Closed Plants Can Be Pets Too Errand

Attire: Usual weekend kit: Slytherin pride, kilt, no shoes, wolf fang necklace, feathers in his braid.

Reducio

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Colin shuffled into the herbology greenhouse. He'd always like it in here. The smell of plants reminded him of the gardens and greenhouses at home. Plus, he had to admit, he'd snuck in here quite a few times to hunt the wee mice and voles that sometimes got in to try and make a home here. Colin smirked. A lot of people thought he ate mice. Heheh.

He saw Professor McLoughlin tidying up the place a bit. Colin shrugged. He thought the greenhouses were just fine as they were! It was plants and growing things after all! It was bound to be messy! Anyway, the only really tidy part of the whole greenhouse was the long central table. The one where the students usually worked. Today Colin noticed that of all the plants on the table, they all had different coloured pots. Some green, some blue, some red. Like that. The other thing Colin noticed right away, was that all the plants potted in any coloured pot were the same.

He counted, as he got closer to the table. Hm. Five colours, must be five different kinds of plants! Then, he noticed the cards that described the plants that were on the table and how to take care of them. The parchments nearby indicated to Colin that there was likely to be a quiz involved, so he carefully studied each of the five cards. His attention was immediately caught by Professor McLaughlin when she said that these plants were to be taken by students and cared for --- like plant pets!

"Whoa, cool!" he said. "I'd better choose one that can grow in a dungeon, or else I'll be telling Professor that I managed to kill the poor thing within a week!" Colin checked his notes. He shook his head sadly several times. He let out a puff of breath. Unless he could somehow remain in his dorm casting lumos all day long, there was really only plant of the five that even hope survive the conditions in Slytherin!

His notes ended up looking like this:

Colin McCoire
22 April 2023

I'm going to choose a cast iron plant because they're hard to kill, and I'll name it Luci. I'm naming it Luci because my mate Luci is a tough lad and hard to kill!

The cast iron plant doesn't need a lot of light, so Slytherin dorm should be fine; it doesn't need a lot of water and should only be watered when the dirt is dried out a bit. I can't think of the name, but there's something my seanmamó puts in soil to make it drain well. Pearls or something. I'll ask her for some if we don't have any here.

NOTES:
Lucky Bamboo

** needs bright light and heat! --- sorry, but not so lucky in Slytherin!

Fishbone Cactus

** needs light; super finnicky! will probably wilt before I get it down stairs!

Prayer Plant

** cool name and pretty plant, would have to leave water outside to water the plant. Someone might drink it. Also needs too much light. Otherwise easy.

Zebra Plant

** way too much light! --- hmm. Could probably get some dragon dung Clark nicked from the greenhouse for fertiliser. Otherwise, a definite no.

Cast Iron Plant

** not too finnicky, doesn't need a lot of water, and best of all, doesn't need a lot of light! Liquid fertiliser: get dragon dung from Clark. Not so much the whole dorm would stink!

Well, this project sounded like it was going to be fun! Colin liked plants, but most especially he like wild flowers and plants that weren't too finnicky. He liked wild things that grew on their own and didn't need a whole lot of care. That didn't mean he didn't appreciate the care that went into fine orchards and gardens --- he just knew those kinds of plants would wear him out!

Mentions @Clark Baird | @Lucian Mornstern

When Rita heard that there was going to be an errand on plants, organized by one of her favorite professors Professor McLoughlin, she knew that was an errand that was made for her. The Second Year Hufflepuff beater`s previous interaction with Professor McLoughlin has been quite pleasant, with the young, pretty, and seemingly quite nice Professor taking her into the first greenhouse and guided her through a few plants she learned in her first year as a review. Now, right after the Spring Ball yesterday, it was Apr 22nd, known as the World Earth Day, which was of course a day that was set to raise the awareness of the mother earth and think of ways to protect her, Professor McLoughlin has kindly organized another errand in the first greenhouse for students to care for the plants like they do for their lovely pets, and also play their part in protecting the mother earth. Quite interesting errand for almost everyone who loves plants and herbology, and of course Rita herself as a big plant and herbology lover. Without further thinking, the black-haired Second Year Hufflepuff first-string beater went downstairs from the Hufflepuff common room and entered the first greenhouse to participate in the errand.

When Rita arrived at the first greenhouse and looked around, the black-haired Second Year Hufflepuff beater found out she was still quite early to the party. There was only one person before her, the Slytherin boy she remembered meeting in the dark basements last year in September when she could not sleep. Rita walked up to Colin and waved to the Slytherin broom racer with a friendly smile, "Hi, Colin! Fancy seeing you again! Remember meeting me in the dark basements in September? Anyway, how are you feeling today and which type of plant are you looking after? By the way, I don`t know you are a plant lover as well! Do you have an inner Hufflepuff side inside your heart?" She teased the white-haired Slytherin boy a little bit with some giggling at the end of her short speech.

After a quick interaction with Colin, Rita quickly walked to the pots with five types of colors containing five types of plants indicated by each color and began to examine those plants. After a careful look at those plants, the black-haired Second Year Hufflepuff first-string beater found the Zebra Plant in the lavender pots to be most intriguing. "Zebra plant? I wonder why it has that interesting name. Does it look like a Zebra? Anyway, I should bring one of those plants back to my plant palace dorm and share it with my friends! I am gonna name it, or him, Little Zebra, and I will look after him carefully like what I do with my lovely cat Peanut! Hey, when you look at his leaves with green and white stripes, it does look like the black and white stripes on a Zebra when I think about it!" Rita murmured to herself as she looked at the care information of the Zebra plant. After carefully looking at the care information, the black-haired Second Year Hufflepuff beater grabbed a quill and a parchment, and began to write out her little care plan for Little . And that was what she wrote:

Name: Rita Su
Type of Plant: Zebra Plant
Plant Name: Little Zebra
Care Plan: I`m going to put Little Zebra beside the window in my plant palace dorm, so he can get some bright indirect sunlight. I`m also going to water him once a month to keep the soil hydrated. What`s more, I`m going to use some flower fertilizer in spring that is soluble in water. Last but not least, I`m going to put him in a new pot every spring.

After Rita finished writing the little care plan for Little Zebra, she walked up to Professor McLoughlin and handed the little piece of parchment to the Herbology professor with pretty blond hair, taking her new plant friend Little Zebra in one of the lavender pots. "Hi, Professor McLoughlin! Nice to meet you again! Thank you for organizing this amazing errand! I really enjoy it! Here is my little care plan for the Zebra Plant named Little Zebra, and can I take him back to my dorm now? By the way, I suppose thew plant get his name from the green and white stripes on his leaves that looks like a Zebra? It is such an intriguing way to name a plant!" Rita waved to Professor McLoughlin with a respectful look as she handed in her little care plan, and then waited for Professor McLoughlin to answer her somewhat stupid sounding question.
WC: 778/600
Interacting with: @Colin McCoire @Nancy McLoughlin

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Name of Student (I hope you know your name): My name is Duvessa Ember, a Slytherin First Year.
Type of Plant (What type of plant did you choose): I chose the Lucky Bamboo because of how it looks and the name
Plant Name (What are you naming this plant): Lucky (I wish I could be more creative on this one)
Care Plan (How are you going to care for this plant): I'm going to attempt to take great care of it; although as long as my pet doesn't decide to fly in a jelous sulk! So, firstly, I'm going to keep it on my table (which has a great view of the window) but not near it, seeing that it requires indirect sunlight only. I certainly don't want to spoil it!

I will probably keep it in either very moist soil (might cause some problems, seeing that Bouncy likes digging...) so maybe water with a few pebbles found lying around might do the trick. I will also do my best to ensure that I change it every week (probably Sundays, seeing that I am least lazy on weekends and less likely to forget). Well....that may be it, although I forgot to say, that the temperature I will keep it in is going to be between 65 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit! Otherwise, it'll die out or burn to a crisp....

Mellani walked around in the grounds, bored and in need of fresh air. It was the 22nd of April, a day that she had celebrated as World Environment Day back in the muggle world. Mellani had always made sure to plant at least one plant every year on this day. But well, now that she was at Hogwarts, she didn't think that this was going to happen. She glanced at the greenhouse and saw a few students gathered there. Why could that be? she wondered to herself. Well, maybe she should check it out. She strode to the greenhouse and entered it, noticing that it did not have the first year plants that were normally always there.

She saw four other people over there. Two of them, she had noticed in the Slytherin Common Room. The boy was probably named Colin, and the girl's name she did not yet know. The third and fourth people, Mellani did not think she had ever seen. And if she had, she did not remember it.

Mellani noticed that there were a few plants and parchments on the center table. Perhaps this was some type of test or quiz? Well, only one way to find out! Mellani went over to the table and read the parchment, realizing that this was actually a program in which students could adopt plants as their own pets. Well, that sounded fun and it was a great way to teach students how to take care of plants too! She had been wrong about World Environment Day not being celebrated at Hogwarts.

Mellani saw that the bottom of each pot was a different colour, perhaps they were colour-coded according to the plant which was in them. She read the notecards and realized that she was right. She looked at the notecard for each plant carefully. Growing up in the muggle world, she had taken care of plenty of plants before coming to Hogwarts. So she knew that it wouldn't be too hard for her to take care of one here and make sure it didn't die.

She finally decided to take the prayer plant, the one in the blue-bottomed pot. It seemed pretty easy to care for and, it did not need any fertilizer or repotting. Just water, indirect sunlight and a temperature more than 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Sounded easy enough!

Now, the question was, what to name her plant? Mellani had had many plants but she had never named one. She had never had that idea before. She could just call it 'Plant', but then maybe, and most probably, that name would not be approved. Then she decided that maybe, she could name it after her brother. No, when she took it home, she did not want to get teased by her brother. He would probably start teasing Mellani on missing him and school and as much as Mellani did actually miss him, she did not want to give him that advantage. So she thought, and thought, and thought about the name. In the end, she decided to name it Nate, after a book character.

She saw the small form, took a quill and parchment and started filling it. This is how it looked:

Name: Mellani Miller
Type of plant: Prayer Plant
Plant name: Nate
Care Plan: I will take great care of the plant and will give it all the attention it needs. First of all, I will make sure that there is a drainage hole in the pot to make sure the plant does not end up getting excess water and will keep it on a plate a bit away from the window on a small table so that it gets indirect but bright sunlight.

I will make sure to water the plant every 1-2 weeks with water that has been left out overnight, making sure not to put too much or to forget about watering it. I will make sure to maintain the temperature and keep the plant near a fireplace if necessary.

Mentions: @Colin McCoire, @Duvessa Embers, @Rita Su, @Evelynn Decipio

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Thought | Said

Zach was walking to the Great Lake when he saw some students got out from The First Greenhouse with plant on their hands. Zach was curious. He decided to cancel his trip to the Great Lake and went to to the First Greenhouse instead. He entered the place and saw a big changes in there. The plants that had been taught for first year was not there anymore. He was curious and looking around until he saw an announcement that there's an errand for student to take care of plant. "Oh wow. We can have pet plant. This is exciting," thought Zach.

He walked to the table and saw there are so many plants on the table. Some plants had green pots, others had red, yellow, lavender, or blue pots. There was a notecard beside each pots. "So the the plants with the same pot color is a same species," he mumbled.

He was looking at each plants. The plants with red pots is Fishbone Cactus. "This one is a succulent. I never heard of it before," Zach thought. It grows with long and zig-zag trailing stems. "They are so unique. Ooh! And has a lot things that must be considered in its care. I don't think it will suit me for now, a newbie plant caretaker."

The second plants is in the yellow pots. They are Cast Iron Plant. "Gramps has them in his house." Then Zach read the notecard. "It's easy to care. And I can ask Gramps too. Should I take this plant?" Zach was thinking for a while and decided, "Nah. Let's take a look at other plants." He then walked away to the next plant.

The plants in the green pots are Lucky Bamboo. They looked so neat and orderly. Such an eye-pleasing in the Zach's eyes. "What a beautiful plants!" He saw many of them in the different shape yet also neat. "You guys are so cute. Standing like a mini gate!" The plants awed him with their neat yet cute looks. Then Zach read the notecard beside the pot. "I think my room will not be a problem in taking care of the plant. This one will be the first candidate."

Zach took a look at the forth plants, the blue one. "They are so cool! Look at you! You are so magical to see!" They are Prayer Plant. It has a very fascinating pattern for Zach. They have same pattern yet have their own uniqueness. he looked at the plants for a long time to see every pattern on their leaves. "I'm not sure if I can take it in the Ravenclaw dormitory. I can't make sure that the temperature it needs." He faced a plant in front of him. "I like you. But I'm sorry. I'm not sure the environment in my room will suit you or not."

The last plant was in the lavender pot. "Ooh! The stripes!" They are Zebra Plant. The white stripes on the dark green leaves is so eye-catching. Some of them has yellow flower shaped like a spike. "The flower really emphasize the beauty. The stripes also exotic," Zach mumbled. He read the notecard and thought, "It needs repoting in spring."

Zach finished looking at all the plants. It was hard for him to decide what plant he would choose to take care of. They have their own beauty and needs. After thinking for some minutes, he walked to choose a plant. It has neat looking yet cute appearance in its green pot. "I will call you Hope. I named you Hope because I hope you will grow well in the hand of a newbie pet plant care taker. I hope we will getting along!" Zach said to the plant.

He walked to the table with the heap of parchments and write

Name of Student (I hope you know your name): Zach Zaphiere
Type of Plant (What type of plant did you choose): Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana)
Plant Name (What are you naming this plant): Hope
Care Plan (How are you going to care for this plant):
I will put my plant near the window and my bed in my dorm at Ravenclaw. I will not change the pot for now, but I will change it later when Hope is growing enough (Maybe I will ask you first if I can change the pot with the bigger one. I'm sorry if I bothering you in the future, Professor.) For the media, I will keep the soil media. I also will prepare some filtered water to water Hope. I will also keep the soil damp and not overwater Hope so its root will not rot and also not get the soil too dry so the plant will always be fresh.

And then he handed the parchment to the Professor McLoughlin. After that, he took Hope to his room. He's so excited. He then prepared some water, filtered it, and kept them in 3 bottles. His journey to take care of Hope began after that.

Word Count:
783 words (include the one in the parchment)
671 words (without the one in the parchment)

Parseltongue
English
Thoughts

It was a warm and sunny day, and Nico was out on the grounds of Hogwarts. It was a rather boring day for him. He had finished all his homework the day before, and even the library held his interest for no longer than an hour. So he decided to go for a walk, and what a boring walk it was. There were a few people near the lake, some under the trees, and a few by the greenhouses.
Herbology was Nico's favorite subject and his best. So when he noticed the students near the greenhouse, he strolled up to it and walked in.
Inside he saw several other students, of which he only recognized two. The first was a boy he had seen in the Slytherin common room several times, Nico couldn't quite remember his name. "What was it? Calvin? Or no, it was Colin, right? Yeah. Ooh! Duvessa!" And of course, he would recognize Duvessa Ember. Nico had taken fancy to her recently.
The greenhouse was a mess, as it should be. Plants shouldn't be kept in straight lines and trimmed ever so neatly. It's a sign that the plant is healthy if it keeps growing, even if it grows out of its pot! That was Nico's issue with his mother's garden, she was always cutting the branches of her trees back, or trimming the shrubs to a perfect square. But Nico liked it when the plants looked a bit wild, it made playing in the garden all the more fun.
Nico saw a table with different plants and a pile of parchments, the plants all were in different colored pots. He recognized nearly every plant on the table.
In the red pots, there were Fishbone Cacti, which are a cactus species native to Mexico. In the green pots, there was Lucky Bamboo, which is native to Central Africa. In the yellow pots, there were Cast Iron Plants, which are native to Japan and Taiwan and are known for being hard to kill. In the blue pots, there were Prayer Plants, which are native to the Brazilian tropical forests. But the plants in the lavender pots Nico didn't recognize. It looked familiar, but the name he couldn't remember.
As he approached the table, he was able to read the parchments. "Oh. So the plants are for us? Ohh, it's a Zebra Plant! Mum hated those..."
Seeing as Nico already had knowledge of gardening and caring for plants, it would be an obvious choice for him to pick one. But which one? The cactus wouldn't work. It needs a lot of sunlight, and that's practically impossible in the Slytherin dorms. Lucky Bamboo is fairly low-maintenance but still needs direct sunlight, and Nico didn't feel like dealing with changing the water every week. Perhaps the Prayer Plant? Those don't need too much sun... although they are higher maintenance than the other plants. "Well, then how about a nice Zebra plant? Nico, no. There's a reason Mum hates those." Zebra plants are very picky. If you overwater them even the slightest and they die. Under-water them and they'll shrivel up faster than a Mimosa pudica.
Having decided against all others, the last plant to pick was the Cast Iron Plant. So, Nico picked up a piece of parchment and filled it out.

Name of Student: Nico Cirillo
Type of Plant: Cast Iron Plant
Plant Name: Quincy
Care Plan: I'll water it weekly. For the fertilizer, I'll owl my mum to see what she recommends. Since she's a gardener and she always gives good advice. I'll put Quincy near my window in the dorms, the dim light coming through the lake should be fine!

Once Nico handed the piece of parchment to Professor McLoughlin, he turned around and picked up his new friend, Quincy. He smiled, Nico liked plants, much more than people.

WC: 640

None

House Colours: Gryffindor

With his previous victory that afternoon in Hogsmeade concerning the wellbeing of his brother and Valentin, Piérre was ready to finally unwind and head over to another event that he had heard about scheduled for that day. It was at the Herbology greenhouses and Piérre had heard that involved letting students get to take home a plant of their own to name and take care of.

Considering Piérre's experiences with plants in the past, all he could say of this was that it was more than likely that while the experience would be interesting it would not end well for the plant in question. The kid simply had more luck growing his yew wand (which right now was indeed sprouting more leaves as he had been 'forgetting' to groom it) than he ever had when trying to nurture a plant that was low maintenance. Don't even try to give him a high-maintenance plant, that thing would no doubt suffer a painful plant death if even left so much as in the same room as Piérre.

But, you know... the kid was willing to try. Try he would, perhaps with poor results, but he would certainly try because he was not a quitter by any extent of the imagination.

After reading all of the labels, Piérre picked out the one that had the easiest looking instructions on it. What he ended up with was a red-tagged cactus-looking thing that looked like it grew in a squiggly pattern. Piérre was going to be honest, the only reason he chose this plant in particular was because he had heard that cacti were the easiest kinds of plants to take care of as they needed infrequent watering and could usually withstand the worst of hot temperature extremes. Maybe because it would be easier to take care of he would have more luck ensuring its survival... or maybe it would prove just how bad he was at taking care of plants as he watched it too wither away and die like Piérre was the walking, talking equivalent of herbicide.

Well, first to fill out the planning slip. That was the first step towards adopting this unfortunate victim lucky plant into the well-meaning hands of one Piérre Marchonné

Name of Student (I hope you know your name): Sometimes I forget, but I think it's Pi? People call me Piérre, though, so I won't argue I guess.

Type of Plant (What type of plant did you choose): Fishbone Cactus (Disocactus anguliger)
-requires bright indirect sunlight
-soil needs to be well-drained, airy, and rich in organic matter
-water with room temperature water when top 3 inches of soil are dry
-keep between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit
-humidity should be above 60%
-should be fertilized once in early spring with liquid cactus fertilizer

Plant Name (What are you naming this plant): Uhhhhhhh... Pokey?
Care Plan (How are you going to care for this plant): Imma just try to follow the instructions. I've never really been a Greenthumb, so this'll be interesting. I just hope you're not too attached to this one because I'm like 92% certain that it's gonna die in the next week or so. I'd say let's make a bet over it, but I don't think it's a good idea to promote gambling between a student and their professor even if I could win some quick cash for it.

Wish me luck, I guess?

So adopting the waxy little friend, Piérre immediately started his best to keep the poor fella alive by following the instructions to a T when it came to watering and the first dose of fertilizer that it received. He very quickly decided that the best place for the plant to live would be by his window in the Gryffindor tower, so he decided to put it on a ledge where he could overlook the Great Lake and the Forbidden Forest equally. Figaro was curious, as the cat usually was, but it seemed for the time being that the bengal would resist bapping the plant with a curious paw and thereby depot it from its secure state.

Well, that was one hazard out of the way, but the other hazard was Piérre himself. Lo and behold, the boy was just as forgetful as he always was. This would result in the kid always forgetting to close the windows of the Nook's dormitory when he needed to cool down his room. This didn't at first glance seem to be a huge issue... until you remembered that this was a Scottish Highland early spring night weather that we were talking about and this plant liked to have regularly warm weather so that its waxy exterior didn't freeze and give itself frostbite

Well... uh... Piérre kept the windows open mostly because he was forgetful... and by the time that he did notice that his poor Pokey was suffering, like, three or four days later, its entire wax and water-retaining skin had been frozen solid and the ice was cracking through the skin in a successful bid to split the plant's "leaves" and thereby entirely kill the poor cactus.

Oh well... it had been a fun experiment at least. At least nothing worse could happen to that dear little cacti in its little cactus heaven where it was perfectly cared for by those that actually knew how to responsibly take care of a plant. It was far better than anything that the plant-abomination traditionally known as Piérre Marchonné could have given to it, that was for dang sure.

928 words

-requires medium to bright indirect sunlight
-should water once every 1-2 weeks
-water using water that has been left out overnight
-Should not be let in an area under 60 degrees Fahrenheit

Name of Student (I hope you know your name): Cassie Jiang
Type of Plant (What type of plant did you choose): Prayer Plant
Plant Name (What are you naming this plant): Wisdom Sabrina
Care Plan (How are you going to care for this plant): I am going to water my prayer plant once every Monday morning. I will leave some water every Sunday night so I can use it the next day. My plant will be kept right next to my bed, so the temperature and sunlight will be alright.