Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Written for Quidditch League, Round Two.
CHASER 3:Write about someone preparing for or taking an exam in Herbology
(dialogue) "This was the most fun I've ever had."
(word) procrastinate
(word) watery
Scooping up Trevor from where he'd been skulking underneath the table, Neville made his way out of the Great Hall. He stopped at the sound of his name being called across the hallway.
"Hey, Neville! Wait!"
He turned to see blonde-haired Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbot rushing towards him, brandishing a large textbook.
"You left your book on the table." She said, slightly out of breath. She smiled at him. "I thought you'd want it considering we've got our Herbology O.W.L in a few days."
"Oh!" Blushing, Neville pocketed Trevor and then reached out to take the book from her. "Thanks, Hannah. I forgot I'd even taken it with me! I'm awful at remembering things."
"Well, you can't be good at everything," She said, rather sensibly. "Besides, that's not entirely true. You always remember all the answers in Herbology lessons."
"Um… I don't…" Neville stuttered.
"That's what I really wanted to talk to you about anyway," she continued, as if Neville hadn't attempted to reply. "I'm having some trouble with revising my Herbology notes and I really want to do well because Professor Sprout is my Head of House. You're easily the best in our year, so I was wondering if you could help me out?"
Flushing at the compliment, Neville replied "Uh, I guess I could try to help. Do you want to go to the library?"
Nodding, Hannah beamed at him. "Thanks! I was thinking we could quiz each other? I need help learning some stuff for the written part of the exam." She lowered her voice as they started down the corridor to the library. "To tell you the truth, plants kind of bore me a little, y'know? I mean, I'd rather be doing spell-work or something. I guess that's why I keep procrastinating over revising for it."
Frowning a little, Neville exclaimed, "Herbology isn't boring at all! There are some really cool plants out there. Did you know that there's a wizard that's grown some trees that resist gravity, in Nepal?"
"Resist gravity? How does that even work?" Hannah asked, looking mildly interested.
She watched with a smile as Neville excitedly explained how the trees worked, his hands gesturing in the air to illustrate and his eyes alight with passion for his favourite subject. His earlier nervousness was gone, she noticed; Neville was entirely comfortable discussing Herbology.
Reaching the library, Neville held open the door for her to walk through.
"Okay, so those trees do sound much more interesting than some of the things we learn about in our classes. I mean, who wants to know how to extract pus from plants or get attacked by a Snargaluff Pod?" Hannah giggled, quickly stifling it when Madame Pince glared at her.
Smiling, Neville pointed "There's a table free over at the back there."
They made their way to the desk, which was safely hidden from the ever-watchful eye of the Librarian behind a shelf of Transfiguration books. Putting her bag on the table, Hannah took the nearest chair, whilst Neville sat down opposite her and got his books out.
"So, revising for the O.W.L means we need to cover everything from the last five years. Do you want to start at the beginning and work through?" Hannah questioned.
"Okay," Neville agreed, "Let's test each other. You go first."
"Hmm… How do you deal with a Spiky Bush?" She asked.
"That's easy. You cast a fire-making charm on it, preferably from a distance. Otherwise it'll shoot spikes at you!" Neville answered the question with ease, before returning with "What's the best way to get rid of Devil's Snare?"
Hannah bit her lip. "Oh, it seems like we covered all this such a long time ago! Do you douse it with water? Is that the one that will shrivel up because it doesn't like being too watery?"
Smiling wryly, Neville shook his head. "It's the opposite actually. Devil's Snare likes to grow in dark and damp places. You get rid of it with fire or lots of light."
Picking up her quill, Hannah made a note of his answer. "How do you remember all these different things about each plant? It seems impossible to distinguish between them all."
"Devil's Snare is easy to remember. Here," He began flipping through his copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi to find the relevant page, "There's a rhyme here to help."
Taking the book he pushed across the table, Hannah look down at the page and recited, "Devil's Snare: It's deadly fun, but will sulk in the sun!"
"Does that help?" Neville asked. "The 'deadly fun' is talking about how it has tentacles that can be a real nuisance and then 'sulk in the sun' is-"
"Is kind of self-explanatory." Hannah finished, interrupting. "Hey, that's actually a really good way to learn this stuff! Can we make up some more rhymes, to help with the other plants?"
"Sure. Any ideas for Mandrake Roots?" He asked, smiling.
Giggling, she replied "What about something to do with really ugly screaming babies? Does anything rhyme with that?"
The next couple of hours raced by, filled with laughter as the pair thought up increasingly more outlandish rhymes to help them remember different plants. However, it soon neared curfew and they decided to head back to their respective Houses.
"Thanks for helping me out, Neville. I think I might be alright for the exam now." Hannah thanked him as they gathered their things.
"It was fun!" Neville smiled at her. "Do you still think plants are boring?"
"No, I'll have to admit, this was the most fun I've ever had with Herbology!"