Star and Lightning

17th Chapter – Shopping in Diagon Alley

Elisha was lying on her bed reading 'An Introduction to The Dark Arts'. Lord Voldemort had given her this book because they couldn't contact again until she was at Hogwarts. She was too closely watched now. When she heard a knocking on the door, Elisha quickly shut the book and pushed it under her pillow. Harry poked his head inside and said:

"Hi Elisha. We'll get going to Diagon Alley in a few minutes, getting your wand and our usual school stuff."

"Okay." Elisha smiled. "I'll be ready in a minute."

When Harry was gone again, she hid the book under her bed's matress and put her long hair in a neat ponytail. She had put a bit of Make-up on to hide the rings under her eyes and she wore a black robe she had burrowed from Ginny; they were about the same size. When Elisha arrived in the hallway, the other four youths, Zaza, Tonks and Molly Weasley were already ready to leave. Zaza was talking animatedly to Tonks while Molly was dusting Ron's robe.

They flooed to the Leaky Cauldron from where they entered Diagon Alley. It was a cloudy and rainy day and Diagon Alley didn't look half as amazing at during Elisha's first visits.

"First stop: Gringotts." Molly said. "Harry, Elisha, you will have to share the Potter vault." Harry cringed inwardly. Inside the Potter vault there was more than enough money for both of them, especially now with the extra winn from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Harry got. Molly made it sound like they would have to save. It was the Weasleys who had to be economical, in spite of the winn from the twin's shop.

Elisha was amazed by Gringotts. But she didn't like the ride to the vaults, it made her feel sick. She was even more amazed when she realized how much money she and Harry owned. They took quite a lot of money out because else than the usual school stuff, Elisha also needed a wand, robes, a cauldron, … all the things first-years usually bought.

Next was Madam Malkins. Elisha needed a complete set of robes, some of the others needed some new clothes. When Madam Malkins saw Elisha entering with Harry, she gasped and said: "The Potter twins! Oh, my god! I read about you in the Daily Prophet. The lost Potter is finally found. I've seen you doing wandless magic, dear. What a fantastic show! Do you…"

"For Merlin's sake!" Tonks disrupted her. "We only need some robes, not a praise on the Potters."

"Uhm, yes, of course." Madam Malkins was a bit embarassed and hurried to get them their robes.

Elisha looked a little shocked and Harry told her smiling: "I'm afraid, you will have to get used to that. You are famous."

When they finally had all the robes they needed, they headed for Olivanders. Elisha felt uncomfortable when everybody wanted to follow her in: "Well, I don't think that I will need you all for help."

So only Zaza and Harry accompanied her in. She felt a lot of powerful magic in the room, not wild, but ordered magic. She supposed that the order was on effect from the many wands that lay on the hundreds of shelves in the shop. Mr Olivander emerged from between some shelves and when he saw who had entered, his eyes widened a bit and he said hoarsely: "Elisha Potter. Nice to finally see you here. A wand for a wandless magician, let's see…" And he took one wand and gave it to Elisha. Nothing happened. He tried at least a dozen different wands but no one fitted. Elisha began getting desperate. What if she never found a wand? After rummaging in the back of the shop for almost a minute, Mr Olivander came back with an old and dusty, small box. When he blowed the dust off, she could see that the box was decorated with tiny patterns and figures of unicorns in a forrest. The wand inside was tender and almost transparent. It was made from something that looked almost like glass and it was filled with a glimmering, silvery substance.

In the moment Elisha's hand touched the wand, a siler glowing emitted from the tip of the wand surrounding her and for a short moment, she felt completely at peace with the world and herself. After the light had faded, Mr Olivander spoke quietly: "I've been wondering when this wand would be sold. It's old, very old. Legend says, Merlin himself made it. It is made of Ederald, wood from a tree with great magical powers that only grows in Unicorn Forrests, and Unicorn Blood. A powerful wand. Not many could handle it. It chose you, Miss Potter. Be careful with it, ancient wands often have a will of their own."

They didn't need to pay for the wand and when they showed it the others, everybody was astonished. They had never seen an almost transparent wand. Elisha was content with her new wand. It just felt right. She was tempted to try it out at once, but she knew that as she was a Hogwarts student now, she wasn't allowed to do magic out of school. When everybody had admired it, she put it back in its beautiful box and put it in one of her robe's pocket to carry it near her body.

While they were buying all the ingredients she would need for Potions, Hermione explained her the use of all of them. But even though Elisha concentrated hard to listen to her, her mind wandered off, back to her mysterious wand. From time to time, she put one hand in the pocket, just to feel that her treasure was still there.

She didn't stop thinking about her wand until they went to get their books. This time she could actually buy books! At first, she got all the books that were required for sixth-years and then she began rummaging through the store, looking for other interesting books. Hermione went with her and pointed some particurlarly interesting and useful books out to her. She didn't buy any books from the lower school years' lists because she could use Harry's old books to catch up on the lost five years. In the end, Elisha bought 16 books. Zaza laughed when she saw her packed with books. She had gotten herself only one little book, that was supposed to introduce muggleborns into the wizarding world.

Next, the boys and Ginny stopped them in front of the Quidditch Supply Shop. They had explained the game to Elisha and she was now curiously listening to their disussion about the newest developments and what would happen with the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. Harry's bann had been lifted and Ginny had aggreed to play Chaser in order to make the Seeker position free for Harry again. Elisha wondered wether she would be able to fly well. When she announced this loudly, they promised to teach her.

They were already on their way to the Leaky Cauldron when they passed the Menagerie. When Harry saw Elisha's curious gaze, he said: "Wait a moment. Elisha, would you like a pet as late birthday present? I got an owl for my 11th birthday when I was about to start Hogwarts."

Elisha smiled happily and nodded. Inside the shop, she went looking around. She didn't want an owl, because she could always use Harry's if she needed one. Watching the cats and rats and toads, she slowly made her way to the snakes. She already knew that she wanted one, but she didn't want to make it too obvious. When she stood in front of them, her eyes fell on a petite blue one with orange eyes. She softly hissed: "Hello, little one."

She didn't realize the shocked stares she got from the others customers around her, she was busy with the snake who turned her head to look at her and hissed back: "You are one who speaks our tongue."

"Aren't there many who do that?"

"No."

Elisha thought about the snake's answer for a moment, then asked: "Would you like to be my pet snake?"

"I would love to." There was something like a smile on the snake's face.

Elisha opened the cage and put her hand in. The little blue snake wound its way up her arm and settled around her neck. When the pet shop's owner saw this, he stormed over and said angrily: "You can't just take this snake out of her cage. It's deadly poissonous. And this one is extremely aggressive"

Like an answer, the blue snake snapped forward and missed his faces only little. Elisha caught her again and hissed: "Hey, calm down. First rule: No unprovoked snapping."

"But I was provoked." The snake hissed back and furiously flicked out its tongue.

"Okay, let me specify: No snapping unless your life is in danger."

The snake nodded and added: "Or when your life is in danger. I'm a guardian snake. It's my job to protect those I have chosen. I just never chose anyone before and I don't like being insulted."

Speaking normally, Elisha said: "I think I can control her. Harry, this is the pet I want." Harry paid and ushered them out of the shop by all the frozen people gasping at them.

When they were outside and back with the others, they also stared at Elisha and the snake.

"What's wrong?" she asked irritated.

"You are a Parselmouth." Harry stated. "You can talk to snakes. I can, too. It's just, that only very few people can speak Parseltongue. Actually, there are only three alive: Me, you and Lord Voldemort."

She nodded, now their reaction made sense. She quietly hissed to the snake: "These guys are my friends. No attacking them." After the snake nodded, she reassured the humans: "She won't attack you."

When the group was silently heading for the Leaky Cauldron, Elisha remembered something and she asked the snake: "By the way, do you have a name?"

"No, nobody named me. You could give me a name."

Elisha thought and then hissed: "What about Serena?"

The Snake nodded contently and moved under her robes to curl around her arm so that her head lay at Elisha's neck. Elisha smiled contently and the troubling thoughts of Lord Voldemort and her task were at the back of her mind.