The front door of Cylar's bakery slammed open against the wall causing the closed sign to clatter to the floor and the stack of tea cups on the counter to rattle dangerously. Eloise Cylar cast a stabilizing spell on the teacups with a flick of her wand as she emerged from the shop cellar.
"Mr. Goyle, what an unexpected surprise! It is lovely to see you again. I had just closed up for the night but of course my establishment is always open for a gentleman such as yourself," exclaimed Eloise.
Goyle Sr. pocketed his mask in his robes and grunted, "cauldron cakes, two of 'em"
Eloise quickly set to work heating and plating them as Severus Snape swept in and took a seat in the corner of the room. Goyle followed to the table growling about mudblood bitches. Snape extracted his wand and after Eloise sat the treats in front of them, she heard no more than a buzzing from where the two death eaters sat talking.
Sighing, Eloise set about cleaning the shop. Not that there was much left to do, but she made up tasks that kept her busy while keeping an eye out on her dark patrons, even as they too watched her. She felt Snape in particular keeping an eye on her when her back was turned, yet when she glanced up he showed no signs of doing so. She knew it was him though. If it were Goyle, the gaze would feel slimy, and would most likely be directed at her chest. Goyle would also be caught leering and would've enjoy it. No, this gaze was light, calculating and certainly not focused on her chest. It made her nervous but she had more backbone in her than to break under a simple gaze so she went about tidying the display case and ignoring the eyes watching her.
As the baking trays received their third polish of the night, the two men finally took leave, and Eloise finally unclenched her jaw. With another night survived, she extinguished the candles with a twitch of her fingers and returned to her cellar.
Downstairs, she couldn't shake the feeling of Snape's eyes watching her, almost if he knew. Unable to focus on anything else, she opened her ledger and double checked that there were no telling discrepancies in her finances. It wouldn't do for death eaters to know what she was up to.
--
Severus Snape was not having a good evening. Not that he could remember the last time he had one. At least this time nobody was hurt. He had returned from a little outing with Goyle, set upon him by the Dark Lord to kill a muggle couple whose only crime was giving birth to a witch 25 years ago. Luckily their daughter was home for dinner with her parents. She grabbed both of them and apparated away before the death eaters could even make it through the front door. Since the Dark Lord made his public appearance last month in the Ministry, the wizarding world has been in a state of high alert, holding its breath for the next move. Idiots, all of them. At least this girl had the sense to run away, even if it almost was too late. Unfortunately for him, he still had to deal with Goyle throwing a tantrum about not getting his fun. No doubt the Dark Lord would be less than impressed later, but it was a small price to pay for the lives of three innocents.
Severus was currently tuning out the fourth iteration of what Goyle would do when he got his hands on that girl between mouthfuls of cauldron cake. Severus, however, was more interested in the shoppe and the woman working behind the counter. She was currently supervising the brushes and rags that were scouring and polishing the empty display case in the front corner of the shop. Behind the case were a variety of shelves and cabinets that held dishes to be used in the other half of the shoppe. The entire space was decorated in warm earth tones that blended in well with the tutor style architecture. Much better than Madame Puddifoot's Valentine vomit down the street. The bakery itself was not a Hogsmeade trip staple with the students, due to it being off the beaten path and it's limited seating, but he quite enjoyed coming here when supervising the dunderheads for that reason. The witch behind the counter was always there, quietly watching her domain.
Madame Cylar appeared to be one of those witches made of honey, with her soft features and golden hair in coiling ringlets cascading around her shoulders. She was soft spoken and easy with her praise, even if it was artificially sweet with Goyle. But there was a sharpness in her eye that Severus was sure Goyle missed with all his focus being elsewhere. He first noticed it when that Potter brat came in under the cloak three years ago. Her eyes seemed to track Potter around the shoppe with a small smile even as he was invisible. Yet, it appeared to Severus she was not watching the floorboards slick with melted snow from Potters tracks like he was. Severus watched her more closely after that. She never used her wand for tasks even as the store was teeming with magical activity-a subtle show of power that Severus could appreciate. This was why tonight he noticed abnormality in the mundane. She was using her wand to send those brushes and rags to their tasks. Curious indeed. Shaking himself as Goyle threw down his fork, he got ready to return to the castle to his other master and focused back on matters more important than Eloise Cylar.