Chapter 8

Disclaimer: the voices tell me that I don't own any of this, and the voices are always right.

Last chapter

'How the hell is a brass ring going to get me to this diagon ally?' he thought to himself before the ring was thrust into his hands and he felt a strange pulling sensation on his navel.

and now

Suddenly Harry found himself standing in a grungy back ally. Looking over the ally he sincerely hoped that this place was not indicative of the rest of the wizarding world. He breathed a sigh or relief when Hagrid led him out of the ally on to the streets of London. His mind finally catching up with the rest of him he simply had to ask.

"What was that?"

Giving a slight chuckle Hagrid explained "that 'arry was a portkey. Dumbledore set it up for ya so we could get 'ere and get yer shopping done."

"I see." Harry lied. Truthfully he didn't have a clue what just happened other then it involved something called a 'portkey'. Just as he was going to ask another question Hagrid stopped suddenly outside what looked like an old pub.

"The leaky caldron, this place is famous all over England ya know." Hagrid said this last part with no small amount of pride. Once again Harry was somewhat disappointed at what he saw. If this place was what he could expect from the rest of the wizarding he may just forgo it completely and stick to his sith training. However thinking back on his lessons he knew not to judge something by the way it looked. His master had made sure that he had learnt this lesson early in his studies. Shrugging his shoulders and fallowing Hagrid into the decrepit little pub he noticed that the inside matched the outside and was beginning to feel disheartened.

"The usual Hagrid?" the barkeep asked reaching for a cup.

"Not right now Tom, on offcial 'ogwarts business." Clapping Harry on the back, if not for his training Harry was sure he would be sprawled out on the floor.

At this the barman caught his first sight of the boy that had come in with Hagrid "good lord... Is that – can it be?" Harry felt a little uncomfortable under such close scrutiny by a complete stranger. But before he could inquire the bar keep started up again. "Bless my soul it is. Harry Potter, the Harry Potter what an honour to meet you." Forcefully taking harries hand and shaking it Harry was conflicted. The sith in him was telling him to kill the man for touching him. However logically he knew he had to keep his act up. Logic won in the end, but Harry made a note to kill the man latter. Also the question as to why this man was shaking his hand crossed his mind but deciding to ask Hagrid latter he simply went into autopilot until he found himself in front of what use to be a brick wall.

"Now what happened here?" Hagrid asked no one in particular.

Just then tom walked out. "Damdest thing, t'was like that when I woke up this morning haven't had a chance to put up a new barrier yet."

Thinking back to the conversation he had had with his master last night he had a pretty good idea as to what had happened.

"Well, suppose it don' matter. Come on 'arry full day o' shopping ahead." Walking through the hole Harry caught his first glance of diagon ally. Although a bit too bright and colourful for his liking he was glad to see that this place at least looked more impressive than the leaky cauldron. Walking down the street Harry decided that it would be best to ask now while they weren't busy shopping.

"Hagrid, why were all those people in there acting like I was some kind of celebrity or hero or something?"

Stopping to think of an answer Hagrid turned to Harry "well, ya see. ... How to explain this." Stoking his beard obviously thinking hard. "Ya see its cause you kinda are."

Raising any eyebrow at this Harry held in a laugh, he was a hero, that wasn't exactly what he was shooting for. "I'm a hero? Mind telling me why?" he replied in an incredulous tone.

"Err ... well 'arry ya see no one really sure how it happened but about ten years ago you defeated you-know-who." Hagrid said this last part in almost a whisper.

"First, no I don't know who. And second how could I defeat someone when I was only one?" to say Harry was confused was an understatement. From what he could tell he was famous for killing someone when he was one.

"No one knows how you defeated him the only thing we do know is that some how ya survived the killing curse that's why they call ya the boy-who-lived." Harry couldn't help but snort at the stupid title. "and as for your other question ... well no one says his name out loud, all ya need to know was he was the last Dark Lord." Hagrid finished and gave a small shiver simply at the thought of his name. Turning back he started walking to the bank with Harry right behind him.

Harry however was thinking over what he had just simply put himself in auto pilot. 'Well this is interesting.' He thought to himself. 'So I'm a hero to an entire nation of wizards for killing their last Dark Lord. A title I've been working to obtain for the past two years, ironic.

"Here we are Gringgots."

Harry snapped out of his thoughts and looked around taking in his surroundings. It looked like most other bank. Lines of people waiting to be served the only difference would be the bank tellers. 'What odd creatures'.

"Err ... 'ello we're 'ere to withdraw some money from 'arry Potter's vault 'ere." Hagrid asked a little nervously, Harry found this odd Hagrid had to be at least four times as big as the teller. Deciding there was more to these creatures than meet the eye he decided to look into it later.

"Do you have master Potter's key?" the teller asked rather coldly

"Oh yeh, it's in 'ere somewhere." Hagrid said while rummaging around his coat. Finally finding it, he showed it to the teller. While doing this he whispered something that Harry couldn't make out.

"Very well, everything seems to be in order." Turning his head the teller shouted "Griphook!" just then another small creature the same as the teller seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Yes sir." Griphook responded. "Take young Harry Potter to his family vault and then take mister Hagrid to vault 713." "Yes sir. This way please." Griphook waved his hand becoming them to follow him.

Both Harry and Hagrid followed Griphook out a side door and down a long spiral stair case until they walked in to a large cavern filled with old looking mining carts. Looking up at Hagrid Harry could see that the large man was starting to turn green.

"I hate these things." Hagrid said weakly looking directly at one of the carts.

A/N

just want to let ya know diagon ally is going to be a little slow it should pick up by chapter ten. and as always read & review.