HP fanfic

From Top to Bottom

storiesofdarkness

CHAPTER THREE:

It was off to the wand maker's, whose name was Angus. Angus's Wandshop was the name of the store, in fact, and Harry wondered at how it could look so different from Ollivander's. On the outside it was run-down and looked disinteresting. But on the inside…

There were seats and a reading area where people could read about how wands were made, where they came from, how to make them, and so on and so forth. There was even a snack bar and drink section in case people grew hungry and thirsty from waiting. It was as though it was a separate room just for customers, and made Harry like the place even better.

The wands weren't in the front of the store, like Ollivander's either. In fact, there didn't seem to be a single wand there, but there were lots of items in jars and scattered boxes-too big to hold wands obviously-all about the place.

"Wow," Harry said, impressed, as he and Nev stepped into the room.

"Greetings," An elderly man stepped forward, but he seemed younger than Ollivander. Not quite the white hair and elderly looks, but clearly getting on in his years. Harry had no clue what his age might be. "Ah, Madame Longbottom. An honor and a pleasure to see you again. I trust your magnificent wand is doing well?"

"Perfectly, Angus." Augusta reassured him. "But my grandson and Mr. Potter are here for their first unofficial wands," She added, and he beamed.

"Ah, two of the greatest names to come into my store again! It makes my heart pound with excitement!" He declared, making Harry exchange a grin with Neville. "Come, come. Take a look around, don't be shy. Simply move towards whatever item feels right, and then I shall begin the process of making your wand!" He said, pleasantly.

Harry and Neville started moving in separate ways, each of them feeling pulled towards particular items.

Neville wound up with a beautiful deep foresty green piece of wood and an amber piece of hair that was in a small vial. He took the items to Ollivander, who smiled.

"Hair of a Siberian Tiger, and wood from an ancient oak tree in the Amazon Rain forest," Ollivander informed him. "Interesting, as Siberian tigers are near to exitent. I believe there's only a handful of them left, and protected quite ferociously. Siberian tigers are quite strong and vicious. I can safely say that you are going to be a quite powerful wizard, young Longbottom." He said, and Neville beamed.

Harry was picking up a small white feather, and a long black stick. Angus grinned.

"Hair of a Hippogriff, quite powerful indeed. You must have quite the loyalty, Mr. Potter. And the wood is ebony, known for it's death magic…not surprising, really. Rare wands, the both of you." Angus said, smiling. Neville and Harry were both staring at their materials in awe. "It'll take me a couple of hours to whip up both wands, but in the meantime-please, enjoy the waiting room. There's books aplenty, and tea as well." He offered, and they nodded and settled in to wait.

Two hours later and they had their wands. Neville's glowed a brilliant gold and red color, and Harry teased him about them being Gryffindor colors. Neville just grinned, pleased at finally getting his wand.

Harry's wand, however, glowed brilliant blue and deep green colors, and seemed to shimmer in the air instead of produce the usual sparks.

"Thank you for your business," Angus said, as they were paying up for their wands-also buying cleaning kits and other things. "And I hope to see you again in the far future," He added, smiling. They left the wandmakers shop.

"Where to next, Gran?" Neville asked, and Augusta considered.

"I don't know about you boys, but I could do with a bite to eat. How about eating out for tonight?"

Unsurprisingly, both boys agreed.

They wound up going to Cauldron's Stew, a place Harry had never heard of but was supposedly one of the better 'light' restaurants in Diagon.

"Longbottom! Potter!" A familiar voice called as they were entering the restaurant. "Hey, over here!" Harry and Neville turned to see none other than Hufflepuff boy Cedric Diggory who came over with his parents, Amos and Avery, grinning at them. "Didn't know you two were going to be here." Cedric said, beaming at them.

"We didn't know either, it was just a quick decision," Neville explained. "Gran, this is Cedric Diggory-he's in Hufflepuff, a couple of years above us." He introduced. "Cedric-this is my Gran."

"Heard a lot about you, Madam Longbottom," Cedric said, eyeing her with a grin.

"Don't believe everything you hear, Mr. Diggory," She said, smiling in return, and turned towards Amos and his wife. "A pleasure seeing you both again." She said, and then the adults were talking. Cedric grinned.

"You two want to join us?" He asked.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Harry agreed, nodding. Neville agreed, looking interested as well.

"Come on then. Mum! Da! I'm taking Harry and Nev to a table!" Cedric informed them, and Amos beamed.

"You three enjoy yourselves." He said happily. "Augusta, would you care to join us?" He added, turning towards her.

"Don't mind if I do, Amos," Augusta's crisp yet pleased voice came, and Harry and Neville grinned at one another.

"So what are you two doing in Diagon. School shopping doesn't start for a while yet," Cedric pointed out, as they sat at a table.

"Gran and I rescued Harry from the train station, apparently his folks had just left him there," Neville explained, and Cedric's eyes widened.

"Oh, damn, I'm sorry," Cedric said sincerely to Harry, who shrugged.

"It's alright." Harry reassured him. "What about you? What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to petition to see you, actually." Cedric's words surprised Harry. "I've sent you letters and stuff before, but you never answered…"

"I never got them," Harry said, frowning and glancing at Neville. "Did you send me things?"

Neville nodded.

"Your first year there, I sent you a letter accepting your apology about casting petrificas totalus on me, and asked if you could write Hermione and tell her because I didn't know her address," Neville admitted.

Harry stared.

"I didn't ever receive anything except from Hermione and Ron," He paused, and added, "Oh, and Hagrid. He sent me a rock cake for my birthday."

Cedric laughed.

"Did you break your teeth?" He teased, and Harry blushed gaining more laughs. Then Cedric shook his head. "I don't think I like the sound of this. Clearly someone's blocking or rerouting your mail-or both. We should speak to the adults about this, after we eat. And speaking of eating, here comes the food now." Cedric said, rubbing his hands in eager anticipation.

Harry and Neville looked around to see at least four waitresses and waiters coming their way with golden trays that hid the food they were to eat. The trays were set in front of them, and then opened, revealing something Harry hadn't ever seen before.

"What is this?" Harry asked, frowning.

"It's fish," Cedric answered, putting a napkin in his lap. "It's good, trust me. We've eaten here several times, my parents and I, and everyone always likes the food."

"It doesn't look like fish," Harry said doubtfully, putting a napkin in his lap as he followed Neville and Cedric's example in doing so. He had the feeling that he had to be cautious in what he did here, though he wasn't entirely sure why. He poked at the fish with his fork experimentally. It looked golden and was long and round and had bright green crisps on the side ("Asparagus" Neville commented upon seeing him looking at it), and looked to be quite interesting. There was a red sauce that was in a container next to the fish, and there was also a wedge of lemon next to the sauce.

It looked like a professional chef's meal, and Harry decided to hell with it, and took a bite.

And fell in love.

They managed to finish the meal with ease-Harry trying to copy Cedric and Neville's ability to eat neatly, and barely managing to do the same-and they had meal after meal come up. Finally, dessert started arriving, but Harry was so full already that he couldn't stand to eat more than a little bit of the dessert.

"Full already?" Cedric asked, as Harry pushed aside their latest course. "That's okay, me too. Nev?"

"Yup," Neville agreed, and pushed aside his too. "They overstuff us, sometimes, but it's worth it, isn't it?" Neville sighed in bliss as he patted his round stomach. Cedric and Harry both laughed, as they began to get up to go and meet their parents and guardians to go elsewhere. However, Harry had barely gotten to where Mr. and Mrs. Diggory and Lady Longbottom were located, when a voice exclaimed loudly,

"My god, it's Harry Potter!"

And within moments, they were swarmed with people. Harry, panicked, thought quickly to bring out his wand, but was surprised when Cedric grabbed hold of him and Neville and shouted,

"DIGGORY ESTATE!"

A split second later and something yanked him from behind, and then they were landing face first onto carpet. Harry scrambled to his feet, wide-eyed and panicked, and found that he was in a completely different location, no people around at all. Neville looked just as stunned and shaken, while Cedric was swearing while calling for someone named 'Milly'.

A house elf appeared, and she took in their states immediately.

"Oh, Master Diggory, sir, you're poor guests! What happened?"

"They saw that it was the Boy Who Lived, and we got mobbed," Cedric said bluntly. "Can you whip up some peppermint tea? That kind that usually helps sooth us? And can you also get some chocolate? I'm afraid both of them are rather shaken," Cedric said, glancing at the pair.

"You're not?" Harry finally found his voice, though he was still trembling from whatever the hell that had been.

"I've been to Quidditch matches, and I'm fairly popular at school-though nowhere near as popular as you are-and the Diggory's are an old family." Cedric informed him, shrugging. "I've been in a mob or two before, though nothing like that." Cedric admitted, shuddering a bit.

"I never want to be in a mob again," Neville said weakly, causing the other two to laugh. "God, Harry, I don't know how you can stand it!"

"I've never had one of those before," Harry admitted, blushing bright red when they stared at him. "I've been living with muggles…they don't know anything about me," He added.

"Right," Cedric said finally. "Oh, and Milly? Could you go and inform my parents and Lady Longbottom where we are? Just so they don't worry too much?"

Milly nodded and vanished with a loud pop.

"Well," Cedric said, glancing around. "This is my place. How about we check it out?" He suggested, and the two boys nodded.

End Chapter Three

Notes: I'm awfully sorry about the wait-I had a bunch of stuff going on at home. My pet goose died, and my mom's doing heart surgery. Also, I got kind of stuck at this chapter, but finally got unstuck a little later. It may be a short chapter, but at least it's an update. Oh, and my reasoning for getting harry a wand with a hippogriff feather? Because Harry's loyal to his friends and those that he calls family.

Edited: 8/26/2014=thanks to Beau2809 for spotting that I said Cedric was one year above Nev and Harry when in fact he's two years above. Appreciate it, Beau! Next chapter should be sometime soon-ish, still in the process of writing it.