Riddle's little snake

The art of shopping

Curare liked Diagon Alley. There was so much to see, and you could see happy people wherever you looked. Her father had promised to take her to buy school supplies and now they finally did it. Sadly, Nagini couldn't come with them but that didn't dampen her mood too much.

"Let's get your books first" Tom said and took her hand with a smile. He loved this feeling. The feeling of having his daughter close. As a child he always wanted to be loved and when he grew up he just dismissed this thought but now, now he could show Curare what it was like to grow up with all the love in the world.

Borgin and Bots was filled with people. Some famous wizard, Gildory Lockhart, was signing his books and loads of witched and wizards came to see him. The two of them split up and went to find her books.

Curare took a while to find her books when she saw a book about Potions that she hadn't read yet. She grabbed it quickly and walked to her father, who was talking to a group of people. Without him noticing, she slipped the book into the cauldron he was holding.

"Cura" someone suddenly said and a second later she was almost knocked off her feet by Draco Malfoy. She gave him a hug, her hood falling off in the process. When he let go of her, she looked at the group before her.

She recognized the Weasley's and Harry Potter. He was covered in dust and you could see his scar, as it wasn't concealed by his hair. Harry looked at Curare with a confused expression but stopped after Ron whispered something into his ear.

Tom ended the conversation a few minutes later and the two of them left after paying. When they were out again Tom went through the books, to check if they had all of them when he saw the Potions book that definitely wasn't on the list.

"Little snake...you didn't perhaps sneak this book into the cauldron?" he asked, looking like he was about to start laughing.

Curare grinned at him and shrugged. "No idea how that happened. Now come on...I still need my wand" she said, grabbing her fathers' hand and pulling it to 'Olivanders'. Tom told her he would get her robes and they would meet later again.

When she walked into the shop, she felt a wave of dust hit against her face. The room was filled with hundreds of little boxes, that was pretty much it.

"Ah Ms. Riddle, I have been waiting for you" the old man said with a smile. He already had a pile of wands ready for her. "Here, try this one." He said handing her the one at the very top. For the next few minutes things would explode or even go up in flames. Curare sure was a difficult person to give a wand to. "Wait a minute. I think I have the perfect one for you. Have had this one for almost a century now, let's see...where are you?"

Olivander came back with a very dusty box a few seconds later. He opened it and placed it on the table. Curare gently picked up the wand. It was black and looked like it had black vines climbing up it. "It's black Elder with a Basilisk scale as a core. Very good for dark magic.... go on, give it a flick!"

As soon as she did, she felt a weird energy go through her and a light surrounded her. "Thank you...how much do you get?" she asked with a smile. She loved her wand, it was light, and she felt like she had been holding it for the hundredth time, it felt so familiar.

"Eight Galleons" The old man smiled when Curare handed her ten, she could afford it and felt kinda bad that she had destroyed almost all of the front room.

"Have a good day Ms. Riddle, I hope you have a good time at Hogwarts" she left with a wave and put her wand into the inside pocket of her cloak.

Tom had started to get worried. He went to get Curare's robes and let the salesman charm them so they would grow with her. She was taking very long. He was about to go in and look for her when she came out with a smile.

She got out her black wand and showed it to her father with a proud smile. Tom knew this wand. Olivander had also offered it to him, it was almost fit for him but the Phoenix one he had was better.

"So, how about a pet?" Tom asked. "Can I have a little snake? We could talk and – "Tom stopped his overly excited daughter.

"I'm sorry Cura...but snakes aren't allowed in Hogwarts".

"But there is a huge Basilisk in the chamber anyway, why can't I take a snake? It doesn't have to be venomous" Tom was struggling inside. Curare was looking at him with her big green eyes and he really wanted to let her take her own snake.

"They are too dangerous and difficult to control" he tried to reason with her.

"I think the students are more likely to be bitten by a rat then a snake that belongs to a Paseltongue. You know I can make sure it doesn't hurt anyone. I can talk to it. The other students can't say the same about their pets".

It was these moments where Riddle hated the fact that Curare was so smart. Everything she said was true. It was the saftest pet she could take, and she knew it, but even he couldn't go against the school rules.

"How about an owl. You could have your own one...wouldn't that be something?"

"Nagini would eat it when we are at home" Curare said, turning away from him slightly. Tom really wanted to object to that, but he couldn't. At the start he had had an owl but Nagini didn't like it so she ha him for a snack. The owl was quite old already and always hooted at Nagini but since then he only had eagles. They were faster anyway.

"I'm sure she wouldn't hurt anything that belongs to you". Curare didn't answer to that, she just gave him a pointed look.

"Uncle Sev said I could use his owl anyway. I don't need my own."