Disclaimer: Once again, I do not claim to own anything that you recognize.
Author's Note: I really don't like this chapter, but it's necessary. If the descriptions are a little off, pay no attention to it; it's how I picture it if the movies never existed. There's a line in here that's a little cheesy; I don't have to tell you cuz you'll know it when you see it. REVIEW, DAMMIT, REVIEW!
That Year
By: Nimmireth
Chapter 3: Diagon Alley
Annalizabeth and Casey were walking down a long, stone road around a strip mall filled with a bunch of teenagers with shopping bags, women admiring clothes in the widows, and some random kids jamming in the middle of the street. It felt like they had been walking for hours and yet they still hadn't reached their destination. "Mom?" Casey beckoned. "How much farther do we have to walk? My feet are killing me."
"We're almost there," her mom replied. "I can see it now."
"See what exactly? Where are we going?" Casey asked, trying to catch up to her mother who just sped up.
"You'll see."
They came up to a wooden, black door with a black sign over it that read the words The Leaky Cauldron in gold, cursive letters. A few men walked right passed it, and Casey felt as if she and her mother were the only people who could see the door to The Leaky Cauldron. Casey took one last glance at the Muggle world before her mother opened up the door and entered.
What they walked into was a bar packed with people wearing cloaks and funny hats all drinking from mugs that could have been from the 1500s. There were no lights or, not to mention, any signs of electricity. The only source of light was from the windows and burning white wax candles.
"Annalizabeth, darling, is that you?" called a man from across the room behind the counter.
"Tom!" she yelled. "Yes, it is. I can't believe you remembered. It's been a while since I've been here."
"Too true, too true," he said. He came out from around the bar and took her hand to kiss it. "What'll it be?"
"Oh, I can't stay for long. I'm going over to the Alley to get Hogwarts things for my daughter," she told him, gesturing towards Casey.
Tom glanced over at her. "Jiminy Cricket!" he said. "And who might this be?" he asked, wandering over to the little girl.
"Tom, meet Casey, my daughter. Casey, meet Tom, owner of the Leaky Cauldron" Annalizabeth said.
"Nice to meet you," Casey said, extending her arm.
"The pleasure is all mine," he replied, taking the palm of her hand and kissing her knuckles.
"Well, that's that, now we must head off to the Alley," Annalizabeth declared. "Later, Tom."
"Bye," he said and headed back to the counter.
Annalizabeth took Casey's hand and lead her toward the back of the bar. There was another black wooden door. Annalizabeth opened it and walked through with Casey. The only thing that was there was a small alley with a brick wall and tin garbage can.
Casey was really confused. "This is Diagon Alley?" she asked. "There's nothing here."
"Patience, Casey. Patience," Annalizabeth told her daughter. "I haven't done this in a long time." She quickly glanced around the wall. She finally found what she was looking for and walked up to a little spot in the wall where there was a brick or two pushed into the wall deeper then all of the other ones. She opened up her jacket and withdrew a long wooden stick from an inside pocket. She looked at it for a brief second. "I knew there was a reason why I kept this thing," she said.
Casey gazed at it, mouth open a little bit. "Is that a wand?" she asked.
"What this?" her mother asked, waving the wooden stick. "Yes ma'am: Oak, phoenix tail feather, flexible, 12 inches. Saved me a ton for Transfiguration. Now, let's see…what was it? Oh, yeah! Three up…" she tapped the wall three times with her wand, going upwards. "…and two across…" this time, she tapped the wall twice, going across.
Annalizabeth then stood away from the wall and stared at it. Casey did the same. One of the bricks twitched and then a small hole appeared. It got bigger and bigger and wider and wider until it was big enough for the both of them to walk through.
"This isn't Diagon Alley," Annalizabeth said, pointing at the small area that they were currently standing in. "That is Diagon Alley." She gestured to a much larger alley filled with people wearing cloaks and hats of all different colors, carrying shopping bags from different shops that contained things that weren't even imaginable.
Casey gasped. "Oh, my GOD!" she said. "Oh. My. GOD! Look at this place!"
"Fascinating, isn't it?" her mother asked. "I remember what I said the first time I came here: 'Holy crap! It's like magic!'" They both burst out laughing. Once they calmed down, Annalizabeth spoke as they started walking. "Well, we have a lot of places to go to, but we have to go to Gringotts first."
"Where?" Casey asked, looking in every direction trying to catch a glimpse at everything.
"Gringotts: the wizard bank. If I remember correctly there are three different kinds of wizard coins: Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts; Galleons are gold, Sickles are silver, and Knuts are bronze. There are seventeen Sickles to a Galleon and there are twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle. I actually bothered to calculate how many Knuts it is to a Galleon: 459.
Now, I think I still have an account from when I was a kid because my parents had one. Everyone in my family was either a witch or a wizard. They weren't too happy when I married Richard, but nonetheless they were satisfied. They opened up a separate account for me just in case I decided to have you guys go to Hogwarts, so there should be plenty of coins in there."
Casey nodded. "Hey, mom?" she asked. "You do have siblings, right?"
Annalizabeth stopped and nodded slowly. "Yea…a sister and two brothers: My sister, Tiffany works with the Ministry of Magic; one of my brothers, Benjamin, plays Quidditch; my other brother, Jeremy…I have no idea what happened to him. He just vanished after his seventh year. He was the only one who got put into Slytherin."
"Into where?" Casey wondered, finally looking at her mother.
"Slytherin: one of the houses at Hogwarts. There are four: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Tiffany, Benjamin and I got put into Gryffindor while Jeremy got put into Slytherin. It has been said that Slytherin is the house where people go bad. That was the house where You-Know-Who was in."
"You-Know-Who? I afraid I don't know who. Who's You-Know-Who?"
Annalizabeth sighed. "I can't say his name. But I will tell you this: he is the most evil, most wicked, most feared wizard of all time. In fact, he's so vile that no witch or wizard can say his name. Do you know what he's done? He has killed hundreds upon hundreds of innocent people, Muggles and magic folk alike. Some people were so scared of him that they did the only thing that they could to gain protection, and that was to join him. Those people are called Death Eaters, and they do whatever he says. Even if it means killing someone, they will do whatever he wants. He is pure evil, Casey. Pure evil."
They both stood and stared at each other for a very long time. "Well, now that that has been established, let's get your stuff. Come on, off to Gringotts."
They came up to a tall white building that looked as if it was going to collapse. Annalizabeth and Casey walked up to shiny bronze double doors being guarded by…
"Umm…" Casey said.
"Goblins," her mother whispered to her. "Nasty and peculiar little creatures. And trying to rob this place is like trying to figure out how to fix our computer: impossible."
The two goblins opened up the bronze doors only to reveal another set of double doors that were silver and had words engraved on them:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For those who take but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief you have been warned, beware
Of finding more that treasure there.
"See, what did I tell you?" Annalizabeth asked. "To rob this place is to be insane."
They walked into the main room of the bank and found more goblins, hundreds of them, all on tall stools behind a stretched counter, weighing precious gems on scales, counting gold coins and helping other customers in and out of more doors. Casey and Annalizabeth walked up to a goblin that was available. "Hello," Annalizabeth said to the goblin. "I need to withdraw some money from the Novak safe."
"Got your key?" he asked.
Annalizabeth went into her jacket pocket again and pulled out a little golden key. "Of course," she said.
"All right, then," he said. "I'll just get someone to take you there. Orpheus!"
Another goblin—Casey assumed it was Orpheus—came up to them and led them through another door. There was a small passageway that was very dark, surrounded by torches. Little railway tracks lead down a steep slope. Orpheus whistled and a cart rattled up towards them.
"I warn you," Annalizabeth said. "Hold on tight, these things go fast; really, really fast." Then they got into a cart and they were off. It started so suddenly that Casey let out a little yelp when the ride began. They went past many twists and turns that Casey felt as if they were in some kind of Indiana Jones roller coaster.
Finally, they came to a stop in front of a large, circular door inside of the passage wall. They all got out of the cart and walked up to the door. Orpheus took the key and unlocked it. Once it opened, Casey gasped at huge piles of gold, silver and bronze coins.
The pile of golden Galleons came up to her knees and was about two feet wide. The same thing was true for the Sickles and Knuts. Her mother piled a bunch of the coins into three navy blue velvet bags the size of Annalizabeth's hand. "That should be enough," she said as she exited the vault and went back into the cart.
They finally got out of Gringotts and back into Diagon Alley. They traveled into Madam Malkin's to get robes, The cauldron shop to get her cauldron, Flourish and Blotts to get her books (Annalizabeth had a really difficult time trying to get Casey out of there), as well as other places to get quills, ink, and potion ingredients among other things.
"Tell you what," Annalizabeth began. "To make time go faster, I'll go to Eeylops to get you an owl and you go to Ollivanders to get a wand. It's just over there," she said, pointing to her left. "The owl shop isn't that far away and I won't be too long, so I'll meet you at Ollivanders."
Casey approached the wand shop and a sign over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. She opened the door and entered the small and dim place to a bell hanging from the door, ringing softly as it opened. She looked around and noticed hundreds of thousands of slender boxes piled one upon another. She went to go sit down in a chair when she heard a quiet voice speaking to her.
"Good afternoon," the voice said. Casey turned around and saw a man standing over her, his dark hair matching his shop and his pale eyes staring at her pastel complexion.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Casey."
"I'm Mr. Ollivander," he began. "And I can see Annalizabeth Doyle all over your face. I remember that wand very well; oak, phoenix tail feather, flexible, 12 inches, if I'm not mistaken. Wonderful for transfiguration. She was very fond of it, but I still stand by what my family has said for years: 'It's the wand that chooses the wizard.'"
From his pocket he pulled out a tape measure with silver markings. "Hmm…now, which is your wand hand?"
Casey blinked. "Well, umm…I'm right-handed."
"Hold out your arm, then," he told her. She was then measured from elbow to wrist, shoulder to elbow, shoulder to the tip of her middle finger, armpit to elbow and around her head. During all this measuring, Mr. Ollivander spoke. "Every wand that we make has a core of a powerful magical substance: unicorn tail hairs, phoenix tail feathers, or dragon heartstrings. No wand made by an Ollivander is exactly the same as another, and if you try someone else's wand, it won't be the same." When Mr. Ollivander was taking down wands from different shelves, she noticed that the tape measure was doing the measuring all by itself.
"Now, let's see," he began, taking the tape measure and putting it back in his pocket. "Try this one: holly, unicorn tail hair, inflexible, ten-and-a-half inches. Wave it around."
She took it in her hands, but it just barely touched her fingers before he grabbed it from her. "No, no, no. That's not the one. Perhaps this one: ebony, dragon heartstring, twelve inches, pliable."
"Pardon me, but how will I know which one is the right one?" Casey asked, taking the wand he handed to her.
"Believe me, you'll know."
And then Casey tried the wand he had given her. Then she tried another one. Then another. Then another. And another. Casey was beginning to think that she wasn't destined for any wand when he finally found one.
"A let's see: willow, unicorn tail hair, eleven-and-a-half inches, very flexible." He handed it to her and she suddenly felt this rising heat crawling from her fingertips to the rest of her body. Then she flicked the wand around her head and straight across from her and out came sparks that were red and gold. Mr. Ollivander nodded. "Yes, yes, that is the one. Very nice. Very nice, indeed. Yes."
He took the wand and put it back in its box, wrapped it up in brown paper and gave it to her. She paid seven Galleons and Mr. Ollivander opened the door to allow her to get out of the shop.
Annalizabeth was standing right outside. "Hey, hon. What kind did you get?"
"Willow, unicorn tail hair, eleven-and-a-half inches, very flexible. At least, that's what Mr. Ollivander said," Casey told her.
"And look at this little guy," her mother said. She lifted up a cage with a dome at the top and inside it was a brown, barred owl. "Didn't cost that much, either."
Casey stared at the owl with a grin. "You know, I've always wanted an owl," she told her.
"No, you haven't."
"Yes, I have."
"No, remember when you were five and we went to the zoo and you got so freaked out of the owls that you never wanted to go there again?"
"That was six years ago! I get over things."
"Really?"
"Really!" And with that, they both continued their little chat until they got back home.