Attack of the Bulbs PV Edwin Westbridge Finished

Avis watched with wide eyes as Edwin quite literally dove forward into the fray, a gasp escaping her lips when he disappeared from sight. The bulbs thundered over his position and she prayed to Merlin she wouldn’t see the smushed remains of her partner in crime as she turned.

To the girl’s surprise, Edwin lay out on the hard floor unharmed but for a few more bruises to add to his growing collection. She’d been surprised by his solution, but then again, the boy was a Gryffindor. She’d heard they did most of their thinking with their courage.

“Bravo, House Gryffindor,” she shouted back, desperately tugging at the vines still wrapped tightly over both arms.

Finally after a solid kick to the bulb’s purple side, the one over her wand arm loosened a bit and she took the opportunity to pull it free which seemed to unfortunately make the other vine tighten it’s already crushing grip.

At the same time Edwin seemed to be reacquiring his own wand on the other side of the greenhouse. Avis made a exasperated face at his comment quoting what she had apparently falsely mentioned earlier about threatened bulbs. It was evident that they were simply just mindless killers.

“Or perhaps they felt drawn to your lovely comforting presence,” she replied, checking over her wand to make sure it had survived the vine. Next, her attention turned to the area around her. This wild ride was getting rather old and Avis could feel the headache incoming. She had to find a way off.

Luckily, Edwin announced he’d finally found his blasted wand so they at least had that in the cards now. Bulbs were everywhere and Avis winced every time she saw them narrowly miss the Mandrake pots or threaten to crash through the glass exterior. To add to the chaos, Edwin had started hitting the bulbs with the Knockout Jinx but it seemed to no avail. Her own bulb bounced dangerously close to one of his spells and Avis ducked with a yelp. Finally the jets of red light ceased but it was too late. His spells had already given Avis a mad idea… for the second time that evening.

“Right I think they’re too big for the Knockback,” she called back, taking a breath and preparing her plan. Slowly, she stretched out her wand and then turned it towards herself. She’d experienced the brutal end of a Flipendo once before and it had been during a practice duel that had taken place recently. Unfortunately it had been herself who’d cast it, backfiring right after she’d attempted the spell attack. The blast knocked her almost clear off the piste and had been far less than pleasant but if it had been powerful enough to send her that far, surely it would work against a Bouncing Bulb vine?

The sound of Edwin’s concerned but ultimately bored voice broke her train of thought and Avis looked up from the end of her wand.

“Well, we can’t just leave them bouncing around. Imagine if they got out somehow! Or smashed the Mandrakes!” Avis replied with a shudder. “I think Incendio might be our only option. But I know the Extinguishing spell so I can put out whatever fires you start. I’ll be… right with you… in a moment,” Avis continued, the struggle evident in her voice as she forced herself to stay upright on the bulb and keep her wand steady. Here goes nothing.

“Flipendo!” Avis cried and immediately her world was bright red and painful. It felt like a wall had suddenly appeared in the bulb’s path and she’d smacked right into it. Amidst the horrible breathtaking sensation, Avis felt the vines rip away from her wrist as she flew off the bulb, hitting the ground with a deep oof.

The girl sat there wheezing for a moment, the air knocked completely from her lungs. Merlin she had not missed that feeling. Her head spun horribly and her ears rang as the chaos around her went quiet for a moment. She hoped Edwin hadn’t started lighting the bulbs on fire just yet. She certainly wasn’t ready to put out any flames, much less even speak but the bulbs were getting more aggressive by the minute and the Gryffindor’s foot might not be the only smushed body part in a bit. She did, however, trust that he’d keep a level head if their situation worsened. The boy had shown no sign of panic in their self-induced situation and Avis could see clearly why he was a Gryffindor.

Struggling for air, the girl staggered to her feet, steadying herself with a steel grip on the shelf of seeds next to her. Her vision was still blurry and her head ached but her wand arm was at least shaking a bit less.

“Alright mate! Light ‘um up unless you’ve got any better ideas!” she croaked, her voice breathless.

Edwin scoffed as she referred to him as a Gryffindor, continuing to hold no affinity for his house, despite how long he had spent at the school. He could, however, unfortunately see how his dive towards the floor had resembled the idiotic bravery that was so characteristic of Gryffindors. It wasn't a comment he could make a scene of objecting to, however, given the situation that they had found themselves in, calling for him to remain alert, not wanting to get clobbered by a rogue bulb.

"Yeah, I'm sure that it's." He replied with a grin, to her description of his supposed comforting presence. "Though I'm just as sure that you grabbing ahold of the poor thing the moment it was free wouldn't of helped much," If it hadn't been for his bulb instantly bouncing upwards, he'd of been willing to wholly blame her decision to try and ride them for their erratic behaviour, but evidently it had simply been a dodgy batch of bulbs, far too aggressive.

"Mhmm," He simply nodded to her assessment of their size, watching with a frown as she seemingly took to action. He had intended to try and take the brief moment of peace to try and formulate some kind of plan that would avoid committing accidental arson, or unnecessarily harming the bulbs. He wasn't entirely sure if they could feel harm or anything, but incinerating the schools plants seemed a surefire way to land him in trouble, something he wished to avoid at all costs. He couldn't quite figure out what exactly she was planning, but it was hard to look away from as she turned her wand on herself.

"Not even them getting out, imagine we leave them out and some class walks in on them bouncing around wildly, that wouldn't be ideal." He began, before quickly glancing over at the potted mandrakes in a panic, the bulbs had been awfully close on a number of occasions to smashing through the mandrakes, but he hadn't considered it to be a real possibility until she mentioned it. "Mandrakes would be bad," He agreed, his grip tightening around his wand as he rose it once again, ready to start casting, until she called for a moment.

"I wou-," He began to object to her plan, before she cast flipendo against herself, freeing herself from the bulbs, though Edwin hadn't yet had the spell cast against him, he did feel some sympathy for the inevitable pain that would of caused. It had been effective, however, and Edwin waited in silence, as she slowly dragged herself back to her feet.

"Right, uh.." He directed his wand towards the bulbs, slowly tracking it through the air. He had to be careful, he was playing a dangerous game by casting this spell indoors, if he missed and hit another plant it would be horrendous for the two of them. "One minute, let me think."

Not even a second after he asked for a moment, Edwin shook his head, nothing even resembling a wise plan having taken root in his mind. He was on a single track mind, and that was to cast incendio. "I'll just do one for now, see what happens."

"Incendio!" He flicked his wand in the direction of the nearest, lone bulb, not wishing for the flame to spread away from the singular target. He watched in anticipation as his jet of flames shot, thankfully landing true to its target. The bulb quickly wilted away under the flames heat, dropping to the floor. "Is this vandalism?" He asked with a frown, glancing over to Avis, as if he wanted confirmation whether or not to continue with this plan.

“Brilliant! Take your time!” Avis replied with sarcastic enthusiasm as Edwin brainstormed another plan. The girl sidestepped a bulb that came crashing towards her and ducked under a second one. She looked up at the boy desperately but it seemed he’d already made up his mind, wand at the ready and pointed at the nearest bulb.

The girl made her way over to his end of the greenhouse and watched as he sent one of the bulbs up in flames. Pulling out her own wand, Avis cleared her throat, ready to pronounce the incantation.

She glanced up at his question, sighing at the admirable but slightly annoying strong moral compass that every Gryffindor seemed to possess.

“I believe… Extinguo!… some might call this weeding. But to each their own! Typical Gryffindor, I suppose,” Avis replied, performing the Extinguishing Spell mid-sentence. She assumed he would know what she meant by her half-joking stereotype. After all, the boy had spent time with the Sorting Hat same as the rest of the school, although personally Avis was rather disappointed when the Hat had mentioned the Ravenclaw trait “curious” several times and the trait “wisdom” only once during her turn. She shrugged, perhaps seeing that the Hat had been right according to the results of this particular venture.

Either way, she supposed Edwin was right for wanting to avoid trouble at all costs. Burning school property did sound pretty bad when one put it like that. Maybe there was another way…

“I have an idea,” the Ravenclaw announced, putting out a hand to stop her counterpart from burning more bulbs. “If I can repair the boxes with the Mending Charm,” Avis started, glancing over at the pile of smashed wood with a grimace,” Maybe there’s a way we can coral them back in. Not sure Leviosa would work on the bulbs since Flipendo was useless but could be worth a shot?” she finished, giving Edwin a questioning glance.

@Edwin Westbridge

"I will take my time," He replied indignantly. "This is a delicate matter after all." He spared a quick glance in Avis' general direction, watching as she manoeuvred between a couple of bulbs, though this served as no incentive to hasten his decision making. She'd proven herself capable of dodging the bulbs, he was certain she could continue to do so. However, no matter how much he attempted to strategise, he remained on the same plan, he would inevitably have to burn the bulbs.

And he did, as she hurried over to him, he had burned one of the bulbs, something that bought him absolutely no joy. Though, she had been quick to extinguish the bulb, Edwin did stare briefly down at the wilted bulb with a frown.

"Weeding?" He began, about to laugh off her characterisation of their actions. Though, before he did, he hesitated for a brief moment. "We'll go with that then, we're just weeding... Getting rid of overgrown plants, you're right." It had taken very little, but that singular word had convinced Edwin of his actions, now sure that he was taking part in a noble deed, rather than some act of vandalism. For as much as he hated to admit it, there was certainly moments when his brain would work similarly to the stereotypical Gryffindor that he so loved to mock. Whilst internally he could sometimes begrudgingly accept this, any sign of joy was wiped from his face when his companion described him as a typical Gryffindor. "Don'-.. Whatever," He muttered, not bothering to continue on that train of thought. There was more pressing matters for him to direct his attention towards.

"Could just.. Kind of lure them in the direction of the boxes, a flipendo or two to keep them annoyed and then if I lure one over, you snap the box closed on them." He added onto her plan with a nod. "Worst comes to worst, we just try Incendio again, it's not ideal but it works." He pressed his foot, the one that had previously been smashed into, down against the floor, his face contorting slightly in pain. "Not too bad, okay.. You go and do your repair-y stuff," He pointed his wand over towards the boxes. "And I'll keep them in another area?"

He'd posed his part of the plan, as if he was asking if she agreed, but before she'd of even gotten a chance, he'd already set to action, heading directly towards a cluster of bulbs. He whipped his wand towards them, "Flipendo!", which seemed to do just the trick, a handful of the bulbs immediately setting to bouncing in his direction, away from the discarded, broken boxes.

Avis cocked her head curiously at the stark contrast the sudden frown on Edwin’s face posed when she mentioned his likeness to those of the crimson and gold House. So this Gryffindor didn’t want to be a Gryffindor? Interesting, but perhaps a topic for later. She grimaced at the sound of a pot smashing somewhere amongst the jungle of magical plants.

After she’d posed her plan, Edwin added on to it with a bit of innovative thinking. The Ravenclaw nodded, ready to play her part. A shadow of concern passed over her face for a moment at the state of her companion’s foot but seeing as the only mending spell she knew was for inanimate objects, he’d have to bear through the pain for the time being.

“Right,” she said, agreeing with his proposal. “And careful with that foot. Or at least keep the other one intact. Can’t have all of you get smashed by a bulb because you can’t walk,” she joked halfheartedly, failing miserably at her attempt to loosen the nerves before they started luring bulbs into boxes. Luckily, Edwin was already marching towards the bulbs so Avis whirled around and hurried towards the broken wood in the corner.

Taking a calming breath she waved her wand over the pile.

“Reparo!” she commanded. Instantly, one of the boxes whisked itself back together and although it didn’t look quite as sturdy as it had before, it would do. The Mending Charm had been one of the tougher lessons Avis had had to learn in class but she had no time to fully clear her mind to better execute the spell. Perfection wasn’t the goal here anyway.

Repeating the incantation a few more times, the girl finally had six boxes up and ready for their old occupants, namely the bulbs Edwin was distracting at the other end of the greenhouse. She hoped he was still alive as she called out to him.

“If you’ve finished entertaining the bulbs, the boxes are ready!” Avis shouted over another pot shattering.

Whilst Edwin typically didn't display much athleticism, if he had one thing going for him in that regard, it was his ability to evade oncoming danger. His earlier mishap with his foot may contradict that image, but if anyone was to observe him in that moment, they'd of been convinced that he would never get hit by anything in his life.

At least, it had started that way.

Darting and weaving desperately between a small group of bouncing bulb required Edwin to move quickly, and without hesitation. This quick movement often required him to push quickly off his already tender foot, which would not aid at all in its healing process. Whilst it certainly wouldn't have any kind of lasting injury, likely only swelling for a day or so, in that moment Edwin could of been convinced that his foot was shattered, the repeated pushing off of it only compounding the pain. The more his foot hurt, the closer the bulbs came to hitting him once more, many landing just a few centimetres from his feet, or just skimming down the side of his shoulder.

He had no time to reply to any of her comments, keeping his mind solely focused on this task.

Smash.

A bulb flew up from atop Edwin's already injured foot, the Gryffindor biting back every instinct to yell out in pain, not wanting to risk distracting Avis from her spell work. Instead, his face briefly contorted in pain, momentarily rooting him to the spot as a second bulb smashed down, landing dangerously close to his good foot. After a brief moment of composing himself, he resumed his evasion, though no longer quite displaying the same level of skill as before, now oddly resembling a mad man, desperately hopping around on the spot, his arms flailing as he moved to avoid at any cost. It was not an elegant sight, though it seemed just as effective, his frenzied movements weaving between the falling bulbs.

At long last, the yell came that the boxes were prepared and Edwin dashed over in an instance, yelling. "Grab one, and get ready!"

Behind Edwin, the remaining six bulbs thundered after him as he hobbled, thankfully maintaining just enough speed, despite his foot, to gain some distance on them. As soon as he reached Avis, he grabbed one of the boxes from the floor, holding it open in the direction of the bulbs, hoping they would be dumb enough to bounce straight into the box. "Might take a bit to grab all six," He muttered, standing ready. "Can only do two at a time, but we'll see how these first two go."

“Great Merlin’s Bollocksing Beard,” Avis muttered as she turned to see Edwin hobbling as fast as he could towards her. It wasn’t the sight of his obvious limp that dragged that particular exclamation from her lips. No, it was the wild herd of furious bulbs thundering after him coming straight in the two young students’ direction. She only hoped they didn’t smash the newly repaired boxes in the coming onslaught.

Wasting no time, she snatched the nearest box and prayed to Merlin it would hold. Edwin soon joined her and she nodded at his analysis.

“It was a pleasure,” she replied, facing their impending doom as if these were her last words, although what had been a pleasure, the girl wasn’t quite sure. Hopefully this would be one of those things that ended up being funnier later. For now, her heart was hammering through her ribs and adrenaline throbbed through her veins. Here goes nothing.

Steeling herself as the first bulb approached, Avis lunged at it, quite literally tackling the thing with her box. It was big but not quite bigger than she was so after a bit of a struggle, Avis found herself sitting atop the box, the bulb furiously jolting around within the walls of its new cage. She glanced around in a panic for the ropes that had tied the boxes shut earlier and saw them in a pile near the rest of the boxes. Bollocks. Taking a breath, she whipped out her wand.

“Wingardium Leviosa,” she hissed through gritted teeth as the box beneath her shifted violently.

Moments later, Avis had the ropes in hand, never more grateful for the Levitation Charm than at that moment. It wasn’t Accio and it had taken immense concentration to float the rope across the greenhouse through the mad herd of bulbs but it worked.

Doing her best to keep the box down with her weight, she tied it shut and breathed a sigh of relief… until she was almost clobbered by another bulb. Right, only four more.

“One done! I’m going after another!” she shouted in no particular direction. Hoping Edwin was managing with his injured foot, Avis dashed towards the rope and selected another thick strand. She turned with a furious expression on her face, cheeks flared red and facing down her next target… which had seemingly also selected her as its own.

Avis, for the second time that evening, felt as though she’d smacked into a wall as the bulb bowled her over and sent her flying unto a large pot of white flowers Avis remembered her Potions professor called “Asphodel.” Coughing up dry soil, the Ravenclaw sat up wearily amongst the crushed flowers, wincing at the damage she’d inflicted.

“I lied,” she groaned, not sure why she was still giving Edwin updates as he was clearly occupied with his own bulbs. “It went after me.”

Taking a moment to rub her aching head, Avis climbed out of the pot and spat a wad of dirt onto the greenhouse floor. Now where was that blasted bulb.

Eyes shifting back and forth across the room, she spotted the thing about to bounce right over Edwin, one of its leaves crushed from the impact with an 11 year old girl moments before. “Gotcha,” Avis muttered, whipping out her wand.

It was important to note that in the following moments, Avis was initially not aware that the Levitation Charm could lift a human, but alas she did discover that it could levitate the clothing on said human, which tended to lift the person wearing them as well. She answered this question correctly on her next Charms exam thanks to this unfortunate experience.

This experience, as stated above, turned out to be Avis missing the bulb with her Levitation Charm and instead watching it streak directly towards her companion instead. Her eyes widened in surprise at the miss and the new target.

“Bollocks.”

Avis certainly had a way with words, but it was hard to disagree with the sentiment of what she was saying, given the sound of the remaining bulbs chasing after him. He'd of liked to have returned a comment of his own, but running on his foot took all of his concentration, slipping likely being extremely painful at this point, as the bulbs would bounce over him one by one.

"A pleasure," He agreed, as he turned with his box, facing the oncoming bulbs. He squatted his weight down slightly, hoping that he could absorb the bulbs force as it bounced into his box, rather than simply being knocked down with it. The briefest moment of pause between him readying his stance, and the bulbs arrival allowed him a moment of clarity, reflecting on how a single moment of rebellion had lead to him engaging in the most physically strenuous activity of his life. Never again, he swore to him, never again will I run.

With exercise sworn off for the rest of his life, Edwin took half a step forward as the nearest bulb reached the height of its bounce. Everything else around him seemingly blanked out for that moment, taking a number of tiny steps to adjust beneath it, before it finally bounced down into the box, Edwin bending at the knee to cushion it's landing. Within an instance, he threw himself down atop of the box, holding it shut whilst he reached for a rope. "Got one," He said, though his voice was quiet, mores speaking to himself, as he began to frantically wrap the rope around the box, briefly raising himself off it, risking a brief moment where the bulb could of escaped, but eventually ensuring the box would hold shut.

With a bulb trapped, he finally ripped his gaze away from them, sparing a glance over towards Avis who had had successes of her own. Though her method of levitating the box to wrap it was far wiser than his own awkward shuffling about, but he had stowed his wand in his pocket stupidly, and was committed to his own methods.

He nodded at her plan of going for a second, committing to capturing his second bulb, his part of the plan going off without a hitch, quickly able to store a second bulb away safely. Though whilst he had his successes, he couldn't help but be distracted by the sound of a human smashing into something. "Oh dear." He winced, patting his own safely secured box, and moving over towards the remaining coils of rope. "It seems it did." He nodded at her assessment of the situation. "You good, though?" He figured it was polite to at least ask given his own troubles, but truthfully, he had more pressing matters, such as capturing the mining three bulbs.

Given that she seemed to be clambering to her feet, he figured she was fine and leant down to grab more rope, blissfully aware of the bulb that was only moments from smashing into him. Instead of a surprise impact, he was instead hoisted off his face, dangling from what seemed to be his ropes. Given he had heard her call the incantation, it did not take a genius to figure out what had happened, and as he slowly swivelled on the spot, he stared blankly at her. "This is not ideal." He said plainly,

To make matters worse, his wand slipped from his pocket, likely in part because he was upside down, and clattered onto the floor, just out of his reach. "It's gotten even worse." He continued, but despite the rather unfortunate nature of his situation, he couldn't help but grin at it. "Just, uh.. Drop me off and I can help get the last three."

Of all the reactions Avis had expected from her now aloft companion, an amused grin was not one of them. His blank stare had quickly morphed into the unexpected expression and the ridiculousness of the situation combined with Edwin’s flash of a smile made Avis snort in laughter, even as the Gryffindor’s wand clattered to the ground, once more escaping the confines of his pocket. She nodded in agreement at his straightforward assessment of the situation, weak with giggles.

“H-hold on. Sorry let me just…” she wheezed, searching for a soft place to set him that was preferably not run over with wild bulbs.

As she settled on a comfortable looking bed of moss, Avis’ eyebrows shot up in surprise as she turned to see a bulb thundering towards a floating Edwin. Shifting her wand, she moved him out of the way last minute and the bulb crashed on past. Right.

Laughter-free, Avis carefully directed the boy towards the moss and set him down as gently as possible, aware that his foot was still in bad shape. Because of this, she figured she herself would snag the boy’s wand for him, as she was bit lighter on her feet at the moment.

“Ok, I’ll fetch your wand and then we can bag- er… box the last three!” the Ravenclaw called once he was safely on the ground once more.

Without another thought, Avis sprinted towards the wand, ribs still aching from her earlier collision.

Dodging a few bulbs, she dove for it as one bounced overhead, repeating Edwin’s reckless but brave stunt from earlier. It was easier now that’d she seen him successfully complete it. Snatching up the wand, she rolled into the far glass wall, locating her next target.

Moments later, the girl was dashing towards Edwin, a bulb on her tail.

“Catch!” she yelled as soon as she was within reach and tossed his wand towards him, hoping her throw had been accurate. Then, she turned on the bulb, snagging a box and some rope from nearby. After stuffing it into said box and tying the rope tightly around its opening, she sat atop it, thoroughly out of breath.

“Merlin, I might suggest this as a workout for the team!” she gasped, unable to think of a Quidditch practice that had seemed harder than this.

Glancing up after catching her breath, Avis desperately hoped Edwin was having excellent luck with his bulb catching. She eyed the final bulb with a menacing scowl.

“Right, I’ll grab the box for this one if you can get a rope and lure the beastie over here!” she announced, moving towards the nearest box to complete her part of the impromptu plan.

"Any minute now.." He muttered, as he continued to be hoisted by his levitating robes, which threatened to rip from the strain of supporting his body weight whilst he floated. Despite his words perhaps sounding impatient, there was a grin plastered to his face whilst he continued to be manoeuvred for a landing point. This grin was swiftly wiped from his face as he was jerked away from a bulb that flew only inches infront of him, darting through the air that he had occupied only moments earlier.

As he was dropped down onto the ground safely, he let out a sigh and dusted himself off with a new found appreciation for the craftsmanship of his robes, which had withheld all of his weight dangling from them. "Cheers," He called back as she offered to fetch his wand.

From this new perspective, he realised it must of been quite amusing to watch him hobble about, attempting to dodge bulbs whilst effectively only having one good foot. It was amusing enough to watch her, who was seemingly unharmed, dart between the bulbs in pursuit of his wand. He had half a mind to call out some encouragement, but figured it was not worth risking any distractions. This silence also allowed for a moments rest, his breaths laboured and heavy from his earlier antics, though as she grew nearer and nearer to his wand, his breathing steadily came back to him, allowing a second wind for the remaining bulbs.

"Got it!" He called back, his hand darting out to snatch the wand from the air, successful in his catch, briefly pointing it towards one of the few remaining bulbs, however after a moments pause, he pocketed his wand once again, deciding not to risk missing his knockback jinx when they were so close to having captured everything.

Similar to Avis, Edwin was quickly able to capture his own bulb, leaning forward onto his hands, which were rested atop the rope wrapped box. His breathing once again laboured, despite his brief recovery. "I'm never exercising again after this." He pledged, though her suggestion of it as a quidditch practice did earn a laugh from the Gryffindor.

"One more." He nodded along to her plan, moving to grab ahold of one of the remaining coils of rope. After having taken a moment to compose himself, he dashed off to draw the bulbs attention, baiting it over towards Avis, who stood ready, box in hand. The operation was flawless at this point, having boxed five bulbs between them.

As soon as the bulb was close enough, Avis snapped the box shut around it and Edwin darted in, wrapping the rope as tightly as he could around it, before collapsing atop the box. "Never again. Well, maybe if there's another cool plant, but never again."

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