Day 20:

I put on my best puzzled and frightened face and looked at each of the two boys in turn, hoping to indicate my unfamiliarity with this type of magic. The sooner they knew that the sooner they'd start telling me the things about this world I needed to know.

The old woman doing the robe fitting explained: "Just pick up the quill and dip it in the ink, then write your name and what kind of robes you need down on the sheet, dearie. I presume Hogwarts first year? I'm Madame Malkin."

At least someone picked up on my signaling.

I did as she asked then stood there waiting for her to finish with the two people in the room.

After a few moments, Blondie, as I'd begun to call him in my head, saw fit to introduce himself.

"I'm Draco Malfoy," he said haughtily to both of us.

The other boy started walking over to shake his hand. Draco looked put out, wanting someone to recognize him and his importance. Trouble is, I had no idea who he was posturing out to be. The other person clearly didn't either.

"Umm, should I know who you are?" the other boy asked. "I'm new to this whole magic thing so I don't know about any royalty or anything. I'm Harry Potter by the way." He stuck out his hand to Draco.

Draco shook the hand delicately. "Never mind who I am, which is the heir and scion of the Malfoy family, one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Wizarding Britain. You're Harry Potter though! Most famous wizard in the world right now. I'm very pleased to meet you."

He adopted such a garish smile that I wondered cynically whether he hadn't gotten orders from his parents to cozy up to Harry.

Despite Draco's 'welcoming' comments Harry seemed taken aback by the attention. He staggered back a few steps, self-consciously tugging at his ragged shirt as he noticed all of us staring at him.

"So where have you been living?" Draco asked, pushing on despite Harry's discomfort.

"With my aunt and uncle."

"What are their last names? I can't believe we've never met them."

Harry glanced to me trying to find some support, but I wasn't going to butt into this. It was interesting seeing Draco at work. Getting Harry uncomfortable and off balance to get information. Though I did feel bad for the scraggly boy, a little.

Harry cleared his throat and said, "They aren't wizards, so I don't expect you know them."

Draco's face softened to settle on a more sympathetic expression. "Oh, I'm so sorry. That must have been awful, living with those Muggles."

Well that was a new word for my lexicon. Everyone who wasn't a wizard was a 'muggle'. Good to know.

Harry grunted, eyes focused on the ground. Draco searched the room for another topic of conversation, sensing Harry's discomfort. He settled on me.

"So what's your name?" Draco asked me.

"I'm Elsa, Princess of Arendelle," I announced in my most regal voice.

If I'd hoped to impress him it hadn't worked. Draco scowled at me.

"You're a mud-," he started before quickly correcting himself, "a Muggleborn, right?"

"Yes…"

"Well between you and me, Muggle royalty rarely means anything in the Wizarding world. Only money and power are important. We have our own royalty, of sorts." At this he stuck out his chest importantly.

If nothing else the boy clearly had a big ego. I almost scoffed before remembering my etiquette lessons and realizing I'd forgotten to curtsey. I needed to make friends, not alienate people.

"Thank you for the advice. I shall be sure to not use my title unless absolutely necessary." I walked over to him, curtseyed, and held out my hand.

He took it and motioned it towards his mouth, but didn't actually touch his lips to it.

"Pleased to meet you," he said.

"You as well. And you too, Harry."

"Umm, yeah," Harry mumbled.

Probably overwhelmed like I was.

Draco, Harry, and I struck up a friendly conversation as we waited for Madame Malkin to finish fitting us. Harry and Draco stayed while she measured me, so entangled in the conversation we were.

"Long and lithe, you are." Madame Malkin patted me on the shoulder. "Now that'll be two galleons."

I blanched. While talking I'd forgotten about my money woes. Worriedly, I felt through my pockets even though I knew I wouldn't find anything.

Harry and Draco noticed me fumbling around nervously. Draco rolled his eyes and faced the other direction while Harry threw me a sympathetic glance.

After a few more seconds elapsed, as it became more and more evident I wouldn't find anything, Harry spoke up.

"I'll pay for you," he said.

I looked at him shocked. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." He smiled. "I have a bit of money here that I didn't know about before so I can cover this."

"Well thanks. I'll pay you back when I get money from home. Which I guess won't be until Christmas or next summer…"

Harry handed Madame Malkin the money for my robes. "You don't need to do that," he assured me. "I'm fine."

I thanked him once again and we left the store together, robes on our arms. Madame Malkin scowled at me as we left. Oh well. I wouldn't be seeing her for a while unless I had a growth spurt.

Draco turned to me as we left the store.

"You don't have any money with you?"

"No, I forgot to ask my parents for some when I left."

He sighed heavily. "Well here's a loan for your school supplies. I can't have my friends being poor."

Friends, and money? My day was looking up.

"I can't take this," I protested half-heartedly.

He smiled. "Yes you can. Just act like an aristocrat. Keep acting like you do, actually. And don't announce that you're a Muggleborn. Ever. Take money if someone gives it to you. You'll go far in our world."

He had a point. Many, actually. Smart boy, that Draco.

"Okay," I said. "Thank you. A ton."

"Don't mention it. Really, the Malfoys have a reputation to keep."

I smirked back at him, taking the coins in his hand. "I'm sure they do."

We walked a bit farther together, the three of us, until Harry suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" I asked.

He grimaced apologetically. "I remembered I'm supposed to meet back up with Hagrid now. He's been showing me around. He works with Hogwarts."

"That's fine," Draco said, as if Harry needed his permission to leave.

"Okay. I'll see you guys at Hogwarts then?"

"Yeah," Draco responded. "Or on the Hogwarts Express."

I waved good-bye to Harry and walked towards the bookstore with Draco. I barely caught Harry's whisper of, "What's the Hogwarts Express?" before we were out of hearing range. I liked both boys, as friends of course, but for all his arrogance Draco was definitely more entertaining so far.

I pulled out my letter with the list of required supplies on it. "So it looks like we need books for all of our classes, right?"

Draco rolled his eyes at me. "Yep. That's why we're going to Flourish and Blotts."

I rolled my eyes right back.

The bell above the door tinkled as Draco pulled the door open for me.

"Why thank you, my good sir," I said sardonically.

"Any time," he replied, sticking out his tongue.

We eventually found all the books we needed. The covers fascinated me. Moving pictures. I stared at our charms textbook for about five minutes, watching the wizards on the front lift objects with their wands before Draco nudged me with his elbow. The magic still surprised me every time I noticed it, so it wasn't my fault I stared and gawked. Not that the inside of the books wouldn't be interesting too. Even if they didn't have pictures.

The school textbooks would be helpful with the practical side of wand magic, but what about the elemental stuff, my ice magic? The introduction letter said Hogwarts taught it, but I hadn't seen anything on my class list about it. Maybe they simply meant that it was conductive to learning control or something. Well none of my textbooks seemed ideally suited to teaching me about that either.

While Draco waited impatiently at the register I hurriedly searched the shelves for something about mental relaxation or meditation. I'd heard one of my tutors discussing it with my parents one day, but it'd never been brought up again. Seemed like as good a thing as any to try. I finally found a book entitled Mind Control: Control Yourself and Control Others. Only half of it seemed applicable to my problem but the other half couldn't hurt. And besides, Draco glare hardened at every second that elapsed with him holding up the line.

"Sorry," I said, tossing my books down on the counter.

"What took you so long?" Draco asked as the cashier rang up our purchases.

I cringed. "Nothing, I just wanted a book."

"On what…"

"Umm, I'll tell you later. It's sorta private."

He looked at me skeptically but didn't say anything more. I guess an understanding of privacy and discretion was part of his aristocratic persona.

We left the book store together, only to be greeted the moment we got outside with an absolute assault on the eardrums. Well, it more felt like an attack on the soul than anything auditory. The voice spoke quietly, while still demanding more attention than you could possibly give.

"Draco! Come here," the voice demanded.

I turned to look at the source and was confronted by what seemed to be an aged clone of Draco. Same steel grey eyes, same mane of blond hair, same pale skin. Until this point I didn't know two different people could look so similar.

Draco had flinched when the man spoke and moved towards him, head down.

"Now Draco, we're still in public. You better act like it. Stand up straight and introduce me to your friend."

I wished I could shrink into the cobblestones, away from that keenly penetrating gaze.

Draco looked to me sympathetically.

"This is Elsa," he said. "I met her in Madame Malkin's while I was buying robes."

"Ah," the elder man intoned softly. He looked into my eyes and I immediately dropped my gaze, trying to stop my whole body from quaking. It wasn't that I was worried about though. It was the freezing in my fingertips, the crystals of frost forming on my nails. I needed to get out of this situation.

Before I did anything more the man spoke again.

"I am Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father. I'm glad that Draco has found such a pretty girl to keep him occupied today, but unfortunately I must take him from you now. We have a lunch planned. Good bye."

And with that the older Malfoy spun on the heel of his black, presumably expensive shoe and stalked away. Draco gave me a wave and thumbs up over his shoulder as he followed his father, earning him a smack on the shoulder. I let out a sigh of relief as my magic calmed down again and my hands warmed up.

I completed the rest of my shopping by myself, using almost all the coins Draco had given me earlier. Everything seemed so strange that I was surprised I made it through the day without getting blown up by something on my shopping list. The only interesting event of note, besides my general bemusement with magical society, happened in the wand shop. Ollivander's.

The building of Ollivander's appeared to have been built a number of years ago. A very, very large number of years ago. The door creaked on its hinges as it swung open slowly. I entered a darkened room, filled with shelves holding small boxes, presumably wands. An ancient wood counter in front of me was the only thing visible in the house not designed specifically to hold wands. Besides Ollivander himself, of course. And even Ollivander carried a multitude of boxes in each arm as he wormed his way between shelves to the front of the store.

I waited patiently for him to make his way to me. When he finally made it he placed the wands down with a thump on the counter, nearly blocking my view of him.

"I'm Mr. Ollivander. You're in here to get your first wand, correct?"

"Yes, that's right. I'm Elsa."

"Hmm." He peered over the boxes of wands to take a closer look at me. "Well, nothing for us to do but try and see what works. How did you exhibit accidental magic?"

I shrunk back. It wasn't accidental, not at first. But maybe here everyone only had accidental magic or something until they got a wand.

"A lot of ice," I answered. 'A lot' was an understatement. I could freeze my whole room without breaking a sweat.

"Hmm, I see." Ollivander had his back turned to me, rooting through the shelves. Looking for something specific.

He finally found the one he was looking for and brought it to me.

"This is Ebony and unicorn hair. Now just give it a swish. Not too hard or anything, nice and gentle."

I picked the piece of wood up and waved it. Nothing. No tingle, nothing.

He frowned. "Erm, let me think. Oh I know what to try."

And so it went for a few more minutes. No reaction from any of the wands. Until he came to the Birch and dragon heartstring.

I'd had a suspicion none of the dragon ones would work since fire was the opposite of ice. I was wrong.

I picked up the wand tentatively, still unsure what would actually happen when one finally worked. The instant I raised the wand I felt a tingle run through my arm, like when my ice magic was in use.

I waved the want, left to right. A thrill of exhilaration bubbled up as frost came out the end, a fine spray. This was it! I was a witch, truly.

Ollivander clapped giddily and I grinned. A wand of my own. I'd been dreaming of this day, well, for three weeks or so. But still. It was incredibly exciting.

I paid and practically skipped through the rest of my shopping, making sure to save enough money for a room at the Leaky Cauldron. I barely had enough to pay for it, but the dinner was good and the bath was amazing.

As I lay down in my bed, I felt great. I'd made friends. I'd bought all my stuff and learned about the history and culture and society and everything. I'd accomplished something. And I'd been so distracted the whole day that my magic hadn't seriously flared up at all. Life is great. Tomorrow I'd board the train to Hogwarts, which promised to be even better.