Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other characters, locations or themes in the Harry Potter series. I also do not own Sadie Kane - she belongs to Rick Riordan.

A/N For "The Lost One" I'm sorry the previous chapters are quite short, it's because I've been writing them during lunch break. Tell me whether you prefer longer chapters or quicker updates. Anyway, in this chapter, Hermione and Regulus go to buy Hermione's wand, and they meet a few of the other characters.

Chapter Five

31st July 1991

The Grangers had followed the directions given to them by Dumbledore to get to the Leaky Cauldron. Being unable to see it, they had had to drop their children off outside it and let them go in by themselves. It was the first time they had let Hermione and Regulus go anywhere other than school or the corner shop by themselves, so they were slightly anxious about the whole ordeal.

Regulus held tightly onto Hermione's hand as she led him into the building. The two of them were both nervous about being on their own and it didn't help that the place was full of older witches and wizards sitting round tables, drinking and talking like they had known each other for years – which they probably had.

Someone must have noticed their lost expressions, because a woman came up to then, and told them how to get into Diagon Alley, and how to exchange their muggle money for wizarding money, After they had been to Gringotts bank and had hold of some money, they headed to Ollivander's wand store.

"Hello, I'm Mr Ollivander," said an oldish man, behind the counter. "Are you looking to buy a wand?"

"She is," said Regulus, pointing at Hermione, who was being a bit on the shy side.

"Ah yes," said Ollivander, turning to face Hermione. "Just wait a minute, while I get a wand for you to try." He walked to the back of the room and climbed a ladder, to get down a long, narrow box. He opened it to reveal a long, shiny, brown stick, and handed the 'stick' to Hermione.

Hermione held the wand, unsure of what she should do with it.

"Well don't just stand there! Wave it around! The wand chooses the wizard you know."

Hermione flicked the wand. This caused an explosion, breaking all the glass in the shop window.

"No, no, no. That is not right for you. Not right at all," said Ollivander after a quick reparo. He went to the shelves again and picked out another wand, this one with a unicorn hair core, and elder wood. Unfortunately, this one caused Hermione to set the counter-top on fire.

After about the fifth try, Hermione found a wand that worked It was 10¾" vine wood, with a dragon heartstring core.

The next shop they visited was 'Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions', to get Hermione her Hogwarts school robes. When they entered the shop, a round-faced boy of about Hermione's age was already being fitted. He was holding something small and brown, which, after seeing the open door, jumped out of his hand onto Hermione's shoulder.

"Trevor!" shouted the boy, trying to run over to Hermione, but couldn't because the woman fitting him was holding his robes.

"Keep still Neville," said the woman irritably. Meanwhile Hermione, who didn't particularly like slimy things, passed the toad to Regulus. He pulled a face at her, but held onto Trevor anyway, while Hermione and Neville were fitted.

"Are you two first years too?" asked Neville.

"I am," said Hermione, "but Reg won't be able to go for another two years."

"Oh," said Neville. "Do you know what house you want to be in?"

"I don't know much about them yet – I'm muggle born. Dumbledore mentioned them when he came to talk to us about Hogwarts and my brother and I agreed that Gryffindor and Ravenclaw sound like the best. What do you think?" Hermione knew she was rambling, but she was nervous and it all just came out without her really thinking about it.

"I dunno. My parents were in Gryffindor, so I hope I'll go there too."

All too soon, the fitting of robes was completed.. Hermione, Regulus and Neville filed out of the shop onto the street where Neville's gran was waiting for him.

On seeing Regulus, the old woman did a double take, mistaking him for somebody else. She accused him of being the spawn of the devil who tortured her poor son to insanity, which of course neither Regulus nor Hermione knew anything about.

"I don't know what you mean," Regulus said in reply to Mrs Longbottom.

"Are related to Bellatrix Lestrange? You certainly look a lot like her!"

Regulus thought for a moment. He recognised the name, but he thought he remembered it belonging to a girl a little older than Hermione was. He knew because he had had nightmares involving her, but they weren't very bad nightmares. The girl was certainly a bully, but he couldn't imagine her doing what Mrs Longbottom was saying she had done. He must have got the wrong Bellatrix.

"I don't think so," he said eventually. "My parents name began with a B."

"Oh well, sorry for that outburst. You really do look like her you know." Mrs Longbottom walked away to go and buy cauldrons, while Hermione and Regulus went to buy books.

The two of them walked down Diagon Alley in the direction of 'Flourish and Blotts', staring in wonder at all the window displays and people in strange clothing, as well as an extremely tall man with a beard carrying a cage with a white owl in it. One particular window display was brought to Regulus' attention. A group of other boys were crowded the window so that at first it was difficult to see what all the fuss was about.

As they got closer, they could see that there was a broomstick in the window. It was called a Nimbus 2000.

"Can we get one of those, Mione?"

"No. It's too expensive, and first years aren't allowed broomsticks anyway," said Hermione.

"But we could keep it at home," whined Regulus.

"Yes, and then what would all the neighbours think when we were flying outside their windows?"

"Oh yeah. I didn't think of that."

"Silly."

When they finally arrived at the book shop, and had bought all the book on Hermione's list, Hermione added a few extra books to the pile, including 'Quiditch Through the Ages' to stop Regulus from whining. They went to buy cauldrons, ingredients and all of the other things Hermione needed for Hogwarts. When they had finished they went to sit outside an ice-cream shop with two enormous ice cream Sundaes.

They had just settled down, when a blonde boy came up to the table and asked them to move out of the way. He wasn't very polite about it.

"Shove off mudbloods this is my spot," he said. Then to Regulus, he added, "Do I know you?"

Hermione and Regulus didn't know the meaning of the term "mudblood" but it didn't sound very nice. Regulus thought he remembered a boy similar to this that he used to know, but he wasn't sure if it was the same one.

…..

Flashback 1966

Regulus hated it when his cousins came round. He hated it even more when they brought their friends over – Bella's friends were usually awful, the Lestrange brothers in particular seemed to hate each him the most.

So when Cissy brought with her a blonde haired boy she'd met at Hogwarts, Regulus was not happy. Sirius had been sent to his room for being naughty, so he was forced to play hide and seek with them.

The Black family home was quite large, so there were lots of places to hide. Regulus was between some paintings in the attic. He could here Cissy calling, and footsteps running up the stairs. The footfalls did not belong to Cissy – she had lighter, quicker footsteps.

They belonged to Cissy's friend Lucius Malfoy, a boy she had met at Hogwarts. He entered the attic and looked around for a good hiding place. He saw where Regulus was and thought that that was probably the best one, so he grabbed Regulus and shoved him into a big, pine wardrobe that was standing in the corner and locked the door.

It was dark in the wardrobe, but light enough to see. Regulus turned around and screamed. There was a body in there. It was pale and bloody and looked like it should be dead, but it was standing staring him. It looked like it was one of those inferi things that he had heard his Father talking about, but it looked like Sirius, and Regulus knew that Sirius wasn't dead. Something wasn't right.

Regulus carried on screaming until he heard Cissy coming up the stairs. It sounded as if she had grabbed Lucius and was questioning him.

"Lucius, where's Reggie? What have you done?"

"There," said Lucius. He was probably pointing but Regulus couldn't see that..

"But that's the cupboard with the boggart in it. The poor boy will be terrified."

Lucius muttered something that sounded like "good" while Cissy unlocked the door and let out Regulus, who ran out into her arms and started to sob about 'inferi' and 'dead Sirius'.

…

1991 again

"I think I know you. Is your name Lucius?"

"No, you idiot, my names Draco. Lucius is my father," the boy sneered.

"Um, well you look like him. You also look a bit like Cissy."

"My mother is called Narcissa, which Cissy might be short for."

That made no sense to Regulus, who remembered Cissy and Lucius to be eleven-years-old only three and a half years ago. It wasn't possible for them to have a child that age, so Regulus assumed it was all a big coincidence.

…..

After a really weird day, Hermione and Regulus walked out of Diagon Alley and into muggle London. They walked to the place where their parents said to meet them, and climbed into the family car.

…..

A/N So that's the end of the chapter. I tried to make it slightly longer this time. I hope you like it. Please review, and again tell me how you came across this story.

P.S. Did you spot Hagrid?