After

Chapter One: Elsie

The Underground was sweltering this time of year. Elsie was relieved when the train finally swayed to a stop. She clung to her mom's hand as they squeezed out of the subway car.

The letter had been specific enough; they needed to find the Leaky Cauldron which had been described as a Bed & Breakfast in a letter from the Headmistress of Hogwarts.

The two of them pushed their way through the sea of city-goers and out onto the streets of London. Seven blocks later, Elsie stopped in front of a simple black building. The sign above the door read, "The Leaky Cauldron" and there was (unsurprisingly) a cauldron depicted under these words in peeling paint.

"This must be the place..." she turned to face her mother.

Allison Carter couldn't have hid her obvious skepticism even if she had tried. Elsie pushed open the wooden door with caution. Most of the light came from floating candles and dimly lit lamps scattered around the room. About a dozen witches and wizards were seated at tables, some eating or drinking, some laughing and talking, and others simply reading. She felt a hand rest on each of her shoulders. No doubt her mom was standing behind her protectively. All this "magic business" was new to her, as well as to Elsie. When her Hogwarts acceptance letter had first arrived by post on July 1st, she had been certain it was a mistake.

Now that she had stepped foot into this new world, Elsie wondered how she would ever fit in. She had left all her childhood friends back at home to wonder if she had abandoned them forever (which she probably had). Elsie shoved that guilty thought out of her mind, for now. Her eyes focused on a dark figure that was hobbling in their direction. She took a step back and accidentally stood on her mother's toes. The hunchback stopped a good 5 feet away from her and motioned for them to follow with a small grunt. He was leading them past the bar and into a back room, where a lightbulb hanging overhead offered her eyes some assistance. The man then closed the door and made a series of strange noises while he proceeded to motion at the brick wall in front of them with enthusiasm. Raising his walking stick, he tapped the bricks in a pattern that Elsie positively knew she would forget.

What happened next prompted a wave of tiny gasps. The bricks suddenly came alive with movement and parted to form a large archway. Past the archway...

Spread out before them was a bustling street lined with quaint shops. A winding cobblestone path led up to a teetering building with gray stone pillars. Elsie was so taken with the view of Diagon Alley that she forgot to thank their escort, who had already disappeared back behind the brick wall.

Elsie wasn't sure where to go, seeing as her only guide was the Hogwarts school supply list she had been sent via owl. She decided to ask a nearby stranger for information.

"Excuse me?" she implored of a kindly looking witch. "Would you be able to point me in the direction of... somewhere I could exchange pounds for your kind of money?"

The woman's eyes smiled and she replied, "Certainly dear. You see that large building straight ahead? That's Gringotts, the bank. They should be able to help you." Elsie and her mother thanked the woman and made their way through the throngs of shoppers. They stopped outside the towering stone building; huge letters carved over the entrance spelled, "Gringotts".

Elsie liked the way her shoes sounded on the cold marble floors. Her steps echoed as she and her mother approached the nearest counter where a goblin with extremely pointy ears was weighing rubies. Allison Carter hung back while her daughter stepped towards the creature. "Excuse me?" she asked the goblin. "Could you please tell me where I might be able to trade my ordinary money in for wizard money?"