Open Herbology Research

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie was not often the one in the library. Or at least, she was not often in the library by herself. Rosie tended to follow her sister there, or go to see her dad. But this was neither thing that day. Rosie walked into the library on a mission, she had seen a plant in the garden that wasn't doing very well, and wanted to take the time to read about what could be done to help it. About what could be done to make it thrive. She knew it was possible that it was just the time of year, and that it wasn't growing because of it. But Rosie found the herbology section, the plant section and began gathering the different books that might have what she was looking for in it.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

Demetrius found himself in the library more often than he used to - that's for sure. It was a good place to study, with all the books being there and the quietude. He had Herbology this semester, and although he could sometimes skate by with not looking up everything in advance, he didn't want to risk it. Not when his future career was resting on getting good grades. He rounded the corner to the Herbology section, and found Rosie. He'd never really talked to her before, but he decided to be polite and say hello. "Oh, hey," he greeted quietly. "You studying for herbology too, or looking for something for the wild patch club?" Demetrius asked as she looked at the books she was holding.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie was pretty sure she had found all of the books that she needed to be able to figure out what was wrong with the plant. "Hey," she greeted the boy, Demetrius (or something), before half nodding half shaking her head. "It's for a plant in the wild patch, but it is for a plant, so a little herbology," she replied. "There's a plant not doing well, and I've never looked after one like it before, so," and she motioned to the books as her sentence trailed off. The gryffindor then motioned to him. "What are you studying for, herbology?"

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

((Really sorry for mixing up characters, I've fixed my initial post. Apologies!))

"Oh, right, bit of both then," Demetrius commented. "I hope you find something for it. Do you want help with it? I don't know exactly how much help I'd be, but if you wanted..." Demetrius trailed off, not really sure why he was offering. They didn't really know each other, and while herbology wasn't exactly his strong suit, but it wasn't exactly his weak spot either. "Yeah, trying to get a head start so it's a bit easier for the rest of the year. I'm trying not to just cram it all week before exams, basically," Demetrius admitted, eyeing the books on the shelf and seeing what ones he was interested in.

 

[Rosie Archer]

((It's all good!))

Rosie gave a little nod of agreement. "Exactly," she replied with an easy and friendly smile. "I'd love the help," she said easily, since Rosie had never been one to not happily accept help from those who offered it to her. Herbology was a subject she was good at but research, finding things out with books, that wasn't something she was as good at. The gryffindor nodded as he said what he'd been doing. "That's fair, I'm a crammer usually," she told him. "Maybe this can help too, get you reading about herbology which keeps that fresh in our minds, especially as it's a course we have this semester," She had already accepted the offered help, but she thought this might help sweeten the deal so to speak.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

Demetrius gave a small smile as she accepted his help. "I'm not sure how much of a help I'll be, but two is better than one, right?" he asked. Rosie also made a good point about refreshing his mind with the research they'd be doing. "Sounds good, I'm not always the best at herbology so, yeah. Have you got all the books you need, or do you need me to grab some?" he asked, eyeing the amount she was carrying.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie nodded in agreement. "Don't need to be good for research," she assured him. "And like you said, two are better than one," she reminded him of what he had just said to her. "Nah, I think it's enough. Do you have a table where we can work at?" she asked, since she had not actually gotten herself a table.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

"Oh, sure, yeah. I was just seated over there," he said, pointing over to a table that had Demetrius' study materials already placed upon the surface - not quite tidily, but not quite messily either - his backpack off to the side. "Do you want me to help you carry any of the books or...?" Demetrius tentatively suggested, feeling a bit guilty he wasn't carrying anything. He liked being helpful as well but he didn't want to just grab the books off her. That would be rude.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie nodded as she looked over to where he was seated. She gave a little nod. "Oh please, if you just grab the top couple," Rosie suggested tipping the pile a little in his direction for him to be able to take the few books, so that they could carry them over to the table that they could research a little about the plant she needed to.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

Demetrius took the first few books, holding them in his hands. He then walked towards the table he'd indicated, taking a seat and putting the books down. "So what exactly are we looking for?" he asked as he idly opened one of the books he'd been carrying, flicking through the pages. It looked dense, but full of good information that'd be useful for herbology.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie walked to the table and placed the books down. She then sat down and took from her pocket a picture that was of the plant. "This is the plant," she said. "It's not a weed, but I don't know exactly what it is, and its struggling," she said. "So, we need to find out what it is, and what sort of care it needs to thrive," she hoped that it wouldn't be too complicated to research and find out.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

Demetrius nodded, looking at the plant carefully. "Right, interesting," Demetrius replied, personally not knowing how anyone knew if what was and wasn't a weed but he didn't want to prove his ignorance out loud. "I guess I'll start here," he said with the book he already had open, flicking through the pages and checking back and forth between the picture of the plant in question, and the pictures provided in the book. He wasn't having any luck so far, but he was doing his best, learning a little bit about different plants as he scanned through. He wondered if he should make small talk; wondered if that would be distracting. Then he got somewhat distracted by that thought, flicking back to make sure he hadn't accidentally gone past the plant they needed. "Does it flower at all?" he asked, wondering if that could narrow down the search.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie began looking at the different books that she had trying her best to find the information that she needed, though it was proving difficult. She felt confident that it wasn't a weed, but she felt less certain of that as she found nothing. "Oh, I'm not sure," she said in response to Demetrius question. "It's early spring so it hasn't yet flowered, but it does seem like it could," she said. "Maybe a later plant, like a summer flower,"

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

"Hmm," Demetrius replied. "Can't be this one, this one blooms in early spring," he noted, checking the plant in the book with the picture Rosie had provided and found it not quite the same after all. He kept searching, reading as he went. Not for the first time, he wondered why Hogwarts couldn't make use of a search engine. It might help their search considerably, but apparently that wasn't in the cards. He was flicking through when he got to the end of the book. Next one, he thought, opening that one up.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie nodded as he crossed off at least one plant and then went back to her own search. She was carefully skimming the books, looking at any pictures. "Oh," she said eventually, "This could be it, blooms in summer, usually alone," she said, turning the book towards the book to see if he agreed that it was like the picture that they were both checking against.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

Demetrius leaned closer to see as well. They looked pretty similar on his count - the leaves were a similar shape, the shape of the plant in general as well. "I think that might be it," Demetrius said, backing up a little bit, a little worried he'd gotten too far into Rosie's personal space. "'Cause look at the leaves," he said, pointing carefully with his index finger. "I think you found it." Demetrius smiled genuinely, but felt a little disheartened that he hadn't been the one to find it in the end. He'd wanted to help, and he guessed he had in a way - just not as much as he'd wanted to.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie turned the book a little more so that Demetrius could see it and she nodded, looking at the leaves that he was pointing at and then bringing her reference picture in which did help confirm it. "Amazing!" she said happily. Happy that she had found the name of the plant, and the information that she needed for it. She took her quill and on the picture of the plant wrote down what exactly it was. "Thanks for the help," she said to him honestly.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

"Hey, no problem. Happy to help," Demetrius said honestly, pleased to see how happy Rosie was that they'd found the plant in question. "Hope you can get the plant the care it needs now. I might even come check up on how it's doing sometime...if that's okay," Demetrius added uncertainly. Rosie seemed nice, but Demetrius worried about coming across too forward. After all, they'd barely interacted up to this point.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie nodded happily, very pleased to have her answer, the answer she had been looking for with it. "Of course," Rosie said. "Feel free to come by any time," she told him, since the gardens were free to all. "I'm sure this plant will thrive with the appropriate care and also attention it'll get." Rosie was a firm believer in talking to plants.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

Demetrius gave a small smile. "Thanks, I'll do that then sometime." He then lingered awkwardly, wondering if Rosie wanted to get on her way straight away or whether she wanted to talk more. Demetrius had come to the library to study, so technically he should get on with that. He was conflicted, trying to figure out what to say. "I guess I'll see you around?" he tried tentatively. "Unless you wanted to chat more. But you probably want to go see to that plant, huh?" Demetrius asked, feeling vulnerable, but trying to act nonchalant. It wasn't cool to care, he was pretty sure, so he hid it.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie gave a warm smile at his agreement to come and see the plant. She took out some parchment from her bag as the boy seemed to think that she might leave. "I'd love to chat more," she told him. "I'll get to the plant eventually, according to this, there is time to save it," she told him. Since she would get to it, but just didn't need to get to it immediately. "Unless you have to study?" she returned, since likely he had been there to study and she had co-opted his time.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

"Oh, that's good," Demetrius said, hearing she didn't have to leave straightaway - and that the plant would be okay. Then he thought about study. "Well, there's always more time in the semester," he said, not really in a rush to get much study done. "I was just trying to get a head start. Herbology isn't too hard, usually. I kind of find it a bit like care of magical creatures but for plants, which sounds kind of obvious but I only just realised that. And care of magical creatures is my favourite class. I guess herbology is yours?" Demetrius asked.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie nodded with a smile, "Don't tell my sister that," she joked, "There's never enough time in the semester Rosie," she put on a bit of a voice pretending to be her sister, but it was lighthearted. Rosie didn't mean anything cruel by it. She agreed that it was good to get a head start, but she wasn't the one who usually did that. "It is, with care of magical creatures as my second favourite," Rosie replied with a smile. "I like caring for plants and animals, but I'm just better at gardening," she explained.

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

Demetrius smiled. He didn't know Rosie's sister well, but he could imagine the sort of person who'd say something like that. Someone who probably had a good study plan going from day one. Demetrius was a bit more casual with his study habits. "I'll make sure not to say that to her," Demetrius commented. He then listened to Rosie talk about the two subjects. "Oh, I'm kind of the opposite. I'm better with animals than plants, so I lean towards care of magical creatures. But I've kind of more recently gotten into herbology. Maybe it's the professor we have now? Not that Professor Carter was bad." Demetrius felt like he'd put his foot in his mouth. "I don't know what it is," he tried to reiterate. "But yeah. That lesson with the gillyweed was fun, right?" Demetrius suggested, trying to veer away from his faux pas.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie gave a little smile as he went along with what she said. But wasn't too surprised from their conversation that Demetrius was more interested in animals that plants. She had liked Professor Carter, but also did really enjoy the more complex plants they were now dealing with. "I think herbology has gotten more interesting the more advanced it's got," she said, trying to bridge the gap between perhaps how he had felt previouly and presently with herbology. "The gillyweed was fun, although, super gross," she said, having enjoyed the swimming aspect, but very much not enjoyed the taste.