A(nother) Harry Potter Story by Chyna Rose

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Neville simply wasn't getting paid enough for this shite. To be fair, he wasn't exactly sure how much would be enough (assuming of course that such an amount even existed). Whatever amount that was though, it was way more than he was currently making.

Normally Neville loved his job. Sure it wasn’t very prestigious and it was far from high paying, but it let him be around plants - really getting right down there in the dirt with them - which was something that he loved to do. And being more involved with the ‘production’ end of things rather than the sales end, he didn’t even have to deal with customers all that much (which was a plus as far as he was concerned because he was a bit on the timid and shy side of things. Not to mention that he tried to avoid confrontation like the plague. Which is not to say that he was a total doormat; at least, not anymore anyway).

Of course not having to deal with customers all that much didn’t mean that he never had to deal with customers. Sometimes everyone was busy (or had called off) and he was literally the only one available. Sometimes the customer had a bunch of complicated questions that he was the best to answer (if for no other reason than that he’d been the one responsible for growing the particular plants and thus knew the most about them). Every now and again a customer asked for him by name to help them (in this case, it was usually a regular who’d dealt with him before or someone such a regular knew and had recommended Neville to).

And then there were times like this when one of his coworkers decided that the best way to deal with a customer who they felt was being impossible was to pawn them off on him.

To be fair to his coworkers, Neville was kind of the best person to help the customer. She had very exacting specifications as to what she was looking for, and Green Thumb let Neville fulfill those specifications even if they didn’t have anything that fit in stock at that time (at least, to a certain point. For one thing, he couldn’t grow something that he didn’t have a seed or cutting for. And for another, he was limited to what was physically possible for any particular plant so the only way he could grow a blue rose was if someone had somehow managed to breed them in the first place and he got his hands on it). And it wasn’t like she was yelling and throwing insults and curses all over the place like some other difficult customers were. Hell, she seemed okay enough with the prospect of an additional charge if Neville had to physically manipulate plants (like it was looking more and more like he was going to have to) and wasn’t mentioning anything about how she’d better be getting a discount after all the trouble she was going through. But at the same time, she just wasn’t happy with any of the options Neville had come up with.

It was for her wedding you see, and everything had to be absolutely perfect or the day was going to be utterly ruined. Which was understandable, if a bit hyperbolic (because when you got right down to it, what bride didn’t feel that way when in the middle of planning her wedding). And on the surface what she was asking for (thirty plants to act as centerpieces for the tables during the reception) wasn’t anything out of the ordinary (in fact, it seemed to currently be in fashion right now). The problem came in the fact that she was completely unwilling to compromise in any way, and what she was asking for was basically impossible.

Neville could do lotuses (in fact, he had done lotuses before, although those all had been incorporated into ponds and other water features). They might not be the easiest thing for him to grow (that, by the way, would be grasses, mosses, and lichens), but they were well within his capabilities. He even thought that live lotuses would make absolutely beautiful centerpieces. The problem was that the customer needed the lotuses to be the right shade of pink and completely uniform in color. And all thirty plants had to be completely identical with no variations whatsoever.

Even just one of those factors made the bride-to-be’s request impossible. Unless they were pure white, lotus blossoms naturally had some degree of gradation to their petals; it was just the way the plant was. And to get exact copies of a particular flower like the customer wanted, you’d have to have someone use some sort of duplication quirk on the original one (and the only person with any sort of duplication quirk Neville actually knew was Percy - although Ron did come awfully close at times - and his quirk only worked on paperwork). If Neville was being honest, she really should have just gone with artificial flowers since that was actually the best way to get the effect she wanted. But that was simply Not An Option for her.

Neville was running out of lotus seeds. None of the pink lotuses were exactly right, although a few did come kind of close. His suggestion of going with white lotuses and dying them the correct shade of solid pink was shot down; she didn’t want the flowers to look fake after all (which was her main objection to going the artificial flower route). It was clear that the customer was getting more and more unhappy the longer this took, complaining about how easy this should be and starting to insinuate that it was Neville’s fault that this was taking so long and that he was being difficult on purpose (and possibly trying to ruin her wedding on purpose). Neville was also getting frustrated the longer this drew out (albeit about her refusal to bow to reality and accept something even if it was less than perfect since in the end it didn’t really matter if things didn’t match her ‘vision’ of how things were supposed to go; so long as she ended up legally married to the person she loved and the guests had a good time, it would be fine. Hell, chances were people wouldn’t even know that things had gone off plan since only the people involved in planning the wedding would even know what the plan was to begin with), and tired as he grew and ungrew plant after plant after plant while they looked for the perfect one.

Suddenly Neville had an armful of crying bride-to-be. “There, there. It’ll all be alright?” he said awkwardly patting her shoulder. He desperately looked around for someone - anyone - else willing to help him deal with this newest development, but of course there was no one around to come to his rescue (typical really). The bride-to-be just started crying harder and Neville began to panic more (so sue him; he was barely good enough with his own emotions, let alone anyone else’s).

“My wedding will be ruined!” she wailed, completely inconsolable.

“I’m sure it’ll be absolutely lovely and not at all ruined, even if the lotuses are slightly off color.” Neville placated as he tried to lead the bride-to-be over to a nearby bench, “Once the lotus centerpieces are in place, all your guests will see is their beauty and how well they fit in with the rest of the decorations.”

This, it turned out was the wrong thing to say as the bride-to-be broke into a fresh wave of tears. “You don’t understand!”

“Then help me understand.” Neville pleaded (cacti he decided. He was so going to ‘gift’ his coworkers with cacti for this).

“Everything has to be perfect. Absolutely perfect.” the bride-to-be hiccuped in between her tears, “If it’s not...”

“Your fiance’s not going to... hurt you... is he?” Neville asked carefully, going from panicked to enraged at the thought of potential spousal abuse in the space of a second.

The bride-to-be shook her head. “My Bryce would never do something like that. He wouldn’t even hurt so much as a fly.”

“You must love him very much.” Neville said softly.

The bride-to-be nodded. “Of course I do. Bryce is such a good and kind man. He’s always willing to stop and help someone in need, and he’s so gentle and patient with his nieces and nephews - he even volunteers to change their diapers if it’s needed, just to give their parents a break. To think that he’d give a plain Jane like me even a second look... That’s why this has to be absolutely perfect. I simply cannot let him down.”

Neville could understand where the bride-to-be was coming from. Clearly she had some self esteem issues and didn’t see herself in a good light (much like Neville himself did. Being the fat quiet kid at school had done nothing for his social life - as in he hadn’t really had one - and he’d always felt that he came off as lacking when compared to his father at home. Not that his family had actively been comparing them - mostly - but he could’ve just sort of... tell. If a pretty girl had come up to him and said that she liked him... Well suffice to say that he could see where the bride-to-be was coming from). Neville was happy that she’d found someone who loved her and she could love back. “If Bryce is as good and kind as you say he is - and I’m absolutely sure that that’s the case - then there’s no way that you can let him down; even if everything isn’t perfect.”

“I... But...” the bride-to-be sputtered, looking torn and utterly lost.

“I know I’m not married or anything, but I’ve worked with my fair share of brides and grooms. And if there’s one thing I’ve picked up from all that, it’s that this wedding is all about you and your fiance. Yes your guests are important, and you do want them to enjoy themselves - that’s just part of being a good host, BUT this is your’s and your fiance’s day. They are the ones coming to celebrate you two. No guest - not even your family or his - gets to dictate what your wedding’s going to be like. And if they don’t like what you two decide, then they can just not go; but that’s entirely on them if they do.” Neville gently pointed out. There were exceptions of course. Whoever was actually paying for everything had some say in things since it was their money and all. And it was in poor taste to not take medical issues such as allergies or disabilities into account. But even then there were limits on how much they could dictate since there was no law that said that a couple had to have a full on wedding ceremony and reception; as long as the marriage license was legally signed, it could be just them and a witness or two at the local courthouse.

“Thank you. You’ve given me a bit to think over. I think I need to think it over a bit before I make a decision.” the bride-to-be stammered, before girding her loins and beating a hasty but dignified retreat. As soon as she was out of sight, Neville sighed in relief and began putting away all the lotuses.

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A(nother) Harry Potter Story by Chyna Rose [Reviews - 0] Chapter or Story Table of Contents - Text Size + Neville simply wasn't getting paid enough for this shite. To be fair, he wasn't exactly sure how much would be enough (assuming of course that such an amount even existed). Whatever amount that was though, it was way more than he was currently making. Normally Neville loved his job. Sure it wasn’t very prestigious and it was far from high paying, but it let him be around plants - really getting right down there in the dirt with them - which was something that he loved to do. And being more involved with the ‘production’ end of things rather than the sales end, he didn’t even have to deal with customers all that much (which was a plus as far as he was concerned because he was a bit on the timid and shy side of things. Not to mention that he tried to avoid confrontation like the plague. Which is not to say that he was a total doormat; at least, not anymore anyway). Of course not having to deal with customers all that much didn’t mean that he never had to deal with customers. Sometimes everyone was busy (or had called off) and he was literally the only one available. Sometimes the customer had a bunch of complicated questions that he was the best to answer (if for no other reason than that he’d been the one responsible for growing the particular plants and thus knew the most about them). Every now and again a customer asked for him by name to help them (in this case, it was usually a regular who’d dealt with him before or someone such a regular knew and had recommended Neville to). And then there were times like this when one of his coworkers decided that the best way to deal with a customer who they felt was being impossible was to pawn them off on him. To be fair to his coworkers, Neville was kind of the best person to help the customer. She had very exacting specifications as to what she was looking for, and Green Thumb let Neville fulfill those specifications even if they didn’t have anything that fit in stock at that time (at least, to a certain point. For one thing, he couldn’t grow something that he didn’t have a seed or cutting for. And for another, he was limited to what was physically possible for any particular plant so the only way he could grow a blue rose was if someone had somehow managed to breed them in the first place and he got his hands on it). And it wasn’t like she was yelling and throwing insults and curses all over the place like some other difficult customers were. Hell, she seemed okay enough with the prospect of an additional charge if Neville had to physically manipulate plants (like it was looking more and more like he was going to have to) and wasn’t mentioning anything about how she’d better be getting a discount after all the trouble she was going through. But at the same time, she just wasn’t happy with any of the options Neville had come up with. It was for her wedding you see, and everything had to be absolutely perfect or the day was going to be utterly ruined. Which was understandable, if a bit hyperbolic (because when you got right down to it, what bride didn’t feel that way when in the middle of planning her wedding). And on the surface what she was asking for (thirty plants to act as centerpieces for the tables during the reception) wasn’t anything out of the ordinary (in fact, it seemed to currently be in fashion right now). The problem came in the fact that she was completely unwilling to compromise in any way, and what she was asking for was basically impossible. Neville could do lotuses (in fact, he had done lotuses before, although those all had been incorporated into ponds and other water features). They might not be the easiest thing for him to grow (that, by the way, would be grasses, mosses, and lichens), but they were well within his capabilities. He even thought that live lotuses would make absolutely beautiful centerpieces. The problem was that the customer needed the lotuses to be the right shade of pink and completely uniform in color. And all thirty plants had to be completely identical with no variations whatsoever. Even just one of those factors made the bride-to-be’s request impossible. Unless they were pure white, lotus blossoms naturally had some degree of gradation to their petals; it was just the way the plant was. And to get exact copies of a particular flower like the customer wanted, you’d have to have someone use some sort of duplication quirk on the original one (and the only person with any sort of duplication quirk Neville actually knew was Percy - although Ron did come awfully close at times - and his quirk only worked on paperwork). If Neville was being honest, she really should have just gone with artificial flowers since that was actually the best way to get the effect she wanted. But that was simply Not An Option for her. Neville was running out of lotus seeds. None of the pink lotuses were exactly right, although a few did come kind of close. His suggestion of going with white lotuses and dying them the correct shade of solid pink was shot down; she didn’t want the flowers to look fake after all (which was her main objection to going the artificial flower route). It was clear that the customer was getting more and more unhappy the longer this took, complaining about how easy this should be and starting to insinuate that it was Neville’s fault that this was taking so long and that he was being difficult on purpose (and possibly trying to ruin her wedding on purpose). Neville was also getting frustrated the longer this drew out (albeit about her refusal to bow to reality and accept something even if it was less than perfect since in the end it didn’t really matter if things didn’t match her ‘vision’ of how things were supposed to go; so long as she ended up legally married to the person she loved and the guests had a good time, it would be fine. Hell, chances were people wouldn’t even know that things had gone off plan since only the people involved in planning the wedding would even know what the plan was to begin with), and tired as he grew and ungrew plant after plant after plant while they looked for the perfect one. Suddenly Neville had an armful of crying bride-to-be. “There, there. It’ll all be alright?” he said awkwardly patting her shoulder. He desperately looked around for someone - anyone - else willing to help him deal with this newest development, but of course there was no one around to come to his rescue (typical really). The bride-to-be just started crying harder and Neville began to panic more (so sue him; he was barely good enough with his own emotions, let alone anyone else’s). “My wedding will be ruined!” she wailed, completely inconsolable. “I’m sure it’ll be absolutely lovely and not at all ruined, even if the lotuses are slightly off color.” Neville placated as he tried to lead the bride-to-be over to a nearby bench, “Once the lotus centerpieces are in place, all your guests will see is their beauty and how well they fit in with the rest of the decorations.” This, it turned out was the wrong thing to say as the bride-to-be broke into a fresh wave of tears. “You don’t understand!” “Then help me understand.” Neville pleaded (cacti he decided. He was so going to ‘gift’ his coworkers with cacti for this). “Everything has to be perfect. Absolutely perfect.” the bride-to-be hiccuped in between her tears, “If it’s not...” “Your fiance’s not going to... hurt you... is he?” Neville asked carefully, going from panicked to enraged at the thought of potential spousal abuse in the space of a second. The bride-to-be shook her head. “My Bryce would never do something like that. He wouldn’t even hurt so much as a fly.” “You must love him very much.” Neville said softly. The bride-to-be nodded. “Of course I do. Bryce is such a good and kind man. He’s always willing to stop and help someone in need, and he’s so gentle and patient with his nieces and nephews - he even volunteers to change their diapers if it’s needed, just to give their parents a break. To think that he’d give a plain Jane like me even a second look... That’s why this has to be absolutely perfect. I simply cannot let him down.” Neville could understand where the bride-to-be was coming from. Clearly she had some self esteem issues and didn’t see herself in a good light (much like Neville himself did. Being the fat quiet kid at school had done nothing for his social life - as in he hadn’t really had one - and he’d always felt that he came off as lacking when compared to his father at home. Not that his family had actively been comparing them - mostly - but he could’ve just sort of... tell. If a pretty girl had come up to him and said that she liked him... Well suffice to say that he could see where the bride-to-be was coming from). Neville was happy that she’d found someone who loved her and she could love back. “If Bryce is as good and kind as you say he is - and I’m absolutely sure that that’s the case - then there’s no way that you can let him down; even if everything isn’t perfect.” “I... But...” the bride-to-be sputtered, looking torn and utterly lost. “I know I’m not married or anything, but I’ve worked with my fair share of brides and grooms. And if there’s one thing I’ve picked up from all that, it’s that this wedding is all about you and your fiance. Yes your guests are important, and you do want them to enjoy themselves - that’s just part of being a good host, BUT this is your’s and your fiance’s day. They are the ones coming to celebrate you two. No guest - not even your family or his - gets to dictate what your wedding’s going to be like. And if they don’t like what you two decide, then they can just not go; but that’s entirely on them if they do.” Neville gently pointed out. There were exceptions of course. Whoever was actually paying for everything had some say in things since it was their money and all. And it was in poor taste to not take medical issues such as allergies or disabilities into account. But even then there were limits on how much they could dictate since there was no law that said that a couple had to have a full on wedding ceremony and reception; as long as the marriage license was legally signed, it could be just them and a witness or two at the local courthouse. “Thank you. You’ve given me a bit to think over. I think I need to think it over a bit before I make a decision.” the bride-to-be stammered, before girding her loins and beating a hasty but dignified retreat. As soon as she was out of sight, Neville sighed in relief and began putting away all the lotuses. Previous Next You must login (register) to review.

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