Diagon Alley
Harry awoke early in the morning, too excited about shopping for his school things to go back to sleep. Once everyone else had woken up, they got dressed and ready to leave for Diagon Alley.
'You've got your list?' dad asked. 'My what?' Harry replied, confused. Dad chuckled, reached for Harry's letter, and handed it to him.
Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn’t noticed the night before and read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Uniform
First-year students will require:
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupils’ clothes should carry name tags
Set Books
All students should have a copy of each of the following:
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble
Other Equipment
1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS
'Oh, this is going to be so much fun.' Harry was nearly vibrating with excitement. Mor couldn't contain her excitement either, jumping on Harry and ruffling his hair. 'It absolutely is, we're going to Hogwarts.'
They took the Floo network to Diagon Alley, emerging from the fireplace covered in soot and coughing. Dad went first, with Harry and Mor going after him and Violet bringing in the rear. Harry and Mor didn't wait for the rest of them, running to Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour.
Harry noticed Blaise near the shop, so he pulled Mor's hand, and they ran to where several boys of about their age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. ‘Look,’ Harry heard one of them say, ‘the new Nimbus Two Thousand – fastest ever –’ Violet yanked Harry and Mor's collars, pulling them away from the window. 'Don't even think about it.'
'So where are we going first?' Harry asked her after pulling his collar out of her grip and straightening it. Dad answered before she could 'To get some money first so you can buy all your school things. Gringotts.'
They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was a goblin. He was about a head shorter than Harry, with a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside.
Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Harry and his family made for the counter.
'Morning,' dad said to a free goblin, 'We've come to take money out of Moryen Sandoval and Harry Potter's vault.'
'Do you have their key, sir?'
'Yes, they're right here.' He put two keys on the counter. The goblin looked at them closely. ‘That seems to be in order. I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!’
Griphook was yet another goblin. He held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downwards and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them. They climbed in, Violet electing to stay behind, and they were off.
At first, they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn’t steering.
Harry’s eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late – they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.
The cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall. Griphook unlocked the door with one of the keys. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.
'All yours. Your parents had this put aside for your schooling.' Dad said, smiling, and helped Harry pile some of it in a bag. 'This should last you a couple terms, if you need more just write home.'
They climbed back into the cart and made their way to Mor's vault, getting some money for her too. While they were there, Mor asked 'I know why Harry has a vault all to himself, but why do I have one?' Harry was curious too, so he turned to listen to the answer too.
'Most wizarding families open a vault for their children and put away money for their Schooling when the kids are born. This one is yours like that one was Harry's, and Violet has a separate one. There's also the Sandoval Family vault, which every Sandoval can access, but only after you become an adult. There's also the Potter family vault, Harry, that I assume you'll inherit once you turn seventeen.'
Harry thought that over, but very timidly asked, ' Can I access the Sandoval family vault?' He knew that he was family, but every so often he needed reassurance. Besides, he didn't know the magical technicalities of him being a Sandoval family member.
'Of course, you can Harry. what an absurd question,' Dad said, not even hesitating for a second, 'I had you put down as a family member when you moved in.' Harry got a little teary-eyed, but shook his head and smiled at them.
One wild cart ride later they stood next to Violet in Gringotts. Dad collected the keys from Griphook, and they made their way outside. Harry didn’t know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. Violet said she needed to buy a few things, and disappeared into the crowd of bustling people.
'Alright kids, uniforms first.' Dad said, nodding towards Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions. 'I'm going to get your books, wait for me outside the shop.' They nodded and made their way to the shop.
Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve. 'Hogwarts, dears?’ she said, when Harry started to speak. ‘Got the lot here – another young man being fitted up just now, in fact.’
In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him, slipped a long robe over his head and began to pin it to the right length. Mor looked at all the robes around them while waiting her turn.
‘Hullo, Hogwarts too?’ said the boy. ‘Yes,’ said Harry, nodding slightly.
‘My father’s next door buying my books and Mother’s up the street looking at wands,’ said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. ‘Then I’m going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don’t see why first-years can’t have their own. I think I’ll bully Father into getting me one and I’ll smuggle it in somehow. Know what house you’ll be in yet?’ He went on. 'No,' said Harry, 'I don't think it's up to us.'
‘Well, no one really knows until they get there, I suppose, but I know I’ll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?’ ‘
Mmm,’ said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting. 'Where are your parents?' He asked all of a sudden.
'My father's gone to buy books too, and one of my sisters is right there.' Harry said, jerking his chin towards Mor. He didn't mention Lily and James, knowing that the boy would figure out who he was. Besides, he didn't lie. The boy hummed and looked at Moryen browsing through the racks. 'They're our kind, aren’t they?’
‘They were a witch and wizard, if that’s what you mean.’
‘I really don’t think they should let the other sort in, do you? They’re just not the same, they’ve never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What’s your surname, anyway?’
But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, ‘That’s you done, my dear,’ and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool. ‘Well, I’ll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose,’ said the drawling boy, while madam malkin helped Mor onto the footstool he had just vacated. Harry made his way outside, not really wanting to be with the boy. What he said reminded Harry of what Blaise said, and remembering the fight with his friend upset him.
Once more was done and dad came to get them, he saw that Harry was down, so they went and got ice cream.
Afterwards, they visited the apothecary’s, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders lined the walls, bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hung from the ceiling.
While dad asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry and Mor, they busied themselves examining silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop). They also got two nice sets of scales for weighing potion ingredients, pewter cauldrons and collapsible brass telescopes.
Violet was waiting for them outside the apothecary. 'Just your wands left now,' Dad said, checking the list, 'and both your birthday presents.'
Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry and Mor both now carried two large cages which held beautiful snowy owls, fast asleep since it was daytime.
'You've got to name them soon.' Violet said, smiling at Harry and Mor's excited expressions. 'We will, but after we get home.' Mor replied, happily stroking her owl. Suddenly, she looked up. 'Wands now.'
Violet laughed outright. 'Ollivander's then.' A magic wand ... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to. The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC . A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.
A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single spindly chair which dad sat on to wait. Violet stood next to him. Harry felt strange, as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions which had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.
'Good afternoon.’ An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop. ‘Hello,’ said Moryen awkwardly.
'Moryen Sandoval. It seems like only yesterday your sister was in here.' He paused, looking over to where Violet was standing, and then his eyes moved to settle on Harry. 'Ah, Harry Potter,' Mr Ollivander said, moving closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink, those silvery eyes were a bit creepy. Mr Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.
‘And that’s where ...’
Mr Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry’s forehead with a long, white finger. He felt everyone in his family tense, ready to jump to his defence.
‘I’m sorry to say I sold the wand that did it,’ he said softly. ‘Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands ... Well, if I’d known what that wand was going out into the world to do ... even so, the wand chooses the wizard...’
He seemed to snap into action then, pulling out a tape measure and taking his and Mor's measurements. He pulled out what seemed like a million wands when finally, both he and Mor had a wand. They paid for their wands, and left the shop.
They made their way back to Three Broomsticks, and Floo'd back home.
Once they had put their things away and sat down for dinner, dad asked him what the matter was.
'It's just what Mr Ollivander said about my wand. It has the same core as Voldemort's.' He sulked, stabbing a potato with his fork. 'I hate being the stupid chosen one.'
'Don't bother with Moldy,' Moryen said, taking all the peas from his plate, knowing he didn't like them, and giving him all her carrots, 'Just think about how cool it is that we'll be in Hogwarts next month.' Violet stole a potato from Harry's plate 'Besides, the chosen one takes forever in the bathroom, so no one thinks you're all that great.'
Harry made a face at Violet but started smiling, excited once again, and dad smiled at the scene, his kids eating dinner together.