Shy little Eloise Moreau found herself the proud owner of Ollivanders after his death in the war. Now she's left to cope with the loss of her mentor while attempting to run a business.
When Charlie Weasley drops by one day in hopes of buying a new w...
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Eloise woke the next morning with a start. Her head was pounding and she couldn't remember how she had gotten to bed last night. Her last memory of the evening had been at the Leaky Cauldron with—
Oh no. Memories flooded her brain as she realized how she had gotten home, and why she had to be escorted. Dear Merlin, had she really tried to play footsie with him? She lay sprawled across her sheets with a hand covering her eyes, blocking out the light as she attempted to forget the night before.
Eventually she decided to get up, realizing that she needed to open up the shop in an hour anyway. She threw on some jeans and a jumper, quickly ran a brush through her hair, and rushed through brushing her teeth before exiting her bedroom and heading out to make a cup of tea.
Eloise almost fell over when she noticed a leg thrown over the arm of her couch. She crept towards it slowly, worried that she had left the door unlocked and some homeless person had snuck up there. When she saw the familiar red hair and freckled covered skin she didn't know whether to be relieved or horrified that it was Charlie fast asleep on her sofa.
She quickly ducked into the kitchen, worried that her entrance might wake him. She hid around the corner while trying to decide how to handle the situation.
After a moment's hesitation, she figured the best thing to do is just head downstairs and let Charlie figure it out. He was the Gryffindor, after all.
She grabbed a hangover potion out of the cupboard and filled up a glass of water, tiptoeing back into the living room and leaving it on the coffee table. When he began to stir, she made a dash for the exit and raced down the stairs to the sanctuary that was the wand shop. Deciding to use her extra time that morning to tidy up, she began returning wands to their proper places, filing them away on their assigned shelves. She magicked a feather duster to follow her around as she worked, fretting slightly over just how dingy the shop was getting under her care. She spent the last few moments before flipping the 'closed' sign to 'open' copying her records and putting them back in drawers out of sight.
As soon as she changed the sign and turned back to finish putting away a few straggling wands, she heard the chime of the bell as someone entered the shop. She spun around to see Keira, the spunky witch she had met when she was helping to restore Hogwarts.
"Eloise!" the girl exclaimed, looking very peppy for such an early hour. "I was hoping I'd catch you while I was in Diagon Alley!"
"You definitely looked in the right place," Eloise joked, stacking the remaining boxes on the counter.
"Oh, right, this is for you!" Keira chirped, handing her a steaming cup of coffee that read the name of the vendor down the street. "I was just going to see if you maybe wanted to get lunch sometime?"
She took the cup from the excited girl, inhaling the strong scent of coffee and grinning at her. "Of course, but probably not today, if that's alright," she answered, genuinely excited at the prospect. It had been a few years since she had had a girl friend to hang out with, probably not since her old best friend from Hogwarts, who moved to America after graduating.
"Oh, no problem! How about sometime next week? You can owl me whatever works?" she asked, bouncing around slightly.
"That sounds fantastic," Eloise smiled.
"Ah, I'm so excited now!" the girl cheered, spinning around. Her eyes widened as she took in the shop around her. "Woah, I haven't been in here since I got my first wand," she realized.
She shrugged, saying, "Most haven't. It's a shame though, this place always made me feel quite at home."
"Says the wandmaker," a new voice laughs. Eloise and Keira both turned to see Charlie hovering in the doorway to the staircase.
"Morning," Eloise gulped, wondering how exactly this was about to go down. Would he embarrass her? Tease her for her behavior last night? Or tell her that he wasn't interested in her that way, which for some reason seemed soul crushing, despite the fact that she was definitely not interested in Charlie like that. Eloise had discovered soon after leaving Hogwarts that alcohol and her were not friends, and she had tried to avoid it ever since because of situations like this one.
"Morning, Eloise," he grinned, coming out to stand next to her at the counter. He extended a hand to Keira, who Eloise had momentarily forgotten about. "Charlie Weasley."
"Keira Jones," she said, eyebrows raised as she looked between the pair in front of her.
"Of the Harpies?" Charlie's face lit up as he apparently knew of Keira.
"That's me," she laughed, shaking his hand enthusiastically.
"You're a bloody brilliant chaser!" he told her, leaving Eloise to wonder if she was the only one who hadn't known who Keira was. "I didn't know you were friends with Keira, Eloise?"
"We met recently," she explained, giggling at how excited he was.
"Hey, I told George I'd be over there at nine, so I better go over there now," Charlie said to her, changing the subject and looking somewhat disappointed that he had to leave so soon after meeting Keira. "I'll see you Friday, yeah?"
"Sure," she replied, thankful that he decided to ignore last night's events. He bid goodbye to the two girls and left them standing in the shop, watching as he crossed the street and strolled back to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
"You didn't tell me you were dating Charlie Weasley," Keira pointed out suspiciously. If Eloise had been drinking water, she would have sprayed it all over the tall girl.
"Dating Charlie? I'm not!" she exclaimed. Keira just looked even more puzzled at that. "He just crashed here last night. Not dating."
"Hm, awfully cozy then, aren't you?" she laughed. "He stole your coffee."
"He did what?" Indeed, Charlie had managed to steal her coffee.
"When you were doing that weird 'good morning' thing before he introduced himself," she giggled, apparently finding it hilarious that Eloise hadn't even noticed him stealing her coffee right out of her hand.
"Oi, shut it," Eloise snapped playfully as the girl continued to laugh. They continued chatting for a while before the first customer of the day came in, and Keira excused herself to do whatever business it was that she had in Diagon Alley.
