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Before Eight Errand Finished

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[font=PT Serif]"A healthy garden needs proper care, Reid." the woman chided.
A much younger and more exhausted voice piped up, "But does it have to be so early?"
"Of course, the earlier the better."
"How early?"
"Before eight."[/font]


[font=PT Serif]Reid struggled to walk through the pathways in the garden his shoes and hands were stained with dirt. He wore a jacket that went over his Derby FC hoodie, protecting himself from the chilly Scottish weather. His pants had crummy blotches of soil, prominently on the knees from the many times he picked up a herb. There were others, but he was in his own world at the moment. He would have asked someone to help, if it wasn't for the fact that something made him apprehensive about doing so. Lately, he had been feeling alone and it was magnified as each day passed. [/font]

[font=PT Serif]It didn't bring about sadness this time, only a silence that perhaps he didn't know he needed till now. His fingers gently wrapped around a grounded herb, then lifted gingerly with a small trowel. Reid cleaned the dirt from it, exposing the roots to the sun as he stood there and took his time. Maybe from afar, the badger seemed weirdly quiet. His pep was silenced to mere muttering and his expression held a vacancy, no one was home. [/font]

[font=PT Serif]A lot of this reminded him of his mum's garden, it reminded him of Derby and the garden that would no longer have anyone to tend it. Be careful and be kind to the plants, Reid tried to keep his mum's words in mind. "They've worked hard to grow, they might be small, but they're still growing. Treat them well." He placed the herb in the container, coming back down to do the same motion to another plant. His lips quirked into a smile as he remembered the many times that he sat around and watched her work, while he did none of the work she asked him of. [/font]

[font=PT Serif]Laziness, the downfall of any good person. When the nagging was enough, he got into the routine of helping her before school. Just like the flowers in her garden, he grew. Reid didn't understand why she cared so much about it, but maybe he understood it a little more now. It required work, seeing her come home and tend to it, only to wake up early and do the same. It felt unnecessary to him till he understood the meaning of hard work. "If you care about something, you'd toil for it." [/font]

[font=PT Serif]There were a lot of things Reid cared about, a lot of people he cared about. But that was his problem, he cared about everything. The Hufflepuff placed the herbs in the container and slowly bundled them together by threes. It was a lucky number, right? Everything good came in threes, at least from what he was told. He then went onto the next garden patch and began to pick the ones he needed to. Some might think he was too much of an oaf, but he took surprising time and effort in what he was doing for the Herbology teacher. [/font]

[font=PT Serif]His professor clearly took care of his garden and perhaps that was why he was so diligent with his task, he cared about what other people cared about. Just because it wasn't his or his responsibility didn't mean he should be negligent of it. The Hufflepuff didn't think twice about it, his mum just raised him well. The bundle was placed in the container as his eyes glossed over the other plants in the garden, trying to check on whether he needed to tend to the others. After a minute, the student got up to cross to the other side and bent over another plant with a grunt. [/font]

[font=PT Serif]His mum taught him gardening, his father always included him in his side projects. But regardless of what he was doing, his parents always expected him to finish his work thoughtfully and never without care. "Whatever you're doing or what you're going to do, be good at it." His mum wasn't a gardener, but if he was anyone else at the time, he'd think she was a professional at it. That's what he wanted to do at Hogwarts, be someone and maybe just be someone good. Quidditch felt like his calling, but he wanted to be a good wizard too. If he could be better than good, then perhaps his achievements would be as good as his ambitions. [/font]

[font=PT Serif]He came to squat over the low patch, using his hands to gather instead of the tools he borrowed. "One ... two, and three." Reid slowly bundled them as he was instructed, repeating the process a second time. He seethed through gritted teeth, fighting the impatience that threatened to spoil his work. "Don't rush, good things come in time." His peevish nature was a malady, threatening to take him over as soon as he was met with an obstacle or an opposition. [/font]

[font=PT Serif]It created the messy grouping of herbs he just created, causing him to redo it again with a halfhearted exhale from his lips. There were things he wanted, wished, hoped, and most of it laid in Hogwarts. Safety, success, happiness, and good friends. In the end it was all he really wished for and if he couldn't get most of those, he at least wanted a few good friends. Loneliness was an old friend he didn't want to bear, he could only be in its company for so long. If doing some work for a professor was a step towards some of those things, he'd dry as many herbs as he needed to. [/font]

[font=PT Serif]The Derby native stood up, brushing the dirt from his knees as his hands held what was a good amount of bundled plants from Professor Boniface's garden. He placed them in the container, picking it up to eventually return back to the main area where he set them on a table. Reid picked them out one by one, waiting for the person in front of him to finish before he laid his own gathering down. He went to put the container aside, brushing his hands on his sides to only further stain his denim jeans. "All done, professor." he reported. He held a proud smile when he addressed Professor @Boniface Murtagh MacTavish.[/font]
[font=PT Serif]Word Count: 1055 (excluding word count section)[/font]
"Trouble usually finds me."
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