CHAPTER 3

DIAGON ALLEY

When they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, Rose saw her parents notice a man sitting at the bar in the corner, talking to Uncle Harry and their cousins. "Who is he?" she asked, and her mother simply walked over to him, motioning for her to follow. Rose did, curious, and Hugo and Scorpius trailed behind her.

"Cepheus," her dad said, shaking hands with the man and smiling. "You remember Hermione."

"Yes, lovely to meet you, Mrs. Weasley," Cepheus said, smiling. "And these three are yours, Ron? I thought you only had two."

"Oh, er, no, well… this is my daughter Rose and my son Hugo," he said awkwardly. "Rose, Hugo, this is Cepheus Barton, he'll be your Potions teacher this year."

"Hello," he said cheerfully, and shook hands with both of them. "I know your dad from my Auror days. Got a bit too old for it, I'm afraid… and who are you exactly, young man?" Barton asked, looking at Scorpius.

"This is Rose's friend Scorpius," Hermione said. "He's staying with us at the moment."

"Right, nice to meet you," Barton said, and shook Scorpius's hand. Rose was grateful, and she could tell Scorpius was as well, that her mother hadn't said Malfoy. "Well, don't let me keep you, you seem to have a big day. Are you just getting your wand like Lily here, Hugo?"

"Yes, sir," Hugo said excitedly, and Barton smiled.

"Well, good luck to you, then. I hope I'll see you soon, Ron, it was nice to talk to you," he said, and they all left through the back together.

"James, take Al and get your supplies. We need to get to Ollivander's before there's a line," Uncle Harry said when the back wall transformed into the beginning of the street to the shops ahead.

James groaned. "Can't we just wait?"

"No, I don't want to be here longer than I have to. In fact, take Lily's list too."

"That's not a bad idea, go with them, Rose," her dad said. "And, er… take Scorpius."

"We have to stop at Gringotts," Rose said, "remember?"

"Go with James, then," her dad said, "he needs to get money for the books anyway."

"What about Mum?" Rose complained.

"She's taking Hugo, I have to talk to Uncle George."

"Fine," Rose sighed, and Hugo and Lily set off with their parents while Ron took off in the direction of the joke shop. James sighed.

"Can't believe this," he muttered. "Gringotts, then."

When they arrived at Gringotts, Rose entered first and saw that it was mostly empty apart from a few people wandering around and the goblins. They walked up to the first goblin they saw and he peered over the tall counter at them. "Can I help you?" he asked, sounding irritated.

"Er, Potter, Weasley, and Malfoy vaults please," she said, and the goblin's eyes looked over the four of them.

"I'm not going to ask," he muttered. "Keys, please."

They produced the keys and he sighed. "One moment." He walked around the edge of the counter and down the hallway, motioning for them to follow. When they had almost reached the door to the vaults, they heard someone running behind them.

"Guys!" They turned around to see Teddy running for them, skidding to a stop right in front of them.

"Is he with you?" the goblin asked, sighing.

"Er, yeah," Al said. "Teddy, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm supposed to meet Victoire after they do the shopping, but I… I'm nervous," he admitted. "I don't really want to be anywhere around the wedding stuff yet. They moved up the date, you know; that did wonders for my nerves."

"They moved it?" Rose asked. "Will we be home for it?"

"Oh, well, yeah, it's around Christmas now," he said, shrugging. "Don't worry, Rose, you have to be home, I think."

"What?" she asked. "Why?"

"Er, you might be a bridesmaid, I don't know, I really wasn't paying much attention when they were picking that stuff."

"Oh, god," Rose moaned as they climbed into the cart.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Scorpius asked, laughing a little.

"No! I have to be… in front of people," Rose whispered.

"You have stage fright?" he asked.

"This is not the time to make fun of me, Malfoy," she muttered, and the cart took off at approximately a billion miles an hour, effectively stopping all conversation. It rocketed to a stop after a few moments and the goblin stepped out.

"Vault 213, Malfoy," he said, and Scorpius hopped out.

"Er, can I get a new vault? A separate one, under my name?" he asked.

"I suppose," the goblin grumbled.

Scorpius took out a large burlap bag that sat in the middle of the vault and climbed back into the cart. "Just take me to the nearest empty one," he said, and the cart took off again.

"What is that?" Al asked, looking at the bag.

"My trust fund," he said.

"But you're not supposed to be able to take that out until you're of age," Al said.

"Parents aren't supposed to kick you out until you're of age," Teddy said. The cart went silent until it stopped in front of Vault 267.

"Deposit what you want to, I'll have a key made," the goblin said.

"Thank you," he said, and took a handful of coins out, stuffing them in his pockets, before throwing the rest of the bag into the vault.

They stopped at the other vaults without issue and Rose was beginning to think it went rather well, when the doors to the front hall of the bank opened and Scorpius almost backed right into her. "You're kidding," he muttered, and Rose looked over at him, confused.

"What?" she asked, and he nodded to a tall, dark-haired woman at a counter near the door.

"It's my mother," he said. "Maybe she won't see us, come on." They led the other three along the side of the other row of counters, and had almost reached the door when the woman turned around and stopped dead. "Crap," he sighed as she ran over to them.

"Scorpius! Oh, are you all right?" she sighed and pulled him into a hug. Scorpius made eye contact with Rose and looked completely exasperated. "I've been so worried!"

"I'm fine, Mum," he groaned, backing up when she finally let him go. She noticed Rose next to him and smiled hesitantly.

"You must be Rose," she said. "I'm Mrs. Malfoy."

"Hi," Rose said slowly.

"You're the Potters? James and Albus?" she asked them.

"Yeah, hi," Al said, shaking her hand, as James looked intentionally distracted. "And that's our… er, that's Teddy Lupin."

"Hi," he said, and they shook hands as well.

"Thank you for… taking care of him," she said, and Teddy shrugged. "Scorpius, I'm so glad I found you, your father's just down the road at the owl post, I'll go get him…"

"No, Mum, don't!" Scorpius said loudly as she turned to the door, and she sighed.

"Scorpius, I know that you and your father and grandfather said… some things, but darling, I want you to come home."

"I'm not coming home if it's going to be the same as before, and it is! Even if they say it'll be different it won't. I'm going to Hogwarts and having the friends I want and I'm not taking back anything I said."

"Scorpius…" Mrs. Malfoy said, but he shook his head.

"They told me I could go and I did. I'm not going back," he said. "We're leaving," he added, and walked straight past his mother and out the door. Rose glanced at Mrs. Malfoy on her way out and she called after her.

"Er, Rose? …Would it be too much to ask to… write to me every so often? I just… want to know how he's doing." Rose turned around; James, Al, and Teddy had already left. She turned back to Mrs. Malfoy and nodded.

"Sure. I'll write every month or so."

"Thank you," she said, and smiled sadly as Rose left the bank.

"What was that?" Scorpius asked.

Rose shrugged. "She told me to talk to you, I told her no." She was starting to get a little concerned about how much sneaking around she would have to do this year; between this and the Time Turner, she knew it would be just her luck that it wouldn't be the peaceful year she was hoping to finally get. The rumors they had heard at the Ministry didn't instill much confidence in her either.

"Hey, Teddy, have you heard anything at work about… new Death Eaters?" she asked hesitantly.

"What?" he asked quickly.

"Well, I just… we heard rumors, at the Ministry, and I know since you're in Auror training, you might know whether they're true."

Teddy sighed. "The number of Dark wizards fluctuates all the time. Maybe some people got… inspired by that Dark Mark stuff a couple years ago. Don't worry about it, Rose."

"What about Theodore Nott? Have you heard anything about him?" Al asked, and Rose saw a nervous expression flash on his face before he shrugged.

"Is that the guy that kidnapped you lot? Haven't heard anything since then," he said, and Al nodded slowly. "Let's go get you your supplies," he suggested, and they started to walk down the street to Flourish and Blotts. Al walked over to Rose and Scorpius and glanced at Teddy.

"Did you believe him?" he asked them.

"Not really," Rose said grimly.

Al sighed. "Brilliant."