Who ever said you couldn't run away from your problems? (Open)

When Gwennie's interest seemed to hold even after Lyra's brain dump she grinned once more. "Well the ones I remember are..." She pauses to think for a moment before counting off on her fingers as she names them. "Let's see there's a churr which is sort of like an intense purr, a purr, cubs can do this wailing sort of sound, there's a chitter which I guess is probably their most unique sound, it's sort of like a chatter or... almost like a horse whinny? They can do a kecker, a growl, a snarl, a yelp a... squeak I guess? A hiss and... a cluck thing. That's all the ones I can remember but I know there's more?"

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, a bush would slow down the whole process, so it would sort of stretch out the whole experiment." Her face lit up when Gwennie approved her cherry idea and nodded quickly. "It's on a tree and similar size at least!" The point of pits drew a small pause from her as she thought for a moment longer.

She started shaking her head at the mention of apples but stopped at the idea of crab apples. "Maybe? The seeds are still different though if that's what we're worried about. Maybe persimmons or pomegranates or something?"

Gwennie’s eyes darted back and forth at each different sound that Lyra mentioned. She’d known that badgers were chatty little creatures but she hadn’t realised how many different kinds of chatting they knew how to do. The witch took each sound she was given and put them into a mental pro and con list. She liked the idea of snarling, but Hufflepuffs were supposed to be the friendly house so she assumed that they wouldn’t be too keen on being profiled as snarlers. Squeaking and clucking sounded the cutest and the most like what a stereotypical Hufflepuff noise would be, so she settled on one of those two as the official puff noise.

“I think I’ll just tell people that they squeak,” she nodded. “It’s cute and concise so I feel like it properly represents a broad outlook on the animal.”

Gwennie noticed that Lyra wasn’t quite on board with her pit theory. She took a moment to think about if the pit thing would actually be a problem and she couldn’t see how it couldn’t be but if Lyra could point her in a direction that made sense in contrast to what she was thinking, Gwennie would consider the cherry option.

“Persimmons could work,” she responded, unsure why crab apples seemed like a bad idea but deciding it would be wise to pick and choose her battles instead of butt heads on every decision. A true scientist was open to exploring every option, and Gwennie wanted to go about this as a true scientist would.

“I think the thing with the seeds is mainly just to make sure that we would be able to cross-grow the two plants. While a pit could work, it probably wouldn’t work as well as a traditional seed would. Pomegranates could work, as their seeds are very similar in size to grape seeds.” She took a beat before continuing,

“We also need to think about what kind of grapes we are looking to use. I’m not sure if it’s that important but it is a choice that we eventually have to factor in.”

Lyra considered it for a moment before deciding she agreed. "It might be worth looking into the other sounds and stuff but I think a squeak just might be the best option."

She thought for a moment, her gave returning to the lake as she did. "Honestly pomegranates are probably too big? Fuya persimmon might work... Would crab apples be too hard? The inside of grapes are pretty soft, but I've never had a crab apple, I've just heard that they're basically mini apples." She looked back to the younger girl, tilting her head slightly in curiosity. "How small are crab apples anyways?"

She hadn't considered that it would be this hard to think of a fruit to crossbreed the grapes with, but she was always up for a challenge. The only problem was that there were advantages and disadvantages to each different fruit, making it hard to really choose which she though would be the best candidate. "Cranberries would be good? I don't know if they grow on trees or not though."

The question of what kind of grape they would use drew a simple shrug from Lyra. "It doesn't really matter too much, does it? We can just do green grapes since they're your favorite."

She tried to go over her schedule in her mind, figuring out when she would have time to do research and help out and everything. "When are you free? We could do some extra research on crossbreeding fruit and then try it out? Though, won't a tree take a long time to grow?" Longer than a bush for sure, though she didn't point that out. It was Gwennie's experiment after all, she was just here to help.

Gwennie bit her lip in mild frustration. She’d known that finding a good cross-breeding fruit might take time, but she didn’t appreciate exactly how long it was taking them. She had assumed that having two minds giving it a go would make the process speed by faster but this wasn’t the case. She also hadn’t realised how many small tree-based plants existed. She listened to Lyra’s ideas and picked out what she thought was going to be their best option.

“Cranberries grow on vines,” she said, not one hundred percent positive. She remembered seeing pictures of large oceans of cranberries and men in baggy pants trying to harvest them. “Or.. is it in a bog? Either way, it’s not a tree. It was a good idea though.”

“I think persimmons sound like our best bet,” She decided. “They’re small and soft so they’ll probably work best with the grapes. Now we just have to figure out how to cross-grow them.” She didn’t think it would be too hard but it did require a bit of extra research on their part.

She smiled, “Green grapes is fine with me. If it works we can try it with different kinds of grapes to see if they behave differently.” Science was all about testing different variables to see if they hailed different results and Gwennie wanted to do this as a scientist would.

As far as time went, Gwennie’s brain sighed at her. She didn’t want this to take too long but growing a tree was a time commitment. She wracked her brain for a minute before coming up with a plan.

“I bet there’s a charm or something that can help plants grow faster,” she suggested. “We could use that to make the tree grow faster.”


“I’m not doing much of anything most days, except for classes of course. So we can meet up next at your discretion.” She offered Lyra a small bit of laughter for no particular reason. A partnership was about compromise, plus Gwennie’s concept of time was a bit iffy so she didn’t want to recommend a day and be wrong.

Lyra shook her head as she remembered. "No, you're right, they grow on vines. They flood the fields to harvest them because they float. At least I think...?" She thought about it for a moment more before pulling herself back into the main topic.

"I might know some people I could contact in California for information?" She hesitated before shaking her head. "Actually letters would take way too long to reach them and I don't know their contact info... But the library probably has something on it!" She made a mental note to talk to Grayson about their experiment, he would know whether or not the school's library had any helpful books after all, and he was pretty cool.

She considered the grapes she'd grown back home. The different colors hadn't seemed to act or grow differently from one another, but when you introduced new variables there was always a chance that certain things would react differently than they had previously.

She frowned slightly as she tried to think of a charm that would help their tree grow. She tried to think back to her Herbology classes, going through a mental list of the plant related spells she knew. "Herbivicus maybe? I just learned that one recently.. uh... Engorgio might work but it makes something bigger not necessarily grows it. There are probably some potions that would help too? It would probably be worth it to talk to either Professor Grayson, or... well, whoever is teaching potions right now, or both?"

She hummed softly as she tried to pick a day before giving up and pulling out her phone once more. "Do you have a phone? You could give me your number and I could text you when I have a chance to look at my schedule?"

“I think so,” Gwennie responded. She tried to recall information on cranberry growth but she only really knew the aesthetics of it. She knew that cranberries were gathered into bogs, but how they got there was foggy in her brain. They were really good in juice; she knew that, but it wasn’t at all helpful to the current conversation. She made a mental note to read up on cranberries.

Gwennie’s heart started pumping in excitement when Lyra mentioned she might know some people who could help, but then the Hufflepuff revealed the complications with reaching them. It would have been nice to have connections for their research, but the library was always a good back up plan.
“Library it is!” she smiled. “I know they don’t have anything on the end goal but perhaps they’ve got some grape research or at least some information on cross-breeding different fruits.”

“I think we’re better off with Herbivicus than engorgio,” she responded, imagining the sight of a grape tree getting very large and then blowing up. She imagined more ways for that to fail than for it to succeed.
“We need the tree to grow, not just get bigger. A potion could work and talking to a professor definitely sounds like something that could be useful. I wonder if they’ve ever tried something like this before.”

Gwennie watched the girl pull out her cellphone. Lyra then asked if she had a phone with which they could contact each other. Gwennie reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen. She scribbled a number on the paper and reached it out to the girl.
“I don’t carry my phone with me, but this is my number,” she smiled.

She nodded quickly in agreement. "Anything helps, right?" She thought for a moment. "We should try talking to the Herbology professor as well. They might at least have some sort of experience in something like this? Merlin knows I don't have any. I've gardened but not this."

She took the paper from the younger girl, typing the number into her phone quickly and throwing her name into the contact. She then sent a short and sweet message so Gwennie would have her number in return.

Heeeey girl! It's Lyra!

With that she locked her phone and slipped it back into her pocket. "Well I better head out." She checked her watch for a split second before nodding. "Yeah, I have a quidditch practice in like an hour. Text me later?" She grinned at the girl, "Or I could text you, either way."

Gwennie nodded. While she wasn’t sure what the herbology professor was going to know about cross-breeding persimmons and grapes, it was likely that they knew more than Gwennie and Lyra did currently. Any accounts from a reliable source would help this experiment progress successfully. She hoped they wouldn’t be annoying professors with their research questions, but wasn’t it in their job description to help children grow to their fullest potential? She mentally shrugged; hopefully, she and Lyra wouldn’t bother them too badly.

“I’ve never planted anything as big as a tree before,” Gwennie admitted, shrugging. She recalled trying to grow pumpkins once. Her brothers had kicked a football into the patch by the second day after she’d planted it. She resorted to growing small plants in her room instead ever since.

She smiled as Lyra typed a quick message on her phone before explaining she had to go.

“I’ll text you,” She responded. “It was really nice meeting you and I look forward to our partnership.”