SnitchSeeker.com - Grounds: The Topiary Garden

SnitchSeeker.com (https://www.snitchseeker.com/forum.php)

- Grounds (https://www.snitchseeker.com/grounds/)

- - Grounds: The Topiary Garden (https://www.snitchseeker.com/grounds/the-topiary-garden-120167/)

The Topiary Garden

https://i.postimg.cc/26Mp3Rxj/tgarden.png
Image Credit: Charely Potter

The Topiary Garden is home to creatures both magical and mundane. From Hippogriffs to rabbits and everything in between, these figures have been trimmed from specially selected plants to provide a relaxing environment for you.

Take a seat on the grass or perhaps on one of the polished, wooden benches and inhale the crisp freshness of the air. More often than not, you may find yourself being distracted by a topiary as it waves to you or it randomly scratched its nose. Once in a while, they may even resort to performing a small hilarious act if they are not receiving enough attention. Professor Khanna asks that you refrain from interacting roughly with the topiaries. None would want a broken wing or a twisted paw.

OOC: The topiaries are charmed to move about, however their actions wouldn’t be anything over the top. There will be no attacking the students and professors or dragons breathing fire. You are free to RP for the topiaries as well as to decide what sort of creatures live in the garden!

welcome to your informal detention, Miss García Massey >:D

The initial message he had enchanted to appear between the bristles of her broom ― the one place he had confidence she would pay attention to ― had been brief. Suspiciously so, perhaps. Just a summons to the topiary garden to discuss concerns about her recent behavior along with a date, time, and location. No direct inquiry into why she had been skipping lessons or nearly broken a boy's nose with a goblet, though the weight of such things was carried in the flourish of ink on the parchment.

The Gryffindor's reply had arrived sometime later carrying all the emotional transparency of a reinforced vault door. To which Professor Cox had responded with another note.

No words this time. A map. A painstakingly detailed map that allowed no room for error.

One entire sheet of parchment dedicated solely to charting the route from Gryffindor Tower to the Topiary Garden. Every staircase labeled. Every turn annotated. A helpful arrow indicating YOU ARE HERE beside the tower. Estimated travel time included. Two alternative routes provided in the event of moving staircases. Landmarks carefully marked along the way. At the bottom, beneath a final arrow pointing directly at the garden, he had written: Saturday, 10:00 AM.

Underlined twice.

He, however, had arrived by 9:30 to set things up.

Several wooden crates had been arranged along the edge of the Topiary Garden, each overflowing with mature Puffapods swollen to the point of splitting. Canvas sheets had been stretched across sections of grass nearby. Collection bins waited beside them. Several large circular targets had been erected between the topiary figures at varying distances, painted with concentric scoring rings more commonly associated with a Quidditch training exercise than school discipline.

And there he waited, leaning against the crates with his arms folded across his chest and eye fixated on the entrance to the Topiary Garden.