It wasn't really a deep cut but it still stung. She didn't know a spell to heal it so she just pressed a tissue to it. kinda felt like a muggle but if they lived then so should she. Though on the bright side, she did get her branch. An average-sized one. Hopefully, she was done now! One look at the steps she knew that, nope. She wasn't done. Maybe she should just read all the steps at once so she won't feel disappointed. But that might shock her!

Seriously! Thanking the tree again! And singing. Why? Trees existed to help people. No need to thank them every now and then for their purpose of existence. She wanted to have a serious talk with the professor about this madness. Or maybe not. But for now she didn't really have a chance did she? Knowing the answer very well, she flipped through the textbook till she found what she needed to chant.

"Wight if Alder, accept my thanks.
Henceforth may your might be in this branch!
Magically bound to the bright runes Sowilo, Fehu,Uruz, Thurisaz……
Working my will with speed and wisdom."

THERE! Happy tree? Better be. she didn't make an exception twice a day just to get that branch off! Which she did. HA!

The red head smiled, laughing as he bowed. Kace was definitely the cutest! "Thank you very much!" she said, beaming. She was actually pretty glad he had helped her! Laughing again, she nodded. "Yeah of course. It's not too fun being the only one afraid of butterflies." she told him with a wink. Yeah. She normally got lots of weird looks whenever she mentioned being afraid of butterflies...Chuckling, she nodded. "Yeah, I was guessing that." she told him, smiling. "So, has your first year been good?" she then asked, cocking her head slightly.

"Not good at all. Bad, in fact. I can't rhyme words for anything," Mo slumped over beneath his hazel tree and just lay there like some sort of wounded sad Ravenclaw creature. Sad Mo was sad, because he could NOT write a song. He just couldn't do it.

Like... what did you even write to a tree? Thanks for all your fabulous chlorophyll?

What rhymed with chlorophyll? "Lex. Lex, what rhymes with hazel?" For serious. "Haaaaaaaaazel. You're so laaaaaaaaaaazy-el."

Rubbish. He hated this stupid tree.

"You are very welcome!" he smiled to her. He was even glad she made her laugh. Awwww people judged her for fearing butterflies. That wasn't nice. He even asked her about it. "Have people judged you about your fear of butterflies?" he asked. He hoped it wasn't personal maybe he should mention that. "I mean if it is too personal i understand." he offered.

She already knew he was a first year. Aww man! "Aww man i wanted to trick you!" he winked at her and smiled. "I wanna fool people into thinking i look like a seventh year you know." he joked and stood on his tippy toes to look taller. Then soon as he did it, he feel onto the ground. OOMPFFHH....He got up and started laughing. Then he sprung back up and forgot his manners. "Oh what year are you missy?" he asked her curiously.

Now she wanted to know about his first year. Hmm....what could he say? All he could say was...."Well....it has been AMAZING!" he said and jumped with his hands in the air. "I never had so much fun. It went by too fast to be honest. I loved exploring the castle and meeting new people such as yourself." he motioned toward Ronnie. "But if i could repeat it all again, i would." he nodded sincerely.

Well that killed any plans she had at cheating. If he said he was rubbish at song writing then she didn't think she wanted to copy his song anymore. He could keep his rubbish idea and she could keep her rubbish ideas. Either way, they weren't getting very far.

"I...uh...I have no idea. Pick a different word to make a rhyme and I'll try to help then." See? She could still be useful...just...not with the word Hazel. It was probably a solitary word.

Her eyes drifted back to her own parchment and she was reminded that she still needed another verse for this thing. Really, did it matter? She doubted the tree would have done much in the way of complaining, in fact, shouldn't it have been writing her a thank you song for not incendio-ing it? She felt so cheated by this candy stealing tree.

This really shouldn't be this difficult.



That was probably even worse than the first verse but you know what?? She didn't CAAAAARE because she was done. Er...how would the tree get it though...was she meant to sing to it...? This homework got worse and worse, didn't it.

"Try rhyming something with tree?" Then just in case, she began singing her song. Juuuust in case.

Ugh. JUST UGH. Lex was distinctly unhelpful, and Mo was just going to lay here on the ground and hum. Humming was just the same as writing a song. It was a wordless song. He hummed and petted the tree and hoped it wouldn't mind not getting an actual song.

He'd mind, though, especially since even Lex could be bothered to make up a song. Mo sat up and made very serious faces at the tree in question. Serious. Faces. It was game on. Song time. Boom.

Mo pulled around his satchel and tugged out a quill and parchment, since doing this right meant actually trying to put words to paper in a certain order. WHY WAS HE SO RUBBISH AT POETRY? And why did NOTHING rhyme with hazel? OR DID GAZELLE... no. It just didn't.

He crumpled up the paper and tucked it into his bag. He'd just... work on it later. Yeah. Or something. "I guess that's all we can do today. Shall we?"

It seemed like just yesterday that they were here trying to persuade a couple trees to hand over their wood. Now they'd be singing to them. Gee, she would need to have a word with the Professor once this was all done.

At first she couldn't remember where their trees were but then the tree missing a branch was practically yelling at her. "There you are!" BEAM. She skipped over, figuring Mo was keeping up well enough.

Lex walked up to the Birch tree and gave it a pat in greeting. It missed her, she knew it did. Either that or it was suddenly cringing at the sight of her, not that she would know; it wasn't saying anything. Right. "How long do you think it'll take for the branches we took to grow back?" She asked, reaching into her bag for a handful of the bark shavings.

She began making her way around the tree and singing...humming at first but then it picked up.

"Tree tree treeeeee
Birch tree so prettiful and big
I gave you candy, you gave me bark
we've even, don't hurt meeeeee
I'm sure it tasted really good
It's candy so I suspect it would..."

Oh whoops, too much just now. This stuff had to last all three walks around the tree!!

Alexa Cambridge was a complete spazoid. She really was. Mo followed her more slowly, and he had no trouble finding his hazel tree even after all this time. He gave the trunk a pat-pat-pat while Lex continued to spaz. "They don't grow back. New ones will grow, I think, but it isn't just... gonna grow again."

In his opinion. Some things weren't replaceable. Mo positioned himself next to his tree and began to sing quietly to himself as he traced a narrow path right around the base of his tree.

"Tree so tall, tree so strong,
You deserve a song so long
Not a song that's lame and pale
Unlike this song, you'll never fail.

Thanks for the branch, straight and true
Whenever I use it, I think back to you
The magic I make, so tall, so strong
Will be loads better than this sad song."

It was such a bad song.

They wouldn't be growing back?? They'd permanently damaged the tree?? Good merlin! Why didn't anyone tell her this sooner? She would have put more effort into making up a song to thank it. WELL, nothing she could do about that now so she would just go on sprinkling.

This was her second time going around the tree as she tried not to overdo it on sprinkling the bark shavings like she did just now.

While she went she tried focusing on her song but found that her attention kept drifting to Mo's singing. So that's what his song sounded like. She'd been wondering but she'd never bothered to ask the last time they were here. Pffft, and he said he wasn't any good at this. He lied.

"I want it back but that's okay
Cause this is worth my final graaade.

Maybe I'll come look for you
I don't know,
You aren't made of sugar you don't even glow
when I think about it, there's no real need
I got what I wanted
so thank you indeeeeed"

This tree serenading thing was pretty easy and the tree was a good audience. Not once did it complain about the noise she was making at its base. Such a good tree and around she went again for a third time of singing and sprinkling. Three times, that was all they were required to do...right?

Her throat hurt. Thanks to the chanting. See her vocal cords were only used to talking and talking and a bit more of talking. But not singing. How cool would it be if they had to TALK to the tree. Regardless of how weird it'd look. Though surely it'd be less weird than singing to the tree. Was this assignment a way to humiliate the students. She really started to consider this option. Strongly even.

Moving on!

The snake dropped the textbook to the ground, NOT caring about it, then picked up the branch. HER branch, the one she cut her hand yanking it. Though, she eventually used her wand. No one has to know about that piece of information. Nooope.

Cassia stared at the branch. She decided to sit down on the ground. Then she retrieved the knife she had burrowed from the kitchens. Yeah she'll give it back.

Clumsily, she started working on the branch and stripping the outer side. Luckily she didn't cut her fingers..or cut one! Carefully afterwards, she gathered every fallen shavings and put them in a small pouch. She stood and gathered her stuff. She really was hungry. Maybe getting something to eat would be a good idea then she'd come back?

Ronnie shrugged. "No, they don't really judge me...they just find it funny." she answered. Well, that was sort of better than being judged for it, right? Eh. It didn't quite matter, she didn't quite care what people thought of her.

The red head laughed. He wanted to trick her! Well, she was pretty smart. And the boy was cute and small and short, he seemed like a firstie. But she could have been wrong...but this time she was right! Hehehe. She then laughed again. "Well, maybe you could pull it off if you had some stilts." she said with a grin and a wink. Oh. Then he was on the ground. She winced, laughing along with him as he stood up. Okay, so he wasn't hurt. He was a tough one! Then he was asking what year she was in. "I'm a seventh year!" she replied with a small nod.

Smiling as he explained his first year, she thought back to her first year. It felt as if it was just yesterday she was getting on her first train ride to Hogwarts. It was odd she wouldn't be ever getting on it again after this year. "I'm glad you like it! It is a pretty great place." she said with a smile, glancing over at the castle.

At last, she was done with writing the stupid song. She couldn't remember ever writing a song, and when she did it was for a tree. Ridiculous. When was she going to be over with this tree and work on the gandr. Without having to sing or dance and all this. Not that’ they danced but she wouldn't be surprised if they had to. Besides, singing and walking around the tree was very close to dancing. Maybe the Professor meant it to be like that somehow. You'd think making a gandr would be consisted of complicated and non-singing-related steps.

Guess again.

Walking back to the her tree wasn't hard since she recognized her hair tie, AKA her offering, around one of the tree's branches. Here's something useful about those steps. The fourth-year, retrieved the pouch in which she collected the shavings . she had to sprinkle them and all. For whatever reason she didn't really care. Standing besides the tree, with her pouch in hand, the snake sprinkled the collected bits at the base of the tree. There! Now she had to sing. Humph.

Did she say her song wasn't that good? Like Cassia feared that the tree might actually LAUGH! And trees didn't so yeah.

Oh well at least people thought her fear was funny. He was glad they weren't making fun of her. "Well i am glad they don't make fun of you. Then i would put the pounding on them." he winked at her.

Then she laughed at his joke at being a seventh year. She even mentioned stilts? Hm....he could make those work. But his facial features tell a different story. "Well i could pull of the stilts but it might hurt after." he joked with her. He found her funny as well. He knew they were getting along pretty well. Now he knew she was a seventh year. Awwww!!! This was her last year. That was sad to think about. But at least he met Ronnie before she left. "Wow...you are a seventh year! No way! You look way too young! I mean not as young as me but young enough to stay here at Hogwarts." he gestured to her. "Plus i don't want you to leave, i just met you!" he smiled towards her using his cute charm. He was famous for it.

He noticed her looking at the castle and he gave her the time she needed to reflect back on her memories.

She kept reminding herself that this was the last time she had to sing to the tree. She had read forward and checked. Because she needed to be prepared you know. Her vocal cords have gone through enough already. And to be honest, this time she dreaded the singing part the most. Because she had to sing her song the one that she wrote. Wasn't tempting. Unfortunately there was no way around it.

Almost done! She kept reminding herself.

Staring at the parchment with the song scribbled on it, Cassia sighed then started walking around the tree clockwise. It took a while till she decided which way was clockwise but she managed it eventually.

And the singing started…..

"Thank you, Alder, for your wood,
I hope you truly understood,
That I have no hand in this nor foot,
I'm just making a gandr 'cause I should,"

She made sure her voice was a bit louder than a whisper. No need to draw attention. Her song wasn't that good and she wasn't in the mood to hear annoying opinions. Phew! Done with the singing. She crumpled the parchment and shoved it into her pocket. What song?

Mo glanced at Lex and pulled a face before resuming his path around the tree. It was sort of awkward and terrible to do this with an audience. PLUS he hadn't bothered to write more to his song, so he was just saying the same stuff over and over.

At least he could distract himself with the pieces of bark now, right? Mo opened his pouch and dropped a bit of the shavings at his feet. Then again. Then again. It was nice to feel the grain of the bark rub against his fingers as he worked, and Mo focused on that as he continued singing.

"Tree so tall, tree so strong,
You deserve a song so long
Not a song that's lame and pale
Unlike this song, you'll never fail.

Thanks for the branch, straight and true
Whenever I use it, I think back to you
The magic I make, so tall, so strong
Will be loads better than this sad song."

Lex was pretty use to finding her tree by now, she had to be, she'd been visiting it for a while now. At the base of the tree sat her stripped gandr. The Professor really needed to appreciate how diligent she was being with this thing. Every day for an entire moon cycle? It was a wonder she hadn't simply forgotten about it like she forgot Jeffery...only gandrs didn't die...nah...they couldn't.

Mo was being a good sport about all this too, not complaining about having to walk down here with her every day. Or maybe he liked the company too? Whatever the case, when all this was over she would need a few shoulder pats from the Professor. It'd be the least he could after making her go through all this.

Of course she was using that penknife the Professor had mentioned when she asked about smoothing her rune in class. It seemed legit enough and she didn't actually know a spell that would do it. He wouldn't mind that she borrowed it so long as she got the work done and had a prettiful rune to show him at the end of all this.

"You ever thought maybe we should have asked permission to borrow this thing?" She asked while busily smoothing away at the surface. Had to get it looking nice without taking off too much of it.

Just a curious thought while they worked.

Mo was spending a lot of time with Lex. As in, it was good West had ditched him a long while back because all this quality time with his enemy would definitely have ticked the Slytherin off. And also the poor girl was practically his new best friend. Or, you know... they spent enough time together to qualify as such.

He seated himself at the base of the hazel tree with his back against the trunk and picked up his own gandr. It seemed like overkill to be paying it this much attention, but he had to admit that there was something sort of satisfying about smoothing out all the bumps and ridges.

Even if it was a lot of work.

"Naw, Ab-Bot doesn't mind much. Just give it here when you're done with it?" He reached across to pick up the tool once Lex was finished, giving his gandr a daily smoothing before handing it back. Better and better every day.

She was beginning to question just how long a moon cycle was. They were visiting their trees so often and there was even a bump thing growing where she'd chopped the branch off but they were still coming. Not that she minded. Before this Mo tried spending very little time with her. If these gandr tree hugging moments did nothing else, they got him to stop avoiding her.

"You'd think there'd be nothing left on these things with all the smoothing we do." She said, plopping down by the tree and taking the gandr in hand. Not that it was starting to look near naked or anything but she didn't want it to end up like that plant she was meant to give a 'healthy trimming' in Herbology. That...that would have been a disaster.

She was being extra careful, trying not to smooth away too much of it for just in case reasons but there just always seemed like another edge or bump that needed attention.

"Here you go."

She tossed the tool to him when she was done. This had become like a routine by now.

Mo had abandoned his hazel tree a few days ago, since the directions didn't say a single thing about where he was supposed to sit while he did his smoothing. It seemed safer, since Lex liked to chuck things at him and Mo wanted to keep his face 100% intact.

He accepted the tool from her and started smoothing, gently now that all the bumps were gone. "I think it's about handling it for a month, rather than about it needing much smoothing now. Like I wouldn't smooth too vigorously or you'll end up with a magical toothpick." He made long smooth motions across the length of his gandr that removed almost nothing each time.

"So that's it for today."

It was kinda weird thinking that they'd made it through a whole moon cycle of gandr-sitting. Had it really been that long? The wood was coming along quite well, there was almost nothing left to smooth but she was still coming with Mo because the instructions said so. These days she just ran it along the surface a couple times then called it a day. A little was enough.

"We're gonna have to start thinking up designs and stuff for these. Have you started thinking up ideas as yet?"

She hadn't given it much thought but they wouldn't be smoothing it forever. Just like every other time, she plopped down and got to smoothing. If no other career worked out for her she would consider getting into wood work. This was probably all the experience she needed.

"I think that's it. Definitely no more shaving for this one. You're up." This time she didn't throw it but handed it to him. There was a bit of rush when she did but that was only because she was so happy to be done with this part. Monotony wasn't her thing and she'd been doing this for a WHOLE moon cycle.

"There isn't really much room on them, considering we have to carve all of the runes onto it," Mo mused as he took up the tool and started smoothing again. The surface of his gandr was already practically buttery soft to the touch, smooth enough that his fingers and the tool slipped along the surface and Mo nearly lost a fingertip in the process.

At least they'd have something red to color the runes.

"I think... mine is done too. I'm not willing to run that thing over the surface again." He held up his gandr to scrutinize the surface before nodding. "Do you want to carve today?"

Mo had homework and though it would be best for her to go ahead. That was fine. It'd be weird working on her gandr without him but she needed to get a move on before she lost too much interest. So! Time to pick up her wand and start the carving process, she had a lot to do.

There it was! Right where she left it!

Lex scooped it up. Might as well get started right away, yeah? Okay, she plopped down in her normal spot and opened her text book to see the runes. Let's see, which one would she start with?

Fehu? This rune provides success, advancement in career, a turnabout in luck for those in difficulty. Well if you say so text book. Didn't really matter much to her. Ahem. "Itaglio fehu fehu fehu." She aimed carefully and focused on the rune. This was supposedly important. With that one done it was time to move to the next which was...Uruz.

Let's see...useful for using primal power to release creativity and create sudden change. Uh-huh...she had no idea what that meant but, "Itaglio Uruz uruz uruz." Carving now, asking questions later. Definitely. That being decided she turned to the book again. NEXT RUNE!!!

Thurisaz. This one was familiar. for attack and sometimes for tests. It makes poeple careless at the wrong moment; it makes people sicken; it drives people insane. It is particularly suitable for increasing the fear of poeple already afraid. THIS, she wanted THIS one on her wand! Mhm!!!! "Itaglio thurisaz thurisaz thurisaz." That one came out nicely if she did say so herself.

She was probably meant to be spacing these just right, she'd need them all to fit. Ansuz was next. This is a rune of luck, good fortune, good fortune, immortality, divine impulse of human beings, and the invocation of divine power or help. Maybe someone should carve this one into Oakey, might help/ "Itaglio ansuz ansuz ansuz." Carving this one for the sake of Oakey, yup.

Oh hey! Raidho!!! This was one of her favourites because it reminded her of radio. Such a nice rune. Symbolizes the journey to a place of power, the realms of the dead. Granted it's meaning had nothing to do with the muggle device but whatever. "Itaglio raidho raidho raidho."

But where had the time go, she wasn't meant to sit her all afternoon, she had other plans! Lex hopped up, gandr in hand and started back to the castle.

Ronnie chuckled softly. Wasn't Kace so sweet and adorable? She liked him, he was pretty awesome. "Well, that's very nice of you to say. Thanks!" she told the boy with a smile.

She then laughed again. Jeez, this kid was hilarious! He'd probably have her sides hurting by the end of the day. "You're really funny, Kace. You know that?" she said after she finished laughing. Oh, boy he had really brightened her day! The red head then nodded sadly. "Yeah, I don't wanna leave either!" a small smile slowly appeared on her face again at his cuteness he was doing yet again. "I'll surely miss you. But you should see me around Diagon Alley a lot next year and the year after that...and so on." she said with a small nod.

Realizing she was kinda spacing out, she shook her head and blinked a few times before turning her attention back to Kace. "So anyways," she quickly said, hoping he hadn't minded her spacing out.. "What's your favorite class so far?"

He smiled when Ronnie accepted his compliment to him. Then she gave him a compliment. She thought he was funny. Pshhhh he wasn't THAT funny. I mean he was the class clown on the family. I guess that had to do with something right? "Well thank you Ronnie." he smiled to her. "But i don't try to hard to be funny." he winked at her. "It just comes naturally." he smiled.

That was a good sign that she didn't want to leave. "I do not want you to leave either." he came over and gave her a hug. Then he remembered that some people don't like hugs. "Oh umm..." he said backing away. "I should have asked first but you seemed to me like a huger." he grinned sheepishly. "I hope to see you around Diagon Alley a lot! My sister even visits from time to time. She used to go here." he nodded. "Do you know her? Belle Lecium?" he asked the red head gryffindor.

He didn't mind her spacing out at all. He was starring up at the castle too. It was quite beautiful he hastened to add. Then she asked about his favorite subject. He instantly said, "Oh i love Astronomy. I love looking at the stars and learning about them. Also Care of Magical Creatures is my second fav as well." he beamed at her. "How about you?" he asked her curiously.

Alice had said, when she told her about this whole idea that she had, that cause of all the budget cuts and the severe lack of money that the school had, that there wouldn't be any butterflies in the gardens. So naturally the Claw had to check and see if it was true, and sure enough there was no butterflies and a sign to tell her that none were coming.

So when she told Theo about this, she told him weeks in advance so that she could secretly get her hands on some caterpillars and raise up some butterflies just for this date to surprise him with. Because she was an awesome girlfriend and all.

When they finally were butterflies, Dora gathered up the ones not eaten by her jarvey and put them in a small enchanted box that had holes on the top so they could have some air. Making her way through the gardens, she found the prettiest spot and settled down with the box and her satchel.

They said they would met just before sunset, and that he would bring the food. Dora brung herself, so now all she had to do was wait for him to show.