Diagon Alley

...

Avery was finding it hard to contain her excitement as she watched her father tap the bricks on the wall that would led them to Diagon Alley. She had been there many times, but never before with one of her best friends. It also didn't help that this time she was there to get school supplies, since she was about to be starting her first year at Hogwarts. She was going to get her very own wand!

Almost bouncing, she grinned at Amy, who was standing beside her. "Isn't this great?"

Amy grinned back. She still wasn't entirely sure about this whole 'magic' thing, but her friend's enthusiasm was infectious. "Yeah, I guess." She didn't know what was supposed to happen with the wall, so she jumped slightly as the archway appeared. The scene on the other side of the opening was somewhat chaotic. Oddly-dressed people rushed to and fro, often carrying packages from the mundane to the totally unbelievable. Often, it would be both at once - Amy saw a woman (a witch, she corrected herself) holding a small stack of books in one hand and some confusing-looking brass contraption in the other. "Woah."

"It is something, isn't it?" Avery said, "I don't remember much about the first time my dad took me here, but I do remember being impressed with it."

They stepped through the archway, the smile never fading from Avery's face as she looked around. The streets of Diagon Alley were full of many witches and wizards who bustled through the crowd to wherever it was they were heading. Avery say other families, some with children who looked to be about her and Amy's age, making Avery wonder if they would be in classes together at Hogwarts, maybe even in the same house.

She was pulled by her thoughts as her father started talking to them as they started making their way along the busy street. "Our first stop is Gringotts," he told them, "We need to exchange Amy's money for wizarding money. After that, where would you like to go first?"

Avery wanted to suggest getting their wands first, since that was what she was looking forward to most, but she wondered if perhaps they should save that to look forward to. Pulling out the list of everything they would need for their first year she looked from it to Amy. "Where do you want to go after Gringotts?"

Amy shrugged. "Don't ask me, this is all still new to me." She tried not to stare too much, but she couldn't help but feel that she was failing miserably at that. Everything was so incredible, and she wanted to see as much of everything as she could, but at the same time she didn't want to make a fool of herself. It didn't really help that Avery and her family were acting like this was all perfectly normal. Avery seemed excited, but she didn't really look twice at things that took Amy completely off-guard, like a shop that had broomsticks on display in the front window like they were sports cars.

It felt like too much to take in at once. Amy suspected that the feeling would last, so she might as well take everything one step at a time. "I'll just go along with whatever you think is best. I'm a bit befuddled about all-SPARKLY CRABS!" she interrupted herself, doing a double-take at what seemed to be a pet store. There were a few cages in the front, but the one that had caught her attention held three crabs, all of which glittered like disco balls.

Avery looked in the direction Amy was looking. Of course she would find those crabs interesting. "Some people like pets like that," she remarked, "They're different, and they certainly stand out. But I'd rather have an owl. They're much more useful. Although I do like cats."

She turned around as her younger brother, Adam, ran to catch up with them, having stopped to look more closely at the broomsticks in the display.

"Anyway," Avery said, "I think it would make sense to get the boring things out of the way first. Like our robes and potions supplies. Then we could do our books, look at the pets and get our wands."

"That sounds cool," Amy said, forcing herself to ignore the comment about owls. She didn't like birds at all, and hadn't been too happy to find out that owls were the main way for wizards to send letters to each other. Upon hearing that, she'd quietly decided to try to avoid sending mail as much as possible. Maybe she'd make a friend send things out for her.

Instead of dwelling on the idea, she looked up at the bank. It was a rather intimidating marble building, and the things that Avery had told her earlier didn't help the sense of unease that was beginning to form in the pit of Amy's stomach. All right, she could believe that it was a pretty good place to keep things you didn't want stolen - after all, all banks had to have some sort of heavy security, right? - but... goblins? She'd never seen a goblin before. She'd never even thought they existed! What the heck was the proper etiquette around non-human people, anyway?

Avery's father led them into the bank, and together they approached one of the goblins.

"We need to exchange some muggle money for wizarding money," he said, holding out his hand to Amy, so that he could take the money and handle the transition, instead of making her do it. He was hoping to make it easier for her, since it was her first time in their world and around goblins.

Avery stood silently next to Amy and her brother, the quietest and calmest she had been since they'd left. Although it was mostly because she was trying to be respectful in the bank.

Amy quietly handed the money her parents gave her to Avery's father, thankful for his intervention. She tried to avoid looking at the goblins altogether. She didn't trust her ability to not stare if she did look at the creatures.

It didn't take very long for the money to be exchanged. As soon as the goblin handed him the money, Avery's father passed the coins to Amy and they turned to leave the shop so that they could go about their school shopping. They followed the suggestion Avery made earlier, that they do the boring parts of their shopping first so that they would have the rest of it to look forward to.

The first stop was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. It was filled with all sorts of different color fabrics and robes, including the black ones that they were required to wear as part of their Hogwarts uniform.

Avery had never been very interesting in shopping when it came to clothes, but allowed herself to be measured for her school robes without complaining. As long as it didn't take very long and they could move onto other things, she was okay with it.

"Are you excited about getting your wand?" She asked Amy as the witch who had been taking her measurements moved off to get her the robes in her size.

Amy shrugged, to the mild annoyance of the woman - witch, she corrected herself again - measuring her. "I guess. I mean, I'm excited about everything. I think it'll probably sink in eventually and I'll flip out for a few hours when it does." She laughed slightly, as the witch bustled off somewhere. "Is that a normal reaction, do you think?"

Avery thought about it for a moment. "I've grown up with this, so it's hard for me to imagine just being thrown into a different world. But I think what you're saying does make sense. For something that's a huge change, it can take time to sink in."

The witch who had measured her came back with her robes, which Avery's father took and paid for.

"The robes are so... fwooshy," Amy commented as the group headed out of the shop with the new school uniforms. "What did you say we were going to get next, again?" she asked, but before anyone could answer, she kept talking. "Did you say something about getting wands? I mean, that sounds kind of important, so it would be a good idea to get those, right?"

"I was actually planning on saving that," Avery said, "It's what I'm most excited about. Because it's not as exciting to get things like robes, or quills, or potions stuff, or any of that."

She shrugged and pointed towards a store that sold quills and parchment. "How about we pick up that stuff now since we're going right by it? We will need it, after all."

Amy turned slightly pale when she entered the shop with her friend. There was, as could be expected, quite an assortment of quills and parchment. That worried the girl a bit. She'd never written with a quill before, but she had enough trouble with things like fountain pens. They inevitably smudged everywhere. "What if I just take, like, a whole bunch of ballpoint pens or something? I think it would probably be a lot less pain all around..."

Avery moved to the shelf and started to select a few quills. "I don't think anyone would stop you, but everyone uses quills in the wizarding world. None of us write with pens. Quills are less confusing, there aren't a bunch of different types that open different ways."

She had mostly quills that had a spell on them that helped to reduce smudging, as well as some black inks that were self refilling for a while. It was much less annoying. "And these aren't regular quills anyway," She said, showing Amy. "There's also ones that are supposed to correct spelling as you write, and there's different colors."

"You mean there's spellchecking pens?" Amy asked, incredulously. A collection of quills marked with a sign identifying them as "Self-filling, blot-proof" caught her attention. "I don't think I'll need to worry about spelling," she admitted, picking up a number of quills from that section, "But I think that ones like these are going to become my best friends during school." She paused for a minute. "Wait, how can you think that pens are confusing? You either take off the cap and write or push the button and write. It's not that difficult." After another second's hesitation, she added, "Is that why you had no idea how to handle pens in first grade?"

A faint smile crossed Avery's face. "I'd never used a pen before that, give me a break. I learned how to write with quills. How was I supposed to know you had to push that thing at the top?"

She paused as she grabbed parchment too. "And not all pens are like that. Isn't there some where there's this thing you have to turn instead of taking off the cap or pushing on it. It's annoying. Why can't everyone make them the same way? It would be a lot less confusing."

"Hey, I like the twist-pens. They don't explode when you start taking them apart during class," Amy argued, purchasing a number of quills and what she felt would be a good amount of parchment. She had no idea if she was overestimating or underestimating the amount of writing she would have to do, but she hoped she had enough. "Although I probably shouldn't be taking pens apart during class..."

"I never was able to figure those out," Avery said as they paid for their quills and parchment and left the shop. She had tried to use one of the twist pens one time in grammar school but after spending half the lesson trying to open it she had given up and taken notes with a little bit of a pencil that she'd had left. At least pencils had made sense to her. They didn't require any clicking, or turning, or taking off of caps to work. At least as long as they weren't those confusing plastic pencils that some people had preferred.

"Do you want to get our potion supplies or our textbooks?" She asked Amy.

"Well... I don't know. The bookstore was all the way that way, though, wasn't it?" Amy asked pointing vaguely to her left. "I mean, we might as well stop and get potions stuff on the way there, unless I'm getting my directions wonky again." She shrugged. "It doesn't make much of a difference to me. Like I said earlier, this is all new and stuff. I'm still trying to comprehend the whole magic-feather-write-y-things."

"You're right about the bookstore being all the way over there," Avery said, "The potion stuff is right over here."

She led the way to the shop and pushed open the door. There was a lot of potion ingredients that were move advanced then she knew they would need. Looking around the shop, she found the caldron that was on their school list, as well as the brass scales and grabbed one of each. Then she started to inspect the potions ingredients.

"Try this." She turned as her father held out a basic potion kit to her which included many of the more basic ingredients that were used in potions. They shouldn't be making anything in their first year that would use too many other things she didn't think.

"Spider's legs... More spiders... Some squishy-looking grey thing," Amy muttered, looking at the potions kits. "I don't know whether Potions class is going to be amazing or horrifying." She shrugged, picking up what she noticed her friend getting. This was a scenario where she had no problem following by example - Avery clearly knew what was going on better than Amy did. For a start, she had been expecting to go to Hogwarts. Looking at the other ingredients out of curiosity, Amy squeaked. "Are those squid eyes?" She grinned. "I think I'll like this class."

Avery watched Amy in amusement. "Of course you'd enjoy seeing squid eyes and spider legs," She said, "I should have guessed you would."

She left the shop with her supplies and they started working in the direction of the bookstore. As they were walking, she slowed down to look in the window of the shop that was selling the broomsticks. They had a Firebolt model in the window, the fastest broom in the world. Avery hadn't flown very often, just a few times when her father had brought them to a place where it was safe to learn away from any place the muggles would have noticed them. But she had enjoyed it. It was too bad that they weren't allowed to have broomsticks in their first year.

Amy kept walking for a few seconds before realizing that her friend had slowed down to look at the broomsticks-shop. Backing up a bit to catch up with her friend, she glanced at the display as well. "All right, I've got to admit. I don't think I'll get used to that," she admitted. She tilted her head slightly. "I mean, I guess it looks kind of cool, but what's the point?"