Mandrakes for Medicine Finished

Interacting with @Ivy Bellamy
Open to interactions

Cress noticed a girl walk into the greenhouse. She had seen her before but they'd never spoken. It wasn't that they weren't friendly with each other, their paths just hadn't crossed enough to really get to know each other. The girl walked up to her and said hi. Well, Cress thought she did. She couldn't hear all that well in the greenhouse what with all the screaming mandrakes and her earmuffs on, but she smiled politely at Ivy.

Cress knew her name from one day in class when they had introduced themselves. She knew they were in the same year of course and therefore about the same age. "Heya Ivy. How you doing?" She grabbed another mandrake, yanked it from the pot, and put it in the box she had. Its cries were muffled in the pot, but could still be heard.

Not a single mandrake had been calm when she'd pulled it out of its pot. Cress didn't blame them to be honest. She hadn't been able to calm a single one, so she just took to quickly placing them in their pots. After a few mandrakes, she began racing herself trying to see how many she could get in the pots in a minute.

Turning to Ivy, she asked, "How many have you done so far?"

Word count: 434+222= 656

Interacting with @Pericles Dralt
Mentioning @Ivy Bellamy

Breana nodded heavily, the last nod making her nod off to sleep before realizing that she is dozing off. "RIGHT!" She belted, trying to force herself to wake up. "I mean... yeah, you're... you right, you right... our... our job..." She shook her head, her brown curly locks bouncing along as she tried to fire herself up. "I can't let my parents down!" She said, patting her cheeks with her hands to lightly smack herself awake. She might look crazy to someone who just saw her yell, but it is a necessary embarrassment to get her to get going with the errand.

She slowly turned to Pericles, a bit embarrassed with what she did. he lightly chuckled, trying to keep her face, but thankfully their conversation quickly brushed it aside to something else as he pointed out a Gryffindor girl to her. "Huh?" She looked over, recognizing her easily. "Oh, that's Ivy..." Breana said, a slur of her sleepiness still evident in her voice. She nodded towards her and nodded back, just thinking that the long-haired girl was in a haste to meet with her friend. Breana didn't mind, of course. Her brain is too tired to try to build a relationship with her just yet. "We met while I was cry--yyyyiiiiickets! I was.... erhm... yeah, looking at... crickets...?" Her sentence ending in a question, not even trying to hide what she was about to say. She cleared her throat, turning to focus on a mandrake and pulled it out of the pot. She winced at its cry before dropping it over to the box Pericles brought.

Breana turned to Peri as he asked her about her all-nighter. "Hm...? O-oh, uh yeah... Yeah?" The last "yeah" being directed to herself, pausing to look up and remember before nodding to her friend. "Yep, yeah... But it's fine! I'm..." The tiny girl yawned, her freckled face stretching as her body took in the longer breath. "F-fine... I just wanted to do some advanced reading... and poof! It became Koko Krunch-- I mean... It was already four in the morning..." She chuckled a bit at her joke. Breana looked over at Pericles, who was currently sporting a look of concern. To her, however, her mind registered it as her making jokes in the middle of a serious situation. She cleared her throat, pulling back another mandrake before Pericles spoke again. "Wha...? You and me... walking back to the commons... together...?" Though her thought process was admittedly slower than normal, it did finally register what that meant for the zombie of a Ravenclaw. That would mean she'd be seen walking with him. At a glance, it'd be harmless. For Breana, it would be a MASSIVE hint of her inner feelings, given how she's acted towards him in the past.

"AHH! No! Nooooo I'm fine... honest!" She said, huffing up her chest. She pulled off a rather forced smile to him, that can only be described as something from a clown painting, "See? I'm fine-- GAH!" She stumbled on her footing, however, but caught herself and shifted her balance properly. "Heh, erhm... maybe I should take a break for a few minutes..." Breana chuckled sheepishly, before sighing. "I still wanna go to the lake for the other stuff... the octopus, I think? I just..." She looked down before looking up at Peri. "I don't want to... just sit back when I can be doing something to this already. I don't wanna do that to my parents... my family..." She sighed. She shook her head, feeling like she spilled a bit too much to her bespectacled friend. She pulled out a mandrake, now getting used to the muffled cries and throwing it unto the pot. " Sorry... the whole situation has been doing my head in... We can still walk together, but I'm still heading to the lake and stuff... I'm not stopping you from going to the commons or anything like that..."

It had almost become habitual for Ethen to lose complete track of time as he became wrapped up in mischief around the castle. If it wasn't for his curiosity about what his best friend was up to, he may never actually remember to get where he needed to be. Atlas was usually several steps ahead of him in being where they needed to be but he would eventually find his way over when things would just start to get a bit spicy. He had wandered around for the better part of an hour trying desperately to remember where he was supposed to meet her but nothing jogged his memory as his stomach grumbled away to the ever lack of good food.

It was just by chance that a passing student coughed into their sleeve that forced Ethen to remember what he was supposed to be spending his day doing. He had vaguely heard Atlas talking about how the muggles were struggling with some new terrifying illness and something about the wizard world wanting to help. He didn't remember too much in the terms of details. At the time he had been crunching away at a bag of toffee covered peanuts, admittedly a bit dramatically as he just peered at the ever intense girl.

After the memory hit him Ethen was quick down the hall remembering that he was to meet Atlas at the greenhouses to help in the collection of mandrakes. With how clumsy and generally aloof Ethen was, he had a curious knack for Herbology. In truth it was a bit of a begrudging marriage, but his time in the bush with his parents had taught him loads about using and repurposing herbs and other useful plants. So much so that he found himself doing well in the class. Atlas, on the other hand, seemed more likely to underwater a cactus than be a herbology expert but even she seemed to be improving.

As Ethen arrived at the greenhouse, he was greeted by the faint cries of the mandrakes already being plucked within the confines of the building. He shuffled quickly over to a table of earmuffs and scooped one up that looked to be nearly ancient as it was moth bitten and curiously dusty. Shrugging he plopped them snuggly over his ears to mask out the cries before slipping inside. He saw the familiar blonde girl peering around aimlessly over the table of pots and Ethen hurried over. He knew the cries would drown out most ability to communicate so he tried to make crude had gestures as he yelled at his friend. "ARE YOU READY TO PLUCK SOME DIRT BABIES!!!" He howled over the sounds of the cries as he settled in next to Atlas with a warm smile.

Watching the other students, Atlas didn't notice her best friend stomping through the greenhouse as she jumped hearing his loud bellow as she playfully punched him in the arm. "YOU DON'T HAVE TO SCREAM!" She laughed raising her voice to match his as she rolled her eyes. "Where were you?! Sleeping in the library again? Or down in the kitchen with the house elves?" She inquired bringing her voice down to a normal level. 

"We have to pluck all these mandrakes and then some", Atlas continued as she gestured towards the extra mandrake pots on the table by the professor. "I'll go get us a box from the pile to put them in, just try not to have all the fun while I'm gone." 

With that, Atlas searched through the stack of boxes till she found one labeled Fizzing Whizbees, presumably from the candy shop in Hogsmeade as she trotted back over to their table. Noticing Ethen was ready to jump in and start pulling mandrakes, Atlas reached into her satchel and pulled ut a second pair of gloves as she threw them at Ethen's face. 

"You left these in the common room the other night...I knew they were yours as they had sticky fingertips...you trash panda." She joked adjusting the gloves on her hands to make sure they were snug and secure. They were slightly too big for her but she figured she'd grow into them eventually and until then she would make do. 

Staring at the pot in from of her, she brushed out some of the soil til she saw the top of the mandrakes head peeking out. "Here goes nothing..." She grimaced as she gripped the base of the leaves firmly using her other hand to secure the side of the pot as she yanked out the wailing mandrake as it tossed in her fingers. Puffing out her cheeks, Atlas placed the wriggling headache-inducing plant into the box as she pushed the pot to the side and slide another one close to her. 

Even with the earmuffs there were so many mandrakes screaming that she could feel her temples throbbing as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, brushing the dirt off as she shook the pot loosening up the dirt to make it easier to pull as she could already feel this one wriggling and vibrating.

"Why do they have to make so much noise?" She inquired to Ethen hoping in all his plant endeavors with his family he somehow managed to remember the answer.  "I can't hear myself think!" She grimaced gripping the top of the mandrake as she ripped it out of the pot noticing its wrinkly grotesque features as she scrunched her nose placing it next to her first one in the box. 

She thought she saw something strange out of the corner of her eye as she turned to see Ethen dancing with one of the mandrakes poking its belly as he sang it a song. "What are you doing?!" Atlas yelled her brow furrowing with the cacophony of screams. "How can you like these little uhh things...they are painfully unbearable..." 

Sure she had spent plenty of time around Fwoopers in Africa but they were at least pleasant to look at whereas these plants looked like ugly fat babies with nasty tempers. Ethen seemed to be moving through the pots much quicker than her despite his games but Atlas had no idea how much more of this she could take. 

Twirling another pot closer to her, Atlas pulled her gloves up more before gripping the mandrake leaves and yanking its squirming body out of the pot. "Into the box you go!" Atlas remarked sticking out her tongue at the wailing baby. "Ethen...I can't take this much longer...I might go insane...I need some air...Are you just about done?" She inquired hoping he would be willing to leave with her to a quieter area. 

WC: 1,004/400
Mentioning: @Ethen Emrys
**Ethen allowed me to minimally god-mode him and told me what he would be doing**

( Interacting with @Breana Oliveire )

Pericles' query was met with drooping- no, closing eyes... a bowing head... the stillness of sleep.... He leaned in ever so slightly, voice just loud enough to reach through those earmuffs. "Breana?" Came the concerned call. She shouted awake, causing him to flinch away, typically placid expression twisted with shock and concern in equal measure. "Your parents...?" he echoed absently. His housemate went from fading, to slapping her cheeks, and even babbled something about "Crickets? Breana, I-" she was even yawning "-I'm sorry, I dunno what Koko Krunch is, but are you sure you're really -...."

The last word was meant to be Alright, though that abrupt stumble was answer enough, let alone the disturbing smile which suggested the witch was lacking control over her facial expressions. Her passing consideration of a break had him offering a soft "Yeah" and a weak smile. Yet his brow was marked with a worried furrow, expression just as vague and lacking as his voice. As soon as she spoke of heading to the lake errand however, the lad looked away. He frowned uneasily at the next pot, plucking his mandrake free with deft precision. Pericles was horrible at telling people when they should or shouldn't do something. As worried as he may be, he struggled to try and sway his peer from potential danger, mulling over the matter in fretful silence. Maybe the icy waters would wake her up? Yet perhaps she would mishandle some unforgiving tentacles, or plant face-first into said waters instead, or fall asleep on the walk....

"I suppose one more errand couldn't hurt," Pericles pressed himself to admit, adding in a furtive half-smile, glancing to and from Breana with a reluctance which would have been blatant to someone actually awake. He waited until the next bout of screeching died down before asserting, "If you're sure you wouldn't rather take your break at the Tower, I'll walk with you to the lake instead, if that's alright." While the young wizard wasn't at ease trying to change the minds of others, his own mind was made up. He would help with a few more mandrake pots, then continue on to the tentacle harvest, whether with the half-conscious housemate or at a protective pace not too far behind.

( Leaving thread unless stopped! )

Had any of the students, in a moment of solitary reflection or distraction, looked towards the door of the Herbology greenhouse, they would have noticed a girl half-in and half-out of the room, lingering uneasily on the threshold as she scanned the faces of the students, a wary gleam in her eye.

Having found no immediate threat to her livelihood, she wordlessly took her place among a few other students, none of whom she had any mind to speak to. Was this callous? Without a doubt. An errand was an errand, and it would be done as such. No dallying, no idle chit-chat. In and out.

She knew she was being too emotional recently. What had happened? It was as if there were a thousand voices fighting within her, complicating even the most simple of tasks. It was all worries and fears, slinking through corridors as if she herself had done something wrong. Why, just half a year ago she would have all but burst through those doors, declaring her tardiness to the whole greenhouse with flustered words and a smile.

Grabbing a nearby pair of earmuffs, she quickly slipped them onto her head. Come to think of it, it was almost miraculous that none of the students had decided to unleash the fury of a baby mandrake from the time she entered to the time she wore the earmuffs. It was better not to test her luck any further, lest she find fate a bit too up for the challenge.

The leather gloves were a size or two too large for her - you'll grow into them, Lady Aithne had told her. Yeah, sure, if she could stay alive long enough to grow into them! They weren't much for warmth, but now she wouldn't have to worry about getting bitten by bugs in the soil. Though she hadn't heard about too many, she bet that there were a million kinds of magical bugs that could kill you with a single chomp. Ugh.

Crassly snatching an unattended pot as well as a box from the corner of the room and dragging it back over to her seat, Jo took a long hard look at the plant. Her enjoyment for Herbology, though dampened considerably by her current tempestuous temperament, had not been reduced to nonexistence. It reared its green head even now as she poked and prodded at the leaves, examining the tiny eruptions of dirt from inside the pot that betrayed the magical plant's mobility. It was an ugly, ugly thing, as she remembered from her first Herbology lesson. Even uglier than human babies.

It was a tough life for a mandrake. They were and raised underground in a tiny pot, and as soon as they reached adulthood they were ripped out of their homes and chopped up into little bits for potions or fed to Dugbogs and Flesh-eating Slugs.

With a casual flick of her eyes around the room to make sure none of the other students had removed their earmuffs or somehow heard her sentimental internal monologue about plants, the young witch took a deep breath, wrapped her right hand tightly around the trunk (or was it a stem?) as she steadied the pot with the other, and ripped the mandrake from its humble abode.

It was probably the ugliest thing she had ever seen. Lopsided in all the wrong ways and human in all the wrong ways, too. A perversion of the humanoid form that shrieked and convulsed as a possessed child, bellowing death in a deafening teakettle whistle.

She slammed it into the box whereupon it quieted somewhat, lessening its frantic wail against the cruelty of humanity to a mild series of a-a-a-a-a protests as it flopped unpleasantly around in its newfound but larger confinement. Professor MacTavish would likely have objected to her indecorous treatment of the creatures but he wasn't here now and suffice it to say that the girl had a lot of stress to take out.

One mandrake. Two mandrakes. Three mandrakes. Four Mandrakes. REEEEEE! A-a-a-a. Done and done! Jo wiped the sweat from her face, realizing with a grimace that the work was more tiring than she originally thought it to be.

Bringing her own box to a heap of rattling other ones nearby, she unceremoniously bid farewell to the leafy infants and marched towards the door, pausing only to remove her earmuffs and discard them onto a table. Yeesh. It seemed as if the lioness was just not in a mood to be trifled with today.

Word count complete! Jo will leave the thread unless stopped.

Interacting with @Crescent Moon and @Evelynn Decipio
Mentions @Atlas Reid and @Ethen Emrys

It came as a surprise that Crescent had heard Ivy's greeting, especially as a mandrake had started wailing somewhere in the greenhouse as the Gryffindor spoke. "I'm fine, thanks. How are you?" Ivy pulled up another mandrake and tossed it into a spare box as quickly as she could, and paused to answer her classmate's question, frowning as she tried to recall how many she had pulled up. "I think this is my fourth or fifth mandrake? I'm not really sure... How many have you pulled?" It was a little hard to think with all the noise going on.

It appeared that the commotion she had caused with the empty box had not gone unnoticed, much to Ivy's dismay. A familiar redhead across the greenhouse, who she recognized as Evelynn Decipio, the girl she had sat next to during the talent show, looked at her with concern and mouthed something Ivy quickly translated to, "You alright?" using her lip-reading skills. Ivy nodded slowly, distantly, feeling a little shaken as she placed the box back onto the table with trembling fingers. "I'm ok," Ivy mouthed back. She wasn't really sure who she was trying to convince, but oh well. "I'm ok." She focused her gaze back onto the pots in front of her and took another one with the intention of depotting it like she had with the past five or so - but her hands, still shaking slightly, wouldn't allow her to do so. Breathe, she told herself. Lillian isn't dead.

Perhaps it was her lucky day, because before the attention on her could grow, an unfamiliar boy (Ethen) burst into the greenhouse, screaming. A girl (Atlas) screamed back before laughing. Under ordinary circumstances, Ivy would roll her eyes and probably chastise them, but today, she was glad for the distraction and let them be. She adjusted her earmuffs slightly before pulling up another mandrake and looking at Crescent, determinedly trying to put all thoughts of Lillian behind her. "Guess it's not just the mandrakes who are loud today," she joked half-heartedly. She tossed the mandrake she was holding into the box she had thrown earlier, as if she was trying to weigh it down. Now as long as she didn't knock any more boxes over, this activity would go just fine.

WC: 741+713+382 =1836/400

Interacting with @Pericles Dralt

"Thanks a bunch, Peri... really..." She said, the raw expression of tired joy in her voice practically dragging out of her mouth, dropping the final little mandrake in the box. "I just...." She mumbled. Brean cleared her throat, exasperating to keep herself awake. "I wanna help out as much as I can... I-i--" She was about to continue, but then shook her head. "N... nevermind. Alright." She nodded. She tried to grasp enough peppy energy, but her body is slowly giving in on its weight. Breana looked down at the now cooing mandrakes, waving them goodbye. "Byyyye, little root babies..." She drawled. "See you-- wait... nevermind, I hope you guys have an instant death, I guess... " She said. Breana yawned, turning back to Peri.

As they walk away from the greenhouse, Breana lowered her earmuffs, letting them hang around her neck. Thankfully, the last remains of her brain cells did remember to put on her little swimsuit under her robe, so she didn't have to conjure up coherent sentences to Pericles to make a quick pitstop to the commons. However, her nodding head is still begging for a moment to have her eyes closed. She tried to scramble anything to keep herself awake. Thankfully, Pericles is striding effortlessly ahead to the lake. Without a second thought, Breana tugged unto one of Peri's sleeves, mostly as a sort of leash for her to keep walking. "... You don't mind, right? It's just the sleeve... I just need a little... a little guide..." She said, still following him away from the greenhouse nevertheless.

Breana has left the thread.

Interacting with @Atlas Reid

Ethen couldn’t help but laugh as Atlas returned his noisy screaming with her own. He rubbed his arm slightly where she punched him and Ethen nudged he as he settled in beside her. “Not my fault there were some extra tasty snacks out there… someone had to eat them,” he said grinning proudly as he peered back down to the array of pots before him.

“Atlas… I was born to pluck dirt babies,” Ethen said with a raised hand. Even if he had never been the largest fan of herbology and plants in general, there was something about the screaming little mandrakes that he always found entertaining. Atlas’ gloves collided with his face and he grumbled softly at the sudden attack but he slipped them on with ease and wiggled his now gloved fingers. They were definitely his, he could tell by the many curious stains. “Whatever you say rice monkey! You are just jealous that I find better snacks than you,” he sneered with a raised chin.


As Atlas begrudgingly began to pluck out the first mandrake, Ethen smiled and gripped the base of the leaves to firmly pull it up and out of the dirt. Its howling was immediate and Ethen grimaced for a moment before a smile widened across his face. He began lightly poking at the mandrakes belly as it howled. “Little dirt baby, no need to scream. We are just gunna squish you,” Ethen said shifting his voice into a deeper spooky tone. He quickly placed it inside the box that Atlas had fetched and returned to select a new victim.


“You would make a fuss too if some one was pulling you out of bed by the hair. I have tried waking you before… I’d say the mandrakes are safer,” Ethen grinned over to the girl as she continued to begrudgingly pull out the screaming plants. Pulling out a particularly plump mandrake, Ethen began making it do a little dance in the air as began a little song. “Little little dirt muffin! Makes Atlas look like a puffin!” he giggled as he looked over at the wincing girl. “I think they are just misunderstood little dirt babies,” Ethen said with a slight nod before adding it gently to the box.

He could tell the noises were really starting to irritate Atlas and he gave her a slight nod that he was good to go. He wiped some of the dirt off his gloves onto his pants before plopping his arm over her shoulder. “Yeah lets get you out of here before your head explodes or something,” he said teasing her with a short grin.

Leaves the Thread  920/400

Aura was extremely late to such an important task. She could tell which students had been there the longest. The sweat embedding their forehead, the wrinkling ears, those talking to and understanding each other. Aura set right to work, grabbing her earmuffs and cupping them around her head. She got mandrakes out and murmured to another student, judging by her size, in the first year, “Let’s pluck some of these, right?” The girl couldn’t hear. “Let’s pluck some of these, right?” Still nothing. “Let’s pluck some of these, right?” Aura tried again. This girl’s ears were drowned with screams of baby mandrakes, as were Aura’s. “OH MY GOSH! They are kind of cute, huh?” She pulled one up expecting a loud screech. But this one was silent. Perhaps something was wrong with it. In horror she realized she had pulled up a newly potted tree! Hurriedly she dug some dirt up, flinging it around her. She replanted the tree, just now taking the chance to see what mess she had made. Dirt was everywhere, on other people, on the ground, in the other pots. She apologized profusely to everyone before shuffling uncomfortably back to where they kept the broom. She swept most of the dirt up, allowing others to clean dirt off of themselves. She had owled her mother this morning, learning of Covid-19 and its effects. It had killed many people, and would likely kill more if wizards didn’t step in. She shuffled back to her work area. Pulling a mandrake a minute, she had likely done enough for today, but still she went on, wanting to make up for earlier mishap. Her fingers flung through the air tiny screams echoing through her ears. Sweat embedded her forehead and wrists. Dirt dug under her fingernails as she pulled it up. The mandrakes screams deafened her, making the buzzing of students around her fall silent. Many first years talked, chatting about topics such as “What is this Covid-19?” Coming from either a pureblood family, or the Muggle line of their family ended many years ago. Her family was all Muggles, for she was Muggle born, and her mum was at great risk, having diabetes before this deadly virus that targeted people like her. Aura was safe, but fears clouded her mind. “What if...”’s echoed her mind. Trying to shake it off, Aura remembered. The more I do this, the better off my mum is. Aura pulled up many mandrakes in the following hours, up to 30 in an hour. She was happy to be making an impact. As the last of her mandrakes were pulled. She let out a breath of air. As she moved towards the door, the worry’s finally vanquished, hope filled her up. Once exiting the greenhouse, she pulled off her muffs. She could hear. Screams still rung in her ears, but other noises, water, wind, shouting students. She had completed the task.