𝕲𝖔𝖊𝖙𝖎𝖈[𝕬 𝕿𝖔𝖒 𝖗𝖎𝖉𝖉𝖑𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞]

Picture Perfect.

Tom glanced to his side every so often, just to check if Leo was still walking beside him.

They were walking around a small market near little Little Hangleton. The atmosphere was quite cheery as Christmas Eve was just the next day.

He never knew that the market would be so lively. Children were singing carols and people smiled at Tom evey once in a while.

Everyone looked happy. The crisp morning air carried delicious aromas of freshly baked cakes. Every shop was glinting with fairy lights and other Christmas decorations.

Everyone was just happy and living in the moment.

All except Leo

Leo gave off very dark aura dressed in all black clothes contrary to the bright red and green colours surrounding her. Even her face was glum as her messy hair shadowed her sunken eyes. Unlike her usual self, she hadn't spoken a single word throughout their journey.

Tom was never the one to talk much. Thus, they didn't exchange any words except the necessary ones. So far, the trip for Christmas shopping was a failure in cheering up Leo.

"How about that store?" Tom asked hesitantly. Leo gave a light shrug in response making him sigh.

They walked into a bright looking gift shop. Tom went completely blank as his eyes swept over all the bright looking products. He gulped in order to get rid of his confused expression and started walking foreward with fake confidence.

He stopped in front of a shelf where other boys his age were gathered around. It was a shop for muggles therefore there was no magical item which made things even more difficult for him to understand.

He picked up a strange looking glass vial with bluish liquid swirling inside of it. He turned back to see whether Leo was watching him or not but the girl was busy glaring at a bunch of children screaming their lungs out.

He looked back at the strange item in his hand once again. He decided to open the lid out of curiosity. There was a small button like contraption on top of it. Without thinking much, the boy pushed it down only to get sprayed with a very strong perfume straight into his eyeballs.

He hissed out in pain, grabbing Leo's attention. The girl watched as he rubbed his eyes furiously. She shook her head from side to side in disappointment.

The perfume bottle was snatched out of his hand by Leo. She shoved it back into the shelf and pushed Tom out of the place to another section.

That particular section was filled with bizarre looking toys. Few of them looked like it could kill people. They quickly walked around and and went straight out of the exit. Tom could feel the shopkeeper glare at him.

Tom sighed yet again.

His sharp eyes schemed the entire market to find any shop that would grab her attention. A few blocks away, quite a lot of people were lined in front of an expensive looking shop. Every now an then, a bright flash would lighten up the curtained place as if thunder was striking inside.

He wanted to explore it a little bit.

He grabbed Leo's hand and started guiding her towards the odd looking shop. Leo's eyes fell on their intertwined fingers but she didn't make any attempt to break free.

They joined the line behind a very excited looking couple, probably newlyweds. Tom's nose scrunched up after seeing their lovey-dovey expressions and sweet words that were being thrown at each other.

He soon realised that the entire queue was filled with couples only. Maybe there were a few with their children as well but they were couples nonetheless.