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Celia Croal	By : Haggishunter Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 1101 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters. This is a purely not for profit fictional story, I make no money from this tale and any similarities to people are purely coincidental.

Chapter List
- 1-Celia Croal
- 2-Chapter 2
- 3-THREE
- 4-FOUR
- 5-FIVE
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- 2
- 3
Celia thought being transported from one place to another in a blink of an eye would have been smooth. She had watched Star Trek and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory many times and they never seemed to have any problems reappearing moments later but as her stomach convulsed she realized that she was being silly. They were not real and this ughh, her hand shot to her mouth, this was... her stomach convulsed once more before she threw up, narrowly missing several people who were rushing along the busy London street.

"Come on, let's get something down you" Neville said, putting a comforting hand around her shoulder and guiding her into the dimly lit bar.

"I don't think I'm up for eating sir" Celia replied as she wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

"Sure you are. A little sustenance and you'll be right as rain."

"A newbie, Professor Longbottom?" the barman asked. "Nice to meet you young miss" he said proffering his hand and giving a toothy grin.

Celia took it in hers and shook firmly. Her mother had always said weak shakes were a sign of a weak person and she didn't want to start her new life giving off that impression. "Hi, I'm Celia. You have a nice bar, mister." Celia returned the smile and looked around. There were small differences in this bar that she hadn't really noticed when she first stepped in. Now, however, as she slowly looked around she could see teacups stirring themselves, chairs stacking without any assistance, papers moving, wait what?? She turned back. The paper was moving! She hadn't imagined it. She tried peering closer to get a better look but the wizard reading it turned the page. She looked around again and noticed that even the beer looked odd. "What's that?" she asked pointing to a glass with foam on the top.

"Butterbeer, would you like to try it?" Neville looked down at her inquisitive eyes.

"Yes please, sir!" she answered eager to taste the strange drink.

"Oh no need to call me sir out of school Celia. You'll soon get fed up using that term when you take my class." He winked "call me Neville, now why don't you go grab us a couple seats and I'll bring your drink across."

"Yes si... Neville." With a skip in her step Celia crossed to a table that took in the whole room, all the better for taking in the view without appearing overly nosy. As she waited patiently on Neville returning, the door opened and a young family entered.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Mum tell him!" Rose pleaded.

Hermione shook her head. "That's it! The pair of you, behave or I will jinx your behinds."

Rose and Hugo gulped and swiftly moved their hands to their bottoms. "Sorry, we're sorry!" Looking at each other they turned and were about to bolt to the first available seat when their eyes locked on Celia's.

"Ah Rose, Hugo come say hello to your new school friend" Neville called across the room as he weaved through the tables with the butterbeer.

Hermione gave him a quick nod and led her children over to join them at the table. "Hello, I'm Hermione Weasley and these are my children Rose and Hugo. This will be Rose's first year at Hogwarts too. Are you excited?"

"Uhmm hi, I'm Celia. I think I'm a bit nervous and excited to be honest. I've never stayed away from home before and this" she waved around the room, "is all new to me." Smiling lazily as Neville placed the butterbeer before her, she took a sip. "Bleugh!" Celia's face screwed up and began to twitch.

"Oh dear, I think you should perhaps stick with pumpkin juice" Hermione giggled.

"Can't I just have a pepsi?" Celia frowned.

After a little while they stood up, headed to the back of the bar and made their way to the entrance of Diagon Alley. Neville tapped the bricks in sequence and peered over at Celia who was gaping at the street that had just appeared. "Welcome to Diagon Alley" he said.

Celia didn't know where to look. To her left there were cauldrons and brooms and some fancy padded clothing that several young witches and wizards were gathered around, talking animatedly about something called Quidditch. She had no idea what that was but she thought it sounded sporty and as she looked closer at the clothing she recalled how the ice hockey players had looked. Yep, definitely a sport of some kind. Turning to the right she could see owls and books but straight ahead looming over the whole street was an enormous building. Gringotts Bank.

"We need to stop in there first" Neville said following her gaze. Celia ambled along wide eyed beside Neville and climbed the stairs that led up to the large wooden doors. As she stepped through she squealed. What were those creatures? She knew it was wrong to stare but she had never seen anything like them before and couldn't help herself.

"It's rude to stare" a goblin spat at her, his beady eyes narrowing.

Neville ushered her on quickly. "Goblins, nasty creatures, best not to cross them."

Celia looked up and back at the goblin. "I'll bear that in mind."

"Key" the goblin at the desk purred.

Neville dug into his cloak and pulled it out. "Wait here, I won't be a moment" he said facing Celia. He stepped to the side and followed the goblin out to the tracks that led to the vaults. After a few minutes had passed Celia began kicking the tips of her shoes into the ground. She hated waiting. Finally, Neville returned and patting his cloak he nodded for her to follow him out. "Where to first?" he asked more to himself than to Celia.

"How about there?" Celia offered.

Neville laughed. "Perhaps if we have enough after we have your school items we can pop in at Weasleys Wizard Wheezes."

The first port of call they made was to Madam Malkins for the school robes where Rose was already being fitted out. "I'll be with you in a minute" she said scurrying around with her tape measure and pins. Celia wandered through the shop looking at the robes trying to picture herself in one. "Next!" Madam Malkin shouted. "Come, come, we don't have all day." Celia rushed over and in her haste to get on the stool she fell over it. A loud guffaw came from behind a rail causing them both to turn.

"Malfoy that's not funny. She could have been hurt." Rose stormed over to Scorpius, eyes blazing.

"Oh right, if that had been me you wouldn't have laughed?" he countered.

Rose stopped dead. He had a point. If it had been him she would be rolling on the ground in stitches. "Yeah, well it wasn't so stop being so mean."

Celia blushed. She had never had someone stick up for her before. "Thanks Rose." With Madam Malkin taking measurements from every possible position it was no wonder that the finished garment was such a perfect fit. Celia ran to the mirror to check herself out. She twirled and dipped and jumped and shoogled, it was perfect. She marveled at the tailoring which caused Madam Malkin to redden. It had been a long time since anyone had shown such enthusiasm for one of her creations.

"How about I knock a little off the price, just this once" Madam Malkin smiled, taking the cloak from her to parcel up.

"Thank you." Celia beamed back and taking her parcel she skipped out the shop with Rose by her side.

"I've never seen her do that before" Rose said.

"Do what?"

"Smile. Well that and knock the price down. She must really like you." Rose tucked her arm in Celia's and led her along to the next shop. "You need to get a pet. Neville had a toad." Rose giggled and looked at Neville who was mouthing "Trevor" silently, and turned back to Celia. "Most wizards and witches get owls because they are useful. They bring your mail, anything they can carry really and they are beautiful. Mum had a cat, Hugo has an owl and I'm not sure what I want. I'm hoping something just calls out to me."

"An owl sounds nice" Celia said eyeing the owls on display. Neville stepped forward and opened the door, holding it for the girls to go through hoping that they wouldn't dally too long. Celia looked around. Though the owls were impressive they just didn't seem to be what she wanted. Rose, however, had taken to a large white owl called Puffin. For the life of her she couldn't fathom out why it had such a peculiar name and put it down to another wizarding oddity.

Rose beamed at her "aren't you going to get one?" Celia shook her head.

"Perhaps a toad for you then?" Neville asked.

Celia shrugged. "Maybe."

Rose bounced along the street happy as Larry as she held the birdcage in her arms. "You'll find somethin... Celia?" Celia had stopped. She was looking into a dark alley where dark witches and wizards would gather to sell all sorts of goods. A sign on the wall read KNOCKTURN ALLEY. "I wouldn't go down there Celia, it's dangerous."

Neville whipped his head around. "Celia, come away from there."

"What can I get you little girl?" a toothless witch asked from the shadows.

Celia paused. She had been about to follow Neville when a sound from the alley caught her attention. "That!" Celia pointed to a small heap on the ground not far from the toothless witch.

The witch turned and peered into the darkness. A moment later she stepped out into the light, the heap held firmly in her hands. "10 sickles and it's yours." She wanted to ask for a galleon but looking the girl over she doubted whether she would even have a knut. "10 sickles" she repeated.

"Neville I would like that as my pet." Celia turned her pleading eyes on him. "Please."

The witch eyed him hungrily. "Go on tis a bargain at 12 sickles, sir."

"It's barely worth 5 sickles. Celia I'm afraid snakes are not an acceptable pet."

Celia's smile vanished to be replaced with one of sorrow. "I've left everything behind to be a part of this world, my mother... and I can't even have that. It's not even a big snake it's just a baby and look at it, it's barely alive." She turned on the waterworks.

The witch put her arm across her shoulder. "There, there, don't you cry."

Neville slumped and moved closer. "Alright you win. You can have the snake. I doubt it'll last much longer anyway" he said guiltily. He hadn't meant to make her cry and he supposed that he had been a tad insensitive about her predicament. He hadn't really given it a second thought since most pupils came from the wizarding world. "Prepare to have your snake confiscated when you get to Hogwarts" he added as a warning.

Celia threw her arms around Neville "thank you thank you thank you" she blurted as Neville reached in to his pouch and withdrew 10 sickles. The witch held out her hand and took the coins as Celia grasped hold of the snake that she had decided was called Tiny and began crooning at it. Tiny unfurled herself, stuck her tongue out and licked the air. Satisfied she was in no danger she slithered up Celia's chest and draped across her shoulders. "You'll be alright" Celia crooned. Tiny flicked her tongue across Celia's cheek and closed her eyes.

With the last shop in sight Neville rushed them on. Ollivanders, he was excited about this one. Celia had already proven to be quite unusual and he was sure the wand that chose her would be just the same.

"Miss Weasley and Miss Croal it is a pleasure to meet you at last. It seems like just yesterday your mother was in here buying her first wand Miss Weasley. She too is a muggle born" he said as he wandered along the row of shelves. "Very powerful witch, very intelligent, her wand serves her well. Now, let's see..." While he searched his tape flipped to Rose and began measuring the length of her arm, her height, her head. "Perhaps this."

Rose stood there eager to hold her very own wand. When Ollivander presented her with one she hastily tore it from the box and half destroyed the room. "She needs a light wand that's swishy just like her" Celia chirped beside her.

Ollivander stared at Celia for a brief moment. "I wonder" he said as he took the wand from Rose and scurried off to the shelves. A few seconds later he returned with another box. In it was a flexible willow wand with a dragon heartstring core. Celia looked it over and nodded. At 9 inches in length it fit perfectly into Roses hand and began to glow.

"Wow, it tingles. How did you know?" Rose asked, turning to face Celia.

"Indeed, that is an answer I too would like." Ollivander sized her up.

"I don't know. It just seemed obvious cos she's bubbly and bouncy." Celia looked worried. Had she done something wrong?

"And what wand would suit you?" Ollivander asked.

"I don't know. I like dark things so maybe mahogany, I don't know many woods, sorry. I like being on my own, it gives me time to think and I'm opinionated or so my old headteacher kept saying." Rose gave a snigger but quickly covered it up.

Ollivander weighed up what she had told him. At first his instinct was to go to the mahogany wands but then he recalled her saying she didn't know many woods and pushed his ladder along to the ebony wands instead. She was a tricky customer. She knew her own mind as well as any eleven year old did and was intelligent enough to persuade the Professor to buy her a snake as a pet. §"Shh not long now Tiny. You'll get a mouse soon."§ he heard her hiss. While Rose and Neville stared at her, Ollivander grabbed the box to his left and pulled it out.

"You are quite a puzzle Miss Croal. What hidden talents lurk beneath those tendrils?" He held out the box. "Go on try it out." Celia took the ebony wand from the box and waved it around. From the moment it curled between her fingers she knew it was the right one for her. "Ebony, 11 inches, hippogriff talon core, not too flexible, perfect for charms, though I daresay it may prove to be more than that in your hands Miss Croal." Rose nudged Celia and drew her attention to the unvoiced conversation the men now seemed to be having. "I have been meaning to get an apprentice for some time now. After that nasty business with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named it has proven to be of utmost importance but wandlore and the creating of wands is very complex and finding an apprentice has been most difficult. Until now that is. How would you like to be my apprentice? You seem to have a talent for it."

Celia considered it. "I'd love to Mr Ollivander."

"Then I shall dispatch an owl immediately and let Professor McGonagall know you shall be required here every weekend."

Neville nodded to Ollivander and helped the girls out the shop with all their packages. "I think we have just enough left for an icecream and maybe a love potion from Weasleys." He winked at the girls who were rolling their eyes at him and led them across the cobbled road.

"Neville, Tiny is hungry, she needs a mouse" Celia said looking sheepishly at him.

"Then let us first eat" Neville smiled. Celia wasn't a hundred percent sure if it was a smile or not. It seemed to be somewhere in the middle of a smile and a grimace.

"Rose darling" Ron bellowed from the stairs as the trio entered Weasleys Wizard Wheezes.

"Dad! " Rose turned scarlet. She hated him calling her that in public, everyone always stared and giggled but she was at least thankful he didn't call her Poppit like he did at home. Taking Celia's hand Rose led her through the thrum of the crowd towards the love potions and the puking pastilles. "These are great, they really work. You should get some, could prove useful." She winked and looked pointedly at Scorpius.

Celia wasn't sure which one Rose meant would be useful, so with the last of the money that Neville had retrieved for her, she bought both.
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Celia Croal