The girls spent the rest of the day in Diagon Alley after stopping by Gringott's for Ada to exchange her currency. Her parents had given her a large stack of bills to take with her and she exchanged most of it for Wizarding money, but exchanged some of it for British Muggle currency as well.
"You never know when you might need it and my Euros would be useless here," Ada had explained to a confused Freddie, who barely had a grasp on English Muggle currency as it was.
The sun was shining over Diagon Alley, no trace of the rain they'd encountered in Hogsmeade. They spent hours exploring the village, going in and out of shops. Although Freddie knew every shop in Diagon Alley already she found herself enjoying the time spent with Ada, her friend's excitement infectious. They had lunch at Freddie's favorite Bistro and were enjoying milkshakes from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor (which even that Ada said she had read about in a book) when Freddie spotted a somewhat familiar building. It was a small shop, painted purple and black, with a large pair of enchanted scissors on top that snipped periodically. The sign on the front read "Pure Styles" in a silvery script and had a logo of a wand crossed with a comb.
"That's my friend Amelia's salon," she pointed out to Ada who was fishing a cherry out of her milkshake.
"Amelia? You told me about her before in your letters, I think – yes on February 18th, 1991," she said with that same expression on her face, no doubt picturing the letter in perfect clarity. "She's one of the ones Snape let you help teach, you said he called them your 'Fan Club'."
"He did," she chuckled. "I'd almost forgotten that. Amelia Avery, she's one of the only ones who was nice to me after...what happened to Daniel. It wasn't until she and her classmates started warming up to me a bit that everyone else started to relax around me again – well, the Slytherins anyway."
"We should go in and say hi!" Ada said brightly. "I've never been to a wizarding salon before – maman always cuts my hair."
"Alright," Freddie agreed, following her towards the door.
It had been ages since Freddie had seen Amelia. They had drifted apart after Freddie had graduated, she'd been so busy with work and Snape and Amelia had still been in school. She'd opened the salon fresh out of Hogwarts, her parents had given her the money (on the condition that she marry a pureblood boy as soon as possible, which Amelia had agreed to) and Freddie had stopped in to see her on opening day to tell her how proud she was of her for following her dreams. That had been almost two years ago.
When the girls stepped into the shop Freddie didn't recognize her friend immediately. There were several witches standing around a number of salon chairs, fussing over customers, and it wasn't until a familiar voice called out "Welcome to Pure Styles, be with you in a moment" that she realized the witch at the end of the row was her friend...the witch with a baby on her hip while she held her wand aloft, adding blue tips to the hair of a teen boy sitting in her salon chair. She tapped her wand strategically in certain spots on the boy's head, her face screwed up in concentration, and his hair transformed beautifully. Amelia had always had a talent for hair.
"There you go," Amelia said to her client, stowing her wand and shifting the baby higher on her hip. "What d'you think?"
"It's bloody brilliant!" the youth declared, beaming up at her with a toothy grin. "My girlfriend is gonna love it. You're an artist!"
"Tell her if she wants to match with you to come and see me, I could do some blue highlights for her that would compliment your tips perfectly."
"I will for sure," the boy said and paid her before slipping out the chair. As he walked out the door past them Amelia finally noticed them waiting and her face immediately broke out in a grin of her own.
"Freddie? Freddie Gray is that really you?" she asked, crossing the salon in a hurry.
"It's me," Freddie said with a smile and Amelia immediately gave her a hug, disturbing the child on her hip who began to fuss. He looked little more than a year old and he had blonde curls piled atop his head, but there was no mistaking the bright blue eyes of the little boy.
"Is that your son, Amelia?" Freddie asked in awe.
"Yep, he's mine," she said, beaming at the little one. "It's alright, Garrett, here you go." Amelia dug a pacifier out the pocket of her robes and popped it in the mouth of the boy. He immediately stopped crying and began to suck, looking between his mother and Freddie with bright blue eyes.
"I didn't even know you'd been pregnant," Freddie declared.
"Yeah," Amelia said sheepishly. "Here, let's go out back and talk. I'm due for a break now anyway before my next client comes in. Who's this you've got with you?"
"This is my friend Ada, Ada Leroux. She just graduated from Beauxbatons this year and she's got a job interview with the Ministry in a few days," Freddie explained as they followed Amelia through the salon and out the back door to a little shaded sitting area with several wicker chairs.
"Oh wow, that's so cool!" Amelia said, sinking into one of the chairs with Garrett and gesturing for them to sit. "Nice to meet you, Ada. I'm Amelia Avery, but I guess you know that already."
"It's nice to meet you, too," Ada said, smiling. "Your little boy is absolutely gorgeous, I love his curls."
"Thanks," she said, running her fingers through her son's hair fondly. "He gets those from his father's side of the family."
"Who-?" Freddie asked wondrously.
"You remember Phillip Dalton?"
"Uh-huh." Dalton had been the Slytherin Quidditch player Amelia had a crush on when she was a fifth year. They'd started dating right before Freddie graduated. "I didn't realize you two were still together, that's great!"
"Actually, we got married last year," Amelia said, ducking her head in an embarrassed sort of way. "I'm so sorry I didn't invite you, Freddie! I really wanted to. It was my parents' idea, ya know, the whole marriage thing. You know how bad they wanted me to marry a pureblood. They planned the whole damn wedding, invited all the pureblood families." Freddie cast a quick glance at Ada but to her credit the girl didn't react. She kept her attention focused on the baby, smiling and making faces at him.
"So why didn't you-?" Freddie started to ask, but then it hit her. "Oh. My aunt and uncle were there?"
Freddie hadn't seen her aunt and uncle since the day they'd tried to force her to visit her parents in Azkaban prison. She'd Disapparated from the island before they even made it to the prison and she hadn't seen or spoken to Cecil and Millicent Gray since then. She thought she'd seen her aunt once last year in Diagon Alley, but she'd Disapparated before the woman had a chance to spot her.
"I knew you wouldn't want to see them," Amelia said, shaking her head miserably. "I didn't even want to invite them, my mum and I argued about it for days, but she and dad put their foot down. They threatened to cut me off, disown me. I'm sorry, Freddie."
"Don't worry about it, Amelia," Freddie assured her. "I completely understand, really."
It was the truth. She knew how much power the old pureblood families wielded, how much influence Amelia's parents had over her. She probably wouldn't have gone to the wedding anyway if she had been invited, not if it meant seeing her aunt and uncle.
"I'm glad they let me marry Dustin – I guess I'm lucky I fell in love with a pureblood," she said wistfully. "Christine's parents pretty much forced her into an arranged marriage."
"That's awful," Freddie murmured. Christine Gibbs, Amelia's cousin, had been in the same year as Freddie at Hogwarts.
"Well she's happy enough now, but it took her some time to warm up to it. I saw her last month at my mum's birthday party, she's 6 months pregnant."
"Wow. What about you, Amelia? Are you happy?"
"Oh definitely. Dustin's great and I've got the salon – my parents thought I'd quit working when I had Garrett, but Dustin didn't mind. I love the work so much, you know? I get to spend my days making people beautiful, making them happy."
"And you get to bring your son with you to work," Ada piped up. "I think that's wonderful."
"Well usually he's with Dustin or my parents while I'm here, but Dustin had to work today too and my folks have been...busy lately." Amelia looked briefly uncomfortable and Freddie frowned slightly, trying to figure out what it was she wasn't saying. There was something about the statement that nagged at her. Ever so gently she reached out with her Legilimency and prodded her friend's mind, something she had done a hundred times at school when she had first been learning the skill. Amelia's mind was as unguarded now as it had been then and Freddie got her answer immediately – Amelia's father was a Death Eater.
The fact shouldn't have come as such a shock to her. She knew the Averys were one of the oldest pureblood families, almost all of them supported the Dark Lord in one way or another. Amelia's father was doing errands for the Dark Lord and her mother was helped, but from what Freddie found in her mind Amelia didn't know what it was they were doing – she didn't want to know.
"I understand," Freddie said, quietly withdrawing without her friend ever knowing her thoughts had been spied upon. She quickly moved the topic away from her parents. "Still, it must be nice having your son around, getting to spend time with him."
"It is – when he isn't being a fussy little goblin," Amelia joked, leaning forward to kiss Garrett's face. "My little lovebug... What about you, Freddie?"
"What about me what?" she asked, confused.
"Are you ever going to settle down? Get married, have babies?"
Freddie blanched at the thought and she had to stop herself from screaming 'No!', knowing that would be rude. She'd never had any desire to be a mother – she had a kneazle, that was more than enough for her. And she had Snape as well, but the thought of marrying him had never even crossed her mind. It just didn't seem right. She could see Ada hiding a grin behind her milkshake cup and she cut her eyes at her friend.
"I don't think that's in the cards for me," Freddie said, shaking her head.
"You're still married to your work, aren't you?" Amelia asked with a knowing grin and this time Ada let out a snort of laughter.
"She definitely is!" Ada agreed and Freddie scowled at the both of them.
"I can't help it if I love my job," Freddie said stubbornly.
"There's more to life than potions, Freddie," Amelia said, bouncing the baby on her knee and gazing at him softly. "Here – do you want to hold Garrett?"
"Uh..." Freddie hesitated. She'd never held a baby before, never spent any time at all around little children except for a few patients she'd seen during rounds at St Mungo's. Thankfully she was saved from having to answer by one of Amelia's coworkers sticking their head out the back door.
"Amelia, your 3 o'clock is here," the witch said cheerfully.
"Oh darn. I've got to go," Amelia said apologetically, getting to her feet and shifting Garrett back to her hip. "It was great seeing you, Freddie. And it was nice to meet you, too, Ada."
"Take care, Amelia," Freddie said as she and Ada stood up.
"Au revoir," Ada said as Amelia and her baby disappeared back inside the salon.