𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 orion black dies of a
blood curse and scared for her
status in a world of death eaters,
walburga black insists her son joins
her for a holiday away.
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── IN WHICH REGULUS GIVES IN
. . .
THEY HAD LEFT THE BIKES outside of a bar, leaning against the walls in an alleyway as the chatter of men and women drank their coffee within, Melina disappearing inside for just a moment and returning with a deck of cigarettes and the call of goodbyes behind her, beckoning him forth and placing the first one from the pack between his lips, leaning close to light it before lighting her own.
"We get the flowers from the grocery store." She said, as they left the caffe behind and meandered their way across the piazza. Side by side, cigarettes hanging from their fingers. There was a statue in the centre of it, a focal point for the inhabitants, but Regulus found he had little time to look at it; his attention captivated elsewhere.
"The grocery store?" He repeated, almost as though he had never heard of such a thing. To his knowledge, Regulus had never stepped foot inside a muggle shop even to buy food, let alone flowers. His mother had Kreacher somehow procure the food, and once a month (plus every event she held) she hired a particular florist to cater to her needs in that department, always ending up with strikingly dark, over-exaggerated centrepieces that one could only find in homes like the one she kept.
"Yes - you know Camillo, from yesterday?" Melina glanced at him, made sure he nodded before continuing, "his father owns the shop, and before his wife died she had the most beautiful garden. He decided to keep it up, and we practically buy the entirety of his stock every visit." She grinned at the thought and noticed that the corners of his lips curled upwards too.
To know that the flowers sitting on their dining table were from a grocery store was enough to ensure his mother broke out with a case of dragon pox.
"I see." Regulus nodded. "He grows them himself?" He added.
"Mhm." She danced forward, leaning to stub out the remnants of the cigarette on a wall. "You can pick some out too, if you want, for your room." She smiled, diverting their course to the grocery store several feet to their right. "Come in, we have to get newspaper from the counter first." She breezed past the various metal buckets of brightly coloured flowers arranged charmingly in front of the shop and through the open door, a dog barking somewhere across the piazza.
Regulus followed her inside, his gaze relenting and remaining focused on the numerous posters pasted in the window. It was, despite being the window of the shop, more of a community notice board than anything; the advertisement of a bike for sale, free-range eggs for free if you walked down the lane to the farm belonging to the Gallos. A movie night in the old theatre because they had a new projector from the city, a discount on dresses if they were for Elena Gallo and Javier's wedding. An old faded missing poster for a cat, with the very ginger cat sleeping on a folded towel below it.
