Closed First encounter with a Mandrake

Siobhan waltzed towards the Herbology shed with her nose not sruck in her books for once. Herbology, Gardening, Horticulture, whatever people wanted to call it, Siobhan was enamoured by it. Unlike people, plants can’t give their opinions on your thoughts when you think out loud. Plants don’t judge if you wear shoelaces as hair ties. Besides if you’re walking barefoot on the grass why does it matter where your shoelaces are anyway.

When she entered the first year greenhouse, she already knew where it was by heart as she’d been walking past it every day in anticipation, she was floored by how quickly everyone seemed to be partnered up…

Gardening is solitary anyway… Lets just go to the back Siobhan thought to herself as she tugged on the gold shoelace tied up in her hair. Maybe pulling her book out wouldnt be a bad thing.

It was suprisingly temperate for a greenhouse. She’d honestly expected it to be much much hotter. She shivered slightly as she made her way to the back. Not wearing a long sleeve shirt under her sweater instead of her short sleeves was kind of a dumb choice now. But in her defense, Muggle greenhouses are typically sweltering innorder to keep specific plants alive and healthy

Not many people were in the back which helped… More space to talk to the plants without the fear of anyone eavesdropping and teasing her for wanting to nurture the plants her own way

“Aren’t you all so pretty…” she mumbled outloud as she found her way to a potted plant settled neatly in perfect placements around the table. The leaves trembled ever so slightly that had she not been totally focused, she wouldn’t have known they were moving. She noticed that her side of the table only had a few other students on their side, most standing towards the front. One stood next to her.

“Can I stand here?”She asked abruptly, despite still looking at the shaky mandrake

“Um… hi! Please go ahead…” The student next to her responded. She looked over at them nodding with a warm smile. The poor thing looked genuinely confused and that was likely on her part for not directing her request to them.

This time she made sure they could see it was her who asked.

Siobhan rubbed her hands together before pulling her sweater sleeves over them to keep some of her body heat alive.

“Magical greenhouses are something aye? The one near my family home is always hot and humid! Kind of wish I’d brought a thicker jacket.” Siobhan joked trying to make conversation like the rest of their classmates were doing. Looking around the classroom it was obvious that she was very different from her classmates. For one thing she towered over most them, being at least a good 4 inches taller than most of them. She wore shoelaces as hair ties, and she always seemed to have dirt and grass on her from some recent trip to the garden. She shrugged her backpack off and pushed it under the table slightly to keep it out of the way.

Just to fit in… Just to fit in… She thought to herself as she gently reached out to the mandrake leaves. Not to grab! Just to nudge with the knuckle of her index finger, similar to how she’d pet her cats behind their ears. She wouldn’t dare grab them without the protection for her ears.

That would be a fine way to make friends wouldn’t in Siobhan? Knocking all your classmates out with a mandrake cry?

She pulled her hand away from the mandrake and turned back to the person next to her. She could take the first step to friendship right?

“Thanks for letting me stand here… I don’t know anyone outside of my own house yet. My name is Siobhan.” she said as she tugged at a shoelace in her hair. It was getting looser and she’d have to tie the bun back up again soon. Hopefully before the class started.

Regulus was relieved that the Gryffindor was actually talking to them. Upon a closer look, the girl was really tall and have shoelaces in her hair? She seemed pretty cool, Regulus returned the Gryffindor's warm smile with a small smile and a nod.

“Magical greenhouses are something aye? The one near my family home is always hot and humid! Kind of wish I’d brought a thicker jacket.” the girl joked. Regulus smiled and nodded. Part of them wanted to carry on the conversation except Regulus haven't been to an actual greenhouse before.

"That's true, it is cold here." Regulus replied with a small smile, rubbing their hands to create friction. Think, think, think, Reggie! Continue the conversation! Before Regulus could say anything, they noticed the tall Gryffindor reaching out to the mandrake. They had read it somewhere before that mandrakes cry loudly when they were touched so Regulus reached out as well as an attempt to stop the girl.

Luckily, it seemed like she realised it was a bad idea as well and pulled back her hand. Regulus let out a quiet sigh of relief, happy they won't have to listen to those mandrakes screeching so soon.

“Thanks for letting me stand here… I don’t know anyone outside of my own house yet. My name is Siobhan.” she said as she tugged at a shoelace in her hair. "It's okay, don't worry about it. You are the first Gryffindor I know as well! I am Regulus, by the way... sorry for the rambling..." Regulus mumbled, and turned towards Siobhan, making eye contact for the first time. They shyly ruffled their hair while their ears went a bit pink due to embarrassment.

Siobhan smiled happily as they introduced themselves to her. It was nice to know that someone was at least willing to make conversation with her. But what did they mean by rambling? Surely they couldn't have said more than(Siobhan took a moment to start counting on her fingers) 30 words to her. While she had definitely been speaking circles around them.

Well perhaps that ratty old hat was right to put her in Gryffindor. Since coming to Hogwarts she found herself having a bit more of an opinion on things because there weren't 7 other voices trying to comment on something else they found interesting, or what happened to them that day.

"No don't worry about it, you're not rambling. I'd know I come from a large family and everyone always has something to say." Siobhan explained as she knelt down to look for her protective gloves in her backpack. Maybe those would help with how cold her fingers were. The thing that sucked the most about being a towering 11 year old was the fact that her circulation didn't work very well when it came to her fingers and toes. She was always just perpetually freezing.

Finding her gloves she quickly put them on and was shocked at how warm they were for a pair of protective gloves. Magic really was wonderful if it could make a simple pair of gloves work better than any muggle piece of clothing she owned.

Siobhan turned her attention back to the plants in front of them. She'd brushed up on her knowledge of magical Herbology so as not to embarrass herself in front of her peers who were already accustomed to magic. That was her biggest hurdle so far with making friends. The cultural division.

"Anyway, I'm a bit overwhelmed by all this. Out of six kids, I'm the only witch and it's confusing not having someone to help with the adjustment. Are you muggle-born as well?" Siobhan asked out of curiosity. Not that she would mind where they came from. A muggle-born friend would be great to share their curiosity together while a pure-blood friend could maybe help with some of the adjustment to this strange new world.

Siobhan smiled happily, in all honesty that was probably the best answer she could have gotten from them.

"Wait there are wizards who have married norm- sorry muggles? I thought there was something about keeping all this a secret? That's really cool though! You must be able to fit in well with both groups then." Siobhan said with encouragement. When she had been informed of this magical world, her informer had been very strict about keeping the magical community a secret from the muggle community around them. Something about it being to confusing, or other.

Siobhan was a little jealous but it was something she couldn't control so it faded pretty quickly.

"Have you found an interesting class yet? I've been drawn to Charms and History of Magic so far. But I think Herbology is bound to be my favorite. I just love gardening." She said as she tugged the shoelace free from her hair and used it to tie back up. It was too messy to leave in the state that it was and it was frustrating her.

Siobhan looked around at the table finally noticing that there were earmuffs laying in neat piles. Some where normal colors, others were an ugly shade of pink and had weird tufts of fluff. She hoped that next time there would be other options as she didn't think pink suited her very well. Maybe she should ask her parents to buy her some, or if they still had her older sister's earmuffs that might help for next class.

"Wait there are wizards who have married norm- sorry muggles? I thought there was something about keeping all this a secret? That's really cool though! You must be able to fit in well with both groups then." Siobhan said with encouragement.

"Well, my dad is a Pure Blood and my mum is a Muggle-Born, which makes me a Half Blood," Regulus explained, "I've been to a muggle school before Hogwarts so I have to keep a secret from my muggle friend, so that's that I suppose?" Regulus could sense a bit of tension so they shifted their gaze to their classmates who were actually paying attention to the lesson. They noticed some of them already had earmuffs on but some others didn't so they were hesitant to put them on.

"Have you found an interesting class yet? I've been drawn to Charms and History of Magic so far. But I think Herbology is bound to be my favorite. I just love gardening." Siobhan said as she tugged the shoelace free from her hair and used it to tie back up. "I really like Charms as well! And Astronomy... Not so much for History of Magic though... Herbology is- well, it's kinda fun I suppose," Regulus replied as they scratched the back of their head.

Their gaze shifted back to the pair of earmuffs on the table which Siobhan seemed to also noticed. The condition of the earmuffs were not too good which was expected since it was used by a lot of people. The pair of earmuffs lying in front of Regulus was in a greasy green colour which looked very similar with the colour of vomit and it looked like it had been through amore than one explosion as they looked a bit...burnt. Regulus didn't really have a choice but put them on as well after they saw Siobhan putting on her pink ones. Looks like Regulus had to pay a visit to Diagon Ally over Christmas break and buy themselves a pair of better quality earmuffs.

“Oh! Ok I understand! I’m so sorry for assuming you were like straight up muggle-born. I guess that makes sense you know?” Siobhan explained, now equipped with atrociously pink earmuffs, nodded to every word her partner had said to her. The lesson had started and as the professor dictated how to exercise a proper grip on the mandrakes, She couldn’t help but get excited.

She turned to Regulus, who had a burnt pair of earmuffs fitted to his head and thought about what he’d said.

“Thats totally understandable, I overheard some upper level students talking about how boring History of Magic is, but I think as someone with no knowledge of any magical history its just as exciting as muggle history. Except, you know there’s magic involved.” Siobhan giggled. Right as she said this, the class was soon filled with the muffled cries of baby mandrakes, who were rooted from their pots and exposed to the chilly Scottish air. It was all Siobhan could do not to wince at the noise; it sounded like her cat after he was put in his crate to go to the Vet.

“Man these things sound worse than an overheated banshee on a hot summer day aye? Lets get them repotted I can’t bear to hear them anymore!” Siobhan chuckled as she placed her mandrake in the second pot that the professor had magically distributed to every student. After placing the screaming bundle into the new pot, and relaxing it by stroking the tops of its leaves and patting the soil down, Siobhan looked back over at Regulus to see if he was done yet.

Soon enough the muffled cries of the mandrakes was reduced to only three or four of the plants crying out after being ripped up from their safe dirt enclosure. But the professor had stated it was important for the mandrakes to be repotted every few weeks so as to stimulate growth or something or other. Siobhan could barely hear them with the earmuffs on her head.

“Oh! Ok I understand! I’m so sorry for assuming you were like straight up muggle-born. I guess that makes sense you know?” Siobhan explained, now equipped with atrociously pink earmuffs, nodded to every word Regulus had said to her. Regulus shook his head, smiling, "It's okay, you didn't know," They chatted for a while longer, coming back to their previous topic.

“That's totally understandable, I overheard some upper level students talking about how boring History of Magic is, but I think as someone with no knowledge of any magical history its just as exciting as muggle history. Except, you know there’s magic involved.” Siobhan giggled. As Regulus was about to agree, the mandrakes' cries filled the entire greenhouse. Regulus felt like he was about to faint, but he tried to keep it together in order to not make a big scene. Clearly, the burnt earmuffs weren't working well.

“Man these things sound worse than an overheated banshee on a hot summer day aye? Lets get them repotted I can’t bear to hear them anymore!” Siobhan chuckled as she placed her mandrake in the second pot that the professor had magically distributed to every student. Regulus was tired but he followed anyways, yanking his mandrake out and shoving it in his second pot with all his might.

"Me either... I can't feel my eardrums..." Regulus mumbled, in a half daze. He could barely made out what Siobhan was saying but he got a faint idea about it. He put some soil in, after observing what the others were doing but his mandrake was still crying.

Regulus was having a slight headache, his vision blurry. He pinched himself hard on his arm and a harsh slap on it to wake himself up but his efforts were futile. "A little help please?" Regulus finally turned to Siobhan who had successfully planted her mandrake.

"Hey Regulus you don't look so well. We should get ya outside before you pass out." Siobhan said with worry. She could see that they were beginning to pale up and despite the fact that the mandrakes cries were dwindling, Regulus was about the color of the snow in their face.

Siobhan looked around for anything that she could do to help her new friend and saw an area where a sink was present. She quietly motioned to Regulus to watch her, hoping that they would pick up what she was putting down as she wandered over to the sink. There was a bag of rags labeled "Clean" sitting on the shelf next to the sink, which Siobhan unabashedly helped herself to. She soaked the rag in some water and wrung it out just slightly before they became so sick it wasn't sure if they would make it to the bathroom or not.

The rag was cool and moist but not soaking wet, perfect for pulling someone out of their hazy para-normal sleep cycle. She didn't touch Regulus but offered the rag to him in a hesitant motion.

"I don't know much about magic medication but this might help you until we can get some help from the professor? Maybe I can help you to the hospital wing if you need it." Siobhan offered with a worried yet calm demeanor on her face. It was best not to panic. If any onlooker outside of the two of them, had done the reading they would know that a mandrake's cry was fatal to anyone who heard it. Yet if they had paid attention to the professor not even twenty minutes ago AND done the reading they would know that the mandrakes they were currently tending to were in their infancy stage.

Siobhan placed the rag in Regulus hand and moved to start repotting the poor thing's mandrake. With a gentle touch to the leaves of the mandrake, Siobhan was able to coax it into not thrashing about as she went ahead and repotted the plant for the final time. With Regulus's plant repotted the herbology greenhouse was only filled with the sounds of students comparing their shared beliefs on the whole experience.