July 9th, 1895 - Hogwarts Greenhouses

"I really appreciate your help so that I could assist Mrs. Skeeter with this." Morwenna Skeeter was made of stronger stuff than Gemma could ever imagine, but even then, Gems knew that it must have been damn near impossible to bury a son and then go through his things to get rid of. Professor Skeeter had always been good to her, nurturing her fondness for plants and helping get her through what she needed to in order to become a successful herbologist. She sort of owed him her career, so this was the least she could do.

The greenhouses looked much the same as they had when she had been in school here, and it still felt oddly personal to go through Professor Skeeter's things like this, but she didn't want to dither either. Most of it was going to be left to the new herbology professor, it was just some of the personal things, his gardening gloves and tools, some of his things from his desk. She had to find Pepper too, who had been left to Professor Lissington, which I suppose helped that he was already here.

"I'm sorry Professor Lissington, I'll try and make it quick," she added, after a moment looking around the classroom with nostalgia. "I assume his inside spaces have been cleared out?" The house elves would have been tasked with taking care of that, she supposed. Mrs. Skeeter had said it was just a few things left at the school for her to pick up.

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Gus Lissington

  

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He felt like an intruder as he stood in the greenhouse, his heart already caught inside his throat. Gus knew he couldn’t avoid the space forever but he hadn’t expected to be standing here so soon. It felt like people were already trying to erase Mason from existence even if rationally he knew it was his family taking his belongings and doing whatever they did with items that belonged to the dead. Gus just wasn’t ready to be standing here.

At Miss Simpson’s voice, his stance softened. Gus gave a small nod. He didn’t trust himself to speak because he was entirely sure what he’d even say to her – don’t touch that, why are you here, he’s not really dead, is he? She was trying to be helpful and Gus was trying his best not to be in the way. Maybe he ought to look for Pepper so they could be out of here faster. Gus let out a small breath as he finally turned away from Ms. Simpson to poke at a giant leaf from a plant. Pepper wasn’t hiding there.

“No need to rush.” Gus finally said, glancing toward the back table, where some of the tools had been neatly lined up, others still scattered like they'd been dropped mid-lesson. He must have been organizing them. “And yeah. The house elves cleared most things out around and left…” He paused, swallowing around the lump in his throat. This wasn’t fair. “They left some personal things that I’m sure they didn’t know what to do with.” Maybe if he was lucky, Gus would walk away with something to remember him by.

He cleared his throat, voice still hoarse when he said, “It doesn’t feel right. Him not being here.”

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Nodding, Gemma pulled the list from the pocket of her trousers to start looking for the items that had been requested. "No, no, I don't want to be a bother, I'm sure you have plenty to do." Truthfully, if she lingered too long, she would tear up and Gemma hadn't cried in a long, long time. No need to start now.

"I'll take them with me, I'm sure Mrs. Skeeter will be looking for some things." Merlin it was so strange, his desk, as disorganized as she remembered as a student, half-covered in things that were likely only half-complete, like he would be in tomorrow to finish the tasks. "It's very strange." Gems agreed quietly, looking at the nearest plant with watery eyes. "I only had him from fifth year on, but it's hard to picture anyone else here." She had practically lived in the greenhouses during those last few years and he had always been there puttering around, working on his own plots, working on lessons, helping students.

Letting that fill the air for a moment, Gems checked her list and started looking through the drawers. She found a couple of things she needed to collect and paused as she remembered the cat again. "I'm supposed to ask you about Pepper." She passed him a wry sort of smile. "I can't take her and I don't think Mrs. Skeeter can either." The cat had been here at Hogwarts for so long it would be hard to relocate her. "Do you think she could stay here?" The large grumpy manx haunted the greenhouses, keeping an eye on pests and gnomes alike. Gems would hate to take her from her home.

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Gus nodded. It would be strange to picture anyone else in the greenhouse and he wasn’t sure he did want to see anyone else here. Not this year, at least. Of course that wasn’t feasible and it wasn’t fair to punish the students for his own heartache, so Gus kept those comments to himself, too. Whoever took over would have big shoes to fill, and much like Mason was a mentor to him his first year, hopefully he’d be the same to the new person.

When she mentioned Pepper, the corner of his mouth twitched. “I think it’d be wrong to move her. She’d never forgive us, and frankly I’m afraid of her enough as it is.” Not that was mean, Gus loved the cat, but he couldn’t imagine how well Pepper would take being moved somewhere she didn’t know. “She’s as much a part of this place as Mason was.” Gus swallowed hard, turning away from her for a moment. He hated speaking about Mason in the past tense.

Gus glanced at her a moment later. “Do you want a hand sorting?”

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