Who: Alberta Malkin and Fleur Delacour What: Fleur gets homesick When: 1995, shortly after Fleur moved to London Where: Madam Malkin's, Diagon Alley Rating: G
The day had so far been fairly calm for Alberta, which was nice as it meant that she could simply sit an sew, rather than scurrying around attending to customers every five minutes. Today was a day that she had the shop to herself, no other employees. She had a few projects lined up for the day, the first was a set of dress robes that needed the hem taken down. They had been dropped off the day before by Dirk Cresswell's rather disgruntled assistant, demanding that they be finished by the next afternoon as they needed to be worn to some party or some such thing. Alberta wasn't entirely pleased by Cresswell's self-importance, but she would finish it on time. Though she did wish that he had given her more than just a day...
She sat at her sewing table, the deep blue robes spread out in front of her. She hadn't made the robes to begin with and was not impressed by the craftsmanship. The seams of the sleeves were already looking a bit worn, even though the fabric still looked quite new. Alberta made a small clicking sound with her tongue; clearly Cresswell had wanted to save money by getting a set of cheap robes but now he was going to have to pay extra for the sleeves. From what she could tell, whoever made the robes hadn't measured him properly and had made the shoulders too narrow. It seemed as though this was going to take longer than she intended.
With a flick of her wand, the wireless clicked on, piping some soft, but lively music into the shop. It was the kind of music she grew accustomed to as a child, what the Muggles might have called swing; Glenn Miller and the like - not that Alberta had the foggiest idea who that was. No, she was listening to the compositions of one Theodore Connolly (the wizarding equivalent).
As she began to contemplate where to begin with these robes, the bell on her door tinkled pleasantly, announcing a customer. She glanced up and smiled as she saw who entered.