The streets were absolutely packed as I raced down the cobble stoned streets of Diagon Alley. I was absolutely baffled at all of the cute little stores that held all sorts of magical items and such. To my right I saw a bunch of caged owls on display in windows, and to my left there were a bunch of tacky, colourful witch hats.
"Amy!" my sister Mandy called out to me. "Don't run so fast!"
I turned around and faced her with a way too serious, yet totally sarcastic, look on my face. "Well don't drag your ass Mandy and maybe you wouldn't get lost so much."
Mandy cocked an eyebrow at me and gave me a playful little push. "Yeah right! I have way more sense of direction then you! I mean, honestly. Did you ever remember where we parked the car in parking lots back home in Toronto?"
I just laughed. "Touché, but we won't have to worry about that now, will we?" I turned around and proceeded to weave my way through the crowd. Mandy stuck as close behind me as she possibly could.
"How's that, exactly?" she prodded, keeping pace with me now.
I winked at her and locked elbows with her. "Well here in good ol' England, they have brooms and other such fancy shmancy good stuff."
"Pfft! You're gonna buy a broom?"
I bit my lip, holding back a smirk. She had a point. I was shit broke, and Mom was not gonna buy more than was necessary for school.
We are in the same grade (I think the Brits call them years, not grades), because we were almost exactly nine months apart. I was born in January and she was born in October. I'm older, but you can't really tell because Mandy is a couple inches taller and has bigger boobs and whatever.
You're welcome for sharing that little tidbit of info. Like you needed to know… Oh well, there you go.
"Girls, come here!" our Mom called out to us. We laughed as we watched her juggling a load of crap, refusing to let us carry any of it. She didn't trust the double trouble klutz monkeys over here ;)
"Sup mumsy?" I chirped. I found it comical how she wouldn't just use her magic to levitate it all or shrink it or something. She gave me an annoyed look and handed me some money and a piece of paper. "Here. Go to that book store over there. Get the text books listed on there. DO NOT lose them. Mandy, will you stay with me and help me for a moment?"
"Okey dokey artichokey!" I replied, greedily yanking the bucks out of her hand and zipping off while Mandy pouted about being left behind.
This little bookstore was not like the other ones. It wasn't nearly as busy, and it looked a little… scary. The book cases were high and weathered, looking like they would collapse on top of me at any moment. I crept inside and looked around. Only a handful of people were inside, and they were all standing together, whispering to each other.
I noticed that the people were mostly white haired. I stepped inside and when the floorboards creaked they all turned to me with menacing looks on their faces.
OMG attack of the albinos! Haha, but seriously they needed to get those sticks out of their arses.
They all looked at me, and I looked at each one of them. There were three men and a woman. The women had white hair with brown on the top. It reminded me of a skunk. She looked nice enough, but kind of reminded me of a momma grizzly bear. Well… polar bear. Anyway she looked like she'd bite my head off if she ever got miffed with me.
One man had a funny looking nose and greasy black hair, with all black robes to match. I didn't like him. His eyes were droopy and he looked mean. I wanted to stay away from him for sure.
Another old dude had his nose stuck in the air like I smelled funny or something, like he was better then everyone. His hair was long and slicked back, and his lips were pursed in a menacing manner. I didn't like him either.
Then there was the boy. He looked about my age. Around seventeenish, maybe eighteen. He didn't look as mean as the adults, but he didn't look nice either. His eyes were narrowed at me, but he looked a little nervous about the fact that I was there. Like he had some secret and couldn't hide it as well as the rest of them. He was also quite handsome, but his eyes were cold and took away from the rest of his features. He looked like he hadn't felt any positive emotion for a long time, like he hadn't smiled in years.
What a grumpy bunch. I wonder who pissed in their cornflakes this morning.
They were all glaring at me. Oh, a staring contest is it? Fine then, you're on! I looked back at them with a blank expression on my face. I felt a bit nervous and my fingers twitched, ready to pull my wand out of my boot if I needed to.
First the stuck up dude that looked like the boy's dad turned away from me with a little "Humph!" Then the rest of them turned away too.
I win! What now, albino clan?
Well, now that that extremely awkward moment is over with I'll just walk over here…
I looked and looked for the freakin books listed, but they were nowhere to be seen. Mom said she checked all of the other bookstores. Was that so, mom? So you send your daughter into the scary looking stores and couldn't be bothered to go into one more bookstore by yourself? Nice, really nice.
"Oh. My. God. Damn. Crap!" I cursed, and kicked the corner of the shelf. It wavered more than a little bit and a bunch of dust came showering down on me. "Eep!" I squealed, covering my dusty head from a few books falling from the very top.
"Would you like some help there?" I heard someone speak. I turned and saw three kids standing in front of a bookshelf across from mine. One had some circle specs and shaggy dark hair. The other was one dayum hot GINGER! And the girl had curly brown hair and a sophisticated look about her.
I smiled at them curtly and nodded. "Yeah, that would be awesome."
The tall nerd boy smiled and approached me. "I'm Harry. This here is Ron and Hermione."
"Hey. I'm Amy." I replied. Then I looked at the list and handed it to Harry in defeat. He took a short look at it and laughed.
"Well, you won't find these in any shop." He said.
I growled and stopped myself from kicking the shelf again. "Crap."
"Here. Why don't you come with us? Hermione knows where everything we need is." Harry offered.
"Um… kay. Can I grab my sister?"
"Yeah. Go ahead." He said.
What a polite boy. I like him already. The girl looks a bit snooty. The other boy is a ginger. NUFF SAID.
I nodded and ran out of the store entrance. I figured that mom and Mandy wouldn't have made it too far ahead of me. Sure enough I could see Mandy by herself. It looked like she was talking to one of the owls. No wonder. I mean, an owl is much better company then my mom when she is in shopping mode.
"Mandy!" I called. She turned and saw me. I waved her over. She quickly said goodbye to the bird and skipped over to me.
"What's shakin' bacon?" she sang happily.
"I made friends!" I announced like a five year old kid. I pointed at the three people following me out of the store.
"Weeell! Ello chums!" Mandy greeted them, adding a little curtsy at the end. "Name's Mandy."
I thought they would be pissed but they laughed at her. Not a making fun, OMG-this-girl-is-completely-bonkers laugh, but joyful, you-weird-but-I-like-you laugh.
"I'm Harry. These are my friends Ron and Hermione." Harry replied. What a polite young chap :D
I clapped my hands together, eager to get the show on the road and finally finish our shopping list. It was a long day and I wanted the rest of it to myself. "So." I started, looking hopefully at the three kids.
Hermione grabbed the list and skimmed over it in like a second at least. "You won't find these in any old bookshop. Most of these you won't receive until the term starts."
"You mean they're at the school? YES!" I cheered, high fiving Mandy. Oh, but just you wait Mom. You`ll get your just desserts for sending me off on a wild goose chase. Juuuust you wait.
"You two are American?" Ron asked. I caught out of the corner of my eye Mandy drooling over his gingerness. Yummy I know, but be cool Mandy. Be cool.
"Nope." I replied simply. "Canadian. We lived outside of Toronto our whole lives."
"What made you move to London?" Harry asked.
I shrugged. "Daddy got an offer for a job in the Ministry that he couldn't refuse. Things sure are different here…" I mused.
"I like it. It's like that movie Halloween Town., 'cept without all the pumpkin headed people and clowns and whatever." Anya said with a smile.
"Didn't Sarah Paxton star in that one?" I asked.
"No, just the last one. Simon was yummylicious though." She squealed as she thought about it.
"These two are completely bonkers." Ron muttered. I cocked an eyebrow at him as we walked. "Uh, in a sort of way that's alright. You're not nearly as mad as Luna."
"Who's that?" I asked.
"You'll meet her soon enough." Hermione laughed.
As we walked along to try and find Mom, we talked about our old school and Harry talked very highly about Hogwarts. I was getting more and more excited with every word he spoke about it. It sounded so dope!
We were passing a cauldron shop when I spotted the albino kid again. He was with two other kids. One was tall and the other was slightly pudgier than the other. They all looked just plain mean.
I nodded my head toward him. "What's the deal with him?" I asked.
They all followed my gaze and saw the three. They looked like they were arguing heatedly with the shop owner.
"Draco Malfoy." Harry said, annoyance striking every word. "He's a slimy git. Stay away from him."
I smirked and stepped into the store.
"What are you doing?" Ron called after me.
I looked over my shoulder at them. "Are you coming or not?" Mandy ran up next to me and the three reluctantly followed us inside.
Draco Malfoy had his eyebrows knitted together in frustration and he called the store owner a few colourful british bad names. I giggled at him because they sounded so funny. I guess he heard me because he looked right at us.
"Potter." He spat in disgust when he saw the three.
"Malfoy." Harry said back, trying to hold back the tone in his voice.
"Amy!" I chirped giddily, clapping my hands.
They all looked at me, while Mandy and I just giggled to ourselves. I cleared my throat to stop the giggles and pursed my lips to stop them from happening again as I watched the tension rise between Harry and this Malfoy kid.
"What's the matter, Potter?" Draco grimaced. "You that desperate for everybody's attention that you're harassing the foreigners now?"
The two pudgier friends of his laughed at his comment and he smiled confidently at himself. Wow, does he ever like to hear himself talk.
Harry smirked at Draco's attempt to get a razz out of him, but I just had to put my two-cents in there. I put on my million dollar smile as I faced him. "I'm sorry, bloke. I mean, really. No need to be such a douchebag just cause you can't make friends as easy."
"Bloody hell." Ron squeaked in laughter, trying to hold it back as best he could. On the other hand, Mandy was bending over clutching her sides from laughing so hard.
Draco's face was priceless. His hand wavered over his wand and I instinctively brushed my fingertips over my own wand. Over my shoulder I could see Harry ready to pull his own out at any time.
After a moment Draco's eyes just looked me over from my red converse all-stars all the way up to my green eyes, taking in my whole look. It made me frown nervously, the way he did it. Then he just smirked and walked passed us with Crab and Goyle right behind him.
I smiled in triumph as he walked passed me. His shoulder gently brushed against mine and he leaned towards me. "Watch yourself, girl." And he trudged out of sight.
"Oh yeah!" Mandy cheered. "Amy one, Blondie zero!"
"That was brilliant." Ron said as they approached me.
"Thanks." I said with a smile.
"By the way…" he added. "What's a douchebag?"
Me and Mandy broke out in laughter again as we all headed out of the store. I could already tell this was going to be an awesome experience.