Along the cobblestones of Diagon Alley,

I begin my quest to gather all necessary books

and equipment for my first year at Hogwarts,

as well as meet a new friend.


Within moments of entering the pave-stoned street of Diagon Alley… after a long-winded twenty minute walk from home, and through the Leaky Cauldron pub… I lost Ash.

I don't even know what happened. One minute he was oohing and aahing, pointing out all the different shops that Diagon Alley had to offer, and then all of a sudden he was quiet. I knew it was suspicious the moment I no longer heard his voice, and when I turned around I wasn't sure whether to be horrified or relieved by his disappearance. The large crowd of people around me didn't help the situation either, as there was no way to see around them for where he'd run off to.

I decided I'd have to wait until later to see if I could find him again. He'd be okay. Hopefully. I wasn't looking forward to seeing how his mum would react if I told her he'd gone missing….

Anyway.

I pulled the supply list from my simple brown messenger bag and stared at it, trying to decide what I should get first.

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black)

One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

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

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

School books weren't something I usually looked forward to. Basic homeschooling with dad showed me that there was only so much I could stay focused on, especially when it came in the form of textbooks. However, the one book I definitely wanted to get my hands on was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Besides for Charms — which Jacob used to show me with extreme proficiency how to cast every time he came home each summer — creatures, both magical and otherwise, were the most exciting subject imaginable. Any pictures or descriptions of them that dad would read, either from a bedtime story or newspaper, left me aching for more.

Whether they were deemed dangerous — or not — bared no weight on the amount of interest I had in each one… even the ones dad would quickly skip the page so as to avoid discussing the heinous history of any one of them… including werewolves. How did I know? After he and mum would go to bed, I'd sneak the book back to my room to read a little longer. I longed for all the knowledge I could muster on them, as every creature was different… especially in comparison to the complete discord between humans, both wizards and muggles…. All of whom focused more on bringing other people down — such as my family — than on taking care of their own families and needs like creatures.

I sighed, missing the nights that Jacob would be home for the summer and just join me in reading. He would insist that it was safer for us to do it under the covers and keep our lamp off in case mum or dad decided to check that we were sleeping. Then he'd use his wand to mutter "Lumos!" so it would shine a bright white light on the pages.

My choice made, I walked into the green painted door of Flourish & Blotts bookstore, reveling in the smell of books with pages both new and old as I crossed the threshold. I realized as I looked around that I'd forgotten how big it was since the last time I'd been in there. Of course, I figured it may have only felt that way because now I was searching for all the books I needed on my own. I'd always assumed dad or Jacob would be helping me find what I need….

I could have just taken the books I needed from Jacob's room, since of course he'd gotten all these supplies before… but neither me nor our parents had gone in there since the day he left. It was almost as if we thought he'd feel safe staying in there without our knowledge, that he hopefully hadn't disappeared after all. Most of all, it was like we didn't know what awaited us if we went back in there.

His room remained locked and untouched.

I wandered through the rows of neatly organized shelves, knowing I'd probably already passed a multitude of the books I needed in pursuit of the aisle I most wanted to find. Ah, here it is… the magical creatures section. Brilliant! Skimming the titles using the tip of my index finger as I wandered through, I made a mental note to myself to drag dad back here for some more of what they had. When I found what I was looking for, I swiftly snagged a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, by Newt Scamander, and hugged it to my chest.

Being just one of the many course books still collecting dust in Jacob's old room, it did feel nice to know that I could finally have a copy of my own. Even when Jacob was still around… well, actually, there were no complaints from me about sneaking into his room to take things. He really used to get mad at me when he noticed something was missing. There was always some spiel of his (done over a fake magic battle with licorice wands) about how — because I was a girl — I wasn't supposed to like the same things he did. I would take books, candy, and dolls that he insisted were called 'action figures' of Merlin, Morgana, King Arthur Pendragon, and the like.

I never cared what he called them. They still used to be perfect to hold tea parties with. At least until he bought a glass case and locked them in there. So stingy.

I turned around to search along the shelves for the books I'd missed when I bumped headfirst into a large stack of books that tumbled to the floor all around me. At the center of the ring of books with me was a thin, brown-skinned girl with shoulder-length black hair and roundish glasses of a surprisingly similar color structure as my own. In her arms remained three of the pile she'd been holding. My book had dropped among the books on the floor when I bumped into her, buried by the multitude.

"I'm sorry about that!" she quickly said, her cheeks evolving into a dark red as she bent down to pick up the books. "I couldn't see where I was going — but, then of course, that's my own fault for holding so many books at once. Mum told me not to carry so many, but there's just so many books here I wanted that I just had to show them all to her, and —"

"It's okay, it's okay!" I quickly interjected, bending to the floor with her. "I'm sorry, too. I should've paid more attention…. Here, let me help you."

Each of us had a sizeable pile by the end, and what remained was my Fantastic Beasts book which I reached for at the same time as her. Both of us grasping each end of the book and picking it up gave us pause to look at each other and snort with laughter as she released her hold on it.

"That must've been your book," she said, standing up with her pile of books more secure in her grip. "I think my copy must still be in my pile — anyway, thank you for helping me pick them up. I'll just come back for those."

"Don't worry about it," I readily replied, placing my book on top of the pile in front me before hoisting it up as I stood… with some difficulty. "I'll help you bring this to your mum… you'll just have to tell me how you were able to carry the full pile so easily when we're done."

Her cheeks reddened slightly again, and she led the way through the rows of bookshelves, "Oh, thank you! Here, let's hurry — I'm Rowan, by the way!"

"Nice to meet you, Rowan… I'm Jessamyn…" I huffed in between breaths. My arms were already aching. She's got to be thinner than I am — how does she manage?

"Are you getting ready to start at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry too?"

"Yes, I am — I take it your guess is based off of this book being one of the supplies?"

"Well, that and you look my age," she giggled slightly.

We made it back to the main area of Flourish and Blotts where we both set the books on the counter — to my utter relief. In front of it stood Rowan's mum, who was slightly stout in stature but otherwise a carbon copy of her daughter. The differences merely remained that she lacked glasses, she had a red bindi at the center of her forehead, and her robes were a bright mixture of shades of pinks and purples folded in on each other.

Now that she no longer carried a multitude of books, I could see that Rowan wore a simple set of black robes… Actually, her robes looked exactly like the ones Jacob wore for Hogwarts. They were merely lacking the crest of his House — and so were most likely the school robes.

By House, I mean that Hogwarts consists of four Houses that students are placed in at the beginning of the year, and that is the House they are a part of for all the years they spend at Hogwarts. They were Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Dad had been in Slytherin, and so had Jacob. Mum had said not to put pressure on myself over if I would get in Slytherin like they did, but the way I saw it was that she only didn't care because she never went to Hogwarts.

If I was going to Ilvermorny, it would have been different, but honestly thank God I wasn't. Not only did I want to still live where we were, as our home did still hold all the memories of my childhood, but I was determined to go where dad and Jacob had gone. Even if it meant being shunned by my classmates, I was going to stay no matter what. And that was that.

Besides, I definitely wasn't going to suffer the embarrassment of being like mum and Martha by yelling "Pukwudgies Unite!" on random occasions. Dad and Jacob never did anything like that.

"Row Row, what is all this?" Rowan's mum asked in dismay, picking books from the pile and setting them aside. "You couldn't just find one or two extra books rather than ten?"

"They all have such vital information about Hogwarts, mum! I want to learn all I can before I get there!"

She sighed resignedly, "All right, child, just for you…" Then, as if just noticing me standing there, she smiled kindly at me. "And who might you be?"

"My name's Jessamyn, ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Ah, what a gem. You can call me Mrs. Khanna. Thank you for helping Rowan. They're always picking up more books than they need. It's already like we have our own in-home library, you know —"

"Mum!" Rowan interjected.

I had to say, it was nice that, so long as all I gave was my first name, no one would know just yet who my brother was. My name was never mentioned in the Daily Prophet — perhaps courtesy of the fact I was not allowed to give any comments, and my parents threatened them a trip to the Wizengamot if they ever snuck a picture of me in there — thus I was safe until it would no longer be possible to hide my name inside Hogwarts' walls.

Not that I wanted to feel like a coward that was ashamed of my brother… no, I could never say that. What I wanted was to be able to make a new meaning to it — far beyond being the sibling of someone who went mad in the search for hypothetical vaults… that I actually hoped to be real for the sake of my brother's sanity.

As they sorted through the books Rowan picked up, I took my Fantastic Beasts book from the group. One book down, seven more to go along with the rest of the supplies I needed.

Wait… I realized, thinking back to the way Rowan's mum had been referring to her…. Did she refer to Rowan as they…?

As a witch wearing purple robes framed with gold and a matching headwrap assisted Mrs. Khanna, Rowan sidled up next to me. "Do you have the rest of your supplies yet?"

"No, not yet. Flourish and Blotts is the first place I came to. Although I'm not quite sure I'll be able to find everything before the end of the day — there's so much."

"I can help!" she said ecstatically, light brown eyes shining behind her spectacles. "I've already got all my supplies. It's the least I can do for you!"

"Actually, that's the most you could do for me," I chuckled. "But thank you. I would really appreciate that."

After Mrs. Khanna magicked all the books home with an elegant wave of her wand, Rowan asked her about staying with me while I gathered the rest of my supplies. She heartily agreed, told us to have fun, and gave Rowan a small pouch of Floo powder so she could take a chimney home when we were done. She then bid us farewell and left the shop.

"All right! Now onto the other books you need!" Rowan declared, strutting her way purposely back through the aisles of books. Without even pausing to look at the titles or the genre sections, she snagged what I needed off the shelves with quick succession and handed them to me.

"Rowan…" I ventured curiously to her responding "hm?" "I noticed when your mum was — er — talking about you, she said 'they' instead of 'she.' Is there a reason for that?"

"Oh… well," Rowan paused in place to properly face me, awkwardly rubbing a hand against her… or their… arm. "See, when I think of myself, I don't like the constricting feeling of the pronouns 'he' or 'she.' Really, I like to think of myself as both, though I was born a girl and keep up the appearance of one. I'm gender non-conforming or, simply put, gender neutral. I'm really lucky mum and dad are so supportive of my feelings regardless of how much it confuses them. Does it.. bother you?"

I blinked a few times in quiet contemplation before smiling and shaking my head. "Why would it bother me? I may not understand it either, but whatever works for you. I'm glad I asked."

Her — no, their — expression immediately lit up, and they lightly looped their arm through mine to steer me back to the front to pay for my books.

With that over with, I opened up my messenger bag and began setting the books inside. Rowan gasped with the first book I placed as I leaned inside it to set the book on the shelf that was currently against the wall leaning against my side.

"Is that —?" they asked in awe.

"The extension charm? Yeah," I replied with a proud grin, leaning another book inside as they gave a resounding "Cool!"

The bag was one of Ash's mum's. She entrusted one to each of us to easily hold our own supplies for the trip as they were charmed to possess a lot of inside space to carry an entire storage-worth of items while still being light to carry.

"I can't wait to learn it myself. I'm ready to learn all the charms I can," I admitted.

"Oh, I don't know," they said uncertainly, while — at the same time — giddily taking a book and leaning into the bag to set it on the shelf. When they stood at full height, they continued, "Because it's so advanced, using this charm is strictly controlled by the Ministry of Magic. It's not supposed to be for private use, in case of a violation to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy."

All the legal jargon they'd just said sorta went over my head, so all I could do was blankly stare at them and add another book to the bag.

"Sorry," they shook their head awkwardly. "I just mean the Ministry of Magic is in charge of what the charm is allowed to be used on."

"Oh… well, I doubt these are illegal, per se. This bag, among others, was used to safely transport years worth of research on ancient languages here from America. It belongs to a friend of my mum's — she just let me borrow it for the day." As I spoke, I put two more books inside the bag.

"Ancient languages?!" Rowan became starry-eyed with excitement, and they placed the last two books in the bag with quick succession. "D'you think she'd ever let me look some over?"

"I don't know about that," I shrugged, closing the bag up and walking with them out of the store. "But I'll definitely ask her…. You really love reading, don't you?"

Rowan nodded vigorously. "I read all the time! There's so much that books have to offer, both as an escape from reality and as a wellspring of knowledge to absorb! I've even been reading Hogwarts: A History in anticipation of my first year, so I'm something of an expert on Hogwarts if you have any questions about it."

Despite my gnawing worry about the coming year, the name of the school on their lips actually gave me a thrill of excitement. With them going there at the same time as me, it was sure to make the year a bit easier to deal with…. Now for the hard part of wondering how they'd react to finding out who I really am…

"I couldn't be more excited to get to Hogwarts," I said with a grin, opening the door to Potage's Cauldron Shop — a dingy little store with cauldrons of all shapes, sizes, and materials. The heavy metallic smell overran my senses, causing me to give a slight cough. "Sometimes, I can't really believe I'm going. I've been keeping my acceptance letter close just so I can check it every now and then to be sure I didn't dream it all up."

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

I nodded, pulling it safely from the front pocket of the bag, and holding the crisp parchment paper between my fingertips so Rowan could lean against me to read its contents. My thumb happened to cover my name from their line of sight.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme

Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Miss McPhee,

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 by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

"It gets better every time I read it," I said in satisfaction, stowing it away as Rowan nodded in agreement.

From Potage's, I bought my pewter cauldron and brass scales; over at Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment, I got a telescope that Rowan suggested for its top quality vision; and from there we wandered over to the General Apothecary.

I expressed surprise that we weren't expected to buy ingredients for all the potions that we were going to learn to brew throughout the year as it was an annoying trip I remembered Jacob having to take each summer that would bore me out of my mind while he and mum perused the shelves for ingredients. Rowan's guess was that we wouldn't be buying our own ingredients until our later years at Hogwarts, and I had to agree.

Potions was decidedly not my strong suit. While dad had his fair share of knowledge of medicinal potions, mum was usually the one to teach me some simple brews. It was hard since she wasn't as patient with my mistakes as dad was, but she always claimed that potions was a direct lead-in to alchemy, her specialty. I was okay at it, but not quite as good as Jacob, about whom mum would wax poetic on his skills.. and it made me worry about how I would do when I got to Hogwarts.

Potions and alchemy weren't my first choice, but I wanted mum to be proud of me. Jacob's disappearance caused her hope of having one of us follow in her footsteps to shatter. I didn't want to go into either field but, until Jacob came back, I was willing to do my best.

My only solace was that Jacob had said the potions teacher, Professor Slughorn, was cool and laid-back. If I needed an extra hand, he would gladly give me some help, something I looked forward to taking advantage of.

We turned a corner in the shop, Rowan leading the way to the section of phials when I paused at the sight of a familiar face turning toward us with a set of crystal phials in one hand and a set of glass phials in the other.

"Hi, Cassandra," I said softly.

Cassandra was a girl with cobalt blue eyes that paired beautifully with creamy brown skin, her long curly black hair up in a high ponytail. With oval spectacles and a perfectly clean set of white robes, she looked as I usually perceived her — like she was an intellectual on her way to being a doctor or researcher of sorts.

We knew each other because of our dads, who'd both worked together at St. Mungo's and had gone to Hogwarts together — matter of fact, her dad still worked there.

They would come over to hang out — our dads together in the main room, and Cassandra with me in mine. Though it was a friendship of convenience, I had thoroughly enjoyed some of the evenings that she came over. We'd both started off rather shy, slowly working our way up to being comfortable with each other and getting to know each other better. She was actually part of the reason I considered myself as being 'okay' with potions. Due to her natural affinity to it, she had sometimes walked me through a couple of the ones that I'd been practicing on mum's orders.

At least, it was all good until the scandal with Jacob's disappearance and the world calling him crazy for obsessing over vaults they believed to not exist. Dad's friend stopped coming over and, because of that, so too did Cassandra.

Giving a curt nod, she blankly replied, "Jessamyn," and brushed right past us.

It was just another reminder as to why I knew I was going to feel rather alone at Hogwarts.

"What was that about?" Rowan asked, clear distaste written on their face as they pointedly looked in the direction Cassandra had gone.

"Nothing," I denied, shaking my head. "What phials did you suggest again?"

Rowan didn't pry any further, and for that I was grateful. I bought a set of glass phials, and we left the shop to go over to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

We were immediately greeted by a heavyset witch in sunshine yellow robes. She recognized Rowan from their visit earlier in the day, but allowed them to come to the back of the shop with me while I got fitted for school robes. It was to be the robes, dress shirt, skirt, stockings and shoes, along with a set for the winter weather.

"Rowan, did you go for the skirt or the pants?" I found myself asking. I'd been told by Jacob that, because I was a girl, I was expected to wear a skirt… hence why I realized the owner, Madam Malkin, had automatically fitted me for one. The question was if Rowan was allowed to decide what they wanted to do.

"I did what mum suggested and went with the skirt," Rowan shrugged, looking at some of the woolen fabric up against the wall. "I'd been debating what I was going to do for so long that she said to start Hogwarts with a skirt and stay in the girl's dormitories at least for the first year. From there I could either change it next year, or stay where I am."

"Sounds rational," I said with a small nod, standing stock still as Madam Malkin pinned together the fabric at my waist. "Though are you really okay with it? Is there no way to ask for something of your own preferred style — including your own room if you'd rather not stay with boys or girls?"

Rowan smiled at me over their shoulder, "I'm okay, thank you for asking. I realize not everyone is going to be so understanding or open to the way I am. And Hogwarts has never had to even think about accommodating someone like me, historic as it is."

"But surely there've been wizards before that might've asked for gender neutral accommodation?"

"Believe me, I've searched through all the history books I can find… there's no mention of it," they shook their head thoughtfully. They held up their hand, then, in a lightly closed fist, and brought up a finger with each suggestion they brought up. "Either I'm the absolute first gender neutral student… or past gender neutral students kept their real identities to themselves for fear of torment and isolation from fellow peers… or there have been past discussions or protests and it was never recorded in the history books. Swept under the rug, some might say." They ended the topic with three fingers up.

"Sounds complicated," I lamented, my brain doing loops at the subject.

History also wasn't a subject I enjoyed, and this had just proven it. Not only was it absolutely boring to learn about the past — minus the way Rowan had just been explaining to me about what they couldn't find in their research — but it was also rather depressing. So many unresolved battles, unnecessary deaths, and — to top it all off — the complicated names of wizards or goblins to pair with the year that their efforts were recorded to have occurred. Snooze.

"Complicated, yes, but I have my whole future ahead of me to find a way to change that!" Rowan exclaimed, the grin on their face contagious. "And by the way, I've decided not to consider myself as a witch or wizard either. I rather like the idea of being called a 'mage.'"

How unique, I smiled back, "It fits."

"That it does," Madam Malkin said in satisfaction, wrapping up the last bit of adjustments that she'd been making. Whether she'd only been talking about the robes, or if she was including the discussion between me and Rowan.. neither of us were quite sure.