Blessed or Cursed

Diagon Alley

The day had finally come and we began discussing how to use floo powder. " wait, how do we do this again?"

“they've  never traveled by Floo powder,” said Ron suddenly. “Sorry, Sylvia, I forgot.” 

“Never?” said Mr. Weasley. “But how did you too get to Diagon Alley to buy your school things last year?” 

" we went underground- "

“Really?” said Mr. Weasley eagerly. “Were there escapators? How exactly—” 

“Not now, Arthur,” said Mrs. Weasley. “Floo powder’s a lot quicker, dear, but goodness me, if you’ve never used it before—” 

“He’ll be all right, Mum,” said Fred. “Harry, watch us first.” 

He took a pinch of glittering powder out of the flowerpot, stepped up to the fire, and threw the powder into the flames.

With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than Fred, who stepped right into it, shouted, “Diagon Alley!” and vanished. 

“You must speak clearly, dear,” Mrs. Weasley told Harry and J as George dipped his hand into the flowerpot. “And be sure to get out at the right grate…” 

“The right what?” I say nervously as the fire roared and whipped George out of sight, too. 

“Well, there are an awful lot of wizard fires to choose from, you know, but as long as you’ve spoken clearly—” 

“She’ll be fine, Molly, don’t fuss,” said Mr. Weasley, helping himself to Floo powder, too. 

“But, dear, if they got lost, how would we ever explain to their aunt and uncle?” 

“They wouldn’t mind,” I reassured her. “Dudley would think it was a brilliant joke if I got lost up a chimney, don’t worry about that—” 

“Well… all right… you go after Arthur,” said Mrs. Weasley. “Now, when you get into the fire, say where you’re going—” 

“And keep your elbows tucked in,” Ron advised. 

“And your eyes shut,” said Mrs. Weasley. “The soot—” 

“Don’t fidget,” said Ron. “Or you might well fall out of the wrong fireplace—” 

“But don’t panic and get out too early; wait until you see Fred and George.”

I tried to comprehend what was happening and stepped toward the fire. I sprinkled the powder into the fire and took a deep breath and stepped forward. It felt like a warm summer breeze, I opened my mouth, but was met with the taste of hot ash.

Coughing slighting I go to say my destination. “D-Dia-gon Alley,” I coughed. 

It felt as though I was being sucked down a giant drain. Everything seemed to be spinning very fast—the roaring in my ears was deafening—I tried to keep my eyes open but the whirl of green flames made me feel sick—something hard knocked my elbow and I remeber to tuck it in tightly, still spinning and spinning—now it felt as though cold hands were slapping my face—squinting through I saw a blurred stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond, I closed my eyes again wishing it would stop, and then— 

I fell into cold stone.

" what the hell just happened " I say coughing to myself.

I was all alone in the room, I had no idea where I was. All I could tell was that I was standing in the stone fireplace of what looked like a large, dimly lit wizard’s shop—but nothing in here was ever likely to be on a Hogwarts school list.This was just great.