Now that some of the branches were cleared away, Mo discovered that the bench was actually a very nice little sitting area. A nice sitting area that did NOT try to eat the first person who sat down. He carried the trimmed branches over to the compost heap before returning to the bench. It was sort of HIS baby now, wasn't it? He was taking care of it and stuff.

"They've been neglecting you," he informed the bench, which... did not respond back. As benches did.

He retrieved a rake and began to tidy the fallen leaves from around the seating area - not just the fall-colored leaves that had fallen from the surrounding trees, but a mess of smaller ones that he'd decapitated when he took out some branches. Wait... could you even decapitate a tree?

His pile of leaves was big, although not as big as the one a little ways off. Peyton was a better raker, obviously. "I'll take your leaves to the compost, if you want. I solemnly swear not to jump in the pile."

Ethan neared the back of the greenhouse with the wheelbarrow and he grinned a little, looking ahead to the compost bin. He felt kind of modest or something about his work with the lilies, even though he felt it had been somewhat remarkable and exciting, but he was not one to be boastful.. And he was really glad she saw it as a memento of him. Something she could have when he was not around and be thinking about him. He didn't know what else to say, so he simply stopped his gait, gave her a smile, and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

He chuckled a bit as she smacked her face with her dirty, gloved hand. "It's alright.. maybe I worded it weird or something." Even though he was quite fluent in English, sometimes he got the German words stuck in his head and he ended up putting a word in there that didn't quite match up to the translation. No big deal though, he explained things, he thought. Pulling his wand, he pointed it at her face. "Hold still a sec.. Tergeo Minerva's face." He chuckled a little more as the dirt was pulled off her face.

Once they got to the compost bin, he looked at her again as she spoke. "Yes, that's right," he nodded happily. "It becomes more like fertilizer or a soil conditioner once the material breaks down.. but yeah, that's basically it." He pointed his wand at the pile in the wheelbarrow and commanded, "Wingardium Leviosa." He levitated much of the pile of leaves and trimmings into the compost bin. "I'll turn what I just put in, if you want to put the rest in and turn that." It made turning the compost much easier to break it up into smaller jobs rather than do it all at once. Finding a pitchfork next to the bin, he stuck it inside, using it to mix the material up and allowing the newer addition to move down towards the bottom.

Minerva tilted her head as he pointed his wand at her, what on earth.. oh her face must have gotten dirty when she hit it with her glove. Smiling she stood still until he was done. “Does my face look better now?” She chuckled not believing she did that, why was her brain not working today. Turning back to the compost as Ethan talked, she was happy to at least get something right. She didn’t want Ethan to leave thinking she was a total moron when it came to this plant stuff, but then when he lifted his pile of trimmings she was ready to hit her head again, but remembered dirty gloves. Seriously was the dust of the castle going up to her brain and clogging the usual thinking abilities. Why was she going to try and do that by hand, wouldn’t it be faster with a wand.

As Ethan gave her a few directions she nodded, ”Alright, I think I can handle that.” Yes now live plants to kill or screw up here. Just throwing already doomed pieces into the bin. Once Ethan was done with his pile, Minerva pulled out her wand. Pointing towards the pile she did the wand movement, “Wingardium Leviosa” Levitating the rest of the pile to the compost bin and setting it down nicely. Once she was done she looked around. What was the next step he said to do. She couldn’t remember, but didn’t want to ask again. She could remember, right? Thinking about it she spotted the pitchfork, oh right he had used that to turn the mixture, “Umm E, why do you have to turn it?” Why not just let it stay where it was. It seemed like a weird step just for stuff that wasn’t being used anymore, well until it turned into something they could use.

Once finished turning the compost, she put the pitchfork down and turned, “Now what boss?” She tried really hard to keep a straight face, but couldn’t and giggled.

Mo dumped his leaves in the compost pile, too, before returning to his bench. It was almost perfect... and it seemed a shame that the beds behind the bench really could use with some fertilizer. Considering that anyone who then SAT on the bench would have to deal with some rather pungent aromas.

Then again, the plants lived here and people coming to the bench were only visiting. If they didn't like the smell, they could take their stupid snogging faces elsewhere.

Mo got out his trowel and crawled around the bed in question, loosening the dirt and pulling out weeds. No point fertilizing if he was just going to be adding fuel to the wrong fire, right? Or was that mixing metaphors a bit too much? He wasn't fueling anything other than plants. With poo.

This was what happened when one spent too much time talking to oneself. Metaphors were mixed and poo was thought about far FAR too much. Mo levitated the weeds to the compost pile before retrieving the fertilizer by hand. He had gloves on, after all, and he didn't think anyone would thank him for flying dung over their head.

Anya, now equipped with a shovel, headed back over to the compost pile. She took a quick peek inside to decide the best way to go about the turning of the compost. She decided she'd just try shoveling a bit... then drop it... then shovel some more. It made sense.

And so, the Gryffindor dug the shovel deep into the pile. She then lifted it up and plopped it back down on top. And she did this a few more times. she dug her shovel in deep and turned it. Shovel. Turn. Shovel. Turn.

Ethan stood back away from the compost bin as Minerva levitated the rest of the pile into the bin. He watched her turn the mixture with the pitchfork and looked up at her question. "Oh.. well, basically the material is broken down by bacteria, insects, and other organisms.. When you turn it, you increase the air flow and encourage the proper kind of decomposition and bacteria growth.. And then it doesn't smell as bad either," he shrugged. Well, there was a little more to it, but best to start with the basics, right?

And now they were finished and she was asking for more orders. He couldn't help but give her a grin and chuckle as she giggled. "I think we're about done for the most part.. let's put the equipment away, then we can do some watering and get the seedlings planted." He started wheeling the wheelbarrow towards the shed and figured she could put the rake away since they were done with that.. plus anything else she might have borrowed.

He walked back to the area where they had been working and turned to Minerva. "So, I was thinking we could plant the Jacob's Ladder near that bench.. what do you think?" He gestured to the area he was talking about. It was shaded some by a tree and that sort of plant thrived in partial shade.. plus if she came to visit, she could sit down next to the plant reminiscent of her brother. It certainly wasn't anything close to being the same of him being here, but more like a tribute to his memory.

Mo tucked the fertilizer in gently around the foot of the towering bushes, covering the plucked down flower bulbs that wouldn't be blooming again to the spring. It was hard to tell right at this moment, but this was going to be a very VERY pretty spot when the flowers came back up in a few months. Someone would definitely enjoy sitting here.

Maybe Mo. By himself, perhaps, or maybe he could plan a picnic to this spot and invite... people.

Once the fertilizer was in place, Mo rinsed his gloves and turned his wand toward the bed. "Aguamenti," he murmured, directing a stream of water around the base of the bushes and around the hidden bulbs.

Beezus was finished with Herbology stuff and all that. She has even added in the organic wastes she had gathered in the compost bin and turned it. So, really...she had no more reason to stick around until she saw Mo.

A Marcus Branxton!

A Mo!

"Hey, little guy." Hehehehe. Just passing through. Admiring a guy doing some gardening because that is so a worthwhile view.

Minerva listened as he explained the turning, honestly she knew they were doing homework even if it didn’t feel like homework, but she was learning things. So she felt like it was a win either way. She listened to his next instructions and gave a grin as she raised her hand like she would in class. Giggling a bit again, ”Think we should clean off the equipment before putting it away?” She wasn’t sure if that was necessary, but in most classes they needed to clean things off first, so she figured she would ask and have some fun in the process.

As he headed to the shed with the wheelbarrow she really couldn’t help it and she turned pointing her wand cleaning off the pitchfork, then did the same to the rake before putting it away. Now that it was put away could she take off these awful gloves. She liked that they protected her hands, but she always felt she couldn’t’ do anything in them. Slipping them off she set them on her bag where she could grab them if needed again.

Following Ethan back into the garden she stopped where they had been working. Looking to the spot where he thought the Jacob’s Ladder would be best she smiled, “I think it would be perfect. A nice place near where you can sit and look at it.” She smiled, but had so many feelings going through her with this. She was so in aww that he wanted to do this and planned it out so well, but she was a little sad knowing why they were doing it. “What do we need to do first to plant them?” Was it water, digging, she really had no clue how to start this.

Grumble grumble. It wasn't as if Mo was working on a GREAT mood, but any semblance of a good mood disappeared when Beezus showed up and called him little guy. Again like a naughty puppy. He didn't speak for a long moment as he once again moved between his spot and the compost heap. This time, however, he was taking leaves, weeds, and other trimmings, piling them neatly on the top of the pile.

Finally. "I'm not LITTLE. In case you haven't noticed, Bee, I'm taller than you. And look." He flexed his bicep for her, just in case she wanted to admire it. Someone ought to, since... no one had thus far.

He picked up several handfuls of colorful leaves and sprinkled them over the top of the compost heap and moved back to his flower beds. "But hey, Bee. Enjoying the last of the good weather?"

She watched. WATCHED. Yep....he was being a very good gardener right there. But he heard her, she knew that. He wasn't talking to her though. Was it because of the "little guy" pet name she used to address him?

Hmm.

Bingo.

It was because of it. Beezus just grinned at the younger Ravenclaw as he added in some leaves to the compost and then she shrugged. "You're taller. But younger." And oooooooh. BICEPS. "My Dylan's got biceps too, I think I'm good." Giggle. Oh, she loved goofing around with him. Mo was really adorable and the Prefect admired him.

And they were talking about the weather now, hmm? Guy move? Or did he just really want to know what she thought about the weather? "Mhmm. You can say that. It'll be a while before we get to see these flowers bloom again." She said, closing her eyes and lifting her head up so that it soaked in the sunlight. After a few moments, she opened them again and turned to him. "You should hurry. I want to eat ice cream and maybe you can come with me." Because she didn't want to eat alone.

Ethan grinned widely and laughed a bit as she raised her hand to ask a question. He nodded in her direction to call on her. "Well, I'm sure Professor Bentley would appreciate that.. so sure, good idea." As she cleaned the equipment she used, he did the same with the wheelbarrow before turning his attention back to the garden and seedlings.

He stood in front of the area where he thought the plants would look best, then glanced at her as she spoke. He smiled a bit widely. "Yes.. that's what I thought too.." His smile lessened just a bit, knowing the reason for them was rather sad though it would help keep his memory alive even for people who didn't know him. All of Hogwarts could enjoy these plants. "Well, first I'm going to dig some holes and then I want you to fill them with water, okay?"

Pulling out his hand spade from his bag, he began digging holes for the little plants. Once he had cleared enough dirt and made them appropriately sized, he stood up and moved out of the way so she could be part of the process and fill the holes with water.

All the detritus from his gardening activities had been deposited in the compost heap, and Mo climbed gingerly around the pile until he could retrieve the spade kept nearby. Bee just got a look at first. So... Mo didn't happen to be in a very communicative mood. It happened. Very seldom, but it happened.

"Your Dylan isn't here, so you should admire my bicep for a bit. No one else cares. Maybe Elise, 'cause it means I can hit a Bludger..." He paused and frowned, returning his attention to sticking the spade into the pile and carefully turning over the materials. His leaves were soon buried, and other... more pungent things were revealed. Kind of super icky.

"D'you think Elise is mad at me? We were Beaters together, and now I'm not a Beater anymore. And what will I tell my bat? I can't even use him anymore..." Why was this the year where all the things he thought were true about himself were wrong or changed? No longer a best friend, a boyfriend, a Beater, no longer himself at all.

He turned over more of the compost until it looked entirely different than it had before. Still the same thing, just... looked different. Like people.

"I'm done. I'll treat you to a free ice cream cone in the kitchens."

Minerva listened to Ethan as he explained what the process was for planting the Jacob's ladder. She felt so out of place doing this, not because she didn't want to, but she had only really planted one other thing and well that didn't go so well. She tried to remember if she ever helped her mom or dad, but they moved so much that her mom would get baskets and things, never really plant.

Shrugging it off she watched him get down and start digging the holes. She was actually surprised there might not be a spell to do that quicker, but she actually enjoyed watching him working. He was so cute doing it, and so happy playing in the dirt.

Once he was finished with the holes he moved, so that meant it was her turn, right. She walked a little closer and looked at the holes before pointing her wand "Aguamenti" to each hole and then stopping the water just as it filled enough. "Does that seem like enough, to much, not enough?" She just wanted to make sure she did her part correctly.

Shovel. Turn. Shovel. Turn. Anya continued to turn the compost pile trying to get it fairly well mixed. When her arm got tired, she took a peek into the compost pile. Nothing... looked the same. Of course, it was all just leaves to begin with... so... that probably didn't mean much.

But the Gryffindor figured that it was a job well done. And so, she took her shovel and walked away. She returned the shovel to the shed. And as she was leaving the gardens, she tucked her gloves safely in pocket of her apron.

Peyton was humming to herself when she heard someone speak. Turning she saw the Ravenclaw boy - Mo - from last year's trophy hunt. At first she just stared at him. He was a peculiar guy from what's she's seen of him in lessons. Peculiar in a nice sort of way. Smart too.

A smile crossed her face and she nodded. "Fine by me," she said, then eyed the pile of leaves. "They do look awfully tempting to jump on." To her. "And make a leaf-angel in." Temptation was tempting.

She turned the plant she had been working on and snipped another withered bud, letting it fall and roll down to her shoes. Then looked back at Mo in an expectant kind of way.

She was over there raking her little heart out. She had piles upon piles of leaves and twigs and brush, so much that she finally stopped to wipe her brow and catch her breath. That's when she noticed that the rake she thought she had charmed to help her work, was BARELY doing anything at all! Erm...okay maybe that wasn't the right spell? It was moving over the leaves all right, but the pressure it was using was barely enough to budge a clump. She sighed and ended the spell. "Finite." The rake fell to the ground with a thwifpt! and she returned it to the shed. She'd done enough raking for now anyway.

She had made quite a mess so far, so she thought it was about time to start cleaning it up. Should've brought Goylie to help me, she thought regretfully. But instead of trying for another charmed helper, she tried to help herself with just...regular charms. She aimed her wand at the first pile of leaves and levitated them. "Wingardium leviosa!" She concentrated on the bundle, careful not to lose many pieces, and took it all the way over to the compost bin by the edge of the garden behind the stores cupboard.

Once she reached the compost, she lifted the lid with her gloved hand and let the brush bundle fall into it. She left the lid off since she knew she would be right back, and made her way back to her area to gather more things for the compost bin.

Ethan watched as Minerva added water to the holes with her wand, nodding his approval. "That should be fine.. we'll just wait till it sinks in the soil a bit.." He waited a moment, then crouched down again near the holes, pulling the potted seedlings closer to him.

Once he noticed the water had seeped into the ground, leaving it moist but not flooded, he looked up at Min and said, "I'll do half and you can do the rest, ok?" He had four of the seedlings so he could do two of them and, once she watched him plant them, she could do two on her own. He turned the plant on its side and gently shook it from the pot. He placed it into one of the holes then scooped the dirt around it to fill in, gently patting it down on top. Then he repeated the process for the next one. Once they were both in the ground, he cast a gentle stream of agamenti over them to provide a little more water.

"One more thing before we're done," he said to Minerva as he got up into a standing position. "Since it's starting to get colder, I don't want the seedlings to die so I'm going to cast the Vitaris Charm to grow them fully." That would help their hardiness, he thought. He flicked his wand at each of the plants, twice commanding, "Vitari Polemonium." He watched as both of the seedlings he planted elongated, branched out, and blossomed until they were full grown plants. "It works better if you use the botanical name," he explained as he looked back at her with a smile. "What do you think?"

As one hand went to her hip, Beezus' grin widened somewhat at Mo's 'Your Dylan isn't here' comment. "Well, I guess we can work things out" Technically, she wasn't "cheating" on her boyfriend just because she was going to admire her younger 'Claw's bicep. Besides, it sounded like he could really use it. "Okay, I do admire your bicep, and your face....I admire you, really. " That was an honest statement. "And that is why you shouldn't think that no one cares because I do. Us, your Ravenclaw family, will always care for you. "

Her grin had slowly faded as her eyebrows forked at the next set of words escaping his mouth. Somehow, she felt terrible about Mo not being a beater anymore because that was partly her fault. Shaking her head, she said, "Mo, Elise isn't mad at you. I once mentioned to her that I'd need you in as a fellow Chaser if she ever put me on the team in the same position. I think...that's one contributing factor." She was to blame then. Although, she had no regrets over that one. Mo was a great Beater but he had the potential to be an even better Chaser. "I'm sorry." Meh.

Was he mad at her?

She didn't get to ask him just yet because he was now announcing that he was finished working on the compost. Beezus nodded and sauntered over to his side, quickly pulling him in for a one-arm hug. "Are you mad at me?" There. He asked him as they walked back towards the castle.

So noooooow he was playing house elf to the Slytherin girl. Not that he minded, really, since Mo happened to have a huge Hufflepuff streak and got odd pleasure out of being useful. He silently bundled her leaves off to the compost pile, although he did linger over the biggest pile. Jumping would be... amazing.

"You could lose an entire person in this pile," he finally said wistfully before carting it off to the compost as well. Good to know that Peyton was one for leaf angels, though. Always good to have an angel-buddy in times of trial.

He met her glance with a puzzled look before trotting over and retrieving the plant at her feet. Oh, Merlin. He really WAS a puppy. SIGH. Peyton got an odd lopsided grin before he headed back to the compost heap.

She admired his FACE? What did that mean? 'Cause it was honest and stuff? Or because he had amazingly over-styled hair? Both, maybe? "Thanks, Bee. I admire your face too. Plus you have pretty awesome hair." Long and shiny and (don't tell) it smelled nice. Not that he'd smelled her, but she was all up in his business at the moment.

Hugging him. He hugged back, a little desperately. "I'm not mad at you, but I do feel bad for my bat. Maybe I can loan it to Mika for games. Vivi gave it to me..." And Bee knew Vivi, so she understood what it meant to get a gift from the older Ravenclaw, even if said Ravenclaw was his sister. It meant SOMETHING.

He slung an arm around Bee as they headed to the castle. "I know you guys care. I do. I'm just being a sad sack and need to knock if off. I'll be better soon."

Returning to her work area, Eliza scooted some of her piles closer together with her foot to better remove the piles. "Wingardium leviosa!" she cast again and levitated the big pile across the length of the garden, alllll the way over to the compost bin, again. She dumped this new pile into the compost and put the lid back on this time.

She turned to head back to her area and noticed she'd lost several twigs and leaves as she made her journey across the great divide, so she bent to collect them in her arms as she made her way back. One leaf....two leaf....red leaf...blue...er, new leaf.... This was a lot of work. Her arms were getting sore since she wasn't used to this type of manual labor, but she was sure it would be good for her in the end. No pain no gain, right? Plus the fresh air is wonderful! She was working up quite the appetite though. She wanted squash and corn on the cob and apple cider and ice cream. She wanted pumpkin spice flavored ice cream. How amazing would that be? she thought dreamily as she deposited her collected leaves into the compost bin.

Pretty darn amazing, she concluded. She skipped back to her neck of the woods aka garden, and used her gloved fingers to dig into the soil a bit and loosen it. She thought aerating the soil was supposed to be good for it, so that's what she thought she was doing. It seemed close enough to her at least.

HERBOLOGY, RIGHT!!!

Ariana completely forgot they had to do stuff in the student garden and mark it down for their herbology homework, she he she was racing up here the day before it was due naturally, to get everything done, which she could get it all done in a day she'd just have to spend all day up here, and nothing else, no worries, here she was.

Putting on her gardening gloves she grabbed her wand and was going to begin trimming these overgrown bushes over here when her mind Blanked.. Completely.. for the spell she needed....

How Embarrassing..... "ermmm" 'way to be a sixth year logan' she thought as she thought of something else.. "Agumenti" and water trickled from her wand and she just watered the over grown plants some...

No big deal.. right?

Minerva stood there watching Ethan explain what they were going to do with the little seedlings and then she watched as he did the first two plants. Staring in aww at the plants growth from the spell she smiled, "Even after six years here sometimes I'm just still in shock of magic." She gave a sheepish smile knowing that probably sounded so odd, or weird, or whatever, but she didn't care it really was such an amazing thing at times.

Then she gave him a look when he asked what she thought, what did she think.. She was thinking a lot of things, her brother, how amazing her boyfriend was, how much fun doing the homework was with him, but the words that came out of her mouth, "I am thinking your nuts for trusting me to touch these poor helpless seedlings."

Without thinking to much about it, she gently picked one up and knelt down placing it as nicely as possible in the hole and moving the dirt around making sure it was in the spot securely. That's when she remembered she didn't put her gloves back on.. Oh well she wasn't afraid of a little dirt on her hands. Smiling at Ethan and checking to see if she was doing it correctly she did the same for the other plant.

Wiping her hands on her pants, probably not the best idea, but it was whatever at the moment. She pointed her wand and added a bit more water to each plant. Then she mimicked Ethan's wand movements to each plant, "Vitari Polemonium" Watching them grow up she smiled. "Did I do alright?"

Ice cream thoughts aside now, since dirt and worms had a tendency to remove all hunger.... Or did it? Dirt and worms?! she exclaimed inside her head. That makes me think of those ice cream sundaes with crumbled oreos and gummy worms in them! Dirt and worms sundaes! Oh my goshhh I would LOVE one of those right now. Clearly all of this time sweating in the sun and being chilled by the autumn breeze was getting to her.

She churned some more soil around the bushes, but not right up to them because she thought the roots wouldn't appreciate being bare and cold. She wished she knew how to make fire in a jar, or just how to make heat come out of her wand. Then she could warm the bushes and the grass and the flowers any time she wanted to, which would be a lot of the time in the winter because she didn't want them to be cold for an entire season. And yes she knew that all things had a cycle and plants were programmed to know when to go dormant or to die or whatever, but she still felt sorry for them.

But since she didn't know how to do those things, she set her eyes on a few of the last blooms on the bushes. If I can't heat things up, at least I can make the pretty things easier to notice, right? She aimed her unicorn core wand at the pretty blossoms and enlarged them. "Engorgio, engorgio, engorgio!" She stood back to admire her work. It definitely looked a lot better than it did. It was neat and tidy and pretty.

She went back to the compost bin to do one final thing. Turn the compost. How she was supposed to do that though, she wasn't sure. She didn't want to stick her arm in it, that much was for sure. As she approached the bin, she looked around for something to mix it all up with. Is there a pole or a stick or....Aha! Her eyes fell on an old broom handle that would do the trick. She picked it up and began pushing it into and around the contents of the compost bin. Woah that smells awful! She had not been expecting that. Though now that she smelled the rot and decay, she wasn't sure why she hadn't expected a putrid smell like that.

She gave the compost three more rough turns with the pole and then sat it down for the next person to use. Thank goodness she remembered her glove or she might have blisters the size of those pods they'd de-seeded during class! She took her gloves off now, stuck them into her bag, and rushed off to the castle in search of ice cream. Oo! And cinnamon!

...

Don't mind her. Katrina Hudson, despite the fact she was a student leader this term, was still some sort of slacker. So much had happened and Kat lost track of what lesson homeworks were due today and she realised she hadn't done Herbology. If it wasn't for her to glance on the Notice Board at the filthy common room, Kat wouldn't have rushed here. She would've forgotten all about this homework. She can manage it though, if she worked fast enough. She still had practices for Quidditch to go to after this... maybe.

Ugh, she was forgetting so much things. Where was her classes/practices schedule anyway?!

When she arrived, the first thing Kat did was pull out her wand and start watering the plants (it was the first thing that came into her mind). "Aguamenti!" she said and started watering. See? She was doing her job well. Yeah.

Minus the slacker issue, you know.