5
Diagon Alley
When Emily woke the next morning, she kept her eyes tightly closed. Meeting the giant Hagrid vividly played through her mind. The one thing that kept echoing in the back of her mind was 'Let it be real, it was real, please be real'.
A light tapping could be heard and Emily took a deep breath. Her aunt would never tap so lightly on their door to wake them. The only conclusion she could come to was that she needed to open her eyes to confirm whether she had made up the events of last night. The tapping continued as Emily got up the courage to open her eyes. She felt Harry shake her, obviously impatient for her to wake.
"I'm up," she answered while stretching her arms up over her head. When they didn't hit a wall a small smile spread across her face and she finally allowed herself to open her eyes and look around the shack for the cause of the tapping.
"The window," Harry whispered pointing at the small glass square where an owl appeared to be attempting to get someone's attention.
"Maybe we should open it," Emily suggested.
Harry didn't need to be told twice, he nodded and jumped to his feet, running over to the window to let the creature in. The owl seemed pleased by the boy's efforts and gave a low hoot of approval as it swooped in and dropped what looked to be a newspaper by Hagrid before landing on his coat and attacking it.
The twins looked at each other but neither could do anything but shrug their shoulders. They had no clue what the bird wanted. Harry moved towards the giant and attempted to wake him up but the man didn't seem to want to budge. Finally, the large man rolled over and saw the predicament the children were in giving a low chuckle, "He just wants ter get paid."
The twins wonderedexactly how were they supposed to know what to pay the owl with. Hagrid grunted at them to look in the pockets of his coat but Emily had never seen a coat with so many pockets before. They pulled out candies, strings, parchment, ink, they even found a few mice before they came upon a pocket filled with coins they had never seen before.
Hagrid took pity on them and explained that they were supposed to give the owl five Knuts which were these little bronze coins with odd makings on it. When the money was put in the leather bag, presented to them by the owl sticking out its leg, the owl quickly took flight back out through the window.
It wasn't long before the giant finally sat up and declared it was time to leave.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked looking back at the room where he knew the rest of his family to be hiding.
"Ter London, ter get yer school supplies. We can't have yeh showin' up at Hogwarts empty handed."
Harry's look of happiness at the prospect of leaving seemed to deflate as he looked back down at the various coins in his hand. Emily knew where her twin's mind had gone as she was contemplating the exact same dilemma. "Hagrid, we don't have any money. You heard our Uncle last night, he was very adamant about not paying for us to go to Hogwarts."
"I wouldn' worry if I was yeh," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "Yer parents left yeh both money."
"They did?" Harry asked. "But Uncle Vernon always complains about how much we cost him."
"Why don' we have some o' that cake and forget the muggles fer a bit. When we get ter London our firs' stop is the wizarding bank, Gringotts."
"Gringotts is the name of the bank?"
"And its run by goblins..." Hagrid added with a smirk.
Harry looked to Emily who was just as shocked. Emily had a feeling there were going to be a lot of surprises for the two of them as they learned about the magical world.
"Goblins are real?"
"Yeah, course they are. The goblins can be vicious creatures an' don' like no one stealin' from them. Makes it a good place ter keep things. Come to think of it Hogwarts is the only place safer. Dumbledore has me goin' there on Hogwarts business anyway so it will be a good place ter start," Hagrid told them.
It didn't take the twins long to ready themselves and before they knew it they were standing outside of the shack staring at the sea. The storm was gone now but that didn't mean there were no consequences, the boat Emily and Harry had arrived in was filled to the brim with water. The pair looked around for another means of transport but neither one could figure out how the giant had made it onto the rock.
"Hagrid, how did you get here?" Harry asked, shivering slightly due to the chilly wind that came off the sea.
"Flew," was the large man's reply.
Emily kept trying to picture the giant flying like some kind of superhero in the shows Dudley watched but it didn't quite fit.
"Are the pair 'o yeh goin' ter stand here all day?"
Looking towards Hagrid, the twins realized the boat was now cleared of the water and the man was gesturing for them to climb in.
"Do yeh mind if I help us out a little?" Hagrid asked holding up his pink umbrella. "It's only, we have ter get to London and if we row this thing it will take forever."
Emily and Harry saw no problem with the man using a bit of magic and told him as much. As they began their morning journey the twins began to ask Hagrid about Gringotts. Their curiosity peaked at having a name to put to a place they would be visiting today.
"But what makes it so safe?" Harry asked trying not to fall into the water as he was helped out of the boat.
"It's deep under London, it is. All kinds of traps and creatures down there ter guard the vaults. They say there's dragons down there even."
"Dragons?" Emily's mind filled with images of large fire breathing creatures. "They exist?"
"'O course they do. I'd like ter have one me'self."
"You want to own one?" Harry was astonished at the idea and stared up at the man as if he had slightly lost his mind.
"Yeh, wouldn't be too big a problem. I care for lots of creatures."
The twins joined Hagrid on the tube for the next part of their journey into London. The large man settled in to read his paper, which he had curiously tapped with his umbrella before opening it. Emily leaned back in her seat and took a few minutes to try and process everything that was happening. The prospect of learning new things excited her but there was a tiny part of her that was nervous. She hadn't exactly fit into the world she lived in currently, how was she supposed to manage in a completely new world?
"…Ministry of Magic."
Emily turned her attention to her two companions at those words. "There's a Ministry of Magic?"
"'O course there is, we even have a Minister. Not that the man is anything more than a bungler but we gotta have some kind of leader. Dumbledore has been asked himself ter do the job, he never takes it though. It's a lot ter do, you know? An' Dumbledore seems ter rather like being at the school, not that I can blame him… Don't matter really all that much where Dumbledore is I guess, Minister is constantly knocking at his door for help anyway."
"But what does the Minister do?" Harry asked. "Why do we need one?"
"The Ministry is there ter protect us. Can't have muggles tryin' ter run us, an' livin' tergether never really worked out in the past…"
"You mean the witch trials?" Emily offered thinking back to a few times she had read on the subject in history books.
"Not that they got it right that often but we may not have been very careful in the past. Magic is a secret, we gotta keep ourselves hidden from the muggles and it's the Ministry's job ter make sure that happens."
Harry seemed confused at the statement but Emily nodded in agreement. If everyone knew magic existed there would be chaos among the muggles. Some would be terrified, like her aunt and uncle clearly were and others, like Hagrid was currently pointing out to Harry who had voiced his discontent with the idea of keeping it all a secret, would demand the magicals solve their every problem.
As the small group moved through the streets of London it was clear that Hagrid did not fit in. Everyone they passed seemed to stop and stare at the giant. One could hardly blame them it wasn't every day you saw someone quite so large walking down the street, the twins had a feeling the way he was dressed didn't help matters much either, nor his loud comments.
Hagrid seemed fascinated by the various things they passed on the street. Like parking meters and cars, muggles seemed to peak his curiosity and he wasn't exactly soft spoken when voicing his opinions out loud.
"Hagrid," Harry asked trying to break the man's attention away from inspecting a random car parked on the road. "What sort of things do we need to get today?"
"Why don' yeh two open yer letters now?" Hagrid offered starting to walk back down the street.
Emily pulled out her letter and began to read the second piece of parchment. For their uniform they would need black robes, dragon hide gloves, a pointed hat and a black cloak with silver fastenings.
Emily noticed they needed many kinds of textbooks. There were books on spells, history, magical theory, transfiguration, herbs and fungi, potions, beasts and a book that was on protecting yourself. They needed a wand, cauldron, phials for potions, a telescope and scales. She was excited because the letter said they could bring a pet and she had never had one before, perhaps she could get one today.
The journey into London was rather exciting for the twins as the pair had never been allowed there before. Petunia always left them behind with Mrs. Figg when she needed to go into to town. The pair were slightly worried by Hagrid's demeanor towards muggle things since he had stressed their need to keep magic a secret, yet he appeared to know his way around well enough so the two decided not to worry too much.
Emily eagerly read the signs of every shop they passed wondering if the next one would be what they were looking for. Nothing seemed to be the type of shop that would sell the items required on their list and with the need to keep everything secret Emily started to wonder if she was merely being silly to think they would just walk into a random shop out in the open where everyone could see it.
"Here we are, the Leaky Cauldron," he told them.
Emily stopped and took in the dingy looking state of the building they had stopped in front of. The place was dark and there were no windows like the shops around it. Emily felt a slight tingle against her skin and it increased as she held her hand out toward the building. She began looking around the street and she got an odd feeling that not only was she the only one getting the peculiar sensation, she was certain none of the people walking past even realized this building was here.
The inside of the pub was very dark and people were scattered around the place with their drinks. As they entered patrons turned to wave hello to Hagrid, it seemed he was a regular here as the bartender instantly moved to give Hagrid his usual. The giant stopped the man and called attention to the twins as he informed the barman he was on business for Hogwarts while patting their shoulders. It was a struggle for the twins to stay standing under the weight of the man's hands.
"It can't be!" said the bartender staring at Emily and Harry's foreheads. The entire pub had fallen silent and the occupants were staring at the twins now. "Harry and Emily Potter… it's an honor."
As the bartender rushed towards them Emily swore she saw tears in his eyes. It wasn't long before everyone was crowding around them. They all wanted to shake their hands. The twins were at a loss of what to say so they just smiled as politely as they could at everyone.
It seemed like it would never end, people kept coming back to shake the twins' hands over and over again. One of the men who introduced himself as Dedalus Diggle looked extremely familiar, Emily was sure she had met the man before and then it hit her he had bowed to her and Harry one time in a shop, scaring Aunt Petunia so much she rushed them all out. Emily pointed it out to the man and she had obviously made his day because he started excitedly telling everyone how the twins remembered him.
A man who looked to be in his early twenties approached them, Emily noticed his hands trembled slightly.The man turned out to be Professor Quirrell. Hagrid told them he was a teacher at Hogwarts. The man spoke with a stutter and even though he said he was pleased to meet them Emily got a feeling he wasn't really paying them that much attention. His eyes kept darting around the room like he was waiting for someone to jump out and grab him.
When they asked him what he taught they found he was their Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. He told them he was in the Alley looking for a book on vampires. It wasn't long before the people in the pub pushed the professor away and went back to shaking their hands. It took ten more minutes before Hagrid was able to steer the twins out of the pub.
Hagrid led the twins into an alleyway behind the pub that had a brick wall and a few trash cans pushed together in a corner. The giant seemed quite excited at the reception the twins had received in the pub and was going on and on about how famous they were. Emily and Harry were both rather curious about their new Professor who had the stutter.
"Is he always like that?" Emily questioned.
"Who?"
"Professor Quirrell."
"Lately he has been, yeah. He had a run in with a hag or vampire or something that spoked him. Been stutterin' ever since."
It seemed the professor was still shaken from his travels, hadn't the man said he was the defense teacher? Shouldn't a defense teacher be brave?
While Emily and Harry's heads were taking in all the new information, Hagrid was busy pulling out his umbrella and counting bricks on the wall. He tapped the wall with his umbrella in a pattern on the bricks and told the twins to stand back. All of a sudden the bricks began to move and form into an archway exposing a cobblestone path that would lead them into the magical alley.
As the twins stepped through the archway Emily was sure they both had looks of awe on their faces. One of the first shops Emily saw was selling cauldrons. Hagrid seemed to notice where she was looking.
"We'll go in there soon enough," he said pointing further down the path. "First we need ter see some goblins an' get the pair of yeh set up."
There were so many things to see as they walked toward the bank. Emily couldn't wait to visit the Apothecary and Harry pointed out a shop called Eeylops that sold owls. They saw brooms made for flying in the window of Quality Quidditch Supply and books stacked at odd angles in Flourish and Blotts. Hagrid had to give Emily a little push to keep her moving toward the bank and away from the book store.
"Here we are," Hagrid said stopping in front of a large white marble building. It was an amazing sight to take in.
What Emily assumed must be one of the goblins, bowed them through a bronze door. The second door was silver and had two goblins that bowed as they went through as well. There had to be at least a hundred more goblins behind a high counter the stretched the length of the large room the doors had led them into. There were tons of doors that the goblins were going in and out of with clients. Hagrid led the twins up to a counter where the goblin requested their key. Of course, Hagrid forgot what pocket he put it in and began pulling things out of various spots in his jacket and putting them on the teller's counter.
When Hagrid finally found it he passed the key over to the goblin who examined it before determining that it was the correct key.
"I have somethin' else ter pick up," Hagrid stated leaning in towards the goblin. "Vault 713 fer Dumbledore. It's all in this letter here." Hagrid then told the goblin passing a letter to him.
The gobline carefully read the contents of the letter before giving a nod to the giant and making a motion to a line of goblins behind him, "Griphook."
"Yes sir," came the reply as a goblin quickly stepped forward.
"Take this group down and ensure the young Mister and Miss Potters have their own keys for future visits to their vault."
The goblin bowed in answer before turning to the group, "Follow me."
As Hagrid and the twins followed Griphook Harry couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked what was in the vault Hagrid had been sent to pick something up from.He told them it was secret and that he couldn't tell them, he simply kept repeating that it was Hogwarts business.
They were led into a stone hallway that was lit by torches attached to the walls. Griphook whistled and a cart came to a stop in front of them. They all climbed in and took off racing along the tracks. Emily found it odd that Griphook wasn't steering but figured it must be some kind of magic at work.
Emily nor Harry wanted to blink and miss something as they rode to their vault. The deeper they went the more intrigued they became. There were flames at one point but neither could tell if it was a dragon or not. The group even passed a lake and Harry had asked Hagrid a question, Hagrid's reply was short and they were asked not to talk to him as he felt sick. Hagrid did appear rather ill, so the pair refrained from bothering him.
When they reached their vault, Griphook opened the door for them and the twins stopped at the sight of the mounds of gold, silver and bronze coins.
"This is your trust vault," Griphook informed them.
"So there is another vault with more?" Harry seemed in awe walking in further without waiting for an answer. Hagrid helped the twins pile some of it into two bags, one for each of them.
"Hagrid," Emily called when the giant had turned to leave. "Can we take a bit more I think Harry and I need a few extra things like some new clothes and I know I will want some extra books?"
Hagrid nodded and helped them gather up a bit more money into their bags.
"If you are in need of funds at any point, all you need do is contact the bank," Griphook instructed the twins leading them back towards the cart. "As one of our oldest families, we are always available to you."
"Thank you," Emily said passing the goblin and climbing back into the cart.
Harry was quick to follow his sister, but Hagrid paused as he contemplated their next ride. "Does this thing go any slower?"
"Only one speed," Griphook smiled in response showing all his sharp teeth.
Hagrid turned a bit greener at that pronouncement but climbed back into the cart anyway. The deeper they went the more Harry leaned over the side of the cart trying to look down to see if there was a bottom to the massive cave, but Emily roughly pulled him back by his arm and whacked the back of his head. "Honestly, must you do that?"
Harry shrugged his shoulders, "I was curious, it doesn't have an end."
Emily rolled her eyes at her twin as she settled herself back in her seat, "Of course it has an end."
"Not that I can see."
When they stopped in front of vault seven hundred and thirteen Emily noticed there was no place for a key like there had been on their trust vault. Griphook didn't seem worried though as he walked up to the door and ran his finger along it. The door seemed to melt away and Griphook informed the pair who looked on in awe that it was goblin magic, if you tried to enter and were not a goblin you would become trapped inside.
"How often do you check them?" Harry asked looking worriedly at the vaults around them.
"If the thief is lucky, every ten years. Sometimes we forget…" Emily got the distinct impression though the goblins never forgot and that perhaps the not checking was more of a punishment in their mind.
Focusing on the vault Emily was shocked when the vault was opened and all that was in there was a tiny package. Hagrid quickly snatched up the small parcel and tucked it into his coat. He reminded them not to talk to him on the return ride back as he clambered once again into the cart. They could both see how the carts did not agree with the giant who looked extremely pale. It was unfortunate because the twins were loving their speedy adventure and would happily spend more time in the cart if they could.
When they were back in the Alley Emily and Harry couldn't decide where to start so Hagrid sent them off to Madam Malkin's to get their uniform and clothes while he went back to the Leaky Cauldron to sit down and recover.
Madam Malkin was a small witch who smiled at the twins as they walked through the door of her shop. "Hogwarts?" she said, when Emily started to speak.
"We need a few other clothes items as well," Emily answered, her and Harry were going to be tossing out all their hand-me downs, tonight. "Do you have any muggle clothing?"
Madam Malkin nodded and pointed to an area of the store, "All my muggle selection is over there, you can go through it after we get you fitted dears."
Madam Malkin led them to the back of the shop where a pale boy with blond hair was being fitted by a store assistant. The woman instructed Emily and Harry to stand on stools next to him and began to work on Emily first.
"Hello," said the boy, "Are you going to Hogwarts as well?"
"Yes," Emily offered looking over at her brother. "I'm Emily and this is my brother Harry."
"Are you Emily and Harry Potter by chance?" the boy questioned.
Emily nodded.
"I'm Draco. Draco Malfoy."
"Nice to meet you, Draco. Are you here alone?" Emily questioned, she didn't see any adults present excluding the ones that worked in the shop.
"My father is buying my books and mother is waiting to meet us to go and get my wand," Draco answered. "I'm hoping to get them to look at racing brooms with me. I think first years should be allowed brooms. It would be nice to have one at school with me."
Emily shrugged brooms weren't allowed this year, that much she remembered from her letter but otherwise she didn't have much to say on the topic since the idea of riding brooms was new to her.
Harry on the other hand was strongly reminded of Dudley bullying his dad into buying things for him and was already not fond of the boy.
Draco looked to Harry clearly hoping he could sympathize with him, "Do you have a broom?"
"No," he answered quickly.
"Do you play Quidditch?"
"No," Harry answered again.
"We were raised by muggles," Emily injected earning an understanding nod from Draco.
"Well, do you know what House you want to be in?"
"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.
"I am going to be in Slytherin," Draco told them proudly. "My family has been in that House as far back as anyone can remember."
The lady working on Draco was finished and told him he was free to leave just as Madam Malkin finished Emily and told her she was free to continue her shopping while she worked on Harry. The two jumped down from their stools and began to go back to the front of the shop.
"Are you ok with me picking out your clothes Har?" Emily asked her brother.
"Yeah go ahead, I'd be lost anyway." Emily nodded and kept walking with Draco.
"Would you like to help me?" Emily asked Draco. "Harry and I need some new clothes and I could use your help with his things, plus I'm not sure exactly what is popular to wear around here."
"Of course," Draco replied and quickly set to work helping Emily shop. Draco, Emily noted, had excellent taste and even knew a few things about Muggle fashion. They picked out jeans, t-shirts, skirts, dresses, shoes... grabbing a bit of everything since the twins needed an entire new wardrobe.
"Thank you, Draco!"
"It was fun," he said helping her put the last of the clothes on the counter. "Well my parents are probably wondering what took me so long. I'll see you at Hogwarts though. Come find me on the train and we can sit together."
"I will, Bye!" Emily said, waving to him as he left the store.
As Emily was paying for the clothes Harry came and joined her at the counter. He seemed to be in a bad mood but cheered up a bit when he saw all the clothes. Harry was rather quiet when they left the shop to join Hagrid who had bought ice cream for the pair. When asked what was wrong Harry told Emily he was fine as they made their way to buy parchment and quills. Emily quite enjoyed the store and bought ink in every color they had available as well as a few fun colored quills.
After leaving Scrivengers the twins decided to buy new trunks so they could put their newly purchased clothes in them. Harry finally spoke up about what was bothering him as they left the trunk store. He proceeded to tell Hagrid and Emily about a boy who had brown hair that came in to be fitted while Emily was picking out their new clothes. The boy had told Harry that people from Muggle families should not be allowed to attend Hogwarts.
"But we were raised by muggles," Harry finished looking dejected. "So we shouldn't be going there."
"Nonsense, clearly the lad didn't know who yeh are! If he had known I bet he would of held his tongue!"
Harry wasn't quite sure how to respond to that so instead started asking Hagrid about Quidditch and Emily started asking what Slytherin was. Quidditch it turned out was a sport played on brooms and Slytherin was a school House. Hagrid began to tell them that there were four Houses and started off with Hufflepuff House, he said a lot of people thought those who were sorted into the house were a bunch of duffers.
Harry cut off Hagrid before he could finish telling them about the house declaring he would be a Hufflepuff.
"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," Hagrid quipped back.
Even though Hagrid went on to tell them how everyone in Slytherin became dark wizards and witches during the reign of Voldemort's terror, Emily was reserving her judgment. Draco seemed nice and he was sure he was going to be in Slytherin. You can't rule out an entire group of people calling them bad just because one mad man happened to be in that house. She turned to look at Harry who seemed to be already forming an opinion based on what Hagrid was saying and she was a bit disappointed in that.
They finally made it into the store Emily had been wanting to visit the most, Flourish and Blotts. Everywhere she looked there were books, she just had to decide where to start her search... Emily found an assistant and asked them for recommendations on books. She ended up with books on wizarding etiquette and society, additional books on potions, basic books on runes and arithmancy - which he had pointed her to when she said she had loved math in muggle school - she also purchased a few books on curses and their counters.
The twins may have gone a bit wild with the various things they were purchasing but Hagrid stopped the twins from purchasing gold cauldrons along with the pewter ones on their lists.He made it clear there was currently no need for a gold cauldron for a few years and motioned to the bags they were already carrying, "I think the two of yeh have already done enough damage!"
They visited the Apothecary, which had Emily even more excited to get to Hogwarts. There were so many interesting ingredients. She had a feeling she knew what her favorite class was going to be. Emily asked for the basic potion ingredients for both her and Harry but asked the man to add a bit more than what was specified, along with some commonly used ingredients that were not required for class. The man walked her and Harry around the store more than happy to help them learn about some of the ingredients they didn't recognize. As they were leaving the man handed Emily an owl order form in case she wanted more ingredients while at school.
When they left the Apothecary they noticed all they had left to get were their wands. Hagrid told them he wanted to buy them a birthday present first and even though they told him it was not necessary he took them to buy their first pet. When they walked out of Eeylops Owl Emporium Harry was carrying a cage that held his new snowy owl who had brown eyes and Emily was carrying a rare pure black owl that had a regal air to him as he sat on the perch in his cage. They found themselves thanking Hagrid over and over again for their very first birthday presents that they could ever remember receiving.
Hagrid, who was turning a bit red at the constant thank yous from the twins, led them to Ollivanders to get their wands. Emily and Harry were filled with excitement.
Emily visibly shivered when she felt the wave of magic come over her upon entering the tiny shop.
"Hello," said the man who emerged from the back of the shop. "I thought I might see the two of you soon, Harry and Emily Potter. You have your mother's eyes," he said towards Harry, "and you have your father's…"
Ollivander immediately started to measure the twins and tell them about the wands he crafted before they could even say a polite hello in return. The man used phoenix feathers, dragon heartstrings and unicorn hair when making the wands. They found out that no wand was exactly the same and that another person's wand wouldn't work as well for you as it did for them.
The first wand Harry tried was made of Beechwood and had a dragon heartstring core. It was flexible and was snatched out of his hands quickly by Ollivander who had obviously decided this was not the wand for him.
"Here," he said, handing one to Emily. "Willow and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy."
Emily and Harry tried wand after wand. The pile of tried wands was mounting ever higher with each try, in fact there were two very large piles of rejected wands, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves the more enthusiastic he got.
He looked thoughtful before going out of their sight and coming back with two boxes. He pulled out the first wand and told them it was Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches. Harry instinctively seemed to reach out and took the wand raising it above his head before bringing it down in front of him creating red and gold sparks from the end of the wand.
Mr. Ollivander excitedly then turned to Emily handing her a wand, "Ebony Gaboon and phoenix feather, twelve inches, unbending. What makes this wand special is the purpleheart wood used at the base where you grip your wand. Very rarely is more than one wood used in the creation of a wand." Emily immediately felt the warmth flood her body. The magic swirled around her as she raised the wand and shot white and green sparks into the air.
Mr. Ollivander took the wands and put them back in their boxes and wrapped them in brown paper, muttering, "Curious… curious…" When Harry asked him what was curious the answer they received made them wonder if it would have been better to not have asked at all.
Mr. Ollivander explained to them that the phoenix feathers in their wands came from the same phoenix. That phoenix had given only one other feather besides the two they had and it lay in the wand of the man who had killed their parents, Voldemort.
Mr. Ollivander seemed to think this meant that they could expect great things from the twins because as he observed, Voldemort had done great things with magic. They were horrible acts but the magic he performed was no less extraordinary, or so he said.
The twins paid fourteen Galleons for their wands and left the shop with slight feelings of unease. As they walked back through Diagon Alley and made it into Muggle London Emily and Harry were both quiet, each contemplating all that had gone on that day. Emily couldn't believe how much they had learned and it was nothing in comparison as to what was to come. She just wanted to hide in their room and read until she passed out from exhaustion.
When they reached the point where they would go separate ways from Hagrid he took them to have dinner since they had time before their train left. Emily forced herself to eat even though she was a bit too excited to be hungry. She looked at Harry who kept looking around him as if he was seeing everything for the first time.
Harry voiced his nervousness at being famous but Hagrid was quick to remind him that Hogwarts was going to be fun. They would make friends who were also witches and wizards and though they had been singled out that was no reason not to look forward to and enjoy the experience.
"I can't wait!" Emily exclaimed. She had never felt so happy in her life. She felt like she finally found a place where she would be able to belong. Never again would Emily have to pretend to not understand something when the teacher asked a question or purposefully do poorly on tests. She was going to be able to be herself and in her mind September first couldn't be here fast enough. Hagrid chuckled at her exuberance and helped the twins get all their things onto the train, then handed them each an envelope with their tickets to get to Hogwarts.
He reminded them they left from King's Cross on September first and if they had any problems with their relatives they could write to him using their owls. When the train pulled out of the station the twins looked out the window to get one last look at Hagrid but he had already gone.