Seeing Yellow

Minka brushed through the crowd of people in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, attempting to find someone who was working. People tended to step out of her way, not wanting to get any of the yellow powder gracing her dress on them.

She went up to a young man who was examining a red bottle with care. He turned to look at her and did a double take.

"Do you know where the owner is?" They looked her up and down a little stunned.

"Uh, last I saw he was upstairs." Minka turned on her heel and attempted to locate the stairs. She began to make her way through the crowd of excited children, only to be completely blocked off from the stairs.

"Excuse me." She said politely, but no one seemed to hear her. She backed up a little only to run into someone.

"Whoa careful." The person said. She was suddenly trapped against them as children pushed and shoved around her. She looked up to see the person and came face to face with a very tall man in a green silk suit with a yellow tie. His hair was flaming red and a few light freckles kissed his nose. He smiled down at her; his light brown eyes seemed to twinkle with mischief. She noticed one of his ears was mangled and mostly missing but she quickly looked back into his eyes, not wanting to seem rude.

"Looks like someone wasn't using the Pigment Puffs properly." He gave a small laugh as he brushed some of the yellow powder off her shoulder.

"It wasn't me using them improperly it was these kids who decided to let them off in front of my store and then proceeded to throw one at me!"

"Oh." He made a slight cringe and scratched the back of his head sheepishly; his smile only seemed to grow with her anger.

"Could you keep your customers under control please? I'm trying to make my own business work as it is without worrying if this place is going to explode with fireworks or giant clouds of smoke flying in my front door."

"How'd you know I work here?" She gave him a look that said 'Are you kidding me?'

"Considering you look like the giant dummy out there on the front door, I'd say you have some sort of say about this place." He laughed slightly and put a hand on her shoulder to guide her to the stairs.

"Follow me." She tried to free herself from him, feeling a pang of caution.

"No I need to get back to my store."

"Looking like a giant banana?" He inclined his head for her to follow him up the stairs and began to ascend. Minka let out a long sigh and followed.

"So what do you think?" He said over his shoulder.

"Of what?" Minka asked as she looked down at the crowd of people.

"Of the store." They made it to the top of the stairs where even more merchandise stacked the shelves and people crowded them. They came to a door marked 'Office' and the man opened it, letting Minka enter first. It was fairly simple considering the extravagance of the store.

"It's uhm, colourful. I guess." He handed her a handkerchief which she took with a thank you. She wiped her face as he began to rummage through one of his cabinets.

"Allergic to fun or something?" He asked, his head deep into the back of the cabinet.

"I didn't say that. It's just hard to appreciate this particular fun when they are throwing it at your head." She began to wipe at her dress, which only seemed to make it worse. She could hear him laughing as he emerged with a small bottle. He handed it to her.

"Put a few drops in a tub of water and soak your dress, it will take out the stain. However, the stain on your skin will remain for at least a month."

Minka's eyes went wide and she felt herself inhale.

"What!?"

"Kidding! Kidding! Relax, it's already gone from you wiping it." His grin never seemed to leave his face. "George Weasley." He held out his hand. She took it cautiously. She felt a small tingle in her hand that made her want to smile, which she quickly supressed.

"Minka Maye." They dropped hands and she quickly tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. He backed up a bit and sat on the edge of his desk. "What exactly is it that you sell?" She asked him.

"It's a joke shop of sorts. Of course this time of year the items that really sell are the candies that make you look sick to get out of classes."

"That's awful! How are wizards going to learn well if they are out sick all of the time?!"

George scrunched his face for a moment. "You sound like my brother's wife."

"Well, maybe because it's true. You're not exactly helping the future of wizards."

George shrugged and stood up to go stand over at the window. "That's alright." An owl swooped in with a letter attached to its leg. George began to untie it as Minka raised her eyebrows at him. "I'll just tell them to go buy a Minka Dream Catcher to help them study in their sleep."

Minka lost her wording as George looked up to smile at her.

"The students will be fine Ms. Maye and so will your store. People will get over the curses and hex stories when they realize it's not happening. As for my customers, I'll try and keep them from destroying your store, and maybe I'll even send a few your way."

"Thank you, but I can do this on my own."

"Oh I don't doubt it. But just think of it as some neighbourly help." He put the letter down on his desk and walked over to her. He held out his hand again which Minka took. "It was nice to meet you." He said softly. Minka found herself looking into his eyes and holding his hand for a little too long. She quickly stepped back, turned on her heel and left with nothing but a muttered thank you as she closed the office door behind her.

She went over to her own store and opened it back up, having no choice but to work the rest of the day with a stained dress.

Most people came in just to glance around the old place like it was a museum; others didn't even want to step into the place.

Closer to the end of the day, a large group of teenagers came in.

"How does the studying in my sleep work?" One of them asked. Minka brought them over to the stack of Study Catchers. She held up a book she used as a demonstration and opened one of the Dream Catchers, which emanated a gold glow.

"You simply hold your notes or a textbook over the chest," She raised the book and dangled it over the golden gleams. The light seemed to engulf the book and then grabbed it out of Minka's hands and began to shrink the book. It pulled it in with lightning speed, causing the group to jump. The light changed from bright gold to a dark blue. "Then you simply go to bed and you will dream of reading the notes and the book over and over. In the morning I guarantee you will have learned at least two thirds of the material. And when you need the material back or want to change it you simply reach in." She placed her hand into the chest and she pulled out the book in miniature size. It began to grow back to normal as she held it out to them. They all were utterly fascinated and each one of them left with at least one Dream Catcher.

After that demonstration, she sold dozens of the Study Catchers and happened to sell a few others for the parents.

It was finally time to close, which she was happy about because the yellow powder began to irritate her skin a little. Just as she was about to shut the front door, she saw someone standing out on the street, staring at her building. It was an old woman, her shawl drawn tight around her in the cooling air.

"Can I help you?" Minka called out. The woman glared at Minka and waved one of her frail fingers at her.

"You should have left this place well enough alone. My son died in that place and now you treat it like nothing happened. Don't you realize the heart ache this place causes people?"

Minka approached the woman, and she recoiled as if Minka was poison.

"I'm sorry I never meant to offend anyone. But isn't it better to think of it as now a better place as opposed to an old building full of evil?" The woman spat at the ground in front of Minka.

"You should have left it alone." And with that she walked off down the street.

"Miserable old lady." Minka muttered to herself.

"Yeah you'll get those." Minka looked over to see George locking up the door to his shop. "I got a lot of hell just from having this building open across the way from it. Apparently people would rather this corner stay eerie and sad."

"Why? Bad things happen all the time; I don't see why it has to be our fault now." He walked over to her and watched the old lady step into another building down the street.

"Some people just can't let things go. And hopefully a woman looking like she was attacked with a giant horde of dandelions doesn't have that problem?" Minka looked up at him quizzically and then caught on to what he had said.

"Oh, no. Just as long as it really does come out of this dress. Or else we are going to have a whole other problem." She winked and turned to head back into her store.

"What are you doing this Saturday?" He shouted after her. Minka felt herself trip and quickly caught herself on the doorframe.

"I'm sorry?" She turned to look at him.

"Saturday, what are you doing?" He stepped towards her.

"I'm working."

"Get one of your employees to take your shift. We could take a walk down the Alley, I can show you around. Maybe we can get dinner after?"

Minka felt her stomach turn into a giant knot and she quickly stepped into her store, ready to close to the door.

"I don't have any other employees."

"Well, then find one. We'll go once they're trained." He kept stepping closer and she felt herself panic.

"Sorry, no." And then quickly shut the door and locked it. She leaned against the door and let out a long sigh of relief. She closed her eyes for a moment only for that familiar flash stream in her mind: the memory of opening her bedroom door and the shock on his face as she walked in; the sound of different voices shouting and screaming. She opened her eyes again, trying to shake the thoughts from her head.

She finished closing up and then headed out the front door with caution, making sure George wasn't still there waiting.

She made it home to her apartment which still had a few things she needed to unpack. She thought of George that night and felt bad for slamming the door in his face. But she had no choice. She couldn't bring herself to have anything like that. She had her work and that was enough.

She opened her own Dream Catcher that night like she did every night and crawled into bed, not wanting to think about her past again or think too much on what happened with George. It was best to just forget it all.