Chapter Two: Diagon Alley: And Beyond!

After nearly a whole day of driving, the Gorssons entered London. Mungo looked out the window excitedly; he had never been south of the Scottish border. He caught a glimpse of the Tower of London, and the Muggle shops.

It was nearly six o'clock when they arrived in front of a dingy looking pub. Mungo looked at it with trepidation.

"Erm, why are we stoppin' here?" Mungo asked.

"That's the Leaky Cauldron, Mungo." Mr. Gorsson said, getting out. "Come on, its quite safe."

Mungo got out of the car, his hat brushing the top of the roof of the car. Every hour of the day, he had grown more attached to the hat, and hadn't taken it off all day.

Mr. Gorsson opened the back of the car and got the trunks out, and with a flick of his wand, they levitated and hovered over to the doorway of the Leaky Cauldron. Mungo walked over and stood next to them.

Mr. Gorsson parked the car, and they all went inside and checked into a room. They spent the night well, and woke up the next morning refreshed.

They went downstairs and ate breakfast, and went into the back yard with some trash bins. Mrs. Gorsson tapped a brick on the wall, and the bricks started removing themselves, forming a gateway. Mungo walked through it first, eager to get in and see the famous Diagon Alley.

Mungo had never been in a large community of wizards before; there wasn't a magical within miles of his hometown of Altnaharra. He looked at all the shops so quickly his mother once asked him if he was having a fit. He stood transfixed outside the Apothecary, and Mr. Gorsson had to drag him away by force.

"Look, son, we have to get our money from Gringotts. Why don't you go to Flourish and Blotts and gather your books together, here's the list." Mr. Gorsson handed Mungo a sheet of paper. "Just gather them up, and we'll find you and pay for them."

"Okay, da'." Mungo clutched the paper tightly and went into the store.

There was a long queue, apparently all witches. Mungo tried to look over their shoulders, but he was too short. Instead, he just joined it. Puffs of smoke appeared every now and then, and clicking noises sounded. Finally Mungo got where the line was thicker, just to see a blonde-haired man in (blank) robes stand up and whisper dramatically,

"It can't be Harry Potter!"

Mungo turned around in line, and there, about three spaces behind him, was a rather sooty and wide-eyed replica of Harry Potter. A chap in a green cloak and funny hat grabbed Potter's arm and dragged him forward, where Lockhart gripped him in a friendly embrace and smiled.

"Give a big smile Harry, together…" Lockhart said, but Mungo lost interest and walked away.

Mungo walked amongst the shelves, picking up his schoolbooks and some books he thought were interesting, such as The Masters Guide to Potions: When and How to Use Them, and Alchemists through the Ages. Mungo started to go and wait by the entrance, when he heard a drawling, arrogant voice say,

"Famous Potter, can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page!"

Oh, Potter made the front page of the Daily Prophet then. Mungo shrugged. The Daily Prophet must be running out of news if it made a headline that two celebrities managed to bump into each other. If that was the trash the Daily Prophet produced, Mungo wondered what Muggles had in their newspaper.

"Muggles, aren't they?" A man's voice said softly. Mungo ignored it and went on to the entrance.

His parents dropped by shortly, and they proceeded on their business. Mungo persuaded Mr. And Mrs. Gorsson to let him, buy twice the needed amount of potion ingredients, plus a few that weren't on the list. He labeled Mr. Ollivander as creepy to the nth degree when he bought his wand, a sixteen-inch mahogany with a phoenix feather as its core.

At last, tired from their purchasing, they retired.