"Robes first, I think,"

"Why not wands?"

"Because I don't want you three hexing me"

"Honestly, why not."

"If we get them last, that will be motivation to finish the shopping trip as soon as possible."

"Damn."

"Don't swear."

Troy, whose hyperness had not worn off, was still bugging Jonah about getting wands. He pouted as they walked into Nackledirk's Robes. Everyone just ignored him.

"You're all in Epsilon, right?" Jonah inquired.

"Yeah. . ." Ro said slowly. Then: "Sorry, but I still don't understand what that means."

"Oh!" said Jonah "I never did explain that, did I? Well, the school is divided into five parts, each part being named after a Greek letter; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The system is based loosely on the Hogwarts system of houses. . .

"What the heck is Hogwarts?"

"It's a British school of magic. However, while Hogwarts students are sorted according to whether they are kind, brave, clever, ambitious, and so on, the Lake Superior system is arbitrary." He paused "Well, there is supposed to be a process to it, but fewer people know what that process is than know if the Department of Mysteries has actually created a portal to the netherworld. . . "

"A portal to the netherworld?"

"Just an urban legend. A wizard saying there's a gate to the netherworld in the Department of Mysteries is like a Muggle saying that there's UFOs hidden in a government bunker in Nevada." he shrugged. "Prob'ly doesn't exist."

They found the school uniform racks pretty easily; they were large, stuck right where everyone could see them, and sat under a tacky, garishly-colored sign announcing a BACK TO SCOOL SALE.

They each rifted through and pulled out three or four sets. It wasn't tough to find the right type; there were only four sizes to chose from, and no major differences in style.

Ro examined one of her robes. It looked pretty plain, as the clothing in this store went. It had a small badge with a weird e over the heart, and the trim around the sleeves and neck was blue.

"I've found mine," declared Troy.

"Me too.'

"Me three. Let's hurry up!"

Three hours later, they were finally making their way into the wand shop. As soon as they were inside, a teenaged witch began to hurry towards them.

The four grimaced collectively. This had to be one of those big-time stores. In the Ley, it was easy to tell the difference between local shops and chain stores by the type of staff that ran them. Small places were invariably run by their owners, usually slightly eccentric old men. Larger stores employed the most preppy young witches they could find. Both types had the capacity to irritate the pants off of customers, but after shopping all day, the group had agreed that ditzy sales-helpers were more annoying than no help at all.

" Hi, like, can I help you?" she asked cheerfully. Jonah realized with a silent laugh that she looked very much like the woman he had pictured his supervisor asking about wands in Target. . .

"These three need their first wands." he informed her. "Have fun, you guys!" He winked cheekily.

"Like, that is so cool for you guys!" She began pulling a few wands off the shelves. "Like, do you wanna go first?" she said to Troy, who was nearest to her. Troy nodded, albeit less enthusiastically than anyone who had listened to him all day would expect.

"This one's oak and unicorn hair, it's like, nine and a half inches long." Troy waved it, and lit a section of the carpeting on fire. Barbie shrieked. Troy ran and stamped out the flames.

She handed him another one. "It's like, holly and dragon heartstring, thirteen inches. Try it!" He swished it around. It did absolutely nothing. She snatched it away.

"Maple and phoenix feather, it's fourteen inches." Troy took it, and almost as soon as he held it, it began to shoot bluish sparks.

"You have so found your wand!" she squealed. "It's not bad for, you know, healing charms and stuff? If you, like, end up wanting to be, like, a Healer. Or something."

Lee went next, and he fitted the first wand he tried. It was mahogany and dragon heartstring, eight and one quarter inches long.

"Awesome!" she said happily. "We got a match! And, like, on the first try!"

Lee smirked, and rolled his eyes at her as soon as she turned her back.

Ro began testing wands. None of them seemed to react to her in the least. She rejected ebony and dragon heartstring, red pine and unicorn hair, cypress and phoenix feather, willow and unicorn hair, and chestnut and unicorn hair, each in turn.

Finally, when she gripped a wand of birch and phoenix feather, it began emitting bright sparkles.

"Cool!" cheered Barbie. "That's, like, a different combination, if ya know what I mean, but it's so you." She began to gather up the discarded wands. "Those are ten Galleons each."

"Ten Galleons?" Jonah questioned, puzzled. "That's a price jump, isn't it?"

Barbie scowled, which looked a little scary. "Ye-ah. There've been, like, new laws passed since, you know, those Cheapsparks losers. It makes wandmaking take, like, a lot longer? So prices have to go up, so they can like, still make money?"

"Cheapsparks? What are you talking about?" Ro asked.

Barbie rolled her eyes a little. "A year ago, this loser-company called Cheapsparks? Started selling wands for like, a few Sickles. People totally loved them, because they were, like, so less spendy and did stuff just as well, for like, a while. After a month or something, the core would, like, start to, you know, rot, so the wands were like, dangerous? Some people got hurt like, so bad, the company got sued, and peeps made lots of laws so, like, nobody would get ripped off? But those laws, like, so make it suck for honest companies."

"Oh. . ." was all Ro could think of to say.

"Well," yawned Jonah, after a minute. "It's time to head home now, I think. Pay for your wands and we'll be gone."

Matthias fidgeted nervously. He mentally ran down the checklist of things that he needed, assuring himself that they were all there.

He let out an exasperated breath. The past three weeks had flown, so why was this half-hour dragging itself out? It was driving him insane. He scratched the back of his head. Why was the owl taking so long?

"Antsy, Matthias?" asked his father. "Don't worry, you'll do fine at school. I know you will."

He nodded but did not reply, fixedly staring out the large paned window. After what seemed like forever, he spied an owl making its way the drizzle outside. He let it in once it reached the house, and it landed with a loud wumph! on the hardwood floor, leaving a puddle where it had touched down.

He grabbed at the sopping envelope, which fell apart in his hands. Inside was a small plastic disc with a time written on it. 11:53 AM. It was eleven-fifty now.

Mr. Argon embraced his son briefly. "Good luck, Matthias. Your mom would be proud of you."

Matthias swallowed and nodded. "I'll see you at Christmas, Dad." He grabbed his things, and waited to feel the Portkey to tug him into an unknown world.

Alright! Sorry that this took so long, but I've been waiting for this to get back from the beta for a long time, and I finally decided to post it without it being beta'd. Former chapters are being edited slightly, and should be up soon. Thank you for being patient with me!

Crossbow: Thank you! You rock. And the lack of breaks last chapter was not intentional; just screwed up. If the beta offer is still open, then I may take you up on it. . . my beta went mysteriously AWOL.

stubble96: I'm glad you like it.

Miss Piratess: Thank you! I'm glad you liked them- I worked hard at that.

Briana Rose: Thank you! And I'm having pretty good luck in high school. . . 

LNLisa: Thank you! (Heh, are you people sick of hearing that by now?) The jeep just wrote itself into the story with no planning on my part, but now I may have thought up a way to use it in the plot. . .

Once again, I really appreciate you all. Thank you especially for taking the time to leave specific comments in your reviews, it really helps me write. Hopefully, I'll be posting another chapter in less than two weeks. . . Seeya then!