Chapter 11

The boat ride back to London was pleasant.

Hagrid had given Harry and me his large fur trenchcoat so we wouldn't be cold during the night, so while Harry and I were trying to not overheat in the obscenely warm coat hagrid was using his Umbrella to make the ores of the boat row themselves, apparently the spell only lasted two hours, so hagrid had to stay up all night so he could keep reapplying the spell.

Although he seemed to have not just amazing strength, but also an monstrous amount of energy and stamina, I still got the feeling that Hagrid was a little tired after stay up all night.

As we pulled in to the London docks, invisible to the eyes of Muggles for the time being thanks to Hagrids Spells and Charms, we started to make our way towards the Leaky Cauldron with Hagrid leading us.

As Harry, Hagrid and I slowly made our way through the London underground, getting plenty of odd looks now that the Charms had worn off, Hagrid started to tell us a bit about wizards and Hogwarts.

All of which I already knew, by I listened anyway, not wanting to seam like I was ignoring him.

"Wizards have bin around fer a long time, but it was on'y during the salem witch trials, we started ter hide ourselves. But it's fer the best really, if Muggles these days knew about Wizards and Magic, them they'd be wantn' Magical Solutions for all their problems... Nope, we're Best Left Alone..." as Hagrid spoke to us in hashed voices so no muggle would hear our convocation, we finally reached it.

The Leaky Cauldron, the Wizarding Pub that held the entrance to Diagon Alley.

As we walked in, a slightly damp musky smell filled Harry's and my nostrils.

A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite old and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"

"Can't, Tom. I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping one great hand on Harry's shoulder and one hand on mine, making knees knees buckle under the half-giants hands.

"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry and me, "is this – can this be-?"

The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.

"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry and Sirius Potter…what an honor."

He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes, he did the same to me, then wne t ack for seconds form Harry.

"Welcome back Mr. Potter, welcome back to you as well Mr. Potter

Harry didn't know what to say, I did, but I just kept quite. Everyone was looking at us. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without even realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.

Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry and I were shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last." she said, shaking my hand

"So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud." said a particularly young and sprout looking wizard to Harry.

"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."

"We've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement.

"Yeah...You bowed to us once in a shop." I said.

"They remember!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? They remember me!"

Harry and I shook hands with people again and again, while Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.

A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching. "Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."

"P-P-Potter" stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand and then mine, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you both"

"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?" I aksed

"D-Defense against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-Not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampire's m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.

But as the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harryamd me to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.

"Must get on – lots ter buy. Come on, Harry. Come on, Sirius"

Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.

Hagrid grinned at Harry.

"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh yous' two was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh both– mind you, he's usually tremblin'."

"Is he always that nervous?" asked Harry.

"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience….They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag – never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject – now, where's me umbrella?"

Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was probably swimming with thoughts.

Me of the either hand, I was only trying to think of a solution to a few problems that we'd head in to along the way to Hogwarts.

Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can.

"Three up…two across…" he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry"

He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.

The brick he had touched quivered, it wriggled as, in the middle, a small hole appeared. It grew wider and wider, a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, and archway into a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.

"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley"