In spite of the noise of the celebration going on in his barn, Noah Abelfoot was able to hear the faint knock on the side door. Standing up from the table where he had been eating and drinking with his staff, he picked his way through the party to the door and opened it, not even pausing to see who was on the other side. He did not, however, suffer for his lack of caution. The person on the other side of the door was the young witch, Raven Blackwing. She shrank back in the shadows outside, but Noah could see that her eyes were red and swollen. She had been crying and he could guess why. His staff considered this an occasion to celebrate, but it was a time of mourning for anyone who had known James and Lily Potter, or had thought they'd known even, Noah considered, looking Raven up and down, Sirius Black.
"I looked for you at the house, it was empty, so I came back here," she said quietly.
"Raven, come inside. It's chilly out." Noah opened the door a little wider. Raven glanced absently at the celebrating witches and wizards, then back at Noah.
"I'm leaving," she said flatly.
"No, Raven, stay. We can talk in my office if you like."
"No Noah, I mean I'm leaving. I'm leaving Britain, I'm going far away from here and away from…" she broke off and looked away.
Noah knew Raven to be independent and, sometimes prideful, young witch, and he had no desire to see her break down into tears. Taking her by the hand he skirted the crowd and brought her into his office.
Noah was a big man, not fat but sturdy, he had to be the biggest man Raven had known apart from Hagrid back at school. He was in the business of caring for magical creatures, and specialized in animals that were too big to be house pets. He tamed, and bred them, he boarded them for other witches and wizards who did not have suitable accommodations, and he picked up strays and so on. His office was no more than a converted tack room with thin plank walls. Most of the furniture was made of cleverly stacked crates and feedbags, papers covered nearly every surface, and all the drawers in the desk were pulled out and lined up by the wall. There was a short period of time in the past, when it had been relatively organized. Raven's first job out of Hogwarts had been with Noah. She had always had a knack for dealing with magical creatures and the like, and so "Noah's Ark" as the farm was called, seemed the obvious place for her to look for work. Noah, however, had taken one look at her diminutive stature and assigned her to office work, thinking she wouldn't be able to handle most of the creatures he kept. Raven was far from a perfect secretary, but she was certainly better than none at all. As time wore on, however, she found opportunities to prove her worth with the beasts. Though not brutally strong, she was wiry and extremely quick. And when three of his men were injured in a hippogriff accident, he had to let his secretary go to work in the paddocks. Without her, however, the office descended into chaos once more. Noah, however, soon discovered that while he had lost his secretary, he had gained an exceptional handler. There were very few women on his staff, and even fewer that actually worked with some of the bigger creatures he kept. Noah wasn't a misogynist or anything; he just didn't have a lot of women applying for the job, which was a pity, as a good number of the animals responded to females a lot better than males. Raven was one such female. She had a way with the animals that the other handlers could only marvel at.
Raven cleared a space on some stacked feedbags and sat down.
"Noah, I've got to get away from here," she said not looking up from the floor. "Everywhere I go everybody looks at me as if I'm some sort of…criminal. I went to my sister's," she paused to swallow. "But Stella wasn't home, and Adrian… Adrian wouldn't even let me into the house. He had his wand out and…and he kept shouting for me to stay away from his family." She looked up at him. "His family? My niece and my nephew, my only living sister! They're all I have left, and I'm not even allowed in their house."
Noah surveyed Raven. She couldn't have been much older than 22, but she had lived through more loss than he at three times her age. Even if Voldemort was finally defeated, he had certainly exacted an awful toll.
"I've come for the colt," Raven managed, composing herself somewhat. "I've got what I had saved up to pay rent for the next few months, I won't be needing it anymore."
* * *
An ice-cold drop of rain struck Raven's face and startled her out of her reverie. It was a moment before she remembered that she was en route to London to run some errands. She needed to get out of Remus' house for a while, away from Sirius, plus Forth needed the exercise. A winged horse can only stay pent up in a wizard's yard for so long. Forth was more than a pet to her, more even than a mode of transportation. Forth was her companion, her only companion for many years as she had wandered all over the world. She wasn't sure how he would adapt to stationary life.
Raven took a deep breath of the cool moist air. She had felt so caged in Remus' house. Out here with the familiar warmth and steadily beating wings of Forth beneath her, and the vastness of the sky before her, she felt better.
It was generally not too difficult to fly into London without being seen, on the rare days the sky was actually clear, all a witch or wizard had to do was perform a simple distraction charm, and no Muggles would be likely to look their way. Providing, of course, that witch or wizard's mode of transportation didn't make an exceptional amount of noise, a concept that had never seemed to have gotten through to Sirius with that atrocious bike of his.
Raven, for her part, wasn't at all concerned. In addition to the thick soupy clouds, the combination of Forth's fiery hooves and the rain was producing a nice cover of steam. She dipped below the clouds briefly to get her bearings. London wasn't far, but the clouds were thickening and it was starting to rain harder. Raven didn't mind the rain so much, she was used to it, but she knew Sirius would throw a fit if she so much as caught a cold. Wanting to avoid his overprotective attentions, she pulled her cloak closer about her.
At long last the familiar skyline of London came into view. Forth's hooves clattered on the stone with a small shower of sparks, as they dropped perilously into the cobblestone street, and Raven Blackwing found herself back on Diagon Alley.
She hadn't seen the place for more than a decade, but it seemed to her that not a day had passed in the place. It hadn't changed one bit in all that time. Grinning, she urged Forth into a brisk walk. Normally she would've been forced to dismount and lead the enormous horse through the dense crowd of busy shoppers. It was, however, a slow day for wizard shopping and just starting to rain, as a result, most witches and wizards were hurrying for cover.
Raven's cloak was charmed, out of necessity, to be waterproof and exceptionally warm. The late summer rain didn't bother her. Pulling a piece of parchment from her robe and perused the list Remus had given her. There were several medicinal potions, and some groceries that couldn't be gotten at the muggle store in the village. Below these Remus had scrawled desperately,
Something to keep Sirius occupied!
Sirius was never one to sit still and he was absolutely impossible when he was bored. He had already read everything that he cared to in Remus' House, and was moving on to more disruptive pastimes, such as carpentry. Remus was none to pleased with the "improvements" Sirius had begun to make on his furniture and walls. Raven wasn't sure she knew of anything that would keep Sirius occupied for very long. Besides, they only had to last another week or so. Before long they would be packing their things and relocating to Hogwarts at Dumbledore's request.
* * *
"Harry!"
Something tall and freckled pelted into Mr. Harry Potter, nearly knocking him to the ground. That tall freckled something just happened to be Harry's best friend Ron Weasley.
"Look at this Harry!" Ron pulled something out of his shirt that had been hanging on a chain around his neck and held out a thing that looked, to Harry, rather like a brass pennywhistle on a silver chain. Harry, however, knew better than to take things in the wizarding world for what they appeared to be.
"So? It's a whistle" he said just to be difficult.
"Just a whistle? Harry, are you thick? It's a call whistle!"
"Oh," Harry said, wishing that Hermoine were there to tell him the complete history of the 'call whistle', unabridged, with an appendix on why Ron was so excited to have one.
"Bill got it for me, on one of his expeditions for Gringotts. Said its wicked useful."
"Good grief Weasley," came a sneering voice from behind them. "Did I hear that your brother works for the bank?"
Harry and Ron turned to see Draco Malfoy standing there, a self-satisfied smirk plastered onto his pale face. Crabbe and Goyle were just coming out of a nearby shop loaded down with boxes and bags.
"I suppose, being a Weasley he's never actually been around money before. He probably wanted to know what a Galleon looked like."
Ron looked about ready to hit Malfoy, but he never got the chance. There was the sound of galloping hooves, a flash of black hair and flame, and he three of them were bowled over with much scraping of hands and elbows on the wet cobblestones. Harry looked up to see what had knocked them over, his glasses slightly askew. Towering over them was an enormous horse, and even higher, on its back sat a dark haired witch. She seemed to be smiling down at him. Harry had just enough time to register that she was not unattractive. He straightened his glasses, but she had dismounted and turned her attention to Malfoy.
"Oh, I'm so sorry young man, I just didn't see you three. Are you hurt?" she bent over him and was tapping his scraped up hands with her wand. Malfoy had gone rather pink.
"F-f-f-fine." He stammered jerking his arm from her grasp. He gave Harry and Ron a dark look and ran off as fast as possible, with Crabbe and Goyle stumbling after him. The witch watched them scamper away then turned to Harry and Ron. To their surprise she grinned and winked at them before remounting her horse and cantering off. Harry was wiping the mud off his glasses when he heard Ron snicker.
"Did you see that?" he asked.
"What? That horse? Its huge!"
"No, not that," Ron said grinning positively ear to ear. "Malfoy! He was all pink when that witch helped him up. I'm telling you Harry, I think he liked her!"
Harry found this hard to believe, Draco Malfoy did not seem the kind of boy prone to tender feelings, and he certainly hadn't seemed to friendly to this witch.
"Did you bump your head when you fell? Malfoy like someone? I don't think Malfoy likes anyone. He was probably all bothered about getting his robes dirty."
"Yeah but he was blushing and stuttering. Harry, I think he fancies her!"
Harry would have argued the point further but at that moment something large and very bushy dropped onto Ron's head.
"OW! What the? Gerroff me!" Ron shouted.
By now Harry had recognized the mass of ginger fur as Crookshanks, Hermoine's rather ornery pet cat. He spun around and searched up and down the alleyway for a sign of her.
"Harry!" he heard a familiar voice shout, and sure enough, there was a well-tanned Hermoine running towards them, swinging a large empty basket. Behind him,
Harry could hear Ron, having recognized his assailant, calling Crookshanks a lot of names that his mother probably wouldn't approve of. Hermoine plowed into Harry, nearly knocking him flat. Harry was beginning to wonder if it was the new fashion in the wizarding world to express your excitement at seeing someone in force of bodily impact. And if that was the case, he was dreading being reunited with Hagrid.
"Oh Harry, its so good to see you!" she exclaimed hugging him, she made a similar move towards Ron but found him holding Crookshanks at arms length between them.
"Here's your mad cat. Nearly took my head off he did"
"Oh Ron, he just likes you. Its his way of showing affection. I think its cute."
"I think its funny" said Harry.
"Harry likes me, but you don't see him jumping on my head and clawing my eyes out do you?"
"He wasn't trying to claw your eyes out he was saying 'hello'" Hermione huffed, taking Crookshanks from Ron and putting it back in its basket. "My parents are at a dentists' convention here in London, we're staying in a muggle hotel, but they let me come here on my own today to get school supplies. I'm so glad to get away from all those giant models of teeth and gums! Ron you have mud on your face."
Ron hurriedly scrubbed at his face with the sleeve of his robe.
"Its your dratted cat's fault, I don't want to know where he'd been walking before he jumped on me."
Hermoine would have replied but Harry interrupted.
"Ron, isn't this yours?" he said, holding up the whistle and chain he had just picked up. "You must've dropped it when that witch's horse nearly trampled us." Harry handed the trinket over to Ron.
"What's that?"
"It's a call whistle, Bill got it for me."
"Really?" Hermione seemed impressed. "I hear those are really valuable."
Harry, not feeling like revealing his ignorance on the subject casually mentioned the circumstances that had just separated it from Ron's neck.
"Honestly!" Hermoine scolded "You've been in a fight with Malfoy already? We haven't even gotten on the train yet!"
"It wasn't my fault!" Ron cried defensively. "He started it."
* * *
"Very interesting, very good" Mr. Olivander muttered as he examined the materials before him, the lens he peered through eerily magnifying his pale, right eye. Raven waited anxiously for his approval. In the poorly lit wand shop, the stacks of wand boxes blocked nearly all of the window and the sunlight came through in shafts that seemed to be made of dust rather than light and air. On the counter was arrayed various pieces of wood and bits of hair and feathers and other things not as easily described.
"You say you gathered all of these things yourself?" the old man asked glancing up at her.
"Yes sir. The heartstrings aren't as fresh as they could be but I had other business to attend to."
Mr. Olivander picked up a jar full of a murky liquid and things that looked rather like red spaghetti and examined it.
"Its nearly impossible to get absolutely fresh Dragon heartstrings these days," he murmered. "What with the new protection laws and all. Though why a dragon would need ministry protection is beyond me. These, however, seem well preserved enough, and in better condition than most I am supplied with" he paused setting the jar back on the table. "I'll give you four thousand galleons for the lot" he declared removing his magnifying eyeglass and looking seriously at Raven. Raven, for her part, was somewhat shocked.
"Four thousand galleons Mr. Olivander? That's-"
"A perfectly fair price for the merchandise before me."
"Yes, but four thousand."
"I will not settle for a knut more if that's what you're driving at."
"No sir but- "
"My dear miss Blackwing, stop fighting your good fortune and just accept it. I don't know what other wand makers paid for your materials, but I run an honest
wand shop here. There are woods in this collection that I rarely come by from my regular suppliers, four thousand galleons is what this lot is worth." Olivander pulled a leather bound booklet from his vest and picked up a quill. Raven managed to close her mouth and swallow as she watched him fill out and sign the account transfer slip. Some distracted part of her mind wondered how he could see to write in the badly lit shop.
"Besides" said Olivander holding up the piece of parchment. "I was once in your line of work. I can imagine what you must've gone through to obtain such fine materials. You've earned every galleon Miss Blackwing." Raven took the slip and examined it in disbelief.
"Thank you sir" she managed, but there was no reply, the old man had disappeared into the mazes of boxes in the back of the shop with his newly purchased materials. Raven rolled up the now bare cloth they had been lying on, and stepped out of the shop.
It took her a moment for her eyes to adjust. Even though threatening rain clouds had again obscured the sun, it seemed blindingly bright compared to the darkness of the wand shop.
** Well how am I doing? I've got a lot more, its just become a little obsolete now that the fifth book has come out. You see, in my impatience, I had partially written my own fifth book, to keep me occupied. But I never posted most of it. Would you like me to? Take it as just sort of an alternate universe… or something.