Ashlyn ran downstairs for breakfast. Her black hair flew behind her and her amber eyes shone with excitement. She had obviously grown. She had grown taller, her hair was longer, and fell beyond her shoulders.
"Morning, mum!" She said as she grabbed a toast.
"Sit down, Ashlyn," her mother chided.
"Kay. Where's papa?" she asked as she sat on the table.
"He's getting ready."
"Yeah!" Ashlyn threw her hands in the air, almost knocking her eggs over.
She was going to meet her best friend, Hermione Granger, to go muggle shopping, before Hermione went on a trip with her parents to France. The girls had decided that they didn't get to spend much time together last year, due to certain circumstances.
They had written numerous letters to each other and even Ron. Ashlyn had sent a few letters to Harry, giving him regards from both Hermione and Ron. Ashlyn would spend hours on the phone, talking to Hermione. Ashlyn would have called Harry too, but Ron had informed her of his disastrous attempt.
"Vernon Dursley speaking."
Harry, who happened to be in the room at the time, froze as he heard Ron's voice answer.
"HELLO? HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME? I — WANT — TO — TALK — TO — HARRY — POTTER!"
Ron was yelling so loudly that Uncle Vernon jumped and held the receiver a foot away from his ear, staring at it with an expression of mingled fury and alarm.
"WHO IS THIS?" he roared in the direction of the mouthpiece. "WHO ARE YOU?"
"RON — WEASLEY!" Ron bellowed back, as though he and Uncle Vernon were speaking from opposite ends of a football field. "I'M — A — FRIEND — OF — HARRY'S — FROM — SCHOOL —"
Uncle Vernon's small eyes swivelled around to Harry, who was rooted to the spot.
"THERE IS NO HARRY POTTER HERE!" he roared, now holding the receiver at arm's length, as though frightened it might explode. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT SCHOOL YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! NEVER CONTACT ME AGAIN! DON'T YOU COME NEAR MY FAMILY!"
And he threw the receiver back onto the telephone as if dropping a poisonous spider.
The girls had decided to meet.
"Now, your father will drop you at the shopping centre and he will be back to pick you up in the evening. Okay? "
Ashlyn nodded.
"Let's go, munchkin." Her father called from outside. Dropping her fork on the plate with a clatter, she ran out.
"Finish your breakfast, sweetie" her mother called after her. She ran back, chugged her orange juice, and ran out again. She did not miss her mother's exasperated sigh.
"Hermione!" Ashlyn cried as she ran up to hug the brunette.
"Good to see you, Ashlyn. I missed you." Hermione said hugging her back.
The girls skipped into the distance, as their parents conversed with each other.
"So what did you do yesterday?"
The girls ran from store to store. Buying dresses, trying on shoes, and accessories, window shopping, trying on make up for the first time. They would pick something, Ashlyn would make a joke and both of them would burst into giggling, making the people around them stare, but they wouldn't care. They visited book stores and read a few books in the corner without actually buying them. This, as far as they were considered, was one of the most notorious things they could do; reading books at a bookstore without purchasing them.
As the sky painted itself orange, the girls hugged each other goodbye, promising to meet at the end of the holidays. Ashlyn reached home extremely tired, that she crashed into her bed and fell asleep without having dinner.
A few days later her Hogwarts letter arrived. The owl swooped in through their open window. Mrs Clarke shrieked and Mr Clarke froze as the owl landed on his shoulder.
Chuckling, Ashlyn untied the letter, fed the tawny owl a bit of her bacon, and send it off with a thank you. She tore the envelope open carefully. There was a list of her books for her third year. And the form for Hogsmeade. She had been waiting for this.
She pushed the form in front of her parents and got up to get a pen. When she returned she saw her mother looking at the form with a disapproving look.
"What's wrong?" Ashlyn asked cautiously.
"Are you sure this is safe?" her mother asked.
"Of course it is," Ashlyn said.
"Muffins, it's just that, we can't take care of you there. We've never been to this- this -Hogsmeade place and there is no one to recommend or anything. You know we are not like you." her father said kindly while signing the permission form.
"I'm sure the place is safe," Ashlyn said, slightly confused. "It's a village next to our school. But what has me being a witch got to do with anything?"
Ashlyn's father sighed as he looked at his wife who looked sullen.
"What is it?" Ashlyn prompted.
"Honey. We hardly see each other and all you do is read those books and talk to your owl and send letters to your friends. It's like-" Her mother said after a long pause
"Feels like I forgot you?" Ashlyn continued. "Mum! It's not like that. You guys are irreplaceable. It's just that the books are soooo interesting and I've got to maintain my grades. I'm the top student after all."
"You are the top student?" Mr Clarke said, looking up from his plate.
"Of course," Ashlyn smiled. "Top grades in every subject. This year I have to take up new subjects. Since I'm not sure which ones to take, I opted for all of them."
"All of them? Sweetheart, why would you take all of them? " her mother cried. "Please, don't stress yourself too much,"
"It's nothing, really," Ashlyn said dismissively. "I think I'll just do a trial of the subjects this year and choose the properly by next year"
Actually, Ashlyn had already chosen the subjects she would do, and she was taking all of them only because she wanted to use the Time turner, and she thought it would be nice to have an introduction to all the subjects.
A few weeks later Ashlyn made her visit to Diagon Alley.
After getting her potion ingredients, depositing in her vault, getting her new robes, she came across it. Her mouth fell open as she saw the Firebolt on a window display. It looked so damn sleek and glossy. Good lord!
'Price on-demand' she read. Yeah, right. Shaking her head she walked past to Flourish and Blotts.
"Hogwarts? Come to get your new books?" the manager said walking toward the cage of Monster Book of Monsters.
"Yes, I need —"
"Get out of the way," said the manager impatiently. He drew on a pair of very thick gloves, picked up a large, knobbly walking stick, and proceeded toward the door of the Monster Books' cage.
"Do you need help?" Ashlyn offered.
"And how could you help me?" the manager asked, annoyed.
"Ummm, I could get this book myself. Could you just get the rest of the books for me?" she said.
He looked at her incredulously, then gave up leaving her to deal with the monstrous, snapping books, grumbling under his breath that she would come back wailing when the book bites her hand off, as he left to get her other books.
"Let's see" Ashlyn whispered and she levitated a single book with wandless magic. The book snarled and snapped with its jaws at the air.
She brought it closer and stroked its spine, and that's all it took. The book fell onto her palm with a plop, looking as innocent as any other book, purring slightly. Ashlyn felt a small smile creep up her face.
"Here you go," the manager said as he walked up to her with a huge pile of books. His eyes went wide as saucers when he saw the book lying in her hand peacefully.
"How did you do that?!"
"Well, it's quite simple really," Ashlyn said shrugging.
"Quite simple, she says" he whispered weakly as the bell rang again a few more customers came in. He looked as though he wanted to stay and find out how she had done it, but then decided against it and he ran away to help the newcomers.
She walked out of the shop, thinking about getting ice cream at Florean and Fortesque's when,
"Ashlyn!" she heard a familiar voice call. Turning back she saw, "Hermione! Ron! Harry!"
There were hugs all around.
"Mione, how was France? And Ron how cool was Egypt? And Harry, umm, how were the Dursleys?" Ashlyn asked brightly.
Ron and Hermione launched into telling how the places they visited were. Harry, however, awkwardly scratched his head. Ashlyn knew what was coming and looked at him knowingly.
Ashlyn almost squealed. Harry and Ron's voice had gotten deeper and she could hear it cracking slightly. The babies were growing up. Oh, dear. . .It was only getting harder to keep her fangirl in control.
"Harry," Ashlyn said slowly. "Anything we should know? Did you blow someone up?"
Hermione looked at her appalled, Ron looked amused.
"Ugh. I swear it's like you can read my mind." Harry groaned as he started to explain his summer adventures.
"Did you really blow up your aunt, Harry?" said Hermione in a very serious voice.
"I didn't mean to," said Harry, while Ron roared with laughter. "I just — lost control."
"It's not funny, Ron," said Hermione sharply. "Honestly, I'm amazed Harry wasn't expelled." Ashlyn wasn't sure if she should laugh or not. But she had snorted when Harry told that Marge had become a balloon and floated out of the house.
"So am I," admitted Harry. "Forget expelled, I thought I was going to be arrested." He looked at Ron. "Your dad doesn't know why Fudge let me off, does he?"
"Probably 'cause it's you, isn't it?" shrugged Ron, still chuckling. "Famous Harry Potter and all that. I'd hate to see what the Ministry'd do to me if I blew up an aunt. Mind you, they'd have to dig me up first, because Mum would've killed me. Anyway, you can ask Dad yourself this evening. We're staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight too!"
"Look at this," said Ron, pulling a long thin box out of a bag and opening it. "Brand-new wand. Fourteen inches, willow, containing one unicorn tail-hair. And we've got all our books —" He pointed at a large bag under his chair.
"What about those Monster Books, eh? The assistant nearly cried when we said we wanted two."
"What's all that, Hermione? Even you Ashlyn." Harry asked, pointing at not one but three bulging bags in the chair next to her.
"Well, I'm taking more new subjects than you, aren't I?" said Hermione.
"Those are my books for Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Study of Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies —"
"What are you doing Muggle Studies for?" said Ron, rolling his eyes at Harry.
"You're Muggle-borns! Your mum and dad are Muggles! You already know all about Muggles!"
"It's to study them from the Wizarding point of view," Ashlyn scoffed.
"Are you planning to eat or sleep at all this year? " asked Harry, while Ron sniggered. Hermione ignored them.
"Well, unlike you, we have good time management skills." Ashlyn snapped, and Harry put his hands up in a defensive manner.
"I've still got ten Galleons," Hermione said, checking her purse. "It's my birthday in September, and Mum and Dad gave me some money to get myself an early birthday present."
"How about a nice book?" said Ron innocently.
"No, I don't think so," said Hermione composedly. "I really want an owl. I mean, Harry's got Hedwig, Ashlyn's got Dawn and you've got Errol —"
"I haven't," said Ron. "Errol's a family owl. All I've got is Scabbers." He pulled his pet rat out of his pocket. "And I want to get him checked over," he added, placing Scabbers on the table in front of them. "I don't think Egypt agreed with him."
Ashlyn looked at the rat with utter disgust. She could understand Pettigrew's situation, but she hated the fact that he had betrayed his closest friends. She wanted to squeeze the stupid rat to death, or close to death. She didn't want to be a killer. She said she could understand his plight, not that she would.
"There's a magical creature shop just over there," said Harry, who knew Diagon Alley very well by now. "You could see if they've got anything for Scabbers, and Hermione can get her owl."
There wasn't much room inside. Every inch of the wall was hidden by cages. It was smelly and very noisy because the occupants of these cages were all squeaking, squawking, jabbering, or hissing. A pair of enormous purple toads sat gulping wetly and feasting on dead blowflies. A gigantic tortoise with a jewel-encrusted shell was glittering near the window. Poisonous orange snails were oozing slowly up the side of their glass tank, and a fat white rabbit kept changing into a silk top hat and back again with a loud popping noise. Then there were cats of every colour, a noisy cage of ravens, a basket of funny custard-coloured furballs that were humming loudly, and on the counter, a vast cage of sleek black rats that were playing some sort of skipping game using their long, bald tails.
Ron approached the counter.
"It's my rat," he told the witch. "He's been a bit off-colour ever since I brought him back from Egypt,"
"Bang him on the counter," said the witch, pulling a pair of heavy black spectacles out of her pocket.
Ron lifted Scabbers out of his inside pocket and placed him next to the cage of his fellow rats, who stopped their skipping tricks and scuffled to the wire for a better look.
"Hm," said the witch, picking up Scabbers. "How old is this rat?"
"Dunno," said Ron. "Quite old. He used to belong to my brother."
"What powers does he have?" said the witch, examining Scabbers closely.
"Er —"
He is a frickin' animaugs, Ashlyn thought angrily.
"He's been through the mill, this one," she said.
"He was like that when Percy gave him to me," said Ron defensively.
"An ordinary common or garden rat like this can't be expected to live longer than three years or so," said the witch. "Now, if you were looking for something a bit more hard-wearing, you might like one of these —"
She indicated the black rats, who promptly started skipping again. Ron muttered, "Show-offs."
"Well, if you don't want a replacement, you can try this rat tonic," said the witch, reaching under the counter and bringing out a small red bottle.
"Okay," said Ron. "How much — OUCH!"
Ron buckled as something huge and orange came soaring from the top of the highest cage, landed on his head, and then propelled itself, spitting madly, at Scabbers.
"NO, CROOKSHANKS, NO!" cried the witch, but Scabbers shot from between her hands like a bar of soap, landed splay-legged on the floor, and then scampered for the door.
Ashlyn found herself praying that Crookshanks would get Scabbers.
"Scabbers!" Ron shouted, racing out of the shop after him; Harry followed.
Ashlyn stayed back with Hermione as she looked for an owl, with a frown on her face.
"You can't get Crookshanks out of your mind, can you?" Ashlyn said as she picked up a bag of owl treats for Dawn. Hermione nodded.
"It looks like he has been here for a long time. Should I get him?"
"Sure. Do what you want, Mione. Personally, I like that cat quite a bit." Ashlyn said as they eyed Crookshanks, who was sitting on top of a shelf, licking his paws.
"You bought that monster?" said Ron, his mouth hanging open.
"How dare you, Ron," Ashlyn growled.
"He's gorgeous, isn't he?" said Hermione, glowing.
That was a matter of opinion, thought Harry. The cat's ginger fur was thick and fluffy, but it was definitely a bit bowlegged and its face looked grumpy and oddly squashed, as though it had run headlong into a brick wall. Now that Scabbers was out of sight, however, the cat was purring contentedly in Hermione's arms.
"Hermione, that thing nearly scalped me!" said Ron.
"He didn't mean to, did you, Crookshanks?" said Hermione.
"And what about Scabbers?" said Ron, pointing at the lump in his chest pocket. "He needs rest and relaxation! How's he going to get it with that thing around?"
Ashlyn scoffed, and Ron gave her an ugly look.
"That reminds me, you forgot your rat tonic," said Hermione, slapping the small red bottle into Ron's hand. "And stop worrying, Crookshanks will be sleeping in my dormitory and Scabbers in yours, what's the problem? Poor Crookshanks, that witch said he'd been in there for ages; no one wanted him."
"I wonder why," said Ron sarcastically.
"Shut up, Ron" Ashlyn snapped.
"Why do you like that cat so much?" Harry asked.
"Cause he is amazing, and can smell a traitor from a mile away," Ashlyn said with her nose in the air, and a blazing look in her eyes.
The others looked at her confused but decided not to ask. Ashlyn was pretty weird that way, and it was not like they would get an answer out of her anyway. So they followed her lead and set off toward the Leaky Cauldron.