Addie had been overwhelmed when she had first set foot in Diagon Alley about one year prior. She had been there with her brother, who had just found out that he was wizard Jesus, and Hagrid, who she was now very fond of, but had at that time still been slightly terrified of. Now, however, she was with different strange adults, a more confusing Harry and of course, Ginny.

'So you've been here quite a lot then," she said to Ginny who was enthusiastically skipping alongside her, clearly anticipating a good day.

"Oh, yes," Ginny enthused. "It's part of the process of preparing for Hogwarts. The letters arrive, we go shopping for everything on the list, and then we all go to wave everyone off. Only this year, I get to be part of it!"

Ginny's enthusiasm was infectious, and Addie soon found herself joining in. They skipped along and looked in all the windows. Addie hadn't known of the variety of shops on Diagon Alley and found herself eager to return sometime to have a better look around. There was a second-hand book shop, a tea shop that smelled wonderful, and a chocolate shop that looked as though it probably sold something other than Addie's ethical nemesis and the magical world's typical offering – the humble chocolate frog.

Harry, who was trailing behind them with Ron looked more miserable than Addie felt. She supposed that it was because of his rather unfortunate accident. She had been lucky in the fact that Mrs Weasley had ultimately decided to say the name for her – in very much the same fashion as was done for children – otherwise she might have ended up in the same situation. Hermione was also with them, and like her, seemed to be delighted that Harry was not in fact lost forever. She had tried to talk to him, but Ron and Hermione had moved protectively in front of her like she was Draco Malfoy or Ethel Hallow or someone, so she had let it be.

They also seemed to have obtained Hagrid and Addie was very pleased to see him again.

"How is Fluffy?" she asked him quietly. "Has he recovered?"

"Oh, it's very nice of you to ask, I'll tell him you've been asking after him. He's in a right sorry state. Apparently that monster didn't just play music to him, he also tried to put all manner of sleeping charms on him, and Fluffy isn't your typical dog. Runs and barks like one, but is really rather different. He'll be in recovery for a while yet. I've had to send him away to convalesce."

"Oh, I am sorry," Addie said. "I never met him myself, but one of my friends accidentally stumbled upon him last year, and said that he seemed like a very…big and…spirited dog."

"Oh, is he ever spirited. Did I tell you about the time he took the roof off my house?"

"No," Addie said.

"Oh, it was just beautiful! I had never expected my dog of all dogs to grow to be so big and strong…"

After a hasty trip to the bank, Addie found herself in a second hand robe shop with Mrs Weasley and Ginny, who had asked her if she wanted to come along. Addie hadn't been able to muster even the slightest bit of interest in what the others were doing, and wanted to support her friend on what seemed to be one of the most exciting days of her life so far. She also had an ulterior motive – she needed new robes as well and preferred the idea of going to get them second hand – so had been very happy to join them.

The shop was dusty and rather less hygienic than Madam Malkin's pristine labyrinth of boxes. Addie found herself preferring it, but supposed that that was in part due to the fact that it would have been anathema to Aunt Petunia.

"Alright, up you go," said the attendant to Ginny and got to measuring with the same spell that Addie recognised from the previous year. "You too," she gestured and Addie got onto the step and the same spells started measuring her as well.

"You're a second year, if I'm correct," she said to Addie. "Are your robes a bit short, a bit nippit, infested with who knows what or a combination of those three?"

"I suppose…a bit short and a bit nippit?" she said after thinking for a moment. She had tried her best with her robes which she remembered having spent quite a lot of money on the previous year. At the time, she had been so pleased with them, and had hoped to get another year out of them, but when she had tried them on as instructed by Mrs Weasley, she had found that she had grown over the summer.

"Aye, it happens to most when they're your age. It's what becoming a young woman does to you." Addie only just managed to not flinch. "Not to worry," the attendant continued, seemingly completely unaware of Addie's discomfort, "we'll have you sorted out in no time and ready to face the coming year."

"Great," she said, "it'll be good to have it sorted."

Beside her, Ginny was almost vibrating with excitement at the prospect of having her very own Hogwarts robes. She kept looking down at the robes which were being pinned as though she couldn't quite believe that they were real, before catching Addie's eye and grinning.

By the end of the session, they left with a bag each, and after Mrs Weasley had paid for Ginny's robes and Addie had paid for her own, they made their way to Flourish and Blotts to meet with the rest of their party, as they had agreed that they would.

It was far busier than Addie remembered it having been the previous summer, as it was almost entirely full of excited children and middle-aged women. Mrs Weasley seemed to be itching to go and become one of their number. Apparently Gilderoy Lockhart was well known in the wizarding world, and Addie was disgusted to learn that his books were not inexpensive pamphlets that could be acquired economically, but instead hardback books that were hundreds of pages long and more expensive than any of other books on the list. Each.

After gaining entrance to the shop, Addie quickly made a beeline to the most exciting part of the shop, which was of course the historical books section, and there she found a veritable feast of history. There were books on every era, from every corner of the…British Isles (that was something she found rather disappointing, but she figured that there must be other places to find books) and compared to the Lockhart books, they were fairly inexpensive. She scanned the spines, a few times before scooping up a few of the titles that sounded the most interesting to her. The History of Mermaid Rights, The Mythology of Unexplained Stone Circles in the United Kingdom and Were they there? An Anthology of Ghost Historians in Magical Britain were all added to her basket without much concern for the price. She had budgeted intentionally for history books when she had taken money out of her personal vault (another reason why she had got second hand robes) and knew that she would gain sufficient enjoyment from them to justify the cost. The craze for The Worst Witch books seemed to have reached the magical world at some point, so she was also able to obtain her own copy as well as its immediate sequel. There were others that weren't mentioned in the back of the original book on the shelf and she grinned at the prospect of more tales of a fictional magical school.

Following this, she got out her reading list, and looked it over to try and figure out what she needed. She made quick work of acquiring the set texts for most of her subjects, as well as an additional book on the changing understanding of charms in magical Britain, with the hopes that if she brought history into her studies, she might finally gain some interest in charms, or anything actually magic related, really. Then she joined the queue with the others, none of whom were more excited to meet Gilderoy Lockhart than Mrs Weasley.

"Oh, he's so handsome, and gives such good explanations as to how to deal with doxies of course, and he has such a wonderful smile, and he's so intelligent and wonderful. You must all be so excited to have your books signed by him."

"Oh yes," Hermione said dreamily. "He really is."

"I don't see it," Addie said almost to quietly for anyone else to hear.

"Oh, it's probably just that intelligent men make you feel insufficient," Hermione said, having obviously heard her. "It's alright. I hear that happens to some people."

"Is Hermione secretly mean?" Addie heard George say to Fred. "I hadn't noticed it before, but she really doesn't seem to like Addie."

"Angelina had a phase like that," Fred replied. "Started playing Quidditch, saying that she was one of the boys and insisting that she hated flowers and pink. She later realised that she actually liked Quidditch in her own right and other than that she could like essentially whatever she wanted."

"Is that the same time that she insisted that she and Alicia weren't friends because girls only played Quidditch to get boys to like them? She kept on saying that she was the only girl on the team who liked Quidditch, and that anyone else was pretending."

"Yup."

Addie turned back to Mrs Weasley, "Do I really have to be here to get my books signed? It's really loud here," It was somehow louder than the Great Hall at Hogwarts, and that was really saying something, "and I don't really like it."

"Oh, but it would be such a shame if you missed out on meeting him!" Mrs Weasley said encouragingly. "I'm sure that you can stand the noise for a little bit longer so that you can get your book signed."

"I'm pretty sure that I can't," Addie insisted, "I try – I really do – to go out into public spaces, but I can't stand it without my earplugs because it's too loud. I would really rather pay for my books then go and wait outside."

"But are you sure you…"

"I am completely sure that I don't want to meet Gilderoy Lockhart," Addie affirmed. "I hope you all have a great time when you do, but I really don't think it's my sort of thing."

Mrs Weasley looked as though she wanted to say something more, but Addie pushed past her as gently as she could and went to stand outside, where it was far quieter. She flicked through her new books and was at once floored by how completely ridiculous the Lockhart books were. Perhaps she would understand the appeal when she had sat through the class, but she somehow doubted that she would. Her history books were more up her alley, even potions was more up her alley and she both hated and was terrible at it. After a while, she heard a commotion inside, and knew immediately that Harry had probably been involved, as was usually the case. When was he not involved when there was a loud noise?

A few moments later, the entire group filed out of the shop one by one, while being carefully watched by an eagle-eyed shop attendant. Startlingly it was Mr Weasley who looked as though he had been in a fight and not Harry, and Addie would not have thought that Mr Weasley would be the most likely one among them to end up in a fight. They must have looked like a sorry group, all traipsing back to The Leaky Cauldron, and after the brawl in the…bookshop everyone seemed to be shaken. As they walked along, Ginny explained it to her as best she could.

"I'm glad you weren't there," she said. "If you were uncomfortable in that queue, then being in the middle of a fight between my dad and Mr Malfoy would have been unbearable for you. It's lucky that Hagrid managed to tear them apart before they ended up drawing blood. It could have been worse than that."

There was something novel about sitting around the table with a family of people who clearly liked each other. The Dursleys were not the warmest to each other, let alone to Addie and Harry, but the Weasley parents had an acute concern for each child under their roof. Mrs Weasley seemed to have warmed to her and seemed quite happy to go over her list with her to make sure there was nothing else she needed, as well as fix Tabby's food bowl which had got broken in one of the twins' experiments. When their dinner was finished – beef stew for the meat eaters and an assortment of vegetables for Addie – Addie gave Harry a meaningful look when Mrs Weasley started to clean up after the meal, and the two of them went to offer their help in cleaning up in the kitchen.

"Oh no dears," Mrs Weasley said quickly. "I know your aunt must need your help all the time as she doesn't have magic, but I am very used to managing this all on my own and I have tricks to help me along my way."

"Are you sure there's nothing we could do to help?" Harry asked. "We are really grateful you have let us stay here. You really didn't have to you know!"

"Oh it has been lovely having you both," Mrs Weasley replied. "It has been nice for Ron and Ginny and the twins to have friends around for the summer. I remember how desperately I used to want to be back at Hogwarts just to spend time with my friends. I suppose you could both scrape those plates before I wash them and that would be very helpful. It can be rather tiring to have to prepare and clean up after a meal by myself."

"Of course!" Addie replied for both of them, and they both leapt into action. By the appearance of the kitchen, Mrs Weasley really had her work cut out for her, magic or not. She made a mental note to corner Harry at some point and force him to sign the card she had bought in Diagon Alley thanking the Weasley family for their hospitality. She found herself beginning to think that it was perhaps not that Mrs Weasley wanted a house-elf, but instead that she wanted her husband and children to pull their weight when they were at home. She and Harry very pointedly ignored each other for the duration of their task before parting ways.

That night, Addie woke up feeling thirsty, very thirsty. Her first thought was that she shouldn't chance it and try and get water from the kitchen without being caught, but then she remembered that the kitchen was far from anyone's room, so she would likely be able to get in and out with a glass of water and nobody any the wiser. She swung her feet out of her bed and into her slippers (it was strange how quickly she could manage to get herself into an important routine) and padded gently out of Ginny's room. Tabby stretched slightly at the end of her bed before going back to sleep. Being a kitten was exhausting work.

Initially, she thought that she was alone, but then she heard the sound of voices coming from the kitchen. She of course knew that it was impolite to eavesdrop, but she wanted to find an acceptable break in the conversation so that she could interrupt as politely as she could. This was something that she generally didn't do well with, and had to hold herself back from talking at all most of the time, but she knew that if she listened, she could probably figure it out.

"Arthur, he says that we can have them for the summer, but that next summer they will have to go back to those relatives of theirs."

"Molly," Mrs Weasley told her gently, "you know that…"

"Yes, yes, I know that we can't afford any more, and that two more children would probably sink us, but we can't let them go back to those 'relatives' of theirs. I don't feel comfortable with that."

"I thought you didn't like her, Addie I mean?"

"Oh, when they both first came here, I admit that I went by what Ron had written to me in letters. You know he doesn't say much about why he dislikes her so much, but I was willing to take his word for it as they are in the same year, but since she is friends with George and has really managed to become quite good friends with Ginny, I think she's a perfectly nice girl. She's a bit shy, and I don't quite understand why she doesn't like Gilderoy Lockhart, but that isn't exactly criminal. They are both very nice children."

"I can't say I understand your love of Lockhart myself, but he does seem to know what to do about gnomes," Mr Weasley said.

"I wonder if she actually has any friends?" Mr Weasley said suddenly. "Ron seems to insist that she doesn't have any friends. Or as he said 'only Neville and a random Ravenclaw and Slytherin, so nobody really' which seems to really be rather harsh."

"I wish I had thought to send her a jumper as well," Mrs Weasley said thoughtfully. "I made a lovely one for Harry, but didn't even think about his sister. I suppose it must have been a terrible day for her. With all the magic of a Hogwarts Christmas, she didn't have anyone to celebrate with."

"This Christmas," Mr Weasley said decidedly, "we'll send her a lovely box of all the things she's liked here. Molly, she liked the shortbread you made yesterday, and she mentioned that she'd never had hot chocolate before she had it here. We will make her a box of things to warm her heart and a jumper since it can get so cold up there, and try and make sure that what happened last year doesn't happen again. There's no use in dwelling on what can't be changed. All we can do is move forwards."

"I agree," Mrs Weasley said, with a smile in her voice. "I'll add her to my list tomorrow."

Suddenly not very thirsty after all, Addie crept back up the stairs and settled back into her bed. To her relief she managed to do it without disturbing anyone. Although she was glad that she had been able to win over Mrs Weasley, she hadn't known that it was so based in pity. She had really thought that she had been likeable enough.