After getting her wand, Almira and her mother stopped by a stall on the side of the road to get a suitcase, in which they can put everything Almira’s going to need, before continuing from shop to shop buying all the essentials. Thanks to the suitcase following behind them, floating about 10cm of the ground with her mother’s locomotion charm, and the clever use of the shrinking charm, they had bought almost everything on Almira’s supply list in no time at all.

When they entered a bookstore named “Flourish and Blotts” to get her schoolbooks, they saw a brown haired girl of the same age as Almira excitedly moving around the shop, picking up books from here and there, to put them in an ever growing pile on the counter, in front of which are who seem to be her parents, watching her with resignation on their faces.

Almira looks at the pile and notices the books that are also on her list, along with twenty others, ranging from books about magical theory to history books, as if the girl wanted to read everything there is to know about the wizarding world.

“What can I get you? We have a collection of books ranging from “How to make you pet rock sentient, step-by-step guide” to “Invisible Book of Invisibility”, or at least I think we do. Kinda hard keeping track of them as they are invisible and all. On that note I wouldn’t recommend buying “The Monster Book of Monsters” from the same Author, as the last tamed one sold yesterday.”

The shop keeper starts attending them as they reach the counter that’s not under a pile of books, and Almira can’t help but wonder about the mental health of whoever wrote the books that the shop keeper so kindly mentioned.

“We’re here to buy the schoolbooks for the first year students of Hogwarts.”

“Ah yes, “The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1” by Miranda Goshawk, “A History of Magic” by Bathilda Bagshot, “Magical Theory” by Adalbert Waffling, “A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration” by Emeric Switch, “One Thousands Magical Herbs and Fungi” by Phyllida Spore, “Magical Drafts and Potions” by Arsenius Jigger, “Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them”, ny Newt Scamander, and “The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection” by Quentin Trimble. Anything else?”

The shop keeper waves his wand as he speaks the names of the books, and with each wave the book, that had its name said, flies out of the shelves and sets down gently in a neat pile on the counter.

“No, thank you.”

“Then that’ll be 3 Galleons, 2 Sickles and 18 Knuts.”

Her mother pays for the books and prepares to take out her wand when Almira grabs her sleeve.

“Mom, can I do it, can I do it? I want to try my wand. Please, mom.”

Her mother looks at her pleading eyes and says:

“Fine, but if you burn them we’ll buy new ones with your allowance.”

Getting her mother’s permission her eyes brighten and her mouth curves into a wide smile, showing her pearl white teeth.

“Don’t worry mom, I’ve not set anything on fire for a week now.”

“What about those bells in Ollivander’s?”

“Those don’t count!”

She takes out her brand new wand and waves it at the book pile while saying the incantation out loud.

“Reducio.”

A purple light flashes from her wand and the book pile shrinks, leaving each of the books a little bigger than her palm.

“Mom, I did it! This wand’s so amazing, it felt so easy compared to when I used yours!”

She said to her mother, still excited on how good it felt to use her own wand, with the shop keeper in the background relaxing his tensed face which had warped in terror with the mother daughter pair speaking of setting books on fire inside the shop.

“Now you know why it’s important to use a wand that’s fitted just for you.”

Her mother says while smiling at her as she puts the books inside the suitcase with a wave of her own wand.

“What’s the name of that spell?”

Almira almost jumps to the roof when she hears someone ask right behind her. She turns around and finds the girl that was collecting books before, now standing in front of her. She studies the girl and notices her bright brown eyes, rather long front teeth and a curious look on her face.

“Which spell?”

She asks back.

“The one you used to make the books smaller.”

The girl says with a rather bossy tone, but Almira doesn’t seem to mind.

“The Shrinking charm?”

“Yes, where did you learn it?”

“I learned it from my mother.”

Almira says and turns to look at her mother with a questioning look, who promptly answers.

“You should be able find it, along with its counter-spell “Engorgement charm”, in the second years spellbook “The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2”.”

“Thank you. I’m Hermione Granger, nice to meet you.”

The girl thanks Almira’s mother before turning back to Almira and introducing herself while offering her hand for a handshake. Almira grasps Hermione’s hand and replies.

“Almira Marlson, nice to meet you. Are you going to Hogwarts next year also?”

“Yes. I got my acceptance letter almost two months ago, but it took time to get my parents to take me here and buy what I’ll need.”

As the two girls talked, Almira’s mother studies Hermione’s parents who seem to be a little bit more than lost amongst the things around them, before realization flashes through her eyes and she says to Almira:

“Mira, how about you go get some ice cream with Hermione while I’ll have a little chat with her parents, as we’ll all have our children attending Hogwarts on the same year.”

“Okay!”

Almira answers her mother as she takes Hermione’s hand and starts dragging her towards Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour, to which Hermione tries to fight back while saying something about not having picked all the books she wanted yet, but can’t muster up enough strength to make Almira let go.

With Hermione getting dragged away, her parents turn to look at Almira’s mother with questioning gazes, to which she says:

“Would you like to have a little chat about the Wizarding world?”