Chapter 2-Getaway Lane
The fireplace she stumbled out of took up a whole wall of the room she viewed. There were no windows and everything seemed to be various shades of dirt brown. On the wall to her left was a rough-hewn desk with a surly- looking man standing behind it, looking straight at her. Sadie glanced down at the floor and then scooted aside as Prof. Lupin fell out of the fireplace. Sadie couldn't help but giggle at him, sprawled on the ground. He got up quickly.
Sadie walked up in front of him. "Are you alright?"
Lupin grumbled, brushing off his robes a little. "Stupid Floo powder." Then, in a less hostile tone, "I'm okay, are you? Welcome to Inglebright Inn. There's not much to it, huh?"
Sadie nodded, looking around. The place made her a bit uneasy. "So--so let's get started, eh?"
Lupin looked at her curiously for a moment before saying, "It's not that scary."
"Can we just go?" she said uncomfortably.
Lupin's face softened as he nodded and directed her across the room to the staircase adjacent to the fireplace. Sadie looked critically at the rickety stair.
"Will it hold us both?" She laughed nervously.
Lupin looked up to the top seriously. "There's only one way to find out," he said, starting up, "C'mon."
The dim light on the steep, narrow stairway, in addition to the creaking beneath them, gave Sadie reason to hold her breath until they reached the top. The upstairs hallway was better lit and much more pleasant. It was a long hall, with a woven rug, and had numbered doors all down it. At the end, a simple door-sized arched window revealed only murky gray sky. Lupin marched to this window and beckoned Sadie to come when he reached it.
"Watch," he said in a hushed voice. He drew out his wand and touched the windowsill with it. Suddenly, there was no window, only an empty doorway leading out onto a winding cobblestone path, lined with shops, ranging widely in sizes. A few yards away was a sign hung over the road: Getaway Lane. Sadie stepped, awed, into the sunshine, followed by a regardful, quiet Lupin.
She stopped under the sign. Getaway Lane. Sadie repeated it over and over in her mind. She found significance in it.she was going to Getaway.away from her old life of never fitting in or feeling right.away from how things might have been.and into a stunning, bright new world, so unfamiliar and bizarre and dangerous, and yet feeling like she belonged.
Lupin's voice beside her brought her back from her thoughts. "Ready?"
Sadie focused resolutely at the bustling street before her. "Yeah. Where to first?"
"Um, well, we'd better get your money first. Let's ask where the bank is."
They stepped into the first shop, which, even from outside, smelled like general animal odor.
Lupin approached the front desk cautiously, winding between many cages, with Sadie following a few steps behind. Behind the desk, feeding a large rat some sunflower seeds through the bars was a middle-aged lady with frazzled blonde hair and sparkly, ice blue robes.
The lady spoke before they were within two yards of the desk.
"Hello, hello! Would you like a rat? Cat? Spider? Owl? Frog perhaps? They're all on sale, 20% off and just for today. For you, I'll even throw in a cage, food, and manual! So, what'll it be?"
"We just wanted to know if you knew where the bank was."
The blonde woman's shoulders slumped and her face went to almost a pout. "You don't want to buy anything?"
"Oh, we'd love to," explained Sadie. She corrected herself and glanced at Lupin. "That is, ah, I'd love to. But I don't have any money with me. So if you'd direct us to the bank we'd love to come back later,"
The woman looked confused. "What about your father," she said, nodding towards Lupin, "Can't he buy you a pet?"
Lupin and Sadie exchanged looks. Then they burst out laughing.
"You really think she's /my/ daughter???" Lupin said incredulously between sidesplitting laughs, "That is /really/ funny."
Sadie just kept laughing shamelessly and pointing at Lupin, with a few words intelligible, like "/HIM???/" before laughing loudly again.
The lady was obviously miffed. "Well, its eight shops down on the other side of the road. The least you can do now is go and get some money and come buy a pet," she said huffily.
Still stifling chuckles, they thanked the lady and headed down the road. They passed several intriguing shops full of odd smells and unusual sounds. Sadie would have liked to browse, but Lupin, seeing her longing gazes at the other shops, told her that it wasn't a good idea yet, considering the Pet Lady's response to browsers. Sadie had to agree.
The shops around them had thinned and fallen into slight disrepair as they made their way to the bank. When they reached it, Sadie wasn't even sure it was the right place. From the outside, it was nothing more than a wooden shack with a dingy sign in front with BANK painted in peeling white letters. The shack had a doorway (with no door, naturally), and upon poking her head inside, Sadie found that a dreary looking staircase leading underground was the only thing to be found. She stepped tentatively down with Lupin close behind. When she reached the bottom she found a heavy wooden door with intricate designs, and, with cautious delay, she pulled it open. Sadie was astonished to find that it led into a clean, well-lit room with walls lined with vaults and rolling ladders on either side. Sadie couldn't be sure of the depth, but the vaults looked about the size of shoeboxes. There was a long, low desk in the very back of the extensive room. Behind it sat three robed people, who were all bending over somewhat cluttered stacks of paper, scribbling away.
Sadie and Lupin approached them on tiptoe, rather like you would in a library.
"Excuse us?" said Lupin to the older man on the left side.
He glanced up from his papers, just long enough to notice anyone was there. "Yes?" he said, still looking down at the stack and scrawling feverishly.
"We'd like to make a withdrawal. From Sadie's account." he said, pointing his thumb at his companion.
The man glanced up again, this time at Sadie. Then, after one last scrawl, he put down his quill and stood up. "Your hand, please, miss,"
Sadie held out her hand not knowing what to expect. The man pulled out his wand and tapped each fingertip and the middle of her palm. Each spot he touched glowed orange for a moment before fading away. He held his wand out in front of him and let go. It floated in midair for a moment before zooming around the room until it stopped suddenly near the top right corner of the left wall. The others took no notice whatsoever.
The man nodded with satisfaction and walked to a nearby ladder, which he climbed about halfway and pushed toward the vault. He climbed up to it and called down.
"Young lady.name please?"
"Um, Sadie."
He gave her a somewhat annoyed look. "Your full name."
"Oh, Sadie Alexis Riddle." Out of the corner of her eye, Sadie saw each of the people at the front desk glance up in alarm, then continue their work, same as before.
Meanwhile, the man who was helping them had repeated her to the door of the vault, which promptly swung open. "How much would you like to withdraw?"
Sadie looked at Lupin and shrugged cluelessly. Lupin called up to the man, "Ah.enough to cover five years at school and then some?"
The man nodded and conjured a fairly large cloth bag, filling it. "Look out below!" said he as he dropped it to the ground. It landed with an echoing clunk. He climbed down and turned to Lupin, since Sadie had walked off to get the bag. "Will that be all?"
Lupin shook his head and thanked him, and with Sadie, climbed up the stair and went back outside. Sadie weighed the bag in her hands in wonder. She hardly knew where to begin.
"Let's get your robes," Lupin said, eyeing Sadie cautiously and starting to walk toward a shop called Robes for Young Rogues.
Rhoda Rodenshire, the owner, was an angular witch with sleek black hair in a long braid down her back. She led Sadie to a small room in back to get her measurements.
"Alright dear, what are you looking for today?" Rhonda asked when she finished sizing her.
"Well, um, you see." Sadie had no idea.
"Seven ankle length, black work robes. And one black pointed hat if you have them. Oh, and a winter cloak. All Hogwarts' standard," said Lupin, poking his head in. "And dress robes. Whatever kind she wants."
Rhoda nodded and walked out past Lupin. Sadie watched Lupin, who had leaned against the wall next to the door. He looked up and caught her gaze. She smiled cheerily and twiddled her thumbs. He scoffed good-naturedly at her and returned his gaze to the door.
When they were done there, bag in hand, they headed over to a general magical equipment shop, a bit like the Muggle Wal-Mart Sadie frequented, which sold the cauldron, phials, telescope, scales, protective gloves, basic potion ingredients, and large trunk that Sadie was told she needed.
Sadie was getting a little worn out, so she suggested they sit down in the little food court at the end of the road. Lupin readily agreed, so they ordered milkshakes and sat at a table.
"Are you allowed to bring pets to Hogwarts?" queried Sadie after a bit.
"Yeah, and that reminds me, we have to stop by that one place." Lupin responded, stifling a laugh.
Sadie grinned and finished her milkshake with a slurp. "Let's do that last. What else to we have to get?"
"Your wand and all your school books. Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
They found a large, round, low-roofed shop called simply Raye Books. They walked in and Sadie was confronted by a view of more books then she had ever seen before. The only other person in the bookstore was a slight girl with cinnamon colored hair and squoval glasses who looked about Sadie's age, engrossed in a rather thick novel.
Sadie approached her quietly. "Excuse me; do you know where the clerk is?"
The girl looked up, startled. She bit her lip. "/I'm/ the clerk. Could you not tell Uncle Raye I was reading instead of watching for customers? He wouldn't like to get another complaint about me," she said with a very British accent.
Sadie grinned. "Oh, don't worry about it. I like to read a lot too," she held out her hand. "I'm Sadie Riddle."
A startled look crossed the girl's face, but she made no comment. After a moment she shook her hand, grinning, and said, "Emma Kathryn Melody Walker, at your service. At least until summer's over," she added, rolling her eyes. She caught sight of Prof. Lupin. "Hiya, Professor, what can I help you with?"
Lupin, who had been watching from a distance, answered her. "I've got a list here of a bunch of books she needs. There's quite a few, so I'm not sure if you'll have them all."
She nodded. "We'll have 'em. C'mon, I'll help you find them all."
It took them a good hour to get all the books Sadie needed. By the end, Sadie and Emma were good friends. Sadie found out that Emma lived in England and was sent by her parents to spend the summer in America with her aunt and uncle, to "learn some responsibility" by helping out at the bookstore they owned. Emma said that she liked it all right, since she got paid, but it was kind of boring so she ended up reading instead of paying attention to customers. Sadie listened with interest and told her a bit about what it was like growing up in America. Emma was happy to find it wasn't altogether different from England.
Lupin finally had to tear them apart after they had stood at the counter talking for an additional half-hour.
"C'mon Sadie, we're not done yet."
"Ok, Professor, I'm coming. 'Bye Emma."
Emma waved at them as they walked out and returned to her novel promptly.
"So, next is my wand right?" questioned Sadie.
"Yes, the place to get it is right over there," Lupin said, pointing.
The place was called Canagin's Wands. A spindly-looking old man met them at the door.
"Buying a wand today, are we?"
Sadie nodded. "My first."
The man smiled, which sent uncomfortable goose bumps crawling on Sadie's arms. "I am Canagin. Come in."
He had Sadie sit on a stool and hold out her writing arm. Then he unrolled a piece of measuring tape and dropped it on the floor. Then he went off among the rows of shelves with narrow scarlet boxes. He spoke, grabbing boxes as he did.
"No two wands are alike, the same with the witches or wizards they are destined for. We use a wide variety of woods and lengths of the wood for our wands. For the core, we use vampire fang, werewolf hair," Lupin looked up with more interest, "phoenix feather, dragon heartstring, unicorn hair, and veela hair. Each is equally powerful, but may have different strengths in certain combinations of wood and length."
While he was talking, the measuring tape slithered up the stool leg and began measuring Sadie all over, including around her head, between her ribs, and the length of the second toe on both feet. Canagin came back with a tall stack of boxes. With a snap of his fingers, the measuring tape crumpled to the ground and wound itself back up. Then he opened a box and handed the wand inside to Sadie.
"Oak, veela hair, 9 ½ inches, very rigid. Wave it around."
Sadie did so and it was swiftly taken from her and a new one placed in her hand. "Redwood, phoenix feather, 7 inches. Try...."
This was repeated several times with no results. Canagin gave her one with a curious look on his face.
"Hmm.white pine, werewolf hair, 11 ¼ inches. Nice and whippy. Never know."
Sadie took it in her hand, noticing the strange warmth it exuded at her touch, and waved it over her head. As she brought it down, small purple butterflies erupted from the tip and flew up to the rafters.
Canagin was ecstatic as he wrapped it in tissue paper and put it in the box. After they paid and left, Sadie and Lupin made a beeline toward the first shop, Pet Parade, and the lady was overjoyed to see them again.
"Ah, so you're back! You've gone everywhere else I see. So, which animal would you prefer?"
"A tarantula."
"A tarantula?" The woman looked apprehensive. "Are you sure?"
"Yep. What do I need to take care of it?"
The lady gave a lengthy explanation as Sadie looked at the tarantulas on display.
"Is there a book for that stuff?"
"Yes, there is. Free manual with the pet."
The spiders were in diverse sizes and shades of brown with varying degrees of hairiness. There was one in particular that caught her eye. It was a rosy brown, smallish, and it seemed to be looking at her. She waved, and it appeared to her to wave back.
"I'll take that one," she said to the clerk, pointing.
"That one there?"
"Yes."
Sadie watched as the lady pulled on a thick glove and reached into the cage. It let her pick it up with no problems and patiently let her stick it into a transport cage. It watched as Sadie purchased the rest of the things she needed. Sadie picked up the cage, and with Lupin's help, carried all of her things back to the Inn, and then back home.
The next day Lupin arrived, right on schedule. Sadie had spent the rest of the previous day looking through her books and marveling over the things they talked about.
"So, what's first? And what do I call you?"
"Since I'm not really your teacher I suppose you can call me Remus. And I thought we'd start with Potions, after I explain a few of the specifics of Hogwarts to you."
"Alright, /Remus./ So.."
"So.." Remus explained to Sadie about the Houses, Sorting, Quidditch, and mostly the classes. In such detail, in fact, that Sadie felt like she had already been to Hogwarts. When Remus finally finished, it was already time for lunch. Afterwards, he started the actual tutoring. Sadie was proud to tell Keith and Janet later that day that she got along pretty well.
The fireplace she stumbled out of took up a whole wall of the room she viewed. There were no windows and everything seemed to be various shades of dirt brown. On the wall to her left was a rough-hewn desk with a surly- looking man standing behind it, looking straight at her. Sadie glanced down at the floor and then scooted aside as Prof. Lupin fell out of the fireplace. Sadie couldn't help but giggle at him, sprawled on the ground. He got up quickly.
Sadie walked up in front of him. "Are you alright?"
Lupin grumbled, brushing off his robes a little. "Stupid Floo powder." Then, in a less hostile tone, "I'm okay, are you? Welcome to Inglebright Inn. There's not much to it, huh?"
Sadie nodded, looking around. The place made her a bit uneasy. "So--so let's get started, eh?"
Lupin looked at her curiously for a moment before saying, "It's not that scary."
"Can we just go?" she said uncomfortably.
Lupin's face softened as he nodded and directed her across the room to the staircase adjacent to the fireplace. Sadie looked critically at the rickety stair.
"Will it hold us both?" She laughed nervously.
Lupin looked up to the top seriously. "There's only one way to find out," he said, starting up, "C'mon."
The dim light on the steep, narrow stairway, in addition to the creaking beneath them, gave Sadie reason to hold her breath until they reached the top. The upstairs hallway was better lit and much more pleasant. It was a long hall, with a woven rug, and had numbered doors all down it. At the end, a simple door-sized arched window revealed only murky gray sky. Lupin marched to this window and beckoned Sadie to come when he reached it.
"Watch," he said in a hushed voice. He drew out his wand and touched the windowsill with it. Suddenly, there was no window, only an empty doorway leading out onto a winding cobblestone path, lined with shops, ranging widely in sizes. A few yards away was a sign hung over the road: Getaway Lane. Sadie stepped, awed, into the sunshine, followed by a regardful, quiet Lupin.
She stopped under the sign. Getaway Lane. Sadie repeated it over and over in her mind. She found significance in it.she was going to Getaway.away from her old life of never fitting in or feeling right.away from how things might have been.and into a stunning, bright new world, so unfamiliar and bizarre and dangerous, and yet feeling like she belonged.
Lupin's voice beside her brought her back from her thoughts. "Ready?"
Sadie focused resolutely at the bustling street before her. "Yeah. Where to first?"
"Um, well, we'd better get your money first. Let's ask where the bank is."
They stepped into the first shop, which, even from outside, smelled like general animal odor.
Lupin approached the front desk cautiously, winding between many cages, with Sadie following a few steps behind. Behind the desk, feeding a large rat some sunflower seeds through the bars was a middle-aged lady with frazzled blonde hair and sparkly, ice blue robes.
The lady spoke before they were within two yards of the desk.
"Hello, hello! Would you like a rat? Cat? Spider? Owl? Frog perhaps? They're all on sale, 20% off and just for today. For you, I'll even throw in a cage, food, and manual! So, what'll it be?"
"We just wanted to know if you knew where the bank was."
The blonde woman's shoulders slumped and her face went to almost a pout. "You don't want to buy anything?"
"Oh, we'd love to," explained Sadie. She corrected herself and glanced at Lupin. "That is, ah, I'd love to. But I don't have any money with me. So if you'd direct us to the bank we'd love to come back later,"
The woman looked confused. "What about your father," she said, nodding towards Lupin, "Can't he buy you a pet?"
Lupin and Sadie exchanged looks. Then they burst out laughing.
"You really think she's /my/ daughter???" Lupin said incredulously between sidesplitting laughs, "That is /really/ funny."
Sadie just kept laughing shamelessly and pointing at Lupin, with a few words intelligible, like "/HIM???/" before laughing loudly again.
The lady was obviously miffed. "Well, its eight shops down on the other side of the road. The least you can do now is go and get some money and come buy a pet," she said huffily.
Still stifling chuckles, they thanked the lady and headed down the road. They passed several intriguing shops full of odd smells and unusual sounds. Sadie would have liked to browse, but Lupin, seeing her longing gazes at the other shops, told her that it wasn't a good idea yet, considering the Pet Lady's response to browsers. Sadie had to agree.
The shops around them had thinned and fallen into slight disrepair as they made their way to the bank. When they reached it, Sadie wasn't even sure it was the right place. From the outside, it was nothing more than a wooden shack with a dingy sign in front with BANK painted in peeling white letters. The shack had a doorway (with no door, naturally), and upon poking her head inside, Sadie found that a dreary looking staircase leading underground was the only thing to be found. She stepped tentatively down with Lupin close behind. When she reached the bottom she found a heavy wooden door with intricate designs, and, with cautious delay, she pulled it open. Sadie was astonished to find that it led into a clean, well-lit room with walls lined with vaults and rolling ladders on either side. Sadie couldn't be sure of the depth, but the vaults looked about the size of shoeboxes. There was a long, low desk in the very back of the extensive room. Behind it sat three robed people, who were all bending over somewhat cluttered stacks of paper, scribbling away.
Sadie and Lupin approached them on tiptoe, rather like you would in a library.
"Excuse us?" said Lupin to the older man on the left side.
He glanced up from his papers, just long enough to notice anyone was there. "Yes?" he said, still looking down at the stack and scrawling feverishly.
"We'd like to make a withdrawal. From Sadie's account." he said, pointing his thumb at his companion.
The man glanced up again, this time at Sadie. Then, after one last scrawl, he put down his quill and stood up. "Your hand, please, miss,"
Sadie held out her hand not knowing what to expect. The man pulled out his wand and tapped each fingertip and the middle of her palm. Each spot he touched glowed orange for a moment before fading away. He held his wand out in front of him and let go. It floated in midair for a moment before zooming around the room until it stopped suddenly near the top right corner of the left wall. The others took no notice whatsoever.
The man nodded with satisfaction and walked to a nearby ladder, which he climbed about halfway and pushed toward the vault. He climbed up to it and called down.
"Young lady.name please?"
"Um, Sadie."
He gave her a somewhat annoyed look. "Your full name."
"Oh, Sadie Alexis Riddle." Out of the corner of her eye, Sadie saw each of the people at the front desk glance up in alarm, then continue their work, same as before.
Meanwhile, the man who was helping them had repeated her to the door of the vault, which promptly swung open. "How much would you like to withdraw?"
Sadie looked at Lupin and shrugged cluelessly. Lupin called up to the man, "Ah.enough to cover five years at school and then some?"
The man nodded and conjured a fairly large cloth bag, filling it. "Look out below!" said he as he dropped it to the ground. It landed with an echoing clunk. He climbed down and turned to Lupin, since Sadie had walked off to get the bag. "Will that be all?"
Lupin shook his head and thanked him, and with Sadie, climbed up the stair and went back outside. Sadie weighed the bag in her hands in wonder. She hardly knew where to begin.
"Let's get your robes," Lupin said, eyeing Sadie cautiously and starting to walk toward a shop called Robes for Young Rogues.
Rhoda Rodenshire, the owner, was an angular witch with sleek black hair in a long braid down her back. She led Sadie to a small room in back to get her measurements.
"Alright dear, what are you looking for today?" Rhonda asked when she finished sizing her.
"Well, um, you see." Sadie had no idea.
"Seven ankle length, black work robes. And one black pointed hat if you have them. Oh, and a winter cloak. All Hogwarts' standard," said Lupin, poking his head in. "And dress robes. Whatever kind she wants."
Rhoda nodded and walked out past Lupin. Sadie watched Lupin, who had leaned against the wall next to the door. He looked up and caught her gaze. She smiled cheerily and twiddled her thumbs. He scoffed good-naturedly at her and returned his gaze to the door.
When they were done there, bag in hand, they headed over to a general magical equipment shop, a bit like the Muggle Wal-Mart Sadie frequented, which sold the cauldron, phials, telescope, scales, protective gloves, basic potion ingredients, and large trunk that Sadie was told she needed.
Sadie was getting a little worn out, so she suggested they sit down in the little food court at the end of the road. Lupin readily agreed, so they ordered milkshakes and sat at a table.
"Are you allowed to bring pets to Hogwarts?" queried Sadie after a bit.
"Yeah, and that reminds me, we have to stop by that one place." Lupin responded, stifling a laugh.
Sadie grinned and finished her milkshake with a slurp. "Let's do that last. What else to we have to get?"
"Your wand and all your school books. Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
They found a large, round, low-roofed shop called simply Raye Books. They walked in and Sadie was confronted by a view of more books then she had ever seen before. The only other person in the bookstore was a slight girl with cinnamon colored hair and squoval glasses who looked about Sadie's age, engrossed in a rather thick novel.
Sadie approached her quietly. "Excuse me; do you know where the clerk is?"
The girl looked up, startled. She bit her lip. "/I'm/ the clerk. Could you not tell Uncle Raye I was reading instead of watching for customers? He wouldn't like to get another complaint about me," she said with a very British accent.
Sadie grinned. "Oh, don't worry about it. I like to read a lot too," she held out her hand. "I'm Sadie Riddle."
A startled look crossed the girl's face, but she made no comment. After a moment she shook her hand, grinning, and said, "Emma Kathryn Melody Walker, at your service. At least until summer's over," she added, rolling her eyes. She caught sight of Prof. Lupin. "Hiya, Professor, what can I help you with?"
Lupin, who had been watching from a distance, answered her. "I've got a list here of a bunch of books she needs. There's quite a few, so I'm not sure if you'll have them all."
She nodded. "We'll have 'em. C'mon, I'll help you find them all."
It took them a good hour to get all the books Sadie needed. By the end, Sadie and Emma were good friends. Sadie found out that Emma lived in England and was sent by her parents to spend the summer in America with her aunt and uncle, to "learn some responsibility" by helping out at the bookstore they owned. Emma said that she liked it all right, since she got paid, but it was kind of boring so she ended up reading instead of paying attention to customers. Sadie listened with interest and told her a bit about what it was like growing up in America. Emma was happy to find it wasn't altogether different from England.
Lupin finally had to tear them apart after they had stood at the counter talking for an additional half-hour.
"C'mon Sadie, we're not done yet."
"Ok, Professor, I'm coming. 'Bye Emma."
Emma waved at them as they walked out and returned to her novel promptly.
"So, next is my wand right?" questioned Sadie.
"Yes, the place to get it is right over there," Lupin said, pointing.
The place was called Canagin's Wands. A spindly-looking old man met them at the door.
"Buying a wand today, are we?"
Sadie nodded. "My first."
The man smiled, which sent uncomfortable goose bumps crawling on Sadie's arms. "I am Canagin. Come in."
He had Sadie sit on a stool and hold out her writing arm. Then he unrolled a piece of measuring tape and dropped it on the floor. Then he went off among the rows of shelves with narrow scarlet boxes. He spoke, grabbing boxes as he did.
"No two wands are alike, the same with the witches or wizards they are destined for. We use a wide variety of woods and lengths of the wood for our wands. For the core, we use vampire fang, werewolf hair," Lupin looked up with more interest, "phoenix feather, dragon heartstring, unicorn hair, and veela hair. Each is equally powerful, but may have different strengths in certain combinations of wood and length."
While he was talking, the measuring tape slithered up the stool leg and began measuring Sadie all over, including around her head, between her ribs, and the length of the second toe on both feet. Canagin came back with a tall stack of boxes. With a snap of his fingers, the measuring tape crumpled to the ground and wound itself back up. Then he opened a box and handed the wand inside to Sadie.
"Oak, veela hair, 9 ½ inches, very rigid. Wave it around."
Sadie did so and it was swiftly taken from her and a new one placed in her hand. "Redwood, phoenix feather, 7 inches. Try...."
This was repeated several times with no results. Canagin gave her one with a curious look on his face.
"Hmm.white pine, werewolf hair, 11 ¼ inches. Nice and whippy. Never know."
Sadie took it in her hand, noticing the strange warmth it exuded at her touch, and waved it over her head. As she brought it down, small purple butterflies erupted from the tip and flew up to the rafters.
Canagin was ecstatic as he wrapped it in tissue paper and put it in the box. After they paid and left, Sadie and Lupin made a beeline toward the first shop, Pet Parade, and the lady was overjoyed to see them again.
"Ah, so you're back! You've gone everywhere else I see. So, which animal would you prefer?"
"A tarantula."
"A tarantula?" The woman looked apprehensive. "Are you sure?"
"Yep. What do I need to take care of it?"
The lady gave a lengthy explanation as Sadie looked at the tarantulas on display.
"Is there a book for that stuff?"
"Yes, there is. Free manual with the pet."
The spiders were in diverse sizes and shades of brown with varying degrees of hairiness. There was one in particular that caught her eye. It was a rosy brown, smallish, and it seemed to be looking at her. She waved, and it appeared to her to wave back.
"I'll take that one," she said to the clerk, pointing.
"That one there?"
"Yes."
Sadie watched as the lady pulled on a thick glove and reached into the cage. It let her pick it up with no problems and patiently let her stick it into a transport cage. It watched as Sadie purchased the rest of the things she needed. Sadie picked up the cage, and with Lupin's help, carried all of her things back to the Inn, and then back home.
The next day Lupin arrived, right on schedule. Sadie had spent the rest of the previous day looking through her books and marveling over the things they talked about.
"So, what's first? And what do I call you?"
"Since I'm not really your teacher I suppose you can call me Remus. And I thought we'd start with Potions, after I explain a few of the specifics of Hogwarts to you."
"Alright, /Remus./ So.."
"So.." Remus explained to Sadie about the Houses, Sorting, Quidditch, and mostly the classes. In such detail, in fact, that Sadie felt like she had already been to Hogwarts. When Remus finally finished, it was already time for lunch. Afterwards, he started the actual tutoring. Sadie was proud to tell Keith and Janet later that day that she got along pretty well.