E’en the small violet feels a future power

And waits each year renewing blooms to bring,

And surely man is no inferior flower

To die unworthy of a second spring?

~

-John Clare, ‘The Instinct of Hope’

 

~~~~

 

In the early afternoon, a not-so-chubby boy was sitting in front of the black lake, beside him is a stack of books, all the covers are green, and he’s reading the thickest one right now. He kept flipping the pages of the book, seemingly not caring about his surroundings. If there’s a wolf in front of him right now ready to pounce on him, he would not care.

The boy kept mumbling ‘interesting…’ and ‘that’s amazing…’, if he’s reading in the common room, probably everyone would be annoyed.

“Hello Neville.” Someone suddenly greeted the boy.

The boy, who is of course Neville, diverted his attention from the book to the one who’s calling him. He saw who greeted him, a boy with deep silver eyes, so he greeted back.

“Hello Ed.” Neville smiled at Ed.

“What are you doing here? It’s almost lunchtime.” Ed questioned.

“Oh, I’m reading the books that you gave me, thanks again by the way, the content is really interesting.”

“Well I’m glad.” Ed said as he sat near Neville. “The content is great isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I never knew muggles have interesting plants too.”

“Well, technically, those plants aren’t for muggles alone.” Ed shrugged. “We can use them too, it’s just that wizards and witches often turned a blind eye against it because of our superior herbology of the wizarding world.”

“I don’t know why we never use it then…” Neville murmured. “I mean look at this, there’s a plant called Cannabis… it says here that Cannabis has various mental and physical effects, which include euphoria, altered states of mind and sense of time, difficulty concentrating, impaired short-term memory, impaired body movement, relaxation, and an increase in appetite…”

Ed hummed at Neville’s sudden burst of information. “I heard it’s prohibited in the muggle world though.”

“Well, I don’t know what they’re doing, if they studied this plant more, I bet it can become a medicine to the minds…” Neville added.

Ed chuckled. “Maybe you could study them,” he said. “Maybe you can combine it with magic, we don’t know what will happen right? Maybe you will discover a medicine for diseases… like Alzheimer in the muggle world.”

Neville hummed at Ed's statement, but then Ed added.

“Or maybe you could discover a cure for… I don’t know… maybe those that lost their minds from the Cruciatus curse… there’s a lot of people who had it after the war.”

As soon as Neville heard this, he froze, he looked speechless at Ed. “Y-You think t-that’s possible?”

Ed shrugged. “I don’t know, but the thing about magic Neville, is that if you work hard enough, it’s probably possible.”

Neville looked thoughtful, but Ed could see that there’s a hint of excitement and hope in the boy’s eyes. His hands are a bit shaky now, and his feet are tapping on the ground uncontrollably.

“You alright Neville?” Ed questioned as he noticed Neville’s sudden change of attitude.

“Y-Yeah… I’m alright…” He murmured as calmed himself down, he started to think again, is it actually possible? A cure for the ones who have lost their minds? He decided to focus on this, and started to delve deeper into the books that Ed gave him.

Ed seeing this just smiled, he knew he had done it. He knew that he had given Neville a clue on how to cure his parents, and to be honest, he felt good about it.

Ed of course knew what he was doing, speaking of crossbreeding plants from the normal muggle world and from the wizarding world, speaking of curing mind diseases that would eventually lead to the ones who have lost their minds from torture.

Like he had said before, he wanted to help Neville.

Neville then suddenly stood up. He looked at Ed and said. “Thank you Ed, I- I’m going to find professor Sprout now.”

Before Ed could say anything, the boy ran towards the castle, even leaving his books.

Ed sighed. He wanted to shout to Neville about his books, but it looks like he can’t hear Ed anymore.

“Well, I’ll bring his books to the dorm…” Ed murmured.

---

Neville is running through the hallways, breaking the rules of ‘no running’. A lot of people stared at him while he’s running, but he didn’t care. He wanted to speak to Professor Sprout as soon as possible, and no one would stop him.

“Professor Sprout!” Neville suddenly barged into the greenhouse, where Professor Sprout is currently located.

Professor Sprout was startled and dropped a plant pot that was in her hands, making a mess on the floor. “What is it Neville?!” She questioned in a rather high tone, annoyed that the pot dropped because of him.

Neville saw that the pot was dropped, and was embarrassed by his attitude. “S-Sorry Professor… let me help you...”

Neville quickly helped Professor Sprout on cleaning the mess, he grabbed the nearest shovel and got rid of the dirt on the floor, cleaning it. He also helped Professor Sprout on picking the shattered pot.

“Now...” Professor Sprout said as she cleaned her hands, “What do you want, Neville?”

“Professor, I was wondering, is it possible to cross breed muggle plants that have no magical properties whatsoever, to our magical plants? I’ve read in a book about a muggle plant that can affect the minds of humans.”

Professor Sprout raised her eyebrows. “What is the name of the muggle plant?”

“It’s called Cannabis Professor.” Neville said innocently.

Professor Sprout is definitely suprised. “Where did you read it?”

“It’s in a book that was given to me...”

“Who gave you the book?”

“It’s Ed… is there something wrong Professor?”

“Neville, listen to me.” Professor Sprout said. “You can study the plant, but do not consume it, you understand me?”

Neville is confused. “Why Professor?”

“It has addictive properties,” said Professor Sprout. “So let me say it again, you can study it, but don’t consume it.”

“O-Okay...”

Professor Sprout nodded in approval. “Now, what was your question again?”

“Can you cross breed Cannabis to our magical plants? Or any muggle plants to our magical plants for that matter...”

“The answer is… i don’t know.” Professor Sprout shrugged. “No one’s ever tried it before...”

“No one?” Neville is suprised.

“Yes, Neville, no one...” answered Professor Sprout. “Combining ‘normal’ things and magical things is quite common now, but ‘normal’ plants and magical plants? Not so much...”

“How come Professor?” Neville asked.

“No one’s risking it.” Professor Sprout shrugged. “If the result is an abomination of a plant that can devour entire cities, it’ll cause a huge disturbance in order...”

“There’s no papers about it or anything?”

“None at all.” Said Professor Sprout. “If you want to try, you need to have supervision on it, it’s quite risky.”

Neville sighed in disappointment, but then Professor Sprout continued. “If you want, I can supervise you.”

“C-Can you Professor?” He asked.

“Oh yes I can...” She nodded. “In fact, I'm interested in what you are doing...”

“I have an inspiration about this...” said Neville. “What if we could somehow cross breed this Cannabis plant with one of the magical plants, and extract its properties for a medicine.”

“Neville, get to the point.” Professor Sprout insisted.

“Professor, what if we can discover a cure for ‘brain damage’ in this combination?”

Professor instantly knew what he’s saying, she knew what had happened with Neville’s parents, and the boy had hope of curing his parents, so he took that chance.

Professor Sprout sighed. “It’ll be hard to develop that kind of thing Neville, it could take years, or even decades.” 

“If there’s a chance, I'll do it, Professor.” Neville said decisively.

Professor Sprout hummed. “Very well, I’ll help you Neville.” she said, making Neville excited. “But...”

“Yes Professor?”

“How are you planning to get a Cannabis plant?” She questioned Neville. “I have the dried version here… but that’s barely researchable.”

“Dried version, Professor?” Neville questioned, confused.

“The one that you can consume.” Professor Sprout shrugged. “Anyway, how do you plan to get it?”

“Um… I don’t know...”

“Well, you need to find it first, then we’ll talk.” She shrugged, “Anyway, you should leave now, it’s almost the next period.”

“O-Okay… Thanks Professor! I’ll come back with the plant soon!” Neville then ran from the greenhouse, making Professor Sprout shake her head in amusement.

“Well then… speaking of that plant...” Professor Sprout then opened a desk that had a bag of dried leaves in it. “I need to calm myself down…” She said as she opened the bag of leaves, and started to roll it in a paper.

She burned the edge of the leaf roll, and started to smoke it. She sat down, and enjoyed her time with a smile on her face…

---

In the evening Ed and Hermione are in the common room, not really doing anything. They’re sitting in front of the fireplace as always, Hermione reading a book, while Ed is writing something on a parchment.

“What did he discover again?” Hermione suddenly asked Ed.

“He told me about Cannabis, and after I explained the combination of Magical plants and ‘normal’ plants, he ran off, I put his book beside his bed...” Ed said.

“Wait what? Cannabis?” Hermione questioned again, a bit surprised.

“Yep.” Ed nodded.

“You told him about weed?!” Hermione’s voice is now a bit high, a bit mad at Ed.

“What? Weed is good.” Ed shrugged.

“What do you mean ‘good’?! It’s a drug!” Hermione exclaimed as she stood up from the couch.

“If controlled, it has more benefits, Hermione.” Ed rolled his eyes, “And calm yourself down, everyone’s looking.”

Hermione looked around and saw that indeed, everyone was looking at her, she instantly was embarrassed and sat down again. “Still… what if he’s addicted to it or something??” she mumbled to Ed.

“Professor Sprout is probably going to watch him… so it’s fine… probably… unless she’s addicted to weed too...” Ed stated unconvincingly.

“Probably?” Hermione raised her eyebrow, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Well, we should trust Neville, he’s a nice guy...” Ed said. “Anyway, have you got your dress yet?”

Hermione’s face went sour after that. “I haven’t...”

“Why?” Ed was confused. “You haven’t gone to the suitcase yet?”

“I have… but... well, I need your input on it.” She continued. “I can’t choose.”

“Really?” Ed raised his eyebrow. “Later maybe...”

She smiled and just continued to read. Then, Neville suddenly barged into the common room, looking all happy, but then he turned to Ed.

“Ed, have you seen my books?” he asked. “I came back to the lake… but the books aren’t there.”

“I brought it to your bed.” Ed said. “It should be there.”

“Oh, thanks for bringing it then.” Neville said as he ran towards the dormroom.

As Neville ran towards the dorm, Hermione stated. “He looks happy...”

“Understandable, he just discovered a possible way to cure his parents.” Ed added.

Hermione hummed, “Well, I’m happy for him...”

“Let’s just hope that he actually succeeded in curing them, otherwise, he’ll be crushed...”