Thomas smirked slightly once he was at the Greenhouses. He'd heard people complaining about the mess in the greenhouses, plus he could always find something to use that might be worth something or could be used in some other way, so he'd asked the Herbology Professor, Professor Cooper, about cleaning the Greenhouses. This way he could learn a new spell too, Scourgify. He had an inkling that the spell could be handy for future use too, even if to only clean his room. He entered the Greenhouse, with Professor Cooper already there. He nodded to her politely after entering, wanting to focus mainly on learning a new spell. She pointed Thomas towards some muddy pots, which were currently empty of any plants or flora, he took his wand out, and looked at the pots. They didn't seem too grimy, which meant it hopefully wouldn't take up that much energy. He tried to remember his previous lessons with other Professors. He had to put mental force behind it, perform wand movement accurately and say the incantation right. He stared at the pots for a moment, trying to imagine them clean, pointed his wand at them and chanted “Scourgify!” and he saw a couple of tiny bubbles appear on the pots...
That didn't work great, but for once it didn't take a million tries to get any effect. He looked at the pots again, and chanted “Scourgify!” And grinned when there were a fair few suds on one pot this time. Of course, Professor Cooper by now had done almost all the greenhouse, making it look like some kind of giant bubble bath. But at least he had started to get something done, though he hadn't found anything useful yet. He looked at the pots again, the spell was more important to him anyway. “Scourgify!” he chanted again, watching in delight as one of the pots now looked a lot cleaner. “Scourgify!” he repeated, and saw one pot become completely clean. Sure, he wasn't helping as much as any sixth or seventh year could have, but he was helping a little at least.
Thomas noticed Professor Cooper had been watching him at times, and realized he was likely doing something wrong when the Professor walked over to him and said to put more thought into it, rather than just saying the words and thinking vaguely of what might happen. Thomas nodded, and set himself to doing that, trying to imagine how each and every speck of dirt and mud would dissolve and disappear, and pointed his wand at the still dirty pots he'd been left with while the Professor moved to the next Greenhouse, chanting “Scourgify.” again, and watching as a pot became almost perfect with only a couple incantations of the spell. It was likely just good luck, but Thomas was happy to have even a slight proficiency in another spell. He finished off there, and walked over to the next Greenhouse, but the Professor said that he had done enough, but she may have something to talk to him about at a later date. Thomas wondered what it was, but shrugged, it would likely be something interesting, which instantly made him curious. He nodded and walked off to the Slytherin Commons, practising the spell on little things from time to time as he went, while hoping he wasn't making more of a mess.
