Disclaimer: I don't own the people that J.K. Rowling made up, and I don't own the part of the plot that is hers either….damn
A/N: Thanks for all the reviews….not, nobody has reviewed my story, but since I'm having fun with this, I'm going to continue it to the end. READ AND REVIEW!
"So, what do you guys want for dinner? I'm not sure if it's already set or if Mum's waiting for us to come down and tell her what we want."
"Your Mum cooks? Like, the muggle way?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Well, no…but I have no idea who cooks our food to tell the truth. I always thought we had a cook or something, but I suppose we may have house elves…," she trailed off looking bored with the conversation.
"House elves? But, wouldn't you have known? Like, didn't you notice that all of your things were clean every morning?" asked Harry.
"I guess I always thought that we had a really good housekeeper or something…" she obviously didn't want to talk about that at the moment as she steered them into a vast dining room decorated just as the rest of the house was. But, Harry and Draco noticed something that they hadn't before; everything was decorated in gold and red. They also noticed when Rose sat them down that their plates and goblets had the Gryffindor crest engraved on them.
"Rose, why is the Gryffindor crest engraved on everything?" questioned Harry.
"That's the Gryffindor crest? My parents told me it was the family coat of arms…Well, they're coming in right now, so we can ask them," Rose replied. Harmony and Owen walked into the room, and Rose asked without preamble, "Why do we have the Gryffindor crest as our coat of arms?"
Owen didn't look even slightly taken aback as he answered, "The Potters are the heirs of Godric Gryffindor."
Harry looked highly affronted and asked, "Why hasn't anyone ever told me this?! I am an heir…to…Godric Gryffindor? That does explain a bit, but then why didn't the sorting hat immediately put me in Gryffindor? It had wanted to put me in Slytherin."
"Well, your blood, along with Rose's, is more diluted. Since my father married my mother, who was a muggle-born, and I married Harmony, or in you case, Harry, since your father married Lily, who is also muggle born, there has been a less obvious tie, but you are still the closest descendants of Godric Gryffindor, which also means that certain things may come easier for you, such as flying." he looked at Harry as he said this and gave him a small wink.
"If we are finished with that topic, then I have some news. The first thing is that tomorrow Ron and Hermione are coming to spend the summer. And, the second thing is that Dumbledore has pardoned the underage magic ban on anyone living with us, so that you can teach Rose properly. Oh, and Rose, we are going down to Marigold City tonight to get you a wand and some other supplies. The boys can come with if they'd like too," Mrs. Potter said, looking imploringly at Draco and Harry.
"Sure, we'd love to," Draco answered for the both of them.
"Alright, now that that's settled, let's eat," Mr. Potter replied jauntily. He snapped his fingers and food appeared in front of them. Rose gasped, and everyone chuckled as her cheeks turned crimson. They finished dinner, and everyone headed off in the chauffeured car that Mrs. Potter had called. It took them twenty minutes to get to their destination, which turned out to be a very old looking house.
Mrs. Potter walked straight up to the door and knocked the brass knocker three times and walked down the stairs hitting every third step with her wand. Suddenly, the door opened, and they all walked in. As soon as they had passed the threshold, they saw a place that looked rather similar to Diagon Alley, except that there were lots more people and what looked like a stadium in the distance a little ways off.
"Come on, dears, this way. We're going to get you a wand first and then some robes and of course books," Mrs. Potter said to Rose, whose face glowed at the mention of books.
They walked over to a store that looked exactly like Ollivander's and went in. With a sudden pop, Mr. Ollivander himself was standing before them.
"Hello, Mr. Ollivander, this is Rose, my daughter, and she'll be needing a wand," said Mrs. Potter politely.
"Ah, yes, let's see here. I'll just take your measurements quickly, and we'll find your wand in no time."
The bewitched tape measure took all of Rose's measurements, and Mr. Olivander began to pull out wands.
"Let's try this one. Eleven inches, ashwood, dragon heartstring. Give it a wave."
Rose swished the wand and nothing happened.
"No, no. Now how about this one? Thirteen inches, beech, phoenix feather."
Once again, nothing happened.
"Apparently not…hmm….let's see….ah, yes. Try this one."
Rose swished the wand, and all of a sudden, a red rose burst out of the tip landing on the floor in front of her.
"Yes, it is a nice fit. Twelve inches, rosewood, unicorn hair. A very nice wand indeed. In fact, it is the only rosewood wand that I have ever personally made. Strange, the way it picked you though. A rose coming from the tip…" he trailed off and turned to Mrs. Potter to discuss prices while Rose showed Harry and Draco her wand.
"Isn't it gorgeous?!" Rose squealed excitedly, crooning over her wand.
"It's nice," Harry replied without giving it much thought.
"Nice! It's magnificent! And, look at this! Rose carvings! Wow…they're so intricate…they're beautiful…" she stopped to examine the designs more closely.
'You're beautiful,' Draco thought to himself.
"Alright, dears, let's get going. Hmm…we ought to go to the bookstore," Mrs. Potter said, obviously pleased with the screech of glee that emitted from Rose.
The four of them picked their way through the still enormous crowd into a store that was completely covered in books, and before any of them could utter a word Rose's nose was buried in a book that had to be at least a thousand pages long called Creatures and Magic: How They Are Related. It took Harmony at least ten minutes to get Rose out of the book and to find some books she would need for studying.
"We might as well let you have the magic library, dear. It has more than half of these books, but I suppose we really should get all of the books we don't have, seeing as to how you've missed five years of magic training and your O.W.L.'s, which you will have to make up this year. Okay, could you ring this up for me then?" Mrs. Potter asked the clerk, who gave her an astounded look when he saw all of the books she had put on the counter.
"A-All of them?!" squeaked the small clerk, sounding a lot like a cornered mouse.
"Yes, we will be needing all of them," she replied lazily.
After going back to the car to place all of their items in the car, they returned once again. They followed Harmony into a shop, and were immediately surrounded by robes. A short woman was bustling over to them.
"For whom are we going to be measuring robes today? The young lady perhaps?" the woman asked, already picking out some robes and measuring Rose.
"Yes, and of course we'll be wanting some dress robes too," replied Mrs. Potter.
The witch moved quickly, and before she knew it, Rose had three different color dress robes and many new black robes to wear daily.
Harmony hustled them out into the street before taking them into a nice café, where she treated them to some Pumpkin Pasties and Butterbeer, which Rose found delicious after tasting them for the first time. Then, Mrs. Potter asked them where they should go next.
"Well, I dunno. What else do I need?" Rose questioned.
"Well, you'll be needing a couple of small things, such as a cauldron, quills, and parchment, but we can go to the All-Purpose Magical Wear Store for those things. Do you think you'll be needing a broom?" inquired Mrs. Potter.
"What for?" asked Rose, before asking excitedly, "Do you mean for flying? Oh, to be able to fly! It must be so wonderful!"
"Hmm…well, I just saw a pretty nice model in the window over there," Harmony said, motioning towards a Quiddtich shop, "I suppose we could get that one…"
Harmony and Rose walked over to the window, leaving Draco and Harry behind with Harmony saying, "You two boys know way too much about all this Qudditch business for us to have to listen to you giving advice. Stay right here and we'll be back in a second." Both Harry and Draco looked so upset about not being allowed to go with them that Mrs. Potter told them that they could come back again tomorrow to look.
The broom in the window was very sleek looking and was called a Swiftstar. According to the salesman, it was the newest and fastest broom developed since the Firebolt. It was expensive, and Rose didn't want her mother to spend too much on her, but Mrs. Potter insisted that she needed the best and got it for her immediately, despite her protests. The Swiftstar was a lot smaller than the Firebolt and was made for quicker direction change, faster dives, and very quick acceleration. Rose fit on it perfectly, and although she had never flown before, she felt perfectly accustomed to sitting on the broom. She didn't get a chance to try flying it yet, because she needed to fly it in an open space, but when she brought it back to the boys, they gasped.
"Whoa! That's an amazing broom! It must've cost a ton; that's the fastest and most controllable broom there is!" Harry exclaimed with much more enthusiasm than he had for her wand.
"It can change in opposite directions in one second flat!" Draco said amazedly.
"Yeah, it's nice isn't it," Rose replied smiling. Before the boys could reply, Mrs. Potter said, "Come on now! Let's get going. We've got a couple of things to buy yet."
They followed her once again into a store, but Mrs. Potter stopped them, "Actually, this might take me a while. Why don't you go ahead and browse and you can meet me by the exit in a half hour? Go on now, go enjoy yourselves, I'll be along in a bit."
Despite the fact that Harmony's actions seemed odd, the three decided to go and have a look around anyways. They were walking down the street when Rose stopped at a window. It was full of magical animals. She walked in, looking around in awe.
"Wow," she whispered under her breath. Most of the animals were owls, but towards the back, there were cats, toads, rats, and many other different kinds of animals. In the very back, there was a lone hawk. Rose headed towards it.
"Why is that poor hawk all by itself in the back? It looks a little malnourished too…" she mumbled to herself.
As she came closer to it, she could see that it was not very healthy at all. To Harry and Draco, it was already obvious what she wanted to do: adopt it. But the hawk didn't look as if it was in very good mood, and as Rose reached out to touch it, Draco pulled her back, "I don't think that's the best idea, Rose. It doesn't look very friendly."
"What are you talking about? She looks a little on the shabby side, but that doesn't mean she's unkind," Rose replied sounding a little peeved. She stretched out her hand once more, except this time she didn't reach to pet her.
"Hop up," commanded Rose, holding out her arm as a perch. Miraculously to Harry and Draco, who couldn't hear over the loud screech emitted, the hawk hopped onto her arm and allowed her to stroke her gently.
"How did you do that?" asked Harry, amazed.
"I told her to hop up," she replied.
"I didn't hear you say a word. Maybe I just couldn't hear you, because the hawk was screeching when you said it," Draco said.
"She didn't screech. Are you trying to pull a prank on me?" asked Rose suspiciously.
"No, really, we heard a screech," Harry said, beginning to wonder what this was all about.
"Well, it wasn't her. Maybe it was an owl or something."
"Owls don't screech in the same way. What we heard was definitely a hawk screech," argued Draco.
"Maybe there are other hawks here," Rose replied, getting annoyed.
"I don't see any," Harry said.
"Well maybe you should look harder, because she didn't screech!" snapped Rose, very aggravated.
"Um, why don't we go get some air," Draco suggested, not wanting to get into another fight with Rose.
"That's a great idea!" exclaimed Rose obviously relieved. She almost walked out with the hawk on her arm, but Harry noticed that the bird was still perched there and reminded her that the salesman wouldn't be too pleased if she walked out with it. She stopped and commanded it, "Back to your perch." Once again, both Harry and Draco heard the screech and watched in amazement as the bird flew back to it's perch.
"Didn't you hear that? The hawk screeched again! And, how do you get it to do that?" questioned Harry.
"She didn't screech! Arg! I need some air!" Rose yelled angrily, storming through the door. Harry followed her out, but Draco stayed behind. She really liked that hawk, and she seemed thoroughly upset. He wanted to make her feel better, and he could only think of one thing that he knew would work. So, he went up to the counter and asked the clerk to put the hawk in a large cage he had picked out. When the clerk came back looking a little worse for wear, since the hawk was trying hard to bite him through the cage, Draco paid him the small sum for the bird and threw a cover over the cage.
He walked outside to see a very flustered looking Rose waiting beside the door.
"What took you so long?" asked Harry an Rose together.
"Sorry, I was buying something. Here," he replied, handing the cage to Rose.
"For me? What is it?" she asked, bewildered, holding the large cage slightly in front of her.
"Look inside," he said lightly.
She removed the cover and gave a loud squeal of delight, almost dropping the cage. She was so rapturous that she ran to Draco, hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, saying in a delighted voice, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you sooo much!!!"
"Err, it was nothing…your welcome," he said, obviously not used to this kind of reaction to anything. Rose, however, remained oblivious to his stunned features and continued to delight over the red-tailed hawk all the way to the exit, where Harmony was waiting for them. She looked odd under all the packages she was holding, including Rose's broom, robes, and cauldrons. Draco, Harry, and Rose all rushed forward to grab some packages; the four of them exited the city and were home within twenty minutes.
Rose was continually crooning over the hawk, which she had named Rhiannon. She was constantly saying things like, "Oh! Isn't she sweet?!" and, "Just look at how gorgeous she is!" It began to get tiring after the first fifteen minutes, but at that point, Mrs. Potter told her to be quiet and Rose stopped talking, still watching the hawk closely.
When at last they arrived at the house, Mrs. Potter sent them straight up to bed. She put all of Rose's purchases in the elevator and went up with them; Draco, Harry, and Rose used the stairs, with Rose carrying Rhiannon's cage.
At the top, Rose bid them good night and went off to her rooms, thanking Draco once more. The boys went to their rooms and fell asleep immediately, and Rose went to her study where her mother had put her things and started to read; Rose finally went to sleep after reading three books.
However, Mr. and Mrs. Potter did not go to sleep. They were sitting in the parlor. "Dumbledore told us that they were to start tutoring her as soon as possible. They can get started tomorrow. She has enough books and has probably read at least three of them already. Now that she's got her wand, she has to learn to be careful with it. So tomorrow, Ron and Hermione will be coming around noon by floo. They can help tutor her too then," Harmony said.
"Yes, that would be good. Then we can go back to work tomorrow, because Rose can get Hermione and Ron situated. Besides, the hospital needs us, what with this shortage of good healers," Owen replied, yawning.
"I suppose your right, but what about Rose? What is she going to do about her job? I don't think she realizes that her tutoring is going to last all day."
"That might be a problem, but we could have her switch to weekends, couldn't we? She loves working at the shelter."
"That would work I guess, but she won't have much free time then…"
"Well, the only thing I've ever seen her do in her free time is read or play with the pets, so I don't think she'll mind much."
"Alright, now that that's settled, we should get to bed. We don't want to be late for work in the morning," Harmony said.
