A/N: This takes place between chapters 3 and 4 of my "Dudley's Daughter: Year One" fic.
They say that you never forget the time you went to Diagon Alley to buy your school supplies before your first year at Hogwarts. Even if you had Wizarding parents, and had been there dozens of times, but even more so if you were muggle-born, and this was one of your first forays into the Wizarding world. The thing is, Mia Dursley remembers her first trip to Diagon Alley for all the wrong reasons...
When Mia woke up on the warm August morning when she was due to go to London to buy her school supplies, she woke up with a stomach ache. But it was just nerves, right? – Diagon Alley was one of the most important places in the Wizarding World, and she'd be picking up all sorts of important things today, including her wand. In the past ten months since she'd known she was a witch, Mia had been to plenty of Wizarding houses, and Hogsmede, the only all-Wizarding settlement in Britain. But Diagon Alley was special – second only to Hogwarts, where, in less than three weeks' time, she'd be starting her first year of her magical education. So of course she was nervous. Butterflies. That was it.
When Mia went downstairs to breakfast, she could tell that her mum's nerves were way beyond butterflies. Mia knew her mum was having a harder time coming around to the idea of the magical world than her dad – Mia guessed it helped that her dad had known about magic since he was her age, and then there was that time when he and his parents had lived with wizards to prevent them from being murdered by the most powerful evil wizard of all time...
As she spread butter on her toast, Mia pretended the knife was a wand, and that she could summon the jam from across the table, and take the lid off without even touching it, like she'd seen her dad's cousin do. She stopped, however, when she saw her mum watching her. Probably best not to push it, she thought. She knew her mum wasn't all that keen on coming to Diagon Alley today, but that she wanted to come to support Mia. So she guessed it was probably best not to keep waving the magic thing in her face.
"Are you eating that?" Mia's dad asked, sitting down opposite her and looking at the slice of toast which she'd just nibbled a corner off of.
Mia shook her head. "I'm not really hungry." Stomach ache. Nerves.
Her dad helped himself to it. "Can't let it go to waste, can we?" he grinned. "Excited about today?"
"Yeah," Mia said. "Plus, we get to see James and Al again."
She'd first met her dad's cousin's two sons in the Easter holidays. James and Albus were both already at Hogwarts, and their younger sister Lily would be starting in September with Mia. She'd seen a lot of Lily since last October, but with James and Al away at school all year, she'd only seen them a few times in the Easter holidays and earlier this summer. She already saw the two boys as older brothers, and after being an only child with just two annoying, younger, cousins all her life, it was something she enjoyed.
Once they'd all finished breakfast, Mia and her parents went and got in the car. They were driving up to Clapham Junction, and then getting the tube, because Mia's dad said it was more trouble than it was worth to try and drive in London. As they started driving, Mia's mum remarked that she looked a bit peaky, but after all, Mia thought, she hadn't exactly got much sleep last night since she was so excited.
As they drove, Mia sat back and closed her eyes, because she'd always had a problem with travel sickness in cars, and not having to watch the landscape rushing by helped. Mia thought it was strange that it was only ever cars she had problems with – buses, trains, planes, and even boats never bothered her. As they turned onto the motorway, Mia thought back to yesterday, and how much she'd wanted to tell her cousin she was a witch. Jack was nine, and in Mia's opinion, the most annoying person who ever existed. She'd had to spend the whole day entertaining him and his little sister Amelia, whilst the grown-ups talked and watched TV.
It only took about forty minutes to reach Clapham Junction. Mia's dad parked in the station car park, and then three of them headed into the station. Mia liked going onto the tube – she was never bothered by all the hustle and bustle of all the people on the Underground, because her dad worked in London, and was therefore an expert at navigating the crowds. So long as she held his hand and followed in his wake, she knew she couldn't get lost in the crowd.
Mia and her parents boarded the tube. Mia and her mum managed to find seats, and her dad stood near them. Mia could tell he was people-watching as her mum checked her phone. Mia thought it was strange that people didn't have mobile phones, or even landlines, in the Wizarding World. If she and Lily wanted to communicate they had to write each other letters, and send their owls to deliver them. Mia found it quite fun, even if it was a bit slow – it was like something out of an old children's storybook.
"Oh no," Mia's mum said suddenly.
"What?" her dad asked.
"Jack and Amelia have spent all night throwing up," her mum said, glancing down at the message on her phone. "Sarah says none of them have got much sleep."
Mia's dad looked like he was glad it was his sister-in-law and not him who'd had to deal with vomiting children. Mia was just glad they hadn't been sick yesterday when she'd been looking after them. No doubt Jack would have deliberately tried to throw up all over her.
When they reached Charing Cross, Mia's dad pushed his way off the tube, Mia and her mum following close behind him. Once they got up and out into the sunshine, Mia spotted Lily and her family stood waiting for them: Harry, a head taller than her dad with jet black hair, starting to go grey in places, and brilliant green eyes hidden behind big round glasses; Ginny, up to his shoulder, red hair and warm brown eyes, already smiling at her; James, taller than his mum already, hair as messy as his father's, black but glinting red in the sunlight, having some kind of argument with his sister; Albus, his father's eyes and hair, although the hair was considerably neater, watching all the muggles around him; and Lily, red hair down to her waist, almost as tall as Al, and a scowl on her face as she argued with James.
"Mia!" Lily shrieked, suddenly spotting her and abandoning her argument with her brother to run over and hug her.
"You'd think you two hadn't seen each other for years," James grinned. Mia and Lily had actually been at Lily's cousin Hugo's house just last week, but that felt like a long time to the girls. "Alright, squirt?" James asked Mia, and she scowled up and him as he ruffled her hair.
"Leave off," she grumbled, as her parents came over and joined them.
"Hi, Mr Dursley," James said to Mia's dad. "Hey, is it true you once ate a toffee that made your tongue swell up? Think you could persuade my Uncle George to give me the recipe?"
"I highly doubt it," Lily grinned, linking arms with Mia, as the party began to make its way away from the station and along the road. "So, excited about getting your wand? I wish we could go and get them straight away, but Dad says we have to leave them till last, and get all the boring stuff first, you know, like robes and textbooks and cauldrons and potions ingredients and all that stuff..."
"I think it all sounds interesting," Mia said, ignoring the pain in her stomach which walking seemed to aggravate. "Even the 'boring' stuff – it's only boring to you since you're used to it."
"I guess so..." Lily said. "Look, there's the Leaky Cauldron. That's how we get into Diagon Alley."
Mia looked to where Lily was pointing, at a shabby looking pub a little further up the street. James and Al, who were leading the party, turned and went in, but Mia's parents, who were next, started walking straight past it.
"In here, Dudley, Samantha," Harry said, steering Mia's parents towards the pub.
"Where did that come from?" Mia's dad said, as if he was seeing the building for the first time.
"It's always been there," Lily said from behind them. She turned to Mia. "Just some muggles don't see anything until its right under their noses."
"Lily," Ginny said reproachfully.
"Sorry, Mum," Lily sighed, as they all entered the pub.
Mia thought that after ten months of knowing she was a witch, parts of the Wizarding world shouldn't amaze her, but they still did. The Leaky Cauldron was full of witches and wizards dressed in brightly coloured robes. At one table, a spoon was stirring a mug of coffee by itself as a wizard read a newspaper where all the pictures were moving, and the headline proclaimed 'Puddlemere United win the Quidditch league for second year running'. At the bar, a plump blonde witch was overseeing a dozen glasses, which were drying themselves.
"Hi Hannah," Harry said, walking up to the landlady.
"Harry!" the witch looked up to see them all standing there, and then came round the other side of the bar to dish out hugs. "It's a long time since you've been through here – come to buy Lily's school things? Lily, the girls will be sad to have missed you; they only left an hour ago to go and visit their grandparents with Neville. Albus Severus, let me have a look at you – yes, I think you have grown again. And why did you write to your Auntie Hannah all year, eh?"
"Hannah and Neville are Al's godparents," Lily explained. "Neville's actually Professor Longbottom – he teaches Herbology at Hogwarts. Their younger daughters – Alice and Frankie – are twins, and they're our age, so they'll be going to Hogwarts with us."
Harry introduced Mia and her parents to Hannah, and then the group made their way out into an enclosed courtyard.
"Can I open it, Dad?" James asked hopefully.
"How old are you, son?" Harry asked him.
"Fifteen," James scowled.
"Well, I guess you know the answer, then," Harry told him.
"But it's not really magic..." James protested, as Harry got out his wand and tapped several of the bricks in one of the walls. Before Mia's eyes, the bricks started moving, and before too long, there was a brick archway, which led out into a bustling Wizarding street. It was impossible to take everything in at once – there were shops selling all sorts of things Mia had only heard of in fairy stories, and a lot of other things she'd never even heard of at all. The brightly coloured shop-fronts all along the street were completely dominated by the imposing white marble building at the far end.
"That's Gringots," Lily said, correctly guessing what Mia was looking at. "The Wizarding bank. We'll have to go there first, so your parents can change muggle money into Wizarding money, and my parents can go and get gold from our vault."
The party made their way up the street, and Mia tried to take everything in at once. Lily kept up a running commentary, pointing out the apothecary, Flourish and Blotts, Madam Malkins, and another branch of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, the magical joke shop which Lily's uncle owned, and which they'd visited in Hogsmede the day after Halloween last year.
It took them quite a long time to get to Gringots, because dozens of witches and wizards stopped them so they could shake Harry's hand, or introduce their children to him.
"Does your dad know everyone?" Mia asked Lily incredulously when they eventually reached the Wizarding Bank.
"Nope," Lily grinned. "It's just that everyone knows him."
They entered Gringots, and Mia stopped to take in the big marble hall, full of-
"Lily, are those goblins?" Mia asked.
"Uh huh," Lily nodded. "I think they're a bit weird, really... not exactly friendly. But then I guess we don't really need them here to be friendly – Dad says they make great guardians of Gringots... not that that stopped him and Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione breaking in and robbing a vault..."
"What? – why?" Mia asked.
Lily shrugged. "Long story, Dad says. I guess they'll tell us one day..."
"Right, I'm going down to the vault," Ginny said. "Who's coming with me?"
"Me!" James, Al and Lily said together.
"Mia?" Lily asked. "It's like a rollercoaster ride... not that I've ever actually been on a rollercoaster, but Dad says it is..."
"Not that I've ever been on a rollercoaster either," Harry smiled.
"Maybe next time," Mia said, not sure her stomach would take a rollercoaster ride, not unless she wanted to lose her meagre breakfast, and last night's dinner too.
"Alright," Ginny said. "We'll meet you in Flourish and Blotts."
As Ginny, James, Al and Lily walked up to one goblin, Mia followed her parents and Harry to another so that her dad could change some muggle money into the Wizarding currency of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. Her mum hung back, but Mia wanted to watch the whole thing – how the goblin's long fingers moved slowly to take the money, how he counted it out carefully, peering down at it with his spectacles perched on the end of his long, knobbly nose. She memorised every detail as if she'd one day get to tell her annoying cousin all about them... and then secretly gloated that she was here, in the Wizarding World meeting goblins, whilst he was at home, in a boring muggle town, throwing up. Yes, Mia thought, there were definitely some perks to being a witch.
After that, there was a whirlwind of shops to be visited and things to be bought: robes, and pointy black hats which James said no one wore anymore anyway; spell books which Mia longed to sit and flick through; pewter cauldrons and brass weighing scales and all sorts of odd potions ingredients; a folding telescope which made James and Al start a debate about whether it wouldn't make much more sense for there to just be a set of school telescopes for everyone to use. Finally, it was time to buy the most important thing: a wand.
Lily and her parents went in first, leaving Mia and her parents outside with James and Al, who were playing with a strange bouncy ball they'd bought in Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, and which they were throwing and bouncing about so fast it made Mia feel sick. Lily came out five minutes later waving her new wand around, ignoring her parent's pleas to put it away before she did some damage with it.
"It's ebony and dragon heartstring," she told Mia proudly. "Twelve inches. I wonder what you'll get. The wand chooses the wizard – or witch – you know. Oh, and Ollivander really is as weird – and old – as everyone says he is."
Mia went into the shop, followed by her parents and trying to ignore the pain in her stomach, which was getting worse. Olivander's shop was a long, narrow building, the walls all lined with slim wand-boxes. The man behind the counter had long white hair and a well lined face. His silver eyes surveyed Mia keenly as she walked in.
"Good morning, Miss..." he said.
"Dursley," Mia supplied. "Mia Dursley."
Ollivander nodded. "A friend of Lily Potter?" he asked.
Mia nodded. "My dad and her dad are cousins."
Ollivander's piercing gaze moved from Mia to her parents. "I do not recall selling you two wands..." he mused.
"We're muggles..." Mia's dad said uncertainly.
"Miss Dursley, which is your wand arm?" Ollivander asked, picking up a tape measure from the counter and walking around it towards Mia.
"Right," Mia said, and Mr Ollivander began to take measurements – her elbow to her fingertips, between her shoulder blades, her hand span... He took at least three times as many measurements as Mia thought was really necessary, but it seemed to make sense to him. Then he walked over to the shelves lining the walls, and selected a wand box. He opened it and offered it to Mia.
"What...what do I do?" Mia asked uncertainly, taking the wand.
"Give it a wave," Ollivander instructed. "It's Cedar and dragon heartstring, thirteen and a quarter inches, springy."
Mia gave the wand a wave, expecting mass destruction from the stories Lily told, but instead two more wand boxes flew off of the shelves and towards Mia. Ollivander caught them.
"Curious," he mused, examining the wand boxes. "Very well, try this one. Chestnut and unicorn hair, eight and three quarter inches, fairly sturdy."
Mia waved the wand obediently. Nothing happened, except the pain in her stomach intensified.
"Very well." Ollivander took the wand from her and offered her the second wand which the first wand had summoned. "Perhaps this... alder and unicorn hair, eleven and a half inches, springy."
Mia took the wand, and felt a warm feeling spread through her, as multi-coloured sparks shot out of the end of the wand. Mr Ollivander applauded, and then took the wand from her and returned it to its box. Mia felt a hot, acidy feeling in the back of her throat.
"There you have it, Miss Dursley; the wand chooses the witch or wizard," he said. "I find alder wands are most suitable to non-verbal spells. When you reach that level in your school work I'm sure you will find it most helpful. That will be nine galleons, please."
He handed Mia the box with her new wand in, and she promptly threw up all over his shoes.
Well there it is :-) Mia's first trip to Diagon Alley - I hope you enjoyed it. I had great difficult in writing this until I wondered what it would be like if your memory of your first trip to Diagon Alley was marred by being ill, and this is the result. Keep an eye out for further "missing moments", and (eventually) the story of Mia's second year at Hogwarts.