Closed The redhead, the sundae and a new friend pv Lilliana Havenmore

─────Lilliana decided she liked Diagon Alley. It had been so long since she had been a part of the Wizarding World, she forgot what it was like. The closest thing she had seen to magic in her squib aunt’s house was how sharp her cat’s claws were. She loved the wizards strolling around in robes, the odd baubles for sale, enchanted trinkets and things.

Lilliana had just finished getting her wand from Ollivanders, which was the last thing on her list. Halfway through her list, her aunt had wandered off, muttering incoherently, leaving Lilliana to her own devices. She decided to go to a shop, of the name Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. Ice cream. I can use some Ice Cream. She told herself.

The shop was quaint, yet welcoming, the perfect mood for an ice cream shop. There was lots of ice cream on display, making Lilliana's mouth water. They were all very colorful and bright, but Lilliana chose a modest, warm blue ice cream, taking a seat at one of the tables.

She looked around the shop for a while, eventually spotting a girl with red hair that Lilliana took a liking to. The girl approached her, taking a seat. "Er...hi, I'm Aurora. Are you going to Hogwarts too?"

"I'm Lilliana." The blond-haired girl stated. She nodded."Yeah, I'm going to Hogwarts. "A smile passed Lilliana's face. It just occurred to her that many other people here were also going to Hogwarts. These people were just like her. "So, are you shopping for Hogwarts here?" Lilliana inquired. "I just got my wand." Lilliana took out her wand and showed it to Aurora.

When I sat down and introduced myself to the girl, she said that she was Lilliana and that she was going to Hogwarts too. Lilliana... I thought. What a pretty name. I caught myself and turned back to the girl named Lilliana. "Huh? Oh, yes, I'm shopping for Hogwarts too. You said you just got your wand? Cool! I got mine too! Do you know what it is? Mine is chestnut and dragon heartstring. What about yours?" I hoped I hadn't said too much. That's when Lilliana took out her wand and showed it to me. Me not being some genius wandmaker, I could not tell what it was, but it looked like an amazing wizarding wand nonetheless. "Oh, wow! Are you excited to start using your wand?" I asked. I sure was. I was excited to go to Hogwarts and do magic and spells and brew potions and other wizardry things...after all, this was beyond my wildest dreams, something that I never could have imagined. I still wasn't fully used to the idea of a wizarding world actually existing! It was going to experience something completely new, which was both exciting and scary. But I was sure that Mum and Sammy had felt the exact same way. So, eating my sundae thoughtfully, I asked Lilliana one more question: "Are you nervous? About going to Hogwarts, I mean? Everything is just so...new, and I can't help feeling that maybe...well, I'll miss up somehow. I know it sounds silly, yeah, but still, I'm a little nervous..."

Interacting/Mentioning: @Lilliana Havenmore
Speech/Writing color: #ba9826 Thoughts: Italics

───── Lilliana had always found wands interesting. They were so… unique and interesting. There were so many woods and cores, and, no two wands were the same. Lilliana remembered when her wand was put in her hand earlier, for the first time, a bright smile appeared on her face.

She began to get lost in her own thoughts, but she managed to snap herself out of it. “My wand…” Lilliana’s blue eyes darted away, attempting to remember. “Oh, yes! Mine is willow wood and snallygaster heartstring.” She nodded to herself. “They all sound interesting, don’t you think? I, personally, have a fascination with wands.”

Lilliana began to loosen up, her stiff posture melting into a more comfortable one. She began to enjoy talking to this girl. “Are you excited to start using your wand?" Aurora had asked her. Lilliana nodded eagerly. “Oh, certainly!” She proclaimed, face bright. “ I am excited to use it for classes! What subjects are you the most excited for?” Lilliana inquired. It was a question she’d been meaning to ask for a while, as it was one she was wondering herself.

She took a scoop of her ice cream, closing her eyes for a swift second before looking back to Aurora, who had asked her another question. The girl bit her lip, and looked down at her ice cream for a bit, blond hair falling into her face. She looked back up. “I’m nervous too. It feels so… sudden. Having to ride the train, take classes, getting sorted into a house…” She trailed off for a few seconds before continuing, “It all seems… terrifying.”

date: 9/1/22 | place: Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor | #ba9826= Aurora(English) | Thoughts= Italics

Now I'll be honest, I don't know a whole lot about the mechanics of wands, but I thought it was interesting to find out about all the different wands there were. Like, how did you even get a dragon heartstring? Lilliana said that her wand was made of willow wood and a snallygaster heartstring. I couldn't help but snort a little when she said that last bit. "Er...what's a 'snallygaster'? Do you know?" I asked. many things about the wizarding world still seemed very strange to me, but I was sure I would figure it out in time...hopefully. Everything about the wizarding world still seemed all strange and new to me, like the fact that dragons and wizards and wands and stuff like that did actually exist, and not just in my dreams... "What subjects I'm excited for? That would be Care of Magical Creatures, but I'll have to wait 3 more years to do that one. DADA and maybe Herbology look pretty exciting, I'm excited about doing flamboyant stuff with my wand." I didn't usually have a flair for the dramatic, but this seemed like the exception. I took the opportunity of silence to eat some more of my ice cream before it melted. I While I was eating, though, Liliana told me her concerns about going to Hogwarts. "I...agree wholeheartedly," I said slowly. Never had I ever been away from my family for so long. Maybe a couple weeks or even a month or two, but that was pretty much it. But an entire year...was something else. I had always had somebody with me, somebody that usually wasn't Sammy, but I knew that I would be on my own because he had his own troubles. "But it's okay...I get it. But don't worry! My Gran always says, 'Things always get worse before they get better', or, well-" I had stopped because that was probably the wrong thing to say, but I hoped that Lilliana had gotten the gist.

interacting with: @Lilliana Havenmore
mentions: @

─────After Lilliana had gushed about her fascination with wands, and told Aurora what her wand was made of, they had let out a snort in response, causing Lilliana to raise her eyebrows. "Er...what's a 'snallygaster'? Do you know?" That explained why they had snorted. It wasn’t hard to take things the wrong way in response to the question, but luckily, Lilliana was in a good mood, and grinned widely.

“I was wondering that too! Then I found out that it’s something like Dragon Heartstring, except best and defensive spells and stuff.” The girl shrugged at her wand, and she began observing the crevices and bumps through the wand. Her head then snapped up back to Aurora, and her smile, which had faded away when she was examine her wand, had returned. There were loads of other information she had obtained about her wand, but, that was a topic to best save for another time.

"What subjects I'm excited for? That would be Care of Magical Creatures, but I'll have to wait 3 more years to do that one. DADA and maybe Herbology look pretty exciting, I'm excited about doing flamboyant stuff with my wand." Aurora had told her. She nodded in excitement. The girl had kind of wished that she wouldn’t have had to wait until her third year to take some classes, and choosing which ones to take will be hard for her.

“For me, I’d say, Charms, or Potions.” She told Aurora. Lilliana then told her about her concerns about Hogwarts. The girl was sharing quite a bit of information and she vaguely knew about it, but Aurora happened to be the first person she knew like her. So Lilliana had used this opportunity to say nearly everything that’s been on her mind in the past ten years. Yikes.

"I...agree wholeheartedly," Aurora had said slowly. "But it's okay...I get it. But don't worry! My Gran always says, 'Things always get worse before they get better', or, well-" They trailed off. She got the notion, and felt slightly better than before. Lilliana herself wasn’t the best at pep talks, so she was slightly relieved she was on the receiving end of the reassurance.

Lilliana nodded, “Well, there are certainly a lot of good things to think about.” The blond said cheerily, trying to uplift the conversation. “Diagon Alley is certainly amazing,” Lilliana said, in a breathless tone. She glanced out of a window, which was full of families frantically gathering supplies for Hogwarts. The bustling atmosphere was fun to watch, and she stared at it for a little while before looking back to Aurora.