A Hogwarts Rose Year 1

Chapter 3

The next few days were strange, a posh, snooty woman with dark black hair swept up into a bun with a long nose and a small pair of glasses came to the house and explained how everything was going to work now that I knew I was a witch and was going to Hogwarts.

Today she was taking me to Diagon Alley (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it's called) where I was getting all my school supplies. In order to get there she said we had to floo, I asked her what that was and she brought me over to our fire place and made me stand in it, then she threw some strange powder in and told me to say Diagon Alley as clearly as I could.  When I did I was transported until I fell out of another fire place in a strange sort of bar. I stood up after landing in a heap on the floor and brushed the soot of my clothes.

'Where are we?' I asked the lady when she appeared out of the fire place (still standing!).

'The Leaky Cauldron.' She replied promptly. 'Now if you'll follow me.' We walked out into the street and it was filled with witches and wizards rushing around, looking in store windows and chatting noisily. As I gazed around I noticed what the different stores had: there was 2ndHand Brooms, Amanuensis Quills, Broomstix, Eeylops Owl Emporium,Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour,Flourish and Blotts, Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop,Gringotts Wizarding Bank andMadam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions just to name a few.

'Where do we start?' I asked wide eyed.

'We'll get your robes first, come along, we need to go to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Oh, I hope she's not too busy we don't have all day.' She said impatiently and we walked into the shop.

I had never seen so many robes in my life, there were hundreds of different types: dress robes, casual robes, teachers robes, school robes, but I just needed plain black ones and a tie to match, when we found them I tried them on. It took a little while before we found the size that fitted, then while the woman was paying for them I talked to some of the other students who had already been to Hogwarts before.

'It's brilliant, you'll love it!' A tall boy with scruffy auburn hair said smiling.

'The teachers are great!' ' Another boy said, this one had short brown hair.

'Well most of them.' The auburn haired one laughed.

'What's your name?' The short brown haired one asked.

'Stephanie Partridge, what's yours?' I asked curious.

'I'm Oliver Wood.' The boy with short brown hair replied. 'This is Jordan.'

'Hey.' Jordan grinned.

'When you come to Hogwarts make sure you look us up, alright.' Oliver said.

'I will, but I've got to go, see you at Hogwarts.'

'Bye.' The boys waved.

The next place we went to was Olivander's Wand Shop, it seemed old, almost like it was abandoned and the air was musty inside. I walked up to the counter, but no one was there, I was about to suggest that we leave when I heard the sound of wheels rolling on the wood and peaked around the corner to see an old man with scruffy grey hair and wrinkles on his face like paper that had been scrunched and tried to be made flat again, standing on a rolling ladder.

'Who are you?' The man asked before taking one of the many thin boxes on the shelves, then walked around to stand behind the counter.

'My name is Stephanie Partridge.'

'Oh, I don't think I've ever met any of your family.' He said.

'The rest of my family are muggles.' I explained.

'I see, here try this.' He handed me a wand, a twelve inch holly wood with dragon heartstring core, I took it and looked at it curiously. 'Well give it a wave.' He instructed as though it was the most obvious thing ever.

So I waved it towards the shelves and the boxes flew on to the floor creating a large mess, the man shook his head and looked for another one. We tried a few before I found one, it was a fourteen inch oak with the core of a hippogriff talon and they are very rare. As I waved it, the tip began to shine and a wind whipped up, I felt different, more complete, almost powerful, but soon it all died down.

'Your new wand I believe Miss Partridge.' He said smiling.