Chapter 11: Diagon Alley
Today is finally the big day. I will get a wand and I will be able to stop hiding the fact that I can use magic. My mother and I came together to look for what was necessary for my first school year.
We start with the so-called essential tool of a wizard, the wand. And what's better for a wand than the most famous wand maker in England. It is therefore quite natural that I push the door of Ollivanders' shop.
A small bell sound greets our arrival in the shop which in any point similar to the one in the film. A wooden countertop and wide row of shelf filled to the brim with magic wands. Ollivander comes walking in our direction when he hears the bell ringing.
"Oh, Lady Bones! It's been so long since I had the pleasure of seeing you in my shop. I think the last time we saw each other was on your wedding day."
"I am very happy to see you again, Mr. Ollivander. Circumstances I don't like to mention have forced me to leave the country with Arthur."
"Yes, I heard the tragic news. My condolences for your father. I was not very familiar with Mr. Gaunt, but the news of his demise was another shadow cast on that already dark period."
"Thank you for your concern. The reason I came here today is to buy my son's first wand."
"Ha, the young Mr. Bones. I was afraid you were going to get your first wand from one of my colleagues in New York. But I'm glad you came to me. You look so much like your mother, it's troubling. I still remember your parents' marriage, and how your father wanted to have a son and yelled it at everyone in his drunkenness." Ollivander puts a hand over his mouth to keep himself from laughing while my mother looks up to heaven with an exasperated sigh. " How about we take your measurements first? Which hand are you holding your wand with?"
"The right hand." I see the old man pull a tape measure out of his pocket. Then, he grabs my arm and start taking measurements from almost every part of my body.
"Um, try this wand." He takes a few steps in one of the aisles behind him and carefully removes one of the boxes from the shelf. "Acacia wood, phoenix feather, thirteen inches and half, stiff. Here, try it."
I grab the wand and gently wave it. A small table on my left explodes, causing wood chips to fly around.
"No, it's obviously not that one." He goes back to rummaging through his shelves and comes back a few seconds later with a new box. "This one should be better suited. Elder wood, dragon heartstring, twelve inches, flexible."
As soon as my fingers touch the handle, my hand closes on the wand and it seems to become an extension of my body. A halo of vaporous light escapes from my whole body and disappear a few seconds later
"Very interesting."
"What's interesting, Mr. Ollivander?"
"Well, in general elder wood wands chooses wizards far more powerful than their peers, and they are known to be the most difficult to control but also the most powerful. They are very rare because very specific conditions are needed for elder wood to be used in a wand, and they also have the reputation of bringing bad luck because of the lust they created in other wizards long ago. What is interesting is that an elder wood wand has chosen your son while he is still a novice. I think you are promised to a very bright future, Mr. Bones."
Personally, I see other reasons. First of all, there is the link with Death that Sheila told me about, since it is Death that created the Elder wand that is the most powerful wand in the world. There is also the fact that I have been training since birth and that my powers are far superior to someone my age. Then there is my potential to become the most powerful sorcerer that will ever exist. And one might think that my relationship with the Gaunt and therefore the Peverell predisposes me to this wand.
My mother seems delighted with the revelations on my wand and takes out her wallet to pull out seven galleons. Ollivander seems quite embarrassed. "Madam, I am delighted to see that you still remember the price of my wands after all these years, but this wand does not cost seven Galleons but thirty-five. And again, it's a friend's prize that I'm giving you because I don't count the hours of work I've spent on this wand."
"So much! But that's five times the price of a normal wand."
"As I told you, elder wood is a very rare and difficult wood to find. Ordinarily, I would ask no less than sixty Galleons for a wand like this one. But I'm offering you a discount because it's a model that I've been experimenting with."
"All right. I don't really have a choice after all. After all, it's the wand that chooses its wizard and not the wizard that chooses the wand. Is that correct?"
"That's right. And it's all the more true with a wand as special as this one." My mother places the thirty-five gold coins on the counter. "It was nice to see you again, come back to see me if you need a repair or a new wand."
"Goodbye Mr. Ollivander." I wave my hand to the old wizard who watches me leave his shop with my mother.
We move away from the shop to continue our shopping. I look at my new wand, it looks simple without decorations. I will probably customize it when I have some money.
"So, what do you think?" My mom watches me look at my wand with a big smile.
"I can't wait to start using it." It's not totally wrong, normally learning spells with a wand is easier. It may allow me to finish mastering all the spells of Hogwarts before the end of the first year.
Our next stop is Madam Malkin's shop where we buy my robes for Hogwarts. I already hate these loose robes. I feel like a balloon. My mother took the opportunity to order a green and a silver evening wizard robe that I would probably never wear as well as clothes that remain modern but still acceptable in the wizarding world.
We then go to Flourish and Blotts to buy my textbooks. While my mother goes around the shelves looking for books that might be of interest to her, I do some research on my own. The shelves do not contain a lot of work that I find interesting, most of the books put forward are relatively basic knowledge books or lower value books like those of Lockhart. After a while, I end up coming across books with much more interesting titles. <Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires> gives some interesting details about vampires and validates what the third-year DADA book says. There are two vampire clans right now, first of all, the normal vampires who have exactly the same abilities as the vampires in Vampire Diaries. Then there are the wizards who have been infected with vampirism, which are called liches. They keep their magical powers and all the advantages and disadvantages of being a vampire. The book doesn't mention the originals, so I guess they either don't exist or they're well hidden.
I can't find a book about werewolves, but what the Hogwarts curriculum tells us is that they take the form of a wolf and not the strange abomination I saw in the movies. Unlike Vampire Diaries, someone can be turned into a werewolf, but only if he is bitten by a pack leader on a full moon night. Pack leaders are all listed by wizards to try to limit bite victims. I notice that like vampires, the book makes a difference between werewolf wizards and normal werewolves.
Then there are our cousins. The Wiccans: Description and culture> is the history of the Wiccans throughout the world, even if it is full of pro-wizard propaganda. Overall, no one knows when the Wiccans first appeared, but we know that the wizards were there before them. The author defines Wiccans as wizards who do not have magic nucleus but are instead able to absorb natural energy to use spells. The book makes no mention of siphoners or psychics, but I'm not surprised since they are quite rare.
I add two books that I find interesting, <Ancient rune made easy> and < Powers You Never Knew You Had and What To Do With Them Now You've Wised Up>. The first one because neither of my parents took the rune study course during their schooling, the only book that talked about runes at home is the rune dictionary.
My mother sees me coming with my four books under the arm and raises an eyebrow in amusement.
"What? They look interesting."
"Everyone like different things I suppose. You could make a very good Ravenclaw, like your father."
If I can't choose my house, I guess Ravenclaw is not the worst possibility. To tell the truth, everything suits me except Hufflepuff. I'm not the kind of person who's strong for comforting hugs and team spirit.
My mother pays for the books, and we get out of the shop. On the way back home, we stop in front of a glacier that sold flavors I had never seen before.
"How about we go get some ice cream?"
"Why not, what are you going to take?"
"I'll have a shrivelfig juice sorbet. It's the flavor your father and I used to take when we used to come here during the summer holidays."
I don't really know what to take. "In that case, I'll take the same thing."
"Go wait for me at a table, I'll go order."
I sit at a free table in the shop and wait for my mother who arrives with a huge cup of purple ice cream covered with pieces of walnuts and caramel with a big cloud of fresh cream on top. I don't think I've ever seen an ice-cream this big.
"We're going to eat all that?"
"Maybe not all of it. But don't worry about it and eat." She takes her own spoon and begins to attack the massive frozen mass on her side. I follow her example and start digging the strange sorbet. At the first bite, I did not expect such a strange taste, a mixture of fig and plum that was really good.
We eat in silence. I look discreetly at my mother from time to time, but she is like me. She is not good at keeping the conversation going. It is on this good ice-cream that my first visit to the Diagon alley's end.
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