Chapter Three

Diagon Alley

Apolla, Selena, and Pravus all came out of a fire place, all covered in soot. Selena dusted herself off and looked around the enormous room.

"Pravus, where are we?" Selena asked. Pravus looked at her and smiled weakly.

"We're at Gringots, the wizarding bank, Selena," Pravus said walking to the desk. Suddenly, the door opened to the bank and in walked a giant with a little boy with black hair and glasses. Apolla's eyes widen as the two walked past her. She went behind Pravus and pulled on the back of his robes.

"Mr. Pravus," Apolla said nervously, "Whose that man?" Pravus looked up from her to the tall man. He bent down at Selena and Apolla's eye level and smiled.

"That is Rubeus Hagrid, girls, or just Hagrid as everyone else calls him. He's the grounds keeper at Hogwarts," Pravus said. Selena raised an eyebrow at the man named Hagrid.

"That's the grounds keeper at Hogwarts? He can smash me like a bug!" Selena said. Pravus laughed nervously and stood up, seeing the goblin at the desk look over his desk and stare a them in a rude mannered way.

"Can I help you, sir?" The goblin spat as he pointed his dipped inked quill at Pravus.

"Yes, um," Pravus stuttered as he directed the girls forward, "I'm here to take the Patterson's to their vault," The goblin looked down at the girls, who returned the stare.

"How do you do today, sir?" Apolla said with a smile.

"We're delighted to be in your presence," Selena said with a smirk, not really meaning what she said. The goblin winced at the girls, then looked up at Pravus.

"Charming girls, you've got there," He said as he directed his quill towards the girls. Pravus scratched his head and licked his lips.

"They're not mine," Pravus said with a nervous smile.

"I never did say they were yours,"

"Well, it seemed like- well... Oh, just forget it," Pravus said reaching into his pocket and pulled out a key, "Here, may we go in now?" The goblin smiled rudely and let the group go. As the group walked passed the moody goblins, Selena looked up at Pravus.

"Pravus, who was that boy with Hagrid?" Selena said as the three of them piled into a mining cart with a miniature goblin inside of it. Pravus leaned against the back of the cart.

"That, uh," Pravus stuttered, "That was Harry Potter," Selena and Apolla's eyes widened at the same time.

"That was Harry Potter?" Apolla said with a smile. Selena raised her eyebrow at the thought.

"Are you serious?" Selena said, a tone in her voice, "I imagined him a lot taller,"

"Well you can't expect every dreamy boy to be taller than you,"

"That's easy for you to say, small fry,"

"By a half an inch, Selena Carla Patterson!"

"Oh, I beg to differ, Apolla Maria Patterson!"

The girls lunged at each other, but was held back by Pravus' arms.

"Girls! Girls! Calm down! No more of the fuss! Your mother said you two never fight," Pravus said looking at one girl to the other.

"Well, there's always a first for something," Apolla spat with a frown on her face. Selena stuck her tongue out at her and pulled Pravus' arm away from her stomach. The cart came to a stop and the miniature goblin jumped out from the cart, followed by the girls and Pravus.

"Key please," The goblin said. Pravus handed him the key. The goblin took it and looked at Apolla.

"Hold please," The goblin said handing Apolla the lantern he was holding. Apolla took the lantern.

"Because you're the only one short enough to have level with the key hole," Apolla heard Selena say. She rolled her eyes and looked at her sister.

"Ha ha, very funny, Apolla said in a monotone voice. Selena looked around, then back at Apolla.

"Why are you looking at me?" Selena said.

"Don't play dumb with me, Selena. I heard what you said,"

"Apolla, Selena didn't say anything," Pravus said. Apolla rolled her eyes and shined the light on the door. When the door opened, Pravus, Selena, and Apolla stood in shock. The Patterson vault was completely empty. The goblin, however, stepped inside. Holding up the lamp, Apolla hoped to find a trace of something. There was a 'click' from the other end of the vault as the goblin had put the key into another hole, revealing a secret room. Opening the door, the group discovered the Patterson fortune.

"Wow. Mum must of done a lot of fixing with muggles to get this much!" Selena said with a smile. Apolla snickered over at her.

"Oh, shut up, Selena," Apolla said walking inside the hidden vault.

"Go ahead, take as much as you'll need," Pravus said, but the girls were already pulling out small leather bags and shoving as much money as they could inside, "Or... as much as you want,"

Exiting Gringots, Selena and Apolla, apparently forgetting their recent fight, began talking about Harry Potter again.

"He was pretty good looking!" Apolla said with a smile.

"Nah, he looked like a nerd to me," Selena shrugged her shoulders.

"You have the worst taste, do you know that?"

"Whatever. This year there'll be lots of guys," Selena said as she peered into a random shop window, "Lookie, Apolla! It's Ollivanders!"

"The wand shop?" Apolla asked curiously, stepping up to the window to look in with her sister. Inside, the girls could see many boxes sticking out of random places and even some laying on the floor. There was a large ladder to one side of te shelves to reach the higher boxes.

"Pravus!" Selena shouted. Pravus jumped back from the next shop window he had been staring into and came over.

"Yes?"

"We're going to get our wands. Wanna come?"

"Um... you two go on ahead. I'll be looking at this lovely..." Pravus trailed off, pointing to the shop next to them and walked away.

"Twitchy kinda fella, isn't he?" Apolla said tilting her head to the side.

"Can you blame the man, he's been hanging around you all day," Selena said jokingly as she pulled the door opened to Ollivanders. Apolla followed her inside, rolling her eyes.

"Your sarcasm is going to get you so many guys at school, Selena," Apolla said sarcastically. They closed the door behind themselves as they wiped their feet at the th mat that was placed on the floor in front of the door. It wasn't a well lit shop, but it had a pleasant feeling to it.

"Excuse me, is anyone here?" Apolla said a loud. There was a small crash of glass in the background, followed by the sound of a hurried wooden chair. A gray, old man appeared between one of the shelves. As soon as he saw the girls, a smile burst upon his face.

"Ah the Patterson girls, I knew we'd finally meet at last," The old man said climbing on the ladder provided there to reach the wand boxes. The girls looked at each other, then back at the old man.

"I take it you're Mr. Ollivander," Selena said looking at the man.

"Too right you are, young lady," Mr. Ollivander said taking out two wand boxes and handed them to the girls, "Here you are. An oak encrusted wand with unicorn hair. Try them out," Selena and Apolla waved the wands at the same time, the beams hitting a plant and catching it on fire.

"Nope. Those aren't the right ones," Mr. Ollivanders said.

"Mr. Ollivanders... your plant is on fire," Apolla said looking up at Mr. Ollivanders in a strange way.

"Not to worry, my dear. And if you keep your face in the expression, it'll stay that way," Mr. Ollivander said, taking two more boxes out. He gave the wands to the girls again and stood back. The girls waved the wands, making a window break.

"Nope, not at all," Mr. Ollivanders shook his head, hastily taking the wands from the girls' hands. Walking out of view, they could hear him murmuring to himself, "Maybe, just maybe," He returned not a minute later with two small leather boxes in his hands and said, "Try these, ladies," Selena and Apolla both picked a box. When opened, they revealed two wands unlike either of them had ever seen before. Selena's was silver and Apolla's was gold. In their hands, the wands began to vibrate and sparks of blue and green burst out of the ends.

"Yes! Yes! These must be it!" Mr. Ollivander shouted with glee, his eyes sparkling. The girls looked up from the boxes at Mr. Ollivanders.

"Excuse me, sir," Selena asked nicely, "But what are so interesting about these wands that made you all 'I wonder, I wonder'?"

"Those wands are the same exact type of wand I sold to your father. In your two's case, these wands choose you because of your story," Mr. Ollivanders said, stroking his chin, "but the different colored sparks are very mind boggling,"

"If it helps, sir, I am less powerful than my sister," Apolla said, pointing to Selena with her thumb.

"Yes, yes, I know," Mr. Ollivander said with a wave of his hand, ringing up the girls wand total, "I've heard about it. It's just the colors are confusing,"

"How so, sir?" Selena asked. Mr. Ollivander paused, then looked at the two girls.

"Your wand spat blue sparks, am I right?" Mr. Ollivander said to Selena, her to nod in agreement. Mr. Ollivanders continued, "And her's spat green," The girls nodded. Apolla laid the wand on the counter.

"Te sparks have nothing to do with power, does it sir?" Apolla said looking up at the old man.

"Not with how much, Miss Patterson," Mr. Ollivanders said, "but of what kind of power,"

"What kind of power?" Selena asked confused.

"That, I am not sure of yet, but when I find out, you'll be the first to know," Mr. Ollivanders replied, finishing his calculations, "Now, pay up,"

Leaving the wand shop, Apolla and Selena went in search of Pravus. Entering the next store, they found a variety of different animals. Pravus was looking at a rather large eagle owl, and when he went to touch it, it would nip at his fingers fiercely, scaring the poor man.

"OOH! LOOKIE!" Selena exclaimed, "KITTIES: she ran over to a small section of the store where there were many cages containing cats in a variety of colors. Selena was taking an interest to a small silver one.

"How do they get their fur to change color?" Apolla asked Pravus, who had just noticed the girls' arrival.

"Uh... some different breed, I guess," Pravus answered un-confidently.

"Pravus? Can I buy this one?" Selena asked, acting like a little girl wanting candy. She had already taken the cat out of the cage, much to the shopkeepers surprise, and was holding it in her arms, stroking it softly.

"Don't you want an owl?" Pravus asked.

"Oh, no. I'll just use the owl I know Apolla is going to buy,"

"You will not!" Apolla said angry as she stroked the eagle owl Pravus had tried to stroke before, "Get your own!"

"No! No! Please no more fighting!" Pravus said quickly, stepping between the girls, who had both pulled out their new wands and were about to attack, "Hey nice wands! They look familiar..." Pravus trailed off, biting his lip.

"Mr. Ollivanders said they were like our father's," Apolla said, "did you know him?"

"Well... yes. I did know Samuel..." Pravus looked like he was on the verge of telling a fairly long story, but Selena cut him short.

"I think I'll name it Comet!"

"Selena! Mind your manners!" Apolla snapped.

"Your father was a wonderful man," Pravus started, "It is so tragic that his life was cut short by murder,"

"Father was... murdered? Apolla said, a shocked expression on her face. Selena looked up from the cat and looked at Pravus.

"Who killed him?"

"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's apprentice," Pravus said. A silence fell over the trio. All that could be heard were loud hoots from the owls and a soft purring noise coming from comet.

"Was our father..." Apolla started, her voice breaking, "involved with him?"

"No, he was not a Death Eater," Pravus said firmly, "He was involved with The Order Of The Phoenix, an organization against You-Know-Who. Of course, he was discovered working for the Order, and with the power he had-"

"He had power?" Selena asked, "Like mine? Like Apolla?"

"Your mother never told you?" Pravus asked, a hint of concern touching his voice.

"No," Apolla said slowly, raising her eyebrow, "What do you know?"

"I can't tell you everything now. You're too young. But when your father dies, I was to take his ashes and give them to his child so his power could be passes on. I thought Selena was the only child. This is why Selena has more power than you, Apolla. She was given more ashes,"

Not much was spoken after that. Selena had bought Comet, and Apolla, to Pravus' shock, bought the large eagle owl, naming it Midnight. After leaving the store, they headed to the robes store to get fitted for school robes. After a lot of pinching and poking, and Apolla's small squeal of delight as Harry Potter walked in, which caused her to fall off the stand she was standing on, the girls had only to get their books.

"Do we have to buy all of these?" Selena asked, curiously, "How are we supposed to carry all of these around with us?"

"You're not going to have all these classes at the same time, Selena," Apolla answered, pulling A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot off of a shelf and onto the floor with her other books. The bookstore had been a surprise to them. They didn't know that so many book existed, and to fit them all in one store! It was quite fascinating.

"Apolla! Lookie! Hogwarts, A History. That's awesome!" Selena exclaimed, reaching for the books. As her hand touched the side of the book, a girl with long bushy brown hair came quickly to her side and took the book away.

"I've been looking for this everywhere!" The girl said happily. She put it on top of her pile of what seemed to be at least fifteen books.

"Hey! I wanted that!" Selena whined, a hint of frustration in her voice.

"Sorry, but I'm positive I've been wanting this ages longer than you," The girl paused, "Are you going to Hogwarts too?"

"Yes," Apolla butted in, stopping Selena from starting an argument with the girl, "I'm Apolla Patterson, and this is my sister, Selena. We're first years,"

"Oh, so am I!" The girl smiled, revealing buck teeth, "I'm Hermonie Granger. I'm a muggle born, so this magic is a bit new to me. I can tell you two are wizard born, you're already wearing robes," She pointed to the girls.

"Yeah..." Selena said, seeming very uninterested, "Well, we better go pay, Apolla. Pravus is waiting for us. We'll see you soon, Hermonie!" Selena took her books and walked away, Apolla following, seeming very unhappy with her sister.

"What was wrong with her?" Apolla demanded, once they were out of the store. Pravus was leading them back to Gringots to take them home.

"Nothing, she just seems kinda... weird,"

"You didn't give her a chance!" Apolla said angry, "Oh well, not my problem," She turned to Pravus, who jumped thinking that she would yell at him too, "Will we see you again, Mr. Pravus?"

"Um... maybe. I'm not sure. We'll see where time takes us. But we'll defiantly cross paths again," Pravus answered with a confident nod. The girls smiled at Pravus, hoping their next encounter with him would be a good one. Maybe they could find out more about their father this way.

"Well, we've reached the fireplace," Pravus said, pointing out the obvious, "Tell your mother hello. Bye!" He threw in some floo powder and motioned for the girls to step inside. As they did, they saw him run quickly out of sight.

"Weird fellow," Apolla heard Selena say in her head. As though she hadn't said anything, Selena shouted, "The Patterson Residence!" and the two sped back home, their journey to Hogwarts creeping every so quickly up to them.