Harry and Tori had a fantastic couple of days. They started each morning eating breakfast in The Leaky Cauldron and then would rush out to Diagon Alley.

The Wizarding shops lined up and down the street. Bright and colorful umbrellas in front of most cafes. Harry and Tori spent most of the time in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, where the owner, Florean, would give them free sundaes every half hour.

The two were seated under a vibrant pink umbrella as the sun shined down brightly. Tori read through The Daily Prophet's new article about Sirius Black. "What's all the fuss about him?" Harry asked her, glancing up from his new book.

"You don't know? He's the first prisoner ever to escape from Azkaban. The Wizard prison." She noted Harry's confused look. "People escape from prison all the time in the Muggle world."

"Which is horrible. But Azkaban... is different. It's dark, and miserable. Most people go mad there." She took another scoop of her mint chocolate chip ice cream. It was nothing like a talk about a terrible prison that ice cream couldn't somewhat fix.

"You seem to know a lot about it," Harry replied, going back to his book. Tori bit her cheek, looking up at him cautiously.

"Can you keep a secret?" Tori whispered, glancing around as someone could hear them. Harry nodded, leaning closer to hear her. She fiddled with her charm bracelet nervously. "Very few people know about this. My family paid loads of money to keep this quiet. And I mean loads. Okay? This stays between you and me. My grandfather, on my father's side... he's in Azkaban."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise as Tori shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "He was a big You-Know-Who supporter, murdered many innocent people. Once You-Know-Who was defeated, my grandfather and a ton of other Death Eaters got hauled into Azkaban. It nearly tore my family apart. My relatives went insane. They knew that if it got out, it could ruin everything they had built. Listen, Harry, you can't tell anyone. No one knows about this, not even Fred and George."

"Hasn't it been years since then?"

"Yes, but you've seen how I'm treated at school. People turn on me whenever they get the chance, take last year for example. But not only can this affect me, but my siblings, my whole family. It could destroy everything, Harry."

The boy nodded and the two ended that conversation there, acting as if it didn't happen in the first place. Once they finished their ice cream they went over to Quality Quidditch Supplies, gazing up at the new broom. A firebolt.

"This state-of-the-art racing broom sports a streamlined superfine handle of ash, treated with a diamond-hard polish and hand-numbered with its own registration number. Each individually selected birch twig in the broom tail has been honed to aerodynamic perfection, giving the Firebolt unsurpassable balance and pinpoint precision. The firebolt has an acceleration of one hundred fifty miles an hour in ten seconds and incorporates an unbreakable Braking Charm. Price on request."

Tori sighed, gazing up at it. She knew she could buy it if she really wanted to. She and Harry had gone to Gringotts earlier that morning to retrieve some extra money, but Tori knew that she didn't need it. She still had a fine working Comet Two Hundred Sixty. Sure, it wasn't as nice as Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand, or Avalon's Nimbus Two Thousand One. But it made due.

She managed to drag Harry away from the shop and into Flourish and a Blotts to buy their new schoolbooks. The Monster Book of Monsters was an oddly brown book with creepy eyes. The store manager looked hopeless, trying to get away desperately from the chomping books. Tori's nipped her fingers, causing them to bleed a bit.

"You're taking Divination?" Tori asked him, glancing down at his Unfogging the Future book. "I've heard the teacher was a barking mad." Harry slumped, "Great, another crazy teacher."

Tori laughed, wrapping her arm around the young boy's shoulder. "Come on, let's go get a butterbeer."

✧ ✦ ✧

"Tori!"

Two familiar voices called out towards her, making a wide smile spread across her face. "Fred! George!" She ran towards them, leaving Harry to find Ron and Hermione in the leaky cauldron.

She embraced the two without another beat. "How long have you been staying here?"
Fred asked, glancing around warily at the building they were in. Tori paused, "A little over a month or so... it hasn't been bad! Harry's been here like I said in my letter."

The twins nodded, walking towards the table where Harry, Ron, Hermione sat. "Bloody hell. He's still got that newspaper." George muttered.

"Not flashing that clipping again?" Fred asked him, snapping it off the table and putting it on top of his box.

The youngest brother rolled his eyes. "I haven't shown anyone," George smirked, switching off sentences with Fred.

"No, not a soul."

"Not unless you count Tom."

"The day maid."

"Night maid."

"Cook."

"The bloke who fixed the toilet."

"Alright, enough torturing Ron." Tori giggled, taking a seat next to them. She read over the article out loud.

"The Weasley family spent a brilliant summer holiday in the sandy dunes of Egypt." Tori read, grinning up at the twins. "They visited their eldest son, William Weasley, who works as a curse breaker in the pyramids. The trip took the entire family and they plan to return this week."

"Look at me, I look dashing," Fred said. He pointed to the picture of the family waving to the camera. The youngest Weasley took a seat in front of them. "Yeah, you sure are dashing," Ginny replied sarcastically. "Are you going to give her the gift yet?" She gestured to the box Fred still held in his possession.

"Right. Here, a souvenir from Egypt."

She opened it to find a cross-like charm attached to a long gold-colored chain. "It's an Egyptian Ankh Cross," George said. "I've read about those!" Hermione chimed in, shifting her arms around for the ginger-colored cat.

"It's a mystical cross with a ribbon on top. The amulet represents eternal life, so by giving it away, Fred's giving the message that he wants you to have a long life. The beliefs of the Egyptians establish that this amulet helps to prolong life on earth." She recited almost directly as if from a book.

"Oh, you wanted to tell her, didn't you?"

"My once chance to look smart, waisted." Fred sighed. He watched as Tori clipped it on, "Well, a long life it is. And, you are smart. Besides, you can prove that this year with your O.W.L.S."

"Ugh. Don't remind me."

this year is going to be so fun to write!

i'm super excited!

it's so weird, tori's going to graduate soon.

my baby's growing up so fast.