Wow um okay okay, Cinna was in a super duper amazing mood. Eden knew Cinna wasn't always like this--so she should enjoy this good mood while it lasted. Before grumpy Cinna came back

The Ravenclaw eyed the picture and nodded. "Tiger lilies. How pretty. Reminds me of Peter Pan." Eden smirked and played with the tips of her hair...you know, after hugging Cinna back. "Since when do you hug?" She was curious. Eden was a hugger. Cinna was....not. Well, not to HER, anyways. Maybe to Bartimus or something. Were she and Bart still together? Eden had no idea...

"I'm here to see the butterflies....I want them to land on me and make me their butterfly queen." Riiiiiight. Eden was mostly joking. "Also, I didn't know those were your favorite--" it was giving Eden ideas. Sometimes, Eden got into rare moods to surprise people she liked with nice things. Tiger Lilies could be that nice thing for Cinna.

Also, birthdays.

SNOOOOOORT.

Adi was such a goofball sometimes. Amused, Lux shook her head at him. "And the spirit of Godric Gryffindor as well!" She was an Honorary Lion, so her Honorary House founder's assistance would be pretty amazing as well. Hehe.

Nodding at his question, Lux slowly opened her hands with the palms facing upwards so that the butterflies could land on her flowers. Come on, red and blue butterflies!!

You know you want the pretty flowers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiritWolfe Malfoy

Hady caught sight of the paper fluttering past and that the Head Mistress had picked it up putting it into her book. She wouldn't ask about it though for it was none of her business at all. Odds were it was a stray parchment being blown about by the light breeze.

"Yes it really is. It's quite calming with all the butterflies fluttering about," she agreed grinning softly. One couldn't help but relax and be happy in an atmosphere like this one. Was there a way she could get a garden like this at her home?

"Indeed, indeed...." the Headmistress seemed to repeat, drifting away from Hady the Slytherin and over toward a bench, where she found herself sitting and beginning to read from her book with great interest.

Just as she finished reading that one, another new story popped up. Oooh, juicy juicy. Had Annie mentioned how much she secretly loved despised this parchment? Still, best to read it so that she knew what was going on in her school...

SPOILER!!: Abby

Abby smiled and said "Yeah i think that is true i won't know until i ask her and yeah i know Arithmancy is not everybody's favourite subject" Abby did like Hady

Hady smiled softly nodding her head firmly in agreement. She could clearly remember at least five different people telling her that they also had trouble with the subject though she couldn't exactly recall who. "Yeah I think it has to do with all the numbers and such and then trying to remember the different meanings." It really could be a very confusing lesson. Thankfully they were always able to use their textbooks during the lesson.

Each time she would reply to her friend or Abby would reply to her Hady's gaze would shift to look at the slightly older girl before returning to the butterflies once more. This place was really doing a lot for her and keeping her happier and calmer.

SPOILER!!: Headmistress

"Indeed, indeed...." the Headmistress seemed to repeat, drifting away from Hady the Slytherin and over toward a bench, where she found herself sitting and beginning to read from her book with great interest.

Just as she finished reading that one, another new story popped up. Oooh, juicy juicy. Had Annie mentioned how much she secretly loved despised this parchment? Still, best to read it so that she knew what was going on in her school...

Hady offered another small smile towards the Headmistress before watching her move to a bench and began her reading once more before her attention returned to her friend.

Oh, yeash! How could he forget about Godric Gryffindor? He and Lux were both Lions too, riiiiight? They didn't care what others said. "Him too!'' Anyway, he remained as still as he could beside Lux as they waited. Adi eyed the black one fluttering directly in front of him. Black was a pretty colour. Mhmmm.

"Come on, come on,'' he silently willed the butterfly which seemed to be hesitant about wanting to come further in his direction. Wait! It seemed to have heard Adi's 'voice'. As if that would happen. Nah, the butterfly must simply have decided to come examine the 'statue' with the flowers. "I think I've got my first butterfly,'' he whispered to Lux, barely moving his lips. "Looks like I'll be winning.'' Hehe.

Well, this was new. Marsha was sure that she had been here before and this hadn’t been here. Yup, she was prettty sure.

However, since it was here now - why not have a look and snoop around?

Because a, butterflies and because b, it was really pretty.

As she wandered around slowly, she turned her head in every direction trying to find EVERYTHING to look at. As she did, she noticed one of the other Gryffindors and wondered if she should maybe say hi to him.

Heck, why not? Hehe.

”Hi,” She said as she stood next to him, looking at the Butterflies which were settled on the floor right in front of them. ”I wonder how many different types of Butterflies there are in here…”

Had they ever been properly introduced? She knew his name from class but she was growing a blank over if they had had a proper talk before.., and she assumed that that was a no.

”How are you today?” best to start off with manners, right?

Whyttyr laughed, "I think that's a pretty good summing up of Hogwarts." Staircases were not meant to move, but apparently Hogwarts didn't care about that. At all. She wasn't quite sure if it would be as fun without him here too, that did make her missing Beauxbatons a little less painful after such an abrupt uprooting from her dear school.

"Let's stay out here until then." Maybe they would go back inside earlier than that if they got hungry enough, but still, she rather liked it here.

Nemo was seated on the bench and put his arm around her. "It's a weird place but not a bad place to make home." He smiled a little because it would be his temporary home. When his father was thrown into prison he couldn't bare being at his house often. It felt weird and dark and empty, that was all different now but he had escaped to Hogwarts.

"I think that's a very good idea, Princess." He kissed her cheek and ignored the flowers, cause who could look at a flower when seated next to Whyttyr Capello? "I love you." He whispered.

They were off to an awesome start - or well Adi was. Almost right off the bat, a butterfly was drawn to one of his flowers. It must have rally liked the scent of it, because her friend could not communicate with animals as far as she knew.

"I wouldn't speak so soon," Lux added with a smile as she glimpsed a red butterfly who seemed to be drawn to her yellow flower. It was definitely hesitant, moving slowly and repeatedly stopping... but it was DEFINITELY curious. "Come on little butterfly," Lux said softly as to encourage it to come even closer.

It took a little longer, but in the end it had landed on her flower. "Now we are tied." Hehe. For the moment at least.

Toby had discovered this garden a handful of times already this year. It never seemed to be in the same place, of course, so he couldn't exactly just head there whenever he wanted to visit. It was more a case of going to the places he'd found it before, or... follow the butterflies.

But here he was, and he was grateful for it too. Butterflies were close enough to fairies in Toby's mind that he found them very calming. And they were pretty too. The Hufflepuff sat down right in the midst of the garden, on a patch of grass. He wasn't usually one for sitting down for very long, but it did happen, usually when he wanted to think, as long as he had something else to focus on. Something to fidget with, usually.

Speaking of which, he retrieved his wand and cast a spell at the ground, causing a whole bunch of daisies to spring up out of the ground around him. Setting his wand carelessly aside on the ground, Toby got to work harvesting the daisies and making a pile of them on his knee, already quite lost in thought.

He was looking for a quiet place, a nice place to do the paperwork that had somehow piled up under his arm, formerly on his desk. It wasn't that he didn't like his office, or any of the other spaces where he could work. It was just that he liked the outdoors more.

Unfortunately, the tree by the lake had proved quite a crowded place and the pumpkin patch just brought back all sorts of distracting memories. There were a few new additions to the grounds, so Sabel thought he'd check them out. Of note, was the butterfly garden which, while proving no less distracting to his thoughts, was a rather quiet place. A place Arya would have loved. He could almost imagine her there, back when they were still kids, dancing about and pointing at all the pretty winged creatures.

She would have grabbed his arm and pointed at the kid sitting in the midst of the landscaping, creating daisies out of nothing. She would have asked the boy how he did it. Sabel wanted to ask how the boy managed to create such a beautiful thing, but a patronus scared him to death and back again.

Letting out a slow breath, Sabel walked over to the kid, pausing a few feet away. He didn't want to interrupt his reverie, but after the last class he hadn't seen much of the boy. And well, things hadn't exactly ended on the smoothest note.

But anything he thought to say seemed too harsh, too formal and Professor like. Granted, that was his job, but he didn't want to frighten the kid into silence. So, he settled for the question his memory-Arya was prodding him to ask. "I can't say that I've ever seen something like that before. What spell are you using?"

It didn't sound the way it should have, but then Arya was always better with words than he was. But it was an effort.

This was nice, it really was. Toby often felt as though he didn't get enough time to appreciate nature in person and stuff these days, what with how stressful school had suddenly become again. He found himself relaxing as he gathered a few of the daisies, only as many as he needed, and watched as one of the butterflies fluttered into his range of sight and settled on his hand.

Toby paused, and started to raise his hand to eye-level, all the better to see the butterfly, but a voice suddenly caught him way off guard, making him jump and the butterfly fly away.

... How long had he been standing there? Toby hadn't heard him approach, which wasn't so strange, but he had been making the effort to... sort of avoid the professor. Though, as was the case with a lot of things, he would never admit it. Still... he found himself already closing off to him, while at the same time trying not to be impolite. It was a difficult balance to maintain.

"I..." The flowers, he was asking about the flowers, and not a word had been said about patronuses. Toby could handle that. He looked back down at the daisies that had sprouted from the ground around him, a couple still appearing and opening up. "It's an Orchideous spell. I cast it by accident once, before I knew what the spell was, and it's the only non-verbal spell I can do." This was probably a longer explanation than necessary, but Toby often found it a lot easier to ramble about things like this. "And then I found it in a book, and yeah." He took the harvested daisies and began making them into a chain. "Orchideous Evoco. Makes flowers grow from the ground." In case that, y'know, wasn't obvious.

It wasn't hard to miss the change in the boy, from being completely relaxed to being well....the boy he remembered from class. Admittedly, Sabel felt a little guilty for interrupting his solitude, and almost wished he could take his presence back. Rewind time with a little time-turner.

But the echo's of Arya in his mind seemed to help, at least a little and he found himself intrigued by the boy's explanation. His eyes drifted down to the growing flowers, a smile touching the corners of his lips. "Would you be willing to teach me?"

That's right kids, Professors weren't the be-all-know-all's of the universe. In fact, when it came to flowers and flower spells, he was downright illiterate. But he wasn't just humoring the kid. He did actually want to learn.

"I have a daughter, who would be tickled pink by this." And a wife. Although knowing Arya, she probably had a good handle on flower-growing spells.

Looking back up at the professor, Toby blinked. He was... confused.

He'd spent the time since the patronus lesson under the impression that Professor Dakest, well... hated him. Or maybe not hate, but definitely didn't hold him in high regard. Which made Toby super sad, and he wanted to prove that even though he wouldn't couldn't do a patronus and sort of only got his DADA OWL grade by accident rather than any belief in what he was doing, that he could be just as good a person as those kids who'd put in all the effort in that one lesson.

But... this looked sort of like a chance to do that. In fact, this was the perfect opportunity for Toby to show that he could and would help someone, anyone, no matter what, whatever they needed. Because he didn't think Dakest believed that of him, and it had become very important that he did.

All those thoughts took a matter of seconds to race through Toby's head, before he nodded.

"Sure. I can help," he replied, his tone pleasant but almost stilted as he continued absentmindedly threading daisies into a chain, barely glancing at what he was doing. "If you really want. I don't mind. I mean, I'm willing. I mean... I'd like to, yeah." After that very unnecessarily long-winded 'yes', Toby turned his attention back to his daisy chain and set it carefully to one side. He knew spells that could preserve flowers, and he was gonna make good use of those later. Once again, the Hufflepuff looked at Dakest, who... had a daughter? "She likes flowers too?" He paused, then added, "You can sit down if you want. If you like, I mean. Not that I'm telling you to or anything, I just-"

Luckily, a butterfly chose that moment to land on Toby's knee, and the boy was suitably distracted from rambling on even more. Instead he nudged the pretty creature onto his finger and hold it up to eye level to see it better and say hello. Mid-sentence, just like that.

Sabel had to admit, he'd give that same look if a Professor had asked him for help back in his Hogwarts days. But, as he often reminded himself, this wasn't him and he wasn't them. Different people, different times, different circumstances. And this...this seemed to be helping. At least, that's what it appeared like.

The boy was still nervous as all get out.

Letting out a breath, Sabel shook his head slightly and accepted the offer of a seat. "No need to be so stiff around me." He took up a spot on the grass across from the boy and his personal daisy garden, glancing between the two. "I'm not going to hex your nose off if you say the wrong thing."

....Perhaps that was the wrong thing to say to a nervous kid? Ah well. It was a good illustration as to what spells he was used to. A stark contrast. Loosing noses and creating flowers. Hn. Him and words, a thing to work on. Moving on quickly!

"She, Emma, likes flowers very much. Well, anything that is living, really." He couldn't help the proud smile that touched his lips as he considered the daisy chain from the corner of his eyes. "Do you have siblings?"

Toby's knee-jerk reaction to that would have been to insist that he wasn't being stiff at all, even though he... blatantly was. Something, thankfully, helped him hold back. Perhaps his interest in the butterfly, which really was very beautiful. But butterfly or no, he glanced up again at that other comment and said in an almost surprised tone, "I know. People don't do stuff like that." Only joked about it, which Dakest was obviously doing. Right.

He studied the butterfly a little longer, but let it fly away when it was ready to, at which point his full attention returned to Dakest. "She does? Hey, me too!" Toby said, suddenly breaking out into a genuine grin. "Flowers and plants and animals and anything that grows, and people too, of course." That sort of went without saying. Still smiling, Toby picked up his wand again and began twirling it around his fingers. He'd found it incredibly soothing. And that next question had him feeling all kinds of good things, too.

"I do," he said proudly. "A little brother, Curtis. He's only-" Toby stopped twirling his wand suddenly to count on his fingers, and went straight back to it when he was done. "-nine months old. I-" Toby faltered. He'd been about to say 'I miss him', but stopped himself before he could even start, and went in another direction instead. "He's amazing."

Man, Adi was ALREADY getting tired of standing still but this was mainly because he wanted to examin the black butterfly on his palm. He looked back over at Lux, moving his head slowly so that he wouldn't disturb the tiny creature on his hand. "It's Bay drawn to Lux,'' he commented with a smirk, comparing Lux to the flower and Bay to the butterfly. Fitting, yes? Adi sure thought so.

Oh, yeah! They were tied! "It's because we're so awesome.'' And such good friends. HEY! Another butterfly, well a couple of them, were heading his and Lux's way. Maybe they had noticed how harmless him and his friend were so they were coming over to take a closer look. "Here comes more, Lux.''

Hehe. Not many people had a chance to see Cinna in this good of a mood. It was pretty rare. But so far this term it had lasted. She really had tried to not let things or people get to her as much. Things had been going great for her by doing this. Happy. Very happy.

Ahh. Peter Pan. Emmy's favorite thing. Movie. Tiger lily was the chiefs daughter right? She should know this she had seen the movie with Emmy like a hundred thousand times. This should be Eden's lucky day getting Cinna hugs. The way the Gryffindor seen it Eden needed one. She had no seen Phe at all this term. She didn't know what was going on with those two. They were nearly as complicated as her and Bart used to be. But that had changed. "It just think you needed one." She didn't know but yeah if her boyfriend wasn't at school anyone she would definitely be needing hugs. See and hugs were all part of this new happy Cinna that she was working on.

Butterfly queen? Cinna couldn't help but to laugh at that she even snorted from laughing so hard. "Sorry... That's to cute. Butterfly queen." Was it that weird to see Cinna this happy? Probably not as hard as her feeling this happy. But she liked it. Nodding. "Yeah. The orange tiger lilies are my favorite." Also orange was her favorite color. So yeah. Orange tiger lilies. She smiled because of stuff. She actually liked this happy Cinna stuff.

Eden blushed and giggled little...she liked being called cute. It was kinda' rare. The Ravenclaw knew she could be obnoxiously dramatic...so...yeah. She enjoyed that compliment right there. "Or Snow White. But I didn't want to make too many Disney references--" she said with another giggle. So Eden liked happy Cinna as much as happy Cinna liked Eden? That was good to know. She'd have to remember to only ever approach Cinna on her good days from now on.

"Orange...okay--" she nodded. "It's funny...a lot of us paint--like I mean, students--it would be cool if we could all come together and paint something. Like. As a unit. And sort of spirit orienting and all that." She was just so full of ideas lately! Recycle bins..this..."Though, I can't paint for anything." But painting was at last FUN.

...and painting reminded her of Phe, suddenly, and she almost turned sour. Almost. She just...missed him so much..

"I think I can get a butterfly to land on me--you just have to be still--" she lifted her hand slightly and let it stay suspended in the air. "And quiet." And she held her breath back a bit. Hmm....she wanted one....please come....BUTTERFLIES PLEAAAASE?

People didn't do.....stuff.....like....that.

Sabel blinked at the boy, in a somewhat deadpan way. Well, there went most of his stories. Especially those of Knocturn and his recent encounters there. It was a brief, but serious thought as to if he should just fail the kid from his class right now. DADA and Fuller-Thompson didn't seem to be made for each other. Not that he didn't think the boy could do the work or the spells, just that he didn't have the heart too. It was sad, really, how soft and gentle and innocent he was and how one day, the world might just eat him up. He wasn't sure whether Dark Wizards would have copious amounts of fun with him, or consider him such a non-threat that they would simply ignore him. Sabel hoped fervently for the later, but more that the kid would never, ever encounter a Dark anything in his life.

He'd be happy if the boy got to keep his naive attitude. If the world didn't break it. Please world, be kind. Just this once.

The flat stare he had given the boy slowly faded for a small smile at his enthusiasm. "Well, it sounds like he has a good older brother to watch out for him."

Withdrawing his wand from his sleeve, Sabel turned it about slowly in his hands, running his fingers along a few of the nicks in the wood as his eyes drifted to the daisies.

It wouldn't be entirely true to say that Toby hadn't noticed the stare that Professor Dakest had given him, but he was doing his very best to pretend, even to himself, that he'd not seen it. Partly because he didn't know what to make of it, and that made him nervous, partly because it somehow reminded Toby of that last interaction in class, but also maybe 'cause it reminded him a little bit of Piers. And that was unacceptable right now.

So he kept his eyes off him again for the moment, but looking down at the grass and still twirling his wand every so quickly and smoothly through his fingers, his very favourite mode of fidgeting. Other than bouncing, of course, but he wasn't in a very bouncy mood. "Yeah," Toby replied. "... Maybe." He... wasn't so sure he was all that good at looking out for anyone anymore.

Then he'd spun his wand right into a proper spell-casting hold, and waved it at the ground again. A whole new crop of daisies and other flowers started to spring up amidst the others, more than before. Toby thought they were beautiful. "It's Orchideous Evoco," he said again, keeping his eyes on them. "I always picture the flowers I want, and they appear, or sometimes I like to cast it and see what shows up, and something always does. It's harder with things like roses and that, but not, like, impossible."

Maybe. There was that wishy-washyness again. It almost had Sabel sighing, but such an action would undoubtedly be caught by the boy and would do nothing for his self-esteem.

That's what this learning this was about. Or rather, teaching.

Sabel twisted his wand about, watching Fuller-Thompson's hand motions and mouthing the mouthful of an incantation. So, it didn't matter that he wasn't particularly knoweldgable in flowers? Just cast and something would appear. Sounded simple enough.

He couldn't help the small smile that touched his lips at the last comment. "Like a patronus." Too soon? "Orchideous Evoco."

His smile broadened as three yellow flowers began slowly sprouting. It was only when they were halfway out that his smile wavered into a displeased frown. Plucking one of the dandelions, Sabel turned it about in his fingers. He'd always thought the weed was pretty, but that didn't change the fact it was a weed. "Don't think that's going to impress my daughter much."

Toby had not been expecting that comment. Perhaps he should have been, and perhaps he had been at first, but after the first few words had been exchanged, and Dakest asked to learn the flower spell, he'd not been expecting the professor to bring up patronuses at all. The fact that he'd misjudged it made his head hurt. So when the word was mentioned, he winced. Just a tiny bit, but a wince all the same. He tried to pass it off as a shrug or something similar. Tried.

"Not really," he replied, shaking his head and glancing at Dakest's face for a split second before looking back at the flowers. "I don't think so."

When Dakest cast the spell, Toby was surprised at his reaction, the expression on his face when he looked at him properly. Hadn't it worked? He'd just watched it work. "But it's a flower. You made flowers grow... it worked. Spells barely ever work perfectly the first time." He paused, eyes now fixed firmly on the flower in Dakest's hand, rather than the professor's face. "Even you said in class, to not worry about not getting... a spell, y'know, straight away." Or something.

Okay. So. Maybe that was the one thing the flower spell and the patronus charm had in common. But that was the same with all magic.

What was the lesson being taught again? Flower making, or the basis of all spells and learning?

Turning the dandelion in his hand, Sabel considered the boy across from him. "I did, didn't I?" He fell quiet for a moment before he held the flower up in front of him, propping his elbow on his knee. "My issues is that while it did work, it didn't work in the way I expected it to. Nothing so grand or beautiful as yours." He made a gesture to the boy's flower grouping.

The kid was smart, even if full of self doubt. Surely the dots were connecting here, in this unexpected lesson.

"What would you suggest to me?"

Toby could sense... something. He wasn't sure what it was, but he had a vague idea, and it had something to do with the feeling that Dakest was speaking in... well, speaking in riddles. His eyes flitted between the professor's face and the dandelion a few times, thinking hard, his frown of concentration changing to one of dawning realisation as he started drawing conclusions.

"I..." He didn't have much of a clue of what to say in order to backtrack here. Wasn't really thinking of backtracking, in all honesty, just suddenly focused on a very uncomfortable but VERY familiar guilty feeling that had settled in the pit of his stomach. "I-I... I guess... Just, y'know... keep working at it. And putting in..." Toby went a little quieter as he picked a flower at random from the ones he had conjured. "... putting in the effort."

He bit the inside of his lip, hard, and kept his eyes downcast, twirling the flower (this one vivid and red) between forefinger and thumb. "I'm sorry, Professor Dakest." He gave no further explanation, as he felt that the meaning was really quite obvious. "I really am, I swear."