Bright and early, June Flamsteed was by the greenhouses - or what USED to be the greenhouses. At the moment, it was all very much under construction. Although, during the summer - June had tried her hardest to rebuild as much as could, there was still a lot that needed to be done.

And a lot of help was needed.

So, there she was - installing the glass panes on one of the newly built greenhouses, while awaiting the students and hoping they had read her notice and were willing to help with the rest of the many things that needed to be done around there.

Help was on the way, Professor Flamsteed!

Despite being clad in some of her older and more worn clothing {since she was likely to get dirt and manure on herself}, Aria made sure she still looked very chic. Physical appearance said a lot about one, you know. “Good morning to the best Head of House everrr,” the girl said, announcing herself and greeting Flamsteed all at once. Disclaimer: this was just her opinion. “Don’t worry, professor. We’ll whip these greenhouses back into shape in no time.” Of that, she was sure.

“Where do we get started?”

Not being one to be afraid to get her hands dirty, Gemma jumped at the chance to head to the greenhouse and help out. She always liked the greenhouses and Professor Flamsteed had been supportive the last few years, so Gemma thought this might be a great way to show her appreciation.

"Morning professor" a smile was on her face, but her eyes did shift to the student saying about head of houses, she adored Flamsteed, but the best of the heads was probably up for determination by each student.

Instead of asking what she could help with Gemma figured once others came they would be told where to get started.

Violet was not fond of getting up early, especially on a weekend, but she was definitely in favor of rebuilding the greenhouses--how else could they get the ingredients needed for potion brewing? Besides, over the summer she'd often felt bad for Professor Flamsteed when she'd thought about the destruction of the greenhouses. Not that Violet was at all soft or sentimental as a rule--not at all! But anyway...here she was.

While Cyril had not been here for the unfortunate demise of the greenhouses the previous term, his heart still went out to the woman who had been in charge of it prior to it's loss. So when talk began of starting a rebuild project and the notice was spotted, naturally he was willing to assist. Donning his oddly color splotched sun hat, which was not really needed but he liked to wear it regardless, the gentleman made his way into the Greenhouses after a few of the students.

He smiled at the early rising students as he passed, before giving a nod in June's direction. "Good morning, all!" Or perhaps it would be, once they were well on their way with this endeavor.

Javier wasn't exactly a FAN of any sort of physical labor but...he needed the greenhouses for potions ingredients. Also, it was just the nice thing to do. Social protocol and all that. So, he was armed with his wand as well as some dragonhide gloves, just in case he had to some actual repotting of plants or anything, and he approached the group, putting on a smile.

"Just tell us where you want us, June," Javier called to her, gesturing for the students to gather around so they could get specific tasks. "I can help you with the glass, if you need," he added, since that seemed a little dangerous to have any of the kids doing.

Cooper had already been up with the sun for a morning jog around the grounds, so it was no problem for him to head back on down after a quick shower and shoveling some breakfast into his mouth. While he fully intended on getting his hands dirty with some manual labor, he also had every intention of documenting everyone's efforts as best he could to present a sort of scrapbook to the professor at the end of term. As had already been previously reflected on several occasions, Cooper felt a deep empathetic ache for Professor Flamsteed and really found it powerful that the woman had returned to Hogwarts despite it all. It had to be hard, but he was glad she was back and determined to help rebuild the greenhouse even better than before.

Which...well...may be why he felt a certain inspiration to snap a sort of candid portrait of the professor with his camera before settling it back into his bag and joining the group. With a small smile and impish little nudge, he greeted Gemma and mouthed a hello before turning his attention to the Herbology professor and taking a quick peek at who else had gathered. Which was a lot of the Hogwarts staff...which excited Cooper. Surely that meant that there were going to be some big tasks that required supervision and a bit more magical gusto than a bunch of teenagers could provide - a great opportunity for the NEWT student, if he did say so himself.

Though he was mostly looking forward to putting his broad shoulders to use with some manual labor. Which, speaking of, what Professor Flamsteed was doing seemed a little dangerous - glass panels and such. Naively forgetting that the professor had likely enchanted things to make the process easier on herself, Cooper left his Hufflepuff friend's side and hurried over to Professor Flamsteed where he quickly pressed his palms against the current glass panel to help hold it in place and stabilize the installation. And, er, he would apologize for the finger prints and palm smudges after - surely an easy clean, all things considered.

Yukie greatly appreciated plants. They were pretty, they were sources of food, they were used as potions ingredients, they were living organisms as much as human beings and animals were. Also, she'd be doing it for her family and friends too: Becky and Cathair, who loved and cared for plants in their flat-turned-greenhouse-place; Eiji, whom she believed was the bestest of his age group at potions; and Dad, the greatest alchemist she knew. All her beliefs and lines of thinking had certainly convinced her to help out at the greenhouses when Professor Flamsteed posted the notice.

The little Hufflepuff quietly joined the group of students and professors alike by the greenhouses. What fun! All this teamwork! Scanning each person, Yukie was glad to see Mercer's big bro, Coop. At least there was a familiar face, though she was never opposed to working with other people anyway. "Hello," she greeted with a little smile to everyone.

Yukie Selina Rasting, reporting for duty or something!

The rebuild of the greenhouses was fortuitously timed. Kamran had planned to be there come hell or high water (though he was inviting neither to his door, to be quite clear), and he now trailed a wayward first year along with him.

Scanning the group gathered by the greenhouses, Kamran paused by Rasting, and dropped off his shoeless charge beside her. "Good morning, Miss Rasting," he greeted the first year with a small smile. Looking to Evans he added quietly, and not unkindly, "Don't wander off." Ideally he might have left the boy beside Branxton, but the seventh year was off assisting June at the moment.

June, whom Kamran gave a nod in greeting once she was free to look his way, and the same to Javier and Cyril. Who else did they have here - McLeod, Blackthorne, and Kitridge. All told, a nice little turnout so far, and he made a point of taking note of who had given up their Saturday morning lie-in to come and lend a hand. "Nice to see you've all come to help out." Thoughtful. None of them had to be here. Bar one, but that was entirely beside the point.

Kamran, for his part, was happy to get his hands dirty, and get stuck in with whatever June might need doing. He stood by awaiting direction.

_____

One thing Milo had learned about Hogwarts was that, like almost all the other schools he had attended, including the tutors, but excluding Rose, everyone had a lot of suggestions about what he should or should not be doing. When instead he didn't or did do those things, the retaliation would be the theft of time.

The suggestions weren't really suggestions at all, but rules and orders, It all amounted to the same thing in the mind of Angelo Milano.

He had been left beside a Rasting, but a Hufflepuff one, and Milo glanced down at her - she was small and he was tall - before abruptly pulling his hood up over his face. The sweatshirt he wore was on backwards, which made this very easy, and very convenient.

It would have been best to keep a close eye on the Hufflepuff and her badgery brethren, but for reasons undisclosed, Milo did so only through the fabric of his hood.

June had faith they would show up, just as they had shown up to burn the place down. Though, some would say destruction came more easy - and rebuilding was only be achieved by few. And she wasn't wrong, they showed up - more of them than she had hoped for really.One by one as they arrived, June greeted them, the kids and staff alike, though her attention was mostly fixated on those glass panes she was trying to fix at the top. "Thanks, Javier, I think I got this one though" she announced --- only to have one of them almost slip out of her reach when Mr Branxton showed up.

"Thank you, Cooper" she smiled at the young man as she waved her wand to fix it finally, before finally turning around to face the lot.

"Thank you all so much for coming, it truly means a lot" she smiled before gesturing around her.

".....a little bit of help is definitely required everywhere, so please go ahead and choose your fancy" Clasping her hands together, she looked over where greenhouse two used to be --- "so, along with installing the glass panes on all the greenhouses, the ground over there, it needs to be dug up -- and the soil needs to be replaced with the fertilized one over there" she pointed over at the piles and piles of soil placed near by. So, manual labour in that for sure.

"Um, in greenhouse two -- all the the new plants which arrived this morning need to be defanged and potted --" she added, eyeing the place, "--though I must warn you, the gnomes are determined to take over that greenhouse before we do"

Maybe she needed to rethink the garden gnome sanctuary around this place as well.

"Alright, so maybe for now - lets split up for these three tasks?" Yeah? It was probably for the best. It would be easier for June to keep an eye on things as well then.

Of course Celyn was here to help as soon as she possibly could. She had been absolutely devastated that the greenhouses had been destroyed. And she would have done whatever she could, even if Professor Flamsteed hadn't asked for the assistance of the student population. The greenhouses had always been so important to her as she was sure it was to many others. And when she'd told her mother about what had happened, her mother told her how the greenhouses had been destroyed twice while she was a professor here, which only made her resolve to help even stronger.

She was pleased herself to see so many people who clearly loved the greenhouses too, present and eager to help, noting some of the staff and even the Headmaster mixed in among the students. And... what was Cooper doing? Her eyes migrated to his arms as he helped the professor with some glass panels.

Oh. Her eyes quickly moved back to the professor when she addressed the groups with the tasks they could tackle. "Are you going to help with the glass?" she asked Cooper, since that was where he currently was. "Or do you want to join me with taking care of the new plants?" If he wanted. Just letting him know where she was intending to help. She would certainly enjoy having a friend work alongside her, but she didn't want to pull him away from where he wanted to be either. Celyn was eager to work with the new plants, and honestly wouldn't even mind some gnomes showing up because she preferred to deal with them humanely.

Greenhouse Two--that was where they used to keep the potions plants, so Violet thought she might as well work over there. The digging up soil part didn't sound that appealing, but she'd gotten quite good at defanging plants in Herbology class last year--up until the greenhouses got taken over by the vines, that is. And she wasn't going to let any overly intrusive gnomes get in the way, either. "I'll help defang the plants," she called out, but noticed that Celyn was apparently already assuming that she was going to do that. Well, there was room for more than one at that task, after all.

Wow.

Look at the turnout. Clearly most of the Castle’s human occupants wanted to make a difference with the Greenhouses. One particular midget - Angelo - caught her eyes. “You. Little Ravenclaw guy. Your sweatshirt is on backwards, did you know?” Tsk tsk. Very careless of him. Aria disliked to see clothes not worn the right way almost as she disliked watching clueless humans wear unflattering clothing.

Alright, so three tasks. Which did she want to work on? The whole soil thing sounded too strenuous and the glass panes already had students taking care of them. That left…

“Hi, Violet!” In greenhouse two, Aria sidled up to her Housemate, her wand twirling slowly in her hand. “Shall we get to work then? I think we should use dragonhide gloves just in case some of these plants get… violent.”

Cyril watched the rest of the students filtering in, giving them each nods in hello as they did so. After a handful had arrived, he turned his attention to the Herbology Professor as June gave directions to three different immediate needs they could help with. Always one comfortable with a shovel after years of cleaning up after his horses, he leaned towards helping with that task until he noted the amount of students discussing assisting with the defanging and potting, and the mention of the gnomes had him leaning towards assisting in that area and regard. "I'll accompany some of the students over to Greenhouse Two and see what we can do about those plants for you."

He adjusted his hat before turning towards the students too. He could hear them already speaking amongst themselves on who was going where, but he hadn't caught specific locations. "Any of you lot fancy taking a look at those plants then?'' He addressed the group, but didn't wait for a reply before making his way.

------------------------------------

Late. He was running late.

He probably shouldn't have stopped off in the Great Hall for a quick breakfast when he'd already woke up late, but he hadn't been able to help himself given he didn't know how strenuous the work in the greenhouses would be. The vines had done... a lot of damage, so he could only imagine there was a lot needed for repairs as well.

Skidding to a halt outside the entrance to where he could see figures inside, Evan made himself walk in as opposed to his earlier run, thankful he'd made it in time for the directions. Defanging plants and dealing with gnomes? That sounded like a test of patience he wasn't up for currently. He could help with the glass, but it also didn't seem like anyone was jumping to go dig. It didn't bother him much, and he was glad he'd decided to stop for food, because the Ravenclaw went ahead and moved towards all the soil Professor Flamsteed had indicated and grabbed a shovel to start digging.

Was there a spell? Probably. Did he know it or any others to creatively use? Nope. So the good old fashioned difficult way it would be, until someone corrected.

"Huh?" muttered Violet, who had not seen Aria coming up to her. "Oh, yes, definitely," she responded, once she realized what her fellow Slytherin was asking her, "We all used dragonhide gloves when we did it with Professor Flamsteed in class." Violet was in fact already in the process of drawing on her own gloves; she remebered all too well how bitey those fanged plants could be.

Hey, look at that. He was at the right place at the right time. "No problem, professor. Happy to be of service." Which did essentially solidify where it was he would be focusing his efforts of the day on. He had come down here with the intention of this all doubling up for NEWT preparation and working on things that may show up on the written or practical portion of the exam...greenhouse window installation was unlikely to show up there...but something about the physical exertion and stress on his muscles had an allure that was impossible to ignore right now.

Once that particular glass panel was taken care of, Cooper rejoined the group and awaited further instructions from the Herbology professor. It really was great to see so many turn out today. Among them Celyn who he was not even remotely surprised to see here. "Yeah...I think I will," he nodded with a couple of slow rolls of the shoulders before flexing his arm in a bit of an exaggerated manner but with a hearty dose of that boyish Branxton charm. "Can count as my weight training for the day." Apparently everything had to be multipurpose this term. "If there is anything left over once these are all installed though...I'll be there." With Celyn expert touch, he wasn't too sure that there would be much left over, but that was okay. Plenty of opportunity still the rest of the term and the greenhouses wouldn't be completed and full restored by the end of today anyway. "Catch you in a bit then, yeah?" he offered with a little parting grin before shuffling over to grab another glass panel.

And maybe he could pick at Professor Flamsteed's brain while he helped with these installations while getting some weight training in...just to...really make optimal use of his time.

“That we did,” Aria replied to Violet, producing her own pair of dragonhide gloves from her pockets with a flourish. She bounced on the soles of her feet and shot the CoMC professor a wide smile. “Hello, hello, professor! Do you have your gloves too?” Ms. McLeod wiggled the gloved fingers of both hands in Amstern’s direction.

So… should the group talk strategy? “How are we going to do this? A group of us defang and another re-pot? Because I call defanging!’’ Aria quite admired the pointy teeth of vampire-like plants. They were perhaps the most interesting. To show that she was quite serious, Aria flounced over to the nearest pot. Weren’t Fanged Geraniums so ADORABLE?

Violet watched Aria bounce from place to place with amazement, wondering what it could possibly feel like to be so perky, so...on all the time. She was so mesmerized that she almost missed Aria's taking over the doling out of duties. And of course, she was taking the defanging, something Violet felt she was actually very good at. The repotting part sounded like it involved a lot of dirt; no wonder Aria didn't want that. Violet started to make a bid for that task herself, but then she wondered if Aria would be careful repotting the new plants. Because they'd probably be traumatized after being unwrapped and defanged and put into a new place. Somehow, she didn't think so. Aria didn't strike Violet as the gentle type.

"Well, don't forget to stun them first," Violet remarked as she grudgingly gave in. "I guess I'll repot them, then. Violet looked around to see if there was anyone else who might be willing to take on the repotting.

"Unless," Violet continued, looking over at Celyn, who she thought she overheard talking about new plants, "Unless someone else wants to do that." She continued watching the other girl hopefully.

Oh gnomes and defanging? Gemma was smiling when she heard that. "I can help stun the gnomes if needed and defanging." She watched the others go their different ways. She wasn't sure if she should go on her own or work with someone. So as she started headed to the greenhouse she first pulled her wand to watch for the gnomes and then looked around to see who was all coming this way.

"Violet, I could help you guys if you are good with that." She hoped that would be alright, but maybe Aria and her had a system they wanted to keep. She figured she could keep an eye out for gnomes for them if nothing else. She was pretty good at stunning them and throwing them, so she would rather not throw if it could be done a different way. She always felt gnomes should have some rights too.

The result of Aria usually being so bouncy and in good spirits came from her taking care of herself, not just physically. There was just something freeing about not letting others get under her skin. Aria loved it here. It was a huge part of the reason she wasn’t looking to get entangled in any sort of romantic relationship in the foreseeable future. The fact that dirt was involved in repotting had nothing to do with Aria not wanting to do the task; it was just the fangs of the plants that she adored. And as if this needed justification… there Aria was currently baring her teeth playfully at the geraniums. Hasty generalisation much, Violet? Aria Mae McLeod could be gentle when she wanted to. And with fanged geraniums… she’d treat them like babies.

“Oh, hello, Professor Euka! You can help with whatever you like.” Cue Aria baring her teeth again; playfully of course. “You too, Violet, since you don’t seem too eager to work with me?” Hmm??? Aria didn’t mind though.

With that, Aria got to work, taking care to properly stun the first geranium. "Viro Torpeo!" Jabbing in its direction with her wand, she watched happily as the geranium started behaving sluggish. This left her free to gently take the plant in one hand while yanking on the fang with the other. See? There was no difficulty in this task.

"I said I'd work with you," Violet responded, wondering what in the world was wrong with this girl. Violet had clearly said she'd repot the plants, unless someone else wanted to--because it was nice to include others, right? And besides, Violet didn't really want to repot, but since Aria was already defanging, she supposed someone had to. After all, it didn't really matter. Aria showed her own teeth so much, maybe she was a natural for the defanging, at that.

Violet laughed to herself, but only in her own mind, and picked up the first now-defanged geranium and held it in the middle of a pot while she gently sprinkled soil over it. Hopefully the plants wouldn't be too annoyed when the stunning spell wore off.

“That you did, Violet, that you did!” Aria responded cheerfully and unabashedly. Her interpretation of her fellow Slytherin eyeing Celyn may have been misinterpreted? “Let me know if you need help with the repotting then. I suppose I can spare some minutes from the defanging.” Aria beamed then returned to her task. Being around these geraniums put her in such a good mood! She actually started humming softly to herself during any time that that uttering of no incantation was involved. During the time that incantations were, Aria would utter it then move right back to her humming. Eventually, there were about a dozen geraniums defanged.

Awfully responsible she was when it came to this sort of thing apparently.

Mhm yes, Cooper would be good at helping replace the glass. Even if they'd be using magic, he was quite strong and well-suited for that task. She gave him a bright smile. "Okay! See you a little later then." Whether that meant working together later or just heading back to the common room when they were done, she had no doubt that she'd catch up with him soon enough.

She started to walk towards Greenhouse Two when she heard a few girls discussing how they'd like to divide up the tasks. Or.. were they arguing. Celyn paused and turned to look at the three girls. "Oh, it doesn't matter to me," the seventh year smiled at Violet when she asked if she'd rather repot the plants. "I'm fine with repotting if you all want to defang." It did sound like that was what Gemma and Aria wanted to do as well, and there was more than enough work. "Or vice versa! I think there is plenty to do that we can do whatever we're so inclined," she added with a smile.

Celyn was a little confused about who really wanted to do what or why there might be argument over it, but since she was already planning to repot plants, that's what she began to do.