Harry Potter and the Way of Things

Chapter 3: Magical Alley

Original Author's note: Hey peeps, so this chapter is a little short and a little boring, but bare with me. Next chapter is Gringotts! An immense thank you to my brilliant beta, Rafessor. Now on with the show!

My AN: Enjoy! [IDK why I am writing this]

"Boy!" Petunia whispered angrily at him. "I'll not be having any more of this freakish business in my house, or it will be back to the cupboard with you."

"I don't think so Petunia." Harry said, his voice cutting like a blade. "You could try, of course, and it might even work, but this is MY life. So I go back to the cupboard, back to endless chores, and one day when everything is 'normal' again, Dudley falls down the stairs and breaks his neck. You could always try to blame it on the boy locked in the space under the stairs, but who would believe you? Not the neighbors, not the authorities, for sure."

As Harry spoke Petunia's eyes widened into saucers. To hear such a well-thought-out murder/framing come out of his mouth was a shock. Looking into the cold, dead eyes that used to belong to Lily, she knew it was no ideal threat. He connected a 'though thread' to her and pushed, Tell him.

"When Lily was eleven," Petunia started to say, but was interrupted by Harry. "At the beginning, Petunia". She huffed a bit, but ended up starting out anew. "When Lily and I were little we were the best of friends. But as we grew up, Lily started to do... unnatural things, ungodly things. Our parents thought I was making things up. They didn't see how unnatural she was, how... wrong. Even the boy across the street saw it, he called her a witch the first time they met. He was one of them of course, the freaks."

"Lily was an angel in the eyes of our mother and father, she could do no wrong. So when she got that awful letter, they were ever so excited. They were proud to have a witch in the family! They were glad to have an abomination against God living in their house! From that time onward, I stopped thinking of Lily as a friend. I had to endure two months of her constant jabbering about her 'magic'. She was so enthusiastic to be going to live with other freaks, about leaving me behind! When she came home that summer, she wasn't my sister anymore. Even then, all she wanted to talk about was magic this, magic that. The boy who lived across the way, Severus I think his name was, stole all of her time, every summer.

Every summer she came home it was like living with a stranger. After Hogwarts she married that terrible Potter boy. The very same boy I had heard her complain about so many times. Within a year of her getting married and having you, she and her no-good husband went and got themselves killed. Whoever brought you just dropped you on the doorstep with a letter. Hardly anything, that's what I know. All I was told is that they both were killed and that I was supposed to 'look after you'. I don't even know why or how she died. Even though we weren't friends, I was still hurt by her death. She was my bloody sister."

She stopped for a minute, wiped a tear and continued, "When you got here, I wanted to take care of you like Dudley, but Vernon saw you as a burden. I tried to tell him you were just a little boy, but he put you in the cupboard. Then, when Vernon saw you do magic, something inside him broke. He's... not the man I married anymore. I'm sorry Harry, Vernon's going to come soon, so go prepare dinner in the kitchen. "

—

Harry sat in his room the next day, thinking about what Aunt Petunia had told him. It really wasn't much to go on. The story had more to do with his mother and less to do with magic. However, it did relay that his mother was magically, as was his father. They met at a school for magic. When she was eleven, she got a letter to the magic school. That boy that told her she was a witch before then.

These were all important facts. However, they didn't really reveal the nature of magic or tell him how to find out for himself. Just as he resolved to ask Petunia a few questions, he heard her distinct footsteps approaching his door. A knock sounded on his door and he called, "Come in Aunt Petunia." She entered the room and stood there for a moment, before saying to him, "Vernon is in a mood, something at work upset him. Please have dinner ready by five, and the table set. You can take a plate up to your room. Use the paper ones and throw it away." She turned to leave, but Harry spoke up, "Aunt Petunia, could you tell me how to find out more about magic?"

As Harry said this he connected a 'thought thread' to Petunia and pushed the thought, Harry deserves to know. He'd become rather used to doing this with Petunia. He didn't feel bad, he was making her a better person. A kinder, less bitter, less stuck up person. He didn't really have a choice anyways. With the way she was two month ago, he never would have gotten this far. No turning back now.

"There's a magic alley, I think it's called Diagonally? Diagon Alley? I don't exactly know, but it is somewhere near Charing Cross Road. You have to go through a place called Leaky Cauldron. It's invisible to normal folks, but I think you can see it. Anyways, tomorrow I will ask Vernon if Dudley and I can go to the mall for some clothes. I will tell Vernon I have to take you with us, but we'll drop you at Charing, you can walk to the place and do what you need to. We can pick you up at nine. Buy a cookbook at that bookshop on your way back through."

"Yes Aunt Petunia" replied Harry and hurried downstairs to prepare dinner

The car ride to Charing Cross road was relatively silent. Petunia kept sneaking glances at him, but he mostly ignored her. Dudley sat in the front seat on his hand-held video game, with his headphones in.

Harry saw the street sign that indicated they were here. Petunia pulled the car over and said to him "Head to the bank first, your parents probably left you some money in a vault there. We'll be back at nine. Good luck Harry." He knew this was his cue to leave, so he opened the car door and stepped out. "Thank you Aunt Petunia, I'll be here at nine." And he shut the door. Turning to the street, he began looking, searching for the broken sign in the shape of a cauldron.

Apparently, it looked like a broken down storefront to people without magic. He searched the storefronts looking for the sign that would tell him he was in the right place.

Eventually he found the Leaky Cauldron, nestled between the bookstore and a record store. The pub looked rather beat up, old and all around not like a place that led to a magic alley. That's kinda the point, his mind supplied. Harry began making his way to the pub. He hesitated at the door, but after a moment pushed it wide open and stepped through.

The inside of the pub was shabby, dim, and almost empty. A few tables sat around the pub, their chairs unoccupied.

The only two people were at the bar. One sitting in front of it, slurring barely comprehensible words at the second, a bored looking bartender. When Harry walked in both sets of eyes turned to him. The drunken man merely shrugged and continued to talk to the bartender.

The bartender however, took one look at him and stood from behind the bar. " Excuse me, Garrison, but I believe this youngling may require assistance. I'll be back momentarily. Follow me young man." As he said this he made to move towards the back of the bar, and Harry followed, a little perplexed that he hadn't needed to ask for help.

Harry followed him out the back door, and was surprised that as soon as he was in the courtyard, the man turned to him.

"Mr. Potter, what a pleasant surprise. My name is Tom, and I'm quite honored to meet you!"

"Honored, sir? Why would you want to meet me?" Harry thought as a million scenarios flashed through his mind, none of which came even close to what the man had to say next.

"Why would I want to meet you? Well I imagine every wizard and witch is dying to know everything about you!" Seeing the confused look on Harry's face he seemed to switch off his excitement. "Oh my, you don't know, do you?" He commented, almost sadly. Harry shook his head. "Well, Mr Potter, you are quite famous among magical folks. Unfortunately I don't have the time to tell you all about it. I suggest you get the book, 'The Rise And Fall Of The Dark Arts'. For now cover your scar, people know you by it, and they might not be as... discreet as I am."

Harry took a baseball cap he had found at the park out of Dudley's old backpack and put it on. "Is this better sir?" He asked Tom.

" Certainly, Mr. Potter! Now, onto business. I assume you'd like access to Diagon Alley?", Tom asked and then continued on as if Harry had answered. Right this way!" He proceeded to make his way across the small courtyard, coming to stand in front of a plain brick wall. " Now watch closely Mr Potter, for I shan't show you again.

Tom tapped the brick wall — in an obviously practiced fashion — once with his wand. Harry memorized the brick as he did so, three up and two across from the rubbish bin. The bricks that formed the wall began to turn, slide, and shift out of the way, until all that was left was an archway. Harry didn't hesitate, didn't linger. Instead, he threw a quick "Thanks Tom" over his shoulder as he stepped into the magical world.