messy // george weasley

ch1: Evanesco

  The pale pink building standing before her seemed more daunting than she had ever imagined. Perhaps if she stood in front of it for long enough it, along with her nerves, may shrink.

"You know it will probably just be easier on yourself to just go inside," whispered her brother, ruining the moment she was having inside her mind.

"Shut up, Mitchell," she spat back. "It's called going at your own pace."

"Well, I didn't realize that you were a part snail."

She shot him a pointed look. It wasn't her fault she had yet to leave the cobblestones that messily lined the road in front of her new shop. Willow blamed her feet. And possibly her brain that was buzzing with the sixty-seven negative outcomes that occurred if she was to open that door.

"Sweetheart, please hurry up. We aren't paying half your rent so you can live on the streets outside of your flat," said her father as he plopped another box onto the stack that was quickly growing in size.

Willow glanced at her dad as he strolled back to the moving truck parked a few feet away.

"Dad, you do realize that you're in the middle of Diagon Alley, right? There's no use in moving everything out of the truck. We could literally be done in thirty seconds if you allowed us to help you," she said, gesturing to the wand sticking out of her jacket pocket.

Her dad sighed, "Yes, but you kids need to learn that not everything in life has to be done using magic. A little bit of sweat never hurt anyone."

Willow, Mitchell, and her mother all rolled their eyes.

Even though her dad, a muggle, had knowingly married into a magic family he had never quite come around to the idea of it. Quite ridiculous if you asked Willow, but people rarely did.

Edith and Nicholas Sweetwood had given birth to two magical children and one muggle. Willow had been lucky enough to be included in the former. Her older, twin brothers, Leo and Mitchell, had only gotten half lucky. She did not envy Leo's position as the only muggle child, but at least he had their dad to confine in.

At this point in her life, twenty-one, fresh out of culinary school, and scared of the world ahead of her, Willow really could not imagine her life without magic. She couldn't help but pity Leo, although he had certainly survived twenty-six years without it so far. 

She couldn't completely blame her father. The wizarding world had just recently come out on the other side of a deadly war. However, Willow was lucky enough to have graduated from Hogwarts long before the battle had occurred. She knew of wizards and witches still in classes there or folks that had gone back to help, but she had never considered herself much of a hero.

"Oi! Lolo, get your head out of your arse and open the damned door already," shouted Leo, breaking Willow out of her daydream.

"Goodness me, Leo. Let the girl live," Willow's mother responded as she walked up to the spot next to her.

"Love, I can only hold them off for so long," she whispered to her daughter. "It may be in your interest to, in fact, 'open that damned door,' as your brother so lovingly put it."

Willow glanced at her mother as she shot her a reassuring smile. She made a point. Even though it was early enough for the other shops in Diagon Alley to be closed, there was still the occasional witch or wizard walking down the streets taking in the full view of all of her things. That thought alone was enough to finally push her towards the door.

Just as she was finally fishing her keychain out of her pockets, she heard a nearby door swing open with a bang. She glanced across the alley where she found a rather tall, ginger wizard leaning against the doorframe, talking to the witch opposite him.