August 17th, 1895 — Diagon Alley, London

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There were fortunately a lot of things Scal could hand down to her brother like her books (with the exception of her copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi), her hat and robes (obviously not her most recent set), protective gloves, and her telescope. Not everything could be passed down to him though, some things simply had to be bought - she could hardly give him her quills or her trunk when she was still using them! Besides, she was very heavy-handed with her quills so the nibs were in questionable shape anyway. Parchment and ink would be needed fresh too, as would glass phials, a cauldron, and brass scales. She was tentatively prepared to give him her cauldron if there wasn't enough money for a 'new' one, she could make do without it for a few weeks and source a replacement once he was at school, but hopefully that wouldn't be necessary.

There ought to be more than enough to cover everything though, after all if her mother managed to buy all of the supplies seven years ago on only one income then the shortened list for Kermit with two incomes ought to be easy. Scal knew things like wands and cauldrons weren't cheap, especially brand new, but maybe there was some sort of discount for Hogwarts students her mother had taken advantage of? If so, she hadn't let on when she'd given Scal money for the trip. There was also the matter of the wand that had taken Scal aback. Apparently her mother had inherited an extra wand years ago but for some reason hadn't thought to give it to Scal? She hadn't had a chance to question that, her wand had been fresh from Ollivander's, one of the few items that day that hadn't been secondhand. Privately, she'd been quite looking forward to taking Kermit to Ollivander's so this was both baffling and a little disappointing.

Scal was hoping there'd be enough money to buy Kermit something new and shiny to make up for the fact that half of his supplies had not only gone through an unknown number of previous owners, but also (in some cases) seven years of Scal. If not, at least he had the excitement of going to Diagon Alley instead of the high street in Hogsmeade.

She'd steered him first to a secondhand stationery shop and bookshop wanting to get the small but necessary expenditures out of the way first. To her delight, the secondhand copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi they'd found looked so lightly used it might be literally secondhand. You've got all your writing stuff and all the books, it's just potion supplies left, right? she asked as they stepped out of the bookshop. She was pretty sure she was on top of it all, but he'd know better. She assumed all of her old uniform was still fit for purpose, her mother hadn't said otherwise, but maybe he'd tried it on and it hadn't fit? Scal knew she'd had a relentless growth spurt while at Hogwarts but she thought she'd been fairly average when she'd first arrived at school, was Kermit the normal height for an eleven year old?

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Outfit | Tag: Kermit Escher | Notes:

  

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Butterflies had been gathering in Kermit's stomach for days-- excited and anxious in such equal measure he really couldn't tell one from the other. He'd been up must of the night before fretting. Fussing over the slightly droopy sleeves of Scal's old robes. Kermit knew he was small, scrawny, it wasn't really surprising that his big sister was bigger when she was his age. Every scrap of clothing he'd ever worn needed taking in, and Mother never had any trouble, but his dreams had been filled with visions of walking into the castle drowning in robes three times too large and that nervous energy carried him into their day out.

At least, right up until he laid eyes on Diagon Alley.

Everywhere Kermit looked he found something new. So many shops they were stacked up on top of each other, leaning over the cobblestones like great stone birds in every color he could imagine. The scent of roasted nuts and pumpkin juice wafted from half a dozen street carts, and it was all he could do to keep a hold of Scallion's coat so he didn't become lost in the ever-shifting throng of people. High Street, until that moment, had been Kermit's only reference for what Diagon Alley could be like. It was a terrible reference. He pointed out a near endless stream of new and exciting things to Scallion while they walked. The morning went by in a blur, full of secondhand books Kermit could barely resist grabbing back out of the bag to read before they were finished.

"Um--" Kermit had just taken a breath to point out a particularly large bat flapping lazily over the crowd, and Scal's question derailed him. He grabbed the heavily crumpled parchment out of his pocket to peer again at the creased instructions included in his Hogwarts letter. "Yes, just the potions stuff. How are we going to carry a whole cauldron?" Kermit very carefully did not read the last line on the list. He had been skipping that line all day. An owl, a cat, or a toad-- he knew there wasn't any money for that sort of thing, but it didn't stop him wishing. Kermit always wanted a cat of his own.

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I always say the things I shouldn’t
Oh what a shame my tongue’s not tied

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It's called magic, you dugbog brain! she teased. You too shall one day sit your cauldron carrying exam and be licensed to levitate cauldrons. Most people probably wouldn't associate Scal with lighthearted remarks and humor but she often felt compelled to make Kermit laugh and smile, which wasn't something she could say about many other people. Up ahead Scal could see a shop which was decorated in such a way that it couldn't not be a cauldron shop, the question was whether it was a secondhand cauldron shop or not.

What house do you think you'll end up in? Scal personally thought he was too smart to be anything but a Ravenclaw, she hoped if that's where he ended up he didn't get all lofty and condescending about his expansive intelligence though. Not that she was really woried about that happening, he was too sweet for that.

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Outfit | Tag: Kermit Escher | Notes:

  

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"Oh yeah," Kermit half whispered, caught up under his breath like it was some sort of secret, and smiled ruefully at his sister. "I forgot you can do that, now... y'know, that you're allowed to?" As though going to Hogwarts weren't intimidating enough, he'd be going without his sister. It seemed kind of unfair. His sister off to go work, and here he was costing the family a whole heap of money-- Kermit tried, and failed, not to twist his hands.

"Uh, I dunno?" he squeaked when Scal asked him the question he'd been frantically asking himself for weeks. Not Gryffindor, certainly. Kermit was a coward, at best. No ambition, so he couldn't be in Slytherin... but it wasn't like he was some sort of genius either... "Maybe Hufflepuff?"

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Scallion Escher

  

I always say the things I shouldn’t
Oh what a shame my tongue’s not tied

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Her attempt at humor seemed to have fallen short judging from the way he was wringing his hands. Usually when she said something that didn't go down well - a common daily occurrance - she knew or at least had a pretty good idea of why and usually she she had no regrets. In this instance she wasn't sure where she'd gone wrong and so had no idea how to fix it - and she very much wanted to. Scal didn't get much of a chance to ruminate on how she'd polluted her brother's good mood though which was probably for the best.

She thought Hufflepuff would be a good fit for him now he said it, it wasn't a particularly 'cool' house but she'd feel fairly confident he would get better treatment from his fellow Hufflepuffs than if he ended up in Slytherin. The Hufflepuffs have the best common room location - right next to the kitchens! She sorely missed Hogwarts food. That was another reason Kermit needed to go, he needed proper feasts so he could catch up to her height. Scal didn't think Gryffindor was necessarily out of the question for him but it wasn't the obvious choice that she felt Ravenclaw was.

They arrived outside the cauldron shop and Scal was gratified to see a sign declaring it was a 'mostly' secondhand cauldron shop. Perfect. What about Ravenclaw? She entered the shop and at the last minute remembered to fling an arm out to hold the door for him. Surely he knew enough about all the houses to know the obvious answer was Ravenclaw.

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Outfit | Tag: Kermit Escher | Notes:

  

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