A/N: Characters and world property of JK Rowling. No copyright infringement intended.
Of Blacks and Boarhounds
Lulabelle blinked back tears at the brusque acceptance from the normally reserved man. Sure, he hadn't offered gushing words of devotion, but coming from Severus Snape, coming from her Lou, he had just told her that he thought she hung the moon. She shook her head and latched onto the last part of what he'd said. "Wait. Sinaka can come?"
"Of course, madam. We are going to London's magical district. He is a magical creature. Why wouldn't he come?"
Chapter Seven
June 28, 1992
They stood facing the fireplace in Severus' living room, Lulabelle looking worriedly into the flames, Sinaka leaning against her side, and Severus pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Lulabelle. It will be fine. All you have to do is speak clearly."
"But Harry ended up—"
"Yes, yes. You've said Potter mumbled like an idiot and ended up in Borgin and Burkes. Potter is a dunderhead. You are not a dunderhead. You. Will. Be. Fine."
"But y'all have weird accents! What if the floo doesn't understand how normal people talk?!"
"Merlin's bollocks, woman! I refuse to discuss this any longer!" Severus grabbed a handful of floo powder, threw it into the flames, pushed Lulabelle into the fireplace, and stated firmly and clearly, "Diagon Alley," before stepping back beside the dog. After she whirled away in a flash of green, he glanced at the beast. "How angry is she going to be when we get there?" Sinaka cocked his head to the side. "Wonderful," he muttered. "Well? Come on, then," he said to the dog, picking up the handle of the purple lead from the floor where Lulabelle had dropped it. Throwing another handful of powder into the fireplace, man and beast walked calmly into the flames and spun away towards the Leaky Cauldron.
Severus stepped out of the floo, Sinaka by his side, and quickly scanned the pub for Lulabelle. He saw her stood facing the fireplace, hands on her hips, foot tapping the ground.
"I should be mad at you," she stated, eyes narrowed at him.
"Perhaps," he said cautiously as he approached her.
Laughing, Lulabelle went to her toes and threw her arms around his neck. "Don't worry, Lou, I'm not. That was amazin'!" She stepped away from him. "Besides, my daddy taught me how to swim by tossin' me in the lake. Same principle as throwin' me in the floo, if ya ask me," she said with a grin. "Ya okay there, Sin? Make it alright?" she asked the dog, brushing her hands down his sides to remove the soot left by the flames. Severus waved his wand over the both of them and vanished all traces from each. "Oh, that's much easier, thanks."
"Think nothing of it. Er, I… I apologize for… throwing you…"
"Don't worry about it, Lou. If ya hadn't tossed me in there, we'd still be at home and I'd still be as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockin' chairs. Your way was much easier," she laughed.
Severus felt a warmth bloom in his chest at hearing her refer to his house as 'home' even as he pondered over her words. He handed her Sinaka's lead, then offered her his arm. "Shall we, madam?"
Lulabelle took his arm with a grin and said, "I believe we shall."
They exited the pub with a small nod from Severus in the direction of Tom the bartender, and entered the cramped courtyard behind.
"Three up, two across, right?" Lulabelle asked as Severus was removing his wand from his sleeve to open the entrance to the Alley.
He cut his eyes towards her, then faced the wall to count out the exact number of bricks she had just described. "Even after all we've discussed, your knowledge of the minutiae is still astounding," he said in confirmation as he tapped the required bricks, then turned to watch her as the wall opened up before them. Memorizing the look of wonder on her face, he gestured with a flourish towards the now-formed archway. "Welcome to Diagon Alley, my lady."
"Oh, Lou," she breathed, voice barely audible.
"Is it like you imagined when you read the books?" he asked, curiously.
"Oh, it's so much better," she said breathlessly as they walked down the cobblestoned road. "And it's nothin' like the movies."
"No?" he queried.
"No," she agreed as she looked around. "In the movies, Diagon Alley was like, if someone had never seen a sunrise before and tried to paint one just from hearin' the description of it. It would be beautiful, and they would think it was perfect, but this," she said reverently, "Lou, this is the actual sunrise."
Severus smiled at her words, understanding their meaning completely.
The trio strolled down the alley, Severus smiling softly as Lulabelle gazed about in wonder, exclaiming over this thing or that. Sinaka walked regally by her side, head high, seeming to be above such things as the excitability of his mistress.
Suddenly, Lulabelle stopped walking and paled as a thought occurred to her. "Oh no," she whispered.
"What? What is it?" Severus asked, eyes scanning the meager early Saturday morning crowd for signs of danger.
"Quick, Lou, do the thing!" She whispered, waving her hand impatiently. "The thing! The… Muffliato! Cast it, quick!"
Startled, Severus quickly cast the charm. "What is the matter?"
Lulabelle looked up at his worried obsidian eyes. "We forgot to come up with a cover story!" she exclaimed.
"Merlin's bollocks, Lulabelle! I thought you were in danger! You scared me half to death," he grumbled.
"I'm sorry, Lou," she said a bit sheepishly. "But it is important. How are we gonna explain, well, me?"
Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine. You do have a point." He spotted a bench just up the alley from where they were stood. "Here, let us have a seat to discuss your… 'cover story'."
Once sat upon the bench, he recast the silencing charm just to be on the safe side. "Alright. What do you think we should say?" he asked her.
"Well, for sure we shouldn't say anything about the books. We definitely don't want any of that to get back to Voldemort."
"Quite."
"And maybe not that I'm from the future, too? I mean, supposedly terrible things happen to people who mess with time…"
Severus sighed. "The best lies are wrapped in truth. You have… a minor habit of saying things that make no sense, Lulabelle. Some of which can be explained away by your being American, but you also have just found out that you are a witch. Perhaps we could say you're a Seer, if something unexplainable comes up?"
"So we should tell people how I got here, just not from which year?" she clarified.
"I think that seems best," he replied.
"What about Sin? Do we need to hide that he's a coon-and-noon?"
"That won't matter. No one in the muggle world will notice that he is a Cŵn Annwn, and few in the magical world would miss it," he said matter-of-factly.
Lulabelle worried, "Is that okay? Will he be safe? I can't let him get hurt, Lou."
Severus snorted. "Cŵn Annwn might be feared by some, but no one who recognizes him as such would be stupid enough harm him. If they know what he is, they'll know what he's capable of."
Relieved, she ran her hand down Sinaka's back and leaned over to kiss his nose. "Good. I promised him I would never let anyone hurt him again, and I intend to keep that promise," she informed Severus.
"Very commendable, madam. Now. Have we settled on your story?"
"I think so. I'm sorry I freaked out about it."
"Think nothing of it. I should have thought of this before we left, to be honest," he admitted. "Now, shall we continue exploring?"
"Sounds like a plan," she replied.
They were looking in the front window of Twilfitt and Tattings, Lulabelle admiring the robes, when Severus snorted.
"What's so funny, Lou?" Lulabelle asked him.
"'Do the thing'," he replied, snickering. "You said 'do the thing' instead of 'please cast the muffliato charm'."
Lulabelle blushed. "Hush your mouth! I was all flustered!" she said with a laugh.
"I believe I shall forever refer to it as 'do the thing' from this point on, madam. I thank you for that."
She removed her hand from the crook of his elbow to swat him on the arm. "Oh, you!" Lulabelle drawled, then slid her hand down his arm and laced her fingers with his. "Can we go to Flourish and Blotts next? I'd love to look around inside," she asked.
"We can, unless you would rather get your wand next. Ollivander's is just there," he replied, pointing diagonally across the street and trying to calm his racing heart, which had started to beat faster when she grasped his hand.
Lulabelle squeezed said hand tightly, bouncing with excitement, then started dragging Severus across the cobblestones. "Lou! We're really going to Ollivander's! Come on, hurry up!" she cried. Once they reached the front of the wand-maker's shop, Severus pulled her to a stop.
"I believe I should wait outside with your beast," he informed her. "Matching a wand to a witch or wizard can be rather… unpredictable… even under normal circumstances, of which we are not in. Best you leave Sinaka and myself here." Seeing her face fall a bit, he added, "Lulabelle, getting your first wand is a special thing. This way you won't be distracted worrying about the beast. I promise that we shall be waiting for you when you are done. Look, there's a bench just there," he gestured directly across the way. "We won't move from that spot. Now go, madam," he commanded, handing her a small pouch of coins.
Grinning, she raised on her toes and pulled him down to kiss his cheek. "Thank ya, Lou. I could never say it enough. Just, thank ya!" she whispered in his ear. With a kiss on the nose for Sinaka, she whirled around and opened the door of the shop.
Lulabelle walked into Ollivander's, under the peeling sign proclaiming them 'Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.' As she stepped inside the dusty shop, her eyes took in the walls of shelves holding box after long thin box, the one chair in the corner, and the desk in the back that she presumed was being used as the counter. A curtain covering the doorway behind the desk fluttered, and a tall, thin man with long, gray hair stepped through. He peered at Lulabelle with pale eyes that lit up at the sight of her. "Oh, hello there," he said. "I wasn't expecting you today."
"How-do, Mr. Ollivander," she said, awe-struck. "My name is Tallulah Isabelle Blackburn."
He looked her over curiously. "Is it? Interesting," the cryptic man replied. "How can I help you, my dear?"
"I need to purchase a wand, sir. My first wand."
"Your first wand?" Ollivander asked, surprised.
Lulabelle bit her lip nervously and replied, "Yeah, ya see, I didn't know I was a witch 'til yesterday." Seeing his shocked expression at her words, she hurried to explain, "Well I thought I was a muggle. Then I drove off the side of the road back home, and before I knew it, I was in England. Lou thinks someone blocked my magic when I was a baby, 'cause when he let me hold his wand, just playin' pretend-like, it worked. And so I, um, need a wand," she finished in a rush. Ollivander simply stared at her.
"How curious. Tell me, who is this 'Lou'?"
"Oh, Lou's just a lil' private nickname I have for Severus Snape."
Pale eyes went wide. "Ebony, 11¾ inches, dragon heartstring core. And you say Severus Snape's wand worked for you?" he said, giving her a piercing look.
"Um, yes? I was able to cast lumos with it. Twice," she replied apprehensively.
Ollivander stroked his chin and gazed unseeingly above her head in thought. "Curious. Very curious." He focused to look her in the eye and said, "Ebony wands do not generally like to be shared. That that wand in particular allowed you to use it, as it is especially prone to this… you have to understand… is most curious indeed." He clapped his hands together twice as if to clear his head. "Very well. Which is your wand arm?" he asked, pulling a tape-measure out of his pocket.
As Lulabelle was being measured, in all sorts of odd dimensions, Ollivander was pulling boxes from the shelves along the wall, occasionally asking her questions and making random statements that seemed to be directed more to himself than as a response to her replies. "You're from America? Maybe red oak, or American Elm, then…" "We'll try ebony, of course, but I just don't think…" "Oklahoma, was it? It is possible that redbud might be a match…"
In the end, after countless wands from countless boxes, they found her match. "Aspen, 9½ inches, nice and supple, phoenix feather core. Give it a wave." When Lulabelle did so, the sparks that came out of the end of the wand were purple.