The Big Dipper

Diagon Alley

Just over a week after receiving her letter, it was finally time for Ursula to go to Diagon Alley to buy her school supplies. Narcissa would be the one taking her, and her father was meeting them there. He was staying in a flat that had once belonged to Cassiopeia above one of the shops.

"Ursula! Are you ready?"

"I'm coming!"

"Don't forget your wand!"

Ursula hurried down the stairs to join Narcissa in the front hall. She was bringing her wand to Ollivander's just to make sure it would work properly. Narcissa Apparated them into London, and in a flash they were through the Leaky Cauldron and staring at a brick wall. Narcissa tapped the wall three times with her wand. The brick she touched quivered ー a small hole appeared in the middle, growing wider and wider ー and a second later they were facing a large archway that opened onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.

Diagon Alley never failed to amaze Ursula. They stepped through the archway and it shrank until it had disappeared behind them, leaving only a solid wall. Potage's Cauldron Shop was the first shop they passed, with a stack of cauldrons out front. They passed Slug & Jiggers Apothecary, Eeylops Owl Emporium ー a dark shop filled with low, soft hooting ー and Quality Quidditch Supplies. There were shops selling books and robes and telescopes, all of which were bright and inviting, with colorful signs, packed with witches and wizards in multicolored robes.

They met Ursula's father on the steps of Gringotts ー a snowy white building that towered above the other little shops. Ken hugged his daughter and led them up the stairs. Besides the burnished bronze doors, in a uniform of red and gold, stood a goblin, who bowed as they walked inside. They faced a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

Enter stranger but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take but do not earn

Shall pay dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Stranger you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. They approached the counter.

"Madam Malfoy," said a goblin promptly. "Madam Black. And...?"

"Kenneth Scamander," said Ken. The goblin eyed him, but approved of his last name.

"Which vaults are you visiting today, Madam Malfoy?" asked the goblin.

"The Black family vault," said Narcissa. "And the vault of Cassiopeia Black."

"Very well," said the goblin. "Urgrot!"

Another goblin appeared and led them toward one of the doors leading off the hall. Urgrot held the door open for them, and they found themselves in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. Urgrot whistled, and a little cart came hurtling up the railroad tracks in front of them. They all climbed in. The cart rattled as it hurtled through a maze of twisting passages, deeper and deeper underground. Ken whooped and hollered as the cart moved at breakneck speed.