Chapter 1
It was here! Today was the day, and she couldn’t believe it! She knew it was coming, obviously, and she’d honestly been getting slightly annoyed with how long it was taking for it to come. If they seriously wanted people to respond by August 1st, maybe they should send them a bit earlier. What if one needed to rearrange prior engagements?
She desperately hoped they would send the muggleborns’ letters earlier than late July. Surely they had already been enrolled in another school by that point. It seemed a huge oversight, in her opinion. A faux pas her mother, Dorea Potter nee Black, would never accept. Proper etiquette dictates a minimum of 4 weeks be allowed for any formal RSVP to be answered. But Hogwarts breaches of proper etiquette was besides the point. Her Hogwarts letter was here! Finally!
Alya’s birthday was in October. It was something she had loved as a kid, but ever since her 10th birthday, the day Alya realized what an October birthday meant, she had lamented the fact. It had been a long wait, but the wait was over now.
Alya ran from the dining room, letter clutched in hand. She had been finishing up breakfast with her father when the mail had arrived. He had sent her mother’s elf, Halley, off to warn her they would be going to Diagon today and then he’d headed to the floo to invite Uncle Fleamont to their Gringotts trip. Alya ran straight to her room where Pons, her personal house elf, was laying out the outfit Alya had picked for the outing.
The little house elf had a long off-white cloth with a sort of lacy border wrapped around her several times and tucked in an artful way. Alya wasn’t sure if it was a scarf or a table runner, either way, it looked quite pretty. A fact she was sure to tell Pons, who promptly squeaked and turned a bright red before popping away. She was quite odd, but Alya liked her all the same.
She was reluctant to put her letter down, but also didn’t want to waste any time just standing around. Alya had already planned where she would keep her acceptance letter. She had a glass front cabinet that contained her treasures, and a small wooden box that also contained letters from her parents, uncles, and aunt, as well as drawings from her little cousins. It was the perfect place. She placed the list of items she needed on her desk, and put the rest of the letter away.
Alya hurried herself to get ready. Her hair was a wild bush of frizzy black curls at the moment. She had fallen asleep with it down, a mistake she hadn’t realized until that moment. There was nothing she could do with it like this. She ran into the bathroom and stuck her head under the tap and splashed her hair just enough to be damp before raking a copious amount (like 5 times the recommended amount) of her uncle’s Sleekeasy serum through her hair, and hoping for the best.
She ran over to her bed, where Pons had laid out her clothes. The dress was a sleeveless, band collar dress in bright orange. It was tight through the bodice and she wore it buttoned all the way up, the skirt flowed loose around her and stopped mid-thigh. She opted to go with a pair of maroon tights that matched the three-quarter sleeve, knee length, structured linen robe she planned to wear over the dress.
She didn’t wear makeup, she was eleven, but Alya did like jewelry. Her mother had insisted she get her ears pierced a couple years ago after she had read an article about how protective earrings had saved some little girl in Italy from a kidnapping. The would be kidnapper had managed to get rid of the tracker necklace the kid had been wearing and the light weight protection bracelet, but hadn’t thought about the ears. It was rather genius. Alya chosen a pair of gold and diamond stud earrings, one of the most heavily protected items she had, which she knew her mother would insist on with them being out in public.
She hoped her hair was all the way dry as she flipped her head over and shook. She flipped her hair back and forth a couple time, using her hands to separate some of the curls that had decided to wrap around each other. Everyone laughed that Alya had been stuck with the Potter hair but she knew that fault lie at the feet of both her parents. Bellatrix had this hair too, and she definitely didn’t get it from the Rosiers.
Once her hair had enough movement and airflow that it no longer resembled a giant brick of inky pasta. Alya took a moment to admire that sleekeazy really did cut her frizz exponentially. She truly loved her Uncle Fleamont.
Alya pulled the front pieces of her hair back, leaving a few curls loose around her face, and twisted them up at the back of her head so her hair was in a sort of messy half bun, before stabbing a chignon pin through the bun, and then one more for security. It would be considered borderline scandalous for some pureblood ladies, but she knew she had done enough to satisfy her mother, and that was all she cared about. And it looked cute.
She slipped on a pair of brown leather loafers and slung a matching brown leather bag, shaped like a half moon, over her shoulder. The bag was empty for now, but she planned on changing that soon. Alya skipped through the halls of Potter Cottage, school list in hand, making her way towards her father’s study. She knew her mother had plans for that morning, as she did ever Wednesday morning, with her gardening club. Alya had attended a few meetings and it was fascinating. Most of the ladies were either herbologists or potions mistresses and they knew how to grow some truly terrifying plants.
Charlus Potter was just pulling on his robe when she bustled into the room. He seemed amused by her obvious excitement, and gestured for her to enter the floo along with him.
“Better we do this together today, no?” He shot her a quick smirk, which she scowled back to. She really was horrible at the floo, but he didn’t have to point it out!
Alya clutched her fathers arm as they spun around in the floo system, only to be spit out in the Leaky Cauldron a few seconds later. Alya felt the world spin as she tried to regain her bearings. It only took a few more seconds and she grinned up at her father who was looking at her fondly.
“Let’s go, your uncle said he would meet us at Gringotts and I’m not sure if he’s beat us there or not.”
Arm in arm, father and daughter made their way through the throngs of people, towards the bank. Alya peeked around as they went, she had been to Diagon before but it had never been this busy before. It was like every hogwarts student and everyone they knew had decided to all come today. They made their way into the bank, where they met a just arrived Fleamont Potter at the doors.
The three Potters made their way to a teller where Uncle Fleamont informed the goblin that they needed to visit two family vaults as well as pickup the key to Alya’s trust vault. She technically could have accessed her vault for the past nine months, but considering she was always with her parents there was really no point.
A cart driver, who they had called Gorbert, was called and they first went to the Potter coin vault. There were several Potter vaults that held different things. This one was for money. Uncle Fleamont filled up a small sack for both her and her father, and they both thanked him, receiving an eye roll in return, as he pushed them out the door and on to the next vault.
The second vault they visited was the Peverell heirloom vault, which held a multitude of things but mainly jewelry. That’s what they had come for, more protection jewelry for when she was at school. Dorea had invested in the very best protection earrings for her daughter. Not only did they have strong tracking charms and low grade shielding, but since earrings pierce the skin they are excellent for protecting against potions and illnesses. Call it the Black paranoia, but Dorea Potter nee Black would keep her daughter safe. So now she had insisted that her husband and brother-in-law find a few other pieces with strong, old, family magic imbued so no harm would ever befall her only child.
Uncle Fleamont found a podium off to one side that held the inventory scroll, only a small amount of the paper was readable and the ends were rolled thickly. Uncle Fleamont pointed his wand at the scroll and clearly said “protection jewelry”. The scroll only took half a second before it came to life. In a whirl, it started rolling down, showing words farther up on the list for a couple of seconds, then rolling in the opposite direction to show something farther down, then reversing again. It did it a dozen or so times, all three Potters staring at the thing with a raised brow.
Uncle Fleamont tapped the thing with his wand once again, bringing it to a stop before clearing his throat.
“Well, we might be better off just looking around…” both Alya and her father snickered, “or maybe we can figure it out if we give it a clearer description of what we're looking for. Did Dorea give any kind of parameters?” Her father joined her uncle at the podium, both looking at the last item they had frozen the scroll on and the description listed.
“I’m just going to look around then!” Alya called over her shoulder as she headed off in the opposite direction.
“Be careful! If you find anything suspicious, call me over before you touch it!” Her father yelled after her.
“Sure, sure,” she called back, disappearing behind a, not all that tall, shelf. She thought she heard both men snort and smiled slightly to herself.
While her father and uncle scanned the inventory sheet, Alya scanned the shelves. A lot of the jewelry she saw was either too clunky for an eleven year old girl, or too flashy for said eleven year old to be wearing around boarding school; no matter how wealthy a majority of her classmates were, one need not flaunt. There were a lot of trinkets and baubles, a stray weapon here or there. It was all very interesting and if she had been alone she might have taken a lot more things with her, but she supposed that could wait until she was a little older. She saw a deck of tarot cards that were pretty. They were a deep velvety black with moving scenes made of delicate gold, silver, and white lines, the backs were embossed with gold seven-pointed stars. She loved them and thought maybe she could get some books on divination and start practicing now, even if she couldn’t take the class until she was thirteen. Maybe she’d find out that she hates it and save herself from the torture of a bad class later. She slipped the cards into her leather bag, to ask her father about.
As she walked Alya found a bracelet that called to her magic. She called over the brothers and after looking up the item on the inventory scroll, Uncle Fleamont said it had once belonged to a Peverell heiress and was the perfect thing for her. The bracelet was made to mask the true depth of its wearer’s magic, no one would be able to sense it unless she was to unleash her magic fully. It was a simple chain bracelet that was made from a strangely white and cold metal; it was not overly thick but held some weight and the clasp was interesting, one side was a triangle, the other a circle, the circle seemed to fit inside the triangle, and then her uncle did something with his wand and a small white rod bisected the joint clasp, sealing it so it couldn’t be removed by anyone except her head of house, Uncle Fleamont.
Alya continued to look around and saw lots of cute stuff she could decorate her dorm with. She wished she knew how large the rooms would be. She had asked her mother, who could only tell her about the slytherin dorms. She had said that there wasn’t much wall space, as the walls were mainly windows, though Alya would probably have enough room to hang a few smaller items. She had said there was a lot of room for books and knick knacks, though. Each girl had their own set of built-in shelves that reached all the way to the 15 foot ceiling, as well as a vanity, two side tables, and a chest of drawers. Alya had been very excited about all the shelf space, and was determined she would fill them while she was a student. Today was a good day to start the collection.
She ended up calling her father over to check a few things. First was an enchanted tabletop mirror that was a lot nicer than the one she had at home. She also showed him the tarot cards she had found which he thumped her on the head with for touching without checking first, then gave them back and told her to have fun. After that she found a set of pretty candlestick holders that looked to be carved from amethyst, a crystal vase that, according to the scroll, can keep any plant placed in it fresh indefinitely; there was a set of three intricately carved boxes that fit inside of each other, Russian nesting doll style.
She found a lock and a key, unrelated. The key was the same white metal as her bracelet, it was shaped like a simple skeleton key, the handle being 3 circles stacked in a pyramid, and was much too small to be a functioning key. They found it on the scroll and learned that the key could unlock most locks, enchanted or not. The two elder Potters spent a moment giving her a long hard look before conceeding that she would learn ‘alohamora’ soon enough anyways, so it couldn’t hurt much. As long as she swore to stay out of trouble, which naturally she always did. The lock was also interesting. It was smallish and gold and it came with no key, as it supposedly only opened to those with Peverell blood. It obviously opened for all three Potters with no problem but it would be fun to test it on other people and see if it really worked.
She even found the prettiest tea set she’d ever seen, the bone china was so fine it was near translucent and had a creamy iridescent sheen that made her fall in love. It was the whole tea set and it even came with the kind of tea tray her mother had, the kind that could float on its own and would bob around after it’s owner. Her father raised an eyebrow at her when she pointed to the tea set.
“You plan to make a lot of tea at Hogwarts, do you?”
“Well if I ever do, I’ll need something to brew it in, won’t I?” she cocked an eyebrow right back, causing the man to snort.
They ended up finding a hair comb/pin thing that was carved from dragon bone and had so many protections embedded in it that her father insisted she put it in her hair before they even left the vault. She was sure her mother would suddenly come up with lots of new hairstyles to teach her in the next month involving hair combs.
Her father and Uncle Flearmont used to scroll to find a gold necklace with a black diamond pendant and another pendant made of the same strange white metal as her bracelet. It was engraved with the symbol of the triangle, circle, and line that she now realized must be the ancient symbol of the Peverells. It was different than the coat of arms she usually associated with the family, the white chrysanthemum on a black shield with thestrals rampant, that was more aligned with the coat of arms magical houses had been using for the past 800 years or so.
Alya slid the white signet pendant on the chain of the black diamond necklace and liked the way they looked together. She insisted they find another chain on the scrolls, preferably made of the white metal she didn’t know the name of. The chain they ended up finding was slightly longer than the gold chain, which was perfect, as she hung the small key from the white chain and secured both around her neck. Both chains and pendants had their own protections imbued and the two men seemed content with their haul as they walked out of the vault. They hoped they had gotten enough so that now she would always have at least something with protective qualities on her at all times.
Another goblin had met up with Gorbert, while the Potters had been in the last vault to bring the key to her trust vault. He showed her how the key could easily be turned into a ring and back, that way the keyholder could always have it on them. She examined the small gold signet ring that now adorned her finger. The rings face was oval shaped and engraved with the symbol of a key and her vault number. Gorbert explained that the ring could be used as a form of payment in a lot of the establishments in Diagon and other wizarding alleys that did work with Gringotts, but it wasn’t accepted everywhere so she needed to make sure she also always had enough gold on her.
Alya thanked the goblin and the Potters were on their way out of the bank. Once they got on to the steps Uncle Fleamont bade his temporary good-byes, as he planned to go pick up James and meet them back for lunch in a little over an hour. The man made off for the Leaky Cauldron, as Alya and her father headed off to begin collecting the things on her list.
They first collected a trunk for her. Her father had picked out the enchantments saying he knew what she needed, so it left her with two styles in a few colors to choose from. She ended up getting the all black with black clasps and had her initials stamped in white. After that went to get a telescope, a set of scales, and her books. She already had some of the potions equipment, so they skipped that stuff.
At the bookstore she collected all of her school books as well as a couple editions from the ‘Marigold Morgan Mystery Series’ that she hadn’t read yet. They were some of her favorite books, some girls her age may say that they are a little juvenile, but Alya liked them. Alya liked reading and she loved mysteries and Francesca Sharp knew how to write a good mystery. On the way to the checkout Alya was drawn into the display of journals and decided to get the one with the buttery gray suede cover that had a matching quill bag. She grabbed a couple extra packs of quills in a few colors, as well a couple jars of ink, even though she knew her mother had plenty at home that she would inevitably give to Alya before she left for school.
As if synchronized, they finished up in the bookstore right as they saw her uncle and cousin walking out of the Leaky Cauldron. Her father had informed her a shop ago that her mother had made reservations for the three of them along with Uncle Fleamont, Aunt Effie, and James at the Fool’s Lyre for lunch. The Fool’s Lyre was one of her mothers favorite places to go out to eat, a small but rather fancy bistro that served a lot of different types of food that Alya had never had anywhere else in the magical world. Alya would have skipped along with James if not weighed down by books, she couldn’t wait to get some mac and cheese.