Want to Grow Something

Want to Grow Something

After Spell Class came Herbology Class, and Charles and his classmates went to the first greenhouse outside the castle for their lesson.

While Professor Sprout was explaining the precautions, she gave Seamus a pointed look. Her next words seemed directed specifically at him. "There's no need to use wands in today's lesson. Put them away, everyone, and don't take them out without good reason."

Clearly, Seamus's performance in Spell Class had already spread rapidly among the professors. Professor Sprout probably even knew that he had blown up his own bedding last night.

The greenhouse was filled with delicate flowers and tender plants, while also bearing the important responsibility of providing Hogwarts with funding. Any explosion would cause a huge loss.

The first Herbology lesson was about becoming familiar with the various herbs they would study that year—learning roughly what they were called and what effects they had. It was only in the second lesson that they would begin learning how to plant and cultivate them.

"Mr. Potter," Professor Sprout suddenly said. "Do you like dittany?"

Everyone had just been listening to the professor describe a plant called Devil's Snare. Now they all followed her gaze and saw Harry carefully examining a pot of lush green dittany, so intently that his glasses were nearly touching the leaves.

"Huh?!" Harry suddenly realized that the professor and his classmates were looking at him and jumped. He hurriedly said, "Sorry. I just thought it looked familiar. I think I've seen it in Charles's family garden. It smells very similar too, though I don't know whether it tastes the same."

Charles put on an affected expression and said, "I thought it looked familiar too. Someone gave it to my grandfather and said that crushing it and applying it to wounds made them heal very quickly. It could also be eaten raw. We could plant some in the garden. The only problem is that the fertilizer smells awful."

Professor Sprout said helplessly, "Sigh... Another wizard has casually given magical herbs to someone. Fortunately, it was only dittany and not some other dangerous plant."

Then her tone turned stern. "Let me remind everyone that you must never casually give potions to Muggles in the future. It could very well lead to irreparable consequences!"

"For example, the Devil's Snare I just introduced. It looks very similar to Christmas Cactus, whose tentacles can sway. There have been many tragedies in which wizards accidentally gave Devil's Snare to others, resulting in their deaths!"

Professor Sprout then walked over beside the dittany and said, "Dittany is one of the herbs I'll be introducing later, and it's also the first herb everyone will learn to grow this year. I'll introduce it now."

"Dittany grows across a very wide area. Even animals will chew it up and apply it to their wounds."

"However, dittany that grows naturally in the wild is thin and weak, with little medicinal effect. It needs Dragon Dung or Mooncalf dung as fertilizer to grow vigorously."

"It can rapidly heal wounds, especially its essential oil. Professor Snape will teach you how to extract it in Potions Class this year. It can treat many serious wounds without leaving scars. It's effective when eaten raw as well, and can treat minor, shallow wounds."

Harry listened in sudden realization. No wonder Mr. Smith always made him eat dittany salad whenever he was injured. After eating it and sleeping, his wounds would be healed.

After Herbology Class ended, Charles found Professor Sprout and asked her something she hadn't expected. "I saw that the plot of land south of the greenhouse is covered in weeds. May I cultivate it and plant some herbs like dittany?"

Professor Sprout asked him with a smile, "Are you very interested in Herbology?"

Charles replied, "I've always liked growing plants."

Professor Sprout said with a smile, "If you clear out that plot of land, I think Professor Dumbledore will personally beat you up."

Charles froze, then immediately understood what she meant. He asked incredulously, "Could this be some kind of herb?"

"That's right." Professor Sprout's face lit up with a brilliant smile. "If you can identify all the herbs outside the greenhouse and find the genuine wasteland, I can approve your cultivating it yourself. I'll even let you use the fertilizer here."

Charles immediately agreed. He first walked around the greenhouse and noted down the plants he saw.

There was only one History of Magic class that afternoon. During lunch, he asked Percy about illustrated books on Herbology. After lunch, he hurried to the library and borrowed two books. Then History of Magic turned into Herbology Class.

The herbs that could be planted outside the greenhouse were all harmless, which greatly narrowed the search area. He quickly made some progress.

The plant Charles had mistaken for a weed was called Yellow-flowered long-root bean. The part aboveground looked utterly ordinary, but its main root underground, as thick as a finger, could grow over a meter long.

The juice extracted from its roots could be used as the primary ingredient in a potion specifically for treating suppuration. The longer it grew, the better its medicinal effects became. The ones outside the greenhouse looked older than Harry and Ron combined.

More than half of the other herbs had roots as their medicinal parts. The next page described another herb grown outside the greenhouse, called "Purple-flowered ground grape." Its underground roots looked like a bunch of grapes, with round bulbs.

It was a powerful laxative. Its root bulbs could be sliced, dried, and ground into powder to treat constipation directly. They could also be used as an auxiliary ingredient in potions for treating intestinal parasites.

That evening, Charles continued his serious research beside a table in the Gryffindor Common Room.

He drew a map of the area outside the greenhouse and labeled each herb he had found.

The Weasley family's twins had originally wanted to study the Bag of Holding with him, but seeing how focused he was, they decided not to disturb him. Instead, they sat nearby and waited for him to finish.

Charles had looked up half the herbs in the two books when he set down his fountain pen and stretched. He planned to exchange them for two different books the next day.

At that moment, a cup of Pumpkin Juice appeared in front of him. Fred asked mysteriously, "Are you planning to steal herbs?"

George added, "All the good stuff is inside the greenhouse."

It was obvious that the two of them had raided the greenhouse more than once.

Charles took a sip of Pumpkin Juice and told them about his plan to find a plot of wasteland and grow things there.

Fred asked him doubtfully, "Why would you think of doing that?"

After setting down the empty cup, Charles said, "I think growing those magical plants would be pretty interesting."

He couldn't exactly tell them that, with Harry shouldering the sky if it collapsed in the future, he could spend his free time farming to pass the time.

Fred and George exchanged a glance, then spoke one after the other. "How about growing some valuable herbs?"

"We can help."

Charles shook his head. He only wanted to grow things for fun, and planned to plant herbs that looked attractive and weren't too difficult to cultivate.

If he had been doing it to make money, he would have asked Dumbledore to lease him a plot of land, brought in a walk-behind tractor to plow it, and planted whatever was valuable.

Hogwarts couldn't use electrical appliances, but a purely mechanical walk-behind tractor shouldn't be a problem, right?

At worst, once the Weasley family's flying car arrived, he could put it to work plowing the land.

And if that really didn't work, there was still Seamus.

At that moment, Percy walked over. Dumbledore wanted to see him.