Peter looked at the poem inscribed on the doors on Gringotts with wide eyes. He'd been to Gringotts before, obviously, but he'd always kept his head down, looking at the floor. The goblins inside scared him with their squinted eyes and pointed fingers. He jumped back as his mum came outside and grabbed his hand.

"Mum." He whined, pulling his hand out of her grip. "I'm 11 now. I don't need you to hold my hand."

"Very well then. Come along, we're a little short on money so you'll have to make do with second hand."

"Just like everything else in my life." Peter muttered. Luckily, his mum didn't hear him.

"Come along, Peter. We need to go to Ollivander's first."

"Coming mum."

"Let's try this wand."

Sirius held back a sigh. He'd tried what was almost certainly every wand in the shop. Nothing seemed to fit. His mum had already yelled twice, once at Ollivander and once at Sirius.

"Reed wood, phoenix feather, 5 inches." Ollivander handed Sirius the wand. "Give it a wave."

Sirius waved it about aimlessly and jumped a little when gold and green sparks shot out of it. A small smile tugged at the side of his mouth.

"Perfect." He declared.

"It's too expensive." Sirius felt his spirit plummet to his shoes at those words. Of course it was too expensive for his mum. All she wanted to do was hoard money.

"I bet that it wouldn't be too expensive for Regulus." Sirius muttered.

"You do not talk to your mother that way." Walburga snapped.

"No mother."

"I assure you madame, it's a very reasonable price."

"Please mother. I promise that I'll take down my poster of the Appleby Arrows if you buy this wand for me."

Walburga glared at her son. "Very well." She said eventually. "Give me the wand, Sirius."

Sirius handed over his new wand and he couldn't help that a smile of triumph flitted across his face. Little did his mother know that his Quidditch poster used a sticking charm. His dad had helped with that.

"Dad?" Remus asked quietly. "Can we go home yet?" There were a couple of days left until the full moon and being around so many people made Remus nervous, even on 'normal' days.

"Nearly done." Lyall reassured. "Madame Malkin just needs to find a robe for you that will fit and then we'll go home."

Remus sighed and stared out the window. He jumped when he saw a face staring back. The face was framed with black curly hair and winked at him before walking away. Remus blinked a couple of times before looking back at his dad. He was glad to see that Madame Malkin had reappeared from the back room and that his dad seemed to be paying.

"Now can we go home?" Remus asked, apprehension creeping into his voice. Lyall nodded and a smile lit up Remus' face.

"Dad, can I get an owl?"

Fleamont looked hesitantly at his wife before looking back at his son.

"I'm not sure James. Owls are very expensive."

"It can be an early birthday present! Please, please, please, please!" James begged. Euphemia sighed.

"Fine. But this is the last thing, okay?"

"Okay!" James said, jumping up and running over to the pet shop. "Come on, come on, come on!"

Euphemia sighed and shook her head before getting up and following James over to the shop. "What owl do you want?"

James looked around at all of the owls in cages, his eyes wide and excited behind his glasses. His eye landed on a brown owl with darker brown specks along its wings. "That one! Please?"

"Fine." Euphemia paid for the owl and James grinned as he carried it out of the shop. He caught sight of a girl with red hair standing by the shop, looking in. He managed to catch her eye and grinned at her before running back to his dad.

"Look dad! Look at my owl! The shop owner says it's a boy."

"What are you gonna call him?"

"I don't know. Maybe Gryffin, after the best House in the world, Gryffindor."

"A Gryffin in Gryffindor. Won't that be interesting." James' grin just got wider and wider as he went back home, too excited to wait for the train to leave in September.

Odd ending, I know. But this story's picking up and I love it!
Bye,
Blaize