Unfortunately for Morgan, Scorpius didn't have a Knut to his name, so she never got her twenty galleons. She did, however, go to Diagon Alley the very next day. Morgan had been to Diagon Alley so many times that the novelty was long gone, but going to get her own supplies made the trip feel brand new and more exciting than she could express. She beamed just thinking of all the things she would buy.
She gripped Mother's arm tightly as they apparated to Diagon Alley, squeezed through what felt like a pinhole. Morgan felt her lungs constrict, and recalled splinching on her first trip. She had simply panicked, and had arrived at platform nine and three quarters missing a thumb. This trip, however, went smoothly, and the Malfoy family landed unharmed inside the Leaky Cauldron, steadying themselves against tables and chairs. They walked out into the court yard, Scorpious shoving Morgan all the way, and Mr Malfoy tapped various bricks, opening up the solid wall ahead.
As Morgan was glancing about the crowded street, she noticed a particularly large group of people standing all together. A family meeting of some sort?
"Morgan," Scorpius hissed, "Hide me!"
"What? Why?" she asked.
"It's the Weasel-Potts!" he growled in response.
"The who?" But it was too late. Six of the people broke away from the group as the rest walked into Flourish and Blotts. The six all looked quite similar, from their lanky builds to their rust colored freckles.
"Fancy seeing you here Malfoy." said a tall boy. He looked to be the oldest, with messy black hair, brown eyes, and a whole lot of freckles.
"Potter. Buying dung bombs again like a naughty boy?" Scorpius taunted, glaring up at the boy, who was a good eight inches taller. Morgan scanned the line of other children. Two girls, one of whom looked about Morgan's age, were looking rather uncomfortable with the whole situation. Just as Morgan was about to drag Scorpius away, the freckled boy noticed her standing there.
"Brought your sister along Scorpion? Another nasty Slytherin, I suppose." he scowled. A younger girl pinched his arm, hard. She had curly auburn hair, blue eyes, and a small nose. Morgan could tell she had a fiery personality.
"You don't know that James. She could be nice." she pointed out. James looked down his nose at her.
"Shut up Lily. You don't know what you're talking about. Why don't you go and buy some glitter or something?" Lily stamped her feet as she stormed off into Diagon Alley, away from James.
"I'll just go with her than." A boy muttered. He looked about the same age as Lily, but much taller. He was rather awkwardly built, with his skin stretched tightly over his bones, like he had done quite a bit of growing in quite a short amount of time. He had curly brown hair, and looked very eager to leave. He ran off after Lily's protruding red head, ignoring an older girl's shouts of,
"Hugo! Stop it! Mum told me to watch you!"
James was still glaring down at Morgan, and she couldn't understand why. But it got her thinking: maybe she wouldn't be a Slytherin. And would that be such a bad thing?
Then Morgan realized that her parents wouldn't just be standing there watching all this. She spun around and glanced about, then realized that they must have gotten lost in the crowd. That was all right though, Morgan knew her way around. She mumbled something about Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, and jogged in the general direction Lily and Hugo had gone. She ducked into Eyelops Owl Emporium, figuring that Scorpius and that rude James Potter couldn't follow her in there. It was dark, and the owls jewel colored eyes and soft hoots and rustles were the only things trying to fill the black silence. Morgan felt along the wall for the rope that opened the shade slightly. She tugged on it, much to the displeasure of the owls. There, now she could see, albeit dimly. As she wandered amongst the racks of owl cages, a rather greasy looking man walked out from the back room.
"Can I help you miss?" he said. He looked like the kind of man who would steal your pocket money, and Morgan unconsciously took a step back.
"Yes, actually, I was wondering which owl I could buy with four galleons." she said. The man blinked and Morgan noticed a wart on his right eyelid. And the fact that he was missing multiple yellow teeth. She resisted the urge to run out the door as a fly landed in his sparse hair.
"Well. The wee little girl is buying herself an owl? And may I ask, where on earth did you get those four galleons? Knicked 'em outta Mummy's purse didga?" he growled, a sick light dancing in his eyes. Instead of looking at him straight on, she focused on a louse crawling in his eyebrow.
"No actually, and I may just walk out now and spare you the buisness, SIR." she hissed, looking shocked at her own tone, as did he.
"Got yerself a mouth, huh? Alright, I'll show yeh what yeh can afford." he clomped out from behind the counter, revealing filthy clothes. He led her to a cage filled with tiny elf owls whizzing about. Morgan was reminded distinctly of Daffodil. Morgan couldn't handle an elf owl. Not so soon.
"Do you have anything else?" she asked.
"Well, we have one. Bin here for ages. Hard to handle, I've heard, bites." he said.
"I'll take it." Morgan said. She didn't care what it looked like. As long as it wasn't an elf owl. She could handle a little biting. The man pulled on the thickest pair of gloves Morgan had ever seen. How hard could an owl possibly bite? The man roughly pushed aside the other cages to retrieve an especially large one. It was the most beautiful owl she had ever seen, a white barred owl with pale, dusty purple feathers on the underside of its wings.
"Finest I ever saw. Female. Nastier than a Hungarian Horntail." the man let out a slow whistle, than a string of rude words as the owl snapped her beak down on his ring finger.
"She's beautiful." Morgan breathed.
"An' expensive, mind you. Bit more than four galleons."
"How much?" Morgan HAD to have that owl. She didn't know why, she just had to.
"Five galleons and eight sickles." he said with a smirk. Morgan sighed. That was all she had. No pocket money for her.
"Done." she said. She slapped her money down on the counter and took the owls cage. As she left, she noticed that the man was biting her money to make sure it was real.
Morgan's new owl was just as nasty as the man had said; it snapped at her fingers, flapping around wildly, and caused a rather large scene. Morgan was struggling to keep a grip on the cage, and was just about to lose it when someone took it from her and said,
"Here, let me. Why would you buy an evil owl?" it was one of the children from earlier, one that hadn't been introduced. With red hair, freckles, and pale eyelashes, he was a classic ginger.
"I'm Fred, by the way. Fred Weasley." he said as he wrestled with Morgan's owl.
"Thanks," she said, "I'm Morgan Malfoy." Fred grinned.
"I know." Morgan wasn't sure what to make of this boy. He seemed like he could either be very nice, or about to drop a firecracker down her shirt. She liked him immediately.
"Okay, thanks and all, but I really need to get going. You know, get my wand..." she said. But he didn't move. She really couldn't talk with him, as nice as he seemed, because Mother and Father would have her head if they knew.
"Excellent." he said, "We can go together." He grinned at her again, distinctly reminding Morgan of the Cheshire Cat.
"Well, you know, my family is probably looking for me."
"Rubbish. Let's get wands first." he started walking. Morgan followed, partly because he still had her owl, and partly because she just wanted to keep talking to him. He was funny, kind, and he didn't seem to care about her family. It struck her that she shouldn't be surprised when people were kind to her, but more often than not she was struck inside the manor with no one to talk to.
"So what's its name?" Fred asked, still grinning. It was like his face was stuck like that. It took Morgan a moment to realize he was talking about the owl.
"Oh, um..." she said, glancing about. How had she not named her owl yet? Her gaze settled on a bunch of purple flowers. "Orchid!" she exclaimed.
"Calm down Malfoy. It was a simple question." Fred laughed. Morgan felt her cheeks burn, but then laughed along with him, grateful for his relaxed demeanor.
"Y'know, you seem okay for someone related to Scorpion." Fred said. "Now come on. Let's go get our wands."
Orchid was still fussing, and Morgan wasn't sure what to do about it. Maybe she should have gotten her owl last, after she got her other things. Just then, Orchid broke out of her cage. Morgan shrieked and Fred let out a yelp as the magnificent bird's talons scratched his nose. Orchid rose up and glided towards the bright August sun.
"Orchid! Come back!" Morgan yelled. To her great surprise,the owl flew right back and settled itself on Morgan's shoulder. "She just wants to be loose." Morgan realized. "She doesn't like her cage."
"Hello? I have talon marks on my nose, here!" Fred said indignantly.
"Oh, oh right! Um-" Morgan started, but a man who looked almost identical to Fred walked up.
"Fred! We've been looking all over for you! Oh, who's your friend?" he asked. Fred, dabbing cautiously at his scratched nose, responded,
"Dad, this is Morgan Malfoy. Morgan, this my dad."
"George Weasley. So, a Malfoy, huh?" George asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes. So nice to-"
"Yes, yes. Fred, can I talk to you for a moment?" Morgan covered it well, but she was secretly steaming. How rude! George dragged Fred into the doorway of the Apothecary. Morgan couldn't quite hear what they were saying, but she had a good guess. Something about how "Weasleys don't mix with Malfoys" and "That girl's going to be a Slytherin, and she'll drop you like a sack of potatoes". It was rather infuriating that all the decent people wanted nothing to do with her. Just because her father hadn't been kind during school, didn't mean Morgan was the same way. Fred walked over, his grin replaced with a rather serious expression.
"He thinks I'm gonna tell you I need to go deal with family matters. Ha! On three, run to Ollivander's." his smile was back, and Morgan was glad. She stifled a laugh as Fred counted off.
"One. Two. Three!"
Morgan ran through the crowds of shoppers towards the end of the street. Just as they were in sight of the old shop, a woman pushing a cart rammed into Morgan, and she landed on the hard cobblestone with a thud. Fred couldn't stop laughing as he pulled her up. The woman apologized profusely, even though Morgan insisted she was fine. Now Morgan's nose was scraped almost identically to Fred's. They shared a laugh about this and wandered into Ollivander's Wand Shop, Orchid now perched on Fred's shoulder.
Lily and Hugo were there too, and Fred waved to them. They hurried over, each holding a sparkling new wand. Morgan pulled out the bag of money her Father had given her earlier for school supplies.
"Oak and Dragon heartstring. Hugo's is maple and Phoenix feather." Lily said proudly, turning her wand over, as if to show off it's wonder from every angle.
"Morgan, right? Nice to meet you. I'm Hugo, and that's Lily." Hugo said. Lily smiled a bit, not quite glancing up.
Just then, a young man with a shock of blue hair walked out from behind a shelf of wand boxes.
"Oy! Freddie!" he called.
"Teddy!" the two hugged and then the blue haired man turned to Morgan.
"Teddy Lupin at your service. Part time wand maker, full time troublemaker." Morgan laughed.
"So, I'm guessing you're going to help Fred and I find wands?" she asked.
"Well, as Julie's gone on a coffee break, looks like I am." he smirked.
"Maybe we should wait then." Fred said.
"Why? Am I not good enough?" Teddy laughed.
"No, I'm just worried you're gonna charge us ten galleons for a fake wand."
"Nah, they'd dock my pay. I wish..." Teddy seemed to be lost in a land where he could scam people without consequence, so Morgan brought him back with a sharp,
"So! About those wands."
Precisely thirteen minutes and forty two seconds later, Morgan, Fred, Lily, and Hugo left a trashed Ollivander's with their new wands. Morgan's was eleven inches long, made of holly, and possessed a baby unicorn hair, which was unlike most other wands with a unicorn core, as it was taken before adulthood. Fred's was very similar, being twelve inches, mahogany, and, most importantly, made with hair from the same unicorn, except taken a few years later, when the animal was fully grown. Freed and Morgan both thought this is was utterly hilarious, and had started a "unicorn fight", until Hugo reprimanded them and they forlornly put their wands down.
After several fun filled hours involving robes, books, potion making ingredients, and, most enjoyable, ice cream, they were all thoroughly exhausted.
"So Morgan, I expect you'll be sitting with us on the train?" Lily asked hopefully.
"Of Course I will, if I can get away from Scorpion long enough." she said, putting into use the Weasley-Potters name for Scorpius. All if them laughed, and Morgan realized that she had come out of her thick shell. She was going to have a good year.
"I see you've made some friends." said a voice behind her. Mother. OH NO! Morgan turned around slowly, terrified that she would be forbidden to see her new friends. She shot a weak smile at them as Mother dragged her away.
"I won't tell Scorpius and your Father about this." Mother whispered. Morgan breathed a sigh of relief. "If," she hissed. If? "You promise to NEVER speak to those- those BLOODTRAITORS ever again." Morgan gulped. Mother wouldn't know what she did at Hogwarts. Why not lie? They would never know. Morgan knew her family was probably furious already; she had been gone all day. Morgan's eyes pricked with unwanted tears as she whispered,
"I- I promise."