An active, character-driven Hogwarts experience set in the early 2000s. Unique items, plots, and features. Non-canon; this isn't Harry Potter's story, it's ours.
Jamie had trudged through the snow and made it to the greenhouse a little winded and red-faced. His nose was cold now and he felt relieved to be in the greenhouse where it was warmer. Putting his things does, he pulled out his gloves and walked over to his own plants. There were only three, luckily... He had seen one girl with several pots and he didn't think he would ever be that confident. Three was good for him!
But, he did feel like he was finally understanding what to do and looked at his three plants with mild worry. Sunurk and Moonurk Berries to him were the easiest, but the Eglower wasn't too bad. So, he gave a nod and went over to the Sunurk to get started.
Last Edit: Dec 22, 2021 15:11:06 GMT 10 by Lena: Enforcing title requirement for this type of thread / location
Post by Lindsey Bryce on Dec 21, 2021 23:37:43 GMT 10
Lindsey had been following the smaller student through the school and down the path to the greenhouse. She had pulled on her gloves as she made it halfway down the path. The snow was lovely, she had to admit, but she saw it all the time in the Highlands during winter. Well, when it snowed anyway and it just reminded her of home. She hoped her parents were having a good time in America. She couldn't wait to hear about their trip and what adventures they had.
She wondered who they were staying with, but the wondering was gone by time she made it to the greenhouse and she focused on her plants. These were all harder plants, but ones she was ready to work with. She looked over at the young boy, who was also at his work station and went to her own further down.
Stems of the berry plant were strong, but simple to deal with. A charm or some nearby sheers would help snip the ingredient free, even as the plant's leaves tried to make it harder to spot the berries, but sometimes a hands-on approach worked just as fine too.
Compared to most harvestable plants, the Eglower was less forgiving. Its stems were soft though needed a firm hand, yet any attempt to pick it caused the flower to puff sneeze-inducting, stinky pollen into the face.
--
Sheers and spells weren't any use against the Furbod plant. It kept wriggling out of the way, surprisingly fast and flexible. The only option was to do battle with it, seizing the twin bean and yanking until it came free. Breaking the stem that way wasn't hard, no -- the hard part was grabbing it fast enough.
The mushroom-like plant was rather unsightly. The main Puris pod was the goal to obtain a viable ingredient, but its musty stink increased with proximity. It was as marshmallow-soft as it looked, making sheers and spells too risky. It tore off easily enough, but released a sour gas when grabbed -- causing blurry vision and light-headedness, which would soon fade. The broken stem oozed stinging sap that needed to be gently cleaned off.
Taffen Hide gloves would protect the skin from contact during picking. Without it, any skin exposed to the plant or its sap would be left with sensitive marks, which would last a few hours. Once picked, its skin-contact risk was subdued.
The dark, leafy plant was unremarkable and could easily be overlooked in an ordinary garden -- a factor which would prove dangerous to an unsuspecting gardener. Once the plant sensed its company or was in any way disturbed, its leaves became coated in a pale green juice.
Firemint lived up to its name, with a minty odour filling the air -- another feature that was deceptively harmless, as the juice itself was like corrosive acid. Taffen Hide gloves were necessary to protect the skin / fabric / organic matter from contact while tilting the leaves to drain the juice into a jar. Without it, the substance was highly dangerous and excruciating.
The Toxyvine plant was the very embodiment of intimidating -- even its leaves had a menacing look about them. Overall, it somewhat resembled a strawberry plant from Hell.
The yellow and green thorns were the most prominent feature, and were sharp as knives. They leaked a dark poison as well, making Taffen Hide gloves a necessity to protect skin while snapping the tough thorns off. Or really, to handle the plant in any way as it was prone to sudden movements.
Without protection, any exposed skin would be bloodied and infected -- a hasty trip to the Hospital Wing would be of dire need.
The Thistle plant was primarily just the flower itself. However, while the long stalk bore visual similarity to its Muggle counterpart -- it was incredibly lively and braced for attack.
Any attempt to grab or snip it was met with the stalk flexing like a needle-covered vine. It could grab and pierce anything that made contact, though was particularly interested in arms. With its ability to squeeze like a python, sheers were useless; once grabbed, anything could be snapped from the pressure.
Taffen Hide gloves were the only chance a gardener had to grab and break off the thistle flower, and live to tell the tale.
Post by Lindsey Bryce on Dec 23, 2021 2:00:37 GMT 10
With the gloves already on, Lindsey was pleased to get started on her harvesting. The Furbod would be the first one for her to tackle and it was already wiggling like mad. She found herself smiling at the plant before she went into the battle. She grabbed at the stem to attempt to grab it, though the first few times it managed to wiggle away. Once she had the stem she wanted, she held tight while she moved her hand up towards the beans.
Once she had her hands on the beans, she gave them a yank and smiled at them in her hand before she moved aside and placed them in her bag. She made sure they went with the other Furbods and turned to the next plant on her station. The Puris pod looked like a mushroom and she felt her stomach turn a little. She hated mushrooms, even if her mother had told her several time they were good for several recipes. Abandoning the idea of using sheers or spells, she inhaled a deep breathe and went towards the plant.
The smell the plant released was awful and she coughed a little as it invaded her nose. The gloves were a blessing as she grabbed the mushroom and it oozed it's weird sap. She coughed at the scent and stumbled backwards as she felt herself become dizzy and her vision blur. She backed away from the work station and managed to find a stool to sit on. Once things cleared, she was able to look in her hand and see the muchroom. She quickly made a pouch out of parchment and wrapped it before putting it with the other ingredients.
Lindsey had no desired to get up straight away, taking a moment to just breathe the air away from the work station and gather her wits before she went back into the fray. Firemint was not one she wanted to mess with too much, but it was a needed ingredient and so she pulled her sleeves up as best as she could and thought about the best approach. The leaves had already coated themselves in the pale green juice, which is what she was attempting to collect.
Pulling out a jar, she walked over to the Firemint and began the process of tilting the leaves and draining the juice. She started at the top, to avoid any dripping on her sleeves and arms, which seemed to work well. She did see some drip on her gloves and was glad to have them. At least the leaves weren't shaking like several other plants were known to do. The minty scent was nice though, even if it was very dangerous. It cleared out the stink from the Puris Pod.
With the juice collected, she examined the jar to make sure nothing had dripped down the sides and once that was in good order, put the lid on and placed it in her bag. She made sure it had something soft around the jar to prevent accidents and looked at the Toxyvine. Like her other plants, it looks dangerous and she was reminded of her blessing. She really could not think of anything better than her gloves and she went towards the plant with the purpose.
She began the work of carefully removing the tough, sharp thorns, placing them down on the counter while they oozed their poison. She was careful to not let any of it touch her skin, as she really did not want to go to the Hospital wing on Christmas Eve. She kept a careful eye on the movement, jumping back a few times when a sudden movement caught her off guard, but she returned to move determination to continue her collecting.
Once she had done that, she surveyed the remaining plant and nodded in silent agreement to herself. She placed the collected thorns into another parchment pouch that she made quickly and stored them into her bag, making sure to put it in a pocket by itself so she wouldn't accidently grab them and cause injury.
The last plant she had seen before... Well, the non-magical one she had seen. Thistles were seen in the highlands, they weren't uncommon. Her mother even used both the magical and non-magical plant in her own medicines to help everyone in the community. Being a mixed community, she had to be careful not to use magical on the muggle. This one looked a bit more intimidating. She had seen her mother deal with the plant, but now it was her turn.
So, she took to standard approach, and grabbed at the plant. The vines quickly began to squeeze her hands and wrist on the gloves. She hoped they didn't try to come higher and she aimed for the flower as quickly as she could. She pulled back a few time to try and prevent the vine from traveling up her arm and when her hand made contact with the flower of the plant, she grabbed and yanked as hard as she could to break it from the plant.
The sweat was easily traveling down her neck from the task she had done. All of them had been tough, but she had managed to do it and she stored the last of the items away before she cleaned up her station and began the process of replanting. Now, with a new pot, she smiled at the beautiful item and quickly filled it and her other advance pot with dirt. She pulled out another few pots and filled them as well before planting the seeds.
She chose to put in her Yellow and Blue Seeds, which from the past would allow her to get some more Sunurk and Moonurk Berries. Then, she pulled out the Purple Seed, which she knew would give her a Furpod. The last two seeds she planted were the Light Green and Dark Green Seeds, which after today told her she would get the Puris Pod and the Firemint Juice. She made sure to put the Light Green and Dark Green Seeds into the two Advanced Pots instead of the cheaper ones.
With those all planted, she removed her wand and pointed it at the five pots, which were placed in slots 41 to 45. Those were becoming her normal slots and she liked to keep it that way. Smiling, she focused on the spell she was about to use.
"Aquamenti," She said in a firm tone and water came from her wand and she moved it along to each plant. Once she was done, she gave lower her wand and put it away. Making sure she had cleaned up her mess, she headed out and towards the village.
Jamie startled a little when another, older student came in, but relaxed a little. He had seen her before and she rarely seemed to make any problems for anyone. That was good for him, because he always felt a little intimidating around her. Pushing that aside, he looked at his own little plants. He had three and that was all he wanted right now, anyway.
Looking around, he grabbed the nearest sheers and went after the two berry plants. The leaves kept getting in his way and he continued to brush them aside, which was causing him to get frustrated and grit his teeth together. After a fight, he managed to collect the Sunurk Berries first and then he went after the other, again having to fight with the leaves that continued to get in his way. After another few minutes of battle, he managed to collect those.
Putting those away, he turned to the Eglower and remembered the nasty, sneeze-inducting pollen it liked to puff out when someone messed with it. This caused his heart to beat faster. He really didn't want to start sneezing, but he went after the flower anyway. The flower quickly released it's sneezing Pollin and he began to sneezing that caused his eyes to water and vision to blur. After the third time of this happened, he managed to grab the flower and pull it free from the stem.
With that done, he put it away in his bag with the berries and pulled out three pots to plant with. He filled them with dirt and planted his only three seeds: Yellow, Blue, and Pink Seeds. One they were planted, he pulled out his wand and pushed the pots into the same places as before, which were slots 1 to 3, and pointed his wand.
"Aquamenti!" He said, though frowned when only a few drops came out. He aimed again. "Aquamenti" This time it worked and water came out with some force. He was able to hold on and water all three of his pots. With that, he left and headed back into the castle.
Post by Alice Jane on Dec 25, 2021 17:24:29 GMT 10
Alice came to the greenhouse holding the garden pot in her hand. There were already so many plants planted there, but she has to find Professor Sprout.
She look around to find Professor Sprout somewhere to ask for help.
Professor Sprout made her way out of the castle and towards the greenhouses. She entered this one and spotted a young Gryffindor nearby, who appeared to be waiting or searching for something.
'Anything I can help with, Jane?' Sprout kindly asked, setting aside a fresh batch of seeds to be sorted and planted later on.
Alice smile when she saw Professor Sprouts coming. She guessed Professor is here t plants the seeds in her hands. She hold her gardening pot near to her.
"Yes Professor, I was hoping to plant in this greenhouse. Could you help me please", She ask with innocent eyes looking at her.
There were already so many different plants in these, some fully grown while some still growing. Soon her plants also be one of them.
'Yes, of course.' Professor Sprout nodded, friendly and willing to help.
'Though I only grant access to those willing to put the work in,' she added. 'Having access to the Student Greenhouse and making use of it in you free time... that's quite a commitment. Are you sure you're up to the task?' She wanted more from Alice than just her request to do so. An explanation of why she wanted to grow her own plants, for instance.
Alice needed to convince Sprout that she was serious about it and the work involved.
Alice become happy when Professor Spout agrees to help but before that she ask the question.
"I believe I am up to the task. Till now whatever I have learned about various ingredients, how incredible they are. This makes me wonder what else could be archive if we learn about all the plants. That's why I am curious to know more", She was done with whatever was in her mind. Maybe Professor will accept and teach her more.
'Before I give you access, I'd like each of you to prove yourself and show you're willing to put the work in,' Sprout said, accepting Alice's answer with an appreciative nod of her head. Herbology was indeed a wonderful yet expansive subject.
She aimed her wand at a plant on the nearest counter, and water sprouted from the tip like a hose.
'The Water-Making Charm,' she explained. 'Watering cans also do the job, but this spell is how it's done here. If you'd like to grow your own plants and use this greenhouse, you'll need to know this spell.'
She made a gesture, teaching Alice the wand motion. Sprout took her time, making sure she had a fair chance to see the demonstration.
'Concentrate carefully,' she said. 'Consider the need for water, and say the incantation: aquamenti.' She moved aside to give her easy access to the plant. It would take a few attempts, but she was confident Alice could do it.
Free-RP is allowed; success and progress are determined by you.
'Indeed it was. Well done,' Professor Sprout praised. 'Eight points to Gryffindor. I'd say you're ready.'
She then gathered supplies to get Alice started, which included some seeds.
'You may use this greenhouse any time during the day, unless it's mealtime,' she said. 'It'll be locked at night, so don't get any ideas.' Sprout gave her a stern yet warm look.
"Thank you Professor", She said taking supplements from Professor.
She look at the seed in her hand, maybe this is the time to plant the first seed.
She went near slot number 31 and bend down. The garden pot that Hagrid had given her was still with her, she gather some soil and put it inside the pot, hiding the blue seed inside it. She doesn't know exactly what is going to come out when it is grown but something useful for sure. After all, a professor wouldn't give any seed which could grow something dangerous.
She placed her pot on Slot number 31. She get up and take her wand out. She has just learned the spell and she can do it again. She focus hard on the water, "Aquamenti"
Enough amount of water came from the wand and then stopped.
After finishing it, She wash her hands and went inside the castle.
Last Edit: Jan 3, 2022 22:53:42 GMT 10 by Alice Jane
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