It was admittedly hard to resist the urge to purchase everything our eyes fell upon. CarryOn Couture had what seemed like a never-ending selection of all types of bags, suitcases and School trunks. Although money wasn't an issue like it usually is for us in our world, I still wanted to be practical with how much we could carry between the two of us. I had to remind myself firmly that we're only here to buy a charmed handbag and that was it.
"Please! Please! Please! Can I get a trunk, Jaylin! Please! I'll never ask for anything again."
With an exasperated sigh, I pulled my brother's arm and gently guided him behind a particularly tall shelf of Floo powder bags.
"Roman, you are getting too excited. You need to calm yourself down. We went over the plan in the café, and we're sticking to it. Okay?"
To onlookers, it probably looked like a ridiculous sight, a twelve-year-old girl lecturing a twelve-year-old boy. Before Roman was diagnosed with ADHD, he would get himself really worked up about certain things around him. Either becoming hyper focused about it or super unfocused. It was always zero or a hundred with him, never in-between. Through advice from specialists over the past years, I'd been trying different tactics to support him and manage his behaviour. Most only worked for so long, but the one that had been working great for both of us, was coming up with an agreed upon plan and letting him make some of the decisions himself. I'd gotten better at noticing his triggers and tried my best not to nag him constantly, as I knew from experience it didn't help things.
I could tell that I'd embarrassed him as he promptly yanked his arm out of my grip and looked frantically around, making sure there were no witnesses.
"You can't tell me off any more! We're the same age and even height now!"
My brother protested, his cheeks flushing bright red with what I assumed was a mix of embarrassment and annoyance.
"Roman. I may be in the body of my twelve-year-old self, but let's make one thing very clear, I am still very much twenty. I'm trying my best here, but we aren't buying every shiny thing we see. Yes, we need trunks for school, but we are not getting them today. We still need to see if our plan for the Leaky Cauldron will even work, so in the meantime I don't need you to keep pestering me, okay?"
I understood that this was his legitimate dream come true, and he was excited, but even in this strange fictional world I still had to be the responsible one and tell him no. After standing for an uncomfortable period of time in stubborn silence, Roman at last uncrossed his folded arms and gave a reluctant nod of agreement. I did my best to ignore the sound of his dragging feet behind me as he continued to sulk, but at least silently this time.
"Can I help you, young lady?"
A ridiculous tall man asked seemingly out of nowhere, he was dressed in a flowing smart navy robe, he also had a wild mop of white hair that stood up, in every direction possible.
"Yes please, our Gran sent us in to buy a handbag for her. She said she needs one that's weightless and expandable, preferably also one that has some anti theft measures on it. Do you have any like that?"
I asked in the sweetest voice I could muster. I felt a tad guilty continuing to use my dead Gran as an excuse, but it was the only thing that came naturally to me.
I wouldn't even know where to begin, if we had went along with a fake mum or dad.
"Ermh…yes, we do have the sort in stock, but I'm afraid it's rather pricey. It's not very salesman-like, but can I recommend you buy a cheaper one and charm it yourself?"
The man suggested in a hushed voice, looking around in the same manner Roman had done. I appreciated his kindness but knowing we didn't have an adult on hand to do any charms for us and we ourselves weren't even allowed to use any magic yet. I had to persist.
"Thanks, but our Gran is not as good of a witch as she once was, which is why she sent us in here in the first place. She didn't send us in with nothing, though, I'm sure we can afford it."
The old man didn't look convinced, but nonetheless excused himself while he fetched it from the back.
"Kinda weird this place exists, right? It wasn't ever mentioned in the books…even the café we ate in."
Roman made a good point. I was also at first taken off guard at how many shops we passed that were never brought up in the books. I guess they couldn't have mentioned every single place that existed, or it would've made quite boring content.
"I get what you're saying, but I guess if it makes sense to belong here in this world, then it exists."
I explained my theory with confidence, but when it came down to it. I really had no idea what the limits of our new reality were, and that wasn't getting any easier to stomach the more time went on.
"That makes sense…at least I think it does. We should check out this version of London, be cool to see what it was like in the nineties. Do you think a younger Gran or maybe even our parents are here?"
Roman surprised me with the mention of our 'parents' . It was a topic that we rarely brought up lightly. With Gran passing away, I noticed Roman had started to bring them up a lot more. I didn't have a lot of answers for him, I didn't have many for myself. I did get a brief chance to read a bit of our case report a while ago, when I was in the process of gaining custody and our social worker offered to go through it with me. Half a page was all I could get through before I had to stop. There weren't a lot of great things about them in there, and I wasn't in any hurry to tell Roman just yet.
"I want to check London out as well, but I don't think Gran or our birth parents are in this reality, even if they would be alive right now."
Roman opened his mouth to say something but didn't get a chance as the man had returned with a small black leather handbag with posh looking silver fastenings.
"Here we go, Miss. This is from Victoria Duffy's newest collection. 80 galleons. Please place both of your thumbs over here, and it'll only open to your fingerprints."
The man instructed, gesturing where to place our thumbs on the silver fastenings.
"What if someone knocks us out or puts our fingers on it while we're sleeping?"
Roman asked impertinently. The man regarded Roman with a strange look before handing over the handbag to me.
"We'll just hope, for your sake, that you are light sleepers."
The man retorted, clearly growing impatient with us both. I didn't waste any time handing over the money, he gladly took it with a tight-lipped, thanks.
Outside, we found a quiet side street, where I made Roman triple cheek. It didn't lead on to Knockturn Alley. Thankfully, it didn't, and we managed to empty out our pockets into the bag without any fuss. The bewitched bag didn't disappoint with all of its features. The man had explained that if we wanted to retrieve something, all we had to do was focus on it, and it should appear at the top. Roman and I had a few turns each testing it out, before we joined back onto the main street and began our next search for Owls Emporium.