Family

Rosaleen stood in the middle of Diagon Alley with her mother holding her hand as if the girl would die if she moved.

"Mom, I just want to look around a bit!" she moaned defiantly, "Maybe even meet some of my future classmates…"

Her mother interrupted her, "Go, go then. Take this." She handed Rosaleen a good-sized money bag. Then, almost as an afterthought, "Meet me at the Leaky Cauldron entrance in an hour and a half. I have things to do, too."

Watching her mother leave before she did, the girl walked away with a bounce in her step, heading towards the nearest bookstore. They had already gotten her schoolbooks by owl delivery, but she wanted to check out some of the other things. 'After all' she thought to herself as she entered Flourish and Blots, 'it'll be good to practice.'

It wasn't long before the girl came upon a section that seemed to almost call her name. She found it odd how she suddenly stopped wondering around and for some reason began focusing on the books in this section. The titles of the first three books made her believe that this was definitely the 'Potions' section. To her surprise, she found five books that she truly wanted to buy within 10 minutes of perusing the section…

"A Guide to Proper Brewing"

"Potion Making for the Simple Minded"

"Eye of Newt or Eye of the Beholder"

"Famous Potion Makers of the 16th Century"

"Muggle Potion Making: How to Apply Potions to Cooking"

The last one she found most intriguing, she would love to be able to combine the muggle world with the need she had for cooking skills. It would make it so much more fun.

She was about to look some more when a young man with blonde hair and green eye's stopped her. Quickly the girl realized he was looking at her books.

"Hello there. You sure you can carry all those books?" He asked in a most flirtatious tone. Then he paused. "You look very familiar, have I met you somewhere?"

"Ahh, Draco! Lovely to see you too." She smiled at him, "It's Rosaleen. You know, your cousin that's three years younger then you but looks like she could be in your year?"

He looked embarrassed for a second, and then changed tact quickly. "Oh, yes." He said coldly. Rosaleen was used to it, the family hardly accepted Rosaleen and her mother, seeing as her father left them. The only reason she could think they tried at all was because her mother was also of pureblood lineage. "I see you have an interest in potion making? A craft befitting of your blood, I must say, but I didn't expect you to be interested in it."

She looked at him in a confused way, but quickly realized what he was talking about. She'd somehow forgotten what her books were even about. "Oh, yes, well." She sighed, "I don't know. Something about it just seems to have called me and caught my attention."

"That's nice." He said apathetically, "Well, I expect I'll be seeing you on the train and in the dormitory, so I will say goodbye for now. Say hello to your family." And he walked away.

She paused until he was out of earshot, "Git." She said firmly. A deep chuckle came from the next isle over, but when she checked to see whom it was, no one was there. She eventually found three more potions books, a few more books from the "For the Simple Minded" series, and a rosy red leather bound diary before taking her things to the checkout counter and leaving.

She ran into a few more cousins on her way through the shops. It was the same as with the portraits, most were cold and uninviting, but a few of them really seemed to enjoy her presence. Rosaleen figured all families would be like this if they had been through so much odd circumstances as the Blacks.

Eventually she found her way to the wand shop, Olivanders. Excitedly, she walked through the door and greeted the old man.

"Ahh, another Hogwarts student?" and when she nodded, the man smiled, "Excellent, excellent! Well, step over to the counter and we will see what we can do."

She walked over to the man and smiled back at him, knowing that he was the best at his craft, and trusting him completely.

"So, my dear, what's your name?" but when she opened her mouth, he held up a finger. "Salsbury?"

She looked at him surprised, "Yes, actually, on my mothers side. My name's Rosaleen Sierra…"

"Black!" he interrupted her again. "I should have known."

"How do you know that?" she looked awed at the old man.

"Oh, when you've been making wands for children as long as I have, you begin to find similarities. For instance, you have the Salsbury's nose, but also the Black's ears."

This amused her. Mostly because she had always loved her nose, but never really liked her ears. 'Irony' she thought slyly. "So, not trying to sound rude, but my wand?" she said sincerely.

The man chuckled, "Yes, yes. Let's see…" and he went into the back of the shop and returned with 4 boxes. He then held up a thin, curvy wand.

"Holy, 10 inches." He handed her the wand lightly, "The core is Jobberknoll feather. Makes for a wonderful spring"

Unsure of exactly what to do, she made a small movement. Red sparks shot for the wand. A window in the back of the shop cracked as if a snitch had flown through with a large amount of force.

"I guess not…" he said as he took the wand away from the blushing girl.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to.." and before she could finish, he interrupted her for the third time.

"Don't worry about it, dear. It happens all the time. You're actually the first today to apologize!" he beamed at her before handing her the second wand, which was long and dark. Rosaleen thought it was absolutely gorgeous.

"That's a very rare one. Not commonly used by low caliber wizards, usually points to greatness in the field the owner chooses. Pine wood, 14 inches, and a rather exotic core of Peruvian Vipertooth scales. One of my favorite to make."

When her finger touched the wand, warmth spread through her whole body. She beamed at it and gave it a flick in the same direction as the other. Golden sparks shot form the wand.

The window fixed its self and was shiny clean to boot.

The old man smiled at her, "I guess we won't need the rest of these." And he took the other 3 boxes.

Soon she was all rung up. She had her wand packed in the box witch, per her request, was adorned with a small red bow. It made her feel good.

"Thank you so much Mr. Ollivander!" she said before leaving happily.

"Of course my dear. Good luck!'

She didn't know what he meant by that, but she didn't think about it to long. She had to get back to the leaky cauldron and meet up with her mother.

AUTHORS NOTE: My power went out this morning so all my wifi died. Therefore, this chapter will be granted to anyone reading this! Also, special thanks to "You can't rush science" who favorited this story! Made me really excited, hehe! This chapter was a bit longer, but that should be cool. I honestly prefer long chapter to short ones. Love yuh! As always, reviews are greatly apreciated, as are favorites, and if you want to follow the story that's awesome!