A collaborative effort with jdwest91 and Niros The Mad Warlock.

Chapter 2: Lovelyn visits the Alley

Unlike others in the magical community, the Fox family chose to travel to Diagon Alley in style. This simply meant they apperated into the Alley. Thus, when eleven year old Lovelyn, her mother Lucretzia, and two of their house elves needed to go pick up Lovelyn's school supplies, they all gathered together in the grand foyer of the House of Fox.

"Lovelyn Marie?" asked Lucretzia Fox, "Are you ready, darling?" In lieu of responding, Lovelyn took her cue to grab hold of her mother's shoulder with her right hand, and held firmly to the bag over her shoulder with her left hand. The two house elves accompanying the witches grabbed hold of each of Mrs. Fox's hands. With an almost silent pop, the quartet were suddenly located in the middle of the one of the wizarding world's most populated areas: Diagon Alley.

The first order of business to attend to for the day was to visit Gringott's to withdraw some gold from the family vault. Mrs. Fox gave each of the elves a short list of supplies to start gathering while the ladies visited the bank, and both elves scurried off, anxious to please the kind Mistress. With the elves on their way, Lovelyn and her mother headed toward the bank. Along the way, Lovelyn noticed the drastic increase of customers in the Alley that day. With all of the students having recently received their letters, every magical family in England was in the Alley that day, trying to get the best supplies before the shops ran out or the prices went up. Not that higher prices would bother Lovelyn, but it was most convenient to get their shopping done sooner than later.

Ahead of her, Lovelyn could see the ancient stone white entrance to Gringott's, and picked up her pace. As their lineage could be traceable back to ancient times, their vault was deep within the caverns under the bank. Unfortunately, this meant a lengthy ride with the trolley, and Lovelyn was hoping to get their shopping trip over quickly since it was so busy. Stepping through the grand front doors of the bank, Lovelyn was not surprised to see all the usual goblins going about their business with quiet counting and quill scratches around the room.

Lovelyn was surprised, however, to see a family of muggles standing right in the middle of the bank floor. A muggleborn, she surmised from the young boy standing with them. She had to tuck away her smirk at the expressions the boy's parents wore at the goblins. Muggleborn indeed!

Always a witch to help others in need, Lucretzia, much to Lovelyn's dismay, saw the confused family and did not hesitate a bit before striding right toward them.

"Is it safe to assume that you have never dealt with goblins before?" Lucretzia asked the muggles. Lovelyn politely stayed beside her mother, but was more interesting in the boy. He was definitely new to the magical world, which meant he too would be preparing for his first year at Hogwarts. The boy had wild brown hair that, to Lovelyn's standards, was rather unkempt. Lovelyn was average in height, which made the boy taller than her and a bit intimidating with his piercing grey eyes that stared back at hers. His clothes were well-worn, so they definitely weren't well-off financially. The boy also seemed to be wearing a pretty necklace that was shaped like a cat. She couldn't help but to wonder if the boy got into a lot of fights. Ignoring the chatter of their parents, Lovelyn took the opportunity to introduce herself to the muggleborn boy.

"Fox," she said, sticking her hand out and putting a cheerful smile on her face. It was always better to seem polite at first and kick them in the rear later if they turned out to be fist-throwing nitwits. "But friends call me Lovelyn. You're going to Hogwarts." She knew it was a fact and stated it as such, not a question.

The boy paused for a moment before taking her hand. "Hi, I'm Ambrose. My friends call me, uh, Ambrose. And yeah, I'm going to Hogwarts this year." The boy seemed suddenly hesitant in speaking to Lovelyn. "Are you going there too?"

"Yes, of course," she said, a little taken aback by the unexpected… Maybe it was shyness? She glanced him over once again before asking, "Which house do you hope to get?"

"Oh, um," he looked confused, "House? ...Sorry. I didn't even know Hogwart's existed before last night."

"Oh!" she exclaimed, puzzled that someone existed who had never heard of Hogwarts before. "Houses…" she paused to think it over for a second, "are like tribes. The one you get says a lot about who you are. There are four houses." She held out four fingers to emphasize, "Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff….. and Slytherin. You'll probably end up in one of the first three. The last one…. well, they tend to prefer… um… wizards and witches who were born by generations of wizards and witches. They're called Purebloods." She didn't know how else to politely explain to the muggleborn that Slytherin was full of Purebloods. She also didn't know if he'd even be able to grasp what all she just said.

"I see…" said the boy, as he paused for a few moments. Then, he smiled and shrugged, "I guess it's pretty obvious I don't come a wizard family, huh?" he asked, gesturing with a nod of his head to his father staring at one of the goblins behind the counter.

Lovelyn couldn't help but to laugh at his awkward gesture, "So it would seem!" Unfortunately, Lucretzia chose that exact moment to bring them back into the conversation.

"My Lovelyn is going to be starting at Hogwarts soon too! She's going to be a Slytherin, aren't you, dear?" said Lucretzia. Lovelyn could only grimace in response.

"That sounds very prestigious! Ambrose, honey, maybe you and Lovelyn should get to know each other better at the school," the boy's mother said suggestively. Lovelyn just smiled politely. If things went her way, there was a real chance that they could end up as classmates or even in the same house.

"Oh god, mom," The boy groaned quietly and tried to hide his face in one of his hands. Lovelyn knew the feeling and could only smirk quietly in return.

"What's the matter? You don't think she's pretty?" the muggle woman pressed, grinning ear to ear as the boy seemed to shrink more and more into himself "...Kids are so much fun, aren't they?"

"Oh quite!" Lucretzia agreed, "We must finish our errands, but it was a pleasure chatting with you, Mrs. Ward! The goblin your husband seems to be affixed with will be able to help you with your exchange!" Lucretzia bid the muggle family adieu, and followed a nearby goblin to see about their own exchanges.

Lovelyn watched the boy for a minute longer before turning to follow her mother. Such a confusing… wizard! she thought before following the goblin down deep into the tunnels of the Wizarding bank. Their first stop was, of course, the vault of the House of Fox.

"Lamp Please," came the sharp voice of the goblin, as they exited the trolley, "Key Please." Lucretzia gave the goblin a key from her purse, and the goblin opened the vault to reveal the mounds and mounds of galleons and family heirlooms inside. Lovelyn always loved visiting their vault. It reminded her that, when it came down to it, it wasn't only your blood percentage that defined an upper-class family. She ran her fingers through some of the chests of the golden coins while her mother negotiated different transactions with the goblin.

"Have the routine transfers been conducted as usual?" Mrs. Fox asked the goblin while looking through the transaction receipts.

"Yes ma'am." replied the goblin.

"To and from the Fox vault?" she pressed.

"Of course ma'am."

"And what about the…" Lucretzia paused before continuing, "special request I made?"

"All as planned, ma'am." The goblin knew exactly what she was talking about though Lovelyn neither knew or cared.

"Very good! We shall be withdrawing five hundred galleons today to take with us, and I shall need another twenty thousand transferred to…. well. The Other vault." Lucretzia handed the accountant books back to the goblin and headed back to the trolley. The goblin snapped his fingers twice and, Lovelyn noticed, a decent sum of galleons were suddenly gone. That's a lot of money, Lovelyn thought absently, as she joined her mother in the trolley. I wonder what is worth that much? The goblin closed the vault before joining the pair in the trolley. He handed Mrs. Fox a velvet bag, which she tucked into her purse, and then the trio were once again rolling down the rails in the trolley, going deeper into the caverns under the bank.

After a few minutes of travel, the cart finally pulled up in front of the second vault: Lovelyn's personal vault. Well, it wasn't really Lovelyn's personal vault. It was actually the vault from her mother's side of the family that she inherited directly from her grandparents.

"Lamp please," asked the goblin once more. "Key please." This time, Lovelyn passed the goblin a small key. The vault opened to reveal mounds and mounds of galleons, along with a few chests with some cherished toys from while Lovelyn was growing up. Lovelyn approached the nearest chest to pick up a well-loved pygmy plush. Beneath the doll, Lovelyn glanced at the open family photo album to see all her deceased relatives waving at her. Behind her, Lovelyn heard the goblin snap his talon-like fingers once more.

"Deposit made, ma'am." said the goblin. Lovelyn turned around to see that the twenty thousand galleons that had been removed from her parents vault was suddenly in her vault.

"Think of it as a gift, dear," explained Mrs. Fox. "To celebrate your acceptance into a school of magic!" Lovelyn sighed and sat the pygmy plush back in the chest, on top of the album. She rubbed the pygmy's head before turning back around to finish business.

"I would like to restrict all access to this vault to just me," Lovelyn informed the goblin. "My parents have their own vault. Now that I am to be educated to be a witch, I must have a little independence from them. You will inform me by owl of all transactions made to or from this vault. Deposits may be made without my approval, but no withdrawals will be made without my personal seal. Can you confirm this request?"

The goblin's eyes glazed over slightly as some of the documents he held glowed while the new instructions were written upon them. The goblin nodded his head slightly and confirmed, "Your request is now written, ma'am. This vault shall now be Lovelyn Marie Fox's vault… only."

Although Mrs. Fox was obviously confused by this, she couldn't help but to gloat, "Oh, my child is growing up to be such a fine lady! Already taking financial concerns into her own hands!" Lovelyn ignored her and made another request of the goblin.

"I would like to withdraw two thousand galleons today to take with me," she said. The goblin nodded once to Lovelyn before snapping his fingers at the request and handed two velvet satchels to her containing the currency she requested.

"Thank you," she told the goblin, tucking the satchels into the bag she had been carrying over her shoulders. She would likely use the money to make purchases while at school.

"Shall we continue on to finish our tasks? If we finish early, perhaps we can stop for tea at Rosa Lee's?" suggested Lucretzia Fox. Lovelyn nodded, and again they all helped themselves into the trolley cart for the return trip back up to the bank.

The return trip always seemed faster than the trip down. Lovelyn had always wondered if it was because the routes down had so many security features to pass through whereas the routes back simply allowed only one-way travel. You could not travel the route in reverse, even if you were walking, climbing, or flying instead of travelling by the usual trolley carts.

Once Lovelyn and her mother reached the surface again, they decided to part ways to make the shopping trip more efficient. Mrs. Fox went to pick up Lovelyn's robes at Twilfitt and Tatting's and then meet with the house elves to pay for the items had been sent to gather ahead of time. Lovelyn went to Flourish and Blott's to pick out the books she needed.

On her way there, she once again noticed how packed the alley was. She couldn't help but to look around at all the others her age and think, "these are all going to be my classmates!" with some amount of excitement and intrigue. The bookstore was equally packed, but Lovelyn had no problems finding the books she needed for her first year of studies. Although she loved the smell and crisp clean feel of new books, she specifically chose to get secondhand books for a few of the subjects she struggled with. Over the years of visiting the bookstore, she had learned that many of the secondhand books would have notes scribbled into them by their previous owners. They weren't always useful notes, but often she would find small suggestions which she knew would make her life easier.

Upon paying the clerk for her purchase at the bookstore, Lovelyn continued on her shopping trip down the alley. She wanted to pick out a companion before meeting up with her mother again for tea, but she of course first had to stop in the Quidditch Supplies shop. She always loved going to quidditch matches to watch all the players fly around on their high speed brooms. When she was younger, she would play with some of the other pureblood children on the toy broom that wouldn't fly any higher than two feet off the ground. She learned that she wasn't a good seeker since she was always too focused on the other activity on the field, but she was decently good at all the other positions. Well, decently good by an eleven year old's standards.

The Quidditch Supplies shop had supplies for all the Hogwarts houses. The gear offered was actually better than what you would expect, but Lovelyn knew from talking to some of the professional quidditch players that the best gear was always custom ordered and made to specifically suit the player's needs. Lovelyn also knew that being selected to play on a house team as a first year student was very rare. Thus, while she greatly enjoyed browsing around the shop, she knew better than to make any purchases, and so continued on her way to the Magical Menagerie.

The Menagerie was full of all sorts of animals she could choose from. Toads, cats, rats, and owls were among the most popular, but a lot of the female students might also pick out a pygmy puff from the joke shop down the way. Pygmy puffs were indeed cute but Lovelyn was hoping for something a little more social. Browsing the animals, Lovelyn decided against an owl since her family owned half a dozen for their various mailing needs, or a toad since they were known to often run away unless they had easy access to some sort of wet environment nearby. Lovelyn was also not a fan of rats, which left her with the choice from any of the various breeds of cats that the shop carried.

Lovelyn looked over all the cats carefully. She knew that her choice would have to be a sure one since the cat would likely live long enough to see her first born child. Just choosing any cat would certainly not do, especially if the cat turned out to be antisocial or mean. A small calico licked the finger Lovelyn stuck through the bars of the cage. The tabby played with her fingertips a little before getting distracted by the food in its bowl. Lovelyn had to squeeze between the other children to see that a particularly furry ginger cat was playing the attention hog for all the children hovering around his cage. There were, of course, a lot of children trying to play with all of the kittens tucked into the different cages. Most of the kittens would occasionally come to the front of their cages to let the children scratch behind their ears, but they mostly slept in the back of their cages in big piles of fur, ears, legs, and tails. Lovelyn noticed, however, that one kitten in particular was just sitting in the middle of its cage, just out of reach of the fingertips of the children trying to touch it, while the rest of the kittens slept in a large pile in the back of the cage. This tiny little snow-colored kitten was sitting there, in the middle of the cage, almost taunting the children by being just out of reach. This particular kitten was slightly smaller than all the other kittens in its cage. All the other kittens had either blue eyes or green eyes to go with their pretty white fur, but only this kitten had an eye of each color. And, Lovelyn noticed, this kitten was watching her.

"Come on, cat! Let me touch you!" whined a boy whose fingertips were stretching through the thin bars to try to touch the small white kitten. The cat slowly blinked before finally turning toward the boy who excitedly exclaimed, "Look! It likes me! It's looking right at me." Unfortunately for the boy, the cat was about to make sure the boy knew exactly what it thought about the boy's whining.

"OW!" exclaimed the boy, yanking his bleeding finger from the cage, "The bloody thing bit me!" The other children all took a step away from the cage after removing their own fingers, afraid of the same fate. The bitten boy wandered off to cry to his mother about the kitten, and the other children turned their attentions to the other more friendly cages of kittens.

Lovelyn took the chance to approach the cage and greet the kitten who was once again watching her. This is either going to end very badly or quite fantastically, she thought to herself. The snow-white kitten watched her approach and kneel to the cage's level but did not react in any other way.

"Hello, cat," said Lovelyn quietly, sticking a single fingertip between the cage bars. "Why do you watch me so?" In response, the kitten yawned, before slowly stretching out and then slowly slinking over to Lovelyn's offered finger. Lovelyn knew better than to sharply inhale in fear, and she knew that removing her finger at this point would not only be a sign of weakness but also an insult to the small kitten. Much to her pleasure, however, the kitten simply rubbed its fuzzy head against her finger. She smiled. This would be her cat.

Just then, the bitten boy decided to come back with both his mother and the shopkeeper. The upset boy seemed determined to have the cat removed from the shop and was going to put up every possible fuss he could to accomplish it. The poor shopkeeper was currently being scolded by the boys mother for keeping such a vicious animal out for children to play with and adopt.

"No animal that bites my child should ever be allowed to keep its life!" growled the woman.

"Yes, ma'am. I really must apologize! If I were aware that such a mean animal were-" the shopkeeper tried to soothe the woman, but the woman interrupted her.

"If you were aware?! If it is your shop, then you should be aware of everything within your shop!" sneered the woman in return. "I want that animal obliterated! Now!"

"I understand, ma'am, but I-" there was no way the poor shopkeeper would be able to destroy any animal from the shop since that would be simply cruel. All "vicious" animals could be sold for a price somewhere where they'd be able to have some sort of life, but the angry woman would not hear of selling a "vicious" little kitten to be a mouse-hunter somewhere. This meant that it was time for Lovelyn to step in to defend her cat. She withdrew the finger the kitten was busy giving affection to and stood up to her full height. She may only be eleven, but she had long since learned how to control situations like this. She was, afterall, a pureblood witch.

"You will not harm the cat I have chosen to take on as my own," Lovelyn firmly informed the angry mother. The mother, a little shocked to suddenly have a tiny little girl standing up to her, laughed.

"You dare to speak against me? You, a tiny little girl?" the woman looked Lovelyn up and down, noticing her expensive taste in clothes. "You must be used to getting what you want, huh? Your parents probably emptied their savings account to have dressed you so well. Likely a vain attempt to have you courted by someone with real money!" The woman laughed once more before continuing again in a stern tone, "This cat has caused harm to my child, and I will not allow for any creature to survive scarring an heir to the Taylor family!" The small boy was beside her, puffing out his chest to show that he bore the title with pride. To this, Lovelyn simply smiled. She recognized the surname of Taylor.

"Taylor, you said? Then you must be the wife of Benjamin, yes?" Lovelyn asked the woman.

"Of course!" The woman seemed very pleased that Lovelyn recognized their family name.

"And you must be Jacob," Lovelyn said, turning to the boy who had been bitten. The boy, the same age as Lovelyn, did not like that Lovelyn seemed to know plenty about him, while he knew nothing about her. He pridefully scowled at her.

"And who are you, girl?" Jacob sneered at Lovelyn. Like mother like son, Lovelyn supposed, but again she only smiled in return.

"Fox," Lovelyn said, "Lovelyn Fox." Immediately, Mrs. Taylor's face emptied of color. While Lovelyn did not at all agree with a lot of what her father did, she enjoyed the reactions people had to their last name. She enjoyed that her last name held power and fear for witches and wizards such as this self-empowered sneering woman. She enjoyed that it put them in their place. Ugh, Lovelyn thought, I really would do well in Slytherin.

"Come, Jacob. We have other matters to attend to," Mrs. Taylor quickly gathered her shopping bags and hurried out of the shop with her son. Mrs. Taylor no doubt worried if her husband would get fired from work that day since she had spoken to Phineas Fox's daughter in such a disrespectful manner.

Though Lovelyn was surprised that the woman didn't apologize at all to her, she didn't care. Almost all the pureblood families were as self-righteous and arrogant as the woman. The rich, half-blood families where only a little less arrogant than the purebloods, but it was all a political dance that Lovelyn didn't care for.

"Uh…. You were interested in this kitten, Miss Fox?" stumbled the shopkeeper, unsure of what exactly had just transpired only seconds before but anxious to get the "vicious" kitten out of the shop to hopefully prevent any more injuries during the day. The kitten in question chose that exact moment to stretch his tiny little paws through the cage bars to clasp onto the edge of Lovelyn's shirt. Lovelyn scowled at the cat, but it was too late now to change her mind. The cat indeed seemed to like her.

"I'll pay you double the normal price if you will also gather for me all the supplies I will need for ...uh.. him?.. Her?" Lovelyn detached the kitten's paws from her shirt, unsure of kitten's gender. The shopkeeper opened the cage and took out the little kitten to examine it.

"A boy, miss," clarified the shopkeeper, handing the kitten to Lovelyn before scurrying around the shop to gather the requested supplies.

"I suppose you shall need a name, huh?" Lovelyn asked the kitten that she held in her hands. He nibbled her hand lightly while she stuck him in the pocket of the sweater she wore. The kitten seemed quite content with the position since it let him safely survey his surroundings. "Thestral!" Lovelyn decided, naming the cat after the winged beasts that were often seen as dangerous but were often quite the opposite so long as they were treated kindly. With the name decided for the small white kitten, Lovelyn had her cat.

She left the Magical Menagerie, finally, to meet up with her mother at Rosa Lee Teabag's tea shop. Upon arriving, she quickly spotted her mother at a table near the window and headed over to take the seat opposite of her.

"Were you able to get everything you needed?" Mrs. Fox asked Lovelyn as she sat down.

"Of course," said Lovelyn, "had a little disagreement at the pet shop when someone else wanted the same cat I did, but we settled it in a civilized manner." Lovelyn said. As if right on cue, the small white kitten climbed out of her pocket to climb onto the table to peer out the window.

"Oh!" said Mrs. Fox, "Well he is certainly cute! Here, kitty kitty…" she tried to scratch Thestral under his chin, but he immediately turned and started hissing at Mrs. Fox, who quickly pulled her hand back. "Well then…"

"He seems to be very particular about some things," Lovelyn said, as she scratched his chin before turning to order from the waitress who chose that moment to come to their table. Thestral went back to minding his own business and watching out the window. After a brief moment, the waitress brought back a coffee for Mrs. Fox and a black tea for Lovelyn, who sipped at it slowly.

The pair were enjoying their warmed drinks and amicably chatting about topics of no importance when Thestral decided to throw a fit at the window beside their table. The cat was making cute meowing noises while he tried to pat the window in a flurry of flying paws which caused a repetitive soft tapping against the window.

"Thestral, what are you…" Lovelyn set her tea down to address the cat's tapping, but stopped, noticing the face pressed against the other side of the window. "Oh!" With a slow blink, Lovelyn realized that her cat was trying to attack the face that had suddenly appeared in their window. The sudden appearance must have startled the cat, causing the flurry of tapping paws against the glass. Lovelyn couldn't help but to laugh and smile at the unknown brown-haired boy through the window.

The boy stopped making faces at the cat and instead smiled and waved at Lovelyn. Lovelyn waved back and returned the smile, before patting the excited cat in hopes of calming him. Threstal regained his feline composure, but continued to tap at the window with one paw, squeaking out a small, "Meaow." Mrs. Fox mumbled something about Thestral being one of the strangest cats she had ever seen, but Lovelyn ignored her.

Lovelyn watched the tall, lanky boy say something to her from the other side of the window, but of course she couldn't hear him through the charmed windows. She smiled and shook her head at him. He was so tall, surely he was an older student and would know the windows would be charmed?

From behind the boy, an older woman seemed to call at the boy, catching his attention. The boy turned and called something back, but Lovelyn had no idea what it might of been. She watched as the boy once more turned to the Lovelyn through the window. He mouthed something once more before stopping halfway through and laughing a bit. He shook his head and put his hand to the window where Thestral was still tapping away. The boy tapped back once, to which Thestral uttered a complaint. Then the boy smiled once more at Lovelyn, waved, and was on his way. Lovelyn watched him go with the older women, once again wondering what a moron he must be to have gotten past first year without knowing about the window charms the shops in the Alley used to help control noise.

Lovelyn shook her head before taking another sip of tea. The idiot must be a Gryffindor.

The hardest part about collaborative writing is trying to make progress in places where input is required from all participants. It is doubly difficult when these same participants have prior obligations. xP Between school and work, however, we do enjoy writing our FanFic because-in a way-it's like we are getting to go to Hogwarts ourselves! And can you imagine how fantastic of a thing that is?
Something else that is pretty fantastic is watching the story develop itself. We've put a lot of thought into the story line and the plot to keep everyone intrigued-including ourselves. But, again... actually writing it out and making it so wonderful is quite a bit more difficult than one might imagine. lol.
'Til next time!

-Grumpy

This chapter was written by GrumpyGirl314
u/1201199/