Hola people! I bring you the next part of the story; Hermione's first visit to Diagon Alley. This was probably the most fun part to write in the whole story, but that's just me ;). It's pretty long, and the following chapters probably won't be this long. Just giving you a fair warning ^^ Enjoy and review!
~*~DIAGON ALLEY~*~
It was over half a year since Hermes delivered the news. In a letter, with the same crest as her acceptance letter, and in the same green address and the same aged parchment, there were instructions on how to get to Diagon Alley and what to do once there.
Hermione had read her letter every day since she got it, along with her acceptance letter, to make sure she memorized everything. She would bring the letters on the day anyway, but she had to remind herself that it was real, and it helped her bear Jane and Marlene's rudeness.
Her parents had promised her a long-weekend in London during Easter when they would try and access the Alley. This was Hermione's parents' idea because they were nothing if not prepared for the worst. In case they couldn't get in, they needed time to contact someone who could help. If they did get in, Hermione had begged her parents to allow her to purchase her school-books now so she could read them in advance. The rest of her things they were going to purchase at the end of the summer. She was secretly counting the days.
On the last day of their vacation, Hermione was walking ahead of her parents, trying to hurry them along. She really, really wanted to get in.
She closed in on the street address she had been given, the street was less busy than she would imagine a London street, which she supposed, might be why this place called the Leaky Cauldron was located here. Once her parents caught up, she had stopped. This was the right address but she couldn't see the place anywhere. For a second, she thought the address might be wrong and she got a bit enraged by this. Was it all a lie? But then her father, as if he had read her mind, bent down and whispered something in her ear.
"Maybe it's something only witches can see? Come on, Hero. Relax"
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This was a trick her mother had taught her; when something frustrates you, take a deep breath and count to five as you exhale. So she did.
She opened her eyes, and she felt something drawing her gaze towards a corner, and there she saw it. The Leaky Cauldron.
Dragging her parents over to the dusty windows, Hermione kept her eyes on the door, as if it was going to disappear if she looked away. Her parents seemed befuddled at first but coming closer, both of them, too, saw the place. The dusty, dark windows, the smell of beer mixed with stew, the creaking sign above the door. Her mother looked around and wondered for a moment why the people passing them by didn't notice this place. Nobody paid any attention to them. Maybe that was just Londoners, she thought.
They entered, and there was a damp and woody, yet dry smell to the place, as if someone had just returned to their log cabin after the spring had melted the winter's waters through the house and was now trying to dry the place up with an open fire.
They looked around. Hermione understood immediately why they had decided to use this as an entrance to the wizard's version of London. Even though the place was cozy (the letter had said it was an inn), nobody in their right mind would believe (without previous knowledge) that this held the door to a new part of London.
Mrs. Granger placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder. There weren't many people in the pub; two wizards were sitting at the other end of the bar, and a single witch was sitting by the dark window in a booth by herself, talking to her owl which was sitting on the table in front of her.
Mr. Granger walked up to the barkeep.
"Excuse me sir" he said and the man looked at him strangely "Do you think you could help us?"
"Are you a muggle?" the man asked. Not in a particularly nasty tone, but intimidating enough to get her father to tremble as he responded. Perhaps he feared what this man could do to him.
"Y...y…yes sir"
"My name is Tom. Come with me"
"Tom" her father repeated. Hermione had never seen her father act this way.
They followed him out to the back, where a couple of garbage bins were located and a brick wall surrounded the area and then connected to the back wall of the pub/inn.
"First year at Hogwarts?" he asked.
"Yes Mr. Tom" Hermione replied and Tom chuckled.
"Well, you're early. Most don't come until the mid/end of August. Why everyone wants to do everything last minute, I never understood. Better be prepared, I say"
Hermione held on to her mother's hand but walked up to Tom, who had just stopped.
"Mr. Tom, are you a wizard?" she asked. She thought she knew the answer to that question but she was still curious of the answer.
"Just as much as you're a witch" he smiled.
"Can you show me some magic?" she asked. She felt like she was five, asking that question, but she still hadn't gotten over Professor McGonagall's magic trick in her room.
Tom took out his wand and tapped on the bricks. Hermione observed. Three up, two across from the weird looking brick. Tap three times. Suddenly, the brick back wall opened up to reveal a busy street. People, dressed in the same cloak and hat the professor had been wearing when she visited, walked up and down the street. Hermione let go of her mother's hand and walked in to the street.
"Hermione, don't go too far" her mother called after her, but she needn't have worried. Hermione was already caught by the first window.
"First stop you want to make is Gringotts" Tom told her parents "The goblins convert your muggle money to galleons, sickles and knuts for you. Then you'll want to see Ollivander about getting the little miss a wand, she'll need one. Madame Malkin's does the best robes, Flourish and Blotts for books, and the apothecary for her ingredients. The rest of the things on her list are easily found"
"Thank you" Mrs. Granger said.
"Good Luck" Tom said and the wall closed up again.
Hermione fell in love with Diagon Alley. She wanted to go to every shop, stand in front of every window, and buy everything her little heart wanted. Her parents had to drag her from the pet-shop window to the bank.
The hall was great and Hermione was intimidated, yet intrigued, by the goblins that worked there. She would have loved to ask them a gazillion questions about how the wizard bank worked, about the money and all sorts, but one stern look from one of the goblins made her grab a hold of both her parents.
Once the money was exchanged and the system explained to them (17 sickles to the galleon, 29 knuts to the sickle, and Hermione quickly calculated 493 knuts to the galleon) they set off.
"The man said to see Ollivander about a wand" her father said when she asked to go to the book store.
They walked towards an old shop with a hanging sign depicting a wand. The name above the shop clearly read "Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C". She thought this slightly strange, but did not question it. The Wizarding world was still a mystery to her and perhaps this was common.
"Welcome" a voice greeted them once inside "Welcome to Ollivander's. How may I be of assistance?"
A man came in to view. He was old.
"Well, we'd like to purchase a wand" Mr. Granger said.
"But of course" Mr. Ollivander said "For the young lady here, I presume?" Hermione looked at him.
"Yes sir" she said and peered around the shop. Every single wall was stacked to the roof with tiny boxes that must contain wands, and there were piles on the floor. Hermione thought it a miracle nobody tripped over them.
"Well, my dear. Let's see if we can find a wand that fits you. Tell me, are you magical?" he addressed her parents.
"No, sir, we're… muggles" her father said.
"I see, I see…. Sometimes it runs in the family, you see, so if we had a starting point…" he didn't finish his sentence. "Not to worry, I'm sure the right wand is here somewhere"
Ollivander started walking around, looking at boxes. Occasionally he opened one and decided it was no good. After about three minutes of this searching, he opened a box and exclaimed "Ah!" whereupon he brought it back to Hermione.
She took it. It felt strange in her hand, as if it had a will of its own, and before she got a chance to say anything, the wand flew out of her hand and hit Ollivander on the cheek and knocked his glasses on edge.
"I'm sorry!" she apologized.
"Don't worry dear, that happens all the time" the old wandmaker said as he adjusted his glasses again "Tell me, child, what are some of your favorite things?"
"I…I like to read" she said.
"Reading…." He mumbled and walked over to a stack towards the rear of the shop. "Beech, 9 inches, unicorn hair"
Hermione had no idea what he was mumbling at first, but when she saw the wand, she understood perfectly. It was a beautiful wand. Completely smooth, but with a handle grip which had been carefully carved.
She took the wand, and got the same feeling as before, times three. No sooner had she picked it up than it let off a magic dart that made a pile of boxes fly across the room and empty their content everywhere, causing dust on top of the shelves and stacks to go flying everywhere and everyone in the shop to sneeze.
"No, no, not that one" he hurried to Hermione and took the wand from her and placed it in the box again. "What month is your birthday in, my dear?" he asked when he had put the box back.
"September" she replied quickly.
"Let's try this one" He walked over to a shelf near where they were standing. "12 inches, vine wood, fairy wing core"
Hermione tried yet again to take it, but this time, she felt nothing. It was like holding a fork. A very long fork.
"Try it" Ollivander urged.
She wasn't sure what to do but tried and whip it a bit. Nothing happened.
"Well, we seem to be getting closer" he said with a smile "Now tell me; do you have any special traits?"
She shook her head quickly.
"Come on Hero, you must have some traits" her father said and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Hero, eh?" Ollivander said and looked at her.
"It's just a nickname" she said.
"Sometimes, a nickname tells us more about ourselves than we think" he said and disappeared behind the shelf. He appeared 15 seconds later with a box.
"10 ¾ inches, vine wood, dragon heartstring core" he said
The crafting on the wand was beautiful, like vines climbing to the top. Hermione took the wand and she felt a wave of warmth running through her whole body, starting with her hand, moving up her arm and in to the other arm, down her torso and up to the tip of head at the same time, as if it was originating from the wand. Without knowing it, she smiled.
"Yes…perfect" the wandmaker concluded. "Give it a try"
She pointed it at the vase of half-dead flowers on the desk, and she watched in excitement as they multiplied and turned in to full bloom.
"Marvelous. A natural already" he smiled, but it faded "This is a very powerful wand" Ollivander continued seriously "It is not made for subtlety. The magic might be in the person, but the wand chooses the witch, not the other way around. With this wand, you will accomplish great things so be careful"
Hermione nodded. She didn't feel like he was threatening her, but preparing her for something that would inevitably come.
After the visit to the wandmaker, she had almost forgotten about her books, but the minute she stepped inside, she was in heaven. There were far more books here than the library at school, and a greater variety than she had ever seen in her life. The shop was virtually deserted except for two witches who stood discussing the latest of a Wizard named Gildenroy Lockhart.
Hermione brought out her list and went looking around the place for them. She noticed, soon, that the shop was organized like a library and once she had made this discovery, it took her ten minutes to find all her books, but before she could find her parents her eyes fell on another book.
"Mum, may I please also get this one?" She asked as pretty as could when she found them looking through a book on magical creatures.
She held up a book that read "Hogwarts – A History".
"Please?" She begged "It will be very educational for me"
Mr. and Mrs. Granger rarely denied their daughter a book, but educational books they always approved, and since Hermione knew this, it was her best bet.
"Yes, of course darling" Mrs. Granger said as Mr. Granger relieved his daughter of the books she was carrying and made their way to the counter.
For the rest of the day, Hermione wore a smile. They exited the same way they had entered (the wall opened automatically from the other side) and said their goodbyes to Tom, before walking back to their muggle-hotel and getting in the car to go home.
As Hermione was walking up the stairs to unpack all of her new things her mother followed her.
"Hermione, whatever you do, don't bring any of these things to school, okay?" she said. Hermione had already figured that part out, but she was too happy to say so, and instead nodded.
~*~Comments are golden!~*~
