The Curse-Breaker

The Leaky Cauldron

The rest of the day blurred by, the usual rush of kids coming into the shop at around 3 o'clock, buying nothing but Puking Pastilles and standing in awe of Fred and George. George closed the door and locked it around 5 o'clock, I counted the money from the till and took it over to the office putting it down on Fred's desk. As I walked out of the office George hung onto my shoulder, I already knew what he was going to say before he opened his mouth. "No George, I'm tired." I said as I wandered back over to the counter, pulling my coat on. "Come on Riles, I'll buy." He said, pouting at me. "I'd bloody hope you would." I said, digging at the prices of the products they sold, overpriced, just as you would expect from the Weasley twins. He frowned, still slightly pouting. "Alright, I'll come for one." He clapped his hands together in delight as I spoke. "As long as I can bring Luna." I said, he nodded, "Yeah that's cool." He said, pulling on his own coat. 

It would be nice to see Luna, I hadn't seen her since we left Hogwarts, she was my only Ravenclaw friend my entire schooling. Although she was two years younger, she was probably the only one with enough common sense, she probably picked up the extras left from Fred and George, who had no common sense whatsoever. I walked out of the front door, followed by George. "I'm gonna go home and change first, then go grab Luna, I'll see you there" I said, walking backwards so that I could see him as I spoke. He nodded and headed in the direction of the pub, I turned to walk back home before realising that Harli had the keys. Her and Fred had locked themselves in the office shortly after closing time so I wouldn't be seeing her for a while. I sighed, knowing she'd have used an advanced locking charm on the door and there was no way my wand would get past it and headed in the direction of Flourish and Blotts, where I could usually find Luna perusing books of magical creatures. 

I pushed open the door, the bell hanging above the doorframe chimed and a small woman's face appeared over the mountains of books piled around her counter. "Good evening Riley, looking for Luna?" She said, a toothy grin on her face. "Yes Mrs Potts, is she here?" I replied, smiling back at her, the woman nodded and I headed towards the back of the shop, there was a steep staircase that lead down to another level, where the section of magical creature books were. I walked down the steps, them creaking under my feet at every step. I poked my head round the corner and sure enough, sat in one of the huge armchairs was Luna. I walked over to her, she had her eyebrows furrowed as she was scanning the pages of a large tattered book. 

"Hi Luna!" I said, she looked up from her book and into my eyes. "Oh, hello Riley." She said in her soft voice. "Thought I'd find you here" I said, taking a seat in one of the large armchairs next to her. "It's about thestrals." She said, gesturing her book upwards. "Oh, nice!" I said as she went back to looking at the pages. I looked down at my watch, five thirty. Harli and Fred should have left the shop by now. "Hey Luna, you coming to the cauldron?" I said after a while, standing back up, and straightening out my clothes. "Yes, I'll be there soon." She said, still fixated on her book. I furrowed my eyebrows, "Ok, see you in a bit then." I said, leaving her to her reading and walking back up the stairs, I turned the corner at the top of the stairs and bumped into someone, their books spilling over. I immediately bent down and gathered the books before looking up to give the books to them. "Thanks." He said, a bright smile on his face, Bill Weasley, I cleared my throat, "Yeah, no problem." I smiled, standing back so that he could walk down the stairs. I started to walk to the door before bringing my hands to my head and spinning on my heels. 

He was still stood at the top of the stairs, looking over to me. "Hey, you don't wanna go for a drink do you? The cauldron? The twins and Harli are going and..." I lost my sentence. His smile grew bigger and he walked up to me, my head leaning back so that I could still look him in the face. "Sounds good." Pausing and nodding before carrying on. "Riley was it?" He said, his bright blue eyes looking into mine. "Yeah. Riley, Riles, either is good." I said, rubbing the back of my head with my hand. I looked down to the books he was carrying, "Dragons." I said awkwardly, pointing to one of the books. He coughed, disguising his laugh, "Um, yeah, thought I'd read up on them." He said, nodding before carrying on, "My brother, Charlie? He works with them." He said, putting his other hand on top of the books. My eyes widened at the size of his hand, the way it just completely covered the book, you wouldn't know there was even one there. "Oh, yeah, Fred and George told me about him." I said, looking back up to his face, awkwardly smiling. "Yeah." He said nodding. "Well, I'll see you soon, Riley." He said, putting his books on the counter. "Yeah, see you there." I said, walking backwards until my back hit the door, fumbling with the handle before turning around and pulling the door open, walking quickly in the direction of The Three Broomsticks pub.