Elladora Zabini hums as she tends to the pink flowering bushes. So long as she keeps the tune going, the swarming honeybees have never once stung her. It is lore handed down from her great-grandmother, who taught her how to serve azalea honey with each subsequent husband’s tea. Nonna Giulia[1] had sung her the song as a lullaby, just as Elladora has sung it to her own child. Lullabies are powerful, embedding the lore deep into the unconscious. Elladora’s own father, deep in the throes of curse-induced dementia and forgetful of everything up to and including his own name, had sung himself to sleep with the tune in his last days.
Elladora knows how to bide her time. Her list of name has not grown shorter in the decades since her dearest Paulo was murdered. But Blaise has assured her that Theodore Nott, son of Bianca Nott nee Zabini, is safe now. His bonding to Wizarding Britain’s hero of the hour will protect him better than the vicious reputation of his father.
Blaise is looking forward to the bonding ceremony, joyful at his cousin’s happiness. Elladora is too, of course. She has already ordered bonding gifts from the premier wardmasters in Britain. But more than the ceremony and celebration, Elladora is looking forward to inviting Theodred Nott to tea.
There is a porcelain tea set painted with the bell shaped pink flowers of the azalea in each of the Zabini residences. It has no sugar bowl, only a honey pot, and has been Elladora’s favorite since before she knew what it meant. She will serve Theodred Nott from her favorite tea set and congratulate him on the cunning that saw the son of an original Death Eater bonded to the man famous for vanquishing Voldemort. Floriography is still a legal language in Britain, Elladora knows, so if it is ever investigated it will be ruled suicide rather than murder.
Then, and only then, will Bianca be revenged for the misery she suffered in her accursed marriage. The man swore and Unbreakable Vow to protect and never harm his heir, or he would have been gone from this Earth long before.
Elladora will smile at the bonding. She will kiss Theo’s forehead and Harry’s cheek and know that neither they nor their children will ever have anything to fear from the Nott patriarch ever again.
Elladora hums the melody, watching her honeybees collect golden pollen they will distill into mellifluous poison, and wonders how many of the names on her list she can lure to this tea party. Her nephew’s high profile matrimonial celebrations are the best screen she could ask for; you catch more flies with honey, after all.