The student garden was the perfect place to try and find some plants that could be used as ingredients in potions. So after leaving the potions classroom with his schoolbag and a couple of vials to put the ingredients in he had made his way outside and directly towards the student garden.

Arriving there, the Slytherin noticed he hadn't been the only one with the idea. He didn't pay attention to the other students right now but opened his bag and put his gloves on. Better play it save with these plants. He scanned the area with his brown eyes until he found something.

He walked over to the patch and immediately recognized the plant as a Knotgrass. Knowing that this was an ingredient for in a potion though he did not know which ones. Probably more. He crouched down and clipped a piece of Knotgrass. He then placed it in a vial and that vial went in the bag.

So the search for potions ingredients begins…

Gwendolyn made her way out of the classroom and headed straight towards the greenhouses. Why? First of all, the place was the furthest away from the castle- so if she wanted to go there and get some ingredients, she should head in that direction straight away. Next, she would decide where she should go look for other ingredients, depending of how much time she will have left. So yes, going to the greenhouses.

It was just the logical thing to do.

Plus, there was no chance she wouldn’t manage to find something there. Just like there was no chance of not getting an ingredient from the animal stable. But anyway- she figured it would be a lot easier to collect something from a plant than an animal.

As she finally arrived there, Gwen started looking around the student garden, keeping an eye out for possible ingredients. There! The seventh year took a few more steps, eyeing a plant. Peppermint. After getting her first ingredient, Gwendolyn rushed out of the student garden, thinking of where she should be heading next.

Elise was pretty happy, just standing there and trimming the flitterbloom bush. Yep. Flitterbloom bush in turn seemed to have fun letting Elise trim it, stretching its tendrils that it seemed to think needed trimming and Elise agreeing with the plant for the most part. "Flipnsnipwitit!" she said, almost sing-song in the way she did, swishing her wand and trimming the dead ends and awkwardly bent ones.

This was fun. Not as fun as Quidditch, but it was fun enough. Fun was what the game was, not all about winning. Some people didn't get the idea of what it was all about, the teamwork and the enjoyment of the game over the stress and restrictions of purely wanting to win. Granted, they always played to win, but it was enjoyable! Always.

Turning to her right on instinct, Elise noticed Blue doing nothing but staring at her with puppy dog eyes and holding her hand out. What in Merlin's name did the girl want, her WAND? Blinking quizzically at the younger girl, Elis efinally decided to ask what was up. "Blue? Do you... want my wand or is there something else you need?"

Cue some more blinking.

"That should do it,'' Jory said to himself, satisfied with his raking up of leaves and whatever other debris that was lying around. After replacing the rake, he returned to the pile he had made.

That's when he noticed the small plants- which were obviously now growing- in need of water. Watering was on the list, after all. Well, even if it wasn't Jory would still have given them water.

"Aguamenti!'' The Puffer concentrated so as to control the water flow. Didn't want to give them too much, now. He moved his wand along their roots and ensured they each got a sufficient amount.

"There you go! Drink up!''

She'd seen a lot of students produce water with....whoosh. Ahem, their wand. But she felt a bit itchy about it. Gardening and tending to plants was an art. An art. You had to savor it, feel it, get the pride in doing it....blah blah.

Summing, she had a very muggle attitude to gardening. Gardening alone. She walked back to the patch she was tending, with a bucket loaded with fresh water.

"Pffft" she exclaimed as she set down the heavy pail. After a few breaths she picked up the large beaker, took sizeable amount of water and poured it on the plants.

Easy...easy...gentle. She watched with a smile, as the water droplets touched the leaves with a gentle flop. The droplets shined like diamonds. She loved watering the plants. She touched the tip of the leaves...she loved to feel the freshness of them.

The second task was to add organic waste from the Garden to the compost bin, if Jory remembered correctly. And those leaves he had just piled together would be just perfect!in addition to leaves, there were stems, roots and even small dead plants.

Jory went back to his pile. It wasn't really much so a few trips with them in his arms would do the trick. He bent down and grabbed as much as he could and headed off in the direction of the compost bin behind the outdoor stores cupboard.

Sarah seemed to remember all the things she had ever planted in the student garden, so it meant that when the teacher asked her in potions to get ingrieidents she knew where to go.

She decided not to go to her vegetable patch, let the food be used for eating. Instead she went over to the Ginger that she had planted in her second year. Sarah usually had used it for medicinall reasons for her chillbllain yet now she would use it for potions.

She reached over and began to harvest four of the roots. She hoped that they would be useful for some.

Then she needed to have something to carry it all in. Luckily she had learnt how to transfigure a bag so she did that. She placed the roots in and went to the greenhouse

After Jory had dumped the first set of leaves at the compost bin, he came back for the remaining sets. It took him three trips so far. And right now, he was gathering the fourth and final set. This set was relatively smaller than the previous three so he hadn't much to gather up.

Humming to himself, Jory headed back to the compost bin and added this set as well. Now all he had to do was turn the compost.

She spotted it late, even though it was right in front of her eyes. But, she did spot it. The little branch was looking dangerously dead. Why was it like that? She eyed the branch and its vicinity with discrete scrutiny.

Nope, nope. You're not staying.

She picked up her pair of garden scissors and carefully began to detach the spoiled branch. A spoiled one as that would definitely affect the growth of the plant.

Blotch in the frame spoils the entire picture.

CLICK. CLICK.

Let the saving began...

Ezra preferred the manual and hands on work that came with Herbology, and was always thankful for Professor Seren Bentley and her lack of written assignments. He did not lack the eloquence necessary to express one's opinions, but there was a certain kind of focus required for written theory in any sort of form that Ezra Carver sorely lacked.

Dropping his things in a corner, Ezra hummed his way to the cupboard and retrieved a rake. Then he busied himself with choosing an area particularly and messily full of fallen and dried leaves for him to take. Despite the cool weather, Ezra raked until there were beads of sweat in the back of his necs and until the expression 'drenched in sweat' could have perhaps effectively described his forehead. Together, he piled them neatly in the center of his work area, and thought he ought to be thankful no welts he could spot had begun to form on his hands - he had, of course, failed to remember to slip on protective gloves that could protect them from any kind of damage.

It was possible that he could leave the leaves where they were now that they weren't scattered, but it was also possible that a particularly strong wind could pass his job well done would be ruined. Also, leaving them just like that felt a little halfway, so after a moment in which he thought was struck with brilliant inspiration, Ezra nearly sprinted to the cupboard to store the rake and then to his backpag, to retrieve one of Professor Flamsteed's vacuums. This was not exactly what the man had asked them to do with them (or was it?) but what Flamsteed couldn't see couldn't hurt him.

Carver bent over until he was close enough to touch the leaves with the tip of his fingers, and began to vacuum them. Technically, they did count as waste. He was happily vacuuming away, getting rid off the leaves for good when he realized that, perhaps, this'd been a mistake. He COULD have saved those leaves for the compost, maybe, which caused the boy to groan out loud and wish he was able to turn back time.

Well, maybe not that. Going back in time sounded awfully dramatic.

"That should do it,'' Nerida said to herself, as she wiped the sweat off of her face. Satisfied with her pile of leaves, she returned her rake. That had taken a while and all she really wanted to do was go lay down and never get up but she felt like she still had a couple more things to do in the garden.

Like water some of those thirsty looking plants. "Aguamenti!'', the blonde pointed at the plants soil. Making sure not to overflow or over water each plant, though she thought over watering would help the plants a lot! She moved her wand over their roots and leaves of the plants making sure each plant got the perfect drink.

She continued to give the plants in the garden a drink as she moved around the garden. Only stopping when she had reached the general area of her starting point.

What a mess. The leaves she'd raked to cleanliness began to scatter and move with the light wind. Not so good. She paused her watering process and moved towards the pile. Amara picked the rake and gathered them again.

They were already starting to fly away. Tut. What can be done? Burn them up. NO. No way, it would cause too much pollution and heat..and thats not good for plants. Not good at all. She looked around, thinking of a solution....and THERE!

The compost bin. Why hadn't I thought of that before?

She put down the rake, grabbed a basket that was lying abandoned and began loading it with the raked leaves, the waste from the trimming and the those left outs from the pruning.

LOAD. LOAD. LOAD.

She took them to the compost pit at the edge of the garden room and returned back with the empty basket. Work wasn't done yet. Wasn't going to be so easy was it? There was still a HUGE pile waiting to be taken.

He looked over at the other students and their handy work, and immediately came to the conclusion that his pile was too small. He tried to think of the spell that everyone used in the classroom. HE hadn't used it himself, but it looked easy enough. Besides, he was a fourth year, he needed to know how to do this stuff by now. Theo clicked his fingers as he remembered it, then turned on a pile of weeds that were just next to his pile.

"Diff-in-do." He said to himself as a reminder. And then. "Diffindo!" The weeds sliced off nicely, and Theo BEAMED as he added them to his pile. That would do for today, he thought.

Okay, the compost bin was aaaaaaaaaaaaalll the way over there, by the store cupboard. Theo pulled his gloves on tightly and picked up half of the pile with his hands. Sticks, leaves and other parts were poking him in the chest AND the face, but he really couldn't think of an alternative. Was there a spell to pick up loads like this? Nope, didn't think so.

It was a longISH walk to the compost bin, but once he was there, he dumped it immediately with no consideration.

And then he stormed back to the rest of his pile, which he had momentarily lost...

She was completely exhausted as she walked back to take the last pile. She'd made many trips of the looooong distance between the pile and the compost bin. She already had random bits and tweaks sticking out of her hair and pricking her robes, yet she had one more pile. ONE MORE.

Phew! She sighed, grateful that it was the last set, loaded the remaining and carried it to the compost bin.

Nice job. Work's done. Dump, turn around and RUN!!!

Oh no wait, missy. What did mum say? New things needed help. PFFT.

She adjusted her long gloves, flexed her fingers and dug them into the large compost pit. She began digging her fingers in, bringing the composed things to the top and consequently pushing the latest add downward.

Bit more, darling. Bit more. There....nicely done.

She walked out of the student garden ten minutes later, after bidding her plant column good-bye, tired and sweaty. That's all for today, folks.

He tried to remember who he was standing by... and then, oh yes, he spotted that Gryffindor whose name he did not know. Theo picked up another half of his pile and did the same trip to the compost bin. There were only little bits of sticks, leaves and weeds left, so he managed to pick them up with his fingers and keep them in his hands. He dropped a few on his way, but subtly ignored that.

He was just tired and couldn't bothered to keep bending down to pick up pointless bits of plant.

Theo dropped the rest of his pile on top of the compost bin and stared at it for a few moments. Now, this was all great and stuff but what on Earth did turning the compost mean? Was there some sort of compost around here that he needed to use?

WELL WHERE WAS IT?

Or was it underneath all his rubbish? One thing was clear, he still had to use his fingers. Pfft.

Gardens were not Elodie's best friend, and as the weather had grown unlike any summer weather she had experienced, being in environments like this was not where she wanted to be.

But homework was homework and homework was supposed to be done.

(Supposed.)

Collecting a rake that she'd just seen someone put back, Els was perfectly glad that she'd suited and booted herself up before coming down here. Gloves were a necessity, especially when this rake had probably never been cleaned. And if it turned into a broom and started to try and bite her, she could throw it and not really have touched it and not die a wooden, splintery, broomy death. How horrible.

Elodie wandered a little around the gardens and sighed at areas already occupied by little students and continued until she found lots of leaves that potentially needed to be raked.

Oh look, and who had a rake right now? ELSY BELSY. Oh, she did do wellsy.

Dragging the rake along the ground carefully, Elodie started to hum to herself.

Theo surveyed the area completely but he couldn't find a big bag of compost to just dump on top. He supposed to clue was in the step. TURN the compost. He pulled up his gloves again, because they kept on falling down, and hovered his hands above the bin for a moment. He really didn't fancy touching it all in case he got splinters or something. Wait.... there wasn't any wood in here?

No matter.

The fourteen-year-old pressed his fingers through the compost bin, digging right under his pile of leaves, sticks and other stuff. He pushed the bits further down, so that some of the compost was surfacing. And other times, he just grabbed handfuls and placed it on top. Now, he actually had to turn this stuff, whatever that meant.

He did it in a way that kind of resembled doing a cake mixture. After five minutes of pure effort, Theo was happy with his compost turning. It seemed to have mixed in an... okay way.

Theo pulled off his gloves, and went straight to his bag to find some hand gel.

You could never be TOO protected from germs, you know.

She was being poked by Blue. O.o ....Beezus didn't know at first if she was going to raise an eyebrow or giggle but then she finally decided that the latter was more pleasant so she went with it.....in between her rakingof course. "Hey! If I'm mad, you're definitely madder than I am."

She was grinning. Gotta love the craziness that was them Ravenclaws.

But why was Blue looking at Elise all silly? She didn't really understood her girls sometimes so she went ahead and continued her work. Better get moving so they can finish earlier. They still had a common room to clean afterwards.

Rake, rake, rake....she was raking the thick pile of leaves majorly provided by Mika's triumphant act of cutting down a dead branch on the tree above them. Add that with Elise's trimming abilities and they had a stack of leaves that needed to be taken care of. "You guys, we should finish cleaning up so we can start watering the plants." Oh yes. The bushes that looked fairly decent now...no more awkward tendrils whatsoever.

Nathan smiled when she said it was a great idea, and got raking leaves left, right and centre. Sure he had raked leaves before, but that didn't mean it was a hobby of his. He didn't mind manual labour, but he would rather of done manual labour he enjoyed, instead of putting leaves in a pile.

A gust of wind came and nearly blew his pile away, but he put the end of his rake over the pile and kept most of the leaves in, although a few managed to escape. "phew" he said relieved, as he went after the escaped leaves.

He had just managed to capture all the leaves and put them in his pile when he heard Aphrodite's question. "I'm in fourth year" he answered her. "Is this your first year?" he asked her, smiling. If it was she was in for some of the best years of her life at the castle.

He noticed an unused basket lying not too far away, and because all the leaves in their area was basically cleared of leaves, got an idea. He went over and got the basket, and while walking back asked Aphrodite to help. "Hey, do you want to help me put the leaves in the basket to put in the compost bin?" He asked her smiling. "Then we can move on to the other tasks to do"

Time to turn the compost. Jory didn't mind. He had on his gloves. It was mostly leaves and twigs in the compost bin, right? That's not gross.

Making sure that his gloves were on securely, the Puffer dug his hands into the bin and under a ton of leaves and twigs. "And heave ho,'' he muttered jokingly and he lifted the pile and placed it on top of the heap.

Jory dug in hands in again and grabbed another set. He placed this on top as well. That was sort of turning the heap, right?

The raking was considerably HARD.

Leaves just didn't want to pay attention to the direction she was raking and she was getting preeettty peeved about it. (Usage of the word 'peeved', purposely because Peeves strikes again whilst the typing of this post happened) But, she battled on, and she hummed on and she raked on.

"Come on little leaves, this way. Come to Elodie. Come to a better liiiiife." And get off the floor where you are being inappropriate and being eye sores.

Soon, there was a small pile of butchered leaves where the rake had caught them and tore them and oh it was heartbreaking, but nevermind.

Could she rake anything else? Anyone else?

Could you rake a person?

Elodie wandered off to put the rake back incase another student needed it, and then returned to her pile of leaves and sat down beside them before piling them neatly. In colours. And sizes. And the prettiest ones, the ones still whole and still nice: she placed in another pile. Just five leaves. She was going to keep them.

Now, twigs that had been raked.
How to organise you?

Aphrodite'd been busy trimming the plants in the area that became the platform of small stones to go to Student Garden. After finished in there, Aphrodite back to Nathan who seemed to have finished raking the dry leaves there. Either should be how much longer she had to do this task if she is alone.

Thank you Merlin to bring Nathan here!

Carrying the junk from her work earlier just now, Aphrodite remember when Nathan asked her, "Oh .. Yes, Nathan. I'm a first year student .. and still adapting to some school activities but I enjoyed it," Aphrodite said while laying the leaves and other junk she found into the basket Nathan took, "Sure, Nathan. pheeeeww .. I can help you put these leaves in there," she added with a smile toward the boy.

What she should do next, "Oh Nathan, how does it feels to be a fourth year student?," She said to Nathan who was still carrying the basket, "and after this what else should we do .. ACHOOO," she added. Oh no..

A small burst of wind caught one of her piles of leaves and Elodie set about quickly repiling them how they had been momentarily before, and leant closer to them, as to protect them. When that pile was organised, she went back to attending to twigs.

How could she organise the twigs?

IN SIZE ORDER.

But first, she wanted to do something. She wanted to make a garden protector. She remembered her mother making them when she was little, and the rhyme se would sing along with as she made them. Of course, Elodie was not running all the way back to her common room to see what she could scramble together and use for it. She'd use whatever she had with her right now. Elodie took her gloves off and set them in her lap before reaching for a mid-length twig from her pile and the proceeded to snap another in half and using a spare hair elastic from her pocket, she gripped them toward the bottom half, giving her protector its body and legs. Taking an unused hankie from her pocket also (she carried quite a lot, especially when she didn't want o have to keep running back to the common room), Elodie wrapped it around the twigs, and used another elastic to support it in the middle. Much like a belt. Her protector had a dress now. All it needed was a face, and that was where it got pretty hard.

Elodie didn't want to use her wand for anything and so she'd have to use what she had here. Leaves. And a crayon from when she'd been colouring earlier. She scrawled a quick face onto a leaf and pinned it to the top of the body twig.

There was fifteen minutes wasted, and her garden protector looked abysmal. Whatever though: Elodie set it straight in the ground, infront of a few flowers and smiled. Now she had a reason to come back. She was claiming these flowers to be looked after. And she could always come back and talk to her...to Eve. Her garden protector.

Forgetting the concentration she had previously had in maintaining neatness and order within the leaves and twigs, Elodie scooped them all up in her arms and started the trek toward the compost bin with her armful of things.

Actually, this was all kind of fun.

Smarter this time, Ezra slid the vacuum back in his backpack and put his protective gloves on. He didn't mind his hands getting a little dirty but he also didn't want to hurt his hands in any way, not unless it was absolutely necessary. As it was, what was next on his list involved trimming, which required wand work, which made Ezra almost groan, again.

Almost. He slid off his gloves, discarded them on top of his school bag, and took out his wand. He was certainly improving with his wand work and him and his wand were definitely on better terms than they'd been when they first met, but sometimes he still struggled. A flutterby bush caught his attention by virtue of being his grandmother's favorite, so Ezra approached it, feeling the familiar scent of the sea in his nostrils.

He squatted down, pointing his wand at it, and noted that it was, while not particularly the most unkempt and forgotten plant in the garden, it did need some trimming. His free hand patted it down, a little bit, and it quivered which made him giggle, or at least would have, had puberty not been hunting him down, already; as a result, it was a strange laughter-croak-squeak sound that came out of his mouth. It made him frown, but he tried to ignore it.

The charm was something about flip and wit, which sounded fitting enough, he guessed. Despite his best efforts to remember it, Ezra had to reach deep into his pocket to find a crumpled piece of parchment; the word was messily written on it, though the clumsy scrawl was, for once, not his. He wondered whose notes he'd stolen but then put the parchment back in his pocket, and forgot about it. Out of sight, out of mind! "Flipnsnipwitit!" was tried a few times - well, alright, more than a few - and after a while, the trimming finally begun. Ezra thought he felt like he was sweating, still, though he no longer was, and continued to cast the charm until the excess of leaves and even a few stray branches or two were gone. Then he crawled moved to the other side of the bush and worked on trimming, there.

The gardens were already so lovely with all the other students having gotten started on most of it, that she was almost doubtful they would find a place that required their attention. They would have to go deep into the gardens. Dora led Alice all the way past the areas already finished and the ones currently being worked on. Pausing only to grin happily over at Theo when she spotted him working. His area was looking SO nice and he was working so so very hard. She admired his area and him for a good long moment before she kept them going.

He didn't need help cause he was doing so well.

They went a little further back before Dora stopped at a spot that looked like it required their attention. She glanced over at Alice, and looked pleased with herself. "This is a good spot, what do you wanna start with?"