There was nothing like a little fresh air...Paul thought they could all use some, since it was so cold lately. But it was TIME for a Quill meeting, and even though his garden was a little frost-bitten at the moment, he was insisting on having the meeting outside with Leo. Who wanted to be COOPED up with the warm STUFFYNESS of the castle, anyways? NOT PAUL!

He had, however, cast a pretty strong warming charm on the entirety of his garden for this little meeting, and he had set up an enormous blanket for them all to sit on. He had hot chocolate waiting, and fresh, warm donuts. Refreshments were always a must.

"Hopefully...it doesn't snow..." he looked up at the sky and squinted. Hmmm...it didn't feel like it was going to snow today....not the proper conditions for it.

Hand-in-hand with Zander for warmth, obviously, Sophie arrived at Myers' garden with a spring in her step. Exciting times, they were, as Quill meetings were always SUPER FUN. Catching the last bit of what the herbology professor was murmuring to himself, Soph chimed as a way of greeting, "Is there a charm for that? A way to put, like, a barrier up overhead to keep out the elements?" She didn't know of one, but as Myers was probably one to know how to keep his plants safe from the elements, she figured he'd know, yes?

When her gaze fell upon the hot chocolate and donuts, Soph let out a squeal, tugged on Zander's hand, pulling him along in haste, and only let go to help herself to the provided sustenance. "You are the BEST, professor. Y'know the way to our hearts." Warm donuts, hot chocolate... it was the BEST. Except... Soph was already thinking about Reagan. These... were... not vegan-friendly, were they? Hm. HMMM. Hopefully the girl had thought ahead and... would bring her own vegan-friendly goodies? HOPEFULLY, or else Soph was gonna feel super bad.

Settling onto the blanket and hoping Zander would join her, Soph dumped her bag off her shoulder, the loop falling over the donut in her hand, and varied between sipping at her hot chocolate and devouring her donut.

Sigh. Life was the best. Couldn't have gotten any better, really.

Marsha loved the cool late November air, and she still was only wearing her school uniform with a light Summer cloak… She might pull out her Winter cloak if it started to snow. Maybe. Maaaaybe. However, for now she skipped all the way to the Greenhouse, her cheeks a nice pink by the time she got there from the chill biting at her skin.

SHE FELT INVIGORATTTEEEEDDDD.

Skipping through the greenhouse, the Redhead waved happily at the three people already there for the meeting. ”Hi Sophie, Hi Zander! Hey Professor!” Whoops. She was excited, happy and possibly a little too hyper. As always. ”Lovely day, right?” She giggled as she moved closer, before realising that Professor Myers had brought HOT CHOCOLATE!!!!!!

”Oh, can I have some too?” She asked, giggling as she went to pick up a mug of the steaming liquid. And a doughnut? Don’t mind if she did! She was already hyper so what was MORE sugar? Hehehehe.

Bundled up from head to toe Leo headed reluctantly out of the castle and down to Paul's frostbitten garden for the days Quill meeting. No matter how much he had tried to get Paul to see reason his co-advisor had insisted that they should hold the meeting in the outdoors. In the end Leo had given up on protesting for the warmth and comfort the castle could provide and that was why his nose was pink from cold and his fingers were freezing by time he entered the greenhouse garden.

Leo's un-gloved fingers started to itch as they warmed up in the warmth of the heating spell that Paul had casted. Heading over to the blanket he beamed at everyone already present. "Hello everyone!" Looking over at Paul he asked hopefully "Are the donuts warm?" If they were then maybe just maybe Leo would get over his initial protest against meeting outside.

As much as he liked the outdoors… He didn’t so much like the cold, or meetings, or being around Professors when he really didn’t have to be. Which is why he was very much NOT looking forward to The Quill meeting. Except, he was walking down with Sophie which made it more bearable. Especially ‘cause he got to hold her hand the entire way down to the Garden.

Spotting Myers first, he gave the man a nod, ”Hi, sir,” HOT CHOCOLATE?? AND DONUTS? Okay. Zander changed his mind. There were definitely worse things he could’ve been doing today. He let Sophie drag him over towards the food, where he helped himself to both the hot chocolate and a donut. ”Thanks for this, Professor.” Zander wounldn’t say Myers was the BEST, but the food bribe definitely did help boost him up close. Ahem. Not that Zander ever let that stuff get in the way. Aheeem.

And that’s when he went to go join Sophie. In the middle of a bite of donut, he waved to Marsha upon her arrival… Taking note of the incredible energy she had? Merlin. How. See, at least Kitridge wasn’t all that chipper. Zander figured he looked like Santa Claus compared to the librarian. So again, order was restored. Ahem.

Was Noel late? He was sure he was late. But then as soon as he half jogged, half stumbled out into the grounds he saw Zander Adair and Sophie Brown walking as well. Okay cool, he wasn't late.

Catching his breath, and fixing his jacket - because oh it was cold again - Noel made his way down to professor Myers' garden. As soon as he made his way inside though - it was really really warm.

And DONUTS. A way to hufflepuff's heart.

"Hello professor," the seventeen year waved his hand and then leaned in to grab a donut. "Hellooo" He then greeted the rest of the Quill people there and then stuffed his mouth with that donut. Mmmm. "Yep, it's warm" He informed.

Paul was glad to see a couple of faces here already. Miss Brown, Mister Adair...little Marsha, Mr. Wallace...and of course, Leo! Where were the rest of them? Hmm? Paul wasn't too worried. They'd come when they came...no big deal! Paul smiled and cleared his throat, holding up his own warm cup of cocoa.

"Well! Let's get this meeting started!" He plopped down on the blanket and sat in his meditation position, the lotus, and took a deeeeeeep breath. "Let us all relax and clear our minds before we begin....just a second....take a deep breath....in...." he breathed in slowly, closing his eyes. "And out........get all of the negativity out....let it flow....out...." he was speaking hardly above a whisper.

And once he breathed his negativity out, Paul opened his eyes, smiled in a relaxed way, and sighed. "Lovely to see you all. Let's talk about the Quill." The hot chocolate was warm enough to be...well, warm, but not hot enough to burn a tongue. He'd have a donut in juuuust a minute--" So. I like everything we've put out so far! So good job, my fellows!" he almost clapped, forgetting about his mug--luckily, he remembered. "Now...I'd like to hand things over to Miss Brown--is there anything you'd like to bring up to discuss at the meeting?" He asked, before he gave his thoughts on things....

Marsha, Kitridge, and Noel all got cheerful smiles and greetings as they arrived, even though it was a little bit less ladylike than the Grey Lady would've wanted from the Ravenclaw as she hadn't waited to swallow her donut before addressing the newcomers. Life was too short to wait to have an empty mouth and there were too many good donuts to be eaten, all right?

As the meeting got started, Soph snuck over and topped off her hot chocolate really quickly, wanting to make sure she had enough before they got too far into the meeting, and juuust as she ended up next to Zander again on the blanket, Myers was addressing her.

Oh. Yes. Responsibilities. Right.

"Yes, sir. Thank you. Err... for now, I just wanna say I like what we've done so far, and even though we've gotten off to a slow start, I think we're a really strong, cohesive team 'n I'm excited to see where this term takes us. We've all gotten along well, the articles we've produced have been well-received, the drafts I've seen from you guys have been right on track with what we want - you've all brought really good, really fresh ideas to the Quill team, and we're lucky to have all of you. We've only got two returning members of the team this year, me 'n Rusty, and it's been really, really good so far to have you guys puttin' your own spin on the publication 'n breathing new life into it." She shifted her position a little on the blanket to get more comfy as she continued carefully, "I think the hardest part is always getting started, so gettin' the ball rollin' here is gonna be a gradual thing, but where we go from here'll dictate what kinda production we're gonna be, and I already know it's gonna be a good one."

She took a brief sip of her hot chocolate, but it was apparent by her expression that she wasn't done, then she went on, "For those of you who're new to the Quill," which was everyone, actually, as Rusty wasn't present yet, "I know that writing articles and having the courage to show them to anyone, let alone the whole school, can be kinda tough sometimes. Sometimes we write stuff and we think it's rubbish, or sometimes we'll get a mental block and the words just won't come. When that happens, I think it's important to remember why you joined the Quill in the first place - 'cause y'want your voice to be heard, 'cause y'love writing, or whatever your reason may be. You're not on this team for no reason. Channel whatever passion it is that led you to join us in the first place, 'n let that fuel you 'n energize you. Take a walk, do whatever'll clear your mind... 'n the words'll come."

Taking another deeper sip of her hot chocolate, Sophie considered her words for a long moment, letting them sink in while also deciding whether or not she had anything else to add at the current moment. But... nothing, no. "Think that's all from me for now," she nodded at Myers. At least for starters.

Whaaaaaaaat were all these people going down here for? Charlotte had, just out of sheeeeeer curiosity, followed the dribs and drabs of brainy kids down down dowwwwwn to the grounds and found herself in the gaaarden.

.... and there was hot chocolate and donuts and she still had no idea what was going on because that head girl person was talking a LOT and Char honestly just kind of filtered it all out into one droning wahwahwahwah.

Sooon the first year had a mug of hot chocolate on the ground balanced between her knees, and a donut in each hand, which she munched on in turn. NOMNOM don't mind her. Nothing to see here. Tralala.

Maggie was here too.

Sitting by Noel with a hot chocolate in her hands. It was okay if it was hot chocolate. It wasn't SWEETS per se and it was only once in a while. When it was cold like it was today hot chocolate was the perfect drink to warm up with. Even though it was pretty warm in the professor's garden too. She would have to ask him for that spell later. It was definitely useful.

Maggie listened to Sophie's words, nodding along to some of them. Yes, there were still some things she had to figure out but her planning was coming along quite nicely she thought. Her gaze drifted over to Zander for a moment, however. She still had that favor he owed her. And she STILL hadn't quite figured out WHAT to use it on. What could he do for her? Probably even a lot more now that he was Head Boy. But it also meant that he was graduating this year so she would have to think fast.

Hmm.

Sending the Head Boy a sweet smile, she refocused her attention on Sophie. Right. She took another sip of her hot chocolate.

Rusty had been very busy. Being twelve was exhausting, don't you know, and a couple of things had been wriggling around in her head and messing with her readings, so she'd done almost nothing for the quill all term... Nevertheless, she was determined to finish her article before Yule and hopefully that would put her back into the swing of things.

She was late, of course, but only because she'd spent all day practicing the warming charm from her spell book so that she could go outside barefoot without her toes falling off in the cold. But anyway, she was here now. All bundled up apart from her feet.

"Hi everyone!" she chirped, taking a seat on the blanket and settling down comfortably. She didn't risk the donuts, in case they contained eggs or something, but instead snacked on some raisins that she'd brought with her. "Sorry I'm late!"

As she cupped her mug of hot chocolate, she waved her doughtnut-holding hand at Mr Kitridge as he too joined them. Maggie, Noel, and … Charlotte (whut?) all got smiles and waves as she sat happily on the ground waiting for the meeting to start.

Oh! There we go.

Big grins went to Professor Myers and to Sophie for their speeches and she listened happily, sipping and nodding to Sophie’s speech. Yes, yes, yes. Hehehe. This was awesome. She ate the end of her doughnut just as Rusty came in and she tapped the blanket next for her which she had saved just for her best friend. Heheh. How awesome was it that they were both writing together?

Marsha was proud of them so far, silently she wondered if they knew that. Had she told them? Hmmm.

Noel got a nod from Zander as diid the others who had trailed in after, but there wasn’t really any time to say much to them ‘cause that’s when Myers jumped in and told them they better start getting rid of all the negativity… Which er, was there negativity to begin with, sir? As in, was this completely necessary?

But the man did give them hot chocolate so Zander wasn’t about to protest. He was just gonna sit here and breathe like normal and drink the hot cocoa. That was enough, right? No negativity here. Just confusion. And maybe a little bit of judgement. He did however, stop the sipping of his drink once it was Sophie’s turn. He actually liked hearing what she had to say. Ahem. So he payed full attention, noticing how well she worked under the sudden pressure. Merlin, the girl could do it all.

Always impressed.

He did, however, turn when he noticed Charlotte Kettleburn wandering in. Huh. He never would’ve guessed she’d want to be on staff. Come to think of it though, he never really guessed that he would’ve wanted to be on staff either. So touché. Maybe she actually was meant to be a Ravenclaw?

But anyways, come to think of it… He actually didn’t even know who all was on staff. So he took the moment to look around again just to remember for the next time. Ahem. Noel. Sophie of course. Rusty. Charlotte. And the devil, herself.

Speaking of which, how come she was looking at him like that?

Sophie Brown sure could talk a lot. Paul didn't mind. He thought everything she had to say was needed and important, of course. Yes...the whole.... 'scared to show off writing' thing was being addressed, and Paul thought this was...very important. "It's scary even for me....I let David Truebridge borrow the book I've written about crossbreeds...and I am very very nervous about letting him read it." He sipped his hot chocolate calmly. "But...sometimes, we have to let people read what we have to say not only to get the word out there..but as a learning experience. They might be able to help clear up a weird way we worded something--or explain how we could have...explained something better in our work.."

He was all about learning how to write academically...creatively, he had no idea. And Journalism didn't fit quite in either of the categories, but he supposed it was more academic than creative writing, yes.

As more people trickled in, Paul noticed a young one...a first year, peek in curiously. Who was that...oh MERLIN Paul couldn't think of her name---CHARLOTTE KETTLEBURN. Or was it Kettleborn? He scratched his head trying to remember--regardless, he smiled in a friendly manner at the girl. Was she..on the Quill? She was welcome to eat donuts...hmm....

"It's perfectly all right Rusty---ahh---" he noticed her bag of raisins and thought maybe...was this one vegan? Paul and Milton had dabbled in "veganism" awhile back, and he suddenly felt BAD about not having an option for her. He'd remember for next time. "I'm sorry about the donuts, my dear." He was frowning every so slightly.

"OKAY! Well. Piggy-backing off of what Sophie has said---I notice a definite lack of....articles,....as compared to last year." He had been reading. "And...not to say this is bad--because it isn't bad! But I just wanted to know why...and if there is absolutely ANYTHING Leo and I can do to help you all keep writing. I enjoy the Quill...it's nice to see students THINKING and writing and producing--it's truly a wonderful thing."

And there.

"Or...anything you would LIKE to be doing that you aren't currently? Anything? Thoughts?"

Oh yes, Davie HAD borrowed that book from Professor Myers. He'd been carrying it around in his bag all term, slowly working through a chapter or two at at time. He even had a thick notebook, of the Muggle variety, in which he was jotting down his thoughts and suggestions for improvement as though he were a regular editor. He'd nearly forgotten that he'd promised to do a write-up of the book for the student newspaper, and was now just reading the book for hobby than for purpose.

But anyway, that was a separate matter in the back of his mind. He came down to the garden today to donate his lunch scraps to the professor's compost pile. Digging around his bag, Davie produced a banana peel; a half-eaten and now stale bit of toast; an apple core; a chocolate frog card oh nope, nope that he WAS keeping; a baggie of owl pellets which he had diligently collected from the owlery when he posted his latest letter; and finally, the last little bit from a bottle of water he'd opened and left opened on his nightstand and forgotten to finish.

It was all dumped in the bin, except for the plastic baggie and the plastic bottle, because those could be recycled in another way. Davie dusted off his hands merrily and tucked the plastic rubbish back in his bag, which was when he noticed the professor's book in the very bottom. Oh! He really ought to finish that... maybe he'd go do some light reading in the warm castle. Yes, good plan.

Sophie wandered down to Professor Meyer's Garden, it appeared there was a meeting going on? Oops, she wasn't intending to intrude. She just came to do some recycling! Nothing to see here...She rummaged in her bag for a bit before pulling out her items. She had an orange peel from breakfast, figuring they could use it for compost? Sophie tossed it into one of the bins. There was a container from juice as well, she tossed that into the plastic's container. Plus she had a newspaper from breakfast too! That was definitely good to recycle! The baggie that contained the orange peel also went into the recycling bin, followed by the last of her items, a disposable container her mum had sent her that had previously contained cookies.

Wiping her hands on her robes, she smiled at the group of people before turning around. They all had donuts and hot cocoa! Why did Sophie always have such a sweet tooth?! It made her want to go to the Great Hall, and she wasn't even hungry! Deciding she would go take a walk instead, Sophie started to wander away.

Adi had collected exactly five materials for Myers's compost bin. Naturally they were ALL food related items. Hehe. Hey, food was always within reach given his love for the thing and fact that the Kitchen was not so far from the Hufflepuff common room.

He stepped up to the bin to deposit a half eaten scone, a looooong coil of potato peel, some apple peels, some tea leaves and a slice of toast. There! Soon Myers could have them making more composts. Happy with his contribution, Adi shuffled out of the garden and back towards the Castle.

Oliver had been collecting food wastes from the great hall every since the last herbology lesson. He had a tin that he brought with him every time he went to eat and it had been slowly filling with things. Now that it was pretty much full, he figured that it would be a good time to bring it down to the garden and empty it into professor Myers' bin.

The tin contained a variety of food waste, including a banana peel, a tea bag, an apple core, an orange peel, and some coffee grounds. Most of them were fruits, apparently plants liked that. Happy eating, plants. Oliver dumped his tin into the bin. Well that was fun.

He was here! Yes. Blaise walked over to the garden carrying his every day waste like he'd been told to do and was ready to drop them in the recycling bin. It was a wonder he remembered at all but somehow he did otherwise this would have all been trash cause who really collects garbage?

Let's see.....crumpled parchment....empty inkwells...bread crusts he never planned to eat...orange peelings aaaand the tea bags from his nightly tea. All things that would have otherwise been discarded if he didn't remember it was a part of his homework too.

Was he meant to separate them....? Er...there was only the one bin that he could see...which probably meant the Professor would be the one to do the sorting after it was all done. That made sense he supposed so in everything went, nice and snug with whatever else others had dropped off before him.

This meant he could stop storing garbage now, yeah?

Bentley had his little container that he was dutifully saving all his leftovers in clutched securely in his hand. All the while he was wondering if Blaise had even remembered that he wasn't suppose to throw out all his scraps. Not much he could do about it now if his cousin hadn't.

Hmmm...egg shells from his boiled eggs, tea bags, melon skin, orange peels and old parchment papers.

This would have to do right? He hoped so.

The first year dropped his container into the bin and hopped off towards the great hall.

After she had done doing her homework at the greenhouse, Ava stopped at the Professor's garden for a while before she's heading back to the castle. Professor Myers also asked them to collect some garbage that can be used as the compost materials. The young lioness hoped that she collected enough things for the compost.

Let's see... She had used parchment, tea bags, mango peels, tea leaves and the last one was... fish bones. Those things could be used for the compost, right? She hoped so. She left her garbage at the bin that the Professor had provided for them.

Having completed her Herbology homework not to long again she decided to make the trek on over to Professor Myer's Garden. There was a bin there she knew where she would be able to add some of her items from the work so they could be used for compost materials.

Carrying the small bin under her arm she quickly located the bin that she could dump her items into. Walking over she tipped her bin into the larger one easily adding some used parchment (from random sketches she had drawn), some coffee grounds from her previous mug of coffee she had drank while completing her homework, the core of an apple, a peppermint tea bag along with a bit of bread crumbs. There you are Professor Myers! Enjoy the materials for some nice compost making!

With her empty bin back under her arm she turned around and slipped back out after a look at some of the plants that were around. She'd come back another day and spend some time in here.

Y'know, Zander Adair was real lucky he had made loads of friends down in the kitchens. And by loads of friends he meant Toddles. So one friend. But Zander was real lucky he made a friend in the kitchens. But all the House Elves were real friendly anyways so actually he wasn't even-- Ahem. Off topic.

Of course the collecting waste thing wasn't really on his mind when he was eating a meal, so he had completely forgotten to do so. But aha this is why the above was ON topic he did know where he could find some waste. HEH. And all he had to do was visit the kitchens after meal time. House Elves had plenty of plates to clear and plenty of waste showed up along with them.

So he had come in with a paper bag filled with waste materials. All of which stunk up the entire walk over to the garden. Quickly, as to not suffocate from the scent, he dumbed out a few apple cores, some used tea bags, corn cobs, and orange peels. And he had also collected some pine needles right outside so he added those to the appropriate bin as well.

And done.

Collecting everyday waste for compost was something that Paulina had done a fair number of times, so she had no problem doing this extra credit assignment.

It was EASY.

And it helped NATURE.

In an empty coffee tin she had accumulated: scrap pieces of parchment, banana peels (she had shredded them to help them break down faster), tofu, ground up egg shells, pencil shavings, a few tea bags, leaves from plants that she had trimmed, and some peanut shells.

Dumping everything into the bin, Paulina made her way back to the castle.