The Carousal & Diagon Alley
Christina followed Hagrid down streets, through alleyways and along just about every imaginable,
maze-like thing you will encounter in real life that you can think of. It didn't take long for her to get so lost
she wouldn't have been able to find her way home had she been a police tracking dog.
Hagrid, however, seemed to know where he was going. He strode along the sidewalk with such long and sure steps
that Christina had to ask him several times to slow down and still had to jog to keep up.
"Hagrid, where are we going? Are you sure we can walk all the way to Britain?" Christina finally questioned.
"We're not walking to Britain, Christina." Hagrid told her with a hint of amusement. "We're only
walking to the Carousal."
"How far is that?"
"It's just around this corner, actually." And sure enough, as they turned the corner, there was a restaurant
that had a large, painted sign hanging over the door that clearly stated 'the Carousal'.
"So, what doesn't this have to do with getting to Britain?" the girl asked, slight annoyance in her voice.
"I can't tell 'ya now, too many Muggles around." Hagrid told her, forgetting that she didn't have a clue
what a Muggle was. "But just stick with me and you'll be fine." And with that, he marched into the building.
Christina followed him as she had been told.
A lot of people stared at Hagrid as he strode between tables, but either he didn't notice or he was used to it
because he remained completely oblivious to the looks he was receiving. It made Christina a bit queasy, though,
so she concentrated on keeping up with the giant man.
Hagrid stepped out a side door near the back of the restaurant. Looking back over his shoulder, he saw that no
one was following him except for Christina. Once the door had been closed, he took four steps out into the center
of the fenced in area and looked down at nine tiles, all red and white, outlined by black cement. There were other
patterns that looked exactly the same but Hagrid only paid attention to this one. He pulled out his pink umbrella
and, muttering to himself, tapped the eight outside tiles in sequence three times. Then, without warning, he suddenly
stabbed the tile in the middle. Slowly, the tiles started moving down like some sort of odd elevator. Hagrid motioned
for Christina to step onto it. It had already progressed down so far that she had to jump to get down without hurting
herself. The two of them waited until the platform came to a lurching halt about five meters underground.
Christina and Hagrid stepped off the platform, which started going up again immediately, and Christina resumed
her following Hagrid seeing as she didn't have a clue where they were. There were, surprisingly enough, several
other people walking through the passageways and all were dressed quite strangely in dark green, blue and black
robes, usually with pointed hats of the same color. Every now and then, someone would walk by wearing a hot pink
robe or a light blue one with bright purple stars. There was even one person who was wearing a lime green robe
with pink flamingos on it.
"Hagrid, who are all these people?" Christina finally asked upon watching a particularly short man walk
by.
"Why, they're witches and wizards, Christina!" Hagrid cried, disbelief in his voice. "Did you see
that small wizard walking by? That was Professor Flitwick He's the charms teach at Hogwarts."
Christina looked back over her shoulder at the retreating man. "You mean that midget back there? He's a professor
at Hogwarts?"
"Yes, and a mighty good one at that. You would know it by looking' at 'im but he can really keep a class in
line." Hagrid informed her.
Christina didn't really understand how that was possible but she decided that further questioning would make her
look stupid. She was starting to realize that there was more to the world in which she lived then just cleaning
windows and going to cheap schools.
A while after, having walked for quite some time, Hagrid finally stopped in front of a large, wooden door. He knocked
on it three times and it swung open to reveal a vast room. In the room was a huge, dark colored bus. Two men were
just getting on it when they spotted the two people walking in.
"Hagrid!" called one of the men.
"Hello, Stan!" Hagrid called back. "I'm on Hogwarts business but the student I'm supposed to be
meeting can't apparate and I couldn't flag you down 'cause, you know, I'm not a'post to use magic…." He smiled,
or at least Christina thought he did, considering she had no idea what he mouth was doing under that mass of hair
that he called a beard. "Otherwise I can't get 'er to Hogwarts and it'd be a real shame if the first American
accepted in ter Hogwarts can't attend."
"Well, you're in luck, Hagrid! Ern and I was just about to take off! Climb on!" Stan answered. Hagrid
strode forward and entered the buss, pulling fourteen silver coins out of one of his numorous pockets before ending
up stashing them right back in when Stan refused, saying, "It's enough that I can help the young lass get
to Hogwarts, right Ern?" to which the elderly driver of the bus grunted.
"Christina? You coming?" Hagrid asked the object of Stan's comment, who was standing and, apparently,
trying to figure out how a bus was supposed to get them across the water and to Britain in two days. Now, startled
out of her speculations, she nodded bleakly and climbed onto the bus, taking a seat on one of the, surprisingly,
beds on the vehicle.
"Whatcha thinkin' 'bout, Christina?" Hagrid asked as the bus slowly started up.
"Oh, I was just wondering how a bus is supposed to get to Britain, which is over seas, in two days when it
takes a bus at least three hours to go from Chicago to Los Angles." There was a hint of irony in her tone.
"Don't worry, um, Was Christina your name?" Stan started.
"Yes."
"Well, don't worry Christina, we'll get there in no time." Stan assured her.
And he wasn't lying when he said no time. The bus seemed to travel at the speed of light, at least that's the only
thing Christina could think of that was anywhere near the speed at which that bus was zooming.
It wasn't long before Christina and Hagrid were standing on the streets of Greater Britain.
"So…now what?" Christina asked the ragged man.
"Now we go to the Leaky Cauldron." Hagrid answered somewhat matter-of-factly.
"Where do they come up with these names?" Christina asked herself, not expecting an answer. Of course,
you don't have to expect something for it to happen.
"Same place they come up with every other name, I suppose." Hagrid answered, as though it were obvious
logic that made complete sense. Christina rolled her eyes and followed him along the street. After a while, Hagrid
stopped and said, "Well, there it is. The Leaky Cauldron." The way he said it you'd think there was a
light from heaven shining on it. Christina looked for a sign.
"Um…where?" she finally asked, afraid that if she strained her eyes any further in another attempt to
see the building she would go blind.
"Right there!" he pointed. Suddenly, as though by magic, a small, shabby looking building had appeared
between two very modern shopping complexes. Christina kicked herself for the bad metaphor on magic. She spotted
a small, rustic looking sign hanging above the door that clearly stated the name of the place in fancy lettering.
Despite it's appearing to fall down any minute on the outside, inside the Leaky Caldron it was actually quite nice.
Table were scattered randomly around and who Christina guessed were witches and wizards were sitting at them, conversing
about this and that and drinking the oddest looking drinks Christina had ever seen. Christina followed Hagrid into
the back of the restaurant and out to a patio-type thing littered with trash that had fallen from the overflowing
trash cans that were lined up against the brick wall. Hagrid pulled out his pink umbrella once more and tapped
a carefully chosen brick. Almost instantly the bricks started spinning and re-positioning themselves to form an
archway leading into a busy looking street.
"Welcome to Diagon Alley, Christina!" Hagrid announced, pride in his voice for the wizarding community
that was kept so strictly secret. "This is where we're going ter buy yer things."
Christina gawked at the scene before her. There were people in robes everywhere, only here she could actually see
them whereas in the dark of the tunnels in America she could only just make out the figures and the material of
the robes in the torchlight. Witches gossiping about this and that, wizards having discussions in bars, children
pressing their faces up against the display windows of candy, toys and, was it, yes! Broomsticks! So witches and
wizards really did fly around of broomsticks! Christina could hardly believe what she was seeing. Suddenly, a thought
came to her. "Hagrid. I don't have any money and even if I did, I'm sure that they don't take American currency
here. How am I supposed to buy school supplies?"
"Dumbledore thought of that years ago. He has two or three accounts to pay a student's way through school
should they not have any money. We'll go ter Gringotts and pick up some."
Gringotts, as it turned out, was a wizarding bank run by goblins. And quite frankly, the goblins terrified Christina.
The scared her so bad that she had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming. Christina told Hagrid this after
having retrieved the money, which confused the girl almost as much as the goblins had scared her.
"And it's a good thing yer scared of 'em too." Hagrid told her. "Goblins are nasty creatures, don't
mess with 'em if you can help it." He looked down the street. "So, what's first on yer list?"
"Um…mainly books, or at least what I think are books." She replied uncertainly, still thinking about
the terrifying goblins.
"Well then, Flourish and Blots is our first stop." And so the two set off.
"Thank you, Hagrid!" Christina called after the giant man. Hagrid waved before, suddenly, he was gone.
Christina turned to go inside.
All of the things on the list had been bought. She had her books, her cauldron, her wand, which was eight-inch,
unicorn hair willow, her robes and had rented a room at the Leaky Cauldron for two nights.
With nothing else to do, Christina decided to try some spells. She took out her charms book, it being on the top,
and flipped to the index, where there was a basic charms index just in case a student forgot some of the spells
learned in years past. Taking out her wand, Christina leafed through the index until she found one she thought
might prove useful. It was a charm that was supposed to unlock doors. Christina carefully studied the words until
she was sure of the pronunciation. Then she grabbed the key to her room off of the bed, went out into the hall
and locked herself out. Taking a deep breath, Christina started the spell very carefully.
"Allohamora." She said, not really sure exactly how the spell was supposed to make the door open. Nothing
happened. She decided to try again. "Allohamora!" this time she heard a faint click and pushed against
the door. It opened. In celebration, Christina ran back over to the table in front of the mirror in search of another
spell to try.
"Not bad for a beginner." The mirror told her. Christina looked shocked. She stared at her reflection.
"Did you say something?" Christina asked, a feeling of Deja Vou creeping down her spine.
"Yes, I did. I was complementing you on your ability to perform spells. Although I must say, you do look a
little old to be just starting." The voice was most definitely coming from the mirror. "Tell me, how
old are you?"
"F-f-f-fourteen…" She stammered, still recovering form the shock.
"Fourteen, huh?" The mirror mused. "You certainly are a bit old to be just learning beginner spells."
"Well, um…I'm from America you see…" Christina started.
"I didn't think they started at a different age in America, I thought everyone started at the same age."
The mirror stated, interrupting Christina.
"Yes, but I've been raised by a person who isn't a witch or a wizard so…"
"Ah, you're Muggle born, huh? Well, that shouldn't change anything…"
"Would you let me finish?" Christina said angrily. "I'm from America and I was raised like a, what
was it you called me? Oh yeah, Muggle. Not too long ago I got a letter in the mail that told me that I had been
accepted into Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Got it?" Christina was doing her best now to start
yelling at the ignorant piece of glass.
"Ah. Well, back to your practicing." The mirror said hastily. There wasn't another peep out of her for
the rest of the time that Christina was staying there.
It wasn't long before Christina could do all of the basic spells, and even some of the ones that she wouldn't be
learning but at that time it didn't really matter that she couldn't do those ones since she'd be learning them
that year. Christina then moved on to her other spell books and a few other books that Hagrid had told her she'd
want to read. She found the Potions book particularly interesting, and wondered what the teacher was like.
It seemed like a century before finally the day came that Christina was to go catch her train. She packed up her
things and the innkeeper, Tom, helped her get to the train station. He got her a cart and then waved goodbye. Christina
waved back at the man and them pushed her cart inside.
Christina was about halfway through the station before she looked at her ticket. She was shocked at the platform
number. I didn't think they had different platform numbers in Britain than they do in America, she mused. She didn't
see her platform but, assuming that it was there, she decided to ask a worker.
"Excuse me!" she called out to a worker who was leaning against a pillar and smoking a cigar. He straightened
up, took a long drag and and peered down at her from the whole three inches that he was taller than her. "Could
you tell me where I might find this platform?" She showed him her ticket. He paused for a minute, as though
he were trying to understand her accent. Then he took another long drag, puffed it into her face and looked at
the ticket. Christina covered her mouth and turned away and, having always been a bit asthmatic, coughed a few
times. The man's eyes searched the ticket as he took another drag before nearly choking on it.
"9 ¾? What is this, a prank? Let me get back to my cigar break, girl, and go play your tricks somewhere
else." He then angrily slumped down against the pillar once more and took another long puff, letting his hat
fall over his eyes.
Great, Christina thought despairingly. Just great. Now how am I supposed to get to Hogwarts? Utterly disappointed,
Christina turned around to leave when she saw something most unusual happen. She blinked.
Not quite sure her eyes weren't deceiving her, Christina watched intently. She saw a person turn their cart around
to face the brick wall between platforms nine and ten. Then, the person set off at a full run towards the wall
and Christina was sure that he'd get himself killed running into it but suddenly, unexpectedly, he was gone. Christina
watched the rest of the people in the group seemingly go through the wall before she walked up to it herself. She
slowly pushed her cart against the wall and was astonished to see the end of it vanish. Tentatively, she pushed
the rest of the cart through and then stepped through herself. She had actually stepped through a brick wall. Almost
as though she were Superman or something.
She didn't have long to think about that though. On the other side of the wall was a platform, platform 9 ¾
she found to her own relief, loaded with witches and wizards seeing their children off to school. As she pushed
her cart over to the train, the Hogwarts Express, and struggled to load her bags into one of the baggage compartments
she heard bits of conversation here and there.
"Now Fred, George, if I get one tiny hint from Dumbledore that you've pulled another prank like leaving a
toilet seat in the greenhouses just to make the Mrs. Sprout think it was a…" said an angry female voice firmly.
"Do you have your remembrall, Nevil?" an elderly lady asked.
"Oops, I think I forgot it…" replied a sheepish-looking boy who was about the same age as Christina.
"Hurry up, Colin!" Called out a young boy, rushing to the front of the train. "You're going to miss
that train!"
"I'm hurrying! I'm hurrying!" called out an older boy.
Christina wandered about the train for a bit, peeking into various rooms until she found an empty one. Then she
curled up in the corner of one of the seats and started to read Hogwarts; a History since she hadn't had a chance
to yet. She must have been tired, because before the train had even started she had fallen asleep.
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Yes, I know. Lots of coincidental people showing up but hey, it's my story and I can do whatever
I want! Watch out for the next chapter and
R&R! ^_^
