CH 217

The week after that, a female goblin who turned out to be the daughter of the Granger's bank manager oversaw a small army of tiny aliens called house elves in the building of a ritual room in the garage. Apparently the house elves were owned by a Lord Parkinson who was a not-actually-proven-but-totally-was-a-deatheater.

"Doesn't that worry you?" she'd asked Dan.

Dan had shrugged. "If you make it a policy to have no dealings with ex-death-eaters you'll never get anything done. We know he's untrustworthy, so we don't trust him. That's why we work through the Boneslicer clan."

She'd spent the next week thinking about how a clan of literal bloodthirsty bankers was apparently more trustworthy than yet another member of the wizarding world's aristocracy.

While she worried about this, the Grangers, who she was really starting to warm to, had a floo installed, put up the magical lighting, given her a magic ring, and spent hours and hours getting her to do everything from picking up broomsticks by shouting 'UP!' to opening chocolate frog packets. It was amazing that, even without a wand, there were so many things she could do that Dan and Emma couldn't. When they tried to open a chocolate frog packet, they just got a normal frog shaped chocolate. Apparently, this was because the enchantments and runes in the chocolate packaging drew an almost unnoticeable amount of magic from the wizard as they opened it to power the animation charm.

Eventually, the day Clare had been waiting for but never dared to believe would come had arrived.

It was Saturday, November the 2nd and on Monday she would be going to magic school for the very first time.

She arrived from her guest-room bedroom for breakfast to find Dan and Emma at the dinning room table, both gazing fiercely at a copy of the Daily Prophet, Emma hanging over Dan's shoulder.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, sitting down.

Dan's head shot up. "Yes. Yes, it is, thank god." He chucked the paper at her. "Look at that!"

She looked. A huge two legged monster widely swung a club around while five young girls fought it to a stand still.

Dan jabbed his finger at one of the figures. "That's our Hermione!" Clare's eyes widened. "She's alright?"

Emma let out a shaky breath. "Yes, thank heavens. If Harry hadn't been giving her those extra lessons… I don't want to think what might have happened."

"Harry?"

"Her friend from before school. They both go to Hogwarts."

Clare looked at the paper again. "This happened on Halloween and you're only just now finding out about it?"

Emma moved out from behind Dan and sat down opposite her. "Hermione sent us an owl yesterday, but hearing about it in a letter and seeing moving pictures are two totally different things." Clare nodded and looked at the paper again. This was the sort of thing first years at Hogwarts got up to? That changing pipe into sword spell was amazing, and those shields, and those other spells. She bit her lip. She didn't want to say anything for fear of looking inconsiderate, but suddenly, going to magical school seemed even more amazing than she'd ever imagined, even during all those slow and boring middle and high school years.

The three of them soon finished breakfast and, when the containment wards allowed it, made their way through the floo to Diagon Alley.

"What do you mean, 'I already have a vault'?"

The goblin teller looked at Clare like she was stupid. "I meant what I said, human."

She looked to the Grangers who shrugged. "Ask for a blood confirmation if you're not sure," Dan suggested.

Apparently, there wasn't a mistake and she did in fact already have a vault, although she couldn't begin to imagine how. She carefully deposited her remaining two and a half gallons of silver and bronze and made her way back to the wild cart ride.

Clare's heart flew as they shopped for new robes, and cauldrons, and potion supplies, and all sorts of other things. Slytherin was paying and she was determined to take maximum opportunity before she'd inevitably be kicked to the curb.

She happily zipped up and down the rows of books in Flourish and Blotts, picking out her very own copies of all the books she'd been perusing in the Granger Library over the last month.

Dan and Emma didn't let her monopolise all the enthusiasm either. They left the book shop with wide smiles and carrying a few choices of their own including, 'The 1991 guide to known family magic,' and 'Patent law and family magic,' among a small pile of other books.

Finally, Clare found herself in front of the shop that she'd dreamed of for seven years, and despaired of never seeing for three The wand shop.

Clare stepped into the dark and dusty shop followed quickly by the Grangers.

"Good morning," came a soft voice from right beside her that made her jump. "G-good morning," she said, but the old man's eyes had already left her and were scanning Dan and Emma behind her.

"Ah," the man said, smiling. "You must be Mister and Mrs Granger, of the House of Granger, Vassals of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin. Am I right?"

Clare turned and saw Dan regard the man with wary eyes.

"We are. And you must be Mister Ollivander, the oldest member of the oldest family in Britain — the only family that holds the title of Most Most Ancient."

The man chuckled. "Indeed. 402 BC. I wonder if we can hold on for another one hundred some odd years… maybe the Albion magics will upgrade us again to Most Most Most Ancient. We'd have to re-order our calling cards again." Mister Ollivander turned away from them and started pulling boxes out of the many shelves. "And you are, if I may say so, the most surprising muggles I've ever met. A good fit for an equally surprising daughter." He turned back to them with a pair of boxes in his hands. "It would seem, that anything to do with Lord Slytherin is automatically surprising… so maybe I should just stop being surprised, hmmm?"

Dan grunted. "Maybe."

Ollivander turned to Clare again, who, despite the dust in the air, had been watching with slightly widened eyes.

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