Chapter 1: Shopping for a New Year

Naomi woke up at 9:00 AM. As she stretched she slipped her feet into her pink fuzzy slippers and walked into the bathroom. Looking into the mirror she saw a completely different person. Just the previous year Naomi had been a grand total of 5'2 but still 130 pounds, you could say that the proportions made her seem kind of big. However, during the summer she had grown 6 inches, taking away the look of her weight and giving her a more fitting body. Naomi touched her face as a memory flashed in her eyes.

"Hey Pizza Face, lay off on the pepperoni and grease." A 4th year Slytherin screamed in the main hall causing everyone to turn and laugh.

When she snapped back, Naomi looked straight into a smoother face with high cheekbones. The 15 years of acne had been over, when after working odd jobs and saving up her money from neighborhood chores, she was able to buy new cream that got rid of all the red bumps and scars in less than a month.

Unlike many pure-blood families, Naomi was diffidently not rich due to her mother's drug addiction and father's gambling problem.

Finally realizing that she had spent 15 minutes remembering her old self, Naomi grabbed the cleanser and washed her face, applied light eyeliner, and finished it all off with light brown lip gloss. After brushing her teeth she looked at the clock and realized that she was already running late so she decided that she would take her shower after she had returned from Diagon Alley.

Naomi stepped out of the bathroom and walked over to her closet to get her safe and opened it. The money shined in gold and silver from the months she had worked. She ended up making more that enough money to get herself through the year. Naomi took out 100 galleons and walked over to the family's fireplace.

"Diagon Alley!" she projected, dropping the floo powder instantaneously.

The whirling made her dizzy but ended before she got sick. There was a thump and Naomi was thrown into the Leaky Cauldron with out being noticed as if this kind of thing happened every five minutes.

Standing up Naomi walked toward the back of the pub and pulled out her wand to tap the bricks. One by one they started to shift around and pebbles rebounded off the floor when they fell. When the phenomenon was over with she walked past and straight into the hustle and bustle of every day life. Naomi pulled out a list of supplies and read them to herself, 'robes, school books, owl, and a gown'.

Since it didn't really matter where she started Naomi decided to go from left to right, this approach sent her to 'Rags to Robes' for her first store. For years Naomi had been going there because all of the other robe stores had bulky clothes that were very heavy and unflattering. Here at 'Rags to Robes' the material was much lighter and you could choose your design. Naomi walked into the flower scented store and went straight to the front desk.

"I need to buy robes for school." she said shyly.

"Certainly, what school do you attend?" she asked, smiling.

"Hogwarts, I'm in Slytherin." The clerk looked up but then mildly shook her head as if she were wrong about something.

"Do you happen to have a frequent buyer's card?" she handed it to her politely. She looked at the name on the card and then looked back at Naomi.

"NO! Naomi? Wow, you have certainly grown since the last time you were here."

She looked confused. How could she remember her? She obviously sensed her confusion and took the time to explain herself.

"You are the only girl from the house of Slytherin that has respect for their elders. Everyone else comes in here demanding this and requiring that. You must be unique." She finished her sentence in a huff. Finally it was all cleared up. Slytherin was a memorable house and no other student had any respect, other than Naomi that is.

The lady at the desk handed her a catalogue to look through for the design she wanted. This year the requirements were less strict so Naomi settled for robes that had ¾ sleeves and the hem just below the knee. Then she flipped through the rest of the pages until she found a short green plaid skirt and plain white polo shirt. Naomi decided to order 10 sets and because she was a student and had a frequent buyer's card it only cost her 20 galleons.

The lady walked back by, a couple of minutes later, and Naomi stopped her politely.

"I've found what I wanted. May we do the fitting now?" The lady smiled sweetly and said of course. Both of them walked into a separate room as she took her measurements. She quietly hummed gospel songs as Naomi watched the work in the mirror, now that she had grown, the uniform looked much better. There were no more bulges in the midsection and the skirt was now a smaller size because she didn't have to worry about extra skin.

"So miss, I recall a certain story about a young trouble maker. Aw what was his name? Derrick… no, maybe it was Danny… no, that's not it either."

"Draco?"

"Yes that's it! So how do you think he will act this year, same as always? It seems that boys like that don't ever change. He seems like a truly horrendous young man. It must be hard living in the same school with such a fellow!"

"I'm sure he hasn't changed one bit. Yes Draco is the same as ever and no I don't think he will ever change. I guess I really have to get used to him since I will be with him for 2 years after this one."

Naomi continued to talk about previous years with the horrible boy until the lady stopped her to tell her that she had finished. "Your robes will be finished in about 2 hours," she said. Naomi thanked the woman and left the store with the bell chiming behind her. She proceeded to walk down the alley until she reached Flourish and Blotts.

Naomi opened the door and the familiar scent overwhelmed her, the smell of new books. She walked up and down the isles until she reached the Standard schooling section and from there found an Isle entitled 'Hogwarts School'. The isle was sectioned into many areas. One for each year and then those were sectioned into classes. Naomi walked toward the 5th year section and then looked for each school book.

For potions she needed 'Potions, a Complete Works year 5', by Glendale Atwood. Transfiguration was 'Transfiguring the Magical World' by Rosalie Grail. Herbology required '10,000 Magical Herbs and How to Use Them' by Sutton Eldon. Charms it was mandatory to own 'Charms: From A to Z' by Walton Adeline. DADA had demanded 'Fighting the Forces' by Chance Quelling. And the divination teacher ordered for 'Seeing through the ages, year five' by Chan Vanstone.

The books cost 25 galleons in total and that was pretty good compared to the previous year of 58 Galleons 23 sickles and 9 knuts. The DADA teacher was pure mad! Naomi was able to get out of the store in 1 hour and headed west to the Owl Emporium. She reached the oak doors and couldn't believe to smell but once she walked in a bit further it lessened enough to where Naomi could breathe again, it must have been a charm. Naomi saw a clerk struggling with a particular owl so she walked over in attempt to help.

The owl was hanging onto the clerks thumb as she tried to fill the food bowl. "Here let me help." Naomi said as she stroked the owl's back. It let go of the clerk long enough to fly into her jacket and peeped its small head out and cooed.

"How? Hold on Earth? This thing has been giving me trouble all month! I would try to feed it and it would ATTACK me! Why is it that a complete stranger can walk over here and completely calm her? This is IMPOSSIBLE!" Naomi laughed at the Clerks white-eyed rage.

"She does seem to like me huh?" Naomi laughed as the clerk huffed. The clerk glared at her as she led Naomi over to the counter. "That would be 5 sickles."

"That's it?" She exclaimed, completely surprised at such a low price. "I will sell that for any price in order to get rid of it. So are you going to pay or what?" Naomi gave the grumpy clerk the money and left the emporium in a quick speed. The owl stayed in her jacket as she skipped along the sidewalk up to a gown shop.

Naomi opened the heavy yet elegant brass doors and was led into a brightly lit shop. The isles opened up into hundreds of dresses and suits. She walked through the isles for what seemed like hours but had only been 45 minutes. Every single dress that she found was either too slutty or too much like a grandmother suit. Naomi decided to leave the store when she started getting a headache. Since she still had about 10 minutes left before her robes were ready, and 'Rags' was across the street, Naomi decided to walk around but before she could take 5 steps she saw a young witch, maybe 11 years old, with a cart of clothes. Naomi walked over shyly and found many beautiful dresses but in the bunch she found the most beautiful gown. Naomi reached out and pulled it off the rack gently as if it would tear with a jerky movement.

"Do you like it? It took me almost 3 weeks to finish," the young witch whispered. Naomi looked at her in amazement and nodded slowly. "I'll sell it too you for 3 galleons, I know it's a bit steep but—" she cut her off, "no." Her face fell tremendously when the word left Naomi's mouth. "You deserve more for this," she said as she slipped the rest of her money into her hand. It was a bit under 60 galleons and she knew that it still didn't equal the price of the gown but if Naomi had given her any more she would most likely not accept it. She stared in disbelief and when she held it up to give it back thinking it was way too much, Naomi was gone.

Naomi ran into 'Rags to Robes' and walked up to the desk. The lady handed her the robes and she ran out the door toward the Leaky Cauldron. Her feet pounded on the pavement loudly with the small puddles of water splashing high when her feet landed in them. Naomi reached the pub in 5 minutes and walked swiftly toward the fireplace, taking a blanket off the shelf. She stepped in the fireplace, covering everything she had bought, except the owl, which was still tucked away, inside her jacket. She said 'Hope Residence' and the swirling began. Naomi threw her feet out in front of her when the frame of her own fireplace came into view, and came to a halt in a standing position on the floor. Quickly Naomi threw some floo powder into the fire and said 'Leaky Cauldron' as well as throwing the blanket in, sending it back to the pub in which it belonged.

The owl flew out of the bottom of her jacket and started chirping as it sat on her bed.

"Now all you need is a name! How about Ann," the owl glared back, "You don't seem to like that. Maybe Katy," the owl flew up and flapped its wing in Naomi's face, "Wow! You really didn't like that one; I know! What about something different, like Fida?" The owl cooed and flapped her wings happily. "Fida, I know that from somewhere… They used to call my sister that before she died. They called her Fida, latin for faith."