While Harry and Melova were heading towards Ollivander's to get Melova's
wand, they ran into the one person Harry was hoping he could avoid, Draco
Malfoy.
"Hello, Potter, I see you've got yourself a girlfriend," Malfoy sneered.
"I'm not his girlfriend, whoever you are," Melova said, stepping in front of Harry.
"Ooh, and she's pretty, too. You must fancy her a lot, Potter, ' Malfoy said looking form Harry back to Melova.
"Why would I fancy you're cousin, Malfoy?" he asked. Malfoy seemed to have heard what he said because he looked at Melova, who was now looking questioningly at Harry. "Oh, ya, Melova, meet Draco Malfoy, your, what, second or third cousin, Malfoy?"
"How many Blabbering Beverages have you been chugging lately, Potter?"
"None, maybe one or two butter-beers at the Leaky Cauldron, but that's it."
Well, they must have given you something else, because you aren't making any sense."
But when Malfoy's mother came walking up and looked at Melova and Harry, it looked like she was in pain. Her eyes hot open, her mouth fell open, and she started muttering incomprehensible words.
"Mum, what is it?" Malfoy said when he noticed his mother was right behind him.
"Melova?" Mrs. Malfoy said.
"Yes?" Melova said. She seemed surprised that this complete stranger knew her name.
"Melova Black?"
"Yes?"
"It's impossible, you're supposed to be dead," she said, covering her mouth.
"Um, excuse me, but who are you?" Melova asked.
"I'm Narcissa Malfoy. I'm your cousin," Mrs. Malfoy said, "Well, if you're really Sirius' daughter, then you're my second cousin."
"Wow, family reunion," Melova exclaimed, laughing. But, when she looked at Harry, the smile on her face was discarded and replaced with a question mark. His eyes were deeply focused on Narcissa, who still hadn't moved, was staring back, with a look of total hatred on her face. "Um, Harry, maybe we should just be on our way."
"Yes, Draco, let's leave these two half-bloods alone to talk bout, Merlin knows what," she said, turning on her heel with Draco following closely behind.
"What was that all about," Melova asked as they came to the doorway of Ollivander's.
"Nothing, just, Malfoy's my rival from school," Harry explained as they walked inside and up to the desk. After ringing the bell and waiting for about a minute, Mr. Ollivander came to his front desk with a quill behind his ear and a piece of parchment in his hand.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, yes, yes, I remember you. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, yes?" Mr. Ollivander asked.
"Um, yes, I never thought I would be in here again, but, I need a wand for my friend here, her name is Melova, Melova Black-Hiquoree," he said, introducing her.
"Hello, sir," Melova said, holding out her hand, but all that Mr. Ollivander did was stare at her through his spectacles.
"Melova Black?"
"You know, I'm starting to get tired of people asking me my name. Can I just get my wand and get out of here?"
"Oh, yes, yes, don't want to scare away the customer of course. Now, let's see here," he said as he rummaged through the shelves and shelves of wands, "ah ha, yes, yes, unicorn hair and redwood, 12 inches, here, try it."
Melova took the wand but as soon as she had it in her hand, someone else walked into Ollivander's, Neville Longbottom. "HARRY!! What a pleasant surprise!" Neville said as he walked up to Harry and shook his hand. "I'm here because my wand broke, remember? In the battle with You-Know-Who?" Neville nudged him hard in the ribs.
"Yes, hello Neville," Harry replied, holding his ribs where Neville as elbowed him. "Speaking of the confrontation with Voldemort, "everyone in the room shuddered, besides Harry and Melova, "remember my friend Sirius Black, the one that was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange? This is his daughter, Melova. Melova, meet Neville Longbottom."
"It's a pleasure, I'm sure," Melova said, holding out her hand. Neville shook it. "So, you're here to get a wand, me too. It's my first year at Hogwarts. This is our first stop, you know, to just get it over with, or so Harry says," she said, winking at Neville.
"Of course, so, Harry, have you decided what NEWTS' you are going to take next year?"
"All the ones that will make me an Auror. Listen, Neville, I don't really like this place much, so I want to get out of here," he whispered to Neville.
"Oh, don't worry Harry, I've got a good feeling about this one," Melova said as Mr. Ollivander handed her another wand.
"Redwood and cedar, phoenix feather, 8 3/4 inches, very odd combination," Ollivander explained.
As soon as Melova had taken the wand, she gave it a little flick, and red- sparks came out of the end.
"Well, there you go, seven Galleons, please," Mr. Ollivander said, holding out his hand.
"Don't worry, I got it," Neville told Melova.
"Thanks, thanks a lot," Melova said as she leaned over and kissed Neville on the cheek.
"No problem. It's my pleasure."
Harry and Melova walked out of Ollivander's and headed towards their next stop, wherever it might be. "What was going on back there between you two," Harry asked as they turned the corner.
"What do you mean?" She asked as they passed a shop that was selling miniature models of the latest fads, whatever they might be.
"I mean, between you and Neville."
"I thought he was kind of cute, ok?"
"You thought Neville Longbottom was cute?"
"Yes, I have a very weird taste in men, ok?"
After they were done buying her school supplies, they walked buy a store called, Kitty's Kittens.
"Ooh, Harry, can we go in here, please?"
"You want a cat?" Harry asked, astonished that she didn't pick an owl.
"Yes, I want a cat, can we please go in?"
"Ok, it's your responsibility, not mine."
As they walked in, the bell on the door gave a meow instead of the usual chime, a short little witch with graying red hair came up to them. "Hello, welcome to Kitty's Kittens. Is there anything in particular that you are looking for?" she asked them.
"Yes, do you have any black cats with green eyes?"
"You're in Slytherin, aren't you?" Kitty asked.
"Um, well, I don't know yet. I'm a first year."
"Oh, yes, I have a few black cats back here, come and take a look if you want," explained Kitty. She retreated to the back of the store and Harry and Melova followed. As they passed cages and cages full of different sizes and colors of cats, Melova stopped at one particular cage that contained a black cat with silver-gray tufts of hair on it's paws, tail, nose, and under-side; it also had one green eye, and one blue eye. Unlike all of the other cages, this one didn't have a sign that said the breed of the cat and the birth-date.
"Um, ma'am, why doesn't this cat have a sign?" Melova asked the saleswoman that had just walked up behind them.
"Oh, her? Well, you see, we call her Mystery. We don't know much about her, besides that she's blind in her blue eye and doesn't really fancy people much. She got here about three weeks ago, out of a litter that was abandoned on our door-step," the saleswoman said, "she's probably about 3-4 months old. She's the only one out of the litter that we haven't sold yet."
"Um, ma'am, would you mind taking her out of the cage?"
"Not at all," she said as she took a giant ring of keys off of her belt- loop and opened the cage.
"Hey there little girl," Melova said as she stroked the cat behind the ears. "Do you want to come with me, hmm?" Melova picked the cat up out of the cage and turned her upside down, Mystery just went limp like a rag- doll.
The saleswoman looked at this display and clapped her hands. "She's never responded to a stranger so well before," she said, still awestruck.
"I'll take her, how much?" Melova asked as she started rubbing Mystery on the chest.
"Oh, you can have her for free. I never thought I'd sell her," she said as she handed a carrying box to Melova, who placed Mystery inside of it and walked out of the store after graciously thanking the sales-lady.
"Well," Harry said, "what are you to name her?"
"I don't know," Melova said, carrying all of her things, along with the new burden of the cat-box, "I might just keep the name Mystery."
"It's a good name."
"Ya, I think so, too," Melova said as they headed towards the spot where they were supposed to meet Ron and Hermione at 3 o'clock. When they reached the spot, Harry noticed Ron and Hermione coming down the street towards them.
"Hey, where's everybody else?" Harry asked when they reached them.
"Oh, they're down back at they Leaky Cauldron. Are you guys done shopping yet?" Ron said.
"Almost, I think all we need are her books, robes, and her cauldron. We'll be there in no time, you guys go ahead." Harry said as Ron and Hermione said their good-byes and headed off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Harry and Melova were done shopping for all of Melova's supplies, they headed towards the pub where they were supposed to be meeting everybody else. When they walked through the door, who else did they run into than good ol' Remus Lupin, Harry's father's only remaining chum from Hogwarts.
"Oh, hello Harry. Mr. Weasley was just telling me about you and Melova," he said, looking at her, "you, know, you look just like your father."
"So Harry tells me," she said offering her hand.
Lupin shook her hand and then said, "Well, Harry, I got to go. Official business for Dumbledore, you know." He walked out the back door to the brick wall, tapping on the brick walls with his wand, three-up, and two- across.
"Who was that Harry?" Melova asked as soon as Lupin was gone behind the reforming brick wall.
"That was Remus Lupin. A friend of your dad's. He's a werewolf, you know?" Harry explained.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Nope, he's been one forever."
"Wow."
They walked to the table where Arthur, Fred, George, Ginny, and Ron Weasley were waiting for them. Hermione was ordering two more butter-beers.
"So, Melova, see you've met Lupin, nice chap, eh?" Mr. Weasley said taking a swig of his own butter-beer.
"Oh, yes, very nice," Melova said after thanking Hermione for getting her drink and taking Mystery out of her box and placing her on her own lap.
"Ooh, you got a cat, what did you name her?" Hermione asked, reaching over to pet Mystery, who just hissed at her.
"Mystery. Actually the people at the store named her that. Sorry Hermione, she doesn't really fancy people that much," Melova said when Mystery bit Hermione hard on the hand. Melova started petting Mystery, staring off into "no-where-ness" thinking of the things in her life. She had just found out a few months ago that her father was dead, she had watched her mother die when she was 3, she was a witch. She never thought this world possible, had Harry known about it when he found out HE was a wizard. It wouldn't make sense if he didn't. She hadn't even noticed their new guest at the table until he spoke. His voice brought Melova out of her little world and jerked her back into reality faster than you could say "Big-Hairy-Thing-Sitting- Across-The-Table", probably because there was a big hairy thing sitting across the table. It looked like it had a dark brown mane, and the rest of it's body was covered in thick tan, dirty fur.
"Melova, this is Hagrid," Hermione said, introducing her to the grounds- keeper of Hogwarts. Melova could now see that what she thought was a mane, was a beard and hair, and what she thought as fur, was just a fur-coat.
"It's nice to meet you Hagrid," Melova said, shaking the massive hand that Hagrid had offered her.
"Blimey, I ne'er thought i' possib'e. Yer loo' jus' lie Sirius," Hagrid said back, letting go of Melova's hand.
"So I've heard," she said, yawning.
"Oh, my, Hagrid, I would love to stay and chat," Mr. Weasley said, looking out the grimy window of the Leaky Cauldron, "but I have to get these children to bed. They go back to Hogwarts tomorrow, you know. Well, let's be going, Melova, Melova?" But it was no use, she had already fallen asleep in her chair.
"Hello, Potter, I see you've got yourself a girlfriend," Malfoy sneered.
"I'm not his girlfriend, whoever you are," Melova said, stepping in front of Harry.
"Ooh, and she's pretty, too. You must fancy her a lot, Potter, ' Malfoy said looking form Harry back to Melova.
"Why would I fancy you're cousin, Malfoy?" he asked. Malfoy seemed to have heard what he said because he looked at Melova, who was now looking questioningly at Harry. "Oh, ya, Melova, meet Draco Malfoy, your, what, second or third cousin, Malfoy?"
"How many Blabbering Beverages have you been chugging lately, Potter?"
"None, maybe one or two butter-beers at the Leaky Cauldron, but that's it."
Well, they must have given you something else, because you aren't making any sense."
But when Malfoy's mother came walking up and looked at Melova and Harry, it looked like she was in pain. Her eyes hot open, her mouth fell open, and she started muttering incomprehensible words.
"Mum, what is it?" Malfoy said when he noticed his mother was right behind him.
"Melova?" Mrs. Malfoy said.
"Yes?" Melova said. She seemed surprised that this complete stranger knew her name.
"Melova Black?"
"Yes?"
"It's impossible, you're supposed to be dead," she said, covering her mouth.
"Um, excuse me, but who are you?" Melova asked.
"I'm Narcissa Malfoy. I'm your cousin," Mrs. Malfoy said, "Well, if you're really Sirius' daughter, then you're my second cousin."
"Wow, family reunion," Melova exclaimed, laughing. But, when she looked at Harry, the smile on her face was discarded and replaced with a question mark. His eyes were deeply focused on Narcissa, who still hadn't moved, was staring back, with a look of total hatred on her face. "Um, Harry, maybe we should just be on our way."
"Yes, Draco, let's leave these two half-bloods alone to talk bout, Merlin knows what," she said, turning on her heel with Draco following closely behind.
"What was that all about," Melova asked as they came to the doorway of Ollivander's.
"Nothing, just, Malfoy's my rival from school," Harry explained as they walked inside and up to the desk. After ringing the bell and waiting for about a minute, Mr. Ollivander came to his front desk with a quill behind his ear and a piece of parchment in his hand.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, yes, yes, I remember you. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, yes?" Mr. Ollivander asked.
"Um, yes, I never thought I would be in here again, but, I need a wand for my friend here, her name is Melova, Melova Black-Hiquoree," he said, introducing her.
"Hello, sir," Melova said, holding out her hand, but all that Mr. Ollivander did was stare at her through his spectacles.
"Melova Black?"
"You know, I'm starting to get tired of people asking me my name. Can I just get my wand and get out of here?"
"Oh, yes, yes, don't want to scare away the customer of course. Now, let's see here," he said as he rummaged through the shelves and shelves of wands, "ah ha, yes, yes, unicorn hair and redwood, 12 inches, here, try it."
Melova took the wand but as soon as she had it in her hand, someone else walked into Ollivander's, Neville Longbottom. "HARRY!! What a pleasant surprise!" Neville said as he walked up to Harry and shook his hand. "I'm here because my wand broke, remember? In the battle with You-Know-Who?" Neville nudged him hard in the ribs.
"Yes, hello Neville," Harry replied, holding his ribs where Neville as elbowed him. "Speaking of the confrontation with Voldemort, "everyone in the room shuddered, besides Harry and Melova, "remember my friend Sirius Black, the one that was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange? This is his daughter, Melova. Melova, meet Neville Longbottom."
"It's a pleasure, I'm sure," Melova said, holding out her hand. Neville shook it. "So, you're here to get a wand, me too. It's my first year at Hogwarts. This is our first stop, you know, to just get it over with, or so Harry says," she said, winking at Neville.
"Of course, so, Harry, have you decided what NEWTS' you are going to take next year?"
"All the ones that will make me an Auror. Listen, Neville, I don't really like this place much, so I want to get out of here," he whispered to Neville.
"Oh, don't worry Harry, I've got a good feeling about this one," Melova said as Mr. Ollivander handed her another wand.
"Redwood and cedar, phoenix feather, 8 3/4 inches, very odd combination," Ollivander explained.
As soon as Melova had taken the wand, she gave it a little flick, and red- sparks came out of the end.
"Well, there you go, seven Galleons, please," Mr. Ollivander said, holding out his hand.
"Don't worry, I got it," Neville told Melova.
"Thanks, thanks a lot," Melova said as she leaned over and kissed Neville on the cheek.
"No problem. It's my pleasure."
Harry and Melova walked out of Ollivander's and headed towards their next stop, wherever it might be. "What was going on back there between you two," Harry asked as they turned the corner.
"What do you mean?" She asked as they passed a shop that was selling miniature models of the latest fads, whatever they might be.
"I mean, between you and Neville."
"I thought he was kind of cute, ok?"
"You thought Neville Longbottom was cute?"
"Yes, I have a very weird taste in men, ok?"
After they were done buying her school supplies, they walked buy a store called, Kitty's Kittens.
"Ooh, Harry, can we go in here, please?"
"You want a cat?" Harry asked, astonished that she didn't pick an owl.
"Yes, I want a cat, can we please go in?"
"Ok, it's your responsibility, not mine."
As they walked in, the bell on the door gave a meow instead of the usual chime, a short little witch with graying red hair came up to them. "Hello, welcome to Kitty's Kittens. Is there anything in particular that you are looking for?" she asked them.
"Yes, do you have any black cats with green eyes?"
"You're in Slytherin, aren't you?" Kitty asked.
"Um, well, I don't know yet. I'm a first year."
"Oh, yes, I have a few black cats back here, come and take a look if you want," explained Kitty. She retreated to the back of the store and Harry and Melova followed. As they passed cages and cages full of different sizes and colors of cats, Melova stopped at one particular cage that contained a black cat with silver-gray tufts of hair on it's paws, tail, nose, and under-side; it also had one green eye, and one blue eye. Unlike all of the other cages, this one didn't have a sign that said the breed of the cat and the birth-date.
"Um, ma'am, why doesn't this cat have a sign?" Melova asked the saleswoman that had just walked up behind them.
"Oh, her? Well, you see, we call her Mystery. We don't know much about her, besides that she's blind in her blue eye and doesn't really fancy people much. She got here about three weeks ago, out of a litter that was abandoned on our door-step," the saleswoman said, "she's probably about 3-4 months old. She's the only one out of the litter that we haven't sold yet."
"Um, ma'am, would you mind taking her out of the cage?"
"Not at all," she said as she took a giant ring of keys off of her belt- loop and opened the cage.
"Hey there little girl," Melova said as she stroked the cat behind the ears. "Do you want to come with me, hmm?" Melova picked the cat up out of the cage and turned her upside down, Mystery just went limp like a rag- doll.
The saleswoman looked at this display and clapped her hands. "She's never responded to a stranger so well before," she said, still awestruck.
"I'll take her, how much?" Melova asked as she started rubbing Mystery on the chest.
"Oh, you can have her for free. I never thought I'd sell her," she said as she handed a carrying box to Melova, who placed Mystery inside of it and walked out of the store after graciously thanking the sales-lady.
"Well," Harry said, "what are you to name her?"
"I don't know," Melova said, carrying all of her things, along with the new burden of the cat-box, "I might just keep the name Mystery."
"It's a good name."
"Ya, I think so, too," Melova said as they headed towards the spot where they were supposed to meet Ron and Hermione at 3 o'clock. When they reached the spot, Harry noticed Ron and Hermione coming down the street towards them.
"Hey, where's everybody else?" Harry asked when they reached them.
"Oh, they're down back at they Leaky Cauldron. Are you guys done shopping yet?" Ron said.
"Almost, I think all we need are her books, robes, and her cauldron. We'll be there in no time, you guys go ahead." Harry said as Ron and Hermione said their good-byes and headed off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Harry and Melova were done shopping for all of Melova's supplies, they headed towards the pub where they were supposed to be meeting everybody else. When they walked through the door, who else did they run into than good ol' Remus Lupin, Harry's father's only remaining chum from Hogwarts.
"Oh, hello Harry. Mr. Weasley was just telling me about you and Melova," he said, looking at her, "you, know, you look just like your father."
"So Harry tells me," she said offering her hand.
Lupin shook her hand and then said, "Well, Harry, I got to go. Official business for Dumbledore, you know." He walked out the back door to the brick wall, tapping on the brick walls with his wand, three-up, and two- across.
"Who was that Harry?" Melova asked as soon as Lupin was gone behind the reforming brick wall.
"That was Remus Lupin. A friend of your dad's. He's a werewolf, you know?" Harry explained.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Nope, he's been one forever."
"Wow."
They walked to the table where Arthur, Fred, George, Ginny, and Ron Weasley were waiting for them. Hermione was ordering two more butter-beers.
"So, Melova, see you've met Lupin, nice chap, eh?" Mr. Weasley said taking a swig of his own butter-beer.
"Oh, yes, very nice," Melova said after thanking Hermione for getting her drink and taking Mystery out of her box and placing her on her own lap.
"Ooh, you got a cat, what did you name her?" Hermione asked, reaching over to pet Mystery, who just hissed at her.
"Mystery. Actually the people at the store named her that. Sorry Hermione, she doesn't really fancy people that much," Melova said when Mystery bit Hermione hard on the hand. Melova started petting Mystery, staring off into "no-where-ness" thinking of the things in her life. She had just found out a few months ago that her father was dead, she had watched her mother die when she was 3, she was a witch. She never thought this world possible, had Harry known about it when he found out HE was a wizard. It wouldn't make sense if he didn't. She hadn't even noticed their new guest at the table until he spoke. His voice brought Melova out of her little world and jerked her back into reality faster than you could say "Big-Hairy-Thing-Sitting- Across-The-Table", probably because there was a big hairy thing sitting across the table. It looked like it had a dark brown mane, and the rest of it's body was covered in thick tan, dirty fur.
"Melova, this is Hagrid," Hermione said, introducing her to the grounds- keeper of Hogwarts. Melova could now see that what she thought was a mane, was a beard and hair, and what she thought as fur, was just a fur-coat.
"It's nice to meet you Hagrid," Melova said, shaking the massive hand that Hagrid had offered her.
"Blimey, I ne'er thought i' possib'e. Yer loo' jus' lie Sirius," Hagrid said back, letting go of Melova's hand.
"So I've heard," she said, yawning.
"Oh, my, Hagrid, I would love to stay and chat," Mr. Weasley said, looking out the grimy window of the Leaky Cauldron, "but I have to get these children to bed. They go back to Hogwarts tomorrow, you know. Well, let's be going, Melova, Melova?" But it was no use, she had already fallen asleep in her chair.