They were going to make COMPOST???

Maggie wrinkled her nose even more. Were the professors all in league to make her do gross things this term? Seriously? Was it a conspiracy? She would've been flattered really but then again, this was something gross. So even though she was apparently important enough for them to conspire against her...it was still gross.

Also the rest of the class had to do it too. So, maybe no conspiracy.

After finishing her note-taking, Maggie put on her gloves and went to get one of the wooden grates before filling it with soil. Okay. Soil wasn't so bad. She could handle that. And the rest she could just like levitate into her grate right? She didn't have to TOUCH it. Yes. Good plan.

Paul smiled at Zeke. “Nooooo problem m’boy!” he waltzed to the front of the room near his own crate. Soil was ready, and it looked like most people were ready to...move on. HE was certainly ready to move on. He moved to glance over Angel's shoulder at her soil..."It looks FINE my dear--just fine--" Yep Good.

Okay. So. “It is time to decide..what you would like to use in your compost. I am requiring that you all have...certain things in each of yours, for the sake of creating a complex compost. You all need at least ONE manure….ONE dry material...and ONE moist material. The bins are labeled according. You can have up to FIVE materials in your compost...any more than that, and you will pump TOO much into the soil, and it will kill whatever plant tries to thrive in it.” He paused and looked around...anyone had any questions?

“Now...before we put any of the...fun stuff into our compost...we have to put either STRAW or TWIGS on top of the soil. This will help the drainage...and it will also help aerate your compost. Once you’ve done that, we can move onto the FUN THINGS LIKE--MANURE!” He cried. “So go on, pick either twigs or straw!” Paul himself chose to do some straw, and just went to the appropriate bin, grabbed a handful of straw, and dropped it into his crate.

“Here is the deal about manure. Different manures...can have different properties. Chicken manure is VERY high in the nutrients department---SO if you decide to use that one, you might want to make sure you don’t add too much. Chicken manure cannot be added to a garden, either, without being composted. It will most definitely kill the plants.” Deep breath. So much info. Paul didn’t want to LOSE THEM! “I also have cow manure, which is very low in nutrients, but it is pretty universal to most plants. You can put a good deal of cow manure into a compost and it will serve the plant well. For the magical animal manure options...I do have Abraxan manure, which is good mostly for shrubs and whatnot--very high in the nitrogen department there as well. I also have put some knarl manure!” KNARL MANURE! Paul liked the way this sounded. Knarl Manure. All that consonance. “Knarl manure has a good composition for flowers and fruits...so you should be keeping all of this in mind while you are making your compost, all right?” he smiled a little.

“Now...I want you all the gather the materials you are going to use in the little buckets--” There rows of buckets in the back of the room. “One bucket per material--” DEEP BREATH. “So if you want to use five materials...five different buckets. You cannot just...mix all of them together all WILLY NILLY. There is a very PRECISE way to do this--and I am going to walk us through it. So go off--pick your materials! Make sure you are wearing gloves! I know some of us are not too keen on touching the manure--but seriously, people! We all poop!”

And that was Paul’s encouraging words.







“Chop chop, everyone!”

OOC: OKAY I know this is a LOT of information, I’m sorry guys! Basically, for this part of the class, the students need to pick the different materials they will use for their compost. They need at least three, one dry, one moist, and one manure. They can have up to FIVE materials, though. They also need to make sure they out the straw/twigs into the crate before they gather the other materials. We are NOT adding the materials to the compost yet, just...gathering them. I would like either a very detailed ONE post or two/three little ones, if you prefer, for this activity. If anything is unclear, please PM me! I know this ….somewhat detailed.

I will be moving on in...around 24 hours!

Okay, goody! Paulina didn't mind him and his clumsines with the dirt. Awesome! Adi just grinned. "Biscuits coming right up for those study sessions,'' he told her with a laugh. Wasn't she a sport for putting up with his silliness? Anywho, they were moving on now! He turned his attention back to the musical Professor, his gloved hands absently playing with the spare soil.

So they would each need one manure, one dry material and one moist material but up to five materials in total. Got it! But Adi snorted soon after. Since when was manure fun? LOL. He didn't mind it until he had had enough of that smell. Alrightey! For this part of the activity, the Hufflepuff opted for straw. Following Myers's example, he grabbed a handful of straw from the bin then scattered it in his own crate.

Now for the manure selection and other information! Adi stripped off the glove from his left hand to make some notes. When he was done, the glove was pulled on again so he could go grab his materials. He had already gathered his five buckets. Yep, he had opted for the maximum amount of materials. Chortling at Myers's words about poop, he set off with one bucket.

In that first bucket, a tiny amount of chicken manure was put in, with Adi holding his breath because bleh! No manure smelt good, okay? Next, he moved on to the moist materials. Apple peels and orange peels were selected and dumped into respective buckets. Why those two materials? Because Adi was somehow hoping they would cancel out the manure smell even if it were for a little while. The same thought went into the dry material selection. Ground coffee and pine needles were selected.

There! Five materials in five buckets! What's next, Professor?

After putting in his soil layer, Rooney listened to the Professor and the extensive amounts of words he was spouting. He really needed a lesson in condensing what he had to say into the small amount of breaths that it required. If Rooney could do his class work quicker than the guy explained things, then that was saying something. Once Myers had finally shut up, Rooney set to work laying out a layer of straw criss-crossed over one another on top of the soil. There was no reason whatsoever for Myers to still be talking, but when Roo looked up and he was...the Ravenclaw sighed and ducked behind his workspace pretending that he had a shoe lace to tie up.

He didn't.

He was busy reciting a passage in French under his breath.

When there was finally more to do the second year struggled to decide which of the materials he was going to use. But he WAS going to use five, so he first went to grab five of the buckets to put them in when he had decided. Starting with the manure.. Cow? Chicken? Abraxan? Knarl? ... Cow. Rooney didn't want something with too many nutrients, because he was going to use the maximum of five materials.

Cow, he decided finally, and put it into one of his buckets, loading another empty one into his arms for his next choice. He decided to go with two dry materials and two moist ones. He filled the next two of his buckets with dead flowers and grass clippings; his dry materials. He'd chosen both because they made him think of things growing, and the flowers needed to be used for good even though they were dead. He bet that Professor Myers was one day going to use the flower that Miss Sophie Brown had given him in some compost and so HE was going to do it first and prove that she deserved ALL of the flowers.

After that, Rooney split apple cores and orange pulps between the final two of his buckets and took them back to his work space, waiting for more instructions.

Janelle took her gloves off for a moment and began to take notes on all of the information that the professor was providing. Leaving her notes where she could see them easily, Janelle donned her gloves once again. First she had to choose between straw and twigs. Not having a particular preference for one over the other, Janelle did a silent eenie meenie miney moe. Sticks it was then. Walking over to the bin containing sticks, she picked up an armful. Then she returned to her crate and carefully placed the sticks on top of the soil. Janelle didn't know whether they needed to be arranged in a particular way, but she laid the sticks neatly in place.

Peeking over at her notes, Janelle checked for the next step in the process. Now she had to decide what she wanted to include in her compost. They had some rules to follow, but it seemed that they could pretty much freestyle on their choices. Sadly, one of them had to be manure. Janelle wasn't opposed to manure, per se. She just didn't fancy the awful smell. Hopefully, the other items would mask the smell somewhat and not make a sickening combination of odors. Looking at the choices, Janelle decided that she would go for broke. It would be five items for her compost.

First would be the manure or maybe she should get that last. That way Janelle could spare herself a few minutes of stink. Deciding to choose as she went along, Janelle went and grabbed five buckets. She would get two moist items, two dry items and.........the dreaded manure. Taking the first two buckets, the third year went over to the moist materials. After looking them over for a minute, she filled one bucket with apple cores and one bucket with orange peels. Setting those two buckets back in her work area, she returned with two more buckets. Next up were the dry ingredients. She filled the buckets with tea bags and coffee grounds, hoping that at least some of her four ingredients would hide the smell of the fifth. After depositing the last two buckets with the first two, it was time for the you know what. Since chicken manure was extra potent, Janelle decided to go with that. She wouldn't need as much, right? Once the manure was obtained, Janelle stood by her materials and waited for more instructions.

Sophie scrawled a few notes down about what was written on the board, you could never have enough notes you know! She took in her surrounding and watched Professor use straw himself, and she decided to as well. He was the expert, after all. Sophie wandered over and grabbed a large amount to add on top of her soil. Once back at her station, she laid it in a messy pile on top.

Staring at her own beginnings of compost, mind you it was just soil and straw for now, she wondered. What were they going to plant? That was really the determining factor in what she would put in her compost. "Professor, will we have a choice in what to plant? I don't want to use say, cow manure, when knal is better for fruits and flowers." She awaited the Professors answer before confirming her choices.

Seeing Paulina looking his way and waving, Benny tentatively waved back. Hopefully the professor wouldn't mind the random interaction. They were moving on anyway so the Gryffindor was back to paying full attention to the man, occasionally scribbling down notes. His handwriting just a little messier then his usual notes from other classes given his gloves being on. Still easily legible including the long lists of the various types of materials that could use for each part.

Knarl manure?

That was a new one on him. But he decided to go for it. Its description might work on his dragon plant upstairs in his dorm. First things first, the irrigation layer. Benny chose sticks, laying down a bunch of them on top of the soil already there in his crate. Then moving from his spot at the tables once more to head to the back of the greenhouse to retrieve a few buckets to work with. At first he grabbed three, one for each material not sure of adding more than that, but on second thought, he grabbed an extra little one...just in case.

Now to see what he could come up with for the moist and dry materials.

Ughhhhh. GrossGross. Kaycee was seriously not looking forward to this. Like. No. Did it really need manure? Couldn't they just... live without plants?

"People vomit too." she said mostly to herself. Maybe if she just took FOREVER with the relatively safe materials she could just... like... not.

Straw seemed safe. She'd start there. She grabbed a big fistful of straw and CAREFULLY carefully carefully timeconsumingly laid it down. Lalala. Productive work going on here.

She looked around when she was done. ... was everyone okay with this poop and trash thing?

Eww, gross.

This was why Caleb didn't like plants. Or herbology. You had to get DIRTY, and today they were getting dirty with POOP. Ugh. This was just the worst.

Wrinkling his nose at all the manure he passed, he decided to go with Knarl manure for his first one because they were tiny, unlike cows and abraxons which were HUGE and, by default, had larger...you know. Chicken manure was just gross. We were NOT touching that thank you very much.

Grabbing the first "moist" manure - oh geez, that was such a terrible word GAH he was cringing - he could find, he picked up the apple cores and then moved right along to the next ones. The dry manure, which was the only real type of fertilizer he would ever use should he get a real garden someday. But by that point he'd be rich and would have someone to do this FOR him.

Coffee grounds? That was a fertilizer? Cool! That was the one he was going with. There. Three different kinds - he knew he could get up to five but seriously who wanted MORE smelly junk to work with?

Twigs or straw? Did it matter which one they used?… In all his years at Hogwarts they hadn’t ever done compost before. Which made this lesson a little more challenging than normal ‘cause Zander wasn’t really sure which ingredients would make for the best bin. Huh. He watched Myers carefully for that very reason and luckily the man had gone through and made progress with his own bin as an example. So following the Professor’s lead, Zander also went ahead and grabbed some straw for his bin. Right. Well, y’know, straw. Necessary apparently.

What did the straw do again? Oh yeah, drainage. He had to write that down before he forgot. Needed to do well on NEWTs, y’know? Herbology was like the one thing he could actually not fail. That and Arithmancy apparently. Like wut.

ANYWAYS, straw yeah that. He went and grabbed a good handful of straw before adding it into his crate. Then in order not to waste time he walked over to where the manure was kept, analyzing each one as the way down the line. So chicken manure had the nutrients… Cow manure is low in those though…. Which was apparently good for plants, which was strange considering it didn’t have a lot of nutrients, right? What. And then they magical ones? Uh. He was going to go with Knarl manure. ‘Cause he wanted flowers maybe. Yeah. Flowers.

So snarl manure it was. Ahem. He got a good amount of the knarl manure. That’d be good, hopefully.

Paul quickly got to work as well, quickly choosing the Abraxan manure, potato peels, and some moldy cake...as well as some cardboard. Ahh. The disgusting sweet smell of....manure in the manure.

Heh.

He brought all of his buckets back to the front, where HIS work station was, when someone had a QUESTION! Paul hopped over to Sophie cheerfully.

"Ahh...well...the composting is a little time consuming. We won't be planting any...plants today. But...eventually, yes, you will planting some seeds...plants...eventually. I promise." He smiled and patted her shoulder...with his gloves......

Oops.

Luckily, he hadn't touched any manure yet. Just...soil. "WHOOPS--sorry--" he flushed and quiiiiiickly tried to get back to his work space--when he heard Miss Richards.

He turned his eyes to her and sighed. "Yes, people vomit. And vomit would actually be a very GOOD component of compost, Miss Richards. If you'd like to try that next instead...I think I could arrange it......" he said softly...FLUSHING MORE...but chuckling a little, because he was joking. There was no way he'd ever use...VOMIT. "But I thiiiiiink manure is a bit more....well, not as gross." At least to him.

So this was for real happening. And this class was for real going to get dropped pretty soon unless Dot figured out how to love dirt or someone started planting things for her. And mixing up her garbage!dirt. She stayed at her workstation for a very long moment as people moved around her, pulling one of her favorite scarves from her bag and wrapping it tightly around her mouth and nose.

There. No breathing, although there was still the possibility of garbage getting into the gab where her gloves met her sleeves and then there was FULL CONTACT CONTAMINATION. There was a reason she'd moved on to weaving straw into a mat the exact shape of her wooden crate. Straw wasn't contaminated.

And then it was done, and she didn't have any other thing to distract her from having to go touch the garbage. Garbage and poo. Which was worse? Which was best? Probably the dry garbage, especially since it was unlikely to smell as much or stick to her dragonhide gloves or overwhelm her gag reflex until she vommed in her scarf. Why did she think that the scarf was a good plan?

Dry material. Coffee grounds. Dot liked the scent of coffee, and the grounds still held the aroma, although sharper and a little burnt and it made her nose throb a bit. She carefully shoveled the ground into a little bucket and carried it primly to her work station. Wet material. The apple cores and corn cobs made Dot feel vommy again... she could see the teeth marks and knew they'd been in someone's mouth at some point. And the moldy cake, the bread, Merlin. Merlin NO thank you. But the orange peels. Those weren't so bad. They reminded Dot of the potpourri sachets that her gran kept tucked in with her handkerchiefs, and they smelled like breakfast. It was easy enough to pretend they'd only ever touched very clean fingers, and the bucket of orange peels were quickly added to the work station.

And the manure. It honestly didn't matter at this point, because it was all poo. Cow or chicken or what have you, it all came out of the south end of a creature, and Dot barely liked petting the north end sometimes. She'd appropriated goggles from deep in her bag, and the ends of the scarf were tucked into the goggles, and her sleeves were tucked in her gloves and her pants were tucked into her socks and shoes and she was AIR TIGHT TO POO right now. So she'd just shovel some Abraxan manure into the little bucket and take it back to... to...

There was POO ON HER GLOVE. MAN DOWN. MAN DOWN.

Kaycee rolled her eyes. "At least I know what I've been eating." So yes. She did trust her vomit more. That, and it hadn't been stewing like the rest of this stuff.

"I could use Dot's. She looks ready to hurl." Or she could give up. Again, who needed plants? Air wasn't important. Canned air and science existed.

"Or could I like... ... set a cow in my crate so it could do it's thing without me touching it?" Because that seemed like a good option.

Or better yet... If this was so important to her schooling, could she just take his crate? There were SO many options here Professor. She shot Dante a pathetic look. Maybe he'd offer to get her some poop when he got hers.

...

Ew. Did those words really just make that sentence in her head? Also... like... all this thinking... it had to be because of poop fumes.

Okay so now that he had collected the knarl manure, time for the materials. So er… At least one of each moist and dry… Right? Zander should’ve taken more notes. Honestly it was kind of hard to keep up with all of this. It was like first year all over again, sweet Merlin. So again he walked over to the materials, holding two separate buckets.

But which materials would be the best? The moldy cake looked nasty, so he stayed away from that… And the melon rinds and old bread. Merlin, this stuff looked super gross. Plants actually liked this!? Okay well, since his manure worked well for fruit, he decided to go with apple cores. ‘Cause nothing like apple cores to help promote growth of new fruits, right? Eh. It was also the closest bin and Zander was lazy.

Then for the dry materials…. Dead flowers sounded kind of depressing and grass clippings were lame… He still wasn’t all that convinced that cardboard would be good for composting, so you know what? He was gonna go with the tea bags. Mostly because he liked tea and it sounded cool, but still. Tea bags it is. So the Gryffindor took a few of those and threw them into the second bucket before returning to his work station. Okay, what next?

Awesome, biscuits it was then!

"So that will be my payment? For being a good Polly?" Adi sure was something else, but his silliness was rather infectious and helped make her feel even more lighthearted. She had thought that was impossible in Herbology class because this was her favourite place in the castle. She'd spend all her time in the greenhouses if Professor Myers let her.

They could play music for the plants all day long.

For the moment though, she would be content with working on her compost. She had done this before, so she knew the drill, but Professor Myers was doing such a good job explaining things. At this rate everyone would be expert Herbologists by the end of term.

Collecting some straw, she placed it in her crate making sure to do a good job of it. This step was important because drainage.

That out of the way, Paulina opted for the five buckets so that she could have a little more material in her compost. First things first was manure. Generally she opted for the more mundane varieties, but maybe she'd go for Knarl this time. Yep, sounded like a plan. Into one of the buckets it went.

Now on to the moist materials!

Looking over the options, Paulina settled on apple cores and potato peels. Each went into its own bucket and then it was time for her to select the dry materials. Tea bags and grass clippings worked for her, so she grabbed some of each as well.

Now to wait for further instructions since she didn't want to get ahead of Professor Myers.

...Paul just raised his eyebrows at Kaycee.

And sighed.

That was all he could do.

Sigh.

"I'm not sure the size of the cow, Miss Richards, would work accordingly with the size of the crate. You have gloves--touching it is not that bad, right?--" Only he had to stop because it seemed....he had another student who looked about ready to die.

NO students dropping dead, please?



..."Miss Wojack, are you okay?" he asked, his eyes wide. "You look...not so good." Was she going to be sick? >.< Paul honestly didn't think the manure would be such a big deal...but then again, he handled this stuff EVERY DAY. Maaaybe he needed to step back...and see it from their eyes.

Sigh.

And now he felt bad.

"Do you need to step out?" he asked softly, kindly.

With his type of manure already chosen, Benny headed back to the front of the room and over to the stinky stuff first. There hadn't been any limitations on how much or how little so as the Gryffindor scooped some into his first bucket, he simple made sure that he had enough to create a complete layer in his crate, perhaps not very thick in the long run. That being done, he moved onto one of the other bins to look over what was offered.
Fruit peelings...old baked goods.

That was the moist good...right. With a quick glance to the other more'dry' bin, it was confirmed and Benny looked through what was there that struck his fancy for this contribution. Finally he grabbed a bunch of corn cobs and placed them into his second little bucket. As almost an after though before moving on, he put some melon rinds into another bucket. The professor had said they had the option of five total.

Now onto dry.

The process of looking over and trying to make a decision was repeated and the seventh year debated what was there and he identified in the various offerings. A lot of the dry good was natural, while the rest appeared to be more food waste. Or rather beverage waste. Benny eventually collected a handful of pine needles and deposited them into his final bucket. Maybe the sent of pine would help mask the scent of manure.

Oh man. That was a lot of words. Norah forced her concentration back to Professor Myers every time her eyes began to wander over to the bins of materials. What WERE they? Could she have extra to make extra compost for all the extra plants ever? How did he decide what to put in there? She scrunched her nose and concentrated even harder as he went on, finding it much easier to pay attention to his words once he moved on to the characteristics of all the manures. See that? She hadn't known those. She tried not to feel to relieved when he was finished with his speech, 'cause that wouldn't be very nice especially to such a rad professor, but she didn't hold back a big grin as she put on her gloves. Composting time. Oh yeah.

By the time all the manure information was recorded in her notes, Norah had already decided on the one she wanted to use. Professor Myers said that knarl manure was good for flowers so it was almost a no-brainer, even for somebody as indecisive as she was. Flowers trumped EVERYTHING. And knarls were super cool, so that was a nice bonus. The layer of straw was added to the soil a bit haphazardly, not because she wasn't interested in the outcome of her compost but because the idea of choosing the other components was far too exciting to be put off any longer. Norah wove through other students to grab some little buckets before returning to the all the materials. Hmm. HMMMMM. After far more inspection of each category of materials than was probably necessary, she prepared a bucket of knarl manure (that bit was delightfully squishy, but don't tell anybody she thought that), then moved on to the moist materials where a bucket of potato skins and another of orange pulp were prepared. The dead flowers hit a little too close to home in her flower-loving heart, so she passed over those quickly before attending to her last bucket, which was loaded with pine needles. Ta da! That was only four items, but she couldn't decide between grass or leaves for the final bucket, so it was far easier to just pick neither.

The fifth year wrinkled her nose at the now much more prominent smell of manure, trying to smile through the unpleasantness because this was going to be AWESOME. There was no doubt about it.

Bee? He thought she's a bee? Cue eyes roll.

Annoying? PUHLEASE. She's just saying that his crate looked pretty messy. Oh well, what did you expect from a boy? They always messy. "It look ok." Not as good as hers too. Ahem.

Then she heard the Professor gave them the next instruction. They need either twigs or straw for the drainage. And then the Professor said they need manure. Poop! Its poop. Why did the man have to get technical now? Earlier he just said wood thingy and now he said manure?

Okay. She was ready for the next steps. What's the first thing she need again? OH! Right. Twigs or straw. She's going to choose the straw. The Gryffindor went to grab a handful of straw before she went back to her table and added into her crate.

Next step. The fun part. POOP!

Candice turned her attention to Henric. "So which poop you gonna use?" Cow? Chicken? Knarl? Abraxan? Thank Merlin there's no Human dropping. Animal poop she could handle but human's just eeewwwww.....And she choose the Knarl manure because chicken poop was just too gross. While Cow and Abraxan poop were just HUGE! She got what she thought a good amount of Knarl poop on her gloved hands. "Look Henric, POOP!" She was enjoying this lesson SO much!

Making compost still seemed weird to him, like, why did it matter what was in it? It wasn't THAT important... surely. But nevertheless, Zeke complied with the Professor's wishes. He had decided that he wanted a RANGE of 'ingredients' and so he would need five buckets, which was kind of annoying, but whatever, five buckets it was.

The first thing he had to do, was decide if he wanted to go with twigs or straw. Straw seemed like a sound and common option, but he didn't much like the LOOK of it, so he went with the twigs instead. Gathering what he needed, he then inspected the rest of the ingredients they were able to choose from today.

Bearing in mind that he needed a manure and then one wet and one dry material, he paused to consider his options. He was still aiming for 'complimentary flavours' because if he was really spending his time making compost, it was going to be a darn good one... so yeah.

Abraxan's were more appealing than the OTHER creatures, and so it was Abraxan manure that he scooped into one of his buckets. With two now filled, he returned those to his work station before approaching for more.

Seeing mouldy cake among the options was somewhat upsetting, he had to admit, because really.. WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WASTING THIS CAKE?! Frowning, he scooped some into his bucket, determined to see it be put to good use. Alongside this selection, Zeke gathered himself some coffee grounds and grass clippings... content with them fitting to some weird 'theme' that he'd envisioned. Because who didn't want to have an Abraxan picnic out in the meadows feasting on coffee and cake? Hhhmm?

Returning to his station, Zeke adjusted his gloves, before peering around to see what others have collected.

...

His was better.

First off, ew. That was the only word that kept repeating in Brooklyn’s head as they’d moved on to the next step of the activity. Especially because Professor Myers seemed awfully excited over manure. She didn’t particularly care how common it was, and she most certainly wasn’t planning on actually testing the theory that he seemed like he was suggesting. The manures he’d collected were disgusting enough. She wasn’t even going to consider anything else. Although she was definitely going for the twigs first. At least that seemed safe. And sturdy. Straw could get all wet and icky if they were going to be putting more stuff on top of it.

Going over to the twigs, she gathered a good amount. At least a few handfuls, enough to cover the soil rather liberally. It also gave her time to stall in getting the icky stuff, and she was definitely going to follow Dot’s lead. Except she just took her gloves off long enough to pull the collar of her sweater over her mouth and nose before the gloves went back on securely. That ought to be better at masking stinkiness. She wasn’t planning on vomiting any time soon, no matter what was said about how everyone did that. Or whatever was said about how that could be good composting materials. There was not going to be any vomit on her part.

Heading over to the buckets, she took one to get the manure first. Get that over with before she had to think about it, and she went straight for the knarl manure. Just because she’d much rather deal with flowers over shrubs or anything else. She didn’t need a shrub. She’d hoped it would be less smelly, but no such luck. She escaped from the manure buckets as quickly as possible, her little bucket maybe half full and dropped by her crate before she fled back to the empty buckets. At least she hoped that the other things would be a bit better, but not really as she approached the moist materials. Still pretty disgusting, but she went for the orange peels. People used those to make things smell orangey. She knew that much, and orange smelled better than manure. The bucket of orange peels got dropped off with her crate and the bucket of knarl manure, and she went back for dry materials.

Grabbing two more buckets, she headed back over to the dry materials. At least those smelled a little bit better, and she filled one bucket with flowers and the other with tea bags. She thought those would mix with the orange peels anyway. Nothing really mixed with manure, but she was going to work with what she had. Either way, she tried to stay as far from her little bucket of manure as possible once she returned to her crate. She was still determined not to even look at all like she wanted to vomit.

Notes were being taken, a LOT of them. There was so much information going on right now. What the students were answering, what the blackboard was writing and his own personal little notes. He had got to buy a self-writing quill.

He did grin at Norah though as she told him she had been using his self-confidence sticker on mirror idea. He hadn’t thought she would actually try it. Normally when he mentioned it they just looked at him like he was weird but the Prefect had actually listened to his advice. See ? another thing that she was worthy of that badge. She listened. When she thanked him for the flower, he shrugged his shoulders in a ‘no problem’ way.

Class moved on the moment he got back to his own workstation and Yoongi raised an perfect eyebrow as the Professor mentioned crates as ‘wooden things’….seriously? how unprofessional of him… While he waited till his classmates had gotten some of the soil in the buckets on the tables, Yoongi was putting on his gloves. Gotta protect his hands now right? As soil was really….dirty and …eww

When it was his turn, the Gryffindor added the soil to the crate that stood in front of him and made sure to do it just like it had been told. Not too much on the top and covering the bottom enough. DONE~! Yoongi clapped his hands at his own work.

………Manure…….that was another , more fancy word for……….Yoongi made a disgusted face. Did gardeners really use …that on their soils?! Did plants and food come from….EWWW!

Putting some straws on top of the soil before adding the ….manure… and he laughed a little at the advice of wearing gloves. He had been wearing gloves even when he had added the soil. Yeah we all poop but we didn’t touch it ….Anyways, the sooner he had the…manure… in …the faster this class was over. Standing in front of the Knarl manure, Yoongi held his breath as he put in some of the…stuff… and in to one of the five buckets.

He quickly moved away and started to breathe through his mouth so that he didn’t have to smell anything. Grabbing some orange peels and potato peels next, he placed those in his second and third buckets and stepped towards the dry materials. He grabbed a lot of dead flowers and pine needles to put in his fourth and fifth buckets. Hopefully the flowers and pine and help mask the awful scent…

When he had gathered it all, Yoongi walked back to his crate and waited.

Good gosh Mister Professor Plants Man!

Slow down! Hady frowned a little at everything that was being said being as she had her gloves on which now had dirt on them from the previous instructions. There was much to be done and she didn't currently have time to remove and clean her gloves to take down ALL of what was being said. So she opted for mentally taking down notes and hoped that it would all be remembered.

First things first though the fourth year snake slid from her seat and taking her bucket of soil with her went to get some twigs simply because she liked nature. Gathering a good amount she laid the twigs on top of the soil. After Hady went to get herself another bucket then headed over towards the manure. Crinkling her nose just a little at the smell she gathered together a handful of the Knarl manure and dropped it into her bucket. Kinda gross yeah but whatever it was for the plants. Heading back to her desk she set the bucket down beside the one with the dirt.

Another trip to the front of the room had her collecting two buckets this time before making way to the table that held the moist materials. Checking over each item there she selected a bit of the orange pulp simple because she enjoyed oranges and liked the scent of them as well as a bit of old bread. Manly because well why not? She wasn't even really sure. With that done she brought the buckets to her desk setting them down with the other buckets.

Her last two buckets which she now got from the front had her headed towards the dry material. This was an easy choice. Grabbing the coffee grounds because she LOVED coffee she dropped it into a bucket. Mmm coffee. Great now she wanted some. Sigh. Later she'd have to get herself a cup...or two. Pushing the thought of freshly made coffee aside Hady reached for the leaves next once more thanks to her love of nature and set them into her last bucket before returning to her desk.

Now with all of her buckets holding some type of chosen material all she could do was wait to see what was next.

She did put enough soil at her crate, right? Okay then, so she's not gonna add more soil anymore. The young lioness then listened to Professor Myers' explanation about the composition of their compost: At least they had to put one manure, one moist material and one dry material. First, she had to choose either twig or straw. Twig or straw? Hmmm.... It seemed like both of them were great. How could he decide to choose which one? After a long contemplation, Ava decided to use straw because it seemed like straw was better for drainage than twigs. She grabbed some straws and put it into her crate.

And next.... The material. Professor Myers said that they could have five material. First, she needed to get the manure. How could animals had such a cute shape of poop? Hehehe. Seriously, the cows and abraxan were so big. Was it depend on the things that they ate? She decided to get some knarl manure because it wasn't as big as the cow and abraxan and according to the Professor, this one was good for flowers and fruits. Ava scooped some knarl manure and put it on her bucket #1

After getting the manure, then she moved into the moist material section. Honestly, all of them looked gross and she's not gonna lie about that. Ava decided to use the orange peels and apple cores since she thought things from the fruit would id be better for the fruit plants too, right? Hehehe. The orange peels and apple cores goes to bucket #2 and #3! Now it's time to get the dry materials! At this time, she chose the dried leaves and coffee grounds to be added as her compost ingredients. She grabbed some leaves and coffee grounds and put them in bucket #4 and #5. Now, she just needed the further instruction.

Okaaay.. Olympia could almost feel the perspiration rolling off her as she took notes at top speed. Heh only joking, Olympia did not sweat. Sweat was disgusting. So she did not do it. She gazed at the list of possible things to add to her crate. There was so many!! How would she choose?!?! The Gryffindor pulled her gloves back onto her hands and made her way over to the bins that contained straw and twigs. She sincerely hoped that the Professor had checked and double checked that there were no Bowtruckles in his bin of twigs. With this in mind, Olympia chose straw; scooping some up into her arms she deposited it into her crate.

We all poop. Ew Professor. The third year wrinkled her nose as she approached the bin that was filled with Knarl manure. She was all for 'getting her hands dirty' but this was.. well not okay - but she quickly managed to get it all off her gloves and into her first bucket. Into her net bucket went some of the mouldy cake. Shaking her bucket about, Olympia personally didn't think the cake looked that bad. Mmm. Cake. So that was bucket number two.

As the students were allowed up to five things in their compost, Olympia decided to pick dead flowers as well as pine needles as her third and fourth 'ingredient'. At least her compost would smell pretty.. kind of. With some difficulty Olympia managed to grasp all four of her buckets and place them down next to her crate.