Snape's Daughter

Their first stop in Diagon Alley was, of course, Gringotts. Luke looked about himself in awe at the marble building, and was rather stunned to see the Goblins. However, he was sensible enough to keep his feelings to himself.

"Can we change one-hundred pounds into Galleons please," asked Katherine, stopping by one of the desks labeled 'Exchange'.

"That will be thirty-three Galleons, four Sickles and fifteen Knuts," said the goblin, taking the crisp notes and sliding the coins across the counter. Katherine swept most of the coins into a bag, but allowed Luke to look in amazement at one of the Knuts.

"Neat money," he said, as they walked out onto the wet street again. "Is this real bronze?"

"Yeah," said Serena, shrugging.

"Wow!" he breathed. "Who's the picture of?"

"Queen Lumenta," replied Serena. "She's like Queen Elizabeth for Muggles, only for the whole of the magical world. Her daughter's called Skeren, and she's our age."

Luke scratched his hair, and shook his head with a sigh. "I'll probably not remember the names," he said. "But the Queen person, Lumenner or whatever, her name sounds oddly familiar."

"Really?" said Serena, frowning. "For a Muggle-born, you're very knowledgeable."

"Maybe..." said Luke, "maybe... I'm not a Muggle-born. I can't remember anything that happened just before my parents died, when I found myself on that street. I can't even remember my parents. The first time I knew anything about me was when Cyndi sent me the letter. Now I come to think of it..." Luke fell silent, eyes unfocused as he thought. Suddenly, he stood still, and looked about himself in a panic.

"What's the matter, Luke?" asked Serena, puzzled.

"N- nothing," said Luke, but his grin had completely vanished. "Where do we go first? My list..." he checked it, "says that I need a wand."

"We have to go to Ollivander's for that," said Katherine, who hadn't noticed anything wrong with Luke. "It's this way."

She led them down the Alley, among the crowded streets of busy shoppers on their day off or Muggle-born students going shopping with their parents. In the magical world, the 'day of rest' occurred on the Monday, but they kept to Muggle weekends at Hogwarts.

A party of students went past, behind a friendly-looking woman with brown hair. For some reason, Serena was drawn to a girl at the back. Unlike the others, she had no adults with her, going around the Alley. Her hair was dark, like Luke's, but had white patches in it. Her face was sad, but resigned. She looked suddenly at Serena, and her eyes seemed to pierce into the young girls'. They seemed to say 'I know your secret', but Serena thought that she must have been imagining things. How could anyone know about her father...? Then, a small voice spoke inside her mind, 'Ravenclaw,' and Serena remembered her quest.

"Are you alright?" asked Luke, concerned.

She smiled, shaking her head to bring herself back to wakefulness. Something very strange seemed to be happening, something she didn't understand. She had forgotten completely about the quest after meeting Luke a few days into the holidays, and about the dream; now, it all seemed to be rushing back.

"Ollivander's," said Katherine suddenly, bringing Serena out of her train of thought. She looked up to see the small shop, and only one person inside. She had never seen a picture of Cyndi before, but by Luke's gasp of her name, and the wheelchair she was sitting in, it had to be her.

"That's Cyndi?" asked Serena, looking at the dark blonde haired girl with some surprise. She looked different to what Serena had expected, yet somehow she was the same as the picture Serena had in her head. She looked really friendly, and had a grin on her face very similar to Luke's. She was trying a wand, which Ollivander immediately took from her.

Mrs. Tabina pushed open the door, a bell rang, and they entered. Cyndi looked around, and saw them.

"Si- Luke!" she said, as he rushed over to her.

"Cyndi! How are you? Can I talk with you sometime?" he asked excitedly. She looked at him, confused. He raised his eyebrow as Mr. Ollivander called to someone in the back of the shop.

A young but studious-looking boy emerged from the back of the shop. He was dressed in plain brown robes and was wearing a quill pen behind his ear.

"Sort out these customers Rigel," said Ollivander in a business-like tone.

"Yes father," said the boy, and Serena tried not to gape. Even if the child-bearing age was longer in the magical world, Ollivander still looked very old indeed. She wondered what sort of age the mother was.

"Well, are you going to introduce us?" asked Cyndi from where she was sitting.

"I'm Serena," said the girl nervously, and smiling too.

"Please to meet you," said Cyndi, holding out her left hand. Brain trauma had caused the girl to lose control of the right side of her body, and so she had changed from a right-hander to a left-hander.

They shook hands; Cyndi had a warm grip, which was neither too hard nor too soft. Then, they let go, and Serena's hand fell to her side. She felt very nervous. Then, Ollivander came back with another wand for Cyndi to try.

"Oak, eight and a half inches, containing one unicorn tail hair," he said. Cyndi took the wand and moved it around, but the man snatched it back instantly.

"Hmmm, I wonder..." said the man. "We had this one returned to us eighteen years ago. He said that the owner had vanished, leaving it behind. Mahogany, containing unicorn tail hair, nine and a quarter inches, and very good for charm work."

Cyndi took the wand, and Serena found herself crossing her fingers. Behind her, she could hear Rigel Ollivander handing a wand to Luke. The American girl whisked the wand through the air, and red and blue sparks came out of it. She grinned, not at all shocked.

"I didn't know you were a witch," said Serena, as Ollivander put the wand in its box.

"Didn't you?" said Cyndi, surprised. Then she noticed the other girl looking at her in confusion, and gulped.

"Yes," said the honey-blonde girl in reply. "Luke never said that you were a witch, even after he got his letter." Cyndi frowned, but said nothing.

"Try Phoenix feather," suggested Ollivander, going over to his son. He seemed to have realised that the two parties had joined together. Indeed, Luke's adoptive parents were chatting away quite happily to Cyndi's. Rigel, who had been about to hand over a Unicorn tail hair one, put it away. Then he thought aloud to himself.

"Males are better suited to harder wood such as Rowan or Oak, usually, although there can be exceptions. Holly can be for both, as can beech," said Rigel. He turned around, and went down one of the rows of wands. He muttered to himself as he did so.

"Phoenix feather, here we are. Aaand... Rowan Wood, no, Oak Wood would be better... length... eleven inches," said Rigel. He came back out, bearing a dull-grey box. When Mr. Ollivander saw it, he looked shrewdly and nervously at his son.

Luke took the wand from Rigel's hand, and gasped. He waved it in the air, and a stream of green, blue and red sparks flew out of it. They quickly vanished, and Rigel took the wand, which looked very old and dusty, and put it away again.

"That'll be 7 Galleons for the young lady's wand, and 8 Galleons 15 Sickles for the young man's wand, please," said Ollivander. Although rather stunned at the high price, Luke's parents paid up.

*~*~*

An hour later, the three families had arrived at Eeylops Owl Emporium. Cyndi usually used her parents' owl to send messages to her magical American friends - she had used a Portkey to come to England today - and didn't see why she should change this. Instead, she decided to get a cat. Luke, on the other hand, wanted an owl. He was attracted to the tiny little Scops Owls, the cheapest at five Galleons. Cyndi and Serena decided to go with Katherine and Cyndi's parents to Caroline's Cat Compendium.

There were many different sorts of cats: tabbies licking their paws, ginger ones scrapping in a corner, a cage full of black cats eating from bowls, and many others. A friendly-looking woman with an old grey cat draped across her left shoulder came over to them.

"Hi, I'm Caroline. This is Andraste my cat. Isn't she a beauty?" smiled the young woman happily. Serena reached up her left hand to stroke the cat, but suddenly a paw struck out and scratched it. She winced and sucked her hand in pain.

"She's usually friendly towards most people," said Caroline apologetically. "I don't know what she sees as wrong."

"Oh, it's probably my Animagus form," said Serena airily. Everyone apart from Katherine stared at her. Serena shrugged, and gave a quick explanation. "I didn't choose my form, but if I had, I think that I'd like to be a cat," she finished with a sigh.

"Well, I don't know much about Animagi, but I do know a lot about cats," said Caroline. She led Cyndi through the cages, pausing at some and ignoring others.

"Well, you'll probably want a fairly patient cat," she said thoughtfully, "one that won't mind a lot of fussing... The Tabbies are like that," she continued, stopping by a cage of Tabby kittens. Reaching in, she brought out one of the tiny furballs and handed it to the eleven-year-old. Immediately, it attempted to extricate itself from Cyndi's hand, and reach the carpet. Caroline grinned as she picked it up again, and put it back.

"A little bit temperamental, I think," said Caroline, taking out another one. This one settled deep into Cyndi's arms and fell asleep immediately. The young witch grinned, and shook her head. The next one kept running all over the girl, and the fourth...

"She's perfect!" exclaimed Cyndi.

"He, actually," said Caroline with a grin.

"What is his name?"

"You can name him," replied Caroline, as Cyndi held the tiny kitten in her left hand and clutched to her chest.

"Well then, his name is ...Dwyer," said Cyndi. Her mother paid the 10 Galleons for Dwyer and the other items needed to look after him. Then, they walked back out onto the Alley, and back towards Eeylops.

*~*~*

As they walked, Cyndi explained how she came to be in a wheelchair even though she was a witch. At a very young age, Cyndi had tripped over some steps and banged her head. She had suffered brain trauma induced by a spell that before had been thought to have no ill effects. It had only been 'Enervate', but far from waking up the girl from her faint, it had seemingly made the injury worse and sent her into a three-day coma.

When Cyndi had emerged from the coma, her condition had become apparent. The problem was that the position of the injury was in a very critical place. If any spell were used on it, then it would destroy the rest of the brain tissue as well. For obvious reasons, Cyndi's family decided to keep their daughter alive.

"So, how do you get up steps?" asked Serena, curiously.

"I get bumped," admitted Cyndi. "If I hadn't been stuck in this thing then I'd have gone to Salem, but it just wasn't possible. The headmistress contacted Dumbledore, and persuaded him to let me come to Hogwarts."

"Yeah, but there are loads of staircases at Hogwarts, I've been there. How are you going to get up them all?" asked Serena.

Cyndi shrugged. "Dumbledore'll sort something out," said her mother confidently, and looking sideways at her daughter as she did so. The young girl grinned and then straightened out her expression.

They turned into the owl shop, where Luke was holding a cage containing his new Scops owl. It was a very small bird, with brilliant yellow eyes. Its feathers were a grey-buff colour and it had black markings down them too, standing out clearly. Currently, it was sleeping, head tucked under its wing. In his other hand was a bag containing the food and bedding.

"Her name's Moonriver," said Luke, grinning at the others. "Isn't she cute?"

In return, Cyndi showed off Dwyer. Luke looked sharply at her when she said the name of the cat, but then smiled even more broadly, if that was at all possible. He stroked Dwyer's head, the kitten milking up all the attention. Serena followed suit, the young cat not adverse to her since it had little worldly experience.

"Where to next?" asked Luke's mother. "We have got the wand, robes, books, cauldron and owl, what else?"

"I think that's it," said Cyndi's mother, glancing at her daughter's list.

"Shall we go to The Leaky Cauldron for a meal then, before we return home?" asked Katherine.

"Well we're staying here anyway, because it'd be just pointless for Cyndi to come all the way out to England just to return home again," replied Mrs. Brock.

"I'd ask you to come and stay with us, but we have too many stairs," said Mrs. Tabina. As usual, her husband stayed in the background keeping quiet.

"Tom's given us a ground floor room," replied Mrs. Brock. "My husband's gone off to Muggle London for the day, with our younger daughter. He's a Muggle-born, so he'll be fine."

"I'm Half-blood," said Katherine, "my Mum was a Muggle."

*~*~*

Serena, Luke and Cyndi were sitting together at a separate table from the adults. They were chatting normally, but Luke and Cyndi kept glancing sideways at each other. Serena was getting very irritated.

"Look, you guys, what is going on?"