Herbology; Slytherin && Ravenclaw.

Renae laughed. "No, I was listening." she said. She was one of the few students (and even fewer Ravencalws) who actually liked Herbology. Although today seemed to be a particullarily boring day. "I guess you're supposed to milk it." she said, sounding slightly disgusted. She didn't mind learning about the plants, but actually touching them wasn't very fun for her.

Renae took the gloves reluctantly and looked at the plant as if it was something disgusting. It wasn't that she didn't know how to do the task asked of her, but she really did not want to. The idea of getting poisoned by a plant seemed rather stupid to her.

"All you have to do, is have one person keep it immobilar (spch), while the other one squeezes it. This will extract the juice! Alright class! You may begin!" the voice of Professor Cabbage had never sounded so awful to her. "But be careful it doesn't try to strangle you!"

Strangle you? Oh god. What else could this plant do?

"Umm... sure." she sure she said, with just a hint of nervousness in her voice. Okay, cmon Renae, you've done this before. It wasn't that hard. "Okay, you keep it frozen, and I'll squeeze it." she told Icky. "Ready?"

Felicity groaned. Not only was she expected to 'milk' the stupid plant, but she was also expected to work with a Ravenclaw?!? This was just ridiculous.

She watched as they all paried off. She would've called out to Mark, but she saw him sitting beside Lucille. Then there was Renae, with Icarus, and then Royce and Adelina.

The only other option was that quiet girl whom everyone seemed to avoid. Felicity slowly got up from the table where she was sitting, and made her way towards her. "Mind working with me?" she asked the girl. Before waiting for an answer, she sat down beside her. "Great!" she exclaimed. "I'm Felicity." she added as an afterthought, realizing that the girl didn't actually know her name. She slipped on her gloves, which were rough on her soft hands. She turned to the girl, who still hadn't moved. "Cmon, let's get started!" she said impatiently.

Jared quietly slipped into class and made his way towards Icky's group. It was the closest to the door, so his entrance wouldn't be very noticeable.
"Hey what's up?" he asked Renae and Icarus. "Are you MILKING the plant?" he asked incredulously. "Man, that's just gross! And can't these things strangle you? What was Cabbage thinking when he was making his lesson plan?"

Renae laughed quietly at Icky's immitation of Professor Cabbage. She had to admit, it was kind of funny.

Her head snapped up when she heard a Slytherin talking to her. She didn't recognize him at all. "Unfortunatly, yes." she said in response to his question. "You need the juices, they're really valubale. Good luck!" she told him with a smile.

She was just about to reach into the plant, when she heard Adelina whispering a spell at the table beside her. "Wait, better idea." she told Icky. She pointed her wand at the plant and muttered, "Immobulus!" Instantly, the plant froze. "Ah, much eaiser!" she said happily. "You can take your hands off now." she told him, as she reached in the plant, carefully avoiding the thorns. She squeezed the plant in just the right part.

After a few moments, she pulled her hands out, along with a full cup of juice. "Tada!" she said, rather pleased at her efforts. She didn't get poisioned, strangled, or hurt in anyway at all!

It took Mark a few minutes to register that Lucille had said anything at all. "Oh, Mark Boss." He then remember her telling him to put on gloves, so he slipped them on.

"Don't touch the thorns." she finished. Well, at least he'd caught something she'd said. "It's a good thing I got someone who actually knows what the hell they're doing." he said to her with a laugh, grabbing onto the stem.

Lucille turned away for a moment, then turned back, looking a bit more relaxed than before. This is weird. Mark thought to himself.

"Nice to meet you." Felicity said shortly, although she was pretty sure she already knew the girl. She glanced around the room. Renae and Icky already had a whole glass of the juice, Freddie and Adelina had frozen their plant, and Mark was looking rather afraid, although she wasn't sure if it was of Lucille or the plant. Probably both. she thought, smirking at the thought.

"Erm, so what exactly are we doing?" she heard Valora ask. "Oh!" excalimed Felicity, forgetting that Valora had completley missed the start of class. "Well, you're supposed to uh... "milk" it. So, one of use has to hold it, while the other one squeezes it. Although I don't really know where... I guess it's just trial and error, that sort of thing." She looked at her, sort of apoligeticaly (spch). "Sorry, I can't really explain this too well." She continued in a brisker tone, "Well, best get started. Oh, and be careful not to touch the thorns (you might want to put on gloves), since they're poisionis. And it can um... strangle you." Wow. She sure sounded convincing. "Just, um, hold it still, okay?"

"It's a good thing I got someone who actually knows what the hell they're doing," Mark laughed as held the stem.

Lucille shrugged and muttered a "yeah" while pulling on her own thick gloves. She glanced at the other students and noticed something strange - Adelina and a Ravenclaw girl had both stunned their Tentaculas, apparently to make the job easier. Eh? Did they really have to resort to that? Quite pathetic...but still smart, I guess. They wouldn't get much juice as quickly if they stunned them, though.

She reached out to their plant and slowly stroked it, careful not to touch the spikes, else it might get angry.

A second later and the Tentacula purred softly, and it looked like it had fallen asleep, somehow. Its thorns receded into the stem so that it was now smooth to the touch. The leaves were swaying slightly as the plant snored. Lucille smiled, contented, and squeezed the sap out of its...uhh...mouth, and poured it into the bottle. It filled about half the container.

"Okay," she said, "Now it needs to refill its venom...for that it has to be awake." She prodded the plant forcefully, and it squealed loudly before strangling her hands. "Shut up," Lucille snapped and forced her hands away, giving it a few seconds to get angry and produce more poison.

-x-x-x-x-

Professor Cabbage gave a cry of delight when Renae, one if his star students, managed to squeeze a cupfull of poison out of her and Icarus's stunned plant. "Excellent, carry on! If you stun it, be patient, the spell has to be removed and put back again for it to refill its venom numerous times until you eventually fill the bottle." He winked at the pair of them. Such cute children.

He looked over at Lucille, another student who got good grades in Herbology, and smiled at her and her partner. "Perfect, simply perfect! Don't let it choke you now, stroke it back to sleep soon!" Then he turned to face Adelina. "I see you also stunned it...Just follow what plant-loving Miss Casabella here is doing." He glanced at two confused-looking girls working in a corner. "Are you muffins doing okay?" he asked kindly.

"Hmm? Oh, yes professor." Felicity told him. She could've said that Valora had walked in late, and missed his entire lecture. But for some reason she didn't. She was feeling nicer today. "I didn't quite understand your lecture at the start of class, so Valora was just explaining it to me." She smiled at Valora, in a thanking sort of way. "She's a very good student, I understand it perfectly now!" She waited, hoping that Cabbage would move onto another group.

"Oh, great job!" he told Valora, smiling warmly at her. "Extra marks for you!" He then trotted off to look at someone else's work.

Mark just held the plant still until Lucille was done. I'm hoping for an O today! he thought happily. Maybe he'd get paried with Lucille again next time, and his grade would start to improve.

Once she had pulled her hand out, Mark let go of the plant. Lucille poked it with her wand, and it started making awful squealing sounds. "Shut up!" she yelled at it.

"Okay, so we just do that exact same thing again?" he asked her. Eaisiest class ever!

"Oh, yes, of coruse Professor." she said, removing the spell under her breath. Immediatly, the plant started to move again. "We have to wait a few minutes for it to refill it's venom," she told Icky, "and then we can try again." She poured the contents of their cup into a rather large bottle. "Judging by your face, I take it you want to hold it again?" she asked him. He did not look very excited about the idea of squeezing a plant.

“Na, I’ll squeeze,” he decided, “It’ll be easy.”

"Okay, if you're sure." Renae replied, pushing the plant over to him. She jabbed it with her wand, silently saying the spell in her head. At once, the plant stopped moving. "just be careful not to touch the thorns." she warned him, holding the tip of the plant firmly, incase the spell wore off.