Fate of a Fifth Marauder

Diagon Alley

I woke up the next morning in a bit of a daze. I stumbled downstairs to the kitchen, where I flicked the kettle on to boil. My parents were looking at me with raised eyebrows from the table.

"What?" I groaned.

"Oh nothing. Just, shouldn't you be ready by now?"

It took a moment for it to dawn on me what they meant. "You mean that wasn't a dream?" 

They laughed. "No sweetie. Are you going then?" 

"I don't know," I replied, "I'd like to find out a bit more before I decide."

They nodded understandingly. I still couldn't believe they were leaving me to decide. Looking at the clock, I ran straight back up to my room to get dressed.

Coming down twenty minutes later, it was exactly one minute to nine. Just as the minute hand hit twelve, there was a knock on the door.      

How on earth was she punctual now, but she showed up at four in the bloody morning last night?!? The handle creaking, I opened the door and smiled at her.

"Madelyn," she nodded.

"Professor Devonshire," I greeted. 

We walked on into the kitchen, where she explained more about Hogwarts, how I would get there, the security, the rules (which I didn't really pay attention to), at this stage I was eating my toast and zoning out. I'd figure this stuff out as I went, if I decided to go. It sounded exciting, but at the same time I'd be leaving the country, going to a foreign school, where I knew nobody.  

On the other hand, a fresh start would be nice. A school where no one knew about Elizabeth, no one thought I was weird, it did sound tempting. My mind was made up. 

"Uhm, guys?"

"Yes Mads?"  My dad replied.

"I'll go," I nodded. 

"Brilliant. We'll need to go to Diagon Alley today to get your wand and school supplies." She looked over to my parents. "Would you like to come along?"

They nodded eagerly. 

"I assume that you're ready to go now?"

When I returned downstairs with my camera, she held out her arm to me and gestured for my parents to take mine. All at once we were sucked through a sort of tube with no oxygen, and we were spinning, and spinning, and then it was all over. There was a dull thud as I landed on my hands and knees, and looked up at my parents and professor Devonshire, who had all landed on their feet. That was all the confirmation I needed. Magic was real. 

Looking curiously at my parents, I followed them into a run down pub, welcoming the silence that contrasted the busy street outside. Just before we entered, I caught a glimpse of a battered sign, reading The Leaky Cauldron. As Ms. Devonshire had a few words with the bartender, I strayed over to the window, watching as the people outside walked by without a second thought. They didn't seem to be able to see the pub. I made a mental note to ask Ms. Devonshire about it later. 

We stepped outside, Ms. Devonshire walked over to a brick wall and tapped it with her wand. The bricks came apart like clockwork, revealing a long, bright street, lined with different shops, and at the very end, a tall white building that looked like it could collapse on the street at any moment.

Witches and wizards covered the street, some dressed in bizarre combinations of outfits, others in robes, and still others in completely normal clothes. We started off down the cobblestone, following Ms. Devonshire. We passed an assortment of apothecaries, quidditch shops, and wandmakers. I was a bit surprised when I saw an ice-cream parlour, but then who can live without ice-cream?! 

My head was turning every which way, trying to drink it all in, and I'm pretty sure I must have looked fairly stupid. My theory was proven when a snooty boy who looked to be in maybe 6th year stopped in front of me. "Close your mouth, mudblood," he spoke, his lip curling in disgust. He flicked his ridiculous long hair over his shoulder and walked on. Making a face at his retreating back, I stopped walking and waited for Professor Devonshire. 

When she caught up to me, I spoke up; "Excuse me, but what's a mudblood?"

She looked down at me for a moment, before replying, "It's not a nice word. Why do you ask?"

Sensing trouble, I looked down at the ground, muttering nonsense about having heard it somewhere. She eyed me carefully, before deciding not to push it any further. I shoved the incident into the box in my head, the box that contained stuff I didn't want to think about, and continued to follow the cobblestone.

A few minutes later, we turned a corner as a huge white building came into view. It was slightly crooked, as though a giant had shoved it, and had marble pillars all the way up. There were people crowded around the steps at the bottom.

We walked up to the building, pushing and getting pushed as we manoeuvred our way through the crowd. When we finally got through to the other side, I saw a small....creature at the bottom. As I looked up at Professor Devonshire to ask, she replied "Goblin. They run Gringotts. Perfectly nice, until you cross them."
Satisfied, I nodded as we continued up the steps. When we reached the top, the was a poem engraved in the marble; 
'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.'

Intrigued (and more than a little creeped out), I stepped through the huge oak doors. Beyond them lay a huge chamber with mahogany desks along the walls, and at least a hundred goblins. There were slightly smaller, (but still ginormous), doors at intervals along the walls, and the room seemed to glow with a sort of elegance that you wouldn't find anywhere else. The high ceiling was curved, and had lines of gold and silver running through the marble.

Professor Devonshire led us up to a free desk,  and spoke to the goblin for a few minutes, before she called my parents up. A few minutes later, we were walking back out and instead of normal money, we had a small bag of gold, silver and bronze coins. As we walked, Ms. Devonshire explained how the money system worked. It was fairly simple; the gold ones were galleons, silver ones were sickles and bronze ones were knuts. There were 17 sickles in a galleon and 29 knuts in a sickle.         

Next we went to a small corner shop, the kind that can be easily looked over in search of a different shop. Ollivanders was written in faded letters above the door, and in even smaller letters beside it, est. 382 B.C . Ms. Devonshire opened the door, and immediately my dust allergies kicked in. My sneeze alerted a small, frail man to our presence, and as the light fell on his face I saw that it was lined with wrinkles, though his blue eyes still glittered kindly.

"In need of a wand dear?"
Shyly, I nodded, taking a step forward. He flicked his wrist and a measuring tape flew forward, the type that dressmakers use, and started taking all sorts of measurements. I watched in amusement for a few minutes before looking back up to see the man emerging from the shelves with a pile of boxes. He handed me the first one, saying as he did; "Alder wood, unicorn hair core, 14 ½ inches and surprisingly supple flexibility. Go on, give it a wave."

I shook the wand around in the air, and all of the dust around the shop disappeared, and all the lights turned on. Ollivander smiled happily and walked over to the counter, tapped a few buttons on the old fashioned till, and called my parents over. They walked over, still with extreme expressions of surprise on their faces, and paid.

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A/n

Sorry this took so long. There will be a part 2 up soon, it was just getting a little long. Thank you so much for reading, it means a lot.

Byeeeeeee