Hey everyone! How are you all doing? Sorry for not getting this chapter straight out, but I've been really busy getting all my college applications in, it's the most insane, most annoying thing that I've done in my life!!! Hahaha…and it doesn't help that I've been reading a bit too much to be good…I got hooked on a bunch of different book series and of course I couldn't be productive until I read every single book… and it probably didn't help either I typed half this chapter with a bleeding finger…my cat accidentally scratched half my nail off…sigh…not fun. But ANYWAYS! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll talk a bit more about it at the end…read on, my friends!

Love Me for Me,

Chapter Six, The Wand

By CuT up Story

In a jiffy, Sakura was ambushed with a pair of arms around her neck, "Sakura! Oh I'm so glad you're here!" Knowing her place, Hermione gave Sakura a look and then returned to sit with Harry and Ron.

Sakura pried the arms choking her and took a good look at her friend, "But Tomoyo, what are you doing here? And you Eriol, how do you know about this place?"

Tomoyo's smile faltered, "Well…you know that boarding school I've been attending with Eriol for the past four years?" she wrung her hands nervously, "Well, here I am!"

"But…why didn't you ever tell me?" Sakura asked, looking truly hurt, "I mean…I told you all about my…you know…why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I'm afraid that's my fault," said Eriol, laying his hand on Tomoyo's shoulder for support, and yet, it seemed she was going to say something, but the hand on her shoulder stopped her, "I cast a spell on her to prevent her from telling you."

Sakura was shocked, "But why?"

"Well, I though you had enough to deal with without this load on your shoulder, wouldn't you agree?" Eriol said with a significant look.

"Oh, right, of course," Sakura nodded, fully understanding Eriol's reasoning due to the events that had taken place in the past years, "I guess I did have enough to be worried over…" she looked down, determined not to let her emotions show; no use getting upset over things that had already happened, right?

Oh, who was she kidding, of course she was upset. How was it that Eriol knew that would happen? Or, better yet, why hadn't he warned Sakura that this would happen? Sakura then became angry, and was ready to ask him just that, but decided against it; pressing Eriol for answers wasn't going to change anything, it was only going to make Sakura more upset, and most likely lead to a slip up in her control over her emotions, and she didn't want to hurt anyone…enough people had been hurt as it was. No, it was better to simply let go of the past and let life go on, as it was supposed to.

And thinking of that led her on a completely new tangent. What if—no, she really shouldn't be thinking of this, she really shouldn't hope for these things but—what if there were other people she knew that were attending Hogwarts? Was that what Tomoyo was going to tell her? Could he—no. No, no, no, no, no. She was not going to be thinking about him; it was enough that she just might be in love with him, and that was traumatic enough. No, she needed to forget about him and stop hoping to catch glimpses of him. He was gone—disappeared out of her life. If anything, he hadn't called, or written, or nothing. That meant that she was dead to him as he should be to her. No, no, no, no. So what if she thought she'd heard him profess his love for her? That had clearly been a moment of weakness in her part, and she didn't need to torture herself with what ifs.

Syaoran was gone, and he was never coming back. And the best way to get over that is to stop thinking about him, to forget about him. Because he was dead.

She took a deep breath, willing all her thoughts to go away, "So you've both been going to Hogwarts?" They nodded, "Well then, what house are you in?"

Tomoyo's smile returned, brighter than ever, "Well, we're both in Ravenclaw!" she squealed, extremely glad to find that Sakura had forgiven them, "I do hope you end up there with us!"

Sakura nodded, "Well then, so do I. Do you know Harry Potter? Or Ron Weasley? Or Hermione Granger? I'm staying over at Harry's for the summer, they're new friends of mine."

"Oh yes, we know the 'Golden Trio'," Tomoyo nodded, giggling, "They're always getting in trouble! But yes, we've had several classes with them, they're all very friendly."

Sakura nodded to herself, "That's good then, do you want to come had lunch with us?"

And they did; Tomoyo and Eriol were casual friends with Sakura's new friends, and so lunch was simply a nice affair in which they shared several stories of their times together, catching up over what they had done over the summer and what they were hoping would happen in school this year. Hermione and Eriol seemed to be easy friends, as they both expressed great interest in their O.W.L.s for the upcoming year, but the rest were merely excited to be learning more advanced, awesome spells.

After they were done eating, Tomoyo and Eriol explained that they were done with their shopping for the day, but they offered to go with Sakura and her friends to gather the rest of her supplies. Harry, Ron and Hermione eagerly agreed to let Eriol and Tomoyo tag along, and soon they were on their way to Eeyelop's Owl Emporium to buy Sakura a new owl, and for Harry to re-stock on food for his owl, Hedwig.

Upon entering the store, Sakura was taken aback at the magical energy that flowed from the wise birds, not expecting to see so many magical beings in one store. Seeing her surprise, Eriol patted her shoulder, "Eerie, isn't it?"

Sakura nodded, deciding not to say anything else and instead went on her way to find an owl for herself. As she went deeper into the store, Sakura's eyes settled on a small Barn owl. It had a pure white face, and its chest and belly were the same pure white, the wings were in very light shades of coffee. Overall, it was quite a beautiful owl, and she was sure the owl was very young, perhaps several weeks old?

Regardless, Sakura knew that this owl was the one. Her attention had been immediately drawn to it, which was always a good sign granted that her magical powers allowed her to form strong bonds with magical animals, and her magic had been drawn to this little guy. This owl had to be the one for her.

After purchasing the young owl for seven galleons, Sakura exited the store quite happy with her purchase. She was currently staring at her owl and deciding on an appropriate name for it, she was trying to decide whether the owl should be named in an English or a Japanese name, so she looked to the baby owl in question. Upon feeling her gaze, the owl tilted its head sideways and then looked upwards.

"Sora," she said, "that'll be your name, Sora. It means sky in Japanese; I think it suits you, don't you?" The owl hooted, and Sakura took it as its approval of the name, "Excellent!"

Harry looked over at his sister and smiled, glad that she was adapting to their world so quickly. He was quite happy she already seemed to care greatly for the owl, he remembered clearly the day he had received Hedwig. In a way, Harry found the purchasing of a wizard's magical beast to be a very symbolic event; it was the first significant possession that demonstrated a wizard's involvement in the wizarding community. And now, his baby sister had one.

"It's a beautiful owl, Sakura," he smiled at her, "I'm sure it'll be a great pet."

Sakura smiled with ease, feeling a strange yet special bond forming between her and Harry, "Somehow, I feel like it won't just be a pet, but rather a close friend."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Harry smiled, "I remember the day I got Hedwig, and thinking back on it, I guess he is a friend, rather than just a pet."

Sakura smiled, "Exactly."

They proceeded to make their way down the alley towards the Quiddich store, where Harry needed to buy some new gloves for the season when school starts. "You coming in, Sakura?" Harry turned when she didn't follow him into the store.

Sakura turned to look at Eriol and Tomoyo, who were waiting for her at the ice cream shop across the alleyway, "Ummm, no, I think I'm going to catch up with Eriol and Tomoyo over at that ice cream place."

Harry looked over at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and smiled, "Okay then. Oh, and if you tell Florean you're a friend of mine, he might just give you a free ice cream!"

"Ooh, yes! I'll go ahead and do that!" Sakura smiled, now excited over the concept of getting some strawberry ice cream.

She walked over to the man at the Parlour first and after chatting with the man for some time, received a free ice cream. The ice cream was a multi-flavored blend of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate; every time she licked the ice cream, it was a different flavor. Sakura was delighted, never before had she thought of using magic on something so simple and yet so…simply delicious!

Sakura now walked over to the table where Eriol and Tomoyo were now enjoying their own magically delicious ice creams. "So what's the story, then?"

"Well, I got the letter to attend Hogwarts the day after I turned eleven, right after we went out that day," started Tomoyo, "and well, I called Eriol, because you'd been upset that day over…you know…and well, because Eriol lives in England and I thought he'd know something about this school."

Eriol stepped in at this point, "I told her all about Hogwarts—Clow Reed once attended the very same school himself, its ancient!—and I also told her that perhaps it would be better for her to withhold the information from you, I'd foreseen some…bad times ahead…" he trailed off, searching Sakura's face for some reaction.

Sakura's face darkened, if only slightly. Her gaze dropped down to her ice cream, now melting in her hand. Of course, Eriol had seen it coming. Her hands tightened around the ice cream cone. Of course, he'd want her mind to be completely worry free. Eriol continued speaking, "I wrote to headmaster Dumbledore and asked him not to send you a letter, he knows of my background. I told him to wait some years, that I'd let him know when it would be okay to allow you into the school. I wanted to make sure you could…handle it."

'Make sure I can handle it?' thought Sakura to herself, 'Or make sure I was stable?' The ice cream was now dripping down her hands. She was now becoming angry, upset. Why hadn't Eriol given her a heads up on what was going to happen? He knew what was coming, he knew what would happen! Why hadn't he done anything to stop it? Why? The cone broke under the pressure of her hand, and she snapped back into reality, regaining control over her emotions.

Once more, she took a deep calming breath and held it. Eriol, having sensed Sakura's mood, glanced at Tomoyo to keep her quiet, to give Sakura some time.

After she was sure it was safe to resume a conversation, Sakura released her breath and wiped her hands on a napkin, then conjured up some water into her cupped hands by drawing on The Watery's power, cleansing her hands from the sticky mess that would have been on them.

"I understand," she said evenly, "let's just forget about it and move on, okay?"

Tomoyo nodded eagerly, smiling, "Yeah, let's just move forward, no hard feelings!" She was definitely relieved that Sakura wasn't angry; though Sakura was still generally a nice, sweet girl, there was still a part of her that had changed drastically over the years. A lot of the times it seemed like Sakura tried to be as emotionless as she could in any stressful situation—it seemed that every time she felt something strongly, something bad happened.

Although Tomoyo's magic wasn't nearly as strong as Eriol's or Sakura's, and although she didn't know as much about sorcery as they did, Tomoyo wasn't stupid (she was in Ravenclaw, for Merlin's sake!). She knew something had happened to Sakura, something that had changed her and affected her so drastically that she was never quite the same again. Tomoyo knew Sakura's magic was strong, probably the strongest force of magic in the world, she could feel the magic seeping from her, and she could feel it when it almost slipped out of control. And that was what scared her.

Sakura was her best friend in the world, she really was, but a small part of Tomoyo—that small part of her whose only purpose was to help her survive—was scared of Sakura Kinomoto.

"I could help catch you up," Tomoyo offered tentatively, "maybe not so much on spells, I'm sure those will be ridiculously easy for you, but I'm really good at potions, and well, maybe Eriol could catch you up on History of Magic!"

Sakura nodded, "Yeah that would be nice. You could come over and help catch me up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I guess I'll just try to skip over as many spells as they try to teach me, I'm sure those are ridiculously easy for me, if they require a wand they're probably not that strong."

"Yes, but the trick is that wizard magic is different from sorcery," said Eriol, "its strange, but basically, wizarding magic is just about a small fraction of magic that needs to be channeled though a magical object—their chosen one being wands—that enhances that power. Sorcery is more channeled on chants, and using a person's own powers to draw from. What'll be the hardest thing four you to learn, is to channel your magic through a wand for everything."

"Ok, I see what you mean," Sakura said, "I guess I just need a wand and I'll just start practicing as soon as I get it."

"Yes, you'll have to cloak your magic though," said Eriol, "England has a Ministry of Magic that doesn't allow children underage to use magic outside of school, so be sure to cover your tracks."

Sakura nodded, "Okay, I'll keep that in mind." She looked up at her friends and smiled warmly, "Thanks guys."

Tomoyo squealed, "Aww, Sakura's so cute when she smiles!"

And it was on this note that Harry, Ron and Hermione walked up to the three old friends and suggested that they take of to Ollivander's for Sakura's wand.

"This may take a while," said Harry to Sakura, "hopefully you won't be like me, it took me hours to find my wand!"

Sakura laughed, "I sure hope not, I'd hate to keep you all waiting on me."

"Well, when I came to get my wand it only took like ten minutes," Hermione chimed in, "maybe you'll be like me!"

Sakura certainly hoped that would be the case, and yet something in the back of her mind told her that it would most definitely not be the case. Seeing as her magic was strong, she knew she'd need a particularly strong wand, and she doubted that a simple wizarding shop held wands that would be strong enough to wield a sorcerer's magic.

They approached the old shop with the dusty, broken windows and entered. At their entrance, the small bell placed above the door chimed and an old man stepped up to the counter in front of them. After seeing the old man, Sakura looked around the old cluttered shop to find that most of its contests were piles and piles and piles and piles of small rectangular boxes containing wands. Sakura could feel the magical energy humming throughout the shop, emitting from those thousands, perhaps millions of wands in the shop.

The shopkeeper approached the group with an old, scraggly smile, "Well hello there, Miss Granger, Miss Daidouji, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Hiiragizawa. And who might this young lady be?"

The two girls looked surprised that the shopkeeper remembered their names, but Ron merely turned to them and whispered, "He never forgets a face."

"This is our friend, Sakura Kinomoto." Said the ever diplomatic Eriol, "And she is in need of a wand for Hogwarts."

Ollivander smiled and looked Sakura up and down, as if sizing her up, "Ahh, yes, so it would seem…hmmm let's see…"

And so the epic wand auditions started. In a split second, Sakura found herself holding a wand, waving it, and then having it taken away. She repeated this process for what felt like hours! It seemed that the second she waved a wand, there was already a new one in her hand. It was just one after the other, after the other, after the other! And all the while, Ollivander kept muttering to himself things like "Oh now, that won't work," and "hmm, of course, that's not right," and "perhaps she needs more power?" and "yes, definitely not right."

The effect was quite dizzying and disorienting for Sakura and for her friends—and it really was hours that they waited in the shop, so long that Ron and Hermione had to leave so as to make it home in time for dinner. It felt like Sakura had tried every single wand in the shop—and judging by the amount of time they'd been there, she just might have—before Ollivander stopped the 'Flurry of Waving Wands'—yes, Sakura gave the occurrence a title—and took a step back to inspect Sakura once more.

"Interesting," he muttered to himself, "she's just like that other kid…"

Sakura's head snapped up, 'Just like that other kid?' she thought, 'What other kid? Not…HIM?' She almost asked, almost but then she caught herself, there was not point in getting her hopes up if she was just going to be disappointed in the end.

"Come over here with me," said old Ollivander, "right over here, to the shop at the back."

Ollivander led Sakura over to a small room behind the counter that had previously been hidden by the thousands of wands surrounding it. Upon entering it, she found herself surrounded by thousands of jars of all sizes, containing things that were both easily identifiable—like hair and rocks—to things that were strangely unfamiliar to Sakura—like some shimmering powders and some weird squishy looking substances.

"What is this—OW!" Sakura yelped as Ollivander plucked a hair from her head with no warning, "What was that for?"

Ollivander simply inspected the piece of hair and muttered to himself, "Yes, I got the root. This will work…"

Sakura huffed, "Mr. Ollivander, what did you do that for?"

"Oh, yes. You are a sorcerer, no?" said Ollivander as he finally turned to look at her, "The only reason why there wouldn't be a wand out there for you is because you aren't a wizard, but you obviously have magic. So you're a sorcerer, no?"

Sakura stared at the man, speechless for a second, "Well…yes, I am. But what did you need my hair for?"

"Well, sorcerers don't normally use wands, but when they do, they need something that will literally make the wand an extension of their own body. By placing something that comes from your own body within the core of the wand, the wand becomes truly yours." Said Ollivander, "The closer the bond is to the wand, the more power you'll be able to channel through it. Of course, you won't be very strongly bonded to this wand from just a hair, but it will suffice to get you through Hogwarts."

Sakura thought it over, "And what is the strongest bond you could have with a wand?"

"Well," Ollivander laid down the jar he'd just picked out from a shelf, "blood."

She nodded, and drew on The Create to conjure up a small blade, "Alright then, just tell me when and where."

Ollivander stared at her for a moment, then nodded. "I'll have to craft the core of the wand first, the blood is the last thing it will need. Go outside, tell your friends there are more wands back here—Merlin knows I don't need everyone here asking for a customized wand of their own!—and wait until tomorrow at noon to come back. Tell them I needed to narrow down the options that will suit your needs. Got that, girlie?"

"Got it. Noon, tomorrow." Said Sakura, "I'll be here."

She then went outside to the main shop and said exactly what Ollivander told her to, explaining that they could simply come back to Diagon Alley tomorrow to meet up for lunch. Her three remaining friends all expressed their agreement over the matter, and decided to meet up at the Leaky Cauldron at noon the next day. They then walked down the emptying streets of Diagon Alley and after saying goodbyes to each other, they each flooed out of the Leaky Cauldron's fireplace to their own homes.

Harry and Sakura arrived to the Potter's and were welcomed by the delicious scent of Lily's cooking. They greeted Lily and James warmly, as they had waited for them to start dinner, and sat down at the table to discuss the day's occurrences.

And it was during this moment of warm exchanges that Sakura truly experienced what a real, complete family felt like. In that small window of time, Sakura felt closer to those three strangers than she had felt to anyone else in the world. It was at that moment that Sakura truly envied Harry, and she truly wished to have his life, his family, his friends. It was at that moment that Sakura decided that she would do anything in her power, anything, to find her true, real family. That was all she wanted, and that was all she needed.

Ok guys, that's it for today! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter…please let me know if you did!

In case you couldn't tell, I am drastically changing the direction this story was originally heading towards, so if some of the facts in this chapter don't necessarily coincide with what you've read before, I apologize!!! I think I'll head back and edit those first chapters sometime soon….

Anyways, I didn't really get a good response on the last chapter….does that mean you guys didn't like it? Please, please, please, PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really, guys, I need to know if you like how I've changed this story or not…so please let me know!!!

Thanks for reading my story!!!!

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