The next day, they were both leaving again, destination? Diagon Alley.
This time, with Kreacher staying home, although the little elf wasn't very happy about it, with Calypso with Rigel, he felt more at ease.
Kreacher had already spoken with Walburga the previous night, the woman's painting seemed thoughtful for a fraction of a second before she remembered it. She had made Kreacher bring Calypso to see her, she had made this arrangement beforehand because of her failing health, and she couldn't let Rigel follow in Andromeda and Sirius's footsteps.
So, she arranged a bride for him in his final moments.
When Rigel found out, his lips trembled, but he didn't really want to see Walburga. He let Calypso be taken away by Kreacher, of course, after Calypso insisted on meeting Walburga.
Rigel really had to admit, he had a pathological fear of Walburga, and although he only spent 5 years with her, they were the 5 most unhappy years for Rigel.
When he was a baby it was bearable, but the moment he started learning to talk and walk, a suit was put on him and he was forced to learn all sorts of things, failure was not an option.
Rebellion, no, Rigel learned that the hard way, with a Cruciatus Curse.
Therefore, he couldn't say he hated Walburga, after all, if she hadn't taken him in, he would probably have ended up under Lucius's watchful eye, and who knows, maybe he would have killed him so Draco could inherit the Black family wealth, that was a possibility.
In any case, he didn't want to see Walburga, so he didn't see her. Calypso, on the other hand, became very interested in Walburga instead, even more so after noticing Rigel's erratic mood when talking about her.
Rigel wished the woman good luck, and when she returned smiling an hour later, Rigel was quite confused. Calypso said that Walburga liked her very much. Rigel was perplexed, a little regretful for not having gone to see for himself, but in the end, he gave up thinking about it.
After Walburga's approval, Kreacher became even more enthusiastic about Calypso, if that was even possible, which was a positive point.
In any case, after that, as Rigel had expected, Calypso wanted to fulfill the agreement that same day, at bedtime, the woman hugged him tightly against her chest! Rigel wouldn't admit that although uncomfortable at first, hearing her heart beating seemed to have a calming effect on him.
The next day, Rigel woke up in the same position. It was a struggle to separate himself from her, he knew she was awake and doing it on purpose, but she pretended to be asleep.
Sure, Rigel's body is much stronger than hers now, but he didn't want to hurt her. In the end, Rigel felt that this arrangement was proving more complicated than expected.
Calypso looked different after getting ready, her teeth were no longer stained with coal but shone with a pearly white, her hair was straightened and tied in a loose ponytail, and she was now wearing a cape, courtesy of Walburga, who had asked Kreacher to fetch it for her.
Not only that, the woman practically gave her all her clothes and jewelry.
You could see how much Walburga liked Calypso.
"When did you have time to change your hair?" Rigel asked curiously as they prepared to use the fireplace.
"Walburga taught me that yesterday." Calypso Shrugged.
Rigel stared at her expressionlessly. Of course, she learned the spell from a painting, letting out a tired sigh. Rigel could only think about how unfair the world is.
He wondered if he should join the Weasley twins in throwing snowballs at Quirrell's head at Christmas.
"Let's go." Rigel picked up the jar of Floo powder and handed it to Calypso. She already knew how to use it, but it was still her first time using it, so she was very excited.
Taking a handful, she went over the fireplace and said, throwing the Floo powder on the floor. "Diagon Alley."
Green flames rose as Calypso's figure disappeared. Rigel waved, thankfully, she hadn't mispronounced it. He waved to Kreacher, and he did the same.
Kreacher looked at the dusty floor and began to clean it, though this didn't affect his mood, he had a smile on his old, wrinkled face that actually gave Rigel the creeps, but it wasn't enough for him to point it out.
//-//
Upon arriving at the Leaky Cauldron, Rigel looked at Calypso, who was already being observed by the wizards.
Some of them swallowed hard, tempted to move forward and strike up a conversation, but the woman's cold face prevented them from approaching.
As soon as Rigel passed, Calypso's smile widened, surprising the wizards.
She approached Rigel and put her arm around his, Rigel's lips trembled. Clearly, Calypso had conveniently 'forgotten' the part about 'public displays of affection', but seeing the wizards looking at her, Rigel didn't stop her.
He walked quickly while the woman walked beside him, happy beyond reason, for reasons unknown. Rigel took advantage of the fact that no one was looking and made his wand appear in his hand, wiping himself and Calypso of the soot from the fireplace. Even clean, no one recognized him.
Rigel wasn't very well known, but even when they passed through the stone wall and entered Diagon Alley, they still attracted glances, or rather, Calypso did.
Rigel could see one or two little girls looking at him, but that was it, he felt quite uncomfortable, quickening his pace slightly.
Their first destination today is Gringotts, first for Calypso to exchange galleons, then to buy a property.
Gringotts has several side services, one of which is real estate rental and sales.
They walked quickly through the winding corridors, unfortunately Calypso saw an ice cream shop, the woman had never eaten ice cream, when she saw a child passing by with one, she became very interested.
Rigel sighed, stopped, and bought one for each of them, he got pistachio, she got chocolate, very common flavors in the wizarding world, but Rigel really wasn't in the mood to taste saltwater or tanned leather.
Calypso loved it, even though ice cream had been invented a long time ago and already existed in her original world, she had never eaten it before.
She wanted to buy a tub of chocolate ice cream. Rigel looked at the woman speechless, glanced at the tub, which clearly held about 5 liters, then back at the woman.
The salesman was already grinning from ear to ear.
Rubbing his temples, Rigel called Kreacher over, handed him the money, and let him take it back.
Calypso seemed to want to stop in more places, but Rigel was already out of wizarding money, he had used most of it before his adventure, and he also needed to exchange coins.
Thus, Calypso was dragged straight to Gringotts, much to the woman's frustration.
Rigel saw her gazing at the magical creature shop with eyes full of curiosity, and he dragged her away even faster!
He only sighed with relief when he entered Gringotts.