Next Chapter! Okay, I promise Lorcan will be in soon (two or three chapters, maybe?) Thanks for being patient! I just didn't want them to fall in love or anything when she was eleven… So I'll wait.
Anyway, enjoy!
That year was fairly normal. People continued to come to her for advice and she began to enjoy giving it out. Lucy liked helping people. She would just pretend she was a daffodil and give them the same pensive advice her flowers gave her.
January twelfth fell on a Tuesday that year, so Lucy found Molly when she woke up in the morning and the two sisters skipped classes and spent the day together, in each other's comfort.
Then, on February twelfth, Louis came to Lucy again to beg flowers. Since Valentine's Day was approaching, he wanted to do something extra-special for Livia, who he was still dating. Lucy said that she would try to get him a bouquet, but it was the middle of winter, and none of her usual flowers were given space in the greenhouses. "Let's go look, though," she told Louis, heading out to the greenhouse. "I'm sure we can find something. I do feel a bit guilty taking the school's flowers, but they've got to be deadheaded anyway."
In greenhouse three, where most of the flowering plants were kept, Lucy gestured to a pot of singing daisies, confident now that she was among the plants. The daisies came in pink, orange, yellow, and lavender. "These are pretty, but they're kind of loud. I'd go with yellow if you were going to get any. They're the least shrill."
Louis nodded.
Lucy went to the back of the greenhouse and climbed the ladder there to get to the climbing flowers. They all managed to grow on the ceiling, so it was covered in plants, as well. A few were even as large as umbrellas. She didn't quite think those would fit in the bouquet. Instead, she gravitated towards some of the mallowsweet blooms, which resembled her roses. Mallowsweet was highly magical and used for divination but only the leaves, so she doubted anyone would mind her taking the blooms. Clipping off some blue, red, and pink ones, she returned down the ladder to Louis, handing these to him as well.
"Now just let me get a bit of dittany as a filler," she said. The tiny, pale yellow flowers would perfectly complement the larger, brighter blooms. Lucy grabbed a few sprigs and returned to Louis, taking the flowers and arranging them prettily. Without any ribbons to tie them off with, she instead pulled the hair tie from her ponytail and wrapped that around the stems.
The daisies had lowered their voices to a lullaby-like song and the bright mallowsweet drew the eye while the dittany completed the bouquet nicely. "And there you are," she said, handing him the flowers. "You'll want to keep them in a vase with water and maybe do an anti-wilting charm to keep them fresh," she added.
He stared at the bouquet in awe. "How did you do that? I would have been completely lost. And without mundane flowers, too. I was actually kind of worried that there wouldn't be any pretty ones left."
Lucy laughed, a light tinkling laugh, not quite full, but still better than the girlish giggle she'd used before. "You've just got to look around and you'll see it. It's actually really fun! Come back any time and I'll get you more flowers. I doubt Professor Longbottom will mind, so long as I don't give out anything too valuable. He brings bouquets to his wife all the time." Lucy shrugged and smiled.
Louis grinned back, thanked her again, and ran off.
Lucy was not surprised at that. Even though he was a seventh year, she sometimes wondered if Louis had grown up at all.
She was, however, surprised when, hardy a quarter of an hour later, two more seventh year Gryffindor boys who she'd never spoken to before entered her greenhouse. And she was positively shocked when they came over and asked her for flowers.
She must have looked dumbfounded, because the shorter of the two looked at his friend and said, "Are you sure this is all right? I mean, I know Louis said she would help us, but…" he glanced over at Lucy skeptically.
She blinked, indignant. Of course she would help them! She was just surprised at two seventh years coming in here and asking for flowers when she had absolutely no idea who they were. She put her hands on her hips, attempting to look less diminutive and childish (and failing miserably) and asked, "What kind of flowers do you need?"
The boys, who had been arguing about whether or not to leave, looked over at her, surprised. "Well, it's Valentine's soon…" the taller one began.
"Yes," Lucy said, fighting back the urge to congratulate him on knowing the day of the month. "And…"
"And we want Valentine's Day flowers!" He seemed exasperated.
Lucy wanted to laugh. What, exactly, constituted as a Valentine's Day flower? It wasn't like they had a section of the greenhouse devoted solely to different holidays and she could just go over and show them the most romantic of the flowers. But she would help them, despite their ignorance about her plants. She couldn't expect everyone to be knowledgeable, even if they had taken at least five years of Herbology like these doorknobs. "Do you want me to just pick something out for you?"
They nodded, looking relieved.
So she went around, humming on her way. She wouldn't make it the same as Louis's, so instead she grabbed some yellow and purple mallowsweet blooms, several sprigs of a delicate white lovelast, and a bit of the lavender, bell-like arrylia. She split the flowers, yellow mallowsweet with lovelast, purple with arrylia, arranging them into two full bouquets. With nothing left, to tie the stems with, she instead handed them to the seventh years, saying, "You'll have to hold these carefully. You need to find some ribbon to tie them together and be sure to keep them in a vase overnight." She nodded definitively.
"Thanks," the tall one said, holding the yellow bouquet.
The shorter boy said nothing and they turned and left.
Lucy sighed. It had been fun, so she couldn't blame them too much for their lack of manners.
She finished up in greenhouse three and returned to her dormitory, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
And the Valentine's Day rush continues in the next chapter…