June 6th, 1894 - Wildflowers

Summer was her busiest time and it was the absolute worse time for her to be coming down with something. She was exhausted, achy and her stomach had been off for a few days. It was highly obnoxious. Her dreams had been wildly vivid and though she thought she was getting enough sleep, it might have been a good idea to try and go to bed early the next few nights to try and catch up. Fortunately she was on a very good streak for what felt like the first time in her adult life. Who knew sharing a bed could have so many benefits.

Still she was working on an easy set of centerpieces for a ladies luncheon tomorrow afternoon and had thought to invite Millie to see if she would like to help now that she was out of school. It was hard to believe her cousin would be a fifth year. The next set of Potts siblings to hit Hogwarts would be Ama's and it would be soon. It would be a long time before Hogwarts was completely devoid of their family.

"Thanks for your help today," Daff smiled over the workbench at her cousin as she arranged the second centerpiece of camellias and peonies, having used the first for an example for Millie. "Are you looking forward to a little break from school now?" Daff had never minded the school years so much, but the summer hadn't been all that bad either. She had never been the child to be bored with nothing to do, between her garden and spending time with her sisters or friends, Daff had rarely found herself in need of occupying.

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Millie Potts

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   Millie Potts

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Being inside the shop almost seemed the same as the one in Hogsmeade, excepting that it was guided by Daffy's hand instead of her aunt's. And also excepting that beyond the door to the shop lay a whole other world than the all-too-familiar streets of her hometown. That persistent reminder plagued Millie's mind, too excitable for the promise of some adventure lurking out in Diagon Alley or the city beyond it, making it harder for her to concentrate on the centerpiece assembly on the workbench in front of her.

"You're welcome!" The young witch glanced up at her cousin, which gave her an opportunity to take another peek at the first version Daffy had made minutes ago. She had more peonies in her centerpiece than it was supposed to have, and with both her hands occupied the realization made her lips press together in frustration. Millie fussed over her arrangement, plucking out the wrong flowers and replacing them with camellias until it started to resemble Daffy's version instead. Words didn't come very easily as she worked, letting out a simple start to float in between them until her centerpiece was doing a better job at looking the part, "Well..."

Millie looked up again, hoping her results were worth the effort. Her piece wasn't entirely identical, and certainly not as perfectly arranged as her cousin's. Professor Skeeter's class never focused on arranging anything, though she tried to make her plants look presentable in Herbology class. She knew she didn't have the gift of matching colors or flowers like Zin and Daffy. The centerpieces looked quite beautiful to her, but the thought of coming up with something by herself to that level was impossible. Her earlier mistake was proof enough of that.

"I think I might miss it already, being at Hogwarts. Not the schoolwork exactly, or all the rules to follow, simply..." she paused, trying to find the right way to express her thoughts. The young witch hadn't quite realized how she was feeling until Daffy asked, and now she had to think back to figure it all out. She raised a hand to her throat, rubbing the silver necklace there with her fingers. "I suppose that's a foolish thing to think, I'll be back in only a few months from now."

She closed her mouth, feeling the fool already for even opening it before thinking her answer through. And she had felt much the same last time she opened her mouth in front of Daffy, at her cousin's own wedding no less. Her eyes lowered, and for a moment the young witch was grateful that at least she had some colorful flowers to look at instead.

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Daff hummed quietly to herself as she finished off an arragement with some babys breadth for texture and set it aside. They only need a dozen and the pieces were small, so it wouldn't take too long, but she was glad for the company. Millie didn't seem too sure of her answer and Daff waited her out for a moment to see if there was anything else she wanted to add.

"Nothing wrong with that, Hogwarts is a special place." Daff looked back on her own years there with a mixture of nostalgia and sadness, but Millie didn't need to know that. She (and everyone really) had done the bulk of their growing up at Hogwarts, all those formative years spent with friends and learning. Figuring out how to be who they wanted to be and making mistakes. It was all part of the process and there was no better place do it than at school surrounded by magic and people you cared about.

"And you still have a few years to enjoy it yet." Daff wasn't sure she would go back and do it again, but she did know she wouldn't change a thing about it, even knowing what she knew now.

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   Millie Potts

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"Oh, yes, I'm certain I will." Millie conceded, uncertain that she shared her cousin's confidence over her future. Her exam marks returned to an unsatisfying fanfare, with Papa already talking about summer studies if she was serious about avoiding finishing school. Little enjoying the idea of her next year at Hogwarts being her last, the young witch avoided it by putting her hands —and head— back in the work. When her arrangement was set down next to Daffy's, she frowned at it for a moment.

"Oh yes," Millie said, almost like spotting an error in her essay at last, "the baby's breath." She pulled back her piece to complete it, mindful that her contributions were already dwarfed by Daffy's. The silence seemed to pass judgement enough, Millie was grateful that her cousin wasn't so critical as to make a comment. For all she missed of school and classes, the fear of not measuring up was not part of it.

For once, it was pleasant just to feel useful with a family member. Her hands were moving, confident enough after a few arrangements to do the task over and over without much thought to it. The sensation was mesmerizing, and Millie let her mind wander for a few moments, drifting in the companionable silence. One that didn't seem to invite so much comment or reproach as she might have faced otherwise, with a book in her hand or the wandering gaze of her eyes past the focus of conversations among family at gatherings.

Here, now, they were just two women making good use of their time.

"How do you make yours curl like that?" Millie was the first to break the silence again, gesturing toward Daffy's latest finished product. "So it looks like the peonies are being hugged?" She had tried twisting the leaves or changing her placements, but still her centerpieces lacked the flair of those made by her skilled cousin.

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Daff couldn't quite tell if her cousin was distracted, didn't want to talk about it or was too focused on the centerpieces, so she let the silence fall, following Millie's lead. She hummed and swayed quietly to herself as she finished off another of the small pieces, tucking the vase off to join the other completed ones. Watching Millie out of the corner of her eye, Daff surmised her cousin must have been at least a little distracted, as she remembered the final piece of the arrangement. Millie's looked perfectly fine and so Daff started in on another vase. Later she would wrap them all with ribbon and make any tweaks, but so far they looked good.

Taking a deep breath, Daff exhaled slowly. If she was getting ill, she was going to be annoyed. Gently she ran a hand over her face to rid herself of the feeling. She was so busy this time of year and she was sleeping fine, there was no reason for her to be sick. Thankfully, now that she employed a manager and a couple of staff, she wasn't quite so strapped to do everything herself, but she did like to at least oversee the design process before anything was made.

Millie's question caught her off guard, lost in her thoughts as she'd gotten. Daff didn't even realize she'd nearly completed another arrangement. "Oh, I just sort of wrap the stem or leaf around my fingers like this." She demonstrated, taking a leaf between her forefinger and middle finger, curling it the way she wanted. "Sometimes I use my wand if they're being stubborn. I always think it looks nice when everything nestles nicely together." Daff always wanted things to appear organic, even if she was purposefully placing things where she wanted them.

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   Millie Potts

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"Oh, that seems so simple." So simple the young witch wondered why she hadn't thought of it herself. Her focus had been on the right order of the flowers, balancing their numbers, and then not forgetting any of it. None of this seemed to come as easy to Millie as it did her cousins, or her mum. She couldn't exactly say it without putting someone out, but there were times when Millie wondered if she had even been born to the right family.

Her green thumb was rather pale compared to a typical Potts'.

Millie took her current centerpiece to task, following what her cousin had said. Daffy's fingers had moved so fast, so easily through the leaves. Hers, by comparison, felt like a stranger blustering through the woods. Now that was something Millie knew well, enough to pick up her feet and skirts through the underbrush, where to avoid disturbing the burrows of animals, and how the trees grew toward water. If only that intuition would serve her well on the smaller, potted or cut, varieties of plants she handled in the shop.

"I still think yours look better," the young witch remarked as she set her finished arrangement down with the others. Nonetheless, she took note while sitting back in her chair, the piece didn't look so bad on its own. Millie offered up a wan smile at her cousin, whom she peered at curiously for a moment. Daffy seemed out of sorts to her, in a way she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Are you all right, Daffy?" Now that she was thinking of it, the shop might be a little too warm. And they had been sitting for quite a while, too. Perhaps what was needed was a good stretch and walkabout, though the young witch easily put off the thought when her own discomfort was in mind, the idea came unbidden when her someone else was in the picture. The circumstances might be amusing if her mind wasn't occupied with concern.

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"I do have a lot of practice and yours look just fine." Millie didn't do this all day every day like she did. Daff could make arrangements in her sleep if needed. If anything needed to be fixed, Daff would do it later after her cousin left, but she didn't think it would be all that cumbersome. She would still have to go back and all the ribbons and do a final check for cohesiveness anyway, regardless of who had done them.

At the inquiry after her health, Daff shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Might be coming down with a little something, been tired and achy the last couple of days." It really was an inopportune time to get sick. She'd have to stop at her mother's and get some of her soup, it always seemed to head things off at the pass if had early enough. Magic truly was a wonderful thing, but sometimes Daff thought her mother had it right when she fell back into the kitchen herbs and magic instead. "I have too much to do to be ill." She teased as she stuck a couple sprigs of baby's breadth into the arrangement in her hands. "Plus being sick in the summer is no fun, it'll be fine." Going to bed early, taking it easy at home, it would pass.

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   Millie Potts

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Millie drew her brow with some concern, looking after her cousin as she might one of her own friends. It was odd, having spent so much time apart from her family that she might consider her classmates closer to her. Other than Calla, whom she would no longer see daily at the castle come fall, and Zinnia, who had been preoccupied enough this past year to make her feel a stranger enough on occasion, Millie struggled to feel as close-knit with her cousins as they all seemed to be with each other or her older siblings. For that matter, she couldn't quite place the last time seeing Daffy outside of holidays in a long while.

"You should ask Zinnia for one of her teas," she offered, hoping that would be sound advice. Her cousin had improved the concoctions quite a bit, and the young witch was certain that she had heard Zin mention one of them helping her now that she was pregnant. Whatever ailed Daffy, if sleep couldn't cure it then a good brew probably could.

It was easy for Millie to understand her cousin's timely concerns, nevertheless. The coughs and sniffles that went around the castle yearly always seemed to sneak up right on time for big assignments or exams. She wouldn't like to face a boggart or five-foot essay while coming down with something, that was for certain. "Perhaps if I opened more of the windows, or we moved up to the rooftop?"

There was air aplenty up in the shop's garden rooftop, where the sights and sounds of London could reach them easily. Perhaps a change of scenery would be enough to banish any aches or ill-feelings.

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Millie's concern was endearing and Daff smiled softly at her. "I'll reach out to Zin, good idea." Something to head it off at the pass would be a good idea and if Zinnia had some sort of tea that might do the trick, it would be worth it. She really didn't have time to be ill. The summer was so busy with all of the events to decorate for. Plus she was always a little miserable when she didn't feel well and she didn't want to subject Elias to that just yet. Well, she'd hopefully be able to wait a long while.

"The windows in here don't open, but we can go up the rooftop after we finish, if you like?" It was her favorite place at the shop after all. "I haven't checked on Twiggy in a couple of days." The bowtruckle and her family lived in the cherry tree on the roof and though Daff had thought to take them to the house in Bartonburg, they seemed quite content. Her trees in the backyard weren't quite bit enough either, she supposed, maybe after a summer of growing. "We only need to finish a couple more and then we're done." Daff added as she finished up another, tweaking the placement of a peony before setting it aside with the others.

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   Millie Potts

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