Closed This Very Strange World

[Harper Alston]

Out of all her exams, Herbology was the one Harper felt least prepared for. Unfortunately, it would also be one of the most important exams she took since she needed a high enough OWL to get a NEWT, which she in turn needed to apply for a job as an auror. Lately, she had taken to studying in the gardens, trying to make up for the two years she had spent away from the greenhouses. Of course, the Hogwarts gardens lacked any truly dangerous creatures — there were no mandrakes out here — but Harper found that they had most of the plants she needed.

Today, she had managed to drag Hunter out to the Wild Patch to help her revise — not that it took much convincing. He was almost as obsessed with plants as he was with magical creatures. Notebook in one hand and pencil in the other, Harper squinted at the row of plants in front of them. "Okay, so I think sage is that one," she said, pointing at a clump of leaves with her pencil. "Native Americans burned it to 'balance their energies,'" she recited. What exactly that meant, she wasn't sure. "And that's obviously pumpkin." She pointed at an orange gourd. "Original name, pepon."

"Oh, and I think those are — hold on," Harper had spotted what potentially looked like some leaping toadstools, but they were hidden under the leaves of some cabbage plants. She tucked her notebook under her arm and knelt down. With one hand, she reached out to brush away the leaves, which gave way to a set of teeth that snapped at her fingers. With a yelp, Harper jumped back and fell on her butt, swearing colorfully as she dropped her notebook and pencil. She shot Hunter a bewildered look. "Why does it have teeth?!"

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter was excitedly going to the Wild Patch with Harper. He didn't know why she took a sudden interest on plants but he wasn't gonna complain about that as he did enjoy plants, and the Wild Patch, quite a lot. He figured it would be because of the Herbology OWL, since she was in his Herbology classes, but he never really figured she could be struggling to keep up. If that was the case he was happy to tag along and share some of his nature related wisdom, one that made up for the lack of wisdom in some other areas...

His interest for plants maybe started because his moms always had some plants at home, nothing too dangerous or hard to maintain obviously but very colorful and pretty nevertheless. Maybe it could have been because of that school field trip to a botanical garden on second grade where he saw african starfish flowers that everyone thought smelled bad, and in all honesty he did too, but something about that smell of rotten meat from last year made the pretty looking flower seem badass. Or maybe it was because of all those summers in a lake house that his moms used to rent, whenever dinner was ready they would call out for him and he would just run towards the weeping willows to hide amongst the giant branches that reached the ground. When he first entered his first herbology class he felt good to have something so familiar at Hogwarts, of course he later fell in love with the cute little animals from the magical world but one never really forgets their first love.

He was paying attention to Harper as she would list the names of the plants, she was good at identifying them but the definitions still seemed very rusty and not so well memorised. His attention sharpened as Harper yelped and he looked at what he was talking about, he couldn't help but give a subtle giggle. "That's a fanged geranium" he said casting a spell to freeze it as he approached it "We will probably talk about them at some point I think. Huge resemblance to muggle geraniums but with fangs, and they usually do try to bite" he said looking at the not so feisty plant. He decided to step back before the spell wore off. "Are you okay?" he asked the girl.

 

[Harper Alston]

The flowers had teeth. The flowers had teeth. It took Harper a second to process her shock but once she did, she noticed Hunter's smile. "Hey, don't laugh at me," she complained, though she was smiling as well, mostly out of relief that she still had all her fingers. She grabbed a handful of fallen leaves and jokingly tried to chuck them at Hunter, but they fluttered harmlessly to the ground before they could reach him. "Yeah, I'm fine." she reassured him. Giving the flowers a wide berth, she collected her belongings, stood up, and tried to brush the dirt off her clothes.

"Fanged geraniums, huh. You could've warned me before I tried to touch them." Harper eyed the flowers warily. They looked innocuous now, fangs completely hidden from view. She turned her attention back to Hunter. "Why do they need teeth? What do they eat that requires fangs?" Between these geraniums and the mandrakes, a surprising number of magical plants seemed to require special diets. Why couldn't they just photosynthesize like normal plants? She glanced around the gardens. "Is there anything else out here that could attack us?"