Friends Kiss Too | F. Weasley

Chapter 38 - A Face Seen Before

Summer was coming close to its end as students were making their way to Diagon Alley again, their list of needed supplies in hand. The alley was different than it had been in past years. While it would normally be packed full of students all laughing and running by or people crowding around shop windows, people were instead closely sticking to their groups and anxiously surveying the people around as they quickly went through the shops. Even more shops over the summer had been closed out of fear of being attacked and Ollivander's, the best wand shop in London, had been burned to the ground. No one had heard from Ollivander since then, but the Weasley's shop was still moving on and people were still coming in to look around and shop as much as they had before, many of the students stocking up before going back to school.

Milena's NEWT results had finally arrived by owl and to her surprise, she had actually done quite well in all of her classes. She was sure her grades would be nothing compared to Hermione's, but she was happy that she hadn't failed anything and now that was one less thing she'd need to worry about. What made her happiest though was that her best classes seemed to be in charms and defence against the dark arts, no thanks to Umbridge though. She had to be sure to thank Harry for the DA at some point.

It was early morning and Milena and the twins were getting the shop ready to open as usual. Milena had stepped outside as the sun was just poking out over some of the buildings to bring in some supplies Fred had ordered. She waved her wand and the last few boxes floated in the door as she held it open. The street was still rather quiet, whether that was because of how early it was or if people were avoiding it, Milena wasn't sure.

Milena began to find it a habit for her to watch the windows when she was in the shop now. If she was restocking the shelves, sitting at the front counter, or simply just sweeping, her eye always seemed to fall on the windows.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Fred asked, passing by with a box of spell-checking quills.

Milena was feeding the pygmy puffs when she thought she had seen someone pass by the window and turned to look, Fred's sudden question made her jump and hit the cage with her arm. A couple of pygmy puffs rolled out of the cage and began running around on the floor with their new found freedom.

"Shit!" Milena yelped as another pygmy puff nipped her finger, trying to get the food. She quickly shut the cage door and rounded up the pygmies that had escaped, Fred dropping his box and diving down to grab a few trying to run towards the candies. Once all of the little creatures were safely rounded up and put back into their cage, Milena shut the cage again and locked it, putting their food away.

"Are you gonna answer my question?" Fred asked.

"Are you going to scare me again?" Milena asked back.

"Not right now," Fred smirked. "So, what had your attention out there?"

"Nothing really," Milena tried to evade. "Thought I saw someone walk by, is all."

Milena felt herself becoming far more aware of her surroundings these days, eventually even the twins couldn't sneak up on her anymore. With all of the Order meetings they had been to and still not a single mention of anything to Milena from McGonagall or Dumbledore, it felt like everything around her needed constant watch. She was starting to feel like Moody everytime he reminded everyone "constant vigilance!" when she would leave a meeting. She didn't know whether it was that she was becoming more paranoid or if her gift was growing stronger, but it felt like these days, something was always bound to go wrong.

One late summer night, Milena was escorting the last few people from the shop, making sure they were out before it grew too dark and locked the door behind them as they all quickly made their way out of the alley. Just as the door lock clicked, she looked out the window once more, seeing a group of ominous looking wizards who didn't appear to be too concerned with staying close to one another. One of the men was short and stocky with a balding head and when he spoke, Milena could see he was missing a few of his bottom teeth. The man he was talking to was a little taller and had a long face with long greying hair that fell into his face. He looked like the shorter man was starting to annoy him as they spoke. The tallest of the group had a malicious look across his sharp face as he scanned over the dark street, Milena could tell he was clearly leading them. Then, Milena noticed one more man just behind him who was looking into a window of a closed shop that hadn't opened in weeks. His hair was dark and curly and he was about as tall as the man who appeared to be leading them, but when the leader called out his name and he turned, Milena let out a small gasp.