-- The Next Morning --
The smell of freshly cooked food made Sierra gather up consciousness as her stomach growled. It felt like a fever dream, looking around the bright room it took her a second to realize where she was. Yesterday had really happened, part of her was happy it hadn't been some sort of dream but the other part felt like a burden. Even though Cedric's parents seemed to be ok with everything she couldn't help to feel like she was just a burden.
Sitting up she rubbed her eyes as she looked around the room, golden accents on furniture gleaming in the sun that came through the window. Hearing voices outside Sierra got out of the bed and walked over to her trunk getting out some casual clothes to get dressed into. Stepping out of the room she made her way over to the voices coming from the kitchen. Mrs. Diggory was setting up for breakfast with the help of some house elves.
"Good Morning Sierra!" The woman chirped, she was wearing a yellow dress with red dots, she was a very beautiful woman, long honeyed brown hair that curled at the ends with light grey eyes like Cedric. There was something about the way that she carried herself that just displayed a bright energy.
"Good Morning Mrs. Diggory, is there anything that I can help you with?" Sierra asked as she looked around, it was quite a scene. Elves were setting the table, dishes were flying around washing themselves. Mrs. Diggory was sitting down with a recipe book in her hands waving her wand around.
Smiling, Mrs. Diggory put down the recipe book and stood up from her chair. "Oh darling don't you worry about that, everything is already sorted out. Your supply lists should come in today, you're going to spend the day with me and Amos will take Cedric, just figured we could go on a shopping trip and meet them later." She smiled walking over to Sierra putting a hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you go get Cedric? He's outside flying around. Breakfast is almost ready."
Sierra nodded with a slight smile turning around to exit the kitchen, she was rather nervous to be spending the day with her, she was nice and all but without cedric being with her alone felt a little awkward. Stepping out into the garden it was awfully quiet, besides the sounds of birds in the nearby bushes. She looked up at the sky trying to see if she could manage to spot Cedric.
"Miss, are you alright?" a voice called out from behind
Startled, Sierra turned around to face one of the house elves. "Uh, yeah, I'm just trying to find Cedric, have you seen him?"
"The young master is probably in his arena, he's usually there around this time"
"I'm sorry.... his what?"
"Arena, mini stadium, whatever you want to call it, Master had it built for him his first year when he mentioned quidditch." The elf said as he pointed to a structure beyond the property's gardens.
Sierra stared in both awe and slight confusion, she had heard of people having enough money to spend it on rather odd things, but an arena? Making her way down a pathway in the gardens she was able to see a figure up in the air. The arena wasn't huge but it was definitely something. It had some sort of obstacle course going on. Cedric was going through some hoops, "Cedric!" Sierra called out trying to get his attention. He seemed to be too high up to hear her, looking around she spotted an extra broom laying around. It couldn't be any different than her own broom back at Hogwarts right? Picking up the old broom she mounted it and kicked off the ground, the stem of the broom was thinner than her own, it made it more difficult to keep balance. She angled the broom and began flying up towards the hoop, once she got there she looked around slightly confused, she could have sworn Cedric had been flying up there.
"You're getting a little rusty there Barrows" A familiar voice called out from behind her.
"Oh shut up Cedric, it's not my fault this broom was made a hundred years ago" Sierra teased as she turned to face him. "Your mom is almost done with breakfast, she sent me out here to come and get you"
"Well in that case... last one to the house is a rotten egg!" Cedric yelled as he zoomed past her.
Rolling her eyes, Sierra tried to catch up but besides the massive head start he got, the broom was too unstable to try and push it to go any faster. She landed over by the door resting the broom on the wall. "You know, you can't keep trying to race me without telling me until you're already gone"
"Or, you're just a slowpoke" Cedric smiled as he opened the door for her. A they both walked into the kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. Diggory were already sitting down discussing their plans for the day.
Mrs. Diggory looked up over at Cedric and Sierra waving them over to come eat. The two didn't even get a chance to approach the table before a screech was heard from above, Cedric's owl came in holding two letters. Cedric and Sierra walked over to the table taking a seat as Mrs. Diggory removed the letters from the owl.
Opening up the letters the years supply list was definitely longer than last years. Most of the items were books for one class in particular, defence against the dark arts.
"Now why do we need a whole autobiography for a subject?" Cedric questioned showing the list to his father.
Mr. Diggory fixed his glasses taking a look at the list, an annoyed sigh came out of him "Yes, the school has hired Gilderoy Lockhart to replace Quirrell, you could say he is quite the character"
"You mean a hero, Amos" Mrs Diggory chirped "Have you read his books? Lord knows that he was helped the ministry countless of times with his skills"
"Sure he has" Mr. Diggory mumbled handing the list back to Cedric, "Come on you two, eat up we have quite the day ahead getting those supplies "
---
After breakfast they got into Mr.Diggory's car. The sensation of the car leaving the ground is something she just quite couldn't adapt to. They followed the same routine as they had last year, the ministry provided Sierra with enough to buy her supplies and a bit extra on the side. She hadn't really used any of it last year so it was slowly saving up to a considerable amount. After buying some cauldrons for potions class they ran into the Malfoys, this time Lucius was accompanied by a woman who she could only assume to be Mrs. Malfoy.
"Mr. Diggory, I am rather pleased to see you here" Lucius called out in monotone, but something about his gestures made him seem like he was slightly concerned.
"Lucius" Mr. Diggory responded
"I am sorry to interrupt but there is something I would like discuss.... Now" Mr. Malfoy nudged his staff to the side urging Mr. Diggory to come with them.
Mrs Malfoy turned her attention to Sierra and Cedric, quickly scanning Sierra up and down. "Why don't you two go wait in the book store? You should be able to find our son in there" she said before turning to walk with Mr. Diggory and Mr. Malfoy.
Sierra and Cedric looked at each other before turning to walk in the opposite direction.
"What do you think they want?" Sierra asked looking over at Ceric.
"Not sure, but it can't be anything good" Cedric replied, he knew the Malfoys quite well now and if they were urgent about something it is not something to take lightly, he could only hope that it was ministry business and not stupid family matters.
When the two walked into the book store they quickly realized it was packed. Almost like everyone decided to go buy their books at the same moment. Cedric found some fellow hufflepuffs and went off to go talk to them. Sierra in the other hand felt a little claustrophobic and decided to go explore the second level of the building. It was a sea of books, she was not sure how on earth she was going to be able to find everything that she needed. She focused on a pile of books going through them and zoning out all of the chatter from below.
The loud sound of paper ripping got her off guard, thinking she ripped the book she was holding she began to inspect it closely trying to find the damage. A black robe moved in the corner of her eye, looking up it was no other than Draco Malfoy scavenging through some books. Making eye contact for a brief moment, before they could say anything a crowd gasp came from below along with a flash, Sierra went over to lean on the balcony down below was Harry Potter standing next to a man in a purple suit.
"Ladies and gentlemen what an extraordinary moment this is, when young Harry stepped into flourish and bots this morning to purchase my autobiography Magical Me" The man said gripping Harry's shoulder "which, incidentally, is currently celebrating its 27th week atop of the Daily Prophet bestseller list... He had no idea that he would in fact be leaving... with my entire collected works free of charge " Another picture was taken as the crowd cheered
"Is that our new professor?" Sierra mumbled
"It's pathetic really, father says he can't cast a spell to save his life" Draco said, quickly distracted by seeing that Potter and his friends were moving out of the crowd. He left Sierra and went down the stairs looking at the book he had found he ripped out a page he had been looking for before catching up to them. "Bet you loved that didn't you Potter?" Draco spat looking at Harry. "Famous Harry Potter, can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page"
A young red haired girl stood up to Draco, by the looks of it she had to be a Weasley.
"Leave him alone" The girl threatened
"Oh look Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend?" Draco smirked, his expression was quickly wiped by the slap of a staff on his back.
"Not now Draco, play nicely" Lucius scolded. "Mr Potter" He greeted with a malevolent smirk "Lucius Malfoy, we meet at last" He said shaking Harry's hand firmly "Forgive me" he said under his breath as he pulled Harry close to him moving his hair with his staff to get a better look at his scar. "Your scar is legend, as of course is the wizard that gave it to you"
"Voldemort killed my parents... He was nothing more than just a murderer" Harry replied through his teeth a he stepped away from Mr. Malfoy
Lucius hummed as he stared down the young boy infront of him "You must be very brave mentioning his name... or very foolish"
"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing instead" Hermione loudly interrupted.
Sierra rolled her eyes as she watched from above, that girl really couldn't keep her two cents to herself. The whole ordeal had Sierra absolutely peaked, Harry's parents were killed by a man named Voldemort, a man who Mr. Malfoy seemed to have much respect for. She watched as Mr. Malfoy reprimanded Hermione and the Weasleys and leaving with Draco following behind. She caught a glimpse of Cedric down below and went to go after him. as she walked down the stairs she saw the cover of the book that draco had ripped. The Uncommon Beasts by Newt Scamander. Rather odd, she didn't take Draco as an animal lover. As she made her way through the crowd she bumped into Mr. Diggory
"Oh great, found ya. Now let's get Cedric, you guys have to pack and rest well to catch the train tomorrow"