Amethyst exploded out of the fireplace behind him, rolling to a stop. She looked ridiculous, covered in ashes and soot. She grinned up at him.

"Pearl's gonna hate this," she said.

"Well, it's no warp pad, but we wizards think it's kinda hot!" Steven said. He grinned back at her. It felt good to start making jokes again, even if it was only bad puns. Before she'd come back it had been like the humor had been completely leeched out of him.

"So you're a wizard now, huh?" Amethyst said, rolling to an upright position. She looked around curiously.

"Well, kind of," Steven said. "I've got a wand and everything."

"Like they even let you use it. Might as well be a random stick for all the magic I've seen you do."

"Ministry rules."

Amethyst scowled. "Ministry is a bunch of stick in the muds. They've got no sense of humor."

It had taken most of the summer for the Ministry to agree to let Amethyst have her freedom; she'd been legally confined to the grounds of Hogwarts and the Forbidden forest for a probationary period. Steven hadn't been sure, but he'd thought there were watchers making sue she didn't slip away.

Possibly it had all been for the best. After all, in Beach City Amethyst had had Pearl to keep her from getting too wild and crazy. Now she seemed unsure what to do. The idea of being the adult seemed to terrify her, and it almost seemed like she'd reverted and was acting more childish.

She stood up and ruffled his hair. Soot went flying.

"Show me around, little man."

"At least we've got money," Steven said.

It was the only thing that had made milking those acromantula worthwhile. That had been a sweaty, nasty job, but apparently the venom was valuable for potion ingredients. Steven had felt happier about milking the acromantula than at the thought that some wizard would go around and kill one just for it's poison.

The acromantula hadn't agreed that they were saving their lives though. They'd actually seemed really put out about the whole thing.

"Better get it to the bank," Amethyst agreed. "If we leave it in the temple we'll never find it."

Amethyst had always been a pack rat, but it had impressed even Steven at just how fast she'd managed to fill the caverns beneath her hut with piles of junk. Since she wasn't allowed to leave the junk had to have come from Hogwarts, but Steven couldn't imagine where it was all coming from.

He had seen one of Professor Snape's monogrammed socks though...well, it wasn't his business.

"It was nice of Dumbledore to give us this bag," Steven said.

"He didn't want you looking like little Santa Claus going down the street." Amethyst chuckled. She changed into a purple bearded man.

"I think he's called Father Christmas over here...or maybe Krampus...I'm not sure," Steven said. "And he's skinny. I've got no idea what THAT'S about."

"Well, you know what they say about the food here..."

"Hey! I like the food here!" Steven said. "The house elves work really hard to make it."

Amethyst shrugged. "It's all fun going down as far as I'm concerned."

"You're going to love Bertie Bott's Every Flavor beans," Steven said. "They've got some that taste like dirt, earwax...even boogers."

"Sweet!" she said.

"Better drop this money off at the bank so we can buy some stuff," Steven said. "If we lose it, we might have to go milk some more giant spiders."

"Can we? It was kind of fun!" Amethyst said.

"Yeah...but afterward..."

"Oh, right..."

Showing Diagon alley to Amethyst was as much fun as Steven had hoped it would be. She jumped from one thing to the next. She wanted to try eating the bat spleens and eel eyes, the potion bottles and she even pretended she was going to eat a telescope.

Of course she was perfectly capable of actually eating a telescope, but mostly she was enjoying the alarmed looks of the store owner.

"You'd have thought I was going to eat his wand," she said.

"I think that was a magic telescope" Steven said. He grabbed her hand and pulled at it. At the rate they were going they wouldn't get to the bank before it closed, and they were less than half a block away.

As they reached the entrance to the bank, Steven whispered, "Don't turn into a goblin...they'll think you're mocking them."

"I will be," she said.

Steven frowned at her and pulled her inside.

Fortunately there wasn't a line; he doubted he'd have been able to keep Amethyst from some sort of trouble if they'd had to have waited a long time.

Stepping up to the nearest teller, he said, "I want to put some money in the bank."

Without looking up at him, the goblin growled, "Do you have an account here?"

"Uh...No?"

The goblin looked up impatiently. "You either do or you do not."

"Uh...not yet."

"Then you want new accounts," he said. He nodded in the direction of a goblin four seats down who looked even more irritable than this one.

Steven glanced at Amethyst and grimaced for real this time. She didn't always have a lot of patience. He hoped they didn't give them the runaround.

"Did you see the look on his face?" Amethyst couldn't stop grinning.

"I don't think they liked us much," Steven said glumly. He'd only managed to get his vault by promising not to bring Amethyst back with him the next time.

"We were trying to give them money," she said. "What's so hard about that?"

If it hadn't been for the number of galleons they'd brought with them, Steven had no doubt that he'd have been thrown out along with Amethyst.

"Let's go get candy," Steven said. "And then ice cream."

"Weren't we supposed to be buying books or some junk like that?"

Steven shrugged. "Who remembers?"

He paused. "Hey...there's Hagrid up ahead."

He'd been sent off to get Harry. They hadn't been allowed to go along on the premise that British society was more willing to accept an eleven foot tall man on the subway than a small purple woman.

Steven had tried to come up with a story about Amethyst being a Doctor Who actress, but the wizards had been adamant.

They rushed down the street, dodging passing wizards, only to see Hagrid duck into a bookstore where a long line of witches was streaming out the door.

By the time they got inside they saw two wizards punching each other in the middle of the store.

Ron Weasely and Draco Malfoy were both staring at the men in horror.

"I didn't know they had Wrestling here!" Amethyst said. She turned into her Purple Puma form, suddenly two feet taller and considerably more hairy.

Steven shoved his way toward the two men and before anyone could react he'd grabbed both men by the robes and lifted them off their feet, separating them. He was so short he had to grab them by the belts.

"Stop," he said gently.

"Get your hands off me, Mudblood," the white haired wizard said. He pulled away from Steven and said, "But at least a mudblood is almost human. You can't even say that."

Steven finally recognized him as Lucius Malfoy.

He closed his eyes as he saw Amethyst standing scowling behind the man. This wasn't going to be pleasant.

"You two need to be more careful," Hagrid was saying. "Malfoy is a bad un, and you can't just go wrestling him in the middle of a store. He's sure to make trouble for ye later."

"I wasn't wrestling him," Steven protested. "I was keeping him from getting punched in the face."

"Did you see when I put him in a full nelson?" Amethyst asked excitedly.

The Weasely twins were staring at her like she was the holy grail, like Pearl had sometimes looked when she thought about Steven's mother.

Ginny was distracted, staring into her pail of books.

"That's your aunt?" Ron asked, staring at her.

Hermione and Harry were also staring at her as they left the store.

"Uh...kind of," Steven said. "Or maybe my sister if I'm my mom...she's one of the gems."

"I'm the fun one," Amethyst said, finally switching out of her Purple Puma form.

"Hey, Amethyst...this is Hermione and Harry and Ron."

"You're the friends he's been telling me about all summer," Amethyst said. "The ones who are like me and Pearl and Garnet."

"I didn't say that," Steven complained.

"Sure you did," she said. "You got the smart one that likes rules, the serious one and the fun guy."

"I'm the fun guy?" Ron asked.

"You're clearly not the smart one," one of the twins said. Steven wasn't sure which one.

"Or the serious one."

"Actually, he's not even the fun brother," the first twin said again. "We're George and Fred Weasely."

"Just call us Forge," the second said.

"Nice to meet you," Amethyst said. "I hear you guys are the ones that had Snape stocking up on headache potions last year."

"I'm sure we aren't the only reason," one twin said modestly.

"He's tripled his brewing since I showed up," Amethyst said, grinning. "He'd made up a bunch of antacid potions too, but I might have accidentally eaten them."

Steven grimaced. He'd been the first student in Hogwarts history to already be serving detention two weeks before school even started.

It was going to be an interesting year.