CH 13 Shopping in Diagon Alley

The Birchwood family parked their car in a muggle establishment near Leaky Cauldron. Getting out of the car, they started walking in the direction Alcor led them, as without his lead the muggle repelling charms would divert their attention away from the establishment.

Alcor did notice however that little Astrid didn't show any signs of being affected by the muggle repelling charm. However, this fact was thrown to the back of his mind when they entered the Diagon alley and he was noticed by Hagrid and Harry who were coming out of Knockturn Alley.

Harry waved at him to catch his attention and walked towards him with Hagrid. Kane and Veronica were slightly worried about seeing the fierce giant-like man walking towards them, but Alcor assured them that Hagrid was harmless.

"Hey, Do you remember me? We met last year at Leaky Cauldron." Harry said with a smile.

"Of course," Alcor smiled back "I bumped into you and you fell while breaking your glasses. Hmm, seems like you have broken ones now too. Is that going to be a theme with us?"

"Ah, sorry. I had an accident a little while ago." Harry said with a sheepish smile. Alcor smiled and tapped on Harry's glasses with a finger, repairing it in an instant.

"Well, here is a repeat of our first meeting." Alcor said with a smile, before extending his hand "My name is Alcor Celesta."

"Ah, hello." Harry said while shaking Alcor's hand "I am Harry Potter."

Harry then introduced his Hagrid to them while Alcor introduced his family. Astrid seemed very amused by Hagrid and his eccentric style.

While they were chatting, someone called out to Harry. When they turned, they saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts, waving to Harry. She ran down to meet them, her bushy brown hair flying behind her.

"Hello, Hagrid — Oh, it's wonderful to see you two again — Are you coming into Gringotts, Harry? Oh, and whop is this?" Hermione shot of a barrage of queries.

"Oh, This is Alcor. He will be joining Hogwarts this Year. And yeah, I will visit Gringotts as soon as I've found the Weasleys," said Harry

"Yeh won't have long ter wait," Hagrid said with a grin.

As they turned to look, They saw Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and Mr. Weasley, who were sprinting up the crowded street with their eyes on Harry and Hagrid.

"Harry," Mr. Weasley panted. "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far. . . ." He mopped his glistening bald patch. "Molly's frantic — she's coming now —"

"Where did you come out?" Ron asked.

"Knockturn Alley," said Hagrid grimly.

"Excellent!" said Fred and George together.

"We've never been allowed in," said Ron enviously.

"I should ruddy well think not," growled Hagrid.

Mrs. Weasley now came galloping into view, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand, and Ginny just clinging onto the other.

"Oh, Harry — oh, my dear — you could have been anywhere —"

Gasping for breath, she pulled a large clothes brush out of her bag and began sweeping off the soot Hagrid hadn't managed to beat away.

Mr. Weasley noticed Alcor and his muggle family at that point and started excitedly introducing himself to them. While they were chatting, Hermione's parents joined them too and provided Mr. Weasley with more people to be excited about.

"Well, gotta be off," said Hagrid, who was having his hand wrung by Mrs. Weasley for finding Harry on time and keeping him safe.

"See yer all at Hogwarts!" Hagrid said he strode away, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the packed street.

Alcor and his family stayed outside Gringotts with Fred, George, and Ginny, while the others went to Gringotts to get their money. Ginny became more open and chatted with Alcor now that Harry had gone to Gringotts to get money from his vault. Seeing as they both were going to be first years, Ginny talked to him about various things she was nervous about.

Meanwhile, Fred and George chatted with Kane, Veronica, and Astrid. Kane and Veronica chatted interestedly with the twins, as they wanted to know about how other wizards and their lives were.

Soon after Harry and others came back from Gringotts, they all separated. Percy muttered vaguely about needing a new quill. Fred and George had spotted their friend from Hogwarts, Lee Jordan.

Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to a secondhand robe shop. Mr. Weasley meanwhile was insisting on taking the Grangers and Birchwoods off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink.

Alcor assured Kane and Veronica that Astrid will be safe with him, and told them to go and hang out with Mr. Weasley. Once they left, Alcor decided to explore Diagon Alley along with Astrid.

"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," said Mrs. Weasley, setting off with Ginny. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" she shouted at the twins' retreating backs.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione discussed where to go before deciding on an Ice Cream Shop. Astrid's eyes glittered on hearing the word Ice Cream and looked at Alcor with puppy eyes. Nodding helplessly in agreement, He tagged along with the trio to the Ice Cream Shop.

The Golden Trio bought three large strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams, while Alcor and Astrid got two Large Nutty Butterscotch and Chocolate Sundaes. Alcor made sure to order Astrid's ice cream with extra glittering rainbow sprinkles as she had fallen in love with those as soon as she saw them.

While the Golden Trio went to various shops to get stuff for their upcoming term, Alcor took Astrid to a certain shop he had made note of the last time he came to Diagon Alley.

Jimmy Kiddell's Wonderful Wands, a much smaller wand maker shop in Diagon Alley. Alcor had picked this as the shop where he would get his wand as it was much less popular than Ollivander's and his wand's details would not be reported to Dumbledore or anyone else.

After spending fifteen minutes in the Shop, Alcor came out with the best wand the shop had to offer. The Wand was 13 inches long and was made out of Acacia Wood. Jimmy described it as being Unyielding in its flexibility and had an extremely powerful Nundu's Hair as a core.

This wand was made with the rarest material Jimmy had got his hands on and cost Alcor 45 Galleons to make Jimmy sell it to him and keep his mouth regarding the sale.

The reason why Alcor wanted such a tremendously powerful wand was that he wanted to experiment with it. Ever since his Mana Manipulation had leveled up to Prana Manipulation, he had felt a strain if he used the wand he had got from the Dark Wizard he had Defeated.

The strain was not in him or his abilities, but rather in the wand. He felt like that wand was not strong enough to handle his energy. That is why he had come to Jimmy's shop since even though Ollivander sold wands of better quality, he was very strict about wand choosing wizards.

Meanwhile, Alcor was sure he could dominate every wand by infusing them with his Prana. In fact, he was sure that over time his prana would strengthen the wands he infuses with prana, the wands that can handle his prana that is.

Moreover, he didn't really need wands to perform magic anyway. He had just bought it to fool the world and experiment with it.

Alcor roamed around the Diagon Alley while showing various magical sights to Astrid. He even bought two pet owls from Eeylops Owl Emporium, along with owl treats and equipment to take care of the owls.

He had got a barn owl for himself and a northern saw-whet owl for Astrid. They held off on naming their owls until they reach their home.

An hour later from when they parted with everyone in front of Gringotts, Alcor and Astrid headed for Flourish and Blotts. They were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached it, they saw a large crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in.

The reason for this was proclaimed by a large banner stretched across the upper windows:

GILDEROY LOCKHART

will be signing copies of his autobiography

MAGICAL ME

today 12:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M.

'Ah yes, I had nearly forgotten about this Moron.' Alcor thought exasperatedly.

As he entered the shop, while using his Psychokinesis to subtly part the crowd for him and Astrid, he noticed that the pretentious poser had an arm around Harry and was announcing his appointment as the Defense Against Dark Arts instructor at Hogwarts.

'Honestly? Of all the people in Wizarding Community, why did Dumbledore get this loser? I know this may be the plot of the story, but it does make me really mad.' Alcor thought exasperatedly 'I wonder if I should actually make this guy have a fatal accident or something before the term starts.'

He and Astrid joined Ginny, who was standing in the corner with her new cauldron, as Harry slowly walked towards them, stumbling under the weight of all the books Gilderoy Lockhart had handed him for free.

"Do people really believe that someone so pretentious could actually achieve all that he has bragged about in his books?" Alcor asked Ginny.

Ginny shrugged in response, "I don't know whether it is true or not, but he does have a huge fan following, especially among witches. Don't tell anyone, but I think mum has an extremely obsessive crush on him."

Harry reached them just then and tipped the books into Ginny's cauldron with a groan.

"You have these, I'll buy my own —"

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a voice sounded from behind them, the smug pretentiousness evident in the tone.

Alcor let out a sigh as he tilted his head to see the incoming nuisance.