Speak to me in flowers
“Madam Minister, there’s a bouquet for you.”
Hermione Granger, newly minted Minister of Magic, thanked Marcus, her assistant. The young man brought in an impressive flower arrangement and put it in the vase Hermione vaguely indicated, and only then did she notice the bouquet.
Rhododendron blossoms, enchanting in their lilac sweetness. But they were surrounded by Adder’s tongue. Danger, cried the Rhododendron. Beware those that are jealous, whispered the Adder’s tongue.
He knew that Hermione would understand his message. Clever, clever man.
Severus, Hermione needs someone to rely on, Kingsley had told both of them a couple of years ago, when everything pointed towards her being the next in line for leading the Ministry. Hermione is bright, but she is a Muggleborn, and the old families won’t take her leadership too well. Keep her informed; you’ve been my advisor, be hers as well.
And so he had become; little did anyone else know that he had become way more than that.
Together, they had agreed not to be seen together. Severus Snape would retire along with Kingsley, and keep on working for Hermione from the sidelines.
And during her very first day, he had warned her against danger.
***
Every week, the flowers that came to the Minister’s office –always from an unknown source–, would warn against danger. Rhododendrons for danger; Dragon plants for dread, Dogbane for deception, Begonias that cried Beware. Colourful blooms, gloomy news, and in the midst of it all, a Minister who wanted her advisor, a woman who pined for a man.
Words were spreading around: the old wizarding families didn’t take well to Hermione’s days as a Minister. Getting used to this witch’s radical ideas about transforming what they knew wasn’t something they warmed up to, and through the grapevine, Severus Snape held a distance and kept on sending cryptic messages.
Hermione had to hold off pining and focus.
No matter she had barely experienced what it meant to be close to someone as smart and to her taste as he was –she was the bloody Minister, and there was still no space in her life for him.
So she waited, and waited, as the Rhododendrons kept on coming in, every week.
***
How does she know everything? people wondered as attack after attack on Hermione Granger got foiled. So many attacks on her person and she comes out unscathed every time, people wondered as she came up stronger after every attempt, pushing her energy towards changing their narrow-minded word.
And the rhododendrons kept on coming.
Eventually, the culprits were found: Pureblooded family leaders, unable to conform to their world changing because of a young, Muggleborn witch. The names were revealed, the instigators got what they deserved, and the Rhododendrons stopped trickling in.
And Hermione, the young Minister, the girl who wanted to change the world, would never forget the day he brought her flowers - rhododendrons - because he knew she would understand the message. Danger. But what she would remember even more intently, would be the day Severus Snape substituted the rhododendron blooms for alstroemerias –I’ve got your back, they whispered–, and brought them himself to her office.