𝕬 𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉 𝖎𝖘 𝕭𝖔𝖗𝖓 | 𝑇𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 |

Chapter 4- School Shopping in Diagon Alley

They received their acceptance letters to Hogwarts a couple days later, just like Dumbledore had said. Both the envelopes were pressed with a fine red wax seal and the parchment was of high enough quality that even Tom struggled to find an argument proving they were still part of some big ruse to get rid of them. He might've still suspected them for fakes had it not been the method of their arrival. Dumbledore had failed to mention that they would be delivered by owls. It was one of the biggest spectacles ever seen at Wool's Orphanage, apart from the time that Billy Stubb was forced to punch himself repeatedly in the face. Two tawny owls soared through an open window during breakfast a few days after their meeting with the professor. Before Mrs. Cole and the rest of the Wool's staff was able to shoo the birds out, they had managed to drop two envelopes into both Tom and Frankie's laps. Inside the letters: they found their school supply lists, a letter of congratulations from the headmaster, and an extra note from Dumbledore saying that he would be there in one weeks' time to escort them to Diagon Alley.

Frankie was completely ecstatic about going to all the different wizarding shops, whether or not Dumbledore would be babysitting them for the duration of their trip. Her doubts about Hogwarts completely vanished with the arrival of their school letters. Meanwhile, Tom still thought Dumbledore could be making fools of them. Over the week, he had grown even more skeptical about the whole thing, despite the extensive proof that Dumbledore had provided him. By Wednesday, Tom had already come up with a billion questions for when he returned. If he returned. According to that strange man, it was not just the three of them against the world. At least one third of Britain's current population is made up of magic users, which was an absurd fact that baffled Tom's realm of believability far too much. He hadn't ever seen a woman riding the wind on a broomstick before, cackling wickedly and spreading evil in her wake. Nor had he ever seen anyone mumbling hogwash to make dogs stand up and start talking, or something else positively bizarre. Any myth about witchcraft had always remained just that. A myth. He'd also certainly never seen, or heard, of a street right there in London where one could purchase cauldrons and magic wands. If they were everywhere, why hadn't there ever been the faintest trace of others like them before? They couldn't have been that well-hidden. And, if they were so all-mighty and powerful, why did it take them eleven years to find him? Why had he been left in an orphanage to rot when there was an entire magical world out there that could've helped? The bitterness of that fact stung more than anything else.

                                       ─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Eventually, the day arrived. The day they were supposed to go to Diagon Alley for their school things and finally get their first look at the wizarding world. Tom and Frankie both woke up to a day just like any other and got ready as quickly as possible to see if this 'Professor Dumbledore' character would actually return to take them to this fabled alley. Tom was in the playroom, thinking up even more questions to ask Dumbledore before he came to fetch them. When, suddenly, he was bombarded by Billy Stubb and his gang.

"A private school? How on earth did someone like you get into a private school?" Billy remarked, having not yet gotten a chance to comment on the latest breaking development.

Mrs. Cole had officially announced that Tom and Frankie were going off to a very fancy boarding school. She was proud about the whole thing. Of course, now that Tom and Frankie were going to be gone most of the year, it was only natural she would be in a better mood. No more incidents that often resulted in either a kid being traumatized for life or sent to the hospital. No more seeing odd things and pretending to ignore them for the sake of her fragile sanity. Just peaceful order and bliss. Tom would bet money, if he had any to bet in the first place, Dumbledore didn't tell her anything about sending them off to a school that would increase their "cursing" abilities tenfold. All that she probably knew was that it was a very, very, very remote boarding school in Scotland and they would not be back until summer. This particular thought also brought up another question for Dumbledore: How were they going to pay for school supplies without any money? Heck, how were they paying to go to school in the first place? These questions replaced #1 and #2 on Tom's mental list.