“Welcome to the class of Herbology.” Said the professor wearing an earthly-yellow top hat and robe, perhaps to hide the stains of the earth whenever she was working for long periods of time in the greenhouses.
“My name is Pomona Sprout but you can call me Professor Sprout.” She continued as she looked at every student in her class.
“In this class, you will learn about various types of magical plants, how to grow them, harvest them and the precautions needed when handling them.” As she spoke, she noticed that almost half of the Ravenclaw students seemed disinterested in the subject as it didn’t create any magical effects like in charms or Defense against the dark arts.
However, she was comforted to know that a bit more than three quarters of the class were interested in the subject.
Whether it was true interest or simply support for their house’ dean, she didn’t know but she was more than happy to teach them everything she knew.
“So, let’s not dilly dally and let’s jump straight into the subject.” She said, a smile appearing on her face as she pointed to the various gardening frames.
“Everyone will team up in teams of four and get around a gardening bin.” She said as the students immediately shuffled getting in teams with their friends and those they got along with.
Waiting for a few moments for everyone to get around a bin, Lux found himself teamed up with three other Ravenclaw students.
It seemed that despite the sorting ceremony having only happened two days prior, less than 48 hours really, each child were already slightly alienating the other houses, only teaming up with their housemates despite a few of them seemingly being friends beforehand as he had seen them together talking and laughing at the sorting ceremony.
“The plant that we will be working on this morning is a plant you are all very familiar with, the dandelion.” She stated as over half of the students seemingly blanched out as such a plant was extremely common, the Hogwarts grounds even had plenty of those simply lying around.
Immediately a few students lifted their hands up in the air.
“Yes?” Asked professor Sprout as she pointed at a frowning Ravenclaw student.
“Professor… Is the dandelion the same one that is growing everywhere in the muggle world and on the Hogwarts grounds?” He asked with a frown as he had come to the magical world to explore magic, not be taught about plants that grew in the normal world.
“Yes, exactly the same plant.” She replied with a smile before continuing.
“The only difference between their dandelions and ours is the amount of magical power the plant has absorbed during its short life, allowing us to eventually turn this plant into Dandelion Juice.”
Her response, despite being informative, seemed to simply take away the little enthusiasm the students had for the class as it seemed that none of them were interested in growing dandelions for juice.
“I see.” He replied as he lowered his arm like the other students having mostly the same question.
“Now, let’s start.
First, the dandelion is a common plant as you all know and can be used to make Dandelion juice for drinking.
Despite it being a common herb, the juice produced from dandelions grown in the magical world is not only delicious but also has the effect of slightly refilling your magic once it’s been used up.” She explained.
“Although not very much.” She admitted with a small laugh.
“The first step in growing the dandelions will be to clear the gardening bin from any weeds and small rocks in it.
I will leave this task to you.” She said as she took a step back, allowing every student to start working in the dirt.
“I came to Hogwarts to learn magic, not to play with plants and grow dandelions which are everywhere in the world.” He continued with a slightly angry expression, showing how much he was disappointed in this class and the teacher.
“”Us neither.” Added two sisters who immediately took a step back.
“I’d rather not get dirt all over my robes or under my nails.” Said one sister followed by the other.
Seeing the three of them walking back and sitting on the bench near the gardening bin, Lux didn’t let it bother him.
He noticed that many other students were doing the same.
It was obvious that they were those who held no interest in herbology or gardening altogether.
It certainly didn’t help that the plant grown was such a common weed.
Putting them out of his mind, he started his own work.
Taking a gardening trowel, he immediately started digging in the soil, making sure to pull out every weed he came across along with the small stones hidden in the soil.
Due to the small size of the gardening bin, it was pretty fast and a dozen minutes later, he was done.
Not only were the weeds and stones gone but even the dirt was seemingly looser as there was no large and compact earth which would allow for everything to be planted easily.
As he worked and learned how to properly prepare a garden, he was especially concentrated as he knew that amongst the assets of the Staghart house, there were two greenhouses.
As such, when he would head over to visit and perhaps repair everything, he would be able to do it himself.
“Alright, is everyone done?” Asked the professor who didn’t seem to mind that many students don’t participate in the lesson.
In the end, she was willing to impart her knowledge and teach the students.
However, it was none of her business if they managed to pass the tests.
Coming from a magical family with a relatively small but big enough background, she could retire whenever she wanted and wasn’t tied to the salary paid.
As such, she only taught students because she was interested in teaching them, finding it important to teach and impart her knowledge.
If they still didn’t want to learn, she wouldn’t twist their arms.
“Yes.” Replied Lux and a few others who had actually done the requested work.
“Alright, the next step is the planting process.
Overall, there is enough space to plant fifty seeds, enough for everyone to work on if you are interested.” She added as she noticed a few more students getting up from the bench as the work was slightly less difficult and wasn’t as dirty.
“You do it.” Said the Ravenclaw student teamed up with Lux who still had no interest in the herbology class.
He had already made up his mind about this class and had it not been for the herbology class being a core class of the school and knowing he would have to take part in the classes for the next five years, he would have already left the class to study actual magic.
“You seem to be good at herbology, we will leave it to you.” Said one of the two sisters who talked for the other as well.
Shaking his shoulders, feeling pretty happy with this as it would allow him to gain more experience with these plants than if he were to share the task with the other students, he turned around and started his work on the gardening bin.
Calculating the exact distance between the seeds with a ruler the teacher generously provided, he started to plant them one by one.
He noticed that as he planted the seeds, his experience started to slowly grow.
However, after exploring the runic lexicon in relative depth, he was certain that at a certain point, simply planting seeds wouldn’t grant any experience or he would have to plant hundreds of them to only gain a single one.
Instead, he would have to grow and care for them before eventually harvesting them to gain even more experience.
As time slowly passed, the students sitting down slowly grew bored as they started to talk in low chatter amongst themselves.
However, Lux noticed that a few students even went as far as playing with their wands, practicing the levitation spell taught to them during the morning.
It seemed that against boredom, anything was possible.
As the students gradually finished planting, the professor stepped up once more.
“Finally, the last step in planting is to slowly irrigate the soil with some water.
Be careful to calculate the amount as there is no need for a large amount.
Only about a glass worth of water should be evenly distributed amongst all of the bin.” She explained as the students took the watering can and filled it with the required amount of water before slowly working on spreading it evenly.
Slowly the professor started walking in between each bin, pointing out some inadequacies in the quality of their soil after their work in it or on how they had planted the seeds.
“Hum, pretty good.” Started the portly witch as she stopped next to Lux’s bin as the other three immediately got up, getting closer as the teacher was now next to them.
“Next time, try to soften the soil even more.
While it won’t have a big impact on the growth of the dandelions, for plants with more stringent growth conditions, it might just hinder their growth or at least lower their qualities once harvested.” She explained before stopping for a second.
“Ravenclaw, five points.”
You Want Extra Chapters?
(17th of September) For the week of the 14-20th September 2026.
The Chapters are given at the end of the week, the 21st of September