Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own Harry Potter. Try me next week.

Chapter 2: Finding a Friend

I walked to Madam Malkins, a nice and large light blue shop, went in, and morphed the scar to return, and a woman spotted me and asked, "Hogwarts? First Year?". Then she took an actual look at me, saw my scar, and realized "Harry Potter!? What can I do for you?" She was a moderately short old woman, a tad dumpy, with wispy white hair. She wore beautiful blue robes the color of her shop.

"I need an entire wardrobe. Casual clothes, Hogwarts robes, dress robes, under clothes, winter clothes. Everything, and of the highest quality, please. I also have no idea what wizards wear because I was raised by muggles so a quick lesson would help a lot!" I told her. She smiled and said, "I can help with all of that. Thank you so much for coming in here young man, it's a pleasure to have your business. Being just after nine in the morning, right now is a bit of a slow period and I'd be delighted to help you out. She took out a tape measure and begin to take my measurements and fitted me by putting me up on what seemed like a body shaped piece of wood that was slightly tilted, allowing her to work on clothes while I was wearing them. I looked around her shop for the various styles of clothing, knowing I'd only be able to walk out of the store with likely just one set of clothes and would need to come back later and even likely another day because I had ordered such a mass quantity of clothes and had no way to carry them.

She was able to quickly fit me into a open blue robe, a white drawstring shirt, black trousers, and acromantula silk undergarments with a pair of Hebridean Black dragonhide boots while telling me about the basics of wizard wear.

"The first thing you need to know is that Wizards and Witches wear robes. There are two kinds, open and closed. Open robes are more casual and go over a full set of clothes, usually fastening with a button or clasp around the neck. Closed robes are worn without clothes underneath and are one garment that either buttons fully or just at the top, allowing you to slide in. Close robes are more formal. All dress robes are closed robes. Hogwarts Uniforms are slightly different for each year group, but first years will wear light gray sweaters or sweater vests over a white collar shirt with either light grey trousers or a skirt. Students wear black dress shoes and first years wear light gray socks. The robes first years have are open, like all the years, but are fully black, inner lining and all." She said all this with a pin in her mouth as she was casting charms left and right on the new clothes she had magicked me into with what I assumed was a switching spell. "You'll wear a black hat when you're outside and you'll need some dragonhide gloves too, for Herbology and Beastiology." Hmmm. Beastiology. That was new, although I remembered seeing it on the forms for Hogwarts. I wonder if that was just Care of Magical Creatures. "You'll also get a couple of house ties once you're there. The special thing only first years have is a Hogwarts Emblem on their left chest. Other years all have their House Emblem. For casual clothing you can pretty much wear anything, but most people usually wear an open robe with casual clothes when lounging around in common rooms or on weekends."

She talked a lot, and at a mile a minute, but was very informative and sent me off with a notice to come back later today to get another outfit for tomorrow and that I could come by later tomorrow to pick up my full set of clothing.

I left wearing my new threads to go to lunch. I found nice little outside tables at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour (which I discovered also served light lunch fare from their sign out front). I walked in, reading their multitude of flavors off of a large blackboard up high in the shop. "Welcome to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. What can I get for you, sonny?" a man said from behind a counter once I stepped foot on the technicolor tile of the shop. I said, "Just looking for now, thanks." In front of me, the large basins of ice cream just sat out with no glass panes to keep them cool. I guessed charmwork handled the temperature. There was even a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean Cream. I didn't think I would want to try that, although I did wonder if every scoop was different or if there were a multitude of flavors within one scoop. There were a couple of families already sitting down at the tables outside but as I was looking out, a mother and a son who looked as equally as excited as I was about everything around me walked in. The boy seemed my age, well, Harry's age, so I assumed he was a muggleborn discovering the Wizarding World for the first time.

"Hello!" I said, as they came towards the front counter where I was.

"Hi!" The boy said to me, curious and excited.

"Are you new to this world too? Muggleborn?" I asked.

"Yes, and no. My mother is a muggleborn and apparently decided it was a good idea to not tell me about magic until I got my letter." He said with a bit of saltiness, looking up to his mother, serving her a look as frosty as the ice cream. She smiled down at him, content in her choices, it seemed.

"And your father?" I asked.

"He died in the war. My Step-Dad is great though. He's a muggle. He knew too. This whole time." he declared with another set of pointed eyes.

"Both of my parents died in the war, too. It's nice to meet you. Harry Potter." I said, extending my hand, playing the part of who I was. His mother gasped but he just reached out and shook my hand.

"Marcus Fenwick-Hitchin." He said. His mother looked around like she was worried someone was going to hear us and then she said,

"My husband Benji died fighting alongside your parents. You look just like James. You have Lily's eyes though. I knew your parents as well. We fought together in the war after having attended Hogwarts together and I was one of your mother's close friends. I'd be happy to have you over in my house anytime this summer, Harry. I think I have a few photos you'd enjoy seeing if you haven't already got copies. My name is Madeline. If you don't mind me asking: Where have you been all these years?" She asked, caringly but with a little too much all at once, obviously unprepared to see me in an ice cream parlour.

"Um. I've been with muggle relatives. I'm changing that though. They weren't good people. I've contacted uhmmmm… Remus... Do you know him? To try and take care of me until Sirius can." She looked appalled and confused until I said, "He's innocent, you know? He did The Godfather bonding ritual with me. Sirius couldn't have betrayed them. Peter was the secret keeper." When I finished explaining that, Madeline started to cry. I guess she really was close with them. It was so interesting to me that there was a character I had no clue about who was tied to the plot, although the name Benji did strike a faint memory as a member of the Order of the Phoenix. I definitely didn't remember "Marcus" being one of the 40 students that attended Hogwarts in the year Harry did that were compiled on J.K's list "The Original Fourty". Maybe that meant there are more students. Well, it must.

"I don't know much about the Wizarding World either." I said to Marcus, as his mother excused herself to the bathroom, letting her son know she'd be fine and would be right out.

"I'll get you some ice cream." I said to him.

"Thanks! Want to be friends?" he said.

"Sure. I'd like that." I replied. He was wearing muggle clothing. A white shirt and jean shorts. He had what seemed like naturally tan skin and brown hair with a small nose. "What classes do you want to take at Hogwarts?" I asked.

"All of them. Except divination."

"Really? Me too!" I said. "I know I'll be in Ravenclaw. You?"

"Me too! Haha." he said as I laughed with him. I was glad I was making friends with people that weren't just the main characters of the books I read, although I wanted to be, and I'd need friends in Ravenclaw.

"So, I've never seen any of these ice cream flavors before. What do you want?" I asked him. He walked up to the glass and perused his options while I looked up at the magical black board and saw a chicken sandwich that looked appealing.

"Ooooo! This one!" Marcus said, making eye contact with me while pointing down at a yellow concoction that seemed like it was sparking with electricity. "Electric Lemon" the label read.

The man at the counter introduced himself as Florean Fortescue as he rung us up and I paid the silver sickle for the ice cream and the two silver sickles for my sandwich.

"Do you have any drinks?" I asked the man. He nodded to a far counter with a few pitchers. One was labeled "Pumpkin Juice", another was "Water", and even more with the names of "Pumpkin Fizz", "Fizzing Lemonade", "Exploding Lemonade", "Gillywater", "Bubble Juice", "Dragon Milk", "Hot Chocolate", "Butterbeer" and what must have been a dozen others. I settled on trying "Fizzing Lemonade" for 10 Knuts. I offered Marcus a drink as well and he got "Exploding Lemonade", which was the same cost. Marcus must really like lemon!

While I paid for those, his mother came back out and apologized for having to excuse herself.

By that time, my sandwich was ready and Mrs. Fenwick thanked me for paying for Marcus's food. She got a butterbeer which I assumed was because she had just cried her eyes out and wanted a bit of a release.

Then we all found a nice table outside with an umbrella charmed to keep the sun out of our eyes and keep a cool breeze blowing around.

"So do you know what classes you'll sign up for, Harry?" Mrs. Fenwick asked me.

"Probably all of them, if I'm going to be honest. I just can't imagine not learning everything I can." I said.

"I feel the same way." Marcus exclaimed.

"Divination doesn't have much use if you don't have the sight." Mrs. Fenwick said. "Otherwise, they all have their uses."

"We were going to pick his wand up next at Ollivander's. Would you like to join us?" Mrs. Fenwick told me.

"I'd love to." I replied. "I hope I get one that's aesthetically pleasing."

"If you'd like, I know you can get him to change the design in minor ways for an extra fee." She said.

"Thanks! I'll make sure to do that if the wand that I match with looks ugly."

"So, you're wearing robes? When did you get those?"

"Madam Malkins. I take it you're going there later?"

"Yes. We have to get him his uniform as well as some casual robes and maybe something formal too, just in case."

"I like those boots you have." Marcus said to me.

"I just got them. Hebridean Black Dragonhide. They costed like 14 Galleons but they're just gorgeous." I said, tapping them together.

"Well, they're just beautiful. Mom, can I get some?" Marcus said, in between the last bites of his ice cream.

"Um. We'll talk about it, honey." She responded. I hoped this hadn't created an uncomfortable money situation. They seemed very comfortable but $700 is a hard spontaneous buy for most.

"Well, seems like we're about ready to go." She pulled out her wand and vanished the remains of our food. Wow! Magic is amazing.

We walked into the cobblestone street, heading towards Ollivander's thin shop. As we neared the shop, Marcus and I got very excited, practically dashing to the door.

As we opened the purple door, a bell dinged, likely notifying Mr. Ollivander we had come into the shop. I looked up, and there was a little golden bell hanging right above the door that must have been activated by some sort of charm. There was a bay window looking out into the alley, and there was a single cushion with a wand laying on top of it that sat in the window. A long front desk that seemed positively ancient split the long hall of a room into a standing area and storage. Behind the desk were walls full of wands. Groups of boxes looked the same, but there were different boxes everywhere. I wondered what the difference was. Looking closer at a couple of them, they seemed to have different years on them. It must have been to signify when he made them, with a different box for every year. At that thought, he walked out of a door in the back which I got a glimpse through. It was likely his workshop, because I saw woods and a worktable. "My my my, what do we have here? What can I do for you? Wands, I assume?" he said chuckling, not yet looking at me but looking at Marcus. Then, his gaze shifted to meet my eyes and he said, "Harry Potter. I knew I'd be seeing you around here sooner or later." His attention turned back to Marcus. "And you must be Miss Madeline's son. What's your name, boy?"

"Marcus."

"Well Marcus, would you like to step up and try some wands? Which hand is your wand hand?"

"Right." Marcus replied, and an enchanted tape measure spurted out of a drawer and started to take measurements of Marcus, everywhere.

Mr. Ollivander went over to the left wall and pulled off a brown long box and handed the wand to Marcus.

"Mahogany, 14 inches. Unicorn Tail Hair. Nice and supple."

Marcus went to grab the wand but by the time one finger had grazed the wood, Ollivander snatched it back. He quickly pulled out a yellow box from beneath the desk.

"Ebony. 9 inches. Phoenix Tail Feather."

Marcus grabbed the wand and it seemed to spark a little, angrily, so he dropped it.

It took about fifteen more wands before Ollivander had pulled one out that started to glow once Marcus made contact with it.

"Sycamore. 12 and a quarter inches. Nice and Springy. Dragon Heartstring from a Romanian Longhorn."

It was a pretty wand, with a simple look and a handle.

"And now. Mr. Potter." He said, bringing me forward after collecting 17 Galleons from Marcus. That price seemed more reasonable for the most important tool a wizard would use than the 7 galleons the books said.

Mr. Ollivander brought me wand after wand to no avail. We even tried the holly wand I knew the real Harry had on the seventieth try. I got a somewhat pleasant reaction from that wand, but it wasn't good enough for Mr. Ollivander. Then, he looked like a spark of mad hope had awakened within him. He rushed back into his workshop and came running back with a wand I thought was one of his most beautiful.

"Wow." I said.

"This is an Aspen wand that I was experimenting with. Fourteen and three fourths inches. Sturdy. As you can see I did spend some time on an intricate swirled carving from the handle to the the tip. The interesting thing about this wand, and the reason why I thought no one would ever be able to use it well is that it has two cores. I twisted the dragon heartstring of an Antipodean Opaleye with a Phoenix feather from the same bird as that holly wand you just tried. But. It never hurts to tempt the impossible."

I reached out for the wand and as soon as I did it felt like a flood had been released. The wand started to vibrate and then swirls of light flew from the wand, filling the room with beautiful colors. It felt amazing. This wand felt like home.

"Well, well, well. Very curious in many ways." He said aloud, and then leaned in closer to whisper to me. "I didn't think this wand would ever find an owner. It's curious that this wand would choose you, when it's brother gave you that scar. It's curious this wand would pick you when I thought it would possibly ever only take to someone who had a split personality. I hope this means you aren't possessed. Might want to get that checked out." Well. I'll be damned. This didn't happen in the books. I guess that split personality was because Harry's memories were in my brain too, but Ollivander assumed it was Voldemort. I wasn't just a product of my experiences, but maybe Harry's too. If I told anyone that I wasn't just Harry, though, that could be bad. Even in this universe it didn't seem like that was the norm.

That freaked me out a bit, but thankfully he said that under his breath so Marcus and Madeline didn't hear. They just heard it was "curious". I paid 20 galleons for the wand, and they commented on the beauty of the wand. I decided to just tell them it was curious because of the dual core.

Then I asked to Ollivander, "Do people use wand holsters?" "What about polishing?" "How do we take care of them?" "How does the trace work?"

At those questions I think Ollivander looked a bit relieved. I'm not sure why, but maybe those questions went to convince him I wasn't a psycho maniac murderer.

Brandishing his own wand, he showed us the holster he used, an arm strap. "This is an arm holster, and this one specifically straps onto your forearm and when you curl your fingers then the wand shoots out of the holster and into your hand. The other interesting aspect of this holster is that it uses an extendable space charm to allow any length wand to strap into the wooden end of the holster and not take up too much space under clothing. The other holder styles are ones that strap onto belts and ones for your legs. A lot of people carry their wands in an extendable pocket but this arm holster is the quickest way to equip a wand and is used by Aurors."

He set out a large tray that he pulled from underneath the long front desk and set it on top. It contained about thirty different wand holsters in assorted styles and leathers. Looking through them, I found an arm strap holster like Ollivander's that seemed to be made of the same Hebridean Black dragonskin of my shoes. Matching, I decided to purchase that one for 4 galleons. I passed the galleons over to Ollivander after pulling them out of my pouch. Marcus went with a black leather one, costing one galleon, in the same style. Madeline pulled the galleon out of her leather bag. Then, we were complete here.

I knew I needed to fix things. I had foreknowledge of the books so I could defeat Voldemort before he could even come back (or so I thought). Taking Ollivander's advice, I should try and get the horcrux inside of me removed. But now was not the time for that fix because Marcus said, "Mom! Can I please get an owl, like you said I could?" he asked, looking up at her.

"You're going to have to take care of it. Feed it, clean its cage," she said to him, grabbing his shoulder as we stepped out of the shop.

"I will! Where should we go to get it?" He asked.

"Eeylops Owl Emporium!" I said, knowing that's where Hagrid had purchased Hedwig originally and I needed to get her. At that, we started to make our way down the street to a triple story shop in a yellow building. Walking up to the building, it had two normal bay windows on the first floor, but the second and third seemed like almost all window, and I could see dozens of owls inside. As we entered through the sun yellow door, we entered the airy shop to the screeching and hooting of at least a couple dozen owls. There were owls of every kind, snowy, barn, screech, scops, eagle, tawny, and more I didn't know. I had to find who I thought was Hedwig, or let her find me. They were sorted into smaller caged rows by breed, and there was a large two story cage above the whole shop that some owls were in, getting some space to fly. Going over to their snowy owl section, they had eight in stock. Five were males and three were females. One was quite young, maybe a few weeks old, so I didn't think that was Hedwig. Of the other two, one wasn't bothered by me, cracking an eye open from her slumber and then closing it. But the last bird was beautiful, coming up to the edge of the cage and softly trilling at me while bobbing. This must be Hedwig, I thought, as I opened her cage and she flew out and came to rest on my shoulder. Marcus and Madeline had followed me over to this section, but were looking at a male tawny owl. Hedwig lightly nipped at my ear while chirping in delight at seemingly getting "picked". With her on my shoulder, I made my way over to the display of cages for sale, but as I did the sales guy from the front of the store walked over to me and asked, "What can I do for your sir? Are we looking at a cage for this fine owl right here?" He said, rubbing her feathers softly.

"Yes." I said, "I'd like something magical, not just a regular cage. Is there anything with extended space she could have space to fly in?" I asked.

"We have quite a few options for you. I personally would recommend this one, but it is our most expensive model." He said, leading me over to a half cylindrical silver cage probably one and a half feet in diameter and two feet tall. "Inside, there's a whole quidditch pitch of space for an owl to fly around in with an entire enchanted ecosystem with trees and small wildlife. It's 50 galleons, but your owl will love it. She'll be able to hunt inside for food. All you'll need is treats! It's fully self sustaining, and absorbs sunlight. It just needs to be placed near a window or in the sun to maintain the internal ecosystem. It works via runes to absorb sunlight and project it inside. The runes also maintain the illusion of a normal cage, and when an owl enters it mimics the appearance of that owl as sitting on a perch in the cage. If it doesn't get at least a few hours of sunlight every day, the ecosystem will start to collapse." He opened the door of the cage, and I stuffed my head inside, peering into the beautiful little forest.

"I could fit my whole body through this door if I tried." I said back to him.

"If you do, the illusion will not make you appear, it only works for owls. Most choose to interact with their owls outside of the cage, but if you happen to get stuck inside, all you need is to use an alohomora charm to open the cage from the indoors. It's runically charmed to stay weightless." He explained. "It's a pricey model because of the runic work involved. I take it you're actually interested?"

"Yes. In fact, I'll take it," I said. He looked surprised.

"And you have 50 galleons on you?" He asked, walking towards the counter. Marcus and his mother were still looking at tawny owls, and seemed to have settled on a young one.

"Yes, " I said, offering with my arm for Hedwig to fly into the cage. She fluttered her wings twice and then zoomed in. I shut the door behind her and placed the cage on the front desk, opened my pouch, and methodically counted out 65 galleons for both the cage and Hedwig. With each galleon, his eyes widened.

"Could I interest you in some treats? We have pork, chicken, bacon, beef, steak…"

"I'll take some bacon treats," I said, remembering from somewhere that Hedwig loved them.

"How many bags?" He asked.

"How many treats per bag?" I asked as he ducked under the front desk and pulled out a hand sized bag of bacon treats wrapped in yellow cellophane.

"Around 100. 3 sickles each."

"I'll take 7 then," I said, handing over a galleon and 4 sickles. At that point Marcus and his mother came up with a simple silvery cage the same size as mine, but not magically enchanted, and a young male tawny owl. They also bought some feed and treats. The sales clerk totaled him up at 15 galleons for the lot.

Then Marcus asked me excitedly, "Have you decided on a name?"

"Not yet," I responded, "I have some ideas but I think I'll wait a little while." I explained, knowing I needed to wait to get Bathilda Bagshot's "A History of Magic" book before I named her Hedwig.

Marcus then replied, "Well, I've decided on Benji. After my father," as he looked up at his mother with loving eyes.

"Aw, that's so sweet. Your papa would be proud of you," she smiled at him.

"I like it," I said.

"Where are you headed next?" he asked me.

"I was thinking I'd go to Flourish and Blotts and pick out my school books. But honestly, I need to get a bookbag before I get books?" I said, while carrying Hedwig's cage in one hand and her treats in the other and walking out the door with them. "I need somewhere to store this cage and these treats and books."

Knowing that, we walked into "Bobbins' Best Bags and Luggage" a store I had never heard of from the books, like many of the things I was seeing in the alley.

Going in, I saw exactly what I wanted. It was a black dragonhide simple backpack with the Hogwarts Emblem stitched onto it with an extended amount of space inside. The label read the internal space as 8 cubic meters. So not a ton, but it was the biggest they had in the Hogwarts Emblem style and would definitely suit my needs. They had a whole section of Hogwarts and House themed book bags. Likely because as far as I knew, it was the school everyone attended. Marcus excitedly found a regular black leather one with an extended space of 1 cubic meter inside. They were both charmed to be as light as they were when they had nothing in them. Mine being 30 galleons and his being 5, they were simple purchases.

Gosh. For anyone on a salaried job without some savings, it would be hard to buy all this gear at once. I guessed Benji had left some money for his children to cover Hogwarts costs.

Next up for me, luggage. I needed a trunk to store things long term, because a bag was easily misplaced, lost, or stolen. I didn't need a trunk like Moody, that was overkill and expensive. However, looking through my options, one struck my fancy. It was a light wooden trunk made of aspen, like my wand, and it had three compartments. The trunk was about two feet by five feet. The first compartment was a regular sized compartment, the second had two bookshelves that pulled out of it seven feet high, and the third had a full wardrobe that pulled out of it seven feet high. It was quite nice, and quite pricey at 50 galleons, but not as pricey as the trunks with whole rooms inside them. Marcus got a nice simple dark wood one for 10 galleons.

With my new found bag, I stuffed Hedwig's cage inside (with the mouths of the bag expanding to accommodate it and practically eating it, which Marcus's did not do) and my trunk, not wanting to lug that behemoth around. Marcus held his bag and his mother held the owl cage. I offered to put that cage in my bag as well, but they decided to just carry it.

Flourish and Blott's was a double wide shop, one of the staples of Diagon Alley. It made sense that a society that had no phones or internet or TV would value reading so much to the extent people read all the time and purchased books often. It was rather close to Eyelops, and once we got outside the shop they decided to take me up on my offer of storing the owl cage so they could more easily purchase books.

The shop entrance was actually a pair of green french doors. They opened into a small area with a counter on one side and a bookshelf on the other. Further into the shop were rows of books, separated into orderly sections by subjects. Thankfully, all of the first year Hogwarts books had a shelf dedicated to them, so it was easy to just pick one of each. That's when I saw her, in the middle of picking through "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and seeing the much larger list of creatures then I was aware of, I spotted her bushy hair and face identical to Emma Watson's.