Tea Leaves

[Flavio Morales-Tipene]

Flavio was more nervous for his herbology exam than he originally anticipated. He had paid attention in classes, taken plenty of notes, and enjoyed traveling so he could learn different properties of magical plants for healing, but he somehow felt that seeing how the plants worked and traveling to learn about them wouldn't be enough when he needed to write answers to questions about them in an exam. So he had planned to go to the greenhouses in his spare time to meet with his friend November and go over everything they were supposed to know from their classes together.

Having a friend to keep him company and to explain the things he might not understand was exactly what Flavio needed to calm his nerves and help him feel more confident for the exams that were looming. What he knew could also calm his nerves was a cup of Gui Pi Wan tea. The theory of the tea was something he knew about from the field trip, although wasn't confident in remembering, so it was the first thing he wanted to focus on studying that day and the thing he decided to set up when he arrived to the greenhouse before his friend. He set aside a small teapot and two cups on one of the tables, then flicked open his text book to the page about Gui Pi Wan. He then opened his notebook and also flicked through that, trying to find the stuff he had written about the tea while he waited for November to arrive.
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[November Albertson]

November was enjoying Herbology this semester. She had her friend Flavio to thank for that, plus the topics they were going over. With previous years she found the class annoying especially the plants that screamed and were more humanized than she liked her plants to be. The final exam for the class was coming up as the summer months approached. Well, it wouldn't be summer here, it would be Winter. November would go home to America and there it would be summer, time for pool parties with her sibling's friends from school and for her to lie about where she is now going to school. She walked down to the greenhouses to meet up with Flavio to do some studying before they were down to the wire.

November saw her friend waiting for her and she made her way around the various plants lining the greenhouse. "Hey Flavio. How're you? Is that some Gui Pi Wan? You sounded a bit nervous when you asked to study, what's up Mr. Ravenclaw?" The young teen questioned her friend as she went to sit down next to him. She pulled out her notebook and textbook and glanced over to the page he had opened in front of her. She felt more prepared for the herebology test than she did the charms exam but she was glad to have someone to study with just in case she was missing something important from her notes for herbology.
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[Flavio Morales-Tipene]

Flavio continued to flick through his notebook until he heard someone else enter the greenhouse. It was then he looked up from the pages and smiled at November. Though he didn't have enough time to find the notes he had written down, he was happy to use the textbook in the meantime and find the notes later. He closed his notebook and placed it next to the teacups on the table as he greeted his friend. "Hello." He said, looking to the teapot and cups before answering her questions. "It is Gui Pi Wan, I wanted to drink the tea again and study stuff about it, since it is the subject I am most worried about for the exams." The tea had caused him to relax too much during the field trip, meaning he wasn't able to pay close attention to anything else about it besides it's taste and effect. Hopefully, after going through notes with November and attempting to drink the tea again he would feel confident in his memory, or at least confident that he had all the information he needed to remember.

"I like the field trips we have had in classes, but it is sometimes difficult to remember what happened if I am not writing everything down, which is why I am worried." Flavio answered. Even if it was a small aspect of his herbology classes that was missing, it was unusual for Flavio to have any issues with school, let alone to admit it to someone else. But for the sake of exams it was necessary. Asking for help was completely acceptable if he wanted to get the best grades that were possible, and also if he had a friend that was willing to help him so though it was unusual, it was not a problem. Instead Flavio felt lucky to have the drive to achieve good grades and to have a friend that could help him. He watched as November got out her books, and then asked "Do you have notes on Gui Pi Wan? I could not find mine anywhere." to cut to the chase. The last thing he wanted was for them to lose time and not study as much as they could.
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[November Albertson]

November nodded as her friend Flavio told her it was the tea she asked about. November had enjoyed the tea a lot during their previous class when they went to China and got to have some. She was glad they had the little gift bags from the Professor but it made her wonder if he was bribing them to like his class. She did enjoy the class, even if the gifts and trips weren't a ploy to get her to like the class. Plants were simple. While some yelled and screamed, she enjoyed the fact that plants were universally the same here as in the muggle world. She could go home and practice growing non-magical plants during the summer with her mother. "I don't think you have too much to worry about. I don't think the exam will be very hard at all," November said with a hint of confidence in her voice. For her remembering all the plants from the semester had seemed rather easy. She wondered what Flavio found hard about the course. She brought some flash cards with her that she thought she might lend to him. They had on one side a small fact about a plant and the other the name of the plant itself. She had one for every fact they had learned and had been making them throughout the course of the semester after each lesson and studied them a lot. She figured that might be the reason why she could remember a bunch of the facts, although she was sure she needed to study more as she didn't remember everything.

November opened her notes to the tea, glad she had gone to the library after that class to write down what she could remember from the herbalist. "Yes I have notes, here, copy them down. Also you can borrow my flash cards. I've been studying them a lot and need to focus on studying for Charms anyways," November said putting the things out on the table in front of her friend. She found Flavio to be one of the more interesting people she knew at Hogwarts. He came from such a different place than she did, small town Pennsylvania. Of course, it seemed like people from all around the world came to school here. "Do you remember any of the plants from our trip to England? Not the Stonehenge trip the trip to the old garden place," November asked her friend, clarifying even though Stonehenge was a trip they took in History of Magic. November wondered if he had taken notes on different plants than she had. She didn't think any of the plants from the garden would be on the exam but she wanted to be able to write down the names of plants if questioned about it during the exam. ​

Spoiler: Notes

China - Herbalist
herbalist - healing potions, not sinister things
Tea- Gui Pi Wan
[*] Will relieve stress
[*] Make body function normally
[*] Clear mind + focused
[*] Body = no longer tense

Side note - Should take this before Charm exam

[*] Tea good for anxiety etc.

Bowing to the herbalist before drinking, not sure if needed when prepared alone.

 

[Flavio Morales-Tipene]

Flavio appreciated November's reassuring words and also admired the tone of confidence in her voice, but he was far from speaking with such confidence himself. He worried that the field trips he went on during the semester would distract him from proper note taking and that having a lack of in depth notes at the end of the semester would lead him to not doing well in his exams. Though he had worked hard during the semester in all of his subjects, and continued working hard to study for exams, he could not help but worry his knowledge would not be good enough. "I would rather worry more than I need to, than not at all." He said to his friend. In hindsight, it was silly for Flavio to worry as doing well in school was second nature to him and his results for that year would likely be great, but that did not stop him from worrying in the moment and wanting to prepare well for his exams.

He looked over November's notebook, then looked to her flash cards as she mentioned them and put them on the table. Flavio had not studied with flash cards himself, but he had heard from other students that they could be extremely useful. He was curious to see what studying with flash cards was like. "Could we quiz each other with the cards?" He asked. "And after that we can study for charms, if you want to?" Flavio had noticed that November didn't seem confident for her charms exam in the same way he did not feel confident for his herbology exam and he would not mind helping her study if that was what she needed. It was the least he could do, really, considering she was already helping him. "The Chelsea Physic Gardens? I explored a lot and talked to a bird, but I did not take any notes on plants, just notes on the history." If he remembered correctly, there was a fair they were meant to go to and a few things to remember about when the garden was founded, although not anything specific about the plants that were there. Though as he thought about it he worried that he had missed something important. "Wait, was I supposed to take notes on the plants there?" He asked November, becoming slightly more worried that everything he thought he remembered from herbology was inadequate.
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[November Albertson]

November wondered why Flavio was so nervous for the exam. He was really smart and probably by now new where every book that mentioned ducks was in the library. Although, that knowledge wouldn't help him with Herbology. "Well I suppose that's good thinking. But don't let yourself get too stressed, after all we're just 13 years old," November said with a wisdom she hadn't realized she possessed. It was weird for her muggle mind to comprehend how much of her future life now relied on what she did in school till she was 18 years old. Back home, after high school you would go to college and that was the time were school really mattered. Now, there was more pressure for her, but she still wanted to have fun. Sometimes she'd go out on the grounds and play make believe or go to the tallest tower and pretend she was Rapunzel or Aurora locked away in her tower. Of course, to this day no Prince came to save her.

November nodded to Flavio's suggestion about the flash cards. She found them really helpful when it came to memorizing all the facts about each plant they had study over the semester and the uses for each one. "Yeah let's do that. We'll take turns, I'll hold one up for you and then you me," November said shuffling the flash cards and then handing Flavio half of them. She shrugged her shoulders about his question on taking notes about the plants. She couldn't believe he had spent time in the garden with a bird when they were there with a class based on plants. But, November didn't really think it would be all that important for the exam anyway, they had learned about so many other things that semester. "Here tell me what this describes," she said holding up a flash card.
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When burned will help clarify mind.