Chapter 8 - Herbology and the Dark Arts
Barney slept in the next morning. He must have been exhausted from his first day of lessons. When we woke his dorm-mates were already up and gone. No one had bothered to wake him. He quickly got up and dressed and with no time for breakfast, hastily glanced at the noticeboard to see his timetable and headed straight to the greenhouses for his first lesson of the day - Herbology.
When he got there everyone else was already in the greenhouse and he had to apologise to his teacher for being late.
"Not to worry, find a space around the table," Professor Sprout told him.
Even though it was first thing in the day the professor's clothes were already covered in mud and she had a couple of leaves and a twig stuck in her messy hair.
Barney was relieved to see his Herbology class was with the Gryffindor first years and found a space next to Billy, who he hadn't seen since the train ride to Hogwarts.
"Right class, today we will be de-seeding Tickleweed," Professor Sprout announced. "So named because not only will their vines try to tickle you, but to subdue them you need to tickle them right back."
The professor began walking around the class placing large clay pots in front of students. Inside the pots were a tall green stem with numerous vines protruding from it.
"Now you'll have to do this in pairs. Whilst one person tickles the weed the other will have to use tweezers to carefully pluck the small black seeds from it's stem."
The weeds looked very docile to begin with but suddenly they started to come alive and their vines started to reach out towards the students.
"Best work quick. Once they start to tickle someone they don't like to stop."
Barney teamed up with Billy to tackle their Tickleweed. Before either of them could grab their tweezers the vines were already all over them. Barney had one in his ear, one under his chin and another one had gotten under his robes and was trying to tickle his belly.
The class had descended into a barrage of laughter as everyone struggled to control their weeds. One Gryffindor girl was rolling around on the floor laughing as she was attached from all sides by her weed as her partner struggled to help.
"Come on class, put some more effort into it," Sprout called out over the cries of laughter.
Billy had managed to grab the tweezers but quickly dropped them as a vine slithered up inside the sleeve of his robes and was furiously tickling his armpit. Marek, a boy from Barney's dorm knocked in to him as he fell over and the vines quickly seized their chance and wormed their way inside the boys shoes and madly tickled his feet. Tears of laughter started to stream down Marek's face as he kicked out wildly, trying to get the vines off him. Barney tried to focus through his own laughter and reached out a hand to the stem of his weed and started to tickle it. Eventually the vines that were tickling him and Billy started to subside from their bodies and instead flailed in the air haphazardly. Billy quickly grasped his opportunity and retrieved the tweezers from the floor and started to examine the stem of the weed as Barney continued to tickle it. Billy noticed the tiny black specs buried in the stem and carefully started to pull the seeds out one by one and placed them in a pot as Professor Sprout came over to view their progress.
"Very good boys. Five points each to Gryffindor and Slytherin," Sprout declared as she gave each of them a pat of the back, which momentarily made Barney stop tickling the weed and the vines darted towards the pair again. Barney hastily resumed the tickling before the vines had time to reach either of them and Billy continued to pluck out it's seeds.
Barney looked pleased with himself for getting points for his house, but any thoughts of it making his fellow Slytherins like him more were quickly dashed when he saw Silvanna Silvas, who through her laughter from the weeds still managed to cast him a mighty scowl.
Within ten minutes all of the students had managed to overcome their weeds and had them under control and were carefully collecting the seeds. After Professor Sprouts had removed all of the Tickleweeds from the table in front of the students and placed the firmly out of harms way, she spent the rest of the lesson teaching them about the uses of its seeds.
At the end of the lessons Barney said goodbye to Billy and half-heartedly trudged off to his next lesson, knowing it was just with his fellow Slytherins.
Barney entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and took a seat at the only free desk at the very front of the room.
"Bet he thinks he's special because he won five house points," Silvanna mocked as he walked past.
Barney took his seat and retrieved his text book, quill and some parchment from his bag, ready for the class to begin.
At the front of the class on various cabinets stood numerous skulls from creatures that Barney couldn't even imagine what they were or might have been. In the right hand corner was a small staircase, which curved up towards the door or a small room. Just then the door of this room opened and out stepped Professor Goodwill, who was wearing a light blue dress that bellowed to the ground and her blonde hair shone in the light that cascaded through the classroom's windows.
"Good morning students. I am Professor Goodwill, your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," she said as she gracefully walked down the steps, her voice sweet like honey.
"In this class I will teach you many things including how to defend yourself against possible threats including curses, jinxes, hexes and dark creatures."
As she spoke a piece of chalk rose into the air and started writing on the blackboard behind her.
"One way to stop someone jinxing, hexing or cursing you is to simply disarm them of their wand before they can. Now who can tell me the best charm to do this?"
A few hands shot up around the classroom and Professor Goodwill glanced around before selecting a girl with numerous freckles on her face and short red hair to answer.
"Expelliarmus?"
"Yes excellent. Expelliarmus. The disarming curse. Very good," Goodwill replied in her sweet, sugary tones. "Now I need a volunteer."
Before anyone could offer Professor Goodwill spotted Barney sat at the front on his own and approached his desk.
"You young man look like a very capable wizard."
There was a snigger in the classroom, most likely from Silvanna at the professor's words.
"Would you be a star and help me demonstrate to the class?" Professor Goodwill asked.
Barney didn't feel like he had much choice and sheepishly joined the professor at the front of the room.
"Don't look so worried," Goodwill tried to reassure him. "I promise not to hurt you."
Barney stood there and focused on the professor, not wanting to look at his fellow Slytherins, knowing they would must likely be hoping to see him get hurt and enjoying every second of his humiliation.
"Sorry I didn't get your name?" Goodwill commented.
"Barney."
"Ah yes of course. I remember you now form the sorting ceremony. Now Barney I want you to hold your wand and extend your arm out like so," she said demonstrating with her own wand and arm.
Barney copied her and held out his wand as far away from his body as he could.
"OK try not to move and I will use the charm to disarm you. Be warned there will be some sparks so don't be startled."
Barney tried his hardest to stop his hand from shaking, not wanting to look scared in front of his classmates who were looking for any excuse to mock him. He gripped his wand tightly and waited anxiously for Professor Goodwill to cast the charm.
"Ready?" she asked.
Barney nervously nodded.
"Three... two... one... Expelliarmus."
As Professor Goodwill cast the charm a dazzling stream of red light emerged from her wand and struck Barney's own wand, sending it flying across the classroom. The force of the charm also knocked Barney off his feet and he landed on the floor, much to the amusement of his classmates. As he lay on the floor he felt a strange tingling sensation in his hand where the charm had hit and he started to rub it to make it feel better.
"Are you OK?" Goodwill asked as she reached out a hand to help him up. "It can rather pack a punch that charm."
Barney thought to himself that she wasn't kidding as his hand still hurt but he nodded to his professor to indicate he was fine as she helped him up from the floor.
"Right now why don't you give it a go?"
"Me?" Barney asked meekly.
"Yes, it's really not that difficult. You just need to get the wrist movement right and cast the spell clearly."
Professor Goodwill demonstrated the wand movements a few more time for Barney and the rest of the class' benefit and then she took a few paces away from Barney and faced him.
"Right now remember to say the word clearly and with conviction."
Barney said the word over and over again in his head, not wanting to pronounce it wrong and make a fool of himself as Goodwill held her wand out to her side ready.
"OK in your own time," Goodwill said with a reassuring smile to Barney.
Barney did the wand movement once first without the spell and then took a deep breath and paused for a second to ready himself before he lifted his wand over his shoulder and whipped it back down.
"Expelliarmus!" he cried out.
Barney was too busy focusing on his wand movements and saying the spell right he forgot to aim properly. The flash of bright red light hit a skull on a cabinet next to Professor Goodwill and sent it crashing to the floor where it smashed into tiny pieces. There was a mixture of gasps of shocks and howls of laughter from the class.
"Oh dear," Goodwill said as she looked down as the smashed pieces of skull. "That was a Hulking Gatador skull, very rare. Oh well good effort Barney. Perfect pronunciation. You can sit back down now."
Barney embarrassedly rushed back to his seat, avoiding eye contact with any of his class as Goodwill started calling up the rest of them one by one to have a go at casting the charm. Barney eventually felt a bit better seeing everyone else's attempts. Some didn't even mange to cast it right and only managed a few sparks out the end of their wands, some like Barney missed their mark of Goodwill's wand with one student aimed so badly the flash of light from their wand went blazing across the classroom, causing some students to duck to avoid it hitting them. Only two out of the nine students in the class eventually managed to cast the Expelliarmus charm correctly and disarm Professor Goodwill - Maximille from Barney's dorm and a Scottish girl called Genevieve Burns, who both received five points each for Slytherin house.
When class ended everyone headed to the Great Hall for lunch. Barney grabbed a sandwich from the Slytherin table and headed out to the school grounds to eat in the sunshine on his own. As he sat by the lake enjoying his chicken sandwich and the sunny weather he was overly excited at the thought of his next lesson for the day - Flying.