Hello Mudblood - DISCONTINUED

Closed

(A/N: Another chapter, as promised :D)

Hermione walked lazily down Diagon Alley taking her time as she walked to her cozy bookshop. She passed all the busy stores and smiled to herself.

She was ecstatic that Diagon Alley was again bursting with life. She was worried that after the war things would never be the same. But that didn’t seem to be the case at all. The Wizarding world seemed to be bursting with life and everyone had a new found perspective at how others were treated. All prejudice was nearly gone and people couldn’t be happier that the Dark Lord was gone and will finally never return.

The sounds of laughter and excitement gave her more of a skip in her step and helped her to think positively about telling her employees about Malfoy. Before she knew it, she reached the cross section where her store sat on its busy corner.

She pushed open the front entrance and the open sign flapped happily and a bell sounded above her. The smell of new books mixed with ancient books mixed together and gave the store a homey feeling.

It was noon now and the store usually opened at 10 on Sundays. Slouched over the cashier counter stood a girl named Anna; her blonde hair framed her face and her blue eyes were wide and bright as she focused on the large novel in her hands. Hermione hired her because she had almost a big a love for books as herself. Almost. She was originally from America but she moved to London for “a change of scenery.” Hermione didn’t need to worry about Anna much because she’d never had anything to do with the Malfoy family, nor had she ever even heard of them. The Malfoy name was shamed now and was never brought into discussion nowadays.

Hermione hung up her coat and walked to set her purse in the back, when she took another sweep across the room.

Anthony, a very gorgeous wizard from Spain, was stacking books onto a top shelf while lightly humming to himself.

Meredith, and elderly witch from Scotland, was in the children’s section getting ready to give a scheduled reading to all the children who dragged their parents to bring them here every Sunday at 3.

Her last employee, Joey, was in the beverage area of the shop. She had a little stand that sold coffee and tea for the adults and hot chocolate and juice for kids. Joey was going to be the most difficult to convince for he had a very personal and very… reasonable excuse for hating the Malfoy’s.

Joey’s father was an Auror and was killed by Lucius Malfoy himself during the chaos of the war at Hogwarts. He was one of the many murders that landed Lucius a lifetime in Azkaban.

Joey now had made it his own personal vengeance to avenge his father by targeting the Senior Malfoy’s son. The thing with Joey was though that he didn’t have the nerve to do anything. He wasn’t fearful per say, but it seemed that his conscience tended to get the best of him because he had never actually done anything to harm the younger Malfoy.

She figured though, that if Joey had to spend a large amount of time with Malfoy (exactly a month), then he may just reach his breaking point and do something irrational.

Hermione sighed heavily walking towards the counter to put down her things and call a staff meeting. She set down her things under the desk that held the cash register, making Anna jump.

When she spotted Hermione she glanced sheepishly at her while her cheeks reddened in embarrassment for being caught not doing anything on the job.

“Morning, Hermione.”Anna said cheerfully.

“Good morning, Anna.” Hermione smiled.

“How was your Saturday?”

“Oh, you know, the usual.”

Hermione turned away and looked at the floor as she spoke, trying desperately hard not to look guilty for lying to Anna.

“That’s cool.”

She didn’t notice.

            Hermione nodded and proceeded to the back to sort out some new book arrivals. Anthony had followed her in and smiled brightly at her as he began to take the new books and load them on the shelves.

“Buenos días, señorita.” He greeted with a pearly white smile.

“Good morning to you too, Tony.” Hermione grinned at him. She had learned so much Spanish since she hired him. And she had not only learned the language, but he had told her many customs of his country and Hermione was fascinated.

            As Tony walked away to put the books up, Hermione sighed knowing she couldn’t put off telling them all any longer.

            She walked back into the shopping part of the store and decided it was time. There was no one in the shop, and there most likely wouldn’t be until 1 when all the children and their parents came. She walked to the door and flipped the Open sign to Closed.