All in all, it was a rather lovely garden. Deadly, in ways beyond what was normal perhaps, but still rather lovely for all the danger. Sprays of foxglove, wolfsbane, lupin, larkspur, hyacinth, and columbine stood in colorful rows while hydrangeas and azaleas hugged the walls of the house behind them. A couple of mature oleander dotted the yard along with a single golden chain that seemed to take center stage. Why, to the untrained eye (that is someone who knew little about plants or poisons) it seemed to be a quintessential decorative English garden; something your mum or gran were likely to have in the spaces that they weren’t interested in growing herbs or vegetables. It’s a really scary thought when you actually stopped to think about it.
The filled body bag being wheeled out of the house on a stretcher as a collection of uniformed police and forensic specialists buzzed about like the bees visiting the abundant flowers added to the unsettling factor. Neville and Professor Snape stood back out of the way alongside a local hero (who appeared to be badly shaken up) and someone who’d been - briefly - introduced to them as being a professional herpetologist with the proper certification for working with venomous reptiles. (That Professor Snape seemed to be at least familiar with the herpetologist was something that Neville wasn’t going to think much about if he could help it. In retrospect it did make sense; both men regularly worked with various venoms and other toxins and were apparently venomous themselves, although the details of that differed).
Neville had been surprised when he’d gotten a phone call from Avalonus Heroics Agency (mostly because it’d been directed at him and not either Harry or Ron, who he knew dealt with them relatively regularly and were currently involved in putting together a community outreach program with them) on what had otherwise been an idle Tuesday. A serial killer had been discovered in Coventry and his help would be greatly appreciated in helping the local authorities deal with the extensive collection of plants both inside and outside the residence; both in terms of identifying the plants involved and in handling the plants themselves as needed. Of course Neville had agreed. He might not have been a registered hero, but he still tried his best to do the right thing when he could - and in this case, the right thing meant helping the authorities with the house of a serial killer (no matter how bone chilling that was to him. It was one thing to know intellectually that serial killers were a thing that existed, and a whole other kettle of fish to have the evidence of such a person shoved in your face). He hadn’t expected to run into Professor Snape but once he’d explained his quirk, it did make sense to Neville for him to be there. After all, when dealing with large amounts of (mostly) unknown poisons and venom it paid to have someone on hand who could counteract them just in case there was an accidental poisoning (or they managed to find a victim who was somehow still alive, although the chances of that were slim to none from what Neville could tell. But, you never really knew).
After a few minutes of waiting as a disturbing number of bodies (but then, Neville considered even one body being removed to be a disturbing number of them; given the circumstances anyway) were removed from the premises and the forensic specialists began to descend on the house en masse, one of the policemen present gave a signal to the hero who caught the attention of Neville, Professor Snape, and the herpetologist (who’s name it turned out was Seth).
“It looks like we’re clear to go in. But before you do, I’d like to make sure that we’re all on the same page. Please put on a pair of the provided gloves, masks, and booties before you enter the house proper. I realize that since the suspect is now deceased they will not be brought to trial, but we still would like to preserve as much forensic evidence as possible on the off chance that it becomes relevant in a future investigation. On that note, while you have all been selected due to your expertise in your individual fields please make sure to listen to the instructions from the police or field techs. If one of them tells you not to touch something or not to step somewhere, don’t. This also goes for each of you respectively since you’ll be dealing with dangerous plants and animals and we do not want any (further) accidents or envenomations.”
“Do we know the extent of his venomous reptile collection?” Seth asked.
“Unfortunately not.” the hero said with a shake of her head, “As he was not licensed to own venomous reptiles and did not bother to house them in properly locked and labeled enclosures, it is impossible to say how many and of what species he had. The good news is that everything seems to be confined to the large greenhouse and conservatory attached to the house. The bad news - and why we cannot say how large the collection was - is that all of the reptiles are free roaming.”
Neville took all that in as he, Professor Snape, and Seth reached the door to the house and donned the protective gear they’d been handed. From the way the hero had described (or rather, failed to) the situation made it sound more nightmarish than being inside the house where so many people had apparently met a gruesome and untimely end already was. He... didn’t really mind snakes; at least not the way that some people did.
They were led carefully through the house by a young field tech to where the door to the conservatory and attached greenhouse were. At the door, Seth stepped up to take the lead. He checked the door and its frame for any potential snakes (it wasn’t unknown he explained, for snakes to climb up along the inner lip of their enclosures or other containers so anyone who regularly handled venomous snakes had to be extra careful of where their snakes were whenever they went to open up their enclosures; just in case their snake was hiding in the lip). With the door and the area immediately in front of the door cleared, he ushered Neville and Professor Snape inside quickly.
Inside the conservatory seemed like the perfect environment for reptiles to Neville. The air was just the right type of hot and humid to keep even the most delicate of tropical plants happy during a typical English winter. (although admittedly Neville knew very little about snakes and reptiles in general. He knew that many species - particularly venomous snakes - could be found in warmer climates with the one notable exception being Britain's own native adder. So it only made sense to him that the kind of environment that was perfect for tropical plants would also be perfect for heat loving reptiles).
“Wait!” Neville called out before Seth could push aside the fuzzy looking leaves of a medium sized plant on the way to approach a vividly colored yellow-orange snake that was hanging out on the branch of a nearby manchineel tree (and really, what was the guy’s deal with poisonous things. Every single plant that Neville had seen except for the grass out on the lawns was toxic to humans in one way or another). Seth stopped, his hand hovering just above the leaves of the plant, “That’s a Dendrocnide moroides.”
“And what’s that when it’s at home?” Seth asked. He kept his eyes on the snake (because you always wanted to know where the head of a venomous snake was and if it was gearing up to give you a bite or two to make you go away and leave it alone) but thankfully stopped where he stood and didn’t touch the plant Neville had warned him about.
Neville nearly smacked himself in the head at his little blunder. Knowing as little about snakes as he did, he had no idea what the snake that had practically all of Seth’s attention (as it should be) was and still wouldn’t know if Seth had told him what its scientific name was. So why would Seth, who Neville would guess didn’t know a lot about plants, know the scientific name of the plant he’d almost touched. Really; Neville should’ve known better, “Gympie stinger, moonlighter, mulberry-leaved stinger, stinging brush, suicide plant...” he listed off hoping that one of those names would ring a bell for Seth (but then again, it was a plant native to Australlia, not England so it was a toss up as to if calling it by its common name would help any).
Seth didn’t react to any of the names Neville listed off so Neville took that as a no as to if any of the plant’s common names would help explain why you wouldn’t want to touch it. “The leaves are covered in little stingers that deliver a nasty little neurotoxin. It won’t kill you exactly, but it’s very painful and can last for months.”
There was a rustle to his left, distracting Neville from Seth’s reply about the plant (mostly about how something like that had to be from Australia since pretty much everything else in Australia tried to kill you, so why not a tree). Neville turned to the left and carefully made his way over to where he’d heard the noise, mindful of any potential snakes that might be hanging around there. He had to blink a couple of times as his brain tried to reconcile the pair of too large eyes set in a wooden face that was peeking out from behind a tree.
“Neville?” the person(?) whispered. She(?) shot a look at the other two, her(?) eyes widening as she saw Professor Snape, “Professor Snape?”