★~ Lillian Potter ~★

Owls

"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward MadamMalkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate themGringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so the twins entered MadamMalkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve."Hogwarts, dears?" she said, when Lilly started to speak. "Got the lothere -- another young man being fitted up just now, in fact. " 

In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face, and slicked back platinum blonde hair was standing ona footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. MadamMalkin stood Harry on a stool next to him and Lilly next to Harry, she slipped a long robe over her and Harry's  head, and began to pin them to the right length.

 "Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?" "Yes," said Harry."My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the streetlooking at wands," said the boy. "ThenI'm going to drag them off to took at racing brooms. I don't see whyfirst years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into gettingme one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley. Lilly held in a laugh. "Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on."No," said Lilly."Play Quidditch at all?""No," Harry said before Lilly could, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be. 

"I do -- Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?" "No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute. Lilly saw his expression and tried her best not to explode. "Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I knowI'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been -- imagine being inHufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" "Mmm," said Harry, wishinghe could say something a bit more interesting. Lilly rolled her eyes and started staring off into space. 

Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, mydears," Lilly and Harry hopped down from the footstools."Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the boy. Lilly and Harry wererather quiet as they ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought them (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts)."What's up?" said Hagrid."Nothing," Lilly lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. the twins cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as youwrote.

 When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?""Blimey, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know -- not knowin'about Quidditch!""Don't make us feel worse," said Lilly. He told Hagrid about the boy in Madam Malkin's Lilly cutting in every now and then."--and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowedin.""Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were -- he's grownup knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw whateveryone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, whatdoes he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only oneswith magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles -- look at yer mum! Lookwhat she had fer a sister!"

 "So what is Quidditch?" Lilly asked. "It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like -- like soccer in the Muggleworld -- everyone follows Quidditch -- played up in the air onbroomsticks and there's four balls -- sorta hard ter explain the rules.""And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?""School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o'duffers, but --""I bet I'm in Hufflepuff" said Harry gloomily. "Ooo what do you think i'd be?" Lilly said cheekily.  "Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not asingle witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin.You-Know-Who was one." "What if I'm in Slytherin?" she snaped, "I'll disown you." harry muttered jokingly. Lilly rolled her eyes, "Vol-, sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?" Harry went on. 

"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.They bought the twins school books in a shop called Flourish and Blottswhere the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large aspaving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps incovers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books withnothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would havebeen wild to get his hands on some of these. 

Hagrid almost had to dragHarry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends andBefuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs,Tongue- Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian. And almost yanked Lilly's arm off while she was looking at Hypnotize your friends and family for your own bidding. "I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley.""I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in theMuggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. 

"An'anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot morestudy before yeh get ter that level."Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It sayspewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighingpotion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visitedthe Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horriblesmell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuffstood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders linedthe walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hungfrom the ceiling. 

While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for asupply of some basic potion ingredients for the twins, Lilly herself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule,glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Lilly and Harry's lists again."Just yer wands left - A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthdaypresent." Lilly felt herself go red. 

"You don't have to --""I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad,toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at - an' I don'like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer two owls. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had beendark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry nowcarried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep withher head under her wing. And Lilly carried a smaller cage with a brown owl with darker brown eyes and a small patch of light brown on the tip of it's wing. She and Harry couldn't stop stammering their thanks,sounding just like Professor Quirrell. 

"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lottapresents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now - only place ferwands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."A magic wand... this was what the twins had been really looking forward to.