disclaimer: the world and most of the characters in it belong to JKR, Glinda is mine.
Charlie dropped me off at the Leaky Cauldron around five in the afternoon. "I'll be back to get you at seven." he'd said, lingering for a bit to kiss my hand. He shot me with another killer grin before he headed out the door.
Hannah came out from behind the bar, "wow," she said, "looks like you had quite an afternoon.
"Yeah," I agreed, looking at the pile of packages on the floor. "I have to repack all this stuff."
Hannah chuckled, then said "bought out half the alley did you?"
"You'd think so, wouldn't you?"
Hannah called out to the kitchen, "Neville, we need a hand out here."
"What is it, Darling?" A tall, thin and kind faced man with brown hair and expressive hazel eyes
came out of the kitchen wearing a large cooks apron.
"Glinda," Hannah introduced us, "this is my husband Neville. You'll be seeing a lot of him at Hogwarts. He's the herbology professor, and the head of Griffyndor. Neville, this is Glinda Goode."
"Ah, Miss Good," Neville shook my hand. "You're the new DADA professor, Professor MacGonagle has mentioned you to me. Welcome to London. You and I will be traveling up to Hogwarts on Tuesday. Harry asked me to escort you to the castle."
"That was very thoughtful of him." I remarked, glad that I wasn't traveling alone.
Neville grabbed several of my packages and headed up the stairs, Hannah and I followed with the rest. "Go mind the tap room, husband" Hannah said when we reached my room. "I'm going to help Glinda with her packing."
"Yeas, Darling," he said "mind you, one of us has to pick Ally up at six." he headed back down to the tap room.
"Ally is your daughter?" I asked Hannah.
"Yes, she's three, and quite the little imp. She's visiting Neville's Gran today. She spoils that child rotten, but I guess that's what great-grandmothers are for."
"That was always my impression."
"Well, let's get these boxes opened and repacked for you. I imagine you need to get ready for your date?" She suggested with a grin.
"How do you know about that?" I asked, it really is a good thing that I don't blush.
"I saw Charlie kiss your hand, and I heard him tell you he'll get you at seven. If that doesn't sound like a date, I don't know what does."
"Ok, point taken. He's taking me for Chinese food."
"Really? I'm actually amazed, Charlie Weasley's been back in England for more than six months, you're the first woman I've seen him interested in."
"Do you know Charlie that well?"
"His sister is one of my husbands best friends. We all fought in the war against Voldemort together. He also come in for lunch a lot when he's at the Ministry." She grabbed one of the boxes from Madame Malkin's and gently tore the seal. "Yes," she said, pulling a light casual dress out of the box. Madame had insisted I take it, and to be honest I loved the shimmering green/purple material. "You should wear this tonight. The color will be lovely on you. It's close enough to a muggle dress, you'll be able to wear it to Soho."
"Soho? I thought we were going for Chinese food."
"That's where all the best Chinese food is in London. Chinatown is in Soho."
"Oh." I was a bit reluctant to travel through Muggle London. The quick walk from the Ministry to the Leaky Cauldron wasn't bad, but the more time I spent among the muggles, the more nervous everybody got. Although muggleborn, I hadn't spent much time of them, since I'd been changed. For the most part,the wizarding world dealt with my appearance in stride. For the most part, the muggle world, did not.
"Don't worry about that," Hannah assured me. "The muggles in this city often times look more odd than any of us would dream of looking."
I wasn't completely reassured but I was willing to try it. Hannah and I spent the next half-hour opening and repacking my purchases from the day, she was quite excited about my ruck sack. "A lot more practical than one of those trunks, if you ask me. Wish I'd had one in school," she'd said as she watched me add my purchases from the day to it.
"I've had this thing for about ten years," I said. "You can order them from an owl order company in the states, called LL Screem."
*************
Charlie arrived to pick me up at seven on the dot. Hannah made me make him wait five minutes. He and Neville were having a butterbeer at the bar when I came down to the tap room. "Wow," he said as I came up to him. "You look fantastic."
"Thank you," I said. From the look on his face I guess Hannah was right about the dress.
"Well, come on Beautiful, our reservation is for seven thirty." He led me out of the Leaky Cauldron, waiting on the curb for us was a shiny black vintage motorcycle, with two helmets hanging of the rear seat.
"This is yours?" I asked admiring the antique machine, it was obviously well loved and cared for.
Charlie chuckled and said, "yes, it was a gift from the family for my last birthday, they had it restored for me, then my dad enchanted it, it's runs on magic, not petrol, plus, it flies. It's a BMW 1964 R27."
I noticed that there was an Opaleye painted on the gas tank. "That's a beautiful paint job," I remarked.
"Harry's godson Teddy painted it, he's really good, and he's only thirteen." Charlie shrugged out of the denim jacket he was wearing and wrapped it around my shoulders. Then he grabbed one of the half-cut helmets, and handed it to me. "Everybody wears a helmet" he grinned as he said it. I swear that grin should be illegal. He hopped onto the front seat of the bike and moved over for me. I straddled the back and wrapped my arms around his waist. "Hang on," he said, as he pushed the throttle and we were off.
Riding through the streets of London on the back of that bike was awesome, Charlie had it charmed so we could carry on a conversation. He pointed out the landmarks as we passed them, and
and explained the history of the ancient city as he knew it.
We eventually stopped in front of a small store front in the middle of Chinatown. We got off the bike, and Charlie led me into the restaurant, the cook made the best dim sum I'd had outside of Bejing, and the roast pork was out of this world. We spent several hours at the intimate table for two, talking well into the night. We left the restaurant around ten, and Charlie took me for a moonlit ride along the Thames. He returned me to the Leaky Cauldron well after two am.
"I'd lie to walk you up to your room, if you don't mind, the crowd in the Cauldron can get a bit rough this late at night," he said to me. I smiled and nodded, amazed at the chivalry. He asked me to lunch the next day, and kissed me good night. I will say, it was one hell of a kiss.
**************
I was woken up on Monday morning by a rather loud knock on my door. The travel alarm I kept on the night stand next to me said 10:30 am. I lumbered out of bed to get the door. Hannah was standing there, with a single red rose, and a note. "An owl dropped this off for you in the morning", she said, with a smile. "That must've been some date."
I took the rose and the note from her, and said, "I had a great time last night. He's very good company." I opened the note card. In bold scribble, it read.
Glinda, I was called to Wales to handle an emergency at the dragon reservation. I know we planned on having lunch together, I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you when I get back. Charlie
"Love notes?" Hannah raised and eyebrow. "He's hooked already," she observed.
"He had to cancel our lunch date," I explained, "something about an emergency at the reservation in Wales."
"Would you care to have lunch with Ally and I?" She asked.
"I think that would be lovely. I need to get dressed now."