Puffa-what?

January 11th, 1891 - Hogwarts Greenhouses
@Cadawalader Selwyn c/o @Madeleine Backus

Sloane had always thought that Professor Skeeter had liked her. She didn't fool around in his class nearly as much as she did in the other, less-exciting ones. But here she was, not for the first time this school year, paired with Selwyn for a project. Not that the etiquette lesson had gone all that poorly, nor had he been overtly objectionable, but it was the principle of the thing. A mark against her loyalty if one deigned to ask why it irked her.

Unfortunately there wasn't anything she could do about it, so she just hoped Cam wouldn't be too annoyed by it.

The directions were simple, collect the puffapod seeds and float them gently in the bucket of water they'd been provided. In practice, it was not so easy. One wrong move and a dropped bean would instantly sprout another plant to deal with. Breaking the puffapod itself the wrong way and the spores would induce dizziness. This was bound to end in some kind of disaster. "Why don't you start with those and I'll take these." She said without much further ado to Selwyn as she gestured vaguely to his side of the bed they were working on.

---

In general, teachers liked Cad, he was the right type of student, from the right kind of family, they only saw what he wanted them to see -the normal, if a touch intense teenage boy. One of the few people who did seem to 'see' him was Gillenwater - and that visibility had trickled into his relationships with the other Gryffindors.

Age, had brought a touch of circumspection to his attitudes towards his house and year mates, it might require effort but the aim of repairing and improving his relationships with the others was worth a modicum of effort. At 16 - public life was fast approaching, and it would not do to leave Hogwarts with all of his bridges burned. There were some students with whom the effort was not exhausting, that was to say their personalities, appearance or breeding redeemed them.

Bixby was one, and his current partner. She was a pretty enough girl, although with her abilities he was surprised she was so ordinary looking. She had the ability to make herself look however she pleased, the most fine-boned, refined and distinguished-looking girl of the school - save perhaps for the girls of his own rank and station who were naturally blessed with a refinement of feature that was hard to find in the more industrial classes. Indeed Miss Bixby's abilities might, in adulthood, prove to be enough to elevate her to the upper classes of society - there were few barriers that beauty couldn't overcome, certainly for those for whom blood was no impediment.

Cad removed his frock coat, down to his white dressshirt and black waistcoat underneath, he rolled his shirt up to the forearms. He thought of himself as rather handsome like this, rough and rugged his dark hair and eyes contrasted against the crisp whitness of his shirt.

'And how have you been Miss Bixby? Enjoying some dancing over Christmas break?' beginning with small talk, and ignoring her rather cavalier demand that he do certain work, that would ordinarily have set his back bristling but he bit it down and moved to do as instructed all the same. He flipped his gardening knife in the air, catching it by it's dragon bone handle before starting to work on cutting open the first pod on his side.

---

In her experience with Cam's roommate, there was little room for small talk. Or desire really. Sloane was once again both amused and dismayed by the casual questions, as she had been during their unfortunate waltz in etiquette class.

She tucked into the task at hand, perfectly capable of doing both, thought still wholly unsure as to why Selwyn wanted to chit-chat now. "No, not really. Never came up." Even at the Gillenwater-Bell Christmas party hadn't even really involved any dancing, just some socializing and some stolen private moments.

"And yourself, did you enjoy the break?" It felt weird to ask, to continue the casual conversation, but didn't know how to politely ignore him either.

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