Reworked by Lena. Updated 28th October 2018


Preparations And A Successful Deal

Today was the second day of the holidays. I had acted fast, had needed to be fast as I had set myself a strict timetable on my plans which I had worked on for the last three weeks after the tournament. As soon as the train at Kings Cross Station stopped I hugged Harry and Ron goodbye and greeted my parents with a bright smile. Yes, a bright smile! I would've never been so stupid to tell my parents the truth about the magical world. They would've been shocked to learn about the dark and dangerous world their daughter lived in. For them, the magical world was exciting and fascinating, a colourful and happy world, like Diagon Alley. The shopping street was the only thing they knew about my world and they would never see anything else. Thus, we quickly drove home after our brief greeting and I could finally begin putting my plans into action.

"It is good to be home again. Mum, Dad, I missed you!" I declared cheerfully as we entered our townhouse.

"So did we, sweetheart!" my mum responded as we entered the lobby. She pulled me into a hug again.

"And did you plan anything else for today?" I asked eagerly and smiled at both of them.

"No, nothing special. We'll have a nice dinner later, and you... you have to tell us all about your school year!" my Dad replied, intrigued.

"Hmm, yeah, sure. But I just need to go pick up some things from the pharmacy... I've run out of some stuff at Hogwarts," I explained.

"Do you want me to come with you, sweetheart?" my Mum asked.

"No, it's okay. I know you're excited about dinner and I don't want to keep you from the preparations." I said with an excited smile.

Meanwhile, my dad had pulled out his wallet and gave me £100 with a cheeky smile. "Well, enjoy and don't come back too late!" He said with a soft expression on his face.

"Thanks, Dad, see you in a bit," I turned to the front door giving my parents a grateful smile while leaving our house again. It wasn't too far to the shop and the soon I arrived I stepped quickly into the store and grabbed a trolley. There was a lot I needed.

I started my shopping trip with standing slightly desperately in front of the huge selection of makeup. I bought everything from powder to concealer, eyeshadow and liner, mascara and lipstick, just everything. I continued to the nail polish and finally to the hair section of the shop. This was going to be more difficult. I didn't want to and I couldn't colour my hair, but I needed different hair for what I had planned to do, period. Another approach was necessary - a wig was too expensive. Well, what did this shop offer? It took a while and a lot of scanning the shelves until my eyes landed on the hairpieces. There was a black band with hair attached which I could pull over my head. Perfect. If I pulled the strap over my forehead and tied my hair up in a bun, no one would notice that my hair was not dark blond and straight.

In the evening the next day, I stood in my room with a lot of make-up on my face and my fake hair in place. No one would recognize me as Hermione Granger since I definitely did no longer look like myself. I looked older, not like the fifteen-year-old I was, but still not more than 19. No one would ask me any stupid questions in this disguise. I waited until Mum and Dad went to bed and fell asleep. Unsurprisingly it didn't take long thanks to some drops of sleeping potion I had put into their glasses of red wine which they drank during dinner. It was shockingly naughty of me to put my parents to sleep. Just thinking about it made me giggle deviously, but I am what I am, always prepared and always well elaborated. That's why I didn't have to worry about my parents figuring out that their daughter had left for the night.

Alright, now some of you will probably ask yourselves: What the heck is she doing? You will find out soon because I finally arrived at my destination.

I stood in front of a shop that almost looked like a carbon copy of Borgin & Burkes. Far in the back, I could see a dim light shining through the dingy window written on the crooked sign over the door stood: "Dark and Hell Wand". Through my investigation, I was able to find out that this shop stayed open every Wednesday from 11 pm to 1 am for the not-so-legal transactions which I was quite pleased with. It would've been so much harder to do what I planned during the day.

Taking a deep breath I squared my shoulders, opened the door resolutely and stepped confidently into the dark, dirty, shop that smelled quite musty and like old wood. Here and there you could see spider webs. Far in the back, where the lantern provided some light, stood an unappealing looking, older man, around 60 years old, with grey, long and unwashed looking hair. He watched me warily, evaluating my appearance as I approached him.

"How can I help you Mrs..?" his oily voice croaked at me.

I tried to keep my voice even and answered: "Why do you think I am here?"

"I don't know, you tell me?" he answered skillfully, putting the question back on me.

He analyzed me warily and tried to see under my hood. The fear that I might be an Auror could be seen on his face. It was the reason I decided to take off the hood. I didn't care if he saw my face because I knew my disguise was good. Still, my heart pounded loudly because I didn't have any proper defence yet, just my wand which I was wearing under my gown. But I wasn't willing to get into trouble with the ministry because of this stupid underage law. I was not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts as I still was underage.

He stared at me after I had pulled my hood back, greedily absorbing my appearance. One could almost see the saliva drooling out of his mouth. I needed to act quickly! My face turned into a cold and nasty expression never showing any emotion. I held my head a little higher to show him some more of that confidence. 'Don't appear nervous.' I thought to myself repeating it like a mantra. Even though my heart pounded faster and faster with every second fueled by the anxiety I felt, my mantra gave me the reason to hold my head even higher. I wanted to seem as arrogant as possible.

"I don't have forever; my time is precious!" I sneered in best Malfoy manner. After four years Draco Malfoy had proven to be good for something, even if it was just to teach me how to act like an arrogant pureblood.

"Now, can you help me or don't you want my money?" I asked sharply and bent forwards over the counter in a slightly provocative manner, my voice carrying the hint of a threat.

"I, I... Certainly, Madam. What are you looking for?" he stuttered and crouched. It seemed like my act was working which left me feeling relieved.

"In times like this..., I want... a second...," I said allusively and looked at the man with narrowed eyes. The rules were not to say too much. Luckily I had figured out the tone to imply what I wanted and even luckier I was a fast learner.

"Oh. I understand, certainly Mrs..? Of course, I can help you. If I could quickly...?" he asked submissively raising his eyebrows.

I realized that he had come to the conclusion that I was too young to be an Auror. He opened his hand and released a measuring tape, which hovered in the air and fully unfurled itself. Immediately it started to measure me, particularly my right hand and up my arm, just like Ollivander's had done. Afterwards the man, in his shabby dark blue gown, shuffled into the back chamber and came back with five boxes. We began to test and search. Back when I was eleven it had taken us almost half an hour to find my first wand, vine with dragon heartstring. This time though, I found it after the third try.

I was dumbfounded everything worked so fast here. I tried to hide my surprise, though. My face was a motionless mask as I swung the wand. I immediately felt an intense, magical tingle in my fingertips and soon after, a bunch of black roses emerged at the tip of the wand which fell onto the counter. Yes, I had found my new wand! A smile slid over the expression of the old vendor which exposed stubby, yellow teeth. Cold shivers ran over my spine. I was the daughter of dentists after all.

"My lady, apparently the search has already come to an end. A good wand has chosen you. Hawthorn birch with the tail hair of a thestral. An exquisite piece - very rare. Not many wands are made of bright, white wood!" He mellifluously elaborated looking quite pleased with himself.

"What do you mean by that...?" I asked in a suspicious tone. I was curious, but I didn't want him to think it was too important to me.

"Well, wood like this is very peculiar, extremely powerful. Very few can handle wands like this. They are not too good commercially, that's why you will never see something like that at Ollivander's. Also the substance of this wood is often said to be dark!" A nasty grin laid on his lips as he said this: "It does not harmonize with light materials such as unicorn hair. Never, do you understand?" Now he muttered into his nonexistent beard: "Really fascinating, that this rare piece would react in the hand of such a young woman." He gave me a strange look. Now was the moment, I thought, to leave before he could ask me any more questions.

"How much do I owe you?" I asked quickly, wanting to escape as soon as possible.

"Alas, what, how? Well, oh yes... It's 30 Galleons for you!" The fat man said with an implied bow and a naughty smile. A cynical snort escaped from my lips, but fine, I wouldn't haggle. To do something like that would be below my proposed dignity. Therefore I pulled out a pouch from the deep pockets of my gown and fished out the necessary Galleons which I put on the dirty counter and stored my new wand away into my inner gown pocket. Now I had an operational wand, which wasn't registered. I was no longer defenceless.

Now I was able to defend myself without being scared of being caught. Marvellous. I loved it when everything went according to plan. No words were exchanged afterwards, no small talk. The deal was finished. It was a different way of doing business than in Diagon Alley. With a brief nod and with the gown trailing behind me I left the shop, pulled up my hood and quickly disappeared into the darkness.