Chapter Two: New Friendship

As Mr. Drew, Mrs. MacMillan, and my mom started talking about stories they read from the Daily Prophet, Addeline came over to talk to us.

“Hey Ernie, and err Ernie’s friend, I’m Addeline, and you are?” my voice cracked from lack of use, but I managed to muster the words,

“Oh, I’m Taylor.. Taylor Valentino.”

“Nice to meet you, hey can you guys come up to the counter with me,” she whispered, “Ollivander kinda creeps me out.”

So Ernie and I walked her up to the counter and after two tries at different wands, she found the perfect one, 12.5" Yew, Dragon Heartstring. After ‘Uncle Drew’ bought Addeline’s wand, we walked outside. Some hairy giant oaf nearly ran us over trying to clear the way for his dorky charity case boy. Everybody kept staring at that kid; he had obnoxiously round glasses, brown messy hair, and a confused look upon his face, as if he never had seen the magical world before. Ha loser. At least I wasn’t THAT guy; poor kid will never accomplish anything. At that moment I heard a bunch of people whisper the name ‘Harry Potter’ with such excitement. I know I’ve heard that name before, but I just could not put my finger on it. I’d feel like a moron if I asked who he was so I just stared and pointed like everyone else.

My mom and Mrs. MacMillan wanted to go to Flourish and Blotts to get our books but the three of us wanted to pick out our new owls. After of what seemed like forever, they let us go off on our own with a bundle of sickles. We made our way through the crowd to Eeylops Owl Emporium where a bunch of, well, owls were sitting in their cages squawking.

“I don’t know about you two, but I’m set for Slytherin, it’s in my blood, well on my father’s side of course Ernie. Everyone knows your mother’s side is purely Hufflepuffs. What about you Taylor?” Addeline said turning towards me.

“Well…” I sighed looking at a snowy barn owl I was thinking of buying.
“All my family has been in Hufflepuff...at least six generations, except for my great aunt..she was sorted into Slytherin.. But my whole family was so ashamed that nobody ever invited her to the holiday reunions again…SO, hopefully that stroke of bad luck won’t grace itself upon me. No offense of course!”

“That’s alright mate, I can tell you’ll be in Hufflepuff just like me, and we can be the best in our house. You’ll see”, reassured Ernie.

I felt like Addeline should have been offended by my rant, but it didn’t seem to faze her.

One of the owls had reached through its cage and had bitten Ernie making his drop his entire sack of gold. Quickly we picked up the fallen coins and dropped them into the leather pouch. As Ernie cursed at the tawny owl, I noticed the snowy barn owl I was going to buy was gone. I was kind of disappointed about the disappearing owl, but eventually I ended up buying a smaller tawny owl that was beside it. Ernie bought a black and white barn owl, and Addeline bought the one that bit Ernie. She thought it was hilarious and kept joking about how she’d make it nip at Ernie in his sleep. While we waited for our parents to meet us, we decided to name our new feathered friends. I named my owl Oliver, Ernie named his Gandalf, and Addeline named hers MooMoo.

After a few minutes, our parents found us and greeted our new pets.

“We picked up your cauldron and other supplies too, that’s why we took a little bit longer than we thought. Are you ready to go home?”

We all shrugged with indifference and walked back towards the entrance of Diagon Alley. That hairy giant from early bumped into me again and I flew into the counter of Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor, and do you know what he was holding in his dirty meat claw hands? The owl I was going to buy..

“Oh my gosh Taylor are you okay?!” shrieked my mom.

“Yeah…I’m fine...”

But I wasn’t. I was so mad; such anger has never filled my body. The only thing I could think was, though I didn’t know who Harry Potter or his giant friend was, I knew now, that I didn’t like them..not one bit.

At the Leaky Cauldron, we said our goodbyes to Addeline and her father, and headed back to my house. After tons of begging, and a horrific car drive home, our mothers allowed Ernie to spend the night. We had about one week left of summer until school started, we might as well make the most of it. That night we stayed up until 2AM talking about all of the possibilities, the mysteries, and the adventure that was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We kept making up scenarios of him and me leading the Hufflepuff Quidditch team to victory, and being the coolest first years in the history of the school. Eventually though, we passed out on my old bunk bed. The following week went by oddly fast. Monday my dad showed me how to properly mow the lawn with magic (3 more days..), Tuesday I tried studying for a while but got bored and painted a picture of the garden patch (2 more days..), Wednesday I spent the day getting ready for tomorrow, my first day at Hogwarts. I packed all of clothes and supplies thinking that it would make time go by faster, but it didn’t. Now all I could do was sit and wait until Thursday…I had managed to completely erase the thought of Sorting and the pressure to get into Hufflepuff until now. What if I don’t get in?