Copernicus let himself be pulled along to the student gardens, although he was more than willing to go wherever it was Celandine wanted. He could even ignore the stench of the moon calf dung and the fact that he was spending his first moments at Hogwarts volunteering to spread out CREATURE POO.

"Should we do a spot of weeding before putting out the dung? Look... no one's touched these plots all summer it seems."

Or maybe he could believe that he was spending his first moments at Hogwarts following Cela around like the sad little crup he was.

"We really should." Celandine agreed, frowning at the puffas and fluttas in particular. Bad weeds.

"I'll be right back." Cel turned on her heel and skipped past Copernicus, trailing her hand along his arm as she went.

It was only a few moments later that she returned with gloves for both of them, a couple gardening tools and a watering can all carried inside a bin she'd grabbed to dispose of the icky weeds in.

First thing Cela did once she'd put all of that down? Go kiss the puffapod flowers of course!

"I've never liked weeding," Copernicus pulled on a pair of gloves and took the bucket from Cela so her hands were free. "It isn't the work, and I can appreciate how nice the beds look when you're done. It's just the idea of it. What makes me so powerful that I get to determine which plants are worth helping and which must die? Why do some plants get deemed weed, and some are deemed useful? If you aren't useful, does that mean someone should get to prune you?"

As he mused, Cope settled the bucket next to the first bed and knelt in the dirt. "I think I'm talking too much."

"Well," Celandine began, kneeling next to Copernicus, "The thing about weeds is that often they aren't native plants. Did you knowwww that you could carry a seed on your clothing or something, from another country and it could fall off into the soil and sprout? Taking the nutrients and stuff from the plants that are supposed to be there? If it's a rare plant, or you've worked super hard to look after the plant, like the Puffas and Fluttas,"

Cela nuzzled a flutterby bush,

"It suddenly has to compete unfairly for resources.Also, biodiversity and like, um, the ecosystem or whatever, can be unbalanced if weeds are left to do their thing. Or they can be poisonous to animals or change the PH level of the soil."

She didn't bother with gloves for the weeding part, Cela preferred using her hands. She stroked the soil and gently grasped some ragwort, which she pulled out gently and held up to the light.

"Plus, some weeds, like this one, have other uses, like medicinally." Cela tossed the ragwort to one side and grinned at Copernicus.

"I think I'm talking too much. Besides, it isn't just that they aren't useful, its that they are often actively harmful. That's the difference really."

Celandine dug her hands into the soil and let it flow through her fingers.

Cope left a muddy print on Celandine's chin as he leaned over to quiet her with a kiss. "You know... you are oddly literal and entirely adorable. Remind me to explain rhetoricals to you. I know why weeds are weeds. I was just comparing them to... well, to people I guess. Are we less deserving if we aren't immediately useful? That sort of..."

He shrugged, rolling back his shoulders to keep from getting a back ache from hunching over. "It's a nice day, isn't it? I hope the weather holds."

Cel blushed happily and patted the soil as if comforting it and telling it that soon it would be weed free and all dunged up.

"I think..." Celandine began slowly, "... we prune ourselves if we think that we aren't useful. I mean, maybe in a garden where all the flowers are sooo pretty, the ragwort," she nudged the ragwort and pulled some more of it up, "doesn't belong. But the ragwort is useful in other ways. So like, if the ragwort learns its own value, and doesn't try to lessen the value of others, we'd all be happier. A happy garden."

She paused to watch Cope roll his shoulders.

"And you know... sometimes a bit of pruning encourages growth. It just depends how you look at it. I think weeds have value, just like all people do, its just not always noticeable until you dig deeper."

She looked up at the sky and smiled, feeling the sun on her face.

"It will." She answered with certainty.

If she said it would, it would, Cope was sure. He cast a glance over at Cela basking in the sun before turning his attention to the next bed. Ugh. Shoulder ache. He needed a weeding charm STAT!

"Is that a polite way of telling me to stop worrying about the weeds and to take care of myself?"

Cela laughed.


"If I meant that I woulda said," She sat up straight and her face turned mock-serious, "Take care of yourself, Copernicus." She shook her finger at him and cheerfully went back to weeding.

"Cope? You... will study with me right? For exams?" Cel ventured.

Obviously she wasn't worried.

At all.

...much.

"Only if we're actually studying," he cast a side-long glance at her before snickering over the dirt left on her chin. She was a little too cute to take seriously at the moment, in spite of the fact that she was exuding nervous energy.

"But of course. I want to study with you. You can help me set up a study schedule for NEWTs since I"m completely without focus."

"I," Celandine turned around to face Copernicus and dug her fingers into the soil, "Am serious about my exams." She pulled her hands out of the soil and let the dirt trickle off slowly.

"Study first." She peeked at him then looked at her hands, "Then... stuff."

She dusted her hands off and surveyed the flower bed, looking for more weeds to pull. "You are? Without focus I mean." Cela rubbed her cheek and managed to smear more dirt on her face. "We can inspire each other. You know, like with rewards."

WEEEDS! Cela darted her hand out and tugged up the weed that she'd spotted. Tricky hiding thing.

"Candy rewards or kisses rewards?" He scooted along behind her and pulled out another handful of weeds. "Because I don't really like candy. How about you write me a poem? You still owe me a poem."

He tossed a clump of something weed-looking on the pile and examined the bed. All clear. "I'm serious about exams too, Cela. Yours and mine."

"I know you don't." Celandine answered, accepting of the fact and yet still so surprised about it. "Not candy." She giggled a bit. "I'll write you a poem anyway."

Cela dumped the weeds in the bin and smiled happily. "I'm nervous and excited about them."

"An epic poem. Or you can try out one of your codes on me," Cope levitated the bags of dung over, dropping one in front of each bed. Was there any chance it would... spread itself? Maybe if he closed his eyes and crossed his fingers and wished really hard.

"Why nervous? You realize you're some sort of genius girl, right?" He sighed and opened the first bag.

Cela pulled on the gloves and picked up a little trowel, gesturing at the flower bed. If Cope levitated the dung and let it pour out of the bags, she could spread it with the trowel.

"Well, I'll pass them all. But I have to pass them all well."

Dominic didn't even know why he found himself in the direction of the student gardens. Maybe it was because with his aptitude for Herbology, he was hoping to self-learn something useful that he wouldn't be taught by Anastasia Bunbury.

Entering the gardens, the seventh year stopped just inside the garden area as he heard some whispering. Blinking and feeling his heart rate suddenly speeding up at seeing Copernicus and Cel-an-dine together, Dominic closed his eyes for a moment. Really, he needed to get over her. It was her loss for not wanting to speak to him ever again; he didn't do anything wrong.

And yet why did he get this feeling when he watched the young love of the pair before him? He shouldn't have felt like this. It was out of his control. What the Ravenclaw pair has is nothing compared to what he had; right?

Swallowing the lump in his throat, he moved his way into the gardens and set to work on caring for some of the puffapods. Best to let them go about their business ...

Cope let a bag split over each bed, and he tried to let the dung spill out away from the plants and away from Celandine. After just the first two bags, though, he sat back and studied her.

"What happens if you don't? I fully trust that you will, but what's really the WORST that can happen? What I mean... what will they do to you?"

Cope spotted Denton on a bed nearby, and he raised his hand in greeting. The boy was welcome to join and help if he wanted, but something in Denton's posture indicated he might want to be alone.

"They'll pull me out of school." Celandine answered, "Homeschooling. So that I learn properly without distractions." Cela started to spread the dung out with her little trowel, turning it over with the soil and mixing it in a bit.

She waved one gloved hand over at Dom-in-ick too then went back to dung spreading.

Attempting to focus on the puffapods, Dominic somehow found it difficult to do so when the couple nearby was chatting innocently. Sure they weren't doing anything harmful, but it was still frustrating.

Pull me out of school to learn properly without distractions? Stealing a glance over at them, Dominic frowned and then saw Copernicus and Cel-an-dine waving to him. Maybe he should talk to them. Now seemed more appropriate than any other time and at least there wasn't an audience like at the feast.

Finishing up with his watering of the puffapod plants, Dominic made his way towards the Ravenclaws. "Homeschooling isn't much better," he joined in dully, as he took a seat by them. Sure you got more thinking time, but you also missed out on more. Like Quidditch. You couldn't play quidditch if there wasn't anyone to play with.

"Homeschooling is much better because there aren't any nasty wasty boys to keep Cela from getting all her OWLs," Copernicus said lightly, trying not to give her a panicked look out of the corner of his eye. No panic. No look. No eyes.

"But Cela will do amazingly well without homeschooling, better in fact, because she has the cleverest and handsomest of tutors available. So good, in fact, that he won't work for money. Just... candy." Sugar sweet kisses, that is.

"It will be terrible if I have to stay at home." Celandine told them both quietly, unusually subdued and serious about it. She used her gloved hands to pat down the dunged up soil then held her hands out for Copernicus to... you know, charm them clean or something.

"I'd rather run away." She added, almost telling the puffapods and the flutterbys rather than the two seventh year boys. She smiled a little at the 'cleverest and handsomest tutor' thing and quite slyly peeked at Copernicus. "I have a few of those actually. But only one gets candy."

"Not yet," Cope answered, still keeping his tone light. "And anyway, you won't have to stay home. You'll be brilliant." He siphoned the dirt and dung from her hands with his wand before offering his own hands to her in turn.

"Wait a moment. Who else is a tutor? Denton?" Denton was safe. He mooned over Amazon women.

Dominic frowned when Copernicus seemed to agree for a moment about Homeschooling being better because it was free from distractions. Oh, sarcasm.

Cleverest and handsomest of tutors available? Well that was just cute.

A few clever and handsome tutors? Blinking, Dominic wondered who she could be talking about and then Copernicus had to suggest him. "Uh. You know what I can't stand?" Dominic asked, rhetorically.

"Women who think they're better than you. Think they're smarter than you. Think they're more athletic than you. It's not even like I did anything knowingly but yet somehow they manage to turn things around make them your fault."

And neither of the two probably had any clue what he was talking about. Or maybe they did?

Cela put her gloves aside and returned the favour, cleaning Cope's hands off with her wand.

"Oh no, this sixth year boy. For potions. And I was thinking I might ask Jack Fritzera for help with Astronomy. I notice he's really into it. Or maybe one of my new friends from the train." Celandine answered cheerfully and then peeked at Dom-in-ick.

"You probably couldn't help me with anything much right?"

Cela stared for a minute and tipped her head to one side.

Since when did Dom-in-ick Denton know women?

"Not to rain on your rant, mate, but Cela is better, smarter, and more athletic than me. And it doesn't really faze me that much. So maybe you want to be a bit more specific. We can puzzle out women together." He studied his hands before giving Celandine a nod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celandine

Cela put her gloves aside and returned the favour, cleaning Cope's hands off with her wand.

"Oh no, this sixth year boy. For potions. And I was thinking I might ask Jack Fritzera for help with Astronomy. I notice he's really into it. Or maybe one of my new friends from the train." Celandine answered cheerfully and then peeked at Dom-in-ick.

"You probably couldn't help me with anything much right?"


Cela stared for a minute and tipped her head to one side.

Since when did Dom-in-ick Denton know women?

"You don't need me for anything," Cope laughed. He leaned back on his elbows, tilting his face to the sky. "What sixth year boy? Plymouth is REALLY good at Potions, you know? You could ask him."