A Wilted Rose
By The Demon's Quill
One of the oldest Pure-Blood traditions was 'The ceremony of the flower'; where young children age 6-10 were gathered at a specific location, to participate in an ancient ritual, that was created centuries ago by Adelpha Cupid on the14th of February.
The process of the ritual was simple; it included a specified group of pureblood depending on their child's relationship status and age; because you see, arranged marriages were abolished in the early 1820's in the Wizarding world to make way for the 'Independence act'.
When the act was first instituted it divided the bloodline even more by envy and caused chaos when the population of Males diminished. In all the chaos there was more pressure to create Pureblood males and dispose of the 'extra' pure blood women who 'held no purpose' in life.
Until a women named Adelpha Cupid developed the idea of 'The ceremony of the flower', in which pure blood's between the age of 6 and 10 were to gather around her manor and pick one flower from her enormous garden and present it to the one they desired the they would carry on the day by playing in the magical garden.
Adelpha was a Herbologist and well known for her experiments with love potions and her own kindness which earned the name 'Angel of love' when she was only 20 years of age. She was able to captivate the hearts of men which earned her many marriage contracts until she finally accepted one at the age of 13. later on her younger sister was caught up in the chaos of the riots and ended up being 'disposed of' due to the fact that she was unable to find a suitor in the given amount of time.
Adelpha devoted her life to her garden once she found out she was infertile while her once loving husband turned to the comfort of liquor in a vain last attempt at happiness, slowly killing himself in the process and leaving his estate and money to Adelpha.
Since then she had poured every ounce of magic and devotion into her garden in hopes that someone would be able to find the love she had not in her lifetime.
Her garden was given to the public in a devotion to her contribution to magic, her long lived life and 'The ceremony of the flower' was thus created.
Feburary 14, 1955 Valentines Garden
Lucius Malfoy POV:
A large azalea hedge ran all around the garden cutting off different sections based on planetary needs. The only gaps in the hedges were for empty archways that allowed access to the many sections of the gardens from fire lilies to pumpkin patches and even a little area that heightened above the rest to sustain a large fruit tree; that had the capability of producing any fruit that was used for fertilize, underneath the fruit tree sat a small wooden bench that had been shaded by the tree itself along with clover and butter cups crowing around the bench in a halo of Green and Yellow.
Lucius slowly walked towards said bench in order to better assess the situation he had found himself in.
The 9 year old boy elegantly sat on the bench, relishing in the slight breeze that swept through his shoulder length platinum hair. From this height he could see even more flower and hedges weaving all around the garden and even a few narcissus plant growing near the base of the tree itself blending in with the buttercups and dandelions.
'All you have to do is find a flower and present it to any girl here, they are all suitable and well bred, just pick one', Lucius thought to himself, he closed his eyes and took a breath of fresh air only for the fumes of nature to evade his senses in a most exscuiet way.
Even from this distance he could smell the roses and Pansies and something else, something sweeter, was it Honey?
He slowly opened his eyes to be met with a little girl making daisy chains on the grass right below him, the girl looked only to be 6 years old, wearing pink printed blossom dress with her blonde wavy hair cascading down her back. The girl seemed to be gently singing a song while slowly swaying her head to the rhythm.
'Sing a song of flowers, flowers all around.
Flowers that are growing, growing in the ground
Flowers of each color make a pretty view.
Red and orange and yellow.
And blue and purple, too.'
She was beautiful and her voice carried away gently in the wind reminding him of a birds melody, he could gaze upon her forever. He quietly got to his feet in order to not disturb her and plucked the perfect flower.
He gingerly tapped her on the shoulder with his other hand outstretched with the flowers.
"Excuse me, miss" he confidently said.
"yes?" the girl replied only to be met with a awestruck boy holding out a handful of Narcissus flowers. Her eyes lit up in Glee as she joyfully accepted them.
"My names Narcissa, what's yours?" she asked
"Lucius Malfoy, pleased to meet your acquaintance" He replied while kissing the knuckles of her small little hand. She blushed bright pink and giggled at his words while he returned her gesture with a handsome grin.