The next day, on the twelfth, was Ginny's eleventh birthday. There was a party for her, which started out with a Quidditch match. Ginny was able to snag all the best Quidditch players for her team, except for Luna, who was only a fair Chaser, and so her side won. After that there was a game of Exploding Snap, followed by some reminiscing of her previous birthdays. The most memorable one had been her sixth birthday, which had involved pretend marriages.
At that time, Beth and Ginny were enamored with the idea of weddings, and had the 'brilliant' idea to act some out on the latter's birthday. The boys weren't that thrilled with the idea, but had gone along, so there had been pretend weddings between Beth and Neville, Alex and Luna, and Ginny and David. Ron was assigned to play best man for the three couples, Cara as the bridesmaid, and Jonas was the ring bearer, carrying a small pillow holding six rings that Mrs. Weasley had transfigured from buttons. Fred and George had been dragooned into performing the services, which may or may not have been a mistake, since they had messed around with the vows and instead of things like "Till death do you part" and "for richer or poorer" had said, "For the few measly years until you snuff it" and "even if you don't have two Knuts to rub together or you have buckets of Galleons." While everyone had dissolves into giggles over it, Ginny and Beth had also been a bit annoyed that Fred and George had to play around.
Hermione laughed when she heard the story. "That must have been fun," she remarked. Neville and Alex made faces, David groaned, and Ron rolled his eyes and muttered that at least he had escaped having to play a groom. After that, cake and ice cream were served and then Ginny opened her presents.
A week later was the day to get the school supplies. The Petrov and Romanov families had arranged to go with their friends. Also, Professor Snape had been roped into taking two new Muggleborns, twins, and their family to Diagon Alley and explaining things. As he was a bit unsure as to whether he would do a good job, Aunt Sarah had invited him to join the group so they could help, and he had accepted.
There was a bit of trouble when it was discovered that Hermione had not come out of the Diagon Alley grate. Beth and Ron looked extremely worried, and Alex had to reassure them, "Hermione probably just came out one grate too far, guys. Dad will look for her."
A few minutes later, Hermione showed up with Hagrid. It turned out that she had ended up in Knockturn Alley, and fortunately Hagrid was there buying some Flesh-Eating Slug Repellant and so had spotted her. With a grimace, Hermione explained that she had ended up in the shop of Borgin and Burkes, hid in a cabinet when she saw Draco Malfoy and his father walk in, and left when they were gone.
"Was Lucius Malfoy buying anything?" asked Mr. Weasley sharply.
"No, he was selling, Mr. Weasley," replied Hermione. "He mentioned that the items would be awkward to have around in case there was a raid on his home." She then whispered to her friends, "And he didn't seem happy that a 'girl of no wizarding parentage' and a 'Gypsy' did better than his son in the exams."
She and Beth exchanged grins, while Alex, Ron, and Neville stifled snickers. The group then went down to their vaults to withdraw money, while Stephan took Hermione to the counter to exchange pounds for Galleons. By the time they all returned, Professor Snape had shown up with a woman and her three children. The woman looked like the pictures Alex had of his biological mother, except her eyes were blue instead of green. She also appeared to be the same age as Lily would have been if she were still alive. Of the three children, two were girls and one was a boy. One of the girls looked to be a year or two younger than the others. She had curly blonde hair, lighter than Luna's dirty blonde but darker than the platinum blond that the Malfoys had, and sapphire blue eyes. The other girl had strawberry blonde hair done in a long plait and blue-green eyes, while the boy had auburn hair and emerald green eyes.
"Good morning," said the woman. "I am Eva Rosenberg. The twins are Adam and Leah, who are starting Hogwarts, and my other daughter is named Esther. She will start Hogwarts next year."
Jonas brightened when he heard that and quickly introduced himself, adding that he wouldn't start Hogwarts until next year too. "Then you know what it's like to have to wait!" exclaimed Esther.
"That's a relief. I didn't really fancy having to be alone for the next year, since there's only so much reading I can do before I get a headache and I don't exactly have friends outside of my siblings." She blushed, but continued, "The kids at school think I'm too much of a bookworm, and all the accidental magic I did just made things worse. The one friend I did make moved last year, so I've been by myself lately."
"Want to be friends, then?" asked Jonas. "I like to read too, and won't think you weird or anything."
"That's because you can do magic too, Jonas," answered Esther with a laugh. "Sure, I'd like that. We can keep each other company as we wait until we're old enough to join our siblings at Hogwarts.
Just not on Saturday mornings, since that's when I go to the synagogue. My family's Jewish."
Jonas perked up even more. "My family's Jewish too, Esther. Well, Jewish and Romany. Religion-wise my siblings and I are raised Jewish, because of our mother, and culturally we're raised a mix of both."Esther looked interested and started asking Jonas questions, which he did his best to answer. Everyone else introduced themselves to the Rosenbergs. Adam and Leah struck up a conversation with Ginny, Luna, and David. After a few minutes of this, Alex had a suspicion that they might form their own quintet like he, Beth, Neville, Ron, and Hermione had done.
Hermione's parents showed up then, for they were going to take their daughter back home after the shopping trip. They hugged Hermione and then were whisked off by Mr. Weasley in order to have a drink at the Leaky Cauldron and so he could ask them some questions about the Muggle world.
The five first-years, Esther, Jonas, their respective parents, and Professor Snape then headed off to Madam Malkin's for robes, while the rest went their own directions. The Gryffindor quintet bought some ice creams and then stopped at Petrov's Potions to pick up their Potion supplies for the upcoming year. Granny Ilsa was busy brewing a potion, so Remus gave them their ingredients, free of charge.
After buying some parchment and ink, the quintet went to Flourish and Blotts to get their school books. When they arrived, they saw that the bookstore was rather busy, since Gilderoy Lockhart was signing copies of his autobiography there. Hermione looked excited at the prospect of actually meeting him, since he had written most of the booklist. Alex and Ron rolled their eyes at this.
Unfortunately, Lockhart spotted Sirius, and insisted on having 'a famous wizard that had been wrongly accused but now had justice served' be photographed with him. After that, Lockhart presented Sirius with copies of his books and announced that he was to be the new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher.
When Sirius was able to get away, he looked around and then made a beeline to Leah, dropping the stack of Lockhart books in her cauldron. "I have no need of the idiot's books, so you can have them."
"Thank you, Mr. Black," answered Leah, turning a bit pink.
"Well, what a surprise to see you here, Black," said a cold voice from behind them.
Sirius whirled around to see Draco and Lucius Malfoy. "Malfoy," Sirius practically spat. "So, I heard that you were selling items of a sensitive nature today? Very interesting."
"Where did you hear something as ridiculous as that?" demanded Mr. Malfoy.
"That is for me to know and you to find out," returned Sirius. He glanced at Draco and added, "So this is my young cousin. Draco, is it? From what I've heard, you're very much like your parents."
"You're not my cousin," snapped Draco. "The Blacks disowned you."
"Even so, I inherited everything when my brother died, and am head of the family. So behave yourself."
"I think you are the one that needs behave yourself, Black," interrupted Mr. Malfoy. "But then again, I shouldn't have expected less of you. Still hanging around Gypsy trash, blood-traitors and Muggles, I see." His gaze flickered at the Petrovs, Romanovs, Weasleys, and Rosenbergs.
Sirius lost his temper at that point and attacked him. The two knocked into Leah, causing her to drop her cauldron and its contents to spill on the ground. Ana shrieked, "Sirius Black! Stop brawling at once!", but no heed was taken to her. Hagrid had to wade in and separate the two. Mr. Malfoy lost his balance and fell in the process. He floundered a bit in the fallen books, then thrust a couple aside and stood up. With a snarl on his face, he strode out of the shop, gesturing for his son to follow him.
Once Sirius had calmed down, he apologized to Leah for knocking into her and helped her pick up the scattered belongings and pile them in her cauldron. Snape, who had been at the other side of the shop helping Jonas and Esther pick out some books for background reading, came over and demanded to know what had happened. After everything had been explained, he shook his head in disgust. "Black, you really need to control your temper. That's what got you in Azkaban in the first place. Though Lucius shouldn't have provoked you like that."
Sirius was about to retort, but Mrs. Rosenberg spoke first. "Before my late husband died, he told me the names of people he knew or suspected of being Death Eaters or supporters of Voldy-something or other. Lucius Malfoy was one of the names he listed. So why is he still around and not in prison?"
"He claimed to have been bewitched into doing the Dark Lord's bidding," responded Snape. "And as he is from a prominent family and gave the Ministry of Magic a large donation, he was believed."
"I see." Mrs. Rosenberg's lips thinned. "My husband didn't get killed fighting Death Eaters just so things like this could happen." Seeing some puzzled looks, she explained, "I am a Muggle, but my husband wasn't. He was a Muggleborn wizard. We were childhood friends, and fell in love and got married years later. He told me about the wizarding world and how our children would most likely be magical. Unfortunately, he was killed in a battle against some Death Eaters about a week before the Dark Lord's downfall. And about two weeks after Esther was born."
"So Daniel Rosenberg was your husband!" exclaimed Uncle Tobias. "And that's why you looked so familiar. I was the one that had to give you the terrible news about Dan."
Mrs. Rosenberg nodded. "I was too distraught at the time to say so, but thank you for being the one to tell me, Mr. Romanov. Not everyone would have been as sensitive and understanding as you were." She straightened and turned to Snape, whispering something to him.
Not long after that, the books were all paid for and everyone left. Snape, the Rosenbergs, and the Grangers went out through the Leaky Cauldron, while everyone else Flooed to their respective homes.