Diagon Alley
I slid out on a cold stone floor, almost colliding with a bar stool placed by the fireplace.
"'Ello love," The bartender said gruffly, " welcome to the Leaky Cauldron. Wan' a drink?"
"I'm eleven." I said, pulling myself up and brushing down my dress.
"Right, 'course you are. Here for school supplies?"
I nodded, perching awkwardly on the bar stool, "I got my letter just last night."
Suddenly Carmine burst from the fireplace, sliding over the floor and spluttering incoherently. He scrambled to his feet and looked around the almost empty bar with an air of embarrassment, "Good morning." He greeted the bar tender.
"Brother?" The bartender asked.
"How'd you guess?" Carmine replied sarcastically, "Come on Lucy." He took me roughly by the arm and dragged me outside to a brick wall.
"What're you doing?" I struggled against his grip.
"People here don't like squibs," he said dryly, "and you're too young to be in a pub."
Who did like squibs? I thought to myself. If Carmine knew my thoughts, he ignored them and instead stood on his tiptoes to tap on the worn bricks on the wall. Slowly, like some sort of mechanical curtain, the wall split in half and wound back to reveal the stretching street ahead of me. Colourful shops were just opening up for the day spread out on either side of the clean stone floor. A few people, and even a few children, peered through windows and entered the buildings with smiles on their faces.
Carmine took out my Hogwarts letter and squinted at the green ink, "Let's go get your books first, I think that's the book shop over there."
He pointed at an extremely large, wooden building with delicate carvings depicting scenes from history covering it's walls. I bounded up the stairs and flung open the large glass doors to walls and walls of books. I pulled the colourful books off the shelves; observing each and every one before replacing it back where it came from.
"Stop. Look for Robert Rowe; he's written three of the books on your list."
After determining his work would probably be in the 'education' section upstairs, I ran up and quickly got myself distracted looked at all of the table islands filled with interestingly bound leather books. I was just observing a rustic red one when a girl around my age walked up.
"Hello!" She beamed.
I looked at her. "Hello?"
"Are you going to Hogwarts too?"
"I guess."
She smiled even wider, staring expectantly. I just stared back. She was quite a plump girl, with mousy brown hair tied in two misshapen plaits that just made her look stupid. Plus, her smile just brought attention to her gapped teeth which did not do anyone good.
"I'm Bethan Harper-Brown, what's your name?"
"Harper-Brown? Are your parents divorced?"
She stared at me some more, "Yeah."
With her smile gone, she looked a lot nicer. Also, I didn't want to have my only friend at Hogwarts be Jasmine so I said: "I'm Lucia Zabini."
"What do you like? I want to learn Divination, I can't believe it's not a subject until third year!"
"Divination's a stupid subject. You're just predicting riddles you're bound to misinterpret and mess up causing something terrible to happen."
"Oh," Bethan pouted, "I never thought of it like that."
"Well, I'm looking for Robert Rowe so-"
"Robert Rowe? He's over there, I can show it to you if you like!" Bethan interrupted, grabbing me by the hand and dragging me with an odd sort of skip to another identical bookshelf, all the while chattering on about Hogwarts. Although her voice was chirrupy and she never paused between words, I couldn't help but smile at just a few of the things she said.
"Apparently, Hogwarts can fly!"
"Fly?"
"Yeah! I don't know, It's magic right? Imagine that, walking around a building and then suddenly you're just in a cloud. What do you think a cloud would feel like? Because I think it would be like a shower. I mean they're water right? Or is that something else?"
"It's clouds."
"I knew it!"
It was quite charming.
Soon we both had bags filled with school books that would no doubt cause us back ache during school.
"So you're a pure blood?" Bethan asked, and gasped at my nods, "does it feel weird- no. That's stupid. Sorry, I'm a half-blood. My mum's a witch and my dad's a muggle, she didn't tell him until seven years of marriage. Safe to say they weren't married for long after that."
"Oh, do you live with your mum?"
"Dad basically fled to New Zealand when I was two, I see him 'bout once a year although I do want to Portkey there when I'm old enough. Mum's great though, I do love her."
"Bethan!" A voice called up the stairs, "have you got your books yet?"
"That's her!" She grinned her gap-toothed grin and ran down the stairs with me, suddenly a whole lot less energetic, following behind her. A woman with short brown hair and the same large hazel eyes stood by the stairs tapping her foot insistently.
"Mum, this is Lucia! She's my new best friend." "Friend." "Nice to meet you Lucia, are your parents around here somewhere?"
"Just my brother! He's over there somewhere. He's a squib!" I noticed a few shoppers next to us start at that, although Bethan and her mother didn't seem to react.
"Should we ask him if you'd like to shop with us?"
"He won't care! Let's go!" Bethan's Mum stammered and looked around, her eyes resting on Carmine who was bartering with the store owner about the value of a Transfiguration Textbook; "Is that your brother?"
"Yeah."
Bethan and her mum quickly went over to introduce themselves as 'Bethan Brown' and 'Miss Diane Brown' specifically. Carmine quickly got to talking with Diane about having to take care of eleven-year-olds - which is annoying seeing as he's only fifteen - whilst Bethan and I admired some pictures and waited for them to pay.
We then moved on to robes fitting, where the elderly woman at the counter chatted easily to Bethan about her entire personal life: she loves owls, her favourite food is gammon, she lives on Blackmore, no siblings, she is annoyingly optimistic.
Then we went to the pet shop, well, they did. Carmine and I waited outside because there was no way I was going in there and ruining my dress. Through the misty window, I could see a white owl basically shedding feathers on everything, including Bethan. Luckily, she didn't seem interested in buying it, instead emerging with a large and sleek barn owl that watched me with it's large dark holes for eyes.
"Can we go to Ollivanders?" Shrieked Bethan, "Please mum! I can't wait."
Carmine clapped his hands together anxiously, "How about the antique shop? There is bound to be some good stuff there."
Diane looked at him sadly, "How about you girls go and look at the Ice Cream Parlour? Carmine and I just need to talk about something."
I bought a Chocolate Ice Cream whilst Bethan bought a plain Vanilla. I don't know how she managed to eat the entire thing without being bored to death, but somehow she did.
"Do you know anyone at Hogwarts already?" I asked.
"Several, but not well. And I think only two will actually recognise me. There's Alice Jones, she's going into her Third year and Daniel Till, he's Hufflepuff Prefect now. I want to be in Hufflepuff."
"Why would anyone want to be in Hufflepuff?" I scoffed, "They're useless."
To say Bethan was offended was an understatement, we ended up taking the argument outside when the owner said we were making too much of a scene. Eventually, Diane and Carmine did tell us to shut up when they returned for their 'adult talk' although Carmine's an idiot and definitely not an adult.
It seemed the verdict they reached was that Carmine was going to go who knows where and the three of us were going to go and buy our wands. Ollivanders was very narrow and a bit worn down, with the name pasted above the door in gold, peeling letters. The sign stated it had been there since 382 BC, and it definitely looked it. Inside was no better: poorly lit and with only a small chair to rest on.
"Who do we have here?" A raspy voice asked from one of the many dark corners. Out came a man who looked only fifty, if it wasn't for his crazy grey hair aging him at least thirty years up.
"This is Bethan Brown," Diane said in a shaky voice, "And Lucia Zabti."
"Zabini." I corrected coolly.
The man raised an eyebrow, "Who goes first?"
I stepped forward, but he brushed right past and to Bethan, holding out a wand I hadn't even noticed him pick up. She took it slowly and with great awe, but before it even left his hands, he reclaimed it.
"No, that's very wrong." He muttered, half to himself and half to the room.
The entire process lasted just over ten minutes, with an agonising repeat of pulling wands out of rooms and out of Bethan's tired grip. It seemed like it would continue this way for forever, until Ollivander took out a wand with a beautiful riveted handle.
"Perfect." Was all he said after placing it in Bethan's hand, "Poplar, Unicorn Hair core and ten inches. Lucia?"
I jumped at my name and rushed eagerly to him, leaving Bethan is amazed awe at the stick in her hand, which she waved around her head like some sort of flag.
Ollivander repeated Bethan's process with me, although it took at least five minutes longer. Diane was practically asleep by the time Ollivander took the most magnificent of all wands from his shelves. It was beautiful, with carvings all the way down and a comfortable grip.
"Fir," He smiled, "fourteen inches with a Dragon Heartstring core."
Diane instantly jumped to her feet, practically throwing the coins at him and ushering us away, but Ollivander just waved a hand and airily told us to "come again soon."
Diane smoothed her hair down and pulled her colourful jacket tighter around herself. The entire street was bustling now, with a bunch of over-excited eleven-year-olds rushing around with their exhausted families in tow. Luckily for us, Carmine wasn't hard to spot as a 6'4 fifteen-year-old in a suit; he was resting on a sign reading Knockturn Alley, fiddling with a watch he must have bought.
I waved my wand excitedly around in his face, almost poking out his eye. But, it was time to go - for Bethan at least - and as I watched her prepare to throw powder into a fire in order to go to Blackmore, I actually felt sad. It was a bit odd, but Bethan and her mother vanished leaving just me and Carmine in the Leaky Cauldron.
"Did you know her Dad's a muggle?" I said immediately, almost without realising it.
"It is possible y'know."
"It's just a bit strange right, I mean our parents are wizards."
Carmine stared at me, wringing his hands awkwardly, "Anyone can be wizards and anyone can not be wizards. You know that's normal, right?"
I shrugged, "How can people with muggle parents be wizards? That's not possible."
"It is. Muggleborn's, they're not a myth just cause you haven't met them."
"Mudbloods is what they're called." A gruff voice coughed behind us. Carmine winced and spun on his heel fast.
"What?" He asked, strained.
"Mudbloods." The grey-haired man repeated.
Carmine gave him a strained smile, "C'mon Lucy, get some floo powder-"
"You're that squib aren't ya?" The man said, baring his teeth in a smile.
"I'm sorry?"
"That li'le lady said it out there on the street. People like you aren't supposed to be here."
"Hey Frank!" The bartender called, "Leave 'em kids alone, will ya. I don't want a scene this early."
"Get in the fire now." Carmine muttered, shoving me into the hungry fire. I managed to cough out "Rose Ann Manor" before I was completely engulfed by vicious flames.
I slid out into my living room, spreading coal far out from the protective grate. Spluttering, I only just managed to scramble out of the way before Carmine emerged, and turned to me:
"Lucia. What the fuck were you thinking?"
"Huh?"
"You can't just go around telling people that I'm a Squib. Don't you understand what that means?" He grabbed my arm, his fingernails digging in, "DON'T YOU GET IT?"
"Mum!" I screamed wrenching my arm out of his grip, "Mum, Carmine's attacking me."
"Shut up!" He screamed, "Don't you dare call me a Squib again, okay- don't you-"
"What's all this ruckus?" My mum asked. She looked between the two of us, her sharp eyes eventually settling on me, "Lucia I'm very busy, don't interrupt me again."
I opened my mouth to reply, but she was already gone, her high heels clacking away on the marble floor. Suddenly I felt alone, any happiness from being in Diagon Alley and meeting Bethan dissipated, instead I was standing in a white box. The only piece of colour being the streaks of coal Vivian would spend ages attempting to remove from the small carpet.
"Grow up," Carmine said, his voice dangerously calm, "have fun at Hogwarts."
Although I wasn't leaving for Hogwarts until September, I got a strange feeling this was the only goodbye I was going to get. It had only just occurred to me that it was probably the first time Carmine went to Diagon Alley as well.
But oh well, I had my first proper witch friend - ignoring Jasmine of course who seemed to have left (thank goodness! ) - and I had my wand, although if I would learn how to properly use it I might have to pay attention to tutors for once. Not looking forward to that.