Simply Incorrigible [S.B]

Chapter 3

It wasn't Arielle's first visit to Diagon Alley. She had been to the cobblestoned shopping area a few times before as well, exploring alone since her parents would usually be too busy to take notice of her. 

It had always been like that for her so shopping for her Hogwarts supplies wouldn't be any different either.

Her parents accompanied her to the Leaky Cauldron and as soon as they stepped into the alley, her mother thrust the list, a money bag, and the letter of acceptance in her hand. Then she went down with her husband to join the other purebloods for a drink or two.

Arielle was accustomed to such habits of the elder Carrows. But she also knew that it gave her the privilege of wandering alone, being away from them, not having to hear their lectures, and most importantly; buying anything she wanted as long as she kept it hidden.

She looked down at the list realizing that there were evidently a lot more things to buy than she had estimated on her previous visits. Uniforms, books, quills, parchment, cauldrons, and other necessary equipment. But the highlight of the shopping was buying a pet.

"Let's get started," she mumbled and headed down to Flourish and Blotts first. 

The bookshop was filled to the brim with customers and she had to wade her way in through the clustered crowds. After a lot of pushing and pulling, she finally reached the desk.

The shopkeeper was in chaos handling out the sets to students.

"Sir! Excuse me, Sir," she tried to call out to him but there was too much noise for her voice to be heard.

A few minutes passed in vain. It was not until an owl swooped inside the shop that the customers dispersed. It had a letter tied to its leg and as soon as Arielle saw it, it landed and perched on her shoulder holding its tiny leg out toward her.

Intrigued, she tore open the envelope. Inside was the cursive flourish she had learned to recognize ever since she was five:

The bookshop's a mess. But there's absolutely no inconvenience at Madam Malkins. How about we get our robes first?

Waiting,

Regulus.

She knew that was probably the most clever thing anyone could come up with and she also knew that she had been too stupid not to think of it before. But knowing that many customers had dispersed, she decided to buy the books first.

After she was done at Flourish and Blotts she headed down to Madam Malkins Robe's shop dragging her package of books behind her.

"There you are," she soon spotted Regulus waving to her from the shop's entrance. Seeing him spread a smile on her face. "So you got your books," he remarked as they went inside the shop.

"Yeah, I managed."

Madam Malkins was a stout, middle-aged woman with a round cherub face. Arielle liked her the moment she saw her. She took both their measurements and gave out their robes which both of them gladly paid.

"It gets a bit difficult dragging all this stuff, doesn't it?" she spoke.

"Well," Regulus replied, "much difficult. But Mother said I could take Kreacher shopping with me, so I already bought half of my stuff. We've got a cart, you can put your stuff in there and we'll sort it out afterward. Hey, Kreacher, mind if we put some more in the cart?"

Kreacher, who at first was nowhere to be seen, now emerged muttering inaudibly but placed the cart forward for her to drop her stuff in it.

"Thank you," she politely thanked him.

He just muttered then spoke, "Master's orders. Kreacher follows Master's orders."

In that way, both Regulus and Arielle continued their shopping. He hadn't yet bought his wand so they had to go to Ollivanders in the end. They had just been halfway through when an unexpected explosion shook the Apothecary.

Black smoke covered the building and four boys came out soon after, covered in soot and slime.

"It wasn't my fault, Remy, I know we are not supposed to put dungbombs in the cauldrons," the short one of them spoke.

Arielle simply stopped, watching what kind of mess they were up to.

"Yeah, it was Sirius," the one with the crooked spectacles joined them.

Regulus's hand automatically shot up to his head and then he dragged it back down his face with an expression of pure annoyance, "Come, Elle, we should get going."

"Wait, aren't they talking about your brother?"

"Yes, my brother who cooked up another explosion," he muttered, "Mother is going to be furious when she finds out. And I don't want my day spoiled by one of his ridiculous stunts."

She was still looking at the Apothecary which was spouting darkfumes. Someone was shouting inside, probably the shopkeeper, and people were stopping now and then to look at the mess.

"Elle, come on, we have to buy our wands," Regulus grasped her hand trying to take her away from the now crowded place.

"Ah, we meet again, aren't we lucky?" 

Both of them turned around at that very familiar voice to see a soot-covered Sirius grinning from ear to ear.

"Excuse my horrible condition, Miss Arielle, nevertheless, it is a pleasure to lay eyes on you. And I see, dear lil Regsy is by your side today... How you doin' bro?"

Regulus rolled his eyes, "Go take a bath, Sirius. You look like a soot-covered raven. And who do you think will compensate for this explosion you created? I bet Mother is going to scream her head off at you."

"I bet being a soot-covered but ravishing raven is quite better than being an absolute idiot sucking up to elders for all the wrong things. As for the Apothecary, I should have paid for it myself but it turns out that, unlike you, I do not receive any pocket money whatsoever. So that gives me a fair reason not to pay for the damage. Not my headache, really."

He gestured as if lifting his non-existent hat in an expression of respect towards Arielle, "See you around, good lady. And I do beg pardon for turning up in such a rueful state. But that's what I do, right? Perfect Regulus's mentally unstable brother. That's how I'm supposed to be."

And with that, he left with his friends, who were looking back at both Arielle and Regulus with slight curiosity.

"Come, Reg," she spoke.

He mumbled, "Why does he talk to you like that? Like you're some little lady he's trying to impress?"

"I don't know," she smiled, "and why would he impress me? We don't know each other that well."

"He's weird," he remarked.

"Nope," she shook her head, "he's funny."

Regulus sighed, "So you think the whole Apothecary blowout was funny? Tell you what, it's not. Mother is so going to chop him up in pieces and feed him to Kreacher when she hears about this. Which she undoubtedly will in a few minutes."

Her eyes widened in shock, "Kreacher's a cannibal?"

"Hell no," Reg finally smiled, "I just said that as a metaphor. Figure of speech."

She recalled how weirdly both the brothers used to talk at times in their extensive auto-fitted vocabularies, "I reckon I will never be able to understand half of how you Blacks talk like."

"Right you are," he remarked, "it's a family trait."

She nodded, "That much I figured. And here we are at Ollivanders, how about we buy our wands then head down to Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor?"

He nodded in affirmation, "Great idea."

***