Potions seemed exciting from what Clarke heard about it from some of the other students at breakfast. From his understanding, it seemed like chemistry, which made him eager to get to class since he had gotten quite good at it over the years from practicing with Aaron, Kaitlyn's mad scientist in the making cousin. He practically skipped to class, excited to start something he hoped he would be good at.
By the time he got to class, most of the seats next to other Gryffindors were filled up, luckily for him Eloise was in the same class. He happily slid into the seat next to her and threw her a smile. "So, how was breakfast?" he asked.
"Absolutely terrible, my head of house is nice and all but she's really into healthy eating so I had to eat plain porridge this morning…" Eloise sighed and pouted. "On the bright side, I have very lovely roommates. I have four of them. There's Taylor, she's smart and likes to read like you do. Delilah is pretty cool, she knows a whole bunch about charms, and said I could go to her for help. Delaney is really sweet, she thinks my hamsters are cool and she does this muggle thing called ice skating. She said she'd teach me when winter comes along. Finally, there's Erin, she had this like cool side thing going, she even has blue hair, can you believe that?"
"That sounds exciting," Clarke laughed.
"How are yours?" Eloise asked as she waited for the teacher to walk in.
"They're okay, kind of overwhelming I guess... But they mean well..?" Clarke replied just as the teacher made her appearance. She looked strict with her short honey blonde hair, small nose, and thin face with high cheekbones. She soon stood in front of her class and looked them over. "I will be your potions teacher, my name is Vera Petrov but you will call me Professor Petrov. Now to start off, I would like to go around the room, each student will introduce themselves… but first, pull out your books and cauldrons so I can mark off that you have them," she asserted in a strong Russian accent, a smile not leaving her face; which quickly cleared Clarke's fears of her being strict.
As soon as the words left her mouth, the students began to pull their potions book and cauldron from their bags, all except Clarke which quickly caught her attention. "Gryffindor boy by the Slytherin girl, back row, what is your name?" she asked turning her gaze to him, which to his distress caused others to look his way,
"Clarke Torry ma'am.," he mumbled softly.
"Speak up please," Professor Petrov asked, guilt settling in for calling him out.
"Clarke Torry," Clarke answered louder as his embarrassment caused his cheeks and ears to turn red.
"Can we please speak out in the hall Clarke?" the professor asked, Clarke, nodded meekly grabbing his bag and following her outside her classroom. "I am sorry for calling you out in class… but can you please tell me why you didn't pull out your things?"
"I don't have them," Clarke answered keeping his eyes on the floor.
"You don't have them with you?" she questioned raising an eyebrow.
"I-I don't have them at all…" Clarke whispered softly biting his lip, waiting for the slap.
"Come with me," Professor Petrov ordered. She first stopped at the next door classroom to ask the teacher to watch her students, once that was settled she brought him to the headmaster's office.
"Headmaster Hilbert, this child does not have any of the required supplies," she informed the old man. "He could have gotten on the train by mistake.." she suggested, becoming a little horrified at the thought.
"Now you and I both know that is impossible," the headmaster chided before turning to the child. "Who might you be?"
"C-C-Clarke T-Torry... S-sir…" Clarke answered, fear settling in as he wondered if they would send him back home, where his stepfather would probably kill him. The headmaster, to his shock, lit up at his response,
"Vera, this is Monroe's son, don't you remember, he was in your class. I see it now, he's a carbon copy of his father, except your father never wore glasses and I think he cut off all his hair... His third year." the headmaster said with a smile. "How is he doing?"
Clarke shifted his feet and turned his gaze to the floor, "S-Sir... H-he died a long time ago.." he mumbled biting his lip hard enough to even cause it to bleed. The headmaster's face fell at the news, he had liked Monroe, the family had been well known in the wizarding word and he had seen quite a few of the family members pass through Hogwarts, but Monroe had been his favorite, He found the boy's interest in the muggle world amusing and the fact he wanted to invent things for the muggles wonderful.
"I'm so sorry Clarke, your father was a wonderful man," the headmaster claimed hoping to bring the child some comfort. He then knelt to the child's height. "Did your mother not bring you to Diagon Alley?" he asked. Clarke shook his head in response. The headmaster then smiled and patted his head standing up. "We'll fix that."
In the span of a few minutes, he contacted Clarke's head of house who walked out of the fireplace another five minutes later. "Now, Carter, it seems you have a child who was deprived of a Diagon Alley trip. Could you take him?" he asked, handing the teacher a bag of galleons. The other professor nodded, and as soon as he did, the headmaster sent the potions teacher back to class. The pair made their way to the shopping center through the fireplace, which did scare Clarke at first.
The sight of the shops blew his vivid colors and relatively quiet streets made him enthusiastic. However, he didn't have much time to soak in the colors, since Professor Perkins quickly began to bring his towards a nearby shop. Clarke followed behind, keeping silent as he walked. The instant the pair entered the shop, a wave of claustrophobia came over Clarke, the cramped shop reminding him of the tiny bedroom he had at home, only big enough for a desk and a bed. Once up to the desk, Professor Perkins tapped a bell. As they waited, Professor Perkins turned towards Clarke. "For a child, you don't talk very much," he commented.
"I don-" Clarke started to say, but was soon interrupted by the shop owner which he was grateful for.
"Hello, I am Jackson Maxime, though of course you already knew that," he addressed Professor Perkins. He then shifted his focus to Clarke, "I'm guessing you need a wand," he said with a smile before disappearing towards the back. He came back a few minutes later carrying a few boxes. "Now, this is a nine-inch Alder wood wand with unicorn hair core," he explained handing him the wand. Clarke took it and gave it a small wave, causing sparks to fly from it and create flowers that filled every nook and cranny of the shop. Jackson made a small offing sound and sighed. "Definitely not that one…" he mumbled to himself, taking the wand from the boy. He set it back in its box and handed him another one.
Clarke hesitantly gave the wand a wave, and to his surprise, a little bird formed from the sparks and flew around the room before disappearing. "That, that is your wand, kid!" Jackson exclaimed with a smile.
"T-Thank you…" Clarke stuttered. The pair then left, Clarke's new wand tucked away in his pocket. Next, the duo went to the bookstore. It took an hour to get to the basic supplies and at the end of the of the trip there were only a few more stops to make.
The professor guided Clarke into the robe boutique, greeting the store owner as they entered. "Carson! I didn't expect to see you at this time of the school year. How is Lyra?" she greeted with a large grin. She was stout and shaped like a plum. Her face consisted of rosy cheeks, smiling eyes, and a joyful smile. "Who is this little one?"
"Holly, meet Clarke Torry. He was neglected of his end of summer shopping trip," Professor Perkins explained.
"Hello dear, now let's get you measured for new school robes," Holly said with a smile, helping Clarke stand on a stool. With quick movements and a magic measuring tape, she took all of Clarke's measurements and went to work sewing up his tailored uniforms. Within 10 minutes, she was finished. "I'm also going to put together some dress robes for you. Since you need all new supplies, it's reasonable to believe you don't have them… unfortunately, I don't have the material I want to use at the moment, but I will send the robes to you once they're finished."
"That's very sweet of you Holly. We must be getting back, I promised the headmaster I'd have him back by lunch," Professor Perkins made known. "I'll be seeing you around."
After the pair left the boutique, the professor decided they needed to make one last stop. From a house elf, he learned during breakfast that Clarke Torry didn't have a pet; so he was going to take Clarke to the best pet shop in town, Cece's Pet Emporium. The child beside him, stayed quiet until they arrived outside the shop, where owls could be seen in the window. "Professor Perkins, what are we doing here?" he asked, turning his gaze from the incredible birds to his teacher.
"Well, I heard that you were without a pet, and they're great companions for children, so here we are," the professor explained strolling into the store. While the outside of the shop wasn't all that exciting, the inside was a sight to behold. The walls were a bright apricot orange, with small designs of animals that seemed to move and intermingle. The ceiling was Persian blue with white Chinese lanterns covered in pink flowers hanging from the ceiling. The store was organized with cherry wood shelves that held everything from various pet food to cages and tanks filled with animals. While owls and other birds stayed on the ceiling rafters, snakes and other reptiles, as well as small animals like hamsters, stayed in the tanks and cages. In the front of the store, there were large pens that didn't have a top that contained things such as cats, dogs, and creatures Clarke had never seen.
These pens were what attracted most of the boy's attention. He wandered over to a pen that held puppies of various breeds. In the back of his mind, he could remember having dogs once upon a time, pugs specifically. As he watched the puppies pounce on each other and chase toys, the reason why he didn't have dogs anymore came back to him, Baldric got rid of them due to allergies. He let out a loud sigh that caused his teacher to focus on him, but before his professor could address him a girl popped out from behind one of the shelves pulling the attention away from him. "Professor Perkins!" the girl squealed running over and engulfing the professor in a hug. "Oh, it's so lovely to see you! How do you like the shop? I finally got to open it."
"It's wonderful Cecile, I can tell you put a lot of work into it," Professor Perkins commented with a smile. "Clarke, this is Cecile Peaks, she was one of my former students. She graduated... Almost a decade ago," the professor introduced pointing to the young woman. She was in her twenties with long copper hair with lighter highlights, brown eyes, and cheeks sprinkled with freckles. She wasn't all that tall but she could pass for a taller height due to the black velvet heels with large bows that she wore. She gave Clarke a large grin and walked over to where he stood.
"You know, I bet you're a puppy person. I think this one might suit you," she said pulling a little brown poodle mix from the pen. She handed the puppy to Clarke, and instantly the puppy went to work licking his face causing him to erupt in giggles. "Since I'm doing so well in business, I'll give her to you for free and I'll only charge you for the food, collar, and other puppy necessities."
"I don't know if I can have her at-" Clarke began to say as he put the puppy down, prompting the little bundle of fur to whimper.
"Don't be silly, people have brought puppies to Hogwarts before, they just can't get too big. I had a crup when I was your age, that's basically a muggle puppy but magical," Cece encouraged, scooping the puppy and handing it back to Clarke. For a moment, Clarke mulled over the idea. After a few more seconds he smiled and hugged the poodle to his chest. Ten minutes later, Cece finished taking their payment and sending the necessary supplies to Hogwarts, prior to offering up her fireplace to let them get back to school.
By the time Clarke got to Hogwarts for lunch, he felt like he was in a dream. He couldn't remember the last time he went shopping or had such an excellent day. He gave a loud joyful sigh before tucking his new companion in his bed and heading to the Great Hall for a bite to eat.