The Marauding Seven - Year 1

The Marauding Six - Year 1

The Meeting

A girl stepped into 'Madam Malkin's Robe's For All Occasions' felling nervous. The shop was quiet and she fiddled with her hair.

Suddenly a large, bustling women stepped in front of her, saying "Hello, dear. Hogwarts I suppose?"

The girl nodded mutely.

"Well let's get you measured up." A tape measure flew up from the floor and started measuring her all over. It was measuring the length of her hair when Madam Malkin spoke again. "What's your name, then?" she asked.

"Uh, Alex," replied the girl quietly.

"A shy one, eh? Never mind, Never mind...I think you're done. That's enough," she said to the tape measure. "Here, let's try this one, I won't keep ya too long, want to go and get that wand I expect!" she said, winking.

The first robe she slipped on was slightly to long, so Madam Malkin started pinning it up. While she did so, Alex took a moment to look round the shop. It was quite dark, though had several lamps emitting a comforting warm light. One entire side of the shop was devoted to Hogwarts robes, all of which bared the Hogwarts crest.

On another wall there were robes of darks greens, navys, greys and even a few browns. Another side had the till and various posters, and the other was filled with robes of all colour, shapes and sizes. After the relative normality of the other three walls, this wall was almost unbearably bright and messy. Robes of pinks, reds, yellows, oranges - even robes with stars, moons and hearts on them!

"Alright! Here you are dear," said Madam Malkin pressing 5 robes into her arms, and adding a black witches hat. "That'll be 20 galleons, 2 sickles please," Alex handed the money over, and helped Madam Malkin put the robes into a bag.

Meanwhile, Lily Evans was standing outside the apothecary. Three times she'd ducked in, then been forced out again when the smell had gotten too much. Needless to say, the shopkeeper was getting a bit narky with her. Lily quickly counted out 4 galleons and ran inside. She bolted over to the counter, slammed the money down, grabbed the bag of potion ingredients from the man and ran out again, shouting over her shoulder "Keep the change!"

Wye Summers was ecstatic. Her very own wand. She couldn't believe it. She stepped out of Ollivanders clutching the 7" Willow and Dragon heartstring creation to her chest. Suddenly something clicked in her mind. She was standing in the middle of a very busy Diagon Alley, creating a small island in the bustling street, getting an awful lot of weird looks. The girl quickly ducked her head, letting a cascade of beautiful red curls shroud her face, and began moving towards Flourish & Blotts. 'Get, your shopping done,' she told herself fiercely.

Kate Blankett was standing in the line at Flourish & Blotts. She had been standing in the exact same place for more than half an hour. She wasn't standing for this. She'd just find the books herself, she thought confidently. Unfortunately, this bookshop was extremely large, she'd never been in it before and she had no idea where to start. She wandered over to the nearest bookcase, pulling out her booklist at the same time...and crashed straight into a blonde haired girl who looked about her age, also staring at a booklist. The girl's packages went flying, and both of them nearly fell over!

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" exclaimed Kate, and immediately dropped to the floor and began to gather together the other girl's things.

"That's alright. Happens all the time - I'm never looking where I'm going. I practically have to remind myself to look up!" she laughed. Kate was visibly relieved - the girl seemed to have a sense of humour. Kate laughed as well, and they both stood up.

"I'm Kate. Kate Blankett," she said, holding out her hand. The blonde haired girl stuck out her hand as well and said "Alex Lainsbury," she said. "Pleased to meet you."

"Even though I practically just knocked you over?" said Kate with a grin.

"Yup," replied Alex. "Let's just say it broke to ice!"

Lily looked at the queue outside Flourish & Blotts and groaned. The queue was literally going down the road. If she waited for help she'd be there till tomorrow. She was going to have to find her books herself. She squeezed through the door, and spotted two girls chatting a little way from her. They looked her age, so she decided to see if they'd found any of the books yet.

"Uh, excuse me?" she asked. "I'm Lily - are you Hogwarts 1^st years?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm Alex."

"I'm Kate."

"Cool. Have you found any of our books yet? I don't fancy waiting in that queue."

"Not yet, but if we split up then we'll find them quicker. Hopefully."

"Good idea. I'll go over here. See you in a few!"

"Do you think she's a bit shy, under that confident image?"

"Kate, no offence, but you sound a bit like a psychiatrist when you talk like that," replied Alex.

"Thanks. No, but she just left kinda quick."

"Maybe she's busy."

"Yeah, I suppose we ought to get looking. I need to go to the Magical Menagerie next."

"I need to go there too. I'll go over there."

"See ya!"

Those two stood there talking for awhile. She'd heard every word. She was glad they hadn't though her rude, and she'd also thought it funny when the blonde one, Alex, said Kate sounded like a psychiatrist! Suddenly she gasped. She'd found one! The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk. She quickly grabbed three copies, and hurried over to where Kate stood.

An hour later, Wye stepped into the Magical Menagerie. She'd finally finished the rest of her shopping, and now what she'd been looking forward to most (apart from getting her wand of course, the memory of which was firmly cemented into her memory banks never to be forgotten) - getting an owl. The Menagerie was not quiet. Birds squawked, owls hooted, cats meowed, rats squeaked, frogs ribbeted and snails slurped, and in the middle of it all, am elderly witch was shouting down a phone. Not in a bad way though, she just wanted to be heard about all the other noise.

Wye stared up at the owls. In a few short minutes, one of those beautiful creatures would be hers. She liked the brown ones, native to England. She suspected their ordinary (yet still pretty) exterior hid a very intelligent core - just like her wand. It didn't look much but it was amazingly powerful when in the right hands.

Just then the with finished her phone call and turned to Wye.

"What would you like then, dear?"

"An owl please Miss!"

"Ah. Of to Hogwarts. Yup, lets have a look at them then. Any particular colour or breed catch your eye?" she asked.

"I quite like the brown ones..." The old witch looked at Wye critically.

"I have just the owl for you - where is he...ah! Here he is. Perfect match if my mind does not deceive me. What about him?"

"He's beautiful...does he have a name?"

Just then the conversation was interrupted by a loud tinkle from the door. Three girls stepped in - one had blonde hair, one had brown and the other had red curls, like her.

"I'll be there in a minutes, dears," said the shopkeeper and then turned back to Wye. "His name is Merlin, but you can change it if you want. That'll be 5 galleons please." She added. Wye paid for her owl and left the shop, smiling at the girls as she left.

Alex watched the pretty girl leave, then turned to the shopkeeper. All three of them wanted owls. It took a while, but eventually all three of them were sorted out and had paid. The made their way back to the leaky cauldron, and when they stepped back out into Muggle London, they went their separate ways, promising to sit near each other on the train in a few days time. Alex smiled as her new friends walked away. Now that she had two friends, she was feeling much better about going to Hogwarts.