In this chapter, Mary will get ready for school.

After all, if she wishes to defeat Voldemort for good, the first thing she's going to need is a wand.

And there's someone who can take care of that.

His name is Ollivander.

Chapter 4: Getting Ready for School

The first thing Mary noticed was that the Gringotts bank was not run by humans.

It was run by goblins.

She was expecting it to be run by wizards...but apparently not.

"Huh. I guess they don't only exist in fairy tales." noted Mary.

Though she wasn't expecting them to run a bank. She imagined that they would be more primitive.

But at least they were storing gold instead of pillaging it.

"No, they don't only exist in fairy tales." answered Hagrid. Though he did enjoy reading Muggle fairy tales personally. It was interesting to note what they got right and what they got wrong. And despite what pure-blooded wizards might say, you could learn a thing or two from them too.

The second thing she noticed was the sinister warning telling them the dangers of trying to steal from the bank.

"They must really not rob bank robbers." noted Mary.

In the past, bank robbers had been sucked into vaults and subsequently died of starvation. It must have been disturbing, finding skeletons in your vaults when you went to make a withdrawal.

He explained that Mary was the daughter of Lily and James Potter…who had tragically perished on Halloween about ten years ago.

The goblin clerk blew his nose on a tissue.

"I guess now I know why I wasn't too fond of that holiday." remarked the girl.

Though perhaps it also had to do with all the pranks Dudley played that day of the year. Mary warned them it would get him in trouble…which it often did.

One time, he played a prank simply because he got a Kitkat bar instead of a Hershey, like he wanted.

After Hagrid picked up a golden key, a goblin directed them to the mine cart.

"The bank vault is underground?" asked Mary.

"Tha's why I don't recommend ye try ter rob Gringotts. Ye'd never escape." answered Hagrid.

Not when the vaults stretched hundreds and hundreds of miles underground.

Mary wondered if she would find dwarves down there, because the caverns resembled a mine.

But she did not hear them singing.

Maybe Hagrid had scared them off? He had allegedly done something that got him expelled from Hogwarts, so it must have been bad.

"Well, here we are." said Hagrid.

The goblin directed them to Lily and James' vault.

"Whoaaaa…." remarked Mary.

It seemed her parents weren't exactly penniless.

The vault was filled with coins. They were golden, silver, and bronze.

"I guess this must be the official currency for the wizarding world." noted Mary.

Hagrid nodded.

It would be enough to pay for her school supplies, that was for sure.

After taking what they needed, Mary and Hagrid left Gringotts and went outside to London.

"This is my first time in the big city." remarked Mary.

"Yer foster parents never took ye here?" noted Hagrid.

"Nope." answered the girl. Though they has taken Dudley more than once.

He let out a sigh.

Why did they think wizards and witches were a menace to society? It wasn't like Muggles weren't capable of doing bad things themselves.

Hagrid and Mary went to Ollivanders.

"Mary Potter! I was waiting for this day to come!" exclaimed the man who was in charge of the shop

"This here is Ollivander…though the shop name kind of makes it obvious, to be honest with yeh. He sells all sorts o' wands. And I'm sure he has a wand for yeh too." noted Hagrid.

"Do you have a wand, Hagrid?" asked Mary.

"Welll…no, to be honest with yeh." answered Hagrid.

"Do they not have wands your size?" asked the girl.

He had kind of big hands.

"Actually, they do. It's just tha'…well, I was expelled from Hogwarts." noted the man.

"You were? But why?" questioned Mary.

He seemed like such a nice man. Otherwise, why would he have gotten her a birthday cake? Up until now, she only got a cupcake.

"It's a long story. But in addition to being expelled, me wand was snapped in two." explained Hagrid.

No longer would he be allowed to use magic.

Seemed people thought he was a menace to wizard society. It didn't help that his mother was a giant...which had a bad reputation among the wizarding community.

"Wait, if your wand is snapped, how'd you take me here?" asked Mary.

Hagrid pulled out his pink umbrella.

"Funny, I thought that was just for the weather." remarked the girl. It had been raining pretty hard when Rubeus showed up.

"Well, it certainly helped with tha'. That was one stormy night, would'n ye say?" asked Hagrid.

"Uh-huh!" exclaimed Mary.

She examined the wands, but had a problem.

"I don't know which one to choose!" shouted the girl.

"It's alright. I had trouble choosin' too." explained Hagrid.

There were probably a hundred wands in Ollivander's shop.

Of course, Ollivander recommended that Mary not use a wand that was made from whomping willow. Why was that even on sale?

"If tha's the case, then how did ye choose?" asked Mary.

"Are ye copying me accent?" questioned Rubeus.

"I think it's a side-effect of me talking to you for so long. I'm sorry if I offended yeh…I mean you." answered the girl.

"It's alright. Most o' the staff at Hogwarts don't share me accent though." noted Hagrid.

Mary nodded.

"Now then, where were we? Ollivander here can help ye find a wand. It's what he does best." explained the man.

Ollivander looked for a wand for Mary to use.

"Try this one." suggested the wand salesman.

Mary nodded.

It fit her like a glove.

"I think this one suits me!" exclaimed the girl.

"Did ye know yer parents bought their wands here?" asked Hagrid.

"I think they made a good choice. Can I ask how wands are made?" questioned Mary.

"To put it simply, you need wood and a core. In your case, I picked holly and a phoenix feather. Personally I think the wand chooses the wizard, not the other way around." explained Ollivander.

He had also picked out Lord Voldemort's wand (as he wished for something powerful), but he didn't openly discuss that. He considered it to be the biggest mistake of his career. Just how many times had he cast Avada Kedavra? Probably enough to earn him a life sentence a thousand times over.

Personally, Mary was reminded of the time that the glasses salesman helped her pick out glasses.

Her foster parents weren't happy to spend money on them, but they did so anyway. Perhaps they drew the line at making her suffer from blurry vision.

"Hmm, I don't think my foster parents will like me having a wand." noted Mary.

"Should ye really respect their opinion? They've been lying to ye yer whole life!" remarked Hagrid.

"Well, the truth was pretty scary." answered the girl. Maybe Hagrid shouldn't judge them so harshly.

She was probably going to have nightmares about her parents being murdered. At the very least, she wouldn't be terribly fond of the color green.

Now that she had a wand, Mary asked what she should do next.

"If I were ye, I would pick a pet. I happen to like magical creatures, yeh see." explained Hagrid.

Of course, people were worried that his pets were dangerous. But he considered them to be harmless.

He would be fine if Mary didn't pick a magical creature though.

Mary took a look.

There were cats, but she figured a cat would eat the spiders in the cupboard back home. Though she wouldn't be returning for a while. Something told her she probably wouldn't be receiving a lot of letters from the Dursleys.

The same went for the toads. Though she wondered that if she kissed them they would become princes.

However, one of the toads explained he was not looking for an intimate relationship.

For a while, Mary wondered if she should spend her money on a pet. Hagrid thought it was a good idea, but they all seemed to eat arachnids.

But she then came across an owl. It had white feathers with black spots.

There was a warning letter attached to its cage.

"Do not feed the owl spiders. You'll give her indigestion." warned the letter.

"This one sounds good." remarked Mary.

Apparently, the reason she had so many black spots (causing her to resemble a Dalmatian) was because she was a girl.

The only question was…what should she name her?

She then noticed somebody leaving the nearby wig shop.

This gave her an idea.

"I'll call you…Hedwig!" exclaimed Mary.

Hedwig nodded in approval. She liked the sound of that.

Now that she had a wand and her pet, her next agenda was getting her books.

There were several books on the list, but she got them all.

Though she got a discount for being a hero.

Seemed people loved her for the favor she did for them.

She also bought some robes.

Though her wrist was a bit sore from signing autographs.

Still, it made her feel happy that people loved her so much. She didn't really get to know them, but she imagined that her parents loved her as well.

She also bought a cauldron.

"I wonder what I'm going to put in there." noted Mary.

As a side note, she wasn't allowed to have her own broomstick…yet.

"But what if I need to clean my room?" questioned the girl.

Well, maybe there was a spell that could handle that.

"Have ye gotten everythin'?" asked Hagrid.

"I think so." nodded Mary.

She pulled out a checklist, which had everything checked off.

"Alright then. Now we just need ter board the train." noted Hagrid.

Once Mary hopped aboard, she basically had a ticket to Hogwarts.

Mary Potter nodded. Though she hoped that it didn't run out of coal. It was too bad it wasn't a renewable resource.

Though on the other hand, less coal meant less pollution in the atmosphere.

She studied science.

It looked like she was off to Hogwarts.

"Oh, before ye go ter Hogwarts, there's somethin' yeh should know." explained Hagrid.

He handed Mary a paper.

Apparently, there were four different houses at Hogwarts. Inevitably, Mary was going to end up in one of those four at her first day at school. It happened to every single Hogwarts student.

The only question was which one it was going to be.

And yes, some of the prefects played bets on that. It was a good way to spend time during the first day of the school year.

The four heads of houses were looking forward for new wizards to join them.

There was Gryffindor, for the bold and heroic.

There was also Hufflepuff, for the patient and the dedicated.

There was also Ravenclaw, for the intelligent and creative.

And lastly, there was Siytherin, for the cunning and ambitious.

"I wonder which house I'll end up in." answered Mary.

She had a one in four chance for each.

"Personally, I hope ye don't end up in Slytherin. Every dark wizard I've heard of originated from tha' house. You-Know-Who included." remarked Hagrid. "Not tha' I assume ye'll end up like tha'."

"He used to go to Hogwarts?" asked the girl.

"Yeh. It was probably the worst decision we ever made, letting him learn at our school. Well, we best not keep the other students waitin'. Let's go!" exclaimed the half giant.

Mary nodded.

On the way there, Mary was welcomed by a man wearing a turban.

"Greetings, m-m-my name is Professor Q-q-Quirrell. I'll be y-y-your defense against the d-d-dark arts teacher t-t-this year." explained the man.

Though in the past, he was the teacher of Muggle Studies.

Mary nodded. The turban made her wonder if he was from a desert country. Had he met genies? Her wishes were already coming true though, so maybe she wouldn't search so hard for a magic lamp.

"Sounds good."

She wondered why Quirrell kept stuttering though.

Did teaching make him nervous? She imagined that there were other professions in the wizarding world. It seemed like there were endless possibilities in the world of Muggles.

After being shown the secret passage, Mary Potter boarded the train.

Perhaps she would meet other wizards going to Hogwarts.

It was a happy thought.

"I guess this is goodbye, Hagrid. I won't forget you!" exclaimed Mary.

"Don't worry, lassie. We'll be seein' each other again. I happen to be the gamekeeper at Hogwarts. Me house is on the school grounds." explained Hagrid.

"Not that I'm sad to hear that…but if you were expelled from Hogwarts, why are you allowed to live there?" asked the girl.

"Dumbledore figured there was a strong possibility tha' I was innocent. He did not recommend my expulsion, but in the end, he was outvoted." explained the man.

"So that's why you two are close." answered Mary.

Hagrid nodded.

After hugging Hagrid, Mary boarded the train.

It was time to go to Hogwarts.

"Here I come." thought the girl.

Well, now that Mary's ready for school, all that's left is to ride the train.

The Hogwarts Express.

And yes, I knew that Hedwig wasn't named after a wig on someone's head…I just figured I would think outside the broom box.

Now that Mary has a wand, she should be able to defend himself from whatever magical creatures Voldemort might send after her.

She won't be able to defeat him until her seventh year though. That's how pacing works.

I think I'll have her meet some main characters on the train.

It seems like the perfect time.