A/N: Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when your part of a team… So yeah that happened. Um… yay third chapter, Whoo!
Disclaimer: I so wish I owned harry potter … or at least Hogwarts. I also don't own the Jean-Louise Parkers.
Thrice met
After flooing to the Leakey cauldron, Leo and his parents entered Diagon Alley. His mom looked at the list that Neville had given her and started for Flourish & Blotts for his books. Then, they went through the rest of Diagon Alley buying everything from cauldrons to robes for school. Through it all, Leo could feel himself getting more and more sick every time he looked at all his bought items or felt people staring. His parents ignored the stares like pros, but Leo wouldn't he would glare at them until they looked away. It was in one such instance that he and another person bumped into each other.
"Oof," came the voice from below him. Leo quickly got up and offered his hand out of habit and manners.
"Thanks dude," said the boy, taking Leos hand" sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." The boy talked odd as if he was from somewhere else.
'Oh he's from America, right?'
"Yep, I am," Leo blushed, realizing he said that out loud. "Well I'd better go, need to find my brother before he freaks out."
The boy turned around and started to walk away, but turned his head back towards Leo." See ya later, dude." Then he walked away into the crowds.
"Leo? Oh, there you are! I thought we lost you." Startled, Leo looked up to see him mom coming towards him. She got closer and a worried looked appeared on her face. "Leo? Are you okay?"
Blinking, Leo shook his head to clear it." Yeah I'm fine mum." He walked up to her and took her hand.
"Mum?" She turned to look at him." Are…never mind. Let's just go get dad." They arrived at their destination and Leo's dad rushed to them, drawing Leo into a hug.
"Merlin, thought we lost you. Are you okay?" Rolling his eye Leo affirmed that yes he was fine. His parents fussed over him a bit more before becoming certain that Leo was indeed fine.
"'kay great, now time for the best part," Scorpius got a thoughtful look on his face, "Well other than picking your familiar, but that's next!" He finished with an almost childish glee.
Realizing what store they were in, Leo nearly cried. They were in in the wand shop, Ollivanders. Leo could hide his magic and pretend he was a squib, but the moment he touched a wand everyone would know he still had magic.
'It's okay, maybe it only works when it's your own wand, or even squibs could make a wand spark' Leo thought doubtfully, trying to cheer himself up. After trying one, then two, then a dozen Leo started to gain more confidence. Each wand had produced only a small fizzle, definitely not fit for any wizard of any caliber. He looked over at his parents and immediately felt guilty. They looked so worried; Rose was clutching Scorpius's hand in a death grip, while Scorpius kept looking from Leo to all the wrong wands. Leo could practically see their doubts.
Leo had tried his fifteenth wand, when even he started to become worried. 'No you don't want a wand remember?' He thought fiercely to himself. He chanced a look at his parents again and regretted it. His mum looked like she would start crying at any minute, and his dad had such a look of denial on his face, Leo internally winced. Mr. Prestly came to the front again with another wand before anything drastic happened though. Leo could tell even the wand makers apprentice was starting to doubt that Leo would find his wand.
"Here try this one, Aspen wood, eleven inches, with sirens' blood and unicorn hair. Usually unicorn hair and sirens blood react violently with each other but somehow these two worked in harmony…" He kept muttering to himself. Leo had zoned out by then, looking only at the wand presented to him. It felt like it was calling to him.
"Why is the wood black?" Rose interrupted the man's musings. "Hmm? Oh! Well, this aspen wood comes from a forest that has mostly undiscovered magical properties. Anything that is cut off from the tree that the wand comes from turns black."
"And the silver filaments?" Scorpius asked, looking at the wand doubtfully. "It has to do with the combined cores of the wand, I believe."
"Why does it have two cores instead of the regular one?" Leo asked breathlessly, nearly whispering in awe. The unconscious part of him knew deep down inside him, that that was his wand. "Again it has to do with the core properties themselves. Both cores react violently with aspen by themselves… actually even together they should have. Well, enough questions, try it out.
Leo reached for the wand and the minute he touched it, he consciously knew it was made for him. It wasn't the bust of light that came from it or even the sighs of relief from his parent. It was the feeling of rightfulness that made it clear who that wand was for. Suddenly, Leo remembered that he didn't want a wand, could not want one, but he couldn't bear to think of this wand not with him. This was his wand, and forget anyone who said otherwise. Leo once again looked at his parents, and for the first time in two hours, they beamed at him fully and without reservation. They bought his wand and put it with the rest of his stuff.
"Okay, just two more stops and then were could go to Fortescues, 'kay love?" His mum said as the left the shop. Leo just nodded. His earlier nausea had come back, and with a vengeance. Now his parent knew 100% that he still had magic, and would keep an even harder look out for his acceptance letter. The letter that had already arrived and was hidden between his mattresses. Leo felt even sicker at the thought.
~line break~
They arrived at the pet shop and Leo felt himself calm a little. 'Animals, okay, I can do animals besides their a lot better than people.' Leo stared to feel embarrassed. He had to give himself a pep talk to go into an animal store. They went inside and Leo remembered why he hated animal shops, there were people everywhere! People who always stared, even when they didn't mean to. People who talked in whispered tones as if he couldn't hear them as he passed by; as if he didn't realize they were talking about him. So Leo did what he did best in these situations and glared at people and then looked away.
Leo looked around the shop checking every potential animal. He inspected cats, owls, toads, rats, turtles, and other animals, before shaking his head and moving on. He was about to give up when he saw it. It was a black kitten, this dark grey patches and blue eyes. It was smaller than the others and looked slightly underfed. Leo got closer, and saw that even though he was young, the kitten already had a large scar on his side. Leo was reaching for him, when all the animals went, well, they went a bit mad. Leo turned to see what caused it and saw instead the boy from earlier, the American. The boy looked at Leo, blinked and smiled. Then he waved at him and turned back to listen to what the man with him was saying.
Leo heard a meow behind him and felt something rub against his back. Turning around he saw that it was the kitten. It was the only one not cowering and, and he pushed himself further into Leo's hand purring. Leo looked into the kittens eyes and smiled. Deciding that he really like the kitten, he proceeded to take him. While waiting in line to pay for 'Kitten', he heard an American accent say hi. Turning towards the voice, Leo saw that the voice was in fact talking to him, and not someone else. The man with the boy looked slightly shocked that said boy would be talking to somebody. Leo started to wonder about that before he reminded himself it wasn't his business.
"Can I see him?" The boy gestured to the kitten, so Leo nodded and carefully handed "kitten" to the boy. "Wow, he's really cute. I like him." The boy then proceeded to pet kitten. Leo blinked, who was this guy? Why was he so friendly? What did he want? To be polite, Leo asked what familiar the boy was buying.
"An owl… I think." He gestured to where the man was buying the animal in the cage. Now Leo was confused. What Witch or wizard didn't know what an owl looked like? It was then Leo did a double take. The boy didn't have robes on, and while that wasn't unusual, he also had a wide eye look and kept looking at everything with amazement and slight shock.
'Bloody hell, he's a muggleborn.' Leo felt stupid." No wonder he's talking to me, he probably thinks I'm a muggleborn too.' Trying to paly t cool replied with a yes that was an owl.
"Freddy," the boy turned to the man who was suddenly beside them again. "Yeah, Coop?" the boy, Freddy replied.
"Come on, I already bought your um owl. I have to be on the other side of London in, like two hours for rehearsal, and you have to call Toni." Freddy nodded, handed Kitten back to Leo, and told them both (Leo and Kitten) bye. Leo paid for Kitten and he and Rose both went to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, While Leo dad went off somewhere else. Leo felt a grin sneaking up on his face. This was the one place he always felt welcome in, no matter what.
"Oi, lion cub." Leo winced at the nickname and turned to see Liam, one of his older cousins.
"Really Do you have to call me that." Leo asked irritated and slightly amused.
"Of course I do, Lion Cub." Liam chose to ignore his younger cousin mock glare. "Anyways I just came to tell you that Uncle James and dad have a school special, all first years get half off all merchandise."
"Oh. Tha-that's cool, um 'scuse me I uh, have to go to the restroom." Leo tried to escape the conversation and cousin, but Liam just grabbed Leo by the arm and pulled him closer.
"Don't think I don't know what you're up to, Leo." Liam whispered. "What are you talking about? Let me go" Leo Started to panic when Liam narrowed his eyes.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about Malfoy. I know you hid your Hogwarts letter, and just to let you know, I'm not the only one. So you better cough it up before I go Slytherin on you."
"Shove off Weasley, I didn't hide anything. And really, Slytherin on me?" you need a better threat than that. "Leo replied, his voice dripping with condensation. Liam just snorted. "Really? So I could look in your room and not find your letter hidden in there somewhere?" Liam, seeing Leo pale continued," that's what I thought. Now I know you don't want to go, but seriously just give Hogwarts a chance. Its not like we're going to throw you to the sharks… or snakes."
"Liam, Leo?" Both cousins startled and turned to see Rose coming to them. "Oh hello Aunt Rose, lovely day isn't it?" Liam said, as if he hadn't just threated her son only seconds ago. Rose raised her eyebrow at him.
"Hello Liam," was her only reply though." Leo, your uncles have a gift for you at the counter." Rose looked particularly ill at the thought, knowing what cousins considered gifts. Leo though, was grateful for the excuse to escape. But not before Liam made one last threat.
"Don't forget Lion cub, we know where to look." Confused Rose led her son to where his uncles were at.
"Oi, Leo!"
"There you are been looking for ages." Leo rolled his eyes at his uncle James and scoffed. "You didn't even know I was here until three minutes ago, I bet." James pouted, while Fred laughed.
"Hey why are you here anyways uncle James? I mean don't you have quidditch practice?"
"Yes, yes I do buuut I'm here shopping with my amazing children and visiting my favorite cousin- other than you of course Rosie." James winked. Rose huffed "Don't call me Rosie, James"
"Anyways, we got something for you Leo." His uncles produced a little black bag, and gave it to him. When he looked at them in confusion, his uncles just said 'shrinking charm' and 'don't open it until you get to school'. Shrugging, Leo put the bag in his back pocket. When his mum had enough of her cousins' antics, they left and headed to the ice cream parlor.
~line break~
When they got to Fortescues, Leo saw that his dad was there and had already paid for their ice creams. Scorpius handed one to rose and the other to Leo. Grinning at the flavor his dad got him, he proceeded to eat the peanuts marshmallows and chocolate ice cream. His parents chatted about boring Ministry things that Leo could care less about. They also kept telling Leo about how great and interesting Hogwarts and how much he would love to go.
'Doubt it' Leo thought bitterly, looking down at his left arm. His parents must have caught up on his mood because they asked what was wrong.
"Nothing I-"Leo was interrupted by a desperately flying owl.
"No, Wait, Stop! Newton Come back!" Leo turned to see the boy Freddy chasing the bird while the man with him looked agitated. The owl –Newton-suddenly flew towards Leo and stopped to land on his head. His parents looked the way he felt, shocked. Newton, perched on his head, hooted contently. Carefully, Leo grabbed the owl from his head and looked at the owl. It was a pygmy owl, with grey and white feathers. He had brown intelligent eyes, and a small beak. Staring at Leo, Newton hooted again.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry." Freddy ran up to them red faced and panting. "Some guy took his cage and opened it. Then Newton went and flew away." Freddy blinked, seeing Leo.
"Hey you're that guy I keep seeing," at the man's admonishing 'Freddy!' Freddy apologized. "Sorry my name is Freddy, Fredrick Jean-Louise Parker and this is my brother Coop, Cooper." He said pointing at the man. "What's yours?" Leo blinked; he never met such a friendly person- well one that wasn't family.
"I-I'm Leo, Leo Malfoy." Leo stuttered. Freddy only smiled him though. "Well, it's nice to meet you Leo." Suddenly a hoot came from Leo's hands. Both boys started, as they had forgotten about Newton. Stretching his arms towards the other boy, Leo gave Newton back to his owner. Freddy accepted his owl gratefully, and put him back in the cage.
"Why is his name Newton?" Rose asked. Scorpius and Leo were curious as well.
"Well, Isaac Newton was an amazing scientist, as he proved the laws of motion. Newton isn't his whole name; it's actually Newton Darwin Jean-Louise Parker." Freddy explained. Everyone but Leo had a slightly dazed look on their faces. Leo though, Leo was absolutely fascinated. He had never heard of familiars being named after muggles.
"Okay Freddy let's leave these poor people alone, I still have to be on the other side of London in only one hour, so come on." Said Coop after he recovered. Oh, right. Okay. Bye Leo, bye Leo's parents." With a wave, Freddy turned and followed his brother towards the Leakey Cauldron. Newton hooted from his cage as if he were saying goodbye as well.
"Well that was-interesting." Scorpius said after the Jean –Louise Parkers were well out of sight and sound. Rose nodded in agreement. Later, Leo would realize that he met Freddy three times, and would remember something he read once. 'If you meet someone thrice in one day, your destinies are intertwined.
A/N Whew. That was a long one. I honestly don't know if all the chapters will be like this so... don't get used to it. sorry.* sheepish expression*