Anything you recognise in this I don't own. If I owned Harry Potter, I'd be a lot richer than I am!
Harry woke up at half seven the next morning and snuggled into his bed. Then he was confused as to why he was in a bed, rather than his cupboard under the stairs. It took a second for the events of the last day to penetrate the haze of his still sleep addled mind. To say he was pleased was an understatement. For the first time ever, he seemed to be with people who actually wanted him rather than those who just put up with him. The good mood lasted even when Dippy popped into the room made him jump so much he literally fell out of bed.
"Master Ollivander be sending Dippy to tell Harry Potter he has to be getting washed and dressed and ready for breakfast now." She then popped out of the room with an equally loud crack as she did when she entered.
Half an hour later he arrived in the family dining room dressed in some of his old clothes to see Ollivander and John sat at the table. He bid them both good morning and asked Dippy for some porridge when she asked what he wanted for breakfast. Looking over at Ollivanders and Johns plate and seeing the remains of a full English breakfast he felt like a bit of a fool for having simple porridge.
Noticing his look Ollvander spoke up. "Do not worry Harry. Wizards and witches often need to eat more than muggles seems magic takes up energy. Seems the Dursleys often underfed you; your appetite will still be somewhat stifled. Eat whatever you want. Only for dinner are the meals set. Breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea Dippy will give you a list of choices."
Harry nodded just as two owls flew into the door, one carrying the paper, just the same as what happened to Hagrid, and another carrying a letter. Ollivander paid the owl for the paper before opening the letter and letting out a small smile. "Ah good that Amelia thought to send this. I had forgotten to ask for it."
"What is it grandad?" John asked with more than little curiosity in his voice.
Ollivander replied to Harry rather than John. "We know your home life wasn't the best. There's no need to tell us about it unless you want to though. This letter will tell the healer that examines you that the DMLE is aware of the issue and we are authorised to be with you."
Harry didn't quite know what to say to this so just nodded. The conversation for the rest of breakfast was quiet. Before long Harry was finished and led into the entrance hall before portkeying to a moderately sized courtyard just inside the wizarding part of Diagon Alley. John informed him this was the portkey and apparition point of the alley. Although the alley wasn't warded against travel, it was considered impolite to appear anywhere else except for in an emergency. This made Harry remember he hadn't seen Mark at breakfast so he asked how the raid went.
"No idea." John replied while they were walking towards the shop. "I checked his room before coming for breakfast and he was still asleep, so I know he at least made it back with no problems."
Harry was glad about this. He hadn't talked a great deal with Mark but he had liked the man and was glad he wasn't hurt. After a couple of minutes they reached the shop and Ollivander took down the security wards before unlocking the door and leading them in, past the counter, past the shelves of hundreds of wands in boxes and into the back of the shop.
The back room of the shop was massive and covered in a thick layer of sawdust. One side of the room was taken up by five large cauldrons, three of which had a thick clear liquid in. Another door was next to the cauldrons which appeared to lead into another room. A large carving bench with various wood working tools took up the opposite side of the room while in the middle was another work bench, this time empty except for a single small but extremely sharp looking silver knife with various runes etched on the blade. The knife seemed to hum with magic.
"John, head outback and stand in the middle of the sheds. Do not do anything for the moment. I'm going to stay in here to explain to Harry what's happening so we don't interrupt you. You may start to prepare to extend your magical senses but don't actually do so until I give the word. Do you understand? "
John replied in the affirmative before heading outside into the back yard. Ollivander turned to Harry and started to speak.
"Wand making itself is an incredibly simple process, it is the preparation of the equipment which is complex. The simple part is normally the choosing of the wood. When I'm making wands for the shop I pick up a piece of wood. The type will depend on stock I've got, but it is essentially unimportant.
However John is not making a wand for a shop. He's making his own wand, which means he must sense which piece of wood is calling to him. This is incredibly hard and will require large amounts of concentration. I must ask you not to speak while he is doing this as it may put him off. Save any questions until the wood is collected. Is that alright?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, now follow me outside to meet John."
John was stood in the middle of a moderately sized yard which had four sheds in. Each shed was labelled which Ollivander explained denoted which woods it contained by what letter the name of the wood began with. The first had woods which began with the letters A-D, the second with the letters E-L, the third with the letters M-Q and the final with R-Y.
John was in a semi-meditative state stood in the middle of the sheds. A touch on his shoulder from Ollivander indicated he was free to proceed. He opened up his senses and was almost overwhelmed by the magic he could feel around the yard. But he knew what he needed to do. He needed to work through the background magic the woods were emitting to work out which specific piece of wood was calling to him.
Then he heard it. It was how he imagined a chorus of angels singing 'pick me' would sound. He couldn't pinpoint it exact location but could tell it was coming from his left so he moved in that direction. As he got closer it got louder until it reached its crescendo outside the A-D shed. He opened the shed and went into it. The magic was nearly pulling him now, forcing him into the direction of wood. He reached out and his hand grabbed a piece of wood. The singing stopped as his hand grasped the wood that would make his wand. He turned round and walked out the shed to his granddads happy smile.
"Well done John! Lets have a look at it then!"
John handed the piece of wood over. He knew the type of wood that he'd picked, but his granddad would know more details about that particular tree and any trends its wands may have shown.
"Ah a lovely specimen of aspen wood. I've used wood from this particular aspen tree very sparsely. The wood has proven particularly tricky to core but when done so has shown an affinity for non-verbal magic above what's commonly seen in aspen."
Harry spoke up next, asking if aspen had any particular qualities like his holly wand did. This was a question John could answer and did so, quite excitedly at that.
"Aspen wands are known for outstanding charms work and for being the wands of people who are talented duellers."
"Well summarised John. Now let's go inside so the core can be picked out."
They headed inside and went through the door next to the cauldrons. It led into a slightly smaller room with shelves full of hundreds of jars. Inside some jars were red feathers, others had thin silver hairs which shone slightly in the pale light and others had what looked like red pieces of string.
"In here we have the various items which I use for wand cores. Other magical items can be used, but I have personally found these items to be the most reliable of cores that are readily available. These are phoenix feathers, unicorn hairs and dragon heartstring. John you remember what you must do here?"
"Yes granddad. I must channel my senses through the wood. In this way I'll find the core which best suits both me and my wand."
"Very good. Remember, let the wood guide you."
John held the wood out in front of him and channelled his senses through it. He knew he wouldn't hear anything this time. This part of the process was much easier. The sensation was like someone gently tugging on the wood, leading it into a certain direction. He headed straight ahead before turning to the right. The tugging continued until the wood was eventually held just above head height, in front of a dragon heartstring. He reached for it, plucked it off its shelf and handed it to its granddad.
"Well this is interesting. This heartstring belongs to a particularly old and particularly vicious Hungarian Horntail. I'm told it took thirty dragon tamers to bring it down when it escaped from its enclosure. I've never made a wand with the heartstring from this particular dragon as it has only just arrived. I normally would not match this core and wood but seems your senses told you they would suit you they will work, though it may be a challenge."
With that he led them out into the main back room and turned to Harry. "This is the simplest step in the whole process Harry. All we have to do is put the wood and core into one of these potions here for at least forty eight hours and no more than fifty hours. The wood will then be shortened to its optimal length and the core will also be shortened to the length required to fit the wood.
The composition of this potion is highly guarded secret amongst wandmakers. All who are told the recipe take an unbreakable vow never to reveal how to make it except for to their own apprentice who has already taken under the same vow. John does not know how to make this potion. The only people who know in our family are myself and Tiberius."
While this explanation was taking place John had carefully laid the wood and core into the leftmost cauldron. The potion inside changed from being clear to being somewhat translucent, though you could still clearly the wood and core within. Ollivander explained that the potion would get darker and darker the closer it came to forty eight hours. Once the forty eight hours was reached, it would be completely opaque. If by the fiftieth hour it had not been emptied, the potion would turn black and all magic from the wood and core would be lost.
With that done and Tiberius arriving to take over the running of the shop for the day they left and walked towards the apperation and portkey point. Once there, Ollivander paid a sickle for a portkey to Saint Mungo's hospital. When asked why he didn't just use his ring like earlier, Ollivander explained that portkeys were general regulated by the Ministry. The only exceptions were the Head and Heir of House rings all of the Ancient and Venerable Houses had. However these were limited portkeys and could take someone through the wards set up around one of their homes, either exiting the wards or entering them. Though they could have used the portkey to travel to the manor, then to Saint Mungo's, Ollivander told him that the Ministry received money from all the sold portkeys. As such, many wizards and witches would buy portkeys rather than make the extra journey. This gave the ministry more income, which in turn kept taxes low. It was seen to be better to optionally spend the money to give to the Ministry than be forced to hand it over by law.
"Anyway," John informed him with a small smile, "two portkey trips without a good half hour rest in between can cause portkey sickness, which isn't pleasant."
With that explanation ringing in his ear, Harry was whisked off the ground by the portkey, easily being able to see why too many of these trips could make someone feel sick.
o-0-o
They arrived in the waiting room of a hospital. Even though it was magical, Harry could tell it was a hospital. It just seemed to have the same feel to it as any other hospital he'd been in. What was different was what the people in the waiting room were suffering with. One wizard appeared to have vanished his mouth, while a witch's arms appeared to have been transfigured into wood.
Ollivander walked up to the welcome witch and announced he was here to ensure a child got his inoculations. They were directed to the second floor, which apparently covered Magical Bugs and Diseases. They moved up to the second floor and into another waiting room where the number 'ten' magically appeared above their heads. Ollivander explained this was so the healers knew who was next. More serious cases would skip this waiting room and immediately be seen by a healer.
They sat waiting and talking about anything that caught their fancy for twenty minutes while five other people were seen. Eventually a healer called out their number and they made their way into a small office. The man was tall and thin with a heavily receding hairline, though he had quite a pleasant air about him.
"Good morning. I'm Healer Simpson. What can I do for you today Mr Ollivander?"
"Ah Alexander Simpson! Laurel wood, 12½ inches. Quite swishy with the feather of a most beautiful phoenix."
Healer Simpson just nodded along distractedly indulging Ollivander.
"Anyway, young Mr Potter here requires his immunisations. I very much doubt he has had any since that night."
Healer Simpson looked at Harry with curiosity for a moment before hiding it behind his professionalism. "Very well. I will just get Mr Potter's file to double check. If you'd like to wait here please."
He bustled out of the room before returning a couple of minutes later with a thin file. When Harry commented on how quick he'd been he just smiled and mentioned how useful a summoning charm was.
"Right…. Born July 1980. Liver and heart slightly damaged due to a curse cast on the mother before she knew she was pregnant. Repaired with an organ-repairing potion, the one developed by Flamel, no further complications. Ah here it is! Last immunisation was against Bubonic Plague in July 1980."
This surprised Harry. "You can make us not get the plague?"
"Yes we can. The first outbreak was actually caused by wizards, an alchemy experiment gone wrong in the fifth century. Though now quite rare in the muggle world, us wizards remain quite susceptible to it, until a potion was developed by Garcia de Orta in 1550."
"Are there any other muggle things you can stop me getting?"
From his reply it was clear Healer Simpson had spent some time teaching, probably trainee healers. "We generally don't need to worry about muggle diseases; our magic tends to fight them off for us. Even a wizard with something as bad as malaria would present with symptoms no worse than a muggle with a particular bad case of flu would. There are a few muggle things that affect us the same, but potions can normally take care of the issue. An example of this would be meningitis."
"So that's why I'm not ill very often?"
"Yes that would be why. Anyway that needs updating. You also need to be immunised against Vanishing Sickness, Dragonpox, Appendicitis and Brain Liquefying disease."
Harry winced. "That last one sounds nasty."
"Yes it can be, though if caught in time rarely lethal. You see only the parts of the brain not needed for basic living functions, such as keeping your heart beating, turn to liquid straight away. If caught within a day, which most cases are, the brain can be repaired by potions. Anyway speaking of potions, I'd best go and get these."
He returned a few minutes later with four potions. The first one Harry took to protect him from the plague was pitch black and smelt like feet that hadn't been washed for a month. It tasted little better than it smelt. The second for Vanishing Sickness was a bright orange. It tasted, as its colour suggested, like oranges. This wouldn't normally be bad, as Harry liked oranges. But Harry imagined this is what it would taste like if he somehow managed to fit a thousand oranges into his mouth at once, peel and all.
The one for appendicitis was quite a pleasant pink and tasted like strawberries, proving not all potions had to be horrible. The final one for Brain Liquefying disease was a violent bright yellow. It smelt and tasted like rotten fish and nearly made Harry gag. Healer Simpson vanished the potions vials with a flick of his wand and a murmured word. He then asked if there was anything else he could do, to which Ollivander handed over the letter he received at breakfast this morning. This gave Healer Simpson a scowl for a second.
"I hate it when a child has been put through this. Just a standard scan I presume?" At Ollivanders nod he then turned to Harry. "I'm going to wave my wand above your head for a few seconds. You may feel a slight tickling sensation followed by a short blast of pain. The pain shouldn't be too bad and will only last a second. Is that alright?"
At Harry's nod he stood up and waved his wand in a circular motion around Harrys head slowly seven times while chanting something in Latin. Harry felt the tickling, and then the pain. As Healer Simpson said the pain wasn't too bad, just like stubbing a toe and Harry managed to keep quiet with just a slight wince. Writing then appeared on the piece of parchment that was on Healer Simpsons desk.
After a few seconds to read it he told Harry the results. "The main issue you have is lack of nutrients. You're severely low on several, most notably Vitamin D. If your magic hadn't been supporting you, you would most likely have Rickets disease now. Luckily we caught it early. But you're going to need to take some nutrients potions for a month and make sure you eat plenty of dairy products and a nice fish every now and again wouldn't go amiss either. Salmon would be best. Is that all?"
Ollivander spoke up. "When will he need to take the potions?"
"For the first two weeks before every meal, breakfast, lunch and evening meal. For the third week before breakfast and your evening meal. For the last week just before breakfast. That's sixty three potions. They normally come in boxes of three, ten or twenty. Now would you like to pay now or have your bill owled to you?
"You have to pay here?" Harry asked.
"Yes. I understand muggles have healthcare free? The ministry has subsidies for those who are poor and ministry workers injured in the line of duty are paid for by the ministry but most people have to pay, though we don't make a large profit and any profit that is made is kept within the hospital."
Harry just nodded at this while Ollivander requested to pay now.
"Right. We've been here half an hour so that's a galleon. Each potion was two galleons so that's nine galleons please."
As Ollivander counted out the money (after he stopped Harry protesting about him paying) Harry remarked on what a coincidence all the potions were the same price.
"We make it so." Explained Healer Simpson. "By having the potions the same price, we make up for the losses on some potions with profits on the others. For example your Plague potion costs two sickles to make. On the other hand your Dragonpox potion is more expensive due to some of the ingredients, though I don't know the exact price. We only charge more than two galleons for some of the really rare potions or potions that would cost more than ten galleons to make."
Harry nodded; he supposed the system made sense. They said goodbye to Healer Simpson before they made their way back to main waiting room and purchased a portkey back to Diagon Alley.
o-0-o
After a hearty and filling lunch at the Leaky Cauldron Ollivander steered them towards Madame Malkins. Harry had felt guilty with Ollivander paying for everything but he had insisted. Eventually he struck a deal with him. If Harry's parents had left Harry with access to more than five thousand galleons (which Ollivander felt was most unlikely seems they'd already paid for his tuition fees) he could pay Ollivander back. If not, Ollivander would pay for everything needed. It would depend on how much money Harry did have access to if he received pocket money in the future or if a withdrawal limit was set on his trust account.
Ollivander had no doubt that the Potter vault held far more than five thousand galleons. Probably closer to five million! But he also had no doubt that the vault Harry had gone to was a trust vault, either a personal one or a general one for the Potter family. He suspected Harry would only have access to this vault until he turned seventeen and he had no idea how much this vault would have.
They made their way towards Madame Malkins to get Harry fitted into proper clothes. They started first with the robes, buying two black ones, two of a dark red, two of a brown and two of a dark emerald green colour. Harry commented that it was less clothes then most Muggles had. Uncle Vernon had enough clothes to last two weeks. John explained that thanks to the efficiency of house elves clothes were often washed over night. The different colours were for different styles and two pairs of each would provide spares in case anything happened to his first set.
Two pairs of jeans and four pairs of black trousers followed the robes. John explained that younger wizards often wore jeans around the house but if they were going out or guests were expected they would wear trousers with robes instead. An exception could be made for close friends and family however. Four t-shirts for house wear eight shirts were also added. Though the t-shirts were of various colours and designs (including one which John had convinced him to get that had the Puddlemere United logo on) the shirts were just simple white ones. Finally two plain black cloaks were added for winter wear.
When it was all added up Harry was determined he would pay at least some of this back to Ollivander. It had come to a total of forty galleons, which Harry worked out was the equivalent of £200! He was not at all pleased that Ollivander insisted on paying. Ollivander had paid using what looked like a cheque book. He was told it was a Gringotts draft, a way to pay for items which cost more than twenty five galleons. The shop assistant would write the amount and their vault number on the draft. The customer would then sign it. If it glowed green the required funds would be transferred to the vault. If it glowed red, there wasn't enough money in the customers vault.
The next stop was at a shoe store where a pair of trainers, a pair of leather shoes and a pair of dragonhide boots was brought. All were a black and it came to a total of fifty galleons. Twenty five of them had been on the boots that Ollivander insisted he needed. Harry was making sure to keep track of the amount.
From the shoe shop they moved onto another clothes shop, Twilfitt and Tattings. Here Harry was measured up for dress robes, with another shirt and trousers added to the mix and formal robes. He was told dress robes were only for balls, whereas formal robes were for anything requiring him to be more smartly dressed than normal. Apparently both would be made from Acromantula silk, which was silk from giant spiders and both would have the Potter crest outlined in gold over the left breast. Apparently they would both be ready in a week for Harry to try on.
The final stop was the book shop Harry had been in on his birthday, Flourish and Blotts. Here Ollivander gave both Harry and John ten galleons each and told them to pick whatever books they wanted and to meet him back in the shop when they were done. Harry had no idea what books to buy so followed Johns advice. He brought Hogwarts: A History by Bathilda Bagshot for two galleons Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp for two more galleons. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scaramander had set him back two more galleons. He then brought Duelling for Beginners by Filius Flitwick, Potion Ingredients and their Reactions for Beginners by Hector Dagworth-Granger, Politics of the Twentieth Century by Eugenia Jenkins (who was a former Minister for Magic) and Managing Your Money by Martin Rothschild. Each of them set him back a galleon. Some of them sounded quite dull, especially the last two. However John informed him that they would prove useful for future reference.
John on the other hand brought one large book, a book at least seven hundred pages long called Duelling for War and Sport by Richard Hearting. Apparently he had wanted this for his birthday (the book had come out the day before) but he hadn't got it. Seems it was a new release it had cost him the whole ten galleons.
Weighed down with their books they made their way to the shop to meet Ollivander before portkeying back to Ollivander Hall. After dinner the three of them talked in the living room getting to know each other better in between bits of reading various books. Harry had never enjoyed reading in particular before but quickly fell in love with Quidditch Through the Ages. Though he was proven right that the politics and money management book made for dry reading, he could see the importance behind them.
It was a very tired, but a very happy Harry who got into his new pyjamas and climbed into bed that night.
