Chapter 2: Mrs Figg and Diagon Alley
AN: The chapter size will slowly increase.
I don't want to scare people off with chapters that are uncomfortably long to read.
Soon, you can expect around 5k words per chapter.
Enjoy!
Chapter 2
September 17th, 1985
The next few days were very bad for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. Harry didn't come home after school and after interrogating Dudley for nearly an hour, he admitted to having fought with Harry on the playground after school. However, Harry vanished from sight at one point, and no one knew where he went.
Vernon and Petunia got extremely nervous at that piece of information. If information somehow spread, or someone came to find out that the Dursleys have been housing a freak over the last couple of years, their carefully built reputation on Privet Drive might be ruined forever. Vernon might even lose his job just because of the unnatural freakishness of the boy.
The Dursleys' worst fear rang the bell to house number four the very next morning.
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley? We are from the Department of Education with an official warning from the court. Yesterday afternoon, your nephew needed treatment at the local hospital due to a fight between kids at his school. While treating his injuries, several heavy bruises and large amounts of scar tissue have been discovered. He also shows severe signs of malnutrition and further mental and physical abuse." The male officer firmly stated. His colleague looked ready to ensure Vernon was in a similar state to his nephew.
"That boy is lying to you all! We never hurt him! He is simply an attention-seeking little brat!" Uncle Vernon's face became a darker tone of red with each word he spat.
"Mr. Dursley, consider this our last warning! We will remain in contact with young Harry and visit your house once a week. If we detect any further signs of child abuse, you will both lose custody of your nephew and your son and you might even face jail time. You can expect Harry in a couple of days after his injuries have been treated. Have a good day!" With that, the officers left.
"Vernon, what are we going to do? We cannot lose our little Dudley!" Petunia shouted hysterically.
"Don't worry about those idiots, darling, we treat the boy fairly for a couple of weeks. They will quickly lose interest in him, and we can go back to how things used to be. This time I will properly beat the freakishness out of him. How dare he lie to those people about his treatment by us. We took him in when no one else would have, fed him, and put clothes on his back! The ungrateful little brat won't see what's coming for him!" Vernon spat.
Meanwhile, Harry Potter was being treated at the local hospital. A multitude of broken and wrongly mended bones had to be fixed. He also received better lenses for his classes, three full meals a day, and managed to skim through several books at the hospital.
He often engaged in conversation with the kind man that has been treated in the bed next to him. When Harry explained his ambition to learn as much as possible, the man gave him a book about the human mind, meditation, and creating a mind palace to organize thoughts and improve memory. Harry found it immensely interesting and could not believe the man when he was told to keep it after his stay so he may continue practicing.
At night, however, the last encounter with Dudley's gang quickly became a frequent nightmare. How did he manage to get away all of the sudden? What was that loud noise and why did the weird things keep happening around him?
Harry remembered some other peculiar incidents…
Once he managed to appear at the top of a tree after being chased by Aunt Marge's dog. Another time, he destroyed Vernon's glass of orange juice after he kept on complaining about Harry's parents being a drunk and a whore.
One of the strangest instances, however, was when Harry managed to open the lock on his cupboard in the middle of the night after not having received any food for three days. He remembered being so hungry, that he desperately wanted to get to the kitchen for some food and water.
Harry realized that all these instances had something in common. These things always happened when he was in a desperate situation and was emotionally charged. Thinking about it, he tried to replicate his feelings of those events. Harry saw a pen on a desk in the corner of his hospital room.
With every part of his brain, Harry tried to make the pen fly towards him…
At first, nothing happened. Harry tried again. The trick must be to convince his own mind that he desperately needed this very pen... Slowly, very slowly the pen rose in the air. Then with incredible speed, it flew towards Harry, who only managed to catch it in time due to his well-trained reflexes after years of "Harry Hunting".
"Incredible!" Harry thought. "How am I doing this?"
While thinking about his achievement, he noticed that these sorts of actions seemed to be extremely taxing on his body. Deciding to practice a bit more tomorrow, Harry finally caught some sleep, dreaming about flying broomsticks, a broken vase, and a bright green light.
Over the next couple of weeks, Harry kept practicing his abilities, as he likes to call them. He disliked considering himself a freak. Instead, he regarded his abilities as a talent, something special, something that other people cannot use, which explained their jealousy towards him.
Nevertheless, he was very careful to hide his newly discovered skill from his relatives. Thankfully, the Dursleys left him alone for the most part. They mostly ignored him, though that meant he didn't do the majority of the dishes and chores around the house anymore. Harry was even allowed to sleep in Dudley's second bedroom and receive regular meals, although they were still significantly smaller than Dudley's.
All in all, he was very happy with the improvements to his situation. Harry practiced his talent and skills every day and focused on his schoolwork. He also did his best to diminish the effects of the daily abuse, neglect, and malnutrition on his young body. He did so, by sneaking out for food more often, exercising in the afternoon, and jogging around the park in the neighborhood.
May 5th, 1991
An eleven-year-old Harry Potter was jogging through Privet Drive on an early Saturday afternoon. The years since his first day at primary school had definitely been an improvement. Even to this day, the agents from the British Department of Education checked on his welfare every two weeks.
So far, they found no sign of further abuse or injuries on Harry's body.
Thanks to regular meals Harry almost looked like a normal 10-year-old child, if it wasn't for the lightning bolt scar on his forehead that is. Being the best student in his class, Harry started offering to do the homework for upperclassmen in exchange for money.
The couple of pounds he earned per week allowed Harry to eat more frequently at school, to buy some clothes and books for himself, and even a monthly bus ticket, to explore the larger libraries in downtown London.
As Harry jogged by Mrs. Figg's home, he heard a weird patch of conversation.
"Yes, Albus, the boy is looking much better already! I see him exercising outside almost every day! He finally seems to be getting along with his relatives!"
He could not see who or how Mrs. Figg was talking to, but Harry snorted at this… Mrs. Figg had no idea what led to the improvement in his condition.
"Well, he will receive his Hogwarts letter in a couple of months. Are you still planning on letting Hagrid take him to Diagon Alley? I don't think it is wise, to be honest. Imagine Hagrid walking through London to the Leaky Cauldron! He will gather way too much attention and young Harry is already famous enough in the magical world, no need to get the attention of the muggles as well!"
Mrs. Figg closed the window and Harry couldn't hear anything else. His heart beat fast and his brain went into overdrive.
What the hell was Hogwarts and why would he receive a letter? Also, who was this "Albus" and why was he so interested in Harry? What were Hagrid and Diagon Alley? He had never heard of that place before. And finally… did he really hear the words "magical world"?
All of a sudden, a bunch of things that had happened in Harry's life started to make sense. The Dursleys never allowed themselves to say the word "magic"… they called him a freak and weird things happened around him before he started controlling his abilities.
Could it really be that there was a magical world out there that he was a part of? Were his parents magical as well? They must be, why else would the Dursleys never talk about them!
Harry decided that there were only two ways to confirm Mrs. Figg's crazy story. He could either confront the Dursleys with his newly acquired knowledge and risk getting beaten to death or locked away forever… Or he could try to find this place called Diagon Alley. The one "Hagrid" is supposed to take him to.
Unfortunately, his only point of reference is a place called the Leaky Cauldron. What kind of name even was that? Tomorrow, Harry decided he would look for this place and see what it is all about.
May 5th, 1991
Harry woke up the next morning feeling very excited. After some quick breakfast, he grabbed a jacket with a large hood, his backpack, and the remaining pounds he still has left from doing homework for the other students.
He took the bus to downtown London, but this was pretty much how far he had planned. There had to be a way to find this "Leaky Cauldron". What do people in a foreign city usually do to find their way around?
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a tourist information center. Well, it couldn't hurt to start his quest there, could it? Harry asked a friendly lady at a tourist information office about the "Leaky Cauldron".
The woman herself had never heard of the place, however, her colleague appeared out of nowhere and seemed to remember the name of the correct street while wishing Harry an enjoyable stay in Britain. When Harry explained that he was British already, the man simply nodded his head and said: "Of course, naturally... naturally..."
"Weird" Harry thought, noticing the glassy stare the man seemed to have.
After changing buses two more times, Harry finally arrived at the correct street. A minute later of looking up and down the street at the different shops, he finally saw something.
There was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If it was not for a small sign, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all.
In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he could see it.
For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. Whilst entering, Harry noticed all sorts of people in weird-looking clothes. He pulled his hood a bit further down and approached the barman.
"Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron, my name is Tom! What can I do for you today?"
"Good morning, Tom, my name is Dudley. I would like to find a place called "Diagon Alley". Could you help me with that?"
"Of course, my young friend. Here follow me to the back, I will show you how to enter the Alley!" Tom replied happily.
This was way too easy... The magical people were either incredibly naive, or there was some sort of protection which only allowed their own kind to see the pub and enter. Either way, Harry followed Tom through a door at the back of the pub into a little square.
The barman took out a thin wooden stick and taps on a couple of bricks on the opposite wall. Harry noticed the pattern, from the rubbish bin, "three up and two across" and stored it safely in mind palace in case he decided to come back at some point in time.
"There you go, young man! I wish you a successful shopping spree. Come back to the cauldron anytime you need help!" Tom said.
Harry thanked the helpful barman and turned towards the open street. People and families in long robes were scattered throughout the long alley continuing with their shopping. Harry walked along the alley, seeing strange stores to his left and right.
What kind of apothecary is this? And what the hell is quidditch? Realizing, he needed to start somewhere Harry walked over to a large white building for some help. Focusing on his mental exercises, he did his best to ignore the weird-looking creatures guarding the entrance to the building. If he had to guess, they looked like some fantasy creatures straight out of 'The Hobbit'.
"Gringotts Wizarding Bank," said the sign above a poem that sounded a lot like a deadly warning if it were to be ignored. Well, a bank sounded like a promising idea already. Who knew if the people in this world even used the same currency? If his parents were magical, then there was also the chance that they left him something, wasn't there? Harry gulped and decided to be as polite as possible. He quietly walked to the nearest teller.
"Excuse me, sir, I would like to find out if my parents left me any money? I only recently discovered the magical world and would like to learn more about it?" Harry says as politely as possible and pulled back his hood. It might come over as disrespectful to hide from these creatures...
"And who are you, young wizard? Do you have a key?" The creature replies with an evil grin.
"My name is Harry Potter, and I am afraid I do not have a key. My parents have not left me anything. They died when I was young."
The creature's eyes darted to the scar on his forehead: "You will find out that you are mistaken, young wizard. If what you claim is true, your parents have left you quite a lot. However, before you may visit your vault, we have to verify your identity since you don't have a key and are too young to carry a wand!"
'A wand!' Harry thought that must have been that wooden stick Tom carried earlier! Hopefully, he could get one soon. "Very well sir, feel free to verify my identity."
"Follow me, Mr. Potter, I will take you to Ragnok, the Potter account manager."
Potter Account manager? Was that a good or a bad sign? It should be a good sign. From what he knew of the regular world, only very rich and prestigious customers had their personal account managers at banks.
Harry followed the creature and soon found himself in a separate room that seemed to be an office. In front of him sat an even older-looking creature that regarded him with a look of interest.
"Welcome to Gringotts, young Mr. Potter. May your gold flow and enemies die by your blade!"
Harry gulped. What the hell was he supposed to reply? He decided to just take the risk and reply with a similar greeting.
"Thank you, account manager Ragnok. May your gold multiply and enemies fall before you!" Harry returned the weird greeting.
The goblin chuckled: "Well, this already clarifies that you must be the heir to the Potter family. Only James Potter's son and Lord Charlus' grandchild would return a goblin greeting with respect and wit!"
'A goblin' Harry thought. How very interesting. Calming his mind, Harry asked the goblin about the state of the Potter vault.
"You have a trust vault, which will replenish up to 1000 Galleons every year. In addition, there is the Potter Family vault. However, you will only be able to access it once you come of age."
"So, as soon as I am 18?" Harry asked curiously. This world seemed so strange that pretty much every question was valid in his opinion.
"No, Mr. Potter. in the Magical World, wizards and witches become legal adults after they turn 17, already." The Goblin explained with a toothy grin.
"Thank you, Account Manager Ragnok," Harry replied: "Could I please make a withdrawal today?"
"Of course, Mr. Potter. Just a moment."
A different goblin took Harry down to his trust vault and explained about the currency and different-sized coins. Apparently, there are 17 Sickles in a Galleon, and 29 Knuts in a Sickle. A very complicated system in Harry's opinion. Why not simply use a base of ten?
Harry quickly calculated the conversion rates: "This means, there are 493 Knuts in a Galleon!"
"Indeed, young wizard." The goblin Griphook replied. "As for the current exchange rate, that means one Galleon is roughly worth 50 pounds."
Harry put the knowledge to his memory and purchased a "bottomless bag" from the goblins in order to grab a large number of Galleons. It was time for some serious shopping!