Chapter 4
I turned around, and relaxed. It wasn’t Fred and George. It was a boy I had never seen before. He had dirty blond hair that looked like it had jell in it to make it look messy. His eyes were dark green, and he was rather tall with long lanky limbs.
“Well hello stranger who scared the heck out of me,” I said giving him a smile.
“Hello stranger who flew twenty feet in the air over a crowd, and just snuck away from what looks like red headed twins.”
“You saw my jump, huh?”
“Yes, it was rather cool, yet stupid at the same time,” he said.
I looked at my watch. It was 10:08. “Well, hey, listen, I have two hours to do a ton of shopping, so I will catch you later, okay?”
I started to leave the small space between the buildings, but he stepped in front of me.
“You don’t even want to know my name?” he asked.
I sighed. “Okay, what’s your name?”
“Esca,” he said.
“How do you spell that?” I asked turning my head to the side.
“E-S-C-A,” he said. “So what’s your name?”
“Echo,” I said not seeing the harm in telling him.
“That’s an interesting name,” Esca said.
I shrugged. “May I go now please?” I asked.
“Where you going?” he asked.
“Probably to get my books or cauldron or an owl or something,” I told him. “To be honest I have no idea, I just wanted to wonder around alone.”
“I’m doing the same thing,” he said.
“Did you sneak away from your parents?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, they gave me money and told me to go get my things, and that I better be in the Leaky Caldron when they get there sometime between eight and ten tonight.”
That was awful. Was he telling the truth? Maybe I should let him hang out with me if he wants. Or is this just some story to get me to feel bad for him.
“Well, see you at Hogwarts, if you are going there that is,” he said and started to walk off.
“Hey, wait,” I said catching up with him. “You’re going to Hogwarts too? What year are you? I’m year one. What do you know about the place? From what I heard it’s awesome, but the exams are hard. Are you the type to study a lot or not?”
Esca gave me a sideways glance. “What’s with all the questions? Just a second ago you didn’t want anything to do with me. What’s with the sudden change?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, just felt like you might be someone nice to talk to suddenly.”
“Well okay then,” he said putting his hands in his pockets and smiling a little. “Yes, I am going to Hogwarts. It will be my second year, and the place is amazing. It’s the best place on earth. The exams are awful, but I mange. I am the type to study, but only ‘cause I usually have nothing better to do. Was that all your questions?”
“Yea, pretty much, but I have a few new ones.”
“Like?”
“What house are you in?”
“Gryffindor,” he said. “Those two guys you were with, were the Weasley twins right? They are always getting themselves in trouble. They are in Gryffindor also if you didn’t know.”
I smiled. “Yes, they do get themselves in trouble a lot. I guess it’s just who they are.”
Esca showed me all the best shops to buy my things. He gave me a lot of advice on what to get and what not to get. Pretty quickly I had almost everything or at least a clear idea of where to look. Also, my parents wanted me to get an owl, so I could communicate with them while I was at school. Esca just got what he needed and then just walked around with me as a gapped at everything I saw. Whenever I had a question he usually knew the answer.
“How do you know so much about everything here?” I asked as we walked out of the caldron shop.
“Whenever my parents want to go out or something they drop me off here and I spend the day walking around and going into different shops and such. I have been all through these shops many times,” he said with a shrug.
“I’m sorry,” I said looking at him sadly. His aura was odd. Or I should say his lack of one. I could feel no aura coming off him, no emotions, nothing. Why couldn’t I feel anything? It troubled me. This was the first time I ever got nothing from someone.
“Don’t be,” he said. “It’s fine. I got to meet you because of it.” He smiled softly. “Sorry I like, stalked you earlier.”
“Okay, I would say ‘don’t be,’ but yea, that was kind of creepy,” I said with a laugh.
He rolled his eyes with a real smile on his face now. It looked good on him. Better than his frown that seemed to just stick on his face. “Come on, you need to get your wand at Ollivander’s.”
“What’s that like?” I asked. “Do you like pick one out?”
“Um, no, it’s kind of the other way around.”
“Interesting,” I said.
Esca lead me to an old looking store that had “Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.” right under the store sign. I laughed at it, but Esca gave me a weird look so I stopped. He opened the door for me and I walked in slowly. The room was small, that was pretty empty other than a few chairs against the wall. Behind the counter is where there was a bunch of stuff. There were small boxes all about the same size that were stacked up on the ground of on one of the many shelves.
“Hello,” a voice said making me jump. An old looking man came out from the shelves, and stood behind the counter.
“Hello, sir,” I said setting my stuff down.
Esca gave my back a push towards the counter. I glared at him then went over to the counter as he sunk into a chair with his arms crossed across his chest.
“Well, hello there Esca,” the old man said to him.
“Hi, Oliver,” Esca said.
Ollivander shook his head with a smile. “What is your name, young miss, and what are you doing with this trouble maker? On more than one instance I have found him on the roof of different shops, including mine.”
“Oh, I’m Echo Azuki,” I said to the man. “I kind of ran into him and he’s been helping me get my things, showing me around and such. I didn’t know he was a trouble maker.”
“I guess he isn’t as bad as some,” Ollivander laughed. “Okay, let’s see Miss. Azuki which is your wand arm?”
“Um…”
“Are you left or right handed is what he means,” Esca said.
“Oh, right arm,” I said glad that Esca was there.
“Okay, hold out that arm.”
I did as he said and he started measuring me. Things like shoulder to finger, wrist to elbow. At first I was like ‘well okay I guess this makes sense,’ but then he started measuring around my head. As he measured (or well the tap measure started measuring on its own) he told me about the wands. “Every Ollivander wand is different. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two wands are alike, as no two animals are alike.”
He walked into the shelves and disappeared between them. Thankfully, after he turned around the tap measure stopped measuring me.
“He is interesting,” I whispered to Esca.
He just shrugged. “By the way this might take awhile. It took me about an hour and a half, or then again it might take two minutes. You never know with wands. And yes, Oliver is very interesting.”
“He’s nice though,” I said.
“Yea, unless you are on his roof.”
I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t keep a smile appearing on my face. Checking my watch quickly I saw it was 11:28, so I had an hour before I had to be at the Leaky Caldron. Hopefully, that would be plenty of time to get a wand.
“So why does the time vary?” I asked Esca.
He opened his mouth, but was cut off.
“The wand chooses the wizard, or in this case witch,” Mr. Ollivander said coming out of the shelves with a small box in his hand. He set it on the counter, opened it, and pulled out a black wand. “Dark oak, dragon heartstring, 6 and a half inches, very stiff.”
He held the wand out to me, and I took it slowly. Almost the moment my hand wrapped around the end he pulled it away making me jump. Mr. Ollivander then disappeared into the shelves again muttering to himself.
“Explain,” I whispered to Esca.
“The wand didn’t like you,” he said simply.
I decided to just go with it with this one. Maybe this was something I don’t understand because I grew up in a muggle family.
“Maple, unicorn hair, 8 inches, supple,” said Mr. Ollivander handing me another wand.
Again the moment my hand wrapped around my end he pulled it away. This happened over and over and over. I kept checking my watch. It was now 12:17 and there was a pile of wands on the counter. I let out a sad sigh when Mr. Ollivander went into the shelves again.
“This is more entertaining than I would think it would be,” Esca laughed.
“Shut up,” I groaned. I had to be at the Leaky Caldron in ten minutes. George would kill me if I was late again, and Ollivander’s was all the way down Diagon Ally. Even if I left right now I wouldn’t make it in time with the crowd and my bags.
After another minute Mr. Ollivander came back with a blue box in his hand. He pulled out a very long, thin wand that clearly was made out of two different types of wood. “White oak with a mahogany handle, phoenix feather and unicorn hair, 12 and a half inches, very sturdy.” He headed it to me slowly and handled it as if he was afraid it would explode.
I reached for it, but about half I stopped. Something about this wand…a faint little white glow formed around it. It had an aura! I took a deep breath and grasped the wand. At first my fingers felt like they had grabbed ice and then they warmed, and a few white sparks flew out of the end of the wand.
“Interesting,” Mr. Ollivander whispered.
“Oliver did you say,” Esca spoke up, “that this wand had a phoenix feather and a unicorn hair in it?” He got up and came to stand next to me.
“Yes,” he answered.
“Is that even possible? I have never heard of a wand like that.”
Mr. Ollivander sighed, and gave Esca an odd expression like their was something he knew I didn't. “Yes, it is possible. Many, many years ago I found this wand lying in its box on the ground not too far from here. There was a note in the box. It simply said: ‘put it on your shelf and let it find an owner,’ well here you are.”
I stared at the wand in my hand. The story was odd, but for some reason it didn’t really bother me. In fact, it surprised me that I didn’t even find the story that usual. I looked at my hand around the slightly thicker and darker handle. It felt so natural there, just holding it. My eyes fell on my watch.
“Oh, no!” I shrieked. “It’s 12:31! I’m late.”
“By one minutes,” Esca said perfectly calm.
“So, it will take fifteen minutes to get there,” I told him. “So I will be sixteen minutes late. George is going to kill me.”
Esca just smiled.
Mr. Ollivander put the wand back in its box and handed it to me. I paid seven Galleons for it, thanked him a few times and then left.
I walked as fast as possible down the road. Esca walked with me. About ten minutes later I was standing in front of the brick wall. I had no idea how to get through. Esca, thankfully, did. He pulled out his wand, tapped the wall once, and then it turned into an archway.
“Thank you,” I said giving me a small smile.
“No problem,” he said. “Well I guess I will see you at school.”
I frowned. “Aren’t you hungry? Why don’t you come eat with us? I need something to put the blame on me being late anyway.”
He smiled for a second. “Okay, when you put it that way.”
We walked into the Leaky Caldron together. The Weasley’s were sitting at a table with shopping bags all around them. George eyes found me the moment I walked in. He said something, and then walked up to me.
“Where have you been? Who’s he?” he asked looking at Esca.
“She’s been with me, I’m her boyfriend,” Esca said with a stern face.
George’s eyes got wide and his face fell. He looked a cross between confused and upset.
“No, he’s not,” I said shaking my head. “This is Esca. He’s been showing me around.”
“Oh,” George said, “aren’t you in my house.”
Esca nodded. “Sure am.”
“So, how much trouble am I in?” I asked.
“Depends,” Fred said coming up. “With mom and dad: none. They said it was fine if you wanted to go get your things by yourself. In fact, I think dad expected you too. With George…well that’s another story.” Fred smiled. “He has been getting more tense by the moment. Mom was telling him he needed to calm down. ‘Echo, is a smart girl, she can take care of herself,’ she said just a minute ago, ‘she probably got held up in a store or something.’”
“That’s exactly what happened. Right?” I turned to Esca.
“Mhmm,” he said, “wands apparently don’t like her much.”
I laughed. “No they don’t.”
“Hey, look it is Esca Tenner,” Fred said. “Where did you come from?”
“He was stalking me,” I said.
Esca turned a little red, and George’s eyes got big again. Fred just laughed though, and then took two of the three bags I had in my hands. Esca had one other of mine plus a few of his.
“So what haven’t you gotten yet?” Fred asked as we walked over to the table the Weasley family and Lee were at.
“My books and an owl,” I said. “My parents thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with them sense that is the way we send mail.”
“They are absolutely right,” Mr. Weasley said happily. “Though, I must say, the muggle mailing system is quiet fascinating. Now who is this young man?”
“Esca Tenner,” I said as we set my bags down next to the other ones. “I ran into him while walking around and he’s been helping me get around.”
“You wouldn’t let us help you,” the twins said together putting their arms across their chest and pouting at me.
I smiled at them as I sat down next to Ginny. “I know, but I didn’t want to take you away from your family, plus he seemed lonely, and we just ended up talking.”
Esca sat down next to me and started staring at the table. He couldn’t be shy after the way he started talking to me, could he? Hmm, maybe he was more talkative if it was just one person compared to nine people.
Fred and George sat down across from us. “He’s in our house,” they announced.
“Ah, I thought he looked familiar,” Lee said. “You were that first year who got on Snape’s bad side the very first day and then kept putting frogs in his office.”
Esca nodded, still looking at the table.
“That was awesome,” Lee said.
“Yea, we wished we had thought of it first,” the twins said.
Lunch went like that. The twins and Lee talking about how there would always hopping around the dungeons and how one had once jumped on Snape’s head, Mrs. Weasley telling them to be quiet and let us enjoy our food in peace, and Mr. Weasley trying to hide that he was laughing.
After lunch we got ready to leave.
“Just leave your bags here,” Mrs. Weasley said. “Arthur and Ginny are going to stay here as we finish up. How about we meet back here at 4:00?”
Looking at my watch, I saw it was 1:43, so that gave us a little over two hours. “Sounds good to me,” I said.
Mrs. Weasley, Percy, Ron, Fred, George, Lee, Esca, and I left to go back to Diagon Ally. Lee had to go to find his parents, and Mrs. Weasley had to take the boys to go get their potion supplies, which left Esca and I walking down the Ally.