Diagon Alley; The Alley of Beginnings.
A week after the funeral Thomas was still a mute. He did find ways to speak to his mother though – through quill and parchment. They were both eating breakfast together in the dining room.
"Thomas, I've decided it's about time we took a visit to Diagon Alley." Lucretia announced, sipping her tea afterwards. Thomas looked up from just putting a forkful of bacon and eggs in his mouth and raised an eyebrow.
"Yes Thomas, I am sure." She said with a smile. Thomas shrugged and finished off his bacon and eggs, double time. Lucretia giggled. It had been quite some time since she giggled like that. "Thomas, do try not to wolf it down." She said concealing her mouth from the laughter. "Anyway, you go put on your robe, we will be going soon." Thomas nodded and moved away from the table, walking upstairs to his room. He opened his wardrobe and took out his robe, pants, and black T-shirt. He then heard galloping again. Looking out the window he saw the same horse. He couldn't figure it out. Was it a sign? An Omen? He didn't know. He watched it disappear again and carried on getting dressed.
"Right, I decided we should travel there by floo powder." She began. She was wearing her green robes and a green dress. "But you see, I remembered you were a mute…so we're going the long way. To London and through the Leaky Cauldron."
Thomas nodded and followed her to the front door. He walked beside his mother as they exited the castle walls and into the city. Children stared at him. He didn't like being stared at. One snared and a few laughed.
"Halloween isn't for four months you retard!" Thomas raised an eyebrow and continued walking.
"Muggles… disgusting bunch." Lucretia drawled. 'Tell me about it…' Thomas thought to himself. They walked into the subway and paid for the tickets to the train. "It seems I have run out of muggle money." Lucretia said leading Thomas to the train and finding a seat. "Looks like I have to get some more."
Thomas sat beside her, looking at the muggles across from them. The old lady smiled at him, Thomas merely blank back. "You know lad, it is polite to smiled back." She said. Lucretia raised an eyebrow. "Yes well, he would, if he weren't traumatized over his father's death." She said impolitely.
The old lady leant forward. "Oh dear! Whatever happened?" she asked.
"We like to keep it between us, Thank you." Lucretia replied.
"Ten minutes until we reach Mid London." The intercom called.
"Oh dear, I am really sorry for whatever happened." She said sympathetically. "At least you're not stuck with a Giant man, like the boy down there." He said pointing down at the seats. About eight seats down, a giant man was sitting beside a small boy, complaining loudly about how the seats were too small. Thomas and Lucretia leant forward and looked at them. The man's beard looked like a fuzzy forest on his face. The small boy had glasses and messy hair and looked terribly underweight. Thomas looked back at the old lady.
"Odd couple aren't they?" she said.
"Indeed." Lucretia replied. "Well this is our stop." She stood up and headed for the door, Thomas followed, still staring at the huge man. They got out of the train and watched as it moved away. Lucretia guided Thomas up the stairs. It seemed like she had done this a lot, gone to Diagon Alley and all. Soon enough they were back in the city, Passing muggle after muggle, getting stares and commented at. "Okay, we go down this street and we're just about there." Lucretia announced. More muggles walked past and looked at them. This time Thomas heard them say something about vampires and children of the corn. Thomas thought muggles were entertaining, but still, he didn't know what children of the corn were. A muggle myth? Possibly.
"Here we are!" Lucretia exclaimed. She pinted to a rather dirty and run down shop. Thomas looked at it. "It's like that so Muggles can't see it…" she said. "Look…" she said stepping back. Some muggles walked past them, making no sound. They didn't even look at the pub, nor even think it was there.
'Muggles.. so stupid, can't even see magic even if it slapped them in the face.' Thomas thought, "Come Love, its much better inside." She said opening the door and stepping in. Thomas followed, shutting the door behind him. He looked around the place. It was dark, dank and humid. 'Sure, its so much better than the outside…' he though sarcastically. Men and women were smoking and drinking. He could feel himself gagging on the air. Lucretia took his hand and led him out into a small courtyard. Relieved but rather confused, he still wondered what was going to happen next. A Hippogriff was going to fly down, pick them up and drop them into this Alley? His mother was going to teach him how to apperate?
Instead she took out her wand and tapped her wand to a brick three times. They watched as the bricks moved and formed an archway. 'Not…really what I was expecting.' He thought. "Well! Here we are!" Lucretia announced excitedly. "Diagon Alley!"
He looked around at all the wizards and witches, running around in a hurry to get their shopping done. He heard owls hooting in a shop in front of him. "That's called Eeylops Owl Emporium." Lucretia told him. "We will get one later, so I can send you letters while you're at school." Thomas couldn't get over how many people were there. They looked like ants, trying desperately to find food and things to take back to the nest. They stopped outside Madame Malkin's Robes.
"You go in there and get your robes sorted out. I will go get your books and meet you back here." She said, then walking off towards Flourish and Blotts. Thomas was about to walk in when a shadow cast over him. The huge man was back. 'Good grief!' he thought looking at him. 'He's even bigger, close up.' The door opened and the boy stepped out, the same one that he had seen earlier. He stared at Thomas, so Thomas stared back.
"How did you get out here so flippin' fast?" he asked. Thomas merely raised an eyebrow having no idea what this boy was going on about. The giant looked at the boy. "What are yeh talkin' 'bout Harry…" he said in a loud voice.
"T-This boy! He was just in there! Being fitted in his robes and talking about Hogwarts to Me." He said pointing.
"Harry, this boy hasn't even been in there. I just saw him talkin' to his mother." He said to Harry. Thomas nodded and was glad the man was covering his arse. "Oh stop kidding Hagrid, he was in there. He's a snotty little rich kid, and he was talking about brooms and Quidditch."
"Thomas!" Lucretia said running up to him. "Are you okay? You havn't even been in yet?" she asked. She looked up at Hagrid. "Oh, it's you. From the train." Hagrid gave a shrug. "Prob'ly.. Harry come on, we'd better get goin'."
Harry glared at Thomas and walked off, not taking his eyes off him, until he was out of view. "What was that about?" Lucretia asked, opening the door to the shop. 'That must have been the strangest reaction from anyone I've ever had…' Thomas thought walking in after his mother. "I got all the books you needed. I was surprised there wasn't a line." Lucretia said examining some of the materials and robes in the store. Madame Malkin smiled at Thomas.
"Hogwarts too I suspect?" she said. "We've had a lot today. As a matter of fact, we have a boy getting fitted right now, looks exactly like you."
"Really…" Lucretia replied, tilting her head towards the back room. "Oh look Thomas. It's Draco." She said walking to the back room with him. Draco grinned at them both. "Hullo you two. Long time no see." He said to them. Thomas walked over to the stool beside Draco, getting up onto it. "Oh Draco, Thomas hasn't spoken since his father died. So he will be silent." Lucretia told him, finding a seat on the opposite side of the room. Draco looked at Thomas. "He's…gone?" he said, his face paling a bit. Thomas nodded. "I'm sorry." Draco said sympathetically, looking at his feet. Thomas then got a robe tugged over his head and the assistant began pinning it into place.
"I can't believe we're going to the same school Thomas. It's going to be fun…Oh that reminds me. Aunty Lucretia, my mother would like to meet up with you sometime for a chat. She told me to tell you if you were down here getting equipment and things for school." Draco said jumping off the stool. "Did you see that huge man before?" he asked. Thomas gave a nod. "Anyway, I should get going. See you at school Thomas." He said walking out of the back room.
Thomas looked at Lucretia. She grinned. "He hasn't changed a bit."
Thomas and Lucretia walked down the alley with bags in their hands, full of school supplies. "Now all we have to do is get your wand now." Lucretia told him. They walked up to Olivander's and she opened the door. Following her inside, like he had been following her all day, Thomas looked around the shop. The walls were full of boxes upon boxes, stacked to the ceiling. He couldn't help but stare at them all. Surely every box in there didn't have a wand in it. There looked like millions.
"Mister Olivander?" Lucretia called. A creepy looking man came out from the back. "Hello there my dear." He said in a soft voice. He looked over at Thomas who was prodding at a box in the middle of the stack. "M-Mr Malfoy! I advise you to contain your curiosity and leave those boxes alone!" he said rushing over to stop them from toppling into a huge mass on the floor.
Thomas shrugged and walked up to the front desk, placing his hands on it, peering over. Olivander pulled a box out from one of the many shelves and gave it to Thomas to hold. It was a bright yellow. Thomas shook it a little resulting in one of the windows smashing. "And I just got that replaced yesterday…" Olivander groaned, snatching it back off him. Thomas looked at Lucretia, as Olivander disappeared into the back again. Shrugging a bit he looked back to find Olivander standing there. Opening the box he pulled out an emerald coloured wand. "Ebony and unicorn hair, 10 inches, try this one."
Thomas took the wand out of the box and it felt surprisingly warm. "Give it a wave boy." He said getting impatient. Thomas waved the wand and black sparks rained onto the floor. Olivander's eyes widened. "Never seen black sparks since the old days…" he whispered. "Anyway! Give me that, and Ill just…"
He took the wand off Thomas and quickly put it into the box. "Seven Galleons." He told Lucretia. Giving him the money, Lucretia raised an eyebrow at Olivander's expression. As soon as he put the money into the till he hurried off to the back room once again.
As they walked out of the shop, the sun had begun to sink in the sky. A warm orange colour enveloped the alley, as the shops began to close. The light shone off the windows, stores, signs, cages and cauldrons.
"Well… we should get going. I expect Chrysler is waiting for us to come home." Lucretia said leading them back up towards the entrance. They were about to exit when Thomas heard a scream. Everyone in the alley stopped walking, looking around for where it came from. Thomas took a few steps back, listening hard for the muffled sounds coming from someone. He then saw a school bag get thrown out of Knockturn Alley.
'Bloody hell… why do I always have to rescue things?' Thomas thought to himself as he dropped his bags to the ground and grabbing the box with his wand out of one of them. He ran to Knockturn Alley, pulling his wand out of the box and dropping the box on the ground. He slid to a stop just outside of it. There she was. The girl that was in trouble. She looked at Thomas, her eyes widened, waving franticly. "Help me!" she squealed. The raggedy man looked at Thomas and laughed. "Oooh, what are you going to do? Bite me? Vampire boy." He laughed. He was paying out Thomas' skin tone. It was Vampiric really. He done the only thing he could do. He held up his wand. The man raised an eyebrow. "Oooh, so you're going to do a hex on me eh?" he snared. Thomas smirked and opened his mouth. "Crutio…" he muttered. The man let go of the girl and she scrambled away into the corner, watching. The man was yelling and tucked into a ball in the Alley. Lucretia ran into the Alley, expecting Thomas to be the one yelling.
"Ahh! Stop it! Uncle! Uncle!" he yelled. Thomas was deaf to his pleads. He glared and walked closer to him, making the spell more powerful, sending the man into a wriggling mass of pain. "Thomas!" Lucretia shrieked. "Stop the curse now! Anymore and he will surely die!" she said walking up to her son. Thomas stopped glaring and dropped the wand to his side. The man stopped moving. The girl looked at Thomas. He gave his wand to Lucretia and walked over to the girl. He squatted beside her, looking into her dark eyes with his pale ones.
"T-Thank you… I think." She whispered. Thomas helped her up He was shaking as much as she was. She then gave him a small smile, which made him smile back. She walked over to her bag, picking it up and flicking her light brown hair over her shoulder. She walked away… With Thomas' eyes following her, never leaving until she was out of view.