Star and Lightning
7th Chapter – Return to Diagon Alley
Severus Snape took a look at the clock in his Potions laboratory and sighed. It was almost time for him to take Molly Weasley's place and watch out for anything out of the ordinary in Diagon Alley. Severus understood the importance of finding that girl who had yesterday done wandless magic and bringing her on the Light Side. Nevertheless, he hated to leave his brewing Potion alone. And an unsolved problem was: From where would he watch Diagon Alley? He could hardly sit outside one of the many little cafeterias, as he never did this, it would arise suspicion. It was likely that this strange girl would return to get more books, so Flourish and Blotts probably was the best solution. But the Potions section was an unfavourable place to stay because it was too sealed off. He'd need to see the bookstore's entrance and as much of Diagon Alley as possible. The Transfiguration and Charms sections would be perfect, but he couldn't stay there for hours. The Dark Arts section would have to do it. From there you didn't see the alley as well as from the former two section, but you had a good view on the rest of the bookstore and nobody would suspect anything when he stayed there for several hours.
This decided, Severus got up and left his laboratory. In the hall, he seized a Phoenix feather, which could be used to alarm Dumbledore, and put it inside one of his robe's pockets. Then he stepped into his fire and flooed to Diagon Alley.
Stepping out of the fireplace he greeted Tom, the innkeeper, with a nodd of his head and headed towards the entrance to Diagon Alley. In the alley, he began searching for Molly Weasley to inform her that he was taking over. He saw her sitting outside a cute, little café, looking as if she was reading. But he knew she was in fact watching the alley. When he went by her, she looked up and caught his eyes for a short moment. With a slight nodd, she showed him that she had realised that she could go now. Severus didn't look back to see her paying her coffee and leaving. Instead, he went straight to Flourish and Blotts.
Severus quite enjoyed looking through all those books, though it was annoying that he couldn't fully concentrate on them but had to keep watching everything out of the corner of his eye. He was quite startled, when after one and a half undisturbed hours, he suddenly heard the well-known voice of Lucius Malfoy behind him.
"Ah Severus. I see, you have found your interest in the Dark Arts again."
"Lucius." Severus bowed his head slightly in greeting. "I am still hoping the old foul Dumbledore would finally give me the position as Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. In case this happens, I want to be prepared."
Lucius seized an especially foul-looking book from one of the upper shelves, carressed its title and said: "I didn't know they had this one here… But when you look for the real Dark Arts, you should go to Knockturn Alley, you know that."
"It wouldn't be appropriate for a Hogwarts teacher to be seen there." Severus was getting nervous. Lucius was an old friend of him, but he didn't like him near when he was doing Order business. Lucius was clever and cunning and Severus was always afraid he'd notice, that he didn't support the Dark Lord anymore. As Lucius seemed in the mood for a talk, Severus shifted his position, so that he could still see the entrance to the bookstore over Lucius' shoulder. Resigning himself to his fate, he prepared for a long-lasting conversation.
Starlett was, again, on her way to Diagon Alley. After what had happened yesterday, Zaza and her hadn't talked much and went to sleep early. But in the morning, Starlett had told her everything about what she had seen and done. Although Starlett was afraid of going back to the alley, in fear she would be detected as the thief and Zaza would get in even more trouble because of her absence, Zaza convinced her to go back to Diagon Alley and assured her that she would be fine. She had felt, that, in fact, Starlett wanted to get to know that strange world that had opened to her, where she found what she had been looking for all her life: people that were like her.
That's why Starlett was now standing in front of the Leaky Cauldron, wearing a dark blue robe, Zaza had borrowed her, and having her long hair, she usually kept in a ponytail, open to cover a part of her face. She cast one last look at Zaza who stood at the other side of the street, smiling encouragely at her, then she breathed deeply and opened the door. Once inside, she quickly forgot all the trouble outside. The atmosphere had caught her. Like the last time, she followed someone to the alley, because she had no wand to open the archway on her own. She wanted to go to Flourish and Blotts again, in spite of the danger of being spotted, because after she had scanned the books, she already had, she was now looking for more precise information. But on her way there she went into several other shops and looked around. She was especially amazed by the Menagerie. There were so many animals one could have as a pet. Starlett found the snakes particularly interesting. But after she had watched them some time, she remembered why she had come to the alley in the first place and headed to the bookstore.