AU: Oliver Wood has fallen for his new neighbor, who happens to be an American witch. Romantic fluffy fic taking place during CoS, but from the p.o.v. of Oliver's love interest, Laura.

Oh, and J.K. Rowling owns everything in the wizarding world, I've just set my character, Laura, into it. So please let her stay for a little while, she (and the author) mean no harm.

A/N: More magical instant communication coming up! As always, here's the aid.

Chelsea's words are underlined

Jenn's words are bolded

Laura's words are italicized

I hope this isn't too confusing! Normal font is regular old narration.

Chapter 6

A Name From Home

We continued to walk down the cobblestoned street of Diagon Alley holding hands until we reached a shop called "Everything Magical" where I bought my dragon hide gloves and a small telescope. By this time it was early afternoon and we were all hungry, so Mrs. Wood led the way to a small, but quaint restaurant, simply called Augury Café. We sat at a round table outside under a large awning enjoying sandwiches and iced pumpkin juice, watching the other shoppers strolling along.

Our next shopping stop was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, as Oliver had apparently outgrown his robes from the year before. After about half an hour there we headed for Flourish and Blotts to buy all the books we were going to need. All the Lockhart books were easy to find, as they were stacked on a large central table which also held a life size cut out of a man with a huge, cheesy smile, and the ugliest purple robes I had ever seen. Being magical, he was winking and wavy at everyone who walked past. Presumably, this was Lockhart, and written at the bottom of the cut out in bright pink letters was the date later on that month when Lockhart himself would be a Flourish and Blotts to sign copies of his newest book "Magical Me."

I sighed as I looked at the price for each book, but still picked up all seven that I was going to need. There were still five or six titles that I wouldn't need at least. Oliver also picked up his seven Lockhart books, giving me a look that clearly said, "I'm crazy for actually buying these, wait till I give our new professor a piece of my mind."

We had to hunt for the rest of the books, but Oliver at least had a general idea of where to look. Once I had gathered my Transfiguration, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes, and Apparition books I could barely see over the stack and the weight made my arms feel like they were going to break. I staggered to the counter and paid the cashier, afterward having severely less money than before. The extra large bags must have been held together by magic to keep them from splitting open at the bottom as I carried them, and along with my other purchases, made holding hands with Oliver an impossible task. His mom was nice enough to carry our lighter things, but the books were left to us.

Before leaving we stopped by Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor where I had the best chocolate ice cream cone of my life. Finally we again faced the huge brick fireplaces at the end of Diagon Alley. I paid a man a sickle to magic my bags to my home (Guaranteed to get there or your money back) and then was given some complementary floo powder for the trip home. Oliver went first again, and I followed, yelling out Twenty-Seven Jay Street (Oliver's address) before the swirling mass of grates consumed me. Shortly I found myself thrown into the Wood's living room, where Oliver was waiting with a hand broom to dust me off.

After his mom arrived as well, I thanked them both for allowing me to come along, told Oliver I would talk to him later, and then walked happily homing to my waiting packages. I couldn't wait to tell Jenn and Chelsea.

Jenn and Chelsea, however, were waiting for me. They had apparently been checking in every half hour since about noon.

Laura, are you back yet?

Are you back yet now?

Come on Laura, how long does it take you to get books and ink?

I don't think she's back yet, Jenn.

Back yet?

Hello?

Oh, we give up; write to us whenever your date is over.

I tossed my bags on the bed and grabbed my quill and blue ink.

It's not a date!

Yay! You're back.

Finally! So what was Diagon Alley like? Hold a candle to Wizard's World?

I couldn't wait to tell them.

We held hands!

You what?

Ahh, told you it was a date. I was so right. It's destiny, I knew it all along.

Really? You held hands? Ahhh, that's adorable.

Yeah, adorable. So when is the necking gonna start?

JENN!

Jenn was famous for hitting triples on the first date, so to her first base was not a big deal. To me and Chelsea, talking to boys constituted a base hit.

Ok, it is Laura, so I'll give her credit there. She may eventually move off her virgin preserve. So how did the holding hands episode come about?

I told them about the Quidditch store and what had transpired after I had grabbed his hand to pull him away.

Ahhh, that's so sweet. But I'm still interested in Diagon Alley.

Diagon Alley was kinda cool. It reminded me of one of those shopping plazas you go to on vacation, with all the little specialty shops. Except here that is always how they shop. Diagon Alley is one long, zig zagging street that is apparently hidden from the Muggles. It dead ends at both ends, with one being a bunch of hearths for floo travel. Oliver told me that the other end terminated at a brick wall, which if you know what bricks to tap, opens into the back entrance of a wizarding pub called The Leaky Cauldron, which opens into the Muggle world. There were stores for everything you could ever imagine. Flourish and Blotts was this enormous book store. And, oh, you should have seen Gringotts bank- breathtaking.

We'll have to come visit you next summer and you can take us.

Yeah, that would be fun. You guys start school in like two weeks, eh?

Unfortunately.

It won't be the same without you Laura.

I know; I'm going to miss you both too. I still have a month till school starts here. I don't know how I'm going to handle boarding school. How am I going to fit all my clothes in my trunk, will all my books and everything else?

Magical expansions are great. Mom expanded my closet twice; it's wonderful, still takes up the same amount of space, but holds three times the clothes.

I'll ask my mom to do that.

From downstairs I head my mom yell, "Laura, come help me cook dinner and show me what you bought."

I have to go, Mom is calling me. I'll talk to you later.

Ok, bye Laura.

Way to go today slugger.

JENN!

Finite Incantatem

I sighed as their bickering words faded from the parchment. I gathered up my purchases and carted them back down stairs to show mom where her hard earned money was going.

I explained all about Diagon Alley to my parents over dinner, though conveniently forgot to mention the bit about holding hands with Oliver. Mom agreed to expand my trunk so I could fit everything in it and Dad said he had already scheduled September first off so he could drive me to King's Cross and this Hogwarts Express. It was also at dinner that I approached another subject I had been thinking about ever since I saw all the shops in Diagon Alley.

"Do you think it would be alright for me to get an owl since I'm going to a boarding school? That way I could send you letters, you know, let you know how I'm doing and everything, and you wouldn't need to use Cortez to send things to me."

"By, 'Do you think it would be alright for me to get an owl since I'm going to a boarding school?' do you actually mean, would it be alright if we bought you an owl for boarding school?" answered my mom.

Yeah, that was pretty much what I was going for, so I nodded in agreement.

My parents exchanged that glance that made me swear they could read each other's minds, and after a few seconds my mom replied, "Ok, we'll get you an owl. But not a really large or expensive one like Cortez. Start looking in what kind of owl you would want and I'll take you next week on my day off."

"And please don't get one of those little pigmy owls," added my dad. "Your mother received a letter from one once, and it reminded me more of a flying rat than an owl."

Mom glared at Dad for a few seconds, she thought pigmy owls were adorable, though impractical for delivering packages and what not.

I was excused from the table and before heading upstairs I pulled Mom's heavy book of owl care off the shelf so that I could decide which owl I wanted. After an hour of looking at pictures and reading about owl breeds, I finally decided I like the spotted owl the best. It was only about one and a half feet tall, with white spots against dark brown plumage. Not too big, but not Dad's forbidden pigmy owl either.

I closed the book and crossed over to the window. I could see Oliver working in his room, his Quidditch training program spread around him.

"Hey," I yelled to him, over the sounds of the multitude of crickets in the lawn below.

He smiled and walked over to his window, holding one of his boards. "Like it," he shouted back at me, lifting up the board so I could see the many squiggling lines moving over it.

I laughed, having no idea what any of the little moving arrows meant, "Yeah, I especially like the one that is just doing figure eights on the left side."

"That's my position, protecting the goal posts."

I laughed again, "Well that must be why I liked that one."

"So did you enjoy today. I know shopping is boring but…"

"I didn't think it was boring, I had a really great time. I'm glad that I got to go with you."

I swear that he blushed a little after I said that, but I chose to ignore it and blamed it on the fading sunlight.

The next Thursday, Mom lit our fireplace so that we could go to Diagon Alley. She too, was impressed by the many shops, and we spent more time walking around so she could see everything than buying my owl. Finally we went into Eeylop's Owl Emporium to get my owl. The man behind the counter asked us what he could do for us, and when I told him I was looking to get a spotted owl, he led us down several isles, to a group of about ten cages, each holding a feathered occupant. Most were sleeping, their heads buried underneath a wing. A few poked their heads out when they realized someone was looking at them. That's when I saw one with one eye encircled by a patch of white while the rest of the face was covered in brown plumage. I fell instantly in love.

"I like that one," I said pointing to the one with the white eye patch.

"Ahh, a very nice specimen," replied the shopkeeper, opening the cage and coaxing the sleepy owl onto a gloved hand. "This one is a female, you can tell because they are larger than the males. The two-tone face is rare, though, most are totally brown. A very nice specimen indeed."

Next I picked out a round, table top cage, to keep her in. The shopkeeper had her step into it, where she immediately seemed content enough to tuck her head back under her wing and go back to sleep. Mom paid the man seven galleons and two sickles for the owl. Before leaving he gave us a complementary maroon cage cover with Eeylop's Owl Emporium stitched on it so that the sunlight wouldn't bother my new owl as we walked.

"So what are you going to name her?" Mom asked as well walked back toward the fireplaces.

"I don't know yet, I'll have to think of a good name for her."

I wasn't sure how much an owl would enjoy a journey on the floo network, but when we asked the attendant he said that as long as the cage was covered most owls didn't mind the trip.

He was right, she had barely moved when I lifted up the cage cover when I arrived home. I took her up to my room and set to finding a name for her. After looking through books of wizard's names I decided that her name should reflect something about home. Salem and Boston sounded too masculine to me so I finally settled for Plymouth. I walked to her cage and took off the cover and said, "Plymouth, do you like that name?" She lifted her head, clicked her beak once, and then went back to sleep. I took that to mean a yes.