The first thing Heero noticed about the courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron was that it was somehow the same size as the interior of the building. It was also full of people, to his right a woman was straightening her daughters robes not noticing her son reaching for the wand sticking out of her pocket, to his left a young woman was writing down a shopping list by dictating it to a magically moving quill. All around him was overwhelming evidence that these people and their practices were completely alien to him. However strange and different they might seem at first glance they were still queuing in a straight line towards the supposed entrance, Heero wondered if this was something preprogrammed into the psyche of all citizens of Britain. He joined the queue behind a man wearing dark orange with brooms embellishing the bottom; a closer look revealed that the brooms were dancing around each other flying along the hem. The line was steadily moving forward and Heero finally got close enough to see what was happening.
The woman with the mischievous son was walking up to a solid brick wall; in one outstretched hand was her wand in the other, with a much tighter grip, her son. The daughter was standing on the opposite side fuming and sprouting feathers from her eyebrows. As she approached the solid wall she carefully flicked her wand to a very specific spot and tapped it three times. With the third tap the wall seemed to shudder and pull back brick by brick, it started as a small hole and slowly expanded into a large archway.
"Right, one group at a time. Come on through Madame." A voice called from the opposite side of the archway. The woman pushed her daughter forward and all but dragged her son through a sour expression on his face as he dug his heels in. Another universal fact, Heero noted, young children will never do what you want them to if it doesn't align with their own goals. Once they were through the wall seemed to collapse on itself sealing the entrance up once again. This left Heero with a slight issue, how would he get through the wall without a wand to help him into the entrance, he was assuming (and rightly so) that there was something about using a wand instead of a regular twig that transformed the wall. To reach the wall and not be able to open it in front of a mob of magic users would blow his cover all the way to L1 and back. His salvation came with a shove in the back.
"Watch where you're going." A grumpy voice piped up behind, ignoring the fact that it had bumped into him. A glance down revealed a short old woman in lacy maroon robes, on her head was a quintessential witch's hat in a shade matching her robes. Everything about her screamed witch but nothing was more obvious than the shopping bags that floated behind her.
"Where are your parents? Didn't they teach you any manners? I didn't live to be this old just so I could get shoved around by hoodlums like you. Staring off into space like an idiot. Dressed like that, why can't children these days dress themselves properly?" The Witch, who really did look like a witch with a capital W, poked at him viciously with her wand but thankfully didn't cast any spells. Bystanders had glanced over when she'd first shouted but they now looked away, Heero guessed this was probably not an unusual occurrence.
"I apologize, I'm just here visiting, I've never seen the gateway before." Heero thought this would mollify the Witch, he obviously had no experience with elderly woman especially magical ones.
"Hmph" she snorted rising up to her full height, which was only to Heero's shoulder, with a scowl on her face. "Just because you've come here from Merlin knows where doesn't give you any right to act like an idiot." Note: these people swear using Merlins name, who is Merlin? "And look at your clothes," she gestured to his 'perfectly average teen' disguise "can't wear some decent robes like the rest of us." Looking around Heero realized that she was right, out of the crowd in the courtyard he was the only one who hadn't changed into robes.
"I didn't pack any robes." He offered.
"A likely story." Heero and the Witch had reached the front of the line. Heero moved to the side.
"Please go ahead of me Madame." She sniffed at him.
"I guess there are some manners under that ridiculous mop of hair." Heero wondered what she'd think of some of his comrades' hair if his insulted her so. She marched in front of him, her bags bobbing up and down behind her, and rapped her wand three times against a central brick. The wall slowly started to peel back each brick folding into the next, all in all up close it was a very impressive sight and this was coming from the man who had blown up Libra. His mind was racing, how was he going to get through after it closed behind her? Could he just move to the back of the line again and come up with a new strategy? It was his luck that the last bag in the Witches line dropped to the ground on his side of the arch. He stooped down to pick it up.
"Madame, your bag." He called out to her, she turned back to him scowling.
"What do you want a reward? Bring it over here." She crooked a finger at him gesturing that he follow her inside.
"Madame we're really only supposed to let related groups in." piped up a nervous man on the other side in plum colored robes. He almost seemed to shiver when the Witch turned her full glare on him.
"This is my idiot hooligan grandson. Though I guess he's not half as much of an idiot as you. Now hurry up you stupid boy." The purple robed man squeaked and seemed to shrink back as Heero moved to through the archway to the other side. He held his breath going under but there appeared to be no mind bending wards like the Leaky Cauldron.
He looked around and took in the narrow street he now stood on, the shops was crammed next to each other bearing names like: "Potage's Cauldron Shop", "Slug and Jiggers Apothecary", and "Mrs. Skower's All Purpose Magical Mess Supplies." Along each side of the street there were stands where prospective buyers could inspect the products. Heero had to suppress a smile when he saw the boy from before sneaking a dried spider down the back of his sister's robe.
"Well are you going to stand there all day like some dunderhead or actually get moving. I didn't help you in here to watch you stare at the street like a nitwit. Now hand over that bag I've got places to go." He turned around to see the old Witch was still there looking cross as ever. She was pointing one finger accusingly at where he still grasped her package in one hand. He handed it over and in a second, with a mutter and a flick of her wand, it had rejoined its kin floating around her.
"Thank you for helping me in. I've just never, never seen something quite like this." Something about what he said seemed to soften the old Witch.
"Well we're very lucky to still have it. It was a bit touch and go but we are nothing but resilient. Once the war was over we just built it back up again." Heero had thought with all their magic they would have been protected from the war, but maybe even secretly hidden shopping centers were open to mobile suit attack."Now you should go to Malkins and get some decent robes on, No respectable wizard would let you into their shop looking like that. Goodness if you're visiting somewhere you should at least try to adapt." Heero had the suspicion that the Witch wouldn't adjust her life style even if she was dropped on a desert island. Heero had noticed that he was getting a fair amount of looks now he was in the street, he didn't like looks to begin with especially not looks that said 'you are not blending in, you are a total failure as disguising how much you Don't Belong.'
"Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Which way is Malkins."
"Left then a right at the fork." The Witch flicked her hand in a general direction. Heero looked to where she was gesturing then turned back to thank her, she had already walked away her bags once again bobbing behind her like ducklings in the water.
Heero slowly made his way down the crowded street trying not to stare as he watched street vendors argue with customers over the price of pickled newts and self stirring spoons. A particularly aggressive store owner tried to drag Heero into his store under the pretence of having "Just the right potion to tidy up those eyebrows!" but with some quick thinking and careful strategy he was able to escape eyebrows intact. Even if it did involve pointing into the distance and shouting "look at that!" As he wandered along he noticed a couple other individuals not wearing full robes, but over their regular clothes they had thrown a plain black robe. He finally arrived at Malkins, which turned out to be Madame Malkin's Robes for all Occasions. The stores walls were lined with fabric and displays of cloaks, pins, gloves and boots were dotted across the floor. The squat smiling witch dressed all in lavender greeted him at the door turned out to be Madame Malkin herself and without any hesitation she pushed him to the back of her shop where a footstool waited in front of a wide mirror. Heero realized he was starting to become desensitized to all the bizarreness of this street when he didn't blink at the hovering measuring tape.
"No reason to ask what you're looking for it is obvious." She started to push him to get onto the stool. "Well don't be shy, we have to take your measurements before we get anything else done." Heero turned around to face her and she stopped pushing.
"Before we do any measuring…" The measuring tape seemed to bounce in eagerness. "I want to make sure you take muggle money." All the sudden Madame Malkin, and the tape, seemed a lot less eager.
"Why on earth would I take muggle money? You don't have a single knut of you do you?" She gave him a sweeping look as if hoping to discover some hidden wizard money.
"I'm just visiting, is there somewhere I can exchange…"
"Gringotts, out the door take a right big white building you can't miss it. Come back when you have some sickles and we will get you some robes." Madame Malkin waved him off already bustling over to a middle aged man peering at a pair of leather gloves. The measuring tape seemed to droop in sadness and sulk back to the stool.
Gringotts wasn't hard to find, a pure white building towering over all the other shops was bound to stand out. As he approached the building his noticed two things, one the front doors were massive and made out of bronze, two there were human like creatures guarding those doors. They had to be two feet shorter then Heero with narrow faces and black pointed beards. The fingers on their hands were inhumanly long and their shoes seemed to be made accommodate equally long feet. There was something other worldly about them that made Heero think that whatever they were they were not human. However strange and out of place they looked Heero knew better than to stare so he filed them under 'things to be surprised about later'. Clasped in those long fingers was a thin golden rod that the creatures waved around and poked at each individual seeking entrance.
A sign next to the doors but above the creatures' heads read. "All patrons must submit to Probity Probes. Any disguise be it potion or spells must be removed before entrance is allowed." Two wizards in plain black robes stopped beside Heero and observed the building.
"Didn't used to be this way." Grumbled one man.
"Well what do you expect, kids swooping in and stealing from vaults didn't help their reputation. Had to increase security after that."
"Doesn't mean I have to enjoy being poked by those little toads." The so called toads seemed to be particularly vicious while "probing" the two wizards, which really was just poking them sharply with the golden rods. Heero walked up the steps and submitted himself to a much softer poking, he did notice the two creatures exchanged a significant look before letting him through the door. Inside was a small room leading to a second pair of doors. They were silver with words engraved upon them:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there*
Heero couldn't help but think that these wizards had a flair for the over dramatic. Another pair of the little creatures were waiting outside the silver door and bowed Heero through as he entered into a enormous marble lobby. A long counter ran along each wall of the building, and sitting behind it were hundreds of these little men. Behind the counters they weighed coins using old fashioned scales, peered at gems, and wrote in comically large books. Heero wondered how they ran efficiently without the use of technology, but looking up and seeing the floating candles he realized that everything ran on a very different kind of power. He approached an open counter where one of the creatures was writing in a ledger with a long feathered quill. He cleared his throat and the creature looked up.
"Can I help you." It said in a tone that implied there was nothing it would like to do less.
"Yes, I'm here to exchange currency."
"This is not the currency exchange desk." It went back writing.
"Which desk would that be?" It looked down its considerably large nose as him.
"The currency desk is by the currency scales. Good Day." The dismissal was clear, Heero would just have to search for the desk on his own. Across the hall there was a desk where a worker was weighing gold coins against paper bills, strangely enough despite the mass difference the bills appeared to be heavier. Heero took an educated guess that this was the desk he needed and hurried over.
"Currency Exchange Desk?"
"Obviously…" responded the clerk with a narrowing of his eyes and a flick of his overly long fingers.
"I'd like to exchange some ESUN Dollars for sickles." Heero was proud of himself for remembering the name of the currency Malkin had sent him to get.
"Currency exchange form." A hand was help out.
"What?"
"I can't exchange currency without the proper currency exchange form." Heero had no way of knowing that since an unfortunate, and humiliating, break in three years ago Gringotts had become increasingly paranoid. In a reflection of such each action had a corresponding form and each form was checked and triple checked before the action was taken. It was no surprise to anyone that knew them that the creatures that ran the bank took great pleasure in causing additional frustration to their customers.
"I don't have a currency exchange form."
"Then you shan't get any currency exchanged." It went back to its scales.
"Where can I find the necessary forms?" While most people would have become frustrated with their current situation, most people weren't currently working with a government agency. Heero was more than equipped to deal with the tedium that accompanied administration. A long finger pointed to a previously unnoticed counter in the middle of the hall where a group of wizards appeared to be bumbling over a stack of forms.
Heero approached the counter and pushed his way through the confused wizards to sort through the piles. "Direct Deposit Authorization Form" "Direct Deposit Application Form" "Vault Application Form" "Additional Assistance Form" "Nondisclosure Agreement" "Withdrawal Form" the list went on and on, piles upon piles of color coded forms. Heero carefully chose a "Monetary Transaction Form" as well as a "Currency Exchange Form" and added a "Use of Muggle Currency Form" just to be safe. The issue he now faced was that the only writing utensil was a long feathered quill and a bottle of ink. However you don't reach the level Heero was at without a little dexterity and he carefully blotted and scrawled his way through all three forms. When Heero approached the desk again the creature looked surprised to see him back.
"Monetary Tranction Form" it stated with a smug sneer, which disappeared when Heero handed it over.
"Use of Muggle Currency Form" again Heero provided it.
"Currency Exchange Form" It had a shocked expression on its face when Heero provided each form filled out as neatly and thoroughly as any bank employee would.
"Well lets have what you're exchanging then." It grumbled and Heero handed over the money he had made in tips plus a little extra. "40 Muggle Dollars." The money was placed on the scale and the banker slowly added a collection of gold, silver and bronze coins to the other side till it evened out. "5 Galleons, 7 Sickles and 4 Knuts." It handed over the exchange money. "Will that be all." It raised an eyebrow at him but Heero got the feeling that it didn't dislike him nearly as much as when he'd first arrived.
"Yes, Thank you." Heero left the building to with his new coins tucked into his wallet. First stop: robes to blend in, second stop: bookstore to gather more information, third stop: well that was up in the air. After he got a better view of the area he's reevaluate his surroundings.
Madame Malkin seemed pleasantly surprised to see him, however her good mood was slightly decreased somewhere between being pushing Heero towards the back of the room and Heero interrupting her chatter to inform her that he was on a tight budget. She showed him to a rack of premade robes all the while extolling on the virtues of tailored robes, insisting that though all her robes were "masterpieces" nothing beat a tailored robe. When she realized he wouldn't be swayed she attempted to get him into scarlet robes with flying "snitches" whizzing around the corner (a snitch being some kind of yellow ball) which she insisted was all the rage with the younger crowd. After sifting through what seemed to be the entire rack she helped him into a plain navy blue robe which apparently "brought out those beautiful blue eyes." As it was the least ridiculous of all the robes he had tried on he decided to purchase them. There was another brief argument where she attempted to persuade him to wear no additional clothes under his robes. That was soon squashed by a well placed glare in her direction. In the end he only had to pay 1 galleon and 5 sickles, thanks to the discount on the robes. As he strode out of the shop ready to take on the world, he came to two very different realizations one was that he had no idea which direction to go the other that robes were not nearly as easy to walk in as you would think.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or Harry Potter (however much I wish I do)
A/N: Thank you everyone for your lovely reviews/suggestions I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen next/who Heero will get to meet. Once again if you spot any issues, grammatical or other wise please let me know so I can fix it asap. Let me know how you think it's going feedback in any form is always appreciated!
* this is, of course, a direct quote from the Sorcerer's Stone pg 72
I used a Euro to Galleon conversion chart kindly provided by HP Lexicon to put together the currency