Cold Iron

Chapter 3: Diagon Alley

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Gundam Wing belong to their respective owners and I make no profit from writing this. This applies to this and all chapters of my work.

Rating: T/PG-13

Warning: 1x2, vaguely crude language (and possibly vulgar jokes from Duo.)

The apothecary windows were so filthy that the only sources of light were the eerie glowing jars and tanks, which were filled with all manners of potion supplies. It was cold inside; Duo exhaled silvery clouds, green-tinged from the light, and wrapped his borrowed cloak tightly around him. He stood near the back of the shop, investigating some of the more disgusting ingredients.

Hundreds of bottles, jars and baskets lined the shelves, each stranger than the last. The dim light made the inky shadows between each container deeper. Duo couldn't help but suspect that some of the live ingredients had escaped from their confines and were lurking in the dark alleys between the jars. He came across a series of gleaming, bleached skulls with empty eye sockets, black and staring.

Duo picked up a jar of what looked like pickled onions with warts. The yellowed label told him, in a baritone, that it was actually skinned frogs brains in fluxweeb bane. Duo nearly dropped the jar in surprise and the jar shrieked in a convincing falsetto. Trying to ignore the glares from the shopkeeper, Duo gingerly set the jar back on the dusty wooden shelf. 'I don't even want to know what fluxweed is.' Duo shuddered as he passed a tank of eyes, which swiveled around to look at him as he walked by.

Duo nearly whipped out a blade when he felt a hand grip his shoulder. "Ready to go?" a small, black-haired woman said and then noticed Duo's wide-eyed expression. "Scare you boy?" she said wryly, her faint Italian accent rolling the r.

Duo scowled. "Course not," he said, pulling his shoulder away from her hand. "If you're done collecting newt testicles, let's go."

When Duo first met Ellen Elffrost in Professor Dumbledore's office, his gut screamed hate, hate, HATE. He despised her on sight. Duo found himself hating things from her obscenely bright green eyes to her monotone voice to her bouncy hair. But what annoyed him the most was that he didn't really know why he hated her. There was no adequate reason for such dislike, having just met the woman. But it seemed everything and anything she did pissed him off. It didn't help that the buzzing in his head went insane whenever he saw her.

Also she had confiscated his gun as soon as she found out about it. "Keep your head down, and do not make eye contact with people," she had said, storing the gun away safely.

It was too bad that he hated her, as she was his cold iron master.

They headed out of the store and back into the snowy wonderland. The storm from the previous day had settled and Diagon Alley looked like a Christmas toy town. The cobbled road was swollen with people who were just swollen with goods and packages. Duo shook his head at how oblivious everyone was about their belongings and money. They might as well have painted signs on their backs saying 'Rob me please. My pockets are too heavy.' Duo could have walked down the street and back again and by the time he reached the Leaky Cauldron, he would have been a rich man.

But they probably had some sort of magical alarm on their coin purses, so he wasn't planning on trying it.

Colourful signs everywhere advertised special Christmas offers: half price slimming wizard robes, self-cleaning cauldrons and jumbo size Christmas crackers with everything inside. The air swirled with the smell of sweets and hot candies and the cries of vendors advertising their goods. Kids loaded with snowballs were everywhere and Duo had to be careful not to get caught in the crossfire.

This Christmas was definitely different to the one at home. The Christmas spirit in AC 197 would have been near non-existent. They would have spent maybe five minutes wishing each other a merry Christmas and then it would be back to work. It was summer back in his world anyway, so their calendars were out of sync.

But he didn't really need to worry about that. He'd be back with his friends in three weeks.

It was the stationary store next. Duo nearly fainted when he realised that he'd actually have to write things down with a feather. "Don't you people have computers?" he said, while inspecting the expensive peacock quills. "What are you, Amish?"

Mrs. Elffrost cuffed him on the head. "The air in wizarding society is saturated with magic, which causes anything digital to short circuit. So no, we have no use for computers." Duo frowned at his non-functioning digital watch.

"Still doesn't explain why I can't use a pen," he grumbled, but followed her out of the store anyway.

They got his books from a shop called Flourish and Blotts, a place that Duo knew that Wufei would have loved and, if possible, bought and lived in. 'He should be the one here.' He would have probably loved this sorcery stuff. Titles with horrific alliteration and puns, such as Hairy Snout - Human Heart, Vanishing Vandals – When Invisibility Cloaks Attack and Happy Ghosts and How They Lift Their Spirits, were stacked in the endless shelves.

During the time that Mrs. Elffrost spent searching for the required textbooks that Duo would need, he flicked through Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vexed. He was amused at how ornery and annoying wizards could be. 'The Fluid Feces hex? Awesome.'

Mrs. Elffrost suddenly appeared from behind a bookshelf with an armful of books and said, "I am going to pay, so finish up." She noticed the book that Duo was holding and the innocent expression on his face. She merely raised a dark eyebrow. "You would end up hurting yourself if you tried magic like that."

'Well nyehhh,' he thought and put the book back.

As she was paying, she said to Duo, "I do not have enough money to buy the complete set of books from the first to fifth year. It would have cost far too much. So you will have to borrow either from the library or other classmates. I am sure that your teachers will understand."

Duo crossed his arms. "I don't really see the point in buying anything at all. I'm not sticking around."

Mrs. Elffrost looked at him blandly. "Oh, we will see," she said. She put the books in the big leather bag that Duo could have sworn that she didn't have before. As if to answer his unvoiced query, Mrs. Elffrost shrunk it to the size of a cigar and tucked it away.

Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions was their next stop. Mrs. Elffrost told him that she would be looking at dress robes while Duo got measured.

Madame Malkin was a short, squat witch, who immediately started interrogating him about his hair. "Honestly," she said as she ushered him onto a wooden stool. "I can't find any quality hair-growth potions that gets this sort of result! I mean, look at how soft his hair is!" She looked like she wanted to hack off his braid and keep it for herself.

Duo just forced a smile and kept a firm hold on his hair. "Why thank you ma'am," he said, bowing elaborately in her direction. "I assure you that it's 100 percent natural."

Madame Malkin waved her chubby fingers in an embarrassed fashion. "Oh but of course. Now, we need to get you measured. Let me just fetch my tapes. There we are." The tapes floated out of her arms and circled around Duo. "Hold your arms out please. Just call me if you need any help, alright dearie?" She bustled off to assist her other customers.

Once she was gone, Duo eyed the tapes warily. He could cope with floating things, having experienced zero gravity, but this still freaked him out slightly.

A roll of tape unraveled and snaked towards his arm, drooped, then dropped and clattered to the floor. It lay still, like a normal roll of measuring tape.

Duo looked down at it and raised an eyebrow. He was pretty sure it wasn't meant to do that. Could magical things break?

The second tape measure approached him, but then joined its colleague on the floor. One by one, the tapes attempted to get closer but sagged like melting plastic as soon as they floated too close to him.

"Are you done yet?" Madame Malkin waddled back to the fitting area. She noticed the limp tapes sprawled around the legs of the stool. "What on earth happened here? Weren't you measured?"

Duo smiled apologetically and shrugged. "Sorry, I don't really know what happened."

"Oh well, a first time for everything I suppose." She bent over with considerable difficulty and gathered them into her arms. "Must be faulty. They are rather old." She wrinkled her nose distastefully. "I'll guess just have to do it the long way instead."

After having been measured in every place possible, the robes were fitted and Duo turned to look at the mirror to inspect his new outfit. 'Makes me look like the Grim Reaper,' he thought wryly, turning around to check the back. 'I feel like I'm gonna join a cult or something.'

But he was grateful that it was in plain black, rather than the psychedelic colours that the headmaster was so fond of.

The same thing happened in the joke shop. Gambol and Japes was a circus of movement and colours and kids crowded eagerly around displays of toys and games. Duo, in a sudden display of enthusiasm, bounded into the joke shop before Mrs. Elffrost could stop him. 'Songs that are guaranteed to stick in your head, shoelaces that never tie but always tangle, a miniscule nuke-power sling shot? AWESOME.' If Wufei belonged in Flourish and Blotts then Duo belonged here.

Yet, when he would pick a toy or a trinket up in order to inspect it, it would sometimes flop over lifelessly in his hand. 'Broken? Bah,' he didn't feel any better when it would spring back to life in another child's grip and was definitely not reassured when he felt Mrs. Elffrost's piercing gaze on him.

"Alright, we need to get your wand," Mrs. Elffrost said, crossing items off a list. "We should better hurry. I am sure that you're getting hungry." It was now late afternoon and all Duo had eaten during the trip was a toffee apple. His stomach agreed loudly with her statement.

"I could do with something," Duo admitted, looking longingly Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, which claimed to sell Hot Ice Cream. ('Guaranteed to warm you up!')

"Well, we will be quick then. I have a few more errands to run. You can handle Ollivander's by yourself?"

Duo didn't even bother resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "Duh."

Mrs. Elffrost frowned. "None of that," she said. "Just get in there and wait for me when you finish." She turned on her heel and left Duo alone in the snow. Duo stuck his tongue out at her retreating back, flipped his scarf over his shoulder and went into the little shop.

A bell tinkled. It was dark and dusty inside, but not in the same way that the apothecary had been. The apothecary lacked the quiet, mystical quality of the wand store, where magic, even to Duo, was undoubtedly possible. He almost sort of expected Santa Claus to stroll into the shop at any moment. Accompanied by fairies.

Yet, Duo couldn't help but feel on edge. There was someone there, skulking in the shadows. "Hello?" he called out, almost wincing as the fragile silence was broken like glass by his voice.

A strange, old man appeared. The first things Duo noticed about him were his eyes. They were of a very pale color and shone through the darkness of the room like pearls. His disheveled, fluffy hair and odd smile suggested battiness, but then again, everyone here was slightly loopy. Duo knew that by the time he got home, he'd probably be a bit insane as well.

The man drew nearer and he looked closely at Duo. The strange smile turned into a frown. "I'm sorry," he said. His voice had a hypnotic quality to it. "It is not often that I don't recognize a customer." He moved his aged face close to Duo's. "You could be the son of Eliza Carleen, but she'd never allow her child to grow his hair so long. Or perhaps the son of Hayden Wire but his nose is more prominent." The man, or Mr. Ollivander Duo guessed, shook his head mournfully. "I apologize, but I can't place your parents or your ancestors. Did they buy their wands from Ollivanders'?"

Well, he didn't even come from this world so Duo supposed not. Besides, why would an L2 whore need to buy a wand anyway? "I don't think so," he offered.

"Hmm. Even if both your parents were muggles, you must have had some wizard ancestors along the line." Mr. Ollivander continued studying Duo's face. His eyes locked on to Duo's. "Your eyes…" Mr. Ollivander's own eyes widened and he quickly looked away. Duo remembered what Mrs. Elffrost had said about eye contact. He swallowed a lump that suddenly developed in his throat.

"Well never mind that." The old man seemed uncomfortable and moved quickly away. "Please stretch out your wand arm."

"You mean the arm I write with?"

"That's the one."

The right arm went up. Mr. Ollivander pulled a tape measure out of nowhere and began to roughly measure Duo; his arm length, his calf length and, oddly, the length from his nose to his mouth. Mr. Ollivander nodded and let go of the tape measure, which hovered in mid-air for a moment. He moved surprisingly quickly, almost frantically, and disappeared into the dark labyrinth of shelves, talking as he did so. "Each wand is unique to a wizard. Every Ollivander's wand has a magical substance inside: a strand of unicorn hair, a dragon heartstring or a phoenix feather. As no two people are the same, neither are two wands. And remember, it is the wand that chooses the wizard, not the other way around."

Duo wasn't really concentrating. About halfway through Mr. Ollivander's speech, the tape measure started shuddering violently. 'Oh, not again,' Duo thought as it landed on the floor with a wooden rattle. Was he destined never to be measured?

"Um, Mr. Ollivander?" Duo said, toeing at the tape measure. "I didn't do anything, but your tape measure just died."

The sounds of boxes being pulled and pushed in and out of shelves suddenly stopped and the silence was uncomfortable. "Oh, never mind that," Mr. Ollivander said after a moment. His voice had lost its mysterious quality and was suddenly quite high. "I know what I need to know."

He came out with a couple of boxes, opened one and offered Duo a wand. "Yew, 10 1/4 inches, dragon heart string. Give it a wave."

Duo took it and flicked it in a random direction. There was bang and the display window suddenly had a huge crack in it. It wobbled for a second and then fell to pieces, the shards of glass tinkling to the ground. Snow swirled in from outside and the shop was filled with a cold wind. Duo blanched and, noting the not-so-shocked look on Mr. Ollivander's face, said brightly, "Sorry, I guess not."

The window was swiftly repaired and Mr. Ollivander grabbed the wand and stowed it away in its box. He gave Duo a longer wand and said, "Apple wood, 12 inches, unicorn hair, very stiff." Duo waved it and succeeded in turning Mr. Ollivander's hair yellow. "No, no, no. Definitely not," he said, turning his hair back to its original color and snatching the wand back.

Forty-five minutes later and Duo felt like he had been through hundreds of wands. Each time he waved one, something would break or explode or catch fire. The pile of boxes grew higher and higher on the floor, until it actually towered over the both of them. Harry had told Duo of his own wand buying experience, in which Mr. Ollivander became more and more ecstatic with the more wands he went through.

But in Duo's case, Mr. Ollivander looked like he couldn't wait to get rid of the boy. He was almost hopping on the spot, ready to seize the wand from Duo and move on to the next one.

"Chestnut, 11 inches, dragon heartstring, flexible but very strong. Go on!" There was a touch of hysterics in his voice.

As soon as Duo grasped it, he felt lightheaded and giddy, as if he had swallowed too much champagne too quickly. This was the wand. His hands instantly warmed up and what tasted like fresh air filled his lungs. He flicked it easily as if he had been using a wand for years, and a tiny firework shot out of the tip, exploding above their heads in a golden flash. Mr. Ollivander sighed with relief and hesitantly patted a shocked Duo on the back. "Well done. It would have been faster if I'd known who your parents are, but we got there in the end. Now, that would be 11 sickles please."

Elated with his success, Duo grinned at the wand in his hand. "Alright, hang on a sec." Sickles… those were the silver coins. He dug around in his pockets for the coins that Mrs. Elffrost had given to him earlier. He pulled the money out and dropped it into Mr. Ollivander's wrinkled hand. He then thrust the wand into his pocket for safekeeping.

Mr. Ollivander froze.

There was suddenly an ear-splitting keen. A blinding light erupted out of his pocket and Duo felt his scar heat up fast, like someone pressing a burning cigarette into his hand. He gasped with the pain and vaguely remembered what Dumbledore had said. 'Oh shit! Magic doesn't respond well to cold iron! Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!'

The heat spread, up his arms, along his chest, flushing up his neck. It burnt and it stung and it reminded him painfully of the ball lightening. Duo gritted his teeth and tried to coordinate his body to get the cold iron out, get the wand out, but he couldn't move. His joints had locked up, his muscles stiff as wood. Mr. Ollivander had fallen over and was shaking, cowering on the floor.

The wand started to vibrate violently, crackling and shrieking. It rocketed out of his pocket, hit the ceiling with a crack and fell limply to the ground.

The trembling stopped and the light in Duo's pocket faded. The wailing died. The wand lay alone on the floor, surrounded by an eerie silver glow.

Mr. Ollivander stared at it, before raising terrified eyes to Duo's face. His mouth opened with a silent whisper.

Duo hastened to help him and explain what just happened. Not that he could. He didn't know what was going on either. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't know what would happen! I'm new and - "

"Get away from me!" Mr. Ollivander rasped. "Wielder!" The old man scrambled back and struggled to stand. His skin had turned a pale grey and he was sweating hard. His eyes had become glazed, their luminosity sickly.

Duo wanted to help him up, to hoist him into a chair, but Mr. Ollivander looked like he was in danger of throwing up if he got any closer. So Duo backed slowly away from him. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said, trying to calm the hysterical man, his hands held out in front of him to show that he was unarmed. "I'm not going to steal your magic. It's all right. It's alright-"

"Just get out! Please!" Mr. Ollivander said desperately. "You have your wand. J-Just go."

There was nothing else Duo could do. His presence alone distressed the wand maker. Duo turned away, picked up the wand and packed it away in its box. He prayed that it wasn't broken, otherwise he'd have to return to buy another one and he didn't want to traumatize Mr. Ollivander any further.

He left the shop and looked through the window. Mr. Ollivander was still sitting on the floor, shivering. Duo saw him take the 11 sickles from his pocket and hurl it away from him, as if contaminated.

Duo leant against the wall and slowly slid down it, his face in his hands. He wanted to go home. He already had enough shit to deal with without the whole wizard hate raid going on. Duo had only been away for not even a full day and he already missed his friends. He missed the constant sense of security he felt around them. They were the closest he could ever get to a family.

He missed home.

He missed Heero.

He needed to get out of here. He needed to get out of this world. He couldn't survive here. The rules had changed. Too many of the advantages he held over enemies had been wiped out. Gravity wouldn't work in his favor, as these people could just reverse it. His weapons were probably of no use, seeing as bullets could be reduced to dust in a matter of milliseconds. He could be rendered helpless with a flick of a stick. The only thing he had was his wit and perhaps surprise, of which the wizards had an unlimited supply.

Screw cold iron. It was useless to him.

The sound of soft footsteps on snow alerted him to Mrs. Elffrost's approach. "Duo." He looked up, face blank as he felt. "Let us go. It's late."

"It's my eyes, isn't it?" he said. He didn't miss the way Mrs. Elffrost stiffened. "They can tell by looking at my-"

"We cannot talk about this here," she said harshly and yanked Duo up. "We have one more place to go. We'll talk about it there." She cast a quick glance inside the wand shop. "I will get Professor Dumbledore to talk to him later. Come on."

She pulled Duo along, who was nearly limp with indifference. Any enthusiasm he had for the shopping trip had been sucked out of him by the wandmaker. She led him back down Diagon Alley, through the archway and the still bustling Leaky Cauldron and out into muggle London.

End chapter 3

AN: Thanks Sivy for being a wonderful beta and for finding time in your busy college life to help me out. So that's chapter 4 finished! I'm sorry for taking so long to get a move on and for leaving it at such an awkward part, but university is awesome. I love this new thing I've found called a social life.

Please do review. There's nothing more inspiring than comments and your points make the story better. I've actually listed down a bunch of things some people have pointed out to include later. (The Duo/Weasley twins team seems very popular for some reason I cannot comprehend. :D ) Also, if people comment, the faster I work and the faster chapters get sent to Sivy.

So there's my plea. Hope you guys enjoyed!