This was a piece intended to show that not all advances came from Evans Enterprises as well as showing that at least one piece of research mentioned by Draco Malfoy in A Challenge Unexpected came to fruition.

It was also meant to show how competition between the three main companies helped new arrivals to the Magical World.

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Into The New World

A gentle chime sounded as the three entered the reception area of the Hotel and the man behind the desk looked at them with a welcoming smile.

"Good morning and welcome to the Lily's Rest Hotel. Do you have a reservation?"

The newcomers looked at each other, the adults with slight expressions of worry that despite all that they had been shown, the whole thing was a hoax while their son grinned with eagerness.

"Go ahead." The father finally sighed and the boy pulled out a folded sheet of parchment. Scampering up to the desk, he handed it over and the receptionist opened it.

"Ah, the Farfields family. Miss Weasley has been waiting to escort you. One moment, please?"

The family watched as the man tapped on the screen in front of him and a moment later, a voice came from it.

"Kieran, are they there?"

"I was about to send them through." The receptionist nodded, then tapped the screen again before holding out a pair of medallions. "Please head through that door. If you can't see it…"

"There's a door there?" Mr Farfield asked in confusion, his wife looking just as lost while their son rolled his eyes.

"How do you not see it?" He burst out. "It's right there!"

Kieran cleared his throat to catch their attention. "Sir, Ma'am, since you cannot see the door, please put these medallions on. They will key you into the protective wards and let you see past the illusion."

"Seems odd to me." The father grumbled as he accepted the medallion, then he stared in shock. "Where did that door come from?"

"Da-aaad!" His son groaned as the mother accepted her medallion in turn. "Let's go! I want to get my stuff!"

Mr Farfield finally donned the amulet, still staring at the door in a manner similar to how one would stare at a large snake, but his son wasn't anywhere nearly as restrained, darting forwards and pulling the door open.

"Harold! Wait!"

Ignoring his father's call, Harold stepped through, looking round eagerly, then slumping.

"Awwwww, it looks just like the other room…"

A gentle laugh caught his attention and he turned to see a red-headed woman smiling at him. "This is still part of the hotel, you know."

"But… magic?" Harold managed not to whine as he looked round at the fairly mundane room, then he blinked as one of the pictures on the wall waved at him. "Wooooooowwwwww…"

"I'm Ginny Weasley and I'll be your guide today." The woman introduced herself to Harold's parents, who had finally entered the room behind their son. "Do you have the list of items you'll need?"

"I have it!" Harold pulled it out of his pocket and waved it. "Professor Vector said that the… the… what was it?"

"That several subjects were being sponsored by different companies and so the items are effectively free." Mr Farfield finally spoke.

"That's true." Ginny nodded. "Evans Enterprises, whom I work for, sponsors Defence Against The Dark Arts, Blackwolf Industries covers Charms and Transfiguration while White Wing Artificers provides for Potions and Herbology. For those subjects, all necessary books and materials are provided to students free of charge."

"That sounds… expensive." Mrs Farfield managed and Ginny laughed again.

"Mrs Farfield, Magical England has about as many people in it as a single large town. When I enrolled in Hogwarts, there were maybe forty others in my year. While the numbers have grown, this year is still less than a hundred all told."

"That is less than I thought." Harold's father admitted. "So… how do we get to where we need to go?"

"Simple, we go out through the doors." Ginny waved for them to follow her. "Even five years ago, we would have used Switching Rooms, but White Wing Artificers created Doors to link distant places in a single step. You can't see it, but this room is bisected by a Door. It used to be a Switching Room, but installing a Door, albeit a very large one, made things easier since we no longer have to worry about closing all the doors to trigger the switch. So, this way out and… welcome to the Magical World."

Harold froze in the doorway, his eyes wide as he watched a bow-carrying Centaur pace past, deep in conversation with a Wizard who was carrying a staff. A group of goblins scurried past in another direction, their armour clattering as they escorted a floating container secured with a large number of chains and locks. In the middle of the huge sunken atrium was a large, raised fountain which had several panes of what looked like glass set into the sides, allowing the merfolk to look out at the area around them, then one of the panes seemed to ripple as a witch stepped out, pulling out a wand to dry off her robes and dismiss the silvery bubble encasing her head.

"Whoah…"

Harold finally stumbled forwards, his head turning rapidly as he tried to take in everything around him.

"This atrium seems rather… open." Mr Farfield finally managed as he nodded to the large archway located where, in a normal atrium, the entrance doors would be. Beyond the archway was a large, grassy plain bounded with a rocky wall.

"This is the Tegg's Nose Cavern." Ginny guided them towards the exit. "It has been magically expanded to many times its original size and is now the largest wizarding settlement in Britain. It has special Arches that connect it to the original shopping area Diagon Alley as well as the second-largest wizarding settlement, Hogsmeade Village. At the end, you can see the archway leading to Regulus Park, a magical theme park that is larger than Alton Towers and located in the tropics."

All three newcomers turned to look at what seemed to be a cave mouth almost fifty feet tall and across, an opening bridged by several walkways at various heights that connected to a tower that stretched from the floor to the apex of the opening.

"Now, let's begin by converting some money and then getting you your wand, shall we?" Ginny prompted. "The best place to get your first Wand is Ollivanders. Unlike many other companies, he has chosen not to expand to Tegg's Nose, meaning that we will need to go through the Arch over there to reach Diagon."

Once again, the trio followed Ginny's motion, their gaze coming to rest on a large free-standing archway engraved with a feather-effect and through which a cobblestone alley could be seen.

"Awesome…" Harold breathed in awe.

"First, though, Gringotts has a kiosk over here for exchanging pounds for Galleons."

.

.

"Ah, Miss Weasley." Ollivander stepped out of the corner of his shop, causing the three Farfields to jump in shock. "Yew and Dragon Heartstring, eleven and three-quarter inches. Welcome back. I see you have brought me a new customer. Do you have your Hogwarts letter?"

Blinking nervously, Harold proffered the parchment in question and Ollivander nodded.

"Excellent. Well, your first Wand is already paid for thanks to Lord Potter, so let's get started, shall we?"

Ollivander pulled out a tape measure as Harold's mother edged over to Ginny.

"Already paid for by Lord Potter?"

"He owns Evans Enterprises." Ginny whispered back. "A Wand is needed for many things, including DADA… Defense Against The Dark Arts."

Mrs Falfield nodded in understanding, then stared in shock at the tape measure, which was moving by itself as it continued to measure Harold by itself.

"Yes, I think that should do." Ollivander stated as he reappeared with several boxes. "I think one of these should work, so let's see which one wants to be your wand, shall we? After all, the wand chooses the wizard, you know. Here, Elm and unicorn hair, thirteen inches. Give it a swish."

Harold waved the wand and a chair in the corner suddenly collapsed.

"Hmmm, not that one, I think." Ollivander plucked the wand from Harold's fingers and returned it to its box before proffering another. "Willow and Dragon Heartstring, twelve inches."

.

"Excellent!" Ollivander clapped as a shower of sparks rose into the air before slowly descending. "Apple and Dragon Heartstring, twelve and a half inches. Look after that wand and it will look after you!"

"May I suggest a holster?" Ginny suggested as she finished repairing the broken shelves, then she held out her arm so that the others could watch as her wand slid smoothly into a holster apparently far too small to hold it. "Putting it in a pocket may seem to work, but it's too easy to break if you do that. A basic holster…"

"Oh, indeed!" Ollivander agreed, darting to the counter and pulling out a display tray filled with holsters. "Here I have some basic leather holsters that are large enough to hold the wand, but small enough so it doesn't get in the way. You can strap it on your arm or wear it on your belt, only twelve sickles."

Harold stared pleadingly at his parents, who exchanged a glance before nodding.

.

.

"I'm hungry." Harold moaned as they stepped through the Arch from Diagon back to Tegg's Nose.

"There are quite a few places to get food around here. There are several sandwich kiosks, a noodle place that you can select whatever you want and they'll cook it in front of you, a MageDonalds…"

"A what?" Mr Farfield interrupted.

"A MageDonalds." Ginny repeated. "It's a McDonalds that caters to Magicals. There's also the Platter places which are pretty good. The Owl's Platter is more of a takeaway place with some seating while the Eagle's Platter is a pretty good restaurant which I would recommend you try when you have some free time. The Peacock's Platter is regarded as the best restaurant in Magical Britain and possibly all of Magical Europe, but it has prices to match. Unless you have at least a million Galleons in your vault, you probably can't afford to eat there. I've only eaten there once and when I managed to catch sight of the bill…"

Ginny broke off with a shudder.

"Can we try the MageDonalds?" Harold asked eagerly, causing his parents to chuckle.

.

"What's with those walkways?" Mr Farfield asked as his son happily slurped the extra-large milkshake that he had asked for. "I've been looking and I don't see any handrails. Is that safe?"

"It is." Ginny explained as she wiped the last bit of barbecue sauce from her lips. "The walkways have runic arrays that reverse the momentum of anyone heading over the edge, pushing them back onto the walkways. The circular areas are broomstick launching platforms that have similar arrays, but ones that don't activate if the person in question is on a broomstick or using a Flight Set. If you want to go up for a closer look, there's a lift-shaft over there."

"Ahhh, thanks but… are you sure it's safe?" Harold's father asked after looking at the nearest tall cylinder of light that rose to the ceiling with several walkways circling it.

"I've used them quite a bit." Ginny reassured him as a Wizard stepped into the cylinder and rose into the air. "They're actually split into an up and a down side as indicated by the edge of the walkway and the vertical speed is about two feet per second. You also slow down as you reach each level, allowing you to simply step onto the walkway. It's actually quite fun, once you get over the whole stepping off the edge nervousness."

"I can see how that could be an issue." Mrs Farfield admitted. "Is that person using one of those flight sets you mentioned?"

"That's an Auror." Ginny noted as she looked up. "Aurors have special Flight Sets that can move twice as fast as civilian versions."

"Makes sense." Mr Farfield noted. "You don't want criminals to be able to escape, after all."

"I wanna be an Auror!" Harold gasped as he watched the Witch in question fly past.

"You'll need to study hard." Ginny noted, nodding to the bag slung over Harold's shoulder, the bag containing his new school trunk and the various textbooks they had collected. "You need to reach at least Exceeds Expectations in your NEWTs before you can hope to be an Auror."

"I'll study really hard!" Harold vowed.