Mending Broken Bridges

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Stats: sta 7 ⊹ eva 9 ⊹ str 7 ⊹ wis 9 ⊹ arc 8 ⊹ acc 7 | Time: The Golden Hour | CC:#2E8B57
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Siobhan could hear the sounds of scraping workbenches and stools from around her as the students within Greenhouse 3 started to pack up and file out of the warm building and into the rest of their afternoon as per usual on a typical Friday. She didn't move away from where she had been tending to the Rose bushes that the students where expected to have learned about today if they where not aware of the flower. She stood there, shears gently snipping at leaves that had already fallen and buds that were already cut just to make it seem as though she was being thorough.

It was such a basic plant that to Siobhan McCarty, Herbology extrordinairre, this should not have been an assignment that took longer than fifteen minutes. However, she purposefully was dwaddling at her assigned rosebush for the day, desperate to remain in the greenhouse as long as she could.

It hadn't even been a week since Professor Toussaint-Fleischer had caught her and Prat Pass in an empty classroom, where the Slytherin boy had apprehended her before class and confessed much of his feelings about the way that the two of them had been dancing around the other for weeks leading up to two shared kisses. While the moment between her and Prat wasn't something she would say she regret, it had still cost her something quite dear to her heart. And that was unlimited access to the lower-level Greenhouses without supervision whenever she felt compelled to do any gardening or help out the lovely Professor.

To have heard her name come out of the Haitian woman's mouth in such a disgusted and shocked way had broken something inside of Siobhan's heart. She truly had been on her way to the Greenhouses, as Herbology was never a class she would willingly skip (and she was not a student who skipped classes ever, even when she was sick except for when she had been at St. Mungo's for her accident), when Prat had interrupted her path. The excitement and dopamine rush had clouded her judgement and therefore had earned her the expected consequence.

But Siobhan was taking it hard.

She tossed and turned every night, feeling uprooted from her ecosystem as she watched the seldom other students allowed unfettered access to the promised land, go in and check on her precious plants. She only had precious moments with her honking daffodils, her cabbage babies, and the other plants she had grown to care for before Professor Toussaint-Fleischer shooed Siobhan out with an icy stare from both herself and her snake. Siobhan more often than not had been leaving the outergrounds in tears as she skipped meals, study time, and socialization just to wallow over the fact that she was barred from somewhere she loved.

The once kind Professor, who had allowed Siobhan to cultivate what her heart desired and take care of the more advanced of responsibilities that other lower level students and even some of the upper years where not privy to had not spoken more than a professional word to her. There was no familiarity nor genuine kindness that Siobhan had come to love. Siobhan had come to see the island borne woman as a surrogate mother figure to her, in place of her own Mama who was far away in Killarney and not able to comfort her when she was in need. The homesickness when Siobhan had first entered Hogwarts had been entirely unpalatable. She'd actually been sick at one point and considered going home for good but had found safety in the warmth of the Greenhouse.

There had been a kind hand, and someone who had offered her somewhere to grow- both as a witch and as a person. Siobhan had felt herself growing more and more confident the longer she had spent in the vicinity of Professor Toussaint-Fleischer, even going so far as to calling her Auntie. But now she couldn't even bring herself to look at the woman for fear that the feeling of dread and ice would creep into her soul once again. With how limited her vision was, it wasn't often that Siobhan knew the expression gracing the faces of others- but the look from Professor Toussaint wasn't one that she needed to see to know it was there.

Siobhan turned her back towards the door as she felt the expectant stare of the Professor on her back, waiting for her to make her exit. The rest of the class had left and Siobhan stood there- still pretending to prune her roses. All she wanted was five more minutes- anything to stay with her plants. If anything, she could use her worry that she would cut herself with the gardening shears because of her lack of sight as a reason to why she was still in the Greenhouse when everyone else had gone about to get a start on their weekend. Though now that she thought about it- that might just earn her the loss of even getting to interact with the plants at all.

If she couldn't have her plants then what would she do with herself? Nothing brought her any fulfillment like tending to a garden and her plants did. It allowed her to explore the nurturing side effect of her soul that had begun to blossom as of late, without having to worry that her actions would greatly physically disrupt the flow of all that was good.

Siobhan heard her Professor cough behind her. Expectant and annoyed. It wasn't a normal throat clear cough that one made when attempting to strike up conversation- it was the kind that was meant to incite a response from someone because they where breaking some rule. In this case, Siobhan was overstaying her welcome in the Greenhouse.

Siobhan's lip quivered as she put her gardening shears down and gathered the clippings from her work station, preparing to throw them away in the compost bin before making her way out of the Greenhouse for the whole weekend. Her first weekend without access. She had no idea what she was going to do with herself.

One tear slipped out. Then another- and another- until finally Siobhan was full on sobbing into her hands. Ugly, wretched sobs that she hadn't let out since she was a baby. The clippings and bruised petals fell from her hands as though she was the rose herself and Professor Toussaint had been the sharpest of shears- clipping all of her petals that she had been so proud to grow.

Siobhan's sobs and cries echoed high across the building as she finally turned to look at her Professor.

"Please don't make me leave! I'm sorry for what I did- I just want to be back with my plants-" Siobhan begged in a pitiful voice that she didn't even have the capacity to use. She wiped her eyes with her hands using her robe to keep the tears from dripping farther down her face. All she wanted was to be safe in somewhere that she was familiar with. She wanted her normality back.

Siobhan wept in front of her Professor as the silence lingered on and her guilt consumed her further.
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| 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉: | 𝑴𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈: @Sarai Toussaint-Fleischer
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