Lesson 1 (First Years)

Blaire stood at the end of the long table in the middle of greenhouse 1, anxiously awaiting her first years arrival. Teaching first years was always fun because most of them knew absolutely nothing about Herbology except that it had something to do with plants.

Behind her, the word Mandrakes was written on the chalkboard in blue chalk. Today they would be going over the strange plant and might get a chance to re-pot a few if the class behaved and time permitted.

Seth noticed he was the first to arrive to his Herbology class and so he just picked a random seat in the room. He said "Hello,' to the professor before stating out loud "So we are studying Mandrakes today huh?" Those should be fun he thought to himself.

Scarlet ran towards the greenhouse, with sweat trickling down her forehead and her breath occasionally stopping.

She entered and stopped sharply. There were only two people inside and, from what she has observed, the class hasn't even started yet. So she ran from her dormitory, got bullied by peeves, tripped while going through the bloody stairs and ran across the huge castle grounds. "Mother of...," she said, crouching against the entrance and sighing heavily.

She stood and groggily went for an empty seat - not caring where, but to just sit. She looked up, nervously straightened her cloak. How could I forget my manners, damn it. "Good day, professor," she said while bowing. And with that, she sat and sighed once again.

Valerie grinned as she and her sister arrived at a class on time for the second time that day. No evil poltergeists, no irritating non -moving staircases, nothing that delayed them from there to here. "Hello, Professor!" She said cheerfully. "I'm Valerie Greenway. This is my twin sister Rebecca!" She introduced them, nudging her surly looking twin and hissing at her to 'Smile'.

J. J. slipped into the Herbology greenhouse with a sigh of relief. She had completely forgotten about this class and had been sure she was going to be late.
She nodded a greeting to the professor, and slowly went beside a boy from her own house that she had seen in several other classes.
"Hullo there," she smiled shyly at him before turning towards the board and reading the word
'Mandrake'
She bit her lip trying to place where she had heard that word before, and in doing so, what exactly a Mandrake was.

As Seth sat there another girl, from Hufflepuff, sat beside him and said "Hullo" to him. He replied "Hello there My name is Seth" Seeing the girl look at the board he said, "Mandrakes, interesting plants..err creatures, both I guess', he laughed.

"J. J." she smiled at Seth. At his words she remembered reading about mandrake in a book she had skimmed at Florish and Blotts in Diagon ally.
"Oh yes... they're those funny little plants with the deathly screams... aren't they?"
She shivered at the thought. "Aren't they a little dangerous for first years to be handling?"
J. J. was sure that she would manage to screw something like this up.

Genevieve walked into her Herbology class calmly glancing around before taking a seat near the two Hufflepuffs chatting. She thought the girl looked familiar 'Maybe she's in History of Magic' she pondered to herself 'Yes she was the girl speaking with the third year Slytherin' she nodded thoughtfully to herself before glancing at the board quickly.
'Hmm mandrakes I thought they were a second year plant?' she thought confused.

Val dragged her sister over to a a pair of seats near the chatting Hufflepuff pair. "Hi." She said. "I'm Val, and this is Ultra-McGrumpy-Pants! Mind if we sit here?" She asked brightly.

Rebecca raised her eye brow at her sister's introduction, smacking the girl lightly upside the head before offering her hand to the two with a smile. "My name is Rebecca. Please feel free to ignore my highly caffeinated twin." She said with a derisive glance towards said girl.

J. J. was taken back by the pair of twins who had arrived, the one appeared to be rather on the hyper side. She wondered if that was a constant condition, or if it was just the case this day.
She smiled politely anways.
"I don't mind. I do believe we are free to sit where ever we like," she smiled, "I'm J. J. by the way."

No one replied for a long moment. J. J. began to tap her hands nervously against the table in front of her.
She hated long silences, she always felt the need to fill them, while simultaneously fearing that she would sounds stupid, or annoy the people not talking. Maybe they wanted silence.
Still, she knew her fight was going to loose soon. The words were already pulling their way up her throat.
"So..." she bit her lip, "What does everybody think of Hogwarts so far?"

Becky smiled. "A pleasure to meet you." She said calmly as she set her things down.

She considered the question. "It is... interesting. Really, I like the classes. How about you?"

J. J. smiled.
" I like it so far. It is very different," she paused to think for a moment, "It was quite overwhelming at first, but I believe I am getting used to it now."

Sophie walked calmly into the Herbology greenhouse, ignoring the looks being sent her way. Maybe it was because she was a Slytherin, maybe it was because she always had her head buried in a book.

"Hey bookworm, got your head out of a book for once?" someone gloated.

"No, she's not a bookworm, she's a booksnake!" someone else called.

"Well, snakes are worms!" the first person replied. Sophie chose to ignore them and slid in next to another Slytherin girl, who gave her a brief smile and turned away. She thought her name was Genevieve De Luca, but she wasn't sure. She never usually spent time paying attention to other students. Professor Vandever called out for silence and Sophie looked at her attentively, waiting for the lesson to begin.