#p:walking off nightmares

[crabbeapple]

Walking Off Nightmares || Sep and Daisy || May 5, 1980

Date: May 5th, 1980 Time: early morning Location: Diagon Alley, London @daisyhxxkum

Septimus Crabbe stared through the shop window of Pettichaps and boggled at how little he knew about kids. He’d been a father for several months now and he wished that made him an expert, but as he looked at the wide selection of cloth nappies (‘Self-cleaning!’), baby blankets (‘Enchanted with the best Warming charms!’) and assorted grow suits (‘Available in Hogwarts house colours!’), he still felt utterly lost. One shop over, the morning sun was glinting off of the many glass eyes of Twinkles Telescopes, while on Sep’s right a grouchy eagle owl was glaring at the pigeons that strutted around the cobbles outside of Belchers Bottled Beers, the little brewery located under Flourish and Blotts. It was quiet in Diagon Alley this early in the morning, but the shops were close to opening and here and there, Sep spotted shopkeepers arriving at their businesses to prepare for the new day.

Grim snuffled around his feet, occasionally tugging on the leash when one of the pigeons fluttered enough to catch the big dog’s attention. The rottweiler was well-trained, though, and wouldn’t give chase while Sep held the other end of the lead.

Despite the peaceful morning, Sep wasn’t feeling very at ease. He’d woken with a start an hour earlier, jolting from a nightmare that had left his heart beating fast and sweat on his brow. Nightmares were nothing new to him, he’d had them all his life, but lately it felt like they were getting worse. More lucid. More frequent. He tried to brush them aside, to tell himself it was nothing, just the stress of the war. It was getting harder to ignore them, though. No matter how much he told himself the violence of the Dark Lord’s cause didn’t bother him, it seemed to stir up memories he wished he could forget.

So he’d left the house in search of something that could take his mind off the lingering images in his head. The quick excuse of taking the dog for a walk had gotten him out the door and his feet had led him here to Diagon Alley, with the half-formed plan of buying something for Wee Vinnie. He just wasn’t sure what yet. All he knew was that whenever his nightmares dragged him back to thoughts of his childhood, thinking about his son helped push the memories away again.

He was alerted to someone else’s presence nearby when Grim barked, just once. A greeting and a gentle warning. Patting the dog on his broad head, Sep glanced over his shoulder, speaking before he’d even caught sight of who might be approaching:

“Oi, what d’you reckon is better, a little Slytherin jumper or one of them grow suits with the hippogriffs on them?”