CH 1: Angeline Storm's Robes and Cloaks
All rights belong to J.K. Rowling
"Ava, darling, wake up."
Ava opened her eyes to see her mother's face hovering above her own.
"I need your help at the shop today. There'll be lots of Hogwarts orders coming in and I'm afraid it's going to be quite a day," her mother said as she walked out of the room. "Breakfast is on the table."
Ava slowly rose out of bed, trying to remember the dream she had been having. She vaguely recalls a pair of grey eyes and a bark of laughter, nothing more. Her heart aches but she doesn't really know why.
She walks into the bathroom and stares at her own greyish-blue eyes in the mirror. Maybe she had been dreaming of herself… No, she thinks, those eyes were different… Older…
Her gaze lingered down to the necklace around her neck. A black pearl hanging off three small diamonds held together by a silver chain. According to her mother, her father had given her this necklace the night she was born. She wondered where he was at this very moment.
"Going to stare at yourself all day?" Ava jumped as the mirror on the wall reprimanded her, "If I heard your mother correctly, you've a busy day!" Grumbling, she brushed her teeth and combed her wavy dark hair, the latter with much more difficulty.
Once she was dressed, she made her way through the hall to the kitchen. She loved this kitchen. It wasn't very big but it was enough. Here, her and her mother had spent many hours cooking up their favorite meals and imagining recipes whenever they had the time. It was her favorite room in their modest apartment. It also helped that they had painted the room a soft cerulean, her favorite color.
Ava walked to the table where this morning's Daily Prophet laid next to her favorite breakfast: two scrambled eggs, four pieces of bacon and a glass of OJ. Simple? Yes. A tad American? Sure. But if Ava really loved anything, she loved her bacon.
She also loved her mother, of course.
And her kitchen with the blue walls… and her brand new ginger cat, Olive.
Ava picked up a crispy piece of bacon with one hand and the Daily Prophet with the other, flipping to the funnies in the back.
"H'lo Ol've," she mumbled as Olive came purring into the kitchen. She munched on the rest of her breakfast quickly, remembering her mother wanted her downstairs immediately.
Ava washed the dishes as fast as she could – it was her turn today, and made her way to the other side of the apartment to the staircase. She ran down the stairs that led to the back of the shop, Olive in tow.
"MUM," she called, "where are you?"
"Over here," Ava heard her mother's muffled voice from somewhere in the front. "Behind the counter! And stop yelling."
Ava giggled as she found her mother counting Sickles and Knuts, a pile of Galleons already stacked neatly on the side. On the front of the counter a sign read Angeline Storm's Robes and Cloaks.
My mother's pride, she thought.
Ava looked around the shop and the rolls of colorful fabrics piling the walls, all organized by color and texture. Mauves, emeralds, and cobalts; velvets, brocades, and fur — you name it, they had it. Ava's favorites were the specialty fabrics stacked behind the counter. These were the ones that sparked when you twirled or sung when you stepped into the sunlight. Not many of these sold as well as the regular fabrics because, well, practicality but Ava loved coming up with new ideas and her mother loved creating them. They were a team.
The bell at the door jingled and Ava looked over to an excited bushy-haired girl walking in accompanied by two timid adults.
"Time to get to work, darling," said Angeline, softly.
With that, Ava set off to greet the day's first customers.
It had been a long day for Ava, and it was only after 2.
Their first costumer of the day had been a muggle-born girl looking to get fitted for her first set of robes. She was a first year, you see, and her robes had to be pressed and perfect so as to make a good first impression.
Ava had no idea what "pressed" had to do with robes but reassured the girl her mother would do her best to perfect the hems.
Her parents did not talk much but did stare wildly in horror when Ava's mother magicked some measuring tapes around their little girl. As Angeline Accio'd the proper fabric for robes, a quill and parchment floated in mid air taking down the measurements that Ava called out.
Rolls of fabric came flying from the back, wrapping themselves around their model as the measuring tape disappeared in front of their eyes.
The girl's parents were fidgeting, gripping each other's hands as they stared at the wonder in front of them. Ava witnessed her mother's magic everyday — it wasn't anything new to her. However, she figured it must be a spectacular sight for any old muggle.
Their daughter was ecstatic in comparison to her parents. She would not stop asking questions.
"Are those fabrics glowing?"
"Howare these tapes being controlled?"
"Did your mum just… cast a spell?"
"Is that quill writing what you're saying?"
"How are you doing this?"
Ava had had enough by the end of the fitting and as soon she finished pinning the hem, she slinked to the backroom and started stacking fabrics by color.
Her mother called her back not five minutes later, much to her dismay.
"Yes, mum?" she said patiently.
"Ava, please assist the Grangers with their purchase while I start fitting the next customers," said her mother as she greeted a stern looking witch and a very shy boy hiding behind her.
Ava made her way to the register where she stood on a stool to properly look at her customers. She liked to feel tall.
She stared at the giddy girl and her troubled parents and said "Thirteen Galleons and six Sickles, please!"
The girl's smile flickered and her parents looked at each other in confusion. The Grangers all looked troubled then.
Ava knew at once what puzzled them. They weren't the first muggles that came in to their store.
With a sigh she said, "Gringotts Bank is just at the end of the street. A big white building with a goblin standing in front. There you can change your muggle money for Galleons and Sickles and Knuts." With that, she grabbed their packaged robes and stuffed them behind the counter. "Your robes will be waiting here for when you get back," she strained a smile and hopped off the stool, ushering them out of the shop.
A couple more first year students came in after that: a boy with a heavy Irish accent and a pug-nosed girl with a bad attitude. She helped her mother with these orders as well, and once it had quieted down for a bit, Ava started feeding Olive special cat treats that bounced until she caught them. She was finally relaxing when she heard the front door open followed by her mother's strained voice.
"Mr. Malfoy! I was not expecting you today."
Ava quietly made her way to the counter. She knew not to make noise in front of the Malfoys or any of their sort. Her mother never said much about them but Ava knew they were trouble.
"Ms. Storm." Mr. Malfoy nudged his son forward. "My son is to be fitted for his school robes at once. Five should be sufficient. If you would use your finest material, I shall pay graciously. "
"I am required by Hogwarts rule to make all robes of the same standard material, Mr. Malfoy. But I shall do what I can," Angeline smiled thinly. "Ava, please take young mister Malfoy here to start his fittings." Her mother called softly, knowing she was hiding just behind them.
"Yes, mum." She made eye contact with the Young Mister Malfoy and made a "follow me" gesture. She didn't feel like saying much under the tense air.
Mr. Malfoy placed his hand on Young Mister Malfoy's shoulder before he could move. "I trust you can handle this on your own, Draco."
"Of course, father," said Young Miste—said Draco at once.
"I will be next door buying your books. When you are finished, come find me at once."
"Yes, father."
With a flourish, Mr. Malfoy walked out of the door.
Draco Malfoy was an opinionated boy. He did not shut up.
"Father usually has our personal tailor fit me for most of my robes, you know." Ava did not know. She pinned the hem to tailor his size. She did not care to know. She was really tempted to pin the needle to his foot, but she was a professional.
Also, her mother was watching her.
"You seem a bit young to be working. How old are you?" Draco shook his foot to get her attention.
"Don't move. And I'm eleven."
"Oh. So you'll be going to Hogwarts, then."
"Mmmm," said Ava, not really listening.
"Will you be working with the house elves too? Making our rooms and fixing our garments?" Draco sneered.
She pinned his robe to his leg then.
"OW. Watchit!"
"Ava." Her mother said calmly, giving her that look.
"'m sorry," she mumbled to Young Mister Malfoy.
Her mother gave her a wink but Draco seemed to have forgotten it already and was instead looking around the shop.
"I don't understand why the headmaster insists in this… establishment to make the school robes when Madam Malkin's is much more qualified," said Draco. "And father agrees with me," he added, almost like an afterthought.
That really struck a nerve.
But before she could pin the robe to his stomach her mother interrupted, "Mister Malfoy, I can assure you that Storm's Robes and Cloaks is more than qualified to handle Hogwarts business, as I have been doing so for the past 9 years. Now, will you please lift your arms?" Her mother magicked the measuring tapes and Ava started calling out numbers when the front door opened.
"Darling, keep taking Mister Malfoy's measurements while I tend to our new visitor."
"Yes, mum."
She faintly acknowledged her mother welcoming another boy around her age inside the shop. She stood him on a footstool next to Draco and got to work.
"Hello," Draco said to the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"
Ava really wished he'd shut up.
"Yes," said the boy.
"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said Draco in a bored, drawling voice. Ava really didn't think anybody's voice could drawl that much. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."
Please, thought Ava, like he could smuggle anything into Hogwarts. Hasn't he read Hogwarts: A History?
"Have you got your own broom?" Draco went on.
"No," said the boy.
"Play Quidditch at all?"
"No," the boy said again, sounding confused. Ava stared at him then.
He looks so familiar.
"I do — Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"
"No," said the curious boy, looking contempt.
"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been — imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"
Ugh. If only.
"Mmm," said the boy, looking around the room for something to say.
"I say, look at that man!" said Draco suddenly, nodding toward the front window. A man as big as a tree was standing there, grinning at the boy and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.
Hagrid!
"That's Hagrid," said the boy. He knows Hagrid? "He works at Hogwarts."
"Oh," said Draco, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"
Oh, Ava really wanted to punch him.
"He's the gamekeeper," said the boy. He, too, looked like he wished to punch Draco.
"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage — lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."
"I think he's brilliant," said the boy coldly.
You tell him!
"Do you?" said Draco, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"
"They're dead," said the boy shortly. Ava stopped hemming Draco's robes then, and looked at the boy.
"Oh, sorry," said Draco, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"
"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."
Ava's mother had stopped taking the boy's measurements too, and was looking at his face openly.
"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"
But before he could say anything, Angeline rapidly announced that the boy's fittings were done. "Please make your way to the counter where my daughter will assist you," she said breathlessly and quickly left the room.
"I'll be right back," she told Draco quietly as she ushered the other boy to pay.
She jumped onto her stool and looked down at the record books in front of her.
"Name?"
"Harry Potter."
"Ha, ha, very funny. Haven't heard that one like a thousand times before." She was dipping her blue-feathered quill into ink. "Seriously though, I need your name for the books," she said, looking up after the boy did not say anything.
Ava looked at his confused face; her gaze automatically went up to his forehead, where a lightning-shaped scar rested.
"Oh." OH.
"Gods…" she whispered. Harry Potter! Then she remembered she was a professional and quickly looked down at her books.
"Right, er.. Mister Potter…"
Mister Potter? Oh, Merlin..
She quickly jotted down Harry Potter's name. "Thirteen Galleons and s-six Sickles, if you will," she stuttered. She never stuttered.
She could feel her face reddening by the second, but Harry Potter didn't seem to notice, and gave her 14 Galleons.
Ava handed Harry his change with the packaged robes and bid him a shy smile. Harry turned to leave but before he was out of reach, she called out:
"See you at Hogwarts, Harry Potter."
Harry gave her a big smile and walked out of the store to Hagrid, who was waiting for him with ice cream running down his hands.
BONUS Chocolate Frog
Ava did not see her mother for another two hours after Harry Potter had left, which wasn't a bad thing since it was lunchtime and they didn't have anybody come into the shop. Once the bells on the door rang, however, her mother came bouncing down the stairs greeting her customers as if Harry Potter hadn't just walked in.
Which really had happened. Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, had waltzed in and out like he didn't save the world in his sleep, like he wasn't a big deal….
Huh.
Maybe he wasn't a big deal… He is just a boy…
Who saved us all from impending doom at the hands of a dark lord at the pure age of ONE.
He was still just a baby… probably doesn't remember…
These thoughts kept Ava busy for the rest of the day. She barely noticed when it was time to close shop and head up for the night.
She made her way up the stairs, leaving her mother to charm the doors locked and found herself in the kitchen cooking dinner, Olive purring between her legs.
Angeline walked up just in time as Ava put food on the table.
"Dinner's ready, mum."
"Thank you, darling."
Ava's mother sat heavily on one of the chairs and started eating in silence, a rare occurrence. Once they were both done, Angeline magicked both plates into the sink to wash. It was Ava's turn to wash the dishes today but her mother must've forgotten. She wasn't going to argue. They sat in silence.
"Mum," said Ava suddenly, wanting to break the quiet. "I need to get fitted for my robes."
"Oh sweetie, I must've forgotten to tell you. Your robes have been ready for weeks. Ever since you got your letter."
"But… I wasn't fitted…" Ava was a little disappointed; she loved being in the middle of all that magic.
"Darling, I know your measurements like the back of my wand." Angeline said kindly.
"Oh… alright." She looked around the room for something else to say. "That reminds me, I need to get my wand."
"We can visit Ollivander's this weekend if you'd like. You know how he loves you."
"Haha…yeah… that loony old man…"
Ava's mother hmmm'd and continued to stare at nothing, clearly lost in thought.
A couple quiet minutes passed and Ava had to finally ask.
"Mum, did you know that was Harry Potter earlier?"
Angeline looked at her daughter then, and sighed heavily.
"Yes, I did…"
Ava waited patiently for her mother to continue, but she seemed too lost in thought to notice Ava's exasperation.
"And?" Ava was not patient.
"And what, Ava?"
"Well…" Ava didn't really know what, exactly. She just wanted to talk about it. It was Harry Potter for merlin's sake!
Ava always knew about Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived. Anyone with a working mind knew—he was a legend! But she also knew about him because they used to be friends. Not that she remembers, but her mother had told her stories.
Lily Evans had been her mother's closest friend at Hogwarts. Angeline was by Lily's side all seven school years and throughout the war, they were inseparable. According to her mum, Ava spent a lot of time with Harry when they were just babies, naturally, as Angeline tried her hardest to be with her best friend when times were rough. And from her mother's stories of the war, she remembers hearing how fond Harry and Ava were of each other for the one year he was with his family. They, too, were inseparable. At least for that year.
But now Harry Potter had emerged from whatever muggle hole he had been in and resurfaced at their shop. She wanted to know what her mother thought about that.
"It's just… kind of unexpected, no?"
"No, no…" her mother started. "I was expecting Harry to come in to the shop sooner or later. I still was not prepared." Her mother bit her lip. "It's strange, I did not recognize him at first. But once he said the bit about his parents…. how I didn't see it before… he looks just like James."
Author's Notes:
Well! Here's the first chapter of a story and character I've held in my head for a very, very long time. Basically, I've always felt the story, as perfect as it is, has lacked in certain areas. Now, I'm not a perfect writer by any means, and I've got no one to help me, and pretty much zero experience writing fiction, but my fingers have been itching to get this story out of my head, and I think now is the right time.
I'm almost done writing the first book, and I can't make any promises to how long this whole venture will take me. But I can assure you that I've got the entire story brewing in my head from Book 1 to Book 7, maybe even a prequel.
I love Harry Potter so much because it is such an open and ever-expanding universe, you can really add so much to the story! And so many things about the story were implied or unseen, so I would like to add my take on it. Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think!
E.