MIDNIGHT DETENTION :: Open

11 April 1922
10:30 pm
Night of the Full Moon
FLUXWEED

“FOLLOW ME PLEASE! We don’t have all night.”

They did actually have all night. Gideon had other plans, but if that’s what it took, so be it. The cards were in their hands, if they buckled down and got to work, their night would end sooner than planned.

“You’re not here for fun, so stop talking, move your feet and let's get on with it.”

Annoyed was one word for his current state. He wasn’t scheduled for this detention, but the herbology Professor was down with the flu, so it fell to Gideon. The fluxweed flowers had to be harvested on the night of a full moon, so there was no waiting or postponing. Tonight was the night.

Thankfully, he had help.

Finally, stopping in front of the doors of Greenhouse #3, Gideon turned around, clasping his hands behind his back and waited for everyone to stop. A few people were talking, until they felt Gideon’s eyes boring into them.

“Are we done?” he asked, the boys clamming up quickly.

“Welcome to detention. Congratulations, your actions got you here. Learn from it. There is a very time sensitive item that needs to be harvested tonight, on the full moon. Fluxweed is used in many potions and is at it’s most powerful and pure on the night of the full moon. So, here we are.”

The door to the greenhouse opened, revealing the glowing interior. Bioluminescent plants casting a bluish-green glow, silhouetted the figure standing in the doorway. “Hello Mathelda, hope you're ready for this bunch.”

He knew her name was Matilda, it was just more fun riling her up. “There are a few rules for tonight. 1. You are only working with Fluxweed, nothing else. 2. You will be given detailed instructions. FOLLOW THEM. 3. Miss Nordstrom here will be helping, she is the expert on how to harvest, listen to her. 4. We have a set amount we are looking to gather, when we have that, your detention will be complete. THAT BEING SAID, the quality of the harvest is imperative. If you butcher the plants we will be here all night. You have been warned.”

There was a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. Did she want the help? Sure. Was she happy that a detention group was coming to carefully harvest a delicate plant on the only night of the month that it was available while the potion stores were at basically zero? NOPE. This was a recipe for disaster.

Hearing the voice of Deputy Blackwood Matilda sighed, opening the door to the group waiting just outside. “Hello Mathelda, hope you're ready for this bunch.” Rolling her eyes, she thought of a few creative ways to poison the man without him getting too dead. Just a little.

“Professor. So glad you could join us.” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. She was not happy. Not at all. He gave the rules to the group, they were good rules, not that they were listening. Awesome.

Opening the door wide, Tilly let the group into the blue-ish green glowing room. “Good evening, Please pay attention, this needs to get done right and quickly.” Professor Blackwood followed the group in and lit the lumos orbs hovering near the ceiling. As much as she liked the glow, it would help the group see what they were doing.

Tilly brought over a crate with two compartments. One side holding gloves, the other side clippers. “Everyone please take a set of gloves and clippers. Around the planting beds you will find buckets where you will deposit the flowers. As you can see, the flowers have bloomed beautifully. At midnight tonight, they will begin to close and the strength of the ingredient will decrease.”

Putting on her favorite emerald green dragon leather gloves, they fit like a second skin and protected her from anything dangerous, Tilly took a pair of clippers out of her apron. Walking into the middle of the group and towards one of the fluxweed plants, “If you lightly pinch the flower at the end of the bloom, where it meets the stem, you want to clip just below the bloom. We don’t want a ton of the stem, less than a centimeter is preferred, but you can’t cut the petals of the flower, so you need to pay attention. When you cut the bloom off,” she modeled, clipping the bloom and letting it lie in the palm of her hand. “The flower petals will close, locking in the pollen. The things on the inside are the most powerful for the potion, so if you do it right, and the entire flower is preserved, this will go a lot faster and the waste will be less.”

Looking around the group, Tilly knew a few of the people would listen and do a good job, but some she would need to watch carefully. The truly hard part was this was a detention, so she was there to watch and correct behaviour, but not allowed to aid them in their collection. Which was honestly more of detention for her than anyone else. “If you have questions, let me know. Don’t assume, please ask.”

The students, begrudgingly, got to work. Her eyes kept watching, but went over to stand next to the Deputy. “So, Professor Blackwell, how did you get stuck with this lot? I thought Professor Briar was running this detention?”