Diagon alley
Hagrid led him towards a bar, the leaky cauldron. As they walked inside chuuya noticed that the men were all greeting the man with waves and smiles. “Say who’ve you got there hagrid?”
Chuuya could feel his cheeks heat slightly as he was nudged forwards. “Why I’ve got chuuya Nakahara with me” Hagrid smiled and conversed about the latest wizards gossip.
Chuuya however had a distinct feeling that someone was watching him. He turned his head to see a man with a turban walk up to him and hagrid. His eyes lingered on chuuya as he abruptly stopped infront of them.
“H-hello h-ha-hagrid” the man had a noticeable stutter. Hagrid seemed to notice the man right a way. “Oh hello professor Quirrell!” He looked at chuuya “This is one of the professors at Hogwarts, he teaches defense against dark arts”
Chuuya put his hand out for the professor to shake. Quirell moved his hand away, the man seemed nervous. Hagrid just chuckled. “Well we best be going then” he looked at the bartender who nodded before leading him to a storage room in the back.
The place was practically empty, save for some crates. Hagrid walked up to a bare brick wall before swiping an umbrella from one of the crates and tapping certain bricks. Chuuya blinked in surprise when the bricks began to part showing a busy street.
They both stepped through the opening. The sheer force of magic in the air was like a slap in the face—the place bustling with people.
”welcome to diagon alley!” Hagrid smiled widely as he walked through the crowds. The man pulled out a list Required items for first years before handing it to him. Chuuya took the list reading the contents carefully. “But hagrid I haven’t got any money”
Hagrid pointed ahead of them “well there’s your money over there chuuya, in gringotts” He looked up the see a white building with pillars. “You didn’t think your parents left ya with now now did ya?”
His parents. Whenever chuuya thought of them the only face that would appear was Verlaines. And he’d left him to go with hagrid—he felt something unpleasant in his stomach:it was guilt. He pushed it far down left to be forgotten.
Hagrid walked inside the building, chuuya trailing closely behind. It seemed to be a bank. Chuuyas gaze wandered, the place was eerily quiet. Everyone talked in hushed whispers as if they were afraid to speak in a normal tone. His gaze lingered significantly on the goblins sat at every counter. They all had equally grim looks on their faces.
It was definitely the most outrageous thing chuuya had seen—the people however weren’t spooked in the slightest—another strange quirk of the magic world.
They reached a stop in-front of one of the counters. “Little chuuya here would like to take out some of his money” The goblin stared at hagrid before narrowing his eyes at chuuya. What was his problem? “do you have his key”
Hagrid began searching his many pockets “I should have it somewh—here” He handed over the key to the goblin—bank man. Hagrid then lowered his voice to a whisper “Albus Dumbledore also sent me here to collect…you Know” he made some gestures the goblin seemed to understand and gave him a crumpled piece of paper.
The bank teller grabbed his glasses examining the paper before nodding. Chuuya followed after the men as they started to walk. This was supposed to be a bank—he was rightfully shocked when he saw a cart waiting for them with a long line of rails.
Hagrid sat down along with the goblin—with a sigh chuuya did to. The cart then zoomed downwards (he totally didn’t scream) It suddenly stopped infront of a large vault. He looked up to see numbers vault 687. The goblin unlocked it and they all walked inside.
wow—just wow. The place was covered in coins and other riches. Hagrid picked up some of it and handed it to chuuya. “I see a lot of galleons and sickles, you are one lucky boy chuuya” he wasn’t lying the floor was full of them. Though chuuya wasn’t familiar with that terminology, he had no idea what a galleon or sickle meant. Though he suspected the man was referring to the money.
After he had been given a large amount, they exited the vault and sat back on the cart. Chuuya expected it to go back up to the bank floor however Hagrid and the goblin made eye contact and the cart dived even deeper down the rails.
it must be to the place hagrid was talking about earlier chuuya thought. They reached another agonizing stop, this time chuuya waited outside.
The goblin spent longer opening the vault and they went inside. Five minutes passed before he saw hagrids figure followed by the small one of the creepy looking goblin. Chuuya noticed Hagrid was holding a small pouch before he tucked it into one of his pockets. “It’d be best not to tell anyone about this chuuya” Chuuya nodded in agreement.
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They continued their stroll throughout diagon alley making stops to stores to get supplies. Chuuya ticked off his list. Robes: check. Books: check. cauldron: check. “Last thing on the list is a wand”
Hagrid smiled “why you’d best go to ollivanders there ain’t nowhere better” he gestured towards the shop. “I’m just gonna run an errand so you go on in there without me”
Chuuya walked towards the shop. There was two large windows at either side of the door, he opened it and entered. “..hello?” Silence.
He walked to the front counter. The place was severely unorganized and covered in stacks of rectangular boxes. One of the stacks began to wobble. A head popped out. “Oh hello!! I’m ollivander!”
The man stumbled towards chuuya. “Looking for a wand?” Chuuya nodded. Ollivander grabbed a few of the boxes and placed them in-front of him before taking the lids off.
Long pointy wands stared back at him. “Try them out then” He picked one up—adjusting his grip on it. When the man stared at him pointedly he gave it a swishing motion. Nothing. He grabbed another one and repeated the movement. Again nothing.
”not to fear we’ve got plenty more to try”
It had been thirty minutes and chuuya had tried nineteen different wands. A sigh left his lips. He looked up to see ollivander staring at him—his eyes squinted in concentration.
“hmm..well I suppose its..possible that wand could work” The man suddenly whirled around his hand skimming each wand displayed until his hand gripped one.
He placed it in Chuuya’s hand. The wand was different to the others it was covered in strange engravings. His had caressed the wand, he then held it properly and swoosh. The nearby pile of boxes collapsed.
Ollivander had a shocked expression. “That’s the one!” Chuuya heard knocking at the window, he turned around to see hagrid standing there with a goofy smile on his face. The large man held up his hand—he was holding a cage with an owl inside.
Chuuya paid for the wand and left the shop. “Got ya a little present” he handed the caged trolley to chuuya. Wand: check. The list was complete.
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They walked towards a train station. “Make sure to use your ticket, the train will be leaving soon get to platform nine and three-quarters. “What do you mean nine and three-quarters?” Silence. He looked towards hagrid to see nobody there. Great—he had to find a non existent platform by himself.
He clearly didn’t have much time so he hurried his trolley along, looking at each platform. He went up to one of the security guards. “Do you know where platform nine and three-quarters is?”
The man stared at him unimpressed. “Think your being funny do ya?” He scoffed at chuuya.
He wasn’t any help. “Platform nine and three-quarters this way!!” The voice belonged to a family rushing through the crowd. Chuuya followed them since they clearly knew where it was.
The family stood in-front of a wall in between platform nine and ten. The mother seemed to notice him. “Oh hello deary! Are you a first year?”
“Yes I am” Her smile widened “my Ron is a first year too maybe you two could get along!”
Chuuya nodded and turned his attention to the fellow ginger. The boy smiled at him and lowered his voice. “Hello, don’t mind my mum she gets very..sentimental”
”I heard that young man!” She turned to chuuya once again. “Can you blame me, it’s his first year”
“I hate to break up this very emotional moment” one voice piped up “but the train is about to leave” another voice joined. Chuuya saw twins grinning at their mother.
”oh your right boys!!” Her gaze lingered on chuuya “do you know how to go through?”
Chuuya shook his head grinning sheepishly. “Well you just walk on through!” She gestured to the twins who disappeared through the wall.
He had a tight hold on his trolley and ran with Ron, they passed right through—entering another station with a train that looked like it was ready to leave. They hurried to get on.