On Eagles Wings

Mark tried not to let out a scream at the eyes that had suddenly appeared infront of him. He was staring up into the gaze of a boy that he assumed was around 16 years of age. The boy had black hair, which was parted with apparent great care. Mark couldn’t help but notice the shiny badge, which was pinned, to the front of his denim jacket; it had a large P on it.

“I presume you’re the Prefect sent to take me to Diagon Alley then?” said Mark slightly paranoid. The Prefect nodded and held out his hand as to shake Mark’s.

“My name is Krow!” he said. “ Karter Krow! I’m the prefect for Ravenclaw!” He grinned with pride at the last three words.

“Ravenclaw?” said Mark confused “What’s Ravenclaw?” Krow seemed absolutely horrified at this outburst.

“Ravenclaw! Is the greatest of the four Hogwarts house, though we may not be winning in house points that’s only because the Gryffindors have Harry Potter and the Slytherin’s have Snape, you’ll soon find out about him!” He seemed to spit the name Snape.

“What’s so special about Harry Potter?” continued Mark utterly bamboozled by the information being thrust at him. Again Krow seemed shocked.

“Of course being from a Muggle family I shouldn’t have expected you to know who Harry Potter is!” said Krow pushing his glasses up his nose. “Harry Potter is the boy who defeated you-know-who!”

“Actually no I don’t know who!” said Mark getting irritated now.

“You-know-who was the most terrible and powerful dark wizard for over a century!” said Krow looking as though if he continued talking about the dark wizard then that wizard might suddenly appear and get him. “He killed Harry’s parents but then when he tried to kill Harry he was defeated! Though he appeared at the school last year to seek the philosopher’s stone, but was defeated by Harry Potter again! That’s why Gryffindor won the house cup this year!”

“Oh!” said Mark, having heard the story about terrible dark wizards coming to the school, he was beginning to get paranoid. “Do we get many things like that happening at Hogwarts?”

“What dark wizards you mean?” He pushed his glasses up again they appeared to be a size to big for him, either that or he seemed to think it made him look more impressive. “No I suppose that doesn’t happen too often, although Hogwarts does have its share of oddities but that’s what makes it so interesting!”

“Oh right! So what are all these houses then?”

“Well when you get to the school you’ll be sorted into one of the four houses, but you’ll find out about that later! Now are you ready to go to Diagon Alley? Only I said I’d meet a couple of people there, I’ll point out where you’ll need to go then I’ll leave and you can get home the way you came!” Krow smiled and looked at him with a look that said you-have-no-choice-in-the-matter so Mark nodded.

“I’ll just grab Dad he wants to come!” Krow nodded and Mark ran to get his father.

“Dad come on we’re off to Diagon Alley!” said Mark grabbing his father’s arm. “The prefects here!”

“Oh right hang on I’ll get my wallet!” said his dad and he reached across to his desk draw and pulled out a leather wallet. “Right shall we go?” Mark nodded and tried to push his father out of the door, he really wanted to see a wizard street.

After much nattering and introductions from Krow and Mr Simmons Krow finally began to explain about how they were going to get to Diagon Alley.

“Well we could drive I suppose!” said Krow. “Or we could simply use Floo powder!”

“Floo powder?” said Mark and his dad in unison. “What’s that?”

“Well you throw it into the fire state your destination clearly and then you’ll end up in Diagon Alley!” said Krow grinning at their lack of knowledge. “Do you want to try it?” Mark certainly did, ever since he’d know he was a wizard he’d wanted to try some magic. His dad seemed eager as well. “Ok then!” continued Krow “I’ll go first to show you how its done!” and with that Krow took a handful of the powder and threw it into the fire. The fire turned bright green and grew as tall as Krow, then in a firm voice Krow said “Diagon Alley!” there was a rush of flame and Krow was gone.

“Do you want to go first or shall I?” said Mr Simmons looking at the fire.

“Go on I know you want to!” said Mark secretly wanting to see the disappearance again. His dad grinned and stepped into the flames.

“Diagon Alley!” he said slightly timidly and then just as Krow had before him, his father vanished. Mark stared at the flames and rustling up all his courage stepped into them.

“Diagon Alley!” she said as clearly as he could, then the flames seemed to engulf him. It was like being sucked inside a vacuum cleaner, he was whirring all over the place and looking out of several fireplaces into what were obviously wizarding homes. Then he stopped…abruptly and flew forwards, right into someone.

“Oops sorry!” said Mark, offering a hand to the person lying on the floor.

“Quite alright!” said the figure getting up. “Floo powder I presume! First time?”

“Erm yes!” said Mark looking up at the figure, then he saw the figures face and let out a silent gasp. The voice had been of someone his age and he’d been expecting to see another eleven-year old’s face staring back at him. But the boy that stared back, though clearly his age, clearly wasn’t entirely human. The skin was pale and almost white and the hair was frighteningly white and fell to shoulder length. From underneath the hair he could see a pair of ears that were pointed and almost cat like, but it was the eyes that startled him the most. They were orange, bright orange like a neon highlighter pen type orange. It certainly wasn’t what he had expected. “ Erm yeah first time with floo powder…first time in Diagon Alley actually!” he said looking out of the window, he was apparently in some sort of shop; there were various powders and crystals lying all over the place as well as a small selection of books and artefacts. He turned his attention back to the boy who spoke first.

“First year at Hogwarts then?” said the not-quite-human boy. Mark nodded. “Me too! I’m Jex by the way!”

“Jex?” said Mark at the highly unusual name.

“Oh yeah sorry that’s my nickname!”

“Oh? What’s your real name then?”

“Justin! Justin Cowl, people call me Jex on account of my appearance, you know as though I’ve been hexed, so they call me Jex!”

“Oh right!” said Mark curious as to how anyone could consider that leap of logic normal. “I’m Mark! Mark Simmons!” He held out his hand and was glad to see that the hand that shook it looked normal and human.

“So here to get all your school equipment then?” continued Jex “We sell a lot of what your looking for here I think! I need my list I’ve forgotten some of the stuff!”

“I have mine here!” He got out his list and Jex looking over his shoulder began to grab all the things he could see on the list, he was impressed to find that apart from the robes, wand and books there was nothing else he needed that wasn’t in this shop! “Impressive shop!” he continued as Jex put it all in a bag.

“It is isn’t it!” Jex grinned “Been in the family for generations this shop has!” A thought entered Jex’s head and it was clear that something was nagging him. “Erm how are you going to pay?”

“Well my dad has his credit card I think…” He stopped, where was his dad? Or Krow for that matter. He looked around but stopped when he heard the ‘ah’ that emanated from Jex’s lips. “What?” Mark continued turning round to look at the white haired ..thing.

“Well Muggle money is no good here!” Then Jex grinned. “Doesn’t matter I couldn’t have served you anyway until dad came back. I’m too young to work in the shop of course! So I’ll take you to Gringotts where you can change your money!”

“Gringotts?” said Mark confused.

“Oh so you are Muggle-born then!” said Jex as though this was, as Mark had feared, unusual.

“Erm…yes why is that a bad thing?”

“Well don’t get me wrong, some people think it is, but most of us know it doesn’t make an ounce of difference!” said Jex smiling. “Anyway Gringotts is the wizards bank, that’s where my money is anyway, I was going there in a minute I’ll take you along, when you find your dad of course!” Mark smiled he was grateful.

Jex led him out of the shop and locked the door behind him. Then the two set off down the street in search of Mr Simmons. They didn’t have to search far as there appeared to be a commotion up ahead, apparently someone was shouting about Muggles not being allowed to be here. Mark watched as the familiar figure of Krow argued with a strange old woman with a hunched back and waved to catch his dad’s attention. His father saw him and tapped Krow on the back and the two of them ran down to meet them.

“Some people!” muttered Krow whilst straightening his jacket and glasses.

“Fascinating really I mean look at what they were weari…..” Apparently his dad had seen Jex. “Erm are you human?” There was a brief moment of silence broken only by the laughter that Jex gave.

“Erm not in the strictest sense of the word no!” he said smiling. “I’m only half human, my mother was a sylph!” Even Krow seemed confused about this point.

“Sylph? But I thought they never breed with humans!” he said.

“Well the humans that normally find them lust after them!” He saw the look on Mark’s face and let him in on the info. “Sylph are the air equivalent of Nymphs beautiful women spirits that men lust after! In my mother’s case she had disguised herself as a human so that people would stop trying to capture her and lock her in their bedroom or something. Then she met my father and they fell in love and voila begot me! My father was surprised when he found out what she was!”

“Who wouldn’t be!” said Krow grinning at the situation. “I take it you get a lot of stick from people then?”

“Nah not too much…Sylphs are magical creatures after all so I have a few more hexes than the average first year!” He grinned with pride at his accomplishments. Krow laughed with him.

“Any chance I can ask you to look after Mr Simmons and young Mark here whilst I go and sort out some stuff before taking them home?” said Krow looking in the direction of a large café where a couple of girls were waving at him.

“Yeah sure, I need to get all my stuff anyway!” said Jex, Krow gave a thankful nod and strode over to the café his chest puffed out so that his prefect badge was clearly visible. Jex waited till he’d gone. “New prefect obviously! Can’t stop showing off!”

Mark gave out a chuckle and then they began to head off towards a large white building which he could only assume was Gringott’s. He was as it happened correct and was not as surprised as he ought to have been when he saw the bank was run by goblins, after all he’s just met Jex. Inside he followed Jex up to a counter where a strange overbearing looking goblin sat looking impatient and irritable.

“This is where you can change your Muggle money! I have to go and get my money from the vault! You wait here I’ll be back in a few minutes!” And with that the strange boy scuttled off down the corridor towards a goblin standing by an archway.

“Hello?” said the goblin at the desk as Mark approached. “How much will you be exchanging?”

“Erm I suppose you don’t take cards do you?” said Mr Simmons looking worried.

“Of course we do!” The goblin pulled himself up to his full unimpressive height “We are Gringott’s we exchange all forms of currency!”

“Oh good!” And with that Mr Simmons handed over his card and asked for several hundred pounds worth of wizarding money. The end result was a large leather bag full of gold and silver coins and his father with a massive grin. However there was as yet no sign of Jex and so they waited near the entrance his father clutching the bag and grinning like a loon.

They stood there for a good couple of minutes before the door burst open and a girl carrying a pile of books crashed into them.

“Ouch! Look where you’re going will you!” said Mark impatiently. The girl looked furious, she had brown curly hair and wire rimmed glasses, she also looked as though she’d had a very bad day.

“Look where I’m going!” she screamed. “How am I supposed to look where I’m going with all these books? Hrmm you tell me that!” She stormed past him and slammed them down on the desk and glared at the goblin. “I need my money NOW!” The goblin jumped and ran to grab something from a safe behind him.

“Hrm someone’s had a bad day!” said Mark staring at the girl. “I hope I don’t have to meet her in school!”

“School?” said the girl spinning round, the glare made Mark wish he were a slug. “So you’re a first year as well are you?”

“Erm yes? I presume you are as well!”

“Well of course I am! Why else would I have said as well?” She saw the look of terror on Mark’s face some of the anger in her subsided. “I’m sorry I’m not normally this bad tempered! I’ve just acquired more bruises and cracked ribs then necessary from the bookshop! I also have too many books to handle, and they weren’t cheap!” She turned round as the shivering goblin dropped a leather bag into her hands. She turned back to Mark. “Muggle-born then?”

“Erm yes, this is my dad!” He pointed his thumb at his father who was cowering from the enraged girl obviously afraid she might hex him or something.

“Nice to meet you!” then looked back at Mark. “So are you going to introduce yourself or do I have to beat it out of you?”

“Oh sorry I’m Mark, Mark Simmons!” The girl shook his hand.

“I’m Nellie!” But she never gave her second name and proceeded to run out of Gringott’s the pile of books raised like some sort of shield.

“Well that was eventful!” said Mr Simmons now no longer attempting to become part of the wall.

“What was?” said the familiar white haired semi-human figure of Jex running up towards them, a large leather bag clunking at his side.

“Just some girl having a bad day!” said Matt waving one hand casually in the air, slowly but surely he was getting used to this place.

“Right, well I think out next stop would be Madam Malkin’s for our school robes!” Matt nodded, robes he thought, interesting.

They ran down the shop past crowds of people including an incredibly rude blonde haired boy and his father shouting something about Muggles, before eventually arriving at a shop whose windows were full of various robes. Pushing open the door they walked inside. In a matter of seconds a shop assistant dived on them like a bird of prey.

“Hogwarts?” she asked. Both Mark and Jex nodded simultaneously and were thrown onto stools where the woman began attacking them with tape measures.

“Hello again!” said a voice from Mark’s right. He turned to see the curly haired girl staring at him.

“Oh hello! New robes as well?”

“Well obviously this is a robe shop!” Mark felt like a prat.

“Oh hello” said Jex peering round Mark his cat like ears sticking out from under his long white hair.

“Hell…?” She had obviously seen the ears, or maybe it was the eyes, or just the general oddness of the half-human. “Sorry but what are you?” Well you couldn’t fault her for not being forward enough. Jex rolled his eyes, he was obviously used to this.

“I’m half-sylph!” he said as the store assistant dragged a tape measure across his chest.

“Oh!” said Nellie, this seemed to be enough information for her, and she raised her arms to let the store assistant attack her with the tape measure. “I’m Nellie!”

“Jex!” he said as the store assistant began throwing robes over the top of his head.

“Why so many books?” said Mark noticing the pile besides her.

“It’s the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher,” noticing the look on Marks face. “The last one was killed whilst searching for the philosophers stone for you-know-who!”

“Oh right! So why do we need all the books?”

“Well they appear to be a big Lockhart fan! Don’t know why myself, some people find him attractive I just think he’s full of himself!” she said while one of the books beamed at her. She kicked the face slightly with her foot. “Annoying thing is these books are rather expensive!”

“I know!” said a muffled Jex from underneath his robe as he struggled to get his arms to go where he wanted them. “I’m going to have to get all mine second hand!”

“You’re going to have to be quick as they’re selling like hotcakes at the moment!”

“Really?”

“Yeah he’s in the book shop signing his new one!”

“Damn! Better hurry then!”

It didn’t take much longer before they all had a nice set of black robes for school and they ran up towards the bookshop, Mark trying to prise his dad away from all the interesting shops along the way, including some shop selling a broom called the nimbus 2001 which was apparently very popular. Eventually however they reached the book shop to find an enormous queue of people (mostly middle age witches) standing by the door. Being small Mark grabbed the money bag off his dad and snuck his way into the shop, Nellie did the same, the crowd parted for Jex obviously worried that he might do something weird. Inside they ran to the shelves and grabbed the books they needed and made their way over to the till. Then they heard a loud voice over the top of the muttering rabble.

“Its Harry Potter!” said the voice, apparently coming from a well-groomed wizard in robes that exactly matched his eye colour.

“Harry Potter!?” said Jex and Nellie in unison and straining their necks to see. Mark however couldn’t see the significance from what he could see the boy was only a year older than himself, just as scrawny and didn’t seem at all pleased with the attention he was getting.

“Harry didn’t know that I, Gilderoy Lockhart, would be the new defence against the dark arts teacher at Hogwarts this year!”

“Oh no!” said Jex and Nellie in unison again. “That’s going to be a nightmare!”

“So that’s why we needed all his books! The cheat!” said Mark looking very annoyed. “He just wanted to make as much money as possible!”

“I’m inclined to agree!” said Jex with a look at their new teacher that would have sent a Muggle screaming.

“Honestly some people!” said Nellie equally furious.

As they argued there was a large number of shouts and clattering noises coming from the other end of the shop, and they watched as an enormous man stepped in to stop it.

“Come on!” said Nellie. “We’d better leave here before things get worse! That’s Mr Malfoy over there, he’s trouble he was a big supporter of you-know-who before his downfall! Then he claimed he’d been under the imperious curse or something, my dad never believed him of course!”

“What’s your dad do?” said Jex looking interested.

“He works in the ministry for magic, in the magical games division!”

“Sounds fun!”

“Well it can be!” She turned to stare at the door. “Come on I need to get a wand still!”

“Yeah me too!” said Mark looking down at his list.

“Well come on let’s go to Ollivander’s!” said Nellie grinning. “It’s the best place for wands!”

So they barged past all the people and located Mark’s dad outside the shop worrying some owls, and ran off towards Mr Ollivander’s shop.

Mr Ollivander as it turned out, was an elderly man, with scarily silver eyes who seemed to round the trio up like sheep. He turned to Jex first.

“Hello Justin!” he croaked. “How’s your dad?”

“Oh he’s fine! Shops doing well!” said Jex, who obviously knew the old man a little.

“Good good, and starting Hogwarts now I see!” continued the old man as he riffled through boxes on the shelves. “I remember when you were only little seems you’ve grown up so fast!” Jex blushed visibly. “Ah yes we’ll try this one on you!”

He handed down a large black box to Jex who opened it and stared at the wand inside.

“12 ½ inches, oak, dragon heart string!” continued the old man. “Well give it a wave!” Jex did but nothing happened so the old man grabbed it out of his hand before trying another couple of them on him. After about 6 failed attempts the old man looked at Jex. “Well lets see, for a mixed species wizard what about a, mixed species wand, hrmm perhaps even Veela hair!” He grabbed an odd looking box from the top shelf and handed it to Jex. “14 inches Maple, phoenix feather and veela hair, not normally what I’d try but then you never know!” Jex waved it dutifully and sure enough several red sparks flew from the top of it. “Ahaa!” said the old man triumphantly. “There you go, 7 galleons please!” Jex handed over some money and grinned manically at his newly acquired wand.

“Right!” continued Mr Ollivander. “You next!” he said looking at Nellie, he began the normal scrabbling with different types of wands and Mark noticed the tape measure floating around Nellie’s right arm. “Here 10 inches rowan wood and unicorn hair?” no sooner did she touch it that he yelled “nope!” and began thrusting more and more wands into her hand. “Ok what about 8 ¾ inches oak and griffon feather? Good for transfiguration that one, powerful!” He handed her the wand and the red sparks flew once more missing Mark’s eyebrows my millimetres.

“Ok finally your turn!” he said grinning at Mark.

They left the shop all with nice new wands and their money pouches considerably lighter, but Mark couldn’t help but grin at his own wand 12 inches and unicorn feather made of bendy mahogany he was rather impressed with it, apparently it was very good for charms and so forth.

“Well I think that’s everything I need!” said Nellie. “I have to go now or mum and dad will kill me! I’ll see you both on the Hogwarts express though I presume!” She waved and ran off.

“Right dad should be back we’ll get your stuff then you can go home I think you’re prefect is waiting!” Jex indicated an impatient looking Krow tapping his foot against the floor as he stared at Mark and his dad.

“Yeah I suppose!” said Mark, not really wanting to go home, he was enjoying all this.

“Oh one thing first!” said Mr Simmons from behind them. He grabbed some money from the bag. “You go buy the stuff I’ll meet you in the shop!” with that he ran off.

They entered the shop Krow waiting behind them looking at his watch. Behind the till was a mousy haired wizard with a dodgy moustache.

“Dad!” said Jex grinning. “This is Mark he’s going to be a student too!”

“Pleased to meet you!” said Jex’s human father grinning. “This lot yours then?” He indicated the bag by his side.

“Erm yes cheers!” He got out some money and paid for all the stuff he needed. Then the familiar sound of a shop bell came behind them and in walked Mr Simmons grinning and carrying in his hand a cage containing a large long eared owl.

“Shall we go?” said Krow prompting.

“Erm yeah I guess!” Mark turned to Jex. “See you on the Hogwarts express then!” Jex nodded and threw some floo powder into the flames. Mark stepped into them clutching all his shopping suppressed a grin and said “Home!” and with that he vanished.