Chapter 4-
Kate woke up with a crick in her neck. At first she couldn't figure out why. But when she opened her eyes to the blazing golden sunshine, she realized why. All the memories from the day before came flooding back. The plane to London, finding out that the boy next to her was a wizard, and that she would be spending a lot more time with him.
With that thought, Kate looked over at the bed next to her and saw Richard Castle. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. Deciding to not be mean at this moment in time, Kate quietly stepped out of her bed and went to her trunk and grabbed a white tank top and some jeans from it. She then proceeded to the bathroom to brush her teeth, and change in private. When she opened the bathroom door, she peeked at Rick. He was still sleeping, so she grabbed her jacket, and her tennis, and went out into the hall to finish getting ready.
Once her tennis shoes were on, Kate went down the stairs, hoping that one of her parents would be up already. It couldn't be too early? When Kate got to the bottom of the stairs, she saw her parents and Martha Rodgers sitting at one of the tables in the middle of the room. She strode over to the table and sat down in one of the vacant chairs.
"Morning sweetie," Johanna said without looking up from the paper she was reading. Kate glanced over at it and saw the pictures moving. Though she knew that they did that in this world, it was still a shock. Johanna looked up from her paper to see Kate staring with a shocked expression on her face at the moving pictures on the front of the paper. "Do you want anything to eat Kate?" she asked.
It took a couple of times asking and some waving in front of Kate's face to get her attention. "Uh, yeah. Some eggs and toast will be fine. And a glass of milk please." While Tom, who was apparently the barman and the cook, came to get her order, Kate continued to stare at the pictures. Eventually Kate looked away from the pictures only for her food. Martha left the table, and in the middle of a mouthful of eggs, Kate asked her mom, "By the way, where are we going today?".
Johann a gave her a stern look and didn't answer until Kate had gulped down the eggs, and muttered a small 'sorry'. "We are going to first go to Gringotts the Wizarding bank, then on to Ollivanders to get you a wand." Kate wasn't able to keep the excited look off her face. 'Her first wand? And wasn't Gringotts run by goblins." In her excitement, Kate wasn't hungry anymore and pushed the eggs and toast away from her. At that moment Martha returned and seconds later Rick was sitting in the other vacant seat at the table.
"Good morning Rick," Johanna said to him as she pushed the other half of Kate's breakfast towards him. "Sit down and have some eggs and toast here before we go."
"You're going to need the energy young man." Jim told Rick as he grabbed the fork and shoveled the food into his mouth as if the world was going to end. He looked up when Mr. Beckett continued, "Trust me, these women" and he pointed at Johanna and Kate, "can shop for hours. We might have a hard time keeping up." Jim looked at the expression on Rick's face, and continued to drink his coffee.
Noticing that he had just taken a large bite of his eggs, Kate leaned on the table and said "Hey, Rick, you as excited as I am?" he looked at her and started to chew faster. "I can't wait to go to Ollivander's. I wonder what mine will be like." Kate had always wondered what kind of wand she was going to have. She believe highly in wandlore and knew that each wand had a meaning for the owner.
When he was done with his mouthful, Rick asked "Wonder what your what will look like?" and he truly did look confused.
Kate realized that he didn't know what she was talking about. "Oh, I forgot you don't know who Ollivander is. He's the best wand maker out there. Surely you knew that you had to get a wand?"
Kate saw that Rick finally seemed to be on the same page as her, or at least closer. "Anyway, we'll be going there today. You can get your wand then too. Mom says that you don't choose a wand, it chooses you. Isn't that right, Mom?" Kate looked at her mom expectantly.
Johanna, who was listening to their conversation replied "Sure is sweetheart." With a glance at Richard, she got up and said "Rick you appear to be done eating, shall we head out everyone?"
"Yes, I daresay we should." Martha agreed.
"Alright, so how do we get there?" Rick asked, looking downright confused.
Kate, who Johanna explained how to get from the pub to Diagon Alley, looked at Rick, and said menacingly, "I'm so glad you asked Rick." And with another look at his shocked, open mouthed expression, Kate followed her mother to the back of the pub and into a small alley.
Once they were all in, Johanna tapped the bricks in a specific order. Once she was done, the bricks began to move. Even though she was prepared for the portal to open, she still stared at it. However, it was what was on the other side of the wall that made Kate stare in wonder. "Welcome everyone, to Diagon Alley." Johanna exclaimed, smiling with pride. Kate just stared. The street was filled with all kinds of people, mostly in robes. There were signs for all kinds of things- a joke shop, an owlery, an apothecary, and even a store that sold brooms.
Jim who had noticed her staring, came up beside her and gently closed her mouth. Kate looked up at her father, and blushed, hoping that Rick hadn't noticed. When she looked over at him, Martha was waving a hand in front of his face, "Richard, can you come back to Earth please?" Suddenly he came out of his stupor, and Johanna began to lead them towards a large lopsided building at the other end of the street. Kate guessed that it was Gringotts, and sure enough when they reached it there was a sign above the door saying 'Gringotts' in large gold lettering.
When they entered the enormous enterance hall of the bank, they were welcomed by a small nearly-hairless creature with glasses and pointy ears. Kate had to suppress her laughter. It was just so cute!
"Hello," said the creature, which Kate guessed that it was a goblin. "Can I offer you folks some assistance?"
Johanna politely responded, "Yes, we need to make a withdrawal from my vault and exchange some Muggle money."
The goblin nodded in understanding. "Follow me."
He led them down the length of the Entrance Hall until at the very end of the high desks. The last one, he got behind, and asked "Name?"
"Johanna Beckett,"
"Ah, here we are," the goblin replied, looking through the ledger book and finding Johanna's name. Kate gawked at his long fingernails, and wondered how he could do anything with them. "Do you have your key?"
"Of course," Johanna replied, and reached into her pocket. Kate looked closely at the bronze key. It seemed very elegant and on both sides it said '1200'.
The goblin took the key from Johanna, inspected it, and didn't seem to find anything wrong. "Thank you, come this way," he said, and the group followed the goblin down the main corridor to a main platform. Kate saw a cart on some railroad tracks, and the goblin motioned for the Beckett's to get into the cart. Kate realized that there wasn't enough room for the Martha, Rick, and the goblin. But just as the thought came into her head, another cart pulled in behind theirs, and the others got into that.
The moment the goblin was into the second cart, they started to move down the tracks, the further they went, the further down they went, and the faster the carts moved. Kate tried to keep track of the different turns and forks they took, but it was to no avail.
With an abrupt jerk, the cart stopped in front of a vault with a large wooden door. Above the door on a bronze plate was '1200'. The goblin had already gotten out of the cart and was waiting by the large door. The goblin held out his hand once they were grouped around the door and asked Johanna, "Key please."
Johanna gave him the key, and he slipped it into the lock. With a loud click, the door opened to reveal several piles of gold, silver and bronze coins. Kate had never seen so much money in her life. With a glance over at Rick, she noticed an awed expression on his face as well. His face also held the look of confusion. Kate realized then that Rick had probably never seen wizard money. With a nudge, Kate whispered, "That's what wizard money looks like. The gold ones are called galleons, the silver ones are sickles and the bronze ones are knuts."
Rick gazed at her with surprise and asked, sounding slightly annoyed, "How do you do that?"
Kate was confused. She hadn't done anything strange had she? "Do what?" she asked, utterly confudled.
"Manage to know what I'm thinking and answer my questions before I ask them." He replied.
'Oh, that.' Kate thought. She looked at him with a knowing look, "Your face gave you away." With that, Rick's face sunk, but he quickly tried to pull a bored expression on his face, but Kate could see right through it. She had always had a knack of reading faces, ever since she was little. She thought it was funny how he was trying so hard to hide his true feelings, when she could see right through his façade.
Johanna filled a small pouch with some of each kind of coin, then returned to the cart. Martha looked green, and looked at the carts like they were some giant monster about to eat her. But she got into the cart anyways. Once they got to the main platform, Martha hurried out of her cart and leaned over, with her hands on her knees. "Ugh. I do believe I may be sick." Kate could hear her mutter.
"Yeah mom, you're starting to turn green." Rick replied looking at his mom with concern.
Luckily her feelings seemed to ebb away quickly, and color came back to her face. Johanna helped Martha exchange just the right amount of money that Rick would need for his school supplies. The goblin that took them down to the vault helped them out, and handed Martha a similar pouch to the one that Johanna used to hold her money.
Kate was beginning to be bored. She wanted to get her wand so badly. She had been waiting for a very long time for this day, and Rick was making it take longer than she wanted. Kate looked up at her father, and he just smiled back, hoping that it would be reassuring. He knew that Kate was looking forward to her wand. Afterall, she had been talking about it for the last month.
Kate was so excited, that she didn't even notice that the group had headed out of the bank, down the street, and into a small store. It wasn't until Rick asked, "Hello. You must be Mr. Ollivander?" that Kate realized that they had entered the wand shop. Kate looked around the shop at all the boxes that covered the walls from floor to ceiling.
"Why yes I am young man. Am I right in assuming that you are in here looking for your first wand?"Kate heard Mr. Ollivander ask Rick.
"Yes, me and Kate here." Kate looked up when she heard her name, and slightly blushed when the old man looked at her.
"And these must be your parents?" he asked, looking at the adults of the group.
He first shook hands with Martha. "Pleasure to meet you ma'am. I don't believe I have ever seen you in my shop before. I remember every wand I have ever sold…" Kate tuned them out, and looked again at the wands on the walls, wondering which one would be hers. It wasn't until Mr. Ollivander was talking to Johanna that Kate decided to start listening again.
"…Birch, dragon heartstting, 10 and ½ inches." He recalled.
Johanna looked shocked. "Yes! That's amazing."
Mr. Ollivander had a smug look on his face. "Like I said, I remember every wand I've ever sold. Now, who is this enchanting young lady?" he asked, suddenly looking at Kate. Kate stared at her shoes and felt the blood rush to her face.
Johanna was the one to reply, "This is my daughter, Kate. And this is my husband Jim."
"Lovely to meet you all," said Mr. Ollivander, as he turned around to the shelves. "Let's see here. Ah." He pulled out his own wand and gave it a wave. Immediately a measuring tape started to measure every inch of Rick's body. Kate couldn't help but laugh when it started to measure his head, then his armpits. Unfortunately, the measuring tape moved on to Kate, and the laughing ceased. Kate noticed the tape measuring the length of her ponytail when Mr. Ollivander gave Rick a wand.
Rick just stared at it. "Well, give it a wave." Mr. Ollivander urged. When Rick did, the lights flickered and several pieces of parchment fluttered to the floor.
Rick's face light up. "Cool. That's the first bit of magic I've ever done…well, knowingly." He said with a small smile.
"Interesting," said the wand maker, looking thoughtful. "We shall see. Kate," he said, turning to Kate. She looked back at him, "why don't you try this one?" he asked, handing her a different wand.
She took the wand, feeling nervous. What if this wasn't it? What if they couldn't find 'her' wand? She looked over at her parents and they gave her identical looks of encouragement. She finally got up the courage and waved her wand. Electric blue sparks flew out of the wand and Kate took a jump back. She didn't think that that was how the experience was supposed to happen.
When Kate looked back up at Mr. Ollivander, he was thoughtfully looking to Kate, then Rick, then back to Kate. "Switch."
"What?" Rick and Kate said together.
"Switch." he repeated. "The wands, switch them."
Kate looked at Rick, and he looked back with the same look. Then she held out the wand she was holding, and he held out the one he was holding. Right as the wands switched hands, there was an electric surge between the two, and then an eerie silence filled the store.
It was finally Mr. Ollivander who spoke. "I think we have it," he exclaimed, quite loudly. Then he continued more quietly, "Mr. Castle your wand is 11 ¼ inches, made from the Cherry tree, the core is the most interesting part…" Again Kate tuned out the conversation until it was directed at her. "Ms. Beckett, your wand, is 10 ¼ inches, Ash, with a core of unicorn hair." Kate gave Mr. Ollivander the largest smile she could, then looked at her wand. She had been waiting for such a long time for this, and finally it was hers!
Finally it's done! I had to wait for Hufflepuff to finish her part before I could begin mine. Sorry I don't have a cool story for the wand. I just went with it.
So for the next chapter, it might be a while. School is almost done for the summer, and I don't get very fast internet at home. Bear with me and I will get the next one up ASAP!
Read and Review! Good or bad, I don't care!
