COMC 2 : Gnomes

Selwyn was waiting for his students in the creatures paddock, keeping a particular eye out for Mia and hoping she'd decided to behave this lesson. The other students seemed to take their cue from her, and he didn't want to deal with an entire class of sulky brats. Especially when he thought he had quite a fun day in store for them.

"Don't get too comfortable," he instructed as more people turned up. "We're having our class in the rose gardens today."

"Meanwhile, what do you know about gnomes? Just one fact each, no hogging the house points, please."

Raphael walked down towards the creatures paddock where he saw Professor Selwyn standing. He didn't sit down but wondered what they were doing today in class. He looked up at the professor when he said not to get comfortable and they were going to the rose gardens.

"Gnomes are about a foot in height and have large head but small bodies making them look like a potato with legs." He said answering the professor's question. He hoped he hadn't said much more than he was supposed to. He was excited to see gnomes and wondered what exactly there were going to be doing in the rose garden.

Well, at least they were being well behaved this lesson.

Selwyn nodded to the blue kid.

"Absolutely right, take some house points," he said. "Just, remind me of your name, will you?"

"You're all much more shy today than you were last week," he commented.  "Is it too much to hope that someone here might know how to safely degnome a garden?"

"And by safely, I mean for yourself and the gnomes," he added, thinking of Jeffrey the Jarvey back in the barn.

Poppy walked up towards the lecture near the gardens. She normally liked gardens, but this didn't seem at all like it was going to be anything like the normal day outdoors.

She didn't know much about gnomes. The only thing she really knew was that she had seen her neighbor, attempting to tend to his garden after a pint or four too many. The only thing Poppy noticed was that chasing a gnome and whacking it with a rake didn't seem to do the trick. It only seemed to irk them.

For the moment, she chose to remain quiet. In a situation where there seemed to be one correct answer, anything less appeared to be inadequate. She was curious, now, though. If Whack-A-Gnome wasn't the proper way to get rid of them, what was?

"No takers?"

Selwyn began walking to the edge of the paddock, leaving the children to stay or follow as they chose.

"Your belongings will be safe here," he told them, "but you might want to bring your wands."

"Gnomes often get into gardens because they simply love the taste of fresh foliage, especially decorative plants like daffodils, gerberas and, of course, roses," since nobody seemed willing to contribute to the lesson, Selwyn slipped into lecture mode. He preferred listening to the sound of his own voice, anyway.

"It causes terrible consternation for avid gardeners, especially muggles who often take out their anger at the wreckage of their pride and joy on the local wildlife."

They reached the low stone walls of the rose gardens, above which thorns tangled, though not many roses could be seen. Certainly, none of those that could were whole.

"As I was saying, the most effective way to de-gnome a garden is to stun them. It's humane and safe for both you and the gnomes.

Technically, if you're without your wand, you can just hit them over the head with a two-by-four; gnomes are well known for their thick skulls and that would stun them just as well, but I don't want to see anybody doing that today."

"If nobody has any questions, I believe we can get started."

Madyson was quite fond of the Care of Magical Creatures course during her time at Hogwarts. She had always loved seeing the different creatures of the magical world for herself more than anything, not that she knew much about the most of them. Gnomes being one of them for example. It wasn't that she didn't know anything about them at all though. For example, she knew that they were usually made of ceramics, and placed in gardens as a decorations. However, she did not know they were an actual living, magical creature. Oh what fun this lesson would be.

As Professor Thorfinn somewhat led the class to the stone walls of the rose gardens, the Hufflepuff Prefect had decided to take a more shy approach, as she usually did, and tried to stay in the back of the group behind some of the taller students in class.

Selwyn was surprised. He'd expected a more enthusiastic response. Back when he was at school, he'd have been thrilled if they did practicals like this. And yeah, he might have "accidentally" stunned a couple of his more annoying classmates at the same time. That was half the fun.

Looked like he was going to have to take the lead again. This was getting exhausting.

Inside the rose garden, things weren't much better. Or if you liked roses, they were worse. Ugly holes decorated the soil between the flower beds, where the gnomes had made their homes.

"Watch your step," Selwyn said over his shoulder to the students.

Just as he was about to ask whether anyone had any idea how to get the gnomes above-ground, there was movement from under one of the bushes.

Reflexively, Selwyn cast his stunning spell at the movement, then watched in dismay as a butterfly collapsed to the ground.

"Erm, as you can see, the stunning spell is a lot less dangerous to bystanders than some other methods of de-gnoming," he ad-libbed.