The Bonds That Shape Us

CHAPTER ONE
STEP INTO THE WIZARDING WORLD

Shoes slapped against cobblestone pathways whilst the light from the sun reflected off the numerous different coloured windows that showcased what their shops were selling. There were displays of spell books, potion ingredients and even shops selling telescopes, quills and rolls of parchment and even globes of the moon.

There were sounds of voices, squawks, rattles, swishes and everything associated with a large number of people. There were little children running past and slightly older children tugging and pulling their parents into the large amount of shops, some in muggle like clothing and others in more wizarding clothing, which was mostly cloaks in a variety of sizes, colours and designs.

"Right, what's next pups?" Sirius Black asked, looking down at his children, as they walked out of Flourish and Blotts with their school books piled high in their arms.

Harry Potter-Black shifted the weight on his schoolbooks so that they rested on his hip, pushed up his rectangular shaped glasses, and dug his hand into his pocket before producing a crumpled piece of parchment and his eyes quickly darted across the inked writing on its surface.

As Harry listed off the things they still had to get, his younger twin sister, Evelyn Potter-Black looked around, placing the books that they had just bought into her mokeskin pouch, which she had tied on one of her belt loops.

She had received the pouch from their uncle as an eleventh birthday present and it had been charmed with a summoning and an undetectable extension charm. With the amount of things that she had currently packed into it, she could probably fill a small cottage.

"Potage's Cauldron Shop is right over here," Harry said, pointing to a storefront where stacks of pewter, brass and copper cauldrons sparkled under the sunlight from behind the glass window.

After buying their copper cauldrons, for buying pewter cauldrons like their lists stated that they do would end up them getting clipped around the back of the head by their Aunt Andromeda, who had been the twins' potions tutor, the twins set off for Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions for their uniforms, whilst their father took a peek in one of the many pet shops.

Evelyn was hoping that she would get an owl. The twin's cousin, Neville Longbottom, had gotten a toad from his great-uncle Algernon once he had received his own letter from Hogwarts. He ended up naming him Trevor and Evelyn weren't exactly sure where he had gotten the very muggle sounding name from.

Trevor was extremely tiny and disappeared from both Neville's grasp and his sight more regularly than he did not, but Neville did love him all the same.

Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling old woman with peppered light red hair and soft dark brown eyes and she was dressed in mauve coloured robes.

"Hogwarts, dear?" she said, currently working on a piece of cloth. "Getting a lot here today, another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."

In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale face was standing on a footstool whilst an assistant was pinning up his long, plain black robes. Madam Malkin moved Harry on a stool next to him and then moved Evelyn next to Harry, waving her hand in the air to beckon another assistant forth.

Madam Malkin and the new assistant slipped long robes over their heads and knelt down to start pinning them to the right lengths for the two slightly shorter than average eleven-year-olds.

When Evelyn's head was tilted to the left, it was then that she realised who the other boy was.

"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"

"Yes," replied Harry.

Evelyn wasn't exactly sure how her brother hadn't realised who the boy was, but unlike his twin, Harry hardly ever looked at their family's tapestry, whilst Evelyn looked at it almost religiously.

The boy's white blond hair was slicked back, his face was stern and slightly upturned so it looked like he was looking down at the world and on his right hand's ring finger – a signet ring.

It was Draco Malfoy, the Heir Apparent to the Noble House of Malfoy.

"My father's next door, buying my books and my mother's up the street looking at wands. Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I think I'll persuade father into getting me one and then I'll smuggle it in somehow."

After a moment of silence from the two boys and only the sound of fabric rustling filling the shop, Draco continued. "Have you got your own broom?"

"I've got a Comet Two Sixty." said Harry, looking quite smug at this fact.

"I do also. Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my House, and I must say, I agree. Know what House you'll be in yet?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders, flinching as Madam Malkin accidently stabbed him in the arm with her pin. The witch working on Evelyn's robes had already stabbed her twice.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been. Imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"Mhm," Harry hummed, deciding to answer the Malfoy Heir with noises instead of words.

"That's you done, my dears," Madam Malkin said and Evelyn thanked her as she and Harry went to look for their father, who was hopefully still at one of the various pet shops. Thankfully, it didn't take them long to find their father and they continued their shopping.

They bought the required telescopes, brass scales, crystal phials from Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment. They then went into Slug & Jiggers Apothecary to buy their dragonhide gloves and a large variety of potion ingredients.

They also bought potion-making kits, even though the kits weren't listed on their supply lists, for some very odd reason. Potion kits were extremely important for inspiring potionners.

They then went to buy their very first wands.

Ollivander's Wand Shop was narrow and shabby. There was a single solitary wand lying on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. The shop itself was rather tiny and empty, except for a single, spindly chair in the corner. There were thousands, though, maybe more, of varying narrow boxes containing wands that were piled right up to the ceiling of the tiny shop.

The whole place even had a thin layer of dust about it.

"I wondered when I'd be seeing you, Harry Potter. Evelyn Potter," a soft voice called and Harry almost jumped in surprise whilst Evelyn was slightly more composed than her twin. Standing behind the counter was an elderly man with wide pale eyes that shone like moons through the gloom of the shop. He was simply staring at them.

Harry and Evelyn looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes with a faint frown across their lips. They very much disliked having their last name being shortened down to just Potter. They thought it a disgrace to their father, who had raised them since they were a year old.

Their father, who had once again, disappeared towards the various pet shops.

Mister Ollivander then went on to talk about their biological parent's wands. That their mother had a wand made of willow and a core of dragon heartstring. That it had been ten and a quarter inches long, swishy and a nice wand for charm work. Their biological father's wand had been made of mahogany and had a core of dragon heartstring, was eleven inches long, pliable. It had a little more power than that of their mother's and was excellent for transfiguration.

He gave the twins no information about their father's wand and whilst Harry looked confused at this, Evelyn nodded her head in agreement. It was disrespectful to give information about another witch or wizard's wand whilst they were still alive and without their permission.

Mister Ollivander had now come so close that he was practically nose to nose with the twins. He was more in Harry's face than he was in Evelyn's though and they both knew the reason why as soon as a long pale finger brushed away Harry's fringe and briefly touched the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly, removing his finger from Harry's forehead and Harry took a step backwards. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands… Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do…"

Harry gently but forcefully pushed Evelyn forward slightly as Mister Ollivander pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out from his pocket.

"Miss Potter. Which is your wand arm?"

Evelyn held up her left arm and she was measured from shoulder to finger, wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and then around her head. As Mister Ollivander measured her, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We use unicorn hair, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two uniforms, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand than that of your own."

Evelyn looked down at the tape measure as it measured between her nostrils whilst Mister Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes. Harry was moving his fringe back to cover his scar as better as he could with his short length hair.

"That will do," he suddenly said and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Miss Potter. Try this one. Blackthorn wood and dragon heartstring. Ten inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a quick wave."

Evelyn gingerly took the wand, suddenly feeling very nervous and moved to wave the wand just as Mister Ollivander snatched it out of her hand almost instantly after he had handed it to her.

With each new wand, Evelyn was feeling more and more nervous like Mister Ollivander would suddenly turn to her and say that there was a mistake and that she was actually a squib and not a witch. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair. The more wands Mister Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become, the opposite to how Evelyn was feeling.

Their father had arrived sometime between Evelyn's fifteenth wand and her twenty-second. He was standing by Harry, who was sat on the window sill, playing a game of Exploding Snap. He was empty handed so Evelyn hoped that he had gotten their house-elf, Kreacher, to take whatever pets he had bought home – Evelyn was still hoping for an owl.

She didn't like toads and she already had a kneazle – who she had named Garrison and everyone else called Garry – back home but she didn't have an owl. Owls were better for delivering mail anyway, the mental image of a cat or toad delivering mail was quite amusing to the young witch.

The moment Mister Ollivander handed her a wand with an interesting combination – hornbeam wood and a phoenix feather core, twelve and three-quarter inches long with a rigid flexibility – Evelyn felt a sudden warmth past through her fingers and sweep throughout her body.

She slowly raised the wand above her head and brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of silvery glittering sparks fell from the end like water. Harry and their father whooped and clapped whilst Mister Ollivander had smiled and said that he expected Evelyn to be a very talented witch.

Harry had taken much longer than Evelyn had to find his wand – eleven inches long, made of holly and it possessed a phoenix feather core also. It was also nice and supple. When he did, the look on their father's face told two different stories. He was pleased that Harry had his wand, he was just concerned about what Mister Ollivander had said about the wand.

"How curious. How every curious. I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mister Potter. Every single wand. It just so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather. Just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when it's brother… why its brother gave you that scar."

They both paid for their wands and brought boxes of wand polish along with wand holsters. After almost four hours of practising withdrawing their wands, the twins could produce their wands in a flourished way that looked skilled and eased.