Back For The First Time, Harry?

Diagon emulates Knockturn

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Harry grimaced as a much younger Madam Malkin fitted his school clothes. Thinking about it, he wasn't even sure if Malkin had survived in the future. Either way here she was, playing stick and poke with her wand and an impressive array of pins.

He cringed as yet another needle pricked his skin, shifting minutely and earning a reprimand. "Stand still for a change," the rosy cheeked woman chided.

Inwardly, he cursed the Professor who abandoned him to Miss Malkin, asking her to make him three robes that should be, "black and fitting, but not clingy, seeing that he's small and skinny as it is. Wouldn't do to make him look like a starving little orphan. The rest I'm sure you know, standard Hogwarts wear." She had gone off to fetch Harry's potions wares across the street with gusto. The woman didn't seem to like Madam Malkin much, and it seemed the feeling was mutual.

He felt his legs going numb, while his mind was going overdrive from the overload of being back with magic... back where he belonged, sort of. As much as he could belong in a younger face and a much younger world.

Kuttlege had apparated them to the courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron (Harry really wowed her by holding his stomach contents), which was just as grubby-looking as ever but with significantly more patrons milling about than Harry had ever seen. Entering Diagon Alley was not any less impressive despite the fact that he had lived it many times before, and so faking a first impression wasn't too hard.

The narrow streets were crowded, full of parents and children hurrying this way and that. Half the wizards and witches were as eccentric as ever, boasting styles of dancing stars on robe linings or stuffed bird hats. It was a bit disconcerting for Harry, even before the war he had never seen such a sheer number of magicals. When he said crowded, he meant it. Every store had customers spilling out into the streets, doors never closing. Fortescue's ice cream parlour was overrun with sticky children and the man himself looked stressed, if happy.

He took in the storefronts, trying to pinpoint the differences between what he was seeing and what he was used to. Harry recognised some, such as Eeylops Owl Emporium or Cauldrons- All Sizes, but others such as Cibil's Ends- one of the biggest stores he had seen so far, that was displaying sales at the window for wampus spleen, nogtail eyes, and other equally strange bits- were lost on him, not having existed in his time. Although there perhaps were shops in his day that sold similar items.

There really were so many magicals. He'd never been surrounded by so many, not even on Lockhart's book signing in Diagon. It may just be that more people were, well, alive.

Harry followed the Hogwarts Professor towards Gringotts Bank while asking question after question about Hogwarts and Britain, all reasonable things a foreign should wonder about.

"Where is Hogwarts?"

"Scotland," came the brisk answer.

"How are I going to get there? That's all the way north!"

"Train. Now be quiet, the goblins are not the most patient folk." She didn't seem very patient either, in fact the lady seemed on edge the entire time. Harry didn't know if she just didn't like him, or didn't like children.

They reached the large, white marble building that stood proud in the centre of the alley at the divergence, where it splits off into Natura Alley. If they continued along the Diagon main alley they would eventually reach the narrow passage that lead to Knockturn's regions. If there was anything Harry learned after the end of the war, it was that the wizarding world was much larger than he'd ever realised. And that was a stark revelation when he saw just how empty it was- and how empty it wasn't meant to be.