The Last Station

Uh oh, Violet's discovered chocolate fudge sundaes. Doesn't matter that she can't ever eat all of it, any time we're by Florean Fortescue's, and even when we're not, she's just gotta have it. I'm having a hard time explaining to her why she can't have it every day, otherwise we'll be making the trip to Diagon thrice a day after every meal.

In all seriousness, how do you explain to a young girl why she can't have something that makes her happy anytime she wants it?

I'm pleased to report that Gladrags has been performing better than expected in Hogsmeade, enough that I've hired a new manager to run it on a daily basis. I'll be splitting my time between the shop in Hogsmeade and the branch in London to supervise them both. London's been a little difficult, I've been there a lot the last few weeks to oversee how it's being run. It's a little better now, and I've set up a little office in both branches so I can work on numbers and designs.

What's that saying? 'A halfblood witch never beds a vampire twice'? It turns out my Tall, Dark, and Hung Like a Pillar of Ice radar works just fine, chickadees. I wonder if a lady vampire's cl--

I sure do know how to entice them, I just don't know how to let 'em down easy when they whip it out. Awkward.

Warded to Angelina Johnson and Terry Boot
You owe me for Warrington. The Octagon blokes are already laughing about how desperate we must be to sign a Death Eater amateur.

Who: Hannah and Mal
What: Mal fills Hannah in on his first night running Fromage alone
When: Thursday evening
Where: 4J Main Street
Rating: low
Status: ongoing

Once the night's final customers had left and all the familiar closing routines were complete, Mal saw the last members of the staff off and then ran through the checklists twice more before he was content that he'd done everything. The night had gone well. Not entirely smoothly, of course, but the bumps they'd run into had been small, thank goodness.

With the wards set behind him, Mal left Fromage shrouded in darkness and made his way to Hannah's flat. He was nervous about reporting to her, half afraid that she would find some huge mistake he'd made, but he was also glad to be going to see her. Several times throughout the night, he'd reflected that it was undeniably strange to be at Fromage without Hannah, and he'd missed her working alongside him.

Pausing outside the door labeled '4J', Mal knocked softly, not wanting to disturb any of Hannah's neighbors.