Neville Longbottom and the Sorcerer's Stone

Chapter 1

"Happy birthday!" Lily Potter exclaimed as her son, Harry, walked into the kitchen on July 31^st. She hugged him.

"Here, you got a letter," she continued, handing him an envelope and indicating the large, tawny owl perched on the sink, drinking out of a cup of water.

Harry accepted the letter grinning; he hardly ever got mail. On the front of the envelope was Harry's address, written in green ink. He turned the letter over and saw that it was sealed with scarlet wax. His grin broadened. He knew what this letter was, and obviously so did his parents, Lily and James, as they were both standing in the room, looks of anticipation on both their faces.

He actually considered setting the letter down on the table and going to eat breakfast just to see what his parents would do, but then he decided that he'd rather go ahead and read the letter himself.

Harry ripped the letter open and turned it upside-down. Out of the envelope fell two sheets of paper. He picked up the first one and read it aloud:

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Term starts on September the first. You will board the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9¾ at King's Cross train station in London at eleven o'clock. Your list off supplies is enclosed.

Yours,

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress

Harry looked at his parents, waiting for it to come—

"Congratulations!" Lily exclaimed, stepping forward and embracing her son for the second time that morning.

"Good job, son!" said James, and he patted Harry on the back.

"We'll have to go to Diagon Alley soon," commented Lily. "How about I take him tomorrow, James?"

"That sounds good," James Potter replied.

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It was a known fact in the wizarding world that on a child's eleventh birthday, a letter was sent, accepting them to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school of magic. All of Hogwarts' students are marked to attend at birth, though not all of them know it. For some, such as muggle-borns, their letter comes as a complete surprise, as the witch or wizard doesn't know of his or her magical background. Well, either way, it comes, and they all find out in the end.

Harry Potter was an average sized boy. He was the average height for an eleven-year-old. He was the average weight for an eleven-year-old. Anything the average eleven-year-old had, he did too. He had jet-black hair that never seemed to do what he wanted it to do, no matter how hard he tried. Harry Potter was just...average.

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"Hello, Tom," Lily said as she accompanied her son through The Leaky Cauldron, a popular pub, and the entrance to Diagon Alley.

Lily was always telling Harry to be courteous, and that at some point in his life, it would pay off, because others would remember your manners and think better of you.

The Leaky Cauldron never failed to amaze Harry. It could only be seen by magic folk, and Harry quite enjoyed watching the muggles—non-magic folk—just outside looking from the shop on the left to the shop on the right, but never noticing the large pub filled with various magical creatures right in front of their eyes.

"Hello," said the hunchbacked bartender.

In order to get out the back door, Harry and Lily had to slip past an ogre that was busy enjoying some sort of magical ale or another.

Harry was used to this sort of thing, however, seeing as he had made many trips through The Leaky Cauldron to Diagon Alley with his mother or occasionally his father.

Out the back door of the pub, where the dumpster was, there was a brick wall. Lily took out her wand and tapped several of the bricks on the wall. She took a step back. Instinctively, Harry followed suit. Right before their eyes, the bricks moved off to either side of the wall, revealing an archway of a sort.

Harry walked with his mother into the crowded street that was Diagon Alley. Surrounding the wide street were many different shops. There seemed to be a different shop for every magical need imaginable. There were cauldron shops. There were clothing shops. There were potions shops. There were wand shops. There were bookshops. There were food shops. There were also broomstick shops. Harry's favorite was Quality Quidditch Supplies. The store always had the newest broomsticks and supplies.

"We're going to need to go to Gringotts," Lily informed Harry.

Gringotts was the wizarding bank. It was probably the safest place to store your valuables in the whole world, as it was guarded by goblins. The bank is built underground, and only goblins can navigate through the tunnels. Anyone else walking around in the bank would get lost and most likely never be seen again.

Harry and Lily continued down the busy street to the large marble building at the end. They walked up the stairs at the entrance and stepped up to a tall, wooden desk. A goblin peered over the desk and said, in a scratchy voice, "Yes?"

"Hello," said Lily. "I need to make a withdrawal."

The goblin leaned farther over the desk, and asked, "Do you have your key?" in that same, scratchy voice as before.

Lily reached into her leather purse and handed the large, copper key to the goblin.

"Follow me," it said.

Lily followed the goblin and Harry followed Lily to a wooden door just to the right of the desk. The Goblin opened the door and the three walked through it, into the tunnels of Gringotts.

The goblin was nearly Harry's height. It was really very ugly, but Harry knew that it knew what it was doing.

When the goblin indicated a large wooden cart, Lily and Harry took this as their queue and they climbed into it. The goblin sat in the front of it.

Suddenly, the cart began to move along the track, though the goblin wasn't doing anything. Lily didn't much like the cart rides, but she stuck it out. Harry, on the other hand, thought it was fun. It reminded him of flying on his broomstick, which was something he did quite often at home.

The cart stopped shortly after the Potters had gotten in it. Harry jumped out of the cart so his mother could climb out.

The goblin put the key that Lily had given into the door of the vault and instructed the Potters to stand back. They did as they were told, which was lucky, because the door swung open and would have hit them had they not moved.

The open door revealed large piles of gold, silver, and bronze coins. The large gold ones, called galleons, were worth the most, followed by the silver ones, called sickles, and then the bronze ones, called knuts.

Lily pulled a sock out of her purse and dropped several of each coin into it. She handed the sock to Harry, who pocketed it. He knew that would be all he would get for the whole school year.

Reluctantly, Lily got back into the cart.

Back in Diagon Alley, above ground, Harry retrieved the list of supplies that came with the letter from his pocket. He read the list aloud to his mother.

"Can I go look in Quality Quidditch Supplies?" Harry asked after he had purchased all of his schoolbooks and supplies.

"I suppose," Lily replied

Harry rushed to the shop window, where he saw many kids around his age standing there, their faces pressed against the glass. He joined them, and saw what they were all looking at, entranced. It was the new broomstick, the Nimbus 2000. It was the fastest broom so far created. Harry had read all about it in a magazine, The Quidditch Current. He looked at the price tag on the display case, and he compared it to the sock he had in his pocket. He didn't have enough; he knew that without counting what was in the sock.

With a sigh, Harry turned around and headed back to his mother. His spot at the window was quickly refilled by some other kid.