Chapter Two: Day Out

The ride to Diagon Alley was familiar, but it was still bumpy and aggravating. Torque squawked in annoyance as I held her feathered body close to myself, so not to crash into the walls as we rushed through the fire places. Traveling by the Floo network had never been one of my favourite ways to get to Diagon Alley, but it was the quickest, and I felt obliged to be frisk that day.

Finally, my feet hit solid ground. Thankful that I had the good luck of landing the right way up this time, I stepped out of the fireplace and into the tiny space that was the Floo transport checkpoint. A downy old wizard sitting at a table nodded without looking up from his game of wizard's chess, and I strode out into the warmth that was my destination.

Diagon Alley was packed today. Every square inch down the long, winding street seemed to be occupied by at least ten kids, and all of them seemed to be around my age. I was perplexed to see that they all seemed to be carrying around the same sorts of packages, like they had been shopping for similarly the same things…some of them were wearing black robes with a strange emblem on the front showing a spectacle of animals…

It took me a while to realize that, of course, these must be the new students going into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the thousand-year-old school we have in Britain. Pop – and Richard – had gone there as kids. It was my heart's every wish that Pop didn't send me there as well…every Rastrick in the world who had gone to that school had turned out bad, even if they had first gone into Gryffindor House or some innocent house like that. Maybe if it had been Slytherin it would have all made sense. It was crazy of me to dread Hogwarts in that way – it wasn't as if I was going to turn evil in any way anyway...

I decided to ignore them. Leave them to their shopping and their happy chattering.

Diagon Alley is one of our more popular wizarding places to shop or walk around. It's only one of many other Alleys in the area; they are all connected in more ways than one. Some entrances are obvious and out in the open while others are hidden from everyday view, and you had to search long and hard in order to find them. Mind you, those were usually the Alleys that the average witch and wizard would never set foot into unless under extreme caution. These were the kinds that I liked to venture around in, just to see what they had going on inside that was so unlawfully unhidden from the rest.

Diagon Alley has to be the most decent around. Surrounding the gray, indigo and brown cobblestones are a manner of shops and stalls, each selling products, foodstuffs and other goods that I find quite interesting no matter how many times I had seen them. Eeylops Owl Emporium sold owls of many colours, shapes and sizes. On passing them, Torque gave a low hiss from my shoulder. It is a known fact that hungry owls sometimes liked to prey on other birds while they were nesting peacefully in a tree.

Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions sold…well, robes for all occasions. Pop preferred this place to anywhere else to supply him with dress robes for dinners at the Ministry, work robes for when his became too tattered…anything down to bathroom robes. Madame Malkin knew Pop well and was a dear friend of his, but of course she had something against me like all the others.

Flourish and Blotts sold books, all kinds. Spell books, potion books, books about magical creatures, books about politics and books about history. You could even find books about Muggles, the non-magical kind who live outside our world whilst sharing it nevertheless.

Cauldrons, stacked on top of each other, filled one shop from floor to ceiling. The apothecary forbade all by showing the roiling bodies of iguanas and frogs in jars in the display window, and emitting such a smell that one thought that someone might as well have died while poring through the shop. There was a joke shop that sold anything from mini fireworks to lollies that made you burp loudly, sweet shops that could be found around every corner, a pharmacy, a general market for your essentials around the home, and lots more.

My favourite was Quality Quidditch Supplies. It was a shop entirely devoted to Quidditch, the all-time beloved of all wizarding sports. I wasn't too sure about how it was begun, but here's how it works…there are two teams, with seven people on each side. They play above a large field with three differently-positioned goal posts with golden hoops on their tops at each end. Each team has three Chasers – they do most of the goal-scoring, by throwing a red ball called the Quaffle through their opposition's goal posts. There are two Beaters – they carry clubs and try to knock down players by hitting rock-hard balls at them called Bludgers, which also fly around the field trying to do the same thing. There is the Keeper, who protects the hoops from thrown Quaffles, and finally there's the Seeker. His/her job is to catch the Golden Snitch, a tiny ball with silver wings that moved at a terrific speed. If it was caught, a hundred and fifty points would instantly be rewarded to that team, and the game is over even though there is some chance that they might not end up being the winning team.

I went for Puddlemere United, despite all the losses they had had to endure through all their games.

That day, the shop display window was drowning under a crowd of Quidditch wannabes. I leaned against the shop opposite them and waited for them to disperse. When there was barely anybody left around the shop, I made my way forward to see the new broom mounted there for myself.

The same time I did, another person made a quick move towards the window. Puzzled, I stopped and looked to see who it was, this other person who had waited for everyone to leave like I had.

It was a boy. From what he looked like I couldn't take much from, all I could see was the back of his head. He had short black hair, not so short that he couldn't have it moving about as he walked. His clothes were horrible. Not that they didn't visually suit him or they were out of fashion, but they were simply too big for him. He looked like he was hauling extra skin around himself rather than an oversized gray t-shirt, and the hems of his jeans were frayed from dragging behind him on the ground. He stopped in front of the window and looked up, in a sort of childlike curiosity, at the broom suspended there.

I spent a good five minutes deciding whether or not I should go and look at the broom alongside him. He was only one person, not a whole group of people who would away as soon as they caught sight of me. It wasn't as if I would be afraid of this particular boy, even if he could've been from one of those groups of people…or was he? What was he doing standing alone like that? Was he some kind of a loner who nobody liked? If he was bona fide in that way, then I shouldn't have that much of a problem. He would understand.

I had taken only a few steps forward when he turned around. Our eyes met, and I gasped.

In that moment of acknowledgement, I had time to take in his features. He had an incredibly thin face, giving him the impression of someone who had been without good health for a long while. I felt that in his looks alone, I could already feel what kind of character he was, and that he was a wistful person, a person full of thought and pensiveness. He was nothing remarkable – that is, until you looked at his eyes.

I was several feet away, maybe the length of a pool table or more, but I still saw the glint as the sun reflected on him. They were green, and the brightest green I had ever seen on anyone's face before and a long time to come. I just stood there, staring at the still sparks of glitter shining at me, till I noticed the look on this boy's face. Far from being puzzled now, he looked terrified. And without one glance back at me, he turned and ran off down the street, as fast as his legs could carry him.

I spent the outing in Diagon Alley cursing myself for thinking such a thought as to why a person would ever accept me in any way. What a joke! Stupid Kora, I would know now not to make the same mistake again. Everybody was part of the group, it didn't matter who they were. It would just be the same.

I went into Gringotts, the wizard bank, and took out ten Galleons – it would last me the week, hopefully. I did some shopping, then went home and started on supper. When that was done I sat at the table and read 'How to Manage Jinxes Around The House' while I ate, something Pop would never have let me do if he had been there.

When he still hadn't come home by the time our clock chimed for midnight, I packed up and went to bed.