It was the first Quidditch match of the year: Ravenclaw versus Slytherin. The sky was absolutely crystal clear with not a puff of white in sight.
I went over to wish my sister good luck, but as I did I felt narrowed eyes watching me the whole way. I sneaked a glance over my shoulder to see the Slytherin Quidditch team: seventh-years Flint, and Drayden, sixth-years Mulciber, Zambini and Richards, fifth-year Vesper, and third-year Avery whispering together, their eyes on me and my sister.
I felt myself tense up with anxiety and I knew I had to watch my sister's back today, regardless of how much Sola would yell at me afterwards.
Too lost in my thoughts, I accidentally bumped into someone's shoulder on the way back to the Gryffindor table. "Sorry," I mumbled immediately, and then those familiar silver eyes bore straight into mine.
"Regulus?" I asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"
"I have a message for my brother," Regulus answered, a little stiffly due to all the glares and mutters he was receiving from the Gryffindor table.
Upon hearing these words, Marlene leaned over and tapped Sirius on the shoulder. Sirius turned around and said cheerily, "What?" before realizing Regulus was there. His smile immediately disappeared as he addressed Regulus in a brusque tone, "What, Regulus?"
"Mother sent me a letter in which she begged me to give you this since you never read letters she addresses directly to you," Regulus replied and held out a folded piece of paper. "Oh, is our dear mum dying to see me? I bet she is," Sirius snorted as he took the piece of paper from Regulus. He flipped it open and began to read it to himself.
I'd never seen Sirius Black truly lose his composure, not once, not even when Dorcas had played that little trick on him or when Severus Snape had tripped him in the corridor. But by the time he was halfway down the page, his face was pale with anger and disbelief and the by the time he'd finished the paper, he was literally shaking from head to foot from rage.
"You-!" Sirius spewed out at Regulus, "Is this your idea of some sick joke? You damn- This isn't even the least bit funny!"
Regulus was startled as he quickly tried to defend himself. "No, I didn't-! That wasn't me. I was just passing on the-"
He was cut short as Sirius angrily started to shout and ripped the parchment into pieces.
"Mate, you need to calm-" James began, but cut off quickly as Flint, Mulciber, Travers, and Yaxley from the Slytherin table approached us.
"Nice work, Reg. Whatever you did," Flint smirked at Regulus. Instantly, Regulus' entire demeanor changed from uncertain and honest to arrogant and self-assured. My eyes narrowed as I realized that Regulus sought acceptance from the other Slytherins now… and my stare was met with Traver's challenging smirk. My hand inched towards my wand… and he mirrored me, but Flint had already turned away.
Sirius was still absolutely furious as the Slytherins haughtily left the Gryffindor table towards the Quidditch pitch. A shred of parchment on the ground stuck onto the bottom of my shoe and I bent over to pick it off. The words on the parchment caught my eye. In elegant script were the words "association with the blood traitor Potter and Mudbloods". Another piece of parchment flew by me and I caught it between my fingers. The words written were "intolerably disgusting and shameful". I hesitated as I realized that in my hands was an aspect of Sirius Black's life that I'd always overlooked in everyday life. That loud, obnoxious prankster was fighting a war of prejudice all on his own. I burned the pieces with my wand before I made my way down to the pitch where we joined Marlene, Dorcas, Lily, and Alice.
Today, at the match, I insisted on front row seats, which was unusual for me, but I was feeling very uneasy about the Slytherins' "honorable" intentions of fair play. Sure enough, as soon as the game started, Flint grabbed my sister's head roughly. There were indignant shouts and I jumped up on my feet immediately.
Lily pulled me down as Flint tried to explain how he thought Sola's head had been "the Quaffle". Ravenclaw was awarded a penalty shot, which was made, but ten points did nothing to cease the anger that riveted through me.
Twenty minutes later, Ravenclaw was winning seventy to forty, and Sola was beginning to grow impatient, hovering in the air. Abruptly and for no reason at all, Zambini barreled into her, shoving her at full impact into the sidelines.
I gritted my teeth but this time Marlene and Dorcas were the ones standing up, yelling at Madam Helens to do something. Another penalty shot was given, but missed. Ravenclaw's focus was falling apart.
Slytherin, though a tactic of physical-borderline-illegal pushing and shoving, managed to score two more goals and now the game was becoming dangerously close- Sola suddenly leapt up in the air, nearly vertical. She was flat against the broom as she willed herself up, up, up… towards a tiny glint of gold…
Vesper, the Slytherin Seeker, immediately followed, but he had started late and kept falling behind as Sola fearlessly climbed up into the sky. Then Vesper started to hesitate as he realized how risky this flight was. He could very well die from one wrong move. Fearful, he slowed down dramatically. Sola was barely hanging onto her broom with her thighs and fingers. One wrong move, and she would tip over backwards. My breath caught and I squeezed Dorcas' hand tightly.
"Ray-!", Lily squeaked, but was immediately shushed by Marlene.
But then my attention snapped as I realized that one Quidditch player was strangely still. He was too stationary to be focused on the game. I peered closer and I saw Mulciber, whose wand was out in his hand and pointing up. His mouth began to move and I reacted without even thinking.
I pulled my wand out and whispered urgently one of the few hexes I knew I could pull off, "Confundus!" Mulciber's wand suddenly slipped from his and dropped out of his reach, all the way down to the ground. Nobody noticed as everyone was focused intently on Sola and Vesper as the Snitch went higher and higher.
I stowed my wand away quickly, heart thundering at the prospect of getting caught by a Professor, but when I looked back up, it was Mulciber who was glaring at me with vehement rage emanating from his eyes. The whistle blew then, as Sola had caught the Snitch, but I couldn't breathe properly until Sola was safely back on the ground.
As her teammates ran to give her a huge hug and Mulciber tried to inconspicuously pick his wand up from the ground before it was trampled, Sirius Black came up to me to declare one thing. "Your sister is just beautiful, you know that, Kingsley?" he said before walking away with his mates. Neither James nor Peter nor Remus spared me a single glance.
October had faded and it was our first Hogsmeade visit. Excited, we all lined up early.
We were all together except for one person- Lily. She was going with Severus and though Marlene hadn't said anything, she'd become extremely tight-lipped and short with Lily the last few days.
"C'mon, don't think about it. Let's just have fun by ourselves today," Dorcas said cheerfully.
"Where are we going first?" Alice asked.
In the end, it really didn't matter where we went first as we ended up going everywhere:
First, to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, where stacks of stacks of engraved parchment, calligraphic quills, elegant envelope seals, candle waxes, and bottles of inks were. I bought a few more scrolls of parchment, as I was running out, and for personal use, bought a bottle of black-spotted-gold ink.
Then we briefly visited both Dominic Maestro's Music Shop and Spintwitches Sporting Goods Shop before popping into the Three Broomsticks for a short rest accompanied by Butterbeer.
"Oh, it's so delicious!" Dorcas said excitedly. Alice sipped at it, to make the wonderful taste last longer, while Marlene and Dorcas had a competition to see who could down it faster. I held the warm glass between my hands for a bit before I finally allowed myself to taste it. It really was lovely and warm, like some type of marshmallow cream with hints of apple, caramel, and white chocolate. But the overall taste is really something that can't be compared to anything.
But we had to leave quickly if we wanted to visit all the shops- a peek into the Post Office, a bit longer stay at Zonko's Joke Shop, where predictably, most of the boys were, and an even longer stay at Honeydukes, the amazing sweet shop. I bought a package of huge chocolate truffles for my parents, a few Sweet Eggs (chocolate egg shells that melt in one's mouth, leaving a small minty marshmallow bird in the mouth that you can choose to let fly away and lay a limited number of eggs that don't hatch or to eat the bird) for Jamie, and a strazzberry-flavored Sugar Quill for myself.
Marlene and Dorcas wanted to see the Shrieking Shack while Alice wanted to stay at Honeydukes and I wanted to visit a small store nearby called Dreamer's Lair.
"Fine, let's meet up the bookshop Tomes and Scrolls in thirty minutes, all right?" I finally suggested, and we all agreed.
Dreamer's Lair was a small dusty shop, but as soon as I stepped in, I fell in love with it. The entrance floor was tiny, and everything was crammed together and somewhat musty- a small bar, small tables, crowded chairs, but everything was just beautiful- stained glass lamps, silk curtains, mahogany chairs engraved with gold stairs and turquoise pillows, books littered all over the tables… And small staircases led to a lower and upper floor.
"How may I help you?" an elderly man with glinting bronze glasses asked me kindly from behind the bar.
"Just… browsing," I answered shyly.
"Well, the tea and bottles are sold on the lower floor, and the drinks and food are sold here, at the bar, and the library and additional seating is on the upper floor," he informed me.
"Thank you," I said, and made my way downstairs to the tea and bottles. There were thousands of different types of tea. Hangover Tea one jar containing dark green and light brown leaves read. Another jar containing small light orange pebbles was labeled Soreness Tea. And a small glass box inlaid with cloth contained small flowers, like daises, withered light green leaves, and tiny sparkling gold gems called Meadow Tea.
"That one there," a familiar voice said behind me, "actually makes you feel like you're a meadow. It seems like daisies and you can feel a slight breeze and warm lingering sunshine on your skin when you drink it."
I turned to see Zayne there, with three other friends, two of whom I recognized as Emmeline Vance (a tall lanky girl with short blonde hair and black eyeliner-lined eyes) and Jay Salinger (a fellow third-year Ravenclaw who was known for his intelligent writing). The third was a tall boy, who had sharp features and strikingly blonde hair.
"This is my cousin, Carlisle Taylor," Zane introduced us. "He's a seventh year Ravenclaw. I asked him to come with me to show me Hogsmeade and he kindly agreed."
Carlisle smiled and nodded at me and I returned the greeting. Emmeline, Jay, and Carlisle, who were all clearly good acquaintances, if not friends, began to look at the tea, laughing at the ridiculous ones and fawning over the ones that smelled nice.
"How did you know that's what Meadow Tea does?" I asked, putting the box back on its shelf.
"It's my mother's favorite kind of tea," Zane replied, "Though, we can't really afford it all that often." His voice faded at the end, obviously slightly sad, and I found myself ignorant of how to respond. I walked over to the bottles, then, which were multi-colored and multi-shaped. I picked up a light purple bottle with tiny wings and a gold cap. Someone had scribbled on the bottle in charcoal: SCENTS. A simple clear bottle shaped like a phoenix with a black cap had on the bottom: SNOW. And a very pretty light-blue bottle in the shape of a rose with a glittering cap said: SOUNDS.
"So that's what they store?" I asked Zayne, who had picked up a tall rainbow-colored bottle with a white cap, "This rose one stores sounds that you can hear later."
Zayne nodded, "Yeah, and this rainbow-one stores 'feelings'."
"Wow," I murmured, gently placing it back. "How do they do that?"
"You know when you go to the ocean and you pick up a shell and it sounds like the ocean?" Zayne asked me. I nodded.
"That's a bewitched shell. It has the same charm on it. It preserves the sound of the ocean," Zayne told me.
"That's beautiful," I said. "I wish I knew how to do it."
"Yeah, though some of these," Zayne said, showing me a dark green bottle shaped like tree with the word LIFE scribbled on the bottom, "are kind-of frightening."
I shuddered at the thought of where such a thing would be obtained anyways, but then I abruptly realized the time. "Oh, Merlin, I have to go. There's another shop I want to visit before I go and I have to meet up with my friends in less than minutes."
"See you later," Zayne said. I smiled at him and waved good-bye to the others.
Then, I left the store and crossed the sidewalk into the second shop I had wanted to go to: Chance & Fortune. I was a little startled when no brilliant display of colors met my eyes. Instead everything was just brown- brown packages with brown strings. Brown wooden chairs and tables and shelves, dusty light…
"Welcome to Chance & Fortune," a young lady said mischievously, smiling as she appeared from behind the counter and sat at the largest desk. "Would you like me to read your fortune?"
"What?" I asked. "I… I thought this was a shop."
"Yes, and you would be right. But what we sell is not really merchandise, unless you have a specific request."
More confused than ever I started to leave when she said, "Sit with me, child."
Hesitatingly, I walked towards her. Then, I said, "Madam, I don't have any money, and I don't wish to waste your time."
She smiled that curious smile again and said, "You only need money if you wish to purchase the stones. Readings are free."
"Pick a package," she commanded, and gestured at the entire room. "Any package."
I got up slowly, still feeling uncertain. But this is a legal store and everything, I mean… Kingsley said it's been here for ages.
There were packages literally everywhere- beside the fireplace, littered all over the ground, on the bookshelves, and even perched above on the top of the bookcase.
Finally, I said, "that one", and pointed to a small-sized package far out of my reach.
The lady simply raised her hand and the package zoomed to her. I stared at her stunned. Did I just see wandless, spell-less magic?
"Come, sit. I promise I won't charge you," she said.
As soon as I sat down, she ripped open the package in one swift movement. Six stones spilled out and clattered across the table.
One slipped off the table and I barely managed to grab it before it shattered on the floor. I set it down on the table.
She murmured quietly to herself for a while, her eyes scanning over the stones. Losing patience, I meant to ask her how long this would take when her breath suddenly caught. I looked at her, startled.
"Look," she said, and nodded towards the stones. Unwillingly, I looked down at them.
There was a smooth pale blue stone, with almost a chalky texture. It would have fit snugly into the palm of my hand. Another stone with a glassy black but with flecks of shimmering light green. It was jagged, sharp-edged. Besides that stone, there was another as smooth as marble. The one that had slid off the table was a small clear ball, but inside of it was a flurry of gold and silver, and it looked as though the colors were swallowing each other up. The fourth was a light pink crystal that glittered even in this musty light. The fifth was a rather large dark blue stone that looked like marble. It looked glossy, heavy, and unbreakable. Finally, there lay a very small pure iridescent pearl that glistened beautifully, shaped like a six-petal flower.
"The first one, this smooth blue one… It's legacy," she said. She spoke normally, but her voice seemed to ring slightly. "But it can also mean burden- For that's what legacy is, is it not? Upholding something of value that has been outdated as meaningless tradition. This second one here, the glassy black with green- I have seen this stone many times as of recent. It indicates that something life-changing is coming, a storm, so to speak. What kind of storm, I cannot say, but change is coming. But even more interesting is this one beside it, for this is a marble I have only seen three times in my life- this small one with the gold and silver inside… it means that you are a life-changer. Your life will be changed forever and you will change lives forever… Curious and rare."
She picked up the glittering light pink crystal. "This crystal signifies romance. There are peaks suggesting more than one possibility, and yet, there is a single thread shooting through the crystal. There is a loyalty about you, according to the stone. Be wary. It may be to your detriment to love too deeply. And yet, the color suggests a genuine feeling-"
"You must be wrong," I interrupted her. "This is all wrong."
Her smile returned and she seemed more pleased than ever, her voice close to laughter. She's playing me.
"This fifth one here, this large dark blue stone, signifies magic," she said, and the humor left her voice. Instead, her voice seemed to lengthen and grow. "But it does not refer to the outcomes of magic, but its very origins. You have been gifted with a very particular understanding of magic- almost as a partnership. You may never be a singular wielder. You cannot tame magic to do your bidder, but you can follow it to places that others cannot go, for they would not think to see doorways there."
My impatience was rising. What would this lady know about me? Has she seen the way I struggle with spells? No. I looked down to see that only one stone was left. Clearly, it was an ordinary, run-of-the-mill pearl. Please, finish quickly, I begged internally.
The lady picked up the last stone. "Finally, you chose the lumeare."
"You mean pearl?" I said impatiently.
She laughed lightly. "Oh no, don't be a fool, child. It's lumeare, and there are only twenty-six of these in the entire world. It represents purity and light. In short, it represents the soul. The soul is what exists after trial. You are the type of person who is brightest in the darkest of situations, I'm afraid."
I said nothing, only waited for her to finish.
"Yes," she murmured. "There will come a point in your life where you feel you cannot hold onto anything, and at that turn, you will find your soul. It will be strength to you, but it will only come through deep, terrible loss."
She gently placed the stone back on the table and it sparkled brilliantly in the light.
The shallowest question rose in me, and I couldn't swallow it. "Can I buy it?"
She leaned back and studied me carefully. "I thought you said you don't have money."
"I don't have lots of it," I answered bluntly. "But I might have enough for this one."
"There's only twenty-six in the entire world. It's price is valueless."
"Madam, not to be disrespectful, but it's just one stone. And it's not a diamond, is it? How could it be so valuable?"
"Because it represents your future and it possesses truly unique qualities," she answered swiftly.
When I said nothing, the lady smiled and said, almost tauntingly, "You don't believe me."
"I am a little skeptical, yes," I said, trying to keep my voice polite. "All right. I thank you for the reading, but if you're not going to sell me the pearl, I think I should be on my way. My friends are waiting outside, you see-"
"I'll sell it to you," she said. "You may pay me in two ways. You can pay me a Galleon now and leave with it or you can take it for free if you believe that none of this is true. However, if this happens to come true, you must grant me a favor."
I paused, and then uncomfortably handed her a Galleon. She placed the stone in a small wooden box and handed it to me, saying, "See, you say I'm wrong, but you don't completely disbelieve, either. You believe there is a chance this is true, and so you refuse to be in my debt, even in possibility. "
I looked at her questioningly. "Well, a Galleon's not that much, is it But I don't understand. If there's only twenty-six in the world, why are you selling it to me for a Galleon?"
"Because," she answered without missing a beat, "it chose you. It was barely, barely mine to give."
We looked at each other for one long moment before I broke away and back into the refreshing October air of the street. Gasping for breath as though I'd been underwater, I quickly raced through the village, coming to the bookstore in a matter of minutes. I glanced at my watch- I'd come a minute early thanks to my sprint. I closed my eyes and calmed myself down, unsure of why I was so shaken. It's all a joke, come on, you know from Divination, none of this is true… Nonetheless, when I patted my jacket pocket, I felt relief that the box was there.
Suddenly, the bookstore door opened and a young lad carrying a box of books stumbled out, dropping many of them. I knelt down to pick them up, when one of them caught my eye- one embossed with Ancient Runes, one of my favorite subjects.
"Thanks for the help," the young boy told me.
"Oh, here, you forgot one," I said, holding it out to him, but my eyes never left the book. The boy looked between me and the book, then at me again. He smiled and said, "No, you keep that one. It seems you've taken a liking to it. As my thanks. Later, then."
And he was off, staggering under the box of books again. Alice, Dorcas, and Marlene approached me just then, and together we started the walk back to Hogwarts, chattering about all the sights and shops the whole way back- save for one very intriguing shop. I felt the clamminess and anxiety I'd felt in Chance & Fortune ebb away as I linked arms with Alice and continued listening to Dorcas and Marlene's hilarious adventure at the Shrieking Shack all the way back to Hogwarts- with the bright October stars twinkling happily down at us.
