo scribbled more names on his parchment, a scattershot of ideas that didn't really strike him as right. Ravenclaw House, Ravenclaw Quidditch Team, Professor Botros, Headmistress GingerLady, his aunt Anj, his cousin Colby, his sorta-sister Alena, people with green eyes, the country of Canada, yetis in Tibet, pretty girls in general...

Pretty girls. Mo sat up straight and wrote in big letters across the middle of his parchment:

Hehe.

Seren was wandering around, sneaking peaks at parchments and making faces of approval or knitting her eyebrows together in thought. Most were on the right track, some were... lagging. Nevertheless, they had plenty of time for the task. No drama.
"Sarah, start penning your thought please," she prompted gently.



"Once you've mapped out the qualities of the person or group you're intending to create a blend for... you'll need to get out your textbooks and make a list of as many herbs as you can find that complement those qualities or characteristics." She paused here, making sure they were listening and not looking thoroughly confused.

"Then... you can start thinking about flavours, do they compliment each other? could you substitute one herb for another if it doesn't quite work?" she asked rhetorically. "Think about these as you plan... I'll give you about ten to fifteen minutes to start on this, and then I'll give you your next instructions." Though, they could probably guess what those ones were.




"How are you going Lex?" she asked, noticing the Gryffindor was having some trouble.

In the same moment, she had peered behind her and looked over the Marcus' shoulder. He too seemed to need some direction. Professor Pretty... that was something she expected from Ascanius, not Marcus. Interesting.
"How would you describe... Professor Pretty?" she asked, prompting the Ravenclaw to think about her qualities, "Prettiness aside, that is."

OOC: The lesson will continue in approx 19 hours. Use the Herbology textbook and the internet to search up herbs to use in yo tea.

Tested on?! This was a TEST?!

OH, MY MERLIN!

Sophie hadn't even been taught the basics of Herbology yet, though! What was she supposed to do--wild guess her way through this? She sort of slumped down a little until she realized that no, she was not supposed to wild guess her way through this. She was supposed to research. Well, just BAHHH.

She adjusted her textbook in front of her and was just about to flip through it, when she remembered that she hadn't even chosen a person or group to create a blend about. Hmm...

Harry Potter.

That guy just wasn't mentioned enough these days. He pretty much saved the world, and the most they could focus on is Quidditch. So Harry Potter it was.

Caleb knew that it was too easy to do himself, so he decided to choose his dad. They were fairly similar, but also opposites in a lot of ways, so Caleb knew this would be a bit of a challenge. He quickly jotted down some traits of his dad to keep up with the rest of the class.

Quote:

Cale M. Newell

Silly, kind, giving, egotistical, center of attention, loving, caring, brave, loyal

Sophie thought it might be easier to list the qualities of the herbs first and THEN scratch out the ones that didn't belong to Potter. But then...she'd have to pretty much research EVERY herb out there, wouldn't she? FORGET THAT.

So instead, she took out a piece of parchment and began making a list of words to describe Potter.

Kace was wondering who he could make the tea for. He could pick Adi, Marigold, Belle, his mum or dad. He really thought about it and then he thought of Belle. She really could use the tea for her college studies or maybe even calm her anxieties.

He copied down in his notebook,
He smiled and hoped his sister liked this. Then he heard the professor move on and say they needed to get the herbs to fit the qualities. He reached over for his textbook and started to research it.

Okay, they were moving on. Ella flipped open her text book and began to scan through the different herbs, looking for those that would compliment Botros and his personality. There were tons to choose from so she took her time, not wanting to pick just any old thing because it was familiar. She wanted this tea to be great, just like the person she was making it for is.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.



Glancing at the list she'd made, Ella tapped her chin thoughtfully. She liked the herbs she'd associated with the professor but wasn't sure that the tastes would be compatible. She wished they could do some taste testing before they made their final decisions.

Sarah had been so wrapped up in her thoughts about what to use that she nearly got a fright when the professor spoke to her. "sorry professor.. gt lost in thought" then she quickly added, "not that it is unfamiliar territory of course" she ended with a grin.

Now what should she choose? She decided to chose it by random and she looked at the one her finger has pointed at
There was too much to list about her family

Sarah had a lot more to add, yet she stopped and began to dream about other things

Okay. Next set of instructions. Adi flipped open his text book and began focusing on the herbs that went with Kace's qualities. Man, were there loads of herbs! Hoping tis wasn't going to take forever, he began to scribble:
It was only logical that Adi rewrite the properties of Hufflepuff since Kace belonged to that House and had those traits. Satisfied with his work, he waited for Professor Bentley to continue.

Caleb was sitting just down the row from his sister, and he sat up JUST a bit so he could just PEEK at her paper. WHOA. She had way more written on there than he did!! He really needed to step it up!

Biting his lip, he crossed out what he had before and made a new list. A BETTER list.

SPOILER!!: Caleb's notes

Cale Markus Newell

Kind - Chamomile, which is calming and makes you feel relaxed (does NOT pair well with anything that has caffeine)
Center of attention, big ego, powerful - peppermint or mint, which has a strong taste. Powerful because it can clear your sinuses and help you feel better when you have a cold
Brave, Loyal - Rosehips. Tart tasting and strong, help boost your immune system
Caring - Lemon Verbena. Add to tea to give it a bit more flavor.

Lex blinked, now focusing on the Professor who was...checking in on her? Truthfully, she was having the hardest time making a decision but the Professor had bigger things to worry about besides indecisive Fourth Years so she simply shrugged, allowing an easy grin to slip onto her face. "I'm just trying to pick the perfect subject for my tea. Think I have it." No, no she didn't but again, no need to worry the woman.

She looked to her parchment again, her brows creasing in concentration and a scowl setting in. This wasn't something she'd be able to spend the entire day thinking about.

THINK!

Eventually she was able to make a decision. Mhm. See Professor? Nothing to worry about here. She was fine. Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.



Would she need to add more to this??

BOO.

Now came the hard part. Making a quick list of traits she knew about Harry Potter had been easy. Finding an herb to match them all was not so easy. Or, at least, she imagined it wouldn't be.

Then a thought came to mind.

Could she get rich off this?! She could just attach Potter's name to the tea bags, make all kinds of wild promises, and then BAM! She'd be raking in the galleons.

AWESOME.

Oh. Herbology class. Right. Sophie began to edit her list with a few herbs she thought would match Potter.

First, she looked through her list and chose a good half of the qualities that she'd like to include in her tea. She made those choices darker than the others and then scratched through the ones she wouldn't use. Then she searched through her book and found some good herbs to match those traits.

In the end, she decided to cut the Slytherin traits out, because those traits weren't really big Potter traits anyway.

Minerva listened to Bentley as she walked around and looked at everyone's choices. She blushed as the professor came near her knowing she saw who she was doing her tea on, even though it shouldn't be such a big surprise, really. When she heard the person Mo was doing she couldn't help but giggle a bit. She had a few guesses who the professor was he was talking about, but she bit her lip and tried not to show that she heard and muffled her giggles.

Going back to her own work she had to figure out the herb now for her Ethan tea. She liked the sound of that. So opening her book she started searching, it was different searching for a property first instead of the herb. Now which should she start with. Possibly the loving part, it was one of her favorite parts about him.

Flip.. flip.. she flipped through the pages. Why was this harder than she thought it would be. She was feeling dumber and dumber the more she was struggling.



Well they were at least things she felt went with him or made her think of how he makes her feel at least. Now which ones would go good together that was the harder part. Trial and error maybe.

There was still more time to work, apparently, so Sophie glanced back over her list. She thought she'd done a pretty good job, but there was one thing she wasn't sure of. When the professor did the example with the Hogwarts houses, she only had about four herbs per blend. With all the Gryffindor herbs added in, Sophie had seven herbs for Harry Potter.

She raised her hand. "Professor? Is there a limit to how many herbs you can put in one blend? Would it maybe make it too strong to have too many?" she asked. She pointed to her parchment. "I've got seven, so for the Gryffindor traits, should I just limit to one main herb I want to focus on?"

Mo glanced up at the professor and only JUST managed not to cover the paper with his hands. It wasn't a secret. Not really. "It's a real person, Professor, but I'm protecting her privacy." And his, obviously.

Mo turned back to his paper, doodling along the margin as he tried to come up with a list of traits. Real ones, too, not just the imagined traits that smitten boys assigned to the girls they fancied. Not that he was smitten. He was just... impressed by her in general.

So then traits.

So that was sorted. Sort of. It wasn't as if Mo felt he'd really captured the professor in question (a bit obvious now, but whatever), but he'd captured SOME of her personality. With that done, Mo pulled out his textbook and began to search for plants that suited the traits he'd find. It was possible he'd have to throw some off the list, but he'd try to find one for each for now.

He set down his quill and peeked around to see if the Herbology Professor was still stalking him.

She'd been waiting to see how long it took for someone to ask this questions, and as it was, it took longer than she expected, much longer.
"Good question," she mused to begin with, "there's no real limit, but you do want to keep in mind that for people to drink it, it needs to have a balance, not be too overpowering... and make sure that your traits or properties, are equally represented."



Yess... thinking could sometimes take a while, especially when there were options. Seren simply nodded, acknowledging that Alexa was getting on track... and she lingered a little behind the girl until she did start writing. Good. No need for her to continue intervening at this point.



Seren returned the lions grin. "You'll get there," she agreed, encouraging her to plough through her thoughts.



Real person? Privacy?

...

Leave it to a Ravenclaw to be cryptic. "Ok then," she smiled, respecting the Captain's need for... privacy.. ??? He could do what he wanted, so long as he was doing it properly.. and she would be checking.

She had eyes... everywhere in here.


Again, wandering around, Seren scoped out how the students were managing, and for the most part, they were doing rather well. "Don't feel as though you're restricted to the herbs we've looked at in the House blends... there are other alternatives," she announced to the class, having noticed that some students were repeating them. Originality was one of the best things about making tea.

But seeing as some students were more or less finished with their planning now...
"The practical portion of class today, will lead into your homework task... it will be producing your tea." Simple enough, no?

"In a moment, I'll let you all leave your seats and collect the herbs you require from the greenhouse, use the baskets in front of you..." because it was more practical than stuffing the herbs in their pockets, and nobody wanted tea that's been in somebody elses pants... that was just, gross.
"Once you have collected what you can from here, use the hot-air charm to dry them out .. depending on the herb this may take some time. Do it periodically throughout the day if need be."

And yes. That was a sign that this would take more than a lessons work.

"Drying the herbs is only the first step which you will start this lesson.... you will be notified of the addition two steps at the end of class..." Fairly straight forward. "If you require a herb that is not found in this greenhouse, it'd be best to collect it on your way out so that you don't incur any additional fees... so unless anybody has any questions, feel free to get started!"

OOC: Small simple activity of collecting the herbs you need for your tea. Pick them off with your hands, slice them with your wand, whatever works best for you whilst NOT killing the plant. Minimum of 2 posts collecting herbs and minimum of 3 posts drying them (total of 5 posts to be eligible for full marks). The lesson will be open for another 48 hours. I will post in 24 hours to dismiss anyone that's finished.

Ok, picking the herbs didn't seem that hard. Caleb still wasn't totally comfortable with Diffindo despite his successful attempts, so he decided to just pick the herbs by hand. A little muggle work never hurt anyone!

He decided to start with the peppermint leaves. He wandered over to the peppermint plants and took a few minutes trying to decide if he wanted to really use peppermint, or if he wanted mint instead. Hmm. Nope. Definitely peppermint. Whistling happily to himself, he started to pick the peppermint leaves for his tea. This was kind of relaxing, and it smelled soooo good over here!

Ok, so Forrest. What were his qualities? He was a Hufflepuff to start off...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parchment

Forrest: Hufflepuff, second year, friendly, stares into people's eyes, FUN!, shy, uncertain, polite, Quidditch chaser, Muggleborn?, doesn't like Benzi or Snake or Fern, doesn't like kissing or drama, runner

She quickly ran out of things and Tora looked disappointedly at her list of characteristics. they really needed to talk more, but this list should be enough for a tea, right? She pulled out her textbook from her bag and flipped open to the herbs pages, still marked from where she left off last class.

As there were a couple things she crossed out because she didn't think they would be appropriate and she had to squeeze in "Chaser", Tora decided that she should just rewrite the list along with what herbs could go with what.

Text Cut: Parchment

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parchment (New and Improved!)

FORREST:
Hufflepuff- Dill (yellow/ sunlight)
Second Year-
Friendly- Pine (positive thoughts and happiness)
Fun- Pennyroyal (banishes negativity also soothes mind)
Shy- Borage (promotes courage)
Uncertain- Fanged Geranium (stabilizes emotions), Pennyroyal, St. John's Wort
Polite- Black tea
Runner-
Quidditch Chaser-
Muggleborn?-
Stares- ginkgo or bilberry (eyesight)
Doesn't like certain people- lemongrass (repels snakes like Benzi and Cutty)
Doesn't like kissing/drama- lily (used to break love spells)
Eager to please- ginger (success)
Peacemaker- St. John's Wort (relaxing/anti-anxiety)
Weak immune system?- Echinacea (improves immune system)

She added a couple new things to the list when she rewrote it and decided to add back in the old stuff just in case she needed more Forrest-y things to make her tea.

This was kind of hard! There were so many herbs and plants to look through, and finding the perfect ones for Forrest took a bunch of time. She only got through the first half before she had to stop and take a little break as the page was swimming before her eyes. At least this was distracting her from her carnivorous plant surroundings! Always look on the briiiight side of life!

On another note, Tora now had no clue what to do or where to go from here. Whould these things even taste good together? She decided that she would just collect and dry them all and then ask if they would make a good tea. How would she know it would make a good tea though? AGGGHHHHHHHH!

Marigold looked through her notes from the previous lesson. Since Bristol was a Hufflepuff, some of those herbs would be beneficial to the tea. She looked in the textbook, anxiously looking before she could start picking the herbs.

Text Cut: Notes

Lemon Verbena=Happy
Earl Grey Black Tea, St. John's wort: anti-depressent, anti-anxiety
Turmeric=Confident
Licorice: calming
Dandelion: invigorating, promotes well-being
Hawthorn: relationship building (friendship/sister)

Alright, now to find the herbs. Marigold cautiously got up and looked around the greenhouse. She saw dandelion immediately. She walked over and looked at it - how was she supposed to collect it? She reached out and carefully broke off the leaves, trying not to pull the entire plant out. She put it on her desk as she moved to the hawthorn herb, doing the same to that one. Maybe she would try using her wand for the next one?

At least the textbook also had pictures because without them there was no way Tora would be able to find half these herbs. The first one on her list (dill) was one she knew already by sight. Who could miss the huge ferny plant? She quickly spotted it and went over to cut off some pieces. Hmmmm. She could tear some off, but wouldn't it just be better to make a clean cut? Diffindo," a leafy section fell off into her hand and she put it in the basket she had grabbed from her table. So now on to... Pennyroyal. This was one that she didn't know too well so she returned to her seat and tugged her textbook over to her. Flipping through the pages until she found the flower. Ohhhhh, it was that purple ball-y thing. Yeah, she knew this one! She swept her eye over the plants around her searching for that flash of purple amid the green and red and yellow and blue and all the other plants. Maybe not look for a color, but the shape? She walked along the walls (not too close though!) scanning until she found it hidden behind some cilantro (at least it looked like cilantro) snuggled up against a patch of borage. Perfect! She needed both! She "Diffindo"-ed the stems of a couple pennyroyal flowers and placed them i the basket before she did the same with a couple of the blue star pointed flowers of borage. There was a nice pile building up in her basket, but Tora still had a ways to go.

What was next then? Pine was a tree, so she didn't think she would find it in the greenhouse, so maybe she should ask?
"Um, Professor?" she started off, before realizing quite how close she was to one of the carnivorous plants. She practically leapt to the center of the room, or rather to a space that felt like the center because there was as much distance between herself and the plants on the walls. Cough. "Professor," she started again. "I was wondering where I could get some pine?" If not, then the Ravenclaw would just move onto the next plant. But she was stalling the next plant as it had the adjective "fanged" in it's name. She wasn't too thrilled about having to harvest that one...

Cutty kept his newly corrected notes on the last class nearby for easy reference. If you could potentially chose the wrong herbs and plants for this project it was a good idea to have those notes and his book open. Alright, on to his hero now.

While he was thinking of what to add to the tea, Cutty absent-mindedly darkened Crouch's name on his parchment. He thought about remixing from his reworked list of house blends, but when Professor Bentley said they could move beyond that, it sounded more up his alley. Should he try adding mallow root for it's flavour? No. He had found that it had very little to do with the traits he had listed for Crouch and that one of his later ingredients might help balance out the flavours in any case.



Was this drinkable? Cutty thought so. In fact if he'd done it right it ought to make a sweetly dessert tea. He'd drink it anyway. Coming out of his dazed thoughts, Cutty glanced at his empty basket for a moment before taking it up and with his wand carried it over to a nearby tree, which he began poking around, trying to find vanilla planifolia. While looking about the floor near other species of orchids, something lightly tapped his forehead. Cutty swatted at the offender before he realized what they were. The little green pods which contained the vanilla beans. He smiled and pulled them closer-perhaps still a bit too rough in his handling of the plants-and flicked his wand using the charm Tobias had shown him.

"Flipnsnipwitit!" He swished his wand and uttered the incantation. Then hunted for the other ingredients.

After Kat had finished making a list of traits and attributes that Elise had, she examined the page of her textbook that had a list of different herbs that could be used in making tea. Thinking of Elise just made the Head Girl miss her bestie even more. Their final year in Hogwarts and they just had to be separated. She hasn't even seen Bee or Erin lately. What happened to three of her favourite Ravenclaws? Of course, she'd seen Kendall. The Slytherin pretty much enjoyed talking with her. Their topics usually ranged from K1's cat, Accio, and chocolate. It was really random, but interesting at the same time.

But anyway, Kat shifted her attention back to her notes on her parchment. First on her list of Elise!attributes was 'smart'. That was cool because Kat could base it from the notes she took about the Ravenclaw tea, yeah? Ginko was the herb, right? But then she found another herb on the textbook that Elise might be able to benefit from. Horehound... for clearing minds and quick thinking. That would be helpful cos Elise needed things sorted out since she was a Quidditch player, yeah? The blonde scribbled that on her parchment beside the attribute it represented. The Slytherin added more herbs into her list until she felt like it was good enough. She didn't want to have too much herbs in her tea anyway because then that would mean more herbs to work with and effort.


Okay, so that was all good now? Time to prepare the herbs then! Kat stood up and went to look at the plants. Just so, you know, she didn't pick the wrong herb.

After taking a clip or two (one in case he messed up) of vanilla, Cutty began his hunt for the sassafras, while he was in a warmer zone. Oddly and perhaps very much like an animal he expected that the plant would have a distinct smell to it and decided on using his olfactory senses. Not that he knew yet by heart what exactly sassafras should look like, or planned on reading every solitary label of each plant, thus he figured it a better strategy to try and sniff it out. The moisture levels in Greenhouse 4 made that a great deal easier as it amplified the sweet sent of the sassafras albidum, although it was hard to miss with his dark bark and large footprint-like leaves.

Cutty took out his wand and again applied the trimming charm to a visible piece of root. "Carpe Retractum!" He used the spell they'd learned in their second charms class to grasp and pull back the little pieces of bark from the floor, then quickly moved from the spot, hoping that if he'd just done damage to the tree it would not be immediately noticeable.

Onto the blueberries, which were easy enough to find owing to their familiarity. Cutty rushed over to the bushes and knelt down, placing his basket near him and began to pick furiously with his hands liking the way they felt. He wasn't sure how many of them it would take for his tea or even how small they could shrink once dried, but better to have more than you need in case of mistakes.

When he was satisfied with the amount in his basket that only left the barbed skullcap to find. Cutty was expecting something thorny and hat-like. Maybe like a foxglove or something, but smaller. He shut his eyes for a minute trying to envision it, trying to remember if he'd seen it in his book. After a moment, he went back over to his desk and took out his Herbology book flipping through it searching for skullcap. FOUND IT! Oh, it was small. And not quite thorny, though there were indeed little pointy parts of it sticking out on opposite ends of the small blossoms. Cutty ran off with his book and basket towards the lavender, feeling intuitively that he just might find it there. Did they have a similar soil preference, perhaps? He circumnavigated around the beds until he froze right in front of the plant which up close, Cutty thought resembled the books picture of bluebells. Not wasting another moment, the boy took his wand and applied the trimming charm to it, cutting a sprig of it and tossing it into his basket then headed back to his seat.