HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE
CHAPTER 5
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"One speed only."
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{ CHAPTER 4 }
EVERYTHING AT ONCE
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HARRY WAKES EARLY the next morning. Although he can tell it's daylight, he keeps his eyes shut tight.
It was a dream, he tells himself firmly.
I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me and Lily we are going to a school for witches and wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in our room.
There's suddenly a loud tapping noise.
And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door, Harry thinks, his heart sinking. But he still doesn't open his eyes. It was such a good dream.
The tapping continues.
"All right," Harry mumbles, "I'm getting up."
He sits up and Hagrid's heavy coat falls off him. The hut is full of sunlight, the storm is over, his sister is sleeping soundly beside him, Hagrid himself is asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there's an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.
Harry scrambles to his feet, so happy he feels as though a large balloon is swelling inside him. He goes straight to the window and jerks it open. The owl swoops in and drops the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who doesn't wake up. The owl then flutters onto the floor and begins to attack Hagrid's coat, getting uncomfortably close to hurting Lily.
"Don't do that."
Harry tries to wave the owl out of the way, but it snaps its beak fiercely at him and carries on savaging the coat. Lily is still passed out.
"Hagrid!" Harry calls loudly.
"There's an owl--"
"Pay him," Hagrid grunts into the sofa.
"What?"
"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."
Hagrid's coat seems to be made of nothing but pockets - bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags... Finally, Harry pulls out a handful of strange-looking coins.
"Give him five Knuts," Hagrid slurs sleepily.
"Knuts?"
"The little bronze ones."
Harry counts out five little bronze coins, and the owl holds out its leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then it flies off through the open window.
Hagrid yawns loudly, sits up, and stretches.
"Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."
Harry is turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He just thought of something that makes him feel as though the happy balloon inside him got a puncture.
"Um, Hagrid?"
"Mm?" Hagrid answers while pulling on his huge boots.
"We haven't got any money - and you heard Uncle Vernon last night... He won't pay for us to go and learn magic."
"Don't worry about that," Hagrid assures, standing up and scratching his head.
"D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"
"But if their house was destroyed--"
"They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold - an' wake up yer sister. Also, I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."
"Wizards have banks?"
"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."
Harry accidentally drops the bit of sausage he was holding onto Lily's face. She stirs, but, unsurprisingly, doesn't wake up.
"Goblins?"
"Yeah - so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want to keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid draws himself up proudly.
"He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you two - gettin' things from Gringotts - knows he can trust me, see."
Harry finishes his sausage and wakes Lily up. She's so sleepy, she doesn't even notice Hagrid picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. He looks at Harry who was packing their things.
"Got everythin'? Come on, then."
Harry follows Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky is quite clear now and the sea gleams in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired is still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.
"How did you get here?" Harry asks, looking around for another boat.
"Flew," Hagrid answers.
"Flew?"
"Yeah, but we'll go back in this. Not s'posed ter use magic now I've got yeh."
They settle down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying. He watches as the giant accidentally drops his sister into the boat, fearful he might've hurt her, but she still doesn't wake up.
"Seems a shame ter row, though," Hagrid says, giving Harry another of his sideways looks.
"If I was ter, er, speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"
"Of course not," Harry says, eager to see more magic.
Hagrid pulls out the pink umbrella again, taps it twice on the side of the boat, and they speed off towards land.
"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asks.
"Spells - enchantments," Hagrid explains, unfolding his newspaper as he speaks.
"They say there's dragons guardin' the high-security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way - Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."
Harry sits and thinks about this while Hagrid reads his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry learned from Uncle Vernon that people like to be left alone while they do this, but it's very difficult, he's never had so many questions in his life. He's sure that if his sister was showing any sign of life, she'd be asking questions too.
"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid mutters, turning the page.
"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asks before he could stop himself.
"'Course," Hagrid answers.
"They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."
"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"
"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."
"Why?"
"Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."
At this moment the boat bumps gently into the harbour wall. Hagrid folds up his newspaper, throws Lily over his shoulder and they clamber up the stone steps onto the street. Hagrid places Lily down on the ground and shakes her awake. She blinks slowly and soon gains control over her own body.
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Lily doesn't feel good about leaving the Dursleys. Especially without saying goodbye. Even though she's still mad at their aunt and uncle for keeping their past from them, it feels wrong. She's nervous about this whole situation. They'll be all alone in that school and other kids probably already know everything there is to know about magic.
She can't even imagine how it will all work. What will they learn? From who? Are unicorns real? Are vampires? She likes reading about vampires and sometimes pretending to be one but shudders at the thought of them being real. Along with many other things. It feels kind of like a fever dream.
Passers-by stare a lot at Hagrid as the three of them walk through the little town to the station. Lily can't blame them. Not only is Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, but he also keeps pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly:
"See that? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"
"Hagrid," Harry begins, panting a bit as he runs to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"
"What?! What else did I miss?"
"Well, so they say," Hagrid responds.
"Crikey, I'd like a dragon."
"Yeah, me too."
Hagrid smiles down at Lily.
"You'd like one?" Harry asks Hagrid and glances at his sister in surprise.
She nods eagerly. Dragons are very cool. They're big and powerful, not to mention super mysterious and intimidating.
"Wanted one ever since I was a kid - here we go," Hagrid says.
They've reached the station. There's a train to London in five minutes. Hagrid, who doesn't understand 'Muggle money', as he calls it, gives the notes to Harry so he could buy their tickets.
People stare more than ever on the train. Hagrid takes up two seats and sits knitting what looks like a canary-yellow circus tent, while Harry tells his younger sister everything she missed during the boat ride.
Goblins, Gringotts, Ministry of Magic. It all seems unreal. It's going on too fast and Lily can barely process it. Although she's quite happy with what is going on. They've left the Dursleys and are free. For now, at least. She now knows they'll have to go back, but she doesn't mind. She wonders how that'll turn out.
"Still got yer letters?" Hagrid asks as he counts stitches.
Harry takes the parchment envelope out of his pocket while Lily panics, searching for it in all of her pockets. Then she remembers where she left it and pats the left chest pocket of her jacket, sighing in great relief. Almost had a heart attack for a sec there, she thinks.
"Good," Hagrid says.
"There's a list there of everything yeh need."
"Will we go alone?" Lily asks, becoming anxious.
She cannot survive alone. She'll get lost, kidnapped, lost again, probably kidnapped again, then lost and then, well, you can imagine what will happen next.
"O' course, not," Hagrid reassures her and she visibly relaxes into her seat.
She's had only Harry with her and she can't imagine her life without him. He's always there to protect her and he always helps her no matter what. He's more independent than she is and she admires him for it.
She watches Harry read the list of things they need to buy. Lily hopes their parents left them enough money for all of that. She now understands why Uncle Vernon didn't want to pay for their education. They need a lot of stuff. Some of which Lily can't even pronounce.
"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wonders aloud.
"If yeh know where to go," Hagrid answers a bit mysteriously.
Lily likes mysterious. To a certain level, of course.
Harry and Lily have never been to London before. Although Hagrid seems to know where he's going, he's obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He gets stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground and complains loudly that the seats are too small and the trains too slow.
"I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he says as the three of them climb a broken-down escalator that leads up to a bustling road lined with shops.
Hagrid is so huge that he parts the crowd easily; all Harry and Lily have to do is keep close behind him.
They pass bookshops and music stores, hamburger bars and cinemas, but nowhere that looks as if it could sell you a magic wand. This is just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Are there really shops that sell spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys cooked up?
If she didn't know that the Dursleys have no sense of humour, Lily might think so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid's told them so far is unbelievable, she can't help but trust him. He seems nice, and she feels safe with him.
"This is it," Hagrid says, coming to a sudden halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."
"Yeah, for drunks," Lily mumbles, looking it up and down.
"Um, Hagrid? Are you sure it's legal for us to enter?" she then asks.
"Would that stop yeh?" Hagrid asks her, a glint in his eyes that tells her that he already knows the answer.
"No way." She grins and they enter the Leaky Cauldron.
It's a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Lily wouldn't have noticed it's there. The people hurrying by don't glance at it. Their eyes slide from the big bookshop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they can't see the Leaky Cauldron at all.
Lily has the most peculiar feeling that only her, Harry, and Hagrid can see it. Before Harry can say something, which Lily sees he really wants, Hagrid steers them deeper inside.
For a famous place, it's very dark and shabby. A few old women are sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them is smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat is talking to the old barman, who's quite bald and looks like a gummy walnut. The low buzz of chatter stops when the three of them walk in. Everyone seems to know Hagrid; they wave and smile at him, and the barman reaches for a glass.
"The usual, Hagrid?"
"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," Hagrid replies, clapping his great hands on Lily and Harry's shoulders and making their knees buckle.
"Good Lord," the barman awes, peering at Harry, "is this-can this be--?"
The Leaky Cauldron suddenly goes completely still and silent. Lily can feel eyes in her brother's direction, but nobody seems to be particularly interested in her. Most of the people are gawking at Harry. She frowns and stays quiet. Why is this suddenly affecting her so much? She usually has no problem with being ignored or pushed aside.
"Bless my soul," the old barman whispers.
"Harry Potter... What an honour."
He hurries out from behind the bar, rushes toward Harry and seizes his hand, tears in his eyes. Lily watches him with slight annoyance. She's there too.
"Welcome back, Mr Potter, welcome back."
Harry doesn't know what to say. Everyone is looking at him. The old woman with the pipe is puffing on it without realising it has gone out. Hagrid is beaming.
Then there's a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry finds himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron. People push past Lily, not noticing her, not even paying her a single glance. Soon, she's been pushed to the back of the room where she stays silently, her head hung low.
She survived too, why doesn't anyone acknowledge her? Just because she doesn't have a scar to prove it doesn't mean that she isn't a survivor of Voldemort's wrath. She's Harry's twin sister, she's still important. She's still important... Isn't she?
"Delighted, Mr Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."
"I've seen you before!" Lily hears Harry say, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat falls off in his excitement.
"You bowed to me and my sister once in a shop."
Even as Harry mentions her, nobody spares Lily a single glance. She sighs. She shouldn't be thinking too hard about this. Her time will come, she's sure of it.
"He remembers!" Dedalus Diggle cries, looking around at everyone.
"Did you hear that? He remembers me!"
Harry shakes hands again and again, and Doris Crockford keeps coming back for more. A pale young man makes his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes is twitching.
"Professor Quirrell!" Hagrid greets.
"Harry, Lily, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."
He notices that Lily isn't standing next to him and she can see panic filling his massive body from across the room. She honestly feels like leaving the Leaky Cauldron and going back to the Dursleys. But she stays put.
"P-P-Potter," Professor Quirrell stammers, not shaking Harry's hand like everyone else did.
He's acting oddly.
"C-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."
"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"
"D-Defence Against the D-D-Dark Arts," Professor Quirrell mutters, as though he'd rather not think about it.
Lily is suddenly interested in their conversation. The Dark Arts? She thinks she'll like that subject.
"N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughs nervously.
"You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looks terrified at the very thought.
Lily never thought she'd learn about vampires in a school.
The others don't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself for long. It takes Harry almost ten minutes to get away from them all.
At last, Hagrid manages to spot Lily by the door and makes himself heard over the babble.
"Must get on - lots ter buy. Come on, Harry. Lily!"
Lily reluctantly makes her way through the crowd, taking as much time as she can, in case Harry wants to glisten in the spotlight for a moment longer, and walks up to Hagrid. He nudges her shoulder. She looks up at him and smiles, letting it disappear from her face as soon as he looks away.
Doris Crockford shakes Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid leads them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there's nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds. Hagrid grins at Harry.
"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh - mind you, he's usually tremblin'."
"Is he always that nervous?"
"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag - never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject. Now, where's me umbrella?"
Lily still can't process anything no matter how much she tries. On top of that, she's still upset about the whole thing back inside the Leaky Cauldron. She's still thinking about magic, the Dursleys and vampires. It's really changing her life, isn't it? She thinks it might be changing her too.
Hagrid, meanwhile, is counting bricks in the wall above the dustbin.
"Three up... Two across..." he mutters.
"Right, stand back, both of yeh."
He taps the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he touched quivers - it wriggles - in the middle, a small hole appears. It grows wider and wider - a second later the three of them are facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twists and turns out of sight.
"Welcome," Hagrid begins, "to Diagon Alley." He grins at their amazement.
They step through the archway. Harry and Lily look quickly over their shoulders and see the archway shrink instantly back into a solid wall. The sun shines brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible says a sign hanging over them.
"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," Hagrid mentions.
"But we gotta get yer money first."
Harry and Lily turn their heads in every direction as they walk up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, and the people doing their shopping.
A plump woman outside an apothecary is shaking her head as they pass, saying:
"Dragon liver, sixteen Sickles an ounce, they're mad..."
A low, soft hooting comes from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about the same age as the twins have their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it.
"Look," they hear one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand - fastest ever!"
There are shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Lily has never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...
"Gringotts," Hagrid suddenly says, snapping Lily out of her trance.
They've reached a snowy-white building which towers over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, is -
"Yeah, that's a goblin," Hagrid informs the twins quietly as they walk up the white stone steps towards him.
The goblin is about a head shorter than the twins. He has a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and very long fingers and feet. He bows as they walk inside and Lily awkwardly bows back. Now they're facing a second pair of doors, silver this time.
A pair of goblins bow them through the silver doors and they're in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins are sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, and examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There are too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins are showing people in and out of these. Hagrid, Harry, and Lily make for the counter.
"Morning," Hagrid says to a free goblin and Lily greets him as well, trying to be as polite as possible.
"We've come ter take some money outta Mr Harry and Miss Isabella Potter's safe."
"You have their key, sir?"
"Got it here somewhere," Hagrid mutters, and he starts emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog-biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers.
The goblin wrinkles his nose. Harry watches the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals while Lily stares at all the things Hagrid has in his pockets.
"Got it," he says at last, holding up a tiny golden key.
The goblin looks at it closely.
"That seems to be in order."
"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid says importantly, throwing out his chest.
"It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."
The goblin reads the letter carefully while Lily narrows her eyes at Hagrid. What could possibly be in that vault that's so important?
"Very well," the goblin says, handing the letter back to Hagrid.
"I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"
Griphook is yet another goblin. Once Hagrid has crammed all the dog-biscuits back inside his pockets, he, Harry, and Lily follow Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.
"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asks exactly what his younger sister has been thinking.
"Can't tell yeh that," Hagrid answers mysteriously.
"Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."
Griphook holds the door open for them and Lily silently thanks him with a nod of her head. They're in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It slopes steeply downward and there are little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistles and a small cart comes hurtling up the tracks towards them. They climb in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and are off.
At first, they just hurtle through a maze of twisting passages. Lily tries to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it's impossible. The rattling cart seems to know its own way because Griphook isn't even steering.
Lily's eyes sting and water as the cold air rushes past them, but she keeps them wide open. She sees a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twists around to see if it's a dragon, but too late - they plunge even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grow from the ceiling and floor.
"I never know," Harry calls to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"
"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," Hagrid replies and Lily laughs.
"An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."
Lily tries patting his big arm in a consoling manner, but it still turns out awkward. He does look very green, and when the cart stops at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid gets out and has to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.
Griphook unlocks the door. A lot of green smoke comes billowing out, and as it clears, Harry and Lily gasp. Inside are mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts. Lily has never seen that much money. And to think it's all theirs. It seems unbelievable. What the bloody hell did their parents work as?
"All yours." Hagrid smiles.
The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from the twins faster than blinking. How often have they complained about how much the two of them cost them to keep? And all the time there has been a small fortune belonging to the twins, buried deep under London.
Hagrid helps Harry and Lily pile some of it into two separate bags.
"The gold ones are Galleons," he explains.
"Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough for a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh."
He turns to Griphook.
"Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"
"One speed only," Griphook answers.
They're going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air becomes colder and colder as they hurtle around tight corners. They go rattling over an underground ravine, and Lily leans over the side to try to see what's down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groans and pulls her back by the scruff of her neck.
Vault seven hundred and thirteen has no keyhole. It looks just like the rest, but somehow more secure.
"Stand back," Griphook warns importantly.
Lily steps aside, not believing that there's something oh-so-dangerous inside. He strokes the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melts away.
"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," Griphook explains.
"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asks.
"About once every ten years," Griphook replies with a rather nasty grin.
Lily's eyes widen. Robbing Gringotts isn't on her agenda any time soon, and she hopes it never will be. She doesn't want to die in a small, dark room - all alone.
Something extraordinary has to be inside this top security vault, Lily is sure, and Harry leans forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least - but at first, they both think it's empty. Then they notice a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picks it up and tucks it deep inside his coat. Harry and Lily long to know what it is but know better than to ask. Lily is disappointed that it's not something...grandiose?
"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," Hagrid says.
-
One wild cart-ride later they stand blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. The twins don't know where to run first now that they each have a bag full of money. They don't have to know how many Galleons there are to a pound to know that they're holding more money than they've had in their whole lives - more money than even Dudley has ever had. Oh, how Lily wishes she could push it in their cousin's face. He'd die of jealousy.
"Might as well get yer uniforms," Hagrid says, nodding towards Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.
"Listen, guys, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts."
He does still look a bit sick, so Harry and Lily enter Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling very nervous. Also, did Hagrid just leave them alone to go drink alcohol?
Madam Malkin is a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve. She seems nice enough.
"Hogwarts, dears?" she asks when Harry is about to start speaking.
"Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."
In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face is standing on a footstool while a second witch pins up his long black robes.
Madam Malkin stands Harry and Lily on the stools next to him, slips long robes over their heads, and begins to pin them to the right length for Harry while Lily waits patiently.
"Hello," the boy greets.
Lily waves at him.
"Hogwarts, too?"
"Yes," Harry says.
Lily keeps her mouth shut, feeling too shy to talk to a wizard their age.
"My father's next door buying my books and Mother's up the street looking at wands," the boy says.
He has a bored, drawling voice.
"Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I think I'll bully Father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."
Drag his parents? Bully his dad into getting a broom? An interesting choice of words, Lily thinks. If, at first, she thought that he'll be nice, it's clear to her now that the boy isn't what she'd look for in a friend. She doesn't like him and from the look on her brother's face, she can tell that he feels the same.
"Have you got your own broom?" the boy goes on.
Yes. Back in Privet Drive, but I don't fly on it.
"No," Harry replies.
"Play Quidditch at all?"
"No," Harry says again, both, him and his sister, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.
Probably something connected to sports.
"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"
Yes, my own - back in Privet Drive. Lily wonders how the Dursleys are doing. Does Dudley miss them? This boy reminds her of him.
"No," Harry says, him and his sister feeling more stupid by the minute.
Lily is now glad she isn't being spoken to, otherwise, she'd embarrass herself just like her brother.
"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"
"Mhm," Harry hums, clearly wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.
Another witch comes into the room and starts working on Lily's robes.
"Look at that man!" the boy suddenly says, nodding toward the front window.
Hagrid is standing there, grinning at Harry and Lily and pointing at three large ice-creams to show he couldn't come in.
"That's Hagrid," Harry says, pleased to know something the boy doesn't.
"He works at Hogwarts."
"Oh," the boy replies, slight disgust in his tone, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"
Lily's eyes widen in shock and she looks up at the ceiling so she wouldn't glare at the boy while trying to calm down. She has to make her mind blank to prevent her from saying something that she'll regret. Although, she never regrets putting spoiled brats in their place.
"He's the gamekeeper," Harry explains.
Lily is liking the boy less and less every second and judging by the look on her brother's face, he doesn't like him either.
"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."
"I think he's awesome," Lily speaks up coldly.
She knows she shouldn't have, but that boy has clearly been raised by people who think they're better than others. She can't stand people like that. Especially if they're talking about her friend. Even though she met Hagrid only yesterday, he's quite possibly the nicest person she's ever known. Having him around has been extremely nice.
"Do you?" the boy asks, with a slight sneer.
"Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"
"They're dead," Lily answers tonelessly.
She doesn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.
"Oh, sorry," he says, not sounding sorry at all.
He looks Lily up and down as if wondering what her problem is.
"But they were our kind, weren't they?"
"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean," this time Harry speaks, knowing that Lily might snap if the boy says anything else to her.
"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"
Lily immediately notices that he went straight for their surname which means he only cares about a certain status. She just doesn't understand what it is that he'd judge them by. But before Harry or Lily can answer, Madam Malkin says:
"That's you done, my dear."
The boy hops down from the footstool.
"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," he says.
-
Hagrid notices that Lily's rather sad as she eats the ice-cream he bought her (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).
"What's up?" he asks.
Lily wants to tell him everything that she feels, but can't put it into words. She doesn't even fully understand what she's feeling. A lot of things are bothering her, she's not feeling happy about learning magic anymore and kind of wants to go back to her previous life.
"Just very tired," she lies.
If she tells him, he'll probably think she's ungrateful.
They stop to buy parchment and quills. Nothing is interesting in there. When they've left the shop, Harry asks:
"Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"
"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh both know - not knowin' about Quidditch!"
"Don't make me feel worse."
Harry tells Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's.
"...and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in--"
"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk - you saw 'em in the Leaky Cauldron."
Of course, if he knew who he was talking to, Lily is sure he would have been nicer. Probably would've tried to be friends with Harry. And she'd be ignored again.
'Oh, look, who is that beside him?'
'That's Isabella Potter.'
'Who?'
'Exactly.'
"Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles - look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"
"So what is Quidditch?" Lily changes the subject so she wouldn't have to think about everyone obsessing over her brother or her dead parents.
"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like, like football in the Muggle world. Everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls - sorta hard ter explain the rules."
So Lily was right about it being a sport. It sounds pretty interesting.
"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"
"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but--"
"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," Harry says gloomily.
"Right you are, Harriet," Lily answers and he gives her a thanks-a-lot look.
"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," Hagrid says darkly.
"There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."
Lily now knows what house she certainly doesn't want to be in. She can't imagine herself turning into an evil witch.
"Vol-sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"
"Years an' years ago," Hagrid answers.
They buy their school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves are stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never reads anything, would be wild to get his hands on some of these.
Hagrid almost has to drag Harry away from Curses and Counter-Curses (Bewitch your Friends and Befuddle your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and much, much more) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.
"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."
Lily sniggers. Cursing Dudley would be her favourite way of passing time.
"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," Hagrid explains.
"But, Hagrid, cursing Dudley is a very special circumstance," Lily says innocently and Harry laughs.
The fun they'd have if they could make their cousin's life miserable.
Vengeance is sweet.
"Yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet anyway, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."
"Then we better pay attention." The Potter twins share a mischievous smirk.
-
Hagrid doesn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron as well.
"It says pewter on yer list."
But they get a couple of nice sets of scales for weighing potion ingredients and two collapsible brass telescopes. Then the three of them visit the apothecary, which is fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages.
Barrels of slimy stuff stand on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders line the walls, bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hang from the ceiling. Lily thinks it's disgusting that's why all that stuff is fascinating to her.
While Hagrid asks the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for the twins, Harry examines silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop). Lily stands by the door, just taking it all in.
Outside the apothecary, Hagrid checks their list again.
"Just yer wands left - oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh two a birthday present."
"You don't have to--" the twins say at once at the same time, going red in the face.
"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at."
Lily frowns at that. She kind of wanted a toad. Toads are cool. And who cares what went out of fashion or not?
"An' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze."
Lily's frown deepens. It's not him that would live with it so why does it matter?
"I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer post an' everythin'."
-
Twenty minutes later, they leave Eeylops Owl Emporium, which was dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carries a large cage which holds a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. Lily is staring at it in amazement. She's never been so close to an owl. Hagrid bought only one because he couldn't afford two, but Lily doesn't mind. She's too lazy to take care of an animal on her own, so Harry would have probably done most of the work anyway.
The twins can't stop stammering their thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.
"Don' mention it," Hagrid says gruffly.
"Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh two gotta have the best wands."
A magic wand...that's what Lily has been really looking forward to.
The last shop is narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. A single wand lays on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rings somewhere in the depths of the shop as the three of them step inside. It's a tiny place, empty except for a single spindly chair that Hagrid sits on to wait.
Lily feels strangely as though she's entered a very strict library - she doesn't particularly like libraries. She has no problem with being quiet, but it's when the librarians shush her for no reason that she's trying not to provoke them by acting loudly. Librarians annoy her.
She sees her brother swallow a lot of new questions that have just occurred to him as he looks at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling instead. For some reason, the hairs on the back of Lily's neck prickle. The very dust and silence in here seem to tingle with some secret magic.
"Good afternoon," a soft voice says.
Harry and Lily jump. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there's a loud crunching noise and he gets quickly off the spindly chair. Lily holds in her laugh. Poor Hagrid.
An old man is standing before the three of them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.
"Hello," Harry and Lily greet awkwardly at the same time.
"Ah, yes," the man says.
"Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter."
Lily rolls her eyes, her mood worsening again.
"And, of course, you, Isabella. You both have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."
Mr Ollivander moves closer to them. Lily's now seriously wishing he would blink. Those silvery eyes are creepy.
"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."
"And that's where..." Mr Ollivander touches the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.
"Don't touch him." Lily moves his hand away, feeling annoyed by his lack of manners.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm also sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he says softly.
"Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."
He shakes his head and then, to Lily's relief, spots Hagrid.
"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"
"It was, sir, yes," Hagrid says.
"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" Mr Ollivander asks, suddenly stern.
Lily wants to know what Hagrid got expelled for. He doesn't seem like the type to seriously break the rules. Perhaps it was an accident, Hagrid does seem quite clumsy. Maybe it was some kind of misunderstanding.
"Er, yes, they did, yes," Hagrid answers, shuffling his feet.
"I've still got the pieces, though," he adds brightly.
"But you don't use them?" Mr Ollivander asks sharply.
Lily thinks that the man already knows the truth.
"Oh, no, sir," Hagrid quickly answers.
The twins grin and share a knowing look after noticing him gripping his pink umbrella very tightly as he speaks.
"Hmm," Mr Ollivander hums, giving Hagrid a piercing look.
"Well, now, Mr Potter. Let me see." He pulls a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket.
"Which is your wand arm?"
"I'm right-handed," Harry replies, a bit unsure if that's the right answer.
"Hold out your arm. That's it."
He measures Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and around his head. As he measures, he explains:
"Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."
Lily suddenly realises that the tape measure, which is measuring between Harry's nostrils, is doing so on its own. Based on the look Harry gives her, he realised the same thing.
Mr Ollivander is flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.
"That will do," he says, and the tape measure crumples into a heap on the floor.
"Right then, Mr Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."
Harry takes the wand and, looking quite foolish, waves it around a bit, but Mr Ollivander snatches it out of his hand almost at once.
"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try--"
Harry tries, but he's hardly raised the wand when it, too, is snatched back by Mr Ollivander. Lily wonders what will happen if Mr Ollivander is too late.
"No, no. Here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."
Harry tries. And tries. Lily has no idea what Mr Ollivander is waiting for. The pile of tried wands is mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr Ollivander pulls from the shelves, the happier he seems to become.
"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere. I wonder... Yes, why not? Unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."
Harry takes the wand. He raises it above his head, brings it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shoot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light onto the walls.
Hagrid and Lily whoop and clap and Mr Ollivander cries:
"Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... How curious, how very curious..." He puts Harry's wand back into its box and wraps it in brown paper, still muttering.
"Curious...curious..."
"Sorry," Harry begins, "but what's curious?"
His sister is thinking the same thing. Mr Ollivander fixes Harry with his pale stare.
"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother - why, its brother gave you that scar."
Lily's eyes widen and she sees Harry swallowing hard.
"Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter... After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."
Lily shivers. She isn't sure she likes Mr Ollivander that much. He then turns to her quickly and she jumps.
"Your turn, Ms Potter," he says and the measuring tape rises into the air and starts doing its job while Mr Ollivander goes to look for wands that could be a match for Lily.
He gives her many wands, but not as many as he'd given Harry. Every time, she gets a new wand in her hand, Mr Ollivander snatches it back and gives her a different one before she can get accustomed to the feeling of even holding it. It's honestly quite annoying.
"Now, I believe this is the one," he says, examining the wand in his hand.
"Elder and dragon heartstring, twelve inches, brittle," he says before handing it to the girl.
She feels warmth and power prickle her fingers and a stream of green and blue sparks shoots from the end when she gives it a wave.
Harry and Hagrid clap, seeming very happy for her and it makes her smile.
"A powerful combination indeed."
But he doesn't explain any more, leaving her wondering.
They each pay seven Galleons for their wands, and Mr Ollivander bows them from his shop.
The late-afternoon sun hangs low in the sky as Harry, Hagrid, and Lily make their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty.
They don't speak at all as they walk down the road; Lily doesn't even notice how much people are gawping at them on the Underground, laden as they are with all their funny-shaped packages, with the sleeping snowy owl on Harry's lap.
Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Lily only realises where they are when Hagrid taps Harry on the shoulder and he nudges her.
"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he says.
He buys Harry and Lily hamburgers and they sit down on plastic seats to eat them. Lily notices Harry looking around so she does as well. Everything looks so strange, somehow.
"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," Hagrid asks.
Lily isn't sure what could be bothering him. They've just had the best birthday of their lives, he's a celebrity amongst wizards and witches - and yet - Harry chews his hamburger in complete silence.
"Everyone thinks I'm special," he says at last.
"Didn't think you'd notice," Lily says a bit bitterly, but Harry ignores her like everyone else has done previously.
"All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr Ollivander... But I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-sorry - I mean, the night our parents died."
Lily is filled with a bit of guilt. This whole time she thought he enjoyed the attention. This whole time she's been jealous of him when in truth, he probably doesn't even want to be famous. Hagrid leans across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows, he wears a very kind smile.
"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll both learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts - I did - still do, 'smatter of fact."
-
Hagrid helps Harry and Lily onto the train that will take them back to the Dursleys, then hands Harry an envelope.
"Yer tickets fer Hogwarts," he says.
Lily didn't think they'd have to go back so soon, but she's a little bit glad. She'll need a lot of time to process all of this, along with her feelings.
"First o' September - King's Cross - it's all on yer tickets. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me... See yeh soon, guys."
The train pulls out of the station. Harry and Lily want to watch Hagrid until he's out of sight; they rise in their seats and press their noses against the window, but when Lily blinks Hagrid is gone.
"So... Back to the Dursleys we go," she says, feeling kind of emotionally drained.
Harry doesn't answer, probably feeling the same way - the happiness she felt only moments ago is quickly dissipating.
Even when they wish each other a happy birthday, she feels anything but happy.