Professor Edolie Fern did not know whether it was advisable to eat ice cream outdoors on such a sunny day, but she was willing to take a risk. It was an even bigger risk considering that Edie was headed to an area highly populated with students... however, the gardens were so scenic that she could not resist. Eating ice cream on such a beautiful day sounded like the best plan possible, and so that is what Edie Fern was going to do.

She cast a quick spell to turn a bowl of dried raspberries she had in her office into a very appetizing cone of rose-colored ice cream. Since she had learned about the joys of dried fruit, Edie constantly kept little jars of different fruits around her office. Whenever she needed a snack, she had plenty of fruit to transfigure into an endless variety of munchies.

Walking in through the gardens' front gates, Edie admired her surroundings. She didn't know who maintained the garden, but they were doing a lovely job. Licking her ice cream cone contentedly, Edie seemed unaware that the sticky, sugary snack was dripping halfway down her wrist.

Deborah was used to being in the gardens alone - sometimes, she would find herself being rudely disturbed by a fellow student, but as long as they didn’t cause trouble, it was alright. She hated roses, so it was only understandable that she had strayed away from their bush. Looking around, she began to admire the plethora of moonflowers, coniums, and bella donnas that grew in a separate area.

And then all she had to do to ruin the moment of admiration was pick up the sound of footsteps in the distance. This was another thing she disliked about herself in particular - her sensitivity to everything that is going on around her. Shielding her eyes from the mad, ambitious glare of the sun with her hand, she squinted her vision a bit to see who the incoming intruder may be. She didn’t know who it was, but came up with the conclusion that it was faculty - maybe one of the newer professors. Flo didn’t hang around to be the teacher’s pet anyway, but as she turned the other way to leave, one brow raised itself in question.

The latter neared, and Deborah remembered it was rude to suddenly storm out just when somebody was arriving - especially if that someone happens to be a professor. Taking a few steps to approach the gates and chirp out a greeting, Flo halted midway, in front of the older woman. This one looked more of a fellow student than a professor - not that she’d ever say that observation out loud - and wasn’t being fully aware of the fact that the sweet she had been devouring was making a pretty twisted mess. She wouldn’t allow this lady to be embarrassed by the other students, and so she reached into her pocket for something.

It was an exquisite, monogrammed handkerchief of a cream colour. The Clarencieux family crest was embroidered into one of its corners, so that when folded, it could still be seen. She handed it over to the professor with a gentle smile.

“Here, Professor.”

Edolie had just been thinking about flowers and the Fibonacci sequence, wondering whether magical plants had a similar pattern among their foliage, when a young girl interrupted her thoughts with a handkerchief. For a moment, Edolie looked at the girl cluelessly, searching in her face for some type of explanation. What in Merlin's name was this girl insinuating? It only took a few seconds for Edie to remember that she had been eating ice cream before thinking about the Fibonaccian influence on magical plants.

Laughing, Edie took the handkerchief from the girl, and after licking her ice cream to clean it up a bit, left her ice cream hovering in the air with a non-verbal charm and cleaned off her hands. Taking the ice cream back, she looked at the girl. "Thanks a lot - I was off in la-la land," Edie said with a flutter of her free hand. "You're not one of my students," she observed. Edie licked her ice cream a bit more, and it was now nearly done. She wasn't embarrassed by her spill -- what did she care what a 16-year-old girl thought about her? The ice cream was delicious and the concept she'd been contemplating was worth more consideration.