A/N: I'm not dead! And neither is this story! Or Promises!
Chapter 3
Diagon Alley is known for being busy with customers and bustling students and parents right before the school terms starts. July 20th was no exception to this observation. With a muffled pop, Severus, Maia, Harry, Sirius, and Tem all arrived at the designated safe apparating point next to Gringotts. As soon as they landed, Tem unwrapped her arms from around Severus' waist and took his hand, much to the wizard's annoyance.
"Here we are kids," Maia told the two first years and the third year.
Neither Harry nor Tem had ever been to the magical alley before, at least that they could remember, and were captivated by what they saw. Everywhere they looked, there were shops full of books, potions ingredients, magical animals, and so much more. As they both took it in, Severus and Maia led both of them by the hand out of the apparition point, so they would not impede traffic, with Sirius following close behind.
"Where shall we go first?" Severus questioned Maia. He was answered by a roll of the witch's eyes.
"Gringotts," she answered as if it were obvious. She nodded towards the formidable white marble building they now stood in front of.
Severus and Maia led the trio of students into the goblin bank, Maia whispering to Harry not to stare and Tem telling Severus everything she could remember about goblins.
"But they like politeness most because it shows that we don't think we're better, 'cause we're really not," Tem finished as they all neared the large podium farthest from the doors. Behind it sat a wizened goblin writing something on a piece of parchment. Maia stepped forward when he paused in his writing and looked up.
"Hello, sir. We would like to make two withdrawals today," she told the goblin politely but firmly.
"And what vaults would these withdrawals be from?" he inquired.
"Mr. Harry Potter's trust vault and the Maclaurin family's vault," Maia replied in the same tone as before.
"The keys," the goblin ordered while holding out his hand.
Severus withdrew Harry's key from his pocket and placed it in the outstretched hand while Maia took her key off of a chain around her neck and also placed it in the goblin's hand. The goblin looked them over slowly before he seemed satisfied with them.
"They are both in order. Griphook will escort you down," he told the witch and wizard.
From an unseen hallway to the left of the podium, a smaller goblin came out. He was younger than the other goblin, who was once again writing at the podium, by at least several decades. He gestured for them to follow him back down a different hall and into a cavern. There was a screeching noise as a cart pulled up next to the six on a rail system.
"Please sit down and do not try to reach outside of the cart while it is in motion."
Griphook sat down at the front of the cart without turning around to them again. It was quickly decided that Harry and Tem would sit beside Severus while Sirius stayed close to his older sister. Then they were off, going through cavern after cavern at a blinding speed. Across from Maia, Harry and Tem were smiling and laughing in the latter's case, with Severus allowing a small ghost of a smile to trace his lips. Maia looked down at her brother, who was as green as ever when it came to the cart ride through Gringotts. Finally they began to slow and then come to a stop outside of a vault.
"This is Mr. Potter's vault," Griphook told the passengers. Harry and Severus stood and followed Griphook out of the cart, leaving an excited Tem, a green Sirius, and a patient Maia.
"Sirius, you changed color," Tem told her brother matter-of-factly. Sirius' reply was to groan and lean against Maia.
"Don't tease him Tem, he just doesn't like the loops," she admonished her younger sister. "We'll find you a stomach soother once we're done here, don't worry," she whispered to the queasy boy next to her. This earned her a small smile.
"Please take a seat," Griphook told Harry and Severus as they came back to the cart a few minutes later. Again they were off after they resettled in their previous seats. Tem and Harry were back to laughing and smiling in the wind while Sirius continued to grow greener. It was a blessing to him when the cart stopped again at a deeper vault. Maia carefully stepped out.
"Sirius, you should stay here. Come on Tem," she told the energized eleven year old. They both made their way to the vault that was their father's with Griphook. The goblin took the key and inserted it into a secret lock in the door. It swung open to reveal orderly piles of gold, silver, and bronze.
"This is the family wealth. Father left it to the three of us in his will. From this day forth, you can come here and the goblins will let you ride down here alone," Maia told her younger sister quietly. "There are some old pictures in the back that we could take with us. Your mother left them for you and Sirius for when you went to school."
Tem slowly nodded as she took it all in. "Does Sirius know about the pictures?" she asked.
Maia nodded. "He looked at them our first time here, but he didn't want to take them until you started at Hogwarts. Come on, we need to get back to the surface before it gets too late," she said as she took a bag from the wall inside of the vault and filled it with enough gold to buy Sirius and Tem's school supplies, and maybe a pet for Sirius later. Before they left, Tem grabbed the set of pictures in the back of the vault and held them to her chest tightly when she saw the first one. There were tears in her eyes as the sisters came back to the cart.
oooOOOooo
Back on the surface, Maia and Severus led the three students outside into the midafternoon light. Severus looked at Sirius and pulled a vial from his jacket. In it was a periwinkle blue potion.
"Drink this, it will help," he told the thirteen year old. Sirius quickly drank down the potion and then made a gagging noise.
"That tastes disgusting," he told his future teacher as he handed back the now empty vial.
"But it helped." Severus smirked at Sirius as the boy slowly nodded.
"Now that you're done, where should we go first?" Maia asked the group. Immediately Sirius mentioned the book shop, Tem said Ollivander's, Harry shrugged his shoulders, and Severus told them the apothecary should be last. "Alright, alright. Let's go to Ollivander's first then and get your wands. Then we'll get your books and uniforms and, to make Severus happy, the apothecary will be last. Does that sound agreeable to everyone?" Maia risked asking.
With a nod from everyone, the group set off for Ollivander's wand shop. When they stepped inside they were met with diffused light and dusty shelves holding innumerable amounts of wands. Maia coughed quietly to get the ever absent minded store owner to come out.
"Ah, hello, who do we have here?" an old man greeted as he came out from behind some of the back shelves. He had wispy silver hair and grey eyes that had a strange focus to them. "Who will be receiving a wand today?"
Maia gently pushed Tem and Harry forward to meet the quirky wizard. Ollivander held out his hand to each of them in turn and then asked them their names.
"I'm Tem," the young witch replied happily.
"I'm Harry," the wizard beside her said with a bit less enthusiasm.
"Hm, that is not you real name, is it Tem?" Ollivander asked while pulling out a tape measure and tapping it with his own wand. The tape began flying around Harry and measuring every inch of him, including his nose. Then it moved onto Tem as Ollivander gave it another tap.
"Well, no," Tem managed to say before the tape measure started swirling around her. She laughed as the wand maker gave it another tap and the tape whistled across her nose and back into the dispenser. "My first name is Margo, but I don't like it, so I go by Tem," she finally answered.
"Hm, interesting," the wand maker commented as he moved back into the stacks.
He came back with about ten different wands and handed one to each of the new students. Just as quickly, he replaced them with different wands. Four or five wands later, the wand in Tem's hand let out a silent firework of purple and silver, much to the girl's delight.
"Interesting combination, silver lime and thestral hair. Have you dreamed of them?" Ollivander asked her cryptically.
Tem bit who lip before answering. "Who, sir?"
The wand maker nodded his head as if that answered the question and continued trying to find Harry a wand. Tem stepped back between Maia and Severus and watched the process with everyone else. Maia put her arm around the younger witch's shoulders and Tem leaned into the contact. Five minutes and a teetering stack of wands later, Ollivander seemed struck with an idea and disappeared into the stacks again. A moment later he was back with another wand that seemed no different from the other wands at this point.
"I wonder..." the wand maker mumbled as he placed the wand in Harry's hand. Another moment passed and then the wand emitted gold and red sparks to Harry's relief. "Curious," Ollivander commented as he turned to the register to ring up the two wands. A minute passed before someone decided to speak.
"What's curious, sir?" Harry asked when the old wizard did not elaborate further. Ollivander looked up in surprise, as if he had forgotten they were there.
"I remember every wand I've ever sold Mr. Potter," he began. "Yes I know who you are, and you Miss Maclaurin. I remember both your parents' wands also. What is curious Mr. Potter is that that wand has a phoenix tail feather and that phoenix gave one other feather... Just one other. It is curious that the wand that holds that feather is in fact the wand that gave you that scar." Ollivander paused for breath, or for dramatic effect, no one could actually tell. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things with that wand. Terrible things, but great. I think we can expect great things from you Mr. Potter. Now, that will be seven galleons for you and ten galleons for Miss Maclaurin."
Ollivander quickly rang up the purchases. As soon as Harry and Tem had their wands, the group left Ollivander's. They walked a ways away from the shop, not speaking until they came to the front of Madam Malkan's Robes for All Occasions. After spending ten minutes inside the shop getting Harry and Tem robes for Hogwarts and having Sirius' lengthened as he had grown over the summer, they spent another five minutes talking to or mutually glaring at Draco and Narcissa Malfoy respectively, the former having been in the back of the shop with Harry and Tem.
Harry had taken an immediate dislike to Draco's arrogance while Tem had wanted to know more about the boy that could potentially be in her classes that year. Narcissa had been retrieving her son when Maia and Severus were leading their three out of the shop and had stopped Severus to speak to him, pointedly ignoring Maia. In return, Maia just took Harry's and Tem's hands and started walking to the book store with Sirius eagerly following.
"Sirius, can I have your old school books? The one's that haven't changed anyway." Tem asked her brother as they stepped into the busy shop.
"Sure, alright," he answered with a nod.
Maia raised her eyebrow at her sister in question.
"He put loads of notes in them," Tem whispered to her. Her response earned her a smirk from her older sister. The school year hadn't even started and the first year already had a Ravenclaw helping her out.
Within ten minutes Harry, Tem, and Sirius had the books they would need for the year and Maia decided while they waited for Severus, she would give them all a special treat. She pulled the three students close and spoke over the bustle of the shop as well as she could.
"I want each of you to pick out a book to read for fun. I don't care what book it is as long as it is appropriate and not a school aid," Maia told them. Sirius and Tem immediately ran off to find a book while Harry just stayed by Maia. "Harry, I want you to get a book too," she told him gently. He looked up at her disbelievingly. "Call it an early birthday present. Go on." Maia gently steered him towards the book shelf that Tem was perusing and then went back to standing near the door.
"Where have the dunderheads gotten off to now?" Severus asked Maia when he came through the door a couple minutes later.
The witch smirked but did not answer. "What did Cissa want?" she inquired instead.
Severus raised an eyebrow at Maia's address of Narcissa. He would have to find out how the older witch knew the pureblood, which he was already planning to do due to Narcissa's behavior towards a fellow pureblood.
"She only wanted to know if I was teaching the first years this year. She seems to not want you anywhere near Draco. Would you mind divulging why?" he questioned Maia.
"Not today, Severus," the witch answered quietly with a familiar faraway look in her eyes.
Severus knew he wouldn't get anything else from her so he went back to his original question. "Where are Potter and your siblings?"
Maia came back to the present and smiled mischievously at her colleague. "I sent them to find one book each for fun reading," she said nonchalantly. "Sirius and Tem usually take about ten minutes but they have taken half an hour before. Harry looked as if he might take that long anyway."
"You what?" Severus hissed out.
Maia had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing at his expression but that did not stop the smile that lit up her face. Severus looked away from her and proceeded to ignore everything and everyone until a certain young brunette came up to him to show him her book choice.
"Mr. Severus, it's a potions book because Sirius says I'm pants at cooking and cooking is like potions and important. Do you think it will help?" the eleven year old asked her future teacher with a very innocent expression. He glanced down at Tem and gave a small nod when he saw the title of the book. The girl's face lit up with a brilliant grin.
Five minutes later, Sirius and Harry finally came back to the group with their choices and Maia proceeded to purchase the three books, overlooking Tem's school oriented choice. Afterwards, the group stepped out into Diagon Alley and headed into the Apothecary across the street. After another ten minutes of putting together the three students' potion sets, they left the 'interesting' smelling shop and Severus lead them to the opposite end of the alley than the one they had arrived at.
"Severus, shouldn't we be going to the apparition point?" Maia asked from the back of their group.
"No, Albus was adamant that Harry meet someone," Severus answered as they walked through the archway between Diagon Alley and The Leaky Cauldron. Within moments they were inside the pub and all the conversation stopped for a moment.
"Is that Harry Potter?" someone from the side cried out.
Immediately people began swarming their group trying to shake hands with Harry or ruffle his hair. One man in particular that Severus, Maia, and Sirius knew stepped forward.
"Harry," he cried happily as he enveloped the boy in a hug. "Oh, you were just a baby when I saw you. Could hold you in just me hand, you was so small," Rubeus Hagrid told the almost eleven year old when he let him go. Harry looked up into the giant's face and gave him a shy smile.
"Harry, this is Hagrid, the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts. He's the one that rescued you from your house when your parents died," Maia introduced Hagrid to Harry. He nodded, his grin growing.
Since it was so late, the group decided to have dinner at the Leaky Cauldron with Hagrid. It was nearing seven at night when they finally departed. Severus had said he would take Harry back himself to talk to the Dursleys' about Harry's treatment, having been informed by Harry of the boy's true home life, while Maia would take Sirius and Tem home. With a last good bye, Severus apparated with Harry clinging to him as Maia apparated with her siblings to her aunt and uncle's house and said good night before going back to Hogwarts.
oooOOOooo
My gods, it's been almost a year. Damn, really sorry for that. Senior year got crazy and then my personal life took a turn. Not good or bad, just a turn. And now I'm at a university. Anyway, I'll try not to go so long without updating again but I will make no promises. Promises like that cause writer's block. So if you liked or not, please shoot me a review. I like reviews. :)
Update: I was looking back before I continued on and found the need to rework some of the dialogue at the bookstore. Now it fits a better.