A Shopping Trip: Some Assembly Required

((The day before the shooting at the Ministry))

Vinzent scowled as he and his daughters Charisma and Symphony walked through the crowded street of Diagon Alley. Charisma walked behind him this time, doing nothing to let him know she was still following. Symphony on the other hand gripped the sleeve of the wizard’s robes and refused to let go with this many people around. She didn’t want to get lost and be unable to find her Daddy. Jonathan had been left in the care of the family house-elf as Vinzent didn’t feel like keeping track of both little ones. Keeping an eye on a teenager and a seven-year-old was tricky enough as it was.

“Dad, I’m more than able to get my school things on my own. Just let me go,” Charisma huffed with irritation. The young witch hadn’t a clue why her father felt an overwhelming urge to stick his nose in her and everyone else’s business.

“Because I know that’s not what you’ll do unless I keep an eye on you,” Vinzent scowled in return, turning his head to set one beady blue eye on his eldest daughter.

Charisma scoffed. “Well, maybe if you let me go out a bit more I wouldn’t be inclined to go off the beaten path,” she retorted with a roll of her eyes. It wasn’t true, but if it got him to reconsider... Honestly, didn’t he have better things to do than stalk his own daughter?!

“If I let you go out more you’d never be home whether I need you to be there or not,” Vinzent argued. Sure, he was strict with curfew. He demanded to know where she would be and the moment she changed locations. Sometimes the wizard had a chaperone escort her and make sure Charisma’s guests kept to a list of Vinzent’s ‘best interests’ for his daughter. It wasn’t a long list: pure or half-blooded, at least some familial recognition in the wizarding world or otherwise a presentable appearance, and by absolutely no means any association with those less than half-blood! Overall Vinzent felt he was more than generous.

“That’s kinda the point...” muttered Charisma under her breath. The witch just wanted to be free of her father. It had been her hope that since she came of age she would have earned her freedom. No such luck though: Charisma quickly found out Vinzent had other plans for her. He wanted her to marry a pureblooded classmate, continue to live in a replica of the family manor in Transylvania here in England, raise her siblings in Vinzent’s stead as well as work and start her own family with her father’s hand-picked selection of a groom. She already wanted to get her siblings away from their father and find a job... but everything else about marriage and family-building she could do without her father getting his hands in the mix.

Vinzent hadn’t heard Charisma’s remark. Begrudgingly, the wizard acknowledged that he did have other better things to do than become Charisma’s shadow. With a huff he handed her what looked like a muggle ATM card. The only thing was it clearly had the name ‘GRINGOTTS’ emblazoned on it. “Use a glamour charm and take this. There should be enough to buy your school things and some extras, but that’s your limit. Got it?” he all but snarled irritably as he handed over a bank card pre-set with the allowed spending limit.

“Got it...” Charisma sighed with a huge roll of her eyes. She took the card and was about to just take off when her father spoke again.

“You have two hours, starting now. Don't make me hunt you down, or send Julian after you,” Vinzent told her, giving his watch a tap with his wand. He scowled as he watched Charisma practically bolt from the group and toward Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. “Teenagers...” the wizard muttered.

“Can we get ice cream? And go to the pet store? Pleease?!” asked Symphony, tugging relentlessly on her father’s sleeve now that she was the only child of his to have his full and undivided attention – a rare treat almost as much as the one she was requesting!

Vinzent glanced at the now-hyper little girl with a bit of disapproval at the energetic antics. “Later, perhaps. If you calm down,” he answered coolly. “I have to go here and the bank first.” At the word ‘here’ Vinzent pulled open the door to Flourish and Blotts and walked in as though he didn’t have a little girl practically attached to him at the elbow.

Symphony had quieted right down the instant her father seemed to favor her with a glare for her enthusiasm. The little girl couldn’t help it: just how often did her Daddy make time for her and -only- her instead of relegating her care to someone else?! Or at least that had been what she thought he was doing. But he did promise that if she was good they’d get ice cream, so surely that was a guarantee she'd get some time with him! Symphony could be quiet and good for that long, at least, for such a reward.

The little girl nearly ran into a bookstand as her father entered the store, forcing her to let go of Vinzent’s robes to prevent the books from falling. Vinzent simply kept walking toward the customer service counter without much in the way of a glance back to check on her. Realizing this, Symphony chased after him and resisted the urge to shout for him to wait. The girl knew he wouldn’t listen anyway.