As they entered Gladrags, Petunia was struck by how similar this store was to Highstreet stores like Marks & Spencer. By the entrance there was a counter, and there were changing rooms near the back along with full length mirrors. The sales assistant at the counter looked up as they came in.
"Hello, can I help you?"
"We're looking for Hogwarts robes."
"They're over in the back corner, if you need any help just let one of us know and we'll be happy to help. We also offer a tailored fitting service for 2 sickles if you want."
Petunia glances at Harry, before responding, "That would be nice. Quick question, what's the difference between shopping here and going to Madam Malkins?"
"Oh, that's easy, Malkins is a fully bespoke service, so you're paying for your clothes to be made to order. If you want them the same day it costs extra, while we get our robes made in a variety of materials from the muggle world, and then we can make adjustments to ensure they fit properly."
Petunia nodded at this and sent Harry off to buy his robes and some casual clothes while she looked at the dresses. A pleasant ½ an hour later, and Harry had a couple of sets of fitted robes, casual clothes and shoes for 10G4S [Galleons, Sickles] and Petunia had decided that she was definitely coming back here again. To top it off, they had a selection of runic comfort charms at the counter, which were a brass plate rivetted onto a piece of leather that would be discretely sewn into clothing and could provide warming and cooling, water resistance, cushioning, and self-cleaning for 10S each plus 2K [Knuts] if you wanted them to sew them in for you. Deciding that it was worth it, she bought warming, cooling, and water resistance for his robes and his coat, and a self-cleaning for his coat. They then showed him how to charge them. As they exited, they saw Hagrid wandering around Madam Malkins and Gringotts, so Petunia sent Harry off to let him know where they were.
Hagrid tried to lead them off to buy the potions supplies, but Petunia saw the wand shop was just across the Market, and so she walked straight across and in. There they found a middle aged man sitting at the counter reading a newspaper.
"Good afternoon, how can I help you?"
"We've been told that Harry needs a wand for Hogwards, and you came recommended." Petunia started.
"Should 'ave gone to Ollivander's, t'is traditional" Hagrid mumbled at the same volume as most people talk quietly.
"Well, it's a good thing you came here. We offer a bespoke service using a wide range of woods and cores to make the wand that will be the best match for you. I myself achieved my mastery under The Gregoravich that the shop is named for, and while I still have to use the name for another 3 years, I have the opportunity to make my own name after that. We freely admit that if you can get a custom wand from Ollivander's it will be a superior product to anything my I or my Master could produce. However, most people are fitted off the shelf, albeit with a long and extensive selection process and I guarantee that our wands will be a far better match than anything you could find, otherwise we'll pay the balance of an Ollivander wand. I must also warn you that we don't offer the Ministry subsidy on our wands, so you will pay the full price of the materials plus 20G for the time it takes to make the wand. It may seem like a lot, but it's a tool that you're going to be using for at least 7 years, and possibly for the rest of your life, so is it really worth saving that money to buy a tool that may never be quite the right fit?"
Petunia looked at Harry to see what he thought, and when he nodded, she responded. "I think we'll take it, do you require a deposit?"
"Not at all Ma'am, though if you do leave one I can have it ready for whenever you'd like it as long as it's after 5 tonight."
"We're going to be staying in the alley overnight, so, would we be able to picking it up at around 10:30 tomorrow morning?"
When she handed over 10G Hagrid grumbled "Well if you're not going to take me advice, I might as well make meself scarce." Then louder, "I just need to go out for a bit, can I meet you back here in 20 minutes?"
Petunia looked up at him, "Sure, if we're not here, we'll be booking a room in the Hopping Pot."
"Ok, 've not been in there."
As it turned out, he needn't have worried, as finding the wood turned out to be easy enough. Just put on a blindfold, and push a bit of magic into his hand and hey presto, grab the wood that felt warm. It took longer to learn how to push the magic into his hand than it did to find the wood. He ended up choosing Hawthorn, a wood associated with the heart, the fae folk and the outer worlds, those furthest away from earth. It was also associated with 5 Goddesses, as well as a god of the sea and the otherworld [death], which confused the wand maker as he'd never seen a boy pick a hawthorn wand before.
The core materials on the other hand. Tray after Tray were pulled out and then put to one side, even the wand makers experimental samples were gone through and nothing. They went from common to esoteric and back again, and he only had the weakest of responses to a phoenix feather. Finally the wand maker ran out of samples to try.
"I'm sorry. While we've found a perfect match for the casing, nothing I've got in stock matches you. You'd probably be better off going to Ollivander's after all this, and getting one of his off the shelf ones."
As Petunia went to gather up the money, Nixie jumped down and climbed onto the wandmakers hand.
"Nixie! Come back here, you shouldn't be doing that!"
"What's this?" the wand maker asked, feeling gingerly around his hand for the creature that he could feel but couldn't see.
"That's Nixie, it's an Aictuliaxr."
"Nixie?" Harry asked.
"I settled on the name this morning, and then that happened before I could tell you."
"Would you mind if I harvested a bit of it's fur, to see if it would make a good core for Harry?"
"Sure, if you think it might work."
A few minutes later it was confirmed that Aictuliaxr fur was a good match for Harry. Not a perfect match, but better than anything else he was likely to find.
"Well, it looks like I can make you a wand after all. Though with components like this, you should try to learn all of your spells without a wand, as I've never seen someone chose components as strongly aligned towards pure magic and growth before. I also suggest you buy a book on the old gods, so you can read up about the gods associated with Hawthorn. You won't find anything about the old ways in Flourish and Blotts, so I'd look at one of the other bookstores first."
With that they went outside and met Hagrid, who was holding a brass cage with a snowy white owl in it.
"Ah know it's late, but happy birthday, ah figured that you could do with a pet to take with you to Hogwarts. So this is just something from me."
Petunias first instinct was to complain about where it was going to sleep, but Harry's enthusiasm got there first.
"it's beautiful, does it have a name? What breed is it? What does it need to eat?"
"Slow down, slow down I canna think that fast. Right, it's a she, and she's only a year old so she doesn't have a name yet. She's a snowy owl, and she can hunt mice on her own or you can feed her raw meat or owl treats. She's been fully enchanted for post, so she can find anyone ya write to. Ya can find a book about keeping owls in Florish and Blotts."
"She's gorgeous aren't you girl." And then Harry stuck his fingers between the bars and all she did is nibble at his fingers before preening a bit. That's when she knew she'd lost the battle before she even knew there would be one.
"Ah stuck around cos I wanted to give ya ya birthday present, but I've got duties ah need to see to at Hogwarts, so if it's all right with you I'll leave you here with your aunt?"
Harry looked at Petunia who shrugged and looked at the time. "Sure, we'll get his luggage and book a room and then we can have an early dinner, thank you for guiding us around Mr Hagrid."
"I ain't no mister."
"Would you like to meet up with us later in the week for lunch, as I'd like to thank you for bringing us here and showing us around, even if we didn't go where you suggested."
"Aww, it was nothing, t'was just me job."
"It wasn't nothing, and I insist."
"OK, but only cos you insist, send your owl with a note to let me know where and when and I'll try to get away."
With that they parted ways, Harry and Petunia went to Stove and Packers for his book bag, and Harry watched his aunt looking at a fairly expensive handbag that looked fairly fashionable and had a rune locked expansion charm so that it could be used in the muggle world. He whispered to the sales assistant and got them to put it into his book bag once they rung it up. They quietly warned him that they'd deactivated the runic charm, and he'd have to activate it before the expansion charm would be available, but after that it should be fine as long as she uses the lock occasionally. However once it's activated he shouldn't put it inside another expansion charm like those on the bags otherwise bad things might happen. Finally they went to Wiseacres and bought a travel trunk that looks like a large rigid suitcase, has a pop out chest of drawers and with an expanded trunk space under the top, as well as an expanded suitcase section for access on the move.
Finally they booked a linked room for the night.