OOooooOOOOh. She REALLY LIKED THIS PROFESSOR ALREADY. He was short like her so her SHORTYSENSES FOUND a KINDRED SPIRIT in him alreaaaady. And he was also adorable and excitable. Yes. She would like this class.

"An example of a toadstool is a mushroom." Maybe she was just making that up, though she could imagine a toad sitting on a mushroom. Aw.

Professor M was cool. He laughed at his own jokes. Dante does that. So yeah, Professor M is cool. And since he was cool and the nametag did not really work in Charms. Still got the points removed.
'
So he wrote his actual name on it. Dark Dante. He did not want to seem arrogant. So he left of The Don part. Still if Professor M started calling him that. It would be simply awesome.

"I am 99.9 percent positive it is not a stool toads sit on."

Toads are too cool for that sort of thing. Specially his toad Hopalong Montezuma.

Hopalong did things his own way.

Honestly, Kate was more interested in watching this man talk and move around than she was in what he had to say. She was following along, sure, but she was just following along LESS with the topic of toadstools than she was with the professor's actions. She knew a little about toadstools, though, so she raised her hand. "I know that there are toadstools that look like they're talking to one another when you look at them from a distance," she said. "They're called, 'fat, red toadstools'." What a unique and thoughtful name. Heh.

After she'd said that, Kate grabbed a sticker then set to work writing her name on it.

Kate Addison

She peeled the backing off it then stuck it on her shirt.

Paloma nodded, "Quite a nice day, thanks. Though, it's a bit chilly..." She almost mumbled the last part, while adjusting her light blue scarf. Without hesitation, she walked to a nearby spot and stood? there, waiting for the class to...

And it started. A light nod to everything, and taking a tag to write on, she quickly scribbled her name:

Paloma Robles

And now, they were to talk about Toadstools. Mushrooms, he meant? Cetas, as they were called in Spanish? Most likely. She raised her hand, hoping she could get this one right. "It's the body of a fungus, they contain spores, grow above ground...other uses, rather than poison, food, or psychoactive effects, they could be used also to dye wool and other fibers." She liked talking about this, mushrooms, to use them in stuff she liked.

Best mate meets cousin. It wasn't going well. Amusing but not well. Beverly was ready to tell Valentina to tone down her inner lioness when she said THAT.

-____-

Why did this happen often? Cutty Mordaunt was her best mate, her partner in crime and all that stuff, but NOT her boyfriend. That was just silly and the urge to thump Valentina was high, but Cutty was in the way.

"He's not--"

Oh, hey. Yeah, let the lesson begin. She shot Valentina a pointed look and shook her head. Did she get the message? They will talk about this later. And pictures would be involved. Lots of them. Hmph.

----

Well...wasn't he the most adorable professor ever? Not that SHE thought so......well...maybe a tiny bit. That snort thing he did, it wasn't repugnant or anything the like.

Brushing the earlier comments off, Beverly brought out a quill, jotting her name down followed by note-taking and raising her hand.

"Some magical toadstools require taming; for example Biting Toadstools." Since more of her classmates were talking like muggles. "They also require special ways of taking care of like, making sure the environment they're in suits them and how much dragon dung fertilizer you're feeding them...as well as other diets." Don't want to starve the things now, would we?

So the groundskeeper really was the herbology professor this year. Penelope took a sticker when the roll of stickers was passed around to her and wrote her name on it.

Quote:

Penelope Wright

Toadstools. Were they going to learn about toadstools today? "A toadstool is a type of mushroom." Penelope really didn't know much about toadstools other than that. She was pretty sure that toadstools did not actually have anything to do with toads or stools. Herbology was not one of her best subjects. Maybe she would be better at herbology this term.

Focusing her attention on what really mattered which was this lesson, Valentina supressed a smile upon hearing the Professor greet her along with Beverly. Yep, a Valentina smile was worth a lot! She didn't smile very much, not many things amused her to begin with.

Taking one of those stickers, Valentina wrote her name down.



Wow there was a lot of clapping around coming from him. Valentina raised a brow and depending on how this lesson goes, she's rather intrigued.

Okay so lesson has begun and toadstools was the subject?

Furrowing her forehead she remained silent and took mental notes, often jotting down some just in case it would be important. Cousin Seth, taught her that. A former Gryffindor too. Sigh.

Cautiously listening to the answers of her classmates she made to grasp what they were talking about, often looking back at the Professor for verification on whether the answers were correct. Valentina wasn't shy nor was she the chatty kind, she was simply Valentina.

JUST Professor Millard then... sure, he could do that.

Promptly, Zeke sat himself at the long table, swinging his legs as he did so, and pulled out his STUFFF. Yeah, stuff was great for taking notes with. The gloves could stay on the desk for now though, need for them yet.

Taking the roll of stickers, Zeke took one and passed the rest on. With his name in big bold letters, he stuck it to his chest and waited for further instructions. Boo... they had to WAIT for plants. Boo.

Toadstools though, he couldn't imagine them being fun, but with all the talk of them being poisonous, he DID have thoughts on the matter. Hand up to answer, Zeke offered his view. "Because they're poisonous, the must come in bright colours and stuff right? It's like a warning thing to wildlife not to eat them. Bright red with white dots is popular." But other colours would be cooler, surely - even if red was his favourite.

Listening to the professor she frowned, not sure if he would like this lesson, simply because she didn’t wanted to work with her hands in the dirt and she feared that she needed to do it here… But then, did she again needed to write her name? Didn’t the teacher had a student list so that he knew who was who? Hmm… But, doing it wasn’t that difficult so quick she wrote her name and placed it on her school robe.

Cahira Jones

But just when she had been done with placing the sticker on her school robe she heard that the professor started to talk again and… He was also a groundskeeper? Hmm… That wasn’t that surprising! But then, when a question was asked to the class she kept her mouth shut, deciding to just listen for a while

He looked towards the class in general, as they all seemed to have the main idea. "Great answers, everyone." Apart from frog poop over there. "Toadstools are a kind of mushroom and fungus." Most of them got that part. "As most of you said, some are inedible and poisonous, and some are used as ingredients in potion brewing! Very helpful. There are a wide range of magical toadstools out there, as some of you have mentioned. And we will be looking at one of those in particular today." Archie spun around to retrieve them.

Using a simple levitating spell, Archie placed a very sad looking toadstool in front of each student. He almost wondered if there would be enough for him to demonstrate what he wanted them to do. Once everyone had one in front of them, Archie plopped one in front of himself. Perfect.

"Now, to the toadstools in front of you. As you can see, they aren't looking too well. Unfortunately, they got left unattended over the summer." He cleared his throat. "My fault." Archie muttered through the cough. AnYWAY... He put on his gloves and lifted up his own wrinkled toadstool in front of him to show the class. It had a white stem (colour greying a little now), with a pale pink cap (though the edges are beginning to go brown due to condition). "Can anyone hazard a guess at what this particular toadstool is?" They might need their textbooks for this part!

"They have a very obvious characteristic that distinguishes them from other toadstools, but given their condition, it is a little difficult to notice." In fact, impossible.

"Have a go, I won't leave you speculating for too long."

ooc: Sorry I couldn't answer you all individually. Pushing myself for time! Just a quick question. Moving on in about 6-7 hours but you can always catch up afterwards. <3

Straightening up in her seat, her feet swinging gently back and forth due to the fact that she wasn't able to reach the floor still Hady's attention was on Professor Millard. It was clear the moment he asked about toadstools that that was what they'd be working with today.

As he made a toadstool appear in front of each of them she removed her gloves from her bag and slipped them on. Taking out her wand she cast a very quick 'Scourgify' on her gloves. Pocketing her wand once more she picked up the toadstool in one hand examining it closely for a long moment.

Right now she wasn't sure which one this was though she had a few ideas. Pulling out her textbook she flipped it open to the section on toadstools. Skimming down each page until she found the one she wanted...from the picture and what it said about it she thought that was the one in her hand. Slowly raising her hand she gave her answer. "Is this the...I hope I say this correctly...the um Hygrocybe calyptriformis? Though most know it as the Pink Waxcap..." She probably messed up on saying it but yeah hopefully he knew what she meant.

Angel was not feeling at all well today, she loved Herbology but her head was aching like crazy and she was forgetting a lot of things which meant she had missed the first question and now she was confused about the second question, though she was just going to wing it and hope that no one would care.

"Is it the Russula betularum?" Angel decided that was one plant she could think of, though she had a feeling she would be wrong because it just didn't seem right... why did her headache have to come when her favourite lesson was happening.

Zeke assumed that he was right with the colour thing, though he didn't really get any indication that he was right. Confused. He was confused. He needed ANSWERS... he needed to know THESE things. He tapped the flat of his fingers on the table quietly, his lips pursed from the tension of feeling uncertain.

...

Toadstools though, they really DID look unwell. Like... whoops? It was funny though, that the new HERBOLOGY Professor was responsible for almost killing them. Luuuulz.

He really had no idea what kind of toadstool it was, and everyone's scientific answers weren't helping his case. They were all glorified mushrooms as far as he was concerned. Nevertheless, his hand half-raised hesitantly, he offered a response. "A lucky toadstool?" .... yeah, NO IDEA.

Ohhhh, it was time to play Name That Toadstool and Janelle didn't have a clue. Guess she'd be going home with a lovely parting gift 'cause this was one game she was not going to win. Where was Jasmine when she needed her? Surely she would know the answer to the question.

Janelle could never understand how they expected the first years to know the answers like the older students did. It was kinda unfair because the older kids had a bit of a head start in the information department. Janelle looked at the pitiful little toadstool laying limply in front of her. This one didn't even bother her. In fact, she felt a little sorry for it. Were they going to have to cure this thing because that might take more magic than she was capable of. Anyway, she didn't have an answer to the question so she just kept quiet and listened. Listen and learn. Yep, that's what she'd do.

Listening to the professor she nodded slowly, taking in all the information because she didn’t knew how important this was going to be and… What she needed to do with it! But then, when one of the toadstools was placed before her she sighed dissapointed! Looking at the toadstool she frowned, it was ugly and clearly in a bad shape! And the worse things was, she had a bad feeling that she needed to work with it somehow! But… She was lucky! Whoooho! She didn’t needed to do anything with it for now! Just a question and that was all! But what o what did she needed to answer to that question? She wasn’t really having that information about it because… Well… It was a toadstool and besides eating them (the non-toxic ones, of course) didn’t she knew that much about it!

She stared and stared at the toadstool before her but the only thing what happened was that she became frustrated and STILL didn’t knew how to answer this question!

They were a fungus. AJ got the answer right on the nose. Look at her being all knowing in the plant department. Once the next question was asked though, she was firmly put back in her place. AJ had no idea what kind of toadstool that was. People were throwing all complicated names, and AJ was over here like... what?

She snorted at Zeke's answer. That sounded good to her. Could she just say ditto? Because that was the only thing that was coming to mind right now. Maybe she would actually have to open up her textbook. Man, how she hated doing that.

Flip, flip. Her finger landed on a name that sounded pretty cool, and AJ decided to go with that one. How bad could it be? Her hand was raised. "Coprinus comatus?" Yeah, that was a question.

What a sad bunch of toadstools.

Pouting, Lux looked at the one in front of her wanting to look after it and make it healthier. Since she wasn't sure how exactly to do that with fungus, she decided to leave it for the moment. Maybe that would be a part of the lesson; that would be fun because she had enjoyed caring for sick plants last term.

Professor Millard wanted them to guess what was in front of them, and Lux had no clue so time to look at the textbook. Flipping to the correct page she was surprised to see how many varieties of toadstools there were. Looking back and forth between her sad toadstool and the book, she finally had a guess. Raising her hand she said, "Is that a Pink Waxcap?"

Ohh looky! They all had a toadystool! Though they didn't look right... something was off with them? Hmm. Adi leaned a tad bit closer to his as Professor Groundskeeper explained that the toadstools had been neglected over the summer then promptly went into a bit of a cough fit. Adi's eyes flicked towards Angel, wondering what she thought about such treatment of the fungi. She most likely disapproved.

Adi grinned at Zeke's answer. He knew it probably wasn't right but hey, it was still funny. Lifting a hand up, he volunteered an answer. "Talking toadstools.'' He wasn't fully sure but he was mostly confident about that.

If you put something in front of Toby, there was always every possibility that he was going to pick that something up and fiddle with it. Poor impulse control, perpetual fidgeting, easily distracted; all things that contributed to that sort of stuff.

So as soon as the toadstools appeared in front of them, Toby's hands went straight for it. Luckily, he had the sense to stop himself before touching it and pulled on his dragonhide gloves like Professor Millard had done. Speaking of... he'd not said they couldn't touch, right? The Hufflepuff couldn't remember now.

Toby was better at remembering things in Herbology than he was in perhaps any other subject (except maybe Ancient Runes), but he still didn't remember the various names and characteristics of the many many many toadstools in the world. He didn't want to use his textbook to find the answer, but Toby thought it was a good idea to at least check once he had a vague idea of what the answer might be. But before he could do that, he was raising his hand.

"It could be the Vol... the... Volvo- no, Volvalaria... wait, no. I... hang on..." With his free hand, Toby quickly rifled through his textbook to the where there was a list of names of plants and tried to very quickly locate the one he meant. "... the Volvariella Pusilla." Yeah, no, he'd never had remembered that without checking.

He didn't even know if it was right, but other kids had said other things, so why not mix it up the answers and stuff? The one he'd mentioned was like, suuuuuper pale pink, which was why he'd thought of it for the toadstool he held in his hand.

She needed her textbook. Beverly wasn't a herbology wiz and it wasn't her best subject, but she did her research and got informed. Unlike her brother who could point out random facts. What a know-it-all that Kennedy was.

Skimming through some pages, she landed on the toadstool area and found what she'd been looking for. The Prefect raised her hand. "I'm going to go with Talking Toadstool considering its white stem and sort of pale pink cap." Though it was changing colors.

You know who wouldn't like that? Professor Bentley if she were here. M'hm.

Oh, it was a potion ingredient and could be poisonous. Well alright then. Not bad for something called a toadstool. And at least he was honest about the toadstool in front of Dante. It looked like it had seen much better days. It is true.

So yeah. Dante did not know a thing about toadstools other than what he just said about them. So he opened his textbook and the names of these looked like they were in a foreign language. Even if Dante could find the right one. Could he even say it's name.

"A very unique toadstool?"

That was all he got.

Sorry, Professor M.

Norah picked up her quill and recorded a bit about toadstools as the top of her parchment next to a little doodle of a toadstool. A toadstool with a SMILE on it. Because happyhappyhappy herbology. Except not because the ickle toadstool he was holding up was kind of wilt-y, but maybe it just wasn't having a very good day.

The third year stared at it, but no epiphany as to what it could be occurred. She turned to her textbook and began to flip through the pages. Um. Flip flip flip WHERE was the part about toadstools? Oh. Norah squinted at the page, which had waaaaay too many words, and began to read the descriptions of all the toady stools heh. There were a lot of em, and she was only on the second or third description when people were already answering. How did they READ so fast? The Hufflpuff stayed bent over her book, reading through the descriptions one by one because she WOULD find the answer eventually okay, she would.

Emmylou looked at the professor with a puzzled look smeared on her face. She knew stuff about muggle and wizarding plants but that not much. Just the basics because wizard plants creeped her out. Well most of the creeped her out. Emmylou wrote some notes down because she knew that she wouldn't be able to remember any of this at all. There was a chance that she would need to know this for the homework assignment.

HOLY WORDS!

The fifth year didn't even understand what the man was saying. It was like his words were mashing together into one big, large word that made no sense at all. She wanted to answer but she knew that she wouldn't be able to. Emmylou looked through her textbook to see if she would be able to find anything about what they were talking about. "I don't what the right word is but they look very sick." Would ill have been a better word choice?

These children were very observant! And they were excellent at pronouncing difficult names. Thankfully, the toadstool on the agenda today was much easier to pronounce. "Excellent guesses!!!!" Archie bounced a bit. Could they tell he was excited by their brains???? "Your suggestions are very similar looking to this one." He gestured to the withered one in front of him, "pink cap, and a white stem." Just to clarify the colours just in case any other students only noticed the brown.

"Wonderful. Take 2 points each for your great observations!!!"



Archie snorted a bit inadvertently before clearing his throat to answer. "Lucky? Not these toadstools, unfortunately." Really wasn't funny. Embarrassing, actually. "Check your book again, take a real close look at the colour left in the cap and stem. Good job for trying, though." Have a point or two! Archie did love a good student that tried to answer rather than not at all. This kid seemed like one of those.



Archie tilted his head to the side and glanced at the toadstool, wondering how on Earth the girl had come to that conclusion. "Nope! Take another look. Remember, it's a magic toadstool..." As opposed to a regular kind. "... pink cap, white stem." Archie nodded to the girl, and eyed her textbook in front of her.



Ah, even more observant! Archie had a feeling he would be dishing out the points in buckets today. "Great pronunciation." He grinned as the kid finally got to the end after checking. "Not the one that is in front of us today, but that was a very good guess. Take two points for that, Toby!"



AHHHHHH YESSSSSSSS... AT LAST!

"CORRECT!!" Archie jumped up and clapped his hands. Just once. "Today we are looking at Talking Toadstools! Well, they aren't doing much talking at the moment. But hopefully they'll all be chattering away by the end of the lesson." He would go into more detail on the subject in a moment...



Heh, Archie liked this one.

He chuckled a bit. "Very, very unique. Once these toadstools are restored you will see why!!" As much as they were super cool, they also got very annoying after a while. He didn't expect the students to appreciate them for long.



Archie understood that it was quite a hard question. A random toadstool in front of them with only a dash of its original colour left. He applauded all of the kids for trying. Even the ones who were quietly observing and not attacking his teaching. Ha. "They are very sick, yes..." He tapped his chin, paused, and then continued. "Which brings me on to the next part of our lesson!!!"

----------------

Now, to end this small identification, Archie raised his arms up to indicate that they were moving on again. He felt like he needed to since he was shorter than half of these kids. "For anyone who didn't hear Miss Wayne and Mr Rehman, today we are looking after Talking Toadstools. YES, they talk... when they are... fully functioning, of course." He scratched the back of his head and paused for a moment before continuing. "When I say 'talk', I actually mean they mimic human sounds or phrases. Whilst a very fun little plant, it shouldn't be spoken to for long periods of time. Apart from being quite annoying, they can also caught slight mental fatigue and mild cases of hysteria... PAUSE. "Not to worry about that, though!" Archie grinned wide.

Moving on, "This is where today's lesson ties in with last terms." Kind of. "I would like us to try and restore these unhealthy toadstools today, ready for us to pot and plant! Before we begin the practical, does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how we could restore the toadstools back to their original state? What could we use, for example?" Perhaps students from last term could recall Andrew Walton's lesson on sick plants.


ooc: Class will continue tomorrow. Probably around this time! <3

So far, Dante's been silent. He was listening. And watching the professor who was unlike most professors. It was also the fact that the Slytherin had barely been in a Greenhouse before so his eyes were all over the place. He was listening, though, kind of. They were talking about some weird looking mushroom. That could talk? Ookay. That ought to be interesting.

And it was sick or something. Didn't sound like a bad thing to learn, fixing things up. Well, he certainly didn't know anything about last term but he was going to guess. Wouldn't hurt. "Using some sort of spell maybe?" He suggested half raising his hand. Did they have to before answering ? Eh, details.