Breakfast was letting out and Pansy and Draco approached the staff table.
"Here, Carina, before you go, I have a portkey for you to go to Diagon Alley. You'll need to go to Gringotts; here's my key and a note. They'll get you all set up, then the portkey will take you back to Hogsmeade to do your shopping."
"Not even a full hour of being officially your daughter, and I'm already being sent on errands!" Carina teased. Severus smirked and handed her a note and a key, then gave a separate note to Pansy and Draco.
"See, it's not just you? I've got everyone doing my running around for me." Severus grinned and waved them off.
Carina put the note and key in her pocket and Pansy and Draco read theirs as the three walked to the castle gates.
"Coming?" Carina asked as she held out the portkey. Pansy and Draco shared a secretive glance.
"Yeah, I'll come with you." Draco put his hand up.
"I'll go on to Hogsmeade and see if I can't reserve the dress shop for the afternoon. Hurry back!" Carina did not like the sound of that but couldn't protest as Draco touched the portkey and the two of them disappeared from the spot.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
"Do you have your key?"
Carina and Draco landed straight in front of a tall desk at the back of a large room. "Wow, great aim, Dad." Carina muttered as a goblin looked down at them over his large nose.
"Key?"
"Yes, here," she answered, "and a note as well." She handed the note and key over and the goblin read it over. He looked up from the paper and glanced between the two.
"This way, I'll take you myself."
Carina, having been on a roller coaster before, had no trouble with the ride to her vault. "Why are we stopping here?"
"You are to empty your vaults so they can be reassigned. Your father has requested that the vault of Hermione Granger be merged with the vault of Carina Snape."
"He had a vault for me?" She asked, humbled.
Draco finally stumbled out of the cart and took in a deep, calming breath. "I hate this place."
"Here," The goblin handed Carina a small black cauldron. "Place it on the floor and it will gather all the objects in the vault into it."
Carina took the cauldron and waited for the goblin to unlock the door.
Draco had to admit that he was impressed by the contents of Hermione's vault. It was no where near the fortune he'd saved from his allowances alone, but for a supposed muggleborn, Hermione had done alright for herself.
Carina caught the surprised look on Draco's face and huffed. "Honestly. Just because the Grangers were muggles doesn't mean they were poor. They provided for me very well, thank you very much." She marched to the middle of the room and set the cauldron on the floor. A small wave of gold, bronze, and silver coins flooded the cauldron and within seconds every coin was neatly compressed inside. Carina, Draco and the goblin stepped back into the cart and only a few seconds later stopped several levels below. The goblin took the cauldron from Carina and unlocked the vault where they stood. From the outside of the door it appeared completely empty. The goblin walked to the center of the room and tipped the cauldron on its side. Carina stepped inside and felt the shimmer of illusion fall away and suddenly she found herself surrounded by mountains of gold coins and jewelry cases taller than herself all filled with priceless gems and jewelry. She stepped around the small mountain pouring itself from the cauldron and called for Draco who was still leaning against the side of the cart with a hand over his eyes.
"Draco, come look!" He groaned and made his way to Carina's side.
"Wow. Very impressive! He must have been very determined to get you back if he put all this away for you! It looks like every thing he ever came across that he wondered if you'd like, he bought and put in here for safe keeping!"
"That's exactly what he did." The goblin said. "Every week, same time, same day, he would come here, and request that I bring him here personally. He didn't want anyone else to know." The goblin pointed to a cabinet against the far wall. Its shelves were lined with the softest plush toys and animals, dolls, books, an antique silver brush and mirror set, beautiful gold quills, and beautiful empty leather bound journals. The shelves each had a number going up from 0 to 16. Another cabinet was lined in school supplies according to year. Brand new and the best of everything; there was a set of school supplies for every year she had been to Hogwarts.
"Oh my..." Carina openly wept at the sight. "He really did love me.. Draco, look at all this. I knew he must have, but I didn't realize.." She lost her words and Draco pulled her against his shoulder.
"You're together now. Both your heartaches can be over. That's all that matters." He said.
She sniffled and nodded and cleared her throat. She left the vault with a dainty ring that looked like climbing ivy, one of the fine gold quills, a journal, and small purse full of galleons.
Draco begged Carina to portkey them straight to Hogsmeade without riding back up to the surface, and she agreed under the circumstance that he carry her things for the day. He agreed and within seconds they stood just inside the quaint little town. As soon as Carina spotted her sister on the road her eyes began to water again and she ran to Pansy and threw her arms around her.
Pansy hugged her little sister tight and glared at Draco. "What did you do?" She hissed.
"It wasn't me!"
"It was Dad." Carina sniffed. "You should have seen it, Pans. Every week since I was born he's been going to that vault and putting in things he thought I'd like if I'd still been with the two of you! There are baby toys and blankets and dolls and journals and he even bought my school supplies every year!"
Pansy hugged her again. "Aw! That is so sweet! He loves you so much! Well, that's something to be happy about, so no more tears! Come on, I got the dress shop rented! We'll have it all to ourselves for the rest of the day."
"What in Merlin's name do we need a whole shop for that much time for?" Carina asked horrified."
"We have our orders, now march!" Draco said as he pushed Carina along in the direction of the shop.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
"This is torture!" Carina groaned as she tried on the seventh dress.
"Stop whining, it's the first time you're meeting everyone! It's got to make a statement." Draco shouted from an arm chair as Pansy helped Carina into another dress.
"Yeah, and what statement might that be? 'My friend hates me and doesn't want to see me happy?"
"Shove it, Princess, you put this in my hands, you'll do as I say!"
Pansy snickered behind her hand and Carina shot a glare at her as she stomped out of the dressing room. "I swear, Draco, you'd better like this one because I'm done, do you hear- "
"It's perfect." Draco stared at Carina in awe before coming to his senses.
Carina was caught off guard and looked down at herself. "Really, this one? Because I can put on a diff-"
"No! No, that one is the one." He said.
There was a ton of fabric for it being such a simple dress. It had a fitted bust and fabric gathered at the sternum that flowed like water to the ground and trailed behind her. The fabric was sheer, but there was so much of it that you couldn't tell. It was fell in subtle layers around her feet like flower petals and in various shades of pale blushing pink. If you stepped back and saw the whole thing all at once, you would be reminded of the most beautiful peony in full bloom. Pansy came up to Carina with a pair of pale pink dancing heels; which Draco approved of. She also held out some jewelry that matched and Carina refused.
"I'd rather get something from the vault that dad has been saving for me." Pansy smiled at her sister, and ushered her back to the changing room so they could pay for the dress. Though Carina loved the dress, she was relieved that she was done playing dress up; or so she thought.
"Now that the dress is out of the way, it's time to upgrade your wardrobe!" Pansy clapped excitedly.
"Why do you hate me?" Carina cried.
"It's your dad's orders, now be a good sport and do what I tell you. As long as it's comfortable it comes with us, so it won't be nearly as tiring as finding one perfect dress."
"Yes, Pans, what ever you say. But when we're done I want to go back to Gringotts."
"Okay, you got it. But then we trim that-" SMACK!
Carina popped Pansy's hand as she lifted the long locks of black hair. "If you think for one second you're going to cut the only manageable hair I've ever had, you're mental!"
Pansy promptly dropped Carina's hair as Draco laughed from his spot by the counter.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Dinner had already started by the time Draco and the sisters were back at the castle. Draco, as promised, carried all of Carina's things and dropped them off to Severus's potions lab as instructed by Severus himself. The girls went off to the great hall where Carina took the empty seat between her father and godmother and Pansy sat at her house table. Carina leaned over and laid her head on her father's shoulder.
A tear fell down her cheek as she remembered the vault and everything he'd been doing for her since her birth. "Thank you." She whispered.
a.n. the next chapter may be a little heavy in the icky and ouch department so be warned. Thank you to all my readers so far, and especially to my reviewers! And thank you so much to the person who recognized my doctor who reference in the last chapter, I couldn't help myself for putting it in there and I am amused to no end that someone got it!
