Widow's Vengeance chapter 14 -

Chapter 14 - what?

Professor McGonagall guided the group away from the clothes shop where they had been fitted for their school robes, and now they were heading towards a wand shop, it was narrow and shabby with peeling gold letters over the door of the shop that said: 'Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C'. The shop's display consisted of a solitary wand lying on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

The inside of the shop was tiny, empty except for a single, spindly chair in the corner. Thousands of narrow boxes containing wands were piled right up to the ceiling of the tiny shop, and the whole place had a thin layer of dust about it.

"Garrick Ollivander, if you try to surprise me again then I will hex you." Professor McGonagall said the instant the door had closed.

"Must you spoil my fun?" A voice said as Mr Ollivander came out of a corner, he was dressed in reddish-purple clothes and had hair that reminded Harry of pictures he had seen of Albert Einstein.

"Yes," Professor McGonagall replied shortly before gesturing to the three children. "I have three new customers for you. With me are Mr Clint Rushman, Miss Natasha Rushman and you of course recognise…"

"Harry Potter." Ollivander said before she could finish, "How could I not? The boy's the spitting image of his father, though his eyes…most definitely his mothers."

"Oh, thank you, sir." Harry said, blushing slightly.

"That's quite alright, young man." Ollivander smiled at him. "Now, who is going first?"

It was nearly an hour later before Clint and Natasha had managed to get their wands, Clint had gone first and had tried out plenty of wands, some produced small sparks while others ended up destroying things which Professor McGonagall would almost lazily magically repair if Mr Ollivander didn't do so first. After roughly twenty-four minutes he was able to get a wand with a thestral hair for a core. A thestral being a magical creature that was unable to be seen by those who had not seen death. Natasha went next and after roughly twenty-five minutes before she found her own wand which was – very surprisingly – also a wand with a thestral hair for a core.

"And now Mr Potter's turn." Ollivander said once he was done with Natasha.

"Oh, I already have a wand." Harry replied.

"You do?" Ollivander asked, sounding disappointed that he wouldn't get to give Harry his first wand.

"Yeah." Harry nodded before pulling out his wand, Professor McGonagall gasped, causing everyone to look at her.

"That…that's the headmaster's wand!" She said, pointing to the wand.

"No it's not," Harry frowned. "I've had it for years."

"The headmaster lost it years ago," Professor McGonagall began explaining. "he claimed to have lost it when a nightmare attacked him."

"Oh." Harry blinked, able to put the pieces together.

"Well, the wand either didn't properly belong to him or he stole it." Natasha spoke up. "That's probably why Knight took it back." She whispered to Harry.

"Miss Rushman, that is a very severe accusation to make." Professor McGonagall frowned.

"But it's true, the wand is a family wand and as far as we're aware the headmaster is not related to Harry." Natasha responded.

"Ah," Ollivander breathed as he looked at the wand. "this wand did indeed formerly belong to Professor Dumbledore, but I sense now that its loyalty belongs to another." He said.

"Another?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Indeed," Ollivander nodded before turning to Harry. "You have blood bounded it to yourself?" He asked.

"Yes sir, my familiar suggested it to me." Harry nodded. "How did you know?"

"There are a great many things I don't know, but if it is something about wands then assume I know about it. Forgive me, but your familiar suggested it?" Ollivander asked.

"He's very smart." Harry shrugged.

"Hmm," Ollivander hummed as if that was all he needed to hear. "well…if this wand truly belonged to your family and is indeed blood bound to you then it won't work for another. Do take good care of it."

"I will, sir." Harry nodded.

"By the way, is there anything we can buy to hold them in like holsters or something?" Clint asked. "Or do we just keep them in our pockets?"

"As it so happens, I have a lovely collection of holsters." Ollivander said with a smile.

A short while later the group walked out of the shop with two new wands and three new wand holsters along with a disturbed Professor McGonagall who had no idea how she was going to start explaining this to Professor Dumbledore.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ah, Minerva." Dumbledore said when Professor McGonagall arrived in his office later that day. "I believe you have just come back from taking Mr Potter to get his school supplies." He said with a pair of twinkling eyes. "Did you learn anything important?" He asked, eager to learn as much as he could.

"Well...I learnt that he's living with a muggle and a squib." Professor McGonagall slowly began.

"Hmm." Professor Dumbledore hummed as he digested that particular piece of information.

"He has two other children he has been living with, Mr Clint and Miss Natasha Rushman." Professor McGonagall added.

"That is nice." Dumbledore smiled as he thought about how those two could factor into his plans.

"Oh, and I mustn't forget that he owns a nightmare and has blood bound your wand to himself." Professor McGonagall added in a casual voice.

"Well, isn't that love..." Dumbledore trailed off as her words finally registered in his head. "...wait, what?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few weeks later it was finally time for Harry, Natasha and Clint to attend magical school. They had all gotten up early to go to the train station so they could get on Platform nine and three quarters, despite Clint's loud protests about how they could just stay home longer and have Knight take them there later. They were able to get through the magical barrier that would take them onto the platform by running through the apparently solid barrier between platform nine and ten.

Matt, being the only muggle, had grabbed onto Jess so he could come with them as they passed through. Once on the other side they found themselves facing a scarlet steam engine train, they saw many people walking up and down the platform.

"Alright kids, it looks like the train will be going soon." Matt said before he and Jess gave the trio a pair of hugs each.

"Now, remember to behave." Jess told them. "I don't want to hear you bullying anyone but do not let yourselves be bullied, do your best with your school work and for god's sake, write to me every few days or at least once a week, got it?"

"Got it." The three chorused with a smile on their faces.

"Good, but remember no harming anyone." Matt said.

"Unless you mean to do harm, in which case do lots of harm!" Jess replied, causing Matt to face palm.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A short while later the trio were sat in a train compartment as the train took off from the station, the trio spent the first few minutes of the trip discussing what possible things they could do once they reached Hogwarts.

They had just pulled out a few books from their trunks when suddenly the compartment doors opened and a lanky, freckled boy with red hair, clothes that looked second hand and dirt on his nose appeared.

"Do you mind?" He asked, gesturing to the seat next to Clint since Natasha and Harry were sat opposite him. "Everywhere else is full."

"Sure." Harry shrugged.

"Thanks." The boy smiled before coming inside and sitting next to Clint, placing himself opposite Harry.

"I'm Ron by the way, Ron Weasley." The boy said.

"Natasha, Natasha Rushman." Natasha said, holding back the urge to frown. She knew who Ron was, and as far as she was concerned he was simply a bad influence that Harry didn't really need in his life. She realised that she could probably get rid of him now but it would be more effective in the long term if Harry saw why he shouldn't hang around with him. "That's my brother, Clint." She said, gesturing to Clint who gave Ron a small nod but nothing more since he also knew who Ron was.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter." Harry said.

"Are you really?" Ron asked with wide eyes, looking like he struck a goldmine. "Do you really have the…the…"

"The what?" Harry asked, despite having a good idea what Ron was talking about.

"You know…" Ron trailed off and gestured to his forehead.

"If you mean a forehead then yes he does." Clint responded.

"No," Ron looked at Clint like he had grown two new heads. "I meant the scar."

"Oh, yeah." Harry said in a slow voice before pulling back his hair to show his scar.

"Wicked." Ron breathed.

"Glad you think so." Harry said awkwardly, not entirely of the same opinion, as far as he was concerned the scar was just a stupid reminder that his parents were dead. Thankfully this awkward situation was interrupted when the trolley lady arrived. Harry got up and immediately brought himself some snacks and brought some for Natasha and Clint. Ron had looked quite put out at not being able to buy his own sweets since he didn't really have the money for it, he had spent a few minutes staring longingly at the sweets. Harry noticed and - bless his innocent little soul - offered Ron a few.

Ron's eyes lit up and he quickly dug into the few that Harry had offered, unfortunately he finished them quite quickly. He looked around and saw a few on the seat next to him and reached out for them.

"Hey," Clint pulled them out of his reach. "those are mine, we already gave you some. Don't get greedy." Ron glared at him for a moment before muttering out an apology and turning away.

"These spells look really interesting." Natasha said to Harry as she and Harry began looking through her charms book. The two were sat next to each other and reading from the same page.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, reading along with her. "the cleaning charms look useful." Harry said with a grin, Natasha returned it since they both knew that Harry's wand didn't have the trace on it and he would likely be able to perform these spells once they got back hime.

"You two are reading already?" Ron said with disbelief. "We haven't even gotten to school yet."

"There's nothing wrong with reading in advance." Natasha said, Ron turned red slightly since he felt like something in her voice told him she was telling him off for what he had said. Ron looked at Harry and saw that he and Natasha had both become immersed in their books, he turned to the only other available person in the compartment and saw that Clint had also pulled out a book. Ron said a few less than complimentary things under his breath but didn't say anymore.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next few minutes passed in silence with the exception of discussing their books, and Ron revealing his pet rat. Clint and Natasha had exchanged looks when Ron had pulled out his rat 'Scabbers', but they did not do more than that. All of a sudden the blissful silence was broken by a new arrival.

The doors opened to reveal a boy with slicked back blonde hair and grey eyes, he had a haughty look on his face and standing behind him were two big boys that looked like mini-bodyguards.

"So it's true then," The blonde boy spoke up. "what they're saying on the train, Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts. My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He said, he would have said more to Harry if not for the fact that Ron snorted at that exact moment. "Think my name's funny, do you?" He demanded while glaring at Ron. "No need to ask yours. Red hair and hand me down clothes? You must be a Weasley." He said, causing Ron to turn red with anger. Draco ignored him and seemed to have just realised that there were two other people in the compartment. "Who are you two?"

"Natasha and Clint Rushman." Natasha answered.

"I haven't heard of any 'Rushman's'," Draco frowned before looking at them with disgust, a look that Harry did not like seeing directed to Clint and Natasha. "your parents aren't wizards, are they?"

"No, is that a problem?" Clint asked challengingly.

"See Potter, two great examples of the people you should avoid." Draco said as he gestured to Clint and Ron. "You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, you don't want to be making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you with that." He said before extending his hand.

"I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks." Harry said in a cold voice, not impressed with the way that Draco had insulted Natasha and Clint. Oh...and Ron too, he supposed.

"You'll pay for that, Potter." Draco said, glaring at him, he looked back towards his two friends/bodyguards and clicked his fingers, the two boys cracked their knuckles before moving forwards. Clint and Natasha both rolled their eyes, they were about to get up but stopped when they noticed something.

Everyone turned to the window when they heard a growling sound, Knight was outside of the window and running alongside the train, he was looking inside the window. Ron, Draco and Draco's two friends paled at the very sight of him, Knight let out an angry noise and the four immediately screamed and ran out of the compartment. Harry and the Rushman siblings exchanged looks before bursting into laughter mere moments later.

"Nicely done, Knight." Harry said to Knight who was still running alongside the train. "Go ahead, we'll meet you at school." Knight nodded before speeding away from the train. "He's the best." Harry chuckled.