Chapter 13: A Pot of Dragons' Bed

"Panthens, also known as the Dragons' Bed, are medeicresce flora, which means it's a plant that reacts to the presence of stray magic."

Myles looked down at his panthen, a tiny green sprout that wouldn't have made so much as a pillow for any dragons larger than his pinkie finger. It was the fourth Friday of class, and the fourth double period of Herbology. All four Houses were there, split on the four work tables that lined the large greenhouse. Rose and Kory stood to his right and Alexa Collins, a clever Ravenclaw Muggleborn that Myles got along well with, was to his left.

"Panthens will only grow, spread their seeds, and germinate if there's magic around them," Professor Longbottom continued. "They react best to wild magic, and prefer both a consistent and large source of it. As such, they're most commonly found blanketing the ground of dragon nests, where they earn their name as the Dragons' Bed."

The first-years looked at their tiny green sprouts with a great deal more respect.

"They are used in a few high-level potions, but are too rare for common use. Because of their need for wild magic to grow, they're difficult to cultivate like other magical plants and they're dangerous to harvest in the wild. Not only are they found almost exclusively in dragon nests, dragons are often protective of the panthens in their nest, known to attack harvesters even after they've left the nest."

"Yes, Miss Collins?" Professor Longbottom said, his scarred but friendly face looking at Alexa's eagerly upraised hand.

"If panthens only grow around dragons, how will these grow?" Alexa asked.

"A good question," Professor Longbottom smiled. Rose frowned at Alexa, doubtlessly wondering why she hadn't been the one to ask it.

"Stray magic from Wizarding youth is similar to the magic magical animals give off. Each of you will be expected to carry your panthen with you to class and meals to give them magic exposure."

The first-years began to talk amongst themselves: some already complaining about how having to carry the plant around was going to be a pain and others wondering what a grown panthen looked like. Rose, on the other hand, was already raising her hand high into the air.

"What will will growing panthens teach us, Professor Longbottom?"

"Great question, Ms. Weasley. Dragons' Bed can be as tricky and unpredictable as the creatures that sleep on it. That said, it requires little care beyond exposure to wild or adolescent magic. Growing these panthens will be a novel and exciting project to introduce you to Herbology."

"Is it dangerous?" A worried Slytherin asked.

"There have been no recorded panthen injuries, but I'll be monitoring the growth of your panthens closely. For reasons yet known, panthens can take wildly different forms. Some Herbologists have theorized that it grows to match the magic around it but, even if that's true, we still don't understand the details of it or how to control it. This project will not only teach you to care for flora, but further the reach of Herbology itself." Professor Longbottom explained. His obvious excitement and animated expressions were contagious and the students who were just complaining about having to carry the pot around were looking at their panthens with an edge of wonder.

Professor Longbottom spent the rest of the class explaining how they would care for their panthens. He'd grown a couple the previous year, becoming the first Herbologist to grow panthens outside of the wild, which meant he'd had experience with the plants and could explain how he'd learned to best care for them.

"Isn't this exciting?" Rose asked as the class came to an end. "It's like doing real Herbology research!"

"It is really cool, but it's all so wishy washy, so... unscientific," Kory said, finally landing on his last word. Myles has heard Kory mention the word 'scientific' before, but he still had no idea what it meant.

"I don't see what this has to do with Muggle magic," Rose said, frowning.

"The scientific method isn't 'muggle magic'," Kory began. "It's a methodology for understanding the natural world, a way to minimize the effect of human bias and produce reproducible results."

Myles, lost already, looked to Alexa but found she was also absorbed in the conversation.

Al had just barely managed to pull himself out of bed in the morning. He had surreptitiously slipped on his school robes and a pair of thin winter gloves when he saw the coast was clear. He was lucky he slept in the far bed, because if he'd changed in the middle of the room his dorm mates would've seen the sickening bruises that ran down his side.

Getting up had become worth the pain and effort as soon as he saw the the Slytherin lineups posted on the announcement board. His name, in unassuming black ink, had stood alongside thirteen others. Vain had called him over to sit with him at breakfast, something Al realized wasn't going to be a regular occurrence but appreciated all the same. The arm Vain had thrown around his shoulders, however, hadn't been appreciated by his aching side. Vain smiled knowingly at Al's gloves, and when one of the fourth-years asked why he was wearing he mentioned they had Warming Charms and left it awkwardly at that.

The single period Charms class that followed was interesting. The other first-years hadn't approached him at lunch, not when he was sitting with fourth and fifth years, but they were more interested in him than the Flame Dampening Charm Professor Abbott was trying to teach them. Even Arrogance and the Queen congratulated him.

It felt good. They weren't coming up to him because his dad was the Head Auror or the most famous wizard in Britain; they were noticing him because he had earned a spot on the team. He almost forgot about his side, until the painful moment he had to stand up and walk to Herbology.

Dragons' Bed sounded interesting, but Al barely listened to Professor Longbottom over the constant pain of his side. He just wished he could sit down, but there were no chairs in Herbology. Bethany, who sat to his left, and Phillip, who sat to his right, were being particularly talkative to him considering they'd never shared more than a few words before and he struggled to keep track of and respond normally to their conversation.

He was relieved when the class ended, except now he had to walk all the way to the Great Hall. And he had to carry this cursed plant. Al began to walk out of the greenhouse, only half paying attention to the conversation around him, before he was interrupted by by a trio of unexpected first-years.

"Al! Some talent you've been hiding on the broom, eh?" Elias asked, smiling broadly. "I'm going to have to cheer against you, but congrats."

"Thanks," Al said, noting the intense look of the Gryffindor girl besides Elias. He knew of Lyla of course, not that they'd ever spoken to each other. She was never in his group in Defence Club, but she was always in Ambrose, Thalia, and Tor's group and that did not make her popular with Arrogance, the Queen, and the Imp. Losing to Elias, a member of a prominent and longstanding pureblood family, was one thing. Losing to a dirt poor witch of questionable blood status was another. For no other reason than that she annoyed the Slytherin ringleaders; Al liked her.

"You're not alone though," Elias grinned, and Al wondered, for a horribly humbling and jealous moment, if Elias had made the Gryffindor team. "Lyla made the team too."

Al looked at the new Gryffindor player with only slightly guilty relief. Defence Club, dueling, and now Quidditch: a prodigy of magic and athleticism. She was looking at him with an uncomfortably serious expression and she held her hand out in a solemn and formal manner. Self conscious and a little uncomfortable, Al shook it. She gripped his hand tight and shook hard. Not only had his hand been torn up from riding the school broom, Al realized that his he had extended the arm on hurt side. He winced at the jarring pain of his hand and side.

Lyla's expression changed in an instant, from almost comically serious to a friendly concern. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Al tried to smile it off, but Lyla still held his hand and it still hurt. She frowned at him and tightened her grip on his extended hand, shaking hard. Al gasped, bringing his free hand to his side.

"You should go to Madam Pomfrey, mate," Elias said. "Teddy, Fred, and James have gone loads of times and she fixes them right up."

"I'm fine, really. I don't need to go to the infirmary," Al resisted, but Bethany and Phillip were still listening in and he knew that all of Slytherin would know he was hurt and trying to hide it by the end of lunch.

He didn't expect that the light coming on in Lyla's eyes would be his saving grace.

"Myles! Over here!"

Myles turned his head to see Lyla calling out to him, dragging an uncomfortable Albus Potter behind her. He remembered Albus from Mrs. Lenore introducing him to the Potters at Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour but hadn't seen him much at Hogwarts.

"Lyla?" He asked, wondering what this was about.

"C'mon," she said, latching her other hand onto his and dragging him alongside Albus.

"Al?" Rose called, breaking away from their conversation on Muggle magic. "What's going on?"

Al shook his head at his cousin and Myles sighed in resignation as he was pulled along. Things always got messy when Lyla was involved. Messy, but interesting.

The three Ravenclaws followed, continuing their conversation as their curiosity drug them along, as well as Lyla's close Gryffindor friends, Alissa and Elias. A number of the Slytherin first-years were curious at their new Quidditch player being drug off but none of them were willing to follow Lyla. They entered the castle and pulled inside an unused classroom, of which Hogwarts had no shortage.

"What is it, Lyla?" Myles asked, as Al pulled his arm free from Lyla as took a step back.

"Al's hurt," she declared.

"I'm fine," Al defended.

"And he's hiding it," Lyla finished.

"What happened, Al?" Rose asked, approaching and reaching out the familiarity of close family.

"Nothing," Al protested, blocking Rose's arms and retreating. Lyla took advantage of the distraction to dart forward and pull off one of his gloves. He yelped in surprise and Lyla poked him in the side. Al reached for his side in pain and Lyla pulled of his remaining glove as she stepped back.

"Agh!" Al exclaimed, putting a healthy amount of distance between himself and the crazed Gryffindor witch. "What was that for?"

"Al! Your hands!" Rose approached Al again, this time catching him in a corner and forcing him to show her his hands.

"Bloody Merlin, Al! You've got to go to Pomfrey." Elias said, looking at Al's hands with the rest of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. "What were you doing? Riding a thorned broom?"

"I'm fine!" Al insisted, beginning to feel ambushed by the group of first-years. He pulled his hand back and immediately regretted it as the flash of pain from his side turned his vision momentarily black. Rose fussed over Al. Elias tried to convince Al to lift his robes so he could see the bruises on his side, though Myles didn't know whether this was out of concern or curiosity. Kory was watching and continuing the conversation on Muggle magic with Alexa and he somehow brought Alissa into the conversation as well. But Lyla was looking at Myles expectantly, and he realized what she had intended by dragging him here.

"I don't know, Lyla," Myles said hesitantly. "I've only ever healed a couple of scratches and Scufy's leg."

"You've got it Myles." She gave him the same look she'd given him in Dueling Club, the one that held absolute faith that he would succeed. Myles couldn't say no to that, even if he held only a shred of her confidence in himself.

"You need to go to the infirmary, Al!" Rose argued, her voice rising in frustration at her stubborn cousin.

"He doesn't need to go to Pomfrey. Myles can heal him," Lyla interjected, drawing a skeptical look from Rose.

"Myles doesn't know healing spells," Rose said incredulously. "The only students Pomfrey takes are handpicked, and none of them are first years."

"He does," Lyla insisted. "He healed Scufy when I took him to Beth's Healing."

Rose looked at Myles, both skeptical and impressed.

"I can heal his hands at least," Myles said, knowing that healing Al's hurt side would be a much harder task. "Let me see them."

Al's hands were covered by a number of small scrapes with a few deeper cuts that would take time to heal. Scabs had formed overnight, which was good for natural healing but not so much for magical healing. Ms. Lenore would've healed the cuts under the scabs and they would've fallen painlessly off. Myles, on the other hand, might trap the scabs under Al's skin if he tried it.

"I have to remove the scabs first; it'll hurt," Myles told Al, a question in his eyes. The Slytherin first-year with messy dark auburn hair and hazel eyes looked at him uncertainly. They'd never even spoken to each other outside of their brief meeting at Floureance's Ice Cream Parlor. But after a moment Al gave him a nod and told him to go ahead.

"Bogare," Myles cast on the first of Al's hands. The scabs melted away and blood flowed through the open wounds. It had to hurt, but Al barely flinched as he watched the scabs dissolve on his hand.

"Augmenti." Water washed away the remnants of the scabs and fell to the ground tainted red by blood.

Elias and Lyla watched with morbid fascination while Rose and Alissa watched uncomfortably. Alexa looked on with a intellectual curiosity, and Kory simply averted his eyes. Myles had never been bothered or fascinated by blood. It was simply a fact of life, a physical resource and occasionally a magical one.

"Nits," Myles finally cast. Healing charms were simple enough when cast on a clean singular cut, but healing a number of cuts, all of different shapes and depths, required a deal of finesse and practice. Which, Myles was proud to say, he had performed the charm with; the skin and tissues of Al's hand knit themselves neatly together, leaving the hand looking as good as ever, if a bit pink in spots.

Al flexed his hand, clenching and unclenching it, before looking up at Myles with a slight grin. "Wicked."

"Right wicked, mate," Elias agreed, moving forward to inspect Al's freshly healed hand.

"It's nothing impressive," Myles said with a flushed face. "Anyone could do it."

"No they couldn't," Rose said seriously. "Most Hogwarts graduates only learn the very basics and there's a reason Pomfrey only takes a few students; healing takes control and discipline. A single mistake on any spell more complex than Nits could be disastrous. The worst in St. Mungo's are from Dark Magic and failed healing charms.

"Yeah..." Elias said slowly in the awkward silence that followed. "That's a mood kill, Rose."

"Myles knows what he's doing. Ms. Lenore taught him," Lyla vouched for him with certainty.

Rose acquiesced. "Myles has clearly done this before, otherwise I'd never agree to him healing Al."

"Well..." Myles said into another awkward silence. "I'd only ever healed myself and Scufy before."

"And you decided to practice on Al?" Rose asked, quickly growing angry. Myles had seen Rose get angry before, she was surprisingly fierce and determined when riled up, but never at him.

"Chill," Elias said. "Every healer has to have cast their spells a first time."

"Yes, under supervision." Rose emphasized incredulously.

"Myles has healed under supervision before. Ms. Lenore had him heal Scufy," Lyla explained.

"Scufy is a cat!" Rose exclaimed. "Al is a wizard! There's a difference!"

"Rose," Al said, holding up his healed hand. "You said yourself he 'clearly knows what he's doing.'"

Rose harrumphed, crossing her arms and looking at them, but particularly Myles, with a contemptuous and disapproving air. It made Myles uncomfortable but Elias and Al were unperturbed, likely a result of family ties, and Lyla was hardly likely to be bothered by something as tame as a glare.

"Heal his other hand," Lyla insisted.

Myles repeated the steps on Al's still torn hand. Despite Rose's eyes burning holes in the back of Myles's robes, healing Al's hand went without a hitch.

"Thanks," Al said, smiling at his hands and then at Myles. "I owe you one."

"You're welcome," Myles replied, his cheeks flushed from the attention of the gathered first-years. He could understand why Ms. Lenore had become a healer: the satisfaction of flesh knitting back together, of the body's function being restored, and of the smile at the end of it. It would, however, be more enjoyable without a very fierce aura of disappointment hovering by him.

"Let's count ourselves lucky that no one suffered permanent injury this time," Rose said in a scathing voice.

Myles didn't know what to say and he held off voicing his annoyance. He didn't understand how she was angrier with him than he'd seen her, even when dealing with Tor's bullying, and Myles was healing. She had a point, Al would be in better hands with Pomfrey, but he hadn't asked to be the one to heal his hands.

"Back off Rose," Al told her. "You can leave if you don't want to be here." Rose harrumphed and stormed out of the classroom, shooting a look at Kory, who gave Myles a shrug as he followed her out the door. Myles expected an awkward silence to follow the confrontation, but Elias continued on like nothing had happened.

"Show us your chest Al," Elias grinned. "I bet you've got some sick bruises."

"I'm not taking my robes off here," Al said, his eyes flitting self consciously between Lyla, Alexa, and Alissa.

"Don't wanna show off for the ladies?" Elias grinned at Al's obvious discomfort. "Well, clear out then! Ickle Al needs his privacy!"

Lyla was reluctant to leave, but the girls cleared out of the classroom so they could continue. Despite their absence, Al still looked uncomfortable when he took off his robes and stood before them bare-chested and in long white underwear. His side was a mural of dark and blotted bruises. Myles didn't have much experience in diagnosing and healing, but even he could clearly see that Al likely had broken or fractured ribs.

Ms. Lenore had taught him one simple diagnostic spell, and he cast it now, holding his wand over the worst of the bruises. There was no clear and simple response. No green or red light shinning to indicate the state of his body. Rather, it was a reverberating signal that his wand picked up, traces of magical energy returning after bouncing off bones and tissue. Ms. Lenore had been pleasantly surprised at Myles's quick progress with the spell, but Myles could only decipher the roughest and blurriest image from it.

"Take a deep and slow breath." Myles's voice, distracted as he was by the work at hand, took a commanding tone.

Al followed his instruction and Lyla choose this moment to reenter the classroom. She barged in, followed, in a much quieter manner, by a curious Alexa and a slightly guilty and definitely embarrassed Alissa. Al, surprised by interruption and all too aware of his barely clothed self, sharply finished his inhalation. He gasped at the pain and exhaled all at once, a reaction that only caused more pain.

Myles shot a look at Lyla, who had the grace to look abashed if not regretful, for her untimely entrance and handed Al's dropped robes back to him. "Two of your ribs are fractured. I think. You'll have to go to Madam Pomfrey after all; I can't heal it." Well, Myles thought he could, but Rose had had a point and he wasn't willing to take the risk.

"I'll be fine," Al replied, his flushed cheeks and recent embarrassment taking the authority out of his confident words. "I don't need to go to the Infirmary."

Rose would have argued and demanded that he visit Pomfrey, but Rose wasn't in the classroom and it was Alexa that provided a suggestion. "What about a potion? We wouldn't be able to make Skele-Gro, but there are other potions."

"Maybe the Red-Regrow Potion? Most of the ingredients are in open cabinet. We could each sneak a little bit of earlswang, ginger, and corsroot out tomorrow at Potions but we'd have to find the rest elsewhere," Alexa responded, deep in thought as she perused her Potions knowledge. "Let me see the full list."

She pulled out her potions textbook and flipped straight to the back, where potions and their ingredients were listed along with a short description and a reference to the page of the International Potions Repository on which they was detailed. "The open potions cupboard is missing knotgrass, wiggentree bark, and wormwood. We could find knotgrass and wormwood around the grounds, but we'd only be able to find a wiggentree in the Forbidden Forest."

"Let's do it!" Lyla exclaimed. "We can go to the forest tonight and grab the other ingredients tomorrow at Potions!"

"We're not going to the Forbidden Forest at night," Alissa stated firmly, glaring at Elias and Lyla as if daring them to argue.

"You really needn't..." Al began, trailing off as he was completely ignored.

"We'll go during the day then," Elias said grinning at the loophole in Alissa's statement and Lyla's enthusiastic agreement. "Tomorrow at lunch."

Alissa looked like she might argue, but sighed instead and Alexa smiled. "Let's do it."

"This isn't needed!" Al exclaimed, ignored again as Elias and Lyla began to speculate about their adventure into the Forbidden Forest.

Myles gave Al a sympathetic look and shrugged. "I think they've made up their minds."

"You're the only sane on here," Al complained. Myles shrugged again; he wasn't walking around with broken ribs.