Chapter 2

Nid de Sorcier


August 15th, 1665

Carlisle and I stayed in the small township right next to Paris, the little house that we found on the edge of it was secluded. It was abandoned for what looked like a very long time, the spider webs and moss were basically its owners now. Yet after hours of cleaning, it didn't look half as bad, there was only one floor, although I noticed most of the buildings in this time were as tall. It was fairly small, there was a kitchen, two small rooms, and a living room space.

Our normal day consisted of hunting, exploring the woods, and talking.

Carlisle was interested in my world; he would ask me hundreds of questions every day either confirming his theories about wizards or making general inquiries about our lifestyles. I didn't mind the questions and Carlisle's curiosity, he was slowly becoming my very close friend, and I was happy about it. Although some of the questions he asked were ridiculous, and I wasn't sure how they would enhance his knowledge about the wizarding community, I answered them anyway.

I asked questions too, mostly about the time we were living in right now. If I wanted to blend in with humans, I would have to learn how to speak properly as well as dress accordingly. Carlisle was surprised to find out that women were wearing pants in my time, and I wasn't very happy to let those go. Dresses and skirts weren't my thing and will probably never be my thing.

In the past two months, Carlisle and I would go out to the city during the night and he would let me smell around, so I could get more self-control. It was fairly easy, and I was proud he never had to restrain me yet. My eyes changed drastically as well, they were closer to deep orange than red, so Carlisle predicted we would be able to go into the city fairly soon. I was excited; spending time with Carlisle was great, we could leave each other alone and there was no awkward silence between us, but I still needed more. I wanted to live, experience new things, and do magic again. The last one was crucial. I could still feel it inside me, it was a part of who I was, but I didn't have the means to use it.

"Bella?" Carlisle asked.

"Come in," I replied. Our house didn't have any doors, but I was glad my roommate was polite enough to still ask if he could come inside my room. "Did you come up with another question?"

"Yes, I was wondering if you could ask about your parents. I don't mean to pry, and am not insisting if you don't wish to talk about them."

"It's very considerate of you." I smiled. "But it's alright. I only wish I had my family tree with me because I come from a very old family."

I thought about it for a second and that started talking.

"My dad is Sirius Black, from his side, the family tree goes back centuries, there are some of my distant family members living in Britain right now already, and we even have records of their names. Blacks are purebloods, they only married other purebloods to preserve what they think is the "clean" blood. My father was different though." I smiled. "While my mom was still a pureblood, he didn't care about it. He saw no difference; he would have married her even if she was a muggle."

"What was he like?"

"He was kind and outgoing, could never sit in one place, and loved me more than anything." I sighed. I really missed my dad. "He would write me every day when I was at Hogwarts and always got me the best gifts, but most importantly he was always supportive, no matter what happened. When I got into Hufflepuff, I was afraid he would be disappointed because I wasn't in Gryffindor, the house he was in, but he only laughed and said he wished his mom was still alive, so he could look at her precious disappointed face."

That memory made me giggle a little.

"Your grandmother and your dad didn't have a good relationship?"

"Definitely not. All others in my family went to Slytherin. He was the first one who got into Gryffindor, he went against their blood purity nonsense. She even burned him off the family tree that she had in the family house." I laughed. "She wasn't a kind woman, and I'm glad I didn't get to meet her."

"What about your mother?" Carlisle asked.

"I don't remember much about her. Her name was Renee Swan, her family were purebloods, but we never had much contact with them. The surviving members of her family didn't want to do anything with us since mom died, they were afraid our family was too close to the Potters and Voldemort will come for them too. I was only three when she was killed by one of his followers, but dad told me she was funny and could bright the rooms with her smile and laugh, of course, his point of view was a little subjective." I smiled. "He loved her since he first saw her, I look exactly like her, there is barely anything in me that resembles my dad. He always told me when mom left, she put all of her into me."

"It sounds like your parents had a big love for one another, and your dad has even more love for you now."

"His last words were: not you, not yet, please. I think his love saved me; I think that's why I was able to live even after falling through the veil."

"You think he did the same for you as what Lilly did for Harry?" Carlisle asked.

"I don't know, maybe."

Was it similar to what Aunt Lilly did for Harry? I honestly wasn't sure. My dad meant the words he said. I knew he wanted me to live more than he wanted anything else in the world. I knew if it came to that, he would give his own life to save mine. But that's not how it happened. We were pushed at the same time, but maybe, just maybe, his pure love affected the veil. That was only a theory and one that I will never be able to prove.


Today was special, September 12th. It was his birthday. I reached to touch the ring on my thumb. "I wish you were here, I wish you would get to experience this with me." I whispered to the ring. "Happy Birthday, love."

Another month passed with no changes. We still followed our routine. Carlisle knew as much information about the wizarding world as I did now, he ran out of all the questions he had for me. So, this time was now occupied with reading. Carlisle was able to find two Bibles in the city, one in French and one in English, so we were learning the language by reading the two books at the same time.

Learning was easy now; my brain was able to memorize all the information instantly. If only I had that kind of memory in Hogwarts!

"Bella?" Carlisle called as he entered the room.

"I'm in the living room," I said from the back of the house.

"I have a surprise!" I saw Carlisle entering the room with something in his hands.

"I am intrigued, is it a new book?"

"Well, I know tomorrow is your birthday, so I thought we could go into the city together, maybe look for that secret passage."

"Really? You think I'm ready?" I beamed. I was thinking about going to the city for such a long time, I imagined the people crowding the streets and merchants screaming about their products as loud as they could.

"Well, you never failed your self-control outings, your eyes look just like mine. I say why not? After all, you will have to get out in public someday, why shouldn't it be on your birthday?"

"Oh, Carlisle! Thank you!" I ran up and hugged him. "So, what's in the box?"

"I thought you needed to get a proper attire." He smiled and opened up the box. Inside of it was a beautiful white gown with a low neckline. There was another garment inside that resembled something like a bandana, but I remembered seeing women wearing it on their heads to cover up their hair. The 1695 fashion trends were beyond weird to me, but I was so excited to walk in the city during day time, I would have put anything on.

"Carlisle, you shouldn't have!" I took out the gown from the box. "Thank you so much."

"It's my pleasure. Happy Birthday, Bella." He smiled at me and I gave him another hug.

"It was probably expensive?"

"Let me worry about the financials, go try it on, see if it fits."

I did exactly what he told me. The gown fit perfectly, the pure white colors made me look paler than I was before, but the beautiful blue apron that was sewed into the fabric really suit me. I even tried putting on the headpiece and found it didn't look as bad as I thought it would. Maybe, everything looked better on vampires.

"You look very beautiful," Carlisle spoke as I waltzed back into the living room in my new attire.

"Thank you, tomorrow can't come soon enough!" I jumped up in down, smiling from head to toe.

The next morning, we checked that the weather was once again sunless and stepped out of the house. Carlisle took my hand and placed it on his arm. If people spoke to us, we created a story that Carlisle is my uncle, who is taking care of me since my parents died in the house fire. We couldn't possibly be recognized as siblings since the only resemblance we had was our eyes.

We walked into the city and it was as magical as I thought it would be. We were passed by so many people, rushing to get somewhere or just walking by talking to each other. The main city square was loud. It roared with people's voices and music. I couldn't help but smile, the music even made me want to dance, but I didn't trust myself enough to do such a thing.

"How are you holding up?" Carlisle asked quietly.

"I'm in control, nothing to worry about," I replied looking up to see his face. He smiled when he saw how happy I was to be here.

"I'm very glad to see you enjoying the town."

"Look for a place called La dame au chapeau." I told Carlisle in a few minutes, he didn't reply, but I was sure he heard me.

A few minutes later, we walked into a less busy street and Carlisle pointed to the store at the end of it. Indeed the 'La dame au chapeau' sign with a bunch of weird-looking, even for this time, hats display was right ahead of us. Some of them reminded me of the ones Augusta Longbottom, Neville's grandmother, used to wear.

"Hopefully, they have never changed the password." I exhaled and led Carlisle into the shop.

Inside, there were only three people present. The two males didn't look any different than Carlisle. I wasn't able to tell if they were wizards or not. The woman who owned the shop though wore a dark green robe and had a pointy hat, just like the one Professor McGonagall liked to wear. My hopes were up as I gestured Carlisle towards the woman.

"Can I help you?" She asked us in French.

"A piece of magic is a hat," I replied in French as well. The woman raised her eyebrows at me and looked over Carlisle.

Maybe I said it wrong? Or what if she doesn't know what I'm talking about? I was starting to lose my hope.

"British?" She asked with a slight accident.

"Yes, madame," Carlisle replied.

"You have your wands?" She questioned me.

"I need to get one."

"You?" She asked Carlisle.

"I'm a squib, so I don't have the need for one." Carlisle lied politely.

"Bien, follow me." She spoke and led us to the back room.

I noticed a smile was trying to creep on my face, I was beyond happy. I squeezed Carlisle's arm as we followed the woman into the backroom. There were needles and threads everywhere, the fabric was laying all over the floor. I did my best to step on the empty floor spaces but wasn't able to avoid all the little pieces of fabric. The further we went, the more magic there was in the air. It was like I could smell it. I noticed that deep in the backroom the needles were working on hats by themselves. I looked at Carlisle and smiled as his mouth opened. He noticed the needles too.

"Fascinating." He whispered so only I could hear.

We followed the woman until she led us through another door outside. There wasn't anything there except for a large stool and an old dusty hat on it. Carlisle had a confused look on his face.

"Sit on the stool and put on a hat." The woman instructed.

I squeezed Carlisle's hand and went first. I sat on the stool and put the hat on me. I saw the woman take her wand out of her pocket and felt the tip of it making a zigzag motion on the hat, kind of like she was trying to tickle it. Suddenly, Carlisle, the woman, and the back of the shop disappeared and I was standing on a completely different street.

I beamed as I saw owls flying around in the sky and shops that looked so much like the ones I went to in the Diagon Alley. I took a deep breath, the air smelled different here, more magical. It was probably all just in my head, but I couldn't help it. I was finally where I belonged, everything was familiar to me. A small pop sound made me turn my head back and I saw Carlisle standing where I stood just a few seconds ago. His amused face made the whole experience even better.

"I prefer this way of wizarding travel." He smiled at me.

I watched him as his eyes traveled across the alley, we were standing in. It was fairly early in the morning, so I wasn't surprised about the lack of people on the street.

"Where do we go first?" He asked.

"The bank, we need to exchange some money, and I want to see if I can still access the family vault," I spoke.

"What is a bank?" He asked.

"That's where we keep our money. I think the first muggle bank will only open in the 1800s, but wizards had their own way before that. It should be on the main square." I pointed to the end of the alley. "Remember, do not stare at the goblins, they don't like it."

Carlisle nodded and I put my hand on his arm again. As we passed shops, I couldn't help but smile. There were the ones that sold school supplies; cauldrons, quills, and empty potion bottles were placed on its windows. There were ones that sold Beauxbaton school robes with cloaks and little blue hats on the stands right next to the door. There were also snack stands, book stores, broom shops, and apothecary. I noticed Carlisle was amused with the stores that we passed, so I made a mental note to take him to every single one of them today.

We reached the end of the alley and were finally able to see the bank, it was bigger than any store nearby. The white marble stones gave the building an expensive and elegant look, the strong wide pillars were supporting the roof from four sides, three grotesque gargoyles were sitting on top of the pillars. The gargoyles' eyes appeared to be following every person's move. I knew they were the bank's security system. A large sign on top was made of pure gold and said 'Gloire Gobeline', the goblin's glory.

I led Carlisle inside, where the door was opened for us by one of the goblins. I took a deep breath and walked the hall, where dozens of goblins were working behind their stands. Carlisle and I stopped at the Head Goblin's desk, where he was writing something. I knew better than to distract him, so we waited patiently until he was done with whatever he was doing. The goblin looked at us with a sour look on his face, good to know their attitude towards wizards hasn't changed.

"I would like to access my family's vault," I informed him. With goblins there was no need for pleasantries, they were the creatures who valued their time.

"Name?" he asked grimly.

"Isabella Black," I replied.

"Key?" He acquired.

"I don't possess one."

"Proof?" He smirked.

"Hair strand," I told him and reached under my hair garment. I ripped one of my hairs and put it into the goblin's little hand.

"Wait here." The goblin stood up from his desk and disappeared into the back hall.

"They are not very talkative," Carlisle whispered. "Do you think it will work, child?"

"It should. My hair contains my DNA, the time shouldn't matter, I was born a Black." I whispered back. I wasn't completely sure that it was going to work, to be honest, after all not even my great grandparents were born yet. I waited for the goblin to come back, not letting myself lose any little hope that I had.

After the longest ten minutes of my life, I heard his footsteps again. He came back seconds later and gave me a forced smile, that I knew wasn't real.

"Fiddelshar will accompany you to your vault, Miss Black. Your friend can stay here." The head goblin spoke.

"I insist that my friend comes with me," I spoke back.

"As you wish." He spoke, sour look returned to his face.

"Thank you," I replied and led Carlisle past the head Goblin's desk.

I was happy everything turned out to be fine and I was able to get to the family vault. The thought of Carlisle spending his savings on me was making me feel bad, and it's not like my family would miss a few golden pieces, we never had money problems.

Fiddelshar motioned us to follow him deeper into the back without saying a word. We walked for a minute until we reached a dark railway with a small wagonette parked at the start of it. I climbed in the back and Carlisle followed me. The goblin climbed in the front and whistled. The wagonette started moving slowly first.

"Hold on tight, old man." I smiled at Carlisle and saw him clench his hands into a metal frame of the wagonette.

Our speed increased drastically after a second. It felt like we were traveling as fast as the vampires were able to run. I noticed a smile appeared on my face. My father used to take me to our vault when I was a kid every time, we went into the Diagon alley just so we could ride the wagonette. It was our way of having fun.

We reached the vault in a few minutes. The Black family was old and had lots of valuable belongings in the banks all over the world, so we had to travel deep into the ground. We stepped out of the wagonette as it stopped. I looked at Carlisle to see that he was okay and noticed a smile on his face, vampires liked to go fast, and I was happy that way of traveling didn't make Carlisle sick.

"This way," Fiddelshar spoke and led us to a big metal door with golden swirls and snakes on top of it. The Black family was proud to be Slytherins, except for my father and me.

The goblin put his hand on it and I heard the door locks open inside of the vault, it took some time for all of them to unlock and the door slowly unbolted itself presenting us with what looked like an unlimited amount of gold. I noticed Carlisle's eyebrows shot up and his mouth open up a little. I knew I told him before that my family was rich, apparently, he didn't realize just how rich we actually were.

I took one of the leather bags that we had on the door and scooped some gold galleons, I took s few sickles and knuts as well as some bezants, the French wizarding currency that we had in our vaults just in case. I made a mental note to myself to find a map to all wizarding world locations that could be accessed from the human world.

After I was done, I led Carlisle back to the wagonette and we emerged back to the main floor of the bank. I then came to the head goblin's table once again and requested some of my galleons to be turned into regular human money as well as creating a key to the family vault for me. The head goblin looked like he was angry with the amount of help that I requested from him today.

"You can come back at noon to pick up everything." He spoke.

"Thank you."

I led Carlisle out of the bank.

"What do you want to see first?" I asked Carlisle.

"Everything." He smiled at me.

I smiled back and led him to a wand shop. That was the one thing I absolutely needed. The Baguettes Magiques de Cosme Acajor was fairly new, compared to the Olivander's who started making wands as early as the 300s BC. I was ecstatic to see Cosme Acajor himself in the window of the store. We read about him in school, he was one of the finest wandmakers in the whole world.

Carlisle opened the door for me and we both stepped into the shop. Cosme looked up from his book and smiled.

"Bonjour." He spoke.

"Bonjour." I greeted him with a smile too. He was an old man, with big round glasses on his nose and his shoulder-length grey hair tied up in a ponytail. "I would like to acquire a wand" I spoke in French.

"Have you had a wand before?"

"Yes, 11' long, made of cedar, and possessed a unicorn hair," I replied. I've missed my wand; it was perfect and I felt like it was a part of my hand when I used it.

"Olivander's creation, I assume." His smile grew.

"Oui, monsieur." I smiled back.

"Olivanders have always been the finest wandmakers, unfortunately, I have yet to acquire the skills of using as many tree types as they do, but I offer the finest elm, elderberry, vine, and ivy wood wands. Let us see what wand chooses you in France."

Cosme left and returned after a few seconds with a few triangular prism-shaped wand boxes, all orange, dark blue, and purple, with labels at the front.

"Try this one." He passed one of the boxes to me. "11' long, ivy with unicorn hair."

I got the wand out of its box. It felt wrong in my hand, but maybe it was because I was so used to having my old wand.

"Lumos," I spoke, the wand shook in my hand. "No, that's not the one."

Cosme suggested a few more until he opened the second last box and my eyes fixed on the wand inside it. I felt the urge to take it, I could feel deep inside of me that was the one.

"12' long, vine wood with vela hair."

I took the wand in my hand and felt the warmth spread across my dead body. I whispered: "Lumos." And the whole shop brightened up. This has never happened with my old wand, it seemed like my magic was at 100% now.

"Interesting. Your old wand resembled different qualities. Your old wand was for one who carries the strength of character and unusual loyalty. No one will ever fool the cedar carrier; the cedar wand finds its perfect home where there is perspicacity and perception. Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard."

He put his hand on his chin and rubbed it with a peculiar look on his face. Cosme was deep in thought.

"This wand, however," he continued after a minute "Vine wands are among the less common types, and I have been intrigued to notice that their owners are nearly always those witches or wizards who seek a greater purpose, who have a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astound those who think they know them best. The vela hair makes the wand temperamental; they have their own mind and won't do what they don't want to do. Only people with a strong character get to use and are chosen by these wands."

I didn't know how to reply to that.

"Does that mean it won't work with some of my spells?" I asked.

"Oh, not at all. This wand chose you, which means it found you to have a strong character and entrusted you to have it. It will work finely. I don't imagine you have any vela blood in you, that's why I found it interesting that it chose you." Cosme smiled at me. "It will be 5 bezants please."

I rested my new wand in the holster that Cosme gave me and reached into my leather bag. I counted 5 bezants for the owner and took off. After the wand shop, we got to the next store which sold school supplies. I wasn't particularly good in potions, but still thought I might need to get a cauldron and some other supplies in case I needed them. I let Carlisle browse the store on his own while I picked up the things I needed.

We returned to the bank at noon and got our money and a key to the Black family vault. After that, we went into all of the other stories on the street. When we reached the last one, Carlisle led me in. It was a book shop. Carlisle liked reading even more than I did, and I was sure he would want to get some books about the wizarding world. We went inside and I took a big cauldron at the front that served as the shopping basket. After a second of consideration, I grabbed another cauldron and gave it to Carlisle.

"Meet me here in half-hour?"

Carlisle smiled at me as he took his shopping cauldron. We dispersed in different directions. I found it so interesting that the books that I was used to reading were not on display, people who wrote them haven't been born yet. I stared at the old bookcases trying to think which ones I would need. I grabbed a few books on spells and charms, potions, and dark creatures. I chuckled when I found one about vampires and put it in my cauldron, so Carlisle and I could get a laugh out of the ridiculous facts that the wizarding community wrote about us.

In a half-hour, I headed to the shop owner's desk to pay and noticed Carlisle was already standing there. His cauldron was overfilled with books and I smiled. Good thing I took out enough money. I paid for our books and was ready to leave when I noticed something else.

"Subscribe to a Daily Profit, England's first official newspaper! Only 1 knut a day!"

That might not be such a bad idea. I opened the leather bag and counted the right amount for a year's subscription. After discussing the terms with the shop owner, I gave him the money and we were finally able to leave the alley to go back to the human world.


Please review!