Magical and Muggle London
The wind blew against the window of Beth’s room and woke her up.
She woke up and saw that it was another stormy blustery day, it was only five o’clock in the morning though.
She had already read most of the books that she had been given for her birthday, apart from the books from Percy, which were reference books and not actually meant to be read.
The only birthday book she hadn’t read yet was A Tale of Two Cities which she had left till last, as it was the longest.
Even though it was mid-August it was still cold, as it was Wales. She climbed back under her bedsheets with a torch and began to read.
She had just finished the first part of the book when she heard Remus calling for her.
She poked her head over the top of her duvet and saw that firstly the sun had now risen and secondly Remus was standing in the doorway smirking at her.
“Morning Beth,” chuckled Remus, “breakfasts in about fifteen minutes, but we need to get a move on.”
“Dress warmly, its stormy out there today,” said Remus before leaving to go get up himself.
Beth nodded as she pulled on her jeans and a mustard coloured jumper. They had been bought two years ago, and she had finally had a growth spurt, so they were starting to get a bit tight.
She brushed her hair and plaited it into a half up, Beth’s hair was starting to grow longer, but whereas Susan’s hair was curly and bouncy, Beth’s hair was thin and dead straight. Also, whilst Susan’s hair was a dark red, Beth’s hair was somewhere between dark red and dark brown.
She pulled on her socks that Dobby had knitted her and a pair of trainers before skipping back downstairs.
“Ok gang,” said Lyall as she sat down and started her French Toast, “we’ve got a big day today, we need hit Diagon and Muggle London.”
“Which is why we all got up at eight o’clock in the morning,” said Remus, as he got out a quill and a piece of parchment.
“So,” sighed Lyall, “we need to go to both family vaults at the bank.”
“Gringotts,” nodded Remus jotting that down.
“Flourish and Blotts,” said Beth, “I need schoolbooks and Remus needs new books for teaching.”
“Right, books,” muttered Remus writing that down as well.
“I need potions ingredients,” said Beth.
“You’ve had a growth spurt,” said Remus, “your robes are four inches too short, and your clothes are getting small, so you need new uniforms and muggle clothes.”
“You also,” said Lyall biting his lip slightly, “need a bra.”
“I’ve got a plan for that one,” said Remus, “Lily used to buy her bras from Madam Malkins, they were self-adjusting, if her bust grew then so did the bra.”
“Sounds perfect,” nodded Lyall.
“And then just muggle clothes,” said Beth.
“Ok,” said Remus “so we need, Grigotts, Flourish and Blotts, the Apothecary, Madam Malkin’s and Peter Jones, we should be able to get everything else you need there.”
“This is going to be one very long day,” sighed Lyall as he finished his breakfast.
“Thank you for the wonderful breakfast Dobby,” said Beth.
“Mistress Beth is extremely welcome.”
“Right,” muttered Remus finishing his cup of tea, “cloaks everyone.”
Beth hopped down from the table and pulled her school cloak on over her clothes.
“See you tonight Dobby!” said Beth giving the house elf a huge hug.
She dropped the flo powder into the fire and called “the Leaky Cauldron” clearly before spinning away from the kitchen and reappearing in the pub.
She tripped slightly as she stumbled out of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron.
Lyall chuckled as he appeared a few seconds after her and helped her off the floor.
“You ok Cariad?” asked Lyall still chuckling as he checked her for bruises.
Beth nodded as Remus appeared in the pub.
“Ok gang,” said Lyall, “I know Beth doesn’t like the Gringotts carts, and we’ve got a lot to get through. Remus, you go with Beth to the robes shop and by the time that you two are finished I’ll be done in the bank.”
Remus nodded and they headed out into the alleyway having tapped the right brick in the wall.
It was only half past eight in the morning, but the shops were already open for business and a few witches and wizards had already started their shopping.
“Beth,” said Remus firmly, holding her hand as they walked to Madam Malkin’s, “I don’t want you going out of my sight today.”
“When do I ever,” she grumbled.
“If you hadn’t remembered Beth, there is a mass murderer on the loose, who is trying to kill you.”
“How could I forget,” she muttered raising her eyebrows and looking at Sirius’ face which was plastered on wanted posters all around the street.
“Fair point,” nodded Remus as they walked into the shop.
“Good morning!” beamed Madam Malkin, “how can I help you today?”
“She’s finally had a growth spurt,” chuckled Remus, “we need the full works, school robes, shirts, skirts and jumpers.”
“We should probably get you a spare cloak whilst we’re in here,” said Remus looking Beth up and down, “you shouldn’t have to wear your school one all the time.”
“Hop up on the stool dear and we’ll get you measured up.”
Beth nodded slightly and jumped onto the stool in the middle of the room.
“Anything else you’ll be needing?” asked Madam Malkin as she finished measuring Beth.
Beth bit her lip and stared down at her shoes
“Um well,” said Remus blushing slightly, “Beth’s been developing around the bust and um well.”
“You’re wondering if I still sell self-adjusting bras?” asked Madam Malkin raising her eyebrows.
Remus nodded in relief.
“Of course, I still sell them Mr Lupin,” chuckled Madam Malkin, “they’re one of my best sellers, they’re at the back.”
Madam Malkin went to go find Beth her new school robes, whilst they flicked through the racks of skirts, jumpers and shirts.
“Cardigans or jumpers?” asked Remus.
“I prefer jumpers,” shrugged Beth.
“Ok,” nodded Remus picking up three jumpers, five shirts and three skirts.
The clothes were still small, Beth was still the same size as some of the smaller first years, but she had grown a foot in the past two years, and she had started to develop around the bust. Back when they had bought her first set of uniforms two years ago, she was the size of an average eight-year-old.
“What kind of cloak would you like?” asked Remus.
Beth walked over to the cloaks and found herself stroking the material of a soft blue velvet cloak.
“It’s gorgeous,” she muttered.
“It matches your eyes,” chuckled Remus, “silvery blue.”
That only left the bras, rather than having different sizes, all the bras were different sizes and grew or shrank depending on the wearer. They were very basic cotton bras with a simple fit, but there were a few colours to choose from, there was pink, white, light blue, and even black.
They eventually got one white, one pink and one blue.
They took all of the new uniforms, cloak and bras up to the counter and Madam Malkin started to fold them away in parcels with the new robes.
As Madam Malkin finished tying up the parcels Lyall came into the shop.
“Sorry,” he panted having clearly ran, “there was a que at the bank, it took me ages to get in.”
“That’s quite alright Mr Lupin,” nodded Madam Malkin.
“Oh Dad, did you get the muggle money, we need muggle clothes too.”
“Already got it covered son,” said Lyall pulling out an envelope full of a large number of muggle notes before paying Madam Malkin with galleons.
Lyall carried the parcels of clothes as they went through to the apothecary and picked up Beth’s potion supplies as well as Lyall picking up a few things they were short of at home.
Then they went to the bookshop Remus went through to the Defence section and was looking through some advanced textbooks to use in his NEWT classes, whilst Lyall helped Beth get her new books.
“Standard Book of Spells Grade 3,” said Beth reading off her list, “and Numerology and Grammatica.”
“Want any extras?” asked Lyall.
Beth as always found herself drawn towards the history books, she eventually picked up a book on famous Parseltongues through history, just to see if they were all evil, and a large book on Merlin and Morgana which they were meant to be learning about that year, she also found herself drawn to a book entitled Honourable Hufflepuffs- Famous Members of Hufflepuff Who Rose to Greatness.
“Good choices,” nodded Lyall as they queued up to pay for all their books.
By this point it was already half past twelve in the afternoon, but they had already done all their shopping in Diagon Alley.
“Who wants ice cream?” asked Remus as they passed Florian and Fortescue’s on the way back to pub.
“Stupid question,” muttered Lyall as his granddaughter’s face lit up in excitement.
Remus shook his head and left Lyall and Beth outside the shop with the steadily growing mountain of wrapped parcels.
He came back outside a minute later with three large ice cream sundaes as well as another wrapped parcel.
“What’s in that parcel?” asked Beth as she dove into her ice cream which today was raspberry ripple with popping candy.
“Wait and see,” said Remus tapping his nose knowingly.
“You’re got cartons of ice cream to take home, don’t you?” asked Beth her eyes lighting up.
“When don’t I?” asked Remus.
“Next time we do this Remus,” grunted Lyall as the three of them heaved the parcels back to the pub, “we’re bringing the car, Merlin knows how we’re going to get all this home.”
“Multiple trips,” shrugged Remus.
“You lot have been busy,” chuckled Tom through a toothy grin as they came back into the pub carrying a dozen parcels of assorted sizes each.
“Can we leave these here for a bit Tom,” said Lyall, “we need to hit the muggle shops.”
Tom nodded and they placed all the parcels behind the counter along with their cloaks before going out into muggle London.
Fortunately Sloane Square and Peter Jones, was only a ten minute walk away from the Leaky Cauldron.
“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” stammered Beth as they walked into the huge department store.
The last time she had been shopping for muggle clothes they had just gone into a regular shop in the nearest town in Pembrokeshire, but this place had six floors, and everything was so glossy, nothing looked out of place.
“Right place,” nodded Remus.
“Do you want some new bedsheets?” asked Lyall as they passed the bedding on the first floor.
“I like the one’s I’ve got,” said Beth, they were quite simple just plain sheets, but they were hers and she loved them. But what she loved even more was the rainbow coloured patchwork quilt on top of her bed, which although it was starting to become slightly threadbare as Hope had made it back when she had been expecting her second child, Remus’ younger sister a stillborn. This meant that the blanket was over thirty years old but it was so colourful that she loved it to pieces.
“According to this sign,” said Remus, “teen girls wear is on the fourth floor.”
They got on the escalator and worked their way up to the fourth floor where it was girl heaven. There was tiny little party dresses for three year olds, bridesmaid dresses in all sizes, floral jeans, cashmere jumpers, coats, school shoes, party shoes, make up, high heels, everything a girl could need.
Lyall looked like he was about to gag slightly as he saw a fuchsia tutu covered in sequins.
They headed further into the floor and found the teens section. They even had a petite size, so even though Beth was much skinnier than most thirteen-year olds she could still wear the fashionable clothes.
“Can I get some floral jeans?” she asked picking up a pair of denim jeans which had tiny flowers embroidered all over them.
“I don’t see why not,” chuckled Remus.
She also got a pair of light blue jeans and then moved onto the jumpers. They had jumpers in every colour imaginable, some were super soft, some were extra warm.
She eventually picked up a holly red sweatshirt, a navy cardigan, a soft pink cashmere jumper and a deep purple jumper.
She also got a long floral skirt that fell nearly to her ankles and a light blue short sleeved blouse to wear with it.
“Ok,” said Remus, “well your feet have been growing, so you need new shoes, we should probably get you a coat as well.”
“Can we get some make up too?” asked Beth excitably.
They had passed a make up counter on the third floor on the way up here.
“You’re too young for make up,” said Lyall.
“Hannah, already wears it,” said Beth, “and so does Susan.”
“Hannah plasters herself with it,” muttered Lyall.
“She’s growing up Dad,” chuckled Remus, “teenagers wear make up.”
“Fine,” grumbled Lyall as they went to have her measured for shoes.
Beth sat patiently as she was measured for shoe size and then they picked out her new shoes. She needed new school shoes, as well as trainers, Lyall thought it might be a good idea to get her a pair of wellies for when she was at home in Wales as well.
Her new school shoes were black patent leather, with a strap at the front and a small heel, but not so big that Beth couldn’t walk in them. They also got her a pair of blue converses and some green wellies.
They picked out a royal blue coat and then went back down to the make-up counter, where the lady helped them pick the right make up for her, all very natural colours that suited her complexion, but nothing over the top as she was only thirteen, she got some very light coloured eye shadow and lipstick and even some concealer in case she started to get acne.
Only then did they go up to the till and pay for all the shopping.
Lyall raised his eyebrows slightly as they gave him the final total and he gave them the muggle pound notes, but then he had to remember that there was only one galleon to fifty pounds, so Beth had actually only spent just over twenty galleons.
They each had two bags of shopping to back from the department store and the walk back to the Leaky Cauldron seemed much longer than the walk from it.
“Ok Beth,” said Remus handing her the flo powder so she could go through first.
Beth walked into the fire holding two Peter Jones bags and took the flo powder from Remus.
“Lupin Cottage!” she called clearly.
She span from the pub and soon appeared in the kitchen of the cottage.
“Mistress has returned!” squealed Dobby bouncing up and down as Beth stepped out of the fireplace.
“Hi Dobby,” giggled Beth giving him a hug.
“Dobby has missed you,” he nodded.
“We weren’t gone that long,” she giggled.
“Seven hours, forty-five minutes.”
Dobby was right, it was now six o’clock, they had been out all day.
It took Remus and Lyall several trips each to get all the shopping home via the flo.
“I’m shattered,” sighed Lyall collapsing onto the sofa as he brought home the last few packages.
“Dobby has made Shepherd’s pie,” said Dobby proudly.
“That sounds perfect Dobby,” said Remus smiling tiredly.
They had a quick dinner and then Dobby helped Beth to unpack all her new parcels. Beth put aside the books that were Remus’ and put them outside his door as she unwrapped them.
“So many pretty things!” exclaimed Dobby as he stroked Beth’s new cloak.
“I didn’t get much growing up,” shrugged Beth, “so it’s nice to be able to pick my own clothes now.”
“And mistress is so beautiful to begin with.”
“Thanks Dobby,” giggled Beth blushing slightly as they unwrapped and unpacked the last of the parcels.
By the time that Beth and Dobby had finished it was eight thirty and she headed downstairs in a pair of new pyjamas with her copy of A Tale of Two Cities to read curled up by the fire for an hour or so before bed.
Remus and Lyall were chatting in the siting room. Lyall was sprawled out in an armchair with a well-earned glass of Firewhisky that he was sipping at slowly.
Remus was flicking through one of his new Defence books on the sofa, he was too tired to read it properly, he’d start planning his lessons in the morning. He had talked to the Macmillan’s, and he had only taken a one-year contract at Hogwarts, which was fine because it corresponded with Tricia’s maternity leave. This meant that at the end of the year Remus could have his job back, and Mrs Macmillan could go back to her job at St. Mungos.
Beth snuggled up next to Remus on the sofa and leaned into him as she opened her book where she had left off that morning.
She hadn’t made it past the first page however when a warm glow from the fire wafted over her and she felt her eyes drifting slowly shut.
She dropped her book as she half fell asleep leaning into Remus.
“Remi,” said Lyall “I think someone needs to go up to bed.”
“Just a few more pages Da,” said Remus covering his own huge yawn.
“Not you Remi,” chuckled Lyall.
Remus looked up from his book and saw that Beth had actually fallen fast asleep into him.
Remus smiled slightly as he got up gently from the sofa.
“Come on Cariad,” muttered Remus picking her up and carrying her upstairs.
“Whats going on?” she muttered drowsily.
“I’m taking you up to bed sleepy head,” Remus chuckled as they reached her room.
He took off her dressing gown and tucked her into bed properly before kissing her on the forehead.
“You know what to do Gwen,” said Remus, as he passed Guinevere who was just taking up her nightly vigil.