Diagon Alley

Blair swung the bag back onto his shoulder, ignoring the burning pain, and quickly returned to the bar.

Even though it was morning already, the sunshine was still rudely rejected by this place, regardless if there was a curtain. The place was only illuminated with some candles, with a pervasive smell of burning wax. The ground and the tables were both dirty. Not many people were here, only an old waiter and an old woman in a thick green robe, eating breakfast.

"Do you need anything? Child?" That old waiter asked Blair, reached for another glass to clean, "I'm the owner, Tom."

"I need a room," Blair put the bag of Galleons on the table, "now to the morning of September first."

Tom glanced at the money and smiled, "Child, that money is only enough for you to live here for two days."

"I know it's not enough." Blair made no expressions, "I will pay this much first and give you the rest later today. I will go to Gringotts in the afternoon."

"Well, alright." Tom took out a huge chain of keys. Blair discovered that he had a very slouchy back.

"Come with me, child. What's your name?"

"Evans. Blair Evans."

Blair followed Tom up the sturdy stairs and was surprised by clean were the stairs, cleaner than the tables in the lobby. They came to room 306. There were some shiny oak furniture as well as a very comfortable bed. The fireplace started to burn as soon as the door was opened. Blair was satisfied to see that everywhere was clean, warm; even the air smelled good. There was also another window. Although the muggle street was right outside of the window, it is hard to hear the noises.

"Nice." Blair nodded, "But Tom, why is the environment in the lobby so…"

Tom smirked, "it just looks like that, Mr. Evans. You know, there always are muggles who accidentally walk in here."

I never did, Blair got a bit depressed.

"Wait," Blair stopped Tom, who was just trying to leave, "can I have some paper and ink? I need to write something."

"They are in the drawers in the table, Mr. Evans." Tom waited for a while, realized that Blair doesn't have more things to ask, bowed slightly and left.

Blair threw the canvas bag onto the bed, took out the only good clothes he has, a suit that is very formal, the one he only uses to get into formal places, and took a relaxing bath in the bathroom. He had never felt so great until he changed his clothes.

"Dear police officer, "

Blair wrote the first sentence, stopped. He couldn't stop biting the end of the feather, considering if he should use the word "Dear". Since he never had a real childhood, of course he didn't know how those little kids obsessed with pranks think. Blair finally gave up as the feather started to twitch in his mouth and thought: probably eleven-year-olds don't even know grammar! It doesn't matter even if he makes some mistakes.

"My name is Allan, and I live in the 23rd of the Pipe Alley. Niel adopted me and thirteen other kids, but he is a thief. Not only did he steal stuff, but he also forced us to steal for him. I really don't want to be a thief, because my mom told me only the worst kind of people would steal for a living, but I don't have a choice. He beats us if we do not steal enough, he also starves us. I sincerely wish that Mr. Police can help us. Please save us.

"Yours, Allan.

"PS: Mr. Ogrich also stole a lot of pretty jewelry from that charity ball. He showed off a big green ring with a rose badge. I think he stole that as well, even though he also claims that it was the symbol of his family."

Blair shook the parchment, looked at the awkward handwriting he produced with his left hand, frowned in dissatisfaction. But he still blew dry the ink carefully, sneered. London police probably won't care about a small thieves' house, but the jewelry lost on that ball and the ring from the White family is enough for them to put down most of their work and investigate this. Leave alone Blair also hid two copies of a document that was enough to fire the current mayor three times.

Finding Blair? He won't have any interaction with the muggle world in the next seven years, even if a tsunami flooded it.

July 31st, 11 am

Blair sat outside of the ice cream shop, wore his new robe, held a brand new Hogwarts, A History, and a huge cup of chocolate ice cream was placed on the table. A pure black, elegant cat sat on his shoulder, half-sleeping, her thin tail swayed behind Blair's back. She is Blair's new pet, Laya.

No one knew that Blair is actually really rich.

Everything in that canvas bag was what Blair had from stealing for almost eight years. Even though he had to turn in most of his income to Niel, he still kept a small part. Even though Niel knew Blair's actions, but he let it go when he saw more than twice of all other children's income combined was presented to him. But what didn't know was Blair leaving all the good stuff to himself, what he turned in looked good, but they were negligible to what he kept.

There was a trade center next to the Leaky Cauldron with a nice reputation. But he just got the chance to go there although he wanted to for a long time already.

An hour later, a vault under "Blair Evans" was created at Gringotts.

Blair knew he had a lot of money, but he never thought that bag of jewelry would worth so much. The real values were at least five times what he estimated.

Thus, Blair found out that he could have a really luxurious seven-years at Hogwarts, much more than what he expected initially. So he bought all brand new equipment, as well as some stuff that Harry couldn't spare to buy. The money provided by Hogwarts, Blair sneered, couldn't even buy the tip of Laya's tail.

He now sat at the place he longed for a long time, held the book he always wanted, but couldn't take in a single word.

Blair tried to force himself to focus on the book, but realized that those words turned back to ink; he could only see a big chunk of blurs.

He then tried to remember some stuff…

Gringotts was much bigger than he expected, it stood out so much from all the small shops next to it. He could see it wherever in Diagon Alley.

The goblins were really ugly and were painted with slight hatred. They had thin and dry fingers, like wilted tree branches. How did those short creatures bring marauding to an almost extinction in the wizarding world ("almost" because both Voldemort and Harry broke in there and left)! It is definitely a coincidence that the one who took care of him was Griphook, the one who also took care of Harry and then…

Stop!

There is nothing more thrilling than the underground passage at Gringotts, roller coasters couldn't even compare with it. Blair suspected that there were wizards that got thrown off when taking out money by that disgusting trolley because he had to hold the handles really tight to resist the centripetal force from turning. And that thing makes a turn every few seconds! Harry tried to remember the route in that condition! How silly…

Stop!

Madam Malkin's handcraft wasn't as good as everyone said. Her robes all look the same, not even close to the variety of clothes from the muggle world. Yet that shop was still there, it must have had a monopoly on clothing… Every single child going to Hogwarts buy uniforms here, even noble children like Draco Malfoy had to sit on the bench and get measured, and he met…

Stop!

An owl was important as well, but he realized that he has no one to write to. And those creatures always swing their feathers everywhere, pretty annoying anyway. Blair looked around, found severy white owls. They have nothing different from other owls other than color, Blair couldn't even tell which one was the future Hedwig…

Stop!

The pet shop was interesting, even though it smelled bad, but those weird little creatures make up for that. Some animals like to jump around and be annoying; some have very "interesting" colors, such as purple toads, orange snakes, blue rabbits, and pink dogs; and some look a bit dangerous…

But out of all animals, Laya was the best: elegant, quiet, beautiful, noble, proud…

Blair used almost all the words that can be used to describe Laya, realized that he liked the cat even more, so he caressed her head.

Laya seemed to sense her owner's favor, opened her eyes, rubbed against his face. She had a pair of green eyes like leaves after a rain.

Does Harry have a pair of eyes like that?

…

"Oh… No…." Blair whined and covered his face with his hands.