Disclaimer: I don't own anything. It's sad, isn't it?

Notable Magical Names of Our Time

Amelia didn't have to be outside long to realise that this was the time to be in Diagon Alley. Almost everywhere she looked she saw people from Hogwarts. She hadn't been out for more than five minutes before she one of the Slytherin Chasers, Gibbon, looking in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies, but she'd never talked to him before and chose to ignore him. Anyway, he seemed to be too entranced by the new Shooting Star to be within the range of human contact.

"Palio! Oi, Palio!" shouted someone over the masses ahead, but all she could see was a hand waving over the heads of the others. It didn't take long until she saw who it belonged to: Sirius Black, with Peter Pettigrew faithfully in his heels.

She sighed and tried hard not to grit her teeth. It wasn't that she had anything real against him, or any of his obnoxious little friends, they were really, really… obnoxious. All right, so she thought some of their jokes were funny, but she knew that she was dangerously close to the edge of being on the receiving end of them. She and Black were also distant relatives through marriage, but who wasn't when you wanted to keep your family pure?

"Hey," she said mildly without any real emotion in her face. She didn't slow her pace, and kept walking towards Knockturn Alley with determined steps.

"Buying last of your stuff as well?" he asked and decided to follow her, even though she was walking the opposite direction.

"No, well, yes, but I'm staying until we star," she answered. "I came yesterday."

"Groovy. So where are you going now?"

"I'm going to visit Razvan," she said and couldn't help smiling at Pettigrew who almost shivered at the name. "How you got in Gryffindor is beyond me…" she muttered.

"Hey, lay off him!" scowled Black, suddenly very protective. "Anywho, I'll tag along. He'll wonder what the hell I'm doing there…"

"What do you mean?"

"Ran away from home three weeks ago, you know," he said proudly and seemed to be expecting applause. Needless to say, he didn't get any.

"That's really stupid," was all Amelia said. "How the hell are you going to manage now?"

"And I'm technically no longer my mother's son."

"So you were kicked out?"

"No, I ran away!"

"So where are you staying now?"

"With Snivelly. Seriously, where do you think I'm staying? With James of course!" he laughed, and elbowed Pettigrew to laugh with him.

"Oh dear god…" groaned Amelia, unable to help herself. They were now living under the same roof every day of the year?

They had just turned onto Knockturn Alley, and much to Amelia's surprise, Pettigrew hadn't scampered yet. Maybe he was braver than she thought… They walked by Borgin and Burke's and a book-shop selling the most bizarre books imaginable, such as a book entirely devoted to the diverse results of the Cruciatus Curse, and a little too graphic book about the sexual habits of Krakens. It sold pretty much every book Flourish and Blotts had ever rejected for one reason or another.

Razvan's shop lay in a narrow alley leading to a dead end. The door had no text, and there were no windows, which meant you had to know exactly where it was to even notice it. Even Black the Brave seemed a little shaken.

"You're quite the pride of Gryffindor, aren't you, boys?" said Amelia and Sirius laughed coldly.

When Amelia opened the door, the three of them were met with a strong, unidentifiable smell the moment they stepped over the threshold. Her uncle was rummaging through the many small boxes, which stood neatly on shelves behind the counter. There was where he kept the most dangerous and expensive things. Unnervingly enough, it seemed as though these boxes, all identical, had started to spread out of the shop.

"Amelia!" he exclaimed when he saw his niece and hurried around the counter.

He looked the way he had always looked, and ten years older than his 28. He had long black hair which dragged his face down in a very unflattering way, and it also made the rings around his eyes look even darker. But still, his lips were almost always curled in some sort of sadistically twisted grin, which made him look rather dangerous. It was the kind of face that effectively warned off any shop-lifter.

"Razvan," said Black coolly and took a deep breath.

Razvan looked from Black to Amelia, who gave him an apologising smile.

"Your mother isn't happy with you," he stated and looked darkly as Black. It was about this time that Pettigrew bolted.

"I think I got that when she charmed three swords to chase me out," said Black. Amelia was a little impressed that he managed to stand his ground with Razvan in his mood. Braver men than him would have crumbled long ago.

"Get out," growled Razvan dangerously.

"I… - What?" he stuttered and took a step backwards as Razvan took one towards him.

"Get out," barked Razvan and threw his left arm out in a very violent gesture to show him the door.

All colour vanished from Black's face. His breath seemed to have been caught in his throat, and Amelia first thought that he was scared by Razvan's outburst. But then she saw that he wasn't looking at his face, but his eyes were locked on something on Razvan's forearm. Amelia followed his gaze, and her eyes easily spotted the black Dark Mark on Razvan's pale, scarred arm.

The moment Black had gotten his senses back, he threw a glance deeply loathing glance at Amelia, and then calmly walked out the door without turning his back to Razvan. Amelia didn't dare to move before the door had shut.

"When did you do that?" she asked eagerly and realised that there was nothing but awe in her voice. She walked up to him and jerked his arm closer. She had never seen it for real like this before.

"A few weeks ago," said Razvan like it wasn't a very big deal.

"Did it hurt? Have you met Him? Who else are in?" asked Amelia eagerly.

"I'm not going to answer any of that," said Razvan, but didn't stop her from tracing the lines of it with her fingertips.

She stared intently at it for a while, then looked up at Razvan and saw that he was watching her with an amused smile. Unfortunately, it didn't very much look like a smile, it actually seemed to be causing him intense pain, but some people just shouldn't be happy.

"Why won't you answer?" she inevitably asked when they'd gotten over the slightly awkward moment.

"Because you don't need to know," said Razvan and covered his arm up.

"Oh, come on! You sound like mum!" she said and made a grab for his wrist, but he turned away.

"You don't need to know if it hurt, or if I med Him!" he said and took a step backwards.

"Yes, I do!" pleaded Amelia.

"Don't!" he suddenly barked and almost pushed her away, holding his arm pressed to his chest.

"I'm sorry…" she muttered and jumped up on the counter casually.

Razvan took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, collecting himself.

"You don't need to know, because you will never join," he said with an almost pedagogical voice.

Amelia felt the air run out of her, but she didn't break the eye-contact. How did he know exactly what she had been thinking? She eyed him suspiciously.

"How do you know if I'm going to join or not?"

"I'm not going to allow you to join!"

"What!" said Amelia and almost laughed. She had two parents who already told her what to do, and she loved Razvan because he was an adult who didn't tell her what to do. She also loved him because he had a lot of funky dark arts things as well, but that was beside the point.

"I'm not going to see you become a Death Eater," he said, and Amelia realised that this was the first time ever she had heard him use that word. It sounded so tempting right from his lips, so mysterious and dangerous; Amelia's definition of tempting.

"I don't really think you are in the position to tell me not to become a Death Eater!" she said and folded her arms.

"If I'm not, who is?" asked Razvan very seriously.

Even though she didn't want to, she saw his point.

"You regret it?" she asked instead.

"No," said Razvan calmly. "But I wouldn't wish you to see what I've seen."

"You've been in for a few weeks! How bad could it be?"

He didn't need to answer. The way he looked at her told her everything she needed to know, but what really made her uncomfortable, was that no matter how serious he looked, there wasn't the slightest sign of regret in his eyes.

The moment was interrupted by the sound of the door opening, and Razvan twirled around quickly to see who it was.

In came none other than Lucius Malfoy. Suddenly, Amelia didn't think about any of Razvan's plans, and turned and smiled at him. He was six years older than her, which made him 22. He'd started his seventh year at Hogwarts when Amelia had started, but now it didn't really feel like it was such an age-difference anymore. From her view of things, he was irresistible. He was young, handsome, and had lots of money he didn't need with a name like his.

"Razvan, Charis," he acknowledged when he came in. He had for as long as she could remember called her by her mother's last name instead of Palio, and she had a faint idea that it had something to do with how he utterly ignored Mr Palio's existence.

His business was quite obviously with Razvan; as not only did he hardly notice Amelia, but he was a very close friend to Razvan, who had taken him in as Lucius in turn had taken Severus Snape under his wing.

Razvan smiled his tired smile and went around the counter to greet his friend with a hug. Amelia had to say it looked rather strange with Razvan with his old, shagged out appearance being greeted that warmly by Malfoy, in his very expensive and very proper clothes and general image. But for once, he didn't snarl when someone as shabby-looking as Razvan approached him, he smiled widely and hugged him back very firmly.

"Amelia, could you please leave us alone for a while?" he asked and turned to Amelia, who quite insulted gave a short huff before withdrawing to the small back room behind a dark brown curtain.

Through a small hole in the fabric she could see Malfoy and Razvan's back, and how they both gestured as they talked quickly with hushed voices. She knew that Malfoy also was a Death Eater, he had been it for a while and it hadn't really surprised anyone, so she assumed she had a pretty good idea of what they were talking about, especially when she saw how Malfoy pulled up the sleeve of his robe and showed the back mark against his pale, flawless skin. It looked so very different from Razvan's, as the arms were so different; as the persons were so different.

Giving up her attempt to eavesdrop, she looked around for somewhere to sit, and found a small stool with some very suspect-looking stains, which she ignored and sat down. The shelves around her were filled with strange books, and she thought she had a pretty good idea from where they came. It was the books that came to the second-hand store, but were for some reason unfit to be sold there. Some of them might even have been rejected from the Knockturn Alley bookstore, but she didn't want to go into that when she sat among them. Who knew what could be inside of them?

In the corner was a pile of old cauldrons, illuminated by the three feeble candles placed strategically around the room. Amelia could finally not contain herself any longer, and shot up from the stool and started reading the titles of the books. It sounded generally boring, The Common Areas of Habitation of the Minotaur, Muscular System of the Basilisk and the Hydra: Differences and Similarities, and Unexpected Dissimilarities in the Skeletal Structure of the Giant and the Hippogriff. Absentmindedly reflecting over how innocent it sounded, she tried to keep her mind on anything but what was going on outside. Though she was a very curious girl, she knew when there were things she actually didn't want to know; and this was one of those occasions.

But, unable of restraining herself, she felt herself being pulled closer and closer to the curtain until she stood with her eyes pressed against the small hole, now only seeing the shadows move across the walls and hear their low voices.

Suddenly, scaring her half to death, she heard Razvan's voice rather loudly.

"You can come out now, Amelia."

For a moment wondering if he thought she had heard anything, she slowly went out from the small room and at the moment she came into the shop, her eyes immediately fixed at Lucius, who turned around and looked at her.

"You have grown," he said and Amelia felt awfully patronised, as she considered herself an equal to Lucius.

"I might have," she said and tried to hide how hurt she actually was.

"Nice seeing you, Razvan, but I have to get going. Charis," he added with a curtly nod and went out into alley with a swish of his long, black cloak.

"I almost forgot," said Razvan suddenly, almost sensing that Amelia wanted something to take her mind of Lucius. "I've got a present for you."

"You have?" asked Amelia curiously and jumped back up on the counter, which was her normal place.

Razvan went behind the counter and went through a few drawers, some of which started hiss and shake when he quickly opened and closed the lid. At last, he produced a small but thick book from a surprisingly quiet box and handed it over to Amelia, who first of all smelt it, as she always did with books. She loved the feeling of old paper under her fingers and the warm smell of ink, and the older the book was, the more distinct its smell was. This once smelt just like Razvan's shop, so she guessed that it had been there forever. On the cover, very formal gold letters spread to the words The Virtuous Guide of Understanding: Legilimency made easy.

"Legilimency?" she asked and looked up at Razvan, who positively beamed with pride.

"Yes. I think I was around your age when I started practicing," he said with one of his rare smiles.

"You're a Legilimens?" she asked, though not all that surprised. She eyed the book closer. "Weren't you supposed to hand this on?"

She recognised it after a while; or after reading inside the covers, where she saw the names Antonin Dolohov, Roland Jugson, Razvan Charis, Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape.

"How did you get it back from Snape?" she asked and looked almost accusingly at her uncle.

"Don't worry," he said. "It's all taken care of. He didn't need it anymore."

"You mean Snape is a Legilimens?"

"We all are. Or at least the names in the book."

"Isn't Snape supposed to pass this on?"

"How likely do you think it is that Severus would possibly take a first year under his wing?"

"Point taken." She turned the book, looking at it from all possible angles. There was something so tempting about it, it was almost calling out to her. "So you mean I get it?"

"Yup."

"Wasn't Snape supposed to hand it to some other Slytherin or something at least? There are at least three other boys in his year!"

"Listen, do you want the book or not?"

"No, no, I'll take it, I'm just asking!" she said very defensive and pressed the book against her chest.

"Well, then I guess we'll have to send it through Ravenclaw from this day on," said Razvan and sounded almost as though he was passing on his own child.

"Why do you want me to learn Legilimency?" Amelia took the opportunity to ask.

Razvan swallowed. "Though you're not a Slytherin, I really think I should give you at least a chance to learn it."

"You can't teach me?" suggested Amelia half-minded. She was busy eyeing through the pages, trying to find out what the hardest part was.

"I don't think so. I wouldn't even do it if we actually had the time. You learn things you maybe don't want to know about certain people."

"And that's why you want me to learn it?"

"You're not born a Legilimens, are you? No, so then you have to learn," was Razvan's very bad answer to this with a tone that otherwise noted that the conversation was over. "Anyhow, Severus is getting rather good. You can train with him."

"Yes, that would please you, wouldn't it?" she asked with a grin and jumped down from the counter.

"Yes, it would. Very much. You've seen the other Slytherins. No one there has his talent," said Razvan and sounded very much like a grandfather talking about his favourite grandson.

"And you're claiming I do?" said Amelia and snorted. For one, she couldn't say she spent all that much time with Snape, as he was a bit out of place wherever he went. For all she knew, he could be nice (though she knew that the possibility was very low), but to save herself from the constant taunting of Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin, she guessed she would make a point in not socialising with their favourite mark.

"Yes, I think you do. At least on some levels."

Trying not to think too much of what the Gryffindors would do to her if she started hanging out with Snape now that Black had run out from his family, Amelia walked up Knockturn Alley and drifted along the steady stream of last-minute shoppers until she reached the second-hand shop and went straight for bed.