Afternoon Clean Up, Part Two

[ch_fireball]

Charlie looks around. From what he can see of them, Sprout's got her students well under way. Potter and a band of stragglers are making their way towards the Quidditch pitch, and he saw Bones and her group rounding the greenhouses some time ago. He assumes that the group with the Devil's Snare to tackle have tucked into that project

Comments

[Michael Corner]

[randomwiz]

"I say we do it over by the Quidditch pitch and leave the beanstalk up for everyone to see when they come out for the match later," Dean Thomas says. Dean Thomas is an idiot.

"What part of ' secret and sacred tradition' do you not understand?"

"Oh. So I guess we have to chop the stalk down, then."

"Yeah. And plant it somewhere that it won't be seen by every student who's out for a bit of sun this afternoon."

"Then maybe we could leave it standing. I mean, how are we going to chop it down? And what would we do with it then?"

Michael just looks at Thomas. Completely simple, that one. Goes after the wrong end of every problem.

"Um, maybe we could do it over behind the green houses." Thomas suggests.

"There's no clear space over there: it's all old equipment and broken pots."

"Uh, in a clearing in the Forest, then. That would keep it secret."

"You're an idiot, Thomas. You can go play farmer with the Centaurs if you want to, but I'm not going in there."

"Look, I'm just trying to sort out what we have to do," the boy's eyes have narrowed, reminding Michael that he's dealing with a Gryffindor not a Hufflepuff. "You think you're so clever. You could try offering a suggestion here."

Obviously it's more fun to shoot down the ridiculous ideas of Gryffindors.

"I say we plant up the hill there, just round that spur of the castle." There, Michael thinks. That's how it's done: brilliant suggestion; end of discussion.

"Too shady."

"Wot?! It's not too shady!"

"How would you know?"

"I go there all the time with, um, people, to, ah... You know, to hook up." Michael feels his neck and face flush hot.

"Yeah, I bet you need a lot of sunshine for that!"

"No need to get shirty, Thomas."

Thomas turns to the girls, obviously intending to defer to Parkinson, but she's still sorting equipment, and Patil's looking off across the lawn at the other groups.

"Oy, Padma!" Michael calls.

Thomas elbows him. Hard.

Ooops! This never happens to him.

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry," he says. "Parvati."

Michael's really bungled it now. She's not going to be any help. Padma would have had a sensible idea to offer, but the Gryffindor twin is just all about bangles and boys. And he doesn't need another Gryffindor in this discussion.

[army_of_p]

"Boys," Pansy snarls, swanning across to them with a double handful of articulated gardenware. She's come to the conclusion, while rummaging admist the kit, that the entire male half of the species was, in fact, created purely to aggravate her. Should she ever meet whoever was responsible for this, she will congratulate them, because their creations were doing a bloody spectacular job.

"Any of this useful?" she asks, holding up her booty. She feels like a Muggle thing - what's it called? Swiss army knife? Metal against every knuckle. "I have no clue what I'm doing, but I'm getting the feeling that makes us equals." She pulls her best arch-superior face, and gets a sneer back from Corner, which gives her spirits the faintest tug upwards. "So what the hell is the hold-up here?"

Dean Thomas gives her the potted summary - Michael says, but it's too shady! - and Pansy rolls her eyes. "Oh please. It's a magic fucking beanstalk. Like it needs full and natural sunlight. Unless somebody has a better idea, let's do this already. I do actually have things to do this afternoon."

[padma_daily]

Padma wholeheartedly agrees. But Pansy's far too smug with her hoe and rake and abundance of other tools that Padma has no attention of getting aquainted with.

So she digs into the turf with the toe of her shoe - points do have a use after all - and picks the seed or bean or whatever out of the box, depositing it into it's new home.

"Watering can, anyone?"

God, she can't wait for this to be over. She has a real life to get started with.

[Michael Corner]

[randomwiz]

"Well, don't just stand there, Thomas. We've chosen our spot. Apparently." He glares at the Gryffindor Patil; he knew she'd be trouble. "So now we need to cultivate the patch for the Puffapods and get some of that dung in there. Otherwise, no beanstalk." He's pretty sure they should have done the fertilizing and shoveling bit first, but whatever. If they won't listen to him, it's not his fault when it all goes pear-shaped later.

Re: [Dean Thomas]

[randomwiz]

Dean drops the stuff he's been holding and turns to grab one of the sacks of fertilizer. Honestly, had everyone taken rude pills this afternoon? Fine. He was feeling a bit rude now himself.

"You want dung, you got dung," he says to Corner, ripping open a corner of the sack and dumping the stuff -- oy, what do dragons eat? -- directly on the gits foot. He drops the sack and reaches for the watering can, but when he holds it out towards Parvati ("You wanted water, you got water!") she jumps back with a squawk.

"Anyone else want anything from me?" he asks, looking at each of them in turn.

Re: [Dean Thomas]

[padma_daily]

Padma smiles sweetly at Dean.

"Puffapods?"

Re: [Dean Thomas]

[randomwiz]

Dean looks at Parvati and all the air goes out of him.

"Pfweuh?"

[Michael Corner]

[randomwiz]

Michael sighs exasperatedly. Honestly, if only Padma were here, it was murder dealing with these imbeciles. And all of his group were were meant to be a year ahead of him. Had any of them taken Herbology?

"Puffapods! There's a whole greenhouse full! Professor Sprout even planted the excess around the side of the castle!" He points wildly around them where, sure enough, a sea of pink was swaying gently in the breeze.

Pansy crushes half a dozen potential seedlings when she steps forward to where the beanstalk should, with any luck, be germinating.