The Potter Twins and the Philosopher's stone (1) (ON HOLD)

Chapter 4 - Best Birthday Ever

While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop). Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked list again.

"Just yer wand left — A yeah, an' I still haven't got yehs a birthday present." Harry felt himself 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 an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'." Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes.

Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. I carryed a natral rare blue snowy owl. We couldn't stop stammering our thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell. "Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys.

Just Ollivanders left now — only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand." A magic wand...this was what we had been really looking forward to. The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.

A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop. "Hello," said Harry awkwardly. "Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry and Haylee Potter." It wasn't a question.

"You both have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work." Mr. Ollivander moved closer to us. Harry wished he would blink.

Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy. "Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it — it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes. I knew he was uncomfortable. "And that's where..." Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on both of our forehead with a long, white finger.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands...well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do. ..." He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid. I was secretly laughing on the inside.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again....Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?" "It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid. "Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern. "Er — yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet.

"I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly. "But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply. "Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke. "Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now — Potters, Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?" "Er — well, were both right-handed," we said. . "Hold out your arms. That's it."

No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand." Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes. "That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave."

Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once. "Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try —" Harry tried — but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.

After ages of trying new wands...

"Mr Potter, your wand is holly and a Phoenix feather, eleven inches, and Miss Potter, yours is a little unusual. The handle is holly wood, while the body is walnut wood. The core is Phoenix feather. Same Phoenix as your brothers.

I think we must expect great things from you, Potters... After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great." Harry and I shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much, but I didn't care much.

We paid 14 gold Galleons for the wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop. The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry, Haylee and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty.

We didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; Harry didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; weonly realized where they were when Hagrid tapped us both on the shoulder. "Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.

He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow. "You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid. Harry wasn't sure he could explain. We'd just had the best birthday of his life — and yet — we chewed our hamburgers, trying to find the words. "Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last.

"All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander...but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry — I mean, the night my parents died."

Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile. "Don' you worry, Yehs. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerself.

I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts — I did — still do, 'smatter of fact." Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.

"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September — King's Cross — it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me....See yeh soon, Harry." The train pulled out of the station.

We wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but they blinked and Hagrid had gone.