Kapitel 14: Diagon Alley and Buisness

6th July 1990

At 8 am his father dropped Matthew at Charing Cross road a few hundred meters from the Leaky Cauldron. After a short walk, he arrived at the old-looking building between a Bookshop and a Record Store. The non-magical on the street pass the pub without noticing it, for them, it looked like a broken-down shop.

After entering Matthew arrived inside the dark and shabby pub, there were a few tables in the shadows of the corners and an old-looking bar, on the side was a handsome wooden staircase leading to the rooms for rent upstairs. Besides the bar at the end was a door leading to the Alley located. The Pub was almost empty in the morning, with only a few customers enjoying breakfast.

"Welcome, how can I help you? Breakfast or a room perhaps?", asked Tom the owner.

"No, thanks just entering the Alley. Maybe next time.", replied Matthew while opening the door to the small walled courtyard. After tapping the bricks in the correct pattern from the rubbish bin, three up and two across, a small hole appeared it grew wider and wider and formed into a large archway made of bricks onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.

Inside Diagon Alley was an assortment of shops with stacked cauldrons, trunks, and more. restaurants, and other sights; some even had tables out front with colored umbrellas. The Alley was the main magical shopping district in London so it was already full of witches and wizards even this early in the morning.

Matthew followed the Alley until he reached an imposing snow-white multistoried marble building located partway down Diagon Alley, near its intersection with Knockturn Alley, that towered over the neighboring shops. A set of white stairs led up to a set of burnished bronze doors into the only Wizarding Bank in Britain, Gringotts. The doors that led into the bank were flanked by goblins in a uniform of scarlet and gold. These doors led into a small entrance hall and another set of doors. Engraved on these silver doors were the words:

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.

After passing through the silver doors also flanked with goblins Matthew arrived in a vast marble hall with long counters stretching along its length with doors leading off to the vault passageways with around a hundred goblins sitting at them. He approached the counter with a sign saying 'Account Opening', where a short and pale but fierce-looking goblin teller observed him as he approached the counter.

"Greetings teller…", began Matthew while reading the name sign on the counter, "Odbert. I would like to open a personal vault,"

"Welcome, Wizard. Are you a muggle-born?" growled Odbert.

"Yes, I am a first-generation wizard. Will that be a problem?", asked Matthew.

"No, but Ministry Laws require of us to inform the magical guardian of under-aged Witches and Wizards which want to open a Vault. In your case, we need to inform the Hogwarts Headmaster who is the proxy magical Guardian for all muggle-born students in Britain until they come of age. He will communicate with your muggle parents if a problem should arise. Which is normally not the case." Sneered the goblin while filling out a formula. After a while, he handed Matthew a feather with his long fingers," I need your signature here."

After signing the document, Odbert took out a silver dagger and added, "And a drop of blood on this rune formation here." He pointed to a corner of the formula. Matthew picked his finger and dropped a blood drop onto the formation which began to glow. His finger healed instantly, while a Key appeared above the formation.

"This is your Vault Key, the first one is free. If you should lose it a small fee of 4 Galleons will be required to create a new one. We saved your magical signature and Wand information in our archives. Only you will be able to retrieve a new one." Explained Odbert while handing over the key, "Your new vault number is 1218. It's located in the new Vault area. The vault will be free as it is your first one and you still are a student. After Graduation, the Vault fee will amount to 5 Galleons per month. Anybody can pay into your Vault either at the counter or per transfer order but only you can withdraw. Do you require any other services?"

"No that's all for now, thank you teller Odbert. Have a good day." Said Matthew while leaving the counter. After he put his key safely away he left Gringotts back into the Alley. It was already 9.30 am so he left for his next meeting.

He walked for 10 minutes through the busy Alley until he arrived before an older shop with a red-colored storefront. 'Slug & Jiggers Apothecary founded 1207' said a sign above the Shop. The interior of the shop was bright and filled with different kinds of potions and ingredients on multiple rows of shelves. Bat wings, Spider legs, exotic plants, and a lot of strange-looking jars and glasses. In the center of the room was a counter where a young clerk was standing.

"Welcome Sir, How may I help you today?" asked the Shop Clerk in a polite voice.

"Greetings my name is Matthew Mason, I have a meeting with the Owner of the Shop at 10 am. I believe he is expecting me." Replied Matthew politely.

"Ah yes, we were expecting you. Please follow me to the second floor where Mr.Slughorn is already expecting you at the Office." Explained the Clerk while leading him through a door behind the counter into a hallway with a staircase.

On the second floor he knocked on a door, "Mr. Slughorn your 10 am visitor is here.".

"Please, Come in!" replied a jovial voice from inside.

Matthew entered the wide Office, it was a room filled with Account books on Shelves and a large ancient-looking mahogany desk. Behind the Desk sat an enormously fat, bald, old man. He was short with an immense belly, so large that the buttons on his waistcoat usually threatened to burst off. His head was balding but he still had some grey hair and a walrus mustache. Slughorn stared with a fond smile at Matthew while putting a silver pocket watch away.

"Welcome Matthew my boy. May I call you Matthew?" He asked happily,

"No Problem, sir." He answered politely.

"Thank you, my boy. You may call me Horace since we will be hopefully business partners in the future." Said Slughorn, "I am very impressed by your potion talents. What I would have given to be your Potion Teacher, you will reach great heights in the future. But unfortunately, I already retired a few years ago."

Matthew chatted for a while with Slughorn about Hogwarts, Slughorns collection, and his future plans.

"You need to attend my annual Christmas Party this year. I will contact Albus for permission and to allow you to use his floo connection. Many of my former students will attend the festivities, they will be thrilled to meet such an outstanding student like yourself." Proposed Slughorn without a chance of rejection.

"I would love to attend, as long my parents and the Headmaster allow me to leave the castle for the night." Accepted Matthew politely.

"I am sure there will be no problems, my boy. Enough chit-chat. Let's get to business." While pulling a stack of papers out of his desk.

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So I hope I fixed the most critical mistakes. Many of them were autocorrect Prefect to Perfect -,-

As for POV, the story is supposed to be written in 3rd person. But sometimes I seem to subconsciously slip into the first person. Please comment in the paragraph if you find this in the future.

Also, I changed mystical energy to magical energy. I am not sure why I wrote mystical energy in the first place. I don't want to use Mana because it's too video game-like, which neither is Harry Potter nor Marvel.

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