Diagon Alley

"Let's go to Gringotts," Petunia said.

"Aunt Petunia, what exactly are these?" Harry asked.

"They're goblins, Harry," Petunia said.

"Clever enough to trick you, don't ever trust a goblin, that was what Lily said," Petunia explained.

"Mr Harry Potter and Mr Dudley Dursley would like to make withdrawals." Petunia said.

"Do they have keys?" the goblin, who was the head goblin, asked.

"No."

"Here's a key," The goblin said.

"Now, he doesn't have a vault, so we have to exchange Muggle money for Galleons.

"Here's 818 pounds," Petunia said.

First, they went to Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions.

"Petunia?" Madam Malkin asked.

"Hello, Ms Malkin," Petunia said.

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 and Dudley on a stool next to him slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.

"Hello," say the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"

"Yes," Harry and Dudley said.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had 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."

Dudley and Harry shuddered. Dudley whispered I'm sorry, Harry to Harry and he said, I forgive you.

"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on.

"No," said Harry and Dudley.

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"No," Harry and Dudley said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.

"I do — Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No," said Harry and Dudley, feeling more stupid by the minute.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been — imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"Mmm," said Harry and Dudley, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"

Harry and Dudley shuddered, not wanting to tell the boy that Dudley is a Muggle-born.

But before Harry and Dudley could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's it you're done, my dears" and Harry and Dudley, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.

Harry and Dudley were rather quiet as they ate the ice cream Vernon and Petunia gave them (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nut) and (rocky road) for both of them.

"What's up?" Petunia asked.

"Nothing," Harry and Dudley lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had left the shop, Dudley said, "Mum, what's Quidditch?"

"Why? Did someone say something to you two," Petunia was curious as to why her two boys were hurt.

"Don't make us feel worse," said Harry. He told them about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's. Dudley's stomach hurt.

"— and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in —"

"He said what?!" Petunia said. "How dare he?!" Vernon shouted, he was mad. He wanted to talk to the boy's parents, but didn't want to start a problem with anybody.

"No, it's not bad, Harry, his family are probably Death Eaters," Petunia said.

"What are Death Eaters?" Harry asked.

"Voldemort's followers, most of them are in Azkaban," Petunia said.

"What is Azkaban?" Dudley asked.

"The wizard prison," Petunia said.

"Ah," Harry and Dudley said.

"So what is Quidditch?"

"It's like soccer. It is played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four ball, it is sort of hard to explain the rules." Petunia said.

"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"

"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot of duffers, but —"

"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily.

"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," Petunia said. "There's not a single witch or wizard went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. Voldemort was one."

"Voldemort was at Hogwarts?"

"According to Lily, years and years ago," Petunia said.

They bought Harry and Dudley's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Petunia almost had to drag Harry and Dudley away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

"We're trying to figure out how to curse that boy," Dudley explained.

Petunia bought it. Dudley read the spell, Levicorpus, it actually made Vernon float in the air by his ankle.

"Put your father down," Petunia said, sternly. Dudley obediently listened.

Petunia wouldn't let Harry and Dudley buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on your list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Petunia asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry and Dudley, Harry and Dudley examined silver unicorn horns at twenty one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).

Outside the Apothecary, Petunia checked Harry and Dudley's list again.

"Just your wand left — and you're getting a birthday present."

Harry hugged Petunia.

"It'll be an animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, you guys will be laughed at – and I know you guys are tired of cats, so no cats. I'll get you guys owls. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, and they carry your mail and everything."

Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry and Dudley now carried two large cages that held two beautiful snowy owls, fast asleep with their heads under their wings. They couldn't stop stammering their thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell, which also was Dudley's first time saying "thank you", which made Harry forgive Dudley.

"Just Ollivanders left now — only place for wands, Ollivanders, and you two got to have the best wand. Well, except for Gregorovitch, who is on the other side of the continent, according to Lily."

A magic wand… this was what Harry and Dudley had been really looking forward to.

The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. 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. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Vernon sat on to wait, while Petunia, Harry and Dudley were standing. Harry and Dudley felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

"Petunia," Mr Ollivander was shocked to see her after so many years. "It's been…

"20 years," Petunia said.

"Ah, Mr Potter, it seems like only yesterday, your mother and father came to buy their first wands,"

"Here we are, give it a wave," Ollivander said, and Harry waved the wand, which broke a vase. Dudley laughed, and Harry snickered as well. "Boys," Petunia said, and shook her head.

"No, certainly not," Ollivander said.

"This one… maybe," Ollivander said.

"No, definitely not," Ollivander said.

"I wonder," Ollivander said, and gave him another wand, 11'', Polly, Phoenix Core. The wand glowed.

"Curious, very curious," Ollivander said.

"Sorry, what's curious?" Dudley asked.

"I remember every wand I ever sold Mr Potter, it seems that the phoenix feather in your wand, gave another, just one other. It's curious because the feather that gave this one, its brother, gave you that scar," Ollivander said, pointing at Harry's forehead.

"8 Galleons," Ollivander said. And Harry gave him 8 Galleons.

"Mr Dursley, its your turn for a wand," Ollivander explained.

"Call me Dudley," Ollivander said.

"Ok," Ollivander said. He gave Dudley an applecore wand, which "chose" him as Ollivander said.

"You all right, Harry? You're very quiet," Petunia said.

Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life — and yet — he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.

"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander… but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry — I mean, the night my parents died."

Vernon and Dudley looked at Harry in sympathy.

"Don't you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yourself. I know it's hard. You've been singled out, and that's always hard. But you''ll have a great time at Hogwarts, I know because Lily did."

"Your ticket for Hogwarts, " he said. "First of September — King's Cross — it's all on your ticket.