Before she began her drying she glanced over at Cassia to check how the snake was doing. From the looks of it she wasn't being strangled by strange vines or falling off her seat. This meant she was fine yeah? Good, she could focus on her own work then but she would be keeping an eye on her just in case. This was Cassia and plants. The unexpected was very much expected.

Lex reached into her basket and pulled first the bay herbs but only because they were one of the closest to the top. She laid them on the table, being careful not to encroach on someone else's space while she was at it.

Now was where that spell they'd practiced would come in handy. Alice constantly drenching her would finally be of some value to her because she KNEW how to cast this spell. Not expertly because that would obviously come with more practice, but well enough to get the job done. "Siccus Aerous!" With the circle motion going up and down the length of the herbs. At first it didn't look like it was making a difference but that changed. "Siccus Aerous!"

Soon all the bay were nice and dry then shoved to a side of the table. She next pulled the Earl Grey out and repeated the process until they were just as dry and shoved to another side of the table. Organizing them, yup, it was important.

Adi was all set to get started on the drying process. As he laid the first set on herbs out before him- the Hawthorn, he couldn't help but wonder how his tea was going to taste. He hoped it would taste good. Kace was a great friend and it would not do to have a disgusting tasting tea made in his honour.

"Siccus Aerous!" And wand movement- circles and the up and down motion. Adi knew his spell was going to work. He had practiced quite hard. And yes! It was working! The Hawthorn was quickly loosing its bright colour.

When that was done, the first year set them aside and grabbed another- the Chickweed. "Siccus Aerous!" Soon that was all dry as well.

Drying tea leaves was sort of nice. Ella felt pretty excited about the end product of all this too. She just hoped that whatever tea she created was tasty. Tasty and that it accurately reflected the person she was thinking about as she did this.

The blonde moved her focus to the Lemon balm, working carefully to dry the herb. "Siccus Aerous!" The smell of lemon, no matter how faint, always made Ella crave lemonade. Could she get some after class or? That actually sounded like a really great idea. "Siccus Aerous!"

Licorice next. She was making good progress and she just hoped she'd have time to finish everything. Herbology classes tended to fly by, y'know. "Siccus Aerous!" Did she have too many herbs to work with? What if they didn't blend well together? What if- She really did need to stop worrying and focus. "Siccus Aerous!"

On to the next.

Kace needed to get three more herbs, he needed the licorice, hawthorn and borage. He went to the supply closet after he picked the plants leaves and wait a minute...he needed hawthorn. He got the leaves from the hawthorn plant and then he went to the supply closet and got the licorice. He picked a couple of pieces and put them into the basket. This was getting easier and easier. Next he needed to get the borage. He picked the plant and got into the basket as well. Now he needed to use the hot air charm.

He remembered practicing it with Adi but he needed to go back to his seat and look at his notes. It was Siccus Aerous....Yup it was because he heard Adi saying it. He smiled at his buddy and was glad he was doing so well. He managed to get all his ingredients and now it was time to use the charm.

He practiced the wand movement first..it was up and down with two clockwise circles. Yup that was it. He could do this!

Peppermint and Rosemary.

Those were the last herbs that Ella had to dry. She set to work on the peppermint first, smiling a bit at the aroma. It reminded her of Christmas, actually. It also made her wonder if she could get her hands on some peppermint shampoo. That'd be lovely. "Siccus Aerous!" Perhaps she could write home about that. It was definitely something to think about.

Rosemary last. Poor Rosemary. It was nothing personal, y'know? Just happened to be last on Ella's list. The blonde smiled a little before getting back to work. "Siccus Aerous!" This drying spell was brilliant, she'd decided. Loads of uses for it and it wasn't too hard to get the hang of. "Siccus Aerous!" Maybe she'd dry some more herbs on her own time for Gran? That might be nice.

And now all the herbs were dried. The blonde gathered them carefully and then looked over towards where Professor Bentley was, waiting to hear what was next.

Now that she had two of the herbs she started looking for the others. This was not as hard as she first thought, well hopefully. Basil shouldn't be to hard to find either, right? She had used it to cook many of times. Not something she would have thought to be in tea, but why not. As she looked around she noticed the plant she assumed was the basil, was this basil. Glancing through her book she decided it was and leaned down sniffing it. She knew cooking, so she knew the herbs that she used. Taking some leaves from the Basil she placed them with the others in her basket.



Now she only had one left. Chamomile.. Chamomile. She knew it has little flowers on it, but she just wasn't finding it. Looking at the herbs she drew a blank. Why was this being so difficult. The others didn't seem as hard, now did they. She walked around the plants a little more until she saw what looked like little white flowers. Smiling to herself she took a few pieces from the chamomile and headed back to her workstation. Now that she had the picked herbs she needed to dry them, right?

It was hard to tell how the herbs in his bag mixed together, especially now that he had a huge chunk of root in there, but Mo continued sniffing the mixture as he pursued the rest of his plants. Did he just have too many? Was that the problem? Maybe he should stop.. oh, there! St. John's wort.

The St. John's wort was a tall, stalky plant with yellow flowers, and Mo only required a few of the leaves and flowers for his bag. It was almost like he hadn't taken anything at all. See? He certainly wasn't hurting any of the plants. Mo moved further down the long tables full of potted plants, looking for his last two. The wort had that nice cut grass scent, which tingled in his nose as he mixed the ingredients together in the bag.

Ah, wheat grass. A much harder plant to harvest without damaging or killing it. Mo ran his hand along the tips of the blades of grass, making a rushing wind through the teeny tiny prairie. Maybe if he cut off the tops of a few... but he had a feeling that would kill them. Instead, Mo harvested a small patch, carefully pulling them out of the dirt and depositing the entire length of grass in his bag. Still loads left to grow.

Last was his hawthorn, which Mo struggled to find. Maybe he didn't need it? Maybe the professor wasn't in need of heart mending, although Mo knew for sure that he was. Maybe... and then he spotted the distinctive red berries of the hawthorn. Mo crawled under one trestle and around another to grab a small handful. Yum? Maybe they were sweet and delicious like blueberries, only red and hard as little rocks. One could always dream. Mo headed back to his seat.

Next up, lavender.

Lex picked through the basket carefully, making sure to only grab this herb for the drying. It was important to be super careful with this sorting, though not nearly as careful as with Potions. If they got mixed up here it wouldn't be such a big deal. She was using them all in her tea anyway so mixing WOULD happen. Still, for the sake of this assignment she would have liked some order.

"Siccus Aerous!" Circle circle. She gently began pushing the leaves further a part so the hot air could get into more places and give it a more thorough dry. "Siccus Aerous!"

She thought to go with the Honeysuckle next. Why? No particular reason. Don't question. She had no answers. Just drying the honeysuckle.

"Siccus Aerous!"

Aaaaand the licorice. She fished that out of the basket next. With more circular motions she got it nice and dry too then went back to organizing her desk. This one went here...that one over there...mhm.

Going back to her work station Minerva set out her herbs. Placing them each down she double checked to make sure she had the correct ones. Well they looked like they were correct to her, but she wondered if she should have just gotten the others as well so in case these ingredients didn't do so well, she could already have some to use. Thinking about this for a few moments she shrugged and decided to just stick with what she picked.

Now it was time to dry them. She frowned remembering practicing the spell with Mo. She had upset him with her advice that day and still hadn't spoke to him about that. Maybe she'd try to find him after class, if he would talk to her. Well for now she needed to dry the herbs. Pulling out her wand she started doing the clockwise circles over top the basil first. "Siccus Aerous" She slowly went over top the plant making sure she was drying the herbs completely. She couldn't help, but smile as she noticed the Basil was drying. You could really tell when it was working. This was a great spell to know and she was excited to have learned it.

Now that Caleb had his peppermint leaves, which was going to be the dominant flavor in his brew, he could move on to something else. How about...hmmm...the chamomile. Yes, that was a good next choice. Humming happily to himself, he wandered over to the plant and began to pick those leaves as well. It was a bit slower than magic, obviously, but not THAT much slower, and less risky. He didn't want to accidentally kill the plant and get points taken off!

After he got the chamomile leaves, he'd go dry them off and then go back, just to make sure he wouldn't mix them up in his basket and clear out some room.

Cutty pushed the ingredients list he'd made to the top of his desk and began dumping, almost literally, all of the things he'd collected from his basket. The green sprigs of the barbed skullcap rolled out, followed by the rock-like tumbling of the sassafras and vanilla bean which rolled a bit but did not fall off of the desk. The blueberries however, well not all of them stayed put being of such a round shape.

Dismissing the fallen blueberries as a loss not worth retrieving, Cutty began separating the different ingredients into small piles. When he'd gotten them all sufficiently segregated he began with a handful of blueberries. "Siccus Aerous!" He said confidently performing the two circular motions and giving the incantation. The berries had shrunken to a smaller size and their colour seemed to intensify until they were moved from their indigo into an almost black shade. Cutty admired them for a moment, for to his gross little boys mind they resembled rabbit droppings and Oh, wouldn't it be fun to trick someone with them. He plucked one up from the surface of his workspace and put it into his mouth noticing that it, like the fruits in the kitchen got a bit sweeter as well. Maybe he wouldn't need many of them. He grabbed with his left hand and casted with his right forming something of an assembly line for the blueberries and when he was finished, he tossed them into the basket of ingredients that were already dry.

Next came the sassafras root bark. Chunky and woody, it might take a slightly longer or more intense application of the spell. "Siccus Aerous!" Cutty's wand wound in his hand and he concentrated hard on what the bark would look and feel like once dried out. Lighter in colour and almost splintery. When he was done, he noticed the chunk seemed to have lost a little weight. He tossed and caught it once in hand, then placed it into his basket.

Once the Basil was dried, Minerva turned her focus to the next herb she had sitting on her work station. The Lavender was up next. Well this could be easy. She did her circles once more, "Siccus Aerous" she kept moving her wand around the lavender making sure it was all dry. "Siccus Aerous" she continued to dry the lavender.

Once the lavender was dried Minerva's thoughts went back to the herbs she hadn't picked. Maybe she should really consider getting a few more in case those didn't workout. Going back over with her basket Min looked for a few more of the herbs.



She looked around and found the Calendula and placed in her basket, then she found the cedarwood, taken a few leaves Min wondered now if she was taking to many, well more was better than not enough right? She looked for the Hibiscus, but gave up after not finding it right away. She was really just getting these to be on the safe side, so she wasn't going to search to long, plus she had noticed the Lemon Verbena. So cutting a few leaves with her wand of those she made her way back to her workstation.

Keeping her wand out she started the circles again over the Turmeric, "Siccus Aerous" she worked her wand over the Turmeric to dry it just as well as the other two. The Turmeric dried easily so Minerva placed them aside and took the chamomile, "Siccus Aerous" doing the circles again she dried the chamomile.

Two herbs down! Adi stacked them neatly on the table and reached into his basket for the next one. Caraway. He set it down in from of him.

"Siccus Aerous!" And follow that up with the wand movement. Soon Adi had dried Caraway in front of him. HE set that aside and reached for another. Licorice.

"Siccus Aerous!" Dried licorice now joined the previous three.

Lex peered into the basket again. Only two herbs remained, nettle and lemonbalm. She...was gonna need to make a bit more space on her desk. She glanced over at Cassia again. Her best friend wasn't exactly using the table just yet from what she could see, Alexa would make this quick. She pulled the nettle from the basket and wasted no time in getting straight to it. First she spread it out a bit to increase the surface area. Cue the circular motion--her wrists were so good at this--"Siccus Aerous!"

That's right, get nice and dry.

It kinda made her wonder though. Why dry it if she was just going to soak it all in boiling water and made it wet again? That sorta defeated the purpose didn't it? Such a waste but stopping would have been a waste too because she'd already done so many. Stopping would be a waste.

Sigh. Lemonbalm tiiiime. She shoved the dried nettle to another side of the table then got right back to it. "Siccus Aerous!"

La de dah de dah.

With it dried she began grouping the herbs together and placing them in their own little spot in the basket. Now the table was clear again and she had a neatly packed basket.

Alright so now he got all the ingredients. He was all set now he had to dry them all up. He could do that. So the wand movement was up and down and two clockwise circles, he could do that.

He reached into his basket and go out his licorice and his dandelion. He was gonna do those first since those were the first he saw in his basket. He put them onto his desk and got out his wand from his robes. He took a deep breath and calmed down. He was confident and could do the spell.....

He pointed his wand at the licorice, did the wand movement of up and down and two clockwise circles and said "Siccus Aerous!" and then his licorice dried up. Awesome! He grinned and was glad it worked.

He pointed his wand at the dandelion and was ready to try the spell again. He pointed his wand at the leaf and said "Siccus Aerous!" and then the leaf was dried and there was no moisture on it. He was good at that spell. I guess all the practice paid off with Adi.

Alright. Caleb was ready to dry some herbs. He felt like he'd practiced this spell a million times with Sophie, so he wasn't worried about this part at all. He sat down and spread his herbs out in front of him, keeping separate piles for the chamomile and for the peppermint. He began to move his wand up and down while spinning it counter clockwise in two circles, just as he'd practiced.

"Siccus Aerous!" he exclaimed. He continued to move his wand and waited until a few minutes had passed and he felt the herbs. Oh wow, they had dried out a bit! Not a WHOLE lot, but a bit.

"Siccus Aerous!" he exclaimed once more, doing the wand movement again and watching as it visibly dried up this time. He was getting good at this.

Now when was it going to come in handy in something other than HERBOLOGY?

Vanilla. Cutty looked down at it unsure of where to begin. It was a bright green and lengthy pod that looked nothing like the tiny dark brown sprinkles found inside of the vanilla ice cream at Florean Fortescue's. What do do?

"Flipnsnipwitit!" He casted on the little green pod snipping the end off and exposing the inside hoping to find the shrivley brown bean inside of it. It contained a gritty, scented material that Cutty thought looked like the dark brown sprinkles only, they were the wrong colour. So then, that green pod MUST have been the bean itself and the inside was the flavouring. Was it like a banana? Ripened until black? Cutty didn't know a good ripening charm if there was such a thing. He frowned, studying the vanilla pods more. Well, maybe he could just dry out the inside bit.

"Siccus Aerous!" He said aiming the spell over the length of the green pods and to his rather pleased surprise he had found that the spell had shriveled and browned the pod causing it to look much more like the pictures on the labels in his grandmother's kitchen. So THAT was how they got vanilla! "Siccus Aerous!" He said applying the charm to the other pod as well and then putting them into the basket of dried things.

Time to do that barbed skullcap! Only Cutty had never eaten of this herb before and he hadn't the foggiest as to what part of it would be most edible. He picked it up and brought it closer to his face, sniffed it and picked at one of the little flowers. He then put it into his mouth and noted the flavour. It was, he found a bit too bitter for his brew and he decided to try the leaves and stem, which were milder. They wouldn't interfere with the other flavourings as much and besides, the book had not mentioned the benefits of that herb coming from the blossoms. Logic.

He dried out the entire sprig and tossed it into his basket, along with the vanilla, sassafras and blueberries.

Alright so Kace only had a few ingredients to dry up. He could do this. So he did the licorice and the dandelion leaf. So now he needed to do a couple more plants and the caraway seeds. That was easy enough.

He searched in his basket for the last remaining ingredients and then laid them out onto the table. He pointed his wand at the caraway seeds. He did the wand motion of two circular clockwise circles and moving the wand up and down and then he said, "Siccus Aerous!" and he saw the seeds drying up. He was glad he was good at this spell. All his hard-work was paying off.

He got his last remaining ingredients all dried up with the swish of his wand movements of the two clockwise circles up and down and "Siccus Aerous!" and now all his ingredients were ALL dried up.

It was all in a days work. Now he waited to see what he had to do next.

So the kind of dumb thing about dumping all of his ingredients into the bag and then mixing them together was that now that Mo was back at his workstation and had dumped the bag out on the table, he found that his leaves and flowers and blades of grass were all jumbled in a big pile. If it all needed exactly the same amount of drying, that would be fine, but... he wasn't so lucky.

The rhizome and the berries, in particular, would need several rounds of drying. He probably should dice up the turmeric root prior to drying, just to make it easier. And everything could use a good washing up as well

But one thing at a time. He'd start with the easiest bits. Mo scooped the ginkgo leaves, the chamomile and St. John's wort flowers, and the spiky rosemary needles over to one side, leaving the turmeric, wheat grass, and hawthorn berries behind.

The leaves and flowers were spread out in a thin layer across the surface of the work station, and then Mo positioned himself at one side. Moving his wand in careful clockwise circles across the table top, Mo repeated the incantation over and over. "Siccus Aerous. Siccus Aerous. Siccus Aerous."

Caramel.

Cutty thought hard about what he had on him at the moment. He did make it a habit of carrying small samplers of sweets on his person somewhere, just in case he ran into any potential buyers in some corridor or another. Cutty unfastened the closure of his bag and rummaged until he produced a long rectangular wooden box from his bag 'o tricks. He gave a shifty glance around the room to make sure all of the students were heavily engrossed in their work before lifting the latch and exposing the compartmental sectors of candy within.

Chews, Nuts, Jellies, Brittles, Helva! He might just eat that one later! and Caramels! He dug is grubby finger in and pulled out one of the moist caramels from it's little cubicle home and placed it onto the surface of his desk. He put away the box and then set to thinking of ways to dry out the soft treat. If it was going into a loose leaf blend then it must distribute evenly. Cutty took up his wand again and set to trimming the little caramel into even bits. "Flipnsnipwitit!" He was getting quite good at the charm Tobias had taught him and when he was all through, the goopy little bits were sitting in front of him ready for their drying.

"Siccus Aerous!" He once again performed the semi-complex wand movement and testing one of the bits, he picked it up and let it fall a short distance with a tapping sound that told him of it's dried state. Into the basket it went with rest of his dried ingredients. All that remained was a small bit of salt, which he'd have to nip from the kitchens or perhaps purge from one of his precious brittles.

The flowers and leaves seemed to have dried pretty well, and Mo swept them all back off to one side so he could focus on the more troublesome items in his bag. The wheat grass, for one. It wasn't like you could plunk an entire blade of grass in your hot water. Or maybe you could, but it seemed like it would be harder to drink if you got a mouth full of grass.

The roots and the thick bottom parts of each blade were a little muddy, so Mo carefully rinsed them with directed "Aguamenti." He let that water pour onto the flower rather than chance getting his dried flowers and things damp, and it was short work to "Tergeo" the puddle away before someone slipped in it.

See how it was all coming together? Where was Bentley? Was she impressed by him? It was always so hard to tell with her. Shrugging, he returned his attention to his work station, laying out the grass and cutting it into manageable bits. The roots were discarded, and the rest he diced up with "Diffindo".

And FINALLY he was ready to dry the wheat grass. Mo spread out the mound of grassy bits before drawing the clockwise circles over it. "Siccus Aerous. Siccus Aerous." Now he could sweep the dried wheat grass into the pile with his other ingredients.

Everything seemed to be going WELL... and the students were quickly getting the hang of things.

Seren meandered around the greenhouse, observing, occasionally stealing glances at notes and of course watching students demonstrate their wand work. It was good to see most of them had done their homework well. She even noticed Marcus was doing nicely, yep, she was watching, she could see the progress he's made. It was very pleasing.

"Alright class!" she called out, "Once you have finished gathering your herbs and have made a start on the drying process, you may be dismissed. The noticeboards will soon be updated with your next tasks.. so stay tuned." Yes, stay tuned indeed. Half made tea would be useless.

And then there was Tora.. did she need something? Or was she just ... off daydreaming?
"Something the matter?" she asked..


OOC: You may post leaving if you're finished, otherwise keep going. I will close the thread in 24 hours, thanks for playing! (:

.......

What? They can leave now? That was fast. Kat didn't even notice it until she actually checked her watch. Right, it was almost time for the next class. The Head Girl hurried up and glanced at her parchment with notes on it. Time to get peppermint and sarsaparilla then? Not a problem. She'd start off with pepperming first, because that was the plant she was familiar with. Well, yeah, it was a common herb and she's seen it in her grandmother's garden before. Coming close to the plant, Kat picked three peppermint stems, carefully making sure that no harm on the herb was done before placing in on her work place.

Okay, so the last one. Sarsaparilla. She needed the roots, right? At least that's what she learned from all her reading and stuff. Kat glanced at her textbook again so that she could keep the picture of the sarsaparilla in mind and not forget it. Then she went to look for the plant. The Slytherin dug a bit once she saw the sarsaparilla, so that she can obtain the roots. Once that was done, she took it back to her place and then.... okay she can start drying them now? After she did a little something on the roots. Probably cut them or dice them or something.

Having already the dried apple slices, Annabeth rushed around the Greenhouse, picking the other ingredients. She had to find Dandelian leaf, Nettles, Licorice, Cloves, Mint and Cinnamon. Obviously, there was no Cinnamon tree there, she wondered if the teacher would have some cinnamon bark or, perhaps she could go to the kitchens and ask the Hogwarts elves to give her some. The teacher was helping other students, and she still have another five herbs to pick up. "Well, I can pick out the other ingredients before asking her about the cinnamon." She said to herself while wearing her protective gloves. Then approached a denser bush of dandelian and picked a good amount of leaves, and then put them into her basquet. Near to the Dandelian, she found nettles and picked a sprig of nettles. She didn't want a great amount of nettles, as she wanted the tea sweeter and not so burning. Near to the greenhouse door, she found licorice. She need a small part of its root, then she dug the soil and exposed a part of the root, grabbed her wand and pointed to it. "Secare radix!" She had read about this spell during last Summer, it was supposed to cut the roots where the wand was pointing to. It was a nice surprise when the spell worked. She smiled, took the small root and placed it into her basquet. Then Anna came back to her place at the round table.

Kat had all of her herbs now. She had double checked them just in case. Maybe even did a triple check, but whatever. She had them all and she was supposed to start drying them. What were they supposed to use again? The Hot-Air Charm? Easy. She knew how to cast that. Learnt it from studying her charm textbook just in case. It might be essential for NEWT stuff, yeah?

She then separated the herbs she had collected. Peppermint on one side, sarsaparilla on the other, horehound on another, and then jasmine too. Once that was done, the Head Girl took her wand out of her pocket. Now her problem was where to start off the drying.

Hmm... which one was the easiest? It was a question Kat thought about for a while.

Yeah, she'd start with the leaves so peppermint it is. "Siccus Aerous," she said and watched as the peppermint leaves started to dry up. Hot-Air Charm doing its thing. After that, she'd start with the horehound.