"Gloves, and tuck your hair back. You'll want to make sure you don't have any loose sleeves or clothes that can catch fire easily. The two plants we're looking for in an indoor garden won't be so dangerous, although it's always smart to pick something with gloves on until you know more about it." Katy led the younger girl upwards from the Potions classroom toward the one spot she KNEW of an indoor garden. Clever clever, Mr. Healer man.

Well. Look at that. This whole place was a plethora of good findings, and Katy reminded herself to come back sometime. "So, Miss Maddie, here we are. An indoor garden. What do you think you see here? Ignore the fact that we're obviously not the only one's smart enough to find this place." The good news was that both betony and stargrass were mundane plants... no one was gonna get hurt wandering into the bushes on this one, but they also weren't the only things in this garden.

"We also have to be precise in how much we take, just enough for us two, and leave plenty for everyone else. Some plants are better fresh..." She spotted what she wanted, but wasn't sure if Maddie had yet.

"Imagine if the Gryffindor Common Room passcode was this complicated... I would'nt be able to remember it," laughed Vi as she shook her head. She, too, began looking at the labels. No. Not this one. She had gotten to G......

There it is!

Vi turned around to face Ace at such an exclamation and received the textbook straight into her arms. Fortunately she had been ready for the textbook and did not drop it. Cradling said book in her arms, she glanced down at the image of the plant and glanced back to verify if it matched the one that Tenacius had pointed out.

In an instant, she did the calculation and turned back to confirm it with him. "Yes, that would total to 102g." Measuring out that much would make sense. Now that they had the Stargrass, they needed the other one. The Betony Leaves. Now where would those be hiding? She noticed the other groups of students that had joined them in the inner garden and she saw the plant that they had headed to. Glancing at the textbook, she flipped through the pages until she found the plant with such a common name. And it looked a like! "Found it," she beamed, passing the book back to Ace and then heading over to harvest the betony leaves. She brought her wand and carefully cut the plant where the leaves met the stems. She took ten leaves in total. An extra five would always come in handy if they messed up a potion or something.

With leaves in hand, she turned to Ace. "Well we should be all set!" Time to rock and roll.

Maddie fished her gloves out her bag and checked to make sure her hair was still pulled back. "Got it," she said, as she rocked back and forth just once on her heels. She was super excited about this scavenger hunt! Katy sounded really, really smart, too, so Maddie figured she knew exactly what she was talking about. Not really knowing as much about the castle as Katy probably did, Maddie just followed her all the way up to third floor and into this really awesome looking herbal garden.

Maddie. Was. AMAZED. (Which didn't take much, mind you.) "There's an entire herbal garden here at Hogwarts?! How long's this been here? Do the students get to come here often? Can you just get what you need and practice a potion?" she asked, launching into a stream of questions out of excitement alone. She wanted to go exploring, which was just what she was about to do! What did she think she saw here?! Her imagination was suddenly running wild! She was an explorer, and they were deep in a forest full of plants and searching for the ingredients to make a potion they needed to brew really quickly. Katy was her super smart tour guide, and there was danger up ahead just waiting for them to make a wrong turn!

That's what Maddie saw in here! There were adventures to be had! AHEM. She paused to put on her gloves then took a careful look around. "We need betony and stargrass, right? We should be able to find those here," she said, with a hint of hesitation in her voice. Katy could probably tell Maddie only halfway knew what she was doing here. She held up her gloved hands and smiled at her guide. "Ready when you are."

Cool place. Probably the best place in the entire school! Luci stared at all the herbs around her, beaming every now and then, also trying to think of what was the name of each plant they needed, for all this excitement of feeling like at her mum's greenhouse she felt at the moment. Just like at home.

"We need Betony leaves...I think...this...Scha...Sta...." Frustration ran in her expression, but then she saw them from afar. Stachys Officinalis Her mother would be so shaking her head at the moment. "Miranda...get the bowls...and help me collect, please? And Rhea...I need your help big time, you've got your textbook? Find the Stargrass..."

The confidence with which she walked down the stairs that led to the Hospital Wing was half a facade. There was a garden patch up in the Astronomy Tower that had as much potential but...this was one floor down and the other was three floors up. At the risk of being wrong, it just made more sense to check this place first.

"I remember there being a garden here. Reckon he might be more likely to have them in his own than someone else's."

A few feet more proved her suspicions completely. Both plants in question were within short distance of each other. "We'll need 5 of those Betony Leaves. In the meantime, I'll try to measure out the 32 grams for the stargrass." Such a good thing she'd bothered to pack the scale.

"The only thing is........do we only get 32? Are we gonna share the potion....? Because....we only got 5 fireseeds and now that I think about it....we'd have needed 10 to go separate." Had Healer Reed specified? She...couldn't actually remember.

Spoiler Alert. Her ears were still ringing. Julie rubbed at her lobes incessantly as they walked through the familiar path of the herb garden. She couldn't have told you exactly what Jessa was saying but she had the gist of it and that was enough to go on for now.

If her hearing didn't come back proper soon though, well, Reed was gonna have it.

"This is such an obvious place... " Not that she was complaining, except she was a little. "Do you think he figured it was so obvious that no one would think to look here?" Or maybe it was to makeup for the stupid fireplace and that stupid alarm. Julie rubbed her ears with further fervor.

She hadn't made it two steps within the vicinity of the found betony leaves when Jessa said something that made Julie's blood run cold. Slack-jawed, Julie stared at her friend in horror, betony leaves completely forgotten.

"I think I'm short-circuiting." On the record? Julie hated Potions.

Katy cast a sideways glance at the younger girl with a rueful little sigh. Like... she meant did the girl see the plants they were looking for. She didn't need to be told there were plants. There were OBVIOUSLY PLANTS, small puffle one. They were gonna have to start a little closer to the ground with this one.

"It's a beautiful little spot, yeah. And you can use what you need, but you may want to ask if you're gonna take a lot." Katy removed her textbook and offered it to Maddie before pulling out her pocket clippers. "See this one here with the long strands, almost like little green starbursts? This is stargrass. I'll cut some and we can weigh it when we get back to the classroom. Why don't you check the textbook to see what betony leaves look like? And then you can pick those for us."

Once she was sure Maddie was focused on their next task, Katy leaned over the stargrass, flipping up a few of the vibrant green leaves and clipping several starburst bunches where they met the stem. They needed a little over a cup of leaves, based on Katy's previous experience with fresh grasses and leaves, although these seemed thicker than some of the standard grasses she worked with. It took some guess work, but Katy harvested a whole stalk. Better a bit too much, and she could dry the rest and use it in another potion, if necessary. Waste not, want not.

It was kind of obvious, wasn't it? Were she not so busy worrying about how they would actually MAKE this potion when they got back to class, Jessa may have indulged in this line of thinking for a little longer.

As it stood.....they were possibly a whole set of ingredients short and another walk up the stairs was the last thing on her mind. "I...think we'll just share the potion? What's the worst that'll happen? I don't think he'd send us all the way back up to grab more, we won't have any time then." In fact, there was hardly any time now. A quick glance at her watch told her they had a precious 10 minutes left and hadn't grabbed a thing.

"I say we worry about this later." She suggested, pulling the scale from her bag and plucking at the stargrass. "We're pretty much out of time."

The 32 grams were measured out and stuffed inside before she rose from her knees. "We don't have time to be correct anymore." She trusted Julie would grab the Betony as instructed, and she was already headed for the door.

Unfortunately, more and more of his classmates were arriving, making looking more difficult. Why couldn't Professor Reed just have had the ingredients ready for them?

Finally, he found the betony. Ronan reached into his bag and pulled out some plant clippers and a small container. Reaching for the plant, he carefully picked out a nice looking leaf and carefully used the clippers to snip it. Once the leaf was detached, he opened the container and dropped it in. He repeated the action four more times, snapping the lid back on the container once he was done and tossing it back in his bag.

Then it was the stargrass' turn. Fortunately, it was found quicker than the betony and Ronan hurriedly nabbed an empty container and his scale out of his bag. A quick snip snip and there was stargrass on the scale. But it was only fifteen grams. So, he snip sniped a little more. Thirty-six grams. He removed some. Twenty-three. This went on until Ronan had exactly thirty-two grams, which was carefully brushed into the designated container, which was tossed into his bag, followed carefully by the scale.

Now, it was time to find the fireseeds, which if the Head Girl was right, could be found in the library. Though, if he was her, he would've either not told anyone or lied about it. Make everyone do their own work. But, to each their own and he wasn't about to turn down free help. "Thanks!" called out, dashing away and towards the library.

Merlin's -

No. she was a slytherin, and a bellaire and neither of those words were synonymous with freaking out. She would make this work. They would make this work or she would argue the point until an understanding was had. Deep breath, this was no big deal.

Having gathered herself as much together as she could, Julie listened with her back turned and plucked the leaves needed for the potion. One. Two. Three. Four, and Five. "We have to share it. there isn't enough time to go all the way back to the Library for me." Essentially it was two trips, and that was two more trips than necessary. "If he calls us out we'll call him out. It's only fair. He should've explained properly." Julie was almost speaking more to herself than Jessa. Okay, she was definitely speaking more to herself than Jessa because the Ravenclaw had already bolted.

Merlin's-

and just like that, she was off.

So the kitchens had been a dead end and so had been the ground floor up through the second floor seeing as they hadn’t been able to come up with another place on any of those floors that could supply what they were looking for. It wasn’t until the third floor that the thoughts of a garden sparked from Cassie’s memory of the layout of the castle. It was near the hospital wing which made sense given how herbs and such were used for healing. Here it was…the herb garden! Hopefully they would have better luck finding the leaves and grass here so they could move onto the fireseeds.

“So Betany leaves and stargrass…” she mused, entering the area with Skylar. Other students were already there so Cassie was feeling lucky about finding the ingredients. She was grateful she had thought to make sure her book was in her bag so she could identify what was needed. “Here’s the stargrass….” She let her partner know as she moved to collect roughly enough for what they needed. Maybe a little extra just in case.

Maddie caught that sigh from Katy and blushed just a little. It wasn't often the bouncing ball of cotton candy Hufflepuff of a child she was got embarrassed, but she could tell the older girl was a little unimpressed with her. When Katy started talking again, though, Maddie perked up and smiled at her. She nodded. "I don't know how to brew many potions by myself yet anyway, so I won't be needed to grab any ingredients for a while," she said. She'd remember this place, though, even if she just came back for a little exploring and nothing else.

She leaned over and peered at Katy's textbook. She nodded and mentally went on and on to herself about how cool it was to have a plant that was named after stars and looked just like them, too. "Mmkay," she said. "Betony leaves...coming right up!" She sat criss-cross on the floor and thumbed through the book, looking for the section for plants beginning with the letter B. "Did you know these things are used for treating mad dog bites?" she randomly asked, getting a little off topic. Still, she now knew what the plant looked like and was on a mission to find it.

Maddie trekked through the garden with Katy's textbook in hand. "Found them!" she suddenly exclaimed, matching the betony in the garden to the one in book. Maddie knelt down beside the plant and began carefully collected a sample of them. Hopefully this was what they needed and not some random plant... She was pretty sure of herself, though! She picked up Katy's book and carried her selections back to the older girl. "Got it," she announced proudly.

So honestly? Skylar was just following Cassie's lead here on this scavenger hunt because it involved less thinking on her part and she already felt like her mind was stretched to the max. Besides, the girl was one, a Ravenclaw, and two, she'd taken and achieved ALL outstandings on her OWL exams last year. So definitely smart; of course she had no idea what subjects the girl took exams in, but regardless she had more brains than a flobberworm. Nothing in the kitchens and now they were on their way up to the hospital wing, when a lightbulb went on finally. Yes, she remembered the herbal garden from passing when she visited the Healer after her fireseed incident.

"Betony leaves and stargrass," Sky repeated, and then Cassandra found the stargrass. Was she taking enough for her too or did she have to get her own? "OH look, betony leaves too," she grinned, carefully clipping some off. Five of them, to be precise. Or well, was she meant to get five more for Cassie?

Oh goody…Skylar had found the betany leaves so that was two for the price of one in this location. “Alright,” she said as she straightened up, her stash put away for safe keeping as they moved onto finding those pesky fireseeds. “I got enough for both of us, so if you’ve got the betany leaves, we’re all set here.” Which given the glance she gave to her watch to keep track of the time would be a good thing since they would need most of the time they had left to get the seeds AND get back down to the potions classroom so they could actually get to the brewing.

“We should probably get going…” Cassie mused as she headed back to the doorway. “Find that fire whe---“ then it hit her. Of course…why didn’t she remember it earlier as she spent so much time in the library and all?! “Might need to check the library.” It was as good a place as any that had fire that all houses could go in at once.

Fireplace here they came.

Oh, so they were collecting enough for two? Quickly clipping off another five leaves, she nodded at the older Ravenclaw, adding them into her vial and dropped the vial into her bag. "Got all the leaves enough for both as well," and now onto the fireseeds. Or could they NOT? She liked fire and all, from incendio the charm not that new dating place, but fireseeds? Those legit terrified her.

Now where would they be? Greenhouses was honestly her first guess, because that was where they harvested them before, but no... Cassandra seemed to think otherwise. A fireplace? Then again, the healer had said they were located INSIDE the castle, and the greenhouses were technically outside. There were fireplaces in all the common rooms, but she doubted they would be hidden there. Oh, the library. That made sense; see, Ravenclaw. "Good idea," she nodded, following Cassandra again

Rhea followed Luci and Miranda into the herbal garden and was immediately hit by the combined smell of all the herbs. It was surprisingly nice...

She raised her eyebrow at Luci's 'Scha...Sta....', but didn't say anything. Ah. "I do, yeah," she said, reaching into her bag and pulling out the textbook. She didn't mind finding the Stargrass on her own because, for the most part, she preferred working alone. "No problem," she said and scanned the garden, looking for the herb she needed, which was pictured in the textbook. It was quite easy to spot with it's distinctive shape and fairly bright colour. Though, compared to some of the other herbs in the garden, it was quite dull.

As soon as she spotted it, she headed over to it and took out the tools she would need to harvest it.

Ooh, good thing JUNIA had come prepared. He would never ever forget to bring his scales ever again though. Maybe he should bring them EVERYWHERE from now on.

Taking them from her, Cameron then proceeded to carefully cut off enough stargrass for the both of them. Maybe a little more because he couldn't exactly put it back once realizing that he'd taken around 70 grams. They'd have to remeasure before putting it into the potion but he was satisfied with his work. After putting it into a small bag he got up again and handed the scales back to Junia.

Now. Those fireseeds.

She was right about the common rooms. "Probably also not in any of the professors' offices, right? They'd be locked. Or we'd be interrupting them." He highly doubted any of the professors would agree to have an entire Potions class trail into their office one after the other to extract fireseeds from their private fireplaces. So...more public places probably.

He slowly made his way back to the door while thinking, expecting Junia to follow. Hmm.

After double checking the amount of Stargrass she needed to harvest, - 32 grams each, so 96 grams in total - she got out her scales and tools to cut the grass and got on with it. It was slow and tedious towards the end because she didn't want to cut too much off, so she cut it in smaller and smaller pieces.

Soon enough, it was done.

Stargrass in tow and tools packed away, Rhea headed back over to Miranda and Luci. "Did you get all fifteen pieces of Betony leaves?" Because there were three of them in this group, obviously. "I've got the Stargrass. We should head to the library. I heard that's where the Fireseeds are."

So the trio had made their way down to the green houses in search of Betony leaves... Seriously.. Where else would you go to find plant ingredients?...

" Of course... No problem, Luci... I'll get right on it.. ", she said as she went to the cupboard and grabbed three large bowls.... One for each of each them.
She came back quickly and started helping her harvest leaves, very carefully might I add. Making sure to take her knife and cutting it down close to the base of the plant..

" Don't forget to cut it long enough to hang in the drying room, Guys"., Randa said. If there was one thing she knew about this particular ingredient it was that it would take a few days of drying before it was ready to be shucked off the stem... Nice and dry.

Junia followed Cameron out, tucking her scales safely away in her bag. She was glad they'd narrowed down the places they'd need to look. That was a good start and they'd need to get a move on now. On to the next.

Okay. So he was feeling kinda useless at the moment and that was an icky feeling...but he HAD pulled the fire seeds from the fire so that really wasn't TOTALLY useless Puff status...but he wasn't being all that helpful with the bucket...and he had botched how many fire seeds they had needed...and he just looked the fool in general...but this made him all the more determined to help with the next part.

"5 pieces of Betony Leaves....32 grams of Stargrass...5 pieces of Betony Leaves....32 grams of Stargrass...5 pieces of Betony Leaves....32 grams of Stargrass..." he chanted to himself as he and Charlotte approached the entrance to the next area.

An area with their classmates coming and going and thus a good indication that they were in the right place.

But when Derf stepped in the entrance...his feet just STOPPED. He was nothing in these sorts of territories without Picketta...and he certainly did NOT have the bowtruckle with him right now.

"I...er..." he began with an obvious quiver of fear to his voice, now ruffling his hair like MAD since both his hands. "I'll hold the bucket now....I can't identify Stargrass or Betony...so...uh...probably best I stay here and...um...keep the bucket safe..."

....yup.

THAT was it. Betony and Stargrass. Both of those things Char knew she could identify by sight so that was a bonus. She sort of marched along with Derf's chanting. FIVE. PEE. SIZ. OF-BET-ON-EE-LEAVES. THIRTY-TWO-GRAMS. OF. STAR. GRASS. SKIP. FIVE. PEE. SIZ. OF-BET-ON-EE-LEAVES. THIRTY-TWO-GRAMS. OF. STAR. GRASS. SKIP.
The bucket bobbed along side her and continued swinging when she stopped behind him.

"Derf, you're coming in with me. You CAN hold the bucket, but you're still coming in, okay? I can identify them! But you're coming! SOOOO.... lets go!" She nudged him in before her and began looking around. "Betony flowers are purple, they should still be blooming until like the end of the month. And the leaves are like..." She used her wand to trace the curly-whirly edges of a betony leaf in the air, like a sparkler.

As for the stargrass she was assuming it wasn't an aquatic variety they were after? Or they probably would have ended up somewhere else, right? Or was it? ANYWAY start with the betony!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

THAT was it. Betony and Stargrass. Both of those things Char knew she could identify by sight so that was a bonus. She sort of marched along with Derf's chanting. FIVE. PEE. SIZ. OF-BET-ON-EE-LEAVES. THIRTY-TWO-GRAMS. OF. STAR. GRASS. SKIP. FIVE. PEE. SIZ. OF-BET-ON-EE-LEAVES. THIRTY-TWO-GRAMS. OF. STAR. GRASS. SKIP.
The bucket bobbed along side her and continued swinging when she stopped behind him.

"Derf, you're coming in with me. You CAN hold the bucket, but you're still coming in, okay? I can identify them! But you're coming! SOOOO.... lets go!" She nudged him in before her and began looking around. "Betony flowers are purple, they should still be blooming until like the end of the month. And the leaves are like..." She used her wand to trace the curly-whirly edges of a betony leaf in the air, like a sparkler.

As for the stargrass she was assuming it wasn't an aquatic variety they were after? Or they probably would have ended up somewhere else, right? Or was it? ANYWAY start with the betony!

NO. Nope. NO.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKAYFINE.

Mostly because he knew how uncool it would look if he turned and tried to bolt out of there. Plus...Charlotte nudging him in like that sorta made the exit unattainable at the moment as well...and he supposed if anything were to try and get him he could just throw fire seeds in their general direction seeing as he still had his gloves on and stuff.

Nodding as she spoke, he watched her wand movement for politeness only. His eyes instead started darting around looking for purple flowers...only he always had an Abey around for this sort of thing and now was even MORE lost and confused. Defeat showed in the slouch of his shoulders as they walked and he clutched the bucket closer to his person as if the warmth could somehow warm his poor bruised little Hufflepuff heart. "Is...er...that it?" he asked, pointing to a nearby plant with not purple but deep red flowers blossoming from it.

Charlotte relinquished the bucket gladly enough and began looking around. But.

Derf.

Ummmmmmmmmmmm no.

That was RED.

She was about to ask him why he would think that was purple when it occurred to her that maaaaybe he couldn't see colours? DID HE SEE THE WHOLE WORLD IN BLACK AND WHITE? TRAGIC. Well she didn't want to upset him about it so she just smiled compassionately.

"Nope.... look there's purple there and there." She pointed them out. And now they just needed to check the leaves...... the second one was the right one! And even if she hadn't worked that out, then the fact that there were leaves already missing was a big sign that others had already harvested from it. WHICH was a concern, ACTUALLY. Like how many leaves could these plants really handle having taken from them? Were they charmed somehow to grow back?

"Its this one!" And her first instinct was to pinch the leaves off and throw them in the bucket.

Um.

Whoops.

The first few disintegrated in a second.

FACEPALM.

"Just checking the fireseeds are still hot, you know?!" SMOOTH COVER, KETTELBURN.

She pinched off five leaves for herself and five more for Derf, plus a few extras just in case, and carefully stowed them..... in her pocket. That would do. NOW the stargrass.

And y'know, it wasn't that she was cheating or wanted to but she could see a gathering of their classmates nearby and.... yup, sure enough, stargrass.

"Do you think we should weigh it out now? Or just take some and hope for the best?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Charlotte relinquished the bucket gladly enough and began looking around. But.

Derf.

Ummmmmmmmmmmm no.

That was RED.

She was about to ask him why he would think that was purple when it occurred to her that maaaaybe he couldn't see colours? DID HE SEE THE WHOLE WORLD IN BLACK AND WHITE? TRAGIC. Well she didn't want to upset him about it so she just smiled compassionately.

"Nope.... look there's purple there and there." She pointed them out. And now they just needed to check the leaves...... the second one was the right one! And even if she hadn't worked that out, then the fact that there were leaves already missing was a big sign that others had already harvested from it. WHICH was a concern, ACTUALLY. Like how many leaves could these plants really handle having taken from them? Were they charmed somehow to grow back?

"Its this one!" And her first instinct was to pinch the leaves off and throw them in the bucket.

Um.

Whoops.

The first few disintegrated in a second.

FACEPALM.

"Just checking the fireseeds are still hot, you know?!" SMOOTH COVER, KETTELBURN.

She pinched off five leaves for herself and five more for Derf, plus a few extras just in case, and carefully stowed them..... in her pocket. That would do. NOW the stargrass.

And y'know, it wasn't that she was cheating or wanted to but she could see a gathering of their classmates nearby and.... yup, sure enough, stargrass.

"Do you think we should weigh it out now? Or just take some and hope for the best?"

Oh.

Ears burning an ironic shade of red, he nodded his head a bit too eagerly at her next description and clutched the bucket more fiercely. Could he pass that off as just testing her knowledge of colors? Probably not...so he wasn't going to embarrass himself any further by mentioning it.

Bottom line was that they had the petals now and that Derf 100% believed that Charlotte had been testing to make sure the seeds were still hot. It was quite clever really. Derf could confirm that the bucket was still warm and her charm very much proficient! "G-good call," he nodded, still flustered from, er, all the awkward uselessness that was Derfael Ashburry-Hawthorne at the moment.

"Oh, I'm pretty good at using my hands for measuring things...but I'll grab more than we need juuuuuuuuust to be safe," he nodded. FINALLY! HE WAS USEFUL! Although this meant that HE had to be the one to stick his hands into a plant and...oh a small pond? OH IT WAS AQUATIC?! Why had he forgotten this little nugget of information?! Dad would be...actually no. Dad would not be surprised but rather happy Derf remembered anything about the plant at all.

Aquatic varieties were the Hufflepuff's kinda loop hole when it came to Herbology. But no one tell his Head of House that.

Setting the bucket down next to him and keeping his gloves on, mostly for time efficiency at this rate, Derf scooped up a whole clump of the stargrass from a nearby little pond and immediately shoved it in his trouser pocket and then scooped up another one...and a couple more for good measure. Which now meant his pocket and trousers were soaking wet and dripping pond water from the one area...but he could feel Scamander wiggling around in there excitedly about the addition to her little charmed environment within the black folds.

"We're good to go," he beamed, throwing the seventh year a big thumbs up as he bent over to pick the bucket up again too. "Let's hurry back to the classroom!"

Cause they were almost out of time and stuff now and yes.

GO GO GO!