Griffin Scholarly
And the Seven Silver Boarhounds
Chapter 2 - A Werewolf in London
Griffin stepped out of Flourish and Blotts and onto the cobblestone street, the sun shining overhead. The manager of the shop had always been a bit brusque with his customers, but to Griffin he was a good friend. When she was younger and her family had been there to shop she had always discussed the new arrivals with him, while her parents snobbed him off and looked around the shop daintily with looks on their faces not unlike repugnance.
When Slinket, who had recovered his breath but who wasn't saying anything, grunted beside Griffins ear, she nodded shortly and set off for Madam Malkin's. As soon as she had stepped inside the door, Madam Malkin herself, a squat smiling witch, bustled up to her importantly, carrying a curious measuring tape with all sorts of silver knobs and numbers on it.
Griffin placed Slinket down who immediately scampered off into the back room, growling and not looking back at her.
"Ahh," She said, removing some pins from her mouth and setting them on her counter near a pile of black material Griffin recognized as what was used for the Hogwarts cloaks, "Ms Scholarly. I've been waiting for you to come for a new uniform for years. You're brother used to come in for fresh robes at the beginning of each year!"
She spoke to Griffin in a greasy sort of tone; and she just nodded back numbly.
"Yeah, I know. But Drake always used to grow a few inches every year didn't he? And why waste money eh?" She tried to laugh, her pitch a little higher than normal.
Madam Malkin blinked blankly for a second.
"Oh yes dear, but you're family doesn't exactly need to be careful with money do they?" She smiled and clasped her hands in front of her brown apron and for the second time that morning, Griffin's jaw set into a determined smile.
"Perhaps not..." She muttered.
Each stared at the other for a minute then, remembering herself, Madam Malkin pulled out her wand and pointed it at a stool hiding in corner.
"Accio stool." She said brightly. The stool skidded across the room and stopped at Griffin's feet. "There you go dear, hop up." She said and as Griffin stepped up on the stool she pressed a silver button on her measuring tape. It immediately sprung into action, zooming around Griffin and measuring every inch of her body.
"Yes. I think it's definitely time for some new robes," Said Madam Malkin, her hand on her chin, "You've grown much taller, and you've certainly got some curves that weren't there last time."
Griffin's cheeks flushed a slight shade of magenta and she looked at all the different fabrics hanging around the room as the measuring tape whizzed around her. There were colors of every kind and one silvery bit of material that seemed to flow like water without actually moving. There were fabrics for dress robes, school robes, and normal robes. There was a fabric that looked so soft that she was sure to touch it would be heavenly and there was even a large skin of a white lion, whose head kept looking down dismally at its floppy and useless paws.
There were all sorts of scissors and patterns stacked neatly on shelves and in drawers and quick sketches and paintings of designs whose subjects paraded around with bored looks on their roughly sketched faces.
When the measuring tape had recorded all of Griffins measurements, occasionally squeaking out a few to Madam Malkin who nodded, it flew onto the counter and she clapped her hands together.
"Ok then. That's it!" She said. "You can put your arms down now dear. Yes that's right. Off the stool, oops, there we go." She turned as Griffin stepped down and sent the stool back to the corner with a flick of her wand.
Griffin moved to the counter and opened the brown dragon skin purse. She put a few galleons and a couple of sickles down and Madam Malkin collected them up and put them in an old fashioned till that muttered the change she needed in a bored tone.
"Thank you dear," She said, "Your robes will be ready in a couple of hours. I'll have them sent to the Manor."
Griffin opened her mouth to say that that wasn't necessary, and she could come back and pick them up herself, but her cat had slinked back into the room and was waving his tail around irritably.
"Come on Griffin," He said in an acidy tone, "We still have plenty to do."
Griffin just turned to Madam Malkin and thanked her for her time.
"Not a problem dear." She said in the oily tone again. "Come back as soon as you need to."
Griffin turned to leave, Slinket following close behind.
He refused to go anywhere near her shoulder all the while they were looking for an astrolabe, and wouldn't even let her scratch him under his chin when they went into the Cauldron Shop, to get Griffin a new copper cauldron. Her old one had been destroyed when she had tried to make an illicit potion, to turn all of the butterbeer at a common room celebration into firewhisky, late last year. Her parents had been furious with her when they found out; her father storming out of every room she had entered and her mother screaming endlessly about the never ending disappointments she caused all the time and the shame she continually put on the family name.
His mood did lighten, however, when she bought him a box of Ernie Moggies Fresh Catnip Crunches from the Magical Menagerie.
When they stepped outside, Griffin holding her new cauldron with an inbuilt mercury rod that contained her parcels of books, the new Astrolabe and the Catnip treats, Slinket sat and looked up and down the street.
"We don't really have much else to do." He said finally and began licking his right paw. Griffin nodded and started walking towards a small shop with no sign.
"Griffin!" called out a voice. She turned around a full 360 degrees before she located the speaker.
For the first time that day she smiled a truly happy smile as she saw Remus Lupin running towards her, holding a tattered old book in his hand that reflected his grey robes perfectly. He was beaming, but his face was pale and he had bags under his eyes. When he reached Griffin he was panting slightly and out of the corner of her eye, Griffin saw on her Astrolabe (crammed awkwardly between all her books) that is was only a half a week until the next full moon.
"Lupin," She roared, grinning broadly. "I didn't know you were in London! I haven't seen you all holidays. How are you?"
Remus stopped running as he reached her; and Slinket wrinkled his nose at the state of his robes.
"My family's here while I get ready for school. We're staying at the leaky cauldron-" Slinket coughed politely, "- Where have you been all holidays?"
Griffin noticed he had avoided the question of how he was feeling, but didn't say anything about it.
"I've just been at… the Manor…" She said softly, and looked away. Lupin had come to her home once and it had not been a pleasant experience for either of them. Her parents, the portraits that hung all around her home, Slinket and even the furniture had not tried in the least to hide how they felt about him, and often made very loud comments about how shabby he looked. They kept asking Griffin when he would be leaving too, as though he wasn't in the room.
He had been standing right beside Griffin on each occasion.
"Oh. Barrels of fun you must've had there all summer." He said, but his voice was warm and jovial. Griffin grinned.
"Oh yeah, loads of laughs. That portrait of my uncle Mortem is great for conversation. Really cheerful man that one. So, have you seen the others at all?" She asked, and then waved a hand at Florean Fortescues Ice Cream Parlor and added, "D'you want to go there to catch up?"
Lupin nodded politely and followed Griffin as she began walking, lugging her cauldron along behind her.
"Well, James and Sirius both wrote to me a few times but I haven't heard a peep out of Peter. Not that I'd really expected to though, I mean, he seems terrified of owls." He said slowly. Griffin laughed, but it was cut short as she saw the look on his face was quite serious.
"Well how are Black and Potter then?" She asked. After the cauldron fiasco, restrictions at the Scholarly Manor had been stepped up to the point that she wasn't even allowed to communicate with her friends via owls.
Lupin smiled thoughtfully.
"Sirius finally left the Black House."
Griffin stopped walking and turned to him, nearly causing him to crash into her. The Black House was what the friends had unofficially christened Grimmauld Place, the home where Sirius had lived a miserable existence for sixteen years. Sometimes it was very hard explaining to some people why living in a big house and belonging to a rich family didn't always equal happiness.
"He left? He actually did it?" She asked. She smiled grimly and looked at Lupin, as though waiting for him to say it again.
"Yes," He said, "He's been with James and James' parents all summer. I'll bet they've had a blast together." He was smiling, and was obviously happy for Sirius, but something in his eyes and the tone of his voice made Griffin suspect that he had been feeling a little left out.
"Well, that's great news," She said cheerfully and putting a hand on Lupin's back as they sat down in the chairs outside of Florean Fortescues, "It'll be great to see them both at Hogwarts again. But what've you been doing all summer Moony?"
Remus sat with both his hands over the book on his lap.
"My father and I went back to France for a little while. We went on a time travel tour and saw the Muggle perspective of the French Revolution. Amazing. They had no idea their Queen was a witch who was trying to. Other than that I've just been doing the usual, you know, studying, reading, getting a head start on the books for the new term." He sounded a little jaded and looked blankly at the ground, but then looked at Griffin and smiled.
"I heard we're getting a new Charms teacher this year." He said brightly. Griffin grinned.
"That'll be good. Maybe this year I can actually beat you on my OWLS. What'd you get last year? 99 percent was it?"
Lupin smiled, "Yeah. Something like that. But you'll beat my scores easily. You're terrific at Charms Griff."
Griffin rolled her eyes.
"I was joking. You're the best bloody student at Hogwarts. If it wasn't for your courage, I'd be wondering why you weren't put in Ravenclaw."
Lupin had no chance to argue, not that his argument could have possibly been a very strong one, he was a terrific student, because at that moment Florean Fortescue came out of his shop with a tea towel over one arm and a pad and quill in the other, smiling at the two teenagers.
"Ahh, if it isn't my three favorite customers." He said, and he patted Slinket on the top of his head with a large hand.
"Hey," said Griffin, "Could we please have umm… a couple of sundaes, one choc-fudge and one strawberry; Oh, and a saucer of the Half-Way Cream for Slinket please."
She looked to Lupin to see if her order was correct and he nodded, smiling.
"Alrighty then, Ms Scholarly," Said Fortescue bustling off, "Coming right up."
While they waited for their ice creams, Griffin and Lupin chatted about some of the events of last year, and then Griffin asked him questions about the OWLs, which he had passed with flying colors the previous year and which she would be studying for this year.
They ate their ice creams cheerfully, Griffin's choc-fudge sundae warming every inch of her body, Lupin's strawberry sundae giving him constant bursts of the giggles and Slinket happily and silently munching on his Half-Way cream; a special formula for cats invented be Florean himself, which was half way between cream and ice cream, and managed to keep feline teeth white and bright.
When they had finished and had sat talking for hours, Slinket finally made a noise in the back of his throat, and Griffin, noticing the dimming sky, decided it was probably time to leave. Lupin thought so too, and they made plans to meet up in a few days to get on the Hogwarts Express, the scarlet steam engine that took the students of Hogwarts up to the school and back every year.
They both waved as they headed off in different directions and Griffin picked up Slinket and her cauldron. He jumped up to her shoulder and nuzzled into her neck.
She walked into a small building full of lit fireplaces of all sorts of descriptions, the heat disorienting her for a second. A tall, thin witch stepped out of one in a burst of emerald flame. She was soon followed by a young boy who, looking slightly sick, stumbled out of the grate and ran to her. He clutched her hand desperately.
Griffin walked up to a large, ornately carved sandstone fireplace embellished with a Gryphon, it's serrated beak wide-open, rubies in place of eyes. It was one of the few private fireplaces in the Floo Station, and Griffin hated using it, even though she did admire its beauty.
She pulled a small silver felt bag from her jeans pocket and opened its drawstring. Tipping it upside down, the last of her Floo powder piled softly into her palm.