Minerva pulled the Lilly out and placed it in the whole. She began filling the whole back up with the dirt they had moved, "Well it was good to see you, but starting over from scratch fighting that flu was not fun. That bed got so uncomfortable. I don't ever want to spend that much time in my dorm again." She finished putting the dirt around the hole and smiled, "Would you like to water it with your wand?" She couldn't believe how all her plans were coming together and they were actually having fun together. Her doubts of Maxwell thinking the activities would be lame faded as she smiled and looked back at the Lilly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by grangerfan8

Isidora WAS judging. In her own eleven year old way that mostly meant she still thought West was a cool friend, but he was definitely weird, at least in his taste for insects. Maybe weird and trouble went hand in hand.

"He probably has favorites too." She pulled a face and searched down a patch of dirt amongst all the plant life.

That response didn't really... satisfy little Dora. She shoved her hand into the dirt and started to carefully carve out a hole. "Yeah, but why you?" Was it a big sister thing? Did all big sisters hunt for bugs to classify what was safe to eat and what wasn't? Well... not ALL... but most?

Aspen was quiet for a while, on the trail of a spider. She crawled and crab-walked, not yet ready to catch it but interested to see where it was GOING in such a hurry.

"Probably." West would. "But that's normal," she added loyally. It was perfectly normal to have favorite flavors. West just so happened to have favorite flavor of bugs.

Why HER? Aspen's spider hurried away while she paused to consider... that question. She actually looked around her, as if someone else that would catalog insects would appear.

".... who else is there?" Aspen asked aloud, but really... that was sort of a big, universal, inner question. Who else did West have?

Maxwell frowned a little. "Well, you could always spend your time with me and forget the common room." He said now with a smirk. "Sure i'll water it...Aguamenti!" He said making the water flow gently from his wand as to not over do it. "Tell me when to stop, Min." He said not being one to water plants very often. He was having such a good time with her, doing something he would have thought boring with anyone else. But everything was fun with her.

Minerva smiled and watched the water come out of his wand. "That's enough Maxwell." she then took off her gloves and pulled her own wand. Pointing it at the shovels she cleaned them and placed them back in the work cabinet. She took her gloves and placed them in her bag, "Just put the gloves in my bag and get ready for the next Birthday surprise." she giggled. "I hope you brought your scarf and gloves." she added as she put her hat, gloves, and scarfon and picked up her bag placing it over her shoulder. "Are you ready for the next thing?"

Maxwell stopped the water and cleaned his gloves and shovel, handing them back to her. "All these surprises, so exciting!" he said slipping on a red beanie and black gloves and wrapping himself in his Gryffindor scarf. "Let's go!" He said holding his hand out to her.

Normal. The favorites? Dora supposed so.

She dug her hole slowly and carefully, until she reached a warm layer of soil that had a few grubs and worms. Those weren't what she was looking for, but the firstie took just a couple anyway.

Then she proceeded to fill the hole so the remaining critters could rest all the while waiting patiently for the older girl to respond. "Um..." She gaped a bit, attempted to give a answer but somewhat perplexed.

Shouldn't Aspen know that?

".... Your dad?" She shrugged, and gently patted the pile of freshly dug dirt, clearly distracted by her thoughts. That was the only other family that West ever talked of to her, and the only friends of his she knew were first years. They weren't going to bug hunt for his safety.

Not without being asked at least.

"Not professors cause they'd just tell him to stop eating bugs." Truth. There were too many students to do this kind of thing.

Vickers made his way down the student garden, a curious bundle bouncing softly in his hands-- they were wooden skewers tied neatly together with a string. One would wonder if he was headed for a barbecue or a campfire, except of course he didnt bring anything delectable with him.

He walked a few ways down the path and selected a nice open area where the foliage thinned out a bit. Yeah this looks like a good spot.

Louisa dragged her feet (that seemed to be her new way of walking nowadays) to where Vickers mentioned they should meet for Herbology task. She vaguely remembered what they were supposed to practice or do, actually, but she also was too tired and gloomy to care. She had nothing with her except for her wand... "Hey," she breathed out to the Ravenclaw boy, giving him a neutral look. And his wooden sticks. "What are those?" And what are they doing too.

He was looking at that small clearing, trying to determine the size of the place and what would hopefully go where.

He turned when he heard someone walking down the path towards him. He gave a ready smile as Louisa came into view... and didnt look like she was a particularly happy camper. "Hey there Louisa." he greeted her back, perhaps a little too cheerfully. He was wondering what was bothering his Prefect when she asked about the sticks "Oh, wooden skewers... we're gonna make a nice trellis swing out of these..."

Yeah he may have said something that sounded completely ludicrous with a handful of wooden skewers. So he raised his hand and said "Let me show you..."

He took one skewer out and lay it on the ground. Taking his wand in his hand he drew it across the skewer and uttered "Temran Madera." The flimsy skewer suddenly grew to a good size wooden plank. He looked back at Louisa and grinned. "That's what we're gonna be making a trellis out of." Digging into his pocket he showed her a simple blueprint of what he envisioned the trellis will eventually look like "Simple enough isnt it?"

Louisa didn't return Vickers' smile and he was happy and cheerful regardless, it seemed. Good. She didn't want someone who'd take her mood too personally. She liked the boy. Seriously, she did. Without smiling or showing any kind of emotions though, he might not know that.

Anyways...

The Prefect watched him do the spell they've been taught in one of transfiguration lessons. "Oh. Right," she looked down at his blueprint and widened her eyes. "Seriously? You call this simple? That's..." she tilted her head to the side, "It's pretty. I hope we can achieve it well enough." Talk about being cynical. Louisa gave him back his drawing and took a couple of wooden skewers. "Let's just hope I'm not losing any of my skills," she murmured to herself bitterly.

the Ravenclaw lied one of the wooden skewer down next to where Vickers lied his own and took her wand out. With the tip of it, she passed it along the stick and, "Temran... Madera.." The magic was done, and there was a wooden plank before them next to the previous one. Louisa's mouth curled up on one side, "[b]Good.[b]" She was still a witch.

"How many do you think we should do?"

"Sure we can" Vickers replied optimistically, watching his Prefect look over his blue print and transfigured the skewers with the spell "Yup thats it" he encouraged her, although he was pretty sure she could do it anyway given that it was covered in their OWLs. But there was something off about her, he can tell. And although he wanted to ask her what was bothering her, he was far too polite to pry on what he could only guess was a personal matter. Maybe she would tell him when she felt like talking about it, or maybe the opportunity would present itself.

But right now she had a question. And he likes answering questions heh

"Oh we can do the whole bunch." he replied, unstrapping the bundle and laying them on the ground, laying the string carefully beside it. He was gonna need that later mhmm. He took a few skewers from the pile and lay them neatly alongside each other, repeating the wandstroke and the spell until they had a few more wooden planks they can work with.

Picking up a wooden plank he gave it a good look and said "Some of these are bound to be longer than what we need, so we'll just cut off the right length and reuse the other half for other parts of the trellis and the swing, that way we dont waste too much wood." he demonstrated, pointing his wand about a quarter of the way from one end of the plank and with a slicing motion he uttered "Diffindo!" The plank split cleanly at the part where he intended.

He then took one plank, and lay the other shorter plank across its top. With a decisive jabbing wand stroke he uttered "Pario Claustrum". The bolt drove into the center of the two planks, fastening them in place. "And thats it, we just need to fasten the planks across each other to form a latticework like whats on the blue print, then secure it with two larger planks so it could stand later." he said and looked up. He didnt lose her in that explanation did he?

Jory was in the Student Garden after he had decided to practice the Bolting Charm next. First, he had to make sure he got the wand movement correct, so he practiced the charm without the incantation. He remembered what Professor Bentley had told them, the wand movement was a smooth jab.

The Puff practiced just this. He did the movements just as he remembered he had done in class not so long ago. “Smooth jabs,’’ he thought as he did it a few more times. Feeling satisfied he had gotten it just right, he headed off to look for a branch in need of bolting.

The whole bunch, yeah, that was logical. Once Vickers laid down the wooden skewers... and the thread, Louisa moved closer and with her wand she helped him with the other skewers. "Temran Madera," and passing her wand across one of them before moving to the next one. Vickers did more than her since her mind seemed to drift off to other places when it was so silent around her. In fact, she hadn't let herself be in a silent surrounding ever since she was in the girls' bathroom last night... not healthy for her.

Luckily, Vickers started explaining how they were going to build the trellis and the swing. It sounded ridiculously easy when he talked about it, but Louisa knew better. It was going to be HARD to do all that. However, she just shrugged and gave him blank looks. She was in this with him even if it took all week.... in fact it'd be better if it did since that was a great distraction from what she'd been thinking about earlier. "If you say so.."

The Ravenclaw moved one of the wooden planks to the side. She eyed it for a minute deciding where exactly to cut. When her eyes didn't get it, she dragged it closer to the one Vickers just demonstrated on and by comparison Louisa cut it into two unequal pieces. "Diffindo!" A leeeeeeettle bit too much force causing the wood to 'explode' cut. Oops. "Uhh... we can still use those." The cut may not be as clean as Vickers' one was but it was usable.

She squatted down and placed the smaller piece on top of the longer one the way the boy did. And again with her wand, a jabbing motion and then, "Pario Claustrum," the bolt erupted from the tip burying itself into the two planks. She stood up and glanced between her separate two planks and Vickers'. "Oh. I should've connected them to yours..." Hence the latticework explanation. Sighing faintly she dragged her two planks closer, lifting them off the ground and then lowering them over the other two. "Pario Claustrum," she jabbed the wand where they should be connected.

Moving on to do some more...

He had just taken a few more planks in his hands when a mini!explosion went off right beside him. He turned sharply and blinked rapidly a few times, avoiding whatever splinters and debris in the air to settle. Whoah... yeah definitely something bothering the Prefect. "Uh yeah that'll be fine..." he mumbled automatically, picking up the planks as if nothing was amiss. He paused for a moment though as he watched the Prefect start bolting her planks to the ones he started and the beginnings of the trellis started to take shape.

He turned and started pairing the planks together before making a decisive wandstroke and uttered "Diffindo!" slicing a couple of planks in one go. When Louisa was done fastening her planks together he moved in and continued building the laticework "Pario Claustrum" he uttered each time he bolted a plank against each other. He worked on these a few times, cutting the planks and bolting them together until the main latticework for the trellis was completed.

He took a couple of skewers and lay it on the ground, Concentrating that it be a larger, thicker plank, Vickers drew his wand across it and uttered "Temran Madera!" A pair of thicker planks appeared in place of the skewers. Happily the Ravenclaw took one of the thick planks and started bolting it to the long edge of the latticework, then moved to do the same with the other plank on the opposite edge. Finally he stood up and examined his work "Ok, one side of the trellis is done." he smiled. Now to see if Louisa needed help with the other trellis...

Louisa's hands were already getting dirty from the wood but she appreciated the work. What she didn't appreciate was how silent Vickers had been, how come he wasn't doing a spiel on some theory of his? Or going on and on about the idea of the trellis and the swing? How he came up with this and everything? He usually did that. Placing the last plank over the other one, she slashed with her wand saying "Diffindo," without putting too much force into it and it did work less energetically than before. Arranging the planks as she squatted once again, the girl couldn't help but give Vickers a confused look. HOW could he be happy and content like that? It was... weird. Or maybe she was the weird one.

Shaking her head a bit, she jabbed with her wand and started connecting the planks with a 'Pario Claustrum' charm. She half-straightened up, got another wooden skewer and laid it on the ground. They needed two big planks to help it stand up, right? She closed her eyes picturing what she needed... concentrating... concentrating... "Temran Madera," opening her eyes and passing the wand across the skewers.

POOF!

It was stretched into a long plank... with the texture of... cushions. Louisa poked it a couple of times with her finger before pursing her lips together and flop down on the ground. HMPH. She pushed this one away from her, she was not going to interact with anything that had to do with cushions, and snatched the other. With a deep breath she ordered the stick, "Temran Madera..." Aaaand it worked this time.

Sighing she got up and looked over at Vickers. He was the boss.

João had figured long ago that he didn't need Louisa for this herbology thing that they were no longer working together. It was much better, too, after their last time. So, making his way to the student garden, he looked around shortly to decide where to begin this second herbology task force.

Soon Jory found a branch suitable enough to use the bolting charm. Armed with his wand and the bit of Mooncalf Solution he had gotten from Professor Bentley, he studied the branch before he began his work.

First, he applied the solution on both ends. Carefully, he aligned them so that both ends fitted perfectly. Finished with that, he pointed his wand at the pieces and then made the smooth jab just as had practiced while saying the incantation “ Pario Claustrum!’’.

From his wand tip darted the tree components which would work together to hold the pieces in place and fastened themselves, joining the pieces in place. “Perfect,’’ Jory though, pleased he hadn’t lost his touch at the spell.

Walking through the gardens, Isaac needed to do some of the work on the plants, and really didn't want to do this alone this time! He'd had fun making his leaf collage up on the fifth floor, but this one involved being outside! So much more the better! Grinning to himself, he pulled out his list of spells he needed to use, that he'd brought so he wouldn't forget. He wanted to make sure this was done right! But...he still didn't want to do it alone. Sighing, he wandered through the gardens.

Spotting someone wandering around as well, he recognized him from classes and the common room. Walking over he whispered "Are ye working on the task force thing te?" he asked softly, hoping the guy was, and wouldn't look at him funny, wondering what that was.

Having completed one side of the trellis he turned to where Louisa was working on the second one. Just then she transformed the skewer into a cushion....

*blink*

He did a double take. Was that a cushion? Just as Louisa went to work conjuring another plank he neared the cushion!plank and gave it a few pokes. It was a cushion! His eyes went back and forth between Louisa and the cushion, then suddenly found the Prefect looking at him "Uh--dont worry about this, we'll find some use for this yeah, maybe for the swing." he nodded as he set the pillow!plank aside. Waste not want not his grandma always says.

He took one last skewer, knelt on the ground and transfigured it into a nice, thick, very woody plank, then dutifully began uttering the Pario Claustrum charm and bolting the trellis onto it, dutifully assembling it for the Prefect, who is more than a bit distracted he can tell. "Uhm.. so how's you're day been coming along Louisa?" he asked casually. If she wanted to air out what was bothering her, he was there to listen.

Soon after completing the Bolting charm, Jory noticed some smaller plants with thinner branches not far from where he was, needed trimming because their branches were way too much damaged to do any repair.

He headed for these plants and after inspecting them, the Badger pointed his wand at the first plant."Flipnsnipwitit!'' he said and watched as the broken branch pieces fall off. Soon this plant was looking good as new. Pleased, Jory moved on to the next one.

How will she know I've worked on the force thing though--

Someone was addressing him. João looked at the boy and vaguely remembered him. He was also a Slytherin. Yes, he knew him from the common room and classes. He nodded. "I am," he said, noting the funny accent. So he wasn't the only one talking funny. He examined the boy for a moment. Good. He was old enough to be partners with.

"Do you know where we should start from?"

Here again, Jory examined the plant to ensure the branch was indeed really damaged and could not be repaired. After sure of this, he looked at the best way to trim it away so the plant would look as though the plant was never damaged.

After satisfied with the right way to do this, he pointed his wand and said "Flipnsnipwitit!". The Badger watched as the broken branch fell off. He spotted another broken one on the same plant he hadn't noticed before."Flipnsnipwitit!'' he exclaimed and this too was soon gone and the the little plant was looking as good as new.

"thankyou," she murmured to him standing up and watching him fix her side of the trellis. Louisa eyed the failing cushion plank and if they had Laser rays, it'd be dead burnt by now. Vickers 'casually' asking her about her day made her attention snap back to him. "It's been awful." Might as well tell him why she'd been failing at those spells, "I did something bad to someone and now they have to suffer because of it." She gave him a serious look, "I think I'm a jinx to my friends. Don't get too friendly with me, okay?" Did that come out too strange? She believed it was true though.

With an exaggerated sigh Louisa grabbed her latticework and dragged it to where the big plank that he made for her was. Bringing their edges slightly on top of each other, she jabbed with her wand a couple of times uttering the incantation, "Pario Claustrum."

A second's pause before the girl talked again, "I don't even know how I do it, y'know. Mess everything up one way or another. Someone said it was my defense mechanism but I beg to differ." Scoff. "I'm just jinxed. Maybe I have a black cell in my brain that's spreading and blinding all the wrong and right differentiation part of it." She snatched the latticework over the plank from the other side and bolted it, "Pario Claustrum... I mean if it's fixable, I don't even care! I can do apologies when I want to.." she started lifting her trellis without pausing in her rant, "But apologies are worthless. They don't fix...anything." Aaaand it was standing. The Prefect put her hands on her hips looking up at it without actually seeing it, "They're just supposed to make the wrong doer feel better. Well, flashing news people. I apologized over and over again and the situation is still messed up and I still feel horrible!" Throwing her hands in the air and looking at Vickers, with a slight frown.

Awkward silence.

Good! Apparently the guy didn't want to work alone either, by the question he asked. "Hmm, well...we could jus' work down the list, spell after spell I guess. It'd be the fastest way I think. How about ye?" Maybe the boy had some other idea, he was up for anything, they just needed to get the gardens looking nice and neat.

Maybe start with the bushes?" he asked eyeing a few that really was looking kind of scraggly.

Right. The spell list. João nodded thoughtfully, staring at some distant point. It seemed the only viable way to get this straight. He wondered again how the professor would know it was him, before he turned to look at the boy again.

"Yes, I guess it's the best way... do you have the list?" Because João certainly didn't.