He thought hard on what he could use to make money in the weeks to come, but most of them were closed due to child labor laws. He briefly considered stealing like his predecessor before discarding it. His reason wasn't because of morality, but because it would ultimately bring him bad attention if Hogwarts found out. He was fine with working if he could, but he was alone here and money would increase his chances of surviving. That gave him some moral leeway in his mind.
After a lot of internal wrangling he finally decided to just go above-board and make use of one of his hobbies, which required an investment. After a trip to a music store (and £40 lighter), he unwrapped his new cheap acoustic guitar. This was a guitar he wouldn't be caught dead with before, but it would serve for his plans. He had learned to play from his aunt when he was going through the band phase of early high school and kept it as a private hobby all the way into college as a way to relax as well as impress girls. He was pretty good at it he was told, but he had never tried to make money off of it before.
He spent all of Monday practicing to make up for his smaller hands before setting out with some trepidation to the same park he bought the hot dogs at before. He unpacked in a corner of a square, layed out the case like he saw on tv once, and started playing.
All the passerbys started looking at him like he was crazy, but Matt had always heard audacity was the hallmark of any entertainer.
Turns out those sayings were only half right. Matt did make some money, despite his total unfamiliarity with the local songs, but after about 2 hours some asshole called the cops for "begging." He was still raging about that when he got home after explaining to the officer.
He wouldn't be able to play there again, but he had made about £20 of his investment back. Not bad for a couple hour's work. The officer had also kindly mentioned that there was a flea market about a mile away where he could continue tomorrow if he wanted, which was nice.
Probably make more money there anyway.
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The week passed in a blur of playing songs and brushing up on the common sense in order to blend in. It was finally Sunday, and he had taken the day off so that he wouldn't miss whoever came to talk to him. They could probably find him at the market with their uncanny ability to locate people, but better safe than sorry.
The doorbell rung, which interrupted his train of though and sent him jumping. He opened the door and was greeted with the sight of a portly lady he remembered as Professor Sprout from the movie. He did his best to seem like an anxious and scared 11-year old, which wasn't very hard considering he was pretty anxious truthfully. Just for very different reasons.
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"Hello..?"
"Hello deary, my name is Pomona Sprout and I'm here from Hogwarts. Can I come in?"
"...yes."
After a quick conversation where Mrs. Sprout explained what kind of school Hogwarts was and Matt explained his own fake sob story, they got down to business. He signed off on some kind of acceptance form and she offered to take him to Diagon Alley. The school would pay for the wand and she mentioned the goblins of Gringotts offered an exchange on the british pound for the galleon at about 5/1 for muggle-born wizards. Not bad. He had about £100 left over from his week's work, which would net him about 20 galleons. A considerable sum if he remembered right.
"Mrs. Sprout, with that exchange you mentioned I don't think I'll need the school's support after all. Would 20 galleons cover it?"
"Yes deary, you should be able to get all your school supplies for first year new for about 10 galleons. Less if you know how to bargain."
"Thank you, I'm all set. Shall we get going?"
He signed out with the hotel staff (he would pick somewhere closer to King's Cross when they were done) and followed Mrs. Sprout out to the parking lot. When he got there he was dumbfounded though, as she pointed out an honest-to-god bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle as hers. The car looked totally out of tune with her image, but she seemed proud of it so he did his best to hide his incredulousness. How does she fit? He stuffed that rude thought in the back of his mind.
"What do you think dear? I bought this device last year so I could pick up students of muggle origin since they aren't connected to the Floo Network."
"It's...colorful."
Please tell me we aren't going to crash on the way there.
After a horrifying but thankfully accident-free 10 minute drive, they pulled up on to the curb near The Leaky Cauldron. Matt wasn't entirely sure how they made it, because Mrs. Sprout seemed to have little concept of traffic laws. There must've been some kind of charm on the vehicle to make police ignore her. Matt got out and felt like throwing up. Never again.
"This way deary."
He shook off the nausea and followed her into the ugly looking bar. A quick wave to the bartender and they went right out the back.
"Pay attention to the order, as you'll probably have to do this yourself next year."
Matt doubted that, but he payed attention anyway. She pointed to an off-color brick in the top right and tapped it 3 times with her wand.
Why even have the entrance concealed when you can only see the bar if you're a wizard?
Ignoring Matt's rambling thought, the bricks peeled back in a way that defied physical laws. This was his first real show of magic and he was stood there wild-eyes despite the fact that he knew it was coming. He couldn't wait to get into the books and see how it worked.
"Welcome to Diagon Alley deary! You can find just about everything along it's street."
"It's amazing."
He followed her down the wildly colored street while taking note of everything he could see. He recognized some of the wares on display from the books, but seeing it in a person was a very different experience.
As a cathedral-like building came into view midway up the street, Mrs. Sprout stopped and pointed.
"First stop, Gringotts."