Author's Notes:
This world belongs to JK Rowling, I just like to play in it every once in a while. :)
A huge thanks to fulldaysdrive for being an amazing beta and putting up with my terrible grammar.
"Come on, Da!" an exasperated voice shouted — more so to be heard over the grating noise of what Draco assumed was supposed to be music, than actual anger.
"For the hundredth time Ted, it's not going to happen. Will you turn down that bloody racket you call music?" replied a second, deeper voice, sounding equally exasperated.
Draco had been sent here by one of his younger employees. Apparently The Wolf and Lily, which appeared to be a simple Muggle tattoo parlour, was run by wizards: a father and son. The shop, catering to all clients, had two entrances. There was the Muggle entrance crammed between The Camden Head and a run-down chippy just off the high street in Camden Town, and there was the wizarding entrance. The wizarding entrance was located a block away form his bookstore in Element Alley; an up and coming wizarding area located in the heart of Camden Town. It lead into a separate waiting area hidden in the back of the shop, no doubt obscured with Muggle repelling charms and glamours.
The waiting area — the wizarding one — had several large portraits on the walls showing off pieces done by both father and son. The tattoos pictured were infused with magic. Some were charmed to move, some changed colour, and lastly there were those that had glamour charms worked in so they could be hidden when necessary.
There were four overstuffed sapphire suede armchairs along one wall, and a rather large glass coffee table with what Draco assumed to be books filled with even more work done by the father-son team. A stainless steel table with industrial fittings and a huge black leather desk chair took up another wall. On top of it was a wizarding wireless that was currently blaring what Draco now recognised as a track from the latest Banshees album. The third was lined with metal shelving and housed an impressive array of books on photography and illustration, which Draco assumed were used as reference material for the artists. The final wall wasn't a wall at all, but a large black velvet curtain that separated the wizarding waiting area from the rest of the shop.
The curtain flew open and a very small girl entered, turning down the wireless as she sat down behind the massive desk. She began to flip through the date book, somehow humming along to the screaming coming from the speakers.
Draco coughed to announce his presence, and the girl jumped. She obviously hadn't realised she wasn't alone.
"Sorry sir," she said. She had a bright smile and twinkling golden eyes. "Name's Piper, what can I do ya for?"
Draco wrinkled his nose at the American accent and poor grammar, at the same time trying to stifle a smile as he took in her appearance.
She was maybe four-foot-nine, if one were to be generous, and looked to be around twenty years old. She had bright purple hair with a teal streaked fringe, styled in a choppy spiked pixie cut that gave her the air of some kind of fae creature.
She was dressed in a tight black cropped tank top with a gash along the shoulder that appeared to be held together with Muggle safety pins. Her pleated miniskirt was patterned with the Union Jack and adorned with rivets and chains along the waistline. On her feet were a pair of heavily worn combat boots. She had three hoops in each ear and an aquamarine stud in her nose.
"Sir?" the girl asked warily. A small, concerned wrinkle formed in between her brow, and her tiny bow mouth drew up into a ridiculous pout.
"Sorry!" Draco's face flamed as he realised he'd been caught staring. He quickly glanced around the room, running a hand through his platinum blonde hair as he took a step toward the desk. He cleared his throat, trying to cover his embarrassment at being caught out.
"Sorry," he said again. "Yes, um, I'd like to talk with someone about getting a tattoo."
The receptionist — Piper — paused her perusal of the date book and blinked at him a few times. Her eyes seemed to get larger and more penetrating with each blink. Slowly, the blinding smile returned and she nodded. "Yeah, I kind of had a suspicion that might be the case." She laughed. "I didn't think you came here to admire the furniture."
"Well, it is very nice furniture." He desperately tried to regain his footing, fully aware that somehow this tiny slip of a girl was able to unsettle him, despite years of uptight Pureblood upbringing.
The curtain swished a second time, and this time a slim twenty-something man appeared. He sported a turquoise mohawk, a worn black t-shirt with the sleeves cut off that said, "Sex Pistols" in messy white lettering, and tight black jeans. He had a large gunmetal cross dangling from one ear, and black leather cuffs around each wrist. On his right arm was a Muggle tattoo of a wolf baying at a full moon, and something written in barely legible fancy script across his right forearm.
"Who's this then?" the man asks Piper; Draco recognized the voice from when he first arrived; this must be Ted.
Piper, if possible, smiled even wider upon Ted's entrance. "Not sure yet. Says he's looking to talk to someone about getting some work done, but could be here just to admire the lovely blue chairs the boss just bought."
Ted and Draco both snorted at this, trying to stifle their laughter. It was hard for Draco to maintain his stoic Slytherin mask when in the company of Piper the pixie.
"Wizard or Muggle?" Ted enquired, turning back to Draco who was still standing in front of the desk, slightly unnerved that he had been shaken so easily.
"Pardon?" Draco asked, completely blindsided by the question and slightly offended that anyone would assume he was a Muggle. He was in the wizard waiting area, for Merlin's sake!
"Your tattoo," Ted clarified. "Do you want a wizarding one or a Muggle one?"
"Oh," Draco sighed, relieved. "Um, Muggle, actually. I, er, wanted to get it over an area that's had a wizarding tattoo before. I was told at a shop over in Diagon Alley that magic won't work on it, so wizarding's out."
"Well for that you'll have to talk to my da. I haven't finished my Muggle apprenticeship yet, so I can only do wizarding work. Let me go grab him, he's just finishing with a customer up front. Have a seat." Ted gestured to the chairs along the far wall, and turned to walk back through the curtain.
Draco took a seat and began rifling through one of the many portfolio books. The cover had "Muggle" at the top and a small H in the bottom right corner. Draco was impressed with the artistry he found as he flipped through various pictures of Muggle tattoos. The colours were vivid, the lines were clean, and although they were Muggle, the images were full of life. One would think they were accomplished with nothing other than magic.
Draco was so enraptured with the portfolio that he barely registered when someone sat next to him. He was almost startled out of his seat when he heard a voice by his ear, enquiring, "You want something Muggle, to cover an area with residual magic? Left forearm?"
When Draco looked up, he locked on to bright green eyes and a crooked smile. He was stunned into silence.
Moments later he recovered, looking back down at a Muggle tattoo of a phoenix that he now realized looked exactly like Dumbledore's familiar Fawkes. "Fuck," Draco whispered.