Chapter Three Bramblewood Road
Lily arranged to meet Poppy again in King’s Cross Station on September first so they could ride the Hogwarts Express together and then they said their goodbyes. Lily took a handful of blue powder and couldn’t help flinching as she set her foot into the fireplace, ready to retract it, but there was no need. With the powder in her hand the flames only gave off a gentle warmth as they flickered and curled around her, like a few dozen friendly orange and gold snakes.
“Bramblewood Road,” she said, dropping the powder. A moment later she was engulfed in the flames and came out in the back of a restaurant kitchen. The Hogwarts headmaster had offered to connect her family’s fireplace to the Floo network but Lily had refused, knowing that no amount of proof of magic would be sufficient to convince her mother to allow her youngest daughter to walk into an open flame. The solution was the Muggle pizza shop Florean Fortescue ran a few streets down from her house.
“Lily, my girl!” he shouted looking back at her as she stepped through the flames. He was wearing a long white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms revealing a tattoo on his inner wrist that was an odd symbol Lily had never noticed before. “Did you find everything you need?” he asked with a smile, lifting his hands out of the flour and dusting the excess off with a twist of his wrist, then resuming kneading the dough.
“Yes!” Lily said, dropping her bag on the stone floor and then coming to the counter to watch him. “I choked on one of your waffles, though.”
“Did you?” he asked, tossing the ball of dough up to the ceiling, letting it spin in the air, and then catching it expertly with a hand behind his back. He brought it forward and threw it up again, stretching it in a few practiced motions until the dough was perfectly thin and round.
He was somewhere in his thirties with a wife and three kids whose pictures were tacked up all over the kitchen. There was no hint of magic in the entire shop. Still Lily felt like if she hadn’t already known when she met him she would still have been able to spot that he was a wizard. There was something about the smoothness of his motion, his complete confidence and lack of mistakes that reminded her of magic. Like a magician, but it was all practice and no tricks.
“Can I ask you a question?” Lily asked as he set the dough on a cast iron pan.
“Certainly,” Florean replied, spreading tomato sauce on the crust with a wide wooden spoon.
“Why don’t you use magic here?” He used magic in the ice cream parlor in Diagon Alley. The ice cream scooped itself and must have been frozen by magic as well as there was no sign of electricity. So why did he bother with mixers and ovens here? Surely a bit of magic would save him a lot of time.
“Why, I do!” Florean said, then smiled.
“How?” Lily asked. She couldn’t see any sign of magic.
“It’s all magic,” he said shredding a white square of cheese on the pizza. Lily smiled and rolled her eyes—she had not expected his answer to be quite so kitschy. “It is,” he said with a light laugh, throwing the pan in the oven and grabbing another ball of dough. “When I first saw my mom making pizza I knew it was magic. She taught me how before she died. And it’s never stopped being that way, for me. Brings her back to me[6] .”
Lily nodded. She felt a little bad for laughing, but Florean didn’t seem upset. “How old were you when she died?” she asked.
“Fourteen,” he said absently, glancing at the symbol on his inner wrist. “Any other questions?” he asked, laying the new crust on a pan.
“What does your tattoo mean?” Lily asked.
Florean smiled, as if surprised by her question. He turned around to face her and bent down, holding out his wrist for her to see it up close. Inked into his skin was a black circle enclosed in a triangle, with a line straight down the center.
“That I’m a believer,” he explained. “If you ever see anyone else with this symbol, you tell them where to find me. Okay?”
“Okay,” Lily said, even more intrigued, but before she could ask anything more, the bell rang, warning that someone had entered the shop.
Florean straightened and looked back. “I believe that’s your father,” he said, then quickly added some sauce and cheese to the pizza he was working on. He waved his hand over the confection and, in a moment, it turned from dough to a steaming, perfectly-cooked golden crust, contradicting Lily’s previous assumption that he never used magic in the pizza shop.
“How did he know when to come and get me?” Lily asked.
Florean smiled, boxing the pizza and handing it to her. “Magic.” He winked.
* * *
Florean was correct. When Lily stepped out the swinging wooden door, she found her father standing waiting for her. He was a stocky man who only owned one pair of muddied boots that he used as all-purpose footwear. He also sported a plaid button-up shirt and brown trousers—both of which were patchworks of soil.
“How was it?” he asked.
“Great!” Lily beamed. She had lied and told her family that Muggles weren’t allowed in Diagon Alley. She was afraid that if they discovered how dangerous and unpredictable the magical world could be they would change their minds about letting her go to Hogwarts. “How was your day?” she asked as he opened the door for her and they stepped out into the cool night air.
“It was quiet. Petunia went to visit Charlotte and your mother’s been working on the school fundraiser with Susanne. I worked a little in the garden, fixed the flowerbed.” A nail had come loose from a board around one of the beds of pink hollyhocks in their yard, allowing dirt to spill out onto the grass. Lily remembered when they had planted the flowers, the feeling of the roots in her hands mixed with the scent of damp earth as she’d covered them in fresh soil. Then her excitement, slowly watching them grow, day by day, into the tall, elegant flowers she loved so well that stretched up to the sky, framing the windows with blooms of pink and white. She thought of what Florean had said about it all being magic.
“Do you want me to drop you off at Charlotte’s?” her dad asked. “Petunia’s planning on staying the night and I don’t think your mother will be home until later.”
Lily could tell from his description of the day that he was lonely and wanted some company but Stanley Evans was a funny man. If he ever really wanted something from someone he encouraged them to do the complete opposite in an effort to make sure they didn’t feel any pressure. Her mother loved to tell the story about him suggesting to her that they break up an hour before he proposed.
“No,” Lily said, setting the pizza on one of the outdoor tables and taking a seat on a tall wrought iron chair. Her father sat down across from her. Lily opened the box, releasing the irresistible aroma of fresh crust topped with seasoned tomato and a sprinkling of melted cheese.
Lily took a slice and her father followed her lead. She grinned and bit into the savory pleasure. It was the perfect temperature—not hot enough to burn her mouth but just warm enough to feel good on her tongue like hot soup or sweet tea.
Lily looked out at the street. The sun had just gone down and street lights flickered above, glowing softly from atop their tall black posts. The air still smelled like ozone from the afternoon's rainfall, mixed with hints of chocolate and other delicious scents wafting from the cafe across the street. Twinkling fairy lights hung from the roof to the gate below, creating a glowing canopy for any patrons who preferred to sit under the stars. A young man sat on a black bench, softly strumming his guitar.
Lily thought of how she’d felt in the busy streets of Diagon Alley. If she was honest with herself she’d been a little ashamed that she hadn’t been born in the magical world; afraid that when she got to school she’d be behind all the others. She hated that she’d needed to be shown around, was so easily impressed by things others thought ordinary, but looking out at the Muggle street she felt like she truly understood what Florean had meant when he’d said it was all magic.
The Muggle world was full of its own unique wonders and beauty and Lily felt like the luckiest girl in the world that she got to be a part of both.