Will Beagle & the Acceptance Letters
By: Darkmoore
William "Will" Beagle was your average everyday boy living with his widowed mother, Mrs. Charlotte Beagle in the average everyday town of St. Mary's Mead when one day when he was walking home from the local playground he noticed that he was being followed. No, not noticed, he felt like he was being followed. Yes, he was indeed being followed, but not by whom he expected, the school bully, Jack Grady, but rather by three large birds that was swooping in on where he stood. Well Will Beagle may be brave but he certainly isn't stupid, he took of running to his house as quick as his legs would carry him.
Will ran fast and he ran far, and finally he reached the kitchen door of his house, ran through and slams the door shut screaming "Mum! Mum! There's a bunch of birds after me! Mum!"
Of course, Mrs. Beagle being a no-nonsense woman looks at her son skeptically as if what he had just said couldn't possibly be true. That is until she hears the sounds of birds pecking at her sitting room window. Calmly she walks over to it and flings the curtains open to reveal three owls sitting on their window sill.
"I told you mum," scolds Will, "I told you there were some birds after me."
However, Mrs. Beagle wasn't so sure, she had never heard of three owls out in the middle of the day before chasing little boys on their way home from the playground. Nor had she ever seen owl with pieces of paper tied to their legs before.
Grabbing the broom from behind the kitchen door, Mrs. Beagle walks outside to see how the birds will react to her. As she approaches, as if on cue, all three birds lift up a leg to deliver their messages. Apprehensively she approached them and relieved the owls of their burdens, with each in turn flying off as soon as she took their letters from them. "That was the damned thing I have ever seen." said Mrs. Beagle out loud.
All three letters in her hand were addressed to her son, William Beagle, Kitchen Window, Number 19, Jenkins Drive, St. Mary's Mead. Shocked Mrs. Beagle brought the letters inside and sat down at the table and opened the first one she came to and it read…
Dear Mr. Beagle,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
Mrs. Beagle was astounded by what she read; she put the first letter down and picked up another…
Dear Mr. Beagle,
We are pleased to invite you to join the student body of the Honeychurch Institute of Magic. Please find the enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than August 1.
Yours sincerely,
Angus Evanston,
Deputy Headmaster
And the last letter she picked up and read…
Dear Mr. Beagle,
We are very pleased to inform you that we here at the Ravenbeaux Academy Magical Learning would like to invite to join the student body of our school. Please find the enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than August 7.
Yours truly,
Rudella St. James,
Deputy Headmistress
Mrs. Beagle sat there dumb founded; she didn't know whether to take this all as a great joke or to take it seriously. She was absolutely beside herself with indecision, which is until she heard her son speak to her.
"Mum, what do these letters mean?" asked Will while holding all three of the acceptance letters.
"I don't know sweetheart, I simply do not know." replied Mrs. Beagle in bewilderment. "I just wish someone would just pop by and explain all this to us."
No sooner had those words left her lips than there was a knock on their front door.
"That's freaky mum, how did you do that?" Will asked.
"Don't be silly, that's probably the postman or Ms. Wilkins from down the street, go see who it is." admonished Mrs. Beagle.
When Will opened the door, there was no postman and nor was there Ms. Wilkins, but instead a woman wearing the oddest assortment of clothing he had every seen on a person in his time. This lady was wearing goulashes, a pair of mittens, a baseball cap and what looked like to be a man's business suit. The lady looked at him and said "You must be William Beagle, my name is Harvetta Fineburch from the Office of Magical Education Introductions, are your parents at home?"
"Mum," Will called out, "there's a crazy lady at the door for you."
Mrs. Beagle rushed to the door to find her son with a not so amused looking woman in the oddest array of clothing and said, "Yes, may I help you?"
"You must be Mrs. Charlotte Beagle; hello my name is Harvetta Fineburch and I'm from the Office of Magical Education Introductions. I understand that you have received an invitation for your son to receive an education in the magical arts, is that correct?" stated Ms. Fineburch, though she already knew the answer.
"Well, yes, I suppose you could say that. Where did you say you were from again?"
"I said my name is Harvetta Fineburch and I'm from the Office of Magical Education Introductions." saying it slower as if she were telling a five year old with a learning disability. "I've come to talk to you about enrolling your son in a school of magical learning for the upcoming term."
After a lengthy discussion, Ms. Fineburch finally convinced them to come to an orientation meeting on July 30th at Number 82, Charring Cross Road, London. After the meeting and if they were still interested they would be taken to Diagon Alley, along with several other families in the same situation as they, to do there shopping for the items on their school lists.
Then followed another discussion of tuition and payment scheduled that bored Will so he got up and went to play in his room leaving his mother to deal with lady wearing the crazy clothes.
* * * * *
A few days later Will and his mother found themselves standing in front of a boarded up building at Number 82, Charring Cross Road, which is where they were to receive more information about Will's magical education. They entered the building through its front door, but instead of finding a dark and empty unused store front, they encountered a very nice meeting hall. After about two hours of a grueling and utterly boring presentation of magical education, many of the parents wanted to just send their children to these schools just to be able to get and walk around for a bit.
So Harvetta Fineburch led the group out of the old store front down the street to the muggle entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Once inside she continued to explain the various features of the magical world as she took them through to the other side where the entrance to Diagon Alley lay. Once they were in the alley, she handed out maps of the alley to the various parents that had the shops they needed to go to marked in red and ones that they might like to just look at marked in yellow and told them all to meet back at the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron by 5:30 pm.
Fearfully, Mrs. Beagle brought her son to Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions as she was told that this could take the longest as students needed to be fitted for their clothes and together they went in the little shop. Mrs. Beagle felt painfully out of place in the shop, in this whole alley if truth be known, but luckily one of the sales clerks came up to them and asked "Hogwarts dear?"
Mrs. Beagle replied "No, Honeychurch." This response seemed to catch the attention of a tall, good looking young man with black hair and glasses. Will never once seemed to notice him, but Mrs. Beagle sure did.
"Well, that's a different uniform then isn't it?" replied the sales clerk with a smile and stood Will up on a stool in front of the three way mirror and began to take measurements.
While Will was being measured for his uniform, Mrs. Beagle approached an elderly witch and asked if she was in charge. When she replied yes, Mrs. Beagle went on to ask in a hushed tone, "How much is this all going to cost me? You see, I'm not very good with your kind of money and I'm not sure about anything."
Madame Malkin replied with a kind face and equally hushed tones, "Now don't worry dear, we'll work something out when your son has finished with his measurements, but I must return to my customer right now, before my shop girls eat him alive."
Soon Madame Malkin was once again engrossed in conversation with the gentleman who kept throwing glances over at her and Will. Then the elderly witch looked at the young man a smile of pure admiration and said "Oh, Mr. Potter."
Soon the young man left the store and Will's new clothes were finished being altered. "Now how much is all of this going to be?" asked Mrs. Beagle with her pocket book of the counter starting to dig out her money.
"Oh don't worry about that dear" said Madame Malkin.
"But I have to pay you, I can't just take things without paying…" began Mrs. Beagle.
"There's no need to worry," explained Madame Malkin, "that man who just left already paid your bill."
"Why would he do that?" asked a disbelieving mother.
Madame Malkin smiled and said, "My dear, when Harry Potter shines his light on you, all you can do is stand back and watch new things grow. Now you've got a few more things to buy I do believe and we have some more new students coming in to the shop, so off with you now."
'Why would a complete stranger do that?' thought Mrs. Beagle, but she was brought out of her reverie by Will saying "Your sure this isn't a dress right?" to the sales girl, who was giggling the whole time.
Next Will and his mum went to Flourish and Blotts to buy all of Will's new text books for school. There again Mrs. Beagle spotted that same young man talking to one of the store employees. She also saw the two men looking at her and Will when they entered the store, but they were soon helped by a girl asking "May I help you find your things today?"
Once the girl had helped Will find all of his school books, parchment, quills, ink bottles and something called 'Quidditch Through the Ages,' whatever that was and they made their way up to the front counter to pay for their books. Once again Mrs. Beagle got her pocket book out to pay, but was stopped by the store manager, who she remembered was the one talking to the young man when they entered.
"There's no need Misses that has been taken care of already. Millie, why don't you pack those books up for these lovely people today?" said the store manager and started to walk away, but Mrs. Beagle stopped him.
"What do you mean, 'that has been taken care of already'? There must be some mistake; we haven't paid for anything yet. Does this have something to do with the tall young man with the glasses?"
The store manager simply smiled and "I'm afraid that I'm not at liberty to say, have a good day."
As they left Flourish and Blotts, Will turned to his mother and asked, "Is there something wrong with our money mum, no one seems willing to take it from us?"
"I guess so Will, but let's not hold our breath, who knows how long our luck will hold." smiled his mother.
Next they went to the apothecary where Will got his potions kit, cauldron, brass scales and glass phials. In this store, they had to pay for everything themselves, which made Mrs. Beagle a bit happier. Though she was suddenly glad for the help that young man gave them or else she would have not enough money.
Next they went through the alley getting his dragon hide gloves and telescope and finally the last thing they needed to buy was a wand. So they walked down the alley to a door that read 'Ollivander's: Maker of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.' and entered into the narrow and shabby store to hear a tinkling bell somewhere in the back ringing. It was a tiny place with only a spindly chair which didn't look like it could hold up the dust that covered it. Suddenly there was old Mr. Ollivander looking at them with an amused look on his face as if he knew everything in the world there was to know but wasn't about to tell any of it.
"You must be Mr. Beagle." stated Mr. Ollivander.
"How did you know that?" asked an astonished Will.
The only reply the old wizard gave was a smile and then went into his task of finding the right wand for young Will Beagle. As his measuring tape took every conceivable measurement of the human body Mr. Ollivander starting bringing wands for Will to try. Will barely held on to any of them, before Mr. Ollivander would pull them away and say "No not that one," or "How about this one," or "No, no, that will never do."
Finally after twenty minutes of this, the old wizard put a wand into Will's hand that made his whole arm feel warm and tiny red sparks flew out the end of it. "Ah, yes," Mr. Ollivander said, "Willow, 11 inches, dragon heartstring, very supple." With that Mrs. Beagle paid for the wand and they left the store.
As the two started walking back towards the Leaky Cauldron, Will spotted several other children carrying cages with owls, toads, rats, cats and other such animals. He turned to his mum and asked "Mum, can I have a pet to? It says on the book list that I can have one."
"Well, I don't know, Will, they might be expensive, I don't know if we have enough of these galleons left." answered his mother. Though secretly she have loved nothing more than buy her son a pet, but she had to be practical about these things.
"Can we just go and look Mum? Just to see?" Will asking in a way that bordered on a whine.
"Well alright," so they went into the Magical Menagerie, which was right across from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, to have a look around. In the store they found Madame Malkin, who was buying some owl treats for her owl.
"Well hello there again." said the elderly which when she recognized the pair, "coming in to buy you an owl I suspect."
"No," replied Will "we've just come to look. I'm not sure we can afford…." but he was stopped in mid-sentence by a look from his mother.
"Oh, I see," replied Madame Malkin, "why don't you have a look around and that witch behind the counter can answer all your questions." Then she turned to the witch behind the counter and began to talking to her in a hushed voice.
While the two were looking at all the different animals in the smelly shop, Mrs. Beagle she swore she heard phrases like '…one I told you…' and '…you know he'd want to…' then she turned to ask the clothier what she was going on about, but she was gone. So Mrs. Beagle decided it was time to return to the wizard pub, but the witch behind the counter engaged them in conversation as if to deliberately stall them from leaving. She began talking about a few of the medium sized owls she had that were reasonably priced, when Madame Malkin appeared again.
The menagerie witch looked at Madame Malkin who nodded her head yes and tried to cover by saying "Made it half way back to my shop and I forgot my owl treats, I don't think my owl would be to happy about that now would she?" then she grabbed her bag and walked back out the store.
Unknown to the Beagles, but Madame Malkin had apparated to Weasley Wizard Wheezes, since she had no idea where to find Harry Potter, but everyone in the alley knew in order to find him, just go to the joke shop and let them know you're your looking. It was the twins who told the elderly witch to go ahead and they would pay for it out of Harry's portion of the shop. He'd never miss it anyway.
"Now which owl did you like young man?" asked the cranky Menagerie witch.
"Does this have something to do with that young man with glasses?" Mrs. Beagle asked the witch while she was getting an owl cage down from the shelf.
The cranky witch just looked innocent and said "Well it's like this deary, that young man with glasses as you called him is named Harry Potter, and if he says you're to use his money to buy something, then that's how it is and there's no use complaining about it." Then she turned back to Will and said "Which one was it again?"
Will looked at him mother with the biggest eyes he could make and asked "Is it okay mum?"
"Well I guess it is, whether we like it or not." replied Mrs. Beagle with a half laugh, and soon they were on their way to the Leaky Cauldron with a very lovely medium sized brown owl in tow.
* * * * *
Later that evening as Will and his mother were sitting at the dinner table discussing their day; Will asked his mother "Why did you keep asking everyone in all the shops about that man with glasses?"
"Because, it seems that he paid for the majority of your things today including Merlin here."
Merlin, who was sitting on one of the chair backs at the table, was listening to the conversation in the room. Will had named his owl Merlin because he couldn't think have any other wizard names and he liked that one the best anyway.
"Why would he do that mum?"
"I don't know Will, I just don't know. I do think it would a really nice thing if you sent a letter to thank him for his generosity in Diagon Alley today."
"Do you think he has e-mail?" asked Will.
Mrs. Beagle sighed "I don't have any idea, but you know, isn't that what Merlin is for?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
To Be Continued in Harry Potter & the Honeychurch Institute of Magic Chapter 6
Author's Note:
The acceptance letter from Hogwarts is the exact same one that Harry Potter recieved in the first book. It's not plagarism, just reusing the same form letter that was used by Hogwarts.
By: Darkmoore
William "Will" Beagle was your average everyday boy living with his widowed mother, Mrs. Charlotte Beagle in the average everyday town of St. Mary's Mead when one day when he was walking home from the local playground he noticed that he was being followed. No, not noticed, he felt like he was being followed. Yes, he was indeed being followed, but not by whom he expected, the school bully, Jack Grady, but rather by three large birds that was swooping in on where he stood. Well Will Beagle may be brave but he certainly isn't stupid, he took of running to his house as quick as his legs would carry him.
Will ran fast and he ran far, and finally he reached the kitchen door of his house, ran through and slams the door shut screaming "Mum! Mum! There's a bunch of birds after me! Mum!"
Of course, Mrs. Beagle being a no-nonsense woman looks at her son skeptically as if what he had just said couldn't possibly be true. That is until she hears the sounds of birds pecking at her sitting room window. Calmly she walks over to it and flings the curtains open to reveal three owls sitting on their window sill.
"I told you mum," scolds Will, "I told you there were some birds after me."
However, Mrs. Beagle wasn't so sure, she had never heard of three owls out in the middle of the day before chasing little boys on their way home from the playground. Nor had she ever seen owl with pieces of paper tied to their legs before.
Grabbing the broom from behind the kitchen door, Mrs. Beagle walks outside to see how the birds will react to her. As she approaches, as if on cue, all three birds lift up a leg to deliver their messages. Apprehensively she approached them and relieved the owls of their burdens, with each in turn flying off as soon as she took their letters from them. "That was the damned thing I have ever seen." said Mrs. Beagle out loud.
All three letters in her hand were addressed to her son, William Beagle, Kitchen Window, Number 19, Jenkins Drive, St. Mary's Mead. Shocked Mrs. Beagle brought the letters inside and sat down at the table and opened the first one she came to and it read…
Dear Mr. Beagle,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
Mrs. Beagle was astounded by what she read; she put the first letter down and picked up another…
Dear Mr. Beagle,
We are pleased to invite you to join the student body of the Honeychurch Institute of Magic. Please find the enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than August 1.
Yours sincerely,
Angus Evanston,
Deputy Headmaster
And the last letter she picked up and read…
Dear Mr. Beagle,
We are very pleased to inform you that we here at the Ravenbeaux Academy Magical Learning would like to invite to join the student body of our school. Please find the enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than August 7.
Yours truly,
Rudella St. James,
Deputy Headmistress
Mrs. Beagle sat there dumb founded; she didn't know whether to take this all as a great joke or to take it seriously. She was absolutely beside herself with indecision, which is until she heard her son speak to her.
"Mum, what do these letters mean?" asked Will while holding all three of the acceptance letters.
"I don't know sweetheart, I simply do not know." replied Mrs. Beagle in bewilderment. "I just wish someone would just pop by and explain all this to us."
No sooner had those words left her lips than there was a knock on their front door.
"That's freaky mum, how did you do that?" Will asked.
"Don't be silly, that's probably the postman or Ms. Wilkins from down the street, go see who it is." admonished Mrs. Beagle.
When Will opened the door, there was no postman and nor was there Ms. Wilkins, but instead a woman wearing the oddest assortment of clothing he had every seen on a person in his time. This lady was wearing goulashes, a pair of mittens, a baseball cap and what looked like to be a man's business suit. The lady looked at him and said "You must be William Beagle, my name is Harvetta Fineburch from the Office of Magical Education Introductions, are your parents at home?"
"Mum," Will called out, "there's a crazy lady at the door for you."
Mrs. Beagle rushed to the door to find her son with a not so amused looking woman in the oddest array of clothing and said, "Yes, may I help you?"
"You must be Mrs. Charlotte Beagle; hello my name is Harvetta Fineburch and I'm from the Office of Magical Education Introductions. I understand that you have received an invitation for your son to receive an education in the magical arts, is that correct?" stated Ms. Fineburch, though she already knew the answer.
"Well, yes, I suppose you could say that. Where did you say you were from again?"
"I said my name is Harvetta Fineburch and I'm from the Office of Magical Education Introductions." saying it slower as if she were telling a five year old with a learning disability. "I've come to talk to you about enrolling your son in a school of magical learning for the upcoming term."
After a lengthy discussion, Ms. Fineburch finally convinced them to come to an orientation meeting on July 30th at Number 82, Charring Cross Road, London. After the meeting and if they were still interested they would be taken to Diagon Alley, along with several other families in the same situation as they, to do there shopping for the items on their school lists.
Then followed another discussion of tuition and payment scheduled that bored Will so he got up and went to play in his room leaving his mother to deal with lady wearing the crazy clothes.
* * * * *
A few days later Will and his mother found themselves standing in front of a boarded up building at Number 82, Charring Cross Road, which is where they were to receive more information about Will's magical education. They entered the building through its front door, but instead of finding a dark and empty unused store front, they encountered a very nice meeting hall. After about two hours of a grueling and utterly boring presentation of magical education, many of the parents wanted to just send their children to these schools just to be able to get and walk around for a bit.
So Harvetta Fineburch led the group out of the old store front down the street to the muggle entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Once inside she continued to explain the various features of the magical world as she took them through to the other side where the entrance to Diagon Alley lay. Once they were in the alley, she handed out maps of the alley to the various parents that had the shops they needed to go to marked in red and ones that they might like to just look at marked in yellow and told them all to meet back at the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron by 5:30 pm.
Fearfully, Mrs. Beagle brought her son to Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions as she was told that this could take the longest as students needed to be fitted for their clothes and together they went in the little shop. Mrs. Beagle felt painfully out of place in the shop, in this whole alley if truth be known, but luckily one of the sales clerks came up to them and asked "Hogwarts dear?"
Mrs. Beagle replied "No, Honeychurch." This response seemed to catch the attention of a tall, good looking young man with black hair and glasses. Will never once seemed to notice him, but Mrs. Beagle sure did.
"Well, that's a different uniform then isn't it?" replied the sales clerk with a smile and stood Will up on a stool in front of the three way mirror and began to take measurements.
While Will was being measured for his uniform, Mrs. Beagle approached an elderly witch and asked if she was in charge. When she replied yes, Mrs. Beagle went on to ask in a hushed tone, "How much is this all going to cost me? You see, I'm not very good with your kind of money and I'm not sure about anything."
Madame Malkin replied with a kind face and equally hushed tones, "Now don't worry dear, we'll work something out when your son has finished with his measurements, but I must return to my customer right now, before my shop girls eat him alive."
Soon Madame Malkin was once again engrossed in conversation with the gentleman who kept throwing glances over at her and Will. Then the elderly witch looked at the young man a smile of pure admiration and said "Oh, Mr. Potter."
Soon the young man left the store and Will's new clothes were finished being altered. "Now how much is all of this going to be?" asked Mrs. Beagle with her pocket book of the counter starting to dig out her money.
"Oh don't worry about that dear" said Madame Malkin.
"But I have to pay you, I can't just take things without paying…" began Mrs. Beagle.
"There's no need to worry," explained Madame Malkin, "that man who just left already paid your bill."
"Why would he do that?" asked a disbelieving mother.
Madame Malkin smiled and said, "My dear, when Harry Potter shines his light on you, all you can do is stand back and watch new things grow. Now you've got a few more things to buy I do believe and we have some more new students coming in to the shop, so off with you now."
'Why would a complete stranger do that?' thought Mrs. Beagle, but she was brought out of her reverie by Will saying "Your sure this isn't a dress right?" to the sales girl, who was giggling the whole time.
Next Will and his mum went to Flourish and Blotts to buy all of Will's new text books for school. There again Mrs. Beagle spotted that same young man talking to one of the store employees. She also saw the two men looking at her and Will when they entered the store, but they were soon helped by a girl asking "May I help you find your things today?"
Once the girl had helped Will find all of his school books, parchment, quills, ink bottles and something called 'Quidditch Through the Ages,' whatever that was and they made their way up to the front counter to pay for their books. Once again Mrs. Beagle got her pocket book out to pay, but was stopped by the store manager, who she remembered was the one talking to the young man when they entered.
"There's no need Misses that has been taken care of already. Millie, why don't you pack those books up for these lovely people today?" said the store manager and started to walk away, but Mrs. Beagle stopped him.
"What do you mean, 'that has been taken care of already'? There must be some mistake; we haven't paid for anything yet. Does this have something to do with the tall young man with the glasses?"
The store manager simply smiled and "I'm afraid that I'm not at liberty to say, have a good day."
As they left Flourish and Blotts, Will turned to his mother and asked, "Is there something wrong with our money mum, no one seems willing to take it from us?"
"I guess so Will, but let's not hold our breath, who knows how long our luck will hold." smiled his mother.
Next they went to the apothecary where Will got his potions kit, cauldron, brass scales and glass phials. In this store, they had to pay for everything themselves, which made Mrs. Beagle a bit happier. Though she was suddenly glad for the help that young man gave them or else she would have not enough money.
Next they went through the alley getting his dragon hide gloves and telescope and finally the last thing they needed to buy was a wand. So they walked down the alley to a door that read 'Ollivander's: Maker of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.' and entered into the narrow and shabby store to hear a tinkling bell somewhere in the back ringing. It was a tiny place with only a spindly chair which didn't look like it could hold up the dust that covered it. Suddenly there was old Mr. Ollivander looking at them with an amused look on his face as if he knew everything in the world there was to know but wasn't about to tell any of it.
"You must be Mr. Beagle." stated Mr. Ollivander.
"How did you know that?" asked an astonished Will.
The only reply the old wizard gave was a smile and then went into his task of finding the right wand for young Will Beagle. As his measuring tape took every conceivable measurement of the human body Mr. Ollivander starting bringing wands for Will to try. Will barely held on to any of them, before Mr. Ollivander would pull them away and say "No not that one," or "How about this one," or "No, no, that will never do."
Finally after twenty minutes of this, the old wizard put a wand into Will's hand that made his whole arm feel warm and tiny red sparks flew out the end of it. "Ah, yes," Mr. Ollivander said, "Willow, 11 inches, dragon heartstring, very supple." With that Mrs. Beagle paid for the wand and they left the store.
As the two started walking back towards the Leaky Cauldron, Will spotted several other children carrying cages with owls, toads, rats, cats and other such animals. He turned to his mum and asked "Mum, can I have a pet to? It says on the book list that I can have one."
"Well, I don't know, Will, they might be expensive, I don't know if we have enough of these galleons left." answered his mother. Though secretly she have loved nothing more than buy her son a pet, but she had to be practical about these things.
"Can we just go and look Mum? Just to see?" Will asking in a way that bordered on a whine.
"Well alright," so they went into the Magical Menagerie, which was right across from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, to have a look around. In the store they found Madame Malkin, who was buying some owl treats for her owl.
"Well hello there again." said the elderly which when she recognized the pair, "coming in to buy you an owl I suspect."
"No," replied Will "we've just come to look. I'm not sure we can afford…." but he was stopped in mid-sentence by a look from his mother.
"Oh, I see," replied Madame Malkin, "why don't you have a look around and that witch behind the counter can answer all your questions." Then she turned to the witch behind the counter and began to talking to her in a hushed voice.
While the two were looking at all the different animals in the smelly shop, Mrs. Beagle she swore she heard phrases like '…one I told you…' and '…you know he'd want to…' then she turned to ask the clothier what she was going on about, but she was gone. So Mrs. Beagle decided it was time to return to the wizard pub, but the witch behind the counter engaged them in conversation as if to deliberately stall them from leaving. She began talking about a few of the medium sized owls she had that were reasonably priced, when Madame Malkin appeared again.
The menagerie witch looked at Madame Malkin who nodded her head yes and tried to cover by saying "Made it half way back to my shop and I forgot my owl treats, I don't think my owl would be to happy about that now would she?" then she grabbed her bag and walked back out the store.
Unknown to the Beagles, but Madame Malkin had apparated to Weasley Wizard Wheezes, since she had no idea where to find Harry Potter, but everyone in the alley knew in order to find him, just go to the joke shop and let them know you're your looking. It was the twins who told the elderly witch to go ahead and they would pay for it out of Harry's portion of the shop. He'd never miss it anyway.
"Now which owl did you like young man?" asked the cranky Menagerie witch.
"Does this have something to do with that young man with glasses?" Mrs. Beagle asked the witch while she was getting an owl cage down from the shelf.
The cranky witch just looked innocent and said "Well it's like this deary, that young man with glasses as you called him is named Harry Potter, and if he says you're to use his money to buy something, then that's how it is and there's no use complaining about it." Then she turned back to Will and said "Which one was it again?"
Will looked at him mother with the biggest eyes he could make and asked "Is it okay mum?"
"Well I guess it is, whether we like it or not." replied Mrs. Beagle with a half laugh, and soon they were on their way to the Leaky Cauldron with a very lovely medium sized brown owl in tow.
* * * * *
Later that evening as Will and his mother were sitting at the dinner table discussing their day; Will asked his mother "Why did you keep asking everyone in all the shops about that man with glasses?"
"Because, it seems that he paid for the majority of your things today including Merlin here."
Merlin, who was sitting on one of the chair backs at the table, was listening to the conversation in the room. Will had named his owl Merlin because he couldn't think have any other wizard names and he liked that one the best anyway.
"Why would he do that mum?"
"I don't know Will, I just don't know. I do think it would a really nice thing if you sent a letter to thank him for his generosity in Diagon Alley today."
"Do you think he has e-mail?" asked Will.
Mrs. Beagle sighed "I don't have any idea, but you know, isn't that what Merlin is for?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
To Be Continued in Harry Potter & the Honeychurch Institute of Magic Chapter 6
Author's Note:
The acceptance letter from Hogwarts is the exact same one that Harry Potter recieved in the first book. It's not plagarism, just reusing the same form letter that was used by Hogwarts.