May 1st, 1888 - Hogwarts, Greenhouses

Ever since Sisse’s run in - quite literally - with Calla in the greenhouses she had begun to make her way down to their domain when she needed a bit of time to think. She’d sit by the plants and read her textbook or just enjoy a peaceful moment. When spring had finally spread to the school Sisse had found herself outside more and more and had quite forgotten about the greenhouses unless it pertained to their Herbology lessons. Today, however, Calla had told her that her that the flowers she had been tending were now in full bloom and Sisse was curious and so she’d made her way down to the greenhouse.

In her art class they were working with watercolors and Sisse had rather hoped to sketch the flowers and paint them for one of her final projects. So she’d settled on the ground, her back braced against a table of plants, and began to sketch Calla’s rather impressive patch of flowers, losing herself in the project.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

“Size distribution of Shrivelfigs in Hogwarts greenhouses.”

Arthur enjoyed how professional these words sounded and how beautifully they were written on the parchment. He rolled it up and headed for the greenhouses to take measurements of Shrivelfigs. It was time to add substance to such a great title.

There was still a couple of days before students had to hand in the essay on their Shrinking Solution ingredient of choice, but Arthur would also have to systemize the numbers, draw conclusions, etc. after he was done with the greenhouses.

On his way to Shrivelfigs, Arthur noticed a girl sitting on the ground and drawing, in front of a patch of flowers that definitely weren’t there in his last Herbology class. Or maybe they were, just not in full bloom.

Interested in seeing the sketch, Arthur came closer and looked over the girl’s shoulder. At that moment, his parchment roll dropped, rustling loudly.

  

Sisse had been so caught up in her drawing that she hadn't noticed another person had come to her part of the greenhouses. That was until something light dropped on her head. As any reasonable young lady would when surprised by a mysterious object dropping on her head she let out a small shriek and jumped slightly, twisting her head to see where it had come from. Out of the corner of her eye she noted something like a scroll as her hands went up to her braided hair just in case something had fallen in it and stayed. But more importantly when she noticed the young man hovering over her eyes rounded slightly. "Oh. " Was all she managed for a moment before remember her manners. "Hello there. " The whole situation hadn't quite sunk in yet and she was still quite baffled amount something hitting her head.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

Rustle.
A moment of silence.
And a small shriek that made Arthur realize the full scale of awkwardness.

He didn’t recognize the girl from behind, but now, as she faced Arthur, it became clear who she was. “Uhm, hello, Miss Thompsett,” he replied guiltily, looking at his feet rather than at the girl. ”Sorry about this..” Arthur started his excuse, but it took him a second or two to come up with appropriate (in his opinion) words, “..this homework tossing. I.. I can assure you it was unintentional.” He didn't know Sisse well, so, given the circumstances, being extra formal and polite seemed like the right choice to him.

Arthur bent his knees a bit to pick the parchment, but straightened up again before he could do so. It seemed like a good idea to him to wait till the apology was accepted. Finally, after what seemed like eternity (but lasted, in fact, seconds) of observing his own feet, Arthur regained composure to look Sisse in the eyes.

  

Calming slightly Sisse realized it was Mr. Price standing behind her. Why he was there she was quite unsure but he did look rather bashful. Not that Sisse would presume to really know the boy in her classes well enough to judge his emotions, but somethings were rather obvious. Feeling awkward Sisse stood up, tucking her sketchbook to her side and discreetly dusting dirt from her skirts.

Homework tossing? Is that what he was calling it? Sisse wasn't entirely sure understand the reason for him dropping his homework on her head, but she smiled graciously regardless. "That's quite alright. I don't suppose you had good reason for tossing it?" She hoped that perhaps a sense of humor might put him at ease. She reached down and grabbed the scroll, holding it out to Mr. Price.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

To Arthur’s relief, Sisse did not seem irritated or upset. She even said it was alright. Which could be just good manners, of course, but Arthur took it at face value. He didn’t find what to reply at first, the question was unexpected. So he took the scroll in silence, trying to collect his thoughts.

“No. No good reason, just me being clumsy,” Arthur replied, taking the question very seriously. Momentary silence fell, which was almost immediately broken by the rustling of parchment Arthur got under his arm. When nervous, people often don’t know what to do with their hands, and it was exactly Arthur’s case,
as he relocated the scroll under the other arm.

To shift the focus from from tossing to homework, hopefully easing the conversation, Arthur added, “It’s an essay on Shrivelfigs. On their size distribution.” He smiled, for the first time since the accidental parchment drop. "Or rather, it will become an essay, soon. It's just a paper with a title now."

  

It was awkward, Mr. Price standing there shifting from foot to foot and the silence that followed, only punctuated by the crinkling of the paper as he moved it from one hand to the other. Sisse wished she could think of something to end the silence, someway to put the boy at ease. She was just about to blurt whatever the first thing thing was that came to mind when he started talking about the homework. Really it was a relief.

Size distribution, really it sounded quite sophisticated - and boring. But Sisse smiled anyway. "Oh, the potions essay. I had forgotten." Or rather she had much preferred to spend her time sketching than researching a paper. "I'm sure it'll be a very interesting paper though. How do you plan on studying the size distribution of..." Oh dear she'd forgotten the subject of his paper. Shrivelfigs? Better than saying nothing. "Shrivelfigs?"

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

With the matter of dropped parchment somewhat forgotten, Arthur felt much easier. The topic of actual homework was more appealing and didn’t invoke any guild or remind him about initial awkwardness of the situation. Moreover, Sisse seemed to think the essay could end up quite interesting.

“A ruler for the leaves and a measuring tape for Shrivelfigs themselves. The leaves also have magical properties, you see, so I’m measuring them, as well,” Arthur explained. "Measure enough of them, gather some statistics, see whether there is anything special. Then write about it." He believed Sisse was genuinely interested in his work. ”I want to see how different plants can be, given the same care and conditions. And it’s always better to do your assignments in the greenhouses rather than the library, don’t you think?” the boy smiled, eager to explain his plan to improve (home)working conditions.

  

At his explanation Sisse nodded politely. It made sense but was certainly not a project she’d want to undertake for the subject of her own paper. He was right though, it was much more preferable to study in the greenhouses than the library. Especially as lately Sisse had had a rash of bad luck and weird incidents in the library. Between the fainting book and Mr. Blackwall’s potion she had actually begun to prefer doing her schoolwork anywhere but the library no matter what her mother suggested.

“It certainly is. The greenhouses are so open and so..” She paused looking for the right adjective, glancing at the blooms beside her that she had been sketching she finished impulsively with, “Beautiful. I mean there are flowers and blooming things everywhere.” Not that she actually liked herbology, but she was grateful for the greenhouses.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

Arthur nodded in agreement when Sisse mentioned the greenhouses’ openness and blooming flowers. He had some allergies, including pollen of several different plants, yet there was nothing in the greenhouses at this time of the year that would make Arthur cry or sneeze. And although he preferred to keep his distance from most flowers, just in case, he still enjoyed the sight of them.

”So, you’ve come here to draw the flowers you like while they’re still in bloom?” Arthur asked, mostly to keep the conversation going. Although he strongly suspected the positive answer, the boy wanted to put as much small talk as possible between the awkward start and the time the two would go back to their business. To leave the whole parchment thing further behind. "Is it for the Art class or just for recreation?"

  

“Yes.” She was quick to reply with a smile. “It’s for art class, but I have to admit I prefer my art homework to my potions homework.” It was a good natured comment but a hint of pink tinted her cheeks at the admission. She had worked so hard this year to get better at potions and the actual potions portion of the course she didn’t mind, the essays though... they were terribly dull.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

“I prefer Art assignments to Potion ones, as well,” Arthur replied. Potion was one of nuisance classes to him, as it had little to do with his dream careers. “I would like to see myself as a novelist, an artist, an explorer, or maybe a professional Quidditch player. But not as a potioneer, for sure.” Previously, Arthur also considered career of a musician, but Music class changed his mind. He couldn’t just drop Potions like Music, though. “Unfortunately, it’s a mandatory class,” he sighed. ”And one I’m not particularly good at.” There was no classes Artur was particularly good at. Except maybe Art, but it was optional. And Flying, but it ended almost a year ago.

  

"How is your watercolor assignment going?" She asked politely, remembering then that she still had her sketchbook tucked under her arm.

Boys were lucky, she thought as he listed his career ambitions to her. She'd dreamed of so many careers and yet none of them could be more than fantastical dreaming as most were quite unsuited for a respectable young lady. Ignoring her thoughts she chuckled at his comments. "At least you have plenty of other options. My brother wants to be an auror an won't hear of any other ideas. " Matthew was not in the least bit sensible about what he wanted to do with his life, even if he was going into his fifth year in the fall. Sisse suspected that if he weren't scared of heights he'd have pictured himself a quidditch player as well.

"Potions is certainly one of my more difficult courses as well. Mr. Blackwall has been helping me study this year. " Indeed Sisse was sure her marks in Potions would be dreadful if it weren't for the Ravenclaw in her year. "You are welcome to study with us one of these evenings, we normally meet in the library after classes are finished for the day. " Although to be honest she was kind of avoiding the library, but she also was the type of person to try and help a class mate.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

“I’m still pondering what to draw,” Arthur replied, thoughtfully. “And how to draw it, too. My family spent most of Christmas Holidays in Irvingly, and some muggles were all about this new Impressionism movement. I tried to imitate it, but my works weren’t that well received in Art class. Perhaps the Wizarding World is not yet ready for Impressionism.” Or perhaps Arthur’s drawings were inferior to those he had seen in Irvingly.

“I think such determination is good for Aurors,” he said, scratching his chin.

“Thanks, I’d be glad to, although our classes are going to be different next year.” Indeed, Arthur would become an O.W.L. student, while Sisse and her friend would stay on Introductory level. Arthur did not know, however, whether their Potions classes would differ a lot. He did not like to think about upcoming routine, only about pleasing things. Definitely not Potions.

  

“Perhaps not.” Sisse replied although she wasn’t quite sure what Mr. Price was talking about. “But maybe try with this last assignment. You could try to do these flowers to.” She gestured at the small plot of flowers she had been fixated on when he had arrived.

Determination or sheer stubbornness, Sisse wasn’t sure what drove her brother, but she did know that her parents weren’t fond of the idea of his chosen career path. They wanted him to do something to settle down. Not that she could tell this to someone who was all but a perfect stranger. Instead she smiled and allowed the conversation to trail off on the matter.

“There’s still a month left of this year. And besides, I believe Mr. Blackwall had studied textbooks at least a year ahead of us. And finals are approaching.” She was nothing if not helpful and hopeful to have a new person join their little study group. Afterall she’d been the only one to attend them since Mr. Blackwall had first tried to put the group together.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

”These flowers are good still life material indeed,” Arthur said, after considering the flowers. “Do you think I can cut them and put into a vase if given permission?” He didn’t expect a positive answer, but hope dies last. These flowers, in a vase with flowers pattern, on a wrinkled tablecloth, next to several apples.. That would be such a great still life.

Arthur sighed as he was reminded about the finals. Something he wanted to forget about, as simply ignoring some problems problems was one of his favorite approaches. Otherwise he got stressed out immediately. ”Right. The finals. They make this last month of studies extra important,” Arthur said with sadness and tiredness in his voice. He got tired already just from thinking about the finals. “I’ll be glad to join you tomorrow, then. Or whenever you want to study. If it's all good with you.”