• Chapter Four: The day in Diagon Alley


    The next morning, Snape woke up with a spring in his step. Controlling his excitement, he knocked on Sid’s door and entered without being asked to. To Severus’s surprise, Albus was in Siderexina’s room rousing her from her slumber. Stretching like a cat she buried herself further into her duvet. Albus gave a hearty chuckle before he shook her gently again. After realising she can’t pretend to be asleep anymore she opened her eyes to be greeted with the two men gazing at her. Springing into life, Dumbledore set to work teaching her everything she needed to know to survive with such power and intelligence so he found during the next few weeks.

    After several months of teaching, Sid was growing to be one of the most intelligent 5 year olds in existence. Near the end of the school year she knew magic that third year students would struggle with. However one large flaw in her teaching was that she still didn’t own a wand of her own. On one bright evening when Sid had been sent to bed, the two guardians of the child and a few more professors had a small meeting about the girl who was sleeping in the dungeons, just a few floors below them.
    “We should do something for her,” exclaimed McGonagall. “She’s been working so hard this year.”
    “I couldn’t agree more with you Minerva. We should fill the gap in her education,” squeaked Professor Flitwick.
    “I agree with both of you,” said Albus calmly. “But the casting vote does go to her father.”
    “For the last time, I’m not her father. But I again agree with all three of you. Siderexina’s education should be full. You can’t expect her to be a good witch without a wand.”
    And so it was settled without really saying another word on the subject. Albus was to take Sid to Diagon Alley to buy her a special 6th birthday present. He would buy her, her first (and last) wand.

    The day of her Birthday came sooner than they had planned it to. That morning, Professor McGonagall dismissed the students to their lessons while Albus was escorting her outside the gates. She hadn’t been outside much because she wasn’t allowed to be seen by the pupils for her safety. As the wind blew in her face, she embraced it, closed her eyes and began to hover a few inches off the ground. When Albus noticed what she was doing, he chuckled away to himself. When the two got out of sight from Hogwarts, Dumbledore grasped Sid’s hand and spun on the spot with her. Tight, invisible rings were hugging Siderexina’s body so hard she almost stopped breathing. Her wings felt like they were being sat on by an elephant on both sides. The bands had disappeared as soon as they had come. After a huge gasp for breath, Sid opened her eyes to see a brick wall. She wasn’t impressed. Looking down his crooked nose to see her looking a little disappointed, he smiled. With his wand he tapped several bricks on the wall to make the others shuffle back to show a long and winding street with toppling buildings cramped into such a small space. Keen to move on, Dumbledore strode down the cobbled street and stopped in front of a small black shop with faded gold writing saying:
    “Olivander’s: Makers of Fine Wands since 382BC.”
    Albus stepped inside and Sid followed suit. They entered a cluttered room filled with toppling stacks of boxes and piles of parchment scattered all over the shop.

    All of a sudden Sid squealed at the irrupt entrance of Mr Olivander himself. After calming the girl down, Albus stooped under a lamp to lean on the counter. After Dumbledore explained the situation, Olivander turned his attention to what were Albus’s eyes to the girl sitting on a stool in the corner.
    “But she’s only six years old,” he hissed.
    “I know she’s a little young but she is incredibly knowledgeable and there will be a whole in her education if you don’t supply her with a wand.”
    The milky eyes gave a small nod of their own and began to whizz around the room at the different long boxes surrounding him. Dumbledore took her place on the stool as she walked towards the counter to receive her first potential wand. It obviously took longer than usual to find the first wand because Albus kept glancing at his watch every now and again. When she turned round, Mr Olivander was waiting for her with an almost red wand. He gently handed it to her with two old wrinkled hands. Taking it she raised it to her eyes to examine it, nothing happened. She waved it in a levitation incantation, still nothing happened. Sighing, Mr Olivander took it back and put it away. A few moments later he returned with a long white wand.
    “This, Siderexina. Is an 11 inch, Unicorn hair, Ivory wand. Well balanced.”
    Taking the second wand, warmth hugged her finger tips and a golden bird with red wings flew out the tip of her wand.
    “That is strange, very strange,” Olivander said in a hushed voice.
    Sid looked back at him with a questioning look on her face. Olivander then rocketed into an explanation that this dear wand was no ordinary wand. This wand was what you would call a wand that didn’t fit in with the rest. An outcast if you prefer. Telling her this made her only more attracted to the wand. When Albus saw the sparkle in her eyes, he joined her at the counter and purchased for the wand.

    After exiting the petit shop, Dumbledore again took her by the hand and walked her towards another shop which had an array of owls outside in cages. A witch also stepped into the shop with a basket to which a smoking beast was within. Dumbledore’s bright blue eyes analysed almost every creature, when his eyes drew to a halt. Sid followed his eyes and saw a large golden bird with red wings. Sid gave a little gasp when she realised she had conjured a bird that looked just like it. Before she knew it they were walking out of the shop with the bird and her newly purchased wand. Sid couldn’t take her eyes off the bird.

    “It’s a phoenix, young one. It is a very powerful bird, like you.”
    “I’m a fairy not a bird,” was Siderexina’s reply to this strange statement.
    “You can have it one day... when I “move on”. And without another word, they disappeared out of Diagon Alley and back to Hogwarts.

    May I, the writer of this tale tell you this Phoenix has only given two feathers that may one day soon become of great importance. However that is another time, another place, let us return now to the story before they begin to trace.