CHAPTER THREE

" I see it! I see it!" lily cried two weeks later. she was pointing at the shabby pub, the leaky cauldron, the place where the instructions had told her to go. she couldn't help but be excited, they were going to buy all of the things she needs for hogwarts. petunia was forced to stay at home. that second letter had clearly stated that siblings were not aloud to take part in the purchasing of magical equipment, simply saying that petunia wasn't aloud to go into diagon alley.

lily and her parents entered the pub. the place was full of people, both old and young, dressed in an assortment of robes and cloaks. these must be witches and wizards! lily thought looking around at the crowded pub. at the bar sat something that didn't look quite human, but lily thought it best not to say anything. behind the bar the bartender,of course, was serving his customers. he had dark brown hair flecked with gray, dark eyes, crinkled old skin, and a toothy grin. lily walked up to him without any hesatation.

" excuse me, can you tell me how to get into diagon alley?" the old man turned and smiled at her." you must be a first year, muggle-born i presume, certainly i'll show you into diagon alley." before she could stop herself lily asked, " what's a muggle-born?" tom's smiled widened, if she didn't know any better she would have thought he was mocking her. " a muggle-born is a wizard born to parents with no magical talent and muggles are non-magical people. now if you'll follow me- by the my name is tom-diagon alley will be this way." lily beckoned to her parents.

tom led them to the back of the pub and opened a door. lily sighed, it was just a courtyard. tom walked up to back wall, pulled out his wand and said, " watch carefull." he counted three brick's up and one to the left and tapped it. as soon as his wand touched the brick they immediately began to spread apart, creating a high arch. lily gasped. diagon alley was a place she had never dreamed exsisted. " well there you go." said tom turning to go, " oh! and to get back just walk straight through this wall and it will bring you back here." he waved and disappeared into the pub.

Lily walked through the arch, breathless. Her parents followed closely behind her, in a state of awe. She knew where she had to go: Gringotts, the wizarding bank. The instructions said it was made of white marble, and easily the largest building in the whole of Diagon Alley. Lily spotted it right away. It was the only white building in Diagon Alley. Lily stopped in front of the large white building. There at the double doors stood two strange looking creatures that definitely were not human. They were about three feet tall with pointed noses and ears. Long fingers grasped the door handles. They were eyeing her suspiciously. She left her fears behind and walked up straight to the doors, her head held high. The creatures bowed deeply and opened the door, to reveal a large marble hall, and to Lily's despair, more of these strange creatures.Her parents must have felt the same, for they hesitated at the double doors. Lily saw a wizard standing in front of one of the desks where these creatures worked, and walked up to him. " excuse me sir, but can you tell what these creatures are?" the man looked at her and smiled." they would be goblins, little misstress, clever they are but you could never be too careful."

" umm..thank you" she said shyly, having never been adressed like that. with that she walked up to a goblin who wasn't helping anyone. she stood patiently until he(was it a he?)spoke to her. " may i help you?"

" i need to exchange my money" by now he parents were with her though they didn't seem too happy. " how much do you have?" asked the goblin.

" 100 pounds." lily said handing the money to him. as soon as he started calculating the amount he should give her, her parents turned on her. " lily what are these things? are they even human?" lily giggled. " no mom, they're goblins!" her mother blanched, and lily laughed harder. " miss." lily stopped laughing.

" yes?"

" here is your money; 10 galleons, 30 sickles, and 60 knuts."

" thank you." lily said and quickly left the building, her parents followed closely behind her.

" where to now lily?" her mother asked after they were out of gringotts. lily looked over her list, this was the hardest part she didn't know where to go first it all looked so interesting.

" well?"insisted her mother

" umm.....flourish and blotts."lily said

" what's that?"

" the book shop, i saw it on the way to gringotts."lily replied.

" well, what are you waiting for? let's go!" her father said, giving them both a little shove in the back. lily stumbled forward and led the way.

as she entered the bookshop, lily gasped. this place was full of books of all colors and sizes. here and there a bookshelf would twist off into the ceiling and in that corner the books were whispering to each other and over there were books that wiggled. she walked through the bookshelfs wide-eyed with curiosity.

" may i help you?" lily jumped and slowly turned around. " i-i need these books." she stammered brandishing her list at him. the man took it from her and looked at it." ah yes, you must be starting your first year at hogwarts, come with me, my dear." the man strode off and lily went after him.

she followed him through the maze of the bookshelfs, pausing here and there to grab a book. her parents decided to stay be the entrance, they felt it was safer. by the time the reached the register, lily was panting. " that will be 5 sickles and 11 knuts." lily paid him and watched at he magicly wrapped the books and stuffed them in a bag. " her ya go ma'am, have a nice day." lily smiled and carried her load of books out of the store, along with her now frightend parents.

next they went into the apothcracy(sp?)shop where lily got her all of her potions supplies, quills, parchment, ink, and brass dragon scales.again her parents stayed huddled by the entrance feeling it was safer. her mother nearly fainted when she saw the barrel of beetle eyes and dragon liver. lily couldn't keep from laughing at her mothers fear of silly things, she tried her best to keep a straight face when the shopkeeper took her orders. she paid for her equipment and walked out of the shop feeling happier than she has ever been.

lily ambled on humming to herself, but before she knew what happened she was flat on her back in the middle of the cobbled street. she sat up feeling dazed and looked around for her stuff which had flown everywhere.

" oh no!" lily groaned.

" oops! totally my fault!" said a girl, who was obviously the one lily had bumped into. this girl was tall with blood-red hair that went down to her waist and gray eyes." by the way i'm cathryn but plez call me razz." razz smiled and extended her hand to lily and helped her up. " thanks" lily muttered. " oh, razz can you show me where the wand shop is?"

" i could....but you'll have to keep up!" with that razz ran off with lily right behind her. after running for a while a stitch started to grow on lilys side and now she was gasping for air. but just as fast as it begun it ended. razz had completely stopped and walked into the shop, but this couldn't be the wand shop it was a.." welcome to the joke shop!" said razz." but i-"

" i know, i know, wanted to go to the wand shop, but i need to pick up a few things." razz said.

lily didn't complain, this shop was just as marvelous as the rest. she was amazed at all of the jokes and tricks you could by here, nothing like the little petty jokes they sell at muggle shops.

" ew, gross!" lily said.

" what is it?" razz asked already loaded with jokes and pranks.

" these eyeballs look so real, its disgusting." lily shuddered

razz grinned, " that's not all they do. if you hold them in the air for about 3 seconds they'll stay there, watch-" she grabbed a pair of eyeballs and held them up in the air. after 3 seconds she let go. they hung there staring back at the 2 girls like a bodiless phantom." that would make a great halloween trick." lily said, plucking the eyes out of the air and setting them down. razz just stared at her." what?"

" nothing. you just never told me your name. maybe i should leave here." razz said, laughter playing around her eyes.

" oh, i'm sorry, my name is lily evans." lily smiled." okay lily, lets go find the wand shop." razz payed for her stuff and they left the store.

on their way to the wand shop, razz confided in lily all mayhem and havoc she was planning for hogwarts." first, i'm going to put dungbombs in-" lily was only half listening but razz didn't seem to notice."-then i'm going to put a-" lily stared into every shop they passed, each one holding a secret lily wanted to explore."- after that i'm going to take-" they passed the owl emporium, one of the things lily desired was an owl."-and for the end of year feast i'm going to sneak clone orbs into the food. what do you think?"

" you really are a trouble maker aren't you? well that last one was pretty good, your last prank of the year." lily said. razz smiled," i thought so too."

they walked on through the cobbled street of diagon all passing more and more shops, the more they passed by the greater lily's desire was to go in and look around." hey! look its anna, lynn, and TK! come on lily lets go over." lily followed razz to a trio of girls hanging around the ice cream parlor. "hey everyone, this is lily."lily smiled," hi!"

" i'm anna." said a girl that had straight brown hair with red, gold and blue highlights and emerald green eyes(at the moment)." nice to meet ya lily!" anna said with a grin.

"me? i'm lynn. so are you a pureblood witch or muggle born?" lynn had Black hair and hazel eyes." i'm muggle born." lily said, wondering if that was a good thing or a bad thing." then that must have been your parents we saw running back to the leaky cauldron, frightend they looked too." anna elbowed her. lily had forgotten all about her parents, they must have gotten scared when lily ran off. lily laughed," i knew they were going to crack sooner or later."

" and i'm TK, so how do you like the wizarding world so far?" this girl had dark hair that looked almost black, probing brown eyes, and a tan that made her look as though she spent all her life in the sun. " i love it, it is so magical and wonderful, better than i have ever imagined it to be. can we go to the wand shop now?"

" sure, any of you want to come?" razz looked around at the other girls." of course we'll come." said TK and the set off for the wand shop.

" well here it is, ollivanders the best wands you can get any where." the girls walked in and somewhere in the depths of the shop a bell rang. the shelves were jammed packed with long slender boxes and dust coated almost every availble surface.

" hello, hello and how may i assist you?"

" i need to buy my wand." lily said.

" ah, yes, of course." mr.ollivander said, pulling measuring tape out of his pocket." which is your wand arm?"

" excuse me?"

" are you left handed or right handed?"

" oh, i'm right handed." lily said extending her arm out. mr. olivander started measuring her. After a few minutes he started searching the shelves, leaving her to be measured by the measuring tape itself. " that will do." he said,coming back with a slender box." lets try this one my dear, unicorn hair, willow, ten and a quarter inches, quite swishy if i may say so." mr. ollivander handed her the wand. lily stared at it wondering what she was supposed to do." well, go on and give it a little wave." lily waved the wand around and to her amazment a rainbow of sparks flew out. " bravo, that was amazing and only happens rarely, but i have never seen the sparks come out in such color. that will be 5 galleons and 15 sickles." lily paid him and they left the shop." lily, that was amazing! it took me about the whole wand shop to find my wand." said lynn. lily grinned," can we go to the robe shop now? i haven't got mine yet."so they headed on to the robe shop where lily got her school robes.

they left the shop and onto the cobbled street . the sun was setting and diagon alley was slowly becoming less crowded." i have to go, my parents are probably worried sick about me, bye."

" bye lily!" chourused the other girls. lily turned to go," oh,lily, meet us on the train in the last carriage." razz said." alright, see you there!" lily walked back up the street and into the courtyard. she stood there for a second breathing in the magical air one last time before she got on the train to hogwarts.