Hmmm. Given the choice between the knife and mortar and pestle, Lux had to bet that the former would be more effective than the latter. But what if she ended up hurting the pod? Could she even hurt it?? Not sure of the answer, Lux felt herself going with the more Hufflepuff of choices. Try as she might to be a Lion, there were just some things that she could not shake, and one of them was not wanting to do violence. Bay was the same way, and he was a Gryffindor, so maybe it wasn't just a Hufflepuff trait after all.

Setting the pod down in the mortar, she stared at it for a moment before slamming the pestle down maaaaaybe a little harder than she had intended to.

O__O

Somehow the pod escaped, and Lux had to duck at the last moment so that she wouldn't get hit in the head with it. Right, knife it was then. Scrambling around, she found the pod and picked it up, heading back to her work area. "You are not getting away so easily this time." Nor would it be whacking her in the face if she could help it.

Back into the bowl the pod went, and Lux bent over it with the knife in hand hoping that this method would be a lot more successful than the last. POKE! Hehe, look at that!! It worked!! Smiling, Lux collected the little wormy looking things. "I did it!" ...In case anyone cared.

"Its okay," he said, waving off her appology in words if not actions. Benny couldn't exactly move his hands without purpose at the moment. A moment that soon ended as Angel stunned the snargaluff and the flesh-eating tree backed off in reaction to the spell. Which meant he could move and do more than just evade and tie the vines together and the fifth year did just that, taking the chance to escape and move back to his girlfriend's side by the worktables. "Thanks."

As for what was next...

Benny knew it was having to get the snargaluff pod open. The Gryffindor took hold of the pod that had been designated 'his' by Angel and turned it over and over in his hands. "We're supposed to get it open," he answered, still looking at it and trying to see if he remembered what they were supposed to do. "I think with something sharp."

Toby stood at the shelf, with his EYES on the TOOLS. EVen as he looked around he found himself SQUIIIIIIIIISHING the pod in between his hands, like it was a stressball and he was the worlds most stressed out individual. It was hard not to, really, 'CAUSE IT WAS SO SQUISHY. And tempting. It didn't seem about to pop, though, which sucked, 'cause that was the AIM HERE, but also worked out well, because Millard probably didn't want the tubers all over his greenhouse floor.

HMMMMMMMMM. WHICH TOOOOOOOOL.

*squiiiiish*

Toby thought he remembered SOMETHING in PARTICULAR about how this was done. About how you needed to STAB the thing with something sharp, rather than squeeze and or hammer it. And that... made sense, really. It was what his INSTINCT told him to do. Should trust that thing more often.

So Toby picked out a KNIFE, and headed right on back to his workstation. Without preamble, he set the pod back down, raised the knife and SLAMMED it down into it, WITH VIGOUR. And the POD... shot off through the air.

LUCKILY Toby had the ENERGY and the REFLEXES to snatch it from the air before it too far. He looked at his knife.

"OhhhHHHHH." WRONG. END. HAhahahah. Oh man, that was hilarious. HEHE. Mini giggle fit from Toby there. He set the pod down, flipped the knife the RIGHT way round now, and DID IT AGAIN. Stuck it would the pointy end.

HUZZAHHHHHHHHHH! SUCCESS. At once the thing burst open, and those pale green wriggly tuber things became instantly visible. Toby MOVED FAST, and held the pod over the bowl to squeeeeeeeeeze them on out, just encouraging the process. COME OUT COME OUT GROSS LIL WIGGLY THINGS.

Aw yis. Another job well done?

So clearly Tia didn't understand why he'd rather avoid the healer. But then again, she was a transfer. Probably hadn't seen the woman get all angry yet. Not that Zander had seen much of it himself... But you know how things work around here. It's Hogwarts. Word travels around faster than most brooms could fly. Maybe it was better that she found out on her own though. Approach that problem as it arose? Yeah. That.

He gave her a skeptical look at the comment about Hufflepuffs being better with plants... Was that true? Because he was 99.99% sure that Professor Bentley was a Ravenclaw and she was the best plant-woman he had ever known. Also the best woman he had ever known. And... Uh. What were they talking about again? Momentarily distracted on account of... Ahem. Anyways. Plants.

He watched as she went to grab the vines yet again, and reached his hand inside to grab yet another egg. Merlin. This was kind of creepy, y'know? Not being able to see exactly where his hand was. Weird. As he pulled out the second egg, he gave her a huge smile before turning to listen to Professor Millard. "Oh wait, you were right, uh, it's two eggs then..." he gave her an embarrassed little smile, while extending the egg towards her to take. "Sorry for the... confusion." Merlin, Adair. Sigh.

It was difficult really getting a good grip on the knotted vines with her slimy gloves, but Brooklyn wasn’t about to take them off. Not when it meant holding onto thorny vines with her bare hands. That wasn’t going to happen. She was just going to have to hope that Hady didn’t take too long to find her pod. The fact her nudge had worked in signaling her turn was done meant they saved some time. Who needed to bother saying anything when nudges worked? It was just another reason why they worked as a team. All she needed to do now was show the plant who was the boss.

Her hands slipped once, as she tried to crane her neck to look around the vines to see how Hady was doing with retrieving a pod for herself, but for the most part, she managed to hang on to the vines. Until she heard Hady say she’d gotten one, at which point she wasted no time in dropping them and looping back around to pot to approach the table and the two slimy pods sitting there. She glared at the snargaluff once as it tried to flail a knotted section of vine toward her as she passed, but it didn’t feel her wrath. She didn’t get caught though, ripping her robes aside before they could get tangled up in the thorns. Now they just had to deal with cracking the pods open, which she figured was going to be just as icky as getting them from the plant was.

Angel looked around as Benny said that they needed to get the pod open. now how was she supposed to do that, she knew they both would need something sharp. "What can we use?" Angel suddenly saw a knife on the shelf. "I think this will do." Angel beamed, this was going to be totally awesome, would there be water inside like in a water balloon.

Angel put the knife on the table. "Want to cut it open?" Angel thought she would watch Benny do his first, that way if she went wrong at least her boyfriend could help her right.

Archie was VERY pleased with the students today. He especially enjoyed watching them figure out the answer to bursting the pods. He glanced at his watch and made a tiny noise before clearing his throat to get everyone's attention. "Great work today, everyone. We've come to the end of the lesson," He knew it was kinda short, but he didn't want to overwork them so close to the end of term. "... so once you have finished, you are dismissed. Only once you have finished, though. Leave your work behind, I'll clear it after you have all left." Archie smiled again.

WAHOO, no fatalities or injuries!!! Archie stood by the door as the students began to leave, and he did a little once over each of them to make sure they weren't missing a sleeve or limb.

OOC: I'll close the class in 1-2 hours for anyone to finish up!

Once her pod was on her table and Hady had made sure the Brooklyn hadn't gotten attacked by the evil vined plant thing she was ready to move on. Pulling out her wand she cast a quick cleaning spell on her gloved hands before pulling out her textbook. She needed to know how to get this pod thing open!

Flipping through the pages she finally found what she was looking for and grinned a little to herself. Simple enough know that she had looked up the way to do it. Closing her book and returning it to her bag Hady headed towards the back of the room and picked up a knife. It was exactly what she needed to finish this activity.

Getting back to her table she set the knife down and picked up the slimy pod setting it in the bowl. Holding the pod down with one hand inside the bowl she picked up the knife and poked at the pod with enough force to break a hole into it. The hole got larger and larger as all these disgusting wormy things poured out into the bowl. It was all slimy and well just yeah...

Just as she was finished she heard the Professor say the class was over. Well alright then! Hady once more used her wand to clean things up before putting her gloves away and grabbing her bag. "Thanks for the interesting lesson Professor!" She called to him making her way out the door. It was time to go to her dorm and spend some time with her cat.