AN: This is more of a method of mine to finish this one. It's supposed to be a oneshot but I couldn't finish it because of the almost weekly exams we had this semester. I'm on a break now, so there's finally time. Plus, since I may have some sort of 6k word count minimum per work, I think breaking this down into chapters would be good.

Title and concept are inspired by Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Not the plot though, just some concepts brought up there. This is also kind of a far-fetched situation but I got it in my head and, well.

And thank you to all those who reviewed my first work! Please let me know what you think of this one so I could improve on the next chapters. :D

The Nostalgia Shop

One

A smile might be compulsory for employees in most other shops but not in Knockturn Alley and certainly not in Borgin & Burkes, but that is what welcomes Scorpius Malfoy when he enters the said shop. He even thinks he is seeing things, when the smile is from the most unlikely person to work there. So there he is, standing at the doorway, staring at his classmate who stands behind the counter.

"Good morning, Mal- Mr Malfoy," says Rose Weasley, "how may I help you?"

Scorpius blinks a few times before he finally finds his voice, "My father wanted me to get the Alexandrian safe box."

"Oh, the one Mr Borgin picked up a few days ago? He had to work quite hard on it. Just wait a moment," she says and then heads to the back office. Scorpius has never heard anybody call Marius 'Mr Borgin'. For as long as he could remember, the shop's young owner has always been just Marius.

Weasley comes out of the office with Marius behind her. Levitating between them was the safe box, with Marius pointing his wand at it and focusing on being careful.

Marius places the safe box on the counter and turns to Scorpius. "What's Mr Malfoy done to this thing to get it in this state? By the looks of it, he's done a lot of repairs on it by himself, too."

"He's put some nasty wards on it, that's all I know."

"A safe box like this doesn't need them. And just how nasty were those wards anyway?" says Marius. "That'll be 80 galleons, and that's because you get the friends and family discount." The youngest and only Borgin left, though still not a cheery person, is far more amiable than his predecessors. He has kept the shop running only out of promise to his father and his need to sustain his academic endeavours. Marius is studying wizard history, something Scorpius honestly finds useless but he will never say that to Marius' face.

Scorpius hands Marius the 80 galleons and whispers, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Marius raises an eyebrow at him but says nonetheless, "Sure, get inside my office. Rose," Weasley looks up from writing on a log book, "hold the shop for a while." She nods. Marius steps into his office and Scorpius follows.

Once inside the office-workshop hybrid, Scorpius asks, "Why is Rose Weasley working here?"

"I needed an assistant to help me here while I'm starting work on my dissertation and she needed a summer job," Marius says nonchalantly. "And among the applicants, she's the only one who understands the value and purpose of my items."

"How many applicants were there?"

"Two." Marius spins his chair and tinkers on a small device on his side away from Scorpius. "You know, if you're so interested in my new assistant, I'm sure she could take time and talk to you. We haven't got a lot of customers."

Scorpius is caught off guard by the comment. "I am not that interested in Rose Weasley. What makes you think that?"

"I saw you from back here when you came in," says Marius. "She got you tongue-tied. It's the first time I've ever seen or heard that happen to you." Marius then points a finger at his new assistant.

Rose Weasley is moving her wand in a spiral on top of an antique flame catcher. Blue sparks appear as the cracks seal and the larger details of the décor are repaired on the item. It is when Weasley finishes with it that Scorpius realizes that he has been observing her for a few minutes already. He turns back to the inside of the office slightly flustered.

He finds Marius smirking at him. "Oh, you're done staring at her now? Maybe you should take a closer look."

"I was just curious as to why she would work here, of all places," Scorpius says. "Don't they have their own shop or something?"

"That is true," says Marius, standing up from his desk and making his way to Scorpius. "Why don't you ask her why? I'm busy right now." He pushes Scorpius out the doorway, leaving the boy in the shop area with Rose Weasley.

For a while, he contemplates leaving without a word with his father's safe box but in the end, Scorpius says, "Hey, Weasley." She looks up from writing something on a musty-looking leather-bound book. "Why are you working here? Of all places?" That was blunt, Scorpius thinks. He worries that Weasley might take it the wrong way, especially when he is already notorious for being a sarcastic prick in school.

She chuckles instead, "Our shop is nearly overstaffed. Uncle George doesn't believe in nepotism and there was a bloke who needed the job more than I did. And I'm working here since this is the most interesting other shop in the area that's hiring students."

"I didn't know you found Wizarding families' memorabilia interesting, much less those others associate with the Dark Arts."

"I think an item is only as good as the wizard using it," she says. She touches the edge of his father's safe box and continues, "I mean, it's like this one. With the Malfoy family crest and looking ages old, others would consider it a Dark item but I doubt your family uses it for that purpose now."

"Really, you do?" he says, puzzled that someone like Weasley would doubt that the Malfoys would get involved in the sort of things that parts of Wizarding Britain still refuses to make them forget.

She nods. "With your father's work in the Prophet for over twenty years, I think he's done some noble things," she pauses and smiles at Scorpius with what seemed to him like embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to talk on."

Scorpius shakes his head immediately, "No, it's all right. I asked and you answered. Pretty well, actually." He takes a look at the safe box and ponders for a while. "It's just strange to see you, of all people, in a shop that profits partly on the longing that pureblood families have of the olden days that's actually made it hard for certain other people."

"When I said interesting, it's not just because this shop's dealing with rare items," she says, "I quite enjoy how some customers react when they find out I'm a Weasley." Including his, no doubt. Although he knows who she is, Scorpius is quite sure that he gave her a reaction akin to what other customers might have given her.

He is surprised that he is having a decent conversation with her when they have never exchanged so much as two words more than necessary before, and to see that Weasley is answering so honestly to someone with whom she has never really interacted makes Scorpius wonder.

A glance on the shop's grandfather clock informs Scorpius that he has to get home soon and he pulls out his wand to carefully shrink the safe box, just like how his father had instructed him before he went out of the manor. "I'd best be going. Pa told me to get back as soon as I get this," he says. He takes the box into his hand and smiles at Weasley. "I'll see you." She returns his goodbye and he walks out of the shop.

/

When Scorpius gets home, he heads straight to his father's study. Draco Malfoy is reviewing his work, bent over his desk and writing occasional notes on the piece of parchment in front of him. Scorpius enters without knocking just as he has always done and carelessly plops down on the armchair in front of his father's desk.

"Un-shrink that safe box first and then start telling me why you look like you don't want to be here," his father says, looking up, "especially when you were too unwilling to leave earlier."

"What do you mean I don't want to be here? I'm glad I got back." How his father came up with the idea escapes Scorpius. Nevertheless, he puts the safe box on the floor and releases it from its temporary shrinking spell.

His father stands up and inspects the safe box, checking the locking mechanism and then the spell resistance. "Marius did a spectacular job with this. I thought it couldn't be salvaged when it nearly exploded on my face." Without looking up from the box, he asks, "So, what's happened that's making you look like you want to be somewhere else?"

"Do I really?"

"To some other people, maybe not," his father says distractedly, "but I know better."

Scorpius sighs and decides to just say anything that comes into his mind. "Nothing happened in Borgin & Burkes, Pa. I got the safe box, just like you said, and came back immediately after talking to Rose Weasley there for just a little more than five minutes."

It is at that moment that his father takes his attention away from the safe box and puts them all on his son. "Rose Weasley? That makes sense. Although why she is in Borgin & Burkes is quite puzzling." His father laughs and sits back down behind his desk, smirking at his son.

Still baffled at what his father is implying, Scorpius says, "Pa, I have no idea what's actually making sense to you."

"The Weasley girl," his father says knowingly, "the only Hogwarts student that you refer to by a name. Not like 'that blonde, air-headed waif' or 'the short, red-faced hooligan', for example."

Scorpius never realized until now that he refers to Weasley by her name, let alone that he has mentioned her sometime to his father. Apparently, he has talked about her; he just doesn't remember it well enough. Well, his father did point out to him that he refers to his schoolmates by anything but their names a few years ago, and it wasn't until then that Scorpius realized what he has been doing.

"I never knew why, though," his father says quite absently as he goes back to his work. "I would think that you would refer to the girl's entire family by some clever alias you'd come up with. I never expected that it would be Granger and Weasley's daughter that you would actually name, especially when she's neck and neck with you academically. Or is that the reason?"

Scorpius shrugs. "I never realized that I do that until now, Pa. I thought the feeling of disdain between me and the whole Hogwarts student body was mutual." He pauses to think for a while and continues, "Maybe I don't hate her as much and maybe that's because I actually have to recognize her when she beats me. I don't really know."

"You can't stand how your classmates are basking in their parents' glory so I find it strange how you don't hold that same disdain for the Weasley girl, of all people," his father shortly looks up from his work and dips his quill into the inkwell.

This time it takes Scorpius just a few seconds to think of a possible explanation. "I don't think Rose Weasley basks in the glory more than she works for recognition of her own skills." His father raises an eyebrow in question and Scorpius continues, "I mean, sure, she's had it easier at first but she's good at what she does all by herself. I've seen her work a few times already; she does deserve credit. I do, too, but that's another topic."

"Well, I am glad to know that you are capable of not despising someone of your generation," says his father, "even if the exception is the weasel's daughter." At that, Scorpius cannot protest and just gives a halfhearted nod.

So, that's that. I try to think of devices that would sort of fit in their universe, hence the safe box and the flame catcher. Thank you for reading, guys! Let me know what you think of it. :D