Kaede was not surprised Hermione found them in Diagon. She seemed especially eager to go shopping with them. Today Kaede was wearing her new outfit, the black dress that went to her knees that came with a dark pink long-sleeved shirt. Around her neck was a black ribbon that contrasted with the white one obscuring her horns.
She was wearing designer brand shoes for once, part of the wardrobe Penny had insisted on.
"Wow Lucy, you look amazing!"
"Aunt Penny is a bit of a fashion nut. The second she heard I rarely shopped for clothes she insisted on taking me to Milan for a weekend. Uncle Nick went with my friend to the Louvre."
"Really? So did you meet anyone interesting in France?"
"Well we meet a family of Veela, which is the more tame version of a succubus from what I understand only they didn't appreciate the description."
"Veela?"
"Basically females who cause an extreme reaction in men and certain women using what's known as 'allure'. I think they just have an extreme form of magical pheromones."
Nick had seemed intrigued by her theory, seeing as how when Kaede wrapped Harry in her vectors they had lost any effect on him whatsoever.
Kaede also spread the word of another emerging trend in first gen females that had an unusual ability to the Veela, and she hoped they could figure out the sterility issue. Considering they were appalled muggles were attempting to kill of an entire race of powerful females, she knew the Temple Guards would have more volunteers to adopt the girls.
However the second Kaede saw the bookstore and the way Hermione's eyes lit up, the first words out of her mouth were...
"Oh what fresh hell is this?"
Hermione glared at her friend.
Kaede staunchly refused to go anywhere near the bookstore with that thing inside. Even she had standards and this guy was setting Lucy off.
Luckily she knew the perfect way to distract the bookworm.
"Say Hermione, did you know there's a used bookstore at the end of Knockturn that sells the old books from the upper years for a third of the cost? And they have some obscure tomes not regulated by the Ministry like it is here?"
Hermione's eyes glazed over for a second. Cheaper books meant she could get more, and there were a few of the upper years dedicated to keeping the library ones intact. There were some who were especially good at removing marks made by previous owners.
"But the autographing session..." Hermione whined.
"Have you even read the books this idiot has written? When Penny saw the book list she was horrified. She bought the first three, and she refused to get the rest because the idiot is either the best at teleportation or he's totally plagiarizing the hell out of someone else's work," said Kaede flatly.
"HE WHAT?!"
"Three of the events he claims to have solve have taken place at nearly the exact same week, sometimes the same day. And some of those areas were warded against apparition and port keys, so the only way to get to them would be muggle methods and those take time. Not to mention they were in pretty isolated areas, so getting to them that fast would have been nearly impossible. And don't get me started on the book involving werewolves, because I know for a fact that's a load of total crap," said Kaede.
"How do you know?"
"Hermione, think for a moment. Being a werewolf is considered a horrible stigma for the magical society. They considered the werewolf virus to be a disease worse than AIDs in the muggle society. If there really was a charm that could force a werewolf back into being human, don't you think they would be a little more reasonable about the whole issue?"
Hermione considered that.
"Werewolves are considered worse than people with..."
"Among magicals, yes. I've heard stories about Aurors being bitten, and then their entire family disowns them without hesitation because of the stigma it brings. Uncle Orion once told me about a woman who erased her children's memories of their father just because he happened to be bitten," said Kaede.
"That is absolutely horrible," said Hermione.
"Remember how we redirected you to Professor Flitwick when you touched upon the sensitive issue about house elves?"
Hermione looked at her. Flitwick had calmly explained and even cited books that spoke about the reason why house elves worked without pay. She had no idea that the elves were being paid...just not in currency.
"What about it?"
"Well if you were to start a group dedicated to improving the conditions for werewolves, Harry and I would actually help rather than avoid you."
"Why?"
"Let's just say it's personal and leave it at that."
Kaede wasn't going to explain that her father was a werewolf to someone who wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut about it to the headmaster. The last thing she needed was some do-gooder moron trying to remove her from her home just because of some nonsense about werewolves being dangerous.
Hermione bit her lip. She was a big fan of anyone who wrote a successful book, but as a true lover of facts, she hated people who stole the ideas or credit from others.
"Look, why don't we buy second-hand versions of the books, and if he really doesn't know his stuff we'll sell them back and get better ones via owl-order?" suggested Kaede.
She knew there was a store in Hogsmeade that bought books from students dropping classes in third year, and second-years were allowed to visit provided they had a note from a teacher first.
Something told her she would be selling a lot of the DADA books this year if her guess was right.
"On the plus side, a bunch of new girls will be coming in this year from Japan, so if you want to brush up on a new language they'd probably be happy to help," said Kaede.
Seeing the other girl's eyes light up at the implied chance to learn something new, Kaede knew she had the perfect way to distract Granger away from the others.
Kaede left Diagon in disgust.
Lockhart was an errant fraud, and she sure as hell didn't appreciate the way he looked at her.
Good thing Harry was busy visiting the twins at the moment, otherwise he would have been dragged into a media circus.
"Oh what fresh hell is this?" said Harry, repeating the same thing Kaede had said not ten minutes earlier to Hermione.
Fred and George looked at him sympathetically. He had come to visit them, not Ron as their mother had immediately assumed (she clearly hadn't listened to the complaints of her youngest son about how Harry was actually closer to Fred and George instead of him) and had figured they would meet up with Kaede and Hermione when the Weasly Matriarch said they were heading to Diagon today.
Why they had waited the last minute when the book list had come out two days ago, he hadn't the foggiest. Though it quickly became clear when he saw the autographing session with the author.
Hence his comment.
Harry looked at the twins.
"Is there any way we could duck out and wait until this crowd is gone? If this idiot is a big a media-whore as I think he is, then the second he realizes I'm in there I'll be dragged into the papers," he asked quietly.
The twins smirked, looked at each other, then held up something that would definitely get them on their mother's shit list in a heart beat if she knew what they planned.
Dungbombs. Outdated, but still highly effective in making a distraction.
Two seconds later they tossed one in, and the panicked outcry was enough for them to slip away to Knockturn for a few minutes to hit the bookstore.
Harry would later swear he saw Kaede leaving a few seconds after he came in, but he wouldn't be able to confirm that until later that night when he went home.
With a slight pop, Kaede and Harry landed on the platform with their trunks still shrunk in their pockets.
"Have everything?" said Remus.
"Yes dad."
"Familiars?"
There was a hoot from Hedwig and a muffled bark from Pochi.
"Two-way mirrors to get a hold of us?" said Sirius.
Harry held up his mirror, and Kaede held up hers.
"Galleons for Hogsmeade?" asked Remus.
They patted their pockets.
"Manga collections?"
They gave Sirius a Look. He chuckled.
"Ribbons and hats for the other girls?" asked Remus.
He had gone on a minor shopping spree so Kaede would have enough for twelve other girls. Kaede kicked him lightly. He snickered.
"Well I see the group coming in now. Be safe and call us if anything happens alright?" said Remus.
"Sure dad/Uncle Wolfe."
The two got onto the train and waved goodbye as the slowly left the station.
It was amazing what a little hair dye and contacts could do to keep the wizards from realizing Sirius was not only alive but in contact with his godson. Talk about idiots.
Hermione found the first compartment of Diclonius girls without realizing what they were. The first thing she said was "Friends of Lucy?"
She wondered why they all had a similar shade hair as Lucy, but chalked it up to a cultural thing.
"Lucy? Oh, you mean Onee-chan," said one of the girls. She was hugging her new doll pretty tightly.
"Onee-chan?"
"It means older sister," said one of the others.
"Room for one more?" asked Hermione hopefully. Lucy was a bit abrasive, but she could live with sitting with those younger with her if it meant having friends.
One of the girls scooted over and Hermione went in.
"Hello your Majesties," said a girl with pale blond hair and distant eyes.
Kaede and Harry blinked at the odd greeting. They had found this compartment relatively empty and Kaede had decided to sit with the girl if only to avoid Malfoy.
"Uh, what?" said Kaede, breaking the silence.
"The Fae wish to extend their greeting to the Queen of the Diclonius sect. Who knew leaving a changeling child would result in something this interesting?"
"Fae...you mean the Faeries?" asked Harry carefully.
The girl nodded.
"Where are my manners. My name is Luna Lovegood, current ambassador of the Faerie Realms."
"Kaede 'Lucy' Lupin."
"Harry Potter."
"You have a nargle in your hair. Why do you obscure your true nature?" asked Luna, cocking her head.
"Long story short, the muggles," said Kaede flatly.
"So what's it like being a Fae ambassador?" asked Harry changing the subject.
"Interesting. You automatically get the Sight, which means you can see things others can't...though people have started to call me Loony Lovegood as a result. However both sets of Faerie are quite interested in how the Queen of the Unseelie Changelings managed to avoid being captured by the ungifted mortals."
"Unseelie Changelings?" asked Harry.
"There are two sets of changeling faeries. The ones most people are used to dealing with are the Seelie, or Summer changelings. They replace children with the outcasts of their set all the time. The Unseelie however, change the child into one of their own to be reclaimed later...unfortunately the Japanese seem to have discovered one of their pranks and it's going to pot," said Luna sourly.
The Unseelie were pissed that the muggles had found out about the next Queen of the Unseelie changelings and were determined to kill them off. The mere fact that they were using cold iron on the weaker changelings, her subjects, really infuriated them.
"And what about me?"
"Your parents decided to see if it was safe for the changelings to act again. They never expected a werewolf to rescue you before your true nature kicked in...but they're glad he did. Otherwise those horrible muggles would have found you by now. As it is, they want to meet with you during the year to hopefully bring some of the girls home and give you a safe haven to leave them in. The fewer girls those people capture, the happier the Fae will be with me," said Luna.
"If you get into Ravenclaw come find me. We'll keep the others off your back and straighten any bullying out," said Kaede. It was nice to finally have some solid answers.
Luna beamed at her. Finally, finally she would have friends who believed her!
Flitwick looked over the crop of new first years, most of them female. Among them was one Luna Lovegood, the mortal ambassador to the Faeries.
The goblins knew of the girl. She was the latest in a long line of people chosen and raised to handle the hassle of speaking for the Fae, who were notoriously fickle at best.
However from the looks Lucy was giving the girl, it would appear that this one might actually last for a change. The last one hadn't even made it to the school before her Sight drove her insane.
"Lovegood, Luna!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The girl happily skipped over to where Harry and Lucy were waiting, and they opened up a spot for her.
Albus, the hypocrite, wanted his Golden Boy to marry the Weasly girl and lead the magicals to a new era of light, according to himself.
Flitwick was the only one who saw that his plan had been derailed the minute Lucy came into his life. When a Faerie took interest in someone that much, they never let go without a fight...and any fight against her would end badly for the opposing party.
Especially now that she had some of her people ready and more than willing to back up any counter attacks. He felt a moment of pity for Pomona, as most of the new girls went into either her house or his own. None went to Slytherin or Gryffindor, though considering how dangerous those two were it wasn't that surprising.
Then again from the looks most of the new girls were shooting the Malfoy heir, he would bet that the boy had something to do with them avoiding the house altogether.