Sacrifices for Love

Diagon Alley

Edited by hannahw1032

| | Lily Evans | |

I woke up on Sev's shoulder as my mom halted the car abruptly. I climbed out of the car and he followed me.

"See you later! I'll pick you up at 6:00 pm!" My mother called as she drove off and I saw that it was only 9:00 am.

I turned to Sev, "we're good with time."

"Yep," he smiled.

"So, what is this place?" I looked at the tiny looking pub.

Then I saw the sign with the words Leaky Cauldron and I mentally slapped myself, IDIOT!

Sev smiled at me, "it seems by your I-feel-stupid expression, your question is answered."

I blushed at my stupidness and followed Sev inside the building. Normal looking people were chatting about, but I heard odd things like Quidditch, You-Know-Who, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, seekers and wands. That confirmed my suspicion on them being Muggles- as Sev would say.

"Let's just go straight through," Sev took my hand and led my out the back door and we stood face to face at a brick wall.

Sev frowned, stepped forward and pulled out a wand.

"Is that yours?" I asked feeling unintelligent.

"Nah, my mom let me borrow it," Sev grinned at me and tapped the bricks in a specific pattern. I watched awestruck as the bricks slid aside into an arch-shaped entry where I saw a single large lane with shops on either side crowded with witches and wizards. Straight in front of us, I saw a three-story marble, ancient looking building labeled Gringotts.

I tugged Sev's sleeve and asked, "what's Gringotts?"

"That's where we get our money," Sev explained and I realized that the Wizarding World had their own currency.

So, it won't be like pounds, I realized.

"29 Knuts to a Sickle and 17 Sickles to a Galleon. Knuts are the bronze tiny coins, Sickles are the silver ones and Galleons are the big, gold coins. I'm just letting you know, in case you want to exchange coins or something," Sev explained and I thought about what he said.

This is a lot to process, I thought, mystified.

"Let's start heading there, then," Sev suggested and we headed there, squeezing in between witches and wizards to reach the wizard bank.

Finally, we reached the bank and we entered a first pair of silver doors.

I saw the words:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there
engraved on the second pair of silver doors.

I noticed funny, looking, clever faces, long fingers and feet and a pointed bearded creatures everywhere.

"What are they?" I asked nervously, sticking close to Sev avoiding their suspicious, beady, black eyes.