Making his way through the crowd Julius was delighted to see Diagon Alley was still looking mostly the same as it was described in the books though it was now much more crowded and there were a few more shops and a few of the old ones had been renovated.
Nocturn Alley was gone though, when Magical Britain was opened to the world and people began visiting Diagon Alley the ministry, which had apparently learned form it's mistakes for once and wanted to avoid a second embarrassment, sent a horde of aurors and hit wizards to clean out the eyesore called Nocturn Alley.
Despite all of this Julius was able to find a few shops selling „dark" artifacts under the new ones as the rules for this were also lightened to a high degree when the ministry noticed how much of an advantage other countries had over them which allowed the use of comparatively darker magic and other practices which had been officially banned in Magical Britain for a while now.
As Julius wanted to visit Ollivander's wand shop at the end he decided to visit the clothes shop of Madam Malkin first and then at least look around if he was going to find a pet to take to Hogwarts as he wasn't exactly the most sociable person.
Arriving in front of Madam Malkin's shop the first thing to catch his eye was the obvious and radical renovation of the place, not only the shop was looking much more modern, even in the store window modern clothes were displayed right next to more traditional robes and the Hogwarts school uniform.
‚That must be how she was able to assert herself against all the other clothes shops which were opened here when the rules for setting up shop in Diagon Alley were toned down. I heard the longest any competition's shop lasted here was the three months, but that one was sponsored by some rich American businessman, poor guy, he would have made lot's of money if he didn't choose this kind of shop. Madam Malkin is after all still one of the only two people able to keep their monopoly here.'
"I think we should enter the shop now you master", George was looking amused at Julius, „if we continue standing here some poor idiot will try to rob us and cause a scene if we don't move soon."
Torn from his thoughts like this Julius nodded to George with a grin tugging on the corner of his mouth from the though of someone trying to steal out of their heavily enchanted pockets.
After admiring the store front for a few more moments Julius opened the door and entered the shop with George following him.
Inside the shop it was surprisingly silent considering the amount of people, but Madam Malkin was very strict with people being silent inside her shop, anyone not complying would be chased out by her personally while she was crying about everything being better when she was still a small shop and it was more quiet.
But as long as no one provoked her Madam Malkin was a very friendly person and she even still worked herself despite hiring enough employees to keep of with the sudden growth of customers, even at this moment Julius could see her taking the measurements of another child of his own age, well she had been until the both of them had walked through the door at least.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Madam Malkin had not had a pleasant day.
For some reason all of the arrogant pureblood pricks of magical Britain plus a few more foreign ones had decided today was the perfect day to annoy her for the simple reason they thought themselves better than the other people coming to her shop like they should and demanded she come to their estates in person to fit the school uniforms for their little brats.
They probably wouldn't even tip her afterwards because „she just did the natural".
Not that she was actually reliant on these tips but it was just a matter of principle.
Obviously she didn't actually comply with these demands but then she was forced to deal with the persons themselves or even their house elves when someone decided to harass her till she gave up and agreed to come to his estate, as seemingly none of the idiots who acted like this ever just accepted her policy of „every customer is equal" which she needed to establish just for these guys, not that it actually helped.
With all that said though she usually would uphold this policy everyone knew she made exceptions for some people, very specifically those which could actually do something to her if they felt insulted by her actions like the Greengrass or West families.
To avoid making any important enemies Madam Malkin had long since memorised all relevant names she was likely to have something to do with here in magical Britain as well as the respective faces and at least a few peculiarities just in case one of those situations occurred she had read about in those novels her nephew had lent her.
So when the bells on the door rang and Madam Malkin felt her Mirror vibrating in the rhythm she had set in case the wards detected someone with a enchanted mask she immediately excused herself from her current customer and activated the enchantments on her square glasses which were at least supposed to be able to let her see through most magical disguises only to immediately panic after realising who had just entered her shop.
Of the two people coming into her shop she only knew the face of one of them, which was George Williams, founder of the Thea company.
And while that was already shocking enough, Mr. Williams had already visited her shop a few times before, what was far more problematic, was the boy walking in front of him.
„There was no way someone as powerful as Mr. Williams would ever walk behind someone like some lowly servant" was what most people would think, but anyone as well versed in the ways of high society as her knew he was first and foremost the butler of the Abraxus family.
And considering the age of the last heir of Abraxus who made such a stir a few years ago, it was quite obvious who just entered her establishement.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As soon as Madam Malkin noticed them she excused herself and hurried over to the door where Julius and George were still standing and hurriedly beckoned them to follow her in a smaller and more traditional but still elegant looking room.
„I am honoured to have such esteemed guests visit my shop. May I assume you are here for the young lord's school robes?"
Stepping besides Julius George responded not only to the spoken, bit also to the unspoken question:
„You may, while the Abraxus family's tradition was to send it's heirs to other countries to study, after the recent radical change in our education system I deemed Hogwarts to be fit for the young master, especially since the standards in Durmstrang seem to habe fallen drastically since Karkarov became headmaster.
Regarding the clothes we also wish to buy a few more casual sets of clothes for the master, also both should be enchanted with at least standard enchantments for comfort, I will personally take care of the protective ones."
While George and Madam Malkin continued their conversation and Madam Malkin started taking taking his measurements, Julius was already thinking about his wand again.