14 January 2010
1:30 pm, Herbology Greenhouses

Frank snorted a laugh as he held up a long, fat, purple earthworm in front of his place.  He held it gently between two dragonhide gloves which were caked in rich, black earth.  "Hungry, Aoife?"

Frank Sellaphix and Aoife Moffett had been paired up by the strange Professor McDonough for a some hands-on learning.  Frank and Aoife were more than acquainted by now - they'd been in classes together for months now.  And both of them were particularly strong in Herbology.  Frank came from mother who was a Herbologist and a father who was an Apothecary.  It was pretty much in his blood! He'd been helping in their store[1] since he was little. 

Along side them on the work table was a folded open notebook with their assignment in it.  They had to follow the directions and plant the right seeds in the right way in the right kinds of plots and make sure they were put in the proper place in the greenhouses.  One of the plants needed to be grown in complete darkness, another needed to be kept away from anything with a flower - that sort of thing.

But... it was easy to get distracted.

"No really.  It's good for you.  Actually, it's great for you.  Helps your hair grow," he joked, holding it out to Aoife.

1.	Sellaphix Apothecary

"Yuck!" Aoife laughed and pushed his hand away. Her hair was short and Aoife intended to keep it short. It's not like her mother had enough money to afford the products it'd take to keep her hypothetical long hair in place.

While they probably should have been doing their homework, Aoife enjoyed the chances to goof off with Frank. She had been longing for a friend, and Frank seemed like a good deal. He was smart, but Aoife could still understand him when he talked.

"Why don't you eat it then?" Aoife joked back. "It looks like you're trying to grow your hair out more than me."

Frank laughed at Aoife's astute rebuttal.  His blonde hair was starting to get shaggy - but then, that was the cool way to have it lately.  The dare apparently held little real import and Frank pressed a hole into the soil of the large deep tray and plopped the fat, wriggling worm on top of it.  A hole for a home.  Hopefully, the little Lord Worm would nurture the root system and it's magical worm poops would make the leaves of the night strong, purple and potent.

"No thanks, I'm full," he said.  He actually had eaten a worm before upon the suggestion of his big brother who'd told him that it would make him taller.  "Worms do nothing but grow taller.  And look. It's purple," Figaro had said, and it had been enough to convince a 5-year-old Frank.  His tongue had been black for two days after.

He scootched his stool under him and slid off his gloves, making some kind of movement towards moving onto the next part.  They already had the nightshade planted. 

"What's next... Asphodel."  In the book there were illustrations of the tall stalked flowers with the long, thick stems and white flowers that opened from strange striped pods.

"We need a big one," he said, looking around for a great big pot.  He got up from his seat and walked a little ways down the long work table.  Crouching below a table he suddenly exclaimed.

"Oh my gosh! What is that...!?"

If Aoife had known he actually ate a worm, she would have laughed and called him stupid. Not the kindest reaction but if there was one thing Aoife lacked, it was tact. Instead, Aoife smiled as she watched Frank put the worm into the dirt.

She was suddenly reminded of working on the vegetable part of her mother's farm, Her mother had Aoife putting worms into the crops to make them grow since Aoife was six. Aoife's smile just grew at the memory.

"I'll do the Asphodel since you did the nighshade. How's that?" She asked as Frank crouched below the table. When she heard his exclamation...

"What? What is it?" She jumped up and crouched beneath the table with him. "Did you find something?"

As soon as Aoife joined him down on the floor, Frank held something large, pale and round up in her face. 

"It's a butt!" he laughed like only an 11-year-old could laugh about butts, a high-pitched giggle of delight - a  young boy whose voice hadn't changed yet.  Beneath the table he'd found two dozen gourds of various sizes and colors piled on low shelves.  Immediately he'd noticed one that was pale and round as the moon and looked like two dusty butt cheeks.  It was ripe for comedy.

In the back of his mind, he knew there was work to do, but they had all day.  Their professors were always trying to teach them to manage their time - it wasn't easy when there were no parents around - and Frank was actually quite a good student.  But there was a butt...!

Aoife just stared at him, trying to act like the mature one before she burst out laughing. Her laugh was quite high pitched and it almost didn't sound like her voice. "Ew! Frank! Ugh, you're just like my mum. You're seeing butts everywhere!"

As funny as it was, Aoife also felt a bit uncomfortable looking at the gourd's "butt". It was almost like looking at a real one. For the first time in her first year, Aoife wanted to go back to working...but only a little bit. "So much for being the mature Ravenclaw." She smirked before looking at the Asphodel directions.

"Alright, it says we need to make the soil...Acidic? So we put acid into it?" She asked, confused.

Mature! No one had ever accused him of that.  Frank got off the ground to follow Aoife who had given him the reaction he'd been hoping for.  Frank had been about to make some comment about what the hell butts had to do with Aoife's mum, but she said something even crazier.

"No!" he said, and slid the book away from her and closer to himself.  "Not acid, that'll burn your fingers off.  Does it say that?"

Frank hadn't heard of adding acid to plants, so what was she talking about? He skimmed the page she was on to try and see what it meant.  "Acidic...?" he read finding the spot by Asphodel that talked about the soil. 

He tried to remember what he'd read about acidic soil before, but it wasn't ringing a bell. He knew he'd heard talk of that kind of thing back at the shop... but it couldn't be actual acid...

---

What's funny is sulpher/brimstone and pineneedles are actual things you can do to make soil more acidic - it already sounds like alchemy...!

Aoife nodded. "Yeah, it says right here-" Aoife pointed to a sentence. "-That Asphodel prefers acidic soil. Well I guess if it prefers it, it doesn't mean it needs it to survive...Like how I prefer pumpkin pie to fish." Aoife closed her eyes as Frank searched.

She thought she had heard something about acidic soil, but her mind quickly wandered to Frank, or was it Francis? Could Frank be a nickname? She'd have to ask him. While she was thinking about it, why did the name Sellaphix stand out? 'Oh right, mum mentioned it in the paper...Right after mum said the soil for the vegetables got too acidic!'

Aoife broke out into a smile. "I remember! Mum's soil got acidic from too much water. If there's too much water, all the good stuff that's in dirt washes out and it turns acidic."

Frank had been thinking too, his jaw set in thought as he focused on the page in front of him.  He thought back to his dad calling out things in the store room and Frank checking them off a list.  Each time, Frank would ask, "what's that for?" and his dad would call back, "headache cure", or "combined with moonstone", or "makes soil acidic".

Then he remembered. The stinky yellow powder that came in clumps.  "Brimstone!  Add brimstone."  But Aoife had just said to add a bunch of water.  Frank furrowed his brow.  That wasn't right.

"Actually, no.  We need brimstone.  I know - my dad told me.  Brimstone makes soil acidic.  You can look it up."  Frank was so confident in his answer that he was being kind of a prat about it, already disregarding Aoife's suggestion and going over to a cupboard where he thought he might find a jar of the clumpy yellow substance that smelled like farts.

"My dad's an apothecary. I help him in our store all the time," he said smugly as he looked through the jars on the cupboard shelf.

Aoife looked a bit irritated, but her mother had told her not to be so rude coming to Hogwarts. Plus, weren't Ravenclaws generally smarter than Hufflepuff's? Aoife couldn't remember. Wait, Frank's dad was an apothecary?

"Lucky! My mum's a farmer, she won't even use magic on the cows and crops. She says it's cheating...I guess she's right." Aoife shrugged before she finally remembered where she had heard the name Sellaphix...

"Rafe Sellaphix! He's your dad isn't he?" Aoife smiled. "Mum said his name when she was reading the Prophet. But I don't...Wait, he was the one with the Runespoor venom right?" And with that, all the advice Karen Moffett had given her daughter was rendered useless.

Frank paused in his search through the cupboard when Aoife said his dad's name and mentioned the Runespoor Venom.  He frowned.  His dad was in Azkaban - had been for over a year.  Framed unfairly, in Frank's young narrative, a little family shamed and broken by the big old Ministry.

"That's not your business," he said.  Figaro had taught him to say that if any one asked about their dad.  Because it wasn't.  It was all a load of nonsense and grossly unfair.  Frank thought that it might even be illegal what the Aurors did to his dad. 

"My dad is a good man," he said, unable to leave it at that.  He turned around and crossed his arms over his chest.  "He'll get out soon."

But he wouldn't.  Frank wanted to think that soon everything would be fixed, that his mum would talk to the right people and show them that it was all a mistake.  But that's not how it was happening.

Aoife looked down. "He'll get out soon." That was the opposite of what her mother had said. She had said that he was looking at seven to ten years. Aoife suddenly thought of Frank's mother, though she wasn't sure why. What was she going through having found out her husband was a criminal?

Well if Frank's mother was anything like her own, she'd get over her heartbreak and focus on raising not one, but two sons. If that was the case Aoife knew just what to say. "Don't worry about it Frank, your mum will be fine without him. Maybe she'll even do better." She smiled and looked at him.

"Shut up!" 

Frank was stunned and angry - how could she say that!?  Everyone missed dad, especially his mum.  Everything was different now.  Everything sucked! Frank knew he wasn't supposed to know, but without his dad the shop wasn't making as much money any more.  Some people didn't want to come any more because they were afraid of the Aurors. 

"Aoife, you don't know anything, so just shut up," he said again. What was her problem? Why did she say that?  Frank glared at her, waiting for her to say one more thing if she dared.

He thought they were friends.

Aoife's confidence turned to confusion. What was wrong with Frank? Had she said something bad? "Huh?" Was all she could get out before thinking for a second.

"I...I don't get it. Does your mum miss him? My dad's in Azkaban too and mum doesn't even worry about him." Was this situation different? But that couldn't be, could it? Aoife suddenly remembered what her mother had said to her before Aoife had boarded that scarlet train.

"Aoife, you're going to Hogwarts now. I want you to remember this. There will be people who are different from you, different beliefs, personalities, whatever else. You have to get along with them. Promise me you'll try your very best to do that."

Did that advice apply to this situation?

Now it was Frank who was confused.  His expression softened a little as he tried to work through what Aoife had said - that her dad was in Azkaban too - and still remain angry at the same time.

He brought back the little jar to the table and set it down with a careless clunk on the table.  He crossed his arms.

"Really?" he asked with an accusatory tone.  He had a suspicion that she was just saying that to try and fix what she'd said.  "Your dad's in Azkaban?  What for?" 

It didn't really occur to Frank that there would be someone who actually might understand him, whose family had gone through something like the Sellaphix's had gone through.