Neal Caffrey was very, very lost.

And not in the literal sense. Neal was confused.

When he'd first gotten the strange letter he'd went along with it, investigating if it was a prank or.. something else.

The witch was definitely something else.

"Mr Caffrey?"

Neal blinked and looked up from the flower-turned-sparrow, which he had been staring at for a while now.

"... Yes?"

"If you can, I'd like to get your school materials now. Since your parents are on a business trip out of the country, they can, sadly, not accompany us though, so it's your choice."

"How will I afford them? As you said, Ms McGonagall, my parents are away and my caretaker can't be expected to pay for them."

They were sitting in the park, which was where Neal had been relaxing in the sun before the letter came. It had his adress at June's on it, but apparently the owl who dropped it on his head only looked at the name, not the adress. Neal supposed magical owls could do that.

The witch- one Professor McGonagall- had 'teleported' to the letters location a few hours later.

"Don't worry, Mr Caffrey, we of course have a student fund." The stern-looking woman answered his earlier question.

"Ah." For once, Neal didn't know what to say.

Magic?!

This opened a whole new world of possibilities. With magic, what can't you do? Not much, apparently, as a witch just casually broke the laws of physics.

Well then.

As it turned out, the student fund wasn't needed. There was already a trust vault set up for him by his grandparents, apparently. Neal doubted it was really his grandparents who set it up, though, he'd never even heard of them before. Anyway, he would take it as he got it.

Especially since he was too busy staring at the small gruff looking creatures in suits who were apparently running the Wizarding bank.

This cemented something for Neal. It was crazy to think not a month ago he'd been solving cases with Peter and running from his past.

He collected his school supplies in a daze. This was real. Magic was real.

Only when they encountered the bookstore did Neal pay attention again. He looked, interested, at the titles, resolving to come here again when he had more time and just browse the shelves for hours. This was a goldmine of information about the Wizarding World Neal didn't have.

Finally, Neal had most of his supplies and was guided by Ms McGonnagal to the wand shop. There was a weird old man inside who spouted something about wands choosing wizards, but Neal instantly forgot it as his brain labeled it unimportant. He was more focused on the wands.

The first one was Cherry, Dragon Heartstring, 10,5 inches, unyielding. The proceeding explosion blew Neal away and made heads turn on the street, which he could see now through the massive hole in the wall. He grinned charmingly and waved as the old guy fixed the wall.

After another explosive wand and a very stormy one, Neal got handed Acacia, Unicorn Hair, 10 inches, very flexible.

When he held it there was a warm breeze, like one in summer, which brought with it the smell of lavender. Neal didn't even notice he was smiling- a real, genuine smile- until the old guy requested a price, sounding rather satisfied.

"This is a pretty tricky wand," He explained to Neal, while the latter was still looking at the wand in awe. "Acacia works best only with the most gifted of wizards, and solely a subtle hand can wield it."

"Funny," The Professor cut in dryly. Neal jumped, he'd forgotten she was still there. "I would have thought a subtle wand would suit him least, going by his reaction to the many explosions."

Neal grinned up at her unabashedly and Olivander continued with a smile on his face.

"Unicorn tail hair creates the most consistent and reliable magic, and wands with this core are faithful and difficult to turn to the Dark Arts, even while the flexibility indicates you're a very open-minded person and willing to change."

Neal nodded with a bright smile on his face. Willing to change indeed. It's hard not to be, with all the different identities of the last few years.

"Yes, yes, this will be an interesting match." The old man muttered to himself.

"Well, good day then Olivander," McGonagall greeted kurtly, and motioned for Neal to follow her out of the shop.

"So, we're done now?" Neal questioned, a bit of disappointment in his voice. This, right here, was something he'd never seen before. He wanted to explore it, to get to know everything about it.

"Not just yet." Professor McGonagall answered mysteriously, and guided Neal to the front of a big store. It had a lot of owls hanging in cages out front, and Neal heard all sorts of animal sounds coming from inside.

"I can get a pet?!" Neal shouted excitedly.

Professor McGonagall nodded and the corners of her lips rose slightly at his excitement.

"The guidelines say an owl, a cat or a toad, but any pet goes if it's not too dangerous."

A second later Neal had dashed into the store, looking for the perfect animal companion because he knew it existed.

And Neal found it. Or, well, him.

"IT'S SO CUTE!" Neal's eyes sparkled as he looked at the small fox whelp in the cage in front of him, staring up at him with big curious black eyes.

"Yes, you've said that four times already, Mr Caffrey." Professor McGonagall said tiredly. She was happy the boy had found a nice pet, but this was taking it a bit too far. Besides, muggles were giving them and the fox strange looks as they walked the streets of London back to Neal's house.

Neal followed her gaze and smiled happily. "Ah, I recognize this part! I come here all the time with my friends to eat at the local restaurant. Thank you for all your help professor, I can get home from here!"

Neal said it so easily he knew she didn't suspect a thing.

"Alright, Mr Caffrey. Here's your ticket." She hands him a ticket labeled 9 3/4.

"Remember what I told you about how to get on the platform!" She waited for him to nod in affirmative, then nodded back and walked off.

Neal, meanwhile, went back to the nice old lady who took him in.

I just noticed that despite chapter 8's reference, MySpace isn't supposed to be invented until 2003. Damn. Well, since I can't be bothered to go back and fix it, let's just pretend Jardon's computer was a time traveling one, and oh geez this is 1991 the Wikipedia from chapter 1 probably doesn't exist either does it? Ah well that's why this is called and AU. Did I ever actually say this is an AU? Because if I didn't, it's probably because that's pretty fucking obvious, since it's literally talked about in the story, excuse my rambling OK I'll go now

Aaand the first character gains his wand!

So I went through the list with Wand Woods on Pottermore and by each I judged if it fit by any of the characters, and when everyone had a wood I went through the cores and did the same, and when I'm done I look through the list and see OH MY GOD ONE OF THE CHARACTERS HAS HARRY POTTER'S WAND.

And I look further, and OH MY GOD ANOTHER CHARACTER HAS MY WAND.

Well then.