I thought I knew my ending - Year 1 and 2

Chapter 7 - Diagon Alley

As much as I loved being home and spending time with my family, the last few weeks of the summer holidays seemed like a small eternity. I had already made my suitcase a week in advance and kept cramming in stuff even though I knew I had to add my new books, robes and ingredients as well. My parents had decided that we would pick up my school stuff in Diagon Alley the day before I would take the train to Hogwarts.

"Are you coming, Lily? We're all waiting in the car," my mother yelled from under the stairs.

"Yes, mum, I am nearly... ready," I grunted, I sat down on my suitcase to get it closed. My mother came walking up the stairs.

"Ohh, dear," she sighed as she helped me open the trunk back up. "You're going to a magic school, you know... not an art school. You're not going to have time to do watercolours and work with charcoal there, do you?" I looked at her bewildered.

"I wanted to make a painting for you so you can see the castle too." My mother put a loving arm around me.

"Just describe to us what it's like there in your letters and send a drawing every now and then." She started unloading things and placing them on my desk. Just before we moved to the car, I sneaked a box of watercolours and brushes into the now half-full suitcase. 

My father parked the car a block away from the Leaky Cauldron. We would spend the night there after a day of shopping in Daigon Alley. Petunia strolled behind us. She had been sulking all morning because she was not allowed to get her school stuff yet and had to wait until I was on the train before she could go buy her new school uniforms.

After checking in at the innkeeper's and putting our bags in our room, we decided to have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron.

"Is this the only menu they have?" asked Petunia as she flipped the menu in search of more contemporary dishes on the back, "this is so..."

"Medieval?" I completed with a grin. "Apparently we should try the pea soup, it should be very tasty."

All four of us ordered the soup of the day (pea soup) and Petunia and my mother looked with disgust at their lunch that was brought by a bald man with a terrible hunchback. Petunia pricked her soup with a fork as if something would attack her if she didn't stab it to death first.

"There are no eyeballs or poisonous mushrooms in it, are there?" she asked my father who was already halfway through his portion. I rolled my eyes. 

"We will go and grap a sandwich outside in a moment, dear" my mother soothed her. I couldn't believe her. She always forced us to stay at the table until our last scrap disappeared from our plates and now she made Petunia complain like this about the food she had just ordered.

"Ohh," my sister said with a hopeful look in her eyes, "maybe we can go and pick up my school uniform as well? Then Lily and dad can start their shopping already." My mother and father looked at each other doubtfully. 

"Would you mind if we don't go with you, Lily, and if we meet again for dinner?" I glanced at my sister and couldn't possibly say no. I would be arguing with her for the rest of the school year... 

"Fine," I sighed, "but I do think it's a shame you're making me buy clothes with Dad, who knows what kind of fashion fiasco I'll come home with?" My father gave me a wink and my mother laughed.

After our short lunch, when the innkeeper had returned two untouched bowls of soup, Petunia and my mother left into town and my father and I walked towards the Leaky Cauldron's courtyard, the gateway to Diagon Alley. I tapped the bricks with my wand and they shifted until they formed a gate.