The Choice Is Yours

Tracey was chatting to someone I had no desire to see when I came back to meet her. A Mister Draco Malfoy was chatting to her animatedly while his mother lurked upstairs in the Fiction section of Flourish and Blotts. I paid for my books quietly trying to take as long as I could so the Malfoys would finish up and leave before I returned…but no.

With a bag full of books I slowly walked towards them. Draco was being his usual self, feigning interest in me when I came into view.

“Alyssa!”

“Hi Draco,” I said with a forced smile, “How have your holidays been?”

“Not too bad,” he answered, “Yours?”

“Same,” I shrugged.

“Well,” Tracey interrupted, as bored as I was with the exchange, “If you’re done here we’d best get going.”

“See you at school,” I said to him just as his mother stepped into view. As we walked out the door I thought I heard her ask, “Who was that girl?”

But if Malfoy responded, I didn’t hear.

xxxxx

I'd left Tracey to be fitted at Madame Malkins as I walked down the street to Ollivander's. I'd been told it was one of the only places you could get a wand unless you got one made privately. No offence to Lily Potter, but I personally didn’t think her wand was doing my magic justice.

The old man, Ollivander I assumed, was sitting at his desk with examining glasses on, twisting a piece of wood in his hand. Looking up, I saw his eyes magnified to twice their normal size and instinctively took a step back.

“You require a wand?” the old man asked, taking off his glasses and returning his eyes to a natural shape. I nodded, stepping forward. A measuring tape automatically flew out of his desk drawer and began to measure the length of my arms. I let it do its work as my eyes wondered.

“What is your name child?”

“Alyssa Tyler,” I answered as the tape stopped measuring.

“I suspect that is not so,” Ollivander continued without looking up, “No matter. This way child.”

For a wandmaker, Ollivander sure had a high amount of either premonition or weird deducing ability. But it didn’t seem to make a difference to his skill in selecting a wand for me. When it eventually came down to it, my wand was barely any different to my birth mother's. Willow, 10 ¾ inches…it was just the core that was different. Dragon heartstring.

Hermione’s wand was dragon heartstring. I was surprised that she’d shared that with me considering how our relationship had been in flux all of last year. But it wasn’t too much of a difference to me. As far as I knew, most Slytherins had wands with dragon heartstring. I paid Ollivander and left the shop, quite wary of his eyes that followed the back of my head as I went to meet Daphne at Madame Malkins. I had enough robes to last me a lifetime and I seemed to have stopped growing for the time being, but I still couldn’t help looking at some of the designs in the window. If I could afford them, ever, I was definitely coming back to Diagon Alley for a shopping trip unrelated to school.

With numerous bags in tow, we left the shopping central of Wizarding London and flooed direct from the Leaky Cauldron to the fireplace in Tracey’s living room where I was allowed a second's intake of my surroundings before being whisked away into her room. She placed all her bags on her bed as I went to check my watch. It was just after five; I hadn’t realised we’d spent an entire day there!

“I'd better head off,” I said.

“Thank you so much for coming with me,” Tracey said, throwing her arms over my shoulders. I tried to hug her back but the multiple bags on my arms made it difficult. “Did you want to floo home? It’ll be quicker than walker.”

“Nah…” Think. Think. “We’re renovating and had to ask them to disconnect the network to our house for a few days. But I'm okay to walk. I'll see you in a few.”

I walked two streets away before I found my mother waiting in her car for me. I knocked on the window hesitantly to find that she’d fallen asleep. A few more knocks and she stirred into consciousness and unlocked the car door quickly.

“Sorry I kept you waiting! I didn’t realise the time. You didn’t tell me how cool Diagon Alley was.”

“Wait until you find Caerleon Way,” she yawned as she steered back onto the road. “You will never want to leave.”

“You know a fair bit about it then?”

“Well I had a little bit of free time in January. I figured I'd try and find out more about this world since you refuse to tell me very much.”

“I tell you heaps.”

“You tell me heaps of information I don’t understand,” my mother corrected. “At least now I have inklings. And when do I get to meet these friends of yours?”

“Oh, probably over Christmas,” I lied. If my mother ever met my friends I'd be the Slytherin Mudblood for the rest of my days. It didn’t matter to them if I was adopted. “Say, you’re working on the 1st right?”

“Yes. Oh, I'm sorry I can’t see you to the station honey.”

“That’s okay,” I smiled as we drove towards our house. After a minutes silence I started again, “So, Caerleon Way?”

She glanced over at me with a huge smile, “Biggest library in Britain.”

“Bigger than Hogwarts?!” I was shocked. I thought Hogwarts was the best thing in the world when it came to education. Guess the library just got a downgrade.

“According to one of the Librarians, by at least three times. Apparently he used to work at your school.”

“How old is he?”

“Oh, he looked about eighty.”

Figures. He probably went to school with Dumbledore.

“Next time you come home, we should go together,” my mother continued.

I looked over at my mother and smiled. It was nice to hear her making an effort with me, and the
wizarding world.

“I'd like that.”