Thank you all for reading my story, you're the best!
A special shout out to Randommeandu for the kind review! Your comments made me smile. 3
I also want to thank you for being patient, my school's wifi is atrocious, and I've been having serious connection issues lately.
I couldn't believe my eyes. I had never been out of New York before, and now I was in a foreign country. We landed in a secluded section of a large park that I didn't know the name of. There was too much to see, I didn't have enough eyes to take it all in. The park itself was beautiful. It was late summer, all of the leaves were a beautiful shade of green, and colors seemed to rain down from every available surface. McGonagall was still standing next to me. The old woman appeared almost regal, between her cloak, and the way she held herself. She wasn't looking at me.h
I coughed slightly in an attempt to get her attention.
"Yes?" She asked.
"Um, where are we going now?"
"To buy your things of course." She said that as if it was common knowledge. I know she said I had money in Gringotts, but it was hard to believe. I had lived my whole life with nothing. If I had any money, I'm sure Ms. Umhalt would have taken it by now.
"Uh, right. And where is that?" I asked.
"We're going to Diagon Alley, it's not too far off."
"Oh, of course. Diagon Alley." I had no idea what she was talking about. This all had to be some sort of elaborate prank. There was no way any of this was real.
"Come, follow me. We have a short walk ahead of us." For such an old woman, McGonagall still had quite a bit of pep in her step. I practically had to run to keep up with her, my short legs working overtime to avoid falling behind. After a few minutes of walking, we came upon an old, dilapidated building. Looking at it, there was nothing particularly special about the place. It was dark, smelly, and miserable. That being said, there was a quality about it that brought people there. There was a reason to come here, but I couldn't quite place exactly why that might be. Inside, there were people doing magic. I stared in awe. Maybe this wasn't all a joke, could it all be real? A man was sitting at the counter with a book out. It looked like the book was in his hand, but upon closer inspection, it was floating, suspended on air. In the end, McGonagall had to drag me along towards the back of the building.
"We have a lot to do," the woman said as she pulled my arm.
I nodded absent-mindedly while following her. I didn't want to argue. If this was the wizarding world, I couldn't wait to be a part of it. Much to my immediate disappointment, the back of the building was a solid brick wall. How were we supposed to get through the wall? Were we supposed to go through the wall? There was nowhere else to go, and there was no door.
My questions were answered before I got the chance to ask them. McGonagall took the long stick out of her cloak again, and began tapping bricks. I was about to ask her what she was doing when the wall started to move. I stared. My mouth was probably on the floor as the wall opened up to reveal a long street full of shops. There were people walking around everywhere. Clearly, now was the time to shop. I looked at some of the signs, and was surprised to see names like "Flourish & Blotts", "Quality Quidditch Supplies", and a few other oddities. There were shops for owls, robes, cauldrons, and other magical equipment that she didn't recognize. One question stuck out to her though.
"What's quidditch?" She asked.
"Oh, I'm sure some of your classmates will be able to explain that to you much better than I can," Professor McGonagall said with a smile.
Despite my overwhelming curiosity, I figured I wasn't getting any more information out of her than that.
"Our first stop is Gringotts," the woman said as she sped away down the road. I raced after her. I didn't have to read the sign to know which building was the bank. I hadn't been expecting it to be so grand. There was a plaque on the wall, but I didn't get the opportunity to read it before I was whisked through the doors. Inside, the building was just as grand as the outside had been. The walls were made of smooth, white marble, and the floors were a mosaic of tile. There were strange creatures sitting behind the counters. Creatures that I recognized from books I used to read as a child. I had been really into the fantasy genre, and it was shocking to see creatures straight from the books I had read sitting in front of me.
"Are those goblins?" I asked.
"Yes," Professor McGonagall said. "I'm a little surprised they're back in charge of this place after what happened last time, but I suppose it's how it's been for a long time." The woman shrugged, as if that statement didn't mean anything.
"What happened last time?" I asked.
"Oh, that's a story for another time. It's a long one," she said.
I was starting to get tired of those kinds of cryptic answers, but I let it slide as we walked up to the formidable granite countertop.
"What do we have here?" The goblin asked in a gravelly voice.
"Miss. Evandale wishes to access her vault."
"I do?" I asked so quietly no one seemed to hear my.
"Ah, of course. Right this way." He motioned for the two of us to walk with him. A large door opened for us, and the view through that door was drastically different from that of the lobby. It was cavernous, It was very cave-like. The walls were brown and rocky. It was clear that we were now underground. There was a cart sitting on a track in front of us. It was rickety, but it didn't look as if it was too old. The three of us stepped into the cart and it began to move.
Before I knew it, we were traveling along at a good clip. It was a relatively short trip. The cart stopped in front of a set of large metal doors. I was feeling a little small surrounded by it all. Despite the short length of the trip, we had to be a good couple hundred feet underground.
The goblin jumped out of the cart and sauntered over to the closest door. McGonagall had just gotten out, and was helping me clamor over the side, when the goblin stroked the door with his nail. Baffled, I stared at him.
"What's he doing?" I asked Professor McGonagall.
"He's unlocking the door," she said.
"How? There's no key."
"You don't need a key for this kind of vault." That was all she said. I had to admit, Professor McGonagall really wasn't very good at explaining things about the wizarding world, she left a lot of questions unanswered.
The door swung open, and a cloud of green smoke came rushing out.
"If anyone other than a goblin tried to open this door, they would be sucked through the door with no way out," the goblin said proudly. At least I finally got an answer, although it was a terrifying one.
"Do you check to see if anyone is inside?" I asked.
"Every few decades, or so," the goblin said.
I gulped. I made sure not to touch the door, even though it was already open.
When I looked through, around the room, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There were mountains of gold, silver, and bronze coins. I had no idea what their worth was, but it was pretty obvious that it was a lot of money.
"The gold coins are galleons, the silver coins are sickles, and the bronze coins are nuts," McGonagall explained. "There are 17 sickles to a galleon, and 29 knuts to a sickle."
She was talking so quickly I barely picked up on what she was saying. She handed me a small bag of coins. It was heavier than I had been expecting. I had never held so much money in my life.
"Is this all mine?" I asked.
"Yes," McGonagall said with a smile. "You really thought your parents left you nothing?" She asked.
"I hadn't been anticipating this, I always figured if they had I would have heard something about it at some point," I admitted.
"Come on," Professor McGonagall said, clearly trying to skirt the topic. "Let's go get your school things." She ushered me back to the cart. After the three of us climbed back in, we were off. We got back to the lobby in one piece. I took a deep breath.