New Look, Books, and a Wand.
"Huh, you look different now, H. You looked posh before, but now? It's even more and taller, too, I reckon." Dudley commented offhandedly while scrolling his school's social site.
"But your eyes, it stays the same, you have your mother's eyes, you know? Along with her stubbornness, I guess. Sometimes, it's hard for me to look into your eyes." Petunia smiled sagely from beside him.
"It's a good thing, right? Like no one could recognize me, especially what with that illegal thing."
"Yeah, no one would recognize you except if they looked long and close enough, except if you have a stalker. But as I always said, if they're within arm's reach and bothering you, a nice hook is all it takes." Dudley answered good-naturedly, ignoring his mother's scandalized [Dudley!].
Laughing, Harry pulled out a few galleons to pay for their meals before standing up to continue their conquest for today, namely, school shopping.
Petunia drags them towards a shop that sells trunks and bags, [work smarter, not harder!], which is a good idea because imagining trotting around with huge bags? Not ideal, in the slightest. Harry chose a black trunk with a silver lining, which had 4 compartments, 1 made especially for books with a feature to arrange themselves like a library, another for potion ingredients and kit, that could shrink, weightless, with an undetectable expansion charm, and only can be opened by him. Harry also purchased a black satchel bag with the same charms added to it. Not only Harry though, Dudley also buys a satchel bag with gold lining instead of silver lining, like Harry's.
After that, they went to a bookshop called Flourish and Blotts, where Harry bought all the books on the list and more after getting recommendations for 'supplementary reading for muggle-raised wixen'. While in Flourish and Blotts, Harry finds an entire aisle of fictional books with his name plastered over all the books, which makes Dudley snicker and Harry's face red with embarrassment.
Next stop, they went to Scribbulus Writing Instruments, where Harry buys a lot of notebooks for all of his courses, two notebooks each, in Hogwarts and his online school. Also, the required parchment papers, a couple of quills, ink pots, and fountain pens [in case he could not get used to using quills, ever]. With that done, they acquired everything on the list with a little sidetracked at the ice cream shop.
Eventually, with his uniform and wand left to purchase, they decided to go to Madam Malkin’s, seeing a lot of school-age children go to that shop. At, MM's Harry bought all that he might need that's not on the list on top of all of the things on his list. Dragon-hide shoes, dragon-hide gloves, a couple of daily robes, and a neckcrew.
With an information after asking the store attendant about where to buy custom wands, the three of them went to Horizon Alley, where everything seemed to be bursting with colour. The differences in appearance between Diagon Alley and Horizon Alley are like a night and day, though not for the ambience, Diagon Alley, for sure feels more 'homey'. Not too far from the front of the alley, they've found their destination. A handsome-looking storefront looked way more modern than their competitor, even if they were both established around the same time if the decals could be trusted. White accented the exterior, and a large window with its curtain opened as if to let the sunlight into the store.
As they opened the door of the establishment, a little bell twinkled above their heads, signalling their entrance into the shop. The interior of the shop looks exactly like the exterior tidy, clean, and welcoming. From the back of the shop, a voice came, "Welcome to Cassandra Wands Customary, please take a seat and wait for a moment, I'll be upfront."
Petunia and Dudley both sit in the little lounge area, while Harry takes a look at the little bits and decorations spread around the place. There's a certification hanging on the wall, newspaper cuttings mentioning the shop, and from what he can see is a miniature of wands, in various lengths.
Then, from the back door, a young woman appeared. "Hello, how can I help you, dear? Are you looking for a replacement wand or a new custom one?" The shop owner, who later introduces herself as Madam Cassandra.
"We're looking for a new custom one for my nephew here for his first year at Hogwarts." Petunia ushered Harry to stand in front of her.
"All right, which hand is your dominant hand, sweetheart?" Madam Cassandra pulled out her measuring tape, which instantly took his measurements.
"I'm right-hand." he stretches his arms out to make it easier for the measuring tape to work.
"Okay, I've got your measurements. Let's head to my studio, at the back. Your aunt and cousin can either wait here or go to the café across from here." Madam Cassandra informed them. Petunia and Dudley decide to just hang around at the café, telling Harry to catch up with them once he's done.
Madam Cassandra walks back to her studio, leading him to the last room, where one side is full of blocks of wood, and on the opposite side, jars filled with substances on the shelves, and rare metals on little containers on the side desk.
Madam Cassandra walks him over to the side with lots of wood blocks and starts instructing Harry on the process of picking his wand wood. "Okay dear, I need you to relax, ground yourself, put your hand out, and feel these woods, all right? Ran your hand above the woods. Don't touch it. You'll feel a pulling and warm sensation, pick out the most recognizable, and if you feel two to three pulls, do it again until you find the one."
Harry closes his eyes and does as instructed, his hand hovering above blocks of wood, doing it as slowly as he can, to reassure the feelings he gets from the woods. At last, he felt a pulling sensation from 3 different blocks of wood, an elder wood, holly wood, and acacia wood, which later Madame Cassandra informed him. She quickly took those blocks off the racks, put them on her working table, and motioned Harry to repeat the process. Leaving only elder wood as his most compatible wood wand.
With his wood picked, Madame Cassandra takes him to the other side of the room towards the jars on the shelves and reiterates the same instruction as picking his wand wood for his wand core. He wasn’t completely sure how he knew how to do this, yet he did not question it. Almost instantly, there was a pulling sensation towards some jars. Harry took both of them in his hands, and he glanced back to Madam Cassandra, who remained at the back of the room near her workstation. She was pulling out a small bowl with symbols around it, then beckoned Harry to put the jars next to his wand wood. She lifted her eyebrow, "A Horned Serpent Horn and Black Phoenix Feather as cores and an elder wood. It is an unlikely combination but an extremely powerful one. A true challenge.” Madam Cassandra looks contemplative before putting the bowl and small dagger in front of Harry, "I would need to add your blood as a bonder to tie everything together, sweetheart, 3 drops should be enough."
Without hesitation, Harry took the dagger and pricked his finger, putting exactly 7 drops of his blood in the bowl. Madame Cassandra watched him carefully before giving him advice about not giving or letting anyone keep his blood unless it was necessary. Then, she went to reassure Harry that after his wand is finished, she'll correctly dispose of his blood to avoid misuse of his excess blood.
Madame Cassandra then led him to the front of the store to talk about the logistics and payment and addition of a black dragon-hide holster, which he chose upfront payment and sent via an owl, under his disguise, when it was finished, knowing his mail was safe with a mail ward and his guise set up through Gringotts and his mailbox safely tucked in his satchel. Finishing everything up, Harry went to catch up with his relatives and left Diagon Alley, back to the muggle world, where he then proceeded to acquire both a laptop and a tablet.
A few hours later, when the occupants of Dursley Residence were in the middle of their evening activities, his mailbox chimed notifying Harry that his new wand had been sent to him. A gorgeous 14-inch pale bright wand, that just feels 'right' on his hand.
Thus, Harry spent most of his day until the last day of August, hunched over his study desk reading his books, making notes, and cross-referencing them with the supplementary books that he got, only stopping when he was being called over, mealtimes, and doing chores. In hindsight, Harry is lucky because he's already familiar with Year 7 course, even if the material might be different, hopefully, there's not much difference.