July 27, 1894 — Irvingly Schoolhouse
Mason Skeeter Daffodil Grimstone

It had been a very busy summer for Chastity--busier than she'd anticipated, to be quite honest. With school out for the summer, she'd had to find something else to do with herself, so she'd offered up her services for tutoring--less formal than teaching a schoolroom full of children, and less permanent than governessing for a family, it suited her for a summer well enough. But it also meant that it had taken more time than she'd anticipated to meet with Mr. Skeeter as they'd planned to do during the flower show in the spring.

Ah, well. Better late than never. Chastity had consulted her co-teacher to get the other's opinion, and had then gotten the schoolhouse's caretaker to prep a garden area for her, so it was at the very least not time wasted. She was walking around the empty garden--ready and waiting for planting to begin--when she heard the tell-tale sounds of someone approaching the building. "Mr. Skeeter?" she called out. "Is that you? I'm just around the side here."

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Between brief forays in the world at large with Gus, checking in on his mother and attending a few social events, Mason's summer was busier than usual. He typically had lots of time to head back to the greenhouses, clean them up, turn over plots and plan for the new year, but he hadn't done much of anything as of late. Fortunately he would have most of August to get back in there and restart everything.

Mason had made it a point to follow through on his offer for Miss Bentley, gathering supplies and writing up some helpful tips and tricks to get the garden started for her students. It would be easy enough and so when he'd heard from her at last, Mason had put everything in a crate and had diminished it magically for travel. He had never been to Irvingly outside of the expedition to fix the fog a few years back and that hardly counted. Perhaps that was why he hadn't been back since.

It was a nice sunny afternoon today however, no fog in sight, so he was more relaxed as he strolled up to the school. It was a petite little thing, more like what he thought a small town school would look like, but Mason knew the size of the school had little to do with the quality of its learning. Upon hearing a familiar voice, Mason made his way to the side of the school to find Miss Bentley surveying a little plot of land that he assumed was to be the garden. "Will this be where everything is planted?" It would certainly do the trick.

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magic by MJ the magnificent

"This is it," Chastity said, looking over the little plot. "I had Mr. [Name], the caretaker, set it up for us. Should this be all right?" It looked fine to her, but she reasoned that if there was something important missing, she didn't have enough experience with gardens to necessarily notice.

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"It looks perfect," Mason assured her with a smile. They would see how much they could fit of what he brought and either make a plan for more, or he could take the rest back with him. "Looks like good soil, though I did bring some fertilizer." Was magical fertilizer allowed in Irvingly?

Oh shit.

Mason looked at Miss Bentley sheepishly and then pulled the small crate from the bag that he carried. "I believe we have a small problem." He could not magically expand everything back to its proper size here outside the school. "I minimized the supplies to get them here efficiently..." He trailed off with a ghost of an embarrassed smile tugging at his lips. He truthfully hadn't even thought about getting everything back to full size upon his departure from the school; he'd completely forgotten about the limitations around magic in Irvingly until just this moment.

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magic by MJ the magnificent

"Oh dear." That was a problem. Chastity looked over her shoulder at the school building, then back at Mr. Skeeter. "Perhaps you could duck inside? No one else is here at the moment. It's as private as it goes just now." She thought that ought to be all right. They had a floo-connected fireplace in a private room, after all, doing magic inside when no one else was present surely counted as just fine.

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"Is that allowed?" The suggestion made sense, but he didn't want to get anybody in trouble. The guidelines about where and when one could do magic in Irvingly were not familiar to him, but Miss Bentley must know? He would trust her judgement on the matter. "I'll have to bring it out in batches, there's quite a bit." Once he got it all back to the normal size, he could reorganize and get everything in a good working order for her and her students.

If anything came of him trying to magick things back to form, he would explain and go from there. Surely everything would work out. "That door there?" He question as he started toward the building. It was just as well, he was curious to see her teaching space.

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magic by MJ the magnificent

"It should be all right," Chastity said. She was mostly sure, anyway. Sure enough to direct Mr. Skeeter to the door, anyway, asking, "Will you need help carrying it all out?" Even as she asked, Chastity was following him through the door, intent on helping regardless of his answer.

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This was going to be a bit of an adventure but Mason figured it would be quick and hopefully covert enough not to draw any attention. He went into the door and took a turn so he was sort of tucked away from any windows. "Ah, I wouldn't mind some help." He agreed as he quickly opened the box and returned everything to its normal size.

There were some tools, several different vegetables and flowers and some fertilizer. It would have been much easier if he'd been able to restore everything outside, or levitate everything into place, but he had never been shy of hard work. Sometimes he preferred it. "Let's start with the flowers," he indicated to the closest pots, "And we can go from there?" He figured that was easy, once they took everything outside to the garden, he could figure out how best to arrange everything.

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magic by MJ the magnificent

"Sounds like a plan," Chastity said. She stooped to pick up one of the pots. It was heavier than she expected it to be, though she supposed packed dirt was rather solid, so it shouldn't have been surprising. Either way, she could handle it. "We ought to prop the door open, now that you've resized things."

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Though he had suggested to start with the flowers, Mason moved toward the sack of fertilizer. It was large, heavy and smelled like, well, fertilizer, and he didn't want Miss Bentley to have to deal with that. He hefted it up over his shoulder, settling it so that he was balanced, and then grabbed the shovel in his spare hand. The fewer trips the better.

Once that was outside, he set it down with a thud and turned back toward the rest. "I've brought some perennials that should bloom for the rest of the summer and then come up again next summer." Mason started to explain as he hefted a couple of the larger pots into his hands. "And some easy-to-care for vegetables, though those will have to be wintered somehow." He could figure out those logistics in the autumn. "But I can happily bring anything else if there's something you'd prefer?" The last thing Mason wanted to do was run this for her, he would apprecite her input if she had anything she would like to see.

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magic by MJ the magnificent

"Let's start with what we have," Chastity said. "Maybe we could expand in the spring?" It might be presumptuous to ask for more in the future, but Chastity was being practical. Anything new usually required some level of trial and error, and she would rather give them the best chance of success before branching out.

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Mason nodded, smiling. He was probably getting ahead of himself. He didn't want to burden her with too much, nor foist a project on her she didn't have time for. "Sounds like a good idea." Mason agreed as he moved to gather more of the things he brought. He collected up a few pots and other things into his arms and made his way back outside. One more trip ought to do it, then he could get started on figuring how best to arrange the plants for her. "It's all pretty low maintenance, just water it if there isn't enough rain." He'd tried to pick things like that on purpose. Some squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, coneflower, black-eyed susans, beebalm. If these did well this year, he could add some peonies or lavender.

After he set down the last round of pots, he shrugged out of his jacket, laying it aside, before he rolled up his sleeves. Mason was never particularly comfortable in anything that limited his movement anyway.

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magic by MJ the magnificent

With the last of their supplies arranged outside, Chastity stood with her hands on her hips, looking over it all. "It shouldn't be too bad with several helpers," she said. Hopefully the children would get something out of it. Important life skills, if not outright enjoyment. She knew better than to expect enthusiasm, though she hoped it was all useful.

As Mr. Skeeter removed his jacket, Chastity said, "You'll have to direct me, I'm afraid my experience with plants since leaving Hogwarts is limited to keeping a few alive in my rooms at home." She laughed a little. To be fair, it wasn't as though she had much more space than that to herself.

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