Chapter 61: 3rd September 1991, Tuesday: Part 2

George suddenly let go of Theodore and the petrified boy fell backwards into the wall of coat hooks. Half a dozen robes fell to the ground which got a few of the Slytherin student's attention. It appeared that George had gotten a bit carried away and had lifted Theodore a few inches off the ground during his passionate declaration. Theodore was so scared that his trembling knees gave out, causing him to collapse to the ground. George felt like he couldn't look at such a pathetic sight any longer, so he quickly turned around to enter the greenhouse. None of Theodore's so-called friends tried to stop him. Instead, they averted their eyes as he walked past.

The moment that George walked into the greenhouse, he felt all of his furious emotions being suppressed which brought him some much-needed clarity. It took him only a second to realise how emotionally compromised he had become upon seeing Theodore. He had acted completely out of character not unlike how he behaved during the Sorting Hat ceremony, his pride alone had briefly been inflated to a level Draco couldn't rival. It became immediately obvious that his erratic emotions must have meant that the Calming Draught had worn off way earlier than anticipated.

His body wasn't one hundred per cent human anymore and couldn't be held to the same standards when it came to potion dosages. He was an eight-foot-tall lizard monster inside a five-foot-tall child's body, this outcome seemed so obvious now that he thought about it. Why hadn't George realised this problem sooner? Pomfrey said that the potion would last twenty-four hours, then he should have predicted that it would have lasted two-thirds of that time at most. Everything that he had to deal with yesterday must have distracted him from this point, it turned out drugged-up George couldn't handle everything.

Once again, George made some more bad decisions under the influence of his out-of-control emotions. Luckily for him, this mistake only affected a negligible amount of students. Theodore was one unlucky boy, he'd been the victim of both of George's outbursts. George had to have some faith in Theodore not to report his bullying to the professors. Being a known bully like Draco would directly undermine his good-boy persona. George would have to find a way to ensure Theodore kept his mouth shut, it would be ideal if the method didn't involve terrorising the boy any further.

Even thinking about Theodore right now was starting to annoy George all over again, these negative impulses needed to end right now before he did something stupid. He didn't hesitate to pull out another Calming Draught vial from his pouch and down it in one. He felt the cool minty sensation travel down his throat and was immediately relieved of the weight of his repressed emotions, the anger towards Theodore vanished like it never existed. To ensure an accident like this never repeated itself, George would have to pay extra special attention to monitoring his feelings before acting on them instinctually.

Also, he had to amend his schedule so that he drank his medicine every eighteen hours instead of once a day. This was particularly alarming because George's deadline to recreate the Calming Draught had now been shortened to only five days. That was the bare minimum amount of time he needed. Every second of spare time he had now had to be dedicated to researching and sourcing materials to create the potion. Today, George couldn't be distracted from thinking about anything else. Friends, family and teachers would have to take a back seat.

After a few minutes of pushing and shoving, all of the students found a place to stand around a large metal table filled with ceramic pots. Half of the pots had a range of colourful plants inside, the other half was just filled with dirt. The plants looked just like any other found in the muggle world except for the fact they were several times larger than George remembered they ort to be. He stood behind the table with the rest of the class and waited for Sprout to turn up. At this rate, she was going to be late. So much for rushing to the greenhouse, if she takes any longer then he would have had time to nip into the Great Hall for a quick bite.

In the meantime, George looked around the long steel greenhouse with glass windows that were foggy from all the condensation. The air was wet and hot which made George regret not having the time to have a bath this morning, he was already feeling quite sticky. On the other hand, he would be lying to himself if he said he didn't prefer this climate. The cold-blooded lizard inside him was very happy to spend all day here. The greenhouse's back wall that was facing the Hogwarts castle was covered in plants that grew right up to the ceiling, it created a beautiful collage of vibrant colours as all the flowers appeared to be in bloom even though it was September.

Five minutes late for her own lesson, a large woman in a dirty green witches' robe with a pointed hat entered the room from the opposite side of the students and stood at the end of the table. The woman had grey curly hair and rosy red cheeks, George knew this was none other than Sprout. Then Sprout picked up a trowel and banged it against a pot to get everyone's attention.

She spoke in a loud booming voice, "good morning everyone!"

The room fell silent as the students looked towards her whilst waiting to be told what to do. Sprout put her hands on her hips as she pretended to be disappointed in the class. George could sense a stupid ice-breaker coming up.

Sprout shook her head, "that won't do at all. I want you all to repeat after me, good morning Professor Sprout."

The students played along with her request and repeated her words monotonously in unison.

"Good morning, Professor Sprout."

A big smile formed on Sprout's face as she continued her prompt rehearsal.

"Excellent, repeat that one more time after I say, good morning everyone. Now, from the top. Good morning everyone."

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The whole class including George said in unison, "good morning Professor Sprout."

Sprout looked very impressed as she clapped her gloved hands together which sent bits of dried dirt into the air. If George still had his emotions then he would have anticipated feeling humiliated right about now. That inflated pride from earlier wouldn't have been able to handle this insult to his intelligence.

Sprout placed both of her hands on the table and leant forward, "welcome to Greenhouse One first years. This will be where you'll be spending most of your time in Herbology. We will be heading over to Greenhouse Two after the break so you can see where you will be spending the other half of your time.

As the more astute of you have probably guessed, I'm Professor Sprout and I'll be teaching you Herbology for the foreseeable future. I'm also Hufflepuff's head of house in case any of you weren't already aware.

Now gather around the table everyone, nothing is going to bite, at least in this greenhouse. I'm going to quickly summarise your semester and then we can get our hands dirty."

George barely paid any attention during the lesson, he did what he was told and nothing else. The students had been located in the first and second greenhouses which were both only homes to non-dangerous, and therefore boring, plants. Sprout had talked for a while and then performed a rather interesting demonstration of what was in essence muggle gardening whilst the students looked on with underwhelmed expressions. Only Neville could find this monotonous manual labour interesting. George presumed everyone was hoping to see some fun and interesting magical plants that would captivate the senses, but instead, was welcomed with a tutorial on how to plant roses.

The first greenhouse was predominantly home to many familiar flowers that both wizards and muggles would have in their gardens as decoration. George smelt the soil and wondered if there was magical fertiliser that allowed the plants to grow to unimaginable sizes or if it was another factor he couldn't account for. The only thing he knew for certain was the fact the dirt was not enchanted. Unlike the rest of his fellow students, George wasn't complaining about the lacklustre plant selection. His time wasn't wasted in this class since two of the ingredients he could smell and taste in the Calming Draught could be easily sourced from inside Greenhouses One and Two.

George had managed to sneakily take some samples of lavender in the first greenhouse. The students were told how to transfer the plants from one pot to another in the latter half of the first lesson, that was his time to strike. George had strategically placed himself in front of a lavender plant at the start of the class. During the lavender's re-potting, he took that opportunity to break off a stem of lavender by 'accident' and hide it inside of his enchanted sack. Even if Sprout saw George's 'mistake', she would most likely see him as nothing more than a heavy-handed child who happened to fidget on occasion.

The next ingredient was found in the second greenhouse, George needed some peppermint leaves. The second greenhouse differed from the first as it grew vegetables and herbs instead of flowers. Just like in the first greenhouse, these plants had grown to ridiculous sizes. The carrots were the size of leeks and the leeks were the size of brooms, George didn't understand why wizards and witches hadn't ended world hunger yet in secret. Oh yes, he already knew why, it's because of that secrecy law. How heavy the hearts of the world's ministries of magic must be, to watch as millions of innocent muggles die each year knowing they could easily prevent it.

Anyway, getting back on track. George had already had a few samples of peppermint as he had purchased some whilst at Diagon Alley. He had bought a small amount for brewing potions since it was a common ingredient. Since he still planned on making potions other than the Calming Draught in the near future, he intended to collect a surplus of peppermint. There was plenty of space left in his enchanted sack to keep it, so the more the merrier. The only problem was the plants rotting over time so George would have to keep stealing a little every month or so. Speaking of which, stealing the peppermint without Sprout knowing was even easier than in the first lesson.

In Greenhouse two, Sprout had the class learn how to take samples from the plants without damaging them. This was intended to teach children how to secure potion materials whilst preserving the plant's health. The students were given a pair of scissors and had to cut off some leaves from the plant in front of them and place the leaves into a bag next to their plant pot. George had placed himself in front of the peppermint plant and simply let a pile of leaves form at the bottom of the pot as he cut a bit too enthusiastically. This should have looked like, from an outside perspective, he was being a little careless with his sample collecting which wasn't an unfamiliar sight as a lot of the students were getting bored.

Once the lesson ended, George discreetly scooped up the leaves and placed them in his leather sack on the way out of the greenhouse. Sprout was none the wiser as she waved the students out and congratulated them on their efforts. George was having a good time finally not drawing attention to himself. For once the class and the teacher were not focusing all their attention on him. He had noticed a lot of eyes on him at first but the eleven-year-olds became far too distracted learning about a new subject from a new teacher. Sprout was also very good at keeping their attention on her with her powerful voice. She either didn't recognise George or was too occupied teaching the class because she hardly spared him a glance for the entire two-and-a-half hours.

George did take the time to look towards Theodore on occasion to see what impact his impulsive threat had made. He had hoped the boy hadn't taken it too badly. George had been way too optimistic as Theodore looked like a Vietnam veteran experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. His eyes were glazed over and he barely listened to what Sprout was saying, he looked a bit like a zombie without a human to chase. On one occasion, Sprout had walked over to Theodore to wake him up out of his stupor when he kept on ignoring her. She had patted him on the back which resulted in Theodore jumping as if she had just stuck his hand into an electrical outlet.

All the students except George laughed at Theodore and Sprout appeared to assume he hadn't slept last night and was nodding off in her class. She had warned him if he daydreamed again then she would take some points from Slytherin. George didn't bother to talk to Theodore again as it would only make his relationship with him even worse. He currently had no idea how to fix that burning bridge, maybe time was the best healer for unusual situations like this. Regardless of what he should or shouldn't do, George decided to leave the Theodore problem for a future version of himself to fix. He was on too tight of a schedule to think about anything else.

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