Chapter 10
22 July 1991 Sunday
Wow, family trees are confusing. But I worked out a couple of things. First, my grandmother's older sister is still alive! And so is Arcturus Black, who is her cousin and Lord Black. Tomorrow I am going to go see Mrs. Figg to talk about this and see if I can send an owl to Cassiopeia Black. Granted, she's really old, but I have another aunt! Wicked!
I also have two cousins who show up on the Black family tree who will be at Hogwarts: Nymphadora Tonks and Draco Malfoy, and Draco is even my age. On other family trees that the Blacks connect to I've got Bulstrodes (Millicent and Matthew), Crabbes (Vincent), Macmillans (Honoria and Ernest), Longbottoms (Neville), Weasleys (Percival, Frederic, George, Ronald and Ginevra), and Flints (Marcus and Julia). Draco, Millicent, Vincent, Ernest, Neville, and Ronald will all be in my class! Cousins! I have more cousins! Granted, I've got the Dud as an example that this isn't always a good thing, but surely at least one of them will be nice. Oh, and my Potter great-grandmother was an Abbott, and Hannah Abbott will be in my class as well. My Potter great-great grandmother was a Longbottom, which is another tie to Neville. Of the others, Nymphadora, Honoria, Percival, Frederic, George, Marcus, and Julia are all older, and Matthew and Ginevra are younger. So while I don't know any of these people, I at least know some names to look for on the train.
Another thing I noticed: wizards don't seem to have many kids. One set of Weasleys has a huge family, but most families have only two kids, and there are an awful lot of only children. The Potters, Longbottoms, and Malfoys seem especially bad at that. Kill off me, Neville, and Draco and that's it, three lines done. I bet those guys' parents are going to be bugging them for grandkids in the worst way. And the House of Black had all these branches and now there's only Sirius left, and the book says his status is questionable. Hmm. I wonder if that means I need an heir? I wonder who I ask about that?
I also found a list of the Sacred Twenty-eight (gag!), who were, according to one twit with a stick up his arse, the only truly pure blooded families left in the 1930s. The Potters aren't on it, see me crying over that. And there's also a list of Noble and Most Ancient houses, vs. the ones that are only Ancient. Some of the Sacred 28 aren't on either list, and there are quite a few families on both lists that are apparently quite profane for all their ancientness and nobleness.
There are only a dozenish Noble and Most Ancient Houses left, so they're easy to list: Abbott, Black, Bones, Burke, Gamp, Greengrass, Lestrange, Longbottom, Macmillan, Nott, Patil, Potter, Rosier, Selwyn. The book says the defunct houses could be brought back if a descendant from a squib line passed an official heritage test at Gringotts, though. I wonder how much the test costs? It would be fun to get all the muggleborn students to go down en masse to take it.
Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Daphne Greengrass, Neville Longbottom, Ernest Macmillan, Theodore Nott, Padma and Parvati Patil (I bet they were the Asian girls I saw at Madame Malkin's), and I will all be in the same class. I think I need to read the etiquette book next.
And speaking of that, I need to finish up organizing my room.
22 July later
My room is clean, scrubbed and organized. My desk is all set up so I can study and maybe do some practice exercises. I am showered (an actual shower! With warm water!) and I am going to sleep now.
23 July 1991 Monday
Today did NOT go as planned. Another professor called by in the morning after breakfast, a tall, dark, scary one with long hair and with a serious chip on his shoulder. Turns out he & AP knew each other, and not only that, he was the rough boy who was my mother's best friend in Junior school! No one ever mentioned that he was magical!
Anyway, his name was Professor Severus Snape and he was here to take me to do some normal shopping, although he obviously didn't want to. He insisted on going up to my room first off to see what books I had so he'd know what we needed to pick up, and he wasn't impressed with my book collection. He thought I spilled things on them and tore them up and I told him I rescued them.
He didn't believe me and thought I was some sort of spoiled brat and just like my father. I said that it was my first goal in life NOT to be, thank you very much, from everything I've ever heard about him, even the people who were trying to say nice things about him said he was the worst sort of posh twit and that I didn't even find out about the whole Noble and Most Ancient House thing until last night, and I still don't know what it means. He said something sarky about the Boy-Who-Lived and I said that was just stupid, it wasn't anything I did, it was something my mother did and if the wizarding world wasn't a bunch of prejudiced ars... idiots, they'd admit it and celebrate Lily Evans Potter as the Mother-Who-Avenged instead.
Then we stood there and glared at each other and breathed for a bit, and he said, "Well, we shall just see then," and noted that we didn't have all day, so if I wanted to round out my library and pick up some decent muggle clothes, we had best be going.
The rest of the day wasn't too bad. We were very formal with each other and he wasn't too insulting. He found out that I hadn't been to Gringotts yet, so we went there first. I got to see my vault and he explained how wizard money works and I think he started believing me about the spoiledness bit when he saw my reaction to my vault. Piles of real gold! I'm still boggled by it. I was a little worried about how little I know about money and investments, but Professor Snape told me to make an appointment with the goblins for next week and he was sure that Professor McGonnagle would be more than happy to escort me here. The way he said it, I'm pretty sure that she wouldn't, actually, and that this was revenge, but I played dumb and went along with it, and I am due back on my birthday at 0930.
After that we went to the Army and Navy store and I got some jeans and some khakis and a pair of trainers and a pair of black loafers and I also picked up a football and useful bathroom stuff and I tried to grab a bottle of hair bleach without him noticing but he saw. He asked what in the world I wanted with that and I told him right out, so I could dye my hair and not look like my father anymore so I wouldn't remind people of him. He looked at me like he was trying to read my mind for a while and then said that there was no need, when my new glasses came in, they would probably make a big difference and that I move more like my mother. I have to think about that, I think.
Anyway, after that we went to an absolutely brilliant bookstore. I got a regular dictionary and a Latin/English dictionary and a bunch of different colored highlighters (the professor says the wizarding world hasn't heard of them yet) and an ephemeris (because they're cheaper here) and I even found a complete works of Ogden Nash and The Notebooks of Lazarus Long! I told the professor that this was my favorite book ever and full of words to live by and he flipped through it and actually smiled a bit as he read it. It was a "this is going to be trouble and I can't wait" smile, which is something else I have to think about. He asked me if I believed all of it and I said I thought so, but some of the stuff he said about girls I have to reserve judgement on. He nodded and let me add it to my pile, but he said he thought the Complete Works was a bit dear and made me put it back. He did let me get one of his books, though, so I picked out The Pocket Book of Ogden Nash. He also suggested a calligraphy workbook, so I got that as well. When we got back, he told me to be sure to read the first three chapters of Magical Drafts and Potions before the first day of classes and that was that. AP scolded me a bit for being late for dinner (!) and had me put my things away quickly and come sit down. She and Professor Snape sneered at each other and then he left.
Did I already write that I think AP thinks the wizards are checking up on her? Well, she definitely thinks that now. She isn't treating me like Dudley but it's still pretty boggling. (UV mostly isn't saying anything.) There was even a rug and some curtains in my room when I went up to put my stuff away. Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs and a green salad with lemon tarts for pud, and I got some of all of it. I cleared the table afterwards anyway, though, because it would have felt strange not to and cos sooner or later things are going to go back to more like normal, and the less I take advantage, the better.
I took the professor's advice and read the first chapter of my potions text. It was interesting and I have started to put my highlighters to use. Tomorrow I will go see Mrs. Figg.