Adjusting To New Surroundings

Once Jinx was officially Harry's, he wrapped her around his neck. She absolutely refused to be separated from him since he gave her a name. He could feel her smooth scales against his skin, and he couldn't help but admire her. They exited the pet shop and began walking down the busy street. People passing them avoided eye contact with Snape, while others ignored Harry, mainly because the younger boy had tucked himself into Snape's side. The man's robes were soft and warm, alright?

Snape cleared his throat as they came to a stop outside a shop called Ollivanders. "I'm afraid you'll need to enter here on your own. I have something important to do, but I will be waiting for you right here when you're finished, I swear." Snape said, his voice firm but apologetic. Harry nodded, even if a bit disappointed, for some reason that he couldn't understand. He waved the man goodbye and turned his face towards the shop.

The paint on the outside was peeling, revealing layers of different colours underneath, which were mainly blacks and deep greys. The worn-out sign above the door creaked in the wind, but it still proudly displayed the words "Ollivanders, Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC." The windows seemed thin, tiny hairline cracks running through the glass, giving the impression that they could shatter should someone breathe in their general direction.

Taking in a deep breath, Harry slowly pushed open the door, Jinx hiding a little lower under his shirt collar as they entered the dimly lit shop. The air inside was heavy with the scent of wood, old parchment, and a hint of ink. There’s also a heavy cloud of dust floating in the air and layered on any surface. The smell was making his nose and throat itch to sneeze or cough.

Looking around, Harry scanned the walls; they're covered from floor to ceiling with skinny boxes, some with a visible blanket of dust and others with faded labels barely legible. As Harry approached the counter, he noticed a small jar filled with quills of various sizes, their feathers frayed and tired-looking. There's also a rusty bell on the counter. Glancing behind the counter and seeing no one, Harry decided to ring it. The sound echoed through the quiet shop, causing a cloud of dust to rise from the shelves. Harry wrinkled his nose and sneezed.

A minute passed; no one emerged from the back of the shop. Harry considered ringing the bell again but decided against it. He cautiously took a step closer to the shelves, curious about the items covered in dust. It seemed that this shop had particular woods and "cores" that the owner was comfortable using. Rowan wood, ash, dragon heartstrings, and unicorn hair seem to be favourites.

The front door creaked loudly, and Harry spun around, startled.

A boy stood with his hand gripping the edge of the door, a cautious expression on his face. He's taller than Harry, but that really wasn't hard to beat. Harry can admit that he's small for a soon-to-be eleven-year-old. The boy's cheeks had a light splatter of freckles, just barely stopping Harry from noticing the thin, silvery scars scattered on his face and the slightly pinkish ones scraping from his chin and disappearing underneath his shirt. His hair was a chestnut brown that fluttered slightly from the small breeze coming from outside, just long enough that Harry's sure that it could be tied back into a neat ponytail, maybe a braid if it's a short one.

He's wearing denim pants, the ends folded up once or twice, a pair of worn-out red Converse, and a black faded t-shirt with a logo that Harry couldn't quite make out. A maroon coat was folded over his left arm too. The most interesting thing that Harry noticed was that the other boy had the handle of a wooden walking cane in his right hand, clearly using it to hold himself up as his shoulder and hand kept the door open for him.

The boy's overall appearance gave off a laid-back and casual vibe, as if he didn't care much about his clothing choices. However, there was an air of awkwardness in the way he carried himself, suggesting that he wasn't very comfortable in his own skin. Harry could sympathise with him in that area.

Midnight blue eyes locked with jade green ones, and Harry could see a mix of curiosity and wariness in the boy's gaze. It's as if they were silently sizing each other up, trying to gauge what kind of person the other might be. The intensity of their eye contact lingered for a moment before the boy broke it with a shy smile, revealing a cute dimple on his left cheek. Wait, cute?

"Salve—” He paused, pursing his lips before speaking again. ”Eh, hello." The other boy's voice was a little bit wobbly, obviously not very used to initiating conversations, not with strangers anyway.

Harry couldn't help the warm feeling that swirled in his chest, Jinx curling around his neck. He returned the smile, hoping to put the boy at ease, and replied, "Hi there. I'm Harry."

The boy stepped further inside the shop, his cane making a clunk sound every time it touched the old wooden floorboards, the door dragging itself shut behind him. "Clawbone—Felix, that's my last name; Clawbone is! Not Felix, I mean. Call me Felix, please. Ah, I'm getting my wand for Hogwarts." He wiped his left palm on his pants as he walked over to stand beside Harry in front of the counter. "What about you?"

Harry hummed, ringing the bell on the counter three times in a row, the shrill noise bouncing off the walls. "Same thing. You new to all this?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow at Felix.

"Ah, no. My parents are magic—both of 'em. And yourself? Are you new to everything?" The question was tossed back at Harry in a light-hearted tone. Felix, having reached his tolerance level, was reaching out and tapping the bell repeatedly while asking the query.

"Kind of. My parents died—they were magic—when I was young, so I ended up being sent to live with my mother's sister. She and her family are muggles." Subconsciously, Harry raised his hands up to Jinx, who was quickly growing annoyed by all of the waiting, to calm her down. She bumped her head against his palm and hissed lowly.

Felix noticed the movement, a surprised gasp escaping his mouth. "You have a snake? Are they venomous? What’s their name? Can I touch 'em? Please, I'll be careful!"

"Uh-"

Harry was interrupted by a hand landing, rather harshly, on the counter from the other side. The sound echoed throughout the store, once again causing dust to be unsettled. Harry sneezed into the crook of his elbow. A shallow cough followed from Felix.

A man stood opposite the two boys, his wiry hair as white as snow. His silvery eyes seemed to gleam in the dim lighting of the shop as they scanned Harry and Felix. Harry felt a shiver run down his spine as he and the man locked eyes. His aunt's glares had nothing to compare when put against this man's gaze. Harry would like to curl up and hide and not be dissected from a single look, please and thank you.

"Oh, I've been waiting for you to enter my shop, Mr. Potter. Yes, waiting a long time." His voice came out in an airy flow, with a tinge of excitement in it. He turned to Felix next, his eyebrows raising slightly as he took the boy in. "I'd recognise those eyes anywhere! You must be a Clawbone. Archie Henry Clawbone's son, I presume? How has he been? Taking care of that ten-inch oak and unicorn tail hair wand, I hope?"

"All—not too—he's—" Felix shuffled on his feet, his thumb tracing the wood grain on his cane, avoiding eye contact with the man. "—Dad's been...good. Busy with work, you know." He stammered, clearly uncomfortable with the man's familiarity. Harry tried to hide his wince as the man's piercing eyes darted back to him.

Wrinkled fingers tapped a rhythm on the counter before stopping, silence hanging in the air. The man swirled on his toes and disappeared into the back of the shop. Felix and Harry end up letting out a breath at the same time, relieved to be temporarily free from the man's intense gaze. Their relief was short-lived as the man came storming back to the counter with a small mountain of boxes in both of his arms.

Harry and Felix glanced at each other unsurely as the boxes were spread out in front of them. Looking back up at the man, Harry noticed a mischievous glint in his eyes. It became clear that the man expected them to sort through the boxes and inspect their contents.

Feeling a sense of duty and seeing how unsure Felix was beside him, Harry took a step forward and began examining the first box. It's labelled as a wand with a unicorn tail and hawthorn wood, 11 inches long.

Removing the lid, Harry found a "wand" inside. Briefly darting his eyes up at the man, Harry reached in to grab the wand. Lifting it up, Harry rolled his wrist to settle the nerves running up and down in his arm.

The glass jar of quills exploded on the counter, and Felix nearly leaped out of his skin.

The man snatched the wand and the box out of Harry's hands and muttered under his breath while passing the wand over to Felix. The other boy took the wand with shaking fingers, and the shelves to his right quake like there's no tomorrow. The man practically ripped the wand back out of Felix's hand, swiftly shoved it back into the box, and pushed the next box towards Harry.

They go on like this for ages, Felix getting paler and paler with every wand re-entering its box. Harry can admit that he was beginning to feel a bit queasy as well.

Thus far, the quills that were on the counter had been burnt to ashes, a shelf or five had dumped their boxes on the floor, the sad-sounding bell above the door to the shop had exploded, part of the counter gained a layer of orange ice, spare sheets of parchment were set on fire with a blue flame, and Jinx had decided that it would be much safer for her around Harry’s waist instead of his neck.

Harry, standing now with his shoulders hunched up to his ears, waits as the man—who they've found was Mr. Ollivander, when the man himself had to stop his own hair from being melted off like candle wax after the nineteenth unsuccessful wand—slapped the lid on the last wand box. He pinched his nose, a weary huff of air exiting his mouth as he peered at the two boys on the other side of the counter. Pushing the stacked boxes to the side, Mr. Ollivander headed back to the back of the shop, leaving Harry and Felix to stew in their nervousness.

"What if we don't match with any of the wands? What would we do then? You need a wand to do magic! Mia Madre said that she'd come back for me after thirty minutes! It's been an hour! Rimarrà così delusa—'' Felix gnawed on his fingernails as he descended into a spiral of worry.

Harry bit the inside of his cheek, uncertain of how to comfort the boy with him. However, Mr. Ollivander came tearing from the rear of the shop with a huge leather suitcase tucked under one arm. Sliding the case onto the counter in a fluid motion, he clicked open the case and took out several wand boxes. They looked different from the black boxes of the wands from earlier; these ones were a rich brown with a pattern stitched along the edges in silvery thread. All of the boxes also had the initials ‘E. R.’ stamped into them.

"I wonder..." The old man mumbled, his next words coming out in a whisper. "I was rather looking forward to studying these more."

Harry watched as Mr. Ollivander carefully opened one of the brown wand boxes, revealing a beautifully crafted wand nestled inside. The wider end has elegant spirals carved into it that thin out further along the wand. The boy's eyes widened with anticipation, his worry momentarily forgotten as he reached out to touch the wand. As his fingertips made contact with the smooth, dark wood, a surge of warmth coursed through Harry's hand. He couldn't help but feel a connection to the wand, as if it's calling out to him. It whispered his name in a tone as soft as the wind on a summer day.

Mr. Ollivander smiled knowingly, recognising the familiar spark of magic that danced in Harry's eyes. "Interesting, hmm. An ebony wand with two mixed cores. Horned snake and Curupira hair! I'll be expecting positively fascinating things from you, young man."

Silvery eyes darted to Felix, then down at the counter. Mr. Ollivander lifted another box up and removed the wand inside before holding it out towards Felix. Felix took the wand tentatively, his fingers trembling slightly. As soon as he touched it, all of the hair stood up on his arm, visibly sending shivers down his spine. The wand seemed to hum with an energy that rumbled throughout the room.

"Marvellous!" The old man cried out in delight. "Willow and Curupira hair! Brilliant match, if I dare say so myself." Mr. Ollivander clapped his hands a few times, and the wand boxes remaining on the counter floated up and drifted through the air and back to wherever he grabbed them from.

He gave the two boys his attention as he spoke again. "Would either of you like a wand holder? I would recommend one; carrying your wands around can become very awkward after a short while." He got two nods in reply. "Excellent, you can choose one for around your forearm or your thigh; they'll cost you 5 galleons, and your wands will cost 9 galleons for Mr. Clawbone and 11 for yours, Mr. Potter."

Harry chooses a forearm holster the same as Felix's and hands over the money for both items. Felix copied his actions, and the two boys quickly shuffled out of the shop with slightly forced smiles on their faces. The door shut creakily behind them, and they both let out a sigh of relief.

Harry looked around the thin street, easily spotting Snape across the way with a bored look on his face. Harry turned over to Felix and noticed that he was also squinting at Snape with a wary expression. Harry didn't blame him, really. The older man was dressed in all black, looked like he's never heard of shampoo in his life, and was leaning against the wall in a shadowed corner. If stranger danger was in need of a person for a poster example, Harry would vote Snape as the perfect one. No offence to the man.

"Uh, I'll see you at school?" Harry asked Felix, his voice filled with uncertainty.

Felix nodded, his eyes still fixed on Snape. "Sì—” He stopped himself. “Yeah, see you there," he replied quietly. He clumsily slipped his arms into his coat sleeves, readjusting his grip on both his bag in his left hand with his new wand and holster inside and his walking cane in his right. He gave Harry one last nod before turning away.

Watching Felix wander down the street, Harry slowly made his way over to Snape; he's feeling a bit burnt out after dealing with Mr. Ollivander for so long.

Jinx flicked her forked tongue out, and Harry huffed as it tickled his neck. Maybe he could poke around the books in his room for a bit…

Then once he’s done with that, he can have a quick crying session after dinner.

oOo 

Translations (Italian to English):

Salve - Hello/Hi/Good day. 

Mia Madre - My Mother (When talking about your mum to people you don't know very well, it is best to use the more formal madre (mother) instead of mamma.)

Rimarrà così delusa. - She will be so disappointed.

Sì - Yeah/Yes/Yep.