A Weasley Family Advent

6th December

It is Saturday, and Arthur has taken Bill and Charlie Christmas shopping. This is brave of him. Diagon Alley on a Saturday in December is bad enough without two excited small boys in tow. Add to this the fact that they only have one Galleon, two Sickles and three Knuts between them to buy presents for Mum and all of their brothers, and the trip could be fraught indeed.

But they strike lucky. There is a tiny junk shop squeezed between Beulah Bewlock's Bakery and Eeylops Owl Emporium that comes up trumps. They find a pretty vase for Mum, a book about owls for Percy, cymbals and a drum for Fred and George (Arthur tries not to think about what Molly with say about that) and a toy Hippogriff on wheels for Ronnie. Then Charlie waits by the door while Bill finds and pays for a model dragon as Charlie's present from him, and they swap places until Charlie finds a book about tomb raiders in Egypt for Bill. (This takes ages, and Bill is complaining by the time Charlie is finished. "Do you want a present or not?" Charlie demands.)

Arthur takes the chance to do some shopping on his own account. He finds a photo album that he will fill for Molly with some of the pile of unsorted family pictures currently languishing under their bed, as well as a copper-coloured bangle that he knows she will love, even if it does cost more than he can really afford.

Bill and Charlie have two Sickles left to buy a gingerbread man each from the bakery next door. While they eat them, watched by Beulah's teenage daughter Bettina (bribed by a gingerbread man of her own), Arthur hurries to Quality Quidditch Supplies. He shrinks the purchase he makes there until it will fit in the pocket of his robes. He does not want the boys to see this one.

Arthur can't believe how well the shopping trip has gone. But next week he has to repeat it with Percy and the twins… He won't think about that until he has to.