“Where to Mrs.Marlson?”

Stan the conductor asks as they step into the Knight bus.

“Two tickets to Diagon Alley.”

“We are going to buy my wand!”

Her mother answers and Almira is quick to tell him the reason for their trip.

“Hey Ernie, did you hear? The little rubber ball is getting her wand!”

“I heard! That means we better go extra fast today Stan!”

Both the conductor and the driver laugh before Stan returns to the job at hand.

“That’ll be 11Knuts for a ticket to Diagon Alley Mrs.Marlson, the same as to anywhere else.”

Her mother pays the 22Knuts for both of their tickets and walks to sit on the closest empty seat. Almira on the other hand walks to the middle of the buss and squads down, placing both of her hands on the floor. After she gets in position she yells:

“I’m ready!”

To which Stan replies by announcing:

“Next stop: Diagon Alley!”

Stan doesn’t even get to finish his announcement before the buss is once again moving at full speed with the seats, that for some reason aren’t fastened in place, flying around the bus’s three floors, with the seat her mother is sitting on being the only one staying in place. Her mother watches with a calm smile on her face as Almira, instead of being flung around by the ride, is laughing and jumping around the bus, while using the floor, walls, ceiling and the seats flying around, to do all kinds of acrobatic stunts.

Alas, as all fun things must come to an end, so does the bus stop upon reaching its destination, and, without minding Almira laughing while lying on the floor, Stan announces:

“We have reached: Diagon Alley!”

With smiles on their faces, Almira and her mother step out of the bus. Almira turns around and says:

“See you later!”

Stan waves at her as the bus shoots towards the next person in need and disappears behind a corner at the end of the street just moments later.

“Well then, lets go.”

Her mother says and least her into and through the Leaky Cauldron. Coming to a small yard surrounded by walls, her mother walks up to one particular brick wall and starts tapping it in multiple places with her wand. As she taps the wall one last time, the bricks start to move, forming the passage to Diagon Alley.

“We’ll have to go withdraw some money before we start shopping for your things, so the Gringotts is our first destination. After that, we’ll go to get you clothes made as that takes some time, and while we wait for them to get made, we can go get your wand. All the other things are the kind you can just pick from the shelves, so we can leave them for later.”

Her mother explains their shopping plan while leading Almira towards a snowy white building towering over all the other shops of Diagon Alley, with the words ‘Gringotts Wizarding Bank’ written in big golden letters over its entrance.

After waiting for their turn to get served, they walk onto a free counter manned by a goblin. The goblin looks at them and speaks:

“Name?”

“Evalyn Marlson.”

“Deposit or withdraw?”

“Withdraw.”

“Proof of identity?”

Her mother calmly answers the goblins questions and finally when asked to show the proof of identity she hands a small key to the goblin.

The goblin looks at the key and says:

“Follow me.”

Before starting to walk towards the back of the building, where they find a set of stairs leading down underground, where the vaults are located. After they get to the end of the stairs the gobling urges them to step into a mining cart, which starts moving as soon as they get on.

After a while the cart stops, and the goblin once again tells them to follow. The goblin stops in front of one particular vault, moves the flap in front of the keyhole to the side before inserting the key and opening the vault.

“Vault 153.”

“Thank you.”

The goblin says and her mother thanks it before stepping through the door, into the vault. As they step inside, they see small heaps of Knuts, Sickles and Galleons on one side of the vault and different kinds of potion ingredients on the other. Her mother takes out a pouch specifically enchanted for holding coins and says:

“80 Galleons should be enough for everything you need, but I guess we should take a little extra incase we find something worth buying.”

After taking 100 Galleons from the vault, they step out and the goblin closes vault behind them, before leading them back to the ground floor, only returning the key as they are leaving the building.

“Lets head down to Madam Malkin’s to get her started on making your clothing.”

They walk into a shop with purple outer walls that has a sing ‘Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions’ hanging outside and a shop window showing different kinds of robes. There a squad lady dressed all in mauve turns to smile at Almira and says:

“Let me guess, going to Hogwarts, right dear?”

“How did you know?”

Almira asks as she had yet to say anything about what she was here to buy.

“Easy, my dear. There’s no other reason for a child about the age of 11 to step into my shop. Now then hop on the stool here so I can take your sizes.”

Madam Malkin’s answers her question and motions for Almira to hop on a stool that’s right in the middle of the room. After she gets on the stool Madam Malkin’s pulls out her wand and with a wave, makes a measuring tape fly from who knows where, and uses it to measure everything she needs to make Almira’s uniform just right.

“Alright you can come down now, dear.”

Madan Malkin’s says after getting everything she needs and walks behind the counter.

“So it will be three sets of Hogwarts uniform, with one set including a white shirt, tie, black cardigan, black skirt, black stockings, a pair of black dress shoes and a robe, with the tie, cardigan’s stripes and the inside of the robe enchanted to change color depending on the result of the sorting. On top of these you'll need one black pointed hat. That’ll be 6 Galleons and 13 Sickles.”

Her mother takes out the asked amount and hands the money to Madam Malkin. After counting that the amount is right, she adds it into the cash register and says:

“Okay, it’ll take me an hour or so to get everything fitted. You can either wait here, or you can go continue your shopping and come back when you've gotten everything you need.”

“We’ll come collect them later.”

And so they walk out of the shop and Almira turns to look up to her mother with eyes sparkling in excitement, making it quite clear to her mother whre she wants to go now.

“Well then, shall we go to Ollivanders next?”