Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight
Down In Diagon

"So, how do we get in?" Rachael asked. She and Ms. Marshall were faced with a seemingly solid brick wall. Ms. Marshall didn't say anything; she just withdrew her wand from her pocket and tapped the third brick from the left above the trash can. Immediately all the bricks began shuffling up, down, left, right and soon they were standing in front of a crowded alley. Rachael and Ms. Marshall stepped inside and headed down the long alley towards a crooked marble building, Gringotts Wizard Bank.

Rachael looked around, observing all of the different stores. She saw an owl emporium with the most adorable brown owl with black specks. If she had enough money, she definitely wanted to buy that owl. She looked further ahead and saw more shops like Flourish and Blotts, Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, Magical Menagerie, Ollivander's, and many others. Of course, she couldn't go in them yet, she needed her money. Rachael looked at all the witches and wizards combing through the street, she hoped to find someone her age and going into her year. She saw some who seemed to be her age. There was a girl with auburn hair and dark green eyes, she looked friendly, but didn't seem to know where she was going. Muggle-born probably, Rachael thought. Wish I could help. But she couldn't because Ms. Marshall was now dragging her up the steps and into Gringotts.

They walked in and saw rows of desks with greedy, evil looking goblins sitting at them. Some were stamping envelopes, others sealing them. They went up to the front desk. The goblin looked down on them with black beady eyes.

"Can I help you?" it asked, its voice full of malice.

Rachael flinched as it spoke, but Ms. Marshall seemed to be unaffected.

"Yes," she answered politely. There's a switch, Rachael thought bitterly. "Ms. Rachael Lupin would like to retrieve some gold from her vault. Oh, yes." She stuck a hand in her coat pocket and pulled out a silver key. "Here's her key."

The goblin took the key and inspected it closely, as though trying to detect a forgery. He ordered a goblin named Griphook to come over and take them down to the vaults. They followed the goblin through a giant door and found themselves sitting in a small mine cart, going down a twisting track. They passed several torch lit corridors that led to different vaults. They stopped in front of Vault 345. Griphook took the lantern out along with the key and opened the vault. The door shifted open revealing a rather large amount of gold galleons, silver sickles and bronze knuts.

Rachael and Ms. Marshall exited Gringotts with a large sack of gold for her books, a cauldron, robes, potion supplies, and a wand. They entered Flourish and Blotts to find it oddly empty. They soon found out why, it stunk in there. The owner rushed over and apologised for the smell. It seemed a boy had let off a pack of Dung Bombs and they had to evacuate the building while he got the smell out. Much to Rachael's surprise, the owner gave her all her books for free just for being brave enough to go in there with the smell still lively in the air. Good, Rachael thought. Now I might have enough money to get that owl!

They were then off to the Apothecary to get potion supplies, then to the wand shop. Rachael's wand was Phoenix Feather, Maple and 7 ½ inches. Emerging from Ollivander's Wand Shop, Ms. Marshall excused herself for a while, while Rachael went to get her robes. She entered the robe shop and saw the girl she had seen before, standing on a stool. Apparently she was waiting to get her robes. Madam Malkin rushed over and told Rachael to stand on a stool while she attended to the other young lady. Rachael did as she was told.

"Hi," the girl said.

"Hi," Rachael answered.

"I'm Lily Evans, who're you?" she said, holding out her hand.

"Rachael Lupin," Rachael answered, shaking Lily's hand.

"So, is your family all wizards?"

"Well, most of us. You're Muggle-born right?"

"Muggle-born?"

"You're a witch with non-magic parents."

"Oh, well, yes I am." Just then Madam Malkin walked in with Lily's robes and she was off. "See you at Hogwarts!"

"Yeah, see you."

"Do you need to get an owl?" Ms. Marshall complained as Rachael ran into the emporium; the owl she wanted still there.

"Yes I do!" Rachael called back through the open window of the shop. Ms. Marshall shook her head in disgust and waited in front of the shop. Despite her being a witch (both at heart and in being) she hated owls, which made the reason for buying one more appealing to Rachael. Rachael looked over to where the owl was sitting; it was hooting and flexing its wings out. It was the best out of all of them, but probably most expensive. No matter, she thought. She looked into her moneybag; she still had a lot of gold left to buy it.

She approached the owl and petted its head. The owl turned around and began hooting loudly. Rachael jumped back, thinking she had done something wrong, and jumped right into Mr. Eeylop himself. He was a middle-aged man, tall, black hair, mustache, and square glasses. He was looking a bit anxious at the moments, probably trying to see what the commotion had been.

"I'm sorry sir… I-" Rachael began but, to her surprise, he was smiling.

"Don't be sorry, that means she likes you," he answered, striding over to the owl and stroking its back, the owl hooting even louder than it had when Rachael was near it. "She goes deathly quiet when she's near someone she doesn't like." He looked out the window, assumingly checking to see if anyone else was coming to the store. Rachael looked around at the empty store; business was going quite slow apparently. "Now, what can I help you with?"

"Oh, yes, I would like to buy that-" but the door opened and Mr. Eeylop was now bustling over to see who it was. It was a woman with her son, Rachael's age, she assumed. The boy had pitch-black hair that stuck out in all directions imaginable, hazel eyes and glasses.

"Oh, Mrs. Potter!" Mr. Eeylop said, his eyes bright. "How have you been?"

"Busy, we've been up and down the alley twice, making sure we have all James's items for school. You remember James, of course? My son?"

"Of course I do. Hullo James."

"Hi," the boy named James said quietly. James walked off to look at the owls. He stopped in front of a snowy white one. "This one's nice," he muttered, just loud enough for Rachael to hear. She went back to the owl she favoured and, yet again, it started screeching uncontrollably. She jumped back and grinned sheepishly as Mr. Eeylop and Mrs. Potter looked at her. She stepped away from it and pretended to be occupied with another owl.

"That owl doesn't seem to like you very much, does it?" James had walked over to her and was looking from her to the owl.

"No, it does," Rachael said, looking up at James. "Mr. Eeylop says that means she likes me." James smiled. He walked over and the owl went "deathly quiet" as Mr. Eeylop said. "That means she doesn't like you."

James walked away from the owl. "Oh," he said shortly. "Well, I liked the other owl better anyway." Apparently he felt embarrassed that an owl didn't like him. He walked over to his mum, said something, and they went over to the owl James had been looking at before and Mr. Eeylop gave it to them. They left the shop. James waved at Rachael, and she waved back.

Mr. Eeylop finally remembered that she was there.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said apologetically, bustling back over to her. "Mrs. Potter, an old friend of mine from school." Rachael nodded. "So, have you found anything you'd like to buy?"

"Yes, the owl over there." She pointed to the loud owl. If she got it she'd have to break it of that habit. Mr. Eeylop nodded. He went out of the room to get a cage, put the owl into the cage and handed it to Rachael when she collected her money. She paid ten galleons for the owl and left to go get Ms. Marshall. On the way home she noticed her owl was quiet. Smart owl, she thought.

Rachael was now sitting on her bed, upright, leaning against the wall, stroking her owl as it perched itself on her shoulder. She had spent the past few hours telling it over and over that it had to be quiet. When they got back to the orphanage she drew a lot of strange looks from everyone with her owl and oddly shaped packages. She didn't care; she had her ticket to the next world, well her world, in those packages. She had decided to name the owl Emerald, because of his deep green eyes that reminded her so much of emeralds. The door to her room opened.

"Are you back yet?" Becky called.

"If you mean me," Rachael said coolly, "then yes I am."

"Oh, great. Where did you go anyway?"

"Out."

"Obviously, I mean where."

"Oh, um," what was she going to tell her? Oh right, Becky, I just went to a place where Muggles can't see and got a cauldron, a wand… nothing unusual. But she had an idea. "I went to look at a boarding school."

"Boarding school? You can't afford a boarding school."

"It's free. Besides, you should be happy. I won't be able to embarrass you if I'm at school for ten months."

"Yeah, I guess. Hey, what's that hooting sound?"

Rachael let Emerald fly down to Becky. She screeched out of the room yelling, "you weirdo!"