The flowers at St. Mungo's are almost dead.
Neville knows the orderlies water
when they can
but a few sprinkles once a week
are not nearly enough.
Perhaps he was silly
to pick flowers so fragile.
Enough so to require:
water every couple days,
a good pruning once in a while,
a sunlight spell if the day was cloudy...
these were not flowers to be left alone for a year.
Neville views them now,
beside his parents.
They're rather gray...
...and wilted,
shriveled...
...just about ready to give up the ghost.
The connection is there,
begging to be made-
that perfect metaphor he hates
more than anything.
He won't do it,
even though he already has.
Instead, he reminds himelf:
the fight is over-
they will not be left alone for another year.
He will nurse them back to health,
"them" being plants, of course,
plants being:
The Only Things Neville Longbottom Can Fix.