Disclaimer: Don't own anyone/thing you recognize.
A few weeks after receiving my acceptance letter to the school of magic had arrived, my mom and I went looking for the Leaky Cauldron. My parents had been using the computer to look for directions and had finally found where the pub could be. They were a bit unwilling at first when they realized it would be filled with drunks and beer, but I convinced them. We drove to the pub and parked across the street. We stood outside the door, working up the courage to push open the grimy, rotting wooden door and enter. Eventually we had gathered enough, and the door swung open when my mom pushed it slightly. A wave of heat and stench greeted us as we stepped inside. I scrunched up my nose, slightly disgusted with what I saw.
Tables were everywhere, placed in random locations along with the chairs. The lighting wasn't very good and shadows seemed to creep across the floor. Then I realized they were rats. The staircase leading upstairs was slightly tilted and looked like it was about to give out. Few people were sitting at any tables, but those that were made me shiver. They were dark and foreboding, nursing large mugs of a dark drink. We made our way to the bar and I inspected it as we got closer. The countertop was a rotting wood and covered on some sort of slime. The bartender stood behind it, watching us as we came closer, slowly wiping a filthy mug with an even filthier towel. When we reached him, he smiled and I saw that he was missing some teeth and could definitely use a dental plan.
Clearing her throat, my mom spoke to him in a clear voice. "We'd like to see the back room, please. If it isn't too much trouble." The bartender nodded, beckoning with his hand to follow him. I avoided looking anywhere but my mom's back, not wanting to have to look at the room that was surely filthy and gross. Opening a door into the alleyway, he pointed at a brick wall. It looked like it had been there for years, but looked cleaner than it should have been. I felt a little foolish, putting all of my faith into a man who couldn't keep a pub clean. As I was thinking this, the bartender had pulled out his wand, a thin stick that was clean despite its owner, and tapped the wall.
The bricks began to move apart, making a noise like they were falling apart, making a doorway. A sign above me read Diagon Alley. I looked out the doorway and my eyes widened. What lay before me was more amazing than anything I had seen before. Streets lined the walkway, slanted and crooked but somehow perfect. Wizards and witches walked down the street wearing normal clothes as they carried around things I hadn't seen before. I was so distracted by this all that I didn't notice when the bartender left. After a few more minutes with my jaw on the street, I remembered what the second letter said, about going to Gringotts Bank so I could get wizarding asked the closest wizard where it was located and he pointed us down the street where a lopsided yet official looking building stood. Walking quickly down the street since we only had a few hours to shop, my mom and I entered the building.
Inside was very clean and bright. Goblins sat on tall chairs at tall desks working on documents and talking with other wizards. Walking to the end of the aisle, we stood in front of one of the goblins. This one looked a bit nicer than the others, whistling slightly under his breath as he worked. After a moment or two, he looked up from the paperwork that he had been doing, and gazed at us. "Do you have a key?" he asked in a gravelly voice. My mother pulled the key for my vault out of her pocket and handed it to the goblin. It had been included within the letters of information. He took it, and after inspecting it carefully for a few seconds, hopped off the chair he had been sitting on. We followed him to a set of double doors that probably led to the vaults. On the other side of the doors was a set of railway tracks and on top of them was a rickety old mining cart. We climbed in, and then we were off.
I had never gotten sick on roller-coasters before, but the speed we were going combined with the fact that the cart clanked and clattered and miles of tunnels were below us didn't help. Eventually, we arrived at a large door with the number 1372 embedded in the metal. Using my key, the small goblin opened the door. It clicked and clattered, but once open, I saw the biggest pile of gold, silver, and bronze coins that I had ever seen. The goblin, figuring that we were here for the first time, explained what each coin was worth. After listening intently, my mom grabbed several of each and put them in her purse.
When we left the bank with my money, she and I walked to the bookstore, Flourish and Blott's, just down the road. Inside we found bookshelves filled to bursting with books. Some were even floating around! We searched for the titles that were on my list, and paid for them, along with a book titled Magic for the Muggle-Born by Sean Hinginbottom. After the book store, we went looking for my cauldron. The cauldron shop was somewhat dark and gloomy and there were several pots that were different sizes, colors, and even shapes. After buying the one my list mentioned, we searched for my other stuff. We found and purchased most of my equipment. By then it was around noon, so we stopped to eat lunch at a restaurant called Rosa LeeTeabag. The tea was warm and delicious and the crumpets seemed to melt in my mouth, kid of like cotton candy.
While we ate, I looked at the shopping list. All that we needed to buy now was an owl, cat, or toad, plus my robes and wand. When we were done eating, my mom decided to go shopping for the pet first. "We need to see what the choices are, Cassie," she told me. Walking into Magical Menagerie was like walking into a zoo. The stench was almost unbearable, and the noise made my ears hurt. A sign on the desk read 'Gone To Lunch. Back in 15.' I looked around at all the different animals. There were rats and mice running on little exercise wheels in small metal cages. When I took a closer look, some of them disappeared. The toads were in marshy tanks, changing colors as they croaked,. The cats lounged on any available surface, resting or licking themselves.. I felt like I was being watched, so I looked up. Staring down at me from a perch behind the counter was a black screech owl. His yellow eyes were inspecting me, like a cat would a mouse. I shivered and looked away.
A small bell rang in the back of the shop, and all the animals suddenly went quiet. A small woman, plump appeared from behind a curtain and smiled up at us. She stepped up to a stool and then asked what we had come looking for. Her smile was warm and inviting, making my nerves settle down a little and forgetting about the screech.
"My daughter was assigned to bring a pet to her new school and we came to look for one here," said my mom. The little lady nodded, and then looked at me. She tilted her head slightly, resembling a small dog. "Well, what would ya like? I've got cats, mice, rats, toads, and of course, owls." AS she spoke, I looked around, thinking of what I wanted. My dad was allergic to cats, so that ruled them out. Toads were always getting lost, and the invisible rats made me afraid that I would lose them. The mice looked at me evilly, almost as if they knew something I didn't, so I crossed them off the list.
"I'd like an owl. Could I see that one above you?" I asked her politely. She stared at me with wide eyes when I asked for the black screech, but got him down none the less. He may have looked evil, but he also looked very handsome. As I admired him, I listened to my mom and the store lady debate prices. "I must warn ya, miss. He's an evil one, 'e is. Nearly bit my finger off just yesterday. But I'll give him to ya for a galleon," she said. My mother handed over the gold coin, and we left the store with my new owl in hand. Well, technically in cage.
"We have three Galleons, nine Sickels, and twenty Knuts left. We still need to buy your robes and then get your wand, so let's go. I saw a robe shop a while ago, so let's go there," sighed my mother. She wasn't used to any of this magic stuff and didn't really enjoy shopping. She left me at the robe shop (Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions), saying that she was going to go get some ice-cream from a shop just down the street. It had gotten hotter as the day grew longer. I stepped inside, leaving everything outside, hoping that no one would take them.
A bell rang as the door swung shut behind me. "I'll be just a moment, dearie," came a voice from farther in the shop. "Let me finish up with this young man." I followed the voice, arriving at a fitting stool where a plump woman was measuring a pale black haired boy, probably around my age. He had a sour expression on his face and didn't look like a nice person. The plump woman finished measuring him and then went through a door to get his robes.
"Hi," I said, trying to start a conversation with him. It felt awkward to just be standing here in silence. He looked at me and in a cold voice that wasn't welcoming at all, said hello back. "So… are you going to Hogwarts?" I looked at him waiting to hear an answer, but before he could answer my question, if he had been planning on it at all, the plump woman, Madam Malkins, came back carrying a set of black robes. The boy left, but whispered something to me that sounded vaguely like 'mudblood. I glared at him, knowing it couldn't have been a compliment, but stepped onto the stool so Madam Malkins could measure me. The womans tools must've been magic, because the measuring and such was completed in a few minutes. She once again disappeared behind the curtain.
A few seconds after she left, the bell rang again and a redhead walked in with a boy who was probably her older brother. She looked to be my age and had a friendly face that was dotted with a few freckles. Her brother had black hair and green eyes that were hidden behind glasses She smiled up at me and said brightly, "Hello! My name's Lily and this is my brother Albus. What's yours?"
"I'm Cassie. Are you going to Hogwarts?" I asked, finally thankful for a friendly person to talk to. She nodded and asked which house I wanted to be in. I told her that I didn't know what the houses were, and she nodded in understanding. "You must be muggle-born then," she stated, then continued when I nodded. "That's okay. I know quite a few muggle-borns. The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin." She said the last one with disgust, and I was about to ask why she said it that way, when Madam Malkins came back with my robes.
"Lily! Albus!" she exclaimed when she saw the siblings. "It seems like forever since I last saw you two." She rushed to give them a hug and I felt a twinge of jealousy. She hadn't greeted me like that. Then I scolded myself. Madam Malkin's didn't even know me and Lily and her brother had probably come here before. After laughing when they said that they had been here yesterday, Madam Malkins turned back to me and handed me my robes. I stepped off of the dressing stool and looked out the front window to see if my mom was there. She hadn't come back yet so I plopped into a chair beside Lily as she waited for her brother's fitting to be done and pulled out Magic for the Muggle-Born and began to read.
"Hey, Cassie? Do you want me to tell you about the different houses and stuff?" Lily asked after a few minutes. I closed my book, which hadn't been that interesting, and nodded, glad to be learning about my new school. Lily pulled out a book titled Hogwarts: A History and showed me the page titled Houses. We sat there reading for over fifteen minutes, in which time Albus's fitting had finished and left to find their mom. The bell rang and my mother stepped in, looking flustered. I jumped up and gave her a hug.
"Mom, this is my friend Lily. She was telling me all about Hogwarts." I told her excitedly. Lily smiled and waved. A woman around my mom's age came in behind her who resembled Lily, which meant that this was probably her mom. "Oh, there you are! We've been looking everywhere for you, Lily," she scolded.
"Where are my manners? My name is Ginny Potter," she said, turning to face my mother. They shook hands as my mom introduced herself. "Well, Lily and I should get going. Her father has a job to get to." As they left the shop, Lily passed me a slip of paper. On it was her phone number and address. I said thank you and we waved good-bye to each other.
"Now all that's left on your list is your wand. So let's go get that," said my mom. I nodded, too excited to speak. I had finally found a friend that would be going to Hogwarts with me and some of the coolest things imaginable.