Chapter 2
Venturing Out
Sophie landed with a crash, straight onto her bottom. Ron was grinning at her as he offered her a hand to help her up.
"That was such a horrible feeling!" she cried, "I never want to do that again!"
Ron nodded in agreement, "I know, it's a weird feeling at first, but honestly when you've done it as many times as I have, you get used to it. Trust me."
Soon after Sophie had emerged from the fireplace, Heather fell head first down the chimney and Mike fell on top of her. Sophie laughed and both her and Ron walked forward to help them to their feet.
Ron opened the door of the Network Chamber they had arrived in and ushered the family out. Sophie looked around in wonder at the sight that met her eyes. There were children, hundreds of them running around the place. When she looked up, there were owls everywhere - perched on the roofs of the shops and flying in the sky too. There were even some in cages outside a shop named Tiffany Bogwin's Magical Creatures. Sophie loved animals and suddenly remembered that the letter had said that she was allowed to bring a pet to school with her - I bet her old school wouldn't allow that!
Out of the corner of her eye, Sophie spotted a gorgeous ginger cat who had bright blue eyes. Sophie had always loved cats and knew that this was the pet she wanted. "Mr Weasley? What pet did you have at Hogwarts?" she asked.
"Well..." said Ron, awkwardly, "I had a rat. His name was Scabbers. But he turned out to be a bit of a disappointment actually. Kept running away, and one day he never came back. I reckon my mate's cat Crookshanks ate him." Ron felt guilty for failing to mention that his rat had actually revealed himself to be a faithful servant of the most evil wizard in the world. Poor Sophie had only known she was a witch for five minutes, he didn't want to scare her away too soon. So he kept it to himself.
"Eeeeew, I wouldn't want a rat! I'm going to get a cat!" She walked over to the shop where this beautiful cat was and admired it. A mousey haired short lady came over to greet Sophie, "Hello dear - welcome to my shop. Coming to buy your pet? You've spotted Hamish, I see? He'll cost you five galleons." Sophie looked at the price tag. There was a 5, that she recognised, then a strange little squiggle next to it.
"Five what?" said Sophie, puzzled. Tiffany Bogwin suddenly realised that the girl must be Muggle-born and looked apologetic.
"Forgive me-" she started, but Ron cut in-
"Oh," said Ron, "sorry, folks, I forgot to say that we have different money here. You have pounds starling, right?" (Mike sniggered, Heather sharply elbowed him in the ribs). "Well we have three coins. Galleons are worth the most, then Sickles, then Knuts."
"But we only have our money... How are we going to get the right currency?" asked Heather.
Ron pointed to a small stall in the middle of the wide alley. Above the stall was a sign that read CURRENCY EXCHANGE - MUGGLE MONEY TO WIZARDING COINS. Sitting behind the stall was the most ugly thing the family had ever seen. Ron explained that the creature was a Goblin - one of the most intelligent magical beings. They walked over to it and Mike pulled out his bank card. The Goblin stared at the card and much to Mike's surprise took out a card machine and told Mike to put his card in. Mike saw that the card machine's cable was leading into the ground.
"In the wizarding world we don't really use a lot of electromancy, but we've learnt that Muggles are not going to be prepared for our way of life so a few years ago the Ministry of Magic held a huge Muggle research programme where representatives from the Ministry actually went and lived as Muggles for a long period of time so we could really see how you guys function," said Ron, "before that research we didn't really know too much about life outside the wizarding world. There has also been a massive rise in Muggle-borns so the Ministry felt that we should really try and make the transaction smooth for people like Sophie - otherwise it would be a bit too much for them."
"That's really great," said Mike, "but how much am I meant put in to the machine? How many Galleons to a pound?"
"Four Wizarding Galleons make up a Muggle pound, Sir." replied the Goblin behind the desk. He had a deep, rough voice that took Mike by surprise.
"So how much would you recommend we give her then?"
"I would suggest about 100 galleons to be getting on with, Sir. Then you may transfer more money to the young lady should she be in need of it." said the Goblin.
"Right-o," said Mike, entering his PIN number into the machine, "there goes our new TV."
The Goblin handed Sophie her new money which was in a purple draw-string bag. She shook it. There were a lot of coins in there! "There's about £400 worth of money in there, Soph. Don't spend it all at once!" said Mike, winking at her.
The Goblin also handed Sophie a bit of parchment paper. This was an application form to open her own vault at Gringotts, the Wizarding Bank. Sophie took the quill that the Goblin gave her and started filling out the form. When she had finished, she returned it to the Goblin who asked her if she would like to put a bit of money into her vault.
"The gold coins are Galleons, the silver coins are Sickles and the bronze coins are Knuts." explained Ron.
Sophie tried to get her head round it. "So if one Galleon is £4, then how much are Sickles and Knuts?" she asked.
"A Sickle is about thirty Muggle pence and a Knut is about one Muggle pence." answered the Goblin.
So Sophie put two Galleons on the desk in front of the Goblin who then put them in a smaller draw-string bag along with the form and placed them in the beak of an owl who was perched beside the Goblin. "Take the envelope to the main desk at Gringotts and then place the money into vault 7392." The owl immediately took off with the instructions. Sophie was gobsmacked.
Ron helped the Winthorpes round Diagon Alley, though it took them some time because Sophie always wanted to stop and look at everything. Ron ended up having to put an extension charm on Heather's bag to put all of Sophie's equipment in. Sophie had seen a film when she was younger called Mary Poppins where the main character had a magical bag made out of carpet that was bottomless - anything and everything could fit into it without it weighing a thing! Never in her wildest dreams did Sophie imagine that such a thing actually existed!
Sophie had bought her cauldron, books, pet, robes, hat, gloves, vials, telescope and scales - they were all impossibly lying at the bottom of Heather's handbag. The one thing that Sophie was most excited about was getting her wand. Ron guided the family to a small shop in a side alley. The sign hanging from the wall read OLIVANDERS WAND SHOP EST 382BC.
Ron pulled open the door and ushered everyone inside. They looked around. The shop walls were covered in little pigeon holes that appeared to be full of boxes. An un-attractive, middle-aged, brown haired man appeared from a room at the back of the shop. "Good afternoon. My name is Wilfred Olivander." He smiled at Sophie, "I assume you're here to buy your first wand, young lady?" Sophie nodded. "Now the most important thing to remember, sorry what was your name...?"
"Sophie,"
"...Sophie, is that the wand chooses the wizard - or witch, in your case. This has been our family business motto since we opened hundreds of years ago. This is vital when purchasing your wand. Don't choose the wand, let the wand choose you. A young witch or wizard's first wand is like a rite of passage; it is the confirmation for them that they are supposed to be in this world as a magical being. The feeling is unique. Now, hold out your writing arm for me, love." Sophie hesitantly stretched out her left arm, "Ah, a leftie, we don't get many of those here. You're not a Muggle-born by any chance are you? There tends to be more leftie Muggle-borns."
"Yes, I am." replied Sophie.
"Excellent." Wilfred reached into his pocket and pulled out a tape measure and measured the length of Sophie's forearm, "9 inches should do it, I think."
Mr Olivander went to the left hand side of the shop and pottered around there for a bit. After going back and forth between wands, he finally shook his head and mumbled something under his breath. He then proceeded to move around the shop, going up on a ladder to the top shelves and eventually settled on three wands that he was to present to Sophie.
"Here we are. Try this one. 9 inches, holly and dragon heartstring." He handed the wand to Sophie, who looked uncertainly at Ron. Ron gave her an encouraging nod and she nervously took the wand.
"Is something supposed to happen...?" she asked.
"What is meant to happen when a wizard or witch first touches their destined wand, nothing happens unless the wand chooses them. For example, you are holding this wand but nothing is happening because the wand doesn't choose you. When a wand chooses you, it will feel warm in your hand and it will send off rainbow sparks everywhere.." explained Wilfred.
"Clearly this is not the right wand. You will know when it is." Wilfred handed Sophie the next wand that he had selected. "8.5 inches, hazel, unicorn hair." Again, Sophie took the wand and nothing happened. She sighed and Wilfred said "sometimes it takes a while, dear. Don't be down-hearted. When you find the right wand you will instantly cheer up, I promise!"
Mr Olivander handed Sophie the last wand he had picked up, "I have a funny feeling this one might just do the trick", he winked at Sophie as he passed her the wand, "9.5 inches, willow and Kneazle whiskers. A Kneazle is a type of magical cat; I sense you have a love for cats?" he said glancing at Hamish, who was curled up in a ball in his cat-cage.
"Just a little bit," said Sophie, looking lovingly at her new feline friend.
As soon as he had given Sophie the wand, she felt her palm getting warm. Just as Wilfred had said, the wand started sparking red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink - Sophie felt like a true witch. This was her wand. A beautiful wand it was too! It had floral decorations on the handle and the rest of the wand twirled in a spiral until the end. She looked behind her and gave a toothy grin to her parents and Ron... She could've sworn she saw a tear trickle down her mother's cheek as well. Sophie was thrilled to pieces! Olivander offered to put her new wand in a box to keep it safe until she needed to use it. Sophie handed him the wand and he put it into a lime green wand-box and tied a dark green ribbon round it. Heather took the box and put it in her enchanted bag.
"Thank you for all your help, Mr Olivander," said Sophie.
"It's been a pleasure, Sophie. Best of luck in your first year at Hogwarts. My money is on Hufflepuff."
Having no idea what he meant by "Hufflepuff", Sophie just smiled awkwardly at Wilfred and turned to walk out of the shop, followed by her parents and then Ron who had stopped to shake Olivander's hand.
By the time they got back to the Winthorpe's house it was nearly 10o'clock. The family and Ron had lingered around in Diagon Alley all day because Sophie didn't want to leave. They had been to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes (a shop owned by Ron's older brother George). They sold all manner of fantastic things in there and Sophie had come back with a load of goodies from there. She wished she could share them with her friends, but Ron had told her that the wizarding world was still meant to be kept as much of a secret as possible from Muggles. She was allowed to tell her close family and ONE very best friend, but that was it. Ron had joked that she could threaten them by saying she would hex them if they revealed her secret to anyone.
Sophie yawned loudly.
"Time for bed I think," said Mike.
"Yeah I best be off," said Ron, "the wife will be wondering where I've got to!"
"You're married?!" asked Sophie, as if it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.
"I am, actually," said Ron with a proud smile on his face, "her name's Hermione. You might meet her one day if Hogwarts does a school trip to the Ministry of Magic. They usually take second years. Hermione often volunteers to do the tours round the Ministry so be sure to keep an eye out, won't you?"
"Will do," yawned Sophie.
"Right then," said Ron, "mind if I use your fireplace again?"
"Not at all," replied Mike.
"Oh, I almost forgot. I'll be picking you up on the 1st September to take you to the Hogwarts Express. That gives you a week to get everything packed and sorted, OK? I'll be here at 9o'clock and the train leaves at 11o'clock on the dot. See you then!" And with that, Ron stepped into the fireplace and yelled "HOME!", and in a flash, he was gone.
"Come on then Soph," said Heather, "up you get." She was half asleep on the sofa. "Mike, would you...?"
Mike picked Sophie up and carried her to her bedroom and softly laid her down on her bed. It had been a physically and emotionally exhausting day for the family. Mike and Heather looked at their daughter and felt like the luckiest parents in the world. And with that, they switched Sophie's light off and went to bed.