Chapter 22

The people of Diagon Alley

We had finished lunch and I sensed we both felt pleased about being done. The conversations hadn't been the best ones- although I had to admit that we had had worse-.

Severus cleared the table with a wave of his wand and I still longed for the day I was allowed to learn it. I knew he despised my amazement about magic, so I kept my profile low, like always. The feeling of amazement was short-lived, cause mind was too busy with wondering about something else this time. I wondered what magic could do more. I had already read a lot about it, so I knew some possibilities, but I wondered more about how it would look like. Purple lights coming from the wand? Possible, although I doubted that, cause I had read about it- or it was so normal that no one wrote it down-. Other colours? Possible too. Or would it look like the magic I had already seen? No lights or whatever. Just a movement with the wand and it happened. It was presumably that, just way more likely.

"Oh, I forgot to say," the wizard began as he headed towards the living room. "We are actually leaving now." I frowned in confusion and turned around in my chair. We leaving the house? That hadn't happened in a while- or maybe it seemed like that thanks to all the quarrels between us-.

Him forgetting to say something like that was a bit strange. Had learned to know him a bit in the short time with him and he wasn't the type to forget to mention plans like these. Where was he with his mind? Well, certainly not here. I supposed he had something on his mind and that something was probably the whole situation around me. I hoped he would ever become his own self again.

"And where are we going to?" I asked him, still filled with confusion. "Diagon Alley." he loudly answered from the living room. I shrugged and stood up from my chair.

"Go and get yourself ready." Severus said. "We are going to leave in any minute from now." I heard his footsteps on the stairs as I walked into the living room. I looked at the stairs, where I could only see Severus feet disappearing to upstairs.

I got my shoes, which I had placed in the corner besides his, and pulled them on along with my coat.

Severus came back down with a small, brown backpack in his hands. The bag was different from the one he had used when we went searching for ingredients in the woods nearby his house. Well, maybe also my house now.

Anyway, the bag looked a bit off and not like any backpacks I had seen before. It looked decently with its fine craftsmanship. So decently, that I knew it had been made with human hands. The decency didn't make it look delicate, no, on the contrary, rather strong and sturdy.

"Come. We have to go now." Severus stated as if he was in a hurry.

"Are we too late for something?"

Severus shook his head. "No, that's not it, but we need our time today." The wizard put out his arm and glanced at me.

"Grab onto my arm, we are going to apparate." I startled at his comment, afraid to get sick again and hesitated to do so. Of course he had noticed it and snarled: "I'm an advanced wizard, remember? It will be fine, so come on, grab onto it, tightly. We don't have the whole day."

At some point I had thought he would have comforted me with the idea of apparating, but, of course, he was his cocky self like always.

I put my hands around his arm, like he had demanded. Severus checked the grip to make sure everything was okay. I could only imagine what would happen if it wasn't.

In a matter of second, we apparated and it was just as horrible as it had been before. The next thing I knew everything went black. I was pressed very hard from all directions. I could not breathe, cause it felt like there were iron bands tightening around my chest. My eyeballs were being forced back into my head. And my ear-drums were being pushed deeper into my skull. Overall, a horrible experience.

And there we were at our destination. I presumed it was Diagon Alley, but since I had never been in Diagon Alley before, I could only ask Severus for the truth.

Strange enough, I wasn't sick this time. Severus seemed just as surprised as I was. He had started watching me as soon as our feet had touched solid ground- he thought I hadn't noticed it, but I had-.

As I took a look at my new surroundings, I noticed we stood in a big corner located on a narrow alley. The corner was made out of three walls of light brown bricks, which were at least twice Severus length. Behind the walls were high- I supposed- houses. Or maybe the shops already.

The advertising posters on the walls showed all kinds of products I had never heard of. Things like: Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. The advertising posters were alternated with wanted posters of creepy looking chained men in striped prison suits. I wandered what they had done wrong to end up on such a poster.

And did I see that correctly? Were these pictures also moving? I took a better look and realised they actually did. I had to get used to the idea that apparently every picture here moved.

When I looked up, I noticed a bright blue sky. Only a few clouds today. So a good day to do some shopping.

At that moment, I heard a loud crack besides me- something that sounded like a car backfiring-. I quickly turned my head and noticed that just besides me stood a woman out of the sudden. I was confused at how I hadn't seen her coming, but quickly realised that she must had had apparated too.

The woman looked at me with an arrogant gaze, her eyes penetrating my body. She seemed confused by my bewildered look and hid those feelings with an even more arrogant attitude. She gave Severus an offended look before she headed off towards the small alley on the end of the corner.

"Are we done embarrassing me in front of everyone?" he snarled and walked towards the alley too.

"Well, I'm sorry that this is all new for me, advanced wizard." I retorted sarcastically. A bad move, cause the wizard turned around with an intimidating scowl on his face.

"Just shut up!" he hissed. "Don't be surprised about magic, don't be surprised about the way of dressing, just don't be surprised by anything. And oh yeah, Do as I say when I say, okay?" I nodded, which apparently pleased him.

"Good." He turned back around and said: "follow me."

We walked through the small, dark alley and I was surprised by how much liveliness there was on the other side of the alley in comparison with the corner we had just stood in.

Once out of the alley, we entered a huge street with all kinds of shops, all different from each other. Tilting buildings, big windows, red painted wood, cylindrical window displays and hanging, striped awnings. Everything, just everything. There was so much to see and even if you would once get the thought that you had seen anything, you would notice another new thing.

The street had some kind of medieval touch to it, thanks to the way of architecture and the use of so much wood. Still, the way of dressing of the passing people reminded me we were still in the twentieth century.

Well, speaking about people, there were pretty much of them, in my opinion.

Men with long capes, like Severus', women with pointy witch heads in all kinds of colours and children in more similar cloths to mine- more muggle like-. Everyone was doing some shopping at this beautiful day and who would blame them? It was the right time to do so.

I was highly fascinated by everything to see and had totally forgotten about Severus, who was still standing next to me. My bewilderment wasn't a pleasing thing in his opinion and he was soon going to end it.

"Are we done looking?" he asked sarcastically.

"Huh?" His comment had pulled me out of my reverie and I hadn't even heard it completely.

My reaction seemed to make him more irritated, but he kept his anger to himself and walked into the street instead. Me, scampering behind him to not lose him in this strange environment.

We walked through the street in utter silence, while Severus seemed to be looking for a certain shop.

"Are we specifically going to somewhere" I inquired, still looking to all the buildings, of which none seemed the same.

He nodded and gave me a quick look before saying: "yes. There are a couple of stores we have to visit, since you don't have any wizarding cloths and/or useful stuff."

I thought about his answer and looked at all the shop windows to get an idea of where he was talking about.

Long, dark purple, female coats in the shop window of a clothing store. Cages with animals in another one- I took a better look at them and realised the shop sold frogs, kittens and owls among other things-. A bookshop, with a shop window full of books- books of which I didn't recognized the titles, but had no magic to them either-.

There was just so much to see and so little time. Severus walked through the street as if it was the most normal thing ever and I supposed it even was like that to him. Even though I knew it was an impossible job to see everything, I still tried.

I was too busy with trying to see everything, cause I had lost the attention to look in front of me.

I bumped into someone and tried to apologize immediately. But when I looked at the person I had bumped into, but was faced by an immense chest. The width of his body was enormous and his arms were pretty muscular.

I finally got the courage to slowly look up and face who I had bumped into. To my surprise, his face looked friendly and his long, dark brown hair, together with his long beard made it stange enough even friendlier.

"Oh, I'm sorry little girl." the man stated as if it was his fault. "Sometimes I forget to look more down."

Surprised by his apology and still intimidated by his length, I didn't react and stayed dumbfounded at the thought of how tall someone could ever become.

"Did I scare you?" he asked sadly. "I'm sorry, but you don't have to be afraid. I'm just a friendly half-giant."

A bit comforted now, I finally dared to speak.

"It wasn't your fault, sir. I should have better watched my surroundings, or better less, so to say." I apologized.

"Ah. New here I suppose?"

"Yes."

"Impressive, huh?"

"Yes, it is." I admitted, while blushing.

"Oh, how rude of me. Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds of Hogwarts. But everyone calls me Hagrid."

Hagrid? Had I heard that name before? And then I remembered it.

"Than you must be the one who has taken care of my owl for a while."

He seemed to not remember the fact he had and said: "could be. I take care of a lot of owls at Hogwarts, but you seem to young to be a student."

"Never mind." I stated to swipe the idea away. "My name is Ellea."

I shook the man's huge hands and hoped I would get it back, uncrushed.

"Nice to meet you, Ellea."

Strange enough, Severus had not noticed I had stopped walking and had walked forward. When he finally had noticed, he came back with a frown that could mean nothing good for me.

He saw Hagrid and slowly stepped behind me.

"Oh hello professor." he greeted Severus kindly.

"Good day, Hagrid." he responded.

"Is she with you, professor?"

"Yes." he replied reluctantly.

"Oh, I didn't know you showed new muggle students around Diagon Alley. I thought only McGonagall did that."

"She is the exception to the rule." he explained, indicating with his hand to me.

Hagrid nodded and said: "well, have a good day then, Ellea."

I smiled up at the enormous half-giant and thanked him.

"Professor." he said to Severus and walked off.

I couldn't help but look over my shoulder at the enormous man. A half-giant? Do giants even exist?, I asked myself, but came to the conclusion that if he was indeed a half-giant that there were indeed complete giants.

"Stay close to me next time." Severus hissed out of a sudden.

"I'm sorry, I just bumped into him. Accidentally of course."

"I believe you, but just stay close now. I don't want to lose you here."

He walked away without waiting for a response and I wondered why he was so tensed out of a sudden.

I walked by his side and still looked at the shops- but more with my eyes at the people now.

Looking more at people makes you see things. You can sometimes immediately see how someone is. What drives them. Their feelings.

Take that woman in front of that shopping window for example. She was in her sixties, had greasy, curly, dark hair and not particularly beautiful. Her hanging shoulders indicated she was upset. But why? She looked through the window towards a small bottle with a pink liquid. Love potion was written above it, with girlish, golden letters. No ring around her fingers, not married. She probably longed for love she could have never gotten in her live through the natural way and was now doubting if she should try it another way.

Or take that woman out there, looking at a jar of lotion. She is her late forties, has already a few wrinkles and her make-up indicates she places great value to her appearance. She looked upset as she touched one of her wrinkles. There are only a few people who like aging and she was certainly not one of them. She was probably longing for everything that would make her young again, but since there are no time machines, she had to do it with the large selection of make-up products.

Or that man over there, leaning against the wall, clearly drunk. His long, greasy, uncombed, gray hair indicated he didn't care much about his appearance at all. His dirty, torn clothes indicate a poor way of living. So probably a hobo. His drunk state could have meant he was addicted, and that was why he was so poor, but those were only insinuations.

I was surprised to see how easily readable magical people were. Than they had atleast one thing in common with my folk, the muggles. Or maybe my past folk, I didn't know.

Severus passed a corner and I just followed him.

A man outside one of the shops waved to Severus. He didn't wave back.

"Good day, professor." the man greeted him kindly. Was surprised by the fact everyome called him 'professor' and not just by his name. Severus seemed not so surprised and greeted the man with a simple 'hello, Jiggers.'

Severus seemed reluctant to talk to the man, but walked up to him when he had realised there was no way out of the upcoming conversation.

"What can I do for you today, professor?" the old man asked with a broom in his hands.

"Nothing today, Jiggers. I have other things to attend to."

"Oh, like showing that muggle around?" he asked patronizingly.

I could see the irritation in Severus' eyes, but I couldn't tell if it was because he had to take me to this place or that it was because the man had called me a muggle.

"You know muggle kids are not allowed in the Wizarding World."

"I know, I know. I was only joking with you." the man said with a smile. Severus didn't.

"Why did you actually think I'm a muggle?" I asked the man, interrupting their conversation.

"The clothes, kid." he replied.

I looked at my clothes and noticed they were indeed different from what they were wearing, especially my jeans.

"I didn't know you showed muggle-borns around. It thought that that Gryffindor woman always did it."

"She is the exception to the rule." he stated again.

The man nodded and shook my hand.

"Well, I am Christopher Jiggers from the Slug & Jiggers Apothecary." he introduced himself. "I sell all kind of ingredients for potions. You seek, I have it."

"Well, not everything." Severus mumbled.

The man seemed to not have heard Severus words and just went on with telling about his store.

"Do you already know an ingredient for potions, kid?"

"A few, I guess."

"Well, say it, and I have it."

"Okay."

"Well... come on, say one."

I tried to remember one and came up with one Severus had told me about in his basement.

"Unicorn blood."

The man seemed perplexed. And not only the man. Severus shot daggers to me with his eyes, angry and surprised at the same time.

"I beg your pardon?" the man asked and gave Severus a confused look.

I had forgotten what the ingredient did, I had only remembered the name and didn't really understand their confusion.

"Unicorn blood." I repeated.

The man stammered and gazed at Severus, who seemed to baffled to say something.

"Of course they don't have unicorn blood." he snarled. "Where do you even get that from!?"

Clear to me, he was lying. He had not forgotten about what he had explained to me in his basement. Another thing that was clear to me, I was in a lot of trouble. Maybe if I played along with him, he would be less angry.

"You said nearly everything could be used in a potion, so why not the blood of a unicorn?"

"It's highly illegal, that's why." the man replied suspiciously.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"That... eh... don't mind, I think." the man said.

I looked over at Severus who had realised I had been lying for him. The level of his frustration reduced and he only seemed a bit tensed by now.

"Well, I think we have to go now."

The man nodded. "Yeah. I have got to do some stuff too." he said and gave a quick look at the broom in his hands.

The two man said goodbye with a quick 'have nice day' and we walked away, leaving the man behind.

Once in the next street, one of us finally dared to speak. And that person wasn't me.

"And what was that!?" he hissed, trying to not draw any attention from the other people passing by.

"I had forgotten about it and only remembered the name. It was the first thing that came up in my mind!"

The wizard sighed and let his frustration slip away.

"Do you know I find it to be unbelievable you can draw so much trouble towards the both of us?"

"I sometimes surprise myself too." I admitted.

"You know what, I think you have met enough people for today."

Author's Note:

Hey reader!

More about Diagon Alley will follow in next week's chapter.

Sew you next week!

PS: special thanks to my Beta-Reader to2llyuntraceable.