Disclaimer: I do not own any of the
recognisable characters here, they belong to the wonderful JK Rowling, and I don't
intend to make any money from borrowing them like this.
Chapter 2: Diagon Alley
It was the day before school began again, and Remus,
James and Peter were about to leave for Diagon Alley. Remus' mother was taking
them, and they stood impatiently in the kitchen, waiting for Mrs Lupin to stop
remembering she had forgotten things. Not only were they excited because James
had only returned from exile in Poland the day before, but just that morning
they had had news that Sirius would meet them in the Leaky Cauldron. There was
no news about Lily; they hadn't heard from her in a week.
"Hurry up, boys, we
haven't got all day, you know," Angela Lupin scolded, bustling into the room.
She was about 35 years old, slightly too thin, and her hair had gone
prematurely grey. But her attitude belied the outward signs of age. The boys
glared at her, before realising she was joking. They all liked Remus' mother,
because she was great fun to be around.
They each took some Floo powder and disappeared one
by one, until they were all standing in the Leaky Cauldron, the wizard's pub and
hotel that was the entrance to Diagon Alley. "Now all we have to do is wait for
the Blacks to arrive," Angela said, ordering them a butterbeer each. It was the
first time they had had one, and they were hooked immediately. It was so warm
and creamy, so…well, just right. They each thought it was the nicest thing they
had ever tasted.
It was fifteen minutes later, twenty minutes after
they were supposed to have arrived, when suddenly Esmerelda appeared in the
fireplace, followed so quickly by Orion and then Sirius that all three landed
in a pile. Sirius laughed so much that he had to sit down again as soon as he
stood up. There was a lengthy gap after that, before the youngest, Steve, came
through. Steve was an exact copy of Sirius and Orion, except for his eyes,
which were hazel.
There was another gap then, before first Mr Black,
then his wife came through. Remus suspected that there should have been more of
a gap between the first three, but that Orion and Sirius had both jumped
through before they could be stopped.
Arcturus Black looked exactly like his sons, dark
eyed and dark haired, but he walked with a limp from where he had been hit with
a botched Avada Kedavra from one of the imitation Dark Lords that popped up
every few years. Cerys Black had red hair, a remnant of her very distant
Weasley ancestry, and she looked nothing like any of her children, but she had
passed on to every single one of them her famous red-headed temper, and
arguments in the Black household were very fierce.
Right now though, the majority of the Blacks were
laughing at their tormented sister, and Cerys was looking delighted to meet
Sirius' friends, who she had heard so much about. "You four meet us back here
at one so we can have lunch and then get your school books." Angela Lupin was
telling Remus, who nodded, grabbed Sirius and Peter and made for the door
before his mother could change her mind. "James!" he yelled, and James hurried
after.
Just as they reached the door they heard a loud
shriek. "Sirius! James!" They looked around and saw, to their delight, Lily,
who seemed to be pleading with her parents. Having apparently lost the
argument, she turned away sullenly. As soon as her parent's backs were turned,
she shot across the room, yelling, "Run! Run!" all five careered into the back
yard and Sirius tapped the brick. Before their parents had reached the door,
they had disappeared into the crowds of Diagon Alley.
************************
When they had stopped running, the boys turned to
Lily. All five were out of breath, as pushing their way through back-to-school
crowds was much harder than it looked. "What was that about?" James
panted.
"Petunia." Lily spat. "She
managed to convince my parents that I'd tried to turn her into a frog, so they
said I was grounded. She was bawling
her eyes out, but it was her fault, the whole bloody thing. She started the
argument, she kept following me when I tried to walk away, and then she
fabricated the whole ridiculous tale." Lily paused, the said with relish, "that
was the point when I told her I thought she'd look better as a horse and as
soon as I knew how I was gonna try turn her into one." Her friends exploded
with laughter.
"What did your parents say?" Remus asked, between
gasps of laughter.
"Well…that was the point
where they took away Chancery, started intercepting your letters, which is why
you haven't heard from me, and banned me from TV. Consequently I now know every
spell in the spell books."
Again the boys laughed, and Lily was a bit miffed.
"I've had a terrible summer, you know, and this just caps it off," she snapped.
"You're supposed to be sympathetic." They laughed even more.
"Come on, Lil. See the
funny side," Sirius said.
"Yeah, perennial good girl
Lily Evans gets a taste of her own medicine," laughed James. Lily kicked him in
the shin.
"OW!" James complained.
"What was that for?"
"You were being a
bastard," Lily said.
"How was –"
"Anyone for ice cream?"
Remus, the peacemaker interrupted brightly.
"Yes!" they all said at
once, completely distracted.
"Come on then, " he said,
marvelling inwardly at how easy they were to distract. They all, Sirius
included, had the attention span of a three year old, except when they got
stuck on something. When that happened, whatever it was got done, even if they
had to pick through fifty-foot thick stainless steel walls with toothpicks.
They were that stubborn.
Within minutes they had reached Marvellous Mark's
Transcendent Ice Cream Parlour. As it was a rather cold morning, it was empty,
and they went up to order straight away.
"Three scoops please,
vanilla, chocolate and jam, please," Remus said.
"Coming right up,"
Marvellous Mark, who looked more washed-out than marvellous, said.
"Three scoops, coffee,
milk and tea, with little flashy chocolate bits on top," ordered conservative
Peter.
"Any second now," said a
happy looking Marvellous Mark.
"Four scoops, lemon,
banana, mead and chocolate, with chocolate bits, wafers, sprinkles, and jam on
the top," requested James.
"Oh, just one minute,
sir," a beaming Marvellous Mark replied.
"Five scoops, egg,
sausage, tomato, mushroom, and toast, with butter and marmite on the just the
toast, brown sauce on just the sausage and salt on the others," a happy looking
Sirius ordered.
"Whatever you want, young
sir," said a now bemused looking Marvellous Mark, "And for the young lady?"
"Six scoops, jam, honey,
orange juice, mead, Flower Power and Bertie Botts," Lily said complacently.
They all, Marvellous Mark included, gasped. "Are – are you sure?" Marvellous
Mark stammered.
"Of course."
Marvellous Mark, who
prided himself on his memory and his unshockability, now looked both shocked
and baffled. "Take a seat," he told them vaguely. They sat down.
"Lily, you're not seriously going to have that, are
you?" Remus asked.
"Yes, I am," she said,
rather annoyed, having no idea what they were talking about.
"Lil' Lily's going to fly
higher than a bird," James crowed.
"It's not funny, James,"
Remus snapped.
"What?" asked Lily, now
thoroughly confused.
"Bertie Bott's ice cream
gives you a knew flavour with every mouthful," James explained, "but you don't
know what you're getting as it stays the same colour. Even Siri wasn't brave
enough to try that." Sirius nodded vehemently.
"Too many bad experiences
when I was a child…"
"And the Flower Power one,
well…" Remus continued, "That's left over from the '60's. Immensely popular, it
was. And highly illegal."
Lily giggled. "Really?
Well that just makes me wanna try it even more. In fact, I think we should all
have some!"
They all immediately looked
away. "Er…"
"Maybe another day,"
"I don't know…"
"Are you all scared?" Lily
scoffed. "James Potter, are you a coward?"
James flushed. "No I'm
not! I'm in!"
After that, it took Sirius
less than two seconds to make up his mind. "Me too!" he exclaimed joyously.
Despite his misgivings,
Remus was not going to be left out. "And me!"
They al turned to look at
Peter. "Umm…" he was saved from having to answer by the arrival of their ice
creams. Marvellous Mark had got the order exactly right. They paid him, then gobbled
down their ice creams. As her Bertie Bott's flavours, Lily got grass, tea,
mustard, ("YUCK!") sugar, paracetamol and many others. When they had finished
everything except the bright pink flower power ice cream, Lily began dividing
it up. "Are you in, Peter?"
"I'll just watch," he said
nervously.
Lily gave the others a bit
of the ice cream, and they lifted their spoons. From behind the counter,
Marvellous Mark watched with interest. It had been many years since he had had
a new Flower Power customer. "Here's to a good trip!" Sirius said, as they
picked up a bit of ice cream. Then, with the aplomb of three born dram queens
and one who was learning rapidly off the best, they put the spoons into their
mouths.