AN: last short chapter about Chandra's summer, next week we're back at Hogwarts an in the thick of things. As always, I own nothing.

CHAPTER 25 - Curse of opulence

It turns out that goblins took a perverse pleasure in making wizards uncomfortable, so they tried their level best to scare them at every opportunity they got. Case in point, despite the less than amicable way they were received and Hermione's worst fears, she and Chandra were simply escorted to the Potter's account manager.

Sawtooth was visibly old, yet he still let out an aura of savage ferocity, something towards which the gilded war axe hung above his desk helped a lot. The ornate crimson uniform didn't hurt his image either since it wouldn't have looked out of place at a military parade.

"I was wondering if I'd have the pleasure of meeting you in person, Miss Potter, I'm not getting any younger, you know?" he said gesturing for them to sit "I was expecting you four years ago."

"I didn't even know this place existed until last year, and certainly not that you were expecting me," replied Chandra shaking her head "I lived pretty far away until recently."

"So I gathered from the papers, but enough chitchat," he cut short the pleasantries with as much finesse as a butcher before passing her a tall stack of parchments.

The first thing Chandra noticed was that she was filthy rich, a wealth born of being the sole heiress to both the Potters' and the Blacks' fortune, and that was just the liquid assets. Despite the high figures she could read, Sawtooth had to admit that in her absence many tenants had stopped playing the rent, making her less rich that what she should have been, particularly since goblins couldn't enforce due payment outside of Gringotts. If she had to be completely honest, Chandra didn't care one lick: she didn't know what to do with that much money as it was, having some more wouldn't have certainly helped. She needed a way to use her wealth in a meaningful way, so she asked her account manager. After several failed attempts –he was under the understandably wrong impression she had wanted to invest her money to gain even more– they finally found something that she could get behind. Sawtooth was less than happy but what could he do? He was just the account manager, he'd do as asked: sell every real estates save Grimauld Place and donate ninety percent of her liquid assets to various orphanages around the world. To sweeten the deal for the goblin, Chandra added an extra five percent for him to keep as payment for service rendered. That brightened his mood considerably.

After all, what goblin didn't like their shinies?

With that settled, Chandra and Hermione were able to visit their respective vaults to collect what money they'd need for their shopping. The pyromancer, despite her friend's discomfort, enjoyed the cart ride very much.

The rest of the shopping trip went very much like one would expect of Hermione, that is to say it was very methodical and allotted an inordinate amount of time for the bookshop. While such an arrangement would have worked for essentially anyone she knew, Chandra knew better than to tempt fate spending that much time near that many books: it wasn't that she hated libraries and the like, they were the ones that didn't like her; bad things always happened to her in archives and such places, ending up with a charge for arson every single time.

So, instead of visiting the most flammable establishment in the Alley, the planeswalker decided to leave a couple of requests with her friend and have a better look around.

She was honestly tempted by the wand shop, or rather she was very curious whether or not she could actually use a wand, but she ultimately decided against it: her trusted gauntlet was perfectly fine, and all things considered, wood was terribly flammable.

The cauldron shop, the apothecary and the one selling quills and such had little appeal to her, partly due to having already visited them with Hermione, and partly due to the nature of their wares. Yes, she had bought two ruby red quills and some ink bottles earlier, but that was more to keep up appearances at Hogwarts than any real need.

Quidditch Quality Supplies got her attention for just the time needed to choose and purchase an economic broom, because why not? Flying sounded pretty cool and was completely out of her skillet.

She visited briefly the trunk store to see about getting something portable: she was starting to accumulate stuff in her stay, it would be a pity to leave it all behind when she left. Chandra paused at that line of thinking, stopping in front of a self-shrinking trunk. She hadn't given too much thought to the moment when everything was said and done and it was time to say goodbye, mostly because it was what she hated most about leaving a plane. Sure, every place in the Multiverse was just a short planeswalk away to her, but sometimes things weren't so easy. Like with her mom and Kaladesh. The pyromancer shook her head and went back to browsing. She'd face the goodbyes when it was time to say them, overthinking things had never helped her anyway, nor had it ever been her style.

Jace and Hermione must have been rubbing off on her.

Armed with a newly acquired satchel –charmed to be much bigger on the inside and as light as a feather, she loved the ingenuity of eartborn wizards– Chandra moved on with her shopping and entered the pet shop. She wasn't going to actually get any animal, it would only be one more friend to leave behind after all, but she still loved looking at the little cuties like the next girl. She almost bought a baby runespoor –a two headed snake that spat fire! How cool was that?– only to be stopped by none other than Pansy Parkinson. The girl –who still sported a visible case of heterochromia but, thanks to Liliana holding up her side of the deal, her right eye was now an astounding shade of purple rather than a dead looking thing– was there to buy a new carrier for her cat and thought to point out that one needed a special permission to own such dangerous magical creatures. Chandra had her doubts that the little reptile busy to gnaw its own tail while sneezing fire could be considered anything other than adorable, certainly not dangerous, but decided to trust the local girl and gave up in favor of asking her for suggestions on what to visit next. Pansy had no doubt: Borgin&Burke in Knocturn Alley, the shady version of a curiosity shop.

"Well, a really shady version," she pointed out in hushed tones "Like, borderline illegal. But they sell tons of interesting stuff."

Chandra had often been on the wrong side of the law, what with being first a street urchin, then a thief for hire and a pyromancer, so she had little qualms about such an establishment. She thanked Pansy, feigned a loud spat over nothing with her because they were supposedly in opposing camps, and marched out towards her next destination.

If Diagon Alley was bright and cheerful, Knocturn was shadowy and hushed, frequented by shady characters and, more in general, those that ill-fitted social norms. Chandra, after a cursory glance, decided that despite her past it was better for everyone if she spent the least possible time in there. Fortunately, her target wasn't supposed to be particularly deep in the darkened alley, but before she could actually enter she was stopped by an all-too-familiar shrilly voice:

"Where do you think you're going missy?" shrieked Molly Weasley grabbing her left arm and almost getting slugged in the face for it "That's no place for a proper young witch!"

"Mrs. Weasley, what a pleasure," ground out the pyromancer freeing herself "I was just wandering about, no need to get alarmed."

Before anything more could be said, Hermione emerged from the bookstore, so Chandra grabbed the opportunity to flee the redheaded woman. It wasn't that the planeswalker hated her or anything –she guessed her own mother would have been pretty much like Molly had Kaladesh been more peaceful– it was just that it seemed that being completely unreasonable and stubborn run in the family.