May 3, 2015

Annie sighed as she watched her daughters skipping down Charing Cross Road. She knew it was a mistake to tell them where they were going today. They had been practically uncontrollable on the train into London. She'd had to remind them a few times not to talk about Diagon Alley on their way there. "Your sisters are insane, Evan. Start to accept this now and you may live a long, peaceful life." Evan just giggled at the long-suffering remark by his mother. He may not even be five, but he had definitely already learned that about his sisters.

The girls stopped in front of the door to The Leaky Cauldron, holding hands, and looked back at their mother and brother impatiently. "Can we go in, Mummy?" Bea called down the street.

"Not until the rest of us get there. You know very well Evan and I need you near us to get in there easily."

Bea sighed heavily. "I don't understand that. You know it's right here."

Annie smiled. Her oldest daughter was a definite fan of things making sense. Her time at Hogwarts was going to be interesting. She had gone back to her childhood habit of asking 'Why?' an awful lot. Annie had a feeling the professors at Hogwarts were going to be kept busy trying to explain a lot of theory behind the things they just accepted at face value. She reached her daughters and hugged Bea as she looked at the door to the creepy old shop. As she hugged her the sign changed to that of a witch stirring a cauldron.

"There we go. It's still pretty cool, though, don't you think?"

Bea grinned up at her mother and took Evan's hand so he could see the door, too. "Yeah, Mum, it is." She let go of Melissa and opened the door to the pub so her family could go in, with her following behind them with her little brother. She looked down at him, "Ready, Evan?" She laughed when he nodded eagerly. He had heard 'ice cream at Fortescue's' and that was enough for him.

This was the first time they had gone past the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley. Alan the barman smiled at them and pointed toward the dining room, where Tori and Scorpius were already waiting for them. The family waved back at him as they went to meet their friends. Tori and Scorpius had frozen pumpkin juices waiting for them. "Are you ready for some fun, you four?" Tori asked.

Melissa grinned, "Yeah! Mum said we could go tons of places. Can we go to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" The girl had conned her Uncle George into agreeing to let her see his workshop when she finally got to the store.

"I want ice cream," Evan reached for his frozen pumpkin juice, pushing the straw away and drinking it from the side. He hated straws but Mrs. Longbottom always gave him one. Since Tori was closer she chuckled and just reached over, plucked the straw out of the glass and put it on the table.

"You'll get your ice cream, Evan. The best place ever for ice cream is Fiona Fortescue's." She smiled at Melissa and asked her, "Plan on buying anything in particular at Weasley's?"

Melissa grinned over her glass of pumpkin juice. "Everything!" Annie shook her head and held up her hands. "She has her allowance to spend and that's it. Are you looking forward to any shop, Scorpius?"

"Quality Quidditch Supplies, Missus D. It's a place that sells all the coolest quidditch stuff like brooms and uniforms and balls." He frowned. "Maybe Eyelops, too. They sell magical animals."

"You don't need an owl, Scorpius. We have Stormy," Tori told her son.

"But I'll need one for school."

"Which is years away. We'll get you an owl or something when we get your wand, not before."

Scorpius pouted a bit until Bea nudged him with her elbow. He looked over at her and she widened her eyes at him. His brows knitted, trying to figure out what she was signaling him, and failing miserably. She blew out a huff of air. "Maybe we can just look at them anyway. Get an idea for the future? Especially since I've never seen the shop before?"

Annie looked at her daughter suspiciously. "If you think we're getting an owl, my dear, you're mistaken. We don't need one."

Bea's face fell for a moment but then she cheered up. "But we can at least look at them, right?"

"Yes, sweetie, we can look at them. I thought you'd want to go to that bookstore Draco mentioned," Annie replied. She smiled at the 'well, duh' look she got from her daughter.

"Well, let's all finish our pumpkin juice and we can go roam all over the Alley, kids." Tori grinned at Annie, who toasted her with her glass. The two of them realized this outing was likely to be a disaster, but Tori had promised to bring a few vials of headache potion with her and they had both agreed that the ice cream and its inherent sugar rush would be dead last in their visits. It was much easier to deal with hyper kids at home than in the middle of a magical wonderland.

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Tori and Scorpius grinned at the reactions of the Dursleys to the wall behind the Leaky Cauldron opening into an archway. When the Muggle family stepped through, they heard and saw the true heart of the Wizarding community for the first time. It was busier than Annie thought it would be for a weekday, but it followed since this was the High Street for the witches and wizards. She looked around, holding Evan's and Melissa's hands tightly. Melissa started tugging away, but Annie held on tighter and unwillingly pulled her eyes away from the explosion of sound and color in front of her. "You stay close to me, young lady."

"But, Mummy-" Melissa pointed down the Alley at a garish window that showed off Quidditch jerseys.

"Don't 'But, Mummy' me, Melissa. We will see everything in turn."

Tori laughed and grabbed Bea's hand as she started drifting down the Alley. "Oh, no, my dear. Stick with us."

"But the owls-"

Tori looked at Annie. "This may be a bit more than we thought it would be. Maybe we should have brought the husbands for crowd control."

"Nah, we'd have lost them in the Quidditch shop and never gotten them out again."

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The women got the kids to Gringott's, bypassing all the other shops with the simple logic that they couldn't buy them anything unless they changed their Muggle money to Wizarding first. Scorpius was an old hand at this and was totally unimpressed by the goblins when they entered. The Dursleys were enthralled, though. Evan kept staring at one of them, an older goblin by the number of wrinkles wreathing his face. He smiled and waved at the goblin when he turned his dark eyes on him. The goblin raised his naked brow-ridges, unused to a young human child not being terrified of him. Not sure what to do, since glaring at the child probably would have accomplished nothing, the goblin simply nodded his head at him, causing the boy to grin and nod back. Annie looked down at her son and followed his eyeline to the old goblin. When he looked up at her she smiled nervously at him. He simply nodded back and looked down at his paperwork, dismissing the strange human child and his mother, although he found himself giving the human family a few more glances as they did their banking.

Tori walked Annie through the process of changing the pounds she'd gotten from the ATM into Wizarding currency. Annie couldn't help coughing at the gold coins Tori had called Galleons. After they walked out of Gringotts, she turned to Tori and asked her, "Do you have any idea how much I could get from a Muggle jeweler for a few of these? They could melt them down for the gold-"

"Except they aren't pure gold. Not anymore, anyway. They're a base metal plug covered by gold, just like Muggle coins," Tori laughed at her friend. "Besides, you'd be arrested if you tried. Violates the Statutes."

"Oh, well. So much for my get-rich-quick schemes. I guess I'll just have to go back to playing the Lottery." Annie chuckled as the kids started clamoring for different places to go at the same time. "Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute." She said, holding up her hands, "We're going to do this in a somewhat organized manner. Now you've all said you want to go to Weasley's, right?"

Four little voices said yes at the same time. "Alright, then, that's where we'll start." Tori grinned as she gestured down the Alley. "They're down at the other end of the Alley, past pretty much everything else. Then we'll work our way back to Fortescues'."

The group was almost half-way down the Alley when a voice rang out behind them, "Tori?" They all turned about and saw Tori's older sister, Daphne, leaving Madam Malkin's with her two children. Tori greeted her sister with a hug and kiss. "Cassie, Orion." Both children gave their aunt hugs. They smiled at Scorpius and Cassie stepped up to give him a hug. Tori turned around and gestured at the Dursleys. "Let me introduce everybody. Daphne, my sister, and her children, Cassie and Orion Nott. This is my friend Annie Dursley and her children, Bea, Melissa, and Evan. Bea, you and Scorp will be in the same year at Hogwarts with Cassie."

"Really?" Bea grinned at Cassie. "My cousins told me it's really fun there. I can't wait."

Cassie smiled at Bea. "Yeah, Mum and Dad told me all about our House."

Annie turned to Daphne while the kids started to exchange rumors they'd heard about Hogwarts. "It's nice to meet you, Daphne. We're taking the kids to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. You're more than welcome to join us."

"We're going to the Daily Prophet, so we can go part of the way with you. I'm afraid my husband isn't really a fan of Weasley products. We buy Zonko's." Daphne smiled easily at the Dursleys. "I have to make sure the plans are set for the coverage of the St. Mungo's fundraiser."

"Daphne's in charge of St. Mungo's Grant Foundation. She gets to plan all of the fund-raisers and write out grant applications and she's nearly doubled their endowment in the six years she's been in charge," Tori explained, "Daphne, Annie's a childrens' book illustrator."

"Really? Have I read any of them?" Daphne asked.

Annie shook her head as she kept hold of Evan's hand as the small group walked down the Alley, dodging other shoppers. "I don't think any of them are available in Flourish & Blotts, although that would be pretty awesome."

Daphne looked over at her quizzically. "Well, where else would you sell them?"

"WH Smith, Amazon. They're Muggle books." Annie wasn't looking at Daphne, so she didn't see the woman's jaw tighten. "I seem to specialize in talking animals at this point. Sometimes I feel like I dropped into the World of Richard Scary."

Daphne replied tightly, "I don't know him. Sorry."

"Oh, no problem. Tori got me a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and I loved it." Annie grinned. "Maybe we should stop at Whizzhard Books and see if they're interested in adding Muggle books to their line-up. Maybe a Muggle take on the Wizarding world?" She and Tori laughed at the idea while Daphne grimaced.

They'd just arrived at the Daily Prophet offices as Daphne replied, "I'm not sure they'd be big sellers."

Tori grinned, "I think you should do it, Annie. I'd love to read them. Maybe a series of Muggle fairy tales given a Wizarding world twist?"

Daphne smiled at the two women as she gathered her children from the little clutch of miniature people. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Missus Dursley. Good luck in your drawing. Tori, don't forget to RSVP for the fundraiser. I know we'd all love to see Draco again." She waved goodbye to the women and their children as she shepherded her own into the tall building that housed the popular newspaper that served the Wizarding community of the British Isles.

Tori turned to Annie, "Well, that went better than I expected."

"Oh?" Annie questioned her friend.

"Yeah, she didn't hex you the moment she realized you weren't a witch." Tori laughed. "She's a bit mad about the pure-blood nonsense. The kids are surprisingly decent, though." She shook her head as she continued. "She takes after our parents and the rest of the family. I was the black sheep for being Sorted Ravenclaw." The group was nearly at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes when they heard another voice call Tori's name.

"Declan! How are you?" Tori hugged the tall, brown-haired man behind her. He grinned and hugged her back.

"Wonderful."

"So, how's married life treating you?" Tori grinned. "Oh, Declan Haworth-Zabini, I want you to meet my good friend, Annie Dursely and her children: Bea, Melissa, and Evan. Bea'll be a few years ahead of Young Dec."

"Really? Well, hope to Sort Ravenclaw. We're the best, you know." Declan grinned at the kids as he shook Annie's hand.

"The best? Really, Dec? What are you teaching our children?" An equally tall black man walked up behind him and clasped him on the shoulder, a boy trailing behind him. The two were, in a word, beautiful. There was a symmetry to their features found only in the paintings and sculptures of the Old Masters. The boy was lighter-skinned than his father, with the same deep brown eyes. Annie got a feeling of déjà vu looking at the family together. The man smiled at Annie and her children. "Blaise Haworth-Zabini."

"Annie Dursley. These are my kids: Beatrice, Melissa, and Evan."

Declan smiled at his family and introduced his children, "This is our son, Young Dec." The boy waved shyly. "Our daughter, Ally is at Hogwarts right now. Dec here goes in about four years, probably around the same time as you, Melissa."

"Oh, but I'm not going to Hogwarts. I'm a Muggle. Just Bea is the witch." Melissa smiled at the Wizarding family as the men's eyes drifted up to Annie's in an obvious question that would have been too gauche to answer.

She smiled. "Bea has a different father than the other two."

"Ah." Declan grinned. "Young Dec, here, has a different mother." He clapped his hand on the thin shoulder next to him. "Obviously." The four adults grinned, any discomfort passed. "Are you all going into Weasley's?"

Tori grinned. "Yep. We promised the children. Blaise, want to join us?"

The tall, black man grinned back. "Not on your life. You can take the sprout in, Dec. Where should I meet you?"

Evan chirped up. "We're going to look at owls after this. Do you have an owl?"

"Then we get ice cream!" Melissa gushed.

Bea frowned. "Aren't we going to the bookstore?"

Tori and Annie chuckled. "You guys are a little out of order," Annie replied.

"Eyelops to look at the pets, and look only. Then we'll hit the bookstore. Then we go to Quality Quidditch Supplies, and no, Melissa, you're not buying anything there since you can't use it anyway. After that, we go to Fortescues' for ice cream." Tori was grinning at the dejected looks on the three older kids' faces at her qualifications.

Declan laughed. "Well, you certainly have a busy day planned." He snorted. "Should I stop at Slug & Jiggers and leave some headache potion for you two at Fortescues'?"

"Already have it." Tori patted her purse. "We'll be fine."

Declan turned to Blaise. "How about we meet you at Fortescues' after Young Dec and I buy out all the Weasley stock?"

Blaise shook his head. "If you must. I'll just go pick up the robes from Madam Malkin's and meet you there." He leaned over and kissed his husband on the cheek then tousled his son's curly hair. "Tori, Scorpius, nice to see you again. Say hello to your father for me, Scorpius. It was lovely to meet you and your children, Annie. Have fun in the den of mayhem, kids." With that he nodded and left the group, heading back toward the entrance and the location of Madam Malkin's.

Declan blatantly ogled his husband's retreating backside until Tori whapped his arm. He grinned at the two women unrepentantly. "What can I say? I married the most beautiful man in the universe. It would be a crime not to appreciate him."

Young Dec shook his head. "Dad, you're impossible."

Declan leaned down and hugged his son. "Absolutely. So what should we buy to prank him?"

Yeah, Daphne's still got the Pure-blood thing going on. It has absolutely not disappeared. Prejudice never does. It has gotten better in the Wizarding world, though. I hope.