Chapter 4
How weird is that?

Luckily for Amy Riddle had spent most of his time, before he met her, strolling the streets of London. It didn't take him long to find the tavern called 'The Leaky Cauldron', which according to Dumbledore should function as a secret passage to Diagon Alley. The two children entered shabby hostelry, both looking rather overwhelmed. They walked up to the bar, where a man was wiping a dirty glass with an even dirtier tea towel. Riddle looked skeptically at him.
"Tom?" he said searchingly. The man looked up and stopped wiping the glass.
"Yeah?" he answered irritated.
Riddle had obviously expected someone a little less… tatty. When Riddle showed no signs of responding the man, Amy took over.
"My namy is Amy Baines, and this is Tom Riddle. Professor Dumbledore told us you could help us getting in to Diagon Alley?"
The look in the bartender's eyes changed from annoyance to receptivity.
"Ah, 'course. I'll show ya roig't 'way." He motioned for them to join him behind the bar. "This-a-way kids."
Amy and Riddle followed the man through a door in the back. The backyard seemed pretty normal, but there is often more than what meets the eye.
The man revealed a long wooden stick, which had been hidden until a few seconds ago, tapped a brick wall, which to the two children's great surprise started changing into a gateway.

They both gawked at the recent aroused access.
"When ya go through, just go strai't 'head. Ya can't miss it! Well, lov'ly day to yar both," Tom the bartender greeted politely, and just before Amy and Riddle passed through the entrance, he added addressed to Riddle. "And by ey way kiddo, nice name ya got yarself." He blinked and went back inside. Riddle uttered a snarl, and shot the door that the bartender had just closed a fuming look.
Amy slapped his arm. "Don't be like that! He was being really nice."
Riddle rubbed the place she had hit him. "He was acting all freaky… Calling me 'kiddo'? Honestly, that's a bit uncouth."
Amy shook her head at him. "You know what they call hating people for being boorish?"
"No Amy, I don't."
"Overreacting, Tom. You're so uptight."
"I am not overreacting!" He snapped. " And I'm not uptight."
"Sure you aren't." Amy said, rolling her eyes, mumbling to herself; "Prude."
"I heard that." Riddle scowled.
"Good," Amy said, grinning.
He snorted at her, and speeded up. Since his legs were much longer than Amy she almost had to run to keep up with him.
"Hey, slow down. I'm jog-trotting back here." She called out. Riddle slowed down. When Amy reached him, she put her arm around him.
"Come on Tom! This is going to be lots of fun, we're gonna do all sorts of…" her voice trailed off. An astonishing scene met their eyes, as they entered Diagon Alley. The street was not very wide and cobbled, the shops were adjoined closed together, every single one of the looking brimful. The closest storefront was old lace colored, and rather clinical looking. A large sign was placed close to the roof, reading 'Apothecary' in fading black letters. Through the windows Amy could see hundreds of jars placed meticulously on hundreds of shelves. Opposite to the apothecary was a much smaller shop, and also less crowded. Cauldrons were displayed in the windows, and a short man with a large moustache was proudly showing a young girl and her mother one of them. He patted it with an affectionate look in his eyes. Amy looked at the sign on this storefront, which changed before her eyes. One second the sign read 'The Best Cauldrons', and the next it was reading: 'No Leaky Cauldrons'. Almost all the adults in the street and shops were dressed in robes similar to Dumbledore's, while the kids were wearing more normal clothes. Amy and Riddle looked at each other in disbelief.

"What are we going to do?" Amy asked dazed.
Riddle took out the envelope he had gotten from Dumbledore, and unfolded the letter it was containing.
"It's simple. We only visit the stores necessary, and get everything on the list."
She nodded in agreement.
"But I don't have any money yet, I have to go to that bank."
"And I'll go with you. If we follow the street, I'm sure we'll find it."
The walk to the bank could probably be done in five minutes, but Amy found it extremely hard to walk in a decent pace and look at everything at the same time.
"We're never going to get there," Riddle sighed when Amy for the hundredth time ran to a window squealing in delight.
'Tom, look, they have owls in here! Oh my gosh Tom, they're riding the brooms? How weird is that? 'Flourish and Blott's'. I think we can get our books here. Look the sign is changing here too! An ice-cream store? Oh, it looks so nice! And over there, that's where they buy their… well… unusual clothing."
Riddle had quickly giving up on getting Amy to walk straight to the bank, and settled with being lost in his own thoughts while answering the girl with nothing but an occasionally 'yes' or an agreeing mumble.

"Tom? Tom, are you even listening?"
"Mmh, yeah." Riddle said absent-minded.
Amy stood right in front of him, her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised.
"I said, we're here."
He blinked a couple of times, and saw the snow-white huge temple-like building in front of him. Big letters were engraved in the marble wall.
'Gringott's Bank', Riddle mouthed. "Well, let's go inside."
They walked up the steps, and entered a fine-tuned bronze door. By the door stood a very short… well, it was a person, but a strange-looking one, wearing a uniform with the bank's name embroiled on the chest. Both his hands and feet were unusually long compared to the fact that he was much shorter than both Riddle and Amy. He looked at them and bowed slightly. When they entered the vestibule they were met by yet another door, this one fine-tuned silver. On the door was a inscription. A poem of a kind:

'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'

Amy felt a chill down her spine when reading it. It didn't sound like a warning to her, more like a thread. Riddle stood next to her, looking uneasy.
"Maybe I shouldn't go, I mean… I have nothing in that bank that belongs to me."
"Come on Tom!" Amy whimpered. "Don't make me go in there alone, it's creepy."
Riddle met her apprehensive gaze. "I'll go."

Yet another short guard stood by the silver door, and opened it for Amy and Riddle with a slight bow. They entered a great marble hall, where hundreds of the small people were busy behind the counters serving customers, scribbling with their quills on long pieces of parchment or weighing coins on brass scales. Doors were placed all the way around, and patrons were being escorted in and out of the doors.
"Do you think they're like… dwarfs… or gnomes or something?"
Amy asked Riddle.

"They're not dwarfs," a voice said behind them. "They're goblins."
A girl with blond curly hair stood behind them next to a slender man who she resembled a whole lot.
"I'm Katherine," she smiled. Amy smiled back at her, but Riddle barely looked at her.
"Come on sweetie," the man said nervously. "The faster we get out of here the better. Dwarfs, goblins... They still give me the creeps."
Amy giggled, and the man smiled tensely. He grabbed his daughters hand and walked determined to one of the counters.
Amy followed his example, and walked to the nearest available goblin with Riddle right behind her.
"Hello?" She said, with a voice much smaller than she wanted it to be.
The goblin looked down at her. He had a long crooked nose and small black eyes.
"Yes?" He answered, his voice hoarse as a crow, sounding like the parchment he was writing on.
Amy fumbled with her bag, but found the envelope from Dumbledore, and put in the counter.
"Mr. Dumbledore told me to bring this here." She said politely.
The goblin opened the envelope with his long wrinkled fingers, and read the letter with screwed up eyes.
A minute or so passed by before the goblin spoke again.

"I see," he said. "Wait here." The goblin left the counter, and came back with another goblin.
"Good day Mrs. Baines, my name is Meketror. We've been expecting you. Since this is your first visit to Gringott's, it is almost a shame you won't visit your vault. We have made a key for you, which you will be using in the future, but not today. We have the money for you here, professor Dumbledore already took care of it."
He handed her a much heavier looking and much larger leather purse than the one Dumbledore had given Riddle. It clinked when she took it.
"Tha-thank your Mr. Meketror." She stammered. When she had maneuvered the purse into her bag, Meketror handed her the key.
"Guard this with your life Mrs. Baines. It is very important and irreplaceable."
Amy nodded with big eyes.
"Goodbye Mrs. Baines." Meketror retreated, and left a baffled Amy behind.
Neither Amy nor Riddle said anything until they had left the bank.
"That was weird."Amy finally said.
"You don't say," Riddle agreed.
For a while they stood at the foot of the steps, and said nothing.
"So," Amy said, breaking the silence. "What should we do first?"