Class #4: R&H / 6&7

[Professor Pomona Sprout]

INTRODUCTION
Group #1: Ravenclaw Sixth and Seventh Years
Group #2: Hufflepuff Sixth and Seventh Years
Discussion: Snargaluffs

Miss Pomona Sprout was in a particularly good mood today, thank you very much. It was a lovely day, even if it was a little on the chilly side, but she had an exceptionally delicious breakfast that day, and it was the weekend! Even more, she was greatly looking forward to seeing the results of today’s Snargaluff pod extraction – she had her guesses on who would do well, but you never really knew. It was like a test, to weed out the real talent from the rest of them. Those who had a real gift would manage to single-handedly juice the Snargaluff with minor injuries in a relatively period of time. She looked around her green house, a pleasant, welcoming smile on her face. Pomona checked her watch, decided to give a few last minute stragglers some time to find their seats, and began class. ”Good morning!” She greeted the class happily, smiling even bigger when they returned the greeting in unison. ”Please, turn to page 107 in Flesh-Eating Trees of the World and read up; that is what is sitting in front of you right now. If you would like – and I will recommend it! - you may partner up for this task.” A mysterious grin formed across her lips; the horrified looks on their faces after reading the instructions and warnings the textbook offered was just too much. ”You may begin,” she said, waving a hand at them, standing up and ready to intervene if necessary. Snargaluffs always put up quite the fight.

[Pippin LeBeau]

Even though she wasn’t her Head of House, Pippin had always liked Professor Sprout. She was the sole reason she’d kept on with Herbology as a NEWT class, because Pippin was really rotten with plants. She tried gardening with her grandma and aunts over the summer, and while their flowers bloomed, her little pot of gardenias withered and died. It was more Pippin’s technical knowledge of Herbology that allowed her to pass the class. Besides, some of these things looked more like they belonged in Care of Magical Creatures than in a class about plants.

Oh, she knew this class was useful. Herbology wasn’t the same as Horticulture, so it wasn’t so bad. Still, when Pippin saw the Snargaluffs, she had to fight down the urge to pretend she was sick. She let out a nervous laugh as she read the instructions on what to do, and – oh, haha, look, they included colourful drawings of what happened when the Snargaluffs won.

At least this class was with the Hufflepuffs, she decided, looking up and eyeing Adam Quinn. “You. Here. Now,” she said, then looked at the plant.

Why was she in this class, again?

[Luke Neeson]

Luke came darting into the classroom, barely on time as usual and slipped into the open seat next to Jayden. He'd had a lot of strawberry compote with his pancake this morning, so he was running a bit on the sugar-induced-hyperactive side. The first thing that caught his ever waning attention was the plant in front of them. "Ooo, a STUMP!"

[/b] he said with a laugh and shake of his head. This seemed rather silly. what were they going to do? Learn how to get rid of a pesky, funny smelling stump from a garden? Luke had his hand extended and was about to poke the thing when Sprout announced what it was. He paused and blinked. A what? Luke quickly withdrew his hand and looked back and forth between the man eating tree stump and Jayden. Luke frowned. "Is it just me or does this school tend to put us in danger a lot?"[/b] he asked. Leaning as far back from the plant as he could without knocking over his chair. He nudged Jayden in the ribs with his elbow. "You go first."[/b] The stump gave a shudder and made a weird squelching noise. "See? It likes you!" He turned to Jayden and gave him a solemn look. "Your children will be eco-friendly AND have fabulous hair."[/b]
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[Adam Quinn]

Sometimes he really couldn't help but question his judgement. It seemed to happen a lot in Herbology class. Adam, being the kind of guy he was, always liked having a back up plan. That is, in case he ever needed to fall off the grid and disappear into the middle of no where and become entirely self-sustaining (just in case he ever got himself into a mess with the government or drug lords or those crazy ass anti Muggle born folks or anything like that), he needed to be prepared! So Herbology, as feminine as it could seem, what with dealing with pretty flowers and things, was actually a very helpful class. Adam learned all sorts of useful things about medicines and potions you could make with plants, as well as just a bunch of other random crap about gardening which had the potential to come in handy when he started growing his own marijuana. But shit, whatever the fuck this snargaluff thing was, he had no idea why this would be useful in the real world! He grumbled under his breath, remembering some of the past plants... more like creatures, they'd had to deal with. The plants had gotten increasingly dangerous over the years, so much that people had actually ended up in the Hospital Wing from a particularly nasty cut or because they got poisoned or something. He furrowed his brows at the book, the look on his face something between displeased and disgusted, when Pippin called out for him. "Whatever you say, Blondie," he said, walking towards the Ravenclaw, a pleased smile on his face. He stood beside her and glanced at the snargaluff and back up to her. "So..." he began, a little grin on the corner of his lips, "how do you wanna do this?"

[Pippin LeBeau]

“You ask an intriguing question, Sketch,” Pippin responded solemnly, giving the stump-ish thing a serious look. Down the table, one pair had already attempted to grab the pod, and their stump was decidedly un-stump-like as it lashed out with thorny vines. “I picked a helluva week to quit smoking,” she laughed nervously, even though she hadn’t quit at all and was definitely going to light up a joint after class – especially this class. “Well, I guess… Okay, how about you hold the thing, and make sure it doesn’t eat me, and I’ll stick my hand in the scary dark hole and get whatever we’re supposed to get? I think my hand might fit better. Unless… Hang on, no, I’ll hold the thingy, and you put your hand in the hole, because you might be able to reach it faster and then we’ll be done. OR! … I actually have no idea, so whatever you decide is fine with me. But if I lose a hand, I’m borrowing yours for the rest of the year, or at least until I get a new one.”

[Jayden Flynn]

Jayden had already sat down and was drumming his long fingers on the edge of the table to a beat in his mind already when Luke stumbled into the classroom and took the seat next to him, and of course, immediately got excited over the stump in front of them. To be honest, Jayden hadn't paid it much attention until now, when Luke pointed it out, and he narrowed his eyes and squinted at it until Professor Sprout called them for attention and began explaining what it was and what they had to do. Propping his book up between them (figuring Luke either lost his book or forgot to bring it to class), Jayden flipped to the page, where it said they had to extract a pod from the center of the plant. "Be careful of the thorns," he read out loud, glancing wearily at the plant and touching the side of it gently, watching it squirm.

He side-eyed Luke hard at his words, and frowned again, staring at the plant. "As much as I'd love to have its babies, I don't think it's going to like me as much when we try to extricate its brain out,

[/color]" he pointed out, pointing to the diagram on the page pointedly. "You go first.[/color]"[/color][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Adam Quinn]

"You're quittin'?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. To be honest he didn't even know she smoked in the first place, but that was just the beauty of making new friends, wasn't it? He raised an eyebrow at her in amusement as she ranted, letting out a chuckle every now and then. She certainly was unique. "Now calm on down there, Blondie, ain't nobody gonna be losin' a hand..." he trailed off, giving her a few light pats on her shoulder. He glanced around the room, as if to get a feel of what the best method of getting out the pod, but nobody seemed to be having much luck yet. His face contorted into a particularly repulsed expression at the sight of the prickly vines wrapping around someone's arm. He squinted. "So I'm thinkin'... maybe... we put it on the floor and I pry it open, it'll wrap itself around both my legs and arms,"

[/b] he squinted, unsure of how tight they could wrap... Luckily, he was wearing long sleeved pants and slacks so his skin wouldn't get too cut up from the tiny thorns. "And then when that's done, you can reach in and pull out the pod?" He looked at her hopefully. "But we should try to get it onto the floor with somethin' else..." he said, reaching over to grab a rake. Hopefully, with this plan, they could both get away from this relatively unscathed.


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[Pippin LeBeau]

Pippin gulped as another student – she wasn’t sure if it was male or female – let out a shriek as one of the Snaggletooths whipped a vine at him (or her). “I ain’t quittin’ anymore,” she said, then put on her Determined-To-Kick-All-Ass Face™ and placed her hands on her hips. “All right, you do that. Get it all… distracted, and I’ll try to grab the pod thingy.” She pulled on her gloves and waited while Adam knocked the Snaggletooth onto the ground with the rake, watching in mild horror as it snaked its vines around the handle. “Move it just a hair to the left!” she instructed, moving around to a less-viney area. This thing was like a walking death trap, and though Pippin didn’t mind the odd battle wound, she wasn’t keen on losing an eye. “Ready when you are.”

[Luke Neeson]

The amuse smile that had been on his face quickly disappeared. "We have to WHAT?" Luke snatched the book from Jayden and quickly started skimming the page. Obviously, he hadn't read the chapter yet. In fact, he hadn't even seen his Herbology text since he made a surprisingly accurate model of an ostrich on his dorm room. His eyes widened at the words "flesh eating", "pulsating" and "tubers". He let the book fall onto the table and leaned forward just enough to get a look into the gaping hole at the center of the stump. "What is that?? It's mouth? It's BRAIN? It looks angry. Why does it squirm like that? Oh my god can it smell fear??"

[/b] He shoved the book back into Jayden's hand. "No way, YOU touch the man eating tree stump, I don't want to. It has VINES and THORNS, Jayden. I don't think Pomfrey knows how to regrow ARMS! How are we going to do this??[/b]
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[Adam Quinn]

He laughed at her appreciatively, a grin on his face. "You're one of the first people I've met here who don't completely butcher the accent, so I oughta thank you for that," he said, nodding at her courteously. Adam nudged the thing with his rake and it let out a shudder. He narrowed his eyes and dragged it to the edge of the table and onto the floor. Just as soon as it hit the ground, the vines came out and wrapped themselves up the handle. He nudged it to the left before crouching down over it, leaning the rake against the table. As soon as he got his hands on it, the vines crawled up his arms and curled around his calves. He furrowed his brows as the vines tightened around his limbs, thorns digging into his skin even through his layers of clothes... "You know," he strained, glancing up at Pippin who had an intrigued look on her face, as if this were all just fascinating and interesting and not uncomfortable in the least for her partner. He huffed and continued, "I think in my experience, the normal lookin' plants are always the worst." Really, though, who would have thought this weird stumpy looking thing could possibly have the ability to do this?

[Jayden Flynn]

Jayden let Luke skim through the book as he grabbed the plant by its pot and brought it nearer to them, looking around to see what the other students were doing, and how on earth they were supposed to get that pod thing. "It's like sending us into the lion's den," he muttered, watching as the other students around them started putting gloves on. That seemed like a good start. He grabbed a pair and thrust another a Luke. "Get these on,

[/color]" he instructed. "I don't KNOW if it can smell fear. It's a PLANT, Luke, it--careful with the pages--what!? I'm--no, you're touching it first,[/color]" he claimed, scooting his stool back to stand up instead, leaning over to look down at the hole of the plant.

"It doesn't seem to have many thorns, this one, does it?[/color]" he muttered over to Luke, reaching down to poke at the side of it again with his gloved finger, and just as the plant yielded under his touch, tentacle-like vines flourished from within the hole at the center and spread out and around, brandishing their thorns at him, and Jayden screamed, nearly tripping over himself in his haste to get away from it. "Luke DO SOMETHING.[/color]"[/color][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Luke Neeson]

"Gloves, right, smart,"

[/b] Luke said, grabbing the gloves from Jayden and quickly pulling them over his hands. He held up his gloved hands and inspected them. "I feel like we should be wearing helmets. Or at least goggles,"[/b] he said, giving Jayden a concerned look. Then for some reason, Jayden decided that they needed a closer look at the freaky stump thing and pulled it closer to them. So Luke stepped behind him and peered over his friend's shoulder, eying the plant suspiciously. "If dogs can smell fear than I'm pretty sure possessed stumps can do it too!"[/b] Then Jayden poked the thing which made it open a gooey, pointy, sticky hole leading to the very depths of hell itself. Luke's eyes went wide. "I think I'm going to be sick..."[/b] Luke mumbled, pressing his mouth into the back of his hand. Then Jayden freaked out and bumped into Luke which made him panic. "What do you want ME to do?! You know I didn't read the homework! Oh my god, WHAT'S IT DOING?!"[/b] Luke bent over to pick up the book again and try to come up with a plan, but one of the thorny, vine tentacles struck out and snatched his scarf from around his neck, pulling it into its center. Luke let out an alarmed shout. "IT WANTS TO BE FED, JAYDEN! AND IT HAS A TASTE FOR ACCESSORIES! I THINK WE NEED AN ADULT. OR A RAVENCLAW."[/b]
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[Pippin LeBeau]

You know, when Pippin thought about it, plants did have super amazing defense mechanisms. Just the way this thing began to wrap itself around Adam like an octopus was just fascinating–

Oh, she should probably help him. Pippin pushed her sleeves up her arms and dove right in, thrusting her arm inside the hole that opened up in the middle of the vines. Oh good god it was absolutely disgusting in there, all moist and hot and SOMETHING TOTALLY CRAWLED ON HER SKIN and – was that the pod thingy? It felt harder than the rest of the inside of the Snagglepuss, which was squishy and – eurgh – moist. Gritting her teeth, Pippin plunged just a bit deeper, hitting the stump on what she assumed was the head when the vines closed around her arm. It opened again just as she wrapped her hand around the pod and gave a hard yank, almost falling backward from the force of it as she pulled her arm free. The vines went limp and disappeared back inside the trunk, and she beamed triumphantly at Adam as she held it out to him. “There you are, Mr. Quinn,” she said. “That wasn’t too bad, actually. I dunno why there’s so much blood in the drawings.”

[Jayden Flynn]

The plant was still writhing, swinging its vines around and attempting to grab onto something or attack, and Jayden had scrambled back, away from it, glancing around to see if anybody else's plant was attacking them. "I don't know! Just--" he was cut off, however, with a gasp, as one of the veins stretched out and grabbed Luke's scarf, tugging it off and wrapping around it possessively. "THEN FEED IT!

[/color]" he shouted, shoving at Luke's shoulder and trying to peer at the book himself. "What does it eat!? FEED IT![/color]"

He turned to look at the stump again to try to grab onto the vines like other students seemed to be doing and reached out, except he miscalculated and the vine slipped under his arm and wrapped its end around the center of his glasses, yanking them back and rendering him blind. "LUKE! GET IT! I CAN'T SEE--GET IT BEFORE IT EATS US ALL ALIVE![/color]" he shouted, turning around and bumping into him, flailing around blindly, and starts smacking at his back.
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[Adam Quinn]

"Are you gonna do somethin' or just stand there, sweetcheeks?" he asked her, an amused yet uncomfortable smile on his face. She went right into action, much to his relief, sliding her arm into the hole. Her face contorted and Adam let out a strained laugh. "Gross in there, isn't it?" he asked as she struggled with it. The vines started tightening and twisting even firmer than they had before after she hit it; he winced and found himself a little annoyed that a silly plant could make his arms ache so much. He could feel the thorns digging into his skin, and with a glance to his arm he confirmed it - tiny holes were scattered across his sweater, and he was sure the same had happened to his pants. A sigh escaped his lips and he shifted restlessly as Pippin gave a hard yank. She nearly went flying back, and he jerked to grab her just as the vines disappeared back into the stump. Thank. God. "Not too bad at all!" he agreed, letting out a little laugh. He took the pod in his hand, stared at in and wrinkled his nose. All of that for just a little pod? He set it on the table and rolled up his sleeves and saw dozens of little scrapes on his arms. "That might be why..." he trailed off, nodding at his arm. "I think I'm gonna go wash up," he said to Pippin. Adam didn't have much desire to extract any juices with blood dripping down his arms. He walked over to the big sink, a grin curled across his lips; he was really enjoying this LeBeau girl.