Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling, not me. I write this thing for entertainment purposes only and make no money off of it.

-----

The sign above the door read 'Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'. This time of the afternoon, with the term still several weeks away, there was only one other customer inside. Madam Malkin bustled over at the sight of Artemis's family crowding through the door.

"Oh, goodness me!" the squat little witch declared, "For all of them?"

Artemis shook her head. "We just need the standard Hogwarts robes for these two." She gave Laurel and Benjamin little pushes that propelled them out of the pack and straight in front of the seamstress. "And dress robes for Todd and…" She looked around. "Where's Ian?"

Amelia, Todd, and Max just shrugged. Celia, though, suddenly seemed very fascinated by the toes of her shoes.

"Celia, where did Ian go?" Artemis demanded. The fifteen-year-old would never lie to her. Not to her face at least. It had taken over a year and one very nasty encounter with Celia's biological father before the girl had begun to trust her new mother. That trust though, once given, was pure and absolute…and more than a little frightening to Artemis.

"He…he said he wanted to buy a broom repair kit," she replied softly.

Artemis sighed and rolled her eyes heavenward. "Shiloh, go find your brother and get him back here."

Her oldest son, who had been lurking at the back of the group with his nose in a book, gave an eye roll of his own but went back outside.

"I'm sorry about that," Artemis said as she turned back to Madam Malkin.

"Don't worry about it, dear," the little witch assured her, "He's not the first to make a fuss." She gestured for Laurel and Benjamin to climb up on to stools and popped plain black robes over their heads. "But I can almost promise you that by mid-term when he's found some pretty young girl to be his sweetheart, he'll find himself actually looking forward to the Yule Ball. Then, he'll be thankful that his mother saw fit to buy him a nice set of dress robes. Can't embarrass your lady-love by taking her to the dance dressed like a sad sack, now can you?"

The question was aimed at Benjamin who was doing a very good job of looking bored as Madam Malkin's assistant pinned up the hem of the robe so he wouldn't trip over it.

"Well, dear, aren't you going to answer the question?" the witch prodded.

"Girls are dumb," he mumbled.

Laurel reached over and slugged him on the shoulder. He turned to hit her back, but Artemis's noisily clearing her throat made him pause.

Madam Malkin just laughed. "Give it a few years, dear, and then you'll find yourself thinking otherwise."

Benjamin grumbled something under his breath.

"Can I hit him again?" Laurel asked, a little too enthusiastically.

"No," was Artemis's automatic answer.

Katrina, who had been let down, wandered over to inspect the work being done on her brother's hemline. The little dark-skinned girl was wearing her pink princess dress today, along with a plastic crown perched in between her three twisted pigtails, each held at the end with a butterfly barrette. "I want dress robes too," the four-year-old informed the seamstress's assistant.

"Tough," Laurel snapped. "You're too little for dress robes."

"Am not!" the little girl insisted, stamping her foot.

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Artemis opened her mouth to break up this fight as well, but before she could get a word out, Todd crouched down in front of Katrina. "You don't want dress robes."

Katrina's brow furrowed. "Yes, I do."

"But they would cover up your nice pink dress," the red-head pointed out, poking his sister's belly. "And then nobody would see it."

The logic was sound…and simple enough for a four-year-old mind. Katrina relented and allowed her big brother to pick her up and take her over to the window. Artemis suppressed a smile at the sight of them together. Katrina, she had received as an infant. The Ministry had found her in a Muggle orphanage and had gotten her out as soon as they discovered her wizarding potential. It was one of the many things Uncle Albus had done for the magical world. Lord Voldemort had once been a boy named Tom Riddle, forced to live in a Muggle orphanage when he wasn't at Hogwarts. Of course, there was no way to prove that that was why he'd become evil, but it wasn't something Artemis thought the wizarding community should dismiss. Hence, her mission to give orphaned magical children a home. Todd's parents had been killed by Death Eaters several days before James and Lily Potter were murdered. An elderly aunt had cared for him until her death last year.

Artemis crossed over to him and rested her hand gently on his shoulder. "Are you all right?"

He looked up at her with icy blue eyes. "Yeah, Mom, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know—you've just seemed kind of distant these past week or so."

"I've just been thinking."

"About what?" she asked as she relieved him of Katrina.

"Stuff."

She swatted at him, herding him over to a rack of ready-to-wear dress robes. "That's not a real answer." Balancing the four-year-old on one hip, she flicked through the hangars of robes. "Blue or green?"

"What?"

"Do you want blue or green robes? Or, yellow, I suppose, would look good with your hair."

"I don't know," Todd muttered.

"That one!" Katrina thrust a finger out at the rack, barely brushing against a light, icy blue robe the same color as Todd's eyes. Artemis pulled it off the rack and held it up to his chest.

"Well, your sister's got good taste," she admitted. "It matches your eyes, it doesn't clash with your hair, and…" she looked down at the hem, "It's actually long enough. Are you sure everything's ok?"

"Yeah, I swear."

"Then cheer up. I've got a surprise for all of you later."

"A surprise?" Katrina perked up at those words. "What's it?"

"If I told you, then it wouldn't be a surprise."