Bitter Rivals Sweet Love

Diagon Alley

Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was
daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.
"It was a dream, he told himself firmly. "I dreamed a giant called
Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open
my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."
There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.
And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door, Harry thought, his heart
sinking. But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"All right," Azzy mumbled sleepily, "I'm getting up."
They sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off them. The hut was full of
sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed
sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper
held in its beak. Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him. He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat. "Don't do that."
Azzy tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak
fiercely at her and carried on savaging the coat. "Hagrid!" said Azzy loudly. "There's an owl!" "Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa. "What?" "He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets." Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets -- bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags... finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins. "Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily. "Knuts?" "The little bronze ones." Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window. Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched. "Best be Off, Harry, Azalea, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school." "Call me Azzy,Hagrid. Everyone does" Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just
thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon
inside him had got a puncture.
"Um -- Hagrid?" "Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots. "I haven't got any money -- and you heard Uncle Vernon last night ... He won't pay for us to go and learn magic." "Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh two anything?" "But if their house was destroyed --""They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold -- an' I
wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither." "Wizards have banks?"
"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins." Azzy dropped the bit of sausage she was holding.
"Goblins?" Harry said halfway through a bite. "Yeah -- so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never
mess with goblins, Potters. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer
anything yeh want ter keep safe -- 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o'
fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you, gettin' things from Gringotts -- knows he can trust me, see. "Got everythin'? Come on, then." Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and
the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was
still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.
"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.
"Flew," said Hagrid.
"Flew?" Azzy asked astonished. "Yeah -- but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."
They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying. "Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter -- er -- speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?" "Of course not," said the twins together, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and
they sped off toward land. "Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked. "Spells -- enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guarding the high security vaults. And
then yeh gotta find yer way -- Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat." The twins sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, the two had never had so many questions in his life. "Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning
the page. "There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop
himself. "'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, O'course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls
every morning, askin' fer advice."
"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?" Azzy asked. "Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country." "Why?" "Why? Blimey, you two, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone." At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street. Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. The twins couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Potters? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?" "Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he and Azzy ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?" "Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon." "You'd like one?" "Wanted one ever since I was a kid -- here we go."
They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand 'Muggle money,' as he called it, gave the bills to Azzy so she could buy their tickets. People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent. "Still got yer letters, Potters?" he asked as he counted stitches. Harry and Azalea took the parchment envelopes out of their pockets. "Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need." Harry and Azzy unfolded a second piece of paper from their envelopes and read: