Where: Diagon Alley Who: Melaina && @minaburke
The days were getting colder and a new season with a three year old always meant the need for a new wardrobe. Melaina was trying to spend less time with Theo in public, knowing that it wouldn’t be long until people started asking questions. It was one thing playing the darling helpful daughter looking after her young brother while her father was grieving but spending every moment she was away from work with the boy made it a bit too obvious that she saw it as something more than a babysitting duty. So, that day, she had gone shopping alone. It was better this way. Theo would only fuss if she put him through a whole day of trying on outfits.
A couple of bags in hand, Melaina left one store with the idea of heading into the one next door where she could not only pick up a (rather expensive) new set of rainproof boots for Theo but a new pair of shoes for herself as well. Instead, she found herself face-to-face with Wilhelmina Burke.
It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other at all in recent years. They ran in the same sorts of circles. Mina worked for Melaina’s cousin. They both had their duty towards the Dark Lord Their lives were almost destined to be intertwined at this point. And, once upon a time, they had been friends. But both of them would have called themselves closer to Fauna and that was where things had got a little weird. As things tended to do when a friend married another friend’s father out of the blue. There had been so many secrets shared between Melaina and Fauna and their friendship had still suffered from being step-mother and step-daughter. And Mina had been on the outside of those secrets.
In the two months since Fauna’s death, they hadn’t had chance to speak. Melaina hadn’t been up for talking at the funeral and a part of her had been trying to avoid Mina. Avoid the fact that Fauna wasn’t just Theo’s supposed mother. She wasn’t just Melaina’s step-mother. She had once been her best friend. “Mina. I— How are you? You look well. Did I miss you at Prospero’s ball the other week?”