Remy was really pretty when she smiled, did she remember? He wasn't sure if it was prettier with or without the ink covering her face but pretty was still pretty. So he, of course, returned her smile...which only twitched slightly at her seating selection but nothing that was too obvious.

As Auntie June began the lesson, Atlas found his mind all too easily wandering. There were big and important things to consider, you see. He and Aries were just on the cusp of being proper teenagers and that was a pretty big deal. Especially since he had woken up the other day with some hair on his face that was CLEARLY the beginnings of a moustache. In fact, he was even running his fingers over the little area at the moment (maybe hoping someone would notice and compliment him on it especially since he had the facial hair first between the twins) but soon pulled his attention back to class. Sort of.

"Well...if you don't have a green thumb...all plants are always quite difficult to manage regardless of their classification." This coming from the Gryffindor who had severed a couple of flowers at the stem during replanting. Also the Gryffindor who could never quite figure out over watering and under watering. He really needed Quinn's green thumb to run off on him more - which one would assume would happen sooner than later considering how often they spent time together. Especially now that the pull push combat of their relationship was resolved between them. Finally. "So...sometimes just not handling them at all is the best policy."

Did Ash want to sit alone? Had Remy’s kindness been totally unappreciated?! Pfffttt… it was fine, it was just one class, her mood was slightly lifted after catching a smile from a certain friend anyway. She decided she would just have to chase after him all of her friends once they were dismissed.

Her mouth opened to add that a mandrakes cry can be fatal, but it seemed the older student (Heath) had gotten to that already. Shoot, what else? Oh!

“You should always wear protective gear when handling any plants, a lot of them have properties that will warn off prey. I read about something… the leaves from a tree that cause hysterical laughter. It’s used in potion making and could be very uncomfortable for its consumer!” She couldn’t remember the name, though. She wasn’t a walking text book!

Dangerous. Poisonous. Fatal. There was a theme here, wasn't there?

June nodded at each answer given. She was not dismissive of anyone because the umbrella of her question covered most of what they said. Except maybe what Atlas said - which made both Aries and her roll their eyes. She wouldn't be surprised if her nephews decided to drop her subject the first chance they got. It'd hurt but hopefully she'd get over it. She was definitely mentally preparing herself for it.

"First and foremost, not all dangerous plants are difficult to handle and not all difficult-to-handle plants are dangerous." June clarified, not needing the kids to be confused between the two. "Like the plant in front of you - it's not dangerous or fatal but I assure you it can be .. very difficult. But remember, regardless of which plant it is, it is important to take precaution - and dragon-hide gloves are a must"

Straightening up and pulling on her own gloves, she tapped the pot on her own station and looked at the lot again, "This baby plant is a sample from an infestation of Vampiric Vegetation that has taken over the back garden of this greenhouse. Now Vampiric Vegetation - it is a dodgy little thing" June said with a shake of her head and a sigh because it was definitely one of her least favourite plants. "Obvious from it's name, it has fangs and it bites - which is why it is hard to cultivate and makes it harder for the other plants around it to flourish as well"

"With a mind of it's own - it makes it hard for you to defang it - which is exactly what we will be doing today. Stunning and defanging. But before we get to the real thing - I'd like you to practise on this pot first." Simple, yes?

"So - go ahead and poke"

OOC: Mini Activity is up. Please go ahead and have your character engage with the pot of plant - and I'll offer the reaction soon after! Have fun!

Not only was she listening very intently to everyone else's answers but she was taking detailed notes. Most of what was being said she already knew but that meant nothing at all to her and didn't keep her from writing everything down. The more information she had on the subjects she enjoyed, the better.

Vampiric Vegetation. A plant Lia knew she wouldn't want in her garden at home. She loved all of the flowers and plants that she grew and didn't want some other plant harming them all. Baby plant or not.

Dahlia pulled on her dragon hide gloves, making sure they fit as they should. When it was her turn she carefully reached out to tap the pot of the plant. "Professor? Does this one have a name?" Of course she was asking about the plant. She was simply curious is all. Most of her plants and flowers had names. Turning her attention back to the baby Vampiric Vegetation she cautiously reached out again but this time in an attempt to possibly give the plant itself the tiniest gentlest of pokes.. if she could manage it.

WHY was Lisa smiling at him?! What he said wasn't happy at all. The Devil's Snare deserved a cringe, or a gasp, or plain nothing, which was the reaction he gave everyone else. He did almost smile at the Gryffindor who voiced his exact thoughts about just not handling plants at all. He was Flamsteed's relative though, so he probably just said it to annoy her. Anyway ... by most competent wizards' standards, the Devil's Snare that he mentioned would be 'dangerous' but not too 'difficult to handle'. He made a mental note to make the distinction.

He pulled on his dragon-hide gloves, and his face paled when he heard the name of the baby plant. Vampiric Vegetation. UH, surely this was both super dangerous and super difficult to handle. It looked like even the professor didn't like this vampiric plant. He felt his gloved hands to check that they would be safe from the plant's fangs.

"Professor, do we just ... poke it?" he raised his hand to ask. Or were they to stun and defang this baby plant too?

At last! Violet had never wanted to do anything so much as to touch this "forbidden" plant before her. But after listening to Professor Flamsteed's instructions, she paused to put on her dragonhide gloves first. And actually--she decided to take her initial poke with a tool rather than her finger, out of an excess of caution.

Not her wand, though--no use courting disaster. So she pulled a pencil out of her pocket and took a gentle preliminary poke at her plant.

Awww, it was a baby!! Even though it had a demonic name, its age made it cuter. She was a little unsure about what Professor Flamsteed meant by give it a poke, but stunning and defanging sounded like great fun. although a little mean to the poor baby vampire.

After much consideration, Remy decided that baby or not, she was not going to just poke a plant named Vampiric Vegetation. Not with her fingers anyway, perhaps she would use her wand.

With her gloves pulled up high, Remy held her wand in her hand and pointed it in the direction of the plant, wiggling it around in front of it but hesitated before actually poking as if she was about to cause an explosion.

Maybe this wasn’t a good idea…

Claudine could definitely make the clear separation of the two differences Flamsteed was trying to explain to them. Her attention went to the plant before her, eyeing it curiously. Not dangerous but difficult… interesting. Okay, so… gloves. Claudine grabbed her pair of dragonhide gloves and tugged them on.

Though her eyes remained fixed on the little plant, as though expecting it to bust out its fangs and sink them into her, Claudine listened to all of the woman’s words carefully. Stunning and defanging sounded okay but what did the poke do? Wake up the ‘sleeping’ plant?

Anyway.

Claudine did as was instructed and gave the plant a quick poke with her index finger.

Not all dangerous plants are difficult to handle and not all difficult-to-handle plants are dangerous. True, but vampire plants were both. Was the plant at her station going to drain her blood??? It better not. Ash sorta felt like ignoring the plant... but she let the professor have what she wanted. She poked the plant twice. Don't worry, she was wearing her gloves. Although it would have been fun to take the gloves off for research purposes. Maybe the plant would bite her whole hand off, and she'd have to be excused from a whole day of classes. A girl could hope.

She poked the plant again. Third time's the charm?

Okay, so the name of the plant was concerning, especially since Professor Flamsteed wanted them to poke it, but...at least it was a baby one? And it was apparently more difficult than actually dangerous, based on what she said earlier, so this couldn't be too bad, yeah?

Still, Ivy was slipping her dragonhide gloves on for this. She liked her hands just as they were and didn't intend to risk a baby vampire plant taking out a finger or something.

Once her gloves were securely on, she slowly reached out and gave one of the leaves on the little plant a gentle poke.

Max was… funny. And Lisa just liked to get a reaction out of him. It was a challenge that she had decided to take on ever since their first meeting in Diagon Alley. When he had finally smiled, it had brought her a lot of joy. However, each day was fit for a new challenge.

Atlas’ response brought a smile to her lips. She chuckled. Heh. He did have a point. If you weren’t a plant person, then any plant was difficult to handle cause you couldnt properly care for it. She rested her chin on her right hand as she listened to Professor Flamsteed talk more. Vampire Plants? Vampiric Vegetation the baby version? It wasn’t exactly cute…. She crinkled her nose at it and then stopped. Instead, she arched her eyebrows curiously as she explained that they would be poking it. Was that… dangerous? What if one cut themselves on the thorns? Oh…. That’s why they had dragonhide gloves. She quickly slipped on her dragon hide gloves after seeing Claudine do that. Could they have more personal protective equipment and gear to use? Safety glasses and more? She eyed the plant and then readied herself to poke it but stopped when she saw what Remy was doing.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Remy with a wand attempting to poke said plant. She held her breath as she watched her friend poke it with the wand. Terrified, she was of what would happen.

Once Ivy and Ash poked their plants, Lisa became brave enough to give it ago after all there were plenty of testers who had done it and survived. As she poked it again, another thought crossed her mind so she raised her free hand. “Slightly dumb question… Are these plants attracted to blood? So if we cut ourselves on it do they need blood?” she asked. Lisa hadn’t read much about these plants just yet.

Forget dragonhide gloves...Atlas could probably do with a dragonhide body suit. Difficult to handle plants? Probably should have included a helmet. Even Auntie June's supposedly friendly and docile creepers that were growing all over the apartment seemed to like taking their leafy frustrations on him. Give him a good whack from time to time. Of course he would whack back because it was rude to hit your house guests.

Anyway. Dragonhide gloves were being slipped on and he was TRYING to do his best to pay attention everything that his Herbology professor was saying. For his own sake, mostly.

But also...Vampiric Vegetation? That wasn't...alarming.

"Wait...did...you just say defang?" the second year blurted out after tugging his gloves on snuggly. "Why are we doing that?" Not so much about the poking. Atlas was aaaaaaaaall for the poking and since he already had the quill in his hand and had been wafting the air around the plant itself...he was glad to finally be able to engage with the plant without any repercussions. He wasn't supposed to tickle sleeping dragons, apparently, but he could a sleeping vampiric plant. Cool. "Are they teething? Do they need help growing teeth? are we pulling out their baby teeth? Is it like removing wisdom teeth? Are the teeth useful after we take them out? Other than being some calcium for the compost?"

Just to tack some more questions on top of the ones Lisa already asked.

Lots of questions and little attention on the plant itself as he traced the air much closer to the Vampiric Vegetation with his quill and tickled it along the stem.

Serena suited up with her faux dragon hide gloves her dad had made especially for her. The thought of wearing REAL dragon hide made Serena's small heart ache.

Glancing up at the plant, she was on the border of poking the plant and not doing so. That was so annoying. If someone came to poke her, she'd bite them the first chance she had.

Something lingered in her mind, though, so she raised her hand. "You mentioned they have a mind of their own. Do these plants have brains?" she asked, motioning to her head for emphasis. "Like we do?" You know, all wrinkly and pink?

For the record, Heath had made the distinction between dangerous and difficult to handle, which was why he asked if a mandrake counted as difficult to handle. He blinked confusedly as the professor moved on. So was that a “no” to his question about using spells to silence a mandrake? Never mind… they were moving on. He listened, unsure whether to be intrigued or worried about a vampiric plant. At the moment it was slightly more the former, but that could change later. Wait, they were doing what now? If they were defanging the plant, he took that to mean its teeth served no essential purpose. Otherwise, it would be awfully mean to remove them! Come to think of it, was it called vampiric vegetation just because it had fangs like a vampire's, or did it actually feed on blood?

In any case, he wasn't taking any chances with it! He pulled on his dragon hide gloves, carefully inspecting them for any holes before he could even look at the plant, let alone poke it. He smiled to himself as he glanced at the baby plant. It was kind of cute… you know, for a plant with teeth. "Hello, baby plant," he whispered. He didn't know why he was talking to it! Maybe he was trying to distract it. Maybe he thought it would be less likely to bite when he poked it if it got used to his presence first.

Whatever the reason, he gingerly reached out a finger to poke the plant. That didn't hurt it, right? It was only a little poke.

It was AS IF the plant was READY, and pretending to be asleep. Because the moment her gentlest of pokes reached the plant, it opened wide and made a BITE for Dahlia's finger.

NOM NOM NOM.

Trust Dahlia to ask a question like so. Amused, June shook her head, "not yet, Miss Donovan. But feel free to name him if you feel like it" Because naming was the least of her problems right now.


"Mhm. Just poke. Wake it up!" June encouraged as she walked closer to Mr Young's work station.


GENTLE poke would not do. Because this one was a sleeper, and just wiggled a but nothing else.

May take something more than just poking for this one to show it's teeth.


AAAAAND NOM NOM NOM IT WENT.

Leaves bursting open, the plant opened wide and went for her wand, missed, and then bit onto her text book. NOM NOM NOM.


Ready or not, the plant burst open and showed all it's teeth - very much ready to bite! Not holding back, it went to bite the girl's entire hand in one go.


ONCE.

TWICE.

THRICE.

The plant was awaaake and ready to go. Baby teeth wide and wild, it went for the girl's finger. NOM NOM NOM.


SOOOOO gentle.

The plant just wiggled and kept on sleeping.

Don't be afraid, little one, come clooooser and pooooooke.


"Not a dumb question at all," June assured, walking over to Miss Nam's workstation. "But it is just a name. They like to bite. Other plants, to be more specific"

Wiggggling a bit, and then some more. The plant awoke and loooked as if it was stretching itself before suddenly bursting open wide - the baby teeth showing in full.

A moment later, ready or not, it naturally went for the girl's hand too.


Why was June not surprised?

"We are doing this so they don't use their teeth on other plants" June replied, eying the quill he was wafting so easily around the plant. That might not ... end well.

And she was right.

Lo, and behold, the plant wafted right back at the quill. Only a bit more sharply and swiftly.

In one quick bite, it took ALL of Atlas' quill and then aimed for his hand!


"Well......not really. See, plants have systems that function like nervous systems. Seeking to thrive and grow. This behaviour falls into that" June explained, nearing the girl's workstation.

"They know how to react. And your poke will activate just that; their reaction" she smiled softly at the girl. "Go on then, don't be afraid"


Turns out, the boy was right. The gentle whisper comforted the little one enough to just wiggle a little -- before gingerly opening up to reveal it's teeth.

Nom nom?

Nipping at the boy's finger, it seemed the plant may be hinting at what was to come before opening wide to attempt at biting the boy's hand harder.

OOC: Great work, everybody! Next step is to stun and de-fang. So, carrry on the activity. June is walking around to help and more.

Violet huffed in frustration--this plant was acting rather like she did early in the morning--no wonder her uncles got so exasperated with her. Well, she couldn't really blame it, but she also couldn't let it keep on napping when she needed to get through class.

So she reached out, took hold of the plant and shook it (not too hard) and shouted at it, "C'mon, you! Time to wake up!!"

How was she supposed to stun a plant when it wouldn't even wake up?

Well, that was to be expected. The plant was now biting her finger, but Ash wasn't mad. She had provoked it, soooo... she just sorta left her hand there and raised her other one. "How come we have to stun and defang it? Why can't we just, y'know..." she looked at her hand. It had a glove on it, and she didn't feel any pain. So what was the problem? Why be mean to a plant when this was clearly her fault? "If it's biting my hand it can't bite other plants." Problem solved.

This plant was kinda cute. AND COOL, BECAUSE IT HAD TEETH. Respect.

Oh no.

Claudine hurried to pull back her hand the moment she spied those biters but it was too late. Well, sort of. The plant managed to snag a few of her fingers but thankfully they were protected by her gloves. But um… how would she get these teeth to release her? Claudine suddenly had the fear that the plant would have its fangs sink through her thick dragonhide gloves. Was that possible?


Um… what was it that Flamsteed had said on how to deal with these little vampires? Right. Stunning. With her free hand, Claudine aimed her dragon heartstring wand at the plant. “Stupefy!’’ Would the little guy be knocked out? Oh, and she had a question.

“Um… professor, what’s the best way to defang them? Like, a particular spell? Switching the fangs with something less dangerous?”

Okay ...

Veeeeery slowly, Max moved his gloved hand toward the baby Vampire. About an inch from the plant, he looked around him and noticed with shock that almost all of his classmates were already being EATEN by their plants. Uh??? This looked like the beginning of a catastrophe. But he had no choice but to follow the instructions and hope to survive. So he readjusted his grip on his wand, pointed it at the plant, and with the other hand that was an inch from the plant, gave it a sharp jab on the side.

Dahlia wasn't at all afraid. Rather than try to pull her hand away or flinch or anything else than some of her other peer may have done, she remained exactly how she was. Dragon hide glove covered hand right there as if waiting. A small grin even tugged at her lips as she saw those fangs appear suddenly and the plant made a BITE right at her finger!

"Oh!" she exclaimed with a actual giggle. Yup, the young Ravenclaw giggled as it chomped down on gloved finger. "Well that doesn't hurt." Good thing for the glove otherwise she was sure it would have been painful but right now it didn't hurt a bit. "You don't mean no harm, do you? You're only doing what you're meant to do, aren't you, Audrey?"

Since Audrey was pretty occupied with her finger, stunning him shouldn't be all that hard, right? Dahlia managed to reach for her wand and wrap her fingers firmly around it. "Professor? Rather than defanging him.. can I keep him?" He wouldn't be able to harm any other plants from in her dorm. "Couldn't we just move them all somewhere else.. away from other plants so we don't have to defang them?" That could also solve the issue, right? However she was sure that Flamsteed wasn't going to agree to that today since this was a lesson.

So yes, how did they go about the defanging process? She nodded her head along with Claudine's question.

Remy SNATCHED her wand back as the plant suddenly went for it, letting out a little, “Agh!!” Thankfully, the plant had missed, and phew, imagine if she had ruined her wand, her dad would be furious. “Hey!!” Wand dropped to the desk, Remy pulled at her textbook until she managed to break it free from its jaws. Suppose she should be grateful that the thing hadn’t gotten near her fingers yet.

Frowning a little at her failed attempt to poke the plant without getting something nipped, Remy quietened to listen to the next instruction, although didn’t feel too prepared to just stun the baby vampire plant. Did she even know how to stun something????! Did she want to stun the poor thing?

The Gryffindor picked up her wand again and resumed her position of pointing it at the plant. “Stu… st… stupefyyyy…” SHOCK - it didn’t work. She put her wand down instantly, all embarrassed.

Okay...but...Auntie June. That was only answering ONE of his questions. Which explained why he pouted a bit as she quickly moved on. This could, arguably, be considered a serious dental procedure and he did not feel like he was all that qualified to perform it.

Thankfully for the Herbology professor, his plant's reaction to the quill was more than enough to pull the second year's attention away from his puffy cheeked disappointment and right smack back into amusement. "Woooow...wicked!" he exclaimed as his quill was massacred. His fingers, and hand, were retracted just before they could suffer the same fate...and then he was looking around for something else to tempt the plant with. He would have just taken Aries' quill...but he already knew the conclusion to that and therefore it was a rather boring experiment. What about....ooooh! That spade might produce something interesting.

Spade in hand (Stunning Spell, what?), Atlas leaned forward again and tried to poke the stem with the tip of it. Tearing through feathers was one thing, but metal? Totally different and he was curious how the vampiric plant would fare.

Heath smiled a little as the plant wiggled and showed its teeth. Aww, look at those little teefs!* It seemed almost a shame to remove them. “Yes, what lovely teeth you have!” he whispered. He was unfazed as the plant nipped one of the fingers on his left hand. It didn't hurt or break through his glove. He giggled softly. The nip reminded him a bit of Rey (his cat, not the Star Wars character), though she usually preferred biting noses and ears to fingers.

Then he realized this plant reminded him of another Star Wars-related creature, someone else small and adorable who was known to bite fingers on occasion. He overheard Professor Flamsteed tell Dahlia that she could name the plant. Could he name it too? He had the perfect name! As far as he was concerned, the plant would henceforth be known as Grogu.

He saw the baby plant - Grogu open wide, but he reacted too late and felt the bite on his hand. Okay, that one did pinch a bit! Those teeth didn't break through his groove, did they? "Hey! I'm not a snack," he scolded gently. Well, at least maybe biting his hand would keep Grogu calm while he stunned and defanged him… he hoped! Not that he particularly wanted to do either, but he wasn't one to go against a professor's directions. Speaking of which, how did he remove the fangs? The only thing he could think of was to try to vanish them, which would be hard to do if he was being bitten. He overheard Claudine ask about defanging and looked to Professor Flamsteed, awaiting the answer. While he waited for instructions on the defanging process, he supposed he could still go ahead and stun Grogu.

"Such a cute little plant," he said. "Yes, you are!" As he kept whispering calming words, he gripped his wand in his free hand, trying to conceal it in his sleeve so as not to scare little Grogu. He decided to try the spell nonverbally, lest the incantation somehow tip off or startle the plant. Stupefy, he thought, aiming his wand. As he cast, he envisioned Grogu going unconscious with every ounce of concentration he had. Did it work?

She tilted her head to the left as she listened to Professor Flamsteed answer her question. Bite other plants? she repeated, thinking that she didn’t have to worry too much about her finger. As she thought about that more, she moved towards poking it again but then stopped herself and retracted her gloved hand when it lunged for it.

Nope! Not today, baby Vampire!!

She even jumped out of her chair to give her enough space (granted, the plant couldn’t move so she perhaps looked a little silly doing this). Lisa folded her arms across her chest, studying said plant further before leaning in again to poke it. Maybe….. She scanned the room to see what the other students were doing. Some were casting the Stunning spell, Heath looked like he was letting the plant nibble on him, and Atlas was about to attack said plant with a spade? There were a variety of ideas that popped into her head buuuut she wasn’t entirely sure which was the best option.

Tip toeing back to her station, Lisa slowly moved her hand towards the plant and began patting it gently. “You are getting very, very sleepy,” she said in a monotone voice, hopping to lull the plant into boredom. Maybe she could make it fall asleep? She kept on doing this until she grabbed her wand and gently said, “Stupefy!”

Serena's nose wrinkled a little bit. She wasn't scared. There was only thing she was afraid of, and she wasn't going to think about it right now.

She understood what Professor Flamsteed said, though. About the plant's nervous system and how behavior was a part of that. Her uncle Kennedy had explained that when she had snuck into the family green house and almost became plant food.

Pointer finger straight and steady, Serena poked the vampire plant. There. POKE.

As expected, the plant gave a jolt and snapped at her. Serena smirked at it. "You lack the element of surprise," she said to it. Then without warning, she swiftly cast, "Stupefy!"

Surprise.