Closed Where the Planty Things Are pv S. McCarty

Siobhan Speaking: #55b62f
Siobhan Thinking: #99b39c
Irish Transaltions:
Interacting with: @Astra Norrick

Siobhan had been quite thrilled to learn that her new school would be giving them seven years of herbology lessons. While she was already quite well versed in "muggle" plants, she had already read her herbology textbook cover to cover in a matter of hours. She'd pestered her mother until she'd taken her into town to buy a brand new plant diary for her to take to Hogwarts, so that she could keep a methodical analysis of everything that she grew and cultivated during the school year.

Herbology was in her blood. Even after she was born, her blood practically ran green like the leaves and stems of the plants she loved so dearly. Her garden at home was her "Little Eden" away from Heaven. Her family's farm had space for her own greenhouse, and a matching orchard where currently, her apple trees would be in bloom. She hoped that soon her family would send some of her apples up for her to enjoy here at school.

Upon arriving to the Herbology Greenhouse, she could feel herself shaking with excitement as the lovely professor directed them to their stations. She looked to the side and notice that she had been paired with a Slytherin girl who seemed to be... nervous. Siobhan, being equally as nervous at the prospect of talking to a new person -she had done this multiple times lately and her social battery was running low- she smiled politely and pulled her long dark tresses into a messy bun and out of her face. She already stuck out amongst her peers for reasons other than her kookiness and muggle-born status, what with her height and stick thin arms. She just wanted to disappear into the process of gardening.

She shrugged her cloak off and rolled up the sleeves of her blouse and sweater. Herbology required a dedicated mind, soul, and body. Body meaning, if you weren't ready to dig deep within the dirt, you wouldn't get quite far within the greenery.

The professor had them working on repotting basic plants. Catnip, milk thistle and the such. Luckily Siobhan had a very thorough knowledge of these plants and she was able to recultivate them with minimal effort. As she hummed to herself, the plants responded to her fingers as she helped them reroot themselves. She was so lost in her own humming that she barely heard the question posed to her from her table mate.

She turned to look at her partner's plant and her mouth dropped open in shock upon seeing the wilted and rotting plant before her. They'd literally just been given the plant bulbs! How had this happened?

@Siobhan McCarty ∆ @Sarai Toussaint

Her table mate's skill was blatantly obvious as Astra watched the girl work. With deft fingers, she guided her plants into their new homes with loving care.

Astra looked down at her own poor charge, half rooted, hanging on by a thread. Her bare arms streaked with damp soil lay limp at the sides of her pot.

It was a hopeless endeavor, she realized, as the other stared at her with blatant disbelief and shock.

The young Slytherin did a quick compare and contrast between the two assignments. Astra: one plant started, not complete, dark and wilty and looking not at all as it should. Table mate: several plants completed, one plant in progress, bright and green and lively and looking about as happy as a plant could. A glance around the room showed similar reports to her table mate, but even the worst was not so bad as her own.

Astra furrowed her brow. Blast it.

Perhaps if Astra talked to Professor Toussaint, she could establish a new Herbology rule: Astra Norrick is not allowed in the greenhouses under any circumstances.

Astra replayed her partner's movements in her mind and tried to imitate them, gently pushing a hole in the soil and guiding a root in. Alright. That seemed better. Again she tried, but the root she had just put in popped out and smacked her hand.

A groan of defeat escaped her. Why?

S A R A IxXxT O U S S A I N T
ᨒ Where the Planty Things Are, {date after January 11th} at Herbology Greenhouses, Hogwarts ᨒ
Dialogue #796f4e

Much to contrary belief, Botany perdured as the fastidious and meticulous art, and from this very practice commenced none other than evolution itself.

Although she was biased from her dwellings in Haiti, the Creole woman surrendered to her great-grandmother's belief early in her youth, resting her case that from the study of Botany derived the sub-discipline of Agriculture; thus shaping the world and the ancient civilizations in it for centuries to come. Of course, the Wizarding curriculum dubbed this practice Herbology rather than Botany, but it was all the same to Sarai regardless. She aimed to teach her students, coaching and instilling them with patience and discipline, as well as tying in very subtle references to other classes such as Potions, History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and anything else that Sarai could derive from plant facts into her lessons. Every lecture provided a little something for everyone, so the young professor aimed anyway.

Despite her philosophy regarding her subject, her teaching style, and her attempt to delight her students; not every child who entered her greenhouses appreciated her efforts, her class, and worse yet, her. The Creole woman couldn't truly blame them for it either; Sarai was young once too and a Duellist at that, often recognizing the hunger select students experienced for new spells to add to their arsenals. Thus, Professor Toussaint obliged them with a few fire-related charms when behavior awarded it; most of these charms related to both the handling and protecting against plants, therefore these demonstrations weren't extraneous in nature.

In this particular lecture, Sarai partnered the class in pairs, each station on repotting basic, non-sentient plants like Milk Thistle, Catnip, Thyme, and other select herbs. Her key takeaway for the class was to coach her students on the necessity of steady hands, loosening the dirt from the roots, pruning, compacting soil, and avoiding shock when repotting; the main necessities to any type of plant life -- magical or not.

Her python, Badriyah, drooped down her neck as sauntered around the room, her hands clasped behind her back as she offered polite coaching or commentary on her students' performance. Occasionally the woman chuckled softly amidst conversation between the snake and herself, often eliciting a confused or horrified glance in her direction, though Professor Toussaint disregarded the looks with her with a witty retort.

Most had appeared to have gotten the hang of it, at least this was her assumption until Sarai lingered behind a certain pairing and studied awhile.

"Very good, Miss McCarty," Sarai complimented while approaching the duo with a hardened gunmetal gaze, "Miss Norrick, are you..okay?"

Tags: @Astra Norrick & @Siobhan McCarty

Date: March 9th, 2024 Interacting/Mentioning: @Astra Norrick @Sarai Toussaint

Speaking: #556b2f Thoughts: #99b39c Translations: Reducio

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ "To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides" ⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

Siobhan preened internally as Professor Toussaint regarded her repotting. Since Herbology was her favorite subject, she was excited that the Professor believed her work to be good. While she hadn't interacted much with the older witch, she enjoyed everything that she had to offer her, information wise. The woman was a Herbology master and she was someone that Siobhan inspired to be like one day in terms of skill.

Following the Professors voice, she gazed once more at her classmates poor unpotted plant. It seemed to be quite stubborn in that it flat out refused to allow the curly haired witch to put it in a brand new, safer and cleaner pot. Which seemed to sincerely dishearten her table partner. She could feel the frustration oozing out of her and the aura seeped out of her in such a way that she subconsciously moved her own plants away just incase somehow the girl's terrible green thumb managed to inflict it's wilt on hers.

The Slytherin girl turned to Siobhan and asked in wonder how Siobhan had been able to successful repot the plants that they had been tasked with doing. Siobhan wasn't too sure how to explain why she was good at it. Plants had always just come natrually to her... They were- how did she explain this to herself even? Plants were easy. Formulaic even... But at the same time required just as much care and empathy that humans required.

She shuffled her feet as she adjusted her stance and slowly cleared her throat to garner the attention of the poor girl. Normally she never commented on anything her classmates did so as not to draw any sort of attention to herself. She wanted to keep her abilities to herself for now as she continued her introduction into the Wizarding world. Who was she to comment on other people's magical prowess while she herself could barely cast a spell or charm without it fizzing out within seconds? Unfortunately, Sio had a terrible habit of speaking before thinking... Resulting in the following sentence leaving her thoughts before she could turn them into something kinder.

"You're really bad at this." Siobhan said before smacking a hand over her mouth in embarrasment. Good lord had she really just said that? This poor girl had done nothing to her (barring her inability to repot a plant) and she probably felt bad enough about it. Why should Siobhan comment on her work, or lack thereof.

Siobhan lowered her hand and gave an apologetic smile and shrug combo. She turned so that she was closer in sight to the girl's plants and reached out tentitavely.

"If I may, I think you may want to consider moving this plant out of the ray of the sun. Mint is not a plant that flourishes well when exposed to direct sunlight and while I appreciate direct sunlight, the window seems to be cracked open enough that the sunlight is being directed over here." Siobhan explained as she gently pushed the mint pot away from the beam of sunlight that the girl had let it sit in. Almost immediately, the plant seemed to perk up a little bit and Siobhan took a moment to reach for the watering can.

"I apologize for my bluntness. Plants have a special place in my heart- when it comes to them I get... protective?" Siobhan explains with an upward inflection of her accent as she waters the newly perky mint. "But if you learn to think like the plant, theplants will learn to understand you and will help you take care of themselves."

@Siobhan McCarty ∆ @Sarai Toussaint

Astra felt ready to dig a hole and die in it from sheer embarrassment. With a strained smile, she looked up at Professor Toussaint and said in what could be considered a thin and stressed voice, "I'm fine." Under the scrutinizing gaze of the herbology professor, she redoubled her efforts to complete the assignment. However, her fingers were absent of their typical dexterity and constantly tangled between the roots, soil, and each other.

A pause. "Ok, maybe not quite." The admission was whispered, almost ashamed.

However nothing the steely, imposing, intense gaze of Professor Toussaint caused the snaklet to experience in terms of discomfort and embarrassment could rival what she was about to feel at the words of McCarty.

"You're really bad at this."

Astra blinked, almost succumbing to the desire to ask for a repeat statement, though the words had been perfectly clear. Astra's dark irises flicked to Siobhan's now covered and dirt-smudged face. "Really? I hadn't noticed," she responded dryly.

However, the emotionless and blank expression and voice was soon replaced by attentiveness as McCarty began to explain the plant and why it was doing so poorly. Mint has DNC with sun, but gets the tea through its best friend windows, got it.

She would take in the new information with a nod. "I- I suppose that makes sense. So- forgive me if this sounds like the stupidest thing you've ever heard, but there's a language barrier here? I don't understand what the plants are 'saying' so they can't 'tell' me what they need?"

When she thought about it that way, it did sort of put everything into perspective. Until Siobhan had spoken Astra hadn't even known what the plant in her care was supposed to be. Yeah, that explains it pretty well. She foresaw she was going to have a lot of work to do to ever succeed in this class, even more than she'd expected before.

S A R A IxXxT O U S S A I N T
ᨒ Where the Planty Things Are, March 9th at Herbology Greenhouse #1, Hogwarts ᨒ
Dialogue #796f4e

Her steely gaze flickered between the girls, deciphering the issue of Astra's lack of handiness while the Haitian woman neared their station.

Admittedly, Sarai remained rather impassive of Hogwarts' many attendees since her date of hire; there was much to be gleaned from the school's culture by merely observing its students rather than vaulting herself into every conversation and drama around the school to introduce and fraternize herself. Perhaps this deference was inherently bestowing them what Sarai aimed to receive as their new Professor, or perhaps a lack of knowledge regarding teaching as a whole. Neither here nor there, one thing Sarai did not tolerate in any setting was disrespect.

The Herbologist positioned herself on the side of the table closest to Astra to provide any necessary aid upon hearing the stress in the Slytherin's response, yet found herself taken aback hearing Siobhan's sour remark before getting her own word in. Her gaze landed upon the Gryffindor, murmuring a low and venomous "Kontwole tèt ou (watch yourself)," under her breath as a warning.

Siobhan quipped quickly, providing advice, an explanation, and an apology for her previous statement. The Professor would not interject midst the girls' words as her coaching was enough for Sarai to drop it for now. Slowly nodding agreeingly to Gyffindor's words, the woman chimed: "Miss McCarty is correct, yes. Mint do not like much sunlight," the woman began, "but do not discourage yourself from trying. Some folk do not know de Mint from de Cilantro, and it can be hard to know de plant's preferences if you do not know what you are working with. Dis does not make you a fool if you are trying."

The Professor gently removed the potted Mint from before Astra while murmuring under her breath, "Let us end dis plant's torture and start fresh," before replacing it with a Milk Thistle from a nearby shelf.

"Dis plant, do you know it well?" The Professor inquired Astra cooly, her tone and gunmetal gaze easing in sharpness while presenting the new plant. Unsure of how the red-haired Slytherin would react to this newfangled task, her eyes connected with Siobhan's intermittently conveying the silent ask to not answer for Astra just yet. Sarai could only assume that Siobhan would recognize this plant in a heartbeat, considering the girl was most enthusiastic and among the top of her class in regards to Herbology. "No matter if you do or do not know dis. Remember dis before you begin; 'pran tranpe ou' - relax your mind. Plants feed off de energy of their caregivers."

Tags: @Astra Norrick & @Siobhan McCarty