Just a pinch, dear," Mrs. Weasley directed. "You have traveled by floo powder before?"
"Of, course. I wasn't secluded from the wizarding world like Harry was," Alli said. Her mouth curved into a small smile as if she was laughing at her own comment. Harry ignored her. Alli smiled and dipped her hand in the powder that Mrs. Weasley held out for her. She stepped into the fireplace and yelled, "Diagon Alley!"
In a rush of green light, she disappeared. Alli arrived in a small eatery labeled The Leaky Cauldron, a few moments later. Once everyone had arrived, the Weasley's, Harry, and Hermione led Alli into Diagon Alley for the first time. As they walked down the busy cobblestoned street, Alli spied a dark alleyway off to the side. There was a sign with an arrow pointing down the way with the words Knockturn Alley. She became curious and didn't realize the others walking away into the crowd of witches and wizards on the main street. Alli noticed a woman with white-blonde hair emerging from a creepy-looking shop followed by a boy who shared the same white-blond hair. Alli looked away and realized the others had left her. Her dark-brown eyes searched the crowd, but Alli, being short for her age, found it difficult to see over the heads of everyone. It was just a sea of dark cloaks in front of her.
"Shit," Alli swore, standing on her tiptoes. Then, she heard her name.
"Allison!" Someone called.
Alli turned around quickly to see where the voice had come from. WHAM! Alli stumbled and then felt herself falling. She shut her eyes ready to land on the hard cobblestone street when someone grabbed the back of her cloak and pushed her back onto her feet. She looked up. The boy whom she had seen in Knockturn Alley was standing beside her. He looked about the same age as Alli with white-blond hair and bright gray eyes.
"Watch yourself," the boy said quickly. She realized that his hand was still on her back and she moved away from him.
"My bad," Alli told him.
"You know, it would be smart to look where you're going," the boy said, glaring at Alli. Alli narrowed her eyes.
"Actually, I -"
"Allison?" the voice called again. Alli looked towards the voice.
"Yes?" said the boy with a smirk. Alli noticed him silently looking her up and down. His eyes lingered on the designer label on her cloak and then locked eyes with her once again. He smirked. Alli started to finish her sentence but she was caught up in how incredibly attractive this boy was. He stared into her eyes as she tried to talk but Alli couldn't find the words.
"You were saying..." the boy prompted.
"My name's Allison," she said quickly. She held out her hand to him. "Well, Alli, actually." The boy smirked again and took her hand.
"Malfoy," the boy replied. Alli raised her eyebrows and snickered slightly not able to hide her amusement at his name.
"Malfoy?" she said, "That's your name?"
"Draco Malfoy," he said quickly.
"Is Draco a family name or something?" Alli said trying to cover up her laugh.
"Something like that," said Draco, matching her tone.
"There you are, Alli!" said a voice from beside her. It was Hermione. Hermione immediately turned her attention to Draco Malfoy. Draco narrowed his eyes at her.
"What are you doing here, Mudblood?" Draco sneered.
"I was going to ask you the same question," Hermione said, "Alli, let's go."
"Hermione, this is Draco Malfoy," Alli said lightly.
"Yes, and he's not very good company," Hermione said glaring at Draco.
"No one asked you," Draco said.
"Wait, what?" Alli said.
"Alli, let's go," Hermione said. Alli nodded. As she walked away, she smiled at Draco.
"It was nice to meet you," Alli called to him. Draco smirked.
"I'll see you," Draco replied.
Alli nodded once as she followed Hermione back to the group. Hermione turned Alli around to face her.
"Malfoy, Alli?" Hermione snapped, "What in the world were you thinking?"
"What?" Alli shrugged, "He's cute." Her eyes shined bright with excitement.
"He's horrid," Hermione told her shaking her head.
"Oh, there you are, Allison," Mrs. Weasley greeted her with a soft smile.
"What were you doing?" Harry asked. Alli grinned.
"Well, there was this boy," Alli said.
"We ran into Malfoy," Hermione told them.
"He's super cute," Alli added with a giggle.
Ron's mouth opened in shock and he looked at Harry. No one knew what to say.
"What?" Alli snapped.
"He's not good company," Hermione said.
"Isn't that the understatement of the year," Ron replied.
"Why not?" Alli said with a stubborn tone.
"Right, well let's get your new books for the year, shall we?" said Mrs. Weasley, changing the subject.
"I need to get some money, actually," Alli told them, "Where is the bank?"
"Gringott's Bank is at the end of the alley," said Mrs. Weasley pointing Alli in the right direction.
"Alright," Alli said.
"You can meet us at Flourish and Blott's once you're done," Mrs. Weasley told her, "The bookstore. It's next to -"
"The one with the books in the window, right?" Alli cut her off, "Got it! Thanks!"
She turned around and headed towards Gringotts Bank. When she arrived, a small goblin opened the doors for her.
"Welcome to Gringotts Bank," the goblin said dully as if he really did not want to be there. Alli nodded once at him. Her shoes clacked on the tile floor on the way to the front desk. Another goblin was sitting at the front desk and he looked up as Alli approached. "May I help you?" he grumbled.
"I need to get money from my vault. My name is Allison Potter."
"There is no record of an Allison Potter in my vaults," the goblin replied looking back down at the work in front of him. Alli let out a frustrated sigh.
"They said they had transferred it," Alli muttered. The goblin looked back up and peered at her over the tall desk.
"Oh yes," the goblin said, "the transfer." Alli crossed her arms impatiently. "Right," said the goblin slowly. He flipped through several parchments on his desk and finally plucked a memo from the back. "Here we are."
"May I see some identification?" the goblin asked peering over his desk once more.
Alli gave him a blank look. What sort of identification did she need? As if answering her unspoken question, the goblin asked for her wand. Alli pulled her wand from her pocket and handed it to him. It didn't take but a second for him to examine her wand and hand it back.
"Very well. If you will follow Griphook."
A third goblin whom Alli assumed was Griphook motioned her to follow. The roller coaster-type ride down to the vaults was such a rush. Alli loved it.
"Vault seven hundred-fifteen," Griphook announced as the cart came to a jerky stop. Alli followed Griphook out of the cart and looked around at the lines of heavy vault doors surrounding her, and she could have sworn she heard a dragon's roar from even farther below them. Griphook used a small golden key to open her vault where mountains of gold galleons, silver sickles, and bronze nuts were piled inside. With a smile, she silently thanked her parents for leaving her with such a large fortune. Alli filled a small bag with a couple handfuls of the gold, silver, and bronze coins.
With a bag full of gold, Alli stepped out of Gringotts. She took a deep breath, and looked out at Diagon Alley from the front steps.
"Hello again. It's Alli, right?"
Alli spun around. Standing there was the boy she had met earlier, Draco Malfoy.
"Oh, hi," Alli said with a smile. Beside Draco was a tall man with long white-blond hair holding a black, expensive snake-shaped cane, along with the woman she had seen in Knockturn Alley. Draco's parents, Alli assumed.
"And who is this, may I ask?" the woman asked staring intently at Alli.
"Hi, I'm Alli," Alli said with a nod of her head.
"Narcissa Malfoy."
"Allison," the man addressed her. He looked at her, a smirk forming on his lips. He held out his hand to her. "Lucius Malfoy."
"Hi," Alli said, shaking his hand. Her eyes narrowed, wondering how he could have known her full first name without her saying so. Although, it could have been possible that Draco had mentioned it to him already. So, she reluctantly pushed the thought away.
"Darling, we best be going," the woman named Narcissa told Draco placing a hand on his shoulder. She turned away. Mr. Malfoy continued to hold Alli's gaze as if he was going to say something but had decided against it. Then, he turned on his heel and followed Narcissa down the steps to the street.
"Wait," Draco said to Alli.
"Yeah?"
"Would you want to meet me again?"
"Uh, sure!" Alli said excitedly, "When?"
"King's Cross Station before the train leaves for school. There's a clock on the wall just as you go through the barrier to the platform. Meet me at a quarter to ten."
It took everything Alli had not to skip happily all the way to Flourish and Blott's. She had to stand on her tip-toes again to see over the large crowd to look for the Weasley's, Harry, and Hermione. Then, she saw the flaming-red hair of the Weasley family and pushed her way through to the group.
"Hey, I'm back," Alli announced.
"Oh, good," replied, "We've got your books right here."
"Great," Alli said. "How much do I owe you?" Alli reached into her small bag and pulled out several gold galleons.
"Whoa..." Ron muttered under his breath looking at the pile of gold Alli held in her hand.
"Oh, well," Mrs. Weasley began, "Well, you don't need to do that, dear."
"No, really. It's not a big deal," Alli said. 'It's not like they can afford it much anyway,' Alli thought to herself.
"Don't worry about it, dear. We'll manage," Mrs. Weasley insisted. Alli shrugged and dropped the coins back into the small bag.
"So, what's next?" Alli asked.
"We've all got an early start tomorrow so we best get back home."
"Let's get up, girls! Up, up, up!" Mrs. Weasley called early the next morning after bursting into Ginny's room. Ginny pulled the covers over her head. Hermione opened her eyes sleepily while Alli jumped up with a smile on her face.
"Good morning!" Alli chirped. Ginny groaned. Alli blinked slowly and put her hands on her hips. "Why are you guys moving so slow this morning?" Alli asked.
"It's six in the morning, Alli," Ginny said.
"So? I mean hello, we're going to Hogwarts today," Alli said as if it was an obvious reason to be so bright and cheery. Despite how long it usually took her to get ready, Alli's excitement drove her to get dressed much faster this time. Alli stepped in front of a small mirror hanging on the back wall. She struggled to see her reflection because the mirror was mounted higher than was normal. Standing on her toes, she gathered her dark brown hair and threw it half-up and tied a black ponytail holder around it. After applying a bit of makeup, Alli combed her side-swept bangs to the front with her fingers.
"Perfect," she said to herself in the mirror with a little smile on her lips.
"Let's go," Hermione told her. Hermione left Alli and headed downstairs. Alli took one last look at herself in the mirror before locking her trunk. Alli groaned when she saw the tall staircase. She took a deep breath and wheeled her trunk to the edge. Her trunk hit every fragile stair with a loud clunk until she reached the bottom floor. The Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, and Alli gathered outside the Burrow.
"Time to go, all," Mr. Weasley announced.
"How're we planning on getting there?" Alli wondered aloud.
"The Ministry has offered to lend us some drivers as a protection detail," Mr. Weasley said. As if on cue, a shiny black sedan pulled into view down the long dirt road. "Although, we once had a Ford Anglia. It was my greatest invention."
"You invented a muggle car?" Alli asked raising her eyebrows.
"Well, I didn't invent the car itself. I just tweaked it a bit," Mr. Weasley said excitedly. "I made it fly!"
"Oh, Arthur," Mrs. Weasley said shaking her head.
"Cool... well, where is it?" Alli said.
"In our second year, Ron and Harry missed the train so they had the brightest idea to fly the Ford Anglia to Hogwarts. They crashed it into a tree and it drove off without them into the forest," Hermione told her. Alli snickered.
"Good job," Alli laughed.
"Yes, well," Mr. Weasley said as the Ministry car pulled up to them. The car door opened. "Everyone inside!"