Chapter 1: Welcome to Diagon Alley

*Charing Cross Road, London, Great Britain*

Phoenix and the girls made their way down the streets of London and stopped at the door of the Leaky Cauldron Pub and Inn.

"So...is this where the magic starts?" Akko asked confused, she looked at the pub's sign and remembered that cauldrons are usually associated with witches, but she was willing to extend her beliefs.

"Not quite, we'll need to lighten your load, you're going to need both hands to carry everything for Hogwarts. I'll get a few rooms in the Inn, hopefully, they'll have enough so I won't have to share with any of you."

The girls looked at him in anger taking offence to that statement,

"I mean so you can have privacy, don't get mad, blimey."

After their expressions softened, Diana asked, "So how does magic work in this 'Wizard World'?"

She knew that magic back at Luna Nova came from the Philosopher's Stone, but with magic being so relevant in this new world, according to what she heard from the Headmistress, she was curious as to what powers it.

"You'll find out very soon, trust me".

They walked through the entrance and saw how crowded it was, people were sitting, eating, talking, and just having a good time, and all the while, the owner of the place, Tom, was serving people, laughing alongside his patrons.

Tom noticed them enter and spoke up, "Ah, Phoenix, need a room?"

"I'm going to need a few rooms actually Tom, I've got some friends who need some supplies for Hogwarts."

Tom moved his glance to the group of girls, Lotte gave a small wave and softly said, "Hi, Sir."

Tom nodded and said, "Ok, how many rooms exactly?"

Phoenix turned to the girls and saw that they had already grouped up, Akko with Diana, Lotte with Sucy, and Amanda with both Constanze and Jasminka. "Heh, 4 rooms please."

Tom nodded and smiled, "Lucky for you, I have 4 rooms very close to each other, and recently cleaned, follow me."

They made their way up to their rooms and set their stuff down, "Ok, so, get something else on, and meet me downstairs. We need to get your supplies before it gets too crowded."

*Akko's View*

I glanced around the room we were put in, it was pretty big and there were two beds and a writing desk. I sat down on the bed near the window in our room, it was nice, not stiff like Luna Nova's dorm beds, but there was a bit of a creak coming from the bed whenever I moved, but it's fine.

"So, may I ask why you chose me to be your roommate? I would have thought you would choose Lotte or Sucy." Diana said after closing the door,

"Well, I thought you and I could learn about this new magic together, it's probably a good idea to help each other seeing how we spent most of our time at Luna Nova." I said, slightly hesitant.

That wasn't the only reason, I had also gotten pretty close to Diana in the past few months after saving the world...after the Shiny Rod disappeared. I learned that Diana was also a fan of Shiny Chariot, and it was thanks to her I discovered one of the 7 Words of Arcturus and helped me save the world. I felt something more than friendship, but I could never admit it.

Diana responded with a smile, "Fair enough, I think it sounds like a good idea too."

But our chat would be cut short by the sound of a low growling coming from under Diana's bed. I lifted the sheet from the side of the bed and looked under, what I saw was a furry book with teeth, I grabbed it and unlocked the bindings, but I would soon regret this decision as the book started rapidly snapping at me, I dropped it and it followed me around the room, Diana pulled out her wand and attempted to cast a spell but remembered that she had no magic.

Phoenix heard the commotion and ran in, I saw him pull out some sort of carved stick and say, "Petrificus Totalus." The book froze in place with its mouth closed, I grabbed it and put the bindings back on.

"Monster Book of Monsters, I'd be careful, it can bite back. But if you're interested in reading it, just stroke the spine to calm it down."

Diana looked at me in disbelief, a living book, I thought it was amazing, but I could see Diana was a bit scared of it, keeping her legs off the floor.

*10 Minutes Later*

Everyone had changed into some casual clothes and had met downstairs.

"Ok, everyone here? Good. Follow me, I wanna show you something."

They made their way to what looked like a back alley, with enough room for all of them.

"Well, this is it." Phoenix said facing a brick wall,

Sucy looked up and said, "it's just a brick wall, what's so magical about that?"

Phoenix raised his wand and tapped a few bricks in a particular order. Before anyone could say anything, the bricks started moving, making an opening, all the girls, even Sucy, were both shocked and amazed.

Phoenix turned and said, "Welcome Girls, to Diagon Alley."

They started walking, the girls taking in the many shops and people walking through, Sucy saw a potion shop, Amanda spotted a broom shop, and Diana saw a person selling special feather quills.

"Ok, first things first, we need to stop by the bank to get the money for your school supplies."

"Wait, but we have money," Lotte said.

"Well, bad news for you, that money isn't worth anything here, but don't worry I've got plenty of money to spare."

Constanze spoke up, "Isn't there some way to exchange our money?"

"'Fraid not."

They walked for a good 5 minutes, and stopped right in front of a large, white building,

"Ah...Gringotts, the Wizard Bank, probably the most secure place known to Wizards and Witches, (unless you're the main character, *CoughMovie8Cough*)".

When they walked in they noticed all the goblins at work, stamping and filling out documents,

"Uh...Phoenix...why are there so many goblins in here?" Amanda asked with a bit of fear in her voice,

"It's cause they own the place, they love being around treasures and money, so they opened a bank."

As they reached the end of the line of desks, Phoenix got the attention of the head Goblin, asking to enter his vault to make a withdrawal. He proceeded to hand over his key and the goblin got down from his chair. They made their way to his vault, on what the girls would describe as a hazardous rollercoaster. Once the vault door opened, all the girls looked in awe at the amount of money he had in his vault, stacks upon stacks of coins,

"This is the result of 5 solid years of hard work." Phoenix exclaimed, grabbing a couple of small bags of different coins.

After getting the money they needed, they made their way out of Gringotts, Diana, understandably asked, "So the currency in this world, how does it work?"

"There are 3 types of coins, bronze Knuts, silver Sickles, and golden Galleons. 29 Knuts make up one Sickle, and there are 17 Sickles in a Galleon. Yes, it's weird, but that's how it's structured. Does that answer your question?"

Diana nodded while taking note of that, as did Akko and Lotte, the others made mental notes.

"Now the first thing we'll need to get your wands, seeing how your old ones won't work here. And I might as well teach you how magic in this world works."

They made their way to the best wand shop Phoenix knew, Ollivanders Wand Shop, owned by Garrick Ollivander.

"So, wands don't need a power source, and all look different?" Lotte asked,

"Yep, no need for a Philosopher Stone and every wand is created differently, no two wands are the same."

They arrived at the front of Ollivanders Wand Shop, "Here we are, now keep this in mind when going in, the wand chooses its master, not the other way around. I just hope none of you get any wands that may have a negative connection."

END OF CHAPTER