November 25, 1894 — Flourish & Blott's
Marlena Scamander

The trouble with Harry's involvement with his niece's life was that he was never sure if he was overstepping. He tried to defer to her mother, because he wasn't trying to intrude, and because this was all easier if Avery trusted him. All of which was to say, it made Christmas shopping annoyingly complicated. Harry tended to make Marigold things--because he enjoyed doing it, and because it felt the least like intruding. And small children were usually easier to please, on the whole, than their adult counterparts.

For Avery, on the other hand, Harry was falling back to his usual tried and true ideas--namely, books. So he was at Flourish & Blott's, floundering his way through the Magizoology section, and inevitably letting himself get distracted. In his defense, he had a month to figure things out still. So he only felt a little bad when he started wandering, and eventually Harry's path took him into an aisle with a familiar face. "Miss Scamander, hello."

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set by Bee! <3

The potential dangers of London – the ones that her mother so often vaulted at her on her increasingly infrequent jaunts home – were nothing to the actual, very real dangers that existed on Diagon Alley. That woman was everywhere and she was a definite danger – this time, without the haze of alcohol to lead her astray, Marlena chose to dodge into the book shop rather than encounter her most terrifying foe and soon found herself browsing a book dedicated to beast hygiene.

Perhaps it was something her brother would like? At least then this would not be a wasted trip.

“Mr Berkwood,” she replied, startled, knocking the book from the shelf and catching it awkwardly before it hit the floor. She blushed and shoved it back, risking a glance out of the window and feeling slightly less on edge when she saw the coast was clear. “Sorry,” she laughed. “I’m having a bit of a day.”

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"Everything all right?" Harry asked with raised eyebrows. The answer was clearly no, but Harry thought it was rude to say so outright in a public space. He looked past Miss Scamander to the bookshelf behind her. "The books being especially troublesome today?" he offered with a smile.

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set by Bee! <3

Lena smiled back, allowing his easy manners to influence hers; she usually found it the safest bet to do as others did when it came to polite discourse. And impolite ones, but that particularly acute memory was passing out of sight.

“There are days when they’re the only stable thing so I would be remiss to cast aspersions upon them,” she replied, nodding towards the shelves. “Do you have a brother obsessed with magical creatures too?”

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"Ah, no," Harry said with a little chuckle. "My siblings are all muggles, I'm afraid. I am looking for a gift for a friend with an interest in magizoology, though." "Friend" was the simplest way of defining that relationship, anyway.

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set by Bee! <3

“Are they?”Lena asked before she could stop herself. She was far from prejudiced, but Lena had few experiences with muggleborns, or muggles in general, coming as she did from a family who could scarcely remember its last non-magical member, and as such she was a little intrigued.

“Do you still see them?” She found it tricky enough to speak to her sisters as it was, if they didn’t even have magic in common what would that feel like?

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"Sure," Harry said, unsurprised by Miss Scamander's reaction. It was hardly unusual when he was talking to people who came from all-magical families. "My sisters are both married, but I see them frequently enough. And my brother splits his time between London and the family estate, so I see him frequently." Harry supposed he also split his time between London and the estate, but it didn't seem to count the same when he had magical travel at his disposal.

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set by Bee! <3

His easiness bordered on the absurd but she supposed when one lived in a world of estates everything in life was easy. (She thought this, of course, with all the plebian spirit of someone whose father had nearly been Minister of Magic and whose sister was married to a man who very well might be one day.)

“I suppose it seems a strange question really,” she said with a self-deprecating chuckle. “But I was convinced for a while that I was a squib and my sister said she wouldn’t know me if I was.”

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022