A/N: I don't own, okay? I guess this is AU. I think we're still on the
prologue.
.
..
.
That night, surprisingly enough, both made it to the roof (didn't have much, all fitted into a couple of backpacks) without much worry. Or, they chose not to worry about the nurse that they had to knock out... nice woman, sad fate.
"And, err, how are we going to get down from here?" Tome hissed, glancing around. Everything was pitch black. It was a cloudy night.
"Jump."
"Jump?!? You git, we can't jump off of a seven story building at eleven- thirty P.M.!"
"Why not? There isn't a law against it, is there?"
Tome stared hard at her brother. He didn't /look/ like he was drunk...
"We won't get hurt. There's plenty of grass down there."
"Excusé moi? Shall we go over this again? We're both ten years old. It is past eleven-thirty p.m. We are running away. We are on top of a seven-story building. And you would like to /jump/."
"Well... yeah."
"No. We'll both get killed."
Sirius marched over to a window, jerked it open, and pushed the screen out.
"We won't get killed. Not if we accidentally-on-purpose jump. Magic, aren't we?"
Tome marched over as well and looked down at the street below. A few cars were still out on the streets. They were just outside of London.
"No. We'll get kill-AARGH!!!" Sirius pushed her out the window before she could finish her sentence. She grabbed him, and they both ended up falling out.
Our Hero found it rather fun, plummeting off the roof of a seven-story building. Our Heroine did not.
She made a point of screaming all the way down.
However, neither got hurt, it turned out.
Tome's backpack strap got caught on the branch of a tree that hadn't looked capable of bending over far enough to get near the building, and Sirius... bounced.
"There, now. That wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked ten minutes later, having gotten his sister down. Both were now walking towards the city.
"You idiot. Falling out of a window on a seven-story building is not fu-"
"What's with you and saying "seven-story"? Are they the new words of the week?"
Tome chose to ignore him.
Miraculously enough, it only took /all night/ to find the place they were looking for. They entered, foot-sore and tired.
The bartender was snoring face-first in fire whiskey, so they each found a chair, and using their backpacks for pillows, made themselves comfortable enough to sleep.
.
..
.
..
.
"Hey! Hey, young master!"
Sirius cracked one eye open, and stared blankly at the bartender, who was standing over him. It took a moment for memories to resurface, and he sat bolt upright. Relaxed when he saw Tome still snoozing.
"May I ask why you and your friend chose to spend the night here?"
"No. what time is it?"
"seven a.m."
"Oh. Well, can you open up the passageway into Diagon Alley for us? You were asleep when we got here last night."
"Ah." The man frowned, then nodded. "Fine."
"C'mon Tome. Wake up."
She chose not to wake up. Sirius kicked her. She woke up.
"What do you want you bloody git of a prat?" she snarled, getting to her feet.
"Temper, temper. We've got to get your stuff and find a way to get you to school, remember?"
"It's morning."
"Then good morning. C'mon, let's go."
There were very few people there currently, but by the time Our Heroes managed to get out of the bank ("goblins! Gross!" Tome hissed, still grumpy) with a bag full of money each, there were plenty of people. Very few students, if any at all. So they were getting plenty of weird looks.
"Alright. Where's your letter?"
"Where's your sense of injustice?"
Sirius stared hard at her. "Err, if I get you some ice-cream will you stop being mean?"
About an hour later, Tome was sitting next to him, happy with her ice cream while Sirius studied her list, not wanting to mistranslate any of the characters.
"Look, wasn't that nice? They even got a picture of what your things look like."
"But everything's in Japanese. And what about the books? And how will I transport all of this stuff?"
"Mum told us all about this place. They've got everything here. Right, so, uniform first. Are you finished yet?"
"Yeah, but I'm tired."
"We'll get a room once everything's done."
"A bit early for school, isn't it?" Madame Malkin (or so they thought she was) said when they entered her shop.
"My sister here starts school in a week. Japan. See, and her letter even included what her uniform is supposed to look like." Sirius offered the picture to the old witch. She squinted at it.
"Shouldn't you be in Japan, then? Yes, I can make this for you. It'll take a while."
"She got accepted in two schools, and chose this one. Only got the letter last night."
"Ah. Hold still, miss, I've got to get your measurements. It's still a bit strange that somebody from a country so far away would get accepted into a school even farther away. Open robes? Oh, that's silly. Right, light green open robes, short plaited skirt, and the usual Japanese school uniform. Okay, now, I'll be right back. Don't you need a uniform as well? Got a picture of it?" she handed a pair of dragon hide gloves and a hat to Tome.
"Err, no. I'm either going to Durmstrang, Hogwarts, or I'm a squib. Highly doubt the last one, since I bounced when I got pulled out of a window seven stories in the air."
"Well, both those schools start in August, so you won't be getting a letter for a while."
"I'll be sticking around."
The woman went back, here, there, and all around, cutting, measuring, pulling and playing with different fabrics, and after what seemed to be forever, she finally presented Tome (who remained silent) with her uniform, and a couple of open robes.
After paying, they stood outside the shop for a moment while Sirius once again examined his sister's list.
"Okay, right, so, just a bunch of potion ingredients, a cauldron, that's right these Japanese people use brushes and different types of paper and ink. Tut tut tut." He paused. "Alright, we'll handle all the hard stuff first. And we'll get you some quills and parchment ink too, just in case. Over here."
It took a while to get the right kind of paper, and lots of it, and plenty of brushes too. A couple of quills, some parchment, and a small bottle of ink that changed colors as it was used were slightly cheaper than the other things.
Potion ingredients, cauldron, and things like that were easy enough to get.
After a while, the only things needed were the books (needed nine books, all in Japanese! Tome found it relaxing to complain about this.), a wand, and something to transport it all in.
It was on their way to the biggest bookshop that the Wonderful Idea That An Idiot Would Have Thought Up Before Now hit Sirius in the head. He groaned at the stupidity of it.
"What's up?" Tome asked him. "The stuff too heavy? Want me to carry some of it?"
"No, that's not it, but I'd appreciate it if you carried some of this stuff." Sirius grinned a little. "Floo powder, not a portkey! Duh, we were about to go through more trouble than was needed. The address is right here on your letter, so instead of using a portkey to get to your school, you can use floo powder. Oy!"
Tome laughed as they entered the quiet, dark shop. Too many books, Our Hero couldn't help but think.
It turned out that the bookshop did have books in Japanese, and French, and so forth, and they also had things in Goblinish, Elvish, Giantish, and every other '-ish' that one could think of.
That didn't stop the bookkeeper from grumbling to himself as he dug through the back, looking for the particular books needed. And, as everything else seemed to, they costed extra. Our Hero swore under his breath when he finally realized this (they were exiting the shop) and Tome laughed ("if you're going to swear, do it in English so that everybody else can understand, too!").
Getting a wand was short and easy.
..
.
That night, surprisingly enough, both made it to the roof (didn't have much, all fitted into a couple of backpacks) without much worry. Or, they chose not to worry about the nurse that they had to knock out... nice woman, sad fate.
"And, err, how are we going to get down from here?" Tome hissed, glancing around. Everything was pitch black. It was a cloudy night.
"Jump."
"Jump?!? You git, we can't jump off of a seven story building at eleven- thirty P.M.!"
"Why not? There isn't a law against it, is there?"
Tome stared hard at her brother. He didn't /look/ like he was drunk...
"We won't get hurt. There's plenty of grass down there."
"Excusé moi? Shall we go over this again? We're both ten years old. It is past eleven-thirty p.m. We are running away. We are on top of a seven-story building. And you would like to /jump/."
"Well... yeah."
"No. We'll both get killed."
Sirius marched over to a window, jerked it open, and pushed the screen out.
"We won't get killed. Not if we accidentally-on-purpose jump. Magic, aren't we?"
Tome marched over as well and looked down at the street below. A few cars were still out on the streets. They were just outside of London.
"No. We'll get kill-AARGH!!!" Sirius pushed her out the window before she could finish her sentence. She grabbed him, and they both ended up falling out.
Our Hero found it rather fun, plummeting off the roof of a seven-story building. Our Heroine did not.
She made a point of screaming all the way down.
However, neither got hurt, it turned out.
Tome's backpack strap got caught on the branch of a tree that hadn't looked capable of bending over far enough to get near the building, and Sirius... bounced.
"There, now. That wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked ten minutes later, having gotten his sister down. Both were now walking towards the city.
"You idiot. Falling out of a window on a seven-story building is not fu-"
"What's with you and saying "seven-story"? Are they the new words of the week?"
Tome chose to ignore him.
Miraculously enough, it only took /all night/ to find the place they were looking for. They entered, foot-sore and tired.
The bartender was snoring face-first in fire whiskey, so they each found a chair, and using their backpacks for pillows, made themselves comfortable enough to sleep.
.
..
.
..
.
"Hey! Hey, young master!"
Sirius cracked one eye open, and stared blankly at the bartender, who was standing over him. It took a moment for memories to resurface, and he sat bolt upright. Relaxed when he saw Tome still snoozing.
"May I ask why you and your friend chose to spend the night here?"
"No. what time is it?"
"seven a.m."
"Oh. Well, can you open up the passageway into Diagon Alley for us? You were asleep when we got here last night."
"Ah." The man frowned, then nodded. "Fine."
"C'mon Tome. Wake up."
She chose not to wake up. Sirius kicked her. She woke up.
"What do you want you bloody git of a prat?" she snarled, getting to her feet.
"Temper, temper. We've got to get your stuff and find a way to get you to school, remember?"
"It's morning."
"Then good morning. C'mon, let's go."
There were very few people there currently, but by the time Our Heroes managed to get out of the bank ("goblins! Gross!" Tome hissed, still grumpy) with a bag full of money each, there were plenty of people. Very few students, if any at all. So they were getting plenty of weird looks.
"Alright. Where's your letter?"
"Where's your sense of injustice?"
Sirius stared hard at her. "Err, if I get you some ice-cream will you stop being mean?"
About an hour later, Tome was sitting next to him, happy with her ice cream while Sirius studied her list, not wanting to mistranslate any of the characters.
"Look, wasn't that nice? They even got a picture of what your things look like."
"But everything's in Japanese. And what about the books? And how will I transport all of this stuff?"
"Mum told us all about this place. They've got everything here. Right, so, uniform first. Are you finished yet?"
"Yeah, but I'm tired."
"We'll get a room once everything's done."
"A bit early for school, isn't it?" Madame Malkin (or so they thought she was) said when they entered her shop.
"My sister here starts school in a week. Japan. See, and her letter even included what her uniform is supposed to look like." Sirius offered the picture to the old witch. She squinted at it.
"Shouldn't you be in Japan, then? Yes, I can make this for you. It'll take a while."
"She got accepted in two schools, and chose this one. Only got the letter last night."
"Ah. Hold still, miss, I've got to get your measurements. It's still a bit strange that somebody from a country so far away would get accepted into a school even farther away. Open robes? Oh, that's silly. Right, light green open robes, short plaited skirt, and the usual Japanese school uniform. Okay, now, I'll be right back. Don't you need a uniform as well? Got a picture of it?" she handed a pair of dragon hide gloves and a hat to Tome.
"Err, no. I'm either going to Durmstrang, Hogwarts, or I'm a squib. Highly doubt the last one, since I bounced when I got pulled out of a window seven stories in the air."
"Well, both those schools start in August, so you won't be getting a letter for a while."
"I'll be sticking around."
The woman went back, here, there, and all around, cutting, measuring, pulling and playing with different fabrics, and after what seemed to be forever, she finally presented Tome (who remained silent) with her uniform, and a couple of open robes.
After paying, they stood outside the shop for a moment while Sirius once again examined his sister's list.
"Okay, right, so, just a bunch of potion ingredients, a cauldron, that's right these Japanese people use brushes and different types of paper and ink. Tut tut tut." He paused. "Alright, we'll handle all the hard stuff first. And we'll get you some quills and parchment ink too, just in case. Over here."
It took a while to get the right kind of paper, and lots of it, and plenty of brushes too. A couple of quills, some parchment, and a small bottle of ink that changed colors as it was used were slightly cheaper than the other things.
Potion ingredients, cauldron, and things like that were easy enough to get.
After a while, the only things needed were the books (needed nine books, all in Japanese! Tome found it relaxing to complain about this.), a wand, and something to transport it all in.
It was on their way to the biggest bookshop that the Wonderful Idea That An Idiot Would Have Thought Up Before Now hit Sirius in the head. He groaned at the stupidity of it.
"What's up?" Tome asked him. "The stuff too heavy? Want me to carry some of it?"
"No, that's not it, but I'd appreciate it if you carried some of this stuff." Sirius grinned a little. "Floo powder, not a portkey! Duh, we were about to go through more trouble than was needed. The address is right here on your letter, so instead of using a portkey to get to your school, you can use floo powder. Oy!"
Tome laughed as they entered the quiet, dark shop. Too many books, Our Hero couldn't help but think.
It turned out that the bookshop did have books in Japanese, and French, and so forth, and they also had things in Goblinish, Elvish, Giantish, and every other '-ish' that one could think of.
That didn't stop the bookkeeper from grumbling to himself as he dug through the back, looking for the particular books needed. And, as everything else seemed to, they costed extra. Our Hero swore under his breath when he finally realized this (they were exiting the shop) and Tome laughed ("if you're going to swear, do it in English so that everybody else can understand, too!").
Getting a wand was short and easy.