Disclaimer: Hogwarts and all its recognizable denziens belong to Ms. Rowling; I just borrow them for my own (and hopefully your) entertainment.

Chapter 2 - A Lesson

Tuesday came more quickly that Regulus expected and, as the day wore on, he became more and more nervous. On the inadvertently helpful advice of Henry ("Why don't you talk to someone who cares?"), he had approached Sprout the day before for more information.

In addition to being frighteningly enthusiastic, even for a Hufflepuff, she had managed to give Regulus some instruction as to how to go about tutoring. He now knew the lesson plans for the regular sixth years and just what Miss Simmons was struggling with. On Monday night, he'd compulsively gone over the appropriate sections in his textbook at least a thousand times. Afterwards, Regulus knew everything there was to know about leukwheat-the plant which the sixth years were studying-but this did not alleviate his nerves.

Driven by a lifelong fear of failure (which most psychologists would probably link to his older brother, from whom many of his problems seemed to originate, damnitall), Regulus had spent every free minute he had in the library. He obsessively went over book, article, and scroll that mentioned leukwheat and even some that didn't (by the end of the day he found himself staring at a back issue of Witch Weekly).

It wasn't a terribly complex subject, and he really couldn't see why she was having any difficulty. But, he reminded himself, some people might not see the difficulty in History of Magic. Regulus had yet to meet such a person, but he was reasonably that they were out there. Someone had to write the books.

At quarter till seven, Regulus gathered up his things and left the Slytherin dungeons for the greenhouses. It was chilly outside, but not overly uncomfortable, as the sun was still out and a good distance from the horizon. He didn't know which greenhouse this girl was supposed to be using, so he waited awkwardly in front of number one, glancing around every so often and receiving scrutinizing looks from passerby.

She arrived a little after seven, her bag slung haphazardly over her shoulder, one hand holding a half-eaten scone.

"Sorry, I'm running a bit late," she apologized when they came face to face. "You are Regulus, right? My tutor?"

"Yes," he said, trying to recognize her. There were only about fifty students in their year and, although Regulus was not the most sociable of people, he must have seen her somewhere.

"I'm Lizzy," she held out her scone-less hand and he took it, still trying to place her face. It was proving rather difficult; there was nothing spectacular about her. Her hair and eyes were brown, her face plain and ordinary with a smattering of freckles. Even when she introduced herself, the use of her nickname did not ring a bell. It all made Regulus, who'd been brought up in Polite Society, feel a bit ashamed and embarrassed.

"Well, shall we get started?" No sooner were these words out of her mouth than she was walking in the direction of greenhouse three, taking another bite out of her scone along the way.

The inside of the greenhouse was rather dark and eerie, with the blue light from the non-heated candles casting disconcerting shadows throughout the building.

Regulus followed Lizzy (who didn't seem to be at all unsettled), to a corner table where she set down her things and proceeded to retrieve a rather droopy looking shrub from a nearby shelf.

"Is that your leukwheat?" Regulus asked, eyeing the pitiful plant. He regretted his question almost immediately, realizing just how rude it was. However, when he looked over at Lizzy, she did not seem the least bit insulted. In fact, she was grinning at him broadly.

"Pathetic isn't it?" She sounded almost proud. "I've had it less than a week, and it's already dying. If I'd left it alone– not watered it and kept it in a basement or something– it would be better off."

"It's state is rather remarkable." And it was, the pot was full of dead, brown leaves, the few leaves left on the plant were wilted and dull. The entire being looked as though it had just lost a bout with a hippogriff, to say nothing of the flower, which had mysteriously vanished.

"Er– so what do you know about leukwheat?" If Regulus was going to help this girl, he would first have to assess what she needed to learn. That, and figure out just what the hell she'd done to her leukwheat.

"Other than that I'm killing it?" She joked, still smiling. Regulus, who had never been much of a smiler, found his lips moving upward, if not because the joke was funny then because her good humor was contagious. "I know its name and that I supposed to collect . . . the something-I-can't-remember from it when the flower's matured. Other than that, I've got nothing."

Well, thought Regulus, ignorant didn't begin to describe it. He suppressed a sigh and continued with his questioning, trying to be professional and helpful.

"Speaking of the flower, what happened to it? They're supposed to have flowers when they're this mature, correct?"

"If you say so. And it does still have a flower, see?" She leaned in and indelicately grabbed a small, dreary bud that had been concealed amongst the wilting leaves, as if trying to hide. "It had bloomed, but then it saw me and, sensing imminent danger, promptly curled up into this ugly little ball."

Again, Regulus found himself smiling. Even if she was obviously abominable with plants, Lizzy at least had a sense of humor about it. The same could not be said for Regulus and History of Magic.

"I see," he studied the plant carefully, trying to determine what actually was wrong with it. From all that he had read, it didn't seem that this species would be sensitive enough to wilt with the mere presence of a botanically-challenged witch. "What, exactly have you been doing to care for it?"

"Er . . . " she hesitated, looking confused by his question. "I've watered it a few times and kept it in the sun with the others. Isn't that okay?"

Aha, thought Regulus, problem found! "Yes, but there's a bit more to it than just that. What does your textbook say?"

Lizzy took her copy of Magical Herbs and Fungi out of her bag and began to leaf through it, searching for the section on leukwheat. Regulus, knew exactly what the book said, but he didn't want to tell her. It didn't seem very helpful, if he just told her everything and showed her how to do it.

The sound of turning pages stopped, signaling that Lizzy had bound the article. She began to read through it, aloud.

"'Leukwheat or frutexus niteo are part of the Volucredae family and particularly desirable for their multitude of magical properties. The most popular of these properties, it the luminescent pistil. When mature, the pistil produces a powerful, magical light, which is harvested and used in many magical lighting products. The unique pistils of these plants glow in order to attract baw-bees, the only insect capable of pollinating the leukwheat.' That's all very interesting, but it doesn't tell me at all how to take care of one."

"What family is it from?" Regulus asked, trying, without much success, to sound encouraging.

"The Volucredae family," she read, mispronouncing the name horribly.

"Okay, and what do you know about that particular family?"

"Sorry, I'm not very well acquainted with them. Perhaps you could introduce us?"

Regulus actually grinned at that, showing all his teeth. This wasn't so bad, after all . . .

"They have some traits which are unique to their family," he explained, knowing this was not in her text. They all studied plant family traits last year, but evidently Lizzy hadn't absorbed too much. "Specifically, they need more than just light and water to survive. Being luminescent, they do need lots of light– in fact, you might want to put a candle by it at night, if you can charm it not to burn anything. But they also do not absorb minerals from the soil as other plants might. They are insectivores– specifically they eat flying insects, as their name might suggest."

"So they're like Venus flytraps?" Regulus had never heard of a Venus flytrap, but gleaned from its moniker that leukwheats were indeed like flytraps, so he nodded in affirmation. "But how do they catch things? I don't see any mouths." Lizzy leaned down to carefully inspect the plant again, finding nothing but common looking leaves and stems.

"Some members of Volucredae have mouths or things with which they catch their pray," Regulus explained, quoting an exact line from his OWL exam, "but leukwheats don't. Normally, they give off pheromones to draw insects to the soil and force them to bury themselves alive in it. Then, the roots consume the nutrients from the bugs."

"Ew," Lizzy wrinkled her nose at the offensive shrub. "What a murderous little bloodsucker. So what should I do? Put it near the rubbish bins so it can catch more flies?"

"No . . . " Regulus stifled a laugh, thinking of how humorous that would look in Madam Hosta's Magical Guide to Horticulture. Simply place your leukwheat near a festering rubbish bin . . . "Actually, this species doesn't eat flies– it eats glow worms. Professor Sprout should have a supply of them somewhere . . ."

"Oh yes, now I remember! She has a tank of them just over there," Lizzy straightened up and cocked her head towards a shelf full of glass cages. There was an entire row of food for the more carnivorous plants; Sprout needed a supply of everything from grubs to small rodents in order to keep all of her charges well fed. "I'd wondered what some of the kids were doing with them . . . " Lizzy made her way over to a tank filled with grass and a few of the luminous insects, Regulus trailing quickly after her.

"So I just grab a few of these little beasties and bury them in the pot and everything's peachy?" She looked over at Regulus inquisitively.

"Not precisely," he said, feeling very tutor-ish. "You should stun a few before you collect them, then just stick them about a half of a centimeter deep into the soil. And the roots will eat them up. They have to be alive, though, so only stun them lightly."

"That's morbid," Lizzy said conversationally, but she had pulled out her wand and was preparing to gather the glow worms. "About how many should I use, d'you think?"

"It's up to you– you should keep a record of how many you feed it each time, though. Professor Sprout said that was part of the assignment."

"That's right. I'll use five this time; I've been starving the poor bugger, after all." Lizzy cast a few stunners, knocking out the insects as they flew about the tank. She then fed the leukwheat (with a disgusted look on her face the entire time), under the careful supervision of Regulus, and recorded the information on her worksheet. And with that, they were done, both feeling quite content with their work.

"Thanks a lot, Regulus," Lizzy said as they left the greenhouse. "You were a big help. And you're really amazing at Herbology; you should look for a career in it or teaching or something."

"Er– you're welcome," Regulus didn't quite know how to react to such a compliment, her words making him inexplicably uncomfortable. "Well, I'll see you next Tuesday, I suppose."

"Hopefully, my plant will still be alive by then. See you later." She turned and went off toward the Hufflepuff rooms. Regulus noticed that she walked very . . . enthusiastically. Whereas most people shuffled or stomped, she walked straight and fast, as if she really wanted to get to where she was going, yet wasn't in a hurry. Regulus found himself standing there, looking after her for longer than was polite. He had to shake himself out of and turned around quickly before he went off in the direction of the Slytherin dungeon.

TBC

Author's note: Thanks for reading, please review!!

The plant names (all of them) are based on Latin and Old English words, but are otherwise entirely made up by yours truely (with some help from online dictionaries). Sorry this was kind of short. Ch. 3's in the works!

Nia, swiftydemon, and Madam Pudifoot, thanks so much for your reviews. You guys rock! I'm glad you're enjoying this fic!