Unwilling Help P.V. Marcella Di Angelo

It was a perfect day for a visit to the Greenhouse. The sun shone high and mighty in the sky, casting its glorious light over the world. It was a relatively warm day. And the Ravenclaws had Herbology with their fellow Slytherin students. Marcella prided herself on being good at every subject. And granted that was not something she was gifted with, no, but rather something that she worked hard for. Students chattered and discussed their plans for the day in excited tones. She wondered what they'd be learning today? Something practical or theoretical?

Soon, the first years had reached Greenhouse One. The professor had asked the students to get into groups of two. She took out pots and fertilisers as they were dealing with Bouncing Bulbs today. Marcella looked around for someone who had not yet been partnered. She saw a Slytherin boy with a pained, annoyed look on his face. Well, guess I have no choice. She approached him. She nodded at him and offered her hand for a shake "Marcella di Angelo, pleased to meet you. Seems we're the only two unpartnered. Would you like to partner up?" she asked. "And it seems your distaste for Herbology is poorly concealed. You ought to work on that. Perhaps I can help refine your techniques in concealment and convince you to stick with this subject?"

As if the class wasn't punishing enough, a girl approached him to partner up. "Do I have a choice?" The Slytherin was too annoyed to care about politeness; he moved aside a bit to give her some space. He didn't even bother to introduce himself as he kept working on those jumping plants. If he didn't hate the unwanted attention, he would have stormed out of class by now. But giving up and making a scene wasn't in his nature.

The Ravenclaw, whose name he now knows, tried helping him. But as if the Slytherin would insult his lineage by taking help, he denied her. "No thanks, I can handle it," He replied, finally looking at her. "If you so want to help, do this," he said, handing her an extra pair of gloves to do the weeding. He continued doing the work he was doing.

The Slytherin had a really bad habit of overestimating himself and resisting external help. But in this situation, even he thinks it's better to get help. But the ego inside him would never let that happen. He just scooted over more to make more space for Marcella, hoping he didn't actually have to ask for her to understand.

14th January 2026

@Marcella Di Angelo

"Would you look at that, you answered something correctly! But yeah, sorry to break it to you, but you don't have a choice." She smirked. The boy was not the first egoistic person she'd met, but he was quite amusing. "Whatever sails your boat, champ." She said with a slightly mocking smile. She didn't mean to rile him up, or maybe she did, but she quite enjoyed it.

She took the extra pair of gloves and got to work. She peeked to see what he was doing. And couldn't stop the laughter that escaped her lips. "That's not how you do it, Scemo." She said as she reached over to help him with the chaos he was brewing. "You're miserable at this," after helping him deal with the little problem, Marcella got back to her business. She looked over at the boy beside her to understand anything that may possibly be running through his mind. He seemed pretty determined to finish the work all by himself. And she admired that.

"You're not half as bad as I thought you'd be," she said as she finished up her work. "You know, if you need any help with herbology, feel free to find me every single day at the library in the evening or at the great lake in the mornings. But if you're too shy to do so, well, make sure to look out for me. I won't guarantee that I won't hunt you down," she chuckled. Something about the boy just made her want to bug him.