Searching for Beauty [Aleta]

Marianne was bored. Really, very, truly bored, which was quite unusual for her. Usually in her moments of boredom she wouldn't stop until she found entertainment, be it dancing, singing, or most of of the time flirting. But of course there were no ballet studios in such a place. And she was in no mood to sing. And, worst of all, there weren't any interesting people around here! Those stupid, stuck-up, useless Brits were too ugly, too dull, none of them worthy of her attention. Occasionally she did spot a more or less good-looking person, most of whom were obviously foreign, but they disappeared from her line of sight quickly.

As she was walking around in the corridors, looking for one of those half-decent exchange students or a stuffy Brit to annoy, she overheard a pair of students talking something about greenhouses. Marianne almost squeaked in excitement but controlled her reaction. Of course, the Herbology classes here were held in greenhouses! While she thought that it was disgusting and she would most likely get extremely dirty, the idea of holding a Herbology class surrounded by actual plants didn't sound like such an awful idea.

After asking for directions from a cute little second or third year, Marianne made her way to the Greenhouses, somewhat excited under her cool demeanour. Back in Beauxboutons they didn't have Greenhouses through the whole year, only in the winter. They had huge gardens around the school, filled with various magical and non-magical plants alike. Her favourite part of the gardens were the flower gardens. Her favourite flower was the lily, but she also loved roses, especially the red ones.

Marianne looked at the greenhouses and wrinkled her nose. They looked...dirty and old, nothing like the shining and pure white ones at home. Well, if there were flowers in them, she wouldn't complain. She walked over to the entrance of the first one and opened the door soundlessly.

Her good mood shattered after the first glance. There were magical plants all around her. And while the collection was an impressive one, she couldn't help but scoff at the rows upon rows of trees, bushes, and God knows what else. No flowers. None at all.

Marianne sighed heavily and leaned against one of the trees she deemed safe and insect-less enough. She really shouldn't have expected anything cultured and/or beautiful in a barbaric place like this. Not for the first time, Marianne felt a strong sense of longing squeeze her heart. She wiped her eyes furiously, getting rid of that one tear drop which managed to escape. She wanted to go back Beauxboutons, oh Dieu, she wanted to go back so bad it hurt!

Marianne stiffened when she saw someone approaching. Merde, she thought no one would be here at this time! She almost scoffed at the question. Yes, because coming here to find dirt-covered flooring and random magical plants instead of beautiful flower gardens made her okay. Just dandy. And peachy. And whatever other weird words the rosbif used to describe their moods.

What's wrong? What's wrong?! Everything was wrong! She was in a disgusting place, filled with disgusting plants, in a disgusting country! She wanted to go back to cultured, beautiful France, and leave this place behind once and for all!

She wasn't about to show her true emotions though. She was a lady, and ladies never showed their negative emotions to anyone. Especially not to attractive anyones.

She looked the older woman (for she was sure the woman before her was in her mid-thirties) over quickly. Long, curly dark hair, olive eyes, tan skin, sporty build. Not that bad. Not exactly her type, but she wasn't an eyesore like all those rosbif.

She gave the teacher a sweet smile. "Oh, je suis dessole for just barging in here. I was wondering if there was a flower garden around here and I got lost." Maybe they did have a flower garden somewhere? And maybe this woman, who she assumed to be the Herbology teacher, judging by her messy appearance and her being there, could show her the way. And maybe, if she was lucky, she could even have some fun on the way.

So they could come in whenever they wanted to? She expected a bit more...strictness from a British school. Rules seemed to be much more lax than she thought. Not that she actually cared very much about whether or not they were allowed to enter the greenhouses. She wasn't about to come here ever again.

She smiled at the woman gratefully. A pretty woman who was helpful to top? Marianne was liking this situation more and more. "Merci beaucoup, I would be most grateful if you could. Only if it's not a problem though." The polite, nice little lady act always seemed to make her teachers adore her. And being on good terms with teachers always helped.

She stopped herself from raising her eyebrow at the professor. She cast scourgify on herself? That was...odd. Definitely not unwelcome, for Marianne hated dirt with passion, but still strange. Didn't she know any better self-cleaning spells? They were required to learn those in their third year back in France. Maybe it was not so around here. It wouldn't be that surprising.

"Then I shall accept your offer. Merci beaucoup once again." She stood up straighter and smoothed out the wrinkles on her shirt caused by leaning against the tree. Appearing messy in front of a Professor would do her and her reputation no good. Not that she had much of a reputation around here, not yet at least. She would just have to try harder to become the top of the food-chain here too.

She followed the older woman obediently, noting that her hair did not seem properly taken care of, properly from her view at least, but it was still quite pretty. And she didn't seem to wear make-up either. A natural beauty, eh? Marianne had always adored naturally beautiful people, herself being one of them of course.

Marianne slowed slightly and curtsied hastily, refusing to give up her manners just because the teacher didn't stop while introducing herself. Not everyone had had hours upon hours of etiquette lessons like her. "Marianne Bonnefoy, madamosielle Professeur. It is a pleasure to meet you." She gave Professor Carriedo a polite smile and walked a bit faster, catching up to her finally. She looked around them, observing the grounds and subtly searching for flower gardens, which she didn't really think she would find, and appropriate spots for dates and such.

She smiled at her Professor, glad that someone around here actually had manners. "Merci, Professor Carriedo." She entered the greenhouse, the smell of fresh soil hitting her nose almost immediately. Oddly, in spite of her noble upbringing, Marianne had always found the smell of earth a comforting one. Especially when it was mixed with the delicate fragrance of flowers.

Marianne looked around, trying to hide her eagerness and failing pitifully at it. She walked deeper into the greenhouse, her search distracting her from getting closer to her teacher. She could always do that later.

After a minute or so of fruitless searching, she could smell the faint scent of flowers coming from somewhere around her. She turned around and couldn't hold back her squeak of joy. Flowers! Beautiful, fragrant, delicate flowers! Sure, it was only a small garden of them, not even the size of a dorm room, but they were there! She almost ran over to the flower bed and knelled down, not minding the state of her skirt for once.

Roses, carnations, daffodils, and oh, there were even lilies! And the clean, fresh smell of them! This was the happiest she had been since coming to this hellhole.

She tensed when she heard the professor coming up behind her. What was she doing, kneeling over a flower bed like a pathetic little girl? How unbecoming of lady. She stood up quickly, smoothing out the wrinkles on her skirt. She took out her wand and made the stains disappear as well, ashamed of her actions and her appearance. This woman was the Herbology professor, so maybe she wouldn't start disliking Marianne for her embarrassing actions?

"Oh, thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid I don't know how." Although she loved flowers, Marianne had never planted a single one in all her life. That's what gardeners were for.

Marianne felt almost trapped although she didn't let such emotions show on her face. Refusing the offer would make her seem rude and ungrateful, but planting flowers would feel strange. Aristocrats did not plant flowers, they had gardeners to do dirty work like that for them!

Still, to her honest surprise, she wanted to try doing it. Marianne Bonnefoy, high-class lady, and one of the snobbiest people you could ever meet was actually willing to get her hands dirty. If only her father knew this, he would make her go through all those etiquette lessons once again. But, as the saying goes, what her father didn't know couldn't hurt him.

"Well then, I think I will take you up on that offer. I'll definitely need help though." She smiled at the Professor, her eyes begging for help.

Her smile turned a bit amused at her Professor's reaction. Was helping her plant something such a delightful thing? It must have been if she was bouncing and beaming like that. Such an enthusiastic Professor.

...What did she want to plant? The answering list would have been at least two feet long. She wanted to plant everything! Asking her to choose only one little beauty was ridiculous. But she didn't want to seem overly eager or too demanding, so she had to decide on one flower. She could always plant roses, they were the flowers of love, after all. But those poor flowers were desecrated; they were the national flower of England and she wouldn't plant something so closely bound to that country.

She perked up. National flowers, of course! She smiled at Aleta happily. "I would like to plant Irises."

Right. Why would they have the seeds at school? It's not like there were many other students like her, who actually enjoyed looking at beautiful things instead of boring, old trees and some dangerous plants. How could anyone find such things interesting was beyond her.

But two weeks was a long time. It was highly unlikely that she would still be in the mood to get herself dirty by the time those seeds arrived. Not that she had a choice. By the looks of things, if she wanted to have a flower garden almost as beautiful as the one in France, then she would have to plant it herself. Yes, it will be full of colourful, fragile, and fragnant flowers. Roses, irises, lilies, chrysanthemums, hyacinths, and lots of other flowers.

Her excitement for her very own garden almost managed to override her shame that despite being a noble, she was doing commoner's work. She was sure that her father had much less connections here than he did back in the more civilised parts of the world, but there was no guarantee that he wouldn't hear of it one way or another. She bit her lower lip, glancing at her Professor. "Would...would it be too much to ask that you kept this a secret?"

She smiled at her teacher gratefully. She could see the flash of surprise in her eyes, which was a normal reaction. Marianne was sure most students wouldn't want to keep such ordinary thing a secret. But she wasn't most students. Her school reputation going down the drain before it was even born was one thing; the chance that her father might hear of this was another, much more important, factor.

She stared at the professor in obvious shock. Planting flowers, sure, she could do that. But crawling in the dirt to yank out dying flowers? That was something not even their gardeners would do! This was ridiculous. A Bonnefoy, doing degrading physical work like this? Her father would die of shame. Or rather, make her die of shame. This wasn't something nobility should ever do. She stared at the gloves in her teacher's hands, raising an eyebrow slightly. She would need a whole spacesuit for this, not just gloves! "Umm, Professor, why don't we just use our wands to get them out?"

Fun? What was funny about digging your hand in dirt and getting it all over yourself? She didn't even want to imagine what her nails would look like after that. She shuddered at the thought. And her clothes, oh, her clothes. Her expensive designer's clothes, straight from France's most well-known and loved fashion designers.

She stared at the mat, wondering if the Professor was serious about that. She thought that little piece of material could protect her from dirt?

After the older woman pulled her impressive amount of hair up messily, which surprisingly kind of suited, and told Marianne to hurry up, she knew she had to make a decision. She could leave and never have her flowers. Unfortunately, that would definitely make Professor Carriedo angry at her, which meant a slighter chance of getting a good grade in her class. But she had no time to go back to the castle and change and soiling her clothes was out of the question.

Well, what was magic for? She quickly made a duplicate of her jacket, a sound idea entering her head. "Give me just a minute, please." She walked behind a tree and started transforming the jacket into something suitable for such work. Transfiguration did come in handy sometimes.

Jeans and a long-sleeved shirt would do. That was what muggles wore when they did dirty work, right? She wasn't sure. Well, they covered her arms and legs and those gloves would cover her hands, so hopefully she could avoid getting dirty. She gently put her clothes in her bag and walked back to the professor. "Alright, I think I'm as ready as I can be."

Cute. Professor Carriedo was so cute. While Marianne hated dirt with a passion, the older woman's obvious excitement was adorable and almost contagious. Almost. Not even an excited and beautiful woman could get Marianne to like dirt.

She knelt down next to her tentatively, a sigh escaping her lips. It wasn't that bad. She could pretend she was kneeling on the nice, clean floor of her ballet studio and not on the dirty ground. She looked over the flower bed, somewhat relieved that all the weed seemed to have disappeared already. There weren't that many dead plants thankfully. She could definitely survive this. "Alright. Do I just...pull it out?"