#10. Of Herbs and Mushrooms

The Slytherin did see some of the brittlebushes, but they looked so very small, Kevin felt sorry for them. He decided not to pick any of those, letting the nature take its course and let them grow. He could always come back in a few weeks or months for some, now that he knew where they grew.

What Kevin did see where his other ingredients, the toadstool and some mushrooms. The latter grew in the grass, right where the parchment said it would, while the mud toadstools where nearer the water, where it was muddier. Sighing at the sight of the mud patches, Kevin mulled over his choice.

Kevin opted to go to the Beech tree first, to pick up one of the ordinary mushrooms he saw laying around. He marveled at its huge size, before kneeling down into the grass, wincing at the grass stains the action would leave afterwards. 

Kevin hah'ed in delight when he got the mushroom and put it in storage before jumping to his feet. He looked at his clothing, frowning at the mess on his knees. Since he couldn't stand to be dirty for too long, Kevin took out his wand and pointed it at the dirty patches.

'Tergeo!' he cast, watching the dirt and grass particles disappear. With one of the five ingredients already collected, Kevin turned towards the muddy bank where he saw the mud toadstools

'Here we go,' Kevin muttered to himself and stepped nearer the water, where he spied some of the toadstools among the reeds. Since it was far away from where he found the ordinary mushrooms, Kevin couldn't be sure of the fungi he noticed were the ones he needed.

'Now, where are you?' he asked himself, bending down to look between the reeds, kicking up and moving some of the dirt, grimacing at the wet feeling Kevin was sure to soon feel.

[OOC: Not sure if this is how spell effects work, do poke for an edit if not.]

Kevin happily skipped to the mud toadstools and in his delight, he didn’t even mind immediately reaching down into the mud with one hand. What awaited him, though, was something else.

‘[OH COME ON],’ Kevin signed when he found that what he thought were toadstools weren’t those at all. In fact, they were very small rocks covered with smile. So not only was he muddy and dirty, Kevin didn’t even have toadstools to be at least somewhat satisfied with the effort.

As Kevin was glaring at the reeds, his eyes caught a flash of…something very near him. His heart quickened as Kevin tried to see what it was, but by the time he was looking in the right direction, it already disappeared. He hoped it wasn’t something that has been honking at him for the past few minutes. Like a goose. Those animals were vicious and Kevin wasn’t in the right mood to get eaten that day. Just in case, Kevin picked up his wand again.

‘Lumos!’ he cast, hoping that the base of the reeds would be more visible as it was somewhat shady around the water. And that whatever it was would get scared away. The spell didn’t do much in the direct light of day, but Kevin figured at least he could see down on water-level, hopefully.

After some careful minutes of observation and just about as he wanted to give up, Kevin spied one lonely mud toadstool by the base, brought to more prominence of the splashing and the spell.

‘There,’ Kevin quickly grabbed it before his luck would have a toad eat it and looked around if there were any more before he left the savannah. Just in case, Kevin kept a close eye on the edge of the water.