Hufflepuffs in Herbology PV Eira Caverly Closed

Eira usually had trouble paying attention in class, but something about Herbology made it easy to concentrate. The classroom always seemed to be sunny and bright, and though the fates of some of the projects here were... less than optimal, most of the plants were vibrantly healthy. So when Professor MacTavish announced the students were to be drying nettles for use as potion reagents, she was prepared.
Pulling on her gloves, she looked around for someone to work with. Everyone was grouping quickly, but- oh! She spotted a girl focused intently on her notebook. Eira skipped over to her, nodding enthusiastically as the girl, Alina, introduced herself, seeming somewhat put-off by Eira's excessive energy.
"Hi! Always nice to meet a fellow Hufflepuff. My name is Eira, by the way," she said, pulling out her own notebook and flipping to the information she had gathered about nettle. "You looked a little distracted. I get like that a lot too, but I've gotcha covered this time! We're just drying out stinging nettle- also called burn hazel, which sounds way cooler in my opinion. All we have to do is break off the little stabby hairs that grow on the leaves and then we just gotta to leave 'em to dry!"
Eira's gaze darted around, and she noticed everyone else already starting. "Oh! We should probably get going," she said, trying to quell her embarrassment at talking so much. It was probably fine? She was being informative.
Plastering a grin on her face, Eira found a workstation and called Alina over. Hey, maybe disarming harmful plants wasn't the best way to make a friend, but it was a good start, right?

@Alina Rosier

"Break off little stabby hairs," Alina repeated as she looked down to the plant. "You know, call me skeptical, but sometimes I wonder if they don't have us do this just so they've got something delicious in their soups or teas without the hard work of doing it themselves," she spoke of the professors and other Hogwarts staff. "But who knows, maybe there's a more practical application to learning all this."

Now that she was at the work station and with her partner, she wasn't focused on the Professor anymore. Besides, it was a silly infatuation with the man, it wasn't even like she had a crush. That was reserved for someone else. "Are we supposed to wear our gloves?" Alina asked as she opened up her bag to get hers out. She looked back to investigate the plant and didn't see any sort of bright red color or large thorns...but they did have all these tiny like hairs upon their leaves. It almost made them look soft but she wasn't silly enough to actually try and touch it. This plant was stinging nettles or burn hazel and neither of those were names that you messed around with.

"I like burn hazel too," she agreed with her partner. "I also like Eira." Her partner had a nice name.

"Oh, well thank you!" Eira said. "Your name's rather pretty too!" She picked up a pair of small pliers and beginning to snip the fibres from the nettle. "As for your thoughts about the usefulness of this, I couldn't agree more. Like, sure, it does make some amazing tea, but ugh, this is going to take almost all of class." Leaning in conspiratorially, Eira whispered, "Though I did hear that there's a spell to charm them off- 'Out with venom, out with fluff, nettle dries soon enough."
The professor sent a suspicious glance towards the pair, and Eira cleared her throat and continued clipping the hazel. "But a third year told me that, so it's probably a joke. It would sound more like a spell if it was in latin or something, y'know?"
She brushed the shorn fibres into a little pile, making sure to remove the ones that had embedded themselves in her gloves. Then she placed the newly smooth nettle on the windowsill, making sure it rested in the broad swath of sun that warmed the space below. Turning back to Alina, she started on a new nettle. "It's totally fine if you don't wanna show me, but what were you drawing in your notebook earlier?"

@Alina Rosier

She noticed that the professor had been keeping a keen eye on the two of them and she smiled to him. "Boy, is HE nosy, but so, so handsome..." she muttered and watched as her partner did the work. She was good at this stuff. Alina followed along and managed to do quite well too.

"Well, I don't know much about advanced Charms but I'm always up for an adventure or challenge. Think we should try it?" It could turn their assignment into a very easy one and if it perchance backfired, could make for a great story someday.

"Out with venom, out with fluff, nettle dries soon enough," she repeated the girl in the same soft voice so that they wouldn't attract the attention of nearby classmates or the professor. "Do you remember the wand movement for it?"

This task they had been given was a downright tedious one and it only made sense that there was some magical shortcut to it all. "These older students that told you about it....do they like you, Eira?" she asked with a laugh. "I mean, that right there could tell us whether they were trying to help you out or have fun at our first year expense."

Eira laughed. "They were probably just joking around. Some older students saw me going to Herbology today and told me that— I guess they remembered the first years' curriculum. But they didn't really seem to have any ill intent." Pretending to focus on her current plant, she tapped her foot and thought about what could happen.
Best case scenario, they could finish this assignment quickly without anyone noticing, and maybe get a house point for their efficiency! It wasn't technically cheating, and it would certainly help whatever final product these nettles were going to be used in finish faster. Worst case scenario... it blows up in their face and they get detention? Not that terrible, she supposes.
Once she finished another nettle the normal way, she looked around, making sure that no one was watching her, and pulled out her wand underneath their work space. She grinned mischievously at her partner, and then traced a slow circle beneath the table before flicking two lines to form an "x" through the center of it.
"I think that was the wand motion. If it does work, that just means we're being productive! Even if Professor MacTavish sees us using a spell instead of the clippers, it should be fine, since, like, innovation, right?"

@Alina Rosier

"Exactly, we're not only trying to succeed in class but we're trying to help out the entire school and any of its dried nettle needs!" Now she was starting to sound very diplomatic and minister-like, as if she was going to give some political speech.

"These nettles, all they want is to be plucked and dried. Do they care how it is done? Absolutely not! But do the professors want them for their tea? Their soups? Their salads and their potions? You know it. So it is for the professors, for the school...probably even somehow for the entire country and the world, Eira. The WORLD!"

She smiled at her Herbology classmate to see if she was going to do it. Alina had her wand but it was still in her bag and Eira not only knew the spell better but she also had her wand already out. "You can blame it on me if it goes wrong, and worse case scenario is that Professor MacTavish gets angry. I bet he's even sexier when he's angry..."

And she paused, not believing she said that part out loud, even as loud to actually be heard by her partner next to her. "Sorry, sorry, nettles. Drying nettles." Oh sometimes she was so easily distracted!

Eira, already entertained by Alina's mock-political speech, gave a surprised laugh at her last comment. "Okay, then." She looked around again, making sure that nobody in the immediate vicinity had taken interest in the girls' activities— and maybe not paying full attention to the professor, given that he was on the other side of the room. Setting down her clippers, she moved the piece of burn hazel she was working on slightly away from the rest of their supplies, just in case the spell backfired. She raised her wand in what she hoped was a discreet manner (but really, really wasn't) and began to whisper the charm as she flicked her wand through the movements.
The end of it gradually grew alight with a small flame, white-hot and startlingly bright. Grinning at her partner, Eira started to bring the flame to the nettle— but before the thankfully not burning magical wood could touch the plant, the rest of the wand was swallowed with fire!
With a startled yelp, she dropped the wand into a nearby watering can, where it landed with a clang and a puff of steam. She froze, suddenly aware of her classmates' eyes on her. Laughing nervously, she retrieved her wand and pointedly ignored Professor MacTavish, who was quickly making his way over to Eira and Alina.
"I was kind of expecting it not to do anything," she mumbled sheepishly.

@Alina Rosier

"I think it was angry with you!" she said in amazement and leaned forward on the desk of their workstation to look at the wand that was now settling down with less heat. "Oh, Eira....I do hope it's okay," she would feel terrible if something happened to it! A wand wasn't as easily replaceable as any of their other school items.

The professor's swift movements caught her eye and she hoped she could distract him, so she looked at her glove that had some nettle hairs in it and grabbed it by the cuff and jumped up. "Proffesor! What is the best way to remove the nettle hairs that get stuck on your gloves?" and she practically waved it in his handsome face.

It seemed to get his attention and no longer was he storming over to yell at two girls because he'd have his professor duties to attend to with answer a question from a student. As he began to answer the question, Alina just stared intently into his eyes and nodded now and again as if she was paying attention. She wanted to pay attention, but how could one focus on anything but that man and all his god-like features? It really wasn't her fault.