"Harrykins...waky.. waky.." Sirius said while poking Harry's shoulder with his fingers. It was early morning. They rented a twin bedded room in Leaky Cauldron for next few days.
"Give me five minutes Siri.. I'll be up" Harry mumbled in sleep, swatting Sirius's poking finger.
"Okay I am going downstairs for breakfast. And if you're not there in ten minutes, I'll bring water bucket next." Sirius said while closing door.
He took the same table at the back, that he took earlier. Tom moved towards him, "Anything you want to order."
"Yeah..I'll have some sandwiches with pumpkin juice".
Sirius started thinking how he could contact Hogwarts staff for admission. He was also thinking about their background story.
Tom came back with his order, "Here you go. Let me know if you need anything else."
Sirius looked at Tom, "Actually there is something I wanted to ask you. You see me and my sister are refugees. We came from Germany ."
He then made a sad face and continued "We lost our parents last month in one of the attacks from Grindelwald's forces. I promised my parents that I would take care my sister. I brought her here thinking we can give our lives a new start. I want to get a good job in ministry for our better future. But we are underqualified. We want to complete our education. Is there a way that we can contact Hogwarts Headmaster or any Professor for admission." he finished with earnest expression on his face.
Tom smiled at him, then nodded his head, "Don't worry lad. I would contact Headmaster Dippet myself today. He is an old friend of mine. I'll tell him your story. I am sure he won't say no, but we need to check. I will let you know by today evening."
At this Sirius stood and shook hands with Tom's, "Oh thank you sir. You have no idea how much this means to us."
Tom just chuckled and moved towards the counter.
After about five minutes, Harry joined Sirius.
"Why're you so happy this morning?" Harry asked, after finding Sirius grinning from ear to ear.
"Oh. I think, I've just got us admitted in Hogwarts."
At Harry's questionable expression, Sirius told her about his conversation with Tom earlier.
"That's great Siri. But we need to think about our names before they contact us." Harry said excitedly.
"I was thinking about taking Lily's last name. I like the sound of Sirius Evans. And we won't be purebloods. We'll be halfbloods with muggle father and witch mother. We need to think about your name as you're a girl now."
"I don't want to change my name. I have changed physically. You know how difficult it was for me to use lady's washroom. I want to keep it as Harry Evans only. " Harry replied looking at Sirius, challenging him to disagree.
Sirius nodded and said, "Okay you can keep your name as Harry. Lets see..about other details..hmm...We've been born in Germany and our parents were British who were very bad in German, thats why we also can't speak German. We were home schooled by our over protective mother. Our father's name would be James Evans and mother's name"
"would be Lily Evans" Harry completed Sirius's sentence."Its perfect Siri. And we don't want to think about the tragic deaths of our parents, that's why we don't like speaking about our past life." She weaved more story into their fictional backgrounder.
"Harry we need to protect our minds as well. Else our lie would be caught."
Harry looked at Sirius confused."Protect minds?"
"There are wizards who can read others thought by looking in their eyes, they are called Legilimens. I know that Dumbledore is a Legilimen, so Voldemort must be the one too. I am not sure if Voldemort is Legilimen now, or will become in future. But we can't take any chances. There is an act of magic called Occlumency, which helps to protect your mind against Legilimen. We need to learn that." Sirius finished with serious expression.
"I'll meet you in Leaky Cauldron." Sirius told Harry as he moved towards Knockturn Alley. He was going to look for Occlumency books, which were only available at few stores of Knockturn Alley. He point blank refused Harry to accompany him as she is a young girl now, and as per him Knockturn alley is very unsafe for young witches.
Harry after a lot of arguments, agreed with Sirius only when he allowed her to shop for few books and clothes in Diagon Alley by herself.
They really needed some spare clothes, as they had been wearing the same clothes after doing cleaning charm since they came to this era. Harry decided to buy clothes from second hand shop, as they wanted to save as much money as possible.
She entered the same shop, from where Mrs. Weasley used to shop. There were heaps of second hand clothes, few racks were arranged in the middle with baskets full of socks, gloves, scarves etc. The only section which was not of second hand items, was of undergarments.
Harry decided to take help of Sales Lady for purchasing embarracing girl's stuff, as she had no idea about the same. She knew that her female body was quite developed, and would look very inappropriate without few clothing items.
She called Sales lady for help. "Mam my mother used to shop for me. Now she is no more and all my clothes are destroyed. Can you please help me pick what size or type I should buy." She asked while gesturing towards women undergarments section.
After adding girl's undergarments in her basket, with the help of sales lady. She added few underwears for Sirius.
Then she moved towards the pile of robes in the middle of the shop, few of those robes were very frilly, then few were few of bright colours, few were torn and few were dirty.
Then her eyes fell on a black coloured robe, which looked clean and plain. She held its sleeve and tried to pull it out of the pile, but she felt a tug on the other side of the pile for the same robe. Frowning she tightened her grip on its sleeve and tried to pull it out with full force, at this she felt more forceful tug on the other side of the pile causing her to lose her balance, and falling off with the pile of robes on a person.
"Uff" Harry opened her eyes, and found a very familiar looking wizards lying underneath her, with the pile of robes over them.
Harry was so shocked to see that face, that for a full minute she just kept staring, with her mouth slightly open.
"Would you stop staring and move off me?" Angry voice woke Harry from her shock.
She closed her mouth and looked back angrily at dark tosser's face. She stood up, not offering any helping hand to the wizard she had fallen on.
Tom stood up, and straightened his clothes. He picked up the black robe he found in the pile earlier, but saw it's sleeve still held by that strangely dressed witch.
He pulled it towards himself so she would losen her grip. But that witch tug it back towards herself. Angrily he tug it back towards himself, and the green eyed witch tug it back towards herself again. They started glaring at each other, while doing robes' tug a war.
"I found it first. It's mine. Release it." Tom growled.
Harry pulled that robe, "No I found it first. It's mine."
"You're a witch. This is a Wizard's robes." Tom pulled the robe towards himself.
"Its for my brother you tosser. Unhand it."
"You unhand it. You bitch."
"You bloody thief. "
"You weirdly dressed robe stealer."
"You.."
"Is there a problem ?" intercepted sales lady before their fight could go any further.
Both Tom and Harry were standing nose to nose, with that black robe clutching tightly in their hands.
Harry looked at the Sales Lady, "Mam, I picked this robe. But this wizard tried to snatch this from my hand."
Tom glared at Harry, "She is lying. I picked this up first, and she snatched this from my hand."
"I am not lying. You're a lier."
"Shut up you lying witch."
Harry opened her mouth to reply, but sales lady interrupted, "Miss let this wizard take these robes, as these are wizard's robes. We'll be having more stock of black robes in few days. We'll arrange an owl order for you as well. Meanwhile, you can pick some other colour now. And, I would give you special discount on witch's robes as well."
She could see that sales lady was clearly favouring Riddle and won't let her take that robe. Thinking that she would get a special discount later. She let go of the black robe she was holding. Glaring at the smug face of Tom, she picked up her basket and moved towards the counter to make payment for her earlier purchases.
She could not believe that she just met future Dark Lord shopping in a second hand clothes shop.