Venomous Tentacula. (open)

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Within the confines of the greenhouse the air was swathed thick with moisture and the smell of exotic and alluring seedlings that, under these feigned subtropic conditions, grew robust like wildfire in the middle of the woods. This place was Hanna’s hideaway of choice- quiet, well maintained, and strange horticultural blooming all sorts of curious and remarkable wonders that would make the average person or muggle wide-eyed with awe, lined up row by row and carefully labeled with the care of a proud parent. Some were, dispiritingly, proving to live a much more lucrative perennial than the rest. There was one plant in particular, a Venomous Tentacula, that seemed to be treading the fine line between life and the compost heap with its sizable leafy extremities mourning what looked to be the plants imminent death. At the base of the plant stand, scrawled in an unmistakably opulent catholic-schooled cursive, was the name Hanna Hunt.

“Don’t do that! You can’t die now, it’s nearly end of term. I need you to live, do you hear me? I’m going to fail and it will be all your fault, stupid turnip,” Hanna groaned as she sat perched on a stool before the handsome plant. Leaning over with her back taking the form of a stooping angle, she narrowed two glassy dark eyes and in a low voice continued,“Look, I don’t know what I did wrong. I take it back, whatever it was. I’ll water you everyday and feed you all the dragon dung you want. I promise!” she pleaded softly.

There was a good chance that to any students passing outside the opaque greenhouse glass, the curly haired student giving his Tentacula a bona fide pep talk likely appeared to be some kind of deranged, her mop of crimson curls transfigured into a bedlam of feral tendrils at fault of the herbology classroom’s humidity. By the base of her stool sat her uniform robes and jumper which had been discarded but five minutes prior when the sweat had begun to bead about her temples. Resolute, she pushed up the sleeves of her wrinkled and creased white oxford and pulled on a pair of dragon hide gloves. Gingerly she lifted the wilted leaves but to no avail, they flattened once more.

With the deafening screech of her stool Hanna stood, her legs itching to move as the feeling of dread crept up into her throat. The sixth year lion loosened her tie and began chewing on her bottom lip. She couldn’t afford anything less than an O.

[ESHAE JOSANO]

Hands clutched tightly to her chest, the schools resident medi-witch made her way down to the greenhouses just outside the castle. The crisp air outside catching in her throat as she hunched down deeper into her cloak and tucked her nose just under the collar made the trip no less important. The herbs she needed for her store room were running dangerously low again, the result of some blundering student deciding to make the entire fourth floor a skating rink and causing numerous injuries. Had she not been worked off her feet trying to cope with the large number of students marching through her hospital wing, Eshae would have been tempted to laugh. After all, watching the other professors try and fix the problem had been a little bit funny. She would never admit how much she had laughed once she returned to her office.

As she passed the wide glass windows however she found herself smiling for a different reason. Inside was a student who was obviously struggling to make what she assumed was a project co-operate. Until she herself had undergone intensive training in the subject Eshae was little more than a novice gardener. Now however she knew her way around some of the safer plants hidden away in the greenhouse. She needed to be, some of the medicines she used were plant based and the ingredients would often need to be fresh. Fresher than having the Herbology professor take cuttings and inspect them before sending them her way. As she opened the glass door and stepped inside, she looked at the girl again before smiling gently. It reminded her so much of how she had been in her first year at Hogwarts. Her only year. But she did not dwell, nothing good came from dwelling.


"I certainly hope you brought a warm cloak out today madam. I don't want to see you in the hospital wing for symptoms of a chill." She teased, crinkling her nose and walking around to the back of the room, producing a set of cutters from her pockets and inspecting a couple of the plants. She took a single leaf from a couple of them, checking for the liquid that  should have been evident in the veins but finding them incredibly dry. "Are all the plants in here so dry? Merlin it's like they haven't been cultivated properly at all. I'll need to have a word with the professor." She muttered, tutting at the ridiculousness of it all. Her coming down there should have saved time.