I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good.
Chapter Two
James
The days following the arrival of my letter all went by in a blur, the reason was I had been counting down the days until we got to go to world renown Diagon Alley, and today was eventually the day! You might be thinking 'Well you're from a Wizarding family, surely you've been there before?' and the answer to that my friends, is yes. I have been there before but only for special occasions which evidently are very rare, so obviously I get excited each time I go, and this time was certainly no exception, me and my parents were off to get my school supplies.
"James!" my dad shouted up the stairs, "Hurry up, we're leaving now!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I replied whilst scrabbling around my room looking for my other shoe, "Mum!" I yelled to wherever she was.
"What honey?" she said softly standing calmly in the doorway to my room, "Looking for your other shoe? It's in your wardrobe silly"
Honestly, I swear that woman can read minds, but I was thankful anyway. As I grabbed my other shoe, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror; my messy, black hair was a lot worse than normal.
"There's no way I'm going out with it like this" I murmured to myself, "Mum?" I yelled again.
"The combs in your top drawer!" she yelled back, do you see what I mean? She can read minds!
"Who cares what your hair is like! Just get yourself down here now!" my father exhaled.
Not wanting to anger him anymore, I hurried downstairs hurdling over the many but little obstacles littered all over the stairs whilst hastily pulling at my hair with the comb.
"Any better?" I asked my mum hopefully, still trying to flatten the remaining stray strands of hair.
"Much." she said simply.
There was a loud but clear roar, "Diagon Alley!" it said and almost immediately after a flash of green light spread across the room.
My mum and I shared a glance, "Looks as though your father's gone without us" she said chuckling, "Come on, let's go and catch up with him."
Remus
As we stepped in Diagon Alley I couldn't help but stare at everything. The beauty of the alley never failed to strike me, the narrow, cobbled street littered with many witches and wizards scurrying from shop to shop, younger ones pressing their faces upon the shop windows admiring the precisely decorated displays, the two rows of multi-coloured shops towering over the passersby on either side with little, quirky stalls settling outside. It was breath-taking.
We walked through the whole street, me dawdling behind gawping at every shop going; Ollivanders, Gambol and Japes, Flourish and Blotts, so on and so forth. As we reached the top of the Alley, (it did take us just under a hour as I kept on running into random shops), we stood in front of the most extravagant building of all; with its snowy white walls, giant glass dome placed delicately upon it and a gold sign out front which read; Gringotts: The Wizarding Bank.
"I've never been in here before" I said in awe.
"Of course you haven't" my dad chuckled, "It's a bank."
"Well I know that" I said bluntly, "Do I have a vault in here?"
"Yes, that's where we're off now. Getting your galleons" my mum said ruffling my hair.
With that we stepped inside onto polished marble flooring where you could almost see your own reflection. As we wandered further in, I glanced at either side of me and see huge counters, and with each counters was a preened to perfection Goblin scribbling away with their quills upon parchment in utter silence, it was quite unnerving really. My mum nudged me onwards until we got to the very top to which was quite certainly the head Goblin.
"We would like to access Mr. Remus Lupin's vault please." my dad said clearly.
The goblin stopped writing to peer over his desk, with a smile which could be mistaken for a snarl he replied, "Does Mr. Lupin have his vault key?"
I looked to my dad, 'A vault key? I don't have a vault key, what if I can't get in?' I thought frantically, but as I thought that I seen my mum look inside her purse and pull out a tiny, gold key with the number 398 scrawled into it.
"Here we are" she said chirpily placing the delicate looking key upon the desk.
The Goblin examined the key carefully before finally saying, "Griphook! Show this young man and his family to Vault number 398"
I looked to my right to see a Goblin walking hurriedly towards us; he had medium-length black hair which was balding at the front, big pointed ears, a rather long, beak-like nose and big, leathery-looking hands.
"This way please." he said in a squeaky, high-pitched voice.
We followed him through a doorway leading into this badly lit tunnel, Griphook stepped onto this cart type thing which was on a railway track, (which didn't look very safe may I add.)
"Step on board please" he said gazing up at us.
My mum and I stepped on first securing our places whilst my dad sort of tumbled in almost squishing Griphook on his way down,
"Sorry." he panted, "Sorry Griphook" his face slowly washed over with embarrassment.
"It's ok, sir" Griphook replied bluntly
I heard a slight crank then silence, "Mum wh-" I was just about to ask mum what this was, when suddenly, the cart jerked and we sped away from the platform. Dozens upon dozens of singular platforms darted past as we travelled further and further into what I thought was an underground cavern. Slowly, the cart came to a stop outside a large metal door with an intricate pattern carved into it.
"Key please." Griphook ordered.
My mum once again hastily looked into her purse, pulling out that very important key.
"Ah there we go" she said passing the key to Griphook.
I looked in wonder at was he was doing, he seemed to be looking for a keyhole which I could very clearly see, wasn't there.
"Dad, why is he looking for a keyhole? There isn't one there." I asked suspiciously.
"Just wait and see son, he knows what he's doing" my dad said although I could see in his eyes he was thinking the same.
"Master Lupin, if you'd like to enter your vault" Griphook said holding the door open.
'How on earth did he open that door?' I thought curiously, anyway, I did as I was told and stepped upon the platform, and into the large vault.
"Get 40 Galleons out sweetie, we never know what you'll see" my mum called after me.
"40 Galleons? There's no way I'll have that much" I mumbled under my breath but as I looked up, there it was. What must've been hundreds of Galleons and Knuts stacked neatly into columns, glittering when the lamp's light hit them.
"Wow!" I exclaimed looking around in awe.
"Come on son, be quick about it" I heard my dad say.
Hurriedly I got out a pouch from my coat pocket and counted 40 Galleons in total placing them in the pouch whilst returning to the cart, as soon as I left the vault Griphook closed and locked it and came scurrying back to the cart to return us to the main building, another crank and a jerk, we were off again.
Peter
We had just visited Gringotts and gotten enough Galleons and Knuts to cover today's purchases, we strolled back down the Alley until we decided which shop to go in first. The shop we chose was Ollivanders, the most important shop to go in for a young wizard such as myself…
"Peter, you've gotten your money yes?" my dad asked, I nodded in reply.
"Well, why don't you go into Ollivanders while me and your mother go to Flourish & Blotts ok?" he asked although I could tell it was an order, again I merely nodded in reply.
They sauntered off leaving me standing in the middle of the cobbled Alley looking like an idiot, I didn't even know where about Ollivanders was in the street, I traipsed around the shops where I was and had a look around when I seen this Witch with two young boys which must've been her sons, saying;
"Stop it Sirius! You're making people look this way you stupid boy!" She hissed at this boy who must've been my age, he had long, lustrous hair and was quite tall for his age, he also seemed to have an air of 'causal-elegance' about him.
"Oh sh mother, no-one's looking" he replied bluntly admiring his fingernails.
"That boy is, over there standing outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour" she hissed again whilst shooting a look over this way… to me. Bugger. I quickly looked away pretending to admire the window display with my eyes darting to them every so often.
"Oh really." he said sarcastically, he too looked over my way, double bugger. "Um, excuse me; small boy, quite large, standing outside of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour?"
I knew I had to turn around so that's what I did trying to look innocent and confident, psh; I wasn't scared of this boy Sirius so I acknowledged him with a quick and manly nod. He looked at me and a mischievous grin spread across his face, he started walking over to me, yes that's right. He. Started. Walking. Over. To. Me. Bugger, Bugger, BUGGER! (Ok, so maybe I was lying. I am scared of this Sirius boy, he looks really tough and scary and I'm just, not that…)
He stood in front of me or should I say towered over me (god, I never realised he was that tall!), that grin had apparently gotten even bigger, that mustn't be good.
"What's your name?" he asked looking down at me.
"Uh, um… P-Peter" I stuttered quietly.
"Peter? Hi Peter, my name's Sirius, Sirius Black" He said holding a hand out to me.
"H-Hi Sirius" I replied shaking his hand.
"So, I saw you looking over there at me and my family and just wondering, why the hell were you looking at us?" he said with a hint of anger in his voice.
"I-I, was g-going to ask if y-you knew where O-Ollivanders is…" I replied quietly looking down at my feet. He laughed, he laughed a rather crazy laugh, and it was quite scary…
"Is that it?" he laughed again, "It's just down there on the left hand side, the black building."
I looked down to where he was pointing and sure enough there it was; a big black building with the name Ollivanders etched upon it in gold writing, 'god I feel so stupid.' I thought to myself, I could feel my face heating up so I mumbled a thank you and scampered before he could see.
That was the fastest I ran since that free cake sale in Madame Starling's Stall in our village and that was a fast run! Anyway, I stepped into the dark building and seen an old man with crazy white hair, standing behind the counter with a big smile on his face.
"Ah, have you come to buy your first wand?" he asked joyfully, I nodded.
"Ok, may I ask your name?" he asked still smiling.
"Peter Pettigrew" I replied happily.
"Ok Mr. Pettigrew, let's see if we can find you a wand, yes." he said whilst walking to the left from the counter, he disappeared in-between two large bookcase type shelving filled to the brim with dusty black boxes.
"How about this one?" he asked handing me a wand, "Oak, 11", Dragon Heart-String"
I just held it; I had no idea what to do with it. Should I wave it? Say a spell? Do a certain action? I had no idea!
"Well go on then, wave it!" Ollivander urged me
I gave it a sharp flick resulting in some pieces of parchment flying off the counter, oops.
"No, that's not the one for you" he said, "No matter, no matter"
He took the wand from me, placing it delicately back into its padded box, and once again disappeared from sight. I could hear him mumbling under his breath, trying to figure it out all I heard was "Wandlore." Is that even a word?
"Here we go" he handed me another wand, "Elm, 9 ¼", Phoenix Tail Feather"
As soon as my hand grasped this wand, everything felt… right. I smiled.
"How does it feel?" he asked even though I could see in his eyes he already knew the answer.
"Good." I said simply, he nodded.
"That's the wand for you then sir, 7 Galleons please" He said returning to stand behind his counter.
I got out the Galleons from my pocket and handed them over, "Thank you" I said and with that I went to go find my parents.
Sirius
I was strolling down Diagon Alley with my mum and Regulus, and as usual Regulus was whining about having to walk far the little git, so… I gave him a little nudge, only a little one but obviously Regulus took it too far resulting in him falling over and us having an argument. Brilliant day out isn't it? Anyway, my mum stopped walking and started having a fit at me over 'poor ickle Regulus' he's only a few months younger than me for merlin's sake!
So here's me and the twat arguing when my mother points out that there's this other little twerp watching us argue! Isn't there such as thing as privacy these days? So, naturally I went over there and asked who he was, why he was watching us blah, blah, blah… Turns out this Peter kid wanted was where to find Ollivanders, what an idiot!
Once he left or should I say ran away, ha! My mother chirped up. Again. Ugh.
"Sirius! What did that boy want? He wasn't one of those kinds was he!" she shouted over still checking over whimpering Regulus.
"He wanted to know where Ollivanders was and I'm not even going to answer that." I replied matter-of-factly.
"Silly boy, when are you going to realise that we're right! You are the heir to the House of Black so you better realise soon!" she hissed furiously.
I ignore her and carried on walking, 'I just want to go to Hogwarts already and get away from this bloody family!' I thought to myself as I made my way back home via. The Floo Network.
Climbing slowly up the stairs I thought about what my mum had said, I was the heir to the House of Black but how can I fully fulfil that role when I totally disagree with all of their beliefs?
Merlin.
After that exhausting day I lay down on my bed and my eyes started fluttering.
Open. Close. Open. Close. Open. Clo-…
BANG!
I jolted upright to see bags upon bags falling to the ground, their contents spilling out on my already cluttered floor then, a loud hoot sounded from behind my door. 'What the hell are they doing to my owl' I thought whilst hurdling over the scattered objects to get outside, "What is going o-" I got interrupted by a large metal owl cage pounding my belly, I hit the floor – hard.
Curled up in pain, I opened one of my eyes to see Regulus peering around the corner to see if it was clear to come out, my owl following shortly behind. "You. Git!" I exhaled, "Just wait. Till I get. You." attempting to move the cage from on top of me I heard a rip. A look of horror washed across Regulus' face, he was looking at my top, my favourite top. It had ripped from the hooks attached to the outside, that was it; he was going to get hurt. "Come back here you little toe-rag!" I screamed pushing the cage off me, my top fully ripped from top to bottom, I ran at him.
He was too slow and well, I was rather fast. We collided and were sent crashing to the floor, he immediately put his hands in front of his face so, I punched him, several times, in the belly so I could hit his face. (Being a caring brother really)
"MUM! MUM! SIRIUS. IS. HURTING. ME." He screamed.
Merlin this boy really needs to learn to toughen up. I loosened my grip on him but before I let go completely, whispering in his ear "Mummy won't always be there for you Regulus."
Traipsing back to my room picking up the cage on my way I noticed the grey, speckled owl perched upon my lamp.
"I think I'll call you Skye." She seemed to like it as she hooted sweetly when I said it, "Yeah Skye, I think we'll be a good pairing" I said whilst closing my door to avoid the commotion, "I'm going back to sleep, be quiet." I said as if she could understand me and once again I was asleep.