When I left, I went to Diagon Alley, heading towards Madam Malkins and got mobbed by the public, reminding me exactly why war heroes weren't allowed in public. I ran away from them and ended up ducking into George's shop for cover.
"Use the floo in the back! Run, Harry!" Ron shouted from behind the counter.
George was standing there next to Ron, looking as miserable as ever now that Fred had died in the war. George and Fred were some of the first on our side to respond to the fighting and come to my aid, because they lived and worked right there in Diagon Alley. They'd saved our lives, but at the cost of Fred's. Now George didn't know what to do with himself and Ron was stepping in to make sure the joke shop got ran.
"Thanks!" I called, ducking into the back room, just as the mob followed me into the store.
I could hear Ron's voice as he moved to sell the mob gag items. I hurriedly found the floo powder and flooed to Twilfitt and Tattings, sure that my original destination of Madam Malkins had been found out. The mob would return there as soon as they realized I'd escaped. But I still needed clothes for Scorpius and the only other clothing store in Diagon Alley popped into my head as the obvious solution.
"Jennifer, is that you?" a witch called out from the front of the store shortly after I popped out of the fireplace in the back.
"No, madam," I called back.
"Customers aren't allowed to floo directly into the store. Please use the front entrance," the voice called back, getting nearer. Then she opened the door, looked me up and down, and gasped. "Harry Potter? Whatever are you doing in my store?"
"I'd like to buy some clothes, but I've been mobbed. Could I just wait here until your other customers leave?" I asked. I felt like an arse for suggesting it, but how else was I to buy any clothes?
"Let me get rid of them. Give me a moment," the witch said, turning around and shutting the door behind her.
I put my ear to the door and listened, hearing the shop owner quite clearly kicking customers out of her shop.
Then she called for me, "Auror Potter, you can come out now. I've locked up the shop and closed the curtains."
"Thank you. I'm sorry for being such a bother. In the future, please don't turn out the customers who are already shopping. I can wait," I said, coming into the front of the store.
"Nonsense. What can I help you with?"
"Um, baby clothes. For my son. Scorpius. He's about this big," I said, bending down to indicate where Scorpius' little head came up to on me.
"Your son? I wasn't aware you had a son. Aren't you a little young?" she asked.
"Um…yeah. I had him at fifteen. I kept it under wraps, because Voldemort would have tried to kill him if anyone knew. But now I don't have to worry about that and I'd like to buy him a new wardrobe. The works," I said. "And. Er…is there any way you could keep this between just the two of us?"
"Naturally. Twilfitt and Tattings in known for being the most discrete clothing shop in Wizarding Britain. I will inform my brother, Mr. Tatting, that you are now one of our customers. He's my business partner, after all. Our parents left us this shop. He'll need to know to expect you to floo into the back. But if you are worried about him knowing about the baby, we can just say the clothes are for one of your friends' children. Do you have any friends with children?" she asked.
"Um…There's probably a kid in the Weasley family, if I look hard enough," I offered.
"Excellent. Excellent. Now that that's settled, all I need to know is how old your son is," she concluded.
"Of course. He was born the March before last, so that makes him…" I counted off months in my mind. "Sixteen months, I think."
"So size eighteen months, then? If I had his measurements, I could make the clothes exactly to size and add in a little bit of room to grow. But if you don't know them, the pre-cut clothes are generally a good fit," she said, going to a bin full of little robes and pulling out a red set that looked about the right size.
"I don't know them. This should be good. And give me the blue ones too." She pulled out a blue set. "But, um, don't you have shirts and trousers? And pajamas?" I asked.
"For babies? We have robes and nightgowns. The linen store sells nappies. Typically, grandmothers knit socks, sweaters, bonnets, and blankets, but there is a shop that sells them. That's all you need," she answered.
I remembered back to the dresser in Scorpius' room and realized then that most of the clothes had been Muggle. The shoes looked wizard-made, especially because they'd been fine in the water, and the robes were wizard too, but the rest was Muggle.
"Er, then just the two robes," I said, not knowing if Draco would prefer more, but figuring three was a good start and that I could always come back.
The seamstress went on to tell me the properties of these robes, explaining that they were stain proof, tear proof, and guaranteed to last long enough to be outgrown by my son. That sounded perfect to me, but it came at a cost: they were expensive. That probably explained why Draco only had one set.
I paid for them with my own money. Yes, I'd had money set aside for stuff like this, but Draco hadn't touched it yet and I wasn't going to touch it first. Draco had sacrificed his allowance to provide for our son for the last two years; the least I could do was use some of the money Sirius left me to buy a few sets of robes.
Since the robes were pre-made, I was able to apparate out of the store with them. I had to make a stop by Gringotts to exchange a few galleons for pounds. That was uncomfortable, because the Goblins never stopped glaring at me, clearly remembering my recent break-in and the destruction of their property. Merlin, there was still a dragon-shaped hole in their roof, so I couldn't exactly blame them. That's why I kept the transaction limited to an exchange, instead of asking to stop by my vault to get some more money.
Next I visited a Muggle shop and was overwhelmed with the options available for babies. There was too much, so I focused on trying to get exactly the same as Draco had at home for Scorpius. I found shirts that pulled over little heads, trousers held up with elastic, packages of little short-sleeved undershirts with more in them than Scorpius owned, packages of tiny little socks, and one-piece pajamas that zipped up the front. I bought enough for a week.
Then I remembered that they lived on the shore and Scorpius liked to play in the water. He needed swim clothes, because his regular clothes would last longer, if he wasn't swimming in them. I went to the swim section and picked out three pairs of trunks, one little sunshirt, and a big floppy sunhat. I would've gotten more, but I didn't know how often Scorpius went swimming or whether he and Draco would like the Muggle swim-clothes. In fact, I didn't know if Draco would think my taste horrid and want to return it all, so I kept the receipt.
Finally, I returned to Draco's house on the shore and knocked on the door.
Snotty answered. "It is being naptime. My masters, sirs, is being asleep," the elf said by way of greeting.
"Draco too?" I asked.
"Yes, sir." The elf nodded emphatically. "Snotty will be getting in trouble if either of the masters is being woken up, sir."
"Okay, I'll go. Can I come back tomorrow?" I asked.
"Master Lucius is saying Harry Potter is being allowed over for one half-hour every day, sir," Snotty answered.
I practically leapt for joy, despite being weighed down by all my purchases, at that news. Draco may not want me to come back, but I could and I would.
"Here, um, just let me get you some pajamas for Scorpius for tonight and then I'll go," I said, digging around in one of my many bags.
I produced a pair of sunshine yellow pajamas covered in stars and handed them to the elf. I almost thought better of it, because this pair was a tad girly with the stars and I didn't want Draco to start off thinking I had bad taste. I only got it, because I knew how much he liked astronomy and because Scorpius was named after a constellation. I would have preferred to give them the more masculine pairs first, but they weren't on the top of the bag and the yellow ones were. I almost started taking everything out of the bags to look for the cool grey pair with the silver snakes, when I thought better of it, because I didn't want to make too much noise and wake them. Instead, I regathered my things, told myself that they'd have to be content with the yellow pajamas for tonight, and left. I'd give them the rest of the clothes tomorrow.
Author's Note: Please Review