"Now, why would I try to butter you up like that?" she laughed. "I admit to being a little biased but you will always look good to me, my friend." She listened to his explanation for his absence. It made sense to her. "You were certainly entitled to recovery time and a change of pace," she said. "You were in a horrendous position in that last Hogwarts battle. When good people have to do terrible things for good purposes that they don't want to do, the effects can be nightmarish--or worse."
She did at least somewhat understand it--the loneliness, the hurt, the emptiness, all of it. And if there was one thing she did not want for Wilson it was all of that ugly empty place that came after marching through hell. she'd been in that place herself twice in her life that she could remember. Was what she experienced anything close to what Wilson had, in its own way? She didn't know but she felt her father had been there twice--or would he consider it to be three times now? She wasn't sure. She took his arm, as a woman might do with a gentleman.
"You were right to come home," she said, "because I don't think you'll find the rest of what you're looking for by yourself. Its time to be amongst friends again. And what makes me happy today is being with you."
"This way," she said with a smile, gesturing forward down the street to get to Sparks. "I started Sparks just before everything at Hogwarts went off the proverbial rails, so you might not have even heard we were here. It's sort of a bistro/coffee shop/bakery. Part of what makes us a bit out of the norm here is that I use only seasonally fresh ingredients, and everything is freshly made, by hand, nothing conjured--ever. I have a couple of really good chefs, and my father has a hobby of tinkering with tea blends. He creates all our flavored teas according to the season and all our herbal teas, and they're always good sellers--especially the almond tea. People like that we have sofas and comfy chairs in front of the fireplace and not just tables and chairs. And, we started conjuring some simple little animated animal figures out of sparkling light for the kids, and the kids love watching the animals dancing or playing around on the ceilings or walls, and that's how we got the name Sparks. Our servers started calling the little spark animals 'sparks' because kids asked to go to the place with sparks."
And then he'd noticed. She had not wanted him to see, but he had always been a master of observation. Of course he had noticed. So, what to do? Brush it off? Would Wilson be brushed off? Not likely at all.
"You're not to blame, believe me," she said, deciding to be honest. "You're the very reason I feel safe. I am always safe with you. Someone has been...admiring me...in a most unhealthy way. I don't see him here right now, but it has me looking over my shoulder, I'm afraid. If he were here, we would both most certainly notice him. He stands 7'2", so he's hard to miss. I'll tell you more about that later. My husband didn't want me coming here alone, but I promised him I would stick to Diagon Alley. And Sparks is a safe place, so I am keeping my word."
"You know," she said, "it occurs to me that you probably aren't up on the fact that I am no longer Mrs. Dent. That's a long story but the one sentence version of the story is that it didn't work out--except for my wonderful daughter, Abbey. She's two now. She's the only good thing that came out of that relationship. And, since, I have remarried to the Ministry's auror trainer, Brian Quinn in fighting and dueling tactics, and he's good at all kinds of law enforcement work and private investigative work. He and I grew up together--he was my best friend since we were eight years old. I never had any romantic thoughts about him while we were in Hogwarts, but that's clearly changed. You're going to like him, I think. He's a good husband, and he's a great father. He thinks of Abbey as his, and I am looking to make that official. Oh--here we are." They had reached Sparks. "This is it. Come in," she said, .
Inside, the large bistro was warm and welcoming, with a full bakery counter and tea and coffee counter on the left for people who wanted to buy their goods and go. There were tables with comfortable chairs, and on the other side of the bistro were tables and booths, more tables and chairs, and a large seating area with loveseats, comfortable club chairs, coffee tables and side tables, all close to a large fireplace or near the Bistro's large windows. The Bistro's colors were warm taupe walls with clean white trim, and it was decorated with white art work on the walls, white accent colors and a lot of lush green plants, making the place clean, friendly and comfortable.
"This is it. This is my place," She said. "Let's find an out of the way table, shall we? Do you have a preference for fireplace or window?" she asked him. As she spoke, a waitress conjured a little sparkling outline of a teal bunny on the back wall near a little boy, and the bunny hopped up the wall, around the ceiling and lingered and seemed to play with a lighted picture of a tea cup above the tea counter before diving into the lighted tea cup in the picture and disappearing. The little boy beamed with excitement and clapped. "See what I mean? You should see it when we do a child's birthday party," she laughed.
by 
