"Leveena!"

"What?" The voice of her brother from the front of the shop had erupted from nowhere, and it startled her to the point that she had almost dropped her cargo of two, crystal balls.

"Get ready, we're opening up. Here, take these to the back. You'll probably have another three to put back there later. We still have stock out on the floor."

Leveena carried a box of random items to the back of Glendale's Goods, which was a shop owned by her brother, Aiden. These items in the box she transported appeared to be ordinary, household trinkets, but most likely, that wasn't the case. Many of these items were to be checked to see if they held any special traits - anything supernatural. If they did, they would go on the shelves. That's exactly what this shop sold - artifacts that took the shape of household trinkets. They could be portkeys, enchanted coins, even horcruxes, if one dared to be so bold to make one nowadays.

Her job was to merely examine these objects. With the tip of her willow wand, she would touch it. If the tip of the wand reacted a certain way, then naturally, it was responding to magical presence. The brightness of the light would depend on how powerful the object was - the different hues gave more as to what type. If it was powerful enough, she would put it in another box, and save it all up until the end of the day, when she and Aiden could sit down and discuss pricing them. All the while, he would be selling these objects to the wizards and witches that stopped by in Knockturn Alley.

It wasn't the most kosher business.

"Good day, sir, what may I do for you?" Aiden could be heard greeting a customer in the front of the shop. With a quiet, melodic tune escaping her throat, she sorted out the items that her brother had collected, finding them a spot on the shelf.

"Something quite rare," the customer murmured quietly, and a few more words escaped that Leveena had missed. "A nice, anniversary gift for my wife."

She heard Aiden chuckle. "We haven't seen one of those come in, but I think we may have a substitute to fit your satisfaction."

Not everything that Glendale's sold was made of dark magic, but it was something that Aiden would keep a close lookout for. Dark magic tended to be valuable in any form, and a lot of the Death Eaters he begrudgingly had to do business with made a good amount of coin, that it was worth the hassle.

The customer settled on an enchanted cowl of fur. "Have a nice day, sir. I'm sure your wife will love it." Moments later, Aiden came towards the back of the room, where Leveena had drawn her wand and poked at a silver fork. It didn't seem to be responding, but she recalled that it had a dim glow just yesterday when they took it out of the box! Did it have a magic, life span?

"Sis, I've been doing a bit of brainstorming, and I figured maybe we should throw something into the cauldron. What would you say to a divination or a brewing corner in the shop?"

The blonde girl looked up from the fork she was holding in her gloved hand, staring up at her brother. "You really want to do that?" she asked, her voice mixed with happiness and surprise. Leveena had a gift in the subject of divination and potions, even when she was a Ravenclaw student back in Hogwarts. Her and the two subjects went together like chicken, pot, and pie. Even her brother knew this.

"Of course, little sister," Aiden smiled at her. "You can even run the register whenever you want."

Leveena was excited. She had wondered why they were hoarding all of those items back there, and there was an even larger collection of divination stuff at the house once belonging to their mother. "That would be wonderful!"

"I'm sure we've got tons of spare divination supplies to get us started. I even got a letter from a divination teacher in Tokyo that is retiring and is looking to sell." Aiden turned on his heel to grab his coat. "Will you be alright here until I return with a few things from the house? I'd also like to send an owl back to her and arrange a meeting."

"Sure!" Leveena was now energized about this promotion of sorts. She enjoyed recovering the shop, of course, but having a little extra responsibility, especially considering it was affiliated with her forte and passion, made her feel good about herself.

Aiden took the fireplace as a leave from the shop, and the witch forced herself to control her giddiness as she set the fork behind the counter. She didn't exactly want to toss the utensil away - if anything else, it could just be in a passive state. She'd check back with it later.

In the meantime, she worked on getting the three boxes mentioned to the back of the store, so they were out of the way of customers. Within about ten minutes, she heard the bell ring, indicating another customer had entered the shop. She got up to her feet in a bit of a hurry, then came out to the front shop to see a man with long, white-blond hair. Behind him, there was a young boy with slit back hair of the same color, and he was carrying a black box as big as a fully grown house cat. She had seen this slightly older man many times in this shop. He was a regular customer, as a matter of fact. However, she never learned his name. After all, the customers were always left in the hands of her brother.

"Good day, sir," she said as she stood behind the counter, giving him a warm, welcoming smile.

"Is Mr. Glendale not in?" he replied in a cool voice.

"I'm afraid not, sir, but he'll probably be back within an hour or so. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"I'm just selling today."

"Is that so?" she replied thoughtfully. Sellers came less than frequently, though that was usually where Aiden took over. He was more the business sort than she was.

The man gave a nod and turned to the younger boy, who Leveena figured must've been his son. She could see a resemblance. They both had icy, gray eyes and a pale complexion. "Draco," he said simply to the boy. The young wizard, who appeared to be around thirteen or so, stepped forward and placed the box on the counter in front of Leveena. "Luckily for you, Mr. Glendale and I already settled on a price," the father went on. "I understand if you need to consult with him for any verification, but I assure you, this is a rarity."

"No, sir, I know you come here all the time," Leveena responded. "I believe you."

"This must remain confidential," he stressed, lowering his voice as he had replied. He opened the box, but his eyes didn't lower to the content inside. Hers did, however. "With the Ministry pursuing their raids on homes, I'm afraid they may have become suspicious."

Leveena had always known from the start of her brother opening this shop that secrecy was important for the safety of not only themselves, but their customers. A man's business was his own. Besides, if her brother authorized this sale already, then there was nothing more she needed to do but give him the money. "Aiden should be pleased that you stopped by," she said, looking into the box and pulling out a few vials of potions. Then, she found a silver ring adorned in entwined snakes at the bottom, and pulled it out. "Bloody hell..."

"That particular item," he said, grabbing her wrist rather tightly and holding it against the counter, "you never saw."

"Of course," she replied in a panic. She was almost terrified by the sudden act of violence, but she didn't want it to show. "I understand." Confidentiality. There was a hint of a stutter as she spoke, and for a moment, she stared at him as he gave her a partially stern look. His grip loosened, and she allowed the ring to drop back into the box, then rubbed her wrist. Deciding she no longer wanted to rummage through the box, lest he scare her again, she went to the back room. From the safe, she used her wand and drew out over a hundred galleons and five sickles before tucking it all into a blue, velvet pouch, where it all seemed to just disappear. She returned to the front, tapped a few buttons on the register, then printed a receipt for him. "I'll let Aiden know you stopped by, sir. I'm sorry you missed him."

"Perhaps I'll be back tomorrow with more," he answered, then gave her a polite bow, taking the ring that she was quite curious about. If the ring wasn't for sale, then why was it in a box full of items that were? He turned on his heel, making a gesture to his son to follow. She stared after him for a moment as he departed the store, trying to figure out what was so suspicious about that ring. She took the items and raised her wand to each one, surprised, as well as content, with the fact that each one had a bright glow to it.

After she put the items up on specific shelves, along with many of them items in the back, she looked out the window to see the sun was beginning to set, and her brother still had not returned. A good few hours had passed.

Once dark night had settled upon Knockturn, Leveena decided to close the shop for the day. In the darker hours of weekends, there were more people lurking around the alley. On weeknights, however, it was practically deserted. It was a good thing today was Saturday.

Leveena grabbed her black purse and hung it over her shoulder. She zipped opened a pocket of it on the front of the bag, and took out a small, silver key. She walked out of the shop and closed the door behind her, using the tiny key to lock it.

She Disapparated out of the alley, reappearing in a living room of elegance and shining light. The atmosphere was bright. This was home, sweet home.

"Aiden!" she called out for her brother, "I'm home!" She walked into the narrow hall and headed up a flight up winding stairs. There was no answer yet. "What kept you?" she exclaimed to the papered walls, but there was still nothing. The house was quite silent, save for her footsteps and her raised voice. The ladder to the attic was standing in the center of the hallway on the third floor. She approached it and began to climb it, then peeked her head into the attic above.

It was pitch black.

"Aiden?" Leveena reached into her pocket and pulled out her wand from her back pocket. She raised it so that it was leveled with her shoulder, and then muttered, "Lumos." A bright line illuminated the attic. From the entrance, she examined the small space. The glass window on the far side of the room was shattered, and there were small pieces on the floor lying around a shape. Leveena gasped.

"Aiden!?"

She stumbled onto the attic floor and crawled over to the unmoving body of her brother. She held the wand so the light shone on a pale face, eyes wide open. Leveena put her index and middle fingers to the pulse point on his neck, and was very still for a few moments.

She couldn't feel a pulse.

Her brother was dead.