Cosmic Observer
By the time they finished their shopping, Aunt Wally was still in a foul mood. She didn’t say a single word when they met up at the crossing point of Diagon and Vertic Alleys. Draco looked a bit queasy approaching her and his father. He tried to stay as far from her as possible while the adults led them North on Vertic Alley.
Vertic Alley looked very different than Diagon Alley. It reminded Harry of Regent Street in London, full of posh shops and expensively dressed people.
Harry had followed Uncle Vernon there once as he shopped for a very special anniversary gift for Aunt Petunia. Mrs. Figg had to cancel at the last minute and Vernon didn't trust Harry not to steal the fancy food he'd ordered if left alone at the house. So he had to stand at least ten feet behind him at all times and wasn't allowed into any of the stores. "Don't even look in the windows," Vernon had warned. "Wouldn't want you getting any ideas about things you'll never have."
He was given no such warning this time.
To Harry’s surprise, as they passed by shop windows, he actually recognized some of the things that were on display. There was quite a few robes and individual pieces that Aunt Wally had given to him over the summer. She was always giving him clothes and books to read. He actually appreciated them, unlike most children his age would.
He’d known that the clothes were very high quality, even with his distinct lack of knowledge about fashion. But he had no idea exactly how expensive they really were.
He spotted the very same dark gray tunic with emerald green detailing and matching pants that he was wearing that day on a shopfront mannequin. Next to it was another mannequin wearing the same pants but with the tunic in reverse colors. It was cinched in at the waist to indicate it was for girls. Every thirty seconds or so, the headless plastic figures would move into a new position to show off their outfits in a new angle. Floating at about where their heads should have been were a pair of price tags that, given the conversion rate, were enough to make even Aunt Petunia faint.
And those were just casual summer robes. Harry couldn’t even begin to imagine the cost of the more formal robes he’d received or the heavy winter clothing that was all lined with the most luxurious types of fur. The cost of mink hardly compared to griffin fur, or unicorn wool.
Their group didn’t spend much time in Vertic Alley. They were just walking through on their way to leave.
In Diagon Alley the main entrance was through the Leaky Cauldron, a welcoming though dark and shabby pub that was easily overlooked on the muggle side.
In Vertic Alley they headed to a bright and elegant flower shop with an attached cafe called Once and Floral. The muggle side was a pretty though unassuming nameless antiques parlor, charmed to go unnoticed.
As they entered the flower shop side, a young man behind the counter greeted them cheerfully. Harry thought he may have recognized him from Hogwarts, an older Gryffindor boy.
“Welcome to Once and Flor-all,” he trilled, leaning heavily into the pun. “Can I interest you in a Lughnasa arrangement? They’re on last minute discount. Or perhaps a birthday bouquet for the lovely Leo in your life?”
“No. Thank you,” Lucius declined. “Just here for the floo.”
“Certainly.” He reached behind him. “Lav,” he muttered, swatting at a newspaper being held up behind him. There was a girl sitting there, hiding it seemed. She snapped the paper down and Harry could see that it was Lavender Brown, a Gryffindor in his year who always seemed to buy into the house rivalries more than most. She stood up glaring at the boy who must have been her brother, but quickly pasted on a fake smile as she folded her paper and turned to Harry’s group.
“Right this way,” she said in a cheerful voice, gesturing toward a hallway to the side of the counter. She led them through it and into a room with two separate fireplaces and a cozy set up with two winged chairs and a low table between them. "I hope you enjoyed your trip to Vertic Alley. See you again next time."
She continued smiling merrily until after Lucius and Aunt Wally left, each going to their respective homes. As soon as the adults were gone, Brown dropped the act and frowned at the slytherins.
"Wow," Hermione sighed in disbelief. "It's weird seeing you be nice to a bunch of snakes like us."
"It's absolutely painful," she agreed. She whipped the newspaper out from under her arm. "Don't worry. Things will be back to normal at school." She popped the paper open to block her face again, halting any further discussion.
Harry had never heard of The Cosmic Observer before. At least the headline seemed to be talking about something other than Dumbledore.
'Special Leo Season Edition
'Leos should be careful as July comes to an end. A storm is brewing and they might just find themselves in the middle. Beware anyone with an explosive temper. A tense interaction isn't bound to end very well.'
Hermione rolled her eyes at the blonde before waving quickly to Harry. She headed back to the manor with Lucius, but oddly, Draco followed Aunt Wally to Grimmauld Place. Harry quickly flooed home behind him.
When he stepped out of the floo, he felt like he’d landed in a war zone!
Aunt Wally was already screaming and throwing things.
She had shouted so loud that she woke the portraits in the hall. There were dozens of voices all hollering, swearing, and sending threats over each other. Entire shelves of things hit the floor. Glass shattered against the wall. Combined with the residual spinning of the floo, it was absolute chaos.
Harry searched around for Draco, but he was nowhere to be seen. Probably for the best. In Harry’s experience, when adults were angry like this, it was best to go unnoticed.
“Shut! Up!” Aunt Wally screeched. There was so much fire and poison in her voice just then that Harry would have sworn she could spit acid.
The portraits had never complied so quickly. Even Walburga’s own portrait was silenced, plunging the house into an eerie sort of doldrum. It felt like the calm before the real storm.
Harry noticed Draco sneaking back into the room through his peripheral vision. Trying not to draw any attention to himself, he went straight to the fireplace. He waved apologetically at the mildly betrayed look on Harry’s face, then he abandoned his friend to deal with Aunt Wally’s wrath on his own.
Harry took his things and tiptoed into the drawing room, trying to seek refuge somewhere that was out of the way. It was closer than his room and out of sight means out of mind, right?
Sirius had been there already, sitting silently and staring off into space as he often did.
It seemed that they’d both made the wrong decision because they were snatched from their brief moment of respite as Aunt Wally stormed in behind them and immediately swiped all the knick knacks from the mantle onto the floor. She snatched Uncle Arty’s framed Order of Merlin off the wall and chucked it across the room where it smashed into pieces.
She paced the room without speaking for a few moments, but audibly huffing in rage. It was as if she was building up steam for the rampage of the century. Sirius eyed her wearily, already exhausted by the impending explosion.
“Fake fucking trinkets!” she spat, suddenly. She rolled her eyes hard enough to blind a weaker man, clenching and unclenching her fists.
Wearing a fake Trinket wasn’t a crime. Neither was making them. So, there wasn’t anything Aunt Wally could do except scream about it. Nothing legal, anyways.
“It’s poppycock!” she shrieked. “It’s fraud! False representation! Bloody stealing! All these halfbreeds and mudblood scum! Trying to pretend like they’re better than they are! This is an outrage!”
“They’re just bracelets, mother,” Sirius huffed, rolling his eyes (more gently) at her theatrics.
“Just bracelets? You fool!” She stormed over to him and he flinched when she snatched his arm and tugged on his Trinket. “This isn’t just some bracelet!” she scolded. “This is a representation of who you are! This is proof that you’re powerful! Proof of your blood! Who’s better, and who’s average. Who’s worse, and who is great! This is proof that the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black is superior to all. Just as superior as we always said we were! This is your heritage and your bloodline! This is your defining factor!
“It is everyone’s defining factor, and if they’re going around telling lies, then it’s all meaningless! We’ll have liars and fakers and thieves in our midst! Great pretenders scamming us all. Not staying in their place. Claiming what’s not theirs and then flaunting it in our faces! Is that what you want?”
“Mother!” Sirius snatched his hand back. “None of that matters! None of that ever mattered! My defining factor isn’t how much magic I have! It’s what I do with it! It’s what anyone does with their magic. You could be the most powerful wizard in the world and it wouldn’t matter if you’re just racist scum, and all you use it for is to hurt people! Who cares if average people want to claim their own magical heritage? People are just people!”
“You just don’t get it!” Aunt Wally shook her head in disappointment. “You never did, and you never will. I don’t know why! I’ve taught you everything that my fathers have taught me before. You learned the same lessons that our whole family has known. I don’t know why you’re the only one who doesn’t see it.”
“Because I’m the only one who doesn’t see the world through generations of warped, blood purist lenses. That’s what this is. It isn’t about heritage! It’s just a new way to fuel your desperate need to feel superior!”
“We are superior!” Aunt Wally lifted her arm as if to backhand Sirius, but froze in place as she thought better of it. She huffed in frustration at having to control herself for once. She clenched her fist again then, instead of hitting him, she dropped her arm and offered him her left hand, palm down. “This proves it,” she said calmly, indicating her Trinket. “There is no arguing with this. We are not the same as everyone else, and it’s not fair for others to claim such if it is not true.”
“Being different doesn’t make anyone worse or better,” Sirius tried to reason with his mother. He matched her sudden calm demeanor. “One’s magical ability is not a factor in determining a person’s worth.”
“We live in a magical world, with magical things,” Aunt Wally explained with more patience than Harry thought her capable of. “There is magic all around us, every day. It is a requirement for surviving in our world. Having a pure bloodline doesn’t matter? Fine! But if magical ability doesn’t determine a person’s worth, then what does?”
“The type of person they are,” Sirius replied. “The kind of things they do. What they contribute to the world versus what they take away from it. If you’re a kind, loving, caring, good person, then you are good no matter how much magic you have. And if you are a spiteful, hateful person who leeches the soul out of everything you touch, then it doesn’t matter how much magic you have. You are still a bad person.”
“It’s not about good or bad. It’s not that simple. It was never that simple.”
“But it is that simple, Mother. It has never had to be more than that.”
“Maybe in the world of muggles. Maybe in a world where people can’t do the things that we can. But in a world of people that can conjure rain, there’s no point in pretending that those of us who conjure hurricanes aren’t superior. Just as there’s no point in pretending that none of us are superior to those who can’t conjure anything at all.”
It was hard to argue that logic. Aunt Wally did have a point. Sirius could see that, but he wasn’t wrong either.
“Magic doesn’t make the person. In fact, magic is beside the point-”
“Magic is everything!” Aunt Wally cut him off, shouting again. “Magic is our life! It’s our culture! It is your life! It is your history! It is literally ninety-five percent of what is flowing through your veins! In the wizarding world, magic does make the person! In the wizarding world, without magic, there is no person! You can’t sweep that under the rug, and say it doesn’t matter! From the wand in your sleeve to the tea in your cup, magic is everywhere. It is everything. It is all that matters!”
Sirius pinched the bridge of his nose, weary of fighting. “Fine mother,” he exhaled. “I don’t want to argue, anymore.”
He stood from his place on the sofa and brushed past Harry as he fled the room. Harry wanted to go after him, but he didn’t know what to say. Of course, he agreed completely with Sirius. A person’s magic wasn’t their defining factor. But he could see where Aunt Wally was coming from too. In a magical world, having superior magic meant something and ignoring that fact seemed almost counterintuitive.
Not sure what to do, or who to comfort, Harry just took his things to his room and began to organize his trunk.