Chapter 78: Herbology (2)

"You did well."

Neville looked at William beside him, it was true that he had caught him off guard as it was also true that on his own he would not have gathered enough courage to raise his hand, this was something William himself knew perfectly well, it was still too early for Neville's true colors to be picked up by those around him, still William was not willing to wait for that development, all it took was a couple of pushes and Neville would grow up.

All the students were curious about the mandrakes, it was the first time many of them would have first hand contact with a dangerous magical creature of this level.

"Come forward and take a pair of earmuffs for each of you" said Professor Sprout urging everyone to come to her table, William was no exception, of course unlike him they all ran and hurried not to take the only pair that was neither stuffed nor pink, which of course was taken by William to the surprise of many, but William himself didn't seem to mind in the least.

Everyone looked at Professor Sprout who was explaining the instructions for the use of the earmuffs and the signal to take them off.

Putting on the earmuffs was one of the most important tasks of the class, and everyone was ready when Professor Sprout rolled up her robe, put both hands on the stem of the plant, and then pulled it out of the pot.

William was no stranger to the appearance of the juvenile mandrake, he had seen it in the movie version during his past life and worked with mandrakes during his summer at Castelobruxo. Still the appearance of a weeping baby with the light green color and spots was not a sight to be enjoyed, it was simply preferable not to see it.

Professor Sprout shifted the mandrake to an empty pot larger than the previous one and quickly covered it with compost to the point where only the leaves of the plant could be visible, shook her hands to remove the soil and held up her thumb, then everyone removed their ear muffs.

"Our mandrakes are still young, their cries do not meet the conditions to be considered mortal" she explained calmly, simply this for her was a minor matter, but for the students in front of her all this was new "even so the cry of young mandrakes is capable of rendering them unconscious for a few hours, and as I am sure none of you want to miss your first day of school, make sure you are wearing the earmuffs perfectly while working. I'll let you know when it's time to retire."

"You will work four students per tray. We have enough pots here..." teacher Sprout gave the directions for all the students, while William had to join a group, his first day and already he had to socialize again, then it was enough to turn around to see the expressions of his surroundings.

"Sigh..." William gave a long sigh "I'm not in Castelobruxo, here I am a morph wizard again" he said to himself in his mind.

"What do we do William?" looking to his side Neville stood still as a statue, waiting for William to do something.

Seeing the young man at his side William wanted to say something but the words didn't come out of his mouth, instead a faint smile was drawn on his face.

"What else are we going to do?" William stepped forward "We need to look for our group members, maybe it won't be just for this class in the future."

"Oh... right."

Even if William's fame is rather obscure due to his family, enough had been fixed with the rumors about last year's events, plus appearing in the prophet for the capture of Greyback, it was enough to draw a bit more attention in a positive way, then there was this to make use of.

"Workmates?" a young blonde haired girl asked the question looking directly at William in surprise "Are you sure?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I thought you were joining the famous Harry Potter and your friend Granger the know-it-all, you know you're famous now too"

"I've always been famous, I'm William Rosier, besides I'd rather be with Neville, he needs more help and my Castelobruxo experience might be perfect right now"

"Castelobruxo?" she asked surprised "The rumors were real, the prophet never stated what you were doing in Castelobruxo, it only mentioned that they were students and no one was sure, but it was true, you went to Castelobruxo as an exchange student, I will join your group" she extended her hand towards William "I'm Hannah Abbott, nice to meet you"

"William Rosier, the pleasure is ours" William returned the greeting, then it only took a small bump with his elbow for Neville to step forward.

"Neville Longbottom, a pleasure."

They already had three people in the group, only one member was missing then before they could start looking someone else appeared out of nowhere.

"May I join your team?"

It wasn't hard for William to recognize the girl in front of him, Parvati Patil, Harry Potter's partner during the winter ball in the future when the Triwizard tournament takes place.

Hannah and Neville looked at William as if waiting for William's opinion "Of course you can join, anyone is welcome."

"Thank you very much!" the four team members were finally assembled ready to work, they all moved to prepare the materials.

"Is it true that you defeated the werewolf using forbidden curses?" asked Hannah as they moved the soil with compost, but William shook his head.

"The truth there were some curses but they were not part of the forbidden ones, they are simply things I learned in various books, but the work was done by many students, the enemy after all was quite strong" William explained a bit of the combat against Greyback first hand making the trio of the group surprised, as he told the story they prepared the materials for the work, then the time to transplant the mandrake had finally arrived.