Alone, but not lonely

“Didn’t your parents teach you to stay away from hags and vampires and not eat their food?”

They had been so engrossed in trying and explaining the different flavours, that Ares hadn’t realised a few people entering the room. The man who had spoken was beautiful, about 30 maybe. He had red full lips and open long light brown hair. (Ares hated to wear her hair down it always fell into her ink or got knots.) But his seemed to never have seen a bad hair day. He wore black robes with a dark red shirt underneath.

The three women stayed just outside a door in the back. They were old. And look like the weird, but good kind of grandmother’s who always gave they’re grandchildren sweets when they visited and told them how much they had grown, even if it had only been a week since the last visit.

While seeing everything Harry’s way was nice for a change, it was not as safe when meeting new people. After they switched Ares saw, that the man before her, was actually dead, kind of. He had still vibes, so if going after the dead animals near the road, his death couldn’t be long ago. But there were still sparks and those normally leave immediately. Which she knew from that one time, when a bird had flown at the window. “He must be a vampire” her brother said.

“Which means the women in the back, who seem to vacuum my happiness out of the air are hags.” She answered. Out loud she said, “The vibes told me it was fine, but if the food wasn’t meant for customers I would like to apologise.” While she said that, she stood up.

She knew touching her was unpleasant, but she was talking to a vampire who hadn’t eating in a while, so she needed to make sure he wasn’t intending on starting with her.

“My name is Ares. I came by your store, and it said that I would get comfortable and good looking clothes here.” While she said that, she extended her hand and waited until the vampire had come to a decision.

He touched her hand. {Images here…?} And pulled it back before shaking.

“Oh, good. You’re nice. You can never be too careful in this alley. And as you had already realised, I’m only six and on my own. By the way, the unicorn hair you purchased three days ago, was not freely given. The unicorn just lost some.”

The vampire, whose birthname was Thomas, but had changed his name more than once, most recently into Markus, send out vibes of confusion mixed with ‘was that a test?’

“Yes, that was a test.” Ares answered his unspoken question. “I’m a visitor in this world. And I need some clothes to fit in. It still should be a bit like me though.”

The vampire was still confused and now worriedly looking at her and the three hags had not moved an inch. The images Ares had seen, had told her, that those four with the sister of ‘Markus’ were working together for several decades. His sister was currently locked up, because she was in a blood frensy. Apparently, the ministry had passed a law making the selling of wixen blood illegal. While Vampires could survive of animal or muggle blood for a month, they had to drink a sip of wixen blood once in seven weeks or dragon blood once in nine weeks. The sell of dragon blood to vampires had already been made illegal a few years back. They had tried to get some on the black market, but the prices were quite expansive and a direct ticket to Azkaban (The prison in the wixen world).

Ares knew they had always been discrete in their store, and she was in a magical world. Maybe it was normal here to look like her, even though she hadn’t seen anyone who did yet. Taking a leap of fate and hoping her trust wasn’t misplaced and she would maybe find even better fitting clothes this way, she took her armband, which had her wixen world glamour on it, off. She saw the moment the four people in the room relaxed, at least a bit. The vibes said ‘creature’, apparently her features were a good thing here.

“I don’t normally go around looking like this, so I hope you respect my privacy and find me some cloths I can pay for. I inherited a lot of money from my godfather, so if it costs more than I have on me right now, I will have to go to the bank. The man in the bookstore in Diagon told me I could also pay by key, but I have never done that and I’m not sure if my key can actually do that.”

“Of course, this way please.” The vampire said. Ares put her glasses into a side pocket of her backpack and followed the hags into the back of the store. The vampire trailed behind.

“What kind of look were you thinking about?” “Does the colour need to suit you with or without glamour?” “Are their any kinds of material that don’t work for your kind?” The hags asked as soon as Ares stepped on the footing, all at the same time.

Markus chuckled and intended to repeat what his colleges had enthusiastic asked.

“I was thinking about something wixen children my age would weir for a trip outside. The colour needs to fit me with my glamour, as it is the glamour I use in the wixen world, but I would still like it to fit my personality. So preferably deep colours and variegated through the outfit but it still needs to match. I have no idea what kind of materials doesn’t work for me. I don’t like dead stuff, but I can still touch it. My twin brother is complete normal too, from what I saw through our link. At least by wixen standards.

I know I don’t look like it, but my parents and godparents were and are all wixen. I have no clue where the look comes from. If you know what I am or could be, please share.”

Apparently, no one of them knew what she was on sight.

“I’m afraid I’ve never seen someone who looks like you. Were you always like this or is it a recent change?” Markus answered for all of them.

“No, I looked completely normal as a child. It was when I was five that I changed.

I remember, the full moon. It was shining on me and woke me up. I didn’t know my look had changed until the next day. Everything was clearer that night, like I was looking through water before. Oh, I had been ill before. It wasn’t long though, only a day or two or so.”

“Tell them about your blindness”

“My brother says, I should tell you, that I’m properly blind. I can see and since that night even more clear, but not like what normal people see. It’s more like I can see the thoughts of others. Like for example you see that the wallpaper is dark green with flora in gold, silver and red on it. So, I know the wallpaper is that colour. For me it looks more like memories of times long passed.

It’s also how I knew you were good people. And when you touched me, I was able to not only know your feelings and thoughts, that moment, but also resent memories. I know that was a bit of a breach of privacy, but it’s also different for me. I know private stuff and secrets of a lot of people, so your secrets are not important to me, it’s just another bunch of memories to fill my brain before I forget them again.”

“Your brother says?” One of the hags askes. She goes by the name Ms Hattie, but it doesn’t seem to be her birth name. ‘How do hags multiply?’

“Yes, we’re twins. We can talk telepathically. Apart from being connected to me, he is completely normal. Looks like a muggle or wixen and lives in the muggle world since the end of the last war. Just like me, only that I now look like this.”

“Magical twins then.” Mrs Smitten commented.

“Your hair seems to change colour depending on the magic closest” Markus who had been studying her, while hags had started to throw cloths around the store. “Is that what you can see? Magic?”

“No clue, how does magic look?”

“Magic doesn’t have one defined look. It’s more like swirls moving around us and sparks, which magical beings have. Some have more, some have less. Some can access and manipulate the magic, some cannot.”

“I could always see swirls and sparks. And when my sight got better, I realised that the sparks are some kind of energy force. So, I guess I can see magic. But it is much more detailed than what you are thinking about. For example, you can see my magic and know that I’m still a witch in some way, while I can see my magic and know that it looks not like the magic of the wixen I’ve met so far. Their magic is more like a rain cloud, when I look close enough, I might even see the drops, but they will feel me looking closely, so I’m not 100% certain about the drops. Though the magic they’ve left looks that way, so it’s definitely 80%. My magic looks more like Griesel. It’s still a mass, but it’s not as smooth.”

“You can see your own magic?”

“Yes. It’s flowing all through my body. Even the strand of hair I lose still have a touch of it.”

“How detailed can you see the magic other’s leave?”

“Well, in the bookstore today I saw the thoughts the people who took a book of the shelve had, while doing that. After a while I realised what the sparks of the keeper looked like and could stop opening the covers of books to know what they’re about. Instead, I looked at the thoughts he had left while filling and sorting the books. It was much easier. Even easier then in the muggle, because I didn’t need to find and decipher the signs.”

“That’s all nice.” “And of course we love to listen.” “But we need to know which style you like best.”

The hags had found a few styles which might fit her. She liked the ankle boots but would prefer trousers which were more open down to the feet. She would take the open robe and didn’t need a hat. She told them as much and they changed it.