Harry Potter and the Staff of Slytherin

Chapter One – Trip to Diagon Alley

Bear with me - I'm new to the writing side of fan fiction. Also, I'm writing this quite soon after I read Order of the Phoenix and I probably missed some potentially important information.

I expect this story to be around 125,000 words in the end. I will update every weekend, whatever day I finish the chapter on. If you have any comments, either leave a review or email me

Disclaimer: JKR owns the Harry Potter universe. I own this Pot Noodle sitting next to me and a religion which involves skiving off school on Mondays and worshipping pizzas.

And if you listen very hard

The tune will come to you at last

When all are one and one is all

To be a rock and not to roll

~ Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven

Anyone looking in through the window of 4 Privet Drive, second floor, would see a boy of around 15 years old wearing clothes that were too small for him and much too wide.

If they looked close enough they would see that he was banging his head on the desk and holding a quill.

And if, for some reason, they could read minds they would detect anger and frustration.

Harry was writing a letter to The Daily Prophet. They had asked him for an interview to tell his side of what went on in the Department of Mysteries and invited him to London but he had decided to write them a letter telling them the details instead.

He found that, due to the lack of writing stories skills that most 15 year old boys possessed, due to endless torture in stuffy classrooms, that he was absolutely terrible at writing stories and so he had advised them to edit it a bit, as long as they didn't twist his words. Also, he had demanded that he be sent the 'interview' before it was published, to ensure that he wasn't mislead. He had very little trust in the media since the exploits of Rita Skeeter during his fourth year and also their portrayal of himself and people like Dumbledore during his previous term in school.

A loud crash penetrated his ear drums. He grabbed his wand from his school trunk and quietly opened his door, tiptoeing his way downstairs, grimacing as he stepped on a creaky floorboard.

A shriek rang through the house as he stepped on Amilice, his Auntie's new cat, who seemed to hate Harry and loved to get under his feet before biting his ankles. He wondered why the Dursleys could not hear the noises that he could. 'Maybe they're already dead' he thought to himself.

"Harry! How are you, mate?" A tall, red-haired teenaged boy stepped out of the shadow and greeted Harry.

"Ron! What the hell are you doing here?"

"The twins and I are rescuing you, of course," he informed Harry as two identical faces two identical bodies made their way towards him."

"Come on, get your stuff. We're going to the Burrow!"

"Don't shout! You'll wake up the Dursleys!"

"Nah, we set up some silencing spells. Shout and kick that cat as much as you want until you reach the top of the stairs."

He resisted the urge to 'kick that cat' and found himself, three hours and a broomride later, in the garden of the Burrow. He cried as a gnome bit him on the knee but found great satisfaction in kicking it over the nearby fence.

"Nice kick, Harry. We usually throw them though," joked Fred as they crept silently through the back door.

"Ron," said Harry quietly, "does your Mum know I'm here?"

"Do you want the short answer or the long answer?"

"The long one will do nicely, thanks."

"Not as such, no. She doesn't know."

"What was the short answer?"

"Just a simple 'No'," they snickered.

"What's your Mum going to say?"

"Mum and Dad aren't here! They are visiting relatives in America until mid-August! It's just us, Ginny, the twins and Charlie here!"

They made their way upstairs and somehow made it into Ron's room before falling unconscious, absolutely shattered after their ride.

The next morning was spent explaining Harry's sudden appearance to Charlie. He didn't mind though, in fact he seemed quite happy about the extra company. They also played Quidditch in the garden. On one team was Ron as Keeper and Harry and Ginny as chasers. The other had Charlie as keeper with Fred and George as Chasers. They only had the Quaffle out and they played first to 150. The twins and Charlie won 150 – 120.

That afternoon they decided to go to Diagon Alley. Harry, Ron and Ginny had received their book list that morning and Ginny and Ron had decided to get themselves some pets. Pigwidgeon was missing… presumed dead after Ron sent Harry a rather large box of chocolates for his birthday. Ron had seemed more upset about the chocolates than the owl.

They flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and made their way to the Gringotts to get some money before going to the bookstore. They decided to get the pets last, so they weren't bothered by fluttering owl wings in the book store.

Harry gave his list to one of the forehead-staring assistants who assured him that she'd return to the checkout in 15 minutes with all of the books on the list. With nothing to do, he decided to walk around and look for some books for extra reading.

'Animagus Training in 1500 short steps' caught his eye, as did 'Attack against the Dark Arts.'

He bought both of those books as well as 'Elemental Magic for beginners' and 'Potentest Potions'.

After the book shop, they visited the robe shop. Harry had grown a few inches over the first half of the summer so he had no wizarding clothes that fit him. He picked out two sets of school robes – one slightly bigger than the other in case he grew more. He also picked out several robes for casual use and dress robes that were black with a slight green tint if you looked hard enough and there was enough light.

Quality Quidditch Supplies was next on the list. Harry bought a polishing kit for his broom and saw a notice that read:

"Need a broom upgrade? Back room."

Harry made his way to the back room in which a small Chinese man with big round glasses and a cigarette was sitting.

"How can I help you, mate? Hey! You're Harry Potter!"

"Erm… what can you do for my broom?"

"What model?"

"Firebolt."

"I've got speed boosts, control boosts to make it more responsive and colour control so you can change the colour of your broom."

Harry paid for the speed and control boosts (10 galleons) and left with them in his pocket.

He met up with the Weasleys in the gadget shop. It was called 'Led Zeppelin' and had only recently opened, though it had sold a lot of items since it's opening day. They sold lots of accessories including, for some reason, muggle clothing.

Harry decided to buy a small accessory which allowed him to shrink any item and put it in to this small bag, which he could put in his pocket. Then, he was required to say the name of the item and it appeared in his had. It had cost a lot of money but it was, in his opinion, worth every sickle. He had also bought four pairs of jeans and a few t-shirts to go under his robes. Now all of his clothes fit for the first time in his life.

The Pet Shop was only a short distance away. Harry needed another trip to Gringotts. He had spent much more than he thought he would and there was still the Pet Shop to visit.

"Ooh, this one's lovely!" Shrieked Ginny as they came across a large black tawny owl. Her face fell at the price tag, however, and she settled for a much smaller brown coloured animal.

"Ssset me free of thisss cage," Harry turned round sharply and saw a small entrance into another room. He made his way through the arch and saw a dozen or so cages with various creatures.

"Can I help you with anything, Sir?" A small old man, obviously a shop assistant, asked.

"Erm, what's that?" He questioned, pointing at a cage.

"That is a Jinxa. It's a snake – dragon hybrid. Basically, it's a snake that can fly. Although it can't breathe fire."

"I'll take it, please," he said eagerly.

"Thanksss," said the Jinxa. "I've been in that cage for yearsss."

"No problem."

"Where are we going?"

"Back to the Burrow, now."

"What, exactly, are you?"

"I am a human."

"How interesssting. How is it that you ssspeak in the tongue of the sssnake?"

"A curse."

He was cut off, however, from elaborating as Ron had caught sight of the Jinxa wrapped around Harry's neck.

"Erm, Harry, I don't want to alarm you but there's a snake on your neck."

"This is a Jinxa, Ron. I just bought him."

"What on earth possessed you to do that?"

"Dunno."

"Is that another one of thossse ssstrange creaturesss?" Asked the Jinxa.

"Yeah, that's Ron."

"A Ron. I have not heard of thossse."

"No, he's a human. Ron is his name."

"What'sss a name?"

"Humans address each other using names."

"An interesssting concccept. What isss my name?"

"How about…Sirius."

"Sssiriusss," the Jinxa echoed. "And what isss your name?"

"Harry," said Harry.

I just rewrote this. I noticed a few spelling and grammar mistakes, plus the title was wrong.

Please read and review.