Understairs
Letter Arriving
"I need to do something."
The final shove towards doing something about her situation was when an owl arrived carrying a letter for Harry, and a note for her, meaning yes, indeed, Alisha, or in truth, Lily was magical in nature. As she looked at the letter, she'd hoped it might actually be addressed to Alisha instead of Lily; in the same way, the letter identified where Harry was in the books, in the cupboard under the stairs, and then in the new room, to the hotel, to the island.
Yet, it didn't.
"Oh! You're magical as well," Dudley said. "Which means we get to take a trip to that magical place where the wall opens up with magic. And I get to see all sorts of magical stuff."
"I'll show you the Quidditch stuff," Harry piped up, although Alisha found herself disinterested in that sort of thing, at least at that point. Her knowledge of the sport was limited to what she read in the sports and what she'd seen she'd only seen in the movies. Yet, Dudley was already interested in it despite having an even more limited idea than she was. Harry turned, smiling. "What kind of shop are you interested in?"
Alisha started, her eyes blinking. "I don't know."
"Clothes? Books?" Dudley guessed.
"Books—speaking of books, which house do you think you'll be sorted into?" Harry asked. "I hope it's Gryffindor so we can be in the same house, but Ravenclaw wouldn't surprise me, as Aunt Petunia hasn't stopped talking about your grades."
"Just because I'm good at my Muggle classes doesn't mean I'll be good at the magical ones," Alisha said.
"Magic classes aren't that hard," Harry said.
"If you're able to use magic," Dudley retorted. "So, where should we start?"
"Wait. You're planning on where we're going?" Alisha frowned, confused regarding why that was happening.
"I don't think you should be the ones making plans, Dudley," Aunt Petunia said, her nose wrinkling like always.
Alisha looked at her letter at that moment, noting the considerable number of books by one Gilderoy Lockhart. " Oh yeah. There 's that as well. " Alisha glanced up. "Why are there so many books?"
"Because you need a book for each class," her Aunt said.
"No. I mean, look," Alisha pointed at the letter.
Harry leaned over. "Huh. Yeah. I don't know why. The only other book I need for my year is my spellbook for this year."
Petunia peeked over. "Why do those look like the titles of works of fiction rather than actual textbooks?"
"I don't know," Alisha said. Yet, in the back of her mind, she knew that Lockhart would be approaching Harry if, of course, Harry was to go the same day that Lockhart held his signing, which thankfully because Dobby was caught, letters started coming again. Harry let his friends know she'd gotten her letter and they would be joining them. Yet, in that regard, it didn't settle the debate of what would happen first.
"Well, what did you do first?"
"Gringotts?"
"Green-whats?"
"Gringotts, Wizarding bank."
"Ah. To get money."
"Well, we'll have to stop there first to exchange Muggle money or fetch money from the Potter vaults," Petunia said. "And don't waste your parent's fortune. It needs to last until you graduate, if not longer. And I'm sure that there will need to be some talk about how that lot is divided between you and Lily. Not looking forward to it, really."
"Don't care," Lily, no, Alisha said, knowing they'd decided to get the money first.
"Yeah, but I've enough money so that we can stop and get Lily's wand. It's a big deal," Harry said, "And was the first thing we did after Gringotts. And there is also getting robes."
"This is a big deal?" Petunia asked. "And, of course, I'm looking forward to buying robes."
Which, of course, made Alisha flinch, as she wasn't fond of shopping for clothes with her Aunt Petunia, even though she ended up with some clothes she liked. It felt like Aunt Petunia was trying too hard on top of not knowing what she was doing, yet there was that flickering thought that at least Petunia was taking a positive stance towards magic, even if it were because of Dudley.
"Boring!" Dudley said.
"Well, the wand part's not boring, but you and I can get the money from Gringotts."
"Don't…"
"I know, I know. Don't overdo it on taking money from the vault," Harry said. "I've got a nice broom already, and I can't think of anything else except to order a few presents around Christmas time."
Yet, as much of a big deal, Harry made about getting a wand, it didn't seem like a big deal at first. None of it did, but then they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, with Dudley and Petunia being confused until Harry pulled them in the right direction, and Alisha followed, noting as she did how her Aunt Petunia wrinkled her nose up at those in the pub while Dudley laughed.
And, it felt like something sparked as her mind considered the plan in the back of her head that she'd been formulating, planning so that she could take control of what was happening in her world. " No, the world of Harry Potter, because this isn 't my world, no matter how much I change the fate of myself and everyone else. "
Only a few moments later, as Harry continued towards the wall, Alisha felt something seem to come alive as the wall, thanks to Harry tapping the bricks, came alive. She found herself actually looking at the world, nor was it like going to the amusement park to mimic this world. It was—
"Magical."
Which Harry grabbed her hand and dragged her along while her mind struggled in taking in everything. Yet, the sound of awe coming from Dudley said he was facing something quite similar at the sight of all things magical, but unlike her cousin, Lily—no, Alisha was magical.
And as planned, the first place Harry took her was the wand shop, to which she found herself stammering and unsure. Dudley watched in awe as she was handed a wand, although she didn't feel it was at all that amazing, nor did her mind pay any attention to what Olivander said as a mishap happened here and there.
Finally, the wand in her hand washers, albeit she didn't stop and think about what Olivander said regarding the rod; instead, considering the way it was carved, it felt nice in the palm of her hand. She also expected Dudley to say something about Harry being wrong about it not being a big deal, only for him to mutter, "Man. I wish I'd been there for yours."
"Indeed," Petunia said, yet with the look in her eyes—looking at Petunia, Alisha suddenly felt her Aunt felt terrible for missing the same thing for her sister, or even harmful for Lily Evans Potter not being there to see it for her own children. To which they separated, Harry gave Petunia some of the money he had leftover from last time. "Tell the shop owner that Dudley and I will bring some more that we wanted you to get started if you don't have enough. And then, we'll meet up with everyone."
"Everyone." Alisha thought to herself, bracing herself for the plan, her plan.
