“Incredible…” Anemoi Sterling stepped into Diagon Alley, taking in the shops, the magical wares, the people— wizards— she reminded herself, bustling about. A muggle woman with matching black curls stood beside the new young witch. Anemoi’s mother showed on her face all the awe her daughter felt internally. That was the difference between their personalities; Anemoi’s mind was humming with excitement, but she stood silently absorbing the details of the Alley with large brown eyes, while her mother chatted loudly with their chaperone.

They had easily believed it when the nice lady from the school came with the letter and told them Anemoi was special, that that oddness about her was really untrained magic. Mum had had a hard time agreeing to send her away to a far-off school, but the girl had insisted, maybe Hogwarts, a place as magnificent as that, would be better than the muggle system, and even if it was strange after learning at home for so long, there was magic. Anemoi had magic now.

She stuck close at first, watching intently as her mother traded their regular money for golden coins with dragons and… goats? stamped on them. But soon Anemoi was wandering off to look at the curiosities; there were so many wares and such peculiar animals, and after all, Mum wasn’t going to school with her this time, so she herself must get used to this magical environment.

The first true breakaway from her mother was at Ollivanders. An old gentleman gave Anemoi her wand—her wand. He said something about the special meaning behind the materials, but she couldn’t remember afterwards; she had been so focused on the toasty feel of it in her hand and the delicate shape of the wood. “34,3 cm mayhaw wood and thestral tail hair,” he had said; she wondered what a thestral was, a magical creature she supposed. She would find out once she could get some books. Books!

Anemoi thanked the man, Mr. Ollivader, it seemed, and hurried out for her next errand. She needed the assigned textbooks from that letter and she wanted to see if the books shop had anything extra on wizard history or spells or really anything at all explaining this new world; plus, she was going to need some new fiction reading for her dorm room at Hogwarts and perhaps wizards had even better kinds of stories than her old muggle library. She had to see. So next, she headed to Flourish and Blotts, glancing again at her supplies list.


.

Anemoi found everything pretty easily; she was used to book shops, even if this one was different from the muggle stores she usually went to. She filled her new corduroy travel bag with the textbooks and then went in search of something more recreational. By the time she got back to the front to pay, she needed an associate’s help lifting her purchases up to the counter.

She grinned at the Flourish and Blotts manager as he began counting up the titles, “I’m going to Hogwarts, soon, for my first year.”

“So it would seem. So you are” He had finished counting up the volumes and gestured vaguely for her payment. Anemoi was getting 12 books in all, 7 for school and 5 for her leisure reading; she assumed there would be less time to read at a boarding school so she had limited herself this time, just gathering one copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and a few mid-sized wizard novels that looked good. The shop manager looked tired, like one of the strange books in his shop may have attacked him earlier in the day, but friendly enough that she kept talking.

“Do you know much about it? Hogwarts? Oh! Do they have a library?” she gave a little hop at the thought. She had been excited before, but a dorm with access to its own library, now she was practically a cauldron about to spill over.

When the man agreed that Hogwarts did have a library, Anemoi barely had the time to hand over quite a sum of interesting-looking coins for her purchases before she spun around and raced out of the shop to tell her mother the great news.

Elm's curly red hair bounced as he ran to the Flourish and Blotts's door eagerly. The door's colors were a bright green and the words a stunning gold. He instantly yelled to his older brother, looking behind him, "Here it is Maple!! Flourish and Blotts!" He laughed heartily and was about to throw open the door to the shop when out rushed a girl with long brown hair. The collision was immediate. The poor boy had had no idea she was even there and so he had been skipping in a zigzag path inside the bookshop.

"Oof!.." He muttered from his spot on the floor where he had fallen.

His brother entered the shop, a sly smirk settling across his lips. "Congrats, little brother, you're officially clumsy. He laughed reaching a hand down to help Elm up. "To your feet, now lad."

Elm rose slowly, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment. He had been often called clumsy before but it burned especially coming from Maple. Maple was a fifth year and knew loads about Hogwarts. He'd told Elm many stories about magical plants, the astronomy tower, and the "especially cute Gryffindor girls" that his brother liked. The fact that he was a pureblood embarrassed him even more because he was supposed to be intelligent, stoic, calm, and knowledgeable like his parents. Others had easily come to accept Maple's jokes and games but not the clumsy, awkward, overly-energetic and curious Elm.

Elm shuffled his feet, awkwardly staring at the girl. He opened his mouth suddenly and announced, "I'm Elm! Sorry about that...incident. I am pretty clumsy.
Say, what's your name? Oh, and I think your hair is pretty! Such a nice shade of brown. He stares at her long hair, admiringly. "Mum won't let me wear my hair any longer than it is sadly. Ponderingly, he checks his list. I've got to go now. Getting my books and all. Oh my, you've bought quite a lot! I love books. Do you?

Anemoi immediately knelt at the site of the accident to help the red-haired boy up. “Are you okay?” but she stood and stepped back again as the older one came in. She didn’t like the smug look he gave any more than the way he talked to his younger brother. But of course, she shouldn’t go off of first impressions. Still, her first impression was that the elder brother was mean or at least a little tart. Like usual, she tried to fix the situation.

“Sorry, my fault, I hit him.” She glanced between them as the first one— Elm, he was saying his name was now—got back up. Elm and Maple, Anemoi laughed under her breath, wondering if wizards were usually named after trees here.

Maple was taller and probably several years older than the two of them, but Elm seemed about her age, if much more chaotic. He was stumbling over his words and apologizing. Hadn’t she run into him? Not that she was gonna point that out. She was already embarrassed in front of real wizard kids, so she smiled at Elm instead and shrugged. 

“It’s okay, I’m clumsy too… um Anemoi or Moi. Thanks.” She tried to keep up with his words and questions, “uh yeahh. Books? Oh!” She finally remembered to scoop back up her shopping that had jostled in the crash. “Yup, I read a lot. Plus, I had to get them for school.”

She looked at the boys again “Wait, ‘your books’? are you guys going to…” she hesitated trying to be subtle and then gave up “I’m supposed to start at Hogwarts. Are you Hogwarts students?” She made sure to hold the door in case Elm and his brother were really in a hurry. He had said something about having to go before the book comment, but he seemed interesting and she really did want to make friends at this new school.

When the girl asked Elm if he was okay, his face flushed from embarrassment. Maple stifled a snicker. Elm, taking the outstretched hands offered by his brother and the girl, stood up. "I'm fine, thanks. Sorry to be a trouble." He muttered lowly, his head hanging a bit and his curls in his eyes. Swiping them back, he looked up at Maple again. "Can I...talk to her for a bit?"

But Maple was already grabbing a shopping basket. He responded simply, "Go ahead. I'll find your books, after all..." He paused. "I should remember the books pretty well. It's only been four years anyhow."

Elm dared shoot the girl a grin, whispering confidentially. "Thanks for taking the blame. I get very excited when I go to town. Ya see, my family and I are from Swansea, Wales. Around there, we have a teeny home near a forest and Maple and I like to hang out together there. I have my own elm tree, too but, Maple killed his accidentally. He laughed brightly. Maple threw him a glare.

He picked up some of her books, helping them back in her basket. "Beautiful name, you've got, Anemoi. And yes, we go to Hogwarts. I'm a first year. Maple's a 5th and a Gryffindor. I love books too! They're so fun! Maple likes reading informational novels or autobiography's about dangerous quests. He's read Magical Me, three times already! I prefer fantasy though. Oh, and animal stories! I want to buy a pygmy puff. Are you gonna get a pet? Oops, sorry! I've said a lot..." Maple, by now has finishes finding the books, and dumped the basket on the floor with a sigh, rubbing his arm. "I forgot how heavy these books are..." He groaned in annoyance.

Anemoi listened to the wizard boy, fascinated. “Ahh, Wales,” a nod, “I’m in England, Birmingham. He–” Anemoi laughed. “He murdered it? Poor tree. It’s nice you’ve got one…. We just have smaller plants, flowers, and veggies and berries, really. But it’s city there.”

She shrugged at the name comment, “I guess so…. Elm is cool. Mine means wind or something, ‘magical wind’ kinda? It’s Greek; Mum liked it. Oh… she’s, they’re both Muggles,” Anemoi glanced up at the door frame awkwardly. “I’m new to… everything…” she let the last books fall into her satchel and brightened again.

“We can keep pets? What’s a pygmy puff?!” She looked at Elm in surprise and laughed again, “I just wanted a cat… or maybe an owl like they used for my letters.”

When Maple returned, Anemoi mumbled something about helping and dashed off to look for some sort of cart to carry the heavy bags. Her shoulder was starting to ache from holding her own by now, and she returned with a rickety copper luggage trolley. She plopped her books onto it and gestured for the boys to do the same.

“Could… uh would you maybe wanna… like meet at the train maybe? At 9 and 3/4ths? For Hogwarts… if we’re both going? I really need to meet people,” this time the laugher was nervous. “I’m trying to make a group… It’s probably better to not have one person. I’m really bad at socializing by myself…” Her face turned a bit rosy, and she looked away to focus on pushing the cart outside. “Plus my family can’t come… since ya know muggle…” Goodness, she felt like she was rambling like Elm now but it seemed like a big thing to ask almost-strangers.

Elm's eyes widened in horror, "No pet trees? Not even a tiny one? Boy, that's sad. I guess I'll have to bring you a seedling from home then! He brightened up at the thought. On hearing that Anemoi was muggleborn, he suddenly jumped up, clapping his hands. "Wow, that's so cool! So like...you've got muggle stuff? You'll have to take me to a store sometime! Sadly, my parents won't let me buy any muggle goods. It's cuz we're purebloods."

Maple, walked over and rubbed his shoulder again before saying, in response to the question about pygmy puffs, "It's a miniature Puffskein. It's still a fairly new breed and it kind of looks like a very colorful and fluffy guinea pig if that helps."

Elm interjected, "I prefer to think of it as a fluffy rainbow cloud!"

At Anemoi's invitation to meet up at 9 3/4 together, Elm's face shone with enthusiasm. "I...I... I'd love to!
I'm still new to the school as well and Maple will probably want to hang out with his own pals and not babysit me." He laughed happily.

Maple nodded at the girl, muttering "Thanks for the cart. Elm and I should be heading there that is..."

Elm shivered as his older brother looked at him sharply. Maple leaned closer, "Did you by chance...pick up your cauldron, glass phials or scales yet?"

"Hehehe, not yet..."

"Elm!!! I swear to God..."

"We got to go! Bye, Moi! See you at 9 3/4!" Elm yelled over his shoulder, pushing his cart as Maple followed after him quickly to give him a lecture. Elm sighed, uttering under his breath, "If Maple doesn't murder me first..."