The feeling her back was experiencing was nothing to terrible at the end of the day. It was sort of the after-burn after having shut your fingers in a car door. After the initial blood curdling scream, you remove your fingers and then there is that ever present tingle. Alright, so perhaps it was quite uncomfortable but she was struggling through it and she knew that without the Pain Potion it would have been hell. She wasn’t really looking forward to going to sleep later either. She had an awful habit of going to sleep on her front and waking up on her back with, usually, her arms and legs in the air. She wasn’t entirely sure what the pain would be like after the potion wore off but she could see some pots of healing salve on the shelves that bore the Slug and Jigger’s Label so it was vaguely promising.
“It what?” Trent’s words registered in Millie’s mind and she beamed at him. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and chewed on it as she waited, excitement willing up within her. She smiled at Trent’s comment about Byron and laughed. “Maybe we’ll take him at Christmas. It can be a self-gift from himself to himself. How lovely.” Millie laughed and shook her head before biting her bottom lip again. “Or!” She added suddenly, releasing her lip. “It could be a Christmas present from you and me! Yeah! Right, I tell you what we’ll do because we will need to give him the whole kit and caboodle. Okay, I’ll work in Zonko’s and you work in Honeydukes!” Millie grinned. “He’ll love it!”
Millie didn’t want to upset her mother. She knew what was coming. She could see that disdain fall onto her mother’s lips and she shuddered right then and there at the thought of it. She did love her mother and she wanted nothing more than her approval but it was as if nothing she did could ensure that. Millie knew that by doing this she was pushing herself further and further from her mother’s catchment of approval. She wasn’t going to change herself. Not for Lavender she wasn’t. Millie could see the look on her mother’s face. She knew that there was no way that she could avoid the anger, the shouting and the imminent slap that was already beginning to burn her cheek. She had no idea why that burn of skin connecting with skin was there but she had a feeling it was forewarning; that that would be her fate if she told her mother. It was unavoidable though. With every scenario, the burn just increased and Millie found that by telling her straight away, it didn’t hurt nearly as much.
“She’ll be furious either way,” Millie protested. “It’s easier to just tell her and walk out than suffer through a few hours at home and then have her find out. A few days, even. That’ll just make her angrier!” Millie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “It’s fine. She’s angry with me no matter what I do so this won’t make a blind bit of difference. Just...pull it off like a plaster.” She smiled gently before frowning. “I’m sorry Trent. It’s not that bad being home along is it? I mean, we can drag my brother with us if we want but he’ll be in a right shit for however long we ‘hold him hostage’. Take him away from that flipping computer and he’ll die.” Millie rolled her eyes. “We’ll bring him. We’ll shrink him and stuff him in the back with my knickers and see how he survives.” Millie snickered, her mind going back to when he’d raided her drawers in search of the cigarettes she’d stolen and had stumbled across the lacy unmentionables that he claimed had ‘scarred him for life’. Poor Brother-Bot.
“Okay Miss Millie,” Andrew announced after a moment of silence. “You look to be about done lass. Now, get off of the table a second and go to the mirrors over there. I want to see whether anything needs to be changed...from your point of view of course.”
Millie nodded and hopped off of the table, throwing an arm across her chest as if suddenly her modesty was important. She bounced over to the mirrors and turned around. Thankfully the mirrors had been arranged so each one reflected off of at least one mirror so by looking into one, Millie could see her back. She gasped as the wings gave a shudder and she watched as a feather fell from the wings. Her face fell a little and Andrew smirked, watching with her as slowly but surely, the feather broke apart. Millie’s eyes widened as a flock of birds exploded from the feather and her bright eyes followed them as they flew across her back and round onto her stomach before finally fading away. Millie looked up at Andrew and beamed at him, a squeal falling from her lips as she bustled over to him and gave him a one-armed hug.
“You are genius!” She exclaimed before taking her shirt from Trent. “Thank you, love,” She smiled, popping a kiss onto his cheek.
She was terribly worried about her bra which was threatening, much to her dismay, to fall down. Where she’d stayed more or less still, it had stayed put and had covered most of her modesty. She couldn’t reach behind her though and after a few tries, she decided to forgo the bra all together, figuring it would hurt more to have it pressing against her back than the shirt would. So, she slipped her arms out and tossed the scarlet bit of lace and wire to Trent before poking her arms into her shirt and beginning to button it up. The fact that she was in the presence of men didn’t faze her at all and the fact that there were people walking by outside didn’t even make it occur to her to cover herself up. She did eventually though, once the buttons were in their respective holes. Truly, she had no shame. She wouldn’t have been Millie Finnigan if she did.
Millie took her wallet from her pocket and held it up. “How much d’you want, love?” She asked Andrew as he began to walk over to the till. He pulled a couple of pots off of the shelves and put them on the counter before ringing smiling at Millie and waving his hand.
“I don’t want your money, Miss Millie,” He murmured with a smile. “This here is healing salve though. You can get some more from the Apothecary when you run out. Which you will pretty quickly with that so I think two will do you the trick. Actually no, sod it, three pots.” He took another two off of the counter. “We’ve been through how to look after it and such haven’t we?” Millie nodded. “Good. Now, I put in some Pain Potion because I promise you that will be murder to try and sleep on. This is stronger stuff so it should do the trick there. Get your boyfriend to put the salve on,” Millie snorted and Andrew chuckled. “Boyfriend, B*tch...whatever. My point is that you’re not going to get that stuff on your back okay? I’m going to prescribe you a nice bath as well. Bubbles...the whole kit and caboodle. Okay? See to it that you get onto that. And with your mum I think it is best to tell her and crash at your B*tch’s house. I did the same when I got my first one. She nigh on disowned me the crazy woman. Right, so let’s see. You’re not going to let me get away with giving you this are you?” Millie shook her head. “Okay, so let’s say twenty galleons for the lot? Sounds bloody fair and I’m still giving you a discount. Jump at the chance, Millie-love.”
Begrudgingly, Millie decided it was probably best to just pay the discount and not put up a fight. She did feel as if she was cheating Andrew though and that bothered her to no end. He didn’t seem nearly as bothered though and insisted she come back, if only to say hello, sometime in the coming weeks before school. Millie gave him her word, let him put her things in a bag and she bounced back over to Trent after giving Andrew a kiss on the cheek.
“C’mon baby. Let’s go and deal with mum. Are you alright there? Would you like to put that in here?” She asked, opening the back with reference to the bra that she’d given him.
by 
