4. To Diagon Alley, and back again

The next day dawned bright, sunny and crowdless, possibly due to the barricade of solid chocolate, six inches thick and ten feet high, that Fred and George had erected around the house. Most visitors had to go home with stomach aches before they reached the half way point. Bereft of an inescapable house, Angelica was determined to go buy some new clothes, since the ones she'd owned before were completely out of fashion. So the Weasleys decided to make their annual pilgrimage to Diagon Alley, in order to buy school supplies.
The first thing they did, upon reaching the Alley courtesy of Floo powder, was to visit Gringotts. The Weasleys, their vault still rather empty, but not as empty as before, took out enough for the two kids they still had to supply. Harry went down to his vault and took out a good amount of money, and it was still FAR from empty. He was the owner of what amounted to a small fortune. And he took enough extra so that Angelica could buy things too. He was not sure, since she had been legally dead up until yesterday, whether she had any money.
He was wrong. The last vault they visited was hers, and it was almost more full than his. But, that might have been because she also had ALL her furniture in it. She grabbed a purse that was sitting precariously on a dresser of drawers, and then looked around. Something caught her eye, wrapped up in a bit of tissue, lying next to the purse. She looked at it for a long, long time, and then, almost on impulse, grabbed it and shoved it into her purse as well. Then she turned around, and shut the door behind her.
The dizzying rides over for another year, Harry set out to get the things he'd need for school. But once they'd exited Gringotts, Angelica reached into her purse again, and pulled out a handful of Gold coins. She handed five each to Harry, Ron, Fred and George. "It's just a little bit of a thank you for getting me out of that dreadful place… I couldn't just let what you did for me go unappreciated." She smiled, and the objections that the Weasley parents were making to charity were quelled. It was, as she had pointed out, more of a reward, really, and besides, it was an awful lot of money.
Ron was gleeful. He could get decent dress robes this year. AND some ice cream, as well.
The shopping was going along incredibly well. They'd each just gotten everything on their lists, and were heading towards the recreational shops, with Angelica walking along behind, going through her purse. "When's your birthday, Harry?" she asked, absently swinging her shopping bags.
"It was yesterday, actually." He said.
"Oh, my gosh, I need to get you a present!" And with that, she grabbed his hand, and was off through the shops. Hermione and Ron, interested, followed them.
They stopped after a few minutes, and Angelica turned to the breathless Harry. "Umm… what do you WANT?" she asked, feeling rather stupid.
"Oh, anything nice… maybe one of those?" he asked, a bit jokingly, pointing to the window of the broom store, where they were now. Inside it, showcased in the center, was a huge manual of quidditch moves, and it was about as expensive as a book could get.
But before he could tell her he was only kidding, she'd raced inside, and, a moment later, was back with the book, gift wrapped. "This was pretty costly, so I'm counting this as making up for the fifteen years I was out of it, okay?" Harry laughed, as he'd heard THAT explanation before- from his Godfather, Sirius.
Next, Angelica wanted to get an owl. The one she'd had had actually died during her fourth year at Hogwarts. So it was off to the Owlery.
Inside, Angelica was all over the place at once, cooing and petting all the owls there. Finally, though, she settled herself into the other birds of prey section, for a long decision. There were two birds that captivated her heart. One was a huge Golden Eagle, which sat preening in it's cage, and would occasionally look up to utter it's strange, guttural call. The other was a female, a beautiful white Gyrfalcon, which would nuzzle her hand each time she went to pet it. The Golden Eagle, on the other hand, sometimes would let her stroke it's beautiful feathers, yet sometimes it struck with a biting force.
"Uh…" Harry came up to her, where she was staring at the two, across the aisle from each other. "I though you had to have an OWL…"
"Oh, not exactly. People can really bring just about any pet, as long as you don't make a big deal of it… And I want a falcon, personally. Or an eagle." She smiled, cooing at the Gyr, and offering it some little dead rodent, which it snapped up with the greatest of delicacy. "I think I'll take her." She said, and the attendant who'd been hovering near her finally came forward, and took the Gyrfalcon off the shelf. "It's a fine choice, magnificent bird, really." He said, as she paid, in full the huge sum for that Arctic bird.
Walking out of the store, she said "I think I'll call her Selene. She reminds me of the moon. Any one want to get some Ice Cream now?" she called, racing ahead, Selene giving off her ke-a ke-a ke-a call. And with that, Harry was convinced he had a pretty cool aunt.

After the Ice cream, of which Angelica ate about three dishes, they set off for Ollivander's Wand shop. Angelica marched in like she'd been there yesterday, with a loud yell of "Hello Mr. Ollivander!"
The elderly man came out of a back room, with a grumble of "Who would be making such a fuss at this hour..". But he stopped when he saw who was calling. He seemed, for a moment, surprised to see the girl. "Twelve Inches, Unicorn hair, made of mahogany, was it not?"
"Yes, it was.. i.. seem to have lost it…" she said, rather sheepishly. Mr. Ollivander gave her a sharp look, and then thought better of it.
"Under your circumstances, dear child, we can forgive that. But, what's past is past. Eleven Inches, Maple, Dragon heart string."
A box far to the back flew off the shelf and landed in the shop owner's hand. He rather ceremoniously passed it to Angelica, who waved it. Nothing happened inside the shop, but outside they heard a crash. "Oh, dear me no.." he said, and replaced the wand. Harry sat down to watch the interesting events unfold.
They eventually left the store with a unicorn hair, 13 inch Beech wand. That being their last errand, they returned to the Weasley's house. And outside, the crowds were back, and Percy and Charlie could hardly control them.
More visitors came, including most of the teachers at Hogwarts, and, most memorably, Snape. He certainly looked like he hardly enjoyed being anywhere near Harry, but he was genuinely concerned for Angelica. They had known each other in school, Angelica being only five years her brother's junior. Snape had brought her a bouquet of violets, and, unsurprisingly, some more chocolate. It seemed just the thing to make her a friend, in fact.
The fact that he was to be one of her future teachers interested Angelica very much. "I didn't think I'd ever end up in a class being taught by YOU…" she said, half laughing, half serious. "If I believed half the things James told me about you… wow…" Snape, oddly, seemed friendly enough to her, but perhaps that was simply because of what she'd been through. It was enough to make Snape friendly even to Harry for a bit, as was demonstrated when he failed to sneer at him while coming in the door. It was a major improvement, in fact.
Harry was surprised to find Hedwig in his room, waiting with a letter to him, from Sirius. It read the following: "I've read the news that Angelica is alive, and staying with you. I shall be coming as fast as I can to see you both."
It was a short note, but, as always, Harry was glad that Sirius would be here in a few days.

The next day, however, brought no Sirius, but another surprise. Dumbledore again, along with some of the police from the ministry, to take her official statement.
She gave it, and then began asking HIM questions. The first off her lips was "What happened to Sirius?"
Dumbledore looked at her somewhat sadly. "He was framed as being an supporter of Voldemort, as well as being responsible giving Voldemort information that lead to the deaths of Lily and James, and, wrongly, for killing Peter Pettigrew. He was sent to Askaban." Angelica looked blankly at him, like she was staring through a wall. "But he escaped, and, I'm glad to say, the evidence you just gave will likely clear his name."
Harry, who had been in the other room, but listening still, came over. "He's going to be visiting in a few days, actually." He said. Angelica's eyes lit up, but she stayed restrained, like something was holding her back. Harry, however, was ecstatic at the fact that his godfather would finally be able to stop hiding, and could take him away from the Dursleys for good. He spent that day floating around in a happy haze, and did not really notice the fact that Angelica was doing the same.

The next day brought more visitors. They flooded the yard, and people demanded news of why Angelica had given evidence that cleared Sirius Black. She said nothing, staying inside to demolish the entire family at chess. She sent Selene out to fly with Hedwig, who enjoyed having another bird to race. And she demanded that the four Hogwarts students fill her in on everything.
After hearing, for the fourth straight time about the Dursleys general awfulness, Angelica could take it no longer.
"That's it!" she said, springing up from the kitchen table. "I'm going to get a house, and I'm taking you AWAY from those people!" she announced, and promptly walked out the door to begin her arrangements.
She was back, slamming the door a second later, and cursing news crews everywhere.