Upon hearing her name, LouAnn turned her attention back to the groundskeeper. "Oh, okay then. Cool," she said, nodding her head and showing that she was ready and willing to help. She turned to see about joining whatever group Copernicus was in, but Mister Masterson mentioned how well he liked her article---the one she'd done about him, of course. "Oh, thanks, sir! I had a very interesting subject to write about, you know!"

Relieved that she'd have someone to work with and wouldn't have to be the odd person out, LouAnn smiled and nodded when Copernicus offered for her to join his and---Plym's?---group. She thought that was the name Copernicus had called the other boy. "Oh, yeah, I'd like that. Thanks," she said. Purple---funny how lots of people had taken to calling her by her last name rather than her first. She supposed it was because Purple was such an...well, odd...surname.

No time like the present for an introduction. LouAnn and this Plym guy needed to at least have a proper meet and greet before the took off to being their tree hauling. "I guess I should introduce myself now. I'm Lou---..."

Apparently, though, this whole tree-cutting terribly upset Plym, for the boy looked absolutely horrified at the entire idea. She started to say, "It's just a tree," but she figured that'd be seen as an insult and would probably start Wizarding War III. "...Ann Purple," she finally said, finishing the name she'd started to say a few seconds earlier.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Eye Touz

Plymouth's eyes swelled to the size of small PLANETS. They were WHAT?!?!?!!???!! He turned those baby blues on Copernicus. Show them LOVE? With an AXE????



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


"WHY??? Why... Why...? No.. no, no, no. There's NO need for that! Mister Masterson, you are an axe-wielding mad man, if you don't mind me saying! Don't you have a SHOVEL? You're... you're going to KILL trees for Christmas?!?!"


That wasn't the reason for the season!!!!!


Plymouth's horror was abundant. He eased towards the nearest tree.

An axe wielding mad-man? This was...new. "A shovel, Mr. Morgan? And what, pray tell, do you propose I do with the roots? I'd have to cut them off anyways. I hate to inform you of this, but roots really don't do all that well in concrete. Besides, I'm not cutting down the trees of the Forest..I'm cutting down the ones I planted. I'm not that inhumane. Actually, I'm not inhumane at all," he raised an eyebrow, as if daring someone to say otherwise.

Purple? What? What was this... hmm... pretty girl... talking to him about colors for? At a time like this? Whaaaaat?


"You plant them, Sir. I'm sure Professor Bunbury has some pots big enough. Or we could have some pots enlarged. We can ... dig them up, POT them, like we learned in Herbology! Then... replant them." Plymouth was giving Mister Masterson the BIG-EYES. The please don't murder trees for Christmas EYES.

"Of course I do. Its kind of my thing, tree-climbing." Honest.

Of course there were other things and if you asked Cela, she'd probably tell you that everything was her thing.

Except maybe Astronomy.

"So ready!" Celandine agreed cheerfully, whipping her wand out and STILL not realising, even with the discussion going on, that the trees were going to be CUT DOWN.


She gave Raiden a look and laughed. "Why would Dom-in-ick follow you?" Or anyone really? Willow wasn't here after all.

Celandine tossed a bright smile at the head boy and gave Raiden a nudge.

"You ready?"

Constantine folded his arms across his chest and watched Plymouth's plea with an indifferent face. There was a nice, totally not awkward state of silence when Plymouth finished. Then, slowly, he slid his hand into the pocket of his cloak and then pulled out a set of keys.

"I have a set of...6 or 7 seven pots in the shed attached to my hut. Why don't you and couple others, if you wish, go and retrieve them? Bring them back here, we'll enlarge them. There's also a few shovels." He jingled the keys, "What do you say?"

Plymouth's face broke out into an immediate grin. He run/skipped straight to Masterson and gave him a HUGE MANLY HUG. Both of Plymouth's arms wrapped around Masterson and he HUGGED HUGGED HUGGED him. "You're good people, sir. Thank you. I'll help you water them! Everyday! Promise."

Still grinning, Plymouth snatched the keys from Masterson. "Cope. Come on. We've got business to attend to."


Plymouth was SO going to snuggle Masterson some more when they got back.

"I guess... we'll be back," Copernicus gave Louann an apologetic face before hurrying after his brother. They were doing WHAT? Well, if Masterson agreed, then Cope was on board too.

"Oh...geez," Constantine laughed as he suddenly found himself being hugged by Plymouth. "Yes yes, just goooo, dear boy," he chuckled and then sighed, these children really were getting the best of him..

LouAnn nodded when Cope said they'd be right back. She'd have offered to help, but the two were off in pursuit of the pots before she could make a move to go along. It seemed everyone had gone off in a different direction, so LouAnn took a seat on a nearby large rock and waited for her friends to make their way back to the forest.

Not much left to do but chit chat with Mister Masterson. LouAnn hadn't had a good talk with him in quite while, so it was a good opportunity to catch up. "So, Mister Masterson, how's your little daughter doing?" she asked, remembering the baby she met a few months ago in Diagon Alley. "I hope she and your wife are doing alright."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

LouAnn nodded when Cope said they'd be right back. She'd have offered to help, but the two were off in pursuit of the pots before she could make a move to go along. It seemed everyone had gone off in a different direction, so LouAnn took a seat on a nearby large rock and waited for her friends to make their way back to the forest.

Not much left to do but chit chat with Mister Masterson. LouAnn hadn't had a good talk with him in quite while, so it was a good opportunity to catch up. "So, Mister Masterson, how's your little daughter doing?" she asked, remembering the baby she met a few months ago in Diagon Alley. "I hope she and your wife are doing alright."

Constantine looked over to where LouAnn was seated on a rock and smiled. "Well...my wife has informed me that Jadyn is doing very well. Apparently she's crawling on her own, now. I can't wait to see her, though...I'll be visiting her over the Christmas break.

"Hehe. I KNOW, right? You do that. I mean, I'm clearly about to be very busy. So, you're on axe duty." Plymouth and Copernicus locked up the shed and hurried back to the Forest to meet back up with the class.

Plymouth stopped and delivered a shovel to Cela, complete with an airnuzzle, then another to Purple girl on her log. She got a wink. He didn't EXACTLY expect the girls to DIG, but he still liked to give them things. Hehe.

He threw a shovel to Masterson, then kept one for himself. "Ready to dig, Sir!"

The groundskeeper's smile was the first indication that everything must be a-okay with the tiniest Masterson. LouAnn felt sort of bad for the family of three, what with them having to live in separate houses and in separate places.

"That's awesome! She'll be walking and talking before you know it," she cheerfully said. "You'll soon have a teenager on your hands if you blink too fast." Parents didn't like to hear about their babies growing up on them, though, did they? They always wanted their little ones to stay little forever. "...but not too soon," she was careful to add. "So why can't they just come live here with you?"

Just as she'd asked that question, the boys came back, this time carrying armfuls of shovels for the girls. "Thanks," she said, blushing just a little when Plym winked at her. She knew it was just his way of saying hello, but it still made her blush, anyway.

She stared at her shovel, taking in how big and heavy it was. At exactly five feet tall, LouAnn and the shovel pretty much stood eye to eye...or, stick to eye, that is. "Alright, ready when you are," she said, dragging her shovel along as she joined the group. "Which tree first?"

Constantine caught the shovel that was being tossed at him. "Alright..so, change of plans," he said, hoping to get all their attention. "People with shovels, dig at the base of tree. No need to do too much digging, just make it loose enough so that the rest can gently pull the tree out of the ground. Got it? Alright then, Mr. Morgan, if you will," he motioned for the boy to start off the fun, "and Mr. Kettleburn, would you be so kind as to hang on to my axe?"

Celandine tugged her shovel over after offering an air!nuzzle back at Plymouth. Of course she had no intention of using the shovel the traditional way. NOPE.

Cela pointed her wand at it and mumbled a few quick charms. All she needed to do now was put the shovel in the right spot to start with the digging.

She dragged it and drove it into the ground, still holding the handle for now...

waaait for it....

Copernicus set out the pots before enlarging them back to normal size. Were they really going to dig these trees up and replant them in huge pots and then carry them into the Great Hall? And then decorate them?

That was a little crazy. He accepted the axe from Masterson with a stunned look. WHAT WAS HE DOING WITH AN AXE? "Um. Yes, sir? Thank you?"

"Yes SIR!" Plymouth saluted Masterson before skipping over to a tree. He set the shovel in the ground and took a few minutes to roll up his sleeves. Digging up a TREE was going to undoubtedly be sweaty work.


HEAVE HO DIGGGGG.

Plymouth threw the excess dirt over his shoulder, purposefully not looking to see if anyone was back there.

... hehehe...

Okay so maybe Celandine sorta maybe possibly stopped to watch Plymmy a little, being all manly like he was and stuff.

She smiled a little then let go of her shovel, which, as she directed it with her wand, happily dug away at the soil around the tree.

LouAnn watched in wonder as Cela did something or another with her shovel. She was, of course, somehow making the job a lot easier for herself. After a quick glance at her own shovel, LouAnn drug the heavy object over to Cela, hoping the Ravenclaw girl would do that same something-or-another to it, too.

"Hey, erm, Cela? Could you...you know? Get this thing to do that," she said, pointing to Cela's shovel. She didn't exactly know what Cela had done, but it looked like she'd done something that would maybe...help a whole lot? Yeahhh. A few pieces of stray dirt flew past LouAnn's face, and she ducked just in time to miss a nice clunk of it that was headed for her hair. That Plymouth sure was doing some digging...

...wow.

Miss Toussaint seemed to have a very good idea. Hmm. Constantine stabbed his shovel into the ground and reached for his wand. He stuck a hand in one pocket and dug around.

...

It wasn't there.

Frowning, he stuck his hand in the other pocket to look for it...and it wasn't there! Pulling his hand out, Constantine checked his sleeves and belt, hoping that maybe he had put it there. But...it wasn't?

"What in the world...?" Constantine looked down to the ground and then looked around. Perhaps..it had fallen out while he pulled his keys out for Plymouth? But...no! It was nowhere in sight! Ohhhhh, this was nottt good. How in the world could he be a groundskeeper...without a wand? Surely, it had to be back at the hut!

While frivolously racking his mind as to where he put it last, he checked his pockets again, pulling all the contents out.

Adrienne hid a grin as the high-and-mighty head boy actually jumped at her voice. Even if it was just general surprise, it still amused her that she could startle him in any way. And that just soprt of lent itself to annoying him, too. As he shh-ed her, she rolled her eyes, but deigned to stay quiet. Except for the muffled giggle that she fought to hold back as he saw her shoes. And a point for me, she thought, before Mr. Masterson had spoken and acknowledged their presence. Obviously, Dominic was going to think she was to blame, even though she thought he was incredibly dense if he thought people wouldn't've noticed him.

A genuine smile crept onto her face as she heard they were being conscripted into helping decorate the castle for Christmas, though. She loved the holidays, and this would just help her get in the mood. It almost even made her forget about her mission to irritate Dominic, but then he felt the need to speak again and break her concentration. Raising an eyebrow at his insinuation, she spoke in a low voice. "Who said anything about jumping into conversations blindly? Just because I happened to point out you were hiding didn't mean I was jumping into their conversation. And I highly doubt anyone would call the whole thing random nonsense, either," she pointed out, before giving him an imperious look. "Of course I'm in. Just because you feel the need to be rude doesn't mean I won't help them. And I can do a lot more in these heels than you could ever imagine." It wasn't like she was wearing stilettos or anything, and even if she was, she could still levitate trees.

And she had to stifle another giggle as Dominic was called out on his lurking, by one of the Slytherins, and then Cela joined into the discussion momentarily. Why would he indeed. Her little attempt at annoying the (marginally) older Hufflepuff was just becoming more successful by the minute. Sending a smile at the other two, she glanced back at Dominic as if she was about to ask if he was actually going to join in, before she turned back as Plymouth felt the need to protest cutting the trees down, then started handing out shovels. "If we were going to levitate the trees to the Great Hall, why couldn't we just use a spell to dig them up too?," she asked rhetorically, as Cela and others started digging. It wasn't that she wouldn't dig, if it was necessary, but she simply didn't know why they had to in the first place. And as a Ravie, she felt the need to ask.

Trudging through the forest wearing her favorite snow boots, hat and matching scarf, Professor Morgan waved at each student she passed by. Stopping beside Constantine, she tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hope I'm not late." (though his owl never specified an exact time) Reaching up, she pulled on the little tassels that hung down from her hat and stood there watching him. "What ARE you doing?" She just had to ask.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liisa

Trudging through the forest wearing her favorite snow boots, hat and matching scarf, Professor Morgan waved at each student she passed by. Stopping beside Constantine, she tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hope I'm not late." (though his owl never specified an exact time) Reaching up, she pulled on the little tassels that hung down from her hat and stood there watching him. "What ARE you doing?" She just had to ask.

Constantine looked up to notice that Iliana had arrived. Thank HEAVENS. He took a moment to pause in his searching to consider a totally sane answer. "I..." He paused, he didn't want the students to hear! So, he edged in closer to her and lowered his voice down to a whisper. "...I can't find my wand. I swear it was in my pocket! But...it's not there..."

"How could you lose your wand?" she whispered back. "It's got to be around here somewhere. I'll help you look," she said, walking around him, looking at the ground. "It should be easy to see a wand in the snow," she muttered to herself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liisa

"How could you lose your wand?" she whispered back. "It's got to be around here somewhere. I'll help you look," she said, walking around him, looking at the ground. "It should be easy to see a wand in the snow," she muttered to herself.

Constantine sighed. "I don't know!...I had it, I swear...I must have left it back in the hut...but I always keep it on me and if it's not, it's in a place where I'll NOTICE it. I've already looked around in the snow...Grrr," he growled gently, frustrated. "This can't happen to me.."

When the large boy started digging, Kiri nearly fell over her own legs as she stumbled backwards to evade the freely flying earth. And she wasn't the only one. Celandine had wandered off, but she half-hid behind Raiden. Helping the groundskeeper was all well and good, but she wouldn't be digging, that much was sure.

Not that she needed to. The boy wielded his shovel with so much enthusiasm that Kiri was certain Mr Masterson would soon be forced to stop him before he'd dug up the entire Forbidden Forest.

The groundskeeper, though, seemed to be busy. He stood a few metres away from the students, talking in a low voice with... oh, Professor Morgan had arrived as well. Kiri hadn't seen her come over. Her hat was cute.
The two of them had put their heads together and were murmuring urgently. Kiri watched them out of the corner of her eye (always watchful of the earth and mud being flung around by the people digging), wondering what they were talking about. Getting a few trees into the Great Hall hardly warranted such clandestine whispering. And what were they staring on the ground for that hard?