The future students quickly climbed the stairs, barely hearing the bricks close behind them as their mouths opened in amazement. They had climbed up into a bustling area of shops and people in every inch. The streets were lined with stores where teenagers their own age stood staring through the windows at the treasures each shop held. They looked around at cauldrons, broomsticks, animals, and potions of all sorts. Parents were struggling with packages stacked to reach their own height as they entered still more stores. Professor McGonagall found her way to the front of the group, recomposing herself after fighting through the crowd. "Please pull out your supply lists. You will find everything you need for school here. If you would form a neat line in front of me, I will hand you all your spending money. Welcome, my students, to Diagon Alley."
After retrieving their money from the Professor, Kaela, Jen, and Crissy stood wondering where to go first. Jen pulled out her letter and ran her finger down the list. "We have a lot of shopping to do…Ummm…I guess we'll start at the top of the list?" She pointed to the uniform section of the letter, where it addressed robes, hats, gloves, and cloaks. Kaela nodded and replied, "How about there?"
The trio turned to see a shop where many people were gathered staring through the window. They approached it, seeing for themselves that inside of the shop, a rather short, smiling woman was fitting robes to a blonde boy around the age of 15. The three of them entered and stood just inside the door, waiting for the woman to finish. She caught sight of them as the boy left the store and rushed over.
She wore robes of a deep mauve color; her face slightly red from what they could believe was smiling too much. Her voice was not nearly as crisp as Professor McGonagall's, but it was still a sweet sound in their ears. "Welcome, welcome! Dear, look at those dreadful clothes of yours. Madame Malkin will have you fixed up in no time! Come now; right this way, just follow me." The woman led them to a section of the store filled with robes of all shapes, sizes and colors. She looked over at the list in Jen's hand. "Oh, Hogwarts is so boring. Every year, the same thing. Three sets of plain black robes. I don't see why they can't use mauve; it's such a nice color. Don't you agree? Well, come along then. I suppose we must abide by their rules for the time being." She stopped in a section of plain black robes and pulled out three: one small, another slightly larger, and another for what appeared to be the taller half of students. "There, try them on." While Crissy, Jen, and Kaela pulled on their robes, Madame Malkin ran off to gather gloves, hats, and winter cloaks for them. When she came back, she let out a cry of excitement. "Oh, those fit wonderfully on you! Very well then! Three sets each of those, here is a hat and pair of gloves for each of you, I'll put everything in boxes…" She ran to the back and pulled out large boxes in which she piled all of their Hogwarts clothing in. "Alright, there you go! Good luck to all of you, and if you need any help, come back to old Madame Malkin!" Hurriedly, she gave them the boxes and led them out the door.
Crissy, Jen, and Kaela stood in the street and looked at one another. Crissy was the first to open her mouth. "Well…That was…Interesting. We need books, don't we? How about that store over there. It's like Books-A-Million times ten!" Crissy pointed at a large book store with the words "Flourish and Blotts" engraved into its stone. The building was the tallest on the street, several stories high as they noticed when they entered. They looked around at shelves of silk-bound, leather-bound, and stone-bound books as well as those in cages. New students were rushing around buying books like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them or Quidditch Through the Ages, while others hopelessly hunted for those such as The Invisible Book of Invisibility. While Jen and Kaela began looking for their school books, Crissy became infatuated with the Monster Book of Monsters found in one of the cages. Counting her money, disappointment spread across her face as she realized that she wouldn't be able to buy it and put the book with snapping fangs in the beds of certain others. She quickly caught up to the others as they all paid for their schoolbooks and exited the store.
They quickly gathered their cauldrons, phials, telescopes, and scales from other stores, pausing as they reached the last two items on the list. Jen looked down at it. "Right…We need to get wands…" She peered around her stack of boxes at the old building baring the sign of "Ollivander's". They walked in and set their packages down as an elderly man slid over to them along a shelf of boxes. His voice was slightly scratchy and hoarse, though not enough to muffle his words. "Ah, more students. You are the first to enter from the muggle world. They seem to be expecting great things from some of you…I guess we find that out here." He climbed down the ladder and looked at Crissy. "Ah, very good…Let's try this…" He pulled a box from a shelf and opened it, handing the wand to Crissy. It began to glow a slight green color in her hand. "As I thought…A wand of vinewood and dragon heartstring. Quite a powerful wand if used in powerful hands." He looked toward Jen and pulled out another box, handing the wand to her. It began to glow red in her hand. "Quite strange indeed…A mahogany wand with Phoenix feather…Already the two of you have acquired wands similar to those of the greatest magical beings of all time…I wonder what yours will be." He looked at Kaela before pulling down a final box and handing her the wand. It glowed a silver color in her hand. "Rosewood and unicorn hair. Curious. Very curious that the three of you should stumble upon these wands…Perhaps we shall see in due time whether or not their expectations will be met…" Puzzled, the three paid for their wands and left.
Crissy looked at the other two. "This place is getting really weird. If only I had that book to send out on people…" Their final stop was a small shop at the end of the street where cages housing owls rested outside. Jen approached one of them. Its small black beak hid beneath feathers of white which were blackened at the tips. It had two large yellow eyes which met hers. She reached into the cage and lightly began to pet the bird with her first two fingers as it lovingly nibbled on them. At the same time, Kaela had found a small kitten whose white fur was marked with black stripes and Crissy had discovered a cat fatter than the others with fur of white, black, and brown. They were named Komali, Rinku, and Tufty respectively. With animals in cages and boxes in hand, they made their way back to the staircase where Professor McGonagall awaited.