Melanie stared at the amusement park. They didn't have anything like this in Briar Valley, or if they did then she had never been because it wasn't the sort of place royalty went on a whim. Beside her was an equally astonished Malleus. The reason behind it was simple.
In order to maintain her anonymity as a princess among the school, Lilia had suggested they take one last family vacation with Melanie, the boys and Malleus. At least until the letters were sent out and they knew what supplies to get.
To that end, Melanie had gone looking into what the mundane world had to offer in England.
The second she had learned of Thorpe Park, she had all but begged her father and Lilia to take them there. Malleus had consented to wearing a glamour on his horns, so as not to attract too much attention.
It was a bit overwhelming.
Still, Malleus was beyond fascinated with the creations of humans. Melanie was particularly eager to try these...roller coasters.
"These guns don't seem very reliable," commented Silver.
"That's because they're deliberately rigged to make the game harder," said Lilia with good cheer. He shot down another target, winning yet another prize. He cheerfully picked the comical looking bat doll for himself.
It took several tries and eventually Silver managed to win a stuffed toy, which he promptly gave to Melanie. Sebek did his best, but he couldn't quite get the hang of the obviously rigged gun.
Melanie hugged her new toy with delight.
Sebek had a bit more luck with the ring toss, though not as much luck as Malleus. Admittedly, he had likely cheated just a tad bit out of frustration to win a toy for himself. Lilia wasn't going to call him on it, because they were having fun and the operator was being compensated either way.
By the end of the day, everyone was tired, overstimulated, but had an overall blast. Melanie had a plethora of new stuffed toys, though she had managed to win a small horse plushie for Silver and a very comical looking reptile that reminded her of Sebek. They boys had accepted their new stuffed toys with joy, even though they had handed most of their winnings to her.
"So what's on the agenda tomorrow?" asked Melanie.
"I was thinking the zoo, honestly. There's one close to the hotel we're staying at...though Malleus might have to stay in the room," said Lilia.
"Why?" asked Sebek.
"Most animals wouldn't react well to alpha predators, particularly a dragon, in their midst," said Lilia dryly. Malleus pouted at the reminder, but accepted his fate.
"Don't worry Papa, we can go around observing all the gargoyles in the city later," said Melanie. That had Malleus perking up, as he was rather eager to observe this land's gargoyles. And thanks to magic, they could return with ease to the hotel without worry of getting lost.
The next day...
The trip to the zoo was a major disaster, and not because of Melanie's presence.
It seemed like everywhere they went, this spoiled brat and his family would show up soon after. Melanie got so frustrated that when they entered the reptile house, she made the glass holding the large snake disappear and felt dark satisfaction when the brat fell in.
It took a bit of doing, but she was able to smuggle the snake out of the zoo before the humans noticed.
"That was incredibly irresponsible of you," scolded Lilia.
"He was annoying you too, and you know it," said Melanie pouting.
"What happened?" asked Malleus.
"This little imp thought it was amusing to trap a mundane child in a snake enclosure...after setting that same snake loose," said Lilia irate.
"You left out the part where he was being a particular nuisance the entire trip," said Melanie.
"That was still no excuse," said Lilia.
The snake poked it's head out of Melanie's bag and hissed. To the surprise of Malleus, Melanie hissed back.
"I was unaware you spoke fluent parseltongue," said Malleus.
Melanie blinked.
"I didn't know either. It's not like we meet many snakes."
"You're still in trouble for that stunt, even if the child was unharmed."
Melanie pouted.
"That brat nearly pushed a four-year-old girl into the lion enclosure, just because he felt that the creatures within 'weren't being interesting enough'. If anything, I went too light on him," she said stomping her foot.
Lilia looked to Silver.
"She's not joking. His parent's didn't even reprimand him for the stunt, and the girl almost fell in. If not for her parents she might have been in danger," said Silver.
"He was also throwing rocks at multiple animals," said Sebek scowling. "And had thrown a massive fit because there were not enough toppings on the treat his parents had given him."
Lilia frowned.
"That still doesn't excuse your stunt. If you do it again you're going to be grounded."
Melanie pouted, but kept her silence. She was not apologizing to that absolute brat.
~*~*~*~*
Melanie was not impressed with Diagon Alley. When the letters were finally delivered, she had been excited. For all of fifteen minutes.
She had almost balked at the idea of going into the bank, mostly because of the creatures who were manning the tills. Even she was aware that goblins were vermin that needed to be exterminated. It was extremely worrying that they had been allowed to develop a society long enough to become even this level of civilized.
She had been drilled extensively, alongside the boys, that if they found even a hint of a goblin nest then they were to report them immediately.
She sucked it up, but kept close to her father for good reason. The boys did the same with Lilia.
Going into the bank was nerve-wracking, but it had to be done since her inheritance was controlled by these...creatures. She would have to wait until her majority to move all her assets far, far away from their control, which was annoying.
"Do you have your key?" sneered the goblin.
"We're here to do an inheritance test, to see if she has any vaults available," said Lilia firmly.
It was appalling at how brazen these goblins had become. They were so drunk on their power that they failed to register a higher fae in their presence. Or worse, they did not care and felt secure enough in their position among the mages that they could act as they wished.
The goblin sneered at them for the presumption that they were worthy of his time. It took a great deal of self restraint to not kill him on the spot.
"Third door to the right. Now stop wasting my time," sneered the goblin.
Lilia was disgusted. The second Melanie was of age, they were absolutely moving her inheritance far from these...creatures.
The goblin's tune changed very quickly when they found out that Melanie's dead name was originally Melody Potter.
"So how much of this can be moved now, and when can we move the rest?" asked Lilia bluntly.
Melanie did her best to pay attention, as this was about her personal finances and inheritance. However after a certain point her brain began to melt from the sheer amount of fine details that Lilia was viciously slinging around like it was nothing.
It was a massive relief when they were able to leave that bank, with a massive bag full of gold to buy supplies with. Since the tuition was already taken care of, it was now time to get the incidentals.
The first stop they made was to get the clothes, since that would take time to adjust and make. There was no point in getting a wand, as the children would be receiving theirs custom made. Besides, Lilia knew perfectly well that once Melanie and Malleus entered the bookstore it would take ages to get them out.
There was a young blond child getting his own uniform fitted. He took one look at Sebek and turned his nose up in disgust. He did briefly glance Silver and Melanie's way, but ignored them.
Malleus was not very pleased with the blatant disrespect, but kept his silence.
Melanie was beginning to understand why her great-grandmother wanted her to hide her identity, if this was the sort of uncultured behavior she was expected to endure for five years.
The entire trip was a bit of a culture shock, to be honest.
Getting out of the shop was a bit of a trial, and why the measuring tape needed to examine the length of their nostrils was a bit confusing. But it was a relief when they left.
"Shall we get to work then?" said Lilia. "If we can get through this quickly enough, we could visit that ice cream shop from earlier."
Malleus and Melanie perked up visibly at that.
The rest of the trip went fairly quickly, though Lilia frowned at the quality of the potion ingredients. However they were acceptable considering the trio were only now learning to properly brew potions.
He could only hope Melanie was in the same classes as Silver and Sebek. She was a bit too impatient to brew her own, though she was excellent at prep work. He still didn't know how she kept blowing up her cauldrons with such frequency.
As they were walking past the owl emporium, there was a bit of a commotion. A beautiful white owl flew out after having savaged the assistants in the shop, before firmly landing on Silver and refusing to let go. He winced as her talons dug into his shoulders, and she glared at any attempts to remove her.
Lilia merely chuckled, and to keep the peace they paid for the owl. It looked incredibly smug about the whole thing.
"Such an imperious thing. Almost like a queen," chuckled Lilia.
"Why not name her Regina then?" joked Melanie. "Also, how sad is it that she's more well behaved than any of the children we've seen all week?"
Silver snorted in agreement to that end.
"What do you think girl?" he asked. "Is the name Regina acceptable?"
"Prek."
"Regina it is."
The newly dubbed Regina looked very pleased with her new master.
Lilia found it somewhat ironic that Silver was adopted by a snowy owl, considering who his birth father was.
In the bookstore...
Malleus and Melanie dove into the deeper aisles of the bookstore, and Lilia merely sighed in amusement.
"Come on boys, let's get the required books and then you can try and find some new reading material."
Sebek raised an eyebrow at the "Melody Potter" series. While Silver went to find a book on proper owl care.
Lilia took one look at the book in Malleus' hands and confiscated it.
"Nope. You already give the guards a headache trying to keep track of you...the last thing we need is for you to learn how to cast invisibility spells on top of that," said Lilia.
Malleus pouted, but there was a hint of amusement in his expression.
Then again, Lilia had no idea Melanie had found the same book and planned to teach him those same spells during the summer.
By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted and well over half of the funds they had acquired from the goblin's bank had been wiped out.
~*~*~*~*
Melanie was not in a good mood. To be fair, none of them were really morning people and Lilia had felt it necessary to wake them up absurdly early so that they could reach the train on time. Fortunately thanks to his prior research, they knew how to reach the secret platform used to ferry the students between the school and the mundane crossing.
While that had been annoying, and she had been rather unhappy to leave her father behind for so long, nothing compared to the sheer disrespect and outright rudeness she had experienced on the train.
The elder students had taken one look at them and had dismissed them as important, and if not for the fact she had threatened to set no less than ten older students on fire without a wand, they would have been kicked out of their compartment. They had looked very surprised at the casual use of wandless magic.
Melanie had resorted to locking the door with an overpowered spell just to be done with it after the last group. She had been in a sour mood for an hour until the trolley arrived.
Much to their dismay, the only offering the kindly mage had for them was overpriced sweets. The chocolate frogs had been moderately distressing for Silver, and after one too many mishaps with the "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans" they had sworn off them as well.
Silver silently resolved to send that to his father when winter break began. He knew Lilia would thoroughly enjoy the offering.
Getting changed had been slightly awkward, but they had gotten through it.
Finally came the sorting, which was one thing Lilia hadn't been able to get much information on. Likely because it was tradition, much like the ceremony held at Night Raven College.
Melanie wasn't too sure she would enjoy this Hogwarts very much, if this was the behavior she would have to put up with for five years.