An Eventful Year

Dad finally tore himself away from Mr and Mrs Granger to pull out a map entitled “Fireplaces of Great Britain – The Floo Network”. After quickly locating the spot that was blinking neon lights and screaming in a high pitched voice. “You are here! You have not lost yourself, just in case you were wondering, because you are here! Here is where you are! You are not there, but here! If there are any questions about whether or not you are here, please address them to -”

Mum put a silencing charm on it, all the while muttering under her breath, “Shut up, you magically-charmed prat of a map, the Ministry itself should be ashamed for publishing things like you, a danger to the wizarding community’s ears, you are..”

And so on and so forth.

After about a minute or two of scanning the map, dad located the two nearest fireplaces: Gringotts Bank and Knockturn Alley. Mum blanched at the thought of Harry wandering about in a place such as the latter. “Knockturn Alley, Arthur, do you think he’s there? Oh, poor Harry, stumbling about in that dreadful place without a clue as to how to get out.. The things he’ll see, the horrors of all horrors which reside in that.. that.. PLACE!” As usual, she continued on and on.

The Grangers stared.

I must say, the thought of Harry being lost in Knockturn Alley was rather frightful to me. Although, I'm sure, Harry would be quite able to handle himself in such a place, seeing as he's had all those encounters with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Then again, maybe that was all just a rather large bit of good luck.. no, of course not. Ron's seen Harry in action, and vouches for his abilities against the Dark Arts. He'll be fine.

Right?

After much drama put forth by mum, attempts to placate mum by dad, rolling-of-the-eyes from Fred and George, pompous airs by Percy, endless chattering by Ron and Hermione, and confusion from the Grangers, we decided to head towards Gringotts.

“You see, Gringotts is rather coincidentally located just at the entrance of Knockturn Alley -”

“It IS? Can we go?”

“No, Fred. And anyway, as I was saying -”

“Oh, Fred, George, why on earth would you want to go THERE? Filled to the brim with the kind of no-good, lazy scoundrels that were the cause of all the -”

“Molly…”

“Sorry, Arthur dear.”

“Right. For the last time, Gringotts is near the entrance of Knockturn Alley, so it would be wise to be somewhere around there. Harry seems the sort to stay in one place when lost, so we’ll head towards Gringotts, then Percy and myself will go into Knockturn Alley to search for him. The rest of you will stay at Gringotts,” he said, with a look towards Fred and George.

“Never would have thought of doing otherwise, dad,” George said, contradicting his twin:

“Oh, don’t be so strict on us, we’ll be good, we won’t mess around, just let us go in, please, please, dad, please let us -”

Needless to say, his plea was ended by Mum.

“That’s a good idea, Mr Weasley,” said Hermione cheerfully. “I needed to go there anyway with mum and dad so we could exchange our money, so we can do that while you search for Harry. I agree with you, he won’t have gone far.”

We set out for Gringotts, my hand firmly clasped in Mum’s. Usually, this doesn’t get on my nerves, but with Hogwarts coming up and all.. I mean, I’m going to be living away from her for practically 10 months. She’s not going to be able to hold my hand everywhere I go because, well, she won’t be there. It’s weird. Part of me can’t wait, but I sort of understand how she might want to keep me around for a bit longer, and I’m sure I’ll miss her. I mean, I’m the only girl, the baby, and with dad working late nights, she and I had fun while all my brothers were at school. Last year wasn’t as fun as it used to be, though, because I always had Ron to play with when Mum wanted to be left alone. Without him I actually had to entertain myself, which isn’t too easy of a task.

But really, she’s had 6 kids leave for Hogwarts, and she never held any of THEIR hands while walking through Diagon Alley. It’s not like I’d get lost or anything like that - Wow, look at those owls!

“Ginny, come back.”

“Yes, Mum.”

Hermione led her parents inside the bank and directed them towards the exchange counter. She went back out to look for Harry, while dad took the boys one way and mum brought me the other way. We peered through the windows of all the shops we came across, and I tuned out mum’s constant mutterings of “What if he really IS in Knockturn Alley? The poor boy, he might be hexed, disfigured, cursed, sent in the wrong direction, laughed at, spat at, breathed on wrong..”

We hadn’t gone very far from Gringotts when we heard Hermione shout rather loudly, “Harry! Harry! Over here!”

Mum jumped to attention, and with an “Oh, thank God!” dashed off towards Hermione with me in tow. Do you know, it felt quite similar to using a Portkey, except for instead of my navel being pulled, it was my arm. It was rather fun, actually, until it started feeling as though my arm was going to fall out of its socket at the next tug. Rather unpleasant. I don’t recommend it.

Suddenly, mum came to a halt and started screeching, “Oh, Harry – oh, my dear – you could have been anywhere -”, pulling out a clothes brush from goodness knows where, sweeping soot off of Harry, who wasn’t alone – he was standing in front of an extremely large man with a tangled mass of hair and beard. And when I say large, I mean REALLY large – Harry only came up to halfway up the man’s chest, and dad wasn’t able to reach his shoulders, as tall as he might be. I’m sure I was gaping, but I didn’t care. The man was HUGE!

Mum poked me rather sharply in the side. “Stop staring, Ginny dear, this is Hagrid. He works at Hogwarts. He’s really quite nice.”

I stared in disbelief – a man of that size, at Hogwarts? I had never been there, of course, but I couldn’t imagine this Mr Hagrid fitting into any sort of building. Then again, it’s a castle. I’ve never been in a castle! I’ve seen them, of course, but never been in one. I wonder if it’s anything like the castles in those King Arthur books mum used to read to me. You know, the ones that have the famous Merlin in them, and Guinivere, and Lance-a-lot. Those were so exciting! I used to beg mum to read just one more chapter before I went to bed, and then she’d –

“Knockturn Alley! Oh, my worst fears come true! If you hadn’t found him, Hagrid! Who knows the damage that would have been inflicted upon this poor, sweet, little boy! Can you imagine, seeing the horrors of a place like that at such a young age, the trauma! Oh, Hagri -”

Honestly. Mum was being a bit silly, going on and on about the dangers of Harry being in Knockturn Alley. I would never do such a thing.

“Well, gotta be off,” Mr Hagrid said abruptly, shooting a strained look at Harry, who was stifling what looked like a case of the giggles. “See yer at Hogwarts!” And with a wave of his great hand, he was walking away, parting the streetful of people like that Muggle religious figure dad told me about, Moses, parted water.

As we were walking up the steps to Gringotts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were discussing some person I didn’t know. “Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes? Malfoy and his father.”

Apparently, dad knew them too. Then again, how many people do you come across with a name like Malfoy? Interesting name.. I wonder if it’s the first or the last? “Did Lucius Malfoy buy anything?” he asked, with ice in his voice. I wonder what these Malfoy people do to make people hate them. Maybe there will be people like these Malfoys in my year, and I'll have to hate them, and they'll hate me back! I've never really hated anyone. Then again, I've never been away from my family, and one can't hate one's family, now, can they?

“No, he was selling,” remembered Harry.

“So he’s worried,” dad said. “Oh, I’d love to get Lucius Malfoy for something..”

We reached Gringotts and walked in the door. A goblin bowed respectfully towards us, and I entered quickly. Goblins scare me terribly. Ron likes to tease me about my fear, and also about my phobia of.. well, if I were to list them all, we’d be here for quite a while. And I’m getting over them. Really. And he’s scared of spiders, so there.

“You be careful, Arthur,” mum said. “That family’s trouble, don’t go biting off more than you can chew.”

“So you don’t think I’m a match for Lucius Malfoy?” dad said, with a look of shock on his face. To be honest, I don’t think he’s a match for anyone right now – he is rather old, and slender, but not like, lean slender. More like, you know, old man slender, although I’m SURE he was quite a fighter in years past. Although, perhaps not. He seems too focused on.. intellectual pastimes, was that how mum put it? Anyway, he’s balding. Good thing he keeps his hat on over it. I wonder what Ron would look like, bald..

The Grangers were waiting for Hermione to get back, and stared at dad, who was practically leaping up in the air at the chance to socialize further with Muggles. “We must have a drink! What’s that you’ve got there? Oh, you’re changing Muggle money. Molly, look!” I strained my neck to look at where dad was pointing. Wow! Paper money! Don’t they have coins? I suppose paper money would be easier to carry around, as it wouldn’t put a weight in your pocket.

Another goblin walked up to us and led us to the cart we would be taking to our vault. Fred shot me a look as I got in – he knows how much I hate this. I always feel as though I’m falling out of the cart when it goes around turns, and last year, as we were whipping around an especially nasty part of the ride down, I slammed into the goblin and promptly screamed. He, in turn, screamed, which was not a pleasant sound, which set me off again. We continued screaming until Mum screamed too – not to join in, but to order us to shut up.

But that is neither here or there.

We finally reached our family vault, and after mum took me off of her robes, she went in to gather our money.

I blushed when she opened the door to reveal a pile of Sickles and a Galleon. Fred, George, Percy, and Ron looked down. Harry glanced in, and started studying his fingernails. Mum came back to the cart, and without any sort of a warning, the goblin sent the cart in the direction of Harry’s vault. While going around a turn to the left, I fell into Harry’s lap, who goggled down at me with shock. I blushed again, and righted myself. Ron started snickering, the prat.

Goodness, I had no idea Harry was so rich! He stood in the doorway while pushing coins into the bag that the goblin had provided. Ron stared, and Fred and George’s eyes glittered. He got back in, his bag clanking against the side of the cart. As we walked into the main lobby of the bank, I stumbled and grabbed onto mum’s arm to steady myself.

“All right there, Ginny?” Ron asked, smirking. “Quite the klutz today, aren’t we? First, your little fall in the -”

“Rooooooooon!” I whined, mortified.

Harry looked at the ground.

As we approached, Hermione shot a silent plea for help to Ron. After glancing around, he saw her parents, who were getting quite a conversation from dad.

“Yes, I’m rather familiar with cars! I own one, actually. It can fly! I don’t think yours can do that, can it?”

Mr Granger shook his head.

“Silly of me, it’s a Muggle car, of course it can’t! Modified it myself, I did. You see, I opened up that thing in the front, the hoof?”

“Hood.”

“Yes, but anyway, I opened that up, and took – hello, Molly dear!”

After checking to make sure that we were all here, we went outside and separated into groups. Percy was off to buy a quill (he’s been writing loads of letters lately), and Fred and George went with a friend of theirs. Dad was taking Mr and Mrs Granger back to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink, and Ron, Hermione, and Harry were going to do some window-shopping, as Hermione put it. At first I thought they were actually shopping for windows, but they explained otherwise after I told them there wasn’t a store that sold windows.

Mum and I headed in the direction of a second-hand robe shop, where we bought my robes, cloak, hat, and gloves. It was a bit embarassing when the woman remarked, "I suppose I'll need to get you an extra-small, dear," and I looked down to see the small hanging off of me. Mum was rather pleased about my small size, but it just made me realise how much of a first year I am. Or, will be. Hmm. I wasn't sure where to go with this. I mean, should I just stay the way I am, or try to.. fill out these robes? I'm sure the latter would get Harry's attention, but I don't know.. I am only a first year, after, all. Should probably get acquainted with living at Hogwarts, and all that.. and then I can fill out my robes. I wonder how one would go around doing that..

After a trip to Ollivander’s, where I was given a wand (I would have gotten mum’s old one, but that had been destroyed in an unfortunate accident consisting of the family ghost, some cabinets, mum’s old wand, an egg, and a rather gnome), we went through the rest of the list. Mum decided that we could get my phials, telescope, and scales at home, since we had a load of stuff we didn’t use anymore. We had been meaning to go through them and sell some for extra Sickles, but when we looked at the big pile in the basement, suddenly we all had better things to do. Mum had tried to rally us all for a big cleaning job, but suddenly Ron looked out the window and remarked idly that the gnomes were revolting; it worked, and Mum was properly distracted. Needless to say, we hadn't tackled the job again.

We still had about 25 minutes until we had to meet everyone at Flourish and Blotts, so Mum took me to the ice cream parlor for some ice cream. I had the vanilla and peanut butter flavor with nuts on top, and I ate it as we walked towards the bookshop. There were loads of people there, and Mum gasped excitedly as she pointed wildly to a sign that proclaimed: “GILDEROY LOCKHART will be signing copies of his autobiography MAGICAL ME today, 12:30 – 4:30 pm.”

“OH, Ginny, Gilderoy Lockart! And we’ll see him, be in the same room with him, breathe the same air as him, maybe even TOUCH him, and -”

“Mum. He might hear you.”

She paled, horrified. Honestly. Why fancy famous people? It's not as though mum would leave dad for him, anyway. She wouldn't! And anyway, Harry's famous, but it's different, because I know him. Well, sort of. Okay, not really. He spends time at my house, and all that. So it's not as though it's someone I read about in Teen Witch Weekly and drool over, although I'm not allowed to read that. Too scandalous, says, mum.

We pushed our way in to meet Percy, Fred, George, dad, and the Grangers. The twins were snickering at Mum’s antics, and I couldn’t help laughing when Fred did a rather spot on imitation of her.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione met up with us a few minutes later, and stared at Mum, who was patting her hair and speaking in quite a breathy voice. “Oh, there you are, good. We’ll be able to see him in a minute…”

The line moved and we walked forward towards Mr Lockhart himself. Mum stopped abruptly and Percy bumped into her.

“Mum..”

“Sorry, Percy dear, got a bit.. caught up..”

Ron rolled his eyes.

At first glance, it looked as though there were about 10 of Mr Lockhart, but then I realized that there were large pictures of his face all around him. The pictures were grinning at the crowd, catching the eye of several teenaged girls in the front who promptly started giggling and pointing at the real Mr Lockart. He was signing books for people, and stopped every so often to flash a smile at a photographer, who was taking several pictures.

The photographer stepped on Ron’s foot accidentally, and without a backwards glance, continued taking photos. “Out of the way, there. This is for the Daily Prophet.”

Ron glared at the man and rubbed his foot. “Big deal.”

Mr Lockhart looked in Ron’s direction, and scowled slightly at the disturbance. The laughing girls noticed Mr Lockhart’s displeasure and glared at Ron as well. Ron looked taken aback at all the people directing their attention towards him, which was quite comical. Mum poked him in the side and muttered angrily, “Oh, see what you’ve done now, he’s glaring at you. You’ve brought shame upon the family, you have..”

Mr Lockhart stopped scowling, however, to Mum’s great delight. He had spotted Harry next to Ron, and jumped to his feet, all the while shouting, “It can’t be Harry Potter?”