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"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where |
are your parents?" |
"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into |
the matter with this boy. |
"Oh, sorry," said the other,. not sounding sorry at all. "But they were |
our kind, weren't they?" |
"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean." |
"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're |
just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some |
of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, |
imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. |
What's your surname, anyway?" |
But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my |
dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, |
hopped down from the footstool. |
"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy. |
Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him |
(chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts). |
"What's up?" said Hagrid. |
"Nothing," Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry |
cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you |
wrote. When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?" |
"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know -- not knowin' |
about Quidditch!" |
"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pate |
boy in Madam Malkin's. |
"--and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed |
in." |
"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were -- he's grown |
up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what |
everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what |
does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones |
with magic in 'em in a long line 0' Muggles -- look at yer mum! Look |
what she had fer a sister!" |
"So what is Quidditch?" |
"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like -- like soccer in the Muggle |
world -- everyone follows Quidditch -- played up in the air on |
broomsticks and there's four balls -- sorta hard ter explain the rules." |
"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?" |
"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' |
duffers, but --" |
"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff" said Harry gloomily. |
"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a |
single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. |
You-Know-Who was one." |
"Vol-, sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?" |
"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid. |
They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts |
where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as |
paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in |
covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with |
nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have |
been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag |
Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and |
Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, |
Tongue- Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian. |
"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley." |
"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the |
Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' |
anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more |
study before yeh get ter that level." |
Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says |
pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing |
potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited |
the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible |
smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff |
stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined |
the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung |
from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a |
supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself |
examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, |
glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop). |
Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again. |
"Just yer wand left - A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday |
present." |
Harry felt himself go red. |
"You don't have to --" |
"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, |
toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at - an' I don' |
like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want |
owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'." |
Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been |
dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now |
carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with |
her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, |
sounding just like Professor Quirrell. |
"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta |
presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer |
wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand." |
A magic wand... this was what Harry 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 B.C. 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 |
that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had |
entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that |
had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow |
boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of |
his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle |
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