Chapter 3 – In which Willow goes to Diagon Alley "There it is!" Willow screamed in her mother's ear as they drove past the Eyeless Newts restaurant. Sheila stopped the car and Willow dragged her over to the door. Sheila frowned. "I've never seen this place before." Willow and Sheila walked through the door and over to the counter. "Hello there, my name's Thomas," said the barman, "Are you new to Artmiths College of Witchcraft?" "No I'm going to Hogwarts," replied Willow. "Really? That's one of the most prestigious schools of magic in the world. Are you a muggle-born?" "Muggle?" "Apparently so. Muggles are non-magical people," Thomas explained, "Come with me I'll show you how to get to Diagon Alley." The three walked to the back of the restaurant, Willow and Sheila looking at all the strange people and creatures along the way. They walked to the brick wall out the back of the restaurant next to some rubbish bins. Thomas took a strange looking stick out of the pocket of his peculiar dress-like clothing. "Wow is that a wand?!" Willow exclaimed. Thomas smiled. "Yes it is. You'll have to get one yourself." He turned to the wall and started tapping bricks. "Three down, three right," he said aloud. The bricks moved and formed an archway leading to a shop filled street. "This is Diagon Alley," stated Thomas, grinning at the look of awe on Willow's face and the shock on Sheila's. "Wow" was the only word Willow could manage to get out. "Go straight down the street to a large white building. That's Gringotts. Wizard's bank. You'll be able to exchange your money there. Once you've finished shopping, make sure you come back through the archway labelled Eyeless Newts. If you go through any of the others, you'll end up in another country. Have fun." Thomas walked back through the archway. Willow grinned at her mother, who was still in a state of shock. Willow grabbed Sheila's arm and dragged her along the cobble-stoned street, trying to look at everything at the same time and stopped outside Gringotts. Willow saw a message written on the doors and read 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.

"Are you sure about this Willow?" Sheila asked, having recovered enough to hear Willow read the message on the doors to Gringotts.

"Yes Mum I'm sure."

"Okay then," Sheila took a deep breath, "Let's go."

Together mother and daughter walked inside the large building and up to one of the desks. Willow was getting a bit freaked out. This place was run by goblins. Sure there had been some hags and what Willow thought might have been demons in the Eyeless Newts, but these were goblins. Willow had never liked goblins. She had always had a fear of them sort of like her fear of frogs. Whenever her mother or father had her read Willow bed time stories if there was ever a part about goblins she would get a frightened look on her face. Now that Willow knew they were real, she was even more freaked.

"Can I help you?" the goblin asked while stretching its long fingers.

"Yes we would like to exchange some money," said Sheila after gathering her courage. She knew of her daughter's fear and that she would have to do the talking until they were back outside.

"Very well, how much would you like to exchange?"

"$200." Sheila handed over the money. The goblin took it and looked over an exchange rate sheet.

"Here. 110 galleons, 28 sickles and 15 knuts." The goblin gave Sheila some strange looking coins.

Sheila looked at them hesitantly then said, "Umm... could you please explain this to me?"

The goblin sighed, or what Willow took to be a sigh since she'd never actually seen or heard a goblin before. "The small bronze ones are knuts. 29 Knuts to a sickle. The silver ones are sickles. There are 17 sickles to a galleon. And the large gold ones are galleons." Sheila nodded and said thankyou then she and Willow walked out of the building.

Willow shivered and said, "I'm glad to be out of there. Those goblins were giving me the creeps."

Sheila smiled. "Have you got your supply list?" Willow pulled it out and grinned.

"Yep!"

"Where would you like to go first?"

"Ooh, ooh can we go get my wand?"

Sheila chuckled lightly at Willow's enthusiasm. "Of course sweetie." Willow squealed with delight then spotted a sign that read,

Ollivanders: Makers of fine wands since 382 BC

Willow pointed it out to her mother and they went inside the small, musty smelling shop. The two of them were looking around at the stacks and stacks of boxes and didn't hear the owner of the shop approach.

"Miss Rosenberg, I've been expecting you." Willow jumped and spun around to see an old, creepy man coming out of the shadows.

"Are you Mr Ollivander?" she asked tentatively.

He nodded. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Umm... I'm right-handed," she replied uncertainly.

"Hold it up." Mr Ollivander got out measuring tape and began taking measurements. Willow quickly realised that the tape was doing it by itself since Mr Ollivander had walked off towards the back of the shop. As he looked around the shop he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Ms Rosenberg. 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 quite the same. And of course you will never get such good results with another witch's wand."

Mr Ollivander came back holding a thin box. "Try this one," he said, "Holly and unicorn hair. 8½ inches. A little springy." Willow took it having no clue what to do with it.

"Well go on then, give it a wave," said Mr Ollivander impatiently. Willow waved the wand but nothing happened. Mr Ollivander snatched it out of her hand and gave her another. "Ebony and dragon heartstring. 11¼ inches." Again Willow waved the wand and again nothing happened. After this happened a few more times Willow was beginning to feel rather stupid. Every wand she had tried nothing had happened.

"The wand chooses the witch Ms. Rosenberg. We'll find you one soon," Mr Ollivander said as he approached with another wand. "Try this one out. Willow and unicorn hair, 9¾ inches. Rather whippy." Willow took the wand and felt a tingling go through her body. She waved the wand and from the tip red and green sparks shot out. "We've found a winner. Well done Ms. Rosenberg. That will be six galleons please." Sheila paid for the wand and they left the shop.

Willow and Sheila then went to Flourish and Blotts to get Willow's books. While the shop attendant was getting the books Willow would need, Willow was browsing the shelves looking at all the books they had on magic. Willow walked back to her mother and asked if she could get a few books besides from the ones needed for school. Sheila said it was all right, as she had always encouraged her daughter to read from an early age. Willow came back with five extra books. One was Hogwarts: A History. Willow thought it would be a good idea to know about the school she was going to. Another was called Quidditch through the Ages. She had heard children at Gringotts talking about something called Quidditch and it sounded fascinating to her. The other three were just random magic books that had looked interesting to Willow while she was looking through the bookshelves. Sheila paid for all the books and they walked back out to Diagon Alley.

"Willow why don't you go get your robes and I'll go get your potion supplies and a cauldron," Sheila said.

"Okay that's fine by me Mum," Willow replied. 'This is so much fun,' she thought. Sheila handed Willow some money and walked with her to Madam Malkins Robes for all Occasions. As Willow walked into the shop she bumped into a black-haired boy with glasses.

"Oh I'm sorry," he said, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine and it's my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going," Willow replied.

"Okay then. I guess I'll see you at Hogwarts," said the boy and he walked over to a huge man who reminded Willow of a giant.

Willow walked further into the shop and was confronted by a nice looking lady who asked, "Hogwarts dear?" Willow nodded. "Right this way then. There's another young man being fitted at the moment." Madam Malkin walked towards the back of the shop with Willow following her. Willow hopped onto a stool next a blonde boy who looked like he was nearly finished. Willow decided she would be polite; after all he looked like he was a nice boy.

"Hi there," she said, "You're going to Hogwarts too?"

"Yeah. My father's buying my books and Mother is up the street looking at wands. Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. Apparently a new one just came out. The Nimbus 2000."

"Cool. I just got my wand and books," Willow pulled out her wand, "Willow and unicorn hair, 9¾ inches. By the way my name's Willow. Willow Rosenberg."

"Draco Malfoy. You're American aren't you?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Your accent. But why are you going to Hogwarts if you're American?"

Willow shrugged. "I dunno. I just received a letter from Hogwarts. I mean I didn't even know I was a witch till I got the letter."

"You're a muggle-born?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Well I'm done. I guess I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express."

"Draco wait. On my ticket it says that I have to go to Platform 9 ¾. How do I get there?"

"You just have to go through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10. See you there Willow."

"Bye!"

Draco walked out of the shop thinking, 'Wow. She's really nice. Maybe I was wrong about mudbloods. I probably shouldn't tell Father about this though. I doubt he'll be happy about it.'

Willow was finished soon after. She paid for her robes and walked outside and found her mother waiting for her carrying many bags and an owl in a cage. It was a gorgeous tawny frogmouth, but it had strange green eyes, exactly the same as Willow's. Willow loved it instantly. "Thanks so much Mum!"

"Oh it was alright Willow. Besides now you can keep in touch with us. I'll be expecting you to write often."

"I will. Don't worry I will be."

"Good. We can go now. I got the rest of your supplies. Cauldron, glass phials, telescope and brass scales. Everything you need."

Willow spotted the ice-cream shop. "Mum can we have an ice-cream before we go?"

Sheila smiled. She knew her daughter's weakness for ice cream. "Okay."

They had their ice cream then went back through the archway labelled "Eyeless Newts". They said goodbye to Thomas and went home. It was beginning to get late so Willow couldn't go to Xander's but she decided to go the next day. Willow fell asleep that night reading her new schoolbooks. She had also named her owl Hera after the Greek goddess. Before she fell asleep she said to Hera,

"In a month we'll be at Hogwarts Hera. I can't wait! I'm going to learn magic. Wow..."