Chapter 4

Apparition is not as bad as I thought, yes it is weird and a bit uncomfortable. But nothing that I could not handle, so rather than puking my guts out, I was smiling like a loon.

Because whatever you say, Apparition is like teleporting, that means that in 4 or 5 years I will have the power to teleport, sooner if I find a book that explains it, on second thought no I should wait, I don't want to splinter myself and bleed to death or something like that.

But enough about that, I need to focus.

As soon as Professor Baling let go of my hand, I stumbled a little and then asked her while trying to stutter.

"P professor, what was that ? Why aren't we in the Orphanage anymore ?"

I tried to sound as confused and scarred as I could, because disappearing from my room and then appearing in an alley should be terrifying if you aren't prepared for it.

The Professor just looked me up and down and then said to me.

"That Mr. Smith was Apparition, something similar to what muggles call Teleportation, and I'm sorry that I did it without warning you beforehand,

but I find it for the first time to be easier on the stomach if you aren't prepared for it.

Don't ask me why, magical researchers have been studying that phenomena for years, but they still don't why.

But enough about that, we should not daddle."

Before she finished talking, she was already walking out of the ally, I followed her of course.

As we hurriedly walked out of the alley, she continued talking.

"You will learn the specifies in the future Mr. Smith, but you should know that when you want to Apparate into places like the muggle entrance of Diagon Alley or other public places that you need to briskly move out of the way of your Apparition arrival point, multiple charms were cast so that every Apparation into Diagon alley will be redirected into 3 or 4 different points, all of them heavily protected so that that no muggle may see or hear anything out of the ordinary.

Especially hear, because Apparation makes a loud cracking sound if you are not skilled enough or extremely careful.

So you need to move out of the way so that other People can land, it's of course not dangerous to stand there, there are still 3 other points of arrival.

But if all these points are full of people than you will be in the state of Apparation till one Apparition point is free, and for most people that feeling of traveling is uncomfortable, from the smile that was on your face you would probably like it."

As we continued walking out of the alley and into the street, I could already see the leaky cauldron on the other side of the street.

One thing that I noticed was that nobody looked at us, probably the charms that she talked about.

I smiled and said to her

"It was weird but exiting, I have a question Professor Burbage, where exactly are we?."

She answered my question after we crossed the street and stood before the Leaky Cauldron, and I must say it did not fit in with the other buildings on that street.

While most of the buildings were rather modern, the Cauldron was old! Not broken or dirty but just Old.

"We are at the Sharing Cross Road Mr. Smith, as the Leaky Cauldron, the Pub before us and an entrance to the magical world, is far older than the street, it officially does not have a house number. Unofficially the House Number is 1 Diagon Alley, of course only we magicals call it that way, the Muggles can only see a rundown building,

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

and there are charms in place that makes them ignore anything suspicious or abnormal."

With all the talk about charms, I could not help but ask.

"Can I learn charms like that at Hogwarts ?"

"Of course, but charms like that are six year material, because they are rather complicated, now let's go, we have a lot to do today."

After she finished speaking, she moved towards the Leaky Cauldron, opened the door and entered, and I followed her.

The inside of the Cauldron looked Medieval ? Yes, Medieval is the word for it, old looking tables and stools, lanterns floating in the air, pitchers made out of silver and moving pictures on the wall opposite the entrance, maybe to spy on who is walking in and out ?

And of course wizards and witches, there were almost a dozen Wizards in the pub and at the bar I could see someone who looked like a cheep knockoff Quasimodo.

That should be Tom the owner of the cauldron, some looked at my direction, and nodded at me, or rather they nodded at Professor Babbling who stood behind me.

But the rest ignored us, before I could continue with my observation, Professor Babbling put a hand on my shoulder and steered me to an door that I overlooked till now.

While walking towards the door and then exiting the Pub thought it she explained some things to me.

"The Person at the bar with the Hunbeack was Tom the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, if you need help in the future, then you can ask him, he knows almost anyone in Diagon Alley.

And I say it now before we are going to the Alley, the magical world is different from the muggle world, there are not only humans but other beings that are living with us, an example would be the bankers of Gringotts, every single banker in the bank is a goblin.

A race that has a monopoly on gold and artifacts in Britain, you may have read or heard of goblins in muggle fantasy books or stories, but I want to remind you that those stories are not based on facts, or the real behavior of those species, as an example, Dragon do not speak and don't love gold, and yes dragon exist."

She said the last sentence with a small laugh at the end.

After we arrived at the backdoor, she took the hand off my shoulder, opened the door, walked through it and beckoned me to follow her.

After passing the door, I arrived in a small rear courtyard with rubbish bins stacked atop each other, opposite the door was a brick wall made out of red bricks, and before it stood an rubbish bin.

The Professor stopped before the wall and I stopped next to her, before I could do or ask anything she continued talking.

"As I was saying Mr. Smith most species that the muggles think are nothing more than fantasy are in the wizarding world real, but the behavior of those species are often different from what muggles describe.

As an example, goblins are typically described as stupid or clumsy, but that could not be further from the truth, goblins are intellectual on the same level as us humans even if they do love gold, or rather every metal, and look different from us.

What I want to say with all that is that you shouldn't judge someone in the wizarding world because of their appearance, some of the cutest or prettiest things can be deadly and cruel, while others like Tom could have a hunchback, or their skin color could be red and are the nicest people. Do you understand that ?."

Wow! That was heavy, but I can understand why she would say such things to me, I am an orphan who will enter into a new world with beings straight out of a fantasy book, I don't have any parents or guardians that could help me adapt to that world with all that crazy shit.

And for that, don't rely on appearance stuff ? Maybe she had difficulties with past muggelborns who were rude or something like that?

Best to answer her before she thinks that I did not understand her.

"Yes, Professor Burbage, I understand."

She looked at me, smiled and seemed visibly relived about my answer, or perhaps about how serious I looked.

She took her wand out of her sleeve again, I think she has a wand holster or something like that, then stepped with her wand to the brick wall so that the rubbish bin was on her right side and started talking while tapping a specific brick witch her wand.

"If you understand, then that's good. Now to enter Diagon Alley, you need to tap a specific brick, from the rubbish bin tree up and two across, you can always ask Tom if you forget it."

As she said it and tapped the brick, every brick started to vibrate.

Then the brick that she tapped started to sink into the wall, the rubbish bin started to move out of the way, and then the bricks in front of us started to move, I found it a little scary, I don't know exactly why, but somewhat about that visual effect of moving bricks made me feel uncomfortable.

Perhaps because it was not done in one smooth move ?

But I digress, as I watched how the bricks moved away and formed an huge arch, I was shocked, not because of the used magic to move the bricks, but because of the colors, smells and sounds that suddenly assaulted my senses.

There were hundreds of witches and wizards in the alley, and almost everyone was wearing a robe or a cloak, some with moving animals on them, others which colours so diverse that you could think that you were at a hippie concert.

Some were wearing hat or turbans, some had their hair styled like the fucking Eiffel Tower.

There was even a woman which a hat that had Peacock witch changing feathers on it.

The smell was rather pleasant? It was sweet, and clean ? Yes, in contrast to the air in the courtyard and even the city, the air that cam out of the alley was fresh, clean and sweetish.

The snippets of conversations were rather strange.

"Fresh Crocodile hearts for just 4 galleons and 7 sickles"

"Mom, can I please have a broom ?"

"Did you hear that rumor about the undersecretary? "

"The Hogwarts books are getting from year to year pricier"

I was startled when the professor touched my shoulder, I almost forgot her.

As I looked at her, and saw her smiling at me while steering me through the open arch while telling me.

"Welcome Mr. Smith, welcome to Diagon alley and to the world of magic and wonders,"

As I stepped into the alley with her and saw all those different people, I could not help but get exited, until I saw a person that looked like a typical pureblood strutting through the alley.

That was the first time in both lives that I saw somebody strutting.

It was like a cold bucket of water was poured on me, because no matter how funny or beautiful the magical world is.

Under that beautiful facade is a dark and dangerous place .