Open Mandrake Mourning

[Lysander Summers]

After a whole semester of raising a mandrake from infancy to adulthood, only to find out that it would be murdered to make potions for patients in St Mungo's, to say that Lysander was upset was an understatement. It wasn't fair of the professor to tell them what would happen on the very last day, and while the boy hadn't always liked the screaming plant, he'd put a lot of time and effort into helping him grow, and a part of him had come to love his mandrake. It wasn't just a plant, it had as much personality and life as the animals in his life, and dare he say, more personality than some of the people. Using mandrakes to save the lives of people was fine, but they were still alive, and had so much more time left to live. He couldn't understand why they didn't wait until the mandrakes had peacefully died of old age before chopping them up first, at the very least.​

To try take his mind off of his mandrakes fate, Lysander had come to the garden with the goal of simply helping to look after some of the plants in the Wild Patch. Now that Mhairi had knighted him, he wanted to spend more time being involved, and any excuse to hang around outside in the sun was a good one. Yet all the plants and flowers in the garden seemed to do was remind him of Owen, his mandrake, and how much he'd grown under his care. He lowered his watering can and slumped down on the grass with a sad sigh. It didn't feel right.​

 

[Kasim Safir]

It wasn't OWL season yet, but Kas found had found out last year exam time was peak people watching time around the castle if you wanted to see the true nature of his fellow student. There was usually someone having some sort of break down around the school gardens and Kas was keeping an eye out for anyone crying in the shrubbery to make himself feel a bit better about himself. He was surprised when he spotted one of his own classmates, seeing Lysander slump down like a puppet with his strings cut. Surely no one in their year should be freaking out already and Kas curiously made his way over.

"Exams can't be going that bad already," He commented mildly, pausing for a moment to consider the ground before dropping down next to Lysander. It was weird to see him so put out, Kas was mostly used to some sort of flurry of activity from Lysander in class, and seeing him look so defeated now was just against the natural order of the school.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander raised his head as a shadow fell across him, pulling him away from his thoughts of mandrakes and their premature fate. "Huh?" He responded, having been too distracted for his mind to immediately process the words. He shaded his eyes with his hand to better see who was standing there, but as the other boy took a seat beside him, he lowered it back onto the grass, fingers digging a fistful of dirt. "Oh. No, it's not exams. Sort of." He shook his head glumly and gave a light shrug of his shoulders. He wasn't exactly looking forward to sitting the Herbology one, that was for certain, but none of them had particularly occupied his mind. "It's just...I don't know." The boy pursed his lips and sighed. Kasim hadn't been in his class, so he didn't know if he'd even really understand. "It's probably stupid." He eventually admitted. No one in his class had even seemed as bothered by the news as he was. Most of them hadn't so much as batted an eye. Maybe they'd known all along that that was what would happen, or maybe they just didn't think of mandrakes in the same way he did.​

 

[Kasim Safir]

Kas started picking idly at the grass as Lysander snapped out of whatever stupor he'd been in, eying the watering can nearby dubiously. He was building a small pile of grass as Lysander mumbled unhelpfully and considering if he should dump it on Lysander's leg or not until Lysander said something more interesting. "Yeah, probably," Kas shrugged when Lysander mentioned whatever was bothering him was stupid. "Most things are, but you should tell me anyway," If it wasn't just exams, then Kas definitely wanted to know what had Lysander so bothered, though he hoped it wasn't some weird, personal thing he'd have to extract himself from. Other people's feelings could be interesting, but messy.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander fixed Kasim a look when he agreed that it was probably stupid. He wasn't supposed to agree. He did sort of like the honesty though, and figured it might have been what he needed to know whether he really was being stupid or not. With a dramatic exhale, he flopped his back against the grass, eyes on the clouds overhead. "Well...okay, so in my Herbology class we had to spend the whole semester raising these mandrakes. They're like these plant children." He explained, in case Kasim had absolutely no idea yet. He didn't think the Hufflepuff would have to raise them himself until next semester, and Sander seemed to have a habit of befriending people with little to no knowledge of the magical world. "We named them and had to write about them in these diaries every lesson about like, how well they were growing. They started off as these crying babies and then they were kids, then moody teenagers. We were all basically their parents trying to raise them properly." He paused, stumbling over his words for a moment. He still couldn't believe how ridiculous the whole situation was. All that time spent on Owen, for what? To help someone who might be a bit sick? It didn't excuse what they'd been made to do. "Like, I'm not even kidding. They got so big and we had to re-pot them a couple of times, and they even had their own personalities. They aren't like regular plants. It's not the same as growing pumpkins or whatever. They were like little people, or animals. We even watched them have their own party in the greenhouse! It was really crazy. And then at the end of it all, Professor Carter is like "oh yeah so thanks for raising these mandrakes now I'm going to send them to St Mungo's so they can be chopped up and murdered for potions haha" like what the heck? It was just...just so not fair. You spend all this time raising this smart plant with all these emotions, and you care about it, and now it's dead, and no one seems to care except me. I didn't even get to say goodbye." The boy let out a frustrated huff and rolled onto his side, propping his head up with his hand to better look at Kas. "So is it stupid? The professor acted so casual about it, and everyone else was totally fine. I just think it's like if someone killed one of my familiars and pretended it was okay. Is it really different because mandrakes are technically a plant?" He asked. He couldn't believe that he was really the weird one in all of this. Plants were plants, sure. Most of them didn't seem to think or feel, but he'd seen whomping willows and now mandrakes, and they were both so alive, he didn't think they could even count as a plant anymore.​

 

[Kasim Safir]

Lysander didn't seem overly impressed with his honesty and Kas just shrugged. It was true, most people's problems were stupid, and Kas watched mildly amused as Lysander flopped down onto his back before speaking. "Oh, mandrakes? The ugly plant baby things?," Kas said, curious if that would also likely end up being what they covered next semester. He couldn't exactly say he was looking forward to that.

Kas listened as Lysander went on a spiel about the mandrakes, pausing a few times in his mission to uproot a large enough pile of grass onto Lysander's thigh before he stopped talking to listen to a few of the finer details. He tried not to get too upset when Lysander shifted to roll over, focusing instead on actually answering the other boy. "Well.. It's not not stupid.." Kas said slowly, making a show of tapping his chin with a finger, deep in thought. "Are you a vegetarian then?" The way Lysander seemed to be taking the mandrake thing, it actually wouldn't surprise Kas if he was, but you never really knew, people were weird about animals. "People do the same thing with farm animals and stuff and no one bats an eye and they'd argue they were more sentient and stuff," Kas said with a shrug. "Though I guess it would have been nice to say bye after all that," He added, trying not to focus too hard on the fact that he was pretty sure Lysander had accidentally befriended a shrub without noticing. Clearly the boy was grieving.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander had to pause to consider whether or not Kasim had suggested it was stupid, his face showing his evident confusion by the double negative. He dropped his attempt to figure out which it was, having a feeling he already knew, and instead focused on the boy's points. "I'm not..." He admitted sheepishly. Being a vegetarian had never really crossed his mind. Meat was just so good, and he'd never really had a say in the food put in front of him. He didn't want to think that it was the same. Sander laid there for a quiet moment, eventually letting out a defeated sigh. "I guess you're right. It still doesn't feel good." He said. "Wouldn't you feel the same if you spent a semester hatching a chick, and naming it, and watching it grow until it was old enough to eat?" He asked. It still seemed as if people should have been more shocked or upset. "And the mandrakes, they were more like little people, almost." Cows and chickens weren't out having teenage parties, but even as he tried to make it seem worse for the mandrakes, he realised it didn't matter. They were all still living. He wouldn't prefer his toad being killed over his owl just because it wasn't as smart, and anything dying, chicken or mandrake, was still pretty bad. His stomach knotted, the thought of eating meat suddenly more unappealing than it had ever been. Lysander was so used to being around the cuter animals that people typically kept as pets, or the exotic ones in the zoos, that the ones he typically had for dinner had never really been spared much thought. "I called mine Owen." He continued, his voice quieter this time. "The mandrake, I mean." Kasim probably didn't care, but he felt like he had to tell someone else about the plant he'd raised, so he wasn't forgotten entirely.​

 

[Kasim Safir]

Kas ran his fingers through the pile of uprooted grass idly now that he couldn't dump it on Lysander while he was looking at him, simply raising an eyebrow when Lysander admitted he wasn't a vegetarian. "Interesting," He said mildly, drawing out the vowels in each syllable. "I guess it would be better if I knew what was going to happen to it first.. Wouldn't want to get too attached.." Kas said with a shrug. Honestly, he didn't really want to think about Lysander's hypothetical too much in case it would upset him and he'd have to deal with that revelation.

Kas wasn't great at handling people when they were upset, it was definitely more fun judging them from afar, but at least Lysander wasn't in hysterics or anything. He blinked a few times when Lysander told him his mandrake's name and everything. "Oh. Well. Pour one out for Owen," Kas offered a little weakly, grabbing a fistful of his grass pile and tossing it into the wind, letting it flutter away and trying not to squark when a non-significant amount blew back into his face.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander couldn't understand how Kasim could be so indifferent, and had to wonder if it would be any different once he was in the same position, or if the Hufflepuff would be as unaffected as everyone else seemed to be. Wouldn't want to get too attached? Even if he had been given the heads up ahead of time, they were still raising something to be slaughtered, and the boy wasn't sure how it was even remotely possible for him not to have gotten attached. He would have preferred to just skip Herbology for the semester instead if he'd known. Now he'd have to live the rest of his life knowing Owen was dead, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Kasim was definitely not the best person to be talking to about his feelings, and him mentioning farm animals may have only made things worse. He still felt just as crazy for being so overwhelmed by a plant being chopped up when no one else seemed to, even though he thought it had to be everyone else who were the crazy ones. He watched quietly as the other boy tossed a pile of uprooted grass into the wind, before shrugging and reaching for what was left to sprinkle into the air himself. "Rest in peace, Owen." He said. Peace. Pieces. The image of his little mandrake being cut up by some random healer in St Mungos flashed through his mind, and his heart felt heavier in his chest. It was dumb, but he felt like he should cry, though only a vague stinging sensation touched his eyes. Frustrated, he rolled over and collapsed onto his back to resume staring at the clouds. "I don't want to think about it anymore." He sighed. Why did life have to be so hard for a twelve-year-old?​