The train stopped with a screech and Harry and I bundled out of it, along with our parents, Lily and James. We hustled up Tottenham Court Road as a group, and eventually, we walked across Charing Cross Road and were excited to spot the infamous leaky cauldron pub.
The sounds and smells and technology impressed us the younger ones, but our father touched our heads in his state of excitement and told us there were even more exciting things to see. No one seemed to notice the little shop and our mother explained that muggles couldn't see it, Harry was skipping, and, well let's just say, I nearly had a heart attack from happiness.
Our parents cautioned us about how there were many dangerous things amid the wonderful in Diagon Alley, they told us to stay at their side no matter what, and to especially never go down the notorious Knockturn Alley, the violent, criminal, and dark side of the wizarding world.
We didn't need to stop at the giant goblin bank, Gringotts as my father had called it. Its marble white, grand walls and Magnifique-esque finishing wast be explored another day, but it didn't stop me from meticulously coming up with plans to rob it before my father pointed at a notice on the wall:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
This put me off even my joking plans to rob it, the dire warning a stark reminder to all who passed, even some of the strongest wizards, that stealing from Gringotts could and probably would end in a painful death.
We walked in more and our quadrupled approached what seemed to be a quaint little shop, devoid of customers right now at least, there was a name board on it that read "Ollivanders." The single young customer in the shop had left and we entered, the old man, Ollivander I presumed, gave us the once-over before breaking into a wild grin.
"Ahahaha, if it isn't Lily and James Potter, ten and a quarter inch, willow for the lady, nice and swishy, good for charms, and of course James you little delinquent, eleven inches long, mahogany, nice and strong, perfect for transfiguration!"
"Always nice seeing you, Mr Ollivander!" exclaimed my dad.
"If it's not the young, twin Potters!"
Harry was put through many tests and eventually, he was given a wand of Holly, Phoenix feather core, nice and supple. He waited patiently as Ollivander put me through the same monotonous wand testing, though unlike Harry's mine went on for a good hour and a half, Ollivander snatching each wand out of my hand as I lifted them.
Until his hands rested on a red velvet box, he looked me over once up, once down, and once side to side as he calculated me.
"Try this, it's a rare creation, an experiment, a wood never before used for wands due to the fear of the magic it held, it's been tamed but it's up to the owner to decide how to release its potential, 11 and a half inches, Rowan wood, Phoenix feather core."
"I did it Harry, look, Mum, look Dad!" I shouted in joy.
Everyone beamed at me except for Ollivander, who still looked at my face with a cold calculating face, trying to read my future, and what deeds I would accomplish with this wand.
We left Ollivander's feeling light-hearted and slightly daunted at the same time, we did the book shopping and got our robes fitted and we retired to Florian Fortescue's ice cream parlor for the best milkshakes and sundaes. Hearts and stomachs full we sauntered over to Magical Menagerie, where there was an overwhelmingly irritating rattle of feathers and the smell of Owl droppings, Harry and I left the shop with our parents, our trolleys now lain down with the weight of two heavy cages, Harry had a snow white owl, which he named Hedwig. Odd.
My cage contained, a dark feathered Owl, his plumage was of the darkest black that I thought light couldn't be shone on it, great for using the Owl in the cover of the night, though, really I didn't have any need for that. I named him Nightwing!
A few times we almost let our curiosity run wild and tried to dash to Knockturn Alley, but we were summoned back instantly by our parents who noticed our disappearance. Honestly, I was kind of glad, from the second I stood in the cursed place, I was being offered fingernails and eyeballs as free samples.
Laden down by our shopping we reached the leaky cauldron, where we booked two rooms, Harry and I shared one, and Tom the caretaker took care of the luggage and our owls, The only thing we kept on us was our wands, they were just too cool to separate with.
Harry fell asleep as soon as we retired to our rooms, all of us equally worn out, I lay on my bed, thinking about what Hogwarts is going to be like, after all those stories from our parents I was excited, I was sure we would be Gryffindors but Ravenclaw wasn't a bad option either, honestly I would say I wanted to fit in, if it was a few years ago but, for some reason, there is a burning desire inside me to just be different, to set the world on fire, just to see the fucker burn.