"I'm a Greek vigilante." He added the Greek part, since it was Greek mythology day and all. But yeah, basically.

Oh, two different types of lotus. Honestly, he should've known, considering that the flowers weren't sitting giant pools of water or anything. Though, he'd never heard the story of Odysseus and his men before, so that would also explain his confusion. (If he'd had, he would've said he was Odysseus, tee-hee.)

Never having heard the story before, he had no idea about what the fruit could be affecting. The whole thing was a new concept to him, as he wasn't used to fruit having that kind of effect. Potions and spells, yes, but not fruit. So he sat silent, taking notes as his classmates answered. Of course, the whole thing turned out to be much more complex than any of them thought. Honestly, the whole situation sounded like something that Ronan would much rather avoid all together. Luckily, there was a spell for that.

"Nate-ur-ah-bah revelio. Nate-ur-ah-bah Revelio. Nate-ur-ah-bah Revelio." The first word sounded a little weird to his ears. But then again, the reason behind the spell was weird too, sooo. "Naturaba revelio."

Harriet was trying to avoid the attention of her mother. Whilst she loved her mom she really didn't want to get distracted from the lesson. This was her fifth year and she really needed to pay attention. Okay. So she was kind of right. She guessed her answer wasn't that herbology based, but she had tried at least. She didn't know everything, otherwise she wouldn't be here. She made some notes though, wanting to be able to come back to them when she was revising later.

But now they got to practice a spell. Yay! Hattie loved learning new spells. She listened carefully to Professor Myers as he spoke, wanting to make sure she understood everything. And now she could try the spell herself. She practiced the wand movement a few times, flicking her wand in one direction and another. That was pretty simple. She liked that. She liked simple. Then she spent the next few moments saying the incantation. "Natura Revelio" She repeated, about 10 times, until it felt natural in her mouth.

Perfect. Could she practice the actual thing now?

Vanessa was pretty impressed with the lesson so far.
She'd alway enjoyed herbology herself, and knew that some questions she'd asked her daughter that Paul's lessons seemed to be pretty interesting. As he spoke to the class, she made some notes on her parchment. She didn't make long winded notes, not wanting to get herself distracted from what was going on, and miss something that was happening.

Oh. And a spell. That was interesting. And good. He was getting them to practice before they actually tried out the spell. Yes. She liked that. Brownie points earnt their Professor Myers.

So far so good.

Paul heard Oliver's question and paused a bit before answering. "SOOOO Oliver has a good question! HOW MUCH of the fruit has to be consumed to get the affect? Well...EVEN the smallest amount of ingesting it will cause the affect. It isn't more POTENT if you eat the entire fruit, but...the magic is strong enough to affect you even with just drinking the juice..or the smallest of bites." He thought it was a good clarification to make.

"Thank you for asking, Oliver!" he winked.



Paul grinned. "You will SEEEEE once we actually DO the spell." And Paul began to search the tree while they practiced...for a fruit that WAS magical. SO they could get an idea of what it might looked like once they began the activity.

Still no eye contact. Quite the opposite, given he seems to be taking a whole lot of interest in her feet. She wiggled her toes at him, a wry smile on her face. Oh, you're good, Professor Cyclops. She'd have to try harder.

First though, she needed to practice the incantation. Naturaba Revelio. She smiled a little at the longer form Myers mentioned; as someone who had a bad habit of dropping her leading Hs, this was certainly going to be easier to manage. The herba in the middle would have been unlikely to turn out well in Sam's natural accent. She started out by sounding it out slowly, getting the feel of the words in her mouth. "Nate-ur-ah-bah revelio. Nate-ur-ah-bah revelio." And when that became comfortable, she sped it up. "Naturaba revelio."

Didn't seem too difficult.

And the wand movement. She pulled her wand from her robes and gave in a light flick. Seemed about right. Could she have a go with a fruit now? She kinda wanted to find a non-magical one to try with Dora's pomegranate after class...

Maddie found herself hanging on to every word her Head of House said. His class was so interested, and it was so much more than just learning about plants! She liked the story of the kid named Percy, and how there was something about fruit casting a spell on the fruit eaters. It was like STORY TIME in class!

Maddie looked toward the guest in the classroom and decided to do her very best not to sabotage the professor's lesson. He was SUPER AWESOME, and she hoped he did really well on whatever it was the guest was looking for. She wondered why there were so many guests in all the classes, but since she was a firstie, for all she knew, the guests had always come to class. Maybe this was nothing new at all...

With her attention on the guest, she sort of missed the first question asked, but she made sure to focus on the next part of the lesson. The professor was SUPER long-winded, but Maddie thought she got the gist of what was going on, and it sounded pretty cool. "NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO," she said, repeating what the professor had said. Okay, time to get some practice in!

There was lots and lots of note taking going on, this was Juniper after all! So with that said she may or may not have been aware of the others practicing incantations and wand movements. She was just tied up taking notes on lotus flowers and persimmons… It wasn’t like she was writing in her notebook Mrs. Ry… mmm. You get the point. Like most girls her age.

Maybe she did maybe she didn’t. Her attention went back to Herbology and the language of spells. Naturaba revelio That just rolled off of your tongue like sweet honey. She said it a few times out loud.

“Naturaba revelio, Nate-ur-ah-bah. Naturaba revelio, Nate-ur-ah-bah.”

Now the wand movement was a simple flick? Or just a flick, flick? Ugh The flicks always got her. She could pronounce the incantations fine. It was flicking wand movements. "Professor What kind of flick is it?" She raised her hand before asking. Could he show it again?

Flick. Flick. Flick.

Flop.

Sitting was good. Even over by the doorway, it wasn’t like they couldn’t hear the lesson going on. Stasya had heard the points she’d been given for going over so Derf wasn’t all by himself over here really clearly, after all. So it wasn’t like she was worried they wouldn’t learn anything. Even if Derf really didn’t want to interact with the weird memory fruits. So far, all that had happened was finding out the her answer had been fascinating, which she decided wasn’t a bad thing, and also that Emmeline had been right. Which put a big smile on the slender blonde’s face as she sat right next to Derf, keeping her hand wrapped around his hoof since he hadn’t seemed bothered by it. She knew that had to make her bestie happy. That and she’d turned slightly to reply to Derf’s greeting in a whisper too. “hi”

But the lesson had continued, and she’d returned her attention to Professor Myers as he spoke about a spell that would reveal magic plants. That seemed like an awfully useful spell, even if she was still not entirely sure about the lotuses or persimmons or whatever it was hanging from the branches of the tree. It could be used anywhere, like the other spell he’d mentioned too. The sperevelio one.

She’d sent a grin over to Emmeline as she’d joined them at the door party. “good job on the answer thingy,” she whispered to her, slipping her wand out awkwardly given the hand still attached to Derf. It was easier since the wand shop lady had agreed a leg holster was better than a wrist one though, way back before last term even though her arms were longer now. She still used the same holster. Luna cuddles and chocolate would be welcome, but she’d let Derf have them first. Meanwhile, she’d quietly practice like Emmeline was doing too. “Nate-ur-ah-bah revelio. Nate-ur-ah-bah revelio. Nate-ur-ah-bah revelio. Naturaba revelio,” she repeated to herself several times.

She could practice the wand movement later. Flicks were pretty easy and she still had a Derf to support.

Okay....but...erm...Derf was a liiiiiiiiittle bit embarassed for some reason that Professor Myers was calling FULL ATTENTION to the fact that Stasya had come all the way over to him and was now holding his hand hoof. Granted, he truly was appreciative of the gesture. Honestly. Stasya was a great friend and her hand felt nice around his right now...but could the Herbology professor, you know, NOT do that?

Still, he managed a small smile at his friend for, you know, her good deed being rewarded.

Awkward duck as he felt about it.

Too busy ruffling his hair, Derf mostly missed ... er ... everything that the man was lecturing about. He was a bit too preoccupied with eyeing the giant flowers that he was just SURE were going to swallow someone up. Like that plant that had eaten TWO professors...or the one that had massacred his dog. It was all the Hufflepuff could do NOT to shout at everyone to get off the stupid things and run, but Stasya's hand around his was keeping him grounded for now. Sort of. The hoof was kinda sorta in the way.

It really wasn't until the nature of the particular spell of the day was brought up did Derf pay any real attention. "Wait...WAAAAAAAAAAIT!" he squeaked, his fingers tightening around Stasya's eagerly. "You mean I can KNOW what plants will KILL me and what WON'T?!" Because no mundane plant ate anyone.

He didn't want to admit it...but right now he could HUG Professor Myers.

"Naturaba Revelio..." he practically SANG as he turned his attention back towards his Gryffindor friend. Just in time for ANOTHER one of his Gryffindor friends to arrive. Derf definitely noticed the nose in her back,
seeing as he was notorious for doing this sort of thing in sneaking pets this way and that. "I'll take a little piece," he grinned. Because chocolate was magical, you know?

And he was going to need his hand back for this, clearly. "I'm okay," he nodded to Stasya as he freed his hand so he could wiggle the rubber hooves off both of them, dropping them to the floor of the greenhouse with a FLOP. NOW he could hold his wand properly and practice this GLORIOUS spell. "Naturaba Revelio...Naturaba Revelio...Naturaba Revelio...Naturaba Revelio," he chanted, doing a bit of an excited bum wiggle while doing so.

As she said the incantation over and over, Maddie started to get tongue-tied, and she realized that if she was really in need of this spell, she'd been a whole heap of trouble. She decided to break it up into small parts a few more times. She'd had the most success with that. "NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO," she said, breaking it up just the way the professor had done. "NATE-UR-AH-BAH REVELIO!" The flicking of her wand she could manage. It was just the incantation she thought she'd have trouble with.

"Naturablah Revelio!" she said, knowing that wasn't exactly right. "UGHHH." With a frown, she decided to take her wand out and practice a few good, strong flicks. Maybe it would give her some time to really think about the incantation and maybe start to get it right. With a sigh, she stopped flicking her wand and gripped it in her hand. Time to get that spell right! "Naturaba Revelio!" she suddenly exclaimed. Wait a minute...WAIT A MINUTE. "I DID IT!" she exclaimed.

The incantation. Not the whole shabang.

....what kind of flick? Paul had to chuckled, and then.... "A flick is a flick." And he FLICKED his wand to show her. "See? Flick." Kind of like...a back handed or a side handed...jab. Because a jab wasn't a flick, see.

.....Paul had to turn to Derf with a beaming smile, trying not to laugh, but nodded. "Yes, Derfael. You are correct. But not every magical plant will kill you, you know." He thought he should make that clarification.


But it was nearly time to move on! Everyone was doing so well -- Maddie Kemp seem particularly excited to get her wand movement and pronunciation down. "Wrap it up, guys, we've got to put this spell into practice!" he said loudly for everyone to hear him.

"YOUR TASK is simple! Collect four magical fruit each." Paul had been searching the tree for a magical one while they all practiced, and he had a normal looking persimmon fruit in hand. "Naturaba Revelio!" he said clearly, flicking his wand at the fruit. Suddenly, it had a faint glow to it, almost a sparkle, but in an instant it was gone. "You must use a KEEN EYE to spot these magical fruits. So you just point your wands at the fruit, give it a flick, and say the incantation. If the fruit glows, sparkles, whatever, it is a MAGICAL lotus that should absolutely NOT be eaten and simply placed in the baskets up here." Paul gestured at the baskets. "The fruits will be used in potion antidotes. So..they will NOT be staying here, and neither will the trees. Any mundane fruit you want to keep...go right ahead. I WILL need to check them before you leave." Because he was NOT accidentally letting lotus fruit into the school. He didn't need that nightmare!

Paul had been pacing while he spoke, loud enough for those in the doorway to here as well as those lounging on the plant. "This task seems relative easy, almost too easy. To make it a little more difficult---" Paul waved his wand at the lotus trees in the front of the room and....they began to uproot and...scuttle around the room. "The giant lotus flower behind you --" he waved his wand again, and it didn't start moving, but... "If you stumble back into the enlarged lotus, it will bounce you back!" Paul demonstrated by falling into one of the large larges, and it gently pushed him back up. "So don't worry about tripping and falling! Our lotus friend will help you."

His original plan had been quite different, but seeing Derf's reaction to the large lotus...he sort of had to...do a quick change of plans. NO need to traumatize the boy further. "SO.....BEGIN."



OOC: You all have TWO DAYS to collect four fruit. No post count required. Interact with each other, have fun with the moving lotus trees...etc. I BETTER SEE SOME ENTERTAINMENT HERE but also Paul says to remind everyone DO NOT SABOTAGE THE CLASS TODAY, PLS. Lol. All jokes aside, have fun, okay? That's the main point.

Catching up is always allowed! <3

Yeah, a lot of bad things happened to Odysseus and his crew. It took Odysseus a whole ten years to get home to his faithful wife Penelope. He had already been gone for a long time before the journey home, so the total amount of time away from home was more like twenty years. That was a crazy long time, even longer than Isa had been alive. Shocking, really, that it could take anyone ten years to travel a distance that wasn’t actually very far. A lot of crazy stuff happened to Odysseus on his journey home, and he was the lucky one who survived.

Huh, so the lotus was just a persimmon. Isa had eaten persimmons before and had definitely not experienced any effects like forgetting everything so she obviously hadn’t been eating the magical kind. That was a good thing. Wouldn’t want to forget everything that was important to her like her family, friends, and plants.

”Is the effect of the lotus sort of like a daydream charm or something that makes you think that everything else isn’t real?” Earlier when she walked in she had thought it was something that made people have hallucinations but that didn’t quite explain why the men in the Odyssey lost all desire for everything except eating more lotus fruit. It sounded like a terrible life, just eating lotus fruit all day and forgetting all about everything else. They had even lost their desire to go home to their families, and that sounded like the scariest thing ever. Isa never wanted to forget how important her family, friends, and plants were to her.

The magical lotus fruit made you lose focus of your other desires. Sounded sort of dangerous. At least there was an antidote for it as Professor Myers had told them about. Seemed like the sort of thing that was addicting, making you want more of the fruit and nothing else. Even so, Isa was curious about testing the effects in a controlled environment for science. There was an antidote, so she wouldn’t have to be stuck eating the fruit forever. She wouldn’t want to try it if it would leave her that way forever. ”Do the effects of the fruit wear off after time if you don’t eat more or don’t take the antidote?” Could she do more research about this with Professor Myers? "I'm interested in trying it for science with you! With all proper safety precautions and stuff of course." Was she allowed to participate in that? She would invite Jessa Cambridge too.

Oooh, some of the lotus were magical and some were non-magical. How did you tell the difference between the two? What had Professor Myers said about only some of the fruit being magical? Was he saying that one tree could produce both magical and nonmagical fruit? ”Can some of the fruit on one tree be magical and some non-magical, or are the trees fully magical or nonmagical? Why?” If Professor Myers had indeed said what she thought he said and only some of the fruit on one tree was magical, that was so weird. Why did that happen? Isa needed to do more research about this. She took notes on everything that Professor Myers was saying, wrote her questions in her notes, and marked which areas she wanted to research more about. This sounded like a very interesting topic.

There was still the question of how exactly you were supposed to tell the difference between a perfectly safe mundane persimmon fruit that could be eaten and a potentially dangerous magical one that could make her forget everything unless someone gave her the antidote. Isa listened intently as Professor Myers explained how magic always left a trace and the special spell that could be used to tell when plants had magical properties. She took notes on everything the herbology professor was saying and noted the long and shortened versions of the incantation. This was amazing! How had she been living her life before without this spell? ”Does the spell indicate what sort of magical properties the plant has? If not, do you know if such a spell exists?” Or was it purely for distinguishing magical and nonmagical? A spell that could indicate what the magical properties might be sounded like something that could really benefit herbology research. Isa made a note to research more about a spell that indicated what the magical properties of a plant were, and that somebody should invent one if it did not already exist.

Time to practice this amazing, life-changing spell that was probably the coolest thing ever. Isa started off by practicing saying the incantation just right. ”Naturaba Revelio! Naturaba Revelio! Naturaba Revelio!” She tried the long form of the incantion for fun too. ”Natura herba revelio! Natura herba revelio! Natura herba revelio!” It would work with both versions of the incantation, right? The short version was much easier to say though. That was why the simplified form existed in the first place. Isa practiced the wand movement separate from the incantation, flicking her wand towards the plant. Flick, flick, flick. ”Does the spell work for both the whole plant and specific parts of the plant?” How would they distinguish if they wanted it to be for the whole plant or just a part? Did it do the whole plant anyway and just indicate the magical parts? How did the plants work if they were only part magical?

So far they hadn’t actually tried the spell on the fruits, but Isa was eager to find out what would indicate a magical plant. ”What are the applications for this spell? Can it be used to find magical properties in plants that were previously thought to be a mundane variety?” Like the weeping willow they had learned about last term where the magical properties had recently been discovered? That was the sort of stuff that mum was interested in, finding magical properties in mundane plants and crossbreeding them with magical plants to get certain properties. Isa would have to write to mum to ask her more questions.

Patrick nodded his head as the professor continued to tell the students about the lotus flowers. He was very interested in what was going on. He scurried down his leaf and began practicing the motion of his wrist with his wand. "Nah-trah," with a shake of his head Patrick lowered his wand. He wasn't too sure that he was going to get this one right because his Kentucky accent seemed to only make saying this incantation a bit harder than it was for most.

"Naturaba," He said that part right this time, he looked down at his notes and began to try saying the last word. After a few seconds he managed to get the wrist movement and, "Naturaba Revelio" mumbled out correctly. Just as he had accomplished this task he heard Professor Myers speak up to the class.

Now the class would get to try and harvest the fruit. Needing only four, that meant that it wouldn't be too hard to obtain the fruits, or at least that's what Patrick was hoping. He walked over to a lotus and leaned in, just as he was about to look into the center of the flower, he fell forward onto the leaf harder than he thought. True to Professor Myers word, he bounced right back up.

Raising his wand, Patrick began the task of harvesting the fruit, "Naturaba Revelio." Absolutelly nothing happened with the fruit he had pointed his wand at, he wondered if it would even glow at all. He picked the fruit laying it on his table. Looking around he wondered if any of his classmates had found a magical fruit yet.

After practicing the spell, Vi turned her attention back to Professor Myers. They would have to harvest the fruit. The task at hand was to collect fruits using the spell that they had just learned but then Professor Myers said the lotus flowers had been enchanted so that they could bounce them back up if they fell. She wanted to check if the flower would do that and then Patrick had fallen into the leaf and then bounced back up. Oh. Cool.

Then Olivia took a few steps towards the tree and began examining the fruits. She found one almost at her eye level. Perfect. It seemed like every other one on the tree.... right? With a flick of her wand, she spoke the incantation, "Naturaba revelio" And hold up... She looked.... There was some type of shine to the fruit that she had her eyes on. Yes... There was a shine to it. A special sparkle. This must have been one of the special fruits.

She reached up and then picked a fruit, placing it in the basket.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayquilz

.....Paul had to turn to Derf with a beaming smile, trying not to laugh, but nodded. "Yes, Derfael. You are correct. But not every magical plant will kill you, you know." He thought he should make that clarification.

Nope. He SAW through this, totally. Luring the Hufflepuff into a false sense of security by providing him with the tools to make him THINK he was in control and safe WHEN REALLY...

He was going to save him thoughts for now.

"If you say so, professor," he nodded in disbelief.

Speaking of the professor...there was loads of talking again and the third year simply glanced back and forth between his to Gryffindor friends and his own wand rather than paying full attention. Which, you know, given the way today's lesson was structured probably wasn't the best of ideas. But collecting fruit? He could definitely do that!

He was scrambling towards one of the lotus trees before the professor had finished speaking and juuuuuuuuuuuust as he had plucked a fruit from its branches...it was moving. Roots up and out of the ground.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

HE HAD ANGERED THE TREE!

He had a fruit in his hand - one that he was waving about haphazardly at the moment as he went running around the greenhouse in a mild panic - BUT THE TREE WAS COMING AFTER HIM TO KILL HIM!

"DON'T LET IT MASSACRE MEEEEEEEE!"

Etta was still practicing the incantation when Professor Myers spoke. She listened, raising an eyebrow, as he explained that they had to collect the magical fruit using the spell they had just learnt. Interestiiing. She watched as the trees began to move so she quickly went about her task, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible.

The girl confidently walked up to the closest tree, trying not to get too close to it and carefully looked up at the fruits. Heh, they all looked the same. With a quick flick of her wand, she cast the spell, Naturaba Revelio.. and watched but nothing. So this wasn’t a magical fruit, after all. She eyed the tree as it continued scuttling, repeating the spell once again, aiming for another fruit. Ooooh, there it was! The faint glow.. great! She gently reached out to pick the fruit, dropped it into a basket.. but before she could move on to the next one, Derf seemed to be panicking.

He really had a difficult time during Herbology lessons, didn’t he? The prefect walked over to him, gently patting him on his back. “It’s alright. The tree isn’t going to hurt you, okay? You just go about picking your fruit.” Etta comforted him with a gentle smile. Poor kid.

She had juuust been about to break out the chocolate when Professor Myers started talking again. Not wanting to give him annnny excuse to take more points off her, Emmeline quickly shoved the food farther into her bag and out of sight. And what she heard was sooo NOT good! He wanted them to collect the magic, dangerously addictive fruit for him...

Potion antidotes. Right. Clearly, the fruits were just another element of whatever evil plan the professor had in mind for this term. Between addictive fruit and killer sand, he could do loooads of damage all sneakily. She was totally onto him, mhm. But it wasn't like she was going to risk saying anything here; she even made sure that she didn't give the professor any weird looks or anything to give her thoughts away. And of course she'd do the activity -- she wanted to know if the spell worked for one thing, and she was totally on her best behavior in Myers's lessons for another. The last thing in the whoole world that she needed was another detention with the Herbology professor.

Emmeline was only half-listening to all of the professor's talking, really. She'd heard the bit about the 4 magical fruits and tuned the rest of it out. Soo the events that followed in the greenhouse were totally a surprise and NOT in a good way.

One of the huge, pretty flowers scattered around the room had bounced a first year boy off it and stuff. Which was...weird and made no sense. Before she had time to do more than turn towards Stasya to ask what her friend thought about the whole thing, Derf was up and sprinting for a tree.

....That started sprinting back!!! Her eyes super wide, Emmeline jumped to her feet and stared at the tree chasing Derf around the greenhouse. She shot Stasya a panicked look, and asked her -- way more loudly than she'd meant to, oops-- "He has KILLER TREES too?!?!"

Miss Etta had gone over to Derf and was saying something that Emmeline couldn't hear to him. The Gryffindor held out a hand to help Stasya up, if she wanted, and then was taking off in the direction of the two Hufflepuffs before more than a few seconds had passed. She wasn't going to abandon her friend before the killer trees, nope.

'Cept she had forgotten that the flowers were also totally messed up. In her urgency to reach Derf and Miss Etta, Emmeline accidentally stepped on one of the biiiig pink flowers -- and was naturally bounced backward. She'd been going fast, though, soo the bounce landed her flat on her back on the ground a foot away or so. Owww...

Hopefully Miss Etta had stopped the killer tree by now.

Yay! They got to collect the fruit now! That made Harriet very excited! She loved being able to practice magic. And she hoped that she would be able to find herself some fruit. She jumped up, heading over to a section of the Lotus flower. She wanted to find some good magic fruit. She hoped that she would, though she didn't mind if she found some mundane fruit too. Not everything could be cool and magical. So that would be okay.

She searched reaalllllly hard trying to find herself some fruit. Ooh. There one was! She flicked her wand, doing the incantation whilst saying "Naturaba Revelio" Anddd waited. Ooh. It was glowing a little. That meant it was magical! She got a magical one for her first go. How cool was that! She was so excited about that. Beaming, she went and placed it into a basket, and then returned to find another few fruits. This was fun! She really liked it

Vanessa was impressed so far. Paul was explaining well,
and giving opportunity to practice the spells before they did the main task.
Vannie liked that way of teaching. She made a few notes, feeling content with what she was seeing. Ooh. And now the main task was starting.
Nicely timed. It seemed to be going well far so.

And making it more difficult? Interesting. It was nice that he could think on his feet. The brunette stood up, and had a little wonder around the room
as she students got on with the task. She did raise an eyebrow at a few reactions from students. Did they really think they were going to get mascaraed in a lesson? Interesting. She noted that down too.

Sam was pretty comfortable with the the spell, so she was ready to move on. She gave Myers her full attention as he explained the task, still trying to catch his gaze. It was a game she was enjoying muchly. Shame she was failing so badly at it.

And, of course, Professor Cyclops was upping the anti. No only did they have to find the magical fruits, but the trees were moving. Of course they were. Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if the Herbology professor had a penchant for chaos in his classroom.

Standing up from where she'd been perched, Sam crept up on one of the trees. There were a few low hanging fruit salad, but she left those for the firsties and aimed a little higher. "Naturaba Revelio!"

No glow.

She gave the fruit a little tug to pick it, before going to put it with her stuff. She was okay not trying the magical variety, but was curious and wanted to try the mundane one. She'd take it to Myers to check later.

Another tree, another check. "Naturaba Revelio!" This time there was the faintest of glows, and Sam picked it to place in the basket. One down, three to go.

...in the meantime, did any of the ickles need her help? There seemed to be some very strange misunderstanding about killer trees. They didn't seem too bad to her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady of Light

....She gently reached out to pick the fruit, dropped it into a basket.. but before she could move on to the next one, Derf seemed to be panicking.

He really had a difficult time during Herbology lessons, didn’t he? The prefect walked over to him, gently patting him on his back. “It’s alright. The tree isn’t going to hurt you, okay? You just go about picking your fruit.” Etta comforted him with a gentle smile. Poor kid.

OH OH OH ETTA TO THE RESCUE!

Why yes, Derf was just going to nonchalantly hide behind the older Hufflepuff while clutching his fruit to his chest thank you very much. "Are you SURE?!" he questioned skeptically. Because his mum had always insisted that her plants would never hurt him for this reason and that and, well, YEAH.

Rubbing his thumb over the orange fruit clutched in his fist, the third year had not realized just HOW hard he had been clenching it until, well....he felt some juices trickling down his wrist. Bright blue eyes flicking towards the moisture, Derf hardly realized he was moving until he had instinctively licking the juice off his wrist and fingers.

Oh...that was...nice.

...........really nice.

REALLY...REEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY nice...

Maybe just a bite of his fruit.

Or two.

.....okay seven.

.....okay....he needed another fruit.

Looking around a bit rabidly, Derf noticed the basket that Etta was plopping delicious treasures into...and snatched a second one right from it. Was easier than chasing down a tree, you know.

Yummy yummy yummy yummy.

Vivian repeated the incantation under her breath until it was actually time to give the spell a try.

But the fact that the lotus flower was charmed to help them back up when they stumbled excited the blond more than waving her wand around to reveal magical from mundane fruits. It sounded just like being in a bouncy castle. This fifteen year old definitely still had the heart of a kid.

Bouncing to her feet, Vivian made her way to find her first fruit victim. And indeed, the height difference between her and her classmates made her sigh a little bit. She was only two inches past five feet, so it didn't really help in this situation. There were probably more magical fruits up in the higher parts of the tree. Not wanting to lose fruits within her reach, the blond made her way to a place where there were a few fruits gathered almost together. "Naturaba revelio!" She flicked at the fruit, hoping for a tiny sparkle... but nah, it didn't.

Gee. Wow.

Spotting another one, the prefect flicked at the fruit too. "Naturaba revelio!" This one, it glimmered, which made Vivian grin in delight before reaching out to pick it and placing inside the basket. Hopefully there were still a few more magical fruits within her height.

Oh, and she intentionally went to step on the big lotus because WEEEEEEEEE. See? Fun!

After she had collected her first magical fruit Hattie hurried back over to the lotus trees. She wanted to get lots of fruits. She needed to collect three more anyway, so she needed to hurry up. She smiled, as she tip toed around her fellow class mates before finding herself a spot. She tried to pick a spot that not a lot of students were at. That meant she could have all of the fruit herself. Not that she didn't mind sharing, but this meant she would have more chance of finding the magical fruit. She hoped she would find some more.

She looked around for some fruit, and then she spotted a few. Yay! She was sure one of them had to be magical! ""Naturaba revelio!" She said, flicking her wand at the first fruit. Oh no. It didn't flicker or sparkle. It was not good. She sighed, shaking her head. That was disappointing. But moving on. She did the same at another fruit, and groaned. Oh no. Where was her luck going.

Maybe she'd have better look somewhere else. Shaking her head, she tried to find a better spot.

Julie wasn't about it. Point blank, she just wasn't. Herbo was... fine, and could be beautiful and interesting and cool, just as long as she wasn't the one doing it. She'd been born with brown thumbs, not green and usually she blustered through as hard as she could but today... She couldn't manage it.

Lotus flower. Homer. She ought to have been thrilled, but instead she was.... Dreading in a way that gave no meaning to the word dread. The spell work wasn't the hard part, it was going to be everything after. The thoughts turned and twisted and tumbled down to her gut until she felt nearly ill at the prospect of failing. "Professor!" Julie called out, unable to stop herself. Hand in the air, she had already risen from her seat.

Paul shot Isa a quizzical look at her first question about the fruit being like a daydream charm. "No...no, I would say not. Think of it like this...it...it reroutes your brain to literally only think about eating more fruit. The other stuff, like memories and other desires, are there....just pushed aside, in the back." He smiled though. But then...

SHE HAD A WHOLE SLEW OF QUESTIONS that Paul had no time to answer them all!

"Oh, absolutely not....you will NOT be trying them with me. Too dangerous, kiddo," he patted her head, though. "And I can answer all of those questions but you asked so MANY that I request to answer them later. At a later date, you know." Like, tomorrow, please, when his brain was not as crazy.

Because...whew.



"MR. DERFAEL, THEY WILL NOT MASSACRE YOU. These trees only eat sunlight, thank you," he said in an exasperated tone.

And the boy eating the fruit, so far, was going unnoticed by the fox-haired man.



Paul turned to look at Julie rapidly. "Yes, m'dear?" he asked gently as he approached the young snake. "You okay? You look as if you've seen a banshee." Which would make anyone look like that, okay? Paul could live his entire life without seeing one and be okay. He would die happily.

"No, you're probably right about Circe," she said when he mentioned that Circe didn't need any fruit because she was a witch. "It's been a long time since I read it too." And Professor Myers definitely knew more about Greek mythology than she did.

"Naturaba Revelio," she said, giving her wand the appropriate flick it needed. "Naturaba Revelio!" It was an easy enough spell and after a few times she thought she got the hang of it. "Naturaba Revelio!"

Satisfied with her mastery of the spell, it was now time to put her practice to the test along with everyone else. She confidently approached one of the trees and pointed her wand at the lowest hanging fruit.

"Naturaba Revelio!"

Having repeated the incantation and practiced on several times, Skylar felt comfortable enough with it. Only, when Professor Myers demonstrated it again for them, a fruit glowed. It was faint, but definitely there and then ... it wasn't. So what did that mean? Had she missed her fruit glowing, which was she hadn't thought it worked?

Okay, deep breath, you could do this. And then, her neighbor and self-proclaimed Herbology tutor (Isa) started exclamations of question after question and Skylar just stood there, petrified for a moment. Because yes she had questions about Herbology, but none of them were that focused. No, her questions were basic and juvenile in comparison and the fifth year just .... FOCUS. FOCUS. FOCUS. Skylar mentally scolded herself. "Naturaba Revelio," she whispered focusing her attention on the fruit, on the tree.

And then, enlarged lotus flower was swaying and Myers said something about it would bounce you back and that had Skylar wondering more juvenile thoughts. Like, what kind of bounce? Was it like one of those inflatable bounce-y houses? Could they fall into it on purpose just to see? Yes, she might have been fifteen years old, but her dorm room's signature food item was marshmallows.

Despite eying the enlarged flower with lust of wanting to experiment with it, Skylar reminded herself of the task. Collect four magical fruit. "Naturaba Revelio" She flicked at one of the fruits, and ... again, nothing. Maybe she was doing something wrong. Or maybe all the magical ones had been found. But no, surely he wouldn't task them with finding FOUR, if there wasn't enough for them all, right? "Naturaba Revelio" she cast again, on one that she nearly missed, super close to the ground. Suddenly, there it was, that faint glow, like Myer's had demonstrated. She found one!!! It was kind of on the smallish side, but she found ONE!!! Can she bounce into the giant flower now? Just to see what it felt like?