Casey slugged through the written portion, not really caring which way it was graded. To amuse himself, he added extra tidbits in the margins, experiences from the family house elves or second hand accounts from Dingy of the handling of these plants. One half of his brain wanted to have its pithy commentary heard.
Herbology Written Exam - Third Years
1. Define Intercropping: Growing two or more crops in close proximity and is used to produce a greater yield from the land the plants are grown from.
2. What are these companion plants used for?
a. Fanged Geranium - Eats insect, small mammals and bird pests...also has a test for Elf fingers
b. Marigold - repels insects and certain weeds...and isn't gold or merry at all
c. Tansy - repels many insects and mice...one letter off from Pansy
d. Yarrow - attracts predatory insects, also improves soil quality...attracting bad insects? sounds like a poor tradeoff
e. Alfalfa - attracts predatory insects...rather remarkable for fancy grass
f. Lovage - attracts good insects...we're giving the creepy crawlies too much credit on which is good or bad, aren't we?
g. Garlic - repels many insects and rabbits...and vampires
3. Define the listed type of fertilizer:
a. Organic - from living tissues (or once living, we could include inferi)
b. Inorganic - from no living minerals and chemicals
With that mess done and collected, Casey turned to focus on the instructions. Gardening? This was servant's stuff, for pity's sake! Were the founders (specifically Hufflepuff, this sounded like her modus operandi) interested in treating the students like House Elves? Casey supposed he'd have to slog through this until he could drop the petty subject.
And all these tools. Why couldn't they use magic, it would be much cleaner. In fact, blast it, Casey vowed not to touch the ruddy things. It was his last final, his grandfather had finally returned the
family wand Casey's wand, and he was itching to use it again. They would pry it back out of his hands from his cold dead fingers, and then only after they had defeated Dingy who no doubt would have defended his young master's corpse.
Peruvian Sunbell, the tallest thing in front of them. Casey flicked and swished with his wand, muttering spells. It popped out of its pot, some dirt scoured away, a Diffindo'd root section to place into the dish, the rest into a new pot with dirt, fertilizer and Casey managed a spray from an Augamenti attempt. He supposed that was all that was needed, he remembered a small bit of trivia that the Sunbell's preferred drier soil. Unnoticed to the young Slytherin was the quaking and spiraling of his antsy Spiny Red Baybarb...
Picking berries? How quaint. Casey lazily went for his usual summoning trick. Instead his Baybarb launched an attack on him, vines accelerating in growth. The shock of actually having a plant attack him had caused him to fall off his seat, a second early before the vines went smashing through the greenhouse windows behind him. After this initial shock Casey was in dueling mode, the Baybarb as bitter an enemy as Morvin Sharp. He instantly felt like an idiot, the information about Baybarb coming to him. Vowed not to touch the tools and us magic, did he, next to a plant that was aggressive when you tried to use magic on it.
Brilliant...As the Baybarb finished destroying the windows and counters above him, Casey acting from where he laid on the floor. Aggressive or not it was still a plant and it was spell reactive, not spell resistant. Taking out the main stem and the roots was his target. "Incendio!" The strangling ivy was caught on fire as it moved to attack him. Casey rolled, stood, clawed his way through the offending vines, picked up a trowel and stabbed back at the pot, adding some Diffindo's as well. The half of the plant that wasn't on fire was throttling him, the adrenaline of the moment preventing Casey from noticing that the Baybarb could snap him like a toothpick but he
WAS MOST CERTAINLY NOT GOING TO BE BESTED BY A STUPID BUSH!!!The Baybarb was on the floor, writhing, and Casey was stomping it and burning it and cutting its base and roots apart, berserker rage as funneled through someone more stick figured than a pixie. After a prolonged death there was nothing left to fight back. Casey nearly fainted, leaning against a mangled sink from the Baybarb's initial attack, and almost dry heaved. He didn't care what other people thought of the episode. Obviously they were going to stick to their little trowels and hedge clippers. After a reprieve Casey turned back to his workstation. Was that a rib cracking? He'd have to find out later.
Berry picking, wasn't it? Casey selected a jar, siphoned the crushed red mess all over the floor into the jar with his wand, and labeled it "Baybarb Berry Jam."
At the very least, the Baybarb crashing the windows apart allowed in a healthy breeze. It was stifling in these stupid greenhouses. What was left? Bubotubors. Even though many had edged their work away, given the sight of what would happen if anyone so much as cast another spark in a greenhouse full of Baybarb, Casey contemplated on whether to finish up with his wand or not. And give everyone a repeat performance? Casey found that he really didn't care anymore. He picked the sluggish Bubotubor from its pot, pus spilling down his hands. Smelling of petrol would only add to the legend of "Casey O'Doherty, Weed Slayer."
He stuffed it into another pot, anding soil water and fertilizer in clunky handfuls. Once again his mind, slow when it came to Herbology information, offered that Bubotubors liked decaying plant matter. You want some decaying plant matter, Mr. Tubor? Here, have some freshly dead Baybarb vines.
Then Casey did collapse, though irritably he remained conscious. His skin and clothes were ripped and he was probably bleeding. Best. Ending. To. Finals. Week. Ever. For once, he didn't mind that the Hospital Hut was outdoors, since getting medical attention would now be quicker than heading back indoors. He should have a little sign for himself whenever he requested a tow and Dingy wasn't available. For now, laying on the floor and shivering seemed the most wonderful thing in the world.
[June 11th] - Herbology Finals (Third Year)