Chapter 3: Diagon Alley

Late in July, Lewis was sitting in his bedroom, trying to focus on a novel his father had recommended as one of his favourites as a boy and not to dwell yet again on Professor McGonagall and the incredible future she had offered him. Suddenly, a sharp rapping on the window interrupted his attempt. He looked up to see what had made the noise and nearly fell off his bed.

There was a large tawny bird, an owl, hovering outside his window with an envelope in its beak. He just stood there staring for a moment, not knowing what to make of its sudden appearance. This did not seem to please the owl, and it rapped impatiently on the window, as if demanding to know why Lewis was making it wait. He hurried to let it in and was even more surprised when it dropped the envelope, which he now saw was addressed to him, in his lap and flew off again, apparently wishing to make up for the time he had cost it. Still puzzled, Lewis began to unfold his letter.

Mr. Lewis Moore

Corner Bedroom

16 Mowbray Rd

Harlow, England

United Kingdom

Dear Mr. Moore,

We are pleased that you have decided to join us for the coming year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Pursuant to our earlier conversation, in order to be successful in your studies here, you will require certain items as listed in your letter of acceptance.

To assist you in the purchase of these necessities, Professor R. Hagrid, will accompany you and several other new students to Diagon Alley in London. We ask that your parents bring you to the Leaky Cauldron Pub, located at (address here) London at promptly 10am.

Be advised that those without magical abilities are unable to see the Leaky Cauldron from the street, and thus it would be best if your parents were to allow you to enter on your own.

While you will obviously be able to use your own discretion in the purchase of the items you will need for the coming school year, it is generally recommended that incoming students bring no less than three hundred and twenty five pounds in non-magical money to change at Diagon Alley.

Best of luck with your shopping, and I sincerely look forward to welcoming you to Hogwarts on September the 1st.

Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts

The morning of 31 July came at the end of a long week, indeed a long month, of clouds and near perpetual rain. Yet, Lewis hardly noticed the weather, so excited was he by the prospect of his first trip into the magical world. His parents had to send him back up to his room three times to finish dressing, and when he came out the third time with mismatching socks, Tom and Amelia Moore just looked at each other and smiled.

After what seemed like an eternity, it was time to leave and the family piled into their little car to head to London. They encountered unusually little traffic for that time of year.

"Perhaps, this dour weather is keeping everyone in their beds late," remarked his father as they got closer to their destination, "and a good thing too. I think that if he had to spend even a few minutes more in this care, Lewis might just explode."

The Moores chuckled, but before Lewis could begin to ponder a retort, he saw a building materialize on his right.

"Mum, Dad, stop the car! We've arrived!"

The Leaky Cauldron was certainly an unimposing place. There were more than a few broken shutters, and one of the windows at the top seemed to need replacing. Yet it had an air of mystery about it, that both made Lewis nervous and want to run inside. He gave his mum a quick kiss, checked his pocket for the money his parents had given him, and turned to head inside, barely hearing the parting words his dad gave him.

"Don't forget son, we'll just be at the theatre nearby, so call us when you've finished or if you need anything. Good luck!"

Watching as his son seemed to fade away, Tom Moore turned to give his wife a quick kiss and they climbed back into the car.

The Leaky Cauldron itself didn't seem all that magical. If anything it was a little run down. It was the people inside that truly amazed Lewis. The place was filled with men and women in dark cloaks, many of them sipping strange drinks. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn that one gentleman was drinking a tall glass of blood. As he looked around him at the pubs patrons, most of the excitement that had propelled him through the door dissolved into nerves and he just stood frozen at the door for a few minutes. A glance at the strange looking clock above the bar though, seemed to indicate that 10 o'clock was fast approaching. He took a deep breath to steady himself and walked over to the man who seemed to be in charge.

"Excuse m..m..me, sir," he stammered, "I'm s…s…supposed to be meeting a Professor Hagrid here. Could you…?"

"Don't worry, m'boy," the hunched man answered. "Tom's the name. Muggleborn are you?"

Lewis nodded.

"Well then, you may as well join the rest of your lot over there. Hagrid's bound to be along soon enough." And he pointed over to a corner of the pub where three other children around his age were sitting.

Taking yet another deep breath, Lewis walked over to the table where the others were.

"My name is Lewis. I'm supposed to be new at Hogwarts this year. Tom, I think it was, over at the bar said that you were waiting for Professor Hagrid as well."

A tall, dark skinned boy stood up.

"Yep, brought my letter and everything, just in case. Name's James Fletcher. You should sit down and wait with us."

He pulled out a chair for Lewis and once he had scooted himself up to the table, he turned to look at the two girls sitting there. The blond one spoke up first.

"Alice Smith, and this is Agnes…Turner." She turned to the girl sitting next to her. "Did I get that right?"

"Perfect," she replied, with a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes.

Getting off the subject of names, Lewis asked, "And you're all witches and wizards too?"

Again, Fletcher was the first to speak, "At least that's what McGonagall told us when she came by. Never heard anything of magic before in my life though. I imagine the whole lot in here are too. Then again, she also told us to be here at ten o'clock, and it's already ten past and here we still sit all alone."

Lewis had to admit that it was rather surprising that a woman such as Professor McGonagall, or indeed anyone she associated with, could be anything other than on time. As he thought it over, Alice and Fletcher resumed the conversation they had been having before he arrived, something about Fletcher's football prowess. This left him to ponder the other girl at the table, Agnes, her name was.

At first glance, she was nothing much to look at, certainly not when sitting next to Alice. She was rather small, a trait she shared with Lewis, and her brown hair was just a bit too mousy to really be called brunette. Yet, Lewis soon found himself drawn into the eyes behind her wire-rimmed glasses. They were a deep blue, almost bordering on black, and as you looked into them you could see the intelligence and fire lying beneath such a meek exterior. So absorbed was he that he hardly noticed the irritated look that was starting to come over those eyes as he continued to stare.

"What are you on about?" she asked. "Do you plan to continue staring at me all day, because I assure you, Alice is a much better object for your affections."

"Sorry, I'm just a bit nervous is all."

"It's all right," she responded, "I probably wouldn't have snapped at you if I wasn't anxious too. It just seems so hard to believe. One day a woman shows up on my doorstep, promising me a whole new life, and then a month with nothing. Now, I'm here, and everything seems perfectly normal. Is this just some sort of practical joke?"

Lewis had to admit, he was beginning to wonder much the same thing, at least until he looked up to see the Leaky Cauldron's newest arrival. An enormous, shaggy looking man stood in the doorway. He was at least twice as tall as Lewis, and nearly four times as wide. Did they have giants in this world too? Even more alarming, the man began to make his way over to their table, pausing only briefly to wave at Tom the bartender.

When he arrived at their table, even Alice and Fletcher had fallen silent as they waited for him to speak.

"Hullo. So you lot are the new Hogwarts students, right?"

They nodded.

"Well then, I'm Professor Hagrid," the man smiled slightly as he said the Professor part. "Everybody got their letters…good. Off we go then."

And without a word the four of them got up to follow him to an alley behind the bar.

Fletcher was the first one to find his voice, "Excuse me, err… Professor, but where are we exactly?"

"This m'boy is the entrance to Diagon Alley."

He continued, as the four of them looked around even more confused than before, "Now, before we go, there are a few things you need to know. Firs' thing you lot are going to need to do is to change your muggle money. No use trying to buy anything with those little bits o' paper you've got now. For that we'll head to Gringotts, the wizarding bank. It's run by goblins, mighty sensitive folk, so make sure you don't insult them or stare too much while we're there. In Diagon Alley itself, it's very, very important that you don't wander off. Don't want you getting lost. Well, before you forget any of that, may as well go."

With that, he pulled a large pink umbrella out of his enormous coat. Mumbling to himself, he tapped a few bricks on the wall behind the rubbish bins in quick succession. For a moment it seemed that nothing was happening, and then the bricks began to move. Lewis' mouth dropped open as what had once been a dirty wall, became a gateway, with a world beyond it even more amazing than the sight he had just witnessed.

At long last, he knew that the world McGonagall had promised was real. Lewis turned to look at Agnes and he could see the same realization in her eyes. Together, they stepped across the threshold, almost forgetting to stay with Professor Hagrid as they took in everything.

The people were sombrely dressed, much as they had been in the Leaky Cauldron, and they hurried about their business with a great sense of urgency. But what errands they were! There were vendors selling newts, beetle eyes, and scales or offering samples from cauldrons with purple steam. And just over there was a shop selling actual flying broomsticks. What most appealed to Lewis though, was Flourish and Blotts, which seemed to be the bookshop. He couldn't help himself, he ran up to look in through the window, and he saw books flying all over the shop, quills recording orders all on their own. By the time he looked away, Professor Hagrid and the others had nearly disappeared down the street. He hurried to catch up and, a little out of breath, tried to stay with the Professor.

Walking alongside Professor Hagrid now, Lewis found himself bubbling over with curiosity about the magical world, about Hogwarts, about everything. He took the opportunity, though, to ask the question that had been worrying him for quite some time.

"Professor, could I ask you a question?"

"Ask away."

"Well, it's just, it seems like there is a whole magical world out there, and I've never heard about any of it. How can I hope to compete with the other students, the ones who've been a part of this their whole lives?" Lewis looked away, embarrassed.

Professor Hagrid smiled kindly at Lewis as he answered, "Firs' off, you lot aren't the only muggleborns who will be coming to Hogwarts this year. They just don't like to bring firs' years down to Diagon Alley in large groups because what wit' you lot never havin' been here before an' all, they reckon that ye would be bound to wander off and get lost. So there'll be plenty who don't know nothin' about magic at all, like you. An' there's so much learnin' to do once ye get there that even those that do know somethin' haven't got much of an advantage."

"Thanks Professor."

He was about to ask another of the thousands of questions buzzing around his head, but just then they arrived at Gringotts and he and the others followed Professor Hagrid inside the most imposing building on the street to change their muggle money.

An hour later, Lewis stood next to Agnes in the queue at Flourish and Blotts, both of them hardly able to see over the piles of books in their arms.

"It's a good thing my parents gave me a few extra quid," Lewis said. "they must have known I'd end up buying twice the booklist."

"Mine as well, but I still didn't have enough to get the book on magical creatures of England. Maybe they'll have it at the Hogwarts library. I've just found out how much I don't know and I'm dying to learn."

Lewis looked again at his stack of books, though in bending he nearly dropped all of them.

"I've got it here, actually. If you like, you could borrow it once we get to Hogwarts."

She smiled, "that would be wonderful. By the way, I'm sorry I was a bit cold before. I've never been great with meeting new people, and suddenly it seems like every face I come across is a new one."

"Don't worry about it. I can think of about twenty things I'm not great with. Honestly, I'm shocked that I haven't dropped these books yet."

And with that, they all fell to the floor.

Laughing, Agnes put her books down too and helped Lewis to gather his up. They walked up to the counter, paid for their treasures and walked back out to the street to where Professor Hagrid, Fletcher, and Alice were waiting for them.

"At last! We thought we were going to have to send a rescue party in for you two," Fletcher said. "And I'm half-serious too."

"Well, now that you lot are all together again," Professor Hagrid put in, "there's just one thing left to do. It's time to get your wands."

The first years fell silent as they followed the professor down the street. He slowed for a moment outside a dusty, boarded up shop called Ollivander's, as if out of habit, but quickly sped up again until they reached their destination, a small shop called Swish and Flick. Unlike all the other shops they had been to that day, however, the front door was bolted. Professor Hagrid knocked three times and then stepped back to wait. So long in coming was the shopkeeper that Lewis began to wonder if there was another wandmaker in town. Eventually though, there was a quick series of knocks in reply. Again, the professor knocked, though this time only twice.

At last a weak voice came through the tiniest of cracks in the door, "Who g..g..goes there?"

"Marcus, it's Hagrid with another group of firs' years. Are you going to let us in or not?"

"First tell me what sort of wand exploded during your first visit here."

The professor rolled his eyes, but responded, "Birch with a phoenix feather core."

This time there was no response, but Lewis heard at least six separate locks being undone, and finally the door swung open revealing a small, shabby looking shop. It was seemed to match its owner quite well. Marcus was a small man, a dwarf next to the professor, with a nervous look about him. At first glance he seemed to be about forty, but he was so anxious that Lewis guessed that he was probably younger. After all of his hesitation at the door, he was certainly in a rush to get them into his shop, practically pulling Alice in by her hair.

"Well, th…then," Marcus asked looking around at his guests, "who's f..f..first?"

Fletcher was once again the first one to volunteer, and Alice, Agnes, and Lewis squeezed onto a flower-covered sofa that bore a remarkable resemblance to the one in Lewis' grandmother's sitting room while Marcus began his measurements. The first few were normal enough, the length of Fletcher's arm, the distance between his shoulders, the size of his head. When the measure started to determine the distance between his nostrils, though, Lewis decided that his attention was best directed elsewhere.

The shop was orderly enough. Beyond the sitting area at the front, he could see shelves filling up almost the entire place filled with boxes upon boxes in all different colours. The were all neatly stacked, and the place had clearly been swept recently, but there was no adornment, no embellishment, no sign that the owner spent any more time there than was absolutely necessary. Before, Lewis could think any more on that though, Fletcher was smiling and holding a wand and Marcus was calling for the other young gentleman to come over.

Marcus pulled out his measuring tape, and without a word proceeded to make the same measurements that he had for Fletcher. A few minutes later, there was a long piece of paper filled with his scribblings and he had disappeared among the shelves. He came back with a small stack of multicoloured boxes.

"Here you are lad," he said, pulling a long, thin wand out of the top box and handing it to Lewis, "thirteen inches, oak and dragon heartstring. Give it a go now."

At that moment, Lewis regretted not having paid more attention while Fletcher was choosing his wand, because he had absolutely no idea what to do. Feeling incredibly foolish, he waved the wand around a bit. It only made the feeling worse when nothing happened, and Marcus took the wand away, pulling out another for him to try.

The results from the second wand, ten inches holly and unicorn hair, were much the same, and though with the third wand Lewis accidently caused Marcus' hat to fall off his head, he took that one away too.

By the time the fifth wand came out of its box, Lewis was starting to wonder whether or not he was a wizard at all. This one was different, though. From the moment he held it, he could feel a warmness spreading from his fingertips to his entire body. He waved it and purple sparks flew out the end.

Marcus smiled for the briefest of moments, "Well there you have it, twelve and a half inches birch and unicorn hair."

Hagrid clapped him on the back, "Well done m'boy."

Lewis hardly heard any of this though, as one thought was crowding out all others in his head. It's real, it's happening. I'm a wizard, and now I've got a wand to prove it.

Smiling, he sat down to watch Alice and Agnes choose their wands.