Chapter Three; The Antique Store
The next morning Brittany nursed Danny before Aaron started getting him ready for his bath. "You've got a big day ahead of you buddy. First your mummy is going to take you to the mall with Uncle Justin for lunch and then you're going to your very first wedding." He told him as he laid him down on the floor on top of a towel before he started removing his clothes. Danny smiled at his father and then squealed with laughter and giggles. Aaron smiled back at him before he bent down and kissed his forehead.
"Alright, I'm going to take your diaper off now. All I ask is that you don't turn me into a human target." He said while he tore inside his diaper and then slid it off his bottom. "Uh oh, naked baby!" Aaron exclaimed as he bent down to pick him up and hoisted him up into the air by the ribs. Danny giggled again and Aaron grinned at him before he kissed the top of his head. "Come on son, bath time." He told him before he placed him down inside the bathtub. Danny beamed and started hitting the water with his hands.
"It's funny that you like bath time now since you used to scream your head off whenever I put you in the water." Aaron said while the little baby boy started blowing raspberries. Aaron continued smiling at him while he dipped his cup down inside the water and poured it on top of his head. "Somebody's a happy baby." He said.
…..
Brittany and Justin walked through the mall together side by side while Brittany pushed Danny inside his stroller while he busily sucked on his pacifier. "So Justin, are you excited about the wedding today?" she asked him but Justin simply just shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess so." He said.
"You guess so?" she questioned with uncertainty. "Don't you like weddings?" she wondered.
"Yeah, but it really doesn't mean too much of anything if my family can't make it." He told her.
"Listen Justin, I have to ask you a question. You don't have to answer it if you don't want to but Ginny brought it up to me after the dinner last night and I thought that she made a pretty good point. Why don't you ever talk about your family?" she wondered.
"Well it's a little bit complicated but you already know why I don't talk about my wife. And the girls are so busy with their own lives that I hardly get to see them too much anymore. All I know is that my oldest granddaughter is going to be starting Hogwarts next year. And my parents, well, I haven't spoken to them in years." He told her.
"Why not?" she asked him.
"Because we had a fight. They split up when I was seventeen years old and it was only a few years later that I discovered that it was because another man got my mother pregnant with my half-sister Abby." He replied.
"Oh, is she a witch too?" Brittany wondered as Justin nodded.
"Yeah and she has a son a year younger than Teddy and Heather. She thinks he's a squib though which angered her husband enough to leave her." He told her.
"It's so unfortunate that some purebloods are that arrogant." Brittany said.
"Yeah I know, that's just the way that some wizards are." Justin told her when all of a sudden Danny started to fuss and Brittany brought the stroller to a sudden stop. "Uh oh, does somebody need a changing?" he inquired.
"That and I think he's starting to get hungry and tired." Brittany told him before she bent over and unstrapped Danny from the stroller. "Come on Daniel, let's get a fresh nappy on you." She told him while she hoisted him up inside her arms and then adjusted her grip while holding him up by one hip and grabbing the stroller with the other hand. "Feel free to walk around. I'll meet you back at the food court." Brittany told him before she carried him away. Justin heaved a heavy sigh and started looking around. That's when he suddenly caught a glimpse of an antique store.
"Oh, Katie likes those. Maybe I can buy something for her." He said to himself before he entered the store. Everyone stopped and turned around to look at him. Just like Harry he was used to people stopping and staring at him even though he really wished that they would stop. However he wasn't expecting to run into Hermione Granger.
"Hey Justin." She began quietly.
"Hey Hermione, I would have thought that you would be out with Ginny Luna and Eve getting your hair and nails done or something." He said.
"We're going to do that next. We actually stopped here because the other girls had to use the bathroom. "I just came in here for a few moments while I was waiting for them. Then we're all going to have lunch afterwards. What are you doing here?" she asked him.
"Shopping for my daughter. I figured that would be a good way to kill time while I'm waiting for Brittany and Danny to get back after he gets a new diaper on him." He replied while he started looking around and examining the different shelves. That's when something brightly colored caught his eye. It was a dark purple genie lamp. "This looks interesting." He began before he looked at the tag. "Rub the lamp and a genie appears who will grant you anything your heart desires." He read aloud.
"That is interesting." Hermione agreed with a nod. "But is it real though? I mean do you think that genies really exist?" she questioned him.
"I don't know." He began with a shrug. "If witches and wizards exist why not genies?" he inquired.
"True, but are you sure that you want to get it though? It looks awfully expensive." She told him as he glanced back down at the tag. Sure enough Hermione was right, it was a hundred and eighty gallons.
"Yes, I think that Katie will like it." He told her. However that wasn't the reason that he ended up buying it. For it wasn't his daughter that he really had in mind. He dug into his pocket and payed the woman behind the counter for it before she put it in a bag for him and he carried it back out of the store.