Hadley sighed and grumbled to herself as she followed her best friend to the greenhouses. She didn't really get why she had to do this. "I told you, I can just drop Herbo." It would be easier on everyone involved if she did.

Hadley had zero interest in plants. That was Rachel's thing not hers. "Why do I even need it in the first place?" It's not like she was ever gonna use it in real life. Rachel was gonna be the explorer and plant discoverer, not Hads. Hadley was gonna be a famous quidditch player or something. And an animagus. So, CoMC, that was a must. Not Herbology. She'd never admit it out loud, but she kinda missed Drapes now that he was gone.

They reached the greenhouses and stepped inside. It was uncomfortably humid inside. "Come on, let's just go back up to the common room and I'll turn anything you want pink for you?" It wouldn't work of course, but she had to try anyway.

Rachel led the way to the Greenhouses, her lips threatening to curl into a smile. She found it adorable that Haddie kept trying to make her see reason that the other girl needed to drop Herbology. She remained utterly silent for now as she approached the Flutterby bushes. For reasons, they had a special place in her heart. That coupled with the facts that they were one of David's mother's favourite plants and she and him had spent time tending to them terms before, she reasoned she'd start by checking on them today.

"You need it because you're going to be coming on expeditions with me,'' Rachel explained patiently and for the thousandth time. "You need to be able to recognise dangerous plants. Unless, of course, you have changed your mind about exploring with me.'' She was still trying to hide her smile since she wanted to be as stern as possible. She gracefully dragged a hand over the leaves of the shaking plants. "When I have my own house, I'll be planting these all around the yard,'' she told Haddie. "Aren't they so beautiful?''

"Let's take care of these first, Haddie. I don't need anything to be turnt pink for the moment.'' There was no bribing her at this point. "Will you please help me trim and water the bushes? Or if you don't want to work on these, you're welcome to work on something else.'' Greenhouse one had plenty of plants that wouldn't harm Haddie.

Hads rolled her eyes at her best friend. This was all about the expeditions? But..."Yeah, of course I am. But why do I need to know which plant is which, when I'll have you there?" Duh. That was the plan. Rachel handles the plants, and Hads handles the getting them into trouble. The perfect partnership! "I'll just ask you if a plant is dangerous or not."

She nodded on distractedly while Rachel described what she'd plant in her future homes garden. "Come on, let's practice our quidditch skills instead!" Now that sounded fun. Hadley got as far as turning around before it was clear that Rachel wasn't having any of it. She turned around again and examined the plant in question and had to, begrudgingly, agree. "Yeah, I guess." It was pretty, for a plant.

"I wonder what Asher is up to?" She said. He was a fun ferret, and cute, and did more than just sit there like these plants. Sighing, Hadley nodded finally. There was no getting out of this. That was clear. Well..."You sure this is okay with Myers?" After all, she might butcher a plant trying to take care of it, and that wouldn't make him happy. "Okay, what do I do first?" Because in her mind, the plant looked fine and like it didn't need water or anything else right now. She was genuinely lost.

Rachel sighed. "Why you need to know the difference among the plants is because you will wander off on your own when you get bored with me on those expeditions,'' Rachel explained patiently. "I know you, Haddie. You'll go looking for an adventure. That's quite fine with me but I assume I will be rather panicked and worried if you were snatched up by Devil's Snare. For Belle's love of books, please understand my reason.''

"We can do that later. I promise I'll spend hours with you out on the Pitch.'' Rachel would make it up to Haddie. "I miss the greenhouses at home and you know when I do, I spend my time here.'' It was true. That and also she wanted to surprise David with taking care of the Flutterbys but she kept mum about that reason lest Haddie decide to tease her.

"Asher must be having the time of his life re-exploring the Castle,'' the dark haired girl replied, thinking fondly of the happy ferret. She had grown rather attached to him. "Barkley must miss him.'' She beamed when Haddie finally decided to help. "Thank you. First we'll check to see about the withered foliage. Leaves, branches and so forth. For the thinner stems we can use the Trimming Charm and for the thicker ones, the Severing Charm.''

Rachel gave her best friend a happy look before getting started.

"Alright. Alright." Sheesh. Hadley did see Rachel's reasoning, to an extent at least. And at the same time, she didn't. This was Rachel's passion, sure. And sure she planned to go on Rachel's expeditions with her, but that didn't mean Hadley had to know all plants. Just the ones she should watch out for, like Devil's Snare. There just wasn't any point in arguing it. Rachel was adamant and wasn't going to give up.

"I'm going to hold you to that," she informed Freckles. Especially the hours part. All day maybe. She loved the sport and could easily lose a day out there on the pitch. And it sure as Merlin's underpants was better than wasting a day in the grimy, hot greenhouses. Yet somehow, Rachel loved it in here. Go figure.

"He's in his cage right now," she said with a frown. Hads only let Asher out when she was there to play with him and keep an eye on him. So while she was here, he was locked away in the tower like some fairy tale damsel. Heh. But seriously, she wasn't arguing anymore. She wanted to get this over with for her sake and Asher's.

"Oh, charms. I like charms." It was one of her favorite subject next to DADA and Transfig. And not Herbology. Hads sighed and examined her plant quickly; giving it nothing more than a vaguely passing glance all around it. "This one looks fine to me."

It wasn't everyday that Rachel was stubborn so when Haddie gave into reason, she stood there blinking in surprise for a few moments. Her best friend was usually the stubborn one. She eventually recovered, a radiant smile gracing her lips. "Lovely! I'll coach you on everything we need to learn for all our Herbology exams. You'll see how much you improve by the end of the school year.''

She giggled. "I'm sure you will. I'll even race around the pitch with you.'' Out on the Quidditch pitch was one of those few places where Rachel really let loose. She enjoyed being on a broomstick though not as much as Haddie. "He is?'' Rachel hadn't realised. She would have suggested that Haddie bring him with them but Asher could be a hyper ferret and if he accidentally destroyed any of Myers's plants, then Merlin help them.

"I know you do. That's why I suggested you use them instead of using manual labour.'' The girl knew Haddie well. Rachel used the trimming charm a few times on one of the Bushes closest to her before looking suspiciously over at Haddie's plant. "Hadley Denaker. How can you say that when there's withered foliage on the lower most branch?'' Tsk, tsk.

Hadley rolled her eyes at the expression of shock on her friend's freckled face. It wasn't helping Rachel's case at all, but Hads had already given in and wasn't about to put her foot down just yet. Keep it up though and Hadley would. "Yeah, yeah." Let's just get on with it shall we?

"Cool." Racing was always fun, so Hads would definitely take Rachel up on that. As for Asher, "I like to keep my eye on him when he has free range. Unless we're at home, when I know nothing will happen to him." Hogwarts was a big and dangerous place even for the students, let alone a small ferret. "Besides, I don't feel like hunting for one ferret throughout the castle." Asher was trained well, sure, but he was still a curious, troublemaking ferret at heart.

"What where?" Hads looked at the plant where Rachel indicated and, "Oh." Oops. "Missed that." She cast the severing charm to hack off the withered bit and smiled. "There, done." So she could go know right?

Rachel giggled. It was quite expected to have an eye roll from Haddie. She could almost feel the impatience radiating from her friend and this simply made her smile again. She also knew that this topic hadn't been dropped completely; there was more to come. Perhaps something was bothering Haddie and she was distracted. "Is everything alright? Is anyone bothering you? Anyone whom I should drop Devil's Snare on?''

"I understand. He likes to run off and cause trouble just like his owner,'' Rachel teased. "She knows now how I feel when she's up to something and I have to look out for her.'' It was true. She always had to worry about her friend getting into trouble. Haddie didn't care about that but Rachel was quite happy to do the worrying for both of them.

"Well done, Haddie!'' The Flutterby looked better indeed. "Help me with the others, please. I think Professor Myers would be quite grateful we helped keep them in shape.'' Hopefully Haddie could see how fun and rewarding this activity could be.

Hadley shrugged, quietly. "No, everything's fine." As far as she was aware at least. Everyone was good, summer was good, herbology was still boring, but that was expected. "I miss surfing." Hads wasn't sure where that even came from. She just blurted it out without thinking. But it was true. Flying on a broom was magical, definitely, but surfing had always been her way of decompressing, and she missed it.

She shrugged again. There was nothing to be done about that. "Maybe instead of college, I'll just travel the world and surf." That sounded like a good plan to her. She was sure Rachel wouldn't agree though.

Hads smiled at the thought of her little fur baby. "Not exactly, unlike me, Asher actually listens." She gave Freckles a devious grin and turned back to the plant. Okay it did look a little better. "What kind of plant is this, anyway?" Not that she really cared, but while she was stuck here, her curiosity was getting the better of her.

Hadley moved on to the next plant, trying to find any branches that needed trimming. There weren't any she saw, but then she didn't see it on the first plant either. So this time Hadley just cut a branch off at random and called it done.

Haddie mentioning surfing was definitely enlightening to Rachel. Sometimes she got the feeling that the girl may get homesick. That's one of the reasons she liked cooking Haddie's favourite foods; to make her feel somewhat at home. "I wish there was something we could do about that. Honestly, surfing sounds scary. I'd be afraid I would fall off the board.'' Rachel immediately shook her hear. "You are not skipping college, Haddie,'' she stated firmly. Not on her watch. She wouldn't let her friend miss her chance to further her education.

The dark haired girl giggled. "He's a darling. You ought to be more like him, Haddie.'' She didn't mean that. Not for a million galleons would she ever change her best friend. "Flutterbys! Aren't they beautiful? The quiver and shake... I expect these will sometime...'' Rachel trailed off thoughtfully. Shouldn't they have already have quivered? Was something wrong with them?

"Have any of the ones you worked quivered?'' There was a hint of anxiousness in her voice.

"Oh, you'll fall. Everyone does, even the pros." Hadley nodded curtly. She fell a lot too, but it was usually kind of fun. "There's nothing to be scared of though. You just fall into the water. Doesn't hurt."

A fierce stubbornness engulfed Hadley's expression. She raised an eyebrow at Rachel. "I will if I want to." Rachel would try, Hads knew that, but the decision to go to college or not would solely be up to Hadley. Her expression said as much. That settled, she softened and shrugged. "Maybe I'll go to college in Australia. That way I can surf while going to school." That was if she was going to bother with college though. If.

Hadley only smirked at Rachel's comment she should be more like Asher. "We should bring him with us next tutoring session." Because Hads knew Rach wasn't going to stop until Hadley knew all of the plants in here. "He could have lots of fun exploring the greenhouses."

Flutterby, huh? Hadley looked the plant over as if the name might make it more interesting. It didn't. Still boring. Wait, they were supposed to quiver? Because, no, they weren't doing anything. "I think they're defective. Myers should return them and get his money back."

Rachel nodded. "It's bound to happen. Maybe you can teach me sometime if you'd like.'' She wasn't showing it but she was very nervous about the entire thing. Falling into the water was not a big deal as she could swim but what if she hit the surf board on her way down? Or some other dangerous thing happened? She couldn't let Haddie know about her silly fears.

The third year stared fiercely yet again at her best friend. "I'm sorry but there's not a chance that I wouldn't let you continue your education. That way if whatever other ambitions you have doesn't work out, you have something else to turn on and that will be what you had studied at University." Oh... that suggestion sounded lovely though Haddie in Australia was a depressing thought. Rachel had thought about studying in Edinburgh and hopefully spend sometime at Castelobruxo. "That's a great idea! There's still time to think into details about of you want to go through with that but I like this idea.''

"Asher would love the plants more than you do,'' Rachel teased. He was a good ferret. She was happy that Mr Kitridge had agreed to let Haddie keep the furry little creature. Despite the situation, Rachel couldn't help but giggle. "Defective or possibly just tired.'' As she giggled, the plants quivered and shook. "Oh, look, Haddie! They're not defective after all!'' She was so happy that they were alright.