It was unusual to find herself in a situation in which she spoke more than the peers surrounding her. Unsettling was, perhaps, the more prominent response and the seventh year was not sure how she emotionally resonated with it. Her hazel-green eyes remained mostly forwards, fixated on the professor and occasionally glancing to the unselected plants nearby, though found herself giving her effervescent housemate careful consideration and after further reflection her hand was slowly raising again to - dare she even consider it? - uplift the blonde's response.

"The Moon while not a planet, as my housemate astutely pointed out, still functions like one in several aspects and specifically its orbit and relative position could serve as an enhancer or diminisher to a Planetary Ruler couldn't it, professor?" Mitsuki inquired while pulling her collective knowledge together. Though she did not apply said knowledge to flora all that often, humans were comprised, overall, of 60% water while plants were between 80% and 90% water so the same basic principles regarding the influence and pull over water were a nearly perfect mirror to one another. "For example, if a Full Moon were to rest in a water sign along with a favorable Planetary Ruler, that would hold far greater influence over a plant, herb's, vitality and prosperity than if they were seperated. And their relationship even further amplified were both the Full Moon and favorable Planetary Ruler nestled within Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces."

Drake smiled at both Phoebe and Aryan's answers on why they'd chosen what they did, nodding in understanding. There was nothing wrong with just doing it because! And also, being green might have been a common thing between plants but there were different shades of green which made all the difference if you asked him! He would have perhaps asked how they felt about the shades of the marjoram in front of them, except the lesson had already started and there was a lot of answers being offered and he was trying to keep up with it all in his notes.

Which proved even harder once the next question was asked. A Planetary... ruler? He blinked at Professor DeVries for a moment, before his attention turned to the older Ravenclaw - Mitsuki - who seemed to have a lot to say on the subject. Drake eagerly went back to his notes, jotting down her response and the others as well. He had no answer of his own, but he figured that was okay as long as he was listening - which he was. He was very curious to see how the planetary... stuff was going to tie into the things in front of him!

Well this was just becoming more and more grand by the minute. First they were given the menial task of choosing from three different, yet equally and candidly beauteous flora. Followed by the simple, yet thought-provoking question of said greenery's importance or significance in an average day-to-day scenario. Now they all were being asked by Professor DeVries a question that was more aligned with astrology, but it still was being simultaneously spun in a way where it would manage to still fit the subject matter of Herbology itself. On top of all that, the true icing on the cake was that it had appeared that most of the other students in the class were perplexed by the matter at hand; meaning he could shine within this moment like the star student, no pun intended, like he wanted to be. A select few gave their answers on it, most notably the one seventh year, Mitsuki. Which was to be slightly more expected given the fact that such knowledge was more accessible to students who have been at the school for a longer period of time. That wasn't to still say this information couldn't be gained or possessed by others as well, just was less likely.

Archie was included in that bunch for his love of astrology was only eclipsed, no pun intended again, by his love of Charms and Ancient Runes. It was one of the things that he loved to study and talk about. So, he was about to 'eat and leave no crumbs' as those from across the pond would say. Still, Archibold was going to be at least somewhat respectful when doing so. He didn't want his confidence to come across as arrogance.

Right hand being diligently and confidently raised again, the astrology lover would go on to say "A Planetary Ruler is, as Mitsuki said before, the relationship shared by the different planets and the astrological signs. Also as she stated, the Moon is included in this, as well as the Sun itself, although neither are technically planets. Similarly, in somewhat of the same vein, Pluto even though no longer classified as one itself, is still further included within this." He'd pause, take a short and silent breath, then continue. "One of the easiest ways to identify what each planet specifically rules, typically is to simply associate it with it's ancient Roman deity counterpart. Primarily this can be seen with Venus and Mars, who are the Goddess of Love, and the God of War/Conflict respectively. Concluding that in Astrology itself Venus and Mars rule over love and direct action respectively yet again. However, as for their relations to plants, I'm not 100 percent positive about it. But, taking a guess using Venus, I'm going to assume it might rule over herbs or other flora typically involved with romance or ones possibly used in love potions. Fur-" He was going to continue, however, in the moment, he did find himself rambling in a bit of extreme happiness. Archie did still wanna leave room for others to possibly answer, or even draw their own conclusions based on his.

Phoebe blinked blinked blinked. Rulers?? She wasn't good at measuring things. Oh- it wasn't about measuring things. Somehow, planetary rulers felt even more confusing than the regular kind of rulers, even the American kind. It was safe to say that she did not know the answer to this question.

"I'm a Sagittarius," she offered unhelpfully. Was that important to plants? It didn't feel important to plants, because she was unfortunately not a plant. But maybe it was important for some other reason. "Do plants have zodiac signs too? How do I know what they are?" She supposed that they could have a birthday... maybe. Phoebe was lost as soon as the older years started talking about... well, actually, as soon as the older years started talking.

Even though she was completely confused about what plants and planets had to do with each other, she took notes in the hopes that she would understand later.

Planetary Ruler (not a type of ruler)- relationship between zodiac signs and planets
full moon... planetary ruler... sign... = power

And then, there it was--the opening Tapio had been looking for. "Well, not exactly, Miss Calypso. They don't have zodiac signs, but plants do have planetary rulers. In fact, though planetary rulers are most commonly talked about in astrology, many other things also have them--plants, minerals, animals, vegetables, even the days of the week. Although, in these other disciplines, it's usually only the seven "classical" planets which are used: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, and the Sun. A planetary ruler influences the energy of the sign or stone or plant that it rules. And in herbology, the planetary ruler depends on energetic similarities between the two. For example, spicy, fiery plants are ruled by Mars, while brittle, cooling plants by Saturn. And in Western Herbalism, the knowledge of planetary rulers influences remedies to illness based on the planetary nature of the disease. In the words of Hermes Trismegistus, "As above, so below."

"And today, all three plants we have are ruled by the planet Mercury, the Greek god of travel and communication. The day of the week that Mercury rules is Wednesday, and that's why we're beginning this classwork on a Wednesday. Plants which are ruled by Mercury are changeable and don't hold fast to any essential energetic qualities. So plants ruled by Mercury are ones that adapt quickly to their environment and have varied coloration or prominent inconsistencies in their appearance. Mercury rules over most aspects of consciousness and the life of the mind and sensory experience. Paracelsus attributed Mercury to the lungs, and some say it rules the skin and face. That's why a lot of these plants have notable scents and some can be used as facial treatments.

"Mercury rules such plants as mandrake, valerian, honeysuckle, mullein, and the plants we have today: mints, lavender, and marjoram. Those like mint and marjoram, with green "minty" scents can enhance creativity and thinking, while those with "cool" scents, like lavender, calm the mind.

"Today we're going to be working with these plants to prepare them for use in what's known as a tincture. A tincture is A tincture is an extract of plant or animal material and it's made by dissolving the material in alcohol. But first I'm going to go over two spells on the board that you'll be using and you can practice them. Then you'll use them to collect leaves from your plants, those of you with mint or marjoram. All of you who chose the lavender will be using the flowers. You'll need to trim off enough to make about 2 oz. and when you've got what you need, you're going to dry your sample.

"And now for the spells--you older students have done them before, but it never hurts to practice, and maybe you can help some of the younger students practice if you don't need to.
The first spell is to trim your flowers or leaves and it's a familar one--Diffindo, which we use in Herbology for taking cuttings and harvesting plants. It's pronounced "dee-FIN-doh" and the wand movement is a kind of wavy line, going from left to right--start high to your left, swoop down toward the right, then up again, then down, and finally up and out--like a sort of wave." Tapio demonstrated the wand movement, then wrote all this on the board.

"The second spell is a variation on the Tergeo charm and will both clean and dry out the leaves or flowers you've cut. The incantation is Tergeo Exaresco, pronounced "TUR-gee-oh Ex-uh-RESK-oh", and you just point your wand at your target. In this case you probably want to move your wand back and forth over all the cuttings to make sure you cast the charm evenly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiteboard

Diffindo -- dee-FIN-doh
Wand motion:

Tergeo Exaresco -- TUR-gee-oh Ex-uh-RESK-oh
Wand motion: point at target

"All right--start practicing and then get to cutting samples!" Tapio stepped back and prepared to watch the students work and step in if they needed help.


[OOC: What the man said--practice the spells as needed, and use them to harvest leaves or flowers from your plants. You have until Fri. evening, 2/2, CST before we move on.]

Upon hearing Professor Devries greeting to her, Bryony smiled a little more. "It's good to see you too, Sir. It's a lovely day to work with plants." And it really was. She wasn't just saying this because she was sitting in his class. Bryony did happen to like herbology and while she didn't know as much about plants as she did creatures, she did know quite a bit. More than some might actually realize. This was actually thanks to her mama her also enjoyed the subject and had done her best to teach her whenever she could. After all, her name was Bryony Rose.

As she set up her desk with some parchment and a colorful quill, her blue eyes shifted onto Ary. "Perfectly," cue a bright smile that may have been a smidgen forced at first. She wasn't about to tell him that she was feeling unhappy about what she had just seen. What she would do though was make sure a point was proven from now on. Ary was her bestie.

Now Drake was asking something. Bryony heard the question. It was hard not to when it was clearly directed at their little group all sitting near one another. He might be trying to steal her bestie away but she could be nice. The smallest shrug of a shoulder was given. "It was the closest one to me." That was the only reason she had at the moment. If it had been pink, well then the reason would've been obvious.

Bryony could've raised her hand and given an answer for the first question but she had already been taking down notes and didn't really want to ruin the rhythm she had gotten into. When the second question came around... well.. Let's be honest here, she had not clue. Not a one. Guessing would've been highly amusing but not at all worth it today. So as it was, the snakette remained silent again. This had to be okay because she was very clearly listening to the amount of notes she was taking down.

Seriously, so much information! Not a complaint was made though. The entire time, Bry kept her left arm wrapped around the pot of her lavender plant and her parchment tilted slightly sideways (this was normal for her) as she wrote down EVERYTHING! Finally after what might've been ages, her quill was set down in exchange for her wand. It was practice time! Why she was choosing to work on the wand movements first today, who really knows but this is what she was doing. Pointing at the target was easy-peasy. Tracing out a wave like shape through the air was pretty easy too.. and fun.

Maxine wrote her notes and plant rulers .. she had an image of an actual ruler in her head - good thing she didn't say anything she would look rather foolish. After finishing that up she took at look at her lavender plant in front of her. The Diffindo spell she didn't need help with - that was was easy.

"Diffindo" She said making the wand movement and watching several flowers drop off. That spell was an easy one. The other "Tergeo Exaresco" She decided to say out loud a few times without her want first ."TUR-gee-oh Ex-uh-RESK-oh - Tergeo Exaresco" .... okay now that one sounded right to.

Point at her flowers she had just removed from the plant "Tergeo Exaresco -- TUR-gee-oh Ex-uh-RESK-oh" They began to dry. What fun - Things finally seemed easy to her in 7th year - took a while to feel confident .. but confidense was key.

…………..

Did Mitsuki just.. defend her answer? Mitsuki. The girl who usually looked at and spoke to her in a slightly disgruntled manner because of Aurora’s overeagerness and inability to shut up and perhaps the slight crush she had on her boyfriend. She was actually encouraging her by providing support to her daft question and she called her ‘astute’ which evidently in the Ravenclaw’s mind was a HUGE compliment. Her housemate received a tentative but genuine smile in her direction followed by a quick.. “Wow! You’re a real Ravenclaw.” As in she was able to reel off information in that encyclopaedic sort of way that the fourteen year old could only dream of.

Not that Aurora was really paying much attention to anything she and the Professor were saying about planetary rulers for it all sounded rather Astronomy-y which usually became muffled in her head. If what Professor DeVries was saying about mint being good for ‘thinking’ was true then maybe she should have been consuming it by the buckets. Sadly she didn’t enjoy the taste of mint, her buds remained firmly in the sweet and sugary corner. She also vaguely listened into the speech of which planets were used in the rule and felt momentarily sorry for Uranus, Neptune and the always forgotten Pluto (which she had dubbed her favourite even if it wasn’t technically a planet) for being left out.

Thank Merlin that the Prof had written the instructions on the board and thank goodness that she wasn’t totally useless when it came to charms too. Had it been suggested that they could work in groups then the blonde would’ve immediately pounced on poor Mitsuki but the elder Ravenclaw would be exempt from any partner work for the time being whilst she worked on the spells by her lonesome.

Diffindo she could do with quite some ease and do it she did, waving her wand in that little wave movement over her Lavender until it was trimmed to the desired length several times over. “The flowers will regrow won’t they?” she asked whilst her pile began to build up next to her. She was sure that the answer would be yes but the nagging sense of guilt of depriving the plant of its beauty was tugging at her heartstrings to the point that the question had to be asked.

Pheebs’ question, as weird as it may sound to some, was rather interesting to Ary. His gaze returned expectantly to DeVries. It turned out that his initial thought, about Planetary Ruler having something to do with Astrology, was correct. He carefully made his notes, ensuring to include the provided examples. His mind also replayed other information he knew about Mars and the body: Mars ruled the blood and muscles.

There was quite a lot of information DeVries provided but Ary scribbled down it all as best as he could. At the mention of Mercury ruling Mandrakes, he discreetly nudged Drake. “Ruled by Mercury, are you?” he whispered jokingly. Then he went right back to taking notes about tinctures and the two spells.

It wasn’t long after that Aryan was ready to begin his practice. “Dee-FIN-doh. Diffindo. Diffindo.” The complicated wand movement of moving from left to right starting high on the left, then swooping down toward the right, then up again, then down and up and out. “TUR-gee-oh Ex-uh-RESK-oh. TUR-gee-oh Ex-uh-RESK-oh. Tergeo Exaresco.” The pointy wand movement was far easier than the first.

And all the while he kept looking towards Bry, wanting to ensure that she was indeed okay. He knew her well enough to tell that something was off with her mood. But in the end, she really need not worry that he would be stolen; he would always remain her bestie.

Ah yes, Tapio was always expecting something like this when they worked with flowers. Unfortunately, sometimes, in order to make use of a plant, one had to take its blooms, or fruits, or leaves or roots. And many plants bloomed and died afterwards on their own. Fortunately, he could give a better answer to Aurora. "Yes, actually, in the case of lavender, they usually do grow back after pruning, although that's usually best to do in the spring. Best not to take all of them, though." As much as Tapio loved all plants, he didn't get too sentimental about losing them, either--it was all part of the cycle of life.


[OOC: Still one more day for this part of the class. I'll move it along tomorrow evening.]

Phoebe quickly wrote down as much as she could about PLANT-etary rulers, intending to study it more later.

SPOILER!!: Pheebs' Notes

Mercury- travel, communication, Wednesday, consciousness, mind and sensory experience, lungs, skin, face
Mercury Plants- adapt quickly to their environment, varied coloration or prominent inconsistencies, smells nice and good for skin
Mandrake, Valerian, Honeysuckle, Mullein, Mint, Marjoram, Lavender
Mint- creative and thinky
Cool- calm
Tincture- dissolve plant in alcohol

She kind of wished she'd picked the calming lavender, but creative Marjoram was okay too. It was green, which was nice. "What will we do with the tinctures? Will we drink them?" Phoebe was curious. But for now, she got to work. Diffindo was a charm she'd learned already, so she skipped practicing to just practice on her plant. "Diffindo, Diffindo, Diffindo." She waved her wand in the special Diffindo wave and watched as she trimmed off a bit of her plant. It took her a few tries to get it right, but eventually she was collecting trimmings like a pro and had more than enough! She was the most proud of herself for finally doing something right in class.

Tergeo Ex-Ex- Exaresco was a different matter entirely. No matter how much Pheebs practiced and tried, her cuttings wouldn't clean and dry!! "TUR-gee-oh Ex-REKS-oh. TUR-gee-oh Ex-REKS-oh? Tergeo Exrekso?" With every attempt, Phoebe felt less and less confident and it was hurting her feelings a little. "I can't get this spell right," she complained, looking a bit discouraged. Phoebe never did anything right and she couldn't even dry things!

Normally, herbology was one of Mona's favourite classes. She LOVED flowers and anything that smelled good. And she usually looked forward to the class too. She was always on top of her classwork, and studied the topic beforehand. Or used to. Until she became infatuated with...

Logan Paton. The sixth year Gryffindor. He was very cool, extremely handsome, clever and... probably completely oblivious to a first year old girl. Mona wasn't the type to fall for boys either. She had so far turned down a couple of boys, thank you very much. She had standards. She came here to be successful, get a good education, and become a healer...

...while being lost in the blue eyes of Logan... what a pretty name...

She wasn't even listening to the professor. All she wanted was for this class to be over, so that she could come up with a plan to meet the boy. She scribbled stuff down her notebook absentmindedly, just the words she randomly heard, and didn't even register that she completely missed a couple of questions. She definitely wasn't going to understand anything she had written down so far, but she wasn't in a position to care.

Logan Paton... Mona Paton... such a lovely couple.

Sighing again, she played with the purple petals of the lavender in front of her. Did he like lavender? Not everyone did. Would he be impressed if she could conjure lavenders from her wand? Would Professor Devries teach her? Or better yet, he could teach her. Was the assignment that!? She suddenly jerked and looked around to figure out what was going on. Her blue eyes focused on the board, and she was disappointed. No, they were supposed to practice the spells that did not conjure lavender. She took out her wand, and waved it completely wrongly while mumbling "Diffindo." When nothing happened, she signed in a more dramatic way, and slipped right back into daydreaming.

What if I go up to him, and ask for help in all the classes? He's an older student, he's bound to help me! Then I will do all the spells at once, since I am smart enough, and ... well, yeah, of course I'm going to practice everything beforehand! But practice takes time, and he's already a sixth year! What if he graduates early or something, and is lost to me forever...

Yeah.....Kalie's head was still spinning from all the astrology talk. This was more like something her musician uncle Parker would be interested in briefly before he moved on to the next thing. And then Professor DeVries was talking about the Greeks and the whiplash became worse. This was why she always had better luck in Charms and Transfiguration. Speaking of Charms, there was something she recognized finally! Diffindo. The cutting charm.

She finished jotting down her notes and turned to the mint she had picked at the beginning of class, glad she had chosen it instead of the lavender. The scent of it always calmed her so much she ended feeling tired. Not a good thing when one was chopping things, for obvious reasons. "Diffindo," she casted, so that some leaves fell off the plant into hand. That would make two ounces, right?

Next came the drying charm. "Tergeo Exaresco." There, now she had some dried mint.

It was always good to see when his answers were being taken into account. One because it meant the answer was on the right track, at the very minimum. In this case, the fact that Professor Tapio seemed amused by the answer with the agreeance in his own words made the prior first fact all the more true. Two, Archie was just one to never shy away from garnering attention such as this. He did pride himself on his intellect, albeit more often than not it was used in more creative and clever ways. But, didn't hurt to hit the nail right on the head from time to time.

After writing everything carefully and quietly down in his notebook, it was time for the blue-eyed O'Brien to get set on actually putting the knowledge given to the test through practicing it. The first one, the charm used for actually gathering what was needed from the plants, he thought would be relatively easy. Archie had heard of it previously, and even seen its usage before class, however, he's never actually used it in the past. Although it was a charm, so that's why he had an inkling on why it would just be at least slightly more easier to get the hang of. With his wand in his dominant hand, the first thing he'd do was slightly mumble through the phrasing of it without any real movement. "dee-FIN-doh. Dee-FIN-doh." Each syllable would be carefully uttered and repeated until he got the memory of which part had the specific and necessary emphasis placed on it. "Diffindo. Diffindo. Diffindo." Good. So that should be that. He'd think to himself. Going through the motion separately, it was an even easier thing to practice. Even going so far to add some slight nuances for style when making the wave. Once he was sure that he got the hang of that, he'd put it all together. "Diffindo!" The tone would be sharp and confident, much like the very spell that was being used. And to no surprise, it had worked in the first try. One of the flowers would be trimmed off and fall downwards towards the desk. The process would then be repeated until he felt like enough of them were gathered.

Now came the trickier part. The spell that he was unfamiliar with in its entirety. For this one, his attention would be slightly diverted to those around him, just to see how they all were going about it. From this and what was jotted on the board in the front of the greenhouse, Archie was able to at least come to a general understanding of how he should go about annunciating and casting the drying spell. However, one student's pronunciation of it caught his attention, followed by their small declaration that they were having some difficulty. She was a fellow Slytherin, a second year by the name of Phoebe if his memory had served him correctly. Judging from things, almost immediately the third year was able to glean why she wasn't getting it. So, tearing out a blank slip of paper and crumbling up into a ball, it would be gently thrown at her desk to grab her attention. If and once that had occurred, the boy would go on to offer some assistance to the best that he could. "It seems to be, you're missing a syllable in there. Ex-uh-resk-oh" For the moment, he'd place slightly more stress on the uh part that she was missing. Then, he'd quickly go over it with her again, this time with its proper emphasis. "Ex-uh-RESK-oh." A nod would be given to indicate that he'd now actually try to cast it to further show her. With the wand being pointed at one of the lavender's fallen buds, he'd say "Tergeo Exaresco!" And the one that was being pointed at would dry out and wilt before his very eyes.

"Hopefully, that helps you out a bit." He'd add before politely smiling at Phoebe, and then going about drying the rest of the flowers using the new spell.

With practice out of the way, Ary was ready to harvest leaves from his marjoram. That’s when a question occurred to him: couldn’t they just pluck the leaves and flowers from their respective plants? At least it would have lessened the risk of him destroying the marjoram before him. Then again, it could all be chalked up to DeVries wanting them to become familiar with the Severing Charm. After a while, he mentally shrugged because he wasn’t keen on asking the question just because.

“Diffindo,’’ Ary said with as much confidence and concentration that he could muster. Naturally the complicated wand movement was done. Nothing happened on this try, nor on the second and third. But on the fourth, a few leaves were somewhat clumsily snipped away from the plant. Ary watched them flutter gently to the table then continued with the severing. A minute or so later, he thought he had gathered enough for the required amount of tincture.

The Slytherin laid the severed leaves in a couple of neat rows before him. “Tergeo Exaresco.” The wand was pointed but he didn’t really expect anything to happen just yet. It actually took Ary three tries to see a change in the leaves, to see them losing their vibrant green colour. This meant they were drying. Pleased with himself, he moved his wand back and forth to ensure even drying.

Eventually it was time to go on to the next steps, Tapio decided, and those who were still behind would just have to catch up, with his help, if they needed it. "All right, everyone, good work. Once you have about 2-3 oz. of dried herb or flowers, you're ready to go on to the next step. You're going to grind it up into a very fine powder with a mortar and pestle and put the powder in the bottom of a mason jar, until you have about 1/2 cm at the bottom. All the equipment is up here in this cabinet, including rulers if you want to measure 1/2 cm exactly, and I'll be updating the instructions on the whiteboard to remind you what we're doing." It was sounding rather like a Potions lesson now, after the planets and all, but it was still a part of Herbology. Tapio liked it when the disciplines came together like this.

Aftery drying what Maxine felt like was the appropriate amount of of her flowers - she could always come back and dry more later if she did not have enough. She made her way to get the mason jar - mortal and pestel to grind up her mixture.

Maxine quietly got to work taking care to measure 1/2 cm on the bottom and waited for the next set of instructions.

A good word from a professor always goes a long way. Ary smiled in acknowledgement and gratitude at DeVries for this very reason. Luckily, the two spells had been of the ‘charms’ type so they came almost naturally to him.

Now that the board had been updated with more information, the Slytherin set about writing it all down before getting to the practical things. The materials were collected. He, too, thought that the lesson was heading in the direction of a Potions one so, much like he would in Potions, Ary magically cleaned the mortar and pestle and only then did he add the leaves. The requirement of a fine powder meant that the crushing/grinding process would take some extra time to complete. Yet he was patient throughout the process.

When it was done, Ary Scourgified the mason jar as well then crushed leaves were tipped into the it. Afterwards, he shook the jar so that the powder spread evenly. Using the ruler by placing it at the side of the jar, he ensured that the base was covered with the required half cm. It took him tipping some more powder into the jar but he got there with the correct amount eventually.

There was..... so much information that Drake hadn't known! And DeVries was giving them so much the second year wasn't certain he'd be able to get it all written down on paper before it was time to move on. Which was exactly correct, as the instructions for cutting pieces and drying them out was given and he was only 3/4th of the way done with his writing. Scribbling faster, and only pausing to give a chuckle and a shrug of his shoulders towards Aryan and his joke about Mandrake's own planetary ruler (which he was not certain what it was in actuality, but wouldn't it be funny if it were Mercury?). Finishing up his notes just as Professor DeVries was introducing the next set of instructions - Drake was glad that Diffindo was one he knew how to use well so he could skip the practice portion.

Creating the wave movement over and over, combined with quick and quiet "Diffindo, diffindo, diffindo" he quickly gathered mint leaves. Once they were caught, the aroma in the air was even more potent than it had been untouched and it was hard to not get distracted by how good it smelled, but he continued to push on in fear of being behind all lesson. Laying the leaves then all out in a line side by side, he pointed at the first one and gave a clear "Tergeo Exaresco". Only.... it didn't work. With a near noise of dismay, he took two deeeeeeep breaths to settle himself, before focusing one more and trying again. "Tergeo Exaresco" He said clearly, before he could see the first leave slowly begin to dry out. Moving his wand caaaarefully over all of the line, he watched them all begin to crinkle and dry out until he got to the very last one.

Everyone else was already grinding, but good news was Drake was ready to as well. Gathering all of his leaves, he dropped them into the mortal and pestle and began to grind. He liked doing this type of work, so he was unbothered by how long it might take. Using small increments of the leaves, he'd drop them in and grind grind grind until it was a fine powder - before pouring that powder into his mason jar and going again.

Rinse, lather, repeat. Over and over until from what he could determine, he had the desired amount.

At first, Phoebe was sure that someone was throwing paper at her to make fun, and her small face scrunched into a scowl. But she relaxed a little bit when she realized that Archie the older year was actually offering to help, and wasn't just going to tell her she was stupid. "Oh. Okay. Um, um, Ex-uh-REKS-oh. Wait, no. Ex-uh-RESK-oh. Tergeo Exaresco." It took her a bit, but she eventually managed to dry out her marjoram cuttings. "Thanks, Archie." It was a big help.

Ooh, it was time for the tincture part. She was excited about this lesson- besides the part where she was bad at magic. She collected all of her ingredients in two trips: The mortar and pestle, mason jar, and spell-o-wrap first, followed by the tin foil, silk cloth, and ethanol. She was quite pleased that this part didn't involve magic and she could just crush the leaves herself.

Pheebs got to work, crushing her Marjoram super-duper-small-sized and then diligently measuring the powder to make sure it took up EXACTLY(ish) 0.5 centimeters of mason jar. She'd seen Noah making his potions and he was always the most exact!

The labeling and assigning of things in this capacity were a bit nonsensical to Mitsuki despite her house illustration reflecting a certain understanding of an emotional influence over the matchmaking of the Sorting Hat. Perhaps the version of herself from three terms ago would have struggled indefinitely with such things, but the version of herself now was at least about to squint and turn her head sideways to see a connection and some of the pseudo logic behind it all...such as sharp and peppery spices having a Planetary Ruler like Mars due to that Roman diety's association with hot-temperedness and impatience.

"Roman," she muttered under her breath as she took to doodling about her paper as the professor lectured on for a bit. While it was true that practice made perfect and there was little to no harm in refining that which you already knew, Mitsuki felt little inclination to do so now with Diffindo. Still, she was a Ravenclaw who followed instructions and thus did perform the wand movement a few times while humming the incantation in her mind. She must have been humming quite loudly for she did not hear the effervescent Ravenclaw's question about whether or not plants grow back. The professor had spared her another display of moderately uncharacteristic empathy. Tergeo Exaresco was a newer spell to her wheelhouse and thus earned a couple rounds of verbal confirmation before it was time to move on and involve her selected lavender plant.

Carefully bending one of the stalks of flowers, Mitsuki gave her wand a subtle flourish while speaking the incantation in her thoughts and severed the lush purple blossoms off easily and continued her way around the potted flora until none were left. Then, laying them out on her table, she got to work on the second stage of things. "Tergeo Exaresco," she spoke calmly as she administered the spell to each and found the experience of watching the subtle changes in texture and coloration as each dried up.

"I shall retrieve your equipment as well," she informed the younger blonde Ravenclaw as she rose from her spot and shuffled over to cabinet to get their supplies. Returning swiftly, the seventh year set her own down first before offering Aurora the rest. With nary another word, she began to delicately place her now dried lavender into her mortar.

Still taking a gander at how Phoebe was doing after he had finished up his own initial portion of the task, he'd noticed that eventually, she'd get the hang of it after the correction. That, and the thanks she gave alongside with it. Smiling again, Archie would respond "Of course, no problem." Helping in the moment was the very least he could do. Especially given that it was a relatively small thing to help out with.

But, when the Professor would start to move back on towards the activity, his attention would divert back to the front of the class towards where everything was being written down. And boy, oh, boy was this the part that Archie tended to dislike. It wasn't super hard to follow along or anything. Just the fact that it involved lots of different measurements to get the precise amount needed for the tincture to be correct. Math, potion making, or things like the sort were never really his forte for that exact reason. If there was something that was in his wheelhouse however, it was going with the flow and still being able to get the task done. He'd carefully write everything down within the notes that he was taking, and get set straight to it.

First came the grinding; Archer would place several of the lavender flowers into a mortar and pestle after he gathered those tools and a ruler from the aforementioned cabinet. Not all of the lavender that he gathered though, just in case he got the amount needed wrong the first go around. He'd grind it all up and hope for the best. Transferring the powder carefully over to the mason jar and placing the ruler next to it, however, would reveal that not every hope would become concrete. The third year only managed to have about 1/4 of a cm in there after it was all placed inside. Nonetheless, that just meant he had to do it again. Taking the same amount of his cut lavender buds, Archie would grind those up. Once that was done, it would be once again transferred to the mason jar being used; luckily enough, this time there was exactly 1/2 of a cm. Thank goodness for that too. For a moment there, he thought he might have had to go about just repeating the process in a seemingly never-ending loop.

...so I will ask Logan for help at the library. And being the gentleman he is, he will accept. Then, I will start casting all the spells by myself after letting him show only one time. He will be SO impressed that he will dump -

"What?" Mona jerked at the mention of her name and looked around. The professor was talking to her, but she didn't even hear what he was saying. She looked around in panic, and said "I - I a working on it!" She didn't quite know what she was working on it, but... she was supposed to work on two spells and get the petals off the lavender... or something... She glanced back at the blackboard again, and said "Diffindo.' at the lavender flowers with the correct wand movement this time. She knew the spell, because she was using it a lot for cross-stitching and such. A good chunk of flowers fell off the lavender. She wondered what type of flowers Logan Paton liked. Orchids? Or maybe cherry blossoms? Lillies were cute too...

"Tergeo Exaresco!" This one thankfully didn't require any wand movement, because she was falling back into dreamy land and moved her wand up and down kind of absentmindedly. She wondered what kissing would feel like. She was still slightly grossed out by the idea, it was too wet, but everyone was doing it and she wondered if it felt as good as everyone claimed it did. She then wondered if Logan liked kissing...

She looked up at the professor again. 2-3 ounces of dried flowers, right. She noted it down alongside other key words like "grinding", "1/2 cm" and "mason jar". She wondered if she should make a bouquet of flowers for Logan. But she wasn't sure if she was supposed to take flowers from herbology greenhouses for romantic purposes. Besides, Logan was still dating that girl and Mona wasn't about to be the side chick. So they needed to break up...

Mona took out her scale from her bag, and weighed the flowers. She was very thankful that the assignment didn't require all her attention. Or rather, she would be thankful, if she was paying enough attention to even realize that she wasn't paying attention. She had about 2.1 ounces, which was good enough, and started grinding the petals with mortar and pestle. There ought to be a spell for this, but she didn't know. She bet Logan knew...

Tapio was pleased that all the students now seemed on track, more or less. But it was time to post the rest of the directions before they ran out of time.

"All right, everyone, I see everyone is coming along fine now. The next step of today's lesson is to create the tincture itself. To do that, you will add the alcohol to the same mason jar where you put your crushed herb, then seal it with Spell-o-Wrap and then the lid. Make sure your mixture does NOT touch any metal during this process--double-wrap the top of the jar with the Spell-o-Wrap if you need to. Finally, you'll wrap the jar in tin foil, to keep out light, and in silk, to prevent any other magical energies from interfering with your tincture. I'm writing the rest of the directions on the whiteboard now."


[OOC: Sorry guys, I'm running out of time today, so I only have time to post the rest of the instructions so you can all continue on. I'll post any needed responses or comments to your characters later tonight when I get back from rehearsal. The Main Activity will continue until late Mon. night.]

Aurora wasn’t THAT stupid in that she knew that removing a few buds or leaves wasn’t going to kill the plant, what she meant was whether THIS plant, the Lavender in which she had become somewhat attached to over the past five minutes it had been in her possession, was going to be okay after being likely decimated by her charms ability. “I’ll make sure I leave a few to regrow” she nodded gratefully at Professor DeVries. Did that mean that the plants could come back to their dorms with them?

Before the lesson moved on without her, the fourteen year old quickly (and as carefully as her skills allowed) removed the flowers using Diffindo and the wave movement and formed a small pile to her left. The next spell was one she wasn’t so familiar with and required that extra ounce of concentration. “TUR-gee-oh Ex-uh-RESK-oh” she spoke, overpronouncing each of the syllables in an attempt to get it right on the first try. Her wand pointed at the pile and waved back and forth a few times until the whole selection had dried out to the desired amount. She’s only just completed the first task when the Professor spoke up again.

Ordinarily Aurora would’ve uttered out a very polite thank you for someone doing something for her but in this instance, as she watched Mitsuki leave her desk and fetch her ingredients for her, the Ravenclaw was too stunned to speak. It felt like all the efforts (which let’s be honest wasn’t THAT hard for Aurora to make for she made an effort with practically everyone) had come to a conclusion and she had finally been accepted into Mitsuki’s small circle.

At least in her head it did, for all she knew it could’ve been the complete opposite. Either way the fourth year was absolutely going to push her luck. “Can we work together?” she asked, pulling her seat closer towards her housemate and moving the pestle and mortar in front of her to crush and grind the Lavender into a fine powder. She’d be quiet.. ish. And she wasn’t completely incompetent when it came to Herbology either so she wouldn’t be asking her questions every five seconds like she might’ve done in a subject she found more complex. Like Astronomy, she really didn’t get that one.

In flowed the ground flowers into the bottom of her mason jar which she kind of swirled around to make sure they were dispersed evenly. That and because it had formed this pretty purple colour that she rather enjoyed the look of. Next came the splashing of the ethanol as she poured it into the jar and a slight wrinkling of the nose from the dislike of the scent of it. There were so many types of wrapping to follow that the blonde had to organise her things into a neat row in the correct order or else she’d get all confuddled. “It’s like making a mason jar burrito” she giggled, thoughts now wandering to what she was going to enjoy for dinner.