Chapter Two: Diagon Alley
Our room was split into three different rooms.
Jamie's was painted, by magic, aqua, and had pictures of muggle "skatebobers" or something like that. Her bed was black with aqua pillows, and was always a mess. Her clothes where laying everywhere and her muggle sport magazines where all over the place.
We had three closets, (thank god) so each of us got one. Jamie's was a mess. She colored it black with skulls at the top. You couldn't see her desk. All you could see was the black legs of it.
Janice's side was a forest green with pictures of animals all over, she was an animal lover. She had books all over the floor and her brown desk. Her nine-inch rosewood wand was lying on a map of London. Her bed was a dark shade of brown, with green pillows to match her walls. Janice's clothes where neatly folded in her closet which had trees painted on it, (she painted them and her whole room herself, but Jamie couldn't understand why.)
My side was a nice lilac purple. I had cute muggle actors, and Quidditch teams posted on my wall. My silver-n-purple bed was always made, and my clothes where put in my closet. My white desk was neatly staked with books and Witch Weekly. My wand was always lying on my desk.
"Why don't you try cleaning one day, Jamie? It's really fun." I said to her.
"It's really fun." she mocked me.
"It's not fun. Anyway, I know where everything is so no need to worry."
"Oh really? Where's your wand?" Janice asked.
"Uhhh, ya. I know where it is. It's over here." she pointed to under her bed.
"I mean, err, over here." Next, she pointed in her closet. She scratched her long curls, and thought for a minute.
"No, I don't know where it is." she admitted.
"Wait till mum see's this."
"Wait till mum see's what?" our mother walked into our room.
"Having a good d- JAMIE ANN BROWNETTE! LOOK AT YOUR ROOM! CLEAN THIS UP NOW!"
"Yes darling Mother." Janice and I giggled but when mum looked at us, we stopped.
"Your room must be done before 2 o'clock because we are going to Diagon Alley." she pleaded her baby blue skirt and left.
"Help, please?" we looked over at Jamie. She looked at us with her big blue eyes.
"Fine." Janice and I said.
"It gives us more time to dress." I said.
After 30 minutes of digging through Jamie's "things", (I swear some of that stuff was alive) it was 1 o'clock.
"An hour to look perfect!" Janice exclaimed. We looked at each other and ran to the bathroom.
"I was here first."
"No, I was." after a 5-minute fight, I let Janice go first. I was going to pick out something to wear. I finally picked cute black skinny jeans, with a beige shoulder cut-of t-shirt with a tiger printed on top. Right after my picking, Janice was out from the bathroom.
"How do I look?" she asked twirling around. She was wearing a pair of faded skinny jeans, and a long black shirt. Her hair was in a high pony. She had light mascara on and she was wearing black flats.
"Absolutely stunning. Wait- I forgot shoes." Jamie's looked up from her magazine.
"I'll go in the bathroom while you figure out you "crisis", ok?"
"Sure, whatever." I tell Jamie. I ran to my closet, and ran through all my pairs of shoes. Finally, I picked out a pair of flip-flops.
"Jamie, you look nice." I heard Janice say. I turned and saw Jamie. My sister was wearing faded skinny jeans, a black hello kitty shirt, black converses, a peace necklace, and her favorite earrings, the ones that looked like toast. Her hair was loose, and she had a little eyeliner.
"Why thank you." she said and then started walking like a model. We all laughed, and I looked at the clock. 2:45.
"Fifteen minutes! I won't be able to get ready that fast!" I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could.
Coming out of the shower, I realized that somehow, I did make it. I put in two pigtails and put on mascara and blush. I looked pretty good.
"All done! And with five minutes to spare!"
"Beautiful!" yelled Janice and Jamie. We started laughing our heads off.
"Ready?" we heard mum yell.
"Yep!" all three of us said at the same time. We laughed hysterically, and walked downstairs.
"You girls look beautiful! Let's go." my mum said, and we walked downstairs.
"Diagon Alley is the most beautiful place on earth." I said. There were so many stores and witches, wizards, and owls.
"I love it here!" Janice remarked.
"Wait till you get to Hogwarts." our mom said.
"First we need to go to Gringotts Wizarding Bank to get you money, and then you three are going shopping!"
"Cool. Whoa, wait the three of us? What about you? Or are you kicking Jamie out?" I asked
"Hey!"
"Whatever Jamie." I smiled at her.
"You three are going shopping alone; I have some business to take care of." she told us.
"Awesome! Um, mum. What is Gringotts?" we looked at my mum and nodded.
It turned out to be a bank, but it was beautiful. We had to go through bronze, then silver doors to get through. The inside was magnificent. It was marble and little people walked around.
"Mrs. B, who are these little tiny people?"
"Well, these tiny people are goblins, they run the bank. But be careful girls, these goblins are very greedy and will protect there money at any cost." answered my mum. Then I realized how ugly the goblins where. They were short, had big heads, and had really long fingers. They where sitting in rows at enormous counters, so mum went to one of them.
"How may I help you?" asked a goblin with a raspy voice.
"I'd like to withdraw some money from vault 138, please."
"Key, please." my mum took out a tiny, hard to see, gold key and gave it to the goblin. I wonder how she found that key in her purse of unorganized mess. The goblin popped out of his seat, and said,
"Follow me, please." we followed the goblin, to a cart.
"We're going on a rollercoaster?" Janice asked. She loved rollercoasters. Her and her dad always went to DisneyLand Paris.
"No Janice, this is how we go to our vault. But it is like a rollercoaster." my mum answered.
Oh no, I hate rollercoaster's, they always make me barf. Jamie was looking at me because she was the only one who knew about it.
"Come on, now. Hurry if you want more time shopping." my mum told us. Ok, maybe it won't be as bad today. We all stepped in. The goblin stepped in and opened a gate. The whole thing looked like a giant rollercoaster and was traveling miles and miles under London.
"Please fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride. Gringotts is not responsible for any injuries." gulp. What did they mean by injuries? I was going to get out, and let them go, but it was a little too late.
"Hey, it not that ba- ahhhhhhhhhhh." I said, but then we where going down, down, down, down.
"Rosie, you don't look so well." Janice yelled at me, obviously enjoying the ride.
After 5 minute of misery, we where finally at vault 138. The goblin turned the key and we went into a walk in vault. It was huge. We weren't that rich but we still had lots of money. Mum filled a handful in three bags and gave it to us.
"Wow, mum. This is a lot of money. We only need half this much." Jamie said to my mum.
"I know, but go buy something you don't need and lunch." my mum answered.
"Wow, thanks mum." Jamie and I said and Janie said,
"Thanks Mrs. B."
"Your welcome, girls" she replied smiling. We sat back down in the cart, and after another 5 minutes of twists and turns, I ran to the loo, not to use the bathroom though.
After all that, we and mum separated.
"So, where do you guys want to go first?" Asked Jamie. Our mum told us about every store here at Diagon Alley.
"Let's get our robes first, I guess." I said. We walked in to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Looking around, we found the necessary black robes for Hogwarts, and bought them. Next to Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, was Flourish & Blotts, where we bought all the books we needed and Janice bought some extra.
"Why do you have so many books Jan?" My sister asked walking out of Flourish & Blotts.
"Unlike you, I like to read." Janice answered. I rolled my eyes. All that bickering was going to give me a headache.
"We already have wands so we don't need to go to Olivan-" I started to say, but Janice interrupted me.
"I need her." Janice yelled. She was pointing to a brown Tawny owl. She ran to Eeylops Owl Emporium.
"Excuse me sir, but I would like to buy this brown Tawny owl please."
"13 Galleons." the shopkeeper said.
"Here you go." Janice said, and gave her the money.
"Thank you. Have a nice day." Janice walked out from the store, with a cage in her hand.
"Meet Dawn." she said showing us the owl.
"Nice name Jan." Jamie said.
"Thanks Jamie."
"Ok, as I was saying we have wands, so we don't need to go to Ollivander's. I'm hungry. Let's go to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor." I told them.
"Ice cream for lunch? I'm there." Jamie told us and I laughed
"Sure, why not." Janice answered, and we walked over to the ice cream parlor. I ordered a strawberry fudge sundae, Jamie got a Triple Chocolate sundae, and Janice got a banana split. We sat down at a small circular table, and began to eat.
"Oh god, this is so good!" Jamie exclaimed after her first bite of ice cream. Janice and I nodded in agreement.
"Diagon Alley is such a pretty place." Janice said.
"I guess you're right, but I still do miss France. And all my friend." Jamie sighed.
"Knowing you, you'll probably have a million friends by the first day, and I'll only have Janice." I told her.
"Hah! Like that'll be true." Jamie said, laughing. Accidentally, she spit some ice cream on Janice.
"Ew! Jamie!" Janice yelled, and flicked some ice cream at Jamie. "What was that for!" Jamie said, and I stepped in before this would turn into a big fight.
"Stop it!" I yelled, and surprisaly, they did.
After our tummies where full, we went to Magical Menagerie, which was home to many different animals. There purple toad, fire crabs, and poisonous orange snails. A fat white rabbit that could turn in to a silk hat, and in the back, cats of every color, ravens, and sleek black rats playing eat the other rat's tail.
"Hello, dear girls. How may I help you?" an old woman asked us.
"I would like to buy this black cat please." my sister told her.
"A black cat, really sis?" I said
"Why not." Jamie answered. The old woman gave Jamie a black female cat with extremely green eyes.
"How much?"
"23 galleons." the lady said.
"Here you go." Jamie said, and gave her the money.
"Thank you, Have a nice day." and we walked out of there.
"What's her name?" Janice and I said together.
"Whiskers." Jamie told us.
"Awww, how cute." Janice said. I laughed at her.
"Such an original name, sis." she tried to hit my, but I moved a tad bit faster.
We did the rest of our shopping and then I saw it. A Nimbus 2001. I ran to Quality Quidditch Supplies.
"How much?" I asked the couple that ran the store
"You got lucky! You are the 10,000th costumer! You get to Firebolt for Free!" they both yelled. I nearly fainted.
"Really! Awesome! Are you sure?" both of them nodded.
"Thanks!" I yelled, hugging them both. I took my new Firebolt and ran out to show Jamie and Janice.
"Look!" I squealed.
"How much did you pay, sis?"
"Nothing!" I said, and Janice looked at me with wide, green eyes.
"You stole it?"
"No, I won it!" They both smiled at me.
"Congrats Rosie!" They yelled.
"Thanks!"
All the sudden, I stepped on my flip-flop and started falling, when a boy caught me.
"Watch where you're going." he said in a mean voice and pushed me up. I looked up at him and he had grey eyes and platinum blonde hair. He looked strangely familiar.
"I'm sorry."
"You better be." my head hung down. I stuck out my hand.
"I'm Ros-" But he was gone. Jamie and Janice ran up to me.
"Are you ok, Rosie?" asked Janice.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Who was he?" my sister asked.
"I don't know."