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Sabrina had popped open the passenger side door and skipped onto the sidewalk before Zelda had even put the car in park. "Sabrina! No running and don't forget your jacket!" Zelda yelled out. She grabbed the red windbreaker from the backseat and joined her niece in the line of cosplaying adolescents circling the block outside Cerberus Books. The murmur of their conversations filled up the otherwise empty street.
Sabrina fidgeted as Zelda slipped the jacket over her arms and re-secured the scarlet and gold scarf around her neck. "I can dress myself, Auntie," she said. Zelda hummed in response before muttering a warming spell over her niece's head. Sabrina had already badgered Zelda to accompany her to the midnight release event as Rosalind and Susie had left town on vacation with their families; Zelda didn't want to be nursing her better from a summer cold, as well.
The bookstore proprietor greeted his way down the line of patrons with a tray of sugar cookies decorated with frosting in the shape of a lightning bolt. He'd traded in his cape for a just as ridiculous satin robe worn over a grey vest and green tie. Zelda sniffed as she declined the refreshments, though Sabrina grabbed for a treat and sent crumbs cascading over her scarf on the first bite.
Sabrina turned around to gab with the fans queued up behind them about their predictions for the next book. Zelda wondered why she couldn't show the same enthusiasm for the Church of Night's canon. Reading about certain sects of the false god working themselves into a tizzy over the series' supposed Satanic influences brought a grin to her lips, but JK Rowling wasn't one of theirs as far as Zelda knew. The books had possessed the potential to familiarize mortals with the concept of witches as a benevolent force, but they instead distorted magic's origin by hewing to the age-old template of the Good standing against a 'Dark Lord.'
A whoop rippled through the crowd as the doors were opened at the stroke of midnight. "Don't they know they're leaving one line to join another?" Zelda said under her breath. The mob filing into Cerberus Books looped back and forth across the shop's floor, the main difference in the state of affairs being that Zelda had lost her opportunity to light up a cigarette now that they were indoors.
Sabrina jumped up for a peek at the treasure laying open to those at the front of the line. Stacks of the tomes bedecked a broad wooden table as shop attendants wearing round spectacles with false lenses tore open cardboard boxes for more stock to keep the crowd satiated. After much shuffling past kitschy movie posters and comic book racks, they reached the altar where Sabrina snatched up two copies into her hands. The fortifications around Zelda's heart melted at the squeal of delight that emanated from her niece.
She fixed her eyes on the cover which depicted Harry holding his wand aloft against a monochromatic backdrop. Zelda wasn't one to dismiss all of the mortal race’s artistic accomplishments out of hand; she'd participated in the stations of the Grand Tour of Europe in her youth, but this modern day, kaleidoscope interpretation of the dark arts made her skin itch in irritation. She recalled Sabrina asking if she would ever get to use a wand. When Zelda responded in the negative, she followed up with a query on if the Academy of Unseen Arts would deliver her acceptance letter via owl.
Magic was more than shooting a shower of sparks from a stick while reciting Latin verse. She doubted the wizards of Hogwarts had ever called upon the unseen forces residing between Hell and Earth until their bones burned with enough power to bend reality. Potions class came the closest to an accurate representation of true magic, concerned as it was with creating potency from proper ritual, such as simmering ingredients for a full month until they synthesized into Polyjuice potion. Zelda’s train of thought crashed into a heap as she shuddered at how much fictional lore she had absorbed by osmosis.
Sabrina heaved the two books onto the glass display case of pastries by the register. Zelda pulled out a crisp set of bills from her pocketbook to pass over to the cashier. "Have we got two fans in the household?" the cashier asked as she rang up the purchase.
"Unfortunately, yes," Zelda replied. Hilda had been the one to read the first books in the series to Sabrina at bedtime after she borrowed them from the elementary school library and had gotten just as hooked as Sabrina. Hilda was the one who had no qualms about waiting outside the bookstore when it would have been perfectly acceptable to make the purchases the following morning. Hilda was also the one who needed to attend to her herb garden tonight at the witching hour to maximize the harvest's potency, so left this particular task to Zelda.
On the car ride home, Sabrina retrieved one of the copies from the bookstore bag and hugged it against her chest with a wide-eyed grin that almost reached her ears. She again declined to wait for Zelda to stop the car completely before she raced to the front door and took the staircase two steps at a time to no doubt devour as much of the text as she could until sleep overtook her.
Zelda changed into her nightgown and then checked in on Sabrina. She found her sitting cross-legged on the bed still wearing her jacket and scarf. Sabrina had yet to crack the spine and was presently tracing her fingers over the image on the cover. "Aren't you going to start reading?" Zelda asked. "It feels like you've done nothing this summer break besides poring over the previous books to prepare for this one."
Sabrina looked up. "I wanted to wait for Auntie Hilda to get back so that we could start together."
"I see," Zelda said. She headed back downstairs for a nightcap. Hilda pushed open the backdoor with her shoulder as her and Ambrose's arms were laden with wicker baskets full of greens.
"How was the bookstore?" Hilda asked as she set the bounty on the kitchen counter and slipped off her gardening gloves.
"Dreadful," Zelda replied as she threw back a finger's worth of bourbon. "Sabrina is upstairs waiting for you with your copy."
"I can put the mandrakes away if you wanted to head up now," Ambrose offered.
Hilda called out a thanks as she set a tea kettle on the stove, plated a batch of scones, and heaped strawberry jam and clotted cream into ramekins to bring up to Sabrina's room.
Zelda lit a cigarette and poured out another glass of bourbon. After the cigarette had burned down to the filter and she had finished the drink, she returned upstairs with the intention of turning in. She paused outside Sabrina's bedroom when a burst of giggles erupted from within. Zelda listened along to their hushed discussion of a plot event as she stood outside the half-open door.
She took a step back down the hallway, but a nudge from the alcohol floating in her bloodstream stayed her gait. Zelda took a breath and swallowed down her allergy to mortal silliness to join her sister and niece inside to see what this Harry Potter fuss was all about. She had volumes of backstory to catch up on, but dawn was hours away and Hilda and Sabrina threw themselves into getting her up to speed so that the three of them could journey through the latest installment together.