SlytherPuffs

Chapter 2 Part 1- Diagon Alley - Rose's POV

Diagon Alley – Rose’s POV

Mr and Mrs Hathaway - my parents - are ordinary people. So are my brothers and sister. Well, they’re as ordinary as witches and wizards can be. My dad's an English teacher at a muggle high school near London, and my mum works in Florish and Blotts in Diagon Alley.

My oldest brother Jacob is twenty and working as an accountant in the muggle world. Then there’s Andrew who’s just turned 18 and is an Artist. He’s my favourite brother because he’s nice, and he always draws me little pictures for my birthdays. Next there’s Annabelle, or Anna for short. She’s 15 and as evil as a Dementor against anyone she doesn’t like or who’s upset her somehow, which most often is me. She’s nice to everyone else. Everyone thinks she’s the golden child because she’s so smart and pretty, and with her shiny black hair and chocolate-brown eyes it isn’t hard to see why people love her so easily.

Finally there’s me. Rose, aged 10, dreaming of being an artist or a writer. I’m the youngest of the family, and like all my family I have pitch-black hair, but whereas my siblings and my mum have brown eyes, I inherited my dad’s light blue eyes. I look odd, especially with my lightly tanned skin. It’s as if god chose random select when creating me. I stumbled over the dorrway into the area behind the Leaky Cauldron just as my mummy lowered her wand and the wall started to move.

Diagon Alley was loud and crowded as I followed my family through the arch. People shouted across the street at people they knew, others darted from shop to shop with their purchases, and owls flew above our heads as we slowly made our way down the street to Gringotts.

“Why did Rose have to come with us? She hasn’t even got a letter! She’s probably not even in the school.” Anna moaned as we walked down the street, flipping her long black hair over her shoulder. I felt my face flush and I looked down at my feet.

“Annabelle, don’t be rude! Whether your sister has her letter or not, she is still a part of this family.”

“Yeah but this is the first year of my NEWT’s, you saw my letter! I need to buy loads of stuff, and how will we be able to do that with Rose tagging along? You know what she’s like – she’ll get distracted and keep stopping in all of the shops, and then it’d take all DAY to get the stuff on my list. Look, can’t Andrew just take her home or something? I mean, he doesn’t need to be here.”

“Yes I bloody well do!” He said to Anna in outrage.

“Andrew!” Mum chastened him, and he backed down a bit.

“Sorry mum.” He mumbled apologetically, then looked back at Anna. “I need to get some new inks and quills, and this is the only time Mum and Dad would let me use the floo powder, so deal with it!” He said to her, then hurried ahead to walk with dad instead. Anna’s face turned red from anger and she stormed after him, argument clearly not over. I watched them from back here with mum, Anna and Andrew quietly arguing heatedly, one on each side of Dad who was trying without success to get them to stop. Mum sighed from beside me and I looked up at her for a moment before looking back down at the street so I wouldn’t trip over anything like I normally do.

“They used to fight like that all the time when they were kids. I had hoped they’d grow out of it” My mother told me. I glanced over at Anna then back down at the floor, just narrowly missing tripping over a few loose stones.

“Mum... Maybe Anna’s right. I mean, I haven’t got my letter yet, so ... so maybe I’m not even a witch. “ I muttered quietly, hoping a little that mum wouldn’t hear me, but she did. I’d stopped walking and people were rushing past me on both sides. Mum knelt down in front of me, tilting my head up so she could look into my eyes.