SnitchSeeker.com - Lesson I: Herbology Lab

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- Term 46: May - August 2017 (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-46-may-august-2017/)

- - Lesson I: Herbology Lab - Dissecting Mandrakes (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-46-may-august-2017/lesson-i-herbology-lab-dissecting-mandrakes-107680/)

(major catchup, don't kill us)

So....not like carrots, then? It was a halfhearted answer at best, anyway, so Olivia figured it wouldn't be entirely correct. Either way, they were moving past the initial incision...and being fed more information concerning the Mandrakes.... like... Lungs. Well, obviously they would have lungs. Otherwise, where would the loud screeching come from. She'd once heard it compared to newborn babies. And human babies had lungs, yes... Thoooough, sound wasn't produced by the lungs... Huh. More like the larynx and vocal cords... Did the Mandrake have those things, too?

This was way too much thought for her Gryffindor mind, so...Olivia was going to simply....Erm, follow the instructions. As in slicing two squares on either side of the first cut she'd made. It looked sorta like Tetris blocks....a muggle video game. OR like a window with curtains... Curtains that now needed to be pulled to the side so that someone could peer inside. Now...how in the world was she meant to accomplish that, exactly?

Stealthily peering around the greenhouse, Olivia tried to garner what her peers were doing... How were they peeling back the skin...? Oh, with cutting scalpel?.... With minimal gentleness, she slipped her index finger beneath the right flap, digging around in the mandrakes "inners". It really blew her mind that this plant had "human-like" insides. In fact, this was starting to really creep her out. Liv thought this was going to be something entirely different...

Rooting around for several more moments, she finally felt something bag-like. Was....that it, then? Because she'd been given permission, Olivia carefully carved them out, using her magic to levitate them from the mandrake's corpse; settling them on the tray just after. Er, no offense, Professor Myers, but this was getting to be very....Potions' like. It made her wonder about using the individual parts as ingredients, but...there wasn't much time to debate the possibility with herself as they were moving on with another incision. The third one...

A center cut down the neck...which was easy enough given that the mandrake's body was elongated and wide. So, there was plenty of room to run where said throat was meant to be. Hehe, and she'd thought about this before, so it pleased her that it was a crucial part of the lesson. Right? Right. Setting her wand to the side, the blonde retook her scalpel, hovering it just above where she'd meant to cut. It was so wonderful that Professor Myers' had diagrams for their convenience. He was so thoughtful like that and Olivia loved him. Truly did... Maybe she could send him a present for being so lovely later. He'd obviously enjoy it since she was a faaaaaaavorite. Unashamedly so...

After taking a deep breath, she pressed into the rough skin, pulling the knife downward, creating the initial line... Now for these triangular flaps.... Pulling her gaze upward to focus on the diagram once more, she did her best to mimic the lines on the photo. A few cuts later, and she was setting the knife aside...blinking up at the classroom as a whole. There was suddenly a lot of loud noises..but Olivia had somehow drowned everything out. Whut? Oh, Derf. Of course, it was Derf. That poor child..... Of course, she felt bad about not being able to console him, but he...apparently, had loads of his fellow peers to do that for him. Hopefully...he'd....calm himself...but, Liv just wanted to focus on the lesson for now.

Sorry, ickle Puffer. Tea later, okay?

Also, photosynthesis. She'd said that before!!! Hmph. AND SOMEONE ELSE HAD MENTIONED CARROTS. HA, PROFESSOR MYERS! See? Olivia had been onto something. Actually, this was much needed in the moment, as she loved the validation of her thought process! And....... Anyway, it was simply nice. To have people be like-minded. Made her feel less stupid.... Of course, they were meant to make cuts for the brain next...and Olivia had to admit that if this thing would of had a brain, she'd have been out. That was, perhaps, a bit too much for her today. "I'm with little Isa on this one." Hello, Isa. "There are so many magical plants that have their own means of defense, whether that be defense against creatures or other plants." Because there were totally dangerous plant and trees out there. Of the flesh-eating variety. "When I think of something as sentient, I think of something that is capable of a multitude of emotional capabilities, outside of feeling pain. I could be wrong, but if these plants were sentient, then it would be truly horrific....considering some of their more practical uses."

"Also, can these individual parts be used as potions ingredients?" She was gesturing to the things lungs and other inners that were humanequs.

Helga be a fence. More people had joined them and she was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic. There was no need for all the coddling, really. Professor Myers should've been the only one at Derf's side, and yet there he was continuing with the lesson. Amazing. She didn't care that she was missing out on the activity, but she didn't want to be docked any sort of credit because she was helping the younger Hufflepuff calm down. She felt bad, really she did, but the crying needed to stop.

Althea counted slowly in her head and continued to wonder why no one had pried Derf off of her. Exhaling deeply, she used a finger to not-so-gently push his forehead away so that she could get a good look at his face. "Derf," she said in a relatively calm voice, "I am giving you twenty seconds to let go." A generous offer, really. "And when you let go, I am also going to forgive and forget that you wiped your dripping nose on my robes, okay?" She didn't wait for him to respond, she just did a silent countdown in her head while waiting for the boy to come to his senses.

Once Professor Myers joined them she shot him a pleading look, silently begging him to do something about Derf so she could go and clean her robes.

got confused with the quotes lol!

Oh?.... Oh! Facepalm moment for the Curly Top right there.

Of course when screaming happens theres exhaling, and of course when air is exhaled by a plant its oxygen. He kinda nailed the first part with carbon dioxide but yeah should've followed through...

Anyway onto the head! So they gotta slice it this way..... Tenacius had to pause though with what the Herbologist said next-- Mandrakes had no brains? Color this Gryffindor surprised, since he knew Mandrakes have some behavioral traits like people. And arent all that processed in the brain? The heart just pumps blood. Did Mandrakes have blood? Eh he's starting to digress....

He continued working on the getting the head open and poking around. Yep nothing. "Yep... brainless. Complete airheads". Ahehehe he made a punny again. Where be Owlie at?

Then the question. Are Mandrakes sentient? Oh thats a real brain bender innit? That got the wheels in the Curly Top's head all a-turnin'. And with him being raised with all the variety of creatures all his life, and his grandparents being farmers, his perception of what is sentience is certainly very broad. His classmates certainly had a wide variety of thoughts on the matter, to which he listened to intently. Good ideas all around.

Finally this response: "Professor, I think.... Mandrakes are sentient, just not in the way that humanoids or most creatures are. Skylar is right that even the most basic of behaviors and instincts are processed in the brain-- at least for living things with a brain. But like what Olly pointed out, specially in the Magical world, there are living things that doesnt have a brain but can think, the can sense, that can react. Even in the most mundane of circumstances-- like Muggle plants-- it can be argued that those are sentient, just not in the way that we measure our own sentience. Plants dont recognizably have a brain either, but they grow, they propagate, they have defense systems. I think.... if something is self-aware, and does actions that either protects or propagates its own self-awareness, then it can be said that it is sentient."

Uhm... no, Professor. Derf having a meltdown wasn't perfectly fine. Vivian blinked and sighed. Poor kiddo. She wanted to just wrap her arms around him and give him a squeeze.

But they had to move on. Vivian hoped the little Puff would be okay. She made a mental note to check on him with marshmallows later. This time, the Slytherin directed her attention to Professor Paul, who went on to discuss about the HEAD. Oh, poor thing! It was dead, yes, but the fourth year looked down at her opened-up plant with pity. Perhaps its poor unfortunate soul was looking down from the mandrake afterlife and shaking its about-to-be-cut-open head at her.

Well, that was a little disturbing.

Moving on, Vivian looked up to examine the new picture of the incision on the blackboard and then did the same on her lifeless mandrake. With square chunks from each side, Vivian put her wand away and settled for the scalpel instead for this part. She dug a little more and... gasped. No brain. He was right. These things were practically stupid cry babies. Merlin.

... Then Vivian gave it much thought. Were these things really sentient? BLINK BLINK. Whoa, realisations! She raised her hand. "Not sentient, Professor? Since they don't have brains and all, they probably don't have any of the other senses. They don't feel emotions as much as we do." Sounded better and quite logical. "But I still stand by what I said earlier that magic can do anything, Professor." Cue the wide grin.

And there's one Skylar Diggory, who seemed to have eaten her entire Herbology textbook overnight, practically preaching about mandrake anatomy. Looks like someone was taking her OWLs studying seriously, and a year early. Wow at you, dormie.