Chapter 2: Diagon Alley
31 July, 1991
As Harry and Dumbledore went down the stairs they went to say "goodbye" to Vernon and Petunia. Harry was surprised by the fact that Dumbledore requested Vernon's newspaper. Harry's uncle was also really confused but nonetheless he still gave it to the old man.
Then Dumbledore led Harry to the front door where he suddenly stopped. Harry almost bumped into him but was able to stop himself millimeters from the man.
"Since the place where we are going to is in London, which is not very close, we will use a faster way of transportation." Dumbledore took out his wand and pointed it at the newspaper.
"We are going to arrive in London by a portkey. A portkey is an object that brings you to a certain location at a certain time. But to go to that location with it you must be touching it at that certain time. So, you must hold the newspaper." Dumbledore ordered.
The boy had held the newspaper for a minute when he felt something pulling him from behind his stomach. Then he found himself in front of what seemed like a pub, called "The Leaky Cauldron".
"Follow me, Harry." Dumbledore led him inside the pub.
When they entered, a group of people, sitting at one of the tables, caught Harry's eye. There were three people at the table. One of them was three meters high and had a large black beard. The one with his back turned to Harry, had a purple turban on his head. And the other, whose face Harry could see had a hair shaped like a curtain around his head and stared at the man wearing the turban with a look that awfully resembled that he is willing to put poison in his drink.
All the people in the pub were wearing robes, everyone except for Harry. "Hello Dumbledore. May I..." Before the barman finished the sentence, he noticed Harry and stopped. "Wait, is this Harry Potter?"
As soon as the word Harry came out of the barman's mouth, every single man and woman, without any exceptions, turned their attention to the boy in the middle of the pub. "Harry Potter?" "Can it really be..." "The boy who lived?" All types of conversations overlapped with each other, but all of them were about Harry.
"Yes..." As soon as Dumbledore began to speak everyone else stopped talking. "...ladies and gentlemen, this really is Harry Potter."
Suddenly the pub was filled by the scraping sound of chairs. Everyone approached Harry to greet him and shake hands.
As the boy shook hands with the unreasonably tall man, he said: "Hi, Harry. You have really grown up from when you were a year old." "Um, what?" That was all Harry could say in response.
"Harry, this is Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwarts' gamekeeper" Dumbledore explained. "He is also the man that retrieved you from the ruins of your parents' house after Voldemort lost his body. Coincidentally, there are two more Hogwarts staff members here. This is Professor Quirrell, your Defense against the Dark Arts teacher." Dumbledore pointed to the man with the turban that had approached to shake hands.
"I-it is n-nice t-to m-meet y-y-you H-h-harry P-p-potter." Quirrell shook hands with Harry.
"And this, Harry" Continued Dumbledore. "Is your Potions Master, Professor Snape" He pointed to the man with the curtain-like hair.
"Hello, Mr. Potter." He greeted him loudly, but calmly from across the pub, as he was still sitting at the table. Harry noticed that Snape glanced at him with the same expression he had been looking at Quirrell, which made the boy shiver.
"Dear wizards and witches," Dumbledore spoke "Harry's here to buy his things for Hogwarts, so I beg you to leave him alone."
After he said this, people began to go back to their tables. Some of them started to talk on new topics, while others continued to stare at Harry.
"Let's continue forward." Dumbledore said to Harry.
The man went to one of the walls in the pub's backyard, pressed some bricks, and a hole appeared in the wall, revealing a large street with lots of shops. He crossed into the street. Harry followed him.
As in The Leaky Cauldron, most people were wearing robes, although there were some like Harry with jeans and jackets.
"This, Harry, is Diagon Alley." Dumbledore told Harry. "This is a shopping center for wizards and it is invisible to muggles."
"Invisible to what?" The boy did not understand.
"Muggles are non-wizards." Dumbledore explained.
"Like my aunt and uncle?"
"Yes, like them. I think it is best to get your books first."
They entered a shop called "Flourish and Blotts". There they bought the books that Harry needed. Then they headed to a shop called "Madam Malkin's robes for all occasions" where they got Harry a black robe. After that they headed to "Ollivander's wand shop". But before they arrived there, Harry met a boy, whose name was Seamus Finnigan, that was the same age as him. They had a short conversation before they separated to continue their shopping. At Ollivander's Harry got himself a wand (the boy found the shopkeeper, Ollivander a bit creepy).
"Sir, can I use my wand?" Harry asked excitedly, as they were walking to the next shop.
"You can use it in school, but you can't do it outside of it until you are seventeen." Dumbledore replied.
The boy put his wand in his pocket with a disappointed expression.
He had noticed that a lot of people stared at him in the shops and in the street. Another thing he couldn't have skipped noticing was that in every shop, people that came in were scanned for Dark Magic.
After many more shops, Harry exited the final one with a cage that had a polar owl inside. He was very happy with it, as owls were used to send and receive mail in the wizarding world.
"Today is your birthday, right?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, it is, Sir."
"Then I'm going to give you something that used to belong to your father." Harry looked at him with excitement, as he pulled out a cloak from his pocket. "I am going to leave it to you, to discover its properties by yourself. And if somebody asks how you got it, I haven't given it to you." Dumbledore warned him. "Perhaps an exception to that can be your closest friends, that can keep secrets."
Harry decided that it might not be the best idea to "discover its properties" right now, so he put it in the cauldron with the rest of his books. Then he got hit by a thought that puzzled him.
"Sir?"
"Yes, Harry."
"How did we get the money to buy all of my things?"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you that I did a quick detour to the wizarding bank "Gringotts", before I came to pick you up. I have your safe's key. Just so you know, you have inherited a lot of gold from your parents." He pulled out a small bag from the same pocket that he pulled the cloak. "This is also yours." As he gave it to Harry, the boy put it in his other pocket.
"Now, Harry, you must return to Privet Drive №4. I am going to use your cauldron as a portkey." Dumbledore pointed his wand at Harry's cauldron. "Put a finger on it."
After waiting for a minute, Harry felt the same pull from behind his stomach. Then he found himself in his room, but as he looked around, he saw that Dumbledore was not with him. After the boy put his cauldron in the corner of the room, he decided to go to the kitchen for lunch.
Although he was at Privet Drive №4, his mind was still in Diagon Alley. That's why he tripped and almost fell down the stairs.
As he sat on a chair in the kitchen, Petunia gave him chicken soup. "Your birthday cake will be ready for dinner." She informed him.
After finishing his food, he went up the stairs to his room, excited to read from his school books.