Chapter 23

Twilfitt and Tatting's

Severus turned to the left out of a sudden and walked into a clothing shop. Twilfitt and Tatting's was written with golden letters on the big wooden beam above the door.

Severus pushed open the door and a bell rang to indicate the shop had some new customers. He kept the door open for me so I could enter easily and I thanked him with a small smile for his gentleness.

The shop looked slightly poshy with the well varnished wooden interior, but the wood on the walls started to give some signs of anility. It needed some attention, but apparently, the shop owner didn't care that much about it.

The corner right in front of the entrance caught my attention first. It leaded towards a second floor, which started halfway the ground floor, secured with railings.

Racks filled with dresses, skirts, trousers and other clothes, destined for women. Shelves stocked with cardigans and jumpers. And a closet with a few blouses. To only mention a few things that could be found on the ground floor.

Severus headed over towards a rack with some robes and of course, I followed him.

"Can I help you?" A woman asked after we had looked at the robes for only a minute. I hadn't noticed her coming towards us, so I startled a bit when she had started talking. She seemed to have not noticed it and just went on.

"I see that you're looking at some of our robes?" She raised her eyebrow in a friendly way and I instantly liked her. Her face small and looked even smaller thanks to some of her blond curls that were nearly hanging over eyes from the sides. She inspected me from behind her rectangular glasses and winked at me before she looked back at Severus, who seemed pleased with her help.

"We are actually looking for some appropriate wizarding cloths."

"You two are looking in our female section, so I suppose you come for cloths for your daughter, am I right?"

Severus seemed disturbed by her assumption and became terribly tensed. He hesitated to give an answer, but did it anyway. Even though it could have been more.

"Yes."

The woman nodded and turned back to me. "And for what kind of cloths were you looking for, little girl?" I hated it when people called me like that, but strange enough, I accepted it from her.

I didn't know how to answer, since I had actually no idea where we were looking for. I had no idea what Severus had meant with 'appropriate wizarding cloths' and scratched the back of my head to come up with a great answer to not look stupid in front of her. However, Severus answered it for me when he had seen I had no answer to her question.

"One or skirts will do. And maybe some tights, I think." he said uneasily.

The woman nodded understandingly. "Yes, we have got that. Just follow me." She headed of towards further back into the store, we followed shortly behind her.

"Well, here we have got some skirts and the tights are in a closet over there." She pointed at a closet in the other corner. "If you need something, I'm behind the counter."

We both nodded and the woman scooted back towards counter where another woman was waiting to be helped.

"Well," Severus started uncomfortably, "pick on our two you like, fit it and then we go." He looked out to the street through the display windows and seemed to overthink something. He had made his decision, cause he said: "I'm in that bookshop on the other side of the street if you need me. I'm back in 20 minutes."

Before I could even answer, he had already walked out of the store.

I shrugged and let my hands slip through the skirts. Flamboyant colours, peculiar patterns and… was that a row of dead butterfly, sewed onto a long skirt!? I frowned in a horrified way and backed off for a second.

Why would anyone want that on there cloths!? Just disgusting. Was that what Severus had meant with 'appropriate wizarding cloths'!? Just so disgusting!

At that moment, a hand touched my shoulder. It was the friendly woman again, who I, once again, hadn't noticed coming.

"Can I help you sweety?" she asked, her voice still kindly as ever.

"Well, ehm, what is actually…"

"What a witch of your age would wear?" she finished my sentence.

"Well, yes. As a matter of fact."

She smiled once again. "I know you are not from here, so shall I help you by finding some 'appropriate wizarding clothes'?"

I was surprised by the fact she made fun of Severus, but she had not the knowledge about him I had. Maybe if she had had that she wouldn't have made the joke. It still made me giggle though.

"I would love your help." I replied politely.

"Well, okay then. First wizarding fashion lesson: wizards and witches often wear green, black or purple. Or in a combination of course. But other colours are also not forbidden by a written or not written rule. Everyone just wears the colours they like, sometimes even very flamboyant colours."

I nodded understandingly.

"Second lessons: witches often wear a pointy head, but only grown-up witches. Although you will see a child with a pointy head sometimes, you don't see them that much."

I nodded again.

"Third lesson: wizards and witches wear capes, cloaks and robes. It's just the fashion from here, so get used to it. Many men walk around in robes in the Wizarding World, so don't think it's a dress and certainly don't make fun of them for it."

I remembered Dumbledore. He had worn a robe if I remembered correctly.

"That's it, I think." she stated satisfied. "Well now, let's have a look at the skirts." She slit her hands through the skirts and then asked: "what colour would you prefer?"

I thought for a few second before I said: "green and purple, I guess."

The woman nodded. "Good choice. And which length?"

"One above my knees, please. I don't like very long ones."

She nodded again. "Well…" She got three skirts from the rack and presented them to me.

Four beautiful skirts. A dark purple one with a Scottish check diamond pattern. One dark green pleated skirt. And a brighter purple skirt with one dead butterfly on it. I was already disgusted at the idea of touching the skirt, let alone wearing it.

"I would try these one if I were you. The fitting rooms are in the back… you know what, I will just go with you."

She walked ahead towards the back of the shop, towards the fitting room.

'They are already your size I think." she said. "I have measured thousands of waists over the previous years, so I think I can estimate the size of someone's waist." she stated as we had reached the fitting rooms.

I stepped into a fitting room and gave the woman a last look before closing the curtain.

I tried the dark purple one first and realised that the woman had been right, it really was my size. I examined myself in the mirror on the wall and saw it looked beautiful on my body.

"Come, show me." the woman said from the outside of the curtain.

I hesitated doing so, cause the woman was nice, yes, but she came a bit too close now. However, I did it anyway. I could tell her to back off anytime I wanted, so why not.

I stepped out and showed her myself. She became cheerful by the sight and clapped in her hands with a big smile on her face.

"It looks gorgeous on you, honey!" she exclaimed.

Her compliment had made me blush. "Thank you Ms. …"

"Amelia. Just Amelia."

I slightly smiled and stepped back in to try the other ones- the other two, since I was definitely not going to wear the one with the dead butterfly-.

The other purple on had had not the right size, but the green one was good.

The woman had been cheerful about the green one as well, but found it to be strange I had not wanted to try the one with the dead butterfly.

"That's fashion here, sweety." she tried to explain. "It's quite normal for girls on your age to wear something like that. It's fashion."

"Yeah, well sometimes you should just do what you like yourself and not just follow the rest."

"Wise words for a young one like yourself," she stated, genuinely impressed. "And how old are you, if I might ask?"

"10," I stated proudly.

"Well, in that case I have a great idea for what to wear with the skirts." She quickly turned around and scooted towards a closet in the front of the store. She returned with two blouses- a white and a black one- and two black tights.

"Try these ones two, honey," she said while pushing the garments in my hands and me in the fitting room.

All the four things fitted right and when I came back out, the woman seemed genuinely pleased with herself for getting nearly all the right things.

She folded up the clothes and while piling it up she asked: "Your father has the money, hasn't he?"

"Yes, how much is it?"

"21 Galleons, 7 Sickles and 3 Knuts," she said as she placed the pile on the counter.

I had no idea how their currency worked, but it sounded like an awful a lot of money for just some clothes.

"Look, if you are going to get him here, than I can go and help some other customers, okay?"

I nodded and headed for the bookshop across the street.

An old building with a big beam, on it: Obscures Books in dark green letters. A wooden bin in front of the shop showed some books that were for sale, but Severus was looking inside. I smiled at the thought of the difference between my mom and him. She would have definitely only looked at the books that were for sale. And Severus had a more specific taste.

And now I was thinking about the differences, there were an awful a lot more. And as my had could sum up all the differences, I realised that they had nearly nothing in common.

I wondered how they ever ended up together.

As I pushed the door open, I noticed the enormous piles of books all over the store. Closets from ground to ceiling, filled with books. Not even a single corner was unused- for as far as I could see-. The shop was quite dark. Only a few candles in a chandelier gave the room some light.

I noticed only two men in the room, of which Severus in the back and a man behind the counter. His face, severe, his hair grey and uncombed. His scary smile reminded me there was a door behind me.

Severus was reading the back of a book, while the creepy man was just staring at me with his cat-like eyes.

"Well, well," he mumbled suspiciously. "What can I do for you, girl?"

Severus had noticed us and walked up to me at the door.

"You can't get any money out of her, Aloys. She isn't here to buy a book." He pushed me back out of the store and I realised I hadn't even spent a full minute in there.

"Well, you haven't either, professor," the man sneered.

"I wouldn't be so rude, Aloys. I know I am only one of the few customers you have and chasing one away wold be a waste. I would become some nicer, so maybe you can save your failing shop," he fired back with his ever so arrogant tone and closed the door behind us.

"I suppose your done?" he asked as if the last thing had never happened. Well, I hadn't forgotten about it at all. I was rather surprised he had actually given the man advice about how to save his apparently 'failing shop'. It just wasn't something for Severus.

I nodded and as we crossed the street, I asked: "why did you give him that advice? Is he a friend of yours."

Severus frowned. "No, not at all, but he is the owner of a good bookshop, for a Potions Master at least. I hope it will continue to exist," he declared as if it was nothing.

Did that meant he had only done it for himself? How selfish would that be.

Amelia was standing behind the counter, holding up her hand in which she got three golden coins from a female customer. And as it was our turn, she got the pile of clothes from behind the counter.

"21 Galleons, 7 Sickles and 3 Knuts," she stated and waited for Severus to place it on the counter. "Oh, we have forgotten to get you a robe," she stated apologetically, more to Severus than to me.

"No need," he simply replied. "Abd how many did you say?"

"21 Galleons, 7 Sickles and 3 Knuts," she repeated.

I heard Severus softly sighing when he heard the amount of money he had to pay and he reluctantly got a small, velvet, black sack, only a bit bigger than the palm of his hands.

When opening it, he got golden, silver and bronze coins out of it, counted them and placed them on the counter.

The woman looked at the coins, counted them for herself and nodded with a small grin. I slightly suspected her from scamming us, but Severus was the wizard here and knew everything about the Wizarding World and he said nothing, so I took it to be okay.

Amelia handed me the bag with the clothes and Severus the receipt.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Ellea. And I hope you will learn your way through the Wizarding World rather quickly."

"A pleasure to meet you too." I responded, not knowing if I had to say Emilia or Ms. "How do you actually know I am born into the Muggle World?"

"The jeans, darling," she stated as she pointed to it with her long nails.

As we walked out of the store, Severus immediately headed to a new destination. I just followed him again.

"Swindlers," he muttered. "They could have better called it Swindler and Tatting's if you ask me. I mean, 6 Galleons for a blouse!" he exclaimed, waving around with the receipt. "And then she even suggested to also take a robe! Is she mad! My bank account isn't endless, you know. No, we are going to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions to get you one."

Author's Note:

Hey reader,

Another chapter about Diagon Alley. Next weeks' will be too. But until that time…

See you next week!

PS: special thanks to my Beta-Reader to2llyuntraceable.