Flynn Carmichael violently hissed a nasty word under her breath that caused her daughter, Ellie, to raise her eyebrows. As the dot of blood on her left index finger began to grow Flynn pulled it to her mouth. After working at Madame Malkin's for almost twelve years she still never failed to stick herself with a needle.
"Mum." Ellie had started, but quickly closed her mouth when her mother shot a sharp look in her direction. Ellie knew that to call her mother out for swearing wasn't something she could afford. Not after the screaming fit she had thrown last night. Not for the sake of her quaffle or fanged Frisbee.
Ellie stuck her nose back into one of her new text books that she had gotten for her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As she began to read about cheering charms Madame Malkin scurried into the back room of the robe shop with a fist full of parchment. Her eyes were full of wild excitement as she waved the orders around in the stuffy air.
"Alright girls, we've got a castle full of orders for black robes," Madame Malkin said as she placed the pile of parchment down on the sewing table in front of Flynn, who's face held a small grimace. She never liked the end of August just for this particular reason. It was time for young witches and wizards to get back to Hogwarts and that meant mounds of black robes that could fill a dragon's den. Flynn sighed and extracted her wand from the pocket of her muggle jeans and pushed her dark, ruddy red hair out of her ocean blue eyes. When she pointed it at a large bolt of crisp black cloth the roll began to swirl around the room being attacked at all sides by scissors and needles and thread.
Ellie turned her eyes to Madame Malkin being called back to the front of her Diagon Alley shop, she hurried out with long plum colored robes billowing behind her. This made Ellie smile. That woman had always been like a grandmother to her. Buying her things from Quality Quidditch Supplies or the occasional oddity from the Junk Shop. Her pleasant round face was a pleasure to see everyday compared to that of her mother's, which was usually sour or cross looking. The only exception to this fact was when her mother went to visit Cormac McLaggen. Who, in Ellie's opinion, was an arrogant scumbag.
The pages of the charms book in Ellie's lap fluttered gently. From both the light breeze that was coming through the window and the small gusts that were being created by the flying black cloth that was spinning around the room under her mother's command. All of the spinning was starting to make Ellie dizzy so she quietly crept out of the room and found a chair situated next to the counter. Madame Malkin smiled at her until a new costumer arrived causing the the bell in the front doorway to plink back and forth.
"Oh Mr. Potter pleasure to see you again. I didn't know that you had little ones going to Hogwarts."
"Er, no I don't, not yet anyway. I'm here to get my godson measured for robes," a man's voice said.
"Ah so this must be Mr. Lupin," Madame Malkin's voice was cheery.
"Teddy," a boy's voice corrected.
Ellie glanced up over the counter with her grey eyes and saw the man with untidy black hair and bright green eyes that she could clearly make out across the room. The boy, however, had impossibly orange hair that he tried to push out of his eyes. They approached the one of the pedestals and Madame Malkin immediately began to measure him. Once she was done and had hurried into the back room the man, Mr. Potter, wandered over to a rack of self-repairing children's clothes.
"Wotcher...Erm," the orange haired boy caught Ellie by surprise.
"Oh, Ellie. My name is Ellie."
"Well it's nice to meet you Ellie," the boy smiled a large toothy grin. "I'm Teddy."
"Hi," Ellie said in a shy voice.
"Charms?"
"What?"
"You're reading your charms book? Are you going to Hogwarts this year?"
"Yeah. It's my first year."
"Me too, I can't wait. Harry," he pointed to the black haired man at the clothing rack, "he's my godfather, he's told me all about Hogwarts. The train, the Great Hall, the houses," Teddy fiddled with his hair while he spoke. Ellie was in absolute awe. Her mother had never told her about any of those things.
Ellie smiled. "Now I can't wait to go next week."
Madame Malkin came through the door then, with Teddy's order and once Mr. Potter had paid they went to leave, but not before Teddy said, "I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express."
"Bye," Ellie said with a small red blush rise in her cheeks. There was nothing that could ruin her day now. Although she was often the one to speak too soon.
A tall man came to the doorway of Madame Malkin's and ran his hand through his wiry mass of hair.
"Hey there kiddo," he said with a wicked grin as he walked to the counter. "Your mum around?"
"What's it to you McLaggen?" Ellie hissed from her seat.
"Cormac?" Flynn appeared from the back room. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes were full of urgency. She quickly grabbed Cormac's wrist and pulled him into the back room.
Ellie rolled her eyes and snapped her book shut. "Madame Malkin, I'm going to get some ice cream." She rushed out of the shop and across the alley to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor.
Flynn quickly closed the door behind her and Cormac and fumbled with the lock to make sure they were securely shut in the room.
"I told you not to come here Cormac."
"Why? I can't come to see my little love pixie?"
"Not here," Flynn groaned as she plopped down into a chair. "Not with Ellie around."
"Oh come on Flynn," Cormac said, inching closer to her. "I just wanted to come and see you."
He was crouching down next to her now, whispering sweet nothings into her ear. A wild grin pulled across Flynn's face and she giggled.
"Well when you put it that way," Flynn smiled and touched her mouth with her fingers.
"I'll see you tonight then?" Cormac muttered softly into her ear and she nodded in acquiesce. "Seeya babe." He kissed Flynn lightly on the cheek and sauntered out of the room only pausing to unlock the door.
Ellie thanked the women who handed her her ice cream cone and sat at one of the outdoor tables. As she licked her favorite flavor, custard cream, she watched a man with pale blond hair and a pointed face approach the parlor with a kicking and screaming child, most likely his son, dragging behind him. Ellie believed that the word the boy was trying to say between gulps of air and high pitched screams was 'chocolate'. She frowned a little and wondered if that was what she had looked like last night when she screamed at her mother.
The man and his son emerged from the parlor, both with ice cream in hand and sat at the next table over from Ellie. The boy smiled devilishly as he licked the large cone of chocolate ice cream and then leaned over to Ellie.
"I got chocolate," he said parading his cone around in front of her.
"I don't like chocolate, I prefer custard cream it's my favorite," she jeered. The man now looked over at her, he also had a cone of custard cream.
"Old man flavor," the boy said miss pronouncing the word flavor so it sounded more like favor.
"Scorpius!" The man hissed to his son, "leave the girl alone." Scorpius sulked in his chair and went back to his cone.
Just then Ellie saw her mother stroll across the street, with a dreamy look pointed toward the cloud spotted sky, and into the Parlor. Ellie rolled her eyes, she knew that look, her mother wouldn't be home tonight.
"Ellie, I think we need to talk," Flynn said once she had come out of the ice cream parlor with a cone of minty, green Pixie plight.
"Flynn?" Both Ellie and Flynn looked to the blond man sitting at the next table. Ellie then looked back to her mother who looked like she had just seen a ghost.
"D-Draco?" Flynn stammered.
"Good to see that you've remembered my name." Draco cocked one of his eyebrows.
"I guess you're hard to forget. Even if I knew I would never see you again," she said through tight lips.
"Daddy?" Scorpius interrupted with chocolate surrounding the curious look on his face.
"Daddy?" Flynn repeated.
"Yes," Draco said, "this is my son Scorpius."
"I'm three," Scorpius lisped a little while holding up three fingers with his free hand.
"And who's this?" Draco asked hoping to deter Flynn from making any smart comments.
"This is my daughter Ellie," she said matter-of-factly.
"What is she? Five? Six?"
"Eleven, Draco, she's eleven."
"What? No, she can't be eleven. If she were eleven that would have to mean..."
Madame Malkin poked her head out from her shop and shouted through the now thinning crowd.
"Flynn dear, time to get back to the orders!"
Flynn grabbed Ellie by the wrist and dragged her across the alley leaving Draco with his mouth agape and a little boy who was sure to begin screaming again once his ice cream was gone.