"The bowtruckle is a small, insect-eating, tree dwelling creature. It's made of bark and twigs, and serves as a tree guardian for its home tree." Professor Sprout began talking the moment she entered the greenhouse, using her wand to levitate a large potted plant in front of her. She stared at the second year Slytherins and Ravenclaws with a stern look. "Although they are peaceful creatures, they will become violent if anyone threatens its tree or itself."

Avalon turned to look back at Daphne, who was sitting at a workstation behind her with her partner Theo. It looked as though they were starting a new Herbology project. Her gaze flicked over to Blaise, who was slumped over. The piece of parchment in front of him was peppered with small doodles, including Draco crashing into the Whomping Willow on his broom. Avalon snickered.

Professor Sprout gave Avalon a knowing look, but didn't stop teaching to reprimand the girl. For some reason, Avalon had a consistent problem with being too talkative in her classes, especially Herbology. She was trying to work on it.

"Each tree contains a branch—that's what a group of bowtruckles is called—that you will be studying during this semester. For the next two months, you and a partner will spend some class time watching your branch, and recording what happens in the tree. You'll also be able to come in during breaks and on the weekends to work as well. In addition to a written report including the history of the bowtruckle, the social hierarchy of the branch, abilities and skills, dietary needs, and other basic attributes, you'll need to find out what they like and dislike, because I'm also tasking you with finding a way to convince the bowtruckles to let you remove wand wood from the tree. This assignment will be due when you come back from Christmas break." Professor Sprout laughed at the expressions on the faces of her students. "You gripe now, but in addition, I will be picking your partners."

There was a collective groan around the greenhouse. "I want there to be as little horseplay as possible when you're in here working with your branches. Carelessness leads to injuries,"

She began to read off a list. "Tracey Davis and Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy and Morag MacDougal, Avalon Steele and Padma Patil, Theodore Nott and Terry Boot, Daphne Greengrass and Mandy Brocklehurst, Vincent Crabbe and Sue Li, Sally Smith and Stephen Cornfoot, Gregory Goyle and Lisa Turpin, Michael Corner and Oliver Rivers, and finally, Anthony Goldstein and Millicent Bulstrode."

Confused students looked around the greenhouse to find their partners. A lot of the interhouse pairings had never interacted with one another before, and Avalon and her partner were no exception. She could barely remember the name that Professor Sprout had read off the parchment only moments before. Fortunately, she was saved by a voice behind her.

"Are you Avalon?"

Before answering, Avalon swiveled around and peered up at the girl standing in front of her, a tall Ravenclaw with smooth brown skin and long black hair worn in a plait down her back. She raised eyebrows impatiently as she waited for a response. "Yeah I am. I'm guessing you're Padma?" Avalon asked. The girl didn't speak again, but instead gave a cool nod before sliding onto the stool next to Avalon, that had been previously occupied by Blaise.

"Is everyone settled?" The woman looked around the room at the students still scrambling to find their new seats, but she continued the lesson without waiting for a response. "Great, let's get started."

Professor Sprout picked up her dragonhide gloves and slipped them onto her fingers, instructing the students to do the same. Once this was done, she grabbed her wand and flicked it through the air. A bunch of small potted tree saplings flew through the air, one stopping in front of each pair of students. A few rows in front of Avalon and Padma, Crabbe reached out to touch one of the bowtruckles in his branch, but it simply bit his finger indignantly. He yelped loudly, and across the greenhouse, Goyle's head shot up as he tried to see why his friend sounded hurt. Without looking at the other boy, an annoyed looking Ravenclaw girl rolled her eyes and picked up Crabbe's dragonhide gloves, holding them out to him at an arm's length. He tugged them on sheepishly.

"Thank you, Sue," Professor Sprout said. She chuckled, holding back her laughter. "And Vincent has made an excellent point. Safety first, because as I said, they will become violent if it thinks anyone is threatening its tree or itself. Moving on, one of you should take out some parchment and label it. You don't have to name the bowtruckles in your branch, but I think it would be a good idea for observational purposes."

Avalon opened her mouth to speak but was promptly cut off.

"We should outline a schedule so we don't wait until the last minute to get everything done," said Padma. She took out the supplies as Professor Sprout had instructed but didn't wait for Avalon to respond. Usually, Avalon hated being bossed around, but something about Padma made her okay with it.

Avalon nodded. "I could come in after classes, before dinnertime. I usually leave my homework for the weekends anyway, so I have some free time."

"Charming," said Padma making it perfectly clear she thought her anything but. She looked as if Avalon's words caused her physical pain, and the latter realized that maybe talking about her tendencies to procrastinate while working on a project with her new partner wasn't the best idea. "Anyway, I'm a quick eater, so I'll be here every day after breakfast and after lunch to collect data as well. When we're both here for Herbology, we can compare notes and do revisions."

"That sounds good to me," said Avalon, but Padma had already begun scribbling notes and probably wasn't listening to her words.

It had been nearly twenty minutes before her partner acknowledged Avalon's presence and spoke again. "Also, once we have enough information, we'll meet in the library to work on the essay. I assume you have a homework planner?"

"Umm… no?"

Padma held out her own, and upon opening it, it said, 'don't leave it till later, you big second rater.' She nodded again in Avalon's direction. "I expect you to get one so you can keep up on all of the work."

"Yes ma'am," Avalon found herself saying.

When the bell rang, Avalon began to quickly grab her things and shove them into her bag. Padma was still standing over her, and narrowed her brown eyes at the Slytherin girl. "I want to make this perfectly clear. At no point, will this partnership be anything less than equal. I will not do extra work to make up for your slacking. If that appears to be the case, I will speak to Professor Sprout and explain to her why you should receive a failing mark on the assignment. Trust me, I've done it before."

Without waiting for a response, Padma spun on her heel and stalked off, whipping Avalon in the face with her thick plait.

"What's her deal?" Blaise asked, coming back to his original workspace to pick up his fallen quill from the under a leafy plant.

"I have no clue."

Theo and Daphne were both waiting by the door of the greenhouse, and beckoned for the pair to join them so they could hurry off to lunch.

ASPPBZDG

Later that week, Avalon was sitting in the Owlery window with Neville. They had left the library due to her extreme lack of focus, her need for fresh air, and the fact that it was raining and they couldn't go work by the Great Lake as they did sometimes when one of the pair wanted a change in scenery. However, judging by the fact that she was simply staring out the window with a pensive look on her face, it didn't seem to be working according to plan. Neville nudged her gently with his foot, and she smiled apologetically. "You're not listening to me."

"Sorry, Neville. But did you know that Professor Sprout instructed Madam Pince to prohibit any second years from checking out books related to bowtruckles until after Christmas break? I can't even get Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," Avalon moaned. She leaned back against the wall, jumping as an owl flew in the open window across her.

"I guess Professor Sprout wants all the information we include to come from our observations," Neville said. "Who's your partner?"

"Some Ravenclaw girl called Padma Something-Or-Other."

Neville nodded. "I know who Padma is. Her twin sister Parvati is in my house. I've never really talked to her, but from what I gather she's a nice gal. A little uptight, maybe. Professor Sprout paired me with Hannah Abbott. She's a Hufflepuff in our year. I was talking to her after class and I think she likes Herbology as much as I do. She told me about all the magical plants she has at home, and she actually has a greenhouse in her backyard."

"You seem to have gotten the perfect partner," said Avalon. She waggled her eyebrows up and down at him, then laughed and watched as Neville's face reddened at her words.

"Shut up."

As a last-ditch effort to change to subject, Neville started to tell her a story that included Finnigan blowing something up in Transfiguration. She willed herself to listen his words, but she found herself thinking about her sister. Lucy had promised to send a letter every week. It wasn't even two months into the school year and already the letters had stopped. Charlie was probably receiving a letter every day. They were falling back into the pattern from the previous year, but the outcome was going to be even worse because Avalon couldn't just show up outside the Gryffindor common room so they could hug and make up like she had the day Seamus Finnigan had been right about her wanting to make things right with Lucy. Stupid Finnigan. If he hadn't ever convinced her to makeup with Lucy, they'd still be mad at each other. Avalon never would have gone to the Burrow and she probably wouldn't care that it had been over a week since her last letter from Lucy. It was all his fault.

"And then, there was a chunk of his eyebrow missing—he had burned it off completely," Neville was saying when Avalon started to register his words once more. "No one wanted to be the one to tell him, because he actually thought that he had done the spell correctly, but finally Hermione showed him his reflection."

"Wow."

Avalon felt bad. She realized there had been countless times where Neville would talk to her and she would either zone out and think about other things, or come to some shocking realization and say she had to leave immediately. In fact, just while these thoughts were going through her head, Neville had moved on from the explosive Finnigan story to one about why Halloween was his favorite holiday.

"It was always so much fun. My cousins would come over and Gran would make us all a kettle of tea and read The Tales of Beedle the Bard until we fell asleep. I missed her a lot last year when Halloween came, but she sent me an extra letter that day," he finished.

She was doing it again. Neville was one of her best friends, but she somehow couldn't be bothered to listen to his problems and his stories? Why was she so awful?

As they sat there, another owl flew in the Owlery. It had come back without a package but still dropped a load on Avalon's robes. She groaned loudly and hopped up. "I need to get this out, Nev. Daphne keeps a travel sized bottle of All-Purpose Magical Stain Remover in her trunk. I'll see you in potions tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Neville answered. He waved to Avalon and turned to walk down the steps of the Owlery, his Herbology textbook tucked neatly under his arm.

Avalon followed quickly, wondering if the universe had dropped bird droppings into her lap as a form of penance.