Chapter 5
September 9th, 1988- On the road to Remus Lupin's cottage, Yorkshire County, England
When Professor Babbling handed the heavy parchment envelope to Patricia all she could do for the first moments after was stare at it. Her name, Ms P. Stimpson, was written in violet ink in a looping, feathery hand. "The Storage Closet off the Staff Room, Raven's Nest Maximum Security Prison, Yorkshire County." was written the same way underneath. She slowly flipped the envelope over and beheld the purple wax seal with the four animal Hogwarts crest pressed into it. She reverently ran her fingertips over the badger, lion, snake, and eagle.
"You know, that's not going to open itself." Remus joked as he changed gears. "It's not a Howler."
"You can't say you weren't the same when you got your letter." Professor Babbling chided.
Patricia wiggled her thumbnail under the seal and pried it away from the flap of the envelope. She slid the point of the flap out from under the loosened seal and carefully took out the letter, which was the same heavy parchment as the envelope. She unfolded it and read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Ms Stimpson,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Patricia began to smile. She started reaching into the envelope to take out the book list but was stopped by the jerking of Remus parking the car. "Last stop," he called "everybody out!" Patricia tumbled out of the back of the car in a whirlwind of excited paper and fabric. She ran up to the door of her uncle's house, waited for a few seconds, and then ran back to the car. She just couldn't bring herself to stand still.
"Are we still going to go to Diagon Ally today?" she asked Remus, who was helping Professor Babbling out of the car. She had really been looking forwards to the trip, but they would have to go again during the year to get her school supplies. It would make more sense to just make one trip since they had to take the Knight Bus to London.
Both Patricia and Remus loathed taking the Knight Bus. There was a reason that they only took one trip together to Diagon Ally every year.
"Of course we are!" he exclaimed immediately. "You have school supplies to buy. We'll have to make another trip for potions ingredients though. I don't think Styles will be happy to have rotting newts lying around." Patricia giggled at the thought of William's easygoing father turning his nose up at decomposing amphibians. Well, he had to draw the line somewhere.
"Do you mind if I join you?" Professor Babbling asked hesitantly. "This took less time than I thought and I do have to pick up a new set of rune stones." Remus nodded to indicate that that would be quite alright. Patricia looked up at the blond woman in sudden awe.
"You teach Runes?" she asked, her eyes wide. Professor Babbling smiled down at the girl.
"I do. Your dad and I worked together on the written work for our apprenticeships." Patricia's eyes would have widened more if it was physically possible.
"You knew my dad?"
"And your mum." Professor Babbling replied wistfully. "We were friends all though school. You look exactly like her, all but your eyes; you have your dad's eyes."
Patricia was looking at Professor Babbling like she was Father Christmas and the holiday had come early. Remus chuckled to himself as he unlocked the door. Patricia wouldn't want to be separated from Bathsheda now that she knew that the professor had known her parents, Remus himself had precious few stories of the pair, and most of them were centered on the war effort or the pranks that the Marauders had played on Pythia while they were in school. "Come put your school stuff inside, Patricia." Remus ordered. "Then we can leave."
The redheaded whirlwind raced into the house, dropped her bag on one of the kitchen chairs, and hurried back outside with her Hogwarts letter still gripped tightly in her hand. All this was accomplished in less than five seconds, and Remus wondered if her accidental magic was getting ideas from those Muggle superhero magazines that Charles Turpin sometimes gave to her.
Remus flicked his wrist and his wand shot out of its holster. "We usually take the Knight Bus." he told Bathsheda apologetically. She nodded, but all the blood drained from her face. Patricia noticed this and stood on her toes so that she could whisper to the teacher.
"We don't like the Knight Bus either." Professor Babbling smiled shakily.
"I don't believe any wizard likes the Knight Bus."
Remus held out his wand arm and stumbled backwards to avoid being bowled over by the bang that signaled the Knight Bus' arrival. A bespectacled wizard stood on the steps of the purple bus.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for any stranded witch or wizard—Oh, hello Mr Lupin." The wizard tipped his hat to Remus. "Two to the Leaky Cauldron?"
"Good afternoon Ernie." Remus replied. "No, not two; three to the Leaky Cauldron please."
Ernie looked over Remus's shoulder at Bathsheda and Patricia. "Cousin Bats!" he exclaimed. "Shouldn't you be at school?"
"I'm on my break, Ernie." Professor Babbling swept past her second cousin one removed and deposited eleven Sickles in the farebox. She chose a seat on the first level of the bus that had two unoccupied seats near it while Remus paid his and Patricia's fares. Remus was grateful that Bathsheda had walked through Ernie, it meant that he didn't have to fumble through his coat pockets looking for money, which he didn't have, for her fare. Sure his job paid well, but he had to spend a lot of the money on Muggle things for himself and Patricia, and he couldn't get to Gringotts often enough to have a steady flow of wizarding money.
Just as the two of them sat down the bus shot off with a dangerous lurch. Everyone aboard gripped onto one of the poles or the edge of a window so that they didn't go flying through the windshield.
"I hate the Knight Bus." a wrinkly old witch mumbled.
One heart-stopping stomach-churning ride later the bus screeched to a halt in front of the Leaky Cauldron. About half of the passengers stumbled off the bus, several of them looking like they wanted to kiss the ground, and then it was gone with a sudden bang.
"I swear that ride gets worse every time." Remus complained as they entered the pub. Tom, the barkeeper, quickly noticed the arrival of the large group and began doling out the Anti-Nausea Potion that he kept double-stocked behind the counter. There were many sighs of relief as much near-vomiting were averted. The rest of the Knight Bus riders dispersed to wherever they were going. Tom ducked under the counter and put away the potion bottle and the unused shot glasses.
"Anything for you Remus? Miss Babbling? Patricia?" he asked when he popped back into view.
"No thank you Tom." Patricia said politely. Professor Babbling shook her head.
"We're going straight to the Alley today Tom." Remus said proudly. "Patricia just got her Hogwarts letter." Tom grinned.
"Well it is a day, isn't it?" He nodded to Patricia. "I'll have a small Gillywater for you when you get back, free of charge."
"Thank you Tom."
The three of them made their way through to the back of the pub to the disguised Diagon Alley entrance. Professor Babbling tapped the wall and the bricks rearranged themselves into an arch with the words Diagon Alley written in gold above it. Professor Babbling was the first through the arch, with Remus and Patricia following close after. Patricia braced herself for the extreme awe that she always felt upon entering the Alley.
Left and right there were shops selling everything a young witch could imagine, from books of runic spells at Flourish and Blotts to biting notebooks at Scribbulus Writing Instruments. Owls hooted and cats yowled at the Magical Menagerie, TerrorTours' clicking printing press churned out tickets to Castle Dracula, and a wizard ran down the street screaming as he tried to escape from one of Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop's hopping teakettles, which was spewing boiling water at him from its spout.
Buildings tilted alarmingly in ways that would have Muggles running for cover and telephoning the authorities. Several booths were set up alongside the more amicable shops, their colourful canopies shading wealths of trinkets, foods, and small plants. There was one witch with a tableful of rare cacti who was drawing quite a large crowd. Above everything else Gringotts Wizarding Bank gleamed bright marble white and shimmering golden bronze.
No matter how many times she went there (four and counting) Patricia was always stunned by Diagon Alley. Remus knew this so he put a hand on her shoulder and steered her out of the archway and towards the bank.
"We have to visit our vaults." Remus told Bathsheda. "Could we meet you at Flourish and Blotts?" Bathsheda looked from Remus to Patricia. Then she looked back at Remus and nodded.
Remus and Patricia walked to Gringotts. Patricia had snapped out of her blind wonder and was able to actually walk on her own. Remus always thought that she would get used to Diagon Alley, but when you were a kid who only went there once a year there was always a lot to draw your attention.
As they climbed the steps to the bank Patricia mentally recited the poem that was engraved on the building's silver inside doors. She had memorized it years ago, and she used it to remind herself that no matter the circumstances even thinking of stealing from goblins was a bad idea. It was also just a nice rhyme.
While they were waiting for their turn to see the teller Patricia played with her vault key, which she still wore on a chain around her neck as they only lived around Muggles and no Muggle would bother trying to steal it, and watched one of the goblins as he weighed uncut emeralds the size of small bricks against pound weights.
"Next!" a goblin called. Remus walked up to his desk with Patricia half a step behind him. "Names?" the goblin asked, looking from Remus to Patricia.
"Remus Lupin and Patricia Stimpson, we have to make withdrawals from the Lupin and Stimpson vaults and a deposit to the Lupin vault."
The goblin, whose name was Sharpshard according to the nameplate on his desk, shuffled through some papers and stood up. "Follow me." he ordered. Sharpshard walked behind the counter to a door at the back of the room. He looked back and scowled when he realized that the wizard and witch-child were still pushing their way across the room. "Hurry up!"
"Mister Sharpshard, where are we going?" the witch-child asked him once they had caught up.
"To see your account manager." Sharpshard said. "According to our records you turned eleven at noon today and that means that—" What on earth was he doing? He was almost acting…nice. He choked. "They can explain everything to you. Come on!"
Sharpshard led them through the door and into a hallway lined with more doors that led to offices, storage closets, and other strange rooms that could only be explained by magic. The hallway had many goblins walking to and from places, more goblins than Patricia had ever seen before. What surprised her most was that there were some female goblins going about their work, several of them carrying around metal baskets containing grey machines that Patricia was almost sure were mechanical calculators. She just barely stopped herself from staring around in amazement.
The hallway itself was clean white with a grey stone floor that was worn smooth from years of use. Sharpshard walked down to the end of the hallway. The crowd of goblins instantly parted for him, though it was more from fright than politeness, and he was able to quickly advance to a door with a revolving green eye in the centre of it. He rapped smartly on the door, which opened itself after a few seconds.
"The Stimpson girl for you." he growled into the room. He then turned to Remus and Patricia and jerked his head to indicate that they should enter.
"Thank you Sharpshard." Remus said.
"Yes, thank you Mister Sharpshard." Patricia chimed. Sharpshard gave a noncommittal grunt and marched back to the front of the bank.
Remus entered the office first and barely blinked when he saw the goblin woman sitting behind the heavy stone desk. "Good afternoon Miss…?"
"Yellowfang." the goblin supplied. "Mister…?"
"Lupin. I'm Miss Stimpson's… guardian."
"Unofficially." Yellowfang smiled. "Please, take a seat."
Patricia and Remus sat down on the two chairs that were more suited to the stature of goblins than humans. Remus struggled for a moment with not kneeing himself in the face and Yellowfang was polite enough to both not mention his struggle and wait until he was done moving before she began to speak.
"Now, Miss Stimpson, as I'm sure you're aware you can officially claim heirship to House Stimpson once you turn eleven. As your parents are deceased you will also have to appoint someone to take care of your finances until you are of age." Patricia felt like smacking herself. Obviously this meeting would be about that. She had completely forgotten about the fact that she could actually become heir and then head of her family. She had been reading too much about stuffy British pureblood families, where only males could inherit.
"Can't Un— Mister Lupin keep taking care of my finances?" she asked. Her parents had given Remus restricted access to the family vault that kicked in when he had started taking care of her (courtesy of her dad's rune skills, and the goblins wanting to pull one over on the purebloods) and that included him receiving her bank statements and taking care of investments.
Yellowfang gave a sly smile. It was a well-known fact among Gringotts goblins that rich purebloods were horrible at managing money. The Stimpson vault had been quite full when the elder Stimpsons were killed, but that wealth had been mostly books, jewelry, and expensive trinkets, not money. Under Remus Lupin's management however the Stimpson monetary wealth had grown exponentially and there hadn't been even a hint of him trying to siphon money away for his own use like a pureblood would. If he had been stealing, something Yellowfang found doubtful, than he was smart enough to do it in a way that didn't tip off any of the goblins in accounting, which was also a feat that the soft purebloods wouldn't be able to manage.
"Of course, but we would have to create documentation to make it official." The eleven-year-old blinked at her and Yellowfang offered to mail the documents to her to complete at her leisure. Patricia agreed and they went on to discuss what she would have to do as heir, which wasn't a lot, and what she would be inheriting, which was again not a lot. All that was left of anything that the Stimpsons had owned was in their vault.
"Would you like to officially claim your position as heir?" Yellowfang asked finally. Patricia looked at Remus, who hadn't said anything through the entire conversation, and then back to Yellowfang, who was maintaining a neutral expression.
"I would." she said shakily. She cleared her throat and repeated herself more firmly, "I would."
Yellowfang opened a drawer and typed a code into the stone keypad that was sitting there. The stone glowed briefly and then vanished to be replaced with a small hinged box. She pulled the box out and placed it in front of Patricia, who looked down at the green ouroboros on the lid with veiled nervousness. "Open it." Yellowfang urged.
Patricia unlatched the box and pinched the corners of the lid between her fingers. She lifted the lid to reveal the gold ring nestled in the red velvet interior. Her left hand hovered over the ring and she looked back up at Yellowfang and Remus, who both nodded. She picked up the ring and sild it onto her ring finger. For a moment it rattled on her right hand, but then it gave a shutter and resized itself to fit her finger. The snake that was raised from the flat part of the ring that rested on the back of her finger winked at her with its emerald eye. The adder stone that it was twisted around was smooth black onyx with thin streaks of silver crossing it.
"You'll want to read up on what heir rings do, won't you?" Remus asked with a lopsided smile. Patricia looked at him with a look that plainly asked "Do you know me at all?" Yellowfang chuckled.
"I'm aware that the two of you still have business to attend to," she said after she had controlled her laughter "so I'll call someone to take you down to your vaults."
"Thank you Miss Yellowfang." Patricia said. She handed the ring box back to Yellowfang, who put it back in the drawer, where it disappeared to go back to the Stimpson vault. She then pressed a rune on the underside of her desk that would call a goblin to escort customers. There was another rune that would call a goblin to toss out a rude wizard.
Their system was extremely effective.
Disclaimer: The form for the Hogwarts letter is not mine, it belongs to J.K. Rowling.