Silk In The Strings [Penelope]

[aurelia edith flint]

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June 23rd, 2026

The delivery schedule had already been messed up because of her abrupt disappearance six months prior and then reappearance a month later, but this was absolutely ridiculous. Deliveries were supposed to be made Monday mornings and it was late Tuesday afternoon. The only reason she was still sitting in her shop was because she was trying to get her new employee all set with how to accept deliveries and show her where to put everything. Had an urgent owl from the supplier not come in a few hours earlier, she would have closed for the day already. The plants that were supposed to be coming in needed to be potted fairly soon after being removed from the truck and it would function as a great learning experience for the new girl.

Speaking of her, it had been strange having someone else wandering around and helping out. Prior to the incident on the island, Rusti had contemplated putting up a help wanted ad around when the school term ended, hoping to get one or two part-timers fresh out of Hogwarts that needed work until they could find a real job. She knew no one actually wanted to fully work part-time at a florist for an extended period of time. It was her dream job after all. But she also had a ton of orders and supplies that needed to be arranged, and she couldn’t really do that on top of helping walk-in customers as well.

Penelope Bainbridge was hired, and was quite good at what she was doing so far. Rusti knew the Bainbridges and their exorbitantly large family, having been in the same year as the twins Cara and Diana. The amount of times that she and Dusti were confused for one or both of them despite sporting their Slytherin ties were beyond countable. What frustrated her the most about that was that Diana was a metamorphmagus and had never actually looked like Cara, or either of the Flints. An argument could probably be made about Cara, but it was really only because the three of them were blonde and she and Dusti tended to have similarly abrasive personalities. But the mistake should have been dropped at the realization that the Flints were Slytherins and the Bainbridges were Ravenclaws. Penelope sort of looked like her elder sisters, but there were enough differences where she didn’t seem to come across as another physical clone (thought according to her, she was a triplet, so there were potentially two others out there that looked similar).

Rusti had spent most of the afternoon pacing back and forth in the front of the store, having asked Penelope to prep soil and pots to make the transfer to their storage. It would only take an hour at max to get everything situated and in place, and then they could call it a day. Easy enough work despite being over a day late.

Every person that walked by the shopfront with a package or box larger than a bowling ball drew her attention, despite knowing this was going to be pulled in on a pallet of sorts. As she let out an audible groan, her patience really starting to wane now that she knew the delivery was coming today, she heard the door open. The delivery guy! “Penelope!” she yelled over her shoulder. “It’s here!” She quickly signed off on the delivery invoice and dragged the almost unrealistically heavy boxes into the store. There seemed to be a couple more extra than what she ordered, though that sometimes happened when a delivery was made late. It was her supplier’s way of saying sorry and giving her more product. Which was nice and all, but she was really going to be tight on space in the back because of that. Either way, she’d make do. At least she had a second set of hands to help this time.

Eagerly prying the closest box to her open to try and see the product, Rusti was met with something that absolutely wasn’t what she ordered. It was a potted plant, but the realization of what it actually was only kicked in when she saw the pot shudder a bit now that fresh air had been introduced to it. She very quickly closed the box back up and stood upright immediately, stiffly walking back towards the storage area. “Penelope!” she yelled again, though with much more urgency this time. “We’ve got a bit of a problem with the order. Take these,” Rusti hurriedly stated as she reached into the back of a locker that was full of smocks and other protective equipment, producing two pairs of fluffy earmuffs. “They sent us mandrake. I don’t know how old they are yet, so we’ll have to lock the shop up and soundproof it before trying to repot them. Are you okay with that?” The real problem was that she didn’t want to accidentally kill her brand new part-time worker if there was a sound leak and the mandrake were within the age range where a scream could be fatal. But if Penelope was up for the task, then it was going to be done quickly and efficiently.

Waving her wand a few times towards the front of the store, the door slammed shut and the lock clicked into place. The security charms she already had set would do well enough to keep people from entering without a key, so unless Dusti tried wandering in, they probably wouldn’t be disturbed throughout this. Another snap of her wrist and a semi-translucent bubble emerged, engulfing the front windows and surrounding walls, taking up any and every available crack where a smidgen of sound could leak out of. She could be responsible for her own accidental death by mandrake, but not a random person walking in. Penelope was the last remaining factor in this though she had a feeling it was going to be the two of them versus repotting no matter how she tried to go about it.

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

June 23, 2026

Although she was eighteen years old, Penelope Bainbridge didn't really think of herself as being old enough or competent enough to hold an actual job. Maybe that was the impostor syndrome talking, but she still couldn't believe that Rusti Flint had hired her to work for her at her flower shop. It was a nice job, really, because it didn't matter how poorly she did on her NEWT examinations. Those weren't of much concern to her after the fire anyway, in all honesty. She was mostly just relieved that she and her family members were all safe and well, and she hadn't kept her hopes very high when it came to her job prospects.

She liked working with flowers so far. It was a little bit messy on occasion, but it was no more so than it had been in Herbology class at Hogwarts, and who didn't want to be surrounded by flowers? Really, it was about as cheerful of an environment as she could have found, and Penelope liked it that way. Even Rusti, who had been in the same year as Cara and Diana, wasn't as intimidating as Penelope had expected she would be. She was actually nice, and it wasn't so bad to have a boss who wasn't much older than she was. It was like getting another older sister.

Rusti had been watching and waiting for most of the day for a shipment, and Penelope had been tasked with prepping a bunch of pots with the right soil for the plants that would be coming in. She had nearly finished that, too, when she heard Rusti calling her name and saying that the delivery was there.

Rinsing her hands of the dirt as quickly as she could, Penelope heard her name again, although it didn't come with the same relief as it had the first time. Her first thought was that she was being yelled at for not having come quickly enough when she had been called the first time, and she raced to where Rusti was to be of assistance.

Almost immediately, Rusti mentioned that there had been an issue with the order they'd just received, and at least Penelope knew that that one hadn't been on her. Even though it might not have been her doing, it wasn't good. Rusti practically thrust a pair of earmuffs into her hands and explained that they had been sent Mandrakes. "I don’t know how old they are yet," she continued, "so we'll have to lock the shop up and soundproof it before trying to repot them. Are you okay with that?"

That wasn't good, and Penelope was sure that her face blanched a little. "Yeah," she nodded, putting the earmuffs over her ears and cringing in anticipation of what they were about to have to do. They had handled Mandrakes at school, of course, and hopefully they weren't mature plants yet. Penelope braced herself as she watched Rusti work on soundproofing the shop. "Let's hope they're just babies…" she squeaked.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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Merlin, dealing with mandrakes was the worst. It would have been one thing if she had known they were coming. That way the shop could have been prepped and the re-potting process done smoothly. Having even one mandrake thrown on her unexpectedly like this was dangerous. Considering the size of the pot that she had seen in the box, it was most likely going to still be in its infant stage, which while manageable and safer than the alternative, still headache inducing. Literally. The last time she had dealt with a mandrake was during her summer study following graduation, under the tutelage of multiple well-known herbologists. Even they disliked having to work with the plants. If not for the screaming, the plants had a habit of wriggling free from anyone that didn’t have a solid grip on them. She’d even had one spit mulch all over her face. Thankfully wearing protective glasses was something of a habit for her, but it was still annoying.

With the shop sufficiently soundproofed and Penelope agreeing that she was fine with assisting on this, Rusti picked up the first box that she knew absolutely contained a mandrake. “I’ll contact the distributor in the morning, but they still need fresh dirt. I don’t trust that they’ve been changed out since they left their greenhouse.” A common problem, even with non-lethal plants. Taking the box into the back room, she set it down gently so as to not disturb the mandrake, and then placed her own earmuffs snuggly over her ears. Beautiful, fuzzy silence followed. If not, she was about to keel over on the ground. “Bring yours over too,” Rusti probably yelled back at Penelope, only hearing her muffled voice from the inside of her head. She held her finger up to show that she wanted another one at the workstation so that they could both work on it together. While she waited, a stack of slightly larger pots were produced, and a bag of nutrient rich dirt placed between where they would be standing. Once Penelope was ready, they’d try to repot as quickly as possible. The longer this dragged out, the bigger the headache it would be.

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

June 23, 2026

Some of the last things that Penelope had anticipated having to deal with while working at a florist were Mandrakes, but she knew that she didn't have much of a choice but to help Rusti. Fortunately, it didn't seem that winding up with a plant that could kill them despite its cuteness was a common occurrence. Earmuffs on and as ready as she would ever be, Penelope pulled on some gloves and waited for Rusti's instructions.

"I'll contact the distributor in the morning," she said upon picking up a box, "but they still need fresh dirt. I don't trust that they've been changed out since they left their greenhouse."

That was kind of sad for the Mandrakes, thought Penelope, but she wasn't about to get caught up in that. Rusti had taken her box into another room, and called out for Penelope to bring hers, too. It made sense, though. The sooner they could get the Mandrakes into fresh dirt and content to be sent out to somebody else who wasn't just trying to arrange flowers, the better off they—and the Mandrakes, naturally—would be.

"Coming," Penelope called to Rusti, wrangling a box and carrying it with her as carefully as she could to where Rusti had begun to get things set up without running into anything. She didn't need an angry Mandrake on her hands.

"How are we doing this? On three, or a 'ready, steady, go' sort of thing?" Penelope questioned, staring down the box in front of her and then glancing in Rusti's direction.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

▲

Efficiency was key here, because they didn’t need to be making any mistakes and getting themselves knocked out cold. That, of course, was the best case scenario here, because they still didn’t know how old the things were. Considering the boxes were light, she could take an educated guess that they were infants still. Unfortunately that didn’t make it any easier on them and they were simply going to have to change the pots quickly. Merlin she hated dealing with mandrakes.

With everything in place at the stations, she noticed that Penelope was asking something. Of course she couldn’t hear through the earmuffs and lifted one end to catch the bit about ‘on three’ or ‘go’. “What? Oh, right. Guess that’s sort of an important distinction isn’t it…” she mused, awkwardly laughing. If she were to be completely honest, she was just going to pull hers out once she knew they were both secure and safely noise-cancelling, and hope that Penelope followed her. Doing it at the same time on a number or go or whatever would definitely be for the best. Or the other option was doing each mandrake one at a time. One pulled it out, the other got ready to bury it with the fresh dirt. So many choices with multiple ways to accidentally screw it up and die.

Rusti blew air out of her mouth as she tried to think of the best way to approach it. “I’ll count down from three on my fingers, and then we’ll each grab a mandrake and repot it at the same time. Then we’ll each give a thumbs up when it’s fully buried. Once that’s confirmed, we’ll place the fresh ones in a delivery box and then grab the next set to repeat. No need to rush it at all, we’ve got all the time in the world to do this.” She said the last bit mostly to reassure herself more than Penelope. This was stressful and not how she wanted her day going at all. “So thumbs up once your station is prepared and then grab your first mandrake. And we’ll start.” Rusti placed her earmuffs back on tightly, cracking her neck both ways to try and loosen herself up a bit. This was going to be interesting.

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

June 23, 2026

Rusti sounded confused by what she meant by her question at first, but then she began to understand why it was that she had asked. Even with the requisite ear protection, having less exposure to squealing Mandrakes would be awfully nice. In the meantime, Penelope stood by, awaiting further instructions from her boss.

It took a moment for Rusti to come to a decision about what they should do, but the decision she made didn't sound unreasonable to Penelope at all. She would count down from three using her fingers, and then they would repot the Mandrakes simultaneously. They would then put those Mandrakes in a box so that they could be sent on their way. Then, they would repeat the process until the Mandrakes were all safely repotted and ready to go. Rusti also assured her that they wouldn't need to rush, which seemed like a good idea to avoid any Mandrake mishaps.

As she was instructed to do, Penelope then prepared her Mandrake repotting station, glad that she had paid attention in her Herbology lessons over the years. She gave a thumbs-up gesture to Rusti and then readied herself to get out her first Mandrake.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

▲

When was the last time she'd dealt with mandrakes? Fifth year for O.W.L.s? Each time there were less and less students in Herbology, a product of the class not captivating enough of them. Personally she has always found it relaxing, even when dealing with poisonous flowers or screaming baby plants that could knock you out flat without the proper ear protection. Mandrakes were honestly better than the fits Pansy had always been in, too. Especially the alcohol induced rages. At least they didn't mean to hurt anyone like her mother had. It was idiotic to try to claim that the woman wasn't aware of what she was doing. She had been vile even when she was stone-cold sober, and that was when she was her scariest. Thinking about her mother while preparing to pull a potentially perilous plant from its pot sent a chill through her, but Aurelia quickly shivered it away. Now wasn't the time for that, as she and Penelope needed to get this sorted out immediately.

Everything was set on her end, with the first mandrake ready to be yanked out of its dirty little nest once Penelope flashed a thumbs up. Which happened sooner than she expected. Counting down from three on her fingers, the shrill cry of the baby mandrake erupted the second it's head broke the safety of the soil. Luckily her earmuffs were soundproofed correctly and the cry had little effect, aside from being annoying. Quickly stuffed into the fresh pot, she tossed the new dirt over the top of the mandrake and buried. It's cries died down as it reached a more peaceful state, and Aurelia turned to check on Penelope's status, holding up her thumb to show that she was done with her own. Quick and efficient was really how they needed to play this game, and as long as there weren't any mature mandrakes accidentally mixed in with the rest of the lot, they could get this done by the end of the work day without any problems.

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

June 23, 2026

As their countdown ended and they got to work, Penelope suddenly felt that she hadn't appreciated earmuffs enough previously. She could tell that her and Aurelia's baby mandrakes were emitting bloodcurdling screams, as they had expected, but they fortunately weren't affected by them. Apart from the mild frustration that came from handling a dangerous screaming plant that shouldn't have been sent to a florist in the first place, they could handle what they were up against.

Penelope was less focused on what Aurelia was doing and how she was faring with the mandrake she had than what she was doing with her own. She wasn't sure that she had ever potted anything so quickly in her life, even in Herbology class. At the same time, she didn't want to cut corners and end up paying for it later, so she packed some extra dirt on top to ensure that the baby mandrake wouldn't get fussy.

"Nice and cozy…" she said, speaking to the plant as though it were a human infant. Once she was satisfied that the first one wouldn't pose any issues, she looked over to check on how Aurelia had done with hers to see that she was giving her a thumbs up. Likewise, Penelope gave her boss a thumbs up of her own and a small smile.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

▲

After the first set of mandrakes were handled carefully, Aurelia felt confident that they'd be able to get through the rest without any issues. Penelope was beyond competent, and and excellent employee to boot. Utilizing just hand signals, the two of them were able to get through the whole batch of wrongly delivered baby mandrakes in no time. Had it taken away from actual work that needed to get done? Absolutely. Was she still upset that these had been sent to her on accident and now drained her supplies? One hundred percent. The person that sent them was definitely getting an invoice for all of the soil and pots used for this, and the labor too. At a higher rate than usual because this was not ordinary work by any means. While the mandrakes were still young and technically not dangerous beyond a certain degree, it was so incredibly stupid for this situation to even be occurring right now. She and Penelope deserved to be compensated for that.

With her final mandrake potter safely and the sound of screaming plants finally gone, she pulled her earmuffs off. It was disorienting at first, both the silence of the shop and the sudden ability to hear normal sounds happening all at the same time. Not to mention that her head was soaked in sweat from wearing the earmuffs and concentrating so hard on the task at hand. It was exhausting work but someone had to do it. "You did great," she said as she wiped off her forehead, feeling dirt streaked across it from an attempt at dabbing at the sweat earlier. Checking her watch, it was well past closing now. Any attempt at contacting the sender wouldn't happen until tomorrow morning at this point. "Sorry for keeping you so long. If you want to come in later tomorrow that's totally fine with me. I might not even open until after lunch at this rate..." Especially if this vendor was going to be difficult to get into contact with.

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

June 23, 2026

Before starting work at Forget-Me-Knot, Penelope wouldn't have believed anyone who told her that she'd end up successfully repotting a whole slew of baby Mandrakes alongside her new boss. But they had done it, and Penelope was proud of what they had accomplished. She was proud of herself, too, because she hadn't backed down from what had seemed like a real challenge, even though handling screaming baby plants that were actually pretty dangerous was sort of scary.

It was also nice to hear that Aurelia thought she had done a good job. Penelope didn't always get compliments from others, so hearing Aurelia say that she did "great" meant a lot to her. She beamed, glad that her hard work was being recognized. At the same time, she knew that she couldn't have done it without Aurelia's guidance.

"Thanks for instructing me on how to do it," Penelope told Aurelia. They made a pretty good team, she felt.

Nevertheless, Aurelia apologized to her for having kept her at the shop for so much longer than expected. Penelope wasn't too concerned about it, though, and she knew that it wasn't Aurelia's fault. She hadn't asked for baby Mandrakes to show up, either, and leaving her to deal with them on her own felt inconsiderate if not bordering on cruel. Aurelia said that she could come in later than usual the next day if she wanted, and Penelope was about to protest until Aurelia herself said that she might not open the shop until after lunch.

"I don't mind," Penelope told her. "Just let me know in the morning, and I'll be here." Aurelia wasn't a demanding person to work for, and she knew that she wasn't going to make any unreasonable demands.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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There hadn't been many days like this since she opened the store. Long hours weren't super uncommon, but they usually came from busy work rather than problems like this. Thankfully living just above the shop saved her on commute time, and stumbling up the stairs in the back courtyard to her flat was easy. Looking down at her arms, she could barely see her skin, both caked in dirt and fertilizer. Two fingers felt swollen from a mandrake that had managed to chomp on them an hour earlier, and she was sure the skin had been broken too. Right now they were indiscernible from the rest of her arms though. Multiple magical washes would get it all off, though the fingers would be puffy the following morning. "You're welcome. I haven't had to deal with mandrake in a while, so it was good to brush up on them." And thank Merlin they were still babies. It would be extremely odd if they hadn't been, but the lack of oversight that ended up with them being delivered in the first place concerned her that it could have been much worse.

There were times where she felt weird being a business owner and having an employee while barely being twenty. She had definitely grown up faster than most, forced into it by her family situation, yet it still didn't register that this was all hers. Writing a scathing owl to the supplier would definitely win her some points in herbology circles too. Far from being an expert in the field, she hoped this would propel her business a little bit. Not many people could competently deal with an entire pallet of mandrake with the help of only one other person.

"Sure thing. I'm going to make them pick up their own mess too. Don't see any reason why we should move all of these pots back outside," Aurelia commented as she stared across the battlefield of soil and freshly potted mandrake. Cleaning was a tomorrow problem. "I'll see you tomorrow then," she added as she found a clean place to put her work smock and earmuffs. Right now she needed a shower and to inspect her fingers.

[The End]

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