Herbology - Lesson One

[Desdemona Neilson]

I stood here once before
With my head in my hands

For all that I had known of this place
I could never understand

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Des entered her classroom with a black messenger bag on her shoulder and immediately felt sick. Her nervous stomach was tying itself in knots and if she was lucky, she might throw up before the class arrived. At least that way she wouldn't have their critical eyes watching her every move. Plus it might relieve some of the pain in her stomach. If she could make it through the day, that would be a miracle. At the moment she'd almost rather be facing the assassins that were after her. At least she knew what to expect with them. But no, these were teenagers. She couldn't even relate to them when she was one. How the hell was she supposed to be able to now?

'Oh Merlin, why did I let my daughter talk me into this mess?' She couldn't help but wonder. She walked in and sat down at her desk. She'd been here before when she was looking over the place, but this was the first time since she was hired that she'd actually entered the classroom. She'd spent most of the time she arrived familiarizing herself with the three greenhouses. It had taken nearly two full days to go through them and make maps showing what was located where. Her predecessor hadn't seen fit to leave even a list of what plants were there. Some she had recognized, while others she was guessing on. Thank Merlin she hadn't been one of those students that had tried to sleep through it.

Des took a seat behind her desk and looked around at the rest of the classroom. It felt strange to be sitting at the professor's desk. Though she had to admit, it was interesting to be here, finally being able to see things from the professor's viewpoint. She moved the messenger bag from her shoulder and set it on the desk. She opened the flap and pulled out her lesson plans. She set them aside and reached back into the bag. Her hand closed around something at the bottom before she pulled her hand out and placed the bag on the floor with her free hand.

When she opened her other hand there was a tiny little skunk wiggling in the palm of her hand. It was nothing more than a toy that had been enchanted to move on its own. Holding her hand down by the desk she let the skunk walk down off of her hand. She smiled for a moment as she watched the skunk. Ethan bought it for her when she'd finished her animagus training. He had called it her personal mascot. With a sigh, she looked up at the door and the terror and nervousness returned in full force as she thought about the fact that the students would be arriving.

The suspense was killing her. Des tensed her jaw as she transformed into a skunk. It was a nervous habit of hers. She went into her animagus form whenever she was nervous or uncomfortable. She sat on her chair as a skunk and didn't like it. She couldn't see the door. Shifting her weight onto her hind legs she put her front paws on the edge of the desk and attempted to jump up. Skunk legs are stubby and not good for jumping so she had to use her claws to help pull herself up onto the top of the desk. She looked back and saw the scratch marks in the wood. She had only just arrived and she was already destroying things. There really wasn't much else she could do so she laid down on the desk, tucking her legs underneath her body as she watched the door for her students to enter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sparks fly as the fires burn at midnight
Stars are out and magic is here...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHILLIN WITH?!? Herbology Class
WORDS?!? 659
LYRICS?!? Blackmore's Night
CREDIT?!? Krys
OTHER?!? All years will be in one class at least to start with. I might break it up later depending on how many students sign up for the class. All are welcome, but please make sure you register for the class if you have not already done so and wish to receive house points for participation!

[Brandon Thorne]

[atrb=border, 0, true][atrb=style, border-left: #3A4748 8px solid; border-right: #839175 2px dashed; background: #d8d8d8; padding-top: 16px; padding-right: 16px; padding-left: 16px; padding-bottom: 12px; -moz-border-radius: 10px; width: 368px;] herbology CLASS ONE workin hard to get my fill Herbology. Now there's a class that Brandon was not really looking forward to. It didn't seem too interesting to him right now but for some reason it did when he signed up. Oh why oh why did he sign up. I mean, sure it's cool to learn about living things other than animals and the cool and interesting secrets they hold. However he felt as if this class wouldn't be as interesting as he had hoped for when he signed up. He was dreading going but wouldn't skip class especially on the first day. The first lesson wasn't usually a lengthy or detailed lesson anyway so with any luck the professor will let the class go within due time. He made his way to the grounds of the school where the Herbology lesson was said to take place. He liked when the classes where in classrooms outside or outside in general. It was a nice change in atmosphere and he thought of himself as someone who could actually concentrate better outdoors than indoors. He was an outdoorsy person which may explain this. The Greenhouses was where this class took place and he entered as one of the first students again. He walked in and looked around but didn't see any other students or a teacher. What the heck? What was going on. Was his schedule set for a different day? Was he wrong in that this was not the first day? Was he wrong in location? No he was sure this was the right place. Maybe the professor was late. He put his books down and sat. He wasn't too early so he wasn't sure why everyone else was taking so long to get here, especially the professor. He faced the front of the classroom and realized that there was a skunk on the desk. "Whoa whoa" he said while jumping up and backing up almost causing himself to fall. Being half muggle he knew what skunks were and he knew what they were capable of. He looked around the room wondering why on earth there was one here. There was only one explanation for it that he could think of and that was that the skunk was actually his professor. He slowly inched closer back to his desk and slowly sat back down looking around the room with a confused look. "Professor?" he asked slowly. He wasn't sure if that was even her but he was alone and wasn't a huge fan of the idea of being alone in a room with a skunk. tag: herbology class words: 424 template by eliza @ shadowplay

[Maxwell Arnold Waller]

Maxwell yawned as he pushed the doors out of the Entrance Hall and felt the freshness of the autumn air fill his lungs. The sun was out and it was looking to be a particularly beautiful fall day. As he set across the field to the greenhouses for his first Herbology class, Max took note of the beautiful changing leaves in the forests surrounding the school. He loved fall, and it was because of moments like this.

A second yawn crept from Max's mouth as he grew closer to the greenhouse. He signed up for Herbology mostly because it was his only class every third day and thought he didn't particularly like it, he was quite good at it and felt the grade boost would probably help. Max pulled off his black robe as he approached the glass doors to the classroom, it was going to be much too hot outside and in there for layers.

Maxwell clicked the door open, and as he did he say Brandon Thorne, A Ravenclaw in his Fifth Year. The only reason Max knew this was because he had played him a couple times last year in Quidditch, other than that there wasn't very much history between the two, but he seemed nice enough. Max closed the door behind him.

He strolled towards the young man caring his textbooks and a roll of parchment in his hands. "Hey Brandon. Where's the Professo-".

Max turned his face and instantly dropped his stuff to the floor and took a few steps back behind a desk. A skunk was sitting on top of his Professor's desk and he didn't need to be a Muggle to know what skunks were infamous for.

A few moments passed until he realized that Brandon was not sharing his reaction, and began to contemplate that other options, quickly realizing that at Hogwarts, the skunk could very well be your assignment, or your classmate, or your Professor.

"That wouldn't happen to be Professor Neilson, would it Brandon?" He asked curiously, as he picked up his school supplies and took a seat next to the Ravenclaw Fifth Year. So far, Herbology was pretty interesting.

[Desdemona Neilson]

I stood here once before
With my head in my hands

For all that I had known of this place
I could never understand

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Des actually held her breath when the first student walked in. Her tiny black eyes were wide with fear and her tail seemed to puff on its own free will. She couldn’t help it. That’s what skunks did when they were afraid. This was it. Her students were arriving and she couldn’t escape now. She was frozen with fear. The boy in the Ravenclaw robes looked in her direction after having taken a seat and jumped back up. She watched him carefully. She watched him sit back down and then he asked if she was the professor for the class. After a moment of hesitation, she replied with a squeaky little chirp.

She thought about turning back into her normal human form, but hesitated. It was only one student, but he was still a student and as such he intimidated her quite a lot. Her hesitation was long enough for another student to appear and she was temporarily relieved that she'd stayed as a skunk. Although, she would have to turn back eventually... But that didn't mean she had to turn back right this minute. She watched the second student as he finally turned and saw her and went through much the same response as the first student. It seemed that as the rest of the class filled in, there were similar surprised looks when they caught sight of her. After taking a deep breath she transfigured herself back into her normal self.

"Uh...hi." Des said softly with an embarrassed smile as she sat on the desk and looked around to see that all the eyes in the classroom were on her. This was a very uncomfortable moment for her. What should she do? What should she say? As she looked down she decided that the first thing she should do was get off of her desk. She wiggled her way over to the edge of her desk and slid off. She spent the next moment or two smoothing out her black robes. Finally, with another deep breath, she looked back up at her students.

"Hi, I'm Des Neilson...your Herbology professor." The words came out awkwardly, a sign of her nervousness. "You can call me Professor Neilson." There was a brief pause before she wrinkled her nose and shook her head before continuing. "No, on second thought, don't call me Professor Neilson. Being called Professor makes me feel old. I can't help but think of some frail looking old man with glasses. You know, I had a professor like that once and he was so old that he could barely walk, even with his cane." She bent slightly, her shoulders hunched up as she began taking slow, shuffling footsteps and held one hand up pretending that she had a cane. "He was a brilliant man, but I just don't know how he did it." She shook her head as she stood up straight.

"But I'm rambling..." Des couldn't believe it. She was in front of the class for barely five minutes and already she was off on some babble session. "Anyway, just call me Des. I'll be more likely to respond." She paused and just breathed for a moment. Okay, so things were going alright so far. There weren't any major catastrophes...yet. "Well, since I'm new here I guess we should start with finding out what exactly you've covered so far. Obviously Herbology is the study of magical plants. So who can tell me why this is important? Anyone?" She asked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sparks fly as the fires burn at midnight
Stars are out and magic is here...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHILLIN WITH?!? Herbology Class
WORDS?!? 625
LYRICS?!? Blackmore's Night
CREDIT?!? Krys
OTHER?!? Nope!