Charlie's Custard
"I'm going to take Bill to the secondhand shop for school robes," Molly announced, placing her hands on her eldest son's shoulders. "Arthur, dear, why don't you take Charlie to look around the shops?"
Arthur, Molly, and their two sons Charlie and Bill were spending the day at Diagon Alley, in preparation for Bill's first year at Hogwarts. So far, they'd managed to gather everything they needed, including a wand for Bill (which was the most expensive thing they'd had to buy—Arthur had looked almost green as he handed over seven galleons to Mr Ollivander).
They'd had a quick treat Florean's, where Molly and Arthur had sipped cups of tea while Bill devoured a Knickerbocker Glory and Charlie slowly slurped through a lemon ice cream. It was the first time Charlie had been to Diagon Alley, and although it wasn't the first time Bill had been, their parents had never saved up enough money to buy things before, so it was exciting for both of them.
Charlie was still licking his ice cream as Arthur led him towards the Magical Menagerie. Bill hadn't been interested in the animals when they passed the shop earlier, preferring to hurry forward and drool over the racing brooms. But Charlie had dug his heels in before, begging to be allowed to have a look inside later.
Arthur pushed the door open and a bell inside jingled as they crossed the threshold. "Welcome!" called the shopkeeper, a jolly man wearing yellow robes and a bright expression.
Charlie's eyes began searching around the shop as he tried to absorb as much of his surroundings as he could. His mouth dropped open, and his clammy fingers let go of the ice cream cone.
Luckily, Arthur managed to catch it before it splattered on the floor. He sighed as he wiped the ice cream off his fingers and dropped the cone in a nearby bin, though he was smiling at his son. Charlie had never been so mesmerised in his life.
"Come on inside properly, Charlie," Arthur said, his voice full of encouragement. "I thought you wanted to see the animals?"
Charlie pottered around the shop, stopping by every tank and cage to look at each creature. There were animals of all shapes and sizes; grey, white and black rats, toads and lizards staring at him through their glass tanks, owls and ravens peering down at him from birdcages. Some were much more magical creatures, including enormous Streeler snails with their brightly coloured shells, jewelled Fire Crabs, and little rabbits whose fur rapidly changed colours.
Charlie was mystified by all of the creatures, even the most mundane ones, such as a kneazle kitten that was about the size of a football, chasing budgies around the shop ("bad Crookshanks!"). However, nothing intrigued his attention more than a custard-yellow Puffskein that was bouncing around on top of the shopkeeper's desk.
"Charlie, don't bother him," Arthur warned as Charlie reached out with outstretched hands.
"Dad," Charlie breathed. "I need you to let me touch it. It's so fluffy!"
"It's okay, Sir," the shopkeeper said brightly. "Puffskeins are naturally friendly creatures."
The Puffskein seemed to take an immediate liking to Charlie. When he went to pick the ball of yellow fluff up, it happily snuggled into Charlie's t-shirt, it's long tongue protruding from it's fur and amber eyes gazing up at him. "He likes me!"
"Yes, yes," Arthur agreed. "Put him back down, now, or he'll want to come home with us."
Charlie clutched the Puffskein and looked up at his father, fluttering his eyelashes. "Dad," he pleaded. "He wants to come home with me. Please can I have him? Please? I promise I'll look after him all my myself and I definitely won't tell Mum."
Arthur smiled weakly and stuck his hand in the pocket of his robes. He pulled out a handful of coins—a few silvers and lots of bronze. "How much is the Puffskein, sir?" he asked the shopkeeper.
"Three galleons," the shopkeeper replied. Arthur sighed sadly, and turned back to Charlie. "I'm really sorry, Charlie. We just don't have enough money."
Charlie looked crestfallen. He hugged the Puffskein tightly, blinking through tears.
"Give the Puffskein back to the shopkeeper, Charlie, there's a good boy."
"Now just a minute," the shopkeeper said, holding up a hand. "This Puffskein is starting to become a bit of a nuisance in the menagerie—it's always bouncing around and knocking things over, and I'm sure that Crookshanks here is looking forward to getting hold of him," the shopkeeper gestured to the ginger kitten. "I've been looking for the perfect person who can come and take the Puffskein, but most people would prefer a nice timid cat or a useful owl."
Charlie's face lit up. "He's the perfect pet for me!" he exclaimed excitedly. "I've never wanted anything as much—well, except perhaps a dragon," he looked up at his father sheepishly.
The shopkeeper reached under the desk and pulled out a small brass cage, and the Puffskein hopped out of Charlie's arms and into the cage willingly. Carefully, the shopkeeper passed the cage over to Arthur. "Now, if you take this Puffskein off my hands, you'll be doing me a favour," he said with a grin, reaching over to ruffle a hand through Charlie's flame-red hair. "Do you promise you'll take good care of him?"
Charlie nodded confidently. "I promise! I'm going to call him Custard, because he looks just like custard," he giggled.
"Thank you," Arthur said to the shopkeeper. "This is really very kind of you." They left the shop with the shopkeeper waving them off, and Arthur wondered out loud what they were going to tell Molly.
Written For:
- Assignment #11/Careers Advice: Task #4 - Write about Charlie Weasley.
- Chocolate Frogs: Puffskein - Incorporate the location of the Magical Menagerie into your story.
- Film Festival: (action) Fluttering eyelashes, (plot point) Going on a shopping trip
- Eagle Day: Luna Lovegood - (colour) Yellow, (action) Searching
- Writing Club/Showtime: Price and Sun Theme - (character) Charlie Weasley
- Writing Club/Count Your Buttons: (dialogue) "I need you to let me touch it.", (word) Encouragement
- Seasonal Challenges/Summer Prompts: (object) Ice Cream
- Seasonal Challenges/Colour Prompts: Amber
- Seasonal Challenges/Elemental Prompts: (word) Flame
- Seasonal Challenges/Gryffindor: (character) Charlie Weasley, (trait) Confident
- 365 Prompts: (genre) Family
Word Count: 945