A Year in the Life of a Hogwarts Student - Task 2 Diagon Alley

Continuing on in the saga of the year in the life of a Hogwarts Student, the second task we were given was our trip to Diagon Alley.

Here is the prompt we were given.

I remember the day my mother took me shopping ahead of my first year at Hogwarts. Of course I had visited Diagon Alley before but I had been impatient to go to Hogwarts for such a long time... finally the school year was looming ahead.

It's now time for you, future students to make the trip to buy school supplies.

Pick one of the prompts below

Prompts

• You go to Ollivander to buy your wand. Write about how the wand chooses you and what it means to you. You may use your Pottermore wand if you have one.

• Describe an unexpected meeting with a known HP character on the street. You may use characters that are dead by the end of DH.

• To find the perfect pet you visit Eeylops Owl Emporium & Magical Menagerie.

Requirements

• Number of words: between 500-1050
• Entries should be anonymous, so don't use any identifying elements in your story.

And here is my entry. I'm continuing the story of the girl from the first entry -the Letter.

Prompt – to find the perfect pet, visit Eeylops Owl Emporium & Magical Menagerie

Words 500-1050

I was still in shock about everything Mom told me about Dad. He was a wizard. And that made me a witch!  Mom told me to reply back to the school that yes I would be attending Hogwarts. I wrote the letter and sent it with the owl that appeared to take it back to the school.

“Kaylee,” Mom announced over supper one night. “We have to go to London. This list of items you need, there’s no way we can find that here. Besides I know it’s what your father would want for you.”

“London,” I exclaimed. “You mean I actually get to go to England?!” I was excited. The furthest from our home I’d ever been was my grandparents’ house in Seattle. Of course, that wasn’t too far as we lived in a small town in Oregon.

I spent the rest of the week packing things to take with me to school. We’d decided to make a vacation of the trip. We’d go to London a couple of weeks before I had to leave for school and be tourists. Then we’d try to find this place, Diagon Alley, where I needed to buy my supplies. Mom was hoping that there would be someone around who could help us.

Our first few days in London were a whirlwind of activities. We visited Buckingham Palace, Dickens House, and all of the other tourist attractions. Of course Mom turned it into an educational trip for me by making sure that I visited the homes of some classic authors as well as a couple of museums. I was fascinated. This was a whole new experience for me.

The day to get my supplies finally arrived. I was set to board the Hogwarts Express in 3 days. So we knew it was time to figure out how I was going to get my supplies. There was a sweet old woman at the hotel we were staying at who gave us directions to this pub called the Leaky Cauldron. She told us that Muggles couldn’t see it. I immediately was concerned that Mom wouldn’t be able to come with me, but the lady reassured me that as my parent, my mother would be able to see it as well.

The Leaky Cauldron wasn’t like any other pub we’d seen so far in London. It was dark. And inside, all sorts of strange people were talking and laughing.

“Excuse us,” Mom said as she went up to the bar. “We’re trying to get to Diagon Alley to get the school supplies my daughter needs. Do you think you can help us?”

The old barman looked at my mother and then looked at me. He studied us for several minutes and then said, “The entrance is through that door over there. But if this is her first time, you’ll need to use your wand to tap the bricks.”

“Oh my,” Mom said with a worried expression. “Kaylee doesn’t have a wand. And I’m not magical. My late husband was a wizard though. I’m not sure how we’ll be able to tap the bricks.”

“Hey,” the barman called to a gentleman heading towards the door. “They’re doing ‘ogwarts shopping and need into the Alley. Let’em come with you.”

The gentleman nodded and Mom and I followed him into a room of bricks. The man pulled out a stick and tapped lightly on the bricks and we watched in awe as a doorway opened.

“Wow,” I muttered as I gripped tight to Mom’s hand. It was a little scary to suddenly be away from all that I was familiar with.

“Thank you sir,” Mom told the man and he grunted in response.

“Now, let’s see,” she continued looking over the list of items on my school list. “Robes, books, cauldron, potion ingredients, wand. I know! Let’s start over there!”

I followed her hand in the direction she waved. A sign caught my eye – Eeylops Owl Emporium and Magical Menagerie.

Mom knew me so well. I loved animals of all kinds. I’m sure was remembering how I approached the owl that brought my letter to me and was afraid of it. She always said I’d grow to be a veterinarian or something like that.

“All right sweetheart, you go on in there and look for a pet. Remember you’re allowed a cat, a rat, a toad, or an owl. Find the animal you like the best and wait for me there. I will go over to that bank over there because I’m pretty sure that the dollars we exchanged at the airport for pounds won’t be good here,” she told me. I was already moving towards the shop.

There were animals everywhere! I was thrilled to be around them. Mom hadn’t really let me have a pet of my own at home, but we still had animals around. I wandered around the shop contemplating my decision as to which pet I’d like. I didn’t care for toads. And rats scared my mom. An owl would be practical. Because then I could use it to write to Mom. But for some reason, I didn’t want an owl. I didn’t want to be practical.

Almost of their of violation, my feet carried me to the corner where the cats were. Small ones. Big ones. Striped ones. Cats with funny colors. Some with tails. Others without.  In a matter of minutes I was on the floor and had several of them in my arms.

“Have you found one then,” the salesclerk asked me after about 45 minutes.

I looked up from the orange calico in my lap and smiled when I said, “Yes. This one.”

“What a great choice,” the woman said as she put the others back in their boxes. “Cats can be a great companion for a Hogwarts student.”

I followed the woman to the front of the store and found my mother waiting for me.

“A cat,” she said with a smile. “And a cute one too. What are you going to call it?”

“Truffle,” I said as my new kitty snuggled up to my neck purring loudly. “She looks like a caramel truffle.”

Mom laughed, paid the woman for the cat, the basket, and food. We then headed back out into Diagon Alley to continue my shopping.

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So there we go. Entry two. I'm having so much fun with this series of tasks. When I think about it, I'll post my third entry. Since on the Harry Potter site, we're up to entry 8.


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