give me time, give me space, give me reason [scorp]

[Deleted]

The worst thing about living underground was that, more often than not, the whole place seemed rather dreary. The fact that an entire wall of the common room was dedicated as a window to the lake should have helped, since occasionally light filtered through the water, but Séamus found that creepy rather than comforting. In an effort to brighten up the common room - at least as much as the other Slytherins would allow him to brighten it - Shay had picked several dozen flowers from one of the greenhouses (with permission, of course). The flowers were, at that moment, spread out on one of the tables in the common room as Séamus pondered them all. He knew that he wanted to make several bouquets, but there were so many choices! He wanted the flowers to complement each other, and if at all possible, he wanted each vase to actually mean something, too. If he was going to have to sacrifice meaning for the sake of aesthetics, then so be it, but Shay was really hoping that he could have both. What would be really useful, Séamus thought as he continued to survey the spread before him, would be a second pair of eyes.

@scorp

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@seamus

Slow days were nice on occasion. Using them to his advantage was what Scorpius liked the most about them. Proper studying techniques recommended that breaks were taken often; or at least enough that the material was retained and that completely slacking off wasn’t an option. The prior evening and the majority of the morning had been spent nailing down potions recipes. Scorpius was confident in the class, but it was potions after all, and a millimeter more of moondew could result in catastrophic explosions or cauldron melting. That was a sure way to fail a NEWT.

So the rest of the day was decided upon: rest and relaxation. Scorpius had a relatively good book to read, one that had been recommended a few weeks earlier but had never gotten the chance to finish due to classes and Prefect duties. Now seemed like the perfect time to finish it up. Strolling through the common room, he stopped to observe the table of flowers that was suddenly there. He could see movement behind them. “Afternoon Séamus,” Scorpius spoke up so his housemate could hear him. “Back at it again, are we? The common room was starting to look rather green and gloomy again lately.” That was mostly because of the gray wintery skies that were still sticking around. It didn’t help much that they were in the dungeons either. While the common room and accompanying dorms were rather spacious and open, anyone with severe claustrophobia would surely have an issue being underground all the time.

Stepping around the table to see Séamus better, Scorpius ran his hand gently underneath one of the flowers. He knew absolutely nothing about flowers, except for the magical kind that they were taught about. Knowing Séamus though, he probably wouldn’t bring anything dangerous into the common room. At least he didn’t think the younger Slytherin would. These flowers were all colorful and unassuming, as flowers should be. Though he could name a few people that were colorful and most certainly not unassuming, and they were named after flowers.

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Séamus hadn’t noticed Scorpius’s entrance into the common room because he was so focused on his flowers, only looking up to see his housemate when the other boy greeted him. Of all of the people in Slytherin house to have stumbled upon him during his task, Séamus was glad that it was Scorpius. The other boy was a prefect and seemed to be respected by most of the other Slytherins – even the nasty ones. Since he wasn’t being overtly antagonistic, maybe that spelled good things for the future of Shay’s standing with his peers. “Afternoon, S-Scorp.” He greeted back, pleased that not only was the prefect acknowledging his presence, but he also seemed rather pleased by the task that Shay was undertaking. Of course, no Slytherin would say that they didn’t want the dungeons to be brighter, but some rather scorned Shay’s method of going about that. “I t-tried to p-pick some b-bright b-blossoms.” Séamus informed the other boy, regretting his word choice a little as he tripped over the alliteration. Shay nudged a few sunflowers with the tips of his fingers. “I d-don’t s-suppose you h-have any experience in b-bouquet m-making?” The Slytherin asked. He felt rather foolish asking the question – honestly, what self-respecting person would admit that they were an expert in flower arrangements, with the exception of Shay himself? It wasn’t exactly a common hobby. Even with Herbology gaining some footing in the respect of the wizarding world, that had mostly to do with wizarding plants and their medicinal purposes, not frivolous things like flowers and beauty. Which, Shay thought, was a shame. With everyone scared and hurting, he thought that flowers were an excellent distraction and way to cheer people up. “S-sunflowers and v-violets oughtn’t g-go t-together, b-but I’m n-not s-sure that b-bluebells l-look any g-good with either of th-them.” Shay said, explaining his dilemma and pointing to the flowers in question as he said their names, in case Scorpius couldn’t identify them. Séamus should have paid more attention to clashing colors in the greenhouse.

@scorp

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@seamus

Scorpius looked up from the flower he had been observing, smiling back at Séamus as the younger Slytherin returned the greeting. Despite being completely out of tune with nature and flowers, Scorpius was smart enough to know that these ones were taken care of extremely well. The amount of time and dedication Séamus was always putting into his work was astonishing to say the least. He had no idea what picking blossoms did for the flowers, but he nodded his head regardless. “They look wonderful.” Moving around to the other side of the table to see what else Séamus had done, he looked over the flowers again as he heard his housemate begin to talk. Did he know how to do bouquets? Nope. But there was always a time and place to learn how to though. “Unfortunately I don’t. I can ballroom dance and do other stuffy pureblooded things, but bouquet making was one of the things that never came up,” Scorpius laughed. Hopefully that didn’t come across the wrong way. Sometimes it did with the right kind of people. The Slytherin common room was probably the only place in the castle where he would be openly scoffed at for making light of his upbringing. As much as he hated doing it, Scorpius knew when to pull the Malfoy card. Most would quiet down when that happened. Anyone that really understood him already knew that he didn’t play by the same rules as most purebloods did. There was no reason for him to follow in his family’s footsteps when he could be his own person. “Why is that?” he asked, concerning the statement about certain flowers not going together. “Because of color or a seasonal thing?”

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The Slytherin offered a smile at his housemate when Scorpius complimented the flowers. It had taken Shay more time than he would like to admit to find just the right blooms, so the fact that they were being recognized as above mediocre felt good. Scorpius moved to be beside him, commenting that despite his pureblood upbringing, he didn’t know the faintest thing about making bouquets. What a shame. “P-personally, I th-think b-bouquet m-making should b-be a p-part of the H-Herbology curriculum.” Séamus said. He was certain that people would enjoy learning more about what plants looked good together, rather than possibly having their fingers bitten off by the more dangerous plants. It could be like Herbology for Dummies – still technically fulfilling the requirement, but only for students who didn’t actually need knowledge of plants in their chosen careers. The potioneers and the people who wanted to work with plants would be out of luck, but everyone else would enjoy the class more that way, Shay thought. Scorp asked why Séamus thought the different flowers didn’t look good together, and the younger boy was glad that the question was phrased in multiple choice format. That made it easier to answer without going on a tangent. “C-colors, m-mostly.” Shay said, moving the violets and the sunflowers next to each other so that Scorpius could see what he meant. Blue and yellow were complementary colors, but the violets were too – well, violet for that excuse to be used. Séamus then moved the sunflowers so they were lying next to the bluebells. That could use the whole yellow/blue dichotomy just fine, but the bluebells were a much softer pastel shade, and were a bit overwhelmed by the brightness of the sunflowers, as far as Shay was concerned. Finally, he moved the violets and bluebells next to each other. It could work, but only if Séamus played with the whole monochromatic scheme, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do that.

@scorp