School Robes and Wand Woods

August 1991

"Ah, Lily!" came Madam Malkin's voice from behind a rack of dress robes. Lily's mother worked alongside Madam Malkin as a seamstress and designer, so naturally Madam Malkin recognized her when she entered the shop.

"Hello Madam Malkin."

"Lydia told me you'd be coming in for your school robes today. I can hardly believe it...eleven already and starting at Hogwarts!" Madam Malkin smiled warmly. "Right this way, dear..."

Lily followed the witch and was measured for her robes. As she was stepping off the footstool which she had been measured on, a boy about her age with fair hair and a pointed face entered the shop, looking strangely familiar. Lily studied him curiously, trying to place him, until his eyes caught hers and she turned away quickly, slipping off to look at the dress robes and Quidditch robes.

Not too long after the first boy had entered, another boy with unruly black hair and glasses walked in. The two began to talk, and Lily, unable to keep herself from eavesdropping, listened quietly from behind a rack of violet dress robes. The pair discussed Quidditch, what house they would be sorted into at Hogwarts and whether those of Muggle parentage should be allowed into the school. The darker haired boy seemed confused.

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the pale, drawling boy. The bespectacled boy left, and Lily stepped out from the robe rack she had been looking through. The boy stared at her questioningly.

"Hogwarts, too?" Lily asked, smiling, ignoring the boy's disdainful look.

"Yes," he replied, looking down on her from atop a footstool. "It would've been Durmstrang, but Mother thought it was too far away from home."

"I see," Lily answered, unsure of what else to say.

She stared around awkwardly for a moment before remembering something she had heard the boy say during his previous conversation a few minutes ago.

"You play Quidditch, then?" Lily started. "So do I. And you said you have your own broom, too? What kind-"

The boy cut across her question with a raised eyebrow and a questioning glare.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's rude to eavesdrop?" he asked slowly.

"No," Lily answered. "She encouraged it."

He seemed unable to tell if she was kidding or not, but at any rate this seemed to sway his attitude in her favor, however slightly.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"What's your name?" Lily shot back.

"Draco," he answered, extending his hand to Lily. "Draco Malfoy."

She squeezed his hand. "Lily Carling-"

"All finished, dear," interrupted Madam Malkin.

"Anyway, I'm to meet my mother at Ollivander's," Draco said to Lily, stepping down from the footstool and passing by her to walk out the door.

"That's where I'm headed, too," Lily called after him. "I'll walk there with you."

Draco looked annoyed, but Lily followed him out of the shop anyway.

"So, do you know what house you'll be in?" Draco asked as the pair headed up the alley.

"Well, no one really knows what house they'll be in, do they?" Lily responded matter-of-factly. "But with any luck I'll make Slytherin or Ravenclaw. I don't suppose Gryffindor would be too bad either, but can you imagine being put in Hufflepuff?"

"I think I'd leave," Draco answered very seriously.

Lily laughed brightly and Draco smirked.

"Slytherin for me," he went on, still looking smug. "All my family has been. Your parents were our kind, weren't they?"

"Of course," Lily answered defensively, somewhat taken aback. Who would just ask someone a question like that?

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you?"

"I don't know," replied Lily, shrugging uncomfortably at the odd question. "I mean, most of the Muggles I know are a bit thick. Totally oblivious to what's going on around them and very unaccepting of magic. I'm not really supposed to talk about it, so don't tell anyone, but...well...one of my uncles is a squib."

Draco grimaced.

"I know. And with our blood being as pure as it is...ugh. In any case, a couple of my cousins are Muggles and I can't say I like them very much. They make fun of me because I'm a witch, like I'm the weird one. I hate it. I don't think any decent witch or wizard should've married a Muggle in the first place. I think the two worlds are best left alone."

"Exactly," Draco nodded in agreement.

"But," Lily continued in a firm tone, "Muggle-borns do have magic in them, so I don't see why they shouldn't be let in."

At this Draco scowled and they continued on in complete silence.

Outside the wand shop stood a man who looked very much like Draco, only taller. The man studied Lily's face intently as she approached. Lily averted her eyes, wishing that he'd stop staring.

"Miss Carling-Lestrange," the man muttered in a smooth, drawling voice. It wasn't a question.

"Yes?" she said, looking up, confused.

"How lucky you are, Lily, to carry the names of two ancient houses. You'll be placed in Slytherin, I have no doubt. Is your mother well?"

Lily hesitated.

"Yes."

"You don't recognize me, do you?"

Lily shook her head, although it seemed blatant that the was Draco's father. How he knew Lydia, Lily had no idea. His lips curled upward in a smile.

"Lucius Malfoy," he said, nodding his head.

Mr. Malfoy's enigmatic behavior was making Lily uncomfortable. She eyed him for a moment before muttering, "How do you know my mum?"

"Well, let's just say the Malfoys have always been close friends with the other wizarding families of proper heritage. Virgil Lestrange is your grandfather, is he not? He and my father were good friends during their Hogwarts days. Both Slytherins, of course."

Now that she thought about it, Lily seemed to remember hearing the name Malfoy fairly frequently at her grandparents' house when she was younger.

"Your parents were both at Hogwarts with me, as well, although I was a few years their senior," Mr. Malofy went on. "At any rate, you and Draco played together on occasion when you were quite small."

A foggy memory of a miniature, solid stone play castle situated in the back lawn of a great dark mansion floated across Lily's mind's eye. There had been giant white birds there, she remembered...albino peacocks that had frightened her.

"I thought you looked familiar," Lily said, turning to Draco and studying his features anew.

Lucius' lip curled upward.

Just then, a woman that could have only been Draco's mother walked out of the wand shop with her nose in the air.

"See you in Slytherin," Draco said coolly as he walked away, flanked on either side by his mother and father.

Lily smiled as she waved goodbye, but it wasn't genuine. If she was honest with herself, she was terrified for her Sorting. What if she wasn't good enough for Ravenclaw or Slytherin? What if she was put in Hufflepuff? She tried to convince herself that that would be okay. Hufflepuff was Grandma Asteria's old house, after all, and she'd always had wonderful things to say about it. Or what if she was put in Gryffindor and everyone expected her to be as brave as Grandpa Alton had been when he had fought against Grindelwald? She couldn't bear to think about it. She took a deep breath to clear her head before stepping into the wand shop.

It was quite dark inside. The sunlight streamed in weakly through the dusty windows, and a single lamp was lit on the front desk. The walls were covered from floor to ceiling in wand boxes. Lydia was sitting on the lone spindly chair in the corner, leafing through a small, old book.

Just as Lily was going to have a closer look at some of the wands against the wall, a man with wild grey hair and large, eerie eyes stepped out of the shadows.

"Good afternoon," he said slowly.

"Oh, hello…Mr. Ollivander," Lily said in surprised reply.

"Miss Carling-Lestrange. Yes...let's see. Hold out your wand arm, please."

Lily stuck out her left arm.

"Very good."

Mr. Ollivander began measuring every length of her, and after a short while he abandoned the tape measure, which continued measuring in his absence, and started pulling boxes off the shelves. He placed the large pile of boxes he'd collected on the desk and then said to the tape measure, "that will do." The tape fell to the floor.

Mr. Ollivander opened the top box in the pile and pulled out a wand.

"Try this," he said. "Redwood and dragon heartstring. Twelve inches, bendy."

Lily raised the wand to wave it but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of her hand before she could do so.

"No, no. This one. Beech and unicorn hair. Ten and three quarter inches, quite stiff."

Mr. Ollivander barely had the wand in her hand before he took it away again.

"Maple and unicorn hair. Nine and a half inches."

Lily was managed to give this wand a proper wave, but Mr. Ollivander shook his head.

"Perhaps this? Hazel and phoenix feather. Ten inches, whippy."

And on it went. Six failed wands later, Mr. Ollivander pulled a dusty dark blue box off the shelf and withdrew from it a very handsome wand.

"Ah, rowan and dragon heartstring. Eleven and a half inches. Swishy."

The rowan wand felt warm in Lily's hand. She waved the wand through the air with a flourish, causing a shower of sparkling, spring green and pale yellow stars to rain down through the air onto the old wooden floor of the shop.

"Well, I think your wand has found you, Miss Carling-Lestrange."

Lily smiled as Ollivander put the wand back in its navy box and handed it to her. Lydia paid seven galleons, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

A/N: Draco is such a challenge to write well and I don't know that I've done him justice here. However, if you'll recall from the prelude, Lily's grandparents on her mother's side thought You-Know-Who had the right idea and Lily mentions that they were friends with a lot of the families that went on to be Death Eaters. Well, here you have it. With the pureblood families that actually cared about being pureblooded being so rare, it seems to me their circle of friends would be rather limited and thus it seems plausible to me that Draco and Lily would have crossed paths as very young children, being as close in age as they were.

Anyway, off to Hogwarts in the next chapter! Please remember to leave a review! :]