That day, Mum and I wrote back to Hogwarts (Mum convinced one of the owls that perched on our fence at night to take the letter) informing them that I would be attending and that I would take Side-Along-Apparition to get to Kings Cross. This I was quite nervous about, because I was literally jumping from one side of the world to the other in the space of a few seconds, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it because there were so many things I was excited about. 

The next day, Mum and I got ready to go into the city, Collins Street, and The Backfired Wand. I had a bag with some money, an extra jumper, a drink bottle, and most importantly, my school supplies list. 

When we reached Collins Street, I starting looking for the pub, but Mum seemed to know where she was going. Quite soon we found it. There was a black metal sign overhead and it had a carving of a wand with sparks shooting out of what seemed to be the wrong end. Mum walked straight into it and I followed, a little hesitantly. 

"Ah! Holly! You going on through or sitting down?" The barman called, hearing the doorbell tinkle. 

"Just taking my daughter, Daisy to get her school supplies," Mum replied. "Might come back later!" 

"Have fun!" The barman waved us off. 

Mum headed to the back wall of the shop where a luminescent arrow was pointing left. We went that way, and shortly, Mum stopped in front of a brick wall. 

"Did you read the part in your letter about getting onto Platform 9 and 3/4?" 

"Yes," I replied. 

"Well, just walk through this wall. Don't be nervous, I'll be right after you." 
I stepped forward and closed my eyes. I took a big leap and felt the bricks go mushy as they let me through. Bright sunlight shone through my eyelids and I opened them. As Mum leapt out behind me, I took in the scene before me. 

A long, cobbled street twisted and turned out of sight. There were many thin shops that stretched three storeys high but some shops that were the length of five thin shops. One of these was called Flourish and Blotts and it had a large display of books in both front windows. As I followed Mum down the street, we passed stores with strange things in them, like beetle eyes and snakeskin. We passed a clothes store and I stopped. 

"Mum! We need to get my uniform! Let's go now!" 

"Daisy, we have to get your money first," Mum replied, and continued walking. 

I rushed after her and said, "but I have my money. Right here in my bag!" 
"Don't be silly," Mum laughed. "We need to swap it for wizard money!"

We continued to walk down the street and quite soon I spotted a ginormous white building. It towered over the rest of the shops and silver letters on the third floor's exterior spelt 'GRINGOTTS WIZARD BANK'. Mum and I walked inside. We were in a kind of entrance hall, all marble, with different desks on both sides of us. Little creatures sat behind them weighing gemstones, sorting coins, or talking to customers. 

"Mum," I said nervously, "what are these things?"
"They're goblins, Daisy," Mum answered quietly. "They're very clever and you don't want to mess with them. Stay close." 

I walked behind Mum to a desk with a free goblin. "We'd like to exchange this Australian Muggle money for wizard money please," Mum requested. 

"Of course," the goblin replied. 

I took out my 'Muggle money' and Mum took out the cash she had gotten out of a cash machine in Melbourne for this. We placed all the money on the counter. The goblin looked at the money for a moment, then started sorting the coins and notes into piles, and writing things on a pad of parchment with a feather that Mum said was a quill. 

After five minutes, the goblin put the Muggle money into a drawstring bag and handed over another drawstring bag with the wizard money in it. 

"Thank you," Mum said. 

~~~

After we'd exited Gringotts, I took out my school list. "Where should we go first?" 
"Why don't we get your school robes? The shop is just there." 

We headed in the direction of the robe shop, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. When we went inside, a plump witch hurried out from behind the counter. 

"Hello dears. Are you Hogwarts?" 

"Yes," I responded. 
"Follow me, we've got another student being fitted just now."

Mum wandered around in the main part of the shop, looking at coloured robes, and I followed Madam Malkin. Just as we entered the next room, I heard Mum say to herself, "I haven't worn dress robes in YEARS!" 

"Stand on the stool dear, that's right," Madam Malkin ushered.

I stood on the stool and looked to my left at the student also being fitted. She had straight, dark hair, dark eyes, and a cold expression. 

"Watch it!" She shouted at the assistant, who seemed to have accidentally poked her with a needle. "I don't need to become a piece of meat for the first day of school." Then she caught me staring. "What are you staring at?" She asked sharply. I turned away.

"Put this on, that's right dear." Madam Malkin held out a plain black robe. I slipped my arms through and Madam Malkin began to pin it to length. 

"Are you going to Hogwarts too?" I asked the girl beside me, trying to make small talk.

"Well, obviously," she said unkindly, gesturing at her robes currently being pinned up. "Seriously, they should just give me the Slytherin robes. I know I'm going to be a Slytherin, all the Malthwaites have been in it for centuries."

Not wanting to sound stupid, I didn't ask what Slytherin was, and stayed silent. 

"What house do you think you'll be in?" The girl asked.

"I'm not sure," I said, comprehending that Slytherin was a school house. This was something Mum hadn't mentioned. 

"What's your quidditch team?" The girl demanded. 

"I'm not sure," I replied, feeling stupider by the second. Had Mum mentioned something about quidditch?

"What's your last name, anyway?" The girl inquired. 

"Er, Tuckfield," I answered, unsure why she would need to know that. 

"Haven't heard of that one," the girl muttered. 

"My first name's Daisy," I added.

"Oh, I'm Delta. Delta Malthwaite." 

"Nice to meet you," I said, thinking it wasn't nice at all. Delta didn't reply. 

"That's you done, dear," Madam Malkin announced and I stepped off the stool, glad to leave Delta. 

When I walked back into the main part of the shop, Madam Malkin helped us find the other uniform items, all of which she stocked, then we payed and left to buy the other things on the list. 

~~~

After Madam Malkin's, we went to a variety of other shops including Mr. Mulpepper's Apothecary (which smelt horrible but it's interesting contents made up for it), Flourish and Blotts (which was where I bought all my spellbooks and a few extras for background reading), and Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment (where I bought my cauldron, telescope, scales, glass phials, lots of parchment, quills (two peacock and three eagle), and the required ink colours plus a bottle that changed colours as you wrote. As we went, I asked Mum about quidditch and Slytherin. 

"Quidditch! Oh, how could have I forgotten to tell you!" Mum exclaimed. "Well, it's played up in the air on broomsticks - yes, flying ones - and there's four balls, and they do different things, and everyone follows quidditch; it's the most popular sport in the wizarding world!" 
"Who do you follow?" 
"The Holyhead Harpies. They're the only all-female team and they're amazing!" 
"I'll follow them too." 

"Good."

"And what is Slytherin? A school house?" 
"Yes," Mum answered. "But you don't want to be in Slytherin. It's turned out more dark witches and wizards than any other house." 
"Oh." 
"You want to be in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw. I was a Ravenclaw, but I don't mind what house you get put in."
"How do they choose?" 
"I can't say. It's meant to be a surprise for new students." 
"I bet Delta will know," I muttered. 
"Who's Delta?" Mum asked. 

So I told her all about meeting Delta in Madam Malkin's and her telling me about quidditch and Slytherin. 

"If she wants to be in Slytherin, you'd best stay away from her," Mum advised. 

I'd already guessed this, so I just nodded.

"Where to next?" Mum asked. 

"All I need now is-" I consulted my list "-a wand."

"Let's go to Ollivander's. It's the only place for wands." 

We walked down the street until we reached a small store with a very minimalistic window display with only a single wand on a faded purple cushion. Mum pushed the door open and I followed with all my bags. A bell tinkled gently twice, once as Mum entered and a second time as I entered. The shop was dimly lit and no one was around. Then a man emerged from the back shelves. 

He was very old, with a shock of white hair, bright, piercing blue eyes, and a lined face, like an old map. "Ah, Holly! It feels as though yesterday you were buying your first wand! And who's this?" Ollivander asked. 

"This is my daughter, Daisy," Mum introduced. "Here for a wand. Also - aren't you the Ollivander's grandson? So how do you remember me?"

I thought that the fact I was here for a wand was was quite obvious as the store sold nothing but wands; however I just smiled. 

"Memories are passed down," Ollivander said solemnly. "Right then! Measurements!" Ollivander took out a tape measure and lined it up to my left hand and shoulder. "You know what do do," Ollivander said. At first I thought he was talking to me but he let go of the tape measure and it began to measure all different parts of my body on it's own. Then Ollivander went into the shelves and began to take down long, thin boxes which I assumed held wands. 

When the tape measure had finished it flew over to a piece of parchment and all the measurements appeared on it. I was amazed and wondered how it was doing it before I saw Ollivander directing it with his wand.

Ollivander looked at the parchment and removed a couple of wands from the pile. Then he took one out of the box, held it by it's point, and offered it to me. 

"Hazel and unicorn hair, 11 inches, flexible." 

I took the wand and immediately I felt a warm, pulsing feeling from the base of the wand. It seemed to be spreading into my hands and up through my arms. I gripped the wand tighter and suddenly a shower of yellow and gold sparks flew from the end of it. 

"Oh, bravo!" Ollivander cried. 

"Well done Daisy!" Mum cheered.

"This is the one," Ollivander said, taking the wand from me, placing it carefully back in it's box, and putting the lid on. I paid seven gold galleons for it and put in my bag. 

~~~

As we walked back to the Backfired Wand, I asked Mum more questions. 

"How does the money system work? And how do you take money out of the bank if you don't exchange money?" 
"Well, as for the system, there's 17 sickles to a galleon, and 29 knuts to a sickle. The knuts are the little bronze ones, the sickles are the silver ones, and the galleons are the big gold ones."
"Right," I said, taking coins out of my moneybag and feeling them properly.

"And most people in the wizarding world have a vault at Gringotts. They're all miles underground and there's these extremely fast carts that the goblins drive, and you have a key to your vault. You have a vault, and so do I." 
"Wow! I can't wait to go on one of those carts!" I said excitedly.

"Yes you can," Mum warned. "They are so fast, and you go straight up and down and round the bend and it feels like a rollercoaster. You really don't want to. You'll be sick!" 

"Okay," I sighed. "Wait. A key? Do you have it?" 

"Yes," Mum said, digging in her bag. "Here's yours. Take good care of it!" 

"Absolutely," I agreed. "Are we going home now?" 
"Not quite yet," Mum replied. "There's just one more thing I have to do, you can come with me." 

We walked back down the street, dodging all the people. Then we arrived at Eeylop's Owl Emporium.

"What are we getting here?" I asked. "Are you getting an owl?"
"No," Mum smiled. "You are." 
I gasped. "An owl! For me!" 
"Well, your birthday will be while we're at school, and I will send you stuff, but I can give something physically to you now." 

"Oh my goodness Mum thank you so much!" I cried, hugging her. 

"Well let's go inside and you can pick your owl. "

I ended up picking a beautiful caramel and white coloured female tawny owl. She was so sweet and let me stroke her and everything. She was still young, so I had hope that she would get to know me as her owner! I decided to call her Athena, the mythological Greek goddess of battle strategy and wisdom. In Roman mythology, she was called Minerva, which, incidentally, was the first name of the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts while the legendary Harry Potter was at school! She was also his head of house and taught transfiguration. So in short, my owl was called Athena or Minerva. 

~~~

Soon we were back at The Backfired Wand. We sat down at one of the tables and ordered two bowls of cool salad, as it was fairly hot. We had already eaten two delicious ice-creams earlier that day, both from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

"You know," I said to Mum, "I love to read, but I've never had anything as interesting to read before as all these books!" I motioned to the bags. 

"They are very engaging," Mum agreed. 

We started to talk about all the classes and I was itching to get to Hogwarts. But I still had a month to wait!