BTS And The Death Flame

DIAGON ALLEY

Just off Charing Cross Road, London, behind a pub called the Leaky Cauldron

The oldest pub in London, as any wizard will tell you, is the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road. The Leaky Cauldron was there long before Charing Cross Road was even planned; its true address is number one, Diagon Alley, and it is believed to have been built sometime in the early 1500s, along with the rest of the wizarding street. Created some two centuries before the imposition of the International Statute of Secrecy, the Leaky Cauldron was initially visible to Muggle eyes. While the pub was, from the first, a place for witches and wizards to congregate - whether Londoners or out-of-towners up for the day to shop for the latest magical ingredients or devices - Muggles were not turned away or made to feel unwelcome, even though some of the conversations, not to mention pets, caused many an unwary drinker to leave without finishing his mead.

When the Statute of Secrecy was imposed, the Leaky Cauldron, great British wizarding institution that it had become, was granted special dispensation to continue its existence as a safe haven and refuge for wizardkind in the capital. Though insistent on many powerful spells of concealment, and good behavior from all who used it, the Minister for Magic, Ulick Gamp, was sympathetic to the need of wizards to let off steam under the difficult new conditions. He further agreed to give the landlord of the day responsibility for letting people into Diagon Alley from his back yard, for the shops beyond the pub were now also in need of magical protection.

To honor Gamp's protection of the pub, the landlord created a new brand of beer, Gamp's Old Gregarious, which tasted so disgusting that nobody has ever been known to finish a pint.

He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.

The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight.

"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."

He grinned at Seo Min's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Seo Min looked quickly over her shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into a solid wall.

The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible said a sign hanging over them.

"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."

Seo Min wished she had about eight more eyes. She turned her head in every direction as they walked up to the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside apothecaries were shaking her head as they passed, saying, 'Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad...' A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Seo Min's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Seo Min had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...

They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold was 'Yeah, that's a goblin,' said Hagrid quietly as they walked up to the white stone steps towards him. The goblin was about a two head shorter than Seo Min. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Seo Min noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn,

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned,

beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Seo Min made for the counter.

"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come to take some money outta Ms. Seo Min's safe."

"You have her key, sir?"

The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.

"Got it," said Hagrid, at last, holding up a tiny golden key.

The goblin looked at it closely.

"That seems to be in order."

"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Grim!"

Grim was yet another goblin.

Grim held the door open for them. Seo Min had expected more marble but was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downwards and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Grim whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them. They climbed in, Hagrid with some difficulty, and were off.

At first, they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way because Grim wasn't steering.

When they stopped, Seo Min was feeling cold because they were somewhere that looked like a cave. Something was dripping from the wall and she didn't even want to know what it is.

"Lamp, please." Grim gave his lamp to Hagrid who was standing right behind him. "Light, please." Hagrid outstretched his hand so the lamp could give the Goblin guidance where to put the key.

When Grim turned the key three times, some strange sound was echoing the caves, like multiple locks, have been just unlocked. "But, Hagrid! I think it's a mistake, I don't have any.." But the girl's voice was cut off when the door of the volt 666. opened automatically. Suddenly, the lamp wasn't even necessary. The moment Hagrids foot stepped into the vault, the torches on the side walls lit up on their own accord.

The girls mount almost touched the floor.

"You really believed your dad didn't leave you anything, eh?" The look on her face obviously answered his question. "Don't mind those Muggles! They don't know anything about'ya!"

*******

The wand always chooses his Wizzard

A magic wand ... this was what Seo Min had been really looking forward to.

The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single spindly chair which Hagrid sat on to wait. Seo Min felt strange as though she had entered a very strict library; she swallowed a lot of new questions which had just occurred to her and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of her neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Seo Min jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello," said Seo Min awkwardly.

"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Kim Seo Min!" It wasn't a question. "You are just like your father. It seems only yesterday that he was in here himself, buying his the first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Seo Min. She wished she would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy. " Well, I say your father favored it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr. Ollivander had come close that he and Seo Min were almost noses to the nose. Seo Min could see herself reflected in those misty eyes. He shook his head and then, to the girl's relief, he spotted Hagrid.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again ... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"

"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.

"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.

"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly. "Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Ms. Kim. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. " Which is your wand arm?"

"Um - well, I'm left-handed," said Seo Min. "Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Seo Min from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Ms. Kim. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

Seo Min suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between her nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes. but then a loud shifting noise in the back of the store made all three of them stop and listen. Then the sound of shifting changed to a loud noise of boxes falling.

"Eh - Give me a minute,let' meh see.." But when he moved his lathers to side, a big golden and grey box flew right in Mr. Ollivanders hand. The astonishment on his face confused Hagrid and the girl who was waiting on her wand.

"It can't be, it just can't be!" Mr.Olivander was murmuring to himself yet both Hagrid and the girl could hear them. "It's... It's the Elder Wand!" Seo Min noticed the changes in the atmosphere. Hagrid approached Mr. Olivanderas his eyes scanned the wand in his hands.

"That's not possible! Harry Potter snapped that wand in two pieces and threw it away! How is that he is here?!" Seo Min was confused. That was a hundred question added to her list. Who is Harry Potter and what's with that Elder Wand?

"Indeed! Stranger still, the Elder Wand's core substance is Thestral hair. The Elder Wand knows no loyalty except to strength. So it's completely unsentimental. It will only go where the power is. And yet, he showed up the moment you did, Ms. Kim!"

Kim Seo Min took the wand. She felt a sudden warmth in her fingers. Shee raised the wand above her head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls.

The Elder Wand found his master once again.