Chapter 2: Diagon Alley

A/N: Hey again! I hope you like it so far! If not, oh well. I tried, didn't I? ANYWAY, for those who are still intrigued, here you are. ONWARD! ^_^

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise. Darn it! BUT I do own my imagination!

It had been a rough week before the day came of the reappearance of Professor Gigs. Daryl had come over, equipped with a small pouch given to him by his father before he had died. Rachel hadn't spoken to Daryl much over the past week. Her mother was correct when she foretold the event of Henry removing himself and his children from the household. This meant that Rachel's mother was free to use magic as she pleased, making it much easier on Rachel chore wise, though it meant that she was unable to use any electronics.

Janet had not allowed for much to be said about the magical world before this day, leaving her now only daughter surprised when she was to be introduced to it all, or it could be taken as laziness, letting Professor Gigs do all the work of explaining.

"Why aren't you taking me to get my school books? Why Professor Gigs?"

"Because I erased myself from that world, honey. I- I didn't realize that they knew that you were born." She paused and though for a moment before speaking. "The quill! I can't believe that I forgot! Hmm, well, anyways... I might as well be dead, for all the ministry knows. I'll get it all sorted out when you get back from today," she explained, while kneeling down to fix Rachel's outfit.

"How can someone just go missing like tha—"Daryl began to ask before being cut off.

"Both wars were unforgivable and torturing. So many people died, it was hard to calculate deaths. I'm surprised that the muggle world didn't suspect anything."

"And muggles? And ministry?" Ray asked.

"Muggles are people like William, Marie, and Henry, dear. They're people who don't have a magical core, a magical soul. And the ministry... it means the Ministry of Magic, the wizarding government." She stopped explaining when something clicked. "Oh, I almost forgot." She handed her a pouch like Daryl's. "It's not magically enhanced like Daryl's, but it's a good place to store money. It's all you'll need."

"Thanks." She gave her mother a weary smile.

At that moment, Professor Gigs appeared in the fireplace.

"You already got it approved by the Ministry?" asked Janet quickly.

"Not me," he began, "Brinson. She pulled a few strings to get the approval. Good thing too, would've taken a month for them to even get back to anyone else."

"One less job to erase off my list for today. I still have to explain to the ministry that I'm alive... and inform them to send off a few to deal with Henry and the kids..."

Rachel turned, startled. "Deal with them!?"

Janet was about to speak, but Gigs managed to respond for her by simply saying "The International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy states that muggles are not permitted to have knowledge of the wizarding society."

Janet nodded her head and looked at Rachel with a 'go ahead' look as she left the room.

"Now, let's get started. Today we will be traveling by floo powder. Do you know what that is?"

"Er, yeah, but I haven't actually used it yet."

"That's no problem that can't be fixed. Now, I want you to carefully repeat after me and throw your powder to the ground"

Rachel stepped into the fire place holding a hand full of powder.

"Di-a-gon Al-ley," he instructed carefully.

"Diagon Ally," she repeated. The floo powder was then thrashed to the ground and she was quickly engulfed in a green fiery flame. Her stomach felt as if it were a ticking time bomb, scheduled to go off any second. She finally set her stomach aside, realizing that she wasn't home anymore.

She stepped into a darkened pub, countless wizards and witches in sight (which was easy to tell as they were all wearing bright coloured cloaks and hats). Many wizards turned to see if anyone familiar had popped in, but alas, they all turned back to their previous tasks. Not much later, a small popping noise sounded from behind her, causing her to spin quickly. Daryl had popped up behind her, Professor Gigs following.

"Alright, now that we've arrived correctly, we'll just step out here," -pulling Rachel and Daryl along to step out into the back alley- "and hit a few bricks"-tapping several bricks with his wand- "and here we are."

Rachel and Daryl were now facing a bustling shopping district. People everywhere had capes, colourful robes, and some had pointy hats like the people in the pub that had recently stood behind them. They were all going into oddly named stores (some of which she recognised from The Prophet), having their own agenda.

"This is- This is Diagon Alley?" The buildings looked older, almost as if she was in a story book.

"Come along, and pull out your list and your coins. We have many stores to visit before the day is done."

They first set off to a shop called Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions. "First year?" a slim woman who must have been Madam Malkin, asked the boy standing ahead. He nodded. He was standing with a man, in which she presumed was his father.

"Ah, I remember your first robes Mr. Potter. Quite the talk you were."

"Err- yeah. Albus, here, is excited to join his brother this year." Just then Professor Gigs came closer and greeted the man.

He had small round glasses, they looked old and dirty, enough that one would think that he would buy new ones. Gigs ushered him to spare a few details concerning his everyday life and such, pressing the topic. At a certain point, their topic had become the first years on their sides.

"I was just here introducing Rachel here to Diagon Alley, along with Daryl, who'll be attending Hogwarts next year."

They all glanced over to her and Daryl. "Hi, it's nice to meet you." She said, as she shook his hand lightly.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter." She felt as if she had seen his name somewhere before, maybe in her newspaper.

"Rachel Higgins."

"Daryl Grenval"

Albus Potter was introduced just before they had to leave, as his other son James wouldn't stop talking about a new broom stick.

After she bought her robes, her hat, dragon hide protective gloves, and her winter cloak, they headed off to stores that sold things such as books, cauldrons, telescopes, vial sets and brass scales. Rachel looked at her list to see that she needed one more thing. A wand.

They set off to the last shop of the day. She looked at the run down sign; she thought that it must be quite old. This was proven once she finally read it:

Ollivander's : Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC.

They entered to find a pale, old man with wispy thin, white hair starring at her with a grin.

"Ah, hello. Your names? First years, I presume?"

"Rachel Higgins. And yeah, but it's only me today."

"Well, don't fear, we shall find you a wand soon enough."

He then began the searching process while a floating and intelligent measuring tape came and did exactly as its name intended it would do. It measured the length if her arm and floated back towards Mr. Ollivander, who was perched high up on a ladder looking at small, rectangular, black boxes. He handed her one he had been studying, taking a small piece of wood out of it beforehand.

"Fir, ten inches, phoenix feather. Give it a swish." Before doing so, she couldn't help but feel silly.

"Can't I just pick one?" asked Rachel. She could hear her professor laughing in the background oh so slightly.

"Oh no, Miss Higgins. The wand chooses the wizard, not the other way around." Mr. Ollivander said with an odd twinkle in his eye. Rachel was confused. It wasn't as if wands had feelings, right? She swished the wand anyway, breaking a vase placed on a shelf.

"No, no, no," he muttered as his hand snatched it from her. He kept handing her wands for the next few minutes. Fir, Holly, Apple, Cherry Tree. It felt as if the right one was nowhere in sight. This only made Mr. Ollivander more interested.

"This is hopeless, Daryl," she whispered to him while Ollivander was busy looking at boxes.

Daryl only shook his head and gestured towards Mr. Ollivander, who seemed to be attempting to catch her attention.

"Hmm, try this one." He handed her the wand.

"Oak, 13 inches, Unicorn Hair"

He handed it to her and Rachel gave it a flick. To her surprise, nothing broke, but everything magically began to fix itself, flying across the room, over her head.

"I believe we've found our match." He couldn't help but have an odd, somewhat creepy grin of triumph cross his face.

She bought her wand for 7 galleons and added it to her pile of books and equipment, handing Daryl some of the luggage. Rachel walked away happily and with confidence. This wasn't a dream? She wasn't barmy, was she?

"I truly appreciate everything you've done for me today."

"My pleasure," he said, as she handed her a small piece of paper. And with that they travelled back to Rachel's fireplace, looking forward to tell William all about her trip, but to realize that he was never coming back.

A/N: Hey yo Frodo! Holiday Break! Ah, how sweet, how awesome. Because of all this time on my hands, I have much time for these chapters, so the updates will be short (I hope), but after the break, I'll probably update like a tortoise because of exams. I'll try to put as many chapters up as I can! 'FOR NARNIA!' Or should I say 'FOR FRED WEASLEY & DUMBLES!'