Magic Made- A Fred Weasley Love Story

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Riley, wakey wakey! We've got to get to Diagon Alley!" My body trembled as two hands shook it back and forth, bringing me out of a dreamless sleep in Bill's old bedroom.

"Good morning to you too, Mace." I sighed, pulling myself away from the comfortable cocoon and heading for the hallway bathroom to wash away the stale taste of sleep from my mouth.

"Come on, slow poke, everyone else has already Floo Powder-ed there way to the Diagon Alley. You're slowing us all day." Macelyn appeared beside me in the bathroom mirror, rushing my to wash my face and brush my teeth and hair.

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying. Calm down, Mace. I'm trying to go as fast as I can." I snapped back, rushing back to my bag in Bill's room and pulling on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, before throwing the military esque back pack over one shoulder, slipped my wand in my right combat boot, and followed Macelyn out the door and into the Weasley living room, where Mrs. Weasley was busy sewing, washing dishes, and dusting the room at the same time, all while sitting on the couch reading a book.

"Oh, you two better get a move on. Where's Lucas? You don't want to be late to Diagon Alley. Alastor probably wouldn't like that very much." Mrs. Weasley dropped her book once she noticed Macelyn and I enter the room.

"I wouldn't worry about the old grouch. He's just a big softie." Macelyn laughed. Mrs. Weasley huffed a little chuckle just as Lucas came into the room, supporting glasses and a leather pack over one shoulder.

"We ready?" He asked, although his question was answered when Mrs. Weasley placed handfuls of Floo Powder in each of our hands and practically pushed us through the fireplace and into the bustling Diagon Alley.

"Wow, it's exactly as I remember it to be." Macelyn laughed, astonished by the old buildings and walking witches and wizards that cluttered the streets.

"Hm, I would say it would have been more crowded last time we were here, Mace." Lucas said, glancing around. It was true. Last time we would have been here would have been after we'd received our seventh year school supply lists, and the Alley was absent of the busting, cheering Hogwarts students looking forward to another magical year. Without them, Diagon Alley lost just a slight bit of it's happy feeling.

I sighed, remembering the last time I was here: a happier time. A time when Claire talked to me every day, when I was going to school with my brothers. When I could easily sidle along with the Weasley family, and fit right in. A time when I was dating George’s twin brother.

But that time had passed, along with plenty more. It saddened me more than I thought it would to be gazing around Diagon Alley, remembering the seven times, in all, I’d visited this place. The first with my parents, the last time with my best friend, each equally and unequally gone from me.

“Hey, Riley, you coming?” I heard Macelyn call, and I realized her and Lucas were a few feet ahead of me, stopping midstride to break me from my nostalgic gaze around Diagon Alley. I quickly shook my head and heart of lost feelings, falling along step with the other two apprentices.

“Where are we meeting them again?” I asked, staying behind Macelyn and Lucas, who were walking shoulder to shoulder, or rather shoulder to elbow, ahead of me, blocking my view from the approaching shops. I could only merely glance to the sides as shops came and went, Lucas’ tall frame blocking my vision of everything in front of the two.

“I’m not quite sure. Moody said they were coming for supplies, but they never said where, exactly. I guess we can just roam freely until we meet up with them.” Macelyn said over her shoulder.

“If we met up with them.” Lucas passed back to her, his voice so deep and quiet, I only heard his reply as the breeze caught it.

I didn’t reply to either of them, but instead kept walking. The streets weren’t bursting with wizards and witches as they usually should be, but instead were only holding the few crowds here and there, wizards bouncing off to a lunch break, or a trio of newly post-Hogwarts witches giggling along to the petty job they’d acquired, if they’d acquired one at all.