Diagon Alley - part. 3
August 2, 1975. (Saturday)
“Wow,” breathed Ivy, stunned, when they finally were out of the bank. “That’s efficient!”
Lily giggled first, then Ivy, and finally Petunia. It really was an incredible morning they just had. Looking at her watch, Petunia thought they would have time to look for a present for their grandfather before lunch. But that plan was derailed when an old wizard, with long white hair and a long white beard, stood before them. Lily, having her back turned to him, walking backwards to chat with her sisters, crashed into him.
“My, hello miss Evans. Miss Evans. And miss Evans. Having a good day?”
Petunia frowned, not really liking the twinkling blue eyes under the half-moon spectacles. Lily was more guarded than usual too when she replied, her eyes suddenly hard and cold after being glassy for a moment.
“Hello, Headmaster. Rather good, thank you. And you?”
“Ah, just wonderful now that I have found you! I try reaching to you at your home, but your parents told me you were here.
“Oh. And what do you want, Headmaster? Offering a place in Hogwarts to Ivy? Or maybe to tell Petunia that you were wrong, and she really is magic too?” Lily’s tone was as cool as when she tried to ask Blastblood earlier.
“Now, now, dear girl… What are you talking about? You are the only witch in your family…”
“Really? What a shame! The goblins don’t think so! And I am not your “dear girl” Headmaster. I am “miss Evans” to you, in school. And “Lady Evans”, out of school. Thank you.”
“Dea-Miss Evans? What are you on about?”
The headmaster then saw the gleaming rings on the girls fingers. For a brief moment, Petunia thought she saw fury in his eyes. But it was gone in a blink.
“My mistake,” he said. “But the book of admittance doesn’t have the name of your sisters in it, dea- Lady Evans.”
Petunia noted that his tone was considerably less friendly. She smirked, squeezing Ivy’s hand.
“Then your book is faulty. Have it repaired, headmaster. And good day to you, we have some appointments we can’t miss.”
Lily’s dismissal was almost enough to fail the blank face Petunia has on. She followed her younger sister when she bypassed the old wizard, leading Ivy with her. Lily didn’t stop walking until they were out of view of the bank, and nearing Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. She let herself fall onto a chair, sighing. Petunia and Ivy joined her, smiling.
“Sorry. I just... I saw... And you saw his eyes, Tuney? He was furious that we learned the truth! What do you think he wanted, coming into our home?”
“Breath, Lils. You did good. We don’t know what he wants, but we won’t let him have anything. Besides, those rings will protect us from jinxes, minor hexes, and minor curses. And mind magic attack. It was noted in the document I signed. Just relax, for now, okay? Let’s have an ice-cream!”
“But Tuney! We can’t have ice-cream before lunch!” Cried Ivy, looking scandalised. “What will mum, and dad say?”
Lily giggled, and Petunia smiled.
“Well, we won’t tell them, yeah?”
Smiling, Ivy nodded. Lily lifted her hand, and a waiter came with the menu. She immediately chose a chocolate-mint ice-cream. Petunia decided to have a peach sherbet, and Ivy let herself be tempted with a pumpkin-vanilla flavour.
“You really have terrible tastes, V,” laughed Lily, looking disgusted with the ice-cream of her little sister. “I don’t even like the pumpkin juice at Hogwarts! How can you eat that?”
“It’s good!” Replied the younger girl, looking affronted. “It’s you who have terrible tastes, Lils!”
Petunia rolled her eyes but wisely didn’t say a word. Lily eyes lit up when she looked up on a guy passing by, and she caught his hand, forcing him to take a seat between her and Ivy.
“Black! It’s good to see you. Who is Marius Black to you?”
“Er. Hello to you too, Evans. Why do you want to know? How do you even know who he is?”
“Just answer the question. I will answer yours after.”
“Alright… Marius Black, let’s see… He is disowned from the family, but I think it’s one of my grandfather’s cousins.” He thought some more about it before nodding decisively. “Yes, that’s it. He and my grandfather have the same grandfather. Phineas Black, one of Hogwarts’ Headmasters.”
Lily groaned and put her head in her hands. Ivy giggled and stage-whispered to the boy:
“Marius is our grandfather! We learned this morning that he was not a non-magical person but a squib!”
“V! Shut up, please!” Cried Lily despairingly.
Ivy just laughed, seeing the small smile threatening to overcome the scowl on Lily’s face. Petunia just smirked, amused.
“Wha-How? We’re related? Fu-dge!” The guy said, looking at Lily with wide eyes and barely remembering not to swear with a young girl nearby.
Said young girl laughed some more, eating her ice-cream. The guy seemed to shake himself and remembered his manners. He smiled charmingly at Ivy, taking her free hand to place a light kiss on her knuckles.
“Lovely to meet you, charming cousin. I’m Sirius Black. And you are?”
“Ivy Evans,” she said with a blush, before introducing her other sister. “And this is my eldest sister, Petunia Evans. She is a witch, but she didn’t get a Hogwarts Letter. And the mean Headmaster told her she was non-magical! Can you imagine? Fortunately, the goblins let us do their magic test this morning. And I’m a witch too! But I will not go to Hogwarts either, I didn’t get a letter. My birthday was yesterday, so…”
Smiling at the babbling girl, and smirking at a desperate Lily, Sirius shook his head.
“It is so nice to meet you! And happy belated birthday, love. I’m sure you will be a great witch one day. Where will you study, if not Hogwarts?”
“We don’t actually know yet,” intervened Petunia, finishing her sherbet. “We just found out. We don’t know anything about alternative schooling. And I need to know all this too…”
That has Sirius thinking for a few minutes.
“How are you, financially? Because tutors exist, but they are not cheap. And you will need to pass your OWLs at the minimum if you want to do wanded magic freely.”
“Wanded magic? Are there other forms of magic?” Asked Ivy, ever the curious child.
“Yes, love. There is wandless magic, without a wand obviously. Potions often doesn’t require a wand. Runes. Rituals. Herbology, like Potions, often doesn’t require a wand. Arithmancy and Astronomy. And there are inherited abilities too. Like a Metamorphmagus doesn’t need a wand to change. An animagus doesn’t need one either. And there is a lot of other foci to conduct magic, not just wands.”
“Wow,” breathed a blushing Ivy, staring at the older boy with wonder. “Did you learn all that at Hogwarts?”
“Ah, no,” he laughed. “Some of that, it was tutors. I had a few, growing up, before Hogwarts. Oh, and there are other schools of magic too! I think there is one ministry school, but it is not as advanced as Hogwarts. Or there are foreign schools. But, like Hogwarts, the schooling is seven years starting at eleven years old.”
“Thank you,” thanked Petunia, mulling over what she learned.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad if I helped. After all, you are family! And you don’t seem like bad ones.”
Ivy giggled and finished her ice-cream too.
“We were going to find a gift for Grandfather Marius. Do you want to come with us?”
“V! No!” Cried Lily, still scowling. “Black surely has more important to do…”
“Actually, no. I will be delighted to help you pick a gift from my grandfather’s cousin,” smirked Sirius.
Lily actually groaned this time, letting her head fall in her arms.
“At least, there is no Potter here…” She grumbled.
Petunia rolled her eyes. And smiled at Sirius.
“It’s nice of you, thank you. His birthday is in eight days. And, well, he does not know that Lils is… That we are magicals. But, learning that he is a squib, that he knows of the magical world, I think we can tell him now. Don’t you think?”
“Yeah, you can. He was disowned, but he was not obliviated, just forced to sign a contract to stop him from blabbing about magic to non-magicals. So, his first eleven years of life, he knew about magic.”
Lily finally managed to finish her ice-cream, and she got up to pay. When she came back, her sisters and Sirius were ready to depart.
“Where do you wish to go?” Asked the young wizard, offering his right arm to Ivy, and his left to Petunia. “With those gorgeous ladies on my arms, I will go anywhere!”
Ivy laughed while Petunia shook her head. But she led him toward the Leaky Cauldron.
“I think a non-magical gift is more appropriate. I thought about getting him a book from Zwemmer’s Bookshop. He loves art.”
“I have to say, I don’t know much about muggle London. It will be fun!”
Lily rolled her eyes.
“Take off your robe, Black. Non-magical peoples don’t wear that.”
“So forward Evans! James will be shocked!” Laughed the boy, letting the two girls on his arms go before taking off the definitely wizarding robe. He wore a white shirt underneath, with crisp black trousers. “Let’s go, now!” He said, after shrinking the robe and putting it in a pocket of his trousers.
The girls showed him a lot of shops, after buying the book for their grandfather. He particularly loved the music stores. And the motorcycles ones. And the clothes ones. And the tattoo parlour. When they came back to the Leaky Cauldron, he wore at least three bags shrunk on his pockets.
“Well, it was a fine afternoon, ladies. I thank you for your company! I was really bored earlier,” he said with a smile. He froze then, and his eyes widened. “Oh, I know! What time did you say you must get back home?”
“Er… Six. Why?” Asked Petunia, looking a little worried.
“No need to fret, Tuney. It’s perfectly harmless! I know I said that most of my family is shi… Er… Bad. But my grandfather is not. He is cold, yeah, but he is not mad. You can meet him, and show him your family tree, and he will surely recognize you as family! And then, I will have some more members of the family that are tolerable, you know, for family dinners and all that crap. Win-win, yeah?”
He looked so earnest, so honestly happy with his plans, that Petunia was feeling bad when Lily turned him down.
“We need to take the Knight Bus to go home, Sirius. Maybe another time?”
The eldest Evans watched as his smile disappeared. She gave a look to each of her sisters and sighed.
“Say, Sirius... What does one wear when meeting the Head of House Black? Some kind of formal robes I believe? The kind we can wear at other formal functions?”
“Well... Yeah. Stuffy Pureblood robes can always be used to formal functions. You need to buy them at a respectable shop, of course. And they are not really cheap, but...”
“Do you mind showing us where? And helping us pick our own? I don't know a thing about these stuffy Pureblood things.”
Immediately, Sirius' face lit up.
“We have close to an hour and half before we need to go back home,” she warned, smiling.
Excitedly, Sirius took her hands, and Ivy's, and led them through the Leaky Cauldron and the archway to Diagon.
“The best place is a shop in France, but the next best is here. Not in Diagon, but in Alchemic Alley. Just this way.”
Lily sighed behind them, but she smiled when Petunia looked at her. A short while later, they were inside a clothing shop called “Hecate's Heaven”. Ivy was the first to have her measurements taken, and she talked animatedly about what she liked and didn't. Then, Lily was next. And, finally, Petunia.
The stylist, to show them the products, cast multiples illusions on them, tailoring them to take into account their preferences. Soon, when close to an hour has passed, the three girls were looking at themselves in a mirror, the illusions perfected.
“All good, young ladies. We will save these, and your robes will be ready in a week. Where should we send them?” Asked the shopkeeper.
“Can we come to retrieve them, instead? For a last try?”
“Of course, it's not a problem. Can we expect you at 9 next Saturday?”
After agreeing, and paying in advance, the girls finally departed. Sirius was looking a bit sad to go home too, but he brightened when each of them kissed his cheek.
“Your help was invaluable, Sirius. I look forward to better know you. We will send you an owl later, to discuss meeting your grandfather, yeah?” Said Petunia, smiling gently at the boy.
“Of course, it was my pleasure! I will await your owl with bated breath!” He answered, making the youngest Evans laugh.
With theses words, and a tight hug from Ivy to Sirius, the girls summoned the Knight Bus. It was time to go home and to speak to their parents.
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