There are no excuses, really, for my absence in writing this fanfiction other than a massive amount of writer's block. I come back to it often when I am bored and have been wishing to finish it for so long. That being said, I have sorely missed writing and my recent re-watching of the Harry Potter movies has increased my desire to return to this story.

I've also rather forgotten what I intended to do with this story, so bare with me as we go along. This chapter in particular was difficult to write, so leave a review with any thoughts.

Anyways, enjoy this chapter! Hopefully, I will be back with another very soon.

-o0o-

Chapter Four

Mrs. Weasley woke them all early on the next Wednesday for their trip to Diagon Alley. Vanessa, as always, was seated between the twins at the breakfast table, who were busy shoving at least half a dozen bacon sandwiches into their mouths. She was surprised how much they always managed to eat. After everyone had finished with breakfast, the group put on their jackets and gathered around the fireplace. Mrs. Weasley took a flowerpot off the mantle and peered inside.

"We're running low, Arthur" she sighed. "We'll need to buy some more today…Ah well, guests first! After you, Harry dear!"

She offered Harry the flowerpot, who looked distinctly bewildered. He looked over at Nessa, who shrugged, feeling just as bewildered as Harry looked.

"W-what am I supposed to do?" Harry stammered.

"He's never traveled by Floo powder," said Ron suddenly. "Sorry, Harry, I forgot."

"Never?" said Mr. Weasley. "But how did the two of you get to Diagon Alley to buy your school things?"

"We used the Underground –"

"Really?" said Mr. Weasley, eagerly. He turned excitedly toward Vanessa. "Were there escapators? How exactly –"

"Not now, Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley before Nessa could answer. "Floo powder's a lot quicker, dears, but if you've never used it before –"

"They'll be alright, Mum" said Fred. He looked at the Potter siblings, while grabbing some Floo powder out of the pot. "Here, watch us first."

Fred stepped up to the fire and threw the powder into the flames. With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than Fred, who, to Nessa's shock, stepped right into it and shouted "Diagon Alley!" and vanished.

Nessa's mouth dropped. She really had expected after three years within the Wizarding World that she would have gotten used to all the ways that wizards had found to get by. She wondered at what point, she would no longer be surprised.

"You must speak clearly, dear" Mrs. Weasley told them as George stepped forward to follow after his twin. "And be sure to get out at the right grate…"

"The right what?" Nessa and Harry said. She was relieved to hear that Harry sounded just as nervous as she felt. Tori stepped forward next and vanished just as quickly as the twins.

"Well, there are an awful lot of of wizard fires to choose from, you know, but as long as you've spoken clearly –"

"They'll be fine, Molly dear, don't fuss." said Mr. Weasley, helping himself to Floo powder, too.

"But, dear, if they get lost, how will we ever explain it to their aunt and uncle?"

"They wouldn't mind," Harry reassured her. "Dudley would think it was a brilliant joke if I got lost up a chimney, don't worry about that –"

Mrs. Weasley didn't seem convinced, but advised that the two of them could go after Mr. Weasley. She and Ron continued to provide advice to the two Potter siblings, who looked decidedly overwhelmed. Harry made one final nervous glance toward his sister before he took a pinch of Floo powder and stepped forward into the green flames.

"D-Dia-gon Alley," he said, coughing. Just as easily as the others had, Nessa watched as he vanished.

"Oh dear," Mrs. Weasley said, nervously. "Hopefully he gets to the right place. Try to speak a little clearer when you go through, sweetheart."

Though she was smiling at her kindly, Nessa could tell that Harry had done something wrong based on the way Mrs. Weasley was fidgeting. She couldn't help feeling a bit nervous herself now. What happened if you came out the wrong grate? How would he get back? How would she get back? With only a moment's hesitation, she reached forward and grabbed some of the glittering powder and moved toward the fireplace and threw it in. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself and then stepped into the green flames ahead of her. The flames felt like a warm breeze against her skin, which she enjoyed.

"Diagon Alley!" she shouted, sounding much more confident than she really felt.

She shut her eyes almost immediately. There was a roaring in her ears as she spun down…well, she didn't know what she was spinning down. It felt very stuffy and dark, almost the same as when she had slid down a water slide once as a kid and she felt her heart racing. She did not quite like enclosed spaces and the air around her made her feel a tad trapped. She was also spinning very fast, which seriously threatened to have her breakfast come back up.

Nervously, she opened her eyes and tried to breathe through the nausea. She could see a blurred stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond them. She prayed silently that she wouldn't be sick by the time she saw Fred, George, and Tori through the fireplaces next to her. As if in answer to her prayers, she saw a flash of red hair and, having no idea how to actually get out at the right fireplace, tilted sideways in the direction. Big mistake, really, as she stumbled forward and nearly face-planted on the floor in front of her.

She felt a strong arm around her waist to steady her and her arms shot forward to steady herself against the person in front of her. She heard a soft laugh above her and assumed it was one of the twins who had steadied her, but as she was trying to keep herself from being sick still, she refused to look up to see which one it was. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on the chest in front of her, breathing in as slowly as she could until her head stopped spinning.

"It gets easier after a few tries," she heard Mr. Weasley say bracingly somewhere off to the side of her.

Nessa wanted to say that she surely hoped it would, but all she managed was a soft sort of whine. Whichever twin it was still holding her laughed again and she felt him rub her back as if to comfort her. She heard someone stepping out from the fireplace behind her and took a few more breaths before finally opening her eyes and taking a step back.

George had been the one holding her and he seemed a little afraid to let go, in the event she lost her balance again. She was pleased to see, however, that the room around her was much more stable.

"Alright, love?" George said, grinning at her.

She blushed and stepped back toward Tori, who was also trying not to look amused.

"Yeah, fine," Nessa responded softly. "I'd rather not do that ever again, though, truth be told. Where's Harry?"

She looked around but didn't see him anywhere and the other Weasleys seemed confused at her inquiry. Ron was the one who had come through behind her and was looking around at the group and appeared to have come to the same conclusion that she had.

"Didn't you come through first?" said Mr. Weasley. Seeing the slightly panicked look on her face, he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure he just went one grate too far. Let's wait for Molly and Ginny and we'll go look for him."

Ginny was next through the fireplace, followed shortly by Mrs. Weasley, who became frantic at the realization that Harry was not with them.

"Oh, I knew he wouldn't have made it as soon as the words left his mouth," she said, looking anxiously around the room at them. "I'm so glad you made it through, dear," she said to Nessa, while fretfully dusting the soot off of the younger girl. "I hope Harry hasn't gotten somewhere dangerous, Arthur. What if he's in Knockturn Alley? What if he's on the other side of London? How on Earth will we ever find him? He could be anywhere."

While Nessa felt a little less ridiculous about being so anxious that her brother wasn't with them, having Mrs. Weasley voice her own fears aloud made her really feel so much worse. She was grateful that Mr. Weasley seemed a bit calmer, though he looked a little worried himself.

"Come now, Molly," Mr. Weasley said. "Let's go and see if we can't find him wandering outside. Hopefully, he's just gone one grate too far and we'll find him in a jiff."

Vanessa hurried after the others out into the Alley, praying that he would be easy to find. She tried not to let her mind run amok and think about all of the things that could have gone wrong. Could you be endlessly trapped within the Floo system? She shook her head and refused to acknowledge that such a ridiculous, irrational thought had ever really crossed her mind.

The Alley was filled with so many witches and wizards that she knew she would be useless in finding her brother. She stood hardly over five feet and couldn't see over any of them. She was grateful to hear Ron shout, "Over there! With Hagrid,"

Vanessa whipped around and saw Hagrid standing well above everyone else outside of Gringotts Bank. She took off at a run and could hear the others behind her. Hagrid looked up and saw her coming before Harry did, and pointed at her with a grin. Nessa enveloped Harry in a hug immediately upon reaching him and pulled away to look at him. He was covered in soot, his glasses were broken, and she thought she could see a bruise forming on the bridge of his nose, though it didn't look to be broken.

"Are you alright, Harry?" she said breathlessly. "What happened?"

He swatted her hands away from his face as she continued to fuss over him.

"I'm alright, Vanessa, honestly," he said in exasperation. He had gotten used to her constant worrying of him.

"Harry" Mr. Weasley panted from behind her. "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far…Molly is frantic – she's coming now –"

"Where did you come out?" Ron asked.

"Knockturn Alley," said Hagrid grimly.

"Excellent!" said Fred and George together before Nessa could ask what Knockturn Alley was.

"We've never been allowed in," Ron said enviously to Harry.

"I should ruddy well think not," growled Hagrid.

Again, before Vanessa could ask what they were talking about, Mrs. Weasley came galloping into view, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand, and Ginny clinging onto the other.

"Oh, Harry – oh, my dear – you could have been anywhere –"

Gasping for breath, she pulled a large clothes brush out of her bag and began sweeping off the soot from Harry's clothes, while Mr. Weasley fixed his glasses.

"What's Knockturn Alley?" Vanessa muttered to Tori, as Hagrid was saying his goodbyes and having his hands wrung by Mrs. Weasley.

"Bit darker than Diagon Alley," she said, grinning. "They have shops that sell things related to the Dark Arts. I've heard rumors that the people there are a bit dodgy as well."

Ignoring her alarmed expression, Fred added excitedly, "I've heard you can get shrunken heads and poisons and the like in there."

"Why would anyone want a shrunken head?" Vanessa asked in repulsion as they followed the others toward Gringotts.

"Decoration, mostly," George said, grinning at the look of disgust on Vanessa's face. Why would anyone use a shrunken head as decoration? "They talk and move. Some have been cursed."

"A lot of the things Arthur has confiscated have likely come from the likes of Knockturn Alley." Tori added.

Vanessa chose not to ask why the three of them would ever want to go down that alley, given this information, and instead listened as Harry told Ron and Hermione that he had seen Lucius Malfoy and his annoying son, Draco, inside Borgin and Burkes. She was hardly surprised by this information, considering how Draco acted at school.

"Did Lucius Malfoy buy anything?" said Mr. Weasley sharply from behind them.

"No, he was selling –"

"So, he's worried," Mr. Weasley replied with a grim sort of satisfaction. Nessa was amused to note that the Malfoys were apparently hated by all people within the Wizarding World. "Oh, I'd love to get Lucius Malfoy for something…"

"You be careful, Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley sharply as they entered the bank. "That family's trouble. Don't go biting off more than you can chew –"

"So you don't think I'm a match for Lucius Malfoy?" Mr. Weasley responded indignantly, but was almost immediately distracted by Hermione's parents, who stood nervously at the counter.

Mrs. Weasley pulled him away and they made their way to the carts that would take them to their vaults below. Vanessa held onto the side of the cart very tightly, much to the amusement of Fred and George. She really did prefer to be on solid ground. Or perhaps in a vehicle that was not being driven haphazardly by a goblin through the underground void below Gringotts.

The Weasleys' vault came first and Nessa felt a small pang of sadness at seeing how little gold they had in it. It hardly seemed fair to her that a family as kind as the Weasleys were so poor and she wished there was some way she could help, but knew that the Weasleys would never accept it. Mrs. Weasley tipped the entire contents of the vault into her bag and they set off again.

Tori's vault came next and she quickly grabbed what she could from the large pile of money she had in her vault before hopping back into the cart. Nessa knew she had offered some of the small fortune her mother had left her to the Weasleys, arguing that she lived with them anyway and it could help them take care of her. She'd also offered to pay for her own things while she was there, but Mrs. Weasley had become affronted at the suggestion and stated that Tori was a child and shouldn't have to worry about such things as money. Vanessa and Harry made quick work of shoving what they needed into their own bags and Nessa could tell that he was trying, quite unsuccessfully, to block the view of the fortune inside.

She was grateful to finally be stepping back outside onto the front steps of Gringotts, where they all began to separate. Percy muttered about needing a new quill. Fred and George had spotted their friend, Lee Jordan, and Tori followed, pulling Vanessa by the wrist after them.

"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," Mrs. Weasley said loudly behind them. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!"

Vanessa assumed she was speaking to the twins and prayed they had no interest in doing so herself, as Tori was racing to catch up with them.

"Hi, Lee!" she said happily as they came to a stop next to the boys. Vanessa fidgeted with her fingernails as Lee Jordan grinned over at Tori.

"Hello, Tori," he said and then held out his hand to Vanessa. "Vanessa, right?"

"Nessa, please," she replied immediately, shaking his hand with a smile.

"Got to go to Gambol and Japes," said George, bouncing on his heels. "We're out of Filibuster fireworks."

Vanessa had never set foot in Gambol and Japes personally, but followed anyway and watched amusedly as the twins grabbed all the fireworks and dungbombs that they could carry. She wasn't much for mischief herself, but the twins certainly did take it extremely seriously. She hardly suspected that Mrs. Weasley would approve when they returned to Flourish and Blotts with their things.

Vanessa bent down to look at a barrel of yo-yos in front of her, as the twins convinced Tori to help them carry some Stink Pellets and they moved to pay. She tilted her head curiously at them and wondered what purpose they had in a Wizarding Joke Shop. She had thought a Yo-Yo would be one of those things that Muggles had invented that the Wizarding World had no use for. She remembered when Dudley had gotten one for a birthday one year when they were younger. He ended up playing with it for an hour, getting so angry that he couldn't get it to come back up, and stomping on it so viciously in his rage that the entire thing had busted.

Vanessa reached for one of the Yo-Yos and flipped it over in her hands, curiously. It looked harmless. The instant she slid the string onto her finger and let the Yo-Yo drop from her hand, she immediately regretted it. It had screamed so loudly that she jumped in fright and chucked the thing across the room.

She heard someone laughing behind her and whirled around. George had finished paying and stood, leaning against one of the displays behind her. She was grateful to see that Fred and Tori were still waiting at the counter with Lee and were too busy ogling at some Fanged Frisbees.

"How long have you been there?" she asked, feeling her face get hot as he continued to laugh.

"Quite awhile, if I'm being honest," he said, still grinning. "I considered warning you, but decided this way would be more interesting."

She rolled her eyes at him and wished her face would cool down.

"I've obviously never been in here before or I imagine I would have known it would do that."

George hummed with a smirk still on his face and walked over to the barrel beside her. He tapped the sign that hung next to it on the wall that read "Screaming Yo-Yos, 25 Knuts." She felt her face get even hotter.

"Or reading may have been helpful," she muttered. George looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she thought he might be trying to hold back another laugh. She cleared her throat and shifted to her other foot. "Are they done yet?"

George looked over at the other three, who were still huddled over the frisbees and appeared to be poking them with various objects.

"Not likely to leave anytime soon, I reckon," he said with another grin. "Somewhere else you'd like to be before we meet Mum?"

Her first thought was that she really was just hoping that Tori would come over and make this distinctly less embarrassing, but then came to the conclusion that Tori would likely ask why her face was so red, and she really didn't want to repeat it. So she decided on the next best thing.

"Yeah, I wanted to get a cat." she said. "I don't much think the Dursleys will like it, but personally, I find that to be more of a reason to get one."

George grinned and was looking at her approvingly. "Didn't think you had it in you, Potter." He straightened up and moved to pass her for the door. "Let's go get you a cat, then."

Nessa looked nervously back at the others.

"Shouldn't we wait for them?" she said, nervously chewing her bottom lip.

"They'll be alright. We can meet them at the bookstore. C'mon, we've only got 15 minutes before we have to meet Mum and Dad."

She supposed he was right and exited the shop to run across the street to the Magical Menagerie. There wasn't much room inside the shop. Every inch was covered with small cages, and children were looking into each one excitedly. It was smelly and quite noisy inside as well, both from the children exclaiming to their parents and the loud squeaking, squawking, jabbering, or hissing from the animals inside their cages.

Nessa looked over and saw several tarantulas sleeping next to her and took a hasty step backward, directly into George. He steadied her with hands on her waist and led her forward away from them before she could decide to turn around and run out of the shop entirely. She passed beautiful snow and barn owls, black rats, transforming rabbits, and snakes before they came to a stop near the back of the shop.

"Sorry," she said, clearing her throat. "I don't much like spiders."

He grinned at her and busied himself with looking at some of the cats within their cages. He kneeled down and grinned.

"What about this one?" he offered, sliding a hand into the cage and being immediately rewarded with loud purring and a lick to his hand.

She kneeled next to him and looked at the small cat inside. It immediately came forward and nipped at her finger playfully and then rolled onto his back to show his furry stomach. Vanessa laughed and obliged the cat by petting it. She was beautiful, she had to admit. A long haired calico, she was mostly white with a smattering of black and orange down her back and around her eyes, which were a beautiful shade of blue.

"I like her," she said with a smile. George opened the cage and allowed Nessa to remove the cat, who immediately settled into her arms and began purring loudly.

As they were paying and finally setting out to leave to meet the others at Flourish and Blotts, Vanessa passed another cage that caused her to stop abruptly with a gasp. George ran immediately into her, but she ignored him.

"George, look!" she exclaimed excitedly. There were several custard-colored, spherical animals all cuddled together and emitting a low humming noise as they slept. As if sensing her watching, they opened their eyes and began jumping and rolling around excitedly, making a small squeaking noise as they did. "Oh, they're adorable!"

George laughed behind her.

"Puffskeins," he said, as she reached a hand in and one curled contentedly onto her palm and began humming. Seeing the torn look on her face, he laughed again. "C'mon before you buy every animal in the place. We're running late."

She considered arguing, but figured he was right, so let him grab her hand and pull her along behind him to Flourish and Blotts.