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Diagonally

Summary:

School supply shopping for muggleborns can be quite interesting.

Notes:

WARNINGS: Sensory overload
If you read my Harry Potter oneshots, this is the last part of the Rowenverse found there, from here on out they will all be here only. I don't know how all this'll be expanding, and how many oneshots there will be, but I have quite a few ideas down already to write in the future.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

It was the first week in August when the Potter/Dursley(/Lupin) family found time to shop for school supplies. Rowen was bouncing around the house, much more accustomed to her Uncle Harry's family and her being a witch after the few months since her birthday. Teddy had told her a bit about what Diagon Alley was like, but she was excited to see it for herself. She checked her small bag for the fifth time, making sure she had anything she might need for the afternoon, and got in the car; she had too much energy to just walk, excitement making her very "stimmy," as her dad called it, so she hopped her way there (somewhat successfully, her coordination wasn't great after all).

The duo was the last to get to the Potter house, Andromeda (who always went school shopping with Teddy and was excited to meet Rowen) having come in earlier that morning. She nearly jumped out of the car while it was still moving, would have if not for the child lock because she never seemed to learn, when she saw Teddy sitting on the porch swing in his chosen dress for the day (a bit cool, due to the breeze, but Harry would probably shove a coat at him as they left). The metamorphmagus led them to the house to meet his grandma, he and the girl chatting excitedly the entire way about some things the latter had been teaching herself about wandlore.

"Alright, we'll eat lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, and go to Diagon Alley from there. Teddy and Andromeda will go first, then Rowen can go with Draco and Dudley with me so you can learn how flooing works."

"That's the one where you go through the fire, right?"

"Correct, you must enunciate clearly to get where you intend, or you may end up somewhere like Knockturn Alley."

"Are you ever going to let that go?" Harry pouted, apparently referencing some other stupid incident he'd gotten into as a child.

"Nope, never."

"You must admit, Harry dear, that from what I heard from Molly you practically word vomited after she told you that."

"Yes, yes, we get it, do as I say not as I do, Teddy don't attract serial killers this year-"

"Merlin, Harry," Draco snorted.

"Be more like Draco."

"So stalk my crush around all year pretending I hate them?"

"You have a crush?" Andromeda teased, catching his slip up as Rowen giggled.

"Uuh, come on grandma we have to go! I'm starving!" He deflected, pulling the woman into the fireplace and grabbing a handful of the powder set near it. "Diagon Alley!" He shouted, and in a puff of green flame, the two were gone.

Rowen held tightly to her uncle on her turn, squeezing her eyes shut and keeping her bag close to her chest as they whizzed through the network, being spat out in a pub and falling flat onto her rear. She gladly accepted Uncle Harry's help, and upon seeing her dad meet the same fate she giggled.

The five sat for dinner, ignoring the stares that came with being, well, them ("Is that Harry Potter? Oh my Merlin!" "Look at that one over there, it's Malfoy, the one Death Eater who let the others into Hogwarts...-" "That's one of the disowned Blacks there innit?" "See, that's the auror and the werewolf's kid there"), and Harry happily conversed with the innkeeper. When they finished, they came to a brick wall in the back, to which Draco tapped a pattern and revealed a shopping district. All of the hustle and bustle both amazed and overwhelmed Rowen, and she cringed a bit into her father until she got used to it.

"Alright, Andy and I will go with Teddy to get his new books, you three get robes, a wand, and meet at Flourish and Blotts in... an hour?"

"An hour, Dray?"

"You're welcome."

The trip to Madam Malkin wasn't too far, and the woman and her apprentice greeted them happily. Rowen shied away from their touch initially, but the women were used to this (especially after the war) and simply went as quickly as possible.

"Alright, this part can be a bit frustrating, don't worry though," Harry explained as they left the robes shop. "We're going to Ollivander's and getting you a wand. You were reading up about them, weren't you? So I probably don't have to explain much."

"Ah, welcome back, Harry. Teddy hasn't broken their wand, have they?" An old man stood at the front desk and greeted them, though his eyes slid over to the newcomers. "Oh, who are you?"

"No, no, Dray would never let him hear the end of it. This is my cousin Dudley, and his daughter Rowen. She's here for her first wand."

"Well, quite exciting! Come step up, dear, let's try some things. How much do you know about wands?"

"I've been reading up on them, sir, and how they are quasi-sentient and require a preferred match to work correctly."

"Oh, I like this one," he grinned at her. He waved toward the boy who was standing in the rows behind him, spouting off numbers, and he rushed off and came back with a few boxes to try out.

They were there for about 45 minutes, much to Rowen's frustration, and had only barely been able to stave off a meltdown when one of the failed attempts let out a loud BANG. "Alright, Rowen, I think this may be the one. I've said that about the last few, but I failed to consider a certain variable, so let's try this one out, yes?" The girl took the wand warily, gnawing on the chewie in her mouth as she observed it. "Pine wood, 9 and a half inches, unicorn hair, fairly flexible."

Rowen took the wand hesitantly, waving it and expecting another avalanche of papers or bright lights like earlier (she could see her father and uncle behind her, ready to move and help her should she spiral completely). Instead, a soft and sweet tune radiated from the device, instantly calming her as she recognized it as a lullaby her father had always sung her when she got overwhelmed, even though there was a different quality that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Some of the tension eased off her shoulders as she swayed to the music, bringing a smile to the three men's faces.

"That's a lullaby I've been singing since, well, since before she was born. The harmony is different though..."

"It's remnant of a Desi song that Remus showed me, one my father apparently liked to play. Her wand must have connected to that somehow."

"Indeed," Ollivander supplied, "she finds the most comfort in you two, as well as in music, so the wand channeled into a source for that comfort. You've sung that song around her Harry, haven't you?"

"Not recently, but when she was much younger and I would babysit, yes I would hum it while doing housework." The men talked quietly for a bit longer, giving Rowen the time to self-regulate, before the music finished and she looked back at her father and uncle. The latter cast a tempest, then thanking the wandmaker and rushing the other two to the bookstore.

"As I told you, Teddy, even with the hour they were late," Draco teased as they walked up to the others.

"Must you always be a git?"

"Sorry, Draco."

"Oh, it's not your fault Rowen, I took over an hour to match with my wand. However, your uncle very well could have remembered the short way from Madam Malkin's to Ollivander's, instead of through the crowds."

Harry's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. "Damn!" He exclaimed, bringing the other 5 to laugh at him.

"Uncle Harry, will they teach me how to make that music again at Hogwarts?" Rowen asked as they moved down the aisles.

"What music?"

"Upon being matched, her wand played a lullaby Dudley sang for her, mixed with a song from my childhood."

"The Desi one you sing while doing housework?" Teddy asked, pausing in his analysis of a new copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.

"Precisely."

"You mean that's not normal?" Dudley asked, slightly worried.

"All wand pairings are different. Harry's had sort of an aura that he found the correct one, Draco's smoothed out his robes since they were bugging him,-"

"Mum told you about that?"

"Dear, Cissy tells me everything. And then Teddy's transfigured his trousers into a long skirt."

"Yes, wasn't that just the best way to tell my whole family I'm genderfluid?" Said boy muttered.

"Oh, we knew long before that incident. Anyways, they vary depending on what someone might need or want at the time, be it comfort or a big sign, or whatever else."

"It wasn't a particular spell, per se, so I don't know how to replicate it, but Hermione might know something that could do similar." They talked more about the possibilities as they shopped for Teddy and Rowen's necessary books, even getting them a few just because they wanted them; between the Potter, Malfoy, and Black (which Andromeda had gotten access to from Narcissa after Bellatrix's death, and as such Teddy did as well) family fortunes, and the fact that the Dursley's were fairly well off also, they were glad to spoil the kids a bit.

The month would be hectic, between Draco and Harry's wedding, meeting and integrating into the new family, preparations for Hogwarts, and then actually traveling away from home, but Rowen couldn't say she wasn't excited.

Notes:

I learned that wands are semi-sentient and rely on the instincts of their owners as well as their witches and ran with it. Rowen might not be particularly powerful, but she will be gifted. Also, non binary Teddy because you didn't think I wouldn't project onto everyone, did you?

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