always and forever

II. diagon alley

Rose POV
[time skip to Diagon Alley]
It is three days before September 1st. Snivellus said that he would take us to Diagon Alley because our parents did not know how to get there. When we got downstairs, he practiacally raved about how pretty Lily looked. Could he shove his face any farther up her ass? Ew scratch that. That's disgusting. Hopefully he and Lily will never get married. I can't stand him and he can't stand me. When we got to Diagon Alley, he was greeted by some friends of his. I know right? He has friends. It shocked me too. The one obvious leader of the group was staring at us. He looked at Snape and they shook hands. He had blonde hair and silver eyes. He looked Lily and I up and down. I met his eyes. Snape nervously tried to hide Lily behind him. Coward. He and Snape made small talk until Snape said, "Well, we must be going. Nice to see you, Malfoy."
"Likewise, Snape."
Malfoy caught my eye. I returned his stare and made sure not to break eye contact. I smirked a little and Malfoy broke our stare down. He seemed slightly appalled and chuckled a little as he walked away. As we left, Snape hissed into my ear, "Don't go associating yourself with those people. They're dangerous."
I scoffed and said, "So you can? Besides like you care. The second I'm out of the picture, you can have Lily all to yourself. That's what you want, right?"
I pushed past him and went to walk next to Lily who was taking in the sights. We were headed to Gringotts, the wizarding bank. Our parents had given us each some money and told us to keep all of it for supplies and other things we might need. In Gringotts, which is apparently a wizarding bank run by goblins, Lily and I made a joint account so that we could transfer our euros into wizarding currency.
"Names?" the goblin at the front desk said, scribbling something into his book.
"Lily and Rose Evans. We're new here and need to get ourselves a vault."
"Third door on the right, second corridor."
"Thank you!" Lily called as we walked away. In the room, we answered questions about ourselves and had our Hogwarts letters inspected to make sure that we are legitimate witches.

Once we got our joint vault and had transfer our money, we went to Ollivander's to get our wands. We opened the door and a small bell tinkled deep within the store. The room was empty so I called out, "Hello?"
No one replied so I sat myself down in one of the comfy lounge chairs. A man came swishing out of the back of the room muttering under his breath, startling both of us. He had graying hair and silver eyes with a gleam of madness in them.
"First years here to get their wands?" He asked with a smile. Lily and I both nodded and smiled back. He had Lily go first and after about seven different wands, she finally found one that suit her.
"10 1/4, made of willow, and swishy," he said with a small gleam in his eye, "wonderful for charm work. Now it is your turn my dear."
I could hardly contain my excitement as I walked up to his small pedestal to get measured. Something new I learned was that the width between one's two nostrils is necessary to find a wand. Mr. Ollivander grabbed box and box and I tried wand after wand.  I was starting to become fearful that maybe I wasn't a witch and that Hogwarts had messed up. Finally, he pulled out a long silver box and I could feel something tugging at my heart.
"Apple wood, dragon heartstring, 12 3/4, and supple flexibility," he announced as he placed the wand in my hand. I gave a wave and a shower of rose petals came bursting out of the tip. Ollivander looked at me curiously and grabbed the box for the wand. We paid for the wands and left, the small bell tinkling as we opened the door. Next, we had to go to Madam Malkins to get fitted for our Hogwarts robes. Madam Malkin was extremely kind and helped to explain some things about Hogwarts that Lily and I were wondering. After we got finished shopping for school supplies, Lily and I still had extra money. Snape said he had to go to a place called Eeylops Owl Emporium so he could pick up food for his owl. Lily decided that she was going to get an animal. While she was choosing hers, I looked around at the other pets there. As a strolled down one of the aisles, a cat leaped onto my arm. I stood there frozen not knowing what to do. A sales woman ran up to me and tried to get them off.
"I'm so sorry. The animals here don't typically do this," she said as she tugged the small cat off my arm.
"Especially not this one," she said with a small chuckle.
"What do you mean?" I asked while trying to get the owl off my shoulder.
"Asteria here has never done this to a person before. She tends to stay away from the shoppers. The couple times that someone has tried to buy her, she always gets returned because she refuses to be obedient. It's quite sad really, she's been here so long that we eventually named her too. You're the first person she has ever done this to. Merlin's beard, Asteria, get off of her."
She tugged her off and we talked a bit about Hogwarts. She is about to enter her seventh year and she gave me some tips on how to survive.
"Well," the saleswoman started, "It would be payment enough to be able to see Asteria go to a happy home. You can take her for free if you would like. It's been sad seeing her here all alone."
"Really? Are you sure you can do that?"
She leaned in close and whispered into my ear with a small smile on her lips, "I'm Eeylop's granddaughter. I can do whatever I want. Besides all that she has done is cause trouble for us.
Lily came over to us and found us laughing while picking out a carrier.
"Hey Lilypad, this is Eleanor. She's going to be a Hufflepuff seventh year. She said she would give us our pets for free."
"Really?" Lily exclaimed, "No we can't accept that. Rose, why would you agree to that?"
"It's fine, Lily. I'm Eeylop's favorite grandchild and going to be running the store one day. All you guys need to buy and food and cages."
"Thank you so much! Rose what did you get?"
While I explained to her what happened, she inspected my new pet and smiled a little.
"Looks like we both got pets that look like us."
She showed me her ginger cat with green eyes whose fur was only a couple shades more orange than her deep red hair and I looked at my black cat with green eyes as well. Snape came gliding by and we went to pay for our things.
"See you at Hogwarts Eleanor," Lily and I called out to her. As we went back home, I smiled contently. I had never fit into the muggle world for I was always a little different than everybody else, but this is where I belonged.