The Crow's Nest
October hummed beneath their breath, carefully reorganizing their mom's blackmail drawer. Usually Sage kept her child out of her business dealings, but she'd recently decided that it was time to start introducing them to the job they'd one day take over. It took years to master the art of information dealing, and if October was to take over the Wilde family business someday, it was best to start them soon.
Luckily for Sage, her wife Autumn didn't mind her training their child in the ways of the underground information trade. In fact, she'd found the whole business rather exciting when she'd found out her wife (well, girlfriend at the time of discovery) was the Crow, one of the few members of the City's underground known even to its everyday citizens. Being an author, Autumn Wilde was peculiar like that.
October finished organizing the blackmail drawer (it was sorted by first letter of the target's surname) and closed it, locking it carefully with the key on the chain around their neck. They turned to return it to their mom when a knock sounded at the door of the Crow's Nest — the antique shop that the Wilde family had run for years, and for years had been the base of operations for the Crow. Not that that was public knowledge.
Curiously, October looked up at the door. They weren't expecting any visitors today, of either the underground sort or the typical antique shop client sort. Instead, there stood a tall, severe-looking woman with her grey hair pulled back into a sharp bun. She wore a deep, bottle-green dress. October thought the colour was very nice. They would totally wear sweater vests that shade of green.
October turned their pale blue eyes from the door and disappeared from the front desk further into the rows of dusty antiques.
"Mom!" they called into the aisles. "There's someone at the door!"
"I'll be right there, October!" Sage called back from somewhere further back in the shop. "I'm expecting her. Go on and let her in."
An underground customer, then, October thought. They turned back to the shopfront and walked up to the door, opening it. The bells chimed as they stepped back and allowed the woman in the green dress into the Crow's Nest.
"Good afternoon," the woman greeted with a curt nod down at October.
October looked back at her impassively. "Welcome to the Crow's Nest. How may I help you?"
***
Minerva looked down at the child who'd answered the door with her curiosity hidden behind her professional demeanour. The well-mannered child who'd opened the door was presumably the Muggle-born soon-to-be student she'd been sent to inform about the existence of Hogwarts — one October Wilde.
"Good afternoon," Minerva greeted with a curt nod down at the child.
"Welcome to the Crow's Nest," October said rotely but politely. "How may I help you?"
Minerva blinked. October sounded much older than eleven years, speaking with a seasoned polite customer service voice. Surely the child's mothers weren't making them work in the antique shop? That was definitely against the law.
As Minerva thought this, a short, round, jovial-looking woman with wavy dark hair and jade-green eyes that seemed to see straight through Minerva's thoughts appeared from between the aisles of the antique shop.
"Ah, you must be Ms McGonagall," the woman said, a friendly smile on her face with corners sharp as knives.
"And you are Mrs Wilde?"
"Please, call me Sage," Sage said kindly, moving to take the chair behind the front desk. She gestured to the one before the dark oaken desk, offering Minerva a seat. "It gets confusing with two Mrs Wildes in the place."
Yes, Minerva supposed it might.
"Sage, then. I take it you received the owls that were sent to you?" Minerva asked as she sat down in the proffered chair.
It was Hogwarts's practice to send a few owls ahead of the professor explaining magic to Muggle-borns, so they wouldn't be completely shocked when the Hogwarts professor showed up on their doorstep. Still, the Wildes seemed oddly calm for Muggles learning about magic. Typically, they were a lot more disbelieving.
"Yes, they were," Sage said, nodding. She still had that sharp, friendly smile on her face. "October has been excited about the opportunity to learn magic."
Minerva glanced over at the child in question, who hovered just behind their mother's shoulder with a dispassionate look on their face. Their ice blue eyes studied Minerva with a cold calculation most eleven-year-olds did not possess. Should not possess.
Minerva would not describe their look as 'excited' by any stretch.
"It's a rare but useful opportunity for someone like me," October said. Their words sounded less rote this time, although they still had that air of careful politeness about them. "Magic is a very convenient skill to have."
"Yes, I suppose it is," Minerva answered, not entirely certain how to respond to that. "And it is a school that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is very proud to teach its students."
"Ah, yes, about that," Sage said, a hint of concern seeping into both her tone and her smile. "Could you perhaps say exactly where this 'Hogwarts' is located. Sending my dear October off to somewhere I don't know the location is a little… disconcerting, for a mother such as myself."
Minerva stopped a resigned sigh before it could leave her lips. Now it was time for her least favourite part of this job: convincing the parents this was not just an elaborate plan to kidnap their children.
***
"Any further questions?"
October thought to themselves as they looked placidly up at the woman in green — whose name they'd learned was Minerva McGonagall. "Like the Roman goddess," was their immediate reaction upon hearing the name. The response had earned them a curious look from the professor.
"How does one get to Diagon Alley?" October asked simply. They weren't a fan of asking questions they didn't know the answer to, but in some cases they supposed it was necessary.
"Of course," McGonagall said, nodding as if this was something she hadn't nearly forgotten about. She almost had, though. October could see it in her grey-green eyes. "The school year is still a little ways off, but a professor should be back in roughly a week to help you get your shopping. Hopefully it will be myself again, seeing as you both are already familiar with me."
"It will be lovely to see you again," Sage said with a lovely smile. Her lovely smile was the smile she used when she wanted people to think she was just a warm, friendly, sugary-sweet mother or a kind and helpful antique shop owner — or, as the case currently was, both.
October wasn't much a fan of Sage's lovely smile. That smile was a lie. They much preferred the proud, sharp-edged smile she gave them when she got their test scores back or when they recited all the things they'd noticed about a random antique shop patron when quizzed.
"I can't wait to go shopping for my school supplies," October said, trying their hardest to sound like a normal school child while saying something they were pretty sure no normal school child had ever said in their life. It was true for October, though. "It sounds like an adventure."
An adventure. October wasn't one for adventures, not typically. They preferred the quiet of the antique shop or the little apartment the Wildes had directly above it. But this was also an opportunity they weren't willing to pass up so easily. A chance to gain entry into a side of the world even their mom wasn't a part of — and their mom was a part of everything. The Ruby Dawn, the Golden Rose detectives, the City government…
But not the magical community. That was a clientele only October could cater to.
McGonagall smiled at them. It didn't look fake, but it did look… concealing. Like it was hiding some sort of emotion she didn't want either of them to see. "Yes. I'll see you next week."
Sage stood up from her chair and McGonagall followed suit, folding her hands in front of her.
"It was lovely to meet you," Sage said with her lovely smile on her face. She moved around the desk and walked McGonagall to the door, even though it was barely ten steps away. "Have a safe trip."
"Thank you," McGonagall said. "Good day."
She cast one last look back at them both before the door closed behind her, and this time October caught the calculation in her eyes.
Good. They were beginning to think this would be too easy.