RIDDLE ME THIS

31

London had me almost... impressed.

i loved the business of it, the rush and bustle.

i held Draco's hand tight, and when i looked over at Matteo, i found him holding Pansy's.

we'd taken a train which Pansy called a 'Tube' to a part of the city where she said all the best shops were.

we climbed the stairs to get out of the Tube and i breathed in the fresh, cold air, realising how hot it had been down there.

i watched everything closely; the big red busses and the black taxis.

the business men hurrying around in suits and the giggling teenagers walking with their arms linked.

Draco ran his thumb over my knuckles and pulled me closer to him.

"you do realise you're giving everyone death stares?" he said in my ear.

i looked up at him, frowned, and put a hand to my face.

Draco only laughed, raising my hand to his lips and planting a kiss there.

"my mother used to come here," Pansy had to shout so we could hear her. "the woman who owns the place used to go to Hogwarts!"

the shop sign read Hailer and Daughters and a bell rang when we opened the door.

"ah," the lady behind the desk smiled at us. "young Miss Parkinson."

"hello, Mrs Hailer." Pansy kissed the woman's cheek. "it's been ages."

"and young Mr Malfoy." she nodded at Draco. "who are your friends? they must be twins."

"i'm Matteo, and this is-"

"Lolita." i finished for him.

"now, the two of you look just like a young girl who used to come here... Marella, she was called." she sighed deeply. "she had your face," she told me. "and your eyes." she turned to Matteo.

Matteo and i shared an incredulous look.

"what else do you know about her?" i asked.

"she visited me a few times every year to choose a dress for her birthday, the Yule Ball, and Christmas—i even made her wedding dress!"

"who was she marrying?"

"oh i don't know, but she didn't seem happy about it."

"why not?" Matteo frowned.

"he didn't seem like a nice man, and she had to marry him out of obligation."

"why?" Matteo asked again.

"she was pregnant." Mrs Hailer pursed her lips. "triplets, she told me, due in December."

my mouth dropped open as i stared at the old woman.

she didn't realise what she had just told us as she pulled out a tape measure and put it around her neck.

"i'm assuming you girls would like dresses for the Yule Ball." she rummaged around behind the desk. "who would like to go first."

when nobody answered she turned around.

we all stared at her in a mixture of shock and amazement.

"did i say something?" she took in our faces.

"she was a lovely girl." Mrs Hailer said, measuring parts of me i didn't even know existed. "and all the good people seem to be taken too soon."

"do you know how she died?" Matteo asked from the sofa.