Shopping & Suits
Wednesday gave Harry a long and considering look.
“No.”
“Wednesday, please? They really don’t like me.”
“I don’t like them. There’s only so much torture I’m willing to subjugate myself to.”
“I thought I was a magnet for danger and you had to follow me around in case someone tried to kill me?” Harry said. He was practically whining, it was ridiculous.
“Rowan’s dead—”
“Says you,” Enid said in a sing-song tone that was just as annoying as Harry’s whine. Wednesday ignored her, as she might stab her otherwise.
“—and I think you’ll be perfectly safe decorating for a dance,” Wednesday went on.
“Plus Wednesday and I have plans,” Enid jumped in again.
Wednesday assumed that Enid was merely supporting her stance against joining a decorating committee with Harry - and why he allowed Weems to sign him up, Wednesday would never understand - but as soon as Harry left their room, Enid pulled her jacket on.
“What plans do you believe we have?” Wednesday asked her. She caught her own jacket automatically when Enid tossed it to her. Perhaps Enid wanted to go investigate—
“You need a dress for the dance, silly,” Enid laughed. “And so do I. It’s time for a roomie shopping spree!”
Wednesday should have went with Harry.
“I would prefer to be Yoko’s afternoon snack than step inside there,” Wednesday scowled. The store that Enid took them to in town was something straight from one of Wednesday’s nightmares. The windows displayed four different dresses, all sparkling in various shades of neon so bright it made Wednesday’s eyes water. And the signs were all pink frilly things that made her feel incredibly nauseated.
“Don’t be rude,” Enid scolded her. “You know Yoko and the others only drink donated blood.”
“They can have mine, all of it.”
“You’re the one who invited Xavier, now you need a dress to wear,” Enid told her. She stuck her hands on her hips and raised a challenging brow. “Unless you’re scared?”
Terrified.
“I will not wear pink,” Wednesday hissed, accepting defeat. It was the price she would have to pay to try and get inside Xavier’s head during the school sanctioned event.
Just as no summer storm came without a rainbow, no ingenious idea came without a punishment.
“Yay!” Enid clapped her hands and squealed. “Traditionally, everyone wears white to the Rave’N, but I think we could totally do something different.”
Wednesday squared her shoulders against the battle she would doubtlessly be faced with inside the hellscape while Enid began talking dresses at length. Enid opened the shop door and Wednesday very neatly vomited from the floral scent that wafted out to assault them.
Was spending the day with a serial killing monster worth this level of pain?
Just before Wednesday either followed Enid inside or bolted, she was rescued by an unlikely source.
“Hey, Wednesday!”
Wednesday immediately stepped away from the torture chamber, muttering a lie to Enid about catching up soon, and turned on the sidewalk to see Tyler Galpin jogging toward her.
“Tyler,” Wednesday said shortly with a nod of acknowledgment, “can I help you?”
Tyler glanced toward the window of the shop that Wednesday no longer had the courage to enter and then grinned at Wednesday.
“Sorry to interrupt shopping time, but is Harry with you?” he asked, his eyes foolishly hopeful.
As if the last time that Harry said he spoke with Tyler that Tyler hadn’t ended the conversation by bolting from the Weathervane and injuring Harry’s fragile and overwhelming feelings.
How one boy could have so many emotions, Wednesday had no idea. But he’d seemed sad when he relayed his Outreach Day to Wednesday and hadn’t even seemed to appreciate her offer to end Tyler’s life for the insult.
“Yes, he’s inside my backpack at this very moment,” Wednesday said scathingly. “He had to dislocate all of his joints to fit, but he preferred it to walking.”
Tyler looked toward the black straps of Wednesday’s backpack, as if he were actually considering what she said.
“Well when you see him will you ask him to swing by the coffee shop tomorrow?” Tyler asked her. “You guys still see Kinbott on Fridays, don’t you?”
They did, but Wednesday would prefer to not have a schedule so predictable that the local barista that made disturbing star eyes at her cousin could guess her location.
“I don’t remember,” Wednesday lied smoothly. “Why do you want to see him? He said you were incredibly rude last time he saw you.” Wednesday took a step closer to Tyler and glared up at him. “And I don’t much care for my cousin being upset.”
Tyler didn’t back away, a small point in his favor.
“Cousin?” he asked slowly, his eyes flicking over Wednesday’s face looking for a tell that wouldn’t appear. “You and Harry are cousins?”
“We are distantly related, yes,” Wednesday said. “That doesn’t answer my question on why you want to see him.”
“Not that it’s really your business, but I wanted to apologize,” Tyler said. “So, when you see him, will you just ask him to stop by tomorrow, please?”
“I’ll consider it,” Wednesday said curtly, unintentionally confirming that they would be in town the next afternoon.
Tyler rolled his eyes and stuck his hands in the pockets of his denim jacket.
“Whatever,” he said. He looked toward the window display of the shop Enid was in again and smirked. “There’s an antique store down by the police station, I think the dresses there might be more your style.”
It sounded like an insult, but Wednesday rather liked antiques.
And Enid agreed that the black lace dress in the window display of the shop was absolutely Wednesday’s style- if Wednesday had a style that included frilly dresses.
*****
“Hey, Potter, give me a hand, will you?”
Harry, who had been given the incredibly important task of putting tablecloths on tables, looked over to see Ajax standing precariously on a ladder with a banner in his hand. Harry drug a chair over to the wall where Ajax was and took one end of the banner to hold it up to be taped.
“Thanks,” Ajax told him while he taped his side. “Catch.”
Harry caught the roll of tape when Ajax tossed it to him and carefully taped the other end of the banner to the wall. When he finished, he lingered on the chair for a moment, inspecting their work.
The Nevermore ballroom was practically unrecognizable. The usual dark brick walls had all been tastefully covered with a mixture of white lace tapestries, delicate flowers of various types all in the same shade of white, and softly glowing strings of lights. The dozen round tables all had clean linen covers on them with matching chairs arranged around them. There were long tables that lined the wall beside the entrance where drinks and snacks would go and opposite of that wall held the DJ’s setup.
Harry’s favorite part, if he had to choose a favorite part, was the archway they created for the entrance. It was made up of snowy white roses that managed to stand out against the faux-snow fabric that Bianca used to create the archway itself.
All in all, Harry thought the place looked nice.
And, most surprisingly, it hadn’t been terrible helping decorate.
Sure, Bianca kept giving Harry the most boring jobs, acting like he couldn’t be trusted to weave the flower stems in the lace tapestries, but Ajax had hooked his phone up to the speakers and Harry had quietly hummed along to the music while he worked.
“Looks good, doesn’t it?” Ajax asked Harry, breaking in his silent contemplation.
“Yeah,” Harry agreed as he hopped off the chair and moved it back to the table he stole it from. He’d left a bit of a shoe print on the white cushion that he hastily brushed off before anyone else could notice.
Ajax followed Harry and seemed to have caught him, but he didn’t mention it.
“So are you coming then? To the dance?” Ajax asked Harry while they made their way toward Bianca for another assignment.
Harry wasn’t sure why Ajax was working to strike up a conversation. He hadn’t bothered to ever talk to Harry since the first day they became roommates.
“Hey, man, I’m Ajax,” Ajax said with a smile and a hand offered to Harry.
Harry looked around the seemingly empty room with wide eyes, ignoring the hand Ajax offered him.
“Is this place haunted?” he blurted, cursing himself immediately afterward for asking a question. Even if he was allowed to then, it was still disrespectful and rude and Harry would rather not find out Nevermore’s discipline policy on his first day.
Ajax frowned and slowly pulled his hand back. “Uh, I don’t think so, no. Why?”
Harry gave him an incredulous look and lowered his voice so as not to be overheard by the others.
“You don’t hear the voices?”
Ajax hadn’t talked to Harry after that, preferring to keep his distance and call Harry a freak with the others.
It had taken Harry nearly two weeks to work out that it was Ajax’s hair that he could hear whispering.
“I suppose so,” Harry answered Ajax politely. He stuffed his hands in his trouser pockets and curled his shoulders up. “Principal Weems kind of said I have to…”
“Volun-told, huh?” Ajax chuckled. “It’s pretty fun, usually. I went last year and had a good time.”
Harry made a quiet noise of acknowledgment, discomforted by having to carry on conversations with so many people recently. It was easier with Wednesday, who always said precisely what she was thinking. With everyone else, Harry felt like he was sifting through endless piles of motivations on why they were talking to him.
“Do you have a date yet?” Ajax asked Harry, apparently dedicated to forcing Harry to speak.
“Er… not yet, no,” Harry said, fighting a blush at the topic. He supposed he’d ask Tyler, but the last time they talked it hadn’t seemed to go all that well. Except now Principal Weems was expecting Harry to bring him and if he didn’t then she’d probably want to talk about it and Harry was sort of sick of having to talk so much.
He didn’t realize how there was peace in loneliness, but he felt a little nostalgic for it.
Not that he’d be telling Dr. Kinbott that when he saw her tomorrow, or maybe he would… Harry liked her praise, telling people he was a success and doing good and becoming normal, but he would like to earn it as well.
And if he didn’t feel like his stomach was shrinking with disobedience every time he talked to someone, that would be brilliant too.
“So you’re not taking Wednesday?” Ajax asked Harry with a sideways look.
“Potter and Addams are going to the Rave’N together?” Harry glanced up and saw Bianca and Kent braiding flowers into a stretch of delicate lace and he ducked his head again when they both laughed rudely.
“Makes sense, who else would bring them?” Kent laughed.
Harry didn’t know why anyone would assume he and Wednesday were going together. Even if they weren’t related, he was pretty sure Wednesday had too many curves for him, and… and judging from the way Wednesday had given Enid a stuffed bear on their double date at the festival… Harry suspected he didn’t have enough curves for Wednesday.
Except Wednesday was going to the dance with Xavier, but she swore it was only because she thought he was the monster killing people and stealing their organs.
Which made no sense to Harry because he didn’t think Xavier was the monster and if he was, why on earth would Wednesday want to hang out with him? Yeah, she liked Harry even though she knew more about his past than he wanted, but Harry didn’t exactly think Wednesday should base all her friendships on how many people they killed.
“I heard Wednesday has a date,” Jace said with a sly smile aimed at Bianca before flipping his mane of curls out of his face. “Xavier.”
“She is,” Harry confirmed quietly, missing the look that passed over Bianca’s face.
Ajax chuckled and grabbed two of the disco balls that still needed hung, handing one to Harry.
“Sounds like you need a different date then,” he told Harry. “Have you got a suit yet?”
“Er… no,” Harry said, bemused. “Do I need one?”
“Oh, yeah,” Bianca said, suddenly sounding sweet as could be. She batted her lashes at Harry, making him look away uncomfortably. He didn’t have anything against sirens, their eyes just were a bit creepy. Not as creepy as the students without faces, but something that was alluring and made Harry want to stare in their eyes and never look at them again at the same time.
“Everyone dresses up for the event, usually in bright colors, to stand out, you know,” Bianca explained, waving her hand at all the white decor. “You should do blue, match your hair.”
“Oh, okay,” Harry shrugged. “Thanks.”
Harry didn’t know where to buy a blue suit, but he assumed he could find something in Jericho.
He also didn’t understand the rest of Bianca’s friends’ snickers when he and Ajax went to hang the disco balls, but admittedly he wasn’t great at understanding other people.
Ajax didn’t talk anymore while the two of them worked to hang the disco balls, so Harry figured he didn’t actually want to be friends after all.
All through their classes on Friday, Harry felt like he was going to be sick. Wednesday thought he was just being dramatic, but Harry felt sweat build up on his forehead every time he thought about asking Tyler to the dance.
“Just don’t go then,” Wednesday snapped when Harry bemoaned his task on their way to therapy after classes. “It’s guaranteed to be a disgusting display of teenage hormones and inadequate supervision, Weems can’t force you to go.”
Harry huffed. It was starting to get chilly out, chilly enough that he could see his breath form in little clouds in front of his face. He’d grabbed his Nevermore school hoodie and his beanie, but Wednesday walked in just her uniform as if the cold didn’t bother her at all.
“I already told her I’d go,” Harry pointed out, again. “And… and she was happy I said I’d go, I think.”
Wednesday rolled her eyes at Harry. “You don’t need Weems’ praise, that woman is a viper in sheepskin.”
Harry grinned over at her, “I like vipers.”
Wednesday’s lips twitched, almost as if she wanted to smile and was forcing herself not to.
“Of course you do, snake boy. It’s one of your better qualities,” Wednesday sniffed. “Speaking of your worst qualities though, I saw your Tyler yesterday.”
Harry didn’t follow her logic in the slightest, but he also skid to a stop right in the middle of the sidewalk.
“Did he say anything?” he asked quickly, biting his tongue the second he asked it.
“Hm… I’ll tell you, if you play a game with me,” Wednesday said, grabbing Harry’s wrist and forcing him to walk with her again. Harry didn’t actually like the look in her eyes when she said ‘game’ and he couldn’t imagine what game Wednesday would want to play.
“The rules are simple, you ask me a yes or no question and I’ll answer. You can ask ‘did Tyler ask for me?’ and I’ll answer either yes or no.”
Harry’s brows flew up on his forehead. That sounded like an incredibly painful and complicated way for Wednesday to just tell him what Tyler said to her.
“Okay,” he said slowly. If Wednesday said that was the only way she’d tell him about seeing Tyler, then it was the only way she would tell him.
Wednesday was brash and rude and nosy, but she wasn’t a liar.
Harry pulled his wrist from Wednesday’s grasp and stuck his hands in his pockets nervously. “Er… did Tyler ask for me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That’s not a yes or no question, Harry,” Wednesday said, sounding as if she were enjoying herself.
An odd tone of voice from her.
Harry swallowed loudly; his heart felt like it was hammering in his chest and all the skin on his torso was tightening around him.
“Did Tyler say he wanted to see me again?” Harry asked quietly.
“Yes. Don’t mumble.”
Harry scowled and ducked his head to watch where he stepped. “Er… did Tyler say if he works today or not?”
“Yes, he told me if he does or not.”
Harry groaned and reached up for his hair, pulling at it in genuine distress.
“Are you mad at me?” he blurted. “Why won’t you just tell me?”
It felt like she was raking Harry over hot coals, forcing him to ask question after question. If he thought he felt sick before, it was nothing to how he felt while interrogating his friend.
They were nearly to Dr. Kinbott’s office and Harry had never been so relieved to see her yellow brick building. If nothing else, it meant Harry could stop asking Wednesday questions and Dr. Kinbott would ask him questions instead.
Wednesday didn’t answer Harry until they were right in front of the door and she had a look on her face that was softer than usual.
“You need to start asking more questions,” she told him. “It’s good to start with me, as I’m an open book, but eventually you do need to get past this forced aversion to questions.”
Wednesday stared directly in Harry’s eyes, forcing him to look up at her.
“If anyone even considers striking you, I will kill them,” she said evenly. “Come, let’s go share our feelings with Kinbott.”
The main feeling Harry had was confusion. But, after he actually threw up the instant he got in Kinbott’s office, Harry felt sort of pleased too.
He wished he’d had a friend like Wednesday years ago.
“I’m going to go talk to Tyler,” Harry told Wednesday when they passed each other after Harry’s session. Dr. Kinbott had loads of good advice, mostly telling Harry that the worst thing Tyler could say was ‘no’, which was both terrifying and sort of relieving in a way.
“And then I have to buy something to wear,” Harry added with a puzzled frown. “Any idea where I can buy a blue suit?”
Wednesday raised an eyebrow at him, rather condescendingly. “Why would you want a blue suit?”
“Er…” Harry tried to remember what Bianca said about why everyone wore different colors. “To stand out against the decorations?”
Wednesday nodded approvingly. “Good for you, I knew there was a backbone in there somewhere. I suggest calling Enid or visiting the horrifying shop down the street with the gauche pink sign. I’d join you, but it seems as if it’s my turn for torture.”
Harry didn’t want to one up her or anything, but he thought asking a bloke he fancied to go to a dance with him was harder than talking to Dr. Kinbott. If Wednesday could look past her ‘cliches and cheer’ he thought she might actually like her as he did.
“Tyler is at work, but I think you should stab him at least once before asking him to the dance, a fair repayment for being rude!” Wednesday called to Harry’s back, causing him to grin to himself the entire short walk to the Weathervane.
Though his grin slipped when he saw Tyler standing inside, laughing with a group of normie blokes their age.
“The worst thing he can say is no,” Harry whispered to himself before he opened the door, setting off the bell and catching Tyler’s attention immediately.
“Harry!” Tyler waved and then stepped away from the other boys after a hasty goodbye and stuck his head in the employee room. “Hey, Wendy, I’m going on my break, I’ll be back!”
As soon as the other woman who worked afternoons in the shop, Wendy, apparently, came out, Tyler took his apron off and walked quickly over to Harry.
“Can we go for a walk?” Tyler asked Harry. “I wanted to apologize, for the other day.”
“Alright,” Harry agreed easily. He didn’t really need an apology, Dr. Kinbott said maybe Tyler was just stressed out from the increase in business or in the ‘shift in his relationship with Harry’, and it wasn’t like Harry didn’t have bad days himself.
Tyler held the door open for Harry and caused Harry’s face to immediately turn bright red when he reached for Harry’s hand and linked their fingers together.
“You work a lot,” Harry blurted, like an idiot, when they’d walked half a block and neither of them had said anything.
Tyler didn’t seem to think Harry was an idiot though, he chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, kind of. It’s better than sitting home alone, you know?”
“Yeah, I do,” Harry said. He remembered long days and nights at the Dursleys house, sitting alone in a locked cupboard, wishing desperately he had someone to talk to, someone to even look at.
Of course, now that Harry had people to talk to and look at, it was difficult to do either of those things.
“Hey,” Tyler pulled on Harry’s hand so that Harry would turn and look at him, “I’m sorry about last week. I- I just wasn’t feeling well.”
Harry smiled in relief, Dr. Kinbott was right, as she usually was.
“That’s okay,” he said quickly. “I get sick all the time. I just threw up actually.”
You idiot, why would you say that?
“Er… I mean, do you want to go to the Rave’N with me?” Harry asked in a rush, pushing past his embarrassing admission, only to push himself into an equally embarrassing situation.
Forget witchcraft, Harry was supernaturally awkward.
And poor Tyler looked so confused that Harry wished the sidewalk would crack open and let the earth swallow him whole. Why didn’t Sarah’s spell book have anything like that in it?
“Um…” Tyler frowned, his eyebrows drawing together in obvious confusion. “I’d love to go with you to the Rave’N, but are you sure you want to go if you’re sick?” He looked around, taking note of the grey sky and chilly winds. “Actually, maybe we should get inside? So you don’t get worse?”
Harry’s painful level of shame at his own stupidity faded while he worked through what all Tyler said…
“You- you want to go?” he asked, hoping to brush past the whole ‘sick’ bit as it was probably the most idiotic thing he’d ever said to another person before.
Tyler grinned and he held Harry’s hand a little tighter, swinging it between them.
“Sure, if you can stand to bring a normie to your fancy outcast dance,” he joked. “But, yeah, if you want me to go with you, I’ll go.”
“Brilliant,” Harry breathed, elated. He didn’t even realize the wide smile he had on his face. “Oh, er… I think you’re supposed to dress up, in a suit or something.”
“Cool, I’ll grab something after work,” Tyler said with his own lopsided and easy grin. “I should get back before Wendy gets annoyed, but I’ll see you tomorrow then?”
“Tomorrow,” Harry said happily. “It starts at six.”
“Perfect.” Tyler winked and then squeezed Harry’s hand once more before dropping it. “See you then.”
That was surprisingly easy, honestly.
And to think that Harry had stressed himself out to the point of being sick over it.
Harry was humming along to the poppy music that played in the shop Wednesday suggested. It was an odd place for Wednesday to have been shopping, it seemed more Enid’s style, honestly, but they did have a wide variety of suits in all colors. Harry was just comparing two suits, one a light powder blue and one a dark navy, when one of the shopkeepers, an older woman with glasses and bright red lipstick, came up and tapped Harry on the shoulder.
“Excuse me, dear, but are you Harry Potter?”
Harry looked around, mildly concerned how she knew his name.
“Er… yes?”
The woman smiled and held up a zipped garment bag. “A gentleman bought this for you, he said he couldn’t stick around, but he wanted you to have it.”
Harry was startled when he accepted the bag. “‘A gentleman’?” he repeated, truly mystified. “Who?”
“No idea,” the woman said airily. “He paid in cash, he just asked me to give it to you.”
Harry felt a thrill go through him and he looked from the bag in his arms to the woman. “What did he look like?” he asked eagerly. His head spun around, stupidly hoping he was still there.
“Tall, dark hair, much too thin,” the woman said. She kept talking, but Harry’s hearing had gone fuzzy.
Harry looked down at the garment bag and felt his eyes well up with tears that he desperately tried to blink away.
“Dad?” he whispered.
*****
“We need to be in and out, before Harry gets back from town,” Wednesday told Thing firmly.
She had slipped off her appointment with Kinbott, claiming to be ill, and instead went to the antique store to grab a camera she had seen when she’d bought the dress from there.
Unfortunately, she also saw Harry and Tyler holding hands and grinning at each other like morons, so it seemed unlikely that Harry had stabbed him. Fortunately, it meant that Wednesday had time while Harry shopped to get photos of Xavier’s paintings of the monster, proof for Harry that Xavier was involved in some way, if not the monster himself.
It was simpler for Wednesday to break in to Xavier’s art shed, take the photos, develop them, and show Harry than it would be to drag Harry along for another possible crime.
Harry had the worst aversion to crimes, questions, and stoicism.
“And we’re in,” Wednesday said, touching her fist to Thing’s once he secured their entrance once more. “Let’s move fast.”
Thing crawled around, removing covers from canvases, while Wednesday began snapping photographs of each one. Each painting was more detailed than the one before. There were closeups of the monster’s face, details of the blood dripping off sharp claws…
And one… there was one that Wednesday took care to get extra photographs of. It was a painting done in black and white of a rock cave hidden in a forest, the shadow of the monster inside of it.
“The monster’s lair?” Wednesday asked aloud, trying to identify its location. She held the camera up and took one last photo of it, the sound of the flash not loud enough to mask the noise of the shed door opening.
Wednesday spun around, hiding the camera behind her back, and stared directly at Xavier himself.
“Wednesday…” Xavier stepped inside the shed and pulled the door closed behind him. “What are you doing in here?”
It seemed as if Wednesday had subjugated herself to dress shopping for no reason.