“Zane? What are you doing?” Edgar glanced around after pulling his second boot on. The young boy had been there only seconds before, dressed and ready to go, and now he was nowhere to be found. “Zane?” he called again, getting to his feet and heading towards the living area.
Little footsteps came pounding down the stairs, the sound made louder by the clunk of his shoes on each step. “I can’t find Dragony,” the young boy whined, sounding absolutely miserable about the missing toy.
“Did you really need to bring him along to get ice cream?”
“Yes!” Zane came into view, pouting and eyebrows knit together.
Edgar chuckled, turning toward the living area once more. “Yeah, alright, I should have known better than to ask.” It was after a quick search that they found the toy jammed under the armchair. Zane smiled broadly, hugging the toy to his chest and taking his father’s hand as they made their way out the door. Edgar double checked that he had the boys sound-canceling headphones in his pocket, in case things got too noisy. His son was used to the ice cream shop, it was almost like a second home, so he wasn’t worried, but he didn’t want to take any risks.
When he was sure they had everything, he pulled the young boy with him for side-along apparation, arriving in the alley outside of the Leaky Cauldron and making his way through to Diagon Alley.
Edgar liked the short walk to his favourite shop and lately, they’d been doing their best to expose Zane to people as much as possible without scaring him. It was working too, the boy was much more comfortable in the Alley than he had been months before and he was no longer of speaking around strangers. Sometimes he still preferred to ride on his father’s shoulders above the crowd, but he was doing much better as of late.
Though, he was still shy by nature, and so cowered a bit when he heard his name called from a distance, shuffling behind his father. “Ted, hi!” Edgar greeted cheerfully, leading his son along and trying to encourage him to come out from hiding. It wasn’t until Zane realized that he actually recognized the loud girl opposite him that he perked up and came out from hiding.
“Hello,” he said quietly but cheerfully, waving his own little greeting to the pair.
Ted twisted at his daughter’s excited exclamation, his dark eyes sweeping the mix-mosh of people until they alighted on Edgar and little Zane. Immediately a smile tugged across his lips, creating a dimple in his cheek, and setting his eyes to twinkling. Holding tight to his daughter’s hand, they picked their way across the busy street, moving to stop before them.
Ted, aware of how rough things had been on all the children (despite his own daughters sometimes impervious nature) squatted down so that he was more on level with Zane and grinned. “Hello Zane.” He did an obvious once over and said, “You sure are growing fast. At this rate you’ll bigger than your papa before too long.”
Meanwhile, Dora had bounced up to stop before Edgar. In what she approximated as her very best adult face, she struck out her hand and said, “Very nice to see you again Mr. Edgar.” Her mother had been emphasizing manners lately. She knew she didn’t look as beautiful and perfect as mama did when she was being a lady, but never let it be said she didn’t try.
Standing, he turned more toward Edgar and said, “I’m not sure they’re still in the mood for ice cream. They look pretty bored, but I think they’re selling vegetable samples at the grocery store?” He suggested.
Dora was having none of it. Shaking her head at her father, she grabbed his robe and tugged him toward Floreans. “You said ice cream Da.” She reminded him.
“It seems I’ve been corrected.” Ted said, moving forward to capture his daughter’s hand once again before they started toward Floreans’. He caught the door, swinging it open and stepping back so that Edgar and Zane could lead the way, followed by Dora, and lastly of course, himself. It was a simple adventure, and the reward equally simplistic, and yet there was something comforting in the activity. So many things had become so complicated. He was grateful they could still do this for the children. He wanted Dora to be a child as long as she could. It was the least that he, as her father, should be able to provide for her.
