｡+.*𝗚𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗜𝗥*+｡ [𝘿. 𝙈𝘼𝙇𝙁𝙊𝙔]¹

IV. THE MUDBLOOD & THE STUCK-UP

The wild cart ride back to the torch-lit passage didn't take long and, soon enough, we were stumbling through the goblin-flanked hall and out of the bank.

I left the bag of money with Hagrid and Harry, minus the Galleons tucked securely in my pocket--trusting them to keep it safe and knowing, from experience, that I was liable to put it down on a shelf somewhere only to find I've lost it when we go to pay for something three stores later.

"Might as well get yer uniforms," Hagrid said after a moment of basking in the sunlight, nodding his head towards a store that's sign read:

MADAM MALKIN'S ROBES FOR ALL OCCASIONS.

"Listen, would yeh's mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron?" Hagrid's face was still faintly green. "I hate them Gringotts carts."

We agreed that it was fine.

"Feel better, Hagrid," I added before we separated, smiling sympathetically.

Hagrid made his way down the cobblestone street, his size, like in the Muggle street beyond, effortlessly parting the crowd.

Harry and I nervously made our way into the clothing shop.

Upon entering, we found ourselves faced with Madam Malkin herself--a stumpy little witch draped in mauve and wearing a pleasant smile that settled some of my prickling anxiety. Hagrid was like this big, warm security blanket and when he left I found it harder to stifle how nerve-wracking this all was--both wandering around a strange magical street without him...and around Harry. He was kind of like our buffer and, with him gone, we didn't know how to interact with each other.

"Hogwarts, clear?" Madam Malkin swiftly guessed just as Harry opened his mouth. "Got the lot here--another young man is being fitted up just now, in fact."

I glanced over curiously to see a boy standing on a stool in the back of the store, another witch pinning up his long black robes. His pale, pointed face was the picture of boredom, his grey eyes glazed over and his white-blonde hair slicked back in a style I'd never seen on any eleven-year-old in their right mind.

I had to fight the itching urge to rush over and mess it up.

Madam Malkin led us over and had Harry stand on the stool beside the blonde boy while I leant against a nearby wall to wait, arms loosely crossed.

"Hello, Hogwarts, too?" the other boy asked in a drawling voice.

"Yes," Harry replied.

When he glanced at me, I nodded distractedly in agreement, looking around the store with interest as the seamstresses pinned up the two boys' school robes.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," the blonde boy drawled. "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 something."