Getting Your Hands Dirty PV Detention Finished

When Anastasia showed interest in being rather called by her full name, Dot shrugged as if she couldn't care less. "Whatever you wish, Madamoiselle." The word, madamoiselle, was part of French vocabulary Dot had learned while reading the second book of The Lunar Chronicles, muggle novel series. Despite the fact that she liked the pronounciation of it, it was the first time she used it.

Dot liked it when Anastasia didn't interrupt her while she talk, but then again, maybe that was one of the prim and proper princessy rules her family melts in with. For some reason, Dot had realized that most pureblood families treated themselves like they're royalty of some sort. They taught their kids stupid kinds of manners and traditions, and probably even how to walk with your nose high up in the air. Dot was just shaking her head on the thought when Anastasia spoke up, something about disowning. A frown on her warm brown face, Dot looked at the girl. Dot didn't particularly understood what Anastasia said, but before she could say something, Edric spoke up about not being mean to each other.

"We should be better than this,"

The mumble made Dot look up from her work again. The tone of authority and formality was gone from Edric's words, and seeing the face he made while mumbling, Dot agreed at her earlier thought that Sorting Hat didn't make only one mistake by putting her in Gryffindor when she belonged in Ravenclaw, but also by putting Edric in Slytherin when he didn't belong there. The Slytherins she had met so far (with Edric being a huge exception) were clear in what they said, super extrovert and proud-looking. At least, in the public. Edric, who had scooted over to another patch of soil, looked anything but from the mental description Dot had made in her mind of Slytherins - which maybe encouraging stereotypes, but whatever she did, she couldn't get the image of mean followed by Slytherins out of her head. She almost wanted to pat Edric on the shoulder, looking at the slightly sorrowful face, but she decided otherwise, since it would look a bit...rude, perhaps, and touchy, which was an impression Dot didn't wanted to give a year-older prefect in a detention.

Shrugging, she focused back to the soil near her, since she agreed to Edric's words but voicing her opinion might made him think she hated Slytherin or something, which could even lead to get him hurt because of her, which was a thing Dot didn't want.

The weeds in her range were gone, so she scooted away, to the soil where there were much more couch grasses present, dragging her bucket with her. A glance at Anastasia's area informed her that she was rather having problem with weeding herself, since her area wasn't even close to getting free of weeds.

Taking a deep breath, Dot willed herself to work faster. While it was good to work with soil and plants, the air around them felt hotter on Dot's skin. She already had a bead of sweat trickle down the side of her forehead, which was followed by Dot's instinct to wipe her forehead on her sleeve. Unknown to her, when she did wipe her forehead, a small smudge of dirt got placed on her cheek from her soiled gloves.

"Um, Edric?" Dot inwardly flinched when she said the name out loud. It was the first time Dot had called the prefect by his name which, to her at least, seemed a bit disrespectful. "How many buckets do we fill for this detention? My own is nearly half done." True was what she said. The bucket needed just a few more couple of weeds to reach the half of the bucket. But then again, the bucket wasn't too big itself.

Anastasia's eyes were watering with angry tears at the thought of her parents' letter. She hadn't done anything wrong! Alright, maybe she had cursed a bit at the Sorting Hat, but that didn't mean that they could just threaten to disown her, right? 

She was also feeling a tad ashamed of how she was treating Dot. She quite liked Dot, and until yesterday, had hoped they'd become good friends. She couldn't imagine Dot wanting to have anything to do with her now, what with her rather odd behavior yesterday, the whole Lydia debacle, and now her rude remarks. She sighed and focused more on her work. 

She was progressing alright, not as much as Dot or Edric, but he was older and Dot had clearly gardened before. All things considered, she didn't think she was doing too badly. She had also glanced down and confirmed that her clothing was totally protected by her apron. What was that about getting messy, Dot?

One weed seemed quite firmly root and it was making her rather irritated. This bloody weed just needed to be weeded, not make this task take longer. She went at it a bit violently, her movements looking more like she was stabbing the poor weed than anything else. She finally got it out and tossed it in her bucket. The stupid thing wasn't even a quarter of the way filled. This was going to take ages. 

After listening to Edric and Dot, she decided that she would just listen to whatever Edric had to say and agree when necessary, but other than that, not speak too much. She had already let her family issues slip which was maddening. She hadn't wanted to tell anyone about that. Much less a Slytherin prefect who had caught her dueling with her cousin and a girl from the Muggle world who just wouldn't understand what Pureblood parents could be like. 

Edric took a look at his own bucket, which was not for from being half full as well. They'd only been here what, a little over an hour? He raised his head and looked towards the sun in the sky, gauging the time - that was one of the few noteable differences between Scotland and Wales, the time the sun rose and set. Calan Gaeaf was approaching fast, less than two months left till the start of winter. He wondered if the actual holiday was celebrated by muggles as well and not only Halloween.

"Uh," he muttered, remembering that Dot had asked about the buckets and how much longer they would have to work. Originally he had intended for them to clean the whole patch, but Edric wasn't to keen on spending more time in this awkward situation than he had to.

Dot didn't really mind the detention as far as he could tell, and Anastastia had hated it from the beginning, so there wasn't really a point in keeping this up longer than necessary.

"You can go when both of your buckets are full," he finally said. Maybe that would encourage them to work as a team. Maybe. Edric wasn't so sure.

Anastasia moaned inwardly when Edric said they would be done when both buckets were full. She could tell that Dot's bucket was fairly full and definitely fuller than hers. She was going to need to pick up her pace, or she'd end up having to get help from Dot or Edric, which she couldn't bear. Her parents had always trained her not to ask for help or admit that she needed help, even if she desperately did. The few times shed asked her parents for help, whether it had been with schoolwork or an issue with another child, she'd been scolded and told to deal with it on her own. 

She gritted her teeth and went at the weed with renewed vigor. She almost had it out and gave it a tug to get it all the way out. She hadn't fully thought it through though and was a bit surprised when dirt came flying into her face. Oh, bloody lovely. Now, she was not only being subjected to manual labor, but she had to look like a chimney sweep while she did so. She sighed and moved on to the next weed, resisting the urge to rub the dirt off her face, since her gloves were also covered in nastiness. 

Dot couldn't help but pause her work when Edric said they would be done once they complete their buckets. With mouth slightly ajar, she looked at Edric. "Serious?" For some reason, it brought a big grin to her face - one in which smugness crept in in bulks.

And then, she got to work, faster than before. Her bucket was almost full - and it was a miracle that her clothes were all neat and tidy, except for small dirt spots on the end of her jeans. Her clothes were okay, but about the apron? Dot gave it a glance. It was dirty.

Dot's bucket was full in a few more minutes, and the amount of sweat on her forehead increased, though she paid no attention to it. She worked tirelessy, chewing on her lower lip as she plucked out one weed after the other with the digging tool.

Dot let out a long sigh when she finally finished the bucket. Looking up at Anastasia, she noticed that she was working hard with her own plant. She was trying to - snatch it off the ground? Dot was about to open her mouth to tell her that no, it's the wrong way, she will get messy. But before she could say anything, Anastasia gave her weed a tug and - the dirt all splashed over her face in small spots.

For a whole second, Dot just stared at Anastasia's dirty face, but then? A snicker began taking form in the base of her throat. She tried to swallow it down, but it only grew by each second, until she finally made akh-akh noises which was quickly followed by a big, hearty laugh. Dot threw her head slightly back and cackled in a somewhat beautiful voice, but she couldn't notice that herself. She was done quickly, and when she did stop laughing, she looked at Anastasia apologetically. "Sorry," She tried to keep her face straight.

Not to continue any awkwardness, she broke eye-contact with Anastasia and looked over at Edric. "Edric, I'm done. With the bucket, I mean. It's full, so, can I go?"

And when I do go, I'm going to take a long, hot shower. The thought was warming.

Those girls didn't want to get along. That was the idea Edric was getting, at least. He hadn't been sure if they were friends when he'd first caught them casting spells at each other, and he wasn't any wiser now. They talked to each other, it seemed like they wanted to communicate, but what they said to each other didn't fit is definition of how friends interacted at all. Strange. Maybe it was a girl thing? Marcia, Alma and Maisy - the three girls he was familiar with - certainly had never acted that way when he'd been around, but maybe they were special cases?

This was a puzzle he couldn't solve, nor could he help them with their problems, apparently. With that thought in his head Edric just moved along, nodding when Dot questioned about the buckets, not commenting when Anastasia got dirt in her face. He would have liked to help her, but the argument wouldn't have been worth it. They didn't work together either, didn't even think of it from what he could tell. Great.

"I said when both of your buckets are full," he muttered when Dot was - predictably - done first with her part of the weeding. Some stubborn pride in him wanted to make her help the Gryffindor, but he knew better. "There's a faucet over there," he told her and pointed towards the back of the greenhouse. "Put your utensils away and get cleaned up, you will leave together."

That gave her something to do until the other girl was done. By then Edric had finished as well, putting his things away and checking that everything was in order. He would have to carry the three buckets to the compost still and then he had to finish his homework for tomorrow.

"You can go now," he told them finally. "If you're caught hexing people again you'll have detention with your Head of House, or worse. So don't do it."

With that he shooed them out of the greenhouse, not really caring if they continued bickering on the way back to the castle. He just wanted to finally have some peace and quiet.

Your detention has been concluded.