Diagon Alley
- And that was when Rachael finally realized... if something bad happened to me... if something really horrible... if I was like Remus...-
Before Remus knew it, it was two days before James and Sirius would be heading home, which also meant it was time for a full moon. The day of the full moon he woke up feeling exceptionally groggy and unwilling to get out of bed. He could have stayed in that same spot all day. But he knew he couldn’t do it so, with great effort, he rolled himself out of bed and onto the floor. Picking himself up and rubbing his head, he walked out into the hallway to see James and Sirius heading his way, both looking disheveled. Remus knew he must look the same; they had all gotten to sleep late the night before.
Remus’s mum had given him a few Muggle dollars and he and his friends went down to the old movie house. They spent a good four hours sitting through two movies, both of which were rather boring. But they couldn’t leave no matter how much they wanted to. As it was a double feature they were seeing and his mum knew it, she would be disappointed if he wasted her money and they came back after only sitting through the movies for five minutes. Thus they were forced to sit through four hours of torture.
“Morning,” James said, stretching his arms out behind his back, almost hitting Sirius, who jumped backwards.
“Morning,” Remus answered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. They went down to the kitchen so Remus could check the time, it was well past noon.
The boys decided to spend their day inside the house, despite that it was a glorious day out. It wasn’t too hot, it wasn’t too cold, the birds were chirping in the trees and there was a slight breeze ruffling the grass. But, as it was a full moon that night, Remus was feeling much too ill to go outside. So they spent their time playing some Gobstones, Wizards Chess and one game of Exploding Snap, which, of course, Remus won.
As the day wore on and the full moon drew nearer there wasn’t much to do. Remus wouldn’t eat dinner and James and Sirius felt guilty about eating. So they avoided the dinner table and sat in the living room, talking occasionally but not much.
“So what do we do now?” Sirius asked James as they sat in Rachael’s old room. It was nighttime and Mrs. Lupin had locked Remus in his room for the full moon.
James shrugged. “I dunno, just stay in here I guess.”
And so they did. They passed a good ten minutes by looking in Rachael’s old toy box, playing with her old stuffed animals. Right when they came upon the stuffed wolf they heard a low groan of pain coming from Remus’s room. The two boys looked at each other quickly.
“Want to go see?” James asked nervously. Sirius nodded, a bit hesitantly. The two of them went down to Remus’s room and sat in front of the door, fighting to look through the keyhole. Eventually Sirius won the fight, only after pushing James against the wall behind them.
“It was pointless trying to see,” said Sirius, after thirty seconds of looking through the keyhole, only to see nothing but blackness. “Can’t see a thing!”
James crawled back over towards the door and pressed his ear up against it. He could hear moans of pain. He cringed listening to his friend in such pain. It went on for at least three minutes before they could hear growling approaching the door and scratching sounds. Remus was trying to get out.
James and Sirius looked at each other and slowly backed away from the door.
“Boys,” came the voice of Mrs. Lupin from behind them. They looked up to see her standing over them. “I think you should leave Remus alone.”
The boys nodded and quickly ran to their room.
“Hey, Remus!” said James the next morning. He and Sirius had been sitting downstairs at the kitchen table waiting for Remus to wake up. At noon Remus had come stumbling down the stairs, looking by far the worst they had ever seen him. His sandy brown hair was tossed messily about his head. His eyes were red and bloodshot. He had scrapes all over his face and his arms and he seemed to be nursing a bite on his hand.
“Hi,” he said tiredly, walking over to the counter and grabbing some paper towels and wrapping them around his hand. He took the empty seat across from James and threw himself in it. “I got kind of hungry during the night,” he said trying to make a joke, but knew it wasn’t funny.
Sirius, however, tried to laugh at it. “Obviously,” he said, eyeing Remus’s bite. “So, what d’you want to do today?”
Remus shrugged. “I dunno, just hang out I guess.”
After the talent show Rachael’s reputation increased all for the better. Much to Rachael’s delight, Brenda and Brandy became the least liked people in the entire building. Actually they already were, but now people weren’t afraid of showing how much they disliked them. Brenda and Brandy were beginning to get a feel of how it was like to be Rachael. Everywhere they went evil glares followed them and quite a few times they had been locked in the utility closet until one of the janitors discovered them in there.
Rachael knew it was wrong but she had to laugh at it all. It was nice to see them in the misery they put her through for all those years. Though every time she walked by them, grinning from ear to ear, she did feel a bit guilty, but brushed the feeling off quickly. They didn’t feel guilty when she almost killed herself because of what they did to her. They laughed their heads off about it. Becky, on the other hand, did feel guilty the night Rachael decided to tell her what she had done, with different details of course.
“I almost killed myself because of you three!” Rachael had yelled when Becky said they hadn’t been that mean to her.
Becky jumped. “What’re you talking about?” she said.
“You people caused me so much misery I had to do it!” Rachael yelled, doing some very quick thinking. “I just took a knife and almost did it! You don’t know how close I was!”
“If you were so close why didn’t you do it?”
Rachael couldn’t believe she was asking this in a voice of mixed hilarity and mockery. “Because Ms. Marshall stopped me before I could! If she didn’t I wouldn’t even be here talking to you!”
Becky fell silent; she looked as though she were trying to say something. And it looked like it was really important for her to say it. But she never said it. Instead she got up, nodded at Rachael, but not looking at her and left the room.
After that Rachael just sat up on her bed staring at the ceiling, wondering what Becky wanted to say. Had she possibly thought that what Rachael had done was overreacting and completely stupid? But it wasn’t. She had felt so miserable, so horrible, she just needed to end it all, and she almost did. But what if Ms. Marshall hadn’t stopped her? What if she hadn’t gotten there in time? Well she wouldn’t be there anymore, would she? But how would her family react?
Remus would be devastated of course. When she had last seen him he was feeling terrible. What would have happened to him then if she had succeeded in what she wanted to do? She didn’t even want to imagine it. Her dad… he would have thought he didn’t get her in time that he failed as a father. He had been trying to get her back, trying as hard as he could. He would think he didn’t make it in time to take her and raise her. Her mother….
Would her mother finally realise the mistake she had made? Would she suddenly stop and let reality show her what she had done? After all the years of detesting her daughter for something she didn’t do, would she finally come to her senses and break down? Seeing for the first time what she had done? Maybe she would… Maybe she would at last see what she had done. Rachael knew something like that would make her mother come to her senses. It would make her love her daughter again.
And that was when Rachael finally realised… if something bad happened to me… if something really horrible… If I was like Remus…
Diagon Alley, one part of the Wizarding world that wizards have to go to at least once in their life, whether it be for work, or just to hang out in the pub. But for the most part it was to get their supplies for the coming year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Today was the day Rachael was heading to the alley to get her new books for school. All she needed was a new Transfiguration book and another Charms textbook. She could also do with some new quills and ink and she needed to get more potion supplies.
As she and Ms. Marshall stepped through the doorway to the alley, her personal instructor immediately turned to go down to the Magical Menagerie, having stated that she wanted to look at some of the creatures there. Rachael was fine with it of course. She fancied getting to wander up and down the street by herself. Maybe she would spot her best friend, Lily Evans, there. She went to the potions store first, gathered a few items and paid, then down to get some quills and ink and finally off to Flourish and Blotts to get her new books for the coming year.
She entered the shop to find it packed with students and their parents, quite different from how she found it the year before when she had come with Ms. Marshall. When she had went last year the entire building smelled like rotten dragon eggs and she had gotten the books free because she was brave enough to go in there and endure the smell. She had to fight her way through the chattering crowds to get to the Transfiguration books. When she finally arrived at the stand that said “Transfiguration” she realised they were all gone.
“Looking for one of these?” asked a playful voice from behind her.
Rachael turned around to see Sirius standing behind her and dangling a Transfiguration book in front of her nose. She snatched it from him and muttered, “Thanks.”
“Saw you coming this way so figured I get it for you,” he explained, tucking his own textbook under his arm.
“Well, thanks again,” said Rachael, smiling.
“Here by yourself?” Sirius asked as they made their way over to the Charms textbooks.
“No, Ms. Marshall’s around here somewhere but she let me go off by myself.”
Sirius raised an eyebrow.
“Which would mean I’m here by myself, yeah you’re right.”
Sirius laughed. “Ah I’m here by myself too. My mum wouldn’t be caught dead here with the likes of me. All day I’d hear ‘why can’t you be more like your brother?’ Over and over and over until someone stapled her mouth shut!”
“How is your brother anyway?” Rachael asked, not really hoping his brother was well. Sirius’s little brother Regulus was exactly what Sirius’s parents would call ‘the perfect son.’ An evil little pureblood crazed child, whereas Sirius couldn’t care less whether his best friends had red or green blood. That was why Sirius’s mother wouldn’t walk around with him in public, in fear of humiliating herself. Rachael couldn’t understand that. Sirius was such a nice kid, his mother should have been proud. But, then again, she never did understand the way a mother’s mind worked….
“Annoying. Playing around with his wand and looking up the Unforgivable Curses. A perfect Black. Come on, let’s go pay for these.”
They fought their way through the ever growing crowd, nearly getting squashed by an overweight old lady who went clambering past them. Finally they reached the front counter where they were more than happy to rush out of their once their books were paid for.
“It’s a mad house in there!” Sirius exclaimed, watching the shop through the window.
“Everyone’s got to get their books,” said Rachel sensibly. “Dunno why though. They’re as dull as dirt.”
They began up the street, walking aimlessly, looking in the shop windows. Really they were just passing the time until their guardians came to pick them up, not that either of them was looking forward to it. Rachael was listening to Sirius’s tale about how their most recent house elf, Leechy, had finally decided enough was enough and keeled over right when he and his family was having dinner. His mother screamed so loudly as it happened that he swore people in America could hear it.
They had to stop dinner, and clear all the dishes because no one was going to want to eat after what was going to happen. Sirius had to watched his dad chop off the house elf’s head right there in the kitchen. Blood splattered all over the walls, the chairs, the floors, on Sirius, and basically every place within reach. It was purely sickening, as Sirius put it.
“Ew,” said Rachael, cringing in disgust. “They had to do it right there?” Sirius nodded. “No offense, but your family is a bit weird.”
“No offense taken! My family’s off their rockers. Decapitating house elves, that creepy family tree of theirs, yeah my family is one piece of work!”
They continued up the street, every now and then spotting someone from school and stopping to talk with them. So far they had met up with their fellow second year and Gryffindor, Frank Longbottom and their fellow second year, but who was in Ravenclaw, Alex Anderson. They only stopped a bit to talk with him, as their time was getting short and they would have to be heading back to the Leaky Cauldron. As they were walking back to the Leaky Cauldron, Rachael was entertaining Sirius with a long winded tale about how Brenda and Brandy humiliated themselves at the talent show by making every one try to sit there without wanting to rip their ears out.
“They sound like lovely girls,” said Sirius sarcastically after Rachael told them about how they pulled the ladder out from under her bunk and she broke her wrists because of it. She had only gotten the casts removed the day before. They entered the Leaky Cauldron to see Ms. Marshall sitting at the bar, having what seemed to be a lively conversation with the innkeeper, Tom. She and Sirius walked over and sat down on the two stools next to her and waited for her to notice them.
As she was turning to get a drink from her goblet she spotted them, whom both had their noses dug in the menus, pretending that they were ordering something.
“Back already?” she sniffed.
“Already? It’s six already,” said Rachael, pointing to her watch.
Ms. Marshall nodded and her eyes darted to Sirius. “Is this a friend?” she asked.
“Yep,” said Rachael happily. “Ms. Marshall, meet Sirius Black. Sirius Black, meet Ms. Marshall.”
Sirius reached across the table and shook Ms. Marshall’s hand politely and muttering a nice to meet you. Ms. Marshall wanted to finish her drink and conversation with the innkeeper, so Sirius and Rachael took to walking around the pub while Sirius waited for his mother to meet him there.
They took one of the empty tables near the fireplace and watched two old men talking about the werewolf registration system at the Ministry of Magic. They were saying that it was pure idiocy to even have one because the werewolves might not register themselves in fear of not being able to get jobs if they were bitten when they were kids or if they were bitten when they were adults they might lose the job they had.
“Is Remus registered?” Sirius asked once the two men had cleaned up their table and made their way to the exit.
“Yeah,” said Rachael, grabbing a stick next to the fire and poking some of the logs. “I dunno what they were talking about. Once we left St. Mungo’s my mum wasn’t going to make him register but the Ministry sent us an owl saying it was mandatory. There’s no way to keep them from not knowing.”
“So then what were they going on about?”
“Who knows?”
They spent a good ten minutes arguing because after Rachael told Sirius about the talent show he kept trying to make her sing, but she refused. Of course Sirius, being the persistent kid he was, kept trying to force her into it. But Rachael was just as stubborn as Sirius was persistent. Finally Sirius gave up saying that he’d already heard her anyway from the home videos they had found.
“Sirius,” said a sharp voice behind them. They both looked to see a middle age, particularly ugly woman. She was staring down at Sirius with narrowed eyes and an expression of the utmost dislike, and Sirius, Rachael could see, was fighting the urge to look at the woman the same. This must have been his mother….
“Yes, Mother?” Sirius answered in a considerably cold voice.
“It’s time for you to leave,” she told him. She picked him up by his arm and lifted him out of his chair. She dragged him to the fire place where she sprinkled Floo Powder over the flames, making them ignite emerald. She stepped into the flames and shouted, “Number Twelve Grimmauld Place” and vanished from sight.
“See you at Hogwarts,” Sirius muttered, dropping powder into the fire and vanishing.