I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
Surprise School Shopping Trip
Alex walked silently through the alleyway, avoiding the populated areas of the small city. He didn't like people. He preferred to stay away from them as much as possible, and they usually preferred the same, when they knew he existed. He spent most of his time helping them to not know. It was just easier to get what he needed without needing to worry about catching a brick with his skull. He had never known a single human being who didn't despise him. At least, not that he remembered. He was the dirty orphan who was in the way. He was the weird kid who was always dragging down their mood. It was better than it used to be, of curse. Other children hurling stones at him while adults outright ignored him was better than children hiding while adults ran him out of town with pointed weapons and curses. For as enlightened as witches and wizards claimed to be, they were awfully quick to drive out the young child who sneezed and exposed his gills or webbed fingers, or who got mad and accidentally cut his own palms with his claws. and they weren't shy about casting stinging jinxes, knockback jinxes, and all manner of other, exceedingly painful, spells.
Alex turned into the grocery store, quickly gathering two bags of marshmallows, a box of donuts that were wrapped in plastic wrappers in sets of six inside the box, a bottle of soda, and a loaf of bread. As he walked to the counter, however, the man behind it glared at him. He was a tall, fat man with his white shirt stained with various spots of food and sauces from working at the shop's deli, and he had a bushy grey beard.
"You got money for that?" the man growled, eyes narrowing still further, as if him asking were enough proof that Alex didn't have money to warrant more hatred than the man was already directing at him.
"Yes," Alex said meekly, pulling out a fold of bills.
"Ten," the man grunted, his glare barely wavering, much less fading.
Alex put the money on the counter and put the rest of the money away before scooping the food into a paper bag from beside him and turning to leave.
"Hey, brat!" the man behind the cash register barked, his gruff voice making Alex's ears sting. "Why the hell's this money wet!?"
"I fell in a puddle," Alex said before darting out the door before the man could shout any more.
He hurried down the street, took a back alley, followed another street a few blocks, then took a back alley that emptied out into a deserted stretch of beach. He paused just long enugh to put a washed-up plastic bag over the paper one, then glanced around before wading out into the water up to his neck. Then, he closed his eyes and dipped his head under, kicking off the ground and beginning to swim away. He opened his eyes, a thin membrane remaining over his eyes, keeping the saltwater from irritating his eyes while allowing him to see clearly. As he opened his eyes, he also extended the webbing between his fingers and kicked his shoes off, allowing his toes to extend to their normal length, flexing them to open up the webbing between them as he used his free hand to tuck his collar into the shirt, uncovering his gills. Then, he began to swim properly, drifting calmly through the water in silence. He looked around as he swam, several fish drifting along with him once in a while, one dolphin swimming over to offer him a ride, and several particularly nasty man-eating fish decided to make a meal out of him, only for a few dozen sharks that he usually fed to intercept the fish for him.
"Thank you," he smiled as he passed the massive frenzy of feeding sharks.
Finally, he reached the island he grudgingly called home and walked out of the water, sighing and retracting his fingers and toes' webbing and shortened his toes back to the length of a human's. He walked into the bay of the island where a dozen women, each with a beautiful, bare, human upper bodies and their lower bodies that of fish, were sitting partway in the water and on the rocks, some braiding their hair, others sunning themselves. All of them smiled and welcomed him back.
"How did it go?" one of them, a ginger with bright blue eyes, asked, patting the sand beside herself.
He walked over and sat down, sighing. "Okay, I guess." He pulled out the loaf of bread first and passed it off, all of the women pulling a bit off of it to eat. "I only got yelled at a little."
The women all looked around at each other, frowning.
"You know, not everyone is like the people here," another of the women, this one with chocolate hair and brilliant green eyes, said.
Alex shrugged, accepted the bread back and tore a pieces off, taking a bite, then slipped it back into its bag before pulling the soda out and extended a claw, using it to pop the cap off.
Finally, a blonde emerged from the water opposite Alex from the ginger, curling up her tail beside her to keep herself upright and cupped Alex's face, turning his head toward her, brushing some water from his olive-skinned face and brushing his thick, dark hair backward, her shining, turquoise eyes boring into his aqua ones.
"Alex, you know we love you, right?" she asked.
"Of course," Alex nodded. "You all took care of me after my father...died."
She nodded. "You will always have a place here, but there's somewhere we think you should go."
Alex frowned. "You're sending me away?"
"Not forever," she said, shaking her head. "It's a school. A letter came for you, including a list of what you'll need and instructions to get there. And with that, there was another in the envelope written by the headmaster, asking you to give them a chance. The people there won't be like the ones here. You'll be able to have friends there, ones your own age."
"And you'll be able to study to control your magic, and..." the ginger trailed off before taking a breath, "and maybe someday, you'll be able to convince the world to see us as people instead of monsters."
Alex stared at the ground in silence.
"Hey," a black-haired woman said, pulling herself out of the water beside him and turning his head to look at her. "We won't force you. You're welcome to stay here with us, but we think it would be good for you. It would teach you that not everyone is like the people here."
Alex remained silent for a long while before nodding. "Okay. I'll go."
All of them smiled, the three nearest him hugging him.
"I'll take you as close as we can get," the blonde said. "We've placed protective charms on the letter and lists already, so it'll be able to go through the water without being ruined. The headmaster's arranged for us to meet up with one of the school's staff who will help you get everything you need, then help you get to the school."
"Okay," Alex nodded. "Where is it?"
"The school is near London, but we're meeting the teacher in southern Italy," the blonde said. "It's a long trip, so we'll have to leave tomorrow. I know it's short notice. Is that alright?"
Alex looked around at the others, all watching him in restrained excitement and hope, eyes shining proudly at the thought of him going to whatever school it was. "Will I be able to come back?" Alex asked.
"Of course!" the ginger smiled, wrapping her arms around him. "The school takes every summer off, so you'll be able to come home during those months so that we can spoil you!"
Alex smiled and nodded. "Okay. I'll try it."
The women all cheered before the ginger and the blonde took Alex's hands pulling him into the water with them where they could all hug him and have a spontaneous feast of the fish around the island.
Alex surfaced and looked to the beach ahead, seeing an older woman in an emerald-green robe, a severe, stern-looking face, square-framed glasses, her black hair pulled into a tight bun, and a pointed hat cocked off to the side slightly. She nodded when she saw Alex and he returned the gesture, then stopped, dipping back under the water and looking back to the blonde who had accompanied him.
"Be good, alright?" she smiled, resting her hands on his shoulders.
"I will," he promised.
"Listen to your teachers, don't get in too many fights, make lots of friends," she listed, then paused, smiling. "You're going to do wonderfully. We all know you will. We all believe in you."
"I'll miss you," Alex said.
She pulled him into a hug. "We'll miss you to. But we'll be at the island any time you return. You will always have a place with us."
Alex nodded and pulled away, smiling. Then, he turned, swimming to shore. As he walked out of the water onto a rock, he paused to retract his fins and compress his toes, then slip on a pair of shoes before walking over to the woman that would be helping him. As he reached her, she regarded him for a moment before offering her hand.
"I am Minerva McGonagall," she introduced herself as he shook the water off his hand before shaking hers. "I'm one of the professors at Hogwarts. Due to your...specific conditions, I'll be helping you find your way around and gather everything you'll need for the school year."
"Thank you," Alex said. "I'm Alex."
The woman nodded, taking his hand again. "Have you Apparated before?"
Alex nodded. "Only a couple times."
"Then you'll know to brace yourself," she said.
She pulled a wand from her sleeve and waved it, Alex drying instantly, the holes in his ratty Tee-shirt and shorts mending themselves and the colors deepening back to how they were when they were new. Alex's eyes widened before he suddenly felt the woman's arm jerk away from him and tightened his grip just before everything went dark. A moment later, they reappeared in a small street bustling with witches and wizards, all of them wearing their robes and a few of them wearing their pointed hats. There were a lot of children about Alex's age, but he didn't care. He shrank back from the wizards, brow furrowing worriedly as his head shrank toward his shoulders. Professor McGonagall glanced at him and tugged his hand before releasing it and starting forward.
He hurried after her, keeping his head down and his shoulders raised. She walked briskly through the crowd, exchanging a polite greeting with a few of the people around them before walking into a building with a sign over the door reading "Gringotts Bank" and which sat at a fork in the rode. As he stepped in after her, she led him to one of the counters, all of which were occupied by goblins.
"I trust you were sent a letter to be expecting me," Professor McGonagall said.
The Goblin nodded and motioned for them to follow him before walking away. As they followed, Professor McGonagall glanced at Alex.
"You don't need to be afraid of the people here," Professor McGonagall said. "Some of them may be less pleasant than others, but none of them know that you're anything besides another child. And once you're at the school, even if they find out what you are, most of the students won't care, and the teachers will treat you no differently than any other student for it."
Alex nodded as they stepped into a stone passage lit by torches, a railway running along the floor and over the edge of a steep slope leading down out of sight. The goblin with them whistled a high piercing note and a cart rocketed up the tracks to them. The three of them climbed into it and it took off again, speeding back down the slow. Alex's eyes went wide with surprise, then wider still with fright as they took a sharp turn and were suddenly hurtling through a maze of twisting tunnels, taking forks and turns so violently they actually came up on two wheels a couple of times. They passed an underground lake, they passed a tunnel that a belch of flame roared out of just behind them, and then, finally, they rolled to a stop at a stone platform set into the wall with a row of huge, round, vault doors in the wall. The goblin walked over to one, Alex and Professor McGonagall following, and when the door opened, Alex's jaw fell at the stacks of gold coins inside. There had to be at least two dozen stacks, and every stack was at least twelve coins high, most more than that. There also was exclusively gold coins, called Galleons. There were no silver Sickles or bronze Knuts. Just gold.
"Wow," Alex said. "You have a lot of money, Professor McGonagall."
"This isn't mine," she said. "This is yours."
He looked around at her in surprise.
"Your family retrieved this money from a sunken ship," she explained. "The family who would have had a claim to it died out, so they were allowed to use some to get a vault here and had the rest stored inside for whenever you were old enough to go to school. This money is yours."
"Really?" Alex asked. "I had no idea. How much will I need?"
"Oh..." she pursed her lips as she considered. "I'd take about...thirty or so."
He nodded and gathered the money into a small bag the goblin offered him, thanking the goblin. Then, they got back into the cart and it took off back up the track every bit as fast as it had travelled down it. A few minutes later, they were back outside and Professor McGonagall quickly, and mildly impatiently, led him from store to store to gather the items on his list. Finally, what felt like forever later, they had two stops left. He had to buy a wand, and he wanted an owl. He wasn't a fan of toad, and cats tended to not like him thanks to his heritage, so he figured an owl would be his best bet.
He walked into the wand shop as Professor McGonagall paused to talk to a witch they passed. Behind the counter, between it and a wall of small, rectangular boxes numbering in the thousands and piled to the ceiling, was an elderly man with messy white hair and wide, pale eyes.
"Hello," Alex greeted him awkwardly. "I need to buy a-"
He was cut off by loud whoosh of air and a box flying out of the pile behind Ollivander, bouncing off Alex's chest and knocking him back a step, Alex only barely catching it.
"Curious," Ollivander said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"What is?" Alex asked, looking between Ollivander and the box in his hands.
"Ten and a half inches, mahogany, unicorn hair from a colt who died before his time," Ollivander said. "Several years ago, I received an envelope containing a letter and a unicorn hair. The letter explained that the unicorn had been caught in a trap by muggle hunters, and that the sender had recued it and tried to nurse it back to health, only for it to die."
Alex's eyes widened in realization. He had been the one who took care of the infant unicorn when he and his Siren family found it. He'd been devastated for days when it died.
"The sender asked me to use the unicorn hair to make a wand, and asked for the design on that wand you now hold, if possible," Ollivander continued.
Alex frowned and opened it, eyes widening as he saw that the wand was slightly thicker at the back end than the front, and that the front end, starting from near the middle of the wand, was decorated with a engraved design like water, and around the back end of the wand, in three vertical lines, were symbols from the Sirens' native language, which spelled out the words "Protection," "Fortune," and "Serenity."
"That wand was a custom design requested by Sirens for a family member of theirs who was to go to Hogwarts in a few years," Ollivander said, Alex's head ducking in shame instantly. "You have nothing to be ashamed of. I do not discriminate based off of lineage. It is what a person does that determines his worth. And with that wand, I believe you could do great things. That want is by far the most excitable and lively I have ever made. In all my time as a wandmaker, I've never once seen a wand jump off f a shelf to a customer. I believe its' core may recognize you."
Alex nodded and fished seven Galleons out of his bag of coins and handed them to Ollivander, then walked outside to Professor McGonagall, who now had no packages with her, but instead was holding a paper bag. Alex frowned.
"Where did everything go?" Alex asked.
"They're in here," Professor McGonagall said, lifting the bag. "I placed an Extension Charm on it to hold everything."
"Oh," Alex nodded. "Thank you."
He slipped his wand box into it, feeling the bottom of the bag about shoulder deep and setting the wand down. Then, they headed into the nearby owl shop and Alex instantly walked over to a cage containing owls about the same size as his palm.
"You have elf owls?" Alex asked.
"Oh, yes," the shop's owner said. "Only those, though. We have a fine selection of other types of alleys. Perhaps a Snowy Owl?"
"I'll take this one," Alex said, his finger poking through the cage to stroke the feathers on one of the tiny owls bellies, the owl hooting appreciatively and puffing out its chest, folding its wings behind itself.
"Alright then," the shop owner shrugged.
He walked over to the cage with a smaller one that had a small wooden stick with a pair of wires attached to make a swinging perch. As soon as he hat the two cages doors open, the tiny owl happily hopped into its new cage, jumping up to the perch and hooting excitedly as the shop's owner closed the two cages, then accepted Alex's money. Alex walked back outside to Professor McGonagall, keeping his new pet in his hand, rather than the bag, and followed Professor McGonagall back through Diagon Alley, heading for the exit, apparently through a pub called the Leaky Cauldron.
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