Sugar & Spice

"Well, young Rosie? Where d'ya wanna go firs'?" Hagrid asked me. I looked up at him, beaming.

"I need a wand first."

"You'll be wantin' Ollivanders, then. Ain't no place better," He said.

I knew where we were going as I'd been with Tom a few times, but even so, I couldn't help but be awed again by the sights, sounds and smells surrounding us. The delicious aroma of freshly baked cauldron cakes, and pasties filled with pumpkin filling wafted over to me from the little stalls set up every few metres down the alley and my mouth watered.

We even passed a stall which sold hot firewhiskey to warm you up, and mead by the barrel. I noticed Hagrid looking wistfully towards it and tried to conceal my grin with my hand.

It all looked and smelled divine.

I would have walked right past Ollivanders if Hagrid hadn't said something. He chuckled and that got my attention.

"Rosie, Ollivanders is right 'ere," I stopped and tried to peer through the window. It was quite difficult to see inside as the windows were quite dusty and dirty, but I thought it looked quite gloomy inside. I suddenly felt a bit apprehensive, and I was glad that Hagrid was coming inside with me.

The bell above the door tinkled loudly as we entered and I saw that I'd been correct: it was very dark inside the shop, and I could hardly see anything clearly.

There was a tall thin man stood behind the counter and he looked up from whatever he was reading as we approached.

"Are you Mr Ollivander?" I asked softly. I felt like I needed to speak quietly, as if I was inside a library. He nodded. "I'd like to purchase a wand." He peered at me closely, and I repressed a shudder; the mere look alone was like an x-ray to my soul. At last he spoke.

"Another Tamsworth, I see." I didn't know what to say to that so I remained silent. It seemed he didn't need an answer though, because at once he disappeared into the back room, leaving me and Hagrid with nothing to do. I raised my eyebrows at him and he chuckled softly at my expression.

"Don' worry, Rosie. He was like tha' when I bought my wand too," I nodded and tried not to look so nervous, but I couldn't stop the sudden pessimistic thoughts swirling around my head. Like what if he couldn't find a wand for me?

Before I could think past that, Ollivander suddenly appeared behind the counter again and I started. He smiled gently - perhaps finally catching onto my uneasiness - and then held out an opened box to me; a wand sat snuggly in the velvet wrappings.

I took it and held it in my hand. I could feel the magic in the instrument, but it didn't feel any different to the last one I'd held. Somehow I was sure it was meant to feel more... familiar.

"Well give it a wave," Ollivander prompted, and I did.

A stack of papers which had been sitting on the edge of his desk all cascaded onto the floor, causing Hagrid to jump. I hastily placed it back on the counter.

"No, that's not right," Ollivander muttered to himself.

We went through this about another dozen times before he brought out another box and held it out to me. It had a black onyx handle, which was engraved with different Latin enchantments and the wood of the wand was a very pale bleached ash.

I picked it up and knew at once that it was the right one. There was that same feeling I'd experienced the first time, but much much stronger. I could literally feel the magic pulsing through my body. The sensation of it was amazing - similar to the rush I felt when I excellerated my motorbike to its fastest. I felt like I could do anything - handle anything.

After a few moments the feeling died down and I turned to the others, a huge grin on my face.

"Yes, I thought so," Ollivander said shrewdly. As Ollivander looked around for the price tag, which seemed to have dropped off, he spoke. "This wand, Ms. Tamsworth, is ideal for curse and charms-work. 10 1/2 inches - ash, resistant but not too stiff - pixie wing core... excellent wand. Excellent wand..."

I paid for my wand and stuck it in the back of my jeans, not allowing Ollivander to wrap it for me.

As we headed out into the street I kept brushing my hand against it. I don't know how such a small object could possibly make such a difference to my happiness, but it did, in a big way.

I felt complete for once.

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The rest of our shopping trip went pretty much as predicted. Quills, rolls of parchment, uniform - all the usual school things and a couple of unusual things besides. Hagrid had bought me an adorable, gorgeous kitten as a welcoming present and I was eager to let her out of her cage so she could settle in.

A few hours later I was brushing myself off in McGonagall's office with my hands full of school supplies and uniforms, having left Hagrid at the Leaky Cauldron so that he could apparate back.

She glanced up from her notes and then nodded to the seat in front of her. I suddenly felt a little bit nervous, almost as if I'd done something wrong.

She finished writing on her piece of parchment before folding it up in an envelope and placing it in a basket to my right.

"Now, Miss Tamsworth. I understand that you've never been taught magic. Is this correct?" I bit my lip. She wasn't going to put me back a year or anything, was she?

I nodded and she continued.

"Well as that is the case you will need to have a tutor in order to catch up. Assuming you don't want to be put back a year?" She peered at me more closely and I violently shook my head. "Good. There's one student I have in mind. His grades are stellar but I think he needs something to keep him out of trouble. Here's the list of subjects you can take this year. Most students only take 6, so unless you wish to spend every waking moment of your school year studying I suggest you do this too."

She slid a list of different subjects with boxes next to them in front of me as I pulled out my quill. "Just tap them with your wand. There's an enchantment on them," I hastily pulled out my wand then, not wanting to seem foolish, and chose Charms, Potions (how hard could it be? I thought), Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology and Muggle Studies.

As I tapped my wand on each box, it turned a different colour. I handed it back to McGonagall and she looked it over then put it to the side, seemingly satisfied.

"Is that everything, Professor?" I asked, really wanting to go and eat dinner. She glanced up briefly from her notes.

"Yes, that's all. I shall be checking up on you every so often to make sure everything is going well."

I stood up and walked over to the door, all my heavy bags and new kitten in tow. When I was about to go through the door I remembered something though.

"Professor?" She looked up distractedly.

"Who's going to be tutoring me?" I asked, on the off chance that I knew them, unlikely as that was.

"Oh, yes - Black. Sirius Black."

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I trudged through the halls, each second lasting an eternity as the bags in my hands were full of books and heavy potions ingredients. My kitten protested loudly, meowling at me as she was jostled with each step.

I heard loud running footsteps behind me, but didn't turn to look, trying to concentrate on getting to the common room before my arms fell off.

A familiar figure ran ahead of me and then turned, dancing backwards in front of me.

"Hello, Black," I said through gritted teeth.

He looked surprised by my sudden unfriendly attitude and then tripped over his feet, losing his balance and crashing into me. My school things and my kitten's cage went flying as I fell over backwards, my tailbone hitting the floor hard. I hissed in pain.

Black hadn't lost his footing and quickly bent down to help me up.

"Jesus, I'm sorry," He said, pulling me up with seemingly no effort by my hand. If I hadn't been certain that he was incapable of being embarrassed, I might've said his face and the back of his neck seemed a bit pink as he looked down at my fidgetting self.

"I'm fine," I said stiffly, resisting the urge to feel my tailbone. I was going to have a serious bruise there tomorrow, I just knew it.

He made a motion as if to brush me down and then cleared his throat, muttering something under his breath to himself. Faster than the blink of an eye he'd picked up all my bags and my yowling kitten's carrier cage and magicked them lighter. He laughed nervously.

"Thanks," I said, making a move to take my things from him.

"It's fine - I'm going to the common room anyways so I can take them for you."

I shrugged and let him have them. I made to carry on down the corridor but Black cleared his throat, smirking at me. Yes, I thought. He isn't embarrassed at all.

"Common room's this way."

"Ah." I said, and then fell into step with him, pretending I wasn't blushing. "So what did you want, anyways?"

"Right. I wanted to know if McGonagall gave you the news yet. That I'll be tutoring you this year?"

"Sure did." I muttered under my breath to myself.

Sirius narrowed his eyes and didn't say anything until we got to the common room. I sighed when we reached the portrait hole, realising I'd been a bit harsh. Maybe he was a nice enough guy, but there was something about him that just screamed 'bad boy'. This was the kind of boy to break hearts without a psalm.

"Thanks. I can take them from here," I said, smiling weakly. I took my stuff and then climbed through the portrait hole. I turned to see if he would follow me up but he'd already disappeared around the corner.

I collapsed in an armchair and then let my kitten out of her cage, watching as she crept out and looked up at me silently. I smiled down at her.

We had a cat at home but she was a grumpy, puffy white Persian with a crumpled-up face and I'd never liked her. My kitten had this sleek vivid red fur with black ears and paws and long wobbly legs. For a little while I tossed crumpled up pieces of paper for her to chase from the wastepaper basket next to me, forgetting how hungry I was. She soon grew bored of that and crept off to lie under a nearby sofa.

I sagged into my chair and closed my eyes, suddenly completely exhausted.

I decided I'd rest for a while before unpacking.