How It Started

Chapter 45 - Selina Black

I jumped back just as a bus came speeding past the side of the road were we were all standing. It appeared Hermione had apparated us all into a busy street in London. I squinted trying to read the road sign "Tottenham Court".

"Watch out!" Fred yelled grabbing my hand and pulling me across, the now jammed traffic, it appeared our group had caused some sort of minor crash.

"Sorry" I yelled to the driver who was now cussing at us.

Once safe on the opposing sidewalk I could take in my surroundings, commercial shops were scattered all over the street, most of which were consumer electronics.

"We can't stay here, they're bound to come and find us" I said, the sudden thought of the black clouds back in the wedding tent, I just hoped everyone made it out alive.

I had to admit, I had a bad feeling about the rushed wedding, with everything going on something like this was bound to happen. Never the less it was still scary and my mind couldn't quite shake the feeling of watching the figures crash in and out of the tent. No matter how many times I saw the death eaters appear, each one seemed more powerful than the last.

"We stick out like sore thumbs" Vess said glancing at each of us

We were all standing still amongst the busy moving traffic of pedestrians. She was right of course, as people wearing jeans and puffed up jumpers came walking past, each one giving us looks, we on the other hand were all dressed in suits and dresses, formal wear for such an occasion as a wedding.

"Bloody hell" Ron murmured, he had a habit of saying such thing and I still couldn't distinguish which "bloody hell" he was referring to, sometimes they were annoyance sometimes sadness, I really couldn't tell.

Harry's eyes widen as he walked over to a shop "Tottenham Collective" it appeared to be a clothing store, it's illuminated lights practically calling for us.

"Anyone up for a bit of shopping?" Fred said laughing with eased the tension for a while. I knew I had a few pounds in my pocket, just for emergencies, in case this sort of thing happened.

"Doesn't look like we have much choice, but we have to be quick it's not like they will stop looking for us" Hermione said.

She was right once again, being with Harry meant we had an unwritten mark on our backs, death eaters everywhere would be hunting us down trying to capture the one and only "chosen one, Harry Potter".

I don't know if she intended for me to see but Vess glanced at Harry giving him a saddened look, it was the type of look you give someone when you're saying goodbye, it would only rise my suspicions about her joining her family and Draco in becoming death eaters.

"Well cmon then" Ron said barging through the doors.

The shop itself was huge, it had multiple levels which were categorised into different sections, it was the type of store you would enter looking for one thing and leave with about twenty. It was your common type of muggle clothing chain.

That's when it hit me, we were in the muggle world, I turned facing the rest of the group. Ron, Fred, and Vesper, all had the same expression of amazement on their face. This could very well be their first time in a muggle town, more so a muggle store. On the other hand, Harry, Hermione, and Myself seem unbothered by the store of being in this town, but that would make sense we all had shared parts of our lives disguising ourselves and fitting into the muggle world.

"I think it would be best if we split up" Harry said. I was fairly sure he was trying to be time efficient although part of me was wondering if he would question Vess about her family's involvement in the dark arts.

"You're right I'll go with Ron" Hermione said, Ron's faced flushed with a colour of vibrant red, a small smile starting to form on his face, Hermione too was blushing, not nearly as hard as Ron, but her cheeks were a pinkish colour.

Without saying anything Vesper and Harry walked off, although they were walking together they kept an awkward amount of space in between them, maybe something was going on that either of them weren't telling me.

"I guess that leaves you and I" I said turning to face Fred, I held out my hand which he immediately took.

"What a bummer" he joked, smirking to himself as I glared at him.

We made our way through the store stopping at certain points along the way. I had to admit I was having fun, we were joking around and trying on clothes which we certainly would never wear. Eventually we each found a suitable enough outfit that would blend us in. I choose a simple white cardigan with black leggings, Fred on the other hand selected a "I Love London" tshirt with jeans.

By the time we payed and made our way out of the store everyone was already waiting for us, hermione looked annoyed as she said

"Took you long enough"

I awkwardly smiled in return thinking nothing of it. Cohesively we decided we better start walking to a private place, we couldn't apparate in such a public place, where muggles would be able to see us all.

The walk was short and we found ourselves ended up in a darkened alleyway.

"This should do, private enough" Ron whispered, I guess he was trying to be as quiet as possible although I didn't see any reason behind it we were far enough into the alleyway that no muggle would come and investigate or hear if we said something.

I didn't know if it was just my mind playing tricks or if someone was actually there but a darkened figure was approaching us, and at an alarming rate. Hermione seemed to also see the figure and grabbed hold of my arm, just like we had done at the wedding everyone started linking arms until hermione whispered the spell.