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.
Post by Amber Lloyd on Aug 26, 2023 19:00:45 GMT 10
After Quidditch practise, Amber had quickly made her way to the Greenhouse, despite feeling fatigued. But she remembered her plants and thought it was time to look after them before doing anything else.
Upon entering the Greenhouse, she left her bag at the entrance and made her way to the workbench with her gardening pots on it. She looked over each of them and nodded to herself.
As far as she could tell, they seemed ready to harvest. Amber fetched some scissors, itching to use them on the plants.
After harvesting was complete, nothing of value remained -- including ordinary clay pots that were cracked and no longer usable. Spaces of the counter were free again, unless having more seeds and supplies to start over with. Then all that was left was to clean up the workspace. Professor Sprout would appreciate it.
Stems of the berry plants were strong, but simple to deal with. A charm or some nearby sheers would help snip the ingredients 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.
Rewards (per ingredient): 1 house point. 40 Herbology exp
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.
Rewards (per ingredient): 1 house point. 40 Herbology exp
Post by Arthur Hocking on Aug 26, 2023 22:41:16 GMT 10
After Transfiguration, Arthur headed to the Greenhouse to check on the plant he'd planted earlier. Herbology always made sense to him, and he hoped that it would keep his mind off of other things enough for him to relax a little bit.
Just seeing the other plants made Arthur smile. This was something that made sense to him. You planted something, and it grew if you took care of it properly. Simple. Well, with magical plants the trouble might be harvesting them, since they tended to have a bit more resistance than Muggle variants, but otherwise it made sense.
He approached the pot that he'd planted just one seed at and examined the plant, deciding what would be the best way to harvest it. The first step, as always, was for him to put on his gloves.
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.
Rewards (per ingredient): 4 house points. 90 Herbology exp
Post by Arthur Hocking on Aug 27, 2023 0:13:03 GMT 10
Arthur gagged a little as he approached the Puris pod. He used his robes as a makeshift mask to protect himself from the stench. As he looked at it, and then poked it, thankful that he was already wearing gloves, he decided he'd be best off not using any spells for this one. Which was good, because he was kind of down to one hand since he was holding the robes over his nose.
He grabbed the Puris pod, which came off easier than expected, but started smoking or something, because a gas was escaping. He stepped back, trying to get away from it in case there were any side effects. His makeshift-mask seemed to protect him, mostly, but he did feel a little lightheaded for a second and stepped away, sitting on the ground as he waited for the feeling to leave.
While he was on the ground, he gently removed the sap, careful not to get it on himself. Thank goodness for gloves. He had no idea what people would do without them. He imagined the gloveless ages as a wasteland where everyone was ill all the time because everything hated them.
With that done, Arthur was pretty sure his duty was done. He had no desire to keep gardening at the moment, though perhaps later the mood would strike him again and he'd be back. For now, he left the greenhouse to go on a different adventure.
Post by Cynthia Rushton on Aug 27, 2023 0:24:17 GMT 10
After Charms, Cynthia hurried into the greenhouse. She was eager to see her first grown plant! She hurried to her spot in the front, excited without really knowing why. She'd never tried growing anything before. She hoped she'd grown something worth being proud of! Or....at least not ashamed of.
She stopped at her pot, looking curiously at the leaves and stem arising from her it.
Post by Amber Lloyd on Aug 27, 2023 1:31:36 GMT 10
First, Amber took care of the berry plants. By now, she knew how to handle them.
Quickly, she snipped the stems holding the yellow berries from the two plants with the scissors, carefully pushing any leaves aside which were in the way of getting to the ingredient. Thoroughly she looked through the whole plant, not wanting to miss any berry.
She repeated the same thing with her Moonurk plants, putting carefully every berry away in her potions kit.
Then she looked at her last plant, a new one to her. Amber looked at it for a moment with a tilted head, trying to discern how to approach it. Then she just shrugged and tried to pull on the stem of the flower. It didn’t budge, so she tried a more firm grip on it.
While she felt how the flower came loose, the flower suddenly puffed a bunch of pollen right into her face. Stinky pollen. Amber grimaced and was still about to continue, when her nose started to itch.
“Achoo!” A loud sneeze escaped her nose and she closed her eyes. “Achoo, ach-“
She shook her head and the last sneeze just stopped. She warily eyed the flower. In her memory she didn’t have any allergy against pollen, so…
This time, she tried to be quicker and thrust her arm forward, trying to pick the next flower. However, she was too slow – or the flower’s reaction was just better. Before she could pluck the stem properly, stinky pollen hit her again and she sneezed multiple times again, each time having to close her eyes. They even started to shed a bit of tears because she was sneezing so much. And she didn't know what was worse: the sneezing or the stinky part? How could one work with that?
Perhaps with a better plan than hers. But for now, she just plucked the rest of the flowers in between sneezes and more stinky pollen attacks.
After putting her harvest away, she tidied up her workspace and left with a sniffling nose towards her next destination.
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.
Rewards (per ingredient): 1 house point. 40 Herbology exp
Post by Cynthia Rushton on Aug 27, 2023 3:13:50 GMT 10
Cynthia looked around for a moment, for any hint - and there! There was her hint! A shiny pair of sheers, kept in tip-top shape. She took them up carefully, shifting leaves out of the way. Out of curiosity, she tried to snap a twig before clipping -
They were a little too tough for that, so she nudged leaves out of the way again and set to work using the sheers to clip those stubborn stems.
One berry burst, staining her fingers with sticky blue juice but she persevered, clipping the rest off neatly, trimming until she had a pile of stems and a pile of nice round berries. Once she was sure she had them all, she cleaned off her workspace, brushing away dirt and leaves and wiping up the juice she'd left behind.
Content that her workspace was clean, she hurried off to her next stop.
Post by Thorne Perry on Aug 28, 2023 0:02:30 GMT 10
Thorne hurried to the greenhouse, his untested Advance Pot in his arms, a packet of mysterious seeds in his pocket. He'd been waiting ages to do this- he'd just forgotten repeatedly, distracted by all the other interesting things there were to do at Hogwarts.
He waved at a couple older girls as they left, smiling, but bustled businesslike to his usual preferred spots in the front. He only had one pot today, so he set it down in slot 4, carefully troweling dirt in until he was full.
Humming to himself, he pressed an indent with his thumb, tearing open the packet of seeds and shaking them into the little well. He smoothed dirt over them again, and waved his wand in the now-familiar back and forth motion.
"Aguamenti!" He said, confidently, watering the soil until it was damp but not detrimentally soggy. Then he stopped the charm before he could drip all over the place, wiped up the soil and dirt around the pot, and nodded to himself, happy with a job well done.
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Aug 28, 2023 11:00:04 GMT 10
His morning class over and done with, Oscar made his way to the Student Greenhouse. Since he had some plants waiting for him there, he had decided that a visit was a good idea before he made any other decision about what else to do with his time.
There were so many things to get done, so dealing with the plants that he had set to grow and promised to take care of seemed like the safest place to start. At least that was normally a fairly simple, routine thing. Well, depending on what he had planted.
…What had he last planted?
He should probably remember that, but unfortunately for once he did not. It looked like he was about to be in for a surprise then.
As he pushed open the door to the greenhouse, he could not help but hope that it was a pleasant one.
At least he could remember where he had last placed his pots, so he had not lost the poor things thanks to his sudden memory problems. There was something useful about having a preferred area.
Oscar headed straight for that area, curious about what he had planted and how they might have grown in his absence.
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.
Rewards (per ingredient): 4 house points. 90 Herbology exp
The 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.
Rewards (per ingredient): 4 house points. 90 Herbology exp
The Toxyvine plant was the very embodiment of intimidating. Its thorns were the most prominent feature, and were sharp as knives. They leaked a dark poison, 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.
Rewards (per ingredient): 4 house points. 90 Herbology exp
The Thistle plant was primarily just the flower itself, though (unlike its visually-similar Muggle counterpart) it was incredibly lively and braced for attack.
Any attempt to grab or snip it was met with the stalk extending and 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.
Rewards (per ingredient): 4 house points. 90 Herbology exp
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Aug 29, 2023 0:31:16 GMT 10
Oscar stopped and stared at his plants when he reached them. None of them were the oh-so common berry plant. Instead he had a Puris pod plant, a Thistle, a… His nose twitched as he caught a hint of an odour. A Burnmint? Hotmint? A Something-Mint, of that he was sure. And last but not least, an ominous looking vine, the name of which also escaped him.
Apparently he had gotten more adventurous about which seeds he planted last time. Seeing all four of the plants lined up in a row, Oscar couldn’t help but wish he had tried one per planting session. All of them in a row looked a bit much.
Taffen Hide gloves were definitely going to be required for his harvesting session.
Oscar pulled his gloves out of his bag and then set his bag down out of the way. He pulled the gloves on, making sure they were secure, as he tried to decide which plant to tackle first.
All of them seemed like difficult plants to start with, so he opted to just go with one that he could remember the most about.
Oscar spent a moment tugging his scarf up over nose, and then stepped towards the Puris plant.
It was an interesting plant to look at, definitely not like anything he had ever experienced in his Nanna’s garden.
What did he remember about it? Hmm..
It looked soft and squishy, something that made shears useless. And its other defences were a gas, and a sap that was bad for his skin. Because just one or the other was apparently not enough.
Hoping that his scarf armour was enough to protect him from the plants gas, Oscar reached out to grab the plant.
He had just managed to get a hold of the stem when his vision blurred slightly. His scarf mask had protected him from most of the gas, but apparently not one hundred percent of it.
Oscar blinked his eyes closed as he stumbled slightly from the unexpected effect. His stumble and the movement of his hands that it caused was enough for the stem to tear off at least, so small mercies.
He took a moment to himself, the puris pod still held in one hand as he kept his eyes closed. Eventually he had to open them again, though when he did he was relieved to see that his vision was back to how he was used to it.
That had not been the most pleasant of experiences, but boy was he glad that he had not been hit by the full force of the gas. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was a better way to avoid it. A gas mask maybe? Or a charm that had a similar use.
As he mused on if his Gramps would send him a gas mask if he asked nicely, Oscar used a cloth to gently clean the broken stem of sap. He did not want that sap to get all over his bag and belongings.
When that was done to satisfaction he was finally done with his first plant of the day. Just three more to go, all of them different and worrying in their own way. What had he been thinking?
Oscar decided that, since he was going to have to deal with them all anyway, he would just go down the row as they were lined up. That meant that the something-mint was next.
That one looked more like something that he would find in his Nanna’s garden, but that was a trick. Once disturbed the plant was supposed to ooze a liquid, one that would be worse for him than even the Puris sap could have been.
The liquid was also unfortunately what he was there to harvest.
Oscar fished out an empty jar and then slowly moved closer to the plant. He did not want to rush and find out that apparently the plant could also throw its liquid at him.
Thankfully nothing was thrown at him. All that changed was that the plant's leaves gained a shinier look as the juice was released.
With his jar positioned underneath ready to catch, Oscar carefully tilted the first leaf so that the pale juice dripped into its new prison.
One leaf at a time the process was repeated until he had a full jar and the plant looked wrung out.
All done and he had avoided getting the dangerous juice anywhere he shouldn’t have. A success!
Oscar set his jar to the side with his puris pod, and moved on to his next target. He was halfway done and so far without injury, that had managed to boost his confidence on dealing with strange plants for the time being.
Even if the next one was the vine that he could not remember the name of, but definitely looked murderous. He could remember that its thorns leaked a poison at least. Though that was hardly a big surprise following the plants that he had already dealt with that morning.
He was really getting his money's worth from his gloves with his current harvesting session.
Oscar eyed the danger-vine with its sharp looking thorns. Why oh why couldn’t it be the leaves that he was after? They looked much safer.
He could do this, he had his trusty gloves and he had already dealt with two problem plants. He could deal with the scary red vine and its pointy thorns. He could.
Oscar took a breath and then reached out to try to grab the plant. Which of course moved, because what was a magic plant without moving vines?
It was hard, trying to avoid the vines' sudden movements without injury while also trying to snap its deadly little thorns off. Very slowly his pile of little green and yellow thorns grew though, until eventually he had them all.
Oscar stepped away from his workbench to examine his arms and face, worried that the adrenaline of the battle could have hidden any injuries. There was nothing there though, no tears in his robe sleeve or anything, so his worry was for nothing. Thank Merlin.
Three plants down, he only had one left to go!
As he took a brief break to just breath and recover from his battle, Oscar eyed the innocent looking Thistle.
It looked so much like its muggle variant, that Oscar was almost fooled. Only almost though, because he was aware of just what kind of evil lay in the magical version.
That plant would quite happily snap his arms or even his neck if he allowed it. For some strange reason Oscar did not want that to happen.
He still had to deal with the plant though. Ugh. He couldn’t risk leaving it for some unaware little first year to poke at. His plant, his responsibility. At least he was aware of the danger.
Very aware that he was putting his life on the line, and full of regret for planting it in the first place, Oscar cautiously approached his last plant. His little break had allowed him to think up an attack plan at least. Fingers crossed it worked.
He reached out with his left hand as if to grab the plant where it sat, then, as the stalk extended ready to attack him, his right hand darted out to grab the stalk higher. Needles tried to pierce his gloves, but Oscar was unwilling to give them long to try, so he kept a tight hold and twisted the stalk until - SNAP! - the flower broke off.
Oscar sagged in relief. He counted himself lucky that that had actually worked.
With his Thistle placed out of the way with his other ingredients, he got straight to work on cleaning up his area.
That was routine for him thankfully, so the only thing he really had to think about was to clean out his special pot and tuck it away in his bag. He thought that maybe it was time to take a break from the student greenhouse.
His work station cleared up and his new ingredients tucked away in his bag with his gloves, Oscar made his way out of the greenhouse.
Post by Ezra Ashworth on Aug 29, 2023 10:39:54 GMT 10
Ezra rushed into the greenhouse, destroying any quiet that the plants might have been enjoying, not that he noticed. He was eager to plant his seeds. The sooner he dealt with them, the sooner he could carry on with his day! He had things to do, places to explore, letters to write!
Faced with all of the open work spaces though, he supposed he could spend a few seconds finding the perfect spot to use.
He stretched up onto his toes, his head peering this way and that until he spotted a particularly cool looking plant. One that had space near it too! Perfect! Maybe if he planted his pots near that one then it would teach his little seeds to grow up so cool looking too!
Ezra dashed over to the workspace, his bag thumping against his back as he went. He was blaming the pots that he carried for his heavy bag, so hopefully once he was done in the greenhouse it would not be quite as heavy.
With his pots pulled out of his bag to be thunked onto the worktop, he was proven mostly right. His bag still had a weight to it, but that was just because of his books. And since he liked them, he was calling that okay.
Ezra manoeuvred his pots so that they sat properly in slots 27 and 28. Only once that was done did he get to work on filling them with soil.
Soil that seemed to land equal amounts on the counter as it did in his pots. That was quite normal to him though, so Ezra paid it no mind. He would clear it up once he was done of course, but before that point why would it bother him?
Once his pots were both filled to satisfaction, he pulled out his seeds - some yellow ones and some nice looking purple ones that he was curious about.
Ezra made a hole in both of his not-so-carefully filled pots and tipped the seeds into their new beds, pushing soil back over them once he was done.
“There,” he mumbled as he patted the soil down. “Night, night.”
Happy with how his seeds were covered (he couldn’t see any of them!) Ezra pulled out his wand.
“Aguamenti!” he called, waving his wand over his pots.
He grinned as a stream of water shot out, happy to see that he had not forgotten how to do the spell.
“Grow big, okay?” he told the pots as the water cut out, nodding to the side at their neighbour. “Like that one!”
Satisfied with what he had done, Ezra cleared up his mess of soil as quickly as he could, and then he was out of there. A slightly lighter bag bouncing about as made his escape.
Post by Martha Twiggs on Sept 4, 2023 16:15:08 GMT 10
After the event with the Dragon, Martha had been grateful to Sophia for helping her get back towards the castle. Once it was evident the creature was gone and wasn't coming back, she parted ways with her friend and headed to the Greenhouse.
Working with her plants would help her to feel better.
Martha entered the Greenhouse and breathed in the earthy scent. She had opted not to take Herbology this year as she needed Transfiguration for her future career but that didn't mean she hadn't enjoyed the subject.
It wasn't one she had been great at but she enjoyed gardening.
"Alright, let's see what we have here..." Besides, improving her knowledge of Herbology would certainly help her with Potions as well. She went over to her pots and studied what she had to deal with.
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