A Fun Fungus

The Herbology Teaching Team was a set of professors, each one from a different House. Spike had read in the assigned history books about the changes the school had undergone since the days of the Second Wizarding War. No more single professors handling one subject, the classes were handled by an inter-House team, to help eliminate the prejudices against one House or another. It was very different, and made it harder on the students by giving them multiple targets to please. It may be fairer but how was a girl supposed to plot when she didn't know what was most likely to lead to a high score?

Interestingly enough, this set seemed to match not only the Houses they were in, but the subject under discussion -- the mushroom kingdom. The Ravenclaw professor, Oona Wigworthy, was tall, lean and dark of hair and complexion. A morel. The Hufflepuff professor, Angua Dingle, was short and round, with bright orange hennaed hair in a halo. A candycap. Gryffindor's professor wore a red cap (fly agaric), while Slytherin was very tall and thin, with a ruffle around her neck and pale silver hair. A destroying angel.

The class prompt appeared on the board. A horrific pun--the students were to create something based on a mushroom, or something to turn them into a "fun guy." Well. What to do now?

The bell rang, and everyone filed into the Great Hall for lunch. Spike toyed with her stroganoff, picking out the braised mushrooms and shoving them to the side of her plate. She didn't want to think about the darn things any longer; her mind was full of fungus.

She was seated on the Hufflepuff side of Slytherin's table, and noticed some of the 'Puffs discussing the herbology class. What do they do for fun? They don't have hotties, so . . . She dropped an Extensible Ear, and listened in.

“Cupcakes!” one girl with brown hair in odango comet buns chirped. “We’ll have lots of cupcakes! Cupcakes make everything more fun!” The boy next to her nodded as he stood up … and then stepped on her Ear. She grimaced at the brief squeal of feedback, and reeled it back in, pondering.

Cupcakes? Well, why not cupcakes? And why not cupcakes that contained something interesting and fun themselves?




She'd have to arrange for an upperclassman to pick up some supplies at Honeydukes for her before Saturday night, but that was no hardship at all.