'Ginny!' Hermione called out to me in mild alarm, 'what ever are you planting nettles for?'

I had to suppress a smile because I was hoping to catch her out with this one; it's always fun to find gaps in Hermione's knowledge and then tease her mercilessly about it. I suppose I'm more like the twins than I care to admit.

'Silly, they're not stinging nettles, they're deadnettles.'

'Deadnettles?' she asked, dubious, 'I'm not sure that sounds any better ...'

I rolled my eyes at her and gave her my best oh, Hermione, don't you know anything, look. She looked back at me decidedly, well, nettled, by this and I had to cover my grin by tuning my face away and vigorously patting the soil down around the plant's roots.

'Dead just means "without a sting",' I said.

'Oh, I see, yes of course it does,' she spoke as though any fool would know that and as if she herself had only had a momentary lapse of memory.

'Yes, they look very like stinging nettles when not in flower, but no one will be able to confuse them in a few weeks time when the first rictus appears,' as I spoke, I bit my lip on another grin, certain that I'd hit on something else Hermione would be puzzled about.

From the corner of my eye, I could see her right arm twitching, as though she wanted to fire it into the air for permission to ask teacher a question. She's so adorable when her curiosity is aroused and she's so pertinacious in her relentless quest to know more than anyone else.

'Rictus?' she asked eventually, showing signs of disappointment at not either knowing already or being able to work it out for herself.

'Mmm, like Snap Dragons, they have a two lipped corolla, you know, like a mouth …?'

'Oh, yes of course they are,' she said, again sounding as thought she'd known all along, and I couldn't help chuckling at that.

'What?' she asked, frowning at me.

'Nothing honey, I think you're adorable.' I looked up at her and smiled as I spoke, shielding my eyes form the brightness of the low spring sun.

'Why are you planting them anyway? Even if they don't sting, they still don't look like the sort of thing you'd want in a garden.'

'Neville sent them,' she frowned at me, she always worries that he's still trying to woo me, even now, 'they have number of uses, both in potions and muggle medicine,' I stretched up from my crouched position and went to stand beside her, slipping one arm around her waist and pulling her against me, 'and they're pretty enough when they're in flower.'

'So they won't be harmful to the little one when he's running about?' She patted her tummy affectionately.

I turned her face to mine and brushed back her hair so that I could see her face clearly. I meant to reassure her that our child would be perfectly safe, but for a moment my breath caught and I forgot how to speak. She's flowering more beautifully than anything in our garden ever could and I told her that instead.

Rictus: bot The throat of a two-lipped corolla.

NOTES: Written for a LiveJournal ficlet challenge community in 2003.

CHAL: Either Draco and Harry or Hermione and Ginny plant a garden. Use the words rictus and pertinacious.