Needing to Calm Down

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell was seething, he was absolutely fuming, the teen was unsure as to what being kicked out of Defence Against the Dark Arts really meant, but what Orwell was certain of was that he had never been so furious in his life, he had never felt the cold hand of authority quite like he had just there, not even with the protest in the forest he hadn't felt it but with that class he definitely had. The teen knew, could feel the man's burning anger over the disruption on the class, but Orwell could only assume that it hadn't been the first time, did all these wizards just accept everything that they were told, did no one ever question why any professor should preform such spells on defenceless creatures. Even if most people didn't like spiders it didn't mean they could just do anything to them, just because they were wizards, more powerful, he wasn't sure anyone else felt the same way about the spiders or the unforgivable curses, and the teen had to ask himself angrily if anyone shared his principles, if anyone cared about the welfare of the animals, he didn't know if he belonged in this school which had so little morals. Orwell was so angry and without anything else to do this hour he walked straight out of school.

The teen had no where else to do, and had just instantly gone to the gardens, the Ravenclaw was muttering little curses, as he walked to the wild patch gardens, he didn't know what he wanted, and he just wanted to fight back against it, but he didn't want to get kicked out of Hogwarts, he had worked so hard to get in the school, and he fought so hard but this wasn't a fight he could do and this seemed to frustrate him so much more. Orwell let out a loud groan, an annoyed half scream, trying his best to handle his own, he felt his slightly bruised side as he stood in the light drizzle of the day looking out over the garden, green hair slowly being flattened by the rain, he let out a long sigh, and then just began tending to the plants, there was a little bit of weeding to do, and he planned to plant a few more things. He found tending to the gardens soothing, calming and while still angry, with the Eco-anarchist flag in the periphery of his eyeline, getting kicked out of class maybe wasn't the best thing to have happen, but he wasn't going to fight this, he wanted to, but with the recent protest he couldn't imagine fighting this would really help keep him in the school.
​

Follows this DADA lesson

 

[Willow Jaye Hydran]

Willow liked the Hogwarts Gardens. It was a place she often felt a peace when the world seemed to be getting a little too much. She'd been wondering lately what she was going to do with her life when she finished school. She wasn't exactly an apt student, taking the creative side of Ravenclaw a little more seriously than the seeking of knowledge, but that didn't mean she didn't want to find some direction too. As she had no classes for today, she'd taken to spending some time in the gardens, making daisy chains and just generally relaxing. She hadn't seen Skye lately and hoped to catch up with the girl soon, but it wasn't like they were attached at the hip. Over the holidays, Willow had spent Christmas at home with her parents, with what was happening with Hazel and Sam at the moment it was kind of hard to be around them, not that she didn't try. Still, Willow didn't like Samual all that much and was much happier when she was with her muggle friends, talking to Rhiannon or Skye and just generally lazing around and playing in the gardens. She supposed being at school was supposed to be different, but Willow was just too chill to care.

However she was almost tempted to leave the moment she heard and almost felt the anger of someone nearby. Willow had always been rather sensitive to emotions, but even her emotionally blocked dweeb of a brother-in-law would have felt this. Willow looked up to see who it was, only to notice Orwell Brocken, one of the younger ravenclaws who seemed to be causing a bit of a ruckus lately. To be honest, Willow kind of sympathised with his plight, it wasn't the first time she'd questioned the way things worked around here, but she also thought that he was going about this the wrong way. The only way to take the system down was to work from the inside and definitely not at that age. It was a shame he was putting all that energy into this sort of thing, there were boundless things he could be doing with his time. Like making daisy chains. She stood up and followed him as he made his way into the Wild Patch club area. She hadn't joined for many reasons and she hoped he didn't mind her intruding on his me time. She knocked softly on the wall before heading towards him. "Mind if I occupy your space?" She asked, kneeling near him and watching as he worked through the plants in the garden.
​

 

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell honestly couldn't quite believe what had actually happened in the class, he had really just had enough stood up for what he believed in and decided to take a stand, which had ended about as well as he might've predicted it would if he'd thought it out, but blinded by the deep hatred of seeing animal mercilessly hurt in front of him, Orwell had just reacted, he had done what he had believed he had to, what his origins had taught him, what his life had taught him. He could've stood by like he did in the transfiguration classes where they hurt animals, but he couldn't any more, unable to really think that he could take the sounds of hurt animal when he could've at least tried and so Orwell had decided to stand up. Now, of course knowing what would happen it seemed almost silly, he knew Archie stood with him, but he doubted anyone else saw his side of it, but still, even as he briefly paused from what he was doing to give that some thought he couldn't help but think that he was right, it was perhaps the impulsive and ill advised thing to do but he was proud he'd done it.

It was in this small pause from paying all of his attention to his work that he heard the voice beside him and realised that he wasn't alone, he couldn't help but be a little startled by them, before then just shaking his head, "Of course not," he replied with a friendly enough smile, trying to contain his anger and frustration over what had just happened, it was too early for all other to know about what happened. He sighed a little before shaking his head and focusing again on the plants and on the work he'd been doing, clearly not caring about how he was dirtying his uniform, although the teen had removed the prized jumper from Archie and as always his shoes and socks, but his tie and white shirt would likely need a good wash, "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude," he said focusing on the plants. "I just need to calm down, I'd usually go into the forest, but I'm pretty sure if I go into the forest again, professor King will probably kick me out, despite the fact that I have never done anything other than be respectful to the creatures and plants of that forest," Orwell could feel his anger growing, and he just too a deep breath, "Unlike that piece of sh1t Styx who just harms all the creatures he wants because he's mister big and powerful," Orwell had never felt so much anger towards a person, and he was just venting to this poor girl, who probably had been like him looking for peace. Orwell let out a long drawn out, angry sigh as he tried to calm himself down in the plants.
​

 

[Willow Jaye Hydran]

Willow was glad that she wasn't asked to leave, it made her job easier when her company was accepted. Though she would not have left even if her told her to (helping people was in her job description under prefect) she would have had a harder time trying to find out what was wrong when the person was not willingly giving forward that information. He sighed a little and maintained his focus on his plants. Willow just let him go, moving a beetle out of the way every now and then when she deemed it got too close to a flower. Though Willow didn't like hurting any creatures, she didn't appreciate them eating her plants either, especially when she'd see the tigerlilly's with little bite holes in them. Willow often took liberties with her uniform, but it was just her luck that she'd dressed appropriately today. There was no sense in looking fabulous for a serious discussion. Though there was a time when Willow hated the responsibility she'd been given, she liked to think she'd grown into it a little and was more accepting and also a better leader. She was going to try and help Orwell, if she could. Something she'd have not bothered with previously.

She didn't have long to wait until Orwell started apologising. Willow smiled and held up her hands in a show of not being worried at all. She understood the need to retain the calm that wasn't coming. Willow was Native America and that meant that they often focused very much on the spirit. She'd gone so far as to become a Vegan, herself, though her sister was not like that. Willow nodded at him when he spoke about the forest. She'd heard about the Protest and had intended on going, if nothing else to try and get them all to leave, but by the time she'd finished studying the protest was over. However it soon became clear what his specific point of anger had been drawn from this time. Professor Styx. She wasn't sure what had happened, but clearly it was only recent because from what she'd seen of Orwell, he wasn't easily angered over something that happened a while ago. Willow moved closer to him and helped him with the plants. "I understand completely where you are coming from." She said, shaking her head. She'd been very much like him in her early years, though her thoughts of campaigning were pushed to the farthest reaches of her mind by the ideology of her beliefs. "You were right not to return to the Forest. I believe they're watching it now." She moved another beetle out of the way. "They no longer trust you, or your friends."
​

 

[Orwell Brocken]

The Ravenclaw had never been in this position before, even in all his time at Hogwarts never before had any professor not to a certain extent respected his beliefs, he didn't want to harm animals and so he didn't, he'd hated it the only time he'd done it and he didn't want to ever do it again, he hadn't been about to sit in the classroom and just let that happen. As his mind replayed it over and over in his head, he knew he had done the right thing, he felt so angry at the professor for what he'd done to the poor creature, for what he imagined he would do in the next lesson, the poor spider if the professor showed them the killing curse, would not life out it's life in peace, like so many of the spiders within this garden were able to. He couldn't help but feel at such a loss for the poor creature, almost wanted to beg the headmistress to get him to stop, that killing creatures just because they could wasn't right and it shouldn't happen, people didn't need to see the curse to believe it was horrible, but it wouldn't work, he knew that the professor would take Styx's side and despite his attempt he hadn't saved the creature, and he was just working on the plants, planting the necessary seeds and ensure the weeds were at a minimum, but the garden was well tended to now with the work of his wild patch.

The girl whom had joined him, was clearly helping him in tending to the plants, the light rain made the mud a little wet, and he was mildly concerned that she might be annoyed about that, and he couldn't deal with such trivial things at this current point. He ran a hand through his hair, wiping the mud off on his shirt before he did so, no sense getting his green hair muddy. The teen looked at the other girl, whose name escaped him and wondered if she really knew where he was coming from, the Ravenclaw knew how cliched it sounded but he honestly didn't think that she did, who was she to assume she understood it, who was she to assume that her anger towards Styx was anything like his and her words further angered him, "If they cared so much for people not entering the forest they shouldn't have just started watching it, they might've prevented what happened to the poor Gryffindor. They don't trust me or my friends because we highlighted the inherent flaws of having a forest being forbidden," Orwell told her, "And not to mention, I feel it's unjust, I feel most at home in the forest, I am respectful and careful, I don't just carelessly wonder in as if I own the place, I know very well things in the forest can kill me, but then so can things in this garden, so can things in that castle and no one seems to have any issue with them, why can't they just let me be in the forest," he continued in one long and angry breath, before then noticing that she was carefully moving beetles away, and he just looked at her as if she'd lost her mind,

"What are you doing?" he motioned to the bug, "Why are you moving the bugs? They are part of the natural eco-system of these plants, you shouldn't be messing with that, these bugs have more of a right to be here than you," he couldn't help but think of the spider in the DADA classroom, "Just because we're bigger and stronger doesn't mean that we should be determining the course of their lives, they have as much of a right to live free as we do," Orwell had no clue this girl was a prefect and he was just barely keeping his anger.
​

 

[Willow Jaye Hydran]

Despite the anger clearly radiating off of the younger ravenclaw, Willow stayed calm. She'd learned a long time ago that anger never got you what you wanted. As a first year she'd been angry all the time, angry at all the disorder and the chaos and the pain in the world. But now she just remained calm, relaxed, poise at all times because she knew what her anger could do to herself and the people around her and there was no sense trying to fight the system from inside the system itself. You had to survive it first, get through it, see how it worked before you were ever even partially qualified to say it was garbage. As he started again on his schpeel, Willow paid quiet attention to what he was saying. There was no doubt of his passion, he knew what he wanted and he knew what he believed in, but she couldn't understand why he thought that one person, namely himself, could fight for and change the traditions of hundreds of years. It wasn't that easy, it just wasn't. She appreciated that he felt like he should be allowed to do as he pleased, but if they made exceptions for one person, they would have to do so for all and she didn't think he understood that at all. Willow looked up at him and was about to respond when he suddenly blazed again.

Willow looked away from him as he yelled. She didn't appreciate the tone nor the implication and she calmly waited for him to finish before picking up another beetle and allowing it to crawl across her finger and to her palm, she stayed where she was, on the ground, the mud turning her skirt to brown. She held the beetle up and looked him in the eye. "This beetle would not be here if we didn't put this garden here." She said. "This beetle was displaced long before I got here, it was brought in with the garden, with the trees, with the grass. It doesn't come from here, it's not native." She pulled her hand away from him and carefully placed the beetle on the leaf of a smaller plant. "The natural eco-system of these plants does not exist when you give in magical intervention, so I disagree with your assessment." She turned her face away from him and scooped up some of the dirt. "Do you think this dirt is natural? No way, there are so many additives to keep it fresh, so many different chemicals that allow the plants to grow quicker, bigger, brighter, and these beetles are attracted to a plume that is not natural." She deplored people raising their voices at her and so she stood, squeezing her skirt in annoyance. "I came to see if there was anything I could do to help you, I wanted to see if I could maybe talk you down, provide some guidance as is my job description as a prefect." She moved her robe aside so that he could see the badge clipped to her shirt. "I don't want to take points, I've never done so before, but I would like an apology for the yelling if you don't mind." She was deeply respectful of the forest, the creatures, the people. She would not stand for Orwell disrespecting her or, by extension, her beliefs.
​

This is kind of poop, I'm sorry.

 

[Archie Renner]

Archie had been more distracted than usual for the remainder of the Defence against the dark arts class. He had been distracted as he shifted uncomfortably when Orwell confronted Styx and he had fought the urge to speak up about the injustice of figuratively and literally throwing a student out of a classroom. Then, he had been distracted by his anger as he fought another urge to walk out behind his friend against his better judgement as he waited oh so patiently for the class to be dismissed, ignoring the ever growing urge to yell that originated in his gut and the frown creasing his entire forehead as he pulled all of Orwell's school books into his arms so he could leave the suffocating, damp smelling classroom. He shoved past the sea of his peers and navigated the corridors with a deadpan expression and without so much as an 'excuse me', eventually making his way into the fresh, open air of the school grounds before he made a beeline for the Wild Patch. Exactly where he knew Orwell would be and exactly where Archie needed to follow him.

The Gryffindor could almost feel his friend's anger coursing through his body when he arrived at the Wild Patch. It caused him to ignore the muggy weather that had dampened his hair as well as nature of the exchange between Orwell and the older girl that Archie didn't recognize. He would have paused, stopped for a second to announce his arrival but his beeline didn't end at the entrance to the Wild Patch, it ended on the very spot Orwell was standing so he couldn't have gathered the patience to pause for half a second even if he wanted to. He sped up the slight jog in his steps to a run and threw Orwell's books to one side before handling this situation in the only way he knew how. He threw all caution to the wind and yelled at the top of his lungs as he tackled his best friend into the mud, rolling their bodies around in the dirt and messing up their uniforms entirely as he dragged the Ravenclaw boy into a tickle fight. Archie continued to pay no mind to the girl as he alternated between tickling and planting raspberries all over Orwell's arms and neck, refusing to stop tickling him until they both forgot about the ordeal of the Defence against the dark arts class and not wanting anything less than Orwell returning to his normal, happy and energetic self. ​

 

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell didn't know what it was about this older girl that just screamed wrong, like she was accusing his beliefs of being wrong, and not just his beliefs but his method, like he was a silly little boy who needed to be told to just accept the world as was because that was how things were, because he couldn't change anything, but the teen just looked at her as if she was crazy, as if she was lost in the world of capitalism, against what it stood for, but clearly unwilling to do anything to ever fix it, or even try, because Orwell could admit that his outburst in class was unlike to change the curriculum, but where would be without his own convictions, where would he be without his fight, maybe some time in the future he wouldn't need to be alone in his fight, maybe someone else in another year might also stand up to it, maybe more people would, he had no way of telling but neither did she, and to think that it was pointless, that fighting back had no merit because one boy against the world wasn't going to alter everything. He was not alone in his thinking, he knew others would agree with him, he knew people who agreed with him, they were just too afraid to fight, and he couldn't help his anger at this girl who was an inherit problem with the system, knowing the fight was right, but unwilling to ever support it because of the one man can never make a difference idea he felt so angry at her statements he almost felt sorry for her, to think that it was his garden that had disrupted the eco-system, and not the building of a massive school, or that the magic changed the nature of plants, which is did, but it was for the better, magic made them grow quicker, better, more resistant to natural diseases that might wipe out other crops, but the utter accusation that he had used chemicals on his plants almost made the boy see red. How dare she accuse him of a such a thing, he had made the gardens grow, he had planted vegetables and herbs which helped the kitchens, and the waste which could then help the plants was brought back to him.

"An apology?" he stated, in utter disbelief of what she was saying, that she would walk into his gardens and provide her version of help which was not helpful, it was almost as if she'd said all the things that would annoy him more than he already was, the teen couldn't believe she was asking for an apology, the king of flowers had been about to launch into why he was the one who deserved an apology, and that her statements were frankly insulting and silly, that she knew nothing of the world she thought she knew everything about, he believed she'd likely be raised in a sheltered household, in a home where the system was followed without question and she believed herself so wise compared to little young Orwell. Who lived amongst the wild, who had read countless books on the world, countless points of view, historical and non-historical, who had been taught about life and liberty and raised in a different kind of environment which he had never until now thought that it gave him some form of advantage over others, but he felt so angry with her, which wasn't helped by obviously his anger towards Styx. He'd opened his mouth to begin when out of nowhere a voice called out and Orwell got to his feet slightly, just to be tackled into the mud, rolling around and unable to stop the huge laughter which erupted from him at the tickling, he tried to push Archie away between fits of laughter, unable to stop him, and feeling the anger just drain away as Archie helped make him feel a hundred times better, his best friend could do that, "Archie..," he got out between giggles, "Stop," he told him, feeling a lot better, "I'm not angry now," he told him loudly between giggles, he knew this wasn't helping the plants much but it wasn't anything Orwell couldn't fix with a little magic, "Archie..," the teen repeated his pushing away of Archie was half-assed at best, he felt so much better with his best friend.
​