Chapter 13
Harry didn't seem know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life, more money than even Dudley had ever had.
Me on the other hand, I had some very specific items that I wanted.
"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, Sirius, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry and I entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, Harry feeling nervous and me... Well I just wanted to smack Malfoy in the face the moment I saw him.
Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.
"Hogwarts, dears?" she said "Got the lot here, another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."
In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool to his left, and my on a stool to his left. She hen slipped a long robe over each of our heads, and began to pin it to the right length.
"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"
"Yes" said Harry and I at the same time.
"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow, I want to get on to the School Quidditch team" I immediately started on the little brat.
"Smuglign in a broom won't make you popular, if that's what your thinking, if anything, I'll get you in trouble" I said, a little bit of attitude in my voice
Malfoy, apparently not liking my tone, looked at me with a nasty looking his eyes.
"And I suppose your have your own broom then?" he asked, as if challenging me.
"No, me and my brother here just found out we're wizards, after are parents died, we were raised by muggles, we never knew till last night" I said explaining mine and Harry's situation.
"Oh... Well your parents, they were our kind weren't they?" he asked, a little bit of disgust in is voice.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" I asked, very annoyed at malfoys ton of voice.
"Well, since I expect you don't know that much about wizards, allow me to educate you, there are three types: Pure Bloods, Half Bloods, and Muggle Born, I except you can guess what these terms mean?" he asked.
I could see Harry about to open his mouth, but before he could, I started to talk.
"I could talk a stab in the dark, but why does it matter, a wizard is a wizard, why differentiate based on blood purity"
Malfoy, seeming to make up his mind about me but continued to talk to me, probably just trying to outsmart me.
"What about your Schoolhouse, where do you think you'll be placed in?"
"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they?" I said
"Mmm," said Harry, probably wishing he could say something to add to the conversation.
Suddenly, Malfoy seemed to grow a little paler "I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.
"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleases to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."
"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's sort of a servant, isn't he?"
"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry, probably liking malfoy less and less every second.
"Yes, exactly. I heard he's sort of a savage – lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tried to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."
"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.
"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you?"
"Like my brother said, our parents are dead, apparently the Headmaster of Hogwarts sent him to help us get out stuff" said Harry shortly.
"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they got the letter, like you two. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?" he asked, probably trying to see if we could be important.
But before Harry and I could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you two done, my dears" and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool and I followed.
"Well, I'll see you two at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy, looking at me with a disdainful gaze.
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Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought us.
"What's up?" said Hagrid, noticing Harry's silence.
"Nothing," Harry lied.
After we finished eating our ice cream, we stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?
"Blimey, you two, I keep forgettin' how little yeh both know – not knowin' about Quidditch!"
"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's and what me and him were saying to each other.
"... Then he just sprouted something about Wizarding Families and others not being allowed in Hogwarts, Luckily Miss Murken said we were done before Sirius could say something"
"Yer not from a Muggle family. he's grown up knowin' yer name, if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles – look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"
"So what is Quidditch?" Harry asked.
"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like – like soccer in the Muggle world – everyone follows Quidditch – played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls. Sorta hard ter explain the rules."
"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"
"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but-"
"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily.
"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."
"You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"
"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.
We bought Harry's and My school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurse, and he tried to stop me from buying some extra books on magical theory, thinking I too was trying to by curse books, but after seeing what I was buying, he just nodded saying "It's always important ta know the theory o' magic, look at the pig tail I grew on yer cousin, I meant ta turn his whole bottm' half into a Pig..." but then look8ng at harry he said "...but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."
Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, saying "It says pewter on yer list". but we did end up getting a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then we visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages whisper Harry. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry and me, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and miniscule, glittery-black beetle eyes, that we're five Knuts a scoop.
Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.
"Just yer wands left – oh yeah, an' I still haven't got either of yeh a birthday present yet."
Harry felt himself go red.
"You don't have to –"
"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at – an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everything"
Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.
Me on the other hand, had an even larger cage with a big, pure black owl that looked more like a raven than an Owl. I too said thank so Hagrid, while looking around at the other shops.
"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now – only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand, I good wand, means good Magic"