Sarah made her way down to the student garden. She needed to check on the things in her area, and her vegetable patch probably required weeding. She swung her satchel (Which had her supplies in) as she made her way. Thankfully she did not have to pay to use the garden, only the greenhouse. This whole paying thing was not her cup of tea.
She took at her wand and casted the water spell as she walked around, making sure the irisses got water too. Finally she reached her patch. "finte" she casted and she looked down. There was really a need for weeding.

She crouched down and placed her bag beside her. From the bag she drew out her gloves which she put on. Then she leaned forward and began to pull out the stray weeds. The weeds she pulled out she put in the ground, she had work to do. She hoped to get more crops this year, even though food was provided. One never knows when they would need it

At least they were allowed to go into the garden without having to pay. Seriously, what was WRONG with this school? Yes, Lex had said that the school was broke, and then Schuyler had mentioned something about them having to make their own food. But the latter wasn't true anymore so Olly had figured the first one wouldn't be either. Since they were clearly connected. Hey, if they could afford to get the house elves back...

Clearly she had been wrong, though. But again, at least the garden was FREE to visit.

Holding on tightly to the pot which held a Fanged Geranium in her glove-covered hands, Olly made her way into the garden. Since she didn't have her own personal garden anymore and she hadn't trusted her parents (or sister) to take care of her plants at home she would have to bring them here. She had even written a sign that said "Property of Olly Clarke. Do NOT touch! I swear!" that would be put up next to the plant.

Right, now, all that was left to do was get past the girl already there and give her plant a new home.

Sarah hummed happily as she worked, pull out the weed, fluff up the soil. She should probably add more fertiliser. She stood up and was about to look around for fertiliser when she noticed a girl standing there. The girl held a Fanged Geranium in her hand "Nice Fanged Geranium you got there. My name is Sarah Edwards, I am a fifth year Gryffindor. And you are..?" she asked. "You are new here - right? Do you need help with anything? I know how the sun moves around here, so I can help you place it in the right place. Also, I have worked with those plants before so if you need any help you can ask me". Was she sounding too bosy, or overbearing or arrogant, she really just wanted to help"if you want of course, although I am sure the Herbology Professor knows more then I do. This is my fifth year in this garden, I love the fact that we have a student garden. I have grown herbs, garlic, and last year I grew a vegetable patch" she said pointing ot her patch, "I am just maintaining it now though, so it is not in the best of shapes, yet last year I got some crops out of it. It was how I ate as I never had enough money to pay for food in the Great Hall. I guess its natural to me, as my family has a farm so I am used to growing our own food... Sorry, I talk too much, my grandmother says I have verbal diarrhea." she said.

Crap.

There went her plan of quietly planting the Fanged Geranium and leaving again.

Olly was momentarily frozen in place as she just stared at the other girl, her face displaying no sign of emotion while she waited for her to finish.

...

......

.....okay, if she didn't stop talking soon she'd just keep on walking over to where there seemed to be an empty and perfectly situated place for her plant. Her eyes even moved away from the girl's face and towards said part of the garden. She sighed. And no, she was in no way listening to all the words coming out of the girl's mouth. Sarah. Was that what she'd said? Not that it mattered. The girl's last words earned her another annoyed sigh from Olly. Yes, verbal diarrhea sounded accurate. "You done?" Olly finally said, clearly completely unimpressed by everything that had just been said. And the girl as a whole as well. Also the sun thing, what?

Would she leave her alone now? Yes?

Sarah was shocked, and a bit hurt of course. Here she was being herself, offering to help and all she got.. a slap in the face. She was about to do something drastic when she stopped. In order to be so bitter (As people who did not like happy people and were such wet blankets were of course bitter) this girl had to have had a bitter past. Sarah's sunny disposition came naturally to her as she was blessed with loving and warm family, but to others it must be harder. So instead of feeling her own hurt, she tried to feel the hurt of the girl. Shame.. what pain this girl must be going through.
"I think I am, I am sorry if I caused you harm, annoyance or hurt, it was thoroughly unintentionally" Sarah returned with a smile, "I will not press the matter further.. yet tell me, what is your name?" She said as kindly as possible. This girl seemed delicate, so fragile, as if the girl was a cracked vase that only needed a tiny bit of force before falling to pieces. Sarah had to put this girl's feeling in front of her own, Sarah had good foundations she could handdle knocks, but this girl looked like she could not. "You are pretty by the way" she said sincerely

O____o

Staaaaaaareeee!

Harm? Annoyance? Hurt? Olly just blinked at the other girl a couple of times, completely surprised by her choice of words. Or the fact that she had just apologized. "Good." HUH? The Hufflepuff was trying her hardest to keep her face void of any emotions but a look of suprise had probably slipped through for a second. And she would not press the matter further? Which matter? WHAT was she even on about?

Why was this Sarah person so confusing and irritating and wouldn't just leave her alone?

At least Olly had recovered again and was back to just staring at Sarah with a look of utter indifference on her face. "If I tell you my name will you leave me alone?" It was worth a try, yeah? She shifted the plant's weight in her arms slightly, waiting for the other girl to reply. Instead, however, she got a...compliment? "Yeah, I know." Olly replied almost without thinking, her eyes briefly flicking towards the part of the garden Sarah had up until now tended to.

Seriously, what was it with this girl?

The day was a little crisp but the sun was out and it was clear. That was important for what Michael had planned today. He made his way down to the student garden rather briskly, showing his hand into his pocket every now and then to make sure the jelly slugs he had put in there were still there.

Once he reached the gardens, he took a moment to catch his breath and to have a look around, trying to figure out where he should start. He was determined to find himself a garden gnome to wrestle with.

He got down on his hands and knees and began to crawl through the dozens of leafy bushes, leaving behind a trail of jelly slugs. He knew that gnomes preferred real worms but he hadn't had the time to dig any up, so the jelly slugs would have to do.

"Come on little garden gnomes, I know you're here somewhere."

Unlike her grandmother, Tora was not the best Herbologist in the world. Actually, she was pretty awful at it. Which was why she was here in the student garden, trying to make something grow.

Over the summer Tora had asked Gram how to do better in the class and she had been told to visit the student gardens which she had thus far ignored. It wasn't that Tora had a difficult time watering and feeding and weeding and all the other things that went into gardening, she just got too frustrated with the plants most of the time. If there was anyone who could get angry at a plant, it was Tora. Gram had recommended planting something in the student garden to help her get over her anger and do better in class. Just a bit of practice on the side wouldn't hurt anyone. However, it was currently fall, and Tora didn't see the point in planting something new and so instead of taking care of her own plant, she was taking care of the general student plants in the garden.

This was how she came to be on hands in knees pulling up roots around some sort of flower when she spotted what looked like a jelly slug. Weird, there should only be organic things in this garden... what was a jelly slug doing there? That was when she noticed the whole trail of jelly slugs! This day in the garden just got interesting.

She crawled over and picked up one of the slugs. Definitely a jelly slug. She continued to follow the trail bent over, not really looking where she was going until she saw where the jelly slugs were coming from. A boy, about her age, was, for some strange reason, leaving behind a trail of slugs and in doing so he had actually attracted a garden gnome into the garden! Idiot. Garden gnomes are supposed to be put out of the garden, not lured in!

She crept up behind the garden gnome, but just as she was about to reach its ankles to swing it about and throw it over the fence it turned and saw her! The little rascal gave a little noise and ran right at Tora. She jumped back in surprise as the gnome ran in and around her legs making her topple over right toward the precious irises! Noooooo! She twisted to avoid Professor Bentley's favorite plants and landed right on top of the, still squealing gnome. She shifted into a better position to pin it to the ground and finally looked back up at the boy. "Better be more careful with how many jelly slugs you drop in here. You're basically asking the gnomes to come in." she said.

She didn't bother to pay attention to the fact that she was now covered in a sprinkling (or a bit more) of top soil and that she had a bit of dirt smudged across her nose. Instead she was focused on her next question, and on trying to figure out the answer. "Um... why were you even in here with a bag of jelly slugs anyway?" she asked.

Seriously Bentley must have the tidiest garden ever known to man or woman. Not only could he not find any garden gnomes but there were scarcely any weeds here either. It was starting occur to him that this was probably a fruitless venture, he was not going to find any garden gnomes here. He knew that he should have brought one from home with him.

Just as he was deciding to call it a day, he had no jelly slugs left anyway, he heard a disturbance behind him and he quickly whipped around to see what was going on. The sight before him caused his eyes to widen and his mouth to open in surprise.

How was it that he had been out here for probably over an hour and this girl is here for five minutes and she managed to catch herself a gnome? Michael quickly made his way over to her. "That's my gnome." he stated rather matter-of-factly.

It wasn't until he was right beside the girl did recognition flicker in his eyes. "Hey! I know you. We met in Diagon Alley. Tora, right?" She had been looking for quills, the same as him. And if he also remembered correctly she was a second year, same as him.

he belatedly realised that he hadn't answered her question and he rested back on his haunches and blinked at her. He had thought that was rather obvious. "I was trying to lure out a gnome. So that I could wrestle with it." Duh!

Sarah siezed the girl up. She had cheered up people before, but then she always knew the circumstances and what to say. Like went to keep her lonely great aunt company, Sarah knew her interests, and when Sarah went to cheer up kids in hospitals, Sarah knew that kids liked it when one made a fool of themselves. But this girl.. Sarah never knew what was up and only wished that she could cheer the girl up. At the same time she did not want to antagonise her. What would the Psycology books say? Sarah knew that when it came to teenage girls, "go away" and "I'm fine" were the opposite.

The girl was hurting Sarah too, yet Sarah tried to put her emotions inside her. "Maybe your birthdate too? Because I am really into birthdays and I know most of my year's birthdays. I think you are in my year as well... fifth year. Anyway, I would like your name and birhday and then I will try keep quiet" Sarah said. It was hard for her to hold back when this girl looked like she could use TLC. But sometimes people needed space.

The girl knew that she was pretty? Few teenage girls admitted that, most of them, including Sarah, did not think well of themselves. So if the girl was not lacking self esteem, why was she so down? Sarah continued on with the weeding.

It was that boy from the shop! "Quills! Right. And you're Michael, right?" she said coming up before diving back on top of the gnome before it could get away.

"Who ever said it was your gnome? I'm the one who caught it after all." she said raising her eyebrows. Michael might have lured it there, but Tora was the one to actually pay attention enough to notice it (and then pin it down after).

Suddenly the gnome gave a great heave and threw Tora off balance. "Just a mo!" she huffed before tackling it back down to the ground. Once the excitable gnome was more firmly placed face first in the dirt she continued on, "Ok. So why would you want to wrestle with a gnome anyway?" She was currently wrestling a gnome, and trust her, it wasn't as much fun as it was made out to be. Maybe if she had some sort of gnome-catcher something to help her it wouldn't be as bad, but as she didn't have anything that would qualify.

After the gnome was quiet for a bit, Tora actually looked up at the person who she was having a conversation with. She needed to get off the subject of this gnome, and so of course the first thing that comes to mind when speaking to any other student from Hogwarts... "So I didn't catch what house you were at the store. I'm Ravenclaw. You are?" It was hard to tell she was in Ravenclaw when she didn't have her robes on, so she just stated her house instead of having him guess like she would normally.

Her...her BIRTH DATE? What was wrong with this one? Olly gave her an incredulous look which clearly suggested that she thought she should get herself checked into St. Mungo's immediately. She opened her mouth to ask Sarah WHY but thought better of it in the last second. No need to give this conversation any more ammunition. The faster she told the girl what she wanted to hear, the sooner she would be left in peace.

Hopefully. That was the plan anyway.

After another few seconds of silently regarding the other girl, Olly sighed AGAIN and raised her eyebrows slightly. "My birthday's June 12." WhatEVER she needed that for. Would she look up her star sign and send her her daily horoscope or something? "And the name's Olly." And shifting the plant in her arms a little further up so she wouldn't drop it, the Hufflepuff added (to stop her from asking because she DEFINITELY would ask), "And yes that's short for something. Olivia. Olivia Clarke." And then she waited with an exasperated look on her face. Can I go now?

"Yes and yes!" It seems that the girl had just as good a memory as he did. She did however, have very poor gnome wrestling skills. Michael couldn't help but look from Tora to the gnome and back to Tora again.

And every time he opened his mouth to say something, the girl would start talking or re-adjust her hold on the gnome. "Because it's fun." He couldn't take it any longer and he moved over to her and the gnome and he grabbed hold of the gnome's nose between his thumb and forefinger and pinched. "This is how you subdue it." he explained because he had plenty of experience with gnomes.

Of course she was in Ravenclaw. She had that smarty pants look about her and she didn't know how to wrestle gnomes. "I'm in Gryffindor." She probably should have guessed that.

He let go of the gnome's nose and gestured for Tora to do the same. "We can probably let him go now." Michael would track it down later. "You enjoying the new term?" Might as well make conversation since they were here.

Sarah tried not to mind the hurt this girl was causing her, so she put on a big smile. She thought she was able to tolerate the diversity of the Hogwarts student body... now she thought not. She had never dealt with someone.. wait.. wasn't Theo, Mr. Grumpy.. also like that? But he was a boy.. a different species, and as Sarah never knew what it was like to be a boy she could not think why it was funny. She thought that maybe boys were naturally grumpy and the boys that she knew that weren't (most of the boys that she knew) had overcome that grumpiness except for Scabior or Theo. But then again she had a theory about childhood affecting people.

"June 12? That is my eldest brother's birthday. Who are your friends here in Hogwarts... like if a a party was made for you, who would you like on the guest list?" Sarah said. She wondered what the school calendar was like. She could probably fit in a birthday party in the midst of OWLs.

"Olly..."Sarah was about to ask about the original when Olly answered her unsaid question. "I like the sound of that name.. are you related to Sherman Clark? He is on the Hogwarts Board of Governors, I think some relation to Alice Fischer, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain?" she asked.

Oh... she was not meant to ask questions.. She did not like not keeping her word, yet... but...

Sarah picked up her weeds and moved them over to the compost heap, "Hogwarts recycles dead organic matter in the compost bin.. just so you know. As I said earlier, if you need any help, just let me know. I learnt how to take care of Fanged Geranium before, llike brushing and flossing its teeth.". She finished with a smile. She wished to ask if she could hug that poor girl. But judging from the reception, Sarah did not think that that would be appreciated.

Score one for Tora! She always prided herself on how well she could remember names and faces. Whatever points she won in recollection, she lost again in gnome wrestling. Geez this boy sure had it down. She watched carefully, noting how he grabbed the nose. She went to grab it too, just to see if she too could subdue the little pest.

It worked! Sorta. Tora highly suspected it had something to do with Michael the Gnome Tamer also holding the rascal's nose. "Why would we be letting it go? Shouldn't we throw it out of the garden now?" she asked when Michael gave the signal to let 'im loose. She quickly stepped back so as to avoid tripping over the gnome again.

Oh. He was a Gryffindor. She tried (really hard) not to make a face. She didn't generally like Gryffindors. They didn't seem to have a purpose to themselves a lot of the time, and they could be so arrogant... She just didn't really like that much. Even now he had a little bit of a "Well, shouldn't it have been obvious that I am in Gryffindor" look on his face.

She quickly shook her head. So far, he had not given any indication that he was like the other Gryffindors that she had met. The look could have been a figment of her biased imagination coming to prevent her from meeting any new friends. She would have to wait a little longer to decide about Michael and his Gryffindor-ness.

Tora fall back onto her bum so she was properly sitting comfortably. "It's fun so far! I loved that activity in Astronomy that we did the other day. You know with the wax wings and stuff." She smiled big now. Astronomy was her favorite class and there had been an especially exciting activity last class.

Caleb REALLY hoped that the Herbology professor would be cool with him practicing his astronomy stuff in the garden. He wanted to see if his idea about using it as a plant growth...accelerator...thing...would actually work, and where else would he find a bunch of plants?

SO really he had no CHOICE but to be here. For SCHOOL.

He pulled out his magnifying glass wand and picked a tiny fern that seemed to have some frost forming on it. Awww, poor plant. It needed to be warmed up! "Solis Focus!" he said, pointing his magnifying glass at the plant. For a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen, but then the plant began to get greener, and Caleb realized the frost was melting. AWESOME!

Caleb was getting really good at this spell. What it would ever be USEFUL for he didn't know, but...hey, he was good at something!

Olly sent the other girl a bored look that clearly suggested that she SO didn't care if that was Sarah's brother's birthday too. It wasn't like they were going to celebrate together. Have a great big party and- WHOA! Hang on. Now what was this Gryffindor on about? "Not you." And yes that was quite harsh but Olly didn't care. Nobody who mattered was around to hear her and she really just wanted to get away from this girl. Maybe this was the way to do it.

Also, had she really thought she'd give her a guest list?!

Huh? What was she..."No." WHO on earth was Sherman Clark?! And she knew who Alice was but...no, she doubted she was related to HER. And even if she was, it wouldn't be a relation by blood anyway. And just why did this girl care if she was related to them or not?! It was a complete mystery to Olly how some people were just so interested in other people's lives. Especially people they'd just met. And who weren't very nice to them. And CLEARLY didn't want anything to do with them. Siiiiigh.

Okay right now Olly REALLY regretted not having paid the money to get into the greenhouses. She could have asked the professor to put her plants there and be done with it. Then she wouldn't have to interact with this girl. "If you touch my Fanged Geranium I'm going to feed you to it." Just FYI. She hadn't raised her voice or anything but had narrowed her eyes at the other girl in warning. Just to make sure she knew she was serious.

Minerva walked easily into the student garden. She stopped and looked around. Maybe this wasn't going to be such a good idea after all. It wasn't that she didn't want to do the work or that she was terrified of the plants anymore, no that wasn't it at all. She just knew working on the plants would mean missing someone even more than she was.

But school went on, work went on, and life went on even when you missed people, so Min kept walking further into the green house until she got to the Jacobs Ladder that Ethan and her had planted last term in memory of her brother who should have joined them at school last term. "You are looking good. I'm glad to see that you didn't die while we were away." Talking to these plants wasn't weird at all. Nope and no one was there to say that she talked to them either.

Slipping off her shoulder bag she set it down and out of the way. Pulling her wand she pointed at the flowers, doing Aguamenti nonverbally she watched as the water came out of her wand and she let it wet the plant just enough. This was nice seeing them and knowing she had planted. It was even nicer seeing they were still alive. This was a big plus as well.

Taylor slipped into the student garden with her cloak hood up and hiding her face. She glanced around, searching to see if a certain boy that she had been avoiding was there or not as well as if a different boy was there… one that she wouldn’t mind seeing. Tay sighed in relief as the one she was avoiding wasn’t there but pouted a little when the other one wasn’t either. Taylor shrugged it off though and went down through the aisles and saw Minerva. She silently knelt next to her friend, ”Hey…” Her hood was still blocking her face. Tay was happy that her face was shielded in darkness as she gently started to stroke the plant’s leaves and stems that was in front of her. Taylor started to sing in Gaelic, letting her voice flow up and down with the song. She started to fertilize the plant, getting her freshly French-manicured nails slightly dirty but didn’t seem to care. Tay smiled as she kept singing. Every few moments while she fertilized the plant, she would stop and stroke it a few more times. She imagined the plant as a baby and her touch was as soft as if she was actually dealing with a baby. Taylor tickled the leaves and stems while stroking them. She made sure that she didn’t get any dirt when she stroked them.

Minerva jumped a bit when she heard someones voice. Glancing over it took a few seconds to realize it was Taylor, "Hey what are you hiding from?" She pulled the girls hood down, no need to leave it up really. They were the only two there. She smiled a bit hearing Taylor sing, oh she was going to sing to the plants. Well Ethan would like that, but she would just let Taylor do the singing if she want. She finished watering her area before stopping the water flow from her wand. Noticing her moving her hands Min shook her head, "Tay do you have your gloves?" She pulled her own out of her bag. "If you don't have any there are usually some in the supply cabinet. I'm going to go grab a rake if you need some."

Min got up and looked around. There could be some places that needed raked up, plus by the looks of it the bushes that her and Ethan had trimmed last term needed trimmed again. She hoped she could remember how to do it. Putting her hand out she touched the bush seeing where she needed to do some trimming. "Diffindo" she took off a few branches and let them fall to the ground. Doing a few more Min worked around the bush. She let her mind wonder a bit as Taylor continued to sing. This just seemed more fun last term. Turning she head to get the rake.

Tay started to reply to her question, ”N-“ Before she could finish, Minerva pulled down her hood. A frown appeared on her face and she quickly looked around for the boy she was avoiding. Taylor started to relax when she realized it was only them two. ”Umm… not a what but a who…” Tay glanced down and then back up at her, ”Oh… um…” She blinked and looked at her hands, ”I guess… I am so distracted that I forgot my gloves… and that I needed some…” She nodded at her and then got up, going and getting some gloves and slipping them on. Taylor returned to her spot and continued to stroke the plant and fertilize.

She watched Minerva trim some bushes as she finished up. Tay gave the plant a hug and a kiss as she got up. Taylor went and grabbed some cleaning supplies. She went to the windows and started to clean them. Soon Tay became distracted and watched the suds go down the window for a few seconds before starting to clean them again. Taylor glanced over at Minerva, ”Mins… if I ask you for some advice… will this stay between us two…” She glanced around, ”and the plants… I guess…” Tay sighed and looked down, fiddling with the supplies before scrubbing the window before going to the next. Taylor was trying to make them as clean as possible. Cleaning helped Tay become distracted… at least it usually does but nowadays, she wasn’t too sure anymore.

Not her?Sarah forced a smile, "no problem, I don't have to be there, so who are your friends here?" she asked.

"Oh... but it would be cool to say that you have a relative here. wouldn't it? Like a met a girl on the train, her surname was Adams, which was my mother's maiden name. So until I do further research, I call her 'cousin' or one of its varients. I mean, I have brothers at the school, yet I have no sisters. Anyway, Alice is such a character.. so entertaining" Sarah busied herself with her plant, turning aruond in time to see the narrow eyed look. She had to fight the urge from laughing.
"I won't touch it if you don't want to... although, as I said, if you need help I am ready". She was proud of herself. She used to be way more sensitive, yet now she was developing thicker skin. This was personal growth after all.
"oh.. and if you ever need someone to let your pain and anger at the world out on. Come to me, let it all out. Think of me as your punching bag. I can handle it... it has been done before" Actually, maybe she should not have said that... oh well.

Wow. This girl was so persistent that Olly almost gave her credit for it. Almost. If only she wasn't annoying her so much with exactly said persistence. "What do you care?" Like, how was it any of her business who she liked and who she hung out with and stuff? It wasn't, exactly. Plus, it was very likely that she knew Schuyler, what with them being in the same year so there.

Now Olly was genuinely confused by the girl's reasoning. Which only made her more irritable. "Why? Why would I care if I was related to anyone here?" Especially considering there would be no blood relation even if she were related to Alice. Or anyone for that matter. Plus, being related to Alice? Huh. Somehow she couldn't really see it.

"Well, I don't." Need help. Olly hadn't moved much since coming in, hoping to get rid of Sarah rather quickly. She'd been wrong clearly. So now her arms were hurting from the weight of the fanged geranium. Also it was getting a little restless too so she really really really should set it down. Though looking around the student garden for a moment, Olly decided that this was no place for it anyway. So she should probably pay for the greenhouses. Bleh.

...hang on, what?

Brown eyes back on Sarah, Olly gave her an incredulous look. She sounded like a psychotherapist. And a bad one at that. "Right. I'll keep that in mind." She snorted and rolled her eyes while taking a step back. This was slightly discomforting though. It had been done before? Like, was Sarah Hogwarts' very own...punching bag, like she'd called it.

Weird, very weird.

Caleb had visited the student garden to do his astronomy homework earlier in the year, and now he was back to tend to the garden for the task force. He still didn't know many spells that could help him, but he could at least water the plants!

He started to look around and found one of the plants he'd helped with his Solis Focus spell. It seemed to be thriving - well, it wasn't dead at least. That was good. Pulling out his wand, Caleb waved it and said "Aguamenti!" and began to water the plant. He made sure to stop once the soil got moist so he wouldn't flood the plant, and then he sat down next to it. He'd heard that talking to plants helped soooooo....why not?

"Hello little plant. Remember me? I came and gave you some extra sun the other day," he explained. "Well, it was more than a few days ago I guess. Did you enjoy it? You haven't wilted, so I'm assuming that you did. Now you've got some water as well, so you're in good shape, yeah?"

Oh man, he hoped Cutty didn't come in and see this right now. How embarrassing!