Another Outing

But Hermione had turned out to be right. During the next three weeks, Grace learned so much about the wizarding world from Harry and Hermione and the Weasleys that she felt as if it were becoming her world as well as theirs. She also got to know Hermione, all the Weasleys, and some of the Order members better, and found that Harry was right; even Mad-Eye Moody no longer seemed as scary as he had been the first time she'd seen him.

One morning, Grace and Hermione were sitting at the kitchen table waiting for their breakfast when a large barn owl swooped in through the open window and dropped a bundle of letters on the counter.

"Oh, get that for me, will you, Hermione, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked from the stove, where she was frying eggs. The owl took off again. "That'll be your school letters."

Hermione obliged. "Yes, they are. Here's mine, Harry's, Ron's, Ginny's, oh – Grace, there's one for you too."

Grace looked up from her empty plate just as Harry, Ron, and Ginny wandered in.

"What's that?" Ron asked – pointing to the letters in Hermione's hand.

"Letters from school."

"Oh."

"Don't you realize," Hermione said impatiently, "these'll have our O.W.L. scores in them!"

"Weren't we supposed to get those last month?" said Harry.

"I don't know, perhaps Professor McGonagall made a mistake …"

"A teacher?" said Ron in a highly sarcastic voice. "A teacher, make a mistake? Never …"

The other three laughed. But Hermione simply handed the letters out to everyone. Grace stared at hers. It was written in the same thick, yellow paper Harry's letter had been written on; she now knew this was parchment. She'd never seen it before. On the front was written Miss G. Potter, the kitchen, The Burrow in emerald ink. On the back was a wax seal, with the Hogwarts coat of arms impressed upon it.

Ginny had already torn her letter open, had glanced it over, and then tossed it aside. Grace and the other three held back.

"I can't look," Hermione said. She handed her letter over to Ron. "You open it for me."

"Then Harry has to open mine," said Ron, lowering his voice, "and he can tell Mum if it's bad news."

"Oh, come on, Ron," scoffed Ginny. "You can't have done worse than Fred and George, and she forgave them …"

"After two years of them suffering!"

"I'll open Ron's," Harry interrupted, "and Hermione can open mine. There … are we ready now?"

Hermione nodded breathlessly. The three of them each tore open the others' letter at the same time.

"How'd I do?" Hermione asked Ron.

"You got all O's in everything – even Astronomy!"

Hermione sighed with relief and took her letter back.

"You didn't do too bad, Ron," Harry said. "You got an O in Defense and Charms, an E in Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration, an A in Herbology, and Potions, and … a P in Divination, Astronomy, and History of Magic."

Ron laughed with relief. "Couldn't say I expected any better than that," he said. "I was surprised they didn't just expel me right after that disaster."

"What about mine?" Harry asked Hermione.

"What?" said Hermione. She was holding her results to her chest as if she was afraid they would turn out to be a dream. "Oh – right. Not bad at all. You got an O in Defense-"

"No surprises there."

"Shut up and let her finish."

"As I was saying … an O in Defense, Charms, and Care of Magical Creatures, an E in Transfiguration, Potions-"

"Potions?"

Hermione ignored Ron's interruption. "- an E in Transfiguration and Potions, an A in Herbology and Divination, and P's in Astronomy and History of Magic."

Harry let out his breath. "Not too bad, then. I could take Snape's N.E.W.T. class."

"And why would you want to do that?"

"I'm just amazed I passed, that's all."

"So am I," said Ron. "I thought I'd flunk that for sure."

"Six O.W.L.s, Ronnie?" said Mrs. Weasley, coming over to join their group. "Well that's not too bad, then. You did better than the twins did at any rate."

"Why haven't you opened your letter?" Ginny asked Grace suddenly. Grace jumped and reddened slightly as five faces turned to look at her.

"I don't know," she said, looking around at all of them. "What if I'm not accepted there? I mean, it's not too late to change their minds or anything, is it? What if this is all a terrible mistake?"

"Look at how thick it is," said Harry. "That means they've put in you supply list as well. There's no way they'd do that if you weren't accepted."

"That's true …" she said. Then, holding her breath, she ripped open the envelope and began to read the first line of her letter.

Dear Miss Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of-

Grace let out a shriek. "I'm in!" she cried. She didn't know why it came as such a shock, but it felt so good to say it out loud. "I got in!" she screamed again, dancing up and down in her seat, her fingers and knees trembling.

Harry bent over and hugged her tight and she grinned into his arms. She'd be going to school with her brother and his friends … she'd really be going to Hogwarts …

When she had calmed down a little, Mrs. Weasley took the parchment out of her hands.

"I suppose I'll have to make another trip down to Diagon Alley to get all this … anyone else want to come?"

Unsurprisingly, no one did.

Mrs. Weasley sighed. "All right then, you lot stay here … Grace, dear, wouldn't you like to come with me? There's so much we'll need to buy you …"

"All right …"

-----------------------

Twenty minutes later, Grace and Mrs. Weasley walked through the hidden entrance in the back of the Leaky Cauldron and were standing at the start of Diagon Alley.

Grace didn't know where to look first. The tiny shops that lined the crooked, cobble-stoned street were filled with all sorts of things no one had ever told her about. Through the shop windows she could huge, golden cauldrons, owls and other pets of all different sizes, stacks of books, mannequins that could really move that were modeling what she could only suppose were the latest fashions, broomsticks on display, different wizarding games and toys …

"We'll have to go and get your money out of the bank first," said Mrs. Weasley, checking the five supply lists she was carrying inside her roomy purse. "Then we'll go to Flourish and Blotts and get everyone their books and Ginny says she'll need a new broom … I do wish they'd sent these out a bit earlier …"

Grace let Mrs. Weasley ramble on and began to watch the people instead. There were not so many witches and wizards shopping as Harry had said there would be. Every face seemed full of terror and fear; they spent no time dawdling, but hurried from shop to shop. Grace knew this had everything to do with Voldemort. From what Harry had said, everyone in the wizarding world had been terrified for fifteen years at the thought of him returning to power, and now their worst fears had been recognized. She could see several others her age, being dragged from store to store by their parents and could hear snippets of their conversations.

"Come on, Euan, we haven't got all day."

"It's not polite to stare."

"Mum! Anna's touching me!"

"I've had just about enough. You three wait till your father hears about this."

"When are we going to buy my wand?"

"Mum, can we go to Weasleys' when we're done?"

Yes, Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, Fred and George's shop seemed to come up quite a lot in conversation. It seemed most everyone her age was eager to go there. Grace was happy for the twins; it looked like business must be good.

"Here we are, Gringotts."

Grace stretched her neck trying to see the top of the building. Gringotts was a three-story building, made entirely of white marble. She and Mrs. Weasley made their way through a pair of bronze doors with an inscription engraved on it:

Enter, stranger, but take heed,

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take and do not earn,

Must pay dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors,

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Grace shivered a little. Mrs. Weasley seemed unfazed by this message; she pushed the doors open. Behind the bronze doors was a long, low, marble hallway, at the end of which were two silver doors. Mrs. Weasley pushed those open as well, and they found themselves in a large room with high ceilings and marble floors. Behind desks set along one side of the room were …

Grace sucked in her breath. Goblins!

"It's all right, dear, don't be frightened. They're not going to hurt you. Let's take this one all the way down at the end – he looks free."

They made their way across the giant room, their shoes clacking on the floor.

"We'd like to visit the Weasley, Potter, Granger, and Jorkins vaults, please," Mrs. Weasley said to the goblin. Grace looked up at her in surprise but said nothing. Grammy's vault …

"You got the keys for all those?"

Mrs. Weasley produced four tiny keys. Three of them were gold and the fourth looked black.

"That's in order," the goblin said. "Griphook will take you down."

--------------------------

"Down" meant hurtling down a cold, dank, stone passageway in a cart, just like in a mine or some bizarre roller coaster. They finally slowed to a stop.

The three of them, Mrs. Weasley, Grace, and the goblin named Griphook, climbed out of the cart. There was a door in front of them, with the number 687 clearly marked on it. Mrs. Weasley handed the key to Griphook and he inserted it into a keyhole and the door slowly swung open.

Inside were mounds and mounds of gold, silver, and bronze coins, all glinting slightly in the lamplight coming from the lantern the goblin held. Mrs. Weasley quickly reached into the vault and scooped up a large pile of these coins.

"This was your parents' vault, dear," she said as they climbed back into the cart. "Harry's been using it for years, and I guess it's yours now also, but your – Ms. Jorkins had her own vault and I think Dumbledore said you should use that up first …"

Grace nodded. She was too sick from the cart ride to open her mouth.

Next they went to the Weasley vault, number 579. There wasn't much inside, compared to Harry's fortune. And her fortune, Grace reminded herself. It was her fortune as well.

The third vault they went to was Hermione's. The door slowly swung open and they could see Muggle money inside … actual dollar bills. Mrs. Weasley started sifting through the stacks of money.

"Help me out here, dear. How much do you think she'll need for the year? I can't figure these Muggle prices …"

Grace held up two hundred dollar bills.

"All right, thank you. We'll have to get it exchanged up at the front desk …"

Back in the cart, and they were finally on their way to Grammy's vault.

Griphook slid the key into the keyhole, and the door slowly swung open. Inside was a decent amount of gold – not a fortune like Harry's, but more than Mrs. Weasley had in her vault.

After exchanging Hermione's dollars and cents for Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts, they left the building and went first to the bookshop, Flourish and Blotts. Mrs. Weasley went up to the front counter and tried to catch the attendant's attention while Grace wandered around the store.

In one corner of the shop, she found a whole section dedicated to children's books. She sat for half an hour, enjoying Mad Muggle comic books and the very popular Nimrods series. Finally, Mrs. Weasley came by to collect her.

"I thought you'd be in here," she said. "It's nearly lunchtime. Come, we'll buy something to eat."

They ate a hurried lunch at The Caper Café and then continued shopping.

"Next stop is Madam Malkin's for you, dear. And then we'll have to go to Ethel's Extras, Hermione mentioned something about new socks, and then Sophie's Secondhand Shop, Ginny's robes are getting a bit too short, so are Ron's come to think of it …"

They went quickly through all those clothing stores, and then to the Apothecary for potion supplies, and then to Nettle's Necessary Items for her cauldron, scales, and telescope.

The second to last shop they visited was Ollivanders, to buy Grace a wand. She thought Mr. Ollivander was exactly as Harry and the others had described him: tall, eccentric, and just a little scary. After trying only ten or so different wands, he found the right one for her: eleven and a half inches, made of maple wood, and containing a unicorn hair.

Last but not least, Mrs. Weasley took her down to Fred and Geroge's shop. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was a nice, friendly, busy place, much like the Burrow. The sweets and firecrackers and other sorts of things were jammed together in an organized, yet helter-skelter fashion on rough, wooden shelves built into the wall. Fred stood behind the counter, helping three girls a little older than Grace make a selection. He grinned at the two of them as they entered.

"Hello, Mrs. Weasley!" he called with a grin. "I'll be with you in a moment. Feel free to shop around …"

"You know perfectly well I'm not buying anything," she said. "Is George in the back?"

"Yeah … hey, Grace …" Fred beckoned her over to the counter as Mrs. Weasley went into the back room. She drew closer.

"Heard you're starting Hogwarts this year."

She smiled. "Yep. Got my letter this morning."

"You want to buy a couple Skiving Snackboxes? You'd be the only one in your year with them …"

"No, I don't think so …"

"Aww, c'mon," said one of the girls. "It's all in good fun. The teachers all know about them."

"Of course," she said. "The demonstrations last year, Harry told me about Professor Um-"

"Argh!" cried Fred, clapping his hands over his ears. The other girls giggled. "We do not speak her name under this roof, oh unenlightened one!"

"Sorry."

"There's a whole list in the back," another of the girls said. "We'll take you there if you want. It's great."

Grace hesitated a moment before agreeing. "Sure."

"We'll be back in a moment," the first girl said to Fred.

"If you insist," he said as another customer came in. Grace allowed herself to be pulled through the same door Mrs. Weasley had just vanished into.

The back room of the shop turned out to be not a storage room, as she had expected, but a sort of … stage. Many large cushions were spread out on the floor. At the far end of the room was a raised platform, on which George Weasley stood. A large, wooden barrel filled with some kind of candy was set up on the stage next to him. There were a few more kids her age sitting or standing around the room, watching George intently. There was no sign of Mrs. Weasley.

The girls brought her over to a large chart that took up a sizable portion of the wall.

"That's what Fred was talking about," one of them said. "See, rule #3: No mentioning of Dolores Umbridge in this establishment."

"You can never take them seriously," said the second.

"Hey, there, Grace!" called George. She and the other girls moved closer to the platform. "Care to be my next tester?"

"No, I don't think so …"

"I will," said one of the girls.

"Jess!"

"Finally! A volunteer!" cried George. "Right this way, Jess. Here, just bite into this little morsel right here," he said, reaching into the barrel and pulling out what Grace recognized as an Electo.

Jess chewed the candy. Nothing happened for about five seconds, and then –

"Ouch!"

She spat it out onto the stage. "What is that thing?"

"An Electo," offered Grace.

"That's right," said George. "Electos. Administer an electrical shock when come into contact with liquids. Just imagine your worst enemy chomping down on one of those …"

Jess grinned. "I'll take a dozen."

George laughed. "Don't get too hasty. They aren't for sell yet, but they'll be ready in time for the Christmas rush! Use the mail order slips provided in the back of our complementary catalogs!"

One of the girls shook her head exasperatingly. "We've got to go back to the front anyway. See you at school … Grace, is it?"

She nodded.

"We'll see you there. I'm Laurie, that's Jess over there, and the quiet one is Teri. We're in second year."

"See you," Grace said as Mrs. Weasley strode over to them, clutching a piece of parchment in her hand.

"Time to go, love. Will you be coming down for dinner?" she asked George.

"Not sure yet," he answered. "We'll probably stay in Muggle London tonight …"

-------------------

Mrs. Weasley and Grace made their way back down the now-darkening alleyways of Diagon Alley until they came to The Leaky Cauldron and Flooed home.

Home.

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A/N: Well, that was long. So, what did you think? Tell me (good or bad) when you review! And by the way, I am American and any intentional use of a British phrase other than "Mum" and "Post" is purely accidental. That's why Hermione has dollars in her bank account instead of pounds.

While I'm on the subject of reviews, thanks SO much to Miss Lady Padfoot, JCsDancerGurl, and Droplets of Hope for reviewing so much and a HUGE thank you to everyone that did, I really really really (I can't stress this enough) appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or places. They belong to JK Rowling. I own Grace and a bunch of the stores on Diagon Alley and Laurie, Jess, and Teri ... but they are all thanks to JK's creations!