wandmaker | charlie weasley

03

On Saturday afternoon Eloise found herself closing Ollivander's a few hours early in an effort to complete all of her errands before the day's end. Before heading out into Diagon Alley, she stopped upstairs to make a cup of tea to bring with her, rushing through the task while trying not to spill it as she hurried down the stairs. Once out in the crowded street, she steeled herself to navigate the crowds on her way to the apothecary.

For some reason her latest shipment of unicorn hair had failed to arrive at its usual time, now over a week ago. While she had meant to settle the situation sooner, the week had been so busy that Eloise usually found herself collapsed on her sofa by the end of her workday, unable to move to get dinner let alone to run errands. Eloise simply couldn't understand why it hadn't arrived yet, because she had checked her records during a lull in customers and saw that she did indeed pay the bill on time that month.

Now Eloise had managed to travel down the street while staring intently at her feet as she walked, but obviously her ease had to come to an end. Directly outside of the apothecary she found herself running smack into another soul who had been heading in the opposite direction as her and who had the misfortune of coming within the clumsy girl's vicinity. The open cup of tea she had stupidly decided to bring along tipped over onto the figure, splashing herself also with the hot liquid.

"Oh sweet Merlin," she mutters, clutching her hand as the tea burned her.

She looked up to meet the gaze of none other than Charlie Weasley, who looked less surprised about being burned by her scalding drink than he did about seeing her out of her shop.

Eloise internally facepalmed as Charlie grimaced, and immediately whipped her wand out to try and ease the damage she had wrought, while profusely apologizing, "I am so sorry! I didn't see you there!"

As soon as her wand dried his shirt and eased the pain of having tea thrown onto him, Charlie chuckled at the situation. "We meet again, Eloise Moreau," he smiled, raising his eyebrows a bit as she shrank in front of him.

"That we do," she sighed, looking down at her feet sheepishly.

"Oh, do try not to sound so thrilled about it, will you?" he requested. Eloise's eyes shot up to meet his in alarm at the idea that she had offended him, but to her relief humor danced in his blue eyes instead of indignation.

"Again, I'm very sorry," she repeated, stepping to the side in an effort to escape his teasing and the uncomfortable run-in that she had caused.

A gruff hand grabbed her wrist lightly to stop her from leaving, but when she tensed he immediately released her.

"Y'know, I think I'm owed an explanation as to why you're in such a hurry that I had tea dumped on me," Charlie smirks, blocking her path once more.

She gulped before answering the tall man. "Supplier issues," she replied, gesturing to the apothecary next to them.

"I see," he answered, apparently understanding that she wasn't really in a chatty mood. It surprised her that he had persisted as much as he had, because usually people had a tendency to let her slip away from them when they realized that she was uninterested in making polite small talk. It caused Eloise to reevaluate the situation for a moment. Here was this kind man, who had made an effort to engage in conversation with her on multiple occasions now, and every time she had tried to make a quick exit. She sighed quietly when she realized how rudely her behavior could be viewed.

"Alright, it was nice running into-" Charlie began to say.

"And you?" She interrupted.

"Sorry?" He said in astonishment, looking extremely confused at her question.

"You didn't see me coming when I ran into you," she explained, feeling her face grow hot. "Where were you off to in such a rush?"

Charlie's face lit up, apparently realizing that she was trying to continue chatting with him. "I'm heading over to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," he told her, "I'm helping my brother out for a bit."

"Right, the joke shop," Eloise nodded.

"Yes, well, I'm more of a dragon bloke myself, but the pranks can be fun on occasion," Charlie grinned down at her.

"At Hogwarts, your brothers glued my Charms book shut right before my lesson. Flitwick took 10 points for being unprepared for class since I couldn't tell him that I couldn't get my book opened," she managed to tell him, glancing into the shop window and looking at the various potions ingredients that were displayed.

Charlie dissolved into loud laughter as she told him the memory from Hogwarts, which only got louder as he noticed her scowl of disapproval.

"I can imagine that was extremely traumatizing for a little Ravenclaw, huh?" he snickered, winking as he said it.

Reddening further, she replied, "Well yes, of course it was."

"Okay, Eloise, I really need to get going. But I'm sure I'll be seeing you around sometime soon," Charlie noted, waving and smiling broadly at her as he backed away.

"Bye," she answered him, rushing into the apothecary and out of the busy street she had stood in for way too long.

Once in the apothecary and out of sight of the friendly man, she finally let herself breathe properly. She approached the counter holding her empty teacup and waiting for the clerk to notice her presence.

"Excuse me sir," she called out to the squat old man who appeared to be sorting fangs of some sort into jars.

"Yes?" The man finally spun around to face her properly, and by the expression on his face she knew this was not going to be a pleasant interaction.

She braced herself before saying, "I'm Eloise Moreau, I'm the new owner of Ollivanders."

"And?" the clerk responded with disinterest.

"I've owled you about four times now about the unicorn hair shipment that I'm missing," she told him as politely as she could.

"Yes, Miss Moreau," he sneered. "I'm not really sure why. What's the issue here?"

"I didn't receive the shipment!" she exclaimed, trying in vain not to raise her voice.

"You didn't pay the full amount due," the infuriating man informed her, putting the lids on the jars of fangs and carrying them out from behind the counter, heading over to a shelf filled with other jars of teeth. "My price is four galleons a hair, and you paid half that, Miss Moreau. Now if you'll excuse me." The clerk weaseled his way back around her and ducked behind the counter again, this time unboxing a bunch of dead pixies, causing Eloise to wince.

She shook her head adamantly, saying, "No no no, the price is two galleons a hair as long as I place the order on time every two months, and I was on time! I paid it the last day of May!"

"Ah, I think I've figured out where this misunderstanding stems from. That was actually the contract that Ollivander and I had, and since his passing, well..." he drifted off.

"That doesn't make any sense!" she found herself yelling, waving her arms about her angrily. Eloise did not often find herself angry, but the past month had been immensely frustrating and difficult and she found her temper quickly getting the better of her. "You accepted my payment Gringotts sent me a receipt the day after the transaction went through!"

"Yes, there is that. You see, here we have an order cancellation fee. And as you didn't pay the amount in full, your order was considered cancelled. The 150 galleons was the cancellation fee. Thank you for your business."

"150 galleons to cancel an order?" she exclaimed incredulously. "You expected me to pay 300 galleons?"

"Yes, that's what everyone else pays, Miss Moreau. I can't just give you special treatment."

"Dear Merlin," she muttered, not even bothering to say goodbye as she spun on her heel, exiting the ridiculous shop.

Now not only did she need to handle a completely separate issue with her dragon heartstring supplier, but she also had to find a new place to buy unicorn hair. Really, she's a great wandmaker.