Classified (HP) WTM/RTB

The Journey to Diagon Alley

Harry awoke with the dawn, his eyes remaining closed as he acclimated to his surroundings. The surreal events of the preceding day cast doubt upon the boundaries of reality, as if he could, by sheer will, turn them into the ephemeral remnants of a dream.

"It must have been a dream," he reassured himself, attempting to anchor his thoughts in the ordinary. "A giant announcing a school for wizards. I'll open my eyes, and my cupboard will greet me."

A persistent tapping interrupted Harry's silent deliberations, prompting a sinking feeling within him.

"Aunt Petunia, no doubt," he mused, though he resisted the urge to open his eyes, unwilling to relinquish the vestiges of a pleasant dream.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Fine, I'm getting up," Harry muttered, slowly sitting up and inadvertently dislodging Hagrid's heavy coat that had been draped over him. Sunlight now flooded the hut, and the tempest from the previous night had given way to a serene morning. Hagrid lay sprawled on the sofa, peacefully asleep. The source of the tapping revealed itself as an owl, rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper clenched in its beak.

Ron, wearing a slight smirk, remarked, "Not quite a dream, was it, mate?"

Harry scrambled to his feet and went straight to the window and jerked it open, his heart pounding with relief as he realized his fantastical encounter was not a mere figment of imagination. The owl gracefully entered, dropping the newspaper atop Hagrid, who remained blissfully unaware. Harry attempted to shoo the owl away, only to be met with a feisty snap of its beak.

"Harry! There's an owl—" he began, interrupted by Hagrid's gruff response, "Pay him."

"Oh, Merlin, Hagrid," McGonagall sighed, shaking her head in exasperation.

"What?" Harry questioned.

"He wants payment for delivering the paper. Look in the pockets," Hagrid explained.

Hagrid's coat, seemingly composed entirely of pockets, yielded an assortment of peculiar items. After a brief search, Harry unearthed a handful of peculiar-looking coins.

"Give him five Knuts," Hagrid instructed with a yawn.

"Knuts?" Harry queried.

"The little bronze ones."

As Harry counted out the coins, the owl extended its leg, allowing him to deposit the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. With that, the owl gracefully departed through the open window. Hagrid, now fully awake, stretched and declared, "Best be off, Harry. Lots to do today. Gotta get up to London and buy all your stuff for school."

Amidst the wizard's coins, a troubling thought crept into Harry's mind. "Um, Hagrid? I haven't got any money, and you heard Uncle Vernon last night. He won't pay for me to learn magic."

"Don't worry about that. Do yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?" Hagrid pondered, scratching his head. "But if their house was destroyed—"

"They didn't keep their gold in the house. Nah, the first stop for us is Gringotts, the wizarding bank."

"Wizards have banks?" Harry inquired.

"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."

"Quite the random information drop, Hagrid," James quipped, eliciting a light chuckle.

Harry's sausage that Hagrid had given him earlier slipped from his fingers. "Goblins?"

"Yeah. So you'd be mad to try and rob it. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world for anything yeh want to keep safe—except maybe Hogwarts. As a matter of fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway, for Dumbledore. Hogwarts business," Hagrid proclaimed proudly. "He usually gets me to do important stuff for him. Fetching you, getting things from Gringotts—he knows he can trust me, see."