Adam had remembered seeing Nessie slightly distressed over a particular subject of something,but she had never went into full details about it.It was beginning to worry him because,although they had just met this year,they were really good friends an he didn't wish to see her hurt or going through a rough patch in her life,she was young an didn't need this.

When he made it to the garden,which was extremely quiet,thank god,he saw her there sitting underneath a tree,that,as far as his memory could tell him,could've been the same or even the cherry blossom tree they had planted together.

He swallowed as he made his way over to her.Adam was quite sure what to say,their last chat was awkward but relieving but more awkward at the same time.So,his tongue being glued to his mouth,he just nodded at Kurumi an he awkwardly swayed back an forth as he did when nervous.

There Kurumi and Adam were, under a a beautiful pink leafed tree. The tree looked like a happy tree if that made any sense, she looked at the tree frowning a little, she just wanted to be happy but that obviously wasn't happening anytime soon. She wasn't sure she was ready to talk again, the last time she had spoken about this was last year and she had burst into tears in front of a huge crowd of people, it was quite humiliating. She walked over to Kurumi and Adam feeling a little tense.

She gave them each a fake smile. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to invite both of them together. She looked at Kurumi and then at Adam. This was going to be very awkward. Neither of them were talking and they were probably waiting for her. She wasn't late was she. She looked at her watch, nope she was on time for a change. "Err..heyy." She said trying to get rid of the akward silence between the two."thanks for coming I guess." She really was grateful to have such special people like Adam and Kurumi in her life.

Turning her gaze downwards for a moment, Kurumi saw that Adam had made his appearance and she wasn't sure how to react to him now. Not after THAT conversation and how things had gone. He still made her feel really uncomfortable, but she was willing to ignore that for now since she was here to help the young Puff. It would be selfish of her to put her own interests ahead of Nessie's. Not really moving from where she was, she smiled at Adam, but that was about it.

Thankfully, Nessie appeared soon after and her expression softened more. "Hey Nessie," she smiled, patting the ground next to her under the cherry tree. "Come over here." They probably all needed to sit down for this chat. "And there is no need to thank, you know I will always listen to you whenever you want to talk."

And...erm..Adam could sit too if he wanted.

Ok.Be soft Adam.Be soft an kind.Not that you have always been soft an kind to Nessie-just keep reminding yourself that.. He thought to himself as he took his seat,facing the two girls.

What to say,what to say. Adam leaned in forward a bit,focusing more on Nessie than Kurumi-it was after all,something that had to do with Nessie "Whatever it is that's bothering you-don't feel shy to talk about it to us.Just let it out-don't worry,whatever it is-we're here for you cause..I'm your big brother who'll help you an Kurumi is your...your..s-sister..which makes us one giant happy family.So,what is it then?" Was that soft an caring?

Maybe he should just be silent because he could hear himself ready to ramble on some more.He should let Nessie explain what was bothering her that she needed to confide in two very important people she had become friends with.

Right, Ness looked at the patch of ground next to Kurumi and then sat down. Adam wouldn't mind would he, well certainly not seeing as he took a seat across from them. Kurumi was just too sweet, it felt really good knowing she had someone to talk to whenever she needed to talk. "Thanks Kurumi and Adam..you guys are the best." She gave Kurumi a grin and turned to Adam.

AWKWARD!!! One big 'happy family' err okkaaaaay. She tried to ignore the awkwardness and focused on talking instead. She didn't know where to start, whether to start with the worse things or with the less worse problems. She stayed still for a few moments trying to gather up a few words. "Umm..I don't know where to start." She looked at the ground feeling a little ashamed. This was going to be embarrassing, awkward and helpful at the same time. She sighed and looked back up. "Err..Should I start with the hard part first? "

Kurumi tried not to arch an eyebrow too high when Adam began rambling. He always did that when he was nervous, but she wasn't sure what exactly he was nervous about. Shrugging it off, she scooted a little closer to Nessie - her brothers always did that whenever she was about to discuss something really serious with them. The family comment to. That just made things more awkward.

Softly, she placed a hand on Nessie's shoulder and smiled. "Start wherever you feel most comfortable with," she said. There was no sense in forcing Nessie to just dive right in. These things took time and the Puff was certainly struggling with some sort of internal demon.

Adam was rather glad when Kurumi seemed to know how to make Nessie feel better an more comfortable around them.Because when he had attempted to do so,it had come out weird,which he didn't mean it to.

"Or.." Adam started resisting the urge to not roll his eyes at Kurumi, Start where you think the biggest problem is-an then we can try an widdle it down from there.Or,just let your thoughts run free an throw them at us.Or,you can do what Kurumi just said to do." He shook his head an blinked rapidly as he heard himself sounding like an idiot.

Yeah,Adam wasn't the greatest when it came to private conversations,but at the very least he could pay attention to her an know that he was an ear for her to talk to,knowing someone cared for her.

Okay, what she felt comfortable with...but she didn't really feel comfortable with any of it. She decided to take Adams advice, she just hoped Kurumi wouldn't mind. Maybe she'd just say everything without thinking...but then she was afraid that would turn into tears. So she'd go with Adams first option getting the worst out first. "Okay I'll say the worst first I guess."

She looked at her fingernails not wanting to make eye contact with either of them as she spoke. "So um..last year, before I came her..my ..my best friend she err she di..die..d" she could already feel her eyes watering. She wiped them quick not letting a single tear drop. She would not let herself cry. "And..at..first I thought I'd be strong and not think about it, but now its the only thing on my mind and its just hurting me." She kept her eyes on her fingernails afraid of their reaction.

Kurumi felt her heart break when Nessie explained what had been bothering her - at least one of them - and before saying anything she wrapped the girl up in a hug. "Nessie...being strong doesn't mean that you don't show how you truly feel about something," she said softly, rubbing her back with her hand. "No one, not even yourself, should tell you not to weep. Not all tears are evil and tears do not indicate that you are weak." If they did, then Kurumi was probably the weakest person in Hogwarts. She had cried so much over the past year, it was ridiculous.

She stayed that way for a moment, letting those words sink in for everyone. "You know what I think? The reason why you are hurting so much is because you haven't allowed yourself to grieve. I've been there Nessie. Not wanting to show that vulnerable side, thinking that you could just shut it all away and throw away the key. It doesn't go away and only worsens with time." She hugged the little Puff a little tighter now and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Crying now will show your friend just how much they meant to you."

Adam didn't know how to react when he heard the terrible news about Nessie's best friend.He wouldn't know what to do if that happened to any of his friends,but just hearing that his friend was going through so much pain made his heart feel as if led had been dropped upon it.His mouth opened slightly,as he let the words sink in.

Biting his lip Adam continued after Kurumi, "Sometimes you may want to hide these feelings that are just so dug in deep inside you,but in the end that isn't the best thing to do because you're only hurting yourself even more-an you don't deserve that.." Adam was a example of that,whenever he felt mad,he tried to bottle it up so much,that in the end,when he expressed those feelings he exploded with anger,sometimes even at himself an he hated feeling that emotion because it killed him.

I'm not gonna tell you to stop thinking about her-but maybe the better piece of advice I can give you is think about the happier memories the two of you shared.Because those memories can drown out the bad ones an make you realize that not everything has to be bad.I'd think of it as a way of remembering her good spirit,an knowing that she isn't fully gone.She's still alive up here.." He said pointing to his head," An here too..Mostly here.Because you love her an you..you don't want to forget her completely." He said touching the part where his heart was located.

Then he heard Kurumi say something to Nessie something very private.Thanks to his drummers ears an keen sense of sound,he barely made out what she had said,but had let the comment slide by.He was here for Nessie...

As Kurumi's arms wrap around her, she already felt a little better. Ness thought Kurumi was sort of right, but she felt embarrassed to cry. She felt like it was stupid crying and she felt that she just needed to get over it. "I just...feel ashamed." The thing she hated the most about everything, was that the last time she had seen her best friend they were in a fight and the fight was all her fault. It was the most stupidest fight ever and if there's one thing Ness wanted, it was to erase the fight somehow.

What Kurumi said was exactly how she felt, but Kurumi was right trying to keep everything shut away didn't help. She felt much worse than she felt last year. Trying to shut it all away seems like a good idea at first until all you wanna do is cry. She thought about Kurumi's last sentence for a while. She understood that, but wouldn't her friend want to her to be happy instead of crying like some baby. "But..but wouldn't she not want me to cry?" She asked watching an ant crawling past on the floor.

She almost forgot Adam was there too seeing as he was pretty quiet. She listened to what his said too, but near the end her eyes started watering again. "I..I do ..deserve it though." She thought she did, it was her fault she wasn't on good terms with her best friend the last time she saw her, and it was her fault she'd never get to apologize again. A small tear slid down her cheek as she listened to the rest of what Adam had to say.

She did what he said, she tried her best to remember the good about her friend, but it never worked. The fight would always come back, which was why she proffered not to think about her friend at all. A few more tears slipped from her eyes. "But..ev..ery..ti..me..I.try..I ju..st..thi..nk...of.. the ba...d." She looked up at Adam for a second then looked back down at the ground. She did love her friend and she never wanted to forget her..but if she could only remember the bad, what was the point.

Kurumi continued to rub Nessie's back as Adam gave his input. That was exactly the problem though, she hadn't allowed herself time to grieve. That much was apparent right now. Kurumi had been the same the beginning of her third year, always putting on a cheerful smile and persona so that no one would worry about her. It took Connor pushing her and pushing her and pushing her towards a relationship that had finally cracked her and she was able to let everything out. Thank Merlin she had had Selina there to hold her hand through it. Right now, Kurumi was that for Nessie, the steady hand to help her deal with all this.

She laughed softly when the Puff finally spoke again. "Nessie, there is nothing to be ashamed of in crying. It's what makes us human. Tears are like...an explosion of emotions and can help wash away some of the scars we have hidden on our faces." She remained quiet for a bit when Nessie spoke again, about her friend not wanting to see her sad. "I think she would be more sad seeing you beat yourself up like this," Kurumi replied.

Kurumi remained quiet for a moment as she tried to think of what to say to the trembling young Hufflepuff in her arms. What would her own brothers say to her in these situations? "Nessie, there is no one way to deal with what you are dealing with, but shutting everything away is only going to make it harder." She did realize that, right? "I am really really sorry to hear that your friend died and that it happened to someone as genuine as you, I don't really know the right things to say, but I just want you to know that I care and I will be the shoulder to cry on if you need or want it."

Kurumi winced a bit when Adam mentioned that she should look back on all the good times and be thankful. Nessie knew that she had good things to remember with her friend, but right now that really wasn't what she wanted to talk about or be reminded of. Those good times were gone...and they weren't coming back. And Kurumi should probably stop using words like should...Nessie shouldn't be told to do anything.

"And what makes you think you deserve this? No one deserves to suffer the loss of a friend."

Heading over to a bush that had bright flowers, Kennedy wondered what they were. He wasn't familiar with all the plants in the student garden. He looked at the calendar and saw that they were under the sign Pieces. That was a good time to prune according to his notes. He knelt beside the colorful flowered bush and pulled on his gloves to secure them in place and then straightened his glasses under the goggles.

Ready.

He took the shears and began snipping the dead leafs off. He had a better understanding of this since he had done this with the Flutterby bush before. He gently pulled a branch away from the bush and trimmed of the dieback. He let it go and checked that the right side of the bush was dieback free.

It was.

Adam wanted to add on to what Kurumi had mentioned on about crying. "Crying now only shows how much you loved her an still love her an how much she stills lives within you.It's good to cry sometimes,so..don't hide it,it's better to cry an let everything spill out than rather bottle it up,because your friend wouldn't want you to go through all that pain" Bottling it up only caused Nessie pain an her friend even more pain because the negative was taking over.

He then thought about telling Nessie that the man high above them did certain things for a particular reason,but then he began to think about what other people said "Why would he do that to me?" "An what good will that do..What was his reason?" Then,again,he didn't want Nessie questioning his choice which could only burden her hurting feelings.

Stop saying that..stop saying 'you deserve it' because you don't.It's not your fault she's not here anymore,it's not your fault.You shouldn't be blaming yourself for something that is a part of the circle of life.Like Kurumi said,you don't deserve this,no one does, so don't feel ashamed about it-it's not like you purposely made it happen..." He stopped at that point feeling that his last comment might make her think worse of her friend or herself even.Adam just hoped Nessie could understand his last part because she hadn't caused this to happen,so she shouldn't be hurting herself more by believing in the lie that she should've even be thinking about in the first place.

At the very last minute (as was so typical of her), Sierra rushed into the student gardens in an attempt to get her homework done. She really shouldn't wait until the last minute, and besides, the first part of the Herbology homework had been insanely difficult. How old did Bentley think they were?! Thirty-six?! No thirteen-year-old should be subjected to this sort of assignment. Besides, she knew magic. Who cared about waiting around for the moon to help something grow. She could always just charm it to get bigger and better, ...right?

Hecate entered the student gardens and gave them a look over. "Hmmm..." Was there anything she could use? Maybe some mandrake? Hmmm maybe.

Date: February 10

...and now Sierra was annoyed, so annoyed that she bee-lined straight for a plant in need of a good pruning and didn't even stop to take a casual glance around the gardens. She hated homework. Absolutely hated it. What she hated worse was being on a tight time schedule, which was really no one's fault but her own.

No. No, she refused to believe that. It was the professor's fault for assigning so many assignments that she didn't even have time to do this one until the last hour. Siiiigh. She flicked out her wand and took a seat by the bush. What was that idiotic spell they'd been taught? Ahh, yes. "Flipnsnipwitit!" she said, surprised she even remembered the spell. What a foolish name for a charm... "Flipnsnipwitit!" As the overgrown pieces fell from the plant, Sierra collected them into a small pile.

Minerva entered the gardens to check on her Lillie's when she saw Professor Lafay. "Hello Professor do you need help with anything?"

Snip, snip, snippety, snip.

Kennedy trimmed the brownish tips of the bush and placed the dead pieces into a plastic bag he had gotten from the storage room. He picked up the shears and looked for more die backs. This bush didn't have many, except in the center and a few on the edges.

He squirmed his hand to the middle of the bush and trimmed the dead leaves. In the whole bunch, he saw a dead flower too. Aww, poor flower. He took it into one hand and snipped the bud off, careful not to cut the entire branch. He then put the brown, dried flower into the bag.

Just as Sierra raised her wand to chop off another section of the bush she'd been working on, she heard mention of a certain someone's name--Professor Lafay. She looked across the gardens and saw her Head of House, and she promptly gave the woman a nod and a small smile.

After that, she got right back to pruning the bush--or chopping, as she liked to call it. "Flipnsnipwitit!" she called out. She used her hands to gather the fallen pieces and put them into the pile she'd been making. "Flipnsnipwitit!" Weren't all spells Latin? Or at least derived from the Latin language? Sierra didn't know which language this was from, but it sounded ridiculous whatever it was.

"Oh... Yes." She said and looked over at the Knottgrass. "Could you grab me some of that knottgrass over there?" He asked and have the girl a bag. "I need a few bunches."

Sierra pushed herself up off the ground and began to circle to bush. She was looking for other parts that were in need of pruning, but even as she continued to circle, she never seemed to find any other unruly branches. Hmm. Maybe she should just go find another bush somewhere? Give a good pruning and then move on?

...but no. Just as that thought came to mind, she happened to glance toward the bottom, back of the bush and saw a few unruly sections sticking out. She got down on her knees again, this time on the opposite side of the tree, and raised her wand. "Flipnsnipwitit!" she said, chopping in the direction she needed the piece to cut. It fell to the ground and soon joined the ever-growing pile Sierra was making. She aimed her wand toward another unruly piece. "Flipnsnipwitit!" she said, again chopping in the direction she needed the piece to cut off.

Another slow walk around the bush showed that it was now nicely pruned. Sierra brushed off her hands and knees, gathered her materials and the small pile of limbs, and then left the gardens.

"Sure" Minerva said happy to help. She grabbed her gloves out of her bag and began collecting bunches of knottgrass. "How many bunches do you need Professor Lafay?" Most students were scared of the professor, but Minerva liked her and she loved potions. So she was glad she was getting to help.

February 3

According to the calendar she'd looked at earlier today, Sierra didn't have much time left to get her Herbology homework done. Speaking of calendars, she'd also glanced at the Moon Planting Calendar they'd done in class and determined this date would be best for planting root and bulb crops.

She'd chosen potatoes. Why? She didn't exactly know, but this was the only root and bulb crop she was able to get together at such a short notice. Maybe they could be used in a potion or something? Who knew...

She found a free area in the gardens and knelt down beside it. The first thing she did was stick her small, garden shovel deep into the soil so as to get a hole big enough to plant. Knowing she'd have to fill the hole sometime later, she made sure not to scatter the dirt and let it gather in a small, nearby pile.

"Get me ten if you can, Five at the minimum." Hecate said looking around.

Yeah... "Ten would be good."