One thing was for certain. The Astronomy professor had NOT just spent an hour carting around a large cardboard box full of pumpkins of varying sizes from petite to ridiculously oversize all around the greenhouses looking for Archie's office. Nope. Not at all.

...

Nope.

...

Totally in denial

Despite the use of an Extension Charm helping with the weight of the box, a charm could not hide the fact that there were little beads of perspiration covering his brow and him being short of breath.

Dropping the box with a dull thud on the ground - whoops, sorry there...plant...whatever you had been - Airey gave the door two firm knocks.

The obvious stretch of blackness appeared larger and larger as it approached the hut of one, Archibald Millard. As it got closer, it became very obvious that it was a Cutty Mordaunt. He looked up from his feet upon the demi-predictable ground (he'd been watching his footing and also sometimes you'd find lost things) to see the long figure of the kids' Astronomy Professor.

"Hi, Professor Flamsteed!" And he was breathing heavily...and sweating. "Oi...yer weren't wehrkin' out were yer?" Not that the professor was dressed for it, but Cutty couldn't even imagine what Flamsteed would look like in anything but a suit or perhaps a very eccentric costume. Cutty was going to mention that he'd found a fairly awesome trail not too far off from where they were standing. It was somewhat overgrown and occasionally there'd be a branch that stuck out that could be used as a make shift hurdle. Not to mention the territorial swarm of bowtruckles that liked to give chase. Excellent.

Archie was actually out of his hut for once. Out round the back... but OUT, nonetheless. He had heard a thud on his ground followed by someone gasping for short breaths even before the knocks went at his door. Someone must be in a real rush to see him!!! Archie popped his head around the side of his hut and relaxed his sudden tension when he saw Professor Flamsteed.

"Oh, hello, prof... Flam--" Stutter, stutter, stutter!!!!! It was okay. He was allowed to talk to his fellows using their first names! "Airey. Hello," His new found confidence from his first class had apparently left the building. "Are you all right there?" His head tilted to the side. It tilted even more when he saw the box on the floor. He was about to ask about it before they were joined by a student.

Ohai, party at Professor M's.

"Mr Mordaunt! What can I do you for?" Archie was grinning because he remembered this student from his class. An actual student that came to his lesson was now visiting him. What was there not to smile about?!?!!

Glancing down, Airey kicked the smushed remains of....whatever it had been off to the side and out of side among some tall grass. Muttering to himself as gunk stuck to his freshly polished shoes, his head snapped around so fast at the young Slytherin's words that it cracked and he may have suffered a bout of whiplash.

Slytherin say what?! WHAT?! How incredibly....oh wait. No. That had not been what Mr. Mordaunt had been asking.

"Oh, I, er, ahem, I," he stammered while tugging on his tie. "No. I most certainly was not."

Oh saved by the half-goblin Groundskeeper professor man.

"Ah, Groundske---Professor Millard," he greeted the man, taking a few comfortable shuffle-steps away from Mr. Mordaunt. "I have a, er, gift for you. Gifts really. If you find the term gift appropriate."

He personally would call it unwanted excess from faulty experimentation.

"Hello, Professor Millard." He said smiling crookedly, for that was the way nature had put it on. Although, he'd grown some his ears still very much stuck out and when paired with the smile still gave the effect of making Cutty look like a monkey. "I came by to ask for yer permission to enter Greenhouse 8. Where the Flesh-eating Fairy Orchids are kept. I need to collect a potion ingredient for our year-long potions brewing project." The ingredient in question was the resin from the Flesh-eating Fairy Orchid, who in of herself was not dangerous to humans so long as you protected your skin from it's irritating effects. Professor Bentley nonetheless always insisted on supervision in Greenhouse 8. Cutty felt he was big enough and good enough at his stunning and freezing charms that he didn't need supervision. Besides, it would be a relatively quick mission. All he had to do was collect the resin.

Cutty stepped on to one foot and looked down at the gourds...and GOURDS. Professor Flamsteed had used his Undetectable Extension charm on the box apparently. That spell was so dead useful and though gratitude rarely passed through the boy's heart these days he remained appreciative of the dear and eccentric Astronomy Professor. It was he, afterall, who'd spoken to him about his career path. The healer did as well, though Cutty found it more difficult to get her time to himself alone.

"Ooh! Blank canvases! Need help putting them away, Professor Millard?" Cause Cutty wanted to show Millard he was responsible enough to handle Greenhouse 8 on his own.

Oh, rude.

Apparently they weren't on first name terms. Or Airey just didn't know his. He let out a small nose huff nonetheless. No biggie, suppose. "A gift...?" That was a nice surprise! "For me? Oh, how... thoughtful of you..." Since the gift was for him, he didn't mind having a real close peak at the contents of the box this time. His eyes widened a bit. "Well, wow... look at those." He grinned. Bit of a weird gesture but LOVELY all the same.

"Thank you very much! Where did you get them?" Were they rotten? Is that why he was giving them away??



He wanted access to Greenhouse 8?! "Oh, of course, Mr Mordaunt..." Archie paused and tapped his chin, wondering the best way to do this. Mr Mordaunt was the first student that had requested any greenhouse entry this term. Very exciting, very cautious, too... "If you give me a moment..." He eyed the box, "... or two, I can accompany you." Because come on, he didn't trust these kids in there alone!

"Thank you, Mr Mordaunt. That'd be very helpful." Archie nodded at his offer of helping put everything away.

Flesh-eating Fairy Orchids.

Well...everyone had their hobby. Who was he to judge?

Blinking at Mr. Mordaunt a few times with pursed lips, the suited astronomer returned his focus towards the tiny man. "They are the result of a bit of astronomical experimentation done on cross-quarter day," he explained. Things had become more than a bit peculiar in the Spirit Room during all that as well, but surely these pumpkins had not suffered because of it. Not cursed or anything. Hopefully. Sir Nicholas hadn't seemed concerned about that being a side effect when the ghost had approached him in his office. "All still on the vine. Thought perhaps the vegetable patch could use a bit more....orange?"

And since the Slytherin had just offered himself...that meant Airey didn't have to as well, yes? Dirt on his suit and shoes was beyond unappealing.

Cutty was half-listening to the conversation between the two Professors. He'd gotten enough to know that they were unintended pumpkins wand-made possibly by Professor Flamsteed at the beginning of the month. One word was burning in the boy's mind and thus he little noticed the face Airey had been making. "An experiment? What'dyer find out, Professor Flamsteed?"

Cutty dug a hand into the box and grabbed hold of one of the pumpkins by it's stem, pulling it out with others still attached by their vines. "Sure, Professor Millard. I'd appreciate it." And he would too, cause he needed that resin. The young snake picked up the pumpkins and drew out a bit more, though in his process of carrying them over to the nearby vegetable patch he found their foliage to be a tangled mess and the pumpkins themselves to be too heavy. This resulted in the application of charms, levitation and shrinking mostly. Unsure of where to put them exactly, Cutty began lining the corners and perimeter of the vegetable patch with their round, gourdy forms.