A/N: this took a while. i apologize to the people reading this, and i thank you.


Adeline blinked down at the piece of paper in her hands, her mouth opening and closing not unlike a fish out of water. She stood, unaided, in the center of the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley. She looked up from a list as a snobbish-looking witch bumped her shoulder. The witch shot Adeline a dirty look and promptly walked off. Adeline's face, riddled with confusion, wilted further.

I don't belong here, was the most prominent thought in her mind.

And indeed, that was written on the faces of everyone who turned her way. It was quite clear to them all: she didn't belong there. She looked down at the list, frowning at the words, Wand at Ollivander's.

She glanced up at the signs on the buildings around her. Where the devil was 'Ollivander's'? Another person collided with her shoulder, and she winced. The person, a boy about her own age, whipped around. His face was scrunched up in a fierce expression, his platinum blonde hair slicked back from his face. There were two people with him, a taller boy with dark skin and piercing eyes, and a sneering, pug-faced girl.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" he snapped.

Adeline looked around, helpless.

"Oi, I'm speaking to you, wretch!" The boy advanced a step.

"No need to resort to name calling," said the more exotic-looking boy calmly, looking Adeline up and down. "Perhaps she's just deaf."

The blonde one looked at him in disbelief. "Are you really defending her, Zabini?"

"Maybe he just wants to shag her," the girl said snidely.

He, Zabini, ignored the girl completely. "No, Malfoy, I'm not defending her," he mocked. "I'm stating a possibility."

He looked at Adeline, his eyes trailing up and down her body. Dumbledore, that strange man, had given her new clothes. New clothes. She had relished in the feel and cleanliness of them. There was a pair of jeans, free of patches or tears. The shirt was robin's egg blue, and the jacket was, frankly, warm. Adeline fidgeted under the other teen's gaze. Did the clothes look bad?

"Go on," he said. She blinked, and he repeated, "Go on. Get going."

She nodded and turned, intending to follow his instructions, but abruptly stopped. She reached into her pocket, pulling out a piece of paper, words already written on it. She faced the group, unfolded the paper, and held it in front of her. It read, Can you help me?

The blonde boy, Malfoy, suddenly began guffawing. "She's mute! Blimey, Zabini, that's what's wrong with her! The bloody girl's a bloody mute!"

Snidely, the girl said, "She expects us to help her? Why would we help the likes of her?"

Zabini only lifted his chin. "Help with what?"

Whilst the girl stared disbelievingly at him, Malfoy continued his laughter. "Oh go on, Zabini. This is precious."

Adeline merely shifted her standing position slightly. Upon realizing that Zabini had asked her a question, she whipped out her pencil and hastily scribbled something on the back.

It now said, Supplies for Hogwarts?

Zabini lifted a delicate brow. "Don't worry about Hogwarts. You'll be there less than a week before they throw you out. A mute can't be a witch. You'd be better off crawling back into what ever gutter they found you in."

Adeline took a step back, reeling as though she'd been slapped by his sudden change. When she didn't move any more than that, he calmly pulled something from his coat, holding it steadily in his hand. It looked like a long pointed stick, but with a place to grip. A wand? Was this a wand?

"Get going," he said to her for the second time, "or I shall not hesitate to hex you."

Adeline took another step back, and then turned and ran. Zabini watched her go, lowering his wand. The girl beside him huffed, flipping back her short dark hair.

"You had me worried for a moment, Zabini," she said haughtily. Stomping off, she steadfastly refused to look over her shoulder, assuming, naturally, that her two male companions would follow. "Come on, Draky-poo!"

Beside him, Malfoy shuddered. "I hate it when she calls me that blasted name."

Zabini was still watching, waiting for the last glimpse of bright red hair to vanish in the crowd. When it finally had, he nodded once in finality.

"A shame," he murmured. "Her voice would probably have been pretty."

"What was that?" asked Malfoy, beginning to walk away. He stopped, looking at his friend with a raised eyebrow and a skeptic expression. "You're not talking about that mute, are you? I'll bet all the Galleons in Gringotts we never have to look at her filth again."

"No," said Zabini, turning to the blonde. "I wasn't talking about the mute."

And that was the last that Blaise Zabini said of the matter.


Adeline continued to run until she had found a corner near an empty store, a sign in the window saying 'Out of Business'. There she stopped, both to catch her breath and to make sure the strange group was not following her. Satisfied that they were not, she relaxed a little. Such strange people. She shivered, drawing her coat closer to her and wishing with all her might she was back at the orphanage with Susan. She looked once more at the list, at the handwritten words instructing her to be at King's Cross Station, platform nine and three-quarters on September 1st, then put it back into her pocket with a forlorn expression. She was lost, no one was helping her, she could not speak...What was she doing here? Feeling invisible and alone, she slid down the wall, rested her head on her knees, and silently cried.

"Oh, God," said a voice above her. "I knew I should have intervened. That rich arrogant daddy's boy probably said something horrible to her."

A warm hand patted her shoulder comfortingly as she heard someone kneel next to her.

"There, there. I'm sure the bastard was mean, but he's not worth your tears, honestly."

Adeline looked up, her eyes stinging. A girl with long, golden blonde hair and bright forest-colored eyes smiled at her, her expression soft.

"Here, stand up," the girl said, tugging gently on Adeline's arm. "Diagon Alley isn't the cleanest place to sit and have a cry. I'm Emma, by the way. Emma Knight."

Adeline mouthed her name, and Emma smacked herself in the forehead with her free hand.

"Right, I heard them say you can't talk. We've got to get you a wand."

Adeline's face lit up, and she scrambled to pull the list from her pocket. Emma looked it over for a moment, then smiled again.

"I assume you need some help with this," she said. Adeline nodded hastily. "Alright. I'll help."

Excitement flowed through her, and Adeline hugged this stranger tightly, mouthing 'Thank you' over and over, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. Finally!


"I sympathize with you, you know," said Emma slowly, as they walked through the alley, on their way to Ollivander's wand shop. "I'm usually very quiet." Emma paused. "My mother died when I was a baby, so I never knew her. My father got taken away just before I started school. I've been invisible, so I know what you're feeling. The general population and I don't really get along, so I don't talk all that much."

Adeline giggled. Emma flashed her a smile and added, "But I guess you don't have a choice in that matter, huh? Were you ever able to talk?"

Nodding, Adeline tapped her temple with one finger and shrugged.

"You can't remember? That...sucks." Emma chuckled. "That blonde boy who you bumped into? That's Draco Malfoy. His friend was Blaise Zabini, and that annoying girl stalking them both is Pansy Parkinson. What'd they say to you?"

Adeline stopped, pulling Emma away from the stream of traffic, and pulled out her notebook, holding up a finger in a signal to wait. She wrote for a bit, while Emma watched patiently, and then held up the book for the other girl to read. Emma's eyes scanned it quickly.

"...called you a mute..." Emma muttered. "...gutter..." Her face clouded over. "That impudent blonde jerk, how low could he get--"

Adeline shook her head furiously, her hair whipping around her pale face, and she added a line to the paper. Blaise. Emma raised both of her eyebrows in surprise.

"Blaise said that to you?" Adeline nodded again. "Well, I wouldn't doubt it, he's just as immature as Malfoy..." Emma stopped, glancing up at the sign above the store. "Here, Ollivander's."

Adeline let out a sigh of relief.

"I'll wait out here," said Emma with a smile. "You have money, don't you?"

Alarm showed on Adeline's face. Money? Money? No one had given her any money! She searched her pockets, finding a bag of clinking coins in her coat pocket. Upon opening the bag, however, it didn't look like any kind of money she'd ever seen. She looked back at Emma.

"That's wizard money," she said. "The bronze ones are Knuts, the silver are Sickles, the gold are Galleons." Emma peeked into the bag. "My, you have a lot of Galleons in here. Who gave this to you?"

Dumbledore, wrote Adeline in her notebook. Emma nodded once, then waved her hand, ushering the other girl into the wand shop. "I'll be right here," she called, and then the door closed behind Adeline Maisy.


Adeline looked around the shop. Papers lay everywhere, and stacks of little rectangular boxes. There was a counter near the front, with a large book open atop it, and a little bell. Adeline approached the counter cautiously, and reached out with one finger to touch the little bell. Immediately, a loud beautiful chime sounded through the store, and Adeline leaped back, glancing around.

"No need to look so guilty, my dear," said a gruff male voice. An aging man appeared from in between two tall shelves of boxes, smiling grimly. His face was ashen, as if he hadn't gotten much sleep recently. "It's quite alright that you rang that bell."

She opened her mouth, closed it, and then wrote on a piece of paper, I need a wand...Please. Ollivander, for she assumed that's who this man was, peered at her very closely.

"I see," he said. "You must be the girl Dumbledore was telling me of, Miss Maisy. A very interesting task, to make a mute into a witch. And at such a late stage, too. Why, you ought to be graduating in two years. Although I do recall him saying something about private lessons...I suppose you'll have to work twice as hard as any normal witch or wizard..." He trailed off, wandering away to the back of the shop.

Adeline watched him. Should I follow him or stay here? She debated for a while, finally deciding that remaining here was her safest bet. And indeed, he emerged from the back a few minutes later, bearing a short box with a green lid and black bottom. He pried the dusty lid off and set it aside, tilting the box so she could see inside. The wand was, as the box had betrayed, short, only about eight inches long at maximum, made out of a reddish brown wood.

"Seven and a half inch cherry," spoke Ollivander, "with leprechaun hair core."

Adeline stared at it. Leprechaun hair?

"Well? Take it."

She looked up at him in surprise, and then closed her right hand around the wand, lifting it out of the box. It felt strange in her hands.

"Give it a wave, girl, give it a wave." Ollivander sounded impatient.

She turned slightly, took a deep breath, and waved the wand. A stack of papers in the corner burst into flames. Ollivander put them out with no problems, eying her.

"Curious," he said. "Not Irish, then, I see."

Anxious to be rid of the dangerous wand, Adeline practically flung it into its box.

"Hmm..." The man tapped his chin. "Wait here."

This time he brought back a brown box, lifting the lid and revealing a much longer wand, completely black with a small white handle, which he gingerly offered to her.

"Ten inch black-wood with demiguise hair."

Adeline cautiously took hold of this wand, and almost immediately here was an explosion of sparks, and drawers opened, boxes flew and papers fluttered. Adeline, a fearful expression on her face, hurriedly dropped the wand.

"No, no, apparently wrong," murmured the wand-maker. "We shall have to try something unorthodox with you, dear. I wonder..."

He set the black-wood wand aside, leaned over the counter earnestly and said, "My dear, why don't you go look for a wand? Just peruse through the shelves and pull out the box that calls to you."

For a moment, Adeline merely stared at him as if he were crazy. He gestured for her to go on. Carefully, she stepped into one row of shelves, letting her fingers drag lightly across the boxes. Ollivander leaned against the counter and watched her go past the willow wands, pause near the unicorn hair cores, then continue on. She knew nothing of the wands in the boxes, nor did she know of his organization methods. It was very unorthodox, but then again, what was status quo about a witch who couldn't speak?

Suddenly, one of the boxes from a higher shelf moved forward, as if on its own, and came crashing down on the girl's head. Adeline jumped, rubbing the top of her head where the box had struck, and then looked down at it. The box appeared to be vibrating. Curious, she picked it up, dust coating her fingers as she pulled off the lid. The wand inside levitated up an inch or so from the inside of the box, and when she opened her hand, it zoomed right in. A bright light glowed from the tip of the wand, and immediately she was engulfed in wamrth, and she could vaguely hear someone female laughing. Adeline exhaled slowly. Ollivander approached her, smiling.

"Eight and three-quarter inch alder, with an ashwinder ash core. Looks like you're going to be a great protector, my dear."


Emma squealed, clapping her hands excitedly. "That's so awesome, Addy!"

Adeline froze at the nickname, the color draining slightly from her face. Emma stopped.

"Oh, I'm sorry, do you not want me to call you that?"

Hesitating a moment, Adeline shook her head, meaning 'No, it's fine'.

"Okay, good," said Emma, linking arms with her. "You're basically my only friend, I didn't want to offend you. Let's get the rest of your list taken care of. I can't wait until school starts."

Yeah, thought Adeline. Me too.


A/N: review please.

the next chapter is about the train ride and the sorting ceremony!