Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
The Misplaced Potter
Chapter 7
In which a happy discovery is made
"Don't let your head fall off, Henry," Danielle Porter teased her son.
Henry smiled at his mom. "I'm gonna have a sore neck from trying to see everything at once."
Henry and his mother were in Diagon Alley in the company of Professor McGonagall and Maggie. Every store window that Henry looked through held wonders. The pet shop had rats that were using their tails to skip rope. The shop that Henry thought of as a hardware store had pots, cauldrons as Maggie called them, which had paddles that stirred themselves. The apothecary had signs that advertised exotic ingredients such as dragon blood and powdered bicorn horn. To Henry, the wildest thing was that in the midst of all of the magical marvels there was an ice cream parlor.
They were heading for Gringotts, the wizard bank. Professor McGonagall needed to make a withdrawal and Mrs. Porter needed to exchange U. S. dollars for what the professor said were galleons, the coinage of the magical world.
"You may find the appearance of goblins startling at first," Professor McGonagall said as they approached the bank. "Just remember that they are sentient beings ever bit as clever as humans and they are very proud. Be direct, be polite, and be wary."
Two goblins acted as greeters as they mounted the steps to the entryway of the bank. They wore old-fashioned livery but what Henry noticed most about them was the rows of very sharp teeth that filled their mouths. They were evidently carnivores and Henry could not help but to wonder if the occasional human did not find his way into a goblin oven.
The interior of the bank proved to be cavernous but ornately elegant. From a high vaulted ceiling, hung massive chandeliers sporting hundreds of white candles that provided both plenty of lighting and filled the air with a delicate perfume. Their footfalls echoed off the well-worn but highly polished oak floor. On either side, goblin clerks dressed in formal high-collared suits worked behind green marble counters trimmed with ornate brass grillwork. Wooden placards with brass letter inlays clearly stated what sort of business occurred at each station. The low mummer of commerce rumbled from wall to wall.
"Currency exchange is down on this side," Professor McGonagall told Mrs. Porter. "Oh, there is my colleague, Professor Sprout. She must be escorting a muggle family through here also."
"Hello, Pomona," she called out.
Professor Sprout and her party turned toward them.
"Caroline?"
"Danielle?"
"So, Chris?"
"And Henry?"
"Apparently."
The two sisters fell laughing into a hug, as the two professors looked on in amazement.
Christopher, Caroline's son and Henry's favorite cousin, walked over to Henry and Maggie. He greeted his cousin with a high five hand slap.
"This is beyond cool, cuz," he said. "I thought that me going to Hogwarts would have to be a big secret from everybody. With you there, I know that it will be great."
"It will be great having you there, too," Henry agreed happily. "Chris, this is Maggie McGonagall. Maggie, this is Chris Gallatin, my cousin and about the coolest guy you could ever hope to meet."
"Hi, Maggie," Chris said flashing his dazzling smile. "Are you a student at Hogwarts, also?"
"I'll be starting my first year tomorrow," she said. "But I grew up there. My mum is one of the teachers."
"You must know a lot of magic already then," Chris said impishly. "I know who to copy from now."
"Some," Maggie admitted. "But there are a lot of rules against young kids using magic so I don't know as much as you might think I would. Copying my test won't get you very far."
Chris laughed. Like his father and grandfather, Chris was tall and slender. He moved with leonine grace and was already developing into a handsome young man. He had thick dark brown hair and even darker eyes that always twinkled with good humor. What made him so cool in Henry's opinion was he took all of those attributes with a grain of salt.
Chris bent his knees and looked at Henry's head. "Do you have any hair left under that cap?"
Henry lifted the blue cap off his head and ran a hand over the black stubble. "I just got so sick of my hair sticking out every which a way no matter how much I combed it so I got a crew cut."
"It looks good on you, cuz," Chris said.
"Minerva," Professor Sprout began in a harried voice. "Can you escort the Gallatins through Diagon Alley and get them to the station tomorrow. I really need to get back to the greenhouses. I am no where near ready for classes to began."
Professor McGonagall glanced at the excitedly chatting sisters. "Yes, Pomona, I can do that for you."
"You're a life saver," the herbology professor said gratefully. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
Professor McGonagall stepped over to the other mothers.
"Shall we exchange currency, ladies?"
Chris and Henry were pressed into what Henry jokingly called pack mule duty within a few minutes of leaving the bank. Professor McGonagall purchased a large old trunk from a junk store and then she methodically led the party from store to store beginning with the second hand robe shop.
"It's ridiculous to pay to have tailored robes made for children that will grow out of them before spring," she declared.
Buying a wand proved both an interesting and tedious process. Maggie McGonagall's selection of a wand took only one try. Her wand was nine inches long with a hippogriff feather at its core. Henry had to ask what a hippogriff was. Chris found his wand on the fourth try. It was a beautiful thirteen-inch red cedar wand with a salamander heartstring for a core.
Finding Henry's match proved to be a more difficult task as wand after wand failed to produce the desired result. Henry thought that he would have to try every wand in the store. It did not help that the watery-eyed Mr. Ollivander kept staring at him in an intensely speculative manner.
"Is something wrong?" Henry finally asked.
"No, Mr. Potter," the wand maker replied. "Nothing is wrong. You are just a tricky customer to match. To be honest, I'm enjoying the challenge."
"My name is Porter, sir"
"Ah, so it is. I'm sorry, Mr. Porter," Mr. Ollivander said glancing over at Professor McGonagall. "I believe that I may know which wand will suit you."
He disappeared into the back. When he returned, he carried a flat cardboard box much like a tie would come in. It had on it a thick coat of dust. Mr. Ollivander opened the box and extended it toward Henry in an almost ceremonious fashion.
The effect when Henry grasped the wand was spectacular. He felt as if a hot desert wind suddenly buffeted his body. Crimson and gold sparks flew out of the wand and danced about the room some eight feet above the floor.
"I do believe that we have a match, Mr. Porter," Mr. Ollivander understated. "It is eleven inches long constructed of holly and phoenix feather. A highly unusual combination."
He turned to stare at Professor McGonagall. "A highly unusual combination," he repeated.
"Yet the unusual occurs everyday," Professor McGonagall replied dryly.
Mr. Ollivander nodded slowly. "Yes, so it does. That is why it is called magic. Please extend my greetings to Professor Dumbledore."
The next several stops were prosaic but still very interesting to the nascent scholars. At the stationary shop, Chris and Henry were surprised to discover that they would not be buying notebook paper, pens, or pencils. Instead, they would be using feather quills, pots of ink, and scrolls of heavy paper at Hogwarts.
"Is this paper made out of rags like in the old days," Chris, a history buff, asked Professor McGonagall as he felt the paper.
The professor seemed pleased that Chris knew that bit of trivia. She was smiling when she answered him. "Yes, it is, Mr. Gallatin, but the stationary in here is parchment."
"The scrolls and the stationary that you find in here are exclusively of wizarding manufacture, by the way," the young clerk who was helping them said. "Muggles, of course, have abandoned this style of paper for wood pulp as you probably know."
"But quills and ink?" Mrs. Porter asked. "You magic folk have seen ball point pens, surely."
The clerk and Professor McGonagall laughed politely.
"Yes, Mrs. Porter, we have." Professor McGonagall answered as she rummaged through her robes. She extracted a small notebook with a pen clipped to its side. "I write memos to myself if I think of something that I need to do or shopping lists or the like."
"But then why the quills for students?" Mrs. Gallatin asked.
"It's a tried and true teaching method," the professor explained. "By having to use quills and continuously dip into inkpots, the students are forced to slow down and truly think about what they are writing. It has the remarkable facility of impressing onto their minds the information that they are writing."
The two sisters nodded in understanding.
"I can see where it would," Mrs. Gallatin replied.
After the stationary shop, they walked over to the magical instruments store. Henry took one look inside the window and sat his end of the trunk down on the walk. "If we tried to take this in there, we'd knock over half the stuff and it all looks expensive from here."
"You're right," Chris said lowering his end.
Henry stayed beside the trunk as the rest of the party went inside to purchase the scales, telescopes, and other instruments that were on their list. Henry sat down on the trunk and watched the intriguing denizens of Diagon Alley walk by on the lane. For a people who tried to remain inconspicuous, most were colorfully dressed in flashy robes dyed in some of the most outrageous hues imaginable. Headwear of every type abounded. Henry saw folk in top hats, turbans, tall pointy felt hats, and tricorns. He even saw a lime green colored derby on the head of short plump man as he scurried by with several assistants hard on his heels.
Chris came out with several boxes in his arms. Henry opened the trunk and the two of them carefully stowed the packages inside.
"You have to go in there, Henry," his cousin excitedly said as they closed the trunk. "It's incredible."
"There's a lot to see out here, too," he replied but, at Chris' urging, Henry went into the store as Chris took up the post by the trunk.
His mother waved to Henry as he entered the shop. Keeping his elbows firmly tucked to his side, he joined her by a display of telescopes.
"The list says a telescope but gives no specifics," Mrs. Porter said. "So you are free to choose whichever one catches your fancy."
"Oh, any one," Henry said roguishly.
Danielle Porter pushed the bill of his cap down with a laugh. "Within limits, young man, within limits. Although I must say, I suspect that Professor McGonagall has saved Caroline and me quite a bit of money today. She knows what is needed after all her years of teaching and she is outfitting her own daughter after all."
"Which one did Maggie buy?" Henry asked. "Like you said, Professor McGonagall would know more about them then I would."
Henry and his Mom bought the most basic telescope the shop offered.
"Most of what you need to locate in the night sky, you will be able to do so with the naked eye, anyway," Professor McGonagall said. "And the astronomy tower is equipped with a large permanent telescope for the more serious student of the subject."
"Is astronomy a popular subject among the students," Mrs. Porter asked.
"Yes," Professor McGonagall answered. "But nowhere near as is the astronomy tower itself."
Mrs. Porter smiled. "I'm guessing that magical or muggle; teens are pretty much the same."
"Too right they are," the professor agreed.
Henry felt his head grow light as they entered the apothecary. A thousand and one strange scents assailed his nose. Even the years spent in stables did not prepare him for the tide of aromas that broke over him. The several dried hanging carcasses of lizards, bats, and rodents did not help the queasiness that Henry felt in his stomach. Mrs. Porter took one look at Henry and pointed to the door.
"Best get some fresh air before you embarrass yourself."
A green-gilled Henry gratefully fled the premises.
Their final stop was Flourish and Blott's bookstore. It proved to be far more to Henry's liking. The shop carried the textbooks that they would need for the following school year but also thousands of books with subjects ranging from curses to potions to self-help to history. Chris selected Hogwarts, a History and Modern Magical History.
"We need to know about magical history if we're going to understand anything that the other kids talk about," Chris said.
"If I have any questions," Henry said as he examined a large tome titled The Encyclopedia of Magical Beasts. "I'll ask Maggie."
"You'll ask me what," Maggie asked as she joined them.
"If you'll be his girlfriend," Chris said with a straight face.
Their mothers walked over to them before a red-faced Henry could escape by digging through the tiles.
"Are you three about ready?" Mrs. Gallatin asked.
"Yes, Mum," Chris said.
"May I have this, Mom?" Henry asked showing her the book.
"You and animals," she said fondly as she looked at the price and did the currency conversion in her head. "Yes, you can buy it."
"Thanks."
Within moments, the six of them were on the cobblestones of Diagon Alley. Professor McGonagall reviewed their list to ensure that they had not missed purchasing any of the necessary items.
"Mrs. Gallatin," she began after she finished her review. "You are aware of where you need to be tomorrow and at what time? You do have the ticket?"
"King's Cross station before eleven o'clock. Platform 9 ¾," Mrs. Gallatin rattled off. "Professor Sprout explained how to pass through the barrier but you speak as if we are parting company."
"We shall take rooms at the Leaky Cauldron and meet you at the station tomorrow."
"Danielle, I won't hear of it," Mrs. Gallatin exclaimed. "I have the estate car out front. The four of you are coming home with me."
"That's kind of you, Mrs. Gallatin, but," Professor McGonagall started but was quickly interrupted by Mrs. Gallatin.
"No buts at all, Professor. I live only thirty minutes from here and we have plenty of room," Mrs. Gallatin said with determination. "And I would count it a great favor if you would call me Caroline."
"You might as well give in, Professor," Danielle Porter said. "There is no one more stubborn then my sister."
"Very well. Thank you," Professor McGonagall graciously relented. "Please, lead the way to your car, Caroline."
"Good," Caroline said as she linked arms with her sister. "We'll get some pizzas and make a party of it."
The trunk felt lighter to a grinning Chris and Henry after she said that.