Kyle raised his hand without thinking much about it. "Do they make you forgot what you really want to do?" That seemed like a very magical quality, and it seemed like that's what happened in the stories.

Patrick shrugged his shoulder, "its really wicked awesome, and you look like a tough guy." He watched as some other students floated into class before order was finally called to the class, well as much as the Hufflepuff Head of House would allow. His odd behavior never phased Patrick, it was a nice change of pace from the other professors.

Patrick began to scribble down notes hoping that he could keep up and learn it all since it was on Loti, his favorite part from Percy Jackson books he read a few years ago.


Patrick raised his hand, kind of glad he had read the percy jackson books a few years ago, but even happier that his father had read the odyssey to his siblings as a "bed time story" because he was familiar with this topic. He raised his hand, wondering if he would actually answer correctly, because there was no telling if these authors actually knew about magic.

"Would one act of the fruit be healing? In Percy Jackson the fruit heals the demi-gods when eaten in small quantities." He listened to the other students wondering what other possible answers they could have.

Professor Meyers really liked his Greek legends, didn't he, thought Kitty - almost as much probably as he liked costumes. His costume today was pretty funny. If Rooney were here, would he have liked it took? Probably. Kitty casually took out her camera, and while the Professor was speaking, snapped a picture of him.

Then she put the camera away and listened to the Greek story. The version she remembered as a little different, she thought the fruit had turned all of his men into pigs and he'd had to seduce a sorceress to bring them back. But she didn't remember for sure.

When he asked what the fruit did she raised her hand. "Professor, I think the fruit disconnects you from reality. It makes you forget the people in your life who are important and overwhelms you with fake happiness. I'm familiar with the Percy Jackson stories, and I know that the characters spent a lot of time just playing video games in the hotel when the world needed to be saved. It's like a disconnection fruit."

She had a question! "Professor, wasn't there a fruit that turned the men in the original Greek story into pigs? I thought I remembered Circe turning them into pigs, and Odysseus had to make her turn them back. Was that the same fruit?"

Ooh, story time! Quill was out and Skylar found herself mildly interested in this because it dealt with history and not so much Herbology. Huhhh?!? So wait, wait, did Myers just basically introduce them to edible flowers? Or were all flowers edible? Well, these flowers were definitely edible and definitely had magical powers that made one forget, as Skylar glanced back at her notes.

Yes, Vanessa Paton. She knew Vanessa Paton, obviously. But focused Skylar was, well, focused.

Oh, Kyle mentioned about the forgetting thing. But maybe she could tie that in with something else? "The magical properties of these edible flowers," yes, sorry, because that's what they were, not magical fruits, "it's probably similar effects to a Confundus charm. I would say memory charm, but I don't think it erases your memory, but rather just confuses the ones who ingest them."

Emmeline exhaled a sigh of relief when Professor Myers sent her letter away to be read after class. She gave him a small smile, nodded, and skipped over to sit on the ground next to one of the pretty flowers. And then Isa was there and making her a flower crown! Coooool!!! She BEAMED at the older girl and chirped, "Thanks, Isa! It's sooo pretty!!!" Not too long after that, they were joined by Stasya and Miss Skylar at their flower thing; Emmeline shot both girls a biiiig smile and said, "Hiiii guys!! Your costume is sooo pretty, Stas! And yours, Isa!" 'Cause she'd totally forgotten to say that earlier, ooops. Though really, she was also kind of relieved that Miss Skylar was in normal Hogwarts robes too; at least Emmeline wasn't the only person sitting at this flower without a full costume on.

Derf was in costume, too, though he had lingered by the door. He was obviously dressed up as a creature, but Emmeline couldn't properly see what kind of creature from her seat -- just that he had loooooads of feathers on. She shot him an encouraging smile and a wave from her spot, 'cause the greenhouse was even more full of plants than usual, and she imagined that it would be super hard for him to come in. Maybe the professor would be nice and let Derf go do something fun instead?

Annnd then Zoryn happened. Emmeline was instantly jealous of the slightly older girl. Zoryn was always suuuuper dramatic, and she'd been totally fine earlier that day, so the second year had a STRONG suspicion that Zoryn wasn't really sick. She bit her lip, fully expecting Professor Myers to take 5 zillion more points from Gryffindor, but...he believed her!!! Emmeline's mouth fell open and her eyes widened in shock; she was DEFINITELY jealous and totally going to ask Zoryn how she'd faked being sick that well later in the common room, mhm. The twelve-year-old was super quick to plaster a sympathetic look on her face, though, in case Professor Myers looked over at the wrong moment.

There was another older witch observing this lesson, but Emmeline didn't have to stress about it much at ALL 'cause Professor Myers introduced her to the class and she was obviously related to Miss Hattie somehow. Some tension bled out of the Gryffindor's shoulders once she heard the name, mhm.

Ugh, then it was time for Professor Myers to do loads of talking. 'Cept Emmeline was surprised that he was telling stories about this lotus thing instead of the usual boring facts.... She found herself paying waaayyy more attention than usual, just 'cause the stories were kinda cool. Not a typical Herbology lecture at all, thank Merlin. She was eeeven going to try to answer the professor's first question and stuff, something that she usually tried to avoid in this subject. The second year lifted her hand and tentatively asked, "Is it like goblin fruit, Professor? Y'know, that stuff that makes you forget eeeeverything else and just eat and eat and eat it? I think the magic is like a spell that makes you suuuuuuper focused only on eating the fruit and stuff, so that you forget life and your surroundings and EVERYTHING." It was scary stuff, mhm. But then, from the professor's stories, maybe goblin fruit and this lotus fruit were the same thing?? Emmeline eyed the flower that her group was sitting next to suspiciously, almost like she expected it to suddenly burst full of addictive fruit. Which, if she was being honest, she sort of did.

Jonas was late! Okay. Not that late but still! He had to calm himself outside the greenhouses. Okay. Just quietly walk in and find a place. He walked into the green house trying to be quiet as possible. He barely noticed the gient lotus tree as he was trying not to be seen.

Olivia blinked when Professor Myers said that he didn't know what an X-Men was. Umm... Um... She bit her lip and was about to tell him about it when she realized more students had arrived. Well she'd tell him laaaaaater. And then he mentioned that her daughter was here? Saaaay whaaaaat?

She glanced around the room until she noticed Dora's costume. Hello Persephone. Now where was Hades hiding so she could give him a good talking to...? Ohhh.... She gave Dora a quick thumb's up.

Niiiiice.

"Based on the stories, Professor, I'd assume that the fruit affects memory?" Kind of like a car crash that stole memories... except in this case you could regain them. She frowned... This lesson was beginning to remind her about her.... her mother. "It makes you forget about your present task. Or perhaps it has memory altering properties?" Not only that it would take away their memories but maybe alter it.

She had the sneaking suspicion that Professor Myers wasn’t taking her confusion seriously at all, and combined with her bad experiences with herbology in the past along with the fact he’d upset Emmeline and taken lots of points away from Gryffindor, it wasn’t making Stasya feel like she’d made the best decision in trying out the subject again. But at least Emmeline seemed to be in a sort of better mood, and shed given her bestie a big smile at the compliment. Her costume wasn’t half as amazing as Isa’s was, or Derf’s as she noticed him over by the door. Over by the door and not moving at all, which made her feel horrible. That and she wanted to go over and help him, like he’d tried to do in History of Magic. Even if she had all sorts of conflicting thoughts in her head, she didn’t want her friends to be hurting. Especially not the ones she’d actually trusted with the knowledge of those thoughts in her head.

Therefore, and with only a passing moment of attention that Zoryn’s act had worked and the older girl actually was being sent to the healer instead of having to deal with the lesson, the thirteen-year-old had gotten up from her flower petal near Isa, Emmeline and Skylar, who had gotten a little wave from her as she’d passed her, she headed over to her feathered friend (who wasn’t the bird in Isa’s headpiece) and slid her hand in his, or around his hoof glove because that was what she could get to. Quiet support, because even if she didn’t particularly trust the professor in question, she wasn’t going to cause a scene in front of the older woman. The Board of Governors lady who wasn’t Henry’s mama so she didn’t know her. She’d just stay with Derf. Yep.

Well, and she raised her hand, the one not holding Derf’s awkwardly. “Maybe the fruits mess with people’s emotions. Make them really happy and that’s why the stories said they forgot everything at home and wanted to stay eating them instead?” Instead of being memory fruits like everyone else was saying. A fruit that cheered people up sounded way better than an evil potion using animal parts to do the same thing.

Ugggh.

Harriet had forgotten that her mother was going to be observing this lesson. She'd known of course. Vannie wouldn't have been able to come to Hogwarts without letting her daughter know. Hattie was just hoping that her mother didn't embarrass her. She did not need that at all. But it didn't mean she wasn't going to answer and stuff. Since she knew that would annoy her mother more. So she just tried to forget that her mother was here.

She made notes as the professor spoke, writing carefully so that she would be able to read them later. Hmm. She thought of an answer before raising her arm into the air. "Uh. Like you said, there must be some sort of addictive sort of quality in the fruit, which makes people keep wanting to eat them" Otherwise they'd just eat and move on. Which therefore made sense.

Vanessa smiled at Professor Myers. She knew he probably thought he had an advantage having a board member he knew well,
but Vannie wasn't about to go easy on him. "Yes. We're still on for that drink" She'd informed her husband she'd probably be late home tonight.
So they had all the time in the world. She observed around the classroom as she waited for the lesson to begin. It looked great. Paul certainly knew that he was doing. She was very impressed.

She did a little wave as he introduced her. She wasn't scary. And surely they would all figure out she was Hattie's mom. Hopefully that would help.
As the lesson began, Vannie began to make some simple notes. So far so good. She was impressed. For now.

Etta carefully listened to the story, making sure she was noting down all the important points ‘cause that was a lot of information, goodness. Once the professor was finished, she listened to her classmates give answers, agreeing with a couple of them.. she finally raised a hand to answer, looking down at her notes for a moment.

“From what I can understand, the fruit confuses people’s thoughts and emotions? And eating too much of the fruit might permanently affect their memory..” Her voice trailed off as she jotted down another couple of points on her parchment, before looking up at the professor again. Had she guessed right?

He didn't have to sit close to it? Derf was peeeeeeeerfectly fine with that and had decided right then and there that he would be sitting riiiiiiight over here by the doorway. Thanks, Professor Myers! Although this little ray of hope was put out only a few seconds later when the Herbology professor proudly announced that they were workied with DREADED plants today.

Yeah. Sure. No harm. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuure. THINGS THAT WERE CALLED DREADED WHERE NOT SUNSHINE, RAINBOWS, AND LOLLIPOPS! HE SAT ON A THRONE OF LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIES.

Needless to say...Derf was too busy getting himself situated riiiiiiiight there in the doorway to really hear everything the man was say - which was A LOT of information so oops? Maybe he could get notes from Jessa later or something...and the question posed went riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight over his head.

He only reaaaaaaaally started paying any sort of attention when he felt someone's hand wrapping around his rubber hoof. Blinking, it took several moments of staring to register that Stasya had left her seat and joined him by the door. "......hi...." he whispered, wigging his arm a little since he couldn't really squeeze her hand back or anything to say thank you.

And for any and all confused parties, he was a hippogriff. You know, symbol of the Greek god Apollo.

Board of Governors. Vanessa... Paton?

Vivian took a moment to look back at the woman who apparently shared the same surname with Hattie and Head Boy Frankie. But then she mentally made the connection, as she also looked at Hattie. Was that her mama? Perhaps so.

Anyway, back to the actual lesson. Which had sooo muuuuch information about Greek mythology and GOSH, a Percy what series? It was a shame Vivian didn't read much books that had nothing to do about school. Not that she didn't appreciate literature, but she just wasn't that much of an avid reader. Nevertheless, the prefect scribble some more notes down on her parchment, noting that she'd have to rewrite these again during her spare time tonight.

But okay, the lotus fruit wasn't exactly a lotus either. At least she had been able to absorb that information. "Maybe it has something to do about making someone hungry despite how much he or she has eaten, Professor?" Personally, Vivian wouldn't eat more than what her stomach could handle. So there was that.

Oliver thought it sounded like something that made you forget..
But not the way a forgetfulness potion did. No, it seemed different. Like a stasis of sorts,
but how did that work? It didn't make much sense to him.

"Professor, it sounds like a potion in theory. Something you ingest that changes your state of mind? But it sounds more complicated than a forgetfulness potion." Nature naturally would come up with something more complex than something simple that did something very complicated. Even if it was fictional.

Interesting. Katy petted the petal she was sitting on and considered the professor's story. It was fascinating to see how ancient peoples understood plants and magic. Was there truth to the myth? Something hidden in it that held a kernel of truth?

"Professor, perhaps it impacts will over memory. If you lose your desire or will power to complete a task, then it doesn't matter if you know the task exists... you just don't care to do it." Speaking from experience here.

Scarlett honestly had NO idea what these plants did. But it seemed to be the general consensus that these fruits did something to your memory. So that was what she was going to go with. Sure. Sounded good to her.

She raised her hand. "Does it affect your memory?" she guessed.

Sam had grinned as her bestie plopped down beside her. "You look awesome," she commented quietly. Because although she'd already seen the costume when Dora was helping with her head of snakes, she truly did. Stunner, yup. And she wouldn't say no to sharing the fruit after class either. "Sounds yummy."

And was Myers avoiding eye contact with her? It took her a moment to realise why, and then she chuckled. Consider that a challenge, Professor!

But with the beginning of class, notes needed to happen, and Sam drew her gaze to her parchment. There was certainly a fair bit to note down about the myths about lotuses...even though they appeared to be learning about persimmons today, which were called lotuses once upon a time but aren't the same sort of addicting kind? Maybe?

NEWTs studies were confusing.

Lots of people had mentioned memory-related stuff already. That seemed a strong effect for a fruit though. Like...why would it evolve that trait, assuming they were talking about a real fruit here, and not still just a mythical one? If people ate it and never remembered enough to move, the seeds would never get spread...leading to overcrowding and probably, given the addicting part, over-predation.

Confounding seemed more likely - say, causing a person to meander from plant to plant. Or some sort of lust for more? She raised her hand to get Myer's attention. Here, Professor Cyclops! Come look into Medusa's eyes! "I think a confounding effect, perhaps. Combined with a sort of lust for more."

Paul knew he would get many answers involving memory, so he wasn't surprised by Kyle's guess. "Sort of. Memory...is involved, but...it's not as...black and white as that," he said with a nod. But he'd explain.



Ooohhh! "Really? I wasn't aware of that! How interesting! Unfortunately for us, that is...not the case of our lotus fruits here," he smiled. "But thank you for that!"



Disconnection fruit. "That's kind of what is happening, yes. Interesting way to put it Kitty," he said gently. The mask on his head was beginning to irritate him...blegh. "Actually...Circe just uses magic. Not a fruit that I can remember...and if so, it certainly wasn't a lotus!" Because Circe was a witch and all...but he could be forgetting specific details. He hadn't read the Odyssey in its entirety in a few years.



"Oh, the flowers aren't the part that cause the magic--" he went to the normal sized tree and NOT the enlarged flowers and plucked one of the orange-looking-plum-things. "As I mentioned before----" if she had been paying attention??? "They kind of taste like dates and plums mixed together. If you're lucky enough to not eat a magical one." He cleared his throat. Perhaps she had missed that part? "But I'm not sure it makes people confused....in fact...hmm..we'll get into it, but I do like that you've made the difference between erasing memory and confundling someone," he thought it was quite a distinction, too.



...well, seeing as everyone else was being very still, Paul's eyes immediately flickered to the boy who was LATE. He sighed and rubbed his face. "Thank you for joining us, Jonas. 1 point from Slytherin for the tardiness, then." The boy had plenty of opportunity to make it up, but yeah.



Paul smiled at another memory answer. He wondered himself if focus affected memory in such a...straight forward way, but he was trying to...get at, basically, was that it was more complicated than that. "Good guess, m'dear, and many of you think memory is involved in the fruit's magic."



Paul saw the gesture and smiled. "Well, Miss Stasya, two points to Gryffindor for your kindness and consideration for your friend. I enjoy seeing positive vibes floating around my Greenhouse." Plus, he knew this must be a bit much for poor Derfael.

OooOOOHH! "That is...FASCINATING, m'dear. And something to keep in mind, yes!"




Paul merely smiled at Vanessa once as he looked around for more answers, and his eyes automatically swept over to Hattie's raised hand. "Well, yes," but he wanted something a bit more...specific than addiction, which he didn't much want to go into in Herbology class. But it wasn't a bad answer. There were NO bad answers.



Emotions, thoughts, AND memory....Etta had all three! Hmm... "Interesting that you would connect all three of those, Etta. Interesting." Was all he said in reply. Because memory.... well. He wasn't so sure.



Well, Paul didn't MIND Derf staying there, not at all! In fact, he should have expected it! He merely shot the boy a grin and moved on to a raised hand. Because he couldn't linger on people who had nothing to add. Not that having nothing to add was a bad thing; sometimes, you wanted to stay quiet, and that was quiiiiiite the prerogative. Paul hadn't always been teeming with answers himself in school.



OOOOOOOOHH. "THAT is quite the creative answer, Miss Fairfield. FASCINATING!" he beamed.



Paul was glad to see those wheels turning in young Lupin's head. "Yes, Mr. Lupin, correct. It ISN'T as simple as forgetting....you're definitely correct! Nice!"



WILL OVER MEMORY???

Paul grinned. "I think you MIGHT be on to something, m'dear. MHmmmmmm!" Smart cookie, that Katy Toussaint.



Well then.

Paul smiled gently at the badger. "Umm....we'll see. But...as Mr. Lupin said, I think it MAY be more complicated than just memory..."



Another confounding answer! Heh! He CERTAINLY didn't look into her eyes, not even now. He was staring at her FEET. "Lust for more.......intttttteresting. Kind of like what---" Who had said it? "Wanting to eat MORE...making you hungry......" he forgot who had said that already O___o



Firstly, "What is...goblin fruit?" he asked curiously. SHOULD HE KNOW THIS?

And secondly, "Actually, Emmeline, you're quite right!" he grinned, surprised himself. "I'm not sure I would say forget is the right term, but your answer is the closest to the correct one!" he clapped a few times for her.

"The correct answer is....ALLLLL of you kind of had it right." Emmeline had it the MOST right. "But the fruit affects...a lot of different things at once. Firstly..." he grinned, "As soon as you taste, it wipes out all your other desires for anything....EXPECT eating more of the fruit. If a desire is considered part of memory...which, I'm not sure it is..but maybe it is, but I think it more affects the connections in your brain...your WILL, as Miss Toussaint said" He paused for just a second, in case anyone was taking very avid notes, and then continued, "... you don't forget anythinG, PER SAY, but you....you aren't focused on it. Your other things in life....I...I can't say exactly because I've never eaten this fruit...but one day, I will. For science." He nodded. Not sure it was smart to announce that to the class, but, well. It was the truth!

"There IS a potion that is used to take you out of the state of the lotus, as I call it," he reached into his...........non existent POCKETS DAMN IT. "Well, I meant to bring the vial, but basically...there is an antidote people have created SOLELY to help people who have ingested the fruit."

He gestured to the tree behind him. "To clarify, since there seems to be some confusion, the tree contains both the flowers AND the fruit. The fruits are the magical part. Some of them, not all of them. This tree might contain a total of ten magical fruit...fifteen...over half. Each tree is different, and it's sort of a mystery as to how it happens, even now." He even went so far as to pluck one daintily from the branch and hold it up for everyone to see. "I didn't much want to enlarge one of these guys. So I only did the FLOWER part for you all to sit on." Especially with the affects of this damn fruit. He didn't need that sort of chaos for the lesson that was being OBSERVED by Vanessa Paton.

"Before you fret, though, there IS a way to tell which fruit on the tree are magical..and which mundane. Remember...." He smirked, "Magic always leaves a trace, even in magical plants." Little known factoid. "There is a play on the sperevelio spell that is used to determine when plants have magical properties, and yes, it will work on any plant that is magical as opposed to mundane. It is useful for times like these, when the magical and mundane fruit counterparts are identical to each other which doesn't happen all too often. The spell is naturaba revelio For an interesting extra tidbit, the whole long form is natura herba revelio, but the words natura and herba combined to make it easier to say. It was a bit of a mouthful at first," he shook his head in slight disproval.

"SOOOO...say it slowly. It's NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO. It means...to reveal the nature of the plant." He pulled out his wand, and held the lotus fruit aloft in his other hand. "Wand motion is a simple flick in the direction of the plant or...fruit. Natura Revelio!" Paul waited to see...but....nothing. "Nothing happened to this fruit, meaning....it is MUNDANE. Now before we get into ACTUALLY doing it...let's practice. Wand movement...and how to SAY it......GO!" he gestured wildly at them all.


OOC: WHOOOOH thanks for being patient with me! Had another busy day and will be having ANOTHER day tomorrow, lmao. So it might be more than 24 hours again before we move on. So BEAR WITH ME. <3 You all are lovely.

You may take as many posts as you want to practice, and chit chat is always allowed in Paul's lessons when they are given a task. So basically...HAVE FUN. Practice wand movement AND pronunciation! <3

KETChUP (catchup) posts ALLOWED!

Natura Revelio.

Say whaaaat? How did...... What did that mean and could he say that again? Was that.....

NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO?

Yes, yes, that had been it... She thought. Olivia blinked before she scribbled down the pronunciation in her notebook. Merlin. "Nate-ur-AH-nah revelio!" she repeated as she wrote it again in her notebook.

"Nate-ur-AH-nah revelio! Nate-ur-ah-nah revelio! Nate-ur-ah-nah revelio! Nate-ur-ah-nah revelio!"

She nodded. Alright, that sounded... right?

Now the wand movement. A simple flick of her wand towards the fruit..?

Etta carefully listened to what the professor said, making sure she didn’t miss a word. Taking notes AND trying to focus on what he was trying to explain was difficult at the same time.. but she did note down the spell that he’d mentioned that would help to reveal the nature of the plant. HUH. Professor Myers always tried to keep things different in his lessons, didn’t he? Heh, anyway. Now, how was she to pronounce it again?

“Nate-ur-AH-bah revelio... Nate-ur-AH-bah revelio... Nate-ur-AH-bah revelio.. Nate-ur-AH-bah revelio..” She repeated it a few times until she was sure that she’d gotten the pronounciation right. The wand movement was simple enough. A simple flick in the direction of the plant, right? But she did practice it a few times before she quickly jotted down the wand movement on the parchment.

Felicity's hand was honestly starting to cramp with the speed of her note taking, and she began to wonder if it was time to invest in a Quick Quotes Quill. Of course, she was sure the brainier of her friends wouldn't approve, and she had heard that they could be pretty unreliable, so it looked like she was just going to soak her hand at the end of the day.

Not nearly quite as exciting. She flexed her fingers a few times after putting down her quill, before picking up her wand. Simple flick. That shouldn't be too hard, but of course you never really knew how much or how little flicking was needed. Moving her wand a few times, Liss glanced back down at her parchment where she'd written down the incantation and its pronunciation.

"Nature....no, Natur..ah... naturaba revelio ..."

Jonas rolled his eyes. Only one point? That was it? He should consider himself lucky it wasn't more. He sighed. Okay spell work huh? Oooookay. Let's see then. Tue spell. Interesting name. Okay. With out using his wand, he started to pronounce the spell to make sure he was getting it right.
"Nate-ur-AH-nah revelio Nate-ur-AH-nah revelio Nate-ur-AH-nah revelio" okay sounds simple enough.

Eh? What was that? Flowers didn't cause the magic? There was separate fruit and flowers? Hmm, somehow she missed that part, to which Skylar made some annotations in her notes regarding what Professor Myers was saying and clarifying.

Oh, so mundane and magical fruits were present? And there was a spell to tell the difference? Which had revelio in it, something that came as no surprise to the fifth year. At least something was making sense. "NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO," Skylar practiced, with her enunciation ... Wait, why did it sound like a B was it? Was the B silent? "NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO" Skylar said again, this time adding a flick toward the fruit in question.

Nothing happened. Which meant, what exactly? There was no B sound? Or it was mundane the fruit?

This fruit was kind of interesting, if not a bit scary. It made you addicted to it so you would only want to eat it and do nothing else? He certainly did not want to fall under the spell of something like that. Olly did have a question though, so he raised his hand. "How much of the fruit is needed to have an effect? Is just one bite enough to put you under its spell? What if I just lick a drop of the juice?" He was also in that potion Professor Myers had mentioned? Did it only work as an antidote to this fruit? Could it or something similar work against an addiction to or obsession with something else? That wasn't really relevant to the lesson at hand so he just made a mental note to look that up on his own later.

They were being observed again, of course. Why were their lessons always being observed nowadays. Wait, did he say Vanessa Patton? As in Hattie Patton? Olly leaned toward Hattie. "Psst. Hattie. Is that your mom?"

Oh, they were doing a spell now. Well they weren't doing the actual spell yet but they were practicing saying it. The wand movement was just a flick so he didn't even bother practicing something as simple as that. The incantation, though, sounded kind of like a tongue twister. "Naturaba Revelio." He said it slowly, making sure to get all of the syllables of each word. When he felt more confident he said it faster until it sounded like a real incantation.

Oooooh, the class was starting to get interesting. Vivian made mental scenarios as Professor Paul continued to discuss the nature of the lotus plant. What if someone ate the magical fruit instead? That would have been hilarious, she thought.

... But apparently, that spell was kind of a mouthful for Vivian. However, she wasn't going to complain as the first original incantation was longer. The prefect scribble a few notes down before taking a moment to actually practice the pronunciation. The wand movement wouldn't be a problem. A flick? Psssh, easy.

NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO. "Natu...." Okay, still a mouthful. "Nate-ur-ah-bah Revelio." Vivian took a few more attempts to let the syllables roll off her tongue easily. This was why she needed help with Charms, apparently. "Naturaba Revelio...."

She was right? She'd gotten a question right...in Herbology?? Emmeline was pretty sure that that was the first time EVER, and she couldn't stop her lips from curling up a little bit when the professor said that she was the closest. Still, sort of right was close enough for Emmeline -- especially in this subject. As she listened to all of the professor's talking (and started becoming WAY more disturbed, to be honest), Emmeline's gaze flicked towards Stasya and Derf sitting by the door. She felt a little...uncomfortable sitting where she was without Stasya. Even though she didn't think Isa or Miss Skylar would let Professor Myers do anything to her from here, the door and her veeeery best friends seemed like a MUCH safer place to do this lesson from, mhm.

Plus, she should've done what Stasya did as soon as she'd noticed Derf lingering in the doorway -- gone over to him riiight away. So as soon as Professor Myers dismissed them all to spell practice, Emmeline hopped up and made her way over to Stasya and Derf's side before plopping back down next to them on the ground. She smiled a little sheepishly and said, "Hiii guys! Want some chocolate?" 'Cause she had some in her bag, she was pretty sure. Also, Luna was hiding in one of the outside pockets of her bag too; her little pink nose was barely visible if you looked carefully at the right one. Emmeline preferred to keep her pygmy puff close these days 'cause of the rodents that had been killed to make the blood bird -- but she'd stopped letting the purple fluff ball ride around in her robes after the vines thing in DADA. She'd had plenty of nightmares over the past couple weeks about what would've happened if she hadn't left Luna sleeping in her dorm that day...

Anyway, back to this spell. This lotus fruit stuff didn't sound good at ALL; Emmeline was almost positive that it was another name for the "goblin fruit" that her family had told her about when she was reallllly little. And that her big brother had reminded her to stay away from in the greenhouses at Hogwarts before he went off to Durmstrang and she came here last year. Which meant that it was SUPER dangerous and stuff, mhm. She shot her friends a skeptical look and went on softly, "Luna's free for cuddles too if you want. I don't like the sound of this fruit at ALL..."

It just seemed all too easy to use this sort of thing for evil. It didn't even have to be Professor Myers who used it that way, though after her detention Emmeline thought that he was definitely scary enough to do something like that. Just the fact that there were loads of it HERE and it came from allll of these flowers, if she'd heard that right -- well, that was a biiiiig supply of scary fruit that could be used for alll sorts of bad things, mhm.

That just meant that learning this spell was a realllly good idea, though. Emmeline figured that it could be super important some day -- like life and death important, maybe. So she pulled her wand out and practiced the flicking movement that Professor Myers had shown them several times, 'till she was comfortable with it. Then she moved on to sounding out the incantation, saying "NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO, NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO," under her breath several times until it rolled off her time like any other spell that she'd known for a long time. 'Cept Emmeline had spotted a bit of a flaw in learning this spell, mhm. She raised her hand and asked Professor Myers tentatively: "Uhhh, Professor... But if we're just LEARNING this new spell, how do we know if it's doing nothing 'cause the fruit isn't magical or if it's doing nothing 'cause we don't have the spell down yet?" She hoped her question made sense. 'Cause her new spells almost never did anything anyway the first time she tried them for real and stuff. Sometimes it even took her multiple attempts to get the spell to do anything at all -- and that seemed like possibly a dangerous gamble, depending on what activities the professor had planned.