Hi guys! I'm back with another chapter, and I hope you enjoy it!

(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)

Chapter 2:

Knuts and Sickles and Galleons

"Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic."

"Can we get our wands first? I really want to get a wand," Ava said.

"Hold your horses," Jonah said. "It's crowded here - we need to stay with each other if we're going to get anywhere. Plus we have to get money at Gringotts first."

Molly was still amazed at what bad luck she had. She had always dreamed of getting to meet the characters of a story with magic, like The Land of Stories or Magic Treehouse, and what story did she get stuck with? Harry Potter. The one fantasy book series she hadn't read - well, other than whatever that Percy Jackson thing was.

Slowly, the group moved forward in the alleyway, eventually arriving at the marble building Molly had seen earlier. Upon closer inspection, Molly could see a tiny little bellhop near the door - some sort of troll or goblin.

"What's this supposed to be, a bank?" Molly asked.

Zoë nodded. "It's a bank, alright - the most heavily guarded bank in the world. This is Gringotts."

"But what do we do now?" Mackenzie asked.

"We do what anyone in our place would do," Madison said. "We exchange our Muggle money for wizard money."

Molly raised her eyebrows, incredulous. "Okay," she said slowly.

The group saw another set of doors - and most of them just passed by as two more goblin creatures opened the doors for them. Only Molly stayed behind to read the engraving on the doors, which read:

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 than treasure there.

"Hmm," Molly mused to herself. "You'd probably be mad to try and rob it."

She walked ahead to join the other kids in the bank. They had joined a line, and were actually nearing the front of it. Beatrix saw Molly looking at the group and motioned for her to come over, which Molly did instantaneously.

"Good morning, sir," Madison said to another goblin - by now Molly was sure that it was a goblin - at a counter at the front of the line. "We'd like to exchange our Muggle money for wizard money."

"What's a Muggle?" Molly whispered out of the corner of her mouth to Stella.

"A human," Stella whispered back, keeping her eyes on Madison.

The goblin nodded with a grunt. "Where is the money that your party would like to exchange?" he asked.

"We have it here somewhere," Madison said, and then turned to the rest of the group.

"Alright, I need some money," she said.

The children fiddled in their pockets for as much money as they could get. Molly felt like the odd child out - she didn't have any money to contribute.

"Alright, 100, 200, 300, 320, 330, 350, 360, 380, 400, 405, 406, 407, 407.25, 407.43, 407.93! Nice!" Madison said, counting up the money that the other children had given her. "Jonah, how did you get three hundred dollar bills?"

"Reasons," Jonah said, pulling out his Rubik's Cube and fiddling with it. Zoë giggled in understanding.

"Alright," Madison said, turning back to the goblin. "We have 407 American dollars and 93 American cents - can you help us exchange the money?"

The goblin nodded and took the money from Madison's hand. Carefully, he counted out the money and gave her a bunch of coins - gold, silver and bronze, although the gold and the bronze greatly outnumbered the silver.

"That's 50 Galleons, 3 Sickles, and 21 Knuts," the goblin said.

"Thank you," Madison said, pocketing the coins. The group began to walk out of the bank, the goblins watching them to make sure that they didn't try anything.

"So what were those coins that the goblin gave you?" she asked Madison as they walked out of Gringotts.

"Wizard money," Madison said. "The gold ones are Galleons, the silver ones are Sickles, and the bronze ones are Knuts."

"Okay, and how exactly do you spell all of those?" Molly said.

"I'll show you later," Mackenzie said. "Right now, we should probably get our wands."

The group shuffled through the crowd, arriving at a building about halfway through the alley. A sign hung down, with the word Ollivander's written on it in gold writing.

"Here we go," Beatrix said.

One by one, the children walked into the building. The ceilings were amazingly huge, with piles and piles of boxes lining shelves on the walls. The boxes almost looked like shoeboxes, though Molly knew that an ordinary shoebox would be completely out of place in a store like this.

The giant Hagrid and that little boy - could that really be Harry Potter? Molly pondered - were standing with another, older man, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons, talking about something.

"After all," the older man said, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great." Whatever the man meant, it caused the boy to shiver as he handed the man seven of those gold coins - Galleons, Molly remembered.

"Thank yeh," Hagrid said as the pair turned to walk out of the store. Molly froze as the boy passed by her - and nodded at her. Harry Potter, the Great and Powerful Wizard of Hogwarts (or something like that - again, Molly wasn't a Harry Potter scholar or anything), had just acknowledged her presence. The girl waved shyly.

The pair walked out of the shop, and the old man turned his attention to the group of children.

"Why, hello there!" he said, his voice laden with eccentricity. "Welcome to Ollivander's! It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Garrick Ollivander, and I welcome you to my shop and to the wizarding world. Are you ready to obtain your wand?"

"Ooh! Me first!" Beatrix said.

"Ah!" Mr. Ollivander said. "What's your name, little girl?"

"Beatrix," she said.

"Let's see about your wand, then," the man said. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Right," Beatrix answered.

"Hold out your arm," he said. "That's it."

Bit by bit, the man measured Beatrix's body - her arm, her head, her height, her everything. He began to talk to her. "Every Ollivander wand has a -"

Suddenly, Beatrix began to speak over Mr. Ollivander, saying, "-core of a powerful magical substance. You use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, and you won't get as good results with another wizard's wand as you will with your own."

Molly's mouth opened. How did she know all of that?

Mr. Ollivander had nothing but glee all over his face. "Well said, Beatrix. I couldn't have said it better myself. Now let's begin trying out some wands."

He pulled a box from the shelf near him and opened it up to reveal a very simple wand. "Let's try this one, Beatrix. Ten inches long - ebony, dragon's heartstrings, fairly flexible. Just give it a wave."

Beatrix waved the wand, but nothing happened. Mr. Ollivander took back the wand, giving her another wand.

"Maybe this one," he said. "Laurel wood, nine and a half inches, phoenix tail feather, very brittle."

She waved the new wand, but again, nothing happened, and the wand was taken back.

After a few more wands, Mr. Ollivander took out a wand made of elm wood - ten and three quarters inches long, quite bendy, and with the core of a phoenix tail feather. As soon as Beatrix took hold of it, a spark flew out from the tip of the wand. It burst into a magnificent firework over Mr. Ollivander's head.

The man started clapping. "Splendid, splendid! Your wand has found you!"

Beatrix beamed.

"Now, may I have the payment? You know my store pretty well - you probably know the payment as well," Mr. Ollivander said.

"Madison, can I have seven Galleons?" Beatrix asked. Madison fiddled in her pocket, finding the golden coins, and gave them to Beatrix.

"Here you are, Mr. Ollivander," Beatrix said.

"Thank you, my dear," Mr. Ollivander said. "Now who's next?"

Madison was next, and she was chosen by a wand that was fourteen inches long, was made of cypress wood, was quite flexible, and had a dragon heartstring core. Jonah ended up with an extremely brittle walnut wand that was twelve and a half inches long with a phoenix tail feather core. Mackenzie obtained an eleven and a half inch flexible wand with larch wood and a unicorn hair core, and Zoë was given a nine inch yew wand with a phoenix tail feather core that was very brittle. Ava was next, and she ended up with a ten and a half inch flexible wand made of ash wood and a unicorn hair core. After Ava, Stella stepped up, and she was given a ten and a quarter inch wand made of ebony wood that was extremely brittle and had a unicorn hair core.

Then it was Molly's turn.

"What is your name, little girl?" Mr. Ollivander said as Molly walked up to choose her wand.

"Molly," she said. "Molly Evans."

"Evans?" he asked. "As in Lily Evans?"

"Wait...who?" Molly asked in reply.

"Okay, then, never mind," Mr. Ollivander said. "Let's just find your wand and not distract ourselves with superfluous information."

Molly nodded, finally understanding and agreeing with some of the things that she was being told.

"Alright, let's try this one out. Maple, fairly flexible, fourteen and a half inches, with a dragon heartstring core."

She waved the wand, but Mr. Ollivander took it back.

"What about this one? Laurel wood, twelve inches long, extremely flexible, phoenix tail feather core."

As soon as she tried to wave, the wand was taken back.

"Alright, I think this one might work. Elm, moderately flexible, ten inches long with a unicorn hair core. Try it out for me."

As soon as Molly grasped the wand, she felt warmth coursing through her body. She raised the wand and flicked it down, and a trail of red sparks followed the wand's movement.

"Yes! Yes!" the old man cried out. "That's your wand!"

Molly couldn't help but smile as she watched the man's enthusiasm.

"The Galleons, please?" he asked.

Madison handed Molly seven Galleons, and she handed them to Mr. Ollivander. The seen children squeezed through the door of the wand shop and back into Diagon Alley.

"Alright, now what do we do?" Molly asked.

"How about we get our uniforms?" Mackenzie said.

"Sure," Jonah said, "as long as I'm in a separate room from the…" He pointed his finger at the kids, one after the other. "...seven of you."

"That sounds like a good idea," Zoë giggled.

"What kind of uniforms do we need?" Molly asked.

Beatrix straightened her back, as if she was preparing to make a grand speech. "Three sets of plain work robes - black - a plain pointed hat for day wear - black - a pair of protective gloves - dragon hide or similar - and a winter coat - black with silver fastenings - all with our name tags in them."

Molly's eyes widened. "Okay," she said slowly.

The group walked over to a shop called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and walked in. A short, stout woman with purple robes stood at the front of the store.

"Hello!" the woman said. "Welcome to my shop! I'm Madam Malkin, as you might have correctly guessed, and I take it you eight will need some robes! Hogwarts, I presume?"

The children nodded simultaneously.

"Wonderful! I've been fitting people for Hogwarts outfits all day! Just had a boy in here, with black hair, and something on his face - I didn't see him long enough to figure it out -"

"Harry?" Molly asked curiously. "Was it Harry Potter?"

"Harry Potter! Why, that'd be a miracle if Harry Potter was in my shop! But miracles can happen," Madam Malkin said mysteriously. "It could've been Harry. He was talking up a storm with a blond boy in the back - pale, slightly pointed face, you know the type."

"It was Harry, alright," Zoë whispered to Molly. "He was talking to Draco in the back."

"Who's Draco?" Molly whispered back, but her question fell on deaf ears. Zoë had moved her attention to something else.

"Zoë, who's Draco?" Molly asked again, a bit louder.

"Probably my future Housemate," she said.

"Alright, can you explain the Houses to me?" Molly said. "Because you mentioned something about those earlier."

"I'll explain when we're getting fitted," Zoë said.

The children walked into a room in the back - Jonah being put in a room separate from the girls. The seven girls put on white undergarments so as not to look inappropriate, and women began to measure them for the perfect robes.

Zoë started to talk to Molly.

"Alright, there are four Houses," she said. "There's Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Gryffindor is the 'bravery' House - that's where Harry is. Slytherin is the 'trickery' House, and that's where Draco is. You'll meet him when we get to Hogwarts."

"Okay," Molly said.

"Hufflepuff is the 'kindness' House, and there really isn't anyone that notable in it - well, except for Cedric Diggory, but he's older. And Ravenclaw is for the smart people - Luna Lovegood's in that House. She's really cool - you're going to love her."

Molly nodded, trying to pay attention.

"Which one do you think I'll be in?" Molly said.

"I don't know, but for your sake, I hope you're not in Slytherin," Zoë said. "Draco, the kid that I was telling you about? He is totally anti-Muggleborn."

"Muggleborn?" Molly asked.

"Wizards or witches with completely human parents - no direct wizard blood," Zoë explained. "He hates them - he even calls them Mudbloods. I think we're all Muggleborn - emphasis on think - but I know I could take him down. You don't know any of his weaknesses, having never read the book."

"Oh, joy," Molly said.

"You could be in Hufflepuff - you're really nice," Zoë said. "And Ravenclaw - you're pretty smart, so they might take you. Gryffindor might be a good spot for you, too - just definitely not Slytherin."

"Got it," Molly said.

The girls (and boy, with Jonah in the next room over) bought their robes and walked out of the shop, heading over to another shop nearby called the Eeylops Owl Emporium.

"What's this?" Molly asked.

"This is where we're getting our pets," Beatrix said. "You can either get an owl, a toad, or a cat, but toads are all icky and everyone already has a cat."

"Excuse me!" Stella said in mock offense. "I want a cat more than I want an owl!"

Molly giggled. Although she didn't have a pet, she had always reasoned that if she did, she wouldn't go for something usual like a dog or a cat.

The children (minus Stella - she went down the street to buy a cat of her own) walked into the shop. When they walked out, they all had owls of their own. Madison's owl was named Opa after she had bumped into the side of her cage and made a sound, almost as if she was saying "Oops." Molly pointed out that opa was German for grandfather and started with a long "o," but Madison told her that it was also a Greek expression used when something was broken. Nevertheless, Opa seemed to like the name. The others hadn't come up with suitable names, so they decided to name their owls later.

The next shop was called Flourish and Blotts, which was covered in shelves of large textbooks. "Oh, this shop looks cool!" Molly said as the children walked inside.

"Yep," Jonah said. "This is the one I was looking forward to."

"Of course you'd look forward to this one, Jonah," Ava said, jabbing Jonah with her elbow. "You're the biggest bookworm this side of the Mississippi."

"I read the first Land of Stories book in a day," Molly said weakly, but the group had moved their attention to the books.

"Aren't they making a movie about this one?" Mackenzie said, gesturing to a book labeled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by a man named Newt Scamander.

"Yeah, I heard about that one," Zoë said. "It doesn't come out for another two years, though."

"You mean…" Molly tried to figure out the math in her head. "It comes out in twenty-five years."

Zoë shrugged. "Fair enough," she said.

Quickly, the children picked up the books they needed, Zoë helping Molly figure out the books she needed, just like she had promised. They dashed through the other shops, grabbing cauldrons, Potions materials (Jonah and Ava talking up a storm about how amazing the Potions teacher was), and telescopes.

Once Zoë had confirmed that the group had gotten everything they needed (and some more - Beatrix insisted on picking up a large, ornate book labeled Hogwarts: A History), the group walked into a building labeled The Leaky Cauldron.

"Now that's more like it," Mackenzie said as they walked into the building, which looked like some sort of pub.

"What do you mean?" Molly asked.

"Usually, there's a courtyard in the back of this place that acts as the entrance to Diagon Alley - and that's in the books and the movies," Mackenzie explained. "This place must be a conglomeration of the books, the movies, and the theme park." She sighed. "I wonder who's getting detention."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Molly asked, but Mackenzie had moved on to talk with the others.

"What do we do now?" she asked. "The term doesn't start until September 1st."

"We wait here," Madison said. "This place is awesome."

"Gosh, you're such a Hufflepuff," Ava said jokingly. "Anybody wanna do some magic?"

"No!" Beatrix said. "No magic outside of Hogwarts!"

Molly couldn't help but giggle at their antics, even though she still didn't understand everything. Suddenly, she got an idea.

"Guys?" she asked. "What if we went to one of the stores and bought the books? That way I'd be able to learn everything!"

Madison sighed. "We can't, Molly," she said. "The first book didn't come out until 1998 - that's seven years from now."

Mackenzie sighed wistfully. "I open at the close," she said. Jonah snickered.

Molly raised an eyebrow. "I don't get it."

"You'll see," Beatrix said. "In seven years."

Molly smiled. "Okay."

"Why don't we stay here until the term starts?" Ava suggested.

Everyone acknowledged it as a good idea, so they made their way to the man behind the bar. His back was hunched, and his right eye wandered in a different direction than his left.

"Alright," Stella said to herself. "It's not Moody."

Molly didn't know exactly what she meant, but she pushed Madison forward as the emissary of the group.

"Excuse me, are there any rooms available from now until the first?" Madison looked a little wary of the man, but Molly had seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame enough to know not to judge him.

"Why, yes!" he croaked. "Follow me."

The party followed the crooked man up a dark, narrow staircase. At the very top was a rusty metal door.

"Come on in!" the man said, opening the door. Watching her step, Molly walked into the room.

The room was covered in peeling black paint, and eight spring beds lined the wall facing the children. In the corner, a curtain decorated with four different animals - the same animals Molly had seen on the wax seal back at Disney World - covered what looked like a shower and closet all in one. When Molly pulled back the curtain, a wave of dust hit her, and she started coughing. Inside, she could barely see the showerhead, as well as a toilet, a sink, and a cabinet for clothes. The only sources of light were a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and a small, circular window.

"Welcome to your room!" the hunchbacked man said. "If you need me for anything, my name's Tom. Have a great stay here at the Leaky Cauldron!"

He shut the rusty door, shaking the room.

"Okay," Molly said. "So we're here until we find a way back to 2014."

"No," Stella said. "We go to Hogwarts in a few days. That's what the letter was for."

Molly raised her eyebrows. "Okay, someone has to explain to me: What's Hogwarts?"

"Hogwarts is a wizarding school," Beatrix said. "The most famous in the world - well, at least after the books came out. Harry goes there."

"Is it fun?" Molly asked, feeling extremely dumb.

"Yeah!" Stella said. "Hogwarts is the -"

Before Stella could say anything naughty, Jonah told her to stop by using some foul language of his own. Molly tried to ignore them.

"I think I get it," she said. "What time is it?"

"I'll check," Mackenzie said. "I have my phone."

She opened up her phone and then forcefully stuffed it back into her pocket.

"It says it's 13:13," she said. "It doesn't work."

"Stuff like that doesn't work in magical places - it mingles too much," Beatrix said properly, looking up from the ornate book she had bought at Flourish and Blotts. "I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."

Jonah rolled his eyes. "Of course you did."

"Well, let's get to bed," Madison said. "We have some big days ahead of us."

"Yay," Molly said unenthusiastically, still wishing she had ended up in The Land of Stories.

She tried to make herself comfortable on the springy-yet-somehow-still-rigid bed, with Mackenzie pulling the covers over her. Wondering how the next year was going to work, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

Thanks for reading this chapter! Here's the fun facts about this week's chapter.

1) This chapter establishes some of the character traits of the original characters - and they're all based on real life! Beatrix and Jonah are really smart, Stella curses a lot (and, dealing with the previous chapter, she adores Lin-Manuel Miranda!) and Madison would totally fangirl if she ended up in Diagon Alley.

2) The wand woods for each character were chosen based on the Wand Woods article on Pottermore. They show a bit more insight into the characters and their future in the story. (There's also something really special about Madison's wand that I'll tell you about in a chapter to come.)

3) I am a humongous fan of the Magic Treehouse books, as well as The Land of Stories. I actually got to meet Mary Pope Osborne at her house in Connecticut, and she was really nice. (And I really like Percy Jackson now - I just hadn't read it before the end of 6th grade, and the timing of pop culture's effects on my life is as close as I can make it to real life.)

4) I wrote this chapter before watching A Very Potter Musical (which I saw during the process of writing Chapter 3). After watching it and discovering that Darren Criss played the boyfriend of the character of the author of The Land of Stories books, I couldn't help but laugh at the coincidence. AVPM references are coming up very shortly in the story, so stay tuned!

5) In the first draft of this chapter, Stella wasn't even a part of the story yet (and when she finally became a part of it, her original name was Maeve), Beatrix was named Cassandra, and Jonah was named Jonas.

Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!