"Cherry and Phoenix feather, ten inches, firm and unbending."

I knew now why mother had insisted upon going to Ollivander's first. This was taking forever.

I hoped the reddish wand would be the one-it was quite pretty-but nothing much happened, and it was snatched from me and replaced by….

"Walnut and dragon heartstring, whippy, eleven and a half inches."

I cringed as that wand was snatched away too. It was a good thing Sander wasn't here, because he had been telling me about what he had been learning of wand woods in herbology, and apparently walnut was the wood of the intelligent people. I would endure no small number of digs about being rejected by a walnut wand. As older brothers went, he wasn't so bad, but he was a bit too good at recalling things to tease me about.

"Larch and phoenix father, quite long….that's fourteen inches, flexible."

I picked up the wand, then relinquished it to Ollivander once again.

"Pine and unicorn hair, twelve inches, supple."
I could hardly tell what was happening, and for a moment I nearly dropped the wand. It felt as if my hand was on fire. Then I realized what was going on and focused, hard, as a stream of light escaped the wand and curled into a ball above it. I grinned, and so did Mr. Ollivander.

"Well, there you have your wand, Miss Elmore. I hope it serves you well."
Mother paid for the wand, and then the two of us hurried out of the shop. I took a deep breath of diagon-alley air, wondering if it was possible to breathe in the dusty little shop.

Mother grinned at me. "I always forget how long that takes. What will it be next, Etta? Robes?"

I nodded. Sander had gone to replace his robes, and now that the long wand-hunt was over, I wanted to meet up with him again and show him the wand. It was quite elegant, with a simple hand-hold carved in the bottom and a looping, pinecone-like pattern running up the length of the wand. Compared to Sander's, it was still quite clean and shiny, although I doubted it would remain that way for long. Even after only two years of use, and with what he insisted was proper maintenance, Sander's cedar wand was well-worn.

But by the time we headed down the street to Madam Malkin's, Sander must have left. The shop was far from empty, however.

"Molly!"

"Anna!"

Mrs. Molly Weasley was supervising as her twins, Fred and George, were being fitted with Hogwarts robes.

"The twins? Ready for Hogwarts already! But that's impossible!"

Molly grinned a greeting us. "Believe it or not, Anna. They grow up so fast." She sighed and looked woefully at her redheaded boys. "Of course, the same could be said of Etta."
Mother wrapped her arms around my shoulders. "She's my baby. What am I going to do without Etta around?"

Molly suddenly looked pained. "Ron won't be ready for another two years, but once's he's gone, Ginny's gone the next."

I wandered away from the outpouring of maternal instincts and stood waiting behind the Weasleys to get fitted for robes. Madam Malkin finished, and the boys waved to me, then hurried out of the shop. She was quite efficient as she fitted me, and when she was done, she dusted off her hands. "Now, those will be charmed by your house prefect to show your house colors, once you are sorted."

She suddenly frowned. "You're a Hufflepuff family, right?"
I shook my head. "My mother and brother are Hufflepuffs. My father was a Gryffindor."
Madam Malkin grinned. "Some suspense then. You don't know which house you'll be in."

"I don't." I had grown up wanting to be a gryffindor, but now that I was older, I wasn't sure I had the guts for it. At least it would provide a nice symmetry to the family if I was sorted into Gryffindor; two Gryffindors and two Hufflepuffs.

We finally met up with Sander in the bookstore. He had already found his own books, as well as picking up a few of mine, much to my annoyance. I could read. I was perfectly capable of finding The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One on the shelf clearly marked Hogwarts.

We finally left the bookstore, all of us laden with more books than was necessary, before heading to the petstore to get my Owl. Sander spotted Father heading toward us first.

"Watch, he's going to say 'got enough books' or something like that." Sander whispered.

Father hurried up to us. "Do I spy extra books?"
Sander and I grinned at each other.

"How was your shift, Father?" I asked.

"No break-ins." he reported. "Another uneventful day working Gringotts security."
Sander nodded at the mild burn visible on Father's forearm and grinned at me. I held back my laughter. Father loved his job, I held, mostly because even the uneventful days were eventful. He wasn't allowed to tell us much about Gringotts security, for obvious reasons, but his succession of mild injuries suggested a number of dragons were involved.

"So where are we going now?" Father asked.

"Owl for Etta" Mother replied.

Father chuckled. "Is that necessary? You know, Sander has a perfectly serviceable owl."

Mother sighed. "We don't want Ettie to be stuck without communication. It's not as if I'm planning on buying her a muggle cell phone."
"Those are innovative technology and will soon be extremely useful!" Father's mock anger attracted a few glances, but Sander and Mother and I burst out laughing.

"Say that much louder, and you'll be sticking a "Muggle-born" sign on your forehead." Mother said quietly.

Father sighed. "I don't think I'm in any danger, Anna. But if you insist, I shall only make telephone jokes in perfect privacy."

Mother glanced around before whispering "You don't know the old wizarding families. They'll be back at your throat before long. It's a matter of time."