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Shoes For Alex
Author: Plum
Date: 05-16-11 22:20
Plum holds up a pair of red trainers. "What about these?"
"No blue?"
"I just showed you blue ones and you said no."
"Oh yeah."
Plum turns to pick the blue pair up again and holds both for Alex to see. His face scrunches up as if he's mulling over a deeply important decision. He finally points. "Red."
Plum sets the blue pair to the side as she kneels to fit the red pair on Alex's feet. She'd normally have a sales assistant do this but of the two in the shoppe at the moment one is busy with a woman who must have thirty pairs of shoes she's wanting help with and the other is with a haughty looking man, taking the necessary measurements for custom made shoes.
The first trainer went on easily but the second she's having to work on. Alex starts squirming and giggling, curling his toes, making it even more difficult. "Alex, stop fidgeting."
"But it tickles."
"No, this tickles," Plum tells him, running fingernails along his socked foot. Alex is reduced to gales of laughter earning them a sharp look from the woman with the pile of shoes but, surprisingly, the snobby looking man grins at them and chuckles. Neither shoppe assistant does much of anything beyond continuing what each is doing.
When Alex is over most of the giggling, Plum gets the second shoe on him. "Stand up. Take a few steps. How do they feel?"
Alex does as instructed then shrugs at her. "Like shoes."
"Are they too tight?"
"No."
"Too loose?"
"No."
"Do you know what tight and loose mean?"
Alex shrugs. Plum changes tactics.
"Do they hurt?"
"No."
"Do they rub funny?"
"No."
"Do you like them?"
"Yes. Pum, can we have ice cream?"
"After we're done getting shoes and you also need some new play clothes."
"Why?"
"Because you've gotten taller."
"Anthony says I'm a big boy."
"That you are."
"After ice cream can I play on my broom?"
Toby and Bronwyn had given Alex a miniature racing broom at Christmas and Alex knows he's going to get to play in the Quidditch Little League soon. As the weather has gotten nicer, the more he's wanted to use the broom.
"After shopping and lunch, and after ice cream, yes, we will where you may play on your broom. Let's try on the blue trainers as well, or do you see another pair you'd rather try?"
"Blue ones."
Five minutes later Alex and Plum emerge from the shoppe, one new pairs of trainer for Alex in a bag and one new pair on his feet. The shoppe assistant doing the measurements was done by then so had run up the sale. With the spring sunlight and this being a Saturday, Diagon Alley is busy so Plum takes firm hold of Alex's hand. He pulls away, however, full of energy and wanting to run.
"Alex, take my hand, please."
Alex is grinning and takes a few steps forward as if testing his new shoes.
"Alexander Eliot Lancaster."
Alex knows that tone and as he's wanting both ice cream and broom flying he backtracks and grabs her hand about the same time Anissa Weaver falls into step beside them. "Spoken like a real mother."
"As I've raised Alex since he was fourteen months old, I am a real mother," Plum coldly replies.
"Yes, you are."
Surprised at that reply Plum stops walking. Alex keeps going until as far as he's able without letting go of Plum's hand. At four and a few months, he remembers having seen this woman not long ago at Easter for a very short time but he doesn't really remember who she is and definitely doesn't know why Plum looks angrier than she did days ago when she discovered Alex had managed to get a pair of big boy scissors and was attempting to give the cat a hair cut like his own. Glad that the look isn't aimed at him, Alex moves in close to Plum's legs and decides it would be best to be very still and quiet for the time being.
"Are you being sarcastic?"
"Not in the least. Could we go somewhere and talk? To your flat perhaps?"
"I prefer not to invite you into my home again, Anissa, and I certainly have nothing to say to you that has not already been said."
"But I do."
"Then say it so that Alex and I might finish our errands."
Anissa looks away with a sigh, staring off into the distance. Having no patience with this woman Plum says, "Well? Either spit it out or we're going now."
"I was wrong." Anissa continues looking away for two or three more seconds before tuning to look Plum in the eyes. "I was so determined to not let Alex down as I had with you that it became an obsession. All I could think about was taking Alex in and giving him the stability you hadn't had. It blinded me to everything else. The more you dug in saying you were doing well and weren't going to give Alex up, the more I convinced myself that it was your way of getting back at me for having abandoned you when you needed me most. I see all that now. I'm so sorry. All I ever wanted was to reconnect with my granddaughter and to get to know my grandson."
Plum listened without interrupting. Only when she's sure that Anissa is awaiting some sort of response from Plum does she say, "Thank you, have a good day."
Plum starts forward, Alex holding tightly to her hand and still sticking close to her leg but stops again when Anissa reaches for her. "I want to be in your lives."
"I don't trust you."
"I understand. You set the terms, just please let me start seeing you both again. It was so nice at Easter even though you were there only a few moments and only came to see Malachi and his family."
"I'll discuss it with Anthony and we'll think about it, but know this, Anissa, if you are lying and try anything like when you 'borrowed' Alex for several hours without permission, we will press charges."
"I promise I won't do anything you don't approve."
"At this juncture, your promise means little to me. Now, we really must be going."
"Yes, all right. I won't bother you more today."
Plum decides right then to return to the flat. The new play clothes can wait. It doesn't take them long to get back to their home above Runic Boutique and once inside Plum tells Alex, "How would you like a picnic lunch somewhere that you can fly on your broom?"
"Anthony too?"
"Anthony too if he's done with what he needed to do today."
"OKAY!" Alex exuberantly replies.
"Help me make sandwiches and decide what else to take."
"Ice cream."
"Yes, we will take some ice cream." Plum smiles and ruffles Alex's hair before moving into the kitchen to make the sandwiches, not wanitng to think about her grandmother as she works but finding herself unable to think of little else.
Working Alone
Author: Julian Valentine
Date: 05-17-11 17:56
Lysander has been jumpy enough since Thursday when Kristos Fox showed up that this morning when one of them needed to go personally pick up two very rare, very expensive books Julian had told Lysander to go. As the estate where the volumes were located is located on the bright, sunny Mediterranean, he'd also suggested that his friend take Charlotte and the two enjoy some father-daughter time on the beach.
Since Thursday, both men have found themselves staring out the shoppe windows for further sign of Kristos. There was a time when they both would have handled the situation the second Kristos made himself a nuisance. Now that Lysander has Charlotte and Julian has Caerwyn and Grace, neither is as hasty to settle things in the same manner as they once would have. They still will if necessary but aside from the methods Lysander has employed to keep the Foxes from trying to lay any claim to Charlotte, neither is as quick to go with darker, more final, options.
They hadn't scheduled any of the part-time help today, which is just as well. Julian doesn't mind the quiet this morning. The customers are mainly regulars who know their ways about the shoppe and help themselves to the coffee and tea available. Dexter is being good, entertaining himself in one of the windows by chasing a fly that hasn't yet figured out it can escape simply by flying away from the sheet of glass.
Julian's straightened, refilled the coffee and tea, put out fresh pastries from Briar's, unpacked one of several boxes they'd gotten from a shoppe going out of businesses, and rung up purchases. All in all, nothing that requires great thought or focus. This means Julian's had time to think about the problem of Kristos Fox.
If it comes to it, Julian would kill Kristos for Lysander or help him do so. He hopes they don't have to resort to murder but there's no doubt in his mind that if they feel they must then when the time comes, neither would hestitate to take Kristos's life and neither would feel remorse over the death of Kristos Fox. That man has always been a bastard and the years since he was last around haven't changed that.
This line of thought leads Julian to thinking about his past with Lysander. They've known each other practically since the womb. Chyler too. Chyler who was more a sister to Julian than her own brother ever was. Even with other kids around, like Rosalyn Burnshire and Adriana Fairchild, the three looked first to each other.
As if on rehearsed cue just as Julian thinks about Adriana the child in walks Adriana the woman. "Morning, Julian."
"Adriana. I was just thinking about you."
"That's nice of you to say."
"Really. I was thinking about when we were all children."
"About anything in particular or just in general?"
"In general. Anyway, come to browse or looking for a specific title."
"Just to browse. Or perhaps that's just my cover. Perhaps I came to enjoy the cute view Lysander and you always provide."
In the past, Adriana would sometimes flirt with Julian but it was always that teasing flirtation of a friend who isn't serious. Apparently in that's how it's to be again now that she's back. Julian can't help but wonder if she's flirty with Bill Weasley as well. Those two have a romantic history but now that Bill's married, he might not be comfortable with it. Julian doubhts Bill's wife would be overly pleased with it either. He almost smiles as the thought and wouldn't mind getting to watch Bill's and Fleur's reactions to Adriana's flirtations.
Julian smiles at Adriana. "You know, I'm too an age I'm not sure I still like being called cute."
"Handsome then. Though the dimples are just as adorable as I remember. You know, you should bring your dimples to dinner sometime. We could reminisce about when we were children. Speaking of children, I understand you have a son."
"Yes, Caerwyn. He's nearly fourteen. I didn't know about him until he was almost of age to attend Hogwarts."
"Wow. His mother had a change of heart and decided he should know his father?"
"His mother died. She left documents."
"And he's at Hogwarts you say?"
"Yes."
"I'm going to teach there next term. Lower years Charms so I should have your son."
"Next Hogsmeade weekend or over summer holiday you'll have to come meet Caerwyn then."
"Yes, I shall definitely do that. And we really are going to do dinner, aren't we? We aren't just saying we will but then never actually get together."
"Name a date."
"Tonight, or does the handsome man still have dates lined up with a variety of women every night of the week, especially Saturdays?"
Julian chuckles. "I was never that bad."
Adriana arches a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him.
"Okay. so I play the field. Sue me. To answer your question though, no, I am not otherwise occupied tonight. I'm here by myself today so will need time after closing to clean up. Is 7 all right?"
"Perfect. You know where I am?"
"I do."
"Excuse me, do you have a copy of Love in Bloom by Agnes Flowers?"
"Yes, we do, Mrs. Yeats. Just one moment."
"I'll let you get back to work," Adriana tells him, turning to do the browsing she said she came in to do.
Julian turns to Mrs. Yeats, one of the regulars who is in the shoppe several times a week. "I've a very nice hardback edition that hasn't been shelved yet. It shouldn't take but a minute or two to locate which box it's in."
Julian locates the book for Mrs. Yeats and rings it and her other selections up then taking up a position behind the register, watches Adriana without trying to be obvious. Maybe at dinner she'll say more about what she was doing those years in hiding and the full truth on why she felt the need to let everyone think her dead for all these years, even after Voldemort was dead. Julian's heard some of the story, though little of it directly from Adriana herself. From things Helena had said before she died, Julian knows there's got to be more to Adriana's story. The question though is what.
Ringing up another sale before letting his eyes drift over to Adriana again, Julian decides that thinking about the condundrum that is Adriana Fairchild is far better than thinking about that arse Kristos Fox.
When it Rains, it Pours
Author: Ella
Date: 05-17-11 17:57
After what had happened yesterday at Hogwarts, it came as no surprise that most of the students attending the apparition lesson had difficulty concentrating. Ella, who hadn't seen the dead body but had heard the gruesome details and all the rumors that had circulated since lunchtime yesterday, had better focus than most, but even her mind constantly wandered.
She'd already splinched herself twice.
Even the professors helping out today looked like they were anywhere but the Great Hall. Only Wilkie Twycross acted as if nothing were wrong. Ella guessed he probably hadn't heard about the accidental death of Professor Somerset's girlfriend.
He droned on and on and on about the three Ds. Ella paid as close attention as possible, but she struggled with the effort.
When the side door creaked open and Professor Dumbledore stepped into the room, everyone but Twycross looked up to see what he wanted. His expression was grave.
He went up to Professor McGonagall, whispered something in her ear, and then both of them looked at Ella. She had the very bad feeling that she'd done something to get herself in trouble, but she hadn't the faintest idea what it might be. She hadn't sneaked any cigs in ages.
Professor McGonagall navigated between hoops and students to get to Ella and whispered that she should follow her and Dumbledore. Ella had no choice but to do as asked, but she cast a long, questioning look at Francis. He shrugged and looked concerned and confused.
Ella stepped into the hall and walked with the two professors to Dumbledore's office. She had never been there before and would have marveled at the sight of it if her father hadn't been standing in the room.
Her first thought was to turn around and leave because she was still sore about what he'd said to her at Career Day, but the expression on her face caused her to ask, "What's wrong?"
Dunstan stepped forward. He held a folded piece of parchment in his hands and fidgeted with it nervously. "Ella. I have some bad news."
"Is it Mum?" Ella asked.
Dunstan nodded and looked down at his feet. "Yes. She died."
"How?"
Dunstan looked up, and there were actually a few tears in his eyes. "She committed suicide."
Ella didn't believe him, even though deep down she knew it had to be true. Her mother had been depressed for well over a year. Even as outrageous as the news was, she should have seen it coming.
"You're lying," she coldly said.
"No, Ella. It's true," Dunstan said. He held up the parchment. "Your mother... she left a note. For you."
Ella took the note but she didn't unfold it. "Did you read it?"
"Yes, Ella."
"Did you find her?"
Dunstan breathed in a ragged breath. "She didn't report to work for several days. I was her emergency contact. When St. Mungo's contacted me, I went to the house to check on her." He left the rest unsaid.
"How did she do it?"
"Ella, please."
"Tell me. How did she do it?"
Dunstan shook his head, resigned. Ella wasn't a child anymore. "She overdosed."
Ella let his words sink in. She wasn't ready to cry yet because a part of her still didn't believe it. She also didn't want to read the note in front of anybody. She tucked it into the back pocket of her jeans.
"Ms. Harville," Dumbledore began, speaking for the first time since they'd entered his office, "your father would like for you leave Hogwarts until after your mother's funeral. I am amenable to his suggestion if you are."
Even though it was just a thin slip of parchment, Ella could feel its weight in her back pocket. She wanted to go someplace private and read it.
"I don't want to miss my classes," she said, astounding herself. There was a time when cutting class for no reason wasn't a big deal. Now she had a valid excuse for not attending class and she wasn't going to take it.
"I can just leave the day of the funeral, can't I?" she asked Dumbledore.
"Of course, unless your father has something more longterm planned?" Dumbledore queried, turning back to Dunstan.
"N-no," Dunstan replied. "I haven't made any arrangements yet. I guess I can keep you all informed as the plans are made."
He looked to Ella for approval.
Ella didn't react.
Dunstan looked like he wanted to hug her but he held back.
Dumbledore asked, "How about a cup of tea? Ms. Haville?"
"No, thanks. I should... go."
"Are you sure, Ella?" Dumbledore said.
Ella, who'd been about to turn and brush past Professor McGonagall for the door, paused and looked at Dumbledore. He never called her by her first name, so she knew he was concerned about her well-being.
She opened her mouth to say something and then shook her head. Dumbledore held out a teacup to her. Ella took it and sat down in a chair next to her father. The more she sat there, the worse she felt, and before long she couldn't help but start to cry.