Luck of Nines

13

He tumbled out in an unfamiliar place, although not entirely, it smelled faintly of the same scents as London, especially of those that lingered around the Leaky Cauldron. He had a choice to make and quickly, did he call for help? A glance around the shady looking bar quickly got rid of that plan, so stealthily as he could he slid out of the bar behind the potions master and followed along.

      From what he could tell, they were heading to a less shady part of town which meant it was time. The next time the potions master slid to the side of the road, Chipper turned human and bumped into him, with a bit of focus and cat like reflexes he'd swiped the bag of money and deposited it out of sight by the side of the road. Not stealthily enough to not get caught though. When the potions master looked down, he smirked, and then ran.

     It didn't take a second for the potions master to give chase, shouting something. Chipper only screamed in response and, once he reached a suitably un-shady part of the shopping center, after narrow misses of some spells, ran to the first woman he saw and clung to the hem of her robes, staring up with wide, terrified eyes. 

      "Please Miss!" He begged tearfully, "Help! Call the Aurors! He's going to kill me too!"

      The Aurors were something the potion master mentioned often and almost fearfully in the same context most criminals mentioned the police, so they had to be a good person to call for this situation.  The woman stared down at him in shock and surprise, but they had gained quite a crowd. 

      But then her eyes sharpened and turned upon the man, his wand out, and eyes angrily searching around. "What have you done to this child!?" The woman accused angrily.

       "Excuse me!?" The potions master drew up short, "That boy is a thief!"

      Figuring he might as well up the ante, he sniffled, "I saw him kidnap these men! And when he saw me, he chased me down, but my momma..." he trailed off brokenly, valiantly keeping up the ruse of fighting off tears before he broke down bawling, "He's going to kill me too now!"

    The whole crowd looked between the blood soaked boy and the wand wielding man, as the man scowled and the boy broke down sobbing, "I'm not a thief! I'm not! Please don't let him hurt me!"  The potions master seemed to recognize who they were going to choose to believe a little too late. 

     Chaos ensued.  The Aurors, who were indeed, as it turned out, a type of law enforcement arrived just in time to break up the resulting mob. The woman who's dress he clung to keeping him away from the fighting although not doing much more.

It had been fairly simple, they asked him where the body was, he claimed he didn't know, they asked about the blood on him, he thought it might of come from one of the men- remembering was just so scary- they asked about the men, he said the man had taken them somewhere before returning, quickly, that one had been putting up a fight, they searched for the purse, he had no clue what they were talking about- he was not a thief! As no coin purse was found on him the line of question was dropped, quickly once the man had accused the woman of taking the purse from Chipper.

The woman had drawn herself up in indignation, but let herself be checked. She must have been an important person considering the Aurors knew her by name and were nearly as outraged by the suggestion. They asked about who could take him, he cried, but said his grandpa was supposed to pick his mother and him up from the Leaky Caldron soon.

He'd slipped away and out of sight once he had been left at the Leaky Caldron, the woman sympathetically paying for his stay and Tom, the owner, just as sympathetically giving a discount. It was totally understandable though, he was a young kid with limited supervision. The men had been found in the potions master's house. It was just about a done deal.

Though he made his way back to where had left it, the coin purse was gone.

Instead, he wondered about Diagon Alley, as he found it was called. His cat form, like before, was not questioned, in fact he seemed to draw even less attention here in it. He felt that as fair though considering the share mystical quality the Alley had. If he had his doubts about it before, they had long since gone quiet, there was some other force at work here, that let him gain these forms, that operated the wands, that seemed to dictate everything that people did here.

      They called it magic. 

      And it was beyond beautiful.

     The smells were not like something you would find in London, traces of it remained, but the air was far fresher here, although a faint smell of oddly scented soot seemed to linger everywhere; it was the smell of the fireplace, he realized.

     It wasn't just the smells that entranced him though, despite the different herbs and dried goods, and even meats that were unfamiliar to him. It was also the feeling of this 'magic' that lingered everywhere in the air. There were no cars and everybody wore robes and dresses of various cuts. Many people opted for pointed hats as well, although not all of them.

     'Used Caldrons-good condition' one sign read on a movable cart packed past brimming with various shapes and styles of high-rimmed bowls.  Caldrons, he figured.

    'Ollivander's Wands' another read. He wondered if there was any chance he could get his hands on one of those.

     At the other end of the Alley, it branched off into two streets, but at the center in between those a large, squat Roman styled building sat with large columns holding it up. 'Gringotts' the sign declared, offering no further information. Likely, none was needed for the shoppers, it was large, old, and distinctive, two short creatures dressed fully in medieval armor guarded the entrance, but he could observe using his other senses at least eight more standing at the ready.

     Fascinating.

     With nothing better to do, he took the right path and began wandering along the shops that sat on either side of this path. 

      The smell of cooking food made his mouth water again, his stomach still empty despite having a few bites of the rodent inside of him. Slowly he began weaving his way through the shops to see if he could snag anything, from a plate, from the trash, or one of the many creatures that made their home alongside humans, he didn't much care at the moment.