Miranda Black and the Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 2 - Diagon Alley

Everything in life seemed to come to a grinding halt as I took in the sight before me. I had never seen a place like this. It was breathtaking. 

"Rather magical, wouldn't you say?" said Fred, clapping a hand on my shoulder. I grinned up at him.

"It's amazing," I replied.

"Literally magic," George said, "Who should we expect next?"

"Harry," I said, assuming they had let him go after me. George clapped his hands together and turned back to the grate.

"He should pop out any second now," he said.

But Harry never appeared. Ginny did, however, minutes later, followed by Ron, then Percy, then Arthur, then Molly. Everyone became frantic very quickly as one-by-one they realised Harry was missing. Molly took off down the alley.

"Where could he have gone?" I questioned. Ginny looked up at me with worried eyes,

"He could be anywhere,"

The next half an hour was spent with us sitting in one spot, under the direction of Arthur and Molly so as not to lose another of us. Percy got stuck with guard duty. We sat in suspense, hoping Arthur and Molly could contact the right people to find Harry and which fireplace he had come out of.

"Wow, - who is that?" I said, gesturing towards a giant man near the large white building that said Gringott's Bank. The man was by far the largest I had ever seen. Ron sat up straight.

"That's Hagrid - groundskeeper at Hogwarts - it's Harry! And Hermione!"

Ron jumped up and ran towards his friends, hugging them both and greeting Hagrid. The rest of us followed just behind.  Ginny and I were quickly introduced to Hermione amid Arthur and Molly thanking Hagrid over and over for saving Harry from Knockturn Alley. Turns out he may have mumbled the first half of his location, sending him one grate down to a dodgy part of town. Hagrid eventually extracted himself from their hugs and handshakes, and took off.

"We'd better get going to the bank," Molly said, checking her watch, "We're a bit later than I had hoped we would be. I'll take you girls, and Harry and Hermione you can come too,"  

Fred and George scampered off to see their friend from school, while Percy wandered away to a nearby bookshop. Arthur had latched onto Hermione's Muggle parents, fascinated by their Muggle money.

We made our way up the white marble steps and walked through the massive doors of Gringott's Bank, entering a large room with a walkway in the middle and desks on either side. It was very quiet; the only sound was the scratching of quills on parchment. Our footsteps echoed loudly. We were halfway towards the main desk when I noticed that instead of wizards, they had some unknown creatures working there. Ginny caught me staring, and whispered that the workers here were goblins. 

We reached the front desk and had to sort out who would be going inside the vaults, as the cart only took a small group of people. 

"I'll take Harry and Miranda in," said Molly, "Hermione - you're in charge of these two. Just wait for us outside. Don't go too far!"

A short goblin led us into a dimly lit cavern, where a small cart sat on a railway track. 

"Get in," he said, gesturing at the rickety seats. Molly sat on the furtherest front seat, while Harry and I sat side by side on the remaining seat. Harry was peering into the darkness down the track. He raised his eyebrows at me.

"Ever been on a rollercoaster?" I shook my head, "It looks like we're in for a wild ride here,"

A wild ride it was! As I had expressed to Harry, I had never been on a roller coaster, but I imagined this was much like one, minus the safety procedures. I clung tightly to the side of the cart, my knuckles turning white. Harry remained calm at each sharp turn and drop, but was slowly turning a sickly shade of green. Luckily, it didn't take long until we were deep underground and the cart slowed to a roll. We started at the Weasley vault.