Wednesday, 16th of September @ 3pm

Attendance

☑ Ambrose Pepper +8
☑ Winifred Oliver +4
☑ Ayla Collins +6
☑ Emilia Hatherley +2
☑ Alvis Norling +2
☑ Connor Todd +2
☑ Leo Eldridge +2
☑ Casey O'Doherty +6

Branwen had come to Hogwarts in March of the previous year, so her new fifth year students should by now be used to her way of doing things.  They would know that she is blunt in her words, sparing with her praise, but never shy to deliver her thoughts with a smile. They will be used to the slightly gritty work tables and the teetering wooden stools. They will know well not to touch any plant they don't recognize (not that Professor Strangely would mix her more lethal flora with her poison-vulnerable and breath-loving students of magic).

So far this year, they've had a class or two re-orienting themselves to Professor Strangely's greenhouse procedures, introductions to the new texts she'd asked them to pick up, and now they were entering their first real unit.



A Practical Garden

The words were written on the chalkboard in neatly aligned block letters with slab serifs.  Below it was the start of a list of what would be a mixture of both familiar and unfamiliar plant names.  On the edge of each worktable (which seated four or five) were supplies for potting seedlings.

The Professor herself was in a bright mood owing in part to the grit under her fingernails, and the leafy twig that had found it's way into her fuzzy white dreadlocks.  She wore her usual practical clothes: robes in brown, green, and violet; sturdy garden clogs; and a full-length apron.

She greeted each student as they entered, not sparing any observation.

"Good morning, sunshine! A smile would be nice! It's only Herbology."

"You've sprung up like a bean!"

"Haircut."

"Haircut."

"An apple? For me? How kind."  She took the green fruit with mottled peel and wasted no time in taking a bite.  "Ta."

"Afternoon[1], Professor!" Ambrose greeted.

Unlike some of his classmates, his Thursday wasn't too taxing - charms, defence, transfiguration and double herbology to finish it off. Professor Strangely was one of his preferred professors, she'd been quite a hoot at their family garden party. It was also one of his favourites because it didn't usually involve his wand, and sometimes covered practical knowledge for creatures.

He took a seat at one of the worktables, stowing his bag under it out of the way before leaning over to have a look at the equipment the professor had set out on each table.
"We doing a project this term, Professor?" He asked, slipping his hands in his pockets.

1.	Fifth years have Herbology 3-5pm on Thursdays

Classes were almost done for the day and while some of his peers were growing increasingly eager for dinner and the comfy common room chairs, Leo was still bright and ready for a new lesson. On their way to the greenhouses, he had been chattering away about how he had foreseen himself grappling a dragon in his crystal ball. Only feet away from the door, a fellow housemate beside him sighed with great exasperation, "Leo, you don't take Divination."

"I don't?" He frowned and pondered this unexpected shift in his reality. "Then why is it I wake up in the middle of class with Professor Grayson trying to shove a crystal ball in my face?"

"I don't know, Leo, but I do know that the Professor's name is not Grayson. You're supposed to be tutoring Maleficent Snograss in the empty classroom on the fourth floor at that time,  remember? For goodness sakes, Leo, get it together!"

Professor Strangely barked at him to get his hair cut on his way inside. He passed the board and stood between a couple of his peers, his friend Angerona having moved further down the table to stand with a few girls. From what he understood, they were cousins. Not that Angerona looked anything like them, of course. She was too uptight and the Hufflepuff next to her looked rather sweet. Like a Cauldron Cake. Leopold was far too busy coming to terms with the news that he was not a student of Divination to notice where his fellow Slytherin had wanddred. That must explain what Professor Whose-Name-Is-Not-Grayson had been shouting about for the past week and a half. Still, the crystal ball gazing lessons would come in ha dy and he needed the sleep...

A couple of ugly Gryffindors were guffawing next to him. They reminded him of those Runespoors he had read about in his second year. Snakes with three heads. These particular three imbeciles were never apart and always huddled together for schemes that ended badly. He ignored them and turned his attention to the board for once. He adjusted his large glasses in order to better read over the list of herbs one would keep in a practical garden. His blue eyes immediately swooped to his professor.

"Professor Kincaid, what use is a practical garden if one lives among muggles? Won't they notice if we have some of these plants? How do we conceal them and keep them in check? Who are we supposed to contact in the event that a plant eats our neighbors Corgi?"

Down the row, he heard many classmates chuckling behind their hands and Angerona's, "For Merlin's sake..." Some of his peers did not bother hiding their laughter, but Leo did not care. He was serious and thought it a valid question. His mind wandered to the neighborly Corgi loved and pampered by the rude couple next door. He would be sad if the dog was devoured, though he would not be in the least bit upset if that dodgy old coot Nigel Filiburn was chewed up and swallowed bit by bit...

"We are!" Professor Strangely happily answered the young wizard called Pepper who'd gotten quite tall and that she'd seen over summer at the Pepper's famous garden party.  He came from a silly family, he did, but she couldn't hold that against him.  He was so earnest and clever.

"Practical garden," she repeated the writing on the board.  "Time you all started adding some life to this world, I think. Have you ever cared for a plant on your own, Mr. Pepper? Or should we start you on pebbles?"  She was teasing, of course.  But then, she did remember the state of his uncle's geraniums...

Then came in Eldridge. The professor sighed at his barrage of questions, his bare glaring at the Gryffindors, and his inability to remember her name.  She couldn't be sure, but she suspected he had something to do with the theft of her singing cactus.

"Oh, do stopper it, Eldridge. You've survived the summer and come back to my greenhouses, but there's no need to make a bad situation worse.  Would someone please let our Mr. Eldridge know the number of muggles and corgi dogs to be found within miles of this castle to set his fears at ease?"

She mumbled something as she ushered in the last students into the greenhouse.  "Take your seats, everyone, take your seats."

Already settled into his seat, Alvis sent Leo Eldrige an odd look. True, wizarding flora could be a bit unruly, but who in the world heard the words "practical garden" and immediately jumped to the conclusion of "corgi-eating plants"?

"My great-aunt keeps wizard plants in her garden. None of the neighbors've ever noticed enough to care." Alvis shrugged, unbuttoning his cuffs and rolling up his sleeves in anticipation of their coming dirty work. "It's like keeping crups. You just have to know how to keep up with them, and the benefits far outweigh the trouble. Growing your own ingredients means you determine their quality, after all."

He opened his notebook and started jotting down the list of plants Professor Strangely had up on the board. A fair number of them were familiar, practical for both potions and cooking -- exactly as Aunt Niamh would've liked. Alvis was not passionate about Herbology, but he acknowledged its usefulness and found the fresh air they got in the greenhouses to be relaxing. Or at least, it would be provided that nobody decided to set off any fires or purposefully provoke the various plants...

Winifred was not a huge fan of Herbology. Getting her hands and uniform dirty were two of her least favorite things. It was strange to think as a first and second year she had been more of a tomboy- left over from growing up with two brothers- but the second she hit her teens, it basically all changed.

She dragged her feet to the greenhouse. And Winifred scrunched up her nose when Professor Strangely made a comment about smiling- it was only herbology. Pft. Only herbology. She was just as bad at Herbology as she was at everything else. Especially with her lack of interest in growing things and getting dirty and all that stuff. Gross.

Practical garden? How could gardens even be practical? She could just go to the grocer to get vegetables if she wanted. And she was so bad at potions and horrible with creatures so she couldn't imagine ever having practical use for Herbology or the need to grow her own plants.

Winifred sat nearer the back of the greenhouse, hoping to keep her work at a minimum by sitting behind the rest of the students. So long as he scraped by with a passing grade, Winnie would be satisfied.

Please tell me she was talking to Oliver, Casey pleaded to some unknown granter of student complaints as he stood stern faced getting into the last of his Herbology wear. When the professor had bustled by with comments to the other students had she directed the smiling comment to the chatty Hufflepuff or him?

Because, Salazar Slytherin as his witness, casey knew he was not anyone's SUNSHINE!! Blazes, they were fifth years, what kind of a professor talked down to students like that? Why on earth would a quality of light be used as a means of affection? Let alone the aft--at least Casey knew he didn't require a haircut. His hair was always kept so short it would have to be shaved to actually cut more of it off.

As for why Casey would not like Herbology...the list was so long you could cross reference it with a third of his own allergies and the past couple of years his academic record with the class had been...just leave it at 'mixed.' Destroy a quarter of a greenhouse and they never let you forget it, even if it was the fault of an out of control plant on a final. Albeit one Casey really shouldn't have been casting magic at.

Toiling under a bubblehead charm was one thing if potions happened to get really dank. Casey wasn't sure he'd want to start it here too, because then he'd be casting it everywhere and be known as the bubble headed boy.

Casey sniffed. "Provided the plant in question isn't something too obvious like dirigible plums," he added to Alvis' reply. Those things barely looked like regular plums. There would be no way to spin it to your muggle neighbor when they saw an overripe fruit in the bush float into the sky like a balloon.

"First thing's first."

Professor Strangely didn't need to shout - her voice was enough to easily fill the bright greenhouse without any extra effort.  She took a stance at the front of the room to make an announcement.

"You might already know if you ever read a bulletin board, but the Minister of Magic will be at Hogwarts this weekend.[1] I do expect you all to be on your most authentic behavior."

She let that linger a moment. She hadn't said 'best behavior'.

"Don't be a fool who goes along without a thought.  If you do, you might not like where we all end up - and you'd have helped get us there.  Understand?"

There was nothing about Branwen in this moment that was at all hostile or anarchist.  Rather, she was drawing upon her own authenticity and, perhaps, something she expected her students were capable of that her peers were not. Perhaps she was asking them to do what she once wished she could have done.

And then she wondered if she should have said such things around Eldridge or Oliver...

1.	Yup! Sunday, September 19 - Club Day

"We are!" Professor Strangely confirmed, "Practical garden, time you all started adding some life to this world, I think. Have you ever cared for a plant on your own, Mr. Pepper? Or should we start you on pebbles?" The Professor was probably teasing, but Ambrose frowned at her.
"I look after the plants at home over summer. They were my mum's." He commented quietly, but his classmates noisily arriving took the Professor's attention away. Ambrose lowered his eyes, looking ever so slightly uncomfortable amongst his peers - several of whom knew that had happened three summers previous.

"Take your seats, everyone, take your seats." There was a scraping of stools on the greenhouse flagstones after the Professor's request, and along with his classmates, Ambrose took a seat, further forward than some of his friends, preferring Herbology for the fact he used his hands not his wand.

"First thing's first, you might already know if you ever read a bulletin board, but the Minister of Magic will be at Hogwarts this weekend." Ambrose's ears pricked up momentarily, he'd heard via the prefects first, but he'd not thought too much of it since. "I do expect you all to be on your most authentic behaviour." The difference between best and authentic was lost on Ambrose at first, though a small, often ignored part of his mind did go 'what?'

"Don't be a fool who goes along without a thought.  If you do, you might not like where we all end up - and you'd have helped get us there.  Understand?"

"That's Eldridge, Professor." Ambrose chuckled, and shot his classmate a grin, meaning nothing malicious of this, but just that he wanted to distract his genuine confusion over what the Professor was getting at.

Ayla sat next to Ambrose as she entered the greenhouses. Smiling at the Professor as she took a bite of the apple. She had snaked it from the tables at lunch and had it in her bag. Herbology wasn't necessarily her favourite subject, Charms and Transfiguration were definitely top of that list but she did enjoy it and she didn't mind getting her hands dirty, after all you didn't get anywhere as a baker if you didn't know a few good charms for cleaning yourself up.

She rolled her eyes at Leo as he spoke, which really was just par for the course. There were Slytherins (which she just despised) and then there was Leo, he was in a category all unto himself. Although he did have a bit of a point, if they were to ever bring this knowledge back home with them. She knew she didn't have much to worry about. Living in a penthouse with your own terrace didn't really leave much room for neighbours.

She squeezed Ambrose's hand as he spoke quietly. She was sure the Professor was only joking but it certainly had an adverse effect on the taller Gryffindor. She hadn't managed to make it out to his Garden Party over the summer but she was sure he was doing a great job with his Mom's flowers.

Ayla looked to Branwen curiously when she mentioned the Minister. She certainly didn't miss the mention of authentic behaviour rather than saying best behaviour. For certain students there was no such thing as best behavious. Ayla wasn't all that worried about it though. As an Ambassador's Daughter she had learned etiquette, how to pose for the press, and how not to embarrass the governing officials. However she had no idea where that left the rest of her classmates. 

Winifred perked up. The minister of magic? At Hogwarts? How exciting! Winnie had been very glad that the minister was a woman. Her mother had told her that it was proof that Winnie could do anything she wanted. Of course, her mother was much more politically minded than Winifred was. Winifred didn't have big aspirations. She just wanted to not fail her OWLs and get to stay at Hogwarts for her sixth and seventh years.

Most authentic behavior? What even did that mean? Strangely was so... strange. Winifred screwed up her nose and groaned quietly. Could they just get to the lesson and get this over with? There were so many better things she could be doing- things other than Herbology.

"What does that even mean?" Winifred asked. "Most authentic behavior? That's a strange thing to say." Winifred was the sort of girl who never compromised herself. She was just... Winifred. Strange and silly, optimistic and light hearted, and a little on the dull side. But she was trying to stud more and get smarter. It wasn't always easy, but she tried.

From his seat between Bastian and Kelvin, Connor gave Branwen a cheery salute. Authentic? Aye aye, professor.

No one could ever accuse him of just mindlessly going along with things. Or, if he did, it was usually his own idea, made up on the fly—which, yeah, wasn’t exactly anyone’s idea of ‘thought out’; they were pretty reckless. Maybe even ‘mindless’, to some, because all the Y-fronts ever knew mere mortals had trouble understanding how he operated at all–

The usual mistake, he thought as he caught the eye of one Hufflepuff girl and winked, laid in the assumption that he didn’t think things through, because he did—he just did it faster than most, and cared about different things, like which professor might actually recognize their socks if they found it part of an elf’s cabaret costume, or which one would be less likely to hex him if they caught him with his pants down. In flagrante.

Consequences? Psh. Worrying ‘bout those were for plebes.

The minister, though—Connor straightened, mind already racing. Now wouldn’t that be–

Across the table, Esther looked up, pinning him with an unamused look. Don’t even think about it, she mouthed, with a slow shake of her head.

Simpering, he batted his eyes garishly.

Well, that got their attention.  Good! Branwen Strangely couldn't help but smile.  She wondered if and how her words might make their way through the halls and what shape they'd take before they reached the ears of another adult. Where would that vine grow and what fruit might it bear?

"It means, Miss Oliver, that you should follow your head.  I do advise taking a moment to think of who you think you are.  Minister's visit or not, actually, I highly recommend critical introspection. I find it's a well effective remedy for tortured insomnia.  And chamomile.

"Now, shall we move on to announcement number two? Your Patronus charms."

The whole of Wizarding Britain had been under a thick blanket of dreariness and edgy alert.  It seemed as if Dementors dropped from the sky at any moment and sucked up the living joyful embers of everyone nearby.  Even Hogwarts had seen the blight last March when they neared the walls.  She shuddered at the memory.

"We all know that the Patronus Charm is the most effective defense against Dementors - drives them off like gangbusters, don't it?   Well, Herbology time or not, I want to impress upon you the importance of working diligently to conjure a solid Patronus.  Now, I know that past generations had left such complex magic for adults, but we live in different times.

"Should you find yourself with but a silvery wisp, for your sake and those who care a lick about you, please get some assistance with that."

The bemused thin line on Casey's face might be considered a smile as his mind already began to think about just what might transpire from everyone being authentic. Phrasing it that way might have been a faux pax on behalf of the professor. Especially when Oliver immediately had to ask which, for her, was actually very authentic.

But still, Casey still cringed at the concept of what it would mean to be authentic. Not only would he have not said it he wouldn't have even thought about such a thing before hand.

For a moment it seemed like the Herbology Professor was branching out into both the counselor and DADA positions. And Casey wanted to kick himself for thinking of 'branching out' as a pun in a Herbology lesson. That was really reaching for the low hanging fruit.

Damnit.

It was likely the critical introspection talk that had gotten Casey off his game. Critical introspection was more the thing to give him insomnia than resolve it. Beginning with what it exactly meant for the form his patronus took. Casey had managed a corporeal patronus last year[1] during an incident where he and Alvis had to avoid drowning in the lake.

He almost raised his hand about the topic of patroni until he remembered Storm was the better source. Casey had seen Storm use his patronus as a messenger before, which was the next challenge Casey was seeking to master. Instead Casey asked "Is this practical garden going to involve those Dementor warding herbs again?"

1.	Washup - Nov 22 2009

Casey O'Doherty seemed full of interesting thoughts, but the question he voiced didn't live up.  That was fine with her. Who knew what went on in little boys' heads? 

"Good question, O'Doherty!" she said, now satisfied that the students had got her warning about both the Minister and the Patronus Charm.

She turned to the board and waved her wand.  The notes regarding the components of the practical garden all shifted over to the far right to make room for a series of notes about sage.

"Class, your cohort is referencing sage. Last year and over summer I endeavored with aid of both death-wishing prefects and civic-minded townsfolk to apply a thickets of sage around the Hogwarts walls."

"It's a shrub! Here.  Page 57. Have a look at pass it around."  She handed an illustrated field guide to the student in the front row and directed them to the page with a full color drawing of sage.  And with that, she was off on a tangent. 

"Woody evergreen, flowers violet. Muggles know it and use it well. A cultivar called Extrakta is used by we magic folk as a traditional deterrent for Dementors.  They don't like it.  No one is sure why.  Could be the smell, could be it's naturally uplifting properties. While a great deal is known of sage, very little is known of Dementors. It's nowhere near the kind of ward that garlic is to vampires, but it's something, isn't it? And that's what we need - a whole bundle of something. Thus: my humble contribution to the national defense.  A shrub."

She didn't seem humble at all.

"Sage is commonplace in a witch or wizard's practical garden," she gave Casey a pointed nod, "and you will find it an option for your own gardens."

"Right - let's get our hands dirty."

At that point, Branwen proceeded with the practical instructions.  There were a variety of sizes of those mossy flower cartons, little terra cotta pots.  There were old used wooden trays, and bags and bags of different soils to choose from.  Trowels, pipettes, paper envelopes of seeds, and herbology references were soon strewn everywhere.  Branwen moved between the tables as she described a variety of plants and their usefulness and how to prepare the coziest nest for them to grow.