a/n: This is my very first fanfiction story, so be pretty nice.  Right now I'm working on the third one the series so my writing has improved since then.  Also, if you don't have either Lumos, Chancellor. AGaramond, Garamond, Benguait Frisky ATT, Aeolus, Pompeii Capitals or Gallery Caps this might look a bit weird.  Most of my chapters won't be this long, but I needed to get all of Diagon Alley in.  Also, part of the point of this is to guess who Siandra Lorington is.  She IS in JKR's books, but not by that name: in this one she goes by her middle name and her maiden name.

Disclaimer: I'm not going to do all of this every single time, so I'll just add to the list.  This time I own: : Millisiandra Lorington (by that name, not who she turns out to be), Cipriana Lorington (Siandra's mother), Kingsley Lorington (Siandra's father), Eva (the cat), Professor Viviana Comora, Resumald, Vanna, Galdrakona, Grindelgop, Tanya, Siandra's house, the plot, and the dialougue, descriptions etc.  All the rest is J. K. Rowling's.

T H E L E T T E R

S

iandra Lorington could not imagine her family living without magic. Every day they used, at the very least, 10 spells, and a day was considered wasted if they hadn't made at least one potion, and that wasn't counting all the transfigurations they did. Every day Siandra practiced Quidditch, the most popular wizarding sport that was played on flying broomsticks, on the moor they owned and went and had a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, the local eatery and pub. They apparated, that is, disappearing and re-appearing somewhere else with a little pop, everywhere, except, of course, Siandra who was not allowed to yet, because Apparition was a tricky operation and required a license.

No brooms, no wands, no Butterbeer, and no cauldron, how dull could that be? The only reason that she was thinking this horrid thought, was that her father had gotten a job working undercover in a Muggle (non-wizarding) town to learn more about the ways of Muggles. The only thing that Siandra looked forward to was the fact that she might be attending Hogwarts when the summer was over.

Siandra Lorington, as you might guess, was a witch. She lived in an all-wizarding town, the only one in Britain, which was called Hogsmeade and loved it there. Her father's full time job studying Muggles, the non-magic folk, meant that for at least a whole year, practically no magic was allowed. The coming year, in fact, was the first time she was really going to school, that was, if she did get the letter. She hoped to go to Hogwarts, the largest and most well-known of wizarding schools in her area. July thirty-first, she knew, was the deadline for sending in mail replying to the invitation letter. July thirty-first, however, was drawing nearer and Siandra had yet to receive the invite.

You could tell that she was nervous by the way that she kept twisting her short black hair and how she kept taking off her silver oval glasses, misting them, wiping them off with her wizarding robes, and then putting them back on. She hoped that the letter-writers would know to use her middle name, Millisiandra, or Siandra for short, rather than her first name. She much preferred her middle.

However, her fears were settled because it was half-past twelve when the letter came. It was on thick yellowish parchment addressed in green ink to:

Ms. M. Lorington

The Tallest Tower

11 Greenwood Lane

Hogsmeade

Sanglier

The tiny pigmy owl, mail in the wizarding world was delivered by Owl Post, fluttered to not get blown away by the fierce wind by the window as it hooted in a squeaky sort of way to get Siandra's attention. Siandra hurriedly let the minute owl in, however it was pressed so hard against the window that when she opened it, the owl catapulted across the room and landed with a soft splash in her bowl of faeries. The little owl looked very confused, perhaps as to why it was suddenly wing-deep in water full of flitting water faeries. But it soon contented itself with lapping up the water, which caused all the faeries to scuttle into a corner under a large maple leaf.

"Hey!" said Siandra sternly, "Out of the faeries, out, OUT!" The frightened owl whizzed across the room trailing water droplets all over it and landed with a flump on her perfectly made bed. A black cat awoke from sleep on the pillow and stared at the owl fixedly. The owl didn't notice, as he was too busy drying himself off by fluffing his feathers. The result made him look much like a static furball. Siandra grabbed the letter from its place, banded to its leg, and turned it over, trying to catch the water that was dripping from it. On the back she saw the half-slit Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry seal stamped in red wax bearing the badger, the lion, the snake, and the eagle all surrounding the Hogwarts letter "H" and bearing the Hogwarts motto "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus". Siandra was instantly elated. She was going! She felt like dancing around the room and hopping up and down. Who should she tell first? Siandra thought of her parents, who were the only people in the house now, excluding her. She clutched the letter tightly in her hand and started rushing down the many flights of stairs.

"Mom! Dad! I GOT THE LETTER!" she yelled while still two floors away from the dining room. "I'M GOING TO HOGWARTS! CAN YOU SEND THEM THE OWL BACK NOW? CAN WE GO TO DIAGON ALLEY TOMORROW? PLEASE MOM AND DAD!" She was still screaming as she arrived in the dining room where her mom and dad were calmly eating their French toast.

"Oh, hi Mom, hi Dad," she said, trying to forget that she had completely lost her mind while running down the stairs yelling. She took five big long deep breaths and thought, calm yourself.

"Missy, what happened to 'quiet I'm trying to transfigure my mouse'?" asked her dad jokingly, looking up from his breakfast.

"But Dad, if you'd been listening, you'd know that I've just been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.  Thank you for not calling me by my first name, though."

"I still don't know why you insist on being called by your middle name when you have a perfectly lovely first name. I think that your first name sounds like a sorceress!" praised her mother, looking motherly at Siandra and standing up from her chair to start clearing the table. Obviously she hadn't heard a word that Siandra had just said, otherwise, Siandra felt, she'd be congratulating her and writing a return owl, but her good mood was not going to be spoiled today, even by her parents who refused to call her Siandra without putting up a good fight.

"It's a Greek goddess and I'm not Greekish — erm, Greek. And of course you like it because you chose it! Can you please write a return owl Mom, please?" said Siandra eagerly, trying to change the subject quickly to cover up her poor rebuttal. Her mother looked lovingly at her and then walked over to the study to get some nice fancy quills and parchment to write the return owl. She returned with a tall bottle of some silvery ink that she usually saved for party RSVP's and a luxury eagle feather quill.

"My, you are eager today honey! Okay, I'll write it, but open it up first, for Merlin's sake!" Siandra had probably never felt this eager in her life and her hands trembled slightly when she slit the seal on the envelope. Inside she read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

`

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards.)

Dear Ms. Lorington,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted

at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please

find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no

later than July 31st.

Yours Sincerely,

Professor Viviana Comora

Professor Viviana Comora,

Deputy Headmistress

"Now that I've read it, will you write the letter, please?" asked Siandra. She was quite sure that the coming year was going to be extremely interesting and exciting. It was going to be much more interesting than when she took Pre-Wizarding School from a little old witch who lived in someone else's old basement and taught them how to do sums in their heads.

"Wait a minute," interrupted her father. "You are sure you want to go to Hogwarts and not Resumald?"

Resumald was the local private school. Hardly anyone went there anymore unless they were snobbish and were obsessed with Divination. Siandra thought that Divination was a bit thick sometimes. Her father had lived nearby it in the days when it was a respected academy and still thought it was a rather good school to send his daughter to.

"I am sure," she said with such authority that even her father couldn't argue with her. Siandra's mother sighed and delicately unscrewed the top to the tall inkbottle, dipped her luxury eagle feather quill in the silvery purple ink, and started writing in small rounded letters. Siandra peered over the top of the letter so she could see what her mother was writing.

"You're using my first name," she remarked. "I don't want anyone to call me that at Hogwarts."

"But dear, maybe you'd like to start using it again!" said her mother hopefully.

"No," ended Siandra. Something in her voice told her mother that she couldn't be convinced so she grabbed a fresh sheet of parchment and wrote Siandra's middle name.

"You can use my full middle name if you like, just don't include my first name at all," she said. Her mother wrote "Millisiandra Lorington" on the sheet of parchment.

"That's better," said Siandra.

After a few minutes with Siandra reading over her mother's shoulder, her mother waved a hand carelessly at Siandra.

"Stop hovering over me. I can't write an owl with you like this!" said her mother annoyingly. Siandra walked resignedly off to her room at the tallest tower. She was feeling very gleeful, though, because nothing could spoil this extremely good day. She started whistling blithely and skipping around and (because this was definitely not normal behavior for her) her parents seriously thought that she had gone mad.

Siandra was busy getting ready for Hogwarts. Her parents owned a small private library, which was a tower that housed books. It was located in what Siandra referred to as 'the book tower'. She had spent many long hours in it when she was a little child, and she still had many fond memories of it. She walked up to the tower and opened the door. A current blew out and whipped through her hair, playfully tossing it around. Rays of sunlight mixed with floating dust steamed in from the open windows above the towering bookcases. There was a square of wood on wheels stationed beside the door. Siandra hopped onto it and zoomed around the edge, whirling in and out of the letters of the alphabet. She was looking for 'H', because she had intended to just read up about Hogwarts, but something else caught her eye. It was Levitation for Beginners by Martin Melvin. She could read up on all the classes that she was going to take! She thought about this, and what parts specifically, and SMACK. She had run into the wall. After a bit, she gingerly got up, massaged the top of her head, removed an extremely large Medieval Dictionary of Magical Terms from on top of her arm, and noticed that a pile of books had fallen off of her stomach when she got up. The scooter must've knocked into a shelf when it shot out from under her. The shelf above her was marked 'T'. Well, she thought, T is for transfiguration. So she gathered up the books on her stomach and carried them up a few winding flights of stairs. She passed through other rooms of books until she reached the very top room in the tower. It was a beautiful room. An 'architectural marvel' as her mother would say. It was a small and round with blue and green tiles arranged in nesting circles on the floor. In the middle there was a round, thick, red, Turkish throw rug with tan fringe around it. Cushy, lime green couches curled around the circumference. There were large windows facing each other with thick glass that reached all the way from the floor to the ceiling. The places that weren't occupied by windows were instead covered by prim wallpaper with a linear sort of design featuring flowers. There was one picture on each of the walls. They were both the same size and had a small, simple, stained, dark wood frame. One was a close-up of a rosebud. The other was a picture of great-great aunt so-and-so in this room, wearing her Hogwarts uniform. She kept smiling, and trying to cast spells, because in the wizarding world, the pictures were moving. Siandra hopped onto one of the couches, sat cross-legged, picked up a book, and began to read.

* * *

Many days passed as Siandra's excitement built. On the evening before the day that they had planned to go to Diagon Alley, she decided to actually go to bed early, in stead staying up reading, so that she would wake up extremely early the following morning.

The next day was bright and sunny and, Siandra felt, a perfect day to go to Diagon Alley (although she probably would have felt the same about any other day). She woke up at about five o'clock in the morning and romped into her parents' bedroom with Eva, her long-haired black cat, held in her arms, and set her down on her mother's head. The cat obeyed Siandra and jumped around on her parents a little (enough to make her father say sleepily, "Quidditch practice? At this hour?") and then leapt promptly out the window to hunt for jobberknolls, small blue speckled birds that lived in Hogsmeade and were a delicacy to Eva.

Siandra was down in the kitchen making breakfast rolls for herself and her mother and father so they wouldn't have to waste precious time making breakfast. The pan sizzled as she prodded it with her wand, trying to make it light. She soon gave up trying to do it by willpower and looked in the kitchen's many cupboards looking for a magical cooking book. In the top right corner she found one called Ballad of the Magical Breakfast – Breakfast-Making Charms by Clevia Morning.

After she had worked out most of the charms in the breakfast making book, she ended up with three, slightly burnt breakfast rolls.

"MOM! DAD! BREAKFAST IS READY!" she yelled up the stairs to her soundly sleeping parents. Then she sat down in the wicker chair and began to devour her own breakfast roll.

At eight o'clock (when she had finally decided that her parents were victims of the Drought of Living Death) her father walked sleepily down the stairs followed closely by her mother.

"Good morning dear and oh!" her mother had suddenly noticed the breakfast rolls that sat neatly on the table. "Thank you dear! But really, you could have burned yourself! You haven't learned cooking magic yet!"

"I was careful Mom," Siandra said in a bored sort of voice that said only too clearly that she was not in the mood for lectures. "But I did use your cooking book, you know, Breakfast Roll Ballads or something like that. Anyway, I did do fine, so you have nothing to complain about."

It was rather silent as her parents ate their breakfast; perhaps they felt that if they opened their mouths that they would start choking. After breakfast Siandra gathered all of her books in her bag, to read if she got bored. Her parents had finished their food and seemed to be frowning at an empty flowerpot.

"No good," said her mother gravely to her father, "All our floo powder's gone. Sorry, Siandra, we're going to have to apparate to Diagon Alley to buy some more, sorry."

Floo powder was yet another way that the wizarding community traveled. It was good for Siandra, because she was not allowed to apparate yet. If their Floo powder was out, then Siandra couldn't go for quite a long time! Siandra suddenly dropped all the books that she was carrying and ran upstairs. In merely seconds (her parents strongly suspected that she had apparated despite the fact that she almost always obeyed the rules) she was back with a little pouch filled full of a glittery substance.

"Oh, our little Mil — " said her mother fondly but was cut off by Siandra.

"SO," she said loudly. "We'd better get going!" Siandra stepped near the fire, took out a pinch of the Floo powder from her pouch, sprinkled it into the fire then she herself stepped into the fire and said clearly, "To Diagon Alley!" and she disappeared in the smoke. Siandra was used to this. She tucked her elbows in and had beforehand, put her glasses in her pocket, so that they wouldn't get cracked on the journey. Floo powder was an interesting way of traveling. You traveled by fireplaces and grates. Siandra saw a whirl of them as she rushed past, turning and turning, like she was on a roller coaster. But Siandra had been doing this for quite a long time. And then suddenly, it stopped. Siandra brushed some soot off of her clothes and stepped out of the fireplace that she had gone into. She was in a rather dimly lit room. It must be the Leaky Cauldron, an eatery, pub, hotel, and concealing the entrance to Diagon Alley, the wizarding main shopping center. Oops, she thought. She must've been really excited, because she'd gotten off at the wrong fireplace. She hadn't done that in quite a while. It was only one grate too far anyway. The room had a high ceiling with a skylight, a bar at one side of the room, and scattered tables all around. Siandra smoothed her hair and stepped up to the bar.

"Er…Tom?" she asked timidly. A man came out from the shadows. He was a little tall, wore a green and black robe set, and looked as though he was coming upon middle age. He wore a grin.

"What would you like today, Miss Lorington?" he asked.

"A tall lemonade with ice to go," she said smartly. "And d'you think that this will help me get through to Diagon Alley? I seem to have gotten off one grate early."

Siandra brandished her beginner's wand that she usually used.

"Hmm…dunno, really. I never tried. When I were little…." he continued telling Siandra about what they did with wands when he went to school as he made the ice lemonade. He took a plastic cup and poured some lemonade in about halfway. Then he put some stuff that looked like snow on the top and mixed it in. With a flourish, he added a long plastic spoon, a small straw, and, for some odd reason, a paper umbrella. "Here ya go," he said, handing the drink to Siandra who sat on a stool to reach it. Siandra fingered the umbrella uncertainly.

"Tom? What's this for?" she asked. "It's awfully hard to eat this when it has this thing and the cup is so skinny."

"Have to keep up with the times!" Tom protested. "Old McGinny in Bubbling Brews has them in almost all of his drinks!"

"It's a cold lemon ice, though. I think that you're supposed to put them into the tropical-sounding drinks, you know, give it a 'bit of flavor'," explained Siandra.

"Oh, well, you can have it as a souvenir," he said, taking it out of the lemon drink, wiping it off, and folding it up and putting a tie on it.

"Thanks!" Siandra took the umbrella, put it in her pocket and grabbed her drink, while cheerily waving good-bye to Tom.

She sipped her lemonade as she came out behind the Leaky Cauldron. It appeared to just be a dead end. There was only a brick wall, a trashcan, and a couple of dingy wooden boards. Siandra, though, whipped out her beginner's wand and started counting bricks from the trashcan. She counted three up and two across and touched the brick that she came to three times. The brick jumped in its place. It started quivering and wriggling and a tiny opening, about the size of a pinhole appeared in the center. Every millisecond the hole widened and widened until Siandra was faced with an archway big enough for a giant. She stepped through the arch and arrived in Diagon Alley. A cobbled path deviously turned and twisted out of sight as narrow little shops lined the edges, crammed and piled on top of each other. There was a suction-like noise as the bricks were pulled back together. Outside the nearest shop, there were stacks of cauldrons, glinting in the sunlight. Quality Cauldrons must be having a sale. A woman wearing light robes and her hair tied up in a bun came outside armed with a black feather duster and started cleaning the cauldrons. Then she spotted Siandra.

"Oy, Siandra!" she yelled.

"Hey, Vanna!" yelled Siandra and started walking towards the cauldron shop to get out of the crowd traffic.

"Here for school supplies?" Vanna asked, looking up from the cauldrons and shielding her eyes from the sun.

"Yep," answered Siandra.

"Getting a new cauldron, then, are you?" Vanna said slyly. Vanna had a way of turning any conversation into one about cauldrons. Especially a need for new cauldrons.

"Probably. Mine's got green algae growing at the bottom. Plus, it says a standard size on the supply list and I think that I've still got a three quarters," Siandra explained.

"So remember, shop at Vanna's Cauldron Supply for quality with quantity!" Vanna said, jingle style with the flashy smile. "Plus we're having a back-to-school sale!"

"Let me guess," said Siandra with a smile. "Buy one get one free?"

"Yup! And all of my cauldrons are new and shiny. You won't find a rusted one in the bunch! Well…except for that one in the corner," she nodded to a cauldron shoved in the corner that was oxidized so much that it looked almost all green and it was partially covered in lumpy rust. "But that one," she puffed herself up importantly. "Is a genuine alchemist's cauldron!"

There was an awkward silence.

"Well anyway," said Siandra. "I'll be back when I've found my parents and some money. 'Bye, Vanna!"

Siandra waved good-bye to Vanna and walked briskly along the congested street. When she came to the grate where she was originally supposed to come out, she saw her parents waiting on a bench nearby.

"Siandra!" her mother called. Siandra hurriedly parted herself from the crowd and ran to her parents.

"Sorry," she said, once she'd reached them. "I guess I got excited and got off a grate early. I landed in the Leaky Cauldron."

"We apparated so that's okay," explained her mother.

"I was thinking," said Siandra's father, more to Siandra's mother than to her. "Why don't we let her go around and buy her own stuff. She's old enough to."

Siandra smiled hopefully.

"Okay," said her mother. She started digging in her purse and extracted a handful of golden galleons. "Now," she looked eye-to-eye with Siandra. She was getting into lecture mode. "All I want this to be used for is school supplies. Nothing else. If you want to buy something special for yourself, then I suggest you go to Gringotts and get your own pocket money out. And I want the change back here. All the change." She gave Siandra a stern look. Siandra returned it with a cheery smile. She waved good-bye and ran off to Gringotts, the wizarding bank, stuffing her money into a flower-patterned satchel. At last, after a few minutes of parting the crowd, she came to a tall white marble building. It was at least four stories high, with two white columns by each major window. It was higher than any of the little shops looking mouse-like beside it. There was a flight of stairs leading up to the main entrance. There were small, simple fountains on either side and the large bronze door was flanked by goblins wearing red suits. Perfectly spaced and polished silver letters over the main entrance read:

Gringotts Wizarding Bank

Siandra smiled and stepped up the stairs. She had never been to her vault alone before. Usually her parents showed her I.D., her key, and had her wait in the cart while they scooped up a sufficient amount of pocket money for her. Come to think of it, Siandra had never really seen the inside of her vault before. She started climbing the low steps. When she was close enough, the goblins bowed and opened the doors for her. She gave them a cheery nod and they did not return the sentiment. Well, Siandra thought, It is in their nature. They're not humans, they're supposed to be more clever than friendly. Next there was a pair of silver doors, with yet more goblins to show them inside. Siandra saw a poem engraved in curly letters on the silver doors, but she was too excited to bother reading it. The goblins opened the silver doors and Siandra was let into a beautiful room. It was all perfectly clean, glinting marble. There was a long polished wooden counter at which there were quite a lot of busy goblins examining valuables, handling deposits, showing people to their vaults, and directing those wishing to withdraw to their doors. Above Siandra there were at least four glittering chandeliers perfectly shiny and free of cobwebs. There was an extremely high ceiling and at the very top there was a large stained-glass rotunda. There were numerous doors leading out of the main room in which goblins escorted people to their vaults and such. Between all the doors was a sconce. Siandra supposed that they lit them when it got dark outside. She glanced around and saw that all of the booths handling withdrawals were full. She sat down in a seat near an Amulet and Talisman counter. The goblin at it had thick dragon hide gloves and was holding a beautiful necklace made of glittering opals with the gloved hand and examining it.

"Worth over a thousand galleons, I should think," the goblin appraised. "Maybe even a hundred thousand — or more! High security, definitely, Mr. Burkes. This is one of the twin necklaces! They're very powerful and made by Galdrakona. The other one to the set is missing. That makes it even more valuable. I'd say — ''

But Siandra didn't get to hear what the goblin would say because one of the other goblins at the withdrawal counter yelled "NEXT, PLEASE." Siandra grabbed her bag and scurried over to the counter. It was so high that she had to stare straight up at the goblin's face when he leaned over to see her.

"A, er, withdrawal please," she said timidly.

"Obviously. Otherwise you wouldn't be at my counter. What is your name, little girl," he commanded, disgustedly.

"Millisiandra Lorington," she replied.

"Now do you have your key or are you one of the little Muggle-borns that I have to bring to the key room?" he asked. At this moment Siandra would have definitely not liked to be one of the little Muggles that had to be shown to the key room.

"Have…key…somewhere…" she said, digging in all her robe pockets. She brought up something cold and metal and showed it to the goblin. It was a silver key.

"Are you wasting my time?" he asked coldly. "Lost Keys Department is over there!" He pointed to a counter where a bunch of bedraggled wizards stood in line with worried looks while feverishly searching in their robes' pockets. "All Gringotts keys are gold!"

"Oh," Siandra said, blushing. That was the key to her portable jewelry drawer. She searched through dust bunnies, crumpled receipts, and finally produced a tiny golden key engraved with the words:

M. Lorington

Vault 114

She put it on the goblin's counter. He picked it up with his long fingers and held it curiously up to the light, as if trying to detect a fraud.

"It seems to be all right. GRINDELGOP!" he suddenly yelled. Siandra jumped. An extremely small goblin (or maybe it just seemed to be because the other one was sitting at the lofty desk) came rushing over.

"Take Miss Lorington to her vault, and no silly business this time!" he commanded, handing Grindelgop the golden key.

"Yessir!" he saluted and marched off, Siandra trying to keep up with him.

The goblin at the withdrawal counter shook his head at the retreating Grindelgop and muttered something under his breath. Then, "NEXT, PLEASE!"

The goblin lead Siandra to a platform levitating from the ground up to the second level. Siandra and her goblin waited for it to come down again and then they jumped onto it. She turned and faced the rising sheer wall. When the top came, Grindelgop jumped off smartly onto the second level, but Siandra had been preoccupied and was left on the platform as it started to go down.

"Help!" she said as it started to fall.

"Don't worry…SIR," Grindelgop consoled. "It'll come back up…sometime."

Luckily, a crowd of wizards wearing robes bedecked with golden stars just then stepped onto the platform as it rose up yet again and this time, Siandra kept an eye on the rising wall and jumped as soon as she could. She landed safely and watched the wizards float up to the third level. Grindelgop lead Siandra to a door very near the levitating block, took out a jingling ring of many keys and inserted one into the lock on the door. There was a little click and the door creaked open. It was drastically different from the marble main interior of Gringotts. This was like walking into a cave. Torches lined up in rusted metal brackets gave off a flickering light and you could hear the subtle drip of water.

"Into the cart, SIR!" the goblin commanded. Siandra hopped into the cushy leather seats and put her arm around her valuables. Grindelgop hopped in and the cart suddenly whooshed down the ribbon of a silver track stretching out in front of them. Siandra jerked but soon settled into the rhythm of it. It was quite enjoyable, actually. It sped over little hills and turned rapidly around hairpin curves. Another cart whizzed by on another track with a goblin and two sisters (probably new to the wizarding world) sitting in the back.

One had her hair flying out behind her and was yelling "WHEEEEE!" with her arms in the air as if she was riding a roller coaster. The other wasn't taking it so well

She was a bit white and was yelling, "SAFETY BAR! WHERE'S THE SAFETY BAR ON THIS THING?! I NEED A SAFETY BAR…." at the top of her lungs.

Siandra glanced around at the scenery. There was a big inky black lake in a ravine beside her. Stalagmites and stalactites were scattered around.

"DUCK, SIR!" yelled the goblin as one passed over her head. The 'sir' thing was really starting to annoy Siandra.

"IN STALAGMITES AND STALAGTITES WHICH IS ON THE GROUND?" yelled Siandra over the din.

"M IS FOR MOUND AND C IS FOR CEILING, SIR!" the goblin responded, while staring straight forward.

"THANKS FOR THE TIP, BUT I'M FEMALE!" Siandra shouted back.

"Oh…then…let's see…that'd be…YES MADAMOISELLE!" he responded promptly after apparently looking something up.

The cart suddenly slowed to a stop. Grindelgop hopped out smartly out of the cart and grabbed a kerosene lamp from beside him that Siandra hadn't seen before. Siandra stepped out and held onto the cart for a moment until her feet were steady again. The first time she had ridden and not done that, she almost fell flat on her goblin (after that he was definitely not happy). Siandra looked down onto the goblin's lamp, which was swinging and casting a circular glow on the ground in front of them. They reached a vault and Siandra could see through the dimness that it read Vault 114 in large curly letters. The goblin inserted the golden hey into the door and turned it cautiously, grasping it in his long-fingered hand. There was a noise like steam hissing and the door swung open, revealing her money: moderate piles of golden Galleons, silver Sickles, and little bronze Knuts. She scooped some into a little pouch separate from the one that held her parents' money. She looked around a bit, and noticed that it wasn't the back wall that was gold, it was coins. It appeared as though the vault behind hers was separated by some latticework. She vaguely wondered whose vault it was, and how they got so much.

Grindelgop saw her staring.

"That's yours too, but your parents don't want you using it just quite yet, MISS!" Grindelgop kindly explained. Siandra jumped and briefly widened her eyes.

"Hehe…. Didn't know that goblins made such good jokes! You nearly had me there…hehe," Siandra laughed weakly. She stepped back into the cart and rode swiftly out of Gringotts.

After she exited the sets of doors, she clutched her bags and looked around. It was hard to decide where to go first. She glanced at her school supplies list and realized that the first thing there was her uniform. Folding up the list and placing it in her pocket, she sucked the last of the lemon ice and threw it into a nearby trashcan. Then she happily walked away through the crowd, keeping her eyes open for Gladrag's Wizard Wear.

It was a large, old, brick building, with their store's name in raised granite letters. A cheerful bell rang as Siandra opened the glass door and stepped inside. A plum woman wearing a pink and white striped dress under a lacy apron came running up to meet her.

"Hello!" she said delightedly. "We've got a special! We now carry transparent robes made specially for ghosts! Now you can have fun in the afterlife, because you won't get bored with the same clothes! I'm Tanya and I'll be your helper today!"

"Thank you, Tanya. But I'm currently still living. If I become a ghost, I'll be sure to stop by here to get my party wear!" she responded.

"Here for school supplies, then, dearie? Yes? Right this way!" the woman responded, not really giving Siandra a chance to answer yes or no. She clutched Siandra's arm and pulled her past racks of clothes into a little enclosure marked, "Fitting Room". Tanya sat Siandra on a little stool. "I'll be right back, then, with the special measuring tape!" Then she bustled off. Siandra looked around at the whitewashed walls and the plain cream-colored molding. She was sitting on a small wooden stool in the very center of the room, and her feet were on a dull, green carpet. She wondered what the 'special' measuring tape was, as the lady came back in. She smiled at Siandra, and threw her measuring tape into the air. About halfway down, it stopped and pulled itself back up and measured all on its own. It seemed to measure every part of Siandra, and then it started doing things that were very odd indeed. It took the length of her back and put it down close to the floor. Then it took the length of her outstretched arms, cut the measurement in half, and extended it from the floor.

"May I ask what this thing is up to?" Siandra asked. "All I want is plain, black Hogwarts robes!" The lady, who had been standing happily watching in the corner of the room with her arms folded, suddenly jumped in surprise.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "You must be human then! Sorry about that, er, little misconception!" She grabbed the tape out of the air, which was currently bending her leg length into a circle, and put it into her apron pocket, patting it gently. Siandra was about to ask what exactly the lady had thought that she was, but decided that she'd rather not know. Instead, Tanya brought out an ordinary measurer from the opposite pocket and measured the length of her arms, around her head, and from her neck to her feet. "You'll be about a size two, then, with a few adjustments," Tanya exclaimed and rushed out of the fitting room to get some size two robes and check them out. She came back excitedly with a winter cloak and two changes of black robes. Siandra took them from her and one by one tried them on while Tanya put pins in them and sewed little spots up with fine black thread that needed adjusting. Once that had been done, Tanya brought out another bundle of clothes.

"These are for under your robes. Here's a black dress, black tights, black tank top, and black pants, and black shoes. The dressing rooms are over in that corner. I'll be your cashier when you're ready," Tanya explained and walked away to help someone else. Siandra chose a dressing room and tried on all her apparel; it all fit perfectly. She folded them back up and brought them to the counter where Tanya charged her forty-four galleons and wrapped it up in a pretty white box with a bow and put the package in a brown paper bag.

Next on the list was a wand. Well, the best place for wands was Ollivander's, of course. Her family had been coming there for generations and Siandra wasn't even sure that there was another wand shop in Diagon Alley. She briskly walked over to the small shop, squished between a restaurant and an Astronomy shop. In worn gold letters at the top, it read:

Ollivander's

Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B. C.

She opened the door, made of stained dark wood and heard a soft tinkle in the back of the shop. A man with weathered-looking hair slid from the back of the shop on some sliding steps.

"Ah," he said. "Is it the young Miss Lorington?" Siandra nodded her head mutely and set her things on a faded chair in the corner. "My father remembered fitting Cipriana when she was young. Going to Hogwarts, just like you. An easy fit, he told me. Yew and unicorn tail hairs, ten inches."

He brought out a measuring tape like the one that Tanya had used on her before she figured out that she was human. It started measuring in odd places. She thought that Mr. Ollivander might be mistaken too.

"I am human, by the way," she said in what she thought was a nice, helpful tone. Mr. Ollivander glanced at her funnily.

"I wouldn't sell a wand to your otherwise. No non-human creature is permitted to carry a wand, it's in clause three of the International Code of Wand Use!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, er, never mind. I was, er, thinking of something else," stuttered Siandra. Mr. Ollivander walked back to a shelf that looked as though it was made with the little boxes. He looked at them for a minute. His hand hovered over a green box with gold-colored frills on it and "Ollivander Wands" written in the center. He delicately pulled it out and blew the dust off of it. It came off in a cloud. Resting the wand on both of his hands, he handed it to Siandra. Siandra stuck out her wand hand (her right hand) and clasped it in her fingers and looked at Mr. Ollivander.

"Birch and unicorn hairs, eleven inches. Pretend that you're casting a spell, then!" he prompted.

Siandra swished the wand around saying, "Wingardium Leviosa!" A vase in front of her levitated and followed her wand. She was going to place it right back where it was first, but she accidentally dropped it on Mr. Ollivander's head. He caught it deftly.

"I said pretend! Don't actually do a spell!" he said indignantly.

"Oh, sorry," returned Siandra. She waved the wand around in the air. A sudden heat came through to her fingers and a shower of silver sparks came out of the end.

"My, my, that was a quick fit! It must run in the family," he commented and put the wand back in its box and wrapped it with tissue paper. He handed it to Siandra and she put it into her bag with the clothes and paid Mr. Ollivander seven gold galleons.

Since there was an Astronomy shop extremely close, Siandra decided to get her telescope and Astronomy equipment. Inside, the ceiling was painted with star constellations and an elderly witch sat at the wooden counter equipped with scales and such, and helped Siandra find a nice, new, shiny collapsible brass telescope and a moon chart. She paid the witch and went on the Flourish and Blotts to get her course books. This time the clerk there was a man with wavy brown hair. She picked up a brown basket at the front of the shop to put her books in, and walked in, gazing at all of the books. One that particularly caught her eye was called The Family of Felines by Mara Zelinsky. It had a cute kitten on the front rolling around and playing with a piece of string. It was moving, of course, as were all the pictures in the wizarding world. She skimmed through it and then dropped it into her basket, then walked up to the man at the counter.

"Can I help you, Miss?" he asked her.

"Yes. I'm getting my Hogwarts course books…" she trailed off intently. The man reached under the counter and pulled up a pile of books tied together with some twine.

"The Hogwarts Package. Would you like me to hold it and that lovely kitty book here while you get your quills and ink?" he asked.

"Yes, please," Siandra responded as the shopkeeper moved the pile of books to the end of the counter and placed Family of Felines next to it. The inks and quills were in the back of the shop. Siandra tipped a couple bottles of nice black ink for classes into the basket, and a box of different colors for drawing and such. Resisting a pretty glass pen, she got a bundle of ordinary feather quills (she always wondered where all her quills ended up at so she got a lot of them normally). Her eye caught a clear, rectangular bottle in the corner with pretty pink shimmering liquid inside. The top was sealed in black wax with a crest on the top. There were foreign words on it. Nearby was a small, lighted sphere. She found out that the bottle contained invisible ink and the globe was to reveal it with. Without hesitation, Siandra tipped it also into the basket. She went back to the counter and paid for it all, remembering to include her own money for the book and the invisible ink.

Next was The Apothecary, a large wooden building that housed ingredients, potions, and many things of the sort. Siandra remembered to breathe through her mouth because of the stench, but stayed in there quite a while in order to look around at the many interesting things. The nice saleslady at the counter gave her a discount on the standard potion set (included ingredients, crystal phials, dragon hide gloves, and brass scales) and soon the only thing left on her list was a cauldron. That'd be Vanna's, of course.

Walking along to the end of the street, Siandra pushed by the crowd to get through. Vanna was still outside polishing some cauldrons and she waved to Siandra when she saw her coming. Siandra walked to the opening of the shop.

"I'm here for my school cauldron!" she announced happily.

"Oh!" exclaimed Vanna. Come right on inside!" Vanna almost skipped inside the shop as she led Siandra. "Here is our display of solid gold cauldrons. Now which size will you be wanting today?"

Vanna was pointing to a shelf where there were shining identical cauldrons sitting primly on the edge.

"I actually need a pewter one. Standard size two," Siandra explained.

"Oh, but if you buy a gold one then you get one free! It's part of our yearly back-to-school sale!" she said persuasively.

"On my school list it says pewter. And what would I actually do with two gold cauldrons?" asked Siandra, examining the row below the golds, which held the pewter ones.

"You could sell it and then you'd see the full benefit of the Quality Cauldron Supply program," explained Vanna.

"No, I don't think so. I think I'll have that cauldron," said Siandra, pointing to an easily accessible pewter one. "Would you mind getting it down for me please?"

"Oh, alright."

Vanna got a folding ladder from one side of the shelf and she brought it down carefully.

"And can I pay you now?" asked Siandra.

"Oh!" replied Vanna, seeming surprised that Siandra wanted to pay. "But you haven't seen our selection of stirrers! Or maybe you want a pewter collapsible one? Or one that's self-stirring? Come and look at this beautiful stirring stick!" Vanna clasped Siandra's arm and lead her over to a display with different stirring methods. Vanna was looking particularly at a jewel-studded stirrer in the corner. "Don't you want that one, Siandra, instead of this just plain wooden one?" Vanna asked, as if she was absolutely sure that Siandra would want the bejeweled.

"It's nice," Siandra admitted. "But I just don't have — '' she paused to look at the little white price tag dangling down and resisted the urge to whistle shrilly. " — three hundred galleons on hand at the moment. I'll settle with the wooden one."

Siandra bought the plain wooden stirring stick and the pewter cauldron and met her parents at the grate, to do Floo powder back home. Siandra took a pinch from the little drawstring bag (after giving her parents the change) and stepped into the grate, said the address to her house, and the whoosh swirled her up and sucked her into the network of fires. She could barely hear the two little pops as her parents apparated into the living room over the roar of noise. She was spinning faster and faster and — flump. She landed sprawled on her parents' carpet.

After a long day, they all settled down. Most of Siandra's room was in boxes for the move and it looked rather depressing. Her Galdrakona poster had been rolled up and stuffed into a long white box and there were pin holes on her walls where pictures had been taken down. Sitting on a white box up against her bed, she started to prep for Hogwarts. She got out her textbook for potions class as Eva, her black cat leapt onto her lap, curling up and purring loudly.

Downstairs her parents could hear her, though softly, reciting the most crucial ingredients in some potion, the full moons this year, and counting down the days on her calendar until September the first, when leave Hogsmeade and the new Muggle house behind and be off, going to wizarding school for the first time.