Next morning she received a gift from nature: snow. Small flakes were falling, forming a white layer still modest on the ground. Flora was about four years old last time she had seen snow. It was on a visit to her Muggle grandmother who lived in the south of Brazil. Excited, she ran outdoors in her robe to see the tiny flakes that fell from the sky, but then she slipped on the footpath and felt flat on her backside. She laughed at herself. Felipe rushed to her and slipped too. They laughed a lot, and kissed each other. Flora turned her face to the sky and opened her mouth:

“What a pity! In my distorted recollections the snow had a sweet taste. If I hadn’t tasted it again, it’d be sweet forever.”

“You are amazing, dear.”

“Felipe, help me up. Today I’m going to take Yan to school and pass by the beauty salon. If I’ve had a bride’s day once (1), now I can have a Muggle’s day to forget about everything. I need to let the hair dye run through the pores of my head and poison my mind with nonsensical things.”

Laughing, Felipe shook his head.

“Just don’t come back bald please. I guess I wouldn’t get used to you.”

He said it with love while pulling her hair to kiss her. Afterward, he tried to get up just to find he was glued to the ground, because of thin ice. Flora was also like that. He commented:

“What a situation!”

She rebuked him:

“You don’t seem to be a wizard!”

She took out her wand that was in the pocket of her robe and the two came off quickly. While doing this, she remembered Merope Gaunt and got sad: she should not have said that to Felipe:

“Sorry, love. Sorry; I didn’t mean it.”

Felipe smiled again the way she loved and said that she needed have her hair dyed deeply, beyond her pores ... she needed to decontaminate her blood, it might be too pure.

After breakfast and before getting the car in the garage, they said goodbye.
The car was with its battery lowered. However, this was not much of a problem for her, since with a touch of her wand everything was all right. Flora dropped by Hannah’s place first to see how she was doing, as she did not want to leave her friend alone at this delicate time. She drove off carefully not to slip, passed by the home of the boys who shared the ride with Yan and drove along the road. Due to bad weather, she was about forty minutes late.

She left the kids at school and went to her Muggle’s Day.

After asking for directions to some people who were talking in a grocery store, Flora found a small beauty salon with a sign hanging from the door written "open” and "come in”. Flora went inside. It was a makeshift place in front of the hairdresser’s house. It just had a basin and two red chairs with height adjustment. One had a broken leg and was resting on a rustic wooden stump. Flora regretted not being able to do a spell to repair the foot of the chair. After all, today was her Muggle’s Day and nothing would change it. The walls were covered with a worn, but beautiful wallpaper of tiny flowers.

The salon's owner arrived soon afterward, and her nice appearance matched the decoration, including her flowery dress, that looked a lot like the wallpaper. Flora smiled. They talked quickly. Flora asked for a “treat” in hair, nails and if it was possible, she would also like to have a relaxing massage.

The owner seemed to find the request strange. She said that usually she did not make massages except in the scalp, when she hydrated someone’s hair.

“Whatever. Do it then please. Don’t worry about the cut. I can see you have a good taste and you’ll cut it in the style that looks better on me. Play as you like with my hair, do your art.” Flora smiled at the woman.

With this "carte blanche” to do whatever she wanted, the poor hairdresser looked at her for a moment, then flipped through some old magazines and decided what to do. She started to tell her plan to Flora, who cut her short and asked it to be a surprise. Her only demand was to have a lighter hair – she wanted to look more like her aunts than her mother. She did not worry about the result, nothing would happen that time could not fix. She was determined not to use magic to change her looks. She closed her eyes and almost fell asleep. She tried to think of her dogs running in flowery fields. She remembered Narcissa’s letter that had arrived three days before, telling that the customs had finally allowed the dogs to enter the country. She would soon be bringing them over. Flora tried to distance herself from her worries as much as possible, but as soon as she looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes reminded her of the little Tom Riddle’s. She closed her eyes again and fell asleep.

“Ready.”

Flora opened her eyes and saw a blonde woman in the mirror; her hair was straightened and its length went just below her shoulders. Her new coloured hair matched her eyes. However, how it looked didn’t matter, since she had got what she sought: a little peace. She paid for the work, and gave the lady a good tip. The time spent there was invaluable.

When she opened the door, she saw across the street one of the same men she had talked to at the grocery store. Disguising his intent, he began to follow her. She had left the car near her son’s school, a few blocks away.
Realizing that he was still following her, she walked onto a deserted street (doing the opposite of a Muggle woman, but Flora wanted a chance to defend herself by using her wand if necessary). She searched for her wand in her bag but could not find it. She began to run then. The man behind her ran too.
Flora could not think of anything, he was too close. She stumbled and he held her tightly, ripping her blouse. In rage, she managed to channel the magic in her body without the wand and threw the man away from her. She then, soared to get faster to the car. She got in the car, and found her wand in the front panel. She was so distraught when she went to the beauty salon that she had forgotten to take it. She started to cry, while she repaired the blouse with a spell. She knew she’d broken the law and she worried about this.

Two wizards came about the entrance of the alley in which the offender still laid unconscious. Sometime later they came back to find her. She got out of the car and went to them. One of them, the tallest one with black eyes and a rough look, said:

“So, Voldemort's daughter has begun to attack innocent Muggles? We knew that it’d happen soon. Do you do it for pleasure or because you’re bored?”

Flora could not reply, she was still in shock. She could not believe that after an assault her aggressor was the victim, not her. She looked at the wizards from the ministry with anger and indignation. The shorter blonde one handed her an envelope:

“You'll have to explain yourself. We had to do a lot of work to repair the damage you did. You’re being summoned to the ministry to explain yourself.”

Flora took the envelope and walked back to the car without saying a word.
She shrank back up and starts crying. She decided to go home and ask Felipe to fetch the boys. She needed a rest.

When she got to Hogsmeade she was in shock. Someone had painted on the wall of her house the same black mark found on her uncle’s arm. She was aware the men from the ministry had spread the news.

Flora got in and closed all the windows. She found a note from Neville on the kitchen table informing her that he and Hannah were in another wizarding town a little far away. He had already said that when the time came, they would go there for Hannah to have her baby with a well-known midwife. She regretted not being able to be with her friend at that time.

Her whole body ached from an intense pain. She knew that her suffering was not just physical pain. Her world had collapsed. She wept huddled in a corner of the kitchen. She remembered of her children. She had not asked Felipe to pick up the children. Yan and his friends’ school bell would be ringing soon. With a lot of effort, she stood up, got changed, washed her face, picked up her wand and started walking toward her husband’s shop. She felt prying eyes on her, but did not face them. She took a deep breath and quickened her step. Felipe had just learned what the two men from the ministry had spread about. He met his wife in front of the shop and looked at her with a question on his face:

“What is it they're saying, Flora?”

She found it odd, as he did not usually call her by the name. But she tried to summarize what happened to her, taking a deep breath at every moment so as not cry again. He understood it, believed his wife and hugged her. She handed the envelope to her husband. Felipe read it quickly and said that unfortunately they were forbidden to leave town until the hearing date.

“I'll close the store and we’ll get Yan. He may have come out already.”

Felipe noticed a small crowd of people in front of the shop. He signalled to Flora stay inside. He came out and asked what they wanted. The people outside demanded that Flora come out, as they would not allow her to disturb the local peace. Felipe tried in vain to explain that she had done nothing but defend herself. However the crowd did not want explanations. As he would not back away, three wands stuppored him at the same time. Felipe fell to the ground unconscious; a trickle of blood running down his nose. Flora went to the door as soon as she heard the thud of her husband falling to the ground. She saw the blood, and got into despair. She had no time to take him from the ground, as she would also be attacked. So in an act of desperation, she cast Stunning spells everywhere. She was hardly attacked by the inhabitants of Hogsmeade. She was agile, but feared that some of the spells might hit her husband again, so she flew over the shop. Some people chased her with brooms. She tried to be fast, but a curse hit her arm. She felt a searing pain and saw that she was bleeding. She tried to fly higher, to run away. She did not want to hurt anyone. They insisted on the pursuit.

She jumped from roof to roof, while casting Expelliarmus everywhere. The idea of throwing curses occurred to her, but she tried to dismiss it by throwing her hair about like she was waving an insect away. She was aware that she was alone right now. She only saw people coming from everywhere and throwing on her jets and more jets of red light. She did not know how to Apparate; she could not escape. In the sequence, she blocked various spells and was hit by a Cruciatus Curse. While she writhed in pain, she could see that it came straight from the tall ministry officer. She looked down and realized that she was back on top of her husband's shop, but could no longer see him lying on the floor. She got in despair, but soon saw old Aberforth carrying his still unconscious body into the Hog's Head. Though this distraction almost disarmed her, she quickly returned the spells that came from all sides. She dodged the jet of green light coming out of the same man who had cast her the Cruciatus Curse. She flew to another roof, but she slipped when landing. While she was falling was hit by an Expelliarmus and lost her wand. It would be her end. The enraged crowd would not spare her. But nothing happened to her. A Harry Potter coming from nowhere apparated by her side. He took her by the arm as she slipped from the roof, hurting all over. He stunned her opponents and disapparated with her the instant she fainted.
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(1): Bride’s Day: Day in which the bride has special treatment in the beauty salon