Die, Die My Darling [Penelope]

[aurelia edith flint]

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August 4th, 2028

Alexander was the name of Aurelia's Venomous Tentacula, a prized plant of sorts for her because they seemingly had a working, non-verbal agreement to not kill one another. The poisonous plant had two jobs: defending the back patio from anyone stupid enough to try and jump the almost seven-foot tall wall that bordered the adjacent alleyway, and to handle any Chizpurfles and rodents that wandered in. An infestation of the latter had occurred soon after she'd purchased the building, and instead of laying down ineffective traps and hoping for the best, she opted for the potentially lethal plant. Aurelia had always been confident in her handling of Alexander, only plucking its leaves a few times to sell to potioneers that looked like they had deep pockets. Whenever that happened, she had to erect a barrier of sorts whenever she exited the shop and attempted to head through the door that led to her flat upstairs, because the plant did not like being pruned. A healthy supply of Chizpurfles usually cleared the misunderstanding up, but it was still sort of scary. At least it wasn't one of the ones that could shoot spike-balls...

The issue though, was that Alexander was not looking healthy anymore. Aurelia had spent the entire week conferring with other herbologists about a potential cause, and most seemed to believe that the end was near for it. Which sucked. They had also mentioned that it would be best if she prioritized collecting the leaves while the plant was still alive. One final use of her home defense venomous plant. With the profit from those, she could purchase a bag of seeds to get a new one growing.

"I think if I stun it, I should be able to harvest everything I need," Aurelia explained to Penelope from behind the safety of the back door. She didn't dare say that out loud in front of Alexander. Whether the plant understood her or not was moot. It would know. Slipping on her dragon hide gloves, Aurelia made sure every inch of skin was covered with some sort of protection. One poke from a spike and she could be either stunned or killed. At least with what she had on, that should reduce some of the lethality. "Remember, severing charm at the base if it starts looking like it's about to really go after me before I can stun it," she took in a deep inhale and shook all of the nerves out of her arms and shoulders. "Got the antidote and Mungo's number just in case?"

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

August 4, 2028

Though Forget-Me-Knot Florist mostly dealt in flowers, naturally, Penelope and her boss, Aurelia, occasionally handled other plants, too. There was the incident where they had been sent baby Mandrakes by accident and needed to repot them before they went to their intended destination, for example, which had been slightly terrifying at the time but an interesting learning experience in the end. There was also Alexander. Despite its—his?—name, Alexander wasn't a human; Alexander was a Venomous Tentacula. The fact that Alexander was sentient at some level probably warranted its name, and Penelope had never known Aurelia to let down her guard around the plant.

Unfortunately for Alexander, despite its being venomous, it couldn't live forever. Aurelia, who sold Alexander's leaves for profit every now and then, was trying to figure out the best way to prune off Alexander's leaves without getting it agitated enough to attack her, and Penelope listened carefully as she was in the process of sharing her plan with her. Trying to deal with a potentially angry Venomous Tentacula on her own obviously wouldn't have been very bright of Aurelia, so Penelope remained on hand to assist with whatever Aurelia needed from her.

Aurelia said that she thought stunning Alexander would give her enough time to get its leaves and get back to safety, and Penelope nodded. That sounded like a good strategy; at least, she couldn't come up with a better one. Aurelia also reminded her that she was to cast a Severing Charm on Alexander's base if it got too close to attacking her before she could stun it. Again, Penelope nodded. Aurelia was in as much protective gear as she could be, and Penelope herself had put on dragon-hide gloves as a precaution. She didn't think that anything would go wrong, but she had to stay prepared.

That included holding an antidote in her non-dominant hand, her wand in the other, and the phone number for St. Mungo's hospital committed to memory. (Muggle technology was great for some things, especially accessing Mediwizards in no time.) Penelope gave Aurelia her verbal confirmation that she was ready that time. "All boxes ticked. Antidote at the ready, and I know the phone number for St. Mungo's." She could tell Aurelia was nervous, and it did shake her just a little. She reminded herself that she had been through worse, and Aurelia was competent.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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The breath she had taken in as she tried to shake away her nervousness came out in a sort of waver that didn't instill much confidence in herself. When was the last time she'd tried this? Six months? No, it was prior to the Christmas holidays because she needed surplus money to buy a second round of supplies for wreaths. Everyone wanted those stupid things. They were so unbelievably easy to make too. But magical folk would be magical folk though. Anything that was mundane and muggle-like was looked at with childish curiosity. She was like that once, thanks to her upbringing and overall snootiness through her teenage years, so she felt okay with criticizing others over it.

Thinking about the holidays absolutely did not help her situation right now, as they were fast approaching. At least she was about to have an abundance of cash on hand, assuming she didn't immediately buy herself an Alexander II. "O-Okay," she stammered slightly as she pushed the door open and stepped out into the back patio, holding it open for Penelope to follow. "Wish me luck Penny." Without even giving Alexander a chance to turn her way, Aurelia blasted the plant with a stunning charm. It's limbs started to move in slow motion before completely freezing in place. It was going to be pissed once it came out of it.

Bag in hand, Aurelia quickly made her way over to the plant and started to zap leaves off with her wand. Carefully avoiding the thorns, she collected about half a dozen before she noticed one limb starting to shudder slightly. Her immediate thought was how quick it had seemingly broken her charm, before quickly turning into fear that it could very easily get her at this close of range. "Back inside!" she yelled over her shoulder as she stood all the way up and walked backwards towards the door. Alexander couldn't really spray poison at them, but she had her wand raised just in case to deflect it.

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

August 4, 2028

Penelope followed Aurelia outside, trying to prepare herself for whatever Alexander the dying Venomous Tentacula might throw at them. If antidote was, indeed, required, she had it with her. Aurelia told her to wish her luck, and Penelope nodded. "Good luck," she said quickly. Admittedly, she was more focused on the fact that she would be expected to jump into action if something were to go wrong than on giving Aurelia a pep talk.

Luck was apparently on their side, though, because Alexander didn't have the opportunity to use whatever energy it had left in its Venomous Tentacula self to attack Aurelia as she pruned off its leaves. Obviously, neither she nor Penelope wanted to wait around to make use of the bottle of antidote that Penelope had been holding the whole time, given the urgency with which Aurelia instructed her to go back into the building.

Now, Penelope wouldn't have said that she was particularly skilled at walking backwards. It wasn't exactly something that came up often enough for that, but it was amazing what a rush of adrenaline could do. As soon as Aurelia hollered at her to get back inside, Penelope began backing up towards the door as quickly as she could. Carefully, and (very importantly) without damaging the precious bottle of antidote to the Venomous Tentacula's venom, she maneuvered herself back into the building, leaving room for Aurelia to get back in without having to change course.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

▲

Closing the back door to the shop in front of her, safely creating a barrier between the two of them and Alexander, Aurelia finally looked down at the collection of leaves in her bag. There was a lot – far more than she had ever managed to harvest from the plant before – but she still wanted to get more. Alexander was dying and there wasn’t much time left until the leaves started to wilt and fall off. Once that happened, she was essentially losing money. Never before had Aurelia viewed her work as dangerous or death-defying, aside from when dealing with her Venemous Tentacula and the occasional mandrake that floated into her store. At least the latter was easier to deal with up until a certain point in its growth.

Emptying out the pouch onto a tray that she had prepared in advance, she carefully spread all of them out to see what the count was so far. ”Only seven,” she breathed out, before looking at Penelope. ”Looks like we’ll have to do it again. Not that I really want to, but this will basically buy me a new one if I can get enough leaves.” She tried to be as open about this sort of thing with her employee as possible. Penelope needed to know why they were attempting such a dangerous act, and have the option to bow out if she really wasn’t comfortable with it. When Aurelia had hired her, there definitely hadn’t been any mention of such an activity. This was a simple florist shop after all. Or at least it was marketed as one.

Stretching her arms above her head to get them prepared to carefully prune more leaves, Aurelia shook as much of the tension out of her body as possible. Only a few more minutes of this before she’d have everything she needed. Okay. Ready when you are again.” Wand out and empty bag in the other hand, she waited for Penelope’s approval before hopping back outside to cast the stunning spell.

penelope raisa bainbridge ● 338 ● song by artist

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

August 4, 2028

Though Aurelia had managed to harvest seven leaves from Alexander, which seemed like a lot to Penelope, her description of having gotten "only" seven leaves made it clear that she wasn't impressed with what she had done. "Looks like we'll have to do it again," Aurelia confirmed aloud. "Not that I really want to, but this will basically buy me a new one if I can get enough leaves."

Hearing that made Penelope feel better about her boss's putting herself in danger again, to an extent. She was still a little nervous, but she reminded herself that nothing had gone horribly wrong during the first round. They simply had to repeat what they had just done. As long as they both did the same thing over again, they would be fine. Back outside, more leaves, back in.

Penelope supposed that the bottled antivenom was ready when Aurelia was, and she watched as her boss stretched to ready herself. "Okay. Ready when you are again," Aurelia signaled.

A quick readjustment of her grip on her wand was all the more it took for Penelope to be physically ready. Her mental readiness was a different story, but she tried to imagine that she could block out her thoughts in the same way an Occlumens could. She took in and let out a few deep breaths, which was as good as she was going to get, and nodded to Aurelia. "Ready for round two."

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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The glow of her stunning spell splashed against Alexander, and Aurelia sprinted the few meters over to it to start the collection once again. Quickly and carefully, she found everything that she needed and added it to the pouch that held the rest. She could hear her heart beating in her ears as adrenaline started to surge its way forward again. Every time she had to do anything remotely more strenuous than lifting bags of soil up onto a shelf got her like this. She wasn’t out of shape, per se, but the excitement of it all really put her body into a state. It was like how a few weeks earlier she had to chase a rat out of the shop, perching herself on her checkout counter like a gargoyle for hours until the blasted thing popped its head out from underneath a planter and she managed to hit it with a stunning spell. If Alexander had been healthy, that wouldn’t have happened.

Retreating back inside once again, she closed the door gently behind her just as the plant started to pull itself back out of the spell. She didn’t think a third time was necessary, and the last thing she needed was for it to start to gain a resistance to her spells. Getting slapped with a shot of venom while she tried to dive between the door to her flat and the one that lead into the shop was not how she wanted to go about Alexander’s final days alive.

”Alright,” she breathed out to Penelope as she locked the back door behind her and motioned for her employee to follow her to the front. She was exhausted already and could feel her energy start to wane as she stopped at the front counter and poured the contents of the bag out. ”Plenty of leaves here, so that’s good. No idea if they’re sellable because of the state of it, but we’ll see.” She pushed them around gently on the counter in order to count all of them, and then nodded her head in a satisfied manner. ”Good work. Glad we didn’t need you to do anything out there. I’d hate if one of us got hit by it.”

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

August 4, 2028

Back out to Alexander the Venomous Tentacula the two of them went, with Aurelia successfully harvesting some additional leaves and the antidote remaining unused. Penelope was willing to consider that a success on her part; nothing had gone wrong with a potentially deadly plant, and Aurelia was soon inside again with the door locked behind her.

It was obvious that Aurelia was worn out as she had her come to the front of the shop. Penelope was a little drained herself, even though she hadn't done anywhere near as much as her boss had. That brief anxiety of having to be on standby in case of an emergency was plenty, though—and enough to remind Penelope why she worked at Forget-Me-Knot instead of somewhere where the stakes were constantly high.

After setting her collection of leaves on the counter to survey them, Aurelia sounded pleased. She had plenty of them, which Penelope could see too. The unfortunate part was that she didn't know how much she would be able to get for them, and Penelope didn't know the answer to that, either. She hoped that it would be enough to have made the task of getting Alexander's leaves worth it, whatever it turned out to be.

"Good work," Aurelia also complimented her. "Glad we didn't need you to do anything out there. I'd hate if one of us got hit by it."

"Thanks." Penelope breathed out as she spoke, setting down her wand and the antidote bottle onto the counter. "I'm glad everything went smoothly," she agreed, for both of their sakes. "Are you planning to get another one after Alexander?" Penelope was curious, but she also didn't want Aurelia or herself in any unnecessary danger.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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This was more work than Aurelia had done in months. Throwing bags of mulch around rarely happened anymore because she realized levitating it was safer and didn’t hurt her back, and aside from having to occasionally crawl under a rack of plants, she did almost nothing physical. Climbing the stairs from the back patio up to her flat upstairs was about it. Checking her watch, she made note of the fact that it was still early morning. Because of course it was. All the stress of properly gathering the leaves had made time seem like it had sped by. In reality, it had only been a few minutes.

”I want to…it’s just that finding seeds for a new one is sort of difficult. Barely anyone collects them because, well, for exactly the same reason of what we just went through.” If she couldn’t find a new one, then she was going to have to install something else to keep pests out. If there was such a thing as miniature whomping willows, she would absolutely put one back there. It’d be adorable too.

Pushing the leaves into a small pouch, Aurelia stashed them away for later. She wanted to sell them to Sienna later, if possible. If not, well, she had a few herbologists that came to mind that might be interested as well. ”Want to grab coffee before we open?” Aurelia turned to her employee. That was the least she could do for the help Penelope had provided this morning. And why make it here when the bakery had Spellbucks coffee available?

penelope raisa bainbridge ● 262

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

August 4, 2028

Aurelia said that she wanted to get another Venomous Tentacula after Alexander; the challenge, though, was that the seeds for them were hard to come by. "Barely anyone collects them because, well, for exactly the same reason of what we just went through," she explained.

"Er, yeah." Penelope was aware that even in the magical world, Alexander was not the average houseplant, but she did feel bad for Aurelia in terms of having to try to find another. It was probably easier to track down a Venomous Tentacula on the WWWW or via telephone than it was through owl post alone, Penelope imagined. She had never seen classified ads in the Daily Prophet for something so dangerous, but there were probably trade publications for Herbologists that had that sort of thing. It probably wasn't all sketchy Knockturn Alley dealings.

After Aurelia had put her leaves from Alexander away, she changed the subject. "Want to grab coffee before we open?" she asked.

"Oh! Sure!" Penelope smiled. She didn't really drink coffee, but she appreciated the sentiment. Besides, she was certain that she could find something else to drink that wasn't actually coffee.

aurelia edith flint

[aurelia edith flint]

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The more she thought about it, she could probably breed a miniature whomping willow. Would it be ethical? Most likely not. Herbologists tended to frown on mutation and crossbreeding of magical plants. Usually it wouldn’t even work, the strands of magic that ran through each completely preventing anything of the sort. But if she raised it in a bonsai fashion, it could work. The mental image of it punting a doxy clear across the back patio made her smile. She needed that after how mentally taxing this week had been so far.

”Perfect,” she said as she waved her wand in the direction of the front counter. Her cloak zoomed off of the coatrack and into her hands in an instant. The entire action took about as much time as it would have taken if she had chosen to walk behind the counter and grab it herself, but sometimes she felt like the magical way was better. It looked cooler too. ”It’ll be better than using the machine I’ve got upstairs. I try not to spend too much money on coffee since I already have it…but still.” The amount of plastic she created and then threw out because she used those silly little pods was insane. How very eco-friendly it was of her, the local plant lady. And she sort of wanted a treat too. Something sugary to make the impending loss of her favorite plant not feel nearly as bad as it was.

Sliding her cloak on, Aurelia unlocked the front door of the shop and stepped outside. It was a brisk August morning, though she was already acclimated to it from her sprints in and out of the patio door. If anything, she was a little warm still from the physical activity. ”I guess I don’t really need this as much as I thought I would,” she said, mostly to herself, as she waited for Penelope to exit so that she could lock up again.

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