Albus Potter smiled and waved out the window at his parents as they held hands, beaming up at him and jogging after his little sister, Lily, as she ran beside the train waving goodbye.

He was starting his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, glad to finally be on the rumbling train after having to endure James's impressive stories for two whole years. As he watched his family's faces, now including Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione and his younger cousin Hugo, fade from view, his stomach rumbled and he turned back to his compartment to dig around in his bag for a snack.

Albus pulled out Aunt Luna's gurdyroot infusion with a look of disgust on his face, exclaiming loudly to Rose.
"How did Aunt Luna manage to slip some of this in here? Mum even put a Sealing Spell on my rucksack!"

Rose laughed and looked up just in time to see the compartment door slide open and a familiar face poke in.

Aria Scamander poked her head in. "Oh good, I just finished my bottle from Mum. You don't mind me having yours, do you, Al, seeing as you hate it? Thanks. I drank mine very quickly today, I thought I felt a Wrackspurt fluttering around somewhere earlier."

A few first years passed by, gagging at the smell of the infusion and glaring judgmentally at Aria.
"Only repellent for Wrackspurts, you know!" she shouted at them as they continued down the corridor.

Aria proceeded to drop into the seat next to Albus, who promptly lost his appetite at the stench from the open bottle. Instead, he took out his wand from his rucksack and reflected on the moment it had chosen him.

Only yesterday, Mum, Dad, Lily and James had accompanied Albus to Diagon Alley. Though he had been many times before, it felt different somehow, more jarring and eye-opening, the signal of some new beginning in his life.

After buying new robes and picking up his books, including some which his mum and dad even recognized such as The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One by Miranda Goshawk and A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, Albus had ventured into The Magical Menagerie with James. He had thought that he only wanted an owl, like the family screech owl, Homer, but his Aunt Hermione had persuaded him to at least take a look at the other animals in the Menagerie as well.

He had taken a liking to the nifflers, but James told him they were banned at Hogwarts. Instead, he bought a pretty female Siamese cat for seven Galleons, which he named Juno. James already had a rat named Frederick, so they agreed to split the cost of a tawny owl for five Galleons apiece, naming him Eliot.

Finally, the time had come for Albus to find his wand- or rather, for the wand to find him.

The family approached Ollivander's, and as Albus stepped inside, he heard the tinkle of a bell overhead and the glittering whoosh of sparks erupting from the wand of a boy standing in front of him.

The wand had just chosen a young wizard of about fifteen, who James called out to in greeting.
"Aidan, hi! Getting a new wand, huh?"

"Oh, hullo, James," said the young man with a thick Irish accent. "Yup, me wand broke a few days ago- got into a spot o' trouble with the grindylows in me family's loch, yeh see. Lucky I escaped, but me wand weren't so lucky. Anyway, better get goin'. Gotta get a new broomstick, the better to Chase with, eh?"

After shaking hands with Albus's mum and dad, the young man named Aidan strode out the door and down the road.

Albus watched him go, intrigued at the mention of Quidditch, until he heard a throat clear behind him and turned to see his family and Ollivander waiting expectantly.

"Albus, I presume? Of course, quite, a wand for you, come this way..." Ollivander spoke softly and with what seemed like wonder in his voice, but what Albus soon recognized as a flittiness and airiness. As he walked, Ollivander craned his head to peer down aisles, sometimes allowing his body to continue onward and pull his head back to join it, or else walking quickly ahead and then retracing his steps until he appeared to finally recognize the aisle he had been looking for.

"Right then, my boy, down here, if you will, and stand here..." Ollivander reached up and took down several boxes, opening the first one and handing a short, reddish-colored wand to Albus.

"Go on then, try it out- oh no, nevermind, try this one here, maybe... no, no, this one..." After each wand was handed to Albus, he waved or flicked it, and it either jumped out of his hand or fired off a richoteting spell.

Finally, after they had moved through three more aisles and Albus had tried maybe twenty wands, Ollivander presented him with a nondescript-looking box, the most beat-up box so far. Ollivander stared intently at him as he had done through each testing, but focused on the wand each time, not on Albus.

Albus opened the box and took out the wand. It fit nicely in his hand and he didn't feel stupid or clumsy waving it around, as he had with the previous wands. He gave it a little swoosh, and a shower of golden sparks burst out, prompting a nod from Ollivander, a whoop of his own, and the hurrying footsteps of his family.

"Ah yes! Chestnut wood with core of phoenix feather, eleven and a quarter inches, reasonably springy! Quite an interesting wand. This wand was, in fact, previously owned, unlike many others in my shop. Interesting, interesting... it was owned, in fact, by none other than Iolanthe Peverell, yes, the granddaughter of Ignotus... I daresay your father has told you of the Peverells? No? Interesting... Well, she was quite the lover of animals and an inspiring young lady, yes."

At the end of Ollivander's sentence, Ginny Potter burst round the corner of the aisle. "Oh, Albus, how wonderful! You've found your wand at last!"

"Yeah, at long last," said James, coming round the corner with a teasing grin on his face.

Albus smiled. A wand! He was ready to practice the spells he'd heard James muttering right then and there, but his dad chose that moment to envelope him in a crushing hug.

"Careful, Dad, don't snap my wand already!" Albus said, although his words were somewhat muffled by his father's arms.

Later, he had asked his father about the Peverells, but his father, after a surprised glance at Albus, had replied with the standard "You'll learn when you're older."

Back on the train to Hogwarts, Albus shook himself out of his reverie. "Hey, Aria, know any simple spells I could try?" he asked the second year.

"Sure!" she replied, pulling out her own black walnut and unicorn hair wand. Rose also extracted her own applewood and phoenix feather wand.

First, Aria shut the door and drew the curtains on the door and windows. Then, she turned off all the lights in the compartment and sat back down, the compartment now apparently satisfactorily dark.

Then she raised her wand and said, "Lumos!" Her wand tip immediately produced a bright light.

Albus and Rose excitedly tried to copy her. Whereas Rose achieved a soft glow on her first try, Albus achieved a bright light on his third.

They heard footsteps outside their compartment, and someone knocked on the door.

"Nox!" whispered Aria, and Albus and Rose followed suit.

Aria got up, turned on the lights and unlocked the door to face James and a few of his friends.

James looked a little surprised at Aria's presence and said, "Hi, Aria, Albus, Rose, I've just come to tell you we'll be stopping soon. Better put on your robes."

Someone behind him sniggered and whispered loudly, "You know Airy Aria, James? Daughter of Loony Lovegood?"

James turned to face his mocker. "Of course I do, Samuel. Family friend. You'd do well to learn from some of her aloofness, I noticed you consorting with a couple of Slytherin girls a few minutes ago. Pretty, sure, but slippery, aren't they?"

The rest of his friends laughed and Samuel looked mortified. Meanwhile, Aria beamed at James's retreating back.

Albus, Rose and Aria quickly tugged on their robes and Albus returned Juno, whom he had been allowing to roam around the compartment, back to her basket. She meowed protestingly but licked his restraining hand affectionately.

Just as he latched her in, he felt the train lurch and grind to a halt. They had arrived at Hogwarts.