Welcome to the Sixth chapter! All Harry Potter characters are owned by J K Rowling. Grace belongs to Grace, one of the authors of this chapter, and Katie belongs to Katie, the other author. Tam belongs to herself. The plot belongs to Grace and Katie, and this story is -still- dedicated to Tam who's moved far, far away from us *sniffles* we still miss you Tam!
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Chapter Six – Diagon Alley
Tam trudged up the steps that lead out of the dungeons the morning after they'd arrived in the castle. She met Grace in the Entrance Hall who was leaning against a stone pillar and rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"Where's Katie?" Tam asked, smoothing down her morning hair.
"I 'unno…" Grace said though a yawn. "I think she'll probably come down with Oliver though. C'mon, let's go have breakfast, I'm freezing in here."
They walked though the double doors into the Great Hall and sat down at a table. Immediately, a student said, "Sit at your own table. Ravenclaws aren't welcome here."
"Whoops, sorry!" Grace said, highly embarrassed, and she left to sit at the Ravenclaw table, muttering "Stupid…! Stupid!!" at herself.
A few metres away, Tam was staring uncertainly into a bowl filled with creamy sludge.
"It's okay." Draco smiled, sitting down next to her. "Porridge is edible."
Tam crinkled her nose at the substance once more before pushing it in front of Draco. "Then you eat it…"
"Err…I think I'd rather have some bacon actually." He grinned sheepishly.
While Draco and Tam were being fickle with breakfast foods, Katie entered the Great Hall behind Oliver Wood.
"So learning your way around? Want me to show you around a bit more before dinner" Oliver asked her as they took their seat at the Gryffindor table.
Katie nodded gratefully. "Yeah, sure, that'd be great." Katie said thankfully. "…Uh…what's that?" she asked as they sat down, gesturing at the servings of porridge.
"Yum! Porridge!!!" Oliver exclaimed and dished himself a full bowl. He shovelled spoonfuls into his mouth.
Typical boys… Katie thought to herself.
"Gotta keep my strength up, good for stamina!" he managed to say though a mouthful of it. "Want some?"
Katie made gagging noises and busied herself with pouring them both two goblets of orange juice.
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"Excuse me, are you Grace?"
Grace looked up from her breakfast to see a girl with long curly hair wearing a cloak, which had a Head Girl badge pinned to it.
"Yes, I am…Am I in trouble?" Grace asked. "Honestly, I didn't mean to sit at the Slytherin table, it was a mistake, I swear."
The Head Girl shook her head and smiled. "No you're not in any trouble, and don't mind the Slytherins. They're just…well...Slytherins. My name is Penelope Clearwater. I've been instructed to escort you and your two friends to Diagon Alley. Dumbledore says you three need to get some school supplies."
"Diagon Alley?" Grace repeated, disbelievingly.
"Yes, it's a place full of wizarding shops, and home of Gringotts Bank."
"I know, I just can't believe we're actually going there…"
"You know?"
"Erm...figure of speech. I'll just go get the others…" Said Grace, changing the subject and nicking off to the Gryffindor table.
She saw Katie and Oliver's heads over the other Gryffindor students and approached them with a hand over her eyes. "Okay you two, I'm interrupting now, so if you're doing anything embarrassing, please stop."
Katie hit Grace on the arm. "We're just eating breakfast, you doink!"
Grace resumed her eyesight. "Well I just came to tell you that we're going shopping."
"Yay! Diagon Alley!" Katie said excitedly, catching on.
At that moment, Tam came up behind them. "A Slytherin prefect called Martin told me he was taking us with Penelope and Percy!"
Katie groaned. "Percy's coming too?" She imitated him, "This is Quality Quidditch Supplies. They sell quality Quidditch supplies."
"Fantastic shop…absolutely wonderful…" Oliver remarked, lost in thought.
Katie glanced sideways at him. "…We'll get you something from there if Percy let's us…"
"C'mon, we have to get our bags and be back in five minutes, ready to go. We can't make them wait, look, Penelope's already got her cloak on." Tam said.
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Five minutes later, Tam, Katie and Grace lined up attentively in front of the Head Boy and Head Girl, and the Prefect with their bags and wallets which contained their muggle money.
"Right. McGonagall has given us permission to use the fireplace in her office." Percy said with an air of importance.
"Fireplace…" Tam started.
"Oh my God, we're going by Floo Powder!" Grace cried.
"Well what did you expect, Apparition?" Percy asked snootily.
Katie opened her mouth but then decided not to say anything in reply and closed it with a grin.
"And no mucking about." The Slytherin Prefect, Martin, warned. "Or we'll take you for a little trip down Knockturn Alley too." He added with a sneer.
Penelope noticed the now even more excited looks on the girl's faces and whispered to Martin "Don't give them a motive…"
They walked up to Professor McGonagall's office and stood around the fireplace.
"You first, Penny." Percy smiled and held out a bag of Floo Powder to his girlfriend.
Martin rolled his eyes and Katie pretended to puke.
"Go, you wild thing." Tam teased, punching Percy lightly on the arm which caused some of the Floo Powder to spill out of the bag.
"Oh, look what you've done now." Percy sighed irritably. "Accio!" he cried, pointing his wand at the Floo Powder, which made it zoom up off the floor, and back into the small pouch.
Penelope threw her powder into the fireplace and then stepped into the green flames that had erupted. "Diagon Alley!" she said clearly. In two blinks she had gone.
"Gryffindor students first." Percy said and quickly gave Katie some Floo Powder before Martin could say anything.
Katie copied Penelope's actions and the next thing she knew, she was being jerked through the warm, spinning darkness before falling out of a grate onto a stone floor.
Penelope was there to help Katie up and muttered "Just like Percy to send a Gryffindor first."
A few minutes later, Tam came through, then Grace.
When Percy arrived and picked himself up out of the grate, Penelope asked "Where's Martin?!"
"Oh, he's coming." Percy said simply. "I gave him the bag of Floo Powder before I left. Don't worry Penny, he'll be here any-" and before Percy could finish, he was pushed forward by the sudden arrival of the Slytherin.
"Out of my way, Gryffindor." Martin smirked.
"I'd like to remind you that not only am I a Gryffindor, I am also Head Boy." Percy said huffily, correcting the angle of his horn-rimmed glasses.
"And I would like to remind you that I don't really care." Martin said, taking a step over to Tamara.
"Boys…" Penelope mumbled, rolling her eyes.
The tree younger girls stopped snickering to see where they were. They noticed a few dustbins, a brick wall on one side and a door leading into a busy pub on the other.
"We're out the back of The Leaky Cauldron." Tam whispered to Grace who nodded eagerly.
Percy took out his wand. "Two up, three across…" he muttered, then tapped the chosen brick three times with his wand. It shook and wiggled, then the doorway to Diagon Alley grew and widened in the brickwork in front of their eyes.
"Right. Now we're only here for an hour or so, so we can't waste any time gawking at everything like I've seen some muggles do." Percy said and gave Tamara a small push in the back to get her to enter the cobbled street.
There weren't that many people at all in Diagon Alley, seeing as it was an early Sunday morning and there was work to be done by most witches and wizards anyway. The only people there were a few wives with young children or people who were out for a quick trip to stock up on ingredients from the Apothecary, or to make withdrawals from Gringotts. In fact, that was exactly where the group was headed.
"Gringotts wizard's bank to get your muggle money changed." Percy instructed, steering them in its direction. On the way, they passed Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, Flourish and Blotts, Eyelops' Owl Emporium and Ollivander's: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.
They reached the snowy-white building and went up the steps to the pair of bronze doors, Katie staring at the uniformed goblin who was guarding the doors. He bowed them through and they faced the next pair of doors- silver this time. Percy let the three pause to read the worded inscription, and then they were bowed through again by another two goblins.
"Over there." Percy said, pointing to a counter where a goblin sat, sorting through some papers. "Good morning, we've come to change some muggle money." Percy said to the goblin, who looked up, then moved his papers to the side of the counter and got three velvet pouches put of a drawer.
"Pounds Stirling, sir?" the goblin asked.
"Um." Percy looked questioningly at Tam, Katie and Grace.
"Australian dollars." Tam informed him.
"What's the exchange rate?" Grace asked the goblin.
"8.76 Australian dollars per Galleon." The goblin told her.
The three girls muttered darkly and Tam was distinctly heard saying the words "economy" and "ridiculous".
"Come on, let's pay up." Grace sighed, taking some brightly coloured Australian notes out of her wallet and putting them on the counter.
"Do you take commission?" Katie asked.
"No, miss, we don't." said the goblin.
"Well at least that's good." said Katie.
The goblin took some Galleons, Knuts and Sickles out of the velvet pouches and swapped them for all the Australian currency.
Then they left Gringotts, Katie stopping outside the bronze doors to blame the goblin she had stared at previously for causing the bad economy in Australia, before hurrying off after the others.
"Where are we going now, Martin?" Tam asked.
"Ollivanders. The most important thing you need at Hogwarts is a wand." He replied, stopping outside the small, dark shop.
"Ollivander really should hire someone to dress the windows if he still isn't going to do it himself." Katie remarked, pointing to the single wand which lay on a dusty, purple cushion. They all entered the shop to a tinkle of a bell, and an extremely old man emerged from the back storeroom.
"Good morning. How are we all today?"
"Fine thanks, Mr. Ollivander." Percy answered for all of them. "These three need wands." He informed, pointing to Tamara, Katie and Grace.
"Right then. Who's first?" Mr. Ollivander asked.
"She is." The trio said, all pointing to each other.
"Come on guys, he needs a volunteer." Penelope said. Katie and Grace took a step back, leaving Tam in front of Mr. Ollivander.
"Excellent. This way, dear." Mr. Ollivander said, taking Tam over to a shelf piled high with boxes and boxes of wands. Mr. Ollivander got out his measuring tape which started measuring the distance between Tam's earlobe and ankle.
"Which is your wand arm?" Mr. Ollivander asked as he selected a few boxes off a shelf.
"Uh…my right arm." Tam answered. Mr. Ollivander brought the boxes out and piled them on a chair.
"Actually, before you begin, if you girls give us a couple of Galleons, we'll just go and pick up your school books." Percy said. "We'll be back soon, stay here." He told them and he, Penelope and Martin left the store for Flourish and Blotts after being given money by the three.
"Now, to continue where we left off," Mr. Ollivander said, "Each Ollivander wand is made with the core of either a dragon heartstring, a unicorn hair or a phoenix tail feather. You do not choose the wand, it is the wand that chooses you, and you will never get quite the same results using someone else's wand." He went on, opening one of the long rectangular boxes and handing Tam the wand inside. She looked at it- nine and a quarter inches, made of yew. "Phoenix tail feather, a bit bendy. But…no…" Mr. Ollivander said thoughtfully before snatching it away. "Try this one instead. Eleven and three quarters, maple, with a unicorn hair." Tam went to take it out of his hand, but when she'd gripped it, he didn't let go, and put it back in its box. "No, definitely, not…" He looked back at the shelf, then went over to it and picked out one more wand. He opened the box and offered it to Tamara who lifted the wand carefully out of its soft, satin bedding. "Mahogany. Unicorn hair, twelve inches, nice and swishy." Mr. Ollivander said. Tam waved it to the side and a few purple sparks shot out its end.
"Very well done!" Mr. Ollivander cried and they could tell he was pleased with himself as well as Tam. "Okay, who's next?"
"I'll go." Katie decided, and stepped forward.
The magic measuring tape picked itself up off the floor and wound itself round Katie's head, then calculated the distance from her elbow to her knee.
"Wand arm?"
"Right arm."
"Willow, eight inches, dragon heartstring."
Katie held the wand, but Mr. Ollivander asked her to give it back, before pushing another one into her hand. Katie went through about fifteen wands, which left Mr. Ollivander taking a rest in a chair that had small, spindly legs. After a minute, he heaved himself to his feet again and departed into the back room.
"What are you doing? Trying to take the old guy out or something?" Grace joked to Katie, not a moment too soon because Mr. Ollivander came back into the main room at that moment with four or so wooden wand boxes.
"New imports! Arrived just last Friday!" he opened the lid on one of them and carefully handed the wand to Katie. "That one's ebony, thirteen inches with a phoenix tail feather. Slightly flexible. Lovely thing isn't it?"
Katie took hold of it and a intense looking blue shine made its way up to the tip of the wand.
"It's yours." Mr. Ollivander sighed with relief. "Very well then, that comes to fourteen Galleons, seven Galleons each wand." He said, making is way over to the counter.
"Um… Mr. Ollivander?" said Grace meekly.
"Yes..?" Mr. Ollivander said, looking up. "Oh dear, I'd forgotten you, hadn't I?" he said as Grace nodded, feeling ashamed for making him run around finding wands for the three of them. He came out from the behind the counter and stooped to dig around though a pile of wands at the very back of a bottom shelf. He brought out two incredibly dusty boxes. "Eleven inches, cedar, phoenix tail feather." He said, pressing it into her palm. "Try it out then." He said, and Grace gave it a wave- to which absolutely nothing happened.
"Typical Murphy's law…" Mr. Ollivander muttered. "Should have tried the last one first. Here." He gave Grace the wand from the second box. "This one is extremely old. Ten and a half inches, cherry wood, dragon heartstring and rather nimble."
Grace gave the wand a sharp flick and it zoomed out of her hold and skidded to a stop on the floor. "Err..?" she said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, very good! It's perfectly all right, that was normal." He reassured her, heading over to the counter once more. "Seven golden Galleons each, please. That comes to a total of 21 Galleons."
"Bloody hell, the guy's rich!" Katie whispered to Tamara, and they all put a load of silver and gold coins on the counter top.
Percy, Marin and Penelope walked into the shop at that moment, signalled by the small tinkle from the bell. They appeared to be struggling under the pile of books they were each carrying, except for Penelope who had used her brains and had brought along her own bag. Katie, Tam and Grace thanked Mr. Ollivander for the wands, got their books off the Head Boy, Head Girl and Prefect, and left the shop.
Next they went to the Apothecary for their basic potion ingredients, and managed to persuade Percy to let them stop off at Quality Quidditch Supplies ("Ah, Quality Quidditch Supplies! Yes, they sell wonderful quality Quidditch supplies!") where a bottle of broom handle polish was bought for Oliver Wood. Finally, when they had bought their cauldrons, telescopes and other equipment, they left Diagon Alley (much to Tam, Katie and Grace's disappointment) and ended up back in the courtyard behind The Leaky Cauldron.
"How about a drink each before we get back to school?" Percy suggested, and of course, no one had any objections.
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They took a seat each in a booth inside the pub, and Penelope ordered each of them a Butterbeer from Tom, the barman. The three girls showed off their wands proudly.
"See, my wand is new, it only got imported on Friday." Katie told the older students.
"Yeah, you're lucky," Grace said, wiping the dust off her very antique wand. "Your wand doesn't hate you." And she told them what had happened when it had 'chosen her'.
Tam was inspecting her wand and declared that it looked too plain and that she was going to decorate it when they got back to Hogwarts.
"Speaking of Hogwarts." Percy butted in. "We have to be getting back." The girls started whining and carrying on about wanting to stay a little longer, so Percy said "The sooner we get back, the sooner you three can test your wands because you're not allowed to use them outside of school grounds." In the blink of an eye, Tam, Katie and Grace were out of their chairs with their shopping laden in their arms.
"Come on Percy, we have to be getting back!"
"Get up, lets go!"
Percy's facial expression was set and he said, "I know, that's what I was trying to tell you!"
"Well you really should have said something about it, then." Grace grinned, stirring him up. Percy stood up suddenly and bustled the three back out to the walled courtyard. Clutching their new things tightly, Tamara, Katie and Grace sped back though the Floo Network, followed by Penelope, Martin and lastly this time, Percy, until their feet were planted firmly on McGonagall's office floor.
For the rest of the day, the three girls explored the text in their schoolbooks and tried out a few simple spells.
That night, Draco offered Tam a purple ribbon to tie around her wand, and finally, everything was ready for them to start classes the next day.
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So what do you think so far? Review/Flame away!
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Chapter Six – Diagon Alley
Tam trudged up the steps that lead out of the dungeons the morning after they'd arrived in the castle. She met Grace in the Entrance Hall who was leaning against a stone pillar and rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"Where's Katie?" Tam asked, smoothing down her morning hair.
"I 'unno…" Grace said though a yawn. "I think she'll probably come down with Oliver though. C'mon, let's go have breakfast, I'm freezing in here."
They walked though the double doors into the Great Hall and sat down at a table. Immediately, a student said, "Sit at your own table. Ravenclaws aren't welcome here."
"Whoops, sorry!" Grace said, highly embarrassed, and she left to sit at the Ravenclaw table, muttering "Stupid…! Stupid!!" at herself.
A few metres away, Tam was staring uncertainly into a bowl filled with creamy sludge.
"It's okay." Draco smiled, sitting down next to her. "Porridge is edible."
Tam crinkled her nose at the substance once more before pushing it in front of Draco. "Then you eat it…"
"Err…I think I'd rather have some bacon actually." He grinned sheepishly.
While Draco and Tam were being fickle with breakfast foods, Katie entered the Great Hall behind Oliver Wood.
"So learning your way around? Want me to show you around a bit more before dinner" Oliver asked her as they took their seat at the Gryffindor table.
Katie nodded gratefully. "Yeah, sure, that'd be great." Katie said thankfully. "…Uh…what's that?" she asked as they sat down, gesturing at the servings of porridge.
"Yum! Porridge!!!" Oliver exclaimed and dished himself a full bowl. He shovelled spoonfuls into his mouth.
Typical boys… Katie thought to herself.
"Gotta keep my strength up, good for stamina!" he managed to say though a mouthful of it. "Want some?"
Katie made gagging noises and busied herself with pouring them both two goblets of orange juice.
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"Excuse me, are you Grace?"
Grace looked up from her breakfast to see a girl with long curly hair wearing a cloak, which had a Head Girl badge pinned to it.
"Yes, I am…Am I in trouble?" Grace asked. "Honestly, I didn't mean to sit at the Slytherin table, it was a mistake, I swear."
The Head Girl shook her head and smiled. "No you're not in any trouble, and don't mind the Slytherins. They're just…well...Slytherins. My name is Penelope Clearwater. I've been instructed to escort you and your two friends to Diagon Alley. Dumbledore says you three need to get some school supplies."
"Diagon Alley?" Grace repeated, disbelievingly.
"Yes, it's a place full of wizarding shops, and home of Gringotts Bank."
"I know, I just can't believe we're actually going there…"
"You know?"
"Erm...figure of speech. I'll just go get the others…" Said Grace, changing the subject and nicking off to the Gryffindor table.
She saw Katie and Oliver's heads over the other Gryffindor students and approached them with a hand over her eyes. "Okay you two, I'm interrupting now, so if you're doing anything embarrassing, please stop."
Katie hit Grace on the arm. "We're just eating breakfast, you doink!"
Grace resumed her eyesight. "Well I just came to tell you that we're going shopping."
"Yay! Diagon Alley!" Katie said excitedly, catching on.
At that moment, Tam came up behind them. "A Slytherin prefect called Martin told me he was taking us with Penelope and Percy!"
Katie groaned. "Percy's coming too?" She imitated him, "This is Quality Quidditch Supplies. They sell quality Quidditch supplies."
"Fantastic shop…absolutely wonderful…" Oliver remarked, lost in thought.
Katie glanced sideways at him. "…We'll get you something from there if Percy let's us…"
"C'mon, we have to get our bags and be back in five minutes, ready to go. We can't make them wait, look, Penelope's already got her cloak on." Tam said.
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Five minutes later, Tam, Katie and Grace lined up attentively in front of the Head Boy and Head Girl, and the Prefect with their bags and wallets which contained their muggle money.
"Right. McGonagall has given us permission to use the fireplace in her office." Percy said with an air of importance.
"Fireplace…" Tam started.
"Oh my God, we're going by Floo Powder!" Grace cried.
"Well what did you expect, Apparition?" Percy asked snootily.
Katie opened her mouth but then decided not to say anything in reply and closed it with a grin.
"And no mucking about." The Slytherin Prefect, Martin, warned. "Or we'll take you for a little trip down Knockturn Alley too." He added with a sneer.
Penelope noticed the now even more excited looks on the girl's faces and whispered to Martin "Don't give them a motive…"
They walked up to Professor McGonagall's office and stood around the fireplace.
"You first, Penny." Percy smiled and held out a bag of Floo Powder to his girlfriend.
Martin rolled his eyes and Katie pretended to puke.
"Go, you wild thing." Tam teased, punching Percy lightly on the arm which caused some of the Floo Powder to spill out of the bag.
"Oh, look what you've done now." Percy sighed irritably. "Accio!" he cried, pointing his wand at the Floo Powder, which made it zoom up off the floor, and back into the small pouch.
Penelope threw her powder into the fireplace and then stepped into the green flames that had erupted. "Diagon Alley!" she said clearly. In two blinks she had gone.
"Gryffindor students first." Percy said and quickly gave Katie some Floo Powder before Martin could say anything.
Katie copied Penelope's actions and the next thing she knew, she was being jerked through the warm, spinning darkness before falling out of a grate onto a stone floor.
Penelope was there to help Katie up and muttered "Just like Percy to send a Gryffindor first."
A few minutes later, Tam came through, then Grace.
When Percy arrived and picked himself up out of the grate, Penelope asked "Where's Martin?!"
"Oh, he's coming." Percy said simply. "I gave him the bag of Floo Powder before I left. Don't worry Penny, he'll be here any-" and before Percy could finish, he was pushed forward by the sudden arrival of the Slytherin.
"Out of my way, Gryffindor." Martin smirked.
"I'd like to remind you that not only am I a Gryffindor, I am also Head Boy." Percy said huffily, correcting the angle of his horn-rimmed glasses.
"And I would like to remind you that I don't really care." Martin said, taking a step over to Tamara.
"Boys…" Penelope mumbled, rolling her eyes.
The tree younger girls stopped snickering to see where they were. They noticed a few dustbins, a brick wall on one side and a door leading into a busy pub on the other.
"We're out the back of The Leaky Cauldron." Tam whispered to Grace who nodded eagerly.
Percy took out his wand. "Two up, three across…" he muttered, then tapped the chosen brick three times with his wand. It shook and wiggled, then the doorway to Diagon Alley grew and widened in the brickwork in front of their eyes.
"Right. Now we're only here for an hour or so, so we can't waste any time gawking at everything like I've seen some muggles do." Percy said and gave Tamara a small push in the back to get her to enter the cobbled street.
There weren't that many people at all in Diagon Alley, seeing as it was an early Sunday morning and there was work to be done by most witches and wizards anyway. The only people there were a few wives with young children or people who were out for a quick trip to stock up on ingredients from the Apothecary, or to make withdrawals from Gringotts. In fact, that was exactly where the group was headed.
"Gringotts wizard's bank to get your muggle money changed." Percy instructed, steering them in its direction. On the way, they passed Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, Flourish and Blotts, Eyelops' Owl Emporium and Ollivander's: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.
They reached the snowy-white building and went up the steps to the pair of bronze doors, Katie staring at the uniformed goblin who was guarding the doors. He bowed them through and they faced the next pair of doors- silver this time. Percy let the three pause to read the worded inscription, and then they were bowed through again by another two goblins.
"Over there." Percy said, pointing to a counter where a goblin sat, sorting through some papers. "Good morning, we've come to change some muggle money." Percy said to the goblin, who looked up, then moved his papers to the side of the counter and got three velvet pouches put of a drawer.
"Pounds Stirling, sir?" the goblin asked.
"Um." Percy looked questioningly at Tam, Katie and Grace.
"Australian dollars." Tam informed him.
"What's the exchange rate?" Grace asked the goblin.
"8.76 Australian dollars per Galleon." The goblin told her.
The three girls muttered darkly and Tam was distinctly heard saying the words "economy" and "ridiculous".
"Come on, let's pay up." Grace sighed, taking some brightly coloured Australian notes out of her wallet and putting them on the counter.
"Do you take commission?" Katie asked.
"No, miss, we don't." said the goblin.
"Well at least that's good." said Katie.
The goblin took some Galleons, Knuts and Sickles out of the velvet pouches and swapped them for all the Australian currency.
Then they left Gringotts, Katie stopping outside the bronze doors to blame the goblin she had stared at previously for causing the bad economy in Australia, before hurrying off after the others.
"Where are we going now, Martin?" Tam asked.
"Ollivanders. The most important thing you need at Hogwarts is a wand." He replied, stopping outside the small, dark shop.
"Ollivander really should hire someone to dress the windows if he still isn't going to do it himself." Katie remarked, pointing to the single wand which lay on a dusty, purple cushion. They all entered the shop to a tinkle of a bell, and an extremely old man emerged from the back storeroom.
"Good morning. How are we all today?"
"Fine thanks, Mr. Ollivander." Percy answered for all of them. "These three need wands." He informed, pointing to Tamara, Katie and Grace.
"Right then. Who's first?" Mr. Ollivander asked.
"She is." The trio said, all pointing to each other.
"Come on guys, he needs a volunteer." Penelope said. Katie and Grace took a step back, leaving Tam in front of Mr. Ollivander.
"Excellent. This way, dear." Mr. Ollivander said, taking Tam over to a shelf piled high with boxes and boxes of wands. Mr. Ollivander got out his measuring tape which started measuring the distance between Tam's earlobe and ankle.
"Which is your wand arm?" Mr. Ollivander asked as he selected a few boxes off a shelf.
"Uh…my right arm." Tam answered. Mr. Ollivander brought the boxes out and piled them on a chair.
"Actually, before you begin, if you girls give us a couple of Galleons, we'll just go and pick up your school books." Percy said. "We'll be back soon, stay here." He told them and he, Penelope and Martin left the store for Flourish and Blotts after being given money by the three.
"Now, to continue where we left off," Mr. Ollivander said, "Each Ollivander wand is made with the core of either a dragon heartstring, a unicorn hair or a phoenix tail feather. You do not choose the wand, it is the wand that chooses you, and you will never get quite the same results using someone else's wand." He went on, opening one of the long rectangular boxes and handing Tam the wand inside. She looked at it- nine and a quarter inches, made of yew. "Phoenix tail feather, a bit bendy. But…no…" Mr. Ollivander said thoughtfully before snatching it away. "Try this one instead. Eleven and three quarters, maple, with a unicorn hair." Tam went to take it out of his hand, but when she'd gripped it, he didn't let go, and put it back in its box. "No, definitely, not…" He looked back at the shelf, then went over to it and picked out one more wand. He opened the box and offered it to Tamara who lifted the wand carefully out of its soft, satin bedding. "Mahogany. Unicorn hair, twelve inches, nice and swishy." Mr. Ollivander said. Tam waved it to the side and a few purple sparks shot out its end.
"Very well done!" Mr. Ollivander cried and they could tell he was pleased with himself as well as Tam. "Okay, who's next?"
"I'll go." Katie decided, and stepped forward.
The magic measuring tape picked itself up off the floor and wound itself round Katie's head, then calculated the distance from her elbow to her knee.
"Wand arm?"
"Right arm."
"Willow, eight inches, dragon heartstring."
Katie held the wand, but Mr. Ollivander asked her to give it back, before pushing another one into her hand. Katie went through about fifteen wands, which left Mr. Ollivander taking a rest in a chair that had small, spindly legs. After a minute, he heaved himself to his feet again and departed into the back room.
"What are you doing? Trying to take the old guy out or something?" Grace joked to Katie, not a moment too soon because Mr. Ollivander came back into the main room at that moment with four or so wooden wand boxes.
"New imports! Arrived just last Friday!" he opened the lid on one of them and carefully handed the wand to Katie. "That one's ebony, thirteen inches with a phoenix tail feather. Slightly flexible. Lovely thing isn't it?"
Katie took hold of it and a intense looking blue shine made its way up to the tip of the wand.
"It's yours." Mr. Ollivander sighed with relief. "Very well then, that comes to fourteen Galleons, seven Galleons each wand." He said, making is way over to the counter.
"Um… Mr. Ollivander?" said Grace meekly.
"Yes..?" Mr. Ollivander said, looking up. "Oh dear, I'd forgotten you, hadn't I?" he said as Grace nodded, feeling ashamed for making him run around finding wands for the three of them. He came out from the behind the counter and stooped to dig around though a pile of wands at the very back of a bottom shelf. He brought out two incredibly dusty boxes. "Eleven inches, cedar, phoenix tail feather." He said, pressing it into her palm. "Try it out then." He said, and Grace gave it a wave- to which absolutely nothing happened.
"Typical Murphy's law…" Mr. Ollivander muttered. "Should have tried the last one first. Here." He gave Grace the wand from the second box. "This one is extremely old. Ten and a half inches, cherry wood, dragon heartstring and rather nimble."
Grace gave the wand a sharp flick and it zoomed out of her hold and skidded to a stop on the floor. "Err..?" she said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, very good! It's perfectly all right, that was normal." He reassured her, heading over to the counter once more. "Seven golden Galleons each, please. That comes to a total of 21 Galleons."
"Bloody hell, the guy's rich!" Katie whispered to Tamara, and they all put a load of silver and gold coins on the counter top.
Percy, Marin and Penelope walked into the shop at that moment, signalled by the small tinkle from the bell. They appeared to be struggling under the pile of books they were each carrying, except for Penelope who had used her brains and had brought along her own bag. Katie, Tam and Grace thanked Mr. Ollivander for the wands, got their books off the Head Boy, Head Girl and Prefect, and left the shop.
Next they went to the Apothecary for their basic potion ingredients, and managed to persuade Percy to let them stop off at Quality Quidditch Supplies ("Ah, Quality Quidditch Supplies! Yes, they sell wonderful quality Quidditch supplies!") where a bottle of broom handle polish was bought for Oliver Wood. Finally, when they had bought their cauldrons, telescopes and other equipment, they left Diagon Alley (much to Tam, Katie and Grace's disappointment) and ended up back in the courtyard behind The Leaky Cauldron.
"How about a drink each before we get back to school?" Percy suggested, and of course, no one had any objections.
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They took a seat each in a booth inside the pub, and Penelope ordered each of them a Butterbeer from Tom, the barman. The three girls showed off their wands proudly.
"See, my wand is new, it only got imported on Friday." Katie told the older students.
"Yeah, you're lucky," Grace said, wiping the dust off her very antique wand. "Your wand doesn't hate you." And she told them what had happened when it had 'chosen her'.
Tam was inspecting her wand and declared that it looked too plain and that she was going to decorate it when they got back to Hogwarts.
"Speaking of Hogwarts." Percy butted in. "We have to be getting back." The girls started whining and carrying on about wanting to stay a little longer, so Percy said "The sooner we get back, the sooner you three can test your wands because you're not allowed to use them outside of school grounds." In the blink of an eye, Tam, Katie and Grace were out of their chairs with their shopping laden in their arms.
"Come on Percy, we have to be getting back!"
"Get up, lets go!"
Percy's facial expression was set and he said, "I know, that's what I was trying to tell you!"
"Well you really should have said something about it, then." Grace grinned, stirring him up. Percy stood up suddenly and bustled the three back out to the walled courtyard. Clutching their new things tightly, Tamara, Katie and Grace sped back though the Floo Network, followed by Penelope, Martin and lastly this time, Percy, until their feet were planted firmly on McGonagall's office floor.
For the rest of the day, the three girls explored the text in their schoolbooks and tried out a few simple spells.
That night, Draco offered Tam a purple ribbon to tie around her wand, and finally, everything was ready for them to start classes the next day.
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