Destinies Collide

The Price of Profit

With that taken care of, he's free to focus on the work front. He'd had a meeting with his boss first thing the day before and they were slowly closing in on an agreement for his new contract, which would put him in a similar position to a freelance solicitor, assisting with the legal work on a flexible project basis. He would lose his right to the firm's resources for his pro-bono work, but the lack of a billable hour quota would be worth it to make time for his son.

On the subject of his son, Sarah had stared at him for a full minute after the revelation of the impending adoption before demanding a shopping spree with said child to commemorate the occasion, and it went unsaid that she simply didn't trust his fashion sense and hoped to remedy any damage before Harry became too used to it. Marie's reaction, on the other hand, had been a tight hug and congratulations, along with assurances that he would manage just fine and that it was about time for her to hear the pitter-patter of little feet running through the house again.

~

November 18th, 1988

Magic people's food, Harry decides, is kind of weird.

It's not always obvious that it's magical, they've got some pretty normal-looking stuff that tastes great - he especially loves Butterbeer, Fizzing Whizzbees and Every Flavour Ice-cream - but then sometimes he gets to eat at magic restaurants like the one Ms Chang took them to after they left the bank, a place called Perit Plate or something like that, and gets grossed out by stuff like stuffed Niffler nose, Bicorn stew - which is actually tasty but smells weird - or Flobberworm pudding. He hopes the fancy magic cafe he's visiting with Mr Wright and Ms Chang has something he can eat without making a face and looking impolite.

He's not so sure where they are exactly, since they'd taken the floo to the Changs and then again to Glacial Garden, but they step out of the floo into what looks like a reception room, with white walls and light blue chairs and couches, as well a couple other fireplaces besides the one they had to quickly step away from in case anyone else came in after them. There's only a big central door in white wood and pretty glass drawings of a blue tree in a garden that looks like it should be in a church or art museum, and he's so busy looking at it that he doesn't even notice the little house elf that pops up right in front of them until it squeaks out a question, asking their names.

"Reservation under Chang," Ms Chang tells the elf, who only nods and starts walking toward the big glass door.

The elf looks younger than the ones he's seen at Ms Chang's house, and it's wearing a white dress covered with a blue apron. It's all so small that it makes the elf look kind of cute, with the huge blue eyes and mop of black hair to boot, a little like a strange doll with very big ears.

When the glass door opens, Harry realizes the image on the glass is just a painting of how it looks inside. They step into what looks like a huge garden, it looks a little like the glasshouse in the botanical garden he'd visited with Hermione before, but most of the plants look nothing like anything he's seen before, and everything's a little bit covered in snow like it's been sieved over it all like powdered sugar, and the season outside doesn't seem to make a difference on the inside. It's obviously not somewhere they go just to see plants though, since they're mostly spread along the glass walls - he can't really see outside of them except for some tall, snow-covered trees, and are they even in London still? - and spread all over the room are transparent-ish tables with what looks like glass chairs, or maybe ice, making him scared of accidentally breaking any.