Diagon Alley

The next day, Harry and Petunia went shopping while Dudley was staying with one of his friends. Harry's aunt drove the both of them to Charring Cross Road in central London. She does this by memory of when she went with her sister, Harry's mother, to by for her supplies for Hogwarts. On Charring Cross road, there was a pub that could only be seen by witches and wizards, so no muggles, what the wizarding world call non magical humans, can ever find it. At least thats what Harry's aunt says. She asked him to tell her if they are near the pub, called the Leaky Cauldron. When I spotted it, she parked the car and we got out. I guided her into the pub.

The leaky Cauldron was kind of dingy. Like it needed more lighting and a good cleaning. My Aunt said that we needed to ask the barkeep to open the door to Diagon Alley, the wizarding shopping district in London. I followed her instructions and asked, "Hello, sir, I was wondering if you could open up the door to Diagon Alley. Neither of us can do it ourselves."

"Sure I can, but call me Tom, everyone else does."says the barkeep. He then led us to the back of the pub and took out a stick, which was called a wand, and pressed it to the wall. The wall opened up and I could not help but drop my jaw in amazement. The alley was bright and colorful, although still a little dirty. There were shops for everything, from flying brooms, to potion ingredients, to owls that can deliver mail.

We said thank you to Tom and then bid he good day, before entering the alley. I was told that we needed to go to Gringotts Bank, run my goblins, to get money for school. I was told that school was quite expensive so noble houses create a trust fund. I have one from the Potter house for 10,000 galleons a year.

We go to the white romanesque building with word written on it:

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn,

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

'Well that sounds ominous' thinks Harry as he enters the grand bank. He sees these creatures working the desks of the bank, and they could only be described as Goblins. Harry's aunt leads Harry to one of the Goblins and says that they needed Harry's trust vault. She then took out a fancy key and gave it to the goblin. The goblin looked surprised that Petunia had a key for a vault, given that we were dressed as muggles and not a wizard and a witch. The goblin took the key and said "follow me."

Harry and Petunia followed the goblin to the vaults. He told them to them to get on a cart. When the cart started to move, it seemed like a really fast roller coaster. Petunia was getting a little sick, but Harry seemed to be enjoying himself on the cart. Suddenly the cart came to a stop and they had reached the trust vault. The goblin used a key and opened the vault. What was inside was a lot of gold coins, more gold than Harry, or Petunia, had ever seen.

Harry asked the Goblin, 'How much do you think that I will need for my first year at Hogwarts?"

The goblin replied, "Depends, all of the items on the list can be purchased should be under 200 galleons, though if you want anything customized than it could be within a few thousand galleons."

Seeing that that was a lot of money, Harry asked, "Is there a way to take money out of the vault without having to come here every time?"

The Goblin smiled and said, "Yes, for 50 galleons, we can make a coin pouch that will be directly connected to you vault so you can take out coins. At the same time it will also make conversions from different currency."

"That sounds good. Let's do that. How long will it take to make something like that?" Harry asked the goblin.

"We can have one ready for you as soon as we get up the cart." replies the goblin.

Soon, Petunia and Harry are walking out of Gringotts bank and are on their way to buy all of their materials. They go to Flourish and Blotts for Harry's books, and once they recieve everything, they go to Madame Malkins' robes for all occasions, where Harry gets fitted for a robe. Harry then meets a blonde kid while he is waiting for his robes. He finds this kid to be kind of annoyinmg and arrogant. He is bragging about his family and he is looking down on others, inculding Harry's aunt, though unintentionally. Harry decides right then that he would not be this blonde boy's friend unless he makes a drastic change in attitude. Once Harry recieved his robes, he leaves the shop and heads to Eeylops Owl Emporium, as Harry had already decided to get an owl so Harry can still keep in contact with his aunt.

Once he enters, he feels instantly attracted to one owl, a snow white one. He walks towards it and sees the intelligence in its eyes. Harry asks the bird, "How would you like to become my owl, little one?" The owl hoots, almost coos, towards Harry, as if accepting his offer. He picks up the cage and brings it to the counter and says," How much for is owl?" It turns out that the owl is 5 galleons. He also bought a stand for 10 galleons.

"What's your name, little one? How about Pearl? Because you are like a white gem in a sea of impurity."

The white owl agrees to the name. With that, Petunia, Harry and the owl Pearl make their way to get a wand.