Again I'm sorry about the wait. I've been busy and under the weather. Thanks to everyone reading & rewieving!
Wonderful chapter 30
Rose's Other Name
"If you catch it, maybe it will tell you about its properties."
On all fours, the little wizard crawled after the little plant his mother had brought to life. The light was murky at best behind the musty sofa, but Severus could see the sticklewort. It was cowering by the wall just out of the child's reach.
"Be careful, she's got thorns."
Flattening out to get closer to the magical plant, Severus tried to persuade it to come closer. "It's all right. I won't hurt you."
The little plant made a humming sound as if it were determining if it was safe to approach the, in its eyes, rather large human. Humans tended to take her kind to chop them up then brew in potions and teas. Before the little plant could comply or refuse the little boy's hand swung forward to snag the plant by a leaf. Instinctively it pulled back and one of its hand-like leaves tore off. "Oooh sorry," Sev apologized. "I didn't intend that to happen." The plant seemed to bend over in a sad gesture. Like some kind of plant ballet, its four other leafy hands reached to where the missing one had been. In a fluid motion the plant rose up and backed away at the same time.
"Really, I didn't want to hurt you. Come on out and play with me." Severus' words did not convince the plant, until he said, "You know you won't grow a new leaf if you stay back here out of the sun." The animated flower made the same humming sound as before. It came out from behind the sofa, but through the side opposite Severus. "Oooooh," the boy wheezed out. He tried to crawl forward, no good. Backwards was no better. He couldn't move. "Muuuuuum," the little boy whined. "I'm stuuuuuuck."
A moment later the sofa pulled away from the wall and Severus could feel himself being lifted up by the waistband of his jeans. "How did you manage that?" Eileen had asked, but she didn't expect an answer. She was more concerned with her son's clothing. "These jeans are getting a bit short for you." She plopped Severus down in front of the plant person. "Now you play nice with her."
"How do you know it's a her?"
"Ask her." Eileen was determined that her son should find out on his own, use his curiosity to learn, not just repeat what he was told.
The dark haired boy looked at the yellow flower and asked, "Are you a girl?" The flower made the humming sound again. Severus wasn't sure if that was a yes or a no. "Mum, it's not answering."
"Oh yes it is."
"It's just humming."
"So you need to listen harder." Eileen's suggestion made her son scrunch his face up. He did not say it out loud, but she knew he was repeating it in thought. 'Listen harder.'
"What makes Mum think you're a girl," Severus asked the flower.
He tried to 'listen harder' and he heard within the plant's hum, words. "My name is Agrimony. I am of the rose family. How many boy's do you know named Rose?"
"Wow," was Severus' first reaction. "No, I've never known a boy named Rose. But Mum said your name was Sticklewort."
The flower hummed again, "That is what witches call me, but I have other names as well."
Expecting Agri, to tell him her other names, Sev didn't say anything he was still listening. Agri was stretching her five arms towards the slight stream of light coming from the clouded windows as if soaking it up. Eventually the boy asked, "So, what are your other names?"
"Liverwort, and Cockleburr."
"I think I like the other two better."
"A rose by any other name is still a rose."
"Huh?"
"Oh nothing. Say, I don't suppose you could get me a spot of water?"
"Water?"
"Water. You know, two hydrogen, one oxygen. Water."
Scuffling off to the kitchen, Sev came back with an empty plastic margarine tub with a little bit of water on the bottom. "How's that?"
Agri shook in a bristling motion and crawled over the side of the tiny tub. As if she were settling into a real tub, two of her branch arms grasped the sides as her roots settled in the water. "Ahhhhh." In seconds the water disappeared as Agri's roots slurped it up. The rest of her seemed to stiffen full of water. She was no longer wilting. "That's better." She stepped out of the tub and made a twisting motion. "Don't suppose I could get a spot of dirt as well?"
This time the boy did not comply. Severus figured his mother wouldn't have taken the flower out of the dirt if it were meant to go back in. "No you don't need dirt now that you are free to walk about."
"Did you just say I was freeeee?" The plant seemed to glow at this. It drooped a little when Eileen intervened. "No, you are not quite free." Severus looked to his mother wondering why she had said this. "You are free inside of this house, but you can not go out, and if a muggle comes in here, you must act like an ordinary plant."
"Ohhhhhhh."
"And," Eileen added. "You will teach Severus about the other plants in the kitchen."
Agri straitened up like she was proud to represent the other herbs. "Well Master Severus, what do you want to know?"
The wizard boy was not sure if the first question he asked the little flower should be about what potions they went in. He skirted around that question by asking, "What are your properties?"
"Hummmmmm," Agri started with that hum. "I am bitter, full of tannin, good for digestion. I also have silicic acid, and vitamin B3 which is good for people who have pale skin." Looking up at Severus and Eileen, she wondered if this was why the witch was growing her in her kitchen herb garden. "You won't brew me into a potion, will you?"
Looking up at his mother Severus asked, "Mum, now that Agri is - - alive. You won't brew her, will you?"
Knowing if she said yes it would distress her son greatly, Eileen agreed that she would not brew Agri. She wondered if she had made a mistake in animating the plant. She knew once attached to the plant being Severus would not let anything happen to it. "No, we will no brew you Agri." The little flower relaxed at this promise. "Sev it will be your job to take care of her."
"I can do that," Severus said proudly. The boy might have given Agri a snuggle if she were not full of thorns and spiky hairs all along her branches. Finally he had a pet, all be it one that was not so cuddly. "I just have to give her water, right?"
"Water, sunshine, and possibly some minerals she'd normally get from soil."
Agri added, "And no more tearing off leaves!"
"Naaaa-no," Severus sputtered. "That was an accident."
The witch-mother really wanted to get in a good rest before going off to work that day, so she suggested, "Why don't you bring your new friend into the kitchen and learn about the plants in there?"
Severus nodded and put his hand on the floor, palm up, telling Agri, "Climb up." Being careful not to get himself stuck with thorn or hair the boy carried the flower person into the kitchen. He put her down on a counter by a window where pots of other herbs were growing. Agri commenced telling the little wizard the names of the other plants and what potions they went into. "This is one of my best friends, Brandy Mint." Agri motioned to a plant with puffy purple flowers on top. "You may know her as Peppermint."
"Hello Brandy," Sev greeted. He heard something he had never heard before when he was near the kitchen garden. He could hear the other plants making humming sounds. Not quite able to understand what they said, he wondered if he listened even harder would he understand them the way he understood Agri. Listening harder did not work this time. He asked, "Why can't I understand them?"
"You do not have a wand."
"I need a wand to understand plant talk?"
"Yes, you should deem yourself fortunate that you can even hear the plant talk," Agri informed. "Many wizards are quite deaf to it, even with wands."
"So I can only understand you - - "
" - - Because of your mother's charm," the plant completed the thought. "But if you were a muggle or a squib, I don't think you would be able to hear me."
"That's good to know." Severus knew he was reaching the age when there would be no question that he was indeed a wizard. He didn't know how anyone could doubt it with all the evidence of magic he had displayed already. For some reason seven was the first of special ages for wizards and witches. Seven being the oldest age that magic reveled itself; eleven being when they were sent off to be trained; and seventeen being when they came of age. At the time, ten years seemed like an eternity to the boy, they would pass faster than he would ever imagine.
"What can you tell me about Brandy?"
"Peppermint is often used by muggles and wizards alike to flavor candy, but it's true value is in the oil being used as a liniment to relieve pain."
As Severus listened to Agri's tutelage he could hear his father coming in the front door. The boy wondered what kind of mood Tobias would be in. It sounded like the man was in a good mood. The boy could hear his father telling his mother, "Ele, I got a job. I start tomorrow. Driving trucks from the port to warehouses."
"Driving?" Ele's voice seemed to be light. "That means you won't be able to drink."
Grumpily Toby gave a short, "Suppose it does." He gagged Eileen's resolve by asking, "Suppose we could just have a little one to celebrate?"
"Toby, you promised."
"I said a little one?"
"You know with you it never stops at one."
Severus waited for the expected yelling and banging, but it did not arrive. Instead he heard his father agreeing, "All right, I promised." Sev wondered if Toby being honest, or just wanting to shut Eileen up. "Ironic."
Surprised that Toby would use the word, Eileen inquired, "What's ironic?"
"In a few hours you'll be going off to your job, where you will be serving drinks to other people, but - - "
"But I don't have to live with them, now do I?"
Inside of his little brain, Severus was thinking, 'very Slytherin Mum, very Slytherin.'
tbc
