About a week or two later, the Weasley family, with the addition of Harry, was planning on going to diagon alley to buy new school supplies.
"VALERIE! COME DOWN HERE!"
Valerie was still in her room, making sure her drawings were hidden well, when she heard her mother shout.
"I'm coming, mum!"
The eleven-year old redhead made sure her bag with drawings was hidden well one more time, and when she saw that it was indeed hidden and she didn't need to worry, she went downstairs.
Her mother was the only one who was still waiting for her. "Ah, Valerie, there you are! Ginevra has already gone ahead. Come, dear. Diagon Alley!" She yelled as she walked into the fireplace, throwing down floo powder.
Valerie rolled her eyes, took a handful of floo powder, walked into the fireplace and threw the powder down in the fireplace, yelling "Diagon Alley!"
She reappeared in a fireplace at the leaky cauldron, where she was met by a group of redheads. Her father, Percy, Fred, George and Ron were there... She looked around the room.
"Where are Harry, Ginny and Mum?"
Her father was the first to answer: "Well, Harry probably went out a wrong fireplace, so your mother and Ginny are looking for him."
"Oh." Was all the little redhead was able to say on the subject.
Her father nodded. "So, we should also go and search for him."
Valerie nodded and they went through the brick archway into diagon alley, searching for Harry Potter.
"Ah, there he is!"
The whole group of redheads was sprinting to the dark haired boy they had been searching for.
The father of the family was least in shape, and panted: "Harry, we hoped you'd only gone one grate too far. Molly's frantic, she's coming now."
"Where did you come out?" Ron asked.
The giant man next to Harry, who Valerie hadn't even noticed yet, answered: "Knockturn Alley."
"Excellent." said Fred and George together.
"We've never been allowed in." said Ron enviously.
By this point Valerie was lost in thought. Knockturn Alley. The place for the dark wizards to do their shopping, right? What kind of shops would be in there? What objects could they sell there that are different from the things in Diagon Alley? Valerie was thinking about all the drawing she could do about such shops and she grinned. She vaguely noticed her mother coming back with Ginny and her being overly affectionate towards couldn't clearly remember they had gone into Gringotts either, and though she always enjoyed riding the carts to their vault, she didn't care enough to stop her imagining.
"Valerie!"
The redheaded girl looked up at her mother who had just called her out to reality.
"What's wrong, mum?"
"We're going to buy your and Ginny's robes, dear."
"Oh, okay."
And so they set off, everyone going in a different direction. Percy walked away muttering about a new quill. Fred and George went over to their friend. Harry, Ron and that other, frizzy-haired girl (seriously, was she here the whole time?) went somewhere... And dad was able to get the girl's parents to have a drink with him.
The three females reached the secondhand robe shop and started searching for the right sizes.
Once done, the three set out to Flourish and Blotts, where everyone said they'd meet up, stood in line to meet Gilderoy Lockhart, and Valerie began getting lost in thought again. Would all the buildings just be grey, black or brown, or would there be some color added into the mix? What kind of people would shop there?
Intense smoke made her cough and snapped her thoughts back to reality. She literally couldn't see anything with this smoke... Sheesh, how long was this stuff going to stay?
Ah, It was slowly lessening. Thank the gods this was magical smoke. There, she could see again. It seemed like Lockhart was giving Harry a one-armed hug, while speaking:
"What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time! When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography -which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge-. He had no idea that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
The crowd filling the bookstore was cheering and clapping when this was said, while Valerie just rolled her eyes and saw Harry giving Ginny his books, though he seemed startled at once and looked angrily at the blond boy in front of him (hmmm... Almost white hair... grey eyes... probably a Malfoy, right?) Seeing this, Valerie made her way over to the two of them (three counting Ginny) so she'd be able to hear what the conversation between the two boys that appeared to be enemies. And although she wanted to get there fast, she wanted to do it a bit stealthily, so she wouldn't have to be involved in the conversation if she wasn't noticed.
"Leave him alone, he didn't want that!" Said Ginny to the blond (Wow, the first time she's spoken in front of Harry...). She was glaring at the boy.
"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" drawled the Malfoy kid. Valerie's hand flew to her mouth to keep herself from laughing, though it didn't work, because, when Ginny's face went as red as a tomato, our little redhead doubled over for a few seconds. Lucky for her that there was enough noise in the store to drown her laugh enough so nobody could hear. Though, because of her laughing, she missed out on some of the conversation. At this point, Harry and the frizzy-haired girl were tugging on Ron's jacket to keep him away from the Malfoy kid.
"Ron!" The father, struggling with his twin sons, came over to his other son. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."
"well, well, well- Arthur Weasley." Valerie looked over to the voice to see a man with the same blond hair as the boy, whose shoulder he covered with his hand, though his hair was longer, and his features more defined.
"Lucius" came the response of a cold looking father.
"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Mr. Malfoy. "All those raids ... I hope they're paying you overtime?" He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration.
"Obviously not," Mr. Malfoy said. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"
Mr. Weasley flushed darker than Ginny just now. "We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy," he said.
"Clearly," said Mr. Malfoy, his pale eyes straying to the parents of the frizzy-haired girl (I should at least learn her name...), who were watching uneasily. "The company you keep, Weasley ... and I thought your family could sink no lower-"
The red haired man threw himself at the blonde, knocking him over into a bookshelf. Valerie turned her head away from the violence and ran outdoors.
Once outdoors, Valerie was breathing quick and her heart was beating fast. She went over and sat on the bench just a little bit away from the entrance to Flourish and Blotts.
She sighed "Why did that have to escalate so fast? Is it worked up frustration from the office, because I don't think that was worth ruining the shop over..."
"Well, your father isn't the smartest, girl."
The seemingly answering woman was standing a few feet to Valerie's right, looking at the shop across the street, as if she hadn't noticed the girl sitting down a few paces from her. She seemed to have similar blond hair to the two Malfoys just now and she looked like she was smelling something terrible, tilting her head upwards and scrunching her nose.
"... I guess you're right in certain ways." The woman looked surprised at this statement, and although her demeanor changed back to her cold, seemingly smelling something bad, attitude, she did look over at Valerie, and with less of a look as if she was the dirt on her shoes.
"I would have expected you to defend your family, not agree with me."
"Well, I guess it's to be expected."
Although Valerie could almost sense the need for more information, the older woman didn't ask.
"What's your name, girl?"
"I'm Valerie. And you're... Mrs. Malfoy?"
The woman seemed to have a warmer look in her eyes when she answered, looking at the red haired girl.
"I am indeed. It's good to meet you, Valerie."
"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Malfoy." Valerie smiled warmly at the woman while she said this, and the woman turned her face, showing suppressed surprise, back towards the entrance to Flourish and Blotts, where the other two quite angry blonds seemed to appear.
"Valerie, please act as if we have not had any conversation whatsoever."
The eleven-year old girl sitting on the bench just looked to the entrance of the shop, almost without blinking, and in a way just looking past the two blonds approaching the woman she'd just spoken to. And, although she was looking at Flourish and Blotts intently, she was actually focusing on the trio of blonds now next to her.
"Oh, Lucius, look at your lip."
"Narcissa, it's nothing, let's go home." A male voice was saying, presumably Mr. Malfoy.
"Those stupid blood-traitors." A slightly high pitched voice said, probably the kid.
"Now, now, Draco, don't say such words in public. Keep up the good image."
"Yes, mother."
The trio walked past the bench Valerie was sitting on, and, in the corner of her eye, she saw the kid, Draco, looking surprised at her being there. Next, the man walked past, acting as if he didn't notice her. Next though, was Mrs. Malfoy, and though she did the same as her husband, she let something fall on the ground in front of her.
Once the group of high classed blonds disappeared through apparition, our little redhead slowly bent down and grabbed whatever Mrs. Malfoy dropped. It was a small bag, which seemed to be almost weightless, with a note on it.
Well Valerie,
You seem to not have too much money to your name, so let me just give you this.
Though, promise me two things:
One, don't open this until after you're sure you're alone. I don't want my reputation being taken from me because of an eleven-year old kid.
Second, please use this for something useful. I'm assuming you can guess what I think of as useful.
Good luck, child.
It's expected that Valerie was incredibly confused, surprised, though also a bit happy. She tucked away the small bag into one of the pockets on her jacket just in time, because when she looked up, her family was coming out of the door of Flourish and Blotts.
"Come on Valerie, we're going home." Her dad stomped past angrily.
So they went home. Mrs. Weasley and Mr. Weasley were both angry and slightly disappointed, though both in different ways. Percy was pleased with his purchases, Fred and George seemed to have the best time of their life, Harry and Ron were slipping between being pleased with their purchases and being annoyed at Lockhart and the Malfoy kid, and Ginny was ecstatic about getting the Lockhart books from Harry.
But Valerie, she was extremely pleased once she took a look inside the small bag she got.