The Fault In Our Names

Part 1

"Ah! Oh um sorry, I didn't see you there, and yes, thanks, we need a bit of help." she replied still quite shocked at his appearance. It wouldn't be so bad if he was clean and tidy, but he had a massive knotty beard that covered almost half his huge torso, and he wore clothes that looked like they hadn't been washed for years.

I realized that if my mum let one more word escape her mouth, we would all get mortally embarrassed, so I decided to take over the talking.

"We were wondering where we could exchange our muggle money for wizard money" I said, butting in on my mum talking.

"Oh thats great isn' it? Well, there is a pro'er way to do it, bu' if ye' don' mind, i've got some wizard money that I need to change for muggle money. I've go' 60 wizard moneys dat I need to change for 20 muggle moneys, and also..."

"That's great!" said my mum, interrupting the big guy called something like Agrid, "I would gladly swap!"

So the two swapped their money. But no, it didn't take the usual 30 seconds to do it, we stood there for a lot longer than that. The 'Agrid' guy wasn't the best at counting and reading numbers on bank notes. Anyway, hundreds of years later, they finished swapping and we were able to carry on. My mum had also swapped some money for Claire and Zoe to use, so we went along together. There were so many weird things in the windows, pots full of green slugs, posters for fancy broomsticks, even owls in cages. The first place my mum wanted to go was called Olive and Duhs, I think. I quite liked olives, and I was hungry, so I was glad we were going somewhere to eat first.

I had spotted a cafe up ahead, and was hoping that it might be the Olive and Duhs that my mum had chosen to eat at. But, instead of carrying on walking towards the cafe, my mum stopped in front of an old shop, with its olive green paint peeling off the woodwork, and, guessing from the darkness within, it was closed. My mum didn't seem to think so, as she walked right in.

"Uh, mum" I slowly began, "I don't thing the shop is open, I mean, its completely dark inside.."

"Nonsense! My mum exclaimed, "Mr Olivander is and old, quiet man, and prefers the darkness. Im sure the shop is open." Olivander? I thought.

Almost as if on que, a boy about my age stepped of of the shop with a fancy wand in his hand. The family that followed him was quite a sight. They were all red heads, and they wore very odd clothes, just like the rest of the wizards around here. The strange thing though, was the sheer number of them. There was the mum and the dad, two older boys of about 15 and 17, two identical twins, who looked about 9, a younger boy, about 7, and a little girl, even younger than him. What a sight!

When the mum saw me and Zoe, I think she realized that we were new, so she started talking to Shelby and Claire.

"Hello there! Are your two children starting at Hogwarts this year?" She asked, motioning towards the boy with a wand, "Percy here is starting this year too, aren't you Perc?"

On using the name 'Perc', the woman received a glare from the boy.

"Yes I am, nice to meet you two." The boy said poshly, forcing a smile. Zoe replied with a nod an a little smile. I, on the other hand, had something different in mind.

"You too." I said, using my impression of his snobby accent, while doing a little bow. Percy seemed quite pissed off with my response, but honestly, what did he expect?

His mum didn't take it the same way, and seemed to think I was being sincere. "Such a polite little boy you have," she said to my mum, "Im sure he and Perc will become great friends." She was gleaming. Our three mums chatted a bit, but the massive family had to go, because the little twins had started throwing these bomb things, that exploded into a disgusting purple smell whenever they hit the ground. The mother apologized, saying that the twins were nothing but trouble. We quickly said goodbye and hurried into the shop.