It was in Greenhouse One on the north side of Hogwarts Castle.
"To transplant Dittany, you need to be careful when digging up the plant, trying to keep the root system intact. Plant it in loose, fertile, and well-drained soil. After watering it just right, put it in a place with proper light..." Professor Straup was holding a potted Dittany she had just transplanted, explaining to the young witches and wizards gathered around her.
She looked at the student taking the most diligent notes and asked gently, "Could you tell me the best season to transplant Dittany?"
Cho immediately raised her hand and answered, "Dittany is a perennial herb, so it's usually best to transplant it in the spring or autumn."
"Excellent. Three points to Ravenclaw." Professor Straup gently placed the Dittany pot on a wooden shelf, then turned and continued, "That information is from One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. However, when we're actually growing Dittany, we can use magic to provide it with the growing conditions it needs, no matter the season, like we do here in the greenhouse."
She paused, then asked, "Can anyone tell me what kind of fertilizer is best to use when transplanting Dittany out of season?"
One student raised their hand and said with a bit of uncertainty, "Dragon dung."
Professor Straup smiled and explained to them, "Even though I often say in class that dragon dung is a great fertilizer for most plants—it's incredibly potent and makes magical plants grow quickly and strongly—you have to be very careful with the amount you use, or it can backfire and harm the plant instead."
"But for something as delicate as a newly transplanted Dittany, dragon dung could cause it to just shrivel up and die, so it's not the right choice."
She bent down, plucked a leaf of Dittany, and handed it to the student who had answered incorrectly, saying encouragingly, "I can't give you points for that, but since you usually pay attention in class, I'll reward you with a Dittany leaf. I just hope you never have to use it."
The students around them all laughed good-naturedly. Dittany is a powerful but gentle healing herb. You can eat the leaves directly to heal minor cuts, or use them like a magical bandage, so Professor Straup was just reminding him to be careful and not get hurt.
Professor Straup's gaze then fell on Adam, who was daydreaming in a corner of the greenhouse, and her voice became a bit louder. "Mr. Adam Morgan, can you answer this question for me?"
Adam was pretending to hold a small shovel but was actually holding a little knife, getting ready to take a cutting from a Devil's Snare. When he heard Professor Straup's voice, he immediately stood up to answer, discreetly tucking a vine into his robe pocket.
"When you're transplanting Dittany, the best fertilizer to use is Thestral dung. The same goes for Daffodil Root and Mandrake. It's because the effect of this fertilizer is gentle and won't put too much stress on the plant."
Professor Straup smiled and nodded, giving Hufflepuff three points. Then, she told the students to try transplanting the Dittany on the ground into small clay pots, reminding them several times to wear their dragon-hide gloves.
Most of them seemed a bit distracted, but Professor Straup didn't mind. After all, this was the last class before the Christmas holidays, and the students were already thinking about how they'd spend their two-week break. She sometimes felt a little envious of Snape, who could make his students pay attention, even if it was through the threat of taking away points. She had the same power as a Head of House, but she just felt a bit awkward using it.
She walked over to one student and quietly reminded them, "Don't just jab at the dirt with your shovel."
The student rubbed their head awkwardly, then asked Professor Straup a question. Seeing this, other students gathered around, their eyes full of anticipation.
"Professor, I was wondering, why do we witches and wizards celebrate Muggle Christmas?"
Surprisingly, at the exact same moment, this question popped up in every classroom, leaving many professors momentarily stunned.
Adam, the instigator of this question, was crouched in a corner, nimbly transplanting his Dittany. He turned to the girl next to him, Shirley, and asked in a low voice, "When you were last at the old Black family house, who told you that your father had left something behind?"
The young witch thought for a moment, then nodded uncertainly, responding quietly, "I just guessed it. The house-elf was always acting like it wanted to say something, but it couldn't. It just kept banging its head against the wall."
"It was a little scary, so my Aunt Corinna and I left."
Adam frowned and asked again, "That Corinna went into the old Black house too? She wasn't kicked out by the portrait?"
Shirley pursed her lips and shook her head, focusing on shoveling dirt.
"Okay, I'll call her Aunt Corinna too. Can you be sure she didn't take anything?"
After a long pause, the little witch said glumly, "Aunt Corinna was with me the whole time. The old house is really rundown, anyway. It's nothing like her own manor."
Adam took off his gloves, pulled a letter from his pocket, and handed it to Shirley, saying to comfort her, "This is the reply from Grandma Tina. She's agreed to our request and can Apparate with us there."
He paused again, then added, "Actually, we could have Professor Dumbledore take us, too. He's not going for another few days..."
Shirley waited a long time, but Adam didn't finish his sentence. She glared at him indignantly, then turned and started talking quietly with Cho.
Adam shrugged helplessly and showed his transplanted Dittany to Professor Straup.
Professor Straup was pleased and gave Hufflepuff another three points. She then gave the potted Dittany to Adam, quietly reminding him that he couldn't grow Devil's Snare in the common room. She also told him he could buy some Christmas cactus seeds in Diagon Alley; they look similar to Devil's Snare but aren't dangerous at all. Adam's face flushed a little at her genuine kindness.
However, Professor Straup didn't take back the vine. She just told Adam to read his textbooks, as they had information on how to handle Devil's Snare. She had seen many students try to grow dangerous plants and had even done it herself when she was a student.
Before the end of the Herbology lesson, Adam stayed behind to help Professor Straup. As he was leaving the greenhouse, he saw Gna hurrying in. She looked shocked to see him, then lowered her voice and promised she would save up enough money to pay him back for the quill he'd given her half-price not long ago. Adam was a bit baffled by the earnest girl, so he just handed her another gift box and told her not to open it until Christmas Day.
It wasn't until the sun was setting that he met the Weasley twins and Cedric, who had just flown in on his broomstick, at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
"Here's the thing you wanted. I really don't know why you're asking about him; he was just a..." George complained quietly but was interrupted by Cedric, who patted him on the shoulder and told him to stop talking.
Adam opened the old Quidditch player roster and quickly found the part he was looking for. Regulus Black, joined the Slytherin Quidditch team in 1973 as the Seeker, with a career high...
"Is that all there is? No other information?" Adam said, frowning.
Cedric scratched his head and replied, "There is a little more, but it's from some of the little booklets that our older Hufflepuff students have passed down. Are you sure you want to see them?"
Adam silently took the stack of booklets. As he read through them, he couldn't help but marvel again at the incredible Hufflepuff underground information network. As the friendliest of the four houses, the little badgers get along with students from all the other houses and often hear all sorts of interesting gossip. They write it down in these little booklets so they don't forget it. Everyone else is happy to read the latest gossip, so these booklets, which are filled with a lot of students' embarrassing moments, have been passed down from one generation to the next.
Adam even saw Newt Scamander's name in there, which was from nearly a century ago! The booklets somehow still had records of it. He was looking through the information on Regulus, but it was all very disorganized. Besides joining some professor's Slug Club, most of it was just little, insignificant things, like arguing with his brother in the Great Hall.
Just as he was about to put the booklets down in disappointment, his eye caught a few strange sentences written on the very last piece of parchment.
A few minutes ago, I saw him vanish down the corridor, followed by a student I'd never seen before.
Just as I was about to go get a snack, the two of them suddenly appeared back in the same spot.
The odd thing was, it was only just after Christmas, but they were both wearing summer clothes.
Their condition was hard to describe; they were unshaven and their clothes were tattered, as if they had just returned from a long journey.