The Letter

The date is 09 January, 1991, Robert was in dreamland, when suddenly a sound of something hitting glass appeared, it didn't matter what the dream was about, or if the sound was ignored, it eventually came back.

Then the sound got louder and prompted the dream to become a more sinister experience, which made the boy wake up. What was weird was the fact that the sound didn't stop, so turning to its source, Rob noticed an owl, hitting his window with its beak and glaring, seemingly hatefully, at him.

Rubbing the sleep off of his eyes, he got up and opened the window, allowing the owl to swoop in his room and quite strongly land on his outstretched arm.

With a wince of pain and a glare at the owl Robert took the letter that the owl carried and looked at its back where he saw that it was addressed for him.

Having a good guess what the letter was about he started to get excited, only to be reminded, with a jolt of pain, of the owl still perched at his arms.

"Right, you're still here." the boy said looking at the animal. A simple "hoot" was his answer.

"Since I made you wait outside, I'll give you some treats." he continued as he started to go towards the kitchen.

The other residents were already awake, as per the noise of their conversation in the dining room. This made Rob change his mind and go tell the news to his family, he also knew that there would be something that he could give the owl so it would release its grip in his arm.

The appearance of the youngest resident garnered attention of all those who were seated, the angry owl and the tightly held letter were also noticed.

"I suppose the day has finally come, I hoped we would've had more time." Susan said, already taking a bacon strip to feed the angry bird.

Mary, looking more excited than the rest said, "Oh come on, it took long enough, at the rate he was learning he'd have to skip a few years to actually start learning something there."

"Yes, Robert is a very good student, but I don't think his excitement is because he's going to learn more stuff." piped in Melania, while adorning a knowing smile.

Arcturus was quite confused about his wife's opinion and questioned her, "What do you mean by that? The boy almost swallows every new book that we give to him."

With the smile growing even more she said, "Well, we can't deny him a wand anymore, can we?"

Now with his arm free, and noticing that everyone was in the room, including the house-elves, Robert shouted, "It's here, my Hogwarts letter is here!"

"Yes dear we can see, now why don't you have a seat and eat so you give me some time to write to St. Mungo's about me getting there a little late?" his mother said to him, while feeding the owl, who gave her a soft "hoot" and flew away through the opened window.

The boy took a seat and started eating his breakfast, while the other gave him happy smiles.

When he finished eating all the other members were already waiting for him so they could go and buy the needed material.

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They took the Floo to get to the Leaky Cauldron, after getting there they used the passage to the Diagon Alley.

Since it was the beginning of the year the alley wasn't too crowded, this allowed them to gather around the letter and formulate a plan in order to buy everything more efficiently.

They decided to each go to a store and buy the necessities. Obviously, Robert would go to the ones that required his presence, such as the clothing and the wand's shops. Susan decided to accompany him.

Arcturus went to the apothecary, he would buy the cauldron, the scale, the vials and the potion ingredients that would be used throughout the year.

Melania was responsible for the trunk and the telescope. She decided to get a seven compartment trunk, which would be useful for Robert's whole life, thanks to the enchantments and runes used on creating it. She'd also meet with her husband to make it simple for them to carry all the stuff that they'd buy.

Mary went for Eeylops Owl Emporium, since she was the animal specialist in the family, she'd have to find a good one for Rob to use and for it to turn into the family's owl once he was done with school.

Robert didn't want any of them buying his books, because he knew that they'd only buy the ones listed on the list. He knew that if he went he'd be able to get some that he had been looking forward to. Mainly the ones about The-Girl-Who-Lived, for he didn't have any of them in the library at Rosier Manor.

With their tasks distributed he went to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, they were greeted by Madam Malkin herself, and were led towards the back so she could take the boy's measurements.

The uniform consisted of three sets of plain black work robes, one plain pointed black hat for day wear, one pair of protective gloves and one winter cloak colored black, with silver fastenings.

They were informed that their order would be ready by the end of the day, so Susan decided to just go there when she ended her shift.

After the clothes, they went to Ollivanders, they did have to walk across the whole alley and strangely enough they didn't bump into any of the others.

Upon entering the shop, they saw that it was empty, so they gave a look around. The shop was tiny, with a single, spindly chair in the corner. Thousands of narrow boxes were piled up to the ceiling of the shop, and the whole place had a thin layer of dust about it.

"Hello, welcome to Ollivanders, makers of fine wands since 382 B.C., I assume you're here for your first wand young man." said a voice from behind them, prompting the mother and son duo to jump a bit in surprise.

Susan composed herself first, remembering that the man had done the same when she had first went to his shop, back when she was eleven years old. Now looking at him she said, "Yes, Mr. Ollivander, it'll be his first."

Ollivander, with a small smile and a twinkle in his eyes, said "Ah, Susan Rosier, 11 inches, Cherry, dragon heartstring. It has been a while since we last saw each other, I must congratulate you on your professional prowess."

"Thank you Mr. Ollivander, I'd love to catch up, but I still have to work, so shall we begin?" she answered while guiding Robert toward the front of the counter.

Now focusing on the boy, Ollivander said, "Of course, and who might you be, I haven't had the pleasure to make you acquaintances."

"I'm Robert Rosier, nice to meet you." the boy said while extending his hand for a handshake.

The old man took his hand, gave it a shake and started to inspect his arm, before the boy could react, a measuring tape was flying around doing what it was created to do.

"I believe that your right hand is the dominant one, correct?" he asked, now looking at the boy's hand. Robert's response was a simple "Yes."

Upon hearing the boy's answer, Ollivander let go of his arm and went toward the back to grab some boxes for the boy to try.

He returned with ten boxes, put them side by side atop the counter and started with the one in the rightmost position.

"Give it a flick." he said while handing the wand to Robert.

When Robert did so, a few boxes at the back went flying, generating a lot of noise, which made the now red faced boy lower his head with a sorry expression.

Ollivander seeing his reaction just said, "Don't worry about that, it's pretty normal when choosing the first wand, I wouldn't be surprised if more things end up broken today."

That lifted Rob's mood, and he decided to continue trying the wands. At the end, none of the ten wands worked for him, although the eighth one was the least destructive.

After he went through all ten, Ollivander took the boxes back to where he got then, and returned with six more boxes.

"I believe that your wand might be in one of these boxes, here give this a try." he said while giving the boy one of the wands.

Robert didn't get any reaction from the wand, so Ollivander quickly took it from him and replaced it with another one.

When he touched the wand he felt his magic rush through his body and leave the wand tip in a blindingly bright red light, he felt the connection between his core and the wand's core. He felt as if he had finally been complete.

"Here we are, Beech wood with a unicorn hair core, 12 ¾ inches, with supple flexibility. This wand will be very good for the finer details, it won't be very good for people who like to overpower their spells." the wandmaker said while analysing the bond.

He took all the other boxes and put then to the side, once again focused on Robert and said, "There was a boy who came here and got a wand with very similar characteristics to yours, although not made of the same materials, both yours and that wand have the potential for the most intricate sort of magic."

When he was talking, Ollivander had a small glow to his eyes, as if he was in a sort of trance, but it was broken when he finished and said, "That'll be seven galleons, please."

Susan paid the man and took Rob's hand, as they were leaving, they heard Mr. Ollivander said to their backs, "Mr. Rosier, that boy that I mentioned was called Albus Dumbledore, and I do believe that you can reach heights as high as he has."

When that sinked in they were already outside the shop, and the small plaque at the door had been flicked to indicate that the store was closed.

"Come on, we still have to get your books." the mother said while guiding both of them to Flourish and Blotts.

They had, again, to cross the alley, only this time they met their remaining companions.

Upon seeing the faces of the mother and son duo, Mary asked, "What's up with those faces?"

To which Robert said, " Mr. Ollivander said that I could be as great as Dumbledore."

Now all five of them shared a surprised face. The first to break the silence was Arcturus, of course you'll be as great as him, you're a great young man, that has a lot of talent and is hard working, besides, you have the blood of the Black family in your veins, so don't worry, you'll be great."

His typical view of his family's superiority eased of the atmosphere and they got back to their tasks.

Both Arcturus and Melania had bought everything that they set out to buy, Mary was holding a cage with a young looking chestnut colored barn owl. They decided to call him Gizmo.

Now, with only the books left to buy, they continued their walk towards the bookstore.

The group wasn't new to the store, having gone there many times with Robert, when he wished to find a book that wasn't at his house's library. Thus, they were already used to the enormous amount of books that could be found in the store.

The books, of all sizes and varieties, were placed on shelves that lined the walls, from ceiling to floor. There were so many books that various signs were posted throughout the shop, as a means of helping customers find what they needed.

The adults knew of how Robert would act, so they went outside to wait for him while they ate some brunch.

The boy was like a fish in water, navigating through shelves as if he knew where everything was. That wasn't the case for one young girl who also was at the store, she had a long mane of brown hair and rather large front teeth, she seemed to be lost for she was frantically looking around for something. So much so that she didn't notice the boy who came rushing from the corner and they crashed into each other.

"Ouch, I'm sorry about that, I was in a rush and wasn't looking where I was going. Are you ok?" she heard the voice of a boy, who seemed to be of similar age of hers.

The girl looked up to see the one who had crashed into her, what she saw was a fairly tall boy, with black short wavy hair, a pretty face and the bluest of blue eyes she had ever seen.

"I'm fine, but you should be more careful, this isn't a place to run around, you could've damaged the books." she said while taking his outstretched hand and getting up.

Robert had a sheepish look at his face at the girl's answer, but he concluded that she might have been angry at him for the crash, so he put on a smile and said, "I'm Robert Rosier, nice to meet you."

The girl looked at the boy with a hint of surprise in her face, normally people would just talk back to her or ignore her, especially when she talked like that. She was so shaken that she didn't realize that she automatically answered by saying, "Hermione Granger, nice to meet you too."

"Are you sure you're ok? You don't seem fine, did you hit your head? My mom's a healer, she can have a look if you want." Rob said upon seeing the confused look at Hermione's face.

That got her out of her trance, and she responded, "No, it's fine. It's just that no one's normally like that to me." her voice getting lower as she said that.

"Well, you were right, I shouldn't run here, so I get why you answered like that." the boy said with a smile on his face.

That painted the girl's cheeks a small tinge of red, and Robert seeing that she wouldn't continue the conversation said, "Anyway, since I crashed into you, let me help you out, I can find any book that you are looking for in this store."

Hermione returned the smile to the boy and proceeded to tell him about the books that she was looking for. They were all about magical theory.

Robert guided them to the correct section and gave his farewells to the girl, he knew his mother and aunt Mary still had work to do and were waiting for him, so he decided to come browse through the book at a later day.

After finding all the books he needed for Hogwarts and getting some about the Girl-Who-Lived, Robert went to the counter and paid for his books.

He walked out of the store and found his family sitting near a stall, at the other side of the alley, eating some chips. He went to them and put his books in his trunk, after they finished they left, the young women to their jobs and the boy alongside the older couple back to Rosier Manor.