Blackbird

Herbology

Harry Pov

Draco leads me outside and away from the school. We walk down a hill and I smell freshly turned dirt and plants. I walk that way as that is clearly the direction of the greenhouse. Draco simply follows me and keeps me from tripping as clearly I figured out the direction we need to go.

We are the first to arrive and I feel safe around the plants and dirt as that was always one of my favorite chores when I was allowed outside. Draco leads me to the front most table and we stand there to wait for the other students to arrive.

When the other students get here they all go to their tables and the teacher, my head of house, stands up front. "Today we will be repotting mandrakes." She walks up to me and whispers to me a question. "Are you comfortable with wearing earmuffs?" I shake my head as I don't want to be caught unaware and hearing is the sense that I use the most for that. "Alright, you and Draco can go outside and replant the safe plants that need new pots."

"Thank you."

"I will show you what to do in a moment." She walks back up to the front. "Everyone collect a pair of earmuffs and stand at your desk I will be back in a moment." She walks back up to us and signals to draco to follow her outside. He grabs my hand and we follow her.

She leads us to a smaller green house that has a sign on the door. I touch it and the indented letters read safe. We walk in and she walks us to a corner where there are small pots with plants, bigger empty pots, shovels and soil. She tells us we need to repot as many as we can before the period is over before leaving.

I grab the first small pot and gently squish it to loosen the soil inside before gently taking the plant out and placing it in one of the slightly bigger pots. I place dirt around it with my hands instead of the shovel so I can make sure it is enough before watering it and putting it to the side.

"You're really good at this."

"The plant care and cooking were the only chores I enjoyed when I was allowed outside before dad and father found me." I hear a small gasp and rub my arm slightly smearing dirt along it. I forgot that I haven't really told anyone about what happened to me.

"Well can you teach me?" He says after a few minutes.

"Yes." I work through the steps slowly making sure he understands each one before going on. When we finish the two we did together he seems a lot more confident so he starts repotting them himself.

We end up repotting all of them before the time is up and sitting around talking about our schedules. Eventually the teacher comes to get us and seems very impressed by the fact we got everything done. She thanks us before sending us off to our next class.