Twilight Saga characters
created and owned by Stephenie Meyer
And the characters and plotline of
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
created and owned by J.K. Rowling
Chapter 13: Back to School Preparations
"Hullo? Mr. Cullen?" we heard Hagrid's gruff voice call from downstairs.
"Bella, Bella" I gently shook her, "Hagrid's here to help us with our school supplies."
"What time is it? How long have I been sleeping?
"It's nine in the morning. You've been sleeping twelve hours."
"Can I have twelve more?" she whined.
"No, you need to get yourself adjusted to this time zone. Up until now you've been wide awake at night and napping during the day. You need to force yourself up, love."
"Okay, you're right" she grumbled. I stifled a chuckle at her grimace. "Do I have time for a shower?"
"Certainly."
"I am so glad we have our own bathroom. It's so much nicer then having to share like I did at home" she mumbled as I heard her turn the water on in the bathroom
"You have to share with me" I teased.
"Not the same" she called from behind the bathroom door.
I chuckled. No I suppose it wouldn't be… Then, recalling her pleasure at breakfast in bed at the camp site, I rushed down to the kitchen.
"Hello, dear" Esme greeted me, "How is Bella getting settled in?"
"She's having trouble with the new time zone, but overall, she's doing well."
She really is remarkable. She's so good for you.
"I know… I was wondering what supplies we have. I was thinking about breakfast."
"There are plenty of eggs. I am thinking maybe I should find somewhere to donate them. Bella will never eat them all… We also have bread, milk, juice, fruit… what are you looking for?"
"I think I'll make an omelette and toast… and cut up some fruit." I mumbled, already getting the ingredients together. In a few moments I was back at our room. That sounded good – our room. Back in Forks, she had her room and I mine, though we shared both. But this was our room… I balanced the plate and glass of juice while I opened the door. "Bella, I hope you're hungr…"
I stopped at the sight of Bella quickly pulling her towel back up to cover herself. "Umm, sorry." I quickly set down the food and rushed out of the room. What was I thinking? Of course she would be getting ready. Why hadn't I knocked? But along with berating myself, I was remembering the site of her freshly showered skin in the few seconds before she clung the towel back to herself. I swallowed at the memory. I had spent almost every night with her since my return, but I had never seen her so sparsely clothed… She was… there wasn't words. How had I managed to get such a goddess?
I heard the door open behind me. "Edward? Would you come back in?" she called hesitantly.
I turned to see her dressed, hair still wet, in jeans and a sweater. I gave her an awkward grin, "Sure." I said, following her back into the room.
"This is amazing," she gestured toward the breakfast I had hastily left behind. Thank you." She put her arms around me. I let her pull me into a warm hug.
"Bella, I'm so sorry." I started, trying to find the right words for my indiscretion. "I should have been more careful… I should have knocked."
"Edward, how could you have known? When you are over in my room at Forks – I always get ready in the bathroom."
"Still, I shouldn't have assumed. It was very rude of me, Bella… Entirely inappropriate."
"Edward, it happened… don't give it another thought."
If that were only possible. Unfortunately my mind recalled it with perfect clarity… not think about it? Not likely. Something must have shown in my eyes for her face suddenly flushed dark scarlet. I reached out to touch the heat risen to her cheeks. "I love that" I murmured.
"Umm… Is that all you love?" she asked looking down at her hands.
I couldn't understand what she was getting at. I loved everything about her. Her goodness, her character, her beauty and now, apparently, her body. Oh, she was wondering if I liked how she looked… I gulped not sure how to respond.
"Bella, you are the most amazing creature. You are good, selfless, brave… and somehow you love me. I love the colour of your skin when you blush, your scent, the sound of your voice. Your hair is the most attractive combination of brown with golden-red flecks that catch the sun or firelight. Your eyes are impossibly deep brown. You face is beautiful. I love all of that…"
She had continued looking down at her hands as she twisted them together. I put a finger under her chin and lifted her face up to meet my gaze. "But today, Bella, I saw more of you then I have any right to see before I am committed to you in marriage."
Her shoulders slumped in defeat. I couldn't understand why… I went on, "But, if you will excuse my rudeness at the observation, you are beautiful – all of you… I only wish…" I didn't dare finish that thought. We should have been married by now and, at that moment, I wished we were…
"You really think I am beautiful?"
"Oh, Bella… of course. You are a goddess. You are magnificent. You are glorious…"
She blushed again, "You left so quickly… I thought maybe…"
She thought I didn't like what I saw? I pulled her closer. "Oh Bella, you silly girl." I held her for a moment, then her stomach growled. "You should finish your breakfast. Hagrid is waiting for us downstairs."
"Okay" she said, reluctantly letting go and carried her breakfast to the desk.
"And Bella? I'll knock next time."
"Okay" she smiled.
We joined Rosalie and Carlisle in the dining room where Hagrid was eating his way through a large helping of scrambled eggs. "I think I've found a way to deal with our extra eggs.' Esme said cheerfully.
"Yer wife makes good breakfas''" Hagrid mumbled to Carlisle, between mouthfuls.
Esme beemed at the complement as he finished off the plate, "You are welcome anytime…really" she insisted.
"Dumbledore gave me yer class list. We nee' to go to Diagon Alley."
Diagon Alley? Rosalie thought.
"We'll 'ave to go by floo powder. Mr. Weasley 'ad your fireplace connected to the floo network."
We all stared waiting for him to explain.
"Ya see, you stand in the fireplace, toss some floo powder and say the place you wan' to go."
Bella and I looked at each other and then back at Carlisle hesitantly. Emmett, Jasper and Alice ran into the room.
"Can we try?" Jasper asked.
"Ya, can we come? Can we travel in the fireplaces too?" Emmett asked excitedly.
"I s'pose. Hermione's parents come to Diagon Alley… So who's firs'?"
"Me" Emmett stated, stepping up to the fireplace.
"Alice?" Carlisle asked.
She paused for a moment with that familiar unfocused expression in her eyes. "Well, if he is supposed to end up near a shop that is advertising eye of newt, he should be okay."
"Ya – that's the place…" Hagrid confirmed.
Emmett grabbed a handful of dust from the bag in Hagrid's. Throwing it he said clearly, "Diagon Alley" and suddenly disappeared in a flash of green flames.
"The fire?" I asked nervously.
"Ah, goo' question – only lef' over magic, not real fire…" Hagrid assured.
We all stared at the place where only moments before Emmett stood grinning widely.
"Okay, me next" Jasper jumped up. In moments he was gone.
"It's okay. I see them together." Alice stated.
"Well, I might as well." Rosalie said repeating the process, followed by Carlisle, Esme and Alice.
"Well, I guess it is up to us." I said, looking at Bella.
"I'll do it," she said, standing, grabbing a handful of dust. "Diagon Alley" and she was gone. In half a second I followed her, worried something might have happened. As I said the words, I felt myself moving through space, spinning quickly and the next thing I knew I was standing next to a shop full of the most unusual items I had seen in my existence.
"Well, it looks like you all made it." Hagrid said, appearing. "Firs' stop is Gringott's to get some money."
"Hagrid, what do you mean? We have plenty of money. We can just charge it to our credit cards." Alice inquired, holding up her special black card.
"I don' know 'bout yer credit cards, but ta buy yer supplies, you'll need some gold from yer vault at Grigott's bank."
"But we don't have a vault at this Grigott's. Maybe we'll have to go to a muggle bank and take out some cash?" Carlisle suggested.
"No need, yous see, Dumbledore took the liberty of deposit'n yer annual salary into a vault at Grigott's. I think yous'll have enough to buy what you need." Hagrid confirmed.
"Okay" Carlisle responded, somewhat taken aback.
"All right, 'ere we are." Hagrid said, holding open a large bronze door. By now, nothing should have come as a shock, but as we walked into the snowy white building, our collective mouths hung agape as we peered around the large marble interior.
"Are those… house elves?" Esme whispered.
"House elves?" Hagrid bellowed, breaking into a full laugh. "Imagine, house elves at Gringott's. Those are goblins."
Of course, goblins… Jasper thought sarcastically, shaking his head.
Hagrid walked down the long room toward one particular goblin at the end. "I'm 'ere to make a withdraw'… vault 267."
"I assume you have your key." The goblin snarled.
Hagrid padded down his various articles of clothing, finally finding a small gold key in his inside vest pocket. "'ere it is."
"Come with me" the goblin hopped down from what must have been a very tall chair, for when he came around the desk he was barely up to my waist. When we all followed him, he stopped and glared back, "Are you all coming?"
Ya! Emmett exclaimed to himself while looking anxiously between Carlisle and Hagrid.
"It it's no' too muc' trouble." Hagrid responded.
"Very well" the goblin said with a growl. "We'll need to take two carts…"
Why would we need to take a cart to the vault? How far are we going? Rosalie wondered.
Can't we just take a port key or use floo powder? Emmett thought, eyes shinning.
We had walked a short distance through a rough stone passageway. Do they keep their money in caves? Rosalie wondered.
"Get in" the goblin said sharply as we neared two un-powered carts. After we got settled, the carts zoomed off. We changed direction a multitude of times, moving forward, turning, dropping several stories, back up again… All the time moving past large numbered doors.
"Here we are, key?" he said to Hagrid.
"You may wan' to come wit' me" He said directly to Carlisle, who turned and murmured, "stay here" too low for the others to hear.
Carlisle stepped out of the cart and followed Hagrid to the large iron door that the goblin had opened. We all strained out of curiosity to peer into the door and see as much as we could.
Is that a pile of gold coins? Alice wondered.
Very quickly Carlisle and Hagrid returned, Carlisle with a velvet bag very full of coins.
Soon we returned to the bank where Hagrid led us back out onto the street. "Firs' thing – uniforms. Madam Malkin's is the bes' place for that." Hagrid took off down the street guiding us to a shop that clearly sold clothing.
Greeting the proprietor who I guessed was Madam Malkin, he said, "We 'ave a few new students 'ere. Need uniforms and dress robes…"
"All of them?" Madam Malkin's eyes widened.
"Only these three" Hagrid clarified, pointing out Rosalie, Bella and I, "An' this one needs professors robes." As he gestured toward Carlisle.
"I'll do my very best, dear, to have them ready by the end of the day." She took each of us in turn, a type measure working its way around our bodies taking various measurements.
"Whoo-hooo. Can't wait to see you in a school girl uniform." Emmett exclaimed as we left the store. Rosalie smacked him on the back of the head in response.
"We need tag it caldrons and potion supplies… then yer books… oh, and here" He said stopping at a very simple store with only a wand lying on a pillow in the window. The sign on the store read in peeling gold letters: 'Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC'.
"Wands?" Carlisle asked. He can't be serious.
"This way" Hagrid ignored Carlisle's tone and walked into the shop. The store was tiny with the appearance of dust over everything. Small boxes were stocked from floor to ceiling. A small man peered at us from a spindly chair in the corner of the store.
"Here to purchase wands? You've come to the right place… hmm… difficult to place you – what kind of wand…" He launched off urgently.
"'Scuse me… we're here for a special order…" Hagrid leaned in, speaking in a hushed tone, though we were the only ones in the store. "Dumbledore sen' me."
"Oh, yes," he eyed us suspiciously then, "Well, then" he hopped off his chair and shuffled off to the back of the store, returning with four long thin boxes. "You should find these in order. Please be on your way now." He said hurriedly, clearly uncomfortable with our presence.
"Thank you" Hagrid said quickly herding us out of the shop.
"Hagrid, what is wrong?" Bella asked in response to our expedient departure.
"Mr. Ollivander make' these types of wands only in very special circumstances – normally very dangerous circumstances. He don' want ta be linked wit' whatever we are doin'." Hagrid explained.
"But he doesn't know we are…" Jasper asked.
"Oh, no, no' at all" Hagrid reassured.
We continued on our way, stopping at Slug and Jiggers Apothecary to get our potions supplies. Emmett grinned as products such as bat spleen, dragon skin gloves and mandrake juice made their way into our belongings.
Next was Flourish and Bott's to purchase our school books. If we had expected to finally see one store that would match our experience in the real or muggle world, we were sadly mistaken. Books were piled in every which way with no apparent organization. However, that didn't slow down the owner, Bookseller, from quickly gathering the long list of books Hagrid handed him and wrapped them for our departure.
By our final stop, Pottidge's Cauldron Shop, we were all balancing several packages wrapped in brown paper. We were glad to have the large black containers to dump our packages in. We picked up our robes, which were completed as promised, in what seemed like an excessively short period of time.
"Where is the short plaid school girl skirt and knee-highs" Emmett complained when he say the long robes that were the school uniform. We laughed at his dismay, before continuing on to our floo network point of entry.
"Oh my!" Carlisle's voice stopped us suddenly. He reached into a bin picking out what appeared to be an ordinary newspaper, except for the moving pictures on the cover. "The Ministry of Magic would do well to stop wasting time quibbling about cauldron thickness, and instead use their limited resources to stamp out the growing vampire problem in our nation." He read from the paper, then looked up at Hagrid. "What does this mean? Do people know?"
"Hagrid took the paper from Carlisle's hand, "Bah, Rita Skeeter… nothing but a rag writer. Trin' to make a name fer hersel'. Nothin' to worry 'bout." He dismissed, but folded up the newspaper and stuck it in the inside pocket of his vest. "Bes' be on our way now."
And in a flash of green flame, we returned to Castle Venlaw with our purchases.
"Very convenient – that floo powder… but I much prefer the port key." Alice commented upon our return.
"Dumbledore aske' me ta show you the school." Hagrid suddenly said, met with eight pairs of very eager eyes. "So do yous wan' ta go now… or I can come back tomorrow."