Chapter 3: Diagon Alley
Dumbledore was true to his word, and at 12 o'clock on the dot that day, there was a loud rap on our front door. I, who had actually decided to relent and read the damn Harry Potter series to give myself an Idea of what to expect, almost jumped out of my skin when the knock came. I was just up to the bit in Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire where Voldermort was emerging from the cauldron, when it came. I almost crapped my pants.
I ran to the door, ignoring Roxie who had appeared on the top landing, trying to stickybeak in on what was happening. Typical. Flinging open the door, I felt my mouth pop open, almost as wide as the door. Oh My Chocolate Chip Flying Monkeys! There were literally no words to describe my visitor.
Tall, was a severe understatement; the guy had to be at least 3 meters tall. Okay, I was maybe exaggerating tad. But he was freakishly tall. A wild mane of brown waves came down to his mid biceps, and his beard was the same length. He had a very rounded face, with rosy cheeks and small, chocolate button eyes. Suffocating smells of pine and something cross between mud and animal droppings engulfed the room. His clothing reminded me of something of a gnome from the delicious vintage book of fairy tales which I had adored as a child. His overcoat appeared to be different sorts of animal fur all pieced together by crude, yet efficient stitching. Dirty and clearly fatigued from his journey, the motorbike glasses were the only indication as to how he actually came.
Peering around his massive form, my suspicions were confirmed; what appeared to be a vintage Harley Davidson sat with a miss-matching sidecar in the front drive. My inner autofile squealed. I was tempted to ask him what model it was, but he held out his beefy hand in greeting. Reluctantly tearing my eyes away from the beautiful bike, I looked him straight in the eyes.
Okay. Let's address this right here and now. I am a major car/bike person. Odd, I know, especially since I am a girl. It was sad when I could have conversations with any male enthusiast and was able to quote makes, models and colours and recognise them in return. My dad took me to the vintage car swap meets he was always going to, and we would analyse the perfect set of rims for his baby; a '26 Holden Chevy. He had been doing it up since I was six years old, and still, was nowhere near finished. Every Tuesday night, dad and I would sit in the lounge room, hogging the 62 inch Plasma and watch 'Top Gear' and would cackle at everything. Hey! Have you ever given that show a chance? They are truly funny guys! The stig was my favourite.
Taking the visitors hand and giving it a hearty shake, I surprised at the strength there when he happily shook my hand in return, I couldn't help but giggle at his introduction. "Me nam's Rubeus Hagrid. But you can call me Hagrid." I felt like my head was about to pop off my shoulders because he was shaking my hand so hard; my whole body was pulled into the movement and I felt rather like a bubble head dog. Woof Woof. "Hey Hagrid," I said with a chuckle, "My names-" I began, but the he cut me off. "Anna! Yea' Dumbledore told me about ya!" his voice boomed around the hallway, managing to alert Alfred that something was up. The pig came trotting in, looking up at Hagrid curiously. Hagrid didn't seem to notice him, in fact, he was still grinning at me. Friendly bloke. I thought to myself with a returning smile spreading across my face.
"Well I don' mean to rush ya, but we best be goin'. We have a lot to get through thi' morin'." He said with a smile, nodding in greeting to mum, who had appeared at the end of the hall. She gave him a polite smile and mumbled a greeting. I looked back at mum and gave her a soft smile. Leaning over, I picked up the brown leather messenger bag, which I had prepacked earlier that morning.
Shouting my goodbyes, I followed the friendly half-giant towards the bike. It hit me then. "Hell yeah!" I whooped out loud, dancing around Hagrid. "Please tell me were going in the bike!" I begged, looking at Hagrid with puppy eyes, chanting the whole time in my head please let JK be right, please let the billionaire Britt be right! Hagrid laughed a huge, booming laugh. "Ya bet'cha dragon skin socks off." He gwarfed. I let out another impressive whoop of joy, and all but dived into the sidecar.
Sitting there with an idiotic grin on my face, I could tell my green eyes were dancing like my inner Anna was. Swinging his large leg over his bike and pulling on a set of flying goggles, Hagrid gave me a toothy grin, before starting up the bike. I squealed as it roared to life, and bounced up and down a few times. My earlier fears of going to a new school and leaving my friends behind had suddenly vanished, and I found myself eager to go to wherever the hell this supposedly fictitious character was taking me. He sure as hell seemed real.
Hagrid kicked off, and the bike went roaring down the long driveway, as we neared the curve, I almost expected him to turn and follow the rest of the drive out, but instead he kept going straight, heading for the barbed wire fence, and beyond that, the huge murky dam. "Uh Hagrid?" I asked my voice suddenly full of fear. "Maybe you should start turning now." I said, my voice shaking, as my hands clamped down on the sides, readying to throw myself out of the sidecar if necessary. Hagrid just chuckled and sped up, never wavering in his line. The fence got closer and closer. I flinched and threw my arms over my head, anticipating the sting of the barbed wire. "HAGRID!" I screamed, in a last ditch effort to get the great buffoon to do something.
The bike puttered, and after the sting didn't come, my eyes popped open shocked. Lowering my hands, I saw that instead of hitting the fence, we had flown straight above it. Coasting high above the ground, my mouth popped open in shock as we soared over the farms below, and giving the bike a sharp turn, began our journey to England. I peered over the edge of the sidecar amazed as we flew over the glittering waters of the pacific, following the ribbon of the east coast all the way up to the top of Australia.
Upon reaching Cape York, we stopped, so Hagrid could refuel then, amazingly enough, began to island hop our way through Micronesia. After reaching the very bottom coast of Malaysia, we began to fly through Asia, slowly making our way over the vast continent. Upon reaching the bazars of Turkey, to which I stared open mouthed at, while Hagrid talked to one of the many wizards which crowded the streets. Hagrid's wizard friend managed to pull a few strings and find us a special portkey which would take both us and Hagrid's bike back to England.
I have to say. My first trip by portkey wasn't pleasant.
My mum and I used to have a saying that I had an Iron stomach; I hardly ever vomited and only did so under extreme circumstances. And let me tell you, my iron stomach was not pleased with this journey. Landing roughly in a side street in London, I instantly heaved forward and gagged into the gutter. Sure enough, Iron stomach decided to go on vacation so I ended up treating the gutter to my breakfast and lunch, painting it a sickly colour of yellow.
Charming.
As I gave a sniffle and stood up straight, my head spinning, a huge hand handed me a dirty handkerchief. I took it gratefully and wiped my mouth. "Thanks" I said, offering it back to him, then realising he might not want it now. Hagrid pulled and face and I just nodded in understanding and thrust it into my pocket. I would clean it and give it back to him later.
"Com' on then," Hagrid called to me, his tone brisk, as he lumbered over towards a blackened and decrepit pub which had a dodgy sign with various brass letters falling off. I could only guess that it was the Leaky Cauldron and as Hagrid swung open the door and ambled through, something in my gut told me I was bang on target.
A hunched man was looking intently over a pint of something alcoholic to our left, and as I walked past him, he looked up and stared at me with an unfathomable look. I looked away, frowning, only to see that our entrance had caught the attention of everyone in the pub. Everyone was just staring. Feeling very uncomfortable, I tugged on the front of my sloppy Joe, and hid my hands in the sleeves, not meeting anyone's eyes.
Hagrid seemed to feel uncomfortable too as he cleared his throat and began to steer me towards a door which I assumed led out to a courtyard. As the door swung shut behind us, I let out a breath of relief and looked over my shoulder. Not looking were I was going, I ran smack bang into Hagrid's back, not realising he had stopped. "Oomph!" I grunted and toppled over. Hagrid looked down surprised.
"Wha' you doin' down there?" he asked, one bushy eyebrow raised. "I fell over?" I said, making it sound like a question. He gave a gwarfing chuckle and held out a beefy hand to help me up. I took it gratefully, heaving myself up and brushing off my jeans. It was so cold! Being summer in Australia, it was odd to feel such cold weather. Lucky I came prepared.
I stood there shivering as we faced a huge blank brick wall. I frowned and looked up at Hagrid with a disbelieving expression. "Seriously" I said, my voice dry, "This is it? I kind of expected billowing smoke and perhaps a few gargoyles to jump out from somewhere, but this-"I said, only to slur off what I was going to say, as the bricks seemed to be melting away before my very eyes.
My mouth popped open into a huge O as I stood there standing in the most quaint and bustling street I had ever come across. Strange items and animals sat piled up outside the shops. The shops themselves were all amazingly different, completely mismatched and slanting in all sorts of odd shapes and looked as if Tim Burton had placed them there on one of his insane quests for an even weirder world to make a movie on.
Witches and Wizards and goblins all rushed past me, robes fluttering in the chilly February breeze. Remnants of snow clustered along the old cobblestones and a gaggle of children rushed past me squealing as they played with a new toy.
I walked beside Hagrid in almost a daze, my eyes darting everywhere at the new, extraordinary things which kept taking my breath away. Smells of various spices and numerous things I couldn't name swirled around me like a thin sheen of mist, rolling from various parts of the street. Pausing to pass a crowd of people entering what appeared to be a stationary shop, I looked up at Hagrid, My eyes twinkling.
"Where are we?" I breathed amazed. He gave me a smile, almost invisible under his beard. "We're in Diago' Alley." He chuckled and I sucked in a breath of shock. He gave me a firm pat on the back. "No need to loo' so shock'd there." He joked, steering us over to what appeared to be a book store. We were walking towards what appeared to be a group of rather out of placed, very muggle dressed witches and wizards.
A group of 5 very familiar looking witches and wizards.
To say I was surprised was a massive understatement. I must have stood there gaping like an idiot for a good 5 minutes before they figured out that I was momentarily incapable of speech. Alice decided to intercede, and almost crash tackled me to the cobblestoned pavement bellow. I managed
to catch both her and myself, moving back a few steps to stop the inertia from fully flattening me. She was squealing something about being sisters and all of us going together to Hogwarts and how awesome it was.
I looked over her shoulder with a delirious smile at the rest of my friends; Jennifer was grinning at me like she was up to mischief and was waving manically. Will just gave me a serene smile, his blue eyes twinkling. Colin gave me a single wave before going back to trying to get his Ipod to work. I almost told him it was no use; muggle technology didn't and couldn't work here. Ivy just gave me a smile which told me, while she was happy to be here, she really wasn't enjoying the winter sun.
A huge smile ripped over my face then, as it suddenly all came tumbling down on me; we were the special program. I squealed and, giving Alice a lopsided hug, dragged us over to the rest where we became a babbling mess of hugs and excitement. Anyone who would have passed us would have thought this a reunion of some sort, but to those in the know; we were a group of friends just glad to have each other on such a wacky new situation.
"Oh my gosh!" I gushed, my face flushed with a mixture of happiness and relief. "Please tell me you guys are in the program too." Jen giggled and nodded. "Yeah! I mean, how trippy is this? Dumbledore mentioned that there would have been others from Australia in the program, but I had no idea it would be you guys. I am kind of disappointed though; I was kind of hoping there would be a hot Asian." She said with a pout. I laughed loudly. "Of course you would! When are you not checking out the talent?" I teased, giving her a poke in the stomach.
Will rolled his eyes and Alice giggled, latching herself onto my arm. I smiled and we all looked up at Hagrid for some degree of explanation. He shuffled his huge feet. "Dumbledor' thought I' would be best fo' ya all to be togethe'. Ya know, as somethin' to keep ya sane? Besides thi' gets all ya shoppin' over in one go and lets poor Olivander get ya all over an' done wit' in one go." He said with a shrug, his animal hide coat making him look like the half-giant he was.
We all exchanged looks, grinning furiously at each other. I still don't think any of us could get over the fact that this was actually happening and wasn't just an elaborate prank. "We get wands? Sweet!" Colin crowed, finally putting the damn Ipod away and deciding to become social. Ivy smacked him over the back of the head, but had to almost jump to do it. Being short was a pain in her ass, especially because all of us towered over her. Odd, considering Jen and I were five foot five and Alice was five foot six. Will was about six foot one and Colin about the same, give or take. Being four foot eight was a disadvantage for ivy, but you know what they say, she's not short, she's evil size… Well, maybe that's just me.
Colin flinched and we all chuckled; Colin was Ivy's bitch, to torture him when and how it pleased her and both he, and the entire group knew that. It was fun to watch him try to escape her conniving clutches though, and see the damage she inflicted on the poor boy when she caught up with him again.
Much the same could be said between Jenifer and William but her "ownership" seemed to be much more visual and out there than Colin and Ivy. She had Will on a leash and led him around like the puppy dog he was. Alice and I mostly found this amusing as we were very distanced from all this, only stepping in when things got too out of hand, which happened more often than not.
Not really wanting to stomach any more violence after my long trip over to England, I decided to prompt a distraction. "So" I said, mainly to Hagrid than to anyone else, "Shall we go and get our wands?" Hagrid smiled and started off, walking father along Diagon alley. We all started quickly off behind him, all of us eager to meet the mysterious man who was merely mentioned in the series we all knew.
Soon, Hagrid appeared to be moving towards a rather old, dilapidated building which appeared worse for wear. Black peeling paint was curling off the sides of the building but the gold lettering which presented the name of the store- Olivander's Wands- seemed to be a good as new, shining in the winter sun. Hagrid wasted no time, ambling through the store and headed resolutely to the counter.
We all dripped in behind him, gaping in amazement at the rows upon rows of shelves filled with dusty old boxes. A mirror gleamed on one wall, and underneath it was a small decorative, yet simple table which held a crystal glass of withering chrysanthemums. The floor was a deliciously varnished wooden maze of liquorice floor boards and the room smelled of dust, old world charm and antique furniture. An old Gramophone sat on a breakfast stool to one side, a box of dusty old records on the floor next to it.
A soft rolling noise echoed throughout the silent space and we were met with the amused grey eyes of a spritely, yet wiry old man who was dangling from a large wooden ladder. "Ah! What do we have here?" the old man asked as he bounded down the ladder and made his way over to great his newest and most interesting customers.