Chapter Twelve: Diagon Alley, Again
The door bell dinged as we left Flourish and Blotts. I followed Jocie down the alley, consulting my shopping list for Hogwarts. "Okay, all I need now is my school robes. Should we get them now or a bit later?"
"Well, mum said to meet up with her and dad for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and it's almost one thirty now, so let's go there and get the rest later." Jocie said, trailing back to me. I nodded my ascent and we both proceeded to head to the pub, looking around for either one of Jocie's parents. We didn't find any of them, but Jocie did spot someone she knew. "Oh! It's Harry and Ron! Come on, let's go see them. You'll get to meet them finally."
Jocie pulled on my hand and led me over to a group of mostly red haired people, with a bushy brown haired girl and a very messy haired boy with glasses. Amongst the group was the tallest man I had ever seen in my entire life. Honestly, he was huge. The second I saw him, I began to wonder, do giants exist and if they do, how tall are they exactly?
They were huddled together further down the alley, by appearance, talking about something important. The older, red haired woman looked torn about something, but then the giant said something, waving his hand in the air, which seemed to soothe her a bit. Although she still looked unconvinced.
Jocie pulled us to a stop beside the group just as the older couple with the younger red haired girl walked off. "Hey! Shopping for Hogwarts, I'm guessing?"
The girl with the bushy hair nodded and glanced at me questioningly. Jocie continued. "Oh, this is Alexia, the girl I told you about. Alexia, this is Ron, Hermione, Hagrid and Harry, the ones I told you about. Remember?"
She pointed to each person as she introduced them, presumably so that I'd know who was who. I discovered the only red haired person there was Ron, one of the Weasley's. The bushy haired girl was Hermione Granger; the giant was Hagrid and then there was Harry. I nodded, smiling at the group sheepishly. "Hey."
They all waved to me, but only Hermione spoke up. "You're Alexia? Jocie told us so much about you. Are you really from Australia?"
"Yeah, I am. But, to be honest, I didn't even know Jocie had told you all about me." I said, glancing at Jocie questioningly. Before she could say anything, the giant, Hagrid spoke up, saying that we should move on.
"Right, would you like to come with us? We're going to Madam Malkin's." Hermione asked, walking forward along with the rest of her group. We followed along so we could continue talking to the group. Out of all the times Jocie had told me about Harry Potter and his gang, she made them sound like the best people in the world. But seeing them now, in person, I can't help but think that they're incredibly rude. Or at least that they don't want to know me.
"We have to go there too. We were supposed to meet up with my parents first, but I supposed they won't complain too much if we get our robes first." Jocie reasoned, picking up her pace a bit. We passed quite a few people as we went along the alley, most of them glancing around anxiously as if they were afraid the death eaters might come and snatch them then and there. I supposed they were right to worry about it though. Before we arrived, I was looking forward to getting an ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, only to find out that the owner had been dragged away and his shop boarded up. I suppose it was also lucky that I had gotten my wand when I did too, as Ollivander had also been kidnapped. That or he disappeared, no one really knows.
"Migh' be a bit of a squeeze in there with all of us," Hagrid said to us all, bending down to glance into a shop window. I looked up at the sign above the door and found that we had arrived at Madam Malkin's shop. "I'll stand guard outside, all righ'?"
I followed Jocie, Hermione, Ron and Harry into the small, seemingly empty shop. Almost as soon as we'd stepped into the store, we heard voices from behind a rack of green and blue dress robes. From where I was situated, I couldn't quite hear what they were saying exactly, but I could tell from the tone of the voices, or in this case, voice, that whoever was talking was not happy about something.
I couldn't see who they were and to be honest, with the way the kid was talking, I didn't really want to know who it was.
"Watch where you're sticking that pin, will you!" The same voice yelled out and a moment later a teenage boy with a pale, pointed face appeared from behind the rack and stepped up to the mirror to exam his dark green robes. I noticed that there were still pins around the hem. I glanced at Jocie, about to ask who the boy was; instead I found her glaring at him with a vengeance. I opened my mouth to say something, but the boy had noticed us standing there and decided to speak up.
"If you're wondering what the smell is, Mother, a Mudblood just walked in," he said, his eyes narrowed as he stared at our reflections in the mirror. I could tell immediately that what he had said was wrong. Jocie growled under her teeth, her eyes narrowed ferociously. Harry and Ron had both flung out their wands in an offensive manner, pointed directly at the blonde haired boy.
Before they could do anything however, an older woman came out from behind the same rack the blonde boy had come out from and reprimanded the boy for what he had said. Then she noticed Harry and Ron with their wands pointed at the boy. "And I don't want wands drawn in my shop either!"
I vaguely heard Hermione whisper to the boys, but didn't catch what was said. But whatever was said didn't seem to get through to the boys as they still didn't lower their wands. Things began to get out of hand afterwards. The pale-skinned boy – I've really got to learn his name – said some other very rude and mean things about Harry and Hermione and then his mother came and a sort-of argument ensued where she mentioned someone named 'Sirius', whoever that was, and how she would join someone named 'Lucius' somewhere. I think it was some place called Azbakan, but I could be wrong about that.
Then the boy and his mother left the shop, but before he exited, he turned back to us and noticed me standing there. He remained silent for a moment, looking me up and down, sneering. "Who are you and why are you hanging around a bunch of Mudbloods and Blood Traitors?"
"I can hang around whomever I like, thank you very much." I growled, trying to make myself look menacing and mean, but probably failing miserably. "You'd better go now. Your mother is waiting for you."
I pointed to the older, blonde haired woman standing outside the store. The boy didn't waste any time in following orders, which surprised me by the way he was demanding things beforehand. I turned to Jocie and sighed heavily. "Who was that? And does he always act that way?"
"That's Draco Malfoy. His father's a death eater. He was thrown in Azkaban a few weeks back. His mother is probably a death eater too. I wouldn't be surprised." She explained, anger resounding in her speech. "And yes, he does act that way all the time. Don't worry about him though. He's not worth it."
I nodded, turning back to the older woman who ran the store. She was pinning up Harry's new robes, seemingly distracted. "Right well, I suppose we should just wait our turn then."
Jocie nodded. "Yeah, may as well. Look, I'm sorry you had to listen to all that stuff with Malfoy before. He really is the biggest douchebag Hogwarts has ever seen. Well, except Voldemort, I suppose."
"Voldemort went to Hogwarts?" I asked, surprised at this revelation. I shook my head, waving it off. I had no idea why that thought never crossed my mind before. I mean, of course he went to Hogwarts. Where else would he have gone? "Never mind. Who's Sirius? And Lucius?"
"Sirius Black, Harry's godfather. He died a few weeks back. I wouldn't recommend talking about it in front of Harry though. I think he still sort of blames himself for it." She explained, glancing at Harry out the corner of her eyes. I glanced over at him. He was still getting his robes pinned up, not noticing we were back here talking about him and his godfather. I was glad that he didn't hear us. "And Lucius is Malfoy's father."
"Oh, okay. What is Azbakan anyway? You've never told me of it." I turned back to her, noticed that she looked as if she were about to laugh and wondered what was so funny. "What?"
"It's Az-kaban, not Azbakan. Wizard prison." Jocie said in between giggles. I flushed, my cheeks warming in embarrassment. Before I could say anything to redeem myself on that note, the store owner, Madam Malkin came over to us, still looking distracted by something. I suspected it had something to do with what had happened with the Malfoy's before. But whatever it was, it didn't seem to affect her work that much. Well, at least I don't think it did.
We didn't talk much as we were fitted for our dress robes. Afterward, we paid for our robes, saying a quick thank you to the older woman, before being ushered from the store as if she were glad of us leaving. After what had happened though, I couldn't blame her for wanting us gone.
