Chapter 5 – Diagon Alley
Hagrid seemed to know exactly where they were going, was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier in the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small, and the trains too slow. After passing several bookshops, music stores, cinemas, and restaurants, Hagrid stopped.
"This is it," he announced. "The Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."
It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub, and if Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, the twins wouldn't have noticed it. As it was, all of the people hurrying by moved right past it as if they couldn't see it at all. In fact, Laura had the most peculiar feeling that they couldn't, and by looking at Harry's face, he thought so too.
"Can the… Muggles see it, Hagrid?" she asked.
"Nope." He replied, pushing open the door. "Got Muggle repellin' charms on it. In yeh go!"
The twins walked in after Hagrid, and looked around. It was very dark and shabby, and gave Laura the creeps. The low buzz of chatter stopped when Hagrid walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"
"Can't Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," clapping each of his great hands on each of their shoulders, making Laura and Harry's knees buckle.
"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry and Laura, "are they- can they be-?"
The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly still and silent.
"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry and Laura Potter… what an honor."
The next moment, there was a great scraping of chairs, and Harry and Laura found themselves shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.
"Doris Crockford, Ms. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."
"Delighted, Ms. Potter."
"Always wanted to shake your hand."
Laura looked over at Harry, who was surrounded by just as many witches and wizards as he, and a small witch, probably four years old, walked up and asked for his autograph. Harry looked over at Laura, and she winked. She turned back to the crowd gathering around her, and saw a pale young man making his way forward, one of his eyes twitching.
"H-hello, P-P-Potter," The man stammered. "I'm P-Professor Q-Quirrell."
"Hello, Professor," Laura greeted Professor Quirrell. If this man was going to be teaching at Hogwarts, she wanted to know as much about him as possible. "What kind of magic do you teach?"
"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he would rather not think about it. "N-Not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.
"Well it was nice meeting you Professor," Laura said; Hagrid was motioning for her to follow him. "See you at Hogwarts!"
Harry, Laura and Hagrid, after ten minutes of handshaking, finally managed to squeeze out into a small courtyard on the other side of the bar. Once they were outside, Hagrid beamed at the two of them.
"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you were famous! Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' to meet yeh- mind you, he's usually tremblin'.
"Is he normally that nervous?" Laura asked.
"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthan' experience… They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and then there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag – never been the same since. Scared of his students, scared of his own subject – now, where's me umbrella?"
Laura looked at Harry. "Vampires?" he mouthed. Laura shrugged. At this point, nothing would surprise her. When she looked back at Hagrid, he had out his pink umbrella, and was poking a brick that was a little bit above a trashcan with it.
"Here we go. Stan' back!" Hagrid said as he prodded the brick once more. The bricks started shifting and moving until there was an archway leading out of what was once solid brick wall.
"Welcome," Hagrid said, "to Diagon Alley."
Laura wished she had at least eight more eyes. There were all sorts of shops; ones that sold cauldrons, an Apothecary, and a bunch of boys about her age were standing with their noses pressed against the window of one shop. She heard them talking as she walked by, "It's the new Nimbus 2000! The fastest ever!"
There were shops selling robes, and shops selling quills and rolls of parchment.
Then Laura remembered something as she was reading the list of school supplies necessary for first years. "Hagrid?" she asked. "How are we supposed to pay for any of this? We haven't got any money."
"There yeh are Laura," he said, pointing to a giant white building that towered above all of the other shops. "That's Gringotts. It's the wizard bank."
"Wizards have banks?" Harry asked.
"Jus' the one," Hagrid replied. "Ain't no safer place, 'cept perhaps Hogwarts; it's guarded by-"
"Goblins?" she asked, having spotted one by the burnished bronze doors. He was a head shorter than either one of the twins, had a clever, swarthy face, which was covered by a long beard. He also had long fingers and toes, she noticed, as he bowed them inside.
There, they came across another set of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
"Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.
A pair of goblins bowed them through the doors, and they moved into a vast marble hall. About a hundred goblins were sitting behind the counters, and there were too many doors to count leading off the hall. Hagrid showed Harry and Laura over to the counter.
"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money out of Mr. Harry Potter and Ms. Laura Potter's safe."
"You have their key, sir?"
"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers.
"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key, which the goblin looked at closely. "An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."
The goblin read the letter carefully, before replying, "very well, I will have someone take you down. Griphook!"
Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and the twins followed Griphook toward one of the many doors.
"What's in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" asked the twins.
"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my jobs worth ter tell yeh that."
"Great," Laura whispered to Harry. "Now, I'm never going to stop wondering about it…"
They passed through the door into a stone passageway lit with flaming torches. There were railway tracks on the floor, sloping steeply downward. The four climbed in – Hagrid with some difficulty – and they were off. At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages, Laura hanging on to her wig so it wouldn't fly off. She tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. Once, she saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage, but before she could see if it was a dragon, they had rushed past.
As they passed an underground lake, Harry called out over the noise of the cart, "I never know, what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"
Laura started at him with her mouth open, as Hagrid responded, "Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it. Don't ask me any more questions, I think I'm going to be sick."
"Harry," Laura said, as if she was talking to a five year old. "We're racing through passageways underneath a wizard bank, and you actually care?"
"No not really… Just thought I'd ask," Harry chuckled.
They cart stopped, and Hagrid got out and leaned on the wall, knees shaking. Griphook walked over to the vault, put the key in the lock, and pulled it open. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, both Harry and Laura gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze coins.
"All yours," smiled Hagrid.
"All theirs - it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from them faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much the twins cost them to keep? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to them.
Hagrid helped Harry and Laura pile some of it into two bags, explaining about the money. "The Gold ones are Galleons. Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine bronze Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough." Turning to Griphook, he said, "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"
"One speed only," said Griphook.
Deeper and deeper they went gathering speed, until they stopped at vault seven hundred and thirteen, which had no keyhole.
"Stand back," the goblin said importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.
"What would happen if I tried that?" asked Laura.
The goblin smiled rather wickedly. "You would be sucked inside and trapped there. We check to see if someone's inside about once every ten years."
The smoke had finished pouring out of the door, and Laura leaned forward to see what was in the high-security vault. She looked at the vault's only contents, a small grubby package wrapped in brown paper. Hagrid picked it up, put it in one of his many pockets, and walked back outside.
"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.
*****
"Let's get yer uniforms firs'," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "I'm gonna go get a pick-me-up from the Leaky Cauldron. I hate them Gringotts carts." The twins entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, Harry looking rather nervous, and Laura excited.
"Hogwarts, dears?" the woman Laura took to be Madam Malkin said. "Got another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."
In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Laura and Harry got on the stools next to him.
"Hello," said the boy. "Hogwarts too?"
"Yes," Laura replied.
"Malfoy. Draco Malfoy," he said with a slight smirk on his face. "You know, I think after I'm done getting supplies that I'll go drag father off to look at racing brooms, and get him to buy me one. Have you got your own broom?"
"No," said Harry. Laura could tell that he strongly disliked the boy.
"Play Quidditch at all?"
"No."
"I do. Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"
"No," Laura said. She could see where Harry was coming from, this boy reminded her of Dudley.
"Well no one really knows until they get there, of course, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave wouldn't you?"
"Mmm," she said, wishing she could say something more interesting.
"What's your name, anyway?"
"I'm Laura Potter," she said, enjoying the look of astonishment on his face. "And this is my brother Harry."
After the boy had managed to close his mouth, he sneered, "Where's your sister, then?"
Harry and Laura looked at each other, and asked, "What sister?"
"That's you done, my dears," Madam Malkin said. Laura and Harry, not sorry for the excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the stools. Laura was thankful for the interruption; she wasn't sure how much longer she could go without snapping. She supposed that it wouldn't be good to hurt someone before school even started.
The twins walked outside with their robes, and Laura asked Hagrid what Quidditch was.
"Blimey, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know. It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's played up in the air on broomsticks, but it's kind of hard to explain the rules."
"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"
"School houses. There's four-"
"What are they?"
Hagrid smiled. "You'll find out soon enough."
They stopped at Flourish and Blotts to get their schoolbooks, and a couple of other books for Laura, including Quidditch Through the Ages and Hogwarts, A History. Hagrid had to drag her away from one she was reading, called Curses and Countercurses, in order to figure out how to curse Dudley.
"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not allowed to use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances."
They stopped by the Apothecary as well, and then Laura checked her list again, and said, "We just need wands."
"Follow me firs'," said Hagrid. "Got ter get yer a birthday present."
Twenty minutes later, they had left Eeylops Owl Emporium. Harry was carrying a large cage with a beautiful snowy owl inside, and Laura one with a solid black owl. They couldn't stop stammering their thanks, managing to sound like Professor Quirrell.
"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from the Dursleys. Jus' Ollivanders left now – only place fer wands."
A magic wand. This was what Laura had been looking forward to. They entered a small shabby shop with a single wand on display in the window.
A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place; empty except for a single spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.
"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. But Laura had seen the man in the shadows before he said anything, so she smiled at him.
"Hi," she said, and Harry stared at her incredulously.
"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry and Laura Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."
Laura smiled. This was the first she had heard of her parents. "What about my dad?" she asked eagerly.
He smiled slightly too as he said, "Your father favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it — it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." Mr. Ollivander moved closer and touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger. "I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it. Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands… well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do…"
He shook his head and then, spotted Hagrid.
"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again… Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?
"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.
"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.
"Er — yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.
"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.
"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.
Hmm… Laura thought. So he's not allowed to do magic… the wand pieces are in his umbrella. Yeah, I kind of see what he means about not telling anyone.
"Well now…" he said. "Mr. and Ms. Potter. Which is your wand arm?"
"My right," said Laura, and Harry nodded his head.
"Hold out your arms. That's it." He measured Harry and Laura from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."
Laura suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between Harry's nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.
"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave."
Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once, and gave it to Laura to try. Again, it was snatched back immediately.
"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try —"
Harry tried — but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander, and passed to Laura. He took it back from her quickly too.
"No, no — here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, and try it out."
They tried. And tried. Laura had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.
"Tricky customers, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere — I wonder, now — yes, why not — unusual combination — holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."
Laura and Harry had both stepped forward to try the wand, when it started to glow gold. It rose out of the box and hovered about three feet above their heads. It grew brighter and brighter, causing Laura to squint. Then, with a blinding flash of light, it separated into three glowing golden balls. Then it was over, and the light vanished, leaving three wands in the light's place. Two of the wands dropped into Laura and Harry's hands, and the third vanished with a shower of golden sparks.
It was quiet for a moment. Then Harry turned to Ollivander and asked, "What was that? That's not normal, is it?"
"I'm not sure," he replied slowly. "I've never heard of anything like it before." He looked at the box that had previously contained the wand... Or wands. "That's curious too... Curious... Curious..."
"What else is curious?" asked Laura tentatively.
Ollivander fixed his pale gaze on her, took hers and Harry's wands in his hands, and said, ""I remember every wand I've ever sold. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand… wands, gave another feather — just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for these wands when their brother — why, their brother gave you those scars."
Laura frowned.
"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember… I think we must expect great things from you both… After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great. As for what happened earlier," He said after a pause, "If I had to guess, I would say that since both of you fitted this wand perfectly, the wand replicated itself. As for the third wan-"
Hagrid coughed loudly from the chair in the corner of the shop, where he had sat down again. The twins both jumped; they had forgotten that he was there, and looked at him suspiciously. "Come on!" he said loudly. "Got ter get yeh back ter yer Aunt an' Uncle's house."
They paid seven gold galleons each for the wands, and they left the store, retracing their steps and heading towards the train station. Harry and Laura boarded the train, and Hagrid handed them another train ticket.
"Yer tickets fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September — King's Cross — it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with one of yer owls, they'll know where to find me…. See yeh soon."
Laura and Harry looked out the window to watch Hagrid as the train moved away from the station, but they blinked and he was gone.
Harry looked at her. "Magic, you reckon?" he asked.