Details for Recreational Herbology |
Summary: | During study hall, Abraxas show's Hattie a new spell - only he didn't - and they discuss her plants and his ancient runes. |
Date: | 27 October 1939 |
Location: | Great Hall, Hogwarts |
Related: | — |
Characters |
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Study Hall! Abraxas Malfoy sits at a random table in the Great Hall with an Ancient Runes book in front of him, about eight inches into a two-foot assignment. Thank goodness it's not due yet, because he's looking as if he's had about enough of puzzling over squiggles and dotted lines, no matter how useful.
Hattie finds him there having a seat at the table behind his, back to back with him. Her slim Arithmancy primer is so new that the bindings creak as she opens it. "Show me your handwriting," she says.
Abraxas turns slightly, "What's that, Wilkins?" he asks, then rolls the scroll enough so that its mobile and moves it back over towards her. He's got very nice penmanship, strangely enough, a hand that is at once ornate and bold and very readable. Someone who studies such things could probably make something of his sharp, large descenders and angry crosses of his t's.
Hattie says civilly over her shoulder, "You heard me, Malfoy," as she leans over the scroll to have a look at it. "No particular reason, of course. I'm just curious. Gosh, look at your effs. It looks like it's upside down, the part beneath the line is so big." She returns his assignment.
"Yes, I know you're the curious sort." Abraxas says, with a curl of his lip. He takes the scroll back, and finishes another inch or two, but then gives up for a little while. "I'm going to work on charms a bit."
Hattie goes, "Ooooh, ouch," to his zing, smiling lightly as she calculates the numerical value of the name of each of the thirteen moons of the year. "You'll run out of time," she warns. "Two months gone, and OWLs not so far off…" Not that charms are not MUCH more interesting than either of their electives.
"Seven months." Abraxas says, "Not right around the corner, but there's still time. I'm not panicked. Besides, it's all supposed to be review, right?" He snorts at that, especially as she goes the full Hermione on him. He picks up his wand, and traces it in a star pattern in the air, "Lumos Solem!" A warm beam of sunlight comes out of the tip of the wand, bathing her in its warm, very un-Scottish glow. See, practice. Or showing off. Or both.
Hattie guards her eyes for a moment, until they can adjust to the warm incandescence. Out of her sleeve hem she extracts something about the size of a marble, and puts it out under his traveling sunbeam. Waste not… "Soooooo jealous."
Abraxas steps closer, pointing the wand at whatever it is that she's holding, but then ends the light and turns, saying, "Watch, like this…" He accentuates the wand movements, and then sounds it out, "LOO-mohs soh-LEM". The beam of sunlight returns again.
Upon closer inspection, the object appears to be a very very shrunken succulent in a tiny terracotta pot, thick with microscopic verdigris. As the light strikes her hand again, she watches him demonstrate it, tracing the movement patterns with her fingers in the air, or trying to. Its always a little fiddly at first.
Hattie says, "Loo-moss sol-lem?"
"A little bit more up-swish on the final stroke and then a snap of the wrist." Abraxas says, "No, LOO-mohs soh-LEM. Emphasis on the first and last." The little shrunken plant gets the benefit of his wand turning into a miniature sunlamp. Just think of the advantages in recreational herbology!
Hattie will have a number of recreational plants, after the holidays, she hopes! And thats just what Scotland needs to make it habitable through the… all the time. Recreational plant specimens! Wand now in hand, "LOO-mohs soh-lem," she repeats back, effectively forcing her greedy little plant to close its stomates with a somewhat more diffuse beam.
"There you go, now you've got it." He adds, after a moment, a grudging, "Not bad for a half-blood, I suppose." Abraxas cancels his own spell with a flick of his wand and puts it away. "You didn't learn it from me. But if I had shown you, it would be a peace offering for the last few months."
Hattie's good cheer dims somewhat. She says, "I wish I had an offering to make in that spirit, in kind. If you had in fact taught me."
"That would be wholly unnecessary." Abraxas says, as he slides back onto his bench and picks up his quill. "I'm sure Professor Beery will be pleasantly surprised with your precociousness, though. Learning the spell all by yourself." He flips to the next page in his Ancient Runes book.
Hattie quietly picks up her quill to resume working the problems in the primer. "What professor Beery doesn't know, which like all of the other professors is more than they will admit to us, won't hurt him. Its not for class, anyway, but for pleasure." Aside, at the specimen on the table, she says, "Engorgio," and countercharms it back to roughly the size of a cricket ball. Frosted black in color, the sempervivum is placed next to his books. Thereafter, silence as she works.
"You know, Wilkins, most people keep a cat or an owl or a toad or even a rat and the occasional puffskein as a pet. I'm not sure that I've known anyone to carry around a houseleek, though." Abraxas recognizes it now, at full size, it seems. He shakes his head, with a quiet chuckle, apparently having discovered that the ancient runes book is in fact a single, massive energy sapping hex that has deprived even him of the ability to conjure snark on demand.
"I have better conversations with the liveforever," Harriet is having no such drain placed on her by Arithmancy. "With most of my plants, actually."
Abraxas has finished a foot of ancient runes homework, and decides that is enough for one sitting. He begins to put his ink and quill back in its case, and then rolls up the scroll. "If that's the case, the Ravenclaw common room must be even more dull than I had imagined." A pause, and he adds, "Then again, it isn't under the lake, either. Not that I mind visits from the squid." He stands and leans over to whisper something, then says, "Good night, Wilkins."
Hattie turns a faint pinkish color about the cheeks. "Good night, Malfoy. Enjoy playing with your squid…"