The Serpent & the Eagle - Tom Riddle x OC (HP x OC) 1/8

1-Curious

A/N: I'm pretty sure I promised someone to try to get this chapter out for Thanksgiving, but that didn't work out... Yes, I've become that author.

Anyways, enjoy this chapter and Happy Holidays!

Vera's favorite room in the house was the library. While the books never changed, she always learned something new in their pages.

She was in the library when she received her letter to Hogwarts, and she was there when a servant came to escort her to Diagon Alley.

A servant.

Her father was practically a stranger in her eyes. A man who thought that because she was his blood he had jurisdiction over her.

She would occasionally see him during meals if he wasn't gone on business.

His money, status, and reputation were the most important things to him. Not his wife when she got sick, not when she died, not his grieving and isolated daughter. His standing.

Vera's lips twitched as she fought a sneer passing by one of her father's portraits.

Even his pictures are cruel and judgemental. I can't allow them to see me act as anything less than proper.

Following the servant, Laura, Vera strode towards the 'travel room' as she called it. It was a living room, but there was little to no life to be found in this mansion. Especially when her father was home.

Taking Laura's arm, the two apparated to Diagon Alley.

Both the blonde woman and the brunette girl visibly lightened and relaxed now that they were out of the mansion.

"Right," Laura turned to her, "after we head to Gringotts where do you think we should start?"

Vera almost blurted out the wand shop, but she wanted to save the best for last.

"I think we should get the wand last, and the animal too since it will be a bother to carry around everywhere. So, the books first."

Laura nodded, "Good thinking. Well, off we go!"

Gringotts, Flourish & Blotts, the Apothecary, Malkin's, and other shops they visited were all rather uneventful. They got what they needed from each, Vera noting things she'd like to examine at a later date and details she found interesting like how the stores that relate to each other are not together except the sweet shop, ice-cream parlour, and the joke shop which were all near the entrance.

Laura decided to treat Vera with some ice-cream much to the girl's surprise and secret pleasure even though Vera was persistent that Laura should use the money for herself.

Taking a break from shopping, the pair sat at the parlour, Vera people-watching and Laura checking both the time and things off the list.

Laura had to suppress a smile at the eagerness of her ward. Vera had been waiting years for a wand, and her anticipation was visible in her bouncing knee, fidgeting, and twisting the ring on her index finger.

Once they were finished, Laura laughed as Vera briskly strode towards Ollivanders with the blonde woman struggling to keep up.

With a knowing smile on her face, Laura slowed her pace as she neared the shop, Vera impatiently glaring at her as she did so.

Finally, Laura decided to stop teasing the poor girl and they entered the wand shop.

The store seemed empty of people, and Vera stepped closer to the counter to gaze at the shelves of wands in the back.