June 1971
The water droplets fell like they simply could not think of anything better to do. There was a laziness about them as if they could barely be bothered to conform to the will of gravity. When Hana held her bare arm out of the terraced home window, the droplets that splattered on her outstretched fingers didn't stay long. They dried up and disappeared from the heat of the fireplace. But while they lingered on her skin, the droplets were large and cold, not like the soft droplets of rain from back home at all. Hana tilted her fingers upwards and watched the remnants of the drops run downwards like tiny rivers until they vanished just before they reached her elbow.
On the sidewalk ahead the uneven slabs had a rainbow sheen - all that remained of a kids game of hopscotch. The outline was still there, a ghostly shadow of what it was before the heavy rains that pounded the city this morning. Above the sky was dominated by tumbling greys, smoky and silver, but soon the sky became dark and low with ominous black clouds and the wind picked up, howling like a wolf into the night. The first crack of lightning lit up the sky, and within seconds the rolling boom of the thunder reverberated overhead. The rain began falling harder than before, splattering the sidewalks haphazardly and washing away the rest of the hopscotch games. Then it fell as if from buckets, pounding on the roof as if it were demanding entrance.
Hana sighed and got up from the window seat in the living room, stepping into the kitchen to retrieve a copper pot from one of its cupboards and passing by the muggle television that was speaking of yet another random death in London. She waited a few moments until the fire had completely died down, raindrops falling inside from the ill-conceived chimney, and placed the pot in the wet ashes to capture the rain. Hana retrieved a thick patterned blanket from the couch on her way back to the window seat and continued reading after closing the window that looked out onto the lane.
While the sound of rain, broken by the rumble of thunder, was soothing, Hana much preferred to be back in her village in Japan. Even after five years, the lush forested mountains and salty sea air called to her - the cold and damp streets of England never to replace them. Hana wanted to stare up at the vast expanse of blue. Unlike the city she was in, that was penned in by snow-capped mountains and grey buildings, there you could see blue in every direction to the horizon, the sky even melded with the green ground where thousands of little yellow flowers littered the fields and the mountains. Hana wanted the soft singing of the field workers, she missed the way the wind whipped her hair into the air like thick smoke, her dark eyes fixated on the raging sea. She longed to run free through the rice fields again, drink some tea on the sunny porch of her home, or even just see a field of green for once. Hana was tired of reading the same books over and over again, and as she watched her father return from work at the Ministry of Magic, all she could think of was how much she'd rather see her mother walking through that door, smelling like the sakura trees that bloomed in their old backyard. But that would never happen. Umeko Yukimura had died five years ago.
"How was your day?" Akira asked his daughter, perfunctorily.
"It was okay," she said quietly, eyes still glued to her book.
"You got a letter in the mail."
Akira had set it on the kitchen table by the time Hana managed to untangle herself from her blanket.
If there was one thing that was keeping her alive, it was the notion that eventually, she would be getting her acceptance letter from Hogwarts, and that she could occupy herself with magical theory and spells rather than watching English children running down the sidewalk.
Hana snatched the letter from the table, and her eyes scanned it immediately. She didn't waste time in ripping the envelope open to read the list of provisions and equipment, skipping over the neat green cursive of the introduction letter from the Deputy Head-Mistress, Minerva McGonagall.
Hana sat back in the sofa and let the happiness soak right into her bones. From here on out, she wanted the feeling to still be there when she was old. She closed her eyes and savoured the moment, but never released her grip on the seemingly inconsequential piece of paper and ink in her hands. For the first time in forever, her body and mind relaxed.
"Otōsan, can we go get my supplies today? I can start studying immediately if we do."
"I have a lot of work to do," Akira called from somewhere in the house. "You're old enough to go on your own, right? Take the Gringotts key from my office."
"Yes, Otōsan," Hana sighed.
The girl lumbered up to her father's office and took a small golden key from one of his desk's drawers, then wandered back downstairs. She took a few quarters from the key bowl and shrugged on her coat, pulling an umbrella from the closet as she left. The rain fell hard, and Hana attempted to ignore it as she waited for the next bus at the end of the street. After ten minutes in the rain, Hana hopped onto the red city bus and sat close to the front, watching the turns and the roads the driver was taking to pass the time.
She ran into the rain again a half-hour later, but only for a few seconds until she was inside the Leaky Cauldron. She weaved her way through the drunk masses and the thick smoke all the war to the bar where she said hello to Tom, and asked him to open up the gate for her. The barman took her to the back, and after a few short taps on a brick wall, the barrier to Diagon Alley opened up. Hana thanked the barman and went through.
The rain had let up by then, or maybe it was clear skies only for Diagon Alley by some form of enchantment. Hana took a look at her list again and began her trek through the streets.
A dim light shone on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons – All Sizes – Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver – Self-Stirring – Collapsible said a sign hanging over them. Hana sometimes wished she had more eyes to look at everything. She turned her head in every direction as she walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, 'Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad.' A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium – Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy. Several boys of about Hana's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Hana had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment, potion bottles and globes of the moon.
A short ways away was a very crooked building with a white marble facade. The first floor tilted to the left, the second to the right, but the interior was as straight as a bullet, with Goblins handling piles upon piles of gold and silver. Hana made her way to the main desk at the end of the hall, which stood at twice her height. She cleared her throat to get the Goblin's attention, but he didn't move.
"I'm sorry, I've come a very long way, Sir, and I'd very much like to access my father's vault."
The Goblin looked down at her.
"Very well."
The Goblin called for another who was holding a giant lantern. Hana handed him her key, and they walked down a corridor where the lamp was to be used as a headlight for a very rickety looking mining cart. She and the Goblin got in, and the wagon jolted forward, going down a twisting and turning metal track. After passing a waterfall of all things, they stopped at a vault labelled 523, which the Goblin unlocked, granting Hana access to her father's respectable amount of funds. She filled her loose change pouch with a few handfuls of galleons and then returned to the surface and onto the bustling cobblestone street. The girl rechecked her list. Seeing the amount of things she had to buy, Hana opted to go buy herself a bigger backpack than she had at home.
"A nice leather one ought to do the trick," she muttered to herself.
With that purchase out of the way, Hana made her way to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions to get herself fitted for her robes. While the jovial woman was talking to herself, Hana kept glancing to the dull greys of the Hogwarts Uniform, and she ached to wear the colourful robes that they offered at Mahoutokoro. She wondered if she'd be allowed to embroider something on the hems to make them more colourful.
Hana parted with a few galleons and left the shop with a new uniform that fit her correctly. The closest shop that she needed to visit was Flourish and Blotts, and so she purchased all of the necessary books and stationery that she'd need throughout the year, even splurging on a nicer quill to write with. Before leaving she asked one of the shop keepers to place an extension charm on her bag so that all her books would fit, and they gladly did after she'd promised to buy all her reading material from them. On her way to Ollivander's, she passed by the Magical Menagerie. She knew her father might straight-up murder her for it, but Hana couldn't resist the beautiful blue eyes of the cat splayed out in the shop's window display.
Moments later, Haru the Tonkinese cat was walking beside Hana down the street, and they entered Ollivanders together. With a lazy meow, Haru settled himself by the shop's window and waited as Hana waltzed up to the counter. She rang a small silver bell, and out of the back came a man with greying hair and bright blue eyes. He smiled at her, and for some reason, Hana was weary of it.
"Well, hello there. What's your name?" he said in a soft voice.
"Hana Yukimura," the girl replied confidently.
"Yukimura, Yukimura... I don't think I know that name."
"I came from Japan five years ago, so that's normal."
"Japan, eh? I wonder if my good old British wands will suit you..."
They tried wand after wand, but nothing was truly working. Hana ended up making a few jars explode, some books fly off shelves, even made something in the back of the store whistle a constant high-pitched noise.
"I do own a few Eastern-made wands sent to me by a dear friend... perhaps I could part with one."
"Oh, no, I could not possibly!"
"Hush now, it would be of more use to you than it is to me, sitting in its box at the very back of my shop," Ollivander said, heading towards the furthest part of his establishment and picking out a box from the very bottom shelf. "It is made of Cherry wood, with a Kappa scale core. Give it a wave, will you?"
Hana observed the patterned wood wand for a moment before picking it up, but even before waving it, she felt a rush of warmth go through her body, and a light wind tousled her dark hair. She blinked a few times, looking directly at the wand, then up at Ollivander who was smiling softly.
"I told you it would be of better use in your hands."
"Why didn't any other wand work? Is it because I am not from here?"
"The wand chooses the wizard, Hana. It is hard to say why this particular wand chose you, but Cherry is a rare wand wood that does some terrifyingly great magic in the right... or wrong hands."
"And the Kappa scales?"
"I am not quite sure if I am honest. However, the friend who sent me this particular wand seemed to be very adept at Transfiguration and offensive spells."
"Fascinating," Hana muttered. She reached into her jacket and pulled out her pouch of money. "How much do I owe you, Mr Ollivander?"
"Oh, please, if I had made it myself, there would have been a price tag on it, but since it was given to me, I couldn't possibly charge you for it."
"Wait, so, you are giving me a wand? For free?"
"I suppose that I am."
Hana grinned and thanked the shopkeeper a million times before stuffing her wand into her boot and waltzing out the shop, Haru on her heels. The rest of the equipment was easy to find and quick to purchase until they got to the apothecary to stock up on essential potion ingredients. There was an infinite amount of different potion ingredients, all labelled and waiting to be weighted behind the counter of the shop. Hana listed off the ingredients and the amounts that she needed and wandered the shop as she waited, staring at jars filled with grotesque creatures and objects, which enlarged or shrunk depending on the angle you looked at them.
Hana heard a bell, signalling that someone else had entered the shop. She heard a few words in a familiar foreign language, then some shuffling, which ended up being a boy her age being shoved out of the way by what looked like to be his mother. Immediately, the woman began demanding service despite the shopkeeper being with Hana's order. She pulled a face at the woman and walked up to the counter.
"I'm afraid the shopkeeper is busy with my order, ma'am, so there is no point in yelling at him. If you're impatient, you can go to the apothecary on Knockturn Alley, it's rarely busy this time of day."
The woman huffed and silenced herself. Hana smiled and returned to the shelves she was perusing only to find the boy nearby chuckling.
"Should you be laughing? Isn't that your mother?" Hana asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Sorry, I just don't get to see many people go against her in any way," the boy said softly, looking to the ground. "If they do it's usually my brothers and they get hit with a wooden spoon."
"A wooden spoon?"
"Yeah, Chinese mothers, you know?"
"No, I don't know. I'm Japanese, I got hit with a sushi-rolling mat."
"Don't know what's worse." He looked at the supplies she was carrying. "Going to Hogwarts?"
"Yes. And so are you, I imagine," Hana said. She held out a hand. "Hana Yukimura."
"Noah Xiang," the boy replied, shaking her hand.
The shopkeeper called out to Hana. She turned back to Noah before leaving.
"I look forward to seeing you around Hogwarts, Noah."