The Right Flowers for the Job

The alarm clock chimed at eight and a ball of lightning was summoned to awaken George. His whole body spasmed, causing him to flail off his bed. His eyes immediately opened upon making contact with the cold tiled floor and he sprang to his feet with an unbridled amount of vigour.

George saw orange and black banners draped across the four beds. There were small pumpkins with carved faces placed beside the large windows overlooking the Black Lake. A fake human skeleton was seated on an ivory chair in the corner of the room beside the fireplace which was decorated with rubber bats and fake cobwebs. These decorations served as a great reminder to George that today was Halloween.

Although he had been counting the days, George was still surprised to find how quickly October had been and gone. Ever since the weekend of his first transformation at Hogwarts, George had gone back to the grind with zero restraint. Halloween had only been five weeks away and he needed to prepare for the upcoming fight. He couldn't miss this opportunity since it was his only chance to test his strength against a powerful opponent during his time at Hogwarts.

George could not afford to exclusively advance his academic skills. To prepare for today, George had spent every second he could spare progressing his fighting capabilities so today wasn't wasted. Not only that, but today would mark a crucial change in his relationship with Hermione who was by far the most important pawn in his mission. There would be no better opportunity this year to cement his friendship with her, George couldn't afford to mess this up.

Since this day was so significant, George reached into his enchanted sack and pulled out a vial of Calming Draught. He had continued to further discipline his mind for the past few weeks and had made great improvements in his self-control. He'd become more accustomed to his anger and had learned the triggers that risked jeopardising his emotional instability. By far the highest contributors were aspects of life that challenged his pride or gluttony.

Learning the Engorgement charm ensured that there was never a time when he went without a meal, so his hunger was easiest to satiate. Pride was a little more difficult to control but simply avoiding problematic people that might antagonise him such as; the majority of the Slytherin students, Ron Weasley, Pince the Librarian and Peeves the poltergeist worked well enough. Basically, George became a hermit and avoided all social interactions except for his time with the cousins and Neville.

Unfortunately, the one thing that was out of his control was the side effects of sleeping fewer hours than his body desired. Twelve hours was simply not enough, but George wasn't willing to sleep anymore. This drowsiness affected his patience and his ability to think coherently, even his memory suffered to a minor extent. His only solution was to sleep for eighteen hours during the weekends, but that only provided him with a short repeal.

George had made sure to go to sleep extra early the previous night and had transformed last weekend so he was in the best state of mind for today. Even then, he wanted to take every advantage he had, so he uncorked the vial and down the entire bottle. This was the first time he'd drunk an entire bottle in one go since he had brewed his first batch over a month ago.

Due to his self-discipline, the effects of the potion had remained potent and a full vial should still theoretically last him the entire day. George felt the reassuring cool minty sensation travel down his throat and all of his emotions disappeared. He used his newly found clarity to revise everything he needed to do in preparation before getting dressed and leaving the dormitory.

George walked down to the Great Hall and sat down at the end of the Slytherin table. He looked around the room and recognised that it had been decorated festively for the spooky holiday. All of the candles which would have been floating in the air had been replaced with pumpkins. The bewitched ceiling now perfectly mimicked a dark winter sky with a full moon peeking from behind a pitch-black cloud.

Even the breakfast food had been displayed with a Halloween theme. The toast was branded with images of ghouls and goblins and the eggs were cooked in the shape of ghosts. The sausages and bacon were arranged to look like human organs spilling out of a freshly killed corpse, Hannibal Lecter would have been in heaven.

Today George treated himself to twin extra servings of sausages with his full English breakfast since he was going to need the energy. Sadly, he was reminded after his first bite of the blandness of dining under the effect of the Calming Draught. Whilst downing a pot of baked beans, George looked a few seats down and saw the cousins talking with Theodore whilst eating their breakfast.

George kept to himself for the rest of the meal and emptied his plate before anyone else, he had a habit of arriving last and leaving first. He wasn't bothered by any of the first-year Slytherins since they seemed far too distracted talking about the upcoming Halloween feast and were wondering what Hogwarts had planned. They were speculating over a fake-out scare arranged by the professors, in a way their predictions were half right.

As George placed his knife and fork on the plate neatly and stood up to leave, he quickly peeked over the heads of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables to see how things were progressing with the trio. Everyone in Harry's dormitory was seated together and talking amongst each other, even Neville was happily engaging in conversation.

George looked a little further along the table and found Hermione seated with a large book open in front of her. More importantly, Hermione was sitting by herself and wasn't talking to anyone. The students around her were paying her no mind as if she didn't exist. George nodded his head and was happy with how events were occurring, everything looked ready for the incident in the Charms class.

His first lesson was Herbology so he decided to set off early and peruse the gardens while he waited for the rest of the class to turn up. Just beside the six greenhouses was a vast and colourful maze of artwork composed of vibrant petals and gravity-defying hedges. It was an impossible feat of gardening architecture which could only be achieved with magic. There had been more than a dozen times over the past month when George had felt his rolling emotions beginning to boil to the surface only to have them quelled by a brief visit to the Hogwarts Gardens.

George walked down the winding gravel path and held his hands out so he could feel the leaves brushing against his fingertips. They were so soft that they felt like finely woven silk. The winding path continued for over one hundred feet and led him past a plethora of bushes cut in the shape of mythical animals. The limbs of the creatures swayed in the morning breeze in a way that made them look alive.

At the end of the path, where it forked into two trails leading left and right, was a humongous flower bed in the shape of the Gryffindor badge. George looked to his left and right and found similar huge flower beds in the shape of the other houses' badges. The Hufflepuff badger was slightly larger than the rest which was almost definitely not an accident since it was predominantly Hufflepuff students that maintained the gardens.

George walked alongside the flower beds and analysed which flowers would be best suited for his purpose. The Gryffindor badge was made up of; deep red Peonies, ladybird Poppies, Dahlias and of course the iconic English Rose, culminating in a dazzlingly vibrant display of reds and oranges. The Ravenclaw's blue and purple display was just as eye-catching as it was made up of; star-like Asters, Hydrangeas, the alien-looking Globe Thistles and, George's favourite, Bluebells.

He could tell that the Slytherin display received the least love since it was by far the dullest. The plants predominantly consisted of foliage and shrubs that he couldn't easily distinguish from sight alone. He would guess a few Evergreens were most likely making up the body of the snake. Then George reached the grandest display which was the Hufflepuff badge, it was made up of thousands of; Daffodils, Daisies, Marigolds, Sunflowers, Lilies, Tulips, Buttercups and much more, George couldn't name them all.

His concentration on picking out the right flowers was broken by a perfectly disguised plump woman dressed in a muddy brown robe sticking her head up out of the display. The camouflaged woman was holding a trowel in one hand and a wand in the other. She appeared to be in the middle of using magic to rearrange a portion of the enormous flower bed.

The ground started to shake below George's feet as the Daffodils uprooted themselves from the soil along with the Tulips and began to walk using their roots like legs. The two groups of flowers marched toward one another until they swapped places and replanted themselves into the ground, all the while, the muddy woman waved her wand like a conductor for an orchestra. She only stopped conducting once the two groups of flowers had finished switching places.

The woman then placed her wand and trowel into a bucket on the ground, picked up the bucket, and started walking in George's direction. Upon her dirty face being revealed to him, George recognised that she was none other than Sprout. She seemed to have noticed him too because Sprout started walking directly toward him whilst expertly avoiding standing on the plants below her with a level of grace one would normally not associate with a woman of that size or age.

Once Sprout was only a few feet away from him, George politely said, "what a pleasant coincidence it is meeting you out here, Professor Sprout."

Sprout didn't seem to have heard his words as she kept walking with a glazed overexpression until she was standing beside him. She turned around to look back at the flower bed and wiped off the sweat on her brow with her sleeve which left a muddy mark behind.

After thirty seconds of Sprout staring out at the flower bed, she finally said, "I'm not sure, what do you think? Is it better now or how it was before?"

George looked out at the flower bed and could hardly tell the difference.

He answered enthusiastically, "I think it looks way better now, the Tulips didn't look right where they used to be."

Sprout nodded her head, "that's what I was thinking. The Tulips had taken to that new dragon manure so well that they completely overshadowed the Daffodils. At least this way you can now see both clearly from here."

George now learnt that dragon faeces made for good fertiliser, yet another pointless fact about his species.

She turned her head to face George and looked at him confused, "my memory must be failing me, who are you again?"

"George Linwood, Professor. I will be attending your Herbology lesson in about ten minutes", George answered whilst checking his watch.

An expression of realisation overcame Sprout, "oh it's you, the tall heavy-handed one. But if I remember correctly…"

She looked at George's crest on his robe, "you're in Slytherin. What are you doing out here so early in the morning?"

George started to mimic Neville as he pointed his head towards the ground and rubbed his hands together nervously.

He said with a subdued voice, "I'm afraid that I must disappoint you, Professor. I came here with ill intentions. I was planning on picking a few of your flowers from the display. I thought since the display was made up of thousands of flowers, no one would notice a dozen or so missing."

Although George was averting his eyes, he could feel the disappointment emanating from Sprout as she was no doubtedly shaking her head towards him.

She snorted derisively before saying, "and why would you go and do something like that Mr Linwood? Did some of your friends dare you to do it? Think it would be funny to destroy others' hard work, do you? Explain yourself."

George lifted his head with a panicked expression, "not at all, Professor. Although I admit to coming here to vandalise the garden, it wasn't with any malice. I have come here to appreciate this wonderful display of nature frequently over the past month to help me control my anxiety. I know of its importance and the effort many have invested to maintain its splendour. It pains me to even consider damaging something that I and so many others hold so significant."

George could tell that his eloquent words had left Sprout rather befuddled.

She spent a few seconds inspecting George's face, most likely to check his sincerity, before asking him, "if you're not lying to me, then why would you consider vandalising the gardens?"

George bit his lip and unfocused his eyes to give Sprout the impression he was debating the best way to explain his answer.

After a few seconds, George took a deep breath in and sighed before 'confessing', "it's as I said, Professor. The Hogwarts gardens do wonders to cure my anxiety. All it takes is a few minutes of basking in their vibrant glory and all seems right with the world. I thought if it had that effect on me, then it should be the same for others."

"And who exactly would this person happen to be?", Sprout asked with a lingering doubt.

George scratched his cheek awkwardly, "it's a girl I met on the Hogwarts Express. She's called Hermione Granger, a first-year like me. I'm guessing that you teach her as well."

Sprout smirked, "Miss Granger, I remember her. She's a smart one, always putting her hand up in class."

George smiled self-deprecatingly, "that sounds like Hermione alright. As I'm sure you already know, we're in different houses, so I don't see her as often as I would like. Although, I have noticed that she's been feeling a bit under the weather lately because the other Gryffindor students haven't been friendly to her. It's not their fault though, Hermione just has a unique way of talking to people that sounds like she's belittling them. So…"

"So you wanted to give her some flowers to cheer her up", Sprout finished George's sentence with a suggestive smile on her face.

George merely nodded his head bashfully. Sprout cupped her chin whilst looking out towards the Hufflepuff flower display. She stood still whilst in deep thought for almost an entire minute before she nodded her head and turned back to face George.

She pulled out a large rusty pocket watch from her robes and sternly looked at it, "I want to make it very clear that I do not approve of any form of vandalisation of the Hogwarts Gardens no matter the excuse. Normally, I would issue detention to the offending students along with the deduction of house points for committing such an abominable act."

Then Sprout's serious expression slackened as she finished, "but, under these specific circumstances, I think I can excuse your behaviour since you hadn't performed the crime yet and had honestly admitted your mistake to me."

George acted as if a heavyweight had been lifted off his shoulders after hearing her exoneration. Sprout's expression suggested that she was taking pleasure out of playing his emotions like a fiddle, he got enough of this from Myrtle.

Sprout patted her hands against her legs, "in regards to your 'friend'. We don't have enough time now so stay behind after class and we'll see what we can find to cheer Miss Granger up."

George put on an anxious smile as he nodded whilst he was escorted by Sprout back to Greenhouse One. The next couple of hours were spent with George and the rest of his class separating leaves from stinging nettles, it was just another 'thrilling' Herbology lesson. No one was having a fun time delicately separating the leaves from the stems whilst simultaneously trying not to injure the plants. Instead, the plants were injuring them.

Sprout was not ignorant of the generally negative attitude, she kept reminding the class of all the beneficial applications of Nettles whilst they slaved away. Sprout told them nettles were a necessary ingredient in the Boil-Cure potion, delicious soups and rejuvenating tea, but the class didn't seem to care.

Children being children, many of the less desirable students started making their own fun as they attempted to deliberately sting their fellow classmates. George received his fair share of leaves being thrown in his direction whilst Sprout's back was turned by various Slytherin students, the most consistent culprit being Draco and his goons.

By a combination of getting on with the task and students' charitable contributions, George was able to produce the largest pile of leaves by a considerable margin without getting stung once. The same couldn't be said about the other students since they were all walking out of the class scratching their forearms and necks as if they had all caught chickenpox.

George stayed behind and patiently waited for Sprout to finish walking around the bench with a large canvas sack.

"Right then, if you just like to follow me", Sprout said before walking out of the greenhouse from the professor's entrance.

George eagerly followed after her and entered another greenhouse he'd never been in before. The plants were giving him an eerie vibe as he walked past them. It wasn't their appearances that were peculiar but instead their behaviour, they were acting a bit like the Whomping Willow. All of the flowers were moving around as if they were sentient, some of them were leaning over and sucking water out of a trough from their flower heads.

The plants at the end of the greenhouse, which looked a bit like mutant flycatchers, must have had aggressive tendencies because they were separated from one another by a foot gap. These plants were desperately reaching for each other whilst snapping at the air like starved animals. Sprout made it very clear that George should keep his hands in his pockets and refrain from going any closer to the little Audrey Twos than necessary.

George continued to follow Sprout out of the weird greenhouse until they reached a narrow corridor with many normal-looking plants hanging from the walls on long rusty chains. This corridor was particularly damp and humid compared to the greenhouses, George could already start to feel his shirt sticking to his back.

"All my greenhouses are chock-a-block so I've had to start moving some projects into the corridors. The humidity charms aren't working so well so you're going to have to put up with it. These are what I wanted to show you", Sprout said whilst gesturing toward the plants hanging from the slimy walls.

George inspected the plants and didn't notice anything different about them. They looked just like the ones he could find in the gardens. There were some English staples such as lavender, delphinium and roses all in full bloom and ripe for picking.

He turned to her and asked, "I don't mean to be rude, professor. These flowers are very beautiful after all, but what's so unique about these particular flowers?"

Sprout smiled and tilted her head towards the flowers, "why don't you give them a sniff?"

George leaned over to the basket of roses and inhaled deeply. He was struck with surprise as a faint but very distinct odour filled his nostrils.

George spoke whilst continuing to inhale the scent, "I didn't know this was even possible, it smells like…"

"Dark chocolate, I know. I haven't quite got it right yet, the smells are a little too bitter for my taste", Sprout said whilst attempting and failing to sound humble.

Not hiding his curiosity, George inquired, "do they all smell like chocolate?"

Sprout smiled and shook her head, "no, only the roses. The lavender is much more potent and smells of freshly baked bread. The delphiniums smell like a crackling fireplace and, although I haven't had a chance to prove it, they make you feel warm and cosy. My personal favourite is still the roses though, that's where I've put the most elbow grease."

George walked along the corridor and sniffed each flower only to find Sprout wasn't exaggerating in the slightest. If he closed his eyes and kept walking, one minute his brain told him that he was walking past a bakery and the next he was walking past a bonfire.

Sensing the value of these plants, George's expression turned serious, "I can't possibly take any of these flowers, professor. They are far too valuable. I would be truly happy with the normal flowers instead."

Sprout waved her hands like she was batting away a fly, "not at all, the only place these flowers will end up is on my desk. The Ministry is very particular about selling modified animals or plants on the market. It would take them years if not decades to approve a new strain of plant. These flowers are just a small project that I had taken up over the summer holidays and I will soon be moving on to the next as soon as I've got that chocolate scent perfect."

George said hurriedly, "are you sure, professor? The flowers should be..."

Sprout insisted, "of course, I'm sure your friend Miss Granger will appreciate the lengths you've gone through to provide her with nothing but the best. I know I would have if I was in her position."

Seeing that Sprout was working under a very similar logic as Gemma, as long as it was for a girl they will let you get away with murder, George proceeded to pick a small bundle of each uniquely smelling flower. Sprout picked up a plain vase that happened to be on the floor by their feet and filled it with water she conjured from her wand. The water sparkled unnaturally with a rainbow of colours as it poured into the vase. Then she placed the flowers George had gathered inside the vase and handed them back to him.

"The conjured water will preserve the flowers until the charm wears off, they should be good for at least a month. Just tell Miss Granger to keep them near sunlight or they'll die within the month," Sprout explained.

The scent from all of the flowers combined filled George's nostrils, "I can't thank you enough, professor. I do not doubt that Hermione will be ecstatic to have received the fruits of your labour."

Sprout nodded and looked back toward her hanging plants, "go on now before you miss your dinner. If you're not too embarrassed, then that would be the perfect time to give them to her. Oh, and mind yourself on the way out. That juvenile Devil's Snare can be real nasty if you let it grab you."