Regency in Diagon Alley [Theodore Nott | Harry Potter AU]

Chapter Fifty-Six

Carina fallen in love with Clach Dhubh the moment she walked its streets.

Her grandmother would scoff at the idea of the city capital of Danu claiming it followed backward tradition, yet she saw the total opposite of it. Clach Dhubh was a city with bustling trade, a place where people of different cultures, human and magical beings came together. There were even some Muggles who dwell there, but those were the Muggles who married a magical folk and were given passage by the Statue of Secrecy and by the Duke. Not long, she would have to deal with such matters – marriages between magical and non-magical folk, or even marriages between magical beings and Muggles or witches and wizards.

The only thing that Carina would say was old tradition in Clach Dhubh were the structures of their homes and place of trade, the people made an unspoken tradition of keeping the theme of the city, to keep the magic in its walls, in each stone used to build their keep. Their people too preferred the quiet and simple life, a life far from how things were in London.

In Londinium, she had to keep looking over her shoulder, had to be cautious with how she spoke, and to who. Here, the people value their oaths, they prefer to show their dislike to one another than hide it with flowery words and then stab them in the back later.

Alcander had taken the role of guard very seriously. Donning the collar he personally chose from Seamus' shop that bore the sigil of the Ouroboros coiling the unicorn, the chimera looked like beast of war than a traveling companion and pet. He was growing as well, when she first saw Alcander, the chimera only reached bellow Carina's calves, then he grew and reached her knee, and now the lion-goat-dragon beast was as tall as her waist, she could only imagine how tall he was when he got on his hind legs.

And though Alcander was a beast to behold, he was not why the children ran towards them with grins and laughter.

Roman opened his arms and welcomed the tackle. She had no doubt Roman could withstand the hoard of five children, but he still fell on his bottom and let them have their fun. A few approached her and Alcander, some offered treats of dried meat to the beast, and some brushed his mane.

"Yer Grace," a child with golden brown skin looked up at her. The beautiful boy had slightly pointed ears – a half-breed, probably between a magical folk and a faery. "Will I get my Hogwarts letter?"

Smiling, Carina bent down slightly. "Hello, what's your name?"

"Hamish."

"Well, Hamish, children get their Hogwarts letters when they're eleven. How old are you now?"

"I'm turning eleven on September 1st, Yer Grace."

Her brows furrowed. The boy was turning eleven on September 1st, he should have received a letter by now. This cannot be a mistake, the Ministry holds records of every magical child born and sent to the Headmaster to have their letters made –

Magical child, she remembered. And his boy was half-faery.

"Me friends already got their letters, I haven't." Hamish said, he tried not to look disappointed but she could see it in his eyes that he was. "Ma said I shouldn't expect one. Da said I should wait."

She pushed back the anger, the disappointment that she had nothing to say to him, no sign of hope that he could get his letter. "Why would your mother say that? And if not Hogwarts, where would you go to school?"

The boy pointed in a direction of the street. "There's a school there for those who never got a letter."

Clenching her jaw, Carina thought of something that would not give him too much hope that he would be disappointed, while also not killing the magic in his eyes. "I'll see what I can do, maybe there was just a mistake in the records. I'll write to the Headmaster, personally." That wasn't a lie, she made a personal note to ask Dumbledore about this.