Greenhouse 1

"I am?" Holly then grinned. "Of course! Right! You just have to talk to her. Be her friend, you know?"

"I will... tomorrow."

"Why wait until then?! Say hi to her on the way out of class! Ask if her hand's okay. That'll tell her you care about her." Holly grinned, like she was an expert.

He looked uncertain. "I don't know..."

"Oh come on, Eric! Lighten up a bit!"

He hated it when people told him he was uptight. "Oh, fine!" he snapped, and stood up. He walked over to her right then, and asked quietly, "Is your hand okay?"

She smiled. "I think. It still hurts a bit, but I'm pretty good! Oooh, what about yours? Didn't you get bitten, too?"

"I was wearing my gloves, it's fine." He smiled. "... It sucks you have to stay behind, though. I find it pretty unfair."

"I KNOW, isn't it?! I'm in Gryffindor, you know, so I'm up in that tower, and I didn't realize I had left my gloves until I got onto the grounds. And if I'd run back to get it, I'd get in trouble for being late ANYWAY!" Obviously she didn't think about how it was better to be late and be safe rather than be on time and get hurt.

Eric blinked. He was taken aback at how fast she was speaking all of a sudden. "I... by the kitchens." he pointed to the floor, then realizing what he was doing, and pointed at the castle, instead.

"Oh! You're one of the Hufflepuffs! Hufflepuffs are pretty cool, my best friend is one! What's it like being down by the kitchens? Does the smell of food ever get to you when you're trying to study? It must be distracting!"

"Yeah... it can get distracting! But, the good thing is that you know what's for dinner before it's even served, so if it's something you don't like you don't have to hurry up and grab a seat in the Great Hall, but if it's something you like, you just have to speed it up and get to the Great Hall before anybody else. Plus, in the morning, the smell usually wakes you up. I've never slept in all my days at Hogwarts, and I don't even use an alarm clock!"

"That must be nice! It's so easy to sleep in up in Gryffindor tower because there aren't distractions, except the people you're sharing a dorm with. So I'm always late to breakfast because people think it's so cute to wake me up right as they're leaving!" She viciously plucked a few seeds out of the plant as she talked. "So then I have to be like 'Wait up guys I'm coming let me get dressed you buttheads!'"

"Oh, that must be annoying." He thought of how people always called him cute. "Well, if you're just late for breakfast, it doesn't mean you're late for class, right?"

"Yeah, but then I have to eat breakfast as fast as I can or else I WILL be late for class!" She rolled her eyes. "I'm always running late..."

"Well, since there's nothing to help wake you up, shouldn't you have an alarm clock?"

"Alarm clock? Electronic stuff doesn't work in Hogwarts. Besides watches."

"Oh... right. I can't believe I forgot.. But there are wizard watches with alarms on them."

"Oh, really?! Do you have one? I'd LOVE"--she plucked a rather large seed out of the plant with a great amount of force--"to see it!"

Eric nodded. "Yeah. Oh- speaking of watches, look at the time, I need to go help my partner with out plants.." He stood up and rushed back to Holly. "See, I told you I could do it."

Jessica gave a little wave before returning to her own work.

Holly smiled smugly. "Only because I told you too. But that wasn't too bad, was it?"

"She's really talkative. And spunky. It must be because she's a redhead!" he grinned.

"Probably, cause my sister was that way." Holly shrugged. "You two would make a nice couple."

"Really.. We mostly talked about watches."

"That's not weird. Really. Fry and I talked about brushes one time."