These characters aren't mine, sadly, and I make no profit from (insert story the particular fic of mine you are reading is based on here). I cry out to the stars, "If only, if only."
By the by, watch out, a few of the characters may be ooc. (out of character for those of you who don't know what that stands for.)
Chapter 6: Vault 1025
Deena took another look in the mirror and began rethinking her outfit. Maybe the problem with it was the lethally short, tight black skirt. Or possibly the black knee-high boots. But at least the black spaghetti strap shirt was good. Having brought her clothes into the bathroom with her, she was about to go through her things again when there was a banging on the door.
"Hurry up!" Draco commanded crossly. Deciding not to aggravate him, Deena flung her things into her bags and opened the door. "About time."
"Sorry," Deena apologized. "I just don't know what to wear. The first outfit was too cutsie, the second too mature, and this one...well I kinda think it makes me look too evil. Or maybe trashy."
"You could never look trashy," he snapped, impatient with her.
"Let's think about that. If I pull my skirt up a little, then my butt will hang out, pull my shirt down a little and my boobs will be close to popping out, let one strap down off my shoulder, get my hair dyed pink, get a ton of body piercings, apply pounds and pounds of make up to my face, and I just might manage it," she spat back.
"Let's go," he mumbled.
"Deena, two. Draco, zero," Sue tallied.
On Diagon Alley, it occurred to Deena that she hadn't received a list of supplies for school. She mentioned it to Draco, who produced one and she snatched it from him. "How am I going to pay for all this?" she whined while Draco threatened Sue with a Memory charm. "I don't have any money."
As she said this, they were walking up the steps of Gringotts. They entered and approached one of the goblins who wasn't busy. "May I help you?" he asked, peering down over his desk at them. Draco produced a letter and the goblin certainly took his own sweet time to read it. "That account hasn't been touched for years," he mumbled, still reading. "I'll need proof." He folded up the letter and stared intently in Deena's eyes, as if searching for something. "Yes," he muttered after a few moments. "Grindel!" he called.
A second goblin (obviously Grindel) ran up and the first whispered something in Grindel's ear. Then Grindel bade them to follow him to the vaults. They then began the cart ride. They were going incredibly fast when Sue shouted:
"FASTER! WHOO-HOO. THIS IS SO COOL! Deena, put your hands up in the air." They came to a stop at Vault 1025. "Aww. That was really fun," Sue said disappointedly. Then she brightened up. "Can you go faster on the way back?"
"One speed only," Grindel said, edging away from Sue. He went up to Vault 1025 and, rather then use a key, began tracing multiple complicated symbols on the door. After doing so for about ten minutes, he finished with a snake symbol. The snake slithered through each symbol and ended at one side halfway down before turning into a brass handle.
Grindel opened the door and Deena gasped in shock. Stacks of gold Galleons, silver Sickles, and bronze Knuts filled the room. Due to all the money, the size of the room was indeterminable.
"Draco...is all that yours?" she asked.
"No, Deena, it's yours," he answered.
"All...all..."she stammered as the floor rushed up to meet her. When she opened her eyes, Sue was hovering above her. "Oh, Sue, I had the weirdest dream. Draco came and told me I had to go to Hogwarts, so we went to London and I had a huge fortune in Gringotts." Deena sat up and saw the vault open in front of her. "OH MY LORD!" she screamed, jumping up. "I'm rich."
Knowing she'd need something to put money in, Deena emptied the contents of her purse and shoved all the pens, pencils, cosmetics, and wallet into her duffel. She filled her purse with coins, which made it much heavier. They took the cart back up to Gringotts, Sue squealing with delight all the way.
"So, what're we buying first?" Deena asked Draco out on the steps in front of Gringotts.
"I suppose we'll go to Madame Malkin's and get your robes first," he told her.
They proceeded to procure her robes, books, cauldron, supplies, and various other things.
"What's next?" Deena asked Draco, doing her best to stagger along under her load of purchases, which Draco had refused to carry with the phrase "What do I look like, a house elf?"
"Ice cream!" Sue exclaimed hopefully.
"You still need a pet, a broom, and a wand," he said scanning down the list. They went to the nearest pet shop. It was dimly lit and full of owls, cats, rats, and toads.
Deena was a bit sad at the selection. She hated rats and toads, wasn't overly fond of owls, and even though she loved cats, cats hated her. She plunged deep into the darkest corner of the store. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw a small selection of snakes. Snakes fascinated her. Snakes were the last option she had, so she knew she had to choose carefully. She reached into one snake's container and gently stroked it's back.
"Have you decided yet?" It was Draco. She jumped a mile. Of course, Deena didn't want to admit that he scared her, so she answered as calmly as she could.
"Yeah, I want this one," she said, pulling out the one she had stroked.
"Do you know what it is?"
"Uh, a snake," she answered condescendingly.
"What type?" Deena didn't know enough about snakes to tell what type of snake it was. "It's a baby anaconda," he informed her. "Do you know how big it could get?"
"Thirty feet long," she answered, happy to know something. "So? I'm getting this one. You can't stop me."
"I'm sure you'll give this little guy a good home," the salesclerk at the counter said.
"It's a male, huh? I guess I'll name him...Mephistopheles," Deena said.
"But that's such a big name for that little snake," Sue protested.
"He'll grow into it," Deena responded, handing over the money and draping the snake over her shoulders. "Right, Mephisto?" she asked her snake. For a second, she could have sworn she heard it hiss a distinct "yes". But she figured it was just her imagination, most likely caused by hunger, work (from all the lugging of purchases from one shop to another), and the shock that this whole thing wasn't a dream.
"We're getting some food next, right?" Sue practically begged.
"No. We're going to Ollivander's for a wand," Draco informed her.
"Then we'll get something to eat?"
"No, then we'll go get her broom."
"And then?"
"Then, we'll get something to eat."
"YAY!" Sue screamed in Draco's ear. "Can we get some miso soup?"
"I don't know if they have it here, but we'll try Sue," Deena said as they walked into Ollivander's. Because Deena had turned her head to talk to Sue, she couldn't see where she was going and ran into the person in front of her. Fortunately, she didn't drop anything.
"Sorry 'bout that," the large man (which she recognized to be Hagrid) apologized.
"It's not your fault, Hagrid. I should've been paying attention to where I was going," she said. Unnoticed, Mr. Ollivander waited at the counter for Deena.
"How'd you know my name?" he asked with a smile.
"Magic," she joked. "I'm Deena. Deena MacDonald."
"Can I help you, miss?" Mr. Ollivander asked, clearing his throat to get her attention.
"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, Mr. Ollivander," Deena apologized quickly. "Standing here yakking, when I should be..." she mumbled, trailing off.
Sue began dancing around the shop, singing about how hungry she was as Deena began trying wands. An hour later, Sue was still dancing and singing and Deena was still trying wands.
"I'm hungry. I'm hungry, I'm hungry," Sue sang.
"Sue, you're going to hurt someone if you keep doing that," Deena warned, trying another wand (which wasn't the one for her).
"What are you doing here?" Draco asked Hagrid scathingly.
"Official Hogwarts business," Hagrid replied.
"Well then it probably isn't too important. I mean"-
Draco was interrupted by Sue crashing into him, knocking him to the floor. She fell on top of him. "Oops," Sue giggled, getting back up. She promptly returned to her dancing and singing as if nothing had happened.
"Perhaps"...Mr. Ollivander mused, hurrying into the back room. He returned with another wand. "Eleven and a half inch cedar with a phoenix feather core." Deena gave it a wave and silver sparks shot out of it. "Perfect!"
They purchased the wand and left the shop, never discovering why Hagrid had been there. "Now we can get some miso soup," Sue said happily.
"No," Draco contradicted. "Broom first."
"But...I'm really hungry," Sue whined.
"I'll make it fast," Deena promised. When they got into the broom shop, Deena went straight to the clerk. "What's the best broom you have?"
"That'd be the Lightning. It came out just yesterday. Only two have been manufactured so far," the clerk said. "Why don't you take a look?" the clerk suggested, pulling it out from under the counter.
Deena didn't know much about brooms, but Draco seemed quite impressed with it. Sue couldn't care less. She was looking at all the brooms and humming the song she'd been singing about being hungry. Deena turned her attention away from Sue and asked the clerk the price. She winced a bit when she heard the high price, but figured it was well worth every Galleon. Fortunately, she had enough left to purchase it. After doing so, she turned her attention back to Sue.
Sue had just mounted a broom. The broom went haywire, shooting out the door and into the sky. Deena and Draco ran out into the street and watched as the broom did loop-the-loops and death-defying stunts with Sue screaming for joy the whole time. The broom descended until it was barely skimming the rooftops. Finally, it managed to get rid of its passenger.
Sue crashed through the roof of a shop and the broom returned to the broom shop unharmed. Deena and Draco headed for the shop Sue had fallen into.
"I hope she's okay," Deena said with concern.
"If she died, it's no great loss to humanity," Draco said carelessly.
Deena whirled around and punched him in the face. "How dare you! That's my friend you're talking about!" She turned and hurried on, not giving Draco a chance to respond. When she got to the shop, she saw a hole in the ceiling and Sue sitting a table, eating. It was a restaurant she had fallen into.
"Deena, 'ey 'ave miso soup," Sue said through a mouth full of soup. Deena had to laugh. Even after falling through a roof, Sue was fine and just the same. Deena got some soup for herself and asked for Sake.
Draco walked in and found the two of them sitting at a table, eating, drinking, and talking.
"...then I turned and punched him in the face," Deena said.
"Did it hurt?" Sue asked before taking a swig of Sake. "Probably not. You're too weak."
"Thanks a lot, Sue," Deena replied sarcastically. "You jerk."
Everything was back to normal.
-
Standing on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, Deena was about to get on the train with Draco. (The Hogwarts Express was running just for them.) Suddenly, someone tugged her back to keep her from boarding. She turned her head and saw Sue holding onto her shirt.
"Sue, let go," Deena commanded.
"Even though we're not related by blood, you and I are sisters," Sue said. "And you can't leave a sister behind. We're family. Where you go, I go!"
"So you aren't going to let go?"
"Not for all the miso soup in the world."
"Alright. Get on the train," Deena said. "Draco's gonna kill me."
"Yay! I'm going with Deena," Sue yelled, hugging Deena. Then she jumped on the train.
"Sue...just...hugged me," Deena said in shock.
"Deena, hurry up or we'll leave without you," Sue shouted out the window.
"Deena! Get her off this train! Now!" Draco yelled.
"Someone sounds cranky. I think he could use a happy song," Sue giggled.
In an attempt to spare Draco one of Sue's Happy Songs, Deena quickly boarded the train and hurried to the compartment. "Sue, let's go sing the Happy Song in the next compartment so Draco can...cool off. And read. Cuz he's reading The Fellowship of the Ring, aren't you Draco?"
"Yes, I was...am. I am," he agreed, pulling out the book.
Deena and Sue went to the next compartment, taking some of Deena's things with them.
"Were you trying to get rid of me?" Sue asked.
"No, I was trying to get rid of Draco," Deena said. "I'm so freaked out by all this. I'm going to a new school. I won't know anyone and I won't know anything. I don't even know how to do a simple spell. I'm going to look like an idiot."
"You'll know someone. Me. And you'll learn all that stuff. Don't worry about it," Sue advised.
"You don't get it. I hate looking stupid," Deena sighed. "I know I'm not stupid, so I hate it when people think I am."
"Who cares about them? Just be Deena. Now let's see you try on those robes. Go on," Sue urged.
Deena shook her head with a smile and pulled out her robes.