Lily Evans Potter does Manhattan. (lilspotter) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2015-04-27 16:42:00 |
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Ginny had spotted the shop first. It looked distinctly out of place nestled between a Starbucks and a tourist/jewelry shop (one of those hackneyed concoctions that seemed to spill out into the street with its $10 t-shirts and imitation gold). Yet, her eyes seemed to be drawn to the stacks of used books and adverts for professional palm readings. Maybe because it was the exact sort of thing that a Muggle, unfamiliar with real magic, would put up and call a magic shop. "What do you reckon?" she asked, indicating the shop to her companion. She thought that she and Lily had had a relatively good day together thus far. Even if it was a bit like a charade, wherein she met the sort of dead parents of her ex-boyfriend, went to the cinema, and had a wonderful day without the usual interruptions of Weasley family outings. Neville'd been right, of course. Ginny did miss her own parents, but somehow, having the opportunity to get to know Harry's parents was enough for now. "Five sickles for anything that can actually be used for magic?" Lily's face burst across into a grin. "I'll take that," she laughed. "I might have even had five sickles in my pocket when I came through the Tesseract!" She was enjoying the opportunity to get to know the future daughter in law she would never have the opportunity to know at home. She wasn't entirely certain what the status between Ginny and her son was in the current moment here but she also wasn't terribly worried about it. Ginny seemed to be a sweet young woman and someone Lily would be happy to count as a friend and they were near enough in age there was the possibility of it - the bizarre realities of this Tesseract augmented reality. "Although we have to discount candles," she added as she pulled open the door for them to both go in. "Candles are a favourite of both worlds it seems." Ginny followed Lily into the shop, immediately noting the pungent smell of incense. There were shelves of used books, talismans, and other objects that she frankly had never seen before. "You're right," she said. "Candles are definitely disqualified." She pointed to a large display of candles in every shape, size, fragrance, and color imaginable. It was fairly remarkable, she thought. "I half expect Professor Trelawney to come swooping down upon us, spookily waving one of her crystal balls." Ginny'd never taken Divination, but she'd heard enough about it from Hermione to have a good impression of what it entailed. And this shop definitely fell within those parameters. "She'd say, 'and you, my dear, are going to have a misfortunate day tomorrow as Jupiter will be of sync with Venus.'" Ginny's imitation of the professor was fairly spot-on, even if she suspected Lily wouldn't recognize it. Trelawney probably hadn't been a professor yet when the other had been at school. "I don't know how Harry managed Divination for two years. I think I'd have stormed out earlier than even Hermione." "You know I went to school for a few years with Sybill?" Lily laughed. "She was a few years ahead of us, but she was there and she particularly enjoyed impressing the first years. The number of times she would sit down next to me in the Great Hall and predict something, usually doom or death. I never thought one of her predictions even remotely related to me would turn out to be true." It wasn't a terribly lovely thought since it was a prophecy that had led to her and James' death, but the part where it had also led to Voldemort's downfall was something. Lily stopped at a display of runic necklaces and turned them. She'd heard enough of Ancient Runes from her friends to have an idea of what was used, and the necklaces, while they had a lovely look about them were nowhere close to actually being useful for Ancient Runes. She quirked her lips up and shook her head. "I'm pretty certain this isn't even an actual rune. Or maybe it is in this world? I don't think we'd find it in a textbook at home." Ginny'd nearly forgotten the one prophecy that Professor Trelawney had got right. Of course, that one prediction had to do with Lily's death, and that was a fairly uncomfortable subject to just bring up at random. "Sometimes, I forget we're not actually the same age. It must be the art of time travel, or all that we've been through back home." She offered the other woman a small smile. "But it doesn't surprise me Trelawney was the same in school. I don't know if you just grow out of being that dramatic." As she joined Lily near the runic necklaces, Ginny wasn't really sure what she was looking at. Ancient Runes had been more Bill's forté than hers. "It could be. There are definitely some things in this world that don't match up with back home." Like, the overwhelming amount of superheroes. The complete lack of professional Quidditch. And spacemen. Least, she was pretty sure some of the refugees had appeared from space. "But these mostly look like trinkets. Were you in Ancient Runes at Hogwarts?" "Through fifth year," Lily said with a quick smile. "I didn't take it after OWL year, so it's possible this is just something super advanced, but I don't think so," she considered the necklace, let it drop from her hand with a shrug and moved on. "It's a bit odd isn't it? I think that's been one of the most bizarre things about being here, how James, and Remus, and Sirius and I are all nearly the same age as Harry and his friends when they come through. It makes for an interesting parent child relationship," she laughed and ran her hand over a book with fancy silver lettering on the cover that looked appropriate, but when she lifted the cover and peaked inside it was just well-packaged parlour tricks. "It's been good though," she said softly. "I'm so pleased we've been able to get to know each other here. What did you take at Hogwarts?" She asked with a smile. Lily had read the books, but they had been focused on Harry's life, not Ginny's. "Oh, I agree," said Ginny. Her eyes passed over a collection of broomsticks in the corner, and for a moment, she thought that she'd finally found something from home. But upon closer inspection, they were simply props for casting circles. Whatever that meant, she didn't know. "It's lovely to get to know you, and Mr -- I mean, James." She offered Lily a small smile. "Sometimes, I still think of you as Mr. and Mrs. Potter in my head. Of course, you're not just Harry's parents… I'd like to think we could be friends here." She paused near the back of the shop, considering Lily's last question. "I took up Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, and Potions. I had Muggle Studies, too, for a year, but I don't think it counts if it's taught by bigoted monsters." She shook her head. "My first year of NEWTs was a bit of mess. I'm surprised I managed to earn any marks at all." Lily's eye caught that of some crystal balls and she looked at them with a bit of a bemused smile, but as Ginny continued to speaking she sobered a little. It would have been incredibly difficult to learn under the circumstances with which Ginny would have found herself the first year of NEWTs. Having students disappear and Death Eaters in the school. She couldn't help a brief shudder that passed through her. It was difficult to imagine that anyone would find that helpful - but she knew enough about Voldemort and his methods to know that education wasn't actually a priority at all. Ignorance was easier to rule in many cases. "I'm sure Harry could have taught you a thing or two about Muggles if you needed it," she offered with a smile. But even that was a slightly sad smile because her son shouldn't have had to grow up with her sister and with Vernon. He should have been raised in the Wizarding World. "But I had Arithmancy as well. I think you had a different instructor than I did unless I'm mis-remembering the books." Lily picked up the crystal ball and could see the clerk behind the desk eye her somewhat with suspicion. She wondered what the man would say if he knew it was Lily Potter and Ginny Weasley in his shop right now. "But what was your favorite subject? The one you loved the most?" She turned to Ginny with a smile as he put the ball down. Ginny thought they'd been over the shop well enough to see that there was anything here close to what they might have found in Diagon Alley. She hadn't, really, been expecting otherwise, but a part of her still sort of hoped for a mysterious backroom, or something, that would suddenly be apart of her world. It was sort of disappointing, even if it was also a little bit interesting to see what Muggles thought passed for magic. "Or my dad." Ginny shook her head. "My dad's in love with Muggles. He's got an entire collection of plugs…Mum thinks he's a bit mad." She turned to look over at Lily, who was near the crystal balls. "But my favorite subject was always Charms, with Defence close behind. We were lucky to have Harry around for that, too, and Prof -- I mean, Remus. Even if it was only for a year, he was probably one of our best teachers on the subject…" "What about you?" "Charms," Lily said with a quick grin. "Oh, I loved charms. So, I guess that sort of answers your question. But, Charms was my favorite, followed probably by potions. At least when I was younger. We had it with Slytherin, and I got to work with Sev, who was brilliant at potions. So, I loved working with them, although that changed a bit when I got older. It was more challenging to enjoy it when your classmates were all in a feud with each other." She sighed. That was certainly putting it mildly, and she suspected that Ginny knew at least some of that. She moved away from the crystal balls realizing they'd pretty much seen all of the shop that there was to see and there was nothing of any use in here. She turned to Ginny as she nodded her head towards the door. "So what was that wager? Five sickles for anything that could be used for magic? How about we scrap that and celebrate the shop meeting our expectations by getting ice cream instead?" |