Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Over the next two days, while Hermione was waiting for Professor McGonagall's reply, she was questioning everything about this school. Asking her parents all these questions:

"Is magic real?"

"I wonder where this school could be?"

"So, did any of your ancestors go to this magic school?"

Mr and Mrs Granger had no answer to their daughter's questions, as they truly did not know how and why their little girl was chosen to attend this "Hogwarts."

-o0o-

As the Granger family was sitting down to breakfast 2 days after they had received Professor McGonagall's letter, they heard a chirp. Not like a small, soft bird chirp, but a loud night time bird chirp. As Mrs Granger opened the kitchen window, an owl flew into the kitchen and again landed in front of Hermione, and again it was carrying another letter addressed to her.

"Oh great! Professor McGonagall's reply." Hermione loudly stated as she started to open the envelope.

Dear Miss Granger,

It is an honour to know that you will be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and on the Hogwarts Express, departing from Platform 9 and ¾ on September 1st. As to obtaining your schoolbooks, your wand, your robes, cauldron etc. you can get these at a pub called "The Leaky Cauldron" which is a 5 min walk from the underground station, Charing Cross. Ask the bartender for Diagon Alley. Attached is a map of the area of London around the leaky cauldron.

Looking forward to meeting you properly on 1st September.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

"So, there is a whole alley behind a pub in Charing Cross. This is insane but awesome at the same time. When can we go dad?"

"Well honey, as this Professor McGonagall says, the semester doesn't start to next year, 1st September. We have plenty of time."

"But dad, I want to read up on this school and magic. As much as possible before then. Please?"

"Come on, William. Let's agree to go next month" Elizabeth replied "She's our smart little girl."

-o0o-

A whole month past in the blink of an eye for Hermione Granger. She was so busy preparing herself for her visit to this Diagon Alley that she completely alienated herself from all her friends at school and the outside world.

Choosing to try and read up on this school by any means necessary. However, that was harder than she thought as there was no mention of Hogwarts anywhere. Not on the internet nor in any books, the only reference to magic came from the 1800s where the general public burnt witches at the stake.

At this mention, Hermione decided to stop looking and just wondered at where this new world could hide a whole alley that no one would find it. 'In the centre of London 10 mins walk from Charing Cross station, McGonagall had written in her letter' She had been to Charing Cross several times in her life and never seen a pub called the Leaky Cauldron, "how can you conceal a whole pub?" She thought to herself.

The day finally came, and she was super excited to get going. She bounced out of bed at the first chime of her alarm, got dressed into the familiar skirt, tights, and jumper combo she normally wore and ran down stairs to her parents sitting down eating breakfast.

Hermione and her parents took the train to Kings Cross station, before disembarking and changing to the underground, to go to Charing Cross station. As Professor McGonagall had given them a hand drawn map on the second piece of paper in her envelope, they found the Leaky Cauldron with no problems.

However, Mr Granger spoke up with, "dear, we have been he several times and never noticed this pub before. How?"

"I don't know. It's now as clear as anything."

Mrs Granger was right though, from the outside the Leaky Cauldron did not look like much, it was a small door on the corner of an alleyway. The sign above the door was so faded that anyone just walking past would never read what was on the sign. This was playing on the muggles perspective of "you see, but you do not observe."

As the Granger family entered the pub, they found their noses were confounded with the smells of grime, grease, bone and sweat. Their eyes saw at least 10 men drinking, while 2 were sitting in the corner, just out of plain sight, whispering to each other. They noticed the bartender right off, and started to make their way over to him, when a yell came out of nowhere.

"YOU MUST BE A FIRST YEAR HOGWARTS STUDENT?"

Hermione Granger, who was scared as to where the voice had come to, spoke to the bartender, "Excuse me Sir, I have been asked to ask you where I go to get to Diagon Alley?"

"Ahh okay follow me little girl and these are your parents welcome." the bartender replied.

Hermione and her parents followed the bartender, whose name turned out to be Tom, outside into a small patio and watched as he tapped the third brick above the bin on the right hand side of the wall. The bricks magically started to move aside to reveal a street filled with both people and shops selling all manner of goods.

"Welcome, to Diagon Alley. If you need money the tall white building in the distance is called Gringotts bank, you can exchange muggle money, for gallons, as that is our currency. Have a great day shopping. Come back here for lunch when you finished" Tom, the bartender replied as Hermione and her parents wandered off down the alley.

The 3 Grangers were hustled and bustled down the alleyway but a lot of passersby, until they reached a fork in the alley, with a huge white building in between. The architecture on the building was to mighty columns protruding from the ground to the roof, with balcony halfway up.

A sign on the door… said dangers and death are given to anyone who doesn't heed these words. Or something similar Hermione thought it was hard to read the gold writing on a gold plate.

As they opened the door they got the biggest shock of their lives…. Goblins, more goblins. And they were sitting at desks stamping envelopes or bank cheques, all in unison.

"Keep close Hermione." whispered her father.

As they approached the end of the room, the head goblin looked up from his desk and asked, "can I be of assistance to you?"

Both parents shuffled away but Hermione momentarily stunned with fear, piped up with "I have been told to come here to exchange pounds to gallons, is that true?"

"Ahh… you must be a muggleborn then. The exchange rate is 5 Great British pounds to 1 gallon. How much do you have?"

Unsure what the head goblin meant by muggleborn, Hermione looked to her parents and said, "how much you want to change?"

Mrs Granger replied, "let's change 350 pounds." As she gave over the money the goblin gave them strange looking coins some gold, some silver and some bronze.

Then they left and walked quickly out of the bank and back into the alley.

-o0o-

"So, now we have the money, where do you want to go first sweetie?" Mr Granger asked Hermione.

"Can we go to get my school books first please. "

"Okay, let's go"

As the Granger family approached … they opened the door and walked into a room full of books, every spare space of this room was filled with books.

Books on stacks…

Books on shelves…

Books, books books…

Hermione's face gleamed, "I am in heaven" she whispered to herself "So many books buy and read over."

She went over the shop attendant and before she managed to say anything he asked "First year?"

Hermione was momentarily stunned, but managed a "yes."

"well, here are your first year textbooks that are required for Hogwarts. Is there anything else I can get for you?"

Hermione looked at the stack of books currently in her hands, then said "Is there a book on the history of Hogwarts, I would love to read about it?"

The shop attendant smiled, and wandered away. He was only gone for 5 seconds, before returning with a fat book, called "Hogwarts: a History" He replies to Hermione, "Anything you wish to know about Hogwarts is covered in this book. Trust me"

"Thank you." Mr Granger pulled out the wizard money from this pocket, "umm.. how much do I owe you?"

Attendant replies, "30 gallons and 5 sickles" he could see that Mr Granger was struggling and then said "3 of the big gold ones and 5 silver ones."

Mr Granger was relieved and handed over 3 gold coins and 5 silver coins.

-o00-

Next on the agenda, was Ollivanders wand shop. Every square inch of this shop was filled with little boxes. As the Grangers walked into the shop, they were greeted with "Hello there… What's your name?"

Hermione replied, "My name is Hermione Granger, I am here to buy a wand. I was told to come to you, by the Bar tender at the Leaky Cauldron."

"Of course, I am the best wand seller in the country. The wand, chooses the witch Miss Granger, it's not always clear why. But I think it is clear that we can find you a wand today."

"Try this…" Mr Ollivander gave the wand to Hermione, "well give it a wave"

"Oh." Hermione flicked the wand and the lamp at the other end of the room blew up.

"Nope, nope. Not the right one." MR Ollivander moved to the other end of the room, up some stairs and found another box, "Try this one."

Hermione grasped the wand flicked it towards the back of the room, and near empty boxes, the boxes flew up into the air.

"No definitely not."

The third, fourth and fifth wand choices did not go any better for Mr Ollivander before he found one wand sitting by itself at the front of the store. "Let's try this one."

Hermione grasped the wand and it lit up the eleven-year old's face and the whole store. It illuminated the room and caused Hermione's bushy hair is fly out of her face.

Mrs and Mr Granger who had remained silent throughout the whole previous ordeal, spoke up with, "is that reaction good?"

Mr Ollivander replied, "yes, this wand has chosen you Miss Granger. It's 10 ¾ inches and the core is made from dragon heart string. Have a great day Miss Granger".

"Thank your sir," Hermione replied as she and her parents left the wand shop.

I hope you enjoyed this next instalment of Muggle Born Genius.

Thank you for reading.