“What’s Quidditch, Hagrid?”
“Blimey, I keep forgettin’ how little yeh know – not knowin’ about Quidditch!”
“Don’t make us feel worse,” Harry added in with a groan. He shoved his face with ice cream in what Amaryllis assumed was disappointment. For what? She didn’t know. There was no expectations on them because it wasn’t their fault they hadn’t grown up like they should have. That was where ‘you-know-who’ as Hagrid called him came in. She didn’t understand why a name was so fearful to say. It wasn’t as if his name would magically make him appear. The dark wizard, Voldemort, that had murdered their parents because of something no one wanted to tell them.
Even that was absurd to her. They had a right to know.
“Sorta hard ter explain the rules.”
“And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?”
Amaryllis licked her butterscotch ice cream, tuning back into whatever Hagrid and Harry were talking about. She zoned out as they talked Quidditch, some broom flying game that made her quickly lose interest. If the Gringotts carts were similar, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Keeping her feet planted on the ground sounded like a solid plan to her. For the rest of her existence, preferably.
They had already gotten their parchment and ink. Buying an ink that changed color because Harry became fascinated with it and headed to a store called Flourish and Botts to buy their books.
“School houses. There’s four, and everyone says Hufflepuff’s are a lot o’ doffers—”
“I bet I’m Hufflepuff,” Harry said nonchalantly.
Amaryllis guessed her brother didn’t really mean it, but Hagrid didn’t seem to pick up on that.
“Better than Slytherin. No good comes from that house. You-know-who came from that house.”
Amaryllis shot back a question to Hagrid. She didn’t mean to sound harsh, yet she felt it wasn’t right to call every single person a bad apple from one person that turned evil. “How does that make every person in one house evil?”
Hagrid sputtered, not seeming to know how to respond.
Amaryllis cast her gaze down to the stone brick streets. “Forget it.”
“Uh, um, well. How about we get yeh an animal? I never did get yeh yer birthday gifts.”
Harry and Hagrid kept the conversation up, though it had become halfhearted after her question. Hagrid wasn’t as happy as when they first arrived and she felt horrible for being the one to bring the atmosphere down. It just didn’t sit right with her. That blond boy may have had the qualities Hagrid spoke about, but just because he was rude and had views that looked down on others, did that make him downright evil? A murderer who sought to eradicate the world of those who were not pure-bloods? She guessed only time would tell, but until then, she wouldn’t judge that person.
“What yeh both want? An owl? Cats make me sneeze and toads went outta fashion years ago.”
“Uh,” Amaryllis raised her hand, staring at Hagrid sheepishly. “Can I get a cat? Preferably if they like me. Just that me and owls, we don’t get along.”
Harry chuckled from beside Hagrid who stared between them. “Owl not liking yeh? That’s a first. I don’t see why not, but if yeh don’t mind, I won’t be near it.”
“That’s alright, Hagrid. No hard feelings.”
“Alright, go on now.”
Amaryllis shot her brother a look as they headed into the store. The moment she stepped in, the side with owls began to screech, flapping their wings in the cages, rattling them from where they either hung or laid against the shelves. She quickly parted to a different section of the store, leaving Harry to the owls as she made her way down where the cats were. She didn’t know what she was looking for. A specific color? A size? Gender? None seemed to matter, and yet she kept passing by multiple cats that stared back at her, wandering if they’d get chosen.
As she neared the end, she almost thought it was a lost cause until she caught the green eyes of a cat near the bottom. It’s fur was brown with black stripes and a white mark on its face that traveled below its belly. It sat there, staring up at her calmly. There was no reason. Nothing at all, but she wanted that cat. Many were similar to it, and yet she felt something pull her toward that cat.
“Hello,” Amaryllis said softly. She bend down, reaching her hand out for it to sniff. “Do you wanna come home with me?”
The cat sniffed her fingers and stared up at her as if it understood her question and gave a soft meow in reply.
“I’ll let you out, but you have to behave and not run away. Can we make a deal on that?”
It should have unnerved her, yet it didn’t. The cat stared back as if it really understood every word, voicing it’s opinion that she couldn’t understand.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Amaryllis looked around the crate it was in, but saw nothing that gave a name like a few others. She turned back to the cat, meetings it green eyes that hadn’t seem to waver. “Do you like the name Carissa?”
Another soft reply.
“Well, then,” Amaryllis said, reaching for the crate, “let’s get you out of there and pay.”
The moment she unlatched the crate, Carissa leaped forward and Amaryllis was grateful for her fast reflexes as she caught Carissa as soon as she hit her chest.
Carissa’s green eyes stared up at her as she held her in her arms, and she half expected the cat to jump away again, but she didn’t. Carissa laid her head down on her arm and she felt her purr before she heard it above all the other animals in the shop.
“You may be a handful.” Amaryllis laughed softly as she made her way to the counter.
Harry had just finished paying for a snowy white owl with gold eyes as she came up behind him. Her eyes narrowed onto the owl as it turned to stare at her, seeming to ruffle its feathers but did nothing more. Unlike the other owls that began to screech lightly.
“Never in my days…” the man behind the counter began, staring at the perplexed.
Harry turned to give her a half smile, and a look that asked if she was okay.
There wasn’t anything she could do about the owls, so she wouldn’t let it bother her and nodded to her brother.
Harry moved so she could pay and they left the shop just as quickly.
As long as they didn’t bother her, she would go no where near them. At least she didn’t have anybody to send a letter too besides her brother, but even then, she’d ask him to send it off if she had too. No way was she risking another owl to take a bite out of her.
“All sorted? Now yer wands.” Hagrid clapped his hands as he beamed down at them, though she made sure to stand a ways away from him since he seemed allergic to cats.
Ollivanders wand shop seemed older than many of the shops they had gone through. The sign was worn, yet still hung strong above the shop with what she assumed was the name carved into the wood. It was to intricate and close together she could only make out the O, but nothing else.
A bell rung sharply as they walked in and an older man walked out from the back.
“Good afternoon.”
Amaryllis chimed back as she noticed Harry and Hagrid jump at his presence. “Hello.”
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.
“Ah yes,” said the man. “Yes, yes, I thought I’d be seeing you two soon. Harry and Amaryllis Potter.” It wasn’t a question. He glanced between them, seeming to take their features in. “You have your mother’s eyes, Harry. Though, yours are slightly different, Amaryllis. Quite peculiar.”
Mr. Ollivander went on about their mother and father’s wand and what it was made of before he quickly changed the topic to apologizing for selling the wand that had given Harry his scar. The same wand that had killed their parents.
What’s done was done. He couldn’t rewind time and reverse what had happened. There was no way for someone to know how a person would turn out. And she didn’t blame Mr. Ollivander.
“Uh, thanks?” Harry asked more than stated.
“Right. Wands. What’s your wand hand?”
Amaryllis and Harry exchanged a glance as they responded in unison. “We’re right handed.”
Mr. Ollivander took out a tape measure, beginning to measure the length of his arm, finger, and it continues on for a bit before Amaryllis noticed Mr. Ollivander has left and the tape measure moved on its own. The wand maker and moved to one of the shelves, grabbing a box and carried it out.
“This should do it. Go on, give it a wave.”
Amaryllis felt the embarrassment just her brother took the wand and waved it before it was snatched back by the wand maker.
And Harry tried again… And again.
Amaryllis had begun to pet Carissa as time flew by and the boxes of wands piled up on the chair before Mr. Ollivander seemed to get an idea, mumbling to himself as he made his way into the back. He came back with a wand and a twinkle in his silvery eyes.
When Harry held the wand, the air moved around the shop, yet it felt light and comforting.
“Curious. Yes, most curious.”
If Harry hadn’t spoken first, Amaryllis would have. “What’s most curious?”
“That wand in your hand.” Mr. Ollivander pointed to said wand. “I’m sorry to say, but it has a brother wand. The same wand that gave you that scar. Never the same, but the Phoenix that gave that wand a feather gave two feathers. The second resides in your wand, Harry.”
Well, that’s a way to kill the mood. Amaryllis thought, staring at her brother who only stared down at his wand in deep thought.
“Now for your wand, Ms. Potter.”
She had half a mind to say she’ll go without because she did not need another sad story to spew out of his mouth with whatever wand picked her, but alas, she was stuck waving wand after wand.
And failure after failure, the boxes piled to the point Mr. Ollivander had to wave his hand and the boxes floated back onto shelves in random orders, clearing the over crowded front of the store.
At least it looks like we had just started.
A moment later, Mr. Ollivander came back with a light blue box that seemed to shine in the dim light. His gaze stayed on the box, but she noticed the way his unkempt brows furrowed more than they had been previously. He lifted the lid, and simply held it out for her with a nod.
Amaryllis hesitated as she reached for the wand. It felt cool under her skin, as if she had dipped her hand in a steady stream in summer, and lifted it from the box.
Nothing happened for a moment as she stared at the dark wood that had carvings of waves around the base. As she moved the wand, mist burst from the wand around her and a rainbow reflected from the lights that shimmered until it to had faded with the mist.
“Splendid. Cedar wood, nine and a quarter inches, unyielding, but most curious,” Amaryllis guessed that was his favorite word, “To be able to add coral to the core of a cedar wand… astounding craftsmanship. Though, I did not make this wand, Ms. Potter.”
“Then who made it?”
Mr. Ollivanders silver eyes sparkled with delight. “That is a question you will have to seek out.”
Amaryllis turned to Hagrid who hadn’t seemed to feel the same dread that formed in her gut at Mr. Ollivanders words, but her brothers worry mirrored her own.
Neither said anything that would seem to ruin Hagrid’s happiness at their first steps to becoming a witch and wizards, so they plastered a smile of their face as they paid and left Mr. Ollivanders.