Annabeth Chase the Triwizard Champion

Chapter Two

 It was still light outside when Annabeth woke up. That was fair. She had no idea what time it was when she fell asleep. It was probably too early, anyway.

Rubbing her eyes, Annabeth sat up. The sun was shining through the window, painting a patch of floor with bright light. When she pushed back the blanket, Annabeth realized she was in one of her getting-things-done moods. Yeah, no lying around right now.

So, with a quick check in the mirror to make sure she looked presentable and a little smoothing down of her hair totally not at the mirror's suggestion, Annabeth grabbed what she assumed was the money bag, put her wand in her thigh holster with her dagger, used the mist to hide said dagger, and set out.

***

The letter had said that Diagon Alley was behind the Leaky Cauldron. Annabeth found no such thing. The only thing she did find was a small bricked in courtyard with two garbage cans and a whole lotta weeds.

Annabeth inspected the garbage cans, looking for a hidden latch or something like that. Then she searched the walls. Then the weeds. She thought. It was a magical alley, for magical shopping for magical items. Why wouldn't it have a magical entrance?

She pulled out her wand, but then realized. She didn't know any spells. Annabeth decided to put that to the back of her mind. Maybe she didn't need a spell. Maybe she would just have to point it or tap it on something.

She started with the bricks, tapping each individual one with her wand. She thought about going inside to ask someone, but she couldn't bring herself to stop. What if she stopped on one brick and the next one was the one she needed?

So she kept going.

It finally worked on the third brick up from the garbage cans. Annabeth tapped her wand against it, and a hole appeared at the point of impact, growing and growing. It finally stopped when most of the bricks had vanished, leaving a beautiful archway in its place.

But the archway was nothing compared to what it revealed.

A colorful cobblestone street snaked this way and that, full of people and stores and magic. There were cauldrons outside one store, various plants and bug limbs displayed in bins outside another, wizard robes and hats in the window display of another one, and owls, cats, and other animals roaming inside the windows of another one.

A huge beautiful white building, designed with greek-style columns along the walls, rose at the far end of the alley, and Annabeth could see little waist high creatures flanking the doors, looking suspiciously like goblins.

Women, men, and kids walked along the cobblestone, entering and exiting stores, sitting at tables and chatting, all wearing robes and carrying wands. Annabeth felt a bit out of place in her t-shirt and jeans, but she shook it off.

Annabeth kept a finger on her wand as she walked, but she hadn't learned any spells in the ten minutes since she took it out in the courtyard. She figured she could just poke someone's eye out if worse came to worst.

It didn't really matter, anyway. She could barely focus on the crowd. Her eyes were drawn all over the place, and there was too much to focus on.

She saw a menagerie, an apothecary, a broomstick store, what looked like an astronomy store, a wand store, a robe store, a cauldron store, a huge bookstore, an ice cream store, a whole bunch of restaurants, and so many others. They were in all sizes and colors, so many different shapes and architecture styles. Annabeth had never seen something so chaotic and amazing at the same time.

Annabeth was so busy staring at everything that she only noticed the woman when she was two feet away from her. She sidestepped just in time to miss walking into her. Annabeth hit the woman's bag instead, sending her stumbling back a few steps.