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They were on a street Sage didn't know the name of. She was holding onto Dad's hand because he'd told her to, because she was small and vulnerable and far too trusting of the world, and it would have been easy for her to disappear in the bustle of Wednesday morning London. Diagon Alley was the goal, but they weren't in any rush. Dad entertained Sage with shitty joke books while Billy the boyfriend browsed the shelves in musty bookshops, and Billy and Sage pretended to be disc jockeys with record players while Dad flipped through old, scratched LPs in record shops. They tried to stick to emptier streets and alleys to get away from the throng of Londoners on their commute.
"Hold on," said Dad, from a few paces behind. "Wait a sec- I just want to go in here- babe!" He reached out to snatch Billy's hand, who looked at him in surprise. "I want to go in here."
"Should've just said so," Billy muttered, then rested an arm across Sage's shoulders to guide her into the dimly lit trinket store. She leant her head on Billy's ribs as Ari browsed, and she felt the soft, worn fibres of his button-up smooth against her forehead. She looked up at him.
"Billy?"
"Yeah, Sage?"
"I'm bored."
He chuckled, and whispered theatrically, "Don't tell your dad, but so am I."
She grinned. "I won't tell him."
"Thanks."
"But only if you buy me a strudel."
Billy scrubbed his knuckles over her hair. "You little munchkin. You're spending far too much time with Flick."
Dad was finished soon after, and they made their way out of the shop. It must have been a mixture of early morning tiredness, their late night before, and the fact that neither of them have had anything to eat or drink yet, but they hadn't noticed the man behind the till listening in on their family conversation. And because it was nineteen-eighty-six, and because the world was the way it was, he flipped the open sign on the front door to closed. And Dad and Billy should've been more careful, especially when they were holding hands on a busy street. And they shouldn't have turned down that alley for a shortcut. If they hadn't turned down that alley for a shortcut, the whole thing wouldn't have happened.
"Oi!" Someone yelled. They ignored it, because it was probably teenagers making trouble and if they walked quickly, they could avoid it. "Oi, you!" The someone repeated, closer this time. Billy chanced a look over his shoulder, and saw three men gathered nearby.
"Can we help you?" He asked politely, because he half-wanted to set an example to his daughter, and he half-wanted to diffuse the situation.
"You can fuck off, is what you can do," another one shouted. Dad moved to cover Sage's ears. "Fuck off with that disgusting shit, you dirty sods-"
