Chapter three Diagon Alley We went on for forty-five minutes or so without speaking. Mr. Hagrid pulled his motorcycle into a parking space and we started down a very normal looking street. "Um, Mr. Hagrid-" I said tentatively, but was cut off when he spoke. "Jus' call me Hagrid. Tha's what ev'ryone calls me at Hogwarts." He s aid and we stopped in front of a pub called The Leaky Cauldron. "Hagrid, I don't have any money to pay for all the stuff I need." "Don' ya worry abou' tha'. You got a whole vault full o' gold at Gringott's." replied Hagrid, pushing open the door to the pub and stepping inside. "Grin-what?" "The wizards bank, o' course! Does Harry tell ya anythin'?" "Not really." "Well, yer dad's changed a lot since he married that Verth woman. He was right good kid, though. Got inter trouble occasionally but always got out o' it." Hagrid then chuckled and sighed at the memories. The pub was noisy and I had never seen so many wizards and witches in one place. "The usual, Hagrid?" asked the bartender. "Not right now, Tom. Got ter get this here feller's school supplies." Hagrid clapped me heartily on the back. I had to brace my hands on the bar counter to keep from falling over. "By George! Is that- is that Harry Potter's boy?" Tom gasped, his eyes falling on me. "Right he is!" said Hagrid proudly. "Why, no one's seen Potter since-well-since she died. God rest her beautiful soul." He bowed his head solemnly.  "You knew my mother?" I piped up. "Every one knew your mother!" cried Tom, looking up, "You have her hair, but Harry's eyes. Shame, tis. She died and all when you were only a wee babe." I thought I saw Tom's eyes start to shine with tears. And a fresh batch welled into Hagrid's. Hagrid laid a hand on my back and steered my out the back door. He turned to face the brick wall. He took out a wand, that was nearly broken in half, and tapped the wall brick four bricks up, three to the left. The wall eased open to reveal a whole street. Paved with cobblestones, it was lined with the most wonderful shops. "Hagrid?" I asked as we walked about halfway down the street, passing the Apothecary, Quality Quidditch Supplies, Flourish and Blotts book store and more. "Yeah?" "Do you know how my mother-" I gulped, "-died?" Hagrid stopped dead. "Harry, it was a person an' I don' wanna mention his name, he's too terrible." Replied Hagrid, looking determinedly at the white, marble pillars of Gringott's Bank. He raised his huge boot to climb the marble steps, but I grabbed his arm. "Hagrid, I've got to know, I've just got to." I looked at him with pleading eyes. Hagrid's bottom lip trembled. "It was-" Hagrid swallowed hard, and lowered his voice, "-Voldemort." Hagrid clapped his hands over his mouth like he had just said a very bad swear word. "Who?" I asked. "LORD VOLDEMORT!" bellowed Hagrid. All the people around them turned to satre at him, they narrowed their eyes, like Hagrid had said something very bad, indeed. A group of teen-age girls screamed. Hagrid was shaking all over. "Why? What's so bad about saying Voldemort?" I asked. I had suspected my mother had been murdered, but had tried not to believe it.   "Well, people have been on the edge of their seats since he returned ter power ten years ago. Murderin' your mum was the first murder since your dad had appeared ter have killed him in his seventh year at Hogwarts. He's the most feared person in the whole universe. He killed yer grandparents, on yer dad's side, in one go. Harry barely a year old when I brought im' ter the Dursley's ..." Hagrid's voice trailed off. "Don't they talk abou' yer mother at yer house?" "No, and when they do they spit it out like she was dirt." He led me into Gringotts. The tall, oak doors creaked open when a pair of short goblins opened them. We stepped into a gleaming, marble room, buzzing with several goblins, witches and wizards. "We're here ter get some gold out of Rubeus Potter's vault." stated Hagrid to the goblin in a tailed, red suit behind the counter sitting on a tall stool. "Have you got his key, sir?" asked the goblin, looking at us over the rim of his oval glasses. "Ah, I got it here, somewhere." Hagrid muttered, digging in his many pockets. He pulled out a long, black skeleton key. "Right through those doors, if you please." the goblin pointed to another set of oak doors. When they opened to reveal a sort of mine like cavern lit by torches lining the walls, a small cart trundled up a railroad track driven by a dirty goblin. Hagrid led the way into the car, almost reluctantly. The little wooden car zoomed down off the track. "Where to?" shouted the dirty goblin over the rumbling of the wheels of the cart. "Vault number two-hundred and thirty-three." Hagrid yelled back, looking a little green. In a couple minutes we came to a screeching halt in front of a steel door. Hagrid handed the key to me and then leaned over the other side. I supposed he was vomiting. I slid the key into the key hole of the door and turned it. They door slid out of the way to reveal a good sized pile of gold Galleons, silver Sickles and bronze Knuts. I hastily stuffed some money into a leather money bag and returned to the car.   "Any where else?" inquired the goblin driver. "No, thank the Lord." said Hagrid, mopping his brow with a hanky. They sped back up the track and stopped at the oak doors. Hagrid wearily clambered out and I followed him out of Gringotts. "Where do yeh wan' ter go firs', Rubeus? Gosh, sure feels different ter call someone else by tha' name. When I heard yer mum had named yeh after me, well, it was such an honour ter have Harry Potter's son named Rubeus." Hagrid looked close to tears again. "Yer probably wonderin' where all tha' money came from. Yer mum came from a pretty well to do family an' left it ter ya when she died. Now how about Flourish and Blotts first, eh?" and we strode off towards the book shop. After we had bought my school books, quills, parchment, potion supplies, robes (my old ones were several inches too short), my scale, dragon hide gloves and cauldron we went to Eelope's Owl Emporium to get me an owl. I had really been looking forward to getting my own owl. Hagrid insisting on paying for my black, barn owl for a birthday present. He told me had bought my father's owl, old Hedwig, for his birthday too. I decided to name the barn owl King Arthur, after a great wizard in the medieval times who became a muggle king of England. Then we came to a little shop with a faded sign that said: Ollivander's Wand Making: making fine wands since 226 B.C. When we opened the door a bell tinkled somewhere in the shop. A short man walked out from a curtain covering a doorway in the back of a shop. He looked around twenty-one. "Ah, Rubeus Potter, I presume?" he said, peering very closely at my face. He started pulling box after box of the walls. Which I noticed had rows of many wooden boxes. The air was dusty and I sneezed. Mr. Ollivander set dozens of boxes at my feet and pulled open the first one. "Hmm, twelve inches, unicorn's hair, very good for Transfiguration." he muttered. "Nope!" he snatched the wand out of my hand before I even had a chance to wave it. I was disappointed. That had been the first magical object I had ever felt before. He handed me another wand. "Fourteen inches long, Dragon heart string, whippy." I got to wave it this time but had the wand taken away again. I went through at least a hundred wands and for some reason, Mr. Ollivander seemed to be getting happier with every wand that I held. "Thirteen and a half inches, birch, contains spider venom. The first wand I ever used spider venom in, actually. A good all-arounder." I waved it over dramatically through the dusty air. A shower of sparks shot out of the end. "That's the one!" cried Mr. Ollivander, bouncing up and down with joy. He poked the price into his cash register. We left the shop with my wand's box tucked under my arm and King Arthur screeching madly at the other owls we passed. "Hagrid," I said, strapping King Arthur tightly down onto the back of the black motorcycle, "This has been the best day of my life." I smiled up at his big, hairy face. "Aaww, this brings back so many memories of yer father when he was a kid." he started crying and hugged me again. Hagrid blew his nose loudly in his hanky. And we left, speeding off into the pink horizon.