NIGHT GLADIOLUS

Chapter 37

Sometimes called the "sword lily," the Night Gladiolus is a bulb plant that grows up to eight feet in height. With golden foliage and flowers of all colors (creamy yellow is the most popular), the Night Gladiolus is a vibrant nocturnal plant. Some properties of the plant include that it is good for flower cuttings and attracts birds. The plant is used in potions to cure constipation and dysentery. Night Gladiolus is also able to help with congestion problems. Pregnant women may be treated with Night Gladiolus, as the herb is known to be help deliveries go smoothly. Aside from the shape of the plant, you may be wondering how it got the name “sword lily.” Well, the story goes something like this… There was a young wizard who grew up in mixed family. His mother was a muggle and his father was a wizard. His father was an Auror and spent a lot of time traveling and away from the family. Although the wizard’s mother knew her husband was magical, she liked to stick to her traditional stories and told stories about knights and princesses to her son. When her son attended Hogwarts he wanted to be a knight because of all the wonderful stories his mother had told him about knights. Other students made fun of him for this ambition. Over one Christmas break the boy was able to spend some time with his father. The father encouraged the son and told him that knowing about knights and being honorable was very important. The father said he married the boy’s mother because she taught him ways of seeing the world that he never would have had on his own. “As a wizard,” the boy’s father said, “you can take the imagination and bring it to life. Your mother told me she always imagined that there was a cave inside a tree by her house, and that a handsome prince watched her from there waiting for the day he could come and whisk her away. When I proposed to her, I went to that tree and used my magical abilities to create a place inside and prepared her a candlelit picnic. But her imagination has inspired me in my work too. I am able to catch dark wizards by surprise by innovating the ordinary that surrounds them into the extraordinary.” When the boy returned to Hogwarts he was more determined than other to be like a knight. One day some boys were teasing him by the gardens, saying that knights were useless against magic so being a knight was a stupid idea. The boy stood up and said that he could be a knight and combine his knightly training with his magic. He took his wand and placed a spell that the boys did not recognize on a Night Gladiolus that was in the gardens. The flowers opened up even though it was the day time. But this time, the petals were sharp blades of steel. That wasn’t all, either. As the boy swung the sword the flowers released their pollen. Normally their pollen has little effect on humans (except for allergies) but under the boy’s spell the pollen caused the boys to start laughing so much that it was painful. “My father is an Auror, and he taught me that spell,” the boy said.