Chapter 5: The Hogwarts Express

A tinkling bell rang from somewhere from within the depths of the shop, the only sound to pierce the absolute silence in the shop. Even the sounds from outside didn't permeate the walls of the quiet shop. Inside there was a very small waiting room, from where Daelin could see thousands of thin boxes piled on top of each other from racks in the room adjacent to theirs.

"Good afternoon…" said a soft voice. Daelin jumped, but Humphrey just tipped his hat politely. Standing before them was an old man with wide pale eyes that seemed to shine through the darkness of the shop. Even though he was old, he had the stature and strength of a much younger man, perhaps some secret magic gave him his youthful vigor.

"Ah, I'm happy to see you Daelin Soren." The man said, "I was wondering if your muggle father would allow you to go to a school of magic, however, I doubt he could stop you from going, you've inherited much from your mother's side."

Daelin was puzzled by the old man. He couldn't figure out how the man knew his name, or why he looked at Daelin so interestedly. The hair on the back of his neck prickled and he couldn't repress a few shivers that went down his spine.

"… yes, I can already see it within you Mr. Soren…" Mr. Ollivander continued on, "you have a special gift indeed…"

Humphrey cleared his throat, "Excuse me, but I believe we should continue on our business, Mr. Soren needs to meet up with his father soon."

Mr. Ollivander turned his attention to Humphrey and nodded, "But of course, of course. Hold out your arm then, that's it."

He measured Daelin from shoulder to finger, then elbow to finger, he measured from wrist to floor and shoulder to floor, he nodded as he worked and seemed to be taking mental calculations,

"Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Soren. We use the heartstrings of certain powerful magical creatures, tail hairs of unicorns, tail feathers of phoenixes as well as other magical substances. No two wands are exactly the same, just as no two magical creatures are exactly the same either," explained Mr. Ollivander. Daelin suddenly realized that the tape measure was now measuring by itself while Mr. Ollivander had walked into the back, inspecting the boxes that were lined up to the roof,

"Hmm… your mother's was mahogany with dragon's heartstring, 12 inches and a little swishy, good for transfiguration, perhaps we'll start there." He said, pulling some boxes down, "But then again, you seem like you might work well with these…"

After he had gotten an armful of boxes he placed them at Daelin's feet and opened the first box, handing Dealin a long red wand,

"Redwood with sphinx hair"

Daelin grabbed the wand and waved it around a bit, but nothing happened. Mr. Ollivander snatched it away immediately,

"No, no, here try this one…" He said, giving another into Daelin's hands. They must've gone through a lot of wands, because Mr. Ollivander was muttering to himself about how he was a tricky customer. Perhaps he hadn't had a challenge in a long time, because he seemed quite excited,

"Try this, balisk scale and willow… no…" Mr. Ollivander said, then paused, shuffling through the boxes until he found one, a black box with gold trim, it looked new,

"This is one of our newer models, I haven't tried it before, perhaps you'll be the first to use it… darkwood with balisk heartstring, 12 inches"

Daelin took the wand, expecting it to be like every other wand, but as he raised the wand, a strange surge went through his fingers, and circled within his body. As he brought the wand down sparks shot from the end.

"Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, very good." Mr. Ollivander cried, "Well, well, well, looks like you're an experiment, this type of wand hasn't chosen anyone else, perhaps you show some secret talent, for it's the wand that chooses the wizard Daelin."

Daelin smiled, glad to have his wand. Mr. Ollivander watched Daelin intently with his strange wide eyes, and suddenly Daelin had the urge to leave. They paid for the wand and left the shop.

As they were leaving Mr. Humphrey paused, "Well, it looks like we have everything on the list, however, would you like to buy yourself a pet familiar? The school allows either a cat, toad, or owl."

Daelin was surprised, "We can get a pet?"

"Yes, owls have been the most popular because they can be used to send mail and they are highly reliable. Perhaps we'll get you a pet owl as well, however it is your money." Humphrey answered,

"Of course, I would love to have an owl… I wonder what my dad will think…" Daelin said. A few minutes later, they were leaving Eeylops Owl Emporium with a small snowy owl. It was already night, so Humphrey said that they probably needed to get back to Daelin's father.

As they entered the Leaky Cauldron they at once heard that there was a lot more people, the buzz of conversations surrounded them. There was a lot more people drinking too, some had even broken into song.

"There you are!" called Raru's voice, "Been wondering when you'd be done with your shopping, oh! And you've picked up yourself an owl! Lucky boy. Your father is over there with those other chaps from Romania, he's been getting along pretty well with them." He said, pointing to a group of guys, Daelin's father was talking and laughing.

"Excellent, I will inform him of what we have gotten and also give him information that he may need for your semester. You may wait with Raru if you wish." Humphrey said, walking over towards Daelin's father.

"Well, I said I'd treat you to some stories another time. Humphrey takes forever when he talks about the school." Raru said, guiding Daelin to an empty chair. For thirty minutes Raru shared some of his stories. He and his group of friends would get into a lot of mischief, and just have a lot of fun. Raru talked about the time he and his friend had convinced the house elves that worked at the school that Humphrey wanted all of the items in his room upside down. The house elves were quick and efficient and it would've been the perfect prank, if Humphrey hadn't cornered the elves down and ordered them to tell him who was responsible; that earned Raru a week worth of detention.

He also talked about the forbidden forest, and the times that he and his friends would explore the forest, and how the forest was never the same twice a day, it was as if the trees shifted their positions, even pools of water would move around each day.

However, soon Humphrey returned and Daelin had to say goodbye to Raru, thanking him for his stories,

"No problem. Hey, we'll see each other again someday and I'll treat you to more stories." He replied with a wink. A year was a long wait, so he hoped that he'd get to hear a lot more next time.

Daelin was tired from the night's activities, even when the Knightbus came with its usual loud BANG! It was all Daelin could do to get on and fall asleep on one of the comfortable beds.

When they reached their home again, they all got off and watched as the Knightbus disappeared again. Daelin felt a terrible sadness in his heart as he watched Humphrey standing before them in his suit and top hat. He politely bowed to them and told Daelin's father a few last tips, and then he turned to Daelin, pulling an envelope out of his coat,

"Now, Master Soren, this is your ticket. Please make sure you're there on time. The train leaves at eleven o'clock sharp, "Humphrey explained, "I will see you at Hogwarts, remember, you are an underage wizard, so no practicing your magic, but it always helps to read up. It was very nice meeting you two."

"Thanks a lot Mr. Humphrey" replied Daelin. Humphrey tipped his hat and with a faint 'pop!' he was gone. Both Daelin and his father stood outside for a while, watching the spot Humphrey had been a moment before, and then looking at the starry night sky.

The two then lugged all of Daelin's stuff into the house again and soon was sitting around the table. Daelin's father had made his auto-chef cook them some toast, hardly a dinner, but it would have to do, they hadn't been able to go out and shop.

"Well… congratulations Daelin, my boy! You are a wizard… I'm proud." He said with a smile.

"Within two days our whole world has been turned upside down…" Daelin observed, "as an inventor, I'm surprised you're able to deal with it so easily."

"Oh, it hasn't been easy," his father sighed, "But, I'm an inventor, not a magician. I will continue to work with my inventions, follow my rules, perhaps I'll invent something that borders along magic."

They both were silent for a while, then Daelin pulled out the small key that was to the safe in Gringotts and placed it on the table.

"… so, mom never told you?" Daelin asked, his eyes downcast. His father shook his head.

"I don't think she wanted to tell you too soon, you're an inventor, perhaps she didn't want to have your two worlds crash… perhaps she couldn't tell us. Maybe she was trying to escape." Daelin murmured, not quite sure what he was saying, not quite sure if it made sense. Daelin's father didn't say anything, they both lapsed into silence,

"Well, that key leads to a safe where she left us money. Perhaps you can use it to help you out." Daelin said, standing up. He then head to his room, where the rest of his baggage lay. Daelin opened the window, letting his new owl out to hunt and tried to think of a good name for her. Feeling his sleepiness wash over him again, Daelin put his things away and crawled into bed, his last thought before he fell asleep was,

I think I'll call her Ares…

The rest of the summer was spent through Daelin flipping through some of his books, reading various novels about magic, and just awaiting September first, which was when he would have to get on the Hogwarts Express. It wasn't until much later that Daelin looked at the ticket and realized that it said something quite impossible,

"Platform nine and three quarters?" He asked incredulously, "I didn't know they had that…"

"They don't," Daelin's father said as he was tinkering on the auto-chef version 2.0. His skill in technology seemed to have grown by jumps and bounds, his machines didn't nearly blow up as much, and they mostly preformed the function they were built to do.

"Well, how am I going to get there?" Daelin persisted, wondering how they were supposed to find a platform that didn't exist.

"Well, you should believe in magic more than I do. There probably will be one on September first, or maybe only wizards can see it," replied Daelin's father, "Humphrey didn't mention it, and so it must be pretty clear once we get there. He seems pretty thorough about his explanations."

"Or it's just obvious to him about what to do…" Daelin murmured, feeling a lot less confident.

"Well, you'd better get ready; tomorrow is the day." Continued his father, focusing on his work again. A spear of fear jabbed into Daelin's heart, why did his father have to remind him. He had already packed, but he was still more nervous than ever. He didn't feel ready, why did he agree to be a wizard? He didn't know the first thing about magic!

Daelin walked back to his room. He looked into the corner of the room where two of his bags were packed. Sitting on top of the bags was the cage where Ares sat preening her feathers. Dealin picked up his wand and cast a look over towards Ares,

"… so… are you ready?" Daelin asked the owl. Ares gave Daelin an amused glance, she didn't have to worry about school… as long as she got mice and owl snacks, she was happy.

As he lay in his bed, he thought about the time he was in Diagon Ally. He had met Tobias there; maybe he'd see him again in the Hogwarts Express. Daelin looked at his ticket and thought about the next day…

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Author's Note:

Disclaimer: All ideas and names from the Harry Potter Series are not mine, but J.K. Rowling's. Anything familiar from those Series are not mine, but the rest are mine, and only mine.

Well, I realized that 3 chapters in 5 days is pretty hectic, so no on, I'll be updating Monday and Thursday. I hope you continue to read and enjoy my chapters, next one will be a lot better, I'll be working on it a lot, but I've got a lot of things happening at this moment, so I'm finding it hard to get free time. Thanks for your reviews! They encourage me to continue on, so please continue to review!

Onihawk