Better Man

- - 3 - -

"Oh, yes, actually I have a couple of things to do today. Not hard things, I'm sure that you'd be quite capable of doing them for me, if you'd like?"

Nodding, George took the piece of paper out of her hands and looked over what she had written. His eyes hovering over the ink that stained the paper: Pick up flowers. This seemed to work in his favour as that was the errand he had been waiting for and was more than happy to get it done, even if it seemed he wasn't happy about it. He wasn't happy about how curious the girl seemed to be with his life but was extremely curious to understand how she knew all about his world and yet, he didn't recognise her from school. Perhaps she attended a different wizarding school, but even then, why had she chosen such a mundane occupation?

"Are you sure that you can get everything done?" Molly looked at the note over his shoulder, scanning over what she had written and hoping that it wouldn't create a bigger divide between her and her son. "I can do a few of them if you're too busy."

"No, it's fine. I do want to ask you something though, about the florist-"

"Oh, did you want to pick out the flowers? I wasn't sure what kind you'd like and Fred never told me about the kinds that he liked. I just went with whatever the florist thought was right and-"

"I don't care about the flowers." He snapped and felt slightly guilty when he saw both of his parents flinch in regards to the tone that he used. Lowering his tone, he tried to change his approach. "Do you know the florist?"

"The girl?" Molly raised an eyebrow before brushing off his curiosity. "Not really. She answers the phone for the orders and she sounds nice. She was helpful when I told her that I didn't really know what flowers to choose."

"Did you tell her about us? About who the flowers were for?"

Molly shook her head. "No, I almost did but she promised me that I didn't need to go into detail. That she just handles the flowers, doesn't need to know about our business. Why? Did she say something to you?"

"No, I was just wondering how much she knew, that's all." He pushed the note into his pocket and pulled his jacket tighter around his torso. "I should get going, get started on the errands."

Molly didn't even get a chance to kiss him goodbye as he apparated out of the house, turning back to her husband with a happier look on her face because even though it didn't seem like much; this was the most talkative their son had been in months. This was the first time that he had left his flat and visited them by his own choice, this was a huge step for George and she didn't know what had changed. All she had asked was for him to do the errands once, and now it was seemingly becoming a routine for him. As long as he was happy, then she would be happy and nothing would make her happier than to see her children all back to normal; hopefully sooner rather than later because they could all do with some cheering up right now.

🌹🌹

Indigo opened up the shop on time, just like normal, straight at nine o'clock on the dot. She had a few customers come through her door but none of them were anything special, just collecting orders or wanting something simple, made on the spot. She hadn't seen the rude man in a week, and she wasn't complaining because it meant less disrespect but she was also curious about when or if she would ever see him again. At twelve, she decided to take a quick lunch break and headed upstairs to make herself a sandwich; she wasn't the best cook and tried to avoid cooking at any chance which was why she was sticking to something simple for lunch. Sitting at the counter and happily munching on her food as she fed the extras to Basil, she was interrupted when someone began banging loudly on the shop door. No one had ever done that before, shoving the last piece of bread into her mouth; she rushed down the stairs and headed to the front room to see what all the commotion was about.