Mack frowned as she saw the state of the tower patch, some of the hedges were beginning to turn brown. She pulled out the solo cup that she now had to carry with her in case she went to the great hall. "Aguamenti" she mumbled as she pointed her wand at the cup, and it was filled with water. Walking towards the hedges she carefully poured water around the base of the plants. She hoped that other students would take notice and help keep the garden alive. She repeated the spell, continuing working around the garden watering the plants.

The sixteen year old frowned upon seeing the state of the tower patch, last term and this term everything had changed drastically! She settled down in front of the plants, wand out. She started to eye one of the dead leaves rather carefully. She'd need to be precise as not to damage any of the alive plants, yeah? Narrowing her eyes slightly, she swished and said, "Flipnsnipwitit!" Grin. Dead leaves fell slowly from the plant on to the dry soil. After falling Nerida picked them up and went onto the next dead leaved/sticked plant.

"Flipnsnipwitit!" And the dead leaves fell. "This looks better." She whispered to herself. She continued to trim the dead leaves and sticks picking each of the fallen dead plant parts and placing them into her left hand. After finishing with some of the trimming...And when her hand was starting to overflow, Nerida stood up and went to go get rid of some of the dead leaves and sticks.

Ella headed up to the tower patch, dragonhide gloves and a bucket in her hands. She wanted some fresh air and figured she might as well do something useful while she was getting it. Besides, her talk with Professor Botros had inspired her to try and find more work to do around the castle. Today's mission, pruning the severely uneven hedges.

The blonde frowned when she saw the conditions of the flowers and plants scattered around the garden, wondering again why the house elves had chosen to resign. She had so many questions but she'd decided to just accept things and help when and where she could instead. That seemed like the best plan at the moment.

Pulling on her gloves, the blonde approached the hedges and removed her wand. She was eyeing the branches that looked to be old, damaged, or growing at odd angles. Those would be the ones to go, she figured. She also decided the severing charm would work best considering the branches were on the large side.

Placing down the bucket, the blonde then removed her wand and pointed it at the hedge in front of her. She concentrated and said clearly, "Diffindo!" A large branch that had been drooping quite badly lay in front of her and she smiled a little. One down, several more to go.

...

The sixteen year old worked for about an hour or so, picking and choosing which branches to take so that she didn't thin out the hedges too badly. That wouldn't be good. When she'd finished, she broke up the branches into smaller pieces and placed them in the bucket. She could bring these to the compost, yeah? Professor Bentley might appreciate that.

The patch didn't look exactly like a patch. There were plants dried and scattered around. Messy walk path, dusty seats, trimmed leaves on the floor.

Conclusion: very unclean.

She levitated the vacuum cleaner to the tower patch. She'd got bored carrying it around, not to mention it got heavier with every step for her. She gently laid it down and tapped it with her wand.

"VACAVUS!"

"C'mon Dojo boy" Yeah, she named it. Dojo. Where did she get the name? Never mind, it sounds cool. She trained the cleaner on the little weedy stuff and trimmed leaves. The floor was becoming cleaner by the minute, smoothly, until...

GRRRR! GRRRR! GRRRR!

"What?" She looked down at the cleaner. It was buzzing like a maniac. She kneeled down and examined the machine. "Uh-oh.." she sighed as she spotted some leaves jammed at the suction end. Thinking of potions and cup-cakes she'd missed out the huge leaves and stems going inside the cleaner. Okay, not in yet. STUCK.

She put her hand on the suction end and, WHACK. She removed the lid out and tried to pull the large plants. They were fastened to the cleaner very firmly. "Tricky things" she muttered as she got a little cut from the thorny plant. It clearly wasn't working well.

She took out her wand. What was the spell mom taught? "Diffindo!" She heard some noises, but nothing was altered. BAAH! "DIFFINDO!" she cast again. The plant let it loose with a grumble.

DEFEAT! She pulled out the rest with ease and continued with her cleaning.

The Ravenclaw girl walked into the tower patch and sighed as she noticed the dismay it was in. Someone had obviously not taken care of this place during the summer - or at all since they had released the stars here. She did of course feel a tear well up in her eyes as she remembered that day and the day the year prior when the Professors had died.

She was pained, truly pained to see this area in such disarray. She luckily had her Dragonhide gloves with her while she glanced around the area and tried to think of what to start with. She knew what she was going to do with the clippings and debris once she had some going that is – she was going to bring them to Professor Bentley to be held as organic waste.

She walked over to one shrub that had seemed to sprout upwards, sideways, and had an almost accidental bonsai thing going on with its general shape. Or shapelessness. She just frowned at the bush and thought, rounding it off and making it have a pristine look would definitely make it so the fountain it was near would actually be visible and not hidden behind a giant growing eyesore.

She twirled her wand in her hand like she was in a wild-west showdown with the tree. “Say hello to my little friend” she muttered at the bush as she brandished the wand like a weapon of trimming goodness. “Flipnsipwitit” she pointed and sliced her wand through the air, she just watched at the awkward section she had been aiming at fell to the ground revealing that indeed, it was just an extra bit of growth that had been blocking a quite beautiful view. “Flipsnipwitit” she said again as she arched her wand around another section of the bush causing the shape to change all together. No longer was there a strange backwards curve now the bush was perfectly rounded and happy looking like new life had been breathed into its tired limbs.

Did the girl just use a spell? What was that spell anyway?

FlipswapWAGAWAGA...HUH?

She'd seen the Claw before..ah yes, start of term feast. That was the one that offered her a cup cake, wasn't it? She moved towards the girl cautiously. Well, she was older than her, had her wand out and could just say seriously mis-spelt spells with perfection. Caution needed.

"Hey..." she called, as she neared. "What--what spell did you just use?"

It was one thing to maintain the Student Garden, some couple stairscases and a long walk away from her Common Room and quite another thing to take care of the Tower Patch that really wasn't all that much of a far walk. Not nearly as far as the student garden.

This time Felix insisted on tagging along (so she might have yanked him off the bed and said they were going for a walk but hey, she needed company).

"I don't suppose we'll be getting a lot done today because I've forgotten my gloves back in the dorm and you're not going to pull an extra knut out of your fur so I can go back and get it." Logic, she was a straight thinker, meaning they wouldn't be doing anything that would particularly require the gloves in the first place. "So I guess we can just grab some ice-cream when we're done." Not that it mattered to him. He didn't seem the fancy the ice-cream the way she did.

Looking around, she knew what she'd get to first. The plants were looking a little dry.

Felix backed up the moment he saw her raise her wand at them, he knew what would be coming next. "Aguamenti!" Water began gushing from her wand causing the kneazle to step back even further. She rolled her eyes but smiled. "You know I'd never get you soaked, stop being a whimp." But the kneazle wasn't listening. It'd gone and taken a seat on the fountain.

After watering the plants she went to get him and found the fountain...not nearly as clean as it should be...

Mmm...

"Up boy, this needs some work too." Quite lazily the feline rose and walked to her feet. Now then. "Scourgify!" And just like that the edges of the fountain were pristine. Just...she didn't know what to do about the bottom in the water. She couldn't exactly empty it, water kept flowing and she hadn't the foggiest how to turn it off. SIGH. She'd have to speak to the Professor about this, but for now, she was done.

Ice-cream time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dansgurl

Did the girl just use a spell? What was that spell anyway?

FlipswapWAGAWAGA...HUH?

She'd seen the Claw before..ah yes, start of term feast. That was the one that offered her a cup cake, wasn't it? She moved towards the girl cautiously. Well, she was older than her, had her wand out and could just say seriously mis-spelt spells with perfection. Caution needed.

"Hey..." she called, as she neared. "What--what spell did you just use?"

Mika smiled at the younger first year as she had reason to teach someone something. That was awesome right? She just sent Amara a quick smile. “Yeah it’s the trimming spell” she smiled to the girl – not sure if she had ever introduced herself she just quickly added, “I’m Mika by the way.” She smiled.

“It’s a bit of a mouthful really, the wand movements quite simple really just a swish” she smiled that was the easy part. The only easy part really. “So what you’ve got to do is swish your wand and then say flip-n-snip-wit-it” she chuckled. “give it a go if you want I can guide you through it” she smiled to the girl.

She glanced for a bush that didn’t look to hard to deal with. “The bush over there, it well, looks like it needs a trim? Why don’t we have a whack at that one?” She asked with a glittering gleam to her eyes.

"...and so I was telling November that if she as lucky I wouldn't vacuum Felix McWhisker's ears off by accident, ha ha ha."

He was hilarious.

And he also was only half joking. The cat was horribly twitchy and the only reason why he hadn't dropped it already was because he was pretty sure the beast would pounce someone the second it was set free.

Well, Ezra didn't even know Felix McWhiskers was aggressive and to be fair it hadn't even tried to scratch or bite him despite of Ezra's tight grip, but it was November's cat. So, it was best to be safe.

"Wow, this is... not nice."

Ezra appreciated beauty in all its forms but he was pretty sure no one would call some parts of the patch pretty. Not right now. Because the first thing he spotted was a worm doing worm things, which is to say, worming around his shows, Ezra bent down. The vacuum, which had been levitating behind him (and had taken him nearly half hour to make that charm work) stopped mid-air and all but crashed against the boy's back. Holding McWhiskers with one hand was impractical at best, so after a quick "Would you like to hold it?" to Edita, the boy shoved the feline to his friend.

"Vacavus." Ezra tried to make his tone commanding when he tapped his wand to the vacuum and it came to life. So, the first thing he did was vacuum the worm and a couple of fallen leaves near it. "Bye, bye."

Edita laughed surprised slightly that she didn't have to pretend to be completely amused by Ezra's usually flat attempts at humor. She crinkled her nose and patted her belly, quite pleased with her progress in this sorta-friendship-thing. Her Mum would be extra pleased and things were clearly on the right track, even if they had to do a spot of cleaning for homework.

The way Eddie saw it, cleaning had never hurt anyone, at least that's what her Mum would always say.

"I think it is okay!" said Edita smiling at the less than impressive tower patch. "It could be worse, of course. Isn't that a good thing?" It was a stellar thing. Stellar! Like the stars because they were doing Astronomy homework. She chuckled by herself and was caught off slightly by having Felix shoved at her. Eddie grabbed it as best as she could, preventing the cat from falling but not from having him dig his claws into her arms at least twice. "Ow! Good thing you're cute!" she scolded with a grin.

Silver lining!

"Do you think the worm is happy?" she asked and figured perhaps it was since it went in with some leaves. "Maybe you should vacuum up more dirt for it." Eddie side-hopped to avoid her own floating vacuum as it attempted for the second time on their trek up here to suck up her hair. Eddie picked up Felix and tried situating him on one shoulder. "Stay there, Felix, like a good cat-parrot while I help Ezra out. I'm such a good friend."

Never mind that it was homework. It was like double duty! She was becoming both a good student and a good sorta-friend just by sucking up some twigs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ama

Edita laughed surprised slightly that she didn't have to pretend to be completely amused by Ezra's usually flat attempts at humor. She crinkled her nose and patted her belly, quite pleased with her progress in this sorta-friendship-thing. Her Mum would be extra pleased and things were clearly on the right track, even if they had to do a spot of cleaning for homework.

The way Eddie saw it, cleaning had never hurt anyone, at least that's what her Mum would always say.

"I think it is okay!" said Edita smiling at the less than impressive tower patch. "It could be worse, of course. Isn't that a good thing?" It was a stellar thing. Stellar! Like the stars because they were doing Astronomy homework. She chuckled by herself and was caught off slightly by having Felix shoved at her. Eddie grabbed it as best as she could, preventing the cat from falling but not from having him dig his claws into her arms at least twice. "Ow! Good thing you're cute!" she scolded with a grin.

Silver lining!

"Do you think the worm is happy?" she asked and figured perhaps it was since it went in with some leaves. "Maybe you should vacuum up more dirt for it." Eddie side-hopped to avoid her own floating vacuum as it attempted for the second time on their trek up here to suck up her hair. Eddie picked up Felix and tried situating him on one shoulder. "Stay there, Felix, like a good cat-parrot while I help Ezra out. I'm such a good friend."

Never mind that it was homework. It was like double duty! She was becoming both a good student and a good sorta-friend just by sucking up some twigs.

"I guess." Maybe. "It's a good thing for us right now, at least!"

Ezra didn't think Felix was cute but he supposed beauty was subjective and it really wasn't his place to tell others what to find pretty or not. He vacuumed a few dead leafs and when he tried to vacuum away cat hair that'd attached itself to his vest, the vacuum nearly ate half of it. Ezra jumped back, letting it go, and flattening his vest.

There.

"Well, I just vacuumed it." He tried picking up the end of the vacuum it, pointing the black hole for a mouth that it had to a nearby, mostly dead bush. "I'm not sure the worm it's in any position to be happy. It's probably dead by now. Unless you think the after life is a happy place." Some people did. "Some people think it's a happy place." Ezra didn't like thinking about that, so he had no opinion on it.

That's when he realized that maybe he'd been a little too honest, so he tried to make nice before it became Not Nice: "Sorry." Vacuum, vacuum. There went a perfectly healthy stone. Not that stones were alive. "That was mean." He tapped his vacuum with his wand, turning it off. "Felix? Felix, come here! I'm supposed to CLEAN you."

Exploring the castle Audrey had made her way to the rooftop garden. As she stepped into it, she looked around. What on earth had happened her? The hedges were brown, and it looked incredibly unkempt. Really beginning to doubt her parents decision of sending her to a school that seemed financially challenged she sighed. It was making her miss Beauxbatons, at least the school was well taken care of. Making her way over the edge of the tower she looked out over the view. Okay, so this made her feel a little bit better. It was beautiful. Beyond the grounds was forest for as far as the eye could see.

A trimming spell? "Boy..and I spent like half an hour trimming manually in the garden" she said with a sigh. They'd met before but they hadn't had the time to exchange names. "Uhm.. Amara" she said, giving the girl a little bow. SMILE.

"Would you really?" she asked, her eyes wide. This girl was really going to help her? That was very nice of her. She glance at the bush Mika pointed. "Ah..yep, that one is a mess"

She withdrew her wand and pointed it at the bush. "Uhm..a swish..like this?" she asked, as she did a SWISSH and...

"Flip-in-swip-with-it!" She didn't see any significant change in the bushes. Infact, there was NO change in it. WHoops!

"That wasn't exactly the spell, was it?" SHEEPISH GRIN.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dansgurl

A trimming spell? "Boy..and I spent like half an hour trimming manually in the garden" she said with a sigh. They'd met before but they hadn't had the time to exchange names. "Uhm.. Amara" she said, giving the girl a little bow. SMILE.

"Would you really?" she asked, her eyes wide. This girl was really going to help her? That was very nice of her. She glance at the bush Mika pointed. "Ah..yep, that one is a mess"

She withdrew her wand and pointed it at the bush. "Uhm..a swish..like this?" she asked, as she did a SWISSH and...

"Flip-in-swip-with-it!" She didn't see any significant change in the bushes. Infact, there was NO change in it. WHoops!

"That wasn't exactly the spell, was it?" SHEEPISH GRIN.

Mika just watched as the girl tried it and gave her a soft smile, she was about to speak up when she heard the h. Oooh, that wasn't going to work now was it?

"No, it wasn't it but good try" she smiled. "its a hard concept but drop the h - so bascially say snip-wit-it...like can't say the h-sound at all" she offered with a smile. "Like flipnsnipwitit" she offered as she trimmed the root of a weed by the fountain away with the swipe of her wand. "Just keep practicing it" she smiled.

Mika was encouraging and she liked her for that. Amara returned her smile and listened to her carefully. And she watched, awed as the girl casted the spell again. "Cool" she muttered as she saw the weed get trimmed by itself.

Okay. "flip-n-snip-witty" she said aloud. No, that wasn't it. "Fli-n-snip-wit-it" she pronounced it carefully. She wanted to get the incantation thing right. Mika said her movement was fine...so thats the spell.

She pointed her wand towards the next bush. "Flipnsnipwitit!" A bit from the edge trimmed itself. Just a teeny bit and then it stopped.

"Did you see that?" she asked the girl, excited. IT WORKED! A bit, that was.

“Pff, why has Hogwarts no lift?” Muttered Sonea now that she had climbed all the stairs up to the Tower Patch. But, even now that she was out of breath and that she was tired now that she had climbed all the stairs, she was not sulky, she wanted to be here, she had heard a few story's about a professor who had been murdered! Sonea had been surprised when she had heard that story and wanted to know if the story was true and that there was really a garden on the rooftop, as a memory for the murdered professor.

And… Sonea was a little surprised, but also sad, because she saw that it was true. She was sad because she now knew that the poor woman had really been murdered! Sonea stood still in the garden and wondered what had happened with the woman.

Back to the Tower Patch.

Ella had been writing her Gran for tips on how to spruce the place up and after reading the bazillion page letter, the blonde felt motivated to go on up and try out some of the tips. Yup, she was ready to do some sprucing.

The blonde stopped short when she noticed a younger student she didn't immediately recognize. The girl looked a bit sad and Ella frowned slightly before approaching. "Um..everything okay?"

"Oh, I'm okay" said Sonea a little surprised when she heard how somebody talked to her. She had been so fascinated with the garden and the meaning behind it that she even didn’t had heard how the much older girl had walked toward her! "I just was curious if there was really a garden here, dedicated to a murdered professor" said Sonea slowly and smiled at the older girl. "I'm Sonea Duvessa, and this is my rat Little princess" Sonea pointed at her rat who sat on her shoulder and smiled again at the older girl, "who are you and what are you doing here?" Sonea sounded curious, she had thought that she was the only one here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dansgurl

Mika was encouraging and she liked her for that. Amara returned her smile and listened to her carefully. And she watched, awed as the girl casted the spell again. "Cool" she muttered as she saw the weed get trimmed by itself.

Okay. "flip-n-snip-witty" she said aloud. No, that wasn't it. "Fli-n-snip-wit-it" she pronounced it carefully. She wanted to get the incantation thing right. Mika said her movement was fine...so thats the spell.

She pointed her wand towards the next bush. "Flipnsnipwitit!" A bit from the edge trimmed itself. Just a teeny bit and then it stopped.

"Did you see that?" she asked the girl, excited. IT WORKED! A bit, that was.

All Mika wanted to do when she saw Amara trim the bush! She was so happy she was beaming. Really, some could say she was beaming more than Blue. "I sure did! Good job there, maybe we can try some other spells in here and get rid of that algae on the fountain over there?" she asked as she pointed at a rather sickly green colored goo that was coating the bottom of the normally beautiful fountain.

"I promise this place is normally really nice, but this one would be easy, you know scourging?" she asked Amara still beaming at her. "We'll they also have the skurge charm that gets rid of ecto-goo like things. We could always cast skurge then use scourgify and clean it up a bit...maybe even use the polishing charm as well? Make this place radiate clean." she offered because obviously if they stayed out here cleaning and Professor Flamsteed happened by maybe she would get some extra house points...and well, Amara would be in his good graces. And that was always nice.

Having wanted to see the supposed memorial to deceased professors in the north tower, Erik finally ventured there one day. He had been doing a lot of walking around the castle but had forgotten that he was wearing a certain carolina blue silk tie on this day, and this venture...

Oh well, he wasn't too concerned. The Astronomy professor didn't look like the brightest star in the Big Dipper and Erik merely wanted to stroll around the tower patch. So that is precisely what he did, hands tucked into his pockets, blue eyes on the unkempt hedges. Hmm hm had they really relied on the house elves that much here? Fascinating.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erik Vinteren

Having wanted to see the supposed memorial to deceased professors in the north tower, Erik finally ventured there one day. He had been doing a lot of walking around the castle but had forgotten that he was wearing a certain carolina blue silk tie on this day, and this venture...

Oh well, he wasn't too concerned. The Astronomy professor didn't look like the brightest star in the Big Dipper and Erik merely wanted to stroll around the tower patch. So that is precisely what he did, hands tucked into his pockets, blue eyes on the unkempt hedges. Hmm hm had they really relied on the house elves that much here? Fascinating.

Deciding to go take a peek at how things were going in the Tower Patch, Airey had locked his office and made his way outdoor with Pebbles held in his left hand. She could use the fresh air as well. Yep. He would have put her on her leash, but the Tower Patch was in such a disarray and far too hazardous to her rocky health.

After walking around just a bit, his eyes fell on Erik and his dapper demeanor. "Looking sharp there, Erik," he greeted while giving the man a quick thumbs up. He would have given two, but then he would have dropped Pebbles. "I say...is that a Carolina blue silk tie?"

Erik wasn't sure where the plaques were but he wasn't finding them. No hurry though, he was enjoying his stroll. Then he heard the unmistakable voice of the Astronomy professor behind him, and that was the end of that.

"Professor," he reluctantly returned the man's greeting with a nod. "Same to you and your..." Erik stared at the object in his hand, "..pup?"

He took a step closer to the man to study the odd-shaped object, only realising a moment too late that Flamsteed had noticed the tie. "Mhm, yes, it is. Is vhat a pup?" If it were, he felt sorry for the thing. It was rather unnatural-looking, like an ugly runt. Or a rock, really, if Flamsteed were the sort to glue puppet accessories to a bit of stone.

But no, surely it was a pup?

Amara grinned. She loved learning new and cool stuff. Now she really liked this Claw girl a lot. She nodded as she looked at the fountain in question. It looked like it needed a very good wash. "OH, I know the scourgify charm!" said the excited little girl. And they'd just learnt the polishing one from the Knocks professor. HEH. "And poliotus..." Was the incantation right? "..we learnt it from Professor Knocks"

But she didn't know this getting rid of goo charm. And she really didn't want to use her hands for the noble task. Blearrrgh. "Would you show me the other one...uhm.." What did she say it was? "...skurge?"

From her dormitory it was not hard to get up to the Tower Patch. Also Sarah wanted to do some more outdoor work. After all Autumn had passed and it had left carpets of of leaves behind. She also heard that the towerpatch needed work so Sarah decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Sarah put her vacuum cleaner down and glanced around. Scenes from that fateful class here came back to her and Sarah tried to flush it out. She had to think happy thoughts. This place was a perfect distraction for her though as it looked like it needed a lot of work.

She tapped the vacuum with her wand and said ""Vacavus". The thing began to suck. Sarah then began to travel around the patch sucking up the golden leaves as her mind went back to the rocket making they had done back then in her second year. She remembered the teacher of course, Sarah liked it when her teachers had character.

Soon Sarah had made a circut of the patch and looked around. What else could she do?