Strolling down the street, Breana couldn't help but have a small, comforting smile on her lips, as she walked in her green, witch clothes. They had been a present from her birthday for her 14th birthday. A late one at that, but it was a present. Unlike her step- fathers.

Hurriedly she shook that thought away, and looked through the shop windows. Though she had no idea where anything was, she was trying to figure out. Mr. White had not been able to join her, due to a couple of owls he had had a few hours before. So, she had gone alone. Finding a bookstore, she went in almost hesitantly, but quickly hurried to the nearest pile of books as she didn't want to look out of place. And that was exactly what she was feeling. It was not helping that she was alone.

Picking up a small green one, Breana nearly dropped it when she remembered what Mr. White once had told her. The ones about books transporting the person holding them to other places, there was a rumour about wizards being sent to Alaska. Then there was the one who trapped you forever inside the book. Breana shuddered and checked for anyone around her.

She couldn't remember half the warnings Mr. White had told her about these shops, so she was hoping that someone might remind her.

************

Amy walks down Diagon Alley, carrying many heavy books in her hand preparing for her first year at Hogwarts, since she transferred from Durmstrang. Hoping someone will stop and introduce themselves to her, and hopefully make new friends, she enters The Leaky Cauldron and orders a butterbeer.

Hal was, quite frankly, relieved. He had managed to avoid the horror of having to shop for the new term with his Mother only at the last minute. His Father had informed her, with a crafty wink in Hal's direction, that the shop was far too busy and she would have to stay and help him with the customers. She argued, of course, but despite protestations and much scowling on her part, Mr Ddraiggoch remained firm and Hal was dispatched to Diagon Alley on his own.

He wandered down the busy street, peering in the windows of the curious shops, he never tired of the weird and wonderful things on display here. His shopping completed and safely stored away, his time was his own now and with his stomach beginning to rumble he started towards the Inn...food with the added bonus of Butterbeer...lovely.

Pushing the door open he spotted a familiar group with the odd new face mixed in, he waved shyly not wanted to disturb their chatter too much, and made his way to the bar to order.

Amy watched, as a boy, about her age, ordered a butterbeer. Shyly, she approached him, and quietly said, "Hello, my name's Amy, and I'm a fourth year Gryffindor. I just transferred here from Durmstrang, though I was born in this relative area. I bought all my books, and supplies already, but I haven't purchased a new owl yet, but I'm looking forward to it."

She hoped that he would tell her a little about himself, and hopefully introduce her to some other students.

Seeing Hal, Madison waved back, then excused herself from the huddle and made her way to the bar.

"Hi Hal!" she greeted, smiling. Spotting the new girl, she turned and introduced herself. "Oh, hi! My name is Madison...are you going to be attending Hogwarts, too? We've got a lot of new students this year..."

Hal beamed on seeing Madison, then he remembered himself and gave an embarrassed cough. "Sorry," he said looking at the new girl, "I was in a world of my own there, must be the strain of going back to school" he grinned.

He stood up straight and smoothed down his hair. "Henry Ddraiggoch, Hal to my friends. Pleased to meet you."

He smiled across at Madison and began to blush. "Might I buy either or both of you ladies a butterbeer?"

**********

Coughing little puffs of black dust and trying vainly to brush off his new clothes, Hagrain pushed himself to his feet with difficulty, stepping out of the small fireplace onto the brick mantle and pulling his suitcase behind him. Running a hand through his long black curls one more time, and dislodging several small lumps of coal I might add, he looked around him with saucer-wide eyes and a wide open mouth at the shop he found himself standing in.

Wizards and witches walked calmly among the rows of shelves, mindless of the small boy who had tumbled out of the chimney. Tables stood in the centre of the room, piled high with a huge assortment of cauldrons, scales, bottles of strange coloured liquid, and even stranger stuffed animals. From the high bookshelves around the sides of the room, heavy leather-bound tomes seemed to strain as though trying to free themselves from their confines.

From the ceiling hung cages and boxes of every variety, some chirping, others hissing, and one even muttering to itself. A heavy counter squatted at one end of the room, behind which sat an elderly witch, smiling with a gap-toothed grin at all the potential customers that were perusing her wares. It was to her that Hagrain made his way, his battered leather suitcase dragging along the ground behind him.

"Er, 'scuse me missus." He began hesitantly and shyly, his heavy east London accent drawling out the words. The witch craned forward over the large counter and looked down to where he stood, fidgeting nervously under her yellow-eyed scrutiny. She seemed rather surprised to see him.

"Yes? What can I do for you young, mmmm, man?" She asked, her voice high and piping.

"I needs to buy sumfinks fer school." Hagrain told her earnestly, pulling a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and unfolding it. He reached up and over the counter to hand it to her, noting how long and pointed her fingernails seemed to be as she snatched it out of his grasp. She perused the list of Hogwarts' required materials, making an insect-like clicking noise in the back of her throat before handing him the paper back. He took it from her gingerly.

"Most of that stuff I've got in my, mmmm, stock, mmmm, young man." She told him, nodding sagely to herself as she cast an expert eye of the haphazardly piled wizarding material scattered around "But the wand is another matter you, mmmm, see. You'll have to go next door for that, mmmm, young man. Have a walk around and collect your, mmmm, things and then bring them back okay, mmmm, dearie?"

Hagrain nodded and reading from the paper made his way between the shelves and tables, occasionally pulling out a book from the stacks or stuffing a bottle into the small copper cauldron he was carrying.

Some of the items were striking chords in the back of his mind as being somewhat unpleasant; a severed hand, a book of 1001 favourite curses, an automatic hex-o-graph, a pile of oddly shaped knives. He pushed these things from his mind, contenting himself in the knowledge that the powerful wizards must use these objects normally.

After a half-hour, he staggered back to the counter burdened down with books, bottles, a cauldron, scales, and other assorted wizarding paraphernalia, including his robe that was currently draped unceremoniously over his elbow.

"That'll be one, mmmm, galleon, and eight, mmmhmm, sickles please dearie." The witch piped shrilly. Hagrain handed over the coins before stumbling and staggering from the shop.

Outside, the alley was smaller and darker than he had expected it to be; there were no brightly coloured shops as the older boys had mentioned, nor were there many happy-looking wizards. Most of them seemed rather grumpy in fact, as an elderly warlock shoved the boy out of his way.

Shrugging to himself, and re-arranging his load, he stumbled around and into the wand shop that the witch had directed him to. Inside, everything was muted in shades of purple and black, with a few white trimmings. Hagrain could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as he looked about himself. Boxes shaped like coffins were stacked neatly around the room, and several uncomfortable chairs were placed in strategically uncomfortable positions in the centre. He unburdened himself and sank thankfully into possibly the most uncomfortable one, berating himself for being silly and nervous in a wizards shop

"Ah, a customer." Came a voice from the doorway behind Hagrain. He nearly fell out of his chair in fright as it startled him. "How simply... Munificent?" The dry voice continued. The speaker came into sight, a tall skeleton-thin man with bulging eyes and slicked-back black hair. He was wearing an oily smile as he wrung his hands in front of himself.

"And what can I do for my most... Interesting? ... visitor today then?" He breathed, causing Hagrain to wish he were anywhere but there.

"-Wand-" He managed to squeak, waving the piece of Hogwarts paper in front of himself like some sort of talisman against bad spirits.

The thin mans mouth cracked slightly into a smile that bore no humour as he nodded and began rifling through the boxes.

"But of course. How.... Amusing? of me. This is, after all, a most... remarkable? wand shop, is it not?" He seemed amused by this thought as he pulled forth a box, opened it, and withdrew what looked like a small skull on the end of a twisted stick.

"Let's try this most... Disturbing? wand first, shall we?" He whispered as he handed it almost reverently to Hagrain. For a few moments Hagrain waved the wand back and forth, feeling his skin crawl at its brittle touch. The man shook his head and took the wand back. Moments later Hagrain was trying another, and another, and yet another. This went on for some time before the man finally frowned and pulled forth a white box. The others had all been black.

"Are you sure that you are in the.... Correct? place, young man?" He enquired in his horrible voice. Hagrain could only nod dumbly; the witch had, after all, sent him here. With a shrug, the man opened the box and pulled out a long, thin, white wand and passed it to Hagrain. Immediately, Hagrain felt a tingle in his palms and sparks fluttered weakly out of the wand. However pathetic the display was, the thin man seemed satisfied with the result, if perhaps a little disturbed by the choice of wands.

"Ivory and Unicorn Tendon." He whispered "A Most unusual choice my.... Young? friend. Most of my customers would avoid such a.... Goodly? Wand if at all possible. No matter though."

Hagrain paid the man quickly, stuffing the glassy-smooth wand into his back pocket and dashing out of the door as quickly as his huge collection of parcels would allow.

Back in the gloomy alley once more he paused, breathing hard as he gathered his wits and courage. A few minutes later he once more consulted the list he had; one more thing to buy before heading out, and that was a pet. Staggering slightly, he made his way along the alley, finally finding a pet shop that practically screamed with life, and collapsed in a sweating heap inside, his parcels spilling across the floor to the feet of the dwarf who was mopping up.

"Gerr'o n'n m'fl!" The dwarf roared in fury. Hagrain's mouth opened and closed like a trapdoor as he tried to work out what the dwarf had just said.

"I-I-I c-came to buy a p-pet s-sir!" Hagrain managed to blurt out as the dwarf stared out at him from behind his huge hairy face. This seemed to calm the diminutive figure slightly as he hurled his mop into the bucket like a spear and stomped around the room snarling at the animals.

"Wh's 'n'p' fr y' w'pinsy?" He snapped at Hagrain who waved the paper once more in front of his face. The dwarf made another intelligible remark and dragged a screaming monkey from a cage. It fixed a baleful glare on Hagrain that seemed to suggest it considered the boy beneath it in the food chain.

"I don't think s'." Hagrain said in a faint voice. The dwarf hurled the monkey back into its cage and slammed the door, stomping off again. He pulled out, in order, an alligator, a ferret, a slug, and finally a raven. The first three Hagrain reacted immediately but the raven caught his attention as it fluttered weakly in the dwarfs crushing grip.

"Yes!" Hagrain shouted, causing the dwarf to jump in surprise "I'll take it!"

Muttering darkly to itself, the dwarf stomped off to the counter, threw the bird into a paper-bag, took Hagrain's money, and ordered him out. Hagrain picked up his things and fled as quickly as he could, out once more into the street where he sat on the kerb and took the weakly fluttering bird from the screwed up paper bag. It pecked his hand affectionately as he smoothed out its feathers and then crawled up his arm to cling grimly to his shoulder. Occasionally it nibbled on his ear, causing him to break out in fits of tickled giggling.

The passing warlocks and hags gave the chortling boy dark angry glares, but he didn't notice. At least until one stopped right in front of him and glared at the untidy heap of parcels surrounding the boy.

"You are a Hogwarts pupil?" The man demanded in a soft voice. Hagrain looked up, almost swallowed his tongue, and nodded mutely.

"I am Professor Snape. You should not be here, boy. Follow me." The man turned and began walking away, leaving Hagrain to snatch up his belongings and try to catch the taller man who was striding purposefully away.

After a few short minutes, the alley ended and opened out onto a completely different place, an alley full of brightly dressed wizards and laughing children. Professor Snape turned to look down at Hagrain.

"Do not ever let me see you in that place again boy." He snapped "Knockturn alley is off-limits to Hogwarts pupils."

With that, he strode away into the crowd, leaving Hagrain staring around stupidly at the sea of people. In a strange way, he found it much less fascinating than the dark alley he had just come out of.

Nathan Lagrand had quickly ducked and hidden when Professor Snape suddenly appeared in Knockturn Alley, which he was visiting. Since Snape was a good friend of his father, he could by no means be seen!

So he decided to be cautious and return to Diagon Alley. Curious about the boy who managed to be stupid enough to land in the wrong street, he walked up to Hagrain and threw him an amiable smile. "Hello, there. You seem to be a bit lost, can I help you?"

A voice came from in front of Hagrain. He looked up as he scrambled to his feet, disturbing his snoozing raven, which let forth a raucous string of screeches as it fluttered its bent wings madly.

Hagrain's eyes took in the older boy; his tall height and big build. Hagrain wasn't good at judging people, and would have estimated the boy - man, he corrected himself, to be almost twenty.

"'Aright there." Hagrain almost burbled out, offering the man his hand to shake.

"I am a bit lost t' tell th' truth." He gushed out "I'm supposed to be goin' to Hogwarts today aft'r gettin' my school stuff, but I don't know where I'm suppose' to be going next."

He hoped that the guy could help him out, it didn't seem as though the morning was going his way.

"Oh?" Nathan raised an eyebrow. "That's a surprise, it's quite difficult to do it all on your own when you don't know where to go. I'm Nathan Lagrand, by the way,"

Nathan shook Hagrain's hand, "I'm a 6th year at Hogwarts. I think that since I don't have anything to do at the moment I might just try to help you along a bit. I take it that this is your first time in Diagon Alley, right? Well, don't worry. What exactly do you need but books - do you have a list or so?"

"Well," Hagrain began, looking on the ground behind him to where most of his new equipment was packed into the cauldron "I think I've got nearly everything I need. I just don't know where I'm supposed to be going or what I'm supposed to do now." He shrugged helplessly and gave the older boy a weak smile "I don't even know how to get to the train station." He confessed with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Hmm..." Nathan thought for a moment. The train is no problem, anyone of the students can walk you there. Do you know already which house you're in? I could point you to the Prefect then who'll help you along..."

Hagrain shrugged yet again, feeling even more stupid by the minute "No," He replied as he turned his eyes away "I haven't arrived there yet. I don't even know what houses there are, all I know is that a few of the other boys mentioned 'their house' was the greatest. I suppose that the sorting ceremony will sort it all out though?" He finished it with a hopeful questioning look in his eyes as he turned his gaze back once more to Nathan.

"Never mind," Nathan assured, "all will be handled once you get there. I'm just a bit surprised that you are running around all on your own without anyone to help you, it's highly unusual, I think. As for now... I guess that since the train won't be leaving yet, you should just try to have some fun around here. Diagon Alley is a great place to have fun in, really - take the Leaky Cauldron for example, best butterbeer there in the whole of London..."

He thought for a moment. He felt obliged to help the boy, but on the other hand he really had important things to do in Knockturn Alley... but he couldn't just leave him alone as it seemed.

"Look," he said finally, "I don't mean to be prying or so, but why are you here all on your own?"

Hagrain reached down and grabbed most of his gear in one hand, reaching for the cauldron's handle with his other. He grinned up at Nathan.

"Butterbeer sounds good. I heard some of the older boys talking about it when they were on holiday from school, I've been wanting to try it for ages.

Shall we? I'll buy!" He added as he began dragging the cauldron along behind him toward the sign above the door marking the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron.

"No one really had time to tell me," He replied in answer to Nathan's question "most times, the older boys show the new kids where to go and what to get, but there was an away trip to Mount Vesuvius to see the shaggy hippogriffs there so no-one was available."

He shook his head with a wry smile "I think that they forgot about me to tell the truth. I'm the only one going to Hogwarts this year, and by the time they remembered, it was too late to get anyone to show me around or tell me what to do. Hence the hurried arrival by floo powder and my confusion."

He stopped at the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron and looked questioningly at Nathan. "Are you coming for a drink or do you have other things to do?" He asked.