Wand Shopping (OPEN)

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Books, check. School robes, check. All that was left was a wand, and this was the part Brooke was most looking forward to. The wand chooses the wizard, she had been told over and over by numerous of her family and friends. By now, she had worked herself up to something way past excitement, wondering which wand would choose her, and how she'd know, and all the little in between details. Unfortunately for the soon-to-be-eleven year old, it seemed her father has picked the same day as what felt like hundreds - but in reality was only about thirty or so - of other first year parents to take her wand shopping.

Olivanders was crowded and Brooke and her dad just managed to step inside and take a number (for the shop keepers had apparently taken to this method to distinguish who to serve first) before a frazzled employee turned around the 'open' sign. For now, the store was at it's maximum capacity, and Brooke was last in turn.

Waiting was never something she was good at, and, with permission, she soon left her fathers side to wander around the shop, looking at the shelves with the boxes of wands piled high. Wide-eyed and grin big, she gazed at the different selections, doing her best to wait patiently for her turn to come.

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Broken.

How had he broken his wand? Well, that was a very good story indeed. Finley Allen was not a clumsy person, he made sure that everything was just so. Everything. So breaking his wand had been very, very out of character. The small boy had just about managed to slip in to the shop, very near the back but before the last person had arrived. His wand had a large crack in it, so it hadn't snapped in half, just wasn't quite right.

The Ravenclaw stood, holding in front of him and looking horrified at the mess. What if Mr Ollivander couldn't fix it? What if this meant he was going to get kicked out of Hogwarts? What if he had to have a new wand, but none picked him?

Finley panicked easily and it showed in his demeanour as he stood staring at the broken wand in his hands. Everything could change because of this...

Looking up as the door opened and closed again, Finley saw a young witch enter and gave her a small, shaky smile before looking back at his wand once more. His parents hadn't been angry at him, thankfully, but they hadn't liked the idea of having to try to find the Wizarding Street again. They'd stayed in the pub though, their work with them as they sat in a booth continuing to work through their notes.

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Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed an older looking male, holding what appeared to be a broken wand. Was he from Hogwarts? She certainly hoped so; it would be awesome to bump into someone from there. She had so many questions she wanted to ask! Was there really a giant squid in the lake? Who were the best Professors? Who were the worst? Anyone to look out for? Was the work fun or hard? Which subjects were the most fun? These were not the type of things you called the school to find out about beforehand, so the only options she had of getting them answered before starting term was to meet an older student.

Shaking her head a little to stop herself from overthinking, Brooke stepped over to the boy. "Hi!" she said with a large grin. Her voice was still somewhat childish, but not shrill or overly annoying like some kids. "I'm Brooke." She paused and glanced at his hands, which were clutching his broken wand. "What happened? Is it okay?" she asked, honestly concerned.

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"Hi!"

True to form, Finley jumped a little bit when someone spoke to him, quite childish in nature but not annoyingly so. But he didn't over think, that was perfectly normal for him. "F-Finley." Finley replied, putting his hand on his chest in a motion that it was his name. The smile from the witch made him a little cautious, more than a little thrown off by kindness on almost all occasions.

"What happened? Is it okay?"

Looking at his wand, Finley opened his mouth to reply and then closed it. It was really rather silly... "I f-forgot that I'd put it on my c-chair..." He explained softly, really rather shy. "And I j-jumped on the c-chair and it b-broke. I'm hoping t-they can f-fix it." The Ravenclaw explained, though he wasn't sure how wandlore really worked, so it was really him hoping for a lot in that moment.

"I-is this... are y-you starting Hogwarts in S-September?" Finley asked, she looked like she would be, but he wasn't very good at judging such things.

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The stutter threw her off for a moment and she was worried that she had scared him, what with him jumping and all. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean go startle you," she said at once, a horrified look on her face. The last thing she wanted to do was frighten off a potential friend. That would not be good at all! But as he began to explain what happened to his wand, still stuttering, she realized that it was not her, per se, who frightened him. Rather, it was just how he spoke. Relief flooded her and she smiled at him; the manner in which he spoke did not affect her in any way - Brooke merely accepted it as part of who Finley was.

Tilting her head to the side, she asked, "Why did you jump onto the chair?" The part about placing it there and not seeing it didn't really matter. She herself was a clumsy person and already received numerous lectures from both parents about taking care of her items properly. "Well, it doesn't look too broken, only cracked. So they should be able to fix it with a simple spell." She paused and frowned slightly. "My daddy and mummy fix things all the time. Your daddy and mummy couldn't fix your wand?" she continued, shrugging. "The spell is raparo or repero or something, I can't remember, but they use it a lot a lot a lot at home!"

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When the girl, Brooke, apologised for startling him, Finley waved it away. It wasn't her fault, he was just very, very nervous. But it seemed, for once, the witch wasn't going to pick him up on it, and for that, he was very, very grateful.

"I was r-running away from our d-dog, and forgot about it. T-then I heard a s-snap." Finley explained sheepishly, he knew better than to make Spike excitable and he'd paid for it when he'd jumped on top of his wand. Though, it was probably better it hadn't been Spike biting it, because Finley didn't know what would have happened in that scenario.

"My daddy and mummy fix things all the time. Your daddy and mummy couldn't fix your wand?"

"M-my parents can't do m-magic." Finley explained, his eyes flickering to meet Brooke's because he wasn't sure whether that was going to be a problem or not. "And I-I'm not allowed to do m-magic outside of s-school. It's Reparo t-though. And w-wandlore is c-complex magic." He added, showing he was very clever in his knowledge of the wizarding world, but not quite clever enough to know the full answer.

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As he began to explain, Brooke let out a small chuckle. "Ohhh, okay. That makes sense. Is he a scary dog? I've always wanted one but mummy won't let me because she and dad are always at work and now that I'm starting school nobody will take care of it." She stopped to take a breath. "But I've got an owl, though, so I'm happy. He.. or at least I think it's a he... is named Snidget. Do you play Quidditch?" Her mind was running at full speed as she rattled on before she stopped herself and smiled.

When he told her his parents couldn't do magic, she nodded, understanding. "So they're muggles, then? Oooo that makes you a muggle born, like my dad! His parents are muggles, too. I like it at their house. It's really different and I love watching TV and using the.. the ina..- ita..- innermet." She gave a little shrug, not sure of the word. "And muggle books are amazing. I love reading some of their books about magic and elves and fairies." Frowning a little, she tilted her head again. "So how did you find out you were a wizard? Did you ever do anything that muggles thought was weird?"

Nodding again, she said, "Ohhh, that's right. Reparo. You must be really smart then, to know a that stuff! What year are you? Three?" Her words were innocently honest, not meaning anything sarcastic or mean.

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Questions from Brooke were coming fast, and Finley didn't really have space to answer. But he noted each of them with precision and waited for the girl to fall silent before he began to think about answering them. It was something Finley knew he was good at, remembering lists without much time to do so.

"N-no, he's not s-scary. We were p-playing." Finley explained. "He's a l-Labrador. My d-dad's dog." He added, though whether that was interesting information he couldn't really say. "I h-have an owl t-too. His n-name is S-Speedy." Finley continued, smiling at the name of the witch's owl. They were indeed very hard to tell if they were male or female, so he could relate to that.

The mention of Quidditch made Finley shake his head. "I c-can't fly very w-well." He explained, and by not well, he meant at all. The brooms at school always threw him off, but he didn't really want to talk about that, because it was embarrassing. Everyone else could do it, so he wasn't really sure why he couldn't do it himself.

The next question was simply a nod from Finley. His parents were what everyone in this world referred to as Muggles, which made him Muggleborn. The Slytherins had teased him for it in his first year, but that wasn't really a surprise - or so he was told, anyway. "B-books are the b-best thing in the world!" Finley gushed, because to him there was absolutely nothing better than curling up with a very good book to read - which was basically how he spent all of his time at Hogwarts when he wasn't in the classes or asleep.

The biggest question was how he found out he was a wizard, and Finley's smile widened slightly. "I a-accidently turned a b-bully's hair luminous green." Finley told her, it was possibly the best use of magic he'd found so far, but he knew he still had a lot to learn. "W-What about you?"

But the compliment sobered him slightly. "I-I'm not that c-clever. I'm a s-second year, w-well, I will be." Finley explained. "R-Ravenclaw. W-will this be your f-first year? D-do you know what h-house you'll be?" He asked back, hoping she wouldn't be in Slytherin.

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While she had yet to learn when to shut up or when not to speak, one thing Brooke had been taught since young was to always listen when others spoke. That, unfortunately, did backfire a little because Brooke expected the same from others, even though she normally talked at least twice the speed and amount that others did. "The larabodor," she hesitated, quite sure he had mispronounced it in the speed at which she was talking. Giving a light shrug, she continued. "...is the big and friendly one right? Is it yellow or black? I think my grandparents had one but that was a long time ago. I've seen Muggle pictures of them with him - or her - but it was weird because it didn't move so I'm not sure if it was a real dog or a toy." She paused to grin at him. He would probably understand what non-moving pictures were like, being a Muggle-born and all that. "What species is your owl? I forgot the name of mine but I think it's Snowy."

Chuckling, she nodded her head. "I can't fly well either. I always fall off and now mum has banned me from going too high because the last time I almost hit my head. Luckily granddad was there and he stopped me from falling. He was supposed to be teaching me how to fly but he died when I was nine and dad and mum can't fly well enough." Her tone was not emotional or upset, just matter-of-factly, because her parents had made it a point to explain very clearly what death was. Brooke had come not only to accept it but not fear it; despite her young age, she was quite mature in some aspects.

"B-books are the b-best thing in the world!"

"Yes, they are," she agreed at once, her first short reply since they met. In her mind, there honestly wasn't anything to add, because Finley was definitely a hundred percent accurate in his statement. "What do you like to read?"

Giggling at his story, she gave a little shrug. "I was born in a Muggle hospital because mum was visiting my muggle grandparents when I wanted to come out. When the doctor was holding me I started to grow bright green hair. My grandmother from her side was a.. a.." here she frowned in concentration as she slowly pronounced the word, "metamorphmagus. Mum says I got that ability too. They say the doctor was panicking a lot and dad had to step in and erase his memory."

It made perfect sense to her that the boy was in Ravenclaw; he seemed to fit the exact stereotype: smart with a love of knowledge and books. When he asked her about her house, she gave a shrug. "Mum says I might be in Hufflepuff because I love to make new friends and I talk too much. But dad thinks I may be in Gryffindor, although he doesn't give me a reason." She shrugged again. "I don't mind either. But I don't think I will be in Slytherin because I don't know how to be 'cunning'. That's what mum and dad both say, so I guess it's true. And I'm not very smart so I don't think Ravenclaw."

"Which is the best subject?" she randomly added, beginning to bounce at the thought of studying magic.

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Finley nodded as Brooke asked if it was the big one, smiling slightly. "Y-yes that one." He agreed, and then when she asked the next question he grinned. "S-Spike is a c-chocolate Labrador. So b-brown." He told her, they were such fun, and so loyal. Finley liked him a lot, and being an only child, Spike had become something of a best friend.

A best friend who didn't judge him in anyway, and made his stutter fall away when he spoke to the dog, but no one had noticed this, not even Finley.

"I h-have a barn o-owl." Finley replied to her. "Y-you have t-the prettier ones. M-my parents couldn't afford t-that one." True enough, the Allen family might be wealthy in the Muggle world, but they weren't so keen on investing in the magical world. Too much rick, his parents had said after looking in to the exchange rate of Muggle to Magical money. They were cautious, like all good accountants were, but Finley still liked his owl no less.

When he found out that the witch couldn't fly either, Finley smiled slightly. "Well, I t-think we have a n-new professor this y-year." Finley explained, though it was only rumours. "S-so you m-might be able to learn."

The question of what he liked to read was one that made Finley think for a moment. "I d-don't have a f-favourite. I l-like lots of t-things. But... I l-like h-historical stories, f-from the World W-Wars." His answer came uncertainly, because he didn't know if the magical world taught about such things, but he thought the witch beside him might know.

"Y-you're a M-metamorphagus?" Finley asked, looking very excited about that. "I r-read about t-those. That's... can y-you show m-me?" He asked, hoping that she would, but he didn't want to make her feel like a circus act, so he quickly added. "If y-you don't mind."

Hufflepuff or Gryffindor sounded good to Finley. He was sad she wasn't going to be in Ravenclaw, because he already liked the girl. But hopefully... "C-can we be f-friends? No m-matter what house y-your in?" He gushed, because he didn't have any friends at Hogwarts and he wanted to have one really badly.

"Which is the best subject?"

"Ummm..." Finley replied, frowning slightly. "A-all of the t-teachers are amazing. I'm... n-not very good at m-magic though. But my f-favourite is either C-Care of Magical C-Creatures or H-Herbology." He explained.

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