Starry Nights

Classes and Confrontations

Cathleen and her friends are some of the first students to make it to the greenhouse. Two boys, Quinn Beretta and Aadish Mangal are already there along with Aradine Arterton. Professor Sprout waves at the girls as they approach. "Welcome to Herbology class girls, I'm Professor Sprout. We're just waiting out here for the rest of your classmates before class can begin."

About a minute later the rest of the students start trickling down to the greenhouses, most in pairs. Eleanor and Charlotte, Grayson and Milo, Rebecca Cambridge, Roman Tugwood, Garnet and Rosie. Lastly, a few minutes late actually, Wesley Spudmore and Isaac Walker strolled up.

"Did you boys get lost?" Professor Sprout asks with a kind smile.

"Yes, sorry Professor the castle is a bit hard to navigate." Isaac answers.

Professor Sprout shakes her head, "Nonsense, no need to apologize, it's only your first day," she turns and addresses the entire group, "Now would everyone like a tour of the greenhouse?"

Everyone nods and she smiles, "Great, you can all leave you knapsacks out here, you won't be needing anything for the tour, but please pay attention. Also before we go in I need to call roll."

She does, taking note of everyone's names. Then they walk into the greenhouse behind her observing all the amazing plant life. A lot of the plants were moving and some reached up to the ceiling, others just looked like normal plants.

"This is greenhouse one, it holds most of the least dangerous plants out of the greenhouses, we'll have our lectures in here and it's where most of the plants you'll be learning about are. There are some more dangerous plants in greenhouse two, which we'll be studying in a few weeks. For now though if you'll direct your attention over here," she points over to some hanging vines. "This is Iratus Angius does anyone know what that translates to?"

Aradine, Cleo, and Aadish raise their hands right away. After a few seconds Cathleen and Milo raise their hands.

She points to Aadish who smiles shyly, "Well I speak French, Italian, and Sanskrit but I think Iratus would be Latin for angry if I'm not mistaken."

"Correct, and Angius?" She points to Cleo.

"Argius is one of the translations for snake, dragon, or serpent, I believe."

Sprout nods, "Yes, Iratus Angius is a group of vines, when they feel threatened they lash out, hiss, and even bite. They're very snake-like but they're not venomous and relatively harmless."

She points to a group of purple flowers across from the vines, "Over here we have an herb called Vervain, renowned for it's toxicity to a certain species, does anyone know the species I'm referring to?"

Cathleen shoots her hand into the air first. Aradine, Erin, Charlotte, Roman, and Grayson all raise their hands but Professor Sprout points.

"Miss Dearborn-Lupin?"

"It's rumored to be very toxic to vampires."

"Very good, five points to Ravenclaw."

"Thank you, Professor."

They move on to Dogweed, Foxweed, Giant Moonwort, Birdroot, Jumping Quads, Seapods and more. By the the time they've finished discussing all the different plants in the greenhouse, it was almost time for class to end.

"Alright I want you guys to pick a plant we talked about today, any plant in the greenhouse that you found particularly interesting and write me an essay about it. Tell me the ways it can be used, how you would raise the plant, just research it and tell me about it. It's a fun assignment to help get you all interested in Herbology and whenever we start talking about the plant your researching you'll already know most everything, hopefully. I don't care how long the essay is either, I grade on quality, not quantity."