“Gardening isn’t that bad when you have magic to help with it, either.” Patrick pointed out, thinking wistfully of his mother and how he’d kneel in the dirt and help with her garden when he was younger, rich soil caught beneath his fingernails and darkening the knees of his pants. She’s always been so peaceful then and she talked about how it was giving to the land and the land giving back, she made it sound magical to him, so was it any surprise that Patrick got an official notice from the Ministry for the use of underage magic the year his mother’s garden didn’t do so well?
She made it sound magical to begin with, he didn’t think it should count. It did, unfortunately, but there was nothing to stop him from making things better for her after Patrick graduated.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just being… I don’t know, fucking maudlin or something.” Patrick explained, waving a hand through the air before slouching back. “Being too nostalgic lately, but gotta admit, Bertie Botts haven’t crossed my mind in a while. Rubber boots sound worse than earwax, how do they keep coming up with these things? Who do they pay to taste them?”
“There’s no magical cure for the sun. Or for keeping track of the lunar calendar. Also, bug bites. And ants. And worms. The weather is such a big deal, too. It’s less “settle on to a routine” and more “fix whatever today’s problem is”, trains are less surprising I guess.” Connecting with nature was nice, depending on nature wasn’t as nice- she’d enjoyed her time on the farm, though, and visited whenever she could.
“Eh, well, I think that’s normal, Hogsmeade does that to your brain.” Especially if you spent the day surrounded by people sadder than you, which was probably Patrick’s case. But, as fun as having him arround in the train would be, it would probably be ten times as depressing to him. He’d probably end up apologizing for breathing.
“Bertie Botts consistently haunt me, they’re nightmare material.” In all fairness, she wasn’t at the bottom of the foodchain, Silas had probably tried rubber boot much more often than she had, but she was always a picky eater. “Whoever they pay, they should love themselves a little. Also, who had the idea of including awful flavors, and why does it work?”