Harry was sick. He didn't know if it was because he was anxious to see Diagon Alley for the first time, or because he was still dizzy from his first time using floo travel. All he knew is that when he arrived in what seemed to be some sort of restaurant, his stomach was doing somersaults. Sirius looked down at him and smirked.
"A bit queasy, are ya, Harry?" Harry nodded. "Don't worry about it. Floo travel will do that to a person his first time using it. If you think that's bad, wait until you apparate for the first time."
"Sirius, where are we?" Harry asked, looking around the room full of wizards and witches.
"This is The Leaky Cauldron, one of the best pubs in Wizarding London and the entrance to Diagon Alley. Now let's wait for Ron and Ginny, then we can get something to eat."
Just then, the fireplace lit up with green flames, and Ron tumbled out with Ginny following him. The stood up and began to dust themselves off. "Sorry we took so long," Ron said.
"Mum held us back to remind us to be on our best behavior," Ginny finished.
"It's quite alright kids. Why don't we go eat while we're here? I know for a fact that the shepherd's pie here is amazing." The four walked over to the bar to get a table. "Hello Tom," Sirius greeted the barman.
"Sirius!" Tom exclaimed. "How's life treating you?"
"It's a lot better than it was a week ago that's for sure."
"Well it's good to know that justice was finally served. So what brings you here today?"
"I need to go to Ollivander's to purchase a new wand after the whole… you know. My godson wanted to join me with his friends so we decided to stay here for some slices of shepherd's pie."
Tom looked down at the children to see who Sirius was referring to. His eyes widened when he saw the scar on Harry's forehead. "Good lord! It's Harry Potter!" He said a little too loudly. Everyone in the room stopped exactly what he or she was doing and looked at the black-haired, green-eyed boy. Within seconds there was a mob around the four.
"Welcome back, Harry!" One voice hollered.
"Thank you for saving us!" Another yelled with glee.
"I named my first-born after you!"
"Can you sign my daughter's Harry Potter doll?!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU!" Tom yelled with a vein popping out of his bald head. "Yes Harry Potter is back. I'm surprised too. This doesn't give you permission to swarm over him like a group of vultures. If you don't leave these four alone, I will call the Aurors." Everyone went back to their seats and returned to what they were doing. This didn't stop the stares though.
"I'm sorry about this Sirius. I should probably get you a private room." Tom said in an undertone.
"That would probably be best. Thank you Tom," Sirius said. Tom nodded and waved his wand toward the wooden wall. A door appeared in the middle and Sirius and the children walked into the room behind it.
When the four were seated, Harry started to think. All of those people seemed to know him. He never met any of them in his life! "Sirius, how did they know me?"
Sirius sighed. "I had a feeling you would ask that. Remember when I told you how your parent's were killed?" Harry nodded. "Well the wizard who did it, Voldemort, was a lot worse than I originally made him out to be."
Harry noticed that both Ron and Ginny cringed violently when Sirius said the word 'Voldemort'. "What do you mean?"
"Five years ago, the Wizarding World was at war with… that man and his followers. People became so afraid of him that, even today, people cringe at the sound of his name. They refer to him as 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. He killed anyone who was against him. Sometimes, he would even kill his own men.
"For some reason, he went after you. I don't know if you were the main target or if he wanted to have a clean kill, but he killed both Lily and James with a curse that no one had ever survived. No one. Until he used it against you. Not only did you survive the curse that no one ever survived, the curse rebounded onto him and he disappeared. The only trace of the curse on you is that scar on your forehead.
"Everyone knew your name from that day forward. You, Harry, are one of the most famous wizards in our world since Albus Dumbledore."
Harry's eyes grew wide. His gaze went from Sirius to Ron and Ginny. "You two knew who I was long before I did?" he asked. The two nodded cautiously. Harry looked at Sirius again and said, "But I don't want to be famous; especially for something I can't remember."
"I know, Harry, but there's nothing anyone can do about it. You just have to endure it."
After finishing their pieces Shepherd's Pie, Sirius gave Tom 4 galleons and guided the children out the back exit. There, they found nothing but a brick wall. "Sirius, it's just a brick wall. Where's Diagon Alley?" Harry asked, looking around, as though expecting it to pop up any second.
Sirius smirked while Ron and Ginny were grinning. "Well, let me show you." He said as Harry looked back at the brick wall. He knocked on a brick, then one above it. It looked like a pattern. He went three bricks up and two to the left. After he knocked the last brick, they began to move. An arch that was not originally there had opened up. "Welcome, Harry, to Diagon Alley."
Harry took only five steps forward and he was already overwhelmed. Cauldrons, Broomsticks, robes, spellbooks, even a store for wands! This would be a shock for anyone who didn't already know how amazing the Wizarding World truly was.
"So what do you think?" Sirius asked bringing Harry out of his state of shock.
Harry looked at Sirius and said excitedly, "Wicked! What do we do first?"
"First thing we need to do is go to Gringotts, the Wizarding Bank." He said pointing to a large, grand building. "I only had enough Galleons for shepherd's pie and I'm going to need more."
When they first entered, Harry stopped and read a silver plaque.
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.
Sirius then turned to Harry. "I need to warn you about the creatures who work here. The Goblins run the wizarding banks all over the world, but they aren't creatures you can really trust that well, as the sign says. The thing you can trust them with is keeping your valuables safe, but crossing a goblin could end up very badly. Also, try and be polite. That means not pointing out anything unusual about the goblins." Harry nodded and Sirius smiled. "Great! Let's go."
They walked to the front desk and saw an old two foot creature with long fingers, pointy ears, a pointy nose, and not much hair. "May I help you?" the goblin asked with a snarl.
"Yes. I would like to access the Black Family vault." Sirius said in the kindest tone he could muster.
The Goblin's eyes narrowed at Sirius' tone. "And do you have your key, Mr. Black?" Sirius handed the key over to the Goblin who observed it carefully. "Very well. Griphook, please bring Mr. Black and company to the Black Family vault."
"Yes Head Goblin," Griphook, a younger looking (but still old) goblin with grey hair. Griphook turned to the four. "Follow me."
The group went through another pair of doors to find that the next room wasn't a room at all; it was a labyrinth of caverns and railways. "Into the cart please," Griphook ordered, stepping into the cart himself.
When everyone was in, Griphook pulled a lever. The cart began to move at a high speed. Harry looked at Sirius and saw that he was gripping tightly to the bar in the cart. He looked at Ron and Ginny who looked like they were having the time of their lives. He himself never felt such a thrill. It was a sense of weightlessness that seemed to set him free from the bindings of gravity itself. He felt great! Then, the cart stopped.
"Please step out." Griphook said with Sirius' key visible in his grasp. They walked towards Vault 711 and Griphook inserted the key into the keyhole. All of the carvings in the door glowed from the center outwards as the doors opened. Within the vault were giant mountains of gold galleons, heaping mounds of silver sickles, and walls completely covered with bronze knuts.
Ron and Ginny couldn't believe their eyes. Coming from a family without a lot of money, they never believed that they would see this much gold in their lives. "Wicked!" they both said at the same time, in awe.
"I know. All of this gold is a bit overwhelming. Here are some moneybags," Sirius said handing each of the kids a moneybag. "Fill them up and it should be enough for what we need today."
The children did so and the five went back into the cart. Outside the bank Sirius said, "Next up is Ollivanders. It's about time that I'm able to do magic with my own wand."
The group walked into Ollivander's shop and were greeted by an old man with wild hair and a disposition that, at first glance, would seem a bit mad. "I've been wondering when you would finally show up Sirius." He said.
"Hello Mr. Ollivander." Sirius said. "To be completely honest, I was hoping I wouldn't come back here until Harry get's his wand."
"Yes, well no one could control what happened. Now raise your wand arm." Ollivander measured nearly every part of Sirius' body. "You were Cypress and Unicorn Hair, 10 ½ inches, flexible but not bendy, correct?" Sirius nodded. "Just a moment." Ollivander pulled out a box. "Try this. Oak and Phoenix Feather, 11 inches, springy." He handed him the wand and took it away just as quickly. "No that won't do. How about this one"
This went on for about 15 minutes. Finally Ollivander said, "Alright. I think I know what wand to give you now." He took out a wand and gave it to Sirius. "Applewood and Unicorn Hair 11 ¼ inches, swishy."
Sirius felt the same warm sensation he felt 15 years ago when he bought his first wand. He tried a complicated spell, the patronus charm, to see if the wand would work just as well as his previous one did. Once a silver dog had burst out of the wand, he was satisfied. "It's perfect!" he said reaching into his robes for his moneybag. "How much do I owe you?"
Ollivander chuckled. "Why nothing my boy! The ministry already paid for it."
"Oh yeah. I forgot they told me about that. Well thank you again Mr. Ollivander."
"It was no trouble at all." He turned his gaze to the children. "I hope to see you three here in a couple of years." The three young friends nodded and followed Sirius out the door.
Now that they got all the important stuff out of the way, they had the rest of the day for casual shopping. The Weasley twins asked Sirius if they could go to Quality Quidditch Supplies. Sirius smiled and said yes.
On their way to the store, Harry asked Ron and Ginny, "What's Quidditch?"
Ron and Ginny looked at each other with a smirk. "Only the best sport in the world!" Ron exclaimed.
"It's a sport that takes place completely on broomsticks," Ginny continued.
"There are two teams against each other, and seven players on each team."
"Four positions though."
"The Chaser tries to throw the Quaffle, that's a big red ball, into the hoops of the other team. There are 3 chasers per team. If a chaser gets a hoop, it's 10 points."
"The keeper protects the goals from the chasers so that the other team doesn't score. There is one keeper per team."
"The Beater protects their teammates from things called Bludgers, which are enchanted balls that try to knock players off their brooms, and aim them at the other team with their bats. There are two beaters to a team."
"Finally and most importantly is the seeker, who tries to catch a small, golden, flying ball known as the golden snitch that is always flying around the pitch at a high speed. It usually takes an hour or two to find and is easy to lose. Once the snitch is caught, the game ends and the team that catches it gets 150 points."
"The team with the highest score wins, but it's usually the team that catches the snitch. That's why the seeker is so important."
"Did you get all that?"
Harry's brain was a bit fuzzy. All of that info came at him so fast, he was still processing the part about the beaters. "Uhhh, kind of," Harry said unconvincingly.
The twins laughed. "Don't worry," Ron reassured. "We'll explain it better when we get back to the Burrow."
When the group got to Quality Quidditch Supplies, there was a sign on the door.
THE NEW CLEANSWEEP 6!
Can go from nought to 100 mph in less than 6 seconds!
Buy one today for 30% off just in time for the holiday season!
Ron and Ginny looked as if they found the holy grail. "Amazing," Ginny said.
"I wonder if Sirius could get us one," Ron said.
Sirius heard Ron say this and walked towards the salesman. "Can I get four Cleansweep 6s?"
The salesman's eyes went wide. "Four? You realize that were talking 450 galleons even with the discount, right?"
"I know," Sirius said pulling out his galleon bag, He put 450 galleons in another bag and gave it to the salesman. The salesman wrapped up 4 brooms and shrank them. Sirius took the brooms and put them into his robe pocket. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"Uhh y-yes! Thank you! Do please come again!" The shopkeeper was astounded.
Sirius stepped out of the store to see Harry, Ron, and Ginny discussing broomsticks. Sirius cleared his throat to get their attention. "I got something for each of you." He said as he pulled out the brooms.
All three children were hugging Sirius and showering him with gratitude. "This is the best day of my life!" Ron shouted.
Sirius chuckled. "Alright kids, let's go. We're losing daylight."
They shopped a little more before going to Fortescue's for some ice cream. Sirius managed to buy Harry some new clothes. Nothing too much, but a lot better than what he was wearing when he found him. He got Harry some shirts, a couple of jumpers, and a couple pairs of pants.
The ice cream had to be the best thing that Harry had ever tasted, besides Mrs. Weasley's Treacle Tart. After Fortescue's the four headed back to the Leaky Cauldron to go back to the burrow.
When they arrived at the Burrow, Ron and Ginny ran outside with their new brooms. When Harry and Sirius were alone, Sirius asked, "So what did you think?"
Harry grinned. "I loved it!" he said.
"Well just you wait. Today was just the tip of the iceberg."
Sorry this chapter took so long to come out. Please take my poll if you haven't already.