Alfie, Who?

A Special Wand For a Special Wizard

Over the rest of the summer The Doctor visited the Owenses on several occasions to prepare Alfie for the following school year at Hogwarts. He took him in his wonderful blue time machine/spacecraft (that Alfie still doesn't understand. "It's much bigger on the inside, isn't it?" He had remarked as was expected) to "Diagonally." (Alfie would later learn that the Doctor had completely destroyed the pronunciation. But he was pretty new to the place, himself.)

Alfie and The Doctor visited Flourish and Blots. There they bought various books that Alfie required: A history of Magic, Magical Drafts and Potions, A Beginner's Guide to Transfigurations, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, The Book of Charms and Spells etc. Nothing for Defense Against the Dark Arts. The Doctor had decided to "wing it!" They visited other shops to purchase standard quills and parchment, a caldron and robes. It was fortunate that in all of the Doctors travels throughout time and space he came across plenty of wizard's gold and had a large stash in the Tardis.

While shopping at Flourish and Blotts, Alphie noticed a tall, sturdy looking witch with wild sandy colored hair, dark eyes and an arrogant chin. She was shopping with her parents. She looked a lot like her mother, with the same intense look in her eyes. But she had her father's hight and physical presence. She was a first year but she looked more like a third year. She looked briefly at Alfie, catching him staring. She rolled her eyes and addressed her mother, in a voice higher than was required.

"Mother! Why can't I have my own broom?" She was holding a new copy of Quiditch Through The Ages. "I want to try out for the team!" She looked over at Alfie to see if he was looking. Not because she was trying to flirt. But because she wanted assert her superiority. But she assumed incorrectly that Alfie knew what she was talking about and was met with a look of confusion on Alfie's face.

"We've told you, first years can't own their own brooms." A tall broad chested wizard put his hand on his daughter's shoulder. "You can try out with the school brooms..."

"I won't!" The girl leaves her parents to finish looking for her books and walks over to Alfie. "My name is Goyle. Morgana Goyle. What's yours?" There's no kindness in her naturally authoritative voice. She is only an inch or so taller than Alfie but she looks down at him. She speaks as if she is used to commanding respect.

"Erm, Alfie. My name is Alfie. Alfie Owens." He stuttered. She was standing quite close to him and he had to take a step back. She had a very commanding presence and up close she was quite pretty.

"Owens. That doesn't sound like any wizarding family I've ever heard of!" She started to turn away. "Not any respectable ones, anyway." Her hair floated about her shoulders as she moved. Her chin was always raised somewhat forcing her to look down her nose at Alfie when she talked. "Is that man your father?"

"No, he isn't." Alfie was confused. "I don't suppose you'd know my name. I think that I'm the only wizard in my family!" He shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh!" Morgana exclaimed as if she had just stepped in a pile of Mooncalf dung. "Mudblood." She rolled her eyes and walked back over to her parents. She kept her back to Alfie thereafter.

After they left Flourish and Blotts they went to the wand shop. The wand maker, Mr. Jimmy Kiddell, who considered him carefully.

"Eleven and a half inch." He said, measuring Alfie's arm. "What is this? Hmm. You're quite special, aren't you?" He asked Alfie, looking inquisitively into his eyes. Reading him. "I have the perfect wand for you. But of course I do. But... this is one that is quite old." Mr. Kiddell rubs his thin grey beard as he regards Alfie with watery eyes just as grey.

"What do you mean, Mr. Kiddell?"

"This wand has been in my family's shop for several generations." He steps away. Squeezing between several towering piles of boxes that magicked themselves from falling as he passed, he walks to the back of the shop. The Doctor had just started scanning the curious boxes with his sonic screwdriver, trying to ascertain how they were standing. Alfie could just see Mr. Kiddell's head bobbing about just beyond a short stack that was leaning impossibly to the left. An old cabinet with ancient glass thick with dust was opened. Mr. Kiddell pulled out a box a little unlike the others. Most of the boxes in his shop were made of plain pine or the same wood that the wand is made from. Some of the ones on the shelves were ornately carved wooden boxes. Several were ominously made from iron with bespelled padlocks. But the one that he pulled from the cabinet was a wooden box that almost seemed to be alive. Not alive like an animal, but alive like a tree that had not yet been plucked or chopped down. There were leaves that were green with seed pods still popping. There were vines that coiled around the box; they moved as if to protect the contents from those they deemed unworthy. Alfie looked at this phenomenon skeptically as Mr. Kiddell presented him with it.