Chapter Two: Blackthorn

Hagrid led Loretta through London all the way to the Leaky Cauldron. They approached a dark wooden door. Loretta gave the man a confused look. "This… is our stop..?" Her eyes scanned over the building. "Are you sure..?" Hagrid smiled down at the woman. "Well, it doesn' look like much, but 's pretty famous. Plenty o' magic folk gather 'round here." He said as he held the door open for her.

Loretta stood in the doorway as she surveyed the activity. There were a few groups of oddly dressed individuals here and there; to Loretta, their outfits looked like something out of a fantasy novel. 'I... guess they really do wear those...' She thought as a woman sporting a pointed witches hat passed by her. The room was dimly lit and the customers murmured their conversations. It didn't seem too busy here. A voice broke her concentration, "I can' hold 'is door forever."

"Oh, sorry." She blushed, stepping out of the way.

Hagrid ducked under the door frame as he slipped through. He stood next to her. Loretta was quite confused. "I… thought we were going to Diagon Alley..." She had assumed.

"We are, righ' through 'ere." He placed a hand on the small of the woman's back, attempting to guide her through the pub.

"Hey Hagrid!" Shouted an old, seemingly bald man from behind a counter. "The usual?" He asked. The half-giant simply shook his head at the man. "Not terday Tom, I gotta take 'is one ter Diagon Alley." He said, jabbing his thumb at the young woman.

Tom examined Loretta; her muggle clothes were a bit peculiar to the man. He looked her up and down. She simply wore tennis shoes, skinny jeans, a sweatshirt with a logo which read 'LLL'. "Who is this?" He had asked the man.

"Tha' is Loretta Knight."

"Dr. Loretta Knight." The scientist corrected, a bit arrogantly.

Tom's eyes widened. "You finally found her?" He asked excitedly.

"Tha' I did." Hagrid said, beaming.

Tom continued to stare at the woman in fascination. "Goodness, the witch who grew up a muggle. Why, just a few months back ol' Hagrid brought in Harry Potter himself, and now you're standing right in front of me!" Loretta was quite confused at why this man was so ecstatic about meeting her for the first time. She didn't think she was all that important.

"Excuse me," A lady interrupted, "But did I hear someone say you're Loretta Knight?" She approached the forensic anthropologist inquisitively.

"Yes." She replied, feeling awkward from the lack of discretion. Loretta viewed all of the questioning about her as invasive.

The woman smiled brightly at Loretta. "Oh it's nice to finally meet you. The Ministry has been looking for you for years."

Loretta gazed at the woman with a muddled expression on her face. "What Ministry?" She couldn't imagine a whole organization searching for her.

"Why, the Ministry of Magic of course!" She affirmed. "Have you never heard of them?"

"Well, no I-" The young witch was cut off by a multitude of witches and wizards who came to see first hand, Loretta Knight, the witch raised Muggle. She felt overwhelmed by the crowd. Why was she so popular all of a sudden? Hagrid noticed this and stood in front of her. "Alrigh' alrigh', we've got work ter do. All o' yeh give us some space." He began to part the mass of magic folk that surrounded the woman. A few of the individuals stepped out of the way and Hagrid lead her toward the back entrance of the pub.

The door swung open and the half-giant made his way over to the wall with Loretta. "I don't understand, how exactly is this going to get us to Diagon Alley?" She questioned, staring blankly at the brick wall. Hagrid grinned at her. "Yeh'll see in a momen'."

"Hm.. let's see... was it… no…" He mumbled a little as he thought to himself. "Ah!" He exclaimed suddenly. The man then tapped five different bricks with what looked like an umbrella. Loretta's eyes widened. The wall was… moving... opening up! In that moment, all possibility of this whole thing being a big, elaborate con completely vanished; just like, well, magic. She gaped at the scene.

Facing Loretta was Diagon Alley; down the street were various colorful, oddly shaped shops. Hagrid pointed forward. "We shoul' be gettin' goin', we have the Hogwarts Express ter take us ter Hogwarts, we don' wanna miss tha'." He chuckled. "It only picks up and drops off students an' staff before and after the holidays and terms. The nex' holiday is Easter an' tha's a ways away from now."

It had been a few hours and Loretta had found most of the items on her list. Hagrid had to steer the woman away from many of the curiosities she was drawn to; he expected as much of someone who had never grown up in the wizarding world. Now all she needed were some robes and a wand. Hagrid had kept ahold of the money Dumbledore provided for the woman so she could get what she required. Loretta wondered if she would need a job in the wizarding world on top of her own Muggle job; she supposed she would figure that out eventually.

A bell chimed as Loretta pushed open the door to Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. When Hagrid and her entered the shop, they were met with a short, cheery old woman. "Oh hello there Hagrid, and who is this?" She looked at Loretta quizzically, yet friendly as ever.

"Loretta Knight." He answered proudly.

Madame Malkin gasped. "The Loretta Knight? Oh goodness let's get you some robes immediately!" She took the scientist's hand and ambled toward her selection of robes. "Now let's see here, hm… something professional should suit you." Over the course of an hour, the woman measured Loretta carefully and sifted through an abundance of witches robes. Nothing seemed to quite work for Loretta, she seeing as they weren't quite practical enough.

"Is there anything in particular you were looking for dear?" The old woman asked warmly. Loretta had no clue, she knew nothing about the garbs in the wizarding world, though something that allowed her to move properly would be nice. Nothing too long. As if she had read her mind, Madame Malkin pulled out a box that stored rather non-traditional witches attire.

The forensic anthropologist took the box into her hands, promptly set it on the table, and opened it. She retrieved each piece of clothing in the set, which included a sort of blousy-looking cinnamon corset top, chocolate brown bottoms, long leather overcoat, and some steampunk fingerless gloves. Madame Malkin also placed a second box on the table, which held a pair of high rise steampunk leather boots. Loretta continued to examine the clothing. "What do you think?" Piped up the store owner.

"This should work."

Their final stop before the Hogwarts Express was Ollivander's. As Hagrid and Loretta entered, an old man glanced down at them from a latter. "Oh yes, come in come in." The two approached the front desk. "You must be Loretta Knight, it's a pleasure to meet you." He said, ascending down the latter. The man held out his hand to Loretta. She shook it awkwardly, not exactly sure how he knew it was her. "Oh and hello to you too Hagrid."

"Mornin' Mr. Ollivander." He greeted.

Loretta examined the shop, her eyes flickering every-which-way. She ignored the two who were conversing; she wasn't much for small talk. She would hear a few words here and there, "...weather…. wands….. dragons….." Then her concentration was broken, "Would you like to see what we have in stock?"

"Hm?" The scientist turned to face Mr. Ollivander. "Oh yes." She nodded.

The man pulled a few wands from the shelves, then measured her. "Lets see, around ten inches should work.. Perhaps this?" He opened a box among the pile he had made on the counter, it held an alderwood wand. "Unyielding flexibility and dragon heartstring core. Give it a try!" Loretta didn't know what any of that meant. She picked up a wand and twirled it, nothing seemed to happen. "Oh no, not that one." Spoke Mr. Ollivander, taking the wand out of her hand.

Quite a few wands later and nothing seemed to fit quite right, not that Loretta knew what 'quite right' would feel like anyway. She started to hear something, a sort of humming. Her eyebrows knitted together as she searched for the noise. Apparently, it was close by.

Loretta's eyes fell on the pile of boxes that held the different wands. She dug through the mess and pulled out a very particular looking one. The case was dark with a silver swirled engraving. The woman opened it.

"That there is a blackthorn wand, unyielding flexibility, ten and three-quarter inches, phoenix feather core." Mr. Ollivander clarified.

"Hold on a momen', aren' those wands used on'y by those interested in the dark arts?" Hargid questioned the store owner, slightly nervous.

"Not necessarily, aurors have been known to use them as well." Mr. Ollivander shrugged. "The wand chooses the wizard."

Loretta heard a faint whisper that appeared to be coming from the wand; she drew her hand nearer and nearer, completely transfixed. She pulled the wand out and set down the box. A warm beam of light surrounded the woman and the murmur became louder. "Loretta…!" The light vanished along with the sound she only seemed to be able to hear; she gasped shrilly.

"You alrigh' there?" Questioned a voice close by, it was Harid.

The woman shook her head. And blinked a few times. "Yeah, fine." She swallowed hard, staring at the wand in her grip. "Just fine."

Hagrid helped Loretta carry her luggage all the way to King's Cross Station. It was quite noisy when they got there, what with all the yelling, whistling, chugging and clickety-clacking. For once, they were somewhere normal, at least, normal for her. Loretta remembered something from the Hogwarts letter: 'platform nine and three-quarters'. It still didn't make sense, why would there be a platform called that? Though, she supposed it wasn't the oddest thing she had witnessed today. A few kids and their family stood near the wall in between platform nine and ten, they appeared to be wearing similar clothing to those she saw in Diagon Alley. Loretta observed them. The mother appeared to be kissing each child goodbye; one child turned toward the brick wall and…

...he was gone! He disappeared, right through the wall!

Loretta gawked at the spectacle. "How did-"

Another one of the children made a break for it, she ran through the wall, dragging her luggage with. The rest of the kids followed their siblings behind.

The forensic anthropologist looked toward Hagrid. "An' tha's how we get in." The half-giant explained. Loretta gave him an unsure look. "But how?"

"Jus' walk on through, ain't tha' hard." Which was easy for him to say; that wasn't exactly the case for Loretta. She stared at the wall; it was common sense not to run head first for a wall, so why in the world was she about to do it? The woman took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and bolted; her bags in toe.

"Wait I didn' say ter go yet!" Hagrid shouted after her.

Loretta opened her eyes, there were tons and tons of witches and wizards. "All aboard the Hogwarts Express on platform nine and three-quarters." Spoke a projected voice. She was there; she went through the wall and was actually there!

"Yeh really are a piece o' work sometimes." Mumbled Hagrid, who had just entered the platform.
"I get that a lot." The scientist replied.

The half-giant adjusted his grip on her luggage. "Well, we better be makin' tracks." He led her toward the line to board the train. The staff were seated in a different section than the students, so they were made to go first. "You'll be sittin' with me." Hagrid explained.

Loretta and Hagrid moved toward the back of the train with the rest of the staff. The woman examined the area; she saw a few staff members already seated in the compartments. As she gazed into one of them curiously, she was met with cold, glaring black eyes. The man, who was dressed in all black robes, scowled up at her; he didn't look particularly friendly, so she turned away. What was his problem?

The half-giant pushed open the door of the next compartment over and the sat down. Loretta took a seat on the opposite side of him. Closing her eyes and leaning her head back, she let out a long-winded sigh. Hagrid decided not to speak, poor thing was probably rather tired after the recent events. Instead, he gazed out the window, watching as the train station moved further and further out of eyesight. 'Finally,' Loretta thought, 'some peace after this prolonged morning..'