It was the most amazing day Harry had ever had. He had never imagined that a world like this could exist, much less that he could be a part of it. The things he had seen in Diagon Alley were amazing, and he could already tell that there was a lot more that he had yet to see.
Hagrid looked at the list as they exited the apothecary.
"Just yer wand left. Oh, an' I still haven't gotten yeh a birthday present."
Harry flushed red. "You don't have to...I've never had one before, I don't mind."
Hagrid turned to him in shock. "Blimey! Never had a birthday present? Not one?" Harry shook his head. "Ruddy Dursleys." Hagrid growled. "Wish I'd managed to finish that curse. Well, tell you what. I was plannin on gettin yeh an owl, but why don't yeh have a look around an' see if there's something that catches yer eye. Think of it as a way fer me to make up for what I missed." Harry looked at him in shock. He had never had any money of his own to spend, so being told to pick out whatever he wanted was quite a new thing for him. Hagrid saw his look and chuckled. "Go on then," he said. "Off with ya!"
Harry dashed off a fast as he could. With all the wonderful things he'd seen already, he was sure he could find a lot of things he would like, and he wanted to see as many as he could. After a while of looking around the alley, dashing in and out of any number of stores, Harry found himself returning to Flourish and Blotts. It had finally occurred to him that there could be quite a lot of books on any number of subjects, and he thought it would be worth a look around before asking Hagrid if he could have one of those omnioculars he'd seen a vendor selling down the street. He wandered around the store for a bit, looking for anything really interesting, when his eyes landed on a sign he couldn't read. The symbols on it seemed to weave and shift, and it was starting to give him a headache, when finally they seemed to settle into english letters.
Foreign Works and Antiques
Harry, curious, walked in. How was foreign magic different, he wondered and were all the books in here enchanted to be like the sign? After looking around for a while HArry had started to develope a serious headache. Many of the books, scrolls and parchments he found did not, in fact, translate themselves, and the ones that did used the same twisting script as the sign, not to mention retaining several words that Harry found impossible to pronounce. He was just about to leave when something caught his eye. There was a scroll on display on the back wall, trimmed in blue. As he looked at the plaque beneath it, it translated itself.
Unknown Ancient Japanese Scroll. Marked with Characters "Mirror-Wheel Eye." Theorized to contain lost eye magic, or notes thereof.
Harry was now very excited. If what was in this scroll could fix his eyesight, the it would be without a doubt the best present he had ever received. It would also be the first, but he was too eager to care. What's more, everything in this section of the store seemed much cheaper than the rest, perhaps because it seemed a good deal less popular.
Instantly forgetting about the omnioculars, Harry rushed out of the store to find Hagrid. For the first time in his life he was eager to return to Privet Drive. The sooner he could be in his new bedroom, the sooner he could see if the scroll could fix his eyes.
Here we go. I am reposting the first two chapters, this one included. This prologue was written by Matthias the Wanderer, who also started the challenge I am answering by writing this fic.