Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any characters from Harry Potter (though I really wish i did!)

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"Well, about time too! Now, let me see the letter so I can see what you need to buy in Diagon All-"

"NO!" screamed Argus as mum tried to grab the letter off him, "I mean, no, you don't need to see because, er, Gary's mum said she'd take me with Gary because she knows that your always busy, yeah."

"Well, ok, now that you mention it, I'd better start planning the celebration party. Now, we'll invite the Malfoys, the Lestranges, the Gaunts..."

As mum walked out of the room, Argus couldn't believe that his lie had worked, but then again, mum loved any excuse to host a party at their wonderful mansion house. Argus personally couldn't see what she liked about them, they were boring, useless, and all the guests did was either boast about their own mansion houses or talk about the best methods of torturing "mudbloods". But then, he supposed that that was really the type of thing his mum would enjoy.

With a jolt, Argus remembered that Gary had told him that he was going to Diagon Alley today.

"Mum!" Argus called, "I'm going with Gary today, see you later!"

"Ok, but be back in time for the party, Argus, it's at half past 7!"

"Will do, bye mum!"

Argus picked up a sack a galleons to buy his things with, raced over to Gary's house to find Gary and his mum climbing into their huge muggle car, he thought it was called a "Lan drover".

"HEY! GARY!!!!!!" Argus shouted.

"Oh, hey Argie, I was just getting my things from Diagon Alley, maybe we can play later?"
"Actually, I came to ask if it was ok if I came with you? My letter came today and Mum's too busy planning some sort of party for tonight."

"Yay! That's great! Argie can come, can't he mum?"

"Of course he can dear, but we'd better get going, we've got a lot of things to buy!"

They all jumped into the car and parked somewhere in the middle of London.

"We're going there," said Gary, "To the Leaky Cauldron, it's a wizard pub."

Argus looked, but he couldn't see any pubs at all, never mind one called the Leaky Cauldron.

"Anyway, muggles can't see it, so we use it as an entrance to Diagon alley."

"Oh no!" Argus thought, "I can't see it! What if I really am a squib? What if I can't get in?"

"So muggles can't enter the leaky cauldron?" Argus asked in what he hoped was a casual voice.

"Oh, they can enter alright!" said Gary, "It does happen occasionally. Like when some little muggle kid is running on what they think is the grass and then BAM! They walk right through the door of the Leaky Cauldron. It causes a fair few problems, i mean, the kid thinks it's going mad and its mother thinks it just disappeared. I think they have some people in the ministry working on it."

"Few!" Argus thought, "If muggles can enter, then so can I!"

Argus was careful to stand a little behind Gary so that he could lead the way in. Once they had gotten in, Mrs Longbottom took the boys to a small courtyard at the back of the bar. There, she took out her wand, tapped one of the bricks on one of the walls and waited expectantly. Just as Argus was starting to wonder what on earth was going on, the wall turned into a giant archway that was the opening to a crowded street of the most amazing shops Argus had ever seen! There was an apothecary, presumably to buy potion ingredients, a quidditch supplies shop where a bunch of youths were gathered around a display of the new "Nimbus 1927" which could go at an amazing 40 miles per hour, an owl emporium, an ice cream parlour, a wand shop, a robes shop, a bookshop and right at the end of the street, was the most impressive bank Argus had ever seen.

"Well then, where shall we start?" asked Mrs Longbottom, "I've already got some money to buy your things Gary. Do you need to take any money out Archie?"

"Its fine Mrs Longbottom, I brought some money from home."

"Well that's a relief! The queues are always murder in the summer holidays when everyone's buying school supplies! So, shall we go to Flourish and Blotts first?"

They bought all the books, parchment and ink they'd need for the school year and of course a new quill each. Next, they went to Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions shop and bought their Hogwarts uniforms, cloaks and hats. After that, they decided to get their cauldrons, telescopes and all their potions ingredients from the apothecary and Pottidge's cauldron and telescope shop. By then, it was 2 o'clock, so they decided to go and grab a late lunch at Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour, which also served melts and toasties.

"So boys, where will it be next?" asked Mrs Longbottom, as they finished off their food.

"How about the joke shop?"

"Ok, but after that we'll have to get your wands. I think they're the last thing on the list, so we should have time to go to Gambol and Japes'"

They looked around the shop for three quarters of an hour before Mrs Longbottom gently reminded them that it was only an hour until the alley closed and they still needed to purchase their wands. Argus hastily bought a sack of G&J's magic sparkle powder ("dazzle you friends with a range of multicoloured sparks!") and they went to "Ollivander's wand shop" where they were greeted by a middle aged woman who had pale silver eyes, but a friendly smile. Behind her scuttled a young boy of about five whose eyes were the same as his mothers but were not accompanied by any smile at all, never mind friendly.

"These two for wand? Righty then, who wants to go first?" asked the woman, probably Mrs Ollivander, once they had indicated in the affirmative to her first question.

"Why don't you go first Argie dear?" asked Mrs Longbottom. She gently nudged Argus forward and the woman immediately began to take all sorts of measurement. She asked which arm was his wand arm, and once he had told her, she took even more measurements and wrote them down. Meanwhile, Argus took the little sack of magic sparkle powder opened it slightly, and put it up his wand arm's sleeve. Finally, the woman took out a wand and gave it to Argus.

"Mahogany and unicorn hair, 12 ¾ inches, supple. Give it a wave and see what happens."

Argus waved it, but when absolutely nothing happened, Mrs Ollivander gave him another wand. The five year old boy was starting to look excited and was staring at Argus with a slightly disturbing amount of anticipation on his face.

"Cherry and dragon heartstring, 14 inches, flexible."

Again, nothing happened. Argus knew that it was time to use the backup plan he'd prepared. When the woman gave him the next wand (hawthorn and unicorn hair, 10 ½ inches, springy) Argus waved his arm like mad so that the power would come out. As sparkles filled the air, Mrs Ollivander exclaimed "Ah, this seems to be the wand for you Mr Filch!"

As Argus felt relief course through his body, he noticed that the boy looked deeply disappointed that his finding a wand had taken so little time. Mrs Ollivander put the wand back in its case and gave it to Argus after he had paid for it. Next was Gary's turn. He took a little longer finding his wand, but eventually, one of the many wands he had waved shot out red and gold sparks. After he had paid Mrs Ollivander for it, they bid her farewell and left the shop.

Just as they were leaving the leaky cauldron, Argus remembered something...

"OH NO!" he shouted.

"What's up mate?" asked a concerned Gary as they got into the car.

"My mum's throwing one of her parties and seen as it's supposed to be my celebration party, I'm gonna have to be a good little host and stay downstairs with all the pureblood guests!"

"Aw, I pity you mate, I really do!"

"Erm, Gary, I don't suppose there's any chance that you could-"

"No way, don't drag me into this! Besides, mum wouldn't let me go to any of those types of get-togethers; she doesn't want me picking up on any of their ideas. And to top it all off, they all think I'm a blood traitor so they'd beat me up."

"Yeah, well, they don't think too highly of me either."

They arrived back at the Longbottom's home, so it was time to say goodbye to Gary.

"Are you sure you can't stay?" asked Mrs Longbottom, who didn't like the thought of Argus having to spend 5 hours with a bunch of snobby, hypercritical pure bloods.

"Sorry Mrs Longbottom, as much as I'd like to, I don't think my mum would let me. Thank you for everything today!"

"No problem, see you soon, Argie dear!"

"You goodbye mate, see you soon, if you survive!"

"Thanks for all the encouragement, Gary! See you both soon, bye!"

Argus started to walk the short distance to his house at the slowest pace he could manage. He was in no rush, after all. He'd reached the door.

"Oh no!" he groaned inside, "Party time!"...

To be continued...

Thank you to my two reviewers ILuvSeverusSnape and the garnetto. Also, thank you to anyone who has been reading this story. You've all given me the encouragement to (eventually) continue this story. This chapter would still be incomplete without you simply because I am so lazy and have had lots of homework! Keep reading, as I will try and publish chapter 4 soon!

Nala