Post by Teresa Margarite Poole on Mar 15, 2023 17:58:43 GMT -7
━ but if you try, you'll surely grow. ━
TERRY HAD ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED BY BOTANY. Her mamé had always been keen on holistic living, and kept a vibrant greenhouse of plants in her back garden. Terry had countless memories of following a very serious mamé as she rhymed off her endless knowledge of soil pH, water ratios and positioning. Terry understood so little, but she enjoyed the look on her grandmother's face. How her vision tunnelled and she pet the top of Terry's curly blond head, happy to entertain her grandchildren in her quick-witted French.
However, Terry didn't think she felt so... moved by greenery until after she'd gotten her Hogwarts letter. Never so obsessed, so desperate to preserve another thing so completely that it consumed her mind. It started in Diagon Alley, the sad, wilting plants in the Apothecary window had her transfixed. How she knew the muted light was so diluted the plants were starving in their pots. Their roots stifled by cheap plastic and porous ceramics.
She'd pleaded with her father all throughout her robe fitting, pulling on his sleeve and whining endlessly about how they were so miserable, so thirsty - he'd purchased one to appease her. The leaves of the peperomia brittle and browning. She'd hugged it to her chest, the sleeve of her t-shirt stained beyond repair from where she'd scrubbed peep holes in the grubby Apothecary window. And how, as they'd boarded the train home, she'd reflected on the entire ordeal and thought the plants were... almost grateful for her intervention. Her father had been exasperated, but Terry still had that very same peperomia as an adult.
At Hogwarts, it was different. She'd taken the rescued plant with her, in a pretty burnt orange terracotta pot. It thrived around her, the infant spokes almost preening at her touch. She had been impressed by her ability to care for it, but couldn't quite figure out how she knew just how much water it needed, and when. How she turned it instinctively towards and away from the light to avoid scorching. While her fellow Ravenclaw's had pet crows and cats, Terry had a pet peperomia.
The Herbology greenhouses were a different level entirely. In the interim, she found herself excelling in her botany studies. How she was almost in a world of her own, or the way the stems of each plant seemed to lean towards her wherever she went. A few ambitious tendrils always finding a way to tangle in her clothes and hair.
The Professor picked up on it eventually, when they found her among the row of Evening Primrose well after curfew. The knees of her pyjamas filthy with soil as she'd very determinedly pulled each of their pots to the middle aisle of the greenhouse. They were due to bloom any day, but Terry insisted that they wouldn't survive their full rotation if they weren't in just the right spot. When asked how on earth she would know that, she'd shrugged. "I just do," She'd told her Professor, sheepish and red from being caught breaking the rules. "I always know- it's like... well, it's like they tell me so." Ushered back to her bed after a thorough questioning, Terry found herself under scrutiny from her kind professor. They tested her over the ensuing weeks, gently guiding her towards an answer she didn't quite get until it was laid out in front of her.
"Have you ever heard of a Naturalist?" She was asked one afternoon, her fingers stuck in the soil of a Mandrake to feel the water density. Just a little too wet, she thought, taking out her wand and giving it a steady swish to help dry it out with a gust of warm air. Terry had not, though she'd moved forward instinctively. She didn't like not knowing things, especially when it came to magic. The professor explained that it was a rare ability among magical folk, but not entirely unheard of. How some had a natural connection with the earth. How they thrived around magical flora, and how plants could almost... feed off the essence of these individuals. Terry realised pretty quickly what he was insinuating. That she, Terry Poole from Greenwich, was a Naturalist. What a concept! But then again, why ever not?
