Year One: Diagon Alley
A light rap stole Remus away from his book, not that he was paying it much mind. His breath caught n anticipation as his mam went to grab the door.
It was time.
"He should be right through here," Hope was saying, face adorned with a rather pleasant smile, leading an aged wizard into his room. Remus Lupin had never met the great Albus Dumbledore before, but he assumed that this had to be him. He'd heard tall tales about the mans odd dress and today proved no different. His robes were crimson red, with pink, yellow, blue, and purple polka dots and squiggly lines all over it.
"Ah, you must be Remus Lupin," the old man greeted him warmly, reminiscent of how a grandfather would greet one of his grandkids. Albus Dumbledore scratched his heavily bearded (and rapidly graying) chin. "It's a pleasure to meet you." His hand was extended towards Remus who, very hesitantly, took it and shook it with his own.
"The pleasure is all mine, syr," the eleven and a half year old rushed to say, blushing horribly in his too pale skin.
"Oh, you do look and act so much like your father," the wizened man chuckled fondly. Remus froze for only as second, for of course this old man would not know that he would not view that as a compliment.
"Thank you, syr," Remus replied thickly, glancing out the window uncomfortably.
"Of course. He would no doubt be proud of the young man that you are already on the way of paving yourself to be."
"Albus, please," his mam cut in, thankfully. "What Remus would surely love to hear most about at this time is the mystical school of which I could tell him naught." Dumbledore stared down a what Remus would consider to be a slightly longer than average nose, obviously searching for something. Remus stared back defiantly, even going so far as to raise up his chin.
"Of course a young lad like yourself would be so curious about school." That confused Remus a little. Did he mean it as a general statement Or did he mean it because his room was covered in an overabundance of books? Or, worst of all, did he mean it because Remus was a werewolf, so he had never imagined that he would have such an opportunity? Nevertheless, he quirked an eyebrow at the curious observation, a small smile threatening his lips.
"Well, as I'm sure you're aware, syr, I never did believe that I would get the opportunity to go to a magical school after what had happened, so I have been reading up on the school and magic itself as much as I could with what we still had lying around after my dad-" Remus cut himself off, shaking his head.
"Oh, Remus, I am quite sorry that you've been living in such fear for as long as you have. I can already tell that you're a very smart young lad and that you will do very well for yourself at school.
Hope stood up from Remus' bed at that point, smiling broadly at her son, and then turned her attention to Dumbledore. "Tea?"
"My, that would be quite lovely, Hope," Headmaster Dumbledore replied warmly, inclining his head slightly.
"And you, fy machgen?"
"Oes, please, mam!" Remus watched as his mother disappeared back into the hallway, headed for the kitchen. Dumbledore shifted quietly behind him, moving to sit on the chair by his desk, staring into seemingly nothing for a long moment.
"Remus, as I'm sure you are well aware at this point, I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, and I have come to talk to you about joining school and how to go about yours and everybody else's safety at Hogwarts."
"Syr, I've already given it a lot of thought, and I would understand completely if you were to tell me that you didn't believe it would be as safe as you may have hoped."
"We," Dumbledore started, steeling his voice slightly, turning a sharp eye onto Remus, "believe that every deserves a chance in life and an education. And, as such, we have been planning and plotting and doing everything we can to ensure that you get that deserved education, whilst everyone else at the school stays safe as well.
"But, syr-" Remus tried to cut in. He knew how difficult that would be. Surely they must know as well.
"And," the Headmaster continued, "We have come up with a safe place that will be heavily warded and extremely difficult to get into. It is a shack a little ways outside of the village Hogsmeade. We'll get there through a tunnel that is guarded by a tree we planted recently, called a Whomping Willow. Now, Remus, do you know what a Whomping Willow might be?"
"N-no, I don't believe so, syr."
"It is a tree that thrashes about when people get within striking distance. Now, it shouldn't do any serious damage, unless someone somehow manages to get nearer to the trunk. I assume you understand how that would be helpful."
"Well, you did say there was a tunnel, so the entrance must be hidden by the base of the trunk?"
"Correct."
"But, syr, won't that be dangerous?"
"Part of living in the magic world, Remus, is learning to live with a bit of danger."
Remus, not knowing what to say in response, could only turn his gaze away from the Headmaster, and stare out of the window. The little garden outside of Remus' window was always one of his favorite places to sit or look at
"So what do you say, Mr. Lupin? Do you accept my offer of joining Hogwarts with all that you have learned?"
Remus bit his lip, but couldn't hold back any longer, "I would love nothing more!"
"Great, now that that's settled," Albus Dumbledore stood up, smoothing out his robes, "someone should be meeting us here any moment..." They headed out of Remus' room, making towards the front entryway, just as another knock sounded throughout the little house.
"Annwyl, were you expecting someone?" Hope asked, carrying the tray of tea and biscuits in one hand.
"That would be me, I'm afraid." Hope shot a puzzled look to Remus as Dumbledore went to open the door, before going to deposit the tea in the living room. "I thought it would be a bit too conspicuous if I were the one to lead you into the magical realm, you see," Dumbledore continued, allowing his own guest into their home. "I hope that is alright with you?"
"Of course," Hope said graciously, sticking out her hand to the witch who'd just entered her home. "I'm Hope Lupin, and you are-?"
"Professor Mcgonagall."
"You were the one to send me my Hogwarts letter!"
"Quite right." She turned her piercing gaze on him, and Remus had to struggle to not shrink back against her stare. "And you must be Remus Lupin." Remus wordlessly nodded his head, tongue feeling heavy and thick as cotton. "Well, I've told you my name, but I am Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress, and Professor of Transfiguration."
"Wow, what a pleasure it is to meet you, Professor!" Remus quickly shook off his daze, "Sorry for being so rude! You can come on in. We've just set out tea and biscuits."
"You are being anything but rude," the Professor assured him, following into the living room. When they arrived, she perched primly onto the love seat across from the small black and white telly, and grabbed some tea for herself. "As I'm sure Headmaster Dumbledore has informed you, he had requested me here to be the one to take the both of you into a part of the wizarding world, known as Diagon Alley. He wanted us to go right away, as school is due to start in just a couple of weeks, and we'd like for Remus to be able to become familiar with his material and wand. And since you, Hope, are a muggle, we didn't reckon you knew a whole ton about getting supplies and all, hence why I am here.
Dumbledore cleared his throat then, drifting towards the door. "We assumed that you'd be quite happy with a bit of time to take everything in."
"You were definitely right, Headmaster," Remus nodded.
"Annwyl, did you want to go and get ready? We don't want to make the Professor wait too long." Remus stood up nodding, and headed to his room. He could make out whispers that he didn't bother using his advanced hearing to listen to. He was too excited about his first trip to the magical world in several years to pay them much mind.
He ransacked through the clothes in his drawer, making a mental note that he would have to resort through everything later, when he isn't being waited on. Having never had much money, he did try to pull on the most decent outfit he could manage. He ended up in a black shirt and dark jeans that only had one rip.
"Can we go now?" he asked, hopping into the room, still pulling on his joggers. He noticed that the Headmaster wasn't there anymore, but he was smart enough to know that he had to be a very busy man, given his position, and had probably taken his leave.
His mam looked to Professor McGonagall, who gave an almost imperceptible nod, then stood up. "Of course we can get going!" And Remus, who hadn't known if his muggle mam would be allowed or not, let out a breath he'd been holding, in relief. As their current residency was in Wales, they had to side along apparate (as his professor had explained it) to a darkened alley in a fairly busy area of London.
"Right this way," McGonagall instructed them, leading them into a very shady looking pub.
"Wotcher, Minerva," the man behind the bar called
"Morning Tom," she called back, ushering them out the back and to a brick wall. "This is The Leaky Cauldron," she explained to Remus, "the entrance to Diagon Alley." She expertly started tapping some of the bricks on the wall with her wand. Finishing, she stepped back, gesturing for them to do the same. Remus couldn't control his gape nor gasp that was let out at the sight of what was happening before them. The bricks were moving out of the center, creating an archway into what was presumably Diagon Alley. Shell-shocked, he and his mam entered the archway behind Professor McGonagall, mouths opening and closing in a gape, eyes wider than ever before. "Quite beautiful, isn't?" Remus and his mam nodded, following behind the Professor as she set down the path.
"This," she continued on after several moments of silent walking down the cobblestone road, "is Gringotts. Britains magical bank that is run entirely by Goblins.
Remus looked to his mam, worry clouding his face, as they entered the grand doorway. "Um...Professor, you do know that we don't actually have an account with...with money, don't you?"
"Mr. Lupin, I suppose I should have known that you weren't aware of this, but your father actually left you quite a bit of money in a little trust fund for you to use when you start school."
"H-he left me mo-money? L-lots of it?" Remus knew his eyes were wide as saucers, but his mam and he had been struggling with money for quite some years, so this was very shocking to him.
"Yes, dear, a trust fund and a coming-of-age fund for you." McGonagall smiled softly at him, the line that they were waiting for in the bank slowly diminishing as he collected his bearings.
"Mam, oedett ti'n gwybod?"
"No, annwyl, I knew nothing about this..."
"Next!" the Goblin to the far left called, and Remus startled, just having noticed that they were next in line. "My name is Gagglydook, may I ask what you're looking to accomplish today?"
"We need access to a vault.
"Name and vault number?"
"Remus Lupin, vault 214," McGonagall answered in a tight voice.
"Do you have your key, Mr. Lupin?" Remus shot a worried glance to his Professor, but she was already digging through her small clutch. She pulled it out with an accomplished smile, showing it to the Goblin. "Right this way." The Goblin put on a fast gait, and Remus had to almost run to keep up. When they finally reached a cart and had all sat down, Remus finally let out a breath of air he'd been subconsciously holding
He had never been on a roller coaster before, but he couldn't imagine that any coaster could be nearly as bad as this. He had to close his eyes quite tightly and clutch onto the breakfast he'd had that morning, not fancying covering anyone in it instead
When they finally came to quite a sudden halt, Gagglydook was the first one out, Remus following slowly behind, pretty sure that the world was tilting on it axis.
"Here it is," the Goblin proclaimed, "number 214. May I?" he reached his hand out and took the key from the professor.
Remus watched silently as the Goblin moved to undo the lock of his vault, mouth gaping once more as he saw what awaited him inside. There were piles upon piles of coins - knuts, gallleons, and sickles, as the Professor had told him earlier - "Mam," he breathed out, "this is...this is incredible."
"I never knew he had this much," she breathed out alongside him. Remus glanced over at her incredulous look and felt a sudden burst of white hot rage. How dare his father be this wealthy and not even clue his mam in about a portion of it! They had been needlessly struggling for years now, when they could have been very well off! Remus Lupin had never hated his father as much as he did now
Professor McGonagall handed him a pouch and he took it wordlessly, filling it beyond what he knew he'd probably need for school. He was going to figure out how to switch some of this into muggle money. Even if his father didn't believe so, his mam deserved so much, and what little he could give her he would. When he was done, he stepped out and back to the cart, the door behind him closing with a loud thunk and whirring closed.
The dizzying trip hardly fazed him with how hard he was thinking. "Annwyl?" his mam broke him out of his thoughts and with a start he noticed that they weren't moving anymore. "We're back, it's time to go get your new wand."
"Okay, mam, but would you be okay if I swapped some of this money into muggle money? I just love the idea of being able to peruse the shops and actually buy something...
"Of course, love." When his mam told Gagglydook the message, he pulled him to the side and transferred about half of his money from magical to muggle. Thanking him profusely, he ran off to join his mam and Professor near the great front doors of the bank.
"Olivanders is the best wand shop around," Professor McGonagall started saying as the walked down the cobbled path. "Most young wizards and witches from Great Britain get their first wands from here." They made their way into the first shop on the path and Remus couldn't help but notice how it was kind of super dinky looking.
"Remus Lupin," a voice greeted from the shadows, "I was expecting you." Remus jumped about a foot in the air, looking around for the origin of the voice. "Your father was a very powerful man. Very powerful indeed." A man appeared, seemingly created from the shadows all around them, startling Remus even more so.
"S-sorry?
"Eleven inches, very pliable, made of red cedar and dragon heartstring. Pity he didn't make it." Remus' brow shot up in surprise, before a laugh escaped him. Professor McGonagall shot him a curious look before the aged wizard moved on, "Now let's measure you out, huh?" With a snap of his fingers, a tape measure flitted about with his own magic, measuring all sorts of odds and bits.
No one spoke again until it was measuring between his nostrils, "all right," Ollivander snapped his fingers again causing the tape measure to float back into his pocket, "that's enough of you." Boxes upon boxes of wands were brought out from all over the place, towering in the middle of the floor. "Give this one a flick, would you?" Remus was handed a rather short wand, but before he could twist his wrist, it was snatched right out of his hand. "No, no, no, that one was all wrong..." He was handed several more wands, some he got to flick, others he held for the briefest of seconds, but none of them feeling quite right.
"Maybe..." Remus was drawn to attention when someone finally spoke after several long minutes, "Yes, yes." Mr. Ollivander scurried into the back of the shop, leaving the three of them alone up front. "Here it is. Ten inches, yew and phoenix feather. Quite a rare combination, and very powerful." Remus glanced to his mam worried that no wand would work for him, before stretching out his long, nimble fingers to grasp one end of it. Immediately he gasped at the warm and welcoming feeling pulsing through his arm and down his body. Red sparks shot out the end of the wand in a pretty display.
"Oh, honey!" his mam exclaimed, "Oh, that's so beautiful!"
"Seven Galleons that'll be, Mr. Lupin." Ollivander disappeared behind his desk, ringing out the selected wand.
Remus hurried out of the dingy little shop, turning to McGonagall for her to lead the way.
"Next stop would be Madame Malkins, I'd say, to get you some robes and all for school." They hurried along the cobbled stones, stopping just outside the shop. There were robes of all sorts on display. Remus opened the door and the little bell rang throughout, alerting the seamstress that someone had just entered. She looked up from the portly young boy that couldn't have been any older than himself.
"Hogwarts, dear?" she queried, quickly getting back to work.
"Yes, ma'am." Remus hid back behind his mam to wait.
"Great. I should be done in but a few moments, if you'd like to take a seat."
Remus stood there deliberating for a few seconds, before finally deciding that sitting would probably be a good idea.
"Wow!" the portly boy exclaimed. "My name is Peter! Peter Pettigrew! Aren't you just so excited? I've been dreaming of going to Hogwarts for forever! My whole family's gone. Well, except Andrew, but we don't really talk about him anyway! Anyways, I'm hoping to be in Gryffindor, what about you? I can't wait till we can choose some classes in third year, some of the classes that are required seem kind of boring, don't you think? I've been here all day, this is really my last stop, but that's okay, I'm gonna come back some other time! I've only been able to visit the shops around here a handful of times, what about you? Oh, you look nervous, there is really no need to be, I don't bite, and I'm assuming you don't either. Oh, look, there's me done." He-Peter-stepped down from the stool and extended a hand. Remus looked at it wearily, and Peter must have seen his skepticism, for he took his hand back, a slight look of hurt on his face, and left without another word.
His mam and Professor McGonagall, who had been watching the whole affair, shared baffled looks, before his mam urged him forward.
"Just the usual gear, dear?" the seamstress asked, prepping a few things.
"Yes," McGonagall answered for him, for which he was grateful.
"Just step on up, don't be shy." While he was poked and prodded and turned this way and that, Remus thought back to the conversation. He really should have done something, but he just froze-especially after that bite comment. "And there's you all done," Remus jerked out of his thoughts, not realizing how long and deeply he'd gotten away to.
Next, they headed to Flourish and Blotts, and Remus was pretty sure that he had died and gone to heaven. And, oh by Merlin was it a happy heaven.
"This is where you can get all your school books," the professor said with a smile, "and, of course, any other book that you dream to have."
Remus was sure that he would never be able to close his mouth again; it was simply impossible to force his maw closed at the moment.
"Oh, annwyl, dear, you must absolutely love this. We never did have money for books, but you absolutely adored the library!" When Remus' jaw was finally forced closed, he ventured further into the shop.
There were so many books with so many odd names that Remus could never have imagined seeing in a million years. He quickly went to gather all of the required school books so that he could have time to look through the rest of the lot. He corralled his mam into holding them while he went off to take a gander. He finally had money to buy books! Theoretically, he could buy as many of these books as he wanted! He did limit himself, though, only allowing his wandering eyes and hands to grub up about ten extra books. When he was finally okay enough to part ways with the books, he went to grab the ones from his mam and left to pay.
They all left the book store happily, and went on their way to finish up their shopping before being apparated back home.