Flora And Fawna [REWRITTEN]

1

Petunia Dursley, the young woman having married her longtime beau Vernon Dursley just a year earlier, had once sworn she would never step foot back in Diagon Alley for as long as she lived. Unfortunately, she had also sworn to look after her youngest sister as well, and Rosie would always come first. Out of the three sisters Petunia and Rosie had always been the closest, no matter the differences between them. Mr. and Mrs. Evans dying the year before, having lived just long enough to see their eldest daughter married, had left the care of Rosie to Petunia. And Petunia and Vernon had taken that responsibility very seriously, the gentle man adoring his sister-in-law almost as much as he adored his loving wife. And their soon to be born son.

The bustle of the Alley was just as Petunia remembered it so close to school starting. It was August twenty-fifth and while she and Rosie hadn't meant to put off back to school shopping for so long, they had both gotten busy and had quite frankly forgotten about it until a school owl had come pecking with a reminder from Minerva McGonagall, the school's deputy headmistress who had offered to take Rosie shopping if Petunia didn't feel like she could. The older sister turned to the younger.

"Okay, so we're headed to Gringotts first, the wizard bank, to open an account for you. I don't know if mother and father thought to open an account for you one of the years that they were bringing Lily to get her school supplies but we don't have a key for your vault so I should think not. After Gringotts and after we've gotten some wizarding money, galleons and knuts and the sort, we will head to the wand shop and get you a wand to take to school. Depending on how much time we left we can either split up and I shall buy your books while you get fitted for your school uniform, or we can go together for both. Then we shall return home and you can read one of your new textbooks to me while I make dinner. How does that sound, love?"

Rosie and Petunia had gone over the plan before they had even stepped out of the house that morning, so Rosie was well aware of what they were going to do. However, the somewhat solemn little girl had allowed Petunia to go over it one more time, almost as if it was a way to calm herself down. It was one of the things that Rosie had always been able to do. See what her sister needed.

Rosie nodded, and like that the two of them were onto their first task. 

*******

Gringotts was much harder than either of the sisters had been prepared for. Generally, when a witch or wizard was born, their parents would come in and open an account in their name. And, in the case of muggleborns like Rosie the parents would accompany their child to Gringotts and make an account then. Unfortunately, the untimely death of Rosie's parents was making the whole process even more difficult. Apparently, Goblins were not familiar with the concept of legal guardianship. Or they were just being particularly irritable on that particular day. Either way it took Rosie and Petunia far longer than either thought necessary to put the rest of the inheritance they had received from their parents, Petunia had already used all that she needed so that she and Vernon could purchase a modest house on Privet Drive, into a vault for Rosie to use during the rest of her time in the wizarding world. They then had to withdraw the correct amount of money for their shopping, which was another thing altogether, before they were on their way.

"Now, I believe the letter told us that the wandmaker's shop was called Ollivander's, so please keep a look out," Petunia told her younger sister, her shoulders tense from trying to deal with the disagreeable creatures that were in charge of the money in the wizarding world. "Perhaps it's that over there?"

The two of them wandered around for a bit before the ancient sign proudly proclaiming the shop's long history came into view. The shop looked dusty, though no one had cleaned it or even been in there in years. The front window was completely blocked by hundreds of wand boxes that were stacked on top of each other like jenga blocks. The two sisters made their way carefully into the shop, looking around the dark interior for a moment, squinting to see after being in the brightness of Diagon Alley for so long.