I wake up early from the excitement. Then i suddenly have a thought. What if all the talk about witches and magic was just a dream?
I grab the bed sheets with wide eyes and listen carefully if i can hear Mr. Jocey downstairs or if he was never here and just part of my imagination.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"Time to get uo, Kayla, if you want to go to...um, to..." grandma trails off on the other side of my bedroom door.
"DIAGON ALLEY!" a man's voice shouts happily.
That was Mr. Jocey's voice! This wasn't a dream!
"Yes, Diagon Alley." grandma repeats a bit worriedly.
"Okay, i'm coming!"
I rush out of bed and trip over my school bag, falling onto my nose first. I glare at the bag. That actually really hurt my nose.
I jump down the stairs all ready. I take my acceptance envelope and grab a few grapes, too excited to eat a big breakfast.
We get into the car and Mr. Jocey insists to drive since grandma doesn't know where we are supposed to go. He says that we would have to go to London and she replies that she knows very well where London is. They have a debate which lasts an hour (or seems like an hour) and Mr. Jocey keeps on saying complicated magic terms. Grandma can't keep up, so in the end Mr. Jocey is driving. Grandma isn't happy at all.
I open my envelope and read it over and over again, as i sit in the back.
"You should read the list of things to buy when we get to Diagon Alley. I finished Hogwarts four years ago and i can't really remember what first-years are supposed to get."
I clear my throat and read out loud:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Uniform
First-year student will require:
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.
Set Books
All students should have a copy of each of the following:
The Standard Book of Spells (grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Wafflng
A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenuis Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble
Other equipment
1 wand
1 cauldron ( pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat Or a toad
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS
"How much will of this cost?" grandma asks Mr. Jocey after hearing me list out the school stuff.
"No clue." he says simply while we look at him worried that we might not be able to pay for all of it. "But we'll need to get quite a bit of galleons from Gringotts. Your wand will already cost about seven galleons. That's all i can really remember from childhood. Did you take your wallet? We'll need it to exchange your Muggle money with galleons when we get to the wizard bank."
Hold up! Let's rewind what our (extremely enthusiast) friend here said.
"No clue. But we'll need... bla, bla, GALLEONS, bla, GRINGOTTS, bla, bla, WAND, bla, bla, SEVEN GALLEONS, bla, bla, bla, GALLEONS (again), bla, bla, WIZARD BANK."
What is all of that? Galleons? Gringotts? Wand? No, okay, i know what a wand is, but am i really going to have a wand? That's awesome!
"So... Gringotts and Galleons, huh?" i say trying to give Mr. Jocey a hint that i didn't understand these terms.
He just kinda looks at me through the rearview mirror confused, like trying to find out the difficulty in my understanding in those words.
"Oh, right! Of course you wouldn't know what i'm talking about when i'm talking about the magic world! You know nothing about it." he says finally getting the problem.
Now i'm a little offended.
"Okay, so Galleons is just a term we use for money. There's Galleons which are gold, Sickles which are silver and Knuts are bronze. Seventeen Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle. Now, Gringotts. You have to know what that is before you go to school. Gringotts is the wizards bank and is run by goblins. It's-"
"Goblins?!" i ask him in disbelief.
"Yes, goblins. Anyway," Mr. Jocey continues calmly. "Gringotts is the safest place in the world after Hogwarts. That's the bank where wizards and witches keep their money in vaults and that's where you can also exchange Muggle money for Galleons and all of that wizard money."
We arrive in London after an hour and we head towards a pub.
"Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron, very famous pub." he says standing in front of it, admiring it.
How can a place be very famous when it's tiny and grubby-looking? Good drinks? Food maybe?
I watch as people walk passed it like if they couldn't see the pub.
"Is it only famous at night?" asks my grandma, noticing the same thing as me.
"No. Why?"
"Well you said it's famous, even VERY famous, but no one is going inside." she points out.
"That's because most people in a Muggle Street, are Muggles." he says making his point by raising his eyebrows, then entering the pub with us close behind.
Inside there's manly old people drinking and smoking and there's a small man with a big hat talking to the barman. Grandma's first instinct is to grab me by the arm and pull me to her side. With the people talking, the pub seems much more welcoming then outside. The barman notices us and waves.
"Muggleborn?" he asks Mr. Jocey.
"Yep. This is Kayla and her grandmother." he says intruducing us.
"Welcome ladies to the world full of magic." he says with a smile.
I smile back and we walk towards a black door. On our way, Mr. Jocey points discreately to me an old woman who will be one of my teachers at Hogwart, Professor Merrythought.
"I guess that she'll be retiring soon. She's been teaching at Hogwarts for almost fifty years."
We walk out of the bar and into a small, walled courtyard, making me feel like i'm trapped. After Mr. Jocey making patterns on the wall and us waiting patiently for hours (okay, that might be a bit of an exageration, but he was taking SO LONG!), a whole appears in the wall and grows bigger and bigger and bigger. A second later, we're facing a cobbled street which twists and turns out of sight.
"Diagon Alley." Mr. Jocey says, chuckling at my expression.
Grandma had to push me forward onto the street because the whole in the wall was rapidly closing and i was just standing there like an idiot, looking in amazment at everything.
I look at everything and anything that i pass. The sun reflecting off some cauldrons outside the shop 'Cauldrons', the hooting from 'Eeylops Owl Emporium', excited voices coming from outside a broomstick shop, funny smells coming from an apothecary, polished windows to let us see robes, a man coming out a shop that's selling telescopes with one in his hands, the smell of new books, again strange smells from shops selling potions, ...
There's just too much to see! I bump into Mr. Jocey who has stopped walking and is staring at a white building which giagantic compared to the other small shops.
"That's a goblin." Mr. Jocey says motioning with his chin the gobiln who is about a head shorter than me. It has a pointed beard and long fingers and feet. The golbin bows as we walk inside the building.
Now we're facing silver double doors where words are carved.
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,
Theif, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
"This is Gringotts. You would be crazy to try and steal from here." Mr. Jocey says.
Two other goblins bow us through the silver doors and then we are in a vast marble hall. There are many, many more goblins sitting on high stools behind a counter, scribbling words, weighing coins, examining stones. There are way too many doors to count. Mr. Jocey leads us towards the counter.
"Good morning." says Mr. Jocey to the goblin at the counter. "We would like to exchange Muggle money for Wizard coins for Miss Myrason."
"Alright. Please give me the amout of money you want to exchange."
I look up at grandma, she looks at Mr. Jocey who looks at the goblin and who looks at us patiently.
"Well..." he trials off taking my list of things. "I think you should give him around six hundred pounds." he says looking up at grandma.
"You are kidding, right?"
He shakes his head.
"I don't have that much money." she tells him.
"How much do you have?"
She counts the money in her wallet and looks back to Mr. Jocey.
"Two hundred."
He blinks twice then turns to the goblin.
"We would like to exchange two hundred Muggle money."
Grandma gives the goblin the money and after a few minutes, golden, sillver and bronze coins are put into a small bag. he then hands it to me.
"We would also like to visit Ms. Myrason's vault please." Mr. Jocey says handing the goblin a tiny golden key.
The goblin looks at it closely.
"That's in order. He will take you to your vault." he says adressing to another smaller goblin.
The small goblin leads us to one of the doors leading off of the hall. We enter a narrow stone passage-way which is lit up by flaming torches. It slopes steeply downwards and there's railway tracks on the floor. The goblin whistles and a cart comes quickly towards us. Once we were on, i couldn't really remember the journey but suddenly we were facing a small door.
The goblin unlocks the door and a lot of green smoke comes out and as it clears, me and grandma gasp seeing loads of piles of coins.
"That's all for you from your ancestor Ryder Myrason." Mr. Jocey says smiling at me.
We pile some of the coins into a bag and we take the ride back up to the fresh air. A few minutes later, we're outisde of Gringotts in the bright sun.
"Well, i think that you have enough money to last a year. Now it's time to officially go shopping."
We go to Madam Malkin's shop for me to try on my robes and adjust them if necessary, we buy my books, hat, gloves, cloak, cauldron, set glass, telescope and set brass.
The last thing to do, is get my wand.
The shop is called Ollivanders: Makers or Fine Wands since 382 BC and is narrow and shabby.
When we enter, a bell tinkles somewhere in the back of the tiny shop. A girl of my age comes around the corner of one of the shelfs carrying her new wand with her mom right next to her. They leave the shop, leaving us alone. There are thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly from the floor right up to the ceiling.
"Good afternoon." says an old man coming around the corner and facing us.
"Hello." i say, nervously fiddling with my fingers.
"Your name Ms?" he asks me.
"Kayla Myrason."
"Let me see then, Ms. Myrason." Mr. Ollivander says pulling a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"
"My-my wand arm...? Well, um, i'm right handed?"
"Hold out your arm." he measures me from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round my head. As he measures, he says, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful of powerful magical substance, Ms. Myrason. 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."
The tape measures my nostrils all by it's self now while Mr. Ollivander is searching around the shelves, taking down boxes.
"That's enough." he says and the tape measure falls to the ground. "Right then, Ms. Myrason. Try holly and veela, eleven inches, slightly unpredicatable but very powerful. Take it and give it a wave."
I wearily take the wand and wave it once, but Mr. Ollivander snatches it out of my hand.
"Try this one. Oak and phoenix, nine inches, powerful and endures hits for certain people."
What is he talking about? I take the wand and feel warmth in my fingers. I give it a small wave and sparks of red shot from the end like mini fireworks. Mr. Ollivander cries claps happily.
"That's your new wand. Oak and phoenix, nine inches,..." he mumbles under his breath while he puts it back into it's box and wraps it in brown paper.
We pay seven Galleons for my wand and Mr. Ollivander bows us from his shop.
We get into the car and drive back home in late afternoon. On the way home, i fall asleep imagining Hogwarts and all the magic over there, like it's a whole new world.
Anla
"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." - Sirius Black