"GAAHH!" Kitty stumbled backwards in alarm as what looked like a very evil clown came charging in, probably with the intent of gobbling them all up. She tripped and fell on top of one of the rose bushes but thankfully didn't damage it. She stood to run, but then....

Professor Paul??? Kitty steadied her breathing as she realized with everyone else that it was only Professor Paul, and not dressed as a evil clown - but as the Queen of Wonderland. Okay, calm down Kitty.

The first question that he asked went soaring right over Kitty's head, she was too distracted by his outfit and making sure that the rose bush wasn't damaged. But she had recovered from the initial shock by the time of the second one with an answer. "Petals!" Kitty piped in, raising her right hand. "The petals are the thing that most people notice first, and if they were alive then that would be how flowers expressed their personality. Like fashion."

That might have been a silly point of view, but Kitty's mind was still wheeling from the shock of Professor Paul: Queen of Wonderland. Or Underland, depending on what version you were watching.

Alright, Matt had absolutely no clue what the heck was going on in that class. Prefects were shouting, people climbing on tables and yelling their heads off, throwing things about, setting things on fire and EVERYTHING.

He might be exaggerating, but it felt like that lessons was MADNESS. And a very strange one, because Matt didn't feel like joining in in the strangeness. Mainly because it all looked WEIRD and he also didn't know what they were going on about, so it didn't interest him much.

Also, they were talking about roses and that was one of the types of plants Matt didn't care about either, so. He would be bored if this class wasn't mental at the moment. The colour changing thing was interesting, though, so he watched that in aawweeee. "Cool." He said under his breath, but that was it. He didn't bother about giving a reply because 1- everything he knew had already been mentioned and 2- the professor had only repeated his answer the last time - which really was a question, but still - so what was the point?

Crazy stuff and crazy people at Hogwarts, man. Matt appreciated it, but Hogwarts was SO WEIRD even Matt was taken aback sometimes.

Sheesh.

Ahh. Harriet really did like Roses. They were so pretty. Oooh. She knew about Roses! Or she knew a little bit anyway. Thinking of a little bit, Hattie tried to think of a really good answer. She wanted her head of house to think she was a good little first year. With a beam the young girl waved her hand in the air, waiting for her turn to answer. "well Professor. Rose's have little thorny things. And I think they are meant to scare people away. Because they really hurt when you prick your finger on them. Like.... it's a safety thing. To make sure the flower says pretty" Because it was super important the the Rose stayed pretty.

Smiling, she put her hand down. She was totally proud. The lesson was turning out to be a little odd. Especially some of the older students. Was every lesson here going to be like that? She would need to remember to ask Noah or Frankie later.

Katherine was relieved that it was Jacen who sat beside her. He was clever, silent (if not shy) and definitely not a troublemaker. She could trust him and be at ease during this lesson. So she returned the grin back (which touched her eyes for a chance) and instinctively turned her head to the front too and re-read the note.

Well, then. She didn't feel dehydrated, but she always followed the rules, so she got together with her house mate and got herself a cup of water as well. Tea would distract her as she would need to drink it carefully. Water was safe, though.

...

Katherine JUMPED when the door was slammed, and she turned towards the sound - she was met with a professor fully in costume, who was SHOUTING...

PAINT THE ROSES RED!? BUT - BUT - THEY HAD BEEN RED WHEN THEY ENTERED AND IN FACT, THEY TURNED WHITE WHEN PEOPLE TOUCHED AND IF HECOULDJUSTSTOPSHOUTINGSHEWOULDEXPLAIN - she looked mortified and wasn't it TOO MUCH OF A PUNISHMENT - TO CUT OFF A HEAD - OR WAS THAT HYPOTHETİCAL - WHAT IF THE HAG HAD CAPTIVATED PROFESSOR MYERS LIKE BARTY CROUCH JR DID TO -

................

It had been drama. A play. A JOKE. While Katherine was immensely relieved that they weren't GUILTY of no such act as ruining the roses, she felt also pretty stupid for falling for it. She didn't know which character the Professor became (because her family had stopped reading her children's books when she was three or four), but it was a fun -

What......was......her house's prefect.....doing......on....top.....of.....a..... TABLE!?

Katherine was mortified for REAL this time as she watched the boy with big eyes. WHATWASHEDOING!? Her eyes shot to the professor with rising panic - were they going to lose POINTS? - but then te Professor CLAPPED and she vacillated between clapping and not clapping - clapped twice veeeeeery feebly - and just... tried to make sense of the last few moments while the people answered to the question. So... this was a PLAY, Rooney had WATCHED it (so did the girl who tried to set her on fire last term, apparently), and Professor liked his performance enough to award it a point.

Well, then...

Secretly agreeing with Blaise (which was weird, because wasn't someone who started a food fight supposed to LIKE any type of commotion?), she shrugged as she looked at Jacen with the expression of "Oh well", she began listening to the answers. Her explanation (that it was a defence mechanism upon a threat such as touching) had already been told, so she didn't see any reason to repeat it. She noted down some of the answers she liked and waited for the Professor's explanation. Ooooooooh, it was temperature? Why... didn't she know that? Her face went paler all of a sudden, as she hurriedly opened the textbook to find where it said this. She had READ ALL of this textbook and her mum had prepared several EXAMS from it for her - which she had aced all - so why did she NOT remember this!?

In her panic, she completely missed the part where the Professor drew his wand, and when the hot air hit her face, she SHOUTED OUT with an "AAAAH - !!!" She looked around with more panic, and upon seeing that everyone was acting cool, she calmed down too (though she was still panicky about how she could forget), not without her face's turning even redder than the roses, of course. All was cool. She had simply been shocked by the entrance of the professor. It was aaaaaaall fine...

She noted down the rest of the Professor's explanation, and took a BIG gulp from the cup. Her hands felt sticky with sweat, and suddenly it was way too hot in here. She wanted to fan herself with the textbook, but that would probably distract the professor, so she didn't. Instead, she tried to focus on what he was saying, but that was hard. In the end, before she could come up with a nice answer, everything she could have said was told, so she was left with NO answers AGAIN.

This didn't look good at all. Her mum would be very disappointed if she knew.

"Okay." A perfectly neutral expression rested on the boys face, making any real thoughts he might have had on the matter a mystery with him seeming to accept the Professor's response. Okay. Just okay. That was it.

Blaise skillfully kept his eyes away from Liv, avoiding any and all disappointed looks he'd not too long ago gotten a glimpse of before she went and joined Rooney, because of course she did. They all did. Always. He was never wrong about anything even when he clearly was and that was fine he supposed. The Gryffindor glanced over at his table buddy, noting his obvious discomfort but he didn't suppose anyone else would care and it kinda annoyed him more because Daxton didn't talk, y'know? He'd never tell them how much he disliked the loud noises that were being made.

Despite the Professor's saying they didn't need to take notes, his quick quotes quill scribbled away at it's own leisure, taking down notes and suggestions and just about anything else it felt like. A page he'd burn later perhaps. It wasn't worth remembering.

"Don't leave me with them." He muttered to his Ravenclaw friend who was OBVIOUSLY currently looking for a great escape. That's what he was doing, in case anyone was curious. Just take a look at how he eyed the exit and how he seemed kinda jittery like a caged animal. Classic signs he was gonna run.

Aside from that,Blaise didn't offer an answer about the roses. They only had so many parts and it was quite possible his classmates had said them all. He would simply sit and wait for the promised activity, neutral expression still in place.

She will see about the tea?

WHAT DID THAT EVEN MEAN???

More confused than ever, Esme looked down at her cup and examined it. Everything seemed to be as it should so nothing had been done to it. Professor Myers wouldn't try anything. Or would he? This wouldn't be the first time that students were tricked during lessons. She didn't know what to think but IF something had been done to the tea it wouldn't harm them and that made her feel a little more at ease even if she was still lost.

Obviously she knew about the parts of the rose bush - her mom gardened - but since other people had already shared, Esme felt that any input she offered would be rather redundant. She would keep her mouth shut for the moment.

Yes yes. Jaemin was the son of a Herbologist, indeed. But he was also the son of a woman who owned a plant nursery, and Muggle plants had been a big part of his life as well, so he knew... some things about roses as well, even being a twelve year old boy. In fact... he rather liked them. Because there were so many different kinds,and there were hybrids, and everything.

People were already naming rose parts, which didn't leave Jaemin a whole bunch to list off. Still... he had to say something right? This was the class at which he was the best...

"Rose hips," he murmured, tracing a finger in the precipitation forming on the side of the glass. He tugged at his collar with his other hand, a bit warm due to the professor's hot air thing. It was a good thing he wasn't drinking tea... he looked up at the professor, flinching ever so slightly at the face paint again. "They're like the fruit of roses and they have all the seeds and stuff, but a lot of roses you buy don't make them because the petals are in too tight. Cause a lot of roses are sorta... bred like that."

People liked to crossbreed roses, obviously. Especially with ones like tea roses that didn't really die off like others did... the boy looked at the tea cups the other students had, tilting his head thoughtfully.

"Are the roses you have hybrids with tea roses, professor? Is that why there's tea?"

It seemed appropriate.

It was perfect that his best friend was joining in, and he had honestly hoped that she would. Breaking character for a second, Roo gave Miss Olivia a thumbs up and a bow for his co-star. His fabulous co-star. Ugh, did she know how much her getting involved made him smile? Honest to mighty mountains, Rooney Bronwyn could never see himself tiring of the Gryffindor by his side and he didn't want that. As Professor Myers came in this direction, Rooney hopped down from the table to hold his hand up for a high five, ESPECIALLY as he had just earned a point! Which made everything amazing, given that his housemates were awful people and had decided to ruin his top dog plans before the end of the first night in the castle. "Thanks, Your Majesty!" He The Red Queen got another of his bows and the Ravenclaw finally took his seat.

"Don't I get a card too??" ... Was Miss Olivia's performance better than HIS?! Was he going to lose his spot at theatre camp next year to his best friend? Oh, he tried not to look butthurt about it and gave Liv a one-armed cuddle as she deserved it for just being Liv. And thEN BLAISE SPOKE. Blaise Bellaire, evil personified. How was he even related to Aunt Rhea when Rhea was one of the nicest people that Rooney even knew??

"Blaise, I don't think Wizarding students should be allowed to be incapable of magic. It makes it hard for me to learn when others have to try harder with someone who doesn't even care about learning rEALLY." And that was THAT. Roo snarked a little, turned his head to not look at the other boy, gave his hair a tuck back again and continued to nestle on Liv's shoulder. Hair fixing please, best friend? Hair fixing needed. Dropping his voice to a whisper, he grinned. "Do I still have to sleep in the cupboard?" Did she get it? DID SHE GET IT?! CHIP! BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. HONESTLY! He hoped she got it..

Now.. his attention wasn't completely on what was happening in the room, and he didn't really care much for the roses around him. The smell was actually making him a little bit woozy. Or maybe that was all the excitement in a mere matter of minutes.. Either way, Rooney was taken with sipping water from a cup (as he had made tea and gotten water also) and drawing on the table with a wet finger the outline of a mouse head. Did Liv see? Did Liv see his Disney homage? Did she know that his favourite ever holiday had been with her this summer?

Disney.

D I S N E Y !

All he actually heard was '2065' and 'love' and 'roses', honestly.

Which translated to something about Professor Myers falling in love in 2065 and receiving roses at some point. As much as that was adorable...and Rooney was a sucker for a good romance, especially when everything turned out perfect for everyone involved... he wasn't all that interested again. Maybe they'd get some roses that SANG or danced next!

Now [i]that[i] would be incredible.

No answer here. Move along, guys. A very merry unbirthday to you!

His mouth fell agape for several seconds as he tried to think up any sort of retort for the Prefect but nothing came, just...very indignant staring.

When he realized that no matter how long he stared at him there were no words, the boy simply grabbed his book bag, slung it over his shoulder then took a step away from the table. Daxton was given a look, one that basically invited him to come with. They could go to the Room of Requirements or anywhere else that didn't have a mean Prefect. "Well far be it for me to stop you. It's clear only one of us will get anywhere in life and I'd hate to hinder you on this path of eternal success on account of how ridiculously behind I am."

The Professor was not spared a second glance, nothing and no one was. Blaise simply turned and made for the exit but before he could properly leave. "I hope you choke on air and the Healer can't save you."

Because ONE good thing had to happen at Hogwarts before he graduated and he had yet to see it.

It was not that he had not seen a man wearing women's clothing. He had. Its just this was an extreme case even for that. Dante just nodded and closed his eyes to try and forget what was going on. But the minute he opened them again there he was still in the dress. Could he just get up and leave and what was the Ravenclaw prefect doing with Liv. I guess when your a prefect you can jump on tables. Well whatever he did not even want to know.

So he basically was right it had to do with skin contact. But relating to temperature. Cool. Dante only knew roses had thorns and that was it. So another question he was going to stay quiet on since someone probably said it since he was not paying attention at all past hearing the question.

And look at Blaise making an exit

Trying to go out in a blaise of glory in this Herbo Lesson. Not that Dante blamed him.

Okay so were all of her lessons going to be as erm, individualistic as she had seen thus far? Their teacher was literally dressed up as a character Kye vaguely knew about. It was a classic book that she never read. A book about imagination? Something like that. Kye watched the hubbub and the students were pretty much all having a blast. She couldn't say she wasn't a fan of tea, so Kye helped herself to a cup and found a place to see the commotion.

Okay, so she liked the whole 'changing the color' demonstration. When asked what could have been at play here, Kye couldn't help but go a bit sarcastic. "Magic perhaps?" was her guess. She did kind of want to know how to do it though, that was pretty. She would turn flowers purple, or blue, or green. How pretty! She sipped her tea, listening to students far more advanced than she give out more realistic and helpful answers. She took out some parchment to write down anything she didn't know about so she could try to read up on them later... well hypothetically.

Had he really just shouted at her? Nicky internally cringed, tilting her head up just a bit to narrow her eyes at him. Oh, it had been creative alright. "Certifiable... daft.... lunatic..." Nicky muttered synonyms into her arm. No way anyone could actually make out what she was saying, but she was annoyed.

She sat up straight in surprise, however, when the hot air blasted through the room. She'd been complaining that the weather was not what she was accustomed to, but this was a little much. So much drama and theatrics... what a waste of time! Between students standing on desks and acting out.. whatever that was... what was the point of even being here? Parts of a rose? Wasn't that what textbooks were for?

Nicky was about to put her head back down when something caught her eye..

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

His mouth fell agape for several seconds as he tried to think up any sort of retort for the Prefect but nothing came, just...very indignant staring.

When he realized that no matter how long he stared at him there were no words, the boy simply grabbed his book bag, slung it over his shoulder then took a step away from the table. Daxton was given a look, one that basically invited him to come with. They could go to the Room of Requirements or anywhere else that didn't have a mean Prefect. "Well far be it for me to stop you. It's clear only one of us will get anywhere in life and I'd hate to hinder you on this path of eternal success on account of how ridiculously behind I am."

The Professor was not spared a second glance, nothing and no one was. Blaise simply turned and made for the exit but before he could properly leave. "I hope you choke on air and the Healer can't save you."

Because ONE good thing had to happen at Hogwarts before he graduated and he had yet to see it.

Leaving? Was that an option? She glanced at the kid, glanced at the Prefect he'd been talking to, and then back at the kid's exiting frame.

"Hey, kid... wait up," she said, grabbing her bag and standing up from her seat and moving to join him. Apparently walk outs were a thing, and well, given the way this was going... she was opting out.

For someone who had already been preparing to make a Swift Exit, the ensuing events had done nothing at all to convince Daxton to stay in the classroom. Aside from being sensitive to sound and chaos, he was also sensitive to heat, and the blast of hot air instantly made him feel as though he was suffocating. The earmuffs on his head made the Too Warm feeling much worse, and though the hot air was soon gone, the frustration that had surged through Daxton was there to stay.

He was not actively trying to work out what the others were saying, but Daxton still managed to gather that others were speaking of 'thorns', 'leaves', 'stems', and of course 'roses'. He could only assume that they were answering a question regarding the anatomy of the rose bush, but it really did not matter because Everything was Happening So Much and it made his brain both too fast and too slow all at once and he needed to get out of here, even though he could tell that Blaise had just asked him not to leave.

After all, when did Daxton ever do anything for the sake of someone else?

Perhaps quite fortunately (from the perspective of most in the room) Daxton did not hear the comment that the Ravenclaw Pillock Rooney Bronwyn had made about students who were incapable of magic. If he had, things might have got ugly, even if not in that exact moment. What Daxton did notice, however, what he could not possibly miss, was the Gryffindor boy beside him suddenly getting up and heading for the door, shooting him an unmistakeable look. Daxton thought that suspicious, as Blaise had told him not to leave, but it also meant that if there was ever a time for his Swift Exit, it was now.

Without a moment's hesitation, Daxton got up and followed Blaise, pausing to glance between him and Daxton's own House Pillock (Rooney Bronwyn), unable to hear the parting shot but fairly certain it was something brilliantly cutting. Not stopping to witness the repercussions, and only glancing at the older Ravenclaw (whom Daxton did not recognise and who was not even wearing a Hogwarts patch on her robes) who was apparently leaving too, he slipped out of the door and exited the greenhouse. Myers did not get so much as a backwards glance.

Red was really not his colour.

Colt snorted at Mel's comments. "Yeah true, his touch would probably turn the roses golden. Who is Lewis Carol..?" he asked giving her a quizzical look. He returned his attention to Myers. Hmm alright so this guy was named Professor Myers. Not a horrible name to live up to. Man this guy had way too much energy for his liking. It seemed like he had 10 cups of coffee this morning. Now onto the question. What did this slytherin know about roses? Well it was an awesome gift to give to a girl. It always gave you brownie points but he needed to know about rose parts.

Colt raised his hand, "Professor there is a famous rock song titled Every Rose has it's thorn. So I guess....I mean I am just spitballing that roses has thorns. I'm guessing yet again the thorns are used for predators like animals and such."

Looking at him using his common sense.

.......everyone was giving great answers. GREAT answers, actually, but something prohibited Paul from finishing the drawing on the board. Something...of the MEAN variety. Paul didn't even hear Rooney ask for the card--because what he said to Blaise made him EXTREMELY sad.

"Now, Rooney--it's not prudent to be rash with our words--I think that's a very hurtful thing to say and--" He sighed when Blaise fired back. "BOTH of you, I'm take TWO points from--Merlin, boys--I adore you both! You're both wonderful students in your own way, and I know you are both capable of---"

Being...

Mature.............

Blaise was gone.

Paul blinked after the boy...but...well??? If he didn't want to continue the class..who was he to chase after him? He was in a DRESS, y'know? And just--feorihgferiuhgieqhrg. He was absolutely OVERWHELMED with this--and the answers being shot at him--but he was a professor, and so....he sucked in his emotions and set a card down on Rooney's desk. "Here you go, m'boy," he said gently, to show that even though he had just reprimanded the boy did NOT mean he hated Rooney. In fact, it was the opposite. He knew Rooney was capable of being polite, even if he wasn't a huge fan of Mr. Bellaire.

Moving on...to more answers.

But Paul felt a little bad for both boys, to be honest. What if their feelings were hurt by each other? It gave him...ideas. He didn't even notice Daxton or Nicky leaving.



OOC: Actual replies to y'alls wonderful answers coming later tonight! <3

Marsha had jogged to class, happy to be back at school and able to use magic and learn more. She loved being at home, but she missed being able to use magic. Being in a good mood meant that she as hyper and skippy… which meant she skipped to the greenhouses and smiled the whole time. As she moved into the classroom, however, she frowned a little at the MASSIVE amount of roses and the lack of their Professor. … Which was strange, as he was usually right there to welcome them… Weird.

Moving to pour a water into her mug, she downed the glass before pouring a second mug. Then, she moved back to her seat. It wasn’t worth standing by the water for the lesson to start… even if she could drink a lot of water to help counter the heat in here… At least they had been given permission today.

WHAT IN GRIFFIN’S FEATHERS WAS THAT!

She thought as she jumped Prof- …. Was that Professor Meyers? It… didn’t look like him, but it kind of looked like him? …. Was that him? Surely, he recited some speil that made Rooney and some others very excited before sitting down quite happily at the head of the table… looking calm. Too calm. As the… nope. She had no idea who he was… but a few students certainly seemed to know and understand what was happening… Sure. She’d take her cues from them.

Waiting for a space in the conversation, Marsha put up her hand. ”What about a colovaria charm performed wandlessly?” She said with a small smile on her lips. It was probably wrong, but at least it was an answer and she tried. Silently, she took notes on the rest of the answers given before listening to the real answer from the Professor.

Oh. Temperature… Cool.

Annnnd now they are calling and listing different parts of the rose. By the time she thought about the different parts that she knew about, they had all been mentioned by her classmates… so instead she wrote down a few words that she thought were important and then went back to listening because she didn’t know anything more than they had said.

”Oh! Roses have leaves? Though, I think… I remember reading that groups of leaves have a specific name? Leafings… leaflet? No.. that is an information document… “ With a frown on her face, Marsha attempted to try and remember the name of the small branches of leaves.

Okay so Char had only suggested weight sensitive because sooo many other people had already said about temperature and she wanted to be UNIQUE and think OUT OF THE BOX, so it was GREAT that he got an idea for something and everything but maybe she should start just saying what everyone else said to get points too?

...

....

Naahhhhhhh! Who cared about those anyways? You didn't get anything good from them after all! And also there was too much going ON to think too hard about it, Charlotte's eyes widened and she looked from Blaise to Rooney and back to Blaise again and YES she DID see Daxton leave TOO (and some random old girl but Char didn't know who she was and also she was old so who cared) and she looked over at the professor to see how he was taking all this. Or not taking it? Or......had he not noticed Daxton at ALL?

... well SHE was no snitch! Charlotte turned her head to look at Olly and made big eyes at him like WHAT DID YOU SEE ALL THAT? HOW CRAZY WAS THAT and also she sort of wished she had made a bet with him on how long it would take for Daxton to want to leave. She would have won for sure.

Well. She would just make sure her notes were good, and give both of her friends copies, and if the professor DID notice Daxton had left, she would cover for him! Yeah!

Now, back to the topic at hand....

.... ummm.... OH PARTS OF A ROOOOSE!

She stuck her hand up. There were SO MANY PARTS.

"There's the pistil which is all the bits of the rose that make up the female bits! Oh and sepals which are the bits of the calyx that are green and cover the rose when its just a wee baby bud!"

Ooooh and that one boy mentioned the calyx and THAT was her cousin's name! Named AFTER the bit of the flower! She could go ON AND ON FOREVER but she didn't, sitting on her hand instead.

It was all too much, and Hadley was not strong enough. She fell apart in a fit of giggles and laughter again, only managing to nod in reply to Professor Myers. Yes, it was English. At least it was supposed to be.

It was another few minutes before Hadley could stop this laughing fit enough to answer. Only, stuff was happening. Between Blaise and Rooney and others. It was like a trainwreck. A fascinating, enjoyable train wreck that you couldn't look away from. And Hadley Denaker was eating it up, watching the exchanges as if they a tennis match.

It was over all too soon. Blaise and others stormed out. But that wasn't what had Haddie's attention. Rooney. The prefect. Lost points. Almost half of the number of points she herself lost. She was watching him curiously to see how he'd react to that, only to realize she still hadn't answered. Almost all the normal parts had been listed, so rather than repeat those. "Pollen!" That hadn't been said right? She didn't think it had been, but then, she hadn't been paying the best of attention.

With a shrug, Hadley went back to watching Rooney for his reaction to losing points. From Myers no less. Now that was an achievement.

Paul had gotten colored chalk JUST for this lesson, really, because he thought a COLORED diagram would be much more fun, yes. He got his CHALK AT THE READY. He needed to forget the meanness that had come before--ROSES WERE IN THE AIR!




Paul nodded, drawing some..crudely drawn thorns on the flower. “Yes! Thorns! They prick us!” They were all, of course, right. “And very good, Miss Kennedy. Prickles would be the CORRECT term..but that’s for pretty strict botanist and herbologist, and I accept the word THORN for this matter, in any case. But good point.”

Paul could have gone on for a good half hour about the difference between thorns and prickles. However, he didn’t think anyone wanted to hear that.




LOTS of petal answers! But that was good! Petals were certainly important. “Yes, they DO attract pollinators, CORRECT,” he smiled at Sam. And he winked at Vivian. “Thank you, m’dear.” Paul had never been called pretty in all his life ;__; So he would try and cherish this moment.

He continued to label things on the board as people said them.



Zeke! Paul smiled at the bright young man, who always had such interesting answers. “ROOTS, m’boy, are extremely important. YOU are correct. An anchor roots--EXCELLENT.”



Paul was delighted that some of them REALLY seemed to KNOW about roses! It made the walkout of Blaise Bellaire hurt a little less. Sorry Nicky and Daxton, the man didn’t notice you but will notice later and cry, probably. “The word you’re looking for, Cornelius, is the ANTHER--” more scribbling on the board. Pollen holder. A male part.

“It is important to note, as many of you said, that roses have both male and female parts in order to reproduce. Wonderful, wonderful!” he smiled and nodded. He proceeded to label MORE parts on the board…”Calyx...yes…” he was shocked some of them even KNEW the calyx

Interesting.

“And yes, Mr. Song, they are crossbred,” he added.



A few people have mentioned sepals! Paul beamed at them and nodded. “Yes, yes, very good! And as Miss Kettleburn mentioned before...they’re to protect the the weeeeee bud!” To quote Char Kettleburn.

“And BARK--wow--yes yes, Philipe! Good job!”



He was surprised more people had not said leaves. Curious, very curious.

“Leaves, yes, are very important!” he’d just...scribble the function of the LEAF up here, yes...ah, naaaah--he quickly erased it. Not needed right now.



“Of course you can keep the cup, m’dear,” he chuckled a little. “And yes, a stem is very much like our legs!” Kind of...ISH?



That was interesting. Someone else had said something about tea earlier…and Paul immediately directed his attention onto the other things this one was saying about EATING roses. “Yes, you can eat those parts--I wouldn’t, personally, but you CAN. And personally, I have no taste for rose petal tea--”

BLEGH. No no NO. Paul did NOT like it.



Well. Paul had never thought of pollen as PART of the flower...just something produced BY the flower. “I suppose you’re not WRONG, Miss Denaker. Pollen certainly...comes from and resides on the flower…” Hmm. At least she was thinking out of the box.



Paul noticed all of them. The quiet ones. Sipping their tea, some of them. He just gave many of them encouraging looks...and whatnot. The next part of the lesson...well..the fun was about to begin.


Now, Paul was no artist, but he had done enough rose plant anatomy pictures in his time to be..decent at this at least. A final touch, he added a smiley face. It had to be a HAPPY rose, right? He smiled at his handiwork and gestured at the board. “In essence...the rose. And all the parts serve VERY specific functions--functions outlined in your textbook that I will probably not quiz you on EVER because I care more that you know how to care for these plants.”



He cleared his throat, and smirked…”Now...time for the EXCITEMENT...” he chuckled evilly to himself. “I would like you ALL to gather in a circle here, in the front of the room, around this--” he gestured to the potted rosebush in the front of the room--”Rosebush!” Because surprise surprise….

“Now…” he had a hold of his wand. “I spiked your tea and water with a shrinking solution--” he said casually, “So ANY minute now, we’re going to SHRINK--and don’t worry, we’ll land right in the middle of that plant--” he had planned this out carefully. Magic was a thing. “OH and those of you who did NOT drink the tea--” Paul had taken note. He whipped his wand about and non-verbally shrunk them down to size and caaaaarefully made sure they were safely delivered onto the soil of the plant. It was time to HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS all up here--

“Any second now the rest of us should all shrink and join the others--”

And before he knew it, he was shrinking--he could see, collectively, his students all shrinking--keeping his wand poised, he made sure they all landed SAFELY without snaggling against any of those thorns...onto the soil.

The roses...towered above them.

“As you all can SEE...those roses are quite a different story from down here! And exquisite and BEAUTIFUL!” it was like being in a very tall forest where the tops of the trees were flowers instead of...leaves and stuff. COOL, you see? DID THEY UNDERSTAND?

“So, for today’s activity...I will be giving you all RIDDLES that have to do with...taking care of the rosebush...and you all will solving the riddles AND in turn...doing the actions! I’ll let you all gain your footing before we begin…” Ahem. There were tiny buckets of epsom salt...scattered around the soil, hidden behind some smaller stems and whatnot. Paul had set out a chair for himself, and was sipping his tea quite calmly in his dress as he looked around. “Is everyone...ready?”



OOC: OKAY so...BEAR WITH US PLEASE! We have all now..shrunk to the size of tiny little people IN this rosebush, on the soil part. The rosebush is REALLY tall and whatnot.

I am not starting with the riddles for another 15 or so hours! Feel free to catch up if you need! Or take a breather or something lol! I love you all <3 even those of you who walked out, so much love

What was happening? Why were so many people leaving? First Blaise, then Daxton, them someone else he had never seen before. Okay that actually wasn't too surprising considering who it was that had left, but it was strange nonetheless. And it just added to all the strangeness that was happening in this lesson. Olly returned Char's look with a bewildered one of his own. He certainly was not going to leave. This lesson was perhaps the best one he had ever been in.

That was a very pretty drawing. Not super realistic but they couldn't all be artists. It got the point across. Olly was so busy admiring it he forgot to pay attention to the first part of professor Myers' sentence. Shrinking solution in the tea? But he hadn't gotten a chance to drink any. Oh no! He was just going to stay regular sized while everyone else shrunk? Except wait no. He was shrinking thanks to Professor Myers' charm. Good thing the professor had thought ahead. It wasn't that Olly hadn't wanted any tea, just that there had been so much else going on that his focus had been elsewhere. But now he was shrunken just like everyone else. Wow, this lesson really was going to be amazing.

Isabella knew it was only a matter of time before the teacher got back to the boring part of Herbology - plant anatomy and whatnot. She sighed, watching as he drew and labeled a rose for them to see. As to why he was drawing a face on the rose... Isabella really didn't know. Roses didn't have faces, at least not any roses she had ever seen. Bored, she took another drink from her water cup.

And spit it out when Professor Myers said he had spiked it with shrinking solution! This man really was crazy! Isabella stared at the professor in disbelief, wondering if this had ever happened when her mother was at Hogwarts. Surely not, surely mother wouldn't let her come to a place where teachers thought it was okay to just put things in their students' drinks. Was her education really worth being shrunk?

As the rose started getting bigger, or rather, as Isabella started getting smaller, she gripped her water glass very tightly. At least the boring plant anatomy part of the lesson hadn't lasted very long, she supposed. Maybe this class would be a bit like that Magic School Bus show she had seen when she went to Muggle school last year. Those kids always looked like they were having fun, and Miss Frizzle never let any of them get hurt, even when stuff went wrong. When she finally stopped shrinking, Isabella stomped a bit on the potting soil they were all standing on. It seemed dense enough to hold them, at least. And roses weren't dangerous!

SHE KNEW IT!

Esme had known that Professor Myers had done something to the tea.

Beaming, the Hufflepuff was super excited to get this activity going. Her mind jumped to that old muggle movie about the kids who were accidentally shrunk by their father's invention. Now that was a classic.

Eagerly she looked around at the 'forest' all around her. It was amazing to think that something that had seemed so small moments before was suddenly massive. She would definitely be telling her parents about this later. Hopefully she would be able to work out the riddles that he had for them, but since she wasn't bad with Herbology Esme wasn't too worried about that. The most important thing was to have fun and she would certainly he having a lot of that.

Melbourne just looked up at Professor Myers and smiled. “N-nothing sir, I just…was muttering things about Lewis Carrol,” she clarified…lied…whatever you wanted to call it. Mel groaned as she felt her body shrink.

“I don’t like this one bit.” She whined as she felt like she was SWIMMING in her robes and looked around for the mini-Colt. Maybe they could sit this out together and wait for the potion to wear off? Or maybe she could just simply plot ways to destroy the stupid potion coursing through her veins.

Magical crossbred roses? Fascinating. Were they going to be learning about caring for roses today? Penelope wrote a list of all the different parts of a flower she could think of. The most obvious were the stems and the petals, and then there were thorns, reproductive parts, and the sepal. She had seen diagrams of flower parts before, so it was easy.

Penelope sketched the diagram of the parts of a rose in her notes and labeled it. Time for the exciting portion of the lesson! Penelope put her quill down and went over to the rosebush that everyone was gathering around.

Professor Myers had spiked the tea with something? Good thing she didn't drink any of it. Looked like she wouldn't be experiencing the effects of the potion. Wait, what? Without waring, Penelope was shrunk by Professor Myers. She was not okay with being shrunk by a professor without advance notice. Now she was so small that the rosebushes seemed like trees. One did not usually unexpectedly magically alter another's body. Not okay with this, professor. He could have at least asked if everyone was alright with being shrunk. She would just have to deal with this for now though. Oooh, riddles! Solving riddles sounded fun, but Penelope was still slightly annoyed about the unanticipated shrinking.

Honestly, Brooklyn hadn’t contributed to the discussion of parts of a rose for two reasons. One, as far as she could tell, everything had been mentioned, and two, she didn’t particularly feel like suggesting anything. Instead, she’d taken a sip of her tea, now well sugared from the dissolved sugar quill. It was almost too sweet, actually, but she chose to tolerate it. It was simpler than trying to add more to it, and she certainly didn’t feel like giving Professor Myers a reason to think she wasn’t actually paying attention. She was, just silently. She was observing. There was nothing wrong with observing, not when it meant she was actually taking in the discussion. Not goofing around or otherwise acting entirely unserious.

The announcement to gather around the small potted rosebush had made her pause, however. Mainly because she wondered if that meant they were still going to have to go through the meditation circle she thought she’d avoided. Besides, she didn’t think anyone could center themselves when there was a professor acting entirely crazy and not normal, even for Hogwarts.

An eyebrow had raised at the announcement, anyway. So the tea had been spiked, but then she also wondered if the sugar had diluted the potion. She wouldn’t have put it past him to have spiked the provided sugar and milk, but she’d used her own. Obviously that hadn’t been spiked, so maybe it meant she wouldn’t shrink. In any case, potions being used on her without her permission seemed like something fishy. Not right, and as she’d begun shrinking she sighed slightly. At least everyone else was ending up just as tiny. The riddle thing seemed rather unfair though. Obviously some people ought to be better at those than the rest of them, even if she considered herself rather clever in her own way.