Thank you for noticing, professor. Eiji was rather proud of his sarcastic streak and it was nice to receive some recognition for the way his brain functioned. Impromptu meeting with the professor after class aside, that is.

....and what the dragon dung was this? He was being asked yet again to speak up? Offer an opinion? He would say no thank you and move on but he would pick and choose his battles right now. "As far as I can tell the ecosystem of the lake is still sustainable. Nothing looks too different from the Slytherin common room and the same creatures still swim by. I think the lake will do just fine and, if anything, adapt again."

There. Done. Could they move on now?

Apparently literally moving and by Nina's command. Honestly, of all the options Professor Cornish had listed, Nina had to go and pick collecting trash. "You mean...let's go walk around and you point to trash you don't want to touch and then make me do it for you," says a bit dryly, his hazel-green eyes drifting over to the lake and the phials in his pocket feeling incredibly heavy. "One of us has to keep a record of the circumstances of the trash we happen upon, suppose that'll be your task then."

He didn't resist her tugging though, and he was certainly taking not of the manner in which she could barely contain herself, and began walking with her along the shore.

Avalon chose to listen as her classmates listed examples of events that may have destroyed ecosystems at Hogwarts. As a first year, she didn't have too much knowledge about previous happenings at the school. She briefly considered bringing up the Battle of Hogwarts, but after another student used it first, she decided to keep quiet. She would have plenty of time to participate during the activity.

Speaking of the activity, they were going to pick up trash? Sure, Avalon understood that the natural areas needed to be clean, but why couldn't they just use magic? Just as she bent down to pick up an old scrap of parchment, she heard a Gryffindor girl asking for a partner. "I'll help!" Avalon said cheerfully, tucking the trash into one of the fabric bags. "Shall we find a sunny spot over by the hut?" She gazed up at the sky, trying to find a patch of sunlight amongst the clouds. No such luck. "On second thought, we might just need to estimate a spot that will get sunlight on a day with better weather."

Sarcasm. The new Care of Magical Creatures Professor was definitely fond of it and while Maeve was generally sarcastic herself, she wasn't sure if she liked being on the receiving end of it. Frowning visibly, she remained quiet throughout the next spattering of questions. What else lives here? Was she allowed to give Cornish a taste of his own medicine back and say 'crabs', because that was literally what she wanted to say just now. And sand. Sand wasn't living but it was a part of the whole ecosystem that Cornish was on about.

When had she tapped into muggle biology class? And why? Maeve was here for the creatures (and the beach!). Not the science lesson; it was enough to have it from astronomy but to get two courses on science was just too much and Maeve did not like it. Example of the food chain? Was it like in that classic muggle movie that talked about the circle of life?? Lions were the top of the food chain, if she recalled, but well, for all she knew, the movie was a lion (lying, geddit?).

Moving on though to talking about disasters and how they threw off the Hogwarts ecosystem. Was he talking about like, for example, in the Battle of Hogwarts of 1998 when the bridge got destroyed. Plants that lived on that bridge got destroyed. Animals that pollinated the plants got destroyed. And such was the circle. Thrown off by the damage from foolish blasts.

Not only did Cornish speak sarcasm, but it seemed was also maybe a hippie? Was that the correct wording? Eco-warrioring; honestly. She may as well start with what was first on the list mentioned of trash pickup, although the plimpy catch and release sounded appealing. Pick up the trash and do ... what with it exactly? Burn it? Although that would throw off the ecosystem some more and yet somehow it was awfully tempting. Meandering slowing along the beach, her eyes peeled for some ... easy pieces of trash to pick up, she raised her hand to call attention to herself, "So uh, are there bags or something we're meant to put the trash in?" Sorry if that was dumb. He hadn't said anything about such. Ew. Was that chicken bones? From someone's dinner on the beach or was it a chicken massacre? Who knew really but then again, were there even chickens AT hogwarts??

So they were...picking up trash?

Nettie resisted the urge to roll her eyes in to the back of her head. Conservation was important and all, but did she LOOK like someone who picked up trash? She was a responsible kid and made sure she threw away all her waste in the appropriate place. None of this was HER mess, but she knew not everyone was that respectful. Kids were awful, honestly. There was a reason she didn't talk to like...50% of her year.

Wrinkling her nose, she got her...disgust out quickly and then decided to just get it over with. It WOULD be for the better, just as the professor said, she just didn't like the fact that she had to TOUCH trash in order to do it. Taking her dragonhide gloves out of her bag, just so she had some kind of protection from germs and gross things.

Then she started to scan the shoreline, walking along and picking up the trash as she went. Thankfully, her classmates were a bit cleaner than she had thought. A piece of plastic wrapper here, an old soda bottle there...but really, not THAT bad.

^__________^

Yes Eiji, that is exactly what she meant. For all the buttons he pushed, at least he was learning. She had trained him well. She didn't fight very hard to hide the subtle grin from her face as she nodded. Exactly. But she had thought he'd be much more resistant to the idea, and so his acceptance was a very pleasant and welcome surprise.

"I have better handwriting anyway," she teased, releasing his elbow from her hold and reaching into her bag to pull out a notebook and a quill. "Ew, what is that?" she pointed to some discarded plastic near the edge of the lake, crinkling her nose and squatting just a little bit to get a better look. He was right, pointing at the trash was much better than picking it up. This was her FAVORITE activity they had ever done in this class. It was much better than working with animals. Far more pleasing than salamanders by a campfire.

Maybe Professor Cornish wasn't so weird after all. Maybe.

Kamryn was a bit shocked as well, even though she forgotten what Acromantulas were called, perhaps she had answered right?

Maybe?

Eh she was going to take it.

She rubbed her hands on her jeans as the Professor started to give out options of what to do. Right now, picking up trash sounded good to her, that and testing the water.

She wasn’t really into snails.. so trash seemed the most harmless, and she really didn’t have to talk to anyone while she did it.

The sixth year scooted away from her friends and her blue eyes started to scan the beach for anything that didn’t belong there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Not only did Cornish speak sarcasm, but it seemed was also maybe a hippie? Was that the correct wording? Eco-warrioring; honestly. She may as well start with what was first on the list mentioned of trash pickup, although the plimpy catch and release sounded appealing. Pick up the trash and do ... what with it exactly? Burn it? Although that would throw off the ecosystem some more and yet somehow it was awfully tempting. Meandering slowing along the beach, her eyes peeled for some ... easy pieces of trash to pick up, she raised her hand to call attention to herself, "So uh, are there bags or something we're meant to put the trash in?" Sorry if that was dumb. He hadn't said anything about such. Ew. Was that chicken bones? From someone's dinner on the beach or was it a chicken massacre? Who knew really but then again, were there even chickens AT hogwarts??

Walsh was making faces at him, and Cornish pulled a face right back at her. She obviously didn't like something or other than he said, but there were so many options... and he wasn't sorry. "As I indicated previously, these canvas bags here are for picking up trash. Grab one and fill it, and you can leave the full bag behind when class is dismissed."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

So they were...picking up trash?

Nettie resisted the urge to roll her eyes in to the back of her head. Conservation was important and all, but did she LOOK like someone who picked up trash? She was a responsible kid and made sure she threw away all her waste in the appropriate place. None of this was HER mess, but she knew not everyone was that respectful. Kids were awful, honestly. There was a reason she didn't talk to like...50% of her year.

Wrinkling her nose, she got her...disgust out quickly and then decided to just get it over with. It WOULD be for the better, just as the professor said, she just didn't like the fact that she had to TOUCH trash in order to do it. Taking her dragonhide gloves out of her bag, just so she had some kind of protection from germs and gross things.

Then she started to scan the shoreline, walking along and picking up the trash as she went. Thankfully, her classmates were a bit cleaner than she had thought. A piece of plastic wrapper here, an old soda bottle there...but really, not THAT bad.

Gladin looked like she needed a new friend. Or at least a partner for trash gathering. "Gladin, Walsh. You both want to pick up trash? Maybe you could work together. Anyone else looking to pick up trash, I suggest you join one of these existing groups to make the work go faster." At least no one had found any injured creatures yet, right?

That........ was a lot of talking. But if there was anything he was taking away from this it was that they were eco-warriors today.

And that Cornish shouldn't be messed with. At all. Ever.

He listened intently to the tasks and was almost set on starting with the first task, because it was the FIRST task and that's where they started from, right? He'd even picked up one of the fabric bags and was about to start when his ears picked up the sound of something he didn't want to hear. Looking up, he glanced over at Cornish, and then the two older girls he was talking to. Anyone looking to pick up rubbish should join them?

His eyes widened slightly as he glanced between the Professor and the two girls and, it was then, that his mind was made up.

UH.

Yeah, no. No no no.

Dropping the bag as quickly as if it were made of lava, Lucas moved onto doing something else, instead. If anyone asked, he would say...... saaaaaay....... that he wanted to do something more creature-based. Yeah. That was it. It was with that thought in mind that he moved onto the tanks, instead. He was working more with creatures, this time, which was nicer, really. Even if they were only snails.

Grabbing a tank, he moved to find a spot near the hut that was getting the most sunshine. Which wasn't a lot of sunshine because of the clouds up there. He couldn't help but wonder why they couldn't just choose any spot that was out in the open. Because, well, the position of the sun moved, right? But the professor didn't look like he was the kind of man who would be happy with being questioned - and he was a little scared to cross him, if he was being honest - so he kept his opinions to himself.

But if they had to write an essay on this.........

.........

Anyways. Next came the water. How much? He didn't know, but it was what looked like was enough. Way above halfway. Satisfied, the Gryffindor started to add in some decoration because the tank looked empty and a bit boring. It was only some plants but it would help to spruce up the home for the snails, right?

Some plants here and some plants there.......

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

^__________^

Yes Eiji, that is exactly what she meant. For all the buttons he pushed, at least he was learning. She had trained him well. She didn't fight very hard to hide the subtle grin from her face as she nodded. Exactly. But she had thought he'd be much more resistant to the idea, and so his acceptance was a very pleasant and welcome surprise.

"I have better handwriting anyway," she teased, releasing his elbow from her hold and reaching into her bag to pull out a notebook and a quill. "Ew, what is that?" she pointed to some discarded plastic near the edge of the lake, crinkling her nose and squatting just a little bit to get a better look. He was right, pointing at the trash was much better than picking it up. This was her FAVORITE activity they had ever done in this class. It was much better than working with animals. Far more pleasing than salamanders by a campfire.

Maybe Professor Cornish wasn't so weird after all. Maybe.

It really wasn't worth the tease because his handwriting was pretty terrible when it was just note taking. Grandpa was often telling him he should be a healer because it was so messy. Eiji would always counter he should be a lawyer because it meant his note and tactics were illegible to everyone but himself and it would be to his advantage in a court setting. "You do," says with a small shrug as he followed her towards her latest discovery.

And it seemed there were a fair few of them doing trash duty, which surprised the Slytherin a fair bit considering the other options. He literally wanted to anything BUT trash, but putting up a fight against Nina was just exhausting so this was the lesser of two evils. Plus...he could collect some ingredients while they did this. Bonus points for any dead creatures they happened upon that he could collect and harvest later.

Though he was somewhat relieved Trinetta was not joining them. One squeamish person was enough.

Hovering over her shoulder, Eiji's eyes widened a bit as the water along the shore washed away a bit more of the dirt and grime from the 'plastic bag'. "That's not a plastic bag, Nina," he hushed, all but pushing her out of the way so he could get a closer look. "It's a tadfoal." Easy to mistake for plastic seeing as the eggs were semitransparent and all that. Membranes and the like did look a bit...peculiar when out of the water where they belonged.

Peering even closer, he tried to see if there was a heartbeat - the benefits of semi transparency. If it was alive...he would call the professor over. Otherwise....

Honestly, Gunnar found this sort of information fascinating. He was very interested in food chains and ecosystems, and in fact directed some of his independent Herbology studies that way, so he was really soaking up as much as he could from the lesson. And he was up for doing a little 'eco-warrioring' or whatever.

He listened intently to all of the options available and honestly, he was eager to do all of them. Okay, so maybe some were more interesting than others. Picking up trash wasn't exactly fun, but he understood it to be necessary. Maybe he'd just do the more fun ones first and if there was time, he'd pick up trash too.

Creating a tank environment for snails sounded like the best activity to the Slytherin, but there were already people doing that. And no one had yet volunteered to help the plimpies... so he'd do that. Making his way towards the weighted nets, Gunnar carefully collected one before heading to the edge of the lake. Now, what would be the best way to do this?

Kamryn didn’t really want to pick up trash with anyone else at the moment, so she held her canvas bag tightly and started to wander off by herself, hoping to focus on the task and not her aching heart.

She squatted down on the muddy shore, uncaring that her shoes and the bottom of her pants were getting dirty. She had spotted something white and it didn’t look like it had belonged there, she rooted around in the dirt for a moment before her fingers closed around a piece of parchment.

She barely glanced at the words on the paper before tossing it into her trash bag and moving along the shore. A few broken quills made their way into the bag as well, and Kam had even found a broken inkwell, before she decided that her spot of the beach was cleaned enough.

She brought the bag back to where she had gotten it and looked for a moment wondering what she was going to do next.

Some more plants here, some more plants there......

Lucas made sure to take some time in decorating the tank. He wasn't in any kind of rush, really. He didn't want to spend the whole lesson doing just this but if that happened, then...... well. That wasn't a bad way to spend the lesson, right? In fact, he liked that. Do this more often, Cornish.

When there were enough plants in the tank, he moved onto adding some snails, or starter snails, into the tank. They felt..... delicate. As if he was going to break them if he wasn't careful. Maybe that's why he was moving even more slowly and trying to be as gentle as possible. In you go, starter snails, into the tank. This was going to be your new home, now.

He probably shouldn't name them, right?

The last step in this task was the algae tablet, which he went on to add in. And then? And then he just..... watched. Cornish had said that it would take a few days to see baby snails but that wasn't going to stop him from seeing how these starter snails got on in their new environment.

He would move onto the other tasks later. For now, he was just focused on the snails.

Vivienne looked around at all the plants. The tank had to look perfect. She had lots of time to waste. But no mistakes. Then the accessories. Nothing too fragile. Maybe some coral? Why name animals? Then the algae. Then she waited for Cornish to evaluate her. She was only concerned about completeness and creativity.

Did Cornish just make a face right back at her? Okay, five hundred brownie points for Cornish as a new professor, given he was one who could OBVIOUSLY understand humor and jokes. Also, had he mentioned the canvas bags, because she hadn't recalled? Or probably hadn't been paying attention in those two second and so she merely nodded, "Right thanks and um... are there gloves?" Cause she wasn't about to pick up those chicken bones with her bare hands.

And suddenly, he was suggesting she work with a younger Ravenclaw whom she'd briefly conversed with at the Pitch earlier this year. "Gladin, yes? Trinetta?" Was that her name? "Guess we're trash buddies now." Or well, that probably wasn't the best way to refer to their 'job'.

After what seemed like a while, Lucas reluctantly got up from his spot and decided to move onto one of the other activities. Since picking up trash wasn't an option, that left him with one of two options: collecting samples - and maybe taking off his warmer clothes to do so - OR untangling the plimpies' legs.

And getting undressed wasn't his cup of pumpkin juice so........

He walked over to one of the long weighted nets and- oof! Oh Merlin. Oh no oh no. This was HEAVY. He paused for a moment, taking a VERY deep breath, before picking it up and practically dragging it towards the edge of the lake. He didn't know how he was going to collect any plimpies with this but he could try, right?

A small grunt escaped his lips as he dumped most of the net into the water. The small part he was holding onto, he used to draaaaaaag along the lake, shuffling along the edge of the shore as he went. He didn't know how much he was supposed to drag the net OR how many plimpies he was supposed to catch so it looked like he was going to have to wing it. Did it matter? Probably not?

The hardest part, as he soon came to realise, was lifting the net back up again. Another small grunt escaped his lips as he tried to lift it up and up and uuuuuuuup. Instead, he ended up dragging it backwards as he walked in a simple attempt to get the net out of the water before any plimpies he caught escaped from the net. Could they escape? He didn't know.

One thing he DID know, when the end of the net reached the shore, was that there were no plimpies there.

Ugh. Merlin.

Hanna was actually looking forward to getting her hands dirty in this activity. Of course she wanted to think of herself as an eco-warrior. Who wouldn't? She just... never did anything. But now she could. Even if she was sort of being forced to by the Professor. She was also glad it didn't involve many creatures. Not wanting to do the plimpy one, Hanna decided to start by picking up trash.

With a fabric bag in hand, Hanna separated herself from the group. Firstly, she much preferred working by herself. Especially on something like this, where she could be left to her thoughts. She roamed up and down a patch of the land, picking up small pieces of rubbish. There wasn't anything large around. And knowing she had appropriate clothing on, and a wand that she could easily dry herself off with, she stepped towards the water, picking up a few other bits and pieces. Glad to not see any harmed animals, she thought to some images she'd seen in magazines. Turtles stuck in plastic rings, fish suffocated by plastic bags, and even one with a dolphin who had starved after its mouth had been trapped in a ring. By the time she had a bag full of various things; plastic, paper, wrappings, bottles and lids, straws, she headed back towards the group to think about the next activity. She could definitely come back in her own time to pick up rubbish. And she wanted to.

"Awning," Cornish appeared rather suddenly, peering through the opposite side of the fish tank at the girl. Everything looked to be in order, but he couldn't tell what she was waiting for. The snails weren't coming today, and she had to do the second half of the activity.

"Good work. Time to get onto the second task."

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Did Cornish just make a face right back at her? Okay, five hundred brownie points for Cornish as a new professor, given he was one who could OBVIOUSLY understand humor and jokes. Also, had he mentioned the canvas bags, because she hadn't recalled? Or probably hadn't been paying attention in those two second and so she merely nodded, "Right thanks and um... are there gloves?" Cause she wasn't about to pick up those chicken bones with her bare hands.

And suddenly, he was suggesting she work with a younger Ravenclaw whom she'd briefly conversed with at the Pitch earlier this year. "Gladin, yes? Trinetta?" Was that her name? "Guess we're trash buddies now." Or well, that probably wasn't the best way to refer to their 'job'.

Gloves? She was a pretty delicate little flower, wasn't she? Cornish gave the girl a look. Not nearly as playful as the face he'd just pulled. Did he look like the glove fairy?

"You have gloves for Herbology and Potions, don't you? Did you bring any?"

Yes, putting up a fight against Nina was exhausting and she prided herself on that. She could be quite convincing when she wanted to be. Though perhaps she'd take a step back and let Eiji pick their second task. While her counter-part hoped for dead creatures, Nina Castillo hoped for anything but. Lots and lots of anything but.

Which is why she was so thrilled to find the discarded piece of plastic by the--

"EEEEEEEEEEEK!"

The moment Eiji pointed out it's real identity, Nina jumped BACK and let out a shrill squeal in horror. Ew ew ew ew ew. A TAODFOAL??? That's so gross!!!! And to think, she ALMOST TOUCHED IT!!! Fortunately now she was very much NOT crouched right by it, instead a few feet behind Eiji Rasting, who looked like he had the situation under control. He could figure this one out, please? Nina didn't like animals. Had she mentioned that part yet? How much she hated the practical application of this particular class?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

Yes, putting up a fight against Nina was exhausting and she prided herself on that. She could be quite convincing when she wanted to be. Though perhaps she'd take a step back and let Eiji pick their second task. While her counter-part hoped for dead creatures, Nina Castillo hoped for anything but. Lots and lots of anything but.

Which is why she was so thrilled to find the discarded piece of plastic by the--

"EEEEEEEEEEEK!"

The moment Eiji pointed out it's real identity, Nina jumped BACK and let out a shrill squeal in horror. Ew ew ew ew ew. A TAODFOAL??? That's so gross!!!! And to think, she ALMOST TOUCHED IT!!! Fortunately now she was very much NOT crouched right by it, instead a few feet behind Eiji Rasting, who looked like he had the situation under control. He could figure this one out, please? Nina didn't like animals. Had she mentioned that part yet? How much she hated the practical application of this particular class?

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

Great. Thanks Nina. Now the entire class could shift their attentions there way, most certainly the professor's at least, and then any potential harvesting that he could have had with this discovery was gone. He couldn't risk any collection now. Bloody brilliant. Tadfoal membrane was a rather uncommon ingredient to come across naturally and...humanely. Which, contrary to opinions, was the only way Eiji ever accepted ingredients.

".....it's cracked," he noted, inspecting the tiny creature further and seeing that...yes there was a beating little heart there. Some relief, some disappointment. His expression was a mixed bag reaction.

Internally groaning, he turned his head to look over his shoulder at Professor Cornish a few meters away.

"We found a tadfoal, professor," he informed the man with a hand cupped around his mouth to amplify his voice. "...and it's egg is seriously damaged."

Patrick had decided to help pick up some of the trash first. He figured he would be good at that, wouldn't require too much out of his ankle that was starting to heal even more than it already had.

Pulling the sleeves of his sweatshirt down a few inches he set off to clean up. He couldn't tell if this was supposed to be a pick up things that don't belong or to actually pick up trash. He grabbed the cloth bag and started to follow the lead of other students and started gathering items.

With a small sigh, Lucas dumped the bit of net he was holding onto and walked over to the other side, the side that was last to come out of the water. Picking up a section of the net, he started dragging it along the shore and then throwing it back into the water. And then went another section and another and another...... until he was left with the bit of net he had in his hand before.

He paused for a moment to take a deep breath before starting to draaaaaaaag the net along the lake. He didn't know how long he was walking for but something he DID know was that he was taking a lot of breaks in between. A LOT. Enough to catch his energy back and then keep going again.

Maybe he really should be doing more exercise.

............. Nah!

Soon enough, he found himself stopping completely when he felt a small tug on the net. What in the-?! Frowning slightly, he kept tugging himself, dragging the net along some more until there came a second tug. Really? Really?! The frown only stayed on his face when he decided to change tactics and tug the net out of the water, instead. Let's see what this is about and if he could get it untangled from the tree or debris or anything else it was latching onto.

He dragged the net back back baaaaaack, until.......

..........

PLIMPIES!

The end of the net he was holding onto was dropped in an instant and he ran over to the creatures. "Hey hey hey, it's okay. I got you...." he mumbled. Did the Plimpies understand English? He doubted it. But he was hoping that they could understand him, at least, and know he didn't mean any harm. Look, no harm! He just wanted to untangle you, Plimpies.

The first one struggled against the net, and against him, as if it was trying to get to something else, instead. "Look, I need you to work with me, okay?" He tried to reach around the...... uh, head? Body? It was all one so he was going to say both. He was trying to reach around the head and body and towards the feet that were tangled up in the net. The problem? There was even more struggling.

"Come on!"

........

Annoyed, his voice had managed to go up a few decibels but it seemed to have done the trick. Both plimpies stopped to stare at him and he, at them. A moment or two passed before he quickly started to untangle them. There was a thumping in his ears and his hands were starting to shake but he managed to untangle them before too long.

Picking them up as best as he could, he just...... sort of...... dumped them back into the water.

Plop!

Could they leave now?

Somehow, in spite of his apparent disinterest in coddling the students, Cornish could tell that Rasting was genuinely in need of attention. Professorly attention. Cornish vaulted over one of the snail tanks and landed practically on top of Castillo and Rasting. And their discovery.

"Tadfoal, hmm?" He half expected a blown plastic bag, but no, that was actually a half submerged tadfoal egg. The soft shell was indeed damaged, although the tadfoal inside the transparent shell seemed well enough. "Let's get him out of the water, and we'll manage him in a controlled environment. Make sure nothing else comes in to damage the shell further."

Cornish grabbed one of the fish tanks and gently scooped water and the egg inside. "You two get back to work, and you can check on him later." Or her. Who knew?

HEY FRIENDS, class ends in 24 hours. Get in your two posts for two different activities (four total) by tomorrow!

Taking up her snail tank Ellie walked down to the lake to fill it up with water. When she was done and was about to go fetch the plants and algae tablet needed for the snails to feed on she was joined by a slightly younger eagle girl. Turning to the girl that she thought was called Avalon from classes she beamed brightly "Great it’s more fun with a partner! You’re Avalon right? I'm Ellie short for Eleanor." After a quick glance up at the cloudy sky just like her partner she agreed. "Yes, it looks like it. Maybe the sun comes out if we work on, if not we’ll do what you said and estimate a sunny spot as best we can. If you grab the plants and alage and i’ll put the snails in the tank and then we can meet up by the hut." With her previous experience with the slugs in the dungeons she wasn’t grossed out by lifting a snail but maybe her partner was. Hopefully Avalon thought it was a good idea since they didn’t have much time to complete all the tasks. Gazing down at the sand she soon spotted the snails Professor Cornish had wanted to repopulate and kneeled down to usher them into the tank gently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Somehow, in spite of his apparent disinterest in coddling the students, Cornish could tell that Rasting was genuinely in need of attention. Professorly attention. Cornish vaulted over one of the snail tanks and landed practically on top of Castillo and Rasting. And their discovery.

"Tadfoal, hmm?" He half expected a blown plastic bag, but no, that was actually a half submerged tadfoal egg. The soft shell was indeed damaged, although the tadfoal inside the transparent shell seemed well enough. "Let's get him out of the water, and we'll manage him in a controlled environment. Make sure nothing else comes in to damage the shell further."

Cornish grabbed one of the fish tanks and gently scooped water and the egg inside. "You two get back to work, and you can check on him later." Or her. Who knew?

Yeah. Thanks Nina.

Though with the strong heartbeat, Eiji knew there was no harvesting to have been had anyway. Which left the Slytherin feeling a bit bitter sweet about the whole thing. "I will, professor," he nodded seriously. Yes, the fourth year did genuinely care for creatures too. Just...they had better uses as ingredients. It had been eye opening growing up so much around dragon scales and talons and teeth and blood.

Glancing over at Nina and the trash they had collected, his own pockets a bit heaving with a few phials filled with some beetles and algae he had collected while they made their sweep of the area. He was trusting, perhaps foolishly, that his housemate had been taking diligent notes along the way.

"I'm bored of trash collecting," he sighed, holding the bag up and feeling it was more than enough of a sufficient effort. "Keep going on your own if you want, but I'm going to collect water and soil samples."

And dig around for something useful for his own brews in the process.

Passing the bag to Nina - she could carry it now too - he made his way back over to the supplies and grabbed some of the professor's phials. Returning to the shore of the lake, Eiji drew a rough sketch of where he was standing before kneeling down and collecting some soil into the phial and then a bit of water. He wasn't bothered by the water gently lapping against his shoes, he had already taken care of all that earlier.

Oh. Oh. Maeve caught that look. "Right, yes, sorry, sir," With that she removed her herbology gloves and put them on. With the gloves now on her hands, she moved back towards picking up the trash from the beach. Including the bones. For the most part, Maeve had to admit it was impressive how clean the beach was which meant her peers weren't necessarily the slobs she thought they might be.

Moving on to a second task though as she was kind of over the trash pickup, the collecting water samples sounded interesting and while she didn't care for swimming in November, the sixth year did decide collecting some samples might be fun. Slipping off her shoes and socks because wet socks were simply the worst - she could deal with a wet skirt - Maeve grabbed a few glass phials and waded into the water.

Waist deep. She uncapped one of the phials and stuck her hand under the water with it to obtain a sample, giving her arm a full underwater swing to make sure she got a thorough sampling of the water in this area. Lifting it up and gazing into the light, it wasn't as clear as she would have hoped, but hopefully it would suffice. Capping it and slipping it into her right pocket, she moved along in the water closer to shore this time. Until she was shallow enough where she could reach her hand under a take a sample of the shallow water whilst simultaneously scraping some sand from the bottom into the phial.

Perfect. And now to sit on the beach a few minutes to label, with the date and approximate time of collection. Along with her initials 'AMW' too because why not.