Sirius knocked softly on Harry's bedroom door again, the first time had been before he started breakfast, now it was finished. "Are you up yet?"

"Nearly," said Harry.

"Your Hogwarts letter came this morning."

Harry rushed out of his room, half dressed. "Why didn't you say so?" He thundered down the stairs to the kitchen and tore open the letter.

"Dear Mr Potter," Harry read aloud. "We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress. That's my birthday!" He added.

"I've already sent a reply confirming that we got the letter," said Remus, who was sitting at the table across from Harry.

Harry unfolded the second part of the letter and read his list of school books and things:

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for everyday wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

SET BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi  by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

Harry didn't read the last line aloud, though Sirius knew it was a reminder that first-years weren't allowed a broomstick. It was as though by not reading it, Harry would make it untrue. Instead, he addressed the last line he had read, "So, I can't bring Elvendork and an owl? Just one?"

Remus nodded. "It said or, not and."

"With particular emphasis on the or," added Sirius. "I think we may be partly responsible for that rule."

"You notice it doesn't say you can bring a rat or a dog?" said Remus.

Harry snickered, but he changed the topic, "can we buy my stuff after breakfast?"

"I was going to wait until your birthday," said Sirius.

Harry sighed. "Fiiine."

Harry's birthday came in no time at all, though to Harry it must have felt like waiting an eternity. At last, they gathered in the living room to use the floo network. Sirius tossed the glittering floo powder into the grate and at once green flames burst up.

"Now just step in and say 'the Leaky Cauldron' loud and clear, and wait for us," Sirius said to Harry.

Harry looked nervous.

"Maybe you should go first, to — to demonstrate?"

Remus stepped forward. "I'll do it," he said. He stepped into the flames and shouted the address. The emerald flames seemed to swallow him up; he vanished.

With renewed confidence, Harry took stepped into the fire and imitated him.

Sirius followed and next moment he was stepping out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron, and being hugged tightly around the middle by Harry.

"We were only apart for a moment," said Sirius. Harry squeezed tighter.

"That was horrible," he said, and Sirius noticed that he had dried blood on his hands,he must have thrown them out to break his fall and scraped them.

Then Harry's usual spirits returned and he let go. "My glasses shattered," he said. "Uncle Moony repaired them."

Remus flushed at being referred to by his nickname in public.

The door of the bar opened and Sirius spotted the familiar shape of Rubeus Hagrid. "Hey, Hagrid!" Sirius called, waving.

"The usual, Hagrid?" asked the barman, reaching for a glass.

"Not today, Tom," said Hagrid. "I'm here on Hogwarts business."

Sirius, Remus, and Harry followed Hagrid out back to a walled off courtyard, nothing in it but weeds and dustbins. Hagrid tapped a brick in the wall with his flowery pink umbrella and the gateway to Diagon Alley opened up.

"Buyin' Harry his school things?" Hagrid asked. "Lucky yeh didn't get held up much by anyone recognising him."

"They wouldn't recognise him unless we said his name, so it's more lucky nobody said anything 'till now," Sirius replied. "And yes, we are."

"It's my birthday!" said Harry, though he still didn't know who Hagrid was.

"An' happy birthday, Harry," said Hagrid. "Yeh're not eleven every day."

One visit to Gringotts wizard bank later and they were separated from Hagrid, who had to bring whatever he had taken out to Hogwarts.

Next they headed for Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Madam Malkin brought Harry around to the Hogwarts section and Sirius and Remus took seats nearby.

A pale blond boy with a pointed face was being fitted at the same time and Sirius recognised him as the son of his cousin Narcissa Malfoy. He had never learned the boy's name, he wasn't very close with his family.

"Hullo," Malfoy said to Harry. "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"My father's next door buying my books and Mother's up the street looking at wands," drawled Malfoy, sounding rather bored. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I think I'll bully Father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

"How's your mom going to get you a wand if you're not there?" Harry asked. "The wand chooses the wizard."

Malfoy shrugged. "Have you got your own broom?" he asked instead.

"Yes," said Harry.

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"I will when I can, but we've got Muggle neighbours and no cover for flying."

"I do — Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"Gryffindor," said Harry at once.

Malfoy made an annoyed sort of smirk. "Well I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been — imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"No," said Harry. "There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff."

Malfoy scoffed.

"So where are your parents?" he asked after a short silence.

"They're dead," said Harry. "I'm here with my godfather." he gestured to Sirius.

"Oh, sorry," said Malfoy, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

"They were a witch and wizard of that's what you mean." Harry glared at the boy, knowing where he was going.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"

Just as Harry started to reply, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry hopped down from the footstool he'd been standing on.

"It's Potter," said Sirius, leading the way out of the shop.

"The other sort," muttered Harry angrily.

"He's just parroting what his parents have told him," said Sirius.

They bought his other school supplies, including an owl as his birthday present so he could send letters, until all they had left was his wand.

The shop appeared empty and if Sirius hadn't known better he might have thought it was abandoned. "Ollivander really needs to do some dusting," he said, running a finger along the dusty windowsill.

"He also needs to buy another chair," said Harry, pointing at a single spindly chair, the only chair in the room.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice, making them all jump. Ollivander had crept up on them from wherever in the shop he had hidden.

"Hello," said Harry.

"Ah yes," said Ollivander. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Harry Potter. You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

He moved closer as he spoke, unblinking.

"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it — it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Ollivander was now so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose.

"And that's where ..."

Ollivander touched the lightning bolt scar on Harry's forehead.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands ... Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do ..."

He shook his head sadly.

Once he got around to actually trying the wands, it felt like several hours before he finally found the right one, a mounting pile of wands stood in a corner when Ollivander handed Harry the final wand, holly and phoenix feather. He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, muttering, "Curious ... curious ..."

"Sorry," said Harry. "but what's curious?"

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather — just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother — why, its brother gave you that scar.

"Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember ... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter ... After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great."

Harry shivered.

September first arrived just as quickly as Harry's birthday had, and just as slowly for Harry. Finally they left for King's Cross station and platform nine and three quarters. They crossed through the barrier between platforms nine and ten at a run and Harry bid goodbye, waving from aboard the scarlet steam engine. Sirius waved back until the Hogwarts Express rounded a bend and Harry was no longer visible.

It was bittersweet, watching Harry leave.

(Got frustrated with this chapter. I don't like directly copying the book but there's not much to change at this point.)