Redamancy- Fred Weasley Fanfic

Chapter 3 - The Boy With Red Hair

After eating, Minny leads us out of the dark restaurant called "The Leaky Cauldron" and back onto the colorful alleyway. 

She guides us past a few stores and into a store with faded purple paint and a sign that reads"Madam Malkins Robes for All Occasions" in gold cursive. 

"Hello, Minerva," greets the older lady behind the counter. "What can I do for you today?"

"This is Miss Noir. She will be staring at Hogwarts this year. We are here to get her fitted for some robes," she explains.

The older lady with graying hair pulled into a bun comes around from the chipped black wood counter and leads me to a black pedestal in front of a gold ornate, floor-length mirror. She wears robes similar to the ones Minny wears, but hers are a bright turquoise with a gold ivy pattern, making her stand out against the darkly colored store. She motions for me to step up onto the pedestal and pulls the white measuring tape off her neck. She takes my measurements, then writes them down on her small notepad that she had pulled from her pocket. She then goes to a rack filled with black robes of many sizes.

"This should be the correct size," she says as she hands me the robe.

I slip it on over my clothes and turn around till I'm looking in the gold mirror. There isn't anything special about the large piece of black fabric, especially when you compare it to the colorful clothes I have seen Minny wear, but it feels spectacular to me. It is something new. It is something different. I have always feared different. The unknown. This "different" doesn't feel the same. It feels like the adrenaline rush that I got when my foster parents took me on a roller coaster. You reach the top of the up climb and while it can be scary as you start to fall, the excitement and unknown of what will happen next easily masks the fear.

"Does it seem to fit well?" the store owner asks.

I nod my head quickly. She grabs a few white shirts, sweaters, and gray skirts for me to try on, then sends me to a dressing room covered by silky purple fabric hanging off a black rod.

I put on the shirts and skirts and look in the mirror. The clothes are the same as the robes, there isn't anything super exciting about them, but they make me feel giddy. The idea of receiving new clothes that haven't already been worn or were donated by a random person isn't expected. The idea that these clothes are specifically meant for me. The only clothes that were specifically bought for me were by my last foster parents.

The feeling of excitement slowly fades as the suppressed memories of my last foster family try to escape their enclosed box in my head, interrupting the happiness I was feeling. No longer interested in the clothes, I quickly finish trying on the clothes and fold them into a pile. I look over myself before I exit the room. My face doesn't seem as overjoyed as I looked and felt a few minutes ago. I try to force a smile, but it just looks unnatural and painful. I let the smile fall and pick up the clothes from the wooden bench. I push open the purple velvet curtain and see McGonagall and the store owner whispering. When they look up to see me they seem guilty.

The professor pays for the robes and we exit the shop.

We down the alley in a deafening silence that was not there before we entered the clothing store.

"Miss Noir, would you like to go get some ice cream, before we continue our shopping?" Minny asks to break the silence.

"Ok," I reply.

She guides us till we are standing in the line outside a shop called "Florean Fortecues". On the front, it has a sign with an ice cream cone and the ice cream was spinning in circles. The spinning sign has me staring in a trance until high-pitched arguing snaps me out of it coming from a few steps away.