There was a lot of balancing books as she made her way to the greenhouses. Beverly had lost track of time at the study tables trying to explain the difference between hexes and curses to a few stubborn Snakes. It helped less when they would wander off and share facts of their crushes. It was the last time she was helping if those girls kept daydreaming while she tutored them. That or she'd demonstrate them the difference personally.

Tucking her books into her bag as she came to the entrance of Greenhouse Three, the Prefect cast a quick spell to clean her boots before entering.

As she did, Beverly went to her usual seat, eyeing the carts covered in white sheets. What was Truebridge hiding under there? Were they going to work with something poisonous? Hopefully it was extracting rather than just watering. Beverly didn't mind getting a bit of dirt on her hands.

Arriving at Greenhouse Three Hady wiped her feet outside the door and then deciding to take it a bit further used a quick 'Scorgify' on her shoes as well. That should do it. Pulling the strap of her bag up onto her shoulder more she made her way inside the greenhouse. Not spotting the Headmisstress at all the brunette went and sat at her normal seat setting her bag down at her feet.

Sitting quietly and waiting for Truebridge to arrive she couldn't help but take notice to the carts. What was on them and why were they covered up? Hopefully she wouldn't have to wait long to find out and whatever it was would be interesting.

Herbology.

Now maybe the would actually learn something this term with the headmistress was teaching them. For the first time the sixth year was actually excited about herbology.

wrapping her sweater around her a bit tighter as she walked across the grounds toward the greenhouses. Heading into greenhouse three she wiped the snow and dirt across the doorway before walking in.

Not seeing Truebridge there there yet she quietly made her way down toward a seat. Hmmmm wonder what was under those sheets on those carts. Plants? Materials for plants? A new a car? Haha probably not. She was just going to have to put her patience hat on and wait it out with everyone else.

Ilia was cold this morning and trying to dispel the emotional funk that she had fallen into had been hard. She was doing her best and held herself despite wearing a sweater under her robes and boots like she used to do prior to this school. It was her first time being cold since she had moved to Britain and she couldn't help wonder if it was to do with what was going on in her head. She had thrown her parents letters into the fire when no one was looking last night. She didn't want to see them anymore.

Looking around the classroom, she almost hid in the back again like she had been doing. Henric and Adi had caught her gaze though and she chose to go sit by them instead. She tucked in beside Henric and waved at both boys silently. What they were talking about was irrelevant , she really just wanted to curl up on Henric and steal some body heat. She wasn't used to being cold and she sighed a little and leaned as comfortably as she could in the given space.

The fact she’d only been at Hogwarts three terms now and had experienced three different Herbology professors hadn’t skipped Brooklyn’s mind, even when she’d been feeling horrible. That had been fixed by a trip to the hospital wing over the holidays, or at least she hoped it had been. She still hadn’t set foot in the study area in the Slytherin common room since that time, just in case it was something wrong with that area. It wasn’t paranoia either. She preferred avoiding work anyhow, so not going over there wasn’t a big deal. Just as her interest in the headmistress simply because she felt a kinship with her wasn’t a big deal.

Except the headmistress wasn’t in the greenhouse as she’d arrived, making sure there wasn’t any mud on her shoes from the trek out to the greenhouses. That was odd, and so was the fact once again there were carts covered in sheets. Professors seemed to like mysteries this term, and the little redhead wasn’t going to ask. Instead, she simply made her way over to the lab station Hady was seated at, dropping into an open seat across from her. Apparently they had to wait for the headmistress to arrive before anything was going to happen.

Wow, no one had touched the carts with the sheets on them? And not one, but TWO student leaders had cast a homenum revelio as they entered the room?

Sophie's and Marigold's spells did indeed reveal a presence in the far back corner of the room, almost too far away for them to notice. It was the Headmistress, no need to be afraid or was her presence cause enough to strike fear into the hearts of the Hogwarts students? Ehehehehe. Aware now that her class was here, Annie click-clacked away from the pots she was piling onto a fourth rolling cart and went ahead and rolled them over to join the covered carts.

She cleared her throat and waited for the class to get quiet. "Good afternoon, class. Excellent arrivals; nice, quiet, and clean. Also, thank you for your CONSTANT VIGILANCE, Miss Brown and Miss McAlister. Five points to each of your houses." She gave each of them a very genuine nod of approval and then positioned herself in front of the first covered cart. "Now then, let's jump right into it. Today we are going to work with a semi-dangerous plant, nothing too out of the ordinary, but something still interesting and useful nonetheless. In case you were unaware, Herbology is not just the wizard's way of gardening; it is a deadly subject if you are ignorant and a valuable way to turn a profit or save lives if that's what you're into if you're smart."

The Headmistress whipped the white sheet off the first cart with a flourish, revealing a large box-shaped planter with numerous green plants with purple flowers and twisted roots on them. "Who can identify this mundane plant for me, and tell me something useful about it?"

Semi-dangerous plant? Why did he not like how that sounded? He didn’t like dangerous stuff…despite being a Gryffindor. Honestly, being a Gryffindor did not mean he loved danger. He was more the cautious Lion who would enter danger if he had to.

He watched as the Headmistress pulled off the white sheet off the first cart and Yoongi leaned a bit over the table to see it better because the person next to him was blocking his view a bit. Which plants were that? ……he…had…no idea… plants were obviously not the answer. He would sit this one out and wait for someone else to answer.

Adi eyed Henric. Not so keen on the subject of Leah, was he? Well, that might be becasue he constantly teased him about her. He simply narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Okaaaay. I don't know why you don't make a move.'' The sixth year hadn't realise something going on with Ilia and Henric rather than Leah and him. Hehe. "Who's Benny?" he asked at the precise moment the said Gryffindor walked in. Woops. That had been unintentional but it wasn't like he really cared if Benny heard or not. Anywaaay, there was Ilia! Adi grinned in her direction. Awh, she looked cold.
.....................

Looky! Professor Headmistress! And she was getting started! Excellent! Adi watched as she removed the sheet from one of the carts. Semi dangerous... those plants looked not even one bit of dangerous. The Hufflepuff studied them for a bit before raising a hand. "By their looks I think they may be Mandrakes,'' he volunteered. "It is also called Autumn or Mediterranean mandrake.'' That last bit was useful, yes?

Ahh, there was Headmistress Truebridge. And she had some plants. Zhenya knew what they were as soon as they were shown to the class, by the leaves. She would always remember them based on those leaves, because every time she saw them she remembered when her Grandpapi was teaching her about herbology, and she told him matter of factly that it was a spinach plant. Big spinach leaves. But as she was going to raise her hand, Adi had already volunteered the name. But she had another fact, so raising her hand she said "The plant was sometimes used by muggles, a long long time ago, as a theatre medicine to make patients unconscious."

Hady twisted in her seat to see Headmistress Truebridge when she heard her movements at the back of the room. So she had been in the room the whole time! As the older women made her way to the front of the room she turned once more to face forward in her seat her hand moving to rest on her quill that she'd pulled from her bag only moments before in case she needed to take down notes.

She listened quietly with the headmistress spoke only moving to get a better view of the plant they'd be working with today when it was shown to them. Hady raised her hand into the air slowly, "I think it's called Mandragora aut-atumn...alis. Autumnalis." Yeah some of these plants had hard names but she was sure she'd said it correctly doing her best to remember what else she'd read about it in her text book. "Something inside the plant makes it highly poisonous when eaten...I can't remember what it was though..." Oops. At least she was trying.

Jackson just sat at his seat quietly waiting for the lesson had started. He was busy doodling at his notebook then he didn't notice that the class had started until he heard the Headmistress was speaking. Quickly he stopped doodling and closing his notebook.

Semi-dangerous plant?

Hmmm... This would be interesting.

He noticed the plants that Truebridge had shown to them. It's a Mandrake, right?" The Korean boy answered as he raised his hand. "I remembered that it was used for the cure of Basilisk attack back in..... When the chamber of secrets were opened." He didn't remember exactly the year, but he did remember that it was the time when Harry Potter was in his second year.

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

The headmistress had finally arrived and she had brought along her wheelcarts, probably filled with her plants to show to the class. He was right,not long after she revealed to them a few plants he had never seen before. What were they? They looked like harmless looking flowers to him? They didn't look dangerous at all. See...no wonder he was never good in herbology studies. But Henric was determined to know more about this particular plant because he knew he needed all this knowledge in order to survive in the wild while hunting dragons. He was going to sit this one out and let his classmates answer. Taking notes was good too....

Yeah, no, Toby was probably never going to get into the habit of checking a room with that homenomenemenomnomnom spell as he entered, because he just wasn't suspicious enough. Of anything. Didn't see a reason for constant vigilance, and was generally far too trusting of everybody and everything. Luckily there was no opportunity for him to have blurted that out, as they got straight on with the lesson.

Uhhh... hmm. Were they Mandrakes? Toby couldn't really tell, because his brain was just... not switched on or something. Clearly he'd been doing far too much History of Magic studying, and thoughts of that had just taken over his entire brain. He stared at the plant, the flowers, the roots. The roots in particular, because it was the root of a Mandrake that was usually dangerous and screamed a whole lot and looked all human and could totally kill you. But he could see the roots, and... yeah. Hm. HMMM. Maybe?

He had no idea. And he suddenly couldn't remember a single page of his Herbology journal either, and it was all a big mess in his brain. Sooooo Toby kept quiet, choosing not to answer or anything, and quietly drummed his fingers on the desk, getting ready to take some notes. Normally, getting things wrong was okay with him. But not in this class, not today.

If there was a practical portion, THAT would turn out better for him. Yep.

At last, madam Headmistress arrived and Herbology was underway. Janelle looked with curiosity as she removed the mysterious sheet and uncovered plants in a planting box. And the answers came before Janelle could properly process the question. It was a mandrake. That much was already said. Now Janele had to think of an interesting tidbbit to share with the class.

When something popped into her head, Janelle raised her hand. "Like Hady said, the plant is very poisonous. The roots and the leaves are especially poisonous. They can make a person have hallucinations and other bad symptoms."

Um asdfghjkl????? Did people see this? MARIGOLD NOMIDDLENAME MCALISTOR had just received POINTS. OUTSIDE OF THE LESSON, FROM THE HEADMISTRESS!!!!!! There was a lump in her throat that threatened happy tears, because um….this was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her. Instantly, she decided she loved Herbology and the Headmistress, who she had always been scared of, was suddenly a kindred spirit.

As for the plant, the only thing that came to mind was ginger. Ginger had cool roots, kind of like that plant, but…was there a magical form of ginger? Marigold hadn't really cared enough about Herbology in the past to do extra work.

"Is it some sort of ginger plant?"

Norah turned and beamed at Sophie and Marigold. MAN, look at them earning points. She'd always known prefects were the coolest and all that, but this was PROOF. Real live actual proof that the entire class had seen. That was radical. She gave Mari an extra thumbs up before turning to face Professor-Headmistress Truebridge again. She grinned at the introduction, because semi-dangerous plants sounded all sorts of cool, and put a piece of parchment in front of her but left it un-titled.

Gueeeess what. She didn't know what those plants were called which meant she couldn't answer the question which meant she couldn't even raise her hand in her very own favorite subject which was totally sad. It also meant that she couldn't title her notes with anything, and THAT meant she just had to sit there looking totally useless in front of the Headmistress. Did she mention that this was TOTALLY UNFAIR? Because it was. In her favorite class, too. Sigh Sigh Sigh. The fourth year sat up straight with the most attentive-est expression on her face, keeping her lips zipped shut and hands folded in her lap. See that? She knew how to be polite when it mattered, even if it seemed like it was the only thing she knew at this point.

The voice of the Headmistress drew Cutty's attention away from the blanketed carts for the moment before she was behind one of them. She revealed the plant beneath it and he recognized it as a mandrake, not from it's appearance alone but from it's scent.

He looked over at Hady and his hand went up. He responded as if partially to his fellow snake and partially to the Headmistress. "Alkaloids. They're highly toxic if in high quantities the effects being similar to taking too much Belladonna."

Eden heard those click clacks and winced slightly. Right. Class was finally starting. Ugh. She just..had to remember what Emmalee Quinn(Futurely HOWELL) said and keep her head up around this woman.

Right.

She squinted at the plants...this was easy. She knew this. EDEN KNEW THIS. She raised her hand. "It's a....mandrake...as others have said...extremely toxic." She said softly. But she had a question, which she tried to seem.....as not stupid as possible, but she DID. "Um..Pro---headmistress? You said it was a mundane plant--so it's not the magical mandrake? Are there two different kinds?" She felt like it was a dumb question. But she didn't want to ASSUME anything...

Sophie was unsurprised when her spell did reveal a presence in the back of the room, and Soph smiled over at Mari, who had copied her in thinking something could be amiss. Smart cookies they ended up being, too, because she would've hated to see what Truebridge would've said to them if no one had checked the room like that. Soph wagered that this would've turned into another defense class, if not just for the first few minutes of class. So... it was good that they could just move along.

Points were nice, too, and the prefect smiled gratefully at the Headmistress as she finally let her guard down and unpacked her class materials. Just doing her duty, ma'am.

The plant, then. Yes... a mundane mandrake seemed quite right, though she could see where Mari's guess of ginger came from. Any guess of a plant with tubers made sense, really, but it came down to the shapes of them, the leaves, and the flowers that gave away its true identity. Giving a quiet hum of thought, Sophie considered the mandrake before raising a hand, "I think it's interesting that our magical mandrakes can be used to make a Restorative Draught to undo the effects on someone who's been petrified, while a mundane one like that is commonly used an an anesthetic back in the old days to knock people out before surgeries - which the magical ones do, too, knock people out with their cries, but s'cool that different mandrakes in the Mandragora genus have properties that can harness kinda like... y'know, knocking people out and can bring them back under the right conditions." That's what was mega useful about magic, of course.

"But a mundane one like that... well, I don't think it'd work in a Restorative Draught 'cause it's not the mandrake plant of the magical variety... but that's not to say it wouldn't necessarily not be useful entirely, 'cause plenty of mundane plants are used in potions. S'just different, right? Maybe it'd be a different level of effectiveness?" Trying to make the comparison between the two and tie together magical versus mundane ended up being more difficult than she thought, and she was slightly anticipating a reprimand of, This isn't Potions class, Miss Brown.

But what was a kid to do? Everyone else had said all the really useful things anyway.

Sooo you got points for using the revealing charm? Was that even that it was called? This lion wasn't sure, but she could come in screeching that spell at the start of every lesson if that meant more points for her. For some reason though she figured it wouldn't do her much good with the other professors. Perhaps Dakest would appreciate it. Mental notes were made and would probably be forgotten in the next five minutes to try that out with him during the next lesson.

Once the contents of the sheet were revealed, AJ was highly disappointed. Elation turned to dissatisfaction in mere seconds. She was on a freaking emotional roller coaster over here. Chocolate was needed for her mood dip. No? Fine.

Yeah, it was a mandrake. Several people had said that already. What AJ had to offer though... well, it was waaaay more entertaining. The fourth year raised her hand and waited to be called on. rather impatiently "The used the mandrake juice for crazy people." Didn't they know? "You soothe them with the pretty purple looking flowers ensuring that everything was okay" because flowers were docile, right? WRONG. "Then the crazy person relaxes and you get them to drink the "pretty juice" and bam! They aren't crazy anymore." You know... for as long as the effects remained strong.

She was pretty sure she had read that large doses would only make it worse and that kind of defeated the purpose. Oh well. It was bound to be super entertaining.

So was Lux to expect Professor Truebridge to be lurking at the back of every lesson? Because if so she could blast a few revealing charms. Clearly she still had some work to do when it came to the whole CONSTANT VIGILANCE thing within a classroom.

Moving on.

A plant was revealed and yep, it was a mandrake. She could remember reading about them in preparation for the Herbology OWL. A lot of people were already replying with that answer so Lux didn't see the need to be redundant. Instead she busied herself with listening to what her classmates had to say about the matter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Looky! Professor Headmistress! And she was getting started! Excellent! Adi watched as she removed the sheet from one of the carts. Semi dangerous... those plants looked not even one bit of dangerous. The Hufflepuff studied them for a bit before raising a hand. "By their looks I think they may be Mandrakes,'' he volunteered. "It is also called Autumn or Mediterranean mandrake.'' That last bit was useful, yes?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessiqua

Ahh, there was Headmistress Truebridge. And she had some plants. Zhenya knew what they were as soon as they were shown to the class, by the leaves. She would always remember them based on those leaves, because every time she saw them she remembered when her Grandpapi was teaching her about herbology, and she told him matter of factly that it was a spinach plant. Big spinach leaves. But as she was going to raise her hand, Adi had already volunteered the name. But she had another fact, so raising her hand she said "The plant was sometimes used by muggles, a long long time ago, as a theatre medicine to make patients unconscious."

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiritWolfe Malfoy

She listened quietly with the headmistress spoke only moving to get a better view of the plant they'd be working with today when it was shown to them. Hady raised her hand into the air slowly, "I think it's called Mandragora aut-atumn...alis. Autumnalis." Yeah some of these plants had hard names but she was sure she'd said it correctly doing her best to remember what else she'd read about it in her text book. "Something inside the plant makes it highly poisonous when eaten...I can't remember what it was though..." Oops. At least she was trying.

"Correct, Adi, Zhenya, and Hady. Take that down, you lot. I can almost guarantee these small facts about mandrakes will appear on your OWLs and NEWTs." As for her, well, Annie gestured toward the side chalkboard with her wand and the chalk picked itself up to write neatly for her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

Jackson just sat at his seat quietly waiting for the lesson had started. He was busy doodling at his notebook then he didn't notice that the class had started until he heard the Headmistress was speaking. Quickly he stopped doodling and closing his notebook.

Semi-dangerous plant?

Hmmm... This would be interesting.

He noticed the plants that Truebridge had shown to them. It's a Mandrake, right?" The Korean boy answered as he raised his hand. "I remembered that it was used for the cure of Basilisk attack back in..... When the chamber of secrets were opened." He didn't remember exactly the year, but he did remember that it was the time when Harry Potter was in his second year.

"Very good, you're correct on both accounts. That would be the most famous use of a mandrake in Hogwarts' history." To date.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScarletCharm104

Um asdfghjkl????? Did people see this? MARIGOLD NOMIDDLENAME MCALISTOR had just received POINTS. OUTSIDE OF THE LESSON, FROM THE HEADMISTRESS!!!!!! There was a lump in her throat that threatened happy tears, because um….this was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her. Instantly, she decided she loved Herbology and the Headmistress, who she had always been scared of, was suddenly a kindred spirit.

As for the plant, the only thing that came to mind was ginger. Ginger had cool roots, kind of like that plant, but…was there a magical form of ginger? Marigold hadn't really cared enough about Herbology in the past to do extra work.

"Is it some sort of ginger plant?"

"Good guess, and I can see why you would say that judging from the look of the roots," which the Headmistress held up so the class could see. "But no, this is a mandrake."

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlytherinSistah

The voice of the Headmistress drew Cutty's attention away from the blanketed carts for the moment before she was behind one of them. She revealed the plant beneath it and he recognized it as a mandrake, not from it's appearance alone but from it's scent.

He looked over at Hady and his hand went up. He responded as if partially to his fellow snake and partially to the Headmistress. "Alkaloids. They're highly toxic if in high quantities the effects being similar to taking too much Belladonna."

"Correct! Thank you for expanding on Hady's answer..." Not surprising, however, that this Snake WOULD know about poisonous chemicals...

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayquilz

She squinted at the plants...this was easy. She knew this. EDEN KNEW THIS. She raised her hand. "It's a....mandrake...as others have said...extremely toxic." She said softly. But she had a question, which she tried to seem.....as not stupid as possible, but she DID. "Um..Pro---headmistress? You said it was a mundane plant--so it's not the magical mandrake? Are there two different kinds?" She felt like it was a dumb question. But she didn't want to ASSUME anything...

"There are two different kinds," the Headmistress answered almost automatically, before she really noticed who had asked the question. Ah, Eden. Eden 'Pet Expert' McGee. Right. She narrowed her eyes at the girl briefly but continued on anyway. "The mundane mandrake would be what the Muggles use, if any still use it... I believe there is a cul-- I mean, people called Wiccans who use it? The magical mandrake would be what you'll find in your Herbology textbook on page six-hundred and sixteen." Just, you know, in case she wanted to do the Ravenclaw thing and read about it. "Some say Muggles just can't see the human-like roots of a real mandrake; others don't understand that numerous plants have mundane cousins. We'll be exploring both the magical and mundane mandrake today, McGee, don't worry."

Was that just a little alliterative rhyme from the Bunzinator? Hehe. Hmm. She smirked to herself and looked to respond to the next student.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixStar

Yeah, it was a mandrake. Several people had said that already. What AJ had to offer though... well, it was waaaay more entertaining. The fourth year raised her hand and waited to be called on. rather impatiently "The used the mandrake juice for crazy people." Didn't they know? "You soothe them with the pretty purple looking flowers ensuring that everything was okay" because flowers were docile, right? WRONG. "Then the crazy person relaxes and you get them to drink the "pretty juice" and bam! They aren't crazy anymore." You know... for as long as the effects remained strong.

...was this a joke, or just an Alexa-Cambridge-type-answer because all Gryffindors thought alike? Merlin help her if her son was Sorted into Gryffindor next term... Bunz could only blink and stare at AJ's answer. "Come again?" she stirred herself to a response. "I mean--- just, where did you read that? Is St. Mungo's treating the long-term residents with this method now?!" Because that didn't seem right if you asked her.... or maybe she just didn't understand the girl's weird way of explaining things.

Quote:

Originally Posted by feeheeheeny

The plant, then. Yes... a mundane mandrake seemed quite right, though she could see where Mari's guess of ginger came from. Any guess of a plant with tubers made sense, really, but it came down to the shapes of them, the leaves, and the flowers that gave away its true identity. Giving a quiet hum of thought, Sophie considered the mandrake before raising a hand, "I think it's interesting that our magical mandrakes can be used to make a Restorative Draught to undo the effects on someone who's been petrified, while a mundane one like that is commonly used an an anesthetic back in the old days to knock people out before surgeries - which the magical ones do, too, knock people out with their cries, but s'cool that different mandrakes in the Mandragora genus have properties that can harness kinda like... y'know, knocking people out and can bring them back under the right conditions." That's what was mega useful about magic, of course.

"But a mundane one like that... well, I don't think it'd work in a Restorative Draught 'cause it's not the mandrake plant of the magical variety... but that's not to say it wouldn't necessarily not be useful entirely, 'cause plenty of mundane plants are used in potions. S'just different, right? Maybe it'd be a different level of effectiveness?" Trying to make the comparison between the two and tie together magical versus mundane ended up being more difficult than she thought, and she was slightly anticipating a reprimand of, This isn't Potions class, Miss Brown.

But what was a kid to do? Everyone else had said all the really useful things anyway.

"You know, Sophie, I like where you're going with this, and I like the metacognition I'm hearing from you. Did everyone catch that?" She paused the chalk to give the class a LOOK. "A mundane mandrake would not have the same properties as the magical mandrake, and therefore would not be as effective (or effective at all) in a Restorative Draught. In fact, and although I haven't tried to brew a Restorative Draught WITH a mundane mandrake, I would go so far as to guess that you might end up poisoning the person you intended to restore, due to the highly toxic alkaloids Cutty mentioned."

Let them think about that for a moment. She was sure Sophie would stop by Culloden's later, though, to explore her theory more.

"What about the physical characteristics of the mundane mandrake? Would anyone like to come up and touch it, or describe it to us? I would recommend putting on your dragonhide gloves, if you brought a pair. If not, there are extras in the back corner cabinet."

She wheeled the cart closer to the class --- away from the other carts --- so they could handle the mundane mandrakes if they would like.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chalkboard Notes

MANDRAKES

• also called Autumn or Mediterranean Mandrake
• mundane: used by Muggles to make patients unconscious (anesthetic)
• mundane: highly poisonous when eaten (alkaloids)
• magical: used to make the Restorative Draught
• magical: most famous use was during the Hogwarts basilisk attack of 1992

Oh. Okay. Bunz hadn't snapped at her and was almost nice about that. Eden relaxed a little in her seat and nodded, writing down everything she said. She liked going over both the plants...she thought it was cool. And look at SOPHIE BROWN....impressin' Truebridge and whatnot. Eden gave her classmate a thumbs up before looking up at the board.

She didn't REALLY want to stand up and touch the plant, but she would. Slipping on her gloves, she approached the plant and just let a finger swipe over the leaves...and the flower...and then the potato-like part..."Well, aren't they related to potatoes? It kinda' feels similar." She said. She thought she'd read that somewhere...in the vast, vast Herbology universe of knowledge...most of which Eden didn't possess, but she TRIED.

Angel had been totally in awe of the plant that she had forgotten to answer the first question at first. She raised her hand and smiled. "They are supposed to be very rare right?" Angel was sure that was true, she hadn't seen them that much around.

Angel then listened to the professor again and put on her dragon hives gloves, she loved this lesson and so she was totally going to touch the plant, she had to if she wanted to go exploring.

Angel raised her hand after she had touched one. "Professor, aren't they supposed too be tufty and they are purplish green in colour." Angel wasn't sure about the colour but well she decided that she was going to guess, she wanted to get on with the activity, saying that she would have to see the head about exploring, since that is what she wanted to do when she was older, she wondered if the head had an advice on it.

So they were mandrakes.

Ben might have registered the appearance of the offered plants had he been more attentive. Instead he had simply listened as other students spoke, including certain ex friends and scribbled down notes in the process. Anything going to be on his NEWTS was even more important than what he might need for the lesson, or even any homework to come. He had to admit, he had thought there had only been one type of mandrake when catching reference of it.

He copied down what appeared on the chalkboard, creating a kind of diagram to keep the information between magical and mundane clear. No...he did not want to get up, but mention of the gloves, reminded Ben that he would likely need them on at one point, so the Gryffindor slipped them from his bag and onto his hands once he finished his notes. Ben tentatively raised his hand anyway to try and describe them from what he remembered.

"Um...they are perenials...with um branched roots and...5-petaled flowers."