His gaze going back to his task at hand, Harry struggled to keep a branch from moving in and smacking his lab partner. Harry slapped the vine back and very quietly whispered, "Hey, if anybody's going to smack that git around, it's going to be me, not you! Got it?!"
Surprisingly, the plant almost appeared to have gotten it.
The repot went smoothly thereafter, and as Neville finished with the jazzed-up dirt, he began to sing a song. Harry watched, transfixed, as the plant began to relax in his arms. This moment and none other reminded him of his old friend. This was the Neville of old.
The arrogant git was gone. The shy boy was gone. The confident kid who could become a confident man could be seen as Neville sang out his slow song. Harry could feel the emotion in the song: it wasn't hurried up or sang out of irritation like Harry might have done. This was done with care and the plant was responding in kind.
As Neville finished the song, Harry said, "That was a nice tune, Neville. The Caramba really enjoyed it. You're very good with plants: why?"
Neville pulled out the spray bottle and began the spritz the plant with another nutritional supplement. "Oh, plants are easy. They don't expect anything from anyone at all. I can just be myself around them and not the boy-who… why are you asking me that, Potter?"
Harry noticed that Neville's demeanor changed mid-sentence and all semblance of the caring boy was gone again.
Neville angrily sprayed the remainder of the bottle haphazardly at the plant. "Finally coming around to my way of thinking? I am after all a pretty important person in the wizarding world in general."
"No, not really. I was just wondering if you were as big an arse here as you are in the rest of the school. Got my answer."
"Oh my, gentlemen," Professor Sprout remarked seeing the work they'd done. "You had the hardest assignment and you both pulled it off without fail in the quickest time. I'm proud of both of you. Well done. Ten points to Gryffindor for each of you. Now the only thing left is to activate its defense mechanism. Mr. Longbottom, if you don't mind?"
"Yes, ma'am." To the plant he said, "Aye Caramba!"
Any of the leaves that had started to droop instead stood at attention.
Harry couldn't help but think that expression sounded vaguely familiar.
Muggle Studies Class
"Good afternoon, class. My name is Professor Bark. And as muggles would say, my bark is worse than my bite. Heh-heh. Okay, first assignment. I want you all to locate a muggle-raised student and get clarification from him or her as to what that joke meant. One foot of parchment.
"Now as you may see we have a younger student than normal in this class. Mr. Potter is an apprentice and I'm sure if you have any questions you can feel free to ask him when he has free time. Right, Mr. Potter?"
"Oh, yes sir. But not when I'm getting ready for bed as my bite is worse than my bark. Unless I'm in Herbology working on a Whomping seedling."
"Heh-heh, quite right, Mr. Potter, quite right. You're excused from the joke clarification assignment. Now, class, we have a lot to cover this term. As you may be aware, the general feel for this class by most is that we will be learning history, culture and psychology of muggles. That is not entirely true. We will be covering those topics in a general feel, but this class is also intended to provide you with some basic facts and foundation of the muggle way of life. It should help any of you who are planning to go native when you graduate. I myself went native for a few years to see how they lived and let me tell you, it is a fascinating experience. They have so many things these days it is impossible to keep them all straight."
"Professor," said one of the third year students in the first row. "What did you find the most fascinating of your experience?" Harry later learned her name was Sarah Beth Langley.
Professor Bark thought about it for a moment and then said, "I'd have to say the most fascinating experience I had was the Drive-In mating ritual that muggles have."
Harry had a sneaking suspicion that he knew what the Professor was talking about. It helped that he was in fact 18 and not 11. It didn't seem to help any of the other 13-year olds in the class. When they were older, they'd probably get it.
"What do you mean?" Sarah pressed.
That is, unless someone asked. Hoo-boy.
"Well, Miss… Langley?" he checked a seating chart. "Langley. Right. Picture in your mind it is 1974. August. Hot. I've traveled to the colonies. I'm in a state they call Indiana. It's Saturday night. The town isn't as big as London. They don't have magic to provide any entertainment. So the locals who I was chumming with decided it was time to take their dolls to the drive-in. Apparently this is an outdoor cinema and they were going to show a program called 'Chick Flick.'
"Well, as the day wore on my chums were able to get young women to agree to go to the cinema with them. I had no idea it was an outdoor cinema until later. We all piled into multiple vehicles and I was riding in the back of an El Camino as we went to a large square of land that held this big white board on it that the film was projected on. Mr. Caruthers? I'm not losing you so soon, am I? You do know what a film is, right? Think of a consistently moving picture like a newspaper photo, only with sound. And it tells a story."
"Wow. Those muggles think of such amazing things!"
"Yes. Quite. Now you might wonder why these muggles decided they wanted to spend the night outside on such a hot night. It was uncomfortably hot and they knew of no cooling charms. Yet, here they were in the middle of nowhere watching to watch a film from the confines of their El Caminos, station wagons, Comets, Datsun's and Toyota's.
"Well, once parked in a secluded area, those of us unable to acquire proper company were asked to vacate the vehicles and wander around the snack shack for an hour or so. The film began and an hour or so later a couple mates and I went back to the cars. For some reason they had the windows up instead of down. I thought I had been mistaken about the cooling charms and made my way to investigate the interior. This, class, leads me to the week's assignment. You are to research and write two feet of parchment on the meaning of the phrase: 'Don't Come A Knockin' If the Car's A Rockin'.'"
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