I don't own Harry potter and only Circe is mine.
Special thanks to andMidoIzuku19 for following this story not even a day in yet and to 1. TTP, Ankareeda, Jaiyana2021 and Arelin, for also following me and inspiring me to work faster.
Chapter Five
Diagon Alley
The twins woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, Harry kept his eyes shut tight, while Circe opened them immediately and grinned when she saw the half giant, Hagrid, snoring softly on the sofa.
"It was a dream," Harry told himself, "I dreamt a giant called Hagrid came to tell me and Circe we were going to a school for witches and wizards. When I open my eyes, I'll be at home in my cupboard with Circe sitting next to me and about to tickle me awake."
There was suddenly a loud tapping noise, just as Circe started to tickle him, but, still, he didn't open his eyes.
"And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door," Harry thought, his heart sinking, but, still, he didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.
"Wake up, already! How can you not be awake, today, of all days?"
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"All right," Harry mumbled as Circe started violently shaking him and the tapping got worse, "I'm getting up."
He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm having finally finished. Hagrid, himself, was asleep on the collapsed sofa and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.
"Finally!" Circe sighed and they both scrambled to their feet, so happy they felt as if they each had a large balloon inside of them that was swelling at a considerable rate. Circe went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered to the floor and started attacking Hagrid's coat.
"Don't do that." Harry said.
Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat. Circe grabbed it, gently, and picked it up, then walked over to Hagrid, while getting her hand constantly nipped at.
"Hagrid," she said loudly and nudged him with her knee. "This owl's -"
"Pay 'im," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.
"What?"
"'E wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."
Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets – bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, mint humbugs, teabags... Finally, Harry found the right one and pulled out a handful of strange looking coins.
"Give 'im five knuts." said Hagrid sleepily.
"Knuts?"
"The little bronze ones."
Harry counted out five little bronze coins and Circe released the owl. It held out its leg so he could put the coins in a small, leather pouch tied to it. Then it flew off through the open window.
Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up and stretched.
"Best be off, you two. Lots ter do terday, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer books an' stuff fer school."
Harry was turning over the wizard coins, while Circe looked at them over his shoulder. They had thought of something which made them feel as though the happy balloons inside them had got a puncture.
"Um - Hagrid?"
"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.
"We haven't got any money – and you heard Uncle Vernon last night – he won't pay for us to go and learn magic."
"Don' worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn' leave yeh nothin'?"
"But if their house was destroyed -"
"They didn' keep all their gold in their 'ouse, kids! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizarding bank. 'ave a sausage, they're not bad cold – an' I wouldn't say no ter some birthday cake neither."
"Wizards have banks?"
"Jus' the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."
Harry dropped the piece of sausage he had been holding and Circe's face lit up.
"Goblins!" they said in unison, but in completely different tones.
"Yeah - so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it. I'll tell yeh that, never, ever mess with goblins. Gringotts is probably the safest place on earth fer anything yeh want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up to his full height proudly. "He usually gets me to do important stuff fer 'im. Fetchin' you two, gettin' things from Gringotts – knows 'e can trust me, see.
"Got everythin'? C'mon then."
The twins followed Hagrid out on to the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired waas still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.
"How did you get here?" Circe asked, both her and her brother looking around for another boat.
"Flew."
"Flew?"
"Yeah - but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."
They settled down in the boat, both the twins still staring at Hagrid and trying to imagine him flying.
"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving the twins another one of his sideways looks. "If I was ter – er – speed things up a bit, yeh wouldn't mention this ter anyone at Hogwarts, would yeh?"
"Of course not," said both the twins, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again and, tapped it twice on the side of the boat and they sped off towards land.
"Did you use a spell to fly, or did you use an object?" questioned Circe.
"I used this." said Hagrid, taking a model of a blue motorbike with a sidecar out of one of his many pockets. "I cast a reducing charm on it to shrink it fer now, but this ol' girl is a beauty when she's fully grown. I don' think there's anythin' else like 'er in the world. It were given ter me on that night, and, I'm willing ter bet, the first electric thing yer ever rode in, even if you, Harry, were asleep fer 'alf the journey."
"That's amazing," Circe said as Hagrid put it back in the same pocket it had come out of.
After a few seconds of awkward silence in which no one could think of anything to say, or they had so much to say that they couldn't choose which, Harry asked, "Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?"
"Spells, enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding the newspaper from earlier as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guarding' the high security vaults. An' then yeh gotta find yeh way around 's'well - Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the underground. Yeh'd die o' hunger tryin' ter find yer way out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat." The twins sat and whispered about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, The Daily Prophet. Both the twins knew from experience with Uncle Vernon that it was an unspoken rule to not disturb an adult while they were reading their newspaper. Of course, Circe completely ignored that rule, as she did with all others, having absolutely no respect for either her aunt of her uncle, but, out of respect for Hagrid and probably for the first time in her life, she decided to obey a rule.
"Ministry o' Magic's messin' things up, as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.
"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Circe asked before she could stop herself.
"Course!" exclaimed Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if there ever was one. So, 'e pelts Dumbledore with owls every mornin', askin' fer advice."
"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"
"Well, their main job is ter keep it from the muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."
"Why?"
"Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wanting magical cures fer their muggle problems. Nah, we're best left alone."
"At this moment, the boat bumped gently into the harbour wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.
Passers-by stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. The twins couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as everyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See, that, Circe 'n' 'arry? Things these muggles dream up, eh?
"Hagrid," said Circe, panting a bit as she and her brother struggled to keep up, "Did you say there were dragons at Gringotts?"
"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."
"You'd like one? I mean, they must be amazing creatures to see, but don't you think it'd be a bit dangerous, not to mention cruel, to keep an enormous, fire breathing, wild animal in your house."
"Oh, well, I've wanted one since I were a kid, but I never thought o' it that way before. I s'ppose yer right – here we go."
They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes time. Hagrid, who didn't understand muggle money that well, gave the notes to the twins so they could buy their tickets. The ticket man joked that they might need two adult tickets for Hagrid.
People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary yellow circus tent.
"Both o' yer still got yer letters?" he asked as he counted stitches
"Harry took both the parchment envelopes out of his pocket since Circe had given him her's since she could be very clumsy and prone to losing things at times.
"Good," said Hagrid. There's a list in both o' them o' everythin' yeh'll need. They're both the same, so just get one out."
Harry took out the piece of paper neither of them had read last night and gave it to his sister to read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Uniform
First year students will require:
Three sets of plain work robes (black)
One plain, pointed hat (black) for day wear
One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) ("It's not real dragon hide, is it?"
"It is, but we'll be getting' enchanted leather ones instead: they're exactly the same, just without the dragon cruelty)
One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)
Please note that all student belongings should carry name tags
Set books
All students should have a copy of each of the following
The standard book of spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk
A history of magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
A beginner's guide to transfiguration by Emeric Switch
One thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenous Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them by Newt Scammander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble
Other Equipment
1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales
Students may also bring and owl OR a cat OR a toad
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS
"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.
"If yeh know where ter look." said Hagrid.
The twins had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where they were going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.
"I don' know how the muggles manage without magic," he said, as they climbed a broken-down escalator which led up to a bustling street lined with shops.
Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crow easily; all the twins had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger bars and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand.
This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of sorcerer's gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge, elaborate joke that the Dursleys had cooked up? If the twins hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humour, they might've thought so; yet, somehow, even though everything that Hagrid had said had been unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.
"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "The Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."
It was a tiny, grubby looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out to them, the twins never would've seen it. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the bookshop on one side of it to the record shop on the other side as if they couldn't see the leaky cauldron. In fact, the twins had the most peculiar feeling that only them and Hagrid could even see it. Before they could mention this, though, he had steered them inside.
For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old barman, who was quite bald and looked like a gummy walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the barman reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"
"Can't Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hands on the twins' shoulders and making their knees buckle.
"Good Lord," said the barman, peering at them, "Is this – could this be -?"
The leaky cauldron had gone completely silent and still.
"Bless my soul," whispered the old barman, "Harry and Circe Potter... What an honour!"
He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards the twins and seized their hands, tears in his eyes.
"Welcome back, Mr and Miss Potter, welcome back."
The twins didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at them. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realising it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.
Then there was a scraping of chairs and, next moment, the twins found themselves shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.
"Doris Crockford, Mr and Miss Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."
"So proud, Mr 'n' Miss Potter, so proud,"
"Always wanted to shake your hands – I'm all of a flutter."
"Delighted Mr and Miss Potter, just can't tell you. Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."
"We've seen you before!" exclaimed Circe, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to us once in a shop."
"They remember!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone, "Did you hear that? They remember me!"
The twins shook hands again and again – Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.
A pale young man made his way forwards, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.
"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid, "Harry, Circe, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."
"P-P-Potter and, um, P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping the twins' hands, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."
"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"
"D-defence against the d-d-dark arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you'd n-need it, eh, P-P-Potters?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." he looked terrified at the very thought.
But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep the twins all to himself for long. It took nearly ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.
"Mus' get on – lots ter buy. C'mon Harry, Circe."
Doris Crockford shook each of their hands one more time and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds.
Hagrid grinned at the twins.
"Told yeh, didn' I? Told yeh yeh were famous. Even Professor Quirrell were tremblin' ter meet yeh – mind you, 'e's usually tremblin'."
"Is he always that nervous?"
"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then 'e took a year off ter get some firs' 'and experience... They say 'e met vampires in the black forest an' there were nasty bit o' trouble with a hag – never been the same since. Scared o' the students, scared o' 'is own subject – now, where's me umbrella?"
Vampires? Hags? The twins' heads were swimming because they had never so much as been allowed to read a book about mythical creatures and now they were learning that there was a whole world of them, that they belonged to. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the dustbin.
"Three up... Two across..." he muttered. "Right, stand back, you two."
He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.
The brick he had touched quivered – it wriggled – in the middle, a small hole appeared – it grew wider and wider and, a second later, they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid to walk through. The archway led onto a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight.
"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."
He grinned at the twins' amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back onto a solid wall.
The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons – All Sizes – Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver – Self Stirring – Collapsible said a sign hanging over them.
"Yeah, you'll be needin' one each," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."
The twins wished they had about ten more eyes. They turned their heads in every direction, trying to take everything in and pointing the most interesting things out to each other: a shop that sold books specifically on how to enchant muggle pets, the things outside the shops, such as hats that claimed to make the wearer super-fast, the people and other things doing their shopping; everything. A plump woman outside an apothecary's was shaking her head as they passed, saying, Dragon liver, seventeen sickles an ounce, they're mad..."
A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium – Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy. Several children of about the twins' age had their noses pressed up against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," they heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus 2000 – fastest ever -" There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instrument the twins had even seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...
"Gringotts," said Hagrid.
They had reached a snowy white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -
"Yeah, tha's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps towards him. He was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Circe noticed, very long fingers and feet. The goblin bowed as they walked through the doors. They were now facing a second set of doors, silver, this time with words engraved on them that Circe murmured aloud:
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
"Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.
A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing gold on brass scales and examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count, leading off the hall and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and the twins made for the counter.
"Mornin'." said Hagrid to a free goblin, "We've come ter take some money outta the Potter safe."
"You have the key, Sir?
"Got it 'ere somewhere." said Hagrid and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. The twins watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing hot coals.
"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.
The goblin looked at it closely."
"That seems to be in order."
"An' I've also got a letter 'ere from Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid said importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."
The goblin read the letter carefully.
"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"
Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he, Harry and Circe followed Griphook towards one of the doors leading off the hall.
"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Circe asked.
"Can' tell yeh tha'," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh tha'."
Griphook held the door open for them. The twins, who had expected more marble, were surprised. They were in a narrow stone passage way lit with flaming torches. It sloped deeply downwards and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them. They climbed in – Hagrid with some difficulty – and were off.
At first, they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, which made Circe laugh, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.
The twins' eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but they kept them wide open. Once, Circe thought she saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage, and twisted around to try and show her brother, but, by the time she had pointed it out to Harry, it was gone – they plunged further into the tunnels, passing an underground lake where huge stalacites and stalagmites grew from ceiling to floor.
"Hagrid," Circe called to him over the noise of the cart, "do you think you could tell us more about our parents?"
"Yeah, but I'll tell yeh later." said Hagrid, "An' don' ask me any more questions at the moment. I think I'm gonna be sick."
He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, he got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees trembling.
Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and, as it cleared, the twins gasped. Inside were mountains of gold coins, columns of silver ones and piles of little bronze knuts.
"All yours," smiled Hagrid
All the twins'? I was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this, or they would've had it from them faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much the twins cost them to keep? And all this time, there had been a small fortune belonging to them, buried deep beneath London.
Hagrid helped the twins pile some of it into a bag.
"The gold ones are galleons," he explained, "seventeen silver sickles ter a galleon and twenty nine knuts ter a sickle. "It's easy enough. Right, tha' should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest o' tha' safe fer yeh." he turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, an' can we go more slowly?"
"One speed only," said Griphook.
They were going even deeper, now, and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine and the twins leant over the side to try and see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled them back by the scruffs of their necks. Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.
"Stand back," ordered Griphook, importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.
"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped inside the vault," said Griphook.
"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.
"About once every ten years," said Griphook, with a rather nasty grin.
Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, the twins were sure,and they leant forwards curiously, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least, but they thought it was empty at first. Then they noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. The twins longed to now what was in the package, but knew better than to ask.
"Come on, back into this infernal cart, an' don' neither o' yeh talk ter me on the way back. It's best if I keep me mouth shut.," said Hagrid.
One wild cart ride later, they stood, blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. The twins didn't know where to rush off to first now that they had a bag full of money. They didn't have to know how many galleons there are to a pound to know that they were holding more money that they had ever had in their lives – more money than even Dudley had ever had.
"Might as well get yer uniform firs'. Get the boring stuff outta the way firs', yeh know," said Hagrid, nodding towards Madam Malkin's robes for all occasions. "Listen, kids, would yeh mind if I were ter slip off fer a pick me up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate 'em Gringotts carts. An' don' worry, I 'aven't fergotten 'bout yer parents: I promise ter tell yeh as much as I can 'bout 'em afterwards." He did still look a bit sick, so the twins entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.
Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.
"Um, hello, we're here to -"
"Hogwarts, dears?" she interrupted. "Got the lot here – another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."
In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long, black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him while Circe waited patently. A long robe was slipped over Harry's head and Madam Malkin began to pin it to the right length.
"Hullo," said the boy, "Hogwarts too?"
"Yes," replied Harry and Circe.
"My father's next door, buying my books, and my mother's up the street, looking at wands," he said in a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."
The twins were strongly reminded of Dudley and Circe's blood was boiling at the arrogance of this boy.
"Have either of you got your own racing brooms?" the boy went on.
"No, but if I did, I'd happily give it to you, after it had been cursed to throw arrogant, prattish brats off it at ten meters high," replied Circe coolly. The boy was speechless. Obviously, he was not used to being stood up by anyone, let alone girls he had just met and had been blatantly trying to impress.
"Well, you're not going to go to Slytherin then, and you're probably a muggle born. Muggleborns shouldn't even be accepted into Hogwarts if you ask me. Have fun being an idiot, a coward or a know it all. What do you think?" he said turning to Harry, expecting him to take his side. "I'd put my bet on Gryffindor, with the rest of the bull-headed idiots there."
Harry felt infuriated. No one insulted his sister and got away with it. He knew that Circe was perfectly capable of defending herself, but she was standing there and smirking, because she knew what Malfoy didn't.
"She's my sister, you ar-"
"There is no need for that foul language in my shop!" said Madam Malkin sharply. Up until that moment, she had been watching to see how the situation played out so the children had forgotten she was there, despite the fact that she had been measuring Circe's robes. The blonde boy looked very put down at the realisation that he would never be able to win this battle. At the exact same moment that Hagrid appeared outside the shop window, Madam Malkin said, "All done now, my dear." to Circe, and she thanked her politely and stepped off the stool while Harry counted out the correct coins.
"Hope I don't see you at Hogwarts."
The twins were quiet while they ate the ice creams Hagrid had bought them (pumpkin pie and orange with almonds and beef pie and chocolate with gravy: the ice creams tasted like the pies on the outside and ice cream flavours on the inside) and not just because Hagrid was telling them about their parents.
"They were amazin' people, yeh know, they really were. Both Gryffindors, but they both could've easily been sorted into Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. Yeh mother was kind ter everyone an' everythin', an' yer dad would stick with 'is friends through anything no matter what. Treated 'em like more 'an family, but they both 'ad mischievous streaks as wide as the sea, yer mum's were a bit more tame, though, although, yeh could raid Filch's punishment draw fer more information abou' tha'. What else, lets see. Oh, yeah. They were both amazin' quidditch players. Made it on to professional teams when they got outta Hogwarts, though most people said tha' yer mum were only on the team as one o' yer dad's famous attempts to win 'er 'eart. 'e got made captain, yer see -"
"What's quidditch, Hagrid?" Circe asked as they entered a store to buy parchment and quills.
"Oh, blimey, Circe, I fergot 'ow much yeh didn' know – not knowin' 'bout Quidditch!"
"Don't make us feel worse," said Harry. The twins told Hagrid about the pale boy from Madam Malkin's.
"- and he said people from muggle families shouldn't be allowed in -"
"Well, it sounds like yeh put 'im in 'is place, but yer not from a muggle family anyway -"
"Yes, but that's not the point, Hagrid. I didn't mean to sound rude, but he was obviously being a racist brat."
"'e 'as it all wrong, anyway. Some o' the bes' witches 'n' wizards I ever saw came from a long line o' witches 'n' wizards. Look at yer mum. Look what she 'ad fer a sister! 'e probably jus' wants 'em out so 'e doesn' get shown up in class. 'at's what it is."
"So what is Quidditch?" Harry asked as they walked out the shop, each of the twins holding a bottle of colour changing ink that changed colour as they wrote.
"It's our sport. Magic sport. It's like – like football in the muggle world – everyone follows Quidditch – played up in the air on broomsticks an' there's four balls – sorta hard ter explain the rules, an I'm probably not the righ' person ter do it, neither. Never been on a broomstick meself, see. Too big."
"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff and Gryffindor and Ravenclaw?"
"School houses. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a load o' duffers, but yer got people like Newt Scammander who was the nicest person I ever met, and extremely smart and now 'e's famous. Then yer got Nymphadora Tonks who is fierce as 'ell, 'specially if someone calls 'er Nymphadora. Only goes by Tonks. An' she became an Auror – sorta police, I think yeh call 'em. An' it's better Hufflepuff 'an Slytherin, where most o' the people tha' say tha' go." Hagrid explained, "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn' in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."
"Vol - sorry – You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"
"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.
They bought the twins' books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of ostage stamps, in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who had never read anything in his life before, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and counter curses (bewitch your friends and befuddle your enemies with the latest revenge techniques: hair loss, jelly legs tongue tying and much much more) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.
"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."
"I'm not sayin' tha's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the muggle world under any circumstances, unless yer life's in danger," said Hagrid, "an' anyway, yeh couldn' work any o' those curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter tha' level. An' where's yer sister gone?" After they had found Circe, who wasn't too far away, it took a while to convince her that walking around the shop with her nose in Potions for Pranking the people who peeve you off wasn't a good idea.
Hagrid refused to let them anywhere near Zonko's (a magical prank shop), they then went to the equipment shop where they each got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients, a collapsible brass telescope and a pewter cauldron. Afterwards, they went to the apothecary's, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, which was a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders, bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hung from the ceiling and there was a whole corner full of products that had been removed from the animal after they died of natural causes and not before, for vegans and vegetarians. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supple of basic potion ingredients for Harry and Circe, the twins examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one galleons each and miniscule glittery black beetle eyes (five knuts a scoop).
Outside the apothecary's, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.
"Jus' yer wands left – oh yeah, an' I still 'aven't got neither o' yer a birthday present yet."
The twins felt themselves go red.
"You don't have to -"
"I know I don' 'ave ter. Tell yer what, I'll get yer animals. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at – an' I don' like cats – cats make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl each. All the kids want owls; they're dead useful, carry yer post an' everythin'."
Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel bright eyes. The twins now each carried a large cage. Harry's held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing, and Circe's held another snowy owl, with bright green eyes that matched Harry's and was standing proudly on the perch in the cage. They couldn't stop stammering their thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.
"Don' mention it." said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've 'ad a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left then – only place fer wands, Ollivanders, an' yeh gotta have the bes' wand."
A magic wand... this was what the twins had been really looking forwards to.
The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: makers of fine wands since 382 BC. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.
A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. I was a tiny place, empty except for a spindly little chair, which Hagrid sat on to wait. The twins felt strangely as if they had entered a very strict library, not that they had ever been allowed near one; they swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to them and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of their necks prickled. The very dust and silence seemed to tingle with some secret magic.
"Good afternoon." said a soft voice. The twins jumped. Hagrid must have jumped as well because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.
An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.
"Hello," said Circe, awkwardly.
"Ah, yes," said the man, "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Circe Potter, and you've got Harry Potter with you." It wasn't a question. "You have your father's eyes. It seems only yesterday he was in here himself, buying his first wand. Made of mahogany, eleven inches long, pliable. Excellent for transfiguration."
Mr Ollivander moved closer to the twins. They wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.
"Your mother, on the other hand, who shares her eyes with young Harry Potter, here, favoured a willow wand. Ten and a quarter inches. Swishy. A little less power and nice for charm work."
Mr Ollivander had come so close that he and the twins were almost nose to nose. The twins could see themselves reflected in those misty eyes.
"And that's where..."
"Mr Ollivander touched the lightning scar and on Harry's forehead with a long white finger.
"I suppose you have one too?" he asked Circe, and she lifted her sleeve up to reveal the identical scar on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out in the world to do..."
He shook his head and then, to the twins' relief, spotted Hagrid.
"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"
"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.
"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr Ollivander, suddenly stern.
"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.
"But you don't use them?" said Mr Ollivander sharply.
"Oh, no, Sir," said Hagrid quickly. The twins noticed he gripped his pink umbrella tightly as he spoke.
"Hmmm," said Mr Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look.
"Well, now – Mr and Miss Potter. Who's first?" Circe stepped forwards after a second where Harry's eyes widened in nervousness.
"Miss Potter, then, let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"
"My left, I think." said Circe.
"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Circe's arm from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round her head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Miss and Mr Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are the same. And, of course, you will never get such good results with another person's wand."
Circe suddenly realised that the tape measure, which was measuring between her nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.
"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right, then, Miss Potter, try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."
Circe took the wand and waved it aroud a bit, but Mr Ollivander snatched it out of her hand almost at once.
"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -"
Circe tried, but she had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr Ollivander.
"No, no – here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."
Circe tried. And tried. She had no idea what Mr Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.
"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere – I wonder now - yes, why not – unusual combination – birch and phoenix feather, ten inches, swishy."
Circe took the wand. She felt a sudden warmth in her fingers. She raised the wand above her head, brought it swishing down in a spiral through the dusty air and a red and gold lion, a blue and bronze eagle and a yellow and black badger leapt/flew/fell from the end like real animals, throwing dancing spots of light onto the walls.
Everyone was silent for a minute. Circe was nervous, wondering if she had done something wrong.
"Blimey, Circe! Tha' were 'mazin'! An' yeh don' even know tha' much abou' the Hogwarts houses!"
"That truly was a spectacular feat, especially for someone as informed as you, and I don't mean that in an offensive way. Bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, brilliant. Well, well, well...How curious... How very curious..."
He put Circe's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, Curious... curious..."
He beckoned Harry forwards and, without bothering to measure him, gave him a wand.
"Twins usually get twin cores, so give this one a try. Another unusual combination. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."
Harry took the wand, in his right hand, and felt the same sudden warmth in his finger tips that Circe had. He waved it in an identical pattern to hers and a stream of bright red and gold sparks streaked out, lighting up the room and dancing around Circe's animals for a while before disappearing. He couldn't help feeling a little disappointed after his sister's amazing display and the animals that were still circling her and occasionally nudging her.
"Even more curious... yes, very, very curious..." Mr Ollivander muttered.
"Sorry," Circe said, "but what's curious? And why are the Hogwarts houses relevant to Fluffy, Squawk and Cuddles?"
"I doubt they will last much longer, so do not get too attached to them, Miss Potter. You've created the house mascots of Hogwarts in the correct house colours for Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. A truly spectacular piece of magic, especially since they've lasted this long. And," he chuckled and fixed the twins with his pale stare. "as for the curious thing, well, where to start? I suppose it would be best to start by telling you that I remember every wand I've ever sold. Every single wand, including your wands' triplet. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feathers are in your wands gave another feather, so I could make the first ever wands with triplet cores. It is very curious that you should be destined for those wands when their brother, a very powerful thing, indeed – why, its brother gave you those scars."
The twins swallowed.
"Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the witch, or wizard, remember...I think we must expect great things from the two of you, Mr and Miss Potter... After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great."
The twins shivered. They weren't sure they liked Mr Ollivander that much. They paid fourteen galleons for their wands and Mr Ollivander bowed them out of the shop.
The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry, Circe (who was still accompanied by Fluffy, Squawk and Cuddles) and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the leaky cauldron, now empty (at which point Hagrid asked Tom to conjure a bag for Circe's pets since they wouldn't go away no matter how hard she tried). The twins didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; they didn't even notice how much people were gawping at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all the funny shaped packages, with the sleeping snowy owls on the twins' laps and with the odd growls, squawks and squeaks coming from the awkwardly big bag that Circe lugged around with her. Up another escalator, out into Paddington Station; the twins only realised where they were when Hagrid tapped Harry on the shoulder.
"Got time fer a bite ter eat before yer train leaves," he said.
He bought Harry a hamburger and Circe a veggie burger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. The twins kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.
"Yeh, alrigh', 'Arry an' Circe? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.
They weren't sure they could explain. They'd just had the best day of their lives, and yet - they chewed their burgers trying to find the words.
"Everyone thinks we're special," Circe started at last.
"All those people in the leaky cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr Ollivander..." Harry continued.
"But we don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things from us?" Circe went on.
"We're famous and we don't even remember what we're famous for," Harry carried on.
"We don't even know what happened the night Vol – I mean, the night our parents died." Circe finished.
Hagrid leant across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows, he wore a very knid smile.
"Don' yeh two worry. Yeh'll learn fast enough, an' what the two o' yeh did back there in Ollivanders were very progressed fer people tha' haven' even started Hogwarts yet. An' jus' be yerselves in school. I know it's hard: yeh've been singled out, an' tha's always hard. But yeh'll 'ave a great time at Hogwarts – I did – still do, s'matter o' fact." Hagrid helped the twins on to the train that would take them back to the Dursleys, then handed them an envelope.
"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September – King's Cross - It's all on yer tickets. Any problems with the Dursleys, send a letter with one o' yer owls, they'll know where teh find me... See yeh soon, Harry an' Circe."
The train pulled out of the station. The twins wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; they rose in their seats and pressed their noses against the window, Circe's chin resting on Harry's head, but they blinked and Hagrid had gone.