Lesson One - 2nd Years

Amelia walked into the Herbology Greenhouse and placed down her books on the front table. She then looked around the room to make sure all the plants were healthy and happy. Amelia was quite excited to see the second years though she knew she would have to work hard to keep them interested as for Herbology wasn't the most popular class

Amelia then took a seat behind the desk and strummed her fingers of the wooden desk as she watched the sunlight stream in through the glass, she then glanced up at the door to see if any students had arrived

Damian Blood walked in through the door and smiled at Professor Drew.

"Good morning," he said before sitting down.

Amelia saw her first student walk in, he greeted her with a smile, Amelia gave a smile grin then got up and walked towards the door. She leaned outside to see if there where anymore students coming, she could see any so she turned around and closed the door behind her

"Well I think we should get started" Amelia then walked behind her desk and pulled out a pot containing medium sized plant with small fig like pods hanging off it, Amelia then looked up at the boy

" So Mr Blood can you tell me what this?" Amelia placed one hand on her hip as she waited for his reply

Staz groaned as she saw the closed door. It obviously meant that she was late for her third consecutive class. Wincing, she pushed open the door lightly and visibly relaxed when she saw that there was only one other student in the room. "Good morning, Professor." She greeted with an uncharacteristically bright smile. "Is that an Abyssinian Shrivelfig?" She asked in an unsure voice, taking a seat. She didn't know that Damian had been asked the question, but even if she had, it would have hanged little.

Amelia quickly looked up at the door as she heard it opening, another student walked Amelia was slightly annoyed that she was late, ok fair enough she was only 5minutes late but still Amelia wasn't happy

Amelia nodded at the girl as she greeted her, to Amelia's surprize the girl quickly redeemed herself by answering the the question " Yes thats correct Miss Marwolathe, this is a Abyssinian Shrivelfig"

Amelia then looked back at the plant and softly touched the figs on it, she then turned back to her class " So as you can see, this Shrivelfig is bearing its fruit which is used in the Shrinking soultion potion" Amelia then paused for a moment " Now noticed how you can clearly see the fig this is because I pruned this plant this morning" Amelia gave a small grin

She then waved her wand over at a trolley in the corner of the Greenhouse, then two pots with wild unpruned Shrivelfigs levitated towards the students and placed themselves in front of them, Amelia then went behind her desk and pulled out two gardening sheers and handed them to the students

" Ok so you will be prunning these Shrivelfigs so that the fruit can be clearly seen, use mine as an example, now you must be careful or else you might cut one of the figs and there will be purple juice everywhere!" Amelia gave a stern look to her students " So see how some of the leaves are a darker shade of purple compared to the others, they are ones where the figs are so cut very shallowly round those areas"

Amelia then leaned back on her desk and folded her arms, as she watched with eagle eyes as her students began prunning the Shrivelfig

Damian opened his mouth to respond but a girl entered the room and answered for him.

He was a little disconcerted about it, but by the time they had both sat down, he was ready to prune the shrivelfig.

He cut very carefully and tried his best not to cut the figs.

Staz's already bright smile widened even more and she resisted the urge to pump her fist in the air. She was feeling uncharacteristically bright and cheerful, it was probably because she hadn't been in too much trouble, even after coming to most of her classes late. She was surprised when Professor Drew didn't award her any points but considering that she was late, she wisely decided to keep her mouth shut.

Nodding as the Professor explained much more about the plant, Staz made a rough sketch of the pruned plant in her notes, before looking up and noticing carefully the 'fruits' of the plant. Staz took the gardening shears very carefully but somehow still managed to give herself a small cut. Not noticing the very small amount of blood that came out, she instead focused all her attention on pruning and carefully and slowly began the task.

Amelia watched her two students prunning their Shrivelfig, she soon noticed that the boy Damian was cutting a little to close to some of the darker purple leaves

" MR BLOOD!!" Amelia yelled out in a very stern manner " Watch where your cutting, becuase right next to that stem your cutting is a patch of darker purple leaves. Here I suggest that you don't take such big cuts but rather smaller cuts for the intial prunning, also so don't stare at the plant to long or else the plant begins to look all the same shade of purple"

Amelia then gave a firce look over to Anastasia making sure that she was careful with her cutting, watching her very closely

"Yes, Professor Drew," Damian said.

He blinked and shook his head to see the different shade of purple more clearly. Then he noticed Anastasia had some blood on her hands. He stopped.

"Teacher, it looks like she cut herself," he said.

"I am fine." Staz replied shortly, not looking up from the leaves that she was pruning. Shaking her head as she realized that true enough, everything had started to appear purple, she put down the shears and rubbed her eyes warily, before looking up at Damian. "Its barely anything." She insisted, stretching her hands.

Amelia looked over at Anastasia and noticed the blood dripping from her finger " Stop what your doing Miss Marwolathe, and take your hand away from the Shrivelfig. The plasma ions in blood cause many imbalances in most magical plants" Amelia said in a rather annoyed tone

Amelia then stormed over to her desk and pulled out some bandage and tape, she then walked back over to Anastasia " Hold out your finger" Amelia then proceeded to bandage up her finger

" Right then all done, and don't think this means you can't continue prunning" Amelia said sharply to Anastasia. She then leaned back against her desk carefully watching the students with their prunning

Staz obediently held out her finger, shooting a quick glare towards the other boy. She nodded when the Professor issued her warning and settled back to prune again. It wasn't a very exciting task and even with the breaks she took, Staz finished in barely more than forty minutes. Rubbing her eyes, she carefully began to check her work.

Andi took a deep breath as she came to the door, "Hullo Professor. My greatest apologies for being late. I was up late because some spirits were floating abo-- Well, the point is I'm late and I'm really sorry. It won't happen again." She tried to keep her composure but she really was having a bad day. SHe took a moment to look around at what the two were doing, "Pruning Shrivelfigs?" She asked Professor Drew. "Are we using them to make the Shrinking potion?"

Damian continued pruning and hoped the girl who had just entered the room would not get into too much trouble.

He shook his head again to be able to see the darker colored leaves.