A Game of Cat and Mouse

T H I R T Y T H R E E

The sights and sounds (and even the smells) of Diagon Alley swarmed Annie's senses as soon as her stomach returned to its rightful place. Colorful shops crowded the street, all filled to the brim with magical objects Annie had never even dreamed of. She could hear the pitter-patter of raindrops accompanied by the sounds of laughter and music coming from a joke shop just down the road. The air smelled like petrichor, butterbeer, ice cream, and even a hint of magic—like someone's spell had gone wrong and the distinct burnt smell had lingered in the air for a while afterward, finally dimming with the rain.

A frog croaked at her through the window from a nearby pet store. The Magical Menagerie! The gilded sign above it read. Annie peeked into the window only to giggle as a cat pawed where her face was. "He looks like Perkins!"

Elio, who seemed content to just watch her explore, smiled and wrapped his arm around her waist. "Yeah, he does, doesn't he? How is Perkins?"

Annie grinned and leaned into her boyfriend's embrace. "Old. Lazy."

"So normal?" The two of them shared a laugh before Elio pulled her away and down the road.

He was right. The rain had deterred most—but not all—of the crowds. James had always told Annie how utterly filled Diagon Alley was. "There must be some sort of charm on the place to make the people inside double. I've never seen so many witches or wizards in my life. And the riff-raff they let in there is worse than in the muggle world," James had muttered under his breath sullenly after he'd come back from back-to-school shopping with their mother. Tom spent the day with Annie back at the Manor, listening to her play and telling her all sorts of stories from he and her mother's days at Hogwarts. Annie didn't get a lot of one-on-one time with him—with his busy schedule as Dark Lord and James's training taking up quite a bit of his time—so the moments they did have were treasured more than anything. Her father did the best he could and Annie appreciated it. So she never minded not getting to visit Diagon Alley or anywhere else, for that matter. Because it meant extra time with him.

But now Annie felt older. She felt surer of herself, surer of the world. She knew that bad things still lingered but she'd begun to realize that there would always be bad things. They shouldn't stop her from seeing the good.

Plus, she had an entire army of protectors. Tom, Evelyn, James, and her other family members like Uncle Sirius and Uncle Mattheo. And now she had Elio, who she knew would move heaven and earth to keep her safe. He'd already done it once when he saved her life from James's accidental curse. Annie knew he'd do it again and again.

She looked up at her protector. The strong jaw that had women fawning over him, the ocean blue eyes full of mischief and love, the full lips that she had kissed only moments ago. Elio must have sensed her gaze because he looked down and smiled before kissing the top of her head. His kiss shifted the hood of her cloak so Annie quickly fixed it before it fell down.

"Where to next?" she asked.

"How do you feel about ice cream?"

At first, Annie wasn't sure about ice cream. Not because she didn't like it—Annie wasn't sure there was a dessert she didn't like—but because the early June rain was rather cold and a cold treat didn't sound very delightful. So she was pleasantly surprised when Elio pulled her into Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour only to find that the interior was enchanted to stay warm.

Annie sighed in delight as the heat hit her along with the smells of fresh waffle cones and sugary goodness. Elio grinned at her. "This is the best ice cream I've ever had."

She stepped up to the glass only to find over two dozen varieties staring back at her. A sign on the display read, "Want a flavour you don't see? Ask us for a custom cone. Any flavour possible!"