"Named 'er Kippers on account of 'er stealing them off me plate first morning I 'ad her. Paw prints on me toast and all." He tried to sound annoyed but it was clear he wasn't. "Any reason why Dax or did it just suit 'im?"

()"That's such a cute name!" Aria said with a soft giggle, "she sounds like she's always been spunky and adorable."

Aria planted a few more seeds and answered Magnus. "Dax is named after my aunt, my only relative who liked me and tried to steer me in the right direction." Aria said with a half smile, "My aunt died, but she was amazing at alchemy (though she called it chemistry after my dad died). Her middle name was Dax and she was named after her father, who was a great wizard-warrior."

Aria smiled and looked at Dax and Kippers, "I'm glad they we friends," she said.

"Thanks," he said smiling brightly, "never really named nothin' so it was nice. She's a lazy, good for nothing brat she is. Loves chasing the garden gnomes though." He petted his cat, lingering on her soft fur and as close to Dax as he dared. "Me too. There's 'ope for me there is."

CAPTAIN POST

[img align=left]https://i.imgur.com/cHzzBnu.png[/img] Gaia walked in from checking the compost bin delivered by the house elves. She had worked with some of the professors to create a bin big enough to work for the school and the green houses but also easy to care for and manage. She was carrying some strange roots in an open box and holding earmuffs in her hands. "Hello everyone! I hope you have or are close to finish with your garden work. We are going to start moving faster with our plants since our basics are now in and growing! As you can see some of the roses can now be hanged to dry and distilled to make rose oils and rose water! Mostly we are sending most of them to the Potions Club." Gaia looked towards Beth and winked "we will also be working on a plant for Potions club this session!"

Gaia turned around and pull the blackboard closer to the demo tables as everyone began to take their seats. "Mandrake or Mandragora is a plant that its root resembles a human. As you may know as the plant grows and matures so does their cry becoming fatal for grown mandrakes. One of the most common use for these roots is for potion making which is why we are using different mandrake growths in our session! I brought some earmuffs for everyone to use as we move along with the Mandrakes. PLEASE make sure when working with the older mandrakes to make sure everyone has earmuff properly on! We have taken some precautions with the older ones. Mostly we are only working with one mature plant and getting it ready for Potions Club. As soon as everyone is ready I will unearth the mandrake for us to see a fully grown root. Do we have any volunteers to silence the mandrake cry for a few minutes?" Gaia was now separating the earmuffs for the students and setting up pots on the demo tables.

( )

Magnus didn't really care for roses, they were too smelly and thorny. But using them in potions was okay. However, when Gaia talked of the Mandrakes, his eyes lit up. Now that was a far more interesting plant. He often wondered how sentient they were. They cried, tried to move pots, got acne... it was neat. He wondered if volunteering would allow him to get closer, touch it even. "OH! I will! OW," he said bouncing on his heals and forgetting that his back needed a stretch from all the digging. Stretching he moved up closer to Gaia too eager to see the dangerous plant.

Aderyn looked at the flower pot had indicated with the mandrake leaves poking out from the top. She wrinkled her nose as she slipped her earmuffs on and secured them. She wasn't particularly fond of mandrakes - something about them just gave her the creeps - but she was interested to see one anyway. She'd only ever worked with really young ones, so seeing a more mature mandrake would be interesting, she was sure.

Aria was only just getting the hang of distilling plants to create extractions when the subject was shifted to mandrakes. After quickly putting on her earmuffs she watches as ()Gaia worked with the root. Aria tried to also work with the root but was a little bit afraid that it was alive. "Do we have to kill the plant in order to harvest usable parts?" Aria asked Gaia while looking over at ()Magnus to see hat he was doing. He was caught up with volunteering to help Gaia and didn't seem to think that animate roots were a strange thing. Watching ()Aderyn's expression made Aria feel a bit better about her own uneasiness, "I see you don't care much for mandrakes," Aria said while grinning. "I don't think my Dax likes them either," she said and pointed towards the doorway, "He's run from the room to hide somewhere!" Aria said giggling.

Aderyn glanced over at Aria () and smiled wryly.

"I'm sure Boo wouldn't tolerate them, either. They're bad enough on human ears, can only imagine how creatures of all sorts must feel!"

( ) "You don't have to kill them, but we are using every part of the Mandrake this time. For now we are going to have Magnus quiet the cry so we can look at the root more closely. Once everyone has taken a turn wit the root we will work on the cutting process and making it easy on our ears and the Mandrake. All pets should be outside now. The cry will affect them as well!!!" Gaia turned to Magnus "Are you ready? I will pull it out and we will continue from there." Gaia cleared her throat and she added a little higher "Please put your earmuffs on and make sure they are on properly!" As everyone in the room checked their earmuffs Gaia started the count. 3... 2... 1...

He was too interested to have heard Aria's question and was eager to be of help. His earmuffs down and animals outside, he waved his wand and said, "Silencio"

[img align=left]https://i.imgur.com/HrlswFq.png[/img] As Gaia pulled the Mandrake out Magnus cast his spell. "Well done!" Gaia motioned everyone to keep their earmuffs on just in case and handed the silent crying mandrake to Magnus () "If you see you can hold it by the roots sprouting from the head or you can hold them like a baby. It is really up to you in how you want to look over the mandrake." Gaia blushed as she realized she had amplified her voice and was still raising her voice. Shaking her head smiling she asked the group "Any questions so far?" ( )

Aria watched as Gaia removed the mandrake from his pot. He looked very different than she thought they would look. "I'm glad we can silence them with a spell," Aria said.

Being unfamiliar with how magical plants really work Aria thought about plant physiology and tried to relate it to the mandrake. "Once you pull the mandrake from the ground aren't his roots severed, thereby making it necessary to quickly replant or risk killing the plant?" Aria asked ()Gaia.

() "It most cases this would hold true, but for this plant he is mature and we are going to work with it. For younger plants it is easier to just replant them as they grow. Remember that Mandrakes don't really grip to the ground like regular plants and trees. They move around on their own in the teenage time, so pulling them out annoys them but doesn't harm them. There will be cases with more mature mandrakes that they might have created a home and ground themselves, but for that, pulling on the mandrake won't be enough to take it out. It will be harder and gardening tools will be necessary. Remember that most plants can be moved just by pulling them from the earth without them dying right away."

Aria listened intently while Gaia explained how mandrakes worked. "That's really fascinating," Aria said while examining the mandrake she held. "Are mad takes completely sentient, like cats and Griffins?" Aria asked () Gaia.

() "Yes and No. They do not feel like you and me, but they are a magical plant which means they grow and eventually die. The best way to cut a mandrake is to stun it almost to a sleep like state and cut really close to the top. They grow again from there one on the dirt. I mean we can grow them from seeds but they would take a lot longer. Think of them like potatoes. When you cut an "eye" of a potato and put it in the ground you get another potato. That is why it is so easy to grow potatoes. One can give up to 8 new potatoes. Mandrakes have the same effect. The baby will take the longest to grow, but the rest go fairly quickly. It takes about 9 months from baby mandrakes to almost full grown mandrakes. About 14 months if you grow from seeds."

Aria nodded, "That actually does make a lot of sense to me, thanks!" she said. "I always did love growing potatoes when I was younger," she commented while handing the mandrake to the next person. "I used to find sprouting potatoes in the alley garbage cans. I would take them plant them near a leaky pipe or a small stream. After a while the potatoes would grow and I would go back and get a few whenever I was hungry." Aria smiled, "it was super awesome to always have a snack waiting for me." ()

Gaia looked at Aria for a minute deciding if it was appropriate to ask the question and decided it was "Did you eat the potatoes raw? You know those can be poisonous to the body... right?" () "But yes, it is hard to figure out how mandrakes work when they feel almost human and not wanting to hurt them can stop many wizards from working with it, but that is how accidents happen. Mandrakes are not ones to mess around with." Gaia nodded to herself.

Aria looked up in surprise at Gaia(), "I knew that the green ones make you sick but I didn't know they can potentially poison a person!" Aria's face was full of worry. "I ate them raw because I didn't have a way to heat them up, I just rubbed the dirt off and munched on them." Aria pondered this for a moment longer, "I am surprised I didn't die!" Aria said with a half laugh.

Aria looked at Magnus() and wondered if he had heard their conversation. A new thought suddenly dawned upon her, "Magnus, have you ever grown mandrake in your garden before? Gaia, have you?" she asked.

"Yeah it is very easy for a potato to be green under the skin. I should make you my famous potato soup! It is creamy and delicious!" Gaia listened to Aria () "I haven't personally grown them but my Nan has have them in her garden pots. From time to time she grows magical plants to help the local apothecary my auntie runs."

He listened to the conversation with interest as he held the mandrake. "You bake 'em in the ground or in a fire or other methods. But yeah we can't eat raw potatoes, body don't process 'em." He had suspected when he had heard converstations with Aria before that she might be living on the streets so he wasn't exactly surprised but seeing as they were adopting her he said, "well, you ain't gonna 'ave ta 'ave 'em raw anymore. Ya got a 'ome to go to come end of the term." He looked at the mandrake again happily. "No, never grew 'em. Dad's got some plants locked up that 'e won't tell me what's in there but I don't know if 'e's got a mandrake or not. "