Errand Dirt, Dirt, & More Dirt PV Finished

The school year flew by faster than a Golden Snitch in a Quidditch game and before Ziba knew it, the summer holidays were just around the corner. Yet, surprisingly, she found herself uneager to go home just yet. Her time in school these past ten months had been nothing short of amazing. There wasn't enough parchment in the world to write down all the exciting things she's been doing and learning, though she always tried her best to do so anyway when sending an owl home to her parents.

However, her last letter was short and sweet. She told them she would like to spend the summer here and attend the summer camp in hopes of improving her magic. Getting to explore the ins and outs of the castle grounds with less people around to interfere was another bonus, but Ziba felt that part wasn't as necessary for them to know. Luckily, her parents were okay with her being far from home for such a long period of time, especially because she had previously gone to visit during the Christmas holidays. She would see them again this winter, so they agreed to let her stay.

One of Ziba's first tasks for the summer was gardening duty. Of all the available errands, Ziba was glad that she was assigned this one. Fond memories of spending sunny afternoons in the backyard with her mum tending the flowers flood her mind as she made her way to the campgrounds. She wondered if wizard gardening was anything like muggle gardening. From her experiences in her Herbology class so far, she assumed it wasn't.

As Ziba approached one of the greenhouses, she waved hello up at the little dragon statues that stood frozen on the rooftop. She thought it was courteous to greet them before entering as a show of respect, and because she didn't know if anybody else was saying hi to them. That would be terribly sad if they weren't.

Inside the greenhouse, Ziba immediately spotted a young girl already getting to work on watering a few of the plants. The girl's back was turned to her so she couldn't see who it was but she seemed familiar. A quick look around showed her the other tasks that need to be done here: there were piles of baskets by the fruits and vegetables, unpotted plants lined in a row to her left, and a shovel and gloves by the door. There was a lot to do but first, introductions needed to be made.

She walked over to the girl and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hullo," she greeted with a smile. "I'm here to help!"

Lallie was so entranced with watering the plants she had hardly noticed the greenhouse door open. Nor did she notice the footsteps behind her. She did, however, notice the small tap on her shoulder. This gave her a bit of a start as she shot up from her work in surprise.

'Oh wait there's supposed to be another girl working with me. Duh!' Lallie thought as she turned to the girl. The girl standing in front of her stood slightly taller than her but she knew she was a first-year like her. Lallie still hadn't had her long-anticipated growth spurt so almost everyone in the school was taller than her.

The girl had long hair like Lallie's but her's was wilder and brown. People always said Lallie should do something with her hair but she never saw a reason too. She liked the way her hair was, straight and clean. She couldn't tell what house the brunette was in since she was in her summer clothes instead of school robes.

The girl seemed ever so familiar. Lallie wrote it off though. They went to the same school they've probably bumped to each other once or twice. In classes, the library, or even the common room if she was a Gryffindor.

"Hi, there! Sorry I started without you I got here a little early and didn't want to just stand here," Lallie said returning the brunette's smile, "I'm Lallie, Lallie Luna. It's a pleasure to meet you." she stuck out her hand waiting for the brunette to shake it.

Looking around she saw she had watered some of the plants but not a lot. She knew she wouldn't get much done in that department since she could barely fill the watering can halfway without it getting heavy for her. There were the flowers but those could probably be left to the end since they needed to be planted outside the greenhouse. Then there was the collecting where she could easily get low to the ground plants' fruits and vegetables but fruits on trees and stuff would need a bit of magical help to get.

"Ok so here's what I'm thinking. I'm not watering these plants the fastest so if you could do that faster that would be great. I could probably collect the fruit and vegetables fast enough so I could probably collect those while you're watering. I would hold off on planting the flowers since they need to go outside the greenhouse." Lallie said describing her game plan.

Ziba's greeting seemed to startle the girl, who was probably too focused on completing her task to even notice someone else had entered the greenhouse. Fortunately, the girl returned Ziba's smile and introduced herself. So far, Lallie Luna appeared to be friendly, hard-working, and genuinely enjoying spending her day amongst the plants. Ziba liked her already.

"I'm Ziba," she replied, taking Lallie's hand and shaking it. "And that's alright, I'm sorry that I'm late to the party. I hope you weren't waiting too long." It's not like Ziba wanted to be late. She got held up the moving staircases who insisted on shifting around every time she stepped on a new platform. One of her goals this summer was to figure out the right timing to climb down from Gryffindor tower. Perhaps she could convince the Headmaster to install a pole that students could slide down from.

While Lallie gave her ideas on how to finish their errands, Ziba thought about what she should do first. The redhead had a take-charge kind of attitude about it, listing everything that needed to be done and how to best finish it all, which Ziba didn't mind. She was fine with doing whatever was necessary. "Sure," Ziba said with shrug, "I can finish watering if you'd like to start gathering. And when we're both done here, we can start planting outside."

She looked around then grabbed another watering can sitting on a shelf to her right. Relief flooded through her when she realized Lallie had used her own hands to water the plants, not magic. Of course, it wasn't a clear indicator of the other girl's magical prowess, but she was sure if she had known a spell to finish the job quicker, she would have used it. She did mention she would be a faster collector than waterer. Ziba briefly wondered if the girl was in a hurry.

With that thought, she quickly filled the watering can and got to work. She didn't want Lallie to have any bad impressions of her, so she tried to do her job in a timely manner. That didn't mean they couldn't talk, though, right? "So what house are you in? Ziba spoke casually, moving to the next row of plants. "I'm in Gryffindor. First year. My mum was in Ravenclaw, though, and she thought for sure that I would be sorted there too. She and my dad say I think too much. But I don't think I would enjoy answering riddles every time I wanted to go to my room."

Lallie was glad she got someone like Ziba to help with the chore. She clearly was a nice and friendly girl. Lately, she hasn't really been meeting some refreshing people so this was a nice change of pace.

"Cool that was exactly what I was thinking." Lallie said to Ziba. Lallie grabbed one of the baskets she saw earlier and started to begin collecting. She decided the fastest possible route would be to loop around the greenhouse collecting all the fruits and vegetables she could reach and then figure out a way to grab the others.

People always thought Lallie rushed through things instead of taking her time. She wasn't rushing through those tasks though, she was being efficient. If she took her time then she would be wasting time to do other stuff. The only thing you can't get back is time.

"Oh cool, I'm a Gryffindor too." Lallie said with a small laugh, "It's funny. It seems that every single person I meet has family members that want them to get into Ravenclaw including me." Lallie had accepted the fact that she was a Gryffindor. It wasn't like Ravenclaw students had a brighter future than all the other kids. Everyone at Hogwarts has an equal chance to do something great, you just have to decide whether or not you're going to try.

Lallie at this point had collected about half the stuff she could reach. Each item was labeled so it wasn't difficult to determine what was used for food in the kitchen and what wasn't. She also easily knew which part of the plant needed to be picked since her father taught her a lot about Herbology.

"So what are you planning to do this summer? The camp doesn't exactly have a structured schedule so we kind of get to roam free. I'm most excited for the Divination Workshops." Even though Divination wasn't ever something Lallie wanted to pursue as a career or anything it was definitely an interesting topic to learn about.

After twenty minutes or so Lallie had completed collecting everything she could reach and filled up a couple of baskets worth of produce. She would probably drop that off at the kitchen when they went back. There was everything from ginger and potatoes to kiwifruit and blackcurrant. She obviously hadn't collected things like snargaluffs since she doesn't know how to extract the pods correctly.

Collecting another basket she noticed that while the greenhouse was enormous to accommodate for trees and such that they hadn't been provided a way to reach the fruit on the trees. Sighing she took out her wand. She didn't feel like using magic today but she supposed she had to.

Walking up to the apple tree Lallie pointed the wand at herself making a sideways "S" swish with a slight flick while saying "Wingardium Leviosa". She felt herself floating with wand and basket in hand. She put her wand back inside her pocket and started collecting the apples. She could surprisingly cover a lot of ground levitating while collecting apples.

After a couple of minutes, she felt the spell wear off and she prepared herself to fall. She landed on the ground without a scratch since she hadn't fallen that hard. She hadn't collected all the apples but she had collected a lot so she didn't think it was much of a problem.

Lallie went around to each tree performing the same spell collecting the lemons, pears, and for some reason coconuts. After around twenty minutes since there weren't a lot of trees, she was done. Placing the final basket next to the others there was in total six baskets. That could be taken done to the kitchen in one trip with Ziba's help so that was good.

"I'm done here. Ready to start planting the flowers?" Lallie asked turning to Ziba.

It was always a pleasant surprise to Ziba when she found another Gryffindor, especially because she thought she would have met them all by now. She couldn't help but wonder how many more Gryffindors in her year were out there that she hadn't seen or talked to yet. Something about being assigned to the house made Ziba feel a swell of pride and loyalty to everyone in it. She hoped she'd get to meet them all at least once before her time at the school was over.

"That is funny," Ziba replied with a wry smile. "I wonder what it is about Ravenclaw that makes our families want us to be part of it. Gryffindor is the far superior house, obviously." That last sentence was said with light humor. Obviously, they would think that. It would be terribly miserable to not like the house one was assigned to.

When her watering can emptied, she walked over to the hose to refill it and moved on to the next row. Only two more to go, it looked like. Of course, it was thanks to Lallie who had gotten started on it earlier.

"Oh, I haven't really thought about it much," Ziba answered, her hand holding the can paused in mid-air as she began to think out loud. "Divination sounds cool! But if they're offering anything like Care of Magical Creatures or advanced flying lessons, I'll definitely pick those." Ziba remembered when she first found out that Care of Magical Creatures wasn't an available elective until her third year. She eagerly awaited the day she could take the class, but thanks to the summer camps this year, she hoped her dream would come true sooner.

The girls continued to carry out their assignments for another twenty minutes, quickly and efficiently moving around the greenhouse. The time flew by easily with friendly chatter, and Ziba was glad for the company as she worked. She finished the last plant of the row and turned to start on the last one when she heard Lallie speak an incantation.

Looking up, Ziba watched in silent awe as the other young Gryffindor seemed to effortlessly swish and flick her wand. Ziba's spellwork wasn't disastrous but it also wasn't something to write home about. Yes, she did perform an exceptional levitating spell in class and received a high grade that she was quite proud of, but it seemed to be a fluke. Performing well under pressure came easily to Ziba, yet there were moments like this when she just felt so uncertain about her abilities. So she stood watching Lallie collect apples for a moment before turning back to the plants, her hands steady as she tried to water them back to life.

Soon, both girls finished everything that needed to be done inside. "All set over here," Ziba answered, putting everything away before grabbing a pair of gloves and a shovel. She turned to Lallie with a smirk as she stuck her shovel in the ground and placed her free hand on her hip. "What's the plan, Cap'n?"

Lallie smiled at the thought of the Care of Magical Creatures class. Even though she would have to wait until her third year to start classes she couldn't be more excited for the class. Lallie had always thought the subject to be fascinating and she would love to have a career in that field.

She chuckled slightly at Ziba's pose. She wasn't quite sure if she was just joking around or making fun of Lallie, she couldn't really pick up on that stuff, but either way, it was still funny. She did tend to be a little overbearing and usually made herself the self-appointed leader.

'Chill out Lallie, you're not always going to be the leader' the voice in her head yelled berating her. She wishes she could scream back at the voice but it tricked Lallie into making her think everything it said was fact. Lallie took a pair of gloves, put them on, and grabbed a spade to go with it.

"Just plant the flowers. They didn't really tell us how to plant them so I assume we just neatly plant them around the greenhouse." Lallie said grabbing one of the trays full of tiny pods of dirt with flowers in each one.

Walking out of the greenhouse she caught the smell of fresh air. Not the humid, soil-filled air in the greenhouse but just flat out fresh air. Looking at viable places to plant everything she saw there were several white dots around the greenhouse, each spaced out in a reasonable manner. 'I guess that's where they want us to plant the flowers.' Lallie thought.

"Hey, I think they want us to plant the flowers where they placed white dots on the ground. Guess our job is easier than we thought. I guess we should just meet in the middle or something like that.' Lallie said to Ziba. She set down her flower tray and using her spade cut into the dirt. The dirt was understandably soft since Hogwarts was surrounded by temperate forests. It took her only a minute to dig a small hole, put a flower in and patch it back up.

Ziba followed Lallie outside with a tray of her own, the shovel tucked haphazardly under her arm. The wooden handle knocked against the back of her leg as she clumsily walked behind the other girl. They stopped to examine the area and Lallie was first to figure out what to do next. She peered at the white dots around them. "Sounds easy enough," she said, looking at Lallie then using her chin to point towards the end of the row. "I can start on that end! See ya back here." She started to walk away before looking back over her shoulder. "Don't be late!" she quipped, her tongue sticking out playfully between her teeth.

Ziba made her way over and let the shovel tumble to the ground. The summer sun bore down on her back, and she felt a bead of sweat sliding down her neck. After setting the tray by her feet, she removed her gloves to quickly throw her long hair up into a ponytail. Maybe she should consider cutting her hair short for the season. Her mother would probably be sad to see her long locks go, but Ziba liked the idea of a change of appearance.

Once her gloves were back on, Ziba got to work. She quickly got into a steady rhythm of digging, planting, then smoothing out the soil. She hummed a song that had been stuck in her head all week as she worked her way toward the middle. Glancing at her progress, Ziba decided she was making good time when she paused, an idea suddenly springing to mind. Maybe she could practice a spell while she was here.

Quickly checking to make sure Lallie wasn't looking, Ziba knelt down and pulled out her wand. She took a deep breath before pointing it at a flower in her tray. "Wingardium Leviosa," she muttered quietly, silently begging her wand to cooperate. Slowly, the flower began to rise out of the tray. It started to bob and dip in the air but Ziba kept her wand steady, her eyes unblinking as she maneuvered it into the last hole she'd dug. When it finally touched down on the soil, it took everything in Ziba not to let out the happiest squeal. Nothing could have stopped her from jumping up in joy, though.

Feeling on top of the world, she decided she was happy enough with one successful spell and resumed working with the shovel, happily humming as she made her way to the middle where Lallie would meet her.

As she softly patted down the soil around the last flower, she called out to her new friend. "I'm all done over here! she announced, swiping the sweat off her forehead with her arm and standing to admire the freshly planted garden before her.

"Sounds good to me!" Lallie said. She smiled in response to Ziba's playfulness. She liked how nice and funny Ziba was and how she could take a mundane chore and make it fun. She hoped the two would hang out over the summer, she seemed like she could be a great friend.

As she continued her work Lallie felt the sun's rays beat down on her. She knew she was going to burn. She never tanned once in her life, only burned. That was one of the many curses with being a ginger. Well if she did this fast enough she wouldn't be in the sun for that long and it won't be so bad.

She was making pretty good time but realized she hadn't really been observing the flowers. Looking at them she couldn't completely tell which species each flower was since they were only just starting to bud. Some looked like they could be daisies or orchids, others could be tulips or sunflowers. There was definitely a wide color range for the flowers which would look fantastic when they bloomed.

Since the soil was so soft Lallie made quick time planting the flowers and met in the middle with Ziba where she could see she had gotten done too.

"Done here too. You did great work with your planting." Lallie said standing up with the empty tray and spade in hand. They did a pretty good job planting, everything looked nice and neat.

"Ok let's head back into the greenhouse so we can grab the baskets and take them to the kitchen." Lallie said walking to the greenhouse door. Walking in she was again greeted by the humid smell of soil. She set down her empty flower tray and spade where she found them and picked up three baskets, leaving Ziba the other three. She made sure to stack them on top of one another, the basket full of the hardest produce at the bottom and the one with the softest at the top.

"Ok let's go." Lallie said moving her head in the direction of the door. She made sure she left the door open since both of her hands would be full. Lallie waited for Ziba to walk out before using her leg to push the door closed. She started trudging down to the campgrounds mess hall with a new friend and a bunch of produce.

Total Word Count: 1748 + 400 = 2148

Lallie has left the thread and completed her word count; @Ziba Soames has permission to close thread

Ziba turned at the sound of Lallie's voice and took a moment to appreciate the other Gryffindor's hard work. "Wow!" she beamed, seeing how it all looked finished. Though not all the flowers had bloomed yet, she could still see the beginnings of a beautiful garden that would rival even her mum's coveted backyard. She turned to Lallie with a grin. "We make a great team!"

Once they were done marveling at their handiwork, Ziba followed Lallie back into the greenhouse to put away their tools and trays. She couldn't believe how quickly the day had gone by and how much they'd achieved together. After working outside for some time, coming back made her really see the big difference inside. The plants she'd watered already seemed to be flourishing nicely.

Lallie had taken the first three baskets so Ziba took the other three. "The kitchen?" she echoed. "D'you think the house elves will give us any treats for all our hardwork?" She was joking at first until her stomach grumbled aloud right at that moment, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since that morning. Just the mention of food had her drooling.

So, with empty stomachs, full baskets, and happy hearts, the pair of Gryffindor girls made their way back up to the castle side by side.