The representative from Hogwarts who had accompanied him (a stout little man with blotched skin and bull snout of a nose) had shown him the location of the various shops, then deserted him in favor for a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron where he'd be waiting until Finnegan had completed his shopping.

Somehow he was more relieved than frightened at being abandoned. The man had been giving him some odd looks and he was rather sure the man either did not like children or did not like muggle-borns, perhaps both.

Looking up from his shopping list, Finnegan read the sleek letters of the shop in front of him and hesitantly stepped into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Ocassions. Just as he entered another student at least several years his senior was packing up their new robes and putting them in what looked like a brand new cauldron.

Before Finnegan could regret not getting his cauldron first - it would've made for a good shopping bag - the small witch behind the counter motioned for him to come closer. "Don't be shy dear, let me have a look at you."

He must've looked small and doe-eyed enough for the witch in all mauve to have known he was a first year because she wasted no time to take the measure of him. She guided him onto a footstool near the back of the shop and gently moved his limbs in the correct position. "Chin up, arms out please." Two enchanted measuring tapes whizzed about him, measuring heel to knee, knee to waist, waist to head and even the width of his philtrum.

While the tapes did their job, the witch disappeared to the back of the shop and returned with a small pile of robes. "Hmmm, rather skinny..." she mused as she held up a set of robes to him. "Perhaps with a little adjustment around the hems." It was a good thing she didn't seem to expect any answers out of him as he was far too enchanted by a two knitting needles knitting a scarf near the counter.

The bell near the door jingled again and Madam Maulkin briefly stopped pinning up his robes to greet the new customer. "Hello dear, first year I suppose? Come on through, and step on that stool please," she said kindly. Once again the measuring tapes ascended from their coiled position on the counter and gently whizzed toward the new customer.

For @Leandra von Abendrot

Leandra had snuck out from her parent's house. Well, as much as throwing floor powder into the fireplace stepping in, and shouting "Diagon Alley" while her mother was in the garden was "sneaking out". But her list had come and she had absolutely no intention of shopping with her parents. Not only would she end up with an insufficient amount of books, she'd also end up with too fancy clothes and school things. Better to take care of things herself.

The first stop, she decided, was going to be Madame Malkins. She had some of the items already, but she would need the robes and double never hurt anyone. The bell above the door jingles as she steps through the door. There was a young boy - probably her age - already being measured in the back and Madam Malkin was helping pin things. "Blessed day." She greeted politely and quickly followed the woman's directions, stepping up next to the boy.

Before the measuring tapes could start, she quickly shrugged off her casual overrobes and the blazer, leaving her with the dark blue blouse she wore underneath. "Yes please." She finally answered the woman as the tape started going to work, leaving her relatively stuck next to the unknown boy. He looked fascinated with everything around him and coupled with his muggle clothes, she pegged him for a muggleborn. "Blessed day." she greeted him too, smiling at him and inclining her head in greeting."

"Hi," Finnegan answered sheepishly. The girl had come strutting in like she was grocery shopping just before tea. She didn't seem at all struck by the flying measuring tapes, the knitting needles, or the small flock of fabrics moving slowly overhead, reorganizing themselves by color and make.

Finnegan wasn't sure what to make of the girl. He didn't think he'd ever heard anyone else ever say blessed greetings as though it were a common greeting. It reeked of powdered nose poshness and the quality make of her clothes only seemed to confirm his suspicions. Still, she seemed nice, even if it was just her being polite.

Madam Malkin finished pinning up his new robes and with a flick of her wand made a large, gold-rimmed mirror come down from the ceiling so he could examine the results of her handiwork. "I've tightened the hems a bit, you have rather skinny wrists," she explained while she adjusted his collar. "How's it feel?"

Finnegan looked into the mirror and quickly tried to flatten his untidy hair at the sight of himself albeit to no avail. He couldn't quite shake the feeling that he was dressing up for Halloween or some party. It would take a little while to get used to seeing himself in wizard's robes. "It's good," he said, though he really had no idea what he ought to be looking for. "It's snug."

"That's good," Madam Malkin answered with a curt, polite nod. "Anything else?"

Finnegan shook his head vigorously, he had spotted a nice looking cape from the corner of his eyes but no money left to burn.

After he'd paid for his new clothes, Madam Malkin focused all her attention on the girl in the blue blouse. "Oh, I have just the robe for you dear! von Abendrot, isn't it? I'd recognize a von Abendrot anywhere... blue suits you well dear but you should try burgundy red sometime, take it from an old hag." She seemed a great deal more excited to dress up the girl than she'd had been for him.

Finnegan already had his hand on the door handle when he halted and glanced back over his shoulder. Madam Malkin was showering the girl in compliments and he had to admit that even to his untrained eye, even the plain working robes seemed to suit her a lot better. But that was not why he paused. It was clear that the girl knew what she was doing, that she was a real witch, not some intruder. Steeling himself, Finnegan turned around and walked back to Madam Malkin and the girl and cleared his throat. "Excuse me but have you been around here before? I think I could use a little help, he said, sounding rather helpless.

@Leandra von Abendrot

Leandra had raised an eyebrow in surprise when the boy had only said a quick hi and then focused on his clothing again but decided to focus on her own errands - if he didn't want to speak then she surely wasn't going to bother him. She had enough of that in her own life! "Yes, I'm a von Abendrot." She smiled slightly at Madam Malkin. "I will consider giving burgundy a try for my Yule trip." She promised the elder woman, easily moving this way and that way as required. "I require the standard students' clothing for now, but I'm sure I will be back before the year for some casual shopping." She added, not wishing to make this trip too long lest her mother worry.

She quickly stepped down once the seamstress was done with her and was stepping up to pay for her clothing when the boys' voice caught her attention from the doorway. She blinked in surprise - not having expected him to actually call back to her, but nodded slightly as she handed over the required coins. "I've been here a few times." Her eyes roamed over his form, once again taking in the obvious 'muggle-born' markers. "You're a muggle-born, right? Have you been anywhere else yet? Isn't someone supposed to help you?"

The questions started slipping out while she happily signed the slip and added her address to have her clothing delivered by owl. "Not that I'm not happy to help, just surprised is all!" She added quickly before he could get the wrong impression. "I have muggle friends, so it's not like..." She stopped herself from saying anything else embarrassing, took a deep breath, and held out her hand while stepping into arms reach. "I apologize, my curiosity ran away with me. Let's start over. I'm Leandra von Abendrot and I'd be happy to help out."

@Finnegan Connor

"Aye," he responded to her question if he was muggle-born. If his slack-jawed expression around the shops hadn't given it away, his baggy hoodie and regular jeans certainly would have. At her question if he had been anywhere else yet he shook his head.

"I'd got a Hogwarts man with me," he said, "but he went to the pub." The shrug that accompanied that statement of fact conveyed the exact measure of how much Finnegan cared that he'd been abandoned by the man. What bothered him more was his sudden awareness how rough his Welsh English sounded compared to the girl's prim and proper way of speaking.

Comforted by the fact that the girl had dealt with muggles before, Finnegan eagerly shook her hand (perhaps a little too enthusiastically) and introduced himself. "I'm Finnegan Conner, muggle-born, like you guessed." There was a hint of shame in his voice but he seemed relieved that Leandra was willing to help him.

Finnegan pushed the door open and held it for her. He might've been from a bad part of Butetown, but he wasn't entirely without manners. "There's so much I don't know that I don't even know what I don't know... you know?" he said, sounding somewhat desperate. Contrary to her, he carried his newly purchased robes with him under his arms and motioned towards them with his head. "I think I should get me cauldron next, to put these in." Fortunately he still roughly remembered the direction Potage's Cauldron Shop was in so he didn't look a complete fool when they turned on to the bustling streets. "So your parents are both sorcerers? I can't imagine what it must be like to 'ave known all your life... I still think I'm dreamin' at times."

@Leandra von Abendrot

Leandra couldn't help but grin slightly at the slightly enthusiastic handshaking, but easily pushes out of the door and into Diagon Alley. There was little here that really got her wowing again (well, maybe a new broom) but looking at it with the eyes of someone who hadn't been around magic all their life, it must be overwhelming. "Pleasure to meet you, Finnegan. Call me Leandra or Lea." From his slight accent and the casual way of speaking, she deduced that he hadn't grown up posh as she had and dialed down both her accent and her manner of speech just a little. She wanted to fit in with him, not have awkward silence after awkward silence because both of them were intimidated.

Out on the street they turned towards Potages and she nodded both at his thinking that he didn't know what he didn't know and the remark about a cauldron. "Well, honestly, there's so many different cultures clashing nowadays that I don't think it'll be really noticeable what you do and don't know." She finally settled on answering. "Just because my family raised me in the 'old-ways'" -she added 'air quotes' she'd seen a muggle friend do for that word - "doesn't mean the majority of the wixen world follows them."

She stuck to Finnegans' side as they navigated the surprisingly filled streets of Diagon Alley. "Yes, my father works with the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes in the Accidental Magic Reversal Squads. My mother stayed home to raise me." She grinned at the broom in the window of quality quidditch supplies. "You're the first wizard in your family?" She asked in return.

@Finnegan Conner

"Lea," Finnegan repeated after she'd introduced herself. "I like that name, it's like Princess Leia, right?" Not that his opinion particularly mattered, but somehow the name seemed to fit her like a glove and she did have a sort of dignified air about her. He wondered what being raised in the old ways meant, but then he supposed that muggle life was probably just as mysterious to her as her upbringing was to him.

"The Department of what?" It really shouldn't have come as a suprise to him that there was a government, that there were departments, maybe some kind of police too and that people worked there. Wizards needed to have jobs too! Somehow he just hadn't considered any of those things before. Everything he'd been told by the representative from Hogwarts was mostly about Hogwarts itself, about the various subjects, the rules, the curfew, the formalities involved with boarding. There might have been a mention of a Ministry, now that he tried to remember, but if it had been there, it had been little more than a sidenote.

"I think I'm the first, aye," he said pensively. "Unless you count my Dad-cu," he added, "Granddad I mean. He was a real wizard with a card deck..." In truth, all of the magic tricks his grandfather had showed him paled in comparison to the real thing. He regretted that he would never be able to tell his grandfather, it seemed wrong that he couldn't know.

They'd slowed to a stop before the Quality Quidditch Supplies window and Finnegan overheard a few excited children coming out of the shop vigorously discussing if a Moontrimmer was better than a Comet. He'd more or less puzzled together that withces and wizards flew on brooms, but there was one thing that he hadn't the faintest idea about.

"Lea," he said in a low voice, not wanting anyone else to hear. "What's that word mean?" He pointed up at the first part of the lettering above the shop. Quidditch. What did ditches have to do with brooms?

@Leandra von Abendrot