It was an eventful afternoon for once Harry felt like he was no longer the only face in the crowd although a few people stopped him the majority of attention was given to Neil. Every shop he entered he was given obscene amounts of attention and special deals, but he just smiled and insisted that he was to be treated like and ordinary customer. The entire group thought the most interesting stop was at Gringotts were they were led down many a narrow passages until the reached a large medieval door. Neil pulled out a key out of his pocket tapped it once with a very elaborate wand and it turned into a large rusty key that he inserted into one of the three locks on the door and the simply collapsed leaving three new doors in their path each filled with enormous amount of gold. Neil grabbed a bag out of his pocket and began to pile handfuls upon handfuls of gold into it. The bag seemed to never fill and Harry was sure it never would.
After the shopping Neil insisted on buying lunch for everyone although after the magnificent meal he prepared for them the claimed they were to full, but Neil convinced them that tonight they would be having a late dinner. Neil led the gang to an ancient looking pub. As they entered they noticed how nice it looked yet the menu was so simple, but insanely expensive. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all ordered an open faced roast beef sandwich the cheapest thing on the menu (although that wasn't saying much) Neil however ordered a steak sandwich with extra sauce and asked politely for the rest of the group to wait outside. Harry, Ron, and Hermione found their to a table that appeared to have an invisible umbrella casting shade on it. In only a few minutes Neil appeared with four cast-iron plates each with large sandwich each on a towering pile of chips, four drinks also followed three of which appeared to be butterbeers and the other a strange white liquid. As soon the young alchemist sat down the plates found their way to their owner and the 4 began to eat. Harry thought everything was perfect the meat was juicy although he thought it could use a little more sauce and strangely it seemed as if more was poured on, the chips were fried in the finest oils, and the butterbeer was as if it was it was made in front of them. Neil was not as pleased as the rest of them he took a sip of the white liquid and looked disgusted. He then took out his wand and tapped it against the bottle turning it into a glass of a fine red liquid that appeared to have sparks flying out of it Hermione then broke the obscure silence saying " You know you shouldn't drink so much fire whiskey your underage and it's just not healthy…". During her statement her attention diverted to a sign of a sign of a store next door advertising exotic owls she then asked to be excused and ran off into the store. Ten minutes later she returned with a rather disappointed look on her face it was obvious that she did not have the money required for whatever she wanted. The meal continued although after Neil finished his beverage he ducked out claiming he wanted to see if the shop next door would send a letter for him a conversation broke out between the remaining three.
"You know that fellow's quite nice he buys all our supplies and a very expensive lunch," said Ron who had just finished a large share of chips.
"Yeah I guess, but there's something about him I can't trust maybe his to good to be true" replied a quiet Harry.
"Nonsense Harry he's an accomplished wizard and is very loyal to the order!" exclaimed Hermione.
"What exactly is Alchemy anyway?" asked Ron.
"The process of equal transfusion, giving something of equal or greater value to make something else" answered a smiling Neil who carried a large birdcage with a black cover over it that he placed near Hermione. The girl anxiously opened lifted the cover revealing a beautiful owl with brown and gold feathers. Hermione embraced Neil in the hardest hug Harry had ever seen.
"Oh Neil it's beautiful it's just the one I wanted how did you know and how did you pay for it!" said an excited Hermione.
"I just went in the store and asked the clerk what a beautiful girl with long brown hair was looking at and like I said money is not a problem" responded Neil who only smiled and put his arms around Hermione as she hugged him harder.
When they returned the entire house was silent and even Neil had a look of confusion on his face…