I ducked my head down as I made my way to the greenhouses, suddenly ashamed of myself. The way Malfoy had looked at me before he walked away was driving me insane. It was like he thought he was reaching out to touch a unicorn, but it turned out to be a Hungarian Horntail.
“Ahh, Miss Rivera,” Professor Sprout said cheerily when I slipped into the greenhouse. “Have a seat.”
I raised my eyes to my head of house carefully. She didn’t seem too angry about the fact that I had broken Pansy’s nose. “You remember the Bubotubers, Miss Rivera?”
I groaned and gave Sprout a look that said you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me. She only laughed. “Yes, Professor,” I muttered. “Don’t you remember how terrible I was with them last term?” Professor Sprout merely gave me a smile.
“We don’t get to choose our punishment,” she said and set a bunch of bottles full of Bubotuber pus down in front of me.
“Ah, bloody…” I hesitated, my eyes widening slowly. “Uh, blimey,” I muttered. “What do you want me to do with those?”
“Take them to Madam Pomfrey.”
“That’s… that’s it?” Professor Sprout gave me a little grin and turned her back towards me.
“If it doesn’t quite take an hour, I’m sure I can think up something else for you to do, Miss Rivera.”
I blinked and blushed, gathering the bottles up in my arms. “That’s all right, Professor Sprout,” I said. I bit my lip lightly. Was she giving me permission to dawdle? I turned towards the doors to the greenhouse, careful not to drop any of the bottles.
“Oh, Miss Rivera.”
I looked over my shoulder and cocked a brow. “Yes, Professor Sprout?”
“If, by the time you come here for detention tomorrow, you can tell me something useful about the Venomous Tentacula’s seeds, I’ll give Hufflepuff some house points to make up for the ones you’ve lost.”
“What?” I stared at Sprout for a long moment. Venomous Tentacula? “But… We haven’t learned about that one yet, have we?”
“That’s the point, Miss Rivera,” the professor said with a smile.
I didn’t wait for Professor Sprout to turn her back to me before exiting the greenhouse with the bottles of Bubotuber pus. I was not totally sure what Sprout was trying to get at with the Venomous Tentacula deal, but I supposed it would be worth a shot to try and figure it out in order to redeem myself. I really had started this term off badly.
I made my way back to the castle, a little confused when the temperature dropped suddenly. Come to think of it, it was getting really dark, too. I had an uneasy feeling in my gut and, honestly, I knew better than to go against my intuition. I jogged towards the castle doors and slipped inside as quickly as I could manage. Something strange was going on out there.
I blew out a breath and shook off the feeling. Maybe I was just overreacting. It was getting kind of late, anyway. I hurried up the stairs to the Hospital Wing. Shifting the bottles in my arms, I poked my head into the room. “Madam Pomfrey?”
The woman was nowhere to be found, so I stepped inside. I walked through the rows of beds, eyes sweeping the room for any sign of the school matron. “Madam Pomfrey?” I called out again, “I have some Bubotuber pus… from Professor Sprout?” Finally, Madam Pomfrey stuck her head out from her office.
“Yes, dear?” she said, seeming rushed.
“The Bubotuber pus?” I said slowly, not sure what else I could say. I took a few steps towards her and held the bottles out.
