Chapter 3
Draco roamed the street, looking at various stalls whilst ignoring the low and disapproving voices (and the occasional glares) that dogged his every step. He bought a pack of Candied Dahlias, a treat with different sweet flavours on each petal. After that, he bought a satchel that was spelled to be bottomless and able to be folded multiple times (items would be shrunk as soon as they were placed inside it); he could hide it in a pocket if need be.
He saw the boy, whom he had met earlier on at Madam Malkin's, enter Eeylops Owl Emporium. He realised that he had forgot to ask for a name, but decided not to; the sheer size of Hagrid-the-gamekeeper intimidated him rather. Instead, he went into Magical Menagerie.
The shop was filled with cages of different creatures. There were Masi-Mosi, cats who appeared had nine lives, each of which were represented as dark markings on its fur. (He wanted one of those, partly because cats were his favourite animals, but they were nine times the cost of an ordinary feline; besides, he knew that Father wouldn't have approved of them.) He had read about them in Bernard Sanderson's Big Book of Magical Creatures.
Then he saw Puffskeins, firecrabs and kneazles. You know, the usual hodgepodge of magical creatures. He also got to chat with parrots (imported from Paraguay) who were very witty and enjoyed showing off what they called their 'linguistic prowess'. When he had finally had enough of the fug in the building, he left.
Since this was his first foray outside the Manor gates, he decided that he ought to venture into the Muggle world. He wanted to see those people whom Father had scorned, and try to find out why they were so heavily disapproved of. As discreetly as possible, he set off for Gringotts.
The inside of the bank was a gigantic hall of carved stonefilled with a myriad of goblins. For a while, he simply stared at the said creatures, along with the coins and precious stones they were examining. Taking a deep breath, he headed to the counter.
"Hello," he said to a goblin. "I'd like to exchange Wizarding coins into Muggle currency."
It looked at him curiously, then cleared its throat. "How much, sir?" It paused, then added, "There are ten different coins: one penny, twopence, fivepence, tenpence, twentypence, fiftypence, one pound, two pound, and five pound. One pound is worth one hundred pence — do you have the money, sir?"
He dug around in the bag, then took out twenty Galleons. He handed them over.
The goblin looked at them carefully to ensure that they were not counterfeit. "This is the equivalent of one hundred pounds. How much of each coin do you want, sir?"
He thought about it for a while. "1 penny, 2 twopence, 1 fivepence, 1 tenpence, 1 twentypence, and 1 fiftypence coins — Please." He added.
The goblin placed the exact amount of coins on the counter. Draco gathered them with both hands and placed them in the satchel he had purchased earlier. He thanked the creature and left.
He entered the Leaky Cauldron after passing through some wall (though he had to ask a diminutive, grey-haired woman) by tapping on three particular bricks with his wand. The hustle and bustle of the bar halted as soon as he set foot in the pub; people stared at him (the hood had fallen off while he was walking) until he left.
Wicked! There were Muggles walking down the street, Muggles sitting in horse-less carriage-like machines that moved on their own, Muggles talking with some weird mechanism that they held to their ears…
He walked down the street, stopping at a shop that had some kind of box-shaped machines on display. He gazed into the window, looking at the ever-changing image on them; it was like Wizarding photographs, though these included sound and never looked the same twice.
On the surface of the machine, he saw a bunch of small stuffed bunnies with some cylindrical thing tied to their backs beating on the drums they were carrying. Most of them started to become lethargic, except the one in the middle. A man's voice said, "Energizer — it keeps going and going and going."
Then he saw children who were drooping as they walked on the pavement, saying things like "I can't stand summer; it's way too hot…" and "Where's the ice-cream truck?" The group stopped at a store called Baskin-Robbins. They ran inside, yelling "Ice-cream!" There was a picture that showed numerous tubs of varying black and grey which were what was assumed to be said dessert. A man's voice said, "Baskin-Robbins: thirty-one flavours of ice-cream, and more!"
"Hello there!" A black-haired girl was standing beside him, wearing clothes he had never seen before. "What odd clothes you have there! Are you in drama class?" He nodded slowly, wondering what this 'drama' was. "I'm Elliana Soares. And you're…?"
"My name's Draco."
"Draco? What an interesting name…it means 'dragon' in Latin, right?" He nodded again. "Where are your parents? How come you're by yourself?"
He gave her a small smile, quickly coming up with a story. "Mother's at a restaurant. She let me walk around for a bit because it was getting boring in there; she's having tea with a friend." She seemed nice enough… He pointed at the things on the other side of the window. "What are those?"
"Oh, that's a telly. It's short for 'television'… You've never seen one of those before?" He shook his head. "Hmm... Are you from the countryside, then? My cousin lives on a farm, and he hasn't seen a telly either." He decided that it'd be easier to go along with her, nodding. She clapped her hands together, twice. "That reminds me of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse! Have you heard of that fable?" He shook his head again.
She checked her watch. "Listen— I've got to go soon. Why don't I walk you to Foyles (it's a bookshop) before I catch the lorry? It's just nearby, so you wouldn't have to walk far." He acquiesced, wondering why she had to catch something that sounded suspiciously like the name of a house-elf. Weren't they already tame?
And so they walked along, chatting on and off until they reached a large bookstore. There, Elliana waved good-bye and hurriedly left, calling out "I'll see you around, then!"
After an hour or so of wandering around the store, looking at various books and selecting the ones he'd taken a fancy to, he realised that he should start heading back to Diagon alley; the clock hanging on a wall said that it was four-thirty. Feeling quite regretful, he made for the counter. A wizened old man put his purchases into a brown bag and took his coins; he had spent less than fifty pounds in total. Thanking the person, he placed the bag in his satchel and left, rushing all the way to the Leaky Cauldron.
Once there, he hid the folded satchel in a pocket inside his robes (the contents inside were already conveniently shrunk). He ignored the multitude of unblinking eyes that focused on him as he headed for the wall. Making the entrance appear again, he crossed through it before heading for Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.
He ordered a Chocolate chip ice cream cone, then settled down on a chair to wait. Father arrived by the time he finished the cone, striding towards him and ignoring everyone else on his way as usual. "How was your afternoon, Draco?"
"It was alright, I suppose."
A nod. "Let's go to the Owl Emporium, now; you'll need an owl to send your letters with."
The Emporium was filled with the soft sound of feathers, and every inch of the interior was covered in shadows and peppered with flickering orb of various colours. He flitted from cage to cage until he saw an owl that he liked.
It was Great Horned Owl, a female one, which looked right back at him with yellow eyes and and somehow stern expression (he found the look to be quite funny). It hooted, or rather 'ho-ho-hoo hoo hoo'-ed, at him.
"What are you going to call it?" asked Lucius as they left the shop.
Draco entered an impromptu staring contest with the bird…which he won. He hid a smile. "Its name is Soraya."
The bits about British currency have been taken off Wikipedia (so I'm unsure as to whether they were accurate). Oh, I got the hooting sound of the Great Horned Owl from there, too.
"Energizer — it keeps going and going and going." I'm not sure if this catchphrase was used during 1992, but since this is just a fanfic...
The ad about Baskin-Robbins is made-up, by the way.
Bernard Sanderson's Big Book of Magical Creatures from Bernard Heuvelmans (zoologist & founder [of sorts] of Cryptozoology) & Ivan T. Sanderson(creator of the term 'Cryptozoology' [according to Heuvelmans]) 'Cryptozoology' searches for animals whose existence lacks empirical support but which appear in myths, legends, or undocumented sightings (for example Bigfoot and el Chupacabra) and living examples of animals thought to be extinct (e.g. dinosaurs).
Soraya: (Persian) rich, princess
