Tom Riddle: The Heir of Slytherin (Prequel to Severus)

(6) Diagon Alley

"What's Diagon Alley?" Tom asked with a confused face.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

"I have no idea... but that means... we get to leave!" Sophie said excitedly, "Oh, I've been waiting for this day for so long. And what's even better is that we get to go together!" She jumped around happily.

"Shhh, they're sleeping, remember?" Tom said as he scooted Sophie into her room and they began to chat there. Sophie sat on her bed and Tom sat at her desk.

"So how do we get to this Diagon Alley place?" Sophie asked as she skimmed through her letters. There was a tiny address on the bottom right of the second page, "The Leaky Cauldron? In London? I've never heard of it."

"We haven't heard of a lot of places though, have we? It's not like we get out much," Tom scoffed as he squinted at the address on the bottom of his letter, "Looks like we get to explore tomorrow... and we better be ready to carry loads of stuff judging by this list."

"Well then, after breakfast let's head out. Ms. Cole trusts us enough plus the Dumbledore man who came today. We should be free to go," Sophie said as she placed her letter down and laid down on her bed, "I'm going to sleep." And with that, Sophie practically passed out. Tom smiled a bit as he got up to leave and closed the door gently behind him as he left, taking a final glance at Sophie in the process. Tom then went to rest in his room.

The bell rang loudly the next morning but Sophie was up long before it went off. She wanted to look presentable for whoever they ran into in Diagon Alley. They were going to be amid witches and wizards... again, for Sophie at least. She vaguely remembered her childhood but knew she had a knack for making potions already. She grabbed her trunk and brought it to breakfast with her, which the other children found very... odd. 

Tom joined her shortly after Sophie began eating her meal and Tom had the same idea as her: He brought his trunk down with him. He slightly rolled his eyes as he sat it down and then got in line for food. The two finished their breakfast rather quickly because they wanted to run off to the new world they were about to explore.

"Ms. Cole, we're leaving now. We have a list of items we need to buy for school," Sophie said as she adjusted her hair to fit behind her ear. Tom held both of their trunks as they made it out the door then handed Sophie hers when they reached the end of the entrance.

"So, we need to find The Leaky Cauldron based on this address... It doesn't even sound like this exists," Tom said as he squinted his eyes at it once again before a waft of thick air shot by the two. They closed their eyes immediately then heard a horse stomp its feet against the bricked pavement. Sophie shot her eyes open fast and couldn't believe what she saw. It was a horse-drawn carriage with a fancy atmosphere. It was black and a dark purple and the horses were bright white.

"Miss and Mista, go ahead and hop on. I'll be escortin' ya today. My name is Fred McLedger, but you can just call me Fredge. Go ahead, hop on, I'll take ya straight to the good ole Leaky," Fredge said as he opened the door for them with what appeared to be a wand. They stared at each other before jumping into the carriage.

When they got inside, they realized the carriage was longer inside than it was on the outside. It looked as if it could hold six people but on the inside, it looked like it could seat 30. The carriage took off while they were still standing. The air whistled as they whipped past all of the people in the area. Their cars sloshed in puddles on the ground from the day before but they didn't get wet in the carriage. It was as if there was an invisible barrier. Sophie's mouth was open wide but Tom's eyes were opened wider.