Gerald woke that day by his sister leaping off of the top bunk of their bunk bed and landing on the floor about as noiselessly as an elephant.
"Getup, Sleepyhead," Grace ordered her brother. "We're going out for school things today."
"Don' wanna," Gerald replied, in a voice choked with sleep. He rolled over and tried to squelch himself invisible by the wall. It didn't work.
About ten minutes later, Gerald grumpily rolled out of bed, striking his head on the top of the bunk above him. It wasn't so much the fact that they couldn't have their own bedrooms, it was more like they just liked to share rooms, but Grace got on her brother's nerves a lot.
"Why do we have to go out so early?" Gerald moaned, digging in the pile of robes by the corner that had been thrown there carelessly in earlier haste.
Grace was already dressed and groomed with the accuracy of a morning person. "Because, Blockhead, we don't want to be caught in the late crowd."
Gerald just moaned again and tried to flatten down his thick blonde hair with his hand. Grace handed him a comb.
"I'm going to go downstairs for breakfast," Grace announced.
"Don't eat the pickles," snapped her brother, using the term that otherwise meant that he didn't really care.
Grace bounded down the stairs.
# # #
Rob and Carolyn sat primly at the table, munching their cornflakes. Getting up at 8:00 in the morning was no hardship for them, because they were naturally morning people anyway. Breakfast was a quiet affair, with Robert the first reading the Daily Prophet, Hannah writing an owl to a friend and Carolyn was quiet in the morning anyway, and Rob enjoyed the silence.
"Look at the time," Robert remarked with a bit of aloofness in his voice. Folding his paper, he stood up and stretched. "We're supposed to meet the others in a half-hour, aren't we?"
Hannah finished her letter and sent their barn owl, Skipper, out the window with it. "Yes. Carolyn, would you please do the dishes?"
Carolyn gave a grunt of contempt, and waited until her parents had left the room. "Done?" she snapped at Rob, who had just swallowed his last spoonful of now-soggy cornflakes.
Rob nodded, and Carolyn looked around the room suspiciously before taking out her wand, well concealed within her robes. Rob raised his eyebrows but said nothing. With a flick of her wand, the breakfast dishes were washed, dried and put away.
"You make the oddest Hufflepuff," Rob said, shaking his head. "I was always under the impression that they were honest and loyal."
Carolyn just smiled as she put her wand away. "If you learn one thing in your life, Robert William the second, make it this: Stereotypes are often very, very wrong."
With that, Carolyn left the room, leaving a slightly befuddled Rob in her wake.
# # #
Helen sat in front of the mirror, though it was of no use to her, and gently started to pull back her brown hair into a plait.
The house was silent, as Helen was an early morning person, and her mother was not. Helen rather enjoyed the silence - it put impressions of blue and green in her mind, and she liked the serenity.
Standing away from the mirror, she carefully felt her way down the stairs and into the kitchen. With near-perfect ease she filled the teapot with tea and turned the burner on. Smiling as she heard the flames feed off the gas, she started to walk away, until her sensitive nose picked something up.
It smelt like something was burning.
Frowning, she stood there, until she felt her right arm becoming unnaturally hot. Quickly, she brushed her hand over her sleeve, and felt searing pain up her arm, and over her hand.
Oh my God, Helen thought with frantic disdain, I'm burning.
Panic rose thick in her throat, and that with the pain made her lose sense of direction. Running around like a fool, she frantically felt around for the sink, but couldn't find it.
"Yearchhhh!" she screamed.
Hayley Hufflepuff bolted up in bed, groggy and confused. Something was wrong.... she wrinkled her nose. It smelt like burning gas -
"Helen!" she cried, not bothering with a bathrobe and running down the stairs, leaping over the last six.
There, in the middle of the kitchen, Helen was sprinting around and waving her arm, which had a bright orange fireball off the end of it.
Not wasting breath on words, Hayley leapt over to the sink and turned on the water full blast. Helen heard the water and stopped running, and Hayley guided her daughter forcefully to the sink and submerged her arm.
The water was cool relief to Helen's flaming limb, and she sighed happily. Hayley pulled up her daughter's sleeve and looked at the flesh. It was slightly red, but didn't seem to be badly burnt.
"You know," Hayley said, taking Helen's arm from the water and gently toweling it dry, "that's going to be mighty sore for the next couple of weeks."
Helen, beet red with embarrassment, didn't even bother answering. Hayley walked over to the muggle refrigerator and pulled out a small jar filled with sunburn ointment - compliments of her friend Rosemary's potion farm. She gave it to Helen to smear over her burn, while Hayley picked up her wand and waited for her to finish.
"All I wanted was some tea," Helen mumbled, ashamed of herself.
Hayley felt a pang for her daughter, who so wanted independence from her blindness, but was having a hard time getting what she wanted. "I know, Dear," she crooned, pointing her wand at the burnt arm, and instantly, it was snugly wrapped with white bandages, feeling thankful that she had taken that class in wizarding first aid. Noting that her daughter still looked crestfallen, she nodded towards the stove, even though nods were of no use to Helen.
"The water looks ready," Hayley said gently. "Why don't you make us the tea?"
Helen smiled and nodded her head. "Okay, Mum."
# # #
"Susan! Susan Harrisford!" the shrill voice called out. Susan moaned and opened her eyes to slits. "We're late! Get out of bed!"
Rolling out of the bed, she opened her eyes to see a robe being thrown in her face. "Wha?" she asked sleepily.
"We're supposed to meet the others in -" she looked at her watch "- five minutes! Hurry!"
Susan was up faster than a rocket, and tugging her robe forcefully over her head, she ran to the bathroom in the penthouse to brush her teeth.
Her mother was waiting for her when she came out, and handed her a plain bagel. "Just eat it," Sarah snapped to her daughter when Susan opened her mouth to complain. "We don't have time for condiments."
Susan crammed the dry bagel down her throat while her mother did her hair up in a ponytail. Susan giggled. Her mother was the only person over the age of twenty that she knew that still wore ponytails.
"Come on, Sue," her mother said while Susan gulped down water to wash down the bagel (which had been rather stale) and wiped her hands on her napkin.
"Don't call me Sue," Susan shuddered as she stood up. "Okay, I assume it would be Floo Powder?"
"That's right," Sarah said, taking a small jar off the mantelpiece and offering it to Susan. "But you know what assuming does." Susan took a pinch, and smiled.
"It makes an ass out of you and me?" she asked, devilishly. Sarah grinned back at her daughter.
"Exactly. Hurry, now."
"Gringotts, Diagon Alley," Susan stated, matter-of-factly. The flames roared and turned bright green in a spectrum of color. Susan stepped in the fire, and was sucked into its depths.
# # #
Grace looked at her watch. They were all waiting for Susan and Sarah, and her patience was wearing thin.
"Sorry we're so late," a breathless voice said from behind the group. Everyone whirled around to see a panting Sarah, and Susan, keeling over with a smudge of charcoal on her nose.
Sarah glared at the group. "I thought that we were going to meet at Gringotts?" she asked reproachfully.
It was a beautiful, sunny day, and everyone was standing before the large bookstore of Flourish'n'Blotts.
"You didn't bring any money?" Robert asked her, looking surprised.
Gabriel looked at him. "I didn't bring anything either."
"Nor I," Hayley said, shaking her head.
"The morning was kind of rushed," Susan said, smiling at her mother. Sarah didn't appear too pleased, but she put a hand on Susan's shoulders and winked slightly.
"I don't want to walk," Gerald pouted. Seamus cuffed his son with the back of his hand.
"Shaddup. It's good for you."
"Cauliflower is good for me too," Gerald mumbled. Grace giggled, knowing how much her brother hated the white vegetable.
"Well, let's start walking then," Hayley interjected, ushering the group ahead of her, and keeping a careful eye on Helen.
The children, sans Carolyn (who had no particular interest in coming) and Christopher (who had been left at home in the care of a muggle babysitter), were looking about them excitedly. Of course, they had been to Diagon Alley before, but they looked through it with new eyes now that they were starting at Hogwarts.
"I wish that we were allowed to join the Quidditch teams," said a sulky Gerald as they passed by the broom shop.
Rob pushed his spectacles up his nose wisely. "Do you even know how to fly?"
Gerald turned a vivid shade of red. "Of course!"
"But Gerald," Grace said innocently, "the last time you flew you fell off and-"
"Shut up, Grace," Gerald commanded, blushing deeply.
"I hope that we can get pets," commented Helen, changing the tune of the conversation. "I've always wanted a cat, but Chris is allergic to them."
"I want an owl," Rob said. "They're so useful, what with carrying post and all."
Susan sighed wistfully. "I've always liked dragons..." she trailed off. There was a sudden silence while everybody looked at Susan in horror. Susan laughed. "I don't think that Hogwarts would like me having a dragon very much."
"You'd fit right in with Hagrid," Hannah remarked off-handedly, overhearing the children's conversation.
"The gamekeeper?" Rob asked curiously.
"He's always had a certain... fetish for dragons," Hayley explained.
"Is he even still there?" Sarah asked Robert, over her shoulder.
Robert nodded affirmatively. "Where else would he be? He's nearing the ripe old age of seventy, though, and still going strong."
"It'll be nice to see the old duffer again," Gabriel remarked, tussling Gerald's hair. "You'll like Hagrid."
They had reached the bottom step of the nearly seven hundred steps leading up to the magnificent building that was Gringotts. Sarah and Susan screwed their faces into ones of exasperation.
"We just climbed down these ten minutes ago," Susan scowled, sounding all the world like her dam.
"In this case," Helen said, smiling slightly, "what goes down, must go up." Everybody snorted their amusement at the pun, with the obvious exception of Susan and Sarah.
Ten minutes later, an exhausted troop made their way to the top of the marble staircase, panting and complaining. Seamus had knocked Gerald over the head at least three times, until Gabriel said that if he didn't stop, she would start knocking him over the head.
"Everybody had better get their money as of now," Sarah snarled through her gasps of air, "because I am not doing that again."
"Shut up, Slytherin, and get in," Gabriel ordered her friend, holding open the door for her as she walked in.
The inside of Gringotts was, quite predictably, a very large place. It was furnished with marble, while people waited in large poufs in shades of brown for the carts that would take them to their vaults. Others, looking rather ill, lurched off of mine carts for others to get on. Goblins counted Gallions, Sickles and Knuts out to people who wanted small transactions, while pixies flitted about the ceiling, lighting the many candles with their fairy wands, as it was early yet.
While the adults walked up to the counter to arrange for goblins to take them to their safes, the five children hovered about a moth-eaten pouf, whispering.
"Have you guys noticed anything weird about your parents lately?" Gerald asked softly.
"Or parent," Rob said for tactfulness, nodding to Helen and Susan.
"Not really," Susan said, thinking about her mother.
"Why do you ask?" Helen said, frowning.
Grace shook her head. "It must just be us, then. Mum's been acting pretty jumpy ever since we visited your house, Sue."
Susan winced. "Don't call me Sue."
Ignoring this interjection, Rob frowned thoughtfully. "Well, my mum has been acting rather overprotective as of late -" he grimaced "- more overprotective than usual, mind."
"They did seem pretty freaked out after we left..." Helen trailed off. "Why?" she demanded for a second time, eyes with the cloudy pupils glinting curiously.
Nobody had an answer to this, and it didn't really matter anywho, because the parents came back, and there were two goblins waiting by two minecarts. Everybody piled in to the carts, and they started off.
At first the carts slowly creaked down the rails, until they hit a junction. There was a bright white flash, and the tracks slowly curved over to the left, where everybody's vaults were located. Then, like a cork out of a bottle, they zipped off.
"I heard that there were supposed to be dragons protecting some of the vaults!" Susan yelled. Immediately after, she had to spit hair out of her mouth, as it was flying crazily in all directions.
"And I hope we don't see any!" Rob replied, holding onto his glasses with one hand and the side of the cart with the other.
"Wuss!" Grace said, holding her blonde hair in her right hand to keep it from getting in her face.
Helen didn't feel the need to participate in this conversation; all that concerned her was the fact that she was going very fast, and she couldn't see, and didn't know where. Gerald had his eyes shut, as he hated rollercoasters, and the cart ride could have easily been one at a muggle theme park.
Five fast minutes later, the carts came to a grinding halt on what looked like a concrete platform with torches lining the stony walls. Grace, Gerald, Gabriel and Seamus followed the goblin in front of them - named, meticulously, Bobgoblin - to the door of a safe. The safe door was about as tall and wide as an average size door, and there was a lock on the side, that looked meant for a key. But, to the twins' great surprise, instead of fitting the key into the lock, the goblin took the key, and hung it on the nail beside the door. The key dissolved into the wall, and the door fell into a slot on the ground.
Bobgoblin smiled at the astonished looks on Gerald and Grace's faces. "That's in case anybody tried to pick the lock - basilisk venom would spray out of the keyhole."
Seamus leaned down to his children. "That, kids, is why you never mess with goblins."
Gerald and Grace nodded mutely while they entered the safe.
It was a room about the size of an average sized bathroom, and there were stockpiles of Gallions, Sickles and Knuts against the walls, in bags, and strewn about the floor. Since both of their parents worked, the Finnigans were well off anyway, but since Gabriel was the only known heir to Gryffindor, sans Grace and Gerald, she had inherited quite a tidy sum herself in royalties and such. After gathering enough money to buy school supplies, Seamus took the key (which had passed through the wall, and was hanging off of an inconspicuous hook) and they exited. As soon as Bobgoblin - the last to leave the vault - left, the wall to the safe zoomed up, faster than lightning, and slammed shut. Everybody stared at it, before quietly cramming back into the carts again.
A fast, sickening, bumpy ride later, they were standing on the bottom stair of Gringotts, by the bottom exit.
"Where to now?" asked Hayley, a careful arm on Helen's shoulder, despite the girl's protests.
"We can go back to the bookstore," suggested Grace.
Robert shook his head. "It's almost at the end of the Alley, let's start at the Apothecary first, shall we?"
They did so, and I would only bore you going into the details. Let us say that they went through getting potion ingredients, robe fittings, gloves, winter cloaks (with silver fittings), and hat buying without much of a hitch. That was, unless you counted the time that Gerald dropped a cauldron on his sister's foot, and got a black eye as a result. Then they went into the bookstore.
"It's loud here, for a bookstore," Helen commented, frowning. The others, even though they didn't have as sharp of hearing, agreed. There were yells, curses, sounds of flesh hitting flesh, and all sorts of beastly sounds coming from the next room. Feeling curious, Sarah walked through the threshold.
Bonk.
A book flew through the air and hit Sarah square between the eyes. The rest of the party gasped, and Sarah went cross-eyed with surprise before her black eyebrows snapped together, and irritated crease marks drew their way down her face. Picking up the book, she strode into the next room, determination in her step.
"Oh, no," Hayley moaned as they followed their hot-tempered friend into the next room.
There was a ring of people around the perimeter of it, apparently gawking at something. The adults were too polite to make their way to the front, but their children had no problem elbowing their way to the front of the throng.
It was easy to see what was making the people gawp so. Two men were having their own version of the muggle World Wide Wrestling Federation in the midst of rows of books. With the occasional shouts of the crowd, two men, obviously the sons of the feuding adults, were pleading with them to stop.
"Father, don't waste your energy on scum like him!" begged the one man, attempting to wrench one - the one that must had been his father - off of the other man.
"Dad! Let me fight him!"
Rob stared. Two older men - they appeared elderly, almost - were tangled up twister-style on the floor. They both had their jaws set in grim determination, and were obviously trying to beat the other one to a pulp. One of them - he had bright red hair with a few gray streaks - had a handful of the other man's whitish hair at the top of his scalp - where it hurts the most - while the man with white hair was kicking his foe in the shins.
"I've been waiting to do this for a long time, Lucius!" grunted one of the men.
"What? Lose a fight?" the other man growled.
Enter Sarah.
"Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, what in the Sam Hill is going ON here?!" she thundered.
There wasn't a sound in the room. You could have heard a pin drop.
"Don't you think you two are a little OLD for this?!" she went on, wrenching the two adults apart.
"You'll have to ask him that, Slytherin," Lucius Malfoy said, looking at Arthur Weasley from a pair of cold gray eyes. He apparently hadn't forgotten Sarah from previous years.
Sarah shook her head in disdain. "Luke, Luke, Luke," she muttered under her breath. Lucius stiffened at being addressed like that.
"It's the zump rope girl!" a young voice gurgled. Sarah turned around to see a little black-haired girl pointing at her. Sarah remembered the jump roping she had done at the reunion, and decided that this must have been one of the girls twirling the magical rope.
By now, most of the spectators had dispersed, and Gabriel came storming up to Sarah.
"Must you make an ass of yourself at every available opportunity, Sarah?" she hissed. Sarah gave something of a sneer.
"No," she replied snidely, "only when it's sunny."
The Weasleys had left, leaving our favorite group, and the Malfoys. Lucius didn't appear too pleased, but Draco was wearing a bland expression, like he was actually quite amused, but didn't want to show it. He had his hand on the shoulder of another boy, appearing about the age of Susan, Gerald, Grace, Helen and Rob. Hayley looked at him quizzically.
"I didn't see you at the reunion," she commented, looking up at Draco. She really wasn't too fond of the Malfoy family, but decided to make herself tolerable, lest Sarah get annoyed again.
Draco gave something of a sliver of a smile. "This is my son, Alexandre."
Introductions between everybody were made, and while the grownups bought the books they needed, the children stared at each other mutely for a bit, before Helen cleared her throat.
"So, erm, Alexandre-"
"Please," Alexandre said suavely, "call me Alex."
That tone of voice made Helen slightly uncomfortable. "Right then."
They went on with idle chitchat, before all of the adults came back. The Malfoys had come back, (and to the grudging politeness of everybody except for Sarah and Draco) they all decided to go to the wand shop together.
They walked out of the bookstore, Draco and Sarah in the lead, and they were talking as fast as their lips would form the words.
"You know," Hannah whispered to her husband, "Sarah's not married."
Sarah and Draco erupted into gales of laughter.
"Oh, really?" Draco asked.
"You wouldn't believe..." Sarah went on.
"What do you -" he started, before getting what his wife was trying to convey. His lips silently formed into the letter 'O', before melting away. "Is Malfoy?"
Hannah shrugged.
# # #
Helen walked slowly at the back of the group, following the noise of everybody else. She had her brows furrowed in thought.
Ever since they had met up with the Malfoys, she had felt odd. Being blind had never really bothered her all that much - with the exception of times like that morning. It was like forever walking in gray mist - not black, like most people thought. But when she had gotten into the presence of the Malfoys, the fog had turned a fuzzy shade of greenish-purple, almost, like it had been tainted. She didn't like the feeling - it made her very uneasy, like something bad was going to happen.
They had made their way to the wand shop, and Draco gallantly held the door open for Sarah, who swept in, and then he walked in afterwards, leaving the door to fall in Robert's face. Muttering dark things, Robert repositioned his glasses, and held open the door for everybody.
When they had all gotten in, Lucius abruptly stopped, and Helen ran into the back of him, not being able to see, and preoccupied in the first place.
"Watch where you're going!" Lucius snapped, being in a foul temper.
There was no need to order, though, for as soon as Helen bumped up against him, she had backed up swiftly, as if she had ran into fire, and she was clutching her eyes.
As soon as she had touched his flesh, a bright, shining, blinding flash of green light intercepted her senses. Helen had never exactly seen green before, but she knew that that had to be the color. The fog of her blindness dispelled completely, and all that was left was the foul green light.
"Helen?" asked Rob, "Are you okay? You look odd."
Helen withdrew her hands from her eyes and shook her head. "I had something in my eye," she lied, deciding not to mention the light.
Cheers erupted in the back of the wand store, along with a brilliant flash of blue light. "I think we have a wand here," said a female voice, sounding pleased. "Come up to the front, and we'll see about buying it for you."
A family came up from behind the rows of wands, following a woman in a light purple robe.
"...thank you so much," a woman from the family gushed, "you see, we've never had a witch in the family before and... and..."
"Oh, it's my pleasure," the woman in purple assured, wrapping a light-colored wand in tissue paper. "What school are you going to?" she asked, directing this to a small girl, who was obviously the recipient of the wand.
"I got ze invitation to ze Beauxbatons yezterday," the girl said softly, with a thick French accent.
The woman nodded curtly. "Yes... I've heard that that was a lovely school to learn at... warm climate too... here you go. That'll be ten Gallions."
Money was exchanged, and the family left, all smiling happily. Lucius rolled his eyes in the back of his head and sat down with a hard 'thud' in the only chair.
"Can I help you?" the lilac-robed witch asked.
Gabriel frowned. "You know, I could have sworn I've seen you before..."
The witch wrinkled her brows. "Now that you say it, you do look familiar."
There was silent puzzlement for about three seconds, until Hayley, never one to forget a face, burst into a smile.
"Samantha?" she asked. "Samantha Chenelle?"
The woman's eyes bulged in her head. "My God, you're Hayley, aren't you?"
Every one of the adults (sans Draco and Lucius) dissolved into laughter and started talking excitedly.
"Who's Samantha Chenelle?" Alex asked, leaning over Rob.
"I think that she's the fifth one that ran away from castle Sapius," Rob whispered back, not taking his eyes off the scene in front of him.
"Isn't this Ollivander's shop?" asked Seamus, looking around.
"Yes, but he's agreed to take me on as an apprentice, since there aren't that many interested in the wand making business anymore."
"Do you have any children?" asked Hannah, looking around Samantha, as if there might be a child hiding behind her.
"No, I'm single. But anyhow, who are these people?" Samantha inquired, looking at the children.
Once again, everybody was introduced, and Samantha nodded. "I see. But anyway, Mr. Malfoy, why don't you go first?"
Alex stepped forward, and Samantha snapped her fingers. The old tape measure went into its routine, measuring all of the joints of his body.
"Wand hand?" Samantha asked in a business-like voice.
"Right," Alex answered promptly.
Samantha nodded and snapped her fingers again. The tape measure fell away, and she grabbed a box off the wall.
"Try this one. Maple, eight inches, a single unicorn hair, and dragon heartstring."
That wand didn't work, and the exchange of wands went on for five minutes or so until one produced a magnificent display of periwinkle sparks by Alex's touch, (Mahogany, ten inches, dragon scale and crystallized basilisk venom - good for transfigurations), and the transaction of money was completed. Nearly everybody was secretly hoping that the Malfoy family would leave - including Lucius - but the way that Sarah and Draco were constantly yapping away, it wasn't likely.
"Alright, Mr. Ravenclaw, you next." Rob stepped up, and the measuring tape took over. "Wand hand?"
"Right," Rob answered.
"Okay, how about..." Samantha scanned the shelves and pulled out a box, "...this one. Elm, eleven inches, bark from the Bingbong tree, and unicorn tooth. Good for Charms."
That one didn't work, so Samantha tried another. The next one (Ebony, seven inches, sap from an impossible tree, and dust from a shooting star) didn't work either, and neither did the one that was made out of willow wood, thirteen inches long, with feathers from a mute parrot, and bats' wing.
And so it went. The pile of used wands piled higher and higher on the ground, until it was nearly twice as tall as Rob himself. Everybody had moved to the other side of the store, afraid of the wand mound toppling over on them.
"Try this one," Samantha said, seeming undaunted by it all.
"Ante up," Gabriel said, sounding bored. All of the adults - including Lucius - had discovered a muggle pack of cards left there by somebody, and they had all decided to play poker. Sarah was having a heck of a time trying to teach Lucius and Draco how to play.
"I can't believe that I'm playing a muggle game," Lucius snorted. Gabriel glared at him.
"You don't have to, you know," she snapped, getting tired of his arrogance. "You could be over there on the chair still, picking your nose."
Lucius sent her a death glare, and showed Sarah his cards. "Is this any good?" he barked. Sarah went slightly pale.
"Er, yes. I fold," she said quickly.
"Wha'd he get?" asked Draco. "What do I turn in?" he said in the same breath.
"I'd go with this one-" she pulled out a card "-and this one. You want to try and get a Full House."
Rob was still trying wands out frantically, trying to get one that worked.
"Read it and weep, guys," Gabriel said, "Four of a Kind, Aces," she finished smugly.
"Go on, Luke," Sarah prompted.
Lucius laid down his cards, and everybody went a sickly shade of green.
"A Royal Flush?!" asked Seamus, throwing down his cards. "Of Spades? You have got to be kidding me!"
Gabriel shot an incensed look at Lucius. "Beginners luck."
"Okay," Samantha said, "try this one. Oak. Twelve inches. Claw of a badger, fang of a snake, nail of a lion, talon of a bird. A well rounded wand."
Rob gripped the wand, and didn't even have time to wave it. Colors of the rainbow exploded from it erratically, swirling around.
"I think we have a winner," Samantha said, smiling at Rob. "I'll wrap it up once we have everybody done. Helen, dear, you're next."
Still trying to fight off the green light that was meddling in the gray fog, Helen stood up and went to Samantha.
The tape measure took over, and Samantha looked at Helen. "Wand hand?"
"Left."
"Oooh, a lefty. Okay, try this one." She reached inside of the pile of wands and came out with a rather long one. "Fifteen inches, yew. Dry water, and solid vapor. Bendy."
An hour later, Helen was still trying out wands, and the game had switched from poker to Go Fish.
"Okay, Seamus," Sarah said, "Do you have any... kings?"
Seamus smiled and shook his head. "Go Fish."
"This is stupid," Lucius muttered.
Everybody had become deaf to Lucius's complaining a long while ago and just ignored him. Sarah put on a pouty face and reached into the 'pond' of cards.
"What if I don't like fishing?" she whined.
"I'll go with you," Draco offered.
Sarah's eyebrows shot up, as did everybody else's. Lucius leaned over to look at his son curiously. Draco blushed.
"Okay, Son," Lucius said. He seemed to have renewed his vigor for Go Fish, all of a sudden. "You wouldn't happen to have any queens, would you?"
This only made Draco blush deeper. "None at the moment, Father. Go Fish."
Lucius looked very amused, and reached over to draw a card.
The pile of wands had been sorted through a second time for Helen. Samantha bit her lip thoughtfully.
"Rob," she said to the boy, who was polishing his wand, "may I see your wand?"
Rob grumbled about getting fingerprints over his wand, but he passed it over.
"Here Helen, try this one," Samantha said, handing her Rob's wand. Helen shook her head.
"But that's Rob's wand."
"Just... try it. I want to see something."
Helen looked dubious, but took the wand.
To everyone's amazement, color zoomed out of the wand, as it had for Rob. Pinks, blues, reds, greens, purples, yellows, any color imaginable spewed out of the wandtip.
Samantha had everybody else try out the wand. For Gerald, Grace and Susan it worked also.
"Now what?" whimpered Grace. "There's only one wand, but five of us!"
Samantha shook her head. "This has happened before," she mused.
"It has?" asked Alex, clutching the box that held his wand.
Samantha nodded. "It's called vielun."
"Vielun?" asked Susan. "What the heck is a vielun?"
"It means many to one. Then there's a diverseul, which means that a wizard can use any wand as well as their own, and a semvara is a wizard that doesn't need a wand.... anyway."
"Well?" asked Rob. "What can we do?"
Samantha sighed and took the wand up. "I can try and make you duplicates of the wand. Mind though, no two wands are ever alike." She looked over at the huddle of adults, where Gabriel was doing a victory dance, because she had won Go Fish. "I'll go and explain this to the marauders of Go Fish. You wait here."
After she had left, Helen shook her head. "Vielun. Well, this ought to be fun," she said bitterly. "I'd rather be a diverseul. It seems easier."
"Are you kidding?" asked Gerald, "I want to be a semvara! No need for wands at all! Could you imagine?"
The six children looked down at the ground and shook their heads. No, they couldn't.
About ten minutes later, everybody was heading out of the wand shop. "Come and see us sometime!" Hayley called over her shoulder to Samantha, who was waving at them. "You know where to find us!"
Draco looked at his watch. "Well, we had better get going. Bye, everybody." Alex nodded respectfully, and Lucius snorted. In the blink of an eye, they were gone.
"Joint apperation," Robert said, "they just came up with it a few months ago. We should learn how to do it."
Gabriel patted Sarah on the back. "Pretty soon, you won't have to play Go Fish anymore," she said innocently.
"What do you mean?" asked Sarah. Seamus roared with laughter.
"It looks like you've already landed a suckerfish!"
Bright red exploded on Sarah's face like fireworks. "It's not like that!" she snapped. "Come on!" With that, she stuck out her wand to flag the Knight Bus.
The bus 'bang'-ed into sight, and they all loaded onto the bus.
"One week until Hogwarts," Gerald whispered, looking out the window at the passing scenery. They appeared to be somewhere in the Alps, though he couldn't tell.
"Mmm," was the chorus of voices that replied.
A/N: That one was rather long compared to the other parts! I hope you liked, and please don't forget to review!
Disclaimer: Any character that is in the Harry Potter books belongs to the great J.K., and 'semvara' belongs to Virgo (KatyD2008@aol.com, if you feel the sudden need to email her ^_^) everything else belongs to unworthy ol' me.