Chapter 2: A Knowledgeable Friend

With a purpose, I walked casually through the cobblestone street of Diagon Alley, careful not to catch anyone's eye. I saw a small group of witches and wizards conversing and eating ice cream outside a 'Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour'. As I passed them by, I had accidentally caught the eye of a wizard—or maybe he had caught mine first—that seemed to be looking at me like I had no right to be wandering around here alone. Then he turned to the others and murmured something to them in a low voice that I could not hear before turning his head back in my direction. I was pretty sure the wizard had somehow recognized me as the 'possibly cursed' sister that my 'definitely cursed' brother was related to. Before everyone else in the group could turn and notice me, I looked away from them and quickly slipped into the nearest shop opposite them. I didn't bother reading the shop's name; I just wanted to escape the group's seemingly aggressive stares and didn't want to deal with the attention they seemed eager to give me about my brother's incident.

Luckily it was a shop I actually needed to find. It was a retail store that sold every kind of robe imaginable, from casual to formal, from school robes to plain everyday robes, from crazy to sane, you name it. Most of the school robes had a range of four colors, possibly representing the Hogwarts Houses: red for Gryffindor, blue for Ravenclaw, green for Slytherin, and yellow for Hufflepuff.

I pulled out my letter and looked over the list of things I needed for the year. One of the things on the list I was required to bring were a few sets of robes to wear for school and to wear for outside of class, and this store seemed like the place to shop for those exact things.

As I was perusing through all of the colorful ties for each of the Houses—I had admittedly found myself attracted to the red and gold striped ties that were for Gryffindor House—a seemingly elderly woman came up to me, seeking my attention. She had introduced herself as Madam Malkin and kindly offered to help me find the right robes I needed for school. As she was performing body measurements on me, she had briefly asked if I was related to the 'cursed' boy that was mentioned in the Daily Prophet for being expelled from Hogwarts last year—which was his sixth year—and I quickly said, "No." Madam Malkin said that the 'cursed' boy—Cursed Boy is not his name; it's Jacob, I thought but did not say—and I looked a lot alike, but I shrugged the idea off. Unbeknownst to her, she was right, of course. When we were young, people often commented that it was obvious that Jacob and I were siblings, because we had the exact same nose, chin, and hair and eye color. If only he hadn't disgraced our family name and disappeared from us, I would've still thought of him as a part of the family. It seemed impossible now.

Luckily Madam Malkin didn't say much about the 'Morgan Incident', mainly because she probably sensed that I didn't care to talk about it, but I didn't think she thought it seemed a personal topic to me—it was, but she didn't need to know that.

After I bought all my robes for school, I left 'Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions', which happened to be the name of the shop I had snuck in to escape the group of witches and wizards outside of Florean Fortescue's. Luckily the staring group was no longer in the area, which was a relief. I'd made a mental note to myself to keep looking down to the ground so as not to catch a single person in the eye for the rest of my shopping experience.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work out in my favor, because I had accidentally bumped into someone coming in the opposite direction.

"Sorry," I apologized quickly, instinctively looking up at whom I had stupidly collided with.

"No, it was my fault," said the dark-skinned girl in front of me, straightening her rectangular glasses on her face. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

We paused and looked at each other. She was a cute girl with dark skin and even darker hair draping over her shoulders and past her elbows. She wore large glasses that probably very rarely left the inside of a book. She appeared to have come from an Indian family, despite having the same accent as me. Between the two of us, we looked similar in height and age.

"Hi," she said cheerfully with the biggest smile she could muster. "I'm Rowan Khanna! Are you getting ready to start at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry too?" She seemed to have totally forgotten about our awkward collision with one another, even though I was pretty sure I was the one who wasn't looking where I was going.

"Yes," I nodded, "but Diagon Alley is a bit confusing. I'm not sure where to start…"

"I can help!" Rowan said excitedly, practically jumping up and down on the spot. "I've been reading Hogwarts: A History in anticipation of my first year, so I'm something of an expert on Hogwarts." Yup, definitely a nerd, I thought…just like me. "I see you've already got all of your robes from Madam Malkin's." She pointed to the large bag I was carrying that, indeed, held all of my robes for school. "The next thing you should do, if you haven't already, is finding all of the books you need at Flourish and Blotts! I literally just came from there." She pointed behind her to the small library-looking shop that had books of all different sizes on display in the front windows. "Flourish and Blotts has all the books you need! Go inside and pick them up!"

"Okay, thanks. I'll be back," I said as I followed her advice and entered the bookshop.

Flourish and Blotts was basically a normal Muggle library, only much more magical. There were books stacked high and low on shelves that reached all the way up to the ceiling, and some that were just stacked in a corner on the floor, literally waiting their turn to be put back on the proper shelf. I actually meant 'literally', because I saw a young witch wave her wand, making a book magically lift itself from the pile into the air and soar over to its rightful shelf, settling with its twins.

I took out my letter again and read the list of books I needed for the upcoming year:

The Standard Book of Spells (Year 1) by Miranda Goshhawk

A history of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

After I read over the list a few more times, I set about searching for these books. I had remembered reading Fantastic Beasts once in Dad's study—it was brilliant—but it had been ages since I had read it (long before he'd left us), but I couldn't wait to read it again. I had also heard of Bathilda Bagshot, but I had never read any of her works. I had heard rumors that she was a very close friend with the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, but I didn't know any details of their relationship. I had never heard of any of the other books—nor their authors—I was meant to purchase for school, but I was looking forward to all the amazing things I would learn and the major challenges I would face this year.

Once I had purchased all of the books I was required to bring for the year, I was struggling to carry all the extra weight from the bags of books, as well as all my uniforms from Madam Malkin's, and didn't think I had any extra arms to carry anything else. If the girl I'd bumped into earlier—Rowan—was still outside, waiting for me, maybe she could help me carry some of my bags so I would, at least, have an extra hand to buy my wand and other supplies I needed. I honestly didn't think she would run off with my bags, since she had purchased the exact same books as me—why would someone need two copies of the same book, anyway?

"I should ask Rowan what to do next," I thought to myself aloud after I had spotted her still standing outside the bookstore. After I swiftly approached her, I said gratefully, "Thanks for your help, Rowan. I was able to get all of my books."

"Cool!" she said enthusiastically. Then her enthusiasm suddenly dropped a little as she said, "Sorry, I'm so excited for Hogwarts that I forgot to ask your name…"

"Oh, my name is Janelle," I said in a no-big-deal manner. It was perfectly normal to get excited over something and then suddenly forget about the environment around you. "But most people call me Jane. I'm okay with either, though."

"Pleased to meet you, Jane," Rowan smiled, shaking my hand.

"You too," I smiled back. "I couldn't be more excited to get to Hogwarts."

"I know!" she agreed. "I haven't stopped staring at my acceptance letter since it arrived. Can I see yours?"

At first I didn't understand why Rowan had wanted to see my acceptance letter, when I was ninety-eight percent positive that hers had the exact same thing that was written on my letter, the only difference being her name instead of mine. Nevertheless, I found myself gladly handing it over.

Despite reading it only a few times, in contrast to the number of times Rowan had read hers, I remembered my letter presenting as follows:

Dear Janelle Morgan,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

After Rowan had finished reading my letter and graciously handed it back to me, she said, "I already got my supplies, but my mum gave me just enough to buy something special for school. I want to let everyone at Hogwarts know that I'm a serious intellectual who is well on her way to becoming Head Girl. What do you think I should get, Jane?"

I honestly was taken a bit back by surprise. Here was someone I barely knew, who was asking me what I thought she would like to take to school—something that didn't make her look like a total freak.

I ultimately decided to blurt out the first thing that popped into my head. "I could see you…wearing a cool hat," I said with a shrug.

"Good idea!" Rowan cried ecstatically, and I was relieved with my seemingly random choice. "I have lots of hats, but none of them are cool. While I get my hat, you should get your wand from Ollivander's! They say your wand will choose you."

Ollivander's—I'd heard of that place. It was the place where every witch and wizard would get their first wand, the place where their fate would be decided.

"Thanks, Rowan," I nodded. "I'll keep that in mind when I go there."

"Good luck, Jane!" she said as she backed down Diagon Alley toward 'Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'. I guessed that store had more than just robes for sale. "We'll meet back here when you're done. I want to see what kind of wand you get from Ollivander's."

I waved after her in agreement before walking down the opposite direction—I had remembered Ollivander's being close to Gringotts Bank.

Once I came across the building that was Ollivander's, I suddenly found my newfound confidence diminish slightly. I had almost pictured myself standing—instead of in a pleasant-looking alley with attractive shops and friendly faces greeting one another kindly—in a dark field in the middle of nowhere in front of a seemingly abandoned and worn shack-like structure that seemed about to collapse at any given moment. The walls were black and frayed, like the building had recently caught fire that had just now been extinguished, its paint seemingly flaking off and settling to the ground, like ash. In contrast to all the other sturdier looking shops, this one looked a lot less inviting and seemed like it should have been located in a more dismal place, such as Knockturn Alley, where some of the dodgiest witches and wizards—particularly Slytherins, and possibly secret followers of You-Know-Who—hang out.

On the other hand, there was a funny sort of irony about the shop. Just hearing the name 'Ollivander's' would make a young witch or wizard explode in excitement, knowing that this was the number one shop where they would get their first wand and would be the most excited to visit. However, looking at the building from the outside, it would look more like the sort of place one would invite someone to sign up to join the Death Eaters, and then they would be taken to a private school to learn the Dark Arts, such as the three Unforgivable Curses and the many ways to torture a soul into giving information or simply forcing them into the beliefs of You-Know-Who.

On a personal note, this was something I did not want to do, especially as an eleven-year-old. From the outside, Ollivander's may have had the appearance of a decrepit-looking building that seemed to be falling apart, but the last time I was here, I saw many witches and wizards walking in and out of this building, and I remembered seeing the excited looks on the children's faces as they entered to get their first wand, and even some that were waving their wands in front of their proud parents' faces, like they were showing off a new toy they had received for Christmas, proving this building to be a good place to visit rather than a bad one. Knowing this made me suddenly feel less like a coward and more like a confident young girl who was ready to face the many challenges ahead of her.

Taking a deep breath, I willed myself to step inside and await the exciting mysteries to come.