His Girl

2. Diagon Alley

The journey on the rickety boat back to the shore only took less than five minutes because Hagrid tapped his umbrella on the side of the boat and it seemed like it had turned into a speedboat, Hagrid had also made us promise not to tell anyone about that at Hogwarts either. I still hadn't processed what Hagrid told us. We were magical? We'd been fed lies by the Dursley's our whole lives? Well, that I believed. And our parents had been blown up? By what? Was it a bomb? I was about to ask what happened but we arrived at the shore so I decided I could wait a little longer.

Hagrid told us that everything we needed on the letter could be found in London. I didn't understand what sort of shop all of this could be in because this was a muggle city. Surely they wouldn't have wands and cauldrons lying around in a muggle shop. 

When we got to London I seemed to be right. I didn't see a single shop that we could find any magical items in. But Hagrid wasn't looking around to find a shop, he was heading in a certain direction, I could tell because he wouldn't keep his eyes off of a big black door in a corner. Harry wasn't paying any attention to where he was going, he was reading aloud off the list again.

"One standard size two pewter cauldron. And you may bring, if you desire, either an owl, cat or a toad." 

A toad. Who on earth would want to bring a toad to a boarding school? I really wanted a cat but I knew I wouldn't be able to afford one. And I realized, how on earth would we be able to pay for school because Uncle Vernon said he wouldn't pay for us to go. I was about to ask Hagrid but Harry asked Hagrid the question I wanted to ask earlier.

"Can we find all this in London?"

"If you know where to go" Hagrid replied. Well that wasn't very helpful. Me and Harry didn't know where to go, we'd never been to London before. But that was a silly thought because of course Hagrid knew where to go. He brought us to the black building that looked very small. I didn't understand how everything on the list could be in here. I was wrong, the room was a lot bigger than it looked but it was a pub. Nothing in here was on the list of things we needed. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid though because they all sent him cheerful nod or a "hello."

A man behind the bar said "ah, Hagrid. Usual I presume?" 

"No thanks Tom I'm on official Hogwarts business. Just helping the young Potters here buy school supplies." Hagrid put a hand on Harrys shoulder and he grabbed my arm to steady himself as the weight of Hagrid's arm almost made him topple over.

Tom's face morphed into shock when he heard the name Potter. 

"Bless my soul. It's Harry Potter!" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. How on earth did he know Harry? And why didn't he say my name too? 

Everyone gathered around Harry and they all looked delighted, as if he was some famous celebrity. The only thing he could be famous for is breaking the world record for the amount of times he's broken his glasses.

Harry looked as shocked as me when everyone lined up to shake Harry's hand, saying things to him like, "Welcome back." Or, "I can't believe I'm meeting you at last." They must've got the wrong Harry. Why was he so special? The most I got was a short nod from a woman called Dorris Crockford. I just want to get out of here. I was starting to wonder if this was just some huge joke the Dursley's set up.

Then a man with a purple turban came up to us. He stuttered a lot. "H-Harry P-P-Potter, can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you." I didn't like him, he looked at Harry in a weird way. Everyone else was absolutely delighted to see him which was weird in it's own way, nobody is ever that excited to see my brother. But the man with the turban looked at Harry as if he was fresh meat, but also looked scared of him at the same time. I couldn't figure it out.