This lesson contains a PRACTICAL assignment. Please remain in character. Any out of character comments should be put behind spoiler tags!

Max carefully takes a twig in his hand. He rolls it around a few times making himself familiar with the wood. With a quick move he breaks the twig in half. He watches the sap drip out and quickly collects a few drops. Noticing a cut on his forearm he decides to test out the professors theory. Carefully applying some sap onto the wound he watches in aww as the wound closes instantly. Next he sniffes onto a part of the broken twig. However he can´t really tell what it smells like. The last thing he does is licking some sap of his finger. He regrets it instantly like the professor had said it was bitter, really bitter. He watches around to see how his classmates are doing.

As she watches Max break a twig and use it on himself Emryse comes closer. " Professor Morgan, In which medications do we use this sap? And which quanities should it be used on pets?" Hesitant to try she slowly picks out a branch herself and when broken she tastes the sap. "Hmmm definitely worse then walnuts or chicory" She thinks to herself.

Thanks professor :)

Rox carefully walks over to the twigs and grabs one of them. She rolls it around in her hands, holds it close to her nose to see if the twig has a smell of its own, tries to get herself familiar with the looks of the twig. Then carefully she breaks the twig in half. She notices how the sap begins to drip out of the twig and lets a drop fall on one of her finger tips, she brings the tip to her nose and smells the sap, then tries a taste at it, even though the professor had warned them it would be bitter. Immediately after tasting it, she regrets it, she tastes the bitterness. Not that tasteful indeed she thinks to herself.

She notices a small bruise on her left arm and lets a drop of the sap fall on the bruise. The effect becomes very clear almost immediately. It’s amazing what the sap can do she can only think after seeing it.

She hears how the professor says that they could collect the sap in one of the vials from the professor. Since there’s still some sap left in her twig, she runs over to the professor to get a vial and slowly starts to let the sap drop into the vial. While doing so she starts to look around at her classmates. She sees some of them are hesitating to grab a twig, while others tried the sap on bruises to see the effect just like she did herself.

She turns back to professor Morgan, eager to learn more about the willow. “Professor Morgan, since you told us that the tree needs to be treated with bandages if it gets damaged. Is there a way to get closer to the tree? And will we learn how we can do that? Also I was wondering if it wouldn’t hurt the tree if we break the twigs and if those should be treated with bandages too?”.

After watching Max and Emryse, Emma tentatively picked up a twig. Holding it in her palm she notices that the twig is much heavier than she was expecting, certainly heavier than the average twig. "It must be from the sap," she thinks to herself wondering just how dense the sap is. Breaking the twig delicately at the center Emma holds it up to her nose. The acrid scent immediately causes her nose to wrinkle, bitter was an understatement. Putting a small bead of the sap on her index finger she decides to try it anyway, to ensure the full experience. Just as bitter as she was expecting, she had difficulty relating it to anything she had tasted before. The bitterness was complex. Seeing how well the sap had healed Max's cut, Emma smoothes some onto her bruised forearm from where she had an unfortunate run-in with a bookcase earlier in the week. Staring in surprise, she watches the bruise run through its cycle from deep purple, to faded yellow green, and back to normal all within a single minute. Coming to Hogwarts, Emma is most nervous about her Herbology classes, but she thinks to herself, "If Professor Morgan is this thorough in all of her lessons I might be alright after all."

Aleks looked around for a decent sized twig, she wanted to get a real feel for this tree. Finding one, she picked it up and noticed that for it's size, which was only about 10inches, it was quite heavy. Breaking it, a burning, acid-like smell assaulted her sense, making her eyes water and nose burn. She was almost sure it had burned her nose hair! Yet no sap dripped out, no matter how she held it, shook it or tapped it!

She chose another, much smaller twig, probably about 4inches, but it was still quite heavy for its size. Luckily, when she broke this twig, a bead or two of sap dripped out onto her hand, the same awful smell accosted her, but she was expecting it. Checking herself over for bumps, bruises, cuts or grazes, she eventually found a tiny little spot where she had nicked herself on the corner of a door yesterday, and popped a bit of sap on it. Before her eyes, it healed immediately, the skin regrowing within seconds.

She thought to taste the last drop, and would have gagged had she not been expecting such a bitter taste from not only the Professors warning, but everyone else's reaction. It was like eating the leaves from trees!

Aleks loved Herbology, and couldn't wait for the next lesson. Now, she was waiting for her Potions class. Herbology and Potions are a pair, she thought.

Emma McMonigle tentatively picked up a twig from the pile, afraid that it might come to life and attack her as if it were still attached to the tree. It was narrow and slender, though it's length was long. The brittle bark peeled away easily at her touch. The smooth wood underneath made her think of something...

"Professor," she began hesitantly, looking down the narrow piece of wood, "has the wood of a Whomping Willow ever been known to be used in making wands?"

As she waited for a reply, she broke the tip and waited. But no sap came out of it. Must be dried up she thought as she reached for another twig.

This one thankfully was not dried up, and oozed sap so fast that she had to catch the precious substance in the palm of her hand. Once she was certain her stick was completely tapped, she set the twig down and used her free hand to catch up some of the sticky goo. She rolled it between her finger tips, feeling the texture, before she brought it under her nose to smell it. She coughed when she did; it smelled rather like the the day-old African coffee her classmates in Uganda had tricked her into drinking. She couldn't imagine what it would taste like though she did dab a little on a scratch she had obtained from her flying lesson. Instantly the pain and scabs were gone, leaving only the faintest of scars on the side of her finger.

Mum and dad would love this, Emma thought, though she was secretly glad that they didn't have a Whomping Willow in the Hufflepuff common room...

(( ))

Glancing at her fellow classmates who were already on the move, Camille approached the Whomping Willow cautiously, taking care to stay near Professor Morgan. Shuffling even closer, she picked up a random twig from the pile and explored the coarse texture of it, noting that it didn't seem all that different from the texture of other trees. She carefully broke the twig in two and was accosted by a pungent scent. Wrinkling her nose, she tipped one of the broken sides onto her finger, watching the sap slowly ooze out. Not noticing any cuts or bruises on herself, she rubbed her index and thumb together, feeling the syrupy texture of the sap, and then deliberately licked a bit of the sap off.

She immediately gagged because Merlin's beard, that was bitter. Camille looked around and was glad she wasn't the only one who was repelled by the taste of it. Shuddering, with the taste of the sap still in her mouth, she stepped back a bit to observe and let her other classmates grab a twig.

Eager to test out the sap but not wanting to be the first one up, Sar waited for some of her other classmates to take a twig before grabbing one of her own. Being ever the clumsy one, she had managed to scrape her calve rather well on the trek out to the tree. After procuring a rather chubby looking twig she proceeded to bend it; holding it slightly away from her for fear of it bursting open with sap or possibly splinters. The fat little twig, while bendable, was not breaking. Sar added more strength into her efforts as she drew the twig closer to her body, but to no avail. Looking around she could see and hear other students having no problem with this first step; though some may have gone for another twig. Looking back to her own bit of that ominous tree, Sar positioned the twig between her thighs (hoping no one was watching) and started wringing the twig every which way hoping it will break. It doesn't. Looking up flushed in red from the growing embarrassment and struggle with this tiny bit of wood, she stubbornly denied giving up and stuck what she could of the twig under her right armpit and quickly snapped the twig to the left! Victory! "Guess I should have used my boobs from the start," she thought to herself as her smile suddenly retreated back into embarrassment when she realized a student across the way had locked eyes with hers and probably saw that whole display. Sar spun around like a top and plopped down as if trying to become a stump right there on the spot. Not wanting to over stress herself, she quickly diverted her thoughts back to the stick. Some of the thick, sticky sap had dripped onto her top which she just knew would have a new 'forever' stain. She simply stared at the ends of the sap filled twig wondering if this was like the tree's blood and how strange it seemed to be spreading the blood of something else onto her body like war paint. Realizing how odd that might sound outside of her own head, she proceeded to spread 'the blood of this magical tree' onto her wound. Giggling to herself over this little made up fancy, she ended up spreading the sap on her leg like she was applying a thick coat of sunblock. The scrape she had received earlier was not only gone but she couldn't even recall exactly where it had been on her leg except for a few remnants of blood on her boot. "This could come in really handy!" Sar blurted out. Thinking it would be a good idea to keep some for later she scooped up one of the provided vials and squeezed what was left in the other half of her twig into it. Having such a wondrous item she could burrow away for those times she's too shy to go to the nurse AGAIN gave her such joy. Looking up to share her silent joy with those testing out the sap around her she realized she hadn't tasted it in all her testing! The faces of her classmates proved she hadn't missed out on much but she's always one to try anything at least once! The precious sap had mostly been applied to her leg or the vial and she didn't want to waste any of the precious product in her tucked away vial just for a taste but breaking another twig seemed to recall the anxiety of the first try. Looking down at her now thin twig pieces and idea popped into her head. Grabbing the longer of the two pieces she quickly scanned those around her to make sure she was clear and tucked her head down into her chest as she proceeded to suck the broken twig end like a straw! "Blegh! Yuck!" She yelped as tears quickly formed in the corners of her eyes. Regret hit her quickly and she immediately wished she had taken the option of trying to lick her leg instead. It might have looked even more strange to those around her but at least it wouldn't have the added texture to the taste. "Pretty sure it wouldn't have had that gross woodsy aftertaste either," her better judgement told her. "Yeah well why did you stay silent when I had the idea in the first place," she quipped back. Feeling rather ill over the whole experience she flopped over to one side and lay on the ground while taking in the moment and calming all her nerves. "Another one of her episodes," a voice sighed in the back of her mind.

( ) Judy looks with wonder at the Whomping Willow. "So! this is where Harry and Ron landed with the magically enhanced car on the first day of their second year at Hogwarts so many years ago. My great great aunt Pomona helped heal this very tree!" she thinks to herself. Judy reaches up to grab a twig, apologizing to the tree before breaking off a small twig. Sap slowly accumulates at the break point, and Judy wipes the sap onto her finger, then tentatively touches the sap to her tongue. "Yup, that's fairly awful" she says out loud. Judy looks around for her new friends from Gryffindor.

Rylee hung back for a few moments before joining the queue of students. She chose a twig that was rather short, about the third of the size of her wand. She turned it over in her hands, wandering what to do next. In many ways, she was more of a Ravenclaw than a Hufflepuff; she was more bookish than practical.

Making up her mind that she was going to make Hufflepuff proud, Rylee broke the twig in two and carefully inspected the splintered wood with her nose. The twig had a musty, medicinal smell, almost like the medicine her parents gave her and her brother when they were sick. She sniffed it again, rolling it between her fingers as she did so. The bark was rough.

Professor Morgan had said that the sap was bitter. Rylee kept this in mind as she teased a little of the gooey sap onto her finger and touched her finger to the tip of her tongue. Her nose wrinkled the moment her taste buds registered the sap and she grimaced. Whomping Willow sap definitely tasted like the base for a medicine.

Once she was sure her face wasn't going to be stuck all wrinkled up forever, Rylee coaxed the last bit of sap onto her finger. Deciding to try it on a small cut where a splinter had recently resided, she smeared the rest of the gooey sap over her injured finger. She watched in silent fascination as the pain seemed to fade away faster than any muggle pain reliever could numb pain. "Interesting," she murmured. "It seems quite powerful on its own. I wonder what ingredients are added to make it heal bones."

Pemberly frowned, though the tree was interesting, she really had no interest in tasting sticky sap. She picked up two twigs, placed one behind an ear and twirled the second around her fingers like a drumstick. Now that was pleasing. The weight of the twig was denser than most twigs she had bothered with. She took the first from behind her ear and waved them a bit in a drum solo before figuring she better at least collect the sap.

Stowing the two new drumsticks, she grabbed a third oddly shaped one and snapped it and collected the sap. As she corked the vial, a bug landed on her lips. As she recoiled wiping her mouth the sap on her fingers smeared her lip, and she recoiled again as if slapped. Ugh!

Rox listened carefully to the explanation from Professor Morgan. "I think it would be a wise decision to never try and treat a willow while on your own just in case you do get hurt" she said. I hope we will learn the Impedimenta spell, I would love to take a closer look at the tree" she continued with a spark in her eyes.

While walking to her friends from Gryffindor, she was wondering out loud how the tree could be damaged on the trunk and limbs if it was so hard to get close to it.

She noticed Judy looking towards the willow and heard how the other girl said that the sap was awful. "I can only agree to that" Rox said, as I have tasted it myself. "But you should try it on this bruise you have over here, she said to the girl, while pointing towards a bruise on her arm.

Tate stared up at the Whomping Willow in awe. He'd hear plenty about this tree whilst growing up and he was thrilled to see one in person. He looked at its base, trying to spot the legendary knot would apparently immobilise it but he could see nothing. Perhaps once he'd been taught how to freeze things, he could inspect the tree more closely.

Tate grabbed a stick from the pile and snapped it in half. Sap oozed out and coated the tips of his fingers. He gingerly stuck out his tongue to lick his fingers and instantly regretted it as a strong, bitter taste took over his mouth. "Yuck! No wonder Skelegro tastes so unpleasant," he thought to himself. He tried to wipe his tongue with the back of his robe, but still the taste lingered.

Next, he inspected his arms for any cuts or bruises. Finding none, Tate grabbed a nearby jagged rock off the ground and made a small cut on his palm. He ignored the disgusted look of the girl next to him, and proceeded to smear the sap onto the wound. His palm tingled and burned slightly, but he couldn't suppress the grin on his face as the torn skin knitted together to seal up the cut.

"Hm, this could sure come in handy," Tate thought to himself as he debated grabbing some more twigs.

Moving over to who looks really embarresed and whispers: "There's a spell to remove the stains" She murmers some words and the stains are gone. Emryse smiles, while continueing to whisper: "I'm really clumsy myself too, but tell no one." She grabs a twig and shows Sar how to correctly break the twig at the smallest point. "I think haven't met before. I'm Emryse from Ravenclaw. Who are you?"

[img align=left]http://i59.tinypic.com/wbas78.jpg[/img] Beth continues to take copious notes in her notebook as she hears Professor Morgan answer her classmates’ questions. She closes her notebook after quickly checking her notes and sets it aside. She walks toward Professor Morgan and grabs a few glass vials. “These vials might come in handy later,” Beth thinks to herself.

She watches vigilantly at her classmates before approaching a pile of twigs near the Whomping Willow. She bends down and picks up a twig from the ground. She carefully twirls the twig in her hand, taking note of how much heavier it is than it appears to be. She brings the twig close to her face, nose wrinkling at its scent. “Ugh.” She never smelled anything like it. She carefully breaks the twig in two and holds one of the halves close to her nose. She still can’t exactly describe the vile smell. She holds the twig away from her nose, feeling a bit nauseous.

Sap slowly oozes out of the halves and onto her hand. Beth smells the sap. The scent of the sap makes her nose wrinkle. “Ugh. Not this smell again.” It smelled just like the twig. She had hoped the sap would smell more pleasant. Remember the sap’s healing abilities, she applies some sap onto a paper cut she got a few nights ago. Her finger tingles, the cut disappearing in front of her eyes. She is wonderstruck with how quickly her cut disappear. “This sap is amazing.” Beth lets the rest of the sap drop into the vial. She searches for another twig and breaks it in half to collect more sap. However, this twig has no sap. She finds another twig, one much heavier than the last and carefully breaks it in half. The sap drops into the vial. Satisfied with what’s she’s learned she looks around and sees her classmates tasting the sap.

“How could I forget to taste the sap?” Beth asks herself. She grabs another twig from the pile and clumsily breaks it in half, as this twig is a lot harder to break. Pointing the twig closer to her mouth, the sap drips into her mouth. “Professor Morgan wasn’t kidding when she said it would be bitter,” Beth thinks as she gags. She definitely underestimated how bitter the sap would taste.

She walks towards her notebook, eager to jot down more notes. She sketches the twig and describes its rough texture. Not knowing how to describe the unpleasant odor of the sap and twigs, she decides to ask her sister for help. “Lyn, what do you think the twig and sap smell like?”

Setsu walked carefully over to the pile of twigs, eyes on the willow. She grabbed two twigs and backed away, glancing around at her classmates to see how they were breaking the twigs. She snapped one twig off at a narrow end, watching the sap gather at the tip. She dabbed some on her fingertip, and curiously smeared that small amount on a small bug bite on her arm. "Hm.. it still kind of itches, but the skin is healed, and the damage from scratching it, too! Interesting." She gathered another drop on her fingertip and carefully dabbed a tiny amount on the tip of her tongue. Making a face at the bitterness, she was grateful she had observed the other students before tasting a larger amount. She waited politely for her turn to get a vial from Professor Morgan, and allowed the sap from her first twig to drip into the vial. Seeing it was not nearly full due to all of the sap that she'd carelessly allowed to drip on the ground from the first twig, she broke the tip from her other twig to fill the vial with its sap. "Professor Morgan, I know that it's safe to consume, but is the sap safe around your eyes? Or would we need another healing agent for eye and lid injuries?"

Setsu, Ravenclaw house.