Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.
Note: As mentioned in the first chapter, this story originated on another website; I'm in a position to update with this installment relatively quickly (it would have been posted sooner, but I felt the need to fill out a couple of sections), since the material, at least as far as the story goes, is in essence already written. Once all the 'ready written' material is posted, updates will get somewhat haphazard in timing since I have a number of other calls upon what 'writing time' I have. As a reminder, this story assumes a version of the magical world in which 'betrothal arrangements' have some legal and social standing in the UK, as of the late twentieth century, and that in late 1979 James Potter entangled his (then unborn) son, Harry, in one (with one Daphne Greengrass). With a Wizarding War otherwise ongoing, as in canon, Voldemort nonetheless went after the Potter family, much as in canon, only to be 'defeated' by a bouncing Killing Curse due to maternal sacrificial protection on the night Hallowe'en, 1981. Some of the circumstances surrounding that attack differ from canon, but with both his parents dead, Harry, as in canon, was placed with the Dursleys, and had had an experience much as in canon, up until the opening of this story in the first chapter, when during one evening in late October, 1986, a knock came upon the door of number four Privet Drive...
Further Note: This chapter is from Harry's perspective, and has skipped on several months from the previous chapter. This chapter takes place on one day during the UK school Easter holiday, 1987. (If my sources are correct, 22nd April was the Wednesday immediately after Easter Sunday, 1987, for those who like to keep track of these things.) This story is rated 'T'.
At Easter (1987), Harry and his uncle and his cousin went back to London. They left Aunt Petunia behind at home, and put on 'good clothes' for the trip. Dudley had had to struggle to get into his shirt, and on the drive into London complained that he was hot, and unbuttoned his collar and the next button down from it 'for air'. Harry was nowhere near as tubby as his cousin and had had no problem putting on his clothes, but he was still getting used to his new glasses. They were sort of brown framed, and the man at the optician's where they had bought them last week had said that the shape was the same as that of some really popular sunglasses being worn by someone called 'Sonny Crockett' in a TV show for adults called 'Miami Vice'. Aunt Petunia (who was the adult who had taken Harry shopping for glasses) had seemed particularly pleased about that. Mind you, these weren't sunglasses that Harry was wearing, but normal ones; Harry had been told though that if he behaved himself in the next few months, and did well at school, he might get a pair of matching sunglasses in time for his birthday.
Harry had a lot of new clothes bought for him these days, instead of being given mostly things to wear that his cousin was too old for or which had been bought new for Dudley but turned out to be too small for him. Unfortunately, clothes shopping was still just as boring as when not much of it had actually been for Harry, and the shopping bags and baskets – which Aunt Petunia often insisted that Harry carry – were heavier because they also had things for Harry in them. Harry hoped that Aunt Petunia's absence meant that whatever they were doing, going into London today, it wasn't going to be for clothes shopping.
When they got into London, they parked in a station carpark, took a tube train, and were soon on a street somewhere or other.
"Right boys, we're looking for a funny pub probably called 'The Burbling Basilisk'." Uncle Vernon said. He showed Harry a piece of paper which apparently had the words 'The Burbling Basilisk' on, but then gave the piece of paper to Dudley, since Dudley wasn't as good at reading or remembering a lot of things as Harry.
Harry knew the word 'The', but wasn't sure that he could remember what the words 'Burbling' or 'Basilisk' would look like, on such a brief sight of them written down. He made himself remember that they were two long looking words beginning with the letter 'B' – and he could always try to spell a word out loud to check if he wasn't sure if it was right.
Thinking back, Harry remembered that during their visit to London before Christmas they had been looking for somewhere, but then Aunt Petunia had felt unwell and they had had to go home. He wondered if they were back to look for the same place or somewhere like it, and Aunt Petunia had stayed behind in case she got unwell again?
At any rate, she wasn't here to help Harry and Dudley and Uncle Vernon.
The three of them made their way along a busy street for a bit, looking at everything, but without seeing anything that looked like a pub or 'funny' or which had anything that looked like a name of 'The' followed by two long words beginning with 'B'.
And then Harry saw a building which looked very old-fashioned, a bit small compared to the ones either side, and with some sort of pub sign hanging above the door. Harry didn't think that the words on the sign looked like 'The Burbling Basilisk' though.
Still, it was worth a comment. Maybe Uncle Vernon knew what they were looking for looked like.
"Is where we're looking for supposed to look like that?" Harry stopped and pointed.
"What do you mean, boy?" Uncle Vernon asked, also stopping and bringing Dudley to a halt. Uncle Vernon stared at where Harry was pointing, without seeming to see anything peculiar.
"That pub, there?" Harry asked. He had an odd feeling that the building looked a bit wavery, as if it was trying to hide, and that he might not have seen it if he hadn't been looking very carefully at all the buildings on the street. He'd actually wondered for a moment when he first saw it if he was having some sort of problem with his new glasses?
Uncle Vernon looked left and right and then back at where Harry was pointing.
"There isn't a pub there. There's just a wall." Uncle Vernon frowned. "Tell me: is this pub you can see called 'The Burbling Basilisk?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. The letters don't look right." Harry said. "There's a 'The', but then two words I don't know, and I don't think one of them's long enough. And they start with the wrong letters."
"Is Harry playing some sort of game with us?" Dudley demanded, staring hard at where Harry was pointing.
"He'd best not be." Uncle Vernon said. Then to Harry: "Spell the words you don't know out, boy."
"After 'The' L-E-A-K-Y." Harry said. "That's the first new word. Then C-A-U-L-D-R-O-N. Is it right Uncle Vernon? Is it supposed to be that?"
"Hmmm." Uncle Vernon stared at the pub which he apparently couldn't see. "'Leaky Cauldron' sounds like it might be at least the right sort of place to start. There's a door into this place, which you can see?"
"Yes, Uncle." Harry said.
"Right: well you're to go in and then come straight… No, that won't do. You take me by the hand, and I'll take Dudley by the hand, and you lead us into this place. But be ready to get us out again, if I say the word, or come straight out, if you go in but leave us behind somehow…"
"Okay." Harry said.
"Why's he pulling us towards a wall, dad?" Dudley asked.
"He's not. There's something funny going on. Like in Doctor Who." Uncle Vernon said. "Just close your eyes, Dudley, and don't worry, until I say to open them."
And then they were in the pub.
Apparently, once they were inside, Uncle Vernon and Dudley had no problem seeing the pub. Things stopped looking 'wavery' to Harry, too.
Inside it looked a bit grotty, though, Harry thought, and the people who had been here already all looked a bit strange. Their clothes were odd, and most of the people seemed a bit sad or a bit tired. A couple of men were talking to one another, whilst all the other people simply sipped drinks or stared into space.
Uncle Vernon glanced around the room once, and then he pulled Harry and Dudley firmly with him by the hand, up to the bar. Here he stopped and dropped Harry's hand to pull several pieces of paper covered with writing out of a pocket, which he looked through carefully.
The entry of Harry and his cousin and Uncle had attracted some brief attention, but someone snorted and muttered something about 'blinking uglyborns traipsing in younger than ever' (or something which sounded like that) and the men and women (apart from the man behind the bar) lost interest.
"Excuse me please." Uncle Vernon said, at his politest, to the man behind the bar – who looked really old and bald and who had a crinkled face. "We're looking for a pub, probably called 'The Burbling Basilisk', which has an entrance," he squinted at his piece of paper, "to a place called Diagon Alley."
"Well this is The Leaky Cauldron, but the entrance to Diagon Alley is out the back, here." the man behind the bar said. He looked over Uncle Vernon and Harry and Dudley. "Muggle-born or half-blood children on a first visit, right?"
"Something like that." Uncle Vernon replied. "Boy's mother knows the place but can't make it here today."
"Well, you need someone with a wand to get you into the Alley, as you should know." the barman said. "Which I could do for you…"
"If you would, please, sir?" Uncle Vernon said.
It sounded odd to Harry, Uncle Vernon calling someone who looked like the barman, sir. Uncle Vernon sounded genuinely respectful, too.
His uncle obviously really wanted this man's help.
"Wands? What's going on here, dad?" Dudley asked.
"Quiet Dudley. You should see more, in a minute or two." Uncle Vernon said.
Harry and Dudley were in a bank.
It wasn't like any bank which Harry had seen before. It was a building with huge spaces, and polished stone floors and columns, and run by strange creatures about Harry's height dressed in scarlet and gold uniforms and who had long fingers and sharp eyes. Apparently these creatures were goblins.
There were more of the oddly dressed humans around in the bank too, although the clothes of many looked a lot better than those of the people back in the Leaky Cauldron, where the barman had a short while earlier shown Harry, his cousin, and his uncle out around the back and done something with a long stick to a wall, which had caused a secret doorway to open up to 'Diagon Alley'.
Diagon Alley was a long, old-fashioned looking street, filled with more oddly dressed people, and absolutely crazy shops, and dominated, once you got close to it, by the goblin-run bank of Gringotts.
Uncle Vernon had been quite firm on going to the bank first.
"They have different money here, and you can tell a lot about a culture and society by its bankers and financial systems." he'd said.
Uncle Vernon had said that in a manner which suggested he had been trying to teach Dudley an important lesson. Harry hadn't had any idea what his uncle had been going on about, and by the bewildered look on Dudley's face, he suspected that his cousin hadn't had any, either.
Uncle Vernon currently had a notebook and biro out and was talking to one of the goblins, whilst writing lots of notes. (The goblin in question was one of the bank-workers, who was seated on a high stool behind one of the counters.) Uncle Vernon had got a pocket calculator out at one point, but it seemed to have broken down, and he'd had to do several sums the hard way, by writing them down, whilst the goblin he was talking to looked politely puzzled, and then, bit by bit, something else.
Harry's uncle was talking business, of some sort, Harry thought. Uncle Vernon had even produced one of those cards, with his name and the company he worked for typed on, at one point, and handed it across to the goblin whom he was talking to, to the goblin's momentary surprise.
"Do you think… do you think that they eat people?" Dudley asked Harry, as a goblin headed past.
Harry's cousin seemed a bit scared and a bit awed by the goblins.
Harry considered the question, but couldn't make his mind up, one way or another.
"I don't know. Do bankers normally eat people?" he said back to his cousin.
"Dad says that some of them go around drinking blood." Dudley said wildly. "But that others are very good to know. Do you think… do you think…" he lowered his voice and glanced around fearfully, "their uniforms are those colours to hide the bloodstains?"
"Dried blood goes brown, Dudley." Harry said, having had slightly too many opportunities for his own liking before the end of last October to have become absolutely certain on this point. He screwed up his face. "And I don't think that monsters that eat people are supposed to live in places like this." he waved his arms around.
"Oh, right. Well I suppose you'd know." Dudley said, having now finally been acquainted with the fact that witches and wizards existed. "Because your parents were from places like this."
Harry wondered how the fact that his parents were 'from places like this' meant that he was supposed to know all about things like whether goblins ate people? But it apparently made sense to Dudley and it was nice to see Dudley actually treating him as something more than an inconvenience and unnecessary distraction from Dudley getting as much time and attention from everyone else as possible.
Meanwhile, Uncle Vernon's long conversation with the goblin seemed to be finally winding down, Uncle Vernon handed over a wad of banknotes, which the goblin inspected, and very carefully counted, and the goblin then produced several fists of metal coins from somewhere, which Uncle Vernon equally carefully counted and then dropped into one of his pockets.
"One last thing." Uncle Vernon said to the goblin. "The boy's parents" he gestured at Harry, "were from 'these parts'. Both now dead. I don't suppose you'd happen to know if they had anything here at Gringotts?"
"Their names?" the goblin enquired.
"James and Lily Potter." Uncle Vernon responded.
The goblin snapped his fingers and summoned another goblin. The two goblins held a briefly whispered conversation, then the just-summoned goblin headed off.
"It will take the clerks a few minutes to check the records for any strong-boxes or vaults held by witches or wizards under either or both those names." the goblin said.
"Splendid." Uncle Vernon said.
For some reason, he looked pleased by this development.
Uncle Vernon looked even more pleased when the other goblin came back, several minutes later, and – after another low whispered conversation between the two goblins – the one he had been talking to looked up to announce: "The only vault we have here belonging recently to a James or Lily Potter is that in theory waiting for their son, Harry James Potter. All enquiries relating it should be directed to the Chief Warlock, Albus Dumbledore, who is looking after the vault key for their son. Do not bother him, Mr. Dursley, if that boy is not Harry Potter. It is rumoured that the Chief Warlock transfigures treasure-thieves and time-wasters into small obsidian ornaments and keeps them in his office at Hogwarts."
This news caused Uncle Vernon to positively beam with pleasure for some reason.
He took a final note, then put notebook and biro away.
"It is a pleasure to do business with a goblin as astute as you." Uncle Vernon said, then turned away to collect Harry and Dudley. "Come along boys. I saw what looked like an ice-cream shop earlier, and it must be elevenses time by now."
And under his breath, Harry heard his uncle muttering to himself, as they left the bank: "Hah! I knew it. I knew there was more to this than met the eye…"
After a visit to the ice-cream shop, they went shopping – or rather, Uncle Vernon went shopping and Harry and Dudley trailed along behind him.
Uncle Vernon had a shopping-list of things to pick up, with some of his newly acquired coins. He ignored shops selling things like cauldrons, or broomsticks, or magic wands, and instead called in at shops which sold parchment and ink or shops which sold books.
Uncle Vernon wasn't even interested in books of spells, but instead wanted history books, and books about families and books about etiquette, with the odd book on calligraphy thrown in.
Harry wasn't sure what calligraphy was, until he peeked inside one of the books on it which Uncle Vernon spent several minutes negotiating for (apparently in shops in Diagon Alley you could haggle about prices, which Uncle Vernon seemed to enjoy, tremendously) and discovered that it appeared to be about how to make your writing look fancy. Harry had a nasty suspicion that at least one of these books about calligraphy was going to be pushed in his direction within the next few days, as part of his learning all about 'good manners'.
They also went into a shop which sold various animals, where Uncle Vernon bought a small brown owl. Dudley got to carry the owl, in its cage, of course, whilst Harry was disappearing beneath the pile of other parcels and packages which Uncle Vernon was acquiring.
Finally, they popped into a joke shop.
This latter was apparently for Dudley's benefit, and after much hmm'ing, and hah'ing, Uncle Vernon allowed Dudley to select a packet of 'pop-up spiders' to use at school.
"You must absolutely not let your mother know that we have bought these." Uncle Vernon told Dudley, as the man behind the counter dropped them into a brown paper bag. "She does not want any magic except where absolutely unavoidable, around the house. We will all get in trouble if she finds out about these."
After that, with only a slight bit of bother extracting themselves from Diagon Alley, to get back into The Leaky Cauldron, they headed home.
During the drive back to Little Whinging, with Uncle Vernon humming to himself behind the steering wheel and apparently in a very good mood, Dudley announced that the owl was going to be called 'Penfold' because 'he looks a bit dopey, like Penfold'.
Author Notes:
Post-book interviews have apparently described The Leaky Cauldron as looking like a 'broken-down shop' to normal people. However, such a sight on the Charing Cross Road in between two prosperous businesses seems unlikely to me to generate the 'eyes sliding over it' effect described in the book of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, so instead I've taken the slight liberty of The Leaky Cauldron frontage looking to normal people (if they notice it at all) as a continuous section of blank wall.
Nobody says 'that's Harry Potter!' (or words to that effect) in this universe during Harry's visit to Diagon Alley in this chapter. Only the one independent identification (at The Leaky Cauldron) is indicated in Philosopher's Stone to have taken place during canon Harry's first trip 'back to the magical world' on his eleventh birthday, and unlike on that occasion, Harry in this chapter and universe lacks possible identifying features such as looks-like-his-father glasses and being present with Rubeus Hagrid (to my mind, a blatant 'bodyguard', if ever there was one, and just how many boys apart from Harry Potter would need one of those?). Harry's scar (if that is actually sufficient to serve as a means of visual identification from a distance) is assumed to be concealed partially or completely by Harry's hairline.
Readers may assume that Vernon gives Dudley a 'magic is real, but this is absolutely secret' talk in between The Leaky Cauldron and Gringotts; I didn't script anything other than very oblique references to it having taken place when I initially posted 'Harry Potter and the Greengrass Connection' on the other website, because I wanted to move the action from The Leaky Cauldron straight to Gringotts. Rather than hold posting this chapter up any more than it's already been done, I haven't added one here.
Given that eleven year old Harry is described in Philosopher's Stone as being about 'a head taller' than the Gringotts goblins, I've guesstimated from some height-charts that six-and-three-quarter year old Harry is probably about the same height as the goblins.
As I understand it, 'high levels of magic' in an environment can cause the breakdown of electronic devices; Uncle Vernon's pocket calculator is assumed to have been so overwhelmed by the time that Harry, Dudley and Uncle Vernon arrive in Gringotts.
Dudley's comment/fear regarding some bankers drinking blood comes of having overheard his father on occasions describe such people as 'bloodsuckers', and Dudley having taken it literally. Dudley's attitude to Harry is incidentally very much changed by this trip to Diagon Alley, because suddenly Harry is interesting, and Dudley likes having the attention (and approval) of interesting people.
For the record, I'm assuming that Gringotts keeps money and possessions in vaults safe for witches and wizards, but does not pay witches and wizards any kind of 'interest' for the privilege of the goblins keeping their money and possessions safe. The goblins do, however, often charge small 'storage' fees (payable in advance) for the use of a vault.
By the end of the visit to Gringotts Uncle Vernon is quite certain from the way that the goblins reacted to his last enquiry that his nephew, Harry, has a lot of money in storage at Gringotts (left there by Harry's parents), and that it will be coming Harry's way some day...
I'm not sure if anything like them is mentioned in canon, but 'popup spiders' are assumed to be paper spiders which are inserted between pages of a book or under an item. When the book is opened or the item raised, they turn into real spiders and scuttle off.
The 'Penfold' after whom Dudley names the owl is a character (actually a hamster, but Dudley clearly thinks the owl's expression is the same) from the 1980's cartoon series Danger Mouse.
Finally, although not indicated in this chapter, Mrs. Figg happens to spot Harry, Dudley, and Uncle Vernon returning to Privet Drive complete with owl 'in tow' – wherefore the next update will see one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore making a rather urgent visit to Privet Drive, for a chapter from Vernon Dursley's perspective.