Another Chapter is here!
I hope you'll like it! – I'm pretty sure there's a ton of typos in this one, but if I had to check it would take another week to find time and internet to publish it so …I apologize for mistakes and typos.
Enjoy!
"Hey Jade?" Fred and George walked inside her room, closely followed by Percy and Ron, who closed the door quietly.
"What's up?" she asked a little bit startled by the procession of boys who walked inside her room.
"We were thinking about Christmas presents for mom and dad, you know, something small." Started Fred and George continued " and we need your help. We want to sneak to muggle London and get dad something for his car, something small but important, we don't know what yet,…" then Fred finished the sentence: " but we need you to help us get there and show us how the muggle money work."
"Well, they work just like wizard money, you go to the shop and then you pay for the item you want to buy." Said Jade slowly as if she was explaining something very complicated to a small child.
"Well, duh, of course, but what about those little coins, you need hundred of the smaller ones to get the bigger ones and then there…" started Fred confused but Jade stopped him.
"Of course I'll help. How much money do we have?" she asked, already thinking about possible presents.
"We have some knuts from Ron and a couple of sicles from us and Perce, but we'd need to change them for muggle pounds in the bank, it should be about six pounds or so." Counted George.
"I'll change the money while Ron tells dad he wants to look at the pet store, then we'll have to somehow get away from him." Explained Percy, looking absolutely serious.
"Alright. So something for the car… what about a set of light bulbs? I once saw a box of light bulbs in a car. They are small, but you need them for the car, and you even need a spare set in case they stop working, so even if the car has good lights, one more set will be needed.
" Awesome!" exclaimed Ron, getting excited for the Christmas present shopping.
"Dad will love those!"
"And what do you have planned for your mom?" asked Jade, putting the bag strap over her head.
"For our mom…" started Fred, indicating a large circle, including Jade, with his hands.
"we'll make one present with lots of small things." Finished George. " we usually get her something handmade, I now Ginny has an origami paper box made for mom's rings and small jewellery. She even glued some glitter on top. It looks really neat actually."
"And I have new wooden spoon for her. I made it myself." Stated Ron proudly, "…well, dad helped, but I did part of it too."
"And I have a recipe for the famous Hogwarts's Christmas pudding, which she always remembers in winter and then she sits on the sofa with dad and they talk about the 'good old days' when they spent Christmas together at school in their seventh year. And mom always said that Hogwarts has one of the best Christmas Puddings.
I asked professor Dumbledore myself, and he kindly fetched the recipe for me." Said Percy, visibly content with his clever present.
"Wow. And what about you two?" asked Jade, looking at twins. She had no idea what she should give Molly.
"Well, we got her a set of knitting needles from Hagrid. They are huge, but mom always wanted a pair of big needles to try knit some rugs from all the fabric stripes she has saved over the years." Said George.
"yeah, and Hagrid had an extra pair, so we helped him with setting the pumpkin patch for winter, and he gave them to us as a payment, kind of. Do you know how many weeds we had to pull." Added Fred.
"Knitting…hmmm." Jade looked at the small assortment of needles in a small basket sitting on one bookshelf. Molly gave her some basic ones and that ball of yarn, which was now Jade's winter hat.
"Let's go everyone!" called Arthur from downstairs.
They hurried down, to put on their winter coats and floo to the Leaky Cauldron.
Ginny was sitting on the loveseat in the kitchen, pouting.
"Hey Ginny, don't worry, mom says you'll be well enough by tomorrow and we'll get to pick the Christmas tree together." Ron tried to cheer her up but it didn't work very well.
"Alright, off you go Ron." Smiled Molly sitting next to her youngest daughter and handing her ginger biscuit to help her upset stomach.
They brushed off the ashes from floo travel and stepped into the bright sun of Diagon Alley.
"We have about two hours before Charlie and Bill arrive, we'll meet them in the Leaky Cauldron, so let's stay together alright?" Asked Arthur.
Fred and George exchanged mischievous glance but didn't say anything.
They bought dried figs for Christmas Eve, and did some more shopping from the list Molly sent with them, before Percy nudged Ron's side and winked at his younger brother.
"Dad?" Started Ron, but his dad was busy picking out the nicest bunch of dirigible plums for Molly's Christmas pudding.
"Dad?" Ron repeated, this time much louder and pulled Arthur's sleeve to make sure he was noticed. "Can we go to the pet store? I want to see the rats."
"Sure, wait a second, I'll just pay for these." Smiled Arthur, handing the fruit over to the shop-keeper.
"But I want to go to the book-store!" exclaimed Percy, angrily.
Jade thought he was over-acting a little but it worked.
"I need to search something in one book which we don't have home, it's for the homework from Charms." He explained seriously.
"Well, we'll go to the book store after…" tried Arthur but was interrupted by George.
"We don't want to go there, this is not a day for dusty old geeky shops." He stated, glaring at Percy.
"Dad, I can go there myself, I don't need babysitting, I can manage on my own.
I'll just look up the information I need and I'll meet you … let's say…" Percy looked around, looking for inspiration.
"By the Quality Quidditch Suplies!" suggested Fred.
It was clever choice, as the shop stood at the end of the street, as far away from Gringotts Bank as it only could.
"Alright, see you in a while." Called Percy over his shoulder, sprinting up the street.
"Yeah, let's go see some animals." Yelled Ron and started to push Arthur in opposite direction.
"Percy, don't go anywhere else, book store and back!" called Arthur, before he gave up and let himself to be pushed to the small, quite smelly shop selling magical pets.
It didn't take long to exchange the money. There were long lines of people waiting to take out their gold from their accounts and even longer lines waiting to borrow some coins for holiday shopping but only a couple of boring wizards in muggle suits changing their galleons to pounds.
Soon, Percy was standing in front of the Quidditch store, waving at Jade to catch her attention. She was inside, looking through the assortment of winter scarfs in colors of every team from England.
"Fred, George." She whispered when she noticed Percy was already back.
"Dad? Jade told us there is a band of Christmas hand-bell players on the streets in London, can we go there and look if we can find them?" asked George innocently, looking at his dad with big blue eyes.
"I don't know boys, we should be going to the Leaky Cauldron and wait for your brothers, they should be here any minute." Said Arthur, looking at his wrist watch with small stars circulating around the edge.
"Aw, please! It won't take long!" Fred joined his twin, looking at their father with the same expression of innocence (which wasn't fooling anyone).
"It would only be a couple of minutes, quarter of hour at most." Added Jade, daring to speak directly to Arthur, which she didn't do very often.
"I'll go with them dad, and you can stay here, waiting for Bill and Charlie. We won't go far, we'll stay on the same street, no crossing the road, we'll just look around for a while." Explained Percy, sounding a little anxious.
So far, their plan was working out, but this was critical point when they had to get away from Arthur for a while.
"We really don't have time kids, I'm sor…" Arthur tried again, but Jade interrupted him.
"I know this part of London, I used to live here…before." She scratched her right arm uneasily, remembering the bad year, which ended abruptly by police coming to the house in the middle of the night, taking all four foster kids away.
"It would really take just a while. If we find the music band, we'll watch for a while but then we'll go straight back here. And there's no need to cross the road, or take another street. We won't get lost. I promise." She smiled shyly, and hoped for the best.
"Well, but if you're not back at three, I'll go search for you and you'll be in trouble.
And…" he hesitated for a while. "Mom would kill me if she knew I was letting you go alone, so…you don't have brag about it, alright?"
They were gone before he could change his mind, so Arthur just took all the packages and headed to the Leaky Cauldron, already regretting his decision, but with Jade being so open and asking for something, he just couldn't make himself say no. She never really asked for anything, just silently agreed with everything that happened in her life. He could still remember when Molly told him about how long she had to persuade Jade to pick a summer dress.
He sat down in the corner near the fireplace, setting his purchases on an empty chair.
Jade was leading the way. She knew a small shop with all the car supplies and mechanic tools, which wasn't very far.
They walked inside and Jade took a basket, in case they found something interesting.
There was one whole isle dedicated to car lights. There were small packages of testers, and light-bulbs sold in sets or separately, then at one end, there was a row of bottles with polishing substance for the lights and very expensive looking micro-fibre cloths.
"Well, it's pretty cheap… some of them." Said Percy, kneeling down on the floor to look at the items closely.
"We could get him more smaller things, not just one. We have six pounds…" Percy carefully counted the coins.
"Eight." Corrected Jade and handed him two of her coins. She smiled when she saw startled expression on Percy's face.
"I saved them during the years." She explained.
They spent five minutes looking through the assortment. Jade wasn't very interested in cars so she didn't know much, but still it was more than all her brothers combined, so she took over the discussion and narrowed it down.
"We have enough to get him the basic set of light-bulbs, plus this small pack of testers, and, what about a small bottle of that anti-freeze liquid for windshield washers?" she suggested looking at the boys.
All the items were put to the basket but choosing the color of the anti-freeze liquid was hard.
"Hey, Percy? I'll go check out that yarn store across the street ok? I'll be right back, just stay here." She said looking at Fred and George who were now arguing with Ron who wanted to get the orange bottle, which was supposed to smell like oranges.
"Alright, but hurry, we ought to go back to dad in five minutes." Said Percy pointing to the clock which was hanging over the entrance.
Jade run outside, holding the last three coins in her hand. She looked to both sides of the street. The traffic was busy, but luckily a bunch of people was crossing the road so she joined them, while the cars stopped on both sides, drivers impatiently waiting to be able to move again.
The bell above the shop entrance chimed softly when Jade opened the door.
The shop was filled with elderly women, searching through the piles of yarn balls for the right shade of blue for winter hats or other.
"Excuse me…" started Jade quietly, addressing the lady behind the counter.
"What a lovely surprise to see a young miss like you in my shop." Smiled the shop keeper.
"It's lovely to be here madam, I was wondering if you could help me. I want to knit a gift for…mom… but I only have three pounds left, and no idea what I could do." Explained Jade, starting to panic, as she realized three pounds might buy her one or two balls of yarn at least and she had no pattern to follow.
"Well, it's always nice to have a young customer like you. Now, don't worry, we'll figure it out. Three pounds you're sayin'?" the lady walked out from behind the counter.
"My dear, and you want to knit something?"
Jade nodded, looking lost.
"Now, now, child, let's look at this cotton yarn here." The lady led the way to a huge cardboard box in the corner of the store, with big sheet of paper glued to the front. It was big black letters on it, reading: SALE 50% off.
"We only have one ball from each color here, left over balls from discontinued batches, but you could choose three, as they are eighty pence each, you'd even have sixty pence left." Smiled the older Lady, pulling Jade by her elbow closer to the box.
There were odd colors, all shades from murky green to brownish grey, but also some balls of bright yarn in orange-red hue and a ball of mustard yellow, which looked faded alone but would be lovely with red. The third ball Jade choose was light grey.
She walked back to the counter, to pay for the yarn when she spotted a bunch of Christmas ornaments hanging from the ceiling.
"We have those for seventy pence." Announced the lady, packing the yarn to a flat box, stuffing the free space with some red tissue paper. "Pick one." She smiled at Jade.
"I only have three pounds, it wouldn't be enough." Objected Jade, handing the money to the seller.
The lady smiled at her and picked one ornament, packing it snugly together with the yarn. "It's Christmas, besides, you will need more yarn one day and being nice to our customers brings them back for further purchases." The lady winked mischievously at Jade and for a tiny fraction of second looked just like Fred and George when they do something brilliant.
"Thank you!" Jade smiled happily, taking the parcel from the lady and putting is carefully to her bag.
"And here's a bunch of free patterns we have out for people who purchase something, let me see if I can find something suitable for you to knit." The lady added, already going through a stack of black and white photocopies of basic patterns they kept on the counter.
"Here it is, easy pattern for washcloth. It's easy enough and all the instructions are in the pattern. Nothing fancy, but if you change colors you can make striped ones." She slid the paper next to the box in Jade's bag and closed it.
"Off you go now, there's no time to waste. Christmas is almost here and you have some knitting to do."
Jade waved at the lady before running out of the shop and crossing the street.
Boys were already waiting for her in front of the shop.
"We did it!" cheered Ron. "Percy paid with muggle money!"
"Alright, let's go, we're already late." Percy grabbed Ron's hand and pulled him in the direction of the Leaky Cauldron, looking quite worried that they would get in trouble.
Jade and twins followed them, running through the chilly air, their winter boots squeaking on the frozen layer of snow on the pavement.