PULSE MEETING: Greenhouse Days Open to members

There were several magical plants in which he could have chosen, some that weren't included in his stations but Simon gravitated toward Dittany for his project. Sure, it had been one of the first healing plants that they had come across in their studies but that wasn't because it was basic - but because it was renowned for sealing wounds and promoting rapid skin regeneration. It was a fundamental for anyone who was serious about magical medicine and he had used it every single day at his internship at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries in London over the past Summer.

Simon grabbed a clipboard from a box within the greenhouse and a self inking quill. He wrote down Dittany as the subject of his investigation and then began with the question "What if Dittany could mend faster?" He then underlined it and made his way over toward the windows to find the leafy green plant, preparing himself for the increased sunlight.

If anyone should come upon him during his time working, he would be happy to talk with them - whether it was to talk about the club, help them discover their project, or just make small talk. Simon thrived on interaction with others and would find it most pleasant.

Otherwise he would carry out his scientific magical experiment, taking some of the Dittany so he could try various ways to tweak it a little.

One was repotting some of it in soil enriched with Murtlap residue to enhance tissue restoration. That one was easy enough, a quick addition to what was already there and he set it down in the experimental growth chamber to hyper-speed growth.

While he waited on results of that experiment, he took another bit of Dittany and took it away from the sunlight that streamed in through the windows of Greenhouse Three. He needn't put his dhampir self into double tragedy here. Once at the other side of the greenhouse, he attempted some Lumos infusions to accelerate regenerative magic.

He would have to test it out on someone who had been injured to know if either of these attempts had successful results. Perhaps he could even create a starter from his Murtlap infused Dittany and strengthen it with Lumos, making a third variant.

What would he name all these three? After reviewing his notes that he had been taking, he wrote "Dittany Variant I: Murtlap-Enriched" next to his first, "Dittany Variant II: Photonic Infusion," under his second method, and "Dittany Variant III: Integrated Enchancement" next to his combined strain - his final masterpiece.

Surely if it worked, it deserved a better name than "Dittany Variant III: Integrated Enchacement." Yes, that was just for scientific purposes. Simon tapped his quill against the side of his clipboard as he thought and then it came to him.

"Concordant Dittany," he wrote and smiled as he did so. It was perfect - coming from the idea of concord which meant harmony or unity made it the right choice as he was having two enchantments, the murtlap enrichment and the lumos infusion, to work in balance.

Simon was proud of the work he had done through the course of this meeting and hoped that maybe there was some medical advancements made.

When Zephyr entered the greenhouse, the smell inside was the first thing that he noticed. They were a mix of soil and plants. It reminded him of their farm, whenever he would go outside and feed the animals and water the garden before sunrise. They may be soil and plants but there was something special comforting about that smell. "Hi Simon." He greeted the leader of the club. He was there to attend the PULSE club's activity. The guy welcomed everyone and promised to focus on practical activities rather than theory, which was what he liked best. He was more of a hands-on person than a textbook one. He listened as Simon spoke to them. He liked plants. On their farm, he always helped his mother with herbs she used for home remedies, and Herbology class at Hogwarts was one of his favorites. The idea of combining magic and plants in new ways was interesting.

This club would hopefully gives him a chance to learn more while doing something practical. Their activity was explained to them which involved Herb Tending Rotations. First thing on the agenda is to choose a station. Zephyr looked at the three stations. Station C seemed complicated, she could do the splicing stem cuttings and layering enchantments later... maybe. Station B had calming herbs like valerian and lavender but he already worked with similar plants in his class. Gaze going to Station A which has dittany, mandrake, and murtlap. It was easy for him to go that way.

He was interested in studying plants that could heal because that means they could make a difference in someone's life. That’s what drew him to this club, to learn how to use plants to help others, to heal, and to understand more about magical herbs. Seeing the mandrakes, the first thing that came to mind was that, this is going to be tricky. Mandrakes were always a handful, even in lessons. He could already imagine the screeching if he were not careful. Anyway, he liked challenges like this, they were the best way to learn. He began checking the soil, carefully loosening it with his fingers. His mother told him once, each herb had its own needs. Just like animals on the farm, each plant required patience, attention, and care.

He had been working quietly with the soil around a pot of Dittany while keeping a cautious eye on the Mandrake beside it when he noticed what Simon was doing The guy added something to the soil and then moved the pot to the experimental chamber. What's that? He finished the soil rebalancing first and stretched a bit as he wiped his hands on a cloth. Curious about what the older boy was working on, he decided to approach him. Dittany helps seal wounds, adding something that supported tissue repair might make it work faster. "Hey I have a question...That thing you just added and this...lumos infusion.. If the Murtlap helps tissue repair… and the Lumos infusion speeds the magic… does combining them make the plant stronger, or does it risk making the magic unstable?"

"Zeph! Alright, mate?" Simon asked, glad that someone had approached him. He had seen Zephyr around quite a lot lately and was always glad to see his fellow Hufflepuffs out and about around the castle. It was even better to see one there at a PULSE meeting.

He smiled quickly when he realized that he had taken enough interest in what was going on to ask such a question.

"Not sure. It's what I'm trying to figure out. Murtlap is known for stimulating repair and Dittany already has regenerative properties. I'm hoping that enriching the soil might encourage the plant to channel more restorative magic into its leaves. But, I don't exactly know if it stacks safely."

"At St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, where I intern, they're very clear that combining restorative magic with active spell energy can create unstable reactions. If the magical field in the soil becomes too saturated, the Dittany could overproduce volatile sap or just burn itself out. It'll either strengthen the plant or destabilize the magic entirely. So I'm watching the leaves and the scent of the oil. I've got a pretty good sense of smell, more heightened and all, being a dhampir. But I suppose if it starts glowing or smoking we'll also know this was a terrible idea," Simon said as he looked over to the plant. All seemed well so far.

"You interested in magical medicine or is it an interest in plants that brought you here today?" Simon was one of those people that truly liked to get to know someone, not just the surface stuff. Maybe he'd learn more about the other Hufflepuff that day.

Zephyr smiled at the guy and nodded at his question. “I’m good, you?” His attention went to the plant Simon was working on. He was already curious before, but now that he was explaining things, it became even more interesting for him. He liked hearing how other people approached problems. Murtlap helps repair while dittany heals. Together, it could either work better or go wrong. “Two things that are good on their own don’t mean they’ll work well together.” He nodded once again in understanding, that's very true, even in regular plants. His mention of St. Mungo’s told Zephyr that the guy's knowledge didn't come from mere experience. It meant that there was actual knowledge behind his words.

He was picturing it in his head, a plant pushing too much magic into itself until it couldn’t handle it anymore. “If it’s too much at once, it could overload the plant?” he mentioned watching the leaves and the scent too, and at that, he crouch low and take a closer look at the pot, curious. He had a good sense of smell and hearing from growing up on a farm. Simon added the part that if it starts glowing or smoking, then it's not really an advisable one to do. He chuckled in amusement, "I suppose you can say that but I hope it doesn't get to that point before we know we've done something wrong."

He was then asked his reason for being there, and it was something he could respond to easily. There was no hesitation in his voice when he replied. “A bit of both actually...I grew up on a farm so plants and animals have always been a big part of my life.” He glanced at the station where he was working earlier. “I used to help my mum with herbs a lot, not magical ones like this, mostly just for home remedies and teas. But, it’s same idea, but less complicated. Herbology is also one of my favorite subjects here. I like working with plants. The magical medicine, it’s still connected to plants anyway so I'm interested about it too.” And it useful, it can help someone, even himself. His gaze shifted to the Dittany again, still thinking about the experiment. “I want to see what happens with yours now.”

@Simon Kincaid
I didn’t really know why I’d signed up for a club all about healing. Sure, I was now a healing intern, and I quite liked the idea of doing healing in the future, but when I found out the first meeting was all about plants, I was a bit concerned. I was decent at theory of herbology, but I had a knack for killing off plants.
When I arrived at the meeting, I went over to the first station, including mandrakes. I shuddered slightly, as they scared me a bit, the fact that a plant could be more powerful than a human. I thought for a few moments about what could be an interesting thing to try to do, to improve the qualities of the plant. I decided to think of it as a science experiment, like I used to do in Primary School - change one variable, to get a result.
I knew that their scream was the worst part about them, making them hard to use, due to its petrifying nature. Maybe if there was a way to seal up their mouths?
But, I knew that I wasn’t anywhere near advanced enough to try that, and, I didn’t even know if it would actually work. So, I walked over to the boy running the club, where there was someone else standing there as well, and asked quietly, “Excuse me? Can I have some help?” I waited a few seconds, before trying, unsuccessfully, to speak a bit louder, “Would there be a way to seal up the mouth of a mandrake, so it couldn’t scream?”

Interacting with: - open to interactions -

Date: 3/6/2026, 2 pm

Speech: #3CB371 | Thoughts: italics

Outfit: x

The young teenage Snake smiled kindly as she listened to Simon introduce the club’s latest activity. Her heart nearly melted at the notification that they were going to work in the greenhouse. It was one of her favorite locations at Hogwarts, after all! Who could stay away from such lovely plants (other than to her honking daffodil plant and her Mist Hopper … both of which were safely snug in her dorm)? It should come as no surprise that this third-year Slytherin would make sure that she was in attendance.

At the beginning of the year, Kaitlyn had signed up for the newly resurrected Healer internship when the new Hogwarts nurse started, Nurse McLoughlin. She had also signed up for Simon’s club, Pulse, for which this club meeting was about. If she had to be honest, she had no idea if the healing career was right for her. Yet, with her love of plants … and frankly continuous desire for more learning … she embraced learning about healing. She had, after all, four more years at Hogwarts to help make up her mind. At the very least, she should try any and every opportunity she could find to help her come to a coherent conclusion.

Once they were allowed to head to one of the three stations, Kaitlyn immediately skipped over to the first station - Station A. Dittany! Mandrake! Murtlap! As a Prodigal Herbology Learner, she had seen the names of these plants in Herbology textbooks! She even had cute little drawings of them in her plant journal. Although … to be fair … her notes were subpar. Naturally, they were based on the textbook. But, what better conditions to learn in, than to actually handle them yourself? Frankly, she was unable to handle them herself, just yet. Yet, she wanted to. And now seemed like a good time!

Her satchel bounced on her hip … her plant journal safely tucked away inside … Kaitlyn read the notes about these three plants. Their healing and restoration properties were fun to read about, in her opinion. A smile crossed her lips, knowing that one aspect of these meetings was to help boost the healing properties of the plants. ‘I wonder … would I be able to take a pot of Dittany to my dorm room, to tend for and care for? I have that honking daffodil in my dorm, flourishing. Ah, I don’t want to cause an issue for Simon, just because I’m a plant lover … I’ll do my best to control myself.’

Forgoing the use of gloves … honestly, how often did Kaitlyn wear gloves in Herbology? Honestly, very rarely … unless the plant was poisonous … Kaitlyn quietly began humming to herself as she tended to the Dittany plant first. Fertilizing the soil. Watering the plant. Gently trim the plant for optimal growth. Her mind whirled with possibilities for experimentation, as she continued her quiet work.

Word Count: 489 words

She was on time for once. Putting effort into something was rare these days for Costanza. But she resisted the urge to head back to her dorm after lunch and instead made her way to the greenhouses. She didn't know if she'd made the right choice signing up for this club, and she spent the morning wondering if she would take one look at the gathering and walk out. Perhaps not, if she had done any small bit of self-healing over the past few years.

"Afternoon," was what she said when entering Greenhouse Three. Monotonous and distant, the greeting still felt too polite to her. But she learned that most people didn't pay attention to the little things anyway. She moved to stand at the back of the group as the meeting began

The guy in charge - a fellow Hufflepuff and familiar face from the common room - gave a speech that actually stirred something in Costanza and with one glace back at the door, she decided to stay. There really was nothing to lose.

Taking a slow walk around the greenhouse, she first passed by the experimental growth chamber. It was her instinct to inhale the mist, but she caught herself. She didn't want to be the one experimentally growing. Station A was next and it had gathered quite the crowd, so she followed the wafting floral scent of lavender to Station B. The plants there weren't exclusively used for healing but were important components of several potion types.

Costanza paused in front of the station and looked down at the notes for tending. Root separation? Magical aura measuring? Brewing micro-infusions? Her brain started to hurt. Maybe Station A was where she needed to be. However, Dittany was quite the popular pick with the others, including her classmate from Slytherin. One girl did show interest in mandrakes, but all that did was remind Costanza to pull on her red earmuffs so that she wouldn't have to worry about first years endangering the group.

After sufficiently muffling her hearing, she looked again to Station B and decided to stick with it. Of course, there was always the mandrakes that she could help out with, but she didn't want to be liable for anyone who passed out because they weren't wearing proper protection. She chose a pot containing a valerian plant and inspected the extra foliage growing around the bottom of the stem.

"When you're done over there... er, Simon... could I have some guidance on measuring magical aura and brewing... whatever the hell micro-infusions are?" It felt weird referring to him by his first name when she didn't even know him, but she just wanted to seem comfortable. She wasn't comfortable at all. She began to trim the useless foliage off the bottom of the valerian plant so that more energy would be directed into developing the buds on the sprigs. When Simon made his way over to her, she would ask, "And what's root separation about? Is it like... depotting and cutting off pups?"

When Maisie knew about the club about healing magic, she had signed up without thinking twice. When she was living with her grandmother in Wales, the woman had introduced her to particular herbs as a healer in her village. The first time the brunette picked up a sprig of rosemary in her grandmother's overflowing garden, something inside her shifted. In those years she lived with mam-gu, she learnt a lot about plants and fungi, especially those with healing purposes. Maisie had watched her grandmother save people with the simplest things found in nature. That, she deemed, was the reason she aspired to be like her grandmother.

By the time she was packed off to Hogwarts, she knew enough about these plants with mundane and magical properties alike.

As Maisie pushed open the door stepped into the greenhouse in her old dungarees and a greyed-out flannel shirt she found at the bottom of her trunk. She did not know how such an unflattering piece managed its way into her trunk without being found by her mother, but it was there, so that was that. She couldn't help but feel excited and nervous. The butterflies in her stomach were fluttering. Then she caught sight of Zephyr, her friend, and her face broke into a wide grin as she waved at him. "Hi, Zephyr! Nice to see you here!" She stood in front of the various pots of plants and listened as Simon Kincaid, a sixth-year Hufflepuff she'd seen many times yet never truly interacted with, addressed them. Her eyes flickered around the room as Simon carried on with his speech. The room, as he then explained, had three rotations. The first one offered restoration plants, the second of calming and soothing herbs and the third, experimental plants. The last one made her curious, but she ultimately went to the first table. That was where Zephyr was going, too.

Dittany, with its tiny green leaves, was powerful in the magical world. It had many uses in injuries, and could regrow skin quickly. It's very useful in the field, and could prevent long-lasting damage to severed skin. But it wasn't the easiest to obtain, and while it could heal something as small as a paper cut, it wasn't wise to use it for such a small thing. Maisie wondered if she could weaken its power. Glancing at Station B, she suddenly got the idea to mix the two. If she could slice off a lavender to only its stem and attach Dittany to it, could it make this new plant have both the soothing smell of lavender, and the healing abilities of Dittany? She knew there were certainly plants that matched this description, but would they be as powerful as Dittany? Dittany, in her eyes, was the most powerful. The last time she'd seen it applied was when she scraped her knees really bad when she was 7, and her grandmother had put a few drops on the wound. The green smoke that came when applied had scared her, and she wondered if there was a way to change it into something else. Although she didn't know what colour smoke coming from your wound doesn't scare patients, there was bound to be something. Or... Perhaps the smoke could be lessened into a mist? She shrugged to herself.

Turning around, she grabbed an empty pot and filled it with soil. There were soils with fertilizer and enchantments, and she chose one advertised as 'fast growing'. Spooning it into her pot, she filled it to about three fifths before putting a small Dittany plant—with its stem and all into it. She filled in another fifth with soil, and watered it. She did not know if her plan was even possible, so she decided to ask Simon for help. He was, after all, older and more experienced than her. "Hey, Simon, could I ask you a question? Is it possible to graft lavender and dittany together to form a plant that would have both lavender's soothing properties and dittany's healing abilities?"

Growing up on a farm would be pretty fun, Simon supposed, although it was quite the different upbringing than Simon got in the heart of the city of London. He remembered going to his friend Clair Fernandez's farm where he met her goat named Cinnamon amongst other animals. It never lacked interest, that was for sure. "I'm glad you came, Zeph, truly," he told the Hufflepuff.

When the girl approached him, Simon smiled kindly. "Hmm," he paused, realizing that he hadn't really heard of that. He always knew the wizard's approach to trying not to hear the mandrake's scream but never to silence the scream and that was a pretty good tactic - then there wasn't even a need for the first. "I suppose one could bound up their mouth with a cloth or a bandage or maybe harden it with wax. Then again, that would require the uprooting first and not really solve the initial problem, would it?" Still, it was completely worth exploring. "A silencing charm migth work, perhaps? That could supress the scream entirely. Do you think we should try that?" Simon then paused. "You work in the hospital wing, Miranda Johnson, yes? I think I came in on Thursday shortly after you left. Saw it in the log book."

Simon looked up to Kaitlyn Connor who was getting to work with a Dittany plant. He looked back over to her after awahile and saw she was taking quite good care of it. "You should adopt it," he called over to her with a smile. "One should always have Dittany around," and in a place like Hogwarts and all that went on, one could use some healing powers wher they knew where to find them.

Simon helped get Miranda set up with everything she might need to test the silencing charm on the mandrakes and then said he'd be right back and he headed over to Costanza Jewelweed, a fellow Hufflepuff that he recognized from going to a dueling match.

He moved over to where she was and nodded, "Good instincts, That's exactly what you want - less wasted growth and more focus on the useful parts." Her pruning of the plant would only strengthen it. "Root seperation is like splitting a crowded root ball. You're not making more plants, you're isolating distinct energy channels. Most medicinal plants, especially ones liek valerian, develop multiple root clusters that each specialize a bit. Perhaps one is calming properties and the other is better for binding or stablizing. When separated properly, you're sorting those traits instead of letting them blur together."

And he showed how some of the roots were a little different on the plant that was before her. "Micro-infusions are controlled, very small scale extractions. Instead of tossing a bunch of material into a pot and hoping for the best, we're pulling out specific aspects of a plant's aura in tiny increments." He then began to write out some notes for her on how to go about trying this, step by step. It wasn't an easy process.

That would give the Hufflepuff girl some direction, he hoped, and then went to another Hufflepuff who had a question. He was glad people were eagerly interacting and had high hopes in making another meeting quite soon - maybe one not so technical.

"In muggle horticulture, that sort of graft wouldn't take because theyr'e too different. Here, magic helps but won't completely ingore how plants work. Grafting works best with closely related species but....there are experimental herbologists who try magical hybridization. You'll need patience. I'd start by trying to feel their auras. Lavendar is calming and dittany is sharper - one pushes while the other settles and they might end up fighting each other. But if you feel they aren't trying to clash too badly, you could try joining them. Continue to grow them under the same conditions - same soil, same light, same watering schedule to help sync up their magical rhythms."

"Then I'd try to bind them using the newest growth first as older roots are stuuborn. It'll require patience, but we Huffelpuffs are supposed to have that, yes?" he smiled. "I think it's a great idea."